Here is the proto-contract I've been working on for Agora: The
Role-Playing Game. The underlying mechanic for the whole thing is that
contestants are Player Characters exploring a dungeon. You have a
limited amount of movement tokens for moving around the town and
exploring the dungeon. While I haven't hammered out how exploring the
dungeon works yet, I'm imagining Player Characters will have the
following types of encounters: fight monsters to earn gold and
experience, find equipment (such as weapons, armor, and potions), and
find the stairway down to the next level. Points are scored by
exchanging gold.
I have some concerns about the proto-contract as it stands now. This may
cause a large amount of traffic on the public forums due to the number
of actions Player Characters can take. While many of the actions are
deterministic and Player Characters can perform a series of them in one
message, encounters from exploring the dungeon will likely require
multiple messages to resolve depending on how exploring the dungeon and
combat is implemented. I don't want to end up swamping the public forums
with traffic from this contest.
Anyways, take a look and let me know what you think. I have
intentionally left out descriptions of how to resolve exploring the
dungeon and how to resolve combat. I want to get input from others
before tackling these areas. As root indicated, this contest could
integrate nicely with cards and I think exploring the dungeon is an area
where that could work out well.
Proto-Contract: Agora: The Role-Playing Game
Version 0.1
1. The name of this public contract is "Agora: The Role-Playing
Game."
2. The Game Master is the contestmaster for this contract. The
initial Game Master is Sir Toby, but otherwise the Game Master CAN
change as permitted by the rules governing changing
contestmasters. The Game Master SHALL issue a weekly report
detailing all information that the Game Master tracks, and the
text of this contract.
3. All parties to this contract are known as Characters. Any player
CAN become party to this contract by announcement. Any Character
CAN cease being a party to this contract by announcement. All
Characters that are first-class players are known as Player
Characters. All Characters that are not first-class players are
known as non-Player Characters.
4. This contract can be amended by any Player Character without 2
objections from Player Characters.
5. Whenever this contract calls for a Player Character to generate
one or more random numbers, e shall do so using the Nomic.Net
email dice server, 'http://dice.nomic.net/email.html'. When
requesting one or more random numbers, the Player Character MUST
specify the parameters exactly as this contract requires, MUST
include a comment unambiguously stating the purpose of the random
number(s), and MUST include a public forum on the recipients list.
If any of these requirements are not met, the generated random
number(s) CANNOT be used.
6. The following values are defined:
- Base Health : 5
- Base Vitality : 10
- Base Experience : 10
7. Location is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game Master
tracks the location of all Player Characters. A Player Character's
location can have only one of the following values: Town Square,
Healer, Gold Exchanger, or the name of any non-Player Character,
Dungeon Level N (where N is an integer greater than 0). A Player
Character's location CAN only change as permitted by this
contract. When a Player Character becomes party to this contract,
eir location is set to Town Square. When a non-Player Character
ceases being a party to this contract, any Player Location whose
location is the name of the departing non-Player Character has eir
location set to Town Square.
8. Level is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game Master tracks
the level of all Player Characters. A Player Character's level is
an integer greater than 0. A Player Character's level CAN only
change as permitted by this contract. When a Player Character
becomes party to this contract, eir level is set to 1.
9. Experience is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game Master
tracks the experience of all Player Characters. A Player
Character's experience is an integer greater than or equal to 0. A
Player Character's experience CAN only change as permitted by this
contract. When a Player Character becomes party to this contract,
eir experience is set to 0.
10. Maximum health is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game
Master tracks the maximum health of all Player Characters. A
Player Character's maximum health is an integer greater than or
equal to 0. A Player Character's maximum health CAN only change as
permitted by this contract. When a Player Character becomes party
to this contract, eir maximum health is set to base health.
11. Health is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game Master
tracks the health of all Player Characters. A Player Character's
health is an integer greater than or equal to 0. A Player
Character's health CAN only change as permitted by this contract.
When a Player Character becomes party to this contract, eir health
is set to base health. If a Player Character's health is set to a
value that is greater than that Player Character's maximum health,
their health is set to their maximum health.
12. Maximum vitality is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game
Master tracks the maximum vitality of all Player Characters. A
Player Character's maximum vitality is an integer greater than or
equal to 0. A Player Character's maximum vitality CAN only change
as permitted by this contract. When a Player Character becomes
party to this contract, eir maximum vitality is set to base
vitality.
13. Vitality is an attribute of Player Characters. The Game Master
tracks the vitality of all Player Characters. A Player Character's
vitality is an integer greater than or equal to 0. A Player
Character's vitality CAN only change as permitted by this
contract. When a Player Character becomes party to this contract,
eir vitality is set to base vitality. If a Player Character's
vitality is set to a value that is greater than that Player
Character's maximum vitality, their health is set to their maximum
vitality.
14. The following currencies are defined (where N is an integer
greater than 0): movement tokens, gold, weapon level N, armor
level N, health potion level N, vitality potion level N. The Game
Master is the recordkeepor of these currencies. Ownership of these
currencies is restricted to Characters. These currencies CAN only
be created as permitted by this contract. These currencies CAN
only be transferred as permitted by this contract. A Player
Character CAN transfer instances of these currencies to another
Player Character by announcement, if both Player Characters are at
the same location. A Player Character CAN transfer instances of
these currencies to a non-Player Character by announcement, if the
location of the Player Character is the name of the non-Player
Character. A non-Player Character CAN transfer instances of these
currencies to a Player Character by announcement, if the location
of the Player Character is the name of the non-Player Character. A
non-Player Character CAN transfer instances of these currencies to
a non-Player Character by announcement.
15. Knowledge of stairway down from level N (where N is an integer
greater than 0) is a series of Player Character switches, tracked
by the Game Master, with values false (default) and true. These
switches CAN only be modified as permitted by this contract.
16. A move has the following properties: a starting location, a
destination location, and optional restrictions. A move has the
following form: "from <starting location> to <destination
location>[, provided <restrictions>]." The following moves are
defined (N is defined as an integer greater than 0):
- From Town Square to Healer
- From Town Square to Gold Exchanger
- From Town Square to the name of any non-Player Character
- From Town Square to Dungon Level 1
- From Healer to Town Square
- From Gold Exchanger to Town Square
- From The name of any non-Player Character to Town Square
- From Dungeon Level 1 to Town Square
- From Dungeon Level N to Dungeon Level N
- From Dungeon Level N to Dungeon Level N+1, provided the Player
Character's knowledge of stairway down from level N switch is
set to true
- From Dungeon Level N+1 to Dungeon Level N
17. A Player Character MAY destroy one movement token e owns and
specify a move by announcement. In order to have any effect, the
location of the Player Character MUST be the same as the starting
location of the move, and the Player Character MUST meet all
requirements specified by the move. The location of that Player
Character then changes in accordance with the specified legal move
and the Player Character's vitality is decremented by 1. If the
Player Character's vitality is currently 0, and thus cannot be
decremented further, instead the Player Character's health is
decremented by 1 and the Player Character's vitality is
incremented by 2 times the Player Character's level.
18. A Player Character who specifies the move "from Dungeon Level N to
Dungeon Level N" (where N is defined as an integer greater than 0)
is exploring the dungeon. This is resolved as follows: TBD
19. A Player Character MAY destroy one health potion level N (where N
is defined as an integer greater than 0) e owns and specify e is
drinking it by announcement. If the Player Character's health is
less than eir maximum health, eir health is incremented by N times
2. Otherwise, the Player Character's maximum health is incremented
by N.
20. A Player Character MAY destroy one vitality potion level N (where
N is defined as an integer greater than 0) e owns and specify e is
drinking it by announcement. If the Player Character's vitality is
less than eir maximum vitality, eir vitality is incremented by N
times 4. Otherwise, the Player Character's maximum vitality is
incremented by N times 2.
21. If a Player Character's location is "Healer", that Player
Character MAY destroy gold in their possession equal to eir level
times 2 and specify e is healing by announcement. The Player
Character's health is set to eir maximum health. The Player
Character's vitality is set to eir maximum vitality.
22. If a Player Character's location is "Gold Exchanger", that Player
Character MAY destroy any amount of gold in their possession and
specify e is exchanging gold by announcement. As soon as possible
at the end of each Agoran week, the Game Master SHALL award points
to each Player Character equal to the amount of gold that was
destroyed in this fashion by that Player Character during the
previous week. If the Game Master is unable to award enough points
to equal the amount of gold that was destroyed in this fashion,
the Game Master SHALL award as many points as possible to those
Player Characters who destroyed gold in this fashion first, and
then the Game Master SHALL create an amount of gold in the
possession of each Player Character equal to the number of points
that the Game Master was unable to award to that Player Character.
23. When a Player Character becomes party to this contract, 5 movement
tokens are created in eir possession, provided that the Player
Character has never been party to this contract, or at least 7
days have passed since e was last party to this contract.
24. At the beginning of each Agoran week, a number of movement tokens
are created in the possession of each Player Character equal to 4
plus the level of the Player Character.
25. When a Player Character's experience is equal to or greater than
eir level times base experience, the following happen:
- The Player Character's experience is decremented by the
Player Character's level times base experience.
- The Player Character's level is incremented by one.
- The Player Character's maximum health is incremented by base
health.
- The Player Character's health is incremented by base health.
- The Player Character's maximum vitality is incremented by
base vitality.
- The Player Character's vitality is incremented by base
vitality.
26. When a Player Character's health is 0, the following happen:
- The Player Character's location is set to Town Square.
- The Player Character's level is set to 1.
- The Player Character's experience is set to 0.
- The Player Character's maximum health is set to base health.
- The Player Character's health is set to base health.
- The Player Character's maximum vitality is set to base
vitality.
- The Player Character's vitality is set to base vitality.
- All instances of all currencies defined by this contract in
possession of the Player Character are destroyed.
- All knowledge of stairway down from level N (where N is an
integer greater than 0) Player Character switches for the
Player Character are set to false.
--
Jeff Weston (Sir Toby)
PGP public key available from http://pgp.mit.edu/
PGP Key ID: 0x14B456ED
