Katzaniel

My local newspaper had an article today about Oxford releasing the most common nouns in the English language. It seemed an interesting source for inspiration, so I have contrived this challenge. You get 5 geld just for posting something that was inspired from this. Doesn't have to fit any rules whatsoever. But if you can also do certain things, you'll get more geld: * 1 geld for each of the words from list A that you can include in your piece, up to 10 geld. I won't be a stickler on form. (life = lives = lifetime = alive, etc) * 1 geld for each of the words from list B that you leave out of your piece, up to 10 geld - but going in descending order. ie, to get credit for not using the word "a" you must also have never used "the", "and", "to", or "of". * 5 geld for including at least 5 words from the list, in order. It still counts if you leave words out. * Up to 5 for some other interesting thing you do that you think deserves credit, such as using exactly every second word, or ordering them backwards, or using one word per line of a poem, et cetera. * 40 geld (total) if you manage to use every single word, in order. In fact, we should place bets on whether anyone can do this before Wyvern does, because I know he'll try. An additional 10 for doing this *and* not ever using the word "the". List A (25 most common english nouns): time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact List B (25 most common english words): the, and, to, of, a, I, in, was, he, that, it, his, her, you, as, had, with, for, she, not, at, but, be, my, on Brief example: Still, there's one problem: this time, no person will get away with anything. The world, your lives... the day will be mine! This sentence would score 5 (everyone gets this 5) + 6 (words in list A) + 0 (I used "the") + 5 (since words 2 through 6 are in order, it doesn't matter that word 1 and word 7 aren't. However if I had instead said, for example, "the world, all men, your lives..." then I would have lost my ordering points) = 16 geld. Though hopefully your pieces will be longer. Oh, one last thing: you have to count up your own totals if you want the geld. I'm not doing them for you - I may scan through them to double check, but don't even count on that. I trust you all not to cheat, and if you're not sure how to do it, then you'll probably ask questions. So yeah. Have fun! Reference: http://www.askoxford.com/oec/mainpage/oec02/?view=uk

Out on the deep green sea, In a yellow submarine, Gosh how I love the endless blue Sure does beat this yellow hue Either way I'll be glad to be home No longer a single colour alone We'll have reds and violets and even orange On the wall and the roof and the doorhinge No more of this monotonous green-blue sea Encompassed in a yellow window's lee OOC: Sorry, inspired. Welcome back!

Just a note, I *am* still waiting for each of you to send me a description. (At least, those of you who haven't sent one). Since no one has voiced concern over the proposed rule, it definitely stands. Also, I'm rethinking the bit about taking turns to write out the results, in that I'll still PM one of you, but if you would rather co-write it, or if you're super busy and your partner is okay with doing it for you, or whatever, then that's okay. Just so's you know.

A tall, thin, curly-haired throwaway character peeks his head into the room. He looks around, overhears Yui's speech, and prances a few steps toward her. With pale hands he adjusts his black T-shirt, which reads "Emissary of Katzaniel", before coughing and finally speaking. "Please Yui," he manages with his thin, whistle-like voice, "Katz loves you, too. She was just waiting to reply until she was able to write more than a few words. In fact, ..." Suddenly the man stands up perfectly straight, his eyes popping out of his head a bit. "G..er... Writing words? Huh? And how could Katz have sent me to say this when I just wandered in in time to overhear Yui's speech? In fact... Yui didn't even say the part about us loving her out loud! What's going on here?" He starts to spasm, his eyes bulging more and more. A team of characters rushes into the room, all wearing the same black T-shirt, though each unique in their own right. The red-headed one tries to whisper something into the first man's ears, while the elderly asian man and the overweight blonde girl quickly and efficiently set up an emergency cot and gently coerce him into it. By this point he's spurting random syllables and his mouth is frothing a bit, so an extraordinarily tall man puts him out of his misery with some liquid from a large needle. Within moments, the team has picked up the cot and hustled back out of the room. OOC: Congratulations, indeed. It's well-deserved. And I'm so proud of you!

Erm, yes. A few people still owe their pieces, including myself. It's on my list of Pen-To-Do things. To be perfectly honest, it's probably going to take me a couple of weeks more, at least...

No, and I would agree. I'm just wondering what happens then if we all answer the same number of them? (Maybe we all win! (Maybe we all win anyway!!))

So does timing matter at all? I mean, if we had, oh say, solved nearly all of them already, then would it be more beneficial for us to wait and try to get the others, or to reply immediately and get credit for doing the ones we had already so quickly? (I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be working, but I do so love scavenger hunts..) * Wonders aloud at the progress of the other groups before wandering off *

Um.. just a clarification, in that the normal "item auction" has sort of become this, and sort of become something else as well. We're planning to use the normal format of the item auction to auction off some locations... vacation spots, places to do your dates, et cetera. So you're being treated to three auctions this year.

Team Shifters reporting for duty. ma'am. (Patrick & I)

Ayshela, I fully understood (and agreed with) what you said and I certainly didn't mean to say that it was confusing or anything. I simply meant that it was an interesting exercise to read it the way that I described. Sorry about any confusion.

Yeah, I did think keeping all roles secret was more than was necessary, but it didn't keep me from playing, so that's all right. Anyway, I kind of think the hidden roles made it easier for the wolves (though the game itself gives me no evidence from which to make that claim) because us villagers had next to no basis for our lynchings. ... It's funny, my first vote being like the third or fourth day, I would have looked even more like a seer if Gryphon's role had been known. Ayshela: When I read through your post, I found myself thinking about it in terms of real life. Our characters faced the same choices we did: reveal these thoughts/feelings now, because I might be dead tomorrow, or keep them hidden because I can't bear to share them yet? I totally agree with what you're saying, but kind of began to sound like an argument for keeping the roles from us. Anyway, good game. Good game.

If anyone else, like me, is interested in trying but doesn't have too much of a hope of winning because they don't have the time to really commit, then we could be partners... Otherwise, I don't want to drag anyone down so I'll just watch.

Hm.. after reading my first two PMs, I think maybe I have questions. I hadn't considered props, and including their possibility will make my life a lot more difficult, but if everyone wants them I'm willing to give it a try. I'm not really sure how well it would work, I mean you're all supposed to be pretty evenly matched so I don't really want any of you to have special guns or anything, not unless you can match them to one of the special abilities I've mapped out. (Like if a pirate wants to use a special peg-leg attack instead of the Hook attack, that's okay). And also I'm not sure how easily we could integrate using surrounding objects, because then we'd have to make sure everyone was visualizing the same surroundings. Um... so unless there's strong opposition, I'd just as soon outlaw any props that would alter the fight. (ie, you can't hide behind something, but you could use it to explain why your attack went awry). Is the difference clear about that? Once the result is set and you're simply RPing it out, you may bring things into it, but I'd rather you didn't use objects while making your "move".

Er... I guess I thought you were each only doing one fight. Okay, well, the abilities are per-fight and if you want to do more after completing a first fight then cool. (I suppose since you're all in the same room, now, none of you will rest until all members of the opposite group are dead ) And, yeah. I need a short description of what your character intends to do in the first few seconds of the fight, (the shorter the better because otherwise I won't have time to read and respond to you all - for my sake, no RP in the PMs, please) and then I'll start PMing people the result. First to sign up of each pairing just happens to be 2 pirates and 2 ninjas, so that seems fair: Mynx, Patrick, Sweetcherrie and Gryphon, you will be writing the first bit of RP. So, for example, after Mynx and Gyrfalcon have both sent me their intentions, I'll PM Mynx and she'll write up the result from her character's point of view. (Or, if she's daring, Gyr's POV ). She can immediately send me her next "move" if she has time, and then when Gyr sees it he can read & send his reaction as well. Then I send the result to Gyr, who writes it up and sends me his next move. When Mynx sees it and PMs me... you get the idea. Hopefully. So: Unless you still have questions and/or aren't sure what to do, this is the go-ahead.

Sorry for the delay. I was thinking about having these in all different threads, but since the RP has clearly already begun, we can just keep it right here. I'll edit this into the first post for easy reference, also, but here's the big attacks: Char Title Effect Comments Uses Ninja Appear behind Takes one turn to use, but protects you for both that turn and the next You disappear and reappear immediately behind your opponent. S/he takes a moment to react. Once Pirate Parrot storm Takes one turn to use, but protects you for both that turn and the next Your parrot distracts your opponent - s/he may die for it, though. Once Ninja Turn invisible Your opponent cannot cause you damage for the next three turns. You disappear into thin air. Once Pirate Take swig Your opponent cannot cause you damage for the next three turns. You take a large gulp of alcohol, which enables you to ignore the wounds you incur. Once Ninja Shurikens of DOOOM Does double damage for the current attack - not guaranteed to hit Throw a storm of shurikens along with your regular attack Thrice Pirate Hook attack Does double damage for the current attack - not guaranteed to hit Use your hook to great advantage during a regular attack. Thrice Ninja Attack sequence Takes two turns to prepare - your opponent will therefore have warning - and a turn to recover, but does 5 times the damage. You move around in a fancy fashion and shout words in another language, and then call lightning from the sky... or some such. Then you make your bow. Once Pirate Shoot Takes two turns to prepare - your opponent will therefore have warning - and a turn to recover, but does 5 times the damage. You set up your great big honking gun and take a shot at your opponent, then suffer the kickback. Once Now it's up to you to decide how best to use these. You'll notice, for example, that the 5x damage attacks give your opponent the opportunity to simply use their no-damage defense immediately after... but if you wait until after they've used that already, it may be too late. Besides, they may want to keep it for something else. Also, ninjas have a greater precision in their attack (+5% chance to hit) and the pirates are generally tougher (100hp instead of 85). (EDIT: Yes, this supercedes what I said before about the ninjas moving faster... I couldn't figure out how to implement that, and this makes just as much sense) Happy fighting!

In the mansion game, everybody knows from day 1 who the wolves are, and the seers, and whatnot. This is why Tanny originally dubbed it an "RP variation" - I'm hoping that the point won't be for either side to win, but rather to play out the game and find out, if those people had actually been in those positions, who might have won. Thus the wolves can choose IC who they would want to kill... the seers can choose IC who they think looks suspicious... and it's really more of an RP than it is a WW game. That's why I want to have extended phases, and why I want to have the other WW at the same time.

That's pretty close, Akallabeth. I do need to clarify, though, that actually each night every player would give both a killing choice and a baning choice. The wolves' kill choice would be implemented, and the baners' protect choice. Also, I'm reconsidering the idea that the baners change each night, as it might give too much sway to the wolves. If a baner manages to bane successfully, there should be a chance of trying again and whatnot... though a few things just entered my mind: multiple baners means that none of them can be sure which one baned successfully, so there might have to be extra information passed out at this point. And ... something else... it's gone. Anyway, there are still mechanics to work out and there may be some changes, but I just wanted to gauge the general interest in the idea. And I want to reiterate that PMing is going to be extremely important in this game because I'm hoping that eventually the wolves might be able to find each other, and so could the baners. Potentially. So, to recap: Normally Village game Mansion game 2 wolves 2 wolves 2 wolves 1 baner 3 baners, slightly altered rules governing success no baners 1 seer no seers 3 seers, less chance of seeing 48 hour day phase 48 hours day phase 5 day day phase 24 hour night phase 24 hour night phase 2 day night phase Each player knows their own role Nobody knows anybody's role, to begin with Everybody knows everybody's role PMs only by wolves, to each other PMs are highly enouraged (but PMd to mod) No PMs... all communication done IC Night consists of PMs by specials Each player PMs choice of kill and choice of protect, though only the specials will have their actions carried out The players can RP their choices directly Capishe?

It occurs to me that you can stop referring to our ringbearer as [he] now. Since only males remain, [he] must certainly be a he. Also, I hope that people aren't actually considering Rootmaker's lack of subtlety as a reason not to vote for him, but rather are using it as an IC excuse where necessary. Because I don't want the game to be unfair in the case that no one can think of an IC reason to suspect me, so note that Rootmaker could have pushed the roof down on whoever that was, or drowned that other person. And, yeah. I'd say this whether I was guilty or innocent, because I have noticed a distinct lack of voting for me, overall, and I'm rather baffled by it. (Not that I'm trying to provoke an onslaught of votes that gets me killed, or anything, but if that's what has to happen, then so be it.) PS. I mean in all the games. I've actually been voted for once, in this game, which is more than usual.

Rootmaker had been filling with despair since voicing his suspicions of Mattias. The reason he'd thought it might be the elf was because he had been the first to accuse one who had ended up dead... but in so doing, after Mattias himself got killed, Rootmaker had put himself in the very same position. The company was growing steadily smaller - down to only himself and five others - and even their current course toward Fangorn was not enough to raise his spirits. "Baelestimah, Seothen, Garnorn, Linador...certainly not Falmar," boomed Rootmaker in as close a whisper as he could muster. "Baelestimah, Seothen, Garnorn, Linador. Baelestimah, Seothen, Garnorn, Linador. Seothen wanted us to go the other way, but then so did Turin, and he clearly was innocent. Baelestimah, Seothen, Garnorn, Linador... Linador was the slowest in coming down to help Turin, but that proves nothing either." He lapsed into thoughtful silence, for which the others, concentrating so hard on the chase, were grateful. OOC: That's the best I can manage for a vote for Ayshela / Linador.

I've got more ideas for mine, also. Since we were talking about having the RP-variant taking place at the same time as another game, I'm hoping that I can mod that other game as well. Thus, there'd be XXIX and XXIX.V running consequetively (sp?) but XXIX.V would be on an extended schedule and when XXIX finishes, Patrick can begin XXXI. XXIX: A simple village setting, with actual werewolves. Twist (I do like twists): no one, not even the werewolves, knows their own roles, at least at first. Because seers can't work that way, there will be only baners, and to counter the fact that there would be two night-kills each night, I'll have 3 baners. These baners will change around, though - I'll reroll them every night. I'm doing this because IC it makes more sense - everyone but the wolves are trying to protect someone, but they may or may not succeed. The wolves think they're trying to protect people too... but they fail because unbeknownst to their day selves, they turn into wolves during the night. The thing is, they'll start to figure it out as the game goes on, because people they don't like start to turn up dead. Also, PMs of all sorts will be encouraged. XXIX.V: I finally thought of a setting where characters can be fairly developed, yet still quick to blame - the old "everyone's fighting for an elderly man's money" scheme. Poor to middling class characters, can be relatives or servants or friends, but you must all have a reason that you need the money, though only a few will have the actual gumption to be killing off other contestants for it. The man himself will live for most of the game, may even encourage the in-fighting (he'll probably be the one enacting the "lynching", probably by kicking the person out of the house). And, since baning doesn't fit very well with this in my mind, I'm giving you seers only - 3 seers each with a 2/3 chance to see, because none of you have supernatural powers, only a tendency to watch others. Remember that everyone knows everyone else's role in this game - the focus is entirely on your character's ability to convince the other characters. I'll probably have a 1 week day/night phase cycle, with maybe 6 days and 1 day or 5 and 2. So you see, the ideas are opposites in more than one way. Can I? Please?

Excellllent. That's 4 and 4. Expect this to begin on the weekend. Your pairings: Mynx & Gyrfalcon Patrick & Gwaihir Tam & Gryphon Wyvern & Sweetcherrie Think about how you'll introduce yourselves, and unless you want to wait for the list of special actions, you could actually send me your first action already...

Huh. And I saw the whole thing as an analogy to the never-ceasing stream of events that life will throw at you... Either way, it was enjoyable. - Katz, stopping by on the way to a WW post...

(Thanks to those helping keep this list up-to-date) I'm mentioning this in a new post because I feel that Wyvern's Setting Changing thread deserves special notice. For those that don't have time to read everything in all new threads, (such as myself) you may find the following useful: The setting has now been changed by Sweetcherrie to dragons, lava, fantasy and fairyworld. The setting has been changed by Ayshela to heather hills with grazing sheep and cattle. The setting has been changed by Tzimfemme to a hard rock (music, not material) version of the Astral. The setting has been permanently changed to a fragmented combination of Evangeline's hilly sheperd setting, Sweetcherrie's middle-easter magma setting, Ayshela's heather hill and cattle setting, and Tzimfemme's hard rock in the Astral setting. (If/when this changes, other mods should feel perfectly all right with updating this post to reflect the new state of things ) Edit: 27/5 Patrick. Edit: 6/6/6 Wyvern Edit: 6/21 Wyvern Edit: 7/13 Wyvern

I, too, really enjoyed this piece. It's strongly expressed, and the words as you used them set up both an interesting topic and a perfect mood for that topic. Using the sounds of words to set the mood is difficult, but you did it well. My only real quibble was the line "An evil face", which was different from the rest of the lines in that stanza - indeed, the rest of the poem up to that point - and thus threw off the pattern and in my opinion acted as a distraction. It refers to a concrete object. The shortness of the word may also have played a part, but I think not as much as the former reason. Anyway, I'm guessing that this was unintentional, since you had that line buried inside of a stanza, and also returned to your pattern for the next one. A top-rate poem, Finnius. Thanks for posting.

If I'm the one you think was random, you can rest assured that it was not. I never vote randomly. Post coming later, when I'm not at work and trying to convince myself to actually do some work. (No, I'm not getting paid for slacking, I'm on a per-hour basis)