[Coppermirror]

I kept notes about the game, though they tailed off when my activity did. It's a bit long, but I might as well post it.

Wolf Diary

Night 1

Dear Diary, I've been corrupted by the dark powers of Melkor! How thrilling.

At first I was misled by the instructions and thought that I had to send in a list on the first Night; thank goodness that isn't the case! I'd have had a much bigger risk of killing off my fellow wolves that way. Or being killed off myself. (For the record, the list would have been Shasta, A Little Green, and MCR, in that order.)

For my dream, I selected Boromir. My reasoning is that Boro is a bright chap and if he's not a wolf I can cheerfully try to kill him off next Night.

...And it seems he's innocent! And thus will be first on my list for killing tomorrow Night. I'll try to avoid getting him lynched by the village toDay if I can.

Day 1

Anything I say is going to have "I'm a wolf! Look at me, I'm a wolf!" over it in bright neon signs, isn't it? I'm too afraid to post! I'll be lynched in no time!

I've got to try persuading myself that I'm an innocent villager. I don't turn into a horrible monster, nope, not me.That's someone else. I just want to help the village, okay.

Okay, at least I've posted. It could have been worse. I may have had Wolf written all over me, but at least I did my best at thinking innocent. (I swear that I looked super suspicious on Day 1 back in the game where I actually was innocent.) From now on I'll try to be quiet. And even if people accuse me I need to stay calm, because this time I actually care about whether I get killed off.

I am in a spot of bother in this game, because I'm sure that experience really, really helps when one is a wolf, and although I've read old games I've only looked at them from the perspective of wanting the village to win.

I see that Rune and Boromir-the-innocent are around but haven't posted yet. Rune has also forgotten to set his status to invisible yet, wonder if I can learn anything from that. All I am seeing is that he's a fan of the Taters thread. And now I think he's invisible, hmm. Perhaps he's more likely to be innocent, if he forgot about that until now?

Right, I have my strategy. At least until I know the identity of any of the other wolves, I will be trying to be as genuinely helpful as I can, as if I was really an ordo. I really will play it just as if I was an ordo, although I will try to avoid saying things which look suspicious myself. I would probably have done that this time around even if I had been an ordo.

...And so I voted for Rune, because his post in the thread looked the most as if it fits a sensible wolf pattern. This really is what I would have done as an ordo. Maybe I'm a failure as a wolf.

Seriously, it has to be close to deadline. It's 8:41 GMT. Deadline is 10, I think. Four people still haven't shown up. And Pomegranate and Nerwen have yet to vote. Half an hour to go now. Maaaaan.

If MCR is a wolf, I'll have to remember to tell her to set her status to invisible.

And now there are three other people, probably players, invisible and reading the Middle Earth Mirth forum. With 23 minutes to go until deadline. :/

Fifteen minutes to go, no more posts. I can't believe it. Six people just haven't voted. Pom and Nerwen won't be mod-fired for this, as they posted, so they're the only ones who can safely do that. Pom is the only one in danger of being lynched. Can Kath really mod-fire 4 people?

It's interesting that Nogrod said anyone who came in at the last moment to decide the vote would be very suspicious the next day. Is that making it hard for the others to come in to vote late?

...

Yes, Rune was innocent! Though I feel bad for him. It wasn't fair.


Night 2

The narration was late? I must have had the timing wrong after all.

I've asked Kath whether the list and dream have to be sent together or whether they can be sent separately. My dream will be Nogrod, because he's looking sensible and posting a lot, and seems cautious and tricksy. If he's a wolf, he'll be very useful. If he's an innocent I'd like to kill him off nice and quickly. I hope that I'll be allowed to hear back about Kath about Nogrod's status before I have to send my list in.

If Nogrod is innocent, my list will be Boromir, Nogrod, and either Shasta or Nerwen. If he isn't or I don't get the info about him in time, my list will be Boromir, Shasta, Nerwen.

My impression of Nerwen today was that she's probably innocent. I'm certain that she's a very formidable player. And Shasta has to not be a wolf sometime, and apparently he is a psychic, so if he's innocent I want rid of him.

Nogrod was correct when he said that the loudest and best-known players would be at much more risk. I'm targeting intelligent players with reputations for being dangerous, partially because they are more likely to have (a) been the subject of other wolves' dreams, and (b) because they are more likely to be on their lists. If I don't find a wolf, I will find someone I'd like to knock out of the game.

The fact that four players didn't show is a big problem for me. And for the innocents, for that matter. It's hard to predict how many dreams any potential wolf or Seer has had. Did they really not know the game was on? If they didn't, then they won't have had any Night 1 dream. If there are multiple wolves who didn't show, this is super bad. And worse if they get mod-fired. I would be worried about this as a ordo, too, because I would want to predict the times when the wolves were likely to have made contact and try to see how their behaviour changes, and with this, that just throws any best estimates out of the window. Really, it's as if the village is searching for three opposing Seers.

And Kath's got back to me about the question – we don't get the answers until the lists are sent in, and we also don't get the dream answers until the deadline, because otherwise the wolves get too much power. (I'm probably getting on Kath's nerves, asking so many questions.) Unless Kath makes a note of this publicly, I have to remember that as a totally innocent villager who doesn't eat people in honour of the mighty Melkor, I don't have all these details and I don't know how the wolf rules work.

Ouch, though, so if we dream of a wolf, we really don't get a chance to contact them until the next Night.

On the bright side: this may suggest that the wolves aren't facing a worst-case scenario where, say, the other wolves are among the people who didn't show, and they didn't get a dream either Night. And...if I want to read a lot into this that probably isn't there at all, perhaps it looks as if the Seer is in danger. Could be Boromir or Nogrod.

Here's hoping I'm neither getting killed off toNight by my fellow lupines, or killing them off.

Day 2

Nogrod is innocent, and no name on my list was on another list, so there was no kill! I'm guessing that if another wolf did send in a list, Nogrod was probably on it.

Hmm, hmm! There must be something I can gleam from this. And Nogrod, you're looking far too sensible this Day 2, so you'll be at the very top of my list toNight.

Possibilities:

- two wolves didn't send in a list, and the rules mean there can't be a kill until they're modfired/start sending in lists.
Here's hoping this is not the case.

- one wolf didn't send in a list, and the wolf who did simply did not have any of the same names listed.
This would mean that Shasta and Nerwen are more likely to be wolves. Or that the wolf didn't have a chance to dream of them. Which is quite possible.

- three wolves sent a list, but we just happened to not have the same names on there.
Which would likewise make it more likely that Shasta and Nerwen are wolves.

- the other wolves are in touch, but that reduced the kill chances.
If that is so, again, I really don't want to kill Shasta and Nerwen. They were likely dream targets.

The possibility of people getting mod-fired is a serious headache. If the Seer is active and not on the mod-firing block themselves, they're far more likely to have dreamt last Night of yesterDay's most active players, of which I'm one. The Night 1 dream could have been of anyone.

Oh dear. RL triumphs. At this point I need to seriously consider whether I have time to continue in the game. I've posted to that effect. It will be interesting to see whether the other wolves and the Seer will still want to dream of me, knowing that I'm likely to get myself mod-fired sooner or later.

And right towards the deadline, things have got interesting!

I have a horrible feeling I've just voted for a Shastawolf. I'm a terrible wolf. I think I would have voted for him as an Ordo too.

"And I do still think trying to signal other wolves is a wolf's number one priority..." - Nogrod.

Oh no, no. I'm not even trying to do that. I'm relying on the dreams and then the Night PMs. Granted, I don't know of any other wolves to signal to.

Please, vote for Boromir! Boromir! Look at those beady eyes, those sharp teeth! Obviously he is a vile wolf-servant of Melkor.

Damn. Nogrod is bright, he voted for Nerwen. But now it's a six way tie. Maybe I can make him look suspicious for this tomorrow?

Sally, vote for Boromir, please!

...She voted Nog. AHAHAHAHAHAHA the narration is going to be priceless. I love this game.

Oh, too bad, her vote was just too late to count. Let's see what happens.

Oops.

Wait, no, I read it wrong! Shasta was innocent, thank goodness. I thought for a second that I'd killed off a fellow wolf, and I was sad.

But Skip was a wolf. Well, he was useless anyway. (Sorry, man.)

Both times I've voted for an innocent who's been lynched. Hell yes, I have the magic touch! Just not when it comes to killing innocents during the Night.

That was some of the best narration I've seen. Six way tie, yeeeeesss.

Anyway, this explains why the wolves couldn't hit a target.

ToNight I need to nab the Seer. I'd, uh, forgotten about them a bit.


Night 3

I'm really hoping that the other wolf will contact me toNight. It's a long shot: will they really suspect me enough to dream of me?

If MCR is a wolf, I tell you, the wolves are screwed. And I will attempt to go down in a blaze of glory before I get mod-fired, as long as it doesn't take up much time. I can't waste a dream on her. We could have the dubious honour of being the first (?) wolf team to all get mod-fired.


Day 3

My dream was Pom, who's innocent.

My list was A Little Green, Nogrod, Boromir. Nogrod was killed.

And I am ten kinds of not happy because after writing up an analysis of Nogrod, I now think the Seer is probably Boromir. I was hoping to kill him off today by lynching, but that was a miscalculation. He needed to be killed during the Night so that there'd be no opportunity for him to reveal. I didn't think that Nogrod was the Seer, so he was a bad choice. (A Little Green was there in first place to test whether she was on the list.)

I'm not sure how much more use I'll be to the wolves from now on. I may not be able to post on either Day 4 or Day 5 (should I live that long) so I'll surely be mod-fired.


Night 4

Dream: Sally, innocent.

Votes: Nerwen, Boromir, A Little Green.

Day 4

Boromir got killed, and Nerwen's the Seer. I thought she might be, after something she said yesterDay. If only I'd been in touch with my fellow wolf, we could've killed her off last night. Oh well. I thought her gambit at the start with the Sauron eye might be a Seer-hint, but was most likely a joke or an ordo trying to get attention. It should've been voting time, but ah well.

Anyway, so either MCR or Greenie is a wolf. I'm in a bad position, because of MCR's vote for me. (I wonder if she voted for me because I was the last person alive to be suspicious of her...)

If it's MCR: she's voted for me, so she'll be no help. But I can try to get Greenie lynched, if the others vote for her, and I can add my vote too. There's nothing else I can do. But I probably don't need to do so unless Greenie votes for me.

And in the end, I decided not to vote at all, so I got lynched! (It's tough to be a creature of Melkor in this village, I tell you.) I still don't know whether MCR or Greenie is the wolf. It's probably better for me to be out the game and for them to still have a fighting chance. Though, it looks as if Sally is suspecting Greenie pretty hard. Poor Sally! Tomorrow will be interesting, anyway, though I'm not sure when I'll get to read it. If there's no kill, presumably MCR was the wolf and I can regret not killing off Greenie.

In favour of MCR Wolf: Her status was never set to invisible, and I would imagine Kath would have noticed that by now and said something if she was sending her PMs. It would explain why the people MCR suspected during the Day were the ones picked off in order during the Night. It'd also explain why she kept trying to stay in the game despite being unable to participate most of the time.

In favour of A Little Green Wolf: I put her at the top of my kill list once, and she didn't die. So a little more likely to be a wolf. Sally says she's acting like she does as a wolf. If what she said in-game was true, then she doesn't suspect me at all, which would explain why she didn't dream of me.

There's an outside chance that perhaps Nerwen is the wolf and MCR is the Seer. And that would be a pretty amazing gambit. But I don't think it can be true, because if it is, toMorrow Nerwen won't die during the Night, and she'll get lynched. It could only be a concerted effort to get Greenie lynched, and if so, it would absolutely rely on me turning up to vote, in which case...uh...it's not good, and I apologise for letting the pack down. But I did warn in advance that I might well not be here.

Night 5

n/a

Day 5

Am still dead, and now Seer-Nerwen is too.

And there has been only one, solitary post to the thread since Kath-mod's in the morning, and that was Sally. Poor Sally! That is rough. MCR and Greenie are nowhere to be seen.

If the wolf is MCR, I can't really complain, since my message on the admin thread was partially to say that it's okay to throw me to the wolves, because I wouldn't be able to continue with the game. Wait, no, I am the wolves! Under a bus, then. If it's Greenie, she had no choice but to vote for me, especially in the knowledge that I wouldn't be around later anyway.