Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Proposal: The Police

Timed out and failed, 4-1.Josh

Adminned at 28 Jan 2012 00:45:20 UTC

Create a Rule titled “The Police”:

Some Criminals are Agents secretly working for the police.  The Don shall privately track, and keep all Agents informed of, which Criminals are Agents.  Any Criminal who has never been an Agent can become one by privately informing the Don.

An Agent cannot be the Culprit of an Assisted Action if the Lookout is another Agent.

As an Assisted Action, a non-Agent Criminal can spend 2000 Respect to Accuse a specified Criminal.  When this happens, the Don shall publicly disclose whether the Accused Criminal was an Agent.  Then, if so, all of that Agent’s Respect, Firepower, Wealth, and Goods is transferred to the Culprit, the Agent’s Heat is set to zero, the Agent becomes not In Jail, the Police Vigilance Number is increased by the Agent’s former Heat, and the Agent ceases to be an Agent.

The Police Budget is a non-negative integer tracked in the Don’s Respect field in the GNDT, defaulting to zero.  When the Police Vigilance Number is increased, the Police Budget is increased by the same amount.

The Police Inefficiency is PVN/10 + 5, where PVN is the Police Vigilance Number, rounded down.

A Police Action is a type of action that any Agent may request the Don perform on behalf of the Police, specifying any required parameters for the action.  As soon as possible after receiving such a request, the Don shall attempt to reduce the Police Budget by the Police Inefficiency.  If the Police Budget is less than the Police Inefficiency, nothing happens.  Otherwise, the Don shall record in the GNDT which action was requested, but not the parameters; then, as soon as possible after the specified delay, the Don shall carry out the action.

As a Police Action with a delay of 48 hours, the Police may Raid a Criminal for a specified Good.  If that Criminal possesses that Good, it is removed from their possession and their Respect is decreased by the Good’s Reputation.

As a Police Action with a delay of 24 hours, the Police may Perform a Sting for a specified Assisted Action listed in the rule “Swag”.  All Criminals who performed that action in the last 24 hours go to Jail, and lose half of any Wealth, Respect, or Firepower they gained as a result of that action during that time, to a minimum of 0 each.

Amend the rule “Goods” by inserting this paragraph before “The following goods can be Stolen”:

A Criminal may give a Good they possess to another Criminal, lowering their own Respect by half the Good’s Reputation and increasing the recipient’s Respect by the same amount.

No comments on the proto, so here’s a real proposal.  (I’ve fixed some of the wording and flipped the restriction on Agents performing Assisted Actions.)

“The theme reminded me of Mafia, so here’s a bit of Mafia in reverse.  The advantage to becoming an Agent: you get to direct the Police, which won’t benefit you directly, but can harm your competition.  The disadvantage: your ability to commit crime is limited, and if someone deduces what’s going on from either that limitation or the Police’s actions, you’re screwed for a while.”

Comments

Cpt_Koen:

26-01-2012 00:04:46 UTC

“A Criminal may give a Good they possess to another Criminal, lowering their own Respect by half the Good’s Reputation and increasing the recipient’s Respect by the same amount.”
“When a Criminal Steals a Good, first, the Criminal lowers the Respect of any other Criminal that possesses the Good by its Reputation [...] then increases their own Respect by the Good’s Reputation”

So let’s say I steal the Hope Diamond: 10,000 respect for me.
Then I give it to southpointingchariot: 5,000 respect for south, 5,000 for me.
Then I steal it back: -5,000 respect for south, 15,000 respect for me.
Basically once I own the Hope Diamond, I can steal 5,000 respect from anybody at the cost of one assisted action and 5,000 firepower.

Bucky:

26-01-2012 02:34:31 UTC

imperial

ChronosPhaenon:

26-01-2012 13:31:41 UTC

against Too complex to add at the end of the dynasty.

Also, the “An Agent cannot be the Culprit of an Assisted Action if the Lookout is another Agent.” bit either is unenforceable or will break the game, with Agentship being secret.

Josh: Observer he/they

26-01-2012 16:54:08 UTC

imperial Is it the end of the dynasty?

ais523:

26-01-2012 22:34:49 UTC

against Trying to fit this mechanic onto a dynasty, I’ve seen attempted something like five times, and each time it’s either been too late in the dynasty to matter, lead to a player betraying their faction to allow a co-scamster to win, or lead to half the players being effectively unable to win due to no fault of their own. And I doubt I have enough ability as an emperor to make it work this time.