The Thirty-First Dynasty of Kevan
4 August - 4 September 2023
Contents
Ascension Address
It is hard to truly kill a city.
War had driven many from the old seaport, and by the time the floods came, most of what remained of humanity had relocated into the Great Machines, vast and protected structures that roamed slow and optimised routes across the inhospitable landscape.
For years the old city remained a trading post, a fragile but crucial meeting point between the Machines and the cargo ships. When conditions worsened and trade stopped, the Machinists offered the people of the city one final, fractious evacuation. The Machines maintained a wary distance after that, with only occasional sightings of them grazing blindly through the city’s outskirts, sifting through the rubble for raw materials before moving on.
Contact with the Great Machines was eventually lost, and it has now been a generation since anyone in the city has seen one, even on the icy horizons. Across the city’s splintered districts, small communities still survive under the guidance of local leaders, maintaining a precarious but unbroken existence against their constant adversities.
The city lives.
Imperial Style: Designer/Protective/Powerhouse/Scam-Neutral/Guarded/Methodical
This dynasty takes place in a named location from the previous dynasty.
Players
The following players were active at the beginning of this Dynasty: Bucky, JonathanDark, Josh, Kevan, lemon, lendunistus
The following players were active at the end of this Dynasty: JonathanDark, Josh, Kevan, lemon, lendunistus, Rafter
Final Ruleset
Gamestate
Posts of Interest
- Fifteen Minute City defined each District as having People, Food and Defences
- Two Roads Diverged set up the game loop of the dynasty: daily Dilemmas which modified stats, and which each District had to choose between
- Commons People, Like You created Commons which Districts could connect to, to gain abilities. These were initially awarded based on population, and could be used as a daily action.
- Left The People On Read brought over the Order stat from the previous dynasty. Here it was a number that decreased when a District timed out on responding to a Dilemma.
- Reinventing the Wheel added a "Tech" stat
- Gathering Together changed Commons Gathering from a daily action to a possible Dilemma opportunity
- Survival of the Wittest renamed Tech to Ingenuity and allowed it to be spent on Innovation powerups (although this action wasn't yet made available)
- Open Door Policy allowed Defence to go negative; several Districts would dip into this zone later in the dynasty
- Famine's Edge caused a population loss if Food could not be spent when needed
- One Thing After Another allowed new Dilemmas to be created if the current ones had been completely responded to; in practice, some players held back their decisions and the dynasty generally stayed at one Dilemma per day. The proposal also allowed players to pass on a Dilemma and take the Order hit directly.
- The City Must Survive defined the Storm as an endgame event set for August 28th (where Dilemmas would become harsher and the best-placed player at the end would win), but it would not survive the dynasty
- Innovation in Action changed the Gathering Dilemma result to "Governing", which allowed the player to choose whether to Gather or create an Innovation
- The Old Calendar moved the Storm to Dilemma 24, rather than a calendar date
- True Dilemmas amended the Dilemma generation rule so that null options like "Gain 1 Food and Lose 1 Food" were instead rerolled.
- We Rowdy created the Solar Field and Battery Garden, and gave each District an Energy Trap. Districts could donate Energy to other Districts, the amount based on the status of the Battery Garden, and whether the action was taken early or late during a dilemma.
- Shouts to all my lost boys switched Commons discovery from being population-linked, to an Energy spend
- Mistaken Forecast put the Storm forward, given that recent Dilemmas were running quite quickly
- Law and Order gave a third Govern option: gaining 1 Order
- Tree Stump made the Innovations into more of a tech tree, as befitted its original intention
- Energy Crisis upped the Energy impact of Dilemmas
- Batteries Not Included removed the timing aspect of Battery Garden usage, levelling it to a flat 2 Energy
- Caffeinated City clarified that the Emperor should clear the queue where possible before posting a Dilemma, and post Dilemmas whenever possible
- Dislocation repealed the Battery Garden
- The Shape of Things to Come allowed players to influence the next Dilemma, later plugged in by Thinking Before the Box - this mechanic would be invoked by Lemon for the final two Dilemmas
- Luckpusher created a "randomly apply 0-2 other downsides" Dilemma downside, which would hit some people badly later on
- Papers, Please created thematic Factions: whenever people arrived through a Dilemma, their faction identity was tracked
- The People’s Front of Judea gave Factions random preferences for the kinds of stats they liked to see in a District, leaving if they were displeased. This would later cause Troglodytes to leave all Districts, while the Seafolk and Machinists remained in Josh's.
- Well Moot By Meenlight created a Commons through which a District could call a Moot when Gathering, gaining Faction-specific rewards. Josh would be the only player to benefit from this, calling two Moots towards the game end, with no further Factions arriving.
- Meet and Greet added a Govern mechanic for guessing, Mastermind-style, what your Factions wanted
- Inevitability changed the Storm effects
- The Anointed Ones replaced the Storm with a Conclave, where players would bid their various resources to win a number of rounds
Core changes
- The Final Word altered how Imperial Deferentials resolved at low player counts
- Private Eye removed the concept of a "private message" from the appendix
Dilemmas
- Dilemma 1 - The Blockades
- Dilemma 2 - The Cold
- Dilemma 3 - The Believers
- Dilemma 4 - The Crows
- Dilemma 5 - The Floodwaters
- Dilemma 6 - The Nightwalkers
- Dilemma 7 - The Shipwreck
- Dilemma 8 - The Mariners
- Dilemma 9 - The Strike
- Dilemma 10 - The Grid
- Dilemma 11 - The Roadways
- Dilemma 12 - The Illumination
- Dilemma 13 - The Generators
- Dilemma 14 - The Towers
- Dilemma 15 - The Library
- Dilemma 16 - The Fire
- Dilemma 17 - The Machinists
- Dilemma 18 - The Livestock
- Dilemma 19 - The Storehouses
- Dilemma 20 - The Tunnels
- Dilemma 21 - The Darkness
- Dilemma 22 - The Hunt
- Dilemma 23 - The Rain
- Dilemma 24 - The Elders
- Dilemma 25 - The Brownouts
- Dilemma 26 - The Panels
- Dilemma 27 - The Vehicles
- Dilemma 28 - The Lights
- Dilemma 29 - The Scavengers
- Dilemma 30 - The Protestors
Plenary Sessions
Ascension
After Josh persuaded the group that he would almost certainly win outright three of the six Conclave Agenda items, he made a CfJ to sidestep the process and directly award himself Victory rather than playing out the Plenary Sessions. The CfJ passed with three other players supporting it.
