"Julius, what would you like to eat?" asked the cook.

"Steak, sausages, and a couple of strips of bacon, please," replied Julius after some deliberation. Some of the others who had chosen light salads looked at him with looks of surprise. He turned to them. "Well, we're going up to the Moon and we could die up there. Best eat well now." The rest quickly changed their own choices to the same.

It was almost time for the 11 member crew. Soon, they would be going up to the Moon. Everything was perfect.

Their goal was simple: Establish a base of operations on the far side of the Moon. It would be the first American base there; the Chinese had already built their own. Space was quickly becoming the scene of a new Cold War, fought not with nuclear accumulation, but by the colonization of that last frontier.

And, like with any frontier, there were those opposed to human colonization there.

But this was not on the minds of the astronauts. They had been training for months for this mission. It was their time now. In a few hours, they would be walking past the crowds, up the gantry, and into the Orion capsule.

It was more of a scouting mission. They would stay their with their supplies, which had already arrived beforehand, for 3 months until another ship was sent to bring them back home and replace them. It would be the start of a second base after the original Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost.

And then, there were those fundamentally opposed to this. Some said that the same science could be done with robot sentries and explorers for far less money. But that wasn't entirely true. The goal was to build a base. A self sustaining one. And besides, how do you plan to solve overpopulation by staying on Earth, not to mention the problem with putting all your eggs in one basket? Some people just didn't think it through.

Because despite the monetary requirements, a self sustaining base would be cheap and a resource for future trips to Mars. The planned mission to Mars was in 2037. A lunar base would be essential. And the Neil A. Armstrong Outpost had already proved itself more than sustainable and indispensable to the scientific community. Most of the dissenters now realized the importance of space.

Space travel was the future. Humanity would eventually have to leave its home planet or go extinct. The Earth could not sustain civilization for forever, if even for a couple thousand years more. Civilization had existed between a very narrow climate range, and the climate never stays the same. Whether humans speed it up or not, the climate will always change - it was only a matter of how fast. And the climate was now changing faster than ever.

So humanity would have to move out anyway. It was a question of when. And now was the time. Whatever the dissenters said. If they wanted to go extinct, let them. Humanity's survival was on the line, and it wasn't a very hard choice.

But they were ready to go and go they would. With the discovery of traces of water on the far side near the northern pole, it was hoped that this would be America's second base of operations, and the beginnings of the first Lunar space port. It was also hoped to be the second Lunar city, after the slightly more profitable at that point Armstrong Outpost. People always loved to see the Home Planet.

A few hours later, it was time. "All systems go," heard the Flight Captain. The button was pushed. They were on their way up to the stars.

---

Three days passed. The 11 of them were cooped up in the Altair lander, but not for too long. The mission was largely uneventful, except for a surprise spacewalk that popped up to repair a slight nick on the side of the Altair that had occurred during liftoff. The landing approached. Quickly, contact with Earth was lost, and they were left alone. Almost. Contact with the Armstrong Outpost had been established, and it was now their gateway to Earth. All was good.

The landing sight was ahead. Suddenly, Banned noticed something out the window.

"Why is the shielding on fire?"

The commotion was... not really that unexpected. "SHIT!" shouted Julius, as he noted the giant hill ahead of them. The craft was shaking, and was now harder than ever to control. The captain held on tight, motioning to Julius to get the wheels released. Julius pressed the button and, luckily enough, the burning rubber could be smelt. The wheels had burnt while being tucked inside the spaceship. Damn fuel.

"WE'RE KICKING UP DUST!" shouted Rot, looking out the Window, evoking the first words by Armstrong. They buckled down. The moment of truth had come.

They sent one final message to the Armstrong Outpost: "Hope for us."

It is Night 0.
Please send all actions to ash.win.13@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by Arvedui (edited 05-13-2009 @ 05:55 PM).]

What was the point of making me do the writeup, and especially trading it for a longer one?

The write ups in this game will be epic, quite like corporations mafia. Make me a replacement please.

What was the point of making me do the writeup, and especially trading it for a longer one?

I expected something more like the ones in Cuckoo's Nest or Hamlet. I was disappointed.

The write ups in this game will be epic, quite like corporations mafia. Make me a replacement please.

Done!

The beeping continued, incessant.

There were multiple flashes of red in the cabin as the Altair conveyed its messages to the crew.

Rot, obviously shaken by the events, unbuckled himself carefully and looked around. Everyone seemed fine. The others began doing the same.

"How's the O₂?" asked Jax to no one in particular. Rot looked at the gauges in front of him. They were still working.

"Gauges seem fine, we seemed to have suffered little damage to our engine and fuel. O₂ is constant. We can take off our helmets, gentlemen." He unbuckled his own and watched wistfully as it started to float off. Soon, the cabin was filled with helmets.

"Look outside..." whispered The Best Guest. Rot went over to the closest window and looked at the damaged Lunar Surface Access Module. One of the panels had been torn off completely, and they were leaking something into space.

"SHIT!" shouted FoO, as he looked at the fuel gauge. "Hydrogen is dropping, fast, in Engine 3. Engine 4 is reporting very low liquid oxygen reserves, and the radio up link with Base is damaged!"

The commotion was huge. Each of them went their separate ways, checking on the different parts of the damaged lander, and Julius went off to do his calculations of the amount of fuel left over. They had only Engine 2 and 1 left intact and ready to use. The Hydrogen in Engine 3 was almost depleted. At least they had been standing upright instead of on their side. Drinian grabbed the radio.

"This Altair to Base, repeat, this Altair to Base, do you read?" The cabin fell quiet as they waited anxiously for a reply. None came. "Repeat, this is Altair Lander to Armstrong Base, do you read me?" A garbled voice came through.

"Th- ead- eceived a d- gnal- Confi- ing wro-" Drinian grinned as he struggled to understand.

"Transmission is garbled, I repeat, transmission is garbled. Can you hear me loud and clear?"

"Y- r you lou- ear, Al-"

"Base, we've had a problem. We have been forced to crash land 16 klicks from landing site 2-A98, I repeat, we are 16 klicks from 2-A98. We are venting something into space. Our liquid hydrogen in E-3 is negative, I repeat, it is negative, and LOX reserves in E-4 are almost depleted. Do you read?"

"We r- ou- ust- ve to s- 98. *static*" The transmission cut out.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Drinian in anger. "Did anyone get the last message?" No one came forward.

"Let's worry about the radio later and focus on our air supplies. As you say, we're 16 klicks away from our resources and the landing base. Is it possible to use the LRVs to get there?" asked Jax.

"We only have three, and each will take in 4 of us for a total of 3 days of oxygen. The journey will probably be 5 since we have no bearing," replied Julius.

"And here? How much oxygen do we have left?" asked Banned.

"Enough to survive for eight days. After that, the generators stop working without power from the CM," said Pit, looking at the gauges and flipping through the screens in the glass cockpit.

"I want to perform a lunar excursion today in order to assess the damage, and also see if we can fix the antenna to get in contact with Base," said Blatant.

"An excursion? Without express permission from Base..." started Rot, before Blatant interrupted him.

"Rather break rules than sit here and die," he said.

The others fell silent. Blatant was right. They had limited oxygen reserves and they had to perform an excursion and then try to get to the base landing. There was no other choice.

"I agree with Blatant," said Rot.

Yet there was still one more thing, unmentioned by anyone, yet all were thinking it. It was obvious, based on what started happening right before the crash, that this wasn't in any way whatsoever an accident.

No one is dead.
It is Day 1.

[This message has been edited by Arvedui (edited 06-01-2009 @ 06:38 PM).]

Luckily nobody died. Well better get the day started.

Vote: Jax
Because he talks to himself

Interesting. A writeup that gives no clues and doesn't mention failed attempts. This is more up my street.

I'm going to Random Vote: Rot. Purely on the basis that I know he likes to bump me off on Night 0, the Doc may have chosen to protect me, and no kill was made last night.

Hopefully the damn air mechanic won't screw with our voting too much. The least we can all be on at the moment is 80%, so that shouldn't be too much trouble. However, I recommend that people without the most important night actions choose to refill on air tonight. Otherwise you'll be at 40% tomorrow, and that could be a problem.

Anyone with less than 60% air would probably be best off not voting at all, unless circumstances absolutely require it. The last thing the town needs is lynches being made randomly.

The last thing the town needs is lynches being made randomly.

Just remember two things. One, I will not let an accidental lynch occur, I promise you. Second, only those who made a night action lost air.

[This message has been edited by Arvedui (edited 05-16-2009 @ 05:48 PM).]

Vote Count:

Rot: 1 (Julius)
Jax: 1 (Dudis)

7 to lynch.

Quoted from Julius999:

Purely on the basis that I know he likes to bump me off on Night 0, the Doc may have chosen to protect me, and no kill was made last night.

Phaw. This claim is inherently flawed, firstly because I've yet to attempt to kill you in a mafia as scum (Memento doesn't count, since it was an indirect method, not guaranteed, and I was town). Second, we assume that there was some sort of attempt on you, a one in twelve chance. Frankly, I could probably make more headway arguing that the failed attempt was against myself or FoO, or that a kill against you whoever it was who vowed to kill you on Night 0 to prevent month long debates (can't remember if that was ABU, Ashrzr, or someone else).

Hmm, I guess I'll push this is far as it goes. I'd hate for me and Rot not to have an argument this game.

firstly because I've yet to attempt to kill you in a mafia as scum

Well, let's exclude supposed facts (re: night actions and roles) from on-going games, because we don't know the truth for sure. However, I do know that you said in Memento Mafia that you thought you might as well kill me because we always clash. Also, on two games where you were scum (Wild West and Hamlet) we had long debates, and it's plausible that you would want to avoid them again.

Second, we assume that there was some sort of attempt on you, a one in twelve chance.

Not to boast, but I think that rather under-estimates the chance of me being targetted. Previous to this game, I got killed on Night 0 in three of my last four mafias.

a kill against you whoever it was who vowed to kill you on Night 0 to prevent month long debates

It was EoJ. And happily for me he is merely a replacement.

Quoted from Julius:

I got killed on Night 0 in three of my last four mafias.

Nasty.

Anyway, I'm not going to vote for Rot, but rather join the Jax bandwagon. Call it intuition. Vote: Jaxness

What the hell does "intuition" mean in respect to a random vote? Yay for slack qualification.

Not to boast, but I think that rather under-estimates the chance of me being targetted. Previous to this game, I got killed on Night 0 in three of my last four mafias.

See, I don't get this - as scum I'd never target a strong person from the off. Apart from the fact that it runs a high risk of getting strung by doc protection, I
like having powerful players around as scum - I can be reasonably confident that they won't hook onto me for the first few days unless I make some kind of horrid faux pas, which means they can get on with lynching other townies/rival scum for me. Win win, no?

However, it seems ot me that the most likely reason for no kill last night was a doc protecting a strong player (just because I wouldn't do that doesn't mean its not likely). If we're going to go down the random vote path I'd rather go for someone who doesn't play scum often, because they are the ones I'd view as most likely to target Julius/Rot/etc and are also the most likely to buckle under simple pressure if they are scum. Julius and Rot (and I'd like to think myself, since I seem to be scum more often than not) aren't going to be lynched by the pressure from a random vote even if they are scum, unless the host shafts them completely.

Take it how you want to Jax.

Quoted from Julius999:

Hmm, I guess I'll push this is far as it goes. I'd hate for me and Rot not to have an argument this game.

Quoted from Julius999:

Well, let's exclude supposed facts (re: night actions and roles) from on-going games, because we don't know the truth for sure. However, I do know that you said in Memento Mafia that you thought you might as well kill me because we always clash. Also, on two games where you were scum (Wild West and Hamlet) we had long debates, and it's plausible that you would want to avoid them again.

However, we also know that you were offed twice (replacing in the second time) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that I am not scum in that (we've practically wrapped up the game; I tracked Pit and he was the one who killed you the second time).

Not to boast, but I think that rather under-estimates the chance of me being targetted. Previous to this game, I got killed on Night 0 in three of my last four mafias.

Three? Wow, that is quite a bit. I know you were killed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Much Ado About Nothing, and that you weren't in Memento, but you weren't killed in Battlefield 2, which was the third? However, like I said, there are other people who often illicit night 0 attention, such as myself, FoO, ABU, even Pit. To assume that no kill attempt automatically means you were the kill attempt is still hardly sound.

Quoted from Julius999:

It was EoJ. And happily for me he is merely a replacement.

Oh, well, I'm sure some people agreed with his sentiment. I, personally, enjoy long drawn out days, though I admit that Mansion was a bit frustrating because that particular day came to an end too quickly.

However, we also know that you were offed twice (replacing in the second time) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that I am not scum in that (we've practically wrapped up the game; I tracked Pit and he was the one who killed you the second time).

Loads of people hate me? I don't know.

To assume that no kill attempt automatically means you were the kill attempt is still hardly sound.

Basically, my vote was just a random vote to start the day, but I always like to throw in a bit of metagaming in, otherwise random votes fail to generate discussion.

After all, do you, right now have a better reason to target someone? Intuition?

which was the third

Lego Castle Mafia, at AoEH

but you weren't killed in Battlefield 2

Actually I forgot about that one. Three in five then. Although I was half-killed in Battlefield 2, so that should count for something!

I'm finding the Jax bandwagon interesting. FoO is being fairly enigmatic about his reasons, if there are any.

If we're going to go down the random vote path I'd rather go for someone who doesn't play scum often, because they are the ones I'd view as most likely to target Julius/Rot/etc and are also the most likely to buckle under simple pressure if they are scum

That's not a bad idea. To me that would suggest The Best Guest or Heir, but I've never played with the former so I could be totally wrong.

Rot, one more thing. I know your preferred plan is to go with a random bandwagon on Day 1 and force that person to claim. You say that we need to start somewhere, and that bandwagons can allow investigative roles to force claims without claiming themselves. Is there any reason why this logic shouldn't apply to you? Just wondering how you reconcile that.

Once again I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like it if people let me know when the game started. I'm not a regular here, so I don't check the prancing pong. Thats why I like confirmations in the mafia game thread instead of the signups. I had no idea the game had started, got no prod from the host or anybody else.

That being said, its interesting that nobody died. Perhaps the scum are limited and could make no action on night 0? I've seen that done before.

Or we have a non-killing scum group such as a cult? They're all possibilities. Given the flavour I'm leaning towards cult, but I can't say for certain.

As for my reasons, it is purely a gut feeling on my part that Jax's is the better bandwagon. But that may just be my experience of wagons on Rot going nowhere fast.

Another reason that there may be no kill mentioned in the writeup is that the mafia simply didn't send in a kill. Maybe because they didn't know the game had started? What say you Drinian.

Unvote

Perhaps the scum are limited and could make no action on night 0?

Well if the scum have specific hitmen then some nights they won't be able to send in a kill because of air restrictions, although it would be odd if they chose to conserve air on night 0.

As for my reasons, it is purely a gut feeling on my part that Jax's is the better bandwagon. But that may just be my experience of wagons on Rot going nowhere fast.

If bandwagons on Rot never go anywhere fast then I'd like to ask him why he is immune from a random bandwagon. I hate random bandwagons (I mean we're doing ok so far and we haven't gone for the all out random claim really), but I never start them. This is assuming Rot does, but I could be completely wrong here.

If anyone has any ideas about which players don't play scum very often that are better than TBG or Heir then feel free to share, else I'd go for one of these.

All I can say is I get my fair share of scum roles, as for those who don't, well, I'd say any other than Rot, Julius and maybe Pit in my experience tend to crack under pressure. Then again I'm hardly famed for paying attention.

Another reason that there may be no kill mentioned in the writeup is that the mafia simply didn't send in a kill. Maybe because they didn't know the game had started? What say you Drinian.

Its possible. Who else has not posted yet?

Just one unrelated thing:

Just remember two things. One, I will not let an accidental lynch occur, I promise you. Second, only those who made a night action lost air.

If an accidental lynch can't happen then I assume that not having enough air "only" means we lose our vote. This early on therefore I'd sooner have doctors protecting every night and cops investigating every night and risk losing a possible vote. We should have more than enough townies alive that obtaining a majority shouldn't be too hard, especially as views aren't as near the beginning. polarised

Its possible. Who else has not posted yet?

Mostly everyone. However, I doubt activity plays a part since it's unlikely all members of the mafia group weren't informed of the game starting and forgot to contact each other.

However, we also know that you were offed twice (replacing in the second time) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that I am not scum in that (we've practically wrapped up the game; I tracked Pit and he was the one who killed you the second time).

Just for the record, I killed you the first time as well . The game is indeed wrapped up as Rot says, but not how he expected it...

Concerning the air mechanic, I would like to get some clarification. If we cannot accidentally lynch someone, then the only other reason for it is we "lose" our vote as Jax theorized. However, can't we simply unvote then revote? Or are we not allowed to unvote in this game?

Quoted from Julius999:

Loads of people hate me? I don't know.

Or loads of people consider you a good player.

Quoted from Julius999:

Basically, my vote was just a random vote to start the day, but I always like to throw in a bit of metagaming in, otherwise random votes fail to generate discussion.

Didn't you argue the exact opposite in Mansion, where the inclusion of any poor arguments seemingly voided the whole of the argument?

Quoted from Julius999:

After all, do you, right now have a better reason to target someone? Intuition?

Not particularly, no.

Quoted from Julius999:

Rot, one more thing. I know your preferred plan is to go with a random bandwagon on Day 1 and force that person to claim. You say that we need to start somewhere, and that bandwagons can allow investigative roles to force claims without claiming themselves. Is there any reason why this logic shouldn't apply to you? Just wondering how you reconcile that.

No, it certainly applies to me. But, like anyone else who is targeted in a random bandwagon, I'd rather not claim, especially so with only a single vote on me. If I can defend myself and generate discussion without claiming, then the bandwagon has served its purpose somewhat.

Quoted from Jax:

If bandwagons on Rot never go anywhere fast then I'd like to ask him why he is immune from a random bandwagon. I hate random bandwagons (I mean we're doing ok so far and we haven't gone for the all out random claim really), but I never start them. This is assuming Rot does, but I could be completely wrong here.

I believe random bandwagons usually falter against me because other people will come in and say that a random bandwagon against someone like myself or FoO, people who are very good at making false RCs, doesn't really benefit the town, because if we're town, a valuable player is outted, and if we're scum, we'll likely make a passable RC.