Tol-in-Gaurhoth CXVI: Spies in Cirith Ungol Planning Thread

[Rikae]

“He's coming here, I tell you. You heard the bell. He got past the Watchers, and that's tark's work. He's on the stairs. And until he's off them, I'm not going down. Not if you were a Nazgul, I wouldn't. “

Roles:

Assorted ordinary orcs

3 spies (or 4 for a large village). When 2 spies are dead, they may PM each other at any time (but not the living spy/spies) and they gain the ability to use the Phial of Galadriel. This allows them to block one player's special ability each night, if said player has such an ability. The player will be notified that they were targeted, and the spies cannot choose the same player 2 nights in a row.

1 cobbler (“Gorbag”). Counts as, and is revealed upon death as, an ordo.

1 ranger. Protects one person per night, cannot protect the same person twice in a row.

1 illogical hunter. (orcs don't strike me as particularly logical). Kills whoever they have designated as their choice when they die, regardless of the manner of their death or the role of the target

The Two Watchers:
Seer. While alive, they can dream nightly to learn the role of one living player. The weaver and cobbler will appear to the seer as ordos.

Weaver.. Until they die, they are an ordo. They're initially told their role is ordo, and are revealed in their death narration as an ordo. After death, they can dream nightly to see whether two living players are on the same or opposite sides (to the weaver, the cobbler will appear on the same side as the spies).

Victory Conditions:

- Orcs win if they eliminate all spies
- Spies win if they equal the number of orcs with their own
- Gorbag wins if the spies win

The Threads:

The Game Thread:
Only living players (and active ghosts) may post. Players vote for one person to execute each day. In the event of a tie, both players go to the gallows (may revise this if the group is small). Players entirely absent from the game thread for two consecutive days will be modfired, unless they contact me with an explanation – I'm reasonable.

The Dead Thread:
Only dead players may read or post in this thread. Active ghosts may not read or post in the Dead Thread during the Day when they are haunting!
The dead may post in their thread during the Day and the Night.

If they choose, during the Night they may elect a ghost, who will return to the living thread the next Day. However, the dead may only elect two ghosts during the entire game, who must be different players. Dead players who wish not to elect a ghost on a given night may vote ++No ghost and any prospective ghost must receive more votes than there are "No ghost" votes for that Night (non-votes do not count). A ghost may post in the living thread for one Day, but can only speak in quotes taken from Tolkien's works of fiction, and other players are forbidden to give instructions to the ghost on what to say. Ghost posts can only include a Tolkien quote (and reference, appreciated but not required) - no emojis, quotes from other players, links, etc., and quotes must be at least one full sentence of 3+ words.

*I'm undecided whether the number of posts from a ghost should be limited or not. What do you think?

The dead orcs (including Gorbag) may also cast a collective vote during the Day which will count as a regular vote in the living thread. This will be revealed on the living thread at deadline.
The dead spies can cast their own collective vote during the day, which will also count as a regular vote in the living thread and be revealed at deadline. Which vote is which will not be revealed.

Voting:

Votes should be on a separate line, highlighted like so:

++Rikae

Votes are not retractable. Votes timestamped on the deadline will be counted, but those timestamped a minute later will not.

All players should set themselves to invisible on their user control panel, and make sure there is room in their inboxes.

For a deadline, I'm thinking 5 pm Eastern in the US, as in Nogrod's game, but open to input.

Players:

Loslote
Legate
Boromir88
Blind Guardian
Lalaith
Pitchwife
Sally
Nogrod (?)
Thinlómien
Kath
Huinesoron
A Little Green

[Loslote]

I am super excited for this, sign me up! The proposed deadline is perfect for me, but I can be flexible if you want to change it later on, too. I am a little concerned about two seers being too much power in the hands of the orcs, but I love the implementation of the ghost role.

[Galadriel55]

Oooh! I really like the concept of 2 votes from the DT, from the goodies and the baddies. Also the "twice a game only" Ghost haunting. That would be a nice balance.

Sign me up with a question mark please. I will totally absolutely regret this, but if the village is not as big and noisy as in Nog's game I think I will go for it anyways.

[Boromir88]

Yay! This looks awesome. Sign me up please

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

First of all - I LOVE. THE. SETTING. Amazing, Rikae.

And secondly, love the rules. Especially all the DT shenaningans. I hope you are aware of the only downside that is you're setting yourself up for a logistical - or rather, reading - nightmare when you'll have to read through Dead Thread and double-check which vote is an Orc vote, a Spy vote, and a vote for a Ghost (I presume, anyway, that the votes would be differentiated for easier orientation by for example one saying ++Legate for Ghost or somesuch).

Originally Posted by Rikae

*I'm undecided whether the number of posts from a ghost should be limited or not. What do you think?

I am not sure on this either. My first reaction was to say "limit it to something like 5", but then again, if the purpose is to have fun, it might exactly limit some players who would just enjoy posting lots of one-liner Tolkien quotes and spam people. I don't think that option should be taken away from anyone. Besides, it would not stand to the argument that passed when we debated this on the other thread, that someone might post as much content within half-a-page-long post as another might in ten short posts.

Btw, and is the Ghost allowed to quote? That is getting close to posting specific answers. (Btw, I also think the Ghost should be banned from posting sentences like "No, said Denethor" that might allow for nearly-direct communication.) On the other hand, if for example there is issue X being debated at some time of the Day when the Ghost is not present, and they would later wish to address that issue, the quotes might help... but then again, I guess that's where the creativity can come into play, and the Ghost may want to figure out a way to quote something that would signify what issue they are talking about.

[Galadriel55]

The problem I can foresee with the Ghost being allowed to quote is then people can get around the Don't Give Instructions rule by saying "I wish I knew X", or somesuch, and the Ghost would be able to give pretty direct replies. I think it's more fun if the Ghost has to make it clear what he is referring to if he wants to reply.

Is there a limit to how manh sentences the Ghost can put in one post? Can he string together sentences from different parts of the text in the same post? Also, I know I am seriously overthinking, but the alternative is overthinking during the game: can the Ghost use emojis? Because those can change how a sentence is read.


ETA: maybe for differentiating purposes spy votes on the DT can have %% instead of ++, or something.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

And secondly, love the rules. Especially all the DT shenaningans. I hope you are aware of the only downside that is you're setting yourself up for a logistical - or rather, reading - nightmare when you'll have to read through Dead Thread and double-check which vote is an Orc vote, a Spy vote, and a vote for a Ghost (I presume, anyway, that the votes would be differentiated for easier orientation by for example one saying ++Legate for Ghost or somesuch).

Ghost votes will be at Night on the dead thread & regular votes during the day, so I don't think it'll be too bad (and spy votes will be 1-3 votes at most).

Originally Posted by Legate

Btw, and is the Ghost allowed to quote? That is getting close to posting specific answers. (Btw, I also think the Ghost should be banned from posting sentences like "No, said Denethor" that might allow for nearly-direct communication.) On the other hand, if for example there is issue X being debated at some time of the Day when the Ghost is not present, and they would later wish to address that issue, the quotes might help... but then again, I guess that's where the creativity can come into play, and the Ghost may want to figure out a way to quote something that would signify what issue they are talking about.

Originally Posted by Hui

a quoting ghost can easily answer direct questions:

Originally Posted by G55

The problem I can foresee with the Ghost being allowed to quote is then people can get around the Don't Give Instructions rule by saying "I wish I knew X", or somesuch, and the Ghost would be able to give pretty direct replies. I think it's more fun if the Ghost has to make it clear what he is referring to if he wants to reply.

Is there a limit to how manh sentences the Ghost can put in one post? Can he string together sentences from different parts of the text in the same post? Also, I know I am seriously overthinking, but the alternative is overthinking during the game: can the Ghost use emojis? Because those can change how a sentence is read.

Yeah, for these reasons I was thinking ghost posts could be only the Tolkien quote - no quotes from other players, no emojis, probably 1 sentence per post. That way if they want to respond to something directly, they have to find a sentence that indicates what, or post immediately after.

And since the game is probably leaning toward the orc villagers as is, what do you think about a three post maximum for a ghost, and 3 word minimum for a sentence? Too complicated? Or maybe four or five word minimum, no repeating sentences? Or the "first sentences of chapters only" rule that was discussed earlier? If the ghost got into the spirit of the thing, of course (no pun intended) we wouldn't need so many rules but we also need to "phantom proof". Hmm.

Legate, are you signing up?

Edit: rules updated

[Blind Guardian]

Add me too!

The deadline is also perfect for me as it comes before lunch and not during lunch like last time! I will actually be able to post at DL.

As for the Ghost, I just think that it's funny that if the Ghost were trying to say that I was a bad guy they could just quote all of the sections of the Sil that are in Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth album and it would be clear that they're talking about me

Ignore since it was answered already:

A ghost may post in the living thread for one Day, but can only speak in quotes taken from Tolkien's works of fiction, and other players are forbidden to give instructions to the ghost on what to say. Ghost posts can only include a Tolkien quote (and reference, appreciated but not required) - no emojis, quotes from other players, links, etc., and quotes must be at least one full sentence of 3+ words.

Only one Tolkien quote per post?

[Rikae]

Welcome, Blind Guardian!

I haven't really made a final decision about the post lengths and numbers for ghosts, I want to get more input in case I'm missing something - but I do think one quote per post, at least if there's going to be a post limit (if not, there's no reason for it, as long as each quote is a complete one).

[Pitchwife]

*pledges soul & fealty to the Lidless Eye*

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by pitchwife

*pledges soul & fealty to the lidless eye*

Love it.

[satansaloser2005]

Heck yeah! Sign me up.

[satansaloser2005]

I'm definitely itching for some Werewolf, yes.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by satansaloser2005

I'm definitely itching for some Werewolf, yes.

Sally, it's amazing how the mention of WW never fails to bring you out of retirement.

For myself, Christmas is actually the worst time for me to play WW, like it is every single year. The next couple months aren't great either because of accumulating RL commitments and applications and deadlines and stuff, but it might work. Christmas time though is out for sure, my time is absolutely not my own that time of year. Still, regardless of when, it would be really nice to see a game happen!

[Formendacil]

So, I randomly (okay, not ENTIRELY random, but I was Googling something quite different) felt down a memory hole to a 2009 WW game yesteday and... I'm both in the mood again and have time in the foreseeable future (say, the next three months or so) for a game. Is the pilot light still on or do we need to start from scratch?

[Boromir88]

I'm still good for a game.

[Loslote]

I should be available for a game in the next three months!

[satansaloser2005]

It's been a while since I had a good bloodbath....