MR77: Cycle One: Diamonds

[Archer he/him]

MR 77 Cycle One: Diamonds

Talenin wore a rope from his belt to the mast when above deck. The pale-skinned trademaster shied away from the railings as he addressed the crew of Dilid’s Reprieve. 
“These savages are godless creatures, but we must hold our noses today. Don’t fixate on their heathenistic ways."

Talenin noted the violet streaks of confusionspren hovering around the Herdazean contingent of the crew. 
“Macks! Aren't you supposed to translate for us?”

Macks spoke seven languages, but none of them well. The slender man stepped forward, fiddling with the medallion necklace he wore. 
“Sorry, Master Talenin. Can I have a moment?”
“Absolutely not! They need to hear this before going ashore.”
“I'm not-”

“Quickly now!” Talenin snapped his fingers at the crew. “A successful merchant…” 
“A good tradesmaster,” Macks repeated, in broken Herdazean. 

“Employs dual strategies.”
“Hires, no, does fighting strategies.”

“First, hear no evil,”
Macks gestured at the ship. “Here there is no evil.”

“Second, see no evil.”
“The ocean is also good.”

“Do what you must to secure the sale.”
“It is important to protect the sail.”

The Herdazean sailors shuffled their feet. “Our ships… fight?” one asked in broken Alethi. 
Talenin squinted. “Trade is kind of like a fight. One we will win! Lower the rowboat, my conquest awaits.”

Macks tinkered with his medallion as they watched Talenin approach the greatshell island. 

He would be dead by sunset. 

As it reached the beach, Pladel’s rowboat was greeted by a circle of merchant officers of various kingdoms, judging by their uniforms.
“Welcome to Relu-na, Captain.”
She ignored the proffered hand, pulling herself out with the help of a nearby vine. “Not the welcome party I expected.”

“I am Zeek,” said the Thaylen. “These are Captain Ado, Captain Marlen, and her translator, Macks.”
“I'm really not qualified…”

Pladel nodded curtly. “How's trade been?”
“Your crew is welcome to pitch tents and share the clearing. There's been some interest in our dried goods and metal wares.” Captain Zeek ran a finger through his spiked eyebrow. “Their dignitaries have yet to acknowledge us.”

Pladel had just unclenched her jaw when Zeek continued. 
“But there's been a complication.”

An angerspren burrowed from the ground at Captain Marlen's feet. “My trademaster was killed.”

An hour later, Pladel was sitting beside a fire, holding a three-pointed throwing star in her hand. 
“It's an uncommon weapon.”

Marlen was pacing. “The locals don't carry them. Weapons of any kind.”
Zeek nodded. “They barely wear clothes half the time. I had to send my crates of cloth back to the ship.”

“Did Talenin have any enemies?”
“Not… Well, probably. But they could have done it any time on the journey here.”

Her implication was clear: someone from another crew did this. 

Zeek's Thaylen eyebrows furrowed. "I have offered a reward of three diamond broams to anyone who identifies the killer. Even if he's one of my own. Especially so."

Pladel pinched the throwing star between her fingers. "Does the shape of this mean anything to you?"
Macks dropped his medallion and scrambled to pick it up. 
"Your translator knows." 

Pladel got to her feet. "Show this symbol to your crews. We have a Ghostblood among us."

Talenin has been killed! He was a Merchant Officer!

Plot hooks: Pitch tents on the beach and trade with the Reshi, or secure your ship from danger.

Mid-Range Game 77 starts now! I'm your GM, @Archer. Feel free to ping or PM me with game questions. Our IM is @Araris Valerian. He's available to resolve conflict and ensure this game is smooth sailing. 

Alignment PMs have gone out; please tell me if you've been missed. GM PMs are used for action submissions, while voting is done publicly. 

This round runs until 8:00pm EST on Friday July 3rd. 

Enmity is at 1. 

The Cargo Hold:

Quote

Book of Backbreaker Poison (Expertise)
Book of Painrial (Expertise)
Ship's Manifest
Ship's Manifest
Lavis Beer
Lavis Beer
Bribe
Bribe
Pre-written Boast
Pre-written Boast
Key
Key
Key

RULES LINK

Players

1. @Hoid Slayer as Y, an inexperienced sailor with a positive attitude and a secret. 

2. @Stardust

3. @The Unknown Character

4. @Wahrheitswächter as Ralm the Thaylen Merchant, and Babsk of Essyn, bearing a mistspren, trinkets, and secrets. 

5. @coco.pudding as Essyn, a Thaylen apprentice looking to prove herself worthy of her family name (which is secret).

6. @Mystic as Fickle

7. @Through the Living Hopper as 1. 

8. @Ascended Grubberfly as Darak the Reshi returning home who secretly helped draft pre-written boasts. 

9. @Mint11 as Shejun

10. @Qianweilian

11. @CoderDrag0n8 as X, the retired sailor brought along for his experience and his secret weapon. 

12. @Illwei

13. @|TJ|

Rules Clarifications

Spoiler

-Are there any secret rules?

No. 

-An item with a passive effect has to have started the round in your possession for it to produce its effect

PMs are open (1 on 1 only) 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:55 PM by Archer

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Hi guys

My presence exists

[coco.pudding she/they]

I also exist

Once again, my activity may be all over the place, but I will do my best. 

[Qianweilian He/him]

Good night everyone. Poor Talenin.

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

Y closed his eyes and allowed himself to be immersed in the rocking of the boat on the waves, the smell of the sea, the light spray tossed up by the wind onto his face. It was cleansing. He opened his eyes.

They had anchored the Ishar's Blessing a ways out from the shore, only Pladel and her most trusted proceeding to the beach. The rowboat had just returned, and now the crew was preparing to move closer. It seemed they would camp on dry land.

Y liked that, and not only because despite his incredible fortitude this last week, he did not yet feel the ocean had truly accepted him. No, there was more to it than that.

The man he had come to kill was unlikely to hide behind the ocean spray.

"Ho, Y!" Y turned to see X waving from another rowboat, this one carrying more supplies than people. "You said you wanted to come early?"

Y rose an arm to wave back eagerly at the experienced sailor, and plastered on a cheerful smile.

"I could use some land to kiss."

The other man barked out a laugh, and Y strode over to join him. X kept talking as Y boarded, and continued as the vessel broke free of the Blessing's shadow, not realizing Y's gaze was fixed firmly on the sand - and beyond it, the cliffs and hills - that rapidly approached.

Patience, father.

...

So, hey guys, remember how I said I read the rules

Yeah... I forgot them already 

Okay quick review

I think we need to keep in mind going into this game it's unique nature

And by that, I mean wincons

My first SE game was MR 72. I don't know how many of you will (or even can) remember it, but it had an element that was somewhat similar to this: each player had a breath, and each cycle, we had to ensure a breath was given up to a Returned. Two failures to give breath would result in a village loss. What we ended up doing was coordinating so two people gave up their breath every cycle, holding them accountable without risking too much.

My first thought was that we could do something like that with the Favour in this game

However, considering how central an element it is in this game and how monitoring it entirely would take away a lot of the fun and mystery from this, I'm not even sure if I support my own idea here

I'm just putting it on the table

Otherwise, I would like to lobby for a Qianweilian exe

[Stardust She/Her]

Hi guys

Sorry, I'm most likely going to be offline for the next few days

...please don't exe me in the meantime. 

[Illwei]

Wazzap wazzap wazzaaaap

Currently I am in a state of, what feels like, being burned from the inside out. But that means I didn't have to work and instead can say hi to you lovely people. 

It also meant I actually read the rules now. 

--

@Hoid Slayer

While the similarity exists [between game mechanic], I dont think its comparable enough to make claiming actions useful in that way. 

Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, as I'm still trying to understand them totally. 

1) Not only is not everyone guaranteed to have items- items can also be replenished through with either ship manifest or waiting the 2 cycles. Theyre not exactly a [strictly] limited resource. 

2) You can seemingly use an action item as well as attempt to grab a new one from the cargo hold. Again making items not a reusable resource. 

3) The ghostbloods/players have ways of canceling actions that would amass favour. Since it seems people are not told of the outcome of their actions, there would be no benefit to knowing who is contributing to favour and who is not. The only benefit would be the elims. 

The one thing I am fuzzy on is if only boast and fortune have an effect on favour. But I asked a clarifying question already about that. Just waiting on the answer. 

Either way, likely not to run into any major problems until c3. Inactive people are the biggest problem if we do run out of favour-influencing-items, so i would recommend to those that if you dont have time to post, you try to have time to submit actions. 

 

 

 

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

Ralm sat together with his apprentice Essyn at the back of the Rowboat which was currently rowed to one of the Reshi Great Shells.

"This will be quiet diffrent than our other Travels, Essyn, the Reshi are a strange folk but my contacts say that there are currently good Trade opportunities"

So, we need 1 Favor today that means someone needs to use a Favor item.

I think I will poke Hopper for now

 

 

[Qianweilian He/him]

9 hours ago, Hoid Slayer said:

Otherwise, I would like to lobby for a Qianweilian exe

Why?

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

7 hours ago, Illwei said:

3) The ghostbloods/players have ways of canceling actions that would amass favour. Since it seems people are not told of the outcome of their actions, there would be no benefit to knowing who is contributing to favour and who is not. The only benefit would be the elims. 

This is true and it is something I overlooked

7 hours ago, Illwei said:

Either way, likely not to run into any major problems until c3. Inactive people are the biggest problem if we do run out of favour-influencing-items, so i would recommend to those that if you dont have time to post, you try to have time to submit actions. 

I also heavily agree with this

In MR 72, it was inactivity that broke us in the end.

1 minute ago, Qianweilian said:

Why?

Because of the few people here, I didn't like your goodnight post

[Qianweilian He/him]

11 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

Because of the few people here, I didn't like your goodnight post

I said goodnight because it was 9 pm in my timezone (central btw) and I needed to go to bed.

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

7 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I said goodnight because it was 9 pm in my timezone (central btw) and I needed to go to bed.

I know

But I have no one better to vote

[Archer he/him]

Vote Count 

Qian (1): Hoid

Hopper (1): Wahr

The base Items that increase Favour are Treasure, Prewritten Boast (key), and Agreement with Axies the Collector. They're augmented by Books and Mentorship. 

There's a clunky item interaction I need to clarify.
As a general rule, an Item you take from the Cargo Hold can't be used or stolen until the following round. That's why Item theft happens first in the order of actions.
However, books immediately teach Expertise, which can affect your key use that round.
Think of it as you skim the book while you're in the process of taking it, but it doesn't enter your possession until later. I'll move Expertise and Mentorship to before Item theft in the OOA, but taking possession of books (which is all that Crew and Thieves do) will remain in the same part of the order. 

Reminder as well that keys are used immediately. You don't convert them into an Item for next round, you convert them and use them in the same round. So I'll need a target for your key as part of your submission. 

Lastly, friendly reminder to submit both an Action and a Bonus Action, if you're so inclined. 

[The Unknown Character he/him]

Hi I'm here I nust read the rules but haven't digested them yet and I have Jiu-jitsu practice so see you after that

[Mint11 she/her]

I lost track of the date and will read this all properly later, but I did have a question about the rules.

Quote

Crew Mentorship ability: If it targets an Officer, they learn a random Expertise they do not already know and are informed. If it targets a Crew, a key is added to that player's inventory. If it targets a Thief, it reveals the mentor’s name and inventory to them. Cannot self-target.

if the mentorship ability targets a thief, is this saying that the merchant's name and inventory is revealed to the thief?

[Illwei]

Anyways, I'm gonna theorize some random things that are probably wrong. 

I dont think that the Ghostbloods started with a shardblade. Since the wincon is not to eliminate all the players, it is in theory easier for the Elims. 

I'm honestly having some trouble wrapping my head around ideas for best plays here -  I've never been mech heavy in my thoughts. 

I am pretty against strategizing about favorable item usage, especially in PMs, since I believe that is more detrimental. I am always against use of PMs to coordinate player-specific actions and events, since no one is there to fact check what happened or what was said luke they would in thread. I understand people will use them anyways, so yeah. 

If anyone has a letter of endorsement, I would also recommend both never claiming that and also not using it early on. 

--

I think it took me about 10 tries to spell your name right. 

Qianweilian

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Illwei said:

I think it took me about 10 tries to spell your name right. 

Qianweilian

I do not like that you are forming a poke vote into a train for no reason.

Hopper Illwei

please explain yourself

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

20 minutes ago, Illwei said:

I think it took me about 10 tries to spell your name right. 

Qianweilian

It’s the double “i” that’s the kicker

15 minutes ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

I do not like that you are forming a poke vote into a train for no reason.

Hopper Illwei

please explain yourself

In contrast with Wahr, I actually love it

As I have said in other games, I am of the feeling that poke votes are so commonplace that they’re pretty much useless. So two votes is a good amount of pressure for a “poke”, I believe

@Archer, question

What does a “passive” ability exactly mean?

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

Hi, I’m here.

3 hours ago, Hoid Slayer said:

But I have no one better to vote

8 hours ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

I think I will poke Hopper for now

Noob speaking, but is killing a bad idea? I know that it helps reveal information, but it means we need to acquire more favor with the Reshi. We can save items that give Favor if we don’t rack up Emnity early.

[Qianweilian He/him]

45 minutes ago, Illwei said:

I think it took me about 10 tries to spell your name right. 

Qianweilian

Why, I ask again? Is it merely the fact that I wished good night to everyone?

I am not a ghostblood. (And I really don't want to get exed cycle one again two villager games in a row)

[Archer he/him]

3 hours ago, Mint11 said:

if the mentorship ability targets a thief, is this saying that the merchant's name and inventory is revealed to the thief?

Correct. 

55 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

 

@Archer, question

What does a “passive” ability exactly mean?

I forgot Letter of Endorsement modifies Favour, so add that to the list.

A passive action is how I track something like Agreement with Axies or Spanreed. 

Another rules clarification I need to add is that an item with a passive effect has to have started the round in your possession for it to produce its effect. 

Edited Thursday at 04:54 PM by Archer

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

1 hour ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

Hi, I’m here.

Noob speaking, but is killing a bad idea? I know that it helps reveal information, but it means we need to acquire more favor with the Reshi. We can save items that give Favor if we don’t rack up Emnity early.

Yes we need to be careful with exeing people, but if we dont exe we get near zero info and cant kill elims and loose the game

[Hoid Slayer He/Him]

2 hours ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

Hi, I’m here.

Noob speaking, but is killing a bad idea? I know that it helps reveal information, but it means we need to acquire more favor with the Reshi. We can save items that give Favor if we don’t rack up Emnity early.

Wait Grubberfly might be onto something do we actually need to kill someone?

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

12 minutes ago, Hoid Slayer said:

Wait Grubberfly might be onto something do we actually need to kill someone?

I think yes, because the exe gives us information on who voted for whom, and what votes were manipulated. 

Without this info, it gets really difficult to find something suspicious that helps us identify and kill the Elims (which is our Win Con) 

I agree that we probably dont need an exe target every Cycle, however I think we need one this Cycle since the votes and such could be good discussion starter.

 

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

10 minutes ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

I think yes, because the exe gives us information on who voted for whom, and what votes were manipulated. 

Without this info, it gets really difficult to find something suspicious that helps us identify and kill the Elims (which is our Win Con) 

I agree that we probably dont need an exe target every Cycle, however I think we need one this Cycle since the votes and such could be good discussion starter.

 

But if we exe a villager, that loses us voting power and puts Ghostbloods closer to a win.

I do acknowledge the point, and if we can find a reasonable target I’ll vote, but will probably abstain otherwise.