Witch Hunt : Revival Game

[BainIhrno]

I remember playing this game over AIM with other members of Spiderweb in '09. I was wondering if anyone might be up for playing this again.

 

Basically, how you play is we'll get 8-12 members in a game. 2-4 people will be 'villains', whereas a few others will have special roles. I have been unable to find the original roles, so these are the roles I will propose. There is a day-night cycle. On the first day, you will talk to each other on AIM. The villains will attack one member each night. The next day, the remaining players deliberate on who the villain is, and will vote for one of them to be 'killed'. Basically, the idea is if you're the bad guy, you want to fool the good guys into eating each other up, and the good guys want to get rid of all the villains. Here's a rough sketch, if you remember something else or have an improvement, don't hesitate to mention it. Only some of the players will have special roles, and if there are fewer players, some roles may not be used (although there will always be villains and a Captain).

 

The roles are:

 

Captain of the Guard - You are the head of Sharimik's guards. Each day you can investigate a player, and learn their role.

 

Slith Agent - This will be the 'villain' role. While your character is human, you are working for the Slithzerikai, who want to capture Sharimik in the hopes of capturing a major Empire city.

 

Empire Agent - Can kill any member during the night, good or bad. This player's allegiance is against the Sliths, but has the ability to take direct action against the suspects, or can kill another player for another reason.

 

Anama Priest - You are part of the Anama faith and can protect one member from being killed that night.

 

Enchanted One - A civilian with an enchantment placed around you at a young age. If you are killed, the killer dies as well. NOTE: If you die because you are voted to be executed, the person killed will be the first person to vote in favor of killing you.

 

Wizard - The town wizard. Can silence one member each night (which lasts one day). The person who is silenced by the Wizard can't vote on who to kill the next day, nor can that person say anything else.

 

For clarification on these rules:

 

1. Once you make an official vote, you can't change it.

 

2. No one player will under any circumstances have more than one special role. (So there's no need to worry about Slith Agent Wizards, etc.)

 

3. If the Enchanted One is protected by an Anama Priest, and is attacked: If attacked by a Slith Agent, both live. If attacked by an Empire Agent, the Empire Agent dies and the Enchanted One lives.

 

4. If dead, please refrain from chatting in the actual game chat. I'll set up a special chatroom for you to talk to the other players who are dead.

 

5. With the exception of the Slith Agents, if you have a special role, you are not required to use your special ability all the time. If you think not using your ability is more strategic at a specific time, you may refrain from using it that day. However, if you are an Anama Priest or an Empire Agent, you must tell me if you are not using it that night.

 

6. The Slith Agents will have a separate chatroom where they will agree on which player to kill that night.

 

7. The order that 'night' special abilities will be processed is: Wizard, Anama Priest, Slith Agent, and finally Empire Agent. Essentially, this means that if the Slith Agents and the Empire Agent both attack the same person, the Slith Agents will get there first. If a Wizard silences someone who dies that night, their ability goes to waste that day. Most importantly, however, the attacked player is still protected even if the command to attack that player gets to be before the protection command does.

 

8. I will assign certain player their roles. Many players will have no special role. If we're lucky enough to have 12 players, for example, my thinking if that there will be 3-4 Slith Agents, and 3 players with one of the other roles (two will not be used, but you won't know which two). At the beginning of the game, I'll let you know your special role if you have one.

 

Winning: For the Slith Agents to win, they must eliminate all other players. For everyone else, you must eliminate the Slith Agents. However, you will not be counted as a winner if you die, even if your team wins. The idea for the Slith Agents is to make sure they are not suspected or to cast suspicion on other players. (Not that there is any true prize for winning other than your PDN printed in boldface on a forum post. )

 

I'll also log the game so everyone can see why things went the way they did.

 

This might sound silly or confusing, but I remember playing and moderating four years ago, and trust me, it's pretty fun

 

If anyone is interested, we can set up a time to meet in an AIM or some other chatroom.

[BJ Back From the Beyond]

I've played this game at a couple parties before, though each of those times the story was centered around the mafia. It was pretty fun.

[keira]

Sounds fun, I'd be in if the time is right.

[Actaeon]

It certainly sounds like a variation of Mafia. I'd be inclined to see how it works online.

[Student of Trinity]

Why not try an Avadon theme this time?

[BainIhrno]

I've never played Avadon.

[Student of Trinity]

You're obviously a witch!

[Sudanna]

Sounds cool, I'll be there if I can.

[BainIhrno]

I'll moderate the game. Presumably, the current players are Sylae, Wander, and Actaeon. (I'm not sure if BJEarles was signing up for this game).

 

I was thinking we could go either 2/2 or 2/9 (so either this Saturday or next Saturday), 10PM EST. Once we get more people, I can form more definite details. I'm thinking this Saturday might be too soon, but don't necessarily want to exclude it if we have enough people at that time and people want to play then.

 

The story will take place in Sharimik, Valorim and center around spies working for Slith conquerors.

[tripfeet]

The last time was fun, I'm in.

[Callie]

I would love to play.

[Sudanna]

Yeah, if it wasn't clear, I'd like to play as well.

[BainIhrno]

We're now up to five players.

 

EDIT: I've updated the post to include the rules and the story.

[Ouroboros]

I'm in if there's still a spot available

[Goldengirl]

I'd love to do one of these; I remember participating in the ones we did a few years ago that were Darkside Loyalist themed. That said, I'm just too busy to be able to devote a solid block of time to do something like this on AIM. If we followed the format we did last time (PM-based groups, play by post) I'd definitely be able to commit and play. Is there any interest in doing that?

[BainIhrno]

We're up to six now. For now I'm probably going to go with the AIM version unless people would like to do it another way. I've played it both ways, and I can tell you, the two methods involve different strategies.

 

Still, I could work up something like that after this, if I'm allowed to use the Misc. forums. I'll do this, and then if there's interest, I'll try to put something together like that, but keep in mind that those plots are more complex and I'll need to look back at those and put a game together if people want to play and if I can.

 

(If I do, it probably won't be the Darkside Loyalist/Northern Isles plot, as I've really only played E/A1-3 and BoE/A.)

[Lilith]

i'd be interested but i can't do the 9th because that's the 10th for me which is my dad's birthday

[Mosquito---Slayer]

(PM-based groups, play by post)

Yeah, I would love that too.

[BainIhrno]

Now that I think of it, if people would like to do that, nothing's stopping us. This doesn't mean the other game is cancelled, though, no shame in doing both.

[Dikiyoba]

Play by post is harder, because the longer period of time increases the odds that people will drop out.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Goldengirl]

Play by post is harder, because the longer period of time increases the odds that people will drop out.

 

Dikiyoba.

 

I don't recall that being a problem we had last time around.

[BainIhrno]

I looked over Northern Isles, Game 4, which I played and won, and writing new characters is harder than it looks, so I may just revive the ones used there, with a few tweaks.

 

So far, 6 have signed up to play the game on AIM, and two people have expressed interest in doing a game on the forum, and no one so far has expressed interest in doing both.

[BJ Back From the Beyond]

*expresses interest in doing both*

 

There ya go.

[Dikiyoba]

The wizard sounds like a bad idea. Being silenced would be boring. (Maybe the wizard could cast a spell that prevents the target person from going outside and taking any action that night, if there must be a wizard?)

 

Dikiyoba would probably play witch hunt over AIM.

[BainIhrno]

I can see what you mean. If other people don't like the wizard either, I'll just do away with that role. I'm not sure a replacement role is needed.

 

The problem with the above-mentioned ability, however, is that not all (and possibly the majority of) players have special abilities, which would basically mean the wizard's ability would have a 50%+ chance of being useless.

 

We now have 8 participants, 3 expressing interest in another Forum/Northern Isles game, and 1 both.

 

EDIT: Additional rule: If a Slith Agent kills the Enchanted One the Slith Agent killed is selected at random.

[Goldengirl]

We now have 8 participants, 3 expressing interest in another Forum/Northern Isles game, and 1 both.

 

Perhaps a poll would be a more efficient way of gathering data.

[Student of Trinity]

There could be a witch hunt game based on a message board. Sheriffs are mods. The witches use sock puppet accounts to post spam. Every night there is a spam post. The next day, everyone else decides whom to ban. Something like that, anyway. You could try to make it just like regular mafia, with players getting eliminated because their accounts are hacked or something. But you could also invent some variants. Perhaps the spammers aren't actually trying to eliminate anyone, but just flood the boards with spam, because they're allowed to add a new sock account every day. Or perhaps a spammer-hacker could actually take over the account of a previously honest forum member. Perhaps mods could un-ban members if it were concluded that they weren't bad after all. One feature that I sort of like is that the spam posts might in principle contain information that could reveal who had posted them — or suggest a false culprit.

[BMA]

Nice. But how can you implement this without having a new forum where the players all sign up ?

 

-

 

I can't do EST evenings, so you can count me in for the forum/PM game.

[adc.]

I'm in!

---------

-Nightwatcher

[tripfeet]

The forum-version would work better for me too, actually.

[BainIhrno]

BMA: Presumably, I'd use the Misc. forum, a General subforum, if I can.

[keira]

I'd be more than happy to set up another spare forum offsite, like I did for the "try to trick people into thinking you are someone else based on writing style" game, if needed.

[BainIhrno]

The player roster for the AIM game includes at this time:

 

- Sylae

- Wander

- Dikiyoba

- Actaeon

- Excalibur

- BJ Earles

- Nightwatcher

- Ouruboros

 

For a total of eight, which is enough to play, but more participants are good too. But now we should work out a time to play. Let me know what you think. With eight players, there would be two Slith Agents, one Captain, and one other special role (I'll do away with the wizard, so the other player would be either an Anama Priest, Enchanted One, or Empire Agent).

[Callie]

If it's on a Saturday or Sunday, I can play anytime during the day. Preferably 10:00 AM - Midnight Pacific (6:00 PM - 8:00 AM GMT)

 

It'd probably be more convenient for you to have everyone input a time at a free scheduling site (this one has been used on this site before: http://whenisgood.net).

[BainIhrno]

http://whenisgood.net/djki473

 

Propose times here. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Update: 4 out of 8 current players have responded, so far the consensus seems to be Feb 9th.

[Sarachim]

I'd be interested in both, but I'm working on Feb 9.

 

EDIT: Wait, I just noticed the game would start at 10PM Eastern time, and I might be home by then. I'll look into it and see.

[BainIhrno]

It looks like 10PM will be our time, but I still need Nightwatcher and Wander to confirm times. If Sarachim plays too, we'll have nine players. Anyone else is welcome as well!

[adc.]

Oh sorry for replying late. I thought I wasn't included. Heh. So when is this going to start? February 9?

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One more thing, here's y schedule: http://whenisgood.net/bkhzm93

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-Test Subject 8552

[BainIhrno]

It's on AIM - Feb 9th at 10PM.

[BainIhrno]

Sorry for the double post, but it looks like I'll go ahead with this tomorrow. It looks like we have six to seven confirmed participants, if you'd like to get in, let me know.

[Actaeon]

I may not be able to make it- I got an invitation for an in-person night out, and am inclined to take it. If I'm around, though, I'll certainly still drop in.

 

Sorry.

[BainIhrno]

The Chatroom is set up. Once anyone's ready, log onto AIM and contact me (bihrno423) and I'll get you in.

[BainIhrno]

Okay, it's about 10PM and we're short about 3 players. If anyone else wants to play, this is your chance.

 

EDIT: We weren't able to get enough players this evening, I'll post some additional times.

 

http://whenisgood.net/djki473 - Updated with new times.

[Goldengirl]

Okay, it's about 10PM and we're short about 3 players. If anyone else wants to play, this is your chance.

 

EDIT: We weren't able to get enough players this evening, I'll post some additional times.

 

http://whenisgood.net/djki473 - Updated with new times.

 

I'm just going to say, if we'd been doing play-by-post this wouldn't be an issue...