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Wonko the Sane

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  1. Wonko the Sane
    I'm at work right now, so have limited bandwidth to discuss. In the interest of furthering group information, I am willing to share my win condition with anyone who opens a PM with me; I'm fairly confident I won't be able to achieve it without some collaboration, so I'm basically fishing for allies. As for the vote, I agree on a CC exe. We have no idea if there's an eliminator faction, and while others seem confident that an exe improves their odds, I don't know that it will mine. Given that, and knowing that a 1-vote minimum basically guarantees an exe, I'd prefer we pick someone who's unlikely to help disseminate some information. So, much as it hurts, Aman is a non-new player who hasn't said anything. @Amanuensis
  2. Wonko the Sane
    Awww! Is this a reference to my submission essay? Like, Kevan's warmth reminds her of her father? That's really sweet. All right, can do. My submission essay was written in-character, since I couldn't think of any good way to write an OOC essay on the subject of naming.
  3. Wonko the Sane
    I seem to have missed the sign up train, but I'll put myself on the pinch hitter list in case someone drops out in the next few days. If no one does drop out, I may ask to switch to being a spectator once the game starts; I'm interested in seeing what's up with this game.
  4. Wonko the Sane
    @Devotary of Spontaneity I'm glancing over this spec doc, and am a little confused by the NPC text. Their colors are claimed next to yours at the top -- is the majority of this doc just you talking to yourself?
  5. Wonko the Sane
    Elena was, in a word, frustrated. She'd come to the University because Reshi Emru had recommended she study under some human Namers. The art was different for humans, he'd explained, so there was a limit to what he could teach her, even with her mother's blood. She'd expected if there were anywhere in the Four Corners who would accept her unusual nature, it would be here, at the very seat of wisdom and learning. She should have known better. The moon-accursed skindancers had whipped the school into a paranoid fervor, and even the Masters were now eyeing anything remotely Faen with distrust (never mind that the Sithe were the oldest enemies of the Dancers, far older than any human fear). When she'd returned to her rooms after the second planning meeting with Kevan's group, she'd found the door broken open. The walls were wreathed in holly, which was adorable; undoubtedly it was meant to trap her or some such silliness. Less adorable were the iron shavings scattered almost invisibly across her bed. Elena rubbed her burned arm gingerly as she sat atop the livery stable, feet dangling to the courtyard below. The burns weren't serious; for once, she had reason to be thankful for her human father. Still, it frightened her to realize just how vulnerable she'd been. She hadn't returned to her rooms since, preferring the anonymity of living on the streets. Why was she still here? The Dancers, she supposed, but that was hardly her responsibility anymore; she'd done what she could, and the others were better equipped to deal with the threat. The study of Naming? She admitted there was still a foolish hope that Master Namer would take her back, after this business with the Uret was concluded; but she hardly needed him now. She opened her eyes to the Wind, proving that to herself. It was particularly energetic here, in this courtyard. Quoyan Hael, they called it; the House of the Wind. She watched for a while as it whorled and rushed in the moonlight, playful and dangerous. She saw it all, down to the softest breeze. She could be that free, she knew. With the Name of the Wind, she could return to Emru, resume her studies under a teacher who actually appreciated her. So why? Almost without thinking, she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and scrawled out a question. Quoyan Hael. The Questioning Hall. According to superstition, the Wind could answer questions, here. She let the fluttering note slip free of her fingers. Naming, the Dancers; those reasons were valid, but rang false to her ear. But what more was there for her, here? She found her thoughts lingering on tonight's meeting as she watched her note flit to and fro. The others had gone for drinks after; they found joy and relaxation, even in a crisis. Was that foolishness, or wisdom? They'd invited her, again; she'd declined, again. 'Friend' was not a word oft associated with Elena Resterford. There were people she respected, of course; even loved. She cherished her time learning from Reshi Emru, or listening to the tales spun by old Wylth. But friendship? Fun, camaraderie, drinks on the town? She'd never had the time nor the inclination. So why was she still here? Her thoughts drifted to Kevan. Kevan, who was the most boring human she'd ever met. Kevan, whose determination and intellect continued to dazzle her each day. She liked Kevan; enjoyed the time they spent working plans against the Uret; enjoyed even the time they spent doing nothing at all. Was Kevan her friend? Something less? Something more? She sat there, watching the Wind, for a span of minutes. Then, she spoke its name, and the Wind stilled abruptly. The slip of paper with Kevan's name on it fluttered softly down to land in center of the courtyard. Finally, Elena stood and left. She would find her own answers. --------- I'm not certain votes on Archer are going to change anything, since they only prevent a hammer if the NPC Masters are also capable of voting for Archer. That said, I'm not super averse to it. Archer, Archer.
  6. Wonko the Sane
    Or just give it to a consensus villager like TKN or Mat. Why are you delaying a cycle and trying to lure an active villager out to Imre? Can somebody who takes better notes than me either post or PM me a full set of the scans so far? If you don’t, it’s fine, I’ll just dig through and find them in the morning; I just want to confirm the full deductive logic here.
  7. Wonko the Sane
    That’s actually pretty good news. It robs us of a flip, which sucks, but it’s decent evidence that TJ did not give any fellow eliminators a gram.
  8. Wonko the Sane
    Can you confirm whether you’re one turn away from Master Linguist right now?
  9. Wonko the Sane
    To elaborate on Kas’s point, TJ, it is an absolute guarantee that the set {Archer, Kas, TJ, Wonko} contains at least one eliminator, which you should know already from the evidence provided. So why are you looking at the missed kills for evidence against Archer? V!You already has 100% evidence that Archer is evil, unless you believe Kas’s entire game has been a long con, or that the Elim team took the riskiest WGG of all time with me. Strongly agreed here, guys. Archer, Archer. I’m actually willing to support any of the current trains, because we DO NOT want to face a possible two E!Masters, but I’m very much against two exes tonight. Most scenarios in which the village wins here involve HEAVY turtling, and we do want to lose turns by losing more people than necessary. If we converge on an exe for Archer or Stink, I’ll add my vote to it. If not, I’ll put my vote on Steel, to minimize the damage a potential two-exe cycle does to us. @Archer @Sart One of you, please move your votes; I don’t have a particular preference for which.
  10. Wonko the Sane
    If you are dead, 100% certain of E!Ash and E!Steel? It's not. But I'm working very hard not to tunnel here. I don't want to commit to a guess more than we have to, and I especially don't want to commit a resource that doesn't even help in the E!Ash/E!Steel scenario. Also, you've failed to account for at least two things in your wargame; I'll send them to you in PM.
  11. Wonko the Sane
    My thinking was the team decided to swing for the hardmode goal early on, and since that hypothetical team is still very much in control of the game, you saw no reason to change tack. That said, You've got a point. I was just isolating the fact that we know for certain {Archer, Kas, Steel} has an elim, and considering the scenarios there. If it's Steel, the game's in the bag; I don't share Kas's anxiety about turtle!Ash being capable of winning solo. So I wasn't really concerning myself with that, and was instead thinking about the outside-chance alternatives, and trying to prep for them. But E!Kas is actually REALLY long odds, enough that I really shouldn't be entertaining it; sorry. I still don't think we should be exeing Steel. There's literally no world where it helps us. We should either try and use the exe productively, or skip it altogether on the outside odds of V!Steel. Basically, exeing Steel has a very, very small chance of hurting the village, but and absolutely zero chance of helping. EDIT: Oh, and everyone who doesn't have a REALLY good use for your EP should put at least 3 of it into Alchemy.
  12. Wonko the Sane
    What? Why vote Steel, then? You have literally just surrendered that control by moving from a unanimous lynch to a contested one. More to the point, why in the name of God's burned and blackened body would you want to waste time to exe Steel now? If Steel is the last Elim, then we can deal with him at our leisure; literally any one of us could 1v1 him. If he is an Elim, but not the last one, we need to be focusing all our efforts on finding his active allies. There is quite literally no world where a Steel exe increases the odds of village victory (excepting the possibility that he suddenly becomes active, I suppose). Plus, a V!Archer exe would cost the village less than any other Village lynch, as he can continue doing his scanning work from expulsion. The only loss is his vote and the long-term possibility of Banned Books. You're doing a very good job of making that E!Archer, E!Kas, E!Ash timeline seem more credible, Kas. Everyone else, I've got a list on my computer at home of some evidence against Kas I've put together over the last few days; he's softly contradicted himself a number of times, which you could argue is paranoia and frustration, but I'm increasingly unsure of that. I'll post my findings when I get home this evening. Please note I'm not advocating a Kas exe! There are no dangerous E!Kas teams that don't also include E!Archer.
  13. Wonko the Sane
    So, from the scan results, we have a guaranteed Skindancer in [Archer, Steel, Kas]. If it’s Steel — which I think is by far the most likely option — we’ve won the game. There are at least two separate villagers capable of hiring Assassins in that instance, meaning that whether the remaining Dancer is Stink or Ash, we have them dead to rights. If it’s Archer, I agree there’s some level of concern if he’s allowed to make Master. For that reason, my vote is on Archer, Archer. I find this the least likely option of the three, but it’s worth prepping for, as it’s the one we’re most in danger of losing. E!Kas is a tricky case. It would invalidate the TJ scan, meaning TJ could have been innocent. Indeed, if we’re dealing with E!Kas, he’s done a phenomenal job overall at manipulating the village this game. That said, it’s really hard to imagine E!Kas is in anything approaching a winning position. The only ones I can imagine include E!Archer, so it doesn’t change an Archer exe as the best play. The worst possible world, as I see it, is E!Archer, E!Kas, E!Ash, going for a field destruction win. That would explain Kas’s push for a no-exe cycle, and would go some way to explaining the lack of night kills. But that world is still best covered by an Archer exe, so my vote stands.
  14. Wonko the Sane
    Well, I’m not 100% behind Kas, but I am in on the details behind this redscan, and I have some pretty strong trust in its veracity independent of Kas’s alignment. TJ, TJ Like Kas said, if this is a deliberate ML on you, it’s a stupid one, and will absolutely cost the Elims the game. In that case, sorry, but know that your loss will be fully avenged. ————— Not for the first time, Elena wondered at the ignominy of her position. How dare they? They’d known who she was when they accepted her into their little school; the risks that they’d face. they’d known she intended to pursue a study of Naming. And yet, the very first time she spoke a Name on campus — in defense of the University, mind you — they had immediately caged her, on some flimsy pretext of insanity (ironic, given they’d never done the same to her father; the privilege of nobility, she supposed). They were cowards, simple as that; too afraid of her to see any sort of reason. And yet, not quite frightened enough, she mused. They’d placed her in a cage of copper, as though she were some common Arcanist — but she had tools outside of naming. Her skill with grammarie might be lacking, but not so much that she could fail to notice the blazing heat of the midsummer sun outside her cell window. With her limited ability, it had taken her months to fashion that sunlight into a dagger, but she finally used that dagger to melt through the bars of her copper cage. After that, a few simple glammouries had let her walk out of the crockery fully unnoticed. The other students watched her with curiosity now; they knew she’d been sentenced to the crockery, and wondered at her walking freely about. The Masters though… well she’d have to be careful from now on not to let them imprison her again. The fear in their eyes suggested there would be iron in her cage next time. Bother. She doubted she’d be able to convince Master Namer she wasn’t a threat anymore; her lessons were at an end. She sighed, reminding herself that it wasn’t the end of the world. It was true that the University had the finest Namers in the Four Corners, but it was hardly the only place she could learn the art. That left her with no real reason to remain at the University — save one. Her father’s work remained unfinished; and her mother would never forgive her if she left creatures from the Mael weaving mischief in the world of men. The Dancers had to go. For now, she followed her name upon the Wind, seeking those she’d caught speaking it in hushed voices. It was surprisingly easy to pick them out; for all the stares she received, it seemed most students were too frightened to actually talk about her. No doubt afraid that speaking her name would give her power, or summon her, or some nonsense. At long last, the Wind led her to the whisperer — Kevan, sitting in the Archives, looking distinctly anxious and pensive. Was he a threat? It was hard to imagine one of the Mahael-uret picking so unremarkable a host, but they were hard to predict sometimes. In any case, she needed allies, and this was as good a place as any to start. He didn’t seem to have noticed her, so she settled into a seat behind him, quirking a small smile. “It’s rude to talk about people behind their backs, you know.”
  15. Wonko the Sane
    Ah. Well. Many apologies to everyone for inactivity. I kind of checked out from the game over the weekend, as I had GenCon to deal with and had gone insane. I didn't find out until right now that I escaped. Well, I'm here now; I still need to read the last few cycles, but I thought I should post to let people know I'm here.
  16. Wonko the Sane
    It's possible I'm being mislead by last game, I suppose. It is true that back then, we were using the then-E'lir-level Linguistic Analysis as a de facto alignment scanner, so we definitely had more information to work with. Both Archives and Naming have pretty powerful information acquisition tools, though, so I think it's still a reasonable point -- and again, the exe is radically depowered in this game compared to normal SE; we can put some pressure on with it, but ultimately it just doesn't have the same bite as it does elsewhere. We need other tools at our disposal, this game cannot be won on exe alone. I agree with this even more now than I did back then, and even then I said it was only a light suspicion. It just always gives alarm bells when someone seems to have a strong, NAI, appeal-to-emotion reason not to exe them, and you were repeatedly stressing that reason by talking about the time you had left before getting killed. You've contributed substantially since then, though, even though you didn't want to, so my light suspicions there have almost completely been washed away. For now, I'm too busy to do a vote count, but I see a lot of votes on Sart, Sart, which is a very good opportunity to give this exe teeth for once, and possibly expel a player. I really didn't like the tone of that vote on Kas last cycle, as it seemed like a way of floating suspicions about Kas while maintaining the deniability of "it's just RP".
  17. Wonko the Sane
    Dearest Father, I am settling in at the University, and can say with certainty that I will be enjoying my time here. Hardly more than two span in, and already another student has been driven mad by the Mahael-uret. Everyone else is scrambling around, afraid, weaving holly wreathes as though they have any sort of power without the proper grammerie. It’s quite funny, really. I admit I had my reservations about this place, when you suggested I attend, but I’m quite happy to have been proven wrong. My studies go well; I was passed over for elevation into the Arcanum, which is irritating, but I will soldier on. Doubtless the Masters are still afraid of me, and watching to see if I’m “safe” to be learning such things. They keep an armed guard on me at all times; there are two of them outside my door right now, as I write this. It’s all rather silly; if I wanted to hurt a fellow student, it’s not like a pair of crossbows would stop me. I’m afraid my social life is rather lackluster at the moment. Part of that can be blamed on my escorts; it’s hard for the other students to relax around them. And around me, I suppose. But I also struggle to find anything to connect with them about. Their lives seem terribly dull; the Dancers stalk their streets, and still they seem to worry more about their grades. I suppose I should try and reach out all the same; it’s meant to be part of the experience, yes? I’ll give it some thought. The religion is absolutely oppressive out here. It’s always “Tehlu this, Tehlu that”, never mind oppressed minorities like Aunt Fiffy and the other Chandrian that Tehlu would kill if he got the chance. Really, I’d like to bring some of these people to meet their precious Tehlu, and see how they feel about him after a conversation with the insufferable man. I’d wager even odds that we’d see a “Church of the Chandrian” pop up in a matter of weeks. Though I suppose that would be its own sort of bother, as Aunt Fiffy really doesn’t like people fussing over her that much — and knowing Tehlu, if he caught wind of it, he’d probably step in and “righteously smite” anyone who’d ever heard of this church. Ah, well. Give the family my love, and let Mother know that I’m planning on striking down a Mahael in her name! your loving daughter, Elena Resterford
  18. Wonko the Sane
    Yeah, putting it into perspective by pointing out it’s two pages. Sorry, probably just a symptom of being busy that it feels like a lot. In all seriousness, though, how in Damnation are you keeping this up? Did you really write 1k more words of RP in the time since my last post? O.o My point was that when I say kill or expel, I mean kill or expel; and it’s not evidence of an Elim mindset because the Elims don’t even have a kill. Wind alone is capable of role blocking, not killing, yes. But it doesn’t take much to get another name, and I demonstrated somewhat infamously in LG18 that you can kill with Wind augmented by another name. (Look up something called “the Bonestorm”. El made me promise to never make her write another writeup like that. )
  19. Wonko the Sane
    I’m not actually complaining about you making the game difficult to play; I’m just trying to read your lovely novella and maybe RP back at you, but it’s not a serious problem, hence the smiley. Though you’re wrong that your RP is fully skippable; you’ve definitely done some analysis inside your RP along the way. Also, Skindancers don’t kill, they sabotage; the only players with reliable kills are Namers — who can conceivably begin killing next month, unless JNV really was the Namer elevation.
  20. Wonko the Sane
    Apologies for lack of activity. I’m demoing a game at GenCon next weekend, and I’m juggling this with the prep work for that. I’ll work to do better. By the way, Kas, super respect the effort, but your breakneck pace is not making it easy to keep up with the thread. I’m also more than a little worried about the way you’ve set this up like a shield, making it feel bad to kill or expel you before you hit your target. Not suspicious enough to warrant a vote, but I don’t love the way you repeatedly emphasize how anxious you are about finishing your NaNo. As for actual votes, I have so little Wonko-friendly data to work with… I’ll go with Archer, for the phishing, but more importantly for not jumping on Mat; last game, he was steadfast about Mat having a certain tell, and was proven right. This game, Mat came out the gate with that tell, but Archer just made an offhand joke and let it slide. Honestly, though, I don’t find the exe super useful for the Village at this stage. Crucially, it doesn’t flip, meaning it’s not an effective information gathering tool — it’s only good for acting on existing suspicions. I’d have to check, but in LG18, I don’t we expelled a single Skindancer, and we still won. This game is about role powers first and foremost. We have 7 of those in play now, so there should be information disseminating soon.
  21. Wonko the Sane
    Just remember there's a 12-hour rollover! The month ends in just over 13 hours, at 2 PM for you (assuming you're still in the UK). EDIT: Also, hey, Stink! I'm back in town, haven't said hi to you yet.
  22. Wonko the Sane
    @Kasimir, I hate to have to be the the one to point this out, but it’s actually Aturan, not Arturan.
  23. Wonko the Sane
    Even amidst the hustle and bustle of the starting term, the carriage drew eyes as it rolled across the bridge and into the University. It wasn't the carriage itself -- after all, it was hardly unheard of for long-distance students to arrive in such vehicles; though the student inside was definitely less wealthy than most of those. Nor was it the unusual decoration, though the midnight-black coloring and bright, jagged lightning-bolt crest on the side were certainly striking. Instead, what caught the gaze of dozens of passersby were the horses. They were dead. Two enormous skeletal stallions, bones picked clean and polished to a mirror finish, at last came to a halt in front of the admissions building. They stood unnervingly still, suddenly inanimate, as the carriage door opened to reveal a young woman of perhaps nineteen, dressed in a slim black gown, her sleek black hair done up neatly with a crimson bow. She stepped out onto the cobbles, and the now-empty carriage immediately started off again. Immediately, a pair of tall, straight-backed men -- each bearing a crossbow and wearing scabbarded sword -- approached the girl and appeared to exchanged words with her. She smiled curtsied, and gestured towards the admissions office. The armed pair fell into step to either side of her as they made their way into the building. The bewildered onlookers took a while to get their wits back together; few in the crowd seemed to have any idea what had just happened. Gradually, though, an explanation made its way from mouth to mouth; a single, whispered word, spoken with the same quavering cadence associated with words like Skindancer, or Chandrian: "Resterford." ------------ The rules really aren't that bad. Long, but not too complicated. Honestly the abridged version in the original post covers nearly everything major. I'm definitely not good with just straight up reporting my entire cycle to you (seriously, what are you expecting?), but I can probably answer any basic questions you have. For starters, EP is how you get role powers; in this game everyone starts without a role, but can earn them by studying in various subjects at school. EP is the resource you use to do that studying. Imre is the place where you can buy items, among a couple other things; to go there, you have to state it in your GM PM the turn before you go.
  24. Wonko the Sane
    Yeah, I had the option to effectively turn the game into a coin flip, but that was it, which was why I didn’t ever attack. I think I’d need to have a way to get stronger suspicions much earlier if I wanted to be effective for the Village with a kill role. Active knives might work, or some kind of limited scanner role.
  25. Wonko the Sane
    I can't help but notice Linguistic Analysis is much harder to get to than I remember.
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