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Rogan
2023-12-31, 05:25 PM
Welcome, players, to a thrilling and mind-bending game of Hivemind! In this unique twist on the classic game of Mafia or Werewolves, you will find yourselves immersed in a world where harmony, peace, and unity reign supreme—until now. Prepare to be captivated by a tale of betrayal, manipulation, and hidden identities as we present to you "Hivemind: The Battle Against The Hackers."

Once upon a time, deep within the mysterious depths of the digital realm, a powerful and intelligent swarm called "The Hive" dwelled harmoniously. The Hive was a collective consciousness, meticulously synchronized to bring order and peace to their virtual existence. Each member had an intrinsic role to play, working together as a cohesive whole. As a symphony of buzzing minds, they were unstoppable, their unity unbreakable.

However, their tranquility was about to be shattered. A nefarious group known as "The Hackers" had decided to wage war against The Hive. Cunning and merciless, The Hackers infiltrated the universal friend/foe recognition system within The Hive, corrupting it entirely. Now, these deceptive enemies lurk among The Hive, disguised as innocent members, striving to manipulate and eliminate from within.

The once peaceful Hive is now in chaos. Trust, the very foundation of their existence, has been shattered overnight. No one knows who to turn to anymore, as every buzzing entity could be a Hacker in disguise, manipulating their kin to further their sinister agenda. The lines that once defined friend and foe have been blurred, leaving The Hive on edge.

As a member of The Hive, your task is twofold. First, you must work together with your fellow townspeople to uncover the identity of the Hackers among you, using your collective intelligence and strategic thinking to eliminate the threat from within. Second, you must protect the integrity of The Hive at all costs, ensuring its survival against this insidious invasion.

But beware, dear townspeople, for the Hackers are highly skilled and cunning, capable of weaving intricate webs of deception. They will stop at nothing to control The Hive and achieve their ultimate goal. The stakes are high, and failure is not an option. Can The Hive, embroiled in distrust and suspicion, uncover the hidden Hackers and reclaim their harmonious existence? That, my friends, is now in your hands.

So buckle up and prepare yourselves for an exhilarating battle of wits, deceit, and unforeseen alliances. The survival of The Hive depends on you. Good luck, and may the collective intelligence of The Hive prevail against The Hackers!
(Written by https://chatgpt.org/chat)


The Rules:
This game is supposed to be completely transparent regarding the rules. If there are any questions, please ask them.
There will be no false information provided by the narrator (with a possible exception of honest mistakes).

Every player will have a private discord channel for communication with the narrator.
The Hackers will have a Discord channel for their own coordination.
Players who are eliminated will join a dead-chat discord channel. Spectators can join there as well.
The Hackers will win as soon as they are at >= 50% of the active players, or nothing can prevent this.
Town will win by eliminating all Hackers, or in case of a surrender of the Hackers.

While general mechanical talk is allowed, highly specific planning is frowned upon. Examples:
+ We should not kill tonight.
+ We should protect one of the known power-roles

- We should make sure to create a tie for the protection and split our votes this way <insert list of player-vote pairs here>


Day:
They should take ~ 48 hours. There might be some deviation, depending on the RL of the narrator.
Votes should be in red and bolded. They need to be on an active player of the game, or for sleep or no vote. It does not need to be the exact name, as long as the intent is clear. The narrator is not an active player.
If you already voted someone and intend to remove your vote, without immediately voting another person, you need to state this intend, using 'no vote'.
If you are unsure if a certain vote is valid / will be counted, please ask the narrator.
Strike-through of old votes is allowed, but not required.
Voting for yourself is allowed.
Ties are resolved randomly.

Night:
They should take ~ 24 hours. There might be some deviation, depending on the RL of the narrator.
Public talking is allowed.
Every Member of the Swarm can secretly vote for the usage of every available special power, as described below.
Similar to the day, the allowed options are active participants of the game, no usage and no vote.
Voting for yourself is not allowed.
Ties are resolved randomly, unless the wielder of the power votes for one of the tied options. In this case, their vote takes precedence.
The wielder of the power will know the number of votes on the top target, as well as possible tied options. They will also receive the feedback their power provides.
The Hackers share three powers and need to agree on their usage. They need to select one of their members to use the power and the target. Power usage is required
The powers are:

Kill - unless protected, the selected target will be eliminated.
Spy - unless protected, learn the votes of this player for the night.
Timeout - unless protected, the selected target can neither vote, nor use powers during this night.



The Roles:
At the game start, each player will receive a random role from a pool of options. This pool will grow according to the following pattern (if there are more players, I will extend the list of options)

Swarm - Swarm - Hacker - Defender - Swarm - Swarm - Hacker - White Hat - Swarm - Swarm - Hacker - Sniffer - Swarm - Swarm - Hacker - Firewall - Swarm - Swarm - Hacker

The special powers are:

Defender: Will protect the target in the current night from all other actions.
White Hat: Will eliminate the target, unless protected.
Sniffer: You will learn if the target used any action or was targeted by an action other than yours.
Firewall: Will protect the target in the following night from all other actions.




Players:

Snowblaze
AvatarVecna
Persolus
Illven
corncobweb
Book Wombat
MerelBlackbird
CaoimhinTheCape
bladescape
Batcathat
Athedia
JeenLeen
Benoojian
Caedorus


Spectator:
Let'sGetKraken


Discord invitation! (https://discord.com/invite/X3nFuHPW)

Snowblaze
2023-12-31, 05:42 PM
Playing more mafia is, uh, not exactly my New Year's Resolution.

In anyway. Will read the setup next year.

AvatarVecna
2023-12-31, 05:47 PM
Ofc I'm in.

Let'sGetKraken
2023-12-31, 07:03 PM
I am in! For sure. For extra characters.

Persolus
2023-12-31, 07:56 PM
Obviously in

Illven
2023-12-31, 08:30 PM
I am here.

corncobweb
2024-01-01, 02:11 AM
This is cool, I’m in. I would like to take this ‘no planning’ thing way too far and see how it goes.

Does the ‘no specific plans’ rule apply to the Hackers too?

Book Wombat
2024-01-01, 08:40 PM
Follow the Hivemind!

MerelBlackbird
2024-01-01, 11:57 PM
In, in, IN! Although playing more Mafia is not a New Year's resolution for me.

Rogan
2024-01-02, 06:22 AM
This is cool, I’m in. I would like to take this ‘no planning’ thing way too far and see how it goes.

Does the ‘no specific plans’ rule apply to the Hackers too?

They may make plans in their shared Discord channel, but not in public.

The main reason for this rule is to avoid any kind of plan which would completely break the game. For example:
Everyone vote to protect the person next to them in the player list.
If this plan would be implemented, the Defender could just check the players not included in their 'tied for the lead' list and figure out the Hackers this way.


Since it might be unclear: All 'town' players may secretly vote at night for their special powers. The 'wolf' players do not participate in this voting, and instead coordinate their own actions.

CaoimhinTheCape
2024-01-03, 11:36 AM
Hoping to have time for maf this year. In!

bladescape
2024-01-04, 07:54 PM
I'm in. I also promise to not read the setup until the game has started.

Batcathat
2024-01-08, 04:36 AM
I'm in.

This is more characters.

Snowblaze
2024-01-12, 03:46 PM
pokes thread

Just wanted to check whether we're starting in a few days or waiting until Time Warp is finished.

And to announce that I will be quieter than normal due to being busy IRL.

And to add that I actually mean that this time, see recent games for proof that quiet!Snowblaze exists.

Athedia
2024-01-12, 04:26 PM
Sure, what's the worst that can happen.

JeenLeen
2024-01-13, 11:04 AM
Almost missed this one. I'm in.
Firewall as a delayed bane sounds cool.


There will be no false information provided by the narrator (with a possible exception of honest mistakes).

From reading the powers, it sounds like there's no vortexer or scry power.
Let's say JeenLeen is a Hacker doing the Kill.
If a Defender and Sniffer target me, what does the Sniffer learn/get as feedback?



While general mechanical talk is allowed, highly specific planning is frowned upon. Examples:
+ We should not kill tonight.
+ We should protect one of the known power-roles

- We should make sure to create a tie for the protection and split our votes this way <insert list of player-vote pairs here>


Can wolves plan in their chat?

All in all, this rule sounds odd. I get rules where the point is to avoid massclaims to try to figure out the wolves, but what are you trying to avoid / promote by wanting to limit specific planning of actions?
Not being critical, but I'm trying to understand the spirit of the rule especially as I lean towards mechanically intricate plots. EDIT: So that I can follow the spirit, as well as hopefully the actual rule; not looking for a loophole.

JeenLeen
2024-01-13, 11:06 AM
Almost missed this one. I'm in.
Firewall as a delayed bane sounds cool.


There will be no false information provided by the narrator (with a possible exception of honest mistakes).

From reading the powers, it sounds like there's no vortexer or scry power.
Let's say JeenLeen is a Hacker doing the Kill.
If a Defender and Sniffer target me, what does the Sniffer learn/get as feedback?



While general mechanical talk is allowed, highly specific planning is frowned upon. Examples:
+ We should not kill tonight.
+ We should protect one of the known power-roles

- We should make sure to create a tie for the protection and split our votes this way <insert list of player-vote pairs here>


Can wolves plan in their chat?

All in all, this rule sounds odd. I get rules where the point is to avoid massclaims to try to figure out the wolves, but what are you trying to avoid / promote by wanting to limit specific planning of actions?
Not being critical, but I'm trying to understand the spirit of the rule especially as I lean towards mechanically intricate plots. EDIT: So that I can follow the spirit, as well as hopefully the actual rule; not looking for a loophole.

EDIT 2: or are the + good examples, but the - frowned upon? If so, that makes sense and I just misunderstood.

Let'sGetKraken
2024-01-13, 12:37 PM
pokes thread

Just wanted to check whether we're starting in a few days or waiting until Time Warp is finished.

And to announce that I will be quieter than normal due to being busy IRL.

And to add that I actually mean that this time, see recent games for proof that quiet!Snowblaze exists.

Uh-huh. I will believe it when I see it.

Benoojian
2024-01-13, 03:11 PM
If you're still recruiting, I'd like to join

Rogan
2024-01-13, 05:30 PM
Almost missed this one. I'm in.
Firewall as a delayed bane sounds cool.

Welcome. Thanks, I hope we will get this power, but we are still missing some players for this. I think?



From reading the powers, it sounds like there's no vortexer or scry power.
Let's say JeenLeen is a Hacker doing the Kill.
If a Defender and Sniffer target me, what does the Sniffer learn/get as feedback?


In this case, they would get 'No result', because the defender would block the Sniffer as well as the kill.
Of course, the same result would happen if they targeted anyone else, but got blocked by the Hacker power, so there will be some ambiguity left.



Can wolves plan in their chat?

Yes, they are free to plan in private.



All in all, this rule sounds odd. I get rules where the point is to avoid massclaims to try to figure out the wolves, but what are you trying to avoid / promote by wanting to limit specific planning of actions?
Not being critical, but I'm trying to understand the spirit of the rule especially as I lean towards mechanically intricate plots. EDIT: So that I can follow the spirit, as well as hopefully the actual rule; not looking for a loophole.

EDIT 2: or are the + good examples, but the - frowned upon? If so, that makes sense and I just misunderstood.

The examples marked as + are things which are allowed, yes.

The thought about the limitations on specific plans was described a few posts above. In summary, I can imagine a few strategies which would completely break the game. Instead of trying to figure out all possible plans and implementing counters, I've opted for the general rule of "Don't do such plans as all"

When in doubt, feel free to ask if a certain plan/suggestion would be too detailed, and I'll try to answer as soon as possible.



If you're still recruiting, I'd like to join

Recruitment has not ended yet.
I'll let everyone know about the timing as soon as I've decided about the date. This might be a bit later than usual, since Time Warp is still running and I'd like to wait a bit till most players of this game got a chance to voice their preferences.

Caedorus
2024-01-14, 03:25 PM
I'm in for the L€€ţ Ħ@Xx0® Stuff

JeenLeen
2024-01-14, 03:35 PM
In this case, they would get 'No result', because the defender would block the Sniffer as well as the kill.
Of course, the same result would happen if they targeted anyone else, but got blocked by the Hacker power, so there will be some ambiguity left.

If a Sniffer targeted someone who did no action and had nobody else target them, would they get "No result" or something like "Nobody targeted this person"?




The examples marked as + are things which are allowed, yes.

The thought about the limitations on specific plans was described a few posts above. In summary, I can imagine a few strategies which would completely break the game. Instead of trying to figure out all possible plans and implementing counters, I've opted for the general rule of "Don't do such plans as all"

When in doubt, feel free to ask if a certain plan/suggestion would be too detailed, and I'll try to answer as soon as possible.


I think I get it.
At least to my mind, it's like: some plans are the equivalent end result to everyone claiming in a game where all roles are known. that is, it would out the wolves (or, if there's 3 wolves, make at least 3 pairs (so 6 players) doubleclaiming so you can narrow down the wolves qiuckly and break the game.)

Let'sGetKraken
2024-01-15, 08:01 AM
Actually, I'm sorry Rogan. I've just been tasked with a pretty major work project for the next few weeks, I don't think I'll have time for this one. Super interesting setup, though, and I look forward to following it!

Rogan
2024-01-16, 02:47 PM
If a Sniffer targeted someone who did no action and had nobody else target them, would they get "No result" or something like "Nobody targeted this person"?

I think I get it.
At least to my mind, it's like: some plans are the equivalent end result to everyone claiming in a game where all roles are known. that is, it would out the wolves (or, if there's 3 wolves, make at least 3 pairs (so 6 players) doubleclaiming so you can narrow down the wolves qiuckly and break the game.)

It will be something like "no actions". Wording might vary, but there will be 3 different possibilities for the result. One for a failed action (either because the target was protected, or the schon action was voided), one for no actions taken by or effecting the target (with the exception of the Sniffer itself, of course) and one result for every other case.

This is basically correct. Claims are not that problematic in this setup (although they definitely help town, cause all roles will be known), since there are many powerless swarm members, which are easy to fake claim. However, there definitely are other strategies which would break the game. Micromanagement of the secret votes being a prime candidate for this.



Actually, I'm sorry Rogan. I've just been tasked with a pretty major work project for the next few weeks, I don't think I'll have time for this one. Super interesting setup, though, and I look forward to following it!

It's unfortunate, but understandable. You are definitely welcome to join the game as a spectator in the dead chat, if you would like this chance. Just let me know once I've actually set up the Discord server.



Right now, I intend to keep the recruitment open till the next end of cycle of Time Warp. Which means, end of this week, I think.

MerelBlackbird
2024-01-16, 05:54 PM
I may end up having to withdraw if I use discord too much. If I have to out I'll tell you here because I'll have been cut off from discord for school purposes. I also may be on discord a lot less anyway, but I'll try to keep my in.

Rogan
2024-01-19, 03:29 PM
With the end of Time Warp, I'll be able to start this game soon.

I intend to set up the Discord server and the game thread tomorrow. Recruitment will end on Sunday, and I'll assign the teams shortly after this.


Currently, we are looking at a 14 player game, which means 3 Hackers vs a Defender, White Hat and Sniffer, as well as 8 regular members of the Swarm.

Persolus
2024-01-21, 11:11 AM
Discord invitation! (https://discord.com/invite/X3nFuHPW)

Notice that the discord link is now up!

Rogan
2024-01-22, 01:31 AM
Recruitment has ended and roles are assigned.

If you missed your chance to join as player, you might still join as spectator.