Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Story Post: Winter Reading

Long have I stared into the inky blackness of the vast unknown. This is what it tells me. Obey these Predictions for your Birth Signs and you will gain fortune at the passing of the season.

The Eel
Distaff: Gain 5 vegetables in your home during this Season
Flax: Have two Constellations from your Birth Sign not visible in the sky by the end of the Season
Spindle: Have exactly two gold in your home when the Season ends

The Bee
Distaff: Gain 2 animals in your home during the Season
Flax: Gain 2 humans in your home during the Season
Spindle: Do not hold the job of Smith

The Toad
Distaff: Carry out a Sacrifice this Winter
Flax: Do not die
Spindle: Have no meat in your home

The Crossed Swords
Distaff: Have no plague in your home
Flax: Have exactly one hearth in your home
Spindle: Do not hold the job of Shepherd

The Greater Triangle
Distaff: Take up the job of Builder
Flax: Take up the job of Farmer
Spindle: Take up the job of Healer

The Parapet
Distaff: Do not hold the job of Homemaker
Flax: Gain one item of furniture for your home
Spindle: Lose one book from your home

Follow these forecasts and the great wheel of fate is sure to look upon you with benevolent eyes.

Especially you, Flaxen Toads. That is some rock solid advice right there.

I haven’t checked whether all of these are possible under current rules, but that’ll give us something to make proposals about for the next few days.

Comments

Kevan: he/him

11-03-2015 18:38:56 UTC

And Distaff Toads are (now that we’re in a Hurricane and every home has a single Human) being advised to kill themselves.

mideg:

11-03-2015 18:46:40 UTC

Hm, not sure I like this mechanic very much. Seems less random and more picked. (Sorry.)

And that’s said while I’m hopefull of achieving two of the three (and it’s impossible to achieve the third.).

Alltogether, with a little luck (Swords Triangle Bee) this is an easy 3 pointer while others (example Parapet Flax Parapet) are next to impossible.

against

Josh: Observer he/they

11-03-2015 21:11:46 UTC

It is neither random nor picked - there is a system that can be reverse-engineered, although I’m not allowed to tell you what it is. But that’s the nature of horoscopes! Some weeks they’re bad, but there’s every possibility that next week’s will be good.

Kevan: he/him

12-03-2015 10:06:37 UTC

I believe myself to be Uncanny because my Prediction is telling me to both “Take up the job of Farmer” (Flax Triangle) and “Take up the job of Healer” (Spindle Triangle).

mideg:

12-03-2015 10:16:57 UTC

I am Uncanny, too, I believe, since I have to be Farmer and Healer by the Triangle’s Flax and Spindle.

Josh: I don’t want to doubt you, but is the system “fair” regarding that birth signs don’t change all that often?

After all, two lucky horoscopes and you’ve won, that’s very quick, I think, even given the new “Uncanny”-thing, which gives only 1 Fate.

Hm, there is a thing here, I just realized. What are the possible outcomes of Prophecies? You either gain 3 fate (all three met), gain 1 fate (2 met, 1 not), loose 1 fate (1 met, 2 not) or loose 3 fate (none met, although most will probably be Uncanny then). Why is there no way to gain 2 fate?

I will repropose a new possibility…

Kevan: he/him

12-03-2015 10:23:10 UTC

[mideg] The Uncanny rule can convert the second case into 2 Fate. And you actually “neither gain nor lose Fate” if you fail to meet any of your Predictions, rather than losing 3, per the existing rule.

mideg:

12-03-2015 10:28:56 UTC

[Kevan] Ah, right. I still feel that gaining 3 is too much since its 50% of winning. Two lucky seasons is all that’s needed? Feels to quick for the buildup we hade to get here. (Which is quite a nice setting, but I still think there’s some action lacking.)

Kevan: he/him

12-03-2015 10:33:10 UTC

[mideg] There is no current way to win the dynasty, that first-to-five proposal didn’t enact.

mideg:

12-03-2015 11:06:51 UTC

Ooooh.

 

Upsie…

Josh: Observer he/they

12-03-2015 11:23:35 UTC

Mideg - at the very least I can say that the system has some flexibility built in, so that the signs shouldn’t very strongly correlate with specific outcomes.

As Kevan says, the rule has no Fate change if all three predictions are missed. That was intended to make sure that people who got bad predictions could essentially opt out for a season.

mideg:

12-03-2015 12:13:29 UTC

[Josh]

This still feels very, I don’t know, railroading, to me.

Readings follow some system we don’t know. An almost purely random gamestate decides which Birthsigns we have (we can rerole at a cost). Where’s my influence on things?

The “missing-out” mechanic doesn’t help, since receiving 0 points compared to three is still a big loss.

This feels like, to me, that every player that pays some attention to the readings has a chance to win or gain fate, but the decision between those players is out of their control - if not random.

Maybe things change if and when some of us “reverse engineers” those rules that govern the readings or they are random enough

Josh: Observer he/they

12-03-2015 13:05:25 UTC

I’m a bit confused as to what you want from this. You seem to be asking for it to be more randomness - which would be fine, and is easy enough to set up, but how does that increase your influence over things?

You say it’s “railroading”, but I have absolutely no control over the outcome either. What you’re getting here is systemically indistinguishable from true random. Given that it’s the first one, it’s also way to early to comment on whether it has any intrinsic bias.

For what it’s worth, I’m very happy to countenance changes. There remains also the option to completely disregard this as a mechanic and focus on other things. What do you want as an outcome?

Sylphrena:

12-03-2015 13:24:17 UTC

I don’t think there’s any way to change the sky, so I don’t know how I would fulfill my flaxen Eel sign and make my birth sign not in the sky. Considering this, I believe I am uncanny.

Sylphrena:

12-03-2015 13:25:56 UTC

Actually, I am definitely Uncanny: there is no way for me to get 2 Gold in my Home as per Spindle Eel because Gold is not a Thing.

mideg:

12-03-2015 14:01:58 UTC

[Josh] It’s all right. Let’s see, where this is going. I am just grumpy that I cannot do much right now and what I can do is dictated by the Reading.

Josh: Observer he/they

12-03-2015 15:44:02 UTC

Okay cool.

Re. uncanniness - if someone is uncanny now, passes a rule making their prediction possible, and fulfills it, do they still count as uncanny when resolving the prediction at the end of the season?

mideg:

12-03-2015 21:46:12 UTC

I’d say because you have to decide weither you feel if a Townsperson is Uncanny when doing the next Reading, it’d be then.

On the other hand, when the DoO is in the past, pretty much any unfulfilled Outcome is impossible, so…

“Uncanny” should probably reflect the moment the Reading was made. We should add that to the rules.

Otherwise, a clever man (so, not me, certainly not me) would do stuff that makes his Outcome impossible and then calls out his own Uncannyness.

Darknight: he/him

13-03-2015 04:27:27 UTC

Hmm. I think I am uncanny too. My first bee wants me to gain two animals but thats a spring only deal

Darknight: he/him

13-03-2015 04:31:13 UTC

Yep, very much uncanny. Both distaff and flax bee wants me to gain 2 animals and 2 humans but those can only be gained in spring

Ely:

17-03-2015 09:06:51 UTC

I believe I’m uncanny because I can’t possibly gain 2 humans in my home during the Season.