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[ungood]

I've been thinking of an idea for a succession fort where each player is competing against each other.  Here's what I've come up with so far, let me know what you think:

The king beneath the mountain (me!) is in need of a new Master of Intelligence (the previous one having died suspiciously shortly after drinking a tankard of ale).  To find the best candidate, he sends several of his spies to a distant fort and tasks each one with an order to kill one of their competition.  Of course... none of them know which dwarf amongst them is a common peasant working to make ends meat, and which is there to stab them in the back.

• I start a game and play it for the first year (or at least long enough to have the first wave of immigrants).
• Game then proceeds with 4 players, each player plays a single season before passing it on.
• Each player is represented by a single dwarf (selected by me), but only they know which dwarf that is.
• Each player is tasked with eliminating a single other player's dwarf from the game... but they don't know which dwarf it is.
• After each season played, the player must post a summary of that season and a hint of who his dwarf is - A gender, a personality trait, the dwarf's profession, or a skill that dwarf has above "Novice." (maybe some other things would qualify as hints?)
• Eliminating a player is as simple as arranging for his dwarf to die during your turn.
• Killing your target is worth some amount of points, killing an innocent dwarf is worth negative points, killing a player that is not your target is worth lots of negative points.
• Eliminated players are replaced by the next person in line.
• Game ends when one player gets some number of points.

Sound fun?

[Kate Wissen]

Sounds fun to me! Count me in.

[dresdor]

This sounds fun, however, you need to create some sort of system so that you cannot say, kill the entire fortress except for your dwarf to win.

Something like if more than x dwarves or x% of the fortress dies it doesn't count.  Except in certain circumstances (i.e. really bad sieges)

[(name here)]

This sounds fun, however, you need to create some sort of system so that you cannot say, kill the entire fortress except for your dwarf to win.

Something like if more than x dwarves or x% of the fortress dies it doesn't count.  Except in certain circumstances (i.e. really bad sieges)

Actually, that was already provided for. you lose points for collateral damage, and the goal is maxxed score.

[Snuffs]

Ooh, I'd like to be in on this.  It seems to have the same potential for awesomeness as Dwarven Madmen.

[Zerox]

AIEEEHAHAHA!
This is going to be Perfect! *mumbles to self*

[Yami]

Yes well, granted Killing off the whole fort would earn one massive negative points, but then again, all my opposition would be dead.

But, lets just say I've narrow my target list down to the six dwarves working with stone early on.  Just how big of a penalty would killing them all be?  how many innocents is worth one target?

[dresdor]

I would say it'd have to be a pretty sharp penalty so that you wouldn't just kill all six stoneworkers, and still be in the black.

Although if the penalty is bad enough setting up a system that kills a significant portion of the fort on someone else's turn could be profitable...then again if you kill off all the other targets and your own dwarf, it sucks.

The game should also have another feature that I think some people will hate me for suggesting: When your dwarf dies, your score is kept, but someone else gets to take your season and has their own dwarf for assasinations.  You can enter the rotation again for a turn when someone else gets eliminated.  This keeps things fresh and will ensure the largest miasma filled hell hole imaginable.

[ungood]

Yes well, granted Killing off the whole fort would earn one massive negative points, but then again, all my opposition would be dead.

But, lets just say I've narrow my target list down to the six dwarves working with stone early on.  Just how big of a penalty would killing them all be?  how many innocents is worth one target?

That's what I need to work on.  The penalty needs to be big enough that the expected return on just randomly killing dwarves would be less than 0.  So, for instance, if I've got my target narrowed down to 3 dwarves, then a random choice of dwarf to kill would be expected to net negative points.  Likewise, killing all 3 dwarves should net a negative score.  I need to do some math here.

On the other hand, the penalty shouldn't be so big that if a dwarf dies accidentally during your turn (which will happen a lot, I'm sure) then it shouldn't destroy your score too much.  Otherwise people will do what dresdor is suggesting - try to sabotage the system so that dwarves die on someone else's turn.  I could see someone set up a big, inescapable trap with a time factor built in...  I need to think of a way to prevent that.

[Qmarx]

Yes well, granted Killing off the whole fort would earn one massive negative points, but then again, all my opposition would be dead.

But, lets just say I've narrow my target list down to the six dwarves working with stone early on.  Just how big of a penalty would killing them all be?  how many innocents is worth one target?

That's what I need to work on.  The penalty needs to be big enough that the expected return on just randomly killing dwarves would be less than 0.  So, for instance, if I've got my target narrowed down to 3 dwarves, then a random choice of dwarf to kill would be expected to net negative points.  Likewise, killing all 3 dwarves should net a negative score.  I need to do some math here.

On the other hand, the penalty shouldn't be so big that if a dwarf dies accidentally during your turn (which will happen a lot, I'm sure) then it shouldn't destroy your score too much.  Otherwise people will do what dresdor is suggesting - try to sabotage the system so that dwarves die on someone else's turn.  I could see someone set up a big, inescapable trap with a time factor built in...  I need to think of a way to prevent that.

Deaths within 10 days after the changeover count against both players.

Add a requirement that there must exist some dwarf equipped with a pick during changeover.

That should prevent any death traps (if it takes 10 days, you should be able to prevent it), and prison traps (they can either be mined out of, or deconstructed.

[Dame de la Licorne]

I'd like to join, but I play on a Mac.  Are there any known issues with transferring saves between Windows and Mac?  If not, sign me up.

[ungood]

Deaths within 10 days after the changeover count against both players.

It wouldn't be too hard to figure something out that would take longer than 10 days to activate.  Like... build a floor supported by a single support over a small pit; dump/forbid all picks; activate all the dwarves and order them on top of the floor; pull level connected to a support.

All the dwarves fall into a pit which they can't escape because they have no picks... and so they die of thirst on someone else's turn.  I guess an immigration wave could save the trapped dwarves, but it would have to be well timed.

One of my ideas is to set up a special execution chamber that is the only valid way to get points.  Accusing a dwarf is a matter of sending them to go pull the special lever.  If you're right, you get points.  If you're wrong, you lose points.  Dwarves that die by any other means don't count.

To prevent people from just killing all the competition - if your dwarf dies by means other than the lever, you GAIN points.

[ungood]

Add a requirement that there must exist some dwarf equipped with a pick during changeover.

That should prevent any death traps (if it takes 10 days, you should be able to prevent it), and prison traps (they can either be mined out of, or deconstructed.

Ah, you beat me to it.  I'm now trying to think up dwarven death traps that couldn't be gotten out of with a pick.

[Qmarx]

Add a requirement that there must exist some dwarf equipped with a pick during changeover.

That should prevent any death traps (if it takes 10 days, you should be able to prevent it), and prison traps (they can either be mined out of, or deconstructed.

Ah, you beat me to it.  I'm now trying to think up dwarven death traps that couldn't be gotten out of with a pick.

Theoretically, someone *could* make some sort of trap involving slowly flooding the fort, or a horde of creatures kept at the end of a very long maze, but I don't think that's a particularly negative consequence of the rules.

If the map has a chasm that branches off at the end, it might be possible to strand the miner on a single tile with no way out - but that would certainly be against the spirit of the rules, and is an extremely situational case. 

[Grath]

Strand everyone, including the miner, in a pit surrounded by magma?