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[LTUAE - the game, Part 3]
Secondary Goals.
The secondary goal of LTUAE is to acquire net.friends and
charisma. The person with the most net.friends (when Gerry
finally goes mad) wins the game. In the case of two or more
players getting the same number of net.friends, the person with
the least number of net enemies will win. Similarly, if multiple
players have the same highest number of net.friends, and the same
number of net.enemies, then the person with the most charisma
will win.
If you lose too much charisma, you lose net.friends, and gain
net.enemies. A person with no charisma is unlikely to have any
net friends.
You can also battle against other players rather than just 'The
Gerry' - each person has their own 'sanity points' [100 each],
and they are rendered insane/impotent if their sanity count
recedes to between 3 and 11 points [randomly chosen]. A person
who has lost more than 75% of their sanity points will no longer
be allowed to use addons/powerups. The rules are similar to
those governing 'The Gerry', except that the 'I'm leaving!' rule
will immediately and permenantly wipe out a player - who will be
confined to his or her room until the game is complete. Players
who wipe out other players may collect all unused bonus points,
but any addons the defeated player had, are not available to the
victor.
Bonus Points, Addons, Power-ups and Saving Throws.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The game is made somewhat easier with the addons and power-ups.
Unfortunately, as a raw newbie, you don't have any addons
available, and you must amass bonus points in order to purchase
them from the regional Fidonet coordinator.
Bonus points can cascade around your ears, or be as elusive as
unicorns. The way you play the game *will* affect how well you
fare in collecting bonus points.
Bonus points can be cashed in for addons at the start of a day's
mail session. Addons do not appear until the next mail session,
when they are available for immediate use.
Current addons and power-ups include
Item I Cost I Use
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
V32Bis Card - 10 bp Increase your baud rate to 9600!
Get an early start on getting
those messages out. Minutes can
make the difference between a
coup and a complete flop!
Bamboozler - 5bp Enables you to infect up to five
messages in any one day with
'Bamboozle magic'. Each
bamboozled message will reduce,
or rend inappropriate, a response
from any computer simulation.
Doesn't affect 'The Handlinger'
or 'The Rimmer'.
TNT
Registration 20bp With the registered version of
TNT, you're able to quote better,
and your individual message
length limit it upped to
12Kbytes. Your session limit is
also increased so that you can
call twice per day! This
power-up lasts the entire game
(Unless pinched by by The Dac)
UUENCODER/ 3bp Most useful for sending encoded files
UUDECODER to net.friends, and similarly
clued up froods. Stops 'The
Heppell' dead in it's tracks.
Has been rumoured to cause
consternation with other
simulants too!
Macquarie
Dictionary 3bp Stops pedants. Only useful for
newbies, and actively reduces the
number of messages that oldbies
can post, by 10% per day.
Friend of 10bp Allows you to get the Sysop to
The Sysop badge. screen your messages for a single
day, and avoids unpleasant
confrontations - you get to
decide which messages you won't
get. Limited to 10 messages in
any one day, and only has a 1/3rd
chance of working when invoked.
Dupechecker 10bp Excellent for when the
MessageMonster comes to town.
Can cut the MM down to size in a
single day. Once used against
the MessageMonster, it is
rendered useless.
Zen Mysticism 100bp Allows you to see the stats of up
to ten players in a single mail
session. Check out their
net.friends, net.enemies, sanity
points, bonus points, addons, and
their current message stats.
Reusable until revoked. This is
a very useful item, and almost
compulsory to win the game!
Capricious 5bp Cancel someone elses message.
Cancellation Can only be used once, and the
message writer is informed that
their message was destroyed.
(But not who did it!)
Cannot be used to destroy any of
the standard LTUAE simulations
messages, but can destroy
messages addressed TO those
simulations. Excellent value for
money.
Chicanery Star 5bp Send a message as another user to
any other user! Other players
cannot detect any difference
between your forgery and the real
thing - but the computer LTUAE
simulations aren't fooled by
these messages. Excellent for
stirring up a dull game, or
getting your own back after
middling defeats in energetic
arguments.
6 Pack of 12bp These are phantom players who are
Coruscating designed to be complete lamers, whom
Newbies! you, with your inner knowledge,
can set up, and slaughter without
fear of retribution. Just the
thing for building up your
echo-presence, and working up to
Oldbie status.
14" Rotary 2bp A spellchecker for those times
Debugger when only 'perfect' will do.
Single one-shot usage, definitely
no refills.
Sensayuma 4bp Stops 'The Rod' in his tracks.
There is a limit to how many addons and power-ups you can have at
any one time. This limit is essential random, but you'll know
when the computer sez 'Tshk, too much cheating', and your least
expensive addon/power-up is vaporised.
Saving throws are made with a six sided die. 1-3 means failure
to connect. A four or a five is success, and a six entitles you
to roll again. The computer has the die [ROLLDIE.COM, in C:\],
and each roll result will be posted echowide for all to see.
Some notes on the MessageMonster.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sandy can invoke the MessageMonster, in fact, she invokes it
everyday, whether or not she wants to, and loses 30% of her
incoming mail, and 30% of her outgoing mail. She can direct the
MessageMonster onto any other player, including other computer
simulations. The MessageMonster, once sicced upon your computer,
will cause between one and ten days worth of complete havoc. You
have no control over what the MessageMonster will do, and the
best course of action is to lay low for a while until the Monster
leaves. A small MSDOS utility program called 'AMISAFE.COM' is
available to inform you if your computer is currently infected.
WARNING, the MessageMonster can, and regularly does, infect
multiple players at the same time! Watch out you don't pull out
of an alliance due mainly to the antics of the unpredictable
MessageMonster. Owning a Dupechecker will remove the
bad old MessageMonster in a day, but that day's mail [incoming
and outgoing] is still likely to be affected. Be prepared.
Some notes on EmilyPostNews
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The concept is a direct-rip-off from David Brin's _Earth_. A
group of hackers concoct a style-daemon which sends reprimanding
messages to posters of ill-formed, or ill-meant messages. In
LTUAE, EmilyPostNews is weiled by The Val, and causes any
affected player to lose mail posting ability for two turns.
Acquiring Bonus Points.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Write nice fairy-floss messages to 'The Byrne' a lot, and do
things that attract the attention of The Heitman. Notice the
inbuilt limitation of The Byrne, and the catastrophic affects of
overtaxing the resource - The Dac really does remove all addons,
and that can be a crushing blow to sycophants of The Byrne.
Get stuck into 'The Gerry', it is the one 'enemy' you know you
can trust to do the wrong thing. Manouver, wheedle, cajole, and
generally hassle the simulation as much as you can. Thirty
messages from one person is far more effective than a similar
number of messages spread out between many users. And be wary of
having too many users attacking the Gerry at once - its attention
seeking algorithm will start to strengthen its resolve to
persevere.
If you think you can counter the questions of The Handlinger,
then you may want to challenge it.
Those who attack Spewbabe unprovoked are just looking for
trouble.
Most of the simulations should begin posting within the first 14
days of the game, excepting _The Rod_, but that isn't a great
loss.
It is rumoured that there is another simulated player in the
game, called the HVG persona. It's behaviour is largely unknown,
and you would be well advised to sit back and observe, before
rushing into an encounter where you come off second best.
Take special care to note the Statistician's messages; with
judicious application, the figures will prove invaluable to your
quest.
TWILTUAE and The Solo perform important functions, and should not
be taunted. Undefined results can occur if these usually benign
simulations are attacked.
///
[end of LTUAE RPG Rules]
Dac