The First Dynasty of Thrawn
October 7 - November 1, 2015
Ascension Address
Habemus Papam! The most Eminent and Reverend Lord Thrawn. Viva la Papa!
In truth, he is simply a compromise between bitter enemies, an old and already dying man chosen to give them time to plot and scheme in hopes of winning the tiara for themselves.
All dynastic rules are repealed. Replace “Prisoner” with “Cardinal” and “Warden” with “Pope” throughout the ruleset.
Players
The following players were active at the end of the Dynasty: Brendan*, delcooper11, Elias IX*, Kevan*, Tantusar*, Thrawn*
Final Ruleset
Posts of Interest
- Papabili created a dual currency--Influence, which if high enough gave a player the status of Papabile, and Benefices, which cost Influence.
- Papola, by Brendan, allowed Cardinals to pay directly in Influence for votes on a "QUID PRO QUO" proposal. The mechanic was used successfully only twice, both times by Brendan, to increase his own Influence.
- Sancta Trinitas allowed Cardinals to give Speeches adding 1 to the Influence of three other Cardinals.
- Shallow Conclave established an election mechanism that required a vote from every Cardinal to be resolved, though it was not initially a victory condition. It also made provisions for assigning one of three roles in the Conclave to each player at random.
- Vene Vide gave Cardinals an optional Vice, each of which traded a drawback (eg not being able to make Speeches) for a bonus (eg gaining 2 Influence, instead of 1, from Speeches).
- Material Greed was the one unsuccessful Quid Pro Quo proposal; Josh made a bid for victory by simple vote, with a promised bribe that was effectively impossible to receive, as the bribery mechanic would be repealed upon a DoV.
- Three Nights in Avignon allowed Cardinals to choose a regional Loyalty at the cost of half their Influence.
- Curia created an auction system for roles, though it was also possible to bid one's own Influence toward assigning such a role to a different Cardinal.
- Greed or Popularity? incentivized gaining Benefices with a rich-get-richer system: landed Cardinals could now both increase and decrease other Cardinals' influence with Speeches.
- Papal Conclave I called for the first election, still without a win condition. It was not fully resolved for two full weeks, during which time the rules for conclave offices changed significantly.
- Guiding the Pen allowed the Infirmarii assigned to a given Conclave to spend Influence and vote in place of another Cardinal, if that Cardinal had not voted in the Conclave's first four days. This was the mechanic eventually used to achieve victory.
- ais523's idling request pointed to the number of daily actions instituted in the dynasty as being an excessive burden on a player's time, which led eventually to Kevan's Panem Vetus, a replacement for Daily Actions that cost an increasing amount of Influence per use per day.
- 1527 all over again created a weekly communal Invasion, with Cardinals taking sides based on their Loyalty in an attempt to change the Loyalty of the Pope.
- Envy responded to a scam by ayesdeeef, in which ayesdeeef interpreted the Invidia vice's ability to replace other players' vices as qualifying for "choosing a vice," and thereby gaining a Benefice each time it was exercised. The CfJ (and a subsequent one) to revert the scam and replace its wording succeeded, and ayesdeeef subsequently left the game, apparently forever, with a post that had every possible box checked and was stickied to the top of the blog.
- Back the Mitre Horse finally made elections a victory condition, and enacted at 2-0, with only Brendan (its creator) and Kevan voting in favor--with the very first conclave still unresolved.
- Smokeless Fools finally did resolve that Conclave by fiat, as it was impossible for Kevan the Scrutineer to resolve it based on votes from Cardinals who had since gone idle.
- Papal Conclave on the Day of St. Bean, only the second Conclave of the dynasty, was quiet for a few days except for a (false) promise by Brendan of vote-trading. With activity in the game low and players idling out, Brendan built up enough influence to use his Infirmarii role to declare everyone else sick and vote for himself on their behalf.
Ascension
The Papal Conclave on the Day of St. Bean was resolved in Brendan's favour: he made himself an Infirmarii for it, then spent significant Influence to declare many of its voters Unwell, replacing their votes.
Commentary
In the post-dynasty discussion, Kevan and Brendan noted that--not for the first time--mechanics that penalized idleness seemed to also push players toward just the minimal level of activity to avoid punishment, as it was often the best position for feigning inattention to the game.
