Proposal: Tea Breaks

Add a new rule, Tea:

At any time, the District Manager may allow his Team Members to take a tea break. However, employees are legally entitled to a tea break at least once per week, so if a week passes without a tea break being called by the District Manager, any Team Member may call for a tea break and deduct 5 Dignity from the District Manager. There may not be more than one Tea Break active at any given time.

Doris, the aging tea lady, has unfortunately mixed her herbal and medicinal tea bags in with the normal tea, and as she makes it in a big cistern it's hard to tell from one tea break to the next what kind of tea everyone is going to get. When preparing the tea break, the District Manager must post FRUIT: to the GNDT three times. Then, he must call the tea break by posting the result to the BlogNomic weblog. The District manager is a great fan of the oriental arts, and to refuse tea is considered a great dishonour to him, so all employees, including the District Manager, must drink the tea, no matter what is in it. Updating the GNDT to reflect the effects of the tea is considered to be prove of having drunk it; any player who does not do so within 48 hours looses 20 Dignity.

The effects of the tea depend on what is in it. The contents correspond to the results of the FRUIT rolls.All effects are cumulative, so any give tea will have three effects; all or some of which may, in fact, be the same result duplicated.

Lemon: Some of Doris' lemon tea. You got lucky; +10 Dignity.
Orange: Not too bad, but orange does not make for good tea. No effect.
Kiwi: Doris has unusual tastes, sometimes, which can be a pick-me-up to those struggling with a blank wall.
Hooch: Doris' hipflask somehow found its way into the tea caddy. -5 Dignity.
Cherry: Good for those with a sweet tooth. Not so good for those to whom sour grapes is the more usual dish.
Bar: Why would Doris have Lopsang Suchong? 14 bags of the stuff in one cistern, however, is not good for anyone. -15 Dignity.

Some specific cocktails have unique effects. The District Manager may, during any tea break, also roll three DICE: in the GNDT; if the total of all three rolls comes to more than 16, a new Unique Effect must be made for that specific tea break's tea. If the tea for that break already has a Unique Effect, no new effect may be made for it. All such unique cocktails are listed here, and their effects must be observed every time they come up. All Unique effects are on top of the basic effects of the tea; unless specifically mentioned, they do not replace the basic effects that the tea would have. All cocktails are context-specific; the fruit must come out in the specified order for the Unique Effect to be valid.

Lemon-Bar-Orange: All Team Members suddenly become aware of the duality of all things, and embrace balance and spiritual one-ness. All numerical fields in the GNDT are completely standardised, with all Team Members's numerical fields being set to the average (rounded up) of their previous values.

Kiwi-Kiwi-Kiwi: The Team Member with the lowest Dignity has their dignity set to the value of the Team Member with the highest Dignity, +10. If there is a tie for the lowest Dignity, all those with the lowest value have this effect applied to them.

Cherry-Cherry-Cherry: The average of all Team Member's dignity is calculated. All those with a Dignity greater than that average gain a further 10 Dignity; all those with a Dignity lower than this value loose 5 Dignity. If a player has a Dignity exactly equal to the average, they gain 50 Dignity.

If there is a rule entitles 'Efficiency', the make the following adjustments:

In the above rule, add the following to the end of the description of 'Kiwi':

The Department with the lowest Efficiency gains 3 Efficiency, while the Department with the highest efficiency looses 1.

Add the following to the description of 'Cherry':

The Department with the highest Efficiency gains 3 Efficiency, while the Department with the lowest efficiency looses 1.

Add the following to the description of 'Hooch':

The head of each Department must roll a DICE: in the GNDT; if the result is a 5 or 6, they gain 5 Efficiency, while if the result is a 1, 2 or 3, they loose 2 Efficiency. A roll of 4 has no effect.

Add the following Unique Effect cocktails:

Kiwi-Cherry-Hooch: Something for everybody, produces a happy and productive atmosphere. All Departments gain 3 Efficiency.

Bar-Bar-Bar: One sip stuns the entire workforce. Efficiency is set to 2 for all departments. After a week, the Heads of Department may regain any Efficiency lost in this manner.

If there is a Corporate song, add the following Unique Effect:

Hooch-Hooch-Lemon: All Team Members become garoulous with the drink. All Team Members must make a DICE: roll in the GNDT; a roll of 5 or 6 means that the Team Member starts singing, and must immediately add a new line to the Company song.

Sorry it's a long one. I haven't done one of these in a while.

Failed 10 to 2 by Brendan at 6:17 pm GMT on 6.21.2004. -3 to Josh, +1 to Brendan.