The Fifteenth Dynasty of Josh
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9 June - 31 July 2021
Contents
Ascension Address: Zahndorfvania
Child, draw near me before I exhale my final breath, for I have wisdom that I must pass on to you lest this world should slip into ruin.
When our ancestors settled here, millenia ago, this land was a jungle, and it housed unimaginable horrors. They were wise and they were mighty and they chained those horrors deep below the ground. We forgot about the monsters and we forgot about our wisdom but the monsters did not forget about us. They are merely waiting.
The cathedral at the centre of the metropolis of Zahndorf hides the entrance to their grotto. I believe that the monks who service the sepulchre have known about the evil beneath their feet and have been in communion with it. I believe that through this portal the corruption of the city has begun.
Child - my Richardo, last child of the great von Nestor family - you are young but soon you will be an adult. It falls to you to enter the crypt and slay the great demon who lives in its centre. Here, take from my faltering hands the whip that bears our family crest and the shield with the device of brilliant sunlight. Look upon it when you are in the dark places closest to evil and you will know that you are not lost.
Throughout the ruleset, change the term “Broker” to “Vampire Lord” and the term “Collector” to “Richardo von Nestor”. Change the Dynastic Tracking page to Dracula’s Layer and set the rule The Traitor to inactive.
Players
The following players were active at the start of the Dynasty:
Clucky, Jason, Josh, Kevan, lemonfanta, pokes, Raven1207
And at the end:
ais523, Brendan, Chiiika, Cluckym, Josh, Jumble, Kevan, lemonfanta, Raven1207
Final Ruleset
Gamestate
Posts of Interest
Dynastic Rules
- https://blognomic.com/archive/down_into_the_dark Established that the game would play out on a Crypt map, and that periodically as an atomic action the hero would move through the map, triggering room effects as he went
- https://blognomic.com/archive/bare_bones1 Vampire Lords have Puissance and could carry out Power Actions, at a Puissance cost
- https://blognomic.com/archive/architecture_and_immorality Vampire Lords could Explore (later "Light") rooms to uncover them on the map, placing effects in them for the hero to trigger
- https://blognomic.com/archive/a_warning_about_danger Vampire Lords could inscribe sigils into rooms as a way of generating more Puissance
- https://blognomic.com/archive/dangerous_and_repulsive Denizens could be summoned into the Crypt to menace the hero as he quested; he would later be able to fight them
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_danger_is_in_a_particular_location The four corner rooms were made special, although what kind of special didn't become clear until later
- https://blognomic.com/archive/draculaid_up Running out of Puissance meant that a Vampire was dust; this was implicitly bad, although it was unclear how bad until later
- https://blognomic.com/archive/its_dangerous_to_go_alone Richardo could equip items
- https://blognomic.com/archive/a_vampire_lords_home_is_its_castle Vampire Lords could have Sepulchres, though which they could gather Influence, a secondary resource used to buy victory points
- https://blognomic.com/archive/of_antioch Items were removed from the initial loadout and placed on the map as Treasures that Richardo could randomly find during a run. Vampire Lords could derandomise chests, at a cost
- https://blognomic.com/archive/red_mist Having too much Puissance was also bad: it made a Vampire Bloodthirsty, and thus unable to perform most dynastic actions until they got their numbers back under control
- https://blognomic.com/archive/..._too_quiet The question of how runs would be triggered was vexed. Initially they happened once every 48 hours, but for a lot of the dynasty, they were instead governed by this proposal, which stipulated that a run could start no sooner than 12 hours after the most recent Vampire Lord action. This made some turns quite long, and led to some players tactically stalling
- https://blognomic.com/archive/doug_funnie Brendan made several attempts to define Vampire statuses, of which this was the successful iteration. It established that dusted Vampires could be revived by their coevals - for a cost
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_favour_of_an_immortal Favours were used slightly differently in this dynasty, making them much more freely exchangeable. The low exchange rates for powerful effects established in the initial proposal were never amended, and so were heavily used by a cabal in the endgame to greatly enhance their position
- https://blognomic.com/archive/twisty_little_passages Routes could be blocked, obliging Richardo to make different choices as he travelled
- https://blognomic.com/archive/inheritance2 Vampire Lords could convert their Influence into Blood Mana tokens. Although this initially failed, it was subsequently enacted by a fix proposal
- https://blognomic.com/archive/deus_vault Brendan snuck a proposal through that would allow him to place another Vampire Lord's Sepulchre on their behalf
- https://blognomic.com/archive/splurge Blood Frenzy was the main way that a Bloodthirsty Vampire could bring their Puissance down, by randomly and chaotically reshaping the Crypt
- https://blognomic.com/archive/spooky_action_at_a_distance Idle players could have a limited effect on the gamestate
- https://blognomic.com/archive/crystal_clearinghouse Any Puissance or Influence that accrued to an Enthralled Vampire instead accrued to their Enthraller
- https://blognomic.com/archive/you_snooze_you_lose Richardo collapsed any Sepulchre he found; this was the only way to destroy a lit room, with the exception of one scam
- https://blognomic.com/archive/money_pleeeeeease Vampire Lords got a small amount of Puissance for free each run
- https://blognomic.com/archive/there_goes_my_hero Richardo was prevented from doubling back on himself
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_duracell_bunny After spending quite some time with a small amount of Energy to work with, Richardo was given a scale of Energy based on how many rooms had been lit. The numbers here were tinkered with a bit but the principle remained intact. Also allowed for the start location of each run to be changed
- https://blognomic.com/archive/gathering_dust The Emperor could make free proposals if their only effect was to tidy up the ruleset
- https://blognomic.com/archive/tepesh The four corner chambers found a defined use: they could be used to summon Dracula
- https://blognomic.com/archive/temporary_tattoos Vampire Lords could add temporary features to rooms
- https://blognomic.com/archive/ab_testing Some actions were defined as Mysterious Actions, which did not reset the turn clock
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_old_ones Active but nonparticipatory Vampire Lords were allowed to be triggered into a Blood Frenzy if their Puissance got too high
- https://blognomic.com/archive/be_very_afraid Rooms where Richardo suffered an injury became Daunting, strongly dissuading him from revisiting them. This was an explicit counter to "deathtrap" rooms which were taking Richardo out early in runs, much to the benefit of Vampire Lords chiiika and Jumble
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_children_of_the_night Denizens would randomly Roam after every run
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_rule_of_threes As a bit of thematic flavour, Richardo was allowed to Enter the Crypt alongside his friends - the Witch Koda and the mysterious traveller Drol Eripmav. Koda quickly gained a reputation as the competent one
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_crypt_never_sleeps Daunting rooms were allowed to decay; initially this meant that they were cleared after a while, but that was later amended to make them purified
- https://blognomic.com/archive/my_songs_know_what_richardo_did_in_the_dark Clucky found, used and then fixed a fun scam in which rooms that were already Lit were allowed to be Lit again, essentially overwriting them. This was subject to two long and heated CfJs, and marked the point at which the mood of the dynasty shifted for the worse
- https://blognomic.com/archive/its_dangerous_to_go_alone1 Treasure could carry over from one run to the next, if not used
- https://blognomic.com/archive/united_colours The colours of the map were codified in one place
- https://blognomic.com/archive/enough_stalling The round clock was switched back to being a fixed time. A controversial change, this marked the beginning of the end of the dynasty, as it led to a cabal gaining an advantage that some of the other players found unfair and impossible to counter
- A late run noticed that Influence could arguably accrue to a Vampire Lord if they had Enthralled another Vampire, even if the Enthrallee did not have a Sepulchre; concurrently, a player claimed that a bug meant that a major mechanic didn't exist and unilaterally reverted a substantial amount of gamestate. This caused another major round of heated discussion, during which the reversion was ruled illegal and the run was upheld, albeit with the bounced Influence reverted
- At this point, with Lemonfanta, Jumble and Clucky in a very strong collaborative position, several proposals were put forward to draw things to a close by selecting a random Blood Mana Crystal as the "winning" one, weighting the victory according to what felt like its victory points. Those proposals were:
- The Everlasting Night Soon Ends from Chiiika, to end the game either on a particular date or after two runs (voted down for being too complex and with EVC clauses)
- The Crystal Dome from Kevan, to end the game after the next run (voted through)
- One Last Ride from Clucky, to have two more runs and square all scores after the second (voted down)
Non-dynastic changes
- https://blognomic.com/archive/tuesday_hamburger Definitions for various terms for spending were clarified
- https://blognomic.com/archive/appendix_favour_tweaking and https://blognomic.com/archive/no_artificial_favourings_special_case Favours were slightly tweaked
- For much of this dynasty, the edit window for proposals was changed to eight hours. At the end, it was cut back to four hours
- https://blognomic.com/archive/noubliette Skipping steps no longer invalidates Atomic Actions
- https://blognomic.com/archive/the_undying_core_special_case_appendix A small fix was made to ensure that dynastic rules with the same name as core rules no longer broke everything
- https://blognomic.com/archive/a_flavour_kind_of_a_flavour_appendix The definition of 'flavour text' was extended from just ruletext to cover all gamestate
- Kevan made a further attempt to define Imperial Styles. It failed, but was added to the wiki informally as Imperial Styles
- A concern arose regarding whether or not a proposal's resolution was an orphan variable; that language was tightened
- https://blognomic.com/archive/return_4_core Dice rolls now have to include a key to the outcomes
Story Posts
- Richardo's First Expedition - 11 June
- Richardo's Second Expedition - 13 June
- Richardo's Third Expedition - 15 June
- Richardo's Fourth Expedition - 17 June
- Richardo's Fifth Expedition - 20 June
- Richardo's Sixth Expedition - 24 June
- Richardo's Seventh Expedition - 25 June
- Richardo's Eighth Expedition - 28 June
- Richardo's Ninth Expedition - 29 June
- Richardo's Tenth Expedition - 1 July
- Richardo's Eleventh Expedition - 3 July
- Richardo's Twelfth Expedition - 5 July
- Richardo's Thirteenth Expedition - 9 July
- Richardo's Fourteenth Expedition - 11 July
- Koda's First Expedition - 14 July
- Koda's Second Expedition - 16 July
- Richardo's Fifteenth Expedition - 19 July
- Koda's Third Expedition - 23 July
- Drol's First Expedition - 29 July
Ascension
After the Crystal Dome enacted, a CfJ brought the clock forward to spare us waiting another day for the outcome. Of all the crystals, one of Jumble's was randomly selected, making them the winner.
Commentary
tbc
