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Maerok
2011-08-11, 10:37 AM
-Introduction-
A few weeks ago I was doing my usual Wikipedia browsing, landing somewhere on the Calvin and Hobbes page and reading up more about Calvinball. I got sent over to the page on 'nomics' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic), games with mutable rules. That got me thinking - I've been into forum-based world-builder games over the years here so maybe they could be approached as a nomic.

So with the idea of a game whose rules could be altered as part of the game I looked around for a board- or location-based nomic and found Stop!86 (http://www.doorwayriots.com/rules_stop86.html).

I liked what I saw but it didn't support the sort of complexity/scaffolding for higher order game elements to emerge. I worked with what was already there for a bit and then refined what I'd made down into ten starting rules that would seed the game.

Since I've have a modest background in programming there's some of those elements involved in declaring entities (classes) and their properties as well as concepts like inheritance which are useful in building up big things from smaller pieces.


-The Project-
The game starts out with ten rules which detail how you go about and add new rules or redefine the old rules.

Rules define objects, properties of objects, new actions, etc. They can also define how the game wins. Currently you win by getting a score of 100, but there's no definition of how to score when the game starts.

There are also locations which players move to each turn. Locations can have one specific rule tied to them, called a law. This can be used to create locations that do things or are desirable to be stationed at.

The project was built with the intention of running on a forum with each week being a separate turn.

Each turn you get 1d6 points, can move one location, and spend points to create a new location connected to your current location or to propose a new rule/law.

There is no starting win condition other than to get a score of 100. This is accomplished through diplomacy, extortion, and rules lawyering.


-Current Status-
I haven't playtested the game yet since I'm still looking to see if it can be adjusted by any critiques first (what's obviously missing or too ambiguous?).

What I have is a five-page document (PDF convert turned four into five) with the first version of what I've been working on. Is this something anyone would want to try out?

It might be good to set starting laws for each of the five locations.

Google doc PDF: Teknika v1 (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2cguT3NHEorNTJhMTVkNDAtODUzMS00OTIyLWJhMDc tMTlhNWI2MTYwNTcx&hl=en_US)

Zale
2011-08-11, 06:01 PM
Fascinating.

I'll have to look into this. It looks very interesting.