Admin thread for Werewolf XXXII: The Lost Age

[Volo]

The crowd was getting tired, somebody had even left the hall. Several were trying to chat, but the terrible music was so loud that you couldn’t even hear your own thoughts. At one moment a fight nearly occurred, luckily it stopped before anything serious happened. People couldn’t understand why they were waiting in the first place.

Suddenly the music stopped and everybody was relieved, at last the anticipation ended. A young guy walked from the right side of the stage to the stand in the middle. The hall was filled with silence, except for a lone hamster clapping fanatically.

Volo puffed out his chest feeling overly proud of himself. After two ”artistic” and one sickly coughs he began his speech,

”Dear Wights! Dear Downers! Dear Friends! It is wonderful to see you all… nearly all, here! I am proud to present the thing I have been working on for a long time now, too long if you ask me. But I know I’m not the only one and I have to wait my turn. Anyway, it has been lots of fun, but also hard work. Sure I have had great help, but even together, it wasn’t an easy job. May I welcome my helper, Kath!”

Kath walked to the stand and bowed low. The crowd applauded like mad. Only the hamster sat quietly. Kath was really touched and Volo rather offended, but he didn’t show it.

”Yes, thank you Kath. Together we planned and wrote this Tol-in-Gaurhoth game. It’s basically the same as the earlier WW’s, but it has some new features. You can find more about it in the posts around the hall. Questions will be answered”.

The audience was getting interested, this felt promising. Somebody even started to clap and soon others joined in.

”Well, it’s no big deal. I do hope you like it”.

Volo and Kath left the stage and the anoying music turned back on.


Rules to follow (soon?).

[Volo]

The basic stuff:
No double-lynches.
No retractions.
Day/Night ends 15:00 (3 PM) GMT (I might not be able to post long story bits...)
The first Night starts at 15:00 GMT on the24th of April!

Votes are all hidden!
Vampires can't vote!
More on voting and the Lynch Seer system: here.

Please, don't change your Signiture, Avatar, location or any other BD information, if you can avoid it.

Random facts:

- All of deaths are shown in the morning (when the Night changes into Day)
- All of the dreams/protections/kills may contradict each other and a lynched person may be protected after he/she is dead. Meaning that the Gifteds, Vampires and the Shade can waste their powers on a person who is already dead.
- The Good Gifteds can't PM each other.
- The specific role of the Vampire won't be told to the Seer or the Shade.
- The specific role of the Vampire will be told at death.
- The game will start with a Night.


Roles during gameplay:

Villagers (hoping for 11): Innocents, who try to survive by lynching a person during day. Win by getting rid of the three Vampires.

Seer: PMs a name to the mod during the night. The mod then tells the role of the person ”dreamed of” to the Seer. Is on the side of the Villagers.

Ranger: Posts a name to the mod during the night of whom the Ranger wants to protect. The person the Ranger protects won’t die if a Vampire or the Shade tries to kill him/her. Can't protect the same person twice in a row, but can protect him/herself. Is on the side of the Villagers.

Hunter: May at any time at all post a name to the mod. If the Hunter dies, his/her current target dies as well, this is not a ”logical hunter”, so whoever the Hunter choses, dies. Is on the side of the Villagers.

All above are on the same team and win if the all of the Vampires are lynched. The "Good people" can vote, and that is their main way of killing. The strength of the Good people is quantity.

Vampire Seer: A Werewolf that can use the skills of a Seer, but gets to know the role in morning so that he/she won't be able to tell it to his/her fellow Vampires until the next Night begins.

Vampire Ranger: A Werewolf that can use the skills of a Ranger. Can save his/her fellow Vampires (or him/herself) from the Shade or the Hunter.

Vampire Hunter: A Werewolf that can use the skills of a Hunter. (A free kill on death.)

Vampires win if the total of non-Vampires (except the Shade) is equal to the number of Vampires. F.ex.: the Shade, the Seer, a Villager and two Vampires are alive: the Vampires and the Shade win. The Vampires can't vote. The Vampires can PM each other during Night and may kill one person once a Night by sending the name to the Mod.

Shade: To survive the Shade has the skills of the Ranger, Seer and Vampire, this means that the Shade can either protect (The Shade is an exeption in the Ranger category as it can't protect itself!), dream or kill during the night, but can’t do the same thing twice in a row. The Shade doesn’t care if the Vampires or the Villagers win, it wins too as long as it's alive in the end of the game. The Shade can vote. The Shade is the most important single role, use it wisely.

Every role may and should and has to discuss during the Day in the game thread about whom to vote for. Of course the Vampires must bluff, others may bluff as much as they want. Don't reveal your roles openly as that gives an advantage to your enemies.


Characters:

I’d like you to make yourselves a character. You don’t have to play in-character during the game but you can. The roles would help me in writing the stories.
So please fill this in and send me as a PM:

(All characters are human! This character profile is not compulsory, but is of help!)

"The characters. Human (not of Numenor). Middle of second age. Funny but not over the top. Think of making a "basic normal human". You may well give your character skills with wielding weapons or any other possible (or not possible, but then it will remain only in your character's head. F.ex. if your character has the skill that he/she can cast fireballs, he/she will try and believe doing that in need, but it won't help him/her too much...) skills, but you won't be able to carry anything but your clothes to the game."

Appearance:
Physical: what does your character look like? Clothes, face, thin, bulky...?

Mental: what is your character like mentally? Brave, kind, hates red shoes...?

Skills: what can your character do well/not well? Hobbies/profession/special skills?

Gender: m/f?

A short biography if you wish.


List of players:
Gil-Galad
The Saucepan Man
Rikae
Boromir88
Nogrod
Eomer of the Rohirrim
Thinlómien
Brinniel
Legate of Amon Lanc
Aganzir
Meneltarmacil
Xyzzy
Roa_Aoife
Macalaure
Diamond18
Shastanis Althreduin
Celuien
Kitanna
Sleepy Ranger
Durelin
Glirdan
Rune Son of Bjarne
The Sixth Wizard

Wow! So many, so quickly!

Oh, and the Vampires will be Aganzir, Thinlómien and Nogrod.

[Volo]

Haha!

Menel, you're in.

But may I ask you to send your character stuff in a PM...

[Kath]

Hello all! Just posting in here so I notice when people reply.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Volo

Oh, and the Vampires will be Aganzir, Thinlómien and Nogrod.

Cheers! Nice that you let us know our roles conveniently early so that we can make perfect our nassty plans!

Looks pretty interesting, but I do have some questions.

I can understand what a vampire-Seer does. S/he's pretty powerful one as s/he can try to spot the gifteds for the vampires. I can also see that a vampire-hunter would take away one innocent when lynched. Both of these roles seem to make the vampires have the upper hand pretty definitively. To this the fact can be added that there is no voting-record to help the villagers. So are you sure about the balance of this game?

And what will a vampire-ranger do? Defend a fellow vampire that was to be lynched? Okay, I can see a point in this as the innocents who do the voting don't exactly know who was in trouble and thence a save by the vampire-ranger doesn't reveal the saved vampire for sure. Or is s/he only for saving another vampire whom the shade meant to kill at Night? In both cases, more in the first, the vampires are made even stronger.

Looking at the list above makes me think that it was probably just fair that you told the names of the vampires beforehand...

Shade: To survive the Shade has the skills of the Ranger, Seer and Vampire, this means that the Shade can either protect, dream or kill during the night, but can’t do the same thing twice in a row. The Shade doesn’t care if the Vampires or the Villagers win.

So the shade is only interested in her/his own survival, right? And s/he wins if s/he stays alive when the game ends? So s/he needs the village to win. So s/he must care about who wins...

Is the shade then the "secret weapon" of the villagers "who will bring the balance"?

However, I still think the villagers look like being quite the underdogs here.

[Meneltarmacil]

Okay, I'm really wondering how the game is supposed to work. Won't the villagers all just vote for Aganzir, Nogrod, and Thinlomien since we already know that they're vampires?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

So the shade is only interested in her/his own survival, right? And s/he wins if s/he stays alive when the game ends? So s/he needs the village to win. So s/he must care about who wins...

Well, I think the shadow wouldn't necessarily need to "join" the village, as far as I understand it, at the moment the wolves win, technically there are yet the same number of ordos alive - so if the shadow is one of them, he wins as well, doesn't he?

Well, from what I understand now the biggest problem would be that there'd be an effort from the villagers to kill the Were-Ranger first, because otherwise there'd be no chance of lynching... or so I understand that...

I think it's time, Volo, to somewhat help us in our confusion, if you could...

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Legate

Well, I think the shadow wouldn't necessarily need to "join" the village, as far as I understand it, at the moment the wolves win, technically there are yet the same number of ordos alive - so if the shadow is one of them, he wins as well, doesn't he?

Ah, that might be possible.

Originally Posted by Volo in the rules

Vampires win if the total of non-Vampires (except the Shade) is equal to the number of Vampires.

So if there are equal numbers of villagers (the shade not included) and wolves left the wolves win but the shade somehow manages to not get sucked all the blood from her/him?

Originally Posted by Legate

Well, from what I understand now the biggest problem would be that there'd be an effort from the villagers to kill the Were-Ranger first, because otherwise there'd be no chance of lynching... or so I understand that...

I gave this a second thought and can't see that as a reasonable ruling. So it must be that the vampire-ranger is there to protect one of her/his fellows during the Nights from the shade only.

Maybe we'll have some light shed on these later.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Volo

Hmm... Ok, I'll start the game when we get 20 players.

By my reckoning, we have 17 already, so only 3 more required. 20 players seems a good number for this kind of game.

Originally Posted by Volo

I don't know about this... After all, the Villagers will outnumber the Vampires, and giving the Good Gifteds the ability to PM will make them nearly as strong as the Vampires. Remember that through the lynch seer system we'll get many nearly known Good people!

Makes sense to me. I am not in favour of villager Gifteds being able communicate.

Originally Posted by Volo

Also I'll post the role to the VSeer in the end of the Night, so that it won't be able to tell it before the next Night starts.

Fair enough. I still think it's a very powerful role but if you want VSeer, I'm fine with that.

Originally Posted by Volo

Both are fine with me, though I prefer that the specific role won't be told. I don't think this will matter too much.

It could make a difference, particularly given the powerful nature of the VSeer. With Vampire Gifteds in the game, my vote would be to allow the villager Seer to spot Vampire roles.

Originally Posted by Volo

The Lynch Seer process can filled with strategy: If the Lynch Seer posts the riddle early, the Vampires will get hints whom not to kill, if the Lynch Seer posts the riddle late, the To-be-lynched person might not get a chance to post his/her victims name. The later the To-be-lynched person posts the name of his/her victim, the bigger the probability that the Vampires will try killing an already dead person. But the same goes for the Gifteds, the less time they have to chose a person who's not dead already.

Good points. Forget the timing thing and let's go with no Vampire/Gifted kill lists.

Originally Posted by Volo

I don't fully understand what you're saying there.
The Lynch Seer won't know whose riddle it is for sure when he/she posts it.
The Lynch Seer doesn't chose the victim, he/she choses only if the To-be-lynched person may chose a victim.

Sorry, my mistake. I got mixed up. I was wondering whether it might be more fun if the lynchee would have to solve their own riddle before being able to post a victim, rather than knowing it beforehand.

Originally Posted by Brinniel

Volo - Do you think you could place all the rules that have been discussed into one post? That may help some...

I think that we could all do with a statement of the rules once they have been finalised, preferably at the beginning of the game thread.

Originally Posted by Volo

Oh, there is time. A day before the first Day begins.

can we have at least a day's notice of the start please?

Originally Posted by Volo

Sure it can! But it will need some nerve to give an Innocent a free kill.

Presumably, though, it is possible for both the lynchee and the lynch seer to be a Vampire.

Originally Posted by Volo

This isn't decided yet, but probably the voting and using your special gifts will happen through E-mail! I hope this ok?

Fine by me. I'm on gmail too.

This is shaping up to be a great game ...

[Volo]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

I think that we could all do with a statement of the rules once they have been finalised, preferably at the beginning of the game thread.

It's all already there. I think all is pretty well cleared in the first rules post (and its links).

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Can we have at least a day's notice of the start please?

Sure. I think nobody will be left out of info with this discussion rate, I'll start posting the story parts as soon as we have at least 20 players.

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Presumably, though, it is possible for both the lynchee and the lynch seer to be a Vampire.

Yes, but that will put the Vampi... aargh. Discuss this when the game starts!

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Volo

Yes, but that will put the Vampi... aargh. Discuss this when the game starts!

I know - I'm already plotting though I even don't know what my role or side will be!

Originally Posted by SPM

Well now I feel really stoopid ...

Fair enough... *remembers own newbie times*

[Isabellkya]

Regrettably, I need to withdraw my name from the signups. Sorry!! This sounded like a lot of fun!

[Nogrod]

I know it would be a lot of fun to have fex. exactly 20 players, but waiting for too long is not wise either. Lately we've had one more player in but one has already left (so we're still in 17?). So I think Volo might just throw us a beginning date like Monday or Tuesday and then we would play with all those people who we have then. Waiting for an indefinitive time to fill up a fixed number of players may turn against itself and the numbers start falling down with all the RL issues (so far we know that Gil can't be in the game after May 3rd, Menel after May 6th).

Welcome Shastanis Althreduin! Have fun!