DoomedIdeas' Dynasty Draft
Contents
1 Gameplay Summary
This Dynasty would be the Exorcism Dynasty, with players as Exorcists attempting to dispel evil spirits that have disguised themselves across the world. This is done by taking pictures of listed everyday items, therefore “dispelling” all listed items in each picture. Each week will have two randomly-generated Challenges, each of which will have a list of 6 items for players to try and photograph. Players can also randomly choose an item to be their personal Talisman, increasing the count of items in their submitted photographs (this is an example of a kind of rule someone other than the Emperor might add to the gameplay). Lists will have plenty of non-region-specific items so that gameplay is not locked by geographical location. I will note that the included lists would be filled out and made into gamestate pages (like the EFF wordlist) if this became a real Dynasty.
2 Theoretical Ascension Address
Hello, oh Holy ones. I have come to you with a message of great importance! Spirits of Hell have invaded the mortal realm, disguising themselves amongst you to cause harm and steal souls. You, oh faithful Exorcists, must dispel these Demons from the Earth and save all humanity. You have my blessing, and my guidance. Go forth!
Replace all instances of “Drafter” with “Exorcist”, and replace all instances of “Supervisor” with “Archangel”. Imperial Style is Designer, Libertarian, Casual, Scam-Friendly, Servile/Unobservant (I’m not great at spotting errors, but will happily discuss information), and Instinctual. Repeal all dynastic rules. Activate the following Building Blocks: “Mantle Passing”, “Event Types”, “Precondition Unidling”, and “Revisions Allowed”.
3 Example Rules
3.1 Exorcism
3.1.1 Photo Submission
If they have not already done so in the past 24 hours, any Exorcist may submit as a Response to a Challenge a photo that they have personally taken and posted to a website or social media service online. Photos submitted to Challenges are known as Dispels. An Exorcist may submit a Response to a Challenge by including the Dispel's url in a comment on a Challenge. Such posts are known as Submissions. Any Challenge Response must also include in the text of the comment a list of each of the Challenge’s Spirits that are visibly present in the Dispel, as well as the Exorcist’s personal Talisman, if it is visibly present in the Dispel. If an Exorcist has submitted multiple Responses to the same Challenge, only the most recent Response is considered valid.
3.1.2 Photography Guidelines
A Dispel must include a piece of paper with the Exorcist's name in handwriting, and the Merriam Webster Word of the Day for the day the Dispel was taken, also in handwriting. Submitted Dispels are not valid if the included Merriam Webster Word of the Day is not the word for the day they were submitted or the word for the previous day.
3.2 Challenges
Challenges are Events which have an Event Type of Challenge. Challenges must be posted as Story Posts and must have at least 8 Spirits listed within the body of the post. All items chosen from any of the lists in the rule Sources for use in Challenges are known as Spirits.
3.2.1 Creation
As a Weekly Communal Action, any Exorcist, or the Archangel, may create two Challenges. The steps for creating a Challenge are as follows:
- Randomly choose 2 of the lists categorized as “Random” in the rule Sources.
- Randomly choose 2 items from each of the lists chosen above.
- Randomly choose 2 items from each list categorized as “Required” in the rule Sources.
- Make a Story Post with a title that starts with "Challenge:" and clearly list each of the Spirits chosen above within the body of the post.
A Challenge is considered Ended a week after it was created, and not before. Any Exorcist, or the Archangel, may record the Ending of a Challenge. When they do so, they must go through each Response and note how many Spirits were present in the included Dispel, and multiply that number by 2 if the Talisman of the Exorcist who posted the Dispel is visible in the photo. The resulting number is added to the Exorcist’s Exorcisms, which is a publicly tracked number that defaults to 0. This must be done for each valid Response on a Challenge when its Ending is recorded.
3.2.2 Talismans
As a Weekly Action, each Exorcist may choose one list from the rule Sources. They may then randomly choose one item from the aforementioned list, which becomes their personal Talisman. The list of each Exorcists' current Talisman is publicly tracked. If an Exorcist submits a Dispel that contains their personal Talisman at the time, then that Exorcist may count each Spirit as having appeared in said Dispel twice, so long as they include the Talisman in the list of Spirits on the post used to submit the Dispel.
3.3 Sources
A Source is a list of random items. Sources are recorded in a list that includes the name of the list, a link to the list, and whether the list is Required or Random. The Sources list may only be edited by enactment of a proposal. The Sources list is as follows: (Links to lists have been replaced with example items for the purposes of this Draft.)
| List | Status | Example Items |
|---|---|---|
| Objects | Required | Soccer Ball, Toothbrush, TV, Road Sign |
| Locations | Required | Hallway, Library, Park, Market |
| Animals | Random | Dog, Parrot, Mole, Mouse |
| Appliances | Random | Printer, Air Fryer, Radiator, Fan |
4 Further Commentary
4.1 Potential Mechanics
- Add a points system for Dispels, based on the number of Spirits in each Dispel, as well as other potential criteria. Maybe challenges should have an optional “background” (nature, indoors, grocery store, etc) and any Dispel that matches it will get additional points/score?
- At the end of the Dynasty, all of the highest-scoring Dispels for each Challenge could be compiled together for the final log of spirits. A condition would need to be chosen to break any ties, but it would be fun to be able to look at all the winning photos once the Dynasty has ended.
4.2 Potential Issues
- There are a lot of weekly and daily limits in this proposed Dynasty, which could cause grind-based gameplay. I’ve tried to mitigate that in two ways- Having players’ new Responses to a Challenge replace their old ones, so posting multiple Responses is only useful if you’ve managed to get a better photo for your Dispel, and also having Challenges last a week, so that players have time to see the Challenges and then plan and take their photos. If it still seems like an issue, please let me know.
- There’s a lot of strange wording in the example rules. I’m still learning how to phrase rule text, and any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Expect edits as I figured out how to make things read correctly.
- I’m sure I haven’t noticed all of the potential issues. That’s part of why I added “Unobservant” to “Servile”- I still haven’t fully learned to spot errors and scams, so I can’t promise that I’ll notice when something has gone awry. That’s also why I chose Libertarian instead of Protective or Preservationist, since I can’t be sure that I’ll recognize if a proposal is fair or not. Is there an Imperial Style I can use to note that I’d love to receive feedback and suggestions?
