Sunday, May 31, 2020

Proposal: The Karma Wheel

Unpopular, 1-8. Josh

Adminned at 01 Jun 2020 07:59:49 UTC

The Section “The Wheel” in the Dynastc Rules is replaced with the following text:

The Karma Wheel

[[The Karma Wheel]] consists of a number of segments, or Vasanas. Each Vasana has an Index, a Name, a Phala (an individual effect), and a Samskara (a global effect).

The first Vasana has Index 1, the second Vasana has Index 2, and so on. New Vasanas can be added to the Karma Wheel. The first new Vasana must have Index starting from the greatest Index already in the Karma Wheel plus one, and so on. The new Vasana names must be unique and different from already existing Vasana names.

Points
Each Amnesiac has two point numbers: Karma points and Maya points, tracked on [[The Karma Wheel]] wiki page. They both defaults to 0. Karma points can be negative. If an Amnesiac has 7+ Karma points, they reached Nirvana.

Predictions

Each Amnesiac has Predictions, which is a set of Vasanas. By default, an Amnesiac has no Vasana in their Predictions. The Predictions of each Amnesiac are tracked on [[The Karma Wheel]] wiki page.

Caste

The Caste is an ordered list of the Amnesiacs in the [[The Karma Wheel]] wiki page. The default ordering is completely random, and it’s generated this way:
0. take a temporary list of all the current Amnesiacs. Name this list Pariahs
1. roll a DICEN, when N is the number of Pariahs
2. add to the Caste the Amnesiac number X in the Pariah list, where X is the result of the dice roll
3. remove the same Amnesiac from the Pariahs
4. repeat from point 1 until there’s no more Pariahs.

Karma Wheel Actions

As a Daily Communal Action, an Amnesiac may, in any order:
- add or remove one Vasana to their Predictions
- Spin The Wheel: they will perform the following atomic actions:
  1. From each Amnesiac, deduct a number of Maya points equal to the number of Vasanas in their Predictions.
  2. Roll a DICEN where N is the number of Vasanas in the Karma Wheel
  3. Apply the Phala of the Vasana with Index corresponding to the die roll to the Amnesiac and to every other Amnesiac with that Vasana in their Predictions. If in the Phala is written “Pays Vasanas”, this means that the Amnesiac will gain a number of Maya points equal to the number of Vasanas in the Karma Wheel, and lose 1 Karma point
  4. Apply the Samskara of the Vasana with Index corresponding to the die roll.
 
  Amnesiacs that has reached Nirvana can decide to ignore any atomic action of the Spin that will reduce their Karma points. In their absence, this is the default.
- Gain 1 Karma Point. The Maya points of the Amnesiac is diminished by their number of Predictions (minimum 1), while all the other Amnesiacs gain an equal amount of Maya points
- Caste Climb: The Amnesiac change their order in the Caste. Following the current Caste order, the first Amnesiac that Climbed the Caste become the first Amnesiac in the Caste, and so on. Karma points of the Amnesiac is diminished by 1.

The order of the Amnesiac actions are resolved following their order in the Caste.
Any Amnesiac that has not reached Nirvana must at least Spin The Wheel one a day. If the Amnesiac has reached Nirvana and does not state otherwise, they do not Spin the Wheel. Otherwise, if the Amnesiac has not reached Nirvana and does not state otherwise, they Spin the Wheel; in their absence, the Spin is done by an Admin

The wiki page “The Wheel” is renamed to “The Karma Wheel”.
In the wiki page “The Karma Wheel”:

1. “Wheel segments” table is renamed to “Vasanas”
2. The “Vasanas” table is replaced with:


Index   Name            Phala                   Samskara
1       Numbness        Pays Vasanas   
2       Rimless         Pays Vasanas   
3       Upturned        Pays Vasanas   
4       Laziness        Pays Vasanas   
5       Manatee         Pays Vasanas   
6       Ditzy           Gain 3 Maya             Each other Amnesiac 
                        points                  gains number of 
                                                Maya points equal 
                                                to the number of their 
                                                Predictions.
7       Karma Police    If the Karma points 
                        are negative, the 
                        Amnesiac subtract 
                        the module of this 
                        number to their 
                        Maya points. 
                        If the Amnesiac did 
                        not the Spin, they 
                        Pays Vasanas
8       Samskara        If the Amnesiac has     If the Amnesiac has 
                        done the Spin and 
                        has not reached Nirvana:    reached Nirvana, all 
                        1. all the Vasanas in   the other Amnesiac 
                        the Predictions of      gains a number of Maya 
                        the Amnesiac are        points equal to the number 
                        removed                 of their Predictions 
                        2. their Maya points    (minimum 1).
                        are diminished by 1
                        3. the Karma points
                        are subtracted to the 
                        position number of 
                        the Amnesiac in the 
                        Caste.
                        If the Amnesiac has
                        done the spin and has
                        reached Nirvana, it
                        gains 1 Karma point.
                        If the Amnesiac did not 
                        the Spin, Pays Vasanas.

3. In the “Amnesiacs” table:
    a. “Points” column is renamed to “Maya points”
    b. a “Karma points” column is added
    c. all the “Karma points” column is filled by zeros
    d. “Wager” column is renamed to “Predictions”
4. a new “Caste” section is added, with the list of Amnesiacs generated accordingly to the new rule.

I know, this is an ambitious “refactoring”....
The idea was inspired by the game itself. The Dynasties, the Amnesiacs, remembers me a lot the Samsara, the infinite loop of deaths and reincarnations. So, the Karma Wheel.
Theme apart, the idea is to add another scoring system, the Karma points. Notice that Karma points can be negative!
To resolve the problem of first player, I introduced the concept of Caste, or player’s order. This is common in many German board games.
Notice that now Predictions (Wager) can be only changed by one unit; the effect of the Spin is applied also to the Amnesiac that did the spin (or Vasanas 7 and 8 will never be applied!) and any Amnesiac that have not reached the Nirvana state MUST Spin the Wheel.

Comments

Publius Scribonius Scholasticus: he/they

31-05-2020 00:51:42 UTC

I’m a bit concerned that this requires daily participation from everyone and doesn’t specify a penalty for not obeying it.

Marco Sulla:

31-05-2020 00:59:56 UTC

Well, in my mind there’s no obligation of daily participation. If someone does not spin the wheel, well… (s)he had spin the wheel anyway :) I supposed, maybe wrongly, that this was implicit.

The concept is that the World continues to rotate even if you do nothing X-D

Marco Sulla:

31-05-2020 01:14:12 UTC

@Publius: I edited the proposal, so if the Amnesiac does not Spin, their Spin is done by an Admin.

Furthermore, I forgot that new 7 and 8 Vasanas (segments) are useless if no one selects them… and there’s no advantage to get them! So the effect of the Spin is applied also to the Amnesiac that did the Spin, even if it does not have the Vasana.

Clucky: he/him

31-05-2020 01:41:51 UTC

against i like the casino theme. its easier to get my head around

Axemabaro:

31-05-2020 02:21:36 UTC

against I like the idea, but in practice, I think it needs a bit of reworking

Lulu: she/her

31-05-2020 02:59:22 UTC

Wow, that’s a bold proposal.  against though, because I too like the casino theme.

Josh: Observer he/they

31-05-2020 07:06:07 UTC

This might be trying to do too much.

Marco Sulla:

31-05-2020 09:33:21 UTC

@Josh: yes, maybe I had to simply propose a theme for the wheel. But ideas come into my mind as a flow and I didn’t resist :P

Kevan: he/him

31-05-2020 10:17:27 UTC

Ambitious stuff, but yes, the more a proposal tries to do at once, the more likely it is that it’ll include a line that doesn’t work, or an idea which people don’t like.

Biggest rule problem here is maybe the combining of prediction changing and wheel spinning into a single action, which unless I’ve misunderstood your proposal means that most players won’t get to change their predictions much. This also overwrites the two proposals in the queue (No More Bets Please and Spin Doctor) which are trying to change the wheel spin away from a single daily communal action which always gets taken around midnight.

Great to see a proposal using player order, though, which is something that’s only become available since we switched to pure wiki gamedata, and which we haven’t tried yet.

against on grounds of theme and rule problems, anyway. Karma is a fine theme for a future dynasty, but I’ve been enjoying the surrealist roulette theme that we’ve already got here.

Marco Sulla:

31-05-2020 11:47:07 UTC

@Kevan:

Biggest rule problem here is maybe the combining of prediction changing and wheel spinning into a single action

Well, no, changing the Predictions is always an action apart. But maybe I’ve not understood the difference between Daily Action and Daily Communal Action :) I supposed that any Amnesiac can change their Wager and Spin the Wheel, once a day.

For the other points, thank you, I think you’re right :)

Kevan: he/him

31-05-2020 11:50:56 UTC

A Daily Communal Action is defined as “a Daily Action that can only be performed by one Amnesiac per day”. Once one player has taken the action during a day, nobody else can.

Publius Scribonius Scholasticus: he/they

31-05-2020 13:33:57 UTC

against

Darknight: he/him

31-05-2020 14:10:46 UTC

against

ayesdeeef:

31-05-2020 21:34:41 UTC

against But I like it :)

pokes:

31-05-2020 23:30:08 UTC

against