A Game Invention - 2
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The playing system
The game can be played by two to six players. Plots is a game that proceeds only by negotiation. The winner is the player with the highest payoff after all negotiation has ceased. Payoff can be gained only by negotiation, but enhanced payoff can be gained, at least in the short term, by cheating.
Play passes round in turn from player to player. On his/her turn a player has a choice of three options:
1. Try to negotiate investment in a deal.
2. Invest in someone else's deal - 'riding'.
3. Try to negotiate the 'redemption' of a deal.
Negotiating investment in a deal
A 'deal' is an agreement between two players to cooperate to achieve a shared objective. The objective doesn't need to be specified by the players - it's purely a means of gaining a payoff. The payoff to a player can be one or zero and depends on whether one, both, or neither of the two truly did cooperate. The payoff is also reliant on negotiation between the two players to jointly 'redeem' their deal - this can be done at any time in the game.
Suppose it was red's turn to play. In the example below, he/she has negotiated a deal with purple. The cards are placed together on the table, signifying their agreement to cooperate to achieve a shared objective.
Presumably red trusts that purple is genuinely cooperating, and likewise purple trusts red. However, the reality is that either player may secretly be 'dissenting' - cheating by not genuinely cooperating with the other. A player might dissent to deny their partner his/her final payoff from the deal, whilst keeping their own.
Cooperation or dissent is signified by the underneath of the cards. The example below shows that red chose to cooperate - the half-handshakes are placed against purple's card. Purple, however, chose to cheat - by placing his/her half-handshakes away from red.
Of course it may be that both players cooperated, or that both dissented. By keeping the underneath of their card from view, the players ensure that their true purpose is kept secret until the time comes to negotiate the redemption of their deal.
In Plots the number of deals allowed on the table is equal to the number of players in the game. Therefore if there are six players and six deals on the table, no further deals are possible.
However, deals can become multi-level. Further investment can be made by playing cards on top of those already in the game, as long as they are the same colour as the ones below and that the same joint agreement rules are applied.
Gambling on the fortunes of others
To recap - 'riding' someone else's deal is done by placing one's card upside down next to a card already in a deal. In the example below, orange and blue are in a deal with each other and green has used his/her turn to ride blue.
The final payoff - if there is one - for green will be the same as blue's, even though green is not actually party to the deal.
Riding gives the players an opportunity to invest without the need for negotiation. No agreement is required with another player. This is useful if, for instance, a player has a bad reputation by having been shown to be untrustworthy following the outcome of other deals - if no deals are available, a rider card can still be played.
Multi-level riders should note, however, that if they stand to gain too much by riding someone else's deal, the dealer may calculate that it's preferable not to agree to its redemption, because the rider would gain more than they do.
There are no restrictions on riding - any player can ride any side of any deal. In the example above, yellow is in a deal with blue and is also riding both sides of the deal.
Redeeming a deal - cashing-in
The only way to gain a payoff is through the redemption of a deal. This is done by negotiation between the two dealing parties. On a player's turn, he/she may suggest to their deal partner that the deal is now redeemed. If there is agreement, the deal cards are turned over to reveal the underneath, and the payoff allocated accordingly.
Note that in a multi-level deal, only the top deal cards are turned over on redemption. This is because when adding additional levels to a deal, the parties aren't required to be consistent with their original intention to cooperate or dissent. A player who genuinely cooperated when the deal was first struck may decide to dissent later on, when additional levels are negotiated - or vice versa.
An important aspect of Plots is that a deal can only be redeemed by agreement between the two parties. If one party does not agree, the deal cannot be redeemed. It may well be that some deals - where the parties have lost confidence in each other - are never redeemed and all investment is lost.
In a single-level deal the payoff is as follows:
1. Both players cooperated: one to each player.
2. Both players dissented: zero to each player.
3. Only one player cooperated: zero to the player who cooperated and one to the cheat who dissented.
Riders receive a payoff if the player whose fortunes they backed received a payoff.
In a multi-level deal the payoff principle is the same, except that it is multiplied by the number of cards in the stack. For example if a three-level deal is redeemed in which blue genuinely cooperated but red was a cheat, the payoff is zero to blue and three to red. If green rode red to four levels the payoff to green is four. If purple rode blue to two levels the payoff to purple is zero.
