Thursday, February 7, 2008

glyphmachine.6.1

GAME

The game takes place on a giant board that is a representation of the Cascajal block—big enough for players to physically stand ON the board. It can have no more than 63 players. Each player chooses a glyph on which to begin, (“home”) and is given a rubber ball. The goal of the game is to have control of the largest contiguous arrangement of glyphs on the board. A player’s turn consists of a ball toss to a glyph anywhere on the board. Wherever the ball lands, the player takes possession of that glyph, and likewise he relocates himself to the glyph where the ball landed, leaving behind a token of his possession of the glyph he just threw from. If the ball does not land on a glyph, the player forfeits his turn and remains on the glyph from which he threw until his next turn.

When a player throws the ball onto a glyph that is already occupied by another player, the player possessing the largest number of glyphs contiguous to that glyph takes possession of it. However, the player with the fewer number of contiguous glyphs in this situation is not ousted from the glyph (unless it is a “floating” glyph—a glyph attached to no contiguous glyphs)—but his right to occupy the glyph is now in an indentured position to the player who owns the glyph.

Position of indenture: A player who is indentured must pay for his continued right to occupy the glyph, since the glyph still forms part of any of his arrangement of contiguous glyphs (and occupation of any glyph implies a contract of possession)—as well as forming part of the possessor-player’s arrangement. This means the indentured player must work off his debt to the possessor or buy his freedom. The possessor player has the right to claim one of the indentured-player’s ball tosses at any point during the remainder of the game. The indentured-player can also attempt to buy his freedom in place of the exchange of his labor by offering the possessor player possession of one of his glyphs. The possessor-player may refuse or accept this offer. After the debt has been repaid, the two players maintain co-possession of the glyph. In this way it is possible for different players to establish “teams” in order to increase the power of their respective arrangements of contiguity. Players may choose to establish co-possession of glyphs freely of their own accord at any time if both players agree. There is no limit to the number of players who can co-possess a single glyph.

In addition, an indentured player may continue to offer his glyphs in exchange for his indentured labor (his ball toss) long after indenture has been established, and a player is also free to trade glyphs in exchange for the regaining of sole-possession of any particular glyph.

Once the board is “established” (i.e. all the spaces are either possessed or co-possessed), players may also work off indenture by trading the indenture of other players who are indentured to them. For example, player A succeeds in throwing the ball onto a glyph which player B currently possesses, and Player A has contiguity claim to the glyph. Player B may choose to trade a claim he previously won for Player C’s indenture in place of his own indenture or offer of glyph. In this case, Player A now has claim to Player C’s indenture instead of Player B.

In the event that a certain player owes more ball tosses to a certain other player than he has possession of glyphs on the board, he automatically becomes permanently indentured to that player. This means that he is now a member of the possessor-player’s “team”, although he works only to serve the enlargement of the possessor-player’s network of contiguity and has no glyphs of his own. If the possessor-player feels that his permanently indentured player is trying to sabotage him, he may oust him from the game completely, although this indentured player may not himself decide to leave the game without the possessor-player’s consent.

The game is won when one player controls every other player on the board.

* if there is a contest over the nature of contiguity—if the contiguous condition of two related glyphs is called into question, the determination of its contiguity can be put to a vote, and the players will vote to determine whether the two glyphs are in fact contiguous or not. The vote only occurs when the condition of contiguity is at issue—that is if the contiguity will determine the outcome of the possession of a glyph. If there are an equal number of votes on both sides, the player with the least number of glyphs/indentures’s vote will not count.