Fifth Scholar

With over two months since the aftermath concluded, it’s high time this game was preserved for the ages. A huge thank you to everybody who participated in this one; though the village pulled out the victory by the end, all three factions were incredibly close to winning, and a few decisions one way or another could have swung the game (and did, in the end). Also, the high level of engagement and activity throughout most of the game was wonderful to behold. Personally, as a GM, I had an absolute blast running this, and would like to thank Joe for both pioneering the original design of this game, and helping me out with writeups and trolling; however, it was you guys who gave this the special aura that made it so diverting for me, and another thank you is in order to all the players. Finally, to Steel, when you see this in two years, thank you for making this game your last, and SE still eagerly awaits the day of your return. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private. Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!

Thank you? I will admit that my first reaction to the discovery of your deception was indignation; it’s slightly...jarring...to have been killed by a fellow villager, when, at the time, you likely knew pretty well who the last Elim(s) were, and were even, by your own admission, actively protecting them. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have done the same in your place, if I had the 25 boxings, but ultimately you did choose to actively pursue a win condition that was tangential to your current one, necessitating the slaughter of those on your side and helping the opposing team win, which sat poorly with me, I suppose. I wouldn’t have faulted you for mass execution had the boxings more or less fallen into your lap, or if you’d talked or lynched your way into them, but killing an at least decently active villager to accomplish your goals was...poor form, slightly. But congrats on winning anyway In terms of balance, I have a few comments: -I somewhat to fully disapprove of Drake beginning with three to four times as many boxings as the next highest players. Twenty-five is only fifteen away from victory, which really isn’t that many, and further, it locks down a substantial number of them as long as he’s alive and isn’t lynched; if he’s daggered, then the boxings are either completely removed from the game, or they just transfer to another person who has just as much incentive to keep them out of circulation. The only way to break up that chunk of currency was a lynch, and that would never happen after he was scanned villager. Part of the fun of the game was the continuous flow of bribes and boxings, I feel, and having a good chunk of the available currency locked up in either Drake’s storage or Gaea’s unlynchable person made the game dreary for the average player, who had nothing significant to do on most cycles other than vote in the lynch. Which brings me to my next point: -The lynch itself actively discouraged participation. Other than sending in actions and bribes (which we’ve already established was limited), the only thing a villager has to maintain engagement in this game is analysis and voting. And both were completely sabotaged from the beginning; no alignment flips on Daggered players, combined with even a lynch which had greater chances of failing at revealing correct alignments the more people voted, all served to disincentivise actual participation in the lynch once the just constables were both dead. And with an Eliminator team comprising a full third of the game, and with a good number of boxings as well to move votes, that outcome was never really in much question. Having Gaea be the corrupt one compounded this problem; without the ability to lynch her, boxings were essentially continually removed from the game, except for what Drake had, which again starved the average player of a meaningful reason to engage. But lack of analysis was worse; I admit my inactivity in the middle cycles, and it was mostly because I had no reason to stay active—I had no items to speak of (except some warrants which didn’t work), no boxings to let me get items, and having little idea whether or not anybody was actually evil, my one point of meaningful contribution was similarly removed. Lacking the time or motivation to follow the claims of those who had been scanning each other with the ledger-chain, I only managed to crawl back to a caricature of my normal activity, and my engagement was dampened. That’s not to say this game wasn’t a lot of fun at times; it certainly was. But the average clueless villager with no items and no faith in the lynch had little reason to continue participating, I feel.

Yep, sorry, Elandera. As much as I want to vote for Doc, I’d much rather end this game.

Sorry for the double-post; I’m changing a vote, however, and didn’t want to edit. Shqueeves, Araris, as his status as an initial Wilson voter in the lynch that killed her remains a mark against him, and I’d rather kill an inactive who’d done something at least mildly incriminating.

I could get behind a Shqueeves lynch, if we’re killing an inactive. As for Governor, I’m getting power-hungry, and with little else to do right now, Drake Fifth. I promise to be a caring and respectable Governor, who the people will all love but never fear, because who wants to be afraid of the government?

I did indeed curse you; I apologise. However, the curse did not turn you into an Inquisitor. I scanned you as Vanilla last night, Elandera, and regardless of whether that happened before or after your Snapping is immaterial; you registered neither as Unsnapped nor Thug. I am slightly annoyed at allowing myself to tunnel onto Doc and Devotary (sorry you two, especially Devotary, who I actually got lynched), and not consider the presence of other vanillas. That said, you did a wonderful job of covering up your tracks, and even with the identity switch making things tough to analyse, you confounded and misled me and Burnt very well. I fully commend you; if I hadn’t scanned you semi-randomly, this game might have been very different after today. To the rest of you wondering what the storms I’ve been doing this game: I scanned the Lurcher N1, who still wants to stay under wraps, and whether they’ve false-claimed in thread, or have simply been lying low, is a mystery I’d like to keep so it’s harder for Elandera to kill him or her. N2 I got Rand obviously, N3 I scanned Bard which made me feel better about him, N4 I scanned Devotary, which returned vanilla, and I figured with her connections to Rand D2 that we’d found the Inquisitor; unfortunately, we hadn’t, so it was back to square one on N5, and I scanned Elandera after a brief PM where I hadn’t been able to guess her role, and I got impatient waiting. That led to yet another vanilla result, and here we are. I’m claiming now because I’ve served my purpose; after working with Burnt in PMs, and collecting roleclaims and piecing things together, we got the Inquisitor after several cycles of stalling. If I’m converted or killed, it’s not the end of the world at this point, as there’s no more need to test roleclaims. Also, either of those two, particularly the latter, might be a relief; considering my schoolwork, I’ve likely devoted far too much time to this game, to the point of overanalysis and tunnelling, which oddly enough, tends to turn out badly. Another apology to Devotary and Doc, here. If there are any Coinshots: Please hit Elandera tonight.

My focus is a bit broad, but I don’t want to preclude anyone I’m not sure about. People somewhat seem to be vouching for Bard, and I’ve not gotten much off Hael that would suggest he’s evil; in fact, I’ve got a pretty good village read on him overall, but I simply can’t clear him yet. I could probably strike those two from the list tentatively if we’re trying to approach a vote. Stink is in the same situation, but I trust him a lot less, on top of having literally no clue what he is. However, trying to lynch him is always weird, and since he’s at least reasonably active, we’ll hopefully accrue more content on him over time. Doc is a claimed vanilla, and Shane and Elandera are likely roleless, if Burnt wasn’t deceiving me. I still believe that Doc’s interactions with Rand D2 are weird and potentially a cause for suspicion, and that they don’t clear him in the slightest. I do not plan to vote for him again. Last time this happened, it caused a good deal of frustration, and we need to move conversation forwards instead of rehashing D4’s arguments. If I’m voting on Doc, after his emotional statements, I’ll be doing so after everyone else viable is dead. That leaves Shane and Elandera, and between the two it’s going to have to be the latter, simply because her flip will be more informative than Shane’s. There’s also a few points of suspicion; namely, BR was one of Aman’s top suspects way back in D1, and very much seems like the type to convert Rand; Elandera’s suspicion list, which is almost the opposite of mine; the fact that the Inquisitor tried to hit Burnt, suggesting that they were outside her confidence/PM circles (she’d claimed vanilla to me, at least); and the vote on Stink, which feels like a safe mislynch—I don’t trust Stink, but like our honourable GM, he’s easier to mislynch as a villager because you can automatically suspect him for a chaotic neutral playstyle.

Alright, for Governor, Drake Marshall. If Bard is clean, then the whole ledger chain probably is, and Drake is the most obvious candidate for governor out of that bunch. As for suspicions, I’m in general agreement with sentiment last cycle that the last Elim might be inactive; however, with discussion already weakened, I don’t want to see it take another hit. Would others be willing to take out an inactive this cycle, or do we want to try lynching a more active person one more time?

I’ve had mild suspicion of Bard for a bit, and would be willing to lynch him. Drake’s points are decent, and I don’t know why people have been clearing him; if it was for the Kidpen lynch, if I remember correctly, that had a 30% chance of flipping incorrectly, and so the counterwagon on Bard wasn’t necessarily an attempt to save an Eliminator; further, it’s not like two opposing wagons, both on Eliminators, is unheard-of. People with money (like not-me) should probably pick up the ledgers out of the Market so we can keep scanning people. The more cleared-ish people we have, the better.

To clarify, I Rioted Drake’s vote onto Rae (sorry Drake, enjoy your shiny new donation to your hedge fund). She was probably my best lead, and I really, really didn’t feel like dying from two random votes yesterday. That said, I’m pretty confident that with only two votes, her flip is as accurate as it gets.

Quick analysis: -I would rather not lynch any claimed Mistings. -The Inquisitor probably targeted Burnt because she was attacked and protected earlier; perhaps it was suspected that she was a Seeker. Either way, a Misting still isn’t dead and I intend to keep that going. I’m actually glad Burnt was killed, in a very not-glad sort of way (sorry Burnt) because I’d started getting paranoid that she was the Inquisitor within our PM system, as she was admittedly only vanilla. -I’m a little surprised by the number of vanillas in this game. There’s at least five, plus the Inquisitor, if my PM claimants are to be trusted (they probably aren’t). -Has it occurred to anyone that Lum might be the inactive Seeker? I don’t like bringing this up, but we’ve not gotten Seeker results since Rand’s death, which roughly matches her activity schedule. It may be worth noting that we might not be able to rely on our Seeker to catch the Inquisitor, in which case we need to start looking at everyone with fresh eyes. -I’m a little disappointed that there’s no Doc kill. I don’t want to tunnel on him again and have that dominate discussion I guess I’ll broaden my focus today. I’d like to look at Haelbarde, Young Bard, Shanerockes, Elandera, Doc12, STINK as potential Inquisitors, or at least as prime suspects.

I check every box except “have anything approaching a reasonable amount of time for this game.” If you’re looking for analysis like I normally do, you’ll have to be disappointed; I have more vested in LG58 right now, and the way lynch flips work this game makes me reluctant to start analysis, because I have literally no way of knowing if any of it is right. It’s just destroyed my ability to meaningfully engage, though I’ll try to check in at least once a cycle. It wasn’t; as I said at the time, it was because the Elims were paranoid about my vote on Gaea nearly working. I still have those boxings, by the way, and might as well give them away since I can’t use them I protected Alv because I felt he’d admitted his crime. If Alv has actually wanted to defuse the lynch, I doubted he’d have been as passive as he was; he basically let himself be led to slaughter. EDIT: Two things. One, I’m fine with being lynched, as I’m not terribly active, but it appears the rest of the thread isn’t too much better; as such, if I wake up tomorrow dead, I’d like a list of reasons why. Also, even though I don’t like Fura’s attempts to direct the village, and am getting weird feels from Drake, they’re apparently both village, so Rae as my next suspect. I’m an easy lynch and don’t reveal much, so I’m curious why she’s dragging me into the noose. Other than my early stances on the constables, I’ve contributed little here. Also, please note something that I think people are forgetting; anyone bribing on the turn they’re scanned will show corrupt. I don’t think people are remembering that with all the ledgers and lynches flying around.

I’d prefer a later rollover than a complete extension, personally; I’m a little eager for results, perhaps, but this game is already stagnating and I’d like to hurry it along as much as possible.

To quickly address this, I don’t doubt that there are two Smokers—normally the Inquisitor wants to give up UberCopper at some point, so having multiple villagers whose bodies could be used to create a Smoker to cover for the Elims is distinctly possible. I know the Smoker that Doc does, and don’t find them suspicious—if you’d like, I could send a request back up the Seeker chain (assuming nobody above me has died) that they be examined, but suspecting them for a Smoker claim when it could be easily tested with a Seeker or Coinshot seems premature.

I apologise for not contributing much to discussion; to be frank, the incredibly large post counts to begin the game, combined with the busy-ness of my schedule, the untrustworthiness of the lynch, and the complicated chains of actions which I’m finding difficult to keep straight, have largely dissuaded me from analysis. I will try to reread the thread with fresh eyes sometime today and place a vote. One thing I can clear up now—Venture’s warrant is called Simuljustusetpeccator, and either he knows ancient Latin theological terms, or he’s an effective user of Google. Similarly, Elandera has a warrant now, which I’ve affectionately christened Homoencurvatusense, and which I used on her yesterday. I’ve gotten three warrants over the course of the game by now, with zero items to show for it. Sorry if the names are confusing, but I wanted a way to prove their origin.