Incidentally, my main two frustrations this game were the Pepchoninga slot and the obvious modkill.
I knew from N1 that Pepchoninga had siteflaked. However, I as the moderator could not justify a replacement of the slot because the only reason I was made aware Pepchoninga had siteflaked is because Pepchoninga had a power role--the fear there was that if I replaced the slot early, it would reveal that Pepchoninga had a PR and that was why I knew he had siteflaked. So when the town quicklynched TWICE in a ROW, delaying the replacement through normal legal means, I was rather frustrated: an essential core aspect of the town's power, one of their central roles, was out of the game for the entire duration the rest of the town's powers were expected to be in play. And I as the moderator was powerless to replace the slot because if I had suddenly replaced Pepchoninga going into, say, N2, it would be a big gigantic neon sign of, "THIS SLOT HAS A POWER ROLE AND THAT IS WHY I NEED IT IN THE GAME", so I couldn't replace it then.
I also couldn't replace the slot off of just players saying "I think that he siteflaked" (even though I knew that was true), because "I think" can, and was, proven wrong, such as when Garmr was thought to leave but then came back. (I mean, in hindsight given his actions it would have been better for the game's health if he WAS replaced, but the simple fact is, he did in fact come back so the only grounds I would have had to replace him is on policy via a force-replace, and at
that
time, he hadn't crossed a line that would justify doing so.)
So while I couldn't exactly say, "THANK YOU FOR FINALLY GIVING ME THE LEGAL GROUNDS TO DO THIS!" to Gin when Gin gave me evidence of the siteflake, I was very much happy that I could finally actually replace the slot. (Granted, this was a damned-if-I did, damned-if-I-didn't scenario: Pepchoninga having siteflaked meant that Pepchoninga could not have contributed anything during the night, but given that Titus was the lylo mislynch, I think I ultimately made the right call in this being the least-damaging of the options available.)
In future games, when a quicklynch happens (rare as those are), I'm thinking of instilling a rule: Sending a form of mass-prod to confirm all players are actually playing. "I must hear from EVERY player during the night. If a player fails to respond, deadline for night will be suspended and the slot will be replaced".
The other frustration was, obviously, Garmr. That was not something I wanted to deal with in my games, ever. Generally if a player is showing signs of toxicity, I will force-replace them. But prior to the day Garmr exploded, he was within normal boundaries. Players weren't being upset by him, and his language--while a bit on the harsher side--wasn't crossing any lines. I didn't even recall seeing any instance of him using language warranting a warning, though if I missed any (which is possible, because as a mod I tend to skim somewhat), my apologies.
Yet, even though the sample VT PM is public...Garmr quoted his role PM all the same--and even IF that weren't itself enough, he had it with TIMESTAMPS. As a mod, you really don't have any other choice at that point because that's just about as unambiguous as unambiguous can get, of being a quote of a role PM. Awkwardly enough, the thought of a modkill never really crossed my mind in my ruleset. It's something that moderators only do as an absolute last resort. (Or, well, SHOULD do only as an absolute last resort.) After doing thorough research and confirming the slot itself is in fact compromised. (A slot can still be saved often via a force-replace.)
I mean. I have a rule covering modkills: site rules as a rule in a game, because
site rules have as a rule not to quote role PMs. But said site rule doesn't cover what to actually
do
when a modkill IS necessary. And while I
did at one time have a rule on how to handle a modkill,
it has not been in my rules for games upon games, years upon years, so I was left in the rather frustrating position of not knowing how to actually handle it. Obviously, the slot would be modkilled, and turned neutral survivor. But what would happen after the modkill? I didn't know.
Nexus personally told me how he resets votecounts and continues the phase, so ultimately, that is what I elected to do--I also figured that if the town WANTED the day to end without a lynch after the modkill, they could simply elect to vote for a no-lynch, which ended up being exactly what they did. Butstill, the game was irreparably damanged by the modkill, because modkills are always something which cause a game to be irreparable, and it was...unpleasant.
