Common Carrier
You're a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) in a
situation too good to be true - the ILEC (Incumbent Local
Exchange Carrier) abused its monopoly status and was shut
down. You're free to move in and clean up.
Wait a minute. Another CLEC? Marching into your
territority? Let's see about that...
Common Carrier is a parody card game of the
pricing and service models of two telecommunications
companies fighting to provide connectivity in a constrained
area vacated by another provider. For 2 players.
Setup
Print out 4 sheets of business cards (32 cards).
This is only a two-page game. Page 1 is the card face,
and page 2 is the card back art. This game is black and
white, though pre-colored cards are available for download.
Pick a color for your company and color the center icon
of the first page (not the side with the Common Carrier logo
on it.) This is usually easier before you punch the cards
out of the sheet. Optionally, if you have access to
StarOffice, you can add color to the cards prior to printing.
Note that the 4-way and no-way cards are pre-colored
gray on the inside. These cards are not part of the basic
game, so set them aside. See optional rules, below for their
use.
Punch out the cards, shuffle them, find a flat surface
and a friend with a deck of his/her own. Play.
Rules
Each turn, draw two cards and play them so that, the end
of the turn, the following conditions are met:
The cards all have the long side along the same axis.
In other words, they're all in landscape or portrait
orientation. The orientation of the icon in the
center does not matter.
All the cards touch at least corner to corner.
The edges of two adjacent cards are consistent. If
a card is next to another card, the common edges must
be the same, either both have a line, or both are
blank.
The grid the cards occupy is not more than 5 cards
wide by 5 cards deep. This is the service area,
the customer base served by the old ILEC.
During a turn, edges of two adjacent cards might not be
consistent. This is allowed so long as you 'fix it' by the
end of your turn. For example, you may be joining
two separate networks, or splitting a network into two.
If you are unable to play at all, you must show your
cards to your opponent, who will try to play them (and
probably not to your advantage). If the cards are unplayable,
they are discarded. In either event, your turn is over.
Note that you can play a card on top of another card,
so long as all the above conditions are met. In fact, as
the game progresses, you'll see some hotly contested areas
where 4 or more cards have been played one atop the other.
If your opponent makes an illegal play, and you have not
yet played, s/he can redo that turn. If you have already
played, then discard the illegally-played card.
Winning
As a CLEC, you get to charge whatever tariff (price)
for links between your nodes on the network. Where your
network "hands off" the data or connection to your rival's
network is controlled by the Utilities Commission, and
generates insignificant revenue. Your revenue comes almost
entirely from traffic on your own network.
Each card represents a node. Each line represents a
link. Links between two of your cards generate revenue.
You win if the network has a path such that it passes
through 7 of your links.
Determining a path is important - you pick two nodes on
the network (usually you will own both, but you needn't pick
only your nodes), and your opponent will trace a path between
them, using each link at most once. If that path passes
through 7 or more of your links, you win. If your opponent
can find another path, the game continues. If only one path
exists, your opponent must use it.
[Author's Note] Trying to make 7 revenue
generating links may be too difficult for beginning players.
I have a hard time making 7, and often the game ends in
a tie.
Try 6, and then 5, if either player feels making 7 links is
too difficult. Is 7 too easy? I wouldn't want to
face you, but feel free to up it to 8 or more if your
opponent agrees.
Optional Rules
What's a game without optional rules?
Hole Card
You draw 1 card at the beginning of the game. When
it is your turn, you still draw 2 cards, so you have
3 cards from which to play 2.
Endgame
Because the last player seems to have an advantage
in 'playing for stalemate', when there are only
two cards left in each player's hand, and none in
their respective decks, each player only plays
one card per turn.
Tie Resolution 1
If the game ends without a clear winner, instead
of it being a tie, the player with the path with
the most links wins. Use the Endgame rule above if
using this rule
Tie Resolution 2
If the game ends without a clear winner, the
player with the most links on the board (not
necessarily on the same path) wins. Also use
the Endgame rule above. Optionally, use this rule
to decide the game if Tie Resolution 1 is not
conclusive.
Gray Icon Cards: the PBX and the
Goose Egg
The 4 way represents a PBX (Private Branch
Exchange, or a company's internal phone system).
It counts for either player in terms of
generating revenue. Company phone bills make
up for a lot of the lost revenue for providing
lifeline service to consumers.
The no way (or 'goose egg') represents a
group of customers who are Luddites, Amish or
cable modem telephony users. Whatever they
are, they don't want your service, don't want
your towers, and won't give you right of way
to trench for cables.
Each player chooses 4 gray cards prior
to the game and shuffles them into his/her
deck. Hint: the PBX works against
you far more often than you would think.
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Definitions
Common Carrier
A 'common carrier' means just about anything the FCC
wants to define it to mean. General criteria are that it
carry [something] for hire, for anyone without discrimination,
and that the customer can create or select what s/he wants
to be carried. Most courier services, the postal service,
and telephone companies are understood to be common carriers.
ILEC
Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier.
Usually, the big phone company. They own the wiring leading
to homes and business, and the network connecting it all.
CLEC
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier.
Smaller, rival phone companies and telecommunications
providers. The ones who always call you during dinner time.
Tariff
- Basically, the cost structure. Think 'calling plans'.
Voice is transmitted as data, and the Internet is data,
end to end. You have "Peak Times" and you have "Off
Hours". You have "384K/s" and "fractional T1". But
always you have the bill.
Links
Disclaimer
No, I don't work for a *LEC, and I actually have little
idea how they arrive at the pricing. The 'backstory' is
just to tie in the artwork theme and victory condition.
The game itself is an abstract game, but I didn't want to
just publish it without any sort of backstory.
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