Some Advanced Rules for New Eleusis
(This is an email response to an email message...)

 > Okay, suppose I announce `no play'.  Prophet says No, chooses a card from
 > my hand, and attempts to play it.  God disagrees, because that card is
 > not a legal play after all.  Prophet is overthrown.
 >
 > Your description suggests that my turn ends with no change at all to the
 > card layout on the table.  Is that right?  Putting the card back into my
 > hand seems wrong, because the illegal card is useful information; I
 > think that the card should go onto the sideline, just as if I'd tried
 > it and failed.

Your turn does not end with the overthrow of the prophet.  God now takes her job
back.

In this case, you have called no play incorrectly, or the prophet would have
been overthrown without selecting a card.  So god now selects a card from your
hand and plays it.  We place god-given (or prophet-given) cards like this
sideways in the layout, since after the initial clue they are the only way for
god to give the players hints.  As such, the card chosen and all the cards god
did not choose are relevant information.  I can see no good way to make this
information avvailable, however, but everyone should get a good look at your
hand at the time.

In the situation of the overthrown prophet, you are receiving no penalty cards
for your incorrect play.  And your hand size is actually being reduced by one.
If the card incorrectly chosen by the prophet remained in the layout as well,
you would be down two cards on an incorrect call.

I would say it would be completely reasonable, however, to put this card in the
layout (I would do it sideways, to indicate an incorrect prophet's call.)  If
you make the other risk-four play incorrectly and overthrow the prophet (a
sequence of four cards) you are down four on an incorrect play.  I will suggest
this modification to my informal rules committee of friends here.


Other rules we play by, which are non standard, most of which I have talked
about with Robert Abbott.

1) If a player goes out, he may forgo the bonus for going out and become prophet
instead.  If he is successful, he is counted as having zero cards at the end of
the hand.  If he fails, he will have a normal hand when he receives his penalty
cards.  This is useful when a player has one card left, and needs it to test the
last thing about the rule.  If his play were incorrect, he could become prophet,
or if he had one more card.  Why should he be penalized for going out?

2) A player may declare a desire to be prophet at any time.  If he was the
last person to play, he is prophet.  Otherwise, beginning with the person who
just played, and continuing clockwise through all the people who would play
before the one who wishes to be prophet, each player in turn has a chance to
assume the prophetship.  This decision must be made immediately, i.e., without
a long study of the board.  If anyone else decides to become prophet, it is just
as if they had declared normally.  If no one else is ready, the player who made
the declaration becomes prophet.

This allows the person who first figures out the rule to become prophet, rather
than be beaten out by someone who requires further information but who's turn
come earlier.  Of course, there is the risk that by declaring you may prompt
someone else to take a guess earlier than they would otherwise, and deprive you.
(I have declared my desire to be a prophet several times on the same hand, only
to have false prophets step in and delay my eventual ascension.)  But you can
always wait until your turn, as normal.

3) Our rules incorporate one of Robert Abbott's own suggestions, delaying sudden
death to 40 cards, or thirty after a prophet.  The Scientific American article
had sudden death after 30 or 20 cards, respectively.  This works much better in
games involving experienced players, who can actually figure out rules which
take too long to develop by the earlier system.

4) Scoring for the prophet--
   1 pt. for each card played correctly
   2 pts. for each card played incorrectly
   4 pts. for a correct no play, or 1 pt. for each card in the hand if it is the
        final play.
   8 pts. for an incorrectly called no play (where the prophet chooses a card)
       (this is the same score a prophet would get for an incorrect sequence of
        four cards.)  Turning the card so played sideways also helps in scoring
        this way.

Happy Eleusis playing.

                         --marc

p.s. If you want a fun time, play the following rule, and see who gets it.  A
very non-mathematical friend of mine came up with it.

Alternate between cards which have little loopy things you can fill in in their
number or letter designations (like a 4 or a Q does), and cards which don't
(like a 2 or a K).