Overlord's Orders Commentary

[Søren]

All right, all right. I'll do it asap.

[Søren]

All done with the eh judgment. Good game Jukka, this was the hardest one to choose between.

[Skyblade]

I bet it was hard! Good game! You all are very good at this. It's been a really tough round.

Oh, and the punishment was ironic

[Søren]

Your orders have been given.

[Mhera]

Great game, Mrs. Damon!

A few questions for the Overlord:

1. So we just prepare a menu?
2. Are we accusing during this or just trying to out-plan-a-menu each other?
3. If we're trying to out-plan, do we prepare the menu together or separately?
4. If separately, do you want us to PM you the menu?

[Søren]

Yes, just prepare  it.
Nope, just trying to out do one another. No accusations.
Seperatly.
Yes, PM me when you've finaihed your menu. I'll post the two simultaneously later.

[Søren]

FYI: I received Mhera's reply. Still waiting on you Sky.

[Søren]

I apologize for the wait, but the round will end tonight.

[James Gryphon]

Now that this round's over, I want to talk about how it went and what we can do moving forward to make a better game.

Long writing has taken over. I've discussed this at some length with Jasper, and my analysis is that each person's defenses per phase consist of something like 1500+ words, whereas in many previous rounds, most people's defenses could have fit under the 750 word limit (in spite of being split up into multiple posts).

It might be one thing if this was increasing writing quality, but honestly, I don't think it is. Frankly, there are only so many ways you can spin the same events before it gets tedious and a little ludicrous.

I talked to both Soren and Jasper about making a new rule to limit the amount of words per phase, but that might be getting a bit legalistic. Plus, after thinking about it, I'm not sure that the 750 word limit isn't somewhat to blame for this in the first place. The rule was made just to prevent me (or similar people) from overflowing rounds with novel-length posts, but it feels like it's instead been taken as an encouragement to write 750-word posts all the time.

Jasper talked about this so perfectly, with his customary insight, that I'm going to quote him here.

As far as limiting their total number of words, I'm hesitant - as this would allow somehow who realizes the enemy player has reached this limit to just stack accusations on them without allowing them any response.

Not to mention I don't think it would be quite as fun if it's too regimented, but the amount of text in each round is getting a bit out of hand and it's clear some sort of limit is needed. I would say just use common sense and don't overflow the rounds, but I'm not sure how effective that would be.

Another idea would be to let previous responses in that round determine how they would respond to last minute responses. ... Then they [(the Overlord)] could look past a couple unanswered crimes, and look more at the responses and who sounds overall like they are trustworthy. (In court they don't decide the verdict based on who got a last word in, but on who had the best overall case. )

That's how I did my round, anyway. I looked at how strong the responses were rather than the number of responses, and considered who I would have believed if they had actually told me all of that.

That would help solve the length problem, as I think judges/cops would be less likely to believe a panicky scrambling and rambling suspect trying to throw off every possible suspicion as though they are afraid of something. On the other hand, they would be more likely to believe someone that has solid and concise responses to the major issues - it makes them seem like they know what they're talking about and makes their responses more believable.

(I clipped out part of Jasper's message. Unfortunately that part set the context, and I realized without having it, the quote needed a little clarification, so the bold text above is mine.)

Thusly, I'd propose that for the next round, we replace the 750 word limit with a simpler, harsher rule: "Don't overflow the round". You're all smart people and can feel when something is getting too long, and if anybody doesn't yet have that ability, the Overlord can help bump y'all back in the right direction. Hopefully this will make the game more manageable going forward.

[Skyblade]

Good idea.

I think I'm joining the next round (it's incredibly nerve-wracking but enjoyable), and if I do make it to top two again, I won't back out.

[Søren]

I agree with James rule.
I'm definitely going to be in the next round.

[Skyblade]

Are people mad at me about what I did? I can't blame you if that's true.

[James Gryphon]

Are people mad at me about what I did?

Sweetheart, you need to calm down. You're acting like me.

I'm a little disappointed that you didn't feel you could run the next round, but it's a game, and what's done is done. There should be other opportunities.

[Skyblade]

Thank you, and I hope you feel better.

[Søren]

Yeah Sky, it's no big deal. You're perfectly fine.