Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Story Post: Unto us a Child is born

Her name is Svetlana Tarpova.

Status: Child
Spouse: None
Legacy: None
Vulnerability: Material

Half of Quorum is 4.5, and we had 4 non-Dead Mortals.  Under the current ruleset, Svetlana will become an Adult tomorrow if any Divinity chooses to raise her quickly up.  Then once again, there will be no Child on Friday to assume the role of Gatekeeper should Ed meet his doom.  Of course, all Divinities could elect to leave her be…

Will an admin add this to the wiki?

Comments

Josh: Observer he/they

14-12-2010 22:27:35 UTC

Unfortunately I don’t think this is legal. 3.2.1 - “Unless otherwise specified, game variables defined to hold numeric values can hold only non-negative integers” - 4.5 isn’t an integer - and “If a rule implies that the result of a division should be an integer (for instance, by attempting to store that result in, or add it to, a gamestate variable that can only hold integers), the result of the division is instead the result rounded towards 0.”

Purplebeard:

15-12-2010 09:56:16 UTC

I agree. ‘Half of quorum’ is a (dependent) variable that is relevant to the game, so it definitely qualifies as a game variable, and therefore 3.2.1 forces its value to be integer.

Subrincinator:

15-12-2010 12:48:53 UTC

is “half of Quorum” a “game state variable that can only hold integers” ?  Or is it a game state variable that can hold non-integer numbers?  Does the rule for child creation imply that “half of Quorum” should be an integer?  We’re not trying to store or add Q/2 anywhere in the GNDT, for example—we’re just it using in relation to the number of Alive Mortals.

In order to determine whether “# of Alive Mortals” (call this M) is greater than, less than, or equal to Q/2, we don’t have to resolve Q/2 into a integer and store it anywhere.  We just have to acknowledge that Q/2 > M, and our “game state variable” turns into “yes, you may create a Child.”

Josh: Observer he/they

15-12-2010 12:52:47 UTC

It is a “game variable defined to hold a numeric value,” which must therefore be a non-negative integer. You don’t have to story or retain a value for it to be a game variable - it just has to be a variable, i.e. non-fixed, number that is used for game purposes.

Josh: Observer he/they

15-12-2010 12:53:09 UTC

story

*store

Subrincinator:

15-12-2010 18:06:49 UTC

So what’s the verdict on this?  Svetlana has been added to the wiki—does that mean she exists, unless a CfJ determines that she doesn’t?  Or is she non-real unless a CfJ determines that she does in fact exist?