Long Game 95: The Fire of Ado's Light

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

7 minutes ago, The Bald Brandon said:

True.

Except, it's not. It's like me saying I'm going to post 10,000 words of roleplay a turn. I can try, I might even get close, there's even a chance I complete that goal once or twice. But eventually I'm going to miss that mark.

I have no problem with Kas playing a quiet, roleplayful game, but no matter how much v!Kas commits to chilling, he's going to analyze if he posts enough. I view this less as a playstyle, and more as a village tell. You can change your playstyle, but tells are very difficult to modify.

At this point, whatever Kas does from here on out, I think he's v, because I've seen his tell.

Still don’t like this. I see your point, but it feels icky to me.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Alright, I can't stop you from feeling that way.

[Archer he/him]

Okay lets do this properly

Quote

Why so low on PMs? Like, lower than the one you said is elim leaning 

General reminder that world hopping is a DAY action. Had to check that. 

GM, were the secret wincons made public? I can't find the words secret rules in the doc anywhere. 

Here's my opening post. As you can read between the lines, I'm in the midst of reading the rules. And am still confused about stuff, such as the potential existence of secret wincons. As I'm typing, DeTess posts and I respond to the ostensibly illogical order of their list. They say good things about Prudence, they say bad things about Mercy, and yet Mercy is higher on their priority list. I missed to subtext about docs devaluing PMs because I'd briefly forgotten docs were a thing. Or more likely, I wasn't thinking through the implication for PMs - my brain hadn't adjusted my default view of PMs based on the information that docs served a similar role. This is normal because I have a lousy memory and it's 8am. So I walk back the poke in the next post because Detess explains themselves splendidly. 

Quote

-DeTess' point that PMs aren't very useful in a docs game is a good one. 

...

-There's going to be a cascading effect from breaking Shards out of containment. Less contained shards being available to tap means they're more likely to have four people siphon from them, resulting in more and more being broken out each round.

Here I make the comment Kas pointed out, arguing that me not thinking about the restriction on Researchers that requires them to be on Silverlight to mine for investiture is indicative of me not having the Researcher role at all or me having more information to process in my GM PM. In reality, I was more focused on relearning the rules than I was on my role. I said 'cool, default role, grabs investiture', then wandered off to figure out what my starting investiture did and which one I should get next. 

I think there's good reasons to vote for me. I've been less prominent, which is where an elim needs to lurk when they're a single point of failure for the team (and balance!). Meta-wise, I also fit the profile of who might be trusted to run a team and manage to submit actions regularly. 

@|TJ| @DeTess @Fifth Scholar thoughts?

hey @Kasimir congrats on 6k posts. Also stop assuming I'm competent at things I'm not :P. 

*

Olivier Cosmos used to have an agent. He still did, on paper. But after a recent round of layoffs, the talent company had replaced them with a cheaper alternative, a two year-old child. 

"BUY. TICKETS." Cosmos was tempted to throw their communication device across the room. "TICK-ETS."

The baby didn't respond. It seemed doubtful that Cosmos would be able to worldhop any time soon. 

[Archer he/him]

Might conbine these posts later, but it doesn't feel right to make this an edit.

6 hours ago, Fifth Scholar said:

I think TJ and Wiz are putting themselves on my Khriss shortlist but I might need to see more before I jump on that

I too am curious how people are attributing specific roles to players and not just getting village/not village vibes from people

6 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

I'll try to read some more of last turn and get some reads, but I don't think I'll be extremely active this game

Note the relaxed way Mat conveys this information. A stark contrast to a recent elim game from them where they were very defensive about their unavailability and went to great lengths to talk about it being RL related so they wouldn't catch suspicion for it. 

5 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

Edit: yeah I’m aware that this isn’t necessarily AI but it feels like it’s against the spirit of the game and I don’t like it so hmph

Necessarily TJ is AI, actually. 

This joke is a reference to the absolute bars around TJ's name and the AI generated RP they are using this game. It's very funny. 

5 hours ago, TheAlpha929 said:

This game is terrifying me! Wish I had a good guess about anything ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ 

Why're you scared? Why're you overwhelmed? What are you doing to help?? ARE YOU THE BAD GUY!!!!

4 hours ago, The Bald Brandon said:

This \/ post shows exactly why I said that. No matter how chill Kas tries to be, this stuff will still leak out. And this alone is enough to make me pretty confident in Kas'  alignment. 

4 hours ago, The Bald Brandon said:

See, the thing for me is, to us, the 17th Shard, they are all the same

TBB out here being assertively right is a vibe. Mild points away for saying "I'm a villager" but overall I think the tone is too bold for an elim/member of a minority faction to adopt

@Elandera are you pro or anti containment OOC? 

Fifth Alpha

[Mat he/him]

Can concur with v!TKN after being thoroughly argued with and shown that my initial reasons to e!lean don’t apply. Also v leaning Archer though there’s a chance my brain was pocketed without me noticing :P.

I’ll vote DeTess for a few reasons but I don’t remember what they are! Found a sticky note on my braindesk reminding me to do that though. Further explanation, and an appearance by Sir Arren Brockett, to come in a few hours.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

42 minutes ago, Archer said:

Mild points away for saying "I'm a villager"

Should probably take away a few more since I've been consistently doing so for the whole Mat argument. I felt that doing so helped explain my views on the matter better.

[Elandera she/her]

1 hour ago, Archer said:

@Elandera are you pro or anti containment OOC?

Pro-containment. Though the powers may be interesting, there's not much real benefit to having them in the loose when we can all* get investiture when they're contained. 

Spoiler

*Obviously some roles excluded, but I don't particularly care about them.

[The Paradoxical Phenomenon he/him]

uh

so

ive been kinda useless so far

so

im a researcher and i started with a charge of endowment

which i used to target drakemarshall

he had a charge of devotion n0

dunno if thats useful

yw <333333

Spoiler

@Archer in response to your questions, in order: 

cuz i aint died in SE yet, and that's kinda a fun thing to be able to say

cuz i shouldnt have joined this game, im not experienced enough

nothing

YES >:)

 

[|TJ| he/him]

6 hours ago, Archer said:

I missed to subtext about docs devaluing PMs because I'd briefly forgotten docs were a thing. Or more likely, I wasn't thinking through the implication for PMs - my brain hadn't adjusted my default view of PMs based on the information that docs served a similar role. This is normal because I have a lousy memory and it's 8am. So I walk back the poke in the next post because Detess explains themselves splendidly. 

See all this could be actually true and still you could be evil, it's an explanation of why you said what you said, not village alignment indicative. The reason why I'm voting for you is because I think, even if the reasons are true, it came from a malicious intent and not a good one. 

Edit - on my phone but the previous Alpha post gives me very much LG94 Alpha vibes. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by |TJ|

[Mat he/him]

We’re literally all researchers so that’s kind of a moot point

I guess Hoid/Khriss aren’t but they can easily fake what you just claimed

Knowing Drake has that charge isn’t extremely useful either afaik

Also how the actual heck have you not died yet loool clearly we need to rectify this

Edited June 8, 2023 by Matrim's Dice
Ninja’d by tj

[Szeth Pancakes he/they]

1 hour ago, Elandera said:

Pro-containment. Though the powers may be interesting, there's not much real benefit to having them in the loose when we can all* get investiture when they're contained. 

  Reveal hidden contents

*Obviously some roles excluded, but I don't particularly care about them.

I think we should let the Shards out early game so we can protect them from other, more insidious factions once they’ve converted more people, then once we get one or two of Hoid/Khriss/Bavadin, we can start thinking about containment.

[Kasimir he/him]

39 minutes ago, Elandera said:

Pro-containment. Though the powers may be interesting, there's not much real benefit to having them in the loose when we can all* get investiture when they're contained. 

  Hide contents

*Obviously some roles excluded, but I don't particularly care about them.

Does Shardic immunity to conversion affect this calculus?

6 hours ago, Archer said:

hey @Kasimir congrats on 6k posts. Also stop assuming I'm competent at things I'm not :P. 

Ty. I'm aware you'll make certain rule confusions - I just don't find you getting your own role that far off as credible. That being said, even if I were in the mind/mood to vote, which I'm not minded to, my vote would not have been on you by that juncture.

7 hours ago, Szeth_Pancakes said:

I agree. It’s also good to remember, though, that as we get further in the game, the factions become the majority and the alt wincons become more prominent, so treating them as elims become less and less helpful.

There'll be more information to go on at that point, one presumes. The fundamental issue by then is just the need to decide how the backstabbing cornucopia goes, which I am firmly minded to sit out while enjoying Stormlight raves, Selish disco, Threnodic grooving, or any other party that's available.

Village wincon is still clear - while vagueness due to alt wincons exists, at least it's nice to be clear on the fact that Village doesn't win with the other Big Three.

8 hours ago, STINK said:

What I'm getting from this is that to vibe check anyone I apparently need to read some of LG94 huh

TLDR; Village loses a game that the Elims themselves had a long rant list about being intrinsically Village-sided, after having lynched two Elims back-to-back and with the Elims first succeeding in killing someone N4. If even the Elims more or less had a long rant about it being Village-sided and the GM doesn't deny the balance was off, losing something like that due to rampant inactivity, refusal to gaf about the votes, refusal to vote, and refusal to send in actions. (I bracket refusal to rally the Village as I think that is definitely playstyle territory)  - is fundamentally a throw, regardless of how virtuously the remaining Elims played (which they did.)

Winning and losing is normal. It's best not to get attached to it. Throwing? What the hell.

@Fifth Scholar Thoughts on setting up a Shardworlds Chess Tournament? :eyes: Maybe to go with the worldhopping rave party? :eyes:

[Elandera she/her]

1 hour ago, Kasimir said:

Does Shardic immunity to conversion affect this calculus?

Certainly did not... I did not realize they were immune. That does change some of my thoughts.

[Kasimir he/him]

48 minutes ago, Elandera said:

Certainly did not... I did not realize they were immune. That does change some of my thoughts.

• Doesn't help v. Intent Conversion but that's the Shardic limit.
• Edge cases where OoA has the conversion precede getting the Shard on N0, or Non-Villagers try to get the Shard on subsequent Nights
• From my point of view, the Shards are Evil! This power was best cast into the fire!

[DeTess she/her]

@Archer I'm pretty much in agreement with TJ here. I also don't really like your vote on Alpha. I don't particularly like the posts Alpha has been making so far, but they feel like a low-hanging fruit pick, something someone might go after if they are desperate for any not-me alternative, rather than actually trying to find a good suspect (especially since you didn't actually share any reasons for your suspicion).

That having been said, Alpha's claim about having used their one charge of  Investiture is very interesting. If true, it means they're vey vulnerable to getting shot with Odium's investiture the coming night, so it makes me question why they'd admit that. However, if what they said is true ( @DrakeMarshall, can you weigh in on that claim) it's highly unlikely they are Hoid or Khriss as those had better things to do last night. Autonomy can't be ruled out though. There is a very easy way to test if Alpha was lying or not without resorting to spending an execution on them though.

***
It had taken a bit of sneaking around, but eventually Tessa found herself where once Ruin's containment container had been. A tiny bit of sabotage on a fire alarm meant that she'd be left alone here for at least the next five minutes. "Vahal, pay attention." She got out her deck of cards, fished out the knight of staves and put it in front of her, upside down, then tapped Fortune and started shuffling. "I'm at the location of Ruin's former container, just in case that matters."

Tessa finished shuffling the deck, then started revealing the cards one by one. "First is five of staves, reversed. Ruin's vessel is surrounded by trickery and lied. They are also taking advantage of an ongoing dispute... whoever took Ruin is unlikely to be planning to put it back. Freeing that Shard might have even been their intention from the start, rather than an unfortunate side effect of their research."

"After that is page of wands, also reversed. Ruin's new vessel is grappling with its intent, and this is reducing their ability to act." Tessa looked up from her cards suddenly, as she heard a sound deeper in the room. Several moments passed with no further sounds or movement, and the researcher turned her sights back on the cards. "Five of swords, Ruin is aiming for destruction. What else is new."

"The fourth card is the two of staves. Ruin has all the power of a Shard to work with, so this is no surprise. The fifth card is the knight of cups. Hmmm..." Tessa took a moment to consider. "This one has a lot of interpretations, but given the situation... Ruin's new vessel either had an accomplice, or only recently arrived in Silverlight after hearing news of the situation. Last situation card before the actual divination is the moon. The coming days will be influenced by chaos and danger. Whimsy might come to play an important role here."

She took a deep breath before starting on the final four cards. All that had come before had been the setup, setting the stage. These last four, and in particular the final one should contain an actual clue to what was to come. "First, Justice. Ruin believe he is acting in a righteous manner. Next is the hanged man, reversed. He is forced to act by the selfishness of the crowd. He has been let down by the masses lack of wisdom. Next is nine of cups. Hope for success, no surprises there. The final card is page of coins, reversed." Tessa frowned. "That's not a clear one, but given the context... Ruin's new vessel will fall to the Shard's intent, probably fairly quickly too. Their preparations will come to naught and they'll simply drown in Ruin's power." She was quiet for a moment. "Vahal, be careful basing any actions on this reading. That last card was very ambiguous. It doesn't portent anything good for the vessel, but beyond that... Well, we're in for a rough time if Ruin is about to be unleashed in all its destructive glory."

[Drake Inferno]

AAAAAA I promise I'm still here, I didn't mean to lose track of the game! I'll get caught up as soon as I can, apologies for missing a night action to me team!

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

14 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Edited to add PM:

  Hide contents

sir what did my cow ever do to u >:(

lol ur just ignoring the notation aren't u >:P

tbh i feel like fifth is just going wtf is this game bros smh >:P

drake - kas
1. d4 - Nf6
2. f3 - g6
3. e4 - d5
4. Nc3 - e6
5. e5 - Nfd7

 

Spoiler

well, the cow is not a salmon, and I find it dishonorable >:P

I will choose to ignore that statement >:P

well if fifth is confused about what this game is you can tell him its chess >:P

Knight to H3.

 

2 hours ago, DeTess said:

( @DrakeMarshall, can you weigh in on that claim)

Alpha is being truthful FWIW.

[Archer he/him]

57 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

  Reveal hidden contents

well, the cow is not a salmon, and I find it dishonorable >:P

I will choose to ignore that statement >:P

well if fifth is confused about what this game is you can tell him its chess >:P

Knight to H3.

 

Alpha is being truthful FWIW.

Alpha

7 hours ago, |TJ| said:

 

Edit - on my phone but the previous Alpha post gives me very much LG94 Alpha vibes. 

E!Alpha who gave up a protection item for village clout? I can see them having learned to play sub optimally mechanically to get shielded from votes. But it's also a really bad move to not convert someone N0. I'm leaning village on Alpha because of it

That said, I feel like the more natural Researcher reaction to siphon investiture N0. It's a little odd they burnt their stock instead. Did you consider gathering more, Alpha? Are you world hopping today? 

5 hours ago, Elandera said:

Certainly did not... I did not realize they were immune. That does change some of my thoughts.

I was suspecting you of intentionally playing under the radar, but that feels like info the baddies should have known

9 hours ago, The Bald Brandon said:

Should probably take away a few more since I've been consistently doing so for the whole Mat argument. I felt that doing so helped explain my views on the matter better.

TBB! 

[STINK he/him]

You know I got around to like actually reading the rules and mostly comprehending them. 

Three actions give a unique win condition seems like something that people are definitely gonna want to experiment with huh. And that does make sense for the whole containment and not containment vibe people are talking about. Only one real question stands out to me on that front so far,

Anyone willing to do SCP style containment on Shards?

[Turtle they/them]

37 minutes ago, STINK said:

Anyone willing to do SCP style containment on Shards?

yes.

kas I think what's happening here is i thought which player bavadin is matters but apparently it matters less than i thought? like i assumed yeeting bavadin could help us? im gonna reread the rules when i have time.

also the air quality here is getting progressively worse and worse. if you're also in an area with 'severely unhealthy' air quality, remember not to do physical activity outside w/o a mask. it feels like im breathing in the smoke from a firepit but worse bc i cant get out of it.

[Amanuensis he/him]

3 minutes ago, Turtle said:

also the air quality here is getting progressively worse and worse. if you're also in an area with 'severely unhealthy' air quality, remember not to do physical activity outside w/o a mask. it feels like im breathing in the smoke from a firepit but worse bc i cant get out of it.

Same I slept with my window open and woke up coughing my lungs out. RIP

[Turtle they/them]

Just now, Amanuensis said:

Same I slept with my window open and woke up coughing my lungs out. RIP

im getting an allergic reaction type thing from the smoke, like my pollen allergy. no fun, i need to go buy some claritin or something similar.

[Amanuensis he/him]

Oh and before I forgor again

3 hours ago, Drake Inferno said:

AAAAAA I promise I'm still here, I didn't mean to lose track of the game! I'll get caught up as soon as I can, apologies for missing a night action to me team!

@Drake Inferno In the future, please make sure to post in the current thread  Thank you!

Edited June 8, 2023 by Amanuensis

[Drake Inferno]

You got it! Sorry, very new to this forum and a little confused.

[Amanuensis he/him]

1 minute ago, Drake Inferno said:

You got it! Sorry, very new to this forum and a little confused.

All good! If you have any questions, you can ask Ash and I in your GM PM