The Second Dynasty of Pokes

July 25, 2017 - September 8, 2017

Ascension Address

From the diaries of PM Wouters, 26 July 1966

It’s so difficult to be the Commander-in-chief. All I wanted to do was serve my Pays-Loups Nord by writing legislation to help the people, but then someone had to go and die, and I had to go and say ‘okay’ to becoming Prime Minister. This shouldn’t have been easy, but at least not this hard. Tensions since last week have been extremely high. Everyone’s got nukes, everyone suddenly seems more willing to use them, and it’s like the only way to get respect these days is to bully people around. I just need some sleep, but the pills are making it hard, and when it comes all I get are fever dreams about pacts and Seraphim.

Veto all pending Proposals. Change ‘Pactmaker’ to ‘CIC’; changing the first instance to “Commander-in-chief (abbreviated CIC)”. Change ‘Seraphim’ to ‘UNSG’; changing the first instance to “UN Secretary-General (abbreviated UNSG)”. Repeal all Dynastic Rules except for “Combos” and “Tags”.

Players

The following players were active at the start of this dynasty:

card*, Cuddlebeam, Dewaldo, orkboi, pokes*^, Publius Scribonius Scholasticus, Thunder

And at the end of this dynasty:

card*, Cuddlebeam, Darknight*, derrick*, Kevan*, Maldor, pokes*^, Thunder, Sesquipedalian

* denotes admins, ^ denotes UNSG

Proposals of Interest

Gamebuilding (25th of July ⁓ 31st of July): The ground mechanics for the game were made.

• Armament: Established missiles, which would become a central theme for the Military stat.
• Crisis: Established Ticks (a rhythm for dynastic actions) and IEs (considered to be a measure of merit).
• Stats: Established Stats: Military, Charisma and Intel.
• How I Learned to Love the Bomb: Created units (Politicians, Scientists, Spies) which spawned from Stats.
• The War Chest: Allowed greater control over Stats.
• Launch Window: Created a way for Ticks to happen, as well as the definition of Command Actions.
• Duck and Recover: Added Recovery and Science as Stats.
• Perks: Added Perks, advantages to gain when your Stats were certain amounts.
• Cold War Stuff Again: Created Blocs, Western and Eastern. The Western Bloc, formed by Derrick, Cuddlebeam, Card and Dewaldo (and Pokes, although he wasn't involved in it) had a noteworthy amount of coordination, culminating in a heist to win the game later on.
• Underground Bases: Made Missle targets secret, introducing an element of secrecy to the game.
• Balance: Established how unidling players would be distributed into Blocs.

First Moves (31st of July ⁓ 9th of August): During this period, Proposals started to fail more often, as people started to make moves towards trying to increase their chances to win with leverage on the established mechanics and unequality. "Secret scams" started to arise, stemmed from that communicating actions to the Emperor were non-public. This was problematic, because the Emperor would need to reveal them in order to CFJ them, and therefore reveal the scam (when the advantage of "secret scams" was that others weren't aware of their existence).

• Fight Fire with Fire (Failed): Attempted to create another "Bloc" separation to become part of another, hopefully larger group. (Cuddlebeam, the proposer, was part of a smaller group, the West, at the time)
• Lonely Planet (Failed): Unequal distribution based on names (Eastern would've had more spread, West was notorious for having all names clumped up: Card, Cuddlebeam Dewaldo, Derrick)
• Don't you love Politics?: Added a mechanic which allowed to block off missile play and gain IEs.
• Iron Curtain: Allowed players to conceal their amounts of IEs.
• Less Clock Stoppage: Plugged a way via the which a single Player could stall Ticks indefinitely (and take several Command Actions). A plug to a "secret scam".
• Double Edge: Created Revolution, a perk which allowed players to gain double their gains, but lose double their losses.
• Intel needed to Decode: A CFJ to solve another "secret scam", related to Missile Targetting.
• Long Live the King: Repeal of the multi-winner/emperor reforms from the prior dynasty.
• Prisoner's Dilemma Wincon: A well-received wincon attempt, which failed due to requests to refine the proposal.
• Disloyal Techs: Another "secret scam", related to that CICs could unassign any Tech, not just their own.
• Tear Down this Wall: Removal of "Iron Curtain".

Iron Curtain Removed (9th of August ⁓): With that perk removed, it was revealed that Cuddlebeam had a large IE advantage over each other Player (40 IEs, while others at most had IEs in the 20s), formerly hidden by the Iron Curtain. IEs were devalued.

• Quick and Painless (failed): Attempt by Cuddlebeam to cash in their now-revealed IE lead to win. Failed.
• The UN (failed): Initial endeavors for an IE-based voting system, which would later bloom into the UN Resolutions, instrumental to the Dynasty's finale.
• Ready Set Go: Attempt to set everyone's IEs to 20. Failed (people preferred to keep the current numbers, despite Cuddlebeam's advantage).
• The UN (again) (failed): Further attempts for the previous UN theme.
• Unequivocal: Created UN Resolutions, birthed from Thunder's previous efforts. They were a type of proposal, where IEs determined vote weight.
• Cuddlebeam Idles: Cuddlebeam Idles, taking their huge IE lead with them. A consequence of this is that their IEs can't be harmed by other players during this time.

(WIP)

The Ascension

Ascension

Cuddlebeam, Card, Sesquipedalian and Derrick arranged a proposal which would made one of them four win (via a diceroll which would choose one of them), forcing it to pass via them having more voting power in a UN Resolution (a type of Proposal) than the rest of players.

The dice landed on Cuddlebeam, so they became the victor.

Final Ruleset

Ruleset 150

Commentary

card

One of those secret scams that I failed to capitalize on was the targeting one. The only rule that changed the number of targets was when you targeted a new CIC. So if you targeted people and then went to 0 military, you'd still be targeting them. During this dynasty I tried for a "no proposals" strategy but instead made a few of them anyway. I got a 25% chance of winning all things considered.

Cuddlebeam

May 19th, I'm psychic. (Although I'm very sure other people must've come up with the same idea before anyways.)

Lottery winner is me, woo! I regret misplaying in not cashing in my IEs into a win before the Iron Curtain removal, because I was too lazy to make another proposal to continue the "Prisoner's Dilemma" wincon thing.

I remember mentioning how the game could be insta-won by a cabal with a majority of votes at the start of any dynasty, and a variant on that happened this dynasty (happened at the end instead of the start and our IEs emulated us having another co-conspirator voting with us).

It felt pretty bullshit, even if it did let me win. As mentioned, the rest of the dynasty's mechanics pretty much didn't matter, all we needed was enough votes to secure victory. I would've preferred to have won another way, because there isn't much interesting in "outvote everyone with a cabal, diceroll a winner among those in that cabal", but oh well.

Kevan

I enjoyed this one, there was a lot of good negotiatory Nomicking going on, with UN Resolution proposals giving voting weights based on International Esteem stats, which fluctuated according to gameplay and saw a lot of straightforward diplomatic and punishment proposals. The die-roll endgame was a bit of a cop-out when the four-nation cabal could have split itself with the support of outside nations, but if four people all think they have a less than 25% chance of winning personally were the game to continue, I guess that's how it goes - it was at least fun to see it foregrounded, in the endgame.

Other

Dynastic Histories [Edit]

Round One - Myke I - Lyndse I - Myke II - Kevan I - Anthony I - Est I - Kevan II - Damanor I - Kevan III - Cayvie I - Josh I - Keitalia I - SatyrEyes I - Metadynasty I - Cayvie II - Brendan I - Kevan IV - Knightking I - Chronos Phaenon I - TrumanCapote I - Knightking II - Quazie I - Simon I - AngryGrasshopper I - Rodney I - Aaron I - Josh II - Metadynasty II - Chronos Phaenon II - Excalabur I - Excalabur II - 75th Trombone I - Elias IX I - Metadynasty III - Angry Grasshopper II - Hix I - Thelonious I - Elias IX II - Rodney II - Clucky I - Doremi I - Chronos Phaenon III - Amnistar I - Clucky II - Amnistar II - Bucky I - Clucky III - Josh III - Kevan V - Hix II - Spikebrennan I - Jack I - Purplebeard I - Rodlen I - Yoda I - Amnistar III - Darknight I - Bucky II - Yoda II - Metadynasty IV - Arthexis I - Amnistar IV - Devenger I - Ais523 I - Ienpw III I - Qwazukee I - Klisz I - Metadynasty V - Bucky III - Wakukee I - Kevan VI - Ais523 II - Josh IV - Purplebeard II - Ais523 III - Ienpw III II - Klisz II - Lilomar I - Coppro I - Ais523 IV - Kevan VII - Brendan II - Alecto I - Josh V - Clucky IV - Purplebeard III - Kevan VIII - Ais523 V - Purplebeard IV - Yoda III - Bucky IV - Kevan IX - Bateleur I - Metadynasty VI - Coppro II - Ais523 VI - Cpt Koen I - Southpointingchariot I - Josh VI - Scshunt III - Quirck I - Clucky V - Bucky V - Kevan X - Josh VII - Kevan XI - Scshunt IV - RaichuKFM I - Larrytheturtle I - Skju I - Metadynasty VII - Purplebeard V - Spitemaster I - Josh VIII - RaichuKFM II - The Alien I - Benzene I - RaichuKFM III - Purplebeard VI - Kevan XII - Ayesdeeef I - Bucky VI - Kevan XIII - Josh IX - Mideg I - Kevan XIV - Brendan III - Kevan XV - Tantusar I - Josh X - Kevan XVI - Thrawn I - Brendan IV - Kevan XVII - Moonroof I - RaichuKFM IV - Larrytheturtle II - Brendan V - Kevan XVIII - Brendan VI - RaichuKFM V - Kevan XIX - Brendan VII - Kevan XX - Viv I - Pokes I - Sphinx I - Madrid I - Pokes II - Madrid II - Metadynasty VIII - Axemabaro I - Diabecko I - Kevan XXI - Diabecko & Card I - Kevan XXII - Derrick I - Card I - Madrid III - Card II - Kevan XXIII - Pokes III - Kevan XXIV - Trigon I - Derrick II - Kevan XXV - Derrick III - Farsight I - TyGuy6 I - Pokes IV - Madrid IV - TyGuy6 II - Kevan XXVI - The Duke of Waltham I - Josh XI - Clucky VI - Naught I - Metadynasty IX - Kevan XXVII - Josh XII - Clucky VII - Josh XIII - Bucky VII - Josh XIV - Kevan XXVIII - Lemonfanta I - Clucky VIII - Josh XV - Misty I - ais523 VII - Josh XVI - Kevan XXIX - Trapdoorspyder I - Metadynasty X - Brendan VIII - Brendan IX - Zack I - Misty II - Josh XVII - MadisonSilver I - Josh XVIII - Kevan XXX - Lendunistus I - Josh XIX - SingularByte I - Trapdoorspyder II - Bucky XIII - JonathanDark I - Trapdoorspyder III - Habanero I - JonathanDark II - Misty III - Metadynasty XI - Josh XX - Lemon II - Kevan XXXI - Josh XXI - Clucky IX - Vovix I - JonathanDark III - Zack II - JonathanDark IV - Josh XXII