MM4: Sheeped to Greener Pastures

In this game, players take up the role of sheep and try to eat the most grass while sharing pasture spaces with other players.

This game has a 20 minute pre-game phase for viewing the initial board and discussion, and then takes place over five rounds, with each round lasting 15 minutes.

General and Pre-Game Phase

This game takes place on a 14x14 board, labeled A-N on columns and 1-14 on rows. A vertical fence between columns G and H separates the board into two distinct pastures. Each tile on the pasture will contain a number value representing the amount of grass on that tile. These tiles cannot disappear or be destroyed. Each round, these values double.

Each round, players may move around in their pastures, which are separate areas on the board contained within fences, and fences will be built based on the Fence Construction Plan.

In the Pre-Game Phase, players must also privately submit for a singular coordinate. The player as a sheep will begin on that coordinate when Round 1 begins. Players submitting the same coordinate will start on the same coordinate.

Player Movement

Each round, players may privately submit a coordinate (e.g. C12); this coordinate would be the position on the board they will move to at the end of the round, before fences are constructed. Players may only move to a coordinate in the same row or column they currently reside in, and they may not move out of bounds of the pasture they are presently contained in, with the exception of the use of gates.

Each player will begin the game with 1 Gate, which may be used by a sheep to bypass a fence and enter an adjacent pasture. When a Gate is used, you must privately submit the two coordinates the gate lies between to place the gate, and any number of players may pass through it for the round it is placed. If a player submits a coordinate in another pasture without a Gate having been placed in their movement path, the player moves to the very end of the pasture they reside in instead.

A player may also spend two garnets to purchase an additional Gate. Each player may only purchase one Gate maximum. Two gates cannot be placed by the same player within the same round.

Fence Construction Plan

Each round, a fence must be constructed in each pasture if possible. In the # fence-construction-plan channel, players can publicly submit one plan to build a fence in the pasture they reside in at the beginning of the round before any movement has been made. If no one in a given pasture has submitted a plan, the plan for the given pasture will automatically be to split the pasture in half, randomized between a horizontal or vertical fence, with uneven halves favoring left and top being the larger pasture respectively.

A plan consists of two elements: fence orientation and coordinates. Fence orientation can be either horizontal or vertical, and coordinates (e.g. “Between columns G and H”) determine the location the fence is planted. A horizontal fence must be planted between rows and a vertical fence must be planted between columns.

Each round, for each pasture, one fence construction plan will pass, determined by the following procedure.

Plan Voting and Passing

Each round, players must privately submit votes for fence construction plans. Players may vote for as many fence construction plans as they want.

However, these votes separate into two categories dependent on if the plan’s fence is in the pasture they reside in at the beginning of the round. Your vote for a plan in your pasture is a Dominant Vote, whereas your vote for a plan in other pastures is an Influence Vote.

A singular construction plan with the highest number of Dominant Votes passes, with the tiebreakers being as follows, from top down:

1. Influence Votes.
2. The number of spaces traveled in the previous round by the players who submitted the plans are compared, and the higher count wins.
3. In the unlikely event that this still is a tie, the plan that was submitted earlier will pass.

Players may spend a garnet to buy an extra Dominant Vote for fence construction plans in any pasture.

Scoring, Game End and Information

At the end of each round, the score is calculated as such:

Players score points each round based on the sum of the grass values in their pasture, divided evenly among all players in the same pasture after fences are drawn (the remainder is discarded). (Keep in mind that the grass values double each round.)

At the end of each round, the following information is revealed publicly:

All fences drawn (and as such, the plan that passes).

Each players’ pastures at the end of each round.

Your exact coordinate location will be revealed to you privately.

At the end of five rounds, the following occurs:

1. The lowest-scoring player becomes the Elimination Candidate. Ties are broken by the highest scorer[s].
2. If a player is the sole highest scorer, they earn 2 Tokens of Life. If there is a tie for first, all tied players win one Token of Life each.
3. After this, the player with the next-highest score earns one Token of Life. If there is a tie, none of the tied players win a Token of Life.
4. If more than 8 Tokens of Life are handed out, all Tokens of Life will be nullified.

The player[s] with the highest score earn[s] 2 garnets. The player[s] with the highest score after that earn[s] 1 garnet.