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Long Game 96: KKC in the Modern Age Important Note: There is an application system for this game. Please read the second post before signing up. Welcome to the University! Here are the full rules of the game. Please note that they are 30 pages long. This game is massive. However, we've compiled a "brief" (briefer?) summary for your perusal. Please read the summary at the very least, even if you don't read all 30 pages of rules. GMs: Wilson, Elbereth, ? (we're looking for a third, if anyone is interested) IM: Devotary Start Date: 7/26 7:00 PM Mountain Rollover: TBD Game Mechanic Basics Two factions: Students and Skindancers. Students must expel or kill all the Skindancers; Skindancers are a standard eliminator faction and must expel, kill, or drive insane all the students or destroy as many fields as starting Skindancers (and the fields must include Naming, Alchemy, and Archives). The Skindancer monthly attack is a sabotage, which drives the target insane. Cycles (terms) are 3 turns (months) long, and each month is 48 hours. Months are basically identical except that there are a few things that only take place during the first month of each term/cycle. OoA, in general: tuition/lodging (if the first month of a term), passive roleblocks, active roleblocks & stealing items, all other non-offensive actions, mechanical effects (the horns, filing EP, etc), offensive actions Voting: everyone has 2 votes (‘complaints’) per month, which contribute to players being brought On The Horns and receiving various punishments Action Periods: everyone has 1 general action period they can use for anything; being elevated in different fields may grant more action periods, up to 4. (In Imre you don’t have access to any action periods.) There are also passive actions, which don’t take an action period and can’t be roleblocked. Writeup / GM PM info: when you do an action, you’ll be told if you succeeded or failed (failure = roleblocked) and who you targeted, but nothing else. Writeups will announce who’s elevated (but not in what field unless it’s a Master elevation), if a field is destroyed, if people are attacked (if protected, the attacked player won’t be specified in the writeup but will be told in their PM) PMs: open, don’t require an action, can be group PMs, must include GM, please make a new one each turn. Application system: before the game you can submit music, art, or an essay to improve your musical stat, add an item to your inventory, or get higher field proficiency, respectively. Basic KKC Mechanics Social Class: each player is assigned one of five social classes, which determine your starting lodging, your starting money, and your stipend per term. (All currency is X talents, Y jots, and Z drabs, where each is 1/10 of the previous.) Each class has a couple additional effects specific to said class. Lodging: you must stay in one of the available lodgings each term, which each have a price and a particular effect. You must specify a lodging in the last month of a term, or you will stay on the Streets that term, which is not a pleasant place. There are two lodgings which allow you to stay in Imre the entire term (which usually you may only visit once a turn). Admissions: in order to go to University and gain University abilities, you must go through admissions and pay your tuition each term, which is specific to the player. You can affect your tuition for the next term in various ways (posting, PMing, voting, taking certain actions, etc) to reduce or inflate it. Insanity: you can go insane, either from a Skindancer sabotage or failing your Insanity Roll. Certain actions and abilities give you a bonus to your insanity roll for that turn, and if your roll + bonus is 12 or higher you will go insane. This bonus can be offset with Elevation Points if the player so chooses. When insane, you are nearly but not quite dead - you cannot post, PM, talk in docs, take actions, receive your stipend, etc. You must only wait and hope that you break out. Breakout: each turn, all insane players will have a small (usually 5%) chance of breaking out of the Crockery and returning to the game. This means you lose a rank and an ability, and can no longer learn new abilities or be elevated, but are otherwise entirely back to your previous state. The Horns: votes (complaints) contribute towards a player receiving Discipline Points, and having more than 5 Discipline Points (DP) results in going On The Horns. (Masters also assign DP, which is automatically spread among players with complaints on them until the Master becomes PC-controlled.) Players on the Horns are subject to various punishments (with the chance for harsher punishments increasing the more DP the player has accrued), from RPing a public apology to being roleblocked to being expelled. Expulsion: expelled students can no longer attend the University (duh) to complain, learn new abilities or be elevated further. They can also only PM or target non-enrolled students or students in Imre, and sabotages count as kills against them. The Arcanum There are nine fields at the University, each of which has certain abilities that you can learn by being elevated in them. You can choose which fields to study in by filing Elevation Points in your chosen field(s) each turn. The Master of each field will choose a player to elevate each month from among the players with EP in their field (when a Master is a NPC, they’ll choose randomly weighted with the number of EP each player has). Ranks: there are four ranks in the University. You start out with no rank, and then are elevated to E’lir, then Re’lar, then El’the (and finally Master). Your rank usually determines which abilities you have access to. Your level (the number of elevations you have in a given field) often determines how powerful your abilities are (and if you get additional action periods specific to your field). Gaining abilities: In Linguistics, Rhetoric & Logic, and Archives, you gain 1 ability, which is determined by your rank (e.g. if you’re elevated to Re’lar you gain the Re’lar ability in that field). In Arithmetics, Sympathy, and Physicking, every student has access to all abilities, but each ability increases in power depending on your level (i.e. how many elevations you have in that field). In Alchemy & Artificery, you have the ability to create all items up to your current rank (e.g. a Re’lar has access to E’lir and Re’lar level items), but items have different levels depending on your number of elevations in Alchemy/Artificery. Naming is weird Mastery: Masters are NPC-controlled until an El’the gains 15 EP in a field, at which point they become Master of that field. Masters have discounted lodging and tuition and cannot be brought on the Horns, and Master-level abilities in their field (even if they didn’t have all four elevations in the same field). They assign Discipline Points, choose who to elevate, but can no longer be elevated or learn abilities in other fields. Skindancer Masters can choose to destroy a field, at which point no one else can be elevated in it or learn new abilities from it. More detail on each field and its actions is given below the Imre section, for the curious. Imre Any player can go to Imre one month per cycle (or can stay in an Imre-specific lodging to be there for all three turns of the cycle). In Imre, you don’t have access to taking actions, but instead can visit various locations in Imre and do things there. The Eolian: you can try for your Talent Pipes once during the game, which are a +10 talents per turn item. You can also practice there to try to improve your musical stat before trying for your Pipes. Moneylenders: you can visit Devi or Giles to take out a loan. Devi gives higher loans with steeper interest, will take collateral, and will put a mommet with your blood on the Black Market if you default. Giles is only accessible by Cealdish Commoners or at the Grey Man, and gives smaller loans at much more reasonable prices. The Loaded Dice: gamble a certain amount of money on numbers of your choice, and if the GM rolls one of your numbers then you get a reward (proportional to the amount of money + the number of guesses). Certain social classes can get better odds here. Nox’s Apothecary: here you can buy certain items and services. Black Market: you can buy Bodyguards and Assassins here, and players can place and take contracts of all sorts (from ‘kill X’ to ‘give me a solution to the Collatz Conjecture’). Fields Linguistics: grants additional general action periods. Abilities are PM-related and granted depending on your elevation rank. Hand Delivery (E’lir) (passive): PMs to/from expelled players, cannot be spied on Mysterious Bulletins (Re’lar): anonymous writeup messages Bribe the Messenger (El’the): PM spying Linguistic Analysis (Master): detect if a player lied in your presence Arithmetics: all abilities are passive except for pickpocketing, and all accessible to all Arithmetics students. Reduced Interest (passive), with Devi and Giles Great Deals (passive), at the Apothecary and Black Market Decreased Tuition (passive) Pickpocket: steal some coins from someone targeting you Rhetoric & Logic: up to 3 Rhetoric action periods. Abilities are complaint-related and granted depending on your elevation rank. Argumentum ad Nauseam (E’lir): cancel someone’s vote(s) Proficient in Hyperbole (Re’lar): gain two additional votes Persuasive Arguments (El’the): change a vote to a different player Law of Contraposition (Master): redirect an action Archives: up to 3 Archives action periods. Abilities are mostly scans, and granted depending on your elevation rank. Omen Recognition (E’lir): determine if an event was Skindancer-caused School Records (Re’lar): learn what fields someone has been elevated in Banned Books (El’the): learn an ability from another field Fae Lore (Master): target a player and roleblock them only if they are a Skindancer Sympathy: all players have access to all actions. Actions have an insanity bonus based on level. Mommet-making: mommets are a 1-use item that roleblock the player they’re made for and cannot be roleblocked or redirected. Depending on level, this can be a random player, a player of your choice, or the (anonymous) cause of a kill/sabotage. Masters can use that last kind for a kill instead of a roleblock. Malfeasance Protection: create a binding between you and another student. Depending on level, this will copy all actions on you to the other student (and possibly vice versa), downgrade all negative actions on either of you, or transfer all actions on you entirely to the other student. Physicking: all players have access to all actions. Medica Emergency: next turn, no one will be able to target you (but you also won’t be able to take other actions, and may not be able to PM or vote) Medica Detainment: fully roleblock a player. Psychological Counseling: decrease someone else’s insanity bonus that turn (decrease is equivalent to number of elevations in Physicking) Cheating Death: protect another player from kills/sabotages (though you may only be able to delay the inevitable) Alchemy: gain an Item Creation period. (Note: items take two action periods to complete, and doing both in the same turn will mean you can’t do anything else.) The level of an Alchemy item is determined by how many elevations the user has. Alchemists can create any item at or below their current rank. Items have an insanity bonus on creation. Tenaculum (E’lir): destroy an item or cancel an action of your choice (random if you specify something nonexistent) Firestop (Re’lar) (passive): passively protect from heat-based malfeasance (mommets, bonetar, tenaculum, Fire naming actions) Plum Bob (El’the): drug a player and ask them up to 5 basic questions, which they must answer truthfully (unless and until they go into a rage, the chance of which is higher for each question asked) Bone-tar (El’the): destroy a lodging. Some chance (level-dependent) of it going volatile and killing half the players staying there. Artificery: gain an Item Creation period. (Note: items take two action periods to complete, and doing both in the same turn will mean you can’t do anything else.) The level of an Artificery item is determined at creation, by how many levels the creator has, and indicates how many uses the item will have. Artificerists(?) can create any item at or below their rank. Items have an insanity bonus on creation. Ward (E’lir): Detect a random action used on you and its level. Bloodless (Re’lar) (passive): protect from a sabotage. Thieves Lamp (Re’lar): steal 30% of a player’s money and half their items. Gram (El’the) (passive): protects from sabotages, kills, and malignant sympathy. Cannot be destroyed. Naming: Up to 3 Naming action periods. Namers start by learning the Name of the Wind, and learn further names by using their most recently-learned Name, and continue to learn Names even when expelled. Each Name beyond the first grants a passive (+1) insanity bonus per turn. Using more than one Name grants an additional insanity bonus on top of that. Names are not defined actions in the same sense as other field abilities, but just general areas which can be used singly or together to accomplish whatever you’re creative to come up with. If you plan to use a Name, get your order in as early as possible so the GMs can work with you on what exactly will or won’t work. Player List Matrim's Dice Kasimir The Known Novel Steeldancer JNV Wonko the Sane Archer Drake Marshall Ashbringer TJ Araris Valerian Szeth Pancakes Stink Sart Quick Links

Twitter's recent profile page redesign reminded me of something I wanted to do a while back but kind of forgot about. Most, if not all, social media websites allow you to customize your profile with a theme, and I think it's about time we created some avatars, backgrounds, and banners to show some fandom pride. I am thinking we can use abstract images, drawings and paintings from books and covers, as well as quotes. Before we do that, however, it would be useful to figure out the ideal dimensions of the different sites' customization options. I'll start with Twitter because it's fresh in my mind and I don't have much time for research now, but I'd like to add the rest as well. Twitter Avatar: 400x400 px Header photo: 1500x500 px Facebook Avatar: (any square?) Timeline cover: ??? Tumblr Can we do anything less than a full theme?Google+ Avatar: (any square?) Cover photo: ??? 17S Forums Avatars Signature banners?

When looking through the edit profile options, I noticed there was no option for social media, but I figure at least some people use it. So, how about it? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter? Post it here. Instagram: Onion.cook DO NOT POST IF YOU DO NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE.

https://twitter.com/audible_com/status/694179719693082624 I think I'll try and choose one question to ask him...

So we know from the MAG that "[w]ith proper manipulation [of Feruchemical aluminum], it might be theoretically possible to tap someone else’s metalminds..." There have been some theories on this, with one of the prevalent ones being that a Feruchemist drops themselves to 0 Identity and then their metalminds are "unlocked," and/or that a Feruchemist with 0 Identity can tap someone else's normal storage--doesn't run afoul of whatever mechanism stops people from normally accessing each other's metalminds. Someone asked the former on Twitter today: Source: So that. Assuming that ":)" means yes, then I have had a thought. What's to stop an Allomancer from Compounding such an "unlocked" metalmind? This actually goes beyond whether Brandon's answering yes or no, though, since Compounding can do interesting things either way. Even if the trick is just letting Identity-using-Feruchemist access random metalminds, he could still Compound that metalmind if he could burn it Allomantically. But the first case is far more interesting, since the second is essentially just a streamlining of a normal "tap, then store". EDIT: Wait a second, the second case is not "essentially just a streamlining of a normal "tap, then store". It lets an Feruchemical aluminum/a<Anything> twinborn compound whatever his allomantic metal is, without the need to rely upon another Feruchemist being a willing participant and/or a Full Feruchemist. And there's no storing going on. Past-me had a brain fart... --- So the first case: Scene: We have an Augar named Amy who's feeling a mite ill. She calls her Full-Feruchemist friend Friendly Frank for a favor: "Could I have some Health, please?" "Sure thing," Friendly Frank says. So he stored Identity and filled up some gold with Health and took it to Amy's hospital bed. "Thanks Frank! You're a lifesaver!" With that, Amy swallowed the metalmind and sensed two distinct reserves. Choosing the unfamiliar one, she burned the gold and was flooded with Health. And so Compounding granted a Feruchemical attribute to an Allomancer FIN And, therefore, Augors are actually useful in the future, once they figure this out, since they'll just make a habit of buying Invested metalminds from full Feruchemists. All other stripes of Allomancers could behave similarly. --- Also, a "yes" would essentially confirm some variant of the "key-lock" theory we discussed back in the day. ------- UPDATE: Theory confirmed.

I was browsing through Peter's Twitter feed (he answers a lot of questions that are nice to know the answers to ) and saw a conversation between him and our very own Satsuoni. Sats is feeling all bashful today, so authorized me to repost it here. Any upvotes/accolades you feel compelled to give should be allocated to Satsuoni, as I am merely the messenger here. Source:‏ My read of this is that Peter is talking about stuff like how you can store the strength you get from Allomantic pewter in a pewtermind, but it could be hinting at something else. Any thoughts? Mainly I posted this for posterity's sake.

Just something I noticed during the FantasyChat last night: Source: So it seems that the quote about the one ring "Burn the One Ring, eh? I think it's such a powerfully invested object that it would be very, very dangerous to try" may have lead us astray a bit. Unless shardblades/plate simply aren't powerful enough. Rather, it looks like you need a "tie" of some kind to get any special reaction. That aligns with compounding and all, or "type" of Investiture could mean that Allomancers are only attuned to Ruin/Preservation. Aside: I just figured out why Inquisitors are allowed to get weird effects for burning their spikes: the same reason they can use spiked Feruchemists' metalminds. The sDNA in that spike is "theirs" at the point when they burn it.