linuxmafia.com 2016/linuxmafia.com.tar/linuxmafia.com/pub/humour/usenet-the-flaming

Text File | 1999-06-22 | 9KB | 166 lines

Taken from http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~megF91/usenet.txt:

Wow, I work fast don't I?  Actually this is pretty much the same as 1.0,
with the addition of a few new cards and some "clarification" of the
rules (not that there was anything wrong with them in the first
place...), and a copyright notice (you _did_ ask about distribution,
John).  One of the cards is Chris Keroack's suggestion (gain one cred,
Chris!).  So anyway, without further ado...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

USENET: THE FLAMING  v 1.1    copyright(c) 1995 Matthew E. Grossman
                              see end of article for distribution
                              information

A collectible trading card game of Usenet politics and global
domination!

In this game you take the role of a "Medusa", a sinister individual
plotting to control Usenet through your "tentacles", operating from the
sites under your control.  Each player starts out with five "cred"
(symbolizing your credibility on Usenet); when you have no cred,
everyone will ignore you and you have LOST!  The objective of the game
is to be the last player remaining with cred.

There are four types of cards: sites, continous events, instant events,
and attacks.  The site cards are shuffled into a separate site deck; the
other cards are shuffled together into a play deck.  To start, each
player (on his or her first turn, proceeding clockwise) draws three site
cards and places them face up on the table, then draws seven cards from
their play deck.  Play  begins, in the same order.

At the start of a players turn, he (come on, how many girls are stupid
enough to play these games anyway?  OUCH, sorry Amy...) draws one play
card if he has less than seven cards in his hand.  If he has no cards in
his hand he draws seven new cards from his play deck.  The player then
brings on-line (untaps) any of his sites that are currently down
(tapped).  The player may then play attack or event cards.  Since these
things are being done by your tentacles at the sites you control,
playing a card involves downing a site (tying it up with your schemes).
Each attack or event card has a power rating, which indicates how
powerful a site must be in order to play that card.  These numbers go
from 1 to 3, with 3 being the most powerful, so mit.edu can play any
card, but hamp.hampshire.edu can only play cards with a power rating of
1.  A player may end his turn at any time after he has brought his sites
on-line.  He _must_ end his turn if all of his sites are down.  The
player seated clockwise then begins his turn.

Event cards may be played at any time.  Continuous events remain on the
board after they have been played (e.g. Turkish Revisionist 'Bot),
instant events produce their effect then vanish from play (e.g. Not
Allowed).  Events take effect in the order they are played, but some
events (e.g. Not Allowed) work retroactively.  Lengthy discussion and
hair-splitting analysis of the rules is required to solve these
difficulties.

Attack cards may only be played during your turn, and are the only cards
that directly effect Medusas.  The name is confusing; some attack cards
are beneficial, and you can play an attack card on yourself.

----------------Cards-------------------
Each card is listed by type, name, power, and description.  Any
resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.  Really.

Site cards:  (using these as guidlines, you can easily make up more)
  hamp.hampshire.edu, 1, A small, "alternative" college.
  mit.edu, 3, M.I.T.  'Nuff said.
  netcom.com, 2, A large Internet service provider.

Instant Event cards:
  NOT ALLOWED, 1, Leader Kibo has spoken.  Retroactively blocks last
  event card.
  INTERNET WORM, 3, An undergraduate "accidentally" releases his
  homework onto the Internet.  Curiously, only your rivals' sites are
  affected...  Downs every other players' sites for one turn.  All of them.
  UNIX PASSWORD SECURITY FLAW, 2, _Another_ one?  You may look at one
  other player's hand.
  GULLIBLE CONGRESSMAN, 2, You convince the government to finance the
  "information superhighway".  You may place one more site into play.
  FORGED SPAM, 1, You forge a spam originating from the target site.  It
  goes down for one turn.
  CANTOR AND SIEGEL (spam), 2, Those darn lawyers get an account on the
  target site.  It is _permanently_ removed from play.
  MASTER CRACKER, 3, "I'm doing this for scientific purposes...really!"
  You may look at one other player's hand _and_ take one card to add
  to your hand (if you want to).
  FLAMEWAR, 1, Causes the target player to miss his next turn as he is
  drawn into a massive flamewar.  Also blocks the effects of a Righteous
  Rant (no one gains cred).

Continuous Event cards:
  GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR, 1, The Internet was built to survive this,
  right?  All players must discard the sites currently in play and each
  draw _one_ new site.  As long as this card is in play, each player
  may only have one site.  (If you're wondering why this card is only 1
  to play, it's because any fool with a C-64 can hack the Pentagon.
  Remember "War Games"?).
  CANCELMOOSE, 2, As long as Cancelmoose is in play, no spams may be
  played, and any spams already in play are removed.
  RISKS DIGEST, 1, As long as you have this card in play, your sites may
  not be attacked by Master Cracker or Unix Password Security Flaw.  This
  does _not_ protect any other players' sites.
  TURKISH REVISIONIST 'BOT (spam), 1, For some nefarious reason, you set
  up a 'bot to decrease the signal-noise ratio on Usenet (even more?)...
  but it gets out of hand.  As long as this card is in play, every card
  costs one more power than the listed amount to play.
  CANCELBUNNY, 2, Dead agent those SP's, OSA OT's!  The Church of
  $cientology decides to cancel your posts.  As long as this card is in
  play, the target may only play one card per turn.
  ARCHIVE SITE, 3, "Knowledge is Power".  This card allows you to take
  one card from _any player's_ discard pile, and "archive" it at the site
  which you played this card on (must be one of your sites).  You may then
  play this card in the future, as if it was in your hand.  After you have
  played the card, you must discard it (though you could then archive it
  again).  If the archive site goes down, you lose the card archived
  there; if the site is removed from play, this card is discarded.

Attack cards:
  MASSIVE TROLL, 1, You are caught up in a massive troll involving
  rec.org.mensa, rec.arts.startrek.misc, rec.aquaria, sci.physics,
  alt.music.ska, alt.sex.bondage, alt.fan.hofstadter, and alt.conspiracy
  (among others).  You make a complete fool of yourself in front of
  thousands of net.citizens.  Lose 1 cred.
  OOPS!, 1, You meant to do an e-mail reply to
  that...interesting...message in alt.sex.bondage.  Instead, you post
  to alt.activism.militia.  Lose 1 cred.
  B1FF!!1!, 2, B1FF HAS THIS K00L N3W ACC0UNT!!!111!  1'M G0NNA P0ST
  FR0M 1T ALL THE T1M3!!1!!!  Your younger brother gets hold of your
  password.  You'll never live this down.  Lose 1 cred.
  FEAR THE KABAL!, 2, Dave Hayes and Stephen Boursy independently
  reveal your fiendish plans for usenet domination.  All players take a
  vote as to whether target gains or loses 1 cred.
  INITIATION, 3, In a secret 4 a.m. IRC session with Dave Lawrence, you
  are initiated into the Cabal.  Gain 1 cred.
  TIME, 1, Time Magazine writes an article on the Internet and quotes
  you.  Lose 1 cred.
  TIME AGAIN, 2, Time Magazine writes an article on the Internet and
  calls you a "cyberpunk guru".  Lose 2 cred.
  ETERNAL FAME, 2, Someone creates an alt. group named after you.  Gain
  1 cred.
  ETERNAL FAME ON AN EPIC SCALE, 3, Someone creates an alt.sex. group
  named after you.  Gain 2 cred.
  ETERNAL FOOL, 1, _You_ create an alt. group named after yourself.
  Lose 1 cred.
  REAL LIFE, 1, You find something better to do than take over Usenet.
  Lose 1 cred, but gain a life.
  DROP THE KEYBOARD, PUNK!, 2, You get raided by the Secret Service.
  Skip a turn, but gain 1 cred.
  SUMMON SHUB-INTERNET, 3, You summon Shub-Internet and wreak havoc on
  Prodigy and AOL.  Gain   Lose 2 cred, you dweeb.

  RIGHTEOUS RANT, 2, An unusually stylish and eloquent posting which
  contains polysyllabic words and polite, correctly spelled English.
  If no one counters with another Righteous Rant or Flame, gain 1 cred on
  your next turn. For each person which adds or counters with another
  Righteous Rant, each rant-player gains a cred (i.e. 3 rants = each
  rant-player gains 3 cred). (Advanced rules: 3 righteous rants in the same
  turn automatically ends the game, as it is now a discussion and no longer
  Usenet.)  -Chris Keroack

Distribution Notice:  USENET: THE FLAMING v 1.1 is (c) 1995 by me (Matthew
E. Grossman).  It may be freely distributed provided that this notice
remains attached and no fee is charged for distribution.  If you have any
card or rule ideas email them to me at [e-mail].  If I use
your ideas in the next version I'll give you credit.