Shoot The Messenger
From DispatchWiki
by Leonard
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The historic peace accord between Freedonia and Pottsylvania has brought an economic boom to the two countries! Trade soars as former enemies scramble to do business with each other. Who could be against this new prosperity? No one! No one at all!
This is a game for two, three, or four players which might be cooperative, competitive, or both. The players are trade diplomats negotiating the sale of lumber from Pottsylvania to Freedonia. Secretly, each player might or might not actually want the deal to succeed. Determining the true motives of your opposite number might bring you both wealth and prestige, or it might get you arrested, and it's probably not possible anyway because you don't speak the same language.
[edit] Equipment
[edit] Cards
A set of cards for each country (red backs for Freedonia, green backs for Pottsylvania). Each card establishes:
- A motive
- Whether or not the owner of the card wants the lumber deal to go through
- If the deal should go through, whether the owner would prefer a high price or a low price
- A special win condition
There should be at least six motive cards per side: four providing ulterior motives based on greed, bureaucratic CYA, or hatred for the former enemy; and two providing patriotic (but also somewhat ulterior) motives. Some sample motive cards are provided below.
[edit] Dice
One white d6 to show the market price. For each negotiator, a white d6, a red d6, and a green d6.
[edit] Other
A computer with Internet access.
[edit] Rules
The game can be played with two, three, or four players. I'm not sure if the three- or four-player variants are worth keeping around.
[edit] Base rules
Players choose roles or determine them randomly. Each player draws a card from the deck of their country, establishing their goals. Since the card represents the state of your mind, you can only show it under certain circumstances.
Establish the market price for lumber by rolling one white d6. This d6 is not touched for the rest of the game.
Pottsylvanians and Freedonians speak different languages. To simulate this, choose a language (eg. Chinese) or a chain of languages (eg. French, German, Portuguese) to stand in for Freedu and Pottsch. Long language chains mean more confusion, as do non-Romance languages. You get pretty good results choosing Chinese for one language and Japanese for the other.
The negotiations begin. The Freedonian government wants to buy lumber cheap and the Pottsylvanian side wants to sell it dear. Determine order randomly: either the Freedonians or the Pottsylvanians may make the first offer.
When an offer is made, the other side can accept it, reject it (that is, walk away and end the negotiations), or make a counteroffer. If a counteroffer is made, it's the original side's turn to accept, reject, or counteroffer.
The game ends when an offer is decisively accepted or rejected. It's possible for all players of a round to win with the same score (possibly at the expense of both countries). It's also possible for all players to score zero points despite all having the same desired outcome.
[edit] Making an offer
To make an offer, you put down your white d6 with the proposed price on the top face. This is the amount the Pottsylvanian government will receive for the lumber. You may also put down your red d6 and/or green d6. These are bribes. The Freedonian government pays the total of the three dice, but only the number on the white die actually makes it to the Pottsylvanian government. The amount on the green die is to be added to the Pottsylvanian player's score, and the amount on the red die is to be added to the Freedonian player's score.
With your offer you should send a message to the other player, trying to convince them to take it. You can say whatever you want in the message, but be aware that it will go through a translator.
[edit] When an offer is accepted
A player gets 1 point if their motive is satisfied by a successful deal. They also get 1 point if they met their special win condition. They get 1 point for every pip showing on their bribe die.
If the actual price of the lumber was less than the market price, the Freedonian players get 2 points from their government. If the actual price is greater than market price, the Pottsylvanian player gets 2 points from theirs.
For the Freedonia team, the "actual price" is the sum of all three dice: the total price paid by Freedonia, including bribes. So if the market price is 4, and the deal went through with a price of 3 plus a green bribe of one and a red bribe of one, then to the Freedonians the price of the lumber was 5: above the market price. For the Pottsylvania team, the "actual price" is only the number on the white die: the amount of money actually received by Pottsylvania. In the example above, the price of the lumber to the Pottsylvanians was only 3, below market price.
[edit] When an offer is rejected
A player gets 1 point if their motive is satisfied by a deal that falls through. They also get 1 point if they met their special win condition. They do not get any bribes or rewards from their government.
[edit] Accusation
The political situation is unstable. Both the Diet of Freedonia and the Pottsylvanian Gesetzgebunghaus want this historic deal to go through. Depending on the motives, neither player may want the deal to go through, but making overt overtures to this effect may let the other player accuse you of being an enemy of the peace.
Any player may so accuse any other at any time. The accused player is taken to the Room of Questions (or Fregenraum, as they call it in Pottsylvania), where their innermost secrets are laid bare. More importantly, they must expose their motive card.
If their card reveals selfish motives, the player is condemned and removed from the game. This happens even if their selfish motives aligned them with their government in trying to get the deal to go through. If their motives are basically patriotic, the whole thing is hushed up and it is the accuser who is removed from the game. The only thing that matters is the card: actual behavior, or bribes proposed or considered, do not count one way or the other.
If a player is removed from an n-player game, but there is still at least one Pottsylvanian and at least one Freedonian, the game continues as an (n-1)-player game. If only Pottsylvanians or only Freedonians are left, all remaining players win the game with one point divided evenly between them.
[edit] Two-player rules
The main difference between the two-, three-, and four-player variants is the way translation works. Except for the numbers shown on their dies, the negotiators can only communicate through translated messages.
In the two-player game, this translation happens completely automatically. The Freedonian player writes their message, then uses Babelfish or Google Translate to "translate" it into Potsch. They send the translated text to the Pottsylvanian player, who translates it back into English. The Pottsylvanian player then writes a response, automatically translates it into Freedu, and sends it to the Freedonian player, who translates it back into English. The manual steps can be automated with a script.
Here's a sample start of a two-player game. It's been decided that to get from English to Freedu you translate English to German to French. To get from English to Potsch you translate English to simplified Chinese.
1a. The Freedonian negotiator wants to say, "Freedonia will pay four dollars a unit for the lumber. My superiors will accept nothing more."
1b. Freedonia turns up the 4 face of his white d6, translates the message into simplified Chinese with Google Translate, and sends it to Pottsylvania: "Freedonia 将支付四美元单位木材。我的优胜者将接受无 事反而"
2a. Pottsylvania uses Babelfish to translate Pottsch back into English: "Freedonia will pay four US dollars units lumbers. My winner will accept the safe instead."
2b. Pottsylvania doesn't know what to make of the second sentence. Maybe the Freedonian is suggesting that the two negotiators enrich themselves at Freedonia's expense? She decides to say "Instead? What do you want instead? Do you want to make a side deal?"
2c. Pottsylvania turns up the 3 of her white die, and the 1 of her red die and green die as a test bribe. She uses Babelfish to translate her message into German and then French with Babelfish. Freedonia receives this: "Au lieu de ça ? Que souhaitez-vous au lieu ? voudriez-vous former un accord latéral ?"
4a. Freedonia translates the French back to English with Google Translate, and reads: "Instead of that? What do you wish with the place? would you like to form a side agreement?"
And so on.
[edit] Three-player games
This works like the two-player game, except that the third player is responsible for doing all the translations. This player runs English messages through through the electronic translators forwards and then backwards, then has a chance to clean them up before delivery. But the third player is either Freedonian or Pottsylvanian, and from the appropriate deck she has drawn a motive card of her own. She has a stake in seeing the deal succeed or fail, and her translations may not be trustworthy.
The translator cannot change the structure of a translated sentence, and changing the number indicating the price would not work (since the real numbers are visible on the dice) but she can change individual words; say, a fifth of the words in the sentence. Consider the message:
"Freedonia will pay four US dollars units lumbers. My winner will accept the safe instead."
The translator sees the original English and knows that the second sentence is way off (the concept could apparently not be translated into Pottsch). If she wants (for whatever reason) the message to go through, can improvise to try to make it make more sense to the Pottsylvanians:
"Freedonia will pay you four US dollars unit lumber. My boss will accept no amount instead."
If she wants a slightly different message to go through:
"Freedonia will pay you four US dollars units lumbers. My boss will want a consideration forever."
She might then proceed to paint the Pottsylvanian negotiators as corrupt, either to scuttle the deal or to skim off of the top. Note how she left some grammatical errors in the translated sentence (and used the mistranslation-sounding "forever" instead of "also") to make it look less altered.
The translator can accuse someone or be accused of being an enemy of the peace. In a three-player game, the translator gets half of all bribes if an offer is accepted. She does not get rewards from either government, but she can get points for meeting her personal secret goals.
[edit] Four-player games
Now there are two translators: one Freedonian and one Pottsylvanian. An English message from the Freedonian negotiator goes to the Freedonian translator, who may modify it before translating it into Pottsch. The Pottsylvanian translator translates it back into English, modifies it, and hands it to the Pottsylvanian negotiator. When the Pottsylvanian negotiator speaks, the Pottsylvanian translator translates it to Freedu, and sends it to the Freedonian translator.
Each translator plays by the same rules as the translator in the three-player game. They can't change the structure of a sentence, or the numbers visible on the dies, but they can alter one in five of the individual words. Both translators have a motive card for their countries, and both can accuse or be accused by any other player.
Translators can send messages to each other with the understanding that the other will overwrite it with diplomatic niceties. Of course, the messages might not survive the translation process.
In the four-player game, translators _are_ rewarded by their governments if the deal goes the right way. Each translator splits any appropriate bribe with the negotiator from the same country.
[edit] Sample motive cards
Your connections to the Pottsylvanian logging industry have served you well throughout your career. Now you are in a position to reward your patrons.
Special win: the sale is completed at a price above the market value.
Freedonia cannot afford this foolish purchase! You know more than your superiors suspect about the state of her finances. When the true cost of this deal is revealed, it is you who will take the fall.
Special win: the sale is rejected even though the offering price is below the market value.
Pottsylvanian lumber is the greatest lumber available! This deal could make Pottsylvanian industry the darling of the developed world. Your short-sighted superiors want you to gouge the Freedonians, not seeing that the key to success in this market is to undercut the competitors.
Special win: the sale goes through at a price below the market price.
You are a strong believer in the power of markets. Such a strong believer, in fact, that any deviation from the equilibrium price in this negotiation would be a disaster to the economic theories you've made the cornerstone of your career (what's more, it could jeopardize your shot at a cushy IMF consultancy).
Win condition: the sale goes through at exactly the market price.
[edit] Things that need fixing
The point system. If you draw a motive card that aligns your interests with your government's, you can get more points than if your interests are opposed. One card should be a "spy" card where you get a point for fulfilling the *other* government's wishes, but that doesn't help much. In general, the various advantages allowed by the different goals (eg. wanting to go over budget makes you able to accept a high price *and* a big bribe) need to cancel out for a fairer game. Maybe the patriot's immunity from accusation could be used to cancel out the advantage of being able to accept bribes.
Since language is so treacherous in this game, a smart strategy might be to just not use it: to communicate entirely through dice. I want the messages to try to feel out the other player's hidden motives in hopes that the players can join forces and enrich themselves. The reward for this needs to be enough that you're willing to step into the minefield of language.
A game should probably consist of two rounds, one where a team plays the Freedonians and one where you play the Pottsylvanians. That will cancel out any relative advantage you get just from being, but the motive cards, if designed right, could also cancel it out. It will also reduce the effects of chance.
The games of more than two players might not be worth it. I like the idea of translators with agendas, but maybe it should go into another game.
[edit] Game balance levers
- The number of points everything is worth, obviously.
- Adjusting the distribution of the motive cards. Freedonians might be
more likely to have certain motives than Pottsylvanians.
- The above, plus having the Freedonia win conditions be calculated
inclusive of bribes but the Pottsylvania win conditions calculated exclusive of bribes. "Above market price" for Freedonia might be "Below market price" for Pottsylvania because of bribes.
- Special rules for accusing translators due to egregious
mistranslations.
