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Sheet 3 of 6: Registry

The Registry

Progress in Ruboria means getting permission. The Registry decides who may do unusual things to the world, and when.

The procedure

  1. Do the workMine, haul, escort, repair, file. Over and over.
  2. QualifySkill, Standing and your record make you eligible.
  3. Get the permitBreak one ordinary rule, on record.
  4. Change the worldBuild the crossing, reverse the drainage, restore the grove.
  5. Live with itThe change persists. Others route around it or rely on it.
Form K-9 Unsafe Skateboarding Exception on file, and Form E-3 Controlled Ignition Permit, each listing what it authorizes, its restrictions and its requirements
The Registry's paperwork, as it appears in the current build.

The Registry of Exceptions

Rerouting a river takes qualifications, a filing, funding and an approval. Each project has a scope, a bond and a named operator.

Current project families:

  • Restoration planting
  • Exceptional crossings
  • Drainage reversal
  • Controlled ignition
  • Frontier public works
  • Experimental apparatus

The server checks every one. Finished infrastructure needs upkeep and carries insurance.

The Codex of Firsts

A record of precedent: the first exceptional crossing, the first controlled civic ignition, notable freight. Being first to click routine content doesn't count.

Smaller deeds go on your own list. Some are chores counted to a hundred and fifty. Some are less polite. Gate Zero reads: "Breach Gate Zero, which was not supposed to be breachable."

Contrary by Trade: "Fifteen counter-claims. The Syndic knows your name."

Achievements list from the current build: Frostbitten Footnote for reaching the White Lock, Anchored for attuning to the anchor stones for fast travel, Gate Zero, then the Civic section at 5 of 12 with Reliable Hands, Rostered, Pillar of the Rota, The Rota Is You, First Ripple, Making Waves, Precedent, Thanked by the Mayor, Pushed Back, Desk Job, Counter-Filed and Contrary by Trade
My list, Civic section: 5 of 12. Thanked by the Mayor, for fixing Mayor Gobb's irrigation. Pushed Back, against the Ironroot Syndic's claim on the Pulpwood Stand.

The Grand Census

There are no classes. Instead the Census keeps a sheet on you with twelve domains, and every action you take counts toward one of them. Five of them, the trade and freight ones, only join your sheet once you've done them. Your title is read off whatever that sheet looks like right now. Everyone starts out as an Unregistered Pulse.

  1. You actUnclog a drain and Civic Sanitation goes up. File a counter-claim and Administration goes up.
  2. You climb rungsEach domain climbs six rungs, from Unlisted up to Grandmaster.
  3. The Census names youYour highest domains, and how high they are, decide your title. Change how you play and the title changes with it.
  1. Unlisted
  2. Novice
  3. Trained
  4. Certified
  5. Master
  6. Grandmaster

Twelve domains with six rungs each gives 612 = 2,176,782,336 possible sheets, before your deeds and your lean are even counted, so you are unlikely to meet anyone with the same one.

Twelve domains

  • Mino Castingcasting pieces on the tile grid
  • Civic Sanitationclearing drains, spores, sludge
  • Administrationfiling, notarizing, counter-claims
  • Infrastructure Repairmending bridges, roads, pumps
  • Tile Druidryplanting and restoring growth
  • Extractionmining and quarrying
  • Kinetic Engineeringbuilding rails and ramps, grinding them
  • Forestryfelling and replanting trees
  • Fishingreeling them in
  • Processingmilling, smelting, mixing
  • Tradebuying and selling at the exchanges
  • Haulagecaravans, cargo rail, freight

Most people end up lopsided. That's what makes the titles interesting.

Sample Census records

Six sheets and the titles they earned, showing the seven domains everyone starts with. The longer the bar, the higher the rung.

  1. No. 001On file

    Licensed Sludge Arbiter

    Unclogs the drain, then files the form saying the drain is unclogged. Both halves count.

  2. No. 002On file

    Deputy Undergrowth Assessor

    Replants whatever gets felled and keeps a ledger of who felled it. The Greenbough Circle sends a card every season.

  3. No. 003On file

    Itinerant Grid Litigant

    Breaks things on the tile board in the afternoon and mends them by evening. Rarely in the same district twice.

  4. No. 004On file

    Seismic Courier

    Lays rail out of the quarry faster than the paperwork authorizing the quarry. The paperwork is catching up.

  5. No. 005On file

    Load-Bearing Pessimist

    Grandmaster of Repair. Has never trusted a bridge, including the eleven they built. None of the eleven has fallen down.

  6. No. 006On file

    Overqualified Generalist

    Raised all seven starting domains, none past Certified. No lean, so the Census gives a title it hands out reluctantly.

Endgame: become a licensed public utility

The long-term goal: a consortium of players charters a new region. They lay roads, grow rare lumber, build load-rated bridges, issue credit, and seat licensed clerks to process paperwork for anyone moving in.

Plannednot live yet
Improve

Add facilities to an existing settlement.

Expand

Grow into adjoining districts, with approval.

Found

Charter a new settlement with bounded jurisdiction.

Operate

Run services and answer for whether they work.

Ground rules

  • No permanent founder-mayors. Administrators can be reviewed, replaced and succeeded.
  • No passive city taxes or confiscation.
  • Contributing funds, materials or labor doesn't buy control on its own.

Where it stands

Players can't found cities yet. First comes one persistent, player-built facility in an existing hub, then improvement paths for every hub in Z05 to Z11. Founding, elections and wider powers each need their own design and approval.