Werewolf Blog: Q&A and Discussion

Alright then, i'm going to make the sign up thread so we can get a headstart on things when Game9 comes to a close.

In the Sign-up Thread i'll also be taking applications for being a Mysterious Stranger. You have to outline your reasons for wanting to be one. Early kills last game will get priority if they sign up.

As for RABicle's ban:

I'll be the first to admit that I was really pissed about it. I have never been a fan of underhanded tactics like that, and it served no real purpose other than fucking up a game that had already gotten off to a rough start even further. On top of that, I learned later from somebody who had taken him up on the offer that he had presented the actual list of Masons, instead of random players.

All in all, I don't really care about if he's let back into the game again (although if I mod again, I may pre-emptively kick him), but I don't want to be placed in the same group as him.

I have another idea for evening the scales for good. Instead of masons only acting when evil forefits a turn, why can't a vigilante sacrifice his turn for a mason kill? It seems absurd that they can't.

In my game, i have the Masons and the Vigilantes working together, on the same team. If both Vigilantes are killed however, then the Masons do not get anymore kills that game.

That's it I'm gunna have to start my own, underground Werewolf. It'll be called Mafia to avoid confusion.

Voting patterns are essential to the game. Therefore I propose that there be a rule modification regarding time limits:

1. All players must vote each day before the lynch results are posted.
2. If a player cannot vote before the lynch results are posted, he or she must PM their intended vote before the following night's results are posted. The Mod will include these votes in the night result post.
3. If neither deadline is met, the player is disqualified from the game.

Yes/No

#1 is VERY YES and always should have been.

I'd give a player one strike, but if they're obviously just avoiding a day's vote, then the mod should be able to remove them from the game.

Originally Posted by Jochie

Voting patterns are essential to the game. Therefore I propose that there be a rule modification regarding time limits:

1. All players must vote each day before the lynch results are posted.
2. If a player cannot vote before the lynch results are posted, he or she must PM their intended vote before the following night's results are posted. The Mod will include these votes in the night result post.
3. If neither deadline is met, the player is disqualified from the game.

Yes/No

I like this. And anyone who has a problem with this rule due to access issues should inform the mod, at the very least, of that situation so that voting rounds could possibly be extended to accommodate them.

I don't know, seems kinda harsh when you're willing to disqualify players for not voting but mods can delay the game due to personal reasons with no penalty except a few bored players. Anyway, anyone can go back and count who voted for whom, so I don't see why it's important to vote before someone summarizes the vote count thus far.

They shouldn't kill the character just for missing a vote. Example Hydeloon is going to visit his grandmother for the weekend and she has no computer. Once he comes home he sees that he has been killed for not voting this day. Without a chance to plead his case his role has already been given out because of his death.

They should only be penalized for missing the vote. Its the only fair way and it has worked.

Players generally aren't penalized for missing a vote as long as they give the moderator a heads up. In one of the games I ran, Brent was gone for a long weekend, and this game Crash told The_Griffin he was going to be away for a few days. The only players who get killed off are those who get lazy and don't post, or purposely withhold their vote (which some folks have tried to use as a tactic). The rule is comparable to the shot clock in basketball; it wasn't necessary until someone started exploiting a loophole.

Implement Crash's policy. Two misses, you're dead.

Again, though, wasn't that two misses, not including extenuating circumstances (like Yeldarb presented)?

Originally Posted by Jochie

2. If a player cannot vote before the lynch results are posted, he or she must PM their intended vote before the following night's results are posted. The Mod will include these votes in the night result post.

That's the only thing I find wrong with this. If they cast their vote after the fact, they can just cast it so that it casts them in a good light (for example, if the majority of the town winds up lynching a good guy, the person that PMs their vote (assuming they are a bad guy) can just change it to someone else to make it look like they're not bad). Personally, I like the system how it is, but something does need to be done about those people who don't vote.

I'm liking the sound of that rule, and i'll use it. However, i will give the player 1 strike before they are disqualified from the game. And excused absence will not result in a strike. If the player is to be away for any amount of time, and is unable to check GFF with in any time limit, I will give them an unexcused absence unless there is a PM to me. The player is able to cast their votes, and whatever night actions they have coming up, if needed to me so i can implement them in their absence.

That's what i'm standing by so far.

EDIT: If the vote is PMed to me, i will post it in the thread ASAP. I also will not count any votes submitted after the lynch results are posted. If i have not posted them yet, for reasons such as i was writing the story during the time, and they have an excuse, i will count it, but only if there was no vote from them in the thread during the standard day.

Well, I'm thinking one day and one night gives a total of at least 96 hours to vote. That's a long time to be away, at which point I wonder why a person signed up.

It's better that everyone is forced to make a vote, even if they do it after seeing the lynch result, since that's better than no vote at all.

Ok, since people don't seem to be interested in having a normal werewolf game - kids these days - I'm going to post one of the ideas I had, which shouldn't be that difficult to mod when compared to a regular game, while being somewhat more exciting.

Werewolf [XX] - In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

The story takes place in the future, with humanity having learned to sail through space as it once did for the seas of earth. All players happen to be on the same ship, a fairly old vessel that carries both freight and passengers who aren't too concerned about luxuries such as being able to see outside, being entertained, and sometimes, making it out alive.

The roles! Most of them are the roles we all know and love, a few of them are new. Here they are:

Team Good Guys
1. The marines (Masons)
The ship on which the players are has recently left one of the politicaly unstable borderworlds of the Terran Empire, with earth, the imperial throne world, as its destination. On it, are a group of marines returning from... ah, how shall we say, a "political intervention", to quiet a few politicians which were, to the emperor's tastes, a little too vocal about their intentions. Their mission did require a bit of secrecy however, and since their mission doesn't end until they report back on earth, they are still working under civilian cover. They do know each other, however, and they have a special bonus which I'll explain in due time. Unfortunately for them, and perhaps fortunately for the other people on the ship, most marines are recruited from convicts, and thus are implanted with a special device that prevents violent behaviour unless unlocked by an officer with the authority to do so. Since the rest of their mission was supposed to be a simple matter of waiting until they get back, this means anything other than self-defense is impossible for them. And it appears that the reputation of military intelligence is justified, as despite the fact that they know each other, they have absolutely no advantage whatsoever when it comes to knowing who's who. Oh well, can't have everything.

2. Sarge (New Role, with masons)
The marines weren't sent without anyone to direct them, obviously. Left alone, they're uncoordinated, and they're not too good at anything but catching bullets. The job of making the marines into a well-oiled killing machine is Sarge's. He acts as the brain, making decisions for the rest of the marines, yells at them, and tries to make sure they won't all get killed. Obviously, he knows the marines at first. Unfortunately, he's not exactly highly ranked, so he can't do much about that whole implant business; in fact, he's got one himself. Right now, all he can do is try to survive along with the marines.

However, he has advantages that makes him worth much more than a simple marine. As long as he is alive, he, and every marine, has a 30 - 40% chance of surviving kills during the night. If a marine or sarge himself is targetted, and survives, then everyone will know it, though they won't know the exact role. If sarge dies, then the marines get a measly 5% survival chance. I mean, they ARE trained and they're not completely brainded, so they do have better chances of survival than the average schmuck.

3. Hacker and Script Kiddie (Seer and fool)
It just so happens that the largest hacker convention, hosted every 5 years, is going to begin soon on earth. Hackers aren't known for being particularly fond of luxury; as long as they have coffee and a connection to the net, they're happy. And the less money they spend on everything not computer related, the more money they have for things that are computer related. Which is precisely why a number of them have decided to travel on an old ship, in what is essentially fourth class, even though they could easily obtain the cash they need for a first class ticket on a luxury ship through more or less legal means. Still, hackers can gain access to the ship's surveillance system fairly easily, allowing them to track someone and find out who they truly are after a while.

Script kiddies, however, are another matter altogether. These guys are typically some of the worst idiots ever born, but have somehow convinced themselves that they are "king of the web" after downloading something called "DEATHMAN465's BIG PACK OF EXPLOITZZZ" from hackz.com, which most certainly did not steal their parent's credit card info and subscribed them to load of horse porn sites. As a result, they're conviced that any digital device is their servant, ready to do their bidding. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When these guys try to use the ship's systems to find out someone's true alignment, all they get are blury black and white images every 10 minutes, and combined with the fact that they are imbeciles, they will alway receive false information. If someone is good, they'll see him as evil. If someone is evil, they'll see him as good (and hopefully, try to befriend him and get killed).

4. Survivalist (Vigilante)
The survivalist believes in people being able to defend themselves. In fact, that's the whole reasons he's on this ship: He's off to petition the emperor himself for relaxing laws on gun control (of course he'd never, ever make it anywhere close the emperor, but all gun nuts are a little crazy on the side, so he probably has a master plan of some sort that will land him in a penal colony, or dead). He's actually managed to sneak in a weapon of some sort onboard, just in case, and he's not exactly afraid to use it if he thinks it's justified (I think I already made the comment about gun nuts being a little crazy, right?). That means each night, he gets to sneak up on someone and blow his brains out. In the name of justice.

5. Conspiracy Theorist (Hunter)
The conspiracy theorist believes that everyone is out to get him. The government, the corporations, the communists, the illuminati, the jews, the masons, and probably the nazis and the hippies. As a result, he's become somewhat paranoid over the years. Anything out of the ordinary will make him go batshit insane, and he won't hesitate to defend himself. The fact that he's in a large piece of metal produced by the evil, greedy corporations, and likely filled with devices designed to read his mind, makes him even more unstable. If, and that's a big if, someone was really trying to kill him, he'd most certainly be able to take his killer down with him, using what has essentially become a reflex; grabbing the first pointy/blunt object he sees and throwing it in the direction of whatever is threatening him.

6. Shaman
The borderworlds are filled with individuals who claim to have a special relationship with nature and the universe. These individuals claim that they can see, hear, and command "spirits", even though science has long since debunked all of this voodoo-magic superstitious stuff. Still, it appears that those people do somehow manage to influence reality when they try to help people. It probably has something to do with quantum mechanics, or something like that, really, but in the meantime, shamans can use their powers to protect someone from certain death during the night. Ironically enough, shamans on the ship are there in hope of making their fortune on the capital world of a society based on science and which has essentially rejected all nonrational explanations. That doesn't mean some people do not still believe in that stuff, and it's better than staying on borderworlds like, say, New Kansas, so a number of shamans do try to make a name for themselves among the upper classes of earth.

7. Civil Servant (Magistrate)
The civil servant is a low-ranking government official, sent on an assignment on one of the empire's borderworlds. Only high ranking officials or the emperor himself can actually travel first class, or even with their own ships. His budget doesn't allow him much in term of luxury, so he's forced to travel on one of those seedy ships that ferry the lower classes around the galaxy (of which he's definitely not part of). He is ambitious, however, and he has learned some of the most useful things in the trade (manipulating people, blackmail, ... The usual for politicians). As a result, he is capable of making sure someone will not be picked on by the masses. On the ship, it means he can protect someone from being killed by an angry mob. This does require a bit of work beforehand though, so he must make preparations the previous night. He cannot convince people not to lynch him either, he just isn't that good yet.

8. (NEW ROLE!) 1337 Haxxorz
The 1337 haxxorz is 1337. Really. Anything more complex than a wristwatch, he can use for his own purposes. He could be the richest man in the universe if he so much as wanted to, but to him, money means nothing. That's why he's travelling on an old, almost derelict ship. Anything else would be selling out to THE MAN. What can the 1337 haxxorz do? Anything. He can use the ship's cameras as if they were his own eyes. He can use the ship's thrusters to create a sudden impulse, to push someone out of a particle beam's path and thus save his life. He can use the ship's automatic doors to crush a man's skull. He can hack the results of a vote. He can lock someone in his room for the night, keeping him safe from harm. In other words, each night, he can actually choose what action he'll do from the following: checking someone (and getting the correct role), killing someone, protecting someone from night actions, or protecting someone from being killed by vote. Even better, the 1337 haxxorz can even protect himself, either from night actions, or from vote, though he can only do so once every two nights. Oh, and he's also fairly good at making sure he doesn't get caught, meaning that any checks coming from a seer, fool, or anyone else, will not get the correct result. There is no general rule as to what exactly the result someone who checks on the 1337 haxxorz will receive. This even invalidates any other rules, meaning that a seer may not necessarily get an evil role should he make a check on the 1337 haxxorz.

Obviously, that makes the 1337 haxorz incredibly powerful, especially in the hands of a good player.

Team Whatever
Ok, so those guys aren't really a team, they're the equivalent to the mysterious strangers. Survivors found in an escape pod or something like that. I'm sure everyone knows how it works: They're introduced after the first day of voting, and they're not actually included in the total number of players for each role. Fairly simple stuff.

Team Evil
1. Brainslugs (Werewolves)
Guess what's on the ship? Aliens! Brain eating, mind controling aliens, that somehow made their way to the frontiers of terran territory. Usually, they'd get the nutrients they need from the environments of their homeworlds, but since this isn't an option, they have to turn to other sources of food that contain the proteins they can't synthetize themselves, and that happens to be human brains, which they can also attach themselves to in order to control their host. The good news is, there's not enough people on the ship for them to be able to harvest the delicious brain matter they need to reproduce or change host. The bad news, however, comes in two parts. First, they still need some of that delicious brain matter to survive, and they're going to get it whether you good guys want it or not. The other bad news is, if they make it to earth, you can expect that it won't be long before the Overmind replaces the emperor as ruler of the terran empire. To make a short story, the brainslugs get to kill someone each night.

2. Overlord (Devil)
The overlord is a human possessed by the brainslugs, but one that has had a bit more time to mature. As a result, it has both established a stronger psychic link with the Overmind, the alien hive mind, and acquired some psi-related powers. Namely, it can actually read the mind of humans, in order to find out just what they are up to. The one exception is the 1337 haxxorz, who thinks in binary and whose thoughts essentially register as noise for the overlord. In essence, the overlord gets to make a check on someone.

3. Mafia
Yep, these guys still exist. And the reason they're here is because they've actually loaded a fairly large shipment of weapons among the freight, with the hope of getting it all the way to earth. Laws concerning weapons tend to vary a lot from world to world, depending on the governor, with fringe worlds essentially having a policy of "Don't commit mass murder and everythin's ok". Earth, on the other hand, has a slightly more restrictive policy, more along the lines of "Anything more dangerous than a slingshot and you're off to a mining colony". This doesn't mean all sorts of people, from the aristocracy to the upper echelons of organized crime groups, do not want to get their hand on various weapons for all sort of reasons, whether it be outfitting their own private security forces or for what they consider to be their core business. Either way, the mafia stands to make a nice profit from that. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as taking the biggest gun they have and firing away. If they do that, their chances of going through the checkpoints near earth are going to be fairly close to zero. The best they can do is hope to kill off everyone will minimum damage, so that they can somehow cover the whole thing up and get through once they get to earth. They do not, however, have a particular grudge against the aliens. After all, an alien invasion would do wonders for weapons prices. And since they're somewhat short-sighted, the whole possibility of this being the end of mankind isn't their biggest concern. The aliens can sense this, and in return are willing to leave the mafia to their money making schemes. So the mafia gets one kill per night.

4. Cracker (Spy)
A hacker who sold out to the mafia. He decided that knowledge wasn't worth as much as money, and went for the highest bidder. That was the mafia. After all, in this day and age, everyone needs someone who knows something about networks and computers. The mafia isn't different. The guy can actually track someone with the ship's systems and figure out just who they are. He's good too, meaning he'll always get good info. Oh, a lot of script kiddies tried to get that job, but the mafia wasn't as dumb as them, and playing dangerous games can cost you. Most of them are probably wearing concrete shoes right now, or they've been shot into the sun, something that's getting really popular these days since it really complicates evidence recovery for the cops. Anyhow, the cracker knows his stuff. However, he's still no match for the 1337 haxxorz, and he won't be able to get useful info if he tries to check him.


Ok, so I think that's all for the roles. It's getting really late right now, so I apologize if I made mistakes of any sort. Since I don't think I'd be making any changes to the fundamental mechanics of the game, I think this is pretty much all I needed to explain. Note that I might decide to change some things. Comments are welcome.