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It's that time of year.... I can still hardly believe it's been an entire storming year since I joined the shard There are so many people I need to thank and I can't believe I have had the honor of knowing over the past year, it amazes me, however my parents are making me go to bed now, so I won't be able to tell y'all just how amazing you are until tomorrow, but in short, just know that my experience here has been amazing with every single person I've met. You are all fabulous and lovely, truly, thank you.

Today I got a lego dragon for less than twenty dollars. Faith in humanity: restored.

Why am I making this update? Number one, to say how much I appreciate Ted Nasmith and Alan Lee's art for The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. Their work is incredible. Second, there's a Russian rock opera based on events from the Silmarillion, and I need to share that. Finrod Zong It's an hour forty minutes long, and in Russian (duh), but it's great. You should check it out.

DatS 17 Mistborn spoilers:

When you get in heated arguments over the pronunciation of "Adolin"

"All I know is that when I first woke up, my very first thoughts were 'Vertical Gastropodical Inclination (or VGI): the action of a snail crawling up a wall'" - @Chasmessian

After a bunch of kerploofery, @Illweiis going to be my co-GM for the game!

DatS 17:

Interestingly, he does not recreate the visions. Glys is the one who does it and uses Light to do so, and it takes effort and tires him out pretty quickly. As for your actual question, I don't know, and am very curious on that too. Maybe Glys can make illusions (which only he and Renarin can see, for whatever reason) and "capturing" and "recreating" the vision is just that, memorizing and then recreating from the memory? But either way, this seems to be different from the visions themselves, which Renarin speaks about as if they can't be controlled.

"Wine before bread. Stroganoff before wheat germ. Journey before gustation. These are the Oral Words and I invite you to say them with me each week, here on Nohadon's Kitchen." Nohadon's Kitchen is made possible by donations from the Alethala Tourism Council, the Thalath Merchant Guild, and viewers like you.

Do note, Brandon not doing side projects will not actually get Stormlight done any quicker. He has said on many occasions that he uses those other books to recharge and rejuvenate himself so he's ready to write a killer cosmere book. This has always been how he has worked. If he didn't write Skyward or noncosmere, honestly, I don't think you'd get a cosmere book any faster. Brandon says that the giant books are exhausting. By doing this, he makes sure people get something in between the breaks in Stormlight releases. Brandon is very conscious of time and has recently spoken in great detail that he wants to make sure he finishes the cosmere, so he has to get Stormlights done every three years. But ultimately I'd probably prefer Brandon to be excited to get to the big cosmere books and not burn out and hate writing them. That's what the noncosmere ones allow him to do. He's fairly consistently put out Stormlights every three years. It is a fact with this author that he will work on side projects in between the big ones, and still get the big books out more frequently than some other fantasy authors That said, Lost Metal has taken a while, for sure.

This is a slight follow up to DatS2.

Everyone seems to think that Dalinar will take up Honor since he bonded the storm father but I think Kalidin has a much stronger case. "Honor is dead but I'll see what I can do" Being called the son of Tanavast by the storm father and the sibling. Has embodied Honor for his entire life always choosing the honorable path no matter the circumstances. Has a growing following that has "faith" in him and use his brand as almost a religious symbol. Honor is Dead but I'm convinced we'll see what Kaladin can do. If Dalinar holds a shard it would be the shard of War. Hes the only character so far that has been chosen by both odium as a champion and by honor with the storm father accepting him. I predict. 1. Dalinar loses to Odiums challenger 2. Kaladin ascends to honor. 3. Honor kamikaze into odium leaving Both shards and Dalinar picking them up with his new shard making him the big bad and free to leave Roshar. Who better to carry the Shard of war than Dalinar? What better opposite to Harmony?

Anyone out there planning a reread before the releases of the novellas & Cytonic? Maybe we could plan to do certain chapters by certain dates & discuss. Regardless, I know I'll be rereading them since I need a refresh on the characters and plotlines.

YES!!! It is the mischievous Nightblood My bonus clue was going to be (STORMLIGHT/WARBREAKER)

Yeah I used to bring my cosmere books (and some classic lit) to keep in my work locker for breaks and lunch. Now I bartend so there are less lulls to sit down and read. So, I pull up the coppermind on my phone!

It is not the 'relaxed' Serbarial It is not the plotting Bluefingers. This character is funny This character is a follower This character prefers a certain color This character has been in allegiance with at least 3 different people This character hates evil (you have one more bonus clue after this)

LG79/AN10 Night 4: Chaos Reigns "YOU'RE EVIL!" "No, YOU!" "You tried to kill Edith!" "No, YOU DID!" "GRAHHHH" "SHINUUUUU" Thane looked around at the complete chaos the camp had devolved into. People were accusing people left and right, and it didn't look like it was going to come to a consensus. One guy started shouting at the sky, telling Odium to come down so they could kill him. Was he... drunk? Thane honestly had no idea, and quietly hummed to the rhythm of Confusion. Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt struck the ground. Or more specifically, it hit a singer. The shouting and fistfights stopped, as they stared at the singer who had just been fried by a freak lightning bolt. And then they went back to arguing. Thane, deciding it was much too violent for his liking, went over to Moirin who had started cooking. "We'll let them get it out of their systems, and hopefully they'll able to be logical again once the highstorm hits today." Always so wise, Moirin was. And so he helped Moirin cut up some vegetables, and throw it in the large pot they had brought with them for some simple stew. --- Oxblood Beagle(4): Tuatara, Hyena, Lion, Vulture Charcoal Hyena(4): Dragonfly, Rhino, Heron, Beagle Amber Vulture(1): Scorpion Mint Heron(1): Flamingo Cream Tuatara(2): Azure Mouse, Emerald Falcon Nobody was exed! Melon Dingo was killed for inactivity! They were a Dullform Rebel! Player List The turn will end in 23 hours, on August 1st at 12:00AM EDT. Day 5 will most likely be late in coming, because my brother has a graduation party, and I have no idea when I'll have time to get it up. If you want, I could move rollover one time a few hours earlier, so that I can get the day up, and then rollover would move back to being at noon in Eastern time. Let me know in thread.

Ivian was tired--but he also felt very fulfilled. He'd finished decreeing a number of laws providing extended rights to all citizens; and later today he was going to negotiate trade deals between a number of noble estates. In a week he'd have border disputes settled, a marriage overseen, and federally-supervised province militias established. Recently, a merchant's caravan discovered a series of ore veins not far from the capital; Ivian had bought the deed from them for no small sum of money, and was currently searching for miners to work them as well as people to certify as official minters. Hopefully he could increase circulation of currency over the course of a few years. Still... for now he had a moment to catch his breath. Ivian fetched a glass of wine to sip and collapsed onto his throne. In less than an hour he'd have the peasants lining up to make petitions, so it was probably best to get what rest he could.

Imma be camping for the next three days.

12 hour shifts lend themselves to that, what can I say? XD

The bouncer talking to Cole continues patrolling the tables, his sleeves rolled up to reveal pewter braces on his arms. He crosses a table and freezes when he sees Aderet crawling out from beneath another one. Instantly he’s kneeling by her side, taking in her crumpled dress, her frail voice, the way her tears muddle up her makeup slightly. He listens to her words with wide, grey eyes, his face contorting in anger. The last thing Aderet feels as she faints is the bouncer catching her and gently laying her down, then yelling for a healer. From Cole’s vantage point on the stage, he’s able to see everything that happens next with surprising detail. The bouncer he was just talking to stands up from the fainted noblewoman, and with one hand — his previous regard for neatness gone — he grabs the table she was under by the rim and flips it over, his muscles beginning to expand. Glasses of half-completed drinks bounce, then shatter on the floor, and the the tablecloth flutters to the ground beside the overturned table. There’s someone else beneath the table, someone in a shirt and dark pants right next to the same dark coat and hood the assassin wore. With a start he gets up, points something at the bouncer’s leg. There’s a glint of metal before the bouncer collapses on the floor with a crunch, screaming and clutching his knee. The assassin points the metallic tool he holds upwards and the lightbulb above him shatters, darkening the venue slightly and sending shards of glass across the floor. The screams of the civilians start again. The bouncer claws at the floor. Blood pools from beneath his leg. The assassin turns on the crowd, pointing the tool at them but not yet firing. “Get out of the way!” He yells, gesturing with his other hand for the crowd to part. People begin to rush and move, terrified.

Well, to be clear, they weren't created by Honor and Cultivation, but that's not what Khriss is saying - in the Scadrial essay, she writes that life on those two worlds doesn't "predate" the Shards. ("It is one of only two places in the cosmere where humankind does not predate the arrival of Shards.") And since humans arrived on Roshar when Honor and Cultivation were already there, they don't. I should have expressed that more clearly

I think we can safely assume she reached at least 3 Truths with Testament, given that she used Testament as a Blade to do The Deed. Yes, that Bond was damaged, but not "broken"; I, and many others, think it likely that the Blade she summons during WoR is in fact Testament. Later, with Pattern, more Truths were spoken. It's especially challenging to draw general conclusions about Radiants from Shallan, as she's such an unreliable narrator.

There could be a unique ecology in the misted mountains. Influxes of both of Shin and Rosharan organisms, adapted to micro climates with widely differentiated pressure, humidity and temperature. Seperated by inhospitable terrain and protected from human and singer interference. The Andean Cloud Forests with flying eels and giant crustaceans. I hope we get to 'see' it.

And so Seer don't know the result in advance

everyone knows that the aluminum medal is the best on the same topic (kinda) when you use aluminum dice in dnd to make sure that coinshots and lurchers don't affect your rolls

I'm not sure if this is a meme, exactly. Is any picture with poorly superimposed words a meme? Does that mean all Geocities websites from the 90s were memes?

Do we not have multiple quotes from Waxillium that he can defend himself against bullets only if he knows they are coming before they are fired? Well, this is what I was touching upon. They have armies, albeit small ones. Is there a real difference between large scale combat against, for example, bandits and a small war? Is that what is currently going on in Syria a war? Were the countless colonial military campaigns in Africa war? I feel forced to make a salvage attempt. Did Waxillium actually shoot him, or did he kill as a Coinshot and merely created an unopposed projectile against another Coinshot by explosive disassembly of a cartridge?

If Main goal is accuracy, then better powder is also Main goal. It is because how important is muzzle velocity. Slow bullet is going down much more than fast one, shooter need to take much larger corrections in the fly, also bullet is much more affected by things like wind. Not even mention lower range. And faster bullet can less Likely be Pushed by Coinshot, because IT gives him less Time to react. No, those guns are not against Allomancers. They are much more Likely for civilian use - remember, Basin don't experienced ANY war, so is logical they don't improve weapons. But now flying thread existed, so they would need weapon strong enough to shot down flying machines - this mean much stronger eplosives and faster projectiles.

Cover art!

DatS 11

DaTS 10!!

DaTS 5 (RoW spoilers)

Death and the Survivor 3 (RoW spoiler in background)

Some character sketches for D&tS. (L to R) Marsh, Ene, Kell, Ati, Hoid, (RoW) Saze, Shai

I have three from Fadran. "I've been highly trained in the art of motivational speaking over chatrooms." "In case you didn't notice, I accidently got a cult following. Help" "Go on a road trip with your character. Date them. Kill their family and see how they react." @Channelknight Fadran

Her reaction to this comment was "see? I told you that you don't appreciate me enough!"

Ladies and gentlemen – this is it. This is the final post that we’ll have in this thread for the next… three years? Ah, Idos Domi! What a long time to wait! Kelek’s breath! Well, either way, you know the old saying – something about the journey being the good part? Like, it comes before the place you get to? Ah I forget it. Either way. Here’s Mrs. Goatbringer’s final thoughts on Rhythm of War! -- ME: *reading along normally* “Which master-” TAY: Witch master? COOL! What an awesome title! Like the Witcher, but the WITCH-MASTER! ME: No… like, ‘which master do you serve’? There are many potential masters, so which one? TAY: Oh. *Pauses* TAY: I like mine better. -- *Navani thinking to herself about what Jasnah would do if she was trapped in a horrible situation* TAY: What would Jasnah do? Navani, you spent the last three books complaining about your daughter and now you’ve got some respect for her? -- TAY: What if singers are tone deaf? ME: You know… I have absolutely no idea. -- *After Navani shows Raboniel how to make anti-Voidlight and she then uses it to make anti-Stormlight, lying to Navani* TAY: Make this meme: -- *The High Judge and Restares is revealed to be Kelek* TAY: Kelek! He will teach us bronze! I’ve been waiting for him! -- TAY: Oooh, Shallan’s got a magic axe. ME: It’s a dagger. Were you even listening? *pause* TAY: Maybe not. -- TAY: So she kills Restares, then Lightweaves the trial in Adolin’s favour? She’s getting all she wants in one fell swoop! *pause* TAY: Heh. Swoop. Because Mraize has chickens. -- *Talking about the Contest of Champions* TAY: Oh man, is this going to be like Bridgerton? With its duels and sexy, sexy testosterone? -- TAY: I think Navani and Raboniel are sapiosexual for each other. Calling it. Leave your war criminal husband, Navani! -- *no prompting* TAY: Kaladin is just too good for Dalinar. -- ME: You know that people are kind of disappointed that you don’t use the nicknames for the characters anymore? TAY: It will make them feel better that it took me four separate thousand-page books to get these names right. -- TAY: Wait, why aren’t we making these nerds pay to listen to my reactions? This should be a Patreon. Or an OnlyFans. ME: “OnlySafehands”. TAY: And I have a nice one too. -- *Raboniel describing Braize* ME: “the place is barren, devoid of life. Merely a dark sky, endless windswept crags, and a broken landscape. And a lot of souls. A lot of not particularly sane souls.” TAY: Oof, Raboniel. Why are you describing my personality? -- TAY: Navani listening to Raboniel is me watching Janelle Monae. She’s getting feelings she didn’t know she had. -- Simply noting here that Tay correctly guessed that Maya would absolve Adolin at his trial. -- TAY: So what did shart do? ME: Wait – what? TAY: Sha-art? Shnart? ME: … Sja-anat? TAY: Yeah, her. Shart. ME: Good god. -- TAY: Bow chicka-wow-wow! Roland bout to git invested with a tower! ME: Who? TAY: Roland. The listener who is Kaladin’s friend. ME: Rlain. It’s Rlain. -- TAY: *censored* you, Lirin, you *censored* piece of *censored*. -- *Quoting Venli* ME: “I’m a selfish, impotent, sorry excuse for a listener.” TAY: Hard agree. -- *You know what part* TAY: *whispers* I hate Moash. I hate him so much. -- TAY: *singing* This is where therapy would have helped you, Kaladin! -- *Kaladin has armour now* TAY: Wait, what!? ME: Kaladin just said his fourth ideal… it’s kind of the main climax of the book. TAY: Yeah no, I was building up to it but then there was a funny Tik Tok and I had to watch it. How did it happen? -- TAY: Kaladin’s like *makes ‘driving fast’ noises* on his way to becoming a radiant. He gives himself such flack but he’s done good quickly. -- TAY: What the actual *censored* is a sky burial? Do they just drop kick them into the air? -- *scene with Dalinar and Ishar* TAY: I hear you’re in need of a gonnegtion. Heh. Meyer Wolfsheim. He was the original Bondsmith. -- *Tay is a little incensed that the Windspren just become Kaladin’s armour* TAY: Honk honk honk! You can become a shield for Kaladin now! -- TAY: I am very upset about this whole “Navani being a Bondsmith” thing. -- *Moash in the room with Navani* TAY: Navani, murder this *censored*. -- ME: "Journey before destination, you bastard." TAY: Okay, that was pretty hardcore. -- *reading some part* ME: “I can barely make sense of what you said.” TAY: Me, reading this book. -- TAY: Hah! Man, I am here for a sword-ninny spin-off! *pauses* ME: Are you really? Because if you are, I have some great news for you. -- *End of the book* TAY: And we are no closer to Dalinar winning back Tayla’s affection. -- *Biggest revelation Tay has had about Stormlight* TAY: Wait – crem isn’t poop? From cremlings? ME: What? No, crem is like, liquid rock that is dumped by the Highstorms. You thought it was… poo? TAY: … yes? ME: For four books. TAY: In my defence, crem is said a lot and in most of those contexts, it could be referring to poop. The crem is poop from cremlings and they’re like pidgeons so they poop a lot! ME: *stares into the camera* TAY: Why did you like ‘crem before cremlings’ then? If it’s not like ‘poop before poopers’? -- *Kaladin’s healed scars* TAY: Hah. Slaveboi got botox and a retinol peel. -- Tayla’s big desire for book five: Adolin gets treated with some damn respect from Dalinar for once, and he awakens Maya and bonds her. -- And there you have it, cremlings! (her catchphrase takes on a whole new meaning now, doesn’t it?) We have come to the end of the extant Stormlight Archive books! As hinted earlier in this post, Tay might have a listen to Warbreaker at some point, but we’re not going to jump in now. Most of our reading happens at bedtime, so she wants to listen to something that she’s not necessarily going to lose sleep over if she sleeps through it (did I pick a bad expression there?) So, we’re reading The Wheel of Time, the book series that actually caused us to first meet – but that’s a story for another time and another message board. Maybe we’ll see you for some novellas, maybe not, but either way, we’ll see ya in 2023 for book five. And remember: Crem before cremlings. -- BONUS: *Tay reading this thread* TAY: Haha! Man, I’m hilarious!

Completely agree on wanting more time dedicated to the mental state, but I suspect it would have been overkill for a lot of readers. Partly because of exactly where I felt differently than you did, that it seemed to me like these chapters did an excellent job of sucking us down into Kaladin’s clinically-depressed fugue state. Thanks, I hadn’t figured out what about these chapters felt so true to life for long-running depression to me, but I suspect it’s exactly what you said: that it felt more like watching somebody else feel things instead of feeling it myself. That’s what it feels like, to me, to be in the almost-apathetic state where inability to sleep effectively, horror from impotence in the face of friends being hurt, and the crushing weight of everything, all compounded over months leaves you distanced from yourself. Like you’re left kind of watching your life numbly instead of doing and wanting and feeling things. It’s nicely accentuated by the moments of incomprehensible pain from his nightmares, the constant self-doubt and -castigation, and the erasure of self in order to function to perform his duty when needed. I can see where it might feel more like these scenes were telling about depression than showing us Kaladin’s experience with depression, but that felt real to me.

Hello everyone! We’re back for another instalment of Guardboi – we’ve gotten up to the middle of Part 3: Deadly. The last chapter we listened to is Shallan getting ready to go on her “How do you poop?” date with Adolin. Here are some new names we learned in the past couple chapters: Eshonai – Captain Parshendi Venli – Captain Parshendi’s Sister Rysn – Crippled Khaleesi (this came after I told her that Larkins are referred to as “Dragon Bugs” by Isaac and Brandon) Here are some fun reactions: *Adolin’s first duel, he’s sitting there talking to his Shardblade (like a good Radiant should!)* TAY: Ungh. Of course Adolin talks to his Shardblade. He’s like a guy who kisses his knuckles before a fight. This was just the beginning of Tay’s full-on Adolin hate that’s been going on in the past few chapters. I think it’s cause she likes Kaladin so much and Adolin is bullying her homeboy throughout most of Part 2. Tay insists that it isn’t because she loves Kaladin (which I still think she does), but rather because “Adolin reminds me of every pretty boy, rich, jock idiot I went to high school with!” I just smile because Adolin and Kaladin become such homies and their friendship is one of the most delightful parts of the books for me. -- *After falling asleep through Ym’s interlude* TAY: So some geezer made a kid some shoes? ME: Yeah and then he gets shanked by a guy with a Shardblade. TAY: Should I care about this? ME: Only if you want to know that some guy is going around serial killing budding Surgebinders. TAY: I hope he kills Shallan next. -- *Tay noticed all the weird stuff that Kaladin was noticing about Zahel and started asking me who he was* TAY: Is he a bad guy? He sounds like a bad guy. ME: No! He’s a good guy. One of the best guys, I think. TAY: Oh, is this the one everyone keeps wanting me to meet? ME: Who? TAY: Lift? Is Zahel Lift? ME: *laughter* -- Shallan is crying in one scene: I look over at Tay and there’s a big, over-the-top eye roll. -- *Shallan and Adolin meet* TAY: They’re perfect for each other. I hate it. -- Speaking of Shallan: Tay LOVES PATTERN. She thinks he’s easily the best character and will avidly listen and laugh whenever Pattern has some dialogue. This is real, you guys. Pattern may be the thing that actually makes Tay commit to the whole ten-book series. She has started co-opting “LIES” into her everyday conversation, and appreciates when Pattern attempts to deconstruct metaphors, as she does it frequently with her students. For example, last night Tay learned a new slang word from her students: drip. Apparently, drip, means having a nice, expensive, impressive thing. To have a Ferrari is to have a drip… or be drip? Or be drippin? Not quite sure. However, this realisation happened around the time where Shallan is explaining to Pattern how Nohadon is a ‘symmetrical’ name… TAY: What!? No! I agree with Pattern! You can’t just say that a name is symmetrical when it’s not! Just like you can’t just say that ‘drip’ is cool now! A drip is a lame person! I’m so frustrated with language! Tay now believes that Pattern is too good for Shallan and wants him to find a cooler Radiant to bond with. She put forward Lopen or Rock as suitable candidates to bond with Pattern. -- TAY: Why is Shallan trying to help her brothers at this fair? ME: She’s a good person! TAY: No she’s not. -- *Wit showed up at Middlefest and is asking if spren speak to Shallan* TAY: So, this guy has come up to Shallan and has basically said “Yer a wizard, Harry.” Is that about right? -- Then, the other night we had some Horneater Lager and decided to watch Inception. At one point (you know the scene I’m talking about), Tay turns to me and very quietly whispers, “Surgebinding, Chris!” -- At one point, Tay pauses the reading and has a big old realisation – she is very much like Kaladin. I think she was a little annoyed with her quiz results (see above) that placed her in the Order of the Windrunners, but I think she’s very aptly placed. It was a scene where Kaladin is realising that he’s set a bit apart from Bridge Four and is feeling the weight of responsibility for all of these men who follow him. Yes, he’s set them free from their bondage under Sadeas, but he wants so badly to protect them, even though he knows that he’s not going to be able to protect all of them. Tay has this same thing, from time to time. She often makes a joke that she must have a tattoo on her forehead (that’s some big Bridge Four energy there) that says “TELL ME ALL YOUR PROBLEMS” since most of her students choose to confide in her and ask for her help with their various personal problems and issues. She wants so badly to keep them safe and make sure nothing in this horrible world is going to hurt them, even though she knows that they’re all going to have to go out there, make their mistakes, and be hurt by them on their own. That’s why I love these books so much – they’re not just full of awesome cinematic moments of mind-blowing fantasy, but they also provide characters that we can relate to on a host of different levels. Anyways, even though these posts are mostly happy-go-lucky laughing at reactions to characters and events, this one has ended on a somewhat sentimental note. Kind of reminds me, once again, that the journey is the most important part, and I’m having the time of my life listening to these books again with someone I love. Keep safe, Cosmerenauts! Only 85 days to go! -- PS: This interaction just happened before posting: TAY: Hey are we going to find out all of the bad stuff Elhokar did or are we just going to take Rayse at his word? ME: Rayse? TAY: Yeah… that Lighteyes with the Shardblade who Moash introduced to Kaladin? ME: Oh… Graves! That’s weird because Rayse is actually the real name of Odium. TAY: … ME: … TAY: Spooky-spook.

161. Listen to old men in caves bearing gifts.

89) If you happen to be awesome, go and eat people's dinner's. Everybody. Especially famous or powerful people. Gods or king's are the best.

Taking a page out of Mad-eye Moody's book, I see. "Constant vigilance!!"

77. If you happen to be in Brandon Sanderson's novels, find Hoid and force him to tell you everything. Then come and tell us.

So, post-op on this game... Actually, not a massive amount to say about this game. There's not much to say that isn't kind of obvious in hindsight. Eliminators The Eliminators were underpowered, I will agree with that. However, as one of them went inactive, it's impossible to say just how underpowered they were. I gave them six people because there was the possibility of getting an extra vote from the HI - But more on that later. Five people, effectively, was not enough. Particularly when some of those five weren't very active either. If I could swap them with someone active, I think we'd have seen a much closer game. The only real things I would change is perhaps swapping a Roleless for a second Hemalurgist, and the Voidbringer for an Elantrian. The other unfortunate aspect for the Eliminators is that each of their kills and Burnt's scans seemed to hit Roleless players. The Village still had all the most important, core Roles, right at the end of the game. However, they did play a rather good game, and I am surprised it ended in a 'lynch-the-cop' situation. I don't think we've ever had that before. Forgers The Forgers sadly did not end up being used to a great degree. They were intended to be a fairly important part of this game, but they both got killed early on. I think what I should have done was perhaps make up to four players Forgers (maybe an even split, maybe 1:2 Traitors to Loyals), and give fewer Roles out to players (so only one Mistborn, Elantrian etc.). That would have made Roles a lot more sought-after, and Forgers a lot more valuable for both sides. The HI The HI was not intended to always switch sides at the end of the game. It was a possibility (growing stronger as the game went on) if Hemalurgists were tracked down, and the idea was that the HI could provide a shot-in-the-arm to an otherwise slightly unfavoured Eliminator team at the end of the game, by injecting knowledge about Roles and the extra vote. For some reason though, the Eliminators had the chance and knowledge to grab him early-game, but seemed to forget that this was the plan. Other Mechanics I might also have tweaked the Kandra Role slightly to allow it to give protection to a player against scans as well. I only put one Kandra in on the Loyal side because of this, and also because I wanted to subvert the expectations that the Village would have two. Pleasingly, it seems that did get people. I also feel that the time-limited PMs worked well. The delay in information meant that they were slightly less strong and central to the game, but were still useful at Night when planning. There were very few instances of players forgetting this rule. Conclusion So, things to take away from this - Could have done with a slightly more experienced/active Eliminator team (or perhaps a larger one, depending on who was chosen), and scans aren't really balanced without protection against it. Finally, if your game is meant to have a 'central' ability or mechanic, make sure it is actually central . Aside I enjoyed doing a variety of different styles of writeup in this game. We had journal entries, incident forms, police reports, a mental journey, and present tense. My only regret is that I forgot I was going to title this thread 'Ghost in the Shell' >>. Ah well. Thinking about it now, I also wish I'd done a second person styled-one, because I think that would have been interesting. But yes, I enjoyed doing things a bit differently here.

Okay, time for actual thoughts. This was a really, really fun first game for me. I was in fact the Mistborn, obviously. I was trying to hint for a while that I was covering for someone else, because I didn't want to be roleblocked, which worked? I guess? I haven't managed to read all of the way through the evil doc yet (given how long it is), but I have a feeling things will make a lot more sense when I get nearer the end of it. I wasn't the one in contact with Adavantos. In fact, I was one of two whose role he didn't know by the time he died, I think (though I suspect he might have figured it out). I just wasn't comfortable telling anyone my role, and my character wasn't either (more on that in a bit). Plus I thought it would be better to stay in the shadows as a Mistborn, and given that at that point the only traitor who I hadn't killed was Wilson, I was a little bit paranoid that the kandra or Adavantos was evil. My kill list: N1: No one (I was nervous and didn't have any solid suspicions) N2: Polking (Adavantos had suggested lynching inactives, and polking seemed the most inactive of them all-- by random chance, Arrenae also targeted polking) N3: Bridge Boy (This was mainly for information. I trusted Adavantos more, and thought it would be really useful to know the alignment of at least one of the players up for the lynch on D1.) N4: No one (I think I got distracted? Also, at that point QF11 had started, and I was more concerned with that.) N5: No one (Was going to send in an order on The Cow, but forgot because of family and QF11.) N6: The Cow (only for inactivity and nothing else) (Arrenae also apparently targeted him as well.) N7: Araris (This was my only kill out of pure suspicion. Very glad I was right.) (At this point I had contacted Arrenae to see if she was claiming to be a Mistborn. I had been suspicious of her the whole game, so once she claimed, I immediately contacted Adavantos to see if she was his Mistborn. I was in fact hoping she wasn't, and planning on targeting her that night. But Adavantos confirmed that she was the Mistborn he was in contact with, and we talked for a little while before the cycle ended.) N8: Biggoron (blocked) (Here, Arrenae asked for a list of people I'd targeted. I composed one off of the top of my head without notes, but it was somewhat wrong. Due to this, Arrenae told Lopen my claim, and he then told me. I then revised my list to make more sense. Arrenae and I discussed our targets. The plan was to target both claimed Voidbringers (phatt and Biggoron), but Arrenae decided to target Alvron instead.) N9: Biggoron (blocked again) (by this point Lopen had revealed my role in thread, so I was pleasantly surprised not to be roleblocked.) Okay, last thing. I tried something interesting this game, which I'm planning to continue doing for at least 5 more games. Given that this game started right before November, NaNoWriMo was on my mind a lot. And what I'm doing for NaNoWriMo is interesting, but in its essence it involves six character viewpoints, except rather than being stiched together as in a normal novel (e.g. in Elantris you have rotating Raoden, Sarene, and Hawthorn viewpoints), each viewpoint is a discrete piece. Why does this apply to the game? Well, each viewpoint takes a very long time to write. The first was pretty short (only 10,000 words), but the second was 40,000, and the rest look like they're going to be of similar length. And 40,000 words is more or less the length of one SE game. So, what I decided to do was basically to RP each character in turn as I wrote them. But instead of normal RP, it would be a RP for the entire game, including discussion and analysis, amount of PM usage, etc. Part of the reason I decided to do it that way was because I wanted to write a scene where these characters play Mafia. I'm no longer sure I'm going to, but it'd still be really fun. Of course, I finished the first viewpoint far before LG15 ended, but it was still really fun, and I do understand my character more. And it worked out perfectly: my first character was also the newbie at the superpower school place. He's logical, intelligent, and willing to ask lots of questions in order to learn the ropes, but also somewhat shy. He would use some PMs, but do no RP, because he's not comfortable enough yet. This worked out very well for me. You'll notice that I never placed a vote until Cycle 9, and no one ever placed a vote on me. (I wouldn't be pointing this out, but I think it's going to be pointless given my character for MR10 anyway). I did send in kills, but largely they were others' suggestions. I played the newbie card, but not in the way that Biggoron did or that Kas is wary of ("I'm new! Don't kill me, please!!"). I was more of a bright young thing. I contributed occasionally, but I almost never stated an opinion, and never strongly enough to make people defensive. I downplayed my role in QF11 as much as I could (although, looking back, I really shouldn't have. That was a different game that did not count for this character.) And hey, I survived to the end! I guess it worked. I did get a little bit out of character when we got nearer the end of the game, because there were things I wanted to say that didn't really fit in with my character. Hopefully I won't be having that problem again. All in all, it was a great game, and I look forward to playing more in the future!