I'm starting with the basic forum game, but there's other versions that can be more fun that I'd like to try out sometime (my special interest is game design, so you can expect all kinds of weird variations, which will hopefully keep the games forum from getting stale).
Everyone runs a hypothetical nation. Call it whatever you want. This nation can either go to war or peace with each other nation. If two nations go to peace with each other, they each gain one point. If two nations go to war with each other, they each lose one point. If one nation goes to war and the other nation goes to peace, the warring nation gets two points and the peaceful nation loses two points. In case it wasn't clear: Just because you're at peace with one nation doesn't mean you can't go to war with another.
So, for example, if Athens, Sparta, and Thebes are our three nations, it might look like this:
Athens decides to go to war with Sparta and to peace with Thebes.
Sparta decides to go to war with Athens and Thebes.
Thebes decides to go to peace with Athens and Sparta.
Athens gets one point for peace/peace with Thebes and loses one point for war/war with Sparta, and ends up at 0.
Sparta loses one point for war/war with Athens, but gains two points for war/peace with Thebes, and ends up at 1.
Thebes gains one point for peace/peace with Athens, but loses two points for peace/war with Sparta, and ends up at -1.
On the next turn, Thebes decides to go to war with Sparta to protect themselves. Athens decides to increase their lead by going to war with Thebes, because Athens is sure Thebes will keep going to peace. Sparta continues to go to war with both cities. So now...
Athens loses one point for war/war with Sparta and gains two points for war/peace with Thebes, ends up with 1.
Sparta loses one point for war/war with Athens and another for war/war with Thebes, ends up with -1.
Thebes loses one point for war/war with Sparta and two points for peace/war with Athens, and ends up with -4.
Of course, now Sparta and Thebes might try making a peace in order to catch up with Athens. But can Thebes trust Sparta to keep his word when he's been such a war-monger so far? These kinds of questions are what make the game work.
This requires one person to either run the game without playing or else simply be trustworthy enough not to peek at the other players answers before deciding on their own. The other players PM their ultimate decisions for the turn to the person running the game, and s/he'll post the results.
Anyone interested in playing? It'll need at least three or four players to be interesting.
22 Apr 2011, 12:22 am
