REPUBLIC OF ROME Pbem Rules (Adapted from _The General_, 27, #4, pp 16-17) DEFAULT MOVES: Rather than slow the game for a missing or incorrect move, the GM will exercise series of "Default Moves" as the general guideline for resolving any such problems. Remember, these are only guidelines, and the GM is free to slidestep them in the interests of the game as a whole. The GM, of course, is always considered to be impartial and acting in the best interests of the game. SET UP: The Game Master (GM) handles all card draws. Players are advised of the initial Senator compositions of all factions and the identity of the Temporary Rome Consul. Individual red card hands are e-mailed separately to each player. Each then player each mails to the GM his initial card plays and Faction Leader choice. Obviously, that which can be seen by all players in a normal game is posted once by the GM and sent to all players. MORTALITY/REVENUE PHASE: The GM resolves the Mortality Phase, announces the result, and awards the Faction income. Players respond secretly to the GM with their desired income distributions as well as any Contributions. In addition, the inform the GM of their plans for the coming initiative. Unlike the live game, Personal Treasury totals are kept secret throughout.The GM must report amounts paid for actions and received (as bribes) in the various treasuries, but no one knows exactly how much the other faction's Senators have in their respective war-chests until a Persuasion Attempt is resolved and the results are announced. The Default Move places all income in the Faction Treasury with no contributions. Any talents in personal treasuries from preceding turns remain there. Governors will take graft rather than attemt to improve the province. Default should not be announced to all players, but needs to be confirmed individually with the offending player(s). FORUM PHASE: The GM announces revenue status of State Treasury. Unlike the regular game, Personal and Faction Treasury contents remain secret. The GM resolves and announces resolution of simultaneous initiative for each player. The Default Move, barring receipt of standing orders to the contrary from each player is: 1) No Persuasions attempted except versus unaligned Senators in the Forum with no money outlay. Such attempts are automatic and unopposed. 2) Knight attraction attempt with no money spent for modifications. 3) No Faction leader change or Games sponsorship. If the Faction is currently without a faction leader, the Senator with the most influence will be so named. Players may place standing orders to alter their personal Default Moves. For example, a player could always attempt a Persuasion with no money outlay against the weakest opposing Senator whenever no unaligned Senator is available in the Forum. Or a player could specify that he will always spend sufficient money from his most persuasive Senator (if he has it) to bring the Persuasion Number to "9" for any Unopposed Persuasion attempt versus unaligned Senators. OPPOSED PERSUASION ATTEMPT: If a persuasion Attempt is made against an aligned Senator, the GM must decide whether the attempt is frivolous or whether it has a genuine chance of success. Generally speaking, an attempt is considered frivolous unless the Persuader specifies that he will back his attempt with an expenditure of money or the target Senator is unable to spend enough money from his Faction Treasury to reduce the base Persuasion Number to "1". If the GM considers the attempt frivolous, he announces the attempt and the necessary transfer of funds to defeat it. However, if he judges the attempt to be non-frivolous, he makes a call to all players for any bribes and counter-bribes they wish to send from their Faction Treasuries to the target Senator. Such expenditures cannot be conditional; they must specify a given amount. The Persuasion Attempt is then resolved after one round with no knowledge of what other players spent. Players may try to communicate with one another to coordinate their efforts, but if their response is not returned to the GM in time, it is a default. If there is more than one opposed Persuasion Attempt (by different players), they are announced and resolved simultaneously. Should one attempt have an effect upon another, they are resolved in clockwise order starting with the player to the left of the HRAO. However, all bribes and counterbribes for all attempts must be submitted simultaneously. (The Default bid for a Persuasion defense is no money spent; the Default bid for a Persuasion attack is all money in the Persuading Senator's Personal Treasury.) At this time the players also respond with their simultaneous bids for the sixth initiative. These bids can be conditional on the outcome of the preceding Persuasion attempt(s), but they cannot be based on opposing bids (such as "I bid one more than anyone else"). The bids should also include any special instructions pwrtaining to the resolution of that initiative if won. Tie bids are awarded to the HRAO, or to the player closest to him in clockwise order. SIXTH INITIATIVE RESOLUTION: The GM announces the amounts bid by each Faction (but not the individual Senator doing the bidding), and the subsequent resolution of the sixth initiative and calls for simultaneous defense of any Persuasion Attempt associatesd with it. If none, combine with the next phase. The Default bid is "0". POPULATION PHASE: The GM announces Faction vote totals, Leader Age/Senator Revival, and Population Phase results and calls for the HRAO's nomination for Consuls. The HRAO resaponds directly to all players with his nomination. All players send their votes to the GM simultaneously. The Default Move allows the GM to make nominations. VOTING: All voting is considered simultaneous -- except that the Presiding Magistrate is given the ability to make conditional votes based on his ability to vote last. Players may communicate with each other to try to determine how the others will vote, but there is no guarantee that they will be told the truth. Only the Presiding Magistrate may make conditional votes such as: "I'll spend as many Talents as necessary to secure passage of this proposal up to a maximum of X Talents." All others wishing to buy additional votes must do so with a statement of a specific number of Talents spent. There are two exceptions to this rule. During Consul For Life votes,the Presiding Magistrate is not allowed to make conditional votes for the passage of his own candidate, but must pick a value just like everybody else. However, if the Consul For Life candidate belongs to another Faction, the Presiding Magistrate may make conditional votes to defeat him. Second, the Presiding Magistrate may publicly announce at the time of his proposal or nomination that he is giving the right to make Conditional Votes to another player -- usually one of his nominees. That player alone has the right to make Conditional votes during that proposal. Alternatively, among experienced players, the GM may allow the Presiding Magistrate to announce, prior to the vote, an order for voting. Although all votes are still cast simultaneously, all the players may make conditional votes based solely on the outcome of the votes cast prior to their turn. The Presiding Magistrate also has the ability to specify the order in which votes are cast. Although voting is simultaneous, the order in which it is resolved can be important should two or more players wish to veto the same proposal. Should the Presiding Magistrate fail to specify a sequence for voting, the GM will resolve the vote in clockwise order starting with the player to the left of the HRAO. Defaulters abstain, except in the case of Land Bills which they vote for without expending any additional money to buy votes. CONSULAR ELECTIONS: When voting on the HRAO's nominations, the nominees also forward their preferences for Rome/Field Consul as well as their nominee for Censor. The outgoing HRAO also forwards his second choices for Consuls in case his first pair fails to gain passage. The GM announces the vote by Faction. If the nominees are elected, he specifies the office attained by each as well as their new Influence totals. This phase ends with the announcement of the new Censor nominee and a call for votes. A default by the HRAO allows the GM to make the next nomination. CENSOR ELECTIONS: The Censor nominee, when responding with his votes,also indicates to the GM, what, if any, Prosecutions he will pursue in the next Phase. He also indicates his choice for Prosecutor. The HRAO when voting will indicate his next choice for Censor should the first be defeated, as well as his first proposal in case the Censor declines prosecution. The GM will again announce the outcome of the election. If it fails, he will announce the next nomination. If it succeeds, he will announce the Censor's prosecutions, if any, and call for a vote. If the newly elected Censor declines prosecution, the GM announces the next proposal before the Senate and call for a vote. In all cases, the GM has the authority to make his own nominations and proposals if the Presiding Magistrate has failed to supply him with areasonable proposal of his own by the stated deadline. The HRAO may make conditional proposals based on the outcome of elections, or even based on who voted for whom during the election. The GM will act in the best interests of Rome -- not necessarily in the best interest of the Presiding Magistrate -- when making substitute proposals. Note that deals made by e-mail between players are not considered "Open Trade" and are unenforceable -- even if the GM was sent a carbon copy of the agreement. To be considered a valid Open Trade, an agreement must be made and agreed to before all players in the game. When trades are made, the GM informs all the players of the transfer of the card(s) involved between factions -- but does not identify those cards. PROSECUTIONS: Unlike the live game, the Prosecuting Senator does not have to agree to the prosecution to be named Prosecutor. However, if his Faction votes that the accused is innocent, the accused is automatically set free without use of Tribunes or Appeals. By voting that the accused is guilty, the prosecuting senator accepts his role. The accused automatically votes first in any prosecution, so he cannot make conditional votes or appeals. If he is going to play a Tribune, Appeal to the People, buy votes, seek exile, or just vote with his faction's normal bloc of votes, he must do so regardless of how others vote. However, he is still within his rights to Appeal to the People and then play a Tribune if the results of the appeal are not to his likely (provided, of course, that he is not killed by the mob). Obviously, it is the HRAO's best interest to send as many conditional proposals to the GM as he wants acted upon -- otherwise he risks losing the right to make his own proposal. During all this, the other players can be sending e-mail to each other (either individually or in groups) in attempts to influence the HRAO or the "body politic" to the wisdom of a particular course of action. However, the HRAO drives the Senate meeting and puts his proposals to a vote one after another. There is no time out for diplomacy (which is expected to be ongoing throughout the game). The GM can always alter the HRAO's proposals if he feels they are illegal or frivolous. Should two players play a Tribune in the same phase to force a proposal to a vote, the GM will use the one closest to the HRAO in clockwise order. COMBAT PHASE: The GM resolves and announces War results and calls for players to e-mail their orders for entrance of new statesmen, Concessions, and return of forces or revolt orders. Orders for revolts can be conditional based on the outcome of legion alliance rolls. However, any money spent to test allegiance must be reported to all players. The Default Move is to have no red cards played, and all forces returned to Rome. REVOLUTION PHASE: The GM announces any red cards played and revolts declared, as well as the result of the next Mortality Phase. Commence the next turn. RULE 7.3321 TIME DELAY: Whenever a War or Revolt card is drawn from the deck that would match a face-up War or Revolt card already located in the Forum, the drawn card is placed face-down in the Inactive War slot for the remainder of the current turn. If the face-up card is located in the Inactive War slot, it is immediately moved to an Active War slot; otherwise face-up cards are not affected in any way. At the beginning of each new turn, before any other action is taken, all cards in the Inactive War slot are turned face-up and one card for each War or Revolt is moved to an Active War slot on the Forum. Wars should be selected for activation in chronological order (e.g., 1st Macedonian before 2nd Macedonian)whenever possible. An Inactive War and its Leader are instantly matched and activated; there is no delay. If a Leader is drawn that matches an Active War, the Leader is immediately played on the Active War card -- but no additional War cards are activated. EXAMPLE: First Punic War begins the game face-up in an Inactive War slot. Second Punic is drawn; it is placed face-down in an Inactive slot and the First Punic War is moved to an Active War slot. Third Punic War is drawn in the same turn; it is placed face-down in an Inactive War slot. The Hannibal Leader card is drawn and is immediately placed with the active First Punic War. At the start of the Turn 2, Second Punic War is moved to an Active War slot but Third Punic War remains inactive until the start of Turn 3. If the Hamilcar Leader card is drawn during either turn, it would be placed with an active Punic War card. Third Punic War would remain inactive. Julian Barker There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don't know what it is a plan for. - Fred Hoyle