Sunday, October 15, 2023

Proposal: Yer A Wizard, ‘Arry

Popular (5-0)—Enacted by Clucky

Adminned at 15 Oct 2023 19:43:29 UTC

Add a new dynastic rule called “Wizards” with the following text

Each Wizard has a publicly tracked integer number of Stars, which defaults to twenty or the lowest number of Stars held by any Wizard, whichever is higher.

Add a new dynastic rule called “Spells” with the following text

A Spell has a Name, a possible set of Inputs, and a Effect. Spells are defined as subrules to this rule, with the name of the Spell being the name of the subrule and rest of the spell information being tracked in the subrule itself.

Add a new dynastic rule called “Duels” and give it the following text

A Duel consists of a Number, Battle Time, A Wizard Ring and A Spell List. Duels are either Open, Pending or Resolved.

The Battle Time for a duel is a UTC Date and Time.

A Wizard Ring consists of the names of the Wizards (including possibly Idle Wizards) who are actively participating in a Duel, as well as their numerical position in the ring (starting at 1). Each Wizard is considered to be neighbors with the Wizards numerically adjacent to them in the ring (so Wizard in position 4 is neighbors with Wizards 3 and 5). Additionally, the Wizard Ring loops so the Wizard in position 1 is adjacent to the Wizard in the last position and vice versa.

The Spell List is a link to a wiki page which contains the spells available to cast in that duel. The spell list for all duels is considered game state.

Add a subrule to “Duels” called “Creating a Duel” with the following text

If there is no open or pending duel, the Battle Master may Schedule a Duel by performing the following atomic action:

* Set the Duel Number to be one higher than the previous duel number or 1 if it’s the first duel
* Set the Battle Time to the soonest date and time which is 15:00:00 UTC and at least 44 hours from the current date and time.
* Set the Wizard Ring to be all Wizards, ordered randomly
* Clear the contents of the wiki page titled “Wizard Duel Spell List X” where X is the duel number
* Set the contents of the wiki page titled “Wizard Duel Spell List X” where X is the duel number to be the current spell list in the ruleset
* Make a story post to the blog titled “Wizard Duel X” where X is the duel number which consists of the Battle Time, Wizard Ring and Spell List for that duel

Add a subrule to “Duels” called “Engaging in a Duel” with the following text

Wizards who are named in the Wizard Ring for a duel are considered to be participants in that duel. A wizard who is a participant in an open duel may select which spell they want to cast or change which spell they are casting in that duel by choosing a spell from the spell list for the duel and privately communicating with the Battle Master the name of the spell and any inputs for that spell.

Add a subrule to “Duels” called “Commencing a Duel” with the following text

If there is an open duel, and the current date and time are after the battle time for that duel, the Battle Master may make a comment in the blog post for that duel indicating that the battle is about to commence and the duel is now pending. At this point the duel becomes pending.

If there is a pending duel, the Battle Master may resolve the duel by performing the following atomic action

* Each spell selected for casting by a Wizard is cast simultaneously. When a spell is cast, apply the effect of that spell according to the spell list for the current duel, applying the effect to the caster of the spell unless otherwise stated. Idle Wizards who are targeted by a spell are still considered Wizards for the purposes of resolving a spells effects and so may still have their gamestate values changed by other spells, but do not cast spells themselves.
* Reply to the duel post specifying which spells were cast and how many stars each wizards gained or lost from those spells
* At this point, the duel becomes closed and the Battle Master is encouraged to promptly schedule the next duel

Comments

JonathanDark: he/him

15-10-2023 06:22:20 UTC

“Each Wizard has a publicly tacked integer” - tracked instead of tacked

Minor nit: “Spells are tracked as subrules” makes it sound like they’re gamestate variables. I’d say “defined” instead of “tracked”, otherwise it’s too easy to confuse those with the Spell List, which <i>is<i> tracked gamestate.

For the Duel rule, you need to state that Number, Battle Time, A Wizard Ring and A Spell List are publicly tracked.

JonathanDark: he/him

15-10-2023 06:23:37 UTC

Or just say that “A Duel is publicly tracked and consists of a Number, Battle Time, A Wizard Ring and A Spell List.”

Clucky: he/him

15-10-2023 06:32:51 UTC

Duels are tracked via the story post, not on the wiki

Josh: he/they

15-10-2023 09:50:56 UTC

I worry that this is going to be another one of those dynasties where the Emperor has a firm idea of the ruleset in their head before we start and there’s not going to be any room for anyone else to contribute anything of substance.

Kevan: City he/him

15-10-2023 10:05:38 UTC

Looks okay to me as a starting game loop, maybe a bit more detail than it needs. The difficult dynasties are the ones where the Emperor has a game loop in mind but implements it over a series of slow proposals, voting down other, original ideas that try to go in different directions.

for although “duel” seems like the wrong word if it’s always more than two people.

Josh: he/they

15-10-2023 10:13:33 UTC

I keep trying to get through this and slide off of it - can’t seem to model it in my brain - so I’ll trust in a imperial

Kevan is correct that a duel is strictly two parties. “Brawl” feels more apt.

Kevan: City he/him

15-10-2023 10:38:34 UTC

If I’ve read it right, the basic idea is that each round the Wizards are arranged in a circle in a random order, then we all secretly choose a Spell to cast, and after a couple of days those Spells all get resolved simultaneously.

I’ve said before that it’d be good for dynastic history pages to have a “how the game works” overview. A couple of paragraphs that explain the gameplay in a conversational tone, so that a lurker can get up to speed quickly (if this is already a hard read on day zero of a dynasty, it will be even tougher later on), and a future historian can easily see at a glance what kind of game we’d been playing.

Zack: he/him

15-10-2023 15:23:57 UTC

for  I don’t really see the benefit of letting idle wizards participate in the duel though. Why not just automatically drop them when they go iidle?

Clucky: he/him

15-10-2023 16:37:29 UTC

@Zack

The only way to be in the Wizard Ring while idle is to be not idle when the duel starts and then to go idle before the duel resolves.

The reason for this is that I don’t want the Wizard Ring to change once a duel has started. Having “I target what I think is Josh but then Kevan idles at the last minute so now I’m targeting Zack” would force players to check the state of the ring right when a duel ends.

@Kevan is right about the gameplay loop. Everyone chooses a spell to cast and then you all cast those spells. Loosely inspired by https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207062/dungeons-dragons-rock-paper-wizard

This felt like the minimum needed to get that actual loop working. But still plenty of room to expand on that loop and add more objectives/spells/resolution mechanics.

JonathanDark: he/him

15-10-2023 18:02:59 UTC

A lot to start with, but for