Mid-Range Game 29: A Midsummer Night with No Moon

[Eternum he/him]

You're welcome, Fifth

I've seen Walin vote for himself in at least a couple games now, so I don't see it as alignment indicative.

I'll probably change my vote before the end of the cycle, depending on how things progress. I don't have more than mild gut reads, really.

@Aonar Faileas, you're sneaky, but not sneaky enough

[Megasif he/him]

Hey everyone.

I am around and I will hopefully get some time to read and make a vote later in the cycle. 

[Arrae]

21 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

I am sad. I really really wanted to be the Cthaeh. 
Let the IKYK begin

I really cannot see the point in this post. As far as we know, there's no reason to try to not kill the Cthaeh, so it doesn't provide Steel with protection, like claiming Jester-equivalent would. Everybody wants the Cthaeh dead, even if it's lower priority, since only the Cthaeh wins in a kingmaker situation. (Villagers need all elims dead, and elims need all villagers dead or have it impossible for the villagers to survive.) I can't think of a reason for a completely rational villager to say this. Unfortunately, I can think of plenty of reasons for an irrational villager (read: normal human being) to say this, namely to feel clever by needlessly adding complication.

But a rational elim could have put this out there to make people think about the Cthaeh more. Case in point: analyzing this post made me spend about 15 minutes thinking about the Cthaeh rather than the elims. Slight elim read on Steel for this.

9 hours ago, Cadmium Compounder said:

I actually did have a vote cast. Yesterday I said this:

But to respond to your request, I will remove my vote from Wonko, and change it to Arraenae. For the completely valid reason of accidentally skipping over my post. Also, I agree with Steeldancer, when he said this.

Oops. >.> When I get home, I'll update my notes.

2 hours ago, Cadmium Compounder said:

Gaaah!!! I keep making that mistake! I made it with Wilson, Now with Arraenae, and with one or two others. With some of them I even made the mistake more than one time.

Eh, it's fine. It's almost fascinating seeing how many players think 

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

14 hours ago, Alvron said:

I like the idea of using up my passes early to force me to vote later in the game.

Do keep in mind that if you don’t vote twice, any kind of vote negation will instantly kill you, and if Elims have any of said nullification (I’m particularly thinking Scraeling Master) they basically get a free kill. So while you could burn your passes now, you could also just save them as insurance against Elim vote nullification that could potentially result in your death. 

Speaking of which, I should likely vote myself. I think I’m going to vote for Steeldancer. Behold his game-related posts:

21 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

I am sad. I really really wanted to be the Cthaeh. 
Let the IKYK begin

See, I just don’t see how this comment is useful. Other than invoking an IKYK around his identity that nothing can be concluded from, it accomplishes nothing, and just seems like filler or discussion bait to waste time. Even if the content of the comment itself is NAI, the discussion brought up by it doesn’t really help the village.

20 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

Arraenae. Hearing my name called out in the forest in this kind of game is just downright creepy. Never trust voices in the forest, folks. 

I suppose this is a joke-vote, which is fine if Steel was just messing around and planned to move it. What irks me is this:

9 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

Hm. Arraenae. Cadmium Compounder. I was purposely messing around. And now I'm mildly suspicious. 

@Steeldancer, you say you were “purposely messing around,” which is fine, and I certainly don’t mind you having your fun. But voting CadCom for playing along doesn’t seem logical. I don’t really see CadCom’s vote on Rae as an attempt to start a bandwagon or mislynch and I’m curious as to why you called him out on it. (To be fair, this is complicated by my still shaky feelings about Rae’s alignment, but I digress.) My main issue here is Steel voting CadCom for something he himself was doing on what was shaky evidence to begin with. 

The rest of Steel’s posts are mostly clarifications, RP, and non-game-related stuff. 

To be clear, I recognize this is far from an ironclad case, but it is the best suspicion I have for Day One, so hopefully I’ll be able to do more on following cycles. I actually like Drake’s way of forcing me to vote, because it also forces me to analyze to make informed votes. Thanks a lot Drake  

edit: partially ninja’d by Rae. And this is only making me more paranoid about her...

Edited May 24, 2018 by Fifth Scholar
Rae the ninja :ph34r:

[Alvron he/him]

32 minutes ago, Fifth Scholar said:

Do keep in mind that if you don’t vote twice, any kind of vote negation will instantly kill you, and if Elims have any of said nullification (I’m particularly thinking Scraeling Master) they basically get a free kill. So while you could burn your passes now, you could also just save them as insurance against Elim vote nullification that could potentially result in your death. 

That's almost exactly what I have in mind.  The thought that I could be killed by having my vote cancelled is fun.  It's an extra risk on top of if the elims decide to kill me.  That extra bit of a risk makes the games more enjoyable for me.  It's also why I enjoy being tied for the lynch when they are decided randomly.  Best case for me is if my vote gets cancelled causing me to die from inactivity, I get killed by Elims and randomly lynched all on same cycle.  The trifecta of deaths.

[Steeldancer he/him]

Wow that worked a lot better than I expected it to. Yes, I'm slightly purposely being a troll. But I am legit a bit suspicious of CadCom for following my example, because being a troll isn't the best thing! So, I voted on him. If you guys lynch me, I probably won't be heartbroken. 

[Arrae]

1 hour ago, Fifth Scholar said:

edit: partially ninja’d by Rae. And this is only making me more paranoid about her...

So, to be clear: you are becoming more suspicious of me for having a similar read as you? As you yourself stated, I posted before you, so it's impossible for me to just be pocketing you, unless I developed a way to read minds over the internet. Frankly, your paranoia doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

I'm kind of tempted to vote on Steel now. I don't like how he's adding complexity to the situation for seemingly no reason, in a way that doesn't seem to have a possible village benefit. At the same time, I'm not so sure an elim would want to draw attention to themselves in this way, when the easy solution to this gordion knot is to just kill it dead. If @Droughtbringer shows up before rollover, or if I change my mind, I'll probably move my vote over to Steel.

[Fifth Scholar he/him]

13 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

unless I developed a way to read minds over the internet

 

But in all seriousness, my bad read of you is mostly gone. I’m kinda just struck by the coincidence that the person I originally had an off feel about posted essentially the same thing right before me. But no, I was joking, and while I reserve a slight paranoia, because this is SE, I mostly trust you now, or at least don’t really suspect you. Looking back over your posts I can’t find anything suspicious, so it’s probably a tone thing. 

As a side note, Steel’s nonchalance about being lynched is not persuading me to remove my vote.

[Steeldancer he/him]

1 hour ago, Fifth Scholar said:

 

But in all seriousness, my bad read of you is mostly gone. I’m kinda just struck by the coincidence that the person I originally had an off feel about posted essentially the same thing right before me. But no, I was joking, and while I reserve a slight paranoia, because this is SE, I mostly trust you now, or at least don’t really suspect you. Looking back over your posts I can’t find anything suspicious, so it’s probably a tone thing. 

As a side note, Steel’s nonchalance about being lynched is not persuading me to remove my vote.

That also wasn't the point of being nonchalant about being lynched. It is fun to see what gets you lynched day one. Not the most helpful for the village, but I'm not terribly useful anyway rolewise. I'm hoping that perhaps my lynch will reveal some information- which is a noble thing to die for. Or whatever. 

[Arrae]

2 minutes ago, Steeldancer said:

That also wasn't the point of being nonchalant about being lynched. It is fun to see what gets you lynched day one. Not the most helpful for the village, but I'm not terribly useful anyway rolewise. I'm hoping that perhaps my lynch will reveal some information- which is a noble thing to die for. Or whatever. 

You know that if you are village, your death deprives the village of one more confirmed villager (at least to you)? Any lynch spent on a villager is one that can't be spent on an elim.

[Steeldancer he/him]

Just now, Arraenae said:

You know that if you are village, your death deprives the village of one more confirmed villager (at least to you)? Any lynch spent on a villager is one that can't be spent on an elim.

Yes I do, I wasn't like Lynch me please. I'm also not going to be overly upset if you do lynch me (I do have a game to run here in a week). But legit, I am suspicious of Cadcom, more so because of the defense of him, by turning attention towards me. I will note I have seen literally no defense of me. Generally, elim team mates do at least try to offer a different lynch target, right? I'm just being an independent thinker, who's having a bit of fun. So, FoS on CadCom, Rae, and Fifth (although probably not Fifth and Rae together). 

[Alvron he/him]

Vote Tally:
Wonko (1): Bort, Cadmium, Orlok
Bard (0): Fifth
Aonar (1): Rae, Wonko
Bort (0): Wonko
Elandera (2): Bort, Snipexe
Eternum (1): Elandera, Fifth
Rae (2): Steel, Cadmium, Alv
Mega (1): Xinoeph
Drought (1): Rae
Walin (1): Walin
Fifth (1): Bard
Cadmium (1): Steel
Steel (2): Eternum, Fifth

I think I'm going to vote for Rae.  Nothing concrete but you seem much more aggressive this game than I recall you being in other games we have played together.  New style perhaps?

[Elandera she/her]

I'm inclined to agree with Alvron. Though I haven't played with Rae, I'm getting a slight elim read with how aggressive they are in trying to appear village. 

Also, my intitial reason for voting Eternum is gone since they've participated. So, Rae.

[Arrae]

@Alvron, it's probably the gap between AG4 and this. Nailing a lot of the elim team can do wonders for one's confidence.

5 minutes ago, Elandera said:

I'm inclined to agree with Alvron. Though I haven't played with Rae, I'm getting a slight elim read with how aggressive they are in trying to appear village. 

Also, my intitial reason for voting Eternum is gone since they've participated. So, Rae.

I am being aggressive now because I want to find the elims. The way I do that is by trawling over the previous cycles and looking at previous content. Now, usually that only happens during mid to lategame, since there isn't much content early game. Maybe I'm just being impatient, but I would prefer to generate content for analysis earlier so I can get started on heavy analysis sooner rather than later.

And yeah, you could say I'm trying to appear village by doing this. I can't really respond to that, because historically, it seems like I gain trust by doing heavy analysis, which requires time and significant content to analyze. So...sure. I'm being aggressive. Why don't you see if that aggression helps net a few elims first?

[Orlok Tsubodai he/him]

I’ve got a village read on Rae (partly from our PM, probably), and am not terribly keen on how Elandera has jumped on Rae. It’s 4:30am, so I’m afraid further thoughts will have to wait for tomorrow.

Wonko, Elandera.

[Elandera she/her]

@Orlok Tsubodai, I'll admit, I did jump on that vote pretty quickly. Part of it was because I'm not getting solid reads off anyone yet and I thought Alvron's statement was a good start, and part of it is I'd rather not die because of an off-hand statement I made in an RP.  I don't know if Bort or Snipexe will be back to retract a vote. If they had true elim reads on me, I could understand. But what I think started as a joking statement turned into a possible lynch.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Elandera
Spelling errors

[Orlok Tsubodai he/him]

Just now, Elandera said:

@Orlok Tsubodai, I'll admit, I did jump on that vote pretty quickly. Part of it was because I'm not getting solid reads off anyone yet and I though Alvron's statement was a good start, and part of it is I'd rather not die because of an off-hand statement I made in an RP.  I don't know if Bort or Snipexe will be back to retract a vote. If they had true elim reads on me, I could understand. But what I think started as a joking statement turned into a possible lynch.

That’s certainly unfortunate, although ultimately doesn’t impact my own vote for you. I’m not voting because I think you deserve to have a vote (or indeed three votes), but because I’m genuinely suspicious, and the rationale for the other votes doesn’t impact my own preference to see you lynched over Rae at this stage. That said, I’m sympathetic towards your situation, which must be frustrating, and I’m terribly sorry if you’re lynched and I’m wrong.

[Arrae]

23 minutes ago, Elandera said:

@Orlok Tsubodai, I'll admit, I did jump on that vote pretty quickly. Part of it was because I'm not getting solid reads off anyone yet and I thought Alvron's statement was a good start, and part of it is I'd rather not die because of an off-hand statement I made in an RP.  I don't know if Bort or Snipexe will be back to retract a vote. If they had true elim reads on me, I could understand. But what I think started as a joking statement turned into a possible lynch.

You had two options for a vote to save yourself at the time, Steel and me. Out of curiosity, why did you pick me over Steel?

[Elandera she/her]

3 minutes ago, Arraenae said:

You had two options for a vote to save yourself at the time, Steel and me. Out of curiosity, why did you pick me over Steel?

I've played with Steel in the past, and his nonchalance seemed pretty characteristic as Village. I was unsure about you, so I felt that would be the better option. I'm not so sure anymore, but retracting my vote would almost certainly ensure my lynch (though I really am considering it).

[Arrae]

7 minutes ago, Elandera said:

I've played with Steel in the past, and his nonchalance seemed pretty characteristic as Village. I was unsure about you, so I felt that would be the better option. I'm not so sure anymore, but retracting my vote would almost certainly ensure my lynch (though I really am considering it).

Right. Just letting you know, depending on how the vote tally is closer to rollover, I might vote on you too. I don't particularly want you dead, but I know I'm village and I can't be as sure about your alignment >.> At least C1 ties don't kill anybody this game?

[Snipexe he/him]

My read on Rae is village as well. She seems to be over analyzing, but why is that bad? To me that seems to imply that she’s try to get as quick as a read as possible on everyone, and trying to figure out who the elims are. I don’t seem anything wrong with that, even if it may seem aggressive.

@Elandera I completely understand how frustrating it can be to lynched based on a phrase. I am suspicious of you, but for now...

Elandera

steel I legitimately can’t tell if your just baiting us all, but I can’t help but be suspicious.

 

[Elandera she/her]

Thanks Snipexe. In that case, Rae. And Arinian because I'd rather leave things at a tie, and not have a cycle with no vote because of what Scraelings can do later.

EDIT: The rules do say C1 ties would be a no lynch. The only possibility of changing that (aside from other vote manipulation) is the Ciridae, who can decide who dies in a tie or no lynch. I don't know if that applies to C1.

EDIT2: I just realized my math was off, so ties don't matter right now. Here's the vote count:

Aonar(1): Wonko
Elandera(2): Bort, Orlok
Arraenae(2): Cadmium, Alvron
Megasif(1): Xinoehp512
Droughtbringer(1): Arraenae
Walin(1): Walin
Fifth Scholar(1): Young Bard
Cadmium(1): Steel
Steel(3): Eternum, Fifth, Snipe
Arinian(1): Elandera

Edited May 25, 2018 by Elandera

[Arrae]

Alright, I'll admit, I don't like leaving the votes so close between me and the highest lynchee candidate  Drought, Steel. Guess we'll see if you're the Cthaeh or not in ~2 hours.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Arraenae
Unlike Steel, Stee isn't playing in MR29.

[Eternum he/him]

Okay, I'm kind of uncomfortable with my joke vote being what pushes Steel over the edge, so.. Steel. I won't be voting this cycle (Not seriously, at least). I don't see a point, and random lynches are always more fun. Just so I don't get that much closer to death.. Alvron 

[Devotary of Spontaneity]

I realize that it is now less than an hour before rollover and I have not yet voted. I will place a vote on Snipexe as the first player on the list other than myself that has not been voted on so far.