Friday, February 07, 2025

Proposal: Order of Operations

If the proposal “Round and Round” did not pass, then this proposal has no effect.

Add a subrule to the rule “Turns and Rounds”, titled “Turn Actions”:

If an action is defined as a Turn Action, it may only be taken by the Current Meeple, and may only be taken if they have not already taken that action since their turn last began. Turn Actions may have a numeric Phase (denoted as, for example, a “Phase 1 Turn Action”). Turn Actions may also be defined as Mandatory.

The Current Meeple may not take a particular Turn Action if they have already taken a Turn Action with a higher Phase since their turn last began, or if they have not yet taken a Mandatory Turn Action with a lower Phase since their turn last began.

If the Current Meeple does not have any Mandatory Turn Actions available to them, or if they have not yet taken any Turn Actions since their turn last began, then they may End a Turn.

Here’s a framework for how a Turn might be structured, with Meeples taking actions in a particular order defined by the rules. Actions with the same Phase can be taken in any order, and actions with no Phase can be taken at any time during a turn. Mandatory actions must be taken, unless you choose to do nothing and pass your turn. I considered adding a timeout on turns, but decided against it because as we’ve seen in previous turn-based dynasties it’s likely to just result in it becoming socially acceptable to wait out the timeout, slowing down the game.

Comments

ais523:

07-02-2025 17:36:00 UTC

I wonder whether the fix to the timeout problem is to add an explicit penalty for timing out, rather than just skipping the turn. But I agree with you that it’s probably worth first trying to see if we can manage without one.

JonathanDark: he/him

07-02-2025 19:52:48 UTC

for

JonathanDark: he/him

07-02-2025 20:19:21 UTC

I think it would be easiest to simply put up a Proposal to End a Turn for a Meeple who is obviously not taking their Turn. A quorum of players agreeing to end someone’s Turn seems reasonable enough without being a cabal doing it for strategic reasons.

If it feels like a quorum isn’t fair enough for that sort of thing, we could codify ending someone else’s Turn as a Votable Matter that requires a higher threshold like 2/3rds or some other bar.

Raven1207: Monarchple he/they

07-02-2025 20:23:10 UTC

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JonathanDark: he/him

07-02-2025 20:56:14 UTC

Another idea I mentioned on Discord: when a Meeple becomes the Current Meeple, every 24 hours after, that Meeple’s Position is reduced by 1. If we assume that Position is an indication of advancement towards the win condition in this dynasty, it’s a decent discouragement from taking too long, but not too much of a punishment if a player is busy.

Darknight: he/him

07-02-2025 21:11:39 UTC

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ais523:

07-02-2025 22:21:36 UTC

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@JonathanDark: Being able to move backwards like that would probably be an advantage in some circumstances, and might end up holding up the game as a consequence. In a typical board game, being further forwards is generally helpful but it isn’t a smooth progression, some squares may be better than other nearby squares in front of them because it gives you an increased probability of landing on the square you want to land on.

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