Herowannabe

Player List

1. @Herowannabe - Eban Naworeh - Oracle/GM
2. Steeldancer - Squid of Steel
3. A Joe In the Bush - Various Divide
4. Droughtbringer - In
5. Devotary of Spontaneity - Fourth of the Twilight
6. MetaTerminal - Selksi
7. Rathmaskal - Larry
8. Elandera - Oyh
9. Wiritos - <name pending>
10. Madagasar - Mad
11. Snipexe - Snip
12. Araris Valerian - Aralis
13. Kidpen - <Name Pending>
14. Phattemer - Bobby Tables
15. Paranoid King - John "Not-A-Murderer-At-All" Smith
16. I think I am here - Itiah VII
17. Randuir - Tezed
18. Cadmium Compounder - Rettih Chnip
19. Bort - May Bebort
20. Arinian - Niar

Pinch Hitters

1. Xinoehp512

Eban Naworeh looked over his tiny shop. In his 82 years serving as Silverlight's chief Oracle, he had acquired a good number of knick-knacks, trinkets, baubles, potions, relics, and other curiosities- and each one of them served an important function. He moved slowly through the shop, repositioning an item here, dusting off another there. When he was satisfied, he touched an etched panel on the wall, dimming the lights, and moved to the bedroom. 

He removed his slippers, donned his sleeping cap, and climbed under the covers. His head had scarcely hit the pillow before images and impressions flooded his mind. This was no ordinary dream- decades of service as an Oracle had taught him the difference between regular dreams and visions. This one came mostly in the form of emotions and flashes of color. 

Animosity and malicious intentions. 

A concocted plot. 

Indistinct silhouettes, moving against a bright background. 

Surprise and shock. 

The color crimson. 

A flash of pain. 

Death. 

Eban's eyes snapped open. He sat up in bed and shook his head, trying to make sense of the images and sensations still rattling around inside his skull, but they refused to take shape. Of one thing, however, Eban was certain:

Somewhere, somehow, somebody had just been murdered. And they had to find and catch the murderer before it was too late. 

Welcome to QF33 - Deception, Murder in the Cosmere!

This game is a little bit different from your regular SE game. Okay, it's very different. It is based on the game “Deception: Murder in Hong Kong” by Grey Fox Games, but with a Cosmere-flare. The gist of it is this:

Somewhere within the Cosmere, a grisly murder has taken place. You and your fellow Investigators arrive at the scene of the crime to discover that the Assassin has left important clues. From among the suspicious objects scattered around, you must deduce the “Methods of Murder” and identify the “Key Evidence” in order to catch and convict the killer.

As if solving a murder wasn’t tricky enough, this one is complicated by the fact that one of your fellow Investigators is the Assassin! While the Oracle gives the Investigators clues on what to look for, the Assassin attempts to sow confusion and doubt in order to cover their dark deed. Furthermore, the Assassin may have one or more Co-conspirators trying to cover their escape, but the Investigators may find aid in the form of a Witness who can identify the criminals and help bring them to Justice!

The full rules for this game can be found here. Please read through them thoroughly, as again this is different from anything else we have done in SE, and if anything is unclear please ask questions!

While sign ups are open I will be making a spreadsheet that will be used to run the game and will be open to the public. When it's ready I will edit the link in here, but in the meantime here is a link to the spreadsheet with all the "cards" and "tiles" that will be used in the game. 

Sign-ups are now open, and will run until the countdown timer below runs down. 

Quick Links:

So far we have:

1. Me
2. @Ashspren
3. @Scion of the Mists
4. @Rebecca
5. @Jondesu
6. @Kidpen
7. @luckat
8. @Snipexe

Would anyone like a go at being spymaster? It's been a few rounds since I was one, so I'll take another stab at it if nobody objects.

21 minutes ago, Sart said:

Honestly, I would just say post it at this point. We've waited long enough for a QF, and I trust you to run a fair game.

12 minutes ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

I don't see how giving an Oracle role to a player would be any different than giving it to the GM. Both are confirmed village players who cannot talk outside of their role powers. All GM's have the responsibility to not reveal information in the writeups, and have the responsibility to remain impartial. You having an active role in the game does not change that. I would trust any member of this website to be an oracle and a GM until they prove that they are unable to do that.

Thanks to both of you, your trust means a lot.

I'll get signups posted later this evening. 

2 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Hero, i hereby give this game a pass. I don't think the timing issue raised by other players will be a problem, nor do i see any other problems with the rules as you have them written. This game is good to run.

Thank you! What about the potential issue that @Sart raised about the GM/Oracle role? I'm obviously biased in my opinion in how it should be run, so I'd like an official, outside decision one way or the other before we begin. Thanks again.

54 minutes ago, Inklingspren said:

WHY MUST I ONLY CHOSE ONE?!?!

Seriously though, there isn't one that I can clearly say was better than the others... I dont want to chose! But I must... UGH!

The choice was easy for me, but I admit that I might be a tad bit biased.

I don't envy everyone else who is voting though, all the raps where phenomenal

Good game everyone!

Who is in for Round 7? I'll get the grid done as soon as I get the chance. 

@Faceless Mist-Wraith and @RippleGylf FYI Crafty gave this idea their stamp of approval:

Quote

If the backers submitting the cards are OK with acting as go-between, we see no issue with it at all. We *wanted* to include everyone from the jump, and if we'd seen a not-frustrating way to do it, we would have.

However just for future reference for anyone else who may be looking for a sponsor, I myself am going to respectfully decline. I feel like my involvement with the contest would make that situation too awkward. 

@Calderis: see the edit in my post above that I made right before you posted. 

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I'm well aware, and that was kind of my point. 

Naming something after Peter is obviously not an in world connection. 

We have multiple characters named Cob, Aon Ati and Ati, and multiple versions of "Shash" in writing in the Cosmere, all confirmed as coincidence. 

I don't personally think "Kenton" is one. But the multiple instances of a name does not necessitate a connection. 

Ah I see. 

However the Shash one wasn’t coincidence, that was intentional. 

EDIT: wait, I take it back. It looks like we have contradicting WoBs on it. In one place he implies it was an intentional linguistic connection and in another place he says it’s just a coincidence. The coincidence one is the more recent quote though.   

https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=Shash

Just now, Calderis said:

There's also an "Ahlstrom square" in luthadel, and "Ahlstrom promenade" in Elendel. 

I'm not saying it's purely coincidence, because this is Brandon, but it's existence, in and of itself, doesn't have to mean anything. 

Both of those are named after Peter Ahlstrom, Brandon’s editor and right hand man. 

Fun fact: the street I grew up on was named “Kenton Drive”...

... and I never made this connection between Kenton street and Kenton the character. *facepalm*

Rashek

Funny story: while I was serving an LDS mission in New Zealand one of my companions was from Tahiti and was trying to improve his English, so he borrowed a children’s book to read. He kept coming to me asking about words he didn’t understand and after a couple days we realized that it wasn’t the best book to read when trying to learn English. What was the book?  

Anyway, as for actual helpful advice: when I was younger and reading books that were above my level I would have a dictionary right by me and when I came across a word I couldn’t understand or figure out I would look it up. I suspect you would probably want to do the same with a Spanish-English dictionary. You probably already are. 

2 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

Storms, all those ick-words...

Aren’t they fantasTIC?

j/k I’m going to be unintentionally rhyming words in my head for days now. 

46 minutes ago, Life&Death said:

I thought for sure that you would do this.

  Reveal hidden contents

I am a stick

And then call it good.

Nah that would have been too easy. Plus I wanted a chance at winning.  

Whoops, I never made it back to this thread before the countdown ended and it looks like my teammates didn't either. So red team, you're up! @Kidpen

On 8/19/2018 at 8:24 PM, wiritos said:

so... this was all rusting worthless?

 

Fixed that for you.  

Just now, Sorana said:

I look forward to it. The other two entries are really strong. But if you're better then I don't have to choose between them

 

I'll do my best.

1 minute ago, Sorana said:

You put it in a quote and not a Spoiler Box. At least for me I can only see the first line and the rest is missing.

The rest of her rap exists only in the cognitive realm.

J/k, I'm seeing the same thing. I assume that she's working on fixing it...

Working on my rap now, I hope to have it up soon. 

15 minutes ago, Devotary of Spontaneity said:

 I feel that being able to choose the evidence and murder weapon is important for the assassin's strategy. Perhaps cards could be publicly dealt out as each player signs up, and then every player would send in a PM before signups end stating which evidence and murder weapon they would choose if they happen to be selected as the assassin. It isn't the most elegant solution, and starts to fall apart if too many people sign up at the last minute, but it does shave 24 hours off the preparation time without sacrificing the assassin's ability to choose the cards they feel will be most difficult for the oracle to represent.

That's a better solution, but still flawed in that the Assassin really wants to see all of the cards in front of the players before making a decision. For example, as the Assassin, if you see that a lot of players have cards related to poisons in front of them, then you might want to pick a poison in front of you as your Method of Murder, because then it will be harder to pick you out of the crowd. 

3 hours ago, Sart said:

I'm not on the rules committee, but I have some concerns:

Thanks for the feedback!

3 hours ago, Sart said:

First off, I was confused on this particular line. " The Oracle may put the tiles in any order they wish, and marks one item on each tile that best fits the crime. " The first part makes sense, but the second one confused me. I didn't realize that a tile was a general category. I thought a tile was a general word, like "The Victim's Build was Large". I would reword that section slightly. "The Oracle receives 4 random category tiles. They mark one item on each category, and can arrange the categories in any order." I only figured this out once I saw a video explaining how the real game is played.

Thanks, yeah that was a case of me knowing what I was talking about but it wasn’t very clear. I have edited that section and explained things a lot better. I also dropped the bit about putting tiles in any order- that was a poor attempt at emulating an aspect of the real life game, but it was just too confusing and not really necessary for forum use. 

4 hours ago, Sart said:

My major concern is the role of the Oracle. Quite frankly, I don't think that should be the GM's role. In the games we run, the GM is supposed to be impartial, so they can resolve disputes between the factions. Having the GM be on the village's side is a very slippery slope. While I know you would never abuse it, it's a really dangerous precedent that I don't want to set. In more practical concerns, I imagine there would be some kind of write-up, which the GM might be tempted to put more hints in.

This is how the RL version of the game does it so that’s how I wrote it for the forum version. That being said, it is different from what we’re used to, so I understand your concern. The limiting factor is that the Oracle cannot convey any information, directly or indirectly, to the Investigators other than by marking the Scene Tiles and by answering yes or no to Accusations. They’re not even allowed to comment on things. The Oracle is under just as much obligation to adhere to these rules as all players are under obligation to adhere to other rules, like following PM guidelines and not using 3rd-party code breaking software and etc. 

As for writeups, there isn’t as much of a need for them in this game as in regular SE games, but let’s face it, we’re going to include them because they’re fun. However, the Oracle would be under obligation to not reveal anything they shouldn’t (and I already have plans on how to do writeups/RP without giving anything away). This is the same as any other GM in any other game. 

As for dispute between parties, I’m trying to imagine what sorts of disputes might arise in a game like this and I’m drawing a blank, but even if there is something, couldn’t/shouldn’t the Impartial Mod fulfil the role of... moderating disputes... impartially...?  (forgive the cheekiness, but it’s still a valid question). 

Lastly, if the Moderators decide we need to split the the GM and the Oracle into two separate roles we certainly could, but my major concern with that route is this: there isn’t really anything for the GM to do. Unlike regular SE games, there are no votes to count, no actions to log, no player deaths to take care of, etc. Even the writeups, such as they are, are going to be pretty limited because there’s not any behind the scenes activity to report on, just what’s happening in the thread. 

So like I said, if the IMs want to split the roles like that then I’ll roll with it because at this point I’m committed to seeing the game through, but I’mma be honest I would never run the game again after that. Being a GM without the added roles/responsibilities of being the Oracle sounds dreadfully dull. 

4 hours ago, Sart said:

The simplest solution is to determine the key evidence and murder weapon randomly as well.

That would definitely NOT work. The Assassin picking their Key Evidence and Means of Murder is one of the most strategic and important aspects of the game. Replacing that with a randomizer would be a terrible idea. It would be the equivalent of taking away the Eliminators’ kill action in a normal SE game and replacing it with a random death each cycle. 

1 hour ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Aonar, Amanuensis, Stink and Elbereth are part of it as well. I'll look over the rules on my lunch break.

Thanks, I'll go ahead and tag the others just in case. 

@Aonar Faileas @Amanuensis @STINK @Elbereth

Deception: Murder in the Cosmere rules are finished and awaiting review and approval. You can see all the Methods, Evidences, and Scene Tiles that will be used in the game here.  The game will take about 1 week maximum, and can be as short as a couple of days if the Investigators get a lucky guess in early. Because of this, *If and only if* the game ends too soon, I would like to request permission from the Moderators to run this game back to back a second time (using all the same players that signed up for the game). I don't know how much time is normally allotted for Quick Fixes (which this game will be run as), so I will let the Moderators decide whether or not to allow back-to-back games and if so how much time they will be allotted. @little wilson @Orlok Tsubodai @Alvron @Seonid

Also, other than the Moderators, I forget who all is part of the review committee (we should really have that info posted somewhere easy to find- I searched the stickied threads and couldn't find it), so if someone wanted to tag them for me that would be great. Thanks. 

@Ashspren: remind me please, how long do we have to post our raps?

Also, we got a good batch this first round. This is going to be fun.