Espionage - Round 5
Start of Prep Phase: Monday, May 5th, 11pm CEST
Phase change time: 4pm CDT, 5pm EDT, 10pm GMT, 11pm CEST, midnight EEST, 5am PHT
If I forgot a player's time zone or made a mistake converting, let me know and I'll add or correct it.
General Overview
Roles and Objectives
Espionage revolves around the interplay between special roles that two players are assigned: the Spy and the Detective. The Spy's goal is to eliminate the Detective by whatever means possible, while the Detective's goal is to locate and lynch the Spy. The remaining players will be Civilians. Some of those have been corrupted and are to assist the Spy, they're the Informants. All other Civilians are to help the Detective.
So you can think of it like this: Detective and Civilians make up one team trying to kill the Spy, Spy and Informants make up another team trying to kill the Detective.
These are the four only roles in the game. There's one Detective, one Spy, a small number of Informants, and a lot of Civilians. How many Informants are in the game depends on the total number of players and is announced when the game begins. The roles are assigned randomly and aside from one exception you alone are informed of your role.
This is a game in which you are allowed to lie and players pretend to be roles they're not. You can rarely be certain if someone's telling the truth and it's often not easy to tell who's friend and who's foe.
Events Over The Course of The Game
The game consists of phases that are 24 hours long. Two important things happen at the end of every phase:
— A player might die at the hands of the Spy.
— A player might be lynched by the entire town.
Over the course of the phase every player is expected to send the GM their vote. Unless there is a tie, whoever receives the most votes is lynched. In addition to the vote the Spy can also use their Kill action, thereby eliminating a player. Players' roles are revealed upon death.
When the Spy dies the game ends in a Detective/Civilians win. When the Detective dies the remaining Civilians have two more phases in which they can try to find and lynch the Spy and win. If the Spy is still alive after those two phases, the game ends in a Spy/Informants win.
Rules
Roles and Their Abilities
Spy
Kill: Kills one player the Spy chooses to target.
Order: Sends a message of any length to all Informants.
Note: Order can be used every phase, including Prep Phase.
Spoiler: Rules applying to Order
Investigate: The Detective sends in the names of three players to be investigated one of which they'll learn is not the Spy. Since there is just one Spy in the game out of the three names submitted either two or all three are non-Spies. Which of those two or those three is returned is random.
Spoiler: Rules applying to Investigate
No abilities
The Informant learns the identity of the Spy when the game start.
If the Spy uses Order, all Informants still alive receive the message at phase change.
Civilian
No abilities
With the end of Prep Phase and the beginning of Day 1, every Civilian receives a list with a unique set of names of fellow players. Each contains the Detective's and all Informants' names among others.
Spoiler: How lists are generated
Each Day phase every player, no matter what role they've been assigned, has to cast a vote for any player still alive. Whoever receives the most votes will be lynched. Specific rules:
— You may not abstain.
— You have to vote a player who is alive as of the phase the vote is cast. Voting a dead player or someone who isn't even playing is invalid. You may vote yourself.
— Ties cancel the lynching.
— If you fail to send in a valid vote in time, you'll automatically vote yourself.
— Votes are made public regardless of ties. Results don't indicate if a player voted him or herself due to no valid vote having been submitted or not.
Order of Abilities
At the end of every phase the lynching always takes place before the Spy's Kill ability. That means even if you are killed, your vote still goes through. If the Spy intends to Kill the player receiving the most votes, the ability has no effect as the target will already have been lynched. In that case, additionally to the votes, who was lynched, and their role, it is announced that no one died. Phase change results don't specify if the above-mentioned is what happened or if the Spy decided not to kill.
Gameplay
— You are not allowed to discuss the game in private messages with other players as long as either you or they are alive. The only place to discuss it is this topic.
— Once you have been killed by the Spy or lynched, you are dead and therefore considered 'out of the game'. From that point forward you can no longer use your abilities or vote, and are to stop discussing the game in this topic or influence the game in any way until it ends. You are allowed to talk about the game with other players that have died.
— In order to vote or use your abilities, send a private message to the GM. If you want to change vote or use of an ability, you can do so as long as the phase is ongoing by sending another message.
— If you have any questions concerning any rules, feel free to ask the GM privately.
Guidelines
— Do not attempt to participate with more than one username. This is grounds for permanent banning from any and all future games.
— No petitioning the GM for information about the roles of other players or attempting to influence the tasks of the moderator (asking for certain hints, etc).
— You may not quote, screenshot, or otherwise duplicate or showcase messages from the GM to prove your role, actions, or results.
— Encrypted codes or any initiative that requires knowledge of the role you hold in order to prove yourself to others is not allowed.
What to Keep in Mind
— You are allowed to share details of your list publicly, but while it may help identify Informants you might be helping the Spy find the Detective. It is up to you if you want to reveal whole or parts of lists publicly, and if what you claim is even true. But always consider that you are not just talking to your allies, your opponents are listening as well.
— As Spy it is generally considered advisable to use Order to figure out who the Informants are, so as to prevent to accidentally kill an ally. Usually, orders among other things include the request to post messages in the game topic that are framed a certain way, so the Spy can tell who was on the receiving end of the order.
— While the ability is referred to as Order, Informants are not obligated to comply. They can evaluate the situation themselves and might decide to disobey if they see fit to.
— Unlike Mafia, in Espionage you cannot leave any wills to be published upon your death.
— Unlike some previous rounds, in this round no partial lists are revealed upon a Civilian's death.
Lastly, I'm not making this a rule, but I would ask players to be careful when it comes to editing. From the second something is posted, it's possible another player has seen it. If that has happened, it would be unfair to withhold that information from players who haven't seen it yet by editing it out or deleting it. If you have an additional thought shortly after posting and you don't wanna start a new post just for that, go ahead and add a paragraph and indicate that it was edited. If you realise you've referred to the Spy as Detective and your entire post doesn't make sense or is misleading because of that, change the word and indicate what you corrected. Doing that is okay. But please refrain from deleting parts of your messages.
Rule Changes Introduced
— All Informants now appear on every list.
— Civilians now receive their lists after Prep Phase when Day 1 begins.
— Informants no longer have the ability 'Assassinate'.
— Whoever receives the most votes is no longer arrested, they are lynched. That way every player considered 'out of the game' is dead. Hopefully that'll help prevent misunderstandings.
Other than that the rules are as they were in Espionage Round 4.
Note: Only what you can find under Rules and Guidelines are actual rules. Everything else is my personal, subjective assessment of the game tends to be played. I've included the sections General Overview and What to Keep in Mind, so anyone unfamiliar with the game can get started as painlessly as possible, not in order to suggest it has to be played the way I think it should be played. Feel free to come to your own conclusions and play accordingly.
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