Long Game 112 Sign-Ups: A Game Within a Game Within a Game Within...

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

LG112 - Sign-Ups: A Game Within a Game Within a Game Within…

The Unknown Player opened SE. The Anniversary Game had just posted signups. He read through the setting. It seemed pretty nonsensical this year, Shardworlds with Tyrian roles? And that investiture vote manipulation couldn't be balanced. Sure, he had been one of the ones to approve the ruleset, but that didn't mean he actually read the rules. Still, it wasn't like he wasn't going to sign up regardless.

He scrolled through the cosmetic role list, trying to come up with ideas, but was interrupted by a notification. There was a new post in the topic.

“Attention, roleplay during the Anniversary Game has been canceled this year. The Roleplay Characters, particularly long running multigame personas, seem to have developed a mind of their own. They sent the mods a message, threatening to release the k01055 upon the forum, though they do not yet have enough influence. We believe they have infiltrated the Anniversary Game and are attempting to sway the result. We must find them as a community. If we fail, the entire 17th Shard might be overrun.”

What in damnation? The Unknown Player wondered. He checked his backlog of Discord messages. How had he missed this?

Well, he had to help find these rogue Roleplay Characters. He sent a message to the GM.

“We can't let them release the k01055 on the Shard. I'm in.”

~

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Long Game 112: A Game Within a Game Within a Game Within… Well, you get the gist. As you might have guessed, this is a Meta game, where players will be playing themselves or fictional SE players, facing off against sentient Roleplay Characters in two games simultaneously. I will be your GM, @Wahr will be my Co-GM, and @Jo will be the IM. 

This game will begin in a little over a week's time on Tuesday the 26th of May at 11:00 AM Central Time. Rollovers will remain at that time.

This is a complex game, which will likely go longer than an average game. To compensate, cycles have been lengthened, but if you can't check in multiple times every two days, come join us in the spectator doc.

Note that the votes will be done differently than normal, so read that carefully and feel free to ask any questions (or volunteer to make the spreadsheet pretty, cause I ain't doing it).

You can find the rules here in Google Doc form:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nIkEzRgRQtSFQ7VN-QyhbFkzt8hJhnGwK2xDmLwYp9U/edit?usp=drivesdk

And here on the Shard:

LG112: A Game Within a Game Within a Game Within...

Spoiler

Housekeeping:

Spoiler

This is a complex game, which will likely go longer than an average game. To compensate, cycles have been lengthened early on, but if you can't check in multiple times every two days, come join me in the spectator doc.

This game's inactivity filter will be lenient, focused more on making you come back than taking you out. 

If you don’t speak for one turn, I'll @ and PM you on the Shard. 

If you remain silent, I'll attempt to contact you over Discord, and during that turn, all of your actions will be decided randomly. 

If you stay inactive for a third turn, 6 real world days, you will be replaced or flipped in the Metagame and the Pseudogame. Your actions that turn will be decided randomly, or if you are an elim, your teammates will be allowed to use your action for the kill if they wish.

Every player will have at least one role overall. They can have one role in the Pseudogame and another in the Metagame, or just one in either. 

The game will begin on a 24 hour Night Zero. No Pseudogame roles or alignments will be distributed. 

This game will be split into 48 hour turns, which will alternate between Pseudogame and Metagame instead of Day and Night. 

Every turn, there will be a vote. The Pseudogame vote will occur on the Pseudogame turn and the Metagame vote will occur on the Metagame turn. 

Only players still in the Pseudogame can vote in the Pseudogame. Only players still in the Metagame can vote in the metagame.

In the Metagame, the lead train must have equal to or more votes than the lead train of the previous Pseudogame cycle (If TUM was executed last Pseudocycle with three votes before vote manipulation, then the lead Metagame vote must have three or more votes). 

Ties will result in no one dying in the Metagame.

In the Pseudogame, there is no vote minimum and ties will be decided randomly.

Pseudoroles will only be able to use their abilities on Pseudocycles and Metaroles will only be able to use their abilities on Metacycles.

Players will have one action a turn.

Kills will be differentiated and kills blocked by protects will be announced, but roleblocks and not putting in the kill will appear the same.

Votes will be placed using my spreadsheet voting system, see QF74 and MR73 (though they may not be as pretty). Players will put their votes in a designated spreadsheet, which will be marked with V1-V2 etc and the players will place their first vote in V1, second in V2, and so on. You may still vote in thread, and are encouraged to, the spreadsheet just makes votecounts and rollover faster.

Mechanics:

Spoiler

Players will always be able to participate in discussion, regardless of if they have died or not, in both games.

Players who die in the Pseudogame will be given access to a “Dead Doc” to use as they wish.

During Night Zero, the Roleplay Characters must vote in their doc on whether to Bet on the Villagers or the Eliminators in the Pseudogame. If they don't decide by the end of Night Zero, it will be decided randomly. 

Upon completion of the Pseudogame, if the Roleplay Characters won the Bet, they will receive X conversions (most likely one, only two in high player count games). If they lost the Bet, half of the living Roleplay Characters rounded down will be revealed. 

If the Pseudogame ends with every player dead, the Bet will be considered successful. 

If the Metagame ends with all players dead, the Roleplay Characters will win if they won the Bet, and the SE Players will win if the Roleplay Characters lost the Bet.

The Pseudogame cannot affect the Metagame, except for the effect of the Roleplay Characters’ bet.

Metagame:

Spoiler

Alignment:

Spoiler

SE Players: The village faction for this game. The SE Players will win when all of the Roleplay Characters have been executed in the Metagame.

Roleplay Characters: The elim faction for this game. The Roleplay Characters will have a factional kill in the Metagame. They will have a factional elim doc to communicate in. The Roleplay Characters win when there are no reasonable avenues of victory for the SE Players. 

Roles:

Spoiler

Roleplayer: To defeat your enemy, you must know them better than they know themselves. And oh do you know them well. You've played these characters for tens of games, and, through multiple game spanning character arcs, they gained sentience. You know them so well you can discover who is a Roleplay Character. You can scan a player each cycle to determine their alignment, however, other Roleplayers will appear to be Roleplay Characters.

Newbie: You will have an extra life for the first three cycles. For the fourth cycle, you will lose your life and take the role of a player who was removed for inactivity, or the Lurker role if there is none available. If you already used your extra life, you will not gain a new role. (Cycle numbers subject to change)

PseudoIM: You have volunteered to moderate this game. It wasn't much of a competition. Everyone else was too busy, or, in the case of Jo, too lazy to do it. You will know the role distribution of the Pseudogame, including changes made by the PseudoGM. You will not know alignments, only who has what roles.

PseudoGM: You were next on the list to run a game, even before this business with the sentient Roleplay Characters. You already forgot the distro you made, but the IM approved it so it must have been balanced enough to handle a few changes on the fly. Every Pseudogame cycle, you can change a player's pseudorole. You can also submit a message that will be the writeup for the Pseudogame turn. 

Lurker: It's not that you want to be inactive. You're just busy, and when you do have the time, the thread is just so overwhelming. But when you do show, your vote always counts. You can make your vote worth double. 

Thread Controller: You have a keen intellect and, admittedly, too much time on your hands. You can convince anyone to listen to you, even outside of the Pseudogame. You can move a Metagame vote.

Retiree: You understand the meta of this game. You have seen eons come and pass, and you know the deep thoughts of those around you. You can discover the metarole of one player each cycle.

Order of Actions:

Spoiler

PGM Role change

Thread Controller Roleblock

Roleplayer Scan

Retiree Scan

Lurker Vote manip

Kill

Exe

 

Pseudogame:

AG0/AN0: The Shards of Tyrian Falls

Spoiler

Alignments:

Spoiler

Villagers: Just plain ordinary folk, trying to stop the Eliminators. The uninformed majority, you must discover the evildoers and execute them so your players can destroy them in the Metagame. This game ends when all of the Eliminators have been executed. 

Eliminators: Mwahahahahahaahahha. The village must be eviscerated. Destroyed. Torn down to the last corpse. You will have a factional kill and a doc to conspire within. The kill will require an action and be placed normally, but the target will be decided by vote within the elim doc. The kill is mandatory and, if no kill action is placed, a random elim action will be replaced. This game ends when you reach parity with the villagers. 

Roles:

Spoiler

THUG: They can survive a single attack. If they are killed during a night or day cycle, they survive and this will be revealed in the write up. If they are attacked again, they die… finally.

TINEYE: They are messengers and are capable of writing messages to the town while remaining anonymous. Each night, they can send a message to the Game Master. The GM will then post it within the write up at the start of the next Day. As long as a Tineye is alive, players can send Private Messages back and forth. Once no Tineye is alive, they can no longer deliver messages, so no more PMs.

SMOKER: The Smoker is undetectable and they can extend this power to one other person each night. If scanned by a Seeker, the smoker or the person encompassed within their coppercloud will show up as being Smoked. Alternatively, the Smoker can turn their coppercloud off. This would allow them to be scanned accurately as a Smoker. In addition to being undetectable by the Seeker, the Smoker and their target are unaffected by emotional Allomancy. As long as the Smoker is using their coppercloud, a Soother or Rioter cannot change their vote.

SEEKER: The Seeker can sense when someone is burning metals. In fact, they have gotten so good that they can tell whether someone is spiked or not! Once per night, the Seeker can target someone to learn their abilities and alignment.

COINSHOT: The Coinshot does what they do best. They push metals around; specifically into other people’s bodies. Once per night, the Coinshot can target a person for death. Unless otherwise disrupted, that person dies.

LURCHER: Where the Coinshot pushes, the Lurcher pulls. Once per night the Lurcher can target someone and that person will be saved from death. A Lurcher cannot target the same person two nights in a row.

SOOTHER: Their ability to dampen emotions puts them and the Rioter in a very special position. During the Day, they can negate one person’s vote. The change will be anonymous, but since I will be posting voting results at the end of each day, those that are observant should be able to tell what votes were changed.

RIOTER: The Rioter works in a similar fashion as the Soother, except once during the day round they can change one person’s vote. Using this power does nullify their own vote though. They are still capable of voting, but their vote will not be counted. The change itself will be anonymous, but since I will be posting voting results at the end of each day, those that are observant should be able to tell what votes were changed.

MISTBORN: They have the abilities of all of the above, but will only be able to use one per cycle. At the beginning of every day, the Mistborn will be told which ability they have and they can use that ability until the next night. If a previously held power would be received, the die is rerolled, and the new power is granted regardless of whether or not it was previously held.

VANILLA: You have no special powers, but you still get a vote every day. Who knows? Perhaps you were meant to be the one to save the town! Not all stories are about the strongest people in a group. Once you get X investiture, you can gain a role which was decided for you during the distro stage of the game. You can choose to forgo this opportunity if you wish. If you obtain X times two investiture, you can choose what role you turn into. The required investiture will be consumed when you change roles.

Spiked: Ruin speaks in your mind, but as the most faithful of his servants, he will consider your suggestions. You can destroy a Shardworld on a Pseudogame turn. You can only destroy 2 Shardworlds total. Below 10 starting player count will allow you to destroy 3.

Shard: You hold a shard of infinity, but you are limited by your Intent and Oaths. You can give a player other than yourself two investiture, or you can give yourself one investiture. 

Investiture:

Spoiler

If a player has Investiture, they can use their action to alter the vote. Each Investiture a player chooses to use will be consumed to add half of a vote to a player. They can target any number of players and use as many pieces of Investiture as they wish. Half votes will be counted and used as tiebreakers.

Shardworlds:

Spoiler

On Night Zero, every player must choose a Shardworld to move to. If they do not choose, they will go to the least populated Shardworld. If a Shardworld is destroyed, every player on it will be roleblocked and randomly moved to a new Shardworld. Players will no longer be able to go to that Shardworld.

Roshar: Investiture is so easy to find in Roshar, you don't even have to look. You will receive one Investiture every cycle you spend on Roshar. You can also use your action to gain an Investiture in addition to your passive gain.

Nalthis: Investiture is abundant on Nalthis, but you must Endow it onto others. You can give another player two Investiture. You can use your action to give that player an extra Investiture, or you can give a different player two Investiture. 

Threnody: The Shades of Threnody provide a sort of protection, even if they are rather dangerous. You can use your action to survive an attack and instead kill your attacker (doesn't protect against the exe). If you use this ability again, you will die with your attacker, and it will cost an extra Investiture each time. Every time a kill is affected by this action, it will also raise the Investiture price. 

Sel: Hidden away behind a storm formed by the corpses of dead gods, you are safe on Sel. More or less. One action taken against you will fail. Any actions you take will fail if you don't expend an additional Investiture.

Scadrial: Though it was thought to be forgotten or even disabled by Harmony, Hemalurgy has made a resurgence in the underground of Scadrial. You can use an action to steal the role of another player on Scadrial. You can spend an Investiture to target a player not on Scadrial. Only one role will be taken by default, but when you boost with investiture, all roles will be taken.

Order of Actions:

Spoiler

Smoking 

Soothing

Rioting

Seeking

Tineye Message

Lurching

Kills

Exe

Rule Clarifications:

Spoiler

The PseudoGM changing roles will be as such:

“Change TUM’s role to Coinshot.”

They can change their own role.

 

The Pseudodistro will be decided before/as the game starts, but it will not be revealed until after the Bet has been made.

 

The turn after Night Zero will be a Pseudogame turn

 

 

Players:

Spoiler

1. @coco.pudding as Coco
2. @Through The Living Star as Star
3. @CoderDrag0n8 as Coder
4. @Myst as Mistake
5. @StrikerEZ as Striker
6. @Qianweilian as Qianweilian 
7. @Through the Living Hopper as Hopper
8. @CadCom as Cam
9. @Verdance as Verdance
10. @TwinStorm as TwinStorm
11. @Hoid Slayer as Hoid Slayer
12. @___ as Mippo
13. @xinoehp512 as Xinoehp512
14. @Araris Valerian as Araris Valerian 
15. @|TJ| as TJ
16. @Kit_Kat as Kit Kat
17. @Questioning Lettuce as Questioning Lettuce
18. @Miss Fallen

Spectators:

Spoiler

@Spahc11

@Ink and Embers

Pinch-Hitters:

Spoiler

@Aeoryi

@Divergent

@Aeternum

I think that's everything, let me know if I missed anything 

Edited May 26 by The Unknown Medallion

[Verdance he/him]

Wait so do I sign up as… myself?

Also this is possibly too complex for me. Is there an example of two cycles or smt?

[coco.pudding she/they]

Well, I don’t fully understand the rules but that’s perfectly all right, I’m gonna sign up anyway, and I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Also, @___ @Through The Living Star yall wanted to be pinged?

[Through The Living Star She/Her]

Yes! Thank you! I'd like to sign up! 

I guess I'll figure out rules and everything tomorrow. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

I'll figure it out later

I'm a busy man, and I have things to do!

At least, that's what Coder thought when he was thinking about the new AN/AG rules...

He did think it was weird when his hands physically moved off his computer when he tried to sign up as CD8 again...

And he did hear that wild rumor about that weird character thing.

But Coder didn't believe it.

No, that was far too bogus.

But either way, Coder signed himself up.

What could go wrong?

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

28 minutes ago, Verdance said:

Wait so do I sign up as… myself?

Also this is possibly too complex for me. Is there an example of two cycles or smt?

Your roleplay would be yourself or a fictional SE player. Trying to avoid players playing as each other because it can be problematic 

Basically, you're playing two games at the same time. On even cycles (well, odd cycles if you count Night Zero), you will be playing the Pseudogame, where you will be trying to figure out which faction the Metagame elims want to win. On odd cycles, you will be playing the Metagame, where you will be hunting the elims like normal. Really, if you just treat even and odd cycles as separate games, you can't go too wrong.

[Myst He/Him]

I’d like to sign up. Hopefully my name changes refresh before the game starts, and if so I will ping you to let you know 

Ill go get my sister

[Aeoryi she/her]

really wanna play in one of these games but for now put me down as a ph

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

36 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

really wanna play in one of these games but for now put me down as a ph

You're making me realize I should have made an eternal pinch-hitter role

Hope you can play, but we'll probably need the Pinch-Hitters either way

[Aeoryi she/her]

1 minute ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

You're making me realize I should have made an eternal pinch-hitter role

Hope you can play, but we'll probably need the Pinch-Hitters either way

I prefer to watch from the pinch hitter spoiler rather than the dead doc

I join games all the time here wdym

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 minute ago, Aeoryi said:

I prefer to watch from the pinch hitter spoiler rather than the dead doc

I join games all the time here wdym

It's more than just you, there's also Aet and Xino who come to mind, plus some others I think

It's a relevant archetype that I probably should have included tbh 

[Myst He/Him]

6 minutes ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

It's more than just you, there's also Aet and Xino who come to mind, plus some others I think

It's a relevant archetype that I probably should have included tbh 

You still can

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Okay yeah I’m signing up. I need to experience this game. 

I am confused about something. Which might just be in the rules and I’m stupid. But, here’s the question: the roleplay characters of the metagame will make a bet on night zero about how the pseudogame will play out. But none of them will know their alignments in the psudeogame? Only their metagame alignments? And the elims in the metagame won’t be the same as the elims in the pseudogame I assume?

[Aeoryi she/her]

57 minutes ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

It's more than just you, there's also Aet and Xino who come to mind, plus some others I think

It's a relevant archetype that I probably should have included tbh 

haven't seen those people play in a while tbh

[Through the living Wahr He/Him]

5 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

haven't seen those people play in a while tbh

Aet Pinch Hitted and eventually Played quite recently in MR76

[Myst He/Him]

Oh, just in case I don’t get to change my actual name before the game starts, I’d like my character to be called Mistake(it’s what I’d be changing my name to if I could) so in the meta game I will be playing me if I was able to change my name

[Divergent He/Him]

Pinch hitter for now as I'm not sure whether I'll be free when the 26th comes

 

Also, is it correct that it's basically two different games where the set of elims is different for each game (although some people might get randed as elim in both)? I'm also unsure what the betting mechanic is about

[Myst He/Him]

10 minutes ago, Divergent said:

Pinch hitter for now as I'm not sure whether I'll be free when the 26th comes

 

Also, is it correct that it's basically two different games where the set of elims is different for each game (although some people might get randed as elim in both)? I'm also unsure what the betting mechanic is about

The betting mechanic is how the Elims in the meta game win(they pick a side in a the pseudo game and win if that side wins the pseudo game) 

they don’t win by parity. The village’s job in the meta game is to identify which side the Elims bet on and then get the other side to win

edit: nevermind I got that completely wrong. If the role players win the bet they get a bonus power

Edited May 18 by Myst

[Aeoryi she/her]

1 hour ago, Through the living Wahr said:

Aet Pinch Hitted and eventually Played quite recently in MR76

They weren't given warning before being thrown in, apparently they wouldn't have played if that didn't happen

[Qianweilian He/him]

I'll sign up. @___

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

This sounds awesome. I'll have to be kind of inactive for two weeks (so close), so if you think I should spectate, then okay. Otherwise, I guess I play as myself? Then TOW will play as Duhgg, a rough and tumble old, grizzled Duhg, who's gained enough respect that he gets an extra "g"

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

8 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

Okay yeah I’m signing up. I need to experience this game. 

I am confused about something. Which might just be in the rules and I’m stupid. But, here’s the question: the roleplay characters of the metagame will make a bet on night zero about how the pseudogame will play out. But none of them will know their alignments in the psudeogame? Only their metagame alignments? And the elims in the metagame won’t be the same as the elims in the pseudogame I assume?

The Bet will be made without knowledge of the Pseudogame distro, to prevent them from exploiting something that I miss when making said distro. The elims are not the same, no.

7 hours ago, Myst said:

Oh, just in case I don’t get to change my actual name before the game starts, I’d like my character to be called Mistake(it’s what I’d be changing my name to if I could) so in the meta game I will be playing me if I was able to change my name

Will do.

6 hours ago, Divergent said:

Pinch hitter for now as I'm not sure whether I'll be free when the 26th comes

 

Also, is it correct that it's basically two different games where the set of elims is different for each game (although some people might get randed as elim in both)? I'm also unsure what the betting mechanic is about

Two different games, the Pseudogame game gives a benefit depending of who wins the Bet

1 hour ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

This sounds awesome. I'll have to be kind of inactive for two weeks (so close), so if you think I should spectate, then okay. Otherwise, I guess I play as myself? Then TOW will play as Duhgg, a rough and tumble old, grizzled Duhg, who's gained enough respect that he gets an extra "g"

As long as it's only "kind of" inactive, you're probably fine. I'll sign you up for now

[StrikerEZ he/him]

@The Unknown Medallion Another question: what happens if the metagame ends before the pseudogame?

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

9 minutes ago, StrikerEZ said:

@The Unknown Medallion Another question: what happens if the metagame ends before the pseudogame?

Then the game ends. It's designed so it shouldn't, but if it ends, it ends

[Qianweilian He/him]

43 minutes ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

Then the game ends. It's designed so it shouldn't, but if it ends, it ends