Anteing up - Wand of Odin?

[Thorn <edt@...>]

Hi there.

I always like to join a list by making a contribution...

Here, tested only in my head, and meager though they are, are the ideas
that a brief skimming of the old messages shook out of my attic:

Wand of Odin...  Have to make this happen.

Perhaps it's a quest through the tileboards to find the the blank chips
of every suit.  ('Od' being the name of the blank rune in most runesets,
this seemed fitting.)  These would represent the broken pieces of Odin's
spear Gungnir, 'Wand of Odin' being a sort of kenning.

These would be in the possession of guardian critters, each critter
represented and combat-valued by a stack of four chips, one of each
suit. (stir the suits, and take one chip from each to assemble each
critter). 
So each critter for Magic, Stealth, War and Guile would have a value
determined by their Sun, Moon, Arms, and Crown chip.  A blank chip
(Shard of the Wand) would indicate the critter was immune to that value
of the Quester.  Let me state that more clearly: the critter that had
the blank Crowns chip for it's Guile value simply could not be bested by
the Quester's Guile.

Which speaks to the besting of the critters.  The solitaire player rolls
the dice, all of them, and takes the result as a set of values for the
Quester persona's Magic, Stealth, War, and Guile.  Blank faces rolled
for the Quester at the start of the game have the
opposite meaning they do for the critters; the Quester is worthless in
that regard, and helpless before even the lowliest of critters using
that value to attack.

Play begins with a single pawn representing the Quester placed on the
blank-faced Arms tile, grid-side down, with the other blank tiles
arranged in a square with the Arms tile, with Arms in the upper left,
Moon in the upper right, Sun in the lower left, and Crown in the lower
right.  These represent the worlds of Norse mythology; Arms:Midgard,
Moon:Niflheim, Sun:Asgard, Crown:Alfheim.

Turn order - all actions must occur in the order given:

- Move the Quester pawn -

Move to any adjacent tile, only across a side, not diagonally.  OR move
to any numerically-contiguous tile of the same suit (world).  The
Quester may also elect not to move.

- Reveal a tile, place critters. -

A tile that is next in sequence of its suit is placed adjacent to the
tile with the next lowest number; ones next to blanks, fours next to
threes, etc.  The player may choose the exact placement, but only
placements with legal orthogonal movement paths are legal.  No critter
is placed on the new tile, unless the number of critters remaining is
equal to the number of unrevealed tiles remaining, in which case a
critter is placed, 'asleep' if no Quester is adjacent, 'awakened'
otherwise.

A tile not next in sequence, and not equal numerically to the Quester
pawn's tile, is set aside, still revealed, and populated with a sleeping
critter, the legendary denizen of that lost land.  When the tile
numerically below that tile is placed, the 'lost' tile is to be placed
adjacent to its subordinate.

A tile that is not next in sequence of its suit, but that matches
numerically with the tile occupied by the Quester pawn, is placed
adjacent to that tile, and populated with a critter, if any remain. 
(The Quester has discovered a path to another world, or an otherworldly
beast has ambushed the Quester.)  If the Quester had moved this turn
previous to the tile being revealed, the critter is placed 'awakened',
and may pursue in the next phase.  If the Quester had not moved, the
critter is placed 'asleep'.

If a critter is called for by the tile placement rules, and no critters
remain, new critters may be assembled from the remains of defeated
critters, by stirring the value-down chips and selecting a set of four
chips for each new critter.  If a critter is called for by the tile
placement rules, and neither critters nor chips are available,  the
nearest sleeping critter is called to the scene, and awakened.

- Pursuit by awakened critters -

After the Quester has moved, and tiles have been placed, any awakened
critter with a Quester pawn within two moves will move to and confront
the Quester, with two exceptions.  No critter will leave its own world,
unless entering the group of blank tiles originally placed.  And no
critter that fled from the Quester will pursue the Quester, unless
heading further into their native world (to a higher-numbered tile).

- Effects of the Worlds -

Critters native to the worlds (originally placed in a world other than
Midgard) have advantages while in those worlds.  They may add the value
of the tile they are on to all their values for resolution of conflicts,
with the exception of the value represented by the opposite symbol in
the layout of the original four tiles.  Thus an Asgardian critter does
not increase its Stealth for conflicts, a Midgardian does not increase
its Guile, etc.

- Encounters and Stealth -

When the Quester and a critter occupy the same tile, an encounter
occurs.

A Quester which moved into the tile may elect to use their Stealth to
attempt to avoid conflict; compare the Moon chip of the critter
(revealing that chip only, for this purpose) with the Moon die of the
Quester, higher value wins, ties broken by Guile in the same manner. 
Stealth and Guile ties result in no conflict.  Successful Stealth by the
Quester avoids combat, and allows the Quester to reveal another chip of
the critter, in addition to the Stealth(Moon) chip.  Usually, the
Quester will want to see the critter's chip that matches his own
strongest suit, sizing the critter up for future conflict.

A Quester which had a critter move into his tile may try to hide to
avoid conflict; compare the Stealth and Guile dice of the Quester to the
Stealth and Guile chips of the critter, the sum of the Quester values
must be higher than the sum of the critter values for the Quester to
succeed.

Successful stealth results in no conflict.  The critter may move 'into'
the tile on its next turn.  The Quester may also move 'into' the tile,
beginning another encounter.

Unsuccessful stealth results in conflict, with the critter being given
initiative.

- Conflict -

Conflict compares the values of the critter and the Quester in one suit,
or possibly two.  The higher value wins the conflict.  The figure that
moved normally has the initiative, (except in the case of failed
stealth, see above) and chooses which suit to compare.  Critters with
Guile less than the Quester always select their strongest suit for a
first conflict; if the Quester has initiative, the Quester may choose
any suit.  Critters with Guile equal to the Quester choose randomly
among their strongest suits, within a variance of two.  (So a 5, 4, 3, 1
Critter might choose the 5, 4, or 3.)  Critters with Guile greater than
the Quester choose Guile.  Duh.

In case of a tie, if the Quester entered the tile, and the creature had
been sleeping, and there was no failed attempt at Stealth, the Quester
may select the next suit to compare.  If the above isn't true, the
critter's chips are all revealed, and the highest value of all the
remaining suits of either individual determines the next suit compared. 
So as an example, the Quester and a Goblin Thief may find their Guiles
match at 4, and then Goblin would then find the Quester's War of 3 was
faster than the Goblin's Stealth of 2.

Critters defeated by War or Magic are destroyed; their chips are
availiable to make new critters, any Shards (blank chips) they had are
retained by the Quester, and any '1' value chips (with the sworl, if you
cheaped out like I did, and printed your own) also retained by the
player.  Critters defeated by Stealth also lose any Shards they may
have, but not any '1' value chips.  Critters defeated by Guile lose
Shards, but not '1' value chips.  Critters that have had Shards conned
away from them (by Guile) will soon come to their senses, and pursue the
Quester.  Critters whose Shards were burgled (by Stealth) will not
pursue the Quester, and may be considered sleeping, unless the Stealth
conflict was a second suit following a tie of some other suit, in which
case they are awake and will pursue.

Any Critter which has lost a Shard, but not been destroyed, is still
considered to have a value of 'blank' in that Art.  It was not the Shard
which made them Supreme, it was their Supremacy which let them gain the
Shard.  And maybe, gain it back...

A Quester defeated by War loses all Shards and '1' value chips they were
carrying (which are returned to the chip pool), and remain where they
are on the tiles.  They may optionally choose to be considered dead, and
re-roll all their dice, starting again on the blank Midgard tile.

A Quester defeated by Magic loses all Shards and chips as above, and is
cast away one tile for every point of value of the Magic chip that
defeated them (including any bonus from World tile value), but not
further than the Midgard starting location.  'Away' means in opposite
direction from the direction they came, or the direction from which the
critter came.  They may optionally choose to be considered dead, and
re-roll all their dice, starting again on the blank Midgard tile.

A Quester defeated by Stealth loses one Shard, or if they have no
Shards, they lose one '1' value chip, or if they have no chips, they
lose nothing.  They remain where they are.  The critter retains
possession of any stolen items for one player turn, but then the items
go to the chip pool.

A Quester defeated by Guile loses one '1' value chip, or if they have no
chips, and their Guile is less than the _natural_ Guile of the critter,
one Shard, or if they have no Shards, they lose nothing.  They remain
where they are.  Any items beguiled from a Quester go to the chip pool.

- Treasure -

There are two sorts of treasure a Quester may acquire in the game;
Shards of Odin's Spear, Gungnir, and incidental equipment taken from
critters slain in combat.

When any particular Shard is recovered and in the possession of the
Quester, the awesome
energies contained within may be loosed to re-roll any one die, taking
the new result, with any result matching the old value being re-rolled. 
Blank faces on this new roll are not considered 'matching' any old blank
face.  A Blank face rolled by use of a Shard indicates supremacy in that
art.  Place the Shard chip under the die to show the use of the Shard on
that die.

When a Quester is in any conflict, they may use a '1' value chip taken
from a slain critter to add one to their value for the suit being
contested.  They retain the chip thereafter, and may use it again as
they wish.  The chip may alternately be used to add two to the value
being contested, but it then returns to the chip pool.

- Supreme Arts -

Questers who release the power of a Shard take an aweful risk, but risk
sometimes carries great rewards.  Supremacy in the various Arts has
benefits beyond simple Conflict.

Supreme Magi may move normally from any tile to any other of the same
numeric value, via the Astral Plane.  The normal limits of time and
speed are meaningless to those who possess True Magick.

Supreme Warriors deny native creatures any bonus for their world tile
value.  They use the native terrain as well or better than any native.

Those who are Supreme in Stealth may not be found if they wish not. 
Critters may move onto them, seeking conflict, but no conflict occurs
unless the Stealthy Master wishes.  Also, all of a Critter's chips are
revealed whenever the Master of Shadow shares the same tile.

Those who are Supremely Beguiling may claim every possession from those
bested by Guile, returning the remaining chips, if less than three, to
the chip pool.  Any creature not destroyed in this way is considered to
be left 'asleep', they will neither pursue nor move until awakened.

Critters do not manifest Supreme abilities, even if ranked 'Supreme' in
an Art.

-----

Wand of Odin 0.1, by Ed Thorn, all rights reserved, released for
comments 1/3/2002.
Comments please to edt@...

-----

"Wand of Odin" was a name somebody else came up with.  I liked it, and
ran with the idea.  All the rest is mine, or possibly Calliope and
Mnemosyne's.  I am but an Egg.





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