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[Vector]

My personal feelings are as follows: Town won, the Cohort, Jim, and the moderator didn't lose, and Griffionday and NotQuiteThere lost.  If you'd like to interpret that as "everyone but Griff and NQT won," then you may.  However, I think that a distinction should be made for the successful resolution of the puzzle, and also that people who lost before the moderator error still lost.  This is, of course, open for discussion--as I am still an extremely new mod.

(You may have noticed that people stopped perma-dying, instead being "banished," after the error appeared)


The promised final update will be issued later today--I've been busier over the past couple of days than anticipated.

[Vector]

Also did we get this thing right here?

Something like that.

In general, the longer the game went on, the more likely you were to end up with an ending in which some part of the game's original terms were subverted.  The Prince doesn't get married!  The best partner for the Prince is a dude!  The Prince really doesn't want to be crowned!  The Prince isn't very Princely at all!

What begins as a reconstruction of the basic fairy tale marriage plot ends up deconstructed, all the way down--at the end--to this possibility: "the Prince is dead and Aureliusz Vektor is being visited by his ghost."

Or, alternatively, "the Prince becomes Death's bride."

There are versions of the story where Horatio drowns himself, and versions where the Prince marries a bride and leaves her, and versions where the Prince marries someone, leaves them, and can be convinced to return to Denmark--and versions where he and the bride elope.  There are versions in which Denmark crumbles, or converts to the Dreamer's religion.  Something to note is that the town and scum endings are generally pretty similar, with main difference being the way in which the Prince solves his problems: through being clever, or through violence.  When the Gardener-Sage survives, the Prince is wiser and gentler; when the Hopeful Prince succeeds, the Prince is more likely to run off with his chosen partner, rather than leaving them in Denmark.

Mother Death appearing at all means that the game will get a great deal darker.

Solving the puzzle guarantees a better ending than not solving the puzzle, and a longer game will increase the intensity of the ending, whether good or bad.  Now, for a couple of the more interesting possibilities. . .

"Thanatos" ending: Mother Death is the only survivor.  She slaughters everyone else in the castle other than the Prince, marries him, crowns him, and he reigns as her puppet on the throne until she gives birth to a monstrous heir, which tries to eat the Prince.  Then he runs away.  Game closes on stanza 6 of Keats' Ode to a Nightingale.

"Dance of the Dead" ending: All of the players die.  There's a resurgence of plague.  Everyone dies!  Mother Death, feeling humorous, sends back the cast of Hamlet + Sigfred and The Hopeful Prince to rule Denmark; they're easy to ply now and hell, why not.  Sigfred decides he's had enough of haunting the place and taking orders from his ghost-uncle, so he leaves to haunt Vektor's bar instead.

"Songs of Innocence" ending: Town wins with minimal losses and Sigfred marries the Balalaika Player.  This is the false Good End, since the marriage is kind of rocky after they get to know each other better, there's a language barrier, and whoooops it's the Middle Ages.

"Songs of Experience" ending: Scum wins (no players lost) and Sigfred marries the Black Swan.  This is the false Bad End, since the Black Swan is actually a pretty good queen, and she and Sigfred complement each other nicely.  Sure, he's not quite the innocent she met him as.  So what?

"Knight in Shining Armor" ending: Scum wins with one player left (and some other conditions, which I won't bore you with here).  Sigfred armors up all the way into full plate, murders the remaining bride, and heads off into the night to enact Justice.  The night with Vektor represents a temporary softening and confession, during which he repeatedly lies about his actions in order to get sympathy.  Horatio follows Sigfred, not out of some sort of mutual decision, but because they have a ludicrously codependent relationship.  Everything is terrible.

I really hope I didn't fatigue you Vector, or did anything that you'd hold against me in my..actions.

Don't worry about it.  The last part of the game was one of the best things I've ever written.  Exhausting?  Yes. . . but I accepted my fardel and went for it.

Finally, Mad Scientist Mafia better be a thing.

Oh, it's happening.  The flavor's going to be very light, but it will happen.

I have concepts for another few flavor-heavy games coming down the pipe in the next little bit, so please look forward to those as well.  I'm going to take a little bit of time to rest first, though :3


I know you have a few more questions I haven't answered, but those are being saved for the final mechanics post.  Sit tight!

[Lenglon]

"Knight in Shining Armor" ending: Scum wins with one player left (and some other conditions, which I won't bore you with here).  Sigfred armors up all the way into full plate, murders the remaining bride, and heads off into the night to enact Justice.  The night with Vektor represents a temporary softening and confession, during which he repeatedly lies about his actions in order to get sympathy.  Horatio follows Sigfred, not out of some sort of mutual decision, but because they have a ludicrously codependent relationship.  Everything is terrible.

Wait, so under no circumstances was I able to *really* win?
...
wow.

[Toaster]

A "flower power" ending with just you and me left would have been interesting.

[Vector]

Wait, so under no circumstances was I able to *really* win?
...
wow.

(and some other conditions, which I won't bore you with here)

This is an ending for a scum player who won a brutally nasty game (with "brutally nasty" divided along a few different metrics; there's also requirements that Mother Death have shown up early in the game and stayed around for a while, etc.).  This game was not brutally nasty; therefore, that ending would not have happened.  It would have been a profound error of tone, and I am not that bad of a writer.

I mentioned The Black Swan and The Balalaika Player specifically because they received special mentions in flavor at the beginning of the game.  If someone else plays notably well--then you guessed it, the ending is focused on them.

A "flower power" ending with just you and me left would have been interesting.

Yeah, the "paired" endings would have been really nice.  I'm sorry we didn't get to see any of those.

[zombie urist]

What were the solved puzzles and which puzzle went unsolved.

Also I'm sorry for not giving this game very much attention. 

[Vector]

A Couple of Notes on The Mod's Anachronisms:

The game is set in the early 1500s.  In general there's only a couple of blatant anachronisms, most involving textiles: I described the characters as wearing "trousers" rather than "hose" in multiple places (I didn't want to make anyone think they were all in tights; nor did I say "breeches," since that implies short pants nowadays), and that's not even getting into the fact that Horatio, as a servant, probably would be running around without pants at all.  Same with Alexandersen.  Also, he'd be sleeping on the floor of his master's bedroom--or, had his king and queen really valued him that much, he'd be a minor lord somewhere, ordering around peasants of his own.  I'm pretending that his position's been upgraded a bit what with so many people being dead and all.

However, the most important thing: since we're in the era of hose, that means Sigfred probably has a really obtrusive codpiece.  You're welcome.  It's preferable to Elizabethan ruffles, which came with the breeches and Shakespeare and all that stuff around 1600.  But this is set in a Shakespearean setting, which is why a man can put on a dress and immediately pass as female, and a duck can put on a mask and suddenly be seen as a girl by everyone around.  Disguises don't work here the same way they do in the normal world.

Most of the characters were adapted from Tchaikovsky ballets, Hamlet/math stuff, or Hans Christen Andersen fairytales.  However, the duck comes from this, which I am moderately embarrassed to admit post-game.


The Seven Puzzles:

1. Characters, other than The Hopeful Prince, are organized into four categories.  Discovering this fact results in a quicktopic for each group.  There is one "danger to the prince" per quicktopic.

2. Death of the acolytes results in the Dreamer being powered, and then having an alignment change.

3. Death of the flowers results in the Gardener-Sage being depowered.

4. Death of the Balalaika Player results in the dancers being depowered, with a favorable tilt to scum.

5. One of the swans successfully being a lyncher/NKer to the other results in Tiruin gaining a power of some flavor, which will be favorable to the lyncher's group.  There was going to be an entire backstory about the swans warring over dominion of waterfowl in general, but both died far too soon to put that into play.

6. Third parties, other than Dreaming Death, are male.  Hence the scum win condition, which permits other third parties--other than Dreaming Death--to win with them.

7. All characters other than the Hopeful Prince are grouped by color: red, black, and white.  The four groups each have a "head" and two "tails."  In the three groups that are blatantly marked, one of the two tails is scum.  In the fourth, the head is scum.


I was slightly incorrect--you ended up getting 5/7.  Still, good job!


The Dreamer's Powers:

Note: I realized I left Jim Groovester's second role upgrade out.  You can see it back a couple of pages ago.

She starts off as an Inventor with the following one-shot abilities she can give other people:
Gift - Post restriction
Clarity - Do nothing
Anvil - Reduce hammer threshold on someone by one
Sanctity - Cop
Cut - Doctor
Writer's Curse - Roleblock
Prince Gauss - Vig
Bell - Friendly neighbor
Touch - Flavor inspect

Then after one of her acolytes dies, she is reduced to the following abilities, which apply universally:
Bell - Friendly neighbor
Cut - Doctor
Anvil - Reduce hammer threshold on all by one
Gift - Post restriction
Touch - Light flavor inspection (would not have revealed colors, genders, etc.)

For "Gift," I would have written all flavor in rhymed iambic pentameter.  The players' requirements would have been substantially lighter.

I have to say that I'm very uncomfortable with the game balance (there are some power interactions I was relying on that have just not synthesized, and I'm feeling a little bit bad for a couple people)

I'm curious what you meant here.

I felt pretty awful for you and TWS after everyone who had one-shot abilities, inspects, or protections bit it.  That was a poor design decision.

Griff in deadchat #46 raises an interesting point- who, really IS a threat to the prince?

A threat to the Prince remaining as he is?  The Black Swan, Lily, Red Shoes, Dreaming Death.

What if Tiruin had died first?

The Hopeful Prince would have left the game, or, if absolutely necessary for game balance, joined the town with some sort of very low-level ability.

Also I'm sorry for not giving this game very much attention. 

That's okay.  Look at how much I screwed up   It didn't deserve that much attention.

[Tiruin]

Most of the characters were adapted from Tchaikovsky ballets, Hamlet/math stuff, or Hans Christen Andersen fairytales.  However, the duck comes from this, which I am moderately embarrassed to admit post-game.

I was wondering on the track or train of thought with the characters in the play. I stuck it on 'the ugly duckling' story, but then it didn't make sense given the differences, so I threw it on an adaptation.

It's not that bad, now that I see the basis. Literary ending, perhaps? Kinda more on the really nice scale.

6. Third parties, other than Dreaming Death, are male.  Hence the scum win condition, which permits other third parties--other than Dreaming Death--to win with them.

...This is the other unsolved puzzle, right? I really really didn't think of anything like this (because the men were 'female' in-story, so the analogous concept flew straight over my head).
That's a nice twist! Every third party could've just turned on their heels and killed us then.

For "Gift," I would have written all flavor in rhymed iambic pentameter.  The players' requirements would have been substantially lighter.

Now this is a sign of a creative mod. The role flavors were really nice to read.
No wonder Death speaks in forceful authoritative dictator style.

Also I'm sorry for not giving this game very much attention. 

That's okay.  Look at how much I screwed up   It didn't deserve that much attention.

So the same could be said on how much you screwed up! D:< It's not that bad, really. Minor mistakes ahoy! (I do love how deep you delved into the setting to get even the clothes right!
...You didn't mention codpieces in game, though I supposed that was implied. x3 ))

[Vector]

Oh--why Hamlet?  I just felt like doing Hamlet.

There's also references to Harry Potter, Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Rilke's poeticisms, Greek Mythology, Aristotle, the poetry of Pierre Gringoire, The Bible, old paintings, Russian music, etc.  In general, when I make these games I just throw in whatever seems natural.  There's loads and loads and loads of stuff referenced that I haven't teased out, because that would be ruining things =]

EDIT: I'll mention three, though, that were rather more googlable than others--Et in Arcadia Ego, Death and the Maiden, and Semele.

[notquitethere]

Hmm... If I'd have had any indication that saying out loud that there was most likely a lily and a rose clan player in the game would have gotten me a private chat I'd have openly speculated but as it was I felt an incentive not to engage too much lest it make me a target. Thinking about it though, as no one really wants survivors dead, would there have been any disincentive to claiming early? I guess I was worried about other people have bespoke wincons that revolved around murdering me, which didn't seem totally out of the question.

[Leafsnail]

What was Jim's role a reference to?

Also I guess my original colour theory was right, probably should have stuck with that.

[Vector]

I guess I was worried about other people have bespoke wincons that revolved around murdering me, which didn't seem totally out of the question.

No worries.  It was that kind of game, and I hear you--next time, no survivors :3

What was Jim's role a reference to?

"Mother Death" I invented myself out of whole cloth about a decade ago.

However, the original role PM is my own twist on Sleeping Beauty, written with a mind of recalling the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, but with superficial mentions to this line from Hamlet: "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

[Vector]

Hmm. . . well, that's not entirely correct.  The rites were half based on the god of the Terminus and half on French coronation ceremonies.