Your points about NAF and my reduced suspicion of him are valid, and I did consider them. But at the time I voted, my impression based on the way he was posting was that he was less likely to be Scum than I’d first thought. It was a gut thing, essentially. Do you think I’m wrong to find him less suspicious?
The Book strikes me as much more valuable to Scum than to Town:
Scum Pros
- It effectively makes them investigation proof while they hold it.
- They can be sure they are targetting the powers at players not on their side
- Whether the power is a kill, or an investigation, or a role-block, or a Jail, they will gain from its use on their opponents. Only if the power is protective, or in some way boosts existing powers, will they be damaging their own cause. I suspect these are a minority of powers.
Scum Cons
- The Scum holding the Book can’t use any role-specific powers they may have.
Town Cons
- Effectively makes them a miller while they hold it
- Have no idea who they’re targetting.
- Only an investigation will be useful in all circumstances - kills, roleblocks, even protection run the risk of shooting ourselves in the foot. Essentially we’d be randomly doing we don’t know what to we don’t know who.
- Power-roles holding it can’t enact their ordinary powers
Town Pros
- If Town have it, Scum don’t.
The last is the only reason for Town to hold it.
After re-reding I can see I might have jumped to the conclusion that a book-power can only be used once. However I don’t think the assumption is that off.
So IMO Town using the powers in the book will prevent Scum from doing so.
Now the trick is figuring out if Town has it or Scum do.
That’s why I think it might be a good thing that any player having the book state what they will do with it - before they do it.
Also that when a player holding the book has used it once, they have to give it up.
Where (in posts) are you getting the notion that book powers can only be used once?
I based it on this:
If you choose to use a power, you must select a power and a target (living or dead, although some spells may not work on the one and other spells may not work on the other). You do not know the nature of the powers in the Mad Arab’s book; some may be beneficial to their target, some may harm their target, and some may have no game-related effect at all. Once you use a power, you will learn what it does.
Because it seems that knowing what a power does would make the power even more useful. So I jumped to the conclusion that once a power was used and “revealed” it wouldn’t work anymore.
I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that it could be used twice and that seem very, very powerful to me. So I guessed it could be that way.
Do you think powers can be used more then once based on what we know?
I don’t think there’s anything that says a power can only be used once, but even if there was that wouldn’t necessarily be an argument for using the powers (e.g. in order to stop the scum killing a townie, we use the power ourselves and… accidently kill a townie.)
I have relatives in town until Wednesday – see you after that.
Well poop. Sorry to see you go, Digger.
Right now, I think the book is more of a distraction than anything. We don’t know enough about it or about any cabin dwellers to use it effectively. For now, I’m willing give NAF the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think Scum would be eager to grab the book - it looks scummy. Best case, he’s town, worst case he’s PFK. But, I doubt he’s scum.
For now, I suggest that NAF keep the book. But, I propose that he not use any power unless it’s agreed on by a majority - which I realize is very unlikely to happen at this point. That way we know who has the book and can hold him accountable if anything happens while it’s in his possesion. I think it’ll be a very powerful tool once our numbers start dwindling.
I am wondering if there’s any other powers in the book. The way I see it, NAF read the first page and discovered 10 powers. Did he read the table of contents, and now knows all there is about it? Could he read more into the book and learn more about it?
I have asked story about the number of uses a power has, and I have an idea on how to use the book to town’s benefit depending on his answer.
I’ll let people know what his answer is when I get it and explain my plan further at that point. I am ok with giving up the book, but if I do it needs to go into someone’s possession during a Day period, and that someone needs to be someone selected by town as trustworthy.
Having someone else pick up the book will just create another miller. So NAF should keep it toNight and put it back on the pedestal come Dawn. (I’m not sure what happens if NAF gives up the book half-way through the Night. Is he still tainted with evil for the whole Night? What about the person who picks the Book up? E.g. if Player A has already been targetted for investigation, but picks up the book between now and Dawn, how will the book affect the result?)
I really hate when people do this. What if, come daybreak, you’re dead? What if scum haven’t picked a kill yet, and they get spooked by your plan? This is really a note for everyone: holding on to your ideas doesn’t make any sense to me. Even if Story’s answer isn’t the one you expected, you’re only out the two minutes it takes to write a post.
So please, unless you have a time-sensitive reason not to, let us know what your plan is now. It doesn’t help town to say “I have a great idea, and if I don’t die, I’ll tell you later.”
I don’t think the book changes possession until Day starts (or Night, as it were). Also, I’m assuming that once NAF gives up the book, he is no longer a miller so he could still be investigated toMorrow Night.
[quote=“Total_Lost, post:1125, topic:555493”]
Wow, I had forgotten about that part you quoted there. Some may have no game-related effect at all. I’m curious what they do then. Strike us physically ill in the real world? This is getting serious.
I wasn’t planning on waiting until dawn. I got my answer and I have a plan.
The book has unlimited use of it’s powers, but only one can be used at a time. My plan is to use myself as the guinea pig to see what the powers do. If I survive, awesome, if not…well then we know that one of those powers does a very bad thing.
The downside of the plan is that I might get redirected onto someone else if the scum have a redirector. I am hoping that they don’t since redirectors are almost always game breaking if they are given to scum, but since they aren’t always I am going to have to say that this is a calculated risk.
I know I am town, and even if you all don’t, I don’t really expect to survive this experiment for long, but if we can keep the book in town hands, my experimenting with it might make it very powerful in endgame. The key of course is to keep it in town hands. To that end I am waiting to hear from Story about what happens if I die while holding onto the book.
I just sent the PM to Story.
I am cursing myself with the shroud of Night.
So are you are planning on keeping the Book for several Day/Night cycles, using a different power on yourself each Day and Night until you die?
That is my current plan. Yes.
NETA: And reporting on the results. Until I die or am told to stop by town and put the book back for someone else to take, that’s the plan. There are 10 actions, so I don’t think I will get through them all before we decide we want to stop the experiment. I am going to use the ones that I think will be most potentially beneficial to town (based on their description) first.
The goal is to pick out the helpful and do nothing ones.
Story also told me that if I die with the book that it will be burried with me, but that these things have a way of popping up. So, I suspect that the book will go back up for grabs if I am killed with it on my person.
That adds another element of risk to the plan, but is still probably better than letting scum grab it at Night.
Not seeing the benefits here…