DrakeMarshall

Well hello everybody. @Araris Valerian that was a little rude given how I was lynched C1 the last game I played. And I clearly hadn't deserved it in that game, now, had I? Regardless. I feel bad about voting on the person who so far has made the biggest discussion in the game. But, Steeldancer. I have a feeling. I quite wish I had more to say than that, but, well, it is the beginning of the game. I suppose "a feeling" is about as good as we can hope for this early.

I'll sign up, sure. I shall be called Jay. Ostensibly the new librarian for Luthadel's royal library, despite being illiterate. Welcome to Sanderson Elimination! Have an upvote. Roleplay is not required, and there are definitely some veteran players who basically don't do any roleplay. Those of us who do roleplay just do it to entertain each other and ourselves. If roleplaying isn't your cup of tea, feel absolutely free to abstain from it. (If on the other hand you do want to get involved, feel free to do that too) Considering the fact that you have experience in other forum mafia games, I'd say you'll probably be fine starting with an LG, if that's what you want to do. It might be a little different from what you are used to, but I'd bet that you would do just fine.

That's a good point, but it's a double-edged one. By the same reasoning, it wouldn't functionally mess with distributions very much if a rule made this effect official, since it's already unofficially in play. Especially considering the fact that eliminators don't typically target inactives in the first place. Also considering the fact that some setups explicitly give abilities to players who are active in-game, to encourage activity. I agree that this would alter the balance of games, but the change is small and I believe that if a game was designed with this factor in mind, it would not be an issue. Alternately, what if an inactive player was restricted from playing LGs, until they were active in a smaller-scale game? I realize that this game is a QF, and it suffered from significant inactivity. But, in general, I would say LGs are much more at risk to inactivity, and that it is probably hurt the most by inactivity. In this case, the door would be left wide open for an inactive to start being active again, with no delay involved. But there would still be enough of a penalty that inactivity would be discouraged. What I'm basically going for is a way to limit inactive players, without straight-up banning them (albeit a temporary ban). I believe the former will foster participation, where the latter, even in a temporary form, runs the risk of pushing some people away. And while pragmatically speaking, that may be acceptable, it isn't desirable.

Hmmmmm the roleclaiming thing would be a problem yeah. Temporary bans is an acceptable solution, but I can’t shake the feeling that there should be a better way.

Why do flies exist? (you aren't allowed to say "to feed spiders" because spiders exist to eat flies)

You raise a good point about role distributions. At least tentatively, what I had in mind is that this measure wouldn’t change role distribution at all, at least not directly. If it’s an all-vanilla game or a role-madness game, this measure wouldn’t change anything. If there are more probationary players than there are slots for vanilla roles, then some probationary players would still get power roles. But in the average game, a player in this position would recieve a vanilla role until they played an active game. Something like the hazekiller role from LG34 would probably count as vanilla for the purposes of this, though I envision this being a matter of GM discretion.

I didn’t sign up for this game, so maybe my stepping in with my $0.02 is a signal that this could be moved to the meta thread... But I feel like banning people may be a little extreme. I understand where you’re coming from. It’s a little irresponsible to claim you will have time for a game and then not participate. But I don’t think banning is the optimal solution. How do you improve your activity if you are no longer allowed to play? I’ll also point out that every now and then a normally very active player who we wouldn’t want to ban can go inactive. If we wanted to implement some sort of inactivity deterrent over multiple games, then I suggest it be a measure that still leaves it open for said player to become active. For example, one possible alternative to outright banning (one of many, mostly just the one that popped into my head) is to give an player a sort of “probationary” period following a game of inactivity. Until they participated actively in a game, they would always be either vanilla town or vanilla elim (unless it was a true role madness game). This incentivizes activity somewhat, while allowing you to step back into the game with little difficulty if you really want to. It also means thaf if the game is balanced around a certain role, the person that holds it will probably be active, resulting in more balanced games. Personally, I believe it would make sense to adopt this measure, but if somebody else has a different take on this please speak up. Another possible alternative is to avoid placing any rules whatsoever against inactivity, and encourage activity through means other than rules. Reaching out to people in PM is probably a great start, although honestly we should still do that even if the above is adopted. However, if we were going to take this route and succeed, we’d really need to step it up in how we reach out to inactives. If we wanted to do this, then there should never be a case where somebody falls inactive and they don’t get a PM from either their GM, mod, or both, asking politely what’s going on and encouraging participation. That would be the bare minimum I think, if it were to make an appreciable difference. And finally, one last note. One cause of inactivity is that players who know they can’t be active will still sometimes sign up to flesh out a game’s numbers, because the GM has set a minimum for the game to run. I recommend that GMs start making games that can take a more flexible number of players. That would help things considerably and it wouldn’t be too difficult. That post ended up being longer than I expected... Kind of a bother to type up on a cell phone. Still, I feel like somebody needed to comprehensively address the issue, even if that someone didn’t play this game.

I'm seeing a lot of people in agreement here but I'll throw my $0.02 on the heap. Kaladin as Soldier versus Percy with mark of Achilles: Percy wins with little difficulty. Kaladin as First Ideal versus Percy with mark of Achilles: Close fight, odds somewhat favor Kaladin. Every other possible matchup: Kaladin curbstomps Percy.

I have a feeling that abrasion+tension could be seriously cool, if tension works anything like I think it does. Alternately I second the notion of gravitation+abrasion, because imo those two are the coolest surges and together they would be awesome. Weaponizing aside, the raw mobility that combination would grant would make you ridiculously hard to pin down.

Certainly. I’ve been wanting to test these copper scalpels...

I refer to the noble. Might I recommend surgically removing their memories with a copper spike, then letting them go along their way?

Hmmmm... Hehehe I’ve always wanted to try this idea... How about a straight forgery? Give the lifeless an essence mark to remake it as needed... Yes, I think this might produce some valuable servants... I shall begin experimentation immediately. You are, naturally, free to pursue the essence spike route. If you do, it could be a little race to see who infiltrates the hemalurgy-free bakery first. Time to retrieve my malatium cache. But first, we better incarcerate the fellow from the hemalurgy free bakery who may have been overhearing our plans. Can’t have a warning getting out now, can we?

Nah in the hemalurgy-free bakery. If they have a thing against hiring undead, then we can hardly send lifeless to infiltrate them, see.

Hmmm maybe. Depends on if the bakery imposes significant regulations against using undead labor or not.

If you are set upon infiltrating the hemalurgy free bakery, I might offer one of my lifeless... They are exquisitely well controlled, being subject both to a sophisticated set of commands and the dictates of rioting/soothing their spikings. And the majority of my lifeless wouldn't be recognized as dark alley denizens. You'd just need to figure out a way to color their skin in a way that looks convincing. Alternately, I could probably point you towards some of the eldritch abominations that are known to adopt human form occasionally. That could work too, but it might take more paperwork to arrange, since humanoid abominations have more rights than the non-humanoid types.

I'll bid seven of my friends' souls. After I have ascertained that these spikes are of the quality you say they are, of coarse. Well, we can try to improve the quality of our baked goods. I recently discovered a rather excellent recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. Alternately, a spiked croissant d'amande is absolutely sublime.

In exchange for a cookie, yes. Or a pancake. I'm quite fond of hemalurgic pancakes.

Spike another member and take their place ask Voidus to add you to the roster. I really ought to publish some of my findings on how various types of Nalthian lifeless are altered by consuming baked goods. It's particularly efficient if you create the spike from a living subject, and then place the spike in the resultant lifeless.

Hmmmm reading Oathbringer has been very interesting in light of the LG I have waiting in line. Some of my speculations were more or less correct and can be left as-is. Some of what I have learned means I will be changing it a bit.

Ummm I just got back and I'm really confused. I've been travelling all of today and I started reading Oathbringer I don't really understand half of these votes, but I'm 100% down to be involved in a tie. SO carry on. I'm not sure how good ties are in the late game, but they make loads of sense for early lynches.

...and the discussion has kind of died out. I fully understand why we wouldn’t share our analysis of house focii in the open. But for the sake of an interesting game, I hope people are discussing / have discussed this in the house docs.

LOL I just realized we have another day left in the cycle. That removes some of my previous sense of urgency. I have time to do a mostly-coherent analysis for today's lynch. It also lets me continue RP: Belmark Entrone strode out of the Canton of Finance, much as he was before, his skaa following close behind. His dealings had taken some time, and night had recently fallen. The mists were particulalarly thick. Naturally, Belmark did not fear them; that was just a foolish skaa superstition engineered by the nobility to discourage unwarranted travel among the skaa. Now that his business upon arrival was complete, it was time to return to Keep Entrone. It had been several years since he had last visited the place. He was raised in Luthadel, of coarse, but typically House Entrone required some members to oversee things in the Northern Dominance. The only reason he had returned to Luthadel was to help present a united front in the event of a house war. Belmark did not conceal his distaste for Luthadel. It was, at the root of it, entirely too dirty. However, the city did offer certain advantages. This was the place he had first mastered his allomancy. It was the place he had first forged connections with the Canton of Finance, which had been a thoroughly profitable arrangement. It was also the place where House Entrone would host countless balls in its great keep in a show of extreme ostentation. The city may be poorly kept, but it was also undeniably the seat of power, for both House Entrone and the Final Empire in general. As Belmark strolled through a large, mist-filled square, his ponderings were disturbed as he nearly ran into a stranger, who was apparently waiting in the center of the square and squinting at a hefty looking book. @Doc12, if you want to do some RP now, I leave the opportunity open. Otherwise Belmark will continue along his way.

Luthadel, the Final Empire, 1011 in the year of our Lord Ruler Belmark Entrone had finally arrived. He disembarked from his carriage, noting the soft fall of ash surrounding him. He walked purposefully towards the Commercial District, for there he had an impending appointment with the Canton of Finance. He examined a report from a settlement back north, not really looking where he was going. Fifty four crates of squash. Check. Entrone's appearance was nearly surreal, a glaring incongruity with the grimy, ash-coated streets surrounding him. He wore a creme-colored coat over an immacculately white shirt with a pressed collar and a pair of silver-aluminum alloyed cufflinks, and below an equally spotless set of trousers. His black hair was greased and parted neatly down the right side, and a single skaa tailed him with a parasol to shelter him from the lightly falling ash. Thirty and none glass daggers forged. Check. A house war was undoubtedly brewing. That was, obviously, why he had returned from the northern dominance: to consolidate House Entrone's power. There were allies to be made, informants and obligators to be bribed, favors to be called in... And possibly traitors to be purged. Luthadel, for all its disgusting sluminess, still had quite the flair for intrigue. Belmark stepped carefully over the body of a fallen beggar, a disapproving frown appearing on his face. He did not tolerate distractions of this sort back in the Northern Dominance. Skaa population increase of sixteen. Surplus of three to be transferred to surrounding settlements. Check. Belmark had arrived at the square in front of the Canton of Finance. The front was well maintained and imposingly large. Belmark was precisely four minutes early, as he had planned to be. He motioned for his skaa to open the door. Inside, a low-ranking obligator greeted him. Entrone smirked. The tattoos looked fresh; he was speaking to a new recruit. "Belmark Entrone, here on appointment," Entrone explained in an ever-so-slightly condescending tone. He waited patiently, keeping a smile pasted on his face that bespoke no real joy. "I have business with Prelan Damworth." Heart of Darkness, anyone? Also, does a single 400 word RP count the same as a pair of 200 word RPs does, or no? (I realize the above isn't quite 400 words in any case, but the question still stands) @Bugsy6912 I think I understand... If we can't put together a different D1 lynch though, you honestly might as well lynch me to keep the game moving (that said, I can promise a level of activity that should keep things moving if you keep me alive). Any other thoughts? I'm gonna think a little more about this... But, I guess I'll go with Bugsy for now. I'm still thinking a lot about the implications of house focii. It might be advantageous to initiate diplomatic relations with some of the houses.

Right, I'm here now. I was rather busy before 'cause I had to finish this paper on Julian of Norwich. I am now officially on break, so I have time to play this game (and also read Oathbringer) Let me catch up on the thread. Will have more to say very soon. Well then. I am caught up, I think. I agree that we should probably focus on catching skaa... But, to be realistic, I will note that everyone will claim to want this early in the game (a bit like the Alethi-Parshendi joint win in MR23). Time will tell who really means what they say, and who was lying. That said, the things that gain a house favor are also the things that kill skaa. So... I don't think the houses are in direct competition. Rather, we are simply trying to see which of us can kill skaa faster than the other. A house war probably isn't the best play unless you are really, really desperate. I note an early spurt of votes on me. Most interesting. The first one, from phattemer, I completely understand. It is a poke vote to get the game moving, and I applaud the notion (although unless you have serious reason to keep the vote on me, I will point out that you have succeeded in drawing me into the conversation). The second one, from Bugsy, seems like straight bandwagonning, and while I understand that we need a D1 lynch, I refuse to be on the recieving end of that unless you can present me with some kind of proper reason for it. I will not retract my vote if you retract yours on me. I will retract my vote if you better explain yours on me. @Bugsy6912 I don't think we should wait for a mistborn to solve our problems. But I think we've probably chewed Road out enough for that remark already, so I'll leave it at that. I need to catch up with my house, now. I've been bombarding Drought with questions about house focii, and I need to share my results. Also I want to do some RP. I have an interesting concept for my character. EDIT: Anybody want to collaborate for some RP? You'll have some idea of what my character is like after I finish his debut. @DroughtBringer are we allowed to create PMs that are purely for RP coordination (which would still include GMs)? (I'm sorry for all my questions )

Break is a most excellent thing.