- At the start of the game, each player is “born” into — that is, randomly assigned to — a small, hierarchical and generally closed community, which is organized along bloodlines and proximity.
- Each player is randomly assigned a role in the hierarchy of the community.
- Each community controls a certain amount of resources, determined by the outcomes of previous games and the choices of previous players.
- Based on her role in the community, each player receives a certain amount of the resources controlled by the community, at the start of the game and over the course of the game.
- A person can renounce the resources available to her, share those resources, maintain the amount of resources available to her, and/or try to get more resources.
- If a player wants more resources, she can compete for them in accordance with the rules of her community and her role; she can try to take on a different role in the community, in accordance with the rules determined by her community and her role; or she can attempt to take on a role in another community and compete for its resources, in accordance with the rules of that community and her role in it.
- There are as many ways to compete for resources as there are communities in which to compete, but the goal always remains the same: to change one’s status within the community. Each player’s allocation of resources is ultimately determined by her status and role in the community.
- Each player can choose, if she so wishes, a specific victory condition or conditions from a set of options defined by her community and her role in the community.
- To join another community, a player must ingratiate herself to a person or persons in the targeted community, who can determine who is or is not a member of the targeted community.
- The game ends, for each player, when she dies, even if she achieves her victory condition or conditions before death.
- To determine the number and kind of communities, the relevant roles, and the rules for each, a designated player should, with a roll of the two ten sided dice provided, determine at what time in history the players are to be born and consult Chart A: Demographics, Class, and Resources Through the Ages.
Who wants to play?
Posted in: Politics and Society
Von Allan
February 24, 2012
Bertell Ollman (http://politics.as.nyu.edu/object/BertellOllman) put out a game in the early 80s that touched on a lot of this. It’s called Class Struggle and delved into thing. It’s out of print, but I’d love to get my hands on a copy. You can a few pics at http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/game.php
Sterling Lynch
February 24, 2012
Awesome! And it includes the rules: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/game_rules.php
Sarah Keogh Goforth
February 27, 2012
If `i read that in the rule book I don’t think I would want to play that game…
Sterling Lynch
February 29, 2012
I feel the same way. These rules are thesubtext of my previous post because I think this is the game we are all playing, whether we know it or not.