Amber Vulture

If that applies to you, it's probably best that you don't mention it upon arrival, as I suspect the new players will be automatically good guys. Dangerous habit that Having eyes in the back of your head is always a prudent strategy. If a baddie gets a warform, we will have to shoot them twice to kill them. It makes little sense to back off attacking someone simply because it will only do half the job. Except, importantly, if four of us choose warform today, the baddies will not have any extra lives, because the good guys get priority selection. So tanking a kill is actually village indicative and presents an opportunity for a redo. But if the evil team senses we will back off of people claiming warform, they will claim it every time they are in danger.

You're framing it as a mistake of having not thought through the ramifications of their advice. I view it as potentially coming from an evil mindset. The baddies often avoid blatantly pushing bad strategies, but they can be caught being out of touch with how ordinary players would view the situation. See previous note, but I'll add, why not vote? Votes can be changed at any time, but having them in play raises the stakes. (Penguin) Indigo Weasel

To recap, you suggest publicly claiming the bodyguard role, which tells the baddies who not to kill, suggest not grabbing gems of the type that the evil team can use to submit a kill and take an alibi action on the same turn, and have now announced you plan on grabbing one of the more powerful gems, which lets the baddies know who has it. I also think you're wrong about there being only four of the Chosen Fused. The warforms should mostly go to the good guys, which means an at least five person team is likely.

Stop minimizing my stab vote Well designed, GM. I like this.

The way you worded it seemed like you wanted to dissuade good guys from taking them by casting the gems as innately suspicious. Both you and Dingo framed them as threats, not opportunities. My instinct with the gems is to prioritize requesting the ones the baddies are most likely to covet first, like Warform, to keep them out of their hands and to give our side the most power ups possible. That's the best strategy, right? Also, our side gets priority selection, so why don't we all just pick the same gem and whoever is successful is probably good.

Iffy... risky... dangerous... What do you have against empowering the good guys, Penguin?

Hey, I enjoyed reading the old PMs! Shoutout to Plum Rhinoceros who opened one with: I like to be concise, so allow me to be frank. Hi, my name's Frank.

...Ash and Ruin, that's brilliant, Ellie - I'll have to remember that trick in future. Very sneaky.

Now you both know my pain. At least I know it's not just me doing something silly now, though, so thanks both of you for trying.

Test: EDIT: Fine. If I can't embed it on the Shard, have a link. If that doesn't work, I will throw something.

Octopus, since I don't want to face the wrath of Wilson. ...I really should put something here, but I can't think what else to say, since the game is basically solved at this point. So have a picture of my cat after it was accidentally covered in flour. I've definitely shared this picture before, so it reveals my identity to quite a few people, but... eh, it's the last cycle, and it's a great picture, so what the hell. (Hopefully the image will actually show up this time... :/ ) EDIT: Nope! Sorry. I have no idea why pictures aren't showing, I'm sorry. It shows up on my preview screen, just not when I actually post.

Fuchsia Ostrich As for what an Autonomy/Valor combo Shard would be called, I thought it would be obvious... Freedom! (Imagine it in the most Braveheart and/or jingoistic American accent possible. I wanted to include a picture or something, but the Shard doesn't seem to want to let me today. )

The graph sorted alphabetically by colour looks sorta like vampire teeth, IMO, maybe with some kinda chin line thing off on the right side. Anyway, let's me go through each player this time, hopefully with less mistakes and less forgetfulness this time - if it isn't obvious, this green means strong village, this green means weak village, silver means neutral, this red means weak Elim, and this red means strong elim: Amethyst Scorpion - Mort - I don't remember anything of note about Scorpion's posts, tbh. I was/am on Sel with them for a couple cycles, but it's been pretty quiet and nothing particularly alignment indicative has been said there. Azure Mouse - Tenth of the Dusk/Kaikoa - My strongest village read at this point for obvious reasons. Charcoal Hyena - Soren - They're apparently Survival? Also the Poet. Coral Swan - Enoras - Last cycle, they vote on Rhino earlier in the cycle, but announce they expect to change it later in the cycle to a second candidate in case of Rhino being Mercy'd. While it's not 100% spelled out (and the point would later become moot when Ostrich was the lead candidate and Rhino the secondary), the candidate Swan seemed to be strongly leaning towards was Ostrich, which means either Swan was particularly eager to bus multiple teammates, or Swan is village. Cream Tuatara - Inactive, so no read. Fuchsia Ostrich - Konion - Confirmed Odium's Champion, so... yeah. Part of why I'm doing this is trying to go back through and think of who/what else to talk about next cycle so the thread doesn't become a complete graveyard besides votes for Ostrich. Indigo Weasel - Iadhain 'the Weasel' Ramer - Borderline inactive, no read Ivory Dragonfly - Eris - This is the most active player by post count I don't have a solid read of (in fact, the only player I don't have a read on in the front half of the kangasaurus), which is interesting. They have a lot of NAI posts just as a part of their playstyle, so that's probably why - I don't necessarily think it's them trying to fly under the radar or anything, which is why I've still labelled them neutral. Magenta Albatross - Relas - Nothing of note in particular. Neutral. Melon Dingo - Niru Drash - Basically confirmed Ruin, so... yeah. Probably not an Elim. Onyx Flamingo - So, in my last analysis, I got mixed up between Onyx Flamingo and Scarlet Octopus, sorry for the confusion. They were the second to last vote on Croc, cementing him in the lead, which is unlikely to be an Elim action, especially given Gecko's attempt to save them later proving it wasn't a bus. Opal Lion - Remy - Prudence, Bringer of Private Communications, Bane of PM Safety. But definitely not Odium's Champion. Pearl Chameleon - They've apparently just been replaced by a pinchhitter, so I'll give them a chance to catch up. Quartz Zebra - Sophos - Between Gecko and Elephant, goes fairly strongly for Elephant (admittedly, I did too, so I can't read too much into that without being a hypocrite). Didn't want PM's, but I suspect that's a playstyle thing rather than an AI thing. Saffron Iguana - Vatorr Maj (Tinker) - Just a general good gut read from most of their posts. Sage Kangaroo - Arleoxtai Ashvtet (Gossip) - Gecko moving (at considerable suspicion onto themselves) to save Elim!Croc over Kangaroo makes Village!Kanga the most likely possibility. Sapphire Elephant - They're confirmed Alcoholics Anonymous Autonomy Scarlet Octopus - I got them mixed up with Flamingo before, so... yeah. I don't remember anything in particular about Octopus, so they're neutral. Turquoise Gorilla - They're apparently Invention. Good luck with that. Violet Axolotl - Sir Brockett - They've generally seemed pretty villagery to me this whole game - the only suspicious thing was not having an alibi as one of the Shadesmar Eight, but that seems to have been cleared up by Rhino's death. So, my preferred order of accusations right now (basically trying to split up all those neutrals): Ostrich, Zebra, Albatross, Scorpion, followed by the inactives in basically any order.

I had a Prudence PM with Plum, IIRC. It shut down at the end of C1 when Prudence died. Same as Axolotl, nothing happened, it wasn't open long enough for us to get to the point of roleclaiming or anything.

Ugh. The meta discussion is... complicated for me. On the one hand, I can absolutely see how feeling like they're being locked out of discussions. I myself haven't been part of any of the Trust PM's this game. In fact, it was having so much fun in a Trust PM in my very first game (which happened to be a Shard game) that caused me to stick around. Also, Shard games and KKC games... kind of operate by different meta rules to most SE games, tbh. Shard Games *always* reveal a lot of roles (and alignments) early, just by sheer wealth of information flowing around from place to place (mainly through PM's). My first game, there were three outed Elims at various points in the game, who weren't lynched for various reasons. Was it broken as all heck? Yeah. Was it still fun? I'd say so. The point is, if you go in trying to play a Shard Game like a regular game, you're probably going to have a bad time. But Shard games are different, and should be treated differently by those going into it. For example, my RP at the start of this game was to try to get to each planet for a cycle (and not die until that point), which was my own personal wincon, in a way. Now... I kind of hated the RP I wrote for that, so it may be a bad example, but that's the fault of my bad writing, not the game. The point is, Shard Games (as well as KKC games, which live by the same kind of rules, IMO) try and really embrace the open-world nature of everything, and you can really do anything, often completely orthogonal to your wincon. That's how to make a Shard game fun, and I'd argue that's not a bug, it's a feature. The second thing that usually makes or breaks a game like this is the community aspect. In this area, I wonder if making this an anonymous game was a mistake, as it kind of erodes that area as people don't know who they're talking to. I dunno, this is probably at least in part nostalgia causing me to defend this game, but... yeah. I am locked out of the room where it happens for this game, and I honestly think I'm completely fine with that. I'm not sure if I'll continue with my old RP (probably not, tbh), but I'll find something else to do instead if I don't so that the game continues to be fun for me. I recommend others try the same.

...I saw that, and my brain went "Yup, that's some pretty important info right there for Vulture to remember. Let's immediately forget it so that he embarrases himself when he starts typing up his reads list literally 10 minutes later." Sigh. I should take notes, but then this starts to feel too much like homework, so... eh. I'll happily take some of that soju, thanks.

Ostrich - this vote shouldn't matter either way, since the lynch train seems to have been settled on Ostrich, but I want to avoid Lightweavy shenanigans. Quick look at various players: Azure Mouse - Moderate Strong Village - this will change to strong village if Ostrich is indeed evil. OK, Ostrich is an outed Elim, so I guess that makes Azure Mouse Strong Village in my book, then. Scarlet Octopus - Slight Village - mainly because of their late vote on Croc D1, when the Elim team seemed to be trying to save him. Sage Kangaroo - Slight Village - the Elims would have to be really unlucky to have a D1 lynch between two Elims, and Gecko seemed to want to save Croc over Kangaroo. But it's still possible, which is why this is only slight. Sapphire Elephant - Neutral - I want to say slight Elim, but that's just me tunnelling at this stage instead of anything I can actually point to. It's unlikely both they and Gecko would incriminate themselves if they didn't have to, and I think they'd have removed their Croc vote earlier if they'd been an Elim trying to avoid suspicion. I intend to keep a closer eye on them going forward though. Plum Rhinoceros - Slight Elim - One of the Silverlight Eight (along with Axolotl) who may have been roleblocked and therefore unable to perform the kill as Odium's Champion. I intend to do a deeper dive into both Rhino and Axolotl in the Night Turn (I meant to do it this turn, but I just ran out of time). Opal Lion - Moderate Village - if they're an Eliminator, they are doing some serious deep cover. Charcoal Hyena - Neutral, but I refuse to lynch - the poetry is hilarious, and I want to keep them alive to see more of it, I don't even care if Hyena's an Elim, tbh. Uhhh... I'm obviously missing so many people from this list, but I can't think who they are at this stage - a lot of them will be neutral.

"coulda shifted to kanga then? if im oc, why wouldai take a chance, a 50 percent chance of saving a fella oc at the risk of sush on me. thats one more elim identity at risk ta be revealed." This is false - as of the time that you removed your vote, you put Kangaroo as the leading candidate (after vote manipulation was taken into account.) It's only through Kangaroo's self-preservation vote after that caused a tie, leading to Croc dying in a coin flip. So the short answer is, you didn't vote on Kangaroo, because at that moment, you didn't need to. "issa false. i was on before. here is da proof. i had a pm with mistah ocho - scarlet octopus (the only one i had in d1) courteshy of old Prudie. the posht you refer, in which i changed my vote shows ta me as at dec 30, 07:56am. ive sent a message to mistah ocho at dec 30, 07:02am. a whole 54 mins before i poshted da posht. i was defo online before that, but dis is da earliest i was can prove i was on. ask @Scarlet Octopus. 54 mins gap. ocho. check it. Fair. This does lesson my suspicion of you a fair bit. (Thanks Octopus for confirming this as well.) For that reason, I'll add my vote to the train on Taupe Gecko. This is a fair point. I could say Elim!Elephant was monitoring the thread and had a vote switch prepared if there was a chance of saving Croc which you wouldn't post otherwise, but that's definitely grasping at straws, and I don't think I really believe it, thinking about it. (There's also the possibility of both Gecko and Elephant being Elims, but I find it highly unlikely that 2 Elims would both cast suspicion on themselves Day 1.) Opal Lion, Bearer of the Shard of Prudence, Keeper of PM's, could I please have a PM with Azure Mouse? I want to hear what this process of Elimination is that Mouse mentioned, because I had a mild trust on Axolotl before this, and was neutral on Rhino and Mouse.

OK, I believe Gecko is in the lead. I'm not opposed to Gecko being the candidate, given their actions last cycle, but I find Elephant to be more suspicious between Elephant and Gecko. There are three factors in this. First, the order of votes was Gecko (tieing Croc and Kangaroo, after vote manipulation is taken into account), Elephant (putting Croc in the lead), and Kangaroo (equalising again). That means that Gecko, as an Elim would have seen the vote as a coin flip, with a 50% chance that their save wouldn't work and have suspicion cast on Gecko as well. Elephant, by contrast, could have felt comfortable in the thought that saving a teammate would not be immediately noticed. Secondly, Elephant voted on Croc early in the cycle, back before Croc wasn't a serious lynch candidate, and only retracted in the end of the cycle when Croc was. This seems much more suspicious in my eyes, since the early vote could be a distancing tactic, only to be removed once the possibility that Croc was the lynch candidated became apparent. (The main flaw with this plan is to ask why Elephant didn't remove his vote sooner, when it would cast less suspicion, instead of in the final 5 minutes of the cycle. I suspect it may be because they simply weren't online until then. Their previous post was 10 hours before rollover, when Crocodile and Kangaroo were tied on 3 votes each.) Finally, Gecko simply gives me a better gut read than Elephant does. While I didn't (and now definitely don't) agree with Gecko's vote on Kangaroo, it doesn't seem like the kind of post an Elim would make to me either, partially for the reasons given above, partially just because their tone seems more villagery to me, like it's Day 1 and they don't have any special information to go off of, so are just taking a stab in the dark with their best guess. Elephant gives me very different vibes, though a part of that may be the RP.

...Wait, really? Oops. OK, I need to do some actual analysis this turn, then.

So, Crocodile was dead. Unfortunately, it seemed to be some kind of an alias for a person, not an actual crocodile Mendra could cook. A shame. Still, apparently they were actually an supporter of this Odium fellow or something, so Mendra supposed it was good that they were stopped. Even so, it was now night, and Mendra still lacked her ingredient from Scadrial. Night had fallen, and she'd already made arrangements to leave Scadrial with the dawn, so she didn't have much time left. She went back to the tent she'd noticed earlier, only to find it packed up like most of the other stalls. Storms. She passed two others - she vaguely recognised them from the mob earlier that day, talking about... soy sauce? Mendra paused. Soy sauce was hardly the most exotic ingredient. Still, she needed to move on. "Excuse me, but neither of you happen to have some of that soy sauce on you, do you?" When dawn came, she was ready to go, a bottle of soy sauce in her backpack. It wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind, but nothing ever was. She had many more planets to visit before her journey would be done, and many more opportunities to find the exotic ingredients she was searching for. Despite her failure here, she felt optimistic for the future of her quest. Queue Mendra's death scene... In case it's not obvious, I am actually on Scadrial right now (there are two others with me), and I intend on moving to a different planet each cycle for RP reasons. I'd intended to have more substansive RP this cycle, but I ran out of time, and Mendra won't complete her quest if she doesn't move on, sorry. (I mean, she probably won't complete her quest anyway, depending on her survival and my patience, but I want to give her a fighting chance.) I strongly suspect the extra vote on Kangaroo to be the work of the Elims for obvious reasons, so I'll be keeping an especially careful eye on vote manipulations in future turns to try and figure out who the Elims are trying to save and why. The last minute shifts away from Crocodile also look particularly suspicious now that Croc's flipped, but I'll do a more thorough analysis of that next cycle so I get this out on time. To be honest, Crocodile nearly convinced me they were genuine with their response, so I'm very glad I wasn't on to remove my vote last minute.

Mendra was just about to enter the dimly lit tent when she heard raised voices on the other side of the marketplace. "The kangaroo is crazy! The Shards, reveal themselves? Only an Agent of Odium would suggest such a thing!" "No, the kangaroo is right! It is you, who trade in lies, and deception, that aims to prevent dangerous information from coming to the light and unmasking your foul misdeeds. You can not fool me, Crocodile!" Soon, a mob began to form, calling for the execution of either this Kangaroo or Crocodile. And a plot began to form in Mendra's mind. She'd certainly never cooked with crocodile meat before - this could be an opportunity. She added her voice to the crowd. "The Crocodile speaks lies! They are a traitor who works for Odium! Down with the Crocodile!" I disagree with Kangaroo's suggestion that Shards should claim, but I also think a controversial suggestion like that is more likely to be made by a Villager than an Elim, because a controversial claim like that is going to attract unwanted scrutiny and is a big risk for an Elim to make. (Of course, that quickly becomes an IKYK, but I don't have any bad gut reads on Kangaroo either.) It also makes an easy candidate for a mislynch that the Elims might want to hop onto, and of the votes on Kangaroo, Crocodile's gave me the worst gut read (though he was the leading candidate at the time, so I can also see it being a self-preservation vote, but... eh, it's Day 1, and I don't have any better ideas, unfortunately.)

[OOC: I logged out of my normal account to start this game and didn't expect to log back in until after the game, but I might just have to do that to upvote all of this RP - especially the poets, you guys are amazing.] I couldn't figure out how to put this into my RP, but Prudence, I'd like some one-on-one PM's as well, at your discretion. "Turnips! Get yer turnips here!" Mendra passed the turnip lady, holding a bunch of withered turnips aloft in one hand, and looked at the rest of the market. The market was fine, she supposed, but it lacked a certain exotic quality, not at all like the Court of Gods at T'Telir. She hummed, softly, as she wondered through the market, looking for something, anything, that would be satisfactory. Because Mendra had a mission. Mendra had always had a knack for making meals out of the most unusual of the ingredients, but now she wanted to push those skills to her limits. She was going to make a new meal, unlike anything the Cosmere had seen before, by gathering all of the most interesting and exotic foods from every far flung corner of the Cosmere. But to do that, she'd need to find something more interesting than turnips. She wandered through the market, trying to find anything that might fit her needs, and found nothing. It was only as she was turning to go, at the edge of the market, that she noticed a small tent, with a dark interior, that lodged itself oddly between two stalls. If it was meant to be a market stall, it was the most foreboding and unappealing one she'd ever seen in her life. Perfect. With a smile, she lifted up one of the tent flaps, peering into the dim interior, and stepped inside.

It's not worthwhile to roleblock two people, so I guess I'll just not take an action this cycle. Good luck, everyone else.

I think the base weaves are the same, or at least Ostrich and I seemed to have the same weaves, but some people apparently have items to enhance their weaves. I've explained why Albatross two times already. What do you not follow? Fifth refuses to tell me more information about pooling weaves. I still only know that saidar users can pool, and I assumed from the example given that saidar users could only weave with each other, but I now realize this is not necessarily true. If saidar users can weave with saidin users, there's no indication the numbers have to be as specific as Penguin suggests.