Mid-Range Game 12: Turf War

[Master Elodin]

Savien awoke in a loud bar. His head pounded, as he had been slammed against a wall by a strength epic but his thought were clear. (I'm not a drunk) He hated epics! A man walked up to him.

"Heard you were thinking about me."

Oh god, he thought. Then, realizing that this epic was a mind reader, he forced himself to think of "his money" that was stashed across the river in a certain building. The epic looked around, and three men suddenly dashed for the ferry.

Heh, he thought to himself. Works every time.

---

No analysis yet, as most posts have been introduction RP.

[Arrae]

Pam peered down from the second story balcony of her house. Her parents still hadn't come back yet., but... there was still hope, right? They had to come back. Mother and Father couldn't be gone.

 

In the street below, a man waved his arms and wildly gestured towards the sky. "What's that, Rae?" he shouted. "You want Kipper to do some Drunk posts? That's not how it works, silly!"

 

The man paused for a moment, then continued screaming towards the sky. Pam shrank back from the balcony. He must be one of the crazies that Mother had talked about. Someone who not only ignored the opportunities handed to them on a silver platter, but also spat in the faces of people who only wanted to help.

 

Pam turned and walked back into her (temporarily) deserted house. Mother and Father would be back soon. They had to.

[Silverblade5]

Heh. The timing was perfect for this.

[Straw]

Taniel woke up to the sound of gunfire. When he looks out he sees people fighting in the streets. He grabs his rifle and some powder charges and walks outside to fight.

Strawman is officially here! Let the fun (and/or Slaughter) begin!

[STINK]

He must be one of the crazies that Mother had talked about. 

 

Hmm? Crazy? Did Pam not accept that the chances of her being an Epic had just skyrocketed due to Altermind? How could one even think that? 

 

This was important enough to investigate, so I stopped going to the Pub and walked up to the door of Pam's house. It was a good door, but that's all you really need to know.

 

I rang the doorbell, waited 2 seconds, knocked on the door, waited 2 seconds, rang the doorbell again, and finally stopped.

 

Now this could either go great, getting me a guest to come along to the Pub with me or it could go horribly wrong and I die. But hey, the things we do for some company. 

[TheMightyLopen]

Still scouring the rules to try and get familiar with everything, but here's some things I think players would do well to take note of, as well as some questions I have for the GM(s):

 

1. Turns are only 24 hours! As such, I'd say we need fast action and quick thinking to have a chance. Too many times players won't realize the time limit these games have until it's too late, allowing the eliminators to pretty easily skirt lynches and whittle down villagers with not much resistance.

 

2. FACTIONS!! I'm excited to play another faction game, seeing as the last one I played didn't turn out too well for my faction(MR10). Like MR10, we need to focus on the eliminators before really trying for the faction win condition(killing your opposing factions Epics). Epics, I'd suggest never revealing yourselves to anyone unless you're 100% certain they're on your gang.

 

3. Something I was actually gonna put lower, but thinking a bit more about it now seems to be one of the most important aspects of this game. Lodging. Players Actions can only affect those players who are in the same place as them. GM question: Does the Government Agents kill have to be on someone in the same place as the target of the one sending in the Government Agent Kill? If it does, then that is going to make it difficult for the Agents to kill very often. UNLESS players forget to put in lodging orders and get placed on the Streets, which allows anyone to target them. So please, SEND IN LODGING ORDERS ASAP!!! We could even assign players to a specific location to try and make sure everyone is aware of where the players are.

 

4. Points. I think it might actually be a good idea to send our points to the Banker to get some scans. Not sure on this point though. Haven't thought through it much yet. On one hand, if you get 5 points, you can learn a player in your gang, but on the other hand, if a Banker gets 9 points, they can scan for a Government Agent. If it's important that you learn your gang members as fast as possible, then I could see keeping them for yourselves for a bit. There's also the fact that the Bank's points get washed away every third Cycle.

 

I actually think that's it for now. I might have more questions/thoughts, but this is a faction game, so I'm trying to be careful with what I say. 

[Clanky]

Still scouring the rules to try and get familiar with everything, but here's some things I think players would do well to take note of, as well as some questions I have for the GM(s):

 

1. Turns are only 24 hours! As such, I'd say we need fast action and quick thinking to have a chance. Too many times players won't realize the time limit these games have until it's too late, allowing the eliminators to pretty easily skirt lynches and whittle down villagers with not much resistance.

 

2. FACTIONS!! I'm excited to play another faction game, seeing as the last one I played didn't turn out too well for my faction(MR10). Like MR10, we need to focus on the eliminators before really trying for the faction win condition(killing your opposing factions Epics). Epics, I'd suggest never revealing yourselves to anyone unless you're 100% certain they're on your gang.

 

3. Something I was actually gonna put lower, but thinking a bit more about it now seems to be one of the most important aspects of this game. Lodging. Players Actions can only affect those players who are in the same place as them. GM question: Does the Government Agents kill have to be on someone in the same place as the target of the one sending in the Government Agent Kill? If it does, then that is going to make it difficult for the Agents to kill very often. UNLESS players forget to put in lodging orders and get placed on the Streets, which allows anyone to target them. So please, SEND IN LODGING ORDERS ASAP!!! We could even assign players to a specific location to try and make sure everyone is aware of where the players are.

 

4. Points. I think it might actually be a good idea to send our points to the Banker to get some scans. Not sure on this point though. Haven't thought through it much yet. On one hand, if you get 5 points, you can learn a player in your gang, but on the other hand, if a Banker gets 9 points, they can scan for a Government Agent. If it's important that you learn your gang members as fast as possible, then I could see keeping them for yourselves for a bit. There's also the fact that the Bank's points get washed away every third Cycle.

 

I actually think that's it for now. I might have more questions/thoughts, but this is a faction game, so I'm trying to be careful with what I say. 

 

The main difference in the factions this game is that you only actually need to kill all the government agents in your own faction! Not all the government agents. So is it really not integral for the agents to be of prime importance unless they are actually in your faction. That really changes the dynamic in where it only matters for you to kill some of the government agents.

 

EDIT: fixed a mistake 

Edited March 12, 2016 by Clanky

[Danosaur]

I think you got that wrong you only need to kill them in your own faction

 

The main difference in the factions this game is that you don't actually need to kill all the government agents in your own faction! Not all the government agents. So is it really not integral for the agents to be of prime importance unless they are actually in your faction. That really changes the dynamic in where it only matters for you to kill some of the government agents.

EDIT

Never mind you fixed that at the same time as me

Edited March 12, 2016 by Danosaur

[Mailliw73]

GM question: Does the Government Agents kill have to be on someone in the same place as the target of the one sending in the Government Agent Kill? 

Yes. Or on the Streets. Everyone can only use their actions to target those in the same location as them or on the streets, except for PMs and random actions(like finding out a random member of your gang).

[Silverblade5]

I think it would for at least 20% of gang points to be given to the bank, with redistribution every third cycle to prevent flushing. That way, gangs could more consolidate their power by figuring out who's in their gang and the opposing factions' gang.

[Mailliw73]

Clarification: Bankers cannot earn their own points through posting, RPing, etc. But they can get points from the locations with point opportunities.

[TheMightyLopen]

The main difference in the factions this game is that you only actually need to kill all the government agents in your own faction! Not all the government agents. So is it really not integral for the agents to be of prime importance unless they are actually in your faction. That really changes the dynamic in where it only matters for you to kill some of the government agents.

 

EDIT: fixed a mistake 

 

I think you got that wrong you only need to kill them in your own faction

 

EDIT

Never mind you fixed that at the same time as me

 

Oh yeah, you guys are right. That does make us need to focus on our factions a little more then I guess. So each gangs goal is: kill Agents within your gang and the rival gangs Epics.

 

 

Yes. Or on the Streets. Everyone can only use their actions to target those in the same location as them or on the streets, except for PMs and random actions(like finding out a random member of your gang).

 

Thanks. So if we have it noted down where all the players are, the Agents will have a much harder time killing. Also, if we spread players out over each location, it would allow us to narrow  it down faster if they do make a kill. This is just an example of how we could split the players up, based on the player list:

 

Pub: First 4 players in the player list

Government Building: Next 4 players in the player list

Abandoned Warehouse: Next 4 players

Underground Laboratory: Next 4 players

Portland City Hall: Next 4 players

Pool: Last 3 players in the player list

 

If we do that, we could have it similar to the Mission mechanic in LG17, where the eliminators never killed for fear of revealing themselves. I don't see any major drawbacks for this plan at the moment, but feel free to make any suggestions on how to make this work better, or why this could be hurtful.

 

I think it would for at least 20% of gang points to be given to the bank, with redistribution every third cycle to prevent flushing. That way, gangs could more consolidate their power by figuring out who's in their gang and the opposing factions' gang.

 

That would probably be a good idea, but I don't see how we can really organize that type of percentage of points to be given to the Banker. Any idea's on how to actually do this?

 

Edit: ninja'd by the GM. That is an interesting clarification. This means the Banker really has to rely on their gang members sending them their points. Hm.

Edited March 12, 2016 by TheMightyLopen

[Silverblade5]

My current idea is for each player to do it, until banker scans reveal enough gang members for it to become more cohesive.

[Arrae]

The doorbell rang.

 

Pam froze. Mother and Father must be back! She rushed out of her room and towards the stairs, legs moving as fast as possible. Someone knocked on the door. Probably Father, as he was always impatient with Pam.

 

Pam ran down the stairs and into the hallway, which had a slick, hardwood floor. She stumbled on the floor, picked herself up, and kept running. Her parents were back! Father rang the doorbell again and Pam winced. She could already hear the lecture for being so slow.

 

Pam reached the door, unlocked it, and opened it.

 

The smell hit her first. It was horrible, like the stink of sweat and dirt left alone for a year in a petri dish of agar. Then Pam noticed the man standing in the doorway. He wore a black and white hoodie, with the hood obscuring his face.

 

What the heck...?

 

This wasn't Father, or even Mother.

 

Pam slammed the door in the man's face and locked it as quickly as she could.

 

---

 

Stink, shame on you for making Pam think her parents were alive.

 

I like Lopen's idea a lot, but people might not follow the organization exactly. This could lead to issues -- are they a villager doing something unplanned or an eliminator?

[TheMightyLopen]

My current idea is for each player to do it, until banker scans reveal enough gang members for it to become more cohesive.

 

I was thinking something like that at first, but having individual players know who is on their gang is pretty important. I'm still trying to figure out what I think is the best course of action. Because I want to know my gang members, but I also want to know if I can trust them or not. The Bankers scanning abilities aren't specific to their gang either, which is disappointing in that even if they do scan a Government Agent, if they're in a different gang, it doesn't help that Bankers' gang very much.

 

 

Stink, shame on you for making Pam think her parents were alive.

 

I like Lopen's idea a lot, but people might not follow the organization exactly. This could lead to issues -- are they a villager doing something unplanned or an eliminator?

 

If we get everyone to agree to the plan, then that shouldn't happen. If a villager does something unplanned, it would most likely end up being something like forgetting to send in their lodging orders at all. OR they would probably argue in the thread before they did something different from the plan. To hopefully nullify any arguments about the same players going to the same places, I'm thinking we could rotate who goes where each Cycle, so it's more fair. Like, whoever went to the Pub goes to the Government Building the next Cycle, and then the Cycle after that, they go to the Warehouse, and so on and so forth. Still doing thinking on this particular idea though.

[Wonko the Sane]

Silver, it's all or nothing; you can't split your points between yourself and the Bank.

 

Lopen, your plan is amazing, but only if we are told who is in each Location, in the write-up or something. Otherwise, the Agents will just lie about their location, and all we'll be doing is giving them a handy-dandy list of where everybody is each turn. GMs, will we be given that information?

 

I think the most critical goal in these early stages is bringing our factions together. Most of us are Regulars, which means we're shooting in the dark right now. I would suggest that our Captains and Commanders use their early points to start PMs with their subordinates, so that we can get a team dynamic going.

[TheMightyLopen]

Wonko, when entering the location where you are, you are told who else is at that location.

 

As for the idea, I actually saw something similar in a older SE game, so it's not quite my own idea. 

[Silverblade5]

Silver, it's all or nothing; you can't split your points between yourself and the Bank.

In that case, I suggest a three turn rotation.

Turn one: Gang members collect and use points.t

Turn two: At least one member donates to the bank

Turn three: Banker gives points to a confirmed member of the gang. If this could be set up to be the same person as in turn two, that would be even better.

 

Even more ideally is that one member of the gang takes up the role of collecting points exclusively for the bank, with that person being the one that points go to for protection during turn three.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Silverblade5

[Wonko the Sane]

Okay, that's awesome then. Let's do that! And there's no shame in reusing a good idea.

 

Silver, what do you mean, 'Banker gives points'? Once points are in the Bank, they're there to stay. The Banker either uses them or lets them wash away. (What's up with that, by the way? When was the last time you heard of a bank that was emptied of all its contents because of rain?)

​

[Mailliw73]

Silver, it's all or nothing; you can't split your points between yourself and the Bank.

 

Lopen, your plan is amazing, but only if we are told who is in each Location, in the write-up or something. Otherwise, the Agents will just lie about their location, and all we'll be doing is giving them a handy-dandy list of where everybody is each turn. GMs, will we be given that information?

Correct, you cannot. 

 

Lopen has it right. The players on the Streets will be revealed in the writeup and you will be told who is in the same building as you.

 

Silver, what do you mean, 'Banker gives points'? Once points are in the Bank, they're there to stay. The Banker either uses them or lets them wash away. (What's up with that, by the way? When was the last time you heard of a bank that was emptied of all its contents because of rain?)​

Correct. The Banker can only use them or let them go away. (Fine. It's all digital and the power has issues in the destabilized city, so the electronically stored money is erased.)

[Silverblade5]

Okay, that's awesome then. Let's do that! And there's no shame in reusing a good idea.

 

Silver, what do you mean, 'Banker gives points'? Once points are in the Bank, they're there to stay. The Banker either uses them or lets them wash away. (What's up with that, by the way? When was the last time you heard of a bank that was emptied of all its contents because of rain?)

​

Sorry, I was confused. In that case, the banker would have to coordinate which actions their going to use with other members of the gang so that he can be funded accordingly. It would be up to gang members to work out the funding. That's the best I can come up with atm. Might have something better down the line. We'll see.

[The Honor Spren]

Okay. I have my character name now. Lyric Jameson.

Edited March 12, 2016 by The Honor Spren

[Straw]

Before we make any more plans we should nail down the facts.

Here is what we know: section 1: points.

- how to get points:

-0.5 points for first post per cycle. You can get 1.5 points before the gangs banks are flushed out.

-1 point for first RP per cycle. You can get 3 points before the gang banks are flushed out.

-0.25 points for each additional RP. You can get infinite points before the gang banks are flushed out.

-0.5 points for placing a vote. You can get 1.5 points before the gang banks are flushed out.

-0.5 points for using a action. You can get 1.5 points before the gang banks are flushed out.

-0.5 points for changing location. You can get 1.5 points before the gang banks are flushed out.

-gang member actions:

-5 points to learn a random person in your gang.

-5 points to set up a one cycle long pm.

-10 points to protect yourself.

-gang banker actions:

-3 points to give target player a random role/gang.

-4 points to learn a random players gang membership.

-5 points to create a pm that lasts two cycles.

-7 points to kill/protect target player.

-9 points to scan to see if target player is a government agent.

-player guide to locations.

-move locations

-location cycle: city hall --> pool --> lab --> ferry --> warehouse --> government building --> pub --> ferry --> city hall.

-stop at your preferred location.

-guide to command structure points

-Commanders: set up a pm with one of your captains.

-Captains: find out the role of a random player.

-Regulars: give your points to the bank.

-give all excess points to your bank.

Will post more later

[Wonko the Sane]

Strawman, that's really hard to read. Could you restate the important points there, but in complete sentences and without the list formatting? As it is, I can't really understand what you're trying to say.

Edited March 12, 2016 by Wonko the Sane

[Elkanah]

I think you've got a good plan Lopen. There may be a better way to find eliminators using resistance tactics, but I'm afraid either of our plans require dictating where people go and it may hurt the fun of the game.

 

The alternate plan would be to organize where everyone goes on night one the way you did. The following night, however, we would need to mix up the order, dividing the groups. What this does is point a finger to the people who have been in two or three buildings when kills were made.

 

An issue with my plan is if Maill is put in a room with Agent A, then we mix up the groups and Maill ends up with Agent B. Both nights people die in the building with Maill. Thus we suspect Maill and lynch him accordingly, when all the while Agents A and B keep alternating.

 

To resolve this concern, I believe we just have to take these as data points. I think it will be harder for them to alternate as well because the Agents are likely to have abilities with night actions and so one without a night action will make more kills than the rest.

 

An issue with both plans is making sure people actually end up where they are meant to go.

 

A solution: We need to have a speaker from each room announce who was in that building with them. If that information is doctored at all, people will be able call out the speaker as trying to change facts. It's helpful that Maill is GMing, because few others would lie when they were good.

 

There's that analysis. Is this something we want to try?