TIG XCIV– WHere the Stars Are Strange (Game thread)

[A Little Green]

Shasta - a hug. I know it probably won't help much, but you'll get one anyway.

[Thinlómien]

Shasta,

... ... ...

I'm sorry you feel frustrated, and I'm sorry you gave up. I'm sad if this game ends this way, even if it means village/acolyte victory. I'd choose a game where everyone has fun over a game I win, anytime.

Anyway, although it's late for you, I have to disagree with your pessimism: I wish I was unkillable since I need to survive until the end in order to win, but I'm not. In fact if you want to know, the original rule was that the acolyte cannot be Night-killed* but to keep the balance, Nerwen changed it into that it is difficult to Night-kill the acolyte.

Also, yesterDay, I was really positively surprised how everybody has believed me and my goodwill - Boro included. This game could have gone so differently, in so many ways. I could have chosen to side with you baddies, and you'd likely have won already. (Not because of my help, of course, but because of lack of opposition.) I could have chosen not to risk my neck and just try to get Boro lynched without revealing, and then chosen my side at the end of the Day based on whether we were going to lynch Boro (my known wolf) or someone else. (Yes, to be honest, I was very tempted to do that until it turned out most of the villagers think the acolyte is good.) The village could have suspected my sincerity. Boro could have kept fighting and in the worst case you guys would have got me lynched (I would have lost, and the village wouldn't have got a dream toDay). Even toDay, anyone could have made a case against me (that I'm some sort of shady figure operating on my own) and got people to believe it. And so many other things.

My kudos for you wolves (you Shasta, dead Nog and Boro, and whoever is still hiding out there) for the gifted-slaughter and bold wolf-on-wolf. You have played well. I think you still had a realistic chance of winning.

When I made my choice yesterDay** I thought you had such an upper hand that siding with the village would be fairer and make the game more even. Seems like the contrary happened - obviously I didn't mean to kill the game for you. I definitely didn't expect stuff to turn out so well for the village or that the wolves would be so demoralised. (Maybe I'm over-emphasising my own importance and actions, but obviously that's the easiest perspective for me to take.)

However this is not an apology, and I hope it doesn't sound like an accusation either. My only regret is that I didn't try dreaming you, Shasta, last Night, like I originally intended. On hindsight, it would have been nicer to everybody. If you want to know, I ironically decided against it because after rereading yesterDay, I thought you looked pretty good.



* I heard I may get an opportunity to switch sides if I want. I was assuming this would happen if the wolves attacked me, but I wasn't asked anything last Night.

** Yes, technically I lied when I said I already had made my choice when I revealed. The deadline for the decision was the end of yesterDay, not the Night before. Anyway making the reveal was basically siding with the village - I would have been pretty darn stupid/heroic if I had PMed Nerwen I'm siding with the wolves after that.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Loslote

I'd want to keep the option of Pom open. I agree that Pitch has been acting suspicious for a while, and I've noticed that before, but I also think Pom reacted extremely jumpily to suspicion yesterDay, and though she claims Boro was trying to set her up with the connection between Boro and Pom, I don't see Boro picking her, of all people, to set up like that.

I hadn't forgotten Pom, but I haven't had a chance to look at her like I did the others yet.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I could have chosen not to risk my neck and just try to get Boro lynched without revealing, and then chosen my side at the end of the Day based on whether we were going to lynch Boro (my known wolf) or someone else. (Yes, to be honest, I was very tempted to do that until it turned out most of the villagers think the acolyte is good.) The village could have suspected my sincerity. Boro could have kept fighting and in the worst case you guys would have got me lynched (I would have lost, and the village wouldn't have got a dream toDay). Even toDay, anyone could have made a case against me (that I'm some sort of shady figure operating on my own) and got people to believe it. And so many other things.

For my part, I trusted you based on my original argument regarding the Acolyte: a known evil (wolves) is more of a threat than an unknown quantity. I saw no reason an innocent Boro would have rolled over like that, and so went along with your claim.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Lommy, when you revealed yesterday, there was no chance that anyone would believe Boro over you even if he had fought back. Go look at people's reactions yesterday if you don't believe me. And after Boro was lynched you were guaranteed to be cleared innocent - even if I had done some type of counterclaim toDay and by some miracle been believed, and you'd been lynched, we would be in nearly the exact same situation tomorrow, with Sally clear and myself a revealed wolf. Once the Seer was replaced with a self-protecting Seer that could still dream, the wolves were just done.

[Pitchwife]

Turns out everything went quicker today than I thought, and I come back to find - this?

Oh boy. I'm sure She Who Pulls the Strings didn't mean any of this to happen, and I'm sorry for doing this to her, but my last comrade shall not die alone.

*takes his place next to Shasta*

++Pitch

Do your worst, minions of Mordor!

[Thinlómien]

Awww, Pitch.

I hope it makes you happier to know that when the Day started, there were two people I was almost certain were NOT wolves: you and Greenie.

Risking being disrespectful in your tragic moment - I have to ask now that I know who you all are - was your strategy to be as much wolf-on-wolf as possible without outright trying to get each other killed? It worked really nicely.

~*~

I used the word of tragic a little jokingly up there, but it actually is (italics for Zil!) a tragic end to a very good game. I enjoyed it very much, even though I was very confused most of the time: the person whose guilt I was the most certain about was the ranger, and I only suspected one wolf seriously in the course of the whole game. I think I've got rusty and I need to play more ww in the near future!

Thanks for the game, everybody, and Nerwen especially. The end might be in sort of minor key, but let's not forget all the great stuff before that (especially my specific favourite, half of the village's fixation that Inzil was the acolyte. I still don't get where that came from! )

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Now Inzil's going to be even more insufferable.

Sorry, Pitch, but any and all fight completely went out of me once I saw the morning's narration.

Oh well. At least Nerwen has an inkling of which way she wants to go for the final narration, now - perhaps the two remaining loyal servants of Gondor, faced with no way out, heroically take their own lives rather than fall prey to the evil minions of Harad and Mordor?

[Pitchwife]

'Tis about time this ends anyway. This land's been a nightmare - the dry heat's ruined my complexion, the local cuisine gives me diarrhea, and the coffee - no offence to Nogrod's shade, but there's a reason I'm a tea drinker.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Risking being disrespectful in your tragic moment - I have to ask now that I know who you all are - was your strategy to be as much wolf-on-wolf as possible without outright trying to get each other killed?

*shrugs* Wolf-on-wolf comes naturally to me; it's getting innocents lynched that's the hard part... and when I try, they have a nasty tendency to reveal as the Seer. *coughEönwëcaugh*

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Thanks for the game, everybody, and Nerwen especially. The end might be in sort of minor key, but let's not forget all the great stuff before that (especially my specific favourite, half of the village's fixation that Inzil was the acolyte. I still don't get where that came from! )

I got it from Rikae.

Yes, it was a good game and fun while it lasted, especially wolfing together with three outstanding packmates. And I'm actually pretty sure Nerwen never intended to throw an unkillable Seer at us and there would have been some chance to kill you next Night, but after Shasta's surrender I don't find it in me to go on alone.

It's not an altogether unfitting end though. After all, this grace was given to the Men of Westernesse, to lay down their lives of their own free will while still hale in mind and body, etc.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Risking being disrespectful in your tragic moment - I have to ask now that I know who you all are - was your strategy to be as much wolf-on-wolf as possible without outright trying to get each other killed? It worked really nicely.

I don't think it was that much doing it to the utmost as such, but well, playing in a way we would be hard to connect to each other... and well, without the host of seers it might even have worked.

But one must remember - as some others already have - to give kudos for the seers from their picks. I mean even if this was the second time I was a wolf with Boro, and on both occasions we have been busted by the seer(s) and thus felt a bit frustrated about it happening again, the seer had all the choices to make and made the correct ones.

my specific favourite, half of the village's fixation that Inzil was the acolyte. I still don't get where that came from!

I might have had something to do with that, from D1 onwards and specifically on D2. I was actually thinking he might be it myself (all this "I'm being cryptic" -stuff), but I had no problems in making it look like I was confident and having good reasons for it - in case the Acolyte was not on our side (he basically couldn't be on our side considering we already had 4 wolves in a village of 16) but could be lynched for possibly being on our side (Eruhen's death was such a kick of luck there!).



Thank's mates for a great game, even if it was short on my behalf.

And thank's for all the Haradians for making this a really interesting one. I mean for a long time even D1 was actually playing the game and not only bantering or checking oneself in and out. The next time someone says D1's are not fun, or help us in no way, or can be "skipped over" without an effort, should be directed to this game (among a few others).

And finally a deep bow to Nerwen for a great storyline, first-class narrations - and the courage to try an imaginative new role. New roles are always fun and add to the game.

Don't take the ending too much to yourself Nerwen. New roles can end up in unforeseen ways... (like the "secret Night-killer on the good side" I had in my game years ago - who could kill someone during the Night if he wished - and single-handedly killed the wolves more or less like that... )