*i

Exploring, like trades with the moderator, are done on a first come, first serve basis. If you cannot explore a region because it has been explored, your task becomes invalid. Generally speaking, it is always good to explore. There is Gladwell's Tower, which has its own penalty for exploring. Now Gladwell knows who you are, which could be really bad.

Only that the region was explored. This is done because I only want regions explored once.

Adventurer Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Archer, Warrior Inherent: +1 base skill. Additional +2 skill when attacking a faction leader (Anama Priest, Gladwell, or Darkside Blademaster). Receive a 60 coin reward if you kill a faction leader. Ability: None. Tasks: Bonus Explore. May explore one location for free each day. Victory: Do three of the following: 1) Kill any faction leader 2) Hold any two artifacts at the end of the game 3) Kill any merchant AND hold at least 80 coins 4) Join a faction and have its leader win 5) Explore at least one-third (rounded up) of explored locations Aimee Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Mage Inherent: You may not attack, use armor or shields, and you can only be harmed by items or someone with the mage attribute. Any non-mage that attacks you will have a skill of zero. Abilities: Inflict confused status upon any target. Tasks: None. Victory: No imperials win. Alchemist Nationality: Empire Attributes: Weak Inherent: You are a merchant and receive infinite trades with items in your shop. Items that that enter your shop via trades are automatically converted to coins. You begin with two random potions of value 10 in your shop. You know the identify of Shanker at the beginning of the game. At the beginning of each day, you receive herbs from any explored land you are harvesting. If you explore land, you will automatically begin harvesting herbs there. Abilities: Brew potions. May convert any herbs you have into potions. Number of herbs required is the nominal value of the potion divided by 10, except for the resurrection balm which requires 8 herbs to produce. Tasks: Harvest Land. Target an explored location. You will receive a given number of herbs for that day and any subsequent days. A list of herbs received for a given location on a given day is given to you at the start of the game. Victory: Each day, meet a threshold for the number of coins to have gained from sales. For days 1 through 5 they are: 10, 30, 60, 100, and 150. Failure to meet the requirement on a given day results in losing 10 coins from your total, which may go negative. Since artifacts may not enter your shop, their value does not count toward your victory condition. If Shanker wins, you receive a bonus of 25 coins at the end of the game toward your victory condition. Anama Hunter Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Archer, Warrior Inherent: While attacking someone in the Anama, your current skill level (after items, statuses, etc.) is increased by 50%, rounded down. If you kill an Anama member, you will receive a bonus of 20 coins. Ability: May target one person per day. Reveals if that person is in the Anama. Tasks: None Victory Condition: Total elimination of the Anama sect. The Anama Priest and all followers must be dead by any means necessary. If you join the Anama, your victory condition will be unaffected, and you will not count as an Anama member towards anyone else's. Anama Priest Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Anama Inherent: If you are attacked, your skill is +2. If you hold the Holy Symbol, all Anama have skill +1. Gain +10 coins for each area an Anama member explores; you may gain this retroactively. Ability: Once per game, may resurrect one person. Remove all non-permanent status effects from a target. Tasks: Recruit Anama. May recruit members into the Anama. Victory Condition: Total offensive skill of Anama is greater than the total defensive skill of all Mages. Bonuses from weapons and artifacts only count once to the total. Inherent bonuses (such as Micklebur's +3 when attacking a mage or Gladwell's bonuses from having servants) count, but boosts from status effects do not. Bound Servant Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Bound Inherent: Base skill +1. Ability: You may steal (up to 20) coins from a target. You may only target someone for stealing once. Tasks: None. Victory: Gladwell wins or be alive and Gladwell is dead (requires you hold the Holy Symbol at the time of his death). You are a servant of Gladwell. Craftmaster Strine Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Mage, Weak Inherent: You are a merchant and receive infinite trades with items in your shop. Items that that enter your shop via trades are automatically converted to coins. You begin with two random objects of value 10 in your shop. At the start of each day, you receive 1 essence for each artifact you hold. Any trade where you receive an artifact does not count as a task if it otherwise would have. Abilities: Make Objects. You may convert essence into any number of objects. The essence required is the value of the object divided by 10, except for the Wand of Death, which requires 10 essence to produce. Tasks: Drain artifact. When holding an artifact, may take some of its energy causing it to lose much of its power (see below for modified artifact abilities) for the duration of the game. Each artifact drained grants you 4 essence upon draining. Victory: Each day, meet a threshold for the number of coins to have gained from sales. For days 1 through 5 they are: 10, 30, 60, 100, and 150. Failure to meet the requirement on a given day results in losing 10 coins from your total, which may go negative. Since artifacts may not enter your shop, their value does not count toward your victory condition. For each other mage that wins, you get a 10 coin bonus towards your victory condition at the end of the game. Artifacts have the following abilities after being drained: Crystal Spire: No bonuses. Flaming Sword: Skill +1 when attacking. Fury Crossbow: Skill +1 if attacking and role identified correctly. Holy Symbol: Does not protect from negative statuses. Special effects in inherent abilities still work. Shadow Leather: Skill +1 when defending. Players with stealth receive no bonus. Darkside Blademaster Nationality: Empire Attributes: Darkside Loyalist, Warrior Inherent: Base skill +2. Receive additional +1 skill when attacking with a weapon. Receive additional +1 skill when defending with armor equipped. Receives normal armor bonus against magic users. Ability: None. Tasks: None. Victory: You receive a list of eight roles. Included in these will be Dionicio and the Nephil Warlord. At least five out of eight roles exist in the game and must be dead. Darkside Mage Nationality: Empire Attributes: Darkside Loyalist, Mage, Stealth Inherent: Skill -1 when attacked. Ability: None. Tasks: Curse Target. Once per day, may place the weakened status upon a target. Victory: You receive a list of eight roles. Included in these will be Dionicio and the Nephil Warlord. At least five out of eight roles exist in the game and must be dead. Dionicio Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Stealth, Warrior Inherent: Base skill +1. May gain bonuses from armor despite stealth attribute. If you correctly identify a Darkside Loyalist when attacking, you get an additional skill +2. If you kill a Darkside Loyalist by your own hand, you receive a reward of 40 coins. Ability: None. Tasks: Speed Burst. Once per game, may bestow haste status upon yourself. Victory: All Darkside Loyalists (Blademaster, Mage, Domont) dead by any means. Domont Nationality: Empire Attributes: Darkside Loyalist, Weak Inherent: None, Ability: Once per day, may target a character you believe to be on your enemy list. If you identify that character's role correctly, so long as you are alive, the character has skill of 50% rounded up if a Darkside Loyalist attacks them. If you guess incorrectly, your identity is revealed to that character. Tasks: None. Victory: You receive a list of eight roles. Included in these will be Dionicio and the Nephil Warlord. At least five out of eight roles exist in the game and must be dead. Empire Agent Nationality: Empire Attributes: Archer, Stealth, Warrior Inherent: Get additional skill +2 when attacking if you guess the target's identity correctly. If you kill Shanker, you get a 60 coin reward. Ability: Once per game, may learn the identity of a target. Tasks: Hire Player. May hire a player to kill Machrone. See victory condition 3. Victory: Do three of the following: 1) Kill Shanker 2) Hold a specific, randomly chosen artifact at the end of the game 3) Hire an Avernite to kill Machrone and have that Avernite be successful. When hired, both must PM the moderator. Machrone and the Avernite are now enemies. If successful, the Avernite receives a permanent skill +1 and 40 coins. 4) Ensure neither the Anama nor Gladwell factions have more than three members, including the leader. 5) Correctly identify, to the moderator, the name and role of all other players, living or dead, by the end of the game. May only make one attempt. Fae Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Weak Inherent: You begin with 40 coins. Ability: You may disguise your identity as any other role. You will appear as that role to any information gathering ability. Tasks: Backstab. Target anyone with whom you have done a trade where you have both exchanged something (gifts in either direction do not count). Person is automatically killed (or at the end of day 1) and you receive any items and coins. Merchants are immune to this. Victory: Hold at least 100 coins worth of loot (coins, items, or artifacts) at the end of the game. Loot is defined as wealth you have gained from backstabs or net value from trades with people you subsequently backstab. Gladwell Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Mage Inherent: You may not attack anyone directly. You may access the items and artifacts (except the Holy Symbol) from your servant's inventories if it were your own. +1 skill for each artifact you (or your servants) hold. +2 skill for each servant that is alive. For every 3 areas you or your servants explore, your skill is +1; you may gain this bonus retroactively. You will learn the identity (name and role) of the person who explores Gladwell's Tower. Ability: You may compel a servant to attack a target. Tasks: Recruit Servant. You can bind, by mutual agreement, other players who are not Anama members or Darkside Loyalists. Victory: You have a higher attack skill (even through you cannot attack directly) than anyone else's defensive skill. Infiltrator Nationality: Empire Attributes: Stealth Inherent: Base skill +1. Additional skill +1 when attacking an Avernite. Can use two weapons at once when attacking. Ability: None. Tasks: Place Traps. Once per game, target a location. Anyone who explores it in the next 24 hours will be killed instantly. Victory: Kill three Avernites by your own hand or by your traps. Dionicio counts as two. Machrone Nationality: Empire Attributes: Weak Inherent: Once per day, if you answer a question (see victory condition) on the day it is given, you get a 5 coin bonus. Ability: Every day, may ask one yes or no question about the game to the moderator. The moderator will then answer the question. The moderator has the right to determine if a question is outside the spirit of the game and may decline to process the action. Tasks: Answer questions. You may answer any number of questions provided by the moderator. See the victory condition for more information. Victory: Every day, two questions about the game are given to you (three on the first). You must answer, by PM to the moderator, at least one question every day. Your response is posted publicly by the moderator. You must answer five questions correctly to win. Each incorrect response or failure to submit a question during a day will raise the number of questions you need to answer correctly by one each time never to exceed the total number of questions available. You may answer a question as many times as you like, but only your last answer will count toward your victory. Micklebur Nationality: Empire Attributes: Anama, Warrior Inherent: Base skill +1. Skill +3 when attacking a mage. If you kill a mage, receive a 40 coin reward. Ability: Can detect if a target has the presence of magic: either the Mage or Bound attribute. You will not see which one, however. Tasks: None. Victory: Gladwell and all his servants dead. Nephil Warlord Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Archer, Warrior Inherent: Skill +1 if in possession of a bow. When attacking with a bow, your opponent receives no armor bonuses. Receive 30 coins if you explore any Fang Clan location. Ability: None. Tasks: Farsight Blessing. Once per day, may give sharpshooter status to a target, including yourself. Victory: Hold the Fury Crossbow AND no faction leaders (Anama Priest, Gladwell, or Darkside Blademaster) win. If in a faction, that leader may win. Oliver Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Weak Inherent: You are a merchant and receive an unlimited number of trades for items in your shop. You begin with five random items, three common and two uncommon. Any items you acquire automatically end in your shop. Ability: May swap one of your items in your shop for another of equivalent or lesser value with the moderator shop. Tasks: Scan Inventory. You will see the inventory of any target. Victory: Each day, meet a threshold for increasing the total value of the items in your shop. For days 1 through 5 they are: 10, 30, 60, 100, and 150. Failure to meet the requirement on a given day results in losing 10 coins from your total, which may go negative. Since artifacts may not enter your shop, their value does not count toward your victory condition. You also get a 5 coin bonus for each unique person you have traded with. Pure Spirit Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Warrior Inherent: At the beginning of the game, you know the identity of Dionicio. If someone targets you with the Wand of Death, the person who used it will die instead. You may not join Gladwell. Ability: Can target one person per day. You will learn that person's faction, if any. Tasks: Bless Target. Once per day, may bestow the blessed status upon a target, including yourself. Victory: Hold the Holy Symbol at the end of the game AND one of the following: the Anama Priest wins OR the Darkside Loyalists do not win. Ronaldo Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Stealth, Warrior Inherent: Skill +1 when fighting an Empire citizen. Anyone who attacks you and does not have the stealth attribute has skill -2. Ability: None. Tasks: Brew Poison. Once per day and twice per game, may create a poison potion. Victory: Kill three Empire citizens by your own hand (either by attack or poisoning). The Darkside Blademaster counts as two. Sacred Item Cultist Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Stealth, Mage Inherent: If someone targets you with the Wand of Death, the person who used it will die instead. You are enemies with any artifact holders. When in combat with any artifact holder, your skill is +1. Your skill is +1 for each artifact you hold. Ability: Once per game, may target a character. If that character has any artifacts, you will steal them. Tasks: Scry Location. You will learn what items or artifacts are present in a chosen location. Victory: At the end of the game, have any three artifacts in your possession. Shanker Nationality: Empire Attributes: Mage Inherent: Skill is +1 when defending for every unaligned person that is alive. Skill is +2 when defending for each artifact you hold. Anyone who kills you directly (not with an item) receives a permanent base skill +1. Receive 20 coins whenever an unaligned player explores any Shanker's Island locations. Ability: Once per game, may learn your current defensive skill. Tasks: Protect Target. Grant protected status upon another character. Victory: Your defensive skill is higher than anyone else's offensive skill. Skribbane Addict Nationality: Empire Attributes: Weak Inherent: You are enemies with everyone. Base skill +2 for each time you consume skribbane. 25% chance of finding Skribbane when exploring a location. Ability: None. Tasks: None. Victory: Kill at least three people. One of them must be the Darkside Blademaster, Gladwell, Micklebur, or Shanker. Trickster Nationality: Avernum Attributes: Mage Inherent: None. Ability: May redirect the action of one player onto another. You must specify the player whose action you want to redirect as well as the new target. The Anama Priest and Gladwell are immune to having their actions redirected. Tasks: None. Victory: No more than four other players win Vahkos Nationality: Empire Attributes: Mage Inherent: Base skill +5 unless your opponent has the Holy Symbol. Immune to all status effects (positive and negative) including resting. Ability: None. Tasks: Death Curse. Once per day, You may target one character by providing his or her identity. At the end of the day (including day 1), if correct, that character will die instantly. The Anama Priest and Gladwell are immune to instant death. If incorrect, the person will learn your identity. Victory: You are the only survivor at the end of the game.

Basics At the start of the game, everyone is assigned a secret role. Except for a few rare exceptions, no one knows the roles of the other players at the start. Everyone has an individual victory condition. Some facilitate collaboration with certain other players, whereas some are in direct conflict. The game lasts for at most five days. To win, you must be alive and have your victory condition satisfied at the time the game ends. Role Assignment Roles change from round to round. Please read the relevant role list for the current round. There are 16 roles. The first 10 are always in the game. The next 6 are chosen randomly under some specification. The details are: 1-10: Adventurer, Alchemist, Anama Priest, Craftmaster Strine, Darkside Commander, Darkside Mage, Dionicio, Gladwell, Oliver, Shanker 11-16: Random of roles. Games can be played with fewer. In this case, there are less random roles. Two of the random roles 11-16 begin in an appropriate (and different) faction: Anama or Gladwell. Therefore, roles are also selected such that each faction gets one. The Rogue Mage and Pure Spirit will never start in a faction. Game Flow I will send all players a PM revealing their role, victory condition, abilities and any other pertinent information. Once the start of the game is reached (not before), official play may begin. The game lasts for five days. A day is defined as a 24 hour period where the beginning of day 1 starts at the start of the game. After play has begun, a player may submit by PM to the moderator if they want to do an action or task. You may only submit one action or task at a time, although you may make multiple messages. I place these requests in a queue and process them when I can. They are processed in the order they were received. Actions or tasks may be cancelled until they are processed. To do so, do not erase the original text, but use strikethrough. See the sections on actions and tasks. When a character is killed, his or her death will be announced in the main thread. Other things, such as land being explored or structures being built, are also announced publicly. The game ends after five days have elapsed or once all characters have met their victory conditions or cannot meet their victory conditions. The moderator may end the game when the outcome is, for the most part, decided. For example, a game ends when all that is needed for the outcome to be certain are a few trades. Actions You may submit one action at a time. The following are defined as actions that can be performed by anyone: Attack Character Explore Region Use Ability Use Offensive Item Some important terminology with regards to actions: Submitted: The time stamp you give me your action. Do NOT edit your action to change it, but instead cross out the old action (strikethrough tag) and make a new post for the new action. Validated: The time when your action becomes valid for processing, which is generally 24 hours after your last action was valid. Processed: The time when I execute your action. After this, there is no rescinding actions. If your last action validated less than 24 hours ago, your action is skipped until sufficient time passes. Also, any actions that kill anyone are not validated for the first 24 hours. Actions that can kill anyone, such as attacking, are not allowed until day 2. Tasks You may submit up to two tasks per day. The following are tasks that may be done by anyone: Accept Trade: To receive items or coins from a trade, you need to meet with the trading character. See the section on trades. Note that receiving coins as a gift does not need to be accepted and therefore does not count as a task. Examine Character: Target another player. Will learn that target's nationality and if the target has: any weapons, any bows, any armor, and any shields. You will not learn what those items are, however. Target will learn which player examined them. Join Faction: Soliciting to join a faction (Anama or Gladwell) counts as a task. Offer Trade: You may propose a trade or give a gift of coins. This counts as a task. Recruit Member: If you are a faction leader, and a person has solicited to join, you may recruit them. This counts as a task. Use Item: Items that do not harm or bestow a negative status on another character count as a task. A player may perform two tasks per day in addition to any action. Tasks are done at the earliest convenience of the moderator. Once a task has been acknowledged by the moderator, it may not be cancelled. Some tasks (e.g. trades) require two players to be processed; however, submission counts as a task regardless if the other character follows through. The day the action counts towards is obtained from the submission time stamp in the PM to the moderator. If two tasks were performed on a given day, the player must wait until the next day begins before any new tasks may be submitted. Any tasks beyond two are simply ignored. Also, tasks that are unused are lost and not carried over to the next day. For trades and joining factions, both must be submitted on the same day. Tasks that can kill anyone are not allowed until day 2. Combat You may attack a character as an action. When attacking, you may state the role of the target character for a small advantage if correct. When your action gets processed, the attempt will be made. When attacking, if the person is an enemy, you will be able to attack. If the person is not your enemy, you have a skill of zero when attacking. A role is an enemy if: 1) That person is a target in your victory condition or if you are a target in theirs. 2) That person requires you to not win, or your require them to not win. 3) The target specifically requires an artifact in their victory condition that is specifically part of yours. 4) The target is in the same faction as another enemy or you are in a faction and another faction member has that enemy. In other words, all faction members share the same enemies. Note that exceptions may be given in the inherent abilities of each character. To decide who wins a battle, the skill points of both characters is compared. After any modifiers, the character with the higher power wins. In the event of a tie, the advantage goes to the defending character. Every player starts with a base skill of 2. These can be modified by attributes, items, statuses, or abilities. See the relevant sections. When attacking, you may choose to guess the target's a role. If you guess correctly, you get skill +1. If you guess incorrectly, you get skill -1. You will not be informed of the correctness either way. Also, when attacking a Darkside Loyalist, you must identify the location of their hideout (see section on Exploration) or suffer a serious skill penalty. When a person is killed, the victor receives any artifacts. All land the defeated person explored becomes unexplored. All items and coins (unless the victor was a Darkside Loyalist) are scattered by the moderator (in order of priority) to those newly unexplored locations, other locations, or are lost. Roles are not revealed upon death unless otherwise stated. Attributes Every character begins with at least one attribute. Attributes affect combat and a few other game mechanics. It is possible to gain attributes by way of joining factions and some means. Consult the Appendix for a list of attributes and descriptions of their effects. Artifacts, Items, and Coins There are five artifacts and many items. These are held in the player's inventory and stay there until they are used, traded, stolen, or the player dies. Players can also possess a number of coins. These are useful for trade and is required for some actions. Artifacts can bestow beneficial effects upon the holder and is used as part of many role's victory conditions. Items are divided into equipment (containing weapons, bows, armor, and shields), potions, objects, and other. Equipment affects battle mechanics. Potions bestow various effects and may be used only upon yourself unless otherwise stated. Objects also bestow various effects and may be used on anyone unless otherwise stated. All items disappear after one use. When someone is killed, the person that did the kill receives any artifacts, but not items or coins unless otherwise stated (such as the Darkside Loyalist attribute). A list of items and artifacts is given in the Appendix along with their frequencies and base values in coins. Trading You may trade items (see the section on Tasks) with other players. These require both people submit the details of the trade to the moderator on the same day. If they do not match, the trade is not done. Coins may be given away in exchange for nothing (a gift) and the recipient does not need to accept. Certain characters are merchants and their trades do not count as tasks. Furthermore, they may only trade for profit (they must receive more than the base value of the item) unless trading with another merchant. Giving away items or coins counts as a trade or task. Receiving only coins in exchange for nothing does not count as a trade and the recipient need not even accept. Giving away the coins, however, does. Factions There are three factions in the game: the Anama, Gladwell, and the Darkside Loyalists. It is possible for certain individuals to join the first two, but not the Loyalists. To join the Anama, you need to be recruited by the Anama Priest. To join Gladwell, you need to be recruited by him. Players who can join a faction if they (1) have none of the Anama, Bound, or Darkside Loyalist attributes, or (2) if their inherent ability does not explicitly forbid it. Recruitment or joining count as tasks and can only be done by mutual agreement (both must PM me on the same day). To join someone, you must identify both the person and the role of the faction leader (e.g. Gladwell). To recruit, you must identify the name of the recipient. The effects of being in the factions are given in the Appendix. Exploration As your action, you may also explore a region that has not been explored. Regions typically contain treasure (coins, items, artifacts). Certain regions have a higher probability of having artifacts. The regions are given in the Appendix. One area that is not a Fang Clan, Shanker, or Gladwell location also has the Darkside Loyalist hideout. If you explore this area, you will learn where it is. However, the Darkside Loyalists will learn your nationality and which faction (if any) to which you belong. If you explore Gladwell's Tower, he will learn your role identity if he is alive. Beware. When a person is killed, all regions that person explored becomes unexplored. That person's items and coins go back to that land, but new items may appear there as well. Private Communication Private communication is an important and vital part of the game. People are encouraged to make use of the public thread as well as private communications. You may use any means at your disposal. Dead players may not communicate with anyone else about the game. If discovered by the game administrator, that player may be permanently banned from all future play. I do ask that you be able to give me an honest summary if I ask for it. This helps me understand the game flow better and helps address weaknesses in the game. Statuses Statuses are acquired from abilities and items. Generally speaking, they affect flow of actions and skill in battle. A list of statuses is given in the Appendix. You will be informed of all statuses except when noted otherwise. You will not, however, learn who placed the status upon you or how. The statuses Berserk, Blessed, Enlightened, Resistant, Sharpshooter, and Weakened end after attacking someone or after 24 hours. Hasted lasts for 6 hours. All other status effects last for 24 hours. Structures There are a few important structures that may be "built" by some players or exist that bestow effects upon the game. The construction and destruction of structures is announced publicly in the game thread. A list of structures and their effects is given in the Appendix. Miscellaneous For clarity, character or player describes the name of the person playing whereas a role is what personna they are playing. For instance suppose I (Stareye) am playing the Cranky Moderator and you wanted to target me. If the action is for a character type: TARGET STAREYE. If instead it is for my role, type: TARGET CRANKY MODERATOR. Targeting a dead person for actions that require someone to be alive are simply removed from the queue. Such actions are not processed and a new action must be submitted. In the case of roles that need to kill specific targets, killing a target only counts once. If you kill your target and he or she is resurrected, killing him or her again does not count towards your victory condition. Note that victory conditions that say a role must be dead, must die again if resurrected. For communal inventory of the Anama, there is still an "owner" associated with the item being the person who originally brought it to the faction. If this person is killed or targeted for theft, only those items are lost. Order of operations when calculating battle skill is to do additive effects first (e.g. base skill +1), and then apply all multiplicative effects (e.g. weak attribute). Please post any questions about the rules below.

The Haakai standing there.

Are you using battle disciplines, buffs, cloaks, wards, slow, acid, etc. or are you merely running into combat with guns blazing? If you do not enhance your status at all, or use a little trickery, you will definitely fail. As for the eye cultists, you should probably cast the usual buffs (bless, haste, protect), Ward of Thoughts, and Cloak of Blades and summon a couple creatures to help you out prior to battle. Send your warriors in, and apply shield breaker and leg sweep. Use mighty blow whenever you can. Have your mage cast slow and keep dousing the eye with acid. You may need your priest to unshackle mind, but this fight is indeed doable. It may take a few tries, but it is not impossible.

That model could work in a non-traditional RPG where we don't have lots of grinding, but very little combat. The closest example I've seen of this in a more traditional game is playing a mechanics/leadership heavy agent in Geneforge. I suspect a lot of the modern model of weak wizards comes from the practicality of game balance in things like D&D. If wizards were so awesome at both physical and magic, why would anyone not want to play a wizard?

It will become apparent, if you do not already know, that Sleeping Dragon (SD) has been banned. This is because he is really Emperor Tullegolar (ET). It saddens me that a seemingly good member has been deceiving all of us for nearly a year now. For those that do not remember, ET was a member from a while ago that would go out of his way, time and again, to create friction between our members. While ET made some valid points about cliques forming and the moderators not being perfect, he chose to express his views in a destructive matter. He has now decided to continue in this venture. ET had returned in the guise of Sleeping Dragon. He constantly lied and deceived all of you. I do not know why he would betray your trust in such a way, but I suspect that it is all part of his game. The problem is there is no winner to this, and he will only cause harm to the entire community. For full disclosure, we definitively knew about Sleeping Dragon's true identity for about seven months now; we had our suspicions far earlier. Our moderator staff is quite adept at figuring things like this out. We were content with him simply maintaining a low profile as he was contributing in constructive ways. Unfortunately, it became quite apparent that he was not content being SD any longer. I'm sorry it had to come to this. We sincerely hoped ET would have just settled down and behaved like the 99% of you. He did for a while, but his true intentions are now clear. Sadly, he would rather manipulate all of us. I want to thank you all again for coming here and I sincerely hope we can get past this. *i

Canopy has made the Quality Scenarios list. Huzzah!

It is clear in the "rules" topic at the top of the thread.

TTFUD2 has been added, btw.

Turn That Frown Upside-Down 2 Mac/Windows Author: Duck Difficulty: 5-10 Version: 1.0.1 [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IlR1cm4gVGhhdCBGcm93biBVcHNpZGUtRG93biAyIiwidGlkIjoiMTI0NzUiLCJ0YWdzIjpbImF2ZXJudW0gdW5pdmVyc2UiLCJiZWdpbm5lciIsImh1bW9yIiwibXVsdGlwbGUgZW5kaW5ncyIsInNob3J0Il0sImJnYXNwIjp7IjUiOjAsIjQiOjAsIjMiOjAsIjIiOjIsIjEiOjB9fQ==] Composite Score: 2.0/5.0 Best: 0.00% (0/2) Good: 0.00% (0/2) Average: 0.00% (0/2) Substandard: 100.00% (2/2) Poor: 0.00% (0/2) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords: Avernum Universe, Beginner, Humor, Multiple Endings, Short

Synergy: Please give a rating to your review. If you don't in the next few days, it will be deleted. Also, let me remind people the review threads are NOT for discussion. We have plenty of other places on this message board for that.

You're going to have to wait a few days before we can measure any effect. Also remember to consider the margin of error. Before we can believe any upward tick, you need at least two independent polls showing an increase outside the error bound. Note that the margin of error is 95% confidence interval, so 1 out of 20 times, the true result will fall outside the margin of error. My feelings are that Obama did not certainly deserve to win. Maybe in a couple years, but not yet. Nonetheless, as a US citizen, I cannot help but be happy for my country as a whole. If nothing else, it is good to see the US image improving after the disaster of the last eight years.

That is correct. I'm in the thick of writing and finishing my PhD thesis. Also does not help that I have five trips between now and the end of the year. I may try to slip in a round, but no promises.

Quote: I think nuclear weapons are just nasty. I can't wait until we find a way to completely neutralize the threat. Nuclear weapons are a very complex issue. Are they good? Of course not. Are they the best tool we currently have for staving off the alternative of wide-scale conventional conflict like we saw in the Second World War? Many would say yes. Making the cost of war between two nuclear-armed powers unacceptably high forces these nations to find other ways to settle their disagreements. Interestingly enough, if you look at the statistics you see a massive drop in deaths from war post 1945. While there are probably several factors, many scholars believe the aforementioned impact of nuclear weapons helped bring this about. Remember the "nuclear umbrella" extends to non-nuclear armed states allied with a nuclear-armed state as well. Of course, all of this is a Faustian bargain because in doing so we inject the risk of a very quick end to civilization. So long as nuclear weapons are held in the hands of a few nations that would have far more to lose than gain by using them (as was the case of the Cold War), the chance of this occurring is very small because of mutually assured destruction. Where the balance shifts is when the number of nuclear powers increase or those who hold them could gain by, say, giving a device to a terrorist group. That really is the biggest risk right now from nuclear weapons. My personal feelings are that it would be great to get rid of nuclear weapons. I'm unsure how this could be achieved in the current global climate or even if it would be desirable. One proposal is for the US to unilaterally disarm which would, in principle, set an example. Sadly, the most likely outcome of this would be for smaller states currently under our nuclear umbrella (think Japan, South Korea, and much of Western Europe) to build their own arsenals. This would be even worse than the current situation. Furthermore, even if someone could magically destroy all nuclear weapons right now, the incentive to cheat and develop a nuclear device becomes very high. I'm not sure how one prevents this. If we even go into further depths of fantasy and somehow uninvent nuclear weaponry, this brings us back to where we were in the 1930s. Suddenly, war amongst large states becomes an acceptable way to settle differences again. This is also very, very bad. Ultimately, ridding the world of nuclear weapons will require that we live in a world much different than today. While I would like to be optimistic, I sincerely doubt that we could achieve the conditions to permit this in our lifetimes. Nonetheless, we still should try to achieve this goal. Perhaps we will be able to find a better way of deterring war in the future. We can only hope.

Warp Mac/Windows Author: Ephesos Difficulty: 15-20 Version: 1.0.0 [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IldhcnAiLCJ0aWQiOiIxMjQxMiIsInRhZ3MiOlsibXVsdGlwbGUgZW5kaW5ncyIsInNlcmlvdXMiLCJzaG9ydCJdLCJiZ2FzcCI6eyI1Ijo0LCI0IjoyLCIzIjoyLCIyIjoyLCIxIjoxfX0=] Composite Score: 3.5/5.0 Best: 36.36% (4/11) Good: 18.18% (2/11) Average: 18.18% (2/11) Substandard: 18.18% (2/11) Poor: 9.09% (1/11) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords: Multiple Endings, Short, Plot-heavy, Light/no Combat, Serious

Thanks Smoo. Keywords have been updated.

Four new scenarios have been added.

Magus of Cattalon Mac/Windows Author: Smoo Difficulty: Version: 1.0.3 [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6Ik1hZ3VzIG9mIENhdHRhbG9uIiwidGlkIjoiMTI0MDMiLCJ0YWdzIjpbImF2ZXJudW0gdW5pdmVyc2UiLCJicmFuY2hpbmcgcGxvdCIsImxvbmciXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6NCwiNCI6NywiMyI6MSwiMiI6MCwiMSI6MH19] Composite Score: 4.3/5.0 Best: 33.33% (4/12) Good: 58.33% (7/12) Average: 8.33% (1/12) Substandard: 0.00% (0/12) Poor: 0.00% (0/12) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords: Avernum Universe, Branching Plot, Long

Outpost Valley Mac/Windows Author: Smoo Levels: Version: 1.0.0 [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6Ik91dHBvc3QgVmFsbGV5IiwidGlkIjoiMTI0MDIiLCJ0YWdzIjpbIjI0LWhvdXIiLCJhdmVybnVtIHVuaXZlcnNlIiwiY29tYmF0IGhlYXZ5IiwiZHVuZ2VvbiBjcmF3bCIsInRvd24gb25seSJdLCJiZ2FzcCI6eyI1IjowLCI0IjozLCIzIjo3LCIyIjowLCIxIjowfX0=] Composite Score: 3.3/5.0 Best: 0.00% (0/10) Good: 30.00% (3/10) Average: 70.00% (7/10) Substandard: 0.00% (0/10) Poor: 0.00% (0/10) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords: 24-Hour Scenario, Avernum Universe, Combat Heavy, Dungeon Crawl, Town Only

Proving Grounds Mac/Windows Author: Michael Slack Difficulty: Version: 1.0.3 [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IlByb3ZpbmcgR3JvdW5kcyIsInRpZCI6IjEyNDAxIiwidGFncyI6W10sImJnYXNwIjp7IjUiOjAsIjQiOjAsIjMiOjIsIjIiOjQsIjEiOjR9fQ==] Composite Score: 1.8/5.0 Best: 0.00% (0/10) Good: 0.00% (0/10) Average: 20.00% (2/10) Substandard: 40.00% (4/10) Poor: 40.00% (4/10) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords:

A Visit to the Madhouse Mac/Windows Author: Niemand Difficulty: Version: [composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IkEgVmlzaXQgdG8gdGhlIE1hZGhvdXNlIiwidGlkIjoiMTI0MDAiLCJ0YWdzIjpbXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6MSwiNCI6NCwiMyI6NCwiMiI6MCwiMSI6MH19] Composite Score: 3.7/5.0 Best: 11.11% (1/9) Good: 44.44% (4/9) Average: 44.44% (4/9) Substandard: 0.00% (0/9) Poor: 0.00% (0/9) [encouragenecro] [/composite] Keywords:

Agree with most of what everyone said and welcome everyone to post. Nikki - No fear. Your review is fine and will count. 100 words is a guideline and not a strict requirement and please post more. For everyone's benefit, if you can say everything you need to in 60 words, I don't see the point in striking that review. I see general support for the proposal. ADoS has a good title that I'm going to modify slightly. Simply put, "no details, no count". As Ackrovan said, there is no need to get worked up over this one review for an author who is not around. Again, just wanted to have this debate now as opposed to later.

First of all, thank you Ephesos for all of the reviews. They are very welcome! As for this issue, I think we're all in agreement TM's review should go. I do see the inadequacies of the 100 word limit, and that's why I think it is best to make a "reasonable person" judgment. So here is the standard: If a moderator decides a reasonable person would extract no useful information beyond the essence of the score, the review is to be stricken. To do this, the entire review is struck through and a comment is left by the moderator detailing the objection. Stricken reviews are not counted until fixed. Examples of reviews that can be stricken: "This scenario was bad." "I did not have fun playing this scenario." "Meh." "Nice try, but needs more work. Overall mediocre." "There are worse scenarios, but then there are better." "Very good." "This was by far the best scenario I've ever played. I don't know why, but I loved it. Further, I'm not going to even try to tell you why, but trust me, it was awesome!!!" How does this sound: