[MECHANIC] The Thing

[Something_Smart]

I feel like this kind of thing has been discussed before. Timezones are a major headache. You'd probably have to limit it to people in a few timezones, maybe going so far as to lock the thread for 8 hours a day or something.

Also you'd have to establish a very clear rule about what kind of identity-confirming tactics are allowed. I've played this kind of game on Epicmafia (RIP) and people would write out phrases like "____E_ __O___ ___T __ T___" and then the next day fill them in "YANKEE DOODLE WENT TO TOWN" to prove that they hadn't been disguised. There are all sorts of related tactics for this, and most of them are going to be pretty effective unless you ban them.

[Something_Smart]

in the runs of this that I saw in my homesite, said tactics were just banned outright

But, where do you draw the line? Is it legal to make a read on one day and explain it on another day? Is it legal to start telling a story on one day and finish it on another day? What if you do this by accident?

Not saying there's no satisfactory answer to this, but you will have to think pretty hard about it.

[Something_Smart]

Also, there's a design paradigm that says instead of banning talking about X, you give people an incentive not to talk about X. I've played secret alt games with a ban on discussing identities, and people were able to get around that. But games like Mask of Monsters and Burdened by Secrecy have punished players for revealing their identities, which worked pretty well. (Except for that time when Isis altslipped in the title forum and then edited her post specifically to throw me off. Gotta have a rule against that.)

[Something_Smart]

“Ciphers/Codes/Trying to be Overly Clever is all forbidden. Make it difficult to have your body inhabited via posting style and quality, not by pointing back to the 6th letter of the 5th post of each day phase, to prove you are who you initially were. Play to the spirit of the game, both regarding The Thing mechanic, and regarding the Anonymous Account aspect.”

I suspect that "play to the spirit of the game" is not going to cut it here Both because people may think they can get away with stuff (and will be justified, in some cases), and because a certain percentage of people who join your game probably won't understand the spirit well enough to follow this rule.

Besides, I do think there are situations where the line is not clear. What if I were to come up with, say, a really complicated riddle and post it? Is that "making it difficult to have my body inhabited via posting style"? The mafia who takes over my body will have to either come up with the correct answer or a reasonable-sounding fake answer (generally impossible for a well-constructed riddle).

There's also the sketchy tactic of making yourself miserable (e.g. posting once every 3 hours for a 24-hour period) in order to make whoever takes over your account miserable, and I don't like the way that blends RL and mafia when RL should always be more important.