The Syndicate

Epignosis wrote:That post is such whiny bullshit.

You can't talk, you've been murdered.

Sherlock Holmes needs help. Your help, as a matter of fact. With the success of his Irregulars, Holmes has decided to invite several of the worlds top deductive minds to a contest known as the Baker Street Invitational. Designed to push their skills to the limit, at the end of it all Sherlock will allow the winning detectives a place at his side solving the most interesting mysteries the world has to offer.
The only problem is, Not everyone is who they claim to be. Can you uncover the truth? Can you survive the first annual Baker Street Invitational?

Format and Structure of the Game:
The game is ideal for, I'd say 30 or more players, but I could run it with around 25 or so. The "civvies" in this game are all detectives vying for a spot at Sherlock's side. The "mafia" are individuals sent by James Moriarty to infiltrate the invitational and sabotage it in some mysterious ways. Civvies will win when they have incarcerated or eliminated every infiltrator. Infiltrators will win if they can successfully avoid incarceration/elimination long enough to outnumber the civilian detectives and complete their goal.

BTSC will work rather strangely in this game. It will be in some respects an open BTSC game. It will work this way:
1) To protect their identities from each other, infiltrators will not start with BTSC..
2) Players who embark on the same Nightly Investigation, gain btsc for two cycles or until the investigation is complete. (This BTSC will be a heavily monitored chat room, most likely). Only a maximum of 4 players can conduct the same Nightly Investigation.
3) Players who decide to visit the Diogenes Club gain BTSC for one cycle. No player may visit the Diogenes Club twice in a row. (BTSC will be in a heavily monitored Chat Room)
4) Players in the prison have BTSC with each other and no one else.
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A Player in the Baker Street Invitational will not have a typical role power as such. I have designed this game to rely heavily on player deductions and investigations. There are also RPG elements that will allow players to perform the acts usually associated with a number of typical role powers (Night Kills for example).
Days will last 48 hours, during which time ALL living and non-arrested detectives will attempt to solve the previous Night's murder (if there was one). These series of murders (Night Kills) are considered the Main Case of the Baker Street Inviational, and are posted in the night posts, along with any and all information needed to solve the case and catch the killer. Lynches will send the accused criminals to the Prison, effectively eliminating them from the game. If, during the course of the game, evidence presents itself that could prove the innocence of an incarcerated player, any living/free detective can present this evidence anonymously to the host. The host will then call an appeal based on the evidence presented. A jury of three players will decide the fate of the incarcerated player based on the new evidence. This jury is selected by taking the top three on-topic posters from the previous cycle. If a jury decides to release an incarcerated player, that is effectively a rezz. The case that the player was initially arrested for is reopened, and a new suspect must be found.
Nights will last 24 hours. During the Night, players can choose to do one of several things. Firstly, a player might choose to visit a location for whatever reason. I will be *very* loose in terms of what I allow, within reason. Some locations of note include the morgue, the library, a pawn shop, a butcher shop, and a jeweler. If a player wishes to visit these (or any other) location, all they need to do is tell me where they wish to go and what they wish to accomplish while there. Pending my approval, the player will then officially be considered to have visited that location and done what they said they wanted to do. This is one example of the RPG style I mentioned. The second thing a player can do at night is participate in secondary investigations. Things like burglaries, muggings, vandalism, and other seemingly unrelated crimes. These crimes will not appear in the main thread for investigation. To recieve the case details of a minor case, a player must first request those details from the hosst by investigating the crime. As stated, the first 4 players to begin a minor investigation gain BTSC. The final thing a player can do is commit these major and minor crimes during the night.

Now that I have described the basics of the game, let me explain how it will work using an example (Myself)
A typical Role PM will look something like this:
Player Name: DharmaHelper
Role Name: Arthur Shelby
Occupation: Chimney Sweep
Brief Physical Description of the Character, which will play a factor.
Description of Character's Current Inventory, which will include occupational tools and individual trinkets. Inventory can be expanded upon by visiting a shop to purchase or steal items.
In this example, I will be playing the role of one of Moriarty's agents, so my role PM will include the following:
**ATTENTION ARTHUR SHELBY**
You are not who you claim to be. Your real name is [REAL NAME]. Your objective, as given to you by Moriarty is [OBJECTIVE]. Complete this task, remain undetected, and await further instruction.

We will fast forward a bit for my sake, and for the sake of game spoilers, to about Day 4. For this example, DharmaHelper is still alive and not incarcerated yet. This is how the day will typically begin:

The host will post the previous nights Case File/Night Post (in this instance, Night 3's case file).

Night 3, Epignosis's character was murdered, strangled in his home. The night post will include a description of the crime scene, and one of the body as well. For this example I will give a brief snippet of pertinent information:
Firstly, the house is in shambles, broken glass and wood splinters all over. Many players theorize that the state of Epignosis's home is an indication of a significant struggle.
This theory is supported by the presence of bruises all along Epignosis's hands and arms, which would seem to indicate that he and his attacker fought at length.
Eagle-eyed AceofSpace's character notes the presence of a black smudge just behind the right ear of the victim. This will be an important clue.
Nothing seems to have been stolen from the home, a fact which many players agree speaks to the motives of the killer.
From this, and other more detailed information, the players must work together to build a profile of the killer. After some deliberation, They have decided that the following things MUST be true:
The Killer is a man, capable of fighting with Epignosis's character, who is also a man, in such a manner as to cause the destruction of the home and the defensive wounds on the body.
The Killer had soot, dirt, or some other black substance on their hands at the time of the killing, as evidenced by the black smudge on the body that would have been left when the Killer had his hands around the throat of the victim.
From this and other discussion, the pool of suspects is narrowed to four:
1) JulietsCoffee's character, a coal miner with the physical strength capable of committing the murder. The black smudge must have been coal.
2) DharmaHelper's character Arthur Shelby, A chimney sweep who had been engaged in spirited debate with Epignosis over the last few days. The black smudge was from a chimney.
3) Long Con's character, a cobbler who was insistant that Epignosis was an agent of Moriarty, despite no one listening to him. The black smudge must have been shoe polish.
4) Elohcin's character, a gardener he'd been investigating relentlessly. The black smudge must have been dirt.

These are the main suspects, and it is important to note that the conditions of the crime fit several people (not just one, unfairly), as well as the caveat that not everyone could be telling the truth about who they are, where they work, etc. Also, someone completely different from the suspects above could have staged the crime scene to look the way it did. It will take a sharp criminal mind and good detective work to win the Invitational.

At the end of the day, most people think Arthur Shelby (DharmaHelper) committed the crime. Whether he did or not, he is lynched and sent to the prison, where he gains BTSC with the other convicts and is considered “out of the game”.
However, this is all just a ploy, part of Moriarty's grand scheme. His agent Arthur Shelby intentionally left clues to implicate himself in the crime and get himself sent to the prison, where he now has the freedom to coordinate with other Agents that were arrested, and further their boss's plan. Moriarty also planted evidence that would later contradict DharmaHelper's guilt, allowing for a jury to vote whether or not to release him from prison (spoiler: Moriarty ensures that the jury will free his puppet).

Smaller cases will work much the same way, the only difference being that they can be solved at any time, and that only people who take on those cases will be sent the case information.
This is just a snippet of the possible scheming and plotting that can take place.

Black Rock wrote:That doesn't say much...

Tomorrow :P