Long Game 101: The Edge of Empire

[Kasimir he/him]

Every week, Kethen kept a tally on his log, counting down to the date his contract would expire. Something the recruiters never told you when they waved the spheres in your face: working on board a research station was just boring. 

Nothing happened in space. Nothing was supposed to happen in space. If something did happen, you were probably screwed in more ways than Roshar had dialects for it. Cycles on the research station were measured in chronometers calibrated to Rosharan time, using Urithiru as the basis of measurement, but that was a sop to where the Fourth Bridge had come from. Kethen liked to think of it as their way of reassuring the bridgemen that they had come from somewhere, that they remained tethered to somewhere. It was, otherwise, easy to forget, as the cycles creaked on. On board the Fourth Bridge, the real way you marked time was by your scheduled shift, and by the monthly arrival of the supply shuttle from the Amethyst-Six waystation. 

(And if you were Kethen, by the weeks that took you closer to the date your contract expired, to the shuttle that would one day arrive not just for supplies or to bring new personnel to the station but to bring you back home, back planetside, away from the bleak metal structures of the Fourth Bridge or the darkness of space beyond the viewport.)

The first year had been exciting enough. By the start of the second year, Kethen was beginning to have doubts about the entire contract. The food was alright (if by alright you meant mindnumbingly awful, because everything shipped off Roshar usually was dehydrated and bland in at least ten different ways and the last thing you wanted was someone overdosing on spices and then half the bridgemen having the runs and overloading sanitation), the scenery was uninspiring, and Kethen just wanted to feel the rain on his skin during the Weeping or see actual sunlight again.

At least nothing happened in space. Most of it was a set of routine repairs—Kethen had been assigned as the third engineer to the Fourth Bridge’s comms systems, which made him one of the lowest-ranking bridgemen on the station—and required enough tinkering, parts replacement, cursing, and percussive maintenance, especially when the requested parts hadn’t arrived with the supply shuttle two months ago and the shuttle captain just shrugged and looked lost when Kethen’s senior, the second engineer had pointed that out.

The problem universally acknowledged was that saying nothing happened in space was the surefire way to get something to happen. As it was, Kethen’d nearly missed the ‘something’ in question. 

There had been an ongoing problem with the comms systems. It was the matter of some frustration, because Kethen hadn’t been able to get the problem to repeat itself, though it’d come up when trying to hail the supply shuttle and failing. He was poring over the comms logs trying to figure out where the problem had originated when he saw it.

He frowned down at it. It took a whole minute to process. And then another. And then another.

You could miss it, if you blinked. But there it was, hidden in the shadow of the transmission to the supply shuttle from Amethyst-Six. 

He went back one month. And then another. And then yet another.

Sometimes, it was more obvious. Sometimes, it was more cunningly concealed, enough that he or the fourth engineer must’ve dismissed it, at that time, and who checked the logs anyway, unless there was some sort of ongoing problem?

Someone was sending a transmission out, piggybacking on the station’s comm signal. It wasn’t your usual transmission, as best as Kethen could tell. It wasn’t using the usual channel, the one they all had spent time cursing at because it was wobbly and lost signal from the relays between the Teneb Cluster and Amethyst-Six. Nothing like dropping off on a call halfway. 

No, this was something else entirely. And the more Kethen dug into that transmission, the more he didn’t like what he was seeing.

Someone was sending out an encoded transmission from the Fourth Bridge, concealed in the shadow of comms with the supply shuttle, but using a rarely-touched frequency.

The question was, why? And who?

The crew of the Fourth Bridge were carefully vetted. Even a research station like the Fourth Bridge functioned in a world where Roshar dealt with multiple adversaries, and the Teneb Cluster was right on the edge of contested space. Security’d gone over the briefings, and Kethen was pretty sure that whether or not there was an innocent explanation for this, they were going to have a field day.

Kethen scowled down at the logs. The captain had to know about this, of course. The problem was far above his paygrade.

Just as he was looking forward to quietly finishing this contract and going back to Roshar.

 

 

LG101: The Edge of Empire

“And what will we do when at last, we reach the edge of empire and find there another civilisation to rival ours in glory and majesty?” —Teneb Afanen, The Edge of Empire

Bearing a name with strong historical significance, the Fourth Bridge is a cutting-edge research installation currently stationed at an asteroid cluster near the edge of systems under Rosharan control.

Near contested space.

Officially, the Fourth Bridge is simply conducting metallurgical and scientific research on the contents of the asteroid cluster. Unofficially, however, the Fourth Bridge serves as a covert listening post into Scadrian operations in contested space.

Now, however, you have reason to believe the Scadrians have taken an interest in the operations of the Fourth Bridge. One of the Fourth Bridge’s engineers has discovered an outgoing communication, encrypted and sent on a rarely-used frequency. You cannot identify the relay station it was meant for, but you do know what this means.

The Scadrians have infiltrated the Fourth Bridge.

Can you get rid of the Scadrians before accidents start happening to the station crew? Or will Roshar lose the coming war before it has truly begun?

 

General Rules:

Spoiler

1. This game is a standard LG, with 48 hour Days, and 24 hour Nights. PMs are closed by default. However, if they are open, then you should include the GM and IM in all PMs.

2. Voting is to be done via in the thread. There is a minimum vote threshold of one[1] for ejection[2] to take place. Ties will result in no one dying. Please colour-code your ejection votes as follows: Wyrmhero [red and bold]. Retract your ejection votes as follows: Wyrmhero [green and bold].

3. The Scadrian Saboteurs know who each other are, and will have access to a faction doc to coordinate. Every Night, they can submit a faction kill. This faction kill does not cost an action slot. Once a game, the Saboteurs may choose to make this kill unblockable[3].

4. Write-ups will be minimally informative. At this point, the only thing the write-up will announce accurately are the roles and alignment of the deceased. Otherwise, the write-up should not be regarded as an accurate guide to what actually happened. I intend to take full creative liberties and will not be held responsible for any confusion, false assumptions, or damages resulting from treating the write-up like the Holy Word of Wyrm. There may be alien invasions.

5. There will be an inactivity filter in this game. Players who do not post for two cycles in a row, and do not communicate with the GM will be either replaced with another bridgeman [i.e. pinch-hitter] or suspected of sabotage and executed.

6. There is no Day Order of Actions necessary. You are welcome to prove me wrong. The Order of Actions at Night is as follows:

-Roleblock / Poison
-Anonymous Message / Protect / Alignment Scan / Obscure / Blackmail
-Kill
-Watch

All actions on the same tier of the OoA take place simultaneously. If there is a conflict, RNGesus will determine which action takes precedence.

7. Please @ me for clarificatory questions in thread, and bold them so I will pick them out. For clarificatory questions in PM and doc, please bold them. While I will do my best to get to all questions in a timely manner, my priority will be to address rule clarifications asked in the stipulated manner. (This also guarantees I won’t derp and miss them.)

 

 

Win Conditions:

Spoiler

• The Station Crew on board the Fourth Bridge win when there are no more living Scadrian Saboteurs.
• The Scadrian Saboteurs win when they reach parity with the Station Crew and any other living factions on board the Fourth Bridge.

 

 

Roles:

Spoiler

Station Captain: You are the appointed leader of the Fourth Bridge and your job is to keep the space station working. Because of this, you are often caught up with multiple tasks that need your attention and oversight. You cannot always spare the time to be present. Each time you show up, however, the station crew pay close attention to your words. Your voting power is one plus the amount of Days you have withheld your vote.

Radio Officer: You manage and maintain the ageing communication fabrials on board the Fourth Bridge. As long as you live, players may PM each other freely, but only one-on-one. Every Night, you may send an anonymous message to be posted in the Day’s write-up.

Intelligence Officer: You are the intelligence officer on the Fourth Bridge. Officially, you don’t exist. Unofficially, Roshar is aware the Fourth Bridge is operating near…contested space. Your job is to collect what information you can about Roshar’s new, sophisticated, spacefaring adversaries. X times per game, you may choose to visit a player in the Night and blackmail them. They will know your role and identity, but for the next cycle, they must[4] vote and use their ability on a target of your choosing.[5] (This will be communicated in a GM-created PM. No other information may be passed in this PM.) They may not mention this arrangement in thread.[6]

Medical Officer: As the medical officer of the Fourth Bridge, you take care of all sorts of incidents and accidents that occur on the space station. Sometimes it’s as simple as two bridgemen getting into a fight over chouta. Sometimes, it’s the sort of thing that needs emergency surgery. You also have a Regrowth fabrial with X charges, for when your skills are insufficient. Each charge of the Regrowth fabrial allows you to save a player from death at Night.[7]

Security Officer: As the security officer of the Fourth Bridge, you are occasionally required to respond to security threats on board the space station. You have a lethal fabrial[8] meant to take out intruders with X charges. Each charge allows you to kill a player at Night.

Research Officer: You are the research officer on board the Fourth Bridge, with backdoor access to the classified personnel files and the curiosity to abuse this. Every Night, you may choose to run a thorough background check on a player, discovering their true alignment.

Watch Officer: As the watch officer, you are on duty on the bridge on most nights. However, bridge duty is decidedly boring, especially when the Fourth Bridge is stationary. For this reason, to kill time, you’ve taken to watching some of your fellow Bridgemen over the security cameras instead. Each Night, you may watch a player, discovering who they targeted.

Double Agent: You are a Scadrian double-agent, inserted into the Fourth Bridge disguised as an ordinary officer with an impeccable cover history. In fact, your Identity medallion is so effective that you believe yourself to be just another Bridgeman. You win with the Station Crew unless you are targeted by the Saboteur kill. If you are killed[9], you instead regain your memories and defect to the Scadrian Saboteurs.[10]

Fourth Bridge: You are the spren intelligence system on the Fourth Bridge, and your primary concern is to keep all these fragile humans on board alive. At Night, you can choose to either roleblock[11] another player, protect them from a kill, or protect them from the exe the following Day. If neither the Station Crew nor the Scadrian Saboteurs have won by Day X, you win and end the game.

Lieutenant: You are the Lieutenant on board the Fourth Bridge, and have become close with two of the other officers on the station. At the beginning of the game, you share a doc with two other players. If they are still alive by Night X, you win and are removed from the game. Otherwise, you win with the Village. You learn the Research Officer’s identity if they target you, and you appear to be a loyal Bridgeman to them. 

Station Steward: You are the chef on board the Fourth Bridge, and handle the living arrangements and the food. This, of course, leaves you in the perfect position to tamper with what the station crew are eating. Each Night, you may poison a player, leaving them confused enough to target themselves. If they have no abilities, then this does nothing.

Sanitation Officer: This is an unfortunately fancy name for an extremely important, if inglorious task. You keep the hygiene and sanitation systems on board the Fourth Bridge functioning. Sometimes, this means you take out the trash. At Night, you may make arrangements to quietly dispose of a player in the waste disposal systems. If that player dies that Night or the following Day, their flip is obscured. You may use this ability once in a game.

Scadrian Infiltrator: You are a highly-skilled agent sent to infiltrate the Fourth Bridge to understand what the Rosharans are up to. You will always appear to be a loyal member of the Fourth Bridge to the Research Officer. You are very well-versed with computer systems and intrigue. Because of this, every Night, you may target a player, changing their alignment in scans to one of your choice.

Bridgeman: You are a loyal bridgeman serving on board the Fourth Bridge. Though you do not have any special post or skill set, you are part of the crew that keeps the station running and in good shape.

 

 

Clarifications:

Spoiler

[1] You are allowed to cast a No Exe vote.
[2] This was going to be a nice, civilised imprisonment. Blame Drake for insisting on a good ol' airlock ejection.
[3] This means the kill will punch through roleblocks and protects.
[4] Please do not try to go inactive to avoid doing this. If you do, it will be assumed you put in the order and vote anyway.
[5] You will not be told what ability they have. If the player has no ability, then nothing happens when you instruct them to target another player at Night.
[6] Yes, they are indeed allowed to mention this in PMs, should PMs remain open.
[7] Regardless of whether your protect successfully prevents a kill, you will still lose a fabrial charge.
[8] I can neither confirm nor deny if this is just a laser gun.
[9] A Double-Agent targeted by a kill will survive just as though a regular Tyrian Thug and switch sides. Survivals will not be announced.
[10] Before you defect, you scan as a Villager. After you defect, you scan as any Scadrian Saboteur would.
[11] If a roleblocked player is using a charged ability on that Night, they are refunded their charge as the action never occurs.

 

 

Sign-ups are open now and will close on Friday, 19th July 2024, at 2300hrs SGT (GMT +8). Rollovers will take place at the same time. The IM for the game is @Araris Valerian. 

Please also be reminded to desist from posting in the thread until I can reserve the next post. I will always do so in order to collect both the current player list and the most recent set of rule clarifications for easy access.
 

Quick Links

Spoiler

Day One - This Is Not A Drill
Night One - Asylum For The Feeling
Day Two - The Lonely Hearts Club Band
Night Two - Suspicious Minds
Day Three - GlitchxCity
Night Three - Subterranean Homesick Blues
Day Four - Duel of the Drakes
Aftermath - The Last Bridge

 

Edited yesterday at 02:32 AM by Elandera

[Kasimir he/him]

Rule Clarifications (Man Should I Have Just Called The First Set Footnotes?)

Spoiler

• The Scadrian Infiltrator's ability only changes a scan result for the cycle it is used.
• The Fourth Bridge does not need to survive for their wincon to be fulfilled. Staying alive, however, helps.

Player List

Spoiler

1. @Aeternum
2. @Aeoryi
3. @Coffeecat
4. @Ashbringer
5. @DrakeMarshall
6. @xinoehp512
7. @RoyalBeeMage
8. @The Unknown Order
9. @CadCom

Pinch-Hitter List

Spoiler

 

Spec List

Spoiler

shshsh

 

Edited July 20 by Kasimir

[The Unknown Order he/him]

I think I'll pinch hit this one.

[Mat he/him]

I wish I could play this, but my last available day for the next two years is the 21st soooo I probably shouldn’t  

Have fun everyone, in this game and in the many more that will follow it!!!

[Aeternum they/them]

5 hours ago, Kasimir said:

There may be alien invasions.

5 hours ago, Kasimir said:

I can neither confirm nor deny if this is just a laser gun.

 Sign me up! Lots of interesting roles

[Kasimir he/him]

42 minutes ago, Mat said:

I wish I could play this, but my last available day for the next two years is the 21st soooo I probably shouldn’t  

Have fun everyone, in this game and in the many more that will follow it!!!

Have a good one, by the way!  

[CadCom he/him]

I'll sign up as pinch hitter for now. Need to check my schedule but might not be available for first week 

[Aeoryi she/her]

I'll play

[Coffeecat she/her]

I'm in!

[Ashbringer he/him]

... yeah I'm in. AraRaash In Space went so well last time!

I'll probably think of a better RP cover character though.

 

In the meantime...

Is the Scadrian Infiltrator's ability permanent? Or only for the cycle where they're targeting the player with the alignment scan change?

Does the Spren Intelligence still win if they're dead, but the game isn't ended by the time requirement?

Edited July 14 by Ashbringer

[Kasimir he/him]

7 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Is the Scadrian Infiltrator's ability permanent? Or only for the cycle where they're targeting the player with the alignment scan change?

Just the cycle for the Scadrian Infiltrator.

7 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Does the Spren Intelligence still win if they're dead, but the game isn't ended by the time requirement?

Yes. They don't need to survive, they just need to force a Kobayashi Maru for everyone else by X.

Basically as long as the other two factions (excluding Lieutenant because that wincon is not game-ending) don't win by the X value, they lose and the Fourth Bridge wins.

Edited to add:

Maybe put it this way - they don't have to stay alive, but my current X value is modelled on the assumption of an 8-9 player game, and to hit that X value (I'll announce the FB's X when the game starts, but most other role charges will be kept secret), it will help to stay alive  

Edited July 14 by Kasimir

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Sure I'll do it

But only because you assented to let us throw people out of airlocks

[Kasimir he/him]

4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

Sure I'll do it

But only because you assented to let us throw people out of airlocks

why are u like this

sir admit it ur just joe in a trenchcoat

Edited July 15 by Kasimir

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

sir joe is obviously in a bush, not in a trenchcoat

[Kasimir he/him]

7 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

sir joe is obviously in a bush, not in a trenchcoat

defenestrably false

[xinoehp512 he/him]

I think that I would like to play this game.

Do I understand correctly that The Fourth Bridge winning means the other two main factions lose?

[Kasimir he/him]

2 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

I think that I would like to play this game.

Do I understand correctly that The Fourth Bridge winning means the other two main factions lose?

Yes. The FB, the Station Crew, and the Scadrians all have mutually-exclusive wincons.

[RoyalBeeMage he/him]

Sign me up! I’m sure I have enough time for this 

[Kasimir he/him]

Reminder sign-ups close tomorrow evening! I'd prefer a minimum of eight but seven is probably workable as well.

[The Unknown Order he/him]

7 hours ago, Kasimir said:

Reminder sign-ups close tomorrow evening! I'd prefer a minimum of eight but seven is probably workable as well.

@ me tomorrow if you still don’t have the numbers, I probably could play.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Jacks balanced the boxing carefully on his thumb. Then he flicked.

As the coin flipped in the air, he muttered "Heads," under his breath. Then he slapped it against his wrist and checked. As he'd predicted: heads. A smile of satisfaction tugged at the corners of his mouth. Ten in a row. Not bad. 

Of course, it was nowhere near his record. With practiced motions, he repeated the flip. 

Flick.

Heads.

Flick.

Heads.

Flick.

Heads.

Flick.

Tails.

Jacks let out a breath and frowned. Thirteen. He stood up and strode across his chambers to his weapons closet, upon which sat a sheet of paper covered in writing. At the top of the sheet was today's date, followed by a list of numbers. Each number represented a series of flips predicted correctly.

And they were all thirteen. 

Jacks had known many acquaintances in his career as a mercenary. Some had called his coin-flipping superstitious, or even mad. But they were dead, and he was not. 

He inscribed the latest thirteen and went back to flipping, his mind full of thoughts. Whatever this meant, it couldn't be good.

[Kasimir he/him]

5 hours ago, The Unknown Order said:

@ me tomorrow if you still don’t have the numbers, I probably could play.

I'll try to remember!

In general, executive decision: if no one has any screaming objections, I'm extending sign-ups by a day or two. You'll all get more clarity soon when I can finagle the timezone maths but the tldr; is I got drafted into an all-nighter for work-related stuff and tonight I plan to go the heck to sleep as soon as I get released rather than fumble with re-adjusting/checking my distro and whatnot on zero sleep. 

Oh yeah @Araris Valerian yell at me if that's an issue but if not I'm @ing you too so you don't go ??? that I went incommunicado  

Edited to add:

Sorry yeah to be clear the 'a day or two' isn't that I don't know when it starts it's that I can't timezone maths this rn. But it's meant to be 24 hours from when it was gonna start.

Edited July 18 by Kasimir

[The Unknown Order he/him]

1 hour ago, Kasimir said:

I'll try to remember!

In general, executive decision: if no one has any screaming objections, I'm extending sign-ups by a day or two. You'll all get more clarity soon when I can finagle the timezone maths but the tldr; is I got drafted into an all-nighter for work-related stuff and tonight I plan to go the heck to sleep as soon as I get released rather than fumble with re-adjusting/checking my distro and whatnot on zero sleep. 

Oh yeah @Araris Valerian yell at me if that's an issue but if not I'm @ing you too so you don't go ??? that I went incommunicado  

Edited to add:

Sorry yeah to be clear the 'a day or two' isn't that I don't know when it starts it's that I can't timezone maths this rn. But it's meant to be 24 hours from when it was gonna start.

In that case I'll definitely play 

[CadCom he/him]

I'll switch to player, since it looks like you're lowish. 

I'll be in danger of very low activity, but not complete inactivity for a few days in the middle. 

[Kasimir he/him]

Sorry guys - last pushback to tomorrow. Have the migraine from hell right now, probably as a result of the work all-nighter stuff and don't anticipate being able to set up anything. Final start time:

SGT 2330hrs (GMT+8) on 21st July 2024. Sorry for the delays!

Please ignore. The lower tier meds worked so since I'm able to start the game at the initial time, 2330hrs on 20th July, I'll return to it to cause less confusion. Apologies. 

Edited July 20 by Kasimir