Elbereth

Mysterious Bulletin: Isaal/Ash was elevated to Master Alchemist Szeth and Sart were brought on the horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming. Szeth was expelled! Sart was lashed! Szeth (8) - Kas, Kas, Ash, Ash, Stink, Stink, Sart, Sart Ashbringer (0) - Archer Player List Matrim's Dice - expelled Kasimir The Known Novel - expelled Steeldancer JNV - insane Wonko the Sane - formerly insane Archer Drake Marshall - insane Ashbringer TJ - expelled Araris Valerian - expelled Szeth Pancakes - expelled Stink Sart

I can confirm the vote count is correct as it stands.

JNV and Wonko broke out of the Crockery! TKN, Archer, TJ, and Sart were elevated! Mat was charged with Conduct Unbecoming and expelled! Sart was charged with Reckless Use of Sympathy and lashed! TKN and TJ were charged with Undignified Mischief and must apologize! Mat (5) - Mat, Kas, TKN, Archer, Archer Sart (3) - Mat, TJ, TJ TKN (2) - Ash, Stink TJ (2) - Sart, Sart Stink (1) - Kas Szeth (1) - Stink Player List Matrim's Dice - expelled Kasimir The Known Novel Steeldancer JNV - formerly insane Wonko the Sane - formerly insane Archer Drake Marshall - insane Ashbringer TJ Araris Valerian - expelled Szeth Pancakes Stink Sart

Wonko has gone insane! Araris was brought on the horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming. He was expelled! Sart, Mat, and Stink were also brought on the horns. Sart and Mat were charged with Undignified Mischief and must make an apology. Stink was charged with Reckless Use of Sympathy and lashed! Sart (8) - Mat, Kas, Kas, Wonko, Wonko, TJ, TKN, TKN Araris (3) - Mat, Ash, Stink Mat (3) - Archer, Archer, Sart Stink (2) - TJ, Araris Steel (1) - Ash Wonko ()) - Araris TJ (0) - Sart These students were elevated: Kasimir, Wonko, Ashbringer, TJ, Stink Term 2, Month 1 has begun and will end in 44 hours, at 7PM Mountain Time. Good luck!

I'd recommend not trying to get info out of the writeups. That way lies madness (and also inaccuracy).

Jenali (JNV) went insane! Mat, Steel, Archer, and Drake were brought On the Horns! All had charges dropped. Note: as implied in the rules, a smaller player count means that the number of DP each master distributes has been brought down from 5 to 3 DP per master. Archer (2): Araris Valerian, Drake Matrim's Dice (2): Steeldancer, Drake Steeldancer (1): Kasimir Drake (3): Archer, Archer, TKN Szeth_Pancakes (2): JNV, Ash Kas, Steel, JNV, Ash, TJ, Szeth, Stink, and Sart were elevated! Everyone should have received a PM by now. Month 2 has begun and will end in 36 hours, at 7AM Mountain Time. Good luck!

Sure Contracts can be pretty much anything you can come up with - past ones have included giving hugs, denouncing Tehlu, suggesting ideas for what to draw, voting out a noble, and much more. I wonder why.

Kind of? It’s up to you how modern to interpret it - the writeups will probably regularly be in some kind of social media style, but whether the full setting is or not is mostly left open. The title is also partly a play on the fact that this time around the game itself is “modernized” in that it’s going to be coded rather than in a massive spreadsheet (for anyone interested, the github link for that is here)

Yes, at least within a reasonable distance of whichever field you want EP in. If you're a Cealdish Commoner or Ruh, it's on average a net win. If not, I think it comes out about even? But I can't remember for sure. Doing it to get over 200 words is definitely less annoying than padding ad infinitum. In general, a reads list will probably be over 200 words already, but if you need to add a sentence or two, whatever. Just please be mindful of your fellow players and their time, and do your best not to abuse the mechanics, thanks. Yes, public apologies count as roleplay.

Stick has been re-replaced with @Sart. If you’re pinchhitting, please make sure that the players whose alignment you know are in fact dead. This is your friendly IM, checking in to remind you that I’m here for comments, questions, and concerns!

Aman has been removed from the game. His alignment will be revealed in the next rollover. He’s also requested that I post the following note on his behalf.

Hey y’all! As a quick reminder, this is just a game. Anyone feeling strongly about the situation should step away and try to recalibrate, please - even if it might result in the exe landing on someone you don’t want it to. In particular, please avoid saying or implying that anyone is dumb or stupid, no matter how wrong you think they are. I’m around for anyone who wants to talk things out (or voice any other concerns). Thanks. Also, because this was my plan for my IM post this cycle before all this, I’d like to remind everyone that humanity has eradicated smallpox entirely and forever and that’s incredible and amazing.

Note that intentionally using someone else’s color in an Empire doc (or any doc in general, really) would also be very much not allowed. Please do not use another person’s color to impersonate them, for any reason. This is a friendly reminder to everyone that you should not edit votes into posts ever please! This particular instance was harmless (the vote is already marked in the spreadsheet), but editing a vote in is a great way to get it missed, and we’ve already seen once this game how much of a problem that can cause. Anyway, this is your friendly IM, checking in to remind you that I’m here and happy to talk!

Announcement: after some discussion, Ash and I have decided that the fairest thing to do would be to have Thaid and Archer both die, and to change the rules so that ties now kill all parties involved. The OP is/will be updated with the correct vote count and with Thaid’s death, and the tie change has been edited into the original rules. Thanks for your patience, everyone. Also, hi, I’m your friendly IM, reminding you that you can always come to me with issues or concerns

Shush now And please remember do not talk in your empire docs during rollover!

Fun fact of the day: if we ever found a moon that had something orbiting it, that would be called a moonmoon!

This is El, your friendly Impartial Moderator, checking in to remind you I’m here and keeping an eye on things! Feel free to PM me, in your GM PM or directly, if you have any concerns or problems. A stout, elderly woman stood on a hill overlooking the beach and the burning wreckage beyond it, arms folded. She was dressed much more plainly than any of the diplomats, almost in gardening gear. Aela Ilfdan hadn’t cared for the idea of a bunch of snooty nobles coming to her island in the first place, let alone having them stuck here. The sounds of complaints and consternation wafted up towards her on a wind smelling of smoke. This is going to be such a pain. Turning sharply on her heel, Aela headed back down the hill towards her garden. The politicians could find their cabins on their own. Right now she needed to strangle something, and better that it be a weed rather than one of their necks.

I’ll be your IM! Sorry for not letting you know

I can confirm that Wilson and I definitely don’t have anywhere near enough time to run a LG49 rerun, and won’t for the near future. Also, as a reminder to upcoming GMs: when you send a rule set to the committee, please be sure to also include the mods!

Not really “maybe” - the whole point of Break Tanks is to try a game that will eventually be run as a longer format Nope it definitely is not. I’m not sure even the admins can do it, we had this problem with a past Championships poll. That said, there are options in that area, like a Google form, or so long as votes are reasonably standardized a vote scraper like Drake’s or Straw’s could be connected up to a website that shows basically the same thing - I’d give you about a 15% chance that I do this in the next week over my spring break, even though I probably shouldn’t.

Several GMs also have a bunch of rulesets up for the taking: most of Joe's are here, Devotary's are in her sig or here, and a couple older ones are Ren's list here and Wyrm's list here. Those last two are also in my own ideas folder, which is all the random rules ideas I've saved over time - almost none are my own. Plus there's the whole Game Creation thread, of which the first three years are listed in the Game Signups sheet in the 'game creations 2' tab. (All that said, a rerun is honestly probably better There's lots of games that definitely deserve another run.) Now that BT1 is over, we can start planning a second one! @Devotary of Spontaneity, I know you have a ruleset ready, so I'm guessing you'll be taking that? I'd also advise @Ashbringer that you put your battle mechanic rules into a break tank form and send them over to the committee when you can, since you're next after that.

Nope, that was specified in the rules. In fact, I don't think I got a single question from anyone (excepting Devotary) that asked a question that wasn't already answered in the rules. In the future, especially in a Break Tank, I'd advise y'all to look there first and ask me second? EDIT: also the elims asking if they won at parity or outnumbering. That was the only other thing I hadn't specified.

Hmm, that's not a bad idea. Or maybe no matter how many bid votes you accrue, you can only die if you have at least 1 player's vote on you? Or would that be too easy to game? You sure did. I was very confused I did deliberately decide not to do it that way, I'm trying to remember why... I think it could stifle discussion, ala 'Exp has 8 votes on them, we're not beating that' or something. Unless you're saying just reveal bid numbers? Like "bids were won for 8, 7, 4, 2, 2, and 1 votes" or something along those lines? I don't think I'd want to say "the Hazecrusher was won for X votes!" etc, since that would basically reveal who got each item at the cycle end. Yeah, this was something I didn't realize until midway through the game - telling you 'you didn't get the Hazecrusher, but you did get bloody copper vials!' would have told you that whoever else got a RB bid more than you did, which is potentially valuable information. I'd want to fix this somehow in a future game, but (as noted above) I'm not quite sure how to go about that in a way that preserves both the flavor and makes the mechanics sensible.

Because I know myself well enough to know I might not come back later f I don't do it now, some thoughts: On break tanks in general This game was incredibly fast, even though I was expecting that. I would advise future GMs to 1) definitely get a coGM - I absolutely couldn't have run this without Devotary's help, and it was a struggle; and 2) make your rules as simple as you possibly can. Only test what you really need to test. Also, especially if you don't need to run the whole game, maybe consider a slightly longer cycle time Several people commented that they don't play much anymore but would be happy to come back for Break Tanks occasionally since they're only a day, which makes me very happy - that's part of the intention of this format, and I'm glad it's working. Issue-handling in a game this fast would be a mess. I'd advise players, if they have an issue, to ping the mod about it and then try to ignore it / don't interact with the player in question / whatever until game end, since we might be able to sort it out but might just not have the time to manage it. These are going to be elim-leaning. I knew that going in, and might've done a 2-player game if there were only 9 or 10 players, but 12 seemed like too many for just 2 elims. Regardless, it's worth emphasizing that the chaos and speed of BTs will absolutely make it favor elims more, and future GMs need to remember to take that into account. GMs should also not expect to have much time to do anything else while the game is running, especially during early cycles - later ones were much, much less stressful. I was worried about only having 12 players (or 9, initially) at first, but... I can't imagine what C1 would have looked like with 20 players. I'm not going to say you should cap BTs at fifteen or anything, but having them be small is probably not a bad thing. This game - balance / rules This game felt pretty good to me. I did change it, as the committee members will know, from the initial idea of 'you get a power and have to use it the next cycle' to a more permanent style when I decided to use this particular flavoring with items and all. (By the way, credit goes to @Kasimir for both the flavor idea and the overall game concept.) I don't think it was a major detriment to balance, but I do think that version might've been more intuitive for people - it seemed like it was really hard for people to understand the delay between bidding and having votes added to you. Having roleblocks use up the roleblocked person's item felt a little unfair to me. The way I chose item types was by rolling based on a table (below) of probabilities, as many times as half the living players in the game (so C1 had 12/2 = 6 items, etc). I think those probabilities could be changed some without problems, and they reflect my particular preferences for what I wanted this game to look like (e.g. I made the kill % small because I knew the game would go fast with 12 players anyway). Moving the protect % up could be good in particular, partly since people tend not to actually use protects and partly because (as rules currently stand) using them is one-time whether you block a kill or not. I'm not 100% sure about the '# items = half of living players' part, and suspect that in late game the item consolidation might get bad, but there is a convenient mitigating factor in that the people with items are most likely to die to the exe. For a longer version, I wouldn't be averse to having PM items last until one of the people in it died, rather than a single turn - I did that this game mainly to minimize the amount I'd have to keep tabs on in such short time. The 'you can specify a target when you bid on a PM item' was also a little wonky and made more sense with the you-have-to-use-it-next-turn version. It'd have been less of an issue with longer cycles, though, so me forgetting to set up a PM for 20 minutes wouldn't actually be a whole third of the cycle wasted. Having bids able to go so high may or may not be a good idea - definitely part of the problem was differing starting assumptions (in fact I consciously went for that by using as few examples as possible in the initial rules so no one had any numbers to 'anchor' to), but I think lowering the max to half of living players might be helpful. Probability table for powers: PM - 30% Bid up - 15% Bid down - 15% Roleblock - 20% Protect - 15% Kill - 5% This game - flavor / regrets I regret not preparing for this game better. I did have a spreadsheet (partly) set up before today, and a list of lots and lots of items, but I hadn't written descriptions for any of them - which meant I couldn't go into as much detail as I liked, nor add links to the many items with associated excellent past writeups / RP / etc. I'd like to go back and add some, but I think it's unlikely I actually manage that, so just to list - some of the ones with great writeups-or-similar were Discord (MR7), pandamodium (LG6/LG10), the doctor's coat (signups for QF7), Hael's head (LG18 at least, probably also LG19), the lerasium bead (LG19 aftermath), Wilson's Plate (LG20), and the lifeless rabbits (LG25). If anyone wants to find those links, you're welcome to. If anyone wants to rerun this game (and feel welcome to, I don't claim a monopoly on it!), this is an extremely messy sheet containing all the item suggestions I got (not just the condensed list I posted above). Along similar lines, I would've liked to pre-write a bit of flavor for the writeups, especially for the first and last, beyond just the item lists. I was kind of visualizing it as a giant auction-house ala the start of Phantom of the Opera, and people were killing each other for items, or being killed by their own items (either literally for something like Slaughter, or just via being 'too powerful' for that person to hold). Maybe in a longer format. Having the multiple items of a single type share the same pool was kind of weird and didn't work well - I think I'd want them to share the same pool still, balancewise, but might make it so a player can't bid on a specific item (or can state a preference but have some chance not to get it, so you don't get any information about anyone else's bids). Later I'll try and post a list of who ended up getting each item, since it's not specified in the sheet. Overall, it was a really fun game to run, and I'm glad y'all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Aftermath: A Story of Death Elenion was killed by the exe and was a Villager! Araris was killed by the eliminators and was a Villager! Vote Count Elenion (7): Mat, Xino, Araris, Kas, Striker, Xino (5): Elenion, Flamingo, Araris (2): Striker (2): The Eliminators have won! They were Kas, Mat, and Striker! Player List @Ashbringer Villager @Matrim's Dice Eliminator @xinoehp512 Villager @Araris Valerian Villager @Kasimir Eliminator @_Stick_ Villager @Thaidakar the Ghostblood Villager @StrikerEZ Eliminator @Elenion Villager @Flamingo Villager @Amanuensis Villager @Experience Villager Doc links GM sheet Spec/dead doc Elim doc Items list / descriptions Public vote counter GM thoughts are partly at the bottom of the spec doc, and more will come later once I’ve actually fully read my own game. Many, many thanks to @Devotary of Spontaneity, without whom I couldn't have run the game (or rollovers would've taken at least twice as long). But I do have a few questions for y'all: How did the balance between your own votes and the added bid votes feel? The Experience / Ash deaths weren't really under the thread's control at all, and I know that can feel not great. Were there any items you particularly did or didn't like? (Item types, that is, not flavor ) Did the number of items seem reasonable? Are there any ways you'd change the rules in a rerun, or in a longer-form version like a QF? How did 1 hour cycles feel, for a Break Tank? Do you have any general thoughts on the format? How was having a public vote counter? Would it still be helpful for longer-form games where the GM wouldn't update so frequently? What if it were publicly editable? Answer any or none at your leisure, but any and all feedback would be great!