The Fifth Dynasty of Kevan
October 15, 2007 - November 18, 2007
Contents
Ascension Address
Another cold October morning in the village of Zahndorf, and another flock of sheep has been lost on the rocky hills. A pale moon is still chalked onto the blue sky above the treeline, and the church bell begins to ring slowly out across the square as the Mayor calls the villagers to a town meeting.
(Repeal all Dynastic rules. Replace “Kaiju God” with “Villager” and “Tokyo” with “Mayor”, throughout the ruleset.)
Players
The following Villagers were active at least once during the dynasty: aaronwinborn*, Amnistar*, BobTHJ, Brendan*, Bucky, Chivalrybean*, Clucky*, Darknight, Dr Zed, Elias IX*, Hix*, Hockeyruler, Icarus, Igthorn, Kevan*, Oracular rufio, Rodlen, Rodney*, ShadowClaw*, spikebrennan, Tesla4D, Tiberias, Zaratustra.
Brendan, Clucky, Darknight and Tiberias were Werewolves; the rest were Humans.
Final Ruleset
The full ruleset at the end of the game is archived at Ruleset 50.
Proposals and Events of Interest
- Werewolf - Defined all Villagers as being either Alive or Dead, and either Human or Werewolf. Werewolves were unaware of one another's identity, and could nominate a Villager as their target by privately contacting the Mayor - if they were all agreed on the same target, that target died. The game initially had no day/night cycle - humans could submit as many lynch proposals as they liked, and werewolves could kill one human per day.
- Where wolf? - In a further diversion from standard Mafia, this proposal suggested that - before we got started - the werewolves shouldn't be told each other's identity. A majority of players were in favour.
- Dead men tell no tales - Stopped Dead Villagers from communicating information from beyond the grave.
- Le Temps Du Loup - Introduced a concept of Daytime and Nighttime, with each real-world day alternating between the two. This influenced later rules which allowed some actions to occur only at certain times.
- Limited Resources - This gave Zahndorf a large, if limited, amount of money, although this was rarely referenced in later proposals.
- Shepherd Wanted - Introduced the concept of professions. Players were pointed at an online list of mediaeval professions and encouraged to choose one. As the game progressed, several of the professions would give benefits or abilities to their holder.
- Church and Fate - Anyone taking a Religious profession became immune to werewolf attack; however, such professions could only be gained as the result of a town meeting.
- I Was Born This Way - Given that new players were still joining, this rule gave an equation for making a few of those new players turn up as Werewolves.
- Quis Custodiet Lycanthropus? - Created the Night Watchman, who would get some insight into the identities of the werewolves, after a murder. Because the Watchman was a public occupation, though, whoever took it on would be an obvious target for werewolves, so nobody volunteered.
- Who Shaves the Barber? - Introduced the concept of hairy backs. Every villager had a 25% chance of having a hairy back; werewolves had a 50% chance. The village barber was able to shave any villager's back, except his own. Over the next couple of weeks, there were several proposals forcing people to reveal the status of their back hair.
- Town Meeting: Lynch spikebrennan! - Hix called for the execution of Spikebrennan, for his attempt to get the Night Watchman job assigned to a random villager. The proposed lynch was voted down.
- Local Militia - Villagers choosing military professions were given a random chance of fighting off werewolf attacks.
- Silver Bullets For All - Guns and silver bullets were introduced to the village, with relevant professions being able to manufacture them, and pass them around.
- Secret Watchman - With the Night Watchman occupation still too terrifying for anyone to adopt, it was made into a secret identity instead.
- Town Meeting: Recruitment Fair - Disappointed at the lack of professions being taken up, the Mayor proposed that anyone who avoided choosing one should be given a random, criminal occupation instead. All but one villager had taken up an occupation by the time this enacted.
- You Are In The Village - A one-cell gaol was built in Zahndorf, with two sets of keys, which were both given to the Mayor to begin with. A villager locked in the gaol lost their profession, and was barred from voting in town meetings.
- Caged Wolf - Imprisoned werewolves could no longer participate in werewolf attacks.
- Town Meeting: We need guns, lots of them - With villagers reluctant to take up gunsmithing professions, for fear of being targetted by werewolves, Chivalrybean called a meeting to force someone to take the job.
- I Saw You Standing Alone - Werewolves now only required two of their number to agree on a target for that target to be killed.
- Bars Work Both Ways - Being in gaol now protected the prisoner from werewolf attacks.
- Ever Get That Feeling? - Villagers with hairy backs were given a 45% chance of sensing when a werewolf was targetting them.
- Town Meeting: Guns for Smythes - The villagers agreed to buy a single gun from a neighbouring village, using 250,000 pfennigs from the town treasury.
- Death of the Mayor - Perhaps inevitably, the Mayor was the first to be killed by wolves. In retrospect, the Mayor probably shouldn't have been a villager in the first place.
- The Future of Zahndorf - Established secretly-tracked Acuity Points, gained whenever a player was responsible for a death on the other side. This would allow us to determine a single winner, at the end of the game.
- Town Meeting: Get HIM! - Amnistar proposed to lynch Bucky, who he felt had been behaving suspiciously. The lynch vote just passed, with five votes to four. Amnistar was killed by werewolves during the voting on this proposal.
- What's Up Doc? - The profession of "Doctor" became available. The Doctor was able to target a single villager, and prevent them from being killed by werewolves.
- Werewills - Villagers were now able to write their last will and testament as a public wiki page, to be obeyed upon their death.
- Death of the Gunsmith - Amnistar the Gunsmith was killed by wolves.
- CSI: Zahndorf - Allowed the Alchemist to perform simple autopsies on dead players, to find out if they were human or werewolf.
- Town Meeting: Can we renegotiate this lynching? - Bucky pleaded to be put into gaol, instead of being lynched. Although a majority were in favour, it came too late, and the lynch proposal passed.
- Town Meeting: The Coming of the Archbishop - A new player put themselves forward for the role of Archbishop, and was voted in.
- Haunting Werewolves - If a dead player was haunting a Werewolf, there was now a 1-in-5 chance that they'd notice the Werewolf changing during the night.
- Deathbed Confession - Wills now had to be filed privately with the Solicitor, rather than being posted to a public wiki page. The Solicitor would distribute the deceased's possessions as specified, but was free to lie about the contents of those wills. (Werewolf Brendan managed to get the job of Solicitor for some time, but didn't abuse his position.)
- The Dead Speak - Surviving players could now communicate with dead ones via a seance, on any night in which a murder had taken place. The questions were limited to those with yes/no answers, numbers, and the names of villagers.
- Poison - The Apothecary became able to manufacture one vial of poison per day, each poison having a name and affecting a target group of his choice. This group was known only to the Apothecary, who (in this game) turned out to be a Werewolf, and made several poisons which only affected humans, even calling one of them "Wolfsbane".
- The Seventh Sense - Ghosts and Werewolves became able to sense each other's presence.
- Town Meeting: J'accuse! - Aaronwinborn was put in gaol for suspicious behaviour.
- Grave Robbing - Villagers with Criminal occupations were given the ability to steal objects from other villagers at night, but this power didn't see any use for the rest of the game.
- Death of the Silversmith - Spikebrennan the Silversmith was killed by wolves.
- Death of the Alchemist - Chivalrybean the Alchemist was killed by wolves.
- Guns don't necessarily kill people - This proposal gave guns a use, allowing their owners to shoot at targets of their choice, with either lead or silver bullets. This meant that lead bullets could be used as a werewolf test, at the risk of wounding the suspect if innocent. It also gave the trusted, gun-toting villagers a way to circumvent all that fiddly lynch voting and just shoot a suspected werewolf immediately and unilaterally, which significantly accelerated the game.
- Did You Hear That? - Allowed werewolves to howl anonymously during the night, to signal to one another, or just to scare the villagers.
- Open All Hours - Due to an oversight, some professions were able to carry out their work at nighttime; this proposal stopped that.
- Alternative Medicine - This gave the Doctor a way to heal wounded villagers, and allowed the Apothecary to manufacture "medicinal" elixirs, as well as poisons.
- If Your Mansion House Needs Haunting - Ghosts were changed to haunt villagers' houses, rather than the villagers themselves. If a villager left their house to do something secret, the ghost no longer got to see what it was.
- Out on the Streets at Night - Clarified which nighttime behaviours were noticed by other villagers, or the Night Watchman.
- Death of the Jew - Elias IX was killed by wolves.
- Town Meeting: Let’s Get This Over With - Werewolf Darknight was lynched unanimously, in a town meeting that was later revealed to have been called by one of the other wolves.
- Death of the Doctor - Aaronwinborn was killed by wolves.
- Bang - A gunshot was heard. Hix claimed to have fired a lead bullet at Tiberias, without injuring him, and offered to lend someone his gun and a silver bullet, to finish the job.
- Death of the Tailor, the Librarian and the Prisoner - Three villagers died in one night; two poisoned by contaminated well water, and the other, a werewolf in prison, executed with a silver bullet. Tiberias was that werewolf, and was responsible for the poisoning, having stockpiled a number of poisons during his time as Apothecary. There was no explicit rule saying that the prisoner couldn't poison the well, and he was able to do this before the silver bullet finished him off.
- The Werewolves Are Defeated - The last of the werewolves was executed with a silver bullet. This post includes post-match commentary in the comments section.
Ascension
The Werewolves were eliminated. Of all Humans, Hix had received the most Acuity Points and so attained victory.
Commentary
Wow! I came in on the next dynasty, and it looks like I came in one dynasty too late for a very exciting game. --Yoda 18:12, 4 Jun 2008 (GMT)
Out of all the nomic games where people did not participate in, most people voted for this game to appear to be most fun. -- Seldiora 6/25/2018