The Resistance: Avalon - 2019 Match 2 Game Thread

Welcome to 2019 Match 2 of The Resistance: Avalon on qt3! Borrowing rowe’s adaptation of fire’s excellent write-up from our past games:

Three Evil-doers have infiltrated the ranks of the loyal Good folk of King Arthur. And now, they must survive five harrowing quests to prove their loyalty to the Round Table. Will Arthur’s servants succeed in at least three of the five quests? Or will Evil thwart any attempts at success?

In this game, there will be 5 Loyal Servants of King Arthur and 3 Minions of Mordred. The number of players per quest is as follows. An asterisk (*) indicates that two Failure votes are required to fail the quest, when normally only one is required.

Quest 1: 3 players
Quest 2: 4 players
Quest 3: 4 players
Quest 4: 5 players ( 2 failure votes needed)
Quest 5: 5 players

========== The rules ==========

There are five turns, or quests. The game winner is determined by the majority: the winning faction succeeds in their goals in three or more quests. That is, Good wins if three or more quests succeed and Merlin survives; Evil wins if three or more quests fail.

There is a strict no PMs policy (except to the moderator for voting). Feel free to send your paranoid thoughts to me though so you can safely vent or get things off your chest.

Setup: Player order is randomized and players are randomly assigned roles (see below for more info on each role.) Players receive their role assignments. Each role will receive a PM with the following information:

Good characters (5 total):
Merlin - Knows Evil (except for Mordred), must remain hidden
Percival - Knows Merlin (also Morgana, and can’t tell which is which)
Loyal Servant of Arthur (quantity: 3) - you get squat, just the knowledge that you’re a Good person (which is enough reward)

Evil characters (3 total):
Morgana - Appears as Merlin; knows Assassin and Mordred
Assassin - Minion of Mordred; knows Morgana and Mordred
Mordred - Unknown to Merlin; knows Morgana and Assassin

========== Round order ==========

Leader Selection: The first Party Leader (for Quest 1) is selected at random. In normal play, subsequent Party Leaders proceed down the list, and the list wraps around. Plot cards: A player can assume team leadership at this time using the Strong Leader plot card. Strong Leader cards can be played immediately after No Confidence.

Quest Start: Plot Cards: At the beginning of each quest (i.e., the first Party Leader for each quest), the party leader is dealt two Plot Cards in-thread. The number of plot cards depends on the number of players, as follows:

5-6 players: 1 plot card

7-8 players: 2 plot cards

9-10 players: 3 plot cards

Thus, for 7 players, there will be 2 plot cards per round. The party leader distributes the Plot Cards to any of the other players (not him/herself).

Quest Start, Party Selection: At the start of the Quest, the party leader chooses a number of players to accompany him or her on a quest. This is done publicly in-thread. The party size for each quest is determined by the number of players, according to the rules.

Party Vote: Players vote (open ballot) on whether the quest should be allowed to proceed. Voting will be called at 12 hours past the quest announcement and absent votes, abstentions, and passes will be counted as yes-votes. Votes may be PMed to me so that voting order does not influence anybody; alternately, you may vote publicly in-thread. I will post the results of the votes including the names of all voters. Majority wins; ties favor failure. Please bold your vote if you vote in-thread. Players that miss two votes in a row will be disqualified from the game.

Party Vote Results: The results of the party selection and each player’s vote will be displayed publicly in-thread.

If the majority of the votes are negative: proceed to Quest Start, Party Selection again. This counts as a party leadership change. Five party leadership changes in one quest results in an Evil victory for the game. Plot cards: No Confidence Plot Cards happen after the vote in-thread. These count as a party leadership change.

Call to Arms: The moderator will announce that the quest is a go, and that quest’s party members must PM their votes (see below). Plot cards: In The Spotlight happens now: play the card in-thread. Your answer will also be delivered in-thread.

Quest Vote: Players selected for the quest vote on whether the quest succeeds or fails (closed ballot). Quest party members must PM me their votes once called. In the first three turns and the final turn, one failure-vote fails the quest for the Good faction (and wins it for Evil.) In the fourth turn, two failure-votes are required for Evil to fail the quest.

Good players must vote SUCCESS. Evil players may choose to vote SUCCESS or FAILURE. This vote is a closed ballot. Vote order will be randomized and revealed without player names. Any missing votes will be treated as SUCCESS votes. Players that miss two votes in a row will be disqualified from the game.

Quest Results: The result of the quest is revealed, including each randomized and anonymized vote and whether the quest succeeded or failed. Plot cards: Keeping a Close Eye on You cards can be played at this time: play the card in-thread and your answer will come from me by PM.

========== Plot cards ==========

Plot cards (quantity in parentheses)

(2) Keeping a close eye on you: You may look at one played Mission card

One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may use this card to examine a played Quest card. Using this card does not require a player to announce its use before the Quest cards are played, nor does it affect the Quest card played. Multiple Quest cards may be checked in a single round, but no more than one player may check a single player’s Quest card on a round

(1) Establish Confidence: The Leader must show their Affiliation (Good/Evil) card to a player of their choice

Use immediately – The Leader must pass their Affiliation (Good/Evil) card to any other player for examination

(2) Strong Leader: You can become the Leader. Play before Plot or Team Cards have been distributed

One time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may use this card to become the Leader. Use of this card must be declared before the Leader takes any actions (draw Plot Cards or distributing Team cards). When a "Strong Leader" is played, another "Strong Leader" may not be played until a Vote has been taken

(2) Overheard Conversation: You must look at the Affiliation (Good/Evil) card of a player on your immediate right or left

Extended description: Use immediately – The player to whom the Leader passes this card must look at the Affiliation (Good/Evil) card of one adjacent player. MB: The "adjacent" player is up or down the list; select the adjacent player publicly and the moderator will PM the result

(3) No Confidence: You may null an approved Vote and force leadership change

One time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may use this card to reject an approved Mission team (successful Vote). Using this card counts as a failed Vote

(1) In the Spotlight: You can choose another player to submit their Quest card face up

One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may use this card to force a player to play their Quest card face up. The player playing this card must declare its use and the target player prior to any player on the Quest team selecting their Quest card

(1) Open Up: You must reveal your Affiliation (Good/Evil) card to one player of your choice

Use immediately – The player to whom the Leader passes this card must pass their Affiliation (Good/Evil) card to any other player (including the Leader) for examination. NB: The result (Good or Evil) will come from the moderator by PM

(1) Take Responsibility: You must take a Plot card from another player

One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card must take one Plot card from any other player.

(2) Chicago Proxy: You may cast another player’s team vote

One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may chose another player and take their team vote giving the card player two team votes.

========= TL;DR Notes: ===========

  • This is a 8 player game, 5 Good, 3 Evil, No Oberon

  • The 2 Opinion Maker cards have been replaced with 2 Chicago Proxy cards which allow a player to steal a team vote (not a mission vote!)

  • Team Leaders will receive only 2 cards each turn but all 15 cards will be in the deck.

Turn Order:
@rho21 <— current leader
@scottagibson
@soondifferent
@CF_Kane
@CaseyRobinson
@Dave_Perkins
@Snebmi
@rowe33

@rho21 you have been dealt these two plot cards, you may resolve them in any order:

In the Spotlight: You can choose another player to submit their Quest card face up / One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may use this card to force a player to play their Quest card face up. The player playing this card must declare its use and the target player prior to any player on the Quest team selecting their Quest card

Chicago Proxy: You may cast another player’s team vote / One-time use – The player to whom the Leader passes this card may chose another player and take their team vote giving the card player two team votes.

I haven’t got a PM yet. Can you confirm when you’ve sent them?

The forum throttles them, everyone will be notified w/i the next few minutes.

Thanks for clarifying.

I have my role now, so I’m going to make a post:

I have no idea if this has been covered before, it’s merely an observation. If it’s been talked about before, fine, this is just a reminder. I had been waiting to post this until I received my role so if I was Evil, I could keep it to myself and use it as a strategy.

If we reject to the fifth mission (or the fourth mission when No Confidence is in play), Chicago Proxy can act as a No Confidence. Say Mordred has it. Mordred can say: All Evil’s reject! I’m going to Chicago Proxy some loser Good guy’s vote into a reject! Then, we’ll have a tie, which means rejection! We’ll auto-win!

All I mean is that as with No Confidence, we must be weary of these cards in the wrong hands. And, if one is in play, we cannot reject to the fifth mission.

Until more people check in or rho makes an action, I’ll shut up now.

Edit: I’m going to note that no one else has said anything. Is it possible people haven’t noticed?

Well I certainly hadn’t noticed due to it being 04:30 here. I’m also wishing I hadn’t noticed for another 3 hours, but them’s the breaks.

I’ve had a second go at waking up and I think I got it right this time.

I’ve not played much with the cards before. Do we have a meta for who to select (for cards and the team) when there are no information cards at the start?

Well I’ll note that Dave went backwards with his team and he ended up being Good. Since I’m Good also, would make sense to continue that trend. The proxy card should be in good hands but the spotlight doesn’t seem as important right now.

There’s no good strategy for who to give these particular cards to when you don’t have any information at all.

Yeah, hence wondering if there was a meta to give me some help. I’ll just go with cards to my left, team to my right.

@scottagibson gets In the Spotlight.
@soondifferent gets Chicago Proxy.

Proposed team is me, @rowe33 and @Snebmi.

@Lantz

Last game I voted yes on essentially every team, but I think I am coming back to voting no early to try and compile more information. Especially where we have no early information on who is good (or evil).

Team 1A :
@rho21 (leader)
@rowe33
@Snebmi

Now accepting all votes.

I would caution against VNFI, for a few reasons. First, it shouldn’t bring much information from the votes. If everyone’s voting no, is everyone who voted no Evil? Or Good? Or does it tell us nothing? Second, if everyone’s making teams forwards or backwards or alternating, they have no reason to stray because it will be voted down anyways.

The caveat being that I’ve never played this by forum before. I was planning to vote yes because of my anti-VNFI stance but I think I’d like to hear from a few more people on whether or not we should vote this down.

@Lantz if I’m the last vote PM me and I’ll send it in ASAP.

I’m just going to say that I haven’t played this in a few years, there seems to be some new cards in the mix and I stopped following the previous game once it got technical, so if I go jarringly off meta it’s more likely due to ignorance than ill-intent.

VNFI only works if we don’t talk about it and pretend it doesn’t exist, until later on, when it could mean everything. There are very legit reasons for voting NO to a team, but those reasons can obviously be good or bad.

I of course believe that there are legitimate reasons for voting no, but I think organized VNFI has large problems.

I’ll say that I’ve never played by forum at all, and I never saw the slack games, so I’m likely ignorant to a lot of parts of the meta as well. I just don’t want to be the only one voting yes, or no, when I’m not supposed to.

Depending on my role and/or position, I subscribe to the modified VNFIOL plan favored in more northern climates as well as parts of South America. It allows you to vote no for either information OR moving the leadership role closer to your spot in the order.