DeceptionDeception can be used by players whenever they want to do an action without the knowledge of the fortress. To do this, they must reply with a fake action in the thread (as they'd usually do with real actions), but they also have to PM the Game Master, quoting the fake action (and linking to it, if the quote doesn't automatically do that), and write their actual actions in the PM. The GM will either reject or approve the real actions.
If rejected, the GM might ask the Deceiver to adjust their actions. Basically, the same rules apply here as in normal actions: no godmoding, don't put words in others mouth, blah blah.
If approved, the GM will acknowledge it (a short "Got it" will suffice). Then when the next round comes, the GM will update the public databases (be it maps, or a list of everyone's locations, or invetories, list of injuries, you get it) in accordance to the
fake message's contents, but will update his personal database (which should contain EVERY correct info, and what is publicised) in accordance to the real actions.
Basically, for the players, it'll look like the Deceiver just cooked a good meal, and the GM will reply about how goddamn good that meal is, despite both of them knowing the Deceiver actually made brown recluse spider venom soup.
Using and CounteringThe mechanics of Deception, from a player standpoint, is very simple. Pretend to do something in the thread, quote the message in PM for the GM, write your actual actions. The GM will even play along, right?
Well, almost. Generally, there will be
two types of Deceptions.
The first one is the type where you want to lie to the
players at foremost. These will be the ones where you pretend-move home but are actually going the other direction to assassinate the mayor. These are not lies,
per se: no character in-game even knew you were moving, so it uses no skills, and can be countered by no skill. Sounds OP, right?
Except if someone moves to your supposed location, and tries to interact with you (by talking with you, or just "noticing" you), the jig is up, no matter what you do (unless you move there the round before): the GM will reply "You greet the air" or something like that to your revealer, and will post "
(Deceiver) has gone missing." right afterwards, making your scheming obvious to the players (but not the characters!).
More on "missing" people later.The second type of Deception is done towards the characters. These would be things like, signalling to someone subtly, poisoning food, water, screwing with buildings, laying traps, but these are still things you ALSO don't want the players to know (as they play the characters you're trying to deceive, obviously). These require skills to pull of effectively, but are also revealed by different skills.
One could easily avoid the first type with the abuse of the second type, in fact. As an example, creaking floorboards are definitely issues the characters would care more about. Now, if you want to pass through a creaking floor, you'd need no skillchecks under normal circumstances. But passing without making a sound, now THAT requires some skills.
Now what if you're famous for having creaky floorboards, but you also have a nemesis who wants to kill you? And what if your character were to suddenly hear creaking noises, despite no one in the thread even moving near your house? Well then, now you know that he is out to get you. You can't call him out on it obviously yet (though by now, everyone should be able to connect the dots; hearing creaking floorboards isn't a Deceptive action, and would be in a public post), but you WOULD have an in-game justification to check on it: after all, the floorboards are inside your house and you were expecting no visitors. They didn't even knock or anything!
Now that you had your character find his nemesis in his house, you can call out his player and his Deception is gone, and now you're saved, right?
Well, no. You can still
be forced into Deception.
Forced DeceptionAnswer me this: announcing character death publicly wouldn't be fun for the murderer, right? Nor would it be if you announced how a fight goes, especially when that fight is supposed to be a secret one-hit-kill backstab.
If you are attacked by someone in Deception mode (even NPCs, if they're ambushing the players!), you are forced into Deception yourself. This lasts as long as enough people not in Deception notice you (in other words, when people not "in it" notice the ruckus, either by actually seeing it, or being told about it by other people... or the target themselves). Noticers are also forced into Deception mode, but when the number of people forced into Deception by noticing (i.e. the Noticers) gets equal or larger than the number of assailants+targets, then the attack is made public.
In other words,
this system allows the assailant to get away with being noticed by a witness chasing a target (a+t = 2 people, and they outnumber the single noticer) and allows him to dispatch the witness before they could "stir up trouble", but not with two witnesses (2 = 2, and that's already enough).
If you are
forced into Deception, you cannot post in the RP thread for those rounds. Simply put, you weren't actually trying to deceive the fortress, so there's no point. You could also screw up the assailant's plans, so it's better to just not post.
"X has gone missing" and "Y has been found dead"Now, remember when I talked about how you can be revealed during type one Deceptions? And how that would make the GM type "
(Deceiver) has gone missing."?
Well, the GM may type "
X has gone missing." only on one occasion: when a character who is claimed to be at place Z by the public database, yet is not here. Now, you may think that that has a very limited use, but a better way to phrase it would be that it is intentionally vague. As an example, the following would all result in the above message:
- If X purposefully went into Deception mode, faked his location, then was noticed to be not at the location he claimed to be
- If X was forced into Deception mode, got knocked out, then kidnapped
- If X got killed and his lack of presence was noticed, yet his body was not found (because it was moved or destroyed)
Meanwhile, "
Y has been found dead." appears when someone publicly finds a corpse of a player's unit. That's all. Determining the cause of death or the assailant will require some investigative work from the players.
A similar message "
You have died." is sent to people who were killed in PM, and another "
Your corpse was destroyed." if that happens.
EXTRA: Who can and can't post, and what happens if someone's AFK?- Nonplayers: duh. They CAN post to the OOC thread, however. (Obviously.)
- Forced Deception-ed people: They may not post in the IC thread as long as they're in forced Deception, as mentioned above. They CAN post in the OOC thread, but may not mention anything regarding their forced Deception.
- Missing people: If not missing on purpose (e.x. was kidnapped) or if they were revealed to have lied about their placement, then they may NOT post in the IC thread. They may post on the OOC thread, but nothing about their missing status or anything regarding it until they're found.
- Dead people: very similar. No IC talk, No OOC talk regarding their death until their corpse is publicly found. If their corpse was destroyed, being publicly found missing is enough.
- If someone's AFK: Not much. Their character will singlemindedly do their job, as the fortress can't afford to lose valuable work force. They can be killed by other players, and they'll be used if someone has to die over an active player, but hey, fixing players being dicks in not my job.
- Despite what I described, the fortress MOST LIKELY won't be Boatmurdered v2, so it's not like going AFK is surefire death. In fact, AFK characters still working will make sure returning players won't be left behind.
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Topic: Gaming Block (Game Discussion Thread) (Totally Not Roller's Block) (Read 417717 times)