Unofficial Game Commentary Round 3

[Fedoraccoon]

Because we all want you to die, mwa ha ha!


[hr]

This world...is made of... LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!!

[October]

Quoting Fedoraccoon from 13:23, 22nd Feb 2007
Because we all want you to die, mwa ha ha!


[hr]

This world...is made of... LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!!

don't say things like that while I have an assassin sitting at my door.

Time to call the hit squad me thinks.

[hr]

I never thought I be so grateful that my best friend from college went on to become the director of the CIA.

[Fedoraccoon]

I am the hit squad...

[hr]

This world...is made of... LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!!

[Craicman]

hit squad dealt with it

[hr]

Like the inquisition, you'll never see us coming

[October]

Quoting Fedoraccoon from 13:45, 22nd Feb 2007
I am the hit squad...

[hr]

This world...is made of... LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!!

And that's what scares me.

[hr]

I never thought I be so grateful that my best friend from college went on to become the director of the CIA.

[Amorphous]

Figured I'd better post this because argument is fairly inevitable!

First, the details of the situation:
- Aspasia planted a letter in Wildcard's back while in the Sports Hall (a Safe Zone)
- Wildcard found the letter and persuaded someone else to open it

James and I both first decided that the innocent victim (club treasurer) survived the attack, as she was still in a Safe Zone at the time and therefore by the rules could not have been killed. Had this happened to an actual player, we probably would have ruled a one-day illness or something (e.g. 'x is so weakened by the poison that she cannot make an attempt for the next day, but would be able to defend herself').

We next ruled that Aspasia is incompetent for (whether intentional or not) making an attempt in a Safe Zone.

Lastly, and this is where I suspect it begins to get controversial, we ruled that Wildcard is incompetent for having a role in the near-death of an innocent. Our logic behind this is that had the innocent opened the letter outside the Sports Centre (not a Safe Zone) then we would take her as dead, and therefore Aspasia would be Wanted for killing an innocent. However, Wildcard had a large role in the death as it was he who persuaded her to open the letter (handing over something that he knew could be dangerous to an innocent person). In this case Wildcard would also be declared Wanted. Since Aspasia is Incompetent rather than Wanted, Wildcard is Incompetent too.


This does raise the issue of what, exactly, someone is supposed to do if they get a poisoned letter and they don't want to die themselves. There's no easy answer to it: the best solution might be to pass the letter on to their own target, which if successful would be considered a legal joint-kill on the part of the individual and the person who gave them the letter in the first place.

Lastly, if anyone still thinks the Wildcard-incompetent ruling is unjust, the only way I can think of explaining it is by analogy:

If a car mechanic tells a customer that his car is safe to drive when in fact (through neglect on the mechanic's part) the brakes are faulty, and the customer dies as a result, then the mechanic would probably be charged with manslaughter. If the mechanic told a customer the car was safe to drive when he KNEW the brakes were faulty then he would probably be charged with murder, even if the faulty brakes themselves were accidental and not a deliberate murder attempt. We're trying to replicate the same principle here.


Hope that makes some sort of sense!

[October]

I don't care as long as it means wildcard is not sitting out side my door anymore.

[hr]

I never thought I be so grateful that my best friend from college went on to become the director of the CIA.

[Fedoraccoon]

The easiest way to survive a poisoned letter is to open it with gloves on. It's as simple as that. The presence of the poison in the letter DOES NOT imply that the person who opens it is immediately killed. If they never actually touch the poison (be it powder or jelly or whatever) then they don't die.

[hr]

This world...is made of... LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!..LOVE AND PEACE!!

[Frank]

Well, I'd generally disagree about the ruling.

We're assassins. We're ruthless. If we can trick another player into deploying an incompetent attack then we should...that should be the inherent problem you run with poisoned (and explosive) letters. Thus the obvious thing to do is to simply say "Here, mate(nono-player-person-nearby), I think this is a poisoned letter, please sell your life for mine".

There's no incompetence in that, and generally, I'd assume that is the case with most things. If I hired someone to open letters for me (expecting a fatal one), then it's not my fault they died, and I'm certainly not incompetent because of it.

However, I'm happy to go off hunting this mastermind who spends his minions' lives like smarties... (only the minions have the answer).

The other good point, of course, is that you could just open it with gloves on...

(Though sprung-loaded talcolm powder bombs seem an immediate way to bypass gloves...)

Finally: Would slipping a glowstick into someone's clothing be sufficient to irradiate them?

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Seti]

I agree completely with the ruling. An innocent was affected, doesn't matter how. Besides, I think its time wildcard went on the run [img]littleicons/wink.gif[/img]

[D-ko]

Run? Whos running? Ill take ya all mwahaha. Ahem. Sorry bout that

[Craicman]

You failed to take someone backed into a corner earlier!

[hr]

Like the inquisition, you'll never see us coming

[Frank]

And if sources are right, you also failed to attend a tutorial...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[D-ko]

In my defence, I lost the tutorial room. Silly thing ran away. And as for the corner, I suspect he had made some dark pact. Surely there's no way the mighty I could possibly have missed that many times point-blank?

[Amorphous]

You may be interested to know that there are now as many Hit Squad members as there are Assassins. (We've had a few extra sign-ups from silly people who missed the boat on actually registering for the game itself!)

Altogether now: ooooooooooh.

[Frank]

I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't perhaps better to run a perpetual 'League of Assassins' in which you simply sign up and are 'inserted' into the system. So late-comers aren't as likely to ascend the heady heights of glory as those playing from the beginning of the semester, but at least it allows you to almost...hmm...recylce yourself?

Before 'ressurecting' you can, of course, opt to join the hit squad for a bit of 'down time', but ....blahblahblah...

Anyhow, it was an interesting idea (in my head).

Another idea I had was for, perhaps a game to be played alternately from assassins (ie Assassins one semester, this the next). The game 'Mercenaries'. Roughly identical rules from the Assassins, except that:
- You apply as a team of 3 (or 4?) people
- Each team is given two other teams to 'target'.
- Once a team is eliminated (all members killed...in the space of a week?[maybe that's too complex]), they simply get the next team along.
- No projectile weapons inside (let's face it: assassins gunfights are fine, it's usually only one or two assassins firing, but with hitsquads being the anomaly, with [at best] eight people in a running-cross-town-gun-battle...it's perhaps best to keep it in the open!)


The target 'web' in this case would be very simply....a great big 'circle' of joined dots, each team hunting the one left and right of it. As each team is removed, it decreases the perimiter of the target web.

What makes it better than assassins:
- Teamwork, you know you can trust your team!
- As it is teams, you don't need to live in fear of everyone!
- Given the simpler structure of it, alliances or truces could perhaps even be 'formalised'...(ie part of the rules)
- Teams might attract more folks?

What it looses over assassins:
- Insane paranoia
- Man-alone sort of worries
- A ruddy great chunk of the information gathering/concealing


Again, just a thought for a bit of variation on the themes...for the future...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Amorphous]

The problem with the 'League of Assassins' idea is that inserting someone into the system is very, very difficult if you want to maintain the rule of hunting/being hunted by three people. The only way you could do it would be to wait for someone to die and basically swap them over - the new person would have the same hunters and targets as the old person.


I quite like the idea of 'Mercenaries', so long as I'm not required to run it.

[JM]

ooh merceneries (sp?) sounds fun and very paranoia inducing. perhaps we could talk bout it after assassins?

it is GREAT being on this side with no paranoia...*flashbacks to prowling from bushes, to parked cars hiding from people* fun times

[hr]

"Life can be full of many problems"; this can be translated into "tormenting you is how the big man gets his jollies"

[Frank]

I put up an adapted version of it that'd account for both Assassins and Mercenaries. Of course, it needn't just be that sort of system, but it is certainly something for folks to think about! Indeed, once we'd pinned down the system, it'd be very easy to modify it for 'just mercenaries', 'just assassins' or 'both' (and indeed: none).

The paranoia is my friend. Doesn't help that I leap three foot every time someone opens a door...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[October]

Frank,
I think it has to be said.
You have far to much time on your hands.


[hr]

I never thought I be so grateful that my best friend from college went on to become the director of the CIA.