castledoom.com

[Brf]

I have added a new Permanent Players list to this forum for the ones who want to be considered a player in every TWG game. Players who "explode from not voting" will be removed from the list automatically. Otherwise, anyone who is on the list does not have to explicitly sign-up for each game.

[JuntaJoe]

It appears there are still some holes in our system. The staff is having a sensible discussion on the ramifications of game 13 and how we can avoid these glitches.

I will release a full statement this weekend after the staff has reached concensus.

[JuntaJoe]

Ok, the last game came undone at the end for a reason. We did not have a firm ruling in the pre-game thread on the permissability of posting pm's. Actually, the game did not even have a pre-game thread.

I spoke to ExarKun about this right after the game started and he understands the need now.

But in his defense, this wasn't an issue that has arisen before. Therefore, a normal pre-game thread covering the GM rules would have missed this situation. He missed the pre-game thread, and dealt with a new issue, but otherwise ran a fine game.


The issue that came up concerns the idea that posting PM's might be construed as either a cheat or simply bad gaming habit. Historically, our game practice has been that there is no such thing as a cheat, barring a mad hacker, except what the GM states.

Let me say this again for clarity.

Cheating is defined by the GM at the outset and everything else is fair game.

The GM is the primary arbiter of the rules.

Hope that's clear enough.


Therefore, it is imperative that GM's scan the Master Page, get current, and fully brief the players before the game starts on what he expects from his players.

But it is inevitable that a new situation is bound to arise given that we actively encourage players to find that extra edge to survive.

So we will always refer to the second line of my italicized comments. On the other hand, the GM should take into account the nature of the game when a novel situation arises and make final rulings with moderation.

In any case, while it wasn't the smoothest of handlings, the decision was still ExarKun's to make. He chose to disallow it in the end. Agree or not, it was his final ruling to make and he made it. If you don't like the ruling then you can always run your game differently. His game, his rules. Your game, your rules. Simple enough.

So about the PM's themselves. I'm updating the Master Page to increase the emphasis on the worthlessness of posting any quote from another person when that original writer is not there to corroborate the validity of the original text. I will also add info to the GM Checklist section that a pm ruling is yet another factor to be included in the pre-game rules.


Let's put this behind us and get on with the game.

[JuntaJoe]

I just noted that Elvingirl's hotmail addy is refusing mass emails.......again. :?

[Brf]

Figgers :P

[Brf]

Her picture in her sig is dead too.

[JuntaJoe]

First, let me post CooJoe's GM ruling on game 26:

Quote: Due to the controversy of the retracted votes, and GM misshap I will have to change my decision as who won.

The Misshap involves a vote, which was retracted in a wrong manner. The poster's response states this.

Actually I retracted at the wrong place. Where it now says retracted there was no vote. I retracted at the wrong place. There never was a vote on my second post. My mistake. It was 2.30 am here. I was trying to retract my then only vote. What to do with this info is now up to GM and Admin. But that is the way it was.

When I, the gm saw the retraction, I didn't see the vote, which was still there. That same thread another vote was made, which I nullified as it was not boldened. After the controversy, I reexamined the thread, and three possibilities were found. Two of them resulted in a tie, and an unworkable ending, as our last wolf had been exposed. The third would have led to a wolf victory, if it weren't for the fact that our wolf did not make a kill that night. In short, I will have to change my ruling to a Tie between the wolves and humans. Essentially, everyone who made it to day six wins.

I apologize for any inconvenience.



Now I would like to make a staff statement.

After I presented CooJoe with all possible options for a clear winner, he realized that every choice would leave someone with a legitimate protest. Sure, there was an option that was more heavily weighted to one party, but it still would not have been 100%.

So CooJoe chose to not penalize anyone.

The staff stands behind his decision completely.

Why? CooJoe's game equals CooJoe's rules. Sound familiar?

While the staff may advise a GM initiate, we still stick with our cardinal rule here.

It's hard enough to GM without backseat drivers messing with you.



Speaking of being hard to GM, let me clue in those of you who have never GM'ed on the difficulty.

Trust me, anyone who has GM'ed here is sympathetic to what happened to CooJoe.

Anyway, it only took one little missed detail to throw a wrench into the game as you can see. But the number of details is truly amazing. Vote checking, user groups, storyline, monitoring a half dozen daily threads, and more pm's than you can shake a stick at. Each of those can be a headache. And that doesn't count the complicated setup or game closeout duties. Not to mention a few new board controls you have to learn. And it all must happen at the right time of day for an entire week, no matter your real life.

Why do I say all this? Because while I want to eventually get most of you GM certified, I want you to know that this job is no piece of cake. It's pretty darn hard, actually, under you have several sessions under your belt. When you volunteer for learning this job, I want you to be truly ready for a painstaking job.

So why do it? It's kind of neat watching everything unfold for you. You laugh at player suppositions that are way off base. You get to watch amazing intuition in other players. You bite your tongue when you see the trainwrecks coming. You get to try your hand at storytelling. And you will also find it makes you become a better player later when you can see all the cards on the table and the experienced players working them. The job would certainly be tiresome if you had to do it all the time, but doing it occasionally is a lot of fun......once you get the hang of it.

Those of you who made it to the tie ending can take heart that surviving six days is a solid accomplishment in its own right.

The rest of you were dead anyway and you have no reason to complain. :P

Don't think the staff is down on CooJoe either. He did pretty darn good his first time out of the gate and we are confident that his next effort will be exemplary.


Again. CooJoe's game equals CooJoe's rules. 'Nuff said.

[JuntaJoe]

We will no longer be issuing TWG bucks for hidden game boards so as to ensure that very observant players cannot determine a players special status in a game by simply watching point tallies grow.

This was ponted out anonymously by one of your fellow players and the staff thanks him for catching this error and bringing it to our attention.

[Brf]

I noticed it myself two games ago.... but I didnt say anything.

The Hook, The Thumbscrew. and The Executioner will no longer award TWG-Bucks.

[Brf]

The TWG Ticket objects are meant to facilitate a rewards system for TWG. The base ticket cost right now is 100 TWG-Bucks.

Once the new TWG GM is chosen, he/she can open signup on the TWG Status page. Then "using" a TWG Ticket will automatically put the player into the TWG Alive group and give the 100 TWG-Bucks to the GM. Once the game is over, the GM can gift the TWG Bucks back to the surviving players and/or winning team as the GM sees fit.

This will also encourage quality posts in the games and more comments in the game comments threads, as those posts will earn more TWG bucks to buy into the next game.