Subject: Lemurcon - the aftermath
From: vkochend@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Vance Kochenderfer- noted Hellenist)
Date: 25 Jun 1996 21:32:07 -0600
Newsgroups: alt.fan.lemurs

It was hot, humid, and lightly attended, but I think a good time was had by all at Lemurcon '96. We were certainly well fed, anyway. We got to see all the great sights of Durham - Duke Chapel, Chuck E. Cheese, the Olympic torch (twice - go Dogs!), the pool at Jay and Carole's apartment complex, the museum of science and life, and last but not least, the primate center itself.

Dr. Glander was as interesting and informative as ever, and we even learned where he gets his moustache wax! We were able to help out the Center by removing some old framing from the outside of several of the cages. Maria was in awe of the incredible manliness of Jay, Joao, Ken, and myself as we performed this task.

On Saturday night, for some reason we were talking about Monopoly (the Parker Brothers board game). Jay mentioned that he had once seen a Cyrillic version of the game, which prompted me to ask, "Are they allowed to play Monopoly in Communist countries?" I spent part of the 6 hour drive home thinking about this, and the result is Communopoly, the rules for which you will find below. Feel free to suggest any changes you think would be appropriate.

A well-deserved thank you goes out to our hosts Jay and Carole, without whom none of this would have been possible. Also to Dr. Glander, who took time out from his incredibly busy schedule to give us his personal attention.

The only question that remains is: when is Lemurcon '97?

Vance Kochenderfer | "Get me out of these ropes and into a
vkochend@nyx.net | good belt of Scotch" -Nick Danger

P.S. Joao/Maria: be sure to give me a call if you stop here on the weekend!

Communopoly
~~~~~~~~~~~

You need at least three players to play, but 6 or more is probably the ideal.

In Communopoly, players don't compete against each other as venture capitalists. Instead, they form a committee, which owns all of the property. The players manage the properties for the committee.

To start the game, the players vote on a Chairman. The Chairman then selects a Treasurer ("Banker" would be bourgeois). The Treasurer must be confirmed by a 50% or greater vote of the players (excluding the Chairman and appointee). At any time, the Chairman may purge the Treasurer and select a new one. However, if the new appointee fails to receive enough confirming votes, the old Treasurer continues to serve (and will probably be unhappy about this turn of events). The Chairman himself is subject to a vote of confidence every time he passes Go. If less than 50% of the players vote with the Chairman, a new election for Chairman is held.

The Chairman then assigns a game piece to each player according to his need. The top hat is not used as it is a symbol of bourgeoisie decadance. He also selects in what order the players will roll. Each player receives half of the normal amount of money. Henceforth, any income the players receive (rent, beauty contest winnings, etc.) is subject to an immediate 50% tax which is put in the treasury. The Treasurer and Chairman are taxed at the rate of 75%.

The players move around the board normally, except when they land on an unowned property, they must ask the Chairman for permission to manage that property. If he gives permission, the players must then ask the Treasurer to transfer the property to them in exchange for 10% of the price. If the Treasurer refuses, or demands a higher payment, then the players can ask the Chairman to purge the Tresurer and select a more cooperative one. If the Chairman does not give permission to manage the property, players may take control of a property anyway by simply paying the full listed price.

The Chairman is not permitted to manage any properties. If a property- managing player is elected Chairman, he must either give his properties to the treasury or dole them out to the other players. The managers of railroads and utilities have a secret weapon - they may go on strike. If a railroad or utility goes on strike, no rent is collected by that property; however, because of the strike, rents at all other properties are reduced by 10%. The effect is cumulative, so that if both utilities and all four railroads went on strike, rents would be down 60%. The strikes end either when the other players bribe the striking player enough or when the Chairman throws the striking player in jail.

A player goes to jail under three circumstances - when he lands on the Go To Jail space, draws a Go To Jail card, or is jailed by the Chairman (which he is free to do at any time). When a player goes to jail, the Chairman decides what the punishment will be. He may keep the player in jail for up to 5 turns, and may strip the player of any or all of his properties.

When a player has mortgaged all of his property and runs out of cash, he is executed and all occurrences of his name are removed from the history books.