Didn't Stirk say that cyphertext doesn't actually help him any, IcyTea?
Did he? I must have missed that.
It's also bad sportsmanship to do everything privately. The whole point of games like these is building a story. If you do everything privately, well, that's not really contributing to the communal story now is it?
You are lucky to not have a player actively opposing you. You don't need to hide most of your actions, as nobody wants to counter them. And I'm actually doing less things in private than certain players right now.
Beyond that, using ciphertext also works for the story, as I can reveal the key once the game is over so that everyone can read what's been going on behind the scenes.
How is it bad sportsmanship to read PMs?
It's metagaming to read PMs
not meant for you, including pseudo-PMs with ciphers. That is, using information you wouldn't normally have gained to your advantage.
Moreover, it's quite clear that you see this as a game, from the way you try and play it. Competitively, constantly, against both the rules and players. Rather than cooperatively. You think in terms of opponents and winning. You can't win this. Nobody 'won' Ye Gods. Nobody was going to.
In a game without a win condition, you win by having fun, and lose if you don't. You can win even if you 'lose'. However, ennui is the main villain of a game such as this, and having challenges to surpass keeps it away. If everyone co-operated perfectly, the only conflict would come from things the GM throws at the players. If some players work against each other, more conflict happens, with more challenges for everyone involved, and hopefully more fun.
If you have a different definition that you think suits the term better and it's not a literal mathematically correct definition that doesn't actually tell someone anything about it, then I'd love to hear it.
RPG: role-playing game. As a primary mechanic of a game, players assume the roles of fictional characters. This is a very broad definition, and one size fits many, for there are many different kinds of RPGs. Personally, to me god games are more narrowly 'politics simulations', similar to "Model U.N." Each player assumes the role of a powerful entity with agendas to push, and is supposed to persuade, coerce, compromise and fight to get those agendas through. Interplayer conflict comes naturally.
I'm allowed to be a competitive player who plays a competitive god. Yes I can. True. Cim was going to.
If I complete my god's grand ambition, I consider that to be me having won the game. For example, Cim's ultimate goal was to put all the gods in stasis and rule alone. If he had done that, he would've won the game no question about it.
Wrong. That was Cim's original goal (well, part of it), but as the game evolved, more goals came and the other gods had their uses. Beyond that, it's the journey, not the goal. Cim had enough Essence to perform the complete stasis it at any time, but a dramatic enough moment to deploy it didn't happen. And yes, KJP would have vetoed it even if every other god wouldn't have come to instantly lynch Cim for it.