Nexus of Operations [Mini 2308 Insurgence PT]

[biancospino]

You can talk here at any time (reminder that Daytalk is ON).

Please note that the Town is not informed of the secret-agency flavouring of your faction.


Here's the PM each of you received:

Spoiler: Role PM

role pm

Welcome to

Mini 2308: Blood over Utopia

, special agent YYYY.

You have been given clearance to access the top secret dossier attached. Please familiarise yourself with the specifics of the mission.

It has been an honour to have you in our ranks, farewell.

Spoiler: "Operation Paradisus" Dossier

Spoiler: Front page

Spoiler: Transcription

TOP SECRET -- CODENAME PARADISUS
Classified by [REDACTED]
Reason 1.4(d,c3,c[REDACTED])
Declassify on completion of operation

(C)

Target

Dissolution of a cult-like group, hereafter codenamed The Town.

The exact hierarchies of the Town is not known, except that the cult appears to be centred on a single figure, hereafter codenamed The Overseer. While there is an inside publishing body purporting to be the voice of the Overseer, their identity has not been determined, and there are even doubts about their actual existence.

The Town's shared doctrine is not believed to be explicitly violent, the group has progressed to a level of deep tribalism and otherization; its continued existence may no longer tolerated. Moreover, the Town is attempting to settle on sector 12A56, with plans to build a completely isolated community, hereafter codenamed Utopia, that we fear would necessarily be hostile toward any outsiders.
This is especially a risk for internal security given the significance of sector 12A56 (TS)[REDACTED]

(S) Agents 698745, 652344, 598319 and 721397, codenames Randon Nurse, RCEnigma, Roden, Cat Scratch Fever, hereafter collectively codenamed The Insurgence, have been infiltrated in the "pioneers" squad of The Town and are tasked to prevent the formation of Utopia with any means necessary.

(S)

Operation Description

Communications with the Agency

The Agency will not be able to communicate with the Insurgence during the operation. However, the Insurgents have been provided with a device to communicate secretly among themselves.

Funding

The Agency will have very limited capacity to provide funding directly to the Insurgence during the operation. However, arrangements have been made to assure a stable flow of funds to the Insurgents regardless.

• Construction of Utopia is assumed to require some commerce with the outside to bootstrap the path to autonomy. The Agency has deployed a complex system of shell companies to intercept all of the flow of money from Utopia and to redirect it to the Insurgence.
  
• The Agency will be able to funnel funds through a contrabandists' camp 1.6km NNE of Utopia; however, given the high risk of ruining cover, extreme prudence should be exercised. The Agency expects that $60,000 can be safely funnelled this way at night provided
  no
  project is being undertaken by the Town that night, or $20,000 if the Town is undertaking a single project.

Perms

The Insurgence is allowed, and encouraged, to spend funds to sabotage projects undertaken by the Town. Please consult Addendum §3 for an extended listing of approved acts of sabotage.

To limit suspicion, Insurgents are not allowed to sabotage more than one project per night. Moreover, Insurgents are not allowed to sabotage vital developments (see Addenda §§1-2 for details), as the Agency expects those projects to be strictly monitored. Some acts of sabotage require some development having been undertaken to be feasible.

(TS)

Special Provisions

*** This section is marked Top Secret. It shall

not

be declassified upon completion of operation.***

The Insurgence has licence to kill.

All kills must be performed following protocol. We remark here that the cover-up procedure is quite expensive, and the Agency expects its agents to have $120,000 in funds to kill properly.

Killing civilians directly is however strongly discouraged. Insurgent are not allowed to kill more than once per night, and may not at any point have performed more than one liquidation per two acts of sabotage.

Spoiler: Addendum §1

Spoiler: Transcription

ADDENDUM §1: LIST OF VITAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

This is a detailed listing of all the high-priority project that have been planned for Utopia. Those projects cannot be sabotaged, lest a dangerous uproar ensues. Cost is indicated in parenthesis.

• Bureau of Investigations ($20,000)
  
  This is the main organ to assist the Town in delivering "justice". It will bring in advanced methods to find apostates and miscreants, from the writing of -- as it is purported -- the pen of the Overseer. Of note, cold blooded torture is not off the table, and some of the proposed methods are far worse than anything the Agency has ever practised.
  
  
• Inquisition Headquarters ($30,000 -- requires a Bureau of Investigations)
  
  This terminates the project of fully incorporating the doctrinal police, one of the pillars of the Town, into the new Utopian system. The investigative capabilities of Utopia will become extensive, so that hiding wrong thoughts from the congregation will become a very difficult task. Insurgents are advised to be prepared and not to hesitate in sabotaging the Inquisition's doings.
  
  
• Board of Elections ($10,000)
  
  While Utopia is supposed to be a fully communal place where everyone is an equal peer -- notwithstanding the contradiction of such a thing with the cult of the Overseer, who evidently is seen as more equal than the rest --, some bureaucratic structure is deemed necessary to its administration. The Board is the organ that oversees such bureaucracy, permitting the election of a Mayor, and assuring that votes for shared decisions go smoothly -- or, if needs be, tamper with them directly, to produce a more correct result.
  
  
• Electoral Tribunal ($20,000 -- requires a Board of Elections)
  
  The bloodthirsty Tribunal, under the guise of lawfulness, actually dabbles in manipulating elections; since, after all, one cannot expect the people to always make the right decisions, and sometimes votes must be corrected for the greater good.
  
  
• Guildhall ($20,000)
  
  Some project can be sustained by unskilled labourers with primitive tools, but some others need dedicated professional and artisans. The Guildhall is a primitive attempt at providing the latter, sporting a Mason Workshop, an Architects' studio and an arena to train the future contingent of guards.
  
  
• Artificer's Workshop ($30,000 -- requires a Guildhall)
  
  A workstation for artisans and artists of various sorts.
  
  
• Trading Outpost ($20,000)
  
  Through an outfacing commercial front, Utopia can hope to increase the daily budget from $60,000 to $70,000. Of course, the Agency will be more than capable of intercepting this ulterior surge of funds.
  
  
• Merchant Network ($30,000 -- requires a Trading Outpost)
  
  Utopia solidifies its contacts with external companies for the time being, thus increasing its daily budget further to $80,000. The Agency will make sure that this network is isolated from the real market, and only interacts with our system of shell companies.
  
  
• Printing Press ($20,000)
  
  The construction of a press will allow Utopia not to have to outsource the printing of its Journal to the central headquarter of the Town, and instead print in-house. This will allow for more in-depth reporting, thus publishing a page with future projects.
  
  
• Newspaper Agency ($30,000 -- requires a Printing Press)
  
  Making the Journal into a full-fledged Newspaper operation, even more precise reporting is possible, and the Journal will now also publish investigative reports about any shady activity happening at night -- with a delay of two day, as those pieces are hard to research for. Those reports will shed some light on the nature of the sabotages operated by the Insurgence, but won't be detailed enough to exactly say outright what happened.
  
  
• Assassination ($60,000)
  
  Quite simply, an Utopian is summarily killed at night, and their cadaver promptly buried in a ditch. This is supposed to be an emergency action to free Utopia of bad ideals, and is guaranteed to go down as planned.

Spoiler: Addendum §2

Spoiler: Transcription

ADDENDUM §2: LIST OF NON-VITAL PROJECTS

Undercover work by the Agency uncovered the full list of projects that are planned for Utopia, including those locked behind the construction of some early development. They are listed here subdivided in rough categories; the cost for their undertaking is indicted in parenthesis.

Investigative

• Intelligentia ($10,000)
  -- discover the number of alive Insurgents in Utopia.
  
• Autopsy ($10,000)
  -- discover the allegiance of a dead.
  
• Inquiry ($40,000)
  -- discover if the Journal has ever published lies.
  
• Census ($50,000)
  -- discover if, among five Utopians, there are exactly two Insurgents.

**********
The following three projects require a Bureau of Investigations.
**********

• Wiretap ($20,000)
  -- discover how many units of information were exchanged among the Insurgents the previous day and night.
  
• Torture ($40,000)
  -- it is horrific, Insurgents
  will
  break. Even members of the Town are expected to falsely confess a good quarter of the time.
  
• Recount ($60,000)
  -- discover if one or more votes leading to the last execution were from Insurgents.

**********
The following two projects require an Inquisition Headquarters.
**********

• Parity Check ($50,000)
  -- discover if two inhabitants of Utopia have the same allegiance.
  
• Audit ($70,000)
  -- through a more throughout recount of the vote, discover exactly how many Insurgents voted for the execution of a specified Utopians at the last vote.

Voting Manipulation

• Mayor Election ($10,000)
  -- elect a Mayor, whose vote is worth one-and-a-half. Can be deposed via simple majority.
  
• Election Security ($10,000)
  -- guarantee that the next day there will be no voting manipulation.
  
• Appointed Jury ($20,000)
  -- the next day only, three Utopians are placed in a council and can cast an additional shared vote.
  
• Injunction ($30,000)[7u] -- one Utopian's vote will be worth only one-half the next day, and they will not be counted for the quorum. This action can't be decided if there are less than five (5) living Utopians.

**********
The following three projects require a Board of Elections.
**********

• Copying Pencil ($10,000)
  -- the next day, votes can't be retracted.
  
• Investiture ($40,000)
  -- one Utopian's vote will be worth double the next day.
  
• Evil Eye ($50,000)
  -- one Utopian is secretly cursed, so that, if they are an Insurgent, one fewer vote will be needed to execute them the next day.

**********
The following two projects require an Electoral Tribunal.
**********

• Kangaroo Court ($40,000)
  -- the next day, each Utopian may vote two Utopians for execution, and there will be two executions.
  
• Pardon ($60,000)
  -- if the next day's executee is a member of the Town, they are spared.

Miscellanea

• Sacrifice ($0)
  -- one Utopian is marked for sacrifice. If they are
  not
  an Insurgent, they die and the next day's budget is increased by $20,000.
  
• Raffle ($10,000)
  -- one in two chance that a random non-Insurgent receives a fruit.
  
• Neighborhood Watch ($20,000)
  -- the next day, Insurgents will be prevented from communicating privately.
  
• Marriage ($20,000)
  -- two Utopians are united in Marriage, and if one dies, the other also does '''of a broken heart'''.

**********
The following three projects require a Guildhall.
**********

• Communal Complex ($10,000)
  -- three Utopians will be assigned to a shared living accommodation.
  
• Hero Training ($30,000)
  -- one Utopian will be trained; if they are
  not
  an Insurgent, they will become capable of killing in retaliation when they die for any reason.
  
• Transparency ($30,000)
  -- onward, the logs of the overnight councils will be made public.

**********
The following two projects require an Artificer's Workshop.
**********

• Pumpkin festival ($0)
  -- every Utopian may send an anonymous message to someone else, and may publish one anonymous message on the Journal.
  
• Harvest Gala ($60,000)
  -- after a dance, it will be discovered how many couples were of uneven allegiances.

Spoiler: Addendum §3

Spoiler: Transcription

ADDENDUM §3: LIST OF AUTHORIZED ACTS OF SABOTAGE

Each authorized sabotage option is listed here, and is codenamed with an adjective.

Lest the Town can recognize patterns, no sabotage option can be employed more than once.

• Percent ($0)
  
  Insurgents have been issued prototype AX-[REDACTED], that alters the quantum structure of local spacetime to slightly worsen luck, thus causing any one project to fail with a probability of 1/3.
  
  
• Infiltrated ($10,000)
  
  The targets of the sabotaged action will be broadcasted to the Insurgents.
  
  
• Delayed ($20,000)
  
  The sabotaged action will mysteriously require more work than estimated, so that its completion must be delayed one night.
  
  
• Overcosted ($20,000)
  
  The sabotaged action will prove costlier than estimated by one-half. The excessive cost will be paid at dawn.
  
  
• Naive ($50,000)
  
  The sabotaged action will find it hard to detect any wrongdoing, so that it essentially treats everyone as innocents. This may requires some well-placed bribes.
  
  
• Cynic ($70,000)
  
  An increased climate of paranoia will cause the sabotaged action to treat everyone as guilty of high crimes against the cult.
  
  
• Noxious ($80,000)
  
  
  One of the targets of the sabotaged action will be poisoned. The poison is fast acting, lethal and there is no antidote, so the victim will die at the end of the next day; however, it is not overly subtle, and the victim will surely notice the symptoms.
  
  
• Redirected ($50,000)
  
  The sabotaged action will target whomever the Insurgent decide, instead of the targets chosen by the Town.
  
  
• Morphed ($60,000)
  
  Due to a ''miscommunication'' with external companies tasked to help with the project, the sabotaged action will be replaced with another action chosen by the Insurgence (that action must have the same amount of targets and must not be a vital development, as codified in addendum §1).

**********
The following three sabotage options require a Bureau of Investigation to have been built.
**********

• Confused ($70,000)
  
  Due to a corruption in the protocols of the Town's own Inquisition, the sabotaged action, provided that it is investigative, will be guaranteed to produce false results.
  
  
• Amnesiac ($20,000)
  
  The investigative results of the sabotaged action will be broadcast to the Insurgence, and will not be published by the Journal.
  
  
• Private ($30,000)
  
  The investigative results of the sabotaged action will not be published by the Journal, and instead will be delivered privately to each citizen of Utopia (including the Insurgents). The Insurgence may intercept one of those messages and alter it before sending it back.

**********
The following two sabotage options require a Board of Elections to have been built.
**********

• Fraudulent ($20,000)
  
  The targets of the sabotaged action will receive a fraudulent ballot for the execution vote of the next day. Those ballots may be used to cast an additional, secret vote, but only if there are at least two members of the Town more than Insurgents.
  
  
• Injurious ($40,000)
  
  
  The targets of the sabotaged action will be publicly defamed and will require one fewer vote to be executed tomorrow.

**********
The following two sabotage options require a Guildhall to have been built.
**********

• Defaulting ($30,000)
  
  The external companies tasked to help with the project will all conveniently fail to provide the agreed work, thus causing the sabotaged action to fail tout-court, and its cost to be reimbursed upon the Town.
  
  
• Lobbied ($30,000)
  
  A lobbying campaign will convince the Town to undertake the sabotaged action again the following night, and to pay its costs again in full. Citizens that voted for that action to be undertaken this night will be forced to vote for it again.

You can find the credentials to operate your communication device [here].
Please send back your six-digits identification number to confirm to the Agency that you have read this note.

Spoiler: Abridged, unflavoured version

role PM summary

This is an unflavoured summary of your role PM.

You are aligned with the

Insurgence

, and your partners are YYY, ZZZ, WWW.

You have the following factional abilities:

• Daytalk
  -- you may talk with your fellow insurgents [here] at any time
  
• Funding
  -- the Insurgence starts with $0, but can accrue money in the following ways:
  • whenever the Town spends money, that money is funnelled to the Insurgency;
    
  • whenever the Town attempts to undertake no projects overnight, the Insurgency gains $60,000;
    
  • whenever the Town attempts to undertake exactly one project overnight, the Insurgency gains $20,000.
• Sabotage
  -- each night, the Insurgence may sabotage one project that is being undertaken overnight (or the gift-giving event) by secretely applying a modifier to it. You can find the list of modifiers you can use in Addendum §3. Each modifier has a cost, and may only be used once during the game.
  
• Liquidation
  -- each night, the Insurgence may spend $120,000 to kill a player. Only one liquidation can be performed per night, and at no point the Insurgence can have performed more than one liquidation per two acts of sabotage.
  
• Inside Information
  -- you are informed of the full list of projects available to Utopia, including those currently locked behind some development. You can find the full list in Addenda §1 and §2.

You win when all

Citizens

are dead, or nothing can prevent the same.

Yes, it's a bit long. Please ask me anything that isn't clear!

---

User with access to this PT:

Random Nurse

Enchant (player)
RCEnigma (player)

Roden

Hu Tao (player)
Cat Scratch Fever (player)

biancospino (mod)
Jingle (backup mod)
lilith2013 (listmod)

[Cat Scratch Fever]

I'm an agent

confirm mafia goon

Confirmation accepted-ish, but please do the thing that it's asked of you to confirm so that I know you've actually read the PM

[Cat Scratch Fever]

721397

Thanks

[Cat Scratch Fever]

I feel like it's going to be very easy to TMI this game because of all the info we have

[biancospino]

Question, is setup-specific rule 4 completely clear?

I've received multiple requests for clarifications, so just to be clear, every player may vote (with hurt tags) for a single project, and both the most voted legal one and the first legal runner-up are set to be undertaken

[Roden]

Just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

-It costs $120,000 to perform the night kill.

-We gain $60,000 if no projects are undertaken, meaning that not even one player voted for a project.

-We gain $20,000 if a single project receives all of the votes.

-We get no funds if more than one project receives votes.

-At most, we may be able to night kill every second night. At worst, we may never receive any funds and never be able to night kill.

Is this correct or am I missing something?

[Roden]

Question, is setup-specific rule 4 completely clear?

I've received multiple requests for clarifications, so just to be clear, every player may vote (with hurt tags) for a single project, and both the most voted legal one and the first legal runner-up are set to be undertaken

Yeah, I understand this one. I can see why the wording could confuse people but I get what you mean by it. Each person can only vote for one project, but first and second most voted projects will go through.

[biancospino]

Just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

-It costs $120,000 to perform the night kill.

-We gain $60,000 if no projects are undertaken, meaning that not even one player voted for a project.

-We gain $20,000 if a single project receives all of the votes.

-We get no funds if more than one project receives votes.

-At most, we may be able to night kill every second night. At worst, we may never receive any funds and never be able to night kill.

Is this correct or am I missing something?

This is mostly correct, except that you gain $20,000 if for whatever reason only one project is undertaken, regardless of whether it got all the votes. For instance, if Assassination got 10 votes and Census got 3, only Assassination would be undertaken, since then there would be no funds in the budget left for Census and so there would be no legal runner-up.

You also, in addition to all that, gain all of the money that the Town spends. So realistically you should get around ~60,000$ every twilight unless the Town decides to not spend all of the budget

[RCEnigma]

I am a liability right now, I have no knowledge of the setup at all but I’ll get on it Saturday morning.

[Roden]

Just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

-It costs $120,000 to perform the night kill.

-We gain $60,000 if no projects are undertaken, meaning that not even one player voted for a project.

-We gain $20,000 if a single project receives all of the votes.

-We get no funds if more than one project receives votes.

-At most, we may be able to night kill every second night. At worst, we may never receive any funds and never be able to night kill.

Is this correct or am I missing something?

This is mostly correct, except that you gain $20,000 if for whatever reason only one project is undertaken, regardless of whether it got all the votes. For instance, if Assassination got 10 votes and Census got 3, only Assassination would be undertaken, since then there would be no funds in the budget left for Census and so there would be no legal runner-up.

You also, in addition to all that, gain all of the money that the Town spends. So realistically you should get around ~60,000$ every twilight unless the Town decides to not spend all of the budget

Oh, ok I didn't realize we get a copy of the town's spent budget, nice. That makes more sense.

[Cat Scratch Fever]

@mod

Is Census supposed to be "can't be bought unless at least 8 players are alive" or exactly 8 players are alive?

[Random Nurse]

Confirming as a special agent.

This is a 13-player game, yes?

If there's four of us then Town must surely be packing heat?

[Random Nurse]

I think I like this $$$-based theme.

Might have to make another 50-player game using this mechanic.

[biancospino]

@mod

Is Census supposed to be "can't be bought unless at least 8 players are alive" or exactly 8 players are alive?

"At least".

[Roden]

Oof, not everyone has shown up yet

Not really sure how to play this

Feel free to bus me if I flop

[Cat Scratch Fever]

Some projects require targets. When one such project is undertaken, Utopians who voted for it are added to a Council PT overnight to decide its targets. If they can't make up their minds, the targets are randomized.

When there is this kind of project in play, we want at least one of us to be voting for the project so we can be in the PT. And for projects where we decide who to cop check and stuff, we want most of us to be voting for it I think

[Roden]

Agreed.

[biancospino]

Just want to make sure I understand this correctly.

-It costs $120,000 to perform the night kill.

-We gain $60,000 if no projects are undertaken, meaning that not even one player voted for a project.

-We gain $20,000 if a single project receives all of the votes.

-We get no funds if more than one project receives votes.

-At most, we may be able to night kill every second night. At worst, we may never receive any funds and never be able to night kill.

Is this correct or am I missing something?

It just downed on me that I need to make sure you are aware that you also have the ability to sabotage one project per Night, by spending money to buy one of the modifiers in addendum §3 (each can only be used once).
In fact, you need to perform 2 sabotages to be allowed to kill once

[Roden]

Oh. OH. Ok yeah I was not aware of that. We can't just save up money, we have to actively sabotage stuff to make progress. That's interesting, it basically encourages us to always be working towards earning our kill.

[Roden]

Is it just me or does Sacrifice + Assassination sound kinda OP now

[biancospino]

I've realized there is a sligth mistake in the "abridged version" of your PMs as I've sent them to you. The model PM at the top of this PT is correct.

The correct description of the

Liquidation

ability should be as follows:

• Liquidation
  -- each night, the Insurgence may spend $120,000 to kill a player. Only one liquidation can be performed per night, and at no point the Insurgence can have performed more than one liquidation per two acts of sabotage.

Apologies.

[RCEnigma]

652344,

Okay read the role pm, now I’ll read what town knows….feels backwards lol.

[Cat Scratch Fever]

I don't think we want town to get printing press, do we?

[Cat Scratch Fever]

@mod

Does intelligentia tell us how many insurgents there are in the initial setup or how many are still alive?
What info does printing press give? (Does it have the cost values?)

[Cat Scratch Fever]

I don't think we want town to get printing press, do we?

I don't think we don't want them to get Newspaper Agency (the upgraded version of Printing Press). Right now, they don't know Newspaper Agency exists. This way we can sabotage and create a false inno or guilty.