Arsonist's Dilemma

Death Match 5: Arsonist’s Dilemma

Summary:

Crime City has seen a lot of wrongdoings this past week, but one criminal was left to their own devices. The Arsonist has been cracking up a secret plan to sneak into some newly built homes just off of Main Street. In this game, you will both take on the role of The Arsonist as you try to build euphoria without letting the houses you’re burning cave in on you. The player who maximizes their fiery thrill before the houses burn down will be declared the winner!

Gameplay:

This game is split into two parts: Government Spending and Arsonist’s Dilemma. Each section played over a series of 4 rounds corresponding to 4 homes you are first constructing, then trying to burn down.

Beginning with Government Spending, you will take on the role of officials who are building subsidized housing. Because you are the government, you can print as much money as you want to build these houses! You must supply each of the 4 homes with structures as outlined in #dm5-structures.

The DMO will select who begins in Government Spending. Each player will take turns naming a price to assign to each one of the 9 structures. This price can be any positive integer.

After all 9 structures are priced, the player who went second in price selection will go first in structure purchasing. Each player will take turns selecting one of the 9 structures and selecting a placement for it in one of the 4 houses. Each house is a 3x3 grid, and can contain exactly 1 structure per cell. Each structure may only be purchased exactly once per house, so each house will contain exactly one of each structure to fill all 9 cells. Thus, at the end of this segment, there will be a total of 4 of each structure type placed equally amongst the houses.

When you select one of the 9 structures to place, you will pay an amount equal to its cost out of the budget for that specific house. There are two budgets tracked for each of the houses, one for each player. To reiterate, spending is uncapped and you can put as much money as you want into each house. At the end of the Government Spending phase, the player who has spent the most at an individual house will be the player who goes second during the corresponding round for that house during the Arsonist’s Dilemma segment. Thus, each of the 4 houses will be assigned a starting player in this fashion.

During the Arsonist’s Dilemma, you will both be controlling The Arsonist as you experience personality switches during setting up fires in houses. While burning down each home, you will gain an amount of euphoria which is directly correlated to the level of risk you take on. The goal is to accumulate a greater level of euphoria over 4 rounds than your opponent.

However, if the home burns down and collapses while you are in control of The Arsonist, then you will take a significant penalty. You can attempt to escape the house when you believe it is ready to collapse, but if you exit prematurely, then you may miss out on some opportunity to earn euphoria.

As The Arsonist experiencing personality switches, you are experiencing a great deal of confusion while in the home. You will not be perfectly aware of what the opponent has done as The Arsonist during their turn, and may have trouble distinguishing if something is on fire yet or not.

Each round will begin with the turn of the player who spent less on that house during Government Spending. Turns will alternate from there until both players have chosen to escape.

During your turn, you can select any of the 9 structures to attempt to burn except any that you have previously attempted this round. If you select a structure that has already burned, it will not have an effect and you will not be notified. If you do select a structure that has not been burned, you will burn it and trigger any effects that it has, and will only be notified if it is specified by any effects that you trigger. All effects resolve during the turn that the burning takes place. Again, note that effects and feedback are specified in #dm5-structures.

If you would not like to make a selection to burn, you may instead select to attempt to escape the house. When you make this selection, you will mentally disconnect from the house. The round does not end until both players have chosen to escape. As long as you have mentally disconnected from the house, you will not be affected by the following penalty:

If the house collapses on you via all 9 structures being burned and you have chosen not to escape, then you will lose all of your euphoria that you have gained from this round. It is possible for both players to receive this penalty if they have both chosen not to escape at the time of the 9th structure being burned.

The amount of euphoria you will gain is equal to the number of structures which you burn in a single turn. This number may be modified by some types of structures.

Euphoria totals are posted publicly at the end of each round after both players choose to escape the house or after the house collapses.

Note 1: Any text which references an object “burning” “being burned” “on fire” all refer to the same thing. In particular, text which says that something has been “burned” will refer to something being burned this round, whereas “on fire” might indicate something that was burned earlier. If something is burned, it is considered to stay on fire. Nothing will put out a fire.

Note 2: The only structures whose burning is made public to both players are the [6] Carpet and the [7] Big Banana. Any other effects that notate that you will notice their burning will only apply to the player who burns them on their turn. Specifically, these other structures are [8] Apple and [9] Smoke Detector

Note 3: When text specifies “not yet burned,” this includes that the structure specified cannot be burned simultaneously.

Note 4: While you may select any positive integer when pricing structures, I may use shorthand to simplify when it may be reasonable. For example, a price like 4000000009 may just be noted as 4B or some other notation as long as there is not a major effect on gameplay.

Example:

The game will begin with Government Spending, starting with price selection. The first player may begin by selecting any of the 9 structures. In this example, they will start by selecting structure [1]. They have decided to set a price of 50 for this structure. The next player will follow and select structure [2], and they decide to set a price of 4000. This will proceed until all 9 structures have been priced.

After the price selection completes, structure purchasing will begin. The player who went second previously now goes first and may select any of the 9 structures to place in any of the 36 total available cells, choosing to spend their budget for that particular home. This player chooses to place structure [1] in row 3 column 3 (or may be noted as C3) of home 1. They have spent 50 towards home 1, while their spending on the remaining 3 homes are still all 0. Now, it is the other player’s turn. They choose to place structure [2] in row 3 column 3 of home 4. They have spent 4000 towards home 4. This will continue until all 9 cells of all 4 houses have been completely filled, thus ending Government Spending.

The following depicts what an update will look like following each turn.

Now, let’s look at the Arsonist's Dilemma. Assume the following layout for a home. Note that spending total has been replaced with euphoria total, and there are indicators shown for which player has earned 1st turn in the home.

The starting player will name a structure to burn. This can be noted either using the [x] notation or by using column-row notation. Structures will burn according to their effects, but the only feedback you will receive are from structures which specify doing so.

Let’s assume you are the starting player and choose to burn [1]. This is the Couch, which spreads to the [2] and [4] next to it. Burning the [2] allows for double euphoria on other structures this turn. Burning the [4] causes the [7] below to be burned.

After naming [1] to be burned, both players would be told “You hear a loud “AAAHHH.”

It is now the second player’s turn. Noting that they heard a loud “AAAHHH,” they know that [7] was burned somehow. There are multiple ways that it could have been burned, so it is not perfectly clear. This player chooses to burn [3]. This is the Oven, and it will explode since it is still one of the first two turns. [5] will burn as a result. There will not be a chain effect, though, because the Mirror is centered perfectly. There is “no new feedback,” since both the Oven and the Mirror do not cause any.

It is now the first player’s turn again. It is known that the carpet is not on fire yet, so this player may attempt to go burn [8]. This is the Apple, which becomes tasty and summons the snake to burn [7] and [9] as well. [7] was already burned previously, though, so only 2 structures were burned this turn. This player smells the tasty apple (This is the feedback they receive).

The next player now goes to burn [8]. They aren’t aware that the apple was burned already, and they are hoping to summon the snake since they know the carpet is still unburned. Since the apple has already been burned, the snake does not appear, and this player does not smell the tasty apple (They would receive “no new feedback.”) Because of this feedback, they can deduce that the other player has already burned [8] and [9] previously.

It is now the starting player again. They are fairly unsure of what their opponent has been doing, but they know that the carpet still has not been burned yet. It is still possible for them to target any structure other than [1] and [8]. However, this player knows that the only structures that could still be unburned are [3] [5] and [6] since they received feedback whenever they burned everything else. In order to play it safe, they go to burn [5]. The Mirror was already previously burned, but they are unaware. This has no negatives, however the player does not earn euphoria since it was already burned and will be notified of “no new feedback.”

During the turns that follow these, both players choose to escape since there are factors of uncertainty in both of them. The final scores for this house are revealed to be 9 and 2 for the first and second player, respectively.

Time Controls:

The game will begin after the DMO has selected who will go first in Government Spending

During Government Spending, each turn will have a 1 minute timer. If you fail to submit within 1 minute, you will be skipped. If you are skipped 3 times in this fashion, you will forfeit the Death Match.

Between the price selection and the structure purchasing within Government Spending, the players may have a resting/viewing period up to 3 minutes long. This can be discontinued sooner by both players noting their ready status to continue. This will happen again between Government Spending and Arsonist’s Dilemma once all of the houses have been assembled, allowing for up to 3 minutes again.

During Arsonist’s Dilemma, each turn will have a 1 minute timer. During this time, you will select a numbered structure to burn or you may submit that you would like to escape. If you do not submit by the end of 1 minute, by default you will attempt to escape.

Results:

The player with the highest gained euphoria at the end will win. If this is a tie, then the DMO will win.

Clarification: When a player chooses to disconnect/escape from the house, it is made known to both players

Clarification: Burning takes place in steps. You can think of the target structure as the step 1 burn, and any chained structure from that as step 2, and so on. This is in reference to deciding if something is "not yet burned" to decide if an effect should trigger

Clarification: When evaluating which target the mirror burns, it burns a single square which is opposite in the house both vertically and horizontally. The point of symmetry is the center square in the house, so a corner mirror would burn the opposite corner of the house for examplle

Clarification: The positive integer that you would like to use as a price must conform to a real and specific integer. Concepts like 'infinity' would not meet this requirement, or use of equations or anything else

Clarification: When multiple feedbacks are triggered at once, you will receive each of the feedbacks. However, each feedback can only trigger a maximum of 1 time per turn (The [9] will not provide multiple feedbacks)

Structures:

[1] Couch - When burned, will burn any of the following if they are orthogonally adjacent: [2] Xbox, [4] Table, [6] Carpet.

[2] Xbox - Gaming gives you bonus euphoria. Earn double euphoria for non-Xbox structures burned during the turn that the Xbox is burned.

[3] Oven - If burned during the first or second turn of the round, it explodes causing structures which are diagonally adjacent to burn. If burned after the second turn of this round, does not explode and instead the turkey is cooked successfully: gain 3 additional euphoria if the [4] Table is not yet burned.

[4] Table - When burned, the table collapses and burns the structure directly below. If the [8] Apple is orthogonally adjacent, it is burned as well.

[5] Mirror - When burned, will also burn the structure directly opposite horizontally and vertically in the house. If it is centered perfectly in the house, then nothing happens.

[6] Carpet - When burned, all structures higher in the same column will be burned as well. Both players can tell when the carpet is on fire.

[7] Big Banana - Yells “AAAHHH” when it is burned. This is very loud and it is heard by both players.

[8] Apple - Becomes tasty after it is burned. If the [6] Carpet is not yet burned, a snake will come eat the tasty apple dragging fires across the house horizontally on the row that the apple appears. Regardless, you will smell a tasty apple.

[9] Smoke Detector - Makes beeping sounds any time an orthogonally adjacent structure is burned. Does not beep after it has been burned itself, nor does it beep when it is burned. If it is burned at the same time as an orthogonally adjacent structure, it does not beep.