Some Hydra questions?

[kuribo]

If I were to buy an Ouija board and commune with the restless dead to help win mafia games, would I have to list all of the spirits individually, or would a blanket terminology suffice? If I communed with the ancestors of other players to discern their alignments, would that be out of game influence? Or can the unholy deceased relatives of my foes serve as players? In the event I contact an infernal lord, would demonic influence result in a ban on the hydra because of the evil done by said demons? If one of the spirits takes possession of another player in the game, would he then have to be kicked from the hydra for outside knowledge? If a spirit within the hydra is somehow exorcised or ritualistically returned to life in the body of a child's doll, can they still be part of the hydra? Is having an ethereal form necessary, or can lesser spirits participate?

[kuribo]

This brings to mind another interesting question though.

Would a pair of conjoined twins be able to play under the same account, or would they have to make separate accounts and hydra?

1. If the restless dead consist of conscious individuals (i.e. demonstrate sentience/sapience/self-awareness/FREE WILL) then I would argue that each individual restless dead would have to have a MS account and have that account listed.

2. I think it would depend on the gamebreakiness. Like, metadiving their Facebook is obviously not out-of-game influence (cough Ellibereth), but communing with their ancestors could be equivalent to being friends with their sister and asking the sister to look over their shoulder to see their role PM.
If the ancestors are capable of producing a 100% determination of their alignment, I would say that's cheating.
If you're only communing to gather meta data about them, assuming their ancestors are conscious individuals, it would be exactly equivalent to talking to their friends about their personality. Are their friends/ancestors aware of the game? Probably cheating if so.
If they're not conscious, it should be fine, it's equivalent to reading through their facebook.

3. The unholy deceased relatives of your foes would likely count as players if sapient, yes. Have them make MS accounts.

4. If the infernal lord has broken site rules in some way, there's a good argument for banning the hydra on the basis that it makes the site look bad. That said, if everyone's abiding by the rules and not (for example) advocating for the torture of billions in the GD, I see no problem having them hydra.

5. If a spirit takes possession of another player in the game, that's not only out-of-game information, but also outright cheating. I would force replace the whole hydra.

6. If that spirit in the body of a child's doll can still log into the hydra or otherwise communicate with whoever's running the account, I don't see why having a different body changes anything.

7. How would a spirit even exist or show sapience without some kind of ethereal form? There's a certain point of "not-conscious/no free will" that I'd just call spirits equivalent to having a really good mafia AI.

Re: 7. In the event that, say, I encountered a being whose soul I (or another) had stolen and rendered them a spiritless husk. Also it's possible I meant to say corporeal.

I'd say with the conjoined twins, it depends entirely on which direction the two of them are facing. Ie, can they read one another's role PMs or PTs? If they were ordered to hydra instead, what happens if one head (no pun intended) gets banned? Or if they want to join a game that says no hydras? Is it wrong to exclude them because they biologically share a body?

[kuribo]

"Do not post in the game after you are dead or replaced. Some moderators do allow contentless "Bah!" posts, but you should never reveal information once you are dead. " -from the game-specific rules section of the forum rules.


You should never reveal information once you are dead. Any spirits that communicate game info to you are breaking one interpretation of the site's rules.

I feel like this is in the letter of the law and not the spirit.

Obviously it should be moderator discretion if the souls of the once-living should be allowed to play.