areyouacultist - End Game Wrap-Up |
| Link:12991 Sat Jan 23 00:21:27 2010 |
| Time:2009-10-19 21:21:59 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#114111 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#3 #5 #7 #11 #12 #17 #21 #38 Children:#2 #9 |
#1 | |
| The problem is, it's *both* a logic game and an RPG, and Seriously, I suspect "roles revealed only on death, no indication of which or how many until the game is done" would be a great benefit. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 21:30:25 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#115135 | Parent:#1 Siblings:#9 Children:#16 |
#2 | |
| *nod* I might do that the next time I play. That way people will just have to go off of voting trends and might encourage role-play/arguing. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 21:33:46 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#115391 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #5 #7 #11 #12 #17 #21 #38 Children:#4 |
#3 | |
| It's been a long time since we've done a blind game; why not give it a shot? I can run something if the usual GM's want to play. At this point I'm slated to be killed first as a Werewolf/Cultist anyways. :) I posted this in the other thread, but since this is the official post-mortum, I think that there needed to be a solid reason for the villagers to not haphazardly kill people or to even have doubt. Even if it was with the introduction of the lovers, or someone who changes sides, or a Ralph And COC is all about the psychological horror. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 21:43:49 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#116159 | Parent:#3 Siblings:(none) Children:#6 |
#4 | |
| I could very easily turn off the e-mail notifications and I'd be good and not check the password if you wanted to run things. It seems like Joe runs Millers Hollow once every few years or so. *nod* I think I might put in a Possessed or Lovers the next time. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 21:56:30 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#116415 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #7 #11 #12 #17 #21 #38 Children:#28 |
#5 | |
| I can see an amazing power to having to old your breath for each evening round to see if there are more cultists. I think a blind game sounds pretty good. All in all, I think the game went well, though I really think that the number of murdering specials in this game was a bit on the high side. I would have like to have seen more of the non-murdering specials. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 21:58:47 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#116671 | Parent:#4 Siblings:(none) Children:#25 |
#6 | |
| I'm more than happy to put something together if you wanted to play and enough folks were interested in experimenting. In theory, I'll have a lot of free time soon. :) | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 22:01:52 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#117183 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #11 #12 #17 #21 #38 Children:#8 |
#7 | |
| Well, you know where I stand. I'm strongly in favor of a Blind game as non-blinds seem to end up being "do whatever the specials say" and I don't roll that way. Being a villager shouldn't mean you're a willing sacrifice. I'd like to play a person who wants to live, thank you. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 22:57:39 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#117439 | Parent:#7 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#8 | |
| I strongly echo this. I am not intersted in the number crunching aspects that some people got into, and feel that this drags down attempts to RP the game. I think a full blind game, where ya didn't know how many of each character type there was, and where ya didn't know what someone was after they died, would help encourage that. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:05:46 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#117951 | Parent:#1 Siblings:#2 Children:#10 |
#9 | |
| You two were a bunch of bloody greyfaces. But I couldn't say so or people would think I was a cultist for sure! Now that I can see the night posts, and people actually writing flavorful comments, I see what the game *could* be. I'd like to play again, but with more role-playing and less logic lawyering. If people are more concerned about being a character, they will think about who and why they are lynching. I just think it's cooler that way. The object should be killing the cultists with the *least* amount of collateral damage possible. Not, hey lets kill everyone until almost everyone is dead. I think the villagers should have the option to lynch no-one. I suppose they do, if they | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:24:09 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#118207 | Parent:#9 Siblings:(none) Children:#27 |
#10 | |
| If the villagers lynch nobody (because there's a tie, even a 0-all tie), the cultists get two. Part of the point is that the villagers *have* to lynch someone, somehow, every round. Remove that and you lose the most compelling part of the game: The idea that, by *not* adminstering frontier justice without any evidence beyond people's votes, *you lose*. But in general, I agree. I fucked it up and I won't do that again. I'm still against a *completely* blind game, because at that point everything really is almost entirely random - you can't *tell* if you're making progress or not, you can only hope you notice the cultists voting in a bloc early enough to see the trend and with time left to reverse it. But being blind *until the deed is done and the result is irrevocable?* That's a great way to add useful information and context to the game. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:32:26 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#118463 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #7 #12 #17 #21 #38 Children:#13 |
#11 | |
| I think I agree with the majority thus far, here. I was playing, under the assumption that it was a role playing strategy game. Much like some of what I saw in the night posts, now that I can see them. I saw some of it the first day, but then almost all I read was out of character deductive reasoning. And that's great to DO, but it doesn't need to be ALL that happens. Maybe a good addition would be a daily/nightly side post for OOC, all comments under the main day post should be made IC, and then in the OOC post whoever wants to can play logic man all they want. If you're like me, and you want to take the RP side, you don't even look at the comments on that post. Then the logic-wielders have to convince the others, in character, of why they should vote for Bob or Trudy to be lynched. I had another thought that maybe all characters could have a title in addition to their role...like, not just Villagers, but Villager/Fisherman, Villager/Pharmacist, Villager/Shopkeep, etc. You know, in order to encourage role play - like, "I walked into I did want to ask - is there a rules basis for this game from somewhere else, or is it a personal creation? I'd like to adapt it to a tabletop if I may. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:32:29 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#118719 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #7 #11 #17 #21 #38 Children:#14 #15 #18 #20 #29 |
#12 | |
| In fact, here's my suggestions: * Merge the Sorceror and the traitor. The Sorceror spies every round looking for the PI, and if they're "sacrificed", they become a cultist instead and lose their spying ability. This guarantees that even if the PI is killed, the sorceror still has stuff to do - and opens a ton of interesting gameflow options, *and* prevents situations like the need of the cultists to technically kill the Sorceror to win. * Eliminate the vigilante and the doctor's poison pill. If the villagers want to kill a cultist, they'd damn well better hang 'em high, or hope to get lucky with the Lovers or the Thrill-Killer. Alternately, drop the doctor's poison pill and make the vigilante a one-time-per-game thing. * Don't tell people what roles are in the game, or how many of each role. * Eliminate the suicide rule. * Eliminate the rule that Lovers can't vote for each other, even if you keep the one that they can't let they vote *stand* at end of day when voting for each other. * Still reveal roles on death. This added information really is very important to avoid spending a week on literally random lynchings before you have enough to maybe see a pattern in the votes. * Fewer Specials in comparison to total players. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:35:25 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#118975 | Parent:#11 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#13 | |
| I did want to ask - is there a rules basis for this game from somewhere else, or is it a personal creation? I'd like to adapt it to a tabletop if I may. It's a long-standing party game, a staple of theatre students and hallowe'en parties and bored geeks *for decades*. The Cthulhu-themed one is a variant of this: http://www.toyvault.com/cthulhugame/main.htm with a lot of the extra add-on rules that people invented to make it playable by livejournal. | |||
| Time:2009-10-19 23:38:03 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#119743 | Parent:#12 Siblings:#15 #18 #20 #29 Children:#30 |
#14 | |
| Also: Night should be longer. Seriously, if I'm away from my computer for an hour in the middle of a workday, I don't get to have anything happen at night? When Day ends, all the Night people need to update themselves on the summaries, make decisions that are based on *even further* information in some cases, and then get everything done? I understand the need to have Days be the majority of the time, but it might be worthwhile tossing up the "what do you do tonight?" posts early, or making Night last 3-4 hours to give scheduling-impaired people a better shot at it. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 00:19:49 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#120255 | Parent:#12 Siblings:#14 #18 #20 #29 Children:#31 |
#15 | |
| I would say that the Doctor's poison pill is fine, as it's a once per game thing. The Vigilante, getting a kill each night, probably is a bit over teh top though. I would say there should be some limiting factor on how often or how much they can kill. Similarily with teh Serial Killer (though that should have less restrictions, cause it's harder for them to achieve victory). | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 00:21:19 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#120511 | Parent:#2 Siblings:(none) Children:#26 |
#16 | |
| Putting in the MiB would also be a good way to encourage people to keep quiet about their role :) | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 04:51:31 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#120767 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #7 #11 #12 #21 #38 Children:#35 |
#17 | |
| Really there should only be two all the time kills each day: the lynching and the cultists. Have some other one-off kills, but nothing else that happens regularly. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 06:27:35 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#121023 | Parent:#12 Siblings:#14 #15 #20 #29 Children:#19 |
#18 | |
| Some of these are good, some I'm not convinced on. We got VERY lucky in lynching a cultist on day 1. That almost never happens. I think that if we had not done that, or if we had had 3 cultists instead of 2, then MANY of the problems we saw in this game would vanish. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 13:55:17 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#121279 | Parent:#18 Siblings:(none) Children:#24 |
#19 | |
| If some you like and some you don't, which ones are which? | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 14:30:29 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#121535 | Parent:#12 Siblings:#14 #15 #18 #29 Children:#22 |
#20 | |
| Off the cuff thoughts: I like the sorceror as it stands really. I am intrigued by the idea of not knowing detail but at the same time I *enjoy* the logic game. So a totally blind game doesn't appeal as much. But not knowing the numbers - even if I just don't know how many cultists - is intriguing. As a relatively new player, I would like to say that knowing which roles are in the game is very helpful. There is a very long list of possible roles and it's a lot to take in. If every time I think someone is acting oddly, I have to go through that full list again to try to understand the implications, it starts to feel like hard work. So I'd like to see at the very least a cut-down list of possible roles. The suicide rule is vital to force interaction in my opinion (and I don't believe that people will agree to not play in order to force a win. In fact, even in this game, | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 14:31:47 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#121791 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #7 #11 #12 #17 #38 Children:#36 |
#21 | |
| I like the idea of now knowing what's in the game before play more than a full blind game. If a blind game is done, I would really want the notary in play. I get that the logic was cool and predicted a win scenario, but it did take out a lot of the fun. Would it have been more fun if GS and WK had presented it as a character? Would it have been more fun if I had read through it with the mindset of a crazy thrill killer more than my own? I don't know. Maybe to promote role-play everyone can also be assigned a function of the village, i.e. inn keeper, florist, head of the tourism commission, farmer, fisherman, mechanic, cable installer, waitperson, teacher, professor, recluse author, baker, crystal shop owner, pizza delivery boy, comic book shop owner, gas station attendant, dog catcher, bartender, seamstress, ranger, fire marshal, mail deliverer, town gossip, etc. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 14:43:40 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#122047 | Parent:#20 Siblings:(none) Children:#23 |
#22 | |
| I'm not worried about the suicide rule being *abused*, I'm worried about it giving out information and being, well, boring. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 14:55:05 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#122303 | Parent:#22 Siblings:(none) Children:#34 |
#23 | |
| OK but not posting is, in my opinion, boringer. If there's no suicide rule, it can become a lot more tempting to sit quiet and wait and see, rather than weigh in. Especially at the start when so little is known. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 16:08:19 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#122559 | Parent:#19 Siblings:(none) Children:#32 #33 |
#24 | |
| * Merge the Sorceror and the traitor. = could be fun, but probably not necessary. * Eliminate the vigilante and the doctor's poison pill. = Doctor poison is useful. Vigilante should NOT be used though; it gives villages 2 kills per day. The serial killer or werehamster are better if you just want random carnage. * Don't tell people what roles are in the game, or how many of each role. = Disagree. This is one of the few pieces of solid information the villagers get. I think suggesting this is the result of seeing it play out the way it did in this game. I've played four or five of these now, and this is the first solid villager win by logic I've seen. And once in a while, yeah, I'd like to see that kind of win. * Eliminate the suicide rule. = Agree. * Eliminate the rule that Lovers can't vote for each other, even if you keep the one that they can't let they vote *stand* at end of day when voting for each other. = Why? Disagree. * Still reveal roles on death. This added information really is very important to avoid spending a week on literally random lynchings before you have enough to maybe see a pattern in the votes. = Agree (no change) * Fewer Specials in comparison to total players. = Disagree. The problem here was really not enough cultists. Also, adding MORE specials makes things more random and chaotic. If you run a LARP, do you give half your players the same bio? No, you give them all different goals and agendas, because it makes it more fun to play. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 16:49:13 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#122815 | Parent:#6 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#25 | |
| Yeah, I think I'll run the next one. 8) | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 16:50:52 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#123071 | Parent:#16 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#26 | |
| Indeed, since they're the special hunter-killer. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 16:52:08 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#123327 | Parent:#10 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#27 | |
| *nod* The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the blind roles/blind #s game. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 16:53:42 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#123583 | Parent:#5 Siblings:(none) Children:#37 |
#28 | |
| Well, there was only one murdering special, which was the Vigilante who was particularly...enthusiastic. I think having him be on the side of the village (as opposed to the Serial Killer) changed the dynamic because he could use the threat of his nightly murder in particularly "positive" fashion. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:14:16 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#123839 | Parent:#12 Siblings:#14 #15 #18 #20 Children:(none) |
#29 | |
| * Merge the Sorceror and the traitor. The Sorceror spies every round looking for the PI, and if they're "sacrificed", they become a cultist instead and lose their spying ability. This guarantees that even if the PI is killed, the sorceror still has stuff to do - and opens a ton of interesting gameflow options, *and* prevents situations like the need of the cultists to technically kill the Sorceror to win. That was kind of what the poll was about but the more I thought about it the less I wanted to change the rules mid- I think whenever I include the Sorcerer in the future I will also include the variations where if he spies on the Cultists, he can join them, and if the Cultists all die he picks up the job. * Eliminate the vigilante and the doctor's poison pill. If the villagers want to kill a cultist, they'd damn well better hang 'em high, or hope to get lucky with the Lovers or the Thrill-Killer. Alternately, drop the doctor's poison pill and make the vigilante a one-time-per-game thing. I like them because I think in some ways they are a good foil for the cultists (also, I think that in a more blind game the Vigilante may be less likely to use their ability). However, I think I will be including the Vigilante only in games where we have more people. * Don't tell people what roles are in the game, or how many of each role. I'm liking this a lot. * Eliminate the suicide rule. Honestly, I'm mixed. First of all, the game is about participation and if people don't participate after signing up the moderator needs a way to remove them from the game. Does that "penalize" the players? Sure, but what are you going to do? I do understand that it removes the option of a "staying silent" strategy but I think the best way to do that would be to vote simply to cast a vote; in an in-person game that's what you'd be doing anyway. * Eliminate the rule that Lovers can't vote for each other, even if you keep the one that they can't let they vote *stand* at end of day when voting for each other. I'll include that as a variant and mix that in. * Still reveal roles on death. This added information really is very important to avoid spending a week on literally random lynchings before you have enough to maybe see a pattern in the votes. I agree. I don't like the idea of 100% blind games. * Fewer Specials in comparison to total players. *nod* This was my first time moderating a game like this and I wasn't sure on what mix I should have. Maybe do without the Bodyguard or Vigilante and include one more cultist. Last game of | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:15:09 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#124095 | Parent:#14 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#30 | |
| *nod* I could see extending "night until 2PM. That'd give me enough time to do all the write-ups and everything. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:20:50 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#124351 | Parent:#15 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#31 | |
| I think in a big game it wouldn't be that much of a big deal. I think the Vigilante's killing factor is also very personal; this time we had a very enthusiastic Vigilante and the way things started off made it very much in The Serial Killer needs to have no limits because their objective is to be last person standing. Saying they only get five kills would be rather...pointless. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:26:54 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#124607 | Parent:#24 Siblings:#33 Children:(none) |
#32 | |
| * Merge the Sorceror and the traitor. = could be fun, but probably not necessary. There's already a variant for it. Plus the Sorcerer's incentive, even if they don't get to murder people, is to create chaos and dissent; they only win if the Cultists win. Vigilante should NOT be used though; it gives villages 2 kills per day. The serial killer or werehamster are better if you just want random carnage. I disagree but I think the Vigilante should only be used in larger games with higher numbers of Cultists. If you have a twenty-four person game, you're more likely to get a villager if you have three cultists so using that ability makes it more harmful at that point. This is one of the few pieces of solid information the villagers get. I think suggesting this is the result of seeing it play out the way it did in this game. I've played four or five of these now, and this is the first solid villager win by logic I've seen. And once in a while, yeah, I'd like to see that kind of win. *nod* True, although this time it simply steam rolled. I think what allowed logic to just roll over this game was the fact that the villagers had two kills every set of rounds (if the Vigilante wanted to) and there were only two cultists. The problem here was really not enough cultists. Also, adding MORE specials makes things more random and chaotic. Agreed to both. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:27:57 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#124863 | Parent:#24 Siblings:#32 Children:(none) |
#33 | |
| * Eliminate the suicide rule. = Agree. Eh, still not sure about that. I think having a mechanic to get rid of people who sign-up but don't play is important (even if it does "penalize" the players) but there needs to be a way worked out where someone could play silently if they chose. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:30:06 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#125119 | Parent:#23 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#34 | |
| I have to agree with that logic. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:37:31 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#125631 | Parent:#17 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#35 | |
| Eh, I think in larger games multiple kills in a round are ok (and certainly provide for adequate amounts of OMGWTFBBQ). However, I'm not certain I think this previous game was large enough. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 17:40:38 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#125887 | Parent:#21 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#36 | |
| The problem is that some people like the logic and the RP is a side thing. Some people like the RP and logic is secondary. I don't want to force people to do one or the other out of hand. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 18:52:49 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#126143 | Parent:#28 Siblings:(none) Children:(none) |
#37 | |
| You had one NIGHTLY murdering special. There was also the doctor and the thrill-killer. | |||
| Time:2009-10-20 20:56:41 GMT Author: Subject:(none) Link:12991#126399 | Parent:(none) Siblings:#1 #3 #5 #7 #11 #12 #17 #21 Children:(none) |
#38 | |
| You can still use logic even in a partially blind game. Just behind-the-scenes logic. If you know what's in the game, but no one can reveal themselves, and you know what things are when they die, you can use logic. My biggest gripe is specials revealing themselves and the game becomes "Do whatever the specials say or else!". That's no fun. Don't give people roles like I kept a spreadsheet up privately that told me everything GS posted in his daily posts, because I was paying attention. We don't need a secratary. | |||
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