acroPHILIA #4 - The actual game thread

[yomi]

Welcome everyone the fourth game of acrophilia :)

The basic principle of the game is for the players first to create a clue pointing at an ASOIF character they are assigned fitting to one of two given acronyms and then to guess at which characters the clues of the other players hint. The characters of one round all fit a theme to simplify the guessing.

A registry of the theme used so far and an overview over the first three games including links to the game threads can be found here.

Details

Length: The game will consist of five rounds.

Players:

1. Dolorous Gabe
   
2. Woofless
   
3. lil' ghost
   
4. a shadow
   
5. redriver
   
6. Emmit
   
7. Lady Blizzardborn
   
8. Castellan
   
9. Q the Cat
   
10. Ser Not Appearing
    
11. Queen_Cersei_II
    
12. Rhaena Sandship
    
13. Fragile Bird
    

Game play:

• Step 1: The host will send a character via PM to every player and post two random acronyms (without Q, X and Z) in the game thread.
  
• Step 2: The players will create clues pointing to the character they are assigned fitting to one of the two given acronyms¹. The clues should point mostly to the intended character (sadly, both the host and the author are bad judges for that as they both know which character the clue is supposed to hint at). It is not allowed to use character names or nicknames, and I intend to be strict about this. I will allow the use of places names and family sigils, though.
  
• Step 3: The host will post the list of clues including a clue to the theme in the game thread.
  
• Step 4: The players will try to figure out the characters and the theme. They may send PMs with up to three preliminary clue yes-no-questions (e.g. "Is the answer to clue #5 Davos Seaworth?" or "Is the character of clue #8 a Westerosi?" or "Is clue #10 the theme clue?") and one preliminary theme guess (e.g. "Is the theme 'Youngest siblings'?") to the host. The host will answer these PMs with "Yes" or "No" or "Phrase your question more clearly" or, in the case of the theme, "Close". The preliminary guesses may be asked one by one and the players may choose the order.
  
• Step 5: The players send their final lists with all character guesses, the theme guess and a vote for their favourite clue (other than their own) via PM to the host. For the sake of the host the players mark their own clue by striking through it or writing something like "mine" behind it.
  
• Step 6: The host will work hard and calculate how much points each player gets. She will then post the results in the game thread.
  

To speed things up, the next round usually starts already after Step 3 of the current round, so except at the beginning of round 1 and the end of round 5 there is always a list of clues to answer AND a new clue to create.

Points:

• Author points: The author of a clue will get 1 point for each player who anwered his or her clue correctly.
  
• Guessing points: The player gets 3 points for each clue he or she guessed correctly.
  
• Theme points: The player gets 4 points if he or she guesses the theme correctly and 2 points if the theme guess is close enough to the intended theme.
  
• Theme clue identification point: The player gets 1 point for correctly identifying which clue is the theme clue.
  
• Voting points: The player gets 3 points for handing in a favourite clue vote.
  
• Favourite clue points: The author of a clue will get 1 point for each favourite clue vote his or her clue received.
  

Miscellaneous:

• Time: You'll usually have just under a week to produce a clue and again this time to hand in your final guesses. I'll likely give more time during the holidays. You'll be informed about the deadlines when I hand out the acronyms or post the clue lists. If you know you'll have problems finishing within the deadline, please tell so ahead of time. It's no big deal to grant another day or two or three, but it's annoying when everyone has to wait for a clue and if you're late with your answers I might just go ahead and calculate the scores anyway.
  
• Theme clues: I'll create clues for the theme and hide them among the character clues, at least for the first rounds. If the majority of players dislikes the them clues, I can abolish this change to previous game again.
  

Good luck and much fun to all players!

¹All first and only the first letters count. "Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" would thus be LABSEOR and not LASER, and "A torroidal LHC apparatus" would be ATLA and not ATLAS.

[Dolorous Gabe]

You'll want us all to send you a PM I guess? It'll make it easier.

Subject titled "Acrophilia 4 - <insert board name here>"

[yomi]

The acronyms for the round 1 clues are

BTDSAOO

and

WATO

The deadline is Thursday, 11th december, 7 pm Central European time.

If you need an extension, please ask for one as soon as possible.

I'll be away from the 5th december to the 8th december, so don't expect anwers from me during that time.

[redriver]

Let's go!Gimme letters.Now!

Acute Acrophilia withdrawal syndrome.....

[yomi]

You'll want us all to send you a PM I guess? It'll make it easier.

Subject titled "Acrophilia 4 - <insert board name here>"

I was writing messages while you asked and thus not cheking the thread...

Let's go!Gimme letters.Now!

Acute Acrophilia withdrawal syndrome.....

There are letters above your post...

[redriver]

Bad timing right there. :crying:

[a free shadow]

BTDSAOO

I could use a letter 'h' anywhere in this acronym :laugh:

I am not giving away my chosen acronym, because I have not yet chosen one, if that matters.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

I could have used an "L" or "M' or "G" or you know a bunch of letters that aren't in the acronyms. :lol:

[yomi]

Do you want HLMG as a third acronym in the second round?

[Ser Not Appearing]

Any extra explanation (for those of us who didn't pay attention to the other long thread) on what the theme clue is/means... and I'm assuming we should submit that in addition to final guesses, theme guess and fav clue?

[Lady Blizzardborn]

It probably wouldn't help in the second round. LOL

[yomi]

Any extra explanation (for those of us who didn't pay attention to the other long thread) on what the theme clue is/means... and I'm assuming we should submit that in addition to final guesses, theme guess and fav clue?

Among the character clues a fourteenth clue will be hidden, that doesn't refer to a character but instead hints at the theme. The list, if there were only three players instead of thirteen, could look something like that:

1. Clue for character A

2. Clue for theme 1

3. Clue for character B

4. Clue for character C

To this Player Alpha answers:

1. Character A

2. Character D

3. Character B

4. Character C

Theme: Theme 1

Player Beta answers:

1. Character A

2. This is the theme clue

3. Character B

4. Character C

Theme: Theme 1

Player Gamma answers:

1. Character A

2. This is the theme clue

3. Character B

4. Character C

Theme: Theme 2

Alpha would get 3*3 points for guessing all three characters and 4 points for the theme, Beta would get these 9+4 points and 1 additional point for correctly identifying clue #2 as the theme clue, whereas Gamma would get 9 points for the character guesses and 1 point for identifying the which clue is the theme clue but none for the theme.

[yomi]

It probably wouldn't help in the second round. LOL

That's why I didn't offer it for the first :P

But I don't know... I guess a third acronym might always make things easier...

[a free shadow]

But I don't know... I guess a third acronym might always make things easier...

No no, no easy things :pirate: I was just wondering at how a 'h' at any place of that acronym would have made it a thousand times better for me :ninja:

[Castellan]

I would like an R. In fact, if I gave all the letters back and got an R I reckon I could make it easy for you all to guess. Two R s would seal the deal. Two more would be the icing on the cake. It is a very R-ish being

[yomi]

I would like an R. In fact, if I gave all the letters back and got an R I reckon I could make it easy for you all to guess. Two R s would seal the deal. Two more would be the icing on the cake. It is a very R-ish being

Ah, surely you'll manage to find some R-less description. I believe in you!

Btw, I'm back. Send your clues!

[yomi]

Concerning the use of character names and nicknames

As I stated in the OP the use of character names and nicknames is not allowed.

Obviously that means that clues like "My character is Jon Snow." or "It is the damn Kingslayer!" won't be accepted. Neither would be clues like "Is he Rhaegar's and Lyanna's son?" or "The Imp's older brother".

So far so good. Nobody has tried to sent in a clue like that.

When I wrote that I intended to be strict about names, though, I also meant I wouldn't allow clues like "Common Westerosi boy's name, frozen rain" or "Despite nomination, butchered rabid king, forswearing.". This is a change to the previous game, where a shadow allowed me the use of the last clue, so I should have made my intentions much clearer. I didn't, though, and thus I will accept clues which indirectly use names in round 1.

What shall I do for rounds 2 to 5?

[Ser Not Appearing]

Just to be clear, who do those last two clues refer to and what exactly is the nickname reference?

[yomi]

Just to be clear, who do those last two clues refer to [?]

Still Jon Snow (there are ~20 Jons listed in the wiki, it seems a quiet common first name, and well, I guess there are better descriptions for snow than "frozen rain" but it should be quiet understandable) and Jaime Lannister (he killed King Aerys despite being named Kingsguard).

[...] what exactly is the nickname reference?

I kind of used Aerys' nickname "Mad King", I just replaced mad by a synonym.

[Ser Not Appearing]

I think you should use expert discretion to allow the more creative and novel references while disallowing the rest.