Sanderson Elimination: Questions & Answers and Game Meta Discussion

[Amanuensis he/him]

2 hours ago, Megasif said:

@Amanuensis I don't want to take too much posts on a Q&A but let me just say that I spent the entirety of last night catching up on the Mafia championship game 10. That was really cool to see. Excellent work.

It's fine, I don't think the mods have problems with people posting things here, though Knock From Outside the Cosmere is probably the better topic to discuss it. But either way, thank you  it was hard to watch live at times, but town pulled through, so I'm proud. And my performance was apparently notable, so yay.

[Megasif he/him]

50 minutes ago, Amanuensis said:

It's fine, I don't think the mods have problems with people posting things here, though Knock From Outside the Cosmere is probably the better topic to discuss it. But either way, thank you  it was hard to watch live at times, but town pulled through, so I'm proud. And my performance was apparently notable, so yay.

Looking forward to the Wildcard games. I'll move to the Knock from... for other posts. 

[Elenion he/him]

8 hours ago, BrightnessRadiant said:

Yeah you'll get used to it hehe 

(Don't foget to trust me....I'm always good)  

You forgot one: Don't forget to role-claim to the elims N1!

[BrightnessRadiant she/her]

5 hours ago, Elenion said:

You forgot one: Don't forget to role-claim to the elims N1!

Nooooooooooo  ...unless I'm an elim...then it's ok 

[Megasif he/him]

7 hours ago, Elenion said:

You forgot one: Don't forget to role-claim to the elims N1!

I'm expecting a lot of trust issues...

[BrightnessRadiant she/her]

7 minutes ago, Megasif said:

I'm expecting a lot of trust issues...

Huh? That's weird I wonder why 

(Never trust Elenion) ....fyi he said that because in my first game I roll claimed to him cycle 1 and he was an elim and I died hahaha

[Megasif he/him]

10 minutes ago, BrightnessRadiant said:

7 hours ago, Elenion said:

You forgot one: Don't forget to role-claim to the elims N1!

Huh? That's weird I wonder why 

(Never trust Elenion) ....fyi he said that because in my first game I roll claimed to him cycle 1 and he was an elim and I died hahaha

Hahahaha that's just made a lot more sense all of a sudden.

[Seonid he/him]

@Megasif

A new game just opened up, with a spot reserved just for you!

[Megasif he/him]

2 hours ago, Seonid said:

@Megasif

A new game just opened up, with a spot reserved just for you!

yess. Thanks... I'm there now.

[Elbereth she/her]

On 7/2/2017 at 10:22 AM, randuir said:

There's no guarantee what you want will be in, and it probably won't be if it contains something game-related (IE: btw, this guy is an elim), but if there are some final words character-wise, they can usually be included. I'm trying to remember a recent game that included a player-made death write-up. I know LG30 contained a couple of pieces that where written by players, but those didn't relate to their own deaths, iirc.

I can think of numerous examples. I wrote my own death for LG23, AG3 (hehe, that one was fun), QF16, MR18, and co-wrote LG24, for instance. I can also recall a number in LG33 - PK wrote his breaking out, as did Mage (though he never got to use it). If you want something less than that, LG18 had writeup requests, like Wonko's request to tear apart Burnt's bones and kill her with them. (Also very fun. ) Similarly, Alv in LG33 wanted his character, who had gone insane, to have the mind of a child. 

Almost every GM will take requests, because they're fun to deal with unless you have something specifically in mind already, and usually you don't. 

(Links can be provided upon request. I just don't want to bother digging out all of those right now, sadly.)

[Ecthelion III he/him]

@The Young Bard has returned!!! (To SE discord, at least.)

[King Cole he/him]

Where can I find where upcoming games are?

[Elenion he/him]

2 minutes ago, King Cole said:

Where can I find where upcoming games are?

The next Quick Fix game will begin as soon as MidRange 23 has finished, which should be in anywhere from 4 to 8 days by my reckoning. The next Long Game will be a little longer since LG36 started not long ago. When a new game is ready, a signups thread will be posted in the SE subforum.

[Aonar he/him]

There's a doc somewhere that lists them all. It's linked either in the first post here, or in Art of Game Creation. Can't remebered which. A QF should have signups going up by the end of this week, and my LG will start signups the week after. No clue what the QF is; the LG is non-Sanderson. (Gunnerkrigg Court.)

[Elbereth she/her]

Here you go.  

QF will be mine, and doesn't yet have a setting yet but will be Cosmere. 

[Young Bard he/him]

On 7/22/2017 at 4:05 PM, Ecthelion III said:

@The Young Bard has returned!!! (To SE discord, at least.)

Thanks! I'm glad to be back! It's a shame that I spent so long away. I'm not sure I'll be able to return to playing a game any time soon (though I'll certainly keep an eye on my timetable and the games coming up to see if there's one I can't miss), but I probably won't be able to rejoin SE properly until about November.

That said, if I sign up to run an QF and an MR now, I probably wouldn't be running it until at least that time, if not later, so I have no qualms about signing up for both of those now, if that's OK. (On the off chance I do get to the front of the list before then, I'll likely pass until after November anyway). I've got a loose idea for a Rose Empire game based around the mechanic of Forging and Soulstamps in particular (just a quick question for someone who remembers the Emperors Soul well - once a Stamp has been created, can anyone use it, or just a Forger? I can work with both, but it might change what the game looks like), which I think, currently, will be in the MR. (The reason I'm signing up for a QF at the same time is that I might change my mind on that later, and decide there won't be enough mechanics wise to run an MR. Otherwise, I'm expecting the QF to be a Scadrial game set in the days the Lord Ruler was still founding the Final Empire - an idea I had, IIRC, since before I left, that I think I haven't seen before, that could be quite interesting for both RP and mechanic reasons.)

[DeTess she/her]

45 minutes ago, The Young Bard said:

That said, if I sign up to run an QF and an MR now, I probably wouldn't be running it until at least that time, if not later, so I have no qualms about signing up for both of those now, if that's OK. (On the off chance I do get to the front of the list before then, I'll likely pass until after November anyway). I've got a loose idea for a Rose Empire game based around the mechanic of Forging and Soulstamps in particular (just a quick question for someone who remembers the Emperors Soul well - once a Stamp has been created, can anyone use it, or just a Forger? I can work with both, but it might change what the game looks like), which I think, currently, will be in the MR. (The reason I'm signing up for a QF at the same time is that I might change my mind on that later, and decide there won't be enough mechanics wise to run an MR. Otherwise, I'm expecting the QF to be a Scadrial game set in the days the Lord Ruler was still founding the Final Empire - an idea I had, IIRC, since before I left, that I think I haven't seen before, that could be quite interesting for both RP and mechanic reasons.)

Since I doubt that the emperor himself is a forger, anyone would be able to use them. 

[Young Bard he/him]

1 minute ago, randuir said:

Since I doubt that the emperor himself is a forger, anyone would be able to use them. 

Ah, of course. Thanks. That helps a lot.

[Herowannabe he/him]

2 hours ago, randuir said:

Since I doubt that the emperor himself is a forger, anyone would be able to use them. 

@The Young Bard

Now, the emperor was not a forger but that soul stamp was crafted specifically for him. If Gaotona or anyone else had tried to use that soul stamp on themselves it would not have worked- at least not for very long. Around a minute tops if Shai's practice stamps are anything to go off of, and that's only if the user is very similar in age/ethnicity/background/etc to the intended subject of the soulstamp. 

[DeTess she/her]

37 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

@The Young Bard

Now, the emperor was not a forger but that soul stamp was crafted specifically for him. If Gaotona or anyone else had tried to use that soul stamp on themselves it would not have worked- at least not for very long. Around a minute tops if Shai's practice stamps are anything to go off of, and that's only if the user is very similar in age/ethnicity/background/etc to the intended subject of the soulstamp. 

Right, yes. The complete answer is that anyone can apply a soul-stamp, but the stamp itself needs to be crafted specifically for the person it's going to be applied to.

[Jondesu he/him]

I've seen a few times the new color scheme affecting the ability to see or choose colors to vote, and I definitely understand.  Can we consider something like a change to putting votes inside of a new quote box, or something similar, to make them stand out more?  Obviously that limits the potential to work them into an RP-only post, but in that case, they could be also placed in a quote box after the RP, without breaking up the flow. Something like this:

Quote

Vote: Aman

 

[Steeldancer he/him]

I'm used to the bright red being automatic, because I'm on mobile all the time. Except sometimes I'm not, and then the red is weird. I can understand it being confusing. 

[Yitzi2]

A metagame discussion question came up in the conclusion-to-LG35 thread, and I'd like to continue it here.

The question at hand is: How do we ensure a forum that is fun for everyone?  In order to discuss that, I would like input from as many people as possible about a question that needs to be answered first:

What are you trying to get out of an SE game, to the point that it's no fun if it's not absent?  Then we can try to find a way to give everybody what they're looking for.

I will answer first:

I am looking primarily for a game in which I can attempt to win, and feel confident that the game gives me a fair chance of achieving this.  When I say a "fair chance", the distribution of extremely skilled players and newbies may or may not be taken into account (i.e. if Aman and Wilson are both elims and the elim team is smaller as a result, or Aman and Wilson are both elims and the elim team is not smaller as a result, either way is ok), since those can be compensated for by helping newbies and trying to improve to match the top players, but players who choose not to try to win need to be accounted for in alignment distribution in order for me to feel that I have a fair chance.

I am also interested in RP, and would be interested in an SE "game" that is so RP-heavy that there's no possibility to try to win, but as long as it's a game where "trying to win" is a meaningful concept, I cannot have fun unless I can make a fair attempt to win.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Yitzi2

[DeTess she/her]

Yeah, as I said before, the issue above is one we probably should discuss at some length ( @OrlokTsubodai, @little wilson, you where among those promoting this discussion in the LG35 thread). I won't be able to participate as much in this discussion as I intended, as I'm leaving on holiday in less than 8 hours, and need to get some sleep before that. 

I tend to agree with Yitzi here, to some degree at least, that winning is not a secondary objective in SE. Having fun is of course the most important, but if winning wasn't something to be considered, it wouldn't be modeled after a competitive social game. At the same time, it shouldn't be winning at any cost either, but what constitutes crossing that line differs per person, and some kind of baseline of what is no longer acceptable in the pursuit of victory should definitely be thought about.

To get to Yitzi's question, the two things I want to get out of SE are the battle of wits and the story. At the end of the day I don't care too much about whether I win or loose, as long as the battle to get to that point has been interesting. The story is both the RP story (which I've been participating in too little these last couple of games), and just the overall story of how the game went (last minute turn-arounds, surprising catches of elims, or villagers that seemed to be elims ending up being villagers after all at unfortunate moments).

To get these two points, a certain amount of competitive spirit is needed. However, there should be a balance here, as another major part of SE is that at the end of the game, everyone still gets along with everyone else. We can congratulate someone on playing well without being angry at getting beaten or fooled, and I don't know of any case (in games that I've played) where someone acted against someone for no other reason than that he/she got beaten in a previous game. Previous encounters might make people more wary, but this is in the way of respect ('I know that he is very good at acting village when he is an elim, so I should be more careful with my reads on him'), not anger or spite, and this atmosphere of mutual respect (and friendship) is something that should definitely be preserved.

Edited July 24, 2017 by randuir

[Orlok Tsubodai]

@Yitzi2, I'll respond to the rest of your point when I have more time, but now would address your question to me in the LG35 conclusion thread, which I think lies at the heart of the issue.

If you feel that RP is not the solution, maybe I misunderstood the problem: What, exactly, are you trying to get out of a game of SE, if it's not RP and not competitive play?

Whilst I, personally, do enjoy SE games being competitive, and am not terribly good at RP, I think the most important thing we should get out of a game is fun for all involved. That means an environment in which we tolerate, encourage and support playstyles that aren't "optimal", and that we should welcome players who are here for a less serious game of mafia than some of us, and help them enjoy themselves.

There's far more to get out of a game than just winning. Having fun in an environment with friends, watching other people enjoy themselves, strange gambits, creating discussion, meeting new people, learning about how they think, and watching them grow. It would be immensely sad to lose all these to a competitive atmosphere and "optimum" play.