I want to start a new succession game, but I want this one to be a little different. I want it to be a little more serious and feel more natural. This would be about 80% a community fortress and 20% a succession game. There would be no set length of terms. That tends to make for contrived and sometimes silly transitions (more on that later).
What I propose is this: We keep two lists. One is a lists for people that want named dwarves in the community game (the dwarf list). The second is a list of people that want to run the fortress for a turn (the leadership list). As will be explained below, it won’t be necessary to be on both lists, as named dwarves will have a chance at leadership. As usual, the first person would create a fortress and name the 6 dwarves after the first people on that list. Each turn would continue until either the named dwarf of the leader is killed or is replaced via election. Eventually, the Expedition Leader will be voted out and replaced by a mayor. This could take 1-3 years depending on circumstance and population. At that point, I’d save it and hand it over according to some rules:
1) If a named dwarf is elected, that person takes over the fortress. If they do not want to, or unable to, they name a Manager and that person takes it over.
2) If an unclaimed dwarf is elected, the next person on the leadership list takes over and that dwarf is named for them. If this thread becomes popular, this won’t likely happen too often.
The new turn continues until death or removal from office. In the event of the death of the current leader, the next in line from the leadership list is tapped. This turn might be short, and should probably be played as someone taking over provisionally until an election can be held. They might take over an unnamed dwarf, if one is available, or might play as a noble, or foreign diplomat/merchant acting in an advisory role.
If someone is unable to finish their turn, it would be best if they appoint a manager and turn it over to that person.
I don’t want to put a time limit on turns, but I think that we should require at least a significant update every 4-5 days. If it’s going to be much longer than that, appoint a manager and give it over to someone else. I think two days is good to wait for the next leader to respond
During the run, the leader will be in charge of continuing the story, assigning immigrants to named dwarves as they come. Since I’d like to shoot for the continuing story of a community fortress, it would be best if those leading didn’t just post two years of “X happened today.” but rather took more of a narrative approach, or at least journal entries that mention characters in addition to events.
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Rules:
1) No killing off nobles. They’re a part of dwarven life.
2) Label levers. Use notes to label levers.
3) Try not to deliberately make things harder on future leaders. Examples include seizing merchant cargo, creating “destroy/flood the world” traps.
4) Use resources appropriately. Don’t dedicate your turn to building a 25 z-level statue in honor of your dwarf. Similarly, 20x20 bedrooms or tombs are a bit excessive.
5) Give your dwarf a job. Don't let him sit around on break making more friends to keep his position longer.
I also have some RP requests that I’d like to put out. Though I love Boatmurdered, I’d prefer this not be just another clone. To that end, I request that:
1) Updates not be phrased as one depressing and sarcastic news report after another.
2) The leader not be portrayed as the one sane or intelligent being among 50 idiots or disturbed dwarves.
3) No new elephants. If the fortress is continually plagues by squirrels scratcihng and biting the woodcutter, don’t force the over-dramatic urge to treat them like the bringers of the end of existence.
4) No silly back stories. I’d like to see a fortress where a leader is not forced against his will to be ruler because of
a) mistaken identity
b) random tapping (Current Leader: “Hey, you. Hauler. I’m bored. Here are the keys.”)
c) losing a card game/bet back in the Mountain Homes
d) being caught with the Queen’s daughter and exiled to rule this frontier hellhole as a punishment.
5) No crazy rulers. This is about the leader that when the fortress is circling the tubes due to tantrum spirals, goblin raids and swarms of rabid squirrels attacking, decide to have every post become more and more unintelligible as the leader slowly slides into insanity but gibbering and muttering something repeatedly at the end of ever post.
6) No psychic/paranoid rulers. Here I’m referring to the tendency to comment on every setback as if it were an omen of the doom that is surely to come. Or reminding the reader that “Mom warned me not to come to this place. Something bad’s going to happen, and she was right”.
7) When silly stuff does happen try to work it into the story, especially if it’s a bug or quirk in the game itself, rather than just chalking it up to dwarves being stupid or lazy.
I’m not trying to be a killjoy, I just want there to be a more serious theme with some internal consistency.
I don’t really mind this stuff when it actually becomes the theme of the fortress, but when it’s a mix of some people taking it seriously and others trying to turn it into that, the inconsistency starts to bug me.
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Topic: Combination Community/Succession game. (Read 671 times)