Long Game 33: Life

[Haelbarde]

2 hours ago, randuir said:

Edit: Also, @Elbereth, the four elevation ranks are E'lir>Re'lar>el'the> master. However, can you get more than 4 elevations (for example, 2 elevations in 1 field, and 3 in another)?

Edit2: also, since the masters got the lists of EP from the end of last turn, and make a decision this turn, does it only affect last turns EP? Say I've put 2 EP in a field, and put 5 more this turn, and I also get elevated in that field this turn, will I have 5 EP left in that field, or 2?

Bah, don't have the energy to do every post.  I'm not El but I can answer those questions.  Ranks are uni wide,  not subject specific.  Doesn't matter if the Naming master raises you then Rhetoric master.  You've been raised twice,  so you're a Re'lar. Only way of getting more elevations is to become a master,  and then lose your rank,  and then be raised again (doesn't have to be the same field).

As far as your second question, pretty sure that's correct.

[Straw]

Medicus walked down the street, doing nothing in particular until he reached the building known as The Crockery. Once there, he yelled at it, "Hey! You! Ryth! Insanity is not a responsible career choice!" There was no answer from inside.

So, today we learned that random voting is bad, that Silverblade probably isn't a skindancer, and other important lessons.

[Arinian]

So, today we learned nothing truly important. Oh also from now I will be normaly active!

Also to say all this mess with voting on previous turn was very unwise, I don't know why PK started it, cause it's really accomplish nothing good. It's absolutely not the same as lynch in normal games and gives no information. I don't know what else to say...

Maybe later will post some RP or some thoughts if will find something reasonable to say.

[DeTess]

Quote

 

Dear Father,

As promised, I'm I'm sending this letter because I Hope everything is going well at home. I've had a busy month at the university. The courses require a lot of my attention, but I've had some time to make some new acquaintances as well. The food is great and, I've only forgotten toe get dinner a couple of times, so you can tell mother to stop worrying about that.

As you told me As you made me promise I've followed your advice and have taken some courses in been focusing on the practical field of physicking. I've learned many interesting things, though the idea of working inside someones body still makes me nauseous it will be a long while yet before I'll be able to call myself a proper physicker.

I'm also following a number of  some minor courses on logic and rhetoric and arithmetics, to broaden my understanding of the world.

Anyway, as things currently stand I expect to be here for a number of terms at least. I'll try to keep sending letters home regularly. I hope mother is hanging on Not getting worse getting better doing well, and I hope I'll have time to visit home in  a couple of terms.

Greetings Yours on All the best,

Telar

 

Telar hated writing letters, as he was never able to communicate what he actually wanted to say, so in the end he just stuck with the same old platitudes. With a sigh, he grabbed a new sheet of paper to make a clean copy. He wouldn't be able to do much better than he already had before the course on basic psychology would start. He'd hear all kinds of stories about students cracking under the strain of studying here, so he already knew he'd be disliking this course as well. Why did everything having to do with human welfare have to be so gruesome?

@Paranoid King, could you explain some more why you thought it was necessary for you to spread some votes around to lighten your tuition? Your  plan for everyone to vote wasn't necessarily bad, but because you presented it about halfway through the turn, there was little chance for everyone to weigh in on it. This has resulted in three people getting taken on the horns, and two of them having gotten lashes. Why was it necessary that you immediately tried to implement your plan, rather than giving people a turn to discuss it so tat it could be implemented in a way that actually spread the risk around?

[Magestar]

 

28 minutes ago, Straw said:

So, today we learned that random voting is bad, that Silverblade probably isn't a skindancer, and other important lessons.

I would agree that Silverblade probably isn't a Skindancer.

I think it's most likely that he was sabotaged - it seems unlikely that he went insane naturally C1, assuming I understand how insanity works.  

3 hours ago, randuir said:

Edit2: also, since the masters got the lists of EP from the end of last turn, and make a decision this turn, does it only affect last turns EP? Say I've put 2 EP in a field, and put 5 more this turn, and I also get elevated in that field this turn, will I have 5 EP left in that field, or 2?

1 hour ago, Haelbarde said:

As far as your second question, pretty sure that's correct.

Erm... Which of the two ideas is correct?  5 EP, or 2?  

[Aonar]

All you people saying that voting gives no information, back off. Voting in this game can give a literal ton of info, you just have to know how to use it. We may not get a kill out of it, but a village controlled multi-target roleblock is stronger, if anything. For example, Stick and Steph have not yet been to Imre; as such, they cannot take any actions this turn, and are less likely to be Elevated at cycle's end.

This is something we can use. A player is suspicious? Throw a vote on them. Someone else disagrees and places a vote elsewhere? Good. This is a game where we're going to want a six/seven way tie every cycle: every player roleblocked is another player softcleared of certain actions and roles, every player expelled is another player that (probably) can't kill or sabotage University players.

Likewise, because of this the Elims are going to be very careful with their votes; bussing or voting for each other is simultaneously both better and worse for their team than it would be in a normal game, and I wouldn't be surprised to see strategic votes to inconspicuously delay the elevations of certain players. 

Speaking of, Wilson. No real suspicions yet, and if I remember correctly, Wilson can take another two free votes this cycle. Will probably change if/when I get a good suspicion.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Aonar Faileas

[DeTess]

59 minutes ago, Aonar Faileas said:

All you people saying that voting gives no information, back off. Voting in this game can give a literal ton of info, you just have to know how to use it. We may not get a kill out of it, but a village controlled multi-target roleblock is stronger, if anything. For example, Stick and Steph have not yet been to Imre; as such, they cannot take any actions this turn, and are less likely to be Elevated at cycle's end.

This is something we can use. A player is suspicious? Throw a vote on them. Someone else disagrees and places a vote elsewhere? Good. This is a game where we're going to want a six/seven way tie every cycle: every player roleblocked is another player softcleared of certain actions and roles, every player expelled is another player that (probably) can't kill or sabotage University players.

Likewise, because of this the Elims are going to be very careful with their votes; bussing or voting for each other is simultaneously both better and worse for their team than it would be in a normal game, and I wouldn't be surprised to see strategic votes to inconspicuously delay the elevations of certain players. 

You've got a point there, though since there are almost no available actions on C1, I still think it wasn't too useful to have that particular lynch.

Edited May 1, 2017 by randuir

[ImpossibleBowler]

Sorry! I compleately forgot that this started!!!!

[Elbereth]

6 hours ago, randuir said:

Edit: Also, @Elbereth, the four elevation ranks are E'lir>Re'lar>el'the> master. However, can you get more than 4 elevations (for example, 2 elevations in 1 field, and 3 in another)?

Edit2: also, since the masters got the lists of EP from the end of last turn, and make a decision this turn, does it only affect last turns EP? Say I've put 2 EP in a field, and put 5 more this turn, and I also get elevated in that field this turn, will I have 5 EP left in that field, or 2?

Hael is correct. An elevation in any field bumps you up to the same tier. You can't be a Re'lar in Alchemy and an El'the in Arithmetic - you are an El'the, period.

I believe that the EP for this turn does count. So you'd have 2 left. I'll have to check, but I think that's how the spreadsheet calculates it. 

6 hours ago, queensteph said:

Request Tag : reckless? more like reckYES 

@Elbereth Can a player with their actions on hold still go to Imre? I wasn't quite sure what counts as an 'action'.

Noted.  

Yes. Because you're going to Imre next turn, not this. You're just saying that you want to go there this cycle. 

[Jondesu]

Yeah, the whole random vote thing didn't work, did it?  I know I didn't really comment on it at the time, but I also didn't want to participate.  Sorry for not having more discussion, btw, but this is a bit overwhelming and I've had to put my brainpower into real life stuff right now.

As for tactics going forward, I definitely agree that we can't ignore the lynch.  We don't find out about the players we lynch directly, sure, but as Aonar said, it can really help us (going forward) to identify who gets blocked from performing actions.  At the same time, knowing what actions people take is only moderately helpful since it doesn't really tell us alignment right away, but that doesn't diminish the value of finding it out early, and then using that knowledge later once those actions are being used to sabotage or help the students.  I will attempt to read over the last cycle again to see if I gain any firmer suspicions, but right now I don't really have any, and since no one's been elevated, I don't think we'll really see any actions this cycle either, so the voting should be less essential (discussion is critical, though).

Does anyone wish to reveal which fields they put EP into last cycle?  Is it wise to encourage revealing that, in fact, or should we keep it to PMs, and only cautiously then, since they can't really be fully trusted?  I'm guessing there was discussion about this during the pre-game that I didn't really catch, but rereading that would take forever right now.

The following RP has some game insights in it disguised as Vell's thoughts, but some (like the courses she studied) is only for RP.  I put all my EP into one field, which I think is probably wise for most people, early on especially, but I'm going to wait for thoughts to be shared before revealing which field publicly. I'll try and start a few PMs, btw, and would welcome any that anyone else wants to send me, especially since receiving PMs doesn't seem to count towards the post/PM ratio.

---

Vell panted a bit as she reached the hall where her next class was taking place.  She'd never thought she was out of shape; working as a butcher's daughter kept her busy, and she'd done plenty of walking as she delivered packages for him around their village.

This University was about 4 times the size of her entire village, however.  There were dozens of buildings, all in various areas, and she occasionally had to run across the entire place to reach another class.  She'd enrolled in a variety of subjects so she could find out what fields would call to her, and only recently had she realized that had been a bad idea.  Not that feeling out the different subjects was a bad idea, but each field had their own area of the campus, and that meant that she had lots of traveling to do each day.  Her legs had never gotten so much work, despite the fact that she also spent plenty of time sitting in her classrooms or out in the courtyards or her room as she studied or practiced her lessons.

Vell had been so busy, in fact, she hadn't really had time to make any friends.  There were a few classmates she would occasionally share jokes or notes with, but they were merely acquaintances at this point.  She barely remembered many of their names, in fact, since there were so many students here.  That would have to be remedied at some point, perhaps if she spent some time in Imre, but for now she was barely getting by.  The tuition was being paid, fortunately, as was her lodging, though she wouldn't have much extra, maybe a few drabs. The list of possible ways to lower her tuition had intrigued her, though, and the idea of having some spending money was compelling, so she'd have to put some work into those.

If she could find the time.

[STINK]

Should anyone be elevated right now? 'Cause if so, whoever got elevated in Linguistics needs to shoo. 

[DeTess]

3 minutes ago, STINK said:

Should anyone be elevated right now? 'Cause if so, whoever got elevated in Linguistics needs to shoo. 

Nope, the first wave of elevations occurs at the end of this turn.

[ImpossibleBowler]

If your a master, and you go Insane, Will your status as a master be realised?

[STINK]

And I can do EP on both turns or just the one? 

If you couldn't tell, I'm not great with rules.

[Elbereth]

15 minutes ago, Ornstein said:

If your a master, and you go Insane, Will your status as a master be realised?

If you are a master and go insane, you will no longer be a master, and someone else will be elevated (if any El'the has 15 EP in that field). If you escape, you can no longer be a Master - the highest you can be is an El'the.

14 minutes ago, STINK said:

And I can do EP on both turns or just the one? 

If you couldn't tell, I'm not great with rules.

Both turns. 

EDIT: Also, after some reexamination, EP from the current turn shouldn't count. So you would have 5 EP left, in Randuir's scenario. 

Edited May 1, 2017 by Elbereth

[ImpossibleBowler]

2 minutes ago, Elbereth said:

If you are a master and go insane, you will no longer be a master, and someone else will be elevated (if any El'the has 15 EP in that field). If you escape, you can no longer be a Master - the highest you can be is an El'the.

Thanks!

[Paranoid King]

4 hours ago, Straw said:

So, today we learned that random voting is bad, that Silverblade probably isn't a skindancer, and other important lessons.

Ehh, we'll see about that. We could try doing this cycle without any votes, see how it goes.

3 hours ago, randuir said:

@Paranoid King, could you explain some more why you thought it was necessary for you to spread some votes around to lighten your tuition? Your  plan for everyone to vote wasn't necessarily bad, but because you presented it about halfway through the turn, there was little chance for everyone to weigh in on it. This has resulted in three people getting taken on the horns, and two of them having gotten lashes. Why was it necessary that you immediately tried to implement your plan, rather than giving people a turn to discuss it so tat it could be implemented in a way that actually spread the risk around?

I didn't vote just to reduce my tuition. If I voted on people, people already voted on would get less hurt. I considered removing my vote later on in the cycle, but there were enough other people with votes by then that removing mine would have made things more dangerous.

If I hadn't chimed up at all, do you really think nobody would have voted? I may have been the first to vote, but I don't think I'd have been the only one. I just presented the information and pushed for a strategy where nobody gets expelled.

---

William looked at the people in front of him and panicked. "Look, I just said that the masters get angry at someone every term. Why not spread out their rage so that nobody really gets hurt?"

"You're crazy!" someone from the crowd shouted.

"No, listen. The masters are crazy! After all, they reduce your tuition if you complain about the other students. Or if you talk to people. Or if you start thinking about something! I was just trying to balance out the crazy!"

While they were debating how best to tear him apart, he hid behind the fishery.

[ImpossibleBowler]

John ran to class. The entire term had started and he Had been Late! Of course, he had been robbed of his horse half way here, so that didn't help. While running on campus he noticed a large group of people debating the fate of a young man, who was, unbeknownst to the crowd, was hiding behind a building called the "Fishery". John went to talk to him.

[Amanuensis]

@randuir, I want to thank you for all the help you've given me in PMs. I hope it didn't cost you too much tuition, especially since I don't think it's going to matter that much in the end. I keep thinking I'm going to have time to sit down and catch up, but the days are ticking down and becoming increasingly overwhelming, so at this point I think I'm just going to accept my fate and bow out.

At everyone else. I think that Rand is village. Shortly after the game began he sent me a PM. In it he has helped me by simplifying the rules I didn't and still don't have the time to sift through and figure out on my own, particularly things like tuition and lodging. Naturally this makes me lean good-aligned, but I wouldn't discount the possibility he's doing it on purpose to get on my good side, since as a Skindancer he'd know I'm not. I would not vote on him any time soon, if I were ya'll, but I want this information out in the open so that if / when I die, it won't die with me.

I'm in the process of another big move across timezones, with a pit stop in the US for some training and a quick visit to my family, and as the date gets closer I keep getting busier and busier. Therefore I've decided I'm just going to stay on the streets tonight and if I die, I die (if this happens, @Elbereth, I request that you just have my character vanish, like I said she's prone to do in the sign ups). If I do not die, however, for everyone who wants to get the tuition reduction for voting, feel free to lay them all on me next term. I don't exactly know what the consequences of accumulating everyone's vote is, but I reckon it should be enough to remove me from the game.

Since I'm relatively sure nobody has caught it, Esuan is one of the Chandrian in disguise (if you've heard the rhyme, you should be able to figure out which one by the specific Chandrian's sign and name). I was planning on gradually revealing this over the course of the game via RP but I won't be able to manage it. So, if you guys want to give your players an RP excuse for voting on me, use that. Maybe one of you, in the dead of the night, can discover Esuan being visited by Cyphus (for the blue flames) and overhearing some things, than said character can involve a few others and the witch hunt can begin. I dunno, but I think it could be fun. Of course, for lore reasons I request that no one succeeds in killing or imprisoning Esuan. I think it'll be ideal if she uses some crazy magic to escape or if her fellow Chandrian rescue her before it's too late.

And that's all I have to say. Good luck and have fun, everyone.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Amanuensis

[Jondesu]

@Amanuensis, I also had a PM going with @randuir, and he was helpful to me too. I hope he didn't take a tuition hit since that's at least two PMs he started, but I appreciated it. However, I'm not as quick to lean village on either of you considering how easily you've both fooled me in the past.  I'm not ready to vote on either of you either, but I'll be far more wary than I was in previous games.

[Paranoid King]

"Excuse me?"

"Ack! Don't kill me! The masters would increase your tuition if you killed somebody!"

John frowned. "What?"

"The, the... Wait, you're not one of the people angry with me, are you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Should I be angry with you?"

"Well, you see, I was just saying that Noremac shouldn't have gotten away free. After all, his banana caught fire, but why did he have a banana in the first place? They're not native to the area, and with how easily they spoil, I can't see his parents sending him one every week. So it can't have been a banana. He must have been hiding something contraband in a normal banana skin. So Stick and Queensteph were perfectly justified when they set it on fire."

"Whaa? But... why a banana skin?"

"I'll figure that out later. For now, I've got a linguistics class to get to. The bullies seem to have wandered off. Thanks for the help..."

"John."

"William."

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

Noremac was yet again walking to a class, Advanced Meteorology to be precise, when he tripped. He was flung forward, the books flying from his hands and the contents of his bag scattering on the ground. He pushed himself up and looked around, bewildered, at the mess surrounding him. Slowly, he gathered his books and pens and tucked them into his bag, carefully organizing each one to maximize storage capacity. He tucked the last book into his bag and checked the ground for anything he might have missed. He froze.

A banana sat on the ground, the tip embedded in the grass, pointing straight up. Noremac had never seen the banana before, ever. This banana was perfect, such a pleasant yellow, with absolutely no blemishes on its peel. Surely it hadn't come from his bag? A fruit in such condition could never have fallen from his stuffed bag. He stared at the poised banana, a silent dread growing in his throat. How... how had it gotten there? He clutched his head. Surely... he wasn't going insane, was he? No. No! This was just a cruel joke, to get at him because of the "Flaming Banana Incident". Well, he wasn't going to fall for it. Noremac stood and mustering his resolve, punted the banana across the green. The yellow crescent spun through the air and out of sight. Satisfied, Noremac walked off to Meteorology, a bit faster now that he realized he was late.

[ImpossibleBowler]

William walked off in a hurry. John started toward his class, Basic Sympathy. He grimmest, he hated sympathy. But his parents made him take it, so he did. He hurried, late. while  about half way there, a banana smacked him flat in the face. He rubbed his  Forehead and picked up the banana.Not wanting to waste the yellow fruit, he took it. he continued on his way.   

Edited May 1, 2017 by Ornstein
Grammer

[DrakeMarshall]

4 hours ago, Amanuensis said:

@randuir, I want to thank you for all the help you've given me in PMs. I hope it didn't cost you too much tuition, especially since I don't think it's going to matter that much in the end. I keep thinking I'm going to have time to sit down and catch up, but the days are ticking down and becoming increasingly overwhelming, so at this point I think I'm just going to accept my fate and bow out.

At everyone else. I think that Rand is village. Shortly after the game began he sent me a PM. In it he has helped me by simplifying the rules I didn't and still don't have the time to sift through and figure out on my own, particularly things like tuition and lodging. Naturally this makes me lean good-aligned, but I wouldn't discount the possibility he's doing it on purpose to get on my good side, since as a Skindancer he'd know I'm not. I would not vote on him any time soon, if I were ya'll, but I want this information out in the open so that if / when I die, it won't die with me.

I'm in the process of another big move across timezones, with a pit stop in the US for some training and a quick visit to my family, and as the date gets closer I keep getting busier and busier. Therefore I've decided I'm just going to stay on the streets tonight and if I die, I die (if this happens, @Elbereth, I request that you just have my character vanish, like I said she's prone to do in the sign ups). If I do not die, however, for everyone who wants to get the tuition reduction for voting, feel free to lay them all on me next term. I don't exactly know what the consequences of accumulating everyone's vote is, but I reckon it should be enough to remove me from the game.

Since I'm relatively sure nobody has caught it, Esuan is one of the Chandrian in disguise (if you've heard the rhyme, you should be able to figure out which one by the specific Chandrian's sign and name). I was planning on gradually revealing this over the course of the game via RP but I won't be able to manage it. So, if you guys want to give your players an RP excuse for voting on me, use that. Maybe one of you, in the dead of the night, can discover Esuan being visited by Cyphus (for the blue flames) and overhearing some things, than said character can involve a few others and the witch hunt can begin. I dunno, but I think it could be fun. Of course, for lore reasons I request that no one succeeds in killing or imprisoning Esuan. I think it'll be ideal if she uses some crazy magic to escape or if her fellow Chandrian rescue her before it's too late.

And that's all I have to say. Good luck and have fun, everyone.

See a man without a face? Move like ghosts from place to place. What's their plan? What's their plan? Chandrian. Chandrian!

 

But about Randuir: He gained my trust in LG30 in a near identical way you know... And he was totally one of the unjust at the end. I'm not saying I suspect Rand at all, I'm just saying, he's been known to be inordinately helpful in PMs and end up being evil in the end.

 

Greyson sat in his second class of the day, an introductory course on Sygaldry taught at the fishery.

The master artificer described how different runes could create a permanent sympathy link between objects. It seemed like an interesting practice, although Greyson couldn't seem to bring himself to take any notes on it.

He heard loud noises outside. It sounded like an argument...

[Magestar]

The Mage wiped his brow.  After that first month, he was just glad he hadn't been taken on the Horns again.  What an awful experience.

This month, however, promised to be in many ways just the same as the last.  Long, tiring hours of study and work; brief, glimmering moments of rest and relaxation; long days, short nights, and the occasional euphoric moment when you realized that you were grading well.  The Mage was quite happy with the direction things were going - things were, indeed, looking up.  

Unfortunately, rumors of the Skindancers were still flying through the halls of the Arcanum.  Someone had reputedly gone insane, although, with the workload here, that wasn't entirely surprising.  The Mage had, at first, wondered if he would go insane here - there were tales of such things - but he had comforted himself that any loss of sanity would likely be an improvement on his part.  Who knows?  Someday, he might begin to approach sanity again, from the other side!

Though, it would be wise to be quiet about such matters, in places such as this.  The Mage worried that they took the matter of sanity too seriously here - any mention of things beyond the 'normality' of the psyche could get you in dangerous places.

Best not to mention his quest, then.