Fool's Game: Holy Dragon

[Exiro]

[b]Introduction[/b]
The apocalypse is over. The only things left: a convocation of eagles, six human beings, the tree trunk they're balanced on, and the ocean on which the latter floats, covering the whole world. The legacy was foretold, and just like everyone alive before, you took it as a truth. But what you wouldn't have dared to imagine, was that you'd be alive even after. Yet there you are, together with five others, watching the eagles - whom, according to the legacy, would be paralysed so they can serve as the humans' food - fly away. You were left wondering what's worse: the legacy, part of the religion that you devoted your life to, not being a whole truth; or the feeling of hunger. Regardless of the correct answer, if any, you were left with no food. And cannibalism isn't an option, as you're too classy for that.

The apocalypse was caused by Gandora the Dragon of Destruction, who removed everyone else from play. The cost of this effect is huge and would often be described as "half the owner's Life Points". However, Gandora hath no owner, so the cost instead was hunger, which he normally has only once a thousand years. Hunger for exactly five human beings. Since he has a hard time choosing his prey, he would fly a circle around the world, leaving the survivors to vote for his next target. He would repeat this process exactly five times, after which the last human being would ride him and become a god, leaving the recreating of the world to their imagination.

[b]Phase 1: Nomination[/b]
In phase one, players will nominate a person to become the next target. The player with the most nominations will become the candidate. Note that "most nominations" doesn't necessarily equal "the majority of the nominations". For example, if two players nominate the same person and the other four all nominate different people, then the candidate would have 2 nominations, which is less than half the players. Nominations can be made either privately by sending me a PM or publicly by posting in the thread. The phase ends either when all players have cast a nomination, or after a to be determined amount of time. Nominating is optional. As soon as round 2 starts, the nominations made will become public knowledge.

[b]Phase 2: Voting[/b]
Phase two is a security check. Now, Gandora only wants to eat someone if at least half the people agree to it. If they do, he'll take his prey before encircling the world again, and the game repeats from phase one. If not, the game also repeats, but the candidate will be spared. So, in that aspect, Gandora is fair towards the six randomly chosen survivors.

By default, it is in the players' advantage to kill the candidate, as that means they have one less contender to compete with. In this round, players may try to convince one another to vote 'no'. This is done through contracts about which players may negotiate. A contract may include any obligation for a player.

Example:
[quote]
Candidate: I'd like you to vote 'no' during this round.
Player B: What's in it for me, then?
Candidate: I won't vote 'yes' the next time you're the candidate.
Player B: I guess that's a deal as good as any. I'll vote 'no'.
[/quote]

The contents of a contract must:[list]
[*]be part of the game (for example, you cannot ask for points).
[*]not be in conflict with game rules or other contracts (for example, "the next time you're the candidate, I'll be the candidate instead" is not allowed).
[/list]
Contracts can be made and negotiated about either privately through PMs or publicly in the thread (the candidate may announce first-come-first-served contracts). Players can cast their votes either privately by sending me a PM or publicly by posting in the thread. A player can accept a contract that was made in private by inviting the host (me) to the conversation.

This phase ends either when at least half the players have voted 'yes', or when more than half the players have voted 'no'. At this point the candidate may or may not die, the contracts made (if any) will be announced and the game will continue with the Nomination Phase of a new round.

[b]Multiple candidates[/b]
It is possible that there's a tie between who has the post nominations (example: two players both get three nominations). If this happens, all of those tied players become candidates, and people will instead vote for which of the candidates [u]won't[/u] die. The candidate with the lowest amount of votes will then die. This system where you vote to save a player will become noticeable with 3 candidates. Ties for who has the lowest amount of votes will result in multiple deaths.
[size=1][color=#FFFFFF]When there are 3 players left, the game will consist of go to the final stage after which Gandora will eat 2 players. No nominations, people just vote for who Gandora won't eat. If a player gets 2 votes, that player wins. If not, the game continues in a new such round. Voting in those rounds is done only privately by sending me a PM.[/color][/size]
Basically, that was all you need to know. Below are extra rules, partly for specific cases, and partly to avoid cheating. You should be fine skipping them and reading them as soon as they're relevant, though they may offer insight.

[spoiler=extra rules]
[b]Contracts[/b][list]
[*]As soon as it becomes public knowledge that only one more player besides the candidate must vote, there will be no more negotiations. The candidate may propose a contract to the remaining player if he hasn't already, and that player can either accept it or just make his vote. This is because the remaining player could make ridiculous contracts, as anything would be better than nothing for the candidate at this point.
[*]No trickery of any kind in contracts. Confusing wording and/or errors in spelling/grammar you made won't be ruled out in your advantage.
[*]If you decide, in the middle of negotiating, that you want to accept an older contract proposal, you can do so by quoting the contract you prefer. But you may only accept one contract per vote.
[*]If you propose a contract that includes that you vote 'no' (or 'yes', for that matter), and the player accepts it, your vote is cast immediately without security check. So, during that time frame, the other player is technically in control of your vote.
[/list]
[b]Public nominating / voting[/b]
Players may lie outside of contracts, but: if a player decides to publicly nominate or vote, they can do so by making the colour of the words that contain said nomination or vote green, which will indicate they're telling the truth. This is so that people know what to take into account during gameplay. There's no evasion: if you find a leak in wording/colour/whatever and you claim that you weren't obligated to tell the truth, it won't count as a nomination/vote at all, and your actual nomination/vote will be decided by game rules (you won't be making a nomination, as that's optional anyway, or you'll vote for the candidate to die, which happens by default). As a catch-all, we're going to say that any nonstandard colour means you're telling the truth, but bad things will happen if you don't use green (for example, if you pick purple, you could be exposed to the horrors of being confused for Larxene).

[b]Other rules:[/b][list]
[*]If a player has not specified their vote by the end of the Voting Phase, they will automatically vote 'yes', with the exception of the candidate, who would vote 'no'. However, please vote properly when you can, as that will speed up the game.
[*]If you're uncertain about whether or not a contract is allowed, or you're uncertain of its meaning, feel free to PM me or invite me to the conversation.
[*]A player cannot propose / accept a contract if that contract could contradict another contract that player is under. For convenience, I'll list all of a player's contracts each time they become candidate.
[*]Part of a contract may be that the player votes publicly, thus revealing the contract immediately, rather than at the end of the round.
[*]Players can only nominate / vote once per round. Derp.
[*]The game could get stuck: the same thing could happen over and over again. If this happens, players put themselves on 'autoplay', which means they announce that they will do the same thing, given that the same thing happens. The 'telling the truth' rules apply here. This is basically meant as means of intimidation: "if you want the game to change, you're going to be the one who has to play differently, not me". If all players put themselves on autoplay, an infinite loop is created and Gandora will eat all players.
[/list]
[/spoiler]

[b]Time per phase[/b]
I could give every phase a lot of time so that people can't miss their actions, but it seems more interesting if we do a few sessions in which everyone is online at the same time. If we do this, the time per phase can be shorter (I'm thinking of an hour) because there's less to take into account, and it just seems more fun if everything happens at once. We can also combine regular procedure with sessions. We'll talk about this once all players are chosen.

[b]Participants:[/b]
[list=1]
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[/list]
This list is too empty, so start joining already.

At any time, players are free, and encouraged, to communicate either privately through PMs or publicly in the thread. If anything is unclear, feel free ask here. Good luck!

[MarbleZone]

Before anyone feels like minimodding (and being warned as such), I'm allowing this to stay here instead of Games, if only because it required more than 10 seconds to develop.

[Exiro]

[quote name='MarbleZone' timestamp='1321478181' post='5646856']
Before anyone feels like minimodding (and being warned as such), I'm allowing this to stay here instead of Games, if only because it required more than 10 seconds to develop.
[/quote]
Thank you. We used to have these games in General previously, and I wasn't sure as this isn't as nonsensical as the stuff you tend to see under Games.

[Exiro]

How are games played without players? ¯\(°_o)/¯