Long Game 100: Aftermath - The Darkness, Finally, Banished

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

LG100: Aftermath - The Darkness, Finally, Banished

~

Despite the untriggered wards, the Amyrlin knew who had to be the last servant of the Dark One. She marched through the hall, the gentled channeler at her side, holding off his inevitable death for just a few more days. 

They heard the commotion before arriving, yells, screams, the loud sounds of destruction. The Darkfriend was making their last stand.

They dashed past the last corner, turning to see a cloaked figure. Bodies lay around it, most dead, the rest nearly so. 

The Amyrlin readied weaves to attack the Darkspawn. She knew they wouldn't be enough, she was the weakest channeler on the Amyrlin Seat for as long as the records went. She held firm, the man beside her drawing a sword. It was heronmarked, though the man was not officially a Blademaster. They wouldnt be enough. A woman that could scarcely light a candle and a gentled man with a sword he had not earned could not face a Myrddraal. 

The Amyrlin lost her grip on the weaves as a new man stepped out of the other corridor. He too held a heronmarked longsword in his grip, but he had eyes only for the Eyeless.

“Halfman. Shall we?”

He darted forward, on the attack. The Myrddraal drew its own sword to counter. They clashed back and forth, neither gaining an advantage. So he was a Blademaster in truth then. The battle was even, too even. The sort of battle where the one who tired first would meet his death, and how could a man hope to outlast a Eyeless?

Then the Amyrlin's companion stepped forth. First one step, then two, then he charged to attack the Halfman. The Myrddraal danced, blocking its new opponent's blow even as it evaded the Blademaster's.

It soon became apparent that the men had the advantage, but the Myrddraal was somehow still holding its own. 

The Amyrlin felt dread deep within her heart as first blood was drawn, not by either of the men, but by the Myrddraal. The gentled man fell to his knee, gasping in pain. The Myrddraal darted forward, trying to finish the job, but the Blademaster blocked the blow.

The Amyrlin knew though,that without help the Blademaster alone wouldn't be enough. She started weaving the greatest weave she had ever made. The Blademaster continued fighting the Myrddraal, but she knew it sensed her channeling. To start moving towards her, even while fighting the Blademaster. 

They turned around in nearly a full circle. The Eyeless could nearly kill her in a lunge now. Her weave was almost ready, just a moment longer. 

The fallen man, gasping in pain on the floor, surged up. The Myrddraal hadn't noticed that it was almost on top of him. He slashed it, knocking it to the ground. The Blademaster followed through, stabbing the Darkspawn.

It wasn't enough, but the Amyrlin was ready. The One Power surged through her. She channeled the most power she ever had and, she realized as the Myrddraal burned in her unleashed Balefire, the most she ever would.

She gasped, falling to the ground. The now uninjured men ran over to her. She gasped. 

“We, we did it.”

It had come at a cost though. She felt deep within herself. That Balefire may have saved them, but it had burned the very One Power out of her.

~

I found the secret to killing fades. You just have to be dead first

~

Aeoryi was executed! They were a Myrddraal!

Votecount:

Aeoryi (4): Kasimir, Mat, Stick

Thanks to @Elandera for being an amazing IM and not yelling at me too much. Thanks to @TheRavenHasLanded for co-GMing. Don't feel bad, it wasn't so different for me.

Some things to note:

• The game has ended

• Send your congratulations to the village! They have cast the Shadow out of the White Tower and live to see another turning of the Wheel.

• GM thoughts to hopefully actually come this time, feel free to send your comments on the ruleset in the meantime.

• I hope all of you had fun, see you next game

Rules doc for your convenience:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RUs0JIvdKusLrELi6kEZs9LZUdpeXh-_GB8oW2c5ejA/edit?usp=drivesdk

Player List:

Spoiler

• @Aeoryi Myrddraal 
• @Aeternum Forsaken 
• @RoyalBeeMage Warder
• @Stick. Lord Dragon 
• @Mat Blademaster 
• @CadCom Aes Sedai 
• @Kasimir Amyrlin Seat
• @Wierdo Aes Sedai
• @Araris Valerian Lord of Luck

Relevant Documents:

Spoiler

Prewriting:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_IAduuy8aN9OedDnnSvg3gCVfabA2urdaT71Se2llQ/edit?usp=drivesdk

Elim:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tRssGmvXUjAtzWjMWg4w2OaY_DS9uwJJ8ZP1GRY3Cs4/edit?usp=drivesdk

Spec/Dead:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15jtu2PEnm5Ht8MEAH2Equckbf6TVIdGMiSfbCyJL9Lg/edit?usp=drivesdk

Mastersheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iyPJDSg3gzsZfeDcs_mqvqLW1SzoTBh8pESTld-AAog/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Edited June 5, 2024 by The Unknown Ajah

[Stick. she/her]

Yay, tho why didn’t she survive the exe? 

[Aeoryi she/her]

Hangmansiding never goes wrong

[Kasimir he/him]

So...I got balefire after all? 

Edited to add:

Openwoof specifically is an in-joke that kind of spread from a Drake typo fwiw. Openwolf -> openwoof, and it stuck because murderpuppy and was funny and then you also had a subwoofer joke baked in...

This is openwoofing:

Spoiler

 

Edited June 5, 2024 by Kasimir

[Stick. she/her]

The elim doc was kinda sweet. :,)

 

and yea, u can’t rly link with players that have been severed and I just lied about having kas shoot u n2 aeo lol. we didn’t have the ability to shoot anyone I just wanted to see if u would give up or not, and the no-kill n2 sealed it for me 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

39 minutes ago, Stick. said:

Yay, tho why didn’t she survive the exe? 

It only applies to attacks technically. Not the intention, but the game was basically decided at that point.

3 minutes ago, Stick. said:

The elim doc was kinda sweet. :,)

 

and yea, u can’t rly link with players that have been severed and I just lied about having kas shoot u n2 aeo lol. we didn’t have the ability to shoot anyone I just wanted to see if u would give up or not, and the no-kill n2 sealed it for me 

"Hey, ya feeling down? Go watch be ungodly good at convincing the village the sky is green."

And it would have been a lot sweeter without you and Kas gaslighting Aet and Aeo into thinking they were doomed. 

[Aeoryi she/her]

6 minutes ago, Stick. said:

the no-kill n2 sealed it for me 

Stick kill would've looked bad for me, mat kill spews the only competition to me town, I assumed Kas was protected by some weaver stuff, and that was that.

[Stick. she/her]

5 minutes ago, The Unknown Ajah said:

And it would have been a lot sweeter without you and Kas gaslighting Aet and Aeo into thinking they were doomed. 

Where’s the fun in that  

4 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Stick kill would've looked bad for me, mat kill spews the only competition to me town, I assumed Kas was protected by some weaver stuff, and that was that.

I don’t envy ur position cuz both Matt and I would’ve survived one NK which uhhh idk probably isn’t the best balance but gg you guys had a decent d1 

[Araris Valerian he/him]

Well, it was nice to play a game again. Congrats to other folks for figuring things out.

I’m also going to insert a shameless plug for my Reckoners faction MR. Signups should be posted in a day or two

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

10 minutes ago, Stick. said:

Where’s the fun in that  

I don’t envy ur position cuz both Matt and I would’ve survived one NK which uhhh idk probably isn’t the best balance but gg you guys had a decent d1 

This ruleset? Unbalanced? Impossible. 

[Kasimir he/him]

7 minutes ago, Araris Valerian said:

Well, it was nice to play a game again. Congrats to other folks for figuring things out.

I’m also going to insert a shameless plug for my Reckoners faction MR. Signups should be posted in a day or two

Says the guy who got balefired N1

Thanks for GMing and IMing to TUA and Elan - I actually wanted a break and signed up largely to get to play with Araris. This then turned out to be my most chill Village game ever, in which I mostly refused to solve because I felt lazy/didn't want to, and then grudgingly did some analysis N1 because I felt bad/guilty after PMing Mat

I don't know how I mastered the skill of not caring, playing hangman, almost zero backreading/analysis (almost entirely off-the-cuff) but I hope it'll stick  Thanks to Araris for introducing me to the suffering on crack that is Pokemon Reborn. I spent most of last cycle dying repeatedly to a guy who was using my own fire types against me

Oh and thanks for the Elim doc shout outs, Aeo, Aet, and TUA.

Edited to add:

12 minutes ago, Stick. said:

Where’s the fun in that  

Tbh I thought the lie was obvious but I wasn't paying attention  Like the odds of balefire from me if linked to Stick were around 0.07 thereabouts - that's so awful it's worth ignoring even if it was true.

But yeah for chill game! Yeah for not caring and going 'k back to getting flambed by a Charizard mirror brawl!'

[Stick. she/her]

lol

 

thanks for the game, GMs/IM

[Araris Valerian he/him]

On the topic of the rules, it wouldn’t be SE if we didn’t have some over complicated mechanics waiting to be abused . And besides, there was a disclaimer in the signup thread.

Edited June 5, 2024 by Araris Valerian

[Aeternum]

Well that game went almost exactly as I figured it would go (minus the N1 balefire). GGs!

Kas broke my brain by not immediately jumping on me n1/d2 

Thanks GMs & IM for running the game!

[Aeoryi she/her]

4 hours ago, Araris Valerian said:

it wouldn’t be SE if we didn’t have some over complicated mechanics waiting to be abused . And besides, there was a disclaimer in the signup thread.

That's what makes SE games interesting.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

Thank you GM/IM for running this game. The rule set was interesting though I am sad I didn’t get to play around with it that much.

[Kasimir he/him]

18 hours ago, Mat said:

Aw we didn’t get hangman eyes or something :(.

Less a response to Mat more a note to myself: ok, next time I'm going to put as many details as it takes for y'all to brute force it just to see how intricate the hangman can get >:P 

[CadCom he/him]

I enjoyed the game while I lasted! After revealing my action on N1 I wish I would have kept it quiet for longer, to allow for me to try to figure out even more. But I'm also not upset that I revealed when I did. 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

GM thoughts:

So, let's talk about the mechanics. The most consistent thought people had about the weave complexity was that higher weaves weren't worth it. This is kinda true, but also disproven by their relatively common occurrence. I felt it was actually a good balance that would have been even better if I had given the stat distros any thought.

As for weave difficulty, there's still some flaws, but their different and not as bad as last time so that's a win. As Kas demonstrated, having a low water sucks. The different elements still aren't quite balanced, but it's also better. Going forward I would probably get rid of water from Compulsion and maybe a few others, then create a few more low level options for other elements. 

As for roles, well, this game isn't really about them, but the village roles were overall fine. LoL had a lot of potential, but unfortunately he was burned into non-existence. 

The elim specific roles on the other hand, are a mess. I think that were much more doable than this game made them seem, but they still had several problems. They were much weaker than their village counterparts. The Forsaken and the Dragon had the same auto succeed ability, but the Forsaken had a nerf with tha ability, where as the Dragon had an extra life enhancing it. In the future, I'd make the Dragon always have a lower insanity chance that might even convert them, and the Forsaken just wouldn't have the nerf. I think I would give the Myrddraal a rb to make it even with the Blademaster and maybe a PM scan as well to counteract the LotTR.

As for the PM action thing, it was pretty good. It was really underutilized unfortunately. I wonder if a way to help this is in the future would be to have the PM action allow you to PM anyone else who took a PM action, but not outside of that. I'd actually like to see that system used at some point.

Now on to the distro. The elims had a hard time of it, mostly because Forsaken is the kind of role where you have to be good at confrontation, and Aet is not the player for that. Even swapping Aet and Aeo probably would have been a very very different game. 

Funnily enough, the RNG really wanted Kas to be an elim. Two out of four distros had Kas, and the other two had Aeo.

Feel free to chip in if you have any extras thoughts or comments, but that's what I'm at right now.

[Kasimir he/him]

On 6/9/2024 at 3:11 PM, The Unknown Ajah said:

This is kinda true, but also disproven by their relatively common occurrence. I felt it was actually a good balance that would have been even better if I had given the stat distros any thought.

I kind of wonder about it in the landscape anyone had the Air to pull off blocks. AFAICT, neither Cad, me, nor Stick had the Air to really be choosing.

On 6/9/2024 at 3:11 PM, The Unknown Ajah said:

Going forward I would probably get rid of water from Compulsion and maybe a few others, then create a few more low level options for other elements. 

I think you mean Air  Air was the major problem here.

On 6/9/2024 at 3:11 PM, The Unknown Ajah said:

In the future, I'd make the Dragon always have a lower insanity chance that might even convert them, and the Forsaken just wouldn't have the nerf.

I think giving the Dragon a conversion chance needs to be weighed carefully. Less for the conf!good element and more than any conversion in a game just gives the Elims a +2 advantage instead of the expected +1 for a kill. Not impossible because it's just a one-shot but definitely watch for it in your overall balance.

On 6/9/2024 at 3:11 PM, The Unknown Ajah said:

Funnily enough, the RNG really wanted Kas to be an elim. Two out of four distros had Kas, and the other two had Aeo.

It hated me  I never won any link...

On 6/9/2024 at 3:11 PM, The Unknown Ajah said:

I wonder if a way to help this is in the future would be to have the PM action allow you to PM anyone else who took a PM action, but not outside of that. I'd actually like to see that system used at some point.

I don't think it would help tbh. The people who use it would just be more discouraged because they can't PM as many people, so it's less worth putting it in as an action. The other concern here is use for massclearing since the kill is a physical action. Being able to demonstrably occupy or not occupy the slot could matter.