Quick Fix Game 27: Lord of the Lynches: Terror in Minas Tirith

[Elbereth]

Cycle is over! New one will be posted within the hour. 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Elbereth

[Elbereth]

Cycle 6

[writeup]

---

Randuir was killed! He was a Gondor Nobleman!
Asterion was lynched! He was a Gondor Outlaw!
Megasif died of inactivity! He was a Politician! 
Steph died of inactivity! She was a Gondor Outlaw!

Vote Count
Asterion (5)
Manukos (2)
Sony (1)

Cycle 6 has begun. You have 23.5 hours to send in actions and decide whom to lynch. 

Player List
1. Lemonelon - Unspecified Politician
2. King Cole - Unspecified Scribe
3. Randuir - Randuir Noble
4. Jondesu - Findecano Nenharma
5. Steeldancer - Twigeye Scribe
6. Sony - Sony
7. Alvron - Zunn the Mad
8. Asterion - Hobo Baggins Outlaw
9. Doc - Unspecified
10. Steph - Unspecified Outlaw
11. Drake Marshall - The Marshall of Minas Tirith Gondor Politician
12. Manukos - Oakmus N
13. Darkness Ascendant - Mori lôm Nobleman
14. Sami - Jedal Snyders Steward of Gondor
15. Orlok Tsubodai - Annatar
16. Mestiv - Unspecified
17. Roadwalker - Silver Feather Outlaw 
18. Straw - Straw
19. Brightness Radiant - Unspecified
20. Megasif - Megamir Politician

Edited October 9, 2017 by Elbereth

[Jondesu]

Well, shoot. 

To answer the question about what being the Minister of Communication gains me? Nothing in particular. It’s fun, though, to have a special role. I think most of the other Nobles believe me, but you’re right, they don’t want to speak up here to confirm or deny.

I did not know that Rand was a noble, though he was one of the ones I suspected might be (from the grammar and style of writing). I’ll read back over the Noble doc, but I’m guessing someone else in there figured it out and passed it on to the Elims. I’ll see if I can figure out the others and then narrow down the likely mole suspects.

[Straw]

Well, this is pretty bad. If the Elim team is made up of 4 people (likely given the number of players), then they only need one more village death until they win (if equal number of players counts as being outnumbered).

[manukos]

oh... this is rly bad . i currently trust 3 other players : orlok , jondesu and straw  that leaves one more good player unaccounted for 
i am placing doc and BR in the middle and leaning evil with sony alvron and mestiv , out of these sony makes sense for the reasons indicated by  randuir (gaining more weight now that he has been exonerated post mortem ) , and alvron from a team balancing perspective out . i am willing to hear alternatives but we dont have much time 
also i'd like to ask the villagers to vote every day unanimusly or we tie and this is smth we dont want 

i am open to options 

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Manukos

[Orlok Tsubodai]

Right. This, clearly, isn't a good situation to be in. I've gone back through the thread, and have tried to reassess my views of players. I'm pretty sure of @Manukos' innocence. His gambit doesn't make sense as an eliminator, although I would like an explanation of his vote switch at the end of last cycle, given his professed belief in Randuir's arguments.

Looking through @Jondesu's posts, he begins the game professing suspicion of Alv for using insanity to pretend innocence, then points out the inconsistency of votes on Manukos. He's attacked for this, and acknowledges the attack, but doesn't really defend himself or distance himself. He's attacked by Sony, Mestiv, and Straw. Sony appears suspicious of his defence of Manukos, Straw doesn't provide reasoning, and Mestiv's rationale is that Jondesu is inactive. None of the reasoning provided here is terribly sound, and Jondesu asks for reasoning, and doesn't become defensive. 

Jondesu then reveals himself as a Nobleman, and states that he had revealed himself to the noble doc, which leads him to believe that Straw, Mestiv, and Sony are in communication, before voting on Roadwalker for self preservation.

Straw immediately retracts his vote, saying that he voted for Jondesu on the basis of the scribe message, and to solidify the vote. Straw is right to say that his own vote did solidify the vote, bringing it to 3-1-1 at the time of making it, but I'd question his reliance on the scribe message. I can't really see him voting on something merely because a cleared good player expressed suspicion. Confirmed good is certainly not confirmed right, and Straw has played enough games to know this. I'm suspicious of Straw after this interaction, both because I think the reasons he offers are very poor, and feel to me like excuses rather than convincing reasoning, and because of the speed with which he retracted the vote. He claims it was because of Jondesu's role, but is well aware that having a role isn't indicative of innocence. It reads to me like an attempt to distance himself from the aftermath of lynching a village noble, already knowing their alignment.

Interestingly, Jondesu wasn't attacked the cycle he claimed (although he did claim towards the end of the cycle), and wasn't attacked this cycle, either. I'm minded to believe that this is due to not wishing to confirm him as a village Nobleman, and so not bringing yet greater levels of suspicion against those who voted for him.

Jondesu again questions the suspicion of Manukos, indicates that he believes there was an eliminator Noble from the death of DA, and asks for protection.

Jondesu's posts conclude by stating that he'll look back through the noble doc to see whether he can ascertain any of their identities.

Overall, I'm of the view that Jondesu is likely innocent, and I think the chances of a Jondesu-Manukos team are slim. I'd like to focus further on the interaction regarding Jondesu's near lynch the turn he revealed, as I think that's most likely to provide useful material to analyse.

As such, I'll look next at Straw. Straw begins the game with a comment on Alv's insanity, in a light hearted manner. He then reveals possession of the One Ring, and its effects. At the time, I thought this a village move to make - I didn't think that there was an eliminator motivation for bringing it up. However, on rereading his post, and his next post, he claims that he'll focus this game on working out the One Ring, despite his no longer having possession of it. This, to me, seems a convenient excuse to remove oneself from serious lynch discussion, and that seems to be the path he's aiming to take. Straw once again comments on Alv, and is then involved in the Jondesu interaction, before completing a volte-face, and calling for Guardsman protection of Jondesu. This cycle, he merely expressed the poor position we're in, and didn't offer suggestions.

My overall view of Straw is that he's highly likely to be evil, driven by his distancing himself from discussion, the timing of his attempt to lynch Jondesu, and his poorly explained, yet total, change in opinion on Jondesu.

I now need to go to a lecture, but will carry on this afternoon, once I'm free. For now, my vote will be on Straw, who I think is very likely to be evil.

[manukos]

ok so i want to talk about 3 things 
1) first the vote switch was made in anticipation of the politician voting for me as i was the one with the 2nd most votes (excluding sony ) i missed BR's vote and so thought that if asterion is indeed evil, the politician would had tied and that would have been bad 

 2) @Orlok Tsubodai uhhhh how certain are you , my read from straw is slightly positive , if you want to commit i will follow cos like i said if we dont all agree on a lynch the elims will tie or outnumber us , but i'd feel more cofident going for either alvron or sony for reasons stated above (also about that , can you give me some feedback on my views ?)

3) i have the ring ..... yeah , just that 

OK I THINK I AM DONE WITH BEING CUTE , AS ORLOK SAID MOST OF MY PAST MESSAGES HAVE HIDDEN PHRASES OR WORDS CREATED BY THE FIRST LETTER IN EACH LINE 

[Orlok Tsubodai]

1 hour ago, Manukos said:

ok so i want to talk about 3 things 
1) first the vote switch was made in anticipation of the politician voting for me as i was the one with the 2nd most votes (excluding sony ) i missed BR's vote and so thought that if asterion is indeed evil, the politician would had tied and that would have been bad 

 2) @Orlok Tsubodai uhhhh how certain are you , my read from straw is slightly positive , if you want to commit i will follow cos like i said if we dont all agree on a lynch the elims will tie or outnumber us , but i'd feel more cofident going for either alvron or sony for reasons stated above (also about that , can you give me some feedback on my views ?)

3) i have the ring ..... yeah , just that 

OK I THINK I AM DONE WITH BEING CUTE , AS ORLOK SAID MOST OF MY PAST MESSAGES HAVE HIDDEN PHRASES OR WORDS CREATED BY THE FIRST LETTER IN EACH LINE 

@Manukos, I'm pretty certain about Straw, as explained above. I'm going to look over every other player once I'm out of lectures, but for now certainly wouldn't vote for Alv or Sony over him.

[Doc12]

Can't be here long, but it feels like this very well could be the final cycle of the game. The active players are Alvron, Orlok and Jondesu, and now Manukos, and the relatively inactive ones are Brightness, Sony and Mestiv. The impression that Straw gives me is the same impression Orlok states - that he is distancing himself from the discussion.

Of the active players, I do not yet know if I can trust Orlok. He was attacked twice, yes, but Orlok is known as a forceful and persuasive player, and a very effective teammate to have trusted. If I was on the evil team, trading two early kills for having a powerful piece on the board in the late game would be worth it. 

On Alvron, yes, we have grown to be able to read the gist of his messages, and it is easy to be amused by him and disregard him, to be happy enough with figuring out his messages that we don't think further on whether these messages are valid.

On Jondesu, he became active in the past few cycles, and revealed himself as a noble. Somehow, he is not dead yet. I wonder if you could tell us the number of nobles still residing in the doc, @Jondesu? How close is the threat of having the eliminators control the noble kill?

Right now, I know the need for a unanimous vote, so I'm going to go with Straw and hope my trust does not doom me. 

I'll try to be back before end of cycle.

[manukos]

Ok although i am still not fully conviced , straw
Not very active today 

I think orlok will turn out to be an elim all along and i 'll be banging my head on the wall
Takling about the future , any thoughts for tomorow (considering straw is evil , if not , it doesnt rly matter ) ?

[Sony]

Sorry for not being active today, I have two midterms.  

Anyway, as Doc pointed out, we need an unanimous vote right now. Straw

As Rand pointed out, it was suspicious that Straw said out in the open that the guard should protect Jondesu, which is one of the main reasons why I'm voting on him; however, a couple of other reasons is that he voted on Jondesu without an explanation, then removed it (Seems like he backtracked here...) and he hasn't really been part of the lynching discussion that much, as if he's hiding. 

[Jondesu]

@Doc12, there are 4 Nobles remaining in the doc with names (pseudonyms), but I’m not sure if others may have been reading but never have checked in. That means 1-2 more Noble deaths is likely the tipping point for control, less if they can successfully convince others to vote with them.

@Orlok Tsubodai, thanks for that rundown. I agree with you on Jondesu.  More significantly, though, I agree on Straw, and I had already expressed suspicion of him in the doc. I find that Elims like to taunt us by telling us how dire the situation is, though I’ve seen posts like that from villagers before as well. Straw has enough against him for me to vote on him now.

[Alvron]

Hungry Bricks!

Annatar.  Purple foxglove.  A hook in the nose.  Void inside, shiny outside.  Pin cushion.

The stars have aligned.  A very fine carpet, sir.

[Mestiv]

I guess I'm gonna follow the crowd and vote Straw. The arguments provided by others were convincing IMO.

[Elbereth]

Cycle is closed! 

[Elenion]

Cycle 7: The White City Blackens

Another day, another mob. Again and again, the cycle had repeated. Every time, the number of those loyal to Gondor had lessened. Every time, the power of Mordor had grown. Every time, the situation had become more dire.

A lookout’s horn blew from the top of one of the higher circles of the city. Its deep, sonorous sound echoed off of the walls of the stone city. The mob stopped, swords and spears dropping to their sides as they listened. All, that is, except for Straw--he was dead.

“Orcs have crossed the River Anduin!” came the cry of the watchman, “To the walls! To the walls!”

********

“To the walls! To the walls!”

Baranor, captain of the guards, heard the cry go up. He drew his sword and charged out of the white tower.

He yelled a battle cry, “For Gondor! For the Steward! For the White Tree!”

As he reached the seventh gate, he became conscious that something was wrong. In the archway, the gate stood open, with the bodies of two guards lying in a pool of blood. Baranor saw the handle of a knife protruding from the nearest one’s back.

Suddenly, Brightness Radiant ran out of the guardhouse, blood on her chest. Baranor flinched. Her too? Then he realized something: she wasn’t running like she was injured. That was not her blood. Her eyes glinted, and she laughed.

“Traitor!” Baranor screamed.

Her throwing knife caught Baranor directly in the chest.

********

The mob of citizens of Minas Tirith rushed to the walls of the first circle and tentatively peeked over the crenellations. Encamped around the city’s main gate was a host of orcs, numbering in the hundreds. There weren’t enough to outnumber the Guards of the Citadel plus the city militia, but where were the Guards? They had certainly heard the alarm, but not one of them had been seen descending from the seventh circle.

********

Sony had followed the crowd to the walls, careful to ensure that he ended up in close proximity to the gate. He felt a touch on his arm, and he looked to his right to see Thaurdir standing next to him. How had he found him in such a large crowd?

“Are you ready for the dawning of our new age?” Thaurdir said.

Sony nodded, “Let’s light this place up.”

Each drew from their pocket a vial glowing with orange light. Inside each burned a fire, a gift from Sauron himself. Flames of Angband, he had called them, magical fire of Melkor himself, more potent than any craft of the Numenorians. Sony and Thaurdir threw them against the gates of the city, and they exploded into infernal light. The flames, as if fueled by some dark hunger, spread across the gate like wildfire and began eating into it at an unnatural pace.

********

The sentry’s horn boomed again.

“The main gate has been compromised!” the sentry’s voice drifted over the city, “Fall back behind the second wall!”

Findecano Nenharma turned to Zunn the Mad, “We’ve been sabotaged!”

“Flash. Shadow. Gliding sun slips.”

Heralded by crashes of snapping wood and the groans of bending metal, the orcs smashed the already-burning wood with battering rams. Heedless of those they lost to their master’s flames, they hit the gates again and again.

The mob of citizens ran to the second gate with every bit of strength and speed they had. Behind them, the main gate splintered and fell inwards. Most of the citizens escaped the orcs. Some didn’t. Behind the survivors, the second gate thudded shut, and the nearby houses were stripped of furniture to barricade the gate further.

“We can’t keep up like this!” someone said.

“What we need is a plan.”

“Regroup!”

“Where!? We need somebody who we can trust!”

“Annatar’s forge! They’ve tried to kill him twice. He’s probably got weapons and armor. It’s the perfect location,” it was Mestiv that said this. Unknown to everyone, however, he did not have their best interests at heart.

Everyone nodded in assent, leaving the gate and barricade behind to slow the orcs as much as possible.

********

The mob hammered on the door of Annatar’s forge. After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened, and Annatar stepped out.

“What is wrong?”

The crowd all spoke at once, then their voices gradually died off. On Annatar’s right hand was a thick gold ring. His hand tightened, and he began to grow. His clothes appeared to thicken, weaving themselves into smoky black armor. Annatar’s head, now fifteen feet above the ground, was covered in a black helm. In his hand now rested a massive mace, at least ten feet long, but that he hefted effortlessly.

“FOOLS… HAVE YOU NOT REMEMBERED YOUR OWN HISTORIES? I HAVE USED THIS NAME AMONG YOUR PATHETIC RACE BEFORE, AND NOW YOU HAVE LED YOURSELF TO THE SAME UNDOING.” The voice was fair, but marred by a metallic quality to the speech.

Doc charged Annatar--no, Sauron--but the mace swung, catching him in the chest and smashing him into the wall of Annatar’s forge. He did not rise.

“IT IS NOT I, NOR THE ORCS, THAT WILL RAZE THIS CITY. NO, ITS FALL WILL BE FAR GREATER. MINAS ITHIL IS TWISTED TO MY WILL, BUT MINAS ANOR WILL BE NOTHING MORE THAN A HEAP OF ASH.

Sauron raised his mace above his head, and the sky darkened as if all light had been sucked away.

“WHERE ARE YOUR VALAR NOW, MEN OF THE WEST?”

The mace fell, striking the ground. Stone shattered as a shockwave rippled out across the city. Those nearest to Sauron were blown backwards. The shaking stopped. The echoes of cracking stone echoed off of Mount Mindolluin and then fell silent. Seconds later, an answering rumble came. This time, it did not come from Sauron. It came from somewhere higher up in the city.

The shaking intensified. The flanks of Mount Mindolluin split open, cracks zig-zagging down the mountain’s front and through the city. Walls crumbled and buildings shattered. The inside of the mountain shone with eerie light, painting the city with the reflections of infernal fire that painted the stone blood-red.

A massive, shadowy foot fell on the White Tree, crushing it to kindling.

A flaming sword decapitated the White Tower, sending blocks of masonry tumbling into the upper levels of the city.

Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, had come.

---

Straw was lynched! He was a Gondor Noble!

Doc was killed! He was a Gondor Scribe!

The game is over! The Mordor faction have outnumbered the Gondorians and razed Minas Tirith!

 

Vote Count

Straw (6)

Orlok (1)

 

Player List
1. Lemonelon - Unspecified Politician
2. King Cole - Unspecified Scribe
3. Randuir - Randuir Noble
4. Jondesu - Findecano Nenharma Noble
5. Steeldancer - Twigeye Scribe
6. Sony - Sony Lieutenant of Mordor
7. Alvron - Zunn the Mad Outlaw
8. Asterion - Hobo Baggins Outlaw
9. Doc - Unspecified Scribe
10. Steph - Unspecified OUtlaw
11. Drake Marshall - The Marshall of Minas Tirith Gondor Politician
12. Manukos - Oakmus N Scribe
13. Darkness Ascendant - Mori lôm Nobleman
14. Sami - Jedal Snyders Steward of Gondor
15. Orlok Tsubodai - Annatar Politician
16. Mestiv - Unspecified Noble
17. Roadwalker - Silver Feather Outlaw
18. Straw - Straw Noble
19. Brightness Radiant - Unspecified Guardsman
20. Megasif - Megamir Politician

 

The Might of Mordor

The Halls of Mandos

Noble Doc

[Straw]

Well, this was another clean sweep game. Congrats to the Elims!

[Alvron]

Tasty!  So very tasty!

[Sony]

An awesome game! Big thanks to Elenion and El! 

1 hour ago, Alvron said:

Tasty!  So very tasty!

Flip-flopping fish. xD 

Sorry for editing, but I don't want to double post  

@Elenion is there a list of items? I'm curious if there was more than just the pipe-weed and the One Ring. 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Sony

[Sparkrunner]

Well. Orlok proves his reputation again. Congrats to @Mestiv.

R.I.P. me

[Steeldancer]

Gosh darn it. I was totally and completely off. And orlok had me flat out fooled. 

That was a WGG. And I will remember that. 

[Sparkrunner]

Just now, Steeldancer said:

Gosh darn it. I was totally and completely off. And orlok had me flat out fooled. 

That was a WGG. And I will remember that. 

The trick was good. Rand's defense of it made me suspicious. I was going to elaborate that suspicion, but I was away for a day and then I got back to my computer:

[Steeldancer]

Mestiv, well played your first game! Hope you'll join us again. (It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you win)

[BrightnessRadiant]

Thanks Len and El for a great game!  That was so much fun, and I'm sorry to have had to destroy the beautiful city of Gondor xD. 

[Elenion]

@Sony  I'll include that with my GM notes, which should be up in a few hours.

 

GM's Game Analysis:

Alignments:

Spoiler

There were only two alignments in this game, because I didn't want to pack too many crazy things into a QF. The Mordor team had 4 out of 20 members, so 20%, a standard elim percentage. One thing that I did do regarding alignments is make the Lieutenant of Mordor scan alignment, to make both sides paranoid that the Mordor team had possible allies to find.

Roles in the Game:

Spoiler

The two big roles for this game were the Lieutenant of Mordor and the Steward of Gondor. The main purpose of the Lieutenant wasn't really scanning, it was giving the Mordor team a uniquely-named role for the Steward of Gondor to detect. If the Steward scanned the Lieutenant, it would be a guaranteed lynch. If the Lieutenant scanned the Steward, the threat of the Palantir action would motivate the elims to kill the Steward ASAP.

However, this led to a possible game imbalance: the rules made it clear that there was only one Steward in the game, and that they are hard-cleared Gondor. This would be the perfect situation for a Steward to claim, have nobody contest their claim, and then mayor the village as they scanned for the Lieutenant while receiving Guard protection every cycle. I talked to Elbereth about this problem, and we decided that the solution was to give the village no protection roles. The Steward could claim if they wanted to, but the lack of protection guaranteed that the elims could take them out if they did. However, even though the village couldn't get any Guards for balance reasons, I wanted one in the game. I gave it to the elims, not to protect from vig-kills--there were none--but to give them the option of WGGs. Well, that and adding a slight bit of vig-kill paranoia. In practice, the Guard was useful to the elims. In retrospect, I think the village could have used some protection, but not any as potent as a Guard. Maybe something along the lines of a double-life.

The Noblemen also took a bit of thought. In the initial draft of the game, there were 2 Mordor noblemen out of 6 or 7 in the doc. However, I realized that the Noblemen's doc could be screened for elims, so I made 1 elim Noble out of 5. There was no difference in the chance of finding an elim within the Noble doc and finding one at random. In practice, this worked. There was speculation as to how many elims were in the Noble doc, but there were no efforts to force Nobles to claim and then lynch them off one by one.

The Politicians had an interesting mechanic, one that I'm not sure if I'll revisit in future games. I expected the Politicians to be generous with their ability, and vote constantly in the thread. I was relying on multiple Politicians changing around votes at once to hide who changed their votes. However, what I didn't count on was that the Politicians would be afraid of giving themselves away. All of the Politicians in the game only put in secret votes when they didn't have a public vote in.

The Outlaws and Scribes were really just glorified vanilla roles. The Outlaw was a slightly-better version of the Merchant from MR15, and the Scribe used a standard will mechanic. In practice, I think the Scribes should have had a much higher limit on the number of characters in their message, and the Outlaws should have had a more useful ability. Even with the buffs, the Outlaw ability was weak, and no Outlaw ever used theirs. [Scratch that, Alv did, but nobody targeted him.]

Role Assignments:

Spoiler

All roles were originally done with RNG to remove any bias from the choosing. After that was done, Elbereth and I made a few tweaks to the elim team and the Nobles. The elim team turned out to have excellent synergy, despite having a low average experience. I was even more impressed, however with the Nobles. The Nobles after adjustment were Jon, Rand, Mestiv, DA, and Straw. I was afraid that Jon and Rand would be the most vocal players in the doc, and the rest of the players would fade into the background. That was definitely not the case. All of the nobles shared discussion around pretty equally, and I am definitely going to look out for Straw and Mestiv more after this game.

Secrets:

Spoiler

There were no secret roles or alignments in this game, but there were two secret items. Both were intended primarily as flavor items, designed to be seen but not change the game too much. I wanted the game to remain true to the ruleset, but have enough secrets to keep the players guessing.

King Cole started with the pipe-weed. It had a passive ability called "Smoke" that you could turn on or off. While the ability was on, the message "Pipe-weed was smoked!" would appear in the write-up directly below the attacks. This was the only effect of the pipe-weed, and the message only appeared in the write-up once before Cole was killed.

Straw started with the One Ring, and he was the only one to put it on this game. If you put the ring on, you had a 25% chance of Isildur's Fate (instant death), a 50% chance of turning invisible, causing all non-Noblemen-kill actions against you to fail, and a 25% chance of the Ring being stolen by another player. If you didn't put the ring on, it passed to a random player. If you died with the Ring, it passed to a random player. This item was meant to emphasize Elrond's warning in Rivendell: it is dangerous to use Sauron's arts against him. The Ring could block the elim kill, but it could also cause you to die outright. I did not expect it to be used much, and it wasn't. Only Straw used it, and he successfully went invisible. The ring's main goal was to pass from player to player, and spread as a rumor around the game, which it did.

There were also a couple easter eggs in the game:

1. The write-up titles were parodies of the titles of the LotR and Hobbit movies. The Fellowship of the Lynch, The Two Trials, The Return of the Steward, Over-Kill and Under-Kill, The Decimation and Smog, and--omitted because the game ended--The Battle of the Five Opinions.

2. Most write-ups contained white text of some sort. Most were found and pointed out in the thread, but unless I'm mistaken not all of them were. (@Manukos, this is your chance!) These, written in all caps, were the voice of Sauron speaking in the minds of the citizens of Gondor.

Game Evolution

Spoiler

Overall I think the game went very well. There were a few hiccups: inactivity was higher than I had expected, I kept forgetting the Ring at turnover, and work caused me to miss turnover twice and have to delay the aftermath write-up by an hour,but overall the game ran very smoothly with nothing broken that I saw. Kudos to the elims for the perfect victory, and kudos to the village for being gracious losers.

Last item of business:

For being the only one to use its power this game, @Straw will be able to keep the One Ring!

Edited October 11, 2017 by Elenion