Long Game 87: Choose Your Own Manywar

[Stick.]

3 minutes ago, Archer said:

So the Hoid death was the the NK.

That's the expected assumption, yes, but here:

5 hours ago, Archer said:

Is Sart's death a case of a Lifeless using Revenge? I'm confused how they died. 

You essentially say that Sart targeted someone with a Lifeless (which caused the kill to boomerang back to Sart), implying that the HOID kill was not the NK.

[Ashbringer]

42 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

You essentially say that Sart targeted someone with a Lifeless (which caused the kill to boomerang back to Sart), implying that the HOID kill was not the NK.

I think he means Sart killed HOID, and HOID had a Lifeless that used Revenge to kill Sart. But that doesn't explain last cycle's 2 kills, there wasn't time for a Lifeless to set up.

Idk the Dove doc has been... very quiet. HOID barely said anything and Sart publicized most of what he could do (besides the whole I'm-an-Infiltrator part, of course).

[Stick.]

50 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

I think he means Sart killed HOID, and HOID had a Lifeless that used Revenge to kill Sart. But that doesn't explain last cycle's 2 kills, there wasn't time for a Lifeless to set up.

Does the Revenge action not protect the targeted player as well? I just kinda assumed they did. But yeah, if they don’t, HOID could be the NK. However, given last cycle’s extra kill, it’s possible the HOID kill wasn’t the elim kill and the elim kill target happened to be a Returned. 
@Steeldancer will the write up announce a Returned surviving an attack? 

[Steeldancer]

38 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

Does the Revenge action not protect the targeted player as well? I just kinda assumed they did. But yeah, if they don’t, HOID could be the NK. However, given last cycle’s extra kill, it’s possible the HOID kill wasn’t the elim kill and the elim kill target happened to be a Returned. 
@Steeldancer will the write up announce a Returned surviving an attack? 

Yes, it will. Or, well, it'll say the person was attacked and survived. It won't explain why. 

[Araris Valerian]

I'm pretty sure that Revenge doesn't protect you. Otherwise the Lifeless would be kinda overpowered.

[Luckspren]

13 hours ago, Archer said:

Luckspren

Archer 

8 hours ago, Archer said:

Are we sure there's another elim in play? 

One of Kas's original guesses for numbers was 4/4/3/-3/2/1 with 3 or 4 infiltrators. Unless there were only 3 Doves, 443321 is correct, so 3-4 inf's is probably right as well. Also, outnumbering would be hard if they only started with 2. 

TL;DR - Not sure, but quite likely.

8 hours ago, Archer said:

Also I'm down to kill anyone not on my team, so Luckspren seems good. I am not, as people keep assuming, an elim. 

Agreed, see vote above. If you're not an elim, seems like a good time to roleclaim. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Luckspren

[Araris Valerian]

1 hour ago, Luckspren said:

Unless there were only 3 Doves

I'm pretty sure that there is a single Dove left, and I am the last remaining Hawk.

[Ashbringer]

3 hours ago, Luckspren said:

Unless there were only 3 Doves, 443321 is correct, so 3-4 inf's is probably right as well.

Only 3 Doves, unless someone’s reeeeeally quiet 

3 hours ago, Luckspren said:

Also, outnumbering would be hard if they only started with 2.

… yes, yes it would be.

[Archer]

18 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

I think he means Sart killed HOID, and HOID had a Lifeless that used Revenge to kill Sart. But that doesn't explain last cycle's 2 kills, there wasn't time for a Lifeless to set up.

Yeah I'm pretty sure Clanky is a lone serial killer Cultist and he's been adding extra kills. (Luckyspren)

[Luckspren]

27 minutes ago, Archer said:

Yeah I'm pretty sure Clanky is a lone serial killer Cultist and he's been adding extra kills. (Luckyspren)

@Clanky, @The Wandering Wizard, haven't figured your factions out yet. Is one of you Ash's 'reeeeeally quiet' Dove, or are you both Cultists?

Archer, Clanky, because I actually haven't seen any evidence that Archer is an elim. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Luckspren

[The Wandering Wizard]

There are other factions than those two. I'll just say I'm neutral.

[Ashbringer]

Luckspren

[Luckspren]

27 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

Luckspren

Well... after several PM discussions:

Clanky, Archer, because I now have seen evidence that Archer is an elim.

Archer (4): JNV, Araris, Stick, Luckspren (hey Archer, it's not Luckyspren)

Clanky (1): Archer

Luckspren (1): Ash

Edited July 18, 2022 by Luckspren

[Mat]

12 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Only 3 Doves, unless someone’s reeeeeally quiet 

Wait. @Luckspren, what are you?

[Clanky]

7 hours ago, Archer said:

Yeah I'm pretty sure Clanky is a lone serial killer Cultist and he's been adding extra kills. (Luckyspren)

 

7 hours ago, Luckspren said:

@Clanky, @The Wandering Wizard, haven't figured your factions out yet. Is one of you Ash's 'reeeeeally quiet' Dove, or are you both Cultists?

Archer, Clanky, because I actually haven't seen any evidence that Archer is an elim. 

Yes, I am a cultist but not a serial killer. The cultist win condition is much more forgiving than the infiltrators and I've been working to make sure as many of the factions can win together as possible.

Sorry for being quiet in the thread. I feel like most of the games been playing out in PMs so I've been focusing on that. I'm happy with getting rid of the infiltrators but I won't add my vote to Archer unless I have to. There are others who need the breath more than I do

[Ashbringer]

Luckspren, Archer

[Steeldancer]

Annnnndddd the shenanigans have finished. 
The game is over. 
I'll get the aftermath up soon. 

[Steeldancer]

LG87: Aftermath - The Ultimate Killer
When Ancy awoke, he only remembered his name, and those beautiful shimmering rainbows. The memory of that place quickly faded away, but in its place, something else began to grow. 
Ancy admired his body in the reflection provided in a large body of water. It was beautiful. Perfectly toned, and a striking visage. 
He didn't know specifically how he had gotten here, or why he looked like this. But he did know one thing. 
He turned his eyes upon the city he saw nearby. 
He wanted... to inflict death. He smiled. 
~
Over the next few weeks, he formed a Cult. A secret cult, who worshipped him and his designs. He heard things about political unrest and whatnot, but he did not care about any of that. And so, secretly, he and the people who joined him eliminated person after person, causing chaos in the city. Their group was so small that they were never noticed. 
Until it was far too late, and the city of Hallendren had already fallen into pieces. 
~
The last infiltrator stormed the castle. He had to kill the last important Royal for his mission to be complete. According to his information, he was so, so close. 
Unfortunately for him, he got caught, and hanged. The Royal family survived, as did the King. 
The Revolutionaries were also rooted out, and thrown into jail for conspiracy against the crown. With the Royalist hawks having been essentially wiped out, that left only the Royalist Dove faction to advise the king. 
So, even as the city began to fall apart due to the antics of the Cult of Colors, the government of Hallendren reached out to other countries in order to end the Manywar. It remained to be seen how effective the policy would be, but surely it would be better than all out war. 
And so, this chapter of unrest closed upon the city of Hallendren. With international relations stabilized, the government would have to deal with the Cult. But... it might have already been too late...
~~~

Clanky (1): Archer

Archer (5): Stick, JNV, Luck, Ash, Araris

Archer was exed! He was a Foreign Infiltrator infiltrating the Followers of Edgli! 
2 new commands were discovered. Protect [Player], at 45 breath, and Fetch Papers, at 70 breath. 6 commands have been discovered and the game can end! 
The game is over! The Cult of Colors, Royalist Doves, and Followers of Edgli have won! 
The Cult of Colors successfully matched sizes or were bigger than all other factions! 
The Royalist Doves successfully kept a single Royal alive, outnumbered the Hawks, and another faction won! 
The Followers of Edgli successfully kept a Returned alive! In fact, none of the 3 returned ever even got attacked...
The Royalist Hawks lose due to not having any players left alive in the faction. 
The Adjuncts of the Scholars lose due to not having enough breath. JNV successfully collected 103 breath, and Stick collected 75, but no member had over 200. 
The Foreign Infiltrators lose due to not killing all the Royals, and not outnumbering anybody.
The Revolutionaries lose for similar reasons. 
Here are the links for all the documents. 
Royalist Hawks
Royalist Doves
Revolutionaries
Foreign Infiltrators
Cult of Colors
Adjuncts of the Scholars
Followers of Edgli
Dead Document
The Master Sheet (admire how pretty I made it)
Complete List of Known Commands
Oh man I have a lot of thoughts about this game, but I'll put that in a separate post. For now, here's the distribution. Thanks for playing, everyone! 
Final Player List

Spoiler

1. Matrim's Dice- Samuel Follower of Edgli - Shashara, One of the 5 Scholars
2. The Unknown Novel- Dedarriel Foreign Infiltrator
3. HOID WANTS INSTANT NOODLES- Larinias Royalist Dove Royal
4. Ashbringer- Clem Royalist Dove Spy
5. Archer Foreign Infiltrator
6. The Wandering Wizard- Ormutag Follower of Edgli Citizen
7. Araris Valerian- Hadrani Pereniod Cult of Colors Cowardly Elite
8. Fifth Scholar- Yallacero Royalist Hawk Royal
9. Kasimir- Kirilas Royalist Hawk Royal
10. Young Bard- Linish Revolutionary Royal
11. Stick Adjunct of the Scholars - Yesteel, One of the 5 Scholars
12. Xinoehp512 Adjuncts of the Scholars Royal
13. Elandera Revolutionary Citizen
14. Sart- Arthas Foreign Infiltrator Spy
15. Clanky- Ancy Cult of Colors Returned
16. Luckspren- Lelea Pendrose Royalist Dove Citizen
17. JNV- Kalomi Adjunct of the Scholars Royal

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Steeldancer
spelling

[JNV]

@_Stick_ you were right and I hate that we never had a chance and honestly I knda wish wed sacrificed me from the start now just because this annoys me 

@Clanky I really appreciate all your attempts to warn me but we didnt have enough and I dont think we would have unless everyone else held off on 

@Kasimir You were the best really and truly all the stars in the sky for you 

I really should have known as soon as it came out that there were three doves and they were infiltrated but I didnt and I think this is a lesson about trust 

This was fun this was great and the twists and turns of betrayal are fun and wobbly and sometimes sad and I thought this was neat and it was surprisingly well balanced considering and thanks Steeldancer for running the game it was really nice

[Steeldancer]

2 minutes ago, JNV said:

@_Stick_ you were right and I hate that we never had a chance and honestly I knda wish wed sacrificed me from the start now just because this annoys me 

@Clanky I really appreciate all your attempts to warn me but we didnt have enough and I dont think we would have unless everyone else held off on 

@Kasimir You were the best really and truly all the stars in the sky for you 

I really should have known as soon as it came out that there were three doves and they were infiltrated but I didnt and I think this is a lesson about trust 

This was fun this was great and the twists and turns of betrayal are fun and wobbly and sometimes sad and I thought this was neat and it was surprisingly well balanced considering and thanks Steeldancer for running the game it was really nice

Never had a chance? You guys were extremely close. If Clanky hadn't decided to 6th Heightening a research action, you probably would have gotten enough breath between donations from Luckspren, Stick giving you breath, and the night action. 
In fact, if Stick had given you her breath and you had won the breath off of Archer, you could have won today. Unfortunately neither thing happened, but it was really close. 

[Clanky]

Thanks for running the game Steeldancer and Devotary! It was fun!

I'd like to apologize to the adjuncts. As soon as Araris joined the cult the endgame started coming along much faster than I thought possible. I was worried that Stick was actually the infiltrator not Archer and that things would go poorly for the cult in the next night. I guess I was just paranoid.

 

[JNV]

6 minutes ago, Steeldancer said:

Never had a chance? You guys were extremely close. If Clanky hadn't decided to 6th Heightening a research action, you probably would have gotten enough breath between donations from Luckspren, Stick giving you breath, and the night action. 
In fact, if Stick had given you her breath and you had won the breath off of Archer, you could have won today. Unfortunately neither thing happened, but it was really close. 

Thats what I mean honestly we made the right decision with the information we had but we didnt have the information we needed so we didnt have the chance and we talked ourselves out of every good option and Clanky stabbed us in the back it was very mean but were still friends right Clanky its a little frustrating honestly but what I really mean by never had a chance is that I thoguht we were friends Clanky you couldnt have waited a cycle you couldnt have done anything I thought we were friends and basically our chance at victory was founded on randomness and the generosity of people who are fundamentally opposed just because of action economy and time 

2 minutes ago, Clanky said:

I'd like to apologize to the adjuncts. As soon as Araris joined the cult the endgame started coming along much faster than I thought possible. I was worried that Stick was actually the infiltrator not Archer and that things would go poorly for the cult in the next night. I guess I was just paranoid.

I forgive you and it might not be ok right now but it will be and I still consider you a friend just in a rough patch right now

Edited July 19, 2022 by JNV

[Stick.]

Well damn  

Couple of things - will echo JNV’s comment about how it was kinda hard for us to have much control over the game when the Adjunct wincon relied heavily on randomness (our faction ability) and on the mercy of others (donations). I was constantly knocking on people’s doors via PMs and I’ll admit it was a lot of work - other players simply did not have much incentive to give away all their breath to another faction especially when said faction isn’t instrumental to their own win. For the Doves, the natural faction to win with were always the Edgli’s who had a passive wincon (more on this below). Not to mention the restrictions that came with Returned passing breath and passing breath being an “all-or-nothing” situation. We also couldn’t ever consider actually using any cool actions cuz breath+action economy plus we were on a constant time crunch except we didn’t have a reliable deadline for perspective either. More randomness factors in here in terms of how the CE act (and when) cuz that clearly had huge impacts.

I also don’t think the Edgli wincon was hard enough I mean the main thing that kept me from fully trusting/working with the Edgli’s was that weird wincon like wasn’t it too easy? Like especially with the faction protect action being allowed to be used on the same player consecutively and the Returned basically having no incentive to not immediately claim to the Edgli’s.

This isn’t to say I didn’t have fun tho so shoutout to JNV for being a great teammate and also to Xino who perished early sorry Xino. We were super close so I’ll go ahead consider this a win idk about you

GG, thanks Steel and Devo! 

Edited July 19, 2022 by _Stick_
Spelling w o r d s

[Araris Valerian]

Thank you @Steeldancer and @Devotary of Spontaneity for running this game, I had tons of fun, first watching Kas and Fifth enlarge our doc at an incredible pace, then helping Clanky while hoping nobody would figure out I faction swapped. I do think the win conditions for the various factions could use a bit of tweaking, and Steel's idea for a mid-game edit would be a reasonable change, but this ended up being relatively minor in terms of how the game played out for me personally.

Edit: And in regards to the shenanigans revolving around Kas and I claiming CE, and TUN claiming Infiltrator, I hope we have all learned valuable lessons about both the trustworthiness of roleclaims and the loyalty/stubbornness that certain older players may have. I personally think it was a valid play for the Infils to make, but Kas and I haven't really ever been the sorts of folks to go along with something like that. I'll also note that neither of us would have opposed the Infiltrators if the other wasn't comfortable doing so; it was a joint decision between the both of us.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Araris Valerian

[The Unknown Ajah]

Thank you Steel and Devo! I really liked the game.

A thought for a change, maybe you could make the Infils an Alignment rather than a faction, mostly semantics, but it would give a good reason for the Infils to not be aligned with the Revos, and would help explain why they aren't joinable. Removing the Edgli’s protect or seriously nerfing it would be nice to. It would also encourage the Edgli’s slightly more to interact to beg off the exe and kill. Something to note, the Cult is better than the Infils in every way except how you distro them. Not sure if there's any need or way to fix that, but it's there.

I'm not going to comment on the drama, because there's no way I can do it calmly/nicely.

Edited July 19, 2022 by The Unknown Novel