Long Game 17: Heronfall

[Wyrmhero]

What about communication among people on the mission? Would that be allowed?

 

Minds on the mission, luckat

 

In other words, no. The players on the mission cannot use PMs or Actions during the Night Turn.

 

Edit: That is the end of the Day Turn!

Edited February 8, 2016 by Wyrmhero

[Wyrmhero]

Night 1: Public Enemies 1-to-4

Many people, when faced with the idea of such a challenge and the possible fatalities arising from taking on a totalitarian regime, might have fallen silent, contemplating their life and whether they were ready to put it on the line in this way. Others might have become grim and sought solace in wines and ales, determined to make their potential last night one that seemed worth it.

But, to a Mistrunner, the idea was academic. A Mistrunner did not die quietly in their sleep, it was often said. It was not a question of whether they would survive, but how long a reprieve from death they could eke out. The patron of all Mistrunners was Kelsier, Survivor, proto-Mistrunner, and more besides. The act of defiance in the face of overwhelming odds was practically a hymn to him.

As such, they approached the night with their usual air of flippancy and quiet caution, continuing to talk, drink and gamble as they had before. Even the threat of traitors in their number was not enough to deter them; Mistrunners rarely made for lasting friends anyway. There was a certain amount of understanding for that sort of thing, particularly since almost every contract had someone working for a Megacorp behind it anyway.

The clatter of dice rang through the bar in its more quiet moments, alongside the shuffling, riffling and playing of cards. They were not discouraged, but there was a certain amount of tension in the room, a sense of foreboding. But behind that, there was also a curiosity, a desire to see what Feis Yolen would have them do first. All of them had entertained ideas about dethroning the Megacorps in some way, but none of them had any weight or sense behind them. And even though they might not live to see the end of them if they did succeed, there was a grim satisfaction at knowing that they would have helped, regardless of how it ended for them personally.

There was very little talk of the traitors as the afternoon bled into the evening. The haze of the sun above the smoke and mist of the city faded and died a brilliant shade of red, and was replaced with the florescent glow of dim street-lamps flickering on. Inside, their employer's assistant took out a phone, placing it to her mouth and covering what she was saying with her other hand. After a few minutes, she ended the call and called for quiet. A few minutes later, she even got it.

“Lord Yolen has finalised his plans for the attack on the Lone Shard headquarters located on Heron property. By weakening their security forces early on, it is hoped that future operations will progress more smoothly. This will require a diverse set of skills, so do we have any volunteers?”

Not a single hand was raised. “Don't all rush to sign up,” she muttered, followed by a sigh. “Fine.” She pointed at Eda. “Select four people by whatever metric you like to carry out this mission. I don't care how it is done, so long as it is done before we run out of time.”


Player List

 

IrulelikeSTINK - IrulelikeSTINK - A placeholder.
Anamaximder - Alexandrius Venturia
Mailliw73 - Miller Washington
Hellscythe - Avis
Kynedath - Dragonsight - A teetotal seasoned criminal.
Shallan - Citona Vinid - Thinks quickly on her feet.
phattemer - Exisa - Paranoid, but who isn't in this business?
Elbereth - Elbe - Quiet and polite.
RippleGylf - Ripple - Another teetotaler, but not so far proven to be seasoned at criminal activity.
Elkanah - Lane - None of your business.
Bridge Boy - Sam Flynn - Experienced Mistrunner and Cognitive Matrix explorer.
Adavantos - Count Banuir Reynaud - Count is actually his first name.
TheMightyLopen - Lopen - Excitable and forward-looking.
Araris Valerian - Araris - A fencer with an aluminium sword.
Burnt Spaghetti - Ember Ghetti - Most definitely not a Kandra.
Clanky - Klyn - Distraught at the idea of being sober.
Arraenae - Niter - A mute guy with a high-tech notepad.
The Silver Dragon - Star Thief - Part-Scadrialian, part-magpie, all mysterious.
luckat - Lucy - Never late, nor early.
LUNA – Eda – A new Mistrunner.
OrlokTsubodai - Locke Tekiel - Always in a rush.

No-one was lynched!

Miller Washington (1): IrulelikeSTINK
Sam Flynn (1): Niter
Ember Ghetti (1): Lopen
Lopen (1): Lane
Niter (1): Alexandrius Venturia
Lucy (1): Avis

Night 1 has begun! The Planning Phase will end at 8PM GMT on Tuesday evening, and the Night Turn itself will end at 8PM GMT on Wednesday evening. PMs may now be sent.

Eda has been selected to choose the team for this mission! Eda will need to PM me before 8PM on Tuesday evening with four people, or else she will die instead.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Alvron

[STINK]

It's almost like Arranae predicted that LUNA would be picked!

[LUNA]

It's almost like Arranae predicted that LUNA would be picked!

If only something that fun and sneaky actually happened.

SPOOKY haha

[STINK]

So to everyone, initial thoughts on who should go on the mission?

[Araris Valerian]

Well, I was busy the latter part of the cycle, but if anyone hasn't shown up we could pair them with 3 active folks. I saw that as a suggestion that seemed pretty solid in the thread discussion. I guess I don't mind being front and center for a game if it means I die early and get to spend more time on HttFE and school, so I'll volunteer myself as a start.

[Kynedath]

I would love to go.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Kynedath

[Arrae]

It's almost like Arranae predicted that LUNA would be picked!

Nice to know I got the electrum burning function working.  Only problem with electrum is that the rusting tablet can only show what's going to happen to it. Atium would be more useful, but it's so rusting rare that there'd be no point.    

 

I should get a celebratory drink. 

 

If only something that fun and sneaky actually happened.

SPOOKY haha

You could find me some atium. That would be fun. 

 

EDIT: We didn't lynch anybody D1. That's kind of weird. Should we be discussing that?

Edited February 8, 2016 by Arraenae

[STINK]

Just got asked in a PM what my thoughts on the matter of the mission is. 

 

Right now, I feel that more people should comment on the mission so that we can feel more confident about the mission.

[TheMightyLopen]

I don't really want to go. I'd rather use PM's and stuff I think. If no one wants to go though, I suppose I wouldn't mind terribly missing one Night Turn. So put me in the reserves!

 

Volunteers:

 

Kynedath

Araris

 

Reserves:

 

Lopen

 

A bit of a warning though. Players with roles will most likely not want to go so that they can use their ability. So I don't know if it's a good idea for players to volunteer or say they don't want to go. Thoughts?

[STINK]

Well, that's presuming that players with roles will always want to use them and not go on a mission (pretending to have no role) then be more likely of being dismissed by the Eliminators as a target.

[Mailliw73]

I'd rather keep my PMs, please. 

[Amanuensis]

A bit of a warning though. Players with roles will most likely not want to go so that they can use their ability. So I don't know if it's a good idea for players to volunteer or say they don't want to go. Thoughts?

 

This was actually a concern that just crossed my mind when I considered posting whether or not I wanted to volunteer. So instead this is what I propose: we don't base team members off of volunteers, we base it entirely off of the player list.

 

Cycle One:

1. IrulelikeSTINK

2. Anamaximder

3. Mailliw73

4. Hellscythe

Cycle Two:

1. Kynedath

2. Shallan

3. phattemer

4. Elbereth

Cycle Three:

1. RippleGylf

2. Elkanah

3. Bridge Boy

4. Adavantos

Cycle Four:

1. TheMightyLopen

2. Araris Valerian

3. Burnt Spaghetti

4. Clanky

Cycle Five:

1. Arraenae

2. The Silver Dragon

3. luckat

4. LUNA

Cycle Six:

1. OrlokTsubodai

2. IrulelikeSTINK

3. Anamaximder

4. Mailliw73

 

So on and so forth. Obviously we will need to adjust this every cycle for the players who get lynched and killed by the eliminators, but this way everyone will evenly participate in a mission and there's no extra information for the Traitors to learn based off who volunteers and who does not. I don't believe there's any ability that missing a cycle of use is worth putting at risk of being highlighted for not wanting to take part in a mission and thus likely taken out.

 

It's already late for a few (if Mailliw wasn't an obvious target for a kill - assuming he's not a Traitor himself - I would reason he certainly is now) but I think that for the long term preservation of our information gathering abilities this plan would be best. What is everyone else's thought on the matter?

Edited February 9, 2016 by Adavantos

[Kynedath]

I don't think that the shifts would be the greatest. not sure why though. Sorry for not really explaining, but I just don't have a good feeling about this.

[Mailliw73]

I don't think we should rotate every single cycle. The best way in Avalon to find the evil team is to keep the same team that succeeds a mission until they fail, at which point we analyze them, swapping one out at a time. 

[TheMightyLopen]

Like I said before, I have no experience with this game mechanic. So really, I'm not sure what would be a good strategy. I'll probably be more of a listener of plans, rather than a maker of them about this. At least at first.

 

(Hey! I said I wanted to use PM's before Mailliw. Why wouldn't I be a target?  )

[Clanky]

I'm not sure how I feel about cycling the mission players in a predetermined fashion. I know that in resistance it is a terrible idea but this is a different game completely. I still am not sure on the best way to use it. I do know that if the eliminators know ahead of time when they will be on missions they can plan accordingly which is something that I don't want.

 

Also I will volunteer to go on the mission since I have a midterm tomorrow anyways so probably won't be too active even if I'm not on a mission.

[STINK]

I don't mind if the missions pass even when an elim is in the team, as the eliminators don't have to even worry about them failing in the first place, as all they do is kill inno's (at worst) and nothing (at best). ANY eliminator is going to pass the mission in the end. 

Edited February 9, 2016 by IrulelikeSTINK

[Clanky]

I don't mind if the missions pass even when an elim is in the team, as the eliminators don't have to even worry about them failing in the first place, as all they do is kill inno's (at worst) and nothing (at best). ANY eliminator is going to pass the mission in the end. 

At least at the beginning they will. When we near the end game they will probably use it to get the extra kill but that's a problem for another time (when most of us will be dead anyways).

[Amanuensis]

The way I look at the missions is they are a double edged sword. On one hand they provide the eliminators a way to kill an extra villager with risk of revealing their alignment at most three cycles later. However, for the Villagers, it's a way that players who know they are good can stay safe at the cost of not being able to PM anyone or use an ability. Naturally that's going to attract players that do not have a power, thus both painting a target on the backs of those who don't want to go out on a mission while also leaving them vulnerable to being killed. Also an eliminator could easily hide among the volunteers if they don't end up having a useful role themselves, making them immune to being scanned by a Hacker but still able to coordinate during the day phase to swing lynches.

 

By implementing a system we are ultimately keeping our protections evenly distributed and allowing every player equal opportunity to PM and use their powers without putting their lives at extra risk. As the game goes on (and especially when we have a few Traitors dead) we will be able to see when a player tries to get out of mission duty, either because they have a role that is critical for their team or because they are the only eliminator left and need to make a kill. Of course they can go along with and sabotage the mission to get someone killed regardless, but then that still narrows down their identity and will ultimately trap them. Only problem with having fixed, repeatable groups is we most likely will never get every eliminator in there at once. If we did somehow manage to fill the mission team with eliminators and no kill occurred then we would know that we caught them red handed, which would be awesome, but very unlikely in this scenario.

 

I think a good counter to this is maybe not use a fixed, repeatable group system, but we all vote on a player that we are most suspicious of during every planning phase to be put in there along with three others that are randomly chosen from a list of people who have not yet been sent on a mission. After everyone has been sent on a mission once then we can go back to the original list, minus the casualties, and continue to do the same thing until we get some sort of useful result out of it.

[TheSilverDragon]

Star Thief stood admits tall, ugly grownup people, all talking about missions, and risking their life. There all so dumb, she thought to her self, why are they worrying about these missions? There's no shinys involved. She paused for a moment, but what if there was? She could now see the real intent behind the missions, it was to get as many shinys  as possible. " weakening their security forces" was just another way of saying "steal all their shinys and they wont be able to hire any guards." 

 

Star Thief did a little dance of joy when she realized what the real purposes of the mission was.

 

"Oo, ooo, ooo!" She shouted jumping up and down with eagerness. "Can I god and steal the shinys with you guys?"

 

 

This is not me saying I whether or not I want to go on the mission, just a bit of RP. I wouldn't object going since reasons.   

Also, I did not vote last cycle but:

 

 

 

Miller Washington (1): IrulelikeSTINK

Sam Flynn (1): Star Thief

Ember Ghetti (1): Lopen

Lopen (1): Lane

Niter (1): Alexandrius Venturia

Lucy (1): Avis

 

 

 so something's up here.

[Arrae]

I put a vote in BB last cycle, but it's not showing.

 

EDIT: This is what I'm getting so far.

 

Pros+ of volunteering:

-people who want to use roles/PMs can use them

-people with important roles who don’t volunteer won’t die from mission failure

-generates discussion

 

Cons of volunteering:

-eliminators can get information by finding who volunteers and who doesn’t

Pros of shifts:

-people have an equal amount of role/PM time

-eliminators don’t get information from people volunteering or backing out

Cons of shifts:

-village can’t change shifts to pursue suspicions from mission successes/failures

-has been commented as a bad strategy when playing Resistance, which this game is based off of.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Arraenae

[LUNA]

I don't really want to go. I'd rather use PM's and stuff I think. If no one wants to go though, I suppose I wouldn't mind terribly missing one Night Turn. So put me in the reserves!

 

Volunteers:

 

Kynedath

Araris

 

Reserves:

 

Lopen

 

A bit of a warning though. Players with roles will most likely not want to go so that they can use their ability. So I don't know if it's a good idea for players to volunteer or say they don't want to go. Thoughts?

 

Honestly, I think that is the only way that the game can progress. I may, in the end, decide to send a player regardless of preference, but until I have an idea of who does or does not want to go, send players on missions would be a shot in the dark. 

 

So in all honesty, if you have a preference, I would love to know. 

[Elithanathile]

Sam was just fine with going on the mission. It would be a whole lot better than sitting here in this foul-smelling place and waiting around to be either hacked or attacked by the police. And if Sam had been hired by Yolen, even if he didn't trust the man, he would fulfill the contract. And the faster he went about doing that the better.

 

I also noticed there was no D1 lynch, but I actually prefer that a bit more. Unless we accidentally manage to kill an eliminator, they are usually not too helpful in the act of actually killing someone, the advantage is in the votes. So long as the votes people placed were sincere, we can get some good information out of it. (By "we" here, I mean one of the many who enjoy doing tons of analysis. I can't do that stuff. I just get hunches and get killed by butter knives.)

[Elbereth]

(By "we" here, I mean one of the many who enjoy doing tons of analysis. I can't do that stuff. I just get hunches and get killed by butter knives.)

I do not regret that. I liked that writeup.