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Factions:
• We merged the French and English into a European Union Faction;
• We added the Chinese faction;
• And we added the Japanese faction;
• Some of the survivors of Spycraft 1 may return, with both old and new abilities;
• Team compositions are changed, as well as team numbers, so every faction is significantly different from Spycraft 1.
Victory Conditions:
• The 2 point conditions can be achieved multiple times. The maximum number of times it can be completed, is 5 times per team, and each team can complete the condition five times.
Rules:
As you may have noticed, being able to get your (night) action in just after the lynch to prevent being guarded was a huge part of Spycraft 1. To my mind, it had too much of an influence. Rule changes have been made to deal with this.
The Goal of the Game:
If you are a member of the Syndicate (a.k.a. scum), you can only win by achieving a majority. The game ends immediately when the Syndicate has achieved this, or when the last Syndicate member is killed/lynched.
If you are a Spy (a.k.a. town), you can only win if your particular faction (divided by nationality) has the highest number of points the second the last Syndicate member is taken out of the game.
In other words (and this is a clue):
• Dividing your attention between your factions goals and getting rid of the scum is a better bet than trying to kill and lynch your way until your team is the last one standing;
• You lose when scum wins, they’re the common enemy;
• It is better to find an equilibrium between scoring points for your faction and hindering others than it is to exclusively try and hinder others.
Day and Night plus Modkills:
Day lasts 24 hours. The mod-kill limit for absence is not disclosed, as there may or may not be silencing effects in this game. Expect it to be slightly over 24 hours. This is not an invitation to lurk. If you need an extension, let us know.
Night lasts theoretically 0 hours, but we will take as long as we need to resolve and double check everything, post the PMs you sent, and whip up a story. Even should Night take hours to resolve, we will not accept orders during that time, unless we announce dusk is in effect (see 4.b.i).
There is a full stop during the weekends.
Submitting Actions:
1) Iron Man is in effect. That means that only 1 action per player per phase can be submitted, with no provisionals. Once submitted, the action cannot be changed, cancelled or otherwise affected by the player that submitted it. If your target is removed from the game, no matter the reason, you are STILL not allowed to submit a new action.
2) Spycraft 2.0 is a very complex game, with intricate actions and delicate timing. To make it as easy to mod as possible and to make certain your actions are resolved as you intend them, we come up with the following rule: You must submit your action in the following format:
a. In a separate PM sent only to the mods;
b. The title must contain the current phase (so, day 2, night 5, etc.) and your character name;
c. In the body of the PM, you must QUOTE the exact ability text you activate
d. And underneath the quote, specify (all) the target player(s).
e. If an action has multiple effects, you must clearly designate which effect targets which player.
f. If an ability has a limited number of uses, we want you to indicate how many uses you have remaining before this action is processed.
Action Resolution
3) Order of Resolution during the Day
a. All orders will be resolved in the order we receive them.
b. As usual, when an ability contradicts the rules, the ability as it is interpreted/explained by the mods supersedes the rules.
c. Failure to correctly submit a PM will lead to the mod asking you to change it, if there is still time.
d. Only the time stamp of correctly submitted orders is used, not that of an order submitted incorrectly.
4) Order of Resolution at Night
a. Night is zero hours (or rather, as long as we take to resolve it).
b. As a result, all night actions must be submitted during the day. If your NAs target is lynched or day-killed, tough luck. No provisionals are accepted.
i. Special circumstances: If the day was shorter than 12 hours (24 hours is still the maximum amount of time), we will give all players a chance to submit orders, by starting ‘dusk’: 12 hours in between lynch and night resolution.
ii. Players who have posted during the day or PMed P-S during the day will NOT get the opportunity to profit from this extension.
c. Any ability marked as Instant is resolved first.
d. All other orders will still be resolved in the order we receive them.
e. As usual, when an ability contradicts the rules, the ability as it is interpreted/explained by the mods supersedes the rules. Debate is not welcome.
f. We have given a select few abilities the option of submitting 1 (ONE) provisional to compensate for targets being lynched or killed. This is described in the ability itself.
Abilities and ability types:
5) every ability is categorized as one of the following:
a. Abilities that affect other players negatively are Harmful abilities and are marked with (H).
b. Abilities that are generally beneficial are seen as beneficial abilities, marked with (B.)
c. Abilities that give information are considered neutral abilities, marked with (N)
6) In victory conditions and in abilities themselves we will further specify abilities with the following wordings:
Hinder, Guard, Kill, Recruit, Info, Find, Aid, Heal, Proof or Talk.
a. Hinder is the description for abilities that have a negative effect on other players abilities or on other players themselves that cannot be described by Guard, Recruit or Kill. Hinder abilities are always Harmful.
b. Guard is the description for abilities that deny another player the right to take a (certain) action. Guard abilities are always Harmful.
c. Kill is de description for all abilities that intend to permanently remove a player from the game. Kill abilities are always Harmful.
d. Recruit is the description for all abilities that switch a players alignment and victory conditions to your own. Recruit abilities are always Harmful.
e. Info is the description for all abilities that automatically give you information. Info abilities are always Neutral.
f. Find is the description for all abilities that allow a player to gather information about another player. Find abilities are always Neutral.
g. Aid is the description for abilities that grant abilities or have beneficial effects on other players abilities or on other players themselves that cannot be described as Heal, Proof or Talk. Aid abilities are always Beneficial.
h. Heal is the description for abilities that make others temporarily invulnerable to Kill abilities. Heal abilities are always Beneficial.
i. Proof is the description for abilities that give the player himself a one-time immunity to lynch (lynch proof), recruitment (recruitment proof) or to all kills in 1 night (bullet proof). Proof abilities are always beneficial.
j. Talk is the description for abilities that allow a player to communicate with another player – either through H&M or by PMing one another.
7) The trait Upgrade.
Some abilities are marked with (*), and with the trait Upgrade of <ability name>. These are upgrades and affect abilities you have gained on a lower level. The ability is still of the same type, but the next time it is submitted, it is resolved with all new effects as well as the old ones (unless those who replaced by the Upgrade).
8) The trait Passive.
All abilities with this trait are active from the moment you get them up until their uses are expended (if there is a maximum number of uses). Passive abilities do not count towards the number of actions you may perform in a phase, and you cannot deactivate them either, they just happen. Unless specified otherwise, Passive abilities are not affected by guards.
9) The trait Limited Number of Uses (<number>)
Any ability marked with this trait, can only be used a certain number of times. The number between parentheses indicates how often this ability can be used. When submitting an action that has a limited number of uses, you MUST include in the PM how many uses you have remaining before this actions resolution.
10) the trait Instant,
All abilities with this trait will be activated simultaneously from the start of night before any other action is activated. Rules on instant abilities:
a. Any night abilities that can protect yourself or others are either passive, or have the trait Instant.
b. All night guards have the trait Instant.
c. If an Instant ability is used by a guarded player, he is guarded and the Instant ability is thus cancelled, despite resolving at what is technically the same time.
d. If a guard is guarded, he cannot guard, despite having an Instant ability.
11) The trait Operation. Operations are a special type of ability that can be performed by several people at once. Operations also count towards Victory Conditions that require Operations.
12) The trait Investigation. Investigations are finds that count towards Victory Conditions that require Investigations. They have no other special function.
13) The trait Replaces <ability name>
once you get this ability, another ability (the one in the trait) is deactivated and can no longer be used, regardless of the number of uses it has remaining.
Role PMs
A Role PM looks like this. Everyone has 6 levels (starting at 0, up to level 5) and roughly 8 to 12 abilities.
Morgoth, King of High House Mafia (Norwegian) – Scum
Level 0:
Feud with Dibs (H, Kill): Night only. Limited number of uses (1). When you spot Dibs, you kill him, after telling the whole thread he’s a beardless leprechaun, of course.
Aquevit (N, Find): Night only. Investigation. target a player. If he has alcohol, you will be told.
So Skinny (B, Proof): passive. You have 1 bulletproof.
Level 1:
Drunk Posting (*): upgrade of Aquevit. In addition to the regular effects, Aquevit now also removes all alcohol from the target player.
Levelling.
14) Everyone starts the game at level 0. Everyone levels at the same time.
15) You go up a level every time there’s been 500 posts (or a multitude there-of) or 3 dead people (including lynches).
16) Levelling happens only at the start or end of the day and is announced by the mods.
17) Once you gain a level, you can use the abilities of that level.
18) If you submit an action of a level you do not have, and that level has not be attained when the action is resolved, it is automatically cancelled.
Communications between players.
During the game, players will be allowed by certain abilities to communicate off-thread.
There are a few simple rules for off-thread communication:
19) You can only communicate with another player-off thread if this is specified by an ability.
20) The mods will let you know when you can communicate off-thread and with whom, and will initiate the first communications by setting up a first conversation thread. You can then create new threads as you like.
21) Every message must be CCed to Hugin & Munin.
The best way to do this, is by initiating a PM exchange of the Invitation kind and inviting Hugin & Munin + the player(s) you wish to communicate with. If you fail to submit a message to H&M, we will deduct points from all teams participating in the conversation except for the ones that report the breach of the rules. If you are a Syndicate player and breach the rules, you will get a stern warning, then a modkill if you repeat the offense.
22) Some communications go through Hugin & Munin entirely, meaning you PM them, and they will sent your PM to the people you can communicate with. In these conversations, it is expressedly forbidden to identify yourself in any way. As a result, you are expected to do the following:
a. You must observe proper capitalization, spelling and punctuation.
b. You are not allowed to refer in any way to yourself or your actions on thread or aid the other parties in identifying you.
c. You are not allowed to refer on thread to these conversations in any way whatsoever.
d. The mods retain the right to tell you a message is unacceptable, in which case you must rewrite it.
e. You must observe all other clauses that come with the communication ability.
f. Any failure to comply will be punished by:
i. First offense: a 5 point deduction for your team.
ii. Second offense: a 10 point deduction for your team.
iii. Third offense: automatic loss for your team.
23) You can discuss any subject to your heart’s content in lover communications, unless the ability that initiate the conversation says otherwise. H&M will specify this in their first post in every off-thread communication.
The Mods
Spycraft is a big game with a lot of messages flying left and right, often faster than we can keep up with. Therefore, we make use of 2 mod-alts, Path-Shaper and Hugin & Munin. Each has a specific function, but both will be used to actively moderate on thread if need be.
Path-Shaper is for all stuff that concerns spoiler heaven and for all actions.
We therefore kindly ask you to send all action orders to P-S. Wait, I’ll rephrase that:
We may not resolve orders in time if they’re not sent to P-S.
Hugin & Munin is for all stuff that concerns inter-player communications. We keep an eye on these to check if the rules are being followed and to post lots of the juicy stuff in S-H. H&M also has a role in sending messages anonymously.
As in most other games, you are not allowed to quote directly on thread or in PMs from messages by P-S (although you may quote your role PM in lover communications that do not restrict this).
Scenes
Spycraft is story driven. Thanks to the Iron Man rule, we can and will resolve day actions as soon as we get them – sometimes one order at a time, sometimes we wait for a bunch to come in, and we will then write up a little scene.
Scenes contain clues, both to the nature of the actions as to the players participating in them. With your role description, you also find a PM called Appearance. You will find a description of your character there, and we will use some of the stuff in there in scenes so you can identify yourself, and can identify others, too – in time.
In the first Spycraft, I had a hard time keeping the mystery alive (PB did a much better job) and abilities acted as soft finds. I’ve learned from that, and aim to have scenes that will be much more obscure where it concerns the players – often, you will only be described by what kind of watch you’re wearing, and in another scene what kind of tie, in a third whether or not you sport a moustache, et cetera, and for all the outsiders, it will not show that this is the same person.
We will not warn players of their appearance in a scene. Don’t bother asking ‘is that me?’ either.
Reveals
Reveals are actively discouraged in a rather alarming way.
24) You reveal on thread, you die by mod-kill. You’re a Spy, after all. Everyone hates spies, and you’re on foreign territory (except the Japanese spies, but hey, give me some leeway there) blowing up stuff, shooting people and going against national and international security. We will be strict about this.
25) You may, however, reveal others, including citing their Role PMs. This does not get them mod-killed.
26) When someone else reveals your nationality, your allegiance and/or your Role PM (or a faked copy thereof) you may not confirm that’s you. You may deny it as much as you like, however.
27) If you code (part of) who you are, and someone breaks the code and reveals it on thread, you are mod-killed. So, don’t code or code very well.
Crime and Punishment
So, loads of rules. How are we going to make sure you stick to them?
Simple. We kick not only your butt, but that of your team if you fail to observe the gentle guidelines we put before you.
28) Breaking the rules on reveals will bring forth their own punishment, which tends to be extremely fatal.
29) Breaking the rules on communications will hurt your teams chances at victory, and if you continue fucking up, your teams ability to achieve victory.
30) Breaking any other rule will at the very least result in a public announcement of point deductions, possibly coupled with a modkill.
For those who publicly or privately admit or show they didn’t read the rules: there’s a 99% chance that you will screw your teammates. While some of us love to gamble, I’m sure people will still be in love with you after you ruin their game, so please make the effort to Read The Rules... if not for yourself, then for them.
Finally:
Having fun is mandatory. So is keeping it fun for others. Please keep it civil, even though you are intending murder, mayhem and are lying through your teeth.
P.S.: you're not allowed to self-vote.
This post has been edited by Path-Shaper: 19 May 2010 - 06:39 PM
