Sanderson Elimination: Questions & Answers and Game Meta Discussion

[Karnage]

Yah, I will check it out before I sign up. I am guessing that like most mafia games the more there are the merrier, so even if I was in the masses it should still be fun!

[Furamirionind]

6 hours ago, Karnage said:

Yah, I will check it out before I sign up. I am guessing that like most mafia games the more there are the merrier, so even if I was in the masses it should still be fun!

Yeah, if you think you're up for this being your first game, we'd love to have you! If you ever have any questions about the game as well, feel free to ask. My first game was also an incredibly complicated game, and I only got through it by asking the GMs lots of questions about how the game (was supposed to) work.

Also feel free to ask players anything, though don't expect them always to answer truthfully. : P

[Mat]

I am mildly interested, it would help if I really knew how it worked. I can't seem to figure out the rules/methods that this is played, or when a new game starts, or how often things happen or anything. Help? 

[Shard of Reading]

Me too. I want to be able to join but I can't figure out when a new game starts or how you create a character or anything like that.

[Straw]

33 minutes ago, Matrim's_Dice said:

I am mildly interested, it would help if I really knew how it worked. I can't seem to figure out the rules/methods that this is played, or when a new game starts, or how often things happen or anything. Help? 

28 minutes ago, Shard of Reading said:

Me too. I want to be able to join but I can't figure out when a new game starts or how you create a character or anything like that.

Rules depend on the game, but they typically follow traditional mafia rules, with the village vs the elims. There are also usually roles that are assigned to players. Long game 1 explains a lot of the rules and is a good example of a fairly typical game. There are three types of games: long games, mid-ranges, and quick fixes. Long game signups start when the previous long game is finished. Quick fix sign ups start when the previous mid-range finishes, and vice-versa. Characters are optional, and are mainly just if you want to RP or for the GM to use in write-ups. They're pretty much entirely up to your discretion.

On another note, there are two games currently running: LG65 and QF44. If you're interested in spectating either game, just ping the GM (Elbereth or little wilson for LG65 and me for QF44) and they'll send you a link to the spec doc. Spec docs are a lot of fun, and give you a chance to see what's going on in the game.

Let me know if either of you have any more questions! New players are always appreciated.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Straw

[Elkanah]

Welcome to Sanderson Elimination! We typically have two games running at a time. Right now we are in the middle of a quick fix and a long game. I'll edit in a link here to explain what those mean as soon as I get home from work.

The long game will probably take two or three more weeks before it is finished and we put up signups for the next one. The quick fix has about six days left. We'll post sign ups for the next game a day or two after that game ends.

I'd be happy to message both of you and anyone else interested in the community as soon as the next game is posted. 

Edit:

Ninja'd by Straw with better information

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Elkanah

[Mat]

3 hours ago, Straw said:

On another note, there are two games currently running: LG65 and QF44. If you're interested in spectating either game, just ping the GM (Elbereth or little wilson for LG65 and me for QF44) and they'll send you a link to the spec doc. Spec docs are a lot of fun, and give you a chance to see what's going on in the game.

Another problem is I don't know how to do this... or what it means. I need to figure this out, would like to spectate

[Straw]

16 minutes ago, Matrim's_Dice said:

Another problem is I don't know how to do this... or what it means. I need to figure this out, would like to spectate

The spec doc is just a Google doc where people who aren't playing can talk about the game. I'll send you the spec doc link for QF44. I can see that Elbereth is currently viewing the thread, so I think she'll also send you the link for LG65.

If you were referring to not knowing how to ping, pinging is just writing @ and then someone's name. It should give them a notification. Ex: @Matrim's_Dice.

[BrightnessRadiant]

I kinda want to make a game where you die to an inactivity filter if you don't post at least one GAME RELATED post every cycle or 2 cycles.  Thoughts?

[Elandera]

38 minutes ago, BrightnessRadiant said:

I kinda want to make a game where you die to an inactivity filter if you don't post at least one GAME RELATED post every cycle or 2 cycles.  Thoughts?

I like the idea, but what would you classify as game related? There are several who post things that just say they have no suspicions and they'll get to things later. It's technically game-related but largely just filler.

You could easily do something quantifiable, like a word count minimum, to make sure people don't pop in with a line or two to avoid the filter but still stay under the radar. 

[BrightnessRadiant]

9 minutes ago, Elandera said:

I like the idea, but what would you classify as game related? There are several who post things that just say they have no suspicions and they'll get to things later. It's technically game-related but largely just filler.

You could easily do something quantifiable, like a word count minimum, to make sure people don't pop in with a line or two to avoid the filter but still stay under the radar. 

I wouldn't call that game related since it literally doesn't add anything to the game.

But yeah something that made it impossible to escape the filter if you just say "will post tomorrow" or irl blue text etc.

[Young Bard]

Matrim's Dice and Shard of Reading, I'll @ you both when signups for the next game go up so you can see if you're interested in playing.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Young Bard
Had something else here, but decided it was too close to current game talk, so deleted it.

[Straw]

1 hour ago, BrightnessRadiant said:

I kinda want to make a game where you die to an inactivity filter if you don't post at least one GAME RELATED post every cycle or 2 cycles.  Thoughts?

Shouldn’t this go in Art of Game Creation? I’ll put my response to this in there.

[Elkanah]

@Matrim's_Dice and @Shard of Reading This right here is the link I promised you. Sorry it's later than I had hoped to send it to you. This post explains what I meant by long game and Quick fix. The whole Rules and Etiquette thread is worth reading, but this will at least get you started and give you an idea for how long until the next game is up.

 

[StrikerEZ]

Okay, so an interesting conversation started up in the discord server earlier, and I felt like it'd be interesting to come here and let everyone give their thoughts about it.

What do people think of players choosing to either completely ignore their GM PM or look at it and, if they're an elim, ignore the identities of their teammates?

[Elkanah]

I thought a lot about not having the elims not know each other at all when I reran QF 11. You'd just have to have a bigger team and tailor the roles. I don't like the idea of not looking, but not going to the doc would be a fun way to play

Edited May 19, 2020 by Elkanah

[DeTess]

11 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

What do people think of players choosing to either completely ignore their GM PM or look at it and, if they're an elim, ignore the identities of their teammates?

I personally think it's something you need to build your game around. Someone not looking and playing whatever alignment they feel like playing can really mess with balancing, especially in smaller games. Someone looking, and then not joining the elim doc is more of a double-edge sword balance-wise, as the solo elim will be harder to catch, but in a role-based game the elim team also can't make use of their role and might kill them on accident. I know I personally would be somewhat unhappy if a team-mate unilaterally decided they didn't want to play as a team.

That having been said, I think you can definitely design a game around the second assumption, where either all the elims can only coordinate with a vote for the kill, not knowing who the others are, or with some other type of enforced anonymity of the elim doc (such as making it clear that there is traitor in the doc).

[Kynedath]

I personally feel like ignoring your GM PM and not looking at your alignment is a poor decision. If you're a villager then no harm really, but if you're an elim then you're depriving your teammates of a player essentially.

And like Detess said, if you don't join the doc then you lose the possibility of teamwork and add the risk of your teammates hitting you with a kill and that can absolutely ruin an elim tams chances at victory.

What I HAVE seen done and I think is a clever idea with potential is going into the elim doc but not looking at the names, making a few new pages and make a conversation with the other villages making them aware that you want to keep them anonymous. If the elims are okay with it I'd ask them to use the same color as background and font color where your names go so that they're invisible unless you highlight them. The others can choose to either know the identity of their teammates or not. I think that maybe Aman did that in one of the docs I was in?

[Straw]

Recently, I created a small thread activity counter in Python, and thought I'd share it here. I also made a post transcriber, and I'll get instructions for that up soon.

Let me know if there are any features that you'd like me to add. Also, if you're curious how this works, I've commented the code.

Instructions for use:

1. Download Python from this link, if you do not have it already. Scroll down to the bottom and choose a version to download. I don't believe it particularly matters which open you choose, as long as it's for
2. Follow through the Python installation. At the start, make sure to check the box to add Python to PATH. Other than that, you don't need to do anything special while installing. If you forget to add it to PATH, uninstall and reinstall Python.
3. Open up Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (MacOS). 
4. You will now have to download two libraries for Python using the Command Prompt/Terminal. You will use the "pip install" command. If you are on MacOS, you will use the "pip3 install" command instead.
5. Type "pip install bs4" and press enter. Type "pip install requests" and press enter. Do not include the quotes for either of these. Remember to replace "pip" with "pip3" if you are on MacOS.
6. Download my program from here. The download button should be right before the code itself, in the gray row.
7. Double click on the downloaded program to run it. The program will request a "base url". For this, you will be entering the page one url of a thread, minus the page number itself. Ex: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/57663-quick-fix-game-21-the-names-smith-john-smith/. Make sure to include the / at the end. The program will also prompt you for a "start ID" and "end ID". These are optional parameters for getting activity counts of thread sections. You can get an ID by clicking on the share button on a comment, scrolling until the end of the link, and then copying the number. For example, the ID of the post above me is 990686.
8. The program should output an activity count for the given section.

Example of use:

Getting full activity count of QF21:

Getting activity count for page four of QF21:

The IDs in the image above are the IDs of the first and last posts in that page:

https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/57663-quick-fix-game-21-the-names-smith-john-smith/?do=findComment&comment=531391

https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/57663-quick-fix-game-21-the-names-smith-john-smith/?do=findComment&comment=532966

[+Lotus]

Hi-o. This sounds really interesting, but I'm wondering how we would know when a new round opens.

[Elandera]

2 minutes ago, MysticLotus said:

Hi-o. This sounds really interesting, but I'm wondering how we would know when a new round opens.

Hello and welcome! A new game is posted usually a few days after one ends. Our pattern is to have a Long Game running consistently, and switch back and forth between a Mid-Range and a Quick Fix game so there are almost always two games running. 

I think the MR should be wrapping up soon, though I haven't been following it a lot. We can tag you when the new sign-ups are posted. Games usually start about a week after sign-ups.

[+Lotus]

5 minutes ago, Elandera said:

Hello and welcome! A new game is posted usually a few days after one ends. Our pattern is to have a Long Game running consistently, and switch back and forth between a Mid-Range and a Quick Fix game so there are almost always two games running. 

I think the MR should be wrapping up soon, though I haven't been following it a lot. We can tag you when the new sign-ups are posted. Games usually start about a week after sign-ups.

Oh, thank you so much!

[StrikerEZ]

18 minutes ago, MysticLotus said:

Oh, thank you so much!

If you want, you could ask for a spec (spectator) doc for the game I'm currently running! I'm running Long Game 66 right now. Spectator docs are google docs where people who aren't playing the game can talk about what's going on in the game. Players who die usually get access to that doc when they die as well. 

If you want to watch a game before you join one to kind of see what it's like, I'd love to give you the spec doc for my game! Just send me a PM called "LG66 Spec Doc" and I'll send you the link! Welcome to SE! Happy to have you here!

[A Joe in the Bush]

Related to that, I think it might be beneficial to have a notification / sign up thread. Every time a game started, or a Game Master needs a pinch hitter, one of the mods could post in that thread with a link to the signups, or to the GM's profile to PM. That way people who want to play could follow a single thread, instead of the entire forum. It would help declutter notification inboxes. 

If we didn't want to have a 6th pinned topic in the forum, we could just post these in the General Rules topic.

Does anyone else think this would be a good idea?

[Elandera]

12 minutes ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Related to that, I think it might be beneficial to have a notification / sign up thread. Every time a game started, or a Game Master needs a pinch hitter, one of the mods could post in that thread with a link to the signups, or to the GM's profile to PM. That way people who want to play could follow a single thread, instead of the entire forum. It would help declutter notification inboxes. 

If we didn't want to have a 6th pinned topic in the forum, we could just post these in the General Rules topic.

Does anyone else think this would be a good idea?

I think that's a great idea. We could also unpin the championships thread except for when it's needed, and create a new "Current Game Notifications" thread (or a more clever title than that nonsense).