Arraenae

Thoughts on Straw, because he has a lot of votes now. Probably will not get to thoughts on Karnage before I have to sleep. Beware lots of posts below. Verdict: I want to keep Straw alive. He's an active player prodding info out of reticent players and he's reminding me of some of the old guard. The sheer amount of reads he's putting out reads as mildly villagery, too, and I think discussion will be benefited a lot by keeping him alive to talk. If he winds up being that much of a threat to the constables, they'll probably end up killing him, and if not, we can take a closer look at him. Sart. I disagree with what he says about Straw, and between Karnage and Sart, the RNG picked Sart. Sorry, not sorry. I know ties end with both parties being lynched. Guess the posters after me are really going to be able to make the choice, eh? Consider this a Chinese Fire Drill of sorts.

@Orlok Tsubodai you should know that PMs in this game are a single message to one person per cycle, which doesn't allow for quality communication no matter how much people miss you. People are probably conserving their single PM for later, in case true need pops up.

Okay so maybe it's time to actually read the rules. Fair warning, like last game I'm still doing everything voice typing, so you might see more typos and grammar mistakes than you'd expect out of me, because Google Docs voice typing has a tendency to misinterpret my words. If I sound a lot more casual this game, it's probably because of that. Here at the win cons, as best as I've been able to sort out: Criminals: disperse the party with no constables left in it AND do not let Winsting die, OR have all constables and Bleeder dead. Bleeder: kill Flogs and then Winsting in that order, AND do not let the party disperse before then. Constables: have at least one member of their team alive when the party is dispersed, AND do not let Winsting die. 5th Octant Constable: have at least one member of their team alive when the party is disbursed, AND do not let Winsting die, AND find a way for Dowser to die. Dowser: disperse the party with no constables left in it AND do not let Winsting die, OR have all constables and Bleeder dead. AND find a way for the 5th Octant Constable to die. Almost everybody wants Winsting to stay alive. It's much easier for Winsting to stay alive if Floggs never dies, because if there is no Winsting then Winsting cannot be killed. Bleeder winning means that everyone else loses, so it might be worth it for the criminals and the constables to work together to keep Winsting Alive. Bleeder could work with the constables to keep enough of them alive that the party doesn't get disbursed too quickly, but this would be a one-way partnership because bleeder cannot win with the constables, and everybody knows that, so whatever partnership they make, if they do make one, will inevitably end with one of them backstabbing the other, because they cannot both win. Unlike all the other constables, who want the party to disperse early, the fifth octant Constable doesn't want it to disburse too early, because otherwise Dowser might still be alive. Because of this, they'll be working against the constables a bit, at least until Dowser is dead. It's entirely possible that a fifth octant Constable might end up acting like a villager up until they’re sure that Dowser is dead, at least when it comes to votes to disperse the party. Dowser on the other hand, does not work against the criminals nearly as much. As a criminal, Dowser needs all the constables to be dead before the party disperses. The 5th Octant Constable is one particular constable, which means that they're far more likely to kill them before the party disperses if they act like a normal villager. In total, the constables and Bleeder have weird wincons, while the criminals don't really. For the criminals, this works out exactly like a normal game if they focus on getting both the constables and Bleeder dead. I think the only time where calling for dispersing the party would be optimal would be if the criminals are certain that all constables are dead, and that they have no way to find Bleeder.

I'm looking to play, yeah. Probably should've said that more explicitly.

@Lord_Silberfarben and @Experience "Lord Silberfarben, of the house Silberfarben, if that's not obvious enough for you. And you are..." the man said. Arielle dipped in a curtsy. It was as up-to-date to current social rituals as she knew it, one of the many things that she had practiced before putting on her costume. “I am lady Arielle DuPont, of the house DuPont,” she said. At the exact same moment, another man said, "My lady. What is it that you need?" His clothes looked extremely familiar, reminding her of a scam that she pulled just a few days ago. Could it be… Arielle swore internally. Not Lord Hastings! What if he recognized her? She had to get out of here. Arielle forced a vapid giggle. “So many gentlemen,” she said, leaning back and fanning her face a little. “Why, a lady might be overwhelmed at such attention. I am honored to make your acquaintance. I seek nothing today but a little direction. You see, I hail from New Seran, and have become a little lost on the streets. Mayhap you gentlemen know where I might find Dampmere Park?”

Lady Arielle prowled outside the perimeter of Lord Winsting's mention, assessing the area for weak points. The walls of the mansion were built out of small blocks of stone, interlaced so smoothly that it would be difficult for a common thief to climb up to the windows. The roofs were topped with forbidding spikes to discourage entering from the skylights. Guards patrolled at every entrance. For a common thief, this would be an unmanageable job. But "Lady Arielle" was no common thief. She had an invitation. Had nicked it from the mail of Lord Hastings before he had even known he was invited. Now, she had a chance to take the Woman in Ash for herself. Lord Winsting was rumored to be a fine painter, who frequently sold his works for thousands upon thousands of boxings. The art world was enthralled by him. He was compared to the Greats, and all other Lords & Ladies of the city clamored to buy his work. Arielle had never actually seen his paintings, since they all were sold to private collections, but she was sure that they were masterpieces. With one of Lord Winston's paintings, she could live the rest of her life and luxury. A stranger passed by the street, one who Ariel hadn't seen before. They certainly looked rich enough to have been invited to Lord Winsting's auction. Perhaps she could start looking for more marks, once she finished her current job. She adjusted the opening of her overcoat, showing off a lavish dress with a tight bodice, then called out to the stranger. “Hello! Who is this that I have the fine pleasure of meeting today?” Free for anyone to respond. Please quote or mention me so I can get back to you faster.

Well, I had a good time impersonating people in the dead doc. There were a lot of people with low activity whose colors I could steal to nudge the conversation one way or another. @Sart, no hard feelings on the bus. You had to make a snap decision when no one else was on.

Oh, fine. Aman. @Kidpen I don't think Xino's code thing is necessarily suspicious. Feels like the type of thing someone would say if they want to feel clever with codes, in any alignment.

If we're slapping on poke votes, I might as well go with Aman. @Amanuensis, hi.

I thought Joe ran QF16?

Hello hello everyone. I haven't been around here for a while. Just a heads up, I've been dealing with a repetitive strain injury in my hands for a while, so I'm going to be using voice typing for most of this. If you see me post something completely nonsensical, feel free to ask for clarification. Voice typing misinterprets my words a lot. I actually disagree with Elkanah’s statement that knives should be saved until the end. Generally, vigilante kills are very very swingy. Using a knife at the end of the game, when there are far fewer players, is significantly riskier than using it in the start or the middle of the game. At the end of the game, the wrong knife kill can put the village into a state of LyLo, where they must kill an eliminator this turn or lose. Comparatively, at the start and the middle of the game, there are still a lot of other bodies left. If you use a knife at the end of the game, you should be very sure that the person you are killing is an eliminator. The last time that I played, it was usual for protection rolls to initially protect either people who were very active in leading the discussion, players who because of their reputation were likely to be killed quickly, or themselves. I don't know if the meta for eliminator kills has shifted, but if it hasn’t, then this is probably still a safe bet. Not sure there's anything to say about silver powder. You have it or you don't. It's a completely passive item, so there aren’t many choices to make with it. @Straw, some questions. Which of these situations are allowed: Shade A types something. Shade B edits Shade A's text. Shade A types something. Shade B edits Shade A's text. Shade A edits Shade B's edits. Shade A types something. Shade B steals Shade A's formatting and types something elsewhere in the doc pretending to be Shade A. Shade A types something in one format. They insert a section in the middle with a different type of formatting pretending to have been someone else. I'm confused at how the whole Shade doc works.

Sign me up as Resourceful Smythe.

Dang, this sounds fun. Really don't have the time to play, though. Sign me up for the spec doc!

Congrats to @Burnt Spaghetti and @StrikerEZ for winning the passes! If anybody has any non-Sanderson games they want to run, now's a good time to advertise them to me. I can't guarantee that I'll be looking at the Art of Game Creation thread much, so pitch your ideas while I'm still here. I'm surprised that nobody picked up on my identity -- I wasn't attempting to hide it at all, and in fact have been blabbing about Destiny in a lot of other places before and while this game was going. I was really surprised that @A Joe in the Bush thought I might be a mod. Apparently all I need to do to seem authoritative is use a different font, eh? @Elandera @Straw @DeTess @Snipexe, since you have all (fortunately or not) made comments about being familiar with Destiny, I'm going to PM you and see if we can exchange usernames. I can't promise actual activity in that due to wrist and elbow issues, but it's always nice to expand friends lists with familiar people.

Watch out for this one. She betrayed her last House #venture #neverforget #stillsalty

Sign me up for the spec doc.

Above the deliberations of the elves, above the lost human messenger, above the dwarf stuffing himself with refreshments, above the mad hobbit brandishing a knife, a small drone hovered behind a pillar, watching the proceedings. It was the size of a fist, shaped like two triangular pyramids intersecting each other. From its center, a small screen blinked with blue light. SCAN PROGRESS 100% It whirred appreciatively as it processed the results. This continent, called Middle-Earth by the locals, held many bodies: dead, decaying things, some barely more than dust. Most were buried, a strong signifier for the quality of people here, that they would care to do such a thing. Some of these bodies jumped out to the drone, flagged by the scan. Light poured from them, overwhelming in its amount, the way that a previously dark room was blinding after the LED grid overhead was turned on. It flooded the little drone's sensors, reading as everything from gamma rays to visible color to AM. And the music! Oh, the music. Its blue eye closed in an emoted sigh of joy. Each of those flagged bodies whispered something to the little drone, each giving off a fragment of a sound that it felt it could coalesce into a great harmony -- that would coalesce into a great harmony, if not for a dim, discordant sound that could be most directly compared to the braying of an out-of-tune trumpet. It sounded like the choirs of heaven. It sounded like the ocean. The little drone pulled up files of all 304 flagged bodies. It could raise one of these people. It could take one of them, great hero or kindly peasant, and bring them back to life, strengthening their ember into a flare. It could share its Light with them. For the first time in centuries, it wouldn't have to be alone. But it could not bring back their Music, and that would be as much of a tragedy as leaving these bodies here. The people of this world had something special humming within their soul, and the little drone would not take it from them. It made its decision. Its camera and audio sensors, put on low-power mode, flared to life. TYPE: INTELLIGENCE GATHERING PARTIES: Sixteen [16]. ASSOCIATIONS: Arda; Middle-Earth [Arda]; Humans; Elves; Dwarves; Hobbits The little drone listened in. In other words, sign me up for the spec doc. Wish I could play but with the number of big projects I have due this month, that would be a terrible idea.

All hail Lord Elberond!

At this point I can't even tell if the reference is intentional or not.

...after all this time? Even four years later?

For me, what helps in creating an RP character here is finding some quirk or other noticeable thing that I can stick to for most of the game. This type of thing helps your character stand out across the dozens of posts per cycle. It's harder to plan for character arcs when you can die at any moment, though sometimes it's still worth a shot. Good examples of this were Asterion's PTSD and Zhier's glitter thing. Then to make them feel more like a person, throw in a few other traits. Making your character interaction-friendly can also help a lot. If your character will react to things in fun ways, then others will want to interact with things. I played a lot off of dramatic irony with Joon's interest in Ellira, and a layer of irony on top of that with Joon being the EO despite acting so clueless and out of place. If you can pull something like that, it tends to increase reader enjoyment a lot.

Good to see that I had everyone convinced I was village even after I flipped. I'll be honest, part of the reason why I did it was also because I'd spent so long setting Joon up as the most incompetent buffoon ever. It was just too tempting. Y'all can blame El for that, with all the comments she made about Joon. I let my playstyle change so drastically on the last cycle because Elandera's name was bandied around so much, and I didn't know she had an extra life, so I didn't want the lynch to hit her and thought that I might be able to draw aggro by acting different. Not that anybody seemed to notice...

Stink. This will probably be my vote for the cycle.

I don't think Itiah is the spy. Mostly because of wrong things in their post here: At this time, I was undeclared as the EO. Also, El was village. The spy would also know that Elandera is an elim, and it just seems off for the spy to use an elim's gut read to vote on a villager? Could be misdirection, but it implies trust in Elandera that a spy wouldn't have. Stink is still a maybe? He's 2/3 for votes on elims, which is pretty good. I also kind of felt like Stink was lying low this game more than usual -- maybe he was making a conscious effort to survive? Warning: I haven't played with Stink in a long time so take that with a grain of salt.

Good question. The more a Forgery deviates from the original, the less likely it is to stick...