Proposals of Imperial Nomic Game 15 - 51 onwards.

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Proposal P51 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: 
Swift marbles can now zoom around 
More speedy than one hole per tick
Our physicists have sadly found
We cannot turn at speeds this quick.

Decision: Accepted as Amendment to Marble Movement.

Proposal P52 (Brian Tivol)

PROPOSAL: Marbles can only wear one cape at a time. After asking THS's permission to remove a cape, marbles cannot try to wear another cape for at least two ticks (as they spend the time folding up their capes neatly). Similarly, marbles will have a two tick waiting period between asking THS's permission to wear a cape and the actual donning of the cape (since they spend the time unfolding and delinting the capes).
Comment: Why do we need this restriction with only one cape?
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P53 (Ed Graham)

Proposal: Any Player to successfully travel from one edge of the board to the Imperial Palace shall receive 2 Gold Coins. Any Player to successfully move from one edge of the board to the Bank shall receive 1 Gold Coin. Any Player who successfully travels to all 6 edges of the board shall receive 10 Gold Coins.
Comment: This would be a good idea if the other board size proposals got through. Unfortunately they were rejected, so I'm sorry but I don't really have any choice but to reject this one.
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P54 (Anarchy)

Proposal: The points exactly 5 units COLOURward of the origin shall be coloured in the corresponding COLOURs. Thus, (5,0) is red, (0,5) is orange, (5,-5) is yellow and so on. A player landing on a point coloured in the hue one colour higher or lower than his own in the spectrum shall have his colour changed to that of the point. However, the colour change causes chartreuse capes to be dyed as well and they lose effectiveness.
Comment: This might just speed up the change in colours enough to make the game more interesting!
Decision: Accepted as Rule 29 (Paint Chips).

Proposal P55 (Anarchy)

Proposal: If two marbles are separated by an unit colour distance, it shall be a legal move for one marble to hop over the other into an unoccupied space. If a red marble hops in a redwards direction or an orange marble hops in an orangewards direction and so on, it shall be promoted to the next higher colour. Chains of jumps may be made as in solitaire, but only in colour directions (thus diagonal jumps in the direction of the vectors (1,1) AND (-1,-1) are not allowed).
Comment: This might speed up the game a little too much. After all, the more players we get the easier making the leaps becomes.
Decision: Rejected.

Point of Order P56 (Tim Quinn)

Point of Order: My term as advocate is well and truly past. It is time for the next victim... err advocate!
Comment: Sorry - I should have been a little quicker off the mark. Because I've hardly had to ignore a proposal, I'll make the two necessary appointments retrospectively. Current advocate, in power until P60, is Death. Damian Coffey is deemed to have had the second turn as Advocate.

Proposal P57 (Tim Quinn)

Proposal: If a player has three proposals rejected in a row then they shall drop one colour, unless they are RED in which case they shall become known as the FOOL.
Comment: It should only be fair that those not "pulling their weight" move back in the standings.
Decision: Accepted. Modifies The Rainbow Connection.

Proposal P58 (Tim Quinn)

Proposal: A Player who becomes the FOOL will remain the FOOL until some other player becomes the FOOL. This way there never be more than one FOOL at a time!
Comment: So what happens to this player? I haven't been told how to stop them being the FOOL, after all they have done nothing to deserve a change in rank!
Decision: Rejected.

Question from Tim Quinn

Question of THS : what is the "BIG RED POST" of (4,0) ?
Answer: It's a building that has been created in accordance with Building Boom. It currently has no function, other than to look nice (I guess).

Point of Order P59 (Brian Tivol)

Uh-oh; I am coincident with Kati and Jay.
THS Speaks: Sorry about this, let's play the cannon. Uh oh, Kati and Jay hits Death, who then hits Shane. This has now been fixed, but everybody seems to be bouncing around a lot.

Proposal P60 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Nothing sounds better than the *clink* of two marbles smacking into each other, and big chain reactions really are quite neat looking. To encourage this fantastic impact system, TIE will award Gold Coins on a per-collision basis. When a player sends a message to THS to move (or any other action that results in board movement), that player will receive one GC for each resulting collision. Players that get moved not of their own free will do not earn GCs for their collisions, but they do not have to pay for such movements.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 30 (Clinker).

Proposal P61 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: We players need to find a way to take down the top marble and jockey for VIOLET, hopefully without having to be penalized each time we bump something ('cause it's so much fun). I apologize for the proposal's length, but I think this will make a good ol'-fashioned way that two marbles can settle their differences, throw a wrench in color promotion, and improve their proposal-making skills:
A player may challenge any other player to a Duel. To do so, the Challenger submits a Duel Proposal to THS along with the name of the player he wishes to challenge. This Duel Proposal does not count toward the total number of pending proposals, so a Challenger may submit more normal proposals while his Duel is pending. THS will not publish the Duel Proposal before hearing from the Challengee.
Once notified that she has been challenged, the Challengee may not submit any normal proposals until submitting a Duel Proposal. Once both Duelers have submitted, though, then THS will publish both Duel Proposals side-by-side in the same tick. TIE will judge both Duel Proposals but is limited to accepting at most one such proposal.
The player whose Duel Proposal is accepted (if such a player exists) receives a Gold Coin. If neither entry is accepted, the duelers earn an Angst each. Both participants must have one normal proposal accepted after the Duel before being able to challenge any other player. Nobody may challenge a player who is involved in a pending Duel.
Comment: Hang on - all this does is allow for a player to gain a Gold Coin. It doesn't seem to do anything about colour, and there are plenty more ways to earn a GC than to fight someone. It seems an awful lot of effort to go to for very little reward.
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P62 (Death)

Proposal: Horror of horrors! An unnamed marble was recently seen stuffing another marble into its belt pouch (as we all know, every marble wears a belt on its waist (just below the shoulders on which it wears its cape), replete with pouches for storing useful things). A marble of a more transcendent color may stuff a marble of a lesser color into his belt pouch if the two occupy adjacent points. All of the marble's "posessions" (for lack of a better word to mean gold, capes, laurels, angst, etc.) are stuffed as well, and remain with their owner. The pouched marble may not move of its own volition, but may make proposals as normal. The captor takes its belt pouches with it as it moves around. Any global color change to the captor and its possesions (a paint chip, for example) will affect the contents of the pouches as well (even if they would not, themselves be eligible for the change. A red marble could be turned green if its yellow captor moved to 5 Green) A marble may be released from its bondage in any of several ways: The captured marble will be released one point in the (COLOURwise) least unoccupied direction. If the captor is completely surrounded the newly released marble will move in the RED direction, pushing the former occupant.
Comment: This is getting too silly, even for us. Besides, if every marble has a belt pouch, how can they be big enough to stuff another marble into?
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P63 (Anarchy)

Proposal: The Great Wall The Great Wall is located REDwards of the origin along the Orange-Blue longitudinal line that passes through (6,0). REDwards of the wall is the land of the Mongol Hordes. Marbles may not enter or cross the Wall unless specified in later rules. If rule 26 would cause a pushed marble to crash into the Great Wall, the pushed marble suffers concussion, loses any vehicles in its possession and is returned to a random location as close as possible to (0,0) to recover.
Comment: It's just as well that my map currently goes up to level 5. The Wall will be implemented to limit players wishing to expand my map and give THS a hard time.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 31 (The Great Wall).
Anarchy moves to (-2,5).

Proposal P64 (Anarchy)

Proposal: Any marble adjacent to another marble along a valid colour line may quantum tunnel through to the next space along that line as defined by the chromodynamical equations of the chinese checker plane if it is unoccupied. This counts as one move.
Comment: Wouldn't you rather have a gold coin and get to clink an opponent? Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P65 (Bauwolf)

Proposal: A player may become the new owner of a building by offering the current owner some gold coins. Initially, the owner of a building is the CIA who devised it. When an offer is submitted to an owner, the latter is obliged to sell his/her property to the bidder provided that the offer overtakes by at least one GC the price he/she had him/herself paid. If the building has not been sold yet, that is when it still belongs to its architect, the minimal price is one GC. Offers should be submitted along with a proposal and considered whether this proposal was accepted, ignored or rejected. The bidder should first be located at the building he/she proposes to buy. Any player may own several buildings. The Imperial Palace is not for sale and always belongs to TIE. The bank currently belongs to Tim Quinn since he devised it.
Comment: What kind of property system has forced sales regardless of the wishes of the original owner?
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P66 (Death)

Proposal: Capes? Cars? We're marbles, for GOD's (Globe of Omniversal Diameter) sake! Our most round scientists have devised new methods of polishing and coating marbles so that they move faster, and our society has cast off such materialistic trifles.
Capes have been replaced by Buffing (which is still ruined by rolling around in puddles of paint), and, for those not fortunate enough to be Buffed by the Imperial Buffers, the Shop for Accelerative Shellacking (replacing a certain car dealership, now sadly out of business) has a variety of transparent coatings available, though no more than three can be effective on a marble at once (after the application of a fourth coat, the first is covered too thickly to have any effect).
Curently the following coatings are available: Teflon (5 GC) allows the coated marble to move even if its proposal is rejected. Grease (2 GC) doubles the speed of the marble. Solvent (3 GC) removes the outermost coating of a marble. The SAS will apply this to the purchaser or to the marble that enters the SAS first after the purchaser leaves, if the purchaser wishes. (Solvent that is applied to an uncoated marble has the nasty effect of pitting that marble's surface, causing increased friction and halving speed.)
Comment: It sounds like a breakthrough like this was desperately needed to fix up the confusion rapidly setting in.
Decision: Accepted. Amends Directive Satisfaction and renames it Shines Clearer and Lasts Longer. Repeals Gas Guzzlers. Earns Gold Coin

Proposal P67 (James Blonde)

Proposal:
When yellow players are at the palace great
They can travel another way:
For 5 Gold, these ones can gate
to any building - where they stay.
 
But if a player is at the site
where the first player has now fled,
a swap occurs - the palace lights
now surround the second's head.
Decision: Accepted as new Rule, to be called Bill.

Proposal P68 (Tim Quinn)

Proposal: In order to defend our merry land from the Mongol Hordes on the other side of the Great Wall, a Marble might deliberatly move onto the wall and add their strength to the defence. For this great service they shall earn 1GC per tick. However, with great reward comes great risk, for each tick they remain on the wall there should be a one in three chance of losing a level of colour (After all, those Mongol Hordes want to get in and steal our lovely rainbow colours, and as such are pretty darn good at it). And in order to prevent to much marble cracking RED marbles should not be permitted onto the wall, and if a marble on the wall becomes RED they shall be automaticly shoved off back into our little land (in the GREENwards direction).
Comment: A nice idea, protecting the marbles from the Hordes, but the Great Wall was designed to keep them out and is currently doing a good enough job as a defence.
Decision: Rejected.

Point of Order P69 (Brian Tivol)

Point Of Order: If (1,0) points to the left and (0,1) is right-and-to-the-left, but ORANGE is clockwise from RED... I guess I'm too used to looking at clock faces from the gear side. It fooled everyone up 'til now, I think, but now that we see the map we realize just how screwed up it is. TIE, could you correct the matter, cleaning up the inconsistencies in Rules 15 and 18 in whatever way works for you?
THS Sez: Actually it is not as badly screwed up as you thought. The current map is correct as is, provided you readjust what I initially thought the coordinates were. Now red is up and to the right, and orange is to the right. Once that slight change to Location, Location, Location is made everything will work smoothly.

Proposal P70 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Let's do a bit of tidying with our nomenclature, shall we? It makes things so much easier in the long run to generalize, and it can keep people from building Walls over your marvelous palace:
Certain types of holes are known as Vistas. These holes can be occupied by marbles, and might provide special abilities or opportunities to its occupants. Vistas include Imperial Palace, Bank, Big Red Post, SAS, all Paint Chips, and anything created by the Building Boom rule (#24). Buildings are a subset of Vistas, and their creation is detailed in Rule 24.
Certain types of holes are known as Obstacles. These holes immediately eject any marble that tries to enter its hole. (These ejections do not count as collisions as far as Rule 30 is concerned.) Obstacles include the Great Wall.
Clearly, by their definitions, an Obstacle and a Vista cannot be coincident. Any inconsistencies with this fact that exist at the time this proposal is passed shall be resolved by TIE in the fairest manner he sees fit.
Comment: Well I can't see any current inconsistencies, so fair enough.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 32 (Geographical Names Act).
Move: Tivol moves Indigo, creating 3 Clinks and earning 3 GC.

Proposal P71 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: 
There's no way that you could have missed
The news (oh, this is hard to take):
The Imperial Seismologist
Expects a frightening earthquake!
 
Should the big one ever hit,
It's sure to take an awful toll.
Each marble might bump from its pit
And, being round, begin to roll!
 
For each marble, THS
Will roll a number one through nine.
Which one is anybody's guess
(But certainly not yours or mine).
 
The chances are just one in three
A marble stays put as it should;
Otherwise, quite randomly,
It moves one hole, and that's not good.
 
The globe might crash or push or scrape
And toss other marbles about
But those marbles cannot escape
Their turn to shake, I might point out.
 
Those that fear have quite a bent
To flee before it comes, and quick,
But the chances are one-half percent
The quake will hit at any tick.
 
Some say "TIS is a quack!
The reports are obviously fake!"
But some are wroking on shellack
That holds you down despite the quake.
Comment: TIS? Who the hell is that :-) Besides, a one in two-hundred chance would be fine if I could borrow somebody's d200...
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P72 (Anarchy)

Proposal: Curious Polygonal Conspiracy
Should six marbles not all of the same colour ever occupy a regular hexagon of side-length 2 or greater, the colour of all six marbles will be changed to the colour one lower than that of the formerly highest-ranking marble.
Comment: Difficult but not impossible. Also doesn't enable immediate wins, so I'll let this one through.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 33.
Move: Anarchy moves Red to (-1,5).

Proposal P73 (Anarchy)

Proposal: A marble may hold any number of Titles, such as Fool, Advocate and Exalted Winner, but only one player may hold any particular title at one time. If a rule requires a player to gain an already held title, the current holder relinquishes their position.
Comment: But what about me being both TIE and THS? Sorry, but without an allowance for that there is no way I can accept this one.
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P74 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Two new coatings are now available from the SAS: Comment: Well, more choice is always welcome at the SAS.
Decision: Accepted. Modifies Shines Clearer and Lasts Longer.
Move: Tivol moves Green, to (-4,2)

Point of Order P75 (Brian Tivol)

Point of Order: Correct me if I'm wrong, but: Once solvent is applied to a marble with a coating, both the outermost coating and the solvent disappear. Once solvent is applied to a marble without a coating, the solvent remains as a coating. So solvent can remove solvent.
THS Sez: Rules have been corrected. Solvent with no other coatings pits the surface, then disappears. You will need something else (I don't know, silly putty?) to fix that, rather than simply putting on another lot of solvent.

Proposal P76 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Modify Rule 24 to read "...if and only if the accompanying proposal is accepted and TIE approves of the building." (New text in italics.) This way, if TIE does not approve of the placement or nature of a building, or if new rules prohibit the building, he can still accept an accompanying proposal and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Comment: Thanks for the discretion.
Decision: Accepted. Amends Building Boom.
Building: The Brick Wall at (5,-4) is not approved, in accordance with the new Rule 24. It would not be an obstacle, as it is a building.
Move: Brian moves Blue, to (-4,1) and clinks out Bauwolf, earning 1 GC.

Point of Order P77 (Anarchy)

Point of order re your decision on P73: it says no title may be held by more than one marble, not no marble can hold more than one title, so you could still be TIE and THS without being inconsistent... also, the locations of players on the map are unfortunately outdated.
THS Speaks: Actually, I think the locations on the map are correct, as I have been updating them with every proposal. Sorry TIE misread your proposal, but still the decision will have to stand (I like the idea of potentially having multiple fools, and there is still nothing to stop rank-based titles).

Proposal P78 (Anarchy)

Proposal: Though the Empire consists of marvellous straight roads in perfect condition, construction workers somehow always see fit to dig up sections of road for no apparent reason, particularly at junctions, creating holes. A hole is defined as an Obstacle for rule 32 purposes. A marble that falls into a hole, naturally, becomes very muddy and scratched, spoiling paint, shellacking and coatings, and is returned as close as possible in a random direction to the paint pool of its own colour for touching up. A player may request that repairs be carried out at an unoccupied point, creating a hole there, at the cost of 2 GC. A player may request that a hole be filled up for a similar price. Only one request of either type may be made per submitted proposal.
Comment: According to the Geographical Names Act, no marble may enter an Obstacle Hole, so how can a marble fall in?
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P79 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: I was about to lube up with Grease and move two holes, but a marble was inbetween me and the endpoint. Rather than cause THS grief, I figured instead I should propose the following:
If a marble is allowed to move n holes per tick, this movement shall be considered to be n distinct moves of one hole each. All high-speed motion is subject to this rule unless its defining rule specifically states otherwise.
Comment: Are you trying to make the rules understandable? What is going on? :-)
Decision: Accepted. Amends More Marble Movement.
Coating: Tivol applies Teflon.

Proposal P80 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: I propose that the phrase "No marble may enter an Obstacle Hole" in Rule 32 be reworded to read "A marble that enters an Obstacle hole will be ejected immediately" for the following reasons: First, this wording is logically consistant with our existing Obstacles, the Wall. Second, this allows for a variety of Obstacles to be created, bouncing people off in a variety of directions instead of merely barring admittance. Third, this wording will make it clear what must happen when one marble pushes another into an Obstacle. Fourth, such a model provides for a more natural view of the Obstacles, making it easier to both describe and understand how they behave. Fifth, and lastly, this wording was in the original proposal that created Rule 32.
Decision: Accepted. Amends Rule 32 (Geographical Names Act).
Move: Brian Tivol moves Blue, Clinking Bauwolf and earning 1 GC..

Proposal P81 (Death)

Proposal: While P79 makes one aspect of our Marbelous Physical Model more clear, it confounds another, though I assume unintentionally. According to the current phrasing of rules 22 (More Marble Movement) and 26 (Don't Get Pushy) it would seem that it is impossible for a marble to impart a greater velocity than one when colliding. More Marble Movement refers to a unit of time called the "turn" which does not exist, and neither it nor Marble Movement seem to incorporate the ruling on Proposal 51.
All in all, it seems MMM needs an overhaul. I propose something like the following wording: Each proposal may be accompanied by a request to move in the direction corresponding to any colour at an integral Velocity n not greater than the speed of the proposing marble. Possible movements are therefore: (n,0), (0,n), (-n,0), (0,-n), (n,-n), and (-n,n).
The movement will take place if the proposal is accepted, if the marble pays one gold coin, or if another rule so specifies. The marble accelerates instantly to Velocity n and continues moving at that Velocity through all spaces between its starting and finishing points. The marble instantly comes to a halt when it has reached the end of its movement, it encounters an obstacle, or another rule so specifies. Another marble does not constitute an obstacle.
Comment: Well, according to real world rules of physics we would have a sort of Newton's balls effect. However, I'm quite happy to see players moving around at higher speeds just pushing the players in front of them at the same speed - my "rule" is that a marble moves a certain distance unless an obstacle is in the way, and any marbles in front get shifted ahead only as far as they need to. Your clarification of the existing rule is appreciated, but I don't see a problem with imparting a velocity of one every time a collision occurs.
Decision: Accepted in part. Modifies More Marble Movement.
Move: Death moves Yellow, clinking Kati and Jay to earn 1 GC.

Proposal P82 (Death)

Proposal: Ancient fossilized marbles have been seen bubbling up through the surface of the Great Tar Pit. The Great Tar Pit is a vast expanse of ugly Vista, created in the Industrial Period when a particularly unfortunate effort to produce fuel for the Gas Guzzlers resulted in a malfunctioning machine (now known only as the sinister "Tape Device") spewing by-products all over the landscape.
The Tar Pit lies Greenwards of the origin, passes thorough (-6,0) and extends along the Blue-Orange parallel. It continues Greenward as far as anyone has ever cared to explore, which is not far, since any marble entering the Great Tar Pit is covered in Tar. Tar is a coating which causes the Speed of a marble to be reduced by two-thirds (though not to less than one).
This news is only interesting because of two facts: first, the SAS has recently unveiled a new coating, known by the code name "X.V.F.", that prevents Tar from adhering to the surface of a marble, and second, because the fossilized marbes are rumored to have carried large amounts of cash around (necessitated by the horrible inflation o the Industrial Period, now happily gone thanks to TIE).
If a marble ventures into the Tar Pit to parallel X he has a (-6-X)/3 chance of finding a fossilized marble (Although, as usual no more than one marble can occupy a space). The collision of a marble moving into a fossilized marble's space may jar loose 0-6 Gold Coins, which are picked up by the unfossilized marble.
Comment: How much does XVF cost to use? The SAS don't give coatings away for free you know. Also, with the Tar Pit that full of money, and quite a few players very close, I suspect that there would be some rushing for the Tarpits and away from the Kingdom proper. Surely such an exodus is not in the interest of this nation? Anyway, once you get down to (-9,0) or further, you automatically gain 1d6 coins per turn - far too easy to make money that way.
Decision: Rejected.

Proposal P83 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: The Shop for Accelerate Shellacking has noticed the high amounts of traffic and clinking nearby and has decided it can alleviate the problem by opening a branch office at (3,-4), hopefully drawing marbles into a previously unpopulated area of the Board.
Comment: There is nothing worse in a game of Nomic than having a large number of rules which only one or two people use. More branch offices clearly means more coatings!
Decision: Accepted as modification to list of Vistas.
Move: Tivol moves Green to (-5,0) and becomes Green as per Paint Chips.

Proposal P84 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: When submitting a proposal, any player of INDIGO status or higher may propose to place an Obstacle from the Glossary of Rubber Obstacles (below) on the Board. The Obstacle will be placed if and only if the accompanying proposal is accepted and TIE approves of its placement (TIE will probably not want to see his subjects or Locations boxed in, nor infinite loops set up.) A player who has placed an Obstacle in this way will be known as a Fabulously Bouncy Ingeneer (FBI). A player may not attempt to place a Building and an Obstacle with the same proposal.
Anyone may add to this Glossary of Rubber Obstacles, provided that the Obstacle is inherently rubbery and that a brief example explaining the nature of the Obstacle is given.

Comment: Well, if it is restricted to people with INDIGO status, then I can't see what the difficulty is with allowing such a proposal.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 34. (It's the Feds). Tivol becomes Blue.
Building: Building Indigonia Heights at (5,-6) is acceptable.

Proposal P85 (Death)

Proposal: I can find no rule that gives the placement of new marbles. In order to encourage more players to join, I suggest we make this spot advantageously located at (-2,0), where the workers in the Imperial Quarry prepare new marbles for their entry into the world. This spot allows easy access to both the SAS and The Palace. If there is a marble in the Quarry when a new player submits her first proposal then it shall be pushed with a random velocity of up to three in a random direction and the new player shall appear in the Quarry. Since rubber is no protection against Quarrier's chisels, even coated marbles make way.
Comment: We've already had marbles join us since the Big Bang, when it was decided to use a random location with attributes having magnitude no more than 5. Besides, the way this rule works I could be forced out of the palace!
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death moves Green by paying, to (-3,1).

Proposal P86 (Death)

Proposal: The Imperial Quarry at (-2,1) is able to provide an interesting service: the creation of new marbles. A marble in the quarry may pay the Quarriers 10 Gold Coins to create another marble for them, displacing the purchaser from the Quarry with a random velocity of up to three in a randomly selected direction, displacing rubberized marbles (This is not an intentional move...). The new marble is denoted on the score map by the same letter as the previous one, but in lowercase (if more than one extra is created, a new symbol may be assigned). With each proposal, a player with duplicate marbles may request a move for either one of his marbles, but not both.
Comment: The player is the marble, so how can you have a doppelganger?
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death moves Green by paying, to (-4,1).
Purchase: Death purchases 2 coatings of Grease.

Proposal P87 (Death)

Proposal: 
Our world, I fear, is flatly dull!
More fun than this old boring plane,
Would be a gently sloping bowl:
To scale its sides we'd have to train.
 
So, as we leave the origin,
Radially distant each three spaces,
The slope increases. Once! Again!
The strain begins to mar our faces.
 
To scale the slope a marble'd need
Velocity to match the slope.
Increased potential reduces speed,
We must accelerate to cope.
 
Coming down the gentle grade,
A marble surely must gain speed
Towards th'Imperial collonade.
Thus the non-greased meet their need.
Comment: 
If the slope should increase for
Each three steps from the palace
Then most our marbles would fall down
With their own weight as ballast.
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death moves Blue 2 by paying 1 GC, to (-4,-1).
Death clinks Bauwolf to earn 1 GC.

Proposal P88 (Death)

Proposal:
Even our magificent Scribe,
Can process Props only so quick,
No judgement's felt, without a bribe,
At least until the following tick.
Comment: The elimination of explicit self-reference! Must be a first!
Decision: Accepted as Rule 34 (Strange Loops).
Move: Death moves Red by 4 units, to (0,-1). 11 Clinks occur!

Proposal P89 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: TIE, with all your immense power and wisdom, no marble would dare to smite you by knocking you from your Palace. However, your Palace has a great attraction to us marbles, not only because of its beauty but because of Rule 32. Rather than risk an accidental collision that might scratch your impeccable surface or make you lose your infinite patience, perhaps it would be best if you removed your marble from the board and placed it high VIOLETward of us, watching over us with each and every tick as best befits a marble of your stature.
Comment: I'm just a marble - I just happen to be TIE as well. Besides, being THS is hard from up VIOLETwards, everybody looks so small...
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Tivol moves Red because of Teflon, to (-4,0).

Proposal P90 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Like any good auto maintainance group (which SAS used to be, but of course isn't anymore), the SAS is branching out to provide all sorts of hole-side assistance. Any marble can become a member of the SAS for a mere three GCs, and that membership allows for cheaper service. Accepting service from the SAS prohibts a marble from moving of its own accord that tick. The services that SAS offers are as follows: Comment: Such services will no doubt enhance the running time of marbles and improve their safety immensely.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 35 (Imperial Automobile Association).
Move: Tivol moves Indigo, to (-3,-1).

Proposal P91 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: Regardless of a player's inactivity or wish to stop playing the game, his marble will remain on the board unless specifically destroyed, removed, or shattered by some other rule. THS is allowed, however, to dissociate the physical marble its less tangible qualities, such as its spirit and email address.
Comment: That kind of already falls within TIE's domain, doesn't it? Besides, we can't have soulless marbles running around, they might get possessed!
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Tivol (Teflon) moves Red to (-2,-1).

Proposal P92 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: 
THS must be quite pleased
So far no marble's been so sick
Or been so mentally diseased
To try a fiendish little trick:
 
Coated in Rubber, marbles can
Push a pal through a Slingshot
Creating what we all call an
Infinite Loop!  Or two can plot
 
To coat themselves up in the stuff
And line two poor saps inbetween.
Without their own nice Rubber buff
They'd bash and smash and make a scene.
 
Methods for this neat stunt abound;
Why, by now it's a matter of ticks
And THS will soon be found
Confused.  Oh, man, we need to fix
 
This looping thing.  No one can say
Where marbles stop.  It's such a mess.
When a loop starts, who shall shout "Hey!
I'll stop this"?  Natch, kind THS.
 
All those involved instantly cease
Their movement.  Then the Scribe shall place
Each one upon the Board in peace
Like the Big Bang.  But, hey, let's face
 
The Coin aspect:  Those Rubber guys
Were planning to become quite rich.
He would be wrong, he who denies
Their schemes and leaves them in a ditch.
 
So, each marble involved in the loop,
Victims and pushers all the same,
Will get twelve Coins!  "Yee-ha," they'll whoop,
"I love the TIE and his great game!"
Comment: Twelve Coins? Oh well, I guess the odds of setting up an infinite loop situation are low enough to justify the high price.
Decision: Accepted as Rule 36 (Stranger Loops).
Move: Tivol moves Red, to (-1,-1).

Proposal P93 (Death)

Proposal: Since we wouldn't want someone hitting the INDIGO paint chip with two accepted proposals, and winning in one step: If a marble's color changes for any reason its accepted/rejected proposal count is reset to zero.
Comment: This might become unworkable if people keep getting shunted into Paint Chips etc., but for now it seems reasonable.
Decision: Accepted as Amendment to The Rainbow Connection.
Move: Death moves Indigo 3, to (3,-4).

Point of Order P94 (Death)

Point of Order: Rule 31 refers to automobiles. As we know these have been abandoned by our Emperor's Wisdom. The ablative foam that the Imperial Ingineers have spread along the Great Wall to minimize damage caused by collisions must, as an unfortunate side effect, remove coatings, no?
THS Says: Sorry - in my haste to amend the ruleset after the renaming of the SAS, I must have missed this one. Indeed hitting the wall costs you your coatings.

Proposal P95 (Death)

Proposal: The Emperor's poets are a vain lot. A poet who is suffering Angst may try to efface it by publishing in the Empire's Vanity Press. The poet can travel to the Imperial Small Press at (-3,3) and pay 5 GC to finance a short run of a book of their poems, removing one Angst per run.
The Imperial Small Press is always looking for good poets as well, but only the most down-on-it's-luck marble would allow its masterpieces to be published for the semi-literate rabble. If a marble has a Laurel and no GC, the Imperial Small Press will, upon the poet's request, teleport it to (-3,3) and print up a run of Anthologies of the works of Local Marbles, putting the Laureate's name prominently on the cover. The royalty for the run is 4 GC, but the commercialization costs the poet its laurel.
Angst causes a marble to feel blue, and no marble's color may rise higher than BLUE if it has Angst.
Comment: Finally a use for all these L's and A's people are accumulating!
Decision: Accepted as Rule 37 (Poetry Publishing) and Amendment to Laureate's Laurel.
Death purchases another layer of Grease.
Move: Death moves 8 Orange, to (3,4) and clinks Michol 6 times!

Proposal P96 (Death)

Proposal: There have been a lot of moving violations recently, crashes galore, and there's been a speedster zooming around well in excess of responsible speeds. In response, The Empire must draft a police force! Though many realities reserve this job for the boys in blue, we are quite the reverse: our force's uniform is orange. At a cost of three GC (to put himself through police academy) an orange marble may join the police force. The marble may keep its police ties if it later moves up in the color scheme.
If a policemarble is a witness to a moving violation he will levy a fine on the offender of 3 GC. If the marble is unable or unwilling to pay the fine (marbles are willing by default, but may specify that they are unwilling) it is dragged off to the Jailyard at (2,-7) and released, far from the innocent marbles it might harm. The policemarble does not move from the scene of the crime.
Current moving violations, and the ways of witnessing them: Policemarbles themselves may be penalized for pileups, but not for Speeding.
Comment: For someone who wishes to stamp out speeding, you're certainly sending in proposals at a rate of knots!
Decision: Accepted as Rule 38 (Marbles in Orange).
Move: Death moves Orange, to (3,5), clinking Michol.

Proposal P97 (Death)

Proposal: A player of YELLOW rank or higher may create a Speed Trap at its location for a cost of 2 Coins. This is a small dip in the surface of the world slightly deeper than the normal marble-sized depressions, the difference being small enough that it is not marked on the map. If a marble passes through a speed trap its speed is reduced by one. If a marble starts a move in a speed trap, it requires two units of movement to get out. Luckily for those hapless marbles who get caught in a Speed Trap and can't muster two units of movement, the IAA only charges for one hole of movement to move it to an adjacent space.
Comment: Why should a marble be forced to pay 4 GC to get out of a Speed Trap? That would make it impossible if a marble spent up and then was pushed in.
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death pays to move 8 Green, to (-5,5), and becomes Yellow by Paint Chips. During the movement, Death clinks Anarchy 5 times, and Dedoux twice. This earns Death 7 GC, but is an instance of a Major Pileup, instigated by Death. Death therefore arrests Death and transports Death, as Death is unwilling to pay the fine to Death, to the Jailyard at (2,-7). There. I hope you understood all that.

Proposal P98 (Death)

Proposal: Sadly, some of the Imperial Police Force are not the most upstanding of marbles (not naming any names, of course). There are three levels of Crookedness for policemarbles: Righteous, Shifty, and Downright Criminal. Policemarbles graduate from the Academy Righteous, and may take steps downward along the path to the dark side, once per proposal, though they may never rise.
Righteous policemarbles will accept no bribes and will prosecute other policemarbles, Shifty policemarbles will not prosecute other policemarbles, and Downright Criminal policemarbles will accept bribes and won't prosecute policemarbles.
When a marble accepts a bribe for a moving violation, instead of 3GC going into the police coffers, the briber pays 1GC directly to the policemarble in question. All marbles pay bribes if they can, unless they designate themselves Upstanding Citizens.
If a policemarble ever takes a bribe from a Righteous policemarble the Downright Criminal is instantly exposed, and is stripped of its Police Status and fined 6 GC. Clever policemarbles can thus arrange Stings.
Comment: So let me get this straight. There is a policemarbleforce of 1, and already it is corrupt? Surely an Empire with such a political structure as this one has would only have the Emperor being corrupt! :-)
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death moves 7 Yellow, to (-5,0) and Paint Chips to Green, with payment.

Proposal P99 (Death)

Proposal: The Humble Scribe has come to a conclusion: it's tired of its humble way of life. It wants to sample all the board has to offer, and to sample it in style! In order to finance its new lifestyle it's started doing little favors for its friends. Its friends, of course, give it shiny trinkets in return. A marble in a space adjacent to the Not-So-Humble Scribe may slip a little cash to it, and call in a favor later on. The Scribe privately keeps meticulous track of incoming and outgoing favors, adding to and subtracting "brownie points" when the marble slips it some cash or activates a favor. The scribe will never perform any favor that has a suggested donation greater than the current number of Brownie Points the requester has accumulated. The current going rate is 1 GP per BP, and some of the things the scribe is willing to do are:
Donation: 3 BP Favor: The Scribe "misremebers" the donor's position by 1 along either vector.
Donation: 2 BP Favor: The Scribe "forgets" to mark down the fact that a marble's last proposal failed in the Accepted/Rejected tally.
Donation: 5 BP Favor: The Scribe is a little slow in processing a procedure... slow enough that the Emperor's decision has already been made by the time it is processed, and thus the rule is in effect when the processing is done (This is the Strange Loop bribe).
Donation: 7 BP Favor: Oops! The Scribe drops the stack of proposals. Now which onw was on top? It must have been the oldest one from my good friend... (if this is used multiple times the oldest favored proposal comes first, the second-oldest second, etc.)
Comment: Sorry, but why would the Humble Scribe want to take a spin around the Empire when he is also the Emperor? I wouldn't want to leave the Palace unoccupied! Besides, the Scribe is supposed to be the most incorruptible official in the game - what kind of credibility would I have left?
Decision: Rejected.
Move: Death moves, with payment, 5 Indigo, to (0,-5) and gets Paint Chipped to Blue.

Proposal P100 (Brian Tivol)

Proposal: As we all know, hushed away in their Thinktank of Solitude (-8,10), researchers are hard at work devising weapons to use against the Mongol Hordes. Their identities are secret, but we know the shdoawy group as the Military Ingeneers, Irreplaceable In Infamous Intelligence (or, MI5 for short). Uranium Coatings are one by-product of their experiments, but they have made more startling advances in the way of weaponry. Even more disturbing is that one retched, greedy physicist is selling these highly dangerous weapons to civilian marbles! Just drop by the Thinktank of Solitude at night, come 'round the back, and he'll dip you in the following coatings: Due to the highly illegal nature of these coatings, Policemarbles are on the lookout. If a Policemarble is adjacent to a beam's path, adjacent to an illegally coated marble, or involved in a collision with an illegally coated marble, the marble will face a 25 GC fine or be sent to the Jailyard.
Comments: That's one hell of a fine - which should be enough to discourage most people, but I think that the number of coatings is getting a little out of hand. The fact that we already have 4 useful coatings in existence, but only two in used, tends to suggest that this rule will never be used. Sorry, but after the 145+ ruleset of IN9 I'm not going to repeat that mistake.
Decision: Rejected.

SUBMISSIONS PLEASE!


Cover Sheet Ruleset Proposals 1 through 50 Proposals 51 through 100 Proposals 101 onwards Directives Scores
This page by Duncan Richer, duncan@smug.student.adelaide.edu.au.
RCS Info:[$Id: props_2.html,v 1.1 1996/08/27 00:00:19 duncan Exp duncan $]