The game is confirmed to run, rules will be posted on or about Dec 28 - game tentatively to begin Jan 2 or 3


Okay, I'd loosely been planning to introduce a new Game now that the Coin Game has had time to take root, and as it is simple and quick this one will be a bit harder, however I have selected it for strong inactivity survivability along with strong incentive to active play. I had loosely planned to introduce the new game 'sometime after Christmas, roughly mid-game of whatever Mafia Game was underway', but I do anticipate a protracted setup after registration, as I will have to alter many values based on number of players.

Basic Concept: For those familiar with Dune, the game will center around the Landsdraad, a collection feudal lords who along with the Emperor rule the Empire, and will be set pre-Maud'dib. For those who don't know Dune, it is a famous sci-fi series I recommend to all, I will make a strong effort to make the game playable to those who have never read or watched any Dune and it will not require any knowledge to play, but the game is designed such that knowledge of the original book at least will probably be beneficial. The game will not by a RPG, but game play will really have no reason not to be in character, since everyone is essentially going to be acting in character (greedy, scheming backbiting diplomat) and while it will differ greatly from Mafia I expect many of the same skills to apply and I will be deliberately using some familiar concepts from both Mafia and The Coin Game to minimize the learning curve.

What the game will feature - and you may consider these pros or cons

Rounds of fairly specific length - probably about 7-10 days each

Bidding Wars - Players will be bidding both openly and secretly from everything from smuggler booty to Landsdraad votes to Planets and Industries

No death - Players will only be removed from play if they simply go horribly inactive or resign

Variable Commitment - You will not be required to post more than once per round to stay active, but discussion and careful consideration will likely decide the winners.

Alliances - Players will, with possible exceptions, begin allied to no one with no real enemies (besides everyone else) and will be able to make and break alliances, both formal and informal

Secrecy - Players will begin knowing how many votes each player controls, nothing else

Something for everyone - Every player will effectively be 'roled', with abilities, assets, income, and starting wealth

Learn as you go - This is the big one, and basically why I've selected Dune from amongst various prototype games, the basic rules will be very simple (I think) and most everything else will be situational

Because I will not know until registration ends how many players there will be, the examples which follow are merely conceptual, I am including real numbers but those would change based on number of players to achieve a good balance to start. I am looking for a minimum of six players with decent records of play on the board before I will commit to run the game, play will not begin till after Christmas at the soonest, when I will likely post a new thread with adjusted and nicely formatted rules, but anyone may register now if they choose, currently I'm just feeling out interest, if its not there I will select another game, in my general long term quest to see to it that our Mafia games keep running strong but no longer make up 90% of the posts Before we get into the nuts and bolts of rules and play examples let me say that besides registration, conversation, suggestions, and discussion are welcome - in particular anything below which seems unclear, please let me know and I'll try to produce a clarification and example. I'll link any detailed explanation right below as I give them to keep this post itself of manageable size.

Clarificaitons
<a href="http://www.readandfindout.com/rpg/messageboard/179881/">Victory: Majority, Crisis Ends, and Player Goals</a>

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Round Order
I. Round Intro and Updates
II. The CRISIS!!!
III. CHOAM Auctions and Negotiations
IV. Electors purchased
V. The Round Vote

We'll get to explaining this in a bit, first

Core Concepts
Affiliation
Abilities
Assets
Auctions
Electors
Income
Votes
Wealth

All players will receive their Affiliation, such as House Atreides, Harkonnen, Spacing Guild, etc. This is who you represent in the Landsdraad, and they will provide you a certain number of votes which are yours the whole game (barring misfortune). All players will be informed of how many votes you have at the beginning, but not to whom you are affiliated. Number of votes per player will be roughly 4-12, players will not have the same number of votes.

Abilities - These will vary, and take the form of role powers for those familiar with Mafia.

Assets - The Primary one will be CHOAM Stock, CHOAM (Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles) is Dune's fictional super-corporation or Hanseatic League equivalent. Most or all players will begin with a certain number of shares (low double digits for most cases) along with individual assets (factories, mines, etc) each of which provide annual income (rounds will be 'years' ). Players will be able to buy and sell Assets, both openly and secretly. Players will begin with a certain amount of Wealth which like votes and assets will not be evenly distributed. A Player might begin with 8 votes, 20 Billion cash, and 2 million income while another might begin with 6 votes, 10 Billion cash, and 4 Billion income.

Money: The coinage of the Dune series is the Solaris, based on the original book the Harkonnens, who were very wealthy, were making 10 Billion Solaris a year from Spice Mining on Dune, so I will be using that as the standard... to ease play a Billion Solaris will be refered to as 1 GS (Giga Solaris) and a Million Solaris as 1 MS (Mega Solaris), most things people will spend money on will be in the hundreds of million to billions of Solaris, so as an example, a hypothetical Asset: Ice Mining Facility might be available for purchase at 3 Billion Solaris and produce an income of 500 Million Solaris a round (year) and will be listed as Cost: 3 GS, Income 500 MS... I will otherwise try to curtail my normal habit of slapping acronyms and initials on everything CHOAM Stock is typically worth 400 Million Solaris a share and returns 100 MS/year (round)... though that figure will adjust base don number of players, since lots of players means more rounds, but we'll use it for the rest of the examples.

In the game, everything is about money and votes. The goal is to control a majority of the votes in the Landsdraad, and each round one or more non-player Electors will come up for bid, essentially players may bribe them for outrageous sums of money and win their votes. Their votes will vary, as will their costs, and some may come with special abilities. Each round players will secretly (or openly) bid on an Elector, if they win them they get them for the rest of the game, barring intervention of some sort.

Each Round a CRISIS!!! will occur requiring the Landsdraad's attention, depending on the severity of the crisis, individual Houses may not bother sending representatives, but each round when the CRISIS!!! hits, players will be told what it is, and what measure is being presented for an up/down vote. Each Players has their votes, and some Electors will pop up with their vote for sale, but their will also be NPC votes. Each CRISIS!!! will essentially be randomly selected from a large selection of pre-generated CRISIS!!! scnearios... by the way, guess what the alternate non theme name for the game is

Example:
There are 12 Players, with a total of 72 votes between them, at the beginning of round 1.

CRISIS!!!
Guild Shipping Lanes have been strongly hit by a new and heavily organized pirate group calling themselves the Sons of Denub. The Spacing Guild is firmly committed to neutrality and no Guild Heighliner has been attacked, but many of the ships transported by the Heighliners have been attacked and boarded on their way to or from the Heighliners. The cost to Houses will be 100 Million Solaris each to bring military forces to bare against the pirates. Should the Landsdraad mount an expedition against these pirates?
CHOAM Report
CHOAM estimates the shipping losses will reduce stock income by 10% this year if these pirates aren't stopped.

The Baron of Thelk has made it quietly known that he and his allies, who control 6 votes in the Landsdraad, will entertain 'suggestions' on how to vote in this matter and future ones, for reasonable recompense of no less than 1.5 Billion Solaris, or the highest offer, he will be available for negotiaitons for the next 6 days

The Count of Fraxis represents a coalition of poorer Houses Minor who have 8 votes, a recent disease has destroyed their crops and they are looking for wealthy allies to help them rebuild, a minimum initial investment of a billion will suffice, more is welcome, but the coalition will require a steady income for the foreseeable future, and will require an additional 100 Million Solaris each year to keep their votes. The Count will be available for negotiations for the next six days

Additionally 64 other votes in various hand have arrived and broken into 3 Temporary Factions, The Boars, the D-Wolves, and the Elks.

There are 20 Boar Votes, and they have pledged to vote Yes on the Expedition

There are 20 Elks Votes, and they have pledged to Vote No

The 24 D-Wolf votes are as of yet undecided but pledged to vote together, pending secret negotiations, but estimates place the likelihood of them voting yes as 80% (in other words, random roll of 1-8 Yes, 9-10 No)


And that is the Crisis phase, for the vote, at the end of the round, there will be 150 votes (72 from the players, 14 from the 2 Electors, and 64 from the various NPC votes), to pass the measure will require 76 votes. Players will ultimately vote secretly via NB but may pledge on the board (and lie) how they will vote. At the end of the round the total votes for and against will be posted, but not who they are from. Players may abstain, and automatically do so if they don't cast a vote. That's the beginning and the end, now the middle.

Immediately after the CRISIS!!! there will tend to be a fair amount of chaos, and players may receive offers, threats, etc via secret communique (NB from mod) but CHOAM will open up an auction, selling stock and other assets, each with a description and estimates of income and an initial bid.

CHOAM Auction
10 CHOAM Shares - Min Bid 4 GS, avg income 1 GS/year, deadline 96 hours
8 CHOAM Shares - Min Bid 3.24 GS, avg income 800 MS/year, deadline 96 hours
6 CHOAM Shares - Min Bid 2.4 GS, avg income 600 MS/year, deadline 96 hours
Prath Gem Mining - Min Bid 3 GS, avg income 1 GS/year, deadline 72 hours

Investor sought for smuggling operation, min bid 200 MS, expected to return 300-800 MS (1d6+2 x 100 MS) at the end of Round 2, smuggler will depart in 72 hours.

All bids may be submitted via NB to the CHOAM rep (The Mod) bids recieved after the deadline will not count, the winning bid (but not bidder) will be announced.

So, players now have some idea what to spend their money on, additionally they may place their own assets up for bid, publicly or privately via the CHOAM Auction. If done privately (anonmously) CHOAM will take an appraisal and handling fee of 10% from the seller, either of the minimum bid if no one buys it, or of the final bid if someone does, it current worth will be posted. Alternatively a player may openly say what they are selling and conclude a deal openly with a player for no charge, buyer beware, transfers only occur when the player formally NBs the Mod that they are giving someone something and what it is.

This will all take place in the first day of the round, and players will now have some days to negotiate and bid on Electors and Auctions, when those have concluded we will enter the final vote phase for the round, players may vote before then but we will aim for a 24-48 period after all auctions are over with results posted for the deadline to get in a vote. That vote will be posted with its final results and any end of round events, then a brief delay until the next round opens, probably a day. Rounds are expected to last about a week to ten days, we'll adjust a necessary and appropriate.

So what happens in the middle to negotiate about?

Let's say Bob, the rep for House Ix, has 6 votes, 15 GS of wealth, and 10 Shares of CHOAM and 1.5 GS of income from other assets, in this case a Arms Factory. His 10 Shares of CHOAM normally give him 1 GS of revenue a year, the expedition will cost him 100 MS and not doing it will cost him 100 MS, so to him the vote means nothing either way but he receives a threat from weapons manufacturers on Ix demanding he vote for the expedition, which will need weapons, and they want to supply them. If the vote passes they expect an increase in this year's revenue of 500 MS, but if it fails they expect to lose trade to a competitor permanently, at 250 MS less a year. Bob's vote seems obvious... or is it? Bob thinks from the chatter on the board that the vote may go no... so he puts up for bid anonymously his Asset: Arms Factory, at a slight discount, and puts in bids on some of the Stock, hedging his bets perhaps.

Jen, the rep for the Harkonnens, has 6 votes and 15 GS of wealth as well, but has 30 shares of CHOAM and no other assets, voting for passage is a sure thing for her, she'd be out 300 MS in revenue otherwise, so the 100 MS cost doesn't sound too bad. She has plenty of options on the auction, but one of the Electors has a pretty strong short term value for her. She also has an Ability: Blackmail, which allows her bids for electors to count as 10% higher than the actual bid. Still, all her income comes from stock and that's been shown to fluctuate, that Prath Gem Mining operation looked pretty good but now there's an Arms Factory for sale.

John, from the House of Ecaz, is similarly neutral in terms of loss and gain from the piracy, but receives a communique from a member of the Elks temporary faction, informing him that 10 representatives would be willing to change their votes to No... for 200 MS.

Eric, of House Atreides, has a passive ability called loyalty, which halves the cost of maintenance on any Elector who charges a fee each round, so he places a strong bid for the 8 votes of the Count of Fraxis, who charges 100 MS/round, but only 50 to him.

...and so on... no doubt players will notice some of those are clearly better deals but as these are examples I haven't worked out balanced ones. If we have a lot of players, for instance, instead of having CHOAM Stock at 400 MS to buy and essentially return raw profit after 4 turns it might make sense for it to cost 600 MS, etc. Players aren't eliminated from play so the number of players doesn't directly corellate to number of rounds like in Mafia or Coin Game, but the winner(s) need a majority of votes or to meet their specific victory condition, if say Bob's VC was "Get a majority of votes or obtain and keep 100 Shares of CHOAM stock before a majority is reached" he might very well sell his vote in the Final Round to a player with lots of votes in exchange for his CHOAM stock... which might be kinda of embarrassing if that player had 18 shares and Bob had 80. Of course unless players have an ability (or by a secret communicator or courier) that lets them talk via NB to other players, all negotiations more or less have to take place in the light of day on the board, and the person might be lying, and if say one player has a lot of votes an access to assassins suddenly hearing Bob and that other guy cutting a deal to spell end game might see one of their Electors assassinated, and so on. Harkonnen and Atreides might be unable to ally for Final Votes, other restrictions, etc. a CRISIS!!! for a day could easily be an end game scenario under certain conditions, "CRISIS!!! The Emperor has been assassinated, Prince Florg is third in line but through marriage controls 30 votes, he promises them to the highest bidder if the Landsdraad votes no for his elder brother to succeed the late Emperor" and so on.

So, in summary, a player can sit back and do nothing other than the occasional "I'm alive" post, or lurk and place bids, but the mechanics of the game should favor those who actively bargain, intrigue, acquire a reputation for honest dealings, backstab people, etc. I do not know how many rounds a game will take to complete, but my loose estimate will be the game will have more rounds than Mafia but that rounds will take less time, so probably parallel duration, we'll have to see. I expect rounds to have more posts than the Coin Game obviously but whether it will be the hundreds per round Mafia favors we'll have to wait and see. I'll give more examples, I don't want this initial post to be too long, hopefully this game sounds interesting, and again, reg is open but there is no set time to start yet, after Xmas I think, but possibly longer, I'm still formalize rules and I don't want to start making up crisis and events (there needs to be a large random supply IMO) until I've run the idea past the other gamers, and since its essentially an original game mechanic in spit eof efforts to borrow standard features from other games it needs a heft amount of eyeballing for gaping holes, so to speak.

So, who's interested?