Rule 594/20
Blueprint Rule Suite
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)
I. Discoveries are unownable entities. Players may create Discoveries by posting their name and text, and paying A$100 to the Treasury for research and development. The text must describe the behaviour of exactly one new type of Gadget, and the name must be legal and unique, or the creation fails.
II. A Discovery is said to be made by the player who posted its text. If a Rule creates a Discovery, authorship credit is given as listed by that Rule. If that Rule gives no authorship credit, then no authorship credit shall be given.
III. A Discovery is Debunked if, within 7 days of its creation, at least 4 different players have protested its creation in a public forum. Whenever a Discovery is Debunked, it is destroyed. If a Discovery is not Debunked after 7 days of its creation, then a new rule is created as a member of this rule suite, with the title "Blueprint: <name>" where <name> is the name of the Discovery, with authorship credit as described in section II, and with text identical to the text of the Discovery. The Discovery is then destroyed. Creation of a Blueprint does not create any instances of the type of Gadget described by that Blueprint.
IV. The term "Blueprint", as used in the rules, means a member of this rule suite.
V. The custodian of the Blueprint Rule Suite is the Wizard.
VI. Blueprints defer to all non-Blueprint rules, except as specified elsewhere in this rule. [This allows blueprints to claim precedence or defer to one another, and allows the Whamiol's trade restriction to work.]
VII. A Blueprint may only define the behavior and attributes of gadgets of the type which is named in its title, define ways in which such gadgets and their attributes may be manipulated, manipulate or destroy (but not create) such gadgets and/or their attributes, and place restrictions on how such gadgets may be created, destroyed, or otherwise manipulated. Restrictions of this last type do not defer to other rules by default.
Blueprints may not create, destroy, or manipulate any other entities, except in the ways that they direct their gadgets to do so.
[Follow this link for the Blueprints]
Rule 594.1/3
Blueprint: Scroll of Crumble
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)
The owner of a Scroll of Crumble may read it as a public action. In order to fully specify this action, the player attempting it must include the text of the Scroll (which he may make up) and specify an existing gadget. If this action is successful, the Scroll of Crumble destroys the specified gadget if it is not indestructible, or otherwise deducts three points from the score of its owner. Lastly, if the Scroll of Crumble still exists, it is destroyed, too.
Rule 594.2/4
Blueprint: The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really
snowgod (Phil Ackley)
The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really shall always have dimensions slightly larger then those of the location in which it's owner is located (which causes horrific problems when transporting The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really). It is initially Baby Blue, though the shade of blue can be changed at the whim of the owner. The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really changes shape. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday it is round. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday it is shaped similarly to a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback.
No matter what shape or size The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really is, it shall always have a button somewhere upon it marked "ENERGIZE"
The owner of The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really may use it to change the player name of any active player to another name which is an anagram of the original. This is a public action. In order to fully specify this action, the owner must state that he has pointed The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really at x (where x is the name of the player being renamed) and pressed the ENERGIZE button, and he must give an anagram of the original name. If this action is successful then The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really changes x's name to the specified anagram.
The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really runs on rechargeable 9 volt batteries, and may be used no more than once every two weeks, or the batteries will overheat and explode before The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really is able to change a players name ( and thus causing The Really Big Blue Thing That Doesn't Do Too Much, Really to be destroyed).
Rule 594.3/1
Blueprint: Whamiol
snowgod (Phil Ackley)
Whenever a new Player enters the game and becomes an active player, the Whamiol will increase the score of its owner by a number of points equal to the lesser of fifteen and the number of days since the Whamiol last awarded points to its owner (effective the time it is publicly knowable the new player voted for the first time).
Whenever the time since the last new player voted for the first time is an even integral number of days greater than or equal to 30, the Whamiol becomes anxious and subtracts one point from its owner's score.
Any trade which would cause a Whamiol to be owned by an entity other than a Player is invalid and will not occur.
Rule 594.4/6
Blueprint: Vending Machine
snowgod (Phil Ackley)
The Vending Machine is a mechanical Gadget. They can be quite lucrative.
All Vending Machines are equipped to vend Rocks To Wind A String Around. The price to buy a Rock To Wind A String Around from a new Vending Machine is A$6.
If a Vending Machine is possessed by the owner of the Great Trombone of Ackanomia, e may vend therefrom Walls of Trombones. The price for which A Wall of Trombones can be sold starts at A$10.
If a Vending Machine is owned by the possessor of the Little Lamb, e may vend therefrom Santa's Beards. The price for which a Santa's Beard may be sold starts at A$8.
If a Vending Machine is owned by the possessor of the Magic Potato, e may vend therefrom Magic Radishes. The price for which a Magic Radish may be sold starts at A$7.
If a Vending Machine is owned by the second player to legally chew The Gumball on any given day, e may vend therefrom A Bottle of Bubble Gum Flavoured Shampoo for the remainder of the day. The price for which A Bottle of Bubble Gum Flavoured Shampoo may be sold starts at A$12.
If a Vending Machine is owned by the First Citizen, e may vend therefrom A Large Box of Chocolates. The price for which A Large Box of Chocolates may be sold starts at A$14.
The owner of a Vending Machine may change the price for which the Machine sells any item. This fails if the price for that item was changed at any time within the preceding thirty days or if the new price is not an even integer.
Any player may attempt to buy any item from any Vending Machine. This fails if the Vending Machine is broken or unowned; if the Vending Machine is not equipped to vend the specified item; or if the player attempting to buy the item does not have the current price for which the specified Machine sells the specified item. If the action succeeds then the Machine transfers half of the current price of that item to its owner and the other half to the Treasury, and then it creates a new item of the type requested and gives it to the buyer.
Rule 594.5/4
Blueprint: Automatic Sculpture
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)
An Automatic Sculpture is a dull, slate gray box with an irregular pentagonal metal patch on one side. However, the inside is packed with folding robotic parts, chisels and files of many shapes, sizes, and hardnesses, polishers, and a small Grotz Counter (so that the Sculpture can detect when it has been buried.)
An Automatic Sculpture is always in one of two states, active and dormant, and begins dormant. When a player other than the player who buried a dormant Automatic Sculpture finds the treasure containing it, it becomes active, and minute polyjointed arms sneak out of the panel, carving the gadget into a fascinating (though perhaps offensively avant-garde) stone figurine. When an Automatic Sculpture becomes active, it designates a player at random to be its Mad Sculptor. The Mad Sculptor is responsible for posting a description; when he does so, the Automatic Sculpture sets its description to that description. If e does not do so within 3 days of being selected, the Automatic Sculpture deducts one point from the Mad Sculptor's score, and sets its description to "It is X." where X is one of the colours defined in Rule 1155, chosen at random, or green if no such colours exist.
When the description of an active Automatic Sculpture is set, it transforms itself into a trinket worth A$123, with the same description the Sculpture had, and the name "Sculpture X" where X is replaced by the least prime number that would result in a unique name.
However, when a Player buries an Automatic Sculpture and then finds it himself, he will find that it is a dull, slate gray box with an irregular pentagonal metal patch on one side. (It is unchanged.)
Rule 594.7/4
Blueprint: Evil Ballot Stuffer
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
The Evil Ballot Stuffer (EBS) is a mechanical gadget. When created it is not broken.
The Evil Ballot Stuffer is green and has 2 levers, the large lever and the small lever.
The small lever enables the EBS to affect Hearings and Elections. The owner of an EBS may flip the small lever in any given Hearing by privately notifying the Hearing Harfer, and in any Election by privately notifying the Officer responsible for conducting the Election. This notification must be in the same private message as a valid response for the relevant Hearing, or valid vote for the relevant Election. The EBS shall then make a response (in a Hearing) or cast a vote (in an Election) identically to their owner. If the same EBS is used more than once in a Hearing, only the last such vote it cast shall count.
The large lever is used to create Bonus Votes. The possessor of an EBS may flip the large lever. Upon doing so, the EBS creates a Bonus Vote and transfers it to the player who flipped the lever, assuming no instance limits on Bonus Votes with respect to the game or that player would be exceeded. Regardless of whether the Bonus Vote was actually created in this case, the EBS then starts to shake and shimmy uncontrollably.
Upon an EBS starting to shake and shimmy uncontrollably, one of 3 things will occur with equal probability. An EBS may not be used between the time it starts to shimmy and shake and the time the this random determination is publicly knowable at which time it shall cease to shake and shimmy:
1) The EBS will sputter and die, and thus become broken.
2) The EBS will explode in its operator's face, and thus be destroyed,
but not before bellowing a raft of annoying laughter ridiculing its user
throughout the land of Acka.
3) The EBS will teleport, and thus change possession to, another random
active player.
Neither lever may be used if the EBS is broken, and only the player who possesses an EBS may use it, the previous provisions of this Blueprint notwithstanding. A broken EBS may only be fixed as described in the rules or by another Gadget empowered to do so.
Rule 594.9/3
Blueprint: Spell Book of Chorg
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
When initially created, a Spell Book of Chorg (Book) has 21 pages, unless a different number is described by the rules causing its creation. A Book with one or more pages is indestructible, except as described below. A Book with zero pages is useless (except the Museum may take it at full value).
Pages are numbered sequentially, starting at 1, thru the number of pages in the Book when the Book was created. Once so numbered, at creation time, page numbers in the Book do not change. Each page contains a spell.
A player who owns a Book may read the spell on its lowest-numbered page as a public action. In order to fully specify this action, the player must describe a pyrotechnic display by which the page is destroyed. This action fails if any other page has been read from the same book within the last calendar week. If this action is successful then the page read is removed from the book and destroyed as described by the reader in his reading attempt, and the Spell Book of Chorg shall cause one of the following effects shall occur, depending on the number of the page read:
1) If the page number was evenly divisible by 21, a random Boon of the Ancients is created and bestowed to the reader.
2) Otherwise, if the page number was evenly divisible by 5, a random Gadget other than a Spell Book of Chorg is created and transferred to the reader. However, this gadget is ephemeral; it will be destroyed 3 days after it is publically knowable what it is (if it still exists), unless it is indestructible, in which case it will be transferred Somewhere Else at that time. For the purposes of this section, the Book itself is said to be doing this destruction or transference, as appropriate.
3) Otherwise, a random Otzma card is created and transferred to the reader, all cards having equal probabilities, except that card types which exist at their instance limits shall have no probability of being created. If, however, this creation would exceed any other limits of the Otzma cards, it does not occur, and the Book is destroyed in a vile display of chartreuse smoke instead.
If a player possessing the Spell Book of Chorg is ever burned as described in the rules, the Book is immediately destroyed, being that it is made of really old parchment.
Rule 594.10/1
Blueprint: Plunky Monkey Wrench
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)
A Plunky Monkey Wrench is a masterpiece of metallurgical engineering. It can be adjusted to fit bolts of any size and works perfectly in zero gravity.
A player who has a Plunky Monkey Wrench may throw it into any unbroken mechanical Gadget. The Wrench then causes the gadget it was thrown into to become broken, and then the Wrench is destroyed.
A player who has a Plunky Monkey Wrench, a broken mechanical Gadget, and A$ 30 can try to fix the Gadget with the Plunky Monkey Wrench, assuming he or she has not already tried to fix the Gadget in the past three days. When this is done, the A$ 30 is transferred from the player to the Treasury. There is a fifty-percent chance that the Wrench then causes the mechanical Gadget to cease to be broken.
For the purposes of this Blueprint, a Gadget is mechanical if and only if its Blueprint says that it is.
Rule 594.14/3
Blueprint: Cheez-Whiz
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
The Cheez-Whiz is a small pyramid. 3 of its sides are white, whilst the 4th is black. A Cheez-Whiz will transfer all of its owner's Ackadollars to the Treasury if its owner legally chews the Gumball. If all the Cheez-Whiz's owner's Ackadollars are transferred to the treasury in this way then the owner of the Cheez-Whiz may specify any individual cheese to be destroyed. The Cheez-Whiz will then destroy the cheese in question. This power of the Cheez-Whiz may only be utilised once per day. It is said that the Cheez-Whiz can also be used to help find long lost Treasure.
All sentences that follow this one are, or describe, attributes of grapefruit, and they conflict with this one.
Rule 594.16/2
Blueprint: Silver Spaceship
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
The Silver Spaceship is a spaceship. It is also a mechanical gadget. Its top section looks like a large balloon filled with hot air, with ropes dangling down from the balloon-like section and attached to a basket-like section beneath the balloon-like section. There are heavy bags of a silicon dioxide-like substance tied to the basket-like section. The balloon-like section is decorated by 4 horizontal bands: 2 chartreuse bands followed by a yellow band, followed by a chartreuse band. No part of it is silver in color. There is room for one person in the basket.
The possessor of a Silver Spaceship may launch it as a public action. In order to fully specify this action the launcher must specify a Location that is defined by the rules to be a Moon or Planet, and he must include an original piece of poetry or lyrical composition of at least 5 lines that contains the words 'They', 'Might', 'Be', and 'Giants' anywhere in its text. The launch fails if the launcher is not in the Wilds of Ackanomia (local authorities object to the noise). If the launch succeeds then the the Spaceship transports the launcher to the location named. The Silver Spaceship becomes broken after being successfully launched unless the poetry used in the launch was a sonnet. The Poet Laureate shall be the final authority as to whether the poetry used qualifies per above, or was in fact a sonnet, if the question is raised.
Rule 594.17/3
Blueprint: BWG Laser
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
The BWG Laser is large. It has a business end and a fuel input end. The only sort of fuel it takes are trinkets whose value is a 3 or 7 digit prime number. Initially the business end is aimed at the Museum.
The BWG laser is operated as follows. Any active player may aim the business end at an active, non-sheltered, player. It will remain aimed at that player until it is re-aimed as described in the previous sentence, or until that player leaves the game (in which case it will be aimed at the Museum).
Whenever the business end is aimed at an active, non-sheltered player, any active player may place a trinket in the fuel input end. If the trinket is the sort of fuel it takes, the BWG laser will transfer the trinket to the player it is aimed at, then fire a Pulse Beam at them. If the trinket is not the sort of fuel it takes, the BWG laser will transfer the trinket to the Synod, if such an entity exists, otherwise the trinket will be transfered to the McCumber Annex of the Museum.
When the BWG Laser fires a pulse beam at a player, one of two things happens. If the target has one or more pulse shovels, the beam bounces off the shovel, the BWG Laser transfers one of his pulse shovels to a random player, the beam hits the player who provided the BWG Laser with fuel, and that player becomes Hosed for 3 days. Otherwise, the target is Hosed for 3 days.
Rule 594.18/2
Blueprint: Butler
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
A Butler is a mechanical Gadget. A Butler is a robotic creature about seven feet tall. Its head is featureless except for a speaker grille, and it has several arms(the exact number varies, but the number of arms does not affect the Butler's functioning).
A player who owns a Butler may set it to automatically welcome visitors into eir Home. If the Butler is so set, then whenever any player publicly asks to enter that player's Home, the Butler will transport em there. When setting the Butler to welcome visitors, the owner may specify a duration(up to a week)during which the Butler will do so; if the owner does not specify such a duration, the Butler will do so for three days. After performing such duty, the Butler must rest and recharge itself, and it will be an equal length of time before it may perform such services again.
In addition, the Butler's owner may provide it with an ordered list of tradeable entities(which e must own), and set it to distribute these entities to guests. When the Butler is in "welcoming" mode, it will give one entity to each guest who arrives at it's owner's Home who has not already done so since it was last set to welcome visitors, in the order that was specified by its owner. The owner may add entities to the end of the list, or remove entities from the list, at any time; if e transfers an entity on the list to another player, or uses it in any way, it is assumed to be removed from the list. Any entities on the list are still considered to be owned by the Butler's owner until they are traded. This duty is even more taxing to the Butler, however, and after it has finished performing it it must rest and recharge itself for longer. The butler may then not be used until a period of rime equal to twice the time it was performing this duty has passed.
The Butler will become Broken if at any time its owner's House begins to dangle, because the unaccustomed shock will upset its delicate circuitry.
Rule 594.19/2
Blueprint: Pyraic Frobnotzer
Mohammed (Jason Orendorff)
A Pyraic Frobnotzer is a mechanical gadget. It is large and golden and has two nodes, positive and negative. The nodes are made of titanium (+) and green jumblium (-), and they never wear out.
When created, a Pyraic Frobnotzer is not broken, and its nodes are not attached to anything.
The owner of a Pyraic Frobnotzer may attach either of its nodes to a noun phrase in a Rule as a public action. This fails if the Frobnotzer is gyrating. If the node was already attached to a noun phrase then it ceases to be attached to the old phrase. If a node of the Frobnotzer is attached to a noun phrase in a rule when that rule is amended, repealed, or modified in any way then that node becomes unattached.
The owner of a Pyraic Frobnotzer may set it off as a public action. This fails if the Frobnotzer is broken or if either node is unattached. If it succeeds then the Pyraic Frobnotzer starts to gyrate. It foams. It steams. It continues to gyrate, with increasing angular momentum and wobble, until it is broken or destroyed.
When a Pyraic Frobnotzer has been gyrating continuously for one week, the following happens: If the Pyraic Frobnotzer's two nodes are attached to two noun phrases which are both plural or both singular, and the two noun phrases do not share the same occurrence of the same word, then the Frobnotzer swaps those two noun phrases within the Rule set, and the Pyraic Frobnotzer is destroyed in a magnificent gout of golden flame. Otherwise, the Pyraic Frobnotzer chokes, sputters, whines, and dies; it is then broken.
Rule 594.20/1
Blueprint: BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment
Malenkai (Randy Hall)
The BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment is also large. Conveniently enough, it fits nicely onto the business end of a BWG Laser. Any player who owns both a Plunky Monkey Wrench and an unattached BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment may attach the BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment to any extant BWG Laser, provided they unambiguously identify the BWG Laser. Upon doing so, ownership of the BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment is transferred to the owner of the BWG Laser.
Whenever a Pulse Beam from a BWG Laser with a BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment attached to it is fired at a player, the BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment will Hose all non-sheltered active players except the target and the player who provided the laser with fuel for 3 days. It will make the same sort of annoying noise that a Pulse Laser makes.
A player who owns a BWG Laser Shotgun Attachment attached to a BWG Laser may detach the attachment, provided they also own a Plunky Monkey Wrench.
Rule 594.21/3
Blueprint: Good Ballot Stuffer
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)
The Good Ballot Stuffer (GBS) is a mechanical gadget. When created it is not broken.
The Good Ballot Stuffer is not orange and has 2 levers, the harfy lever and the boring lever.
In any hearing or election, the owner of a GBS may flip the boring lever by privately telling the hearing harfer that e is doing so. The GBS will then attempt to shut Evil Ballot Stuffers out of that hearing. [See the Hearings rule - this makes EBS votes not count, if and only if no other GBS was used in this way.]
The possessor of a GBS may flip the harfy lever by publicly announcing they are doing so. Upon doing so, one of the following happens at random and then the GBS then starts to shake and shimmy uncontrollably:
1. The GBS casts a vote for all harfy proposals currently in the voting
queue.
2. The GBS creates one bonus vote in the possession of all current
players.
3. The GBS gives its owner a random boon of the ancients.
4. For the next week, each time any player posts a public message that
does not contain the word "harf" (or a derivative of it), the GBS
deducts one point from that player's score.
Upon a GBS starting to shake and shimmy uncontrollably, one of the following 3 things will occur with equal probability, except that if item 4 on this list above occurs, it will shake and shimmy for one week before one of the 3 things happens. In either case, when one of the 3 things happens, it will stop shaking and shimmying uncontrollably. A GBS may not be used while it is shaking and shimmying uncontrollably.
1) The GBS will sputter and die, and thus become broken.
2) The GBS will explode in its operator's face, and thus be destroyed,
but not before bellowing a raft of annoying laughter ridiculing its user
throughout the land of Acka.
3) The GBS will teleport, and thus change possession to, another random
active player.
Neither lever may be used if the GBS is broken, and only the player who possesses a GBS may use it, the previous provisions of this Blueprint notwithstanding. A broken GBS may only be fixed as described in the rules or by another Gadget empowered to do so.
Rule 594.25/1
Blueprint: Transtemporal Holographic Image Recording Device
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)
A Transtemporal Holographic Image Recording Device (or THIRD) is a wonderful mechanical Gadget created from Ancient science. A player may use a THIRD to create a Master Holotape containing the text of any past public message or subset thereof. To do so, the player must quote the text of each message publicly, and pay into the Treasury a fee of A$1 for each week or portion thereof prior to the present time each message was posted. The player must also give a name to the Master Holotape.
A player with a THIRD and a Master Holotape may pay A$5 to have the THIRD create a Holotape Copy, which contains the same text as the Master Holotape (this text need not be posted again to the public forum to do so).
Rule 594.27/0
Blueprint: Guardian Angel
Mr. Tambourine Man (Tom Walmsley)
A Guardian Angel is a wonderful magical gadget. A player who possesses a Guardian Angel may, at any time, announce that he is using the Guardian Angel to make all proposals which may currently be voted on guarded, or remove the status of guarded from every proposal which may currently be voted on. At this point, the Guardian Angel will be satisfied that her job is done, and fly off to another random player (as chosen by the OiCoRT) who will become her new owner.
If at any time any player (or other entity) owns more than one Guardian Angel then they will fight and all except one of them will be destroyed.
Rule 594.28/1
Blueprint: Highlander's Sword
JT (JT Traub)
A player who has a Highlander's Sword is a fearsome opponent in a Duel, but a such a sword is a two-edged weapon.
When any player in a duel owns a Highlander's Sword, it performs the following effects at the end of the duel:
a) The loser of the duel loses 1 head unless they only have one in which case they lose 10 points and 1 trinket at random which are given to the winner.
b) The loser's sword is given to the winner after all sword penalties have been applied.
If both duelists have a sword, the penalties from the loser's sword are applied first.
If a player ever owns more than one Highlander's Sword, the most recently acquired one is destroyed.
At the end of any calendar week for which two or more players have owned Highlander's Swords and were not engaged in a Duel for any part of that week, each Highlander's Sword owned by such a player, who also did not challenge another player with a Highlander's Sword to a duel during that week, will deduct one point from its owner's score.
Timestamp: Fri 02 Oct 1998 08:13 EDT