You can’t change what rubbish floats your way
On http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/exploreraltflash/?tag=&timeregion=16 there is a list of object names, that is not part of the gamestate for technical reasons, but that Survivors should abstain from changing.
Okay. I get that the list can’t be part of the gamestate, because it can’t be tracked in the GNDT, and we can’t police its editing. But what is the point of this sentence, apart from identifying the list? The phrase “should abstain” just conveys a recommendation for players not to do something, which seems a little pointless.
I guess my question is, does it make sense for a non-gamestate item to effect the gamestate, and for this to happen legally, do we need some sort of rule apparatus to make this work?
Kevan: City he/him
The list appears to contain contributions from the public, which I suppose is the intention behind “should abstain from changing”. You’re right that it’s only a recommendation, though.
Non-gamestate affecting the gamestate seems fine - if it’s an unambiguous part of the environment, we can have effects that vary account to its status. We can have a rule that refers to “if it is Wednesday”, we can have a rule that refers to “if the page at this URL has this word on it”.