Admin Thread - Werewolf LIII: The Republic

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

The Moddesses:

Fea
Mithalwen
Rikae

The Players:

3 – corrupt politicians (werewolves)
1 – zealous reporter (seer)
X – ordinary villagers

The Concept:

A rider swept into the village one night carrying a package: he was directed to the home of the village scholar. He stayed only briefly, and then wasn’t seen again. The scholar spent the following days in seclusion, studying the plague of werewolves upon the world.

One day, about a week later, the scholar stepped forth from his home and called a town meeting.

“I know why people keep misdiagnosing lupine symptoms!” he cried to the people.

“Why?” they asked.

“It’s because the uneducated rabble are allowed a popular vote and we all know that they oughtn’t to be allowed to make such significant decisions when they’re merely uninformed blockheads!” he responded at full volume.

The people were rather offended. “Why shouldn’t we kill you for what you’ve just said?” they asked.

“Because I have a solution!” he cried.

“And that is?” asked a villager, eyebrow raised.

“Everybody will still get a vote,” he assured, to people’s relief, “but they will vote for the best and the brightest to represent their interests.”

His statement was met with blank stares.

He tried again. “The next time we have a problem with werewolves, witches, demons, vampires, or other unsavory sorts, rather than each villager picking who he wants to kill, each villager should choose somebody they believe to represent their best interests, and then the representatives chosen will put their smarter-than-average heads together and get us out of the mess.”

The villagers began to nod, some sooner than others, comprehending. One villager spoke up. “So instead of voting on issues, we vote on people to solve our issues for us?”

“Exactly! You delegate responsibility! It will simplify everything!” cried the scholar.

The village was dubious, but he was a scholar, and everybody knows that scholars are always right. Thusly the democratic village evolved into a wee bit of a republic overnight.

Night Time:

Nights will last 24 hours.

The wolves have the right and ability to communicate amongst themselves. They will choose a villager to kill. They will send the name of this villager to the moderator at least one hour before Day is to begin. That villager will be found dead at dawn.

The seer has the right and ability to request the identity of one villager per night from the moderator.

Day Time:

Days will last 48 hours.

During the Day, wolves are forbidden from communicating amongst themselves via Private Message.

The Day will contain two deadlines.

Deadline One will occur at the end of the first 24 hours. It is by Deadline One that the villagers must choose who will represent their interests in the final vote. Villagers will not vote for the player they believe to be a wolf. Villagers will vote for another villager to represent them: these chosen players are thence forward called Representatives. A player must acquire two non-retractable votes of confidence in order to become a Representative. A player may never vote for his or herself. A Representative’s vote carries as much power as there were votes to make said player a Representative, therefore: the final vote of a Representative who was chosen by four villagers will have exactly twice as much weight as the final vote of a Representative who was chosen by only two villagers. As long as a villager has received at least two non-retractable votes of confidence from the village before Deadline One, s/he will be considered a Representative for the final vote.

Votes of confidence (which elect Representatives) should appear as:

++Fea

Deadline Two will coincide with the end of the Day (24 hours after Deadline One). It is by Deadline Two that the village’s chosen Representatives must decide upon who will be lynched. To reiterate: the village will have 24 hours during which to choose Representatives, who will have a further 24 hours to vote for who they think should be lynched as a wolf. Representatives are by no means obligated to vote according to the wishes of their constituents, though it should be obvious that voting against the wishes of the people who elected you will probably result in bad karma.

The final non-retractable lynch-vote given by a Representative as a means to choose which villager is to be killed at the end of Day should appear as:

++Fea++

All villagers are allowed to talk for the entire duration of the Day, but only Representatives may vote after Deadline One.

Deadlines will be measured by the Barrowdowns clock.

Summarized Rules:

Votes are non-retractable.

You may never vote for yourself.

In the event of a tie-vote amongst Representatives, multiple lynches will occur.

Wolves may only PM at Night.

Dead players may communicate with each other about the game if they so desire, but not with players who are still alive. No crossing planes of existence.

Deadlines occur at X:00 ‘Downs time. Any votes logged at X:01 or later will not be counted.

As this game could easily fall into discussions of politics, role-playing is strictly prohibited. This game is absolutely not to break Barrowdowns Policy in any manner, but specifically in regard to political opinions. Keep ‘em to yourselves. Any breach of this rule will result in immediate and merciless modfire. If the delinquent player’s vote has already been cast, the vote will be disqualified. This remains true even if the player is a chosen Representative. Keep that in mind: if you’re a Rep and you get modfired, you’re throwing away the vote of every person who chose you. There will be no exceptions to this rule. Absolutely no personal politics, end of story.

Player List:

the phantom
Eönwë
Lommy
Legate
Diamond18
Gwathagor
Aganzir
Shasta
mormegil
Nogrod
Boromir88
Greenie
McCaber
Nerwen (?)
Rune
Brinniel
Gil-Galad
Ilya
Sally
The Ka

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Sign ups start now. We will begin as soon as possible after the end of Diamond's game.

Deadline is negotiable due to the nature of the game: a significant number of players must be able to be around for deadline. Let me know what will be the best deadline for you and I'll make an executive decision.

[Eönwë]

Sign me up please.

A quick question: If you are voted to be a representative, if you vote for another representative, does that mean that your votees' weight (as in how many people voted for you) gets passed on to your representative, or do you still vote as a representative, just not representing yourself?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Gotcha.

[Thinlómien]

I have a feeling this will be horrible, but please sign me in.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I am sure this will be great, it looks most, most interesting. Whenever it's going to take place, already now I am sure I'd like to attend this one.

[Diamond18]

My work schedule is nigh impossible to work a deadline around. Ergo, I will play under the caveat that no one is allowed to make me a Representative on days I can't be around. There may be days where I'd be around in the last two hours, but surely there will be days when I won't. It doesn't matter what the deadline is, I work anytime between 4 AM and 1 AM on any given day, and I reserve the three hours in between for sleep.

So, that said (I'm already making speeches about why I shouldn't be elected, hah) I'll play.

[Gwathagor]

I'll play.

[Rikae]

I love the concept! I would like to sign up, however, first I should add this disclaimer -
If I behave in a manner or express opinions (about my role as a voter/representative within the game, of course, not about any real-life issues) which mirror those of any RL politician, present or past, that won't be dubbed 'roleplaying', will it? Politics being politics, I think it's pretty much impossible that art won't imitate life to some degree here - if we don't point out the resemblence, I assume we're safe, right?
(I'm not talking about an outright caricature, such as mimicking the verbal idiosyncrasies of a real politician, for instance (would I do that? ), but similarities in strategy only.)
If that's ok, please sign me up!

[Aganzir]

Wow, this sounds really good.

Sign me in, please.

The best deadline for me would be something between 4 and 10 pm gmt.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Rikae

Politics being politics, I think it's pretty much impossible that art won't imitate life to some degree here - if we don't point out the resemblence, I assume we're safe, right?

It is impossible to be neutral and it would be no fun if everybody was. So of course you must somewhat imitate your political stance in RL... you can't avoid it. But the role playing I mean is, as you said, outright caricature.

Saying, "I believe that Fea should be our Representative because she's so much smarter than me!" and having somebody counter with, "Yeah, but that's a problem! I think my Representative should be enough like me that I'm certain of his/her motives, and can we ever really trust Fea even when she doesn't have more power than us?"

That's not problematic.

But if it veers anywhere toward oh, I dunno, terrorist fist jabbin', doncha know, or maybe somethin' about Putin rearin' his ugly head, or oh, say, the economy or international relations or lipstick or etcetera, I might just have to jump in with, "Say it ain't so, Joe (Plumber, Sixpack, Lunchbox)! I'm just gonna have to pull out my nuke-u-ler Moddess weapon of mass destruction and make sure all that--

You get the picture.

No caricature, no extended metaphor, no identifiable reference to RL politics beyond any way in which your natural political stance will affect your voting In Game.

Is that clear enough?

And I'm not just talking American politics. I'll just have an easier time noticing references to them than I will references to international politics. So just-- honor system, 'k guys?

I'm sure it won't be a problem.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Me, please. The deadline right now in Di's game is perfect for me, for future reference.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

no extended metaphor

Not even a teensy, weensy one?
Well, I guess *grumble grumble* I can play by the rules.

Originally Posted by Shasta

The deadline right now in Di's game is perfect for me, for future reference.

Pesky midwesterners!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Rikae

Not even a teensy, weensy one?

*grins*

Just to give everybody an idea:

The best deadline for me would be between 6-11pm EST. I'd have to get wildly creative to accommodate a DL that wasn't between those times.

[the phantom]

I'm with Shasta. The later the better.

11 PM EST is the best time from the window you offered. I'd be absolutely thrilled to see a 1 AM EST deadline, but I don't want you screwing up your sleep schedule.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

The best deadline for me would be between 6-11pm EST. I'd have to get wildly creative to accommodate a DL that wasn't between those times.

I guess I speak for all Europeans when I say that 11pm EST would be quite impossible for us. I think it would be four in the morning for the Brits, five for Central Europeans, and six for us Finns. I'd really prefer 6pm EST (which is 1am for us).

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Here's an idea-

Rather than having that two hour end-of-day thing I could split the day in half: Deadline One, when you'd need to choose Reps, would be the middle of the day and then there'd be much more time at the end of day?

I'll think about the logistics of it during my night class and people should tell me if there are any major glaring flaws to that idea.

[Rikae]

Any time in the range you listed is great for me, Fea.
Hooray for having a mod in my own time zone!
As for splitting the day -if you mean making the first deadline something like 6am, I could see it being difficult for people to vote in time.

[Diamond18]

If you split the day, you would inevitably have one side of the Atlantic choosing the Representatives and the other half being the Representatives. Because one group would be around in the first half of the day and the second would be around in the latter. I believe am I correct in this summation, anyway.

And midwesterners ftw. I'm suggesting right away that you make the deadline at night and defer all important matters to phantom, Shasta, and myself. And also make us the three wolves, of course.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Pesky whatever region you're in, Rikae!

Originally Posted by Diamond

And midwesterners ftw. I'm suggesting right away that you make the deadline at night and defer all important matters to phantom, Shasta, and myself. And also make us the three wolves, of course.

Seconded.

A perfect deadline for me would be 11pm CST, which is... is that 9 pm EST or is that 12 am EST? I always get confused that way.

Edit: Fea, maybe split the day into thirds, with the first 16 hours being Representative and the last 8 hours being Wolf?

[Durelin]

How about 48 hour days?

(Sorry, not a sign up post, just being nosey. I'd like to take part in this but really don't think I can.)

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Not a bad idea at all...

Anybody opposed to 24 hours Nights and 48 hour Days?

24 hours to choose your reps
24 hours for them to function
24 hours for night time activities to occur.

I like it very, very much.

Yes, that's a very good idea.

That's how it will go, I've decided.

[Thinlómien]

48-hour days is probably the fairest system you can come up with, but it does make the game a little slow-paced...

[Aganzir]

I agree it sounds the best. Then the deadline doesn't really matter to me, although the earlier the better.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

it does make the game a little slow-paced...

I thought about that, but I really want the game to work in multiple timezones. Since there are two very specific portions of the Day, I might as well give each of them a full twenty-four hours to develop, as opposed to what somebody suggested about one side of the Atlantic always getting to be the Reps due to necessity.

Don't worry- I've just had an idea about how I can add interest to those long, long days...

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Well, if you can make these long Days interesting, the better, because I am somewhat worried they might be pretty long and silent. But whatever way you wish. Originally, when I just skimmed through the thread, without reading properly the rules, I caught myself later during the day thinking how are you going to do that, and since I was not by the computer, I started to imagine possibilities and I came up with one conclusion, which was quite different from the one you present here, so I may as well save it for some game of mine.

But let me say it just for the sake of saying it - if we discounted Day 1, then every other Day people could vote for everybody regardless of timezone, because they will have some basis for trusting or not trusting them based on their expereince from former Days. Of course, I will have more current posts from those who are online by the start of the Day, but still I should have enough material from the others, too.

But that's just a comment.

[mormegil]

I'm in...that is if you'll have me.

[the phantom]

Originally Posted by Legate

Well, if you can make these long Days interesting, the better, because I am somewhat worried they might be pretty long and silent.

No reason to worry about that sort of thing, Legate.

the phantom is playing.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by the phantom

the phantom is playing.

Mwa ha ha. In that case, I already know what I am going to do...

Okay all people, let's NOT vote Mr.P. as our representative at all!!!

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Okay all people, let's NOT vote Mr.P. as our representative at all!!!

Except if I tell you to. Seriously.

[mormegil]

Now if I understand this correctly, there will essentially be 3 full periods to complete a cycle, evertime. So we have 24 hours to elect a representative, 24 to lynch, 24 to night, then start all over with a new 24 hour period to elect new reps...correct?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by mormegil

Now if I understand this correctly, there will essentially be 3 full periods to complete a cycle, evertime. So we have 24 hours to elect a representative, 24 to lynch, 24 to night, then start all over with a new 24 hour period to elect new reps...correct?

Yes.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Originally Posted by the phantom

No reason to worry about that sort of thing, Legate.

the phantom is playing.

Oh lord....

[Nogrod]

I'm in... how could one miss this?

[Boromir88]

Yes Legate, no need to worry...

the phantom is playing.

Because I will be joining in the melee too, Fea.

[A Little Green]

Gah. I'd really love to play, the concept is very interesting, but I don't know if I have the time... Can you sign me in as a questionmark please? I'll verify a bit later whether I'm able to participate. It depends on the date on which the game starts..

[McCaber]

I'll do this one. I like the rules twists.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Yes Legate, no need to worry...



Because I will be joining in the melee too, Fea.

Double oh lord.

Fea, they both deserve to have me eat their faces. Make me a wolf!

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

Make me a wolf!

I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll select roles in such a manner. If I do, rest assured: I won't let you know.

[Nerwen]

Can I do a provisional sign-up? I have exams coming up... but then I think I'm suffering from WW withdrawal...