Phallaponnesian War, Gods are Watching

Dynagrip

I wasn't a historian by training, it was just a hobby really. Sure, I voraciously read anything I could about any epoch, past, present, and even tried to guess at the future, but that doesn't make me a real historian. I thought about how things would have been different if I had followed my dream instead of the money and majored in some sort of archaeological/anthropological field instead of thinking about a paycheck.

I had been having a rough time of it at work for the past 6 or so years and was growing increasingly frustrated. I'm not even sure about how little I was sleeping and how much I had been drinking when I had a...dream. In it I was sitting at my computer, as usual, probably spewing bile and hate in all directions, futilely trying to work out my own issues when a sudden blast was heard from outside. My lights and A/C immediately went out...but my computer remained on.

An icon popped up, it just said, "Connecting..." I had no idea what it could be connecting to but I had to find out. A handsome dude, with a winged cap, appeared on the screen.

Mortal, I have a message for you, of an Age lost to man, but not to the Gods. You have been chosen. Study this tale carefully. Spread it as far and as wide as you can. Do not fail in this task.

END OF LINE

I woke up under my desk with a pounding headache. It was like a hangover, but far worse. The dream words were written into my brain with a pen of fire. I closed my eyes and saw the message. I banged my head against the wall. It was still there.

I stared at my computer, it was quite off and cold to the touch. I showered, then I puked, and then I brushed my teeth

As I walked my dog I found a dime...



I hurried back to my apartment and hit the power button on my comp. It instantly spring to life. The desktop was cluttered icons of scrolls or something. I clicked one at random and for a split second I couldn't make it out...then I felt something shift in my head and my nose started bleeding. Shit, I could now read ancient Greek. I couldn't remember my favorite color anymore, but yeah, new language acquired...

Prologue

Phalla was a small village and long time ally of Thought. Some have even said that Phalla was placed by the Gods themselves to protect Thought in its hour of greatest need. That time had arrived at last.

Action and Thought had an uneasy relationship. Action's hoplites were feared and admired throughout the world. Thought's wealth and her ships were the envy of all. When the Great King of the East and his sons dared to tread on Phallenic soil, Action and Thought put aside their differences and rallied the Phallenes for just battle.

The men of Action trained for the greatest and most heroic land war. Their kings were said to have sprung whole from the blood of Ares, spilled in some long forgotten battle. Action quickly decided to engage the Great King head-on. The Armies were marshalled and the women were told to be strong for the boys that were not yet men of Action.

Meanwhile, the men and women of Thought pondered the looming invasion. "Wait a moment", the Wise Ones said. "The Golden King and his countless soldiers will have to cross the waters over which we hold dominion. Does it not make more sense to engage him at sea rather than on land?" A vote was cast and Thought prepared her Fleets.

Action was left with a sheathed sword as the barbarian ships were spintered upon Thought's rams.

More wealth and power soon followed for Thought. With these things came the dream, then the reality of an empire. The Debatian League was established and soon true discourse was outlawed from the land.

Action knew that if it did not act with haste that all Phallenic cities would be ground down beneath Thought's cultured heel. The Armies were again sent on the march and allies were found among the resentful members of the League. Action had finally found its chance for glory and slavered at the smell of Thought's wounds.


Thought suffered from plague, famine, and disaster as it paid in blood and suffering for its hubris. The Wise Ones gathered again. "Oh Gods, we are terribly foolish and know what must come but please grant us one last favor and allow us the chance to spread our ideas before Action sets ablaze all that we have built." All the statues of Pallas Athena moved as one. With a piercing gaze they pointed west to Phalla, a village strategically located that had the misfortune of being the most loyal of allies to a foolish empire.

A runner was sent carrying a terse message. "Phalla, you must delay our doom as best as you can. There is no hope for your surivival, or of Thought's...This is of no concern. We did not win the Gods' favor in the past due to our coins or because of our fine buildings. Our dreams and our ideas are what separate us from all other Phallenes and such things can slip through the tightest grasp.

Beware of traitors and spies. They are among you. Engage in lively debate and discussion. When all is said, fulfill your duty and cast a vote. Athena is watching over us and Her eyes have never been brighter."


What had once been my computer no longer responded to my touch. I took my dog over to a friend's place, not wanting him to share in whatever Hell or Hades I had been thrust into.

I crept back into my apartment, wary of further signs/omens as another trickle of blood slipped from my nostril.

I Thought aloud,

"Alright! It's Saturday night, I have no date, a two-litre bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mix tape. Let's rock!"

Rules

-Participate and vote.
-There will be special roles.
-Vote in red and bold such as:
I !vote Socrates for execution.
-The Dead do Not Speak in this Thread...Seriously...ok, just one ooooh, but that's it.
-Do not use anonymous forms of contact to message people. This will be severely frowned upon. It is uncool and chickenshit.
-If you are a special and if I was too vague, ask me for clarification. If I meant for you to know something, but overlooked it, I'll get back to you ASAP.
-Honor the Gods.

If you change your mind about a vote, please do your best to go back and edit it, failing that at least say you changed your vote in your last vote post. I might get pissed off if my tally is off because somebody dicked around too much.

Voting ends 9 pm CST every night unless I change it on a whim. Specials must get their special ability PM to me by that time as well. I have arranged for one backup narrator at the moment, just in case this drives me insane.

Official game start is Tomorrow/February 7th at 8 am CST. PMs are being sent out today and tonight. If you do not get one by game start, let me know by PM.

The Roll

tuxkamen
too damn thugly
SC
TehSpectre
Grid System
Elendil
Shinto
Malkor
Saburbia
Andrew_Jay
Bad Kitty
mtvcdm - Murdered villager
Elbonian Man
SkyGheNe - smitten
thorgot
DevoutlyApathetic
Elkamil
Cantide
Aroduc - Villager, struck down for jackassery
Richy
Zen Vulgarity
werehippy
gundam470
PsychoLarry1
GrimmyTOA
jackisreal
ArrBeeBee
VishNub
Ardor
titmouse
fjafjan - Bew Bew Bew
Fencingsax
Casual Eddy - All sorts of particles
Smasher
saggio - Way to play
Hacksaw
gimmick - Villager, murdered by Action
celery77
Nerissa - Villager, mudered by Action
an_alt
real_pochacco
Werewulfy
caipre
Sepah
visiblehowl
Cheezy - Villager, Angered the Gods
Thanatos
Noobius
Fallout - Changed by the Gods
Variable
ElJeffe
Irond Will
precisionk
LightsOut
tofu
zsetrek


Prologue Artwork
Day&Night I
Day II Interlude
Day and Night III

Gosling

So:

Thought: Good Guys
Action: Bad Guys

Got it.

Richy

mtvcdm wrote:

So:

Thought: Good Guys
Action: Bad Guys

Got it.

That's just the kind of hurried over-simplification we'd expect of a traitor!

du-du-duuuuuuuuuu

Also, Dyna, can you post a list of everyone who's playing?

Dynagrip

Richy wrote:

mtvcdm wrote:

So:

Thought: Good Guys
Action: Bad Guys

Got it.

That's just the kind of hurried over-simplification we'd expect of a traitor!

du-du-duuuuuuuuuu

Also, Dyna, can you post a list of everyone who's playing?

The game hasn't started yet.

Nerissa

Is there some sort of subliminal political message encoded here, with Thought being blue and Action being red? :lol:

It's sounding like we're not going to know how many of what specials are around, and quite possibly how many "bad" guys there are.

I kinda like that it's not a clear good/bad dichotomy, and that the "traitors" can realistically view themselves as being the good guys in this scenario.

Dynagrip

Nobody thinks they're the bad guy.

Fencingsax

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

Dynagrip

Did fucking Red Berry Blue get his name changed to ArrBeeBee? He should have like, mentioned that to me... I was curious about it, but nope, he didn't say anything.

I think maybe that's a lightning bolt right there.

Couscous

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians will get to say that.
tehsparta.ytmnd.com
Celery is a monster.

Gosling

titmouse wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians.

That's just what an Actionian would say.

Nerissa

Based on what we have so far, I would be unsurprised to find the game split down the middle, with half of the players for Thought and the other half for Action, and about the same number of specials for each side. I wouldn't count on both sides having exactly the same types of specials, though... as long as they balance each other effectively.

Couscous

Nerissa wrote:

Based on what we have so far, I would be unsurprised to find the game split down the middle, with half of the players for Thought and the other half for Action, and about the same number of specials for each side. I wouldn't count on both sides having exactly the same types of specials, though... as long as they balance each other effectively.

How many traitors would there be?

GrimmyTOA

Nerissa wrote:

Based on what we have so far, I would be unsurprised to find the game split down the middle, with half of the players for Thought and the other half for Action... [etc]

I'd hope that the home team (Thought) would get some sort of numerical edge over the traitors -- this game seems hard enough for the villagers without us being outnumbered too soon.

Sounds like someone wants things to be nice and easy for the Actioners.

Couscous

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians.

That's just what an Actionian would say.

Not really. Now what you just said sounds like something an Actionian would say. Think about it. What better way is there to avert suspicion than to cast it on someone else?

Gosling

titmouse wrote:

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians.

That's just what an Actionian would say.

Not really. Now what you just said sounds like something an Actionian would say. Think about it. What better way is there to avert suspicion than to cast it on someone else?

But are you not yourself casting suspicion on someone else? As Aesop once said, "titmouse is a fucking Actionian."

Nerissa

GrimmyTOA wrote:

Nerissa wrote:

Based on what we have so far, I would be unsurprised to find the game split down the middle, with half of the players for Thought and the other half for Action... [etc]

I'd hope that the home team (Thought) would get some sort of numerical edge over the traitors -- this game seems hard enough for the villagers without us being outnumbered too soon.

Sounds like someone wants things to be nice and easy for the Actioners.

See, you're still thinking in terms of good/bad. If it's split down the middle, BOTH teams think they're the villagers, so both teams think they deserve the numerical edge... wait, I've just confused myself -- maybe that wouldn't lend itself well to a forum game after all, because you can't really accuse someone of being, say, an Actioner without making yourself a target.

Bad Kitty

I gather from the hints to participate and engage in D&D, that laying low and only voting is a strategy that's looked down upon?

Fencingsax

Bad Kitty wrote:

I gather from the hints to participate and engage in D&D, that laying low and only voting is a strategy that's looked down upon?

Yeah, it's usually thought that if you join, you might as well play.

GrimmyTOA

Nerissa wrote:

See, you're still thinking in terms of good/bad. If it's split down the middle, BOTH teams think they're the villagers, so both teams think they deserve the numerical edge... wait, I've just confused myself -- maybe that wouldn't lend itself well to a forum game after all, because you can't really accuse someone of being, say, an Actioner without making yourself a target.

Bwaah? I'm not sure if you've confused yourself, but you've sure as hell confused me. :shock:

You mean split the village down the middle -- tell each side that they're the Thought side, and let them fight it out?

Ummm...


Actioner?

Smasher

A suggestion: if you know how, I'd make a spreadsheet in excel to count votes, with a vote field for each player. This has the double advantage of eliminating counting errors, and more importantly ensuring everyone only has one vote counted.

Nerissa

GrimmyTOA wrote:

Nerissa wrote:

See, you're still thinking in terms of good/bad. If it's split down the middle, BOTH teams think they're the villagers, so both teams think they deserve the numerical edge... wait, I've just confused myself -- maybe that wouldn't lend itself well to a forum game after all, because you can't really accuse someone of being, say, an Actioner without making yourself a target.

Bwaah? I'm not sure if you've confused yourself, but you've sure as hell confused me. :shock:

You mean split the village down the middle -- tell each side that they're the Thought side, and let them fight it out?

Ummm...


Actioner!

Not so much telling them that they're both Thought, but telling the Thought people that they're defending their home (or whatever) and telling the Action people... I don't know, maybe that the Thought people are misguided and that Action is really better for the village / region as a whole. Thus, the "holdout" Thought people are the bad guys in the Action point of view, and the "traitor" Action people are the bad guys in the Thought point of view. Of course, that leads the whole "accusation" thing to be rather odd, which is why I'm thinking it's probably not great for this medium.

Note

Dynagrip wrote:

Nobody thinks they're the bad guy.

Couscous

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians.

That's just what an Actionian would say.

Not really. Now what you just said sounds like something an Actionian would say. Think about it. What better way is there to avert suspicion than to cast it on someone else?

But are you not yourself casting suspicion on someone else? As Aesop once said, "titmouse is a fucking Actionian."

Aesop was probably a fucking barbarian. It is just like an Actionian to use a barbarian to support his position.

GrimmyTOA

Ah. I understand now. I see how that could be an interesting idea -- it might work in this medium if the collective history was kept to a bare-bones, ideologically-neutral minimum, and then the ideology-rich stuff was included only in PMs to the relevant people. It could lead to entertaining double-agency (Thought people accusing Actioners of being Thoughters in the hopes of getting the Actioners to off them and the like.)

Gosling

titmouse wrote:

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

mtvcdm wrote:

titmouse wrote:

Fencingsax wrote:

Thought = Athens
Action = Sparta

THIS IS ACTION! Damn lucky Actionians.

That's just what an Actionian would say.

Not really. Now what you just said sounds like something an Actionian would say. Think about it. What better way is there to avert suspicion than to cast it on someone else?

But are you not yourself casting suspicion on someone else? As Aesop once said, "titmouse is a fucking Actionian."

Aesop was probably a fucking barbarian. It is just like an Actionian to use a barbarian to support his position.

Partial credit. Aesop was actually a storyteller, but he did menace from beyond the grave.

thorgot

GrimmyTOA wrote:

Ah. I understand now. I see how that could be an interesting idea -- it might work in this medium if the collective history was kept to a bare-bones, ideologically-neutral minimum, and then the ideology-rich stuff was included only in PMs to the relevant people. It could lead to entertaining double-agency (Thought people accusing Actioners of being Thoughters in the hopes of getting the Actioners to off them and the like.)

It could lead to that, but it's more likely the Action people will accuse Thoughters of being Actioners, because presumably the Actioners get to "act" (kill) during the night.

Ardor

Dynagrip wrote:

Nobody thinks they're the bad guy.

So it's like a fight to the death of sorts. Since this takes place in Phalla, a supporter of Thought, one should probably assume there are more Thought than Action located within, but the number might be closer to what we think.

Ardor

Bad Kitty wrote:

I gather from the hints to participate and engage in D&D, that laying low and only voting is a strategy that's looked down upon?

It typically makes the game more fun for yourself and others should you participate. It doesn't have to be much, go ahead and give some reasoning behind your vote or something you noticed in the thread thusfar along with voting.

Nerissa

Smasher wrote:

A suggestion: if you know how, I'd make a spreadsheet in excel to count votes, with a vote field for each player. This has the double advantage of eliminating counting errors, and more importantly ensuring everyone only has one vote counted.

Btw, Dyna... if you want a copy of the auto-counting Excel sheet I worked up for previous games, PM me and I'll e-mail it to you or something. Basically, I've got rows for each player & columns for each day, and formulas set up so all you have to do is copy / paste the name of who they voted for in each player's row under the correct date. That way if someone changes their vote, you just have to overwrite the cell and the tally is updated appropriately.

Dynagrip

Bad Kitty wrote:

I gather from the hints to participate and engage in D&D, that laying low and only voting is a strategy that's looked down upon?

How do you feel about Jiggawatts of Godly might coursing through your body on its way to the Ground???

Gosling

Dynagrip wrote:

How do you feel about Jiggawatts of Godly might coursing through your body on its way to the Ground???

I think I saw that in a movie once. Until Mommy took the movie away.

Leitner

This looks to be an epic phalla. It's going to suck for the random guy voted out first though.

Shinto

I will destroy you all.


Miraculously.

Couscous

Shinto wrote:

I will destroy you all.

Will you save the village if I practice my trade on you?

Shinto

titmouse wrote:

Shinto wrote:

I will destroy you all.

Will you save the village if I practice my trade on you?

Absolutely not.

Cantide

I'm looking forward to spending more hours thinking up wild speculations that make perfect sense in my head and end up being completely wrong.

Johannen

Signing ups closed right? I've been a bit absent minded for a while and miraculously didn't notice the sign-ups.

an_alt

Yeah, signups are closed. I'm really glad I got in on this one. I think Dyna has some good stuff cooked up for us. I both love and hate an undefined set of rules depending on how things work for me.

As far as laying low goes, at the very least say why you voted the way you did and offer up a bit of speculation. I've played quietly and not so quietly; the latter is much more fun.

Elendil

thorgot wrote:

GrimmyTOA wrote:

(Thought people accusing Actioners of being Thoughters in the hopes of getting the Actioners to off them and the like.)

It could lead to that, but it's more likely the Action people will accuse Thoughters of being Actioners, because presumably the Actioners get to "act" (kill) during the night.

...Fuck it, I'm calling the bad guys monsters again.

tofu

I'm guessing there's no Great King of the East faction.

Fencingsax

tofu wrote:

I'm guessing there's no Great King of the East faction.

wrong war.

Aroduc

Elendil wrote:

thorgot wrote:

GrimmyTOA wrote:

(Thought people accusing Actioners of being Thoughters in the hopes of getting the Actioners to off them and the like.)

It could lead to that, but it's more likely the Action people will accuse Thoughters of being Actioners, because presumably the Actioners get to "act" (kill) during the night.

...Fuck it, I'm calling the bad guys monsters again.

It saves effort and keeps you from falling into silly and nonsensical RP habits.