Long Game 65: Dancing through Life

[Elkanah]

Interesting...

I guess I'm not. I trusted both Fura and Elandera despite not having a lot of reason to. It kind of paid off since Elandera was able to prove my alignment. Sadly she is expelled.

Karnage is definitely bad. Also I guarantee I am getting his 5 demerit points, so I am absolutely expelled at this point. That being the case, it would be wasteful to not vote the last chance I get. Rath, Burnt there is enough Demerit points to expel all of us, so I will accelerate your plan.

Look at that. I guess I did end up splitting my votes this game.

[Elandera]

Being expelled was unfortunate, but I'll still do what I can to help out and offer my two cents. On the upside, I'll have a little bit more money to spend in Imre.

I have a feeling Fura's insanity was from Naming rather than a Skindancer attack, as they didn't have an agreement with a physicker as far as I know. Rover would have been killed, so that was likely an action insanity as well. Instead, I really do think the attack was roleblocked.

The only Master I trust right now is Araris, and one of the others will have vote manipulation abilities.

[Burnt Spaghetti]

Hm. Well if it helps, I threw nahlrout at experience which should've roleblocked them? 

Did anyone else do anything that couldve blocked anything? Fae Loring or anything (feel free to pm someone to mouthpiece if so cause that's sensitive info/

 

Edit: side note does voting really do any good anymore? The master's kinda control the dp

 

Edit 2: I'm unsure about fura and the naming crack though. They'd need to have been using two names at once. As far as I knew fura only had wind at that point so would've only had a +1 to insanity which is still safe, unless I'm wrong and they'd gotten a second name that quickly

Edited May 21, 2020 by Burnt Spaghetti

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

I forgot that Rover was expelled. That does mean Rover wasn't the sabotage target, and since Fura apparently wasn't lying about nahlrout we've gotten things cleared up.

3 hours ago, Elkanah said:

My guess is the masters will take a few hits before they die. I kind of wish I were an Alchemist now.

There doesn't seem to be a positive correlation between Mastery and protection; Walin and Straw both went down in one hit. Lopen is harder to get rid of because he's a noble and can afford protection unlike his dead Skindancer teammates. Alchemists can do a decent job of getting rid of protection, but it just takes so long to do anything with Alchemy as opposed to pretty much any other field. I started making a plum bob 4.2 and just now got any actual information from it, and then I only got Lopen's name as a Skindancer because I wasted a question making sure Bard was evil and only got two questions before Bard went into a rage. When I go On The Horns for Conduct Unbecoming, it's not the Masters' fault. 

1 hour ago, Burnt Spaghetti said:

Did anyone else do anything that couldve blocked anything? Fae Loring or anything (feel free to pm someone to mouthpiece if so cause that's sensitive info/

I did hear that Elkanah was Fae Lored 5.1, so could not have been the person who sabotaged Straw should that claim be accurate. I don't think we have any confirmable Elkanah actions from that turn since that was the turn after the supposed protection on Xino.

[Araris Valerian]

4 hours ago, Elkanah said:

It kind of paid off since Elandera was able to prove my alignment. Sadly she is expelled.

How do you mean? What proved your alignment?

[Burnt Spaghetti]

Bryn sighed as she readied herself to make her required apology. It was about time she got in trouble for something she supposed. But it was still frustrating. She'd gone for many many months just talking her way out of things, bluffing alibis, just outright avoiding anyone who was investigating anything she could easily have done. But alas, the more complex the pranks, the more obvious it was that a particular skillset was required.  They had threatened to confiscate her artificery tools but her insistence that her personal ones were "essential equipment necessary for building proficiency in her subject area", insisting that due to 'circumstances', she absolutely needed to be able to work on things outside of the workshop due to timetabling conflicts. She was a 'dedicated' student of multiple fields after all, so she had many things to keep on top of.  Of all her areas she had actually been legitimately enjoying the creation process, and had been experimenting with wards, playing with the runes, adding some, taking some, in general just actually getting a idea about how each rune she knew affected the item. Some alterations had gone poorly but she had some favourites. Unfortunately, that was what got her in trouble. She had rigged the ward to the door of a small storeroom. On detecting someone passing through it locked the door,trapping them inside. It had been a particularly difficult one to make that had given her many a headache but it wasn't perfect. 
The door had been a push not a pull.
Instead of trapping some unlucky tutor, she had maybe accidentally broken his nose instead? Upon entering, the door had immediately shut itself, forcibly pushing the poor man back out.
Yeah.
Definitely did not go as planned.

Bryn ran her fingers through her hair, still unused to the side shave that had resulted from the ink fixing attempts gone wrong. She took a deep breath, put on her most remorseful face and stepped forward.

"Fellow friends, students, tutors and staff. I deeply apologize for any concern you may have regarding University doorways and for the unfortunate injury that caused said concern. This was an isolated event, a result of an experiment going wrong. My attempt to create a ward that would close a door for you, upon exiting with the supplies gathered, appears to have backfired in a very unfortunate manner. It saddens me that this is not a feature of convenience I will be able to be bringing to all doors, but it is the health and well-being of all noses out there that I do value. You have my word that all doors are safe to walk through and that I will extra vigilant to check my work with the Master Artificer first with all future projects. I again apologize for my actions, and thank you for your patience." She smiled sweetly as she gave a little curtsey before taking her leave.
 

 

---

 

On the note of wards, I think it's worth mentioning for the sake of transparency that lopen had a ward, so whoever attacked lopen, you should know that he probably knows who you are, unless someone else also targetted him with something.  I don't know what the best course of action is here. But. Idk. Figured it's info worth sharing.  I don't think we can know for sure if that was a villager attack or Elim, but if it was a villager attacking an Elim, they need to know, if it's an Elim attacking a villager,  that's useful for us to know and they get to be scared. If its a villager vs villager, now's the time to sort out beef if it was an Elim attacking lopen, well, I'm sorry if I've made you more of a target as a result lopen.im not asking you to say who targetted you by any means btw. If it's a villager, it's worth keeping them anonymous. Although if you're villager lopen, could be worth telling someone you trust who it is in case they be evil. It's a shame you weren't being attacked from the sabotage, that woulda been a nice one to catch with a ward

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

9 minutes ago, Burnt Spaghetti said:

if it was an Elim attacking lopen, well, I'm sorry if I've made you more of a target as a result lopen.im not asking you to say who targetted you by any means btw. If it's a villager, it's worth keeping them anonymous. Although if you're villager lopen, could be worth telling someone you trust who it is in case they be evil.

Lopen is definitely not a villager. I see no way a Skindancer (Bard) could have truthfully claimed Lopen was the most likely player to be a living, unexpelled Skindancer if Lopen was a student.

[Experience]

@Elkanah, I don't feel comfortable sharing what field I'm a master in mostly because when Straw claimed to the thread, he was sabotaged the next cycle. If you want to, feel free to PM me.

3 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Lopen is definitely not a villager. I see no way a Skindancer (Bard) could have truthfully claimed Lopen was the most likely player to be a living, unexpelled Skindancer if Lopen was a student.

I also don't see any way that he could have gotten around this, and so if Lopen 'reveals' who targeted him then we really can't trust what he says. 

[TheMightyLopen]

7 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Lopen is definitely not a villager. I see no way a Skindancer (Bard) could have truthfully claimed Lopen was the most likely player to be a living, unexpelled Skindancer if Lopen was a student.

 

2 minutes ago, Experience said:

@Elkanah, I don't feel comfortable sharing what field I'm a master in mostly because when Straw claimed to the thread, he was sabotaged the next cycle. If you want to, feel free to PM me.

I also don't see any way that he could have gotten around this, and so if Lopen 'reveals' who targeted him then we really can't trust what he says. 

I see a way around this. It's that Devotary is lying. At this point I think you, Devotary, and probably Karnage are all evil and if you can get me killed, the game is probably all but over. I don't see why Devotary would make something up like this otherwise, as now as soon as I die you'll pile on them. My guess would be Devotary is about to become Master and they have at least a Bodyguard so they're not worried about becoming a target. Just in case though, Devotary Devotary.

I know my defense is probably weak since I haven't done anything concrete in thread to clear myself, but isn't this a little too perfect? Devotary plum bob's Bard and gets the very player who was just attacked by a villager(I'm fairly certain it was a villager)? It's an easy way to set that players mind at ease about attacking me and getting them to do it again. Also the fact that Devotary only got one Skindancer name? At his rank he'd have to have been very unlucky to only get one or two questions off before Bard went into a rage.

And the fact that neither Experience or Karnage will reveal their fields at this point in the game just screams that the Skindancers really don't care how they look in thread because the game is almost over.

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

3 minutes ago, TheMightyLopen said:

Also the fact that Devotary only got one Skindancer name? At his rank he'd have to have been very unlucky to only get one or two questions off before Bard went into a rage.

It was foolish of me to ask if Bard was a Skindancer. I should have trusted that village!Bard would have been able to convey that he didn't know who the most likely Skindancer was. Plum bob rage chances are cumulative unfortunately, and I'm not a pure alchemist so the chances of getting through all the questions is very low.

[Elkanah]

55 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

Lopen is definitely not a villager. I see no way a Skindancer (Bard) could have truthfully claimed Lopen was the most likely player to be a living, unexpelled Skindancer if Lopen was a student.

Thank you, Devotary! This is exactly what I was wondering. I remembered something happened around the time Bard was expelled, but I did not remember what it was. I am willing to believe the evil team is Lopen, Experience and Karnage. I am less willing to believe Devotary is an elim, but it would not be the first time I was fooled by eliminators distancing. I am also getting bad vibes from Araris, but I am falling back on my earlier reads and deciding to trust him.

15 hours ago, Araris Valerian said:

How do you mean? What proved your alignment?

Elandera set up one of her contacts to fae lore me and my actions still went through.

1 hour ago, Experience said:

@Elkanah, I don't feel comfortable sharing what field I'm a master in mostly because when Straw claimed to the thread, he was sabotaged the next cycle. If you want to, feel free to PM me.

I also don't see any way that he could have gotten around this, and so if Lopen 'reveals' who targeted him then we really can't trust what he says. 

Are you saying you targeted him? Also, I'll pm you as soon as I get off work

[Experience]

11 minutes ago, Elkanah said:

Are you saying you targeted him? Also, I'll pm you as soon as I get off work

No, I didn't target him. I was saying that I wouldn't automatically trust what he says because I'm pretty sure he's a skindancer.

[little wilson]

The turn is now over! Tune back in in roughly 4 hours to discover if you still live! Dun dun dun.

[little wilson]

Posting in here to say that things will be a little delayed - turns out this isn't a rollover. It's the aftermath. o.O El's working on writing it, since as you can imagine, there's a lot that just happened - I wasn't kidding when I mentioned death (I just didn't know quite how true that would really be - so many people died! - and no, Araris, it wasn't all because of you (though most of it was)).

So, yeah. We'll get the aftermath up, but it might not be tonight. El just went to dinner, and I'll probably be going to bed shortly after she returns. If it's not tonight, it'll go up tomorrow (or Saturday at the latest, but I really don't see it getting delayed that long).

[Elbereth]

Long Game 65 Aftermath - Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

The Horse and Four was quiet, this time of night. Even the most industrious drinkers had finally gone to bed, preparing for the next day’s dawn, and only a couple of students hard at work due the next day were still awake. 

So no one noticed, when the wind outside started to pick up. No one noticed when something small landed on the roof with a dull thump. 

But everyone noticed when the bone-tar exploded. It tore a hole in the roof, killing most of the top floor instantly, and the wooden building quickly caught fire. People on lower floors came out of their rooms, curious what all the noise was about, and the cry of “Fire! Fire!” soon had them rushing out the doors of the inn - where they found themselves buffeted by a strong wind pushing them back. 

Some escaped the building, those strong enough to make it through the wind, but others couldn’t - they ran to other doors, frantic to find a way out, but there was not, and that time cost them. 

Vol knew what this was, could tell from the smell of the fire, and wanted to find the source of whoever had been mad enough to bring bone-tar into a crowded inn. But Inesta, Vol’s bodyguard, had been purchased for just this purpose - that is, common sense. 

“No,” she said firmly. “The building is on fire, and we are leaving.” And with that, she hoisted Vol up on her shoulder and ran out. 

Arael Solon made it out - barely. He had been only a floor below the top one, and woke up in a bed already on fire. The use of the Name of Fire pulled the flames away from him, but his skin was already scorched black in places. He managed to call upon Wind to take him away, but his wounds were severe enough that even with the Medica could not be certain he would fully recover.  

---

Vol, Kendel, and Bryn Aria stood before the Horns together. Vol looked absolutely murderous, while Bryn Aria had a slight smirk on her face and Kendel just looked confused. 

Master Veitch stood to speak. “You are a disgrace to this University. You used the learning you’ve had here to destroy an entire building and kill many of those inside it, for no reason you can explain. You are hereby expelled from the University, and we have decided that Vol and Kendel will also be lashed as an example to others. Bryn, consider yourself lucky to have only been expelled.”

Vol started to argue, “But Mas-”

“Dismissed.” The Master Linguist sat down and turned his eyes to his fellow Masters, clearly ignoring them. 

Vol still looked angry, but Bryn Aria tugged on a sleeve and Vol reluctantly turned to follow. The doors closed behind them with a dull, final thud. 
 

A few minutes later, the doors opened again, and a slender figure slipped in. 

“Ah, Rath, welcome back,” Master Leo said genially. “Hard to believe it’s a new term already, isn’t it?”

Rath nodded. “Excited to be back, sir.”

“Good, good. Now, I suppose we should get on to the testing...”

Arael paid little mind to Leo’s question, instead staring at Rath. Could he be a Skindancer? Could one of his fellow Masters? Some of them had been acting odd lately, and he’d noticed Rath a few places he shouldn’t have been. 

He stared down at his burnt, nearly-unusable hands. He was close to cracking, he knew. He’d used too many Names, too fast, and now it was only a matter of time before he went fully insane. He had to find the Skindancers before that. He shuddered to think what a Skindancer Master Namer could do with that power, especially if some of the Masters were already Fae.

Arael Solon closed his eyes. Okay then. Here goes.

When it was his turn to question Rath, he stood. Then Arael Solon, Master Namer, called on Blood. 

He could feel the blood running through his veins, and the blood of everyone else in the room pulsing and pumping and constantly flowing. 

He named Water next, focusing on the blood he could sense, and urged it to heat up, flow faster - that was when the other Masters started to react, to demand to know what he was doing and telling him to stop. 

Then Iron. Iron on the doors, sealing them closed. Iron on the swords, the grams, warping them into uselessness. If he was going to do this, no one would escape. 

Finally, Arael Solon named Fire. And every droplet of blood in that room boiled. They screamed then, but not long. Arael tried to stay silent, but the pain was too intense - after a moment he screamed too, and his was the last to ring out in that room. 

When they managed to get the doors open the next day, the corpses of nine Masters and a student were all they found. Two of the Masters were only recognizable because of their robes, though: their forms had changed upon death to be grotesque and inhuman. 

There was a silence over the University, and it was a silence of three parts. It was the long, sad silence of a closed University. Tables sat empty in the inns and in the Archives, a reminder of those who had gone, and the seats at the Horns were not filled again for a long, long time. It was the quiet, relieved silence at the end of catastrophe: the deaths stopped after that, and all that was left to do was bury the bodies. And it was the crackling, broken silence of a man who killed as he died. 

---

Arael Solon (Araris) went insane and died! He was a Student!
Lasko Veitch (Karnage) died! He was a Student!
Leo (Lopen) died! He was a Skindancer!
Shard (Experience) died! He was a Skindancer!
Rath died! He was a Student!
Bryn Aria (Burnt) was attacked and protected!
Vol (Devotary) was attacked and protected!

Kendel (Elkanah) was brought on the Horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming! He was lashed!
Vol (Devotary) was brought on the Horns and charged with Conduct unbecoming. She was lashed!
Kendel (Elkanah) was brought on the Horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming a Member of the Arcanum! He has been expelled!
Vol (Devotary) was brought on the Horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming a Member of the Arcanum! She has been expelled!
Bryn Aria (Burnt Spaghetti) was brought on the Horns and charged with Conduct Unbecoming a Member of the Arcanum! She has been expelled! 

The Horse and Four was destroyed! 

The game is over. The Students have won. 

Player List
1. @Haelbarde - Seòras Skindancer
2. @Elandera - Athdara, alchemist Student
3. @Burnt Spaghetti - Bryn Aria Student
4. @DeTess - Evelyn Bryen Student
5. @Elkanah  Student
6. @Straw - Straw Student
7. @xinoehp512  Student
8. @Lord_Silberfarben - Lord Silberfarben Student
9. @Coda - Catalan, namer Student
10. @Karnage - Lasko Veitch Student
11. @Hemalurgic Headshot  Student
12. @StrikerEZ - Ryykal Ladzo Student
13. @Lumgol - Caia Irèn Student
14. @Experience - Shard Skindancer
15. @Devotary of Spontaneity - Vol, paranoid alchemist Student
16. @CadCom - Cadaci Student
17. @Sart - Sagaer Murtoy, accompanied by a child Student
18. @Furamirionind Student
19. @Zillah Student
20. @Araris Valerian - Arael Solon Student
21. @Rathmaskal - Rath Student
22. @STINK - Ugfal the Three-Handed, with only two hands Skindancer
23. @Kynedath - Traelynn Weeks, likes beets Student
24. @Walin - Lin Wa Skindancer
25. @GreenRover - Knighter Nune Skindancer
26. @Young Bard - Nethwyl Nox, pyromaniac Skindancer
27. @TheMightyLopen - Leo Skindancer

Spectator/Dead Doc: Tehlu's Angels
Eliminator doc: Skindancer Secrets
Master Spreadsheet (do not load on your phone)

Congrats to everyone for playing a great game! GM thoughts and stuff to come when it's not 1:30 am. Night all, and well played!

 

[DeTess]

Ha, good game everyone! This one is always fun, though I'm a bit sad I got eliminated when I was so close to being a master (I had the EP, and basically just needed the elevations at that point). Its also nice to see I was wary of at least two skindancers (Lopen and Hael), and me cracking when I did confirmed Bard as evil for me as well (though not necessarily for the right reasons).

It was really nice seeing the large variety of RP in this game, as well as just the massive amount of activity. Games have been a bit quieter this year than they where when I first started here, but this game was a proper return to form in that respect. 

edit: Also, maybe a funny thing: my initial game-plan had been to go full R&L because it had my favorite ability (action redirection). However, very early one when I started figuring out my character I realized that I also could try to get some elevations in alchemy simply to get the bone-tar, with the purpose of burning down all the rich-folk inns. I decide I preferred a slightly lighter character path in the end though.

Edited May 22, 2020 by DeTess

[Haelbarde]

Thanks @little wilson and @Elbereth for an amazing game!

Feel free to read through our 55k word elim doc at your leisure, but I'd like to highlight some of the cool things we did that went unnoticed.

• Striker and Bard were both actually the subject of the sabotage the turn that Striker went insane - Bard was our Sympathist, so that turn we had him use Malfeasance on Striker while we targetted Bard with the sabotage, who recieved a Bloodless at the same time. The bloodless is what saved Bard, but that didn't prevent the sabotage from hitting Striker - had I used Cheating Death on Bard, Striker would have received the same protection, and in fact, as I only had one elevation, there'd actually be a chance that Bard would not be saved, while Striker would. I did Counsel Bard though, so actually, Striker would have had no chance of going mad from the Mews that turn  
• Continuing on with Bard's actions - he was expelled while having 3 elevations of sympathy. This meant that he had the 3rd level malfeasance ability which splits and downgrades any attacks on either Bard or his target. So had someone actually tried to kill Bard, it would have only roleblocked. This was particularly nice after Stink got expelled, and was actually used to prevent a roleblock on Experience at one point.
• We attempted to use the Name of the Wind to find out if anyone would be visiting the Imre the following cycle (so our expelled team mates could target non-expelled students while they visited the Imre. The action worked! Only, we only used it once and no one was in the Imre  
• Had Walin not died, the plan had been for Stink to put EP into Alchemy so we could get him raised to El'the quickly - I think all the namers had more than 15 EP really quickly, so he'd have gotten the Master title straight away. Just imagine what an evil Master Namer backed with a Master Physicker could have done  

[Araris Valerian]

Good game everyone! Naming was way too fun in this game, even though I probably could have experimented more. I’m rather glad that Hael and Walin turned out to be elims, or this game probably wouldn’t have turned in our favor. I was unsure, so I used a combined seek/kill action with Wind and Iron. I was rather surprised that the elims knew all my elevations, which makes me wish I’d revealed to the thread and asked for counseling.

Sorry Rath and Karnage for murdering you (well not really). I figured the less living masters, the better for everyone.

Thanks to Wilson and Elbereth for GMing! Despite being more complex than what I usually go for, the rules were organized enough that they didn’t get in the way. Also, the write ups were consistently awesome. If it happens, I’ll look forward to the next iteration of this game.

[Haelbarde]

More things I was proud of:

• I managed to achieve a tuition reduction of 10.45 talents for the first term!
  • 10 RP posts = 5 talents
  • I spent 2 of my 3 talents on Nahlrout to get a reduction of 1 talent
  • I put a contract on the black market for someone to hug someone in need for a drab, giving another 0.5 talent reduction
  • I spent my final talent on attempting to get talent pipes, which gave a 1 talent reduction.
  • Another 2.7 talents came from posting in thread, complaints, EP, and PMs
  • A final 0.25 talents came from 5 quality game discussion posts
    • Unfortunately the uni didn't pay me 4.5 jots to attend the second cycle, alas
• I had a bunch of fun with contracts when I was in the Imre turing 1.2 (I've got them below). Highlights include:
  • a reward of 3 jots for someone to provide me a proof of the Collatz Conjecture.
  • a joke about someone hearing "sonnet" as "mommet", although if someone would have given me a mommet I would have give them the 2 jots
  • two references to Patrick Rothfuss, with one being a joke about the state of The Doors of Stone.
  • If I'd had the chance to go back to the Imre, I'd have put up a followup contract to the fake talented pipes scam with someone trying to get rid of their fake talent pipes having fallen for the scam.
• I had a ton of fun automating my money calculations tab of my playersheet, automating it further and storing information from each cycle.

Contracts

Spoiler

• Are you a budding musican? Need an instrument to set you apart from the crowd? Then you've come to the right place! These talented pipes are guaranteed to drive your audience wild! Get yours now for the low, low price of only 99 drabs. Stocks are limited, so get in and get'em quick!
• Want 1 drab and a 5 jot tuition reduction? Give a fellow student in need of a hug a hug.
• Will give 3 jots for the first person to submit a proof that if you take a number, halve it if it's even, multiply by three and add one if its odd, and repeat this process, you will always eventually reach the number 1. Please be quick - I have an assignment due...
• Needed: Experienced author to pen the third tome in a set of speculative fiction works based on strange happenings in the world. The previous author was blocked from writing the final volume due to unrelated circumstances.
• Help needed to check the swingability of chandeliers. Insurance not included.
• My last open peotry night performance was a disaster. My friends suggested trying a mommet 14 times, but I've not been able to find any mommets yet. Can pay 2 jots.
• Old pipes for new! Old pipes for new! Got some dusty old pipes from a famous relative just lying about about? Clean out your attic, trade in your old pipes, and freshen up your mantlepiece with a brand new set of pipes. You won't regret your decision!

Player Sheet Screenshot

Spoiler

 

[Young Bard]

That was a great game, everyone. I enjoyed that so much (partly because it's been more than a year since I was last an Elim, and partly because this game is just nuts.) Thanks so much to Wilson and El for running it - I can't believe I missed the past two versions if they're this fun.

---

I want to make some comments about the balance of this game for next time, but I'm honestly don't think there's a point. This game is kind of inherently unbalanceable, but that's OK, because it's hilarious to play anyway. The WGG stunt we pulled this game I'd ordinarily never consider, but something about the madness of this game made me do it anyway. (Hael said something along the same lines) By Araris' and Burnt's actions this last turn, I'm pretty sure the Elims weren't the only one to feel that. Strategically, was the WGG a mistake? Oh yeah, and I think the more cautious part of me knew that even while I pushed for it. But... I don't regret it, honestly. I think in past games, I've been too quick to try and play the game safe, and with how much fun I had this time, I think I'll do that a lot less going forward.

This is a rambly mess, but... yeah. There's honestly a hundred tiny thoughts I kind of want to splurge, so, uh... here's the splurge, you can ignore all of this if you want to.

Plum Bob - Apparently, this has never been used in either of the previous KKC games? Huh. Being Plum-Bobbed by Devotary, I think mechanically it worked really well, all things considered. It's dangerous, though - if things had gone slightly differently, it could have been much more sour (I had to admit that Lopen and I were Skindancers, but I was basically out anyway, and Lopen was under suspicion, and a Master so safe from expulsion, and being protected by me from kills unless it's a super-protection-overriding attack made by Master Namers. ) If I'd had to give up both of my teammates, or if we'd been a bit more powerless at doing anything about being outed, it would have felt more sour, which is maybe something to watch out for next game? But, as it was, it was an 8/10 Plum Bob. If you're going to be drugged and forced to answer questions against your will, this is the experience I'd recommend.

Tuition - I actually really like this 'soft' activity filter, thinking about it. With hard activity filters, it feels like a chore sometimes - "I'm really tired after a long day, but I guess I have to post something if I don't want to get killed off. Ugh." With the soft activity filter, you're still encouraged to post, but you don't feel absolutely forced to, and it also doubles as a carrot - if you post a lot, you have more money which you can use to buy things in Imre. I think that's an idea I might try to figure out how to simplify and then shamelessly steal next time I run a game.

Linguistic Analysis - I think the Linguistic Analysis worked really well - when I got caught having told a lie the previous cycle, it wasn't immediately damning, but it was damning enough that it was really tense, which worked brilliantly. If I'd said, "I am not a Skindancer", and found out a lie, I don't think that would have been entertaining for me or anyone else. But that veneer of plausible deniability where I had to lie through my teeth (or actually, imply as many lies as possible without actually explicitly lying, because I'd already been expecting to have a Linguist target me the cycle after the WGG, I just hadn't anticipated it happening the turn before) - and then people have to decide who to trust, and what the truth is. That's mafia at it's best. There's a decent chance that I'll steal this for a game somewhere, probably.

Human Psychology/Naming - Not really a balance thing, but I'm fascinated by the fact that so many people went for Naming. There's something about the "You get to do anything so long as you can justify it to the GM's" part that really appeals to people, and I can totally see why. With the increased chance of going insane and it's popularity meaning you're unlikely to get elevated, I'm not actually sure it's the strongest field strategically, but I already wrote a whole paragraph about how this game isn't meant to be played strategically, so... Dunno. I just find it interesting.

Pacing - The pacing of this game is... weird, to say the least. The power curve of this game is really steep - in the space from Month 4 to Month 6 as an Elim, it felt as though we went from everyone (on both sides) having useful but still normal-ish skills to basically everyone still at the University to have a game-breaking skill, for some (*cough* Araris *cough*) literally so. I... can't really think of a way you'd fix that - having the ability to find your own way to break the game is part of the fun, so the best you can do is hope that the villagers game-breaking actions roughly balance out with the Skindancers game-breaking actions as you reach the late game.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Young Bard

[Coffeecat]

This was simply beautiful.

art among mafiosos.

I loved it, and I would have liked to be more active, but I was not able to do it.

 

Thanks to Wilson and Elbereth for hosting it, and everyone for participating!

[xinoehp512]

Well, I *almost* got Master... if it hadn't been for Elandera's vote on me in 3.2 I would have made it before dying. *sigh*

I got completely mixed up the first few cycles on how EP works... oh, well.

I also had a crippling fear of insanity bonuses, so I didn't actually complete the Gram the turn I got attacked.  Although, would it actually have helped me to finish, or would it just have blocked one of the attacks on me?

So there was a dead doc? I was curious as to why I didn't receive a link. I guess because my death was delayed, the GM's forgot.

Green Rover turned elim after accidentally viewing the doc? Heh. 

Well, I enjoyed this game! I hope I get the chance to play it again.

[Karnage]

Wow, we won! That was a  great first game and a great second finished game. I guess the distraction of the Fura and Karnage conflict did not help us get closer to winning, but I felt that was the best route.

This was a great experience, thank you little Wilson and Elbereth for answering my many, many questions. Thank you for a great game.

[Experience]

Thank you Wilson and Elbereth for GMing this crazy, wonderful game! I still have no idea how you smashed the rollover down to four hours. 

I'm kinda proud of the 118 pg two-doc elim docs. I sorta want to know what you did with Naming that last turn, @Araris Valerian.

Well, more thoughts later. Got to go now. Thanks again to the GM's and everyone else for playing!

[StrikerEZ]

@Elbereth @little wilson Thank you guys so much for running this game! I had so much fun trying to plan out what I was going to do while I was still sane, and I loved the process of getting tuition reductions and stuff.

@Young Bard I’m a bit sad that you guys sabotaged me the same turn that I got my Talent Pipes. I was just about to not have to worry about tuition anymore when it was all ripped away from me. I’m glad that I was right about me being the sabotage though. Also not surprised it was also a WGG.

Overall, this was a really, really fun game. Even despite not knowing anything about the books themselves. I’m greatly looking forward to the next iteration of this game!