The First Dynasty of Lawnomos
02 June 2026 - 26 June 2026
Ascension Address
The Galaxy is our Oyster
2073 AD
Earth is overcrowded and depleted. The people are poor, the minerals are gone, but the factories are still working, because the Guild is still working. Many years ago, the few nations that still had any fairly elected power forced the space mining corporations to conglomerate into one body. The Guild. And Hober, one of the Guild’s most loyal Associates, was waiting for it. Unless he received the tip from his superior, the minerals he held would be stuck in paperwork from his Directorate for months. He glanced at his wrist, after a slight spark of feeling from it. Embedded in it, smaller than a pea, was a computer that projected some words on his skin from underneath. “Money Received - 5000000 Credits”. Hober scowled. Not as much as he got last time, true, but still more than the average human would earn in a lifetime. The average human, who would never reach space, remaining forever in mystery to the Guild’s business, open only to those who had earned the money to work in space. Once he returned to Earth and retired, the money he received would go to his election campaign in his home country. Elections these days required more money than popularity, but the job you got afterwards paid well. He clicked his fingers, and the workers began to load the minerals onto the Vessel.
Change “Supervisor” to “Guild”, and change “Defuser” to “Associate”. Add the following Building Blocks to the Ruleset: No Private Communication, Bounties, Virtual Actions. Remove the following Building Blocks from the Ruleset: Low-Player Mode, No Cooperation. The Gamestate Tracking Page becomes “Guild Business”.
The intent here is for a dynasty based on bribery. Something without mantle-share pooling, but with negotiations. This is similar to the board game John Company.
I’m going to give Imperial Styles informally here, because my thoughts are more nuanced than Imperial Styles can cover: Proposal Style: Guide Player Protection: I think the Emperor should have an opinion on votable matters, even if that opinion is unsure, but I will try to delay my opinion so it doesn’t sway other players to my side. If a player is way ahead, I could support proposals to make it easier for others. Workload: Happy to do complex actions and track a little bit of private data, but would prefer if I didn’t have to do complex actions everyday. Scams: I’ll pretend not to notice scams… until a player publicly points them out, at which point I reserve the right to try and shut them off by proposal, depending on their magnitude and ethics. Information Sharing: Servile Predictability and Interpretation: Instinctual Pace of Play: Obedient
Also, a note that I’m not sure whether No Private Communication is right for this dynasty (I think it will help with preventing pooling, and it’s better to turn it off midway through than to turn it on midway through) , so If someone wants it off, feel free to propose so.
Gameplay
Players controlled Vessels which could trade Produce between Systems. Later on, Vessels were able to be subclassed for trade and fighting roles.
Players
The following players were active at the beginning of the dynasty: ais523, Chiiika, Darknight, JonathanDark, Josh, Lawnomos, redtara, SingularByte, and whirlingstars.
The following players were active at the end of the dynasty: ais523, ayesdeeef, Chiiika, Clucky, Goob, JonathanDark, Lawnomos, and whirlingstars.
Final Ruleset
Gamestate
Posts of Interest
Dynastic
How to Become President (Lawnomos) set up a President of the Guild who was elected by Shares and Directors who controlled Systems.- How to Become Rich (Lawnomos) created credits, which could be assigned to different Systems by the President and traded with some restrictions
Shadow Economy (Josh) attempted to turn a bribery mechanic into secret transactions.- Trade and Taxation (ais523) created a system where Associates could move ships around between systems, paying taxes to the Directors and trading produce for credits.
- Cooking the Books (Clucky) allowed Directors to spend money from their Systems in exchange for corruption.
- New Vacancies (SingularByte) tried to create new roles appointed by the President to perform various actions.
- A try at less restrictive mechanics (Lawnomos) irrationally tried to limit kingmaking.
- Tarnished Reputation (JonathanDark) created a downside to Corruption: the director's future income would be lost.
- Take me to your Nuclear Wessels (Clucky) allowed Classes with different attacks to be assigned to your Vessels.
- Fiscal Responsiblity (Chiiika) created a communal loss condition if the President borrowed too much money.
- I wanna be an influencer (Clucky) allowed Associates to get paid from Systems they had influence in.
- Terminal (Clucky) attempted to attach term limits to Directors.
- Guardians of the Guild (Goob) allowed Vessels to fight piracy to gain credits (though only Fighters, which Goob had, could do this effectively)
- Backdoor Forms (Goob) allowed taxes to be waived for specific Associates to make dealmaking easier.
- Per Aspera Ad Astra (JonathanDark) created the victory condition: when voluntary investments in a special system passed a boundary, the player with the most credits invested wins.
- Not enough Secrets (Clucky) attempted to turn off No Private Communication.
So it turns out fighters are somewhat overpowered (ais523) attempted to reduce the power of fighters. Was still pending when the dynasty ended.- Galactic Snipers tried to prevent the dynasty ending by timing snipe. Was still pending when the dynasty ended.
Core
- Mentor Timing clarified when Mentorships start.
Ascension
Towards the end of the dynasty, three players had large enough Credit+Investment totals to threaten a win: ais523 had the most, Goob the second-most, and Chiiika had considerably fewer but was in position to make a very large Import the following day, putting her into second place. Any two of these players combined (after Chiiika's Import) would have had enough to trigger a win for whoever had donated most (and, because ais523 did not want to be Emperor the next dynasty, anyone finishing in second place behind ais523 would become Emperor instead). However, triggering the victory condition was only possible at Starbase Alpha, which Goob was already at, with ais523 requiring a few more hours to be able to fly there and Chiiika a few more than ais523. There were several proposals to try to resolve the standoff, but Clucky invested enough Credits in the Starbase that, combined with Credits that ais523 had invested earlier, was enough to allow Goob to win.
The DoV contained some discussion of whether Clucky's actions were clear enough to be legal, but the DoV established that they likely were.
Commentary
A post-dynastic discussion thread is available.