About this simulation

A lamplit desk in a book-lined study. Five glass globes of blue, amber, green, crimson and violet liquid hang from brass pipes, each under a plaque with a sign for water, power, messages, money or the Watch, and each drips into a corked bottle sealed with red wax. A mechanical quill on a brass arm signs a scroll dotted with wax seals that runs off the desk, across the floor and out through the open door.

Every simulation makes promises about which parts of the world it will pretend to understand. Most make them quietly, and players find out the rest by losing. Writing them down first is less comfortable, because the list of things a game declines to model turns out longer than the list of things it does. The Patrician approves of the arrangement. He has always preferred agreements in which the small print is the large print.