Topic: Assassin In The Palace (ROUND #1 GAME OVER)

[Mandle]

ASSASSIN IN THE PALACE

This is an interesting, short, and quite fun, if a bit random, variant of the usual Mafia/Werewolf forum game that I played years ago and remember with fondness.

The advantages over the usual Mafia/Werewolf game is that it is simple and easy to play without a deep knowledge of the various roles:

There are only 3 roles and all are simple to understand:

The King: The King is the target of the Assassin and must hide their role to the best of their ability, pretending to be a normal Guard. The King does not know who are Guards or who is the Assassin. The King wins the game if the Assassin kills one of the Guards instead of him.

The Assassin: The Assassin's goal is to kill the King. The Assassin does not know who is the King. The Assassin only has one shot to kill the King with. The Assassin may use this shot even when lynched. The Assassin wins the game if they target this one shot at the King. The Assassin may use this shot even in a round where they are not lynched but would probably be crazy to do so, or maybe if they must leave the game due to RL issues.

Guards: The Guards' job is to protect the King even at the cost of their own lives. The Guards all know who the King is, but the King does not know who are all trustworthy Guards. The Guards win the game if the Assassin targets a Guard instead of the King.

Setup: After every player has signed up to the game they will be sent a private PM from the game host telling them their randomly determined role.

From this point on: NO PLAYER MAY PM ANOTHER PLAYER CONCERNING THE GAME OR TALK WITH ANY OTHER PLAYER ABOUT THE GAME IN ANY OTHER WAY EXCEPT PUBLICLY IN THIS THREAD!

If anyone breaks this basic rule then the entire round is corrupted and becomes a waste of everyone's time.

Gameplay: Each discussion round will be about 48 hours in length to provide the most opportunity for discussion within the thread before voting for lynching.

Once this time has passed the Voting Phase is started by the game host:

Every player votes for another player to be lynched.

In-thread player discussion is still welcome during this phase.

The lynched player is killed and may no longer participate in the game.

If a Guard has been lynched then the game continues and it is known that it was a Guard that was lynched.

If the Assassin was lynched then they get to use their one shot to try to target the King.

If the King was lynched then everyone in the game, except the Assassin, and maybe the King, was a complete moron.

The voting phase will be about 24 hours or until everyone has voted.

NOBODY APART FROM THE PLAYERS MAY COMMENT IN THE THREAD WHILE THE GAME IS IN PROGRESS!

But non-players are quite welcome to follow along as passive audience members.

SIGN-UPS: For this first round I will be the game host and want about 6-10 players. I will keep the sign-ups open until at least 6 players have joined but more than that is fine.

Please express your interest in playing here in this thread but don't sign up unless you think you can be active at least twice every 72 hours to read the thread and vote during the voting phase.

WILL THE KING LIVE OR DIE?!

[dayowlron]

I am interested in playing, but a little confused on how we are supposed to get clues on who to vote for.

[Stupot]

I’m in!

But i’m Also a little hazy about how we judge to to lynch. You said if we lynch the king then everyone is a moron but it it’s completely random then how can that be avoided?

[Mandle]

I am interested in playing, but a little confused on how we are supposed to get clues on who to vote for.

The players have 48 hours to discuss who to lynch. It's best probably just to play and see how this goes. I don't really want to provide any strategy tips as that could spoil some of the fun. Let's just say it's a bit like poker and asking "I can't see the other players' cards so how am I supposed to know what they have?". It's part luck and part psychological warfare.

You said if we lynch the king then everyone is a moron but it it’s completely random then how can that be avoided?

The Guards all know who the King is and it's a majority vote for lynching.

[Stupot]

You said if we lynch the king then everyone is a moron but it it’s completely random then how can that be avoided?

The Guards all know who the King is and it's a majority vote for lynching.

ah, right you are. It seems I’m the moron already.

[Mandle]

ah, right you are. It seems I’m the moron already.

Naw, like with any new game it's not easy to wrap your head around all the rules and their implications until you have actually played it.

[selmiak]

*searches the attic for ye olde pitchfork*

sign me up!

[josiah1221]

Ah, I played something similar to this with a group of friends years ago. It was really fun! So count me in

[Mandle]

Okay, sweet! Four people already! Another two, minimum, and we are good to go!

[Sinusoid]

If that's OK, I'd like to participate.

[Mandle]

If that's OK, I'd like to participate.

Awesome! One more player would be great or, if not, I'll start the game sometime today anyway. Five players is slightly low but should still work. 6+ is ideal though.

[Mandle]

Okay, I'm about to start pulling little bits of paper out of a bag to determine the roles and start the game.

I will now be sending PMs out to all players informing them of their roles.

Sign-ups are now CLOSED and also I would like to request that nobody other than the players post in this thread until the game is completed.

Also, players, please remember that a strict rule of this game is that no player communicates with another player concerning the game outside of this thread.

AN ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN ACT IS TO SHOW ANOTHER PLAYER A COPY/PASTED VERSION OR SCREENSHOT OF THE PM THEY RECEIVED CONCERNING THEIR ROLE OR TO POST SUCH IN THIS THREAD, OR TO REFERENCE MY PM IN ANY WAY, AS PROOF OF THEIR ROLE!!!

Obviously doing so would completely destroy the fun of the game in the same way that a walkthrough destroys the fun of an adventure game.

Let me also mention this:

When I used to play this and similar Mafia type games back in the day it was 95% amazing fun but there was a 5% negative factor of butt-hurt immature players who had been killed off deciding it was best to just ruin the round for the rest of the players by spamming the thread with negative comments, or even just giving away the identities of their scum-in-arms comrades.

The latter cannot happen in Assassin In The Palace as there is only one "scum" player. (The name "scum" for the bad-guy player(s) is not a slur. It is just a game term. The "good" players are usually called "Town" and the "bad" players are called "Scum". It's just player shorthand and not an insult.)

But there were even some cases like where a "town" player admitted later that, even though they knew someone was "scum" they didn't place the final vote against them and win the game for their team because they were scared that the "scum" player, who was their friend in RL, would have gotten angry with them if they had lost.

Obviously we want a pure playing environment for this kind of game where outside relationship factors are neither brought into nor taken out from the game experience.

So, as I have had a few bad experiences with these Mafia/Werewolf games in the past I do want to warn players that they may die even if they tried their hardest to convince their "friends" that they were not "scum" but got lynched anyway.

The "Town", or "good", players will also probably slip up and lynch innocent members by mistake. This is only to be expected in this kind of game.

Also: a player might slip up and give away the identity of the King by mistake. Or the Assassin might slip up and give away their role for some reason.

Please let's not call people "idiots" or any kind of slur against them when this happens. It's part of the fun of the game. I doubt this kind of thing will happen in the AGS community but past experience with these kinds of games have shown me that they can bring out the nastier side of human nature now and then.

I mention all this because I'm using Assassin In The Palace as a test-run to possibly start a full Mafia/Werewolf game in the AGS forums. i had so much fun with these games a long time ago but they ended up dying out because of immature players' antics. I think AGS forums is a mature place that these kind of games could thrive and be a load of fun.

Anyway... I have some slips of paper in a bag I must now consult...

[Mandle]

ASSASSIN IN THE PALACE

ROUND: 1

PLAYERS:

(In order of sign-up)

Dayowlron  (ALIVE)
Stupot     (ALIVE)
Selmiak    (ALIVE)
Josiah1221 (ALIVE)
Sinusoid   (ALIVE)

TURN: 1

PHASE: Discussion

[Mandle]

GAME ON!!!

All players have been informed of their roles now by PM.

The 48 hour Discussion phase now starts.

Players may discuss anything they like, including asking questions to other players.

Each player should at least post something to prove they are active.

The goal of the Discussion phase is to try to gather information for the Voting phase and determine the most likely candidate to be lynched.

FROM HERE ON IN ONLY PLAYERS ARE WELCOME TO POST IN THIS THREAD!

PLAYERS MAY NOT COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER, CONCERNING THIS GAME, OUTSIDE OF THIS THREAD!!!

ALSO REMEMBER THAT SIMPLY POSTING YOUR PM FROM THE GAME HOST AS PROOF OF YOUR IDENTITY OR OTHERWISE QUOTING IT OR USING IT AS A TOOL TO PROVE YOUR IDENTITY IN ANY WAY IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!!!

[Stupot]

I want to start the convo but I’m finding it hard to think of how to phrase things without potentially giving away my role. Do we all have to talk as though we are guards even if we’re not? I guess the assassin (whoever that may be ) wants everyone to think he’s one of the guards, the king (whoever that may be ) wants the assassin to think he’s one of the guards and the guards (whoever they may be ) want the assassin to think that the king is one of them? Is that basically right?

[Mandle]

I want to start the convo but I’m finding it hard to think of how to phrase things without potentially giving away my role. Do we all have to talk as though we are guards even if we’re not? I guess the assassin (whoever that may be ) wants everyone to think he’s one of the guards, the king (whoever that may be ) wants the assassin to think he’s one of the guards and the guards (whoever they may be ) want the assassin to think that the king is one of them? Is that basically right?

I'm not going to comment either way on posts throughout the entire round for fear of giving anything away...

But, way to start the party Stu!

[dayowlron]

Thought you were going to get 6 people, but it looks like 5 to me. I am also not sure how this should go. I am guessing the guards jobs are to get the assassin to use their bullet on one of the guards.

[Mandle]

Thought you were going to get 6 people, but it looks like 5 to me. I am also not sure how this should go. I am guessing the guards jobs are to get the assassin to use their bullet on one of the guards.

Yeah, I decided to just start it while the signed-up players still remembered they had.

5 players might be an interesting example of how the game goes. It could go either way still.

Anyways, talk amongst yourselves in this thread... Anything is fine as long as noone breaks the rules of non-disclosure of received role PMs or of talking outside the thread about the game...

(By "non-disclosure of received role PMs" I only mean not directly showing a screenshot or copy/pasting the text within the received PM from the game host, or anything similar. People are free to pose as any role they see fit in any way they might devise apart from breaking this basic rule.)

There are many strategies that can be attempted by any role, but I don't want to provide a guide, except to perhaps advise everyone to think carefully about what everyone else is doing and why they are doing it before they themself procede to do anything further...

Psychological warfare!!!

[selmiak]

So do we just throw names around to get the first lynch mob started or do we talk about the rules pretending to be not understanding them?

[Mandle]

Okay, this is where I, as host, stop posting in the thread until it's time for the Voting Phase to start on Friday sometime.

I will be watching the thread, of course, but have fun everyone until then!