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Finally... => Forum Games and Roleplaying => Topic started by: Vivalas on September 22, 2023, 05:27:50 pm

Title: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Vivalas on September 22, 2023, 05:27:50 pm

SCHIZOPHRENOIDA: THE DARK DESCENT

Disclaimer: Since the subject matter of this game involves mental illness, I feel it's fair to both put a warning up beforehand, and to explain that the purpose isn't to degrade or glorify schizophrenia, nor try to present any sort of narrative that may attempt to paint the nature of the illness in a certain light. I'm neither a psychologist nor a victim of the disease, but I thought of an interesting idea for a game and figured it would be a good set-dressing for the scope of the game. I make this with full empathy of those affected and hope that eventually some sort of cure can be found. This is just a game and is meant purely for the sake of entertainment. If I get something wrong or falsely portray an aspect of the disease, keep in mind it's purely for the sake of the game.

Welcome to Schizophrenoida, a hybrid mafia-SG type game that involves the players making (or attempting to make) educated choices based on a set of information provided to them, while a smaller group of players attempts to undermine them by providing false information for varying reasons. I didn't put it on the mafia sub-board, because while it includes mafia-esque social deception elements, it's not the core of the game.

OVERVIEW

The game follows the adventures of the (yet-to-be-named) protagonist throughout a normal day of his/her life. The players will be divided into three "teams" of players that will work towards separate goals. It will last from the moment the protagonist wakes up until midnight at the end of the day. Each turn will last at most 5 days and will be divided into two phases. Both the teams and the types of phases will be described in following sections.

The basic overview of gameplay is that the players are presented with three scenes to choose from, at which point they vote on which scene is the "real" one, and submit actions to be voted on accordingly. Once an action is selected, the Phrenoids and Schizoids both plot to create their own version of the scene, separate from the "real" scene, that will be mixed in with the real scene that the players will vote on and base their actions in the following turn. This continues until the protagonist either dies, or the game ends (and then scoring is done).

THE PLAYERS
There are three main roles a player can be assigned once the game starts. They are as follows:

Noids

Normal, uncorrupted elements of mental clarity and thought. Their goal is to steer the mind towards its higher aims, its most coveted desires and aspirations.

The "default" role in the game, akin to the town in mafia. Noids work together to see through the deception and clouded mind and steer the protagonist towards a successful day. They win with two of the three victory conditions, and are the most numerous of the three roles.

Phrenoids

Vivid fascinations wreck the ever-longing mine for the world-that-turns, conjuring imaginations of the world-that-was intermixed with the world-that-could-be. Luminary echoes cast their shadow across eons of reality and the fanciful tapestry of the real world, longing that fascinates the waking mind and wreaks havok among the individual who would otherwise be more concerned with world affairs.

A "neutral" role in mafia-speak, the Phrenoids work together to create scenes that would otherwise seem favorable to the players. They don't get to see the real scene like the Schizoids do (although they do get a word count), but they do have access to memory, which the Schizoids don't usually have access to. The Phrenoids have an independent win condition. It doesn't matter if the protagonist lives, dies, or fails at everything they do. Regardless of who wins the game, the Phrenoids are considered successful if their scenes are chosen more often than or at least as often (40%) as the real scenes (schizoid scenes are counted as neutral for this purpose).

Schizoids

Dark creatures of doubt and despair, spiders crawling about the cobwebs of the subconscious mind, feeding off of the destruction of goals, aspirations, and dreams. Corrupted servants of the greater mind, who either through fomented malice or a misguided sense of self-preservation, shield the self from it's self-realization and perpetuate a cycle of misery and self-loathing.

Schizoids are the "mafia" of the game, and are directly working to undermine the success of the players. The exact win conditions will be detailed in a later section, but they are also able to submit a scene for consideration of the players. Unlike Phrenoids, they have a copy of the "real" event to judge, but don't have access to memory, unless they spend one of their limited subversion tokens.

All roles can vote and propose actions like normal during the action phase.

Roles will be allocated randomly and secretly when the game starts. The ideal ratio I'm going for is 1:2 for Schizoids and 1:3 for Phrenoids, although these aren't perfect and may be adjusted to suit the intended balance based on how the math works out. One hard rule, however, is that Phrenoids will never outnumber Schizoids, they can only have at least as many members as the Schizoids do, so if the math divies up the players in such a way that there would be more Phrenoids, that slot will be given to the Schizoids instead. Apportionment is hard. When the game starts, however, there will be a post detailing the number of players in each role.

In regards to voting, consensus among Phrenoid and Schizoid players is required to use tokens or post scenes. This can be a simple majority, but is ideally unanimous. Since there will probably at most be two players per Phrenoid or Schizoid team, this means you either agree or a course of action is picked randomly. For single player teams, well, hopefully you can agree with yourself :)

COURSE OF PLAY

The game operates on turns, each turn divided into two phases.

Ponder Phase

The ponder phase is where the players discuss the three scenes presented to them and decide which one is real and act accordingly. During this phase a player will submit both a vote for the real scene, and a course of action (or vote on an existing course of action). This phase will last 3 days, or until all players have submitted their vote. Alternatively, if a majority of players has voted for a certain course of action (such that it would succeed regardless of other players), the turn will end after 24 hours from that last vote (to allow for further argumentation and debate).

During the ponder phase, an additional tidbit of information will be presented in the form of memory. Memory can usually be trusted to be accurate, and represents the relevant knowledge of the protagonist as it pertains to the matter at hand. This can be things like, the arrangement of the room, the name of a coworker, what you ate for dinner last night, etc. Keep in mind that memory is not perfect even when not subverted, and can be incomplete or lacking details entirely. Memory will never, however, directly mislead the players. It won't make things up that don't exist, or remember events that never happened. It can only be deceptive via omission. That is, unless...

Subversion

During the action phase, where the Schizoids and Phrenoids plot their next scene, Schizoid players can opt to spend a subversion token to get a glimpse at, or even alter memory. There are two main ways to spend a subversion token:

Recall: Recall is simply that, you recall the memory that will be displayed in the next ponder phase, and get to see it before the rest of the players do and get to plan your scene accordingly.

Subversion: Subversion is much more dramatic, and allows Schizoid players to alter the memory that will be displayed in the next ponder phase. Sometimes even memory, that vague and listless warden of thought and mind can be subjugated by dark forces.

The Schizoids will start with three tokens, although there may be very rare opportunities to get new ones. When a token is spent on recall, it will be used up only if the Schizoids' scene isn't selected by the players. When spent on subversion, it will always be used up, regardless. There is a bit of a gamble here to spice things up.

An important element of subversion, is, of course, that the players won't know that memory was subverted. However, this can also persist into later turns if players wonder whether that memory was real or not, so there is an additional rule regarding subversion. If the players choose the correct scene while subverted memory is present, they will learn that the subverted memory was false.

Action Phase

The action phase is more akin to the "night" phase of mafia, in that only the Schizoids and Phrenoids have a part here. It is during this phase that they get to discuss and plan out the scene they want to submit for the next ponder phase. The action phase will last at max 2 days, although if both teams submit an action beforehand, then it will end at that point.

WIN CONDITIONS

The game will start at 6:00 am and last until midnight, and time flow will be decided by the narrative. Throughout the game, players will need to accumulate success points in order to ensure the protagonist succeeds at their goals and continues to maintain their normal life after the day ends.

There are three types of tasks, from which successful completion can earn success points:

Foundational Tasks: 5 points
Major Tasks: 3 points
Minor Tasks: 1 point

The task list will be updated at the beginning of each ponder turn as tasks get completed, added, or failed. In order to "succeed", success points must be higher than failure points. Failure points are earned by failing a task, where the points are added to the failure tally instead of the success tally.

Additionally, each task will have "upgrade" and "subvert" conditions, which can detail ways in which a task can be upgraded to a higher tally (9 points for foundational), or subverted (one tier lower, or 0 for minor). These can apply to either success or failure. For instance, failing a task but fulfilling the upgrading conditions will lower the tally, so that the failure is less severe. Succeeding a task but while fulfilling the subverting conditions will make the success less beneficial. Of course, you can also succeed or fail while upgrading, which will make the upgrade or success that much more detrimental or beneficial. Both upgrading conditions and subverting conditions will be detailed appropriately (although not precisely, it is still very much a narrative game, creativity is welcomed) for both failure and success.

Additionally, there is a physical health tally, which starts at 0 points and can be increased by physical harm to the protagonist. There are three types of harm present in the game:

Critical Harm: Things which would typically kill or critically injure someone (e.g., getting shot).
Major Harm: Things which would typically seriously injure, but possible kill someone (getting hit by a car).
Minor Harm: Things that would minorly injure someone, but in a substantial way, and rarely actually cause death. (tripping and falling).

When harm is suffered, a 3d6 is rolled to determine total harm. For critical harm, it is rerolled twice, with the highest result being used. For major harm once, and for minor harm none at all. Additionally for critical harm, there is a second (not rerolled) roll that gets added to harm, which doesn't count against the instant death rules below.

If a natural 17 or 18 is rolled (a critical), then there is an additional instant death chance. For critical harm, this will immediately kill the protagonist. For major harm, this will kill the player if an incidental reroll also scores a critical (this reroll won't be added to the harm tally, just is used to determine the chance of death). For minor harm, you have to get truly unlucky with two rerolls succeeding.

Regardless, preventing physical harm is paramount to player success, not only because death immediately results in a Schizoid victory, but because going over 50 harm results in serious injury, which can still cause a minor Schizoid victory if the game ends with greater than 50 harm.

That means, of course, that harm can be reduced. There will be various ways to do this, but the most common being of course, medical attention. Unfortunately medical attention also takes time, so either way avoiding harm is the best course of action. For the sake of gameplay, the game takes place in a near-future setting for the purposes of medical care only, where even grievous harm can be attended to in a matter of hours, provided that the protagonist can actually make it to medical care...

Ending up in a serious injury state will immediately start adding "medical care" tasks to the tasklist, which can result in reduced harm if succeeded (or with persistent harm and failure points if failed).

VICTORY TYPES

There are four main types of victory in the game. FAILURE results in a Schizoid win, while VICTORY results in a noid win.

MAJOR VICTORY: Ending the game with more success points than failure points, and no serious injury.

MINOR VICTORY: Ending the game with more success points than failure points, and no serious injury, but one of the two foundational tasks was failed.

MINOR FAILURE: Ending the game with more success points than failure points, but with serious injury.

MAJOR FAILURE: Ending the game with less success points than failure points, or with death.

JOINING THE GAME

To join the game, simply make a post with your noid's name and a vote for the gender of the protagonist. The name of the protagonist, well, will be "determined" on the first turn :)

While I don't particularly care what names you use, the base suggested scheme is a combination of greek letters. Or maybe you can spice it up with human names, or names of famous people, or whatever persona you want the voices in the head to take on.

Well, those are all the rules. Trying my hand at a simple game this time so that I can get into it without being overwhelmed. But, I probably will get out of hand with the writing if my past games are any indication of my ability to not get carried away with the narrative.

Also, for the sake of discussion among the player teams there will be a discord (https://discord.gg/jFfHDECCCm).

Oh, also some ground rules. I don't like rules, but these are mainly aimed at discussion:

1. No metagaming. This mostly pertains to DMs and such. The only discussion should be either in the designated channels (for Schizoids and Phrenoids) or out in the open (prefer on the forum, but discord can be used too). Mainly I just don't want Schizoids and Phrenoids coordinating, since that would be a bit OP.

2. Be nice?

I'm bad at making and following rules, so here you go. Simple honor system ya'll.

Oh and also this game is obviously gonna need some tuning and balance, so we'll see how this first game goes and we can tweak it from there. Suggestions for mechanics, balance, etc. are always welcome, although I probably won't be making any chances during the game unless some grievous flaw is pointed out.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: Vivalas on September 22, 2023, 05:28:46 pm

PLAYER LIST

1. Crystalizedmire (In)

2. The Canadian Kitten (That random intrusive thought)

3. VermilionSkies (Ori)

4. Fluffe9911 (Out)

5. LovecraftianFairyTale (Rho)

6. Glass (Mythopoeia)

DISCORD (https://discord.gg/jFfHDECCCm)

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: Crystalizedmire on September 22, 2023, 06:07:53 pm

Name: In
Gender: female

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: The Canadian kitten on September 22, 2023, 06:53:57 pm

name: That random intrusive thought
Gender vote: Female

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: VermilionSkies on September 24, 2023, 01:23:09 pm

Name: Ori
Gender: Female

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: Fluffe9911 on September 24, 2023, 01:28:36 pm

Name: Out
Gender: Female

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid]
Post by: LovecraftianFairyTale on September 24, 2023, 04:39:56 pm

Name: Rho
Gender: Female

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] (Recruiting!)
Post by: Vivalas on September 28, 2023, 06:55:33 am

Everything looks good, granted it's basically impossible to mess up the process. Leaving this up a tad bit longer to see if anyone else is interested.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] (Recruiting!)
Post by: Glass on September 28, 2023, 11:53:13 am

Name: Mythopoeia
Gender: abstaining

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] (Recruiting!)
Post by: Vivalas on October 02, 2023, 03:33:21 am

I'll most likely be starting this sometime today, so last call for anyone interested. Excited to begin :)

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Action Phase 0
Post by: Vivalas on October 03, 2023, 12:19:16 am

ACTION PHASE 0

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

-Robert Frost ("Acquainted with the Night")

You awake with a start. A dream of a faint moon in the sky, the sounds of distant howling wolves. Although, they sound peculiar. Human somehow. Distant voices, distant memories, fleeting thoughts...

But then you hear them...

The sounds of your interlopers, tearing into your mind. A faint sweat breaks out on your brow, an electric panic in the back of your mind. That tell-tale buzzing in the brain that heralds the coming of your derealization.

Instinctively your hand reaches over to your nightstand, and it knocks over a smooth plastic cylinder. But to your dismay, it's empty.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

That's right, you recall forgetting to refill your prescription yesterday. But it was just so late and you were just so tired.

I'm probably gonna regret this.

You probably are. But the question now, is, just how much?

You are drawn to the realization that the room is starting to enter your senses, first blurred by the haze of a groggy night's rest. At least you had a good sleep. You sit up and look around.

....

And, uh, what was your name again?

How could I forget my own name?

Probably the hum-drum of life, or the drum-hum of your most bestest of friends, that unholy choir of your own making.
You know that you are a female, however. That and that you work a menial office job. The rest are meaningless details, best saved for a later time when you're not struggling to stay rooted in reality. Oh, and you also have a date tonight, and that the pharmacy is closed today. Good luck!

First turn is up. You're in the Action Phase which normally comes after the Ponder Phase, but the Schizoids and Phrenoids get to set the first scene. You can still discuss amongst yourselves though.

The time is 6:00 AM.

This turn will end in 48 hours, starting from this post.

Minor Edit: The current distribution of roles is 3 Noids, 2 Schizoids, and 1 Phrenoid. One Phrenoid got converted from Schizoid as outlined in the rules. We'll see how this feels, technically Noids outnumber Schizoids, but are 1:1 with non-"Town" roles, but alas.

OBJECTIVES:

Keep your Job (Foundational): 0 / 5
The total of all success points from work related tasks has to be greater than failure points. And you also have to get to work. And not get outright fired.

Success Points: 0
Upgrading: Get a promotion!
Subverting: Be late.

Failure Points: 0
Upgrading: Do something really silly on top of getting fired.
Subverting: At least you're rehireable?

Dating With a Twist (Foundational): 0 / 5
The total of all success points from date related tasks has to be greater than failure points. And you also have to get to the date. And not outright scare your date away.

Success Points: 0
Upgrading: Really hit it off, like, second date is no problem.
Subverting: Be late.

Failure Points: 0
Upgrading: He's friends with another cute guy from the office. Why'd you had to screw that up, too?
Subverting: At least he didn't run away screaming?

Remember Your Name (Minor): 0 / 1
Gosh, it would really suck if you forgot what your name was. This isn't a huge deal, but, uh, it may have unintended consequences later?

Success

Failure
Upgrading: You didn't even get the first letter right?

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Action Phase 0
Post by: Vivalas on October 05, 2023, 07:53:46 pm

PONDER PHASE 1

SCENE 1
You look around the room. It's kinda dark, so you can't see much, but you can make out all the usual furniture. And nothing seems too out of place. The faint outline of a poster is on the wall to your right, some dark curtains on the left, and a desk with a computer at the foot of the bed near the wall next to your closet. You see a faint shadow moving near the closet, and it fills you with an amount of unease. Oh, and your name is Mia.

SCENE 2
Your name is Makenna an OUTSTANDING name. You wake up from bed REFRESHED and ready to face the world. You should brush your teeth, take a shower, get dressed all that ROUTINE stuff you NORMALLY do. Once complete head back to your room to ADMIRE your cat poster and check your POPULAR social media pages on your computer before heading OUT to work at... where do you work again?

SCENE 3
The morning light is still dim, but you can still see the layout of your room. Everything seems to be where you remember it. There's a wan line of light through the gap in the curtains on the wall opposite of you; to the left, your computer desk sits below a poster, though you can't make out the artwork. Something about it makes you remember, though: your name is Mary.
On your right, you see your closet, and catch a brief movement in the shadows.

Memory: Your name starts with an M. Also, the walls of your room are a nice neutral color. The furniture isn't too crazy. The basics. You have a poster of a cat on the wall to the left of the head of the bed, and some space-themed curtains over the window to the right of the bed. There's also a desk at the foot of the bed with your PC, next to the closet.

Alright, Ponder Phase 1 is now active, players can vote for a course of action and vote on the correct scene. Apologies for the delay on that one, the submissions got in on time and I was a bit busy. Gonna try to hold myself to the schedule now. Next phase begins in 72 hours, or otherwise as indicated by the conditions in the OP.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Glass on October 05, 2023, 08:08:55 pm

Quiet down with all the caps, phrenoid.

Given that scenes 1 and 3 share a general format/style while 2 wildly diverges, it's pretty obvious that 2 is the phrenoid scene. From there, it's decently easy to see that scene 3 fails the memory test - it puts the pieces of the room in the wrong places. 1 has to be the real scene.

Now the question from there is, what do we do about it?

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: LovecraftianFairyTale on October 05, 2023, 08:49:53 pm

Agreed, Scene 1 seems the most likely to be real.

As for our next action, I think we should just get out of bed and open the curtains. We should probably check what that moving shadow is, and we don’t know where our phone or a light switch is, so opening the curtain is our best chance of lighting up the room and getting a better look at it.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: VermilionSkies on October 06, 2023, 08:41:57 am

Scene 1 is definitely real.
Seeing how much the memory gives you, I'm a little concerned about what the phrenoid scenes will look like once they get the hang of this.

Getting a look at the room is probably a good idea. We should probably get dressed while we're at it.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Fluffe9911 on October 06, 2023, 11:39:14 am

Yeah it's def scene 1. I do agree that checking out our room and getting properly dressed is probably the most important thing to do in the short term.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 06, 2023, 02:41:15 pm

Scene 1 is definitely real. I agree Rho(LovecraftianFairyTale) that we should open the curtains

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Vivalas on October 06, 2023, 05:20:01 pm

Would appreciate if ya'll could put your votes for scenes and actions like so!

Quote

Real Scene:

Scene 1 (5): Glass, LovecraftianFairyTale, VermilionSkies, Fluffe9911, Crystalizedmire

Action:

(Not sure what the specifics of the action you want are yet, since there's some variance. Also, if you intended to vote later, apologies, you can ignore me.)

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 06, 2023, 05:37:37 pm

Quote

Real Scene:

Scene 1 (5): Glass, LovecraftianFairyTale, VermilionSkies, Fluffe9911, Crystalizedmire

Action:

Get out of bed and open curtains(1): Crystalizedmire

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: The Canadian kitten on October 06, 2023, 11:34:52 pm

Quote

Real Scene:

Scene 1 (6): Glass, LovecraftianFairyTale, VermilionSkies, Fluffe9911, Crystalizedmire, TCK

Action:

Get out of bed and open curtains(2): Crystalizedmire, TCK

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Fluffe9911 on October 07, 2023, 11:30:28 am

Quote

Real Scene:

Scene 1 (6): Glass, LovecraftianFairyTale, VermilionSkies, Fluffe9911, Crystalizedmire, TCK

Action:

Get out of bed and open curtains(2): Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Glass on October 07, 2023, 11:32:49 am

Quote

Real Scene:

Scene 1 (6): Glass, LovecraftianFairyTale, VermilionSkies, Fluffe9911, Crystalizedmire, TCK

Action:

Get out of bed and open curtains(4): Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911, Glass

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Vivalas on October 07, 2023, 11:45:54 am

We currently have enough votes to end the turn in 24 hours, and discussion seems pretty consensual. (Turn would end anyways in 32 hours, but whatever).

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 1
Post by: Vivalas on October 11, 2023, 06:36:42 pm

Action Phase 1

You remember correctly that your name is Mia.. the mental fog shifting its fold for a few moments...

You hop out of bed and open the curtains... ready for the day to unfold...

Note: I forgot to indicate the time passed last turn. Last turn's action took one minute, so the current time is 6:01.

Action phase will begin as normal now. 48 hours. I got a bit busy but am gonna be working to get these turns in a timely fashion :)

EDIT:
OBJECTIVES:

Keep your Job (Foundational): 0 / 5
The total of all success points from work related tasks has to be greater than failure points. And you also have to get to work. And not get outright fired.

Success Points: 0
Upgrading: Get a promotion!
Subverting: Be late.

Failure Points: 0
Upgrading: Do something really silly on top of getting fired.
Subverting: At least you're rehireable?

Dating With a Twist (Foundational): 0 / 5
The total of all success points from date related tasks has to be greater than failure points. And you also have to get to the date. And not outright scare your date away.

Success Points: 0
Upgrading: Really hit it off, like, second date is no problem.
Subverting: Be late.

Failure Points: 0
Upgrading: He's friends with another cute guy from the office. Why'd you had to screw that up, too?
Subverting: At least he didn't run away screaming?

Remember Your Name (Minor): 1 / 1
Gosh, it would really suck if you forgot what your name was. This isn't a huge deal, but, uh, it may have unintended consequences later?

Success! You remembered your name!

Success Points: 1

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Vivalas on October 18, 2023, 06:47:49 pm

PONDER PHASE 2

SCENE 1
You open your curtains. Upon opening them the first thing you see outside is your neighbor's house, It isn't anything that special but you were always slightly jealous of how much better it is than your own. Nearby a cacophony of birds are singing and chirping as they normally do when you wake up in the morning. All in all, it is a peaceful if a bit mundane sight.

SCENE 2
You shamble out of bed with a groan and trudge over to the curtains, their dark pattern an embroidery of fine white lines against navy blue, thoughts of the day ahead swimming in your troubled mind. You draw open the curtains to take in the sights of a beautiful morning in the... suburbs. Dawn is just breaking and you're greeted by the lovely view of the siding of the neighbor's house. The sounds of the birds can be heard, with the bluejays shrieking their morning song. With the light exposed to the room, you can probably see everything now a bit better.

SCENE 3
You LEAP out your bed READY to take on the world! You rip the curtains of EXQUISITE detail open to see SONGBIRDS singing a beautiful SONG, and the BEAUTIFUL sunrise. You see you live in a BUSTLING suburb with PLENTY of furry and feathery CRITTERS in search of FOOD. That reminds you, you are very HUNGRY! Suddenly, you hear a chirp near YOU! You see your CAT comes barrelling out of the closet, wanting TREATS and ATTENTION from you! The room around you is now BRIGHTER.

Memory: You remember that your curtains are blue with white stripes. And that your view just that: the neighbor's house. There's also usually a cacophony of birds outside everytime you wake up.

Ponder Phase 2 is now active. Phew! Gonna really try to get these out quicker. Visited my parents this weekend but otherwise everything went smoothly turn wise.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 18, 2023, 08:03:36 pm

I love the phrenoid scenes. It's so funny.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: LovecraftianFairyTale on October 18, 2023, 11:20:26 pm

Good to see Phrenoid is still living their best life.

I don’t know which scene is the real one (aside from the obvious), but… I don’t think it matters? Scenes 1 and 2 are basically identical, and I don’t think the Schizoids get anything just from us picking their scene. So I’m going to pick Scene 2 based solely on vibes.

As for the action, we should probably either investigate the rest of our house or try to figure out where we work, but I’m not sure which.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 19, 2023, 05:26:24 pm

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 2: Crystalizedmire

The only reason why I think it is scene 2 is that it correctly identified blue curtains with white stripes. If the real scene is scene 1 then the schizoid would have to spend their precious subversion tokens on something as inconsequential as this.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Glass on October 19, 2023, 05:50:34 pm

...hold up, no, the Schizoids only lose the token when their scene isn't picked. If it is picked, then they keep the token.

Not that it makes a difference in the reasoning here, considering that the two scenes aren't really any different from each other.

That all said, I feel like the extra details in scene 2 might, if anything, be a counterargument for it being the real one. It feels like somebody getting the memory and trying to include everything in it, even the unimportant stuff, just to make sure that they're seen as correct. After all, the real scene last time had no mention of the poster being of a cat.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1: Glass
Scene 2: Crystalizedmire

Gonna go with scene 1 here. Not quite sure about action, though.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 19, 2023, 06:31:19 pm

I forgot that Schizoids regain their token if the scene is picked. I don't know why schizoids would use their token in this scenario but voting Scene 1 is the most logical option here to ensure they don't get their subversion token back. Also, blue jay songs, from what I've heard, aren't loud. That doesn't mean they can't make loud vocalizations(in fact their most commonly heard vocalization is a loud hawk-like screech) but according to Cornell Lab, "The Blue Jay vocalization most often considered a song is the “whisper song,” a soft, quiet conglomeration of clicks, chucks, whirrs, whines, liquid notes, and elements of other calls; a singing bout may last longer than 2 minutes."

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1: Glass, Crystalizedmire

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 20, 2023, 11:56:37 am

So, what is the best course of action?
I kinda want to check out what that shadow was

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: The Canadian kitten on October 20, 2023, 02:15:19 pm

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1 (6): Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCK

Action:
Check out shadows in the closet (1): TCK

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Fluffe9911 on October 20, 2023, 04:12:00 pm

Quote from: Crystalizedmire on October 20, 2023, 11:56:37 am

So, what is the best course of action?
I kinda want to check out what that shadow was

We should probably start getting ready for work honestly.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1 (4): Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911

Action:
Check out shadows in the closet (1): TCK
Get prepared for work (1): Fluffe9911

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Crystalizedmire on October 20, 2023, 04:23:27 pm

Checking the shadows in our closet couldn't take that much time

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1 (4): Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911

Action:
Check out shadows in the closet (2): TCK, Crystalizedmire
Get prepared for work (1): Fluffe9911

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: LovecraftianFairyTale on October 21, 2023, 08:10:10 am

I don’t think we have enough information to get prepared for work right now; we don’t know where our work is, what our job is, etc. Besides, our uniform is probably in our closet, so we might get started on that anyway.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1 (5): Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911, LFT

Action:
Check out shadows in the closet (3): TCK, Crystalizedmire, LFT
Get prepared for work (1): Fluffe9911

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: VermilionSkies on October 21, 2023, 12:41:57 pm

We should probably get clean before we get dressed, but there’s no harm in checking on this.
I don’t think it currently matters which scene is real, because they’re both essentially identical currently.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 1 (6): Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCK, Fluffe9911, LFT, VermilionSkies

Action:
Check out shadows in the closet (4): TCK, Crystalizedmire, LFT, VermilionSkies
Get prepared for work (1): Fluffe9911

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 2
Post by: Vivalas on October 21, 2023, 02:43:59 pm

We have a simple majority now but turn will end jn 4 hours anyways

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Action Phase 2
Post by: Vivalas on October 24, 2023, 02:45:50 pm

Action Phase 2
Current Time: 6:03

You take a deep breath, and move towards your closet...

Note: Time keeps confusing me for some reason, but I'll just always do it in the action phase and the current time at the beginning of the phase will be based on the time required for the previous phase (i.e. one minute for sitting up, two for opening the curtains. I may have to eventually curve this somehow like maybe 5 minutes minimum for each action, but we'll see how time flow works once you start doing longer tasks).

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Action Phase 2
Post by: Vivalas on November 03, 2023, 05:36:00 pm

PONDER PHASE 3

SCENE 1
You GAZE into your closet, searching for the SHADOWS that lurk in it. No luck, and you MOVE closer to the closest to PEEP THE HORRORS that exist within.
Oh.
It's a cat
IT'S YOUR CAT! She MEOWS at you. She is HUNGRY and, you should FEED her NOW

SCENE 2
Upon opening your WELL BUILT closet you are set upon by an EVIL feline! It claws and nips at you with MALICE and HATE before running off OUT of the room to cause DESTRUCTION and CHAOS somewhere else. You should probably stop focusing on the EVIL feline and start actually doing the chores you LOVE but frankly you don't really feel like it right now... maybe later you will have the MOTIVATION.

SCENE 3
Your mind is at peace as you take in the sights and sounds of the morning. Feeling a bit uneasy, you move towards your open closet to suss out what *entity* is at play here. You look down and feel something soft and furry touch your leg, and realize it's your cat! And she's currently snuggled up in some clothes you put off folding. She meows at you expectantly, and you realize that she is probably hungry! Poor thing!

Memory: You have a cat, with black fur and brilliant yellow eyes. And also you tend to procrastinate things.

Ponder Phase 3 is now active. Apologize for the delay! Trying to get these out faster, I have a format for copying and pasting now (tm).

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Crystalizedmire on November 03, 2023, 06:32:16 pm

Even the schizoids are inappropriately capitalizing words, wow

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Glass on November 03, 2023, 10:12:54 pm

...do we know that that’s the case? It’s not impossible that Vivalas might mess with the format of the real scene, too, in order to mess with us. Improbable, perhaps, and likely unprovable, but not impossible.

But yeah, scene 3 is probably the real one.

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Crystalizedmire on November 05, 2023, 11:41:05 am

So what should we do?

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: LovecraftianFairyTale on November 05, 2023, 08:40:32 pm

For lack of any other ideas, I want to feed Cat (and ourself) immediately. Also we haven’t left this room and know nothing about the rest of our house.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 3 (1): LFT

Action:
Leave bedroom, find kitchen (1): LFT

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Glass on November 05, 2023, 10:55:38 pm

Sure.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 3 (2): LFT, Glass

Action:
Leave bedroom, find kitchen (2): LFT, Glass

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: Crystalizedmire on November 08, 2023, 09:11:48 pm

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 3 (2): LFT, Glass, Crystalizedmire

Action:
Leave bedroom, find kitchen (2): LFT, Glass
Get dressed(1): Crystalizedmire

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: The Canadian kitten on November 10, 2023, 03:27:19 am

We're not leaving the house yet anyways, best to explore and check out food options.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 3 (4): LFT, Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCk

Action:
Leave bedroom, find kitchen (3): LFT, Glass, TCk
Get dressed(1): Crystalizedmire

Title: Re: Schizophrenoida: A Dark Narrative [SG/Mafia hybrid] Ponder Phase 3
Post by: VermilionSkies on November 13, 2023, 11:39:02 am

Probably for the best, though we shouldn't forget to get ready for the day at some point, we do have a date.

Quote

Real Scene:
Scene 3 (5): LFT, Glass, Crystalizedmire, TCk, VS

Action:
Leave bedroom, find kitchen (4): LFT, Glass, TCk, VS
Get dressed(1): Crystalizedmire

Bay 12 Games Forum

Finally... => Forum Games and Roleplaying => Topic started by: Vivalas on September 22, 2023, 05:27:50 pm