Voice of Reason

Authors: Emilio Singh, Richard Brown & Alex Harris

Introduction
Voice of Reason is part card game and part debating floor The essential premise
is that the players awake to find themselves in a room. At the behest of a
mysterious voice, the Arbiter, they must navigate through an unknown maze and
make arguments for certain courses of action and decide amongst themselves as
to what the best course of action will be, all the while watched and guided by the
Arbiter.

Basic Mechanics
You will need a number of players, ideally an odd number so as to reduce time
wasted on ties but a number more than 3 to prevent deadlocks.
1 person, not a player, must serve as the arbiter. The arbiter is the person that
makes decisions as to whether the arguments put forth are in keeping with the
player's mentalities. They will also assume the duties of guiding the players
through the puzzle rooms.
A list of mentalities to be used in the game will be provided but players are free
to add and modify it as they wish and all agree to the modifications.
A number of cards will be needed for the best possible experience but the cards
can easily be made using paper as per the list for game generation provided at
the end.
A d6 die. This die is used to determine player order at the beginning of the game
as well as certain decisions made at junctures during the game.

Player Order
All players must roll the d6 and write or remember their number. Rank the
players based on their roll in order from highest to lowest. In the event that
multiple players roll the same value, those players must roll off against each
other until an order emerges amongst them. The highest ranked player then
picks the mentality of the next highest player until no player but the first is left.
He may then pick a mentality from the list. Mentalities may not be chosen more
than once.
Example
Alice, Bob and Joe roll the die. Alice gets 4, Bob also gets 4 and Joe gets 6. Joe is
therefore the highest ranked player. Alice and Bob now roll again until one of
them rolls higher than the other. That person is now ranked higher than the
other. In a more complicated example, imagine we had persons A,B,C,D and E.
They all rolled the d6. A rolled and got 6. B and C both got 3. D got 4 and E got 1.

E is the lowest ranked player. B and C must roll to determine their position as the
next lowest and third lowest respectively. After rolling, B wins and emerges after
C and E. The final order from highest to lowest is: A,D,B,C and E.
Now. A picks D's mentality. D picks B's mentality. B picks C's mentality and C
picks E's mentality and A is free to choose from the list of remaining mentalities.

Running the Maze: Mechanics in Detail

Situations
The basic gameplay mechanic is that players will be confronted with various
kinds of situations by the arbiter. Each player must then give their solution to the
arbiter within a time limit. Players initially start with 5 minutes of talking time. If
their solution is voted as the winning one, they will gain a point. However, they
also lose 30 seconds of talking time for future situations. That is, a person starts
with 0 points and 10 minutes. Should they win a situation, they will have 1 point
and 9 minutes of talking time for future situations. All players are allowed 5
minutes of preparation time to prepare their solutions. Solutions are given in the
order determined by the die rolls. After all solutions are given, all of the players
then vote for the best solution put forth. No player may vote for himself. After
finishing a solution, the winning player elects the next door of the room to go to.
Players may elect to back out of a situation room, going back to the prior room
but only if they agree to each give up 1 point. Note that losing points, unless
otherwise stated, restores 30 seconds of talking time but the maximum allowable
time is always 5 minutes.

Goal
The winning player is the first player to get 9 points.

Cards
The core of the game revolves around situation cards. A situation card
represents a room that the players can walk into. The card may have a number
of doors indicated on it, which may only be opened once the situation inside the
room is resolved. The arbiter will tend describe the specific situation represented
by the card to the players. There are two more types of cards: Variable Cards and
Challenge Cards. Once per room, the players, if in unanimous consent, may
request a variable card. The arbiter then draws one card from the Variable Card
Deck at random and places on top of the situation card. The Variable card
contains a specific kind of modifier that will change the situation in some way,
adding some twist or variation on the standard situation. Once applied, a
situation card cannot be removed so players are advised to use caution when
electing to apply a variable card. Challenge Cards may also only be asked for
once per room and are drawn randomly by the arbiter but they may be asked for
on a per player basis. That is, each of the players may ask for a Challenge Card
to be applied to them. For the duration of the situation, they must abide by the
dictate of the challenge card. It will modify either the situation specifically to

their challenge or the terms under which they are allowed to answer. Should they
succeed and win the situation under the challenge card conditions, they will gain
their 1 point but not suffer the loss of their time. Should they fail to win the
challenge, they will lose 1 point but not regain any of the time that the point took
away.

Maze Building
The players start in an empty room with a number of doors. Once they take a
door they will officially enter the maze. The arbiter draws randomly or picks
specifically, a situation card from the pile and places face up such that an edge
of the card connects to the starter room. The doors of the rooms must align to
each other. Note that because of the many doors, it is possible to exit a room and
then go through several rooms back to the original room. This is allowed and is
not considered backing out of a situation.

Mentalities
In this game, players espouse a particular form of thinking called a Mentality.
Whether derived from ethics, philosophy, law or even D&D, the idea of a
mentality is that the player is a champion for this way of thinking and at every
situation, the Arbiter will hear each player's argument for their way of resolving
the situation. When a player presents their argument, their argument must
reflect the core tenants of their mentality. For example, if their mentality was
capitalism then a player must never argue that removing private ownership
rights is a valid course of action. The arbiter must listen to the arguments very
carefully and has the power to disallow a player's argument if it veers against or
beyond the scope of their mentality.
List

Moral Nihilism
Biocentrism
Yangism
Utilitarianism
Antifrustrationism
Stoicism
Hedonism
Consequentialism
Categorical Imperative
Social Darwinism
Technocentrism