MST3K Theatre - Part Deux

[sachertorte]

I'm quite pleased with TexCat. I know she isn't new anymore, but seeing a vanilla stand firm and make good points about the game is good to see. It's much nicer than having all the vanillas shrug, say they aren't important and happily accept a lynching.

[tomscud]

Not much comfort to scum though if town lynches their way through the vanillas, since Nanook is on a pretty short list there. And once he flips scum, they might notice that he's done nothing the past couple days but defend One and Only.

[astralrejection]

Thus ends the game. Nanook has thrown in the towel. My poor, poor scum brethren.

[sachertorte]

Maybe he should share that revelation in the game thread.

[cometothedarkside]

Let's stick a fork in this thing already.

[normalphase]

About my role, good points have been made. Even without Stanislaus's numbers, I could function as a poor man's lie detector regarding claims of night actions, and that's pretty strong. However, the role can be nerfed in many ways. For instance, I was (or believed myself to be, haven't checked the exact claim yet) mostly powerless against OAOW, and I could not have touched a hypothetical godfather or goon who never needed to do anything nasty, even given that I *would* have needed Stanislaus's numbers to do anything on the unclaimed kill/roleblock/whatever front.

What may not be clear is that my own role, combined with my misunderstanding of Stanislaus's role (and my assumption about Special Ed once he died), predisposed me to using the role that way. I fully expected more roadblocks to be put in the way of easily determining who had performed kills. A proxy, for instance. Stanislaus and I had a proxy "vanilla" to die in our place -- I half-expected the serial killer, at least, to have something similar. (Killer possessing an unwitting townie to do the murders, or some such.) That's what I meant when I commented on Cookies not defending herself. I myself was anticipating a "huh? I didn't kill Omi, what are you smoking?" response, which I'd then have to evaluate whether Cookies could be such a proxy or not. I actually had to hold myself back from giving her any ideas.

Another option I agonized over -- the boobytrap: investigate the wrong person, and die instead.

Bottom line for me, though, is that it was a fascinating role to play, because it allowed so much scope for choice and judgment in what I asked. If any of that could be preserved in a hypothetical reprise without making the role too strong, whoever gets it will no doubt be grateful. For me, I'm *very* glad I did not in fact die to a night one kill. Thank you for that. I had SO much fun trying to freak out the scum about non-existent dangers of trying again while simultaneously trying not to piss off the town so much that they tried to lynch me or I scared off any protection that might otherwise have been coming my way. It was a blast. Good times.

[sachertorte]

I think a major missing point of NP's role was that if she investigated something that didn't happen, she is told it didn't happen. I think it would be better to give a random code (not a player's) in that case. Then she would not have been able to confirm Mahaloth's claim without Stanislaus.

I also think the role as written was better regarding only investigating things that happened the previous Night. That is, not allowing Normal Phase to investigate Omi's death so many Days after it had happened. Cookies got screwed on that one.

The game really tilted Town because of the PFK-scum fighting. Tom/Guiri took out 2 scum, and scum gave Town Tom/Guiri. That's a huge chunk of the lynch burden right there (3 of 8).

[normalphase]

Yes I agree -- if the role is intended to work *only* with the input of the other mason, then the random code thing pretty much has to be done. Limitation to previous night or not probably depends on the array of other investigatory powers in the game. It's not inherently unbalanced.

However, I think there's room for a sort of limited lie detector (as I was without Stanislaus) as a role in itself. Maybe tweak it a bit to give it a bit of interest if nobody makes an action claim the first four Days or something, but it's a very interesting power to have.

Tom/Guiri was indeed Town MVP, in more than one way.

[normalphase]

BtW, Story, what would have happened with Stanislaus's numbers if he'd died before revealing them publicly? Or to my questions if I had died before revealing them?

[innerstickler]

I think they would have died with you if Rysto wouldn't have been able to dig them up.

[cometothedarkside]

The most I could have gotten out of fighting Normal's investigation results was a Day, if that. Not really fun to play when you know you can't possibly win anymore, and things kinda picked up with work around then too so even doing it for the fuck of it wasn't even appealing, because I would've had to hustle to earn that extra Day.

Also, if I remember correctly I tried to kill Ed first (the night everything was blocked) and then also tried to kill him the night that he died. No one remembers that part. *sniff* Just like in the game..."Huh. So did Cookies even do anything?" *sniff*

I've already said my piece about Normal's role as it related to mine. I think it would have been more balanced if it had been executed as originally designed. But it was still a fun game and a fun role to play, at least before realizing that I'd been hamstrung.

[normalphase]

@ IS -- that's right, I keep forgetting Rysto's role was entirely different than I expected.

Cookies -- you're the one I think should have gotten a proxy. The person using the book had the miller thing to fall back on as an excuse (wouldn't have helped Tom, in the event, but it's not impossible it could have); your spawn could have performed the kill for you. Other than by behavior, you'd have been exposed only after a spawn died, if I could have guessed on which night the spawn was implanted and asked who did it. You'd be all but immune to investigation in that way (Oy could also get you, but it's a one-shot), but I tend to think third parties should be given something a little extra along those lines in general, since they almost never win.