Witchhunt Rules 10.4 (online, base)

Preface: Witchhunt does not accommodate bastard modding. No false or misleading information should ever presented in-game to players, nor should any details about the rules or mechanics be withheld.​

Overview

Witchhunt is a game in which two factions each seek to control their town by killing off the other: The Villagers and the Witches. There are fewer members of the Witch team, but their identities are secret. Whichever team successfully kills all of their opponents wins.

The game continuously marches through a daily cycle split into two phases: day and night. The length of each game’s cycle can vary; a real life game might take 10 minutes for each day and night, while a forum game might take a full week. Each phase has an announced deadline, at which point the game automatically transitions to the next phase.

During night, players may not make public discussion and any actions taken are private from other living players. Each night, the Coven of Witches selects a target to kill. Additionally, the Coven may chat privately at this time.

This kill is announced at the start of the next day. During day, living players may make open discussion and decide on a target of their own to lynch. Any living player may vote for any other living player, and a true majority (more than half) is required to lynch.

During this discussion, it may prove important to conceal information or lie. There is no restriction to what players can say or claim! Lies are normally weapons of the Witch team, but anyone can say anything in pursuit of their team’s victory.

Note that unlike some other games, there is no "card flip" (announcement of the player's identity) on death! Which team they were working for remains a mystery!

There will be a brief "pre-game" phase. During this time, players have received their assignments and are invited to post personal introductions, but may not vote. Also during this time private chats are active, and Witch team members may trade characters. Day 1 then begins immediately.

The game ends when one side has completely eliminated the other, or when this is inevitable. (For example, Witches typically win when at least half the remaining players are Witches, because it is then impossible for Villagers to out-vote and lynch them.)

Witches win all ties or stalemates.

Player Assignments (Character and Type)

Each player is given two assignments: a unique character, and a non-unique type.

Unique characters provide every player with a special, unique ability of some sort. These abilities may be offensive or defensive, mechanical or informational. Powers granted by your character only apply while you are alive.

Player type is separate from character, and determines what team the player is on.

Village Player Types:

Villager - This is the most common player type. Villagers are simply trying to hunt down the Witches and use their character to help the Village do so.

Holy Villager - The most powerful characters are considered “holy” and have gold cards. These characters are reserved for the Holy Villagers, and cannot be any other player type.
(Holy Villagers have no other unique function besides getting a reserved character.)

Witch Player Types:

Witch - Witches start in the Coven. They know each other from the start of the game, and vote as a group in the Witch Coven each night to kill a target.

<9 players: 2 witches
9-12 players: 3 witches
13-15 players: 4 witches

Remember: Holy characters aside, any characters can be any player type - Villager or Witch!
​

Important Information

The Characters

Note that each Character will be added in the listed order, so if we have 12 players, The Oracle, Fanatic and Assassin will not be in this game​

Priest - Each night, you may check if a target is in the Witch Coven. (HOLY)

Acolyte - You start the game knowing the identity of all other holy characters. (HOLY)

Survivalist - You start the game with an extra life.

Gravedigger - At the start of each night, you learn the cards of anyone who died that day.

Dirty Old Bastard - When your death is announced, you may kill a target.

Judge - Any time the players fail to select a lynch target, you may privately select it yourself. This lynch ignores extra lives.

Benevolent Old Dame - When your death is announced, you may give an extra life to a target.

Inquisitor - Each night, you may check if a target is a Holy Villager.

Apprentice - At the start of the game, you may select Judge or Gravedigger. You will learn who has that
character, and take over their duties if they die.

Recluse - Every odd night, you are protected from a kill.

Gambler - Every even night, you are protected from a kill.

Loose Cannon - During any day before a lynch vote is final, you may reveal this card. Commit suicide to decide the lynch target for that day.

Oracle - Each night, you learn if: An archangel card was used; An archdemon card was used; Only one Witch is alive

Fanatic - When the Priest checks you, you are secretly notified and gain an extra life.

Assassin - When your death is announced, you may guess a target's character. If you are correct, they are killed and you may keep guessing until you are incorrect.


Dead Players

Dead players may no longer communicate or vote with living players. They also may no longer utilize their character abilities. Dead players may communicate with each other freely, and may watch the game unfold.

It is important to remind dead players that they may not communicate with living players in any meaningful way!

However, dead players are NOT eliminated from the game! Instead they continue to serve their side as an Angel or Demon.

Also note that while dead, players observe all actions made, or information gained by all players.

This means that dead players learn all of the following things at the end of each relevant phase if that character or group made an action or received info:

• When the Apprentice takes over for their Master
• When the Fanatic gets an extra life
• When the Archdemon card is used
• When the Archangel card is used
• Who the Gravedigger is & the info they learned
• Who the Inquisitor is & the info they learned
• Who the Judge is
• Who the Angels protected
• Who the Demons cursed
• Who the Priest is, their check target & result
• Who the Oracle is & the info they learned
• Who is in the Witch Coven & who they selected to kill

If there are only dead players from a single group (Angels or Demons), then only that group will learn the info for that phase.

Angels and Demons

All dead Villagers are Angels and all dead Witches are Demons.

Each night, the Angels may vote to protect a target from a single kill. Not only would the protected target survive a kill, but it is publicly announced that they survived. This information means that the Angel's protection has the potential to be a devastating double-blow to the Witches.

However, before the Angels make their decision each night, the Demons may vote to "Curse" a single target and prevent them from being protected by the Angels that night! (Demons must complete their vote halfway through any given night. The Angels are told who they are unable to protect that night.)

Angels and Demons vote by simple plurality, so dead players who do not wish to continue participating can do so with minimal consequence. Since Angels and Demons see all events that take place in the game and may discuss the game freely with each other, they can continue to have a massive impact on the game’s ultimate outcome!

Special Dead Player Cards

Some dead players are given special cards to further influence the game. Dead players may pass these cards to other dead members of their team if they would like.

Archangel - Michael

The first dead player aligned with the Village is given the Archangel card, Michael, as a bonus.

Once per game, the Archangel card may be spent to allow the Angels to protect a target who has been Cursed.

Archdemon - Beezelbub

The first dead player aligned with the Witches is given the Archdemon card, Beezelbub, as a bonus.

Once per game, the Archdemon card may be spent to may select a living player. The next Priest Check on that player will yield incorrect info ('Coven' will check 'Not Coven' while 'Not Coven' will check as 'Coven').

QUESTIONS
How does protection work exactly?

Things that give protection are worded 'protected from a kill', meaning they protect from a single kill that night. Protection does stack, so if you have two sources of protection (say you are the Recluse and Angels target you), it would take three kills in one night to kill you.​

How were PMs handled?

Role assignment PMs and QTs were generated and sent in the order of signup.​

How are night actions resolved?

Anything the goes at the start of night happens immediately: Gravedigger, Oracle one-Witch-left notification, all-Witches-dead notification.
All dead player actions except Angel protection must be submitted halfway through each night. Angels are informed of the Demon target at this time. Oracle is notified of Archangel/Archdemon at this time as well.
Everything else is processed simultaneously at the end of night.​

Behavior Rules

These rules help keep the game fun for everyone. Based on the seriousness of the violation, breaking these rules may result in a warning, in-place mod-kill, forced-lynch mod-kill, team forfeit, and/or a ban from participating in future game.

1. No Duplicate Account
You cannot register for the game under multiple accounts. This is the most serious violation possible.

2. No Private Communications
Except for QTs designated within the game, no private communications with another player about the game are allowed. (Including but not limited to forum PMs.) Be extremely cautious about talking about the game in a public setting that other players might see, or talking to non-players who might also talk to other players. If a non-player shares your private information with another player, that is a rules violation on you regardless of your intent.

3. No Dead-Living Player Communication
Dead players may not communicate with living players in any meaningful way about the game, outside of what is specified in the rules.

4. No Encryption
Encryption is using a specific key to conceal information in text (which may or may not appear to conceal a hidden message), and communicating that key or part of it (including decryption instructions) to other players. (Private or public, before or after) Avoid explicitly declaring unique and unusual significance to words, word or character ordering, post counts, or voting patterns. Anything that goes beyond irony and is a deliberate attempt to communicate is off-limits.

5. No Private Moderator Quoting
The moderator will try to make all communications in the public discussion, privately according to the publicly available script, or privately with yes or no responses. However, unforeseen circumstances do occur: The moderator might explicitly designate specific private communications as unquoteable. Do not quote or otherwise acknowledge these messages to other players, if they occur.

6. No Forum Abuse (No Edits, No Likes)
This forum has certain features that are undesireable for a smooth game, that we require players to ignore. Do not edit your posts. Do not "thumbs-up" posts. Do not "like" then "unlike" posts. Do not stalk the online forum status of players that have it enabled on their profile.

7. No Text Dumping
Do not post (in the public discussion or a QT) non-public material that is copied verbatim from another player, or written yourself more than 2 full game cycles ago. Additionally, do not copy timestamps.

8. No Personal Attacks
Above all, don't be a giant douchecanoe. Don't be a little douchecanoe. Don't be any size of douchecanoe.

Voting and Deadlines

During the day, living players may post in this thread and vote to lynch a target. Please make your votes:

Bold and red and on a new line.

You may change votes at any time during the day.

At the end of the day's deadline, if a player has a majority of votes, that player is lynched. If no player has a majority, or a majority of players vote to no lynch, the decision defers to the Judge. The Judge's identity remains private, and the result is announced. If the Judge is dead or otherwise wishes, no one is lynched.

If a player gets a supermajority of votes (a predetermined highly excessive number), the day will end early, regardless of the time remaining in day.

The number of votes that constitute a majority and supermajority will be clearly posted at the start of each day.

Votals will be posted with alarming regularity.

Extensions

Each player may, once per game while alive, extend a day's deadline by 8 hours by posting extension (in bold, red text) in the main thread. This must be done before the deadline is reached.

Extensions cannot be given to another player, refunded, or used while dead. A list of what players still have extensions will be extremely clear at all times.

Queued Actions

Players may have to be away from a computer when they would desire to make critical game decisions or posts. Players can work with the moderator in advance to easily address these circumstances.

If you are AFK and want to queue an action related to your role, post it in your QT. (In <b>bold</b>, using HTML tags) You cannot queue votes or extensions except in extraordinary cases.

You can queue posts for group QTs, if they are explicitly specified. The moderator will copy and paste the queued post to the group QT at the start of night.

QT Helper Post Text Dump - This is a list of all private communications posted to the QTs of living players. Feel free to discuss them publicly, since they are public record.

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Random Trivia: The Witchhunt games played here mid last year were version 6.4-ish, the current Witchhunt version is 10.4

We'll have signups for at least 24 hours, but maybe up to 48.

So, for start date we have 3 options, please indicate your preference and if any are absolutely not doable (ie: you can start on 2nd Jan, but not before that). For Christmas / New Years, probably we will just pause the game at the end of a day or night phase for 36 hours or so unless everyone alive wants to play over these periods (will poll privately in QT).

A. Start after signups are done
B. Start on 27th Dec
C. Start on 2nd Jan

I'd rather start ASAP, and we can probably get in two days and a night before Christmas? Possibly more?

 

I shouldn't sign up for this, but I'm going to anyway.

 

Hello.
I'm a bit new around here, but I would like to sign up to participate.
I have read through a few old games as preparation, including the previous TinyHunt.
I am also available to start at any time.

 

Should we have a hosting queue where hosts can sign up to host games?

I'll need to see the setup before I decide to play or not.

 

Oh, and I'm good with this starting whenever.

 

This is a terrible idea but count me in.

 

My last few games were somewhat disastrous in terms of the amount I could participate, but I've since cut back on coursework a bit, so I should be good to go. I'll be able to participate much more from the 27th onwards, but I suppose count me in for a game starting right away as well.

 

Fuck mafia. Sign me up D8

 

Here are the rules for a larger game but they should give you an idea of how they would be for this game this size if you just ignore anything about halftime.

 

Alright, let's do this.

Preferably not B, A or C is fine. I can work with B in a pinch, though.

 

1. Fontisian
2. Dermon
3. Prophylaxis
4. Bill Door
5. Typhoon
6. Luckylee
7. Moridin

 

I'm cool with option A btw.

 

added rules to OP

 

Hmmm... I'm not sure I like this.

Anyway, in with option B.

I'd rather wait and see if you have the numbers before I commit to A.

I don't see C happening, but in.

 

Bah, sign me up. I'll give this another try. No matter what, I plan to stick it through to the end.

 

Another game is currently ongoing using this system, it is working very well imo.

 

Oh, and I, too, am fine with whenever.

 

I was wondering, to what level is discretion utilised wrt Extensions? e.g. A last minute role reveal from a lynch target. Multiple players ask for Extension because it's almost the deadline, but each did so without the knowledge that others were queued up. Would all of those be non-refundably executed, or will the moderator clarify which people would like to use their extensions and which wouldn't?

 

I'll sign up as a replacement for now. If I die in the other game I'll bump it up to full participation here, but as it is WH7 takes way too much effort to afford splitting my focus.

 

All will be executed and are non-refundable. Also they have to be activated publicly in thread.

Leaving more than 5 seconds til day end to reveal as priest is probably a good idea too.