The Pub: Off-topic chat for forum gamers

[Eggel]

So I know that no-werewolf games historically haven't been very successful on this sub-forum, but Big Brother has started again (and I have been watching the all-star season as well and seeing some really high caliber gameplay) and it has me really wanting to play, or at least host, a big-brother type game of alliances, backstabbing, and manipulation. The game requires a lot of the same skills as werewolf and especially a lot of the same skills as Diplomacy, so players who like both of those games might really enjoy playing BB (and I know there are a lot of people around here who like both of those games)

I'm looking for 10-16 players and possibly a co-host if anyone's down. For anyone who's interested and hasn't seen the show, I'll put a run-down of the basic game and how I plan to run it in a spoiler tag:

Spoiler: BB Gameplay

Show

So in Big Brother, a player is eliminated every week, and the goal is to be the last player standing at the end of the game.

This happens as follows:

Each week there are four stages: Head of Household competition, Veto competition, and Elimination.

On the show, the competitions are a bunch of different types of games and challenges that put various skills to the test. I'll talk about how I want to run competitions for forum play a little bit later. For now the important thing is what they mean.

The winner of the Head of Household competition gets to choose two nominees for eviction from the house that week. The rest of the house (everyone but HoH and nominees) get to vote for who they want to eliminate from the house that week. The first catch is that the HoH cannot compete in the HoH competition for the next week, and so ends up being vulnerable unless one of their allies wins.

The other catch is the Veto competition. The HoH, the two nominees, and three random players, all compete to win the Power of Veto. The Veto winner may choose to take one player off the nomination block, forcing the HoH to immediately put someone else up in their place. The Veto winner is immune from this renomination.

After that, everyone votes secretly for which of the two players to eliminate from the house. Whoever gets the most votes is out.

This cycle repeats until there are only three players remaining. These players then compete to narrow down to two. Then all of the eliminated players vote on which of the two wins the game.

Scheming and manipulating are much more important than competitions, and you can win the game without ever winning HoH or Veto, but the competitions still play a major role. I don't think I'll be able to come up with enough challenges for every week, so I want to run a simplified version of competitions that captures most of the essential elements of play. It's important that there be stronger and weaker players, it's important to see how well everyone does in the competitions, and it's important that players have the option of throwing competitions when they think it's prudent for them to do so. With that in mind, I want to use the forum's dice roller combined with hidden stats to determine winners each week.

There are three main types of competitions: physical, mental, and endurance, plus combinations thereof. Therefore, I will roll a physical, mental, and endurance stat for each player. I think my plan is to use a d6 because I want a decent variance, but I might reduce that to a d4.

For each competition, I'll have everyone roll 2d6 (or 3d6? need to run some simulations...) in thread and then secretly add their stats to determine a winner. But I'll also give players the option of secretly giving themselves up to -6 on their rolls if they want to throw the competition. I think this system will simulate the competitions accurately enough to make the game playable. It means some people will be dominant in some areas and some will be weaker, which is how it is in the game. The weaker players want to see who the dominant ones are and get them out so they don't go up against them in the final challenge. The dominant ones want to either lie low, or take advantage to win crucial vetos and HoH competitions for them and their allies.

The one problem still remaining is that a lot of interaction will take place secretly outside the thread. To try to remedy that and make the game more enjoyable, I'd like to encourage people to roleplay or chat by putting up little conversation starters and thread-games, requiring players to give public speeches for nominations and vetos, and holding a vote for most enjoyable player at the end of the game to reward a strong social game. Plus hopefully the houseguests will find quiet players less fun to play with and take them out of the game naturally.

So what does everyone think? Do I have enough interest to run this game? Should I alter the rules at all? Let me know...

This definitely sounds interesting. I don't fully understand the whole voting thing and "conversation starters", but I think if I played the game I'd learn as I go. If this does run, I will participate.

[Black Socks]

So I know that no-werewolf games historically haven't been very successful on this sub-forum, but Big Brother has started again (and I have been watching the all-star season as well and seeing some really high caliber gameplay) and it has me really wanting to play, or at least host, a big-brother type game of alliances, backstabbing, and manipulation. The game requires a lot of the same skills as werewolf and especially a lot of the same skills as Diplomacy, so players who like both of those games might really enjoy playing BB (and I know there are a lot of people around here who like both of those games)

I'm looking for 10-16 players and possibly a co-host if anyone's down. For anyone who's interested and hasn't seen the show, I'll put a run-down of the basic game and how I plan to run it in a spoiler tag:

Spoiler: BB Gameplay

Show

So in Big Brother, a player is eliminated every week, and the goal is to be the last player standing at the end of the game.

This happens as follows:

Each week there are four stages: Head of Household competition, Veto competition, and Elimination.

On the show, the competitions are a bunch of different types of games and challenges that put various skills to the test. I'll talk about how I want to run competitions for forum play a little bit later. For now the important thing is what they mean.

The winner of the Head of Household competition gets to choose two nominees for eviction from the house that week. The rest of the house (everyone but HoH and nominees) get to vote for who they want to eliminate from the house that week. The first catch is that the HoH cannot compete in the HoH competition for the next week, and so ends up being vulnerable unless one of their allies wins.

The other catch is the Veto competition. The HoH, the two nominees, and three random players, all compete to win the Power of Veto. The Veto winner may choose to take one player off the nomination block, forcing the HoH to immediately put someone else up in their place. The Veto winner is immune from this renomination.

After that, everyone votes secretly for which of the two players to eliminate from the house. Whoever gets the most votes is out.

This cycle repeats until there are only three players remaining. These players then compete to narrow down to two. Then all of the eliminated players vote on which of the two wins the game.

Scheming and manipulating are much more important than competitions, and you can win the game without ever winning HoH or Veto, but the competitions still play a major role. I don't think I'll be able to come up with enough challenges for every week, so I want to run a simplified version of competitions that captures most of the essential elements of play. It's important that there be stronger and weaker players, it's important to see how well everyone does in the competitions, and it's important that players have the option of throwing competitions when they think it's prudent for them to do so. With that in mind, I want to use the forum's dice roller combined with hidden stats to determine winners each week.

There are three main types of competitions: physical, mental, and endurance, plus combinations thereof. Therefore, I will roll a physical, mental, and endurance stat for each player. I think my plan is to use a d6 because I want a decent variance, but I might reduce that to a d4.

For each competition, I'll have everyone roll 2d6 (or 3d6? need to run some simulations...) in thread and then secretly add their stats to determine a winner. But I'll also give players the option of secretly giving themselves up to -6 on their rolls if they want to throw the competition. I think this system will simulate the competitions accurately enough to make the game playable. It means some people will be dominant in some areas and some will be weaker, which is how it is in the game. The weaker players want to see who the dominant ones are and get them out so they don't go up against them in the final challenge. The dominant ones want to either lie low, or take advantage to win crucial vetos and HoH competitions for them and their allies.

The one problem still remaining is that a lot of interaction will take place secretly outside the thread. To try to remedy that and make the game more enjoyable, I'd like to encourage people to roleplay or chat by putting up little conversation starters and thread-games, requiring players to give public speeches for nominations and vetos, and holding a vote for most enjoyable player at the end of the game to reward a strong social game. Plus hopefully the houseguests will find quiet players less fun to play with and take them out of the game naturally.

So what does everyone think? Do I have enough interest to run this game? Should I alter the rules at all? Let me know...

I will totally play this. (sharpens knife in anticipation of backstabbing)
Question: When we roll d6 for physical, mental and endurance, do we choose which roll goes to which stat?

[Duck999]

I'd play. Seems fun. (Puts armor on back in anticipation of backstabbing)

[Penguinator]

I need a replacement for Cabalistic Carnival. The process is BYOB.

Bring your own balloons.

[Pelican]

Thought I'd check back in one more time re: Big Brother in the Playground, answaer some questions and see if I have any other potential players. Maybe I should just put up a thread in the recruitment part of the forum for play-by-post games? That's where a lot of the Diplomacy games have gone in the past...

Anyways:

This definitely sounds interesting. I don't fully understand the whole voting thing and "conversation starters", but I think if I played the game I'd learn as I go. If this does run, I will participate.

All I mean by conversation starters is that I want people to post actively in thread even if a lot of the scheming is happening behind the scenes. Literally it could be something like "what's everyone's favorite movie" or something like that if everyone is really quiet...I'm not sure. Traditionally the "social game" is an important part of the Big Brother player's skillset so I want to reward more talkative players in some way.

As for the voting, once the HoH has put up two nominees, the one who receives the most votes is out of the game, so you want to vote for the player who you want out, whether you think they are a threat to you or your alliance, or the person who would impact your game the least if they left.

I will totally play this. (sharpens knife in anticipation of backstabbing)
Question: When we roll d6 for physical, mental and endurance, do we choose which roll goes to which stat?

People could pick I guess, but I was planning on balancing the competitions fairly evenly between the different stats, so it shouldn't really matter gameplay wise.

[Duck999]

I will very likely need a replacement in Duck Season II. Any sacrifices volunteers?
(You can take it if you were killed in the game already, as long as your role gave you no information)

[Eggel]

I have an idea for a game (it came into my head while I was eating rice five minutes ago, so it's not completely figured out,) so I just wanna hear some thoughts.

This is kind of based off of murder mysteries.
Banjo (using musical instruments for example name) hosts this party at a mansion. The party goes crazy, and everyone eventually passes out. When the partygoers wake up, they find Banjo, dead. The game would now begin.
No one can exactly remember what happened during the party. Everyone remembers small tidbits of information about what happened. During the day, each person can vote on who they think did it. A 75% majority would be needed to actually kill a person (lynches should not happen often). Another vote would also happen, to give someone a flashback. These flashbacks reveal more information about the party.
The players also need to post inthread where they choose to investigate in the manor. All people who are in that location can find evidence about the murder.
Everyone's goal is to find out who murdered Banjo, but some want even more

What do you guys think?

[BasketOfPuppies]

I have an idea for a game (it came into my head while I was eating rice five minutes ago, so it's not completely figured out,) so I just wanna hear some thoughts.

This is kind of based off of murder mysteries.
Banjo (using musical instruments for example name) hosts this party at a mansion. The party goes crazy, and everyone eventually passes out. When the partygoers wake up, they find Banjo, dead. The game would now begin.
No one can exactly remember what happened during the party. Everyone remembers small tidbits of information about what happened. During the day, each person can vote on who they think did it. A 75% majority would be needed to actually kill a person (lynches should not happen often). Another vote would also happen, to give someone a flashback. These flashbacks reveal more information about the party.
The players also need to post inthread where they choose to investigate in the manor. All people who are in that location can find evidence about the murder.
Everyone's goal is to find out who murdered Banjo, but some want even more

What do you guys think?

It seems like the bads would have to not be connected, because as soon as they become connected it'd be too easy to never lynch anyone. I like everything else and would def play though.

[Ramsus]

Sounds entertaining, though you'd need some way to account for people going inactive that doesn't result in lynches becoming impossible.

[101jir]

I know I have been sortof in and out, but I was thinking of a complex woodland-themed WW, with some unique roles:

The Rabbits: Villagers.

The Wolves: The wolves are, well wolves. Get together, decide who to hunt down every night. Additionally, they seek to hunt the fox. They do not have to kill the Snake.

The Fox: The only scryer in the game, and a standalone wolf team. Right now, it is intended to be the most difficult role, but perhaps in time we can think of a way to make it easier. Every night, the fox gets either his own nightkill, or a scry. However, if the fox nightkills a wolf, he dies instead. The fox seeks to be the sole survivor (or at least final 3 or something). The fox may make a scry public the next day, after knowing the result. During the opening of the next day phase, the narrator will publicly reveal the fox's scry. The tactical advantage for the fox being that any wolves discovered will be eliminated by the town, and any town power roles will be eliminated by the wolves the following night. (Maybe if the fox nightkills the Snake, he can exit the town with a victory?)

The Snake: I don't have this one entirely figured out, but I am thinking that The Snake is a neutral that "bites," RP wise and as an expression. If nightkilled, a wolf dies as well. If lynched, some bonus is provided to the town. Not sure what though (the idea being that the snake wants to avoid notice, yet the wolves won't be targetting them).

The Bear: Baner. Wolves won't come close to this behemoth, or anyone he is protecting. A clever fox, however, might just be sneaky enough to get past him (fox not affected by bear banes).

The Stag: (Not sure yet, some town PR. I just wanted a Stag in the game, not to mention that the town needs a few PRs for balance).

Other town PRs?

What do people think of my idea overall?

[Pelican]

I like it a lot. Looks like there could be a lot of interesting interactions. Might be a little too straightforward if all of the fox reveals are totally accurate though. You'd potentially have a lot of days where the players could just follow the fox and lynch a wolf, which would be kind of boring. Might be interesting if the fox could lie, but then players might ignore all the fox scries....interesting dilemma, I'm not sure.

[Ramsus]

Well you could make things easier on the fox by allowing them to only need to be in the last 5(?*) or less people alive when the game ends and having the effect of their targeting a wolf with their nightkill be having no night action the following night and their vote not counting the following day as they had to make a hasty escape and go into hiding. And the alternate victory condition of the fox nightkilling the snake and living at the end regardless of the numbers on either side would be good too.

*More than 3 is probably better/more interesting for the game as a whole as they aren't required to ensure the last people alive are themselves, a rabbit or the snake, and a wolf.

Maybe the snake wants either the Stag to be dead and it alive at the end of the game or a wolf, the bear, and the stag dead before it dies? If is lynched, a random rabbit on it's wagon (or just a random rabbit if no rabbits were on it's wagon) becomes a Hare and has an extra life? (I figure this isn't so bad in a game without masons or a town seer.)

Dunno about the Stag.

[Lex-Kat]

In case anyone is curious, and/or they don't look in Werewolf Central anymore...

Circle of Assassins XIX is currently recruiting. I have four players, but it would bring me immense happiness if I had more players. Pleeeeeease.

[heretic]

Does anyone know how long it takes for threads to be approved after you submit them?

I "posted" my OOTS Showdown game almost two days ago and nothing has happened. PMs to the mods have had no effect.

[norman250]

I think it varies depending on mod availability. You could try PMing a different mod for the subforum.

[Black Socks]

Does anyone know how long it takes for threads to be approved after you submit them?

I "posted" my OOTS Showdown game almost two days ago and nothing has happened. PMs to the mods have had no effect.

Mine took 3 or 4 days. I suggest PMing all 3 mods for this sub forum.

[Duck999]

Does anyone know how long it takes for threads to be approved after you submit them?

I "posted" my OOTS Showdown game almost two days ago and nothing has happened. PMs to the mods have had no effect.

PM Haruki if you haven't already. That's the one to go to.

[heretic]

Thanks guys. I already PMed Haruki, so I think I've done all I can do for now.

If you're curious about the game, I posted an interest check to the normal PbP recruitment forum a few days ago before deciding that this subforum is a better fit.

Rules here, though I'm planning a couple tweaks.

[Grand Arbiter]

Thanks guys. I already PMed Haruki, so I think I've done all I can do for now.

If you're curious about the game, I posted an interest check to the normal PbP recruitment forum a few days ago before deciding that this subforum is a better fit.

Rules here, though I'm planning a couple tweaks.

Seems like it would be fun. Hopefully I'm able to play when it starts.

[norman250]

Oh hello there pub goers, I'm here to.. *whoops,* I appear to have dropped this game here, be a dear and pick it up for me?

[lehang560]

Great article and profound

[Generic-Guy]

Hey, i read about this whole insanowar-thing and just have to ask:
Can someone bring it back to live?

[ThePhantom]

Well, the trouble with insanowar is that it only that one person being inactive to kill it, which is what happens to most of them.

[Duck999]

Hey, i read about this whole insanowar-thing and just have to ask:
Can someone bring it back to live?

What Phantom said. I've tried twice to start Insanowars and each time someone will disappear before the game even starts.

[Generic-Guy]

how about cutting the number of units to more managable 7 and setting in a round-cycle of ca 36 hours, 1 1/2 Day, per player? Who miss to much days will get 'outwiped by the universe'.

I just took the rules and rewrite them, if acceptable:
0. The GM is the last judge. His words are law.
1. Insanowar consist of six persons, one GM and five players.

2. Each turn is 36 hours, there are 2 phases during the game. Build - War

3. During the build-phase, each player will create a faction made out of 7 Units. Each turn one. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - ...

3.a. No gods, demigods, godmodders, ect... The GM got the last word. But everything under "THE END OF THE WORLD" should be possible. In case of Superman, there is kryptonit everywhere.

4. If all units are chosen, the GM will start the war-phase and post a map. The pattern is GM - 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - GM - 1 - 2 - ...

5. Each base is three turns away from each other. The actual 'traveling speed' of each unit is the same, a jetplane will, while in a fight much faster, arrive at the same moment at enemy base than a mob whit forks would.

6. Each player tells in his turn what happens. As far as the spys, magic, hi-tech, ect... of the other players could manage to know. Tell secret actions the GM and try to lampshade them to the others.

7. If a fight happens, the one who startet it decides what happens. The GM can VETO, if someone thinks he is 'sooo smart' and gives no (more or less) convincing explanation why the forks winned against the plane.

8. At the end of each turn, set up a short status about your troops status and position.

7. 9. The winner is the one who wins.
10. Who has fun wins.
11. Make sure everyone has fun.
12. Not haveing fun is treason. Treason is punishable by death.
13. Who manages to miss two turns will get removed by the GM.

Does it look OK?

[Zack]

Hey everyone. I'm hosting a Futurama game over on the Org, need a few more players. Apparently I can't post any links or even change the link in my signature because I have 0 posts (I guess postcount isn't enabled in this forum?), but if you google "totalwar.org the gameroom" and click the first link, the sign-up thread should be at the top of the forum. Maybe Cuth or someone else can post the actual direct link for me.

Hope to see some of you there! :)

[Legato Endless]

Hey everyone. I'm hosting a Futurama game over on the Org, need a few more players. Apparently I can't post any links or even change the link in my signature because I have 0 posts (I guess postcount isn't enabled in this forum?), but if you google "totalwar.org the gameroom" and click the first link, the sign-up thread should be at the top of the forum. Maybe Cuth or someone else can post the actual direct link for me.

Hope to see some of you there! :)

As if people Google search what isn't linked in front of their faces these days.

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...SIGN-UP-THREAD

[Zack]

As if people Google search what isn't linked in front of their faces these days.

yeah i know lol

thanks man, I'm not even allowed to quote the link you posted

[Grand Arbiter]

I think that post count from message board games (and its subforums) don't count towards being able to post links.

Maybe it you can find a thread or two elsewhere in the forum to contribute to you can up your post count enough to be able to post links.

[Duck999]

How much interest would there be in a Gurren Lagann-esque (not themed) game? By that I mean I would throw common sense out the window and go crazy. Make everything absurd.