TWG LXXXI Player Signups

[TC_Cyrenics]

STORY

In the halls of Castle Raybrandt, a young lady raced toward the throne room desperately, stopping halfway when armored goons appeared in the way. She readied her magical bracelet, grabbed a sword from a nearby armor statue, and fought her way through with a combination of fireball-slinging and swordsmanship...

Upon reaching the throne room, she saw her father being stabbed through the heart by a mysterious, white-haired assassin. As the killer pulled his large, scythe-like sword out of the fallen ruler's body, he flashed the Princess a fang and walked off. Monica, in her shock, never thought to run after the mysterious killer. She stared at her father as her fists clenched. Her long, red hair bobbed as she quivered with anger, fear, and pain...

Meanwhile, 100 years earlier, on a cold, rainy day in Palm Brinks, young Maximilian raced to his job as the apprentice for the repairman Cedric. The youth, upon entering the Maintenance shop, took off his cap, brushed the water off his clothes, and shook his blonde hair dry. Max, as he was commonly referred to, was excellent with tools of all sorts, able to repair everything from vacuum cleaners to robots. Around his neck hung a large, red, pearl-like stone embedded in a golden necklace...

As it turned out, the red gem was far more valuable than anything Max had ever encountered. That said a lot, as Max's family was the wealthiest in all of Palm Brinks. They lived in a gargantuan mansion at the top of the residential area. His mother disappeared when Max was just a small child. His father, Gerald, entrusted the necklace currently around Max's neck to the lad, telling him to "never let it go..."

That night, the Flotsam circus arrived in town, ready to dazzle the audience with tricks, feats of might, and derring-do. Just as Max was about to hand the clown his ticket, a young boy snatched it up and ran off. Max chased down the child, however, after the youth explained that he simply wanted to see the circus, if only just once, Max relinquished the ticket to the child. In a flash, the youth disappeared, leaving Max the ticket, and the words, "Maybe you are the one." When Max finally made it inside the circus, he overheard a frightful conversation...

Mayor Need and Flotsam, the circus's ringmaster, were in the back area of the tent arguing over the mine of Zelmite near the city's pond. Mayor Need fearfully asserted that there were no more valuables to be found in the deep mines, but Flotsam had none of that. He demanded the Mayor look harder, adding something about "a red jeweled stone, the Atlamillia," threatening pain, suffering, and possibly death over non-compliance. Max gasped softly, then shuffled his feet to get away...

However, in his haste, his foot hit a squeaky floorboard, attracting the attention of Flotsam himself. Flotsam eyed the stone around Max's neck, shouting at his clowns to "seize the boy." Max fought back with his wrench and ran from the tent in terror. Flotsam gave chase on his robotic monster, Halloween. However, Max narrowly outran the monstrosity by using acrobatics, agility, and sharp maneuvering. His flight of freedom took him to the sewers, where his friend Donny handed him a small gun. Max told Donny about his plan to escape to "the outside world, away from this secluded place..."

Would Max make it through the sewers, and reach the unbound world outside his city walls? Or would he fall to the dangers of the sewers, leaving behind the red jewel for the evil clown to use for injustice? And what of Monica, the young princess from the future? Would she avenge her father's assassination, find the white-haired man, and get her revenge? Or would he come back and finish her off as well? The only way to know is to play...

TWG LXXXI
The Dark Cloud 2 Story



PLAYER LIST
1 Master Wolf (Emperor Griffin)
2 Subordinate Wolves (Gaspard, Flotsam)
1 Seer (Monica)
1 Guardian (Maximilian)
7 Supporting Characters (Pau, Lin, Fabio, Olivie, Claire, Mina, Rufio)

General Rules:
Cardflipping is OFF.
Night posting is ON.
Insta is ON.
Post editing is OFF.

Phase Lengths
The day phase lasts 48 hours or until insta, whichever comes first.
Night phase lasts 24 hours flat, or until I receive all necessary PMs, whichever occurs first.

Phantom Policy
You are allowed one phantom. I understand that some of you have issues with life, etc. However, a second phantom will mean a replacement, who inherits only one of the phantoms. If that person also phantoms, the position is out of the game entirely. This is to promote activity.

Role Knowledge
The Guardian and Seer will know each other starting night 4. This is to follow the story that Max has not met Monica yet. However, if both are alive at the end of Day 3, they meet in the story and find out each other's identity. As they have not met the supporting characters before, though, they do not know their identities at all during the game.
The supporting characters do not know each other, as they have never met previously.
By common sense, the wolves all know each other. ^^

Wolf Rules:
The Master Wolf, while still alive, will have the responsibility to PM me the target of the group's attack during the night phase. However, if the MW is unable to PM me, I will allow the Subordinate Wolves to contact me, provided that their target is agreed upon.

Guardian Rules:
The guardian will choose one person to protect during the night phase. If the person they choose is the one selected to be attacked by the wolves, the attack is rebuffed completely. The wolves will not get another attack that night, and one random remaining wolf will be critically injured in the fray. If that wolf happens to be the subject of the seer that night, he/she will die instantly, and be cardflipped. I believe this is a fair rule, since it would take luck, cooperation, and anticipation to successfully pull off this combination.

Seer Rules:
This is fairly straightforward. The seer PMs me the name of one player per night, and I will PM them back their color. As mentioned, if they name an injured wolf, I will PM them back that they did so, and cardflip that wolf in the thread.

Countering a Wolfing: An Explanation of Reversal.
So, exactly what makes the combination of seering and guarding lethal to a wolf? The seer uses magical energy to reveal the wolf's color, with the side effect of lowering defensive capabilities. The defense is lowered due to the fact of the identity revelation. Simply put, normally the wolf would heal itself before the day phase of any and all injuries. However, if that injured wolf is seered, the wolf will be unable to heal itself in time and show up wounded for the lynching. The guardian would see this, remember the previous night, and instantly know the identity of the wolf. Thus, the guardian would attack the player in broad daylight, and the player, weakened and battered, would stand no chance against a second attack. In desperation, they would go wolf, but succumb to the final blows. Therefore, the wolf would have to be cardflipped as common knowledge. This applies even to the MW.

Reversal of the Seering: Devastation and Demolition
Inversely, because Monica's magical seering method reduces the defensive capabilities of its target, if the seering target is wolfed, it will be an "easy kill" and leave the wolves with enough energy to kill a second victim. If the second victim is guarded, that attack is nullified, but also injures the guardian. (If the MW is still alive at this time, the Guardian will be cardflipped on the next day phase, as the wounds from the most powerful wolf do not heal quickly enough. If the MW is dead, then nothing more happens, as the Guardian recovers overnight.). If the second target is not guarded, they die as well, causing two wolfing victims in a single night.

Why Use Such Tactics?
It's the intrigue of the possibility of such a sudden reversal that I believe will keep the guardian and seer into more of a teamwork role. Naturally, the guardian will keep their role more hidden than normal, as will the seer. The seer will alert the guardian of the night's seering results. This brings the human team into a closer alliance; once the seer finds guaranteed humans, they can discuss tactics and slowly, but surely, decimate the wolf team. Because having the seer and guardian know each other is such a dangerous advantage, they will only find each other out if they both live for six phases (Night 1 - Day 3).

Secondly, the seering reversal is a tactic used to make the game less human-biased. After all, why is it fair that the humans can reverse a wolfing, but they can't find a way to double dip on their killings? Certainly, this causes a 1-on-many situation to be more forgiving, especially if the last wolf is the MW. Still, those silly humans can't have all the reversal fun, can they?

Final Words and Signup Policy
There will be 12 spots open, standard victory conditions will apply, and having fun will also be a main point. Two different sign up times will occur: one in the early afternoon (12-1 PM) and one in the evening (7-8 PM). Six slots will be open per registration period. The first 6 to sign up in each period will be the players. I will choose the 7th and 8th signups per timeframe as alternates. I will not accept players who do not immediately post their AIM screen name in their signup posts. However, if they correct this quickly enough, before the roster is filled, I will allow them in. Cheating is zero tolerance, and I will report any such cheating to TWC. Good luck to all players.

The first signups begin promptly at 6PM EDT (3PM Pacific, 4PM Mountain, 5PM Central). For you foreigners out there, it's GMT -4.

Six slots will be allotted from signups this first go-around.

Remember, you must put your AIM screen name in your signup post. Fail to do so and your signup is discarded. You may correct yourself in a separate post only, and only if you post it before the signups are filled. I will not accept any excuses as this policy has been clearly posted and will be fully enforced.

First 6 slots (AIM name is in bold)
1. Ruritsu (Ruritsu)
2. Bolth mannn (Bolthmannn)
3. pntballa18 (merlonifan28)
4. tupacodaman (tupacodaman)
5. jump the bullet (aksmooth77)
6. sc979 (Sam97379)

Second 6 slots (signup time TBA)
1. Zananok (AIM name needed)
2. emerald000 (emerald3x0)
3. Gun92 (james92hoffmann)
4. Makilaz (benderchan)
5. Viccica (MMViccica)
6. DarkManticoreX2 (DarkManticoreX2

Substitutes
1. Xception704 (jungmour2009)
2. BDN (MegamnGTX)
3. meno_rocks123 (MenoRS123)
4. jwcgator (jwcgator2)

EDIT1:
First signups are now open! Hurry folks, just six slots available! Get those lie detectors and sneaky, snarky attitudes out while you still got 'em!

EDIT2:
First signups closed! Next signups are tomorrow at noon EDT!

EDIT3:
One last spot left!

EDIT4:
Signups closed 100%! This game will start at precisely 6PM EDT on May 4th, 2009.

Any questions, contact me on AIM at cyrenics.