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The list of roles are still in progress. I haven't finished changing everything around yet. I'm including the moderator shop because Oliver is not a guaranteed role. I am thinking of structuring things so it is possible to compete. I really would like to make this game a little less about killing, but it will require a bit of restructuring to do that. As for Oliver, I see your point with the low level items. While he does compete with the mod shop, the items there are dynamic. I am planning on making the antidote a 10 coin item. If someone has been poisoned, and the shop does not have one, Oliver can likely make a killing on that deal if he does. I may change the moderator shop price structure to be a 100% mark up to give Oliver a further advantage. I'm not a big fan of the bidding idea just because it creates a lot more work for me. With regards to what Ash Lael was saying, I was considering how to handle redistribution of wealth after death. I like the idea of coins being lost because it removes the incentive to kill people for money. I do see a downside to this, however, in that there may not be enough money to go around. Finally, I will do something different with CM Strine.

I think there are fundamental problems with money that makes Oliver difficult. So here's what I'm going to do with money. Coins can only be given/traded in blocks of 5. Items in the moderator store will be marked up 50%. The value of items will be 10, 20, 30, and 40 and will cost 15, 30, 45, and 60 respectively. Items can be sold to the moderator store for half their value in coins. The reason for this is to add more flexibility for merchant roles. People will start out with some number of coins or item equivalent (10-25 coins worth). Oliver's goal will be to increase his net worth by a certain percentage to be decided. I will also give a +5 "coin" bonus for each item in his possession at the end of the game. This gives him a preference to trading items as opposed to just for money. I do like the idea of him only being able to trade for things. I will need to think more. Please keep the suggestions coming!

My goals with Oliver are as follows: 1) I want him to actually have to do trading, and not simply be a coin collector. People cannot just give him their coins at the end of the game. 2) I want his total wealth to increase at the end of the game. It is not enough that he just gives away his items for cheap, he is in business to make money. I'm not sure what the best way to achieve both of those goals are. I don't want the following to happen: 1) His allies to just give him coins. 2) Him to offload his stock for cheap so he loses money. 3) Recursive trading of the same item. 4) Him or one of his allies to kill to get coins/items for his shop. I will probably change his victory condition to require x coins or item equivalent in his inventory or shop (moderator shop will inflate the true value by +1). The value he needs to be some net increase (perhaps 50% rounded up) of his original shop's value. My one concern is that people will wisely buy items only when absolutely necessary and use them immediately. To help this out, I plan on totally changing the contents (except for artifacts) of the moderator shop every day. If you see something that may be useful, you should buy it because it will be gone later. Further, I may randomly distribute some mid-level item to a lucky random player every day. I'm open to other ideas.

The Loyalist random targets were Gladwell and Oliver.

With the moderator shop, there is no reason to "drop" items. Anyone can sell an item to the shop for one coin or an artifact for two. Of course, the moderator shop is a rip off, but there is still a way to add a little extra benefit. As for the Anama, we have to balance plot and gameplay. In a world where magic is so prevalent, the restrictions of the Anama hurt gameplay. Yes, they need some mages dead, but not all mages, just enough to achieve their victory conditions.

There will also be the complaint about how the start time did not work, regardless of what system we use. It is virtually impossible to run a game with 17 people from around the globe with vastly different lifestyles and have one time work for all of them. The way I see, the shop will be a much smaller concern because no one will have enough money to buy any of the really good items up front. I plan on making the Wand of Death cost four coins and most things will cost three. The most anyone would start out with is two. Another reason I brought in this system was to delay people getting good items and add an incentive for making alliances.

Just use it. Remember, artifacts can only be used once per day. I also took out Gladwell counting as two.

This is the list of possible roles for Game 6. Only 16 of these will be used. The roles will be chosen as follows: Roles 1-10: Anama Priest, Bound Servant, Darkside Blademaster, Darkside Mage, Dionicio, Domont, Gladwell, Machrone, Micklebur, Shanker. Role 11: Adventurer or Empire Spy (50% each) Role 12: Alchemist (25%), Craftmaster Strine (25%), or Oliver (50%) Roles 13-16: Randomly chosen to be any role not currently used. The magic users are: Aimee, Darkside Mage, Gladwell, Necromancer, Sacred Item Cultist, Shanker, Vahkos. People who may join the Anama are: Adventurer, Alchemist, Anama Hunter, Dionicio, Fae, Infiltrator, Machrone, Oliver, Pure Spirit, Ronaldo, Skribbane Addict. People who may join Gladwell are: Adventurer, Anama Hunter, Craftmaster Strine, Dionicio, Fae, Infiltrator, Machrone, Necromancer, Ronaldo, Sacred Item Cultist, Skribbane Addict. The roles, in alphabetical order, are: Adventurer Nationality: Avernum Skill: Stealth Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: May target one person per day. If that person has any items, you steal one of them (chosen at random). If you kill one of your targets, you receive a reward of 40 coins. Victory Condition: You must do two of these: Have the Assassin Leather at the end of the game, kill Dionicio, kill Gladwell, kill Darkside Blademaster, kill Machrone, kill Oliver, kill Craftmaster Strine, kill Skribbane Addict. Aimee Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: None Immune: Most Attacks Abilities: Your target may not perform any actions for 24 hours. You may not directly attack anyone or hold and use items. You can only be killed by the Wand of Death. Anyone else who attacks you will learn your role. Victory: Number of Avernites (including Aimee) that win is at least twice the number of Imperials that win. Alchemist Nationality: Empire Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Abilities: If you attack, your opponent will always receive the first strike. You have an inventory of alchemicals. Once per day, you may specify a list of potions to make given that you have the alchemicals to do it. As part of this order, you may convert coins or items into alchemicals (20 coins or item value equivalent = 1 alchemical). Victory: Shanker wins. If she is dead, have 80 coins at the end of the game so you can return to the surface. Note that if Shanker and the Alchemist are the only ones alive, the game ends and both lose. Anama Hunter Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: May target one person per day. Reveals if that person is in the Anama. While attacking someone in the Anama, your skill level is treated as Power. If you kill an Anama member, you will receive a bonus of 20 coins. Victory Condition: Total elimination of the Anama sect. The Anama Priest and all followers must be dead by any means necessary. You may join the Anama to go undercover. You will gain the magic immunity, but your victory condition will be unmodified. Also, you do not count as an Anama member when evaluating anyone's victory conditions. Anama Priest Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: Magic Ability: If you are attacked, your skill is power for the duration of the battle. May use one of two abilities: (1) Once per game, may resurrect one person, or (2) remove all status effects from a target. Victory Condition: The total number of living Anama members, including you, is at least five (four if Gladwell is dead). Anama Priest can recruit Anama members who are not mages, servants of Gladwell, or Darkside Loyalists. Anyone who joins the Anama gains immunity to magic. See the rules for specifics. An exact list of roles that can join is given at the top of this thread. Bound Servant Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: Physical Ability: If you attack someone while not under Gladwell's influence, your opponent will always receive the first strike. (1) Investigate a role. You will learn the last action that role did. (2) You may do odd jobs and earn coins: 10 the first time, 15 the second, and 20 every time thereafter. Victory Condition: Gladwell wins or his geas is broken. You are a servant of Gladwell. Craftmaster Strine Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Magic Immune: None Abilities: If you attack, your opponent will always receive the first strike. You may submit a list of items to craft once per day. A list of four items and one artifact will be generated randomly and will require other random items (of lesser value) as "ingredients". The artifact can only be made once. If it is not made and you die, it appears in the moderator shop the next day. Victory: Craft at least five items. The artifact on your list counts as two. Darkside Blademaster Nationality: Empire Skill: Power Attack: Physical Immune: Physical Ability: None. Victory Condition: All five of the following must be dead, by any means necessary: Anama Priest, Dionicio, Adventurer or Empire Spy, another random Avernite, and one other random target. Darkside Mage Nationality: Empire Skill: Stealth Attack: Magic Immune: None Ability: May target one person per day. The target is cursed for the next 24 hours. If the target decides to attack anyone, his or her attacks will be unable to harm the opponent. Note the curse only affects when the target attacks, not when the target is being attacked. Victory Condition: All five of the following must be dead, by any means necessary: Anama Priest, Dionicio, Adventurer or Empire Spy, another random Avernite, and one other random target. Dionicio Nationality: Avernum Skill: Power Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: May target one person, living or dead, per day. Reveals that person's nationality. If you kill a Darkside Loyalist by your own hand, you receive a reward of 40 coins. Victory Condition: All Darkside Loyalists (Blademaster, Mage, Domont) dead by any means and recover a random artifact. Domont Nationality: Empire Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: May use one of these per day. (1) Target a role (e.g. Domont) and give a keyword (must be a word in the English language, not be a name, or other personally identifying information), the person in that role is given a keyword. (2) Sell one of your items to the moderator shop at face value. Victory Condition: All five of the following must be dead, by any means necessary: Anama Priest, Dionicio, Adventurer or Empire Spy, another random Avernite, and one other random target. Empire Spy Nationality: Empire Skill: Stealth Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: May target one living or dead, per day. Reveals that person's skill level. When you kill someone, you will learn their role. If you kill one of your targets, you will receive a reward of 40 coins. Victory Condition: You must do two of these: Have the Flaming Sword at the end of the game, kill Machrone, kill Darkside Blademaster, kill Gladwell, kill Oliver, kill Alchemist, kill Skribbane Addict. Fae Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: You will never receive the first strike and you may not use any items or artifacts offensively. May assume the identity of any other role (e.g. Fae). You will appear as this role to all information gatherers. Your identity is retained even after death. Victory Condition: Your goal is to trick people into "joining" or trading with you. Anyone who "joins" you, trades with you, or gives you an item ends up dead regardless of skill, immunities, or other effects. Trick at least three people this way. Gladwell Nationality: Avernum Skill: Power Attack: Magic Immune: Magic Ability: You may not attack anyone directly. If any of your servants attack you, you will always get the first strike. You may do one of the following once per day: (1) Compel one of your servants to do any action they could do, or (2) Switch your immunity form magic to physical, or vice versa. Victory Condition: Four randomly generated victory conditions that contain holding two artifacts (or having someone under your geas hold) at the end of the game and two people dead by any means or under your geas. Gladwell can bind other players who are not Anama members or Darkside Loyalists. An exact list of roles that can join is given at the top of this thread. People who join are immune to physical damage if Gladwell is alive. However, they have the following penalties: (1) Gladwell can override any ability request with his ability and (2) person gains the victory condition that Gladwell must win or the geas be broken. Note that if Gladwell compels someone to attack, they will normally get the first strike. Infiltrator Nationality: Empire Skill: Stealth Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: Once per game, may get a free action that does not count towards the 24 hour period. You must specify this in a PM with your action. Victory: Kill three Avernites by your own hand. Dionicio counts as two. Machrone Nationality: Empire Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None. Ability: You never get the first strike; however, if you are attacked by a non-enemy, you have a 50% chance of escaping. Every day, may ask one yes or no question to the moderator. If you answer a question (see victory condition) on the day it is given, you get a 10 coin bonus. Victory Condition: Every day, two questions about the game are given to you. 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 Skill: Power Attack: Physical Immune: Magic Ability: (1) Can detect if a target is a magic user or is a servant of Gladwell. (2) Can solicit a donation of 10-30 (random amount) coins. Victory Condition: Anama Priest wins. If he is dead, the number of living Anama members must exceed the number of mages. You are an Anama Member. Necromancer Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Magic Immune: None Ability: Target a dead person, you will learn their role and gain their ability as a possible action. Victory Condition: Use your ability on two randomly selected roles. Nephil Activist Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: If you attack, your opponent will always receive the first strike. Visit the Fang Clan once per 24 hours with a list of actions. While there, you can do any of the following: * Trade with a Fang Clan trader. He has a randomly generated inventory of three items every day that only you see. The cost is the value of the base value of the item +5 coins. * Hire the Nephil pathfinder for 40 coins to learn the role of a target. * Hire the Nephil shaman for 25 coins to offer a blessing towards any player. The blessing gives skill of power for 24 hours. * Hire the Nephil thief for 25 coins. He steals a random item from a target's inventory (if any) and gives it to you. * Hire a Nephil assassin for 60 coins. He attacks a target of your choice. Has skill of stealth, physical attack, no immunity, and gets the first strike. The pathfinder, shaman, thief, and assassin can only be hired once per game. Victory: The Darkside Loyalists do not win AND spend at least 100 coins on the Fang Clan. Oliver Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None. Ability: You never get the first strike; however, if you are attacked by a non-enemy, you have a 50% chance of escaping. You may do an unlimited number of trades per day. Each day, you may submit a list of up to three targets. You will see their inventories. Victory Condition: Have 50% more in coins and items than you started. At the end of the game, you get a 5 coin bonus for each unique person you have traded with and received and item (coins do not count). Oliver will have a shop that will be discussed in the rules. The shop begins with five items. Items in your shop may not be used by you except when defending from attacks. You may move items from your inventory to your shop, but not vice versa. Pure Spirit Nationality: Avernum Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: Magic Ability: If you attack, your opponent will always receive the first strike. 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. Can see who the target has killed, if anyone. Victory: The Darkside Loyalists do not win. Ronaldo Nationality: Avernum Skill: Stealth Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: Can target one person. This target is poisoned and will die within 24 hours if they do not use an antidote. Victory: Kill three Empire citizens by your own hand. The Darkside Blademaster counts as two. Sacred Item Cultist Nationality: Avernum Skill: Stealth Attack: Magic Immune: Poison Ability: If someone targets you with the Wand of Death, the person who used it will die instead. May target an item or artifact. It reveals which role (e.g. Sacred Item Cultist) has the item or artifact. If multiple people have items, will reveal all of them. Victory Condition: At the end of the game, have three randomly chosen artifacts in your possession. Shanker Nationality: Empire Skill: Standard Attack: Magic Immune: Physical Ability: If you are attacked, your skill will be power for the duration of the battle and your opponent loses all positive status effects. You are immune to negative statuses. May submit a list of up to four pairs of living players that does not use any one person more than once. You will learn the attitude (friendly, neutral, enemy) of those players. Victory Condition: Game ends at the conclusion of day five. For this to occur, the victory status of all players cannot be certain before this time. Skribbane Addict Nationality: Empire Skill: Standard Attack: Physical Immune: None Ability: Can detect if a target has skribbane. If you attack someone with skribbane, your skill level is power for the battle duration and you normally get the first strike. You are immune to Skribbane Withdrawal. If you do not use Skribbane at least three days from your last use or the start of the game, you die. Victory: Use Skribbane at least twice. You must also survive until the end of the game, so time your usage wisely. Vahkos Nationality: Empire Skill: Power Attack: Magic Immune: Poison Ability: You always get the first strike and may attack up to two people per day. You may switch your attack from Magic to Physical or vice versa once per day. You may not use or equip items or artifacts, nor may derive any benefits from having them in your inventory. Victory: You are the only survivor at the end of the game.

Thank you everyone for your support. First, I'm going to shorten the maximum length of the game to five days. Otherwise, the game ends when all roles have definitively won or lost. This will help out what I am going into next. Shanker will be a bit different in the next game. I'm going to remove a lot of her enemies and change her around as follows. She will keep her standard skill and physical immunity. Ability: When attacked, your skill will be power for the duration of the battle. You may submit a list of up to four pairs of living players where no one player is used twice. You will learn the attitude between the pairs (friendly, neutral, enemy). Victory: Game ends at the conclusion of day five. For this to happen, the outcome of all the victory conditions must not be decided by that time. As for enemies, she will still be an Imperial, so Ronaldo and Aimee will dislike her. She will be a mage, so the Anama will not be crazy about her either. However, they will not necessarily need her dead any more. This will hopefully help people with the formation of alliances. Shanker is a pretty safe role with her physical immunity and lack of hard enemies. In fact, she lacks a motive to kill just about everyone because she wants the game to end in stalemate. The reason having her is to help players make alliances.

Items will be handled a bit differently in the next game. People will receive either an artifact or an item called coins. There will be a shop run by the Moderator with a finite supply of items, each with a cost in coins (2-4 depending on its power). Players may trade in their coins to purchase items on a first come, first serve basis. I may even make it so artifacts can be sold to the shop in exchange for two coins (another player may buy it back for four). Also, players will need ways to get more coins. I propose to make certain roles like the Adventurer, Empire Spy, and Micklebur able to receive a bounty for their targets. When these roles are successful in making a kill, they receive three coins. A few other roles may be able to get extra coins too. I'm thinking of changing Domont and the Bound Servant's abilities to help in this regard. The merchant characters (slot 12) will be reworked somewhat to allow them to compete with the moderator shop, which will charge premium rates.

I'm aware Micklebur is a net drain on the Anama team. I am going to change his victory condition to: Kill three mages by your own hand. Gladwell counts as two. You may use the Holy Symbol once to reduce the number of required kills to two.

I'm going to retool Shanker by removing a few of her enemies and give her the ability to help players identify alliances.

Basically I messed up the enemy lists due to aggressive copy/past and the equitable way to fix this was to bring him back.

Northern Isles will be taking a hiatus for 2-3 weeks. The game will be back, however. I will, of course, tweak a few things. Depending on how I feel, I may expand the number of random roles as well. Thanks again everyone for playing! Hope to see you then.

And the game is over! Let's congratulate our winners... Ash Lael as Machrone Marlenny as Craftmaster Strine Rowen as Anama Priest Sarachim as Dionicio Sporefrog as Micklebur Tarson as Empire Spy Wz As as Bound Servant Thanks for everyone who played. The full list of roles are: Ash Lael -- Machrone Bain-Ihrno -- Adventurer Bloodmoon -- Oliver Dikiyoba -- Darkside Blademaster Doom Warrior -- Necromancer Duck -- Darkside Mage Marlenny -- Craftmaster Strine Nikki -- Shanker Nioca -- Aimee PGLB -- Gladwell Rowen -- Anama Priest Sarachim -- Dionicio Sporefrog -- Micklebur Tarson -- Empire Spy Wz As -- Bound Servant Xelgion -- Domont The log: Day 1 Aimee confuses Adventurer Bound Servant learns Craftmaster Strine can be recruited by Gladwell Craftmaster Strine creates Box of Traps Craftmaster Strine uses Crystal Spire on Micklebur Dionicio learns identity of Gladwell Micklebur gives Fury Crossbow to Anama Priest Machrone conducts a poll of Darkside Loyalist targets Shanker protects Shanker Domont sends keyword "kthxbai" Micklebur learns Dionicio is not involved with dark magic Oliver investigates Craftmaster Strine's inventory Empire Spy learns Darkside Blademaster's nationality Day 2 Anama Priest kills Gladwell with the Wand of Death Bound Servant uses Ironskin Balm on Bound Servant Dionicio learns identity of Darkside Mage Oliver trades with locals and obtains the Vulnerability Scroll Bound Servant learns Dionicio can be recruited by Gladwell Shanker protects Craftmaster Strine Darkside Mage curses Micklebur Micklebur attacks Darkside Mage, but is cursed Darkside Mage counterattacks Micklebur, but cannot harm him Oliver investigates Machrone's inventory Domont learns what Empire Spy did Craftmaster Strine makes Wand of Death Craftmaster Strine uses Crystal Spire on Aimee Dionicio joins the Anama Machrone answers Q1, Q4, Q5 all correctly Empire Spy kills Darkside Mage Empire Spy gets Rod of Alacrity Craftmaster Strine gives Wand of Death to Machrone Machrone joins the Anama Empire Spy gives Rod of Alacrity to Craftmaster Strine Empire Spy gives Holy Symbol to Craftmaster Strine Necromancer absorbs spirit of Darkside Mage Craftmaster Strine gives Rod of Alacrity to Dionicio Machrone kills Shanker with Wand of Death Machrone gets Disruption Crystal Dionicio uses Rod of Alacrity Dionicio learns the role of Bain-Ihrno Bound Servant gets Box of Traps from Craftmaster Strine Bound Servant gets Holy Symbol from Craftmaster Strine Day 3 Bound Servant uses Holy Symbol, removes geas Oliver trades with locals and obtains a Warding Crystal Darkside Blademaster kills Oliver Bound Servant traps Anama Priest with Box of Traps Craftmaster Strine gives Crystal Spire to Dionicio Dioncio uses Crystal Spire on Darkside Blademaster Micklebur attacks Adventurer, but ends up dead Game Moderator resurrects Micklebur Necromancer absorbs Shanker's spirit Empire Spy learns nationality of Necromancer Craftmaster Strine creates Rod of Alacrity Craftmaster Strine gives Rod of Alacrity to Dionicio Dionicio uses Rod of Alacrity Dionicio kills the Necromancer Aimee confuses Darkside Blademaster Domont attacks Aimee, but cannot harm her Day 4 Machrone answers a question Bound Servant gives Holy Symbol to Craftmaster Strine Darkside Blademaster tries to attack Adventurer but is confused Anama Priest kills Aimee Dionicio kills Darkside Blademaster with Flaming Sword Dionicio gets Assassin Leather Empire spy sees Dionicio being suspicious Dionicio learns skill level of Empire Spy Machrone answers more questions Machrone uses Box of Traps around CM Strine Micklebur kills Domont Micklebur gets Warding Crystal Machrone sees Micklebur being suspicious Day 5 Empire Spy kills Adventurer Empire Spy gets Killer Poison Game Over

And on and on... BAIN-IHRNO

Quote: It probably isn't very big as you can travel from one area to a distant one very quickly and do not need a lot of food or means of transport. This is a classic dilemma facing a lot of "epic" RPGs. I think the agreed upon solution is to suspend disbelief and treat everything as a rough approximation.

The bloody march goes on. Who is dead now? XELGION

Typo.

Oh dear, another body washes up on a shore, a hole in her chest. It was... DIKIYOBA

Remains have been discovered by a traveling merchant. While they are difficult to identify, it is that of... NIOCA

A publication appears revealing that... The Anama Priest is Rowen

The carnage continues! A mushroom farmer discovers the shattered body of... DOOM WARRIOR

First, as much as I complained about GeoCities, it is kind of sad to see this relic go. Yes, we should definitely try to pool resources and save as much data as possible.

Getting an open source Blades of Avernum would probably be a lot more likely in the middle term since the code for that is older and less useful to competitors. I would not count on it though.