Well played by everyone. More fun than even I expected :-)
Came down to the wire, too!
What’d the players think? How about the zombies?
The vampire game definitely has more skulduggery to it… but I like the bleak paranoia and raw endurance demanded by the Thing game. It has a real charm all its own.
And fuck, running it is a lot of work :-D Worth it, but I’ll be taking a break for a while!
I like how you put up the post mortem thread before you ended the game.
Well, Patrick was right about that. I was desperate. :)
Was LSB the last Thing taken? That would be my guess. But we had to go XPav and Patrick today to have a chance. I don’t know why XPav changed his vote to give Spoofy the edge, now that I am 100% instead of 90% certain that XPav was human, heh. I was really hoping that I could have convinced extarbags to change from Spoofy to Patrick, but I got home too late to do anything but produce another tie.
Here’s the history:
Testing synopsis:
Original Things: hahahabonk, Alpha; Jim Hoffman, Beta; Balasarius, Gamma
Day 1: russellmz00, human; extarbags, human; Ice Cream Jonsey, human; SpoofyChop, human
Day 1 nighttime: magnetic_rose infected
Day 2: magnetic_rose, Thing; XPav, human; RSofaer, human
Day 2 nighttime: russellmz00 infected
Day 3: hahahabonk, Thing; RedTide, human; Patrick, human
Day 3 nighttime: John Roberdeau infected
Day 4: Jim Hoffman, Thing; Balasarius, Thing; SpoofyChop, human; Patrick, human
Day 4 nighttime: Patrick infected
Day 5: RSofaer, frozen to death; Stroker Ace, human; John Roberdeau, Thing; Lazy Shiftless Bastard, human
Day 5 nighttime: Lazy Shiftless Bastard infected
Day 6: russellmz00, Thing; Ice Cream Jonsey, human; SpoofyChop, human
Day 6 nighttime: Stroker Ace infected
Day 7: extarbags, human; RedTide, human; XPav, human; SpoofyChop, human
Day 7 nighttime: final infection, game over
I knew I could count on you to notice my fuckups, Raife ;-)
I should’ve put up the last post, then put up the postmortem thread, then edited the last post to point to the postmortem. But what the hell, comes out much the same.
And let me thank RepoMan. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Each night before I went to bed I actually started to get nervous about getting picked. Twice in the week we played I actually woke up with the visual of there being an unread private message in my mailbox. I know this makes me sound like an enormous homo, but I don’t care. This stupid little BBS game has had more of an effect on me than any game since the first Half-Life.
A lot of guys were saying that the Thing game was boring compared to the Vampire game, but for my money this game was awesome. It really does demand that everyone post constantly, however. The test scheme that Repo came up with really works.
I am really curious to hear the stories of what went on behind the scenes. If magnetic_rose was really the first Thing added past the originals, for instance. OK, I have a ton of questions.
That was fun. Thanks, RepoMan.
So, I was actually made a Thing the night before the big vote to burn Hoffman and Balasarius. I was so firmly on the record as wanting to kill the two of them that I thought it was a terrible idea at the time. I had actually voted for them the day before and expressed my opinion that the two of them should be tested first on Day 4.
The other Things and I discussed it and decided that I should stick to that plan, so between my early demands and 'bags casting the first vote, we torched half the Things the morning after I had been turned.
Through most of the game I had been pretty outspoken, so I had to remain the loud, constantly-posting, draw-the-attention Thing. It worked, of course, and I was killed the next day. But first, Russel and I decided to turn Patrick, who had just been tested. He proved to be an excellent stealth-Thing, obviously.
I wasn’t involved in the decision to turn Stroker, but I think that the fact that he said he wished he were a Thing made him a good choice. Despite some fishy-looking (but totally legit) shenanigans, he wasn’t ever tested again. Though dead, I continued to talk to the Things off and on. We had considered going after XPav while he was on vacation, and we considered RSofaer before he died, but ultimately it was decided those choices were a little too risky.
I was shocked and kind of pissed when I found out I had been Thingified, but I had a lot of fun.
WOOOOOOO!!! I should really be asleep right now, but I had to come back and check out the results. Awesome game! It’s funny that we were worried Patrick was going to be tested there at the end. Before that I was a little worried about RepoMan’s delay after I had made a taunting reference I was afraid someone would recognize. Thankfully nobody picked up on the antigravity backpack reference from Who Goes There?, as that was pretty much an admission that I was a thing.
Back on Day 5 when I was still human, I was really thinking that maybe us humans could pull off a win. Then I came back the next day and say I had pms, and immediately knew it was time to switch sides. Not to toot my own horn, but I think the game really went off the tracks for the humans there when I apparently wasn’t convincing enough in my logic that russellmz00 had to be a thing. Then I was immediately infected after I was tested instead of russell, and there were three of us things instead of 2 if he’d been burned. It was actually pretty fun suddenly switching sides, and since we saw the writing on the wall from the day before, Patrick and I voted for russellmz00 right off.
I actually forgot that Stroker Ace had ever said he wanted to be a Thing when Patrick and I agreed on him. I had a good feeling about choosing him, as he wasn’t right in the crosshairs, and Ice Cream Jonsey and SpoofyChop were together in being the only two that weren’t part of the obvious circle that had to include things, as Xpav actually pointed out later, so they were too obvious. Stroker was just low key enough to avoid drawing votes without being noticably absent. On the last day there we were actually thinking that one of us was going to get tested, and that we should vote for each other, but just barely managed to ride that wave of misdirected suspicion. Ice Cream Jonsey’s semi-meltdown was worrisome and great, though. That was a good last ditch effort.
The one thing I’d like to hear about is why I was picked when I was. Was it because I was causing trouble, so I can be flattered I was picked? Or was it just kind of random because I had just been tested?
Ok, two things I’d like to hear about. The second being a general opinion from other players on what influenced them on their votes. I’m curious if anyone was really swayed by anyone else’s logic or arguments at any point, or did you all just form your own conclusions and stick to them? Or was there a lot of just going with the vote?
All in all, this game was really way more fun than I had expected from the previous Thing game. Good work on the rules additions, RepoMan.
The one thing I’d like to hear about is why I was picked when I was. Was it because I was causing trouble, so I can be flattered I was picked?
You were doing a GREAT job on the humans side. The Things picking you really hurt our group. In fact, I would not have suspected you at the end, except that you did a similar thing that hahahabonk did earlier, which was very calmly deflect a line of thinking of mine as if you were brushing away a fly from your face. It’s hard to put it into words, but the creepy feeling I got was exactly the same from hahahabonk earlier. (Not that I knew that hahahabonk was a Thing, but when he was revealed I went back and read the logs and was able to turn the feeling of “Why is this guy intentionally not understanding me?” into the proper category of “He’s a Thing!”)
Let me state my appreciation to the Things on the last day: you guys could have just voted and clammed up, but you gave everyone a fighting chance. I appreciate that.
My favorite moment from the thread:
“They’ll never suspect that we’d test Spoofy again, in defiance of all logic and sanity! So they must have turned him!” Yeah. They’d never suspect, because it only happened FIFTY MILLION TIMES EARLIER.
Thanks RepoMan for your efforts!
I really can’t say that I’m particularly thrilled with the outcome obviously. I had a lot of fun playing but I don’t think I’ll play a game like this again. The fact that some people switch teams in the middle seems to create a bizarre situation. I mean, are those people cheering for the things now?
I would think that the only people that could truly feel a part of the things would be the original things…the people that get turned in the middle or towards the end would almost have to have some desire to see the humans prevail right?
I know I would have.
Good morning fellow things and zombies.
I too while a human thought that we had this game under control. But when I was changed it opened my eyes, It would be very difficult to get every thing. The things developed the Sacrifice strategy before I was turned. So when I became the newest thing. the Humans wanted to test John, So me and Russelmz00 voted for him. After the second test of that day it was obvious that Russel was going to be tested. So Russel suggested that we vote for him early. So Lazy and I made sure we were the first ones to put his name up. Each time they got a thing we gained one so it was a wash except the total number of players decresed. So I figured we would just keep this up till 6 players. But after the tests on day six. I noticed Everyone wanted to test 3 people, Extrabags, Red Tide, and Xpav. Thats 3 of the 4 tests. We decide to turn stroker. I was thinking about Ice Cream Jonsey but he had been a little too vocal, so we went with Stroker. So I pm Lazy and Stroker Letting them know What I was thinking, If we can get them to test Ice Cream Jonsey or Spoofy again. Worst case. They dont go that way and we Sacrifice me again. I came real close to sending a pm telling them to vote for me.
I did actually consider turning Spoofy after his 3rd test. “They would never test him a 4th time?” So when it came up I used that as a reason to test him again. I can’t belive it worked.
Turning you was actually Russelmz00’s call, But I did agree because,
When I was human, I pretty much stayed with my own Ideas, I just knew Rose was a thing but no one else did. But I did pay attention to the arguments and kept some notes about what people were thinking.
The other thing I noticed, was the pms. When I was human I sent maybe 5-10 and then I’d get tested, after I got changed I sent or received 100 in 3 days.
I just want to also thank RepoMan For running a great game.
I tried to play as hard as I could for the team I was on at any given moment, but as I said halfway through the game it’s more fun as a Thing because you get to take place in sneaky PM planning. In the Vampire game, the Vamp circle and the seer’s circle both get to do that. It’s a bit of a downer as a human in a Thing game when you have little or nothing to PM about.
Thanks for running the game Repo, I know there was a lot of administration involved. I had a good time!
I picked up on it, and I thought it was pretty ballsy of you, but then again it could have been read as just ironic…
Ice Cream Jonsey’s semi-meltdown was worrisome and great, though. That was a good last ditch effort.
I could empathize with ICJ – that last-minute “I can see it all now, but no one believes me” happened to me in both the second vamp game and the first thing game…
All in all, this game was really way more fun than I had expected from the previous Thing game. Good work on the rules additions, RepoMan.
Thanks, I appreciate all the good feedback and I’m glad people had fun. I sure did!
Huge bonus points to anyone who can find the two Naked Lunch references in my Thing-discovery posts :-)
I wanted to clam up, but I just couldn’t do it. I had to speak up and defend myself. I just had to make sure that when I did that I didn’t slip into the “I’m 100% sure Xpav and Spoofy are things” Trap. If I say I think that they are things, It sounds like I’m still trying to find the things. If I say I know, Then it looks like I’m covering for myself.
So did it work?
Is that centipede thing with the human face on the other guy’s back from Naked Lunch? I know I’ve seen it before. I’m not sure what the other reference might be yet.
Yep, that’s one. The other one is MUCH subtler, and is from the book, not the movie.
victory is life. that is the order of things.
the order of things was apparently:
repoman
hahahabonk (alpha), Jim Hoffman (beta), Balasarius (gamma).
mag rose as delta
russellmz00 as epsilon
john rlongname as whatever is f
patrick as the one after that
lazy shiftless bastard as next
…and then i got the needle
you know how i claimed i missed voting on jim and bal because of work? THAT WAS TRUE.
i was a fairly bad thing in that i found it hard to suggest or actually vote for fellow things. my plan was to play the obnoxious angry alcoholic since in real life i’m an obnoxious mildmannered teetotaler. to make it fun i also made myself followed the guideline of having the first two sentences of every post have an exclamation point!
extarbags made a great screaming argument foil.
can we get word on why mag rose was picked? i kept forgetting to ask while a thing.
i voted for john originally cause he was picking out things left and right. but then realized he was untested but we couldn’t get to talk about it in time. still he was a good choice, killing off people who make sense on the other side is never a bad strategy. same goes with lazy: he was tested and he made solid arguments. patrick was pretty good at being lowkey so he was picked next and also he was tested.
i don’t disagree that testing the already tested is a bad strategy, but humans have to do it on more than one person :D . i was getting scared that someone would suggest testing everyone who had just been tested and running the tables.
hats off to hahahabonk for the original thing story intermissions and patrick’s pee one made me laugh. i wrote the jacket one and the “ass-ult on prissy teen 13” one.
i spent quite a while editing my crazy last post, making up triples composed of truth, lie, truth, adding numbers randomly, taking guitar hero song titles to make sentences, and bolding out the message about xpav. hopefully no one spent more than five seconds trying to determine if it was sensical or not.
thanks repoman!