Sart

I didn't read the rules carefully enough, and didn't realize that when a Shard breaks free it prevents people from getting investiture. That significantly weakens my plan, and puts the non-Shard village at more of a disadvantage. I disagree on the point of concentrating Shards in Elim hands. For one, it would draw immediate suspicion on the people still in Silverlight. In addition, to steal a Shard a full team of Eliminators would have to give up their action, barring any village help. That means, at least in the short term, that the Elims can't take a Shard without relying on village help. If we could coordinate what Investiture we are taking, we would have a good shot at keeping the Elims from the sudden death win conditions, by leaving one Shard in containment. So, I guess I'm okay with people staying for this night turn at least. If any other Shard breaks free, there will at least be the chance it goes into villager hands. This stuck out like a red flag to me. Didn't we already discuss how that benefits Khriss? That completely wrecks any plans to seal away a Shard for the game, and would make tracking actions a nightmare. In addition, you've also been jumping on several lynch trains today. I think something is off with you Straw.

I hate it when I feel behind in a game. I was hanging out with my family over Spring Break, so I haven't been paying too much attention to this thread. However, I'm surprised to see a lack of discussion when it comes to world-hopping. We have two main options. We all stay in Silverlight, attempting to get more Investiture and Shards. The downside from this is obvious. This gives the conversion teams a large variety of people to convert, which is something we don't want happening. In addition, it is very difficult to put a Shard back into containment after it leaves, which helps Hoid and Khriss with their sudden death conditions. I know people want Shards, but having them free isn't necessarily a good thing. We start spreading out. Everyone probably has 1 use of investiture, right? That's enough to take one action, which is fine. In addition, we can always exchange the type we have by going to Roshar. That is a fair amount of power, even if it seems boring compared to having Shards. It also blocks Hoid and Khriss from converting from a large pool. I propose we head out to the various worlds. We can pop back in to Silverlight if we run out of Investiture, while preventing more conversions. I'm curious to see your thoughts on the matter. Having no consensus will probably mean most people staying, which as I outlined is problematic to the village.

The world shook, and Sam felt afraid. He gasped, searching for air. How long had he been standing there? He needed to move. He took a tentative step, and winced from the pain. His legs had atrophied from lack of use. How much time had passed? He remembered a black void, and then something calling him back, but it didn't feel right. He had been incomplete, a statue of himself. But with that shake, he suddenly felt alive again. He could move again. Where were the Shards? If they escaped... Sam shuddered. He didn't know what had just happened, but he wasn't going to let this opportunity pass him by. The Shards were too dangerous to run wild.

There appear to be 2 main schools of thought here. One idea is to reveal who is taking what Investiture, so that none of the Shards leave containment. That keeps us closer to our win condition, but it has downsides. It lets the Elims track what power is going where, which makes converting powerful roles much easier for them. On the other hand, we could not reveal what we're taking from, and let the Shards escape. That advances the Elims sudden death condition, but that gets us powerful roles for the village. It's risky as hell, since the Shards can start getting their own Win Conditions if we're not careful. In my opinion, we should try to balance this out. Don't reveal what power you are taking, as that will likely lead to highly profitable conversions. However, try to go for some Shards that aren't as likely to be claimed by other people. That way we can keep the Shards contained, and not have to deal with a bunch of differing win conditions.

Sam Taswell knew peace couldn't last. He had seen it shatter, seen his bones ripped to shreds. He had come back. His thoughts were slow now, broken, halting, stagnant. He was a lookout. He was dead. He had come back. Sam Taswell knew peace couldn't last. He had seen it shatter. His thoughts were slow, repeating, broken, halting. He was a lookout. He would keep watch. The Shards. They were all that mattered. He had seen them shatter. He was dead. He had come back. He would keep watch.

Yes, behold, I was Saffron Iguana the whole time! ... Yeah, no one cares about that, considering I died Night 1. So much for my streak of winning the AG awards. Still, the game was fun while it lasted. I'm glad I was able to encourage RP in this game, and my list of RP names actually got included in the write-ups, which was a nice touch. I was also able to hang out with the dead doc, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I stopped following it once my Mid-Range game got underway. I volunteered for that and jumped everyone's spot in line because I was getting really bored not being in a game. Congrats to the Elims, even if it was nearly a sweep. I hate it when last minute vote switches don't work as intended. Balance wise, I did have some issues with this game. The mechanics for this game are tried and true, so I didn't have an issue with them. I did have an issue with the role distribution though. The Eliminators were very powerful this game. Yes, I know there were only five of them. However, they had some really good roles. I especially don't like having Elims with extra lives. If the village is lucky enough to lynch an Eliminator, I want that to stick. The extra life plus the vote manipulation effectively gave the team an extra person, which might have balanced out. Add in the Scanner role, and you have a team that's extremely tough to beat, as they can easily find key players to kill. And then they had a random role and a protection role on top of that. Talk about powerful! Unfortunately, the village didn't have anything to counteract that. We had no scanners and only one protection role. Alongside some vote manipulation and extra lives, the village was 44% Vanilla. I'm of the opinion that the Elim makeup should somewhat resemble the composition of the village. In this case, that would mean having 2 Eliminators be vanilla. That's not a hard and fast rule, but it should be something we keep in mind for later games. And yes, I know AGs are traditionally hard for the village to win, but it never felt unfair until this game. Regardless, this was a ton of fun to watch, and I'm glad we had so much good activity. I'm excited for the possibilities that Anonymous Games provide, and can't wait to see more.

Another balance problem was caused by having Day and Night players. I remember I was a villager that game, and I was super suspicious of a Night player who turned out to be evil. Unfortunately, no one could vote for any night-players, and my partner didn't have a role that could target them. It was very frustrating, especially since the Day-Night pairs weren't revealed until death.Along with some balance issues, it let the evil team win that game easily. Still, I can see a buddy system be used to better effect.

Taswell disliked liars, cheats, and scoundrels, except for himself. That was why he couldn't stand this farce any longer. "Locke Tormander (Orlok Tsubodai), I know what you are planning. You aren't content to just have leadership over your house. Oh no, you want leadership over all the Houses involved in this war. You've designated members in each House to be your puppets, acting as your vessels. You nearly succeeded with House Heron. You entered into an alliance with Altea (Crimsn Wolf) early on, and she was following your orders to the letter. How short sided of her. Once she proved no longer useful, I'm sure you would get rid of her. Meanwhile, you contacted myself for House Ffnord, and Aiden (Eternum) for House Heatherlocke. Of course, you were bargaining with other people as well, but the four of us were The Cabal, as you called it. "As I was saying, you nearly succeeded. You had arranged for me to kill Ivan (Mafia), and for Aiden to kill Grumbles (Devotary). Obviously, that plan didn't work without a hitch. You obviously didn't trust Aiden (Eternum) much, as you sent in a kill on Grumbles as well. That suspicion was valid, since the Heatherlockes killed Jonas (Living Legend) instead. Meanwhile, I was letting Lebereth (Shanerockes) make the kill on Ivan. However, Remart (Jondesu) had other plans. I believe he was working with Ivan (Mafia), although I'm not sure on that point. Regardless, Lebereth was detained, and Remart killed Grumbles instead. If only he had kill Altea instead, then we wouldn't be in this mess." "Unfortunately for you, I am no one's pawn, Locke. I won't be ordered around I want to win this game on my own, not ride on your coattails like a needy Skaa. I urge my fellow nobles to end this threat once and for all. Ask yourself this. 'Has he promised to let me win?' If he has, then he is auctioning off his support to the highest bidder. I shudder to think of what might happen if you prove less than satisfactory. And if he has not, then he is no friend of yours. After all, we've already seen that he's willing to kill for the Cabal. What makes you think he won't kill you? Therefore, I urge the immediate explusion of Locke Tormander from the game. Let his victory turn into ashes."

Taswell was tired. No, that wasn't it. Taswell was tired of being tired. He didn't know what caused it, but he often fell into states of melancholy. This was one of those occasions he reasoned. He could not pinpoint the cause of this sadness inside him. All told, his position was not bad. Although the other Ffnords were dangerous, he believed that he could manage. He would get leadership of the House, or die trying. Why then, did he feel nothing? He should be celebrating, glorying in the fire of battle. Instead, Taswell felt hollow inside. Perhaps it was all the drudge work. There were Skaa to manage, Inquisitors to assuage, papers upon endless papers to sign. It was all so mundane. He didn't feel like doing them, and so they were not getting done. He knew they needed done, but they were not done. He couldn't delegate them to a servant, or, even worse, another member of his house. To do so would be to show signs of weakness, and he was not weak. No, he could do the tasks set out before him. Perhaps he was just spoiled, not wanting to dirty his hands in quill ink. It was a silly reason to get hung up on, but yet there he was. A mountain of paperwork before him, and no end in sight. Taswell needed something, some spark to light his passion again. He needed some way to see past this paperwork, to see the bright new future. Him, as Lord of house Ffnord. No, not House Ffnord, House Tawell. And why stop there? He would be greater than House Ffnord. He would rule all the Houses, he would be the most powerful House in all of Luthadel. He could rival even the great Lord Ruler for power. No, one day, he would become Lord Ruler! He laughed at his own foolishness. Become Lord Ruler? He was getting ahead of himself. He could barely keep up with his own paperwork, much less run all of Luthadel. And even if he took control, what then? There would just be more Skaa to manage, more Inquisitors looking over his business, more papers to sign. What was the point of it all? Was life nothing but a sea of paperwork to swim through, until you inevitably drowned and died? No. He would not accept that answer. Taswell knew the answer. He wanted power, so he took power. He wanted glory, so he sought glory. It was what he wanted, and he wasn't going to let anyone get in his way. After all, he knew what he wanted. He smiled. Luthadel would never forget his name.

What happens if the last 2 survivors of a House die on the same turn? Do they both lose?

We should really sticky this. If you want to color your vote red on mobile, type [color'=red]Vote Here[/color] with the apostrophe removed. See It works!

"Stop the violence? Are you mad? Ivan Heron (Mafia) has been spotted recently, yet has not spoken in our presence. If one wishes to be a noble, then @Mafia had better act like it. Otherwise, the Lord Ruler might have to get involved."

So, was this game balanced? I waffled back and forth on this issue throughout the game, and have continued to do so even after the game ended. I can say that the game was close. The Thief ended the game with 3 Bribes, the Forgotten nearly swept the village, and the Village had a come from behind win. The game ended with only 4 survivors, and lasted for 6 Cycles. It should have lasted for 7 cycles, since MonsterMetroid blocked the gunshot, but the rest of the village had decided he was evil, so it was a foregone conclusion. That's a close game. And yet, there were some elements in the game that were clearly unbalanced. Let me go over them: Revealing who took what item was a bad idea from the start. Yes, it made some interesting game play. I wanted players to be semiconscious about what items they took. I wanted players with the Gun to be feared. However, this created a major problem for the Eliminators. If they wanted to submit the kill, they had to not take an item, which would draw immediate suspicion. I tried some ways to lessen that burden. The Forgotten started with new players, who could claim that they went inactive without sounding too suspicious. I gave the village some items, to use instead of taking an item. I made failing to take an item that was out of supply not appear in the write-up, to give the bad guys a different excuse for not taking an item. I made a Villager Sneaky, so that they wouldn't appear in the write-up at all. I also banked that a villager might not submit an action. It happens naturally. With all that being said, there were 6 people who weren't listed as taking an action. That gave the Forgotten some breathing room, which they used to great effect. If I ran this game again, I would cut the confirmation out entirely. The idea was interesting, but it would work just as well if no one knew who took what. There's still a danger that the good guys would be able to track item usage, but that risk would be diminished. Speaking of items, their usage was too easily tracked. If you Bribed someone, a vote would be removed. If you role-blocked someone, they would be told they were role-blocked. If you used a Crab, you could tell what item a person did to confirm your story. The only one you couldn't tell was used was Chalk. Even the Gun and Map were obvious when they were used. That's really annoying, and leads to a lot of information for the village. The map didn't work as I intended. First off, there was a huge loophole I didn't realize with the Order of Actions. One player could use the Map, then another player could grab the newly created Map in the same cycle. That would result in new items every turn, which would flood the camp supply, leading to a massive Villager advantage. Thankfully that didn't happen. Instead, the map traded hands a bunch, and was never used until very late in the game. Honestly, that helped keep the game from going lopsided, but it wasn't what I intended. I wanted items to appear roughly every odd cycle. That was enough to keep things interesting, while not be overbearing to the bad guys. In addition, the number of items should have scaled based on the number of living players. It should have been roughly half the number of living players. I changed it to approximately 10 to give the Thief a better shot at getting a Bribe, which was a mistake. Speaking of mistakes, let's talk about the Thief. The idea with the thief was to give them an obvious way to win, that they would have to convince the town to go along with. Unfortunately, everyone was paranoid about that win condition, which sabotaged it. The Bribes needed to get out of the Supply for the Thief to win, but they sat there instead. I considered making the Thief sneaky, which would have helped that problem, but it still would make them stand out like a sore thumb when items were taken. A better solution would be to change the Thief's win condition to be getting 1 of every basic item. That would be easily do-able, but it would still be challenging, especially if they didn't know who had what item. The Forgotten were pretty powerful this game, even though they lost. I gave them 4 members because I knew Cycle 1 was going to be difficult for them. I also gave them powerful roles. 1 was just vanilla. Half of the village was vanilla, and didn't feel right giving all the Forgotten roles. 1 started with Chalk. This was to protect from the Gun kill, and was an opportunity to do a WGG if desired. 1 started with Acid. I disliked trust-groups, and was worried one was going to form with the Extra-Life item. I changed Acid to destroy Chalk to give the Elims an unblockable kill at one point in the game. That was an important advantage, and one I'm proud of. 1 was Quick. If he could convince the Village to let him use the Gun, the village would be in deep trouble. In addition, he got first pick with the items, which was an important advantage. So, there was a lot of things wrong with the game, but it still ended up being close. Each side was over-powered in different ways. Does that mean the game was balanced? No. The best way I can describe it is that the game was too swing-y. It was either going to end in a landslide for the village, or a landslide for the eliminators. Going back to Cycle 1, Steeldancer, a Forgotten, was saved by a coin-flip. If he died, I have no doubt the game would have been rough for the bad guys. At the same time, the village was saved by a coin-flip on Cycle 4. If Elenion had died instead, it would have been 4 Forgotten vs. 4 Villagers. I'm pretty sure the Elims would have swept at that point. If the bad guys hadn't been super-paranoid of Orlok, he might have been able to win, even after revealing himself to the thread. This game could have gone so many ways. It may not have been balanced, but it was a lot of fun to see it unfold. I'm going to tweak the rules, and I'll hopefully run this again in the future. I'm excited to see what kind of crazy stuff happens next time.

"Right then..." Taswell paced nervously. There were already plots spawning, trying to resolve this peacefully. It was absurd. Everyone wanted power, and there was a power vacuum. They were drawn to it like moths to a flame. Some would burn, but others would soar to new heights. They were Nobles after all. Plotting was what they did best. It would be safer to run, to hide, to avoid the call of the flame. Such an act would be cowardly though. If you weren't trying to grab more power, you were no better than a Skaa. He penned his letter, hoping to draw a response. "Those who have recently joined our Houses have an inherent advantage. They have no enemies to speak of, and we have no idea how they will react. For all we know, they were the ones who started this, hoping to claw up from the depths of obscurity. I will not let them flee into the shadows. I vote for the head of Ivan Heron (Mafia). I do not know who he is, where he comes from, or how he is related to the Herons. @Mafia I urge you to take a moment to address the Nobles. Come, play the game. I want to see how brightly you burn."

Links to the various docs: Master Spreadsheet Forgotten Doc Dead Doc

The remaining Forgotten were outnumbered. Steelchalk and Nb'Nub fought like they were possessed, but the Rithmatists had the upper hand. The chalk stored in the cave was proving to be a life-saver. A lucky Line of Vigor from Kadal pierced Steelchalk's Line of Warding. Aiden siezed upon the opportunity, whipped out his knife again, and was able to deal the finishing blow to her. Nb'Nub was growing desperate. He couldn't fend off all the attacks at once. Cacooo Moreau had leveled a gun at the last Forgotten. "What are you things?" the soldier asked, staring down his opponent. "Better." cried Nb'Nub, throwing acid onto Moreau's face. He had been saving that from the very beginning, in case the Forgotten had need of it. Unfortunately, he had to flee. He started running out of the cave. The wild chalklings he created were hampering his pursuers, and he might have lived. However, Mya wasn't going to let him go so easily. She reached out, and managed to trip the fleeing traitor. Cacooo wiped the acid from his eyes, and shot the last Forgotten. The camp paused to catch their breath. There were only 4 of them left. "What do we do now?" asked Kadal. "We stay here." said Aiden, solemnly. "Look." He pulled out a piece of paper from Nb'Nub's pocket. It read, Once you have eliminated the traitors, report to high command. Long live the Tower. "High Command?" asked Mya, shocked at the implications. "They've taken over our generals!" exclaimed Cacooo. "We can't leave. If we do, we'll be labeled as traitors, and executed." continued Aiden. "So then what do we do?" asked Kadal, incredulously. "We fight. We gather the supplies we have left, and we fight. We don't stop til the Tower is gone. We're all that's left. Let's make it count." The survivors nodded, their new purpose in mind. They were soldiers, and there were still Forgotten to kill. Vote Count: Steeldancer (4): Jondesu, Devotary of Spontaneity, Brightness Radiant, Eternum Devotary of Spontaneity (1): Steeldancer Steeldancer was lynched. He was a Forgotten. MonsterMetroid technically blocked the gun shot, but he died anyway. He was a Prepared Forgotten The Soldiers have won! This was a hard-fought victory, and this game was super close. I want to commend all the players for doing a great job this game. I'll have another post about balance later on. Player List:

Cycle should have been closed hours ago. Sorry about that. I don't actually have time to do a write-up tonight. The game is practically over, although there technically should be one more cycle in this game. However, with all the Forgotten having been revealed, I think it's appropriate to call it. Expect a final write-up tomorrow.

The camp had finally regrouped in the cave mouth. With the new supplies, fending off the wild chalklings had been possible. After the battle, they were all exhausted, gasping for breath. "What's our next move?" wheezed Lara. "Attack!" cried Steelchalk. Suddenly, chalklings began pouring out of him, as well as Lara and Nb'Nub. They quickly overwhelmed Mr. Klenion, eating him alive. "No! It can't end like this!" shouted Aiden. He led a vicious counterattack, pushing through Lara's Lines of Warding. He whipped out a knife, while she pulled out her own. In the end though, only one could survive. In the end, it was a matter of brute strength. Aiden grabbed Lara's arm, twisted it, and stabbed her in the heart with his free hand. She collapsed, dead. Vote Count: Caesura (4): Jondesu, Devotary of Spontaneity, Brightness Radiant, Eternum Eternum (3): Caesura, Steeldancer, Monster Metroid Caesura was lynched. She was a Prepared Forgotten. A Piece of Chalk was added to the Camp Supply. Elenion was killed. He was a Soldier. A Bribe was added to the Camp Supply. Camp Supply: Player List: This cycle will end on February 14th, at 7PM Eastern Time. If you want, we can shorten it.

Time! Give me a sec.

Just a reminder. Don't put votes into edits. It makes it much easier for me to miss them when I'm doing my final tally.

Glad to see you liked my suggestion. In regards to the second point, does that mean I can pass Atium and do another action in the same turn, or does that mean I can pass Atium, but I can't take another action.

You can paraphrase, but don't copy and paste. It's a forum-wide rule for a reason.

This cycle is 2 days. The countdown was incorrect. I've corrected it in the main post. I figured someone would ask about that. If 2 players go for the gun, no one dies, and both players get guns. If 3 players go for guns, all guns will be lost, and only 2 people will survive. If you are Quick, you are guaranteed to be one of the people who survive, unless 3 Quick people went for the gun.

Mr. Klenion was fed up. "You all think I'm a Forgotten? How dare you! I'm innocent. It's Myka, he's the Forgotten!" Klenion suddenly charged the actor, stabbing Myka in the gut. Myka stared at his wound, as he started coughing up blood. "Why would you..." Klenion paused, tears in his eyes, hoping against hope that his hunch was right. Then suddenly, Myka's eyes glowed white. In a slow, almost robotic tone, Myka pronounced, "That was a bad idea." Suddenly, wild chalklings began pouring out of his wound. They flowed out of him, hundreds at a time. There were too many to combat, especially with the shortage of supplies. "RUN!" shouted Orlok, making a beeline out of the camp. "Go, now, before it's too late!" shouted General Manukos."I'll hold them off, just run!" He was flinging acid at the things with remarkable accuracy, buying the camp enough time to escape. The rest of the camp broke into a sprint, chasing after Orlok. Myka had started laughing, going delirious from the pain. The flood of chalklings turned into a trickle, then it stopped entirely. Myka, slumped to the ground, defeated. Still, the enemy numbers were too great for Manukos. He fought bravely, but in the end, the horde ate him alive. Meanwhile, Orlok had reached his destination. The map led to an old smuggling hole set in a small cave. It would hopefully have more chalk, and more bribes too. He couldn't fight those things any more. He needed as many bribes as possible, then he was getting out of here. If he could bribe one of the guards, he could escape without getting shot. He rifled through the stash, not noticing someone at the mouth of cave. He didn't realize that the stranger's eyes were glowing white, or that they had sneaked up behind him. When the town reached the cave, they found Orlok's body, dead amidst a pile of riches. Vote Count: Kynedath (4): Jondesu, Orlok, Eternum, Elenion Elenion (4): Kynedath, Caesura, Steeldancer, Devotary of Spontaneity Monster Metroid (1): Brightness Radiant Kynedath was lynched. He was a Quick Forgotten. A Piece of Chalk and a Bucket of Acid were returned to the camp supply Orlok was killed. He was a Thief. A Gun and 3 Bribes were returned to the camp supply. Manukos was killed by the inactivity filter. He was a Quick Soldier. A Spring-Powered Crab and a Bucket of Acid were returned to the camp supply. A Map was used! 1 Chalk, 1 Bribe, 2 Crabs, a Map, and a Gun were added to the camp supply. Items Taken: Camp Supply: Player List: This cycle will end on Monday, February 12, at 7PM Eastern Time

Time's up. Cycle is closed.