The Necronomicon (NEW CONTENT! READ!)

[Frank]

Legend has it that it was written by the Dark Ones. Necronomicon ex Mortis; roughly translated: Book of the Dead. The book served as a passageway to the evil worlds beyond. It was written long ago, when the seas ran red with blood; it was this blood that was used to ink the book.

In the year 1300 AD, the book disappeared.

So a central element of this game will be the Necronomicon, the book described in the passage above. I'd like to use this thread to hash out all the details of what the Necronomicon does, and how it can be used, before incorporating any of it into the Role descriptions.

Here are my ideas:

1. The Necronomicon must be destroyed in order for the Town to win.

2. The Necronomicon can only be destroyed by the choice of the player holding it. It may be thusly destroyed only at Midnight (ie, during the Night).

3. If the Necronomicon is ever destroyed, all Undead Deadites and Chatty Ghosts with Wisdom to Impart are immediately sucked back to their respective eternal homes, and can never return. Furthermore, new Undead Deadites and Chatty Ghosts With Wisdom to Impart can no longer be generated (with the exception of the Benevolent Spirit into which the Martyr character transforms if his power activates).

4. The Necronomicon begins in the possession of the Inqusitive Fool. It can pass from her possession in one of three ways:

- 4A: She voluntarily passes it to another player, which she may do at any time. This exchange is a secret one; the other player will not know where the book came from, or what it does.

- 4B: The Power-Mad Authority Figure (a PFK whose goal will be to obtain possession of the book and hold it until the Deadites are all destroyed) takes it from her, via a yet-to-be-determined method.

- 4C: She dies. What happens to the book if she dies depends on how she dies.

- - 4C - 1: She is lynched: The book passes to anyone she chooses, or by default to the first person to vote for her.

- - 4C - 2: She is Night killed: Her killer gains access to the Book. ALTERNATE: She is allowed to designate a recipient for the book in the event of her death.

- - 4C - 3: She is Day killed: The group discovers the book on her body, and its possession passes to the highest ranking Sorority member still alive, or to the highest ranking Deadite still alive if no Sorority members remain. ALTERNATE: She is allowed to designate a recipient for the book in the event of her death.

5. Once in the possession of another player, the Necronomicon remains in their possession until it passes into another player's hands, as described above.

6. The Necronomicon's power is accessed by reading it. A player may choose to read the book during the Day, or during the Night. During the Day, if the player reads, he or she may not vote at all. During the Night, he or she may not use any Night power.

7. Each time a player reads the Necronomicon, he gains a new power. Early powers will be very weak. With more reading, the reader will gain immense power. However...

8. Too much reading of the Necronomicon can cause the reader to become consumed by its dark power, and: CHOOSE ONE (die; get sucked into Hell and lose the game; switch sides; become a PFK). The Inqusitive Fool and the Power Mad Authority Figure will know that there is such a threshhold; new readers will not. To balance this, the Inquisitive Fool and the Power-Mad Authority Figure will receive no warning when she nears the danger zone; other players will have a sense that they are wading in too deep.

9. Only the Inquisitive Fool or the Power-Mad Authority Figure can utilize the maximum potential of the Necronomicon. Even they have limits, but they can safely read more times (and thus gain more powers) than other players. Other players can never gain access to the top levels of power afforded by the book.

10. Demons have no use for the book, but cannot be consumed by it either. They will know that reading it will bear no fruit.

11. [glow=red,2,300]<FILL IN POWERS HERE>[/glow]

[sachertorte]

Are you planning to give the holder of the necronomicon Day and Night action choices relating to the Necronomicon? (i.e., read/destroy book). Or are you planning to expect the player to spontaneously tell you that he or she decides to read it?

I have issues with expecting behavior from players; you really can't count on it.

[Frank]

Jul 11, 2008 8:43:03 GMT -5 sachertorte said:

Are you planning to give the holder of the necronomicon Day and Night action choices relating to the Necronomicon? (i.e., read/destroy book). Or are you planning to expect the player to spontaneously tell you that he or she decides to read it?

I have issues with expecting behavior from players; you really can't count on it.

I would tell the Player, on Day One, essentially you have three choices:

1. Read the Necronomicon, in which case you cannot vote (or, more specifically, if you vote, you will gain no benefit from reading).
2. Destroy the Necronomicon, in which case something might happen, but you don't know what.
3. Give the Necronomicon away.
4. Do nothing.

Once they've read the book at least once, an additional option will become available, and then another and then another as they read more and more.

Does that work?

[sachertorte]

I see a feedback loop. If reading results in a new option every time, then reading more is nearly a certainty. I think its an interesting question. The name pretty much implies that destroying the book is a good idea, but will the player be able to do so? Especially after reading the book?

I like it.

But I'm not sure if you want to make destroying the book a condition of a win. That seems to muck things up. What happens if all the Deadites are dead but the book is still there?

[Frank]

Jul 11, 2008 9:23:58 GMT -5 sachertorte said:

I see a feedback loop. If reading results in a new option every time, then reading more is nearly a certainty. I think its an interesting question. The name pretty much implies that destroying the book is a good idea, but will the player be able to do so? Especially after reading the book?

I like it.

But I'm not sure if you want to make destroying the book a condition of a win. That seems to muck things up. What happens if all the Deadites are dead but the book is still there?

Well, the answer is complicated, maybe more so than it ought to be. My feeling is that in order for the Town to win, they have to kill all the Deadites, then eliminate all the undead Deadites who are hanging around. Destroying the book is the only practical way this is going to happen, although I guess Ash and/or the Inquisitive Fool could blast through them one at a time and the Town could vote no-lynch.

But I see the problem, which is that no matter how many people know that the book needs to be destroyed in order for the Town to win, if not everyone knows this the game could theoretically never end.

What if the only requirement is that the Book be in the hands of a pro-Town player when the Deadites are gone? Or, I guess more directly, the Power Mad Authority Figure's win condition would require being in possession of the book once all Deadites are gone, so if I check his win condition first each cycle and the Town win condition second, that would solve it.

[sachertorte]

If the Deadites are all dead, then where else could the book be but in the hands of a Townie? Doesn't that make Townie possession of the book a moot point?

[Frank]

Jul 11, 2008 9:34:25 GMT -5 sachertorte said:

If the Deadites are all dead, then where else could the book be but in the hands of a Townie? Doesn't that make Townie possession of the book a moot point?

It could be held by the Power Mad Authority Figure, a PFK who would consequently win the game at that point.