Anniversary Game 8 / AN11: Back to Beginnings

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Araris Valerian said:

I'll definitely switch things up at least a bit to stay "anonymous".

Is it possible to learn this power

[Araris Valerian he/him]

3 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Is it possible to learn this power

Which one? You already mentioned that you keep changing characters, and I've demonstrated that I'm prone to slipping my voting philosophy given the slightest chance, so no hope for teaching you about being anonymous.

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Araris Valerian said:

Which one? You already mentioned that you keep changing characters, and I've demonstrated that I'm prone to slipping my voting philosophy given the slightest chance, so no hope for teaching you about being anonymous.

I'm too used to changing them, yeah. Partly to maintain interest and partly because I'm still a bit used to the previous perma-death conventions for non-legacy characters.

You did say you managed to stay anonymous to most people D1, I'll take the chance to learn that power, since people were PMing me about not being kel D1...

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Just now, Kasimir said:

You did say you managed to stay anonymous to most people D1, I'll take the chance to learn that power, since people were PMing me about not being kel D1...

I think this must be related to my passive ability to fly under the radar, which honestly baffles me, so I'm afraid you'll have to work it out on your own.

[Kasimir he/him]

1 minute ago, Araris Valerian said:

I think this must be related to my passive ability to fly under the radar, which honestly baffles me, so I'm afraid you'll have to work it out on your own.

I'll manage it one day!

Then I can retire in peace  

[Ashbringer he/him]

So!

I do have some thoughts. Or really more just my opinions on what I ended up doing as Tlag the inactive-incharacter, why I did things, etc. I do want to preface this by saying I didn't really have a problem with anything anyone did in the game, personally; although the events of D4 affected me indirectly I made a point of not getting involved in that because, well, that's part of what I'm here to talk about. I'm also going to spoiler box things because, well, I'm writing the first category before this game even started and it's already getting long and in desperate need of paragraph breaks. I'm just going stream-of-consciousness here. But TL:DR, I'm not mad at anyone here, I had a lot of fun this game, and spoilers are just for length and not content / memes. Although I might throw some memes in there. Idk.

The Setup

Spoiler

So, as many of you know, I play SE as Faleast and AraRaash, the Twinmind Kandra who over time have made themselves essentially immortal by gathering different things from the games he's played, Hoid-style. And if there's somewhere that he has a strong risk of actually dying - i.e. a Shard game or something of that capability - I have Lamentation, the Twin-Shard of Ambition and Mercy (I can say it's Mercy, finally). If you don't know who those are... well, ask me in a game sometime, or a PM, or yell at me to update my About Me page like has been in my signature for about a year now.

Lamentation is even more powerful than someone like Faleast, and after they died and were pseudo-reborn-death-retconned after AG7, I decided to make them Faleast and AraRaash's "sponsor" and not actually use them in any game not to his power level. (I think he showed up in a Threnody game, because Threnody's kind of his thing, and turns out there's a character in Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell who is named Lamentation Winebare, so it was doubly relevant - but he just said some things. Oh, also because I got Silence as a role and that gets complicated.) The other reason is because his goals are a bit confused, because after playing AG7 I got to reread SA and read RoW and realized even more so that I'd made Lamentation really similar to Taravangian, so I started going a bit multiverse, and that's a giant can of worms.

Anyway. Lamentation's at least as powerful as Harmony, probably more so, but because of that he's hard to use. The problem is, Faleast is also getting there. As of LG66 he's been a Kandra, which is already hard enough to kill. As of LG68 he's bonded with an Ashynite bacteria fueled by wild Progression, which has acted as a Gold-Compounder-level healing factor and based on what we're learning about Ashyn that might be weaker than what it should be. As of LG70, he has a set of Dahkor Bones taken from the Monk he had to kill, which I've nearly started just not using because, you know, Dahkor Kandra isn't edgy at all. As of LG72 - my game - he's gotten Ishar's Honorblade, which also is probably even stronger than it seems to be. LG73 he bonded a Shadowblaze and became a full Rithmatist. QF50 he got a WoT Weave, which I still don't know how to work. Oh, and LG82 he's getting to become a full Mistborn if I don't find a way to have him not keep it, but I don't know what that would be.

So he's a little overpowered. It's easier for him to maintain decorum, because his abilities make it incredibly easy to fake a death and there's enough nebulousness in his goals for him not to pull out his Honorblade and just kill everyone in his path. (He almost did, once, but that's another story.)

Then comes Anonymous games. In theory, Faleast should be fairly easy to blend in because kandra, but in practice I'm not that subtle. AG7 I was Solemnheart, who mostly developed based on roles and a single idea of a Sliver of Ambition. In AN10, I was... I don't even remember, I was too inactive and dealing with Mavset'Im. Neither of those happened to be Faleast - I had toyed with the option in the initial writing, but Solemnheart got too powerful and AN10guy was a Fused, which would be another brain inside one already too crowded. Faleast did play LG74, as Derrick, but he didn't accomplish much because I was vanilla and didn't start my village rally until it was far too late. 

Lastly, I haven't played much as of late. Relatively speaking - I know some people are returning after months-years, where my period was maybe a month, or two. And it was less that I didn't play games as much as I didn't play Faleast, either because I was just too inactive to post RP (or at all) or I died early. So I actually haven't been in Faleast's headspace for a while, and it's... stranger than I remembered. AraRaash is a murderous psychopath barely kept in line, and Faleast isn't such a good person either. They represent Ambition and Mercy well, but like AG7 and Lamentation, Mercy isn't necessarily the better of the two.

 

So that's the mindset I came into AG8 with. Faleast was a bit powerful, I wanted to be anonymous-ish, and I didn't think I could do that as Faleast. So Scimon Tlag was born, as mostly a blank slate: a slightly shady merchant coming to Tyrian Falls, and as I would soon discover had recieved a Lurcher Spike.

The Proposition

Spoiler

Oh yeah. The Lurcher Spike.

So, I've been Elim the past three ANs, which also happen to be the three ANs I've played. When I first discovered this, I was... somewhat irritated, because I wanted to play with Scimon Tlag a lot more and be relaxed, and it's a lot easier to do that when I don't think dying will make much of an impact on winning. Being an unhelpful villager is one thing, because at worst you get misexed and minorly hurt the village, while being an unhelpful Elim feels more damaging. Especially as the Elim Lurcher, which when having a Mistborn, a Coinshot, and a Pearl to guard puts a decent amount of pressure on me to not die. The others ended up being active enough that me being the "lurker Elim" worked pretty well, but it was still annoying.

I don't know what I was originally planning for a Villager, because I usually don't prewrite RP, but I wanted to do a mix early game, hence why I did post OOC a few times. Apathy was not my plan at that point. So, I started playing, started interacting, and did what I could as a somewhat active player. I wanted to RP, so that was my priority. Honestly I wanted to vote D1, but I had to go about 10 minutes before rollover and we were already being a bit risky with getting Szeth out of the exe, and I just didn't have time to offer a reason to vote Drake instead especially after the RP we'd been doing. D2 I forget what happened, I think I just got behind. D3 I was left very confused by Kas, and joined the Meerkat train to blend in but got off once Mat explained to me what had actually happened.

The Incident(s)

Spoiler

Then along came N3, and D4.

I don't want to talk about that right now. There's enough discussion, people reflected on it and tried to make it better, and I honestly wasn't involved, I just saw Aman and Elan and Striker posting about it in the Elim doc, got AG7 flashbacks in a bad way, and vowed to just... stay out of it. 

If you happen to pay attention to the SE Discord (or read the Elim doc, I guess), you'll know that soon after that my life got... complicated. Truth be told, it got complicated before then, and as of now has calmed down a bit only to get more complicated with college and friends and everything. That's not what I want to talk about either. For one thing, I wasn't even sure what would be happening. For another, everything that I've gone through barely holds a candle to what some of you have talked about, and that makes me wonder if it's even worth talking about, and I know that's a fallacy and a terrible way to look at it but that doesn't make it... wrong. And for a third, I know I have a habit of going inactive-ish as an Elim, and while I honestly have have several different things in my life, good and bad, mess up my SE schedule when I happen to be Elim, I also know that Elim!Ash just posts less, and I really don't like using IRL reasons for that. (Especially because, you know, Anon game.)

I don't know. I really don't. But the long and short of it is that's why I flipped. I suddenly did not have the time or energy to spend on working on flipping the game around for the Elims in any way Elan or Striker couldn't, and I didn't want to get involved if things were starting to get too emotionally charged. So, I stayed out. And I sort of stayed out for a while. Apathy was a good way to put it. More so that Dingo and Ash put together couldn't really do anything, so I let Scimon do it instead.

The other, minor, reason things got all messed up for me here was the killing of one Coral Swan, who I'd enjoyed RPing with a great deal. Not exactly the last nail in the coffin, but it didn't help.

The Journey

Spoiler

So, rather than just going completely or almost entirely inactive, I decided to embrace Tlag's Apathy and just RP as Scimon Tlag.

And that was fun. Faleast hasn't really gone on much change or development in a single game before; even Solemnheart's development was mostly retroactive. There's a lot of ins and outs about what I did with Tlag that have actual meaning behind them, some of which I'll get into, some of which maybe not. Tlag legitimately wanted to sell food; he legitimately liked his conversations with Su; he legitimately was distraught at his death; and he legitimately fell into an apathy, that ultimately legitimately turned into Ruin's last Cursebearer. I'm not going to say he was having a full-on depressive episode, because 1) I don't really know enough about that to say he was, and 2) it wasn't entirely in good faith, both in character and out - I doubt Village!Dingo would be up to much at that point but Elim!Dingo certainly wasn't, and part of Tlag's apathy was a way of using his grief to combat Ruin's rage during the day.

I did try and sneak in some game thoughts - usually just dismissal of PMs, because that was another thing I didn't really feel like getting webbed into after trying and miserably failing to utilize PMs in AG7 - but most of it was just Scimon Tlag. I wanted to help save Striker, and Elan, but there really wasn't much I could do that wouldn't doom me as soon as either fell. So I bided my time, had fun doing it.

The Critique

Spoiler

This is really just a minor note, but one I wanted to add in here anyway.

A lot of people RP on D1. Not a lot of people RP after. Same with, in this case, Cosmetic Roles. That's a large part of why I was "looking for Quartz" or Dyring - they were the only ones besides Kellehrt who still vaguely posted in character. That's another reason I maintained character for so long - I wanted to make a point of it. Not a strong point, but a point. We can still RP at Lylo, everyone! 

Also - ironically, Quartz and Axolotl were both high on my kill list, after already helping end Riggs and Su... I thought it fit decently well that Tlag kept being forced to kill those he wanted to get to know. Not enough to just go for RPers to be the only one, but something noted and found amusing enough to continue.

The Stand

Spoiler

And eventually - if briefer than expected - I was alone.

I promptly went slightly insane. Fifth believed in me, and by then I was mostly stabilized, but I knew this wouldn't end well for me. So, figured I should have some fun. 

If you were around for LG66, you'll know that was my first game. It was also the game where I was a villager for 2 cycles before I was promptly converted into a Kandra, with a kill every other cycle, a wincon of being the last one standing, and two players (both Elims) who knew my role that I no longer had. In short, I was doomed. Very doomed.

That game is the reason I'm still here, because it was a blast. Sure, I wasn't going to win, but I tried, and I made myself in-ignorable, and ultimately was an honorary Villager. And that's where Faleast and AraRaash were born, and RP flowed.

I continued that this game. When the votes started piling on me, I could have done something, but it would have just delayed the inevitable - so instead, I wrote my own death RP and loved every word of it. (Well, except the words that were wrong and Fifth changed because Bronze.) I wrote that last sign-off post literally on an airplane, about to take off, and I stuck my phone in airplane mode as happy as the day I got my first Kandra kill. 

The Summary

Spoiler

In Short - not really - I learned a few things this game.

First off, I still like doing RP, and I enjoy it whether it's Faleast or not. So at least for a while, Faleast might be taking a back burner. He'll be around - I might even practice writing him in true disguise - but I want to do other characters as well.

Second off, there's still a lot I can do to, you know, analyze. So I'm going to try and prioritize that as well. I've done a good amount of work with it before, Elim or Village: I can do some more.

Third off, I'm going to try and be more active. I know I literally just signed up for two more games, but in the future I want to start playing less quantity and more quality.

And Fourth... you guys are all awesome. There are ups and downs, highs and lows, and the occasional IM interference, but I wouldn't trade this community for the world. Well, maybe the world, but someone would have to clean it up a little first. But I'm not done with SE yet. Also... if any bit of this seems personally at someone that isn't me (or, you know, addressing you), it's probably not supposed to be. I was going to finish this tomorrow but nope, it autoposted so here we go.

... well, that's not done. Thank you, Shift+Enter command.

That should be it. Ash out 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Ashbringer
I'm blue da ba dee da ba die da ba dee da ba die da ba-

[Kasimir he/him]

48 minutes ago, Ashbringer said:

A lot of people RP on D1. Not a lot of people RP after. Same with, in this case, Cosmetic Roles. That's a large part of why I was "looking for Quartz" or Dyring - they were the only ones besides Kellehrt who still vaguely posted in character. That's another reason I maintained character for so long - I wanted to make a point of it. Not a strong point, but a point. We can still RP at Lylo, everyone! 

This is something I like to see. I think it's why AG2 is one of my favourite games, and I believe one of El's too: we sort of just synched up as RP buddies and started bouncing off each other's RPs so she was El, Kassien's apprentice, and I was Kassien, runaway noble with a dark past hiding as a skaa apothecary. And we just didn't stop!

I think she swore vengeance after the Spiked murdered me. I was touched

Lylo usually kills the desire to RP for me. I think it's the stress. I think it was nice to see you, Zebra and Axl - especially you and Axl - keep up with the RP late into the game. But I'm not going to hold this one against me (not saying you do, but I'm not going to) because my bandwidth was full up.

[Ashbringer he/him]

6 hours ago, Kasimir said:

This is something I like to see. I think it's why AG2 is one of my favourite games, and I believe one of El's too: we sort of just synched up as RP buddies and started bouncing off each other's RPs so she was El, Kassien's apprentice, and I was Kassien, runaway noble with a dark past hiding as a skaa apothecary. And we just didn't stop!

I think she swore vengeance after the Spiked murdered me. I was touched

Lylo usually kills the desire to RP for me. I think it's the stress. I think it was nice to see you, Zebra and Axl - especially you and Axl - keep up with the RP late into the game. But I'm not going to hold this one against me (not saying you do, but I'm not going to) because my bandwidth was full up.

I totally get that RP isn't everyone's thing, it's just sometimes it feels like it's only my thing. I did have plenty of RP buddies this game. And I have plenty of fun doing analysis when I have the brainpower to actually do analysis.

And your Kellehrt RP (let alone that writeup) was on point too! It just felt weird to have Tlag get involved when Kel and Dyring were mostly conversing already and I was trying so desperately to kill you 

[Kasimir he/him]

1 hour ago, Ashbringer said:

And your Kellehrt RP (let alone that writeup) was on point too! It just felt weird to have Tlag get involved when Kel and Dyring were mostly conversing already and I was trying so desperately to kill you 

Think you're being too kind

The problem with trying to be fancy and ~literary is that it's hard to give other players scaffolding for joint RP though I definitely bounced off some of Dyring thanks to Axl having done a bit of Kellehrt in his RP.

tldr; don't be fancy and literary >>

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

Congratulations to the village for finally breaking the elim win streak, and thank you to El and Wilson for running the game!

As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Devotary of Spontaneity, Elbereth, Araris Valerian, Elandera, or StrikerEZ, or post in the GM Signups & Discussion Thread. 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 (Amanuensis, STINK, Sart, Fifth Scholar, Straw, Archer, and Kasimir) 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!