The Twelfth Dynasty of Josh
9 September 2020 - 20 October 2020
Contents
Ascension Address
A hundred thousand years passed.
For a hundred thousand years, the surface of the earth was quiet and calm. Water lapped up against itself as it moved through the stages of its dance with the moon. Fish teemed, swooping around in elegant school a mile in length, carefully watched over by birds who gradually evolved away the need for solid ground. The clouds drifted aimlessly through the sky and the sun shone.
Another hundred thousand years passed, and then another hundred thousand more.
Gradually, the gently meandering waves found themselves disturbed. A choppy patch of water frothed and heaved and broke. The blue planet briefly developed a small patch of white.
A hundred thousand more years passed, and now the sea was in a rage. The outcrop of rock had asserted itself and the water found itself powerless; its moment of apotheosis was gone and now, most days, its rage was impotent, unable to raise itself above the level of the jagged earth, which had started to dry in the sun. Birds had rediscovered their vestigial legs; lichens and molds found footing on solid ground and found it to their liking. What had once been a mountaintop was now an island. A hundred thousand more years passed, then a hundred thousand more, and more, and more, and there were islands throughout the great sea, the tops of great mountain ranges popping through the surface like daisies in spring. Seeds and smells drifting on the wind, propogating life over the new land, but each island alone, a small experiment for how land-based life could begin anew.
Throughout the ruleset, change Pathfinder to Island and Computer to Gaia, and repeal all dynastic rules. Make the Imperial Deferentials and Traitor special case rules inactive.
Players
The following players were active at the start of the Dynasty:
Cuddlebeam, derrick, Josh, Kevan, pokes, Raven1207, Riggdan, Tantusar, Vovix
And at the end:
Bais, Clucky, Josh, pokes, Raven1207
Final Ruleset
Gamestate
Posts of Interest
Dynastic Rules
- The Wheel of Time established turn order and a distinction between mandatory and optional actions, which were later recast as underground and overground actions. To prevent rule changes from coming in during a round, rule changes were delayed until round transitions. As the dynasty evolved to include minimal direct interaction, it was later permitted for two players to take their turns at once, and then for all players to take their turns simultaneously. This turned out the be problematic as players ended up taking their turns all at once, so it was further amended to allow one player to lock the gamestate, take their turn and release it for the next player.
- It was quickly established that this dynasty should not involve humans or humanoids, so instead focused on natural phenomena: land revealed by the receding sea was joined by tectonics, foliage, volcanic pressure, animal biomass, volcanoes, weather effects, aesthetic features like cliffs and waterfalls, and finally unique monuments that provided one-off bonuses or persistent dividends.
- The idea that island development was done through random selection from lists of effects was developed into terrain dice. Islands could earn mana to alter the faces of their dice and improve their dice pools. Mana was rooted in the characteristics on the island, making runaway growth possible as mana was generated by the same features that determined victory.
- This dynasty featured a mid-game reset, allowing for the development of dynastic rules in a relatively neutral environment before competitive play started. Originally set for Round 8, it was later brought forward to round 5.
- Various aspects of habitability became the framing device around which a victory condition was framed.
- Schwingrasen was a floating island that collected variables from players so that new joiners could have default values. Never very popular, it was repealed after a very small number of attempts to make it workable.
Non-dynastic changes
- Tags were tamed.
- It became permissable to illustrate the ruleset.
- The glossary was slightly reorganised to separate out imperatives and time-related terms.
Ascension
Around the time of the Round 6 reset, five players went idle within the space of a few days, leaving the game without any real momentum. That coupled with Clucky establishing a clear and potentially unassailable lead, with a Mana engine that allowed him to build reliably powerful dice, led to the game being called early by a proposal to bring forward the end date.
Clucky declared victory.
Commentary
tbd
