The Traitor Game: Questions and Discussion Thread

[Joe Acro]

Welcome to the Traitor Game: Questions and Discussion Thread!

For several months, the Community Forum has hosted a series of Traitor Games, role-playing games involving mostly fictional characters. With each new game, it grows, pulling in new people, new characters, and new ideas.

This is where you can find out more about the game, including details, character history, roles, future ideas, and more.

In review, if you have any questions about the Traitor Game, ask them here and if you have any commentary, ideas, or relevant information regarding the game.

However, I warn that this should not turn into a chat thread. CBR has enough of them already.

FAQ:

How do I sign up? Simply check out this thread for details.

How does the game work?

What are NPCs?

What characters have been played? As sorted by game

Where can I learn more about characters that have been played? Post 1; Post 2

How do you go about choosing a player and deciding which "role" (Agent, Traitor, etc.) you want to play?

Do I have to change my avatar when I play?

Why do people include prologues? Do I have to? Are there multiple storylines going on in one game? If so, how do you decide which to participate in?

What do you vote on?

What's the story behind Batman constantly dying? The Many Deaths of Batman

What was the Traitor Game Award Show?

Where do I go to review past games?

What are some future game ideas?

FAQ to be updated regularly.

Bonus! Games at a glance:

[TheLazy]

What's the history so far and how do i start?

[Joe Acro]

What's the history so far and how do i start?

I'll provide the history in a little bit, but for now, I can tell you that if you want to start playing, simply sign-up and choose a character over in the current Sign-Up Thread.

[Superheroic]

There is a new Traitor Game Sign-Up thread up now. A new game will start in about a week. You can check my sig for links to Traitor Game IV - X plus the TGXI sign-up thread, which I am running.

I missed out on TGI and TGII but reading TGIII made me want to play. Traitor Games are a mix of Survivor/Role-playing/Guessing Game. Each game seems to have gotten grander in scope but the rules are mostly the same; Banish the Traitors before the kill you.

[Joe Acro]

HOW TO PLAY
1) The Traitor Game cannot exist without players. When a game is set to begin, there must first be a Sign-Up Thread. In it, all prospective players post to express interest and choose what character they want to role play as. Some games want characters to fit to a specified theme, so be sure to read carefully before making a character selection.

Unless otherwise stated in the Sign-Up Thread, characters can come from any media, any genre, or even real life.

2) The game thread proper is created, normally with a clever title. "The Traitor Game: Massacre on the Doorstep!" (Not a real title.) There, the rules for the game are reiterated and the characters are gathered.

3) Soon, the Traitor(s) strike(s), killing off one character. Frequently, the first kill is some character that was controlled by the host of the game (commonly referred to as a First Kill NPC). This is done to allow those who signed up more time to play the game. The banished and dead can usually interact with those still alive through means defined in-game.

4) Within the voting phase, the Agent(s) send(s) in their guess for that round.

5) Rinse and repeat steps 2-5 until the Traitor(s) is/are found or all other characters end up dead.

ROLES
Roles are assigned by the host after the Sign-Up Thread is closed, but before the first kill.

Main roles:
Traitor--A character working to kill off members of the larger group. When more than one Traitor is included, each one works with the other to determine who dies and by what means.

Agent--A person in this role is allowed one guess per round to determine who is a Traitor. This is done by PMing the host of the current game. The results of their guess (whether they guessed correctly or not) are revealed in-thread. If a game has more than one Agent, the Agents act as a team. They confer on the guess and submit that guess to the host.

Vigilante--A force for the side of Good, the person in this role works to kill who they think is a Traitor. Every few rounds, the person in this role kills instead of the Traitor(s).

Breaker--Sometimes, this role is assigned so that if there is a tie during the voting rounds, this person will get an extra vote to break the tie.

Inquisitor--This role has existed since the third game. A non-player appears and has the players he or she suspects plead their innocence.

Censor/Secret Role--Only used twice, this role allowed the person assigned this role the ability to quiet or neutralize one vote.

Note: The names provided are the "base" names. For each individual game, they may be given a different name that better suits the theme, setting, etc.

GUIDELINES
NPCs--Non-player characters (or NPCs) should be limited. An NPC is any character included in the game that is not on the list of players. There are plenty of characters with which to interact, so NPCs aren't really needed for that purpose. NPCs can also be disruptive, depending on what they do. If you want to use an NPC, make sure it's for a good purpose. If you're unsure whether or not to use one, PM the game's host.

God-Moding--No god-moding. Can the host really enforce that? Not really. But people will complain and you might be held in contempt. It is definitely not recommended to go against this guideline.

Communication--If you suspect you know the identities of Traitors or Agents, do not contact them privately for any reason. If you are an Agent, please do not reveal classified information after death. In general, anyone can talk to other anyone else for purposes of coordinating stories or story elements or even to discuss the game.

Quoting--Some people have complained in the past regarding people quoting whole posts when responded to just a portion of it. It unnecessarily clutters up the page and sometimes makes it difficult to follow your train of thought.

[Joe Acro]

It's time to vote for the order of the next Traitor Games! In the thread for the tenth game, various players, including myself, submitted ideas for future games. I have provided the summaries from the original posts below. Please vote for your two favorites. The one with the most votes will become Traitor Game XII. The rest will be Traitor Games in the order they finish (second being XIII, third being XIV, and so on). For those of you who submitted an idea, please do not vote for yourself.

Traitor Game: Legion

Deep in the bowels (ew!) of the Batcave, Bruce is sitting brooding about being constantly killed in these various 'games.' He's been studying and making notes each time before his memories of the events fade and has been storing them on his Bat-puter. The deaths are also starting to make poor Batman go a little unhinged at times. He's jittery, nervous, and more paranoid than ever.

He's slowly been gathering... allies... to assist in enacting a plan to eliminate these sick and twisted games once and for all-- unfortunately for him one of his 'allies' is doing their best to stop Bruce's plans.

This game has a bit of a twist where the players not only do the usual voting for traitors among their own ranks, but they would also vote for who they think the traitor in Batman's Legion is. Those that guess correctly will get to play a role in the final battle-- regardless of whether or not they had a role in the game already.

Also, there'd be the traditional big battle about midway through the game, but there'd also be 'boss battles' where small randomly selected groups will each face a boss for a round. The bosses are selected by a member of the Legion. If the boss is beaten (which they will be, unless the players don't respond), then the Legion member who chose them must truthfully answer one question. This will hopefully aid the players in guessing the traitor in Batman's ranks.

The settings may change as well for the boss battles and such, but the main setting will be the Batcave. I'm keeping the members somewhat secret, although a few people know most/all of them already. I think I settled on 7 members.

Who Succeeds At the End of Time?

At the end of time resides a powerful entity. He has taken on multiple personas. He shown great power. He has appeared to die. However, the enigmatic, cloaked figure will soon meet his end. The Time Trapper is dying.

Someone is needed to fill his role in the universe. Someone is needed to carry on his work.

Inspired by events he's seen elsewhere, The Time Trapper will gather various worthy beings from across universes at the end of time. He will seal his fortress so that his Traitor Game will remain uninterrupted. Through various means, he will make it so that no one save those involved learn of his Traitor Game.

The winner of the game will become his heir. If there are multiple winners, they will choose amongst themselves. There will be Traitors who kill and Agents who guess the identities of those Traitors. There are innocents with no special role. The game if filled with peril. Who succeeds at the end of time?

The Traitor Game: It's Good To Be Bad!

Premise: In an alternate version of the Marvel Universe, Nick Fury: Director of SHIELD has proposed a new initiative to not only his universe, but in other universes as well.

In conjuction with other directors of metahuman related affairs, Fury has decided that there was a need to "condense" the rogue population of the multiverse. In doing so, he had an experiment in mind. In this experiment, he will gather numerous villains from across the multiverse and place them all in a version of the Raft.

At first, the villains will think that they are being temporarily placed in the Raft until they are reassigned to a permanent location. But soon, one from their number is killed by a mysterious assailant. It is then revealed by Fury that there are people among them who have decided to work for him. Code-named the Thunderbolts, the 3 are responsible for eliminating everyone in the Raft. By doing so, they will be given a full pardon, 23 million dollars (and 65 cents), and a new identity.

However, Fury is a fair man. If the rest of the group can find the Thunderbolts, then they will all be given a full pardon. There will also be 2 people working on their side. Code-named Task Force X, they must find the Thunderbolts without revealing their identities. There is also one among the group who wants to eliminate the Thunderbolts by any means necessary. Code-named the Assassin, this person will kill if need be to gain his/her pardon.

So basically, this is a villain-themed game. Any villain from any genre can be chosen. The only thing I would ask is that in your prologue, explain how you are arrested.

Roles:
The Thunderbolts (The Traitors)
Task Force X (The Agents)
The Assassin (The Vigilante)

Capitalizing on New Avengers #31, I give you this....

The Traitor Game: It’s Skrull-tastic!

It all started with a stunning revelation….



The heroes of this earth had a BIG Skrull infestation. This small scene soon escalated into what many called “Skrull Hunts”. Not since the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Hunts had mistrust and deception been at an all time high. The Superhuman Civil War asked the question “Who’s Side Are You On”. This asked “Who Can You Trust?” Eventually, the Skrull invasion on Earth was on. The splintered heroes put aside their differences and joined together in the Skrull War. In the end, the Earth was saved. Most of the Skrulls were purged out of the Earth. The few who remained went into hiding.

However, a bigger problem was found. Back at the helm of SHIELD, Nick Fury (him again?) found another startling revelation after questioning a skrull impersonating the Avengers’ butler, Jarvis (who’d a thunk it?). The skrull revealed that many of the skrulls have crossed numerous dimensions and have inhabitated other earths posing as other people.

After extensive research, Fury and his team gathered candidates from multiple dimensions who were likely skrulls. Forced against his will, Skrull-Jarvis revealed that among the candidates, the 3 commanders, code-named the Skrull Kill Krew were among them. If the 3 commanders were to be eliminated, then it will lead to full-on Skrull retreat.

Roles:
Skrull Kill Krew (The Traitors)
Agents of SHIELD (The Agents)
The Skrullinator (The Vigilante – It’s cheezy I know. :p)

No limits on what character to choose here. However, it would be cool if you pick someone with a shaky or convoluted history which may explain why that person could be a skrull. But that’s optional.

Traitor Game n: Custom Made For Calamity

...oh ye Gods that was a cheesy title. Ahem. Right, so. Narrative passive voice is go. Check this wicked schweet tagline by Don LaFontaine:

In a world, where comic fans sit at their internets and pretend to be characters...

...not that there's anything wrong with that...

...comes an adventure of creativity...

...beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest imagination...

...no, BigBoi, this isn't Transformers: The Movie...

it's Traitor Game n: Custom Made For Calamity!

Using brand new Superheroic-ally designed Plop technology, custom characters brought to life by users are entertaining the fancy of none other than...

THE PENCIL OF CHUCK JONES!

That's right kids, the very prize of this Traitor Game is none other than the silent host itself! Anything can happen in this crazy game!

A lot of the plop scenario will borrow from Superheroic's awarding policy. Rules are standard, otherwise. Traitors are the Erasers, SHIELD Agents are the Inks, the Vigilante is the White-Out, the Breaker is the Blue Pencil. Only custom characters allowed, as stated above; any genre applies, no omnipotents or omniscience, but toons and toon-forcers are OK.

More to come about this as I think of it...

[Joe Acro]

And the rest...

The Traitor Game: We Apologize for the Inconvenience…

“Denizens of the Multiverse! I am the Sorceress of the castle Greyskull. I have been empowered to pull from all of time and space a group worthy to fight for Eternia. I even was having Greyskull renovated. I was thinking of pastels for my color scheme.

“Then tragedy struck. King Hsss attacked my home and poisoned me. Sadly I am in no condition to play host. So I sought a suitable replacement. I turned to Galactus. But he was otherwise occupied with an Annihilation event. Next I turned to the First Ones. I figured space angels and demons would love to play manipulator. But they had already left the galaxy. And so it went until I found someone almost competent, I mean almost as competent as I am to play host. So with out further delay, I hand you to your host Dr. Byron Orpheus.”

“Yes! It is I, Dr. Byron Orpheus,”

“I already introduced you.”

“Master Necromancer who welcomes you to my domicile to participate in a game of arcane magic, mystery and murder!”

“Would you cut out the alliteration?”

“Forces unnatural threaten to tear the multiverse asunder unless the forces of righteousness prevail! This cosmic conflagration will be between light and dark, creation and destruction...”

“Can you get to the point?”

“All right! It will be fought between the Order of the Tirade and the… Bad guys!”

“Bad guys?”

“Hey! It was all I could think up in the five minutes of prep time you gave me. The Order will have two forces with in it working together. The Good Guys will vote for who they believe is a Bad Guy and the Other Guy will strike down any who he deems suspicious.”

Okay, so the basic idea is that it is a slapped together in five minutes traitor game. Don’t be fooled by that as I already put in a lot of planning and have several battles in mind. Dr. Orpheus will have a surprise counter part who is intent upon invading Eternia from a different dimension. That person will be behind the Bad Guys.

Traitor Game: It’s Not TV, It’s Mojovision


Plot: Mojo has finally won the right to host a Traitor Game just in time for the annual Upfronts, when he presents the coming season’s new and returning programs to the press, advertisers and investors.

If Mojo’s Marauders (The Traitors) win, the Traitor Game franchise is his, lock, stock & barrel (or so he’s been promised). He intends to win too, because the Traitor Game is at the heart of his new programming strategy.

In addition to being a pilot for a potential Traitor Game ongoing series (He’s televised the last couple of Traitor Games, but as unauthorized and unofficial pirate broadcasts.) the game will feature the introduction of Mojo’s other new programs in the form of competitions and battle exercises amongst the players.

Also, the Organization is out to destroy Mojo. This will become a major factor in final stages of the game.

[Joe Acro]

Of course the poll ends up with a typo...

[darkkeeperjr]

I refuse to vote because I think all game host wanna bes should get a turn. I'm planning on playing any game that gets thrown up on the wall and sticks anyway. Also because they all sound good, I think we just need to decided in what order each game will be played.

May be we should have a poll and ............

NEVER MIND.

[Deadpooligan]

Y'know, a lot of us made the mistake of voting thrice instead of twice. Maybe we should just leave it as "Vote for your favorite games, up to three".

[Tommy]

Whoops! I accidentaly hit the submit button while I was still determining who to vote for.

[Joe Acro]

I refuse to vote because I think all game host wanna bes should get a turn. I'm planning on playing any game that gets thrown up on the wall and sticks anyway. Also because they all sound good, I think we just need to decided in what order each game will be played.

May be we should have a poll and ............

NEVER MIND.

Funny. Vote anyway.

It does seem that many voted more than twice. I was just going to PM those who over-voted and ask them to clarify (like I've done with Deadpooligan and tangentman). But, I could just ask as easily allow those who have fewer votes to choose a third one, either via PM or posting in this thread.

Which one sounds better?

(Either way, Tommy, you'll have to retract at least one of your votes.)

[Indigo Al]

Did we forget Chris Lang's Pirates scenario?

[Joe Acro]

Did we forget Chris Lang's Pirates scenario?

I excluded it from voting because Chris himself said that it might be subject to major revision. I PMd him about it after-the-fact and he agrees that it should be excluded, saying:

...since the scenario's not so clear and subject to change, I don't know just when or if it'll be run. So it's best that it be left off the polls for now.

[Tommy]

(Either way, Tommy, you'll have to retract at least one of your votes.)

Grrrr.... I ment to vote for Donald M.'s and The Purple Skull's Bad Guy scenario.