Fatbelly V - Who's for Dessert?

[banjo1985]

Matt K and Orzel glare at each other over the plates of wonderful food until the steaming dishes are cold and congealed. Neither blinks nor moves, despite the distraction of all the ghosts of past competitors surrounding them and offering them pies and cookies. Days and nights pass like that scene that you get in a lot of movies, where the sun and darkness fly-by like some kind of amped up jet fighter. Presently, their bellies start to rumble.

“This is a little bit silly.”
“I know, the army general said that earlier.”
“I mean, there’s not really much point in winning is there?”
“How so?”

Matt K gestures around them with a sharp claw to make his point.

“Well Hannibal’s dead, so nobody’s going to food heaven anymore, and we don’t get any prize money or anything.”
“I guess not.”
“And there’s not even anyone to congratulate the winner. Everyone else is dead. We even killed the narrator half-way through the game, though he seems to still be able to type.”
“Hmmmm…”

They each stare meditatively down at their food for a few moments, before looking up and shouting at the same time.

“We could call it a draw!”
“Neither of us has to die!”
“Hurray!”

The kobold and the cannibal grin and dance in a circle, eating the cold plates of food to celebrate. Orzel makes a little trophy out of sticks and they both stand on the broken old banquet table with it held aloft, as if posing for a picture. Then they realise there’s nobody to congratulate them, or declare their victory, and they start to feel a bit silly again.

“Erm….so what do we do now?”
“Well, with Hannibal gone there’s real food again, which is nice.”
“Yeah, next year’s Fatbelly will be kickass with proper food!”
“It would be…but I think we’ve gone through all Baron Fatbelly’s relatives. We ate the first baron, killed his evil succubus wife, and somebody put pay to Baron Banjo earlier in this contest. I think we’ve run out of Fatbelly’s...”

Orzel sobers up at the kobolds words, thinking about what the world would be like without eating contests, especially now there’s actually something worth eating.

“Oh no, I won’t let the Fatbelly contests die. I’ll run the next one! There’ll be eating, and blackjack! And hookers!”
“Hookers?”
“In fact, forget the eating and the blackjack!”
“You know what Orzel, I think it would be better if we BOTH run the next Fatbelly contest. Otherwise that army general will be back again.”
“What? A kobold and a cannibal running an eating contest together?”
“Yeah, just think about it; Fatbelly VI Kobolds and Cannibals!”
“Cannibals and Kobolds you mean.”
“Okay, okay, have it your way. But no hookers. This forum is PG-13, remember?”
“Awwww! Can we at least keep the blackjack?”
“Wouldn’t you prefer strip bingo instead?”
“Don’t start.”

Orzel and Matt K carry on talking as they stroll out onto the plain and towards the first seeds of a new civilisation, already discussing their radical new ideas to take the Fatbelly contests to the next level. Now the world has proper food again the possibilities are almost endless. And with the combination of a cannibal and a kobolds mindset, things can only get more entertaining. Or disturbing.

They head towards the ruins of the country estate, where Baron Fatbelly once held sway, the spiritual home of all eating contests. The old mansion is no doubt full of ghosts and memories, but it feels like the right place to go.

The Fatbelly contests are going home, with a kobold and a cannibal at the helm.

May the gods have mercy on us all!

Fatbelly V is over!

Matt K (Donald McRonald) and Orzel (the last Gourmand-gast) are the joint winners of Fatbelly V! Congratulations to both of you!

Full Roll Call

Aemoh - Hungry Knuckle
Billtodamax - Fast Food Freak
Blood Caller - Brother of the Donought
Castaras - Circus Clown
Cd4 - The Masticator
Croverus - Mr Entropy
Dallas Dakota - Takeaway Terror
Duneyrr - Nom Nom the Monkey
Fleeing Coward - Circus Clown
Gray Mage - Baron Banjo
Grlump the Elder - Brother of the Donought
Helgraf - Brother of the Donought
Lord Fullbladder - Brother of the Donought
Matt K - Donald McRonald
Mordokai - Gourmand-gast
Murska - Takeaway Terror
Mustiado - Gourmand-gast
Orzel - Gourmand-gast
Qwaz - Hungry Knuckle
Ramsus - Takeaway Terror
Reinholdt - Circus Clown
Saposhiente - Hungry Knuckle
Shadowcaller - Hungry Knuckle
Smellie Hippie - French Waiter
Someonenonotyou - Gourmand-gast
Supagoof - Circus Clown
ThePhantom - Miss Apli Plaster
VA Beds - Hank 'Knuckes' McCoy
Fiery Tower/Wolfbane - Takeaway Terror
Zar Peter - Mr Creosote

Yeah, the way the game ended up, a draw seemed the fairest outcome. Orzel would have kept control of the contests until Matt K got his kill action back a day earlier than he would, and we’d have been hanging around for ages. The faction set-up gave the game a few issues I feel.

I'll follow up with my full thoughts about the game in a bit, but I really want to hear yours as players. Hope you all enjoyed the game, even if you have issues with it or how I handled things!

[Croverus]

I kinda got screwed going from having 3 members to losing two people cause someone autolynched and we had no replacements (Heck, there was only 1 stand in for the whole game). So yeah, that kinda sucked.

[banjo1985]

Some thoughts from the narrator:

- Only three autolynches, which is good, but with only one autolynch replacement that ended up favouring the Takeaway Terrors a bit. To be honest I probably shouldn’t have allowed a replacement past the half-way point of the game, but Fiery Tower had been waiting really patiently.

- My first attempt at a faction-based game, and I’m not sure it works with the Fatbelly set-up. You know right from the start who your enemies are: anyone not on your team, and it takes a lot of the tactics and mystery out of things. Scries are also mostly useless. I’ll be steering clear of the factions in future, and going back to the more traditional everyone vs. the hidden wolves set-up.

- I hadn’t run a WW for two years, and I was a bit rusty on narrations as a result. I tried to keep them silly, but I struggled for ideas sometimes, especially with the courses. That’ll teach me to set an eating contest in an apocalyptic future with no proper food! Still, I think I kept to schedule okay and kept the game moving at a decent pace.

- A few roles were pretty useless, while others were too powerful. Baron Banjo controlled the lynches until someone worked out who he was and took him out. A triple point when you have multiple bandwagons is pretty massive. On the other hand, the Voider, Medic and Chef were ineffective as roles, as there were never really the right opportunity for them to use their abilities. Nom Nom the Monkey had a few important slings of his poo, but otherwise the roles didn’t really impact much on the game.

- When we were down to a few players, having the previous contest winner control the next course pretty much broke the game. When it’s 2v1 you’d think the majority would have the power, but with Orzel picking the courses it was he who held all the aces in the end game. I think in the next game the dead players might decide the final course for the last two competitors, or maybe I could randomise it.

- Overall, I had fun narrating things, and I just hope my rustiness didn’t spoil things for anyone.

Open floor for the winners to gloat and all players to comment on whatever they want, I know how the game went for me, but I want to hear what you all thought. I might manage some trophies, but we'll see.

[banjo1985]

I kinda got screwed going from having 3 members to losing two people cause someone autolynched and we had no replacements (Heck, there was only 1 stand in for the whole game). So yeah, that kinda sucked.

Yeah, I messed up with the autolynch system, simple as that. Sorry Brethren

When the first autolynches came up everyone except Shadowcaller and Wolfbane looked to be participating. Shadowcaller was up for a lynch anyway, so I could replace Wolfbane without unbalancing things. I didn't expect Blood_Caller to disappear without warning, he really seemed to be enjoying himself. But when he went, things turned on the Brethren quickly, from being in an almost untouchable position to complete annihalation.

Sorry guys.

EDIT: Also, trophies for the winners!



No, I didn't just change the text on the trophies from the very first game, why'd you ask?

[billtodamax]

Woo! Good work Matt and good work Orzel!

[Ramsus]

Well I had fun while I was alive but I guess I wasn't alive for a lot of the later rules issues stuff. I don't know what you mean about the narrations, they were really good.

[Orzel]

Hooray I co-win.

Another win for me.

Time for blackjack!

*deals you all a 6 and a 9*

[Matt K]

Well, that was fun. I agree that endgame is a little unbalanced, hence why I didn't vote last day.

[banjo1985]

Yeah, the endgame would need work if I wanted to continue with the multi-faction set-up. Safe to say that if Fatbelly VI comes to pass, it'll be good old everyone vs the wolves.

Much simpler.

[Ramsus]

So not everyone vs wolves vs ghosts then?

[banjo1985]

Now there's an idea.

After all, have we not surmised that there'll be plenty of ghosts in the old Fatbelly mansion?

What would ghosts eat anyway? Maybe...ghoulash?

[Castaras]

Marshmallow.

[GrlumpTheElder]

What would ghosts eat anyway? Maybe...ghoulash?

Maybe Ice Scream, or Spaghetti Boo-lognese...
And they could buy it at the ghost-ery store...

I'll stop now...

[Matt K]

I kind of enjoyed the team aspect of the game. I agree though that scries seemed useless. It might have been better for the scry to reveal 2 best and 2 worst food types and perhaps the actual score for one set or something like that.