Friday, December 16, 2022

Proposal: Flipping the switch

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Dec 2022 18:54:56 UTC

In the rule “Rooms”, add the following bullet to the end of the list after the text “Every Room has the following qualities:”

* A string value named Circuit Breaker where the valid string values are “On” or “Off”, defaulting to “Off”

Add a new Dynastic Rule to the Ruleset. Call it “Electrical Panel”, and give it the following text:

There is the Electrical Panel in the Banewood Mansion, whose Location (which is a Room) is publicly tracked and is set to the value “Unknown” by default. During the Mansion Phase, the Narrator may set the Location of the Electrical Panel to an existing Room only if the current value is “Unknown”.

If an Explorer is in the same Room as the Electrical Panel, they gain access to a special Ploy named “Flip Breaker X”, where X is the name of an existing Room. “Flip Breaker X” requires light.

When executing “Flip Breaker X” as a Planned Action, follow these steps:
* If the Circuit Breaker value for that Room was “Off” at the beginning of the Mansion Phase, change it to “On” and add any light source name at the Narrator’s discretion to the list of Light Sources for the Room
* If the Circuit Breaker value for that Room was “On” at the beginning of the Mansion Phase, change it to “Off” and remove all of the names that are not names of Items from the list of Light Sources for the Room

In Banewood Mansion, set the Circuit Breaker value to “On” for every Room that has at least one name in its Light Sources list that is not the name of an Item.

 

There was some talk of finding a way to turn on lights in Rooms, so here’s an idea. That way, light control is just not restricted to the lucky ones who find flashlights.

Comments

quirck: he/him

16-12-2022 14:05:47 UTC

So as this action requires light, only those who carry flashlight can flip switches at any time.

Do you intend to place this panel in a new room which will be created with a static light source?

quirck: he/him

16-12-2022 14:08:34 UTC

Maybe flip a random switch if it is dark?

JonathanDark: he/him

16-12-2022 15:06:36 UTC

Yes, it will most likely be in a Room that will already be Lit by a light source. That’s why the wording is the way it is: I want to be able to set the Location in a Room where it’s at least useable for a time.

The random switch in the dark is not a bad idea. I know people have been resistant to random dice rolls for this dynasty, but at least it would only be in certain circumstances. That said, I’m going to leave it to a future Proposal (perhaps even my own) to add that part so that it doesn’t kill this Proposal if folks are against the randomness. I’m thinking it should be added as a different Ploy, like “Flip Random Switch”.

SingularByte: he/him

16-12-2022 15:58:09 UTC

Given that you can turn off the lights of the room the breaker is in, I’m suspecting that the lit state of the room it starts in will quickly become meaningless.

JonathanDark: he/him

16-12-2022 16:14:54 UTC

Exactly. As we’ve said in other Proposals, we don’t want Dark to become meaningless, so the value of this Electrical Panel will vary depending on who wants to spend the Turns to go to that Room and flip the switch for it in order to make it harder for everyone else. Of course, the Explorer who does that may risk being looked at harder for possible Katastrophe possession, so there’s some balance I think.

SingularByte: he/him

16-12-2022 18:34:57 UTC

for

Raven1207: he/they

16-12-2022 19:09:35 UTC

imperial

quirck: he/him

16-12-2022 19:31:10 UTC

for

Josh: Observer he/they

16-12-2022 23:16:32 UTC

for

Kevan: he/him

17-12-2022 13:26:49 UTC

for

Habanero:

17-12-2022 19:28:57 UTC

imperial

Darknight: he/him

18-12-2022 11:59:51 UTC

for