Mid-Range Game 32: The Blight Encroaches

[CadCom]

Overall, I really loved this game! I really enjoyed the role I was given. I would do a long post, but due to lack of time, I will just put basic thoughts down for now.

First of all, I want to thank my fellow Darkfriends. It was a good game, and working with all of you was really fun. 

I also want to apologize to everyone. I was much more inactive the first couple cycles than I was expecting to be, which made it hard to get an early read on me. 

Next, Thank you to my fellow fielders. The discussion in that doc was very fun to keep up on. Sorry to Ark for sending in an order to kill you, literally the night after you discussed your frustration for everyone always lynching you. I truly felt bad, especially since I knew you weren’t an elim. Your normal playstyle is different than what most people expect to be village, but since we know that that is your normal playstyle, we shouldn’t just constantly assume you to be elim. Also Randuir, thank you for not pushing your list of possible false-fielders to the thread. I was afraid that you had me pinned when you put my name down as one of them, and I don’t know how the thread would have taken it. I enjoyed our little banter back and forth.

With regards to balance, I tend to agree with the ideas mentioned in the spec doc, at least to some degree. If this game were to be run again, I would be cautious of too much change in favor of the villagers, but I believe some change would be needed. My role alone, I don’t believe was too powerful, in and of itself, but because we happened to kill one emonds fielder N1, by pure chance, and the other two essentially claimed to everyone that they were members, of the doc, it made my position a bit overpowered, in my opinion. 

One suggestion that I thought of is making my character hardy until like n4 or something, just so he has a good enough chance of surviving long enough to actually use his power, then removing the hardiness from him, so he is more succeptible to the village. This would also fix the other issue that some people brought up that 6 elim lives may have been too many.

I can no longer use the excuse that I’m always village, which is a bittersweet parting, because I really did enjoy using that claim, but I have also wanted to have an elim role for some time now.

Lastly, Thank you to Fifth, and Elandera for GMing this game. Especially to fifth for creating these complex rules. I enjoy complexity, so this was very fun.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Cadmium Compounder

[Furamirionind]

Hmm... I think this game was actually pretty well balanced between elims and villagers until Devotary's death.  If Perrin was not in the Emonds Feilder doc, I think the game would have been evenly balanced until the end.

I say this because I underestimated the power of the emonds fielder role at the beginning of the game, but there just seems to be so many roles that the village can't afford to lose (Lan, Moiraine, Green Man, Rand, Emond's Fielder).  I think that having Perrin be in the emonds field just acted as a huge double blow to the village.

I dont think this would have really mattered all that much, but being N1 really hurt. Which was really just luck on the elims part I think.

I also want to point out, we actually did have more than 1 mislynch.  The game didnt end this past cycle. It is only ending because the elim win is inevitable.  I think we had 3-4 mislynches actually. Judging from what I read in the spec doc, the game could have been extended if more people cast defence actions as well.

[Rathmaskal]

Yes, we had more than one mislynch...I should have clarified what I meant though - with I believe 4 lives remaining amongst the elims, and the rate at which the blight was encroaching, the game was over due to the number of mislynches we'd already had.  Yes, I think we could have gotten probably 2 or 3 more turns if people had defended more consistently, but that still would have been a quick game.  Basically, the balance between the two teams was effective I think...the blight just encroached a bit too fast (the double escalation was the biggest part of that)

[Furamirionind]

Was this fast? This game went on for 2ish weeks right? Isnt that how long a MR is supposed to take? It felt fast to me, but I have only played LGs before...

 

I should mention though, I struggled with the hidden cap on the blight. After D2 or D3, I started panicking as I thought the village had essentially already lost the game to the blight. And I had to take a break from SE to calm down.  I think that was the cycle i forgot to defend Rand... so thank you Elims for not capitalizing on that... : )

[Karnatheon]

So a few thoughts reading through docs. Yes @MetaTerminal I was the dark red font inexperienced with google docs in the Circle, so no need to eat your hat.

Pleasantly surprised the elims thought I was too dangerous to keep alive, but happy they didn't kill me so quick cause I did have a lot of fun.

As said in the spec doc, given the hidden 11 max damage rule, if the village had been a lot more active with defends we could have held out for a really long time against the Blight, at least until a few kills had started piling up.

[+Ark1002]

That was really fun! I died and wasn't very active, but still... xD

[Snipexe]

This was a really fun game for the first two cycles, and I found it hilarious that I was double lynched, that’s definitely a first for me. Thanks a ton to Fifth and Ela for Gming this game, and making the dead doc a fun experience.

I think that the setting the blight Damage cap at number of player -1 might be a bit high, maybe instead number of villagers-1. I really liked the blight mechanic overall, as I think it created a reason for people to be more active, which is its obvious intended purpose.

Thanks again to Fifth and Ela, and everyone else who played the game.

[Steeldancer]

I still haven't read anything, but my thoughts are that yes, the village was a bit underwhelming in this game. Both in activity, and in power. Because, DANG, the elims had a lot of options! Normally eliminator teams are given very few players, with only a few powerful members if anything! In this case, you had multiple cases of double lives, multiple actions, and I couldn't even one shot a forsaken. Anyway, I think it was still balanced in concept, but our playing definitely ruined us. I still enjoyed it though, I always enjoy getting a power role. Ironically, Rand is technically an orphan, so maybe I'll feel like using him as an RP character in the future... but probably not. Anyway, nice job Fifth, and nice job eliminators (even if I am a bit grumpy you said so little for me to work with).

[Fifth Scholar]

Having ended over four months ago, it’s high time this game was closed up. Despite its slightly broken nature, with the experimental mechanics failing in some places, I’d like to extend an enormous thank you to all who participated in this game and gave it a try, and an additional, equally large thank you to Elandera for her considerable support throughout the game. Congratulations to the Forsaken and Agents for an efficient victory, and to the village for putting up a good fight.

As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can.

You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) would be more than willing to help you out in private.

Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!