Long Game 72: The Secret of Shinovar

[|TJ| he/him]

Good game folk! Practice PM Safety Silence because apparently you can get killed even while claiming to a village ( *cough* Eternum *cough*). Congrats to the elims! And to Danex and Matrim as well!

[Eternum he/him]

Sorry about that, TJ. It's complicated, alright?

I feel like I owe an apology to half the village because almost all of the people I was sus of were village.. Goes to show that I'm a better elim than villager.

GGs, elims. Araris, that was extremely well played. I had my doubts, but that's easy to say after I've lost, isn't it?

Danex, well played to you too. That's the cleanest and fastest jester win I've ever seen, honestly.

Mat, I'm not gonna forget about Ishar's blade any time soon

Thanks for the game, Ash and Elandera! It was a ton of fun.

[Ashbringer he/him]

Rarashe-son-Lurdroler opened his eyes.

He'd been stabbed in the middle of the night by Hadrian - fortunately just a quick in and out, as he wasn't sure what a sustained exposure to a blade meant to kill Heralds would do to his own physiology. Luckily, goldminds did wonders for lacerations in the chest.

They would be gone now. That was the style of this incursion. In, chaos, out.

He hadn't done much. That Shaman kept a very close watch on all the Honorblades. Even the Shardblade he'd borrowed. So he roamed the halls, trying to find the exit to this blasted-

Rarashe tripped over something.

He fell, bruising his knee, which healed almost immediately. Then he looked at what he'd fallen over.

A hilt within the floor. He grabbed it, drawing the sword in the... wood.

It was Ishar's Honorblade. The one the infiltrators hadn't taken.

"Now," Rarashe said, grinning wildly at the silvery sword. "This will be interesting."

 

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe...

Okay, time for some serious thoughts. If I'm capable of those.

First of all, I am definitely rerunning this game in some form. Either as a standard game with some tweaks, or as a faction game elevating the Heralds and Odium's forces to additional Elim factions with more secrets (or just more neutrals without being hidden). I might also rerun it using... certain things that Rhythm of War has added to the idea.

Speaking of which, I should probably reveal the full secret's abilities.

Battar:

Spoiler

You are a Hidden Role, Battar. A Herald that’s gone slightly mad, you have devoted yourself to recovering your Honorblade and… either joining the cause against Odium or just having better survival odds. One of those.

You must gain Battar’s Honorblade, or barring that, survive until the end of the game in order to win. Winning will remove you from the game, along with removing any Honorblades you possess at the time.

Additionally, you survive any kills from Szeth’s Cohorts or made using the surge of Division, but you will die to executions, any other hidden role’s kill, or Nightblood.

Every odd cycle, you may Reclaim any Honorblades the target has, functioning the same as the Stone Shaman’s Reclaim ability.

Vyre:

Spoiler

You are a Hidden Role, Vyre. Servant of Odium, you have been sent to stop the theft of the Honorblades by Dalinar’s lackeys - by stealing them yourself, of course. And there’s a mysterious figure about… one that Odium wants very, very dead.

You must kill the other hidden role, or collect three additional Honorblades in order to win. Winning will remove you from the game, along with removing any Honorblades you possess at the time.

You are already the bearer of Jezrien’s Honorblade, which grants the surges of Adhesion and Gravitation. This Honorblade is not detected by the Stone Shamans, but can be found with Transformation. It can’t be transferred or reclaimed, but will be added to the pool of Honorblades if you die.

Additionally, you have access to a kill on every even cycle.

 

This game did suffer a bit of an inactivity problem. Less of quantity, and more of what roles: of the ones who were replaced by the filter, one was the Stone Shaman, one was Kaladin, and one was holding Ishar's Blade for a while (after Matrim panicked realizing he couldn't reclaim holding a blade and dumped it on someone). Which isn't really something I can control, but 

I do agree that five elims along with Szeth and Kaladin is probably too much. If anyone besides Ventyl had been lynched D4, then Nightblood would have been activated much sooner, and Araris would likely have put a lockdown on Paliah's blade and cemented the Elim's control over protection. If I do rerun the game, I may just remove Kaladin entirely, or rework how Nightblood works.

Araris Valerian definitely gets accolades for organizing the Elims to a win, for the fourth time in a row. Dannex managed to win D1, which I was... definitely not expecting. Devotary of Spontaneity did an excellent job as Vyre, and raised some excellent points in the doc about whether Neutrals should leave the game upon meeting a win condition. And Matrim's Dice did some excellent manipulation to get what he wanted, despite some... setbacks... well, I'll just let you read the doc. Whysper did very good working with the Shaman's abilities without much time (and my own delay in giving her the lists).

And, last but not least, Elandera and Elbereth. I both literally and legally could not run this game without you guys, and you did a great job getting me on my feet. Elbereth, I thoroughly enjoyed our lecture conversation on Faction games, and Elandera taught me a great deal about doing PMs. Thanks everyone.

[Quintessential she/her]

sighhh well I wish I'd gotten to play more than three cycles of this game... and use my Honorblade... Eternum how could you

That being said, it was a lot of fun in the time when I was playing. It's already been said a bunch of times, but thank you to Ash for running it  

[Elandera she/her]

Congratulations to Szeth's Cohorts! This was an incredibly close game between them and the Shin, and another mark for the elim streak. Thanks to Ashbringer for running such a fun game. The Shardblade mechanics were so much fun to work with. 

As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Devotary of Spontaneity, Elbereth, Araris Valerian, or myself, or post in the GM Signups & Discussion Thread. Not only will we get you added to the list, but we'd also be more than willing to help out in any way we can. 

You can also ask questions and get some hints and feedback from everyone in our Art of Game Creation thread. With all the games that we've run so far, we have plenty of experienced GMs that can help you refine any game you're thinking about. If you would rather keep some detail secret, or are self-conscious about posting in thread (there's really no need to be; while we do slaughter each other, we are very polite about it), then I'm sure one of our fantastic committee members (Amanuensis, STINK, Sart, Fifth Scholar, Straw, Haelbarde, and Young Bard) would be more than willing to help you out in private.

Thanks again to everyone that played, and we look forward to killing seeing you in future games!