[The current battle over Power escalation made me think of this, and
after mentioning the idea in ##nomic I decided to proto it.
Essentially, scamming and counter-scamming in a copy of Agora just for
fun, with some of the moral constraints lifted. As a bonus, it should
help harden the ruleset.]
proto-contest: Aroga
1. Anyone can join this contest (becoming a contestant) or leave it
(ceasing to be a contestant) by announcement. The contestmaster is
always a contestant.
2. Sometimes there is a current round. If there is no current round,
the contestmaster may start a round by announcement.
When starting a round, the contestmaster shall randomly divide the
contestants into two groups (whose sizes differ by at most one):
- The members of one group are the Defenders. They represent
established players, and should try to expel the Invaders from the
game while keeping it playable.
- The members of the other group are the Invaders. They represent
foreign invaders, and should try to either expel the Defenders from
the game or render it unplayable.
The contestmaster must list the membership of each group in eir announcement.
Both sides are encouraged to privately conspire to accomplish their
goals. While the Defenders should run scams only with restraint,
preferring to use existing security mechanisms, the Invaders are
encouraged to run scams, even ones that would be considered bad form
in Agora.
3. When a round starts:
a) The Preparation Period occurs; it lasts for 48 hours or until a
Historical Record has been submitted, whichever is longer. During
this period, each side should consult and decide how it intends to win
the contest. Any Defender may submit a Historical Record, a document
which contains:
- for each office, either the identity of a Defender holder or "vacant";
- the proto-List of Succession: an ordered list of all Defenders
except the one (if any) named as Speaker
b) An exact copy is made of the Agoran gamestate; then, the following
changes are made:
- All instances of the text "Agora" in all rules are replaced with "Aroga".
- Each Public Forum becomes a Discussion Forum, and vice versa.
- The following paragraph is appended to Rule 478 (Fora);
The above notwithstanding, a message is not public if its
subject line does not contain the text "[Ar]".
- The Citizenship switch of each entity is flipped to Registered if e
is a contestant, and Unregistered otherwise.
- The first sentence of Rule 2177 (The Senate) is replaced with the
text: "A Senator is any first-class player who is a Defender."
- For each office, if a Defender holder was listed in the most
recently submitted Historical Record, e becomes the officeholder and
the office becomes Postulated; otherwise, the office becomes vacant
and Assumed.
- The proto-List of Succession becomes the List of Succession.
The resulting gamestate is the initial gamestate of the game of Aroga,
which begins immediately.
(Note: As scams tend to generate a lot of controversy, the Arogan CotC
is encouraged to assign CFJs, and judges to prepare judgements, as
quickly as possible. Contestants are encouraged to let judgements
stand rather than appeal them.)
c) The round lasts until either the Defenders or the Invaders have won
the contest.
4. If, in the contestmaster's opinion, all Invaders have been banished
from the game for at least a month, all of the Defenders win the
contest, and the round ends.
5. If, in the contestmaster's opinion, either
(a) all Defenders have been banished from the game for at least a month, or
(b) the game of Aroga is unplayable: this condition can be satisfied
literally, but as Aroga Is A Nomic, it is also satisfied if the
Invaders demonstrate that they can indefinitely block all proposals
from passing;
then all of the Invaders win the contest, and the round ends.
6. If a round ends with the Invaders victorious, the players of Agora
are ENCOURAGED to modify the ruleset to patch any scams they
discovered which might be applicable in the real game.
