Ilya stared balefully at the man sitting at the desk across the aisle. Or rather, the man sleeping at the desk across the aisle. He added a couple notes to the report he was working on and placed it neatly in a folder. He stood up and, as an afterthought, grabbed the pencil he had been using and tossed it at his snoring coworker. Then he beat a quick retreat, dodging various office supplies launched by the man he had disturbed.
Out in the hallway, he assumed an expression of disinterested competence. It was inadvisable to show much enthusiasm for the job, lest you be accused of overcompensating and purged for being a traitor. On the other hand, a complete lack of ability was equally as dangerous. A successful Party member walked the very thin line between those two states of being. And Ilya was a very successful Party member. His immediate superior had informed him that his name was in the running for a promotion. This would have been fantastic news if Ilya was your average Communist. However, even given his…unusual situation, he was looking forward to becoming more valuable to the Cause.
Ilya sighed as his thoughts returned to his lazy coworker. That was the inherent problem with the communist system; there was no incentive to put in extra effort. It was only a matter of time before such a system collapsed -- and took Mother Russia with it. Fortunately, there was at least one person on the Central Committee who foresaw this problem. Ilya unconsciously clutched the folder tighter to his chest as he considered the risk he was running. But any risk was worth taking if it helped to ensure the future prosperity of the Motherland.
He arrived at his destination, and knocked on the door. A deep baritone responded, “Come in.†Ilya opened the door and stepped into the office. “I have the report you asked for,†he said, and placed it gently upon the desk. The man he was addressing brushed a strand of dark chocolate hair out of his eye and reached for the folder. He scanned the contents, and even Ilya, who was watching for it, barely noticed the small slip of paper slide deftly into the man’s left hand. The brown-haired man glanced quickly at it, then rolled it into a tiny ball between his fingers. While still appearing to study the report Ilya had brought, he reached up to stroke his chin, and adroitly deposited the small ball of paper into his mouth. He swallowed unobtrusively, and then smiled. “This is very good news, Ilya. Thank you.†He nodded and gestured to the door. Ilya allowed himself a quick grin, and exited the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
The man closed the folder and filed it in his desk drawer. Then he stood and moved to the window. It had taken several years, but finally he knew. They were out there. Other Committee members like himself, disgusted with the corruption and oppression of the communist regime. His most recent intelligence confirmed that they had already established a small group, working together to bring Mother Russia out of the terrible shadow of the Communist Party.
Of course, discovering their existence was the easy part. Actually finding them was sure to be much harder. Still, the brown-haired man thought to himself, there was time. There was always time.
Posts
Basic Phalla
For those who have not played Phalla before, here is an overview: the Phalla game pits an informed minority (the monsters, spies, traitors or what have you) against an uninformed majority (the villagers, citizens, loyalists, whatever). The monsters are a small group whose identity is secret from the villagers. They know each others' identity and can select one or more people per round to kill (i.e. remove from the game – they PM their choice to the narrator), and may have other powers as well. The villagers do not know anything about each other – for all they know, anybody could be a monster. Each day, everyone votes in the thread on who to lynch that night. Whoever gets the most votes is killed. The aim of the villagers is to lynch all of the monsters before the monsters kill them off, while the aim of the monsters is to reduce the number of villagers until they equal the number of remaining monsters (at which point monster victory is assured, since the villagers can no longer obtain a plurality in the votes to execute a monster).
The game is usually supplemented with a variety of special roles, these being on the side of the villagers or of the monsters and possessing extra powers, like being able to block monster kills or learn whether a chosen target is a monster or a villager. The typical phalla rules apply to this game: no screen shots, no forwarding narrator PMs to other players (role PMs can be shared), don't be dick in general.
THE RULES
The rules for this game are a little experimental.
Each round, every player makes two votes. The first is the execution vote, which is made in red. At the end of every round, the execution votes are tallied up and the "winner" is taken out behind the chemical sheds and shot. The second vote is the political vote, which is made in lime. Retractions should be coloured the same way as the vote being retracted. The format is as follows:
I !vote visiblehowl
I !retract visiblehowl
Or anything else which is correctly coloured and contains the key word with a ! in front of it.
At the end of every round, the winner of the political vote is promoted to General Secretary. In addition, on rounds 0, 3, 6, 9 and so on, the seven runners up of the political vote are promoted to the politburo. These positions come with certain special powers – see below. This means that ordinary villagers can be elected into positions of power as public specials.
Once someone's term is over as Secretary or member of the Politburo, they are removed from power unless they win the vote again.
If there are not enough candidates to fill the politburo on election day, the remaining slots will be filled randomly. It only takes one vote to make a candidate, so if need be you can just vote for yourself.
If the winners are killed, the next people down step up to the post. If there is a tie for the General Secretaryship or for the last spot on the politburo, the winner will be the candidate who has made the highest number of posts in the game thread. This is a good reason to participate. If we catch you posting pointlessly to increase your post count, we will cut you. Narrator discretion applies.
If there is a tie in the execution votes, the Secretary chooses who dies.
You will be informed of someone's role when they are killed.
The General Secretary
The General Secretary is the leader of the soviet union, elected by the Central Committee (in the game, anyway). The following rules and powers apply to the holder of the position:
The Politburo
The politburo are the most powerful political group in the Party. Seven of them are elected. Each election, the politburo are collectively issued a secret power (different each time). In order to use this power, each round they must reach a majority vote on who to target. The politburo votes are sent in secretly via PM.
ALL SPECIAL MOVE PMS SHOULD BE SENT TO THE ALT ACCOUNT "Votebox". This is so that both visible and I can access the special moves.
ELECTED ROLES:
The General Secretary – The General Secretary is the winner of the political vote each round. They have a max term of three rounds. Every round, they may select one person to kill, and may also veto the execution if they so choose. The Secretary is immune to execution and may read the politburo thread (but not vote as a secretary).
7 politburo members – The politburo are the seven runners-up of the political vote, selected every three days. At the beginning of every election, the politburo is collectively given a secret power, and must reach a majority consensus on who to target. The politburo votes are sent secretly.
REVOLUTIONARIES:
6 revolutionaries – The revolutionaries are democratic freedom fighters who have infiltrated the highest levels of government in order to restore freedom and equality to the land. Every round, the rebels may select two people to kill.
1 sympathiser – The sympathiser is an influential political figure who is allied with the rebels' cause, but does not know who the rebels are. Every round, the sympathiser may investigate one person and learn whether or not they are a rebel. Once the sympathiser has found the rebels and vice versa, they both may block one political vote-winner – a prospective General Secretary or secretary - from ascending to office every three rounds, coinciding with the election of the politburo.
SOVIETS
35 soviets – standard members of the Central Committee. They may vote on who to execute and who to promote to higher office, but have no other powers unless promoted.
2 KGB officers – these members of the Committee are also important officers of the KGB secret police. They are aware of each others' identity. Each round, they may collectively select one target and protect them for that round against rebel attack (not execution from the vote or from the General Secretary). They cannot protect themselves. Every time the General Secretary is killed by rebel action, one of the KGB officers is executed for incompetence.
3 old hands – these three have all been members of the Party for far too long to want to overthrow the government. They were around to remember the The three old hands know each other, and each knows that the others are not revolutionaries.
2 influencers – the influencers are in a position to affect the counts of the votes at the end of the day. One of them may affect execution votes, the other political votes. The influencers' votes in their particular field count as three. They may each elect a successor, and if they die, their successor will take over operations. Successors have only the strength of two votes, and they cannot pass on their power to another.
Round 0, starting now, is a special round. No specials may use their powers, and there is no execution vote. The sole purpose of the round is to elect a politburo and Secretary before the game begins. Round 1, beginning at 9 PST tomorrow, will proceed normally.
I know this game is a little more complicated than usual, but it should go down fine. If not, I apologise - I'm always looking for new takes on Phalla and nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Good luck!
PLAYERS:
- soviet
AcidSerra - soviet
Ardor
Bliss 101 - soviet
Buzz Buzz - Soviet
CableCarrier - soviet
Cantide - soviet
cj iwakura - soviet
DarkPrimus - soviet
DevoutlyApathetic - sympathiser
Digger Dude - old hand
Elbonian Man
Elendil - soviet
ElJeffe
EvilBadman - soviet
frandelgearslip
Frosteey - soviet
FunkyWaltDogg - soviet
Gnasty - soviet
Grid System - revolutionary
Grundlterror
Hakkekage - revolutionary
Infidel - soviet
jdarksun - old hand
Lady Eri - influencer
Last Son - soviet
Locus - soviet
Lord Cecil Eaglelaser - soviet
MrBlarney - soviet
Plutonium
precisionk - soviet
PyschoLarry1 - soviet
Rygar - soviet
Saburbia - soviet
Scosglen - KGB officer
Senor Fish - soviet
Serpent - KGB officer
Shamus
Smasher
Spawnbroker - influencer
Technicality
TehSpectre
telcus - soviet
thorgot - soviet
tofu - soviet
Troy - soviet
tuxkamen - soviet
Utsanomiko
Variable - soviet
TehSpectre is the General Secretary.
The politburo consists of:
Locus
Saburbia
Smasher
Technicality
tofu
Utsanomiko
NARRATION LINKS:
Night 0 narration
Night 1 narration
Night 2 update + narration
Night 3 narration
Night 4 narration
Night 5 update + narration
Night 6 narration
Night 7 narration
This is going to be very interesting.
Why should you vote for Digger Dude? Let me tell you.
Digger Dude is a nice guy. Digger Dude has the interest of the people at heart
And Digger Dude WILL destroy the capitalist scum
I can dig it. I trust me.
I !vote for Elendil
PS: Elendil was Athan.
I was going to make a list of questions, but reading through the description everything is remarkably clear. Just to double check, the Secretary kill is optional, right?
YOU are useing rehetoric to imply that you are the only one who can not be a capitalist
REHETORIC IS THE TOOL OF CAPITALISM!
While I would accept the honor of being your General Secretary were I to be chosen by you all, I would not allow myself such a self-centered capitalistic mindset as to assert that I am the better choice for the role than the rest of my fellow comrades.
That said, I believe that I would be of most use to our glorious Motherland serving on the politburo. Therefore, I !vote for DarkPrimus.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I do believe he has the highest number of a repeated letter in his name of any of the players, clocking in with four z's. If that doesn't make you fit to be the communist leader, I don't know what does.
we must not use capital letters, since they are clearly the instruments of capitalism.
This self-aggrandizing campaign started by you, like some kind of Democratic madman.
EDIT: I !vote Frosteey as he is not acting like an American Idiot.
Again you use rehoric, the tool of capitalism, to decive the minds of the people.
I would not be surprised if you were JOSEPH MCCARTHY HIMSELF!
While you are saying you do not claim to be the better candidate your rehetoric says otherwise
DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS MAN, HE IS CLEARLY TRYING TO FOOL YOU!
No! A Capitalist would propose that we cower in fear at a puny american senator.
Why do you keep useing the tool of capitalism to boost your claim?
If elected to the politburo, I shall draft a resolution to ban the usage of the term "capital letters". The proper term shall be "upper-case letters".
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Therefore, the only other logical choice is to vote for me. The rest of the candidates have not used enough exclamation points and therefore do not care about the cause as much as I do.
I suspect the Politiburo will get some sort of seering ability in at least one of the sessions. Perhaps a multi-seering?
I'm going to !vote for Infidel to represent us, as among us he wears the Communist ideology most proudly.
On a related note, is there any chance we could get the player list moved into this thread? I had to go into the signups to see who was playing.
1) Can we get a list of players in the game posted in the topic somewhere? I know it's in the other thread, but it might also be convenient here.
2) Is the count of roles correct? 6+1+34+2+3+2 = 48, where I think there were 49 signed up. I assume there's an extra normal soviet, for a total of 35 non-powered players?
2 KGB officers – these members of the politburo also important officers of the KGB secret police. They are aware of each others' identity. Each round, they may collectively select one target and protect them for that round against rebel attack (not execution from the vote or from the General Secretary). They cannot protect themselves. Every time the General Secretary is killed by rebel action, one of the KGB officers is executed for incompetence.
It says they're members of the politburo, so are they randomly selected from the elected members? And what if they don't reach a concensus?
Also, are the influencer powers mandatory or elective?
(haha, elective...)
Edit-A bloody hyphen...
And yet you do not explain why or how I am unstable.
I challenge you to an exclamation point contest!
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Beat That!
Influencer powers are mandatory.
Comrades, please. I merely stated that I did not wish to claim that I was the best candidate for Secretary General, because I would not want to suggest that any of my comrades are inferior. This is a glorious nation of equality, after all!
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Vote for Gnasty, the most sane and most enthusiastic of all the candidates! I am also the most communist among them!
EDIT: Fixed to appease Visiblehowl.
Such enthusiasm, it almost seems as if you're overcompensating with all that punctuation, like you've got something to prove.