The Twenty-Second Dynasty of Kevan
May 6 — June 19, 2018
Ascension Address
Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having a full purse following a modest and unexpected victory at the card table, the notion finally arrived in my tired head to leave this island. As it was the fledgling city of Auld Anchorage had set down only the beginnings of its wharves and factories at that time, clustered like barnacles across the island’s great sloping rocks. The few ships in its bay were cast up like driftwood, having arrived with the island’s settlers and remaining in no great hurry to raise their sails, if they had sails to raise. I had crewed one of those first ships, a terrible ship, now foundered and wrecked somewhere far from the shore and from the sun, and washing ashore I set up home on this island, vowing never to return to the broader waters of the world.
But the winds of that world were changing, and this great creaking galleon of the city was tacking with them, and I knew that it would not always hold a bunk for me. While I had sworn I would never take back up the spike or the harpoon, providence had that night given me the means to leave Auld Anchorage as a passenger, that I might buy my route to a home somewhere else in the discordant fleet of islands that formed this golden archipelago. Walking in the drowsy morning light from Fluke Hill down through Killick, I arrived at the harbour. Discounting the trading ships who could not be persuaded to slow their journeys, and passing the rotten hulks abandoned to the gulls, I stopped at a pier crowded with crates and provisions and a crew just shy of a dozen. Their stocky dark-wooded ship was the Haniver, and from the great barbs stacked along the gunwale, I knew that this ship more than any other would be easily led.
https://blognomic.com/archive/call_me_ishmael
Players
The following players were active at the start of the Dynasty: Axemabaro, Brendan*, card*, Corona, Cpt_Koen, Cuddlebeam, derrick*, Diabecko, Jumble, Kevan*, pokes*, Thunder
Final Ruleset
Posts of Interest
- Going Aboard set up some crew positions, the position of Captain only being available to a player if the three Mates supported them
- How Many Barrels Will Thy Vengeance Yield? established a mechanic for secret goals, each player making a prediction about aspects of the gamestate at the end of the game (who lived and died, whether the ship sank, how much oil was produced, etc)
- Aye, Tim let each player carry a single item, including a Harpoon
- There (may)be Whales here allowed lookouts to spot whales
- Breaking the Monotony introduced weekly random events, including the meeting of other whaling ships ("Gams"), the sighting of creatures and accidents
- Mutiny allowed the Captain to throw a Sailor into the brig, and for the crew to overthrow an unpopular Captain
- Pose Is Shins added stats for Health, Hunger and Illness, stats for the state of the ship, and Job Actions to manipulate those stats
- What's in a Name? Proposal to name Cpt_Koen Captain, which was successful. They later idled, though.
- My Conscience Hangs In Me encouraged players with "Dire" goals to lie about them
- Denizens of the Deep created generated stats for sea creatures
- Lower the Boats allowed Hunts to be declared when a creature was spotted
- Inn Cow in Tar expanded on what happened when a Hunt resolved
- Axe and Dent allowed certain crewmembers to encourage accidents against others
- Social Sailors allowed the crew to gain Gold or Lore when encountering another ship
- Stick to the Boat, Pip added another risk for failing to choose goals - falling overboard
- Cunning Hunters allowed a single "Expert" (later "Navigator") to influence which creatures were encountered
- Consume What You Kill gave a mechanic for harvesting oil, reducing the cleanliness of the ship in the process
- The Hunter has Become The Huntee allowed angered creatures to attack the Haniver directly
- Clean Tabernacles of the Soul caused the ship's cleanliness to degrade over time, leading to structural damage if not kept in check
- Épée Log Too set the end of the game for the 15th of June
- Captain's Orders made some actions (declaring a Hunt, greeting another ship) Captain-only, to encourage the crew to elect a captain
- Ye Be Slackers! The boats were lowered for the first time.
- A Broad Bright Coin changed DEF votes to defer to the Captain, rather than the Emperor
- The Flinging of the Two Harpoons caused harpoons to be lost when used during a hunt, but recoverable if the hunted creature was caught
- Ahab - the three Mates Derrick, Corona and Cuddlebeam named Corona Captain. Cuddlebeam requested an Agora nomic Pledge as support for their vow.
- Trade 2 allowed Gold to be traded between players
- Boo Kiss allowed Gold and Lore to be converted
- The Gloom of the Hold emptied out an excessive amount of equipment from the ship
...
Ascension
As the game approached its end, Kevan CfJ'd a fix to one player's Goal list which had been submitted illegally. Cuddlebeam revealed in response that everyone's Goals had been initially mis-set due to a rules bug, which they'd been hoping to capitalise on by being the only player to notice and react accordingly. But by chance, the fix CfJ would have the unintended side effect of making any players with corrected lists into likely winners. Cuddlebeam then idled, before it was revealed that they had indeed won - even if their reaction to the bug hadn't worked, Corona had traded them enough Gold to break the tie if everyone had a Reckoning of zero.
A CfJ to retroactively fix everyone's Goals failed, meaning that the single player with the illegal goal list - Derrick - had now also achieved victory. With Cuddlebeam idle, Derrick declared.
(By chance, Derrick would have won anyway, their nearest competitor being Corona, who had given away their own tiebreaking currency to Cuddlebeam shortly before.)
