Break Tank 1: The Auction of Stories

[Elbereth]

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Come one, come all, to the GREATEST AUCTION OF YOUR LIFE!  Come buy magical mysteries, wondrous weapons, and even captured frozen MOMENTS IN TIME! 

You could own...

...the renowned sword (S)laughter, whose cackles echo across the Cosmere!

...the famed Reckoner's Jacket, which grants courage beyond your wildest dreams!

...the coin-purse with which Emperor Sheev bribed Constable Altea to SLAUGHTER THE SENATE!

...a perfect replica of the wooden bus which DESTROYED Fallion’s Tears!

AND MANY MORE! 

 

But let the buyer beware: the price will be high. Take care, or it may cost you your very life. 

 

THE AUCTION OF STORIES
coming March 5, 2022

 

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Welcome to Break Tank 1: Auctioning Stories!

The rules are down below, but first, on signing up: the game will take place on Saturday, March 5th at 1pm Eastern Time or Sunday, March 6th at 10am Eastern Time. When you sign up, please indicate which you would prefer. With each cycle being one hour, remember that (depending on the number of players) the game is likely to go on for several hours. In addition, as the writeup makes clear, the flavor of this game is historical items from SE, which means I need item suggestions! If you’ve been playing for any time at all, please provide at least one (more if you can!) item you recall from a past SE game. Include the item, the game it’s from, and a brief description of what happened to it. A few examples are provided at the bottom of this post.
 

Rules

The Auction

• At the start of each cycle, the available items at auction will be announced. There may be multiple items with the same power; two or more identical powers share the same pool and the winners will be the 2 (or 3, or ...) highest bidders.
• All players can send in a bid in their GM PM for a single available item. (The bid may not be higher than the number of living players.) The highest bidder on each item (tied bids are randomly decided) may use that item once during any following cycle. (Bids happen after death in the order of actions, so a dead player’s bid is not counted.) Who won each bid, and for what amount, is not announced.
• The ‘currency’ with which players bid is the number of votes that will be automatically added to them for the next cycle. That is, if in cycle 1 Wilson bids 1 vote to get a Protect item and is the highest bidder on that power, she will have 1 vote added to her name in the cycle 2 vote count. These extra votes will not be revealed in thread except as part of the next cycle vote count.
• The order of actions is such that every power comes before Removal.

Housekeeping

• Standard village and elim factions; elims have a group doc and a kill. The factions are unimaginatively named Villagers and Eliminators.
• 1 hour combined cycles. 
• Vote minimum is 1, ties result in a random death. 
• Only 1 action is permitted per turn (and the elim kill counts as an action). Bidding is not an action. 
• Any items you had at the time of your death are not announced in the writeup. The writeup does announce if a person is attacked but protected (including that person's name), and item and elim kills are distinguished.
• You will be told if you're roleblocked, or if your bid is changed up or down. You might not be told if your action goes through as normal, or if you lose your bid.
• Order of Actions: 
  • roleblock
  • everything else
  • kill
  • execution
  • bidding

Item Types

• Roleblock: prevent your target’s action from succeeding. If the target attempted to use an item, that item is still used up.  (If the player took no action, your item is still used up.) Bids are not an action.
• Protect: protect your target from a single attack (not including the execution). Can protect yourself. 
• Kill: attack your target. 
• Bid Up: increase your target’s bid by 2. (This does add two more votes to them the next turn.) 
• Bid Down: decrease your target’s bid by 2. (If this results in a bid of less than 0, the target does not have any extra votes added but does not get a vote taken off of them either.)
• PM: you have a PM for a single cycle with a target of your choice. Unlike other powers, you specify your target during the cycle in which you bid, and may include a single backup target in case your first choice dies. The PM will be opened by the GM at the start of the next cycle. 

 

Participants

Spoiler

Players
1.

 

Spectators
1.

 

I provide no guarantee that any particular item will actually be included in the game. Note that none of these are claiming to be the “original” item, just a copy, but if you have attachment to a particular item and would prefer that it not be included, let me know. Here's a sample of items, to get you started on ideas:

Spoiler

Item: Reckoner's Jacket
Game(s): LG9
Story: Item invented out of whole cloth by Maill, later given to Wilson to symbolize gambitry and the courage to be insane sometimes.

Item: 3 beads of lerasium
Game(s): LG19
Story: After a troll clarification by one of the GMs that finding three lerasium beads, a very low-chance item, would cause you to ascend to become Preservation, Araris did just that and ended the game in a spectacular storm of metal.

Item: Spooky Doll
Game(s): QF26
Story: A red herring item invented by Mi'ch, which passed to a new player every two cycles and got progressively creepier each time.

 

Quicklinks

Spoiler

Cycle 1: The First Stories
Cycle 2: Another year, another death
Cycle 3: Faster Than The Eye Can See
Cycle 4: Ash to Ashes
Aftermath: A Story of Death

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Devotary of Spontaneity

[Ashbringer]

So that's why you were asking in the discord 

Squeezes Shadowblaze Tighter

 

Faleast is in, although idk how much RP I could do. I'd prefer the 5th at 1pm.

Item ideas... Shadowblaze, so long as it's not mine. Grandbow... oooooh Gavilar's bead from LG49! I forget if that was an Unmade in the game or not.

Edit: If we're allowed out of the Cosmere, one of the Pots from LG78 (the Zelda game) would be cool, although idk how that would work with set abilities

Edited February 27, 2022 by Ashbringer

[Elbereth]

3 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

So that's why you were asking in the discord 

Squeezes Shadowblaze Tighter

 

Faleast is in, although idk how much RP I could do. I'd prefer the 5th at 1pm.

Item ideas... Shadowblaze, so long as it's not mine. Grandbow... oooooh Gavilar's bead from LG49! I forget if that was an Unmade in the game or not.

Since it's a Break Tank, RP is not required and I'll in fact be asking people to put any RP they do in spoilers for the ease of catching up / seeing game-relevant stuff for those who have less time. (Same with any random OOG talk; all this is specified in the break tank rules.)

And again, I'm only claiming to be selling copies of items, not the originals

[Mat]

I’ll play, provided the game runs on Saturday the 5th at 1pm. If Sunday is the preferred option then that’s fine and you can drop me out but I’d definitely be a bit sad to miss the inaugural BT game

I’ll bring out Philico again. It’s been awhile and he’d like some more items.

As for suggestions, I think a lot of the honorblades from Ash’s LG are still floating around somewhere. I don’t remember what they all specifically did (or who ended up with each one) but I bet a lot of them had the generic protect/RB etc abilities.

[Ashbringer]

6 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

As for suggestions, I think a lot of the honorblades from Ash’s LG are still floating around somewhere. I don’t remember what they all specifically did (or who ended up with each one) but I bet a lot of them had the generic protect/RB etc abilities.

I think the only one explicitly lost was Vedel's (you got Battar's, I nabbed Ishar's, Lotus survived with Shalash's, Elims (Araris and Mist) had the rest). But copies lets anything happen 

[JNV]

Hi! I kinda want to play jst so I can say I was around for the 'first' game but honestly Im not sure if I'll be available so tentative play but I'll update you if Im not available so I can just watch instead

I dont know any historical items sadness Im not part of history yet so no historical items for me.

[xinoehp512]

You know what, your post looks cool. I'm in.

[Araris Valerian]

Not yet sure if I'll be able to play this game, but I will if I can (hold on adding me to the list for now)!

I'd say that some form of the Madashar Panda from LG 6 (I think) should be included, despite not actually being an item. It could be one of the bid actions due to it's corruption.

The Smoking Gun from QF 7 comes to mind as a good kill item

A Genealogy of Luthadel from LG 7 might work as a PM item, or as a Bid Down (via blackmail)

Also from Twinborn Village, LG 11 Meta's Atium Bead, which allowed him to survive he most simultaneous kills ever (the actual number is disputed) would be a good protect

Some of the Omens from LG 28 might work with various effects

The first Stab Vote (TM) from LG 60 seems appropriate for a Bid Up item

[StrikerEZ]

Oh man. I’m in.

I would definitely prefer Sunday. But I think I might be able to manage the Saturday one. Maybe. Probably not. We’ll see as it gets closer to the actual start of the game.

[Experience]

Can't do Sunday, probably can't do Saturday. Guess I'll spectate, wish I could play in the first one. 

Pipes from a kkc game, perhaps?

[xinoehp512]

Oh yeah! I can't do Sunday, but I can do Saturday.

[Kasimir]

Signing up, probably switching on kel mode because I don't expect to get much done in an hour. Preference for the Sunday slot, but I can survive Saturday as well, so am good with either.

Edited to add: Tagging @Elbereth in case because editing in this change - signing up as a possible world iteration of Khas. Let's go back to the beginning  

Item thoughts:

Random assortment

• MR7 - the knife which killed an Emperor (Story: Kas was being a troll and killed the NPC Emperor C2)
• MR7 - the halberd Discord, used by the Discovery Faction member Hael (Story: They all wanted awesome powers...)
• QF6 - a cryptologist's codes/notes (Story: Kas was the cryptologist, linked up with Joe and luckat to murder the hell out of the Nightmare Aspects by using Tineye messages to break down the game's communication gaps.)
• QF20 - An extensive collection of shoes (Story: Hael put in inventories in QF20 just so Burnt could steal everyone's shoes.)
• LG79 - a voidspren gem (Story: xino made himself a voidspren gem intending to convert to the Elim team. It Did Not Work As Planned because Ambiguous Order Was Ambiguous.)
• LG82 - the Lord Ruler's Mark (idk ask @Matrim's Dice what it is exactly - Story: Mat put in an item that allowed players to win at the end as long as they held it and survived. After a long chain of murders, it was passed from Mage to Kas which is the story of how Kas ended up winning as a Villager with an Elim team.)

Edited February 28, 2022 by Kasimir

[Mat]

9 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

LG82 - the Lord Ruler's Mark (idk ask @Matrim's Dice what it is exactly - Story: Mat put in an item that allowed players to win at the end as long as they held it and survived. After a long chain of murders, it was passed from Mage to Kas which is the story of how Kas ended up winning as a Villager with an Elim team.)

I pictured it as a physical seal, a stylized circle that signifies the Lord Ruler’s approval with the bearer. But it was pretty clear that no one else pictured it that way 

[Stick.]

Aaaa I was gonna suggest the Spooky Doll from frr's game but it's already listed in the examples smh

Signing up. And I very much prefer the Saturday, March 5th at 1pm Eastern Time time.

I'll throw in Cuddles (Awakened Sword) as a suggestion since I don't see it here yet. I encountered it in my very first game (MR16) and got killed because of it, but I believe it was created in LG4. 

edit: this my 2222nd post! I'm never posting again.

Edited February 28, 2022 by _Stick_

[Haelbarde]

Unfortunately can't do either time (woo, timezones...), but if you wanted more item suggestions:

• The Trellium Spike - LG 26 - Held by Bleeder, to be used by Wax, Bleeder was added to the Odium faction, but then used the promise of being converted to Harmony's faction as a result of Wax using the spike to leak the identity of Odium to Harmony. Odium instantly killed Bleeder in retribution. Lady Sequence tried to make off with it, but was killed. Rysn was the next to try keep it, but it was stolen by Nazh. And when the Children of Adonalsium, lead by Harmony, dared to end the game before Khriss and Nazh were ready for them to do so, Nazh stopped them by spiking themself with the Trellium Spike, becoming the only living member of God's Own Hate (previously lead by Odium), while Khriss incinerated Harmony with all the power available to them.
• The Diagram - AG 4  /  AN 1 - The infallibable charts plotting all paths to Odium's victory! (See elim doc)
• Nightmare Cursor Pin - MR 14 - A spectral pin that marked the secret role of Cursor in the pre-game nightmare sequence/social experiment.
• Brightness Ascendant Banner remains - LG 12 - Edrab Leah, herald to Emperess Kiireon, was survived only by the remains of this banner after the firestorm that errupted in Kae.
• Rem's Deathnote - QF 15 - Used to kill its holder as a result of a IKYK from someone fakeclaiming the secret role to the people that formed the secret team.
• Odd collection of 13 sets of shoes - QF 20 - The sneaky Khajit Adarjmei stole a fine collection of shoes from off the feet of all the other 'lucky' guests at Summitmist Manor.
• The Particularly Cursed One Ring - MR 38a - So tricksy, the corrupted ran away with the first cycle before anyone knew what was happening.
• Doctor's Coat & Badge - QF 7 - The discarded canary yellow coat with the masking tape label reading "DrRab", a relic of the one time Abundance of Doctors.
• Sack of bloodcoated hemalurgy spikes - MR 9 - Inquisitor Grimm spent the game killing steel ministry and skaa indescriminently for their allomantic powers.
• The Lifeless Command Phrase to 4 Unused Lifeless - LG 28 - Four lifeless were accumulated to produce a massive suprise vote spring from long dead players, only the commands were thought to be lost before they could be used when the Lifeless Commander died.

I've run out of energy to do all these properly, but speaking to Burnt, she suggested some of the following: 

• Burnt Spaghetti's Grandbow of Seeking in LG20
• Beardnuts with maple syrup and glitter - MR 7 - Portal in the sky appeared and Burnt and Bort pranked Wilson from the middle of a past game.
• Mercenary Cupcakes LG33 
• LG65 burnt down house
• Corruption LG21 - Burnt holding broken cultivation, along with Ruin and Dominion.
• Odium plushie

Edited March 1, 2022 by Haelbarde

[Kasimir]

1 hour ago, Haelbarde said:

• Burnt Spaghetti's Grandowbow of Seeking in LG20

Oh, that bow >>

The one that gunned down the Ghostbloods because Burnt used Wilson as her spotter and Wilson thought it was a good idea (admittedly usually good Evil doctrine) to distance from us >>

That one.

1 hour ago, Haelbarde said:

• Beardnuts with maple syrup and glitter - LG 14 - Portal in the sky appeared and Burnt and Bort pranked Wilson from the middle of a past game.

You might mean MR7 as well. I think they put in a request for that to happen in my game as well so I Made It Happen, which is why Wilson returned in QF40 for revenge  

[StrikerEZ]

2 hours ago, Haelbarde said:

The Particularly Cursed One Ring - MR 38a - So tricksy, the corrupted ran away with the first cycle before anyone knew what was happening.

I was also gonna suggest the Reform Spy's Intel: The intel that got the Spy killed because he buckled under pressure and revealed himself.

@Kasimir

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

I would like to join as Endrik! also I would prefer it on a Saturday.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Thaidakar the Ghostblood

[The Unknown Ajah]

I can't join, but here's two items:

The Curse of Tyrian Falls: A simple chain necklace with a spike dangling from the end. Decrease bid.

The Broken Curse of Tyrian Falls: A simple chain with two half spikes dangling from it. Increase bid.

Not sure if they exactly fit the theme with game specific items, but they've been pretty important to SE's history. Here's another more in theme item:

Meerkat's bulleTin Board: The item used to singlehanded make every player in the game distrust them, then every player trust them again, before being used to discover the identities of 2 (3?) elims.

Here's an actual item:

A Ripped Page: From Archers QF51, it's a page that allowed you to speak with the dead and/or the elims. I would say a PM item.

Edited February 28, 2022 by The Unknown Aon

[Ashbringer]

Idea:

Steelstorm Generator: a complex Allomantic Iron and Steel fabrial, capable of mimicking the mass of metal seen in AG8, LG19, and (perhaps) LG83.

[Ookla of Colors]

I'll play if it's on Saturday and I don't have to do other stuff instead.

I promise to try to get all my stuff done before 1pm on Saturday so I can play.

[Kasimir]

3 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

I was also gonna suggest the Reform Spy's Intel: The intel that got the Spy killed because he buckled under pressure and revealed himself.

@Kasimir

You realise Hael and I co-GMed that, right?  You had to hit both of us at once...

[StrikerEZ]

6 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

You realise Hael and I co-GMed that, right?  You had to hit both of us at once...

I did have to hit both of you at once. That’s why I tagged you.

[Kasimir]

1 minute ago, StrikerEZ said:

I did have to hit both of you at once. That’s why I tagged you.

>:(

[Steeldancer]

I would like to present an old favorite of mine. Probably nobody else's.
"The All-Consuming Rabbits of Doom" are self replicating rabbits from... LG38 I think, that eat items. 
Their natural predator is just the "Platypus", although I don't think that rule passed, which is ridiculous. 
Is this on Saturday? If so, I can join.