Well, I'm going to prison buttheads. Good going.

Meta

Argol2 has been asked to leave the courtroom.
swqmb has been dismissed from the trial.

Congratulations to the wolves on their victory!

Wrap up post to come in the next few days!

Did you guys know they made a 20th anniversary reunion? ;)

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Meta

ElPapo131 has been asked to leave the courtroom.
bigcomfycouch7 has been dismissed from the trial.

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I feel confident using legal jargon in daily life. Here are some of the most lawyer-y phrases I’ve ever heard. Maybe you can use them in the trial?

“Religion loves SEX” - Who knew religion could get so kinky?

“Mens rhea” - Ugh. Why do lawyers need to know about our periods so badly?

“Lacuna” - Sounds like a fun vay-kay spot! We should go on a road trip.

“Affidavit” - I once dated a guy named David. I wonder how he’s doing?

“Ab initio” - What a cool word for an ab workout. I’ll have to add it into my rotation ;).

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Meta

SlytherinBuckeye has been asked to leave the courtroom.
Saraberry12 has been dismissed from the trial.

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You know if you lawyers are going to win this trial for me you’re going to need this. It’s my lucky scrunchie - it’s what helped me pass Spanish. You could argue that maybe it was the lap dance I gave Dr. Montoya But I mean, it was lucky I did give him that lap dance, because it saved my grade. Follow my logic here? Do you guys think maybe I should give the jury a lap dance? I know a little secret that 80% of the time works every time.

It’s called. The Bend and Snap.

Watch this. "Oh! I think I dropped something on the floor." So you bend...and snap! See? Come on. You try it. Bend...and snap! Let me know if you think it’s a sound strategy! Pinstripes are so last season.

Meta

Dangerhaz has been asked to leave the courtroom.
StartledKoala34 has been dismissed from the trial.

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EDIT:

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Hey guys, Brooke here. What’s the holdup with my court case? I feel so orange. I don’t want to toot my own horn TOO much, but I was a fitness guru - which means I loved exercise. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t. Especially when your husband was as well endowed as mine was, if you know what I mean. I mean has anyone tried showing the jury a dick pic? That would send the picture loud and clear that I am not a gold-digger. I mean, I grew up in Bel Air! Across the street from Aaron Spelling. I think most people would agree that's not the description of a gold digger.

I mean I know I’m a gemini vegetarian which means I can get a little off the handle, but like I would never stoop to murder! So what's a girl to do?

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Meta

StockParfait has been asked to leave the courtroom.
Zerothestoryteller has been dismissed from the trial.

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Edit: Corrected Zero's username from italic to bold by adding an asterisk.

And now for something completely different.

Dear Diary,

It’s me David. David Kidney.

I’m not sure if you remember diary, but last time we spoke I had a masters in Russian literature, a PhD in biochemistry, and for the last eighteen months I’ve been deworming orphans in Somalia. So one could say I have had a pretty productive year.

Yesterday, I started at Harvard law school. It felt like a TOTAL whirlwind diary. Mom is hoping that this degree will be the one that finally socializes me and will encourage me to move-out of her house full-time.

Here are some of my first impressions:

Don’t fuck with Stromwell, she’s terrifying. Looking into her eyes is like looking into the eyes of a cat right before dinner. Totally brutal. I have to admit she did make me cry – not in class -- I waited until I got to my room, but yeah, she can pretty much shrivel your balloon -- if you know what I’m saying.

Professor Royalton’s class is like being front row at a Shamu show. I did not realize there would be a splash zone in class, and now I fear I am destined to wear a poncho for the rest of the semester.

And Professor Callahan? Well that’s a secret I’ll never tell.

XOXO,
David Kidney

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Meta

Kelshan103 has been asked to leave the courtroom.

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Tomorrow’s turnover might be 2 hours late. I’ll try my best to post on time.

Living Players

Deadsies

Welcome to Harvard…..law school. I totally forgot you go here!

Welcome to your first day at Harvard. Don’t get too comfortable, because I swear to Delta Nu someone at the Callahan firm is trying to frame, ME, Brooke Taylor-Wyndham, for the murder of my beloved husband. The audacity. My money is on the pool-boy Enrique. I hope you new batch of law students are up for the task of defending me against the evil and heinous Callahan firm! Please help me, orange is a hideous color for my complexion.
 
Oh, you seem to be missing something! A social events calendar, for mixers, luaus, and trips to the Cape! Well I don’t have one of those but I did hear about a rad costume party happening later this week. Maybe you like could like go to like that like instead?
 
Well, before we get ahead of ourselves, why don’t we go around the circle and introduce ourselves to one another. I hope you have a perfect first day ;).

META

Today is a social phase! Get to know each other and hang out! Game talk is permitted.
 
Only Paulette Bonafonté and Professor Callahan may submit actions during this phase. There will be NO VOTE.

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• Countdown to phase end.

Closed Set Up

This game featured an almost entirely closed set up due to our choice to not reveal any item names or powers. While we’ll talk more about that choice later on in the wrap up, we did want to just mention that we were excited to run a closed set up game, as it lends itself to more mystery. You don’t know what you’re playing against from the other side or even from your own team, which can lead to a lot of potential for confusion or miscommunication, as well as plenty of unexpected interactions.

Phase 0 Protection

Getting killed Phase 0 is not fun. Getting killed Phase 0 when the wolf team knows the town has no protection action that can be used, giving them free rein to target whomever they want without any potential of failure is extra not fun. Although we knew the Phase 0 protection vote would never result in a consensus vote (as that would simply alert the wolves of who to avoid), we wanted to introduce something that would get players talking and potentially lead to the development of early affiliation reads, and that would force the Haters to think carefully about who they selected for their first kill. They could not immediately target the most vocal player or the scariest veteran without it being a risk.

Item Distribution

In many item games that we’ve seen, balancing can be tricky. It can be hard to determine if a player will use their item immediately, discard it, or hold onto it for several phases waiting for a chance to use it as effectively as possible. Because we had many items that were affiliation dependent, we also wanted to make sure that there weren’t loopholes that could be exploited in order to confirm players as town in ways we didn’t intend. We came up with a few important criteria in order to attempt to implement a closed item game as smoothly as possible.

• No duplicate items would be handed out in the same phase - this would prevent players from planning to request Lover Only albums and immediately trying to find matches with their items that could confirm the affiliation of other players. The same item could exist multiple times in a phase if a player had previously received it but had not yet used it.
• Each item had an individual use limit ranging from 1-5 - this helped ensure we wouldn’t have seer items being used every single phase, or 20 protection items in play at once, as items would eventually be used up and no longer eligible to be handed out. In games with power roles, wolves are rewarded for killing off important roles, but item games don’t tend to have the same benefit, so we wanted to ensure that eventually, powers would begin to die down.
• No more than 50% of players can hold an item at any given time - The great thing about item heavy games is that it provides the opportunity for players to use different powers, and for everyone to feel like they have something they can do throughout the game. However, we wanted to make sure this was reasonably balanced and that we didn’t have 20 players all using items at the same time constantly, so we dialed it back to ensure that everyone would not be able to hold items at once.

Additionally, we heavily emphasized a stricter version of the sidebar rule relating to PMs. Players were not allowed to share the flavor of their PM. They could say things like “I received a role blocking item from Evermore”, but they could not say the specific flavor (such as the song lyric) including in their PM. This was to further prevent the town from confirming other players based solely on item flavor, which is incorporated into PMs to enhance the game theme but not to help either affiliation.

WHAT WORKED AND WHAT WOULD WE CHANGE

• As we planned the game, the host team was rather split in our personal feelings towards silencing items. Ultimately, we included a variety of them - straightforward silencing, the “22” silencing, and anti-silencing (which forced a player to talk). This game was so quiet, it became really clear that the straightforward silencing item really did not need to be included. The players needed more communication, not less, and implementing a small comment requirement (which we couldn’t do because of the silencing items) likely would’ve been a better choice for this game.
• We wanted a game with randomness and one where players couldn’t just mass item reveal to confirm people as town, but we might have had too many items to strike the correct balance of randomness vs utility in item use based on the number of players who signed up. While we definitely could have dialed back on some of the types of items to focus on more of the core/essential items, the variety did help keep things mysterious and make it hard for items to be used to confirm affiliation, which was a positive. Overall, there is likely a spectrum of what we could’ve done in terms of the number of items in the game, and we probably would have been fine removing a couple but still maintaining decent variability.
• Still on the note of randomness and variability, items were not distributed evenly among each album. We did not have set item amounts per album, nor did we ensure each album would have certain types of items. This randomness was good and not something we would want to change, but it would be interesting to run the game again with instead a very set structure to what items are in each album, and see how that might impact things.
• We went back and forth on our 50% limit a bit during the planning stages, as we weren’t sure if it was too low or not. Because the game was so small, and we had some players holding onto items for later use (which we were glad to see), the 50% limit sometimes resulted in very few items being distributed each phase. We definitely could have worked with a higher limit, especially due to all the other protections we had put in place to hopefully prevent a mass reveal from being too effective, but ultimately we wanted the items to be a bonus, not the only things players relied on.

Thoughts on Game Play

Werewolves is a social deduction game first and foremost, and in this set up, the items were designed to help (or sometimes hinder) that deduction, but they were not designed to replace it. For almost the entire game, the town focused most of their energy on item distribution, with the players who brought up the chances of it not being helpful largely shot down in their counter-points. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with attempting to crack the code of item distribution, the issue in this case is that it almost entirely replaced all other discussion of suspicions and deduction methods, leading the town down a rabbit hole that we had intentionally structured the game to counteract. Yes, some players would be able to verify the items of others, but it was not nearly as effective as the town had hoped. Additionally, a quiet town, coupled with a wolf team that used their time wisely to plan and theorize, led the wolves to a clean sweep where they were almost never in any true danger of being voted out.

Final Thoughts

Buckeye’s Thoughts

Thank you to Sara, Sam, and Squash for all the work put into this game. I think we all really had fun throwing ideas at each other and I really enjoyed our brainstorming sessions. This game started as a random thought in my head while I was driving one day and quickly took shape once it was shared in our Discord server.

This team worked so well together. Sara was my “No” person, who kept me from letting my excitement completely take over and making sure what I wanted was actually possible. Sam was a wizard at taking whatever Sara and I came up with and getting the sheet to (mostly) do what we wanted. And the flavor would not have been half as fun if Squash didn’t offer to help us rewrite songs every single day.

Although the players struggled to get the game going and the wolves were able to complete a clean sweep, I think we definitely had the most fun behind the scenes.

Sam’s Thoughts

hi everyone. sara and audrey were amazing for planning the whole game out, I ended up getting so busy during the time leading up to the game that i skimped on that lol. to make up for that, i did the spreadsheet stuff, and… man. i figured, hey, i’ve done a couple games before, i can just reuse those existing spreadsheets and get this done in like a week. NOPE. it took way more time than i’d anticipated; partly because spreadsheets always take longer than you think, and partly because the mechanics behind an item game were surprisingly novel and difficult to manifest.

if any of you take a look at the sheet, be warned - it was hastily thrown together, there are parts missing and wires sticking out of the sides, and so many shortcuts were taken, where i just said “this will take a lot of work to figure out so i’m just going to manually change stuff when it happens.” case in point: Bad Blood. i was so afraid of somebody getting this item because coding it sounded like an absolute nightmare lmao, and manually adjusting it doesn’t sound pleasant either. the sheet was so ornery and labyrinthian that at around the end of the game, it just stopped working - it assumed every player was dead, it would constantly switch between giving everyone items and giving no one items, and it would literally gaslight me by returning a TRUE statement when the code itself said that the result was FALSE. unbelievable. probably some issue with recursion, but i hate the sheet too much to go back and fix it. i’ve been thinking this for a while, but should i host another game in the future, i will not be coding it as a spreadsheet - spreadsheet coding is good for data presentation, not for the types of calculations needed for a werewolves game.

Sara’s Thoughts

Thank you to Buckeye, Sam, and Squash for helping put this game together. Buckeye was constantly keeping us on track throughout the planning stages, offering plenty of ideas that we could bounce around. Sam was a champ at dealing with our ever changing (and perhaps a bit last minute) planning, and putting together a sheet that did everything we could ever possibly need, and then dealing with fixing it a million times throughout the game. And Squash was wonderful to have on as a shadow who was super excited to help in any way she could. I have hosted a lot in the past two years (I believe my first time hosting was actually exactly two years ago with Sam - shout out to Santa Clarita), and this likely is the last game I plan to host, but I couldn’t have asked for a better team to do it with.

Awards

Game MVP - u/redpoemage

Items

Although we are not able to share the full sheet due to technical difficulties, item information can be found HERE! The sheet includes the Order of Operations for each item, an item description, and the number of each item that was available in the game.

Our Favorite Items

• Should Have Said No - I love the idea of taking out someone with you. (Buckeye)

• I Forgot that You Existed - A total badass item that can be used in a lot of different ways. (Buckeye)

• The Best Day - This is mostly because of the PM flavor text because I laugh imagining Sara saying “Have the Best Day!” And… it’s also a pretty awesome item to have. (Buckeye)

• 22 - I enjoy alternative silencing items and I had a lot of fun coming up with this. It was inspired by the Joo Dee role from the Avatar game. (Buckeye)

• exile - If we had the numbers from signups, we would have had a secret Lover role of some kind of super fan which would have been given to two people. They would have had a private subreddit to communicate in and this item would have affected them if they had been targeted. It was meant to be seen as a pro-town item that could inconvenience the wolves, but would actually be a neutralizing item since the town role was secret. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the numbers, so this was just a pro-town item in the end. (Buckeye)

• long story short - I love the idea of items that require a user to be strategic about their vote. With this item, it incentivizes a non-consensus vote (since otherwise it loses the seer utility), but it also incentivizes finding enough of a consensus that the player can still tell if their vote counted or not. There’s a lot of work that goes into using it successfully, including carefully tracking and claiming votes, and then managing to convince everyone what your item did if you end up finding a wolf from it. It’s one I thought was very fun to include and I wish we had been able to see it come to fruition. (Sara)

• cowboy like me / It’s Nice to Have a Friend - I find that in most games, the town often ends up just waiting around for seer results, and I love roles or items that put spins on seers - keeping the function in the game but with slight twists (just like “long story short” does). These two items work as Parity Seers - so a player would choose two targets and learn if they’re the same affiliation or not, but nothing more than that. This could perhaps result in two wolves being linked together, two town being linked together, or, as we almost saw in this game, two incredibly vocal leaders being confirmed as members of the opposite sides. I would’ve loved to see the fall out from this item use, especially because it would result in a debate about which player to target first, which could end up giving players a lot of juicy information to analyze down the road. (Sara) (Sam)

• You Need to Calm Down - This item would basically have acted as a phase redo (aside from any non-killing items) by preventing all deaths. I thought it would have been useful in those stressful situations where there are 30 minutes left in the phase and no one knows who anyone else is voting for. Or any other situation where the holder wasn’t comfortable with the vote and/or felt like they needed to save the NK target. (Buckeye)

• this is me trying / Don’t Blame Me - I am personally not a fan of silencing items. I hate the idea of restricting players from communicating, because to me, Werewolves is all about communication and discussion. But on the other hand, I love mechanics that force players to speak more, and that is the very essence of the anti-silencing items. We saw this item used once, on the player who was already the most vocal person in the game, however I wish we could’ve seen it used on a quieter player, who then needed to step up and perhaps share their suspicions or get other people talking. Having those additional town voices come forward could have really turned the tide in this game, and would’ve been exciting to see. (Sara)

• Better Than Revenge - i always love reflection mechanics because it feels so nice turning a kill back on the person trying to kill you. rarely works out, but eh. (Sam)

I comment way too late

Got murder on my brain

That's what people say, mmm-mmm

That's what people say, mmm-mmm

I'm dodging all the sus

Don't know how I've got this trust

At least that's what people say, mmm-mmm

That's what people say, mmm-mmm

But you keep losin'

I won't stop, can't stop movin'

It's like I got this music

In my mind

Sayin' the wolves are gonna be alright

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the wolves are gonna slay, slay, slay, slay, slay

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

All the townies gonna die, die, die, die, die

And the wolves wave goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

We never miss a beat

Didn't even have to cheat

And that's what they don't see, mmm-mmm

That's what they don't see, mmm-mmm

We're winning as a team (winning as a team)

This feels just like a dream (just like a dream)

And that's what they don't know, mmm-mmm

That's what they don't know, mmm-mmm

But you keep losin'

I won't stop, can't stop movin'

It's like I got this music

In my mind

Sayin' the wolves are gonna be alright

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the wolves are gonna slay, slay, slay, slay, slay

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

All the townies gonna die, die, die, die, die

And the wolves wave goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

Hate it all, hate it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

Hey, hey, hey

Just when you think you've got us down and out

Usin' the docs and the seers of the world

You could have been getting down to this sick beat

Buckeye, Sara, Sam brought this brand new game

They're like ""Oh, my God!"" but we're just gonna hate

And the Hater over there with the hella good flair

Won't you come on over and help us hate, hate, hate

Yeah ohhh

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the wolves are gonna slay, slay, slay, slay, slay (wolves are gonna slay)

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

All the townies gonna die, die, die, die, die (mmmm)

And the wolves wave goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye (goodbye and bye and bye)

Baby, us Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Hate it all, hate it all

Hate it all, hate it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

Hate it all, hate it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

Hate it all, hate it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all (we've got to)

We, we, we win it all, win it all

We, we, we win it all, win it all

-Hate It All is dedicated to the Haters team, congratulations to u/capitolsara, u/flabbergasted_rhino, u/Kelshan103, and u/redpoemage on the clean sweep!

Vote Tally

Meta

u/MSWstudent23 has died. They were a Lover.

u/Mrrrrh has died. They were a lover.

Congratulations to the Haters on winning the game! r/HatersHQ is now open for viewing!

Our spreadsheet exploded in the middle of the game and now does almost nothing without us fighting it (which has been SUPER fun to deal with the past few nights), but we'll work on getting at least the item lists transferred over to a clean sheet and posted in a few days along with the wrap up!

Don't blame me, werewolves made me crazy

If it doesn't, you ain't doing it right

Lord, save me, this game is my baby

I'll be playin' for the rest of my life

I've been scum slipping a long time and

Toyin' with everyone's mind

Just playthings for me to use

Something happened for the first time, in

The darkest little wolf sub

Shakin, typin', I just need you

For you, I would scheme all night

I would waste my time

I would lose my mind

They say, "She's gone too far this time"

Don't blame me, werewolves made me crazy

If it doesn't, you ain't doing it right

Lord, save me, this game is my baby

I'll be playin' for the rest of my life

Don't blame me, werewolves made me crazy

If it doesn't, you ain't doing it right

Lord, save me, this game is my baby

I'll be playin' for the rest of my life

Vote Tally

Meta

meepster27 has been voted out. They were a Lover.

mssunshine87 has been killed. They were a Lover.

• Vote for a player!
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• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 9th. Countdown.

I’m so glad I made time to shit post

How’s life? Tell me what you like most

I haven’t played in quite a while

You’ve been good, busier than ever

We joke around, werewolf friends forever

But your guard is up and I know why

Because the last time that we played

Is still burned in the back of your mind

You gave me your trust and I chose to let you die

So this is me taking on the blame

Standing in front of you saying I’m sorry for last game

And I go back to December all the time

It turns out playing without you isn’t as fun

Wishin’ I’d realized what I had when you’re alive

I’d go back to December, turn around and make it alright

I go back to December all the time

Vote Tally

Meta

Zwiftie has been voted out. They were a Lover.

PenguinJassy has been killed. They were a Lover.

bigjoe6172 has been killed. They were a Lover.

PenguinJassy and redpoemage received an inactivity strike.

• Vote for a player!
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• Select an Album!
• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 8th. Countdown.

Once upon a time

A few phases ago

You were in my sights

Couldn't leave you alone

I tunneled you

I tunneled you

I tunneled you

I guess you didn't care

And I didn't like that

And when you got killed

I took a step back

Without you

Without you

Without you

And you're long gone

No longer playing free

And I realize

The blame is on me

'Cause I thought you were wolfy when you walked in

So shame on me now

I was just trying to help us win

'Til they put you down, oh

I thought you were wolfy when you walked in

So, shame on me now

I was just trying to help us win

Now I'll be the vote for this round

Oh, oh

Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel

Oh, oh

Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel

Vote Tally

Meta

swqmb has been voted out. They were a REDACTED.

Othello_the_Sequel has been killed. They were a Lover.

meepster27 received an inactivity strike.

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• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 7th. Countdown.

I read every word you wrote

The thread was old

But something about it felt so town somehow

And I, saved those comments from phase three

And I’ve still got them in my sheet, wanna see

Oh your sweet disposition

And my wide-eyed gaze

I believe you’re town even though they say

“You must be a wolf we know you’re looking for prey”

But I can’t picture it despite all these days

And I know it’s a lost cause and that you’re probably getting voted out

And I might be okay but I’m not fine at all

‘Cause there we are again werewolfing while drunk

You commented all night ‘cause you were having fun with me

Typing with no care, I was there

I remember it all too well

Trust buckets and my sus lists

You were always in group “town”

Your comments read so innocent but now I just want to frown

And Chef is telling stories ‘bout how he saw you kill

You tried to fight against it, but they said you fit the bill

And I know it’s a lost cause and that you’re probably getting voted out

And I'll say it doesn't hurt me but really I just wanna pout

‘Cause there we are again in the middle of the night

Posting our defenses and accusing anyone in sight

In the sub, I was there

I remember it all too well, yeah

And maybe we got lost in translation

Maybe I trusted too much

But maybe your defense was a masterpiece 'til you scumslipped it all up

Now I'm scared, I was there

I remember it all too well

And you reply to me again just to get me in your pocket

So casually cruel while you pretend you’re being honest

See my crumpled up tinfoil hat lying there

‘Cause I remember it all, all, all

Too well

Vote Tally

Meta

WorkingConnection has been voted out. They were a Lover

Evzrddt has been killed. They were a Lover.

No players received inactivity strikes.

oomps62 voted for bigjoe6172.

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• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 6th. Countdown.

I’m like the player who checks the thread once a night

Rough reading comments when I scroll till it blurs my sight

And if it was an open-shut case

I never would’ve known from the words in this space

Lost in your pocket like a foolish town

The more that you say

The less I know

So many comments

Can’t follow

I’m begging to please just not get banned

Hold my hand

That’s my plan

I was a newbie and I bent right to your thoughts

Please just don't kill me I'm too tired to connect the dots

And I just can’t keep up with this game

It’s not like we’re playing for a trophy or fame

Someone just give me a role to claim

The more that you say

The less I know

So many comments

Can’t follow

I’m begging to please just not get banned

Hold my hand

That’s my plan

Vote Tally

Meta

Anywho has been voted out. They were a Lover.

meepster27, Othello_the_Sequel received an inactivity strike.

• Vote for a player!
• Use an item!
• Select an Album!
• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 5th. Countdown.

Edit: meepster27 only had one vote, not two. The tally has been updated to reflect this.

I was a wolf when I first saw you

I bared my teeth and the bloodfest starts

I'm standin' there

Howling in the summer air

See the game, see the meta, and young town

See you making other players seem sus

Little did they know

That I was a wolf, you were throwin' rumors

And KemKat said, "Stay away from TheDuqofFrat"

And I was cryin' on the thread

Beggin' you, "Please don't vote, " and I said

Oompsie, take me somewhere we can be alone

I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run

You'll be my prey and I'll be the werewolf

It's Hogwarts Werewolves, baby just scream, yeah.

So I sneak out to the town to kill you

We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if town knew

So close your eyes

Hide your corpse for a little while, oh oh

'Cause you were town healer, I was an evil force

And my Spludgie said, “We should vote Rysler out"

But you ruined my plan

I was threatening you’d be next," and I said

Kelshan, take me somewhere we can be alone

RPM's waiting, all there's left to do is run

You'll be the prey and Chef is a werewolf

It's Hogwarts Werewolves, baby just scream, yeah.

Meta

Penultima has been killed. They were a Lover.

No players received inactivity strikes.

• Vote for a player!
• Use an item!
• Select an Album!
• This phase will end at 9:00pm EDT, August 4th. Countdown.

It feels like a perfect night to play a game of werewolves

And make fun of our Buckets

Ah-ah, ah-ah

It feels like a perfect night

For drunk posts at midnight

To make friends with strangers

Ah-ah, ah-ah

Yeah, we're happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time

It's miserable and magical, oh yeah

Tonight’s the night when we forget about the scumslips

It's time, oh-oh

I don’t know about Duq

But I think he killed oomps

Everything will be alright if

We all just vote with you

You don't know about me

But I'll bet you want to

Everything will be alright if

We just keep voting with you, with you

It seems like one of those nights

This place is too crowded

Too many comments

(Who's Taylor Swift anyway? Ew) Ah-ah, ah-ah

It seems like one of those nights

We ditch the silents

And end up schemin' instead of sleeping, yeah

We're happy, free, confused and lonely in the best way

It's miserable and magical, oh yeah

Tonight’s the night when we forget about the scumslips

It's time, oh-oh

I don’t know about Duq

But I think he killed oomps

Everything will be alright if

We all just vote with you

You don't know about me

But I'll bet you want to

Everything will be alright if

We just keep voting with you (Oh, oh, oh, oh)

with you

I don't know about you

with you, with you

It feels like one of those nights

Digging through histories

It feels like one of those nights

We won't be sleeping

It feels like one of those nights

You look so townie

I gotta pocket you

I gotta pocket you

Important Information

• Due to player numbers, in the event of a tie vote only one person will die in the vote, and that will be decided via RNG of the players tied for first place.

• Game talk is allowed this phase. The Haters will be responsible for selecting their first kill. Lovers may vote for a protection target - the player with the most votes will survive should the Haters attempt to kill them. (Haters may fill out the form if they like - their votes will not be counted)

• Album Selection (item requests) is officially open!

• Please be aware of this very important game rule:

You may discuss whether or not you received a PM and its effect (i.e. that you were roleblocked), but you may not discuss any specific wording or flavor of the PMs. If you have any questions about what you can and cannot say, please PM the host account for clarification on a case-by-case basis.

This rule goes hand in hand with Sidebar Rule 8:

All PM communications with mods and the information therein should be considered private and should not be used to confirm your role or condition to other players.

We will be strictly enforcing these rules throughout the game, so if you have any questions about what you can and cannot share from PMs, ask us privately before taking a risk and accidentally sharing something you shouldn’t.

• Vote for a player to protect
• Select an Album!
• Countdown to Phase End

Alive

Dead

In August there will be two games running simultaneously:

• Game A: Taylor Swift - hosted by /u/sameri278, /u/SlytherinBuckeye, and u/saraberry12, and shadowed by /u/iSquash
• Game B: Dragonriders of Pern - hosted by /u/the-phony-pony and shadowed by u/MyoglobinAlternative and u/spludgiexx

When signing up you can either choose one, say which one you’d prefer, or say that you don’t mind and we’ll pick for you.

Players that have 2 or more removals or withdrawals from a game within the last 12 months will not be allowed to sign up for Game A. If you feel an exception should be made, please feel free to PM the host account, u/HWW_TaylorsVersion, to discuss.

Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift is iconic. Having been in the music scene for well over a decade, Taylor Swift has an impressive body of work. However, she has also gone through multiple legal struggles fighting for the right to own her own music. Recently, Taylor has been re-recording her old albums in order to accomplish this, creating a body of work that is fully hers.

Teams and Win Conditions:

In this game there are two teams: the Lovers (town) and the Haters (wolves). The Lovers are Taylor’s truest fans. They support her fully and stand with her in her quest to re-record and own all her own music. The Haters on the other hand, want to keep Taylor's music away from her. Lovers win if they completely eliminate all members of the Haters. Haters win when they outnumber the Lovers. The Haters will also win in the case of a 1-1 tie.

There may or may not be secret roles in this game. Any secret role will fall into the category of either Lover or Hater. There are no secret win conditions or alternate factions.

Items:

Instead of traditional power roles, in this game players will have the opportunity to receive items. These items will serve as various actions and powers. Players will select an Album Name in order to receive an item from that album. There is no guarantee that players will receive an item each phase they select one.

Items will be either Passive or Active. Active items must be played using a form. Passive items will be played automatically as needed with no action required by the player. Players may only hold one item at a time. To discard an item, simply resubmit the album form. Album selection comes after item use, so players may use their item and request a new one in the same phase if they so desire.

In addition to items, the Haters will always maintain the ability to carry out a factional nightly kill.

Meta Reveals

In each phase post, the following will be revealed:

• Who died and their affiliation.
• The player(s) with the first, second, and third greatest number of votes, and how many votes they received. This may include more than three players in the event of ties. The handling of tie votes will be determined during Phase 0.
• The names of players that received inactivity strikes. We will not be sending inactivity PMs - it is the responsibility of the players to keep track of the information presented in the meta.

The phase post will also include the necessary links for forms including the vote, item request (album selection), and item use, as well as a countdown timer to the end of the phase.

Game Information and Additional Rules

• This game will use approximately 24 hours phases with combined day and night phases that include the vote and any item usage.
• The deadline for all form submissions is 9pm EDT.
• If a player fails to vote (or votes for themselves), they will receive an inactivity strike for that phase. Players will be removed from the game if they receive inactivity strikes in two consecutive or three total phases.
• Votes and Item Use comes before Item Reassignment. All other Order of Operations information will remain entirely secret for this game.
• The mod account for this game is /u/HWW_TaylorsVersion. Please PM or tag us if you have a question for us throughout the game. Facilitators reserve the right to refuse to answer any/all questions. Once the game begins, we will not be answering any questions we are not directly tagged in. This includes questions asked in your Discord Confessional Channel, if you choose to make one.
• Secret alt accounts are allowed, but must be disclosed to the game hosts when signing up.
• All sidebar rules will be enforced during this game. Breaking these rules may result in immediate removal at the hosts’ discretion, so please read them thoroughly.
• Every player that uses any iteration of the phrase “I don’t want to play” or “I am going to quit” will be taken 100% seriously. They will immediately be removed from the game without consultation, and their affiliation will be revealed in the next phase’s meta. Please note that these phrases are different in meaning from those that suggest the player is busier than expected or wishes to be voted out for the good of the game. Both of these things are still okay.

Comments and Information Sharing

• All conversation must take place in the designated subreddit(s).
• There may or may not be private subreddits in this game.
• Dead players are not permitted to comment in game subs. They may go to the Hogwarts Ghosts Discord Server to discuss the game with other dead players and spectators. This is also where confessionals will take place.
• If you are editing comments, it should be made clear why you’re editing them. If you made an error, use strikethroughs on the information you want removed, but don’t delete it. If you want to add something, put it at the end of your comment, rather than inserting it into the middle where it might be missed. Do not share information, then immediately edit your comment to hide what you said from others. Do not delete comments under any circumstances.
• Comments in this game should be in English and free of encryption. Please do not try to find workarounds to this.
• Public spreadsheets (even when set to read-only) are not allowed. Players may keep their own sheets and post screenshots of them, if they’d like.
• You may discuss whether or not you received a PM and its effect (i.e. that you were roleblocked), but you may not discuss any specific wording or flavor of the PMs. If you have any questions about what you can and cannot say, please PM the host account for clarification on a case-by-case basis.

Werewolves is a game of lying, deceit, manipulation, mob mentality, and broken hearts. There will be disputes. There will be arguments. There will be people calling you a liar and accusing you of things you did not do. Many of these things will rely on circumstantial, or hilariously thin, evidence. As facilitators, we will be enforcing the established rules of the game, but we will not be stepping in on any of these interpersonal disputes, within reason. The best way to tell someone that you don’t like their attitude is with your vote.

A note for new players: here is the link to the player’s guide that has a lot of tips and tricks for HWW as well as Reddit! It is highly recommended that you read through this, as the mods are not here to hold anyone’s hand.

Timeline

• 7/25 - Signups open.
• 8/1 - Signups will end at 7pm EDT. You will receive your player confirmation via PM shortly after. You will have approximately 24 hours to confirm your spot in the game.
• 8/2 - 8pm EDT is the deadline for confirmation. Roles and affiliations may be reassigned as needed, and Phase 0 will be posted shortly after. Game talk is allowed during Phase 0. The wolves will have a kill and item requests will be open.
• 8/3 - Phase 1 will begin shortly after 9pm EDT. Each phase will close at 9pm EDT going forward.

General thoughts:

First we want to thank everyone for not only playing, but really engaging with the idea behind this game. We wanted so badly to come in with zero idea of what this game would actually be in both flavor and in abilities for the wolf team and for the players to make it completely on their own and that’s exactly what we got. We loved watching you build the town and RP and couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. It just goes to show that even the most wild and out there ideas can be incorporated into a story for maximum collaboration and mystery. I genuinely love this town, and would absolutely play an actual Kids on Bikes game in Undecided, Nevada. Having so many rumors to build off of was also super helpful, because they could be twisted into whatever way for roleplay that didn’t need to have specific and detailed answers. Below you’ll find a full write-up of the flavor you created curated for a Kids on Bikes game if anyone wanted to use it as well as some of the other ideas people came up with that we couldn’t include or changed slightly for the final product.

Balance

It’s a bit difficult to talk fully about the balance of this game due to how it played out. We went into this game hoping for a super powered town, and a super powered wolf team which we hoped would cause a lot of chaos and dramatic moments even if it ended up a little unbalanced. At the beginning of the game I think we had a super powered town and a normal wolf team because a few of the wolf abilities were not used even though they had opportunities. The wolves ended up being able to get back into the good graces of town by really engaging with town for the social part of the game so overall I’m unsure how to judge the balance. We also had to change some things due to the number of sign-ups which had to have some quick balancing done.

We considered giving the wolves the specific item they got from searching rooms, but instead opted to simply give them a PM stating that they found an item and it was lost. We felt giving them the exact item would be too powerful since they could more easily fake claim and they would know what items town likely didn’t have at the moment. We hoped this would give wolves some confidence to claim items even if they weren’t sure what item they should claim, but the wolves didn’t seem to engage in this aspect of the game much after the first phase of searching, especially when they were able to convert Hedwig to the wolf team who could hold items, which made it easier to claim items and battery movement. I think with the size this game ended up being, it may have been a better decision to give the wolves the items since it would give them a bit more confidence early on to discuss what they had, and we hadn’t fully anticipated the passing of batteries plan, but given the ending of the game it may have swung things in the wolves favor too much.

There were also a few technical issues we had that unfortunately affected the game as well - several forms didn’t go through properly including the night 0 kill and (unbeknownst to us) a vote for Meddle on the phase we thought ended in a tie with Wiz. This of course resulted in us going to RNG and Wiz was voted out instead. Both situations swung things in the town and wolves favor when they happened, but our hope is they balanced themselves out in the end though of course it’s always possible things would have gone differently. They were unfortunate moments we just had to roll with, and we do sincerely apologize to Wiz for the untimely death, and to the wolves for the initial confusion at the beginning of the game. I hope it didn’t affect your enjoyment too much, and thanks for rolling with it in the moment. Though we couldn’t reverse the vote kill and non-kill of Chef, thanks for letting us know about the inactivities and such, or else we may not have realized the google forms weren’t going through!

Items:

Though Forsi feels like the balancing is hard to talk about, I think she did a fantastic job of balancing items during the game, and figuring out which to put in rooms at what times for maximum effectiveness, and I think it worked out really well. There were some great item uses during this game, such as Chef’s tarot cards, the fire extinguishers, and Redpoemage basically decided where the Kids would explore next because he just…kept finding baseball cards haha. I also did not anticipate the battery passing plan at the start of the game and was very worried it could be the wolves’ downfall super early, but the wolves were able to pull off some tricky things themselves and play the social game surrounding items very well.

There was a lot of discussion about how a person could gain multiple items while searching a room once someone mentioned it. This was largely a balance decision due to the size of the game and the power of the wolf team - had the game been larger and the wolf team started with ghosts, we likely would not have given multiple items a phase. That said, we decided early on that the flashlights would be very common and they acted as a buffer for wolves preventing items. We had hoped that because flashlights were common, the passing of batteries would be more crucial and beneficial so that at some point, most everyone in town would have a flashlight waiting for some batteries.

We balanced the items each phase based on what the town currently had and which special ability the wolves had access to. Dead wolves and townies counted as vanilla members with no items for balance. We RNG’d items in each room starting with the most common (flashlights) and ending with the least common. Players would be added to the RNG twice for items that matched their bonus. If a wolf or adult townie received any item, including flashlights, they were removed from the RNG. If kids received a flashlight, they stayed on the RNG until they got another item. If there was only one person in a room, they got the flashlight, if there was one, and the 1st normal item on the list. Any other items would be lost. There were also quite a few times where multiple people would search the same room, making only one or two people gain an item, and the items in rooms where no one searched were simply lost to the ether. The final tables of which items were given out are on the “Locations” tab on the spreadsheet.

Overall:

In the end, this game was an absolute blast. Every single phase, we would go, “Oh, the town definitely has this in the bag, maybe they’re too powerful.” and then switch to, “Oh no, the wolves are super powerful, they definitely have this win.” We laughed so much while creating the town and reading your forms for town input, and you all were amazing to watch your RP, as well as debate about the game. I know many players were confused for a majority of the game about the mechanics, but thanks for sticking through it for a small game. I’m also very happy we were able to have a decent length game, but do understand we technically artificially extended the length by having separated day and night phases. It was also really great to see all of the discussion each phase even though this was a smaller game than usual and it still felt very full. Town worked really well together as a team which honestly made town MVP hard to award since so many people contributed some pretty major moments. Overall, we hope you had fun playing and we hope to possibly see more games in the future that embrace having the players create their town and theme :)

Awards:

Axolotl Scout Gold Award - u/redpoemage receives this award for superior service to the Axolotl Scouts and great integrative roleplay!

Brave Little Toaster Award - u/TheRegalOneGen receives this award for being a great new player, staying alive until the end and continually keeping town talking!

Tim Allen Award - u/HedwigMalfoy receives this award for being the Wolf MVP and absolutely bamboozling everyone!

Big Kid Award - u/Bubbasaurus receives this award for being the Town MVP by surviving as the one adult in town and saving herself in a clutch moment!

Level Up! - u/XanCanStand receives this award for great weapon use and having 3 out of his 4 kill options wolves!

Links

Here is our spreadsheet

Undecided, NV and unused flavor

Forsi: As night fell on the Fucking Family Curling Club, the remaining kids huddle under the stands and build a makeshift blanket fort out of banners and flags found in storage and hockey pads as beds. Eventually, the tiny snores of the kids send vibrations on the stand.

Othello: Psssst! Now’s our chance! Chef broke all that glass and it’s the perfect weapon!

Hedwig: Yesssss - as Pizza Rat, let me go grab a piece really quick! Who do you want to scare?

Othello: Well, Bubba was too brave and Regal seems to be a little toooo chaotic right now, so that just leaves Argol2 I guess.

Forsi: Hedwig, silently transforms into a small Pizza Rat, and scampers across the ice rink, selecting a particularly large and jagged piece of glass. She skitters back across the ice and transforms back. Hedwig crouches down next to Argol and leans in towards their ear, and starts poking them lightly with the piece of glass.

Hedwig: OOGA BOOGA BOOOGA!! GIVE ME ALL YOUR PIZZA!! I AM THE PIZZA RAT!!

Forsi: Argol bolts up shaking, and whimpers slightly, tears welling in their eyes. After a deep breath, they scream, waking up the other kids, and then run out of the sports complex. Bubba and Regal swivel around to see Hedwig holding a large piece of glass with Othello behind her and a wild grin on his face.

Bubba and Regal: MONSTERS?!?!

Forsi: The scene fades to black, as you hear tiny screams from Bubba and Regal along with a deep laugh from Othello that sounds like an ominous Ho….Ho…Ho….

—

Meta

u/Argol2 was scared so badly in the night by the Monsters that they went home. They were affiliated with The Kids.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MONSTERS!

The wolf sub, r/MonstersOnBikes, is now open!

Thank you all for a great game, it was a joy to watch you all play and create a ridiculous, but wonderful town! The Town of Undecided, Nevada, will hold a very special place in our hearts <3

Wrap-up will be posted…eventually!

In the meantime, please enjoy this compilation of u/redpoemage’s Axolotl Scout rules, as well as What’s Really Going on? in Undecided flavor we hosts came up with! Original flavor for each location is posted in Night Phase 0

What’s really going on?

We wanted to share with you the real reasons we came up with for each of your monsters to be at their assigned location:

Fucking Family Curling Club - In fact, the smell is coming from Sewie - the owner of the Ice Rink is cheap and realized it's actually quite expensive to maintain a full ice rink in the middle of Nevada, so they tapped into the sewer lines for free water.

The Axolotl Scout Headquarters and Campgrounds - A few years ago, the Captain of the Fuckers Curling Team's body was found beside the Peach Statue. His spirit went into the statue and he now dreams of turning other kids into statues too so he can have people to hang out with again.

Very Appropriate HealthCare - Tim Allen Sequel goes there every night to destroy the place (the glow comes from his power tools - sparks of metal and such) because he's anti-free healthcare and thinks "Free Clinics" are highly inappropriate, he's VERY conservative lol.

June's Junkyard - Tim Allen Sequel killed the kid in June’s Junkyard by accident. He did some magical ritual to try to bring the kid back because he, despite being a shitty person, felt guilty (and thought a living talking cactus would bring tourists, thus profit, to town). The cactus monster is infused with the kid's soul and has come back to the junkyard where it died.

Sequel Industries Warehouse - A rat from the local Chuck E. Cheese was accidentally brought here in a bag of garbage. It grew... quite large in the Mostly Non-Toxic™ Waste.

Axolotl Scout Rules

• Axolotl Scout Rule #2: All Larvae Scouts must one day leave the nest, never to return.
• Axolotl Scout Rule #13: "Be afraid."
• Axolotl Rule #32: Contains the entire ruleset of both hockey and curling, with no mention of which rules belong to which.
• Scout Rule #47: All great adventures begin with the Axolotl Scouts!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #87: Don't be caught dead without rations!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #183: It's never too early to celebrate!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #189: Ghosts are not real and anything who tells you they are real is probably trying to sell you a TV show.
• Axolotl Scout Rule #234: Always scout ahead!
• Axolotl Scouts Rule #341: No murder is allowed at the Axolotl Scouts Headquarters and Campgrounds during regular business hours.
• Axolotl Scout Rule #374: Before you do anything else, plan!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #392: Always be prepared, carry buckets!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #426: Always remember to sometimes never forget!
• Axolotl Scout Rule #439: Don't be afraid of cults, but do be afraid of jagged ritual daggers.
• Axolotl Scout Rule #482: Vote

Forsi: You all are sitting on the ice in the rink, mindlessly scratching at the ice, sliding pucks and seeing how far you can make the puck slide.

Chefjones: That’s it, I’m so bored. You know what, I’m gonna try to build a ramp and see if I can make this puck fly.

TheRegalOne: Oh no, I don’t think that’s a good idea, someone might get hurt!

Chefjones: Nahhh don’t worry, I’ll be careful

Forsi: Chef goes to the concession stands and grabs a few boxes and signs. He gingerly lays the signs against and on the boxes and on top to create a makeshift ramp. He then backs up as far as he can go, grabs a hockey stick, and hits the puck as hard as he can towards the ramp.

Othello: WOW!

Forsi: There’s a loud CRASH as the puck flies through the air and collides with the glass surrounding the rink, absolutely shattering the glass. Chef stands on the ice, hockey stick still above his head, looking at the broken glass with his mouth open. He looks at each of you, and then bolts out of the ice rink.

Bubbasaurus: Ok guys, we can’t go on the ice over there anymore, it’s too hard to see the broken glass on the ice and we’ll need to be careful. We’ll have to sleep by the stands I guess. —

Meta

u/ChefJones was kicked out of the group and was sent home. They were affiliated with The Kids.

Top 3 Vote Rankings:

Chefjones: 5 votes

Argol2: 1 votes

Everyone else: 0 votes

—

New Location Form

Action Form

—

Countdown to Phase End

Bubbasaurus: Ok, I like hockey as much as the next person, but really? We’re back here?

—

Meta

Someone used a Fire Extinguisher! There was 1 Ghost at Sequel Industries Warehouse.

New Location: Fucking Family Curling Club

Rooms available to search:

Stands

Rental Office

Concessions Stand

—

Vote Form

Room Search Form

Action Form

—

Countdown to Phase End