Witchhunt #8

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.[/CENTER]

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.

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 hang. Any living player may vote for any other living player, and a true majority (more than half) is required to hang.

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!

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 hang them.)

Player Assignments (Role and Type)

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

Roles 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 role only apply while you are alive.

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

For an 18 player game, there will be 13 Villagers, and 5 Witches.

At the start of the game the Witches get an additional, unassigned role and a single Witch may trade their own role with that of the extra role, allowing the Witches a limited amount of optimization of their role assignments.

Only the Witches know which role was given to them as an extra, so they can use that knowledge later in the game to their advantage in playing around town strategies. Also note that since the extra role is not assigned to a player, any ability that it may have is not usable during the game.

Village Player Types:

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

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

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. They may also communicate with each other at all times.

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

Important Information

The Roles

Holy​

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

Acolyte - At the start of the game, you learn who has the Priest role.

Information​

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

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

Oracle - At the start of the game, you learn the identity of a random Village Peasant.

Watchman - At the end of the first night, you learn the identity of a random Village Peasant who did not wake up during the night.

Inquisitor - Each night, you may check if a target is holy or not.

Peeping Tom - Once per game, you may observe the private actions of any non-holy role. If that role is dead, you may make decisions in their place.

Spiritualist - Once per game during any day (before time is up), you may publicly reveal this card and privately name any dead player. You will privately learn that player's cards.

Defense​

Survivalist - You start the game with an extra life.

Gambler - At the start of the game, pick even or odd. On those nights (but not days), you are protected from a kill.

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

Benevolent Old Dame - Once per game when your death is announced, you may give a target other than yourself an extra life.

Nurse - Once per game during any day, you may reveal this card and name any non-holy role. If that role is still alive, they gain an extra life.

Offense​

Judge - At the end of any day the players fail to select a target to hang, you may privately decide yourself. This ignores extra lives.

Hunter - The first time a player survives being killed, you may kill a target other than yourself the following night.

Dirty Old Bastard - Once per game when your death is announced, you may kill a target.

Loose Cannon - During any day (before time is up), you may reveal this card. Sacrifice yourself to end the day and personally decide who to hang.

Assassin - Once per game during any day (before time is up), you may reveal this card and guess the role of a target other than yourself. If correct, the target is killed.

The Witches

In addition to their roles, Witches have a few extra tricks that they can use during the game.

The last living member of the Witch team may kill up to two different targets each night.

Once per game, Witches may make an Illusion Kill instead of or in addition to their usual kill(s). The target of an Illusion Kill always survives, so use this later in the game to confuse the town!


Dead Players

Dead players may no longer communicate or vote with living players. They also may no longer utilize their role abilities. Dead players may communicate with each other freely, and watch the game unfold.
However, dead players are NOT eliminated from the game! Instead they continue to serve their side as an Angel or Demon.

Please note that while dead, players observe all actions made, or information gained by all players. For example, at the end of a typical night, dead players might learn

1. The players in the coven & their kill target. (eg: The Witch Coven of Amy, Bob and Cindy voted to kill Dave)
2. The priest and his check target. (eg: Errol the Priest checked Fred, who is not in the Coven)
3. That the fanatic was checked and now has an extra life. (eg: Fred the Fanatic was checked by the Priest & gained an extra life)

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.

Angels may vote as a group to protect any player from the Coven that night. The chosen player will be protected against the Coven kill, but not any other kill sources (such as the Hunter).

Each night, the Demons may pick two targets to Haunt. This effects both the Priest and the Angels - if the Priest checks either Haunted player that night, he will receive the result for the other instead! Secondly, if the Angels protect either of the two Haunted players, they may never protect that target again.

Additionally, Angels may only protect a Haunted player if there are more Angels than Demons.

In other words, the Angels can stand in the Witches' way, but the Demons can stand in the Angels' way; all in layers of dares and bluffs!

Note that in order for this to flow smoothly, Demons must choose who they wish to Haunt by the halfway point each night, so that Angels may react accordingly.

Finally, once per game, the Angels may protect two targets.

QUESTIONS
How does protection work exactly?

Protection blocks a single kill that occurs at night. Further, Protection stacks, so if you have two sources of protection (say you are the Gambler and Angels target you), it would take three kills in one night to kill you.

Also note that all kill attempts are made public, so if someone were to survive one kill, but die to a second that would be revealed upon day start. Similarly if someone is killed twice in the same night, that would be shown at the start of day.​

When does the DOB / BOD go off?

All deaths are announced during DAY, so the DOB / BOD kill or +life always occur during day.​

How are night actions resolved?

First, Demons choose their Haunt targets, then all non kill actions are resolved, then all kills are resolved. This means that nothing is interrupted or otherwise impeded by the target or recipient of an action being killed in the night.
​

How does the Peeping Tom work exactly?

The Peeping Tom may observe any completely private interaction made with the moderator, whether it be passive or active. This includes Gravedigger, Watchman, Inquisitor, Judge & Hunter. If the observed role is not alive, the Peeping Tom may make a decision in their place (where applicable), additionally, the player being targeted by the PT is informed & may queue their actions accordingly. It is acceptable for roles to conditionally target 'The Peeping Tom' if they are observed by the PT.

If the PT targets Gravedigger or Judge, the Angels are told in the End of Day information dump, when targeting any other role, the angels are told in the End of Night information dump.

Additionally, if the PT targets the extra, unused Witch Role, that role will be considered dead and the PT may make decisions or gather information in their place. At the end of the day or night that this occurs, the Witches will be told that the PT observed their spare role was dead.
​

What happens if the Gravedigger or Judge is the unassigned role and the Apprentice picks them?

The Apprentice will be told that nobody has that role and they will immediately gain the powers of the Gravedigger or Judge.​

Voting and Deadlines

Roles that reveal their card for an effect during the day (such as Nurse or Assassin) extend the day by 24 hours, at the moderators discretion. This is to stop degenerate strategies such as 'use your power immediately before day end to prevent a reaction'.

During the day, living players may post in this thread and vote to lynch a target. Please make your votes Bolded, Brightly Colored, and on a new/separate 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 declines Judgment, no one is lynched.

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

Ending the day early requires an unanimous-minus-one vote count.

Votals will be posted with alarming irregularity.

Queued Actions

Roles that make immediate game decision at the start or end of a phase (such as Judge, DOB, BOD) need to have their desired action queued with the moderator - this is to allow the game to run smoothly, as (for example) needing to wait for the Judge to check-in and decide who to lynch after a No-Lynch day could take many hours.

Additionally, players may have to be away from a computer when they would desire to make critical game decisions. 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 except in extraordinary cases.


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 Unauthorized Communications
Players may only communicate with other players using methods specifically allowed by the moderator, such as designated Quicktopics or the game thread. Take care when talking to non-players about the game - if they share your private information with another player, that is a rules violation on you regardless of your intent.

3. 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 non-content such as role ordering, post counts, or voting patterns. Anything that goes beyond irony and is a deliberate attempt to communicate is off-limits.

4. 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, so do not quote or otherwise acknowledge these private messages to other players, if they occur.

5. 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.

6. 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.

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


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Livelist:
Atum
Cobalt
Delphine
Fable
Fontisian
His Fluffiness
Jan
Jarizok
KaiDASH
Koalas
Miner
Newcomb
Owner
Regfan
Rubicon
The Waco Kid
Vaimes
Vira

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Pregame begins now, and will last 24 hours.

You may post during pregame, you may vote during pregame, you may discuss mechanics in vague terms, but activations will not be possible, and you may not force anyone to commit to a claim.

Please abide by the spirit of this rule, or next time I just make the pregame 24 hours of silence as you stew in your QT's.


Good luck and have fun!

 

Hello friends.

 

Let's burn some witches.

 

Not scum! Hax gods do exist.

Let’s try not to mislynch Rubicon this time.

---------- Post automerged at 09:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------

...

Vote: Rubicon.

I'll take a mislynch over that avatar.

 

Welcome young folks and old ..

I will be your guide on this wounderous adventure through our town.

We have at least 5 different breweries for you to find all with different flavors of ale.

But first we will make a stop at the church to worship the great Eidolonic and meet his greatest worshipper His Fluffiness.

Everyone say hello, he might bless you if you are lucky.

Can you see over there at the other end of the marketplace?
dLGN is throwing rotten eggs at Regfan.

Come and join him everybody, it is the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off.

Vote Regfan

 

With this being a larger setup and scum being given 6 roles out of the 19 inside the pool a lot of potential strategies for early on get ruled out since the odds of scum having something like Loose Cannon/Assassin are relatively high. That said I still think there's some advantage towards Gravedigger claiming at the start of D1 here given it's a role that scum are unlikely to waste kill power on but it still provides us with decent information to work with while locking scum into claiming it early if they have it but I'll let Fonti explain that in some more detail. I'd recommend Apprecntice take Gravedigger here too, it's a significantly better role than judge.

There's also some advantage towards Oracle hard claiming their "Village clear" here, wouldn't mind hearing others who have more experience with WH thoughts on this before anyone actually proceeds with it. I do have a plan that we could use to follow it up with too but really rather not go into it unless others think this is a good idea to begin with.

I've decided that we're totally lynching Newcomb today, he's either a witch (Win) or he's town and been mslynched two games in a row (Win). I'm willing to give anyone that votes him with me a daypass.

 

Hello friends and witches.

 

Five is a disgusting number.

 

Vote: Rubicon

Burn baby, burn.

 

igmeo Regfan

This game will be payback, one way or another.

 

We're supposed to have clothes on?

vote: regfan

 

Also I don't plan on fighting for top poster.

If I don't want to read 29377382 posts, it's only fair I keep it to a minimum too.

 

I will avenge your snake.

Vote Vaimes

 

Miner here with my obligatory priest claim.

Carry on.

 

Miner. Hey, miner. Are you a witch, miner?

 

Depends on the kind of fun you are into.

I think starting with clothes on is best most of the time.

The part where you get rid of them can be sensual in the first place if done right.

---------- Post automerged at 04:20 ---------- Previous post was at 04:19 ----------

What if we all reduce it to 10 posts a real life day?

Do you think you can bring up the wim to manage that?

 

I forgot that with the number of players here, this can actually happen.

Lynch: fontisian

Get on here Vaimes. Preferably before I murder your next pet.

 

Keep your naked bodies in the corner and stay away from me, please.

 

Jan, you're doing it wrong; anytime you team up with DLGN you're already on the losing side.

Yeah I'm very much expecting a few people to be more cautious with me after that game, that said I'm town (Thank fucking god, Eido had some mercy) so this game should be a lot less stressful.

 

You murdered the snake?