4/1/2023

10/12/2025 7:57 PM

434

2

1 win / 2 losses

Architect

“This is the ending all stories must eventually reach:
silence around an empty stage.”

—Unknown

Lazarus Cage

They want to keep you bound in the dark, but you won't let them. You will get out, fight and flee, fail and die, then try again and again...

Nautilus

Grudges must always be the first to die when a storm arrives.

After years away you return home to your dying father, but will you be able to get your brother to forgive you for leaving? And will you step up to the challenge to inherit your father's most prized possession?

Written as part of the 2023 Spring/Summer Contest: Gone Fishin' it is a game with a much bigger focus on story than gameplay, but still there is a decent amount of endings and variation for something this short.

My line of thought on not reviving Cat was that while she was a certain good person the fact we could only bring back one person meant it was better to keep it as an extra line of defense and hopefully revive someone who's a guaranteed mod since the trolls only needed 3 kills to win by eliminating mods while they would need 5 to win by eliminating CYStians. It was also why I wanted Ace and Will to stay in the same room so that I could protect them both. That way the trolls would need at least 5 kills to win regardless of if they managed to eliminate all Mods or all CYStians. Cat being the Noob was a possibility but also she could just mean she'll be helpful in gaining info or she already talked to someone. If people were in agreement on reviving her it wouldn't be a bad play, but at least in my mind not doing was the slightly better play.

Small clarification that ultimately doesn't change that much: Liminal's lie wasn't me being a mod. It was Suranna being one, which was a much smarter play than naming me a mod considering she was dead and so I technically couldn't verify his statement. Unfortunately he wasn't aware of our alliance and that I had all 3 mods confirmed by that point. And naturally full credits to Ace for noticing the wording on the card. I don't think I would've noticed that in time, but also Liminal being caught in a lie made Malk less of a suspect in that moment. Not that it would've mattered if the game wasn't over since it could only be him if it wasn't. And yeah my (in my opinion still warranted based on probability) paranoia about getting killed on the second night is pretty funny in hindsight. I just assumed the trolls somehow realized we're forming our alliance and would either take me out as the one middle-manning the whole thing, or I'd end up dead protecting Ace. Having luck as bad as mine means I always end up operating with the worst case scenario in mind, but it's good for things to work out every once in a while. If Ben did manage to leave the room in time Suranna would probably still be alive since neither Will or me would take a gamble on using his ability on a single person, so that was only partially luck. Also I didn't even notice the typos in Ace's message, and those honestly wouldn't make him more suspicious of I did. It was mostly the not so subtle compliment that made me wary. This was fun and hopefully we'll get a chance to do it again. Glad to know I didn't end up getting everyone wrong and those I did was the result of me failing a coin toss.

It was probably a solid strategy, but would take too much time without somehow baiting people to start declaring roles, especially since staying quiet created the optimal environment for the trolls. Funny thing it when I realized the apathetic must be alive and both Liminal and Malk claimed different roles they ended up pointing at you as the only one of the 3 suspects who's definitely not a troll.

Fair enough, but even then it's only really applicable to DND and a few smaller games since there's also different names for the Dungeon Master depending on what you're plating (Game Master, Storyteller etc.)

Don't worry about it, it's just one of those things you can only learn through a situation like this anyway.

PM and DM mean the same thing, but are abbreviations of different names for that thing. Honestly I use DM as a habit by this point. DM = Direct Message PM = Private Message

You did such a good job at being the Apathetic CYStian people ended up overlooking you for the whole game, but if it's any consolation you were the final piece to solving the thing, even if I ended up dead before I could DM you to confirm your role.

I feel like it would be fitting to say something meaningful considering the circumstances, and yet at the same time I know there's no need to say anything. My job as both guide and protector is done in a way that leaves me satisfied. You know what to do anyway.

No promises, but I will try. Everything is currently up in the air for the entire rest of October, but I'll try to offload as much work as I can on some college students.

Due to some work stuff I most likely won't be able to make it that weekend so I'm going to vacate my spot ahead of time instead of taking a gamble on what state I will be in for games at 2AM.