The First Dynasty of The Duke of Waltham
7 February 2020 – 12 March 2020
Contents
Ascension Address
- “Slow down, slow down”, protested the Vice-Chancellor, raising her hand to stem the torrent of information coming from the man standing across her desk. “What do you mean, ‘not our world’? I thought we had confirmed that the Quantum Window shows an accurate picture of reality. It’s all happening, in real time, exactly as we observe it. Unless…” Her voice trailed off, seeing the scientist nod vigorously.
- “They’re identical, or at least they used to; we’re now beginning to observe differences in the weather. The two sides must have branched off recently, probably at the very moment we opened the Window.”
- “You said that was two weeks ago! Can it diverge so fast?”
- “It’s a chaotic system, madam. Predictions are impossible, foolish even, in the long term. All we can do is focus on the immediate future.”
- “Really! We know nothing about—” She stopped abruptly, casting a glance at the office’s closed door before continuing in calmer tones. “…This. This whole thing. You’re just throwing darts on a board, the lot of you.”
- “We’re testing a few ideas…” offered the physicist, finally sitting in a chair. “We may be capable of establishing contact with the other side, perhaps even creating a passage between the two universes.”
- “Proceed with extreme care, Dr Waltham… Any misstep could prove catastrophic. Keep a close watch on your team, and I suggest you immediately start drafting a protocol for contact with the other side, in case you are right.”
- “I’ll instruct my team”, he replied, and smiled faintly. “I suppose that’s what our counterparts on the other side are saying right now…”
- “I’ve already agreed with the Secretary that a committee of government officials will be formed to oversee our activities, and you are to be the liaison. You will report to them. We may have taken over the Institute’s funding now that it’s closed down, but it comes with strings attached. And for God’s sake, don’t breathe a word of this to anyone outside your team!”
Repeal all Dynastic Rules. Replace “Individual” with “Scientist” and “Director” with “Liaison”. Set the Special Case rules “Tags” and “Atomic Actions” to inactive.
Players
The following players were active at the start of the Dynasty: Avilva, Brendan*, card*, Cuddlebeam*, Darknight*, The Duke of Waltham, derrick*, Josh*, Jumble, Kevan*, pokes*, Tantusar*
The following players were active at the end of the Dynasty: Brendan*, Cuddlebeam*, Darknight*, The Duke of Waltham, Farsight, Josh*, Jumble, naught, Tantusar*
An asterisk (*) after a name denotes an Admin
Final Ruleset
Gamestate
Posts of Interest
- There's More than One of Everything Put forth the theme and basic mechanic of the Dynasty: at some point, a Portal would be created, and the Dynastic Ruleset would split in two.
- Double Double Established Budget and Crisis, which didn't do anything yet.
- Portals are Scary Doubled the Crisis when a Portal was created.
- Revision Moved an older Core Rule to the Appendix. Not necessarily relevant to the Dynasty, but Appendix and Core changes should be logged.
- We are not so Different, You and I Made proposing changes to both the Alpha and Prime Rulesets easier, as now they could be made in the same Proposal.
- Quantum Leap Introduced Polarity, a kind of slider to determine how in-tune with a certain Universe a Scientist was.
- Of course we're scientists, now pass the tarot cards Introduced Star Signs. A minor scam that was baked into the Proposal later allowed Josh to declare Victory.
- The Breaking Point Made a Universe with Crisis 0 "cataclysmic," which became important later on.
- Walthamian commodity asymmetry theorem Introduced Putty and Turboencabulators, which were bought with Budget.
- Butterfly Selects Introduced Divergent Actions, which applied effects on Scientists based on their Polarity.
- The Opposite Of Divergance Introduced Similarity, which would deplete upon Divergent Actions being taken, and creating a Portal once it reached 0.
- Procedure is Everything Specified a procedure of what happens when a Portal is created.
- The Road Not Taken Changed Divergent Actions to Discrepant Actions, and introduced a new Discrepant action: Scanning.
- ParaDynastic Rules Introduced the Para Ruleset (as it came to be known), which affected both Universes.
- Position and Power Introduced Positions which Scientists could have, though it didn't end up doing much.
- A couple minor fixes Is precisely what it sounds like. Added a minor fix to the rule "Official Posts" in the Appendix, as well as some Dynastic things.
- Grand Theft Portal Changed what the results of actions certain Positions had available to them. It also made them Discrepant Actions.
- Crisis on Exactly Two Blognomics Caused Discrepant Actions to possibly open Portals. It also added a loss condition if both Universes were Cataclysmic.
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- (This list of significant dynastic events is currently incomplete.)
Ascension
Josh achieved a Humanitarian Assistance Victory with a scam, with Brendan "successfully blackmail[ing]" a 20% chance of a mantle pass in exchange for not revealing the scam. Josh rolled a die and kept the mantle.
Commentary
Shame there's apparently no discussion of this one, but to add my abiding memory of it (as someone who idled before the end), this was a dynasty with a big twist on the core of the game ("what if there were two rulesets!") that was simple in theory but much more complex in practice, with a lot of time spent getting the rule ready to activate, and further time tidying up the bits that didn't work as expected. --Kevan (talk) 10:33, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
