Fifth Scholar

My promised thoughts: First of all, it’s important to recognise that if we are indeed having trouble with declining player counts (which I don’t strictly believe is the case, as I’ll get to in a moment), we really have three groups we need to focus on: GMs, “regular and recurring” players, and newer players. Each of these groups ultimately have the greatest influence on activity and numbers, and any reform efforts will, I believe, have to go beyond a mere rescheduling of the games and instead incorporate ways for each of these groups to help recruit and engage players. To address each of these groups specifically: GMs Obviously, GMs have little influence on how many people actually sign up for their games, but it’s important to look at recent games which drew a lot of people as examples of “what works,” as these games tended to have similar undercurrents. For some recent examples, LG53 had 25 players, AG5 had over 30 once you factor in pinch hitters, LG49 was similar in this regard with over 25, and LG46 had 27, 29 with pinch-hitters. LG44 had 26. For all of these, I think there were common factors: -A well-known GM, with prior records of entertaining games. An exception is perhaps Steel’s LG46, which was his first game, but Steel is still well-known enough to draw people (especially with the advertising he did ). -A storyline to the game; whether a new, creative or epic setting, or a rerun of a prior well-known setting, or both, these games all had a heavy focus on RP and players got the sense a story was being told with their characters. -The game mechanics were complex but easy to grasp, or fairly simple with a few neat twists. I’d put AG5 and LG49 into the former category, and LG44, 46 and 53 into the latter. In other words, everything in the rules had a purpose. No unnecessary complexity, or difficult-to-understand wording. This is more of a principle of good design, but it’s important to note that good design exists for a reason: to attract people. So don’t disregard it. So my advice to GMs? Obviously, the first point is outside your control unless you want to start cultivating an image for yourself. But the second and third are worth bringing up. Perhaps you’re not one for writeups. That’s fine. There are a myriad of willing co-GMs eager to do them for you, and as IM I’ll even do some if you want, though they’ll be short. It’s important to remember that SE is an RP game, and we should arguably place more emphasis on it, as from historical precedent it does draw people in. Finally, when designing games, get someone to look them over quickly and informally. It doesn’t even need to be a mod or committee member to begin with; it’s easy to get someone to just check that they understood the rules on a basic level on the first read-through, and were interested in them. It takes maybe ten minutes, and can help you format rulesets to appeal to more players. Complexity isn’t bad here; confusing complexity is, and the more it’s avoided the more people you can draw. It’s worth mentioning that even these three things won’t necessarily draw a huge crowd. In my humble opinion, LG41 had all three of these positive aspects and got 17 people. As I mentioned before, you have only limited control over these things. So plan for smaller player counts. If your game doesn’t draw the people you thought you needed, it’s hopefully adaptable enough to work for the smaller numbers. If it isn’t, things might break; I know this firsthand, since all the problems in LG48 sprang from this mistake. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and continue to be the amazing people you are. Regular and recurring players You guys form the base of most of our games, and obviously therefore have the most influence on their numbers. My advice here is much shorter. First, don’t sacrifice your personal schedule to SE. Joining games when you know you for a fact you’ll go inactive or be disengaged doesn’t solve this issue; it worsens it. I’d rather see active LGs with 15 players than silent ones with 35. However, at the same time, if you know a specific time when you’ll be inactive and it isn’t too long, talk with the GM, or, depending on the convenience of such a measure, sign up as a pinch-hitter; that way, once you have time again, you can freely join. Second, give games, and GMs, the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, we all play these games to have fun, so don’t feel compelled to join any game that you have no interest in. But if a game sounds like it could be interesting, and you have the time, give it a spin! No offence to Steel or Bard, but the inherent ideas behind LG46 and MR33 didn’t particularly grab me at first, and I can say with confidence that now they’re among my favourite SE games I’ve played to date. Games might surprise you with their quality. So try them out if they seem interesting. Might as well make the GM’s job a little harder too, while you’re at it... Newer players I believe it was Steel who mentioned that the influx of new players has become insufficient to offset the regular and recurring players who are dropping thanks to IRL stuff (Drought, Steel and Ecth are leaving on missions, and others have simply stopped signing up for games). While it’s true that we aren’t getting as many newer players recently, I’m not sure that it’s an issue that’s driving down game numbers, or even much of an issue at all. Ultimately, new players will only come and stay here if they a. know about these games and b. find them interesting enough, and the community excellent enough, to remain. While point b. seems fine for now, point a. could use work, and it’s a valid argument that we don’t proselytise enough. Of the three factors, however, this is likely the one that contributes to game size the least; new players eventually become part of the “regulars,” and then my second point starts applying more regardless. It’s true that more new players becoming regular would be wonderful, and introducing them with simpler, more roleplay-heavy games (again see point 1 for advice to GMs) may be a workable approach, but ultimately it’s the existing SE community which will have to take measures to address this, if we believe it’s a problem, and any steps taken to improve the quality of games for regulars will apply to newer players as well. Other Factors: Time at which games begin, personal schedules, numbers not necessarily dropping? To conclude, as Rand mentioned, this “trend” isn’t necessarily a huge thing. It’s true that if you go back a little farther into the past, notably between AG3 and AG4, there were a lot more people in many games. Unfortunately for us now, many of those people have left SE, or gotten too busy to continue with it. We’ve already lost, and will continue to lose, longstanding community members this summer to missions. But despite historic departures, and current ones, SE will survive. Why? Because it’s not about any one player, or even a group of players. It’s about the community the games are built around, and if that remains intact, so will these games for a long time to come, regardless of who is playing, or how many. But to get refocused, declining player counts have also come with a decline (mostly) in chronic inactives and lurkers, people who perhaps drove up player counts but never contributed all that much to games. I’d argue that this is an indisputably positive development, and that greater honesty about availability has been one of the key triumphs of SE in the past year or so, minimising some of the longstanding issues with inactivity the community had in the past. Our current games typically don’t have 4-5 (or more) people that go completely silent every single game, and that’s amazing and something that should be encouraged. In a way, our current numbers could be seen as a correction of the perhaps inflated counts of a year or two ago. Speaking of schedules (and thank you Bard for that data), I’d argue again that the current drop, and many of the declines in signups for games can be traced to the time of year. While I don’t have the time or patience to comb through all the previous games around this time period, I’d attribute current low activity on the forum to the typical exam/finals craze of April and May that is gripping a perhaps slightly older student population than we had a year or two ago. If numbers remain low through June and July, I think that would be more broadly indicative of an issue, but for now I’d wait this out. Besides, I’m not sure that numbers in the low to mid teens for MRs and QFs is inherently bad. They’re meant to be quicker and slightly smaller games, so player size for both seems fairly healthy. I’d again pin blame for Steel’s LG on exam season, and perhaps the Mafia Tournament holding back prospective players. Actually Final Thoughts (TL;DR?) -A slowdown of signups may be wise, and the mods will see what we can do to ensure that everyone’s getting to participate in the games they want to. There seems to be a consensus—ish—in that direction. -Numbers, historically speaking, aren’t terribly low. -Popular games that attract players and support typically have understandable rules, and a good RP and setting. An increase in such games, and RP in general, may be welcome. -Don’t be afraid to try out games you’re ambivalent about if you have the time. -Thanks to everyone who’s participated in this conversation, as it’s ultimately you, the players, whose feedback is most important as to how we run our games.

—Bard —Elandera —Steel —Lumgol —Maill This discussion began in the GM PM, but in the interest of getting all SE players to chip in, and not just potential GMs, I’d appreciate general thoughts from anyone who wishes to have their say; any change made in the current system would affect everybody. If there’s an overall consensus in one direction or the other, however, policy could certainly be changed. I have a few thoughts myself, but don’t currently have time to express them, and will lay them out once I do.

My apologies for the interjection, but to avoid your thread getting buried after I locked up ten games, I’ve pinned the main game thread, and this thread (which will be unpinned after this comment). If you want to look back at past posts in the next day or so, that’s where to find them. Once this cycle ends, I’ll unpin the main thread if the game isn’t over. Thanks for your patience Oh, and since I might as well say it while I’m here: you have a little under 24 hours to finalise your actions

With aftermath discussion having concluded a while ago, it’s time to close the game as well. Credit goes to Bard for a smoothly run game, as both the mechanics and the writeups brought the pre-Ascension mountain setting to life. Congratulations to the village for an efficient victory, and to the Elims and the Deepness for a well-fought fight. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

Sadly, the time has come to put this game to rest. Enough thanks cannot be given to Seonid and Joe for the amount of work they put into developing, balancing, and running this Shard game, not even mentioning the wonderful writeups. Congrats to all the victorious factions, and thank you to everyone who joined and participated in Seonid’s last hurrah. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

It’s come time to preserve this QF for the ages. Thank you to Sart, whose simple ruleset, combined with the flavourful setting and writeups, made for a tense and entertaining game. It was fascinating watching different players’ approaches to the defences available, and to the alliance system the game fostered, and these well-designed mechanics certainly contributed to the game’s enjoyability. Finally, congratulations, Droughtbringer, for your victory, and good luck on your mission! Stay safe and rejoin us in a year or two. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

Though more recent, this game has gone silent long enough to be closed up. Thanks to Straw for a well-run repeat of LG39; the simplicity of the conversion ruleset lent itself to an engaging game, and Itiah, Maill and Karnatheon are to be credited for their win. It was interesting watching both the very oldest and most recent SE players unite to overcome the village, despite the inactivity sadly present within the game. Thank you to all who gave this game a try; we couldn’t do any of SE without all of your support. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

Having ended over four months ago, it’s high time this game was closed up. Despite its slightly broken nature, with the experimental mechanics failing in some places, I’d like to extend an enormous thank you to all who participated in this game and gave it a try, and an additional, equally large thank you to Elandera for her considerable support throughout the game. Congratulations to the Forsaken and Agents for an efficient victory, and to the village for putting up a good fight. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

With aftermath discussion long since having died off, this game is ready to be closed up. Half a hundred LGs is quite the milestone for SE, and it’s fitting that Wyrm’s return fall on such an occurrence. Thanks go to him for his flawlessly run game, and especially his beautiful writeups, which brought Elendel to life through the editorials, advertisements, and columns of the broadsheets. As for the players, congratulations belong to all sides for a hard-fought battle, with the village narrowly prevailing in the end largely thanks to the activity of Araris and the analysis of Orlok. While activity was lower within the thread, it was refreshing to have very active spectator and Eliminator docs, a trend which hopefully continues past this game. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

(Hopefully) returning to a more consistent schedule of locking up games, it’s time to close this QF up as well. Thank you to Brightness and Lopen for an interesting and smoothly run game, and congratulations to the Rightful Rulers on your clean sweep victory. While activity could have perhaps been higher among the village, this was still a fun game to watch and has potential to be rerun someday. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

It’s been over six months since this game finished () so it’s probably a good time to preserve it for the ages. Dark!Joe delivered a wonderful game, the writeups making the story of Elantris come to life in Darkness’ signature humour, and Joe’s mechanics, inventive as always, driving the game in new directions. The village and Elim teams both displayed tenacity and spirit throughout, each vying for control, and although the Elims took this one, all players are to be commended for their efforts. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

As it’s been about half a year since this game began, it’s time to close it up. Many, many thanks to Wilson, Orlok and El for their hard work developing, balancing and running this incredibly complex game, especially doing so on the fly and often with little time. I think it’s needless to say that everybody who joined this game had an excellent time, with the plotting and behind-the-scenes manipulation keeping everything tense. Moreover, it was wonderful watching all the quality RP put out by players throughout the game, both in-thread and in docs. Congratulations are in order to Jasnah and Wit for completing all of their win conditions (particularly Wit for coming out of the mess alive), and to all the players who nearly accomplished everything. And to all who participated, regardless of how many win conditions they fulfilled, thank you for being an active part of our games. We couldn’t do it without you all. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

Having been quite a while since this game finished up, it’s time to lock it up for posterity. Seeing an unfamiliar format brought to SE as a QF was certainly intriguing, and it’s a pleasure to see that it was a success, even if these games aren’t regularly incorporated. Thanks are due to Hero for running both of these Deception games, and thanks are due to the players for being willing to give them a shot. Congrats to both teams of investigators for their victory, and to the assassins and their conspirators for two well-fought games. As always, if anyone would like to try their hand at running a game, please get ahold of Wilson, Orlok, Alvron or myself. 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 (Elbereth, Amanuensis, Aonar Faileas, A Joe in the Bush, or Stink) 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!

Rysca felt the highstorm coming. But then, she always could. The black sky, with its small white sun, lightened as the storm approached. Floating above the sea of beads, objects and places of the Physical Realm, she saw the flickering pillars of flame, the small, inconsequential humans, gathering and fleeing as the physical storm hit them. She frowned at a few of them. The outer edge of their flames were tinged with red, a mark of one too long in Odium’s employ. Were she still to have access to the Physical Realm, they would pay dearly. But aside from the Stormfather’s prohibition on Nahel bonds, there were...a multitude of other reasons why Rysca would not seek such privileges. Screams from the past, her own and others, greeted her. She quickly shut them out, refocusing. The stormwall came into focus, and it awed her for a moment, as it always did. The Stormfather at its head, and the flickering remnant of Honour’s Perpendicularity, were enough to make any spren amazed, even here with the blurred sight of the Cognitive Realm. Then, as again it always did, the disappointment and loss hit. Honour shattered, and this mere fragment wandering endlessly around Shadesmar, giving the people of Roshar a false hope. The Stormfather himself certainly looked weary, even wearier than normal, as he drew alongside Rysca. YOU SENSE MY WEARINESS, DAUGHTER? the voice came. As always, it was never aloud, but came directly into her Spiritual Aspect. It had certainly been a fright the first few times it had happened, and Rysca still viewed each conversation as...well, an honour, but she had adapted well enough by now. She’d also learned that the Stormfather talked often enough with highspren, especially former Radiant spren, so she turned herself to the currents of the storm and stayed alongside him. Yes, Father, she sent back. If I may be so bold, I’d say you were fighting a war. She instantly cringed. Of course he was fighting constantly against the enemy. She braced for the explosion, or lecture, but neither came. Instead, a far-off rumbling was audible even to the Cognitive Realm. A sigh filtered through into her consciousness. IT IS A WAR, ALBEIT ONE I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD FIGHT NOW. DAUGHTER, AN UNMADE TRAILS THE HIGHSTORM, SEEKING TO PREY ON SPREN WHICH FOLLOW IN ITS WAKE. IT IS A DANGER TO SHADESMAR, AND I MUST FIND AND VANQUISH IT. “Not alone, you can’t,” Rysca whispered. “I, for one, will aid you in this task.” Rysca the highspren looks to vanquish Unmade, and to bond a new Radiant. As such, she’s obviously not missing out on this game.

Feels nice to have my “real” account back. Thanks to Joe and Gaea—this was a very fun game, if a little hectic at times. My apologies to Elandera and Lumgol, and the others I tunnelled onto; my tendency to distrust roleclaims might have gone a bit far, but it seems as though everything worked out in the end. And congrats to the Spammers for fighting it out to the bitter end; you were dealt a poor hand at times, but you still made the most of it. Also props to @Alvron for his gambit during C3–if that had been successful, it would have turned the tables.

Hmm. I get the points against Walin, but something about the lynch feels...too easy, in my brain. I dunno, could be my paranoia but I get the feeling we’re seriously missing something. I’ve got spring break this week, and I really hope that means I can bare down and give the thread a good, thorough reread from top to bottom instead of sort of blindly stabbing, which is what I feel I’m doing now.

(Or it could be that Bard is lying, but...I doubt Bard would use his kill against Kidpen, an easy mislynch, if he was a Spammer.) I’m curious why we’re ignoring Araris, potentially at our own peril. The schedule of the Spammers not killing aligns roughly with his activity, and his roleclaim can be easily proven if he’s not a Spambot by simply lynching him.

The OoA currently shows that Babaji can only place orders on weekends. That’s what I was basing my assumptions off of.

Alv used his kill N2 and died before N3 hit, and his abilities only work on weekends.

Nobody JOE’d me. Looking back at the rules, if the Spammers converted somebody, they did do it N1. I think @Elandera was trying to make this point earlier, and I misunderstood her because I hadn’t read the rules carefully enough (sorry!). In that case, Walin is out as a convert unless Joe trolled by putting him in as a Spammer. I’m a bit less worried about that, though. With this information, it should hopefully be much easier to narrow down a convert, as if the Elims did select someone, it was based solely on D1 information. Knowing this, I’ll give D1 a reread at some point today if I can. However, I find the possibility of no convert whatsoever also likely. My points against a N1 conversion still stand, and if the Elims has held off that one round, they would have been unable to convert until N3 (because Alv killed N2), which explains some of the desire for Alv to tie up the lynch with a ton of people—it maximised his chances of getting the conversion off N3 in the one cycle he had left to live.

Keeping turns at 48 hours may be best. Discussion is still moving, if slightly slower, and speeding it up might bury it again. Also, Ada’s vote on himself was my doing—that was what I drew with Roleplayer last round. Still yet to see what I get tonight.

If you JOEs are converting people tonight somebody please target Araris. I’d like to lynch him without the cost of failure being “we lose on a technicality.” I too am slightly concerned about Steel, but feel that looking into suspicious roleclaims might get us further. In my mind, that includes yours (no offence, but you have claimed three roles which were already public/confirmable by the time you claimed them, though you’re certainly past being my top suspect), Walin’s (nothing), Araris’ (seems almost to be daring us to lynch him, a bluff we should probably call at some point), and Aman’s (has somebody actually confirmed that his thing works?). After that I’d scrutinise Itiah and CadCom, and perhaps Xino. By this logic, if an OG Spammer is left and is not Snip, the order of suspicion is probably 1) Araris 2) Walin 3) Elandera/Ada (could easily bump these down if I get confirmation, and I’m reading both as village right now regardless. Just trying to stick to my above logic) 4) Xino 5) CadCom/Itiah?

Hmm. Snip’s response seems...genuine, and is part of what’s driving my hesitancy in lynching through the inactives. It might also be noted that it’s easy for people to jump on inactive lynches without indicting themselves, and that the Eliminators sacrificing a kill or two to focus attention on them for a lynch or two might be a cost/benefit that pays off, not even mentioning the possibility of kills being blocked by protection roles. If I block out my paranoia, though, there’s really nobody I have left to suspect that isn’t at least somewhat inactive, so I’m going to reluctantly accept Snipexe’s offer. The lynch isn’t going anywhere in the next ~4 hours, and I’d really rather not to have to contend with this paranoia later in the game. If we do weed out the inactives now, it’ll hopefully be easier later on, especially if Bard keeps killing. We just have to be careful that focus on lesser-active players doesn’t diminish the quantity of analysis we do on others. Also, who had that list of roleclaims? It might be worth digging back up and updating.

...blegh, I really don’t know what’s wrong with me this game; I feel as though I simply can’t focus enough as things stand, though I have given a brief reread to the Alv lynch. Unfortunately, the pretence of creating a tie rendered most of my analysis on that a little bit useless; there could be spammers hiding almost anywhere in that lynch. I don’t think the Alv voters are really cleared, though. Would it not be better for our Crusader to take out Snip? He’s definitely qualified to do so, and if he doesn’t Snip, or the Crusader themselves, could be easily lynched the next day. I’m still of the opinion that an inactive lynch will kill discussion in here, which is exactly what we don’t need as we near an endgame. Araris’ claim would be nice to test, but to give him the benefit of the doubt lynching him this cycle might not be best. Plus, it’ll give you Joe faction people a chance to convert him in the case that he’s being truthful. I’m leaving my vote on Itiah for now, as his roleclaim seems...hmm. I’m not sure, exactly, but it almost seems designed to fit what we already know about the roles, and in that sense is too perfect? I’m sort of struggling to define my issue with it (clearly), but until it’s proven I don’t really trust it much. Hopefully more content tonight. Someone please ping me if I don’t post something decent in the next ~16 hours. Edit: Itiah, actually, as I misread the roleclaim. It removes votes, which should be easily testable, not protection, which isn’t. (In case you can’t tell, this is sleepy!Fifth posting.) @I think I am here., if you could nullify my vote this cycle, that would be nice.

Worth noting that if we still mostly trust Ada, he can check this for us. I like this idea, and feel that regardless of potential safety concerns, it would be nice if our Crusader could step forward. It could also be that with an inactive teammate, the Crusader is forced to send in kills on low-active or suspected players. That still doesn’t really explain what happened with Rathmaskal though, given that I killed him, am neither Spambot nor Crusader, and that there were no other kills. Hmm. I feel an inactive lynch...isn’t the way to go today, as it might just kill discussion. There’s plenty of content left to analyse from amongst active players, and in about 12 hours I’ll hopefully discuss some of my suspicions regarding Bard and Elandera. (Might also glance through Kidpen and Drought’s content.)