Fifth Scholar

Wonderful. Since I don’t think there’s much political wrangling to be done, I encourage @Jondesu, @Crimsn-Wolf and @Orlok Tsubodai to send in actions sooner rather than later. I will be putting mine in presently. It’s been a great game, Jondesu. While I wish you were dead a few cycles back, I’ve enjoyed competing with you the past few rounds, and if I die tonight I’ll be content if you take the Ffnord throne. Orlok, I’m kind of surprised we ended up working together, since I did try to get you killed D1 (even if it was just to test my alliances). Congratulations on ascending the Tormander throne so quickly, and thank you for being a good ally, even if we both dropped the ball more than a few times. Crimsn, I haven’t worked with or against you this whole game, so I don’t have much to say other than congrats on your victory and please don’t kill me again. You don’t have to kill anyone, if you don’t want to. (Unless it’s Jondesu.) Finally, thanks to Joe and Elbereth for running this game. I definitely enjoyed it, and I think everybody else did, too.

Pending any discussion with PM contacts, my vote will be for No Lynch unless I find a reason to lynch somebody.

I’ll just go ahead and name my character Darrel, a well-to-do merchant from Silverlight who sells Invested objects at exorbitant prices. A few questions, after rereading the rules: If a Shard is passed to a new Vessel, will the “overriding Intent timer” (that’s the best name I could think of) be reset? Can Hoid’s or Khrissala’s win conditions or alignment change as a result of the Intent overriding? What about ordinary members of Adonalsium’s Chosen/Standard of Harmony? If multiple Shards are held by the same person, could they have two win conditions if both Intents overrided simultaneously? Will there be special win cons for the individual Fused Shards when their Intent overrides the player? Or will the effects be the same as if they held multiple Shards? Being invested by a Shard is different than having investiture from a Shard, correct? The first gives you a new role, but the second only lets you take an action and use a power? Just want to be clear. Also, does being Invested by a Shard produce any special effect if you burn a charge of that Shard’s investiture? Do Hoid and Khrissala’s conversions still fail if they target a Shattered Shard? Sorry for the long list. Probably could have simplified the first four to “describe Intent overriding in more detail,” but oh well. Thanks for running this!

Wow, this is very different from previous Shard games, but it looks far too interesting to pass up. I’ll sign up, with a character name to come once I’ve put some thought into it. And reread the rules a few dozen times.

Well, good job Orlok on neatly eliminating the possibility of a Kandra win. Guess we have to try to kill each other again, Jondesu. Count Olaf stood amidst the corpses of Hadrian and Straw. Their sightless eyes gazed uncaringly at the spectacle around them, where men lay dead in heaps, killed by coin and sword and staff. His arrest force of Guards had been sent to detain Straw on suspicion of skaa blood in his family line, but it had quickly joined with the House Allomancers Remart had sent. Together, they had killed him. Though Olaf had not known Straw well, he certainly hadn’t wished the man dead. He mouthed a silent vow of vengeance against Remart for his callous act of bloodshed, and moved to Hadrian’s corpse. This one hurt more to look upon. Killed, it seemed, by Locke Tormander, a man Olaf thought he knew. He had assured Olaf that all he wanted in the city was a seat of power. Yet what was that man doing with his newfound supremacy over the Tormanders? Olaf shuddered, and moved his eyes away from Hadrian’s corpse. Not quickly enough, however, to fail to notice the small pouch of atium beads tied to the man’s belt. He unhooked it, and within it was a note: Count Olaf Ffnord, If you are reading this, then either I or a political opponent is dead. I am a man of my word; when you conspired to place me on the Heatherlocke throne, you did so because you knew you wanted someone who would not play the political games of the nobility. So if I am alive, take this as a further sign of my goodwill. I am freely gifting you Atium which my own skaa have mined. As per my word. You will also find a sheet in here detailing instructions as to how to contact the kandra in my employ should I die or my Contract be passed. Pay him with these beads, and await further instructions. I know you do not want Remart truly dead; this may provide another way. I will tell you if and when to use these, and together we may yet enact real change in Luthadel. If, however, you have pulled this missive off my corpse, know then that this Atium is still yours, by my will and word. If legal contracts need be given, you will find a paper in my desk drawer. There’s a false back to the second drawer on the right; you’ll find it there. Unfortunately, my kandra will have returned to his people for reassignment. But I’m sure that Atium will be useful to you in other ways. Use it wisely, and do not let it fall into the hands of our enemies. For they are still crafty, and may yet find a way to use it. Be vigilant, for where there’s smoke, there’s fire. But the world is quiet here. Hadrian Heatherlocke Olaf wept silently, shielding his face with his hood so as not to let others see his tears. Hadrian was truly dead. But he glanced down at the small parcel in his hand. This Atium is yours, by my will and word... yet Olaf found within himself a deep, intense hatred for everything that parcel represented. Hadrian, who would not die peacefully but haunt his memory. The slaughter and instability, brought about by the initial poisoning of all the house lords at the ball. And the potential for murder and domination, if he simply pocketed it and walked away. But no. In his youth he would have done such a thing, but no longer. Motivated by a sudden impulse, Olaf sprinted towards Hadrian’s house. He pushed his way past the Ministry guards at the door, who were surprised but did not question him thanks to his high status. He took the stairs two at a time up to Hadrian’s study, where he finally paused, panting. He opened the second desk drawer to the right, and almost fearfully, pushed back the false panel in the back. Within it was a very short note: I, Hadrian Heatherlocke, bequeath all the Atium in my possession to Olaf of Ffnord. Olaf screamed, unwilling to accept what his eyes saw. He could not own this metal, which left so much death and destruction in its wake. Crumpling Hadrian’s note and tossing it in the fireplace, he took Hadrian’s letter and scrawled on the back of it: May whoever finds this drawer know that Hadrian was a great man. Use his gift wisely. For I cannot accept this curse. Olaf of Ffnord. Olaf placed the letter and the parcel in Hadrian’s secret compartment, closed it quietly, and walked out into the nighttime rain, weeping. Sorry you had to die, Araris. I hugely enjoyed working with you the whole game.

Just saw that. Wow. You are a very talented writer. Now you’re making me want to do something like this...gah. If I do, I’ll do a thematic Dwarf deck against Dwarrowdelf. Or, even better, a Gondor deck against HoN. Have I mentioned I love Gondor?

I mean, I don’t really know how much it matters, seeing as basically nobody talks in here anyway. We might set the record for the shortest LG thread if we keep this up. Which I think we totally should try to do, so I’ll be hiding from the main thread after this post .

Yes please! I’d love to just end the day turn now, and progress to Night immediately, so long as most people don’t want a lynch.

Hmm...Straw. Orlok raises a good point, and I shouldn’t pick and choose when to apply my logic. I said we shouldn’t lynch a Heron to decide the game, and we probably shouldn’t lynch a Heatherlocke, either. No Lynch.

To fulfill a promise. Straw. Mafia, I’m sorry you died, but well done Crimsn for getting Orlok’s ear. Now let’s have a winner from Heatherlocke who actually upholds their word.

Oh, the fill condition. Probably could have worded this better, but essentially there’s two things that happen to a Ferring storing senses: 1) their vote is negated, but they still must vote 2) they can’t take an action the following Night. This represents the effects of losing your senses (you can’t see/hear what’s going on, so you can’t do anything about it). However, if the Ferring receives a non-GM PM the cycle they are filling, neither fill condition activates. This represents a friend telling you what is going on, allowing you to make informed decisions despite your bodily senses’ inability to help you. Hope that clarifies.

Thanks for looking over it, @randuir! Sorry I couldn’t get to this sooner, I had a track meet. A response to a few of your points: Steel Ferrings: The PMs are GM-created because the Steel Ferring would likely want to keep their identity a secret, and even making PMs with higher player counts still makes them a target. Especially since high count PMs tend to contain Elims. It used to be that full-tapping Steel let you make unlimited PMs, which we quickly realized would be an unmitigated disaster. As for your suggestion that full-tap simply open PMs to all for a round, I still want the Ferrings to decide. It will make for interesting interactions in-thread, as people request PMs with other people and the Ferring gets to decide which requests to uphold. It also empowers a potential Elim Ferring/FF. Tin does have strange wording, sorry. It’s basically a role scanner that only works if the person is using the role. It could be misleading on a FF if they were only tapping/filling one metalmind, but other than that it should be consistently accurate. Permanent pewter lives can be replaced if lost. They just can’t stack (you can’t have 3 or more lives). Brass was really hard to justify thematically and turn into a good game mechanic at the same time. I ended up going for a good game mechanic, but if you have a more thematic suggestion it’d certainly be appreciated. The copper thing seems powerful, but it’s only usable on the fourth turn at the earliest (two charges to start (33% chance) and get lucky on a double fill action). And that’s three rounds of being unable to quote posts, and your vote being randomly redirected. And by the end of the fourth day, there’ll probably have been 7 deaths already, so it’d be more difficult to use the information gathered. Not saying it’s useless- it is very powerful- but there are limitations on how it works and how soon it can occur. I like the game a little bit unpredictable . It’s more fun when there’s a bit of potential for random actions to throw a wrench into the works, and having the kill and roleblock actions become set in stone would essentially make them into roles and eliminate this element of unpredictability. And I already have roles for some of the actions. The idea is, if you’re really desperate for a PM that a Steel Ferring just won’t give you, you can try to use the action instead. If you only have 1 charge in your Tin metalmind but you just have to find this one player’s alignment, you can try the double fill. It adds a fun element of surprise. As for the number of dice rolls, it’ll be fine if people send in their actions earlier, and since non-Bronze metalminds happen during the day there’s not much more to do at night other than monitor the Elim kill. The actions are in there because I don’t want a vig kill or a roleblocker that works every single turn, since that might imbalance this game, but I recognize the necessity of the village having access to some of these actions, so they’re generic and anyone can do them! They just have a really low chance of happening. Thanks for all the feedback!

Don’t mean to distract from Jondesu’s mechanic, and you’re still free to talk about it, but I have a Feruchemy LG! I was trying to get up some thematic justifications (which do exist), but I simply didn’t have the time. I can add them later though. So this LG is set during Mistborn Era 1 at the Terris hideout where the Synod live. The Lord Ruler has heard rumors of its location, and sends several Spiked Feruchemists to infiltrate the hideout and bring him details. However, before the Spiked can leave to report back, the Synod catches wind of the infiltration. The hideout is locked down, and the search for the Spiked begins. But the Spiked won’t simply let themselves be caught. Desperate, they begin to kill the real Feruchemists searching for them. The Synod must find and kill these Infiltrators, or be themselves destroyed. And so our game begins... Here’s the ruleset: Factions: Terris people/villagers: Standard village faction. You win when all the Spiked Infiltrators are dead. Spiked Infiltrators: Standard Eliminator faction. Have a doc and a night kill. The night kill counts as an action. Roles: Feruchemists: PM the GM before posting, PMing or doing anything else during the cycle if you wish to fill a metalmind. Tapping a metalmind can be done at any point during the Day turn, just try to get in tap orders sooner rather than later. Metalminds, except for Bronze, are tapped/filled during the day. Filling a metalmind stores one Feruchemical charge, unless stated otherwise. Metalminds may begin the game with up to 2 Feruchemical charges. Metalminds cannot be filled and tapped simultaneously. Storing and tapping metalminds does NOT count as an action. Iron Ferrings: While storing, a random vote on you is negated. This can negate a previously negated vote. While tapping one Feruchemical charge, your vote cannot be changed or negated. Tapping two charges lets you target another player and make that player’s vote immune to change or negation, in addition to your own vote. Steel Ferrings: While storing, the Ferring cannot post outside the thread. Tapping two charges lets the Ferring make 2 GM-created PMs of any player count. These PMs are permanent. The Ferring does not have to be in these PMs. Tapping five charges lets the Ferring create up to 25 PMs, of any player count. Tin Ferring: While storing, a Tin Ferring has their vote negated and cannot take an action, unless they have received a PM from another player that cycle. By tapping one Feruchemical charge, a Ferring can discover which metalminds a player is tapping/filling. By tapping 3 charges, a Ferring can also discover their scan target’s alignment and PM contacts. Pewter Ferring: While storing, a Pewter Ferring cannot vote or take an action the following Night. Tapping one charge can be used to either give the Ferring an extra life for the rest of the cycle, or to protect a player from attacks the following Night. The first use of the ability will guard against the Lynch; the second will not. A Ferring cannot use his temporary extra life to escape the lynch more than once. Tapping four charges grants the Ferring a permanent extra life. This cannot stack with itself. Zinc Ferring: While storing, your vote is negated. You still must vote in order to fill your metalmind. This ability can negate a vote already negated by another effect (for instance, that of an Iron Ferring). Tapping one charge lets a Ferring move a no-vote to any player, or negate a player’s vote. This can negate a previously negated vote. Tapping 3 charges lets a Ferring also move the vote of another player that voted, in addition to their regular vote manipulation. Brass Ferring: While storing, a Brass Ferring must change their vote at least twice during the cycle. Tapping one charge protects themselves and another player from regular Tin scans. Tapping two charges protects a Ferring and a player of their choice from full-blast Tin scans. Bronze Ferring: Metalminds are tapped/filled at Night. While storing, a Ferring cannot take an action or PM at Night. They show up as not tapping/filling to Day Tin scans. While tapping one charge, a Ferring can take an additional Night action. Tapping 3 charges lets a Ferring take up to 5 night actions. These actions have the same chance of occurring as normal actions. Copper Ferring: While storing, a Copper Ferring’s vote is randomly redirected. They cannot quote, link, copy-paste, or put the exact words of any previous posts into theirs through any means they could think of. Tapping two Feruchemical charges lets a Ferring know the number of people with a certain role. (For example, there are 3 Iron Ferrings.) Tapping five Feruchemical charges lets a Ferring know the role distribution of the Eliminator team. Full Feruchemists: Have access to the abilities of each Ferring. Can fill/tap up to 2 metalminds each cycle. Cannot fill/tap metalminds simultaneously that have contradictory filling requirements, or fill the same metalmind twice. Synod: In addition to a regular Feruchemical power, a player may also be a member of the Synod. Not a safe role. Have a doc to talk in. They are completely anonymous in this doc. One time unblockable kill on any player, if a majority of living Synod players vote for it. Generic Actions: Each night, a player may take one of these generic actions, unless the fill condition for their metalmind specifies otherwise, or they’re a Spiked putting in a group kill. Kill- Kills target player. Has a 5% chance of success. Will be listed in writeup as “person x was killed!” Will be differentiated from Elim kill. Roleblock- Prevents target player from taking an action, or filling/tapping metalminds the next cycle. Has a 10% chance of success. Will not be listed in writeup. Open PM- Opens a PM with one other player. Has a 10% chance of success. Will be listed in writeup as “a PM was opened!” Double fill- Fills your metalmind with 2 Feruchemical charges the following day turn. Fill conditions of the metalmind still must be met. Has a 15% chance of success. Will not be listed in writeup. Protect- Protects another player from any Night attacks, including the Elim kill. Has a 20% chance of success. Will only be mentioned in writeup if successful. Will not be differentiated from a Pewter Ferring protection. Housekeeping: Day turns are 48 hours, Night turns are every 24 hours. Lynch every day cycle. Two vote minimum to lynch a player. No Lynch can only die once. Tied lynches result in a random death. Inactivity filter of two full cycles unless prior warning is given. Violating the fill conditions of your metalmind will result in it not being filled. Vote counts will only give the number of votes each player received, not the names of the players who voted. This will allow Ferrings to remain more anonymous. Metalminds have a maximum capacity equal to the maximum number of charges you can remove from it at once. For instance, a Tin metalmind would hold a maximum of 3 Feruchemical charges. Whew. Those are the rules. Thank you copy-pasting. So if any of you have any feedback to offer or questions about rules, please post in here and I will do my best to address them. Also, I have recently acquired a non-Sanderson game pass, and it’s just burning a hole in my pocket . So I’m extending an offer to give it to anyone, so long as it’s an LG or MR that has something to do with Tolkien (Silmarillion is fair game), and that I can have a hand in designing the mechanics and theme of the game. If you have a game you’d like to share, just PM it to me and I’d be thrilled to look over it. Thanks!

The results of tonight will probably decide the game. Good luck to all, and may the craftiest noble win. If anyone has information they’d like to share with the thread, feel free! Even if it’s all lies.

Err...Jondesu...we can’t vote for members of our house, as lovely as that would be. Unless it’s a symbolic gesture, of course.

Wow. After all the talk of Wyrm/Kas connections, Houses, PM safety...it’s Arraenae. Well. Congrats on nearly rallying the village to a victory! I’m very honored that the community chose me to receive a pass on my first game, and now that I have it I definitely can’t leave SE . But seriously, it was really great to have such a supportive community as I tried to learn the rules and get a feel for things, and I appreciated that more than anything else, I think. I will definitely be back for future games, and I hope to see each one of you as well. This game was a great intro to SE and I look forward to countless more.

Mmm...something about me doesn’t like deciding who wins with a lynch. It seems more fair to let things be resolved at night, where there’s the opportunity for more extensive politicking. A day lynch could quickly become a popularity contest that it’d be hard for the losing side to do anything about. Night actions, on the other hand, allow for diverse plotting and action complexity, making it a much fairer way to die. @Crimsn-Wolf, I understand your desire to win such a hard-fought game, but I think winning at night would be a fairer victory. That said, I’m not going to stand in the way of a Mafia lynch if that is the will of the majority, though I would appreciate a lynch on another Ffnord . It’s been a blast competing with you guys, but you’re too resilient for your own good.

I still don’t own many of the cards, Grima included. I proxy if I want a deck for RingsDB that I’m trying out, or if I have such a cool idea that I just have to try it out. Mostly I play with my actual card collection though. Those seem like effective strategies for getting out attackers. I would normally remark on the seeming inconsistency of having to draw it, but I suppose that with enough copies (and Erestor) you can find what you need quickly enough. Yeah, Erestor draw power...attacking seems like not an issue anymore. Okay.

I tried a Gandalf-Elrond-Glorfindel without Vilya and still crushed Steward’s Fear. Elrond’s resource smoothing is a bit ridiculous at times. Erestor-Beregond-Arwen is interesting. I’ve seen it before, but how do you kill enemies? Denethor-Erestor-third hero is a little OP, but I like doing it with Boromir and Gondor instead of Hirluin and Outlands. But I love Gondor, so I may be a bit biased. Yeah, Outlands beat nearly anything. I put together a gimmick hypothetical situation in which one deck spams resource generation effects + Stand and Fight to summon a ton of Outlands allies from everybody else’s discards piles and calculated the deck’s hypothetical willpower maximum as 652. o_O Basically, 48 12/12/12/13 or 13/13/13/13 characters on the table, plus any Hunters of Lamedon/ Forlong/ Hirluin. My favorite power deck is Gloin-Elrond-Grima. Yep, Grima. Nothing like a first turn Self Preservation or Steward on Gloin to get your engine running. And Gloin decks are so fun. I have to substitute actual coinage for resources at times, it gets so ridiculous. But I enjoy it every time. If I had to pick a second power deck, it would be Dwarves. People say the novelty wears off quickly, but if you just mix it up every once in a while they’re really fun to mess around with. I still like my Dwarf secrecy deck from 2 years ago. Another one focused on cheap Dwarves to fund We Are Not Idle and Thorin’s resource generation, then put a Song of Wisdom+ Steward on Thorin and let him fund a Longbeard Mapmaker. Likely impractical, but still a fun deck.

Ooh, that’s really neat. I love direct damage decks, and I’m glad to see a bit of deviation from the Argalad direct damage decks going around. I think your deck could use a copy or two of Goblin-cleaver in case an enemy does actually end up engaging, as if you have a Spear of the Citadel out already, it serves as essentially a free kill. I think this deck could pair very well with a gimmicky deck I made using Harbor Master. It essentially uses Gandalf's Staff+ Bifur+ Errand-riders for insane resource distribution, and also has Theodred and Steward for even more resource ridiculousness. Wizard Pipe+Miruvor+Song of Travel means your deck never runs out, and by the end of the game you have 8-9 defense Harbor Masters blocking with Burning Brands. It seems really impractical, cheesy, and hard to set up, but it actually works if you pair it with ranged attacks and it’s one of my favorite decks. Basically, this would help your deck with bigger enemies that are ITPCE or have really high attacks, though Steward would be a bone of contention. My deck could probably sub in Resourceful though. RingsDB has ruined me. I keep typing in #the first few letters and expecting cards to pop up . But yeah, glad you’ve opened this channel. Edit: Decklist (note that this is limited card pool, since I built it for a friend who only has up to Amon Din) Bifur, Gandalf, Theodred (I’ll do this later, have to eat) Allies: 1 each of Arwen, Dori, Elrond, Galadriel, and Henamarth 2 each of Gleowine, Master of the Forge and Warden of Healing 3 each of Errand-rider and Harbor Master Attachments: 1 each of Celebrian’s Stone, Dunedain Warning, Song of Travel, Unexpected Courage 2 each of King Under the Mountain and Miruvor 3 each of A Burning Brand, Wizard Pipe, Gandalf’s Staff, Expert Treasure-hunter, Resourceful Events: 2 each of Flame of Anor and Word of Command 3 each of Daeron’s Runes and We Are Not Idle If you have suggestions on how to modify the deck with modern cards, that’d be great. This was originally run alongside a Brand/Legolas/Eowyn deck, but I thought it’d match Seonid’s fairly closely.

Just two. Unless you’re suggesting that Orlok talks to himself. Also, Walin. Sorry for the lack of activity, it’s been a really hectic day and I’m glad I can just relax for a few moments here. When I consider a game of political backstabbing relaxing...

*whispers* *collaboration* *whispers* ”Okay, now that Hadrian has given me what seems to be a fairly accurate rundown of events, would any other Heatherlocke care to speak with me so I can see if the stories line up?” Olaf paused, realizing Hadrian might be taking this as an attack. “I’m not questioning what you’ve told me, Hadrian, I’d just like independent confirmation from someone else. If the stories match up, we can move towards a solution that benefits both of us.” Olaf realized that he was still speaking from the podium. Slightly embarrassed, he quickly stepped down and began looking for other Heatherlockes in the crowd, who could perhaps confirm what Hadrian had said. It’d be a very fortunate day indeed if he could confirm another person as working against his interests. @Steeldancer @Walin @Eternum @Straw

Count Olaf looked around the room, raising his only eyebrow. The entire congregation of nobles were talking in hushed pairs around the room, some people flitting from one conversation to the next indiscriminately. He would normally thrive in such a situation. But he knew that some very false deceptions were going around. Who could you trust here? This wasn’t like his previous encounter with politics, where all the alliances were obvious. You found the arsonists in the crowd and sided with them. It was easy after that, merely eliminating all those who tried to resist, armed with their little quotes from their precious books. But here? It was tough to tell. One pair of schemers caught Olaf’s eye. One was a man with a beard but no hair, and the other a woman with hair but no beard. Well, getting mixed up with them was certainly a terrible idea. Last time he’d tried that, he had nearly died. He subtly edged his way around the room, until he realized he was standing in front of the podium. All eyes slowly turned to him, and Olaf realized that the nobles actually expected him to say something. He cleared his throat, thinking furiously. ”Well, um, I’d like to point out the incredible lack of public communication among us recently,” Olaf said. He raised his hand to forestall Straw. “Yes, I’m guilty as well. However, we should probably talk amongst ourselves as a group more often. While most of us won’t be surviving, the fact remains that this will go into the Ministry’s records, and boy there’s going to be very little in there if we don’t start communicating publicly again. And, um, maybe we should learn more about what happened with the Heatherlockes last night? I mean, they didn’t kill anyone, which is really unusual.” The Heatherlockes shot Olaf a glance of disdain, and began to whisper among themselves in bemusement. Well, he didn’t really expect any of them to help out anyway. The rest of the nobles simply shook their heads, muttering about time-wasters, and began to break back up into their small conversations, plotting furiously. Olaf sighed, and began to join them. Well, it was worth a shot to try to get some group discussion... Sorry if my RP is terrible, this is my first real stab at it (I tried a bit in the AG but didn’t do much with it).

I’ll Stick to what I know for certain, and right now I know I want a Heron dead. No last minute bandwagoning for me, unfortunately, as I’ll be at a math competition. Lynch wisely, I suppose.

Hail Lord Locke Tekiel Tormander! May your reign be long and uninterrupted by petty Skaa uprisings. I don’t have a great lynch target for now, so I’ll hold off until later.