RISKY VENTURES!Lazy Fair version
Raise the anchor and hoist the sails! 'tis time to engage in RISKY VENTURES!
The glorious Motherlands have just realised that, despite their self-evident superiority over everyone else, all the good stuff- sugar, spice, precious metals- somehow wound up in the hands of a bunch of primitive savages. Injustice! Unfortunately, despite the obvious military superiority of the Motherlands, the Crown is not in a position to take these things by force.
Fortunately, we have a plan: to trade worthless baubles for the stuff, then re-sell it in the Motherlands for vast profits.
A problem presents itself! The primitive savages live way aways. Across the seas. Across oceans! It's a dangerous voyage to those faraway lands. Barges and cogs will not make the voyage intact. We'll need fancy new-fangled ships to make the journey. Expensive ships. Ships which even the richest of us cannot afford alone. We will need to pool our resources to afford them.
Once we have a ship, we can send it on a journey. Where to? Somewhere we know about. Currently, our cartographers are a little bit hazy on this. The only place other than the Motherlands they know of is the Nearsouthlands. Nothing wrong with that! The Nearsouthlands are rich in sand- precious, precious sand. And it's only a two-month round trip!
Word has it, though, that there are other places to be visited- places where even more valuable resources can be harvested-, though the journey may be longer and more hazardous. Brave explorers are looking for wealthy patrons to fund their expeditions to look for these lands- as time passes, new locations may emerge.
With a ship and a destination, the venture can begin. The ship sets off on a risky voyage, and hopefully returns in a few months time, filled to the brim with valuables. These can be sold in the markets of the Motherlands, bringing in big profits and funding more voyages.
And then we fill bathtubs with coins and swim around in them. Or something. I dunno.
Preamble over. The game is as follows:
Anyone can join (at any time!). You will posses three guineas and nothing else.
You can buy ships for ten guineas.
Ships can be sent on journeys to a location of choice. A successful journey will yield ten units of that location's resource.
Ships may sink or be damaged during a voyage.
Resources can be sold at the market. Prices fluctuate.
Edit: the price of Sand at the start of the game is 0.5g per unit. New locations and other actions will be unlocked as the game progresses. Funding voyages of exploration, and performing services for the Motherlands may hasten this.
I will (try to) update the thread regularly with news of returning ships, changing market prices, and other events. Each update corresponds to a month of in-game time.
Anyone may join at any time. Players are expected to keep track of their own resources, like so:
[spoiler=Example Company]
Assets:
4 Guineas
3 units of Sand
5 shares in the Floundering Carp
Other:
2 Royal Favour
1 Pointless But Prestigious Trinket
[/spoiler]
This has been attempted before: see
this thread for the most successful attempt. Kashyyk ran into trouble, however, trying to keep track of all the myriad contracts and financial instruments that arose.
I will be running this game as I originally intended it to work: Lazy Fair (Laissez Faire). I will deal with ships departing and returning, market prices, NPC actions, and nothing else. This means that I will not be keeping track of contracts for you, or your assets- I trust you to be honest about them, and not summon Guineas out of thin air (if a player
does cheat, let me know, and I'll look into it and deal with them if necessary). If you have a disagreement, you may request my arbitration
only as a last resort- I'd vastly prefer it if you sorted it out amongst yourselves.
To get my attention, type "
ACTACTACT:[your action]" in
bold. You may also ask me questions in
bold. Do not use the word ACTACTACT for non-actions.
Edit: Things like confirming you are putting your money into a contract, and other player-player interactions are not actions that I need to know about. It is good to make it clear what you are doing for record-keeping purposes, but
ACTACTACT is only for things that I need to deal with in order to process the turn.
Edit2: I changed my mind about selling to the market. It will need to be tagged with
ACTACTACT.Updates have the word TURNTURNTURN (in invisible text) in them, so you can easily find them using the thread search. This is useful if you encounter a mechanic you don't understand, as each mechanic is explained in the turn where it is introduced.
Can I join the game?
Yes. Always yes. You can join the game at any point. You will have 3 Guineas and nothing else.
How do I make money?
Buy a ship, send it to a destination, it brings back resources, you sell the resources. At least, that's the basic method for earning money.
How do I buy a ship?
Get 10 Guineas, somehow, and let me know you are buying a ship by bolding the action and preceding it with ACTACTACT. Something like this:
"ACTACTACT: On behalf of the shareholders, I buy a new ship to be named "Lucky Trout", which will initially sail the Nearsouthlands trade route."
Only one player is required to post this (not every shareholder). I will take it on trust that you have obtained the requisite funds, and add the Lucky Trout to the ship registry. It will automatically ply the indicated route until you change it, or it is damaged/sunk.
I don't have 10 Guineas!
No. You don't. This is intentional. The idea is to force you to cooperate with others in order to afford a ship. The simplest way of doing this is to draft a contract wherein each player gets shares according to how much they invested in the ship.
What should a contract look like?
That is entirely up to you. Lazy Fair means there are no rules- so long you are spending Guineas that actually exist (to me, the GM- if you want to pay other players with Guinea futures, you do you), you can make your contracts as simple or as complicated as you like.
I think creating contracts and debating the form they should take is part of the fun. Try not to get hoodwinked into signing a contract that lets another player steal your money- because that's not against the rules, so I won't stop them!
(To clarify, breaking the letter of a contract is not allowed, only the spirit. If you want to steal money, you'll need to create a contract to trick people, you can't just sign a contract and then not follow it)
What are the odds of a ship sinking?
Ah, well. That's for me to know and you to find out.
Speaking of, if a ship is damaged, I will let you know the cost of repairs. Figure out how to pay for the repairs (or decide not to repair her), and let me know what you (and your fellow shareholders) intend to do. If you do nothing, she will sit in the harbour waiting.
What's the goal of the game?
Freeform. I think the goal is to get as rich as possible, and/or amass prestige. You may be able to buy Pointless But Prestigious Trinkets at some point to show off your ability to spend money for no reason- I guess you could compete to see who can collect the most? But if you have another goal in mind, you do you. Lazy fair!
What happens if I go bankrupt?
If you manage to go bankrupt, the Crown will usually* wipe away your debts (confiscating and auctioning any assets you have left), and give you 3 Guineas to start afresh. However, the Crown will also assign you 1 Permanent Shame (which you must include in your assets going forward).
*If you try to abuse this system, the Crown will have you arrested and put in debtors prison.
What if I think Player X is cheating?
I never trusted that guy. Well, first, check with the player that they didn't just make a mistake. If that doesn't work, let me know by bolding the accusation. It would help me if you included the relevant evidence. I really hope this doesn't come up.
How should I round guineas?
Not at all. At least when dealing with me. If you have 0.4999g, I won’t pretend that is 0.5g. For that matter, if you have 0.501 and give me 0.5, you’ll have 0.001 left.
I have more questions?
I don't think that's a question? But if you do have more questions, ask away. I will update this FAQ as needed.
In case you want to know who has already joined and what they're up to, here is a
link to a (player-maintained) list of companies and other stuff.And another:
A google doc spreadsheet with a whole bunch of useful info.Also, if you want to banter about the game, here's a
Discord server for that purpose.
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Topic: Risky Ventures: Lazy Fair | Early Spring, Year 3 - New investors always welcome! (Read 44838 times)