Paranoid King

Thanks for your offer, torture pros are often hard acquired. And a bird who fires acid arrows leaves nothing desired. If you want to look for guilty ones, I can lend you aon kii - With you and I together, we can solve this mystery!

I'm glad to see my whitespine, Fluffy, stayed right by my side. He's been with me for many years, since long before I died. I bought him in a alleyway, or should I say I made a deal. A shame that I can't ride him, as I am now incorporeal.

Despite the recent murdering, I am feeling quite jolly. I'm quite convinced the culprit soon will realize his folly. Our oracle will soon return when he has had his fill. (When you can see the future you can bend it to your will.) His delays last investicon put us all under some strain, While kidnapped, he will surely drive the murderer insane!

My name is John Smith, and I'm now just a ghost, Cursed forever to walk with investicon's host Until I unravel the next vicious crime I'll constantly RP in ear-grating rhyme

Hmm, good point. Maybe events also turn a random player into an accomplice? Edit: but aside from glimpse of the future, getting to choose an evidence card is about as useful as getting an event.

Once a player has guessed, there's not much else they can do. They can examine evidences, but they can't make accusations themselves. And if they get replaced, the pinch hitters can't do anything either. However, instead of drawing random evidence cards at the beginning of a round, you could reveal 2 or 3, and have players vote on which they want. This gives more chance for misdirection from accomplices, and gives players something to do even if they can't accuse people.

I agree with balancing out the shardworlds. Especially where in the doc, evidences are divided out by shardworld, it makes it too easy to guess. Either add more world-specific evidences or change the card. Shadesmar could be renamed to cognitive realm to make it more general. You could also include an option for non-shardworld. For evidence on the body, there is no option for nothing. Partial is the smallest it can go. State of the scene has bits and pieces, shattered, and disorderly, which are all basically the same. I recommend changing one to unusual (for say, soulcasting.) In progress has no option for normal work or resting. With this many investigators, the clue can be pretty much brute-forced. Even if we have 15-20 possibilities left, we're still likely to get the murderer. In the original game, I think 12 was the max number of people? I recommend straying from the original rules and having 5 evidences/methods per player. Maybe add a few more accomplices, too. Also, if you want more interaction from players who have already guessed, you can have players vote on one of 2 or 3 cards to examine next time. That's more reasonable in a forum setting than in an actual game. These are all minor nitpicks, though. I think this translated well to a forum game, and I had a blast playing. Count me in next time!

Congrats to Elandera! Yep. I am 1,000% the witness. Of course, if Mr. Murd has no idea who the witness is, he could off himself. It makes for an interesting write-up and lets him escape justice. Just a thought.

Sounds intriguing. I'll join.

Also forged painting. Edit: What I have so far: Legend: Bold: Sel Italic: accident Underline: sudden noise Monospaced: Despicable Strangers and partial are too generic. They apply to most anything, but do rule out betrayal Player Name Means of Murder Pieces of Evidence 1 Steeldancer Squid of Steel Torture, Betrayal, Koloss Blade, Blood Loss, Rotspren, Aonic Dictionary, Boots, Ragged Cloak, 2 A Joe In the Bush Various Divide Martial Arts, Venomous Bite, Obsidian Axe, Aon Sheo (Death), Mistcloak, Cigar Case, Straw Man, Sketchbook, 3 Droughtbringer In Garotte, Hammer, Sword, Air-powered Crossbow, Medallion, Bloodseal, Gloves, Fearspren, 5 Metaspren Selksi Kick, Booby Trap, Grandbow, Dreok's Axe, Writing Board, Elantrian Slime, Musical Instrument, Skull, 6 Rathmaskal Larry Soulcasting, Jeskeri Cult Ritual, Highstorm, Ettmetal Explosion, Skaze, Gloryspren, Words Inscribed in Steel, Vandalism, 8 Wiritospren <name pending> Shades, Suffocation, Aon Daa (Power), Hemalurgic Spike, Technology, Aviar Feather, Smoke, Lak, 9 Madagasar Mad Birchbane, Drowning, Swampvine, Hook, Piece of Ralkalest, Shelldry Cards, Pet Bird, Make Up, 11 Araris Valerian Aralis Aon Ehe (Fire), Stone, Bare Hands, Essence Marks, Ice, Contract, Portrait, Aluminum Bullets, 12 Kidspren <Name Pending> Aimian, Metal Poisoning, Deepwalker, Sacrificial Altar, Hallandren Dyes, Soulstone, Ash Stains, Empty Pouch, 14 Paranoid King John 'Not-A-Murderer-At-All' Smith Whitespine, Dakhor Ritual, Poisoned Dart, The Bands of Mourning , Bay Wrap, Dust, Larkin Corpse, Lucky Hat, 15 I think I am here Itiah VII Buried Alive, Toxic Fungus, Midnight Essence, Spear, Hoid’s flute, Shu-Dereth Pendant, Ichor Alchohol, Metallurgy Equipment, 16 Randuir Tezed Rifle, Poisonous Sting, Kandra Digestive Acids, Rioting, Footprint, Dirt, Purple Blood Droplets, Forged Painting, 18 Bort May Bebort Explosion, Sand Mastery, Bloodsealing, Coins, Child's Toy, Trap Door, Vandalized Statue, Red Flag, A few notes: I removed from the list everyone who had nothing to do with Sel, as that's our biggest clue. Several people included aons under accident. I think those all fit under supernatural, but I can add them to the list if enough people disagree with me. I plan to update this list according to any future suggestions

Ah well. I'll post more analysis when I get on a computer. Sure, it takes a bit to die away, but it's not a prolonged sound. Given the choice between sudden and prolonged, I'd choose sudden for an explosion.

Third time's the charm! @Herowannabe! I am making an Accusation! I accuse Larry of being the Assassin, and I think he used Ettmetal explosion to commit the murder and that the Key Evidence he left behind is the Skaze.

Oops. @Herowannabe, is it ettmetal explosion/skaze?

Based on contextual clues, I would guess it is where on the body you can find hints of the murder. I am most suspicious of ettmetal explosion/skaze. I'm also suspicious of booby trap/elantrian slime, buried alive/dereth pendant, and rioting/ forged painting. I'm discounting betrayal (because they were strangers) and the jerethi ritual/all the aons (because it was an accident) Edit: The more I think bout it, the more likely it sounds. @Wyrmhero, is it ettmetal explosion/skaze?

You're clearly a fingernail-bitingly nervous terrisman who stole a nightmaw and is on the run from the courts of Hallandren for winning too many games of tarachin. You're prepared to defend yourself with a bow, or even with a dagger if they get too close. Edit: Great minds think alike

Pfft. They just tell us that so we take it more seriously. Believe me, this is the reason I came to investicon. They do something like this every year. Last year we had to figure out who committed the murder in the village where half the people always lie. Although they usually wait until later in the convention to start the mystery. Maybe the organizers think this one will just take a while.

Well, I already have a hat... But you can never have too many hats, that's what I always say!

I've never played the game with this many people, so that might throw this off a bit, but in my experience, the investigators win about 60% of the time. The oracle always gets the place and means cards, and the other cards are generally less useful. Events are always nice, though. As long as the investigators are communicating before guessing and the oracle gives the right clues, we should be good.

Strategy time! I've played the original game before, so I figure I can share some tips: You have only one guess, but three days to gather information. It's usually best to use your guess on the third day However, the oracle needs to know what info is most or least useful. This helps him choose which cards to replace. So it is good for a few people to guess on d1 and d2. Watching the cards the oracle replaces can be just as useful as watching the ones they leave out. If a card is replaced, it is because it wasn't used or it was misleading us. It's usually best not to rule out possibilities. That is, if eban has a shardblade and the murder was on scadrial, it's still possible that he used that weapon. But if the murder was due to poisoning/sickness, you can probably rule it out. As an addendum, if someone posts their list of evidences they've crossed out, double check everything. Witness - don't out yourself. That means don't solve the case on the first day. If someone is acting fishy, it's probably the accomplice or an odd investigator, not the murderer. Look at the clues instead of focusing on people's attitude.

John sat astride his whitespine, surreptitiously feeding it a handmade larkin baywrap. He would have preferred a mistwraith, but he'd grown too heavy to ride any ever since he'd befriended that strange priest. Their bonding experiences tended to have a lot of chanting. And also screaming. But he had gotten a nice hat out of the deal, so he couldn't back out now. Investicon! What a place! He surreptitiously tried out a few accents while he waited for the main event to start. "What you playin' at, huh? You ain't got nothin on me!" "A tragic misunderstanding, I assure you. If you examine my alibi, you should find it quite airtight." "Yaas, I can tell you story. Tree days ago I was-" Dust to the eyes! And I make my escape! The double doors at the head of the room burst open, and a wild man burst into the room. John instinctively grabbed his blowgun from his inside jacket, but relaxed when the man proclaimed there had been a murder. This must be the main event! He rolled up his sleeves, exposing his shiny armbands, and hopped off of his mount. "Gitout o here, Flufy," he said, "Ol John's got a cime to solve."

Ohhh, was that the game where I got role-blocked on the turn the elims forgot to kill anyone? And then it turned out I was the seeker? That was hilarious. What happened in AG4?

Good memory! I think I played in L35, too. But yeah, it's been a while. My brother recommended this, and I've played the board game, so it seemed like a good time to come back.

I am so in. I'll sign up as John "Not-A-Murderer-At-All" Smith

Yeah, but my point is that the number of elims doesn't matter. If the seer goes all game without converting someone and then converts 3 as they're about to die, it has the same impact as going all game and then converting one person as they're about to die. The village has no idea where to go next. The trail has gone cold. You don't have any "A was supporting B here. They could be on a team" because they weren't on a team until a minute ago. You're starting your search from scratch, but with half the people Sure, the elims would have less control over the lynch, but that doesn't matter a whole lot. People are pretty content to lynch each other, and if there's only one eliminator, that person is much less likely to be hit. And if the original seer does happen to survive until there are only 4 or 5 people left, they're free to convert from that small pool. It would go from 4-1 to 3-2, which has much more impact than going from 24-1 to 23-2. I'm glad you brought up coinshots. Because if a seer conserves their bribes, they're able to wait until they have a reasonable suspicion of who the coinshot is. Blowing all their conversions at the beginning means they have next to no chance of converting the coinshot.

Alright, so here's a thought I had on D1. Why should the seer convert people? After all, they can kill just as effectively without followers as with them, and not having followers means there's nothing to trace back to them. Their extra atium gives them extra lives, so even if the seer is discovered, if they're attacked, they can survive long enough to make one or two followers. And those followers don't have any suspicion on them. That would mean that instead of having a game with 25 people and 3 or 4 eliminators, you have a game with 25 people and 1 eliminator. Then after you kill that eliminator, 2 more appear. This would be a terrible outcome for the village. Less elims mean that they're far less likely to be lynched, even though they can still kill just as many people. Most of the village would be dead before they tracked down that one elim. And then they would have to start their search over, but with a quarter of the people I haven't shared this with the thread until now because I didn't want to give the seer any bright ideas. But by now, the seer already knows about the strategy or has made enough converts that it's of no use to him. If the seer did figure out this strategy (And say, intentionally didn't put in a kill N1 to make us think they converted someone,) the village needs to know that that possibility's out there. I shared this with Orlok D1. He cautioned me not to tell the thread. I've been pushing for his lynch partly because I want to know if he was converted early on and the seer knows about that strategy. I'm hoping that the seer did convert someone N1. But even if they did, they could still have another two beads of atium, having thought up the plan with their new teammate after that first night. If so, we really need to step up our game. Anyways, I'm not sure what I'll do with this info. I just wanted to get it out there. Any thoughts?