Welcome everyone!

I invite all of you to play (if you are signed up) or watch the 4th iteration of GOG's Forum Game "Secret Hitler". This is the "Herlock Sholmes Edition"

If you are interested in the observer thread, please ask me for it.

ZEOGOLD (aka THE PUZZLEMASTER) has very graciously consented to write the flavor, so please give him a big round of applause and thanks for that!

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FOR PURPOSES OF THIS GAME, "SUPERINTENDENT" IS DEFINED AS FOLLOWS +++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Current State of the Game

Joppo is The Shift Superintendent.
He must nominated a Foreman.

The board Tracker:
The Board for this game and setup.

F: 2
L: 4
Gov Tracker: X X -
L Policies: X X X X -
F Policies: X X - - - -

Policy Deck: 9 cards
Discard Pile: 2 cards

The fog rolls in over the Thames as the chimes of Big Ben toll the hour. Another gloomy morning in London. To the outside observer, the city might seem asleep, but inside of Scotland Yard, there's already a wild buzz of activity. Papers fly off of desks faster than they can be read. Officers hustle about, nearly out of breath. There's a problem.

It was supposed to be so simple. Move from Whitehall Place to the new location on the Victoria Embankment, rename it "The New Scotland Yard" to show everyone how things are modern and updated. Everything was in place, the files all transferred, most of the equipment packed up...everything was fine until the letter.


"Dear Lestrade,

I'm afraid I bear disturbing news. As you know from reports in the papers, recently the Diogenes Club has celebrated the anniversary of its founding. Many men of the political sphere, both bright and powerful, attend this cherished establishment. What the papers have neglected to report is that during the festivities, a fight broke out between three of the attendees, all high-ranking members of Parliament. Needless to say, this has been hushed for the sake of their reputations, but it was let slip within my hearing range that the fight had something to do with the presence of a certain Colonel Moran existing within the ranks of the Yard under a pseudonym. I believe you'd had experience with this scoundrel before, and I have no doubt that if the rumor is true, the nefarious Professor Moriarty certainly can't be far behind.

I would love to aid you, but I do so dread fieldwork. I have contacted my brother, Herlock, who shall be arriving soon from his vacation in Switzerland, with his aide Wilson. He should be more than capable of helping you investigate this matter before the move to the New Yard. I have my own theories of course, but I would prefer to first give Herlock and your esteemed colleagues their due.

Regards,
Yourcroft Sholmes"


Lestrade has a haggard, sleepless look in his eyes and he rests his head in his hands at the front of the meeting room table. Nobody at the Yard has gotten much sleep in the past few days; they've been working 'round the clock to figure out where Moriarty is. So far, after eliminating everyone with impeccable, verifiable records, they've got it narrowed down to 10 suspects. The net isn't nearly tight enough, but surely-
The door opens. They're early.

Doffing his top hat, the regal Lord Maxwell A. Leodtner enters. After hanging his cane upon his arm, he pulls the nearest seat to Lestrade away from the table and prepares to sit.
"STOP!" screams the energetic Dr. Joppo, leaping in with his long scarf trailing behind him. "Those seats are reserved!"
J. C. "Dr. Cadaver" Meeks, wondering what all this fuss is about, carefully pulls away a seat and inspects it. After squinting for a few moments, he gently picks up a small, colorful object.
"I say, what is this?"
Inspector G. R. Gregson peeks over his shoulder.
"If I didn't know any better, good Doctor, I'd say that were a jelly ba-"
"It's a GUMMI BEAR!" interrupts Joppo. "There's one on every seat, and you must handle them ever so gently, lest-"
He lets out a strangled cry of horror as he sees the rough "Pooky" Johnson grunt and plop himself down into a seat, uncaring of whatever jelly may have been there before him.
"You...you fiend!" cries Joppo.
As the drama reaches its height, Inspector Dedo Pike pops his head in, a wide grin on his face.
"I say fellows, what's all the fuss? I've been here nary a few moments and already this sounds like some positively juicy drama!"
"We heff no time for drama. Only time for business!" retorts the stout Zenedict F. Rumbatchoulous, rudely bumping Inspector Pike out of the way. Pike pouts and quietly settles himself into a seat, though still keeping an interested eye on the developing gummi bear situation.
Lieutenant Rasil Bathbone enters next, fashionably early. "Gents, are we ready to get down to business? This seems a dreadful matter and we'd best resolve it now."
"Not yet!" says a voice from the doorway. It's the artist Scené du Paget, carefully drawing the proceedings for posterity. "Hold still for a brief moment while I sketch your outlines, everyone!"
"We haven't time for that, my good man!" speaks Captain Joe "Sapphire" Wiggins from behind him. "Time is of the essence!"
A few moments later, everyone is quietly settled into their seats, the tension of the air only broken by the occasional chewing of gummi bears.

"But where the devil is Sholmes?" asks Lord Leodtner, at last fed up with the wait.
As if on cue, in enters a disheveled man, stooped over close to the ground with a magnifying glass held up close to each eye. His long tweed coat drags on the ground and his deerstalker cap sits at an odd angle. Following directly behind him is his companion, a nondescript young man in a fine suit and bowler hat, yet with a strange green and red flannel shirt underneath. In spite of having seemingly no reliable way of knowing where he's going, the man in the tweed coat makes his way around the table twice, carefully examining the walls, the floor, the table, the plant in the corner, the wastepaper basket, and the socks of each person before at last bolting upright and proclaiming "AHA! I've figured it out!"
"What is it?!" cries his friend in the bowler hat.
"We really are lost!"
"Lost? This is Scotland Yard!" says Inspector Gregson.
"We're no longer lost!"
"I say," says Lestrade, "Sholmes, is that you?"
"Huh? Me?" replies the man, tucking his magnifying glasses into his pockets as he wipes crumbs off of his jacket.
"Sholmes? Herlock Sholmes?"
"What? Zeolmes? Uh, yeah, I guess so. Must be a regional variation or something."
"And this must be Wilson!"
"Is that his name? I always did figure the fish thing was probably a gimmick. You were expecting us?"
"You're quite early!"
"Oh. Yeah, well, the time transportation mechanism is pretty quick! Just ends up in weird places sometimes is all. Zipped us around all over the place, bounced around from Greece to Germany to Switzerland, accidentally knocked over this carriage with a couple of dudes in it straight into a waterfall, then we ended up here."
"Don't worry about the men, we saved their suitcases with their clothes inside to keep their belongings safe for when they recover!" chimes in Wilson.
"Yup. Weird hats those dudes have got. Anyways, here we are! What's the buzz all about?"

After having the situation explained to him, Sholmes scratches his hat thoughtfully.
"So there's a Moleiarty, huh? I mean, a mole. Like, with Moriarty involved. And Molan - er, Moran."
"Yes, we believe so," replies Lestrade.
"Say, Wilson. Don't you remember that grubby kid who sidled his way out of the alley and whispered something about Moriarty to us, calling himself an 'irregular with a hint for the great detective'? He said something about a tip on there being four people, wasn't it?"
"FOUR?!" roars Lestrade.
Wilson nods. "I remember something like that."
"When's the move to the new location, anyhow?" asks Sholmes."
"Tomorrow!" groans Lestrade. "Why do you think we're in such a panic? We haven't even finished making all of the executive decisions! And now you tell me there are FOUR moles!"
"TOMORROW?! Good gracious, Wilson! We don't have time for this! If there's a whole dang gang running the Yard, we've gotta get this settled now! And I know just the way to do it!"
Everyone in the room looks at Sholmes in confusion.
"We start making decisions now! After all, the gang surely wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make chaos while they can, right? Saves on time and London's budget! Bring in some documents and let's get to work!"
"The game's afoot!" cries Wilson.
"Don't you upstage me," says Sholmes.

THE RULES:

Read the Secret Hitler rulebook for the game's relevant rules.
The Gogfather's Rules apply:
1. Cryptoclaiming is forbidden.
2. Betting among players is forbidden.
3. Real-life issues take priority over the game, but abuse of this rule is forbidden.
(You can read them in full detail here.)

My rules:
4. - Play polite, play civilized, be nice.
- The goal of this game is for everyone to have fun, not to make other players feel genuinely bad IRL. If you get any hint that the other player is becoming uncomfortable, even if you see it as "only teasing," stop that vein of conversation.
- Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment that we might not fully mean, or might regret later. Sometimes we are misunderstood. Sometimes we can think someone will take something one way, and they receive it differently. If somebody appears upset by something you have written, take an actively caring approach.
- Being deliberately nasty should never be a game tactic, and if anybody playing this game thinks that it is a good idea, change your mind now, because I'm not going to be putting up with it.
- If you have to make a choice between being correct, and being kind, choose kind.
5. All players should post at least once every 36 hours. If you expect to be away for more than 36 hours (as per Rule 3.), please let Microfish_1 know either through PM or in the game thread.
5b. This has been changed from 36 hours to 48 hours, because that is easier to see on this forum. I still prefer the players to post at least every 36 hours, but 48 hours in the new rule.
6. Either set your chat privacy settings to allow messages from guests or add me as a friend so that I can send you PMs.
7. When you vote on a government, PM your vote to me in secret. You can change this vote anytime for as many times as you like until everyone has voted. When everyone has voted, the votes will be revealed in public.
8. When you're in government (i.e. successfully voted for president and chancellor combo), your actions also take place in PMs. You will be shown what cards you drew or were given and will be expected to choose which to discard or pass. You may NOT post in the thread. You may post again after you're out of government.
9. When you nominate a player as Chancellor, you cannot change the nomination. Please nominate publicly and in bold. The same goes for investigations, special presidencies and evictions.
10. Never edit your posts. If you must, let me know in advance what you plan to change, and I may accept or reject it. Learn to love typing errors and ambiguous grammar! ALSO Do not post multiple times without leaving a break of 10 (or 11) minutes between posts.
11. When you're ejected, you can no longer post in the thread. A single "bah" post is OK, but any more than that will make me angry. You don't want to see me when I am angry.
12. Everything within the game should happen on this page or in messages to the moderator Please do not talk about the game outside of this thread..
13. Do not quote any part of your PM.
14. Observers interested in commentating on the game should let me know in PM.
15. Please bold any requests or questions to the moderator.
16. Microfish_1 Moderates this game. Contact him with game actions, queries, suggestion, praise, enthusiasm, corrections, et cetera. Depending on how severely you break the rules, you will - at my discretion - either be prodded, warned or replaced.

Credits:
- Zeogold has graciously consented to write the flavor and has been a tremendous help with setup and bouncing ideas off his head. Contact him with praise, enthusiasm, corrections, et cetera.
- Pooka wrote the python script that rules this game. Official Thanks to him for it. he has also tremendously helped with my pre-game setup questions!
- Pooka & JoeSapphire for the original version of the rules (I modified them ever so slightly so that PMs to the mod go to me, not Joe or Pooka, etc. :D )

NOTE: for flavor in this version, "President" = Superintendent (of the Yard)
Chancellor= Foreman
This position rotates among the players every "shift".

Players on the Liberal team win if either:
• Five Liberal Policies are enacted.
OR
• Hitler/Moriarty is evicted.
Players on the Fascist team win if either:
• Six Fascist Policies are enacted.
OR
• Hitler/Moriarty is elected Chancellor(Supervisor) any time after the third Fascist Policy has been enacted.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

State of Game Post
Check Post #1 for the current state of the Game.

The Seating (randomized):

01. Joppo
02. Dedoporno
03. Pooka
04. ZFR
05. Maxleod
06. JoeSapphire
07. Supplement Scene
08. Cadaver (his chair says "13", but it's in position #8.)
09. Lifthrasil
10. GR

GAME LOG POST

Phase 1
Joppo is Selected as Superintendent.
Joppo Nominates Maxleod as Foreman
Voting Begins.
They were voted in (Post 160). Scene was the only dissenter. They passed a F. Joppo must now investigate a player.
Joppo investigates Dedoporno; He claims the results were ____

Phase 2: Dedo is now Super & must nominate a Foreman.
Dedo Nominates ZFR as Foreman.
They were voted in unanimously. (Post 352)

Phase 3: Pooka is Super, nominates Joe as Foreman, voting begins.
They were elected (Post 515) in a 6-to-4 decision.
They passed an L

Phase 4, ZFR is Super; nominates Dedo as Foreman
They were elected in a 9:1 decision (post 579).
They passed an L.

Phase 5 Max is Super, nominated Scene as Foreman.
The Gov failed with only Max and GR voting yes (post 654).

Phase 6, Joe picks Scene, the gov fails 5:5 (Post 786)

Phase 7, Scene picks Joe, the gov passes, with Cadaver the only dissenter. (Post 829)
They passed an L.

Phase 8. Cadaver picks GR, the gov passes 7-3 (Post 911)
They passed F, Cadaver investigates Joppo and declares him Lib

Phase 9. LiftToothGamer picks ZFR, and the gov fails in a 6-4 decision (Post 1064)

Phase 10. GR is Super and picks JoeSapphire as Foreman. The gov fails (Post 1093).

The board Tracker:

F: 2
L: 4
Gov Tracker: X X -
Policy Deck: 9 cards
Discard Pile: 2 cards

YOU MAY NOW POST


THE GAME HAS BEGUN

Alright gentlemen, we have to begin our search for the wicked professor and his crones and we cannot just dilly dally about. The move is tomorrow and time is of the essence. However, I also think we should not be hasty in our decisions. We risk too much if we act without thinking. So before I make a nomination I want to know who has a good reason why they should be my chancellor. Please, do speak away. I really misread this at first. Glad to see the position isn't so ... unpleasant as it appeared.

Joppo do you know about Supplementscene's Standard-Supervisor-Selection-Sprocedure and how that the traditional way to begin a game is with a big discussion about whether we should be following a pattern or everybody just doing what they feel like?

I THINK the advice is nominate your next-after-next-in-line and if you pass an F then both of you get locked out and if you pass and L then skip next-in-line to your supervisor and they nominate you and then you pass L again is the basic idea except that's maybe not right.

I could go look at the last game but I've just drawn a picture without a mouse and written all this and now I sleep. Toodleoo.

Yeah, um, not the Janitor, no. The Shift Number 1 Guy is what i meant.

Upon finding out that in some places Superintendents aren't above Supervisors,
I have changed the Chancellor flavor name to be "Foreman"

What so now it's 'Fupplementfcene's Favoured Foreman Focus Function'?

Make those Germanic/Olde English F/S's ("ſ" (from wiki)) and maybe?

Ah, you did! Carry on, then!

(changed fcene's ftrategy in the quote for you already)

I think I vaguely remember that there was something of the sort in the past, yes. But I want to see arguments being presented anyway. Are you trying to stifle discussion? Is Pooka your fascist buddy? Am I being too paranoid already?

Game is on then.

And there is a massive OP that I need to read but I don't feel the urge to do so right now as I just defeated the Nameless King without any summons on my first playthrough of Dark Souls 3. Anything else that happens this evening would pale in comparison so why bother? My wife is winking me from the bedroom but as I said EVERYTHINIG WOULD PALE SO WHY BOTHER!!!

I read none of your non-sense. F*ck you and I'll see you tomorrow.

We already clarified in pre-game that we don't want any meta-play here. Meta is boring and makes the game not worth playing (because you leave the playing to an algorithm. So why bother?)


@joppo: it's the first round, so basically everyone but dedo is an OK nomination. Nominating dedo would put him in a power play position, because he will be President next. So that would be a bad nomination. Of course I would prefer to be nominated, but so would probably everyone else.

To be fair, Joe wasn't around when we discussed and rejected the Meta play so I understand him coming up now thinking it was still considered a possible strategy.

Agreed, I have a few preferences for my first nomination which I want to keep hidden for now but I think it won't hurt to see people speaking up.

Reporting in. Liberal. Don't see there is much to discuss till government is chosen.