Long Game 33: Life

[Orlok Tsubodai]

Working, at the moment. Hoping to get a material post up after I have lunch, depending on how much work comes up.

[DeTess she/her]

I've taken a quick look through the last page of the last cycle again, and there are some things I wanted to react to (For those paying attention, yes, I was looking at the thread with some regularity in the last two hours yesterday, but that was from mobile and I was too busy with other stuff to actually reply to anything).

@little wilson, It's not entirely clear from me how you went from 'Whoever bought that gram is probably evil (relevant quote in spoiler tag), to 'Burnt is probably innocent (despite buying that gram)'. Her defense for buying it was not too flimsy, but it merely explained why someone would buy the gram (she mentioned herself that she'd have bought it if she was evil as well). Just for the record, I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm just somewhat puzzled as to what made you decide to no longer go after Burnt.

Spoiler

Wilson:

Quote

Since grams are 15 talents, that means that only a Vintish Noble could've purchased one on cycle 1. But Bodyguards right now are 8 Talents and they do about the same thing--except that Bodyguards also protect from theft. So why would a person purchase a gram over a Bodyguard, when the Bodyguards are almost half the price of the grams? Well, I can think of one very compelling reason: you can't pass a Bodyguard, but you can pass a gram. Who would really like a protection that you can pass between people as needed? The Skindancers.

Burnt(emphasis mine):

Quote

So why did i get a gram? Cause paranoia? Cause stopping anyone else getting one? And cause i could?

Why am i paranoid? (When arent i paranoid). Cause i fully expected a vintish to be eliminated somehow early on.  And i was fully justified in this. Mage was a vintish and just got sabotaged. And then when i put in orders to buy a gram, i was currently at a potential expulsion risk. A sabotaged expelled student insta dies. Soo. Woulda been a good opportunity to be sabotaged imo. Sure i could have gotten a bodyguard. But. Why get a bodyguard when i can afford a gram? Same with bloodless. Why get bloodless when i can afford a gram?  Grams arent a limitless resource and i could afford one. Id be a idiot to not get one tbh. If i were a skindancer, why would i leave it there for a villager to get it? If i were a villager why would i leave it there for a skindancer to get it?

note that she couldn't have known that mage was going to get sabotaged (if she was village) so that part of her justification doesn't really fly imho.

@Ornstein, the reason that some people where a little irritated about your decision to vote on Orlok without providing reasoning is that, no matter if you're right or wrong, placing a vote that way doesn't actually help the village. Very few people will be willing to follow a player when all the reason he provides for a vote is gut, so in a game with a standard lynch, it doesn't help at all. With the way the lynch in this game works, it is even far more reasonable to assume that you are an elim trying to get someone expelled, rather than a villager voting on a suspicion. Providing reasoning also helps in case something where to happen to your character, as it gives others something to analyze and to look for a motive of what happened, which in turn can help in finding the elims.

 

Edited May 5, 2017 by randuir
Syntax correction. Sorry STINK.

[Stick. she/her]

7 minutes ago, STINK said:

Amusing how you seem to be saying that I don't have a reason rather than ya know, responding to the reason.

EDIT: Got Ninja'd by Straw, thanks I guess?

I don't think I asked you to talk about your abilities, which is why I think there's no reason for you to vote on me :-P

[DeTess she/her]

5 minutes ago, _Stick_ said:

I don't think I asked you to talk about your abilities, which is why I think there's no reason for you to vote on me :-P

Well, listing the abilities one-by-one in different posts could be a way to see which one someone has based purely on the reactions he gives, so I can see why STINK thought you where doing that.

[Stick. she/her]

Alright. Don't see how I'd pull that off if I were trying to do that. But okay.

[little wilson she/her]

5 hours ago, randuir said:

Okay, so Hael and PK went insane. If I'm not mistaken there are no offensive actions that cause insanity apart from sabotage, so one of these two must have gone insane naturally. Hael hadn't advanced yet, so he wouldn't have had a source of insanity from that, and PK had only advanced once, so that would have been at most  a +1 (not enough for natural insanity to occur).

PK is an yllish commoner, and had posted enough to be able to afford Ankers without exceeding his tuition (I think, I haven't done a precise count of his actions yet), so he wouldn't have gotten extra insanity from his lodgings.

Hael, on the other hand, was an Edema Ruh. If he wanted to stay at Ankers (2 talents for Edema) he'd have to have had at least 5 talents of reduction on his tuition, and I don't think he managed that after quickly glancing over his posts. If he was staying at the mews then it is possible he just got unlucky and went insane naturally.

So it seems that PK must have been the target, and Hael just got extremely unlucky. However, this brings up the question of why they targeted PK. Some people, like myself, where suspicious of him because of his actions in starting the voting on D1, and making him go insane removes that suspicion. He was one of the people that had advanced in the previous cycle though, so the elims might have targeted him if they suspected he had advanced in a dangerous field. Let's dig a bit more in that possibility.

The following people advanced last turn and did not claim as specific field of interest in the thread: Queensteph, PK, Burnt, Orlok, Alvron, Eolhondras and Sart. Maybe it's just me, but if I where going to take a random guess at who would have a dangerous field, I'd go after Alvorn or Orlok, as they are dangerous players in their own right, even if they only advance in logic and rethoric or some other field with low kill-power. This makes me suspect that the elims either want to avoid eliminating the more high-profile players this early, or they already knew PK's field of study.

Has PK told anyone what he was studying or that he claimed to some specific people?

Edit, Edit2: Also, there have been only 8 elevations this turn, which means that one field is not getting any attention at all. At a guess, I'd say it's the field PK or Sart was studying (as otherwise I'd have expected one of those that had advanced previously to be elevated again).

You're forgetting something: a name was used. Using a Name gives an extra IP. We know Aonar didn't get elevated in Naming in the first elevation. What if PK did, used Wind, and had the very unlucky possibility of rolling a 10, which, coupled with the name he knows and the use of a name that turn, caused him to go insane?

I don't think Hael was staying in the mews. More likely, he skipped this term to save up for next turn, and was staying in Anker's.

I find it far more likely that Hael was the sabotage and PK went insane. I'm also tossing around the possibility that PK is a Skindancer.

Also, about the lack of a 9th elevation, rather than it being Sart or PK's field, someone probably split their EP between two fields on the first turn. Place 4 in the one they really want, but just in case a lot of people are going for that field, place one elsewhere. Might've done the same thing in turn 2, but with a different field as the backup. If they were elevated in the one EP field last turn and the other field this turn, that would explain the lack of 9 elevations. Hazarding a guess at which field is the undesirable one, it was probably Sympathy.

 

28 minutes ago, randuir said:

@little wilson, It's not entirely clear from me how you went from 'Whoever bought that gram is probably evil (relevant quote in spoiler tag), to 'Burnt is probably innocent (despite buying that gram)'. Her defense for buying it was not too flimsy, but it merely explained why someone would buy the gram (she mentioned herself that she'd have bought it if she was evil as well). Just for the record, I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm just somewhat puzzled as to what made you decide to no longer go after Burnt.

  Reveal hidden contents

Wilson:

Burnt(emphasis mine):

note that she couldn't have known that mage was going to get sabotaged (if she was village) so that part of her justification doesn't really fly imho.

 

On the contrary, Burnt was a Skindancer in LG18, where they kind of focused on Vintish nobles at the start of the game because they were worried about that wealth, and they had no Vintish nobles. Yes, before Burnt's post, I thought the gram purchaser was highly likely to be evil. While the reasoning given wouldn't be convincing in most cases, Burnt.....is, I suppose, a special case, because paranoia is easily something that (often) drives her. Couple that with Drake's comment about rich people automatically looking at the richest item to buy, and I can actually see how a village Burnt could purchase a gram over the much cheaper bodyguard. Am I convinced of her villageness? No. But I'm leaning that way. Hence the vote removal.

[Straw he/him]

Wilson, the rules say that the the name of the wind doesn't affect your sanity.

[DeTess she/her]

I'd missed the announcement about Naming. However, as straw said the name of the wind doesn't count towards insanity, so even if he learnt a new name PK's base bonus wouldn't exceed +1. He could have been staying in the mews, but I don't see why he would take that risk if he could pay for Ankers. I agree that PK is an unusual target (if the elims didn't know what field he'd studied) and Hael would make more sense as a target, but I can't make the math match up.

Edited May 5, 2017 by randuir

[little wilson she/her]

Huh. So Wind doesn't. And using a single name a doesn't. I should've remembered that, but honestly, the Naming side of things wasn't (and isn't) my forte in this game. That's Aonar's domain.

When it comes to the lodgings, just because someone can afford a better location doesn't mean they'll take it. There's a reason the insanity bonus on the mews was changed to two: a lot of people stayed there in LG 18, because it was cheap and made it easier to save their coins for tuition. In fact, by term 4, 80% of the players were staying at the mews. Most of them could easily have afforded a nicer place. But they just didn't. Anker's has a 10% chance of canceling your action, every action you do. It's very possible that a person would rather face a 10% chance of insanity than a 10% of having their action cancelled.

[DeTess she/her]

Personally, I'd take a 10% chance of an action failing over a 10% chance of what is basically death, but that could just be me.

[little wilson she/her]

Oh, I agree. However, I can also see why some people might choose to risk insanity if it meant that not only all of their actions went through, but also that they were able to save faster. It's not something that I personally would do, but that's kind of the point of this game: risk and reward and doing what you feel is worth the risk, to you. Other players would probably not agree.

[Burnt Spaghetti she/her]

Btw, just a reminder that people should be reminded of. Given theres a linguist, namer and probably a second namer (if aonar is indeed naming, somone else was elevated before him in naming), that means there are potentially 3 pm spies out there. Not guarranteed. We dont know what stinks got, and namers wont necessaeily use wind to pm spy. But still. Pm spying is a thing. People use pm saftey. Just be mindful that someone might be reading your pms without you knowing. Its a current possibility.

--

Dele sighed. As entertaining as her mishief was, she likely shouldnt keep it up. Brought on the horns two months in a row... she was getting too comfortable. Her studying was getting lazy. Studying was why she had come here but... messing around was such fun! Pranks... explosives... Fires in general... it was a different tiype of learning. Learning about consequence. Learning about general awaeness and safety. Learning about experimentation. Although she called it learning, it was more of a justification for misbehaviour.  She didnt think she'd stop playong around, but perhaps she'd at least be more careful. She only had so much nahlrout, and a monthly lashing would kill her supplies fast. She smiled. The cost of nahlrout was worth it if she got priceless reaction out of people. So she resolved that whenever she misbehaved, she would be sure to make sure it was worth having to buy more nahlrout.

[Jondesu he/him]

51 minutes ago, Burnt Spaghetti said:

Btw, just a reminder that people should be reminded of. Given theres a linguist, namer and probably a second namer (if aonar is indeed naming, somone else was elevated before him in naming), that means there are potentially 3 pm spies out there. Not guarranteed. We dont know what stinks got, and namers wont necessaeily use wind to pm spy. But still. Pm spying is a thing. People use pm saftey. Just be mindful that someone might be reading your pms without you knowing. Its a current possibility.

PM Safety is easy when you don't use PMs. 

Actually, I've just been not as involved as I'd prefer, so I've only responded to PMs sent to me and haven't made any of my own.  Oh well, at least I'm not at risk of a tuition increase based on that.

Also, I know I didn't RP or complain last cycle, and I don't know if I will this cycle.  There's not much to go on until abilities can be used, and while some of the analysis of actions (like purchasing the gram) could be useful, too many things could easily be explained as either student or skindancer.  I know we need to take the complaints seriously even though they're not a lynch that would take someone out of the game, but I don't see the point in filing complaints without reason (especially after my mistake earlier).  If I see something I'll file one, but otherwise I'll probably do a lot more lurking this game than I have in previous games.

[Arinian]

Hmm... honestly I don't have much to say. I'm feeling dumb in this game without any information from lynch... everything is turning too slow for me.

I have some ideas what to do for myself... but this ideas is absolutely unreasonable scratch... mad theories... I'm going mad.

But looks like I can't do nothing with that. Alv, Alv.  Why this game so uninteresting for you? Oh, it's will be great if you will say me in which field you was elevated... hmm... lets make exchange I will say in which field I was elevated and you will say in which you was, in PM of course. Then maybe I will retract my vote.

 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Hmmmm so I'll make RP posts later when I get home. But for now:

9 hours ago, STINK said:

Drake. My votes are meant to have meaning! Not one EP loss, thank you very much.

Okay by me... But last cycle you did that... I very much got the impression you did so because I myself said I would find it acceptable to spread the votes a little more. So you voted on me. Fair enough.

But if that was indeed the reason last cycle (do please correct me if I misunderstood)... It no longer exists this cycle. It isn't valid to say that your vote didn't hurt me so you better do it again.

Stink, please tell me. What is your reasoning here? (speaking of spreading votes )

Edited May 5, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[STINK he/him]

5 minutes ago, Drake Marshall said:

Stink, please tell me. What is your reasoning here?

It is reasoning of the most complex variety. 

RP of Drust that I have a character all set for but haven't actually done yet and (this whole game has been in-character for Drust). Oh, and then there's the fact that I do want my votes to have some solid meat to them, ya know?

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

4 minutes ago, STINK said:

It is reasoning of the most complex variety. 

RP of Drust that I have a character all set for but haven't actually done yet and (this whole game has been in-character for Drust). Oh, and then there's the fact that I do want my votes to have some solid meat to them, ya know?

So incredibly and mindblowingly complex that simple minds like myself are finding it utterly incomprehensible...

Still, thanks for a prompt response I guess.

[STINK he/him]

3 minutes ago, Drake Marshall said:

So incredibly and mindblowingly complex that simple minds like myself are finding it utterly incomprehensible...

Still, thanks for a prompt response I guess.

Why yes, my intellect vastly outmatches your simple-minded water-based lifeforms. 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

2 minutes ago, STINK said:

Why yes, my intellect vastly outmatches your simple-minded water-based lifeforms. 

Indeed! Here I was thinking I was a carbon based life form! Shows what I know...

[Sparkrunner he/him]

Arinian. Sounds like extortion to me, although not super extortive

[Jondesu he/him]

Arinian, I have to agree, actually, that sounds really manipulative and sketchy.  I can't see any good reason to approach the question of fields in that way.

[Stick. she/her]

I guess he requested the field exchange in thread to keep his PMs to a minimum number (as asking through PM would affect his post:pm ratio), though I agree that he didn't need to vote on Alv to do that

Edited May 5, 2017 by _Stick_
clarified what i meant

[Jo and the Bush all/any]

Huh, i got elevated. Does anyone have a list of who hasn't been elevated? 

Also, Wilson, i apologize for voting on you right before the end of the cycle. I did not realize that the cycle ended when it did. 

Straw, why do you make so many graphs? (And can you make a graph ofelevations each player has? Danke) You seem to be just talking a lot without saying anything.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Voting on someone because they made graphs?

Also I need to look back on Arinian's posts and see what it is people are finding problematic. One moment...

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

And speaking on the Arin PM Scandal, didn't we just talk about PM safety and the possibility of being spied on earlier? Sounds sketchy that Arin wants a PM... Arinian

---

Noremac walked into the library. It was a massive hall, brimming with books. It was saturated with the smell of old paper and the air was thick with dust blown off ancient tomes. The bookshelves towered up at least three times Noremac's height, and the grand domed ceiling was taller than that. He froze in awe at the wealth of knowledge around him. The number of words in this building must be infinite!

However, Noremac wasn't here to gape at the bookshelves. His exceeding number of absences in Physicks loaded a mountain of work on him, so here he was, in the library, to finish it all. He trudged over to a table, pulled out the chair, and sat down. With a heave, he dumped his bag on the table. Paper flooded out of it, quickly replacing the brown of the table with paper white. He groaned. This was going to take ages. He took out a pen and pressed it to the paper and began to write...

an indeterminable amount of time later...

Noremac's eyes shot open, his cheek pressed against the table. His hand still gripped the pen; it quivered in his death-grip. The library was dark. A single candle illuminated the table with a feeble glow. The stack of papers had been roughly divided into two piles, one nearly black with ink scribbles, and the other pale and blank. Noremac peeled the paper off his face and looked at it. His cheek had smeared the ink. He sighed, and crumpled the paper and tossed it aside. He drew a new one from the stack. The human body has 206 bones at maturity. At birth, a human has 270. As a person ages, some bones fuse together, and the cartilage is replaced with hard bone. The bones reach maximum bone density around age 30.... Noremac's hand slipped as he began to doze off. He jerked awake, and quickly fixed his mistake. Osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become brittle and weak due to a loss of tissue, usually caused by.... He began to nod off again. He vigorously shook his head and began to write more.

The hours ticked by, each minute bringing Noremac's weary eyes closer to the page, until, at last he face-planted into the table and drifted to sleep.