The Valley Forge - WW LXXXVII - Admin Thread

[Folwren]

Here goes. Let me know if anything is missing. Fire away with any questions, suggestions, and so forth. I am in no huge rush to get this started. Please bear with me as I stumble along and make unavoidable mistakes - I'm sure they'll come.

Story line:

The dwarves of Erebor have fallen into dark times. A threat has come from the Dark Lord Sauron. His Nazgul demand allegiance, in reward for which of three Dwarven rings will be given. King Dáin wants nothing to do with it and has twice put off the messenger. But the messenger is going to come again, a third and last time, and he wants an answer, or war may break out.

But there is also a growing threat from within. Some dwarves do not like the king’s decision. They know the folly of defying Lord Sauron, and they also know that power could be gained if they received the three promised rings. A small group of dwarves in one corner of the community has decided to take matters into their own hands. They have formed a party, made themselves a name, and created a secret society. During the day, they attempt to persuade their fellow dwarves to rise in a revolt against the king and take what is offered them from Lord Sauron. At night, they go forth and execute any who stand in their way, making examples of them for anyone else who wishes to stand against them.

King Dáin knew not how to put down this inward uprising and deal with the traitors. He sent trusted dwarves down to the area where the killings were occurring, but these dwarves were murdered or sent back with their beards shaven and with the society’s brand imprinted on their shoulder.

Finally, one dwarf stepped forward and promised results, or his life forfeit. “Indeed,” the king told him grimly, “your life will be forfeit. For if you fail to bring down this uprising, those members of the Valley Forge will save me the trouble of removing your head.”

The dwarf bowed and withdrew from the king’s presence and set himself the task of learning the workings of the society of the Valley Forge. When he deemed himself ready, he traveled to the corner of Erebor where the Forge held its reign of terror. He quickly blended into the darkest parts and amongst the darkest dwarves of the place. In time, he was brought before the Forge’s leader, questioned, put through the trials of a new member, and permitted to enter into the society.

But in secret, he had already planted the first seeds of his real work. He had stirred the people up with ideas and rumors. The terrified dwarves were tired of being bullied and killed at whim, and as the king seemed to be doing nothing about it, they would do something for themselves. It was decided that they must purge the place of the evil dwarves, and each day a trial would be held and each night, they would decide on who was most likely to be part of the Valley Forge. And for such dwarves, there was only one punishment: death.

Roles:

1 The King’s Dwarf

1 Night Watchdwarf

1 The Sweetheart

Several members of the group Valley Forge

More innocent bystanders


The King’s Dwarf: This player will appear to be one of the members of the Valley Forge. During the night, he will hold council with the other Forge members and will partake in the killing.

At the end of each Day, he will send the moderator a PM which will be sent to the Night Watchman. In this PM, he will note down who he thinks the Forge might kill that night.

If the members of the Forge discover who the King’s Dwarf is, it is their intent to kill him during a night phase. If they succeed, they also will get to kill the Sweetheart if she has found the King’s Dwarf by this time and she has not already been killed by the village dwarves. Until they succeed in this, or he is lynched by the mob, they will have a player in their midst who knows their identity and who wants nothing more than to get them killed.

If the King's Dwarf is killed by the villagers, the game continues until the members are destroyed or the villagers are brought down to the members' number.

The King's Dwarf has succeeded in his mission when all of the Forge members are dead.

The King’s Dwarf cannot at ANY time in the game reveal himself.

The Night Watchdwarf: This dwarf has the ability to protect the victim of the Forge’s violence. The King’s Dwarf at the beginning of each night will get word to him who he thinks the Forge may attack. The Night Watchdwarf may either ignore or take heed of the dwarf’s warning. After he has received the warning, he will PM the moderator with the name of the player he wishes to protect. Who he chooses to protect will survive the night. He may protect the same person no more than two nights in a row.

The Sweetheart: This is the character with whom the King’s Dwarf inadvertently falls in love. At the beginning of the game, she does not know who the King’s Dwarf is, and the King’s Dwarf does not know who she is. Each night, she will send the moderator two names. The moderator will respond whether or not one of the names is the King’s Dwarf. Once the sweetheart has learned the identity of the King’s Dwarf, the King’s Dwarf will be informed and will know who the sweetheart is. These two will be able to communicate at night and further instructions will be given them at a later time (this part is still pending).

The King’s Dwarf is willing to put his life down for her. If the wolves kill her during the night, the King’s Dwarf will make a killing, but in doing so, will reveal himself and will die as well.

If the sweetheart is killed during the day by the villagers, the King’s Dwarf can do nothing.

Members of the Valley Forge: Their purpose is to kill the King’s Dwarf and get the number of villagers down to their own number. During the night phases, they will PM amongst themselves and before the Night deadline, they will send the moderator the name of their kill.

The members of the Forge can only kill the King’s Dwarf at night if there are two or more of them left to do so. Once the game comes down to one Forge member left and the King’s Dwarf is still alive, that final Forge member cannot kill him.

With fifteen players, there will be four members of the Forge.

Reveals are NOT allowed. If you do not respect this rule, you shall be kicked from the game and the mod and other players will be very cranky with you.

There may be double lynchings, but only two will be killed at a time.

The votes must be given thus:

++Folwren

Votes are retractable, but only if you replace one name with another. Like so:

--Folwren

++Thornden

Each day period and each night period will last 24 hours. Deadling will begin at 5:00 EST.

Players
Sally
Inzil
Nerwen
Boro
Galadriel
Eruhen
Bom
Glirdan
Finduilas
Rikae
McCaber
Wilwarin
Pitchwife
the Phantom
Mithalwen

[Inziladun]

Sounds interesting! Go ahead and count me in.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

A question - how will you be taking the nightkills of the Forge? It doesn't seem like having one person send in the kills will work in this setup, if you mean for the Forge to be able to kill off their own members during the night.

Another question - what is the King's Dwarf's win condition? Same as the innocents?

Another question - what happens when the Forge is reduced to two members - one Forge member and the King's Dwarf?

[Mithalwen]

Does the sweetheart know they are the sweetheart?

[Folwren]

yeah, some of these questions I thought of this morning, a wee bit late.

A question - how will you be taking the nightkills of the Forge? It doesn't seem like having one person send in the kills will work in this setup, if you mean for the Forge to be able to kill off their own members during the night.

Again, I am unsure what the general set up for this is. I had in mind that the Forges would converse by PM and then one of them would send me their decision. I am counting on the integrity of the player playing the King's Dwarf not to send in the wrong name should he ever be the one to send me the name. To ensure that nothing like that happens, the one who sends me the name can also send it to all the other Forges at the same time.

Another question - what is the King's Dwarf's win condition? Same as the innocents?

Yes, sorry for not clarifying. When all the Forges are dead, the King's Dwarf has succeeded in his mission.

Another question - what happens when the Forge is reduced to two members - one Forge member and the King's Dwarf?

I had thought the game could keep going, but it would be pointless as the night round would be obsolete because the King's Dwarf would stand against any more killing. So I guess at that point, the K.D. would be able to announce himself to the village and they'd kill the last member. But I'm kind of imagining that the members of the Forge would have figured out who the K.D. was by the time they're down to two. I think it'll be a pretty close game.

Does the sweetheart know they are the sweetheart?

Yes. But she will not know who the K.D. is. I think that hte K.D. also knows who she is at the beginning. I am batting the idea around for the K.D. to choose who the Sweetheart is...what do you think of that?

I'll add stuff that I say here to the first post so newcomers see it.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Folwren

I had in mind that the Forges would converse by PM and then one of them would send me their decision. I am counting on the integrity of the player playing the King's Dwarf not to send in the wrong name should he ever be the one to send me the name. To ensure that nothing like that happens, the one who sends me the name can also send it to all the other Forges at the same time.

I once played in a game, Eönwë's, I think, in which I was a "saboteur" wolf. I was nominally on the side of the wolves, plotting with them at Night, but my ultimate goal was to help the village. It fell to me more than once to send in the kill, but I wasn't allowed to so overtly thwart my packmates as to disrupt that. Also, doing so would have been a sure tipoff to the pack as to what I was up to. This sounds like the same sort of thing.

[Shastanis Althreduin]

I don't know, it seems like an interesting dynamic to me, that the KD should be able to change the kill if the other wolves trust them enough to send it in. What if it's down to three (the KD and two wolves)? Which wolf do you trust to send in the kill? Do you all three send in a name, and majority rules? I like this idea.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I don't think I'll be able to play this time around, but you know I'm always available if you want to bounce ideas off of me and gossip about roles.

[Mithalwen]

Any idea of the likely deadline?

[Folwren]

I am thinking 3:00 P.M. Central Time Zone, which would be approximately three and a half hours from when this is posted.

Either that or 11:00 P.M. Central time. Which would be approximately eleven and a half hours from the time this is posted.

[Folwren]

Great, Nerwen!

I'm sorry to hear that, Kitanna. If you find that you suddenly have time and we haven't started yet, feel free to return.

I'm about to leave for an overnigh trip. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon probably.

[Folwren]

There is a difficulty. My starting date is two days away and we are still one person short of the minimum number of players. Anyone have any suggestion about who I can contact to see if they want to play?

-- Foley

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Folwren

There is a difficulty. My starting date is two days away and we are still one person short of the minimum number of players. Anyone have any suggestion about who I can contact to see if they want to play?

Now that some time has passed since this was initially announced, maybe some who couldn't play at that time will be able to do so now. If I can think of some individual who hasn't weighed in one way or another, I'll let you know.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Folwren

There is a difficulty. My starting date is two days away and we are still one person short of the minimum number of players. Anyone have any suggestion about who I can contact to see if they want to play?

I'm really very sorry, Foley, but I'll definitely have to withdraw, or I'd end up the most abysmal of submarines, as what's left of my mental capacity after work is quite tied up with The King's Players for now. Wish you the best of luck with the game, though - I'll peep in every now and then, and I'm sure it'll be an interesting read.

As for your question, off the top of my head: Aganzir, wilwa, Nessa Telrunya, Rikae, Mac, skip spence, Eönwë, Eomer, Kath, The Elf-Warrior... No idea who of them would be available, but all have played more or less recently.

[Mithalwen]

I rather think Master Eomer will be otherwise engaged....

[satansaloser2005]

Erm, I hate to do this, but I won't be available for the next week or so. If you start after next Wednesday, however, I should still be able to play.

[Folwren]

Okay...so how available will you all be if we postponed the date yet again? Quite honestly, it will be better for me, even, for although the 19th is the beginning of my spring break, it's not going to be much of a break after all.

I'd like to hear everybody's opinion, and if most people tell me to start on the 19th as planned if at all possible, I'll send out aonther round of PMs to all those sugested names above.

-- Foley

[Folwren]

K,well, it's not starting yet. I'll send out PMs to people again sometime tomorrow. I don't know when we'll plan on starting. I'm sorry about the slow start.

-- Folwren

[Inziladun]

Things happen. Everyone just has a lot going on in RL, it seems.

[Mänwe]

It'll be worth the wait!!

[Thinlómien]

Just saying that unless we start soon, I have to drop out. As some of you might know, I'm currently abroad as an exchange student and my friends will be visiting me from April 8th to April 15th and my mum and sister will be visiting from the 19th to the 26th and I definitely don't want to play ww when any of them are visiting - so basically, I'm only available more or less now and then only in the very end of April.

[Kuruharan]

So when I first saw this thread I thought it was going to be British werewolves infiltrating the Continental Army encampment in the winter of 1777-1778, which isn't of a great deal of interest to me.

But, being bored today, I decided to read it for the chuckle value of seeing how the above scenario fitted into Tolkien and lo and behold it is about dwarves...which makes it awesome!

It does look interesting and I hope it moves forward at some point...but counter-productively it would greatly depend on when it happened on if I could play or not.

[Folwren]

Hey, Kuruharan, what luck that it roused your curiosity and you looked! I will be certain to PM you when this game finally starts moving forward again. As a matter of fact, as it was not lifting off the ground at a very fast rate, Sally suggested that she go ahead and run her game, and that is what has happened. I have not checked up on her game, so I don't know how close it is to being finished yet, but I'll let you know. Maybe you will be able to play.

-- Foley

[Inziladun]

Sally's game is finished, with a wicked victory for the evil side.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Sally's game is finished, with a wicked victory for the evil side.

Oh, indeed? Well tell everyone to flock on over here, then.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

So when I first saw this thread I thought it was going to be British werewolves infiltrating the Continental Army encampment in the winter of 1777-1778, which isn't of a great deal of interest to me.

But, being bored today, I decided to read it for the chuckle value of seeing how the above scenario fitted into Tolkien and lo and behold it is about dwarves...which makes it awesome!

Actually, I think the first scenario would be awesome, too.

Originally Posted by Folwren

As a matter of fact, as it was not lifting off the ground at a very fast rate, Sally suggested that she go ahead and run her game, and that is what has happened. I have not checked up on her game, so I don't know how close it is to being finished yet, but I'll let you know. Maybe you will be able to play.

Sally's game is finished, Foley.

I must warn you, though, that there was a high drop-out rate– a lot of people still seem to be very busy right now.

EDIT:X'd with Zil and Folwren.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Folwren

I have not checked up on her game, so I don't know how close it is to being finished yet, but I'll let you know.

It's finished, as far as I know. Kuruharan chose a very good time to poke this thread.

[Kuruharan]

Not such a good time if I wanted to play as the next three weeks are pretty much no go for me. Maybe after that, I'm not sure.

Not that it is saying much, it is *extremely* difficult for me to commit to any sort of time intensive activity at all and I don't see that changing any time...ever.

[Kuruharan]

I unfortunately won't be able to play if it starts this soon but I will definitely be lending my support to the game in spirit.

I do have the suggestion that you change the name of "The Night Watchman" to "The Night Watchdwarf" as the humanocentric designation is inappropriate for this setting.

[Folwren]

Right. That's a good suggestion. Once I get about to editing that first post, I'll do that.

[Folwren]

Okay, so I have just now gone and updated the new member's list. So far, I have:

Inzil
Bom
Mith
Lottie
Rikae
Sally
Shasta

We're half way filled. I am not certain when we're going to be able to start. I may have time today to PM other possible players.

-- Foley

[Nerwen]

Hey, Foley, I never actually dropped out, you know. So you can add me to the list.

[Folwren]

Awesome, Nerwen. I'm glad you're still in. I went ahead and took everyone off before starting over, in case people had forgotten or something.

-- Folwren

[Thinlómien]

Please (re)count me in - it's been too long without werewolf.

ps. a post on the T-i-G thread to wake people up might not be a bad idea...

[Bom Tombadillo]

*bumpsies*

Nobody else? I hope this doesn't stall again . . .

[Folwren]

The question has come up about whether or not roles will be revealed upon death. I haven't been quite sure what I wanted to do, but now that the game has started, I think I need to decide.

So, based on the way I plan to narrate the story/game, I think that roles will be revealed as long as the King's Dwarf is still alive. After that, there might be some revelations, but not necessarily. You will definitely know when the King's Dwarf dies. If the Sweetheart has found the King's Dwarf by the time she dies, you'll know when she dies. However, if the King's Dwarf is dead and the Night Watchdwarf is killed, you may not know it is he.

Is that definite enough, or do you want to know for a certainty what their roles are when they die?

-- Folwren

[satansaloser2005]

So you'd reveal roles until the KD dies, and then not afterward? That sounds fine, I suppose, but I'm not sure why you'd be doing it. (I'm on my phone and am also really tired, sorry.)

Either way is fine with me, as long as it's decided and clear before the game properly starts.

[Folwren]

I'll just reveal the roles. It'll be okay.

-- Foley

[wilwarin538]

K, sorry I totally spaced, got distracted looking at future career stuffs and didn't remember til about 10 minutes ago, I was luckily able to get my break early to come on. And these posts were done on my phone (the higlighting took forever!) so sorry for any spelling mistakes.