EGaD Rules

[Andreas the Wise]

Here are the rules for EGaD, the joint RPing system Gralan citizens use. Basically, it allows us to jump into stories and use whatever characters are there without having to ask specific permission (which makes it much easier to jump in). This works because people declare before hand which story elements are really important to them, and can protest on those specific elements if they don't like what you've done. You don't need to declare an element list to participate; doing so just makes it possible for you to protest. By default, we'll assume you're playing under EGaD unless you specifically tell us otherwise, ie tell us you don't want others to participate/interfere.

EGaD!: Elements, Grade, and Dominion!

Elements are the building blocks of this system. An Element doesn't mean Earth, Fire, or Water, or even something off of the Periodic Table; it is simply any component of a fictional universe. In Gralus, here are a few possible Elements:

• the Imperial Police force
• the people of Novatainia
• the people of Laranel
• Kane conSkoitomashu
• the weather
• the weather in New Myzoria

It's worth noting that Elements can be of any breadth--that is, they can be very broad ("civilians everywhere") or very specific ("the patrons of the Silver Spade tavern in Tempestad"). They can also be almost abstract things like "the weather" or "public opinion" (or their derivatives--"the weather in New Myzoria", "the Emperor's reputation").

A special kind of Element is a Character, representing any single intelligent being within the fictional world. A Character is the "narrowest" possible Element--"Kane" is an Element, while "Kane's left arm" is not. A Character's Element does not include his or her equipment; that is contained in other elements (e.g. "Kane's gear" or "Kane's staff" or "Skoitomashu mages' gear").

Each Player, or real person, has a list of Elements that are important to them in the story. On this list, they have given each Element a Grade of how much they want to control what happens to that Element. Each Player has a total of 100 points to distribute as Grades, plus five Character Slots. Here is an example that could be used as an Element List:

Characters:
1) Empress Kara Eichmann
2) Kane conSkoitomashu
3) Felix of Rapture
4) Johnson, CEO of JCorp
5) Yurisën, the Manifestation of Mischief

Other Elements:
- Imperial Police Force - 20
- Citizens of Gralus - 30
- Skoitomashu Academy of Magic - 20
- JCorp - 20
- Worshipers of Mischief - 10

You can rewrite your Element List once a month, but the total value (100 points, 5 characters) should remain constant. You don't have to fill in your entire List at the start; in fact, it's often a good idea to leave some blank areas in case something comes up that you want to be involved in without having to wait a whole month to redeploy. (You can fill in blank spaces immediately without waiting for the one-month period).

Note that Grade in no way correlates to strength. The Imperial Police Force is the Imperial Police Force, a highly trained national defense unit, regardless of what Grade someone has in "Imperial Police Force." This is probably one of the best parts of EGAD!; things are what they are, rather than having to be "OrBatted."

Dominion is the last big part of EGaD!, used to figure out who has control over which Elements. No one person has absolute Dominion over a certain Element; rather, it is determined dynamically each time there is a conflict of interest.

For example, let's say Andreas thinks it would be cool story-wise for the citizens of Novatainia to begin to shun magic-users, while Nicholas would rather keep things at the status quo where mages are accepted everywhere. To determine who has Dominion over the citizens of Novatainia in this situation, simply compare the Grades of each Player in that Element, and the higher one wins. If Andreas has a Grade of 25 in "Novatainian Populace" and Nicholas has a Grade of 30, then Nicholas has Dominion in this specific instance. (If there is a tie, the two people share Dominion).

If two or more people want to work together and pool their Grades to gain Dominion over an Element in a situation (if, for example, someone is abusing their Grade of 70 in "People of the World"), that's perfectly okay. Remember that Dominion is calculated separately for each and every conflict of interest. There might be someone out there with a Grade of 99 in "Novtainian Populace," but if they don't have an opinion in the conflict between Nick and Andreas over magic-shunning, Nick still has Dominion because he has more than Andreas.

Also note that determining Dominion deals with the Elements that are taking action; in the above example, you consider the citizens of Novatainia, not the magic users. Andreas might have a Grade of 50 in "The Mages of MANA" while Nicholas doesn't have that Element listed at all, but Andreas still can't force the non-magical citizens to shun the mages because the citizens are the ones taking action. The important part is who has Dominion over the non-magical citizens, and in this example, it's Nicholas.

The above method of determining Dominion only works if both Players have Grades in Elements of equal breadth. If one player's element is broader than the other (Andreas has 25 in "Novatainian Populace" while Bayen has 30 in "Citizens of Gralus"), then specific always beats general, regardless of Grade. "Weather in Laranel" beats "Weather" in general; "Citizens of Novatica" beats "Citizens of Novatainia" -- in this case, the Grade doesn't matter. When two overlapping Elements are different but of near equal breadth, then resort to Grade. For instance, when trying to determine who has Dominion over the mages of Novatainia when one person has "Magic-users of Gralus" and another has "Citizens of Novataina", since neither is that much broader than the other, look at Grade.

Dominion over Characters is easy; if you have them listed in one of your Character Slots, then you always have Dominion over them. (You also can't "steal" someone else's character; if they've already listed them in one of their Slots, you can't try and list them as well).

Dominion, however, does NOT translate into absolute control over an Element. It does give a Player some influence over how that Element is treated.

Let's go back to the example with Nicholas and Andreas trying to determine whether or not the population of Novatainia is going to shun magic. For this example, Nicholas has Dominion because he has a higher Grade in "Novatainian Populace"). To start off, Andreas posts exactly what he wants to happen:

The people of Novatainia, fed up with all the arcane goings-on, decide to shun mages of all shapes and sizes, passing laws for the registration and containment of magic.

Nicholas has Dominion, but he is NOT allowed to simply say, "No; it doesn't happen that way." He can, however, impose a Condition to further his story goals. Recalled that Andreas currently has Dominion over the mages of MANA. Nicholas could then post in response:

Alright, the people of Novataina decide to shun magic, but only if MANA leads a pro-magic social movement.

Andreas can then decide whether he wants to accept Nicholas' demand or reject it. If he accepts, then both happen (Novans shun magic; MANA leads the resistance), but if he rejects it, neither happens.

Conditions don't necessarily have to relate to the initial proposition; they're simply an OOC way to determine what happens in the overall story arc. If Nicholas had an idea for a story about the Heart of MANA, so he could have said, "The Novans shun magic, but only if the Heart of MANA is stolen by mysterious bandits!" Also, Conditions can simply be alterations rather than additions--Nicholas could have said, "Okay, the Novans will shun mages, but only non-human mages."

(If Dominion is shared by more than one person, they all have the opportunity to post Conditions).

Once a person posts an action, other EGaD! participants have 48 hours to posts any Conditions they want to; once that time limit has passed, you can no longer post any new Conditions and the action is considered to have occurred. The original poster then has another 48 hours to accept or reject the Condition(s); if he or she does not respond, the Condition is automatically accepted.

EGaD! is basically a story bartering system where you define what is important to you (your Element List), then bargain with others to achieve your backstory goals. The entire atmosphere is cooperative. If you're nice to others in helping them work in their stories, then they'll probably be nice to you when you need a favor. If you're a selfish jerk and post unreasonable Conditions ("okay, but only if all of your PCs die"), then people won't be inclined to bargain with you and you'll be left out in the cold.