MetaTerminal

I agree. Then it's a race between xino and Truthwatcher... who will win?

The order of play is in the rules doc with the ID number so I imagine it's functionally the same. Also, wait your turn for rule changes Interesting problem presented by activity here. We're currently waiting on Truthwatcher just to vote, and they haven't been online for a while - then it would be xino's turn, and hopefully they're still around. But we can't skip any parts of the turn, so if Truthwatcher is a player, then we have to wait for their vote. Potential solution: we say that Truthwatcher is not yet a player (given their future tense of 'going to play') and then move on to @xinoehp512's turn. Or we wait. I'm happy to do either. If xino has logged off for the day then Truthwatcher will probably rejoin before xino does, so it doesn't matter functionally what we pick.

xino and Gears changed it before the game started, and the rules doc reflects that I think. It’s by user ID number now (which honestly probably works better, since names can be easily changed). So it would be xino’s turn next.

That’s five! We need unanimity so @The_Truthwatcher will need to vote for six. (Or vote against, in which case it doesn’t pass.) (We should probably also change that. Majority rules?) Also also, I got the turn order wrong. It’s xino’s turn next.

Agreed. We have a more complicated set now but it will be better in the long run I think. What the heck, count me in. Do we want to include a player list and ordering in the rules doc? And maybe make the doc-editing status to ‘suggestions’ so that we can add amendments while xino is away. I think the 3-rule thing is fine, since we’ll probably be changing the point gain method anyway, so it’s unlikely anyone will hit 200 points by the time that change is made. I vote for 301 in its current form (which means it can’t be changed anymore, I think? I’ll withdraw my vote if we want it edited), and invite others ( @Gears @The Last Post @The_Truthwatcher @xinoehp512) to do the same. Once all three (edit: four) respond either explicitly voting for/against then Danex collects his points and then it’s Gears’ turn. And then mine! I agree with the suggestion as well. Maybe Gears should do that.

Just posting to give my blessing, say good luck, and comment that you’re a braver group than I to use the official rules rather than the much simpler (admittedly probably too simple) set... Maybe the first round of action could be to start moulding the official rule set to your own preferences. I might do a writeup of the original game for people here if there was interest. As for joining... I’ll think about it. I probably can’t spearhead it like I did the last so if I were to play it would be to a lesser degree. Still, excited to see how this plays out! EDIT: And I like the idea of a rules doc. That seems... in hindsight, obvious.

Detritus Round - Wave 1 This is the first wave of puzzles. More will be unlocked when they're ready to go. This round contains no spoilers for Starsight. (Since I haven't read it yet. If there are spoilers I would be very very surprised.) Signups are also still open, since there are a few people I haven't heard back from and due to short notice. (@Calderis @Jaywalk @Rushu42 @Sorana @xinoehp512 etc) Puzzles are in random order. Detritus Meta Puzzle 1: Pilot Test Puzzle 2: The Song of My People Puzzle 3: A Very Long List of Instructions Puzzle 4: Three Laws Puzzle 5: Discussion Board Puzzle 6: An Entirely Different Kind of Flying, Altogether Scheduled releases: 2 more puzzles tomorrow. Good luck!

Great! I’ll PM you the Discord details. The puzzles will now go up one hour earlier, at 5pm EST. This is just due to a commitment on my end.

Hi, everyone, I’m back! Part 1 - The Big News A lot of you have known for a while, but I will be putting together a team of Sharders to compete in the MIT Mystery Hunt this month. If you like puzzles, logic, math, or having fun solving things with other people, then we are accepting people at any skill level/age. If you’ve never solved a puzzle before, we’d be happy to have you. 17 people have signed up already and most of them will be around for the whole competition, so you’ll be in good company. The Mystery Hunt is a competition that takes place from the 17th to the 19th of January. Teams compete to solve puzzles of any kind (logic, typical formats like crosswords or dropquotes, or other formats like lists of clues, photographs, gifs, patterns, Bob Dylan lyrics formatted as scientific papers, license plate numbers, etc) across the two days. We’re not expecting to be competitive or win (any team under 20 people is considered ‘small’) but if you want to have a good time and this seems interesting then we’d be happy to take you onboard. It’s completely fine if you need to miss any of the individual days because you’re busy or because of religious observance. Just as long as you can make some of the event and want to be a part of it. For some idea of what these puzzles are like, I’ve run Sanderson-themed hunts in the past here, here and here, and talked about our past competitions in this thread. The MIT Hunt is the grand-daddy of puzzlehunts, though, so expect much more (and many more) ambitious puzzles. We’ll also have an on-site team in Boston (at MIT), so if you’re in the area you’re free to meet up! If you’re planning to do this it will be convenient for me to know early. Part 2 - Smaller (But More Relevant) News As practice for the Hunt, I have put together a Sanderson Puzzlehunt! Since this is intended as a practice run for the Hunt, you will complete it as one team using the Discord server we used for official competitions in the past. If you want to sign up this is a good way to see how the team operates and what kind of stuff happens in a (smaller) Hunt, or to see if this kind of thing interests you. Because we need to start and finish it fairly soon, signups are now open in this thread and we will start tomorrow (7th of January) at 6pm EST. I may push it back a little if things aren’t ready to go, but not by much. Signups will remain open after the round begins. The theme of the round will be revealed when the first wave of puzzles go live. You can sign up to either competition below. @Calderis @Jaywalk @Rushu42 @Sorana @xinoehp512

I agree that it should be the second option. First or third runs the risk of knocking big holes in continuity - ones larger than what the mimes would be able to handle. In terms of when we should set it, I’d say at least a few generations behind. Enough to put significant distance between then and now, but close enough so ancestors of Era 1 characters could be included. Plot-wise: I’d be really interested in seeing a guild conflict that wasn’t against the DA, like the one that almost happened between the Keepers and the Diagramists. The plot starts with an uneasy tension - conflict breaks out when one guild tries to eliminate another due to an age-old rivalry. The plot ends when all rival guilds are eliminated, the conflict is resolved, or a truce is reached. If the DA is involved, then it’s obvious who is going to win, but if it’s a conflict between a whole bunch of defunct guilds, then we can make the story up on the fly. Since the guilds are all defunct in a few generations, then anyone could come out on top. Brief spitballing. The Newcago Court is ruled by Queen Elsa Steelheart, but she also runs a Court composed of representatives from the various guilds. People with more power or leverage (holding a frostblade (?), or an important trade route like the Turnpike or Highway) make up more of the Court. When those pieces of power change hands, the Queen makes them more powerful in the Court to appease them and make sure that nobody too powerful turns against her. A sort of slim-majority is formed between a bunch of allied guilds in the Court, but that is disrupted when the leading member of the majority-leading guild is killed and their frostblade (or whatever it’s called) is taken by an opposing (but unknown guild). The ruling guild needs to take more power, and fast, which they have to do by assassinating and stealing someone else’s frostblade, which in turn starts the power struggle. And soon whoever holds the Turnpike and Highway goes up in the air, as well. That would probably be far too complicated (and maybe not that interesting?), but the mind boggles at the possibilities. I’d envision three alliances, and a majority is formed out of being the largest alliance. Maybe a minor guild provides the slim-majority, but they jump ship to another alliance, putting them in power. And then both of the minority alliances have to fight to get it back... Insofar as it’s relevant: Taking out the DA and the Court, that makes 7 guilds, all of relatively equal strength (assuming NHRD is autonomous of the DA). Say that holding the Turnpike gives you x number of seats in the Court, the Highway gives you y, a frostblade gives you z seats per blade - one of the alliances barely holds enough to have the most seats. When they lose the frostblade, they’re in danger of losing everything, so they act desperately to keep control. Unfortunately, this is both really complicated, really game-like (we’d probably need someone running it like with the Spooktacular Extravaganza) and would either play out significantly through PMs or require a lot of threads to keep all of the Guild meetings separate. (I’d probably settle with one Court thread, and an instruction to keep everything that didn’t have to absolutely be kept secret out of PMs.) So I’d understand if nobody wanted to do this.

Windows to the soul. That was it. People often said that the eyes were the windows to the soul. But Jale often found eyes deceptive - you could look at something that wasn’t your focus, and despite what people often said you could fake a smile with your eyes. Everyone knew that they gave away what you were thinking, so they tried to mask it. An arms race of deception. And it was as Jale was looking at the floor, and the woman started to walk, that he worked it out. Feet. The other windows. People pointed their feet in the same direction as their attention, if it was strong enough. He was worried about their feet. Two pairs of eyes, and two pairs of feet; but the two pairs had been different. You looked at a noise if you could hear it, compulsively. So the Guild member was probably deaf, or hard of hearing. But she was paying attention to him, so her feet were pointed towards him. Same with the man, the volunteer. And this white-robed man didn’t have his feet going any particular way. But the other woman, she wasn’t interested in him. Or her partner, or the Guild member. Her feet had been pointed towards... “It is fascinating,” he said to the new individual. Probably a member; he took a seat comfortably, came from the back. “Low literacy requires human work. I’m surprised no one’s thought of it before.” Pointed towards the machinery against the wall. He hadn’t a clue what it did, and cared little; but this woman was very, very interested in it. And for the life of him, he couldn’t work out why. And that had thrown an alert in Jale’s subconscious. The little discrepancy. It wasn’t simple curiosity or boredom, it was a focused attention. As if... machinery was a hobby of hers. A machinist, then. A scholar in the Scholar’s Guild. What a novel concept, Jale. What a brilliant deduction. This knock was really throwing him off. Maybe it was worse than he had thought. “Are either of you members of the Guild?” Simple enough to confirm, really. And, if she was, the bag that she obviously carried around everywhere (the straps were worn and moulded to her shape) would be full of machine parts.

Jale nodded. He seemed truthful, at least about this, but he couldn’t shake the feeling... Welfare, then. Probably volunteers. And thus the clothes made sense - not particularly extravagant, but workable. Maybe a little rough. He might have been born poorer and that motivated him to help those in need. Tired, too. A hint of rings around the eyes. For some strange reason, the word windows drifted to the front of his mind. Jale shook it away. If that’s true, you’re doing good work. Don’t say that first part, Jale. “You’re doing good work. Kelek knows this city needs it.” And it was good work, but something else wasn’t adding up here. He looked at the floor and thought a moment. Six... windows? But then, Jale supposed idly, that if he couldn’t work it out then it didn’t really matter. “Literacy, then? Or something else?”

“Pass on that, thanks.” He had to stop his hand from going for the doorknob again. “I’ll be fine. I’ve survived worse. But I’d like to help - if there’s anything I can do for that then let me know.” Jale’s eyes slid back to the other two, and he couldn’t help but ask again. “Are they here about the paper?” (@Sorana @I think I am here.)

“Jale,” he said, and clicked his fingers near his waist. Interesting. He double-checked the doorknob with his hand. With his other hand, Jale took the paper, read it, and signed it. Gave it back. His eyes settled on a lot of things, but he didn’t register many of them. Except this: one two three four five six. Four of them made sense, but two of them didn’t. As if... As if what? Damnation to this pain. Jale rubbed his forehead, and smiled thinly at the others. “I came about the paper, actually. I’d like to help write for it. Or at least investigate for it.” And then, for a reason he couldn’t entirely explain, he asked the visitors (since they were clearly visitors): “Are you here about the paper, too?”

It was a bright Witrosa day when Jale came to the front door of the Guild and knocked, four times. The headache still throbbed behind everything else, and his forehead felt flatter, somehow, as if the flesh had been squeezed away and the skull was nearer to the surface. A concussion. And a bit of scrambled egg. Jale opened the door without waiting for a response. Three people stood there - two of them were looking at him - but he took the rest of the information in rather sub-consciously, with the information not piercing the smoke of dull pain. He said his piece. “Morning,” Jale said. “Or afternoon. I’ve come to join the Scholar’s Guild.” @Rushu42

I’d like Jale to be moved to Era 4 as well, with two new changes: a strength, outlining the extent of his intellectual abilities; and a new weakness: recently he suffered a concussion, which impedes his conscious mind to a certain extent. His unconscious mind is unaffected, which means he may act on instinct based on his observations without understanding why he’s doing it. That should balance him more when I RP him. Everything else is otherwise unchanged.

I tinkered around with it a little, and decided to leave it as is, as there wasn’t a fix that made it any better or didn’t resort to unnatural endings. Poll is 14 to 1 for putting the calendar into action, and 9 to 5 for using the current dating system (save the person who voted no), so let’s use it! IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR THE CALENDAR: It appears I significantly overestimated the length of Era 3 - I put it at about 223 days, when it was in reality only about 61 days long. Whoops. I have edited the calendar appropriately - the canonical date is now the 23rd of Witrosa in all threads (save perhaps any Era 3 ones that are still going). @ZincAboutIt When you do the timeskip to tomorrow morning, would you mind mentioning that it is the 24th of Witrosa in the newfangled dating system?

Phantus it is, then. Nocta, perhaps? I didn’t want too many -us endings, since that makes it sound formulaic.

Right, okay. I don’t really like Ghostus or Bloodus, so how about Phantus or Sanguis? Not exactly their name, but fairly similar.

It would be more... Era -1? Maybe? As for outside the timeline, I would like for it to be canonical. I suppose if we set it far enough in the past then any changes won’t be too significant. History tends to have a sort of inertia. A poll has gone up in the Calendar thread about whether it should be adopted and what form it should take - be sure to vote on that.

I designed it to be as easy to use in regards to the existing eras, and to minimise negative years, which could cause confusion. (Also, I like the aesthetic of big year numbers. It shows how long the Alleyverse has been running.) And I could see the Republic concurring that it would be too confusing to have to use positive and negative years all the time - but now we’re speculating about what people want, so I might as well put up a poll. Setting up the poll - I’ll include both start dates as options.

Occupational hazard But Rule of Cool - and, besides, it’s more than plausible enough for me. (Far more plausible than half the stuff around here, if you ask me!) Sounds like a plan. Shall I put a poll up on this thread?

I’d say the final paragraph, creative license, and the weirdness of culture can sort of justify it. If people aren’t happy with that, we can just say that there was a unified calendar, but we decided to change it. Maybe there were some overdue problems we needed to address - maybe it was another planet’s calendar poorly retrofitted, which caused problems in the long run. Either way, I’m happy to have a new calendar if it allows the new month names.

You underestimate culture’s ability to make zero sense. There wouldn’t be an official calendar, because who would decree it? There would just be a whole bunch of people converting between personal (perhaps original planetary) calendars in their heads all the time. Individual groups of people using their own calendars, with vague ideas of how to convert between other calendars, like languages or temperature measurements. Children would be raised on their parent’s calendars. (And clearly we didn’t have a calendar, unless we want to retcon ) Much like the Fahrenheit/Celsius(/Kelvin/Rankine) dichotomy. It’s not until the Republic decrees that this is the official calendar (like standard units) that anything starts to make sense. Of course, ‘X days’ still means the same thing across all calendars. And ‘1 month’ in one calendar might be understood as ‘1.8 quarbles’ in another, as a well-known conversion. (Like inches to feet.) So everything still makes sense eventually, though it takes a longer time for anything to be understood - much how like it took us longer to understand how the timeline fit together before this. Does that answer your question? I’m confused a little at what you’re asking. I won’t change the set dates, I’ve decided, because I’m lazy.