Hmm, I'll probably answer what I can about Day 0 now and throw some opinions about new folks up later.
Meh? The more I think about it, the more I'm not sure how this mechanic differs from a temporary secret group, at least for me. For a lot of folks who are really into these games in general I'm sure there's some extra weight there but I don't know anyone well enough to be really attached to them as a new ally right out of the gate. I like Diggle well enough, right now I'd be happy to work with him if we both make it? But I've only met 3/20 of my castmates in private so far, so I don't have much in the way of comparison. Similarly, as it seems the Day 0 challenge isn't actually going to impact things for now, even if we won that challenge I don't see the benefit.
I think I called this exact setup? The only surprise is the Floo Powder network is down now, I had thought it'd be up for most of the game. I'll think more on that in a later question though, I'm sure.
I'll think more about this in a little bit, once I've heard from most of them at least once or twice. Right now I'm being kind of lazy and focusing on folks that messaged me first. I'm having a lot of fun with Lucius? Gut instinct is this relationship could work very well for me, but I have no read on what he's thinking yet so who knows. I've sent out a handful of short things to other folks online, I guess we'll see how quickly I hear back from any of them. As for the impressions I want to give them? My three objectives are:
- Successfully communicating my schtick is memory-charm induced stupidity and amnesia so I'll go along with whatever anyone wants to do no matter how nonsensical.
- Successfully communicate this isn't a cover for not knowing HP lore, so I can still have fun on that level of the game. So far this is going... poorly.
- Do not accidentally fall back into being Henry. No laughing, no nicknames, and no puns. I already blew the no pun rule with Diggle, hopefully he forgets I did that.
That last one is more of a personal goal than anything useful. I'd like to pull off all three of these and not be disliked? But who knows, that might be a reach. For now I'm just going to have some fun with it and see what shakes out.
So in Day 0 I was trying to parse out how the PBvO twist was going to impact the game both for me and in general. "Secret IDs, but most people knowing they're probably working with someone they've liked in the past" is kind of interesting but it feels like it wouldn't effect me much? And unless I'm an extreme outlier, I wondered how many folks are in the same boat. The actual duo component initially seemed like it could fall into a more standard SG role because of that, but having followed Peter around in a few games now (Squirtle, Haku, and reading OotR) I expected that wouldn't be the case and that there would be plenty of complications to keep things being that simple. Setting aside Owl Post, I feel Flick & Switch have already proven me right; that's a pretty huge deal in terms of decision making? Also mutual ID reveal being tied to getting the Floo Network back up and running is pretty funny. I initially thought only one duo could earn the Mutual ID reveal but on re-read I'm thinking that was an assumption on my part.
So a pros/cons list of Flick & Switch in any given round without context might be interesting to think about; I can use that to weigh how I feel about things in each round. I guess I'll make one?
Hang on.
When I started to write this out, I intended to re-read the rules on them to make sure I wasn't missing anything. And I noticed some curious things in the rules? And I feel like a couple of hosts might get a chuckle out of this. So I'll quote those things I noticed here and then put up my reaction. Bolded some bits for emphasis.
So the key points I'm stressing are that, at least right now, you can only target your partner, a player can only be saved once, but there's a very solid implication you can use Switch to save more than one player. So that's interesting? These three facts suggest that either at some point we'll gain/swap partners, or at some point we'll be able to target other players with Switch or Flick. Or Peter's a weasel who wrote this to fuel pointless speculation, but that seems kind of unlikely? I don't think that poorly of him, even if I have a lot of fun playfully badmouthing him in PMs that he's forced to read but not comment on
Not only that, but it's not clear how Switch will work at a merge, or if it even will at all? I kind of feel like it won't; if you and your partner(s?) all made it to merge you could give each other immunity for a round, locking other players out of options. It feels too powerful, although I've given it very little thought and could be totally misreading it. It also just feels like thematically it's focused on the "Switch" idea that breaks at merge. I just can't see it getting used from that point on. Assuming I'm right on this, the implications it has for the mid-game are reaaally interesting. So when do I think a merge happens? I feel like final 9 is the absolute latest it could be; that gives seven jury members that are guaranteed at least one round with all of the options for final 2. I think that's a really small Jury by the standards of other games? But I haven't played enough to know for sure, and I think seven's a fine number for a jury. That means we have at
most 11 rounds to work with Switch/Flick. And we have two charges of it. For two different partners, presumably.
While writing this Peter clarified if Switch is used no one goes home that round, which 100% confirms in my mind that this mechanic will either be transfigured or abandoned at the merge.
So either we're getting to target someone else with Switch/Flick at some point, we do a partner swap at some point, or we get additional partners at some point. I'm betting it's not going to be freely target-able, so some partner fuckery seems likely. I'm betting it's going to be "Unbreakable Vow" themed, that seems like a missed opportunity for our first set of partners and I do know Peter loves being a bit extra with theme. I think if we do a partner swap we probably also do a group swap to ensure partners are still not on the same side. If we keep our initial connections as well is it possible both a new connection and the old are always in separate groups? If the new connection is also from the opposite side of the fence it's easy to show that isn't the case. But the case where you make an unbreakable vow with someone from your current team works out very well if there the new and old groups have an even number? I guess the biggest problem with all of this is you aren't guaranteed even numbers on either side. If you want everyone to make new partners from an explicit set you need to guarantee properties of that set that cannot be planned for without railroading the ORG's natural course. Like, if you're supposed to make a new partner from someone on your current side right before a swap, what happens if you have an odd number? One person is left out in the cold. I guess that'd be okay? It just seems inelegant. If you wanted to guarantee a new partner that's from the opposite side, the only way everyone gets one is if both sides are even, which seems unlikely. Hmm.
I think I've convinced myself this hypothetical "Unbreakable Vow" thing will either be optional or entirely limited to folks who lose their first partner in the very early game. I guess we'll see? At any rate, I'll remember that if the opportunity to make one comes up, that there is a very good chance it will immediately be followed up with being split from whoever you made the vow with. Also how does this interact with the Mutual ID reveal and Floo Network repairing? It's hard to imagine having double the number of House Point tallies, and it wouldn't be clear how the points you can earn as an individual would apply to one or both. I guess it's not impossible? It would be funny if you made an Unbreakable Vow and had points retro-actively applied.
Holy shit, you're going to do that aren't you? How else do we get "Both vote for the same player in the same round" when it seems like the other twists have specifically been designed assuming you keep partners apart. If that's what you're going for, I do not envy the amount of bookkeeping it requires.
Or not, because while writing this you kindly pointed out to me where I had a horrible misunderstanding. Oops. Well, I guess in that case the entire hypothetical about new pairs has been rendered pointless.
... Hopefully this is at least a funny read of a player that's wildly off-base? Also hopefully this is the last time I misread something and end up wildly off-base, that seems to happen at least once a game.
Wow I wrote a lot of pointless stuff about this without actually thinking about Flick Vs. Switch as options in any given round. I should do that now? Flick is the default option both in this game and in terms of how this typically works mechanically, so I'll just focus on the cost/benefit of using Switch instead. Worth noting that if your partner isn't voted out then what you put is never revealed and therefor never relevant so you only really need to consider the case where it is relevant, which simplifies things.
So the positives to Switch is that if it activates, you get to keep an ally and prove you value them. That's pretty powerful. You also switch spots? If you're having a lot of trouble connecting with your first Side it's possible to use it as a second lease at life, so that's fun. And because no one else will ever know, your team won't find out that you wanted or was willing to swap sides and leave them to keep your ally alive if they don't need it.
The downsides are numerous. Most critically is that you switch sides; any solid relationship you've built up with your allies is now at minimum temporarily unavailable and more likely damaged or lost. Suddenly you'll need to make up for lost time with a whole new group or risk being revolving-door'd. Not only that but your partner isn't with you so you can't rely on them to back you up
and they're likely hyper-aware that Switching back is a death sentence as they've already been voted out once by the same group? So if you can't make up that ground and find a weaker link to get ahead of, Switching might be suicide. And making that ground up is likely to be harder than in a typical swap; the folks you'd have to try to convince you want to work with just tried to kill an ally you saved so on paper you're the most likely to switch back to working with that ally in a swap or merge situation. And you're the only new person so it's not like you'll be able to rally a bunch of other new folks on the outside for some kind of flip. You can't even get much of a view of how things look on this new Side because presumably your Floo Powder is still down and the owl system makes detailed communication harder.
So in the early stages, it seems like kind of a non-decision? My gut instinct is this; if your partner is going to go home in round 1 or 2 then saving them using Switch isn't going to do much more than weaken your own game to give them an extra round or two of life. I'm reasonably sure once things like swaps or other twists hit that will change but for now while I don't know
any of the Order folks Switching just seems like a terrible idea.
I have comparatively less to say about the Owl Post? Again, with limited word or character count it feels like it'll be more pivotal once things have been mixed up a bit more. For now I'll use it to try to make a couple of tenuous connections to the other side in the hopes of having an extra edge in an inevitable Side shake-up?
Finally, I guess I should look at the list of "Point-earning" activities. The "Succeed in other challenges" line is quite vague; if it was for being on the winning team then it applies to everyone equally which feels a bit pointless so I'm guessing the top performers (either in each Side or across the game) will get points for their strength. We still don't know about Items either, but it's not hard to imagine how they'll fit in with the Owl Post and Flick/Switch gimmicks on top of some more standard items like a vote blocker/stealer/doubler. It's interesting you're giving an extra incentive to play items early, making a trade off between getting extra communications and saving items for the more pivotal moments later in the game, especially given how much playing an item seems to be worth. Both voting for the player is still on hold but sits there, taunting us to wonder when it will come into play? It's such a weird thing to reward because right now you can only achieve it if you're in the same group? But if that's the case you already have full communication so what's the point?
"Willingly take part in a X" is interesting? I'm guessing we don't know what X is here; I don't know how you willingly take part in a Magical Council unless you throw the challenge and I'm not under the impression hosts ever really want to reward throwing challenges in the earlier parts of the game when you still aren't sure of your player's engagement levels. For 10 points it's not nothing but also nothing huge. I'm betting X is a higher risk but medium reward activity that this list will convince us to attempt at least once.
"Collect a(l?) .... both" I have no idea. I suspect the blood splatter is to keep this ambiguous the entire game, too. The only things I'm aware we can collect are maybe Items or Idols? But I feel like getting an idol is already a huge reward so I don't think you'd make finding one worth house points too? Unless that's meant to tip off your partner that you found one to make keeping them secret harder. At 8 points it's impossible to lie about, it's such an odd number compared to the rest. I probably don't actually know this.
"Receive a..." is probably going to be Owl Post related? At five points, it's pretty minor.
"Join a ne(w)..." almost certainly group. I think it makes sense if there are some House Points you are guaranteed to get, so that struggling folks don't just give up on the mechanic immediately. Also subtly rewards Switching, which otherwise seems really weak. At five points though, it's not much of a reward.
"Reach..." My gut instinct is "Reach the next stage of the game" but honestly who knows. At some multiple of ten, this reward seems pretty big.
"Sit o.." Sit out on something? I'm guessing if not doing a challenge is ever rewarded, this is where you'd reward that. It also might be sit out a magical council; perhaps there's a mechanic to intentionally cast no votes?
There's at least one more thing worth points, too. In Snowpiercer point acquisition could be tied to challenge scores or success in other arenas, but given how optional these points are in comparison I suspect whatever those extras are, they won't be tied to optimal decisions here in the same way.
I'm convinced we can score the entire list at any time; otherwise there's no point in having a bunch of half-shown off things. It's just a question of what do we want to score? Also, it's pretty funny that you didn't announce the changes at all, I'm kind of expecting it'll be easy to forget to actually check the Floo Network forum to see how things are going or if anything else is revealed.
No idea, I'll try to better answer this and the social aspects of 1 and 3 a little later, once I've had the chance to say hello to a wider variety of folks.