Assassins again
Apr. 19th, 2008 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoySo it's Assassins once again.
This year, the rules were rather different:
1. All of Tufts was a safe zone. With the exception of the rooms, in certain cases! Namely, if you invited them in. It's like vampires. Some early kills were made this way, in particular, Winston's first two, but later it became unfeasible. There were two other ways to be safe. Firstly, limited safety in the dining hall (you had to be touching your tray). Secondly, a kill did not count if it was witnessed by someone else still in the game!
2. We allowed killing in self-defense, if the other person displayed a weapon first. And these could be witnessed. Weapons this year were socks and squirtguns, and some people went and got a bunch of squirtguns, but not everyone got one.
3. In order to make more confusion wrt witnesses, everyone had an alias, and on a kill, only the alias of the victim was announced. In practice, though, people generally knew who was out and who was still in.
4. In order to prevent turtling, every n days, everyone with the least kills would be automatically eliminated. n was supposed to be 3, but for whatever reason Blake (who was playing GM) sent out the rules with n=7, and with one random person among those with least kills being eliminated (!).
5. Winner is straight last-man-standing. I didn't like this, but I figured in combination with the n-day rule, not too bad; though that would have made more sense with n lower...
The game started on Saturday, but I was sick for much of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and so did nothing for the time. Meanwhile Winston got the first two kills and quickly became the frontrunner, if such a thing can exist in this game.
By the time I recovered it was down to 8 people, and people had been talking, and had the entire cycle figured out. My target was Mike, and he knew this and went around saying, "Hi Harry, when are you going to kill me?" (Next to Winston I was considered one of the "serious" players, because of my play last year - not that I got very far last year!) I had to kill him quickly, I figured, because of the three-day rule; but then I found out it had been changed to 7 days, so I didn't need to so quickly. Now I had been getting information about Mike - some non-players, in particular Nathan, were helping people out. (inston, meanwhile, was "helping" me - telling me Mike was going to Bart Mart, and then calling Jo. Luckily Peter informed me of this before I could leave. He was also actually helping, to some extent, as did he care whether it was Mike or me that died? So I found out much of Mike's schedule.
On Wednesday he had a chem midterm - but Jo was in the class. I would have done it but I decided not to risk it (despite Winston's assurances that Jo would probably be unarmed - ha) when I found out about his later bio class. It ended at 4:30, but I was told he often left early, at 3:30, meaning I would have to rush there from number theory in order to catch him. In case that didn't happen, though, I went to the BSLC the day before to take a look around and find a good position to lurk. Apparently the class was in the basement, so I figured I'd get him from the stairway, where he's have a hard time returning fire.
At this point I would insert a description of my pursuit and elimination of Mike, but this entry is going to be long enough with out it, so I will make it a separate entry.
With Mike dead, and two more kills having been made in the meantime, it was down to 5. Marissa→Jo→Me→Steve→Winston. Marissa killed Jo, and was, characteristically enough, a real poor sport about it. Winston asked if I would help humiliate her by waiting out the 7 days so she could die from least kills, but I declined; not only did I think it not enough of a humiliation to be worth it, but I too had only one kill (and, in fact, Steve had none).
So I needed to get Steve, and then Winston. (And then Marissa, but that should be less of a problem, aside from the whole "hunting each other" thing.) And Winston said he would be impossible to kill over the weekend, since he was going to be holed up in his room doing work.
But then, I came up with a plan. Remember the aliases? The four remaining were Silver Hawk, M, Roger, and Silver Lotus. Silver Lotus was Marissa, we had determined, and Winston had announced he was M (and he pretty definitely was, as he listed a number of different characters by that name it was a reference to). And I, Winston was convinced, was Roger. "You're Roger, right?" he would ask me. "I say nothing," would reply, smirking. Because, of course, I was Silver Hawk. (Named after the ship you pilot in the Darius games, of course.)
Now this would require Steve's cooperation... and it would require Marissa to still be alive... and it would require that we not encounter her... but it could very well work. Let's say I kill Steve, by whatever means. Blake sends out the email saying that Roger is dead. If I could convince Steve to cooperate, I would pretend to be dead and he would pretend to still be in. Winston thinks I'm Roger, and won't notice anything wrong, unless he happens to speak to Marissa (who would be rather confused as she had not killed me). (Later I thought of having Steve claim he killed me in self-defense, but then Marissa would be just as confused, as she wouldn't have gotten an email listing her new target.) Winston thinks I'm dead, I can walk right up to him and get him easily - even get him to invite me into his room, and then, bam.
However, Winston killed Marissa before I could get to Steve. Marissa was hiding inbetween the two vending machines, waiting for me to return from the dining hall, unaware that I was not in the dining hall (I wasn't eating, I was in Tufts; but even so I didn't eat once in the dining hall during the game), and that even had I been in there, I would not have returned by that route. So Winston gives Mike two dollars to go to the vending machine, buy something, and start talking to Marissa, while he gets her from behind. Which he did. And characteristically, Marissa was pretty sore about it.
Final three. Winston→Me→Steve, Steve with no kills, me with one kill, Winston with many kills. I still have very little information for killing Steve - Eve, I'm told, has some information, but she won't help me - but I have possibly enough, if I'm willing to endure a long stakeout on Friday. But, Winston points out to me, if I kill Steve, he can wait till Sunday and I'll die automatically. Whereas if I wait till Sunday, we'll be the final two, and I'll have a whole week to kill him. So it's only worth killing Steve if I can get Winston, and probably the only way I can get Winston is to execute the plan. Can I do it, with Marissa out? I'd have to claim Steve killed me in self-defense - but then Winston would have gotten a message from Blake informing him of his new target. It might be possible, but it's too unlikely. I decide not to go for it (sealing my decision by revealing my old plan to Winston, who admits it probably would have worked), and to wait Steve out.
Today, Winston gets me on my way to class. As I'm leaving he tells me he's going to kill me on my way to class, which of course I do not disregard as a joke, and check behind me periodically, but eventually I forget and he gets me from behind as I'm approaching Reynolds. I realized afterwards that last year, because Tufts was not safe, I was careful not to be seen even within Tufts; but this year, I didn't think to keep people from knowing that I was going to class, by using the red and gray staircases rather than the one in the lounge.
So, now only Winston and Steve remain. Will Winston kill Steve, or will he wait him out? Or will Steve, in a huge upset, take the game? I'm thinking he's going to wait him out. Aside from the fact that he pretty much has the game in the bag this way, he's already said he's going to be holed up in his room this weekend. Also, to kill Steve would make him the person who killed Steve...
And so it stands for now.
-Harry
This year, the rules were rather different:
1. All of Tufts was a safe zone. With the exception of the rooms, in certain cases! Namely, if you invited them in. It's like vampires. Some early kills were made this way, in particular, Winston's first two, but later it became unfeasible. There were two other ways to be safe. Firstly, limited safety in the dining hall (you had to be touching your tray). Secondly, a kill did not count if it was witnessed by someone else still in the game!
2. We allowed killing in self-defense, if the other person displayed a weapon first. And these could be witnessed. Weapons this year were socks and squirtguns, and some people went and got a bunch of squirtguns, but not everyone got one.
3. In order to make more confusion wrt witnesses, everyone had an alias, and on a kill, only the alias of the victim was announced. In practice, though, people generally knew who was out and who was still in.
4. In order to prevent turtling, every n days, everyone with the least kills would be automatically eliminated. n was supposed to be 3, but for whatever reason Blake (who was playing GM) sent out the rules with n=7, and with one random person among those with least kills being eliminated (!).
5. Winner is straight last-man-standing. I didn't like this, but I figured in combination with the n-day rule, not too bad; though that would have made more sense with n lower...
The game started on Saturday, but I was sick for much of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and so did nothing for the time. Meanwhile Winston got the first two kills and quickly became the frontrunner, if such a thing can exist in this game.
By the time I recovered it was down to 8 people, and people had been talking, and had the entire cycle figured out. My target was Mike, and he knew this and went around saying, "Hi Harry, when are you going to kill me?" (Next to Winston I was considered one of the "serious" players, because of my play last year - not that I got very far last year!) I had to kill him quickly, I figured, because of the three-day rule; but then I found out it had been changed to 7 days, so I didn't need to so quickly. Now I had been getting information about Mike - some non-players, in particular Nathan, were helping people out. (inston, meanwhile, was "helping" me - telling me Mike was going to Bart Mart, and then calling Jo. Luckily Peter informed me of this before I could leave. He was also actually helping, to some extent, as did he care whether it was Mike or me that died? So I found out much of Mike's schedule.
On Wednesday he had a chem midterm - but Jo was in the class. I would have done it but I decided not to risk it (despite Winston's assurances that Jo would probably be unarmed - ha) when I found out about his later bio class. It ended at 4:30, but I was told he often left early, at 3:30, meaning I would have to rush there from number theory in order to catch him. In case that didn't happen, though, I went to the BSLC the day before to take a look around and find a good position to lurk. Apparently the class was in the basement, so I figured I'd get him from the stairway, where he's have a hard time returning fire.
At this point I would insert a description of my pursuit and elimination of Mike, but this entry is going to be long enough with out it, so I will make it a separate entry.
With Mike dead, and two more kills having been made in the meantime, it was down to 5. Marissa→Jo→Me→Steve→Winston. Marissa killed Jo, and was, characteristically enough, a real poor sport about it. Winston asked if I would help humiliate her by waiting out the 7 days so she could die from least kills, but I declined; not only did I think it not enough of a humiliation to be worth it, but I too had only one kill (and, in fact, Steve had none).
So I needed to get Steve, and then Winston. (And then Marissa, but that should be less of a problem, aside from the whole "hunting each other" thing.) And Winston said he would be impossible to kill over the weekend, since he was going to be holed up in his room doing work.
But then, I came up with a plan. Remember the aliases? The four remaining were Silver Hawk, M, Roger, and Silver Lotus. Silver Lotus was Marissa, we had determined, and Winston had announced he was M (and he pretty definitely was, as he listed a number of different characters by that name it was a reference to). And I, Winston was convinced, was Roger. "You're Roger, right?" he would ask me. "I say nothing," would reply, smirking. Because, of course, I was Silver Hawk. (Named after the ship you pilot in the Darius games, of course.)
Now this would require Steve's cooperation... and it would require Marissa to still be alive... and it would require that we not encounter her... but it could very well work. Let's say I kill Steve, by whatever means. Blake sends out the email saying that Roger is dead. If I could convince Steve to cooperate, I would pretend to be dead and he would pretend to still be in. Winston thinks I'm Roger, and won't notice anything wrong, unless he happens to speak to Marissa (who would be rather confused as she had not killed me). (Later I thought of having Steve claim he killed me in self-defense, but then Marissa would be just as confused, as she wouldn't have gotten an email listing her new target.) Winston thinks I'm dead, I can walk right up to him and get him easily - even get him to invite me into his room, and then, bam.
However, Winston killed Marissa before I could get to Steve. Marissa was hiding inbetween the two vending machines, waiting for me to return from the dining hall, unaware that I was not in the dining hall (I wasn't eating, I was in Tufts; but even so I didn't eat once in the dining hall during the game), and that even had I been in there, I would not have returned by that route. So Winston gives Mike two dollars to go to the vending machine, buy something, and start talking to Marissa, while he gets her from behind. Which he did. And characteristically, Marissa was pretty sore about it.
Final three. Winston→Me→Steve, Steve with no kills, me with one kill, Winston with many kills. I still have very little information for killing Steve - Eve, I'm told, has some information, but she won't help me - but I have possibly enough, if I'm willing to endure a long stakeout on Friday. But, Winston points out to me, if I kill Steve, he can wait till Sunday and I'll die automatically. Whereas if I wait till Sunday, we'll be the final two, and I'll have a whole week to kill him. So it's only worth killing Steve if I can get Winston, and probably the only way I can get Winston is to execute the plan. Can I do it, with Marissa out? I'd have to claim Steve killed me in self-defense - but then Winston would have gotten a message from Blake informing him of his new target. It might be possible, but it's too unlikely. I decide not to go for it (sealing my decision by revealing my old plan to Winston, who admits it probably would have worked), and to wait Steve out.
Today, Winston gets me on my way to class. As I'm leaving he tells me he's going to kill me on my way to class, which of course I do not disregard as a joke, and check behind me periodically, but eventually I forget and he gets me from behind as I'm approaching Reynolds. I realized afterwards that last year, because Tufts was not safe, I was careful not to be seen even within Tufts; but this year, I didn't think to keep people from knowing that I was going to class, by using the red and gray staircases rather than the one in the lounge.
So, now only Winston and Steve remain. Will Winston kill Steve, or will he wait him out? Or will Steve, in a huge upset, take the game? I'm thinking he's going to wait him out. Aside from the fact that he pretty much has the game in the bag this way, he's already said he's going to be holed up in his room this weekend. Also, to kill Steve would make him the person who killed Steve...
And so it stands for now.
-Harry
no subject
Date: 2008-04-19 06:59 pm (UTC)