Anniversary Game 3: The Curse of the Koloss

[Stick.]

Welp. I'll do it anyway Herwynbe

HAHAHAHA

You cannot stop the villagers 

[Jondesu]

12 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

I hate to break it to you, but you can't lynch anyone during the night cycle. Sorry.

Lol, that's what I get for not paying enough attention.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Sigh. I was being played. I thought so. Is it you Wyrm and Wilson?

[Herowannabe]

Burning Steel and Iron, it was a simple matter for Herwynbe to break the latch on Jack Tormander's window and swing it open. Herwynbe slipped inside, then stood tall, straightening his robes. Jack leaped to his feet, dueling cane already gripped in his hand. He had been expecting this. 

Herwynbe glanced at the dueling cane and quickly dismissed it. That wasn't the real weapon, here. With steel and iron burning, Herwynbe could see blue lines leading to dozens of small metal objects scattered around the room. Coins, a paperweight, a pocketwatch, utinsels, and more. Jack was a lurcher, by his own admission. 

Jack sighed. "I was being manipulated. I thought so. Is it you, Whistler, and Wyl Sharpe- the ones pierced by metal?"

Herwynbe smiled meekly- somehow that was more infuriating than if he had laughed out loud. "I will not give away my companions so easily, I am afraid." Herwynbe began circling Jack, watching for any movement from the blue lines. Jack warily kept the dueling cane between them. "And I would not say that I have been manipulating you. Rather, I have been preparing you." 

Herwynbe slipped a hand inside his robe, and Jack tensed, raising the dueling cane a few inches. "Preparing to kill me?" Jack asked skeptically. 

"No," Herwynbe said, pulling a long, thin spike from his robes. "Preparing to recruit you."

 

[A Joe in the Bush]

18 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

"No," Herwynbe said, pulling a long, thin spike from his robes. "Preparing to recruit you."

"Ha" he spat with as much venom as he could. "Recruit me? Death would be far preferable to being spiked. I serve no man or god but myself. You can take your Spike, and pretend it's your new manhood." 

Then he flared Iron. He'd been sleeping with a full belly for days now, for exactly this situation. He reached out with Iron senses, grabbed hard on the hook he had installed across the road. As Herwynbe stepped forward to stab him, he yanked with all his force. He slammed into the Terrisman (What was with him and fighting evil Terrismen?) throwing both of them out the window and into the road. Jack landed on the rooftop across from him. Herwynbe, not having an anchor below him him, landed in the street.

"Catch me if you can, you willess chunk of flesh!" And then he was off, pulling from building to building, along the Hookway he had installed, with an angry mistborn biting at his heels

*Sticks out Tongue. I'm not going down without a fight Baldy!

Edited February 22, 2017 by A Joe in the Bush

[Herowannabe]

35 minutes ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Sticks out Tongue. I'm not going down without a fight Baldy!

---

Herwynbe straightened, brushing the broken glass away, and grinned. A part of him had worried that this part would be too easy. He had been too focused on his surroundings, and not on Jack himself. A mistake he wouldn't make again. 

He dropped a ring- he had no shortage of rings, bracelets, earrings, and other jewelry, and launched himself into the air. He located the hookway easily- the hooks had to be spaced much closer than in a spikeway, lest the lurcher fall to the streets below, which made the hooks easy to spot. He pushed himself up above the hooks, using them as anchors for his steel. He flared steel and launched himself up ahead of Jack.

Dropping down from above, Herwynbe pushed a handful of jewelry at Jack, who was forced to pull himself abrubtly to the side, off the path of the hookway. He skidded to a stop in an alleyway, and Herwynbe thudded to a stop beside him. The steward spun and landed a pewter-enhanced kick in Jack's stomach, sending him sprawling.

 

"You do not understand the gift I offer you, Master Tormander. But if it is truly death that you wish for, I can oblige you, I think."

 

EDIT: It's not going to last for long, but I just hit 1,337 reputation! "So 1337 Hoid Can't Compete!" Woot!

Edited February 22, 2017 by Herowannabe

[A Joe in the Bush]

 

1 hour ago, Herowannabe said:

"You do not understand the gift I offer you, Master Tormander. But if it is truly death that you wish for, I can oblige you, I think."

Jack wheezed as he rolled onto all fours. The steward calmly watched him, the smile of certainty gracing his face. Both of them knew that this fight wouldn't end in Jack's favor. But the end was irrelevant to the now. No matter what comes up against you, you fight. Jack stood, and spat at the man's feet, still breathing heavily from that kick.

"You don't want to do this Herwynbe. You're being forced to. I know that You were loyal to this town once. a good man, a good steward. You don't have to let Ruin control you, not while you still have your eyes. You're still a man. You can still turn this around."

[Herowannabe]

"I once thought as you did, it is true. But when my master came to me he showed me... I am not sure what to call them. Alternate lives, perhaps. Lives where I tried to fight the inevitable. Lives where I was betrayed and murdered. Lives filled with despair, terror, and regret. And he showed me what I could become.

"Once I had seen- once I knew the truth, I asked to be given a spike. No man, entity, or force moved me then, and none does so now. I do what I do willingly, not because it is good or evil, but because I know it to be right."

Herwynbe held out his hand, a spike held within it. "This spike contains the power to show you your potential, Master Tormander. Would you care to see what you could become? To see the glory and power that could be yours?"

Herwynbe had become passionate, and even eager, as he spoke, not realizing that his little speech had given Jack the chance he needed to catch his breath...

[Metacognition]

Aftermath: When Hope Dies

Herwynbe held out his hand, a spike held within it.

"This spike contains the power to show you your potential, Master Tormander. Would you care to see what you could become? To see the glory and power that could be yours?"

Jack stood straight, resolve seeming to radiate from him.

“Not in this lifetime or any other, you fiend,” he said as he pulled on the scraps and nails and another other source of loose metal behind him. He threw himself to the ground and let the debris fly past him.

The rain of objects didn’t even get close to Herwynbe before they parted around him, but that was okay. Jack had only meant for it to be a distraction tactic in the first place.

He needed to get away. With as strong of a pull as he could manage, he threw himself upwards. The iron railing that he had been pulling on wasn’t strong enough to hold against the force Jack drew upon it. It came flying towards him as if it were shot from a cannon.

Jack twisted at the last second and he was rewarded to hear Herwynbe grunt as the railing flew into him just seconds later. He’d be back though. Jack was no match for a full mistborn on his own. But, if he could rally the rest of the villagers, maybe they would stand a chance.  

Jack sailed high into the sky.

And he felt his spirits drop with every inch higher he flew.

The town was in utter chaos. He could see multiple fires that had been set throughout the town, the smoke drifting towards the heavens like chimneys of mist and people were running for their lives.

He saw Aralis moving through the streets…

***

Aralis strolled down the middle of the road, all signs of the frailty of age gone from his demeanor. He barely registered the burning buildings around him. He seemed as if he was just out taking a leisurely walk- except for when someone would pass just a little too closely by.

 

When that would happen, Aralis would snap out with his staff, always catching the person in the head. They would crumple to the ground with a satisfying crunch, never to get up again. Few could survive a pewter enhanced blow, especially when Aralis didn’t want them too.

 

The night was still young, but the head of his staff was already slick with blood. And people, in their panic always seemed to either not notice the blood at all or misjudged just how far it could reach, keeping Aralis in a pleasant mood.

 

***

He saw people fleeing in every direction. And he saw Whistler….

***

 

A small group of villagers ducked out and away from the main street. They had gotten far enough away from some of the burning buildings that things were almost silent for once, other than a mother trying to calm one of her children. They huddled together, unsure what to do next. They were safe for the moment and while they knew that couldn’t last, chancing another mad dash through the chaos of the town, even on the hope of getting somewhere even safer, wasn’t very appealing. They had only made it this far thanks to a hidden Rioter concealed amongst them.

 

Their decision was taken from them though when they heard an ominous sound. Just a single, high pitched note and then all was quiet again. Even the children were silent. Then it came again, followed by a few other notes and it echoed around them.

 

Someone was whistling.

 

The group fled, running away from where they thought the whistling was coming from.

 

But sound is tricky and they were brought up short when someone step from around the corner they were running to.

 

Whistler stood there, casually tossing a very wicked dagger in the air and catching it. Slowly, he turned towards the group as they felt their strength leave them, as if blanketed by a cloud. They fell to their knees; mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.

 

And Whistler just casually sauntered towards them, flipping that dagger.

 

Whistling.

 

***

He saw as a few people tried to fight back against Wyl…

***

 

Murder.

 

It was a crime, to be sure.

 

And one that, at one time, Wyl would’ve been more than happy to track down the perpetrator and bring them to justice. But as with most things in this god-forsaken world, things had changed. The law had failed him. Oh sure, he’d put away one brute or another, only to find them back out on the streets the next day. And then he’d have to do it all over again. It was enough to drive any man to the edge.

 

And so, Wyl had done what the law could not. He stopped those that needed stopping; no matter the cost. If the law was going to fail him, well then Wyl Sharpe would just have to mete out justice on his own terms.

 

Though it seemed that the number of people that needed to be stopped had consistently gone up over the year, in Wyl’s estimation. Take the people that now surrounded him, threatening him with swords and shovels and whatever other weapons they could find. They sure seemed intent on doing murder this night.

 

And that wasn’t the worst of it. His partner, Kas, was right there on the frontlines with them. Oh, how the innocent had fallen.

 

“How could you?” Kas accused him. “After all this time? You were supposed to be the better or us!”

 

All Wyl wanted was a stiff drink, but it seemed like this situation wasn’t going to resolve itself. So he pulled out his leaf bag and packed his pipe. He lit it and took a few puffs before answering.

 

“I am the better of us, ex-partner.”

 

Suddenly, every metal item in the crowd, whether it was a blade or a coin, ripped out of everyone’s hands and flew directly towards Wyl. With a deftness that could only come from knowing the exact trajectory of each object, Wyl casually dodged them all. The weapons from those facing Wyl flew into those behind him and vise versa. Soon, the only person left standing other than Wyl was Kas.

 

Wyl took out a throwing dagger in the hand not holding his pipe and with a simple flick of his wrist, embedded it into Kas’s neck.

 

Wyl sighed.

 

Yes, murder was a messy business.
 

***

 

And as he reached the crest of his pull, he could make out huge, black shapes mulling about outside the walls in every direction. Why the Koloss hadn’t already attacked after being so close, Jack had no idea, but the message was clear: there would be no escape.

 

Jack choked back a cry that was two parts despair and three parts frustration. He pulled himself toward the belfry of the church, using part of his hookway to slow his descent as he neared the edge.

 

When he dropped over the edge, he fell to his knees. He needed to fight! He needed to figure out how to fix all of this, but he just couldn’t see how. His hands balled up into fists of rage on his knees.

 

Herwynbe emerged from the shadows from further into the tower; as calm and as graceful as ever.

 

“You see? We have already won. We have accomplished what we set out to do; provide you with hope and then destroy it. If you somehow survive this, let this be a lesson to you for the future. Our master is coming and there is nothing that you can do to stop it. Do not hope for salvation.”

 

Jack looked up with fire in his eyes. “If I survive?”

 

Herwybe nodded ever so slightly.

 

“I am not here to kill you. My intent was only to keep you busy while my companions did their work.

“In fact, this spike was never even meant for you. It’s intended for someone else; someone special.” -Herwynbe grinned- “I doubt that he will be as… reluctant as you were.”

 

Herwynbe bowed.

 

“Goodbye, Jack Tormander. I would wish you well, but it would be hollow.”

 

And then Jack was alone, as Tyrain Falls died around him.

---

AG3 is finally over! I took a little bit longer with this one, but it is the aftermath after all. All of the write ups have been completed as well, so if you missed one, I highly suggest going back and taking a look.

The Spiked win again! Congrats to the Spiked! I truly thought that this was going to be the year after two of their mistborn went down, but they played masterfully. The Curse continues to hold. But there’s always next year! And the Villagers that finally break the Curse will definitely go down in history, so use the rest of the year to prepare!

Now, we have one last bit of business to go over this year. We need to crown our winners of the Cosmetic Role Challenge! We’d really like to hear your thoughts on who really stood out for you and who you would vote for. There will be three winners and, as stated in the OP, they will be able to pick which Non-Sanderson related games we’ll get in the future!
I know I went over this a bit in the Dead Doc already, but there were a lot of great characters and a lot of people that had a lot of fun with their CRs. So you’ve got a quite a pool of people to choose from!

Finally, I want to thank each and every one of you for making this game amazing; even those of you who didn’t play. All of these games are only great because we have such a great community here and you should all be proud of that. Here’s to another amazing year and to all the death that that will entail!

Master Doc
Master Spreadsheet
Cognitive Realm (Dead Doc)
Ruins Guide To Destruction (Spiked Doc)

Final Player List

Spoiler

Assassin In Burgundy: Fuzzy- Self Explanatory (Jaist) Village Smoker
Elenion: Cassius- Ladies Man (Casanova) Village Soother
Seonid: Senn Conrad- Minor Nobleman (Past Lives) Regular Villager
A Joe in the Bush: Jack Tormander- 4th Wall Breaker (Past Lives) Survived!
Jondesu: Remart- Just under 300 lbs. He swears! (Glutton, Handicapped [Leg]) Village Thug
Manukos: Enias- Cleans things….somewhere (Neat) Regular Villager
I_Am_Stick: Stick- Is a Stick? (Forgetful)
Wyrmhero: Wyl Sharpe- Private Detective (Guardsman)
Nyali: Nyah- Orphan (Mistwraiths Ate My Parents) Spiked Mistborn
Herowannabe: Herwynbe- Terris Steward (Terris Steward)
Arinian: Arinian- Mercenary (Forgetful, Past Lives) Village Seeker
Conquestor: Mr. Hoid- Absentminded Prophet (Joker, Forgetful, Prophetic) Village Smoker
Silverblade5: Ryth- Former Guard (Gollum) Regular Villager
Magestar: Carmichael- High Roller (Narcissist, Compulsive Gambler) Village Smoker
Arraenae: Nicki- Noblewomen Researching Inquisitors (Theorist) Village Thug
Straw: Vomit- Messenger (Mistwraiths Ate My Parents, Gossip) Village Rioter
Doc12: Rin- Metallurgist (Tinker, Neat) Regular Villager
Hemalurgic_Headshot: Joe- Beggar/Former Band Member/Cook? (Useless, Cook) Village Thug
Araris Valerian: Aralis- Grumpy Elderly Man (Elderly, Cynic, Bearer of a Large Thwacking Staff)
Droughtbringer: Drought- Blind Man (Handicapped [Blind]) Village Coinshot
Stink: Various- Split Personality Mistborn (Insanity)
Ecthelion III: No Name- Retired Gentleman (Elderly) Village Soother
Kipper: Kip Pikker- Traveling Bard (Narcissist) Regular Villager
TheMightyLopen: Sothe- Thief (Unlucky) Village Lurcher
Madagascar: Matilda- Mad Cat Lady (Drunk) Village Thug
Dalinar Kholin: Reginald Canuck- Polite Wayne (Kleptomaniac) Spiked Mistborn
Drake Marshall: Felix- Traveller (Survivor Priest, Scholarly) Village Smoker
Bugsy6912: Annix- Terrisman Scholor (Scholor, Terrisman, Hobbyist) Regular Villager
Gamma Fiend: Grumbles- Innkeeper (Insanity) Regular Villager
Little Wilson: Whistler- Shopkeeper (Neat, Compulsive Gambler, Hobbyist) Survived!
Sart: Sart- Trickster (High Imperial) Regular Villager
Orlock Tsubodai: Locke Tekiel- Nobleman (Nobleman) Dropped
Wonko the Sane: Abundance Org (Organization)
Elbereth: El- Apprentice Apothecary (Hopeful Orphan, Past Lives) Regular Villager

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Alvron

[A Joe in the Bush]

I would like to claim the title of Honourary Spiked.

Sigh. Well played Hero and Wilson and Wyrm. And Araris, but i never interacted with you.

[Arrae]

Congrats, Spiked. The Curse remains unbroken for another year.

[Elenion]

As others have stated in the dead doc, I think Wyrm and Madagascar are the definite frontrunners. As for my third, I think I'll go with Assassin, because of the stretching he did with what seemed like would be a very minor cosmetic role. Most if not all of his posts included some reference to the Ja more than just "Praise the Ja", and he was even attempting to religion-bash with our resident Survivorist and Capitalist (although we all know which of those is the best).

[Herowannabe]

Thanks for running the game Meta! And thanks for everyone who played. I mentioned this somewhere before, I can't remember if it was in thread or in the Spiked-doc, but throughout the course of the game we only had 1 player go completely inactive and stay inactive (Orlok withdrew for health reasons, but nobody can hold that against him). 1 player, out of 36. That's really incredible, especially considering (from what I hear) the bout of inactivity that has been plaguing games lately.

So thanks to everyone who participated in the game, whether it was with elaborate, drawn out RP posts, in-depth analyses, drunken cat pictures, debates and plots and strategizing, or simply popping in to vote for someone with a line or two of explanation. Everyone should consider this game a success, just for that alone.

As for the CR, definitely have to vote for Madagascar. I laughed out loud at so many of her posts. Even in the dead doc (I just skimmed through it) she made some hilarious in-character comments. 

Secondly, I'm surprised that nobody has been mentioning Arranae, here and in the dead doc. I loved the story she had going- trying to figure out what happened to her father by investigating Hemalurgy and trying it out on herself. I see several people voting for me for the CR thing, but I think that's largely because I finished strong and was just having fun with it once I revealed myself. Rae put at least as much into her RP while she was alive as I did, if not more. I was very sad when she died and her story came to an end. 

Third... I think I have to go with Hemalurgic Headshot. The Ash tacos. The Rat. it was gold. 

There was a lot of other great RP out there that deserves mention, too. Wyrm's Private I - great job at never breaking character the entire game! Doc12's interactions with Rae. Assassin praising the Ja, and everyone involved in the whole Scadrian religious/political debate that broke out. Classic. Jondesu's metal leg (I was really hoping we'd get in an RP fight at some point, so that Herwynbe could iron-pull his leg away and thwack him in the head with it). Nyali's mistwraith paranoia. Elenion's way with the ladies. Sart's high Imperial. And on and on. I enjoyed it all, and will definitely be encouraging (and rewarding) the use of CRs in my games in the future. 

Anyway, since Meta left the door open for me, let's wrap this up with a bit of RP.

---

Herwynbe landed on the balcony of Tekiel Manor- one of the only major structures in the town not engulfed in flames. A small creature scurried up to greet the Terrisman.

"Squeak squeaken squeak?" Rat asked.

Herwynbe reached down to stroke Rat behind the ears, then picked him up and placed him on his shoulder. After Herwynbe had released the rats in the storerooms, this one had remained behind. It had seemed to be seeking companionship. The rat had seemed familiar somehow, so Herwynbe had kept it. When the master had given Herwynbe permission to use the recovered spikes as he saw fit, he had carefully imbued two of them to the rat, giving it full sentience. 

"The recipe for Ash tacos?" Herwynbe replied. "You can tell me about it later. Come on, time is short."

Herwynbe rapped softly on the door, then waited. 

A moment later a confused nurse opened the door. 

"Good morning," Herwynbe said, bowing his head. "May I come inside? I have something that will help Lord Tekiel recover from his current state."

Of course, when the physicians realized how Herwynbe intended to "help," they tried to stop him. Once Herwynbe had killed them, he was able to turn his full attention to Locke Tekiel, lying unconscious on the bed. Herwynbe made quick work of it, driving his third and final spike into the precise spot in Locke's chest. 

"Squeaker?" Rat asked. 

Herwynbe nodded, and Rat scurried to Locke's head, then poured the contents of a small glass vial into the unconscious man's mouth. It took a few moments, but Locke's body knew what to do. Color flooded his cheeks and his breathing strengthened as he began unconsciously burning Pewter. 

As his eyes fluttered open, Herwynbe said, "Good morning, Lord Tekiel. My- our master has given you a precious gift, a second chance at life. He asks that you do a few things in return, however. Though you will not find them too ornerous, I think."

Edited February 22, 2017 by Herowannabe
Punctuation

[Madagascar]

Something stirs in the dark burned out corner where Matilda's corpse has been unceremoniously dumped.

Foolsh... you can kill the ol woman... you can shtake her through the heart, or burn her up, or shtake her and then burn her up but you haff forgotten one thing... The catsh.

The catsh are here. The catsh are alwaysh here. They will breed, becaush Matilda hash never heard of nootering or shpaying, and in any cashe would have conshidered nootering or shpaying to be cruelty to catsh.

MATILDA HASH ASHCENDED.

SHE HAS BECOME ONE WITH THE CATSH. SHE HAS TRANSCENDED HUMANITY.

And becaushe Matilda ish one with the catsh she will live on. She will return, incarnate, in her true form.

There is a clap of thunder and a dark shape rises from the ashes! It's... it's...

It's a Jack Russell terrier.

"What? I'm... oh consharnit it! Thish ish COMPLETELY WRONG! I... don't even know where to begin. Can't the reincarnation folksh do anything right?" The Jack Russell terrier sits on its hindquarters and scratches behind her ears with her back paw, looking peeved.

"Oh wellllllll. I guessh I'll jusht have to ride this out and shee what happensh nexsht life. Oh hey! A rat!"

I'm amused because apparently I just give off this aura of being a mistborn, when I was actually just being obnoxious. Great game, everyone!

[Wyrmhero]

Well played everyone. I must admit, I thought we were done for at the end. There were so many failed kills on our part too. You guys just wouldn't die :P.

 

I would also like to say that I do not recommend that anyone else does what I did and does everything in-RP. It's a real pain and requires a lot more time than playing normally takes, hence why I was not around as much as I would like.

 

Could I ask about your Role distributions there? There are a lot of Smokers for only one Seeker (AG2 was the same, I believe, so it is understandable), but I am curious as to why you gave us a Lurcher and a Thug when there was only one Coinshot around. Was it just for the ability to WGG? For that matter, what made you pick three Mistborn? Certainly can see it would have been hard to predict/game the Roles, but I am curious as to whether there was any strategy you were subtly encouraging or anything.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Wyrmhero

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

Wonderful, wonderful game everyone! It was a pleasure playing with you all, and you made it a great first game for me! My vote for CR is in the dead doc.

And Hero, Rat will live on! He might just come back next AG. 

And seeing that you are doing some closing RP, let me just tell you what happened to Joe:

Spoiler

There's always another secret...

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Hemalurgic_Headshot
Yes

[Stick.]

Called it

Good game, everyone, and congratulations to the spiked  My votes will come soon

Thanks for running the game, Meta :] 

Edit: just noticed how there weren't any spiked roleless and no mistborn villagers heh

 

Edited February 22, 2017 by _Stick_

[Assassin in Burgundy]

A flash of light, and the pain of rebirth. 

Fuzzy's eyes snapped open, and he groaned. He felt the bones in his neck reknit, and he carefully pushed himself off the ground. He looked around, and the village of Tyrian Falls was gone. 

Fuzzy, choked back a sob, but then he heard something. A voice, calling to him. 

In a daze, he followed. He wandered through the streets, filled with ash. Bodies littered the streets, and blood stained the ground. 

The voice beckoned him inside a small home. It was somewhat untouched, and Fuzzy didn't fear for his safety. He wandered through the halls, and came to stop before a mirror. He squinted, and his eyes widened in shock. Someone had written something in the ash here. 

I am dead, it read. The last of my energy was given to you. You are my church now. If you die, Jaism dies with it. Spread the word. Rule with wisdom. 

Praise the Ja. 

Edited February 22, 2017 by Assassin in Burgundy
Added an "eyes"

[Arinian]

Good game everyone. I have not much to say, just good game.

[Metacognition]

8 hours ago, Wyrmhero said:

I would also like to say that I do not recommend that anyone else does what I did and does everything in-RP. It's a real pain and requires a lot more time than playing normally takes, hence why I was not around as much as I would like.

And I'd say that it's all a matter of getting used to it and figuring out how to do it. 'Scar managed to do the same and didn't seem to have nearly the difficulties you had. Granted, she didn't have the complication of also being Spiked, but I've seen her do that before too. 

8 hours ago, Wyrmhero said:

Could I ask about your Role distributions there? There are a lot of Smokers for only one Seeker (AG2 was the same, I believe, so it is understandable), but I am curious as to why you gave us a Lurcher and a Thug when there was only one Coinshot around. Was it just for the ability to WGG? For that matter, what made you pick three Mistborn? Certainly can see it would have been hard to predict/game the Roles, but I am curious as to whether there was any strategy you were subtly encouraging or anything.

Sure!

I initially wanted to give the Spiked team a Coinshot. But that presented a lot of problems because, as I've said before, if you are reliant on certain roles to absolutely be in the game, then you've already broken your game a bit, IMO. And that's what it would've required for that to work. If the Spiked Coinshot was killed early or went inactive, then the entire balance of the teams would've shifted and I could not seem to find a way to make it work where the Coinshot was not pivotal to the Spiked success. We've seen stuff like this happen before, like in LG22 when we killed the Forsaken on the very first lynch and it made it so I just couldn't be killed the entire game. 
So I started looking at the Mistborn and they were perfect. They were less destructive than the Coinshot, but also gave the Spiked more versatility. They were also less predictable for the Spiked to be able to plan around, which made their job harder. This balanced nicely with the fact that they allowed for some explosive turns. And by giving the Spiked multiple Mistborn, I assured that they would be capable of having those turns while not making the entire team reliant on any singular role. As we saw in this game, when 2 (TWO!) of the Mistborn died early, it wasn't as crippling as it would've been had they lost their one and only Coinshot.

So how do you balance the villagers against something like that? I had already decided at that point that one of the twists in the game was going to be the lack of Tineyes. With three Mistborn in the game, I figured that tin would still come up often enough, but would steadily decrease in frequency as the Mistborn died; thus making it a double edged sword for the Villagers. I also didn't want to balance out the Villagers by just adding in more Mistborn onto their side. It felt like a cheap way to go about balancing things. 
All that left was to give the Villagers enough Mistings of different sorts to make up for it. 
- The Smokers were there to help counter the possible turns where the multiple Mistborn drew Emotional Allomancy. If all three of the Mistborn drew either Brass or Zinc together, they could effectively control the votes even in the early game. Plus, I still feel like people just don't give Smokers the credit they deserve. 90% of the time this game, the Village Smokers had their Copperclouds off on just the possibility of a chance that there was a Seeker in the game when they could've been using their power to help protect the Village. 
- The large number of Thugs and multiple Lurchers were to, of course, dampen the strength of when the Mistborn would draw Steel multiple turns. 
- I gave them a single Seeker because, while they had Lurchers and Thugs that could be semi-confirmed if attacked, I felt like the Villagers needed some extra power since I was taking away easy access to PMs. Plus, I'll admit, I really wanted to see how someone would handle being a Seeker without PMs. Did they wait and hold onto all their information, waiting for a time when PMs become open and risk all their scans being lost if they were attacked? Or did they reveal in thread and draw attention (and ultimately death) from the Spiked?
- Add in a peppering of Rioters and Soothers so that the Village could control the vote if they needed/wanted to and a Coinshot for good measure and voila! A fairly balance team to go against the Spiked. The Villagers had a large number of Mistings to help them in cause. 

Now, as far as why the Spiked had a Thug, a Smoker, and a Lurcher  as well as the Mistborn when there was only one Coinshot in the game? That was twofold. 
- One, it gave the Spiked a place to hide. The Villagers had a larger number of those roles in the game than any others. So if they went around systematically trying to kill anyone and everyone that claimed Smoker or the like (basically, trying to use the role distribution to find the Spiked), then they would likely go through a lot of Villagers before they got there. This was one of the primary reasons that the Spiked had a Lurcher.
                     In a way, Wyrm, it could be said that you were the least valuable person on the Spiked team!
- Two, I didn't want to give them either a Rioter or Soother because with the Mistborn drawing those as well, it would be A: similar to the last AG and B: a little too much control of the votes. By giving them a Thug (and sort of the Lurcher), I assured that, even if the Mistborn were taken out early, the Spiked still had a strong presence in the game because they would be equally hard to kill if many of the Villager Thugs and Lurchers hadn't been taken out yet. The Spiked Thug was especially a counter to this idea. 

 

I could say more on the distribution, but I think that should give a fairly clear idea on how and why things were balanced as they were. I think, overall, it was more than fairly balanced. In fact, when I discussed it with Alv, he thought the Seeker was giving the Villagers more power than the Spiked. But there was no need to subtly encourage any type of strategy in the game. I know better than to do that. The second you try to do that as a GM, you can fully expect your players to throw any such plans out the window!  Besides, I find that to be trying to steer the game in a certain direction and if you make it so that certain playstyles are more effective than others, then you do a disservice to how other people may play the game, IMO. Far better to just let your players decide how they want to do things and leave them the tools to do whatever they'd like!

Edited February 22, 2017 by Metacognition

[Stick.]

Now that I've skimmed through the spiked doc, I'm amused how my 'I wish I could tell y'all my role' thing almost worked XD You all thought I was a Coinshot with spectacular powers :-P 

[Herowannabe]

Re: Meta's role distribution:

thanks for sharing that Meta! That's very insightful to see how much thought you put into the role distribution and why you set things up the way you did. I might have to request you as an IM for one or two of my games, just to bounce ideas off of you. 

For what it's worth, as a spiked player I felt the roles were very balanced (in contradiction to what I said in the game- that was pure BS to try to throw people off track  ). It might seem that the Spiked players won this game pretty handily but there were a lot of times where we were biting our nails, thinking that we were done for (or at least I felt that way). In fact more than once our feelings shifted from "we've got this" to "oh crap we're screwed" within a single cycle. 

One such time was when Arinian had revealed himself. By that point we had lost Dalinar and the Nyali went down right after, and I had already drawn Coinshot once so odds weren't great that I would draw it again. I was a high priority target for scanning by that point too so we thought we only had a couple cycles before I got scanned and lynched, and the rest of my teammates would have been forced to hunt for any lurchers before they could take out Arinian. Luckily (for us), we took a chance and hit Arinian and he wasn't protected. @A Joe in the Bush If you deserve the title of Honorary Spiked it was for leaving Arinian unguarded more than for anything that happened afterwards. 

On another round, a few cycles later, at one point early in the cycle there were 5 votes cast, each one on a different player. Each of the 4 Spiked that were left had one vote and the only vote that was on someone who wasn't Spiked was the one that we had cast. 

Anyway, the game was a lot closer than it may have seemed. There were multiple times where it easily could have swung against us. 

 

53 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

Now that I've skimmed through the spiked doc, I'm amused how my 'I wish I could tell y'all my role' thing almost worked XD You all thought I was a Coinshot with spectacular powers :-P 

Well it DID work, sort of. The first chance we got to use Brass we scanned you to find out what your role was. The only way it would have been better is if you had been smoked, leaving us to wonder about your role. If that had been the case we probably would have used a kill on you early in the game, just in case.

[Araris Valerian]

@Metacognition, you spelled Aralis' name wrong in the writeup :).

I have to say that I really enjoyed this game, just like the other AGs. I found it fun to be on a team where there was a bit of suspense around what our capabilities would be each cycle. I also enjoyed being in a game where there weren't really any lynches done based on reputation. I think Wilson got to survive on of her first games in a long while, and she is always fun to play with regardless of alignment. The game did bog down a bit with some inactivity, but I was impressed with Orlok and Elbereth for coming back and nearly turning the tides of the game. I guess that shows that the Contribution Crusade is worth pursuing regardless of alignment

For CR, I would have to vote for Madagascar, and also for Sart. It was nice to have a second crazy person in the village to counterbalance Aralis, and I applaud Seonid for keeping up his High Imperial.

Thank you for GMing once again Meta, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Edited February 22, 2017 by Araris Valerian

[Ecthelion III]

Sad that I wasn't really able to do much in the way of the Challenge due to dying T1

[Arrae]

I vote Scar for the CR challenge. I really liked the way that she stayed in-character through the entire game.