L-Space WW 2 [RECRUITING]

[Thufir]

“Our thoughts form the universe. They always matter.”
“Ideas are bulletproof.”
“It is never 'only a dream'... here less than some other places.”

Sentient minds are perhaps the most dangerous things in the universe. The power of imagination, of invention, of the dreams and ideas we mull over and the stories we tell ourselves every day and the knowledge we accumulate cannot be understated. L-Space, the mysterious means by which all collections of knowledge in the form of books are connected, transcending time, space, and any other dimensions you care to invent, is merely the physical manifestation of that power.
That we are lost, and far from our own homes, with no means of accurately navigating these shelves – that is bad enough. But we are also being hunted. The knowledge and imagination distilled in the books all around has a mind of its own, and not all the writings are benevolent... L-Space is short on sticks and stones, but full of words, and if you think they'll never hurt you, you're likely to spend the rest of your existence as little more than words yourself.

Rules and Roles

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Days 48 hours, nights 24, votes must be in red, changed votes must be struck through, and new votes must be made in a new post. Autolynches after three days.

Roles
Lost reader: You lost your way one day in a library or bookshop. Now you're stuck in L-Space and the Malevolent Writings, disguised amongst you, are picking you off one by one.
You win if you eliminate the Malevolent Writings.
(Villagers)

Book Club: You were at a book club meeting when you made your way into L-Space. You are in the same position as the regular Lost Readers, only with the advantage that you know your fellow Book Club members.
You win if you eliminate the Malevolent Writings.
(Masons)

Priest: You are a priest of Curly, Goddess of the Written Word. By praying to Her each night (And PMing the narrator), you may protect one person from being slain by the Malevolent Writings.
You win if you eliminate the Malevolent Writings.
(Baner)

Archivist: As a skilled archivist, each night, by referring to records (And PMing the narrator), you can determine whether someone is a real person or an avatar of the Malevolent Writings.
You win if you eliminate the Malevolent Writings.
(Seer)

Malevolent Writings: You are various negative sentiments, expressed through the written word, and now embodied to wreak havoc amongst the humans. You do not know each other. Each night, you choose a target for a kill (And PM this choice to the narrator). The target with most votes dies, unless it is one of you, in which case you are put in contact with each other. In the event of a tie, the target will be randomised between those with the most votes.
Additionally, as you are embodiments of knowledge, you can absorb knowledge or abilities from your targets.
If you kill a Book Club member, some of you will be put in contact with each other.
If you kill the Priest, you gain a one time extra kill for each time someone was successfully protected, to a minimum of one extra kill. However you may not make more than 2 kills per night.
If you kill the Archivist, one of you gains a scry ability (Which gives specific roles, not just human/writing).
You win if you reduce the numbers of everyone else to equal your numbers.
(Wolves, with an extra ability)

NOW RECRUITING.

Player List:

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Banjo1985
Duck999
Internet Flea
Tasroth

[Internet Flea]

I'll join.

Wasn't planning on joining more games, but this needs to get knocked up the thread I think.

[banjo1985]

Didn't play the first one, and this looks simple enough for me to be able to actually contribute properly to it. In.

[Tasroth]

You know I'm In.

[Duck999]

I'll join. I read so much that I can't not join something that has to do witn reading, even in the smallest way.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Interesting.

[Ionbound]

Looks fun. I'm in.

[Saposhiente]

A couple of concerns about the setup:
With the bonus kills wolves get per successful bane by the priest, there is almost no point in protecting anyone who isn't a powerrole. It encourages boring auto-self-bane.
With no fool, voider, or other means to prevent this, there is a high probability^[1] that the statistically best strategy for Town is for the Priest to claim D1 (receiving Mason and Baner claims) and for Town to No Lynch repeatedly except when the Priest scries Guilty until the Baner is finally killed by luck. Extremely boring. This is exacerbated by the wolves being blind, which means that vote analysis is unlikely to be fruitful anyway, and that wolves will sometimes miss kills to each other.

^[1]mafiascum, a very serious mafia site

[Thufir]

A couple of concerns about the setup:
With the bonus kills wolves get per successful bane by the priest, there is almost no point in protecting anyone who isn't a powerrole. It encourages boring auto-self-bane.

I disagree. It is always in the Baner's best interest to bane successfully (How to give him/herself the best chances of that is of course a decision for the individual), because more successful banes means more living townies so they have a better chance of winning. The bonus kills once s/he's dead merely allow the Wolves to undo his/her good work and even things out again, if they have enough time to do so.

With no fool, voider, or other means to prevent this, there is a high probability that the statistically best strategy for Town is for the Priest to claim D1 (receiving Mason and Baner claims) and for Town to No Lynch repeatedly except when the Priest scries Guilty until the Baner is finally killed by luck. Extremely boring. This is exacerbated by the wolves being blind, which means that vote analysis is unlikely to be fruitful anyway, and that wolves will sometimes miss kills to each other.

It's never happened in my experience, and I'm sure there have been games with no Fool or Voider in the past. That said, I'm entirely willing to tweak the rules - I always wanted there to be a bit more to this game, so long as it didn't get too complicated.
On the other hand, in this hypothetical scenario of yours, what happens if one of the Wolves also claims Seer?

[Saposhiente]

I disagree. It is always in the Baner's best interest to bane successfully (How to give him/herself the best chances of that is of course a decision for the individual), because more successful banes means more living townies so they have a better chance of winning. The bonus kills once s/he's dead merely allow the Wolves to undo his/her good work and even things out again, if they have enough time to do so.

The problem is that unless the wolves run out of time to do all of the kills or the successful bane targets are announced, all that ultimately happens is that the same number of villagers die, but they meanwhile survive longer--which is actually bad for town, because it means they're more likely to mislynch.

It's never happened in my experience, and I'm sure there have been games with no Fool or Voider in the past. That said, I'm entirely willing to tweak the rules - I always wanted there to be a bit more to this game, so long as it didn't get too complicated.
On the other hand, in this hypothetical scenario of yours, what happens if one of the Wolves also claims Seer?

Yes, for a sufficiently large pack this is the correct play, but the wolves still have a 50% chance of being screwed over even worse. It has probably never happened partially because of the culture here: People would know that this strategy would lead to a boring game, and because of that choose not to use it. On mafiascum, if someone ran convincing enough numbers most people would be willing to experiment and throw the game into the numbers. Still, I believe in the design principle of making the play that lets the game be interesting the best play, and even when Town doesn't exclusively pursue this strategy Classic players know that many days become boring follow-the-Seer-megawagon days.
You say you're interested in adding a bit more to the game. There's actually a lot you can do that would combat this strategy: In addition to Classic's Fool combating it, the presence of the Alpha and Devil also reduce the power of the Seer. Unfortunately your Devil doesn't arrive until after the Seer dies. One thing you could possibly do that would simultaneously destroy this strategy and add a unique but simple element to the game would be to replace the Baner with Mafiascum's new darling role: the Jailkeeper, the combo Baner+Voider. This eliminates both auto-Seer-bane and auto-self-bane. Traditionally, the wolves also designate one person to conduct the kill and if this person is put in Jail the kill fails, though you'd have to have some system for this with blind wolves and it's not a critical part of the role.
The other thing that I would like to see in this game, and that might actually add more to it for me, is something to make vote analysis actually meaningful in the early game. As is, with blind wolves, it's mostly random. Any Wolf or Neutral role(s) that knows the identity of one or more people at the start of the game--either wanting to protect or to lynch them--would create something for Town to actually look for with analysis.

[lolthfollower]

Yeah, I'll do this. Sounds great!

[lolthfollower]

If it actually happens

[Saposhiente]

If it actually happens

It's not scheduled to start for 4 more days, though even then it probably needs more players to start.

[Lex-Kat]

It has 1 more. In.

[lolthfollower]

Been a while since anyones posted, too

[lolthfollower]

I'm dropping out. taking too long to start

[Qwaz]

In. No shennanigans this time I promise

[Yumori Zatsuken]

INnervation. INner Strength. How many words are there that start with "in"?

[Count Dingdong]

Insanely innumerable. Infinite? Inconceivably! Incomparable inter-twixt infinitesimal integers. Intoxication incoming? Indubitably - intently inebriated indoors. Interim, inanimate insects intervene inside; innocuous indifference, inaction interfere, indicating injustice? Innocence? Inculpability? Instead, insidious innuendos inhibit intellect. <- Inherently incomprehensible? Indeed... ...intended.

In? Inevitably.

[Lex-Kat]

Updated recruitment?

Internet Flea
Banjo1985
Tasroth
Duck999
AskthePizzaGuy (?)
Firedaemon33
Saposhiente (?)
lolthfollower
Lex-Kat
Qwaz
Yumori123
Count Dingdong

Looks like we have 9 players with 2 possibles and 1 drop-out. How many more do you need​?

[Luizeu]

I'll be in as well

[Eonas]

Sure, I'll bite.

[Haruki-kun]

Count me in.

[lolthfollower]

I can come back if you still need players.