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World Simulation Rules Sandbox
* Props *
Money
Hard Power (paper cards with numbers on them)
Natural Resources (yellow notecards)
Sacred Items (often stuffed animals)
Land (Cereal Boxes with your culture’s name on it.)
Status Items
Mobility Maps (see below)
Money
Hard Power (paper cards with numbers on them)
Natural Resources (yellow notecards)
Sacred Items (often stuffed animals)
Land (Cereal Boxes with your culture’s name on it.)
Status Items
Mobility Maps (see below)
Cereal Symbolism
Fruit Loops = Rich, varied, and nutritious diet
Cheerios = Monotonous, not rich, non-nutritious diet
Cocoa Puffs = Luxury consumption goods (chocolate, coffee, tobacco)
THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE OF ALL
TRY. Please put your best efforts into making this simulation work. It will require a great deal of imagination on all of our parts. We have all learned a great deal about how cultures are integrated and interrelated. As each event occurs, do your best to “stay in character” and really act out what might actually happen in these different scenarios. If for some reason you are isolated with nothing to do and nobody to interact with, please try to imagine what you might do if you were actually a part of the culture you have created within this world system and find a way to interact with others. If this is impossible, use the time to discuss with your group how your culture might have changed given what has occurred so far. Consider all the different aspects of culture – infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure – and how they might have changed given the things that have happened to your culture during the simulation.
Setting Populations of cultures have been set to approximate world populations as of 1450 at the dawn of European colonization (400 million). World population will roughly double in each interaction, simulating the real world’s population growth (We will start the last round with 6.2 billion people). Throughout the simulation your own population may increase or decrease based on famine, disease, or shift to a new subsistence pattern (e.g. industrial agriculture would increase your “carrying capacity” and thereby increase your population tremendously). This will be indicated in your envelope at the beginning of the round.
Goals
* Understand the “structural power” of the world by simulating it in a form that allows us to see it all at once.
* Understand the many nuances and challenges of cultural change by experiencing those changes ourselves.
Basic Rules
There will be 5 sessions lasting approximately 17 minutes each. These 17 minutes are divided into 3 parts. * 10 minutes of interaction time * 3 minutes of “take account” time in which you “feed yourself” “pay your laborers” etc. (see below) * 4 minutes of “World News” by Professor Wesch
Each interaction will begin with each group opening an envelope providing the scenario for that particular interaction.
In order to survive, at the end of each session you must have a piece of food (cereal) to eat. This will require either land (a cereal box from which you can get food) or money to buy food from others. (Note: This rule does not apply to industrial powers as they are those few people in the world who never have to worry about having enough food to eat.)
To harvest your food, you need to collect cards that together total more than the number of people in your group. For example, if you have 22 people, you need cards totaling more than 22. You will need to trade with others to get the cards you need. At the beginning of Round 1, you will start with cards of all the same suit, but at the end of Round 1 you can only use cards of different suits (up to 4 cards) that must total enough to feed your group. In Round 2, you must gather cards of the same suit, but a different suit than you started with at the beginning of Round 1. In Round 3, you can only use cards of different suits again. Round 4: same suit but different from earlier rounds. Round 5: different suits again. This will become very challenging as trade routes and relations may become disrupted.
If your cards do not add up to more than the people in your culture, some people must starve to death and die. For example, if you have 22 people in your culture, but only get cards adding up to 17, 5 people die. Those who die STILL INTERACT IN THE NEXT INTERACTION, but they must move to a different culture / colony as a refugee. If there is nobody to take you in, we may set up a refugee camp.
Hard Power & The Rules of War (High Card Wins)
The cards used to feed yourself also represent your hard power.
Each culture has a POWER CIRCLE (a circle drawn in the dirt somewhere near your land). Whoever stands in the POWER CIRCLE controls the land of the culture. (They do not control the people, but the people need to eat, so they may need to cooperate with the person who controls all the land.) You will want to protect your power circle from invaders who can use hard power (higher cards than yours) to knock you out of the power circle and take control of your land. Keep a high card ready to defend your power circle.
A battle begins with somebody from one culture challenges the person standing in the power circle. Both sides quickly decide which card they want to play. At the count of 3 each side shows the other the card they are holding in their right hand. The side with the highest card wins the battle and gets to keep the card played by the other culture.
In case of a tie, no cards are exchanged and the power circle remains in the control of whoever held it before the battle began.
Terms of surrender are negotiable between the two warring parties and may include a right to hold on to some hard power, money, land production rights, etc.
The winner occupies the land and will then act as a colonizer or occupier. The colonizer must keep one card in the circle at all times to defend the land. This card may be kept hidden, so that others do not know how much force they are using to maintain power. Anybody (other colonizers or the locals themselves) may attack the colonizer at any time to gain (or regain) control of the land.
The colonizer can tax the people, take the land (take the box of Fruit Loops away), force people into labor, force them to grow different crops, or kill them all (genocide). If genocide is committed, everybody in the killed culture must leave their land and become “refugees” in another nearby land. They must live out the rest of the simulation as a refugee in a foreign land.
Alliances can be made through whatever trades or agreements two cultures can make and will allow one culture to use a card of their ally. However, once an attacker moves into the power circle, a card must be played within 5 seconds.
Important Note: If you lose your Fruit Loops and they are gone at the end of the round, they are gone forever. You join the World System and must find a new way to survive.
Mobility Mobility Maps – Each group will have Mobility Maps which have been created during your recitation. They may visit only those cultures on the maps they hold. All travel must be done with one of these maps. These maps are necessary to simulate the limited mobility of different cultures. Large states will have significantly more mobility than others. Ocean fishing cultures will have mobility reflecting their ability to travel over oceans but will be limited in their inland travel.
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| zsymons | Cereal Symbolism | 1 | Nov 11 2008, 5:18 PM EST by jwilson6 | ||
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Thread started: Nov 9 2008, 8:28 PM EST
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I've been hearing a lot of people talking about using something other than cereal to change the symbolism of money, resources, etc. I think we should stick to the cereal idea.
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| Haprker | Survival | 1 | Mar 28 2008, 4:08 PM EDT by mwesch | ||
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Thread started: Mar 25 2008, 5:48 PM EDT
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So its possible for a few of your people to "die" and not the whole group?
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| Haprker | Question about rule | 2 | Mar 28 2008, 4:07 PM EDT by mwesch | ||
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Thread started: Mar 25 2008, 5:47 PM EDT
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Is there a restriction on how early we can create alliances? (As an island group, I know we are not going to be the "winner" in the end, so we will have to combine forces to be able to stand a chance
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RulesNov112008.pdf (Adobe Portable Document Format - 169k)
posted by mwesch Nov 15 2008, 9:44 AM EST
Rules November 11th 2008
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