I've gone through the thread, and made an attempt at codifying the rules that everyone has discussed. I've included some things that have been collectively implied, but never stated explicitly, so these rules
are rather long. In general, I've attempted to make these rules as comprehensive as possible, so that everything that has been discussed can be viewed in a single post.
For your review, the prototype rule set for the 2012 Succession World:
Rule #1: A single turn lasts 10 days, beginning the day after the previous save has been made available.
a) A participant must publicly announce that they have downloaded the save within two days of the beginning of their turn, or their turn is delayed. The participant has the opportunity to take their turn one place later in line, but if they fail to check-in for their delayed turn, they are skipped.
b) A participant must upload the save and submit a completed turn survey (see Rule #5) within two days of the end of their turn, or they are skipped. The participant goes to the end of the line, unless they produce the save before the next participant in line announces they have begun.
c) If a participant is experiencing extenuating circumstances which render them unable to begin or complete their turn, they may be eligible to have their turn delayed, so long as the situation is addressed in advance, and not during their turn.
Rule #2: A participant must add to the world 1 fortress.
a) Becoming the Mountainhome is prohibited.
b) Killing of generals, necromancers, titans, civilization leaders, and other notable historical figures is discouraged.
c) A participant must publicly announce when the fortress crumbles or is otherwise "complete."
Rule #3: A participant may add to the world 1 adventurer.
a) A participant may only create an adventurer if the participant's fortress has been legitimately completed a day or more before the end of their turn. A participant may not abandon a fort for the purpose of creating an adventurer.
b) An adventurer may not enter fortresses that are marked by their creator as forbidden (see Rule #5).
c) An adventurer may not kill more than three quest targets, but slaying of necromancers, vampires, civilization leaders is discouraged.
d) The Succession World project's ultimate goal is to create a world for the purpose of being explored by a non-participant adventurer. The ability to create a "canon" adventurer should therefore be seen as another opportunity to enrich the world - not as a chance to kill as many creatures as possible.
Rule #4: Altering the raws and use of third-party utilities (Dfhack, Runesmith, etc.) is restricted.
a) Certain changes to the raws may be made prior to the commencement of the project, and are to be kept throughout the entire project. (We need to finalize these - more on this later.)
b) Altering the raws or use of third-party utilities may be allowed in certain situations, all of which are to be discussed and decided upon prior to the turn in which they are implemented.
c) Use of Dwarf Therapist is, of course, allowed.
Rule #5: Upon completion of their turn, a participant must complete and submit a short survey of their turn, consisting of:
a) Name and location of fortress (ideally via a screenshot of the embark screen).
b) Status (open/restricted/forbidden). If the fortress is "open," then any subsequent participant may attempt to reclaim the site, or explore it with an adventurer. If the fortress is "restricted," then any subsequent participant may explore the site as an adventurer, but may not attempt a reclaim. If the fortress is "forbidden," then no participant is allowed to interact with the site in any way.
c) Any further information is optional. Participants are strongly encouraged to submit creative elements (anecdotes, original fiction, maps, a journal, etc.) that can be made available to the community, although such information is ultimately optional. A participant may wish to cultivate an aura of mystery surrounding their fortress, in which case minimal information (or none at all) would be appropriate.
d) The name, location, and status of the fortress should be provided in the same post in which the save is uploaded (see Rule #1), but the subsequent optional information may be submitted at the participant's leisure.
Whew! That's quite a bit of information.
I encourage
everyone to review these and submit criticism, since I'm positive there's stuff that I've overlooked or misworded, as well as new ideas that people might be interested in. I'll maintain these rules and incorporate changes or suggestions as they are brought up.
Example criticism/my own suggestion:
Hey DS, those rules look great, but I want to be able to make an evil goblin tower for adventurers to infiltrate, which the rules don't allow for. Can we add the [CIV_CONTROLLABLE] token to non-dwarf entities?