05.50 - week five, saturday

[afflictionmods]

W5 SATURDAY

True to her word, Lorelei makes an announcement to request that everyone reports to the courtyard at 9am. The announcement is made at 8am, and when characters arrive to the scene, there are walls that have been put up in the courtyard. The walls make cube-shaped rooms in a 6 x 6 formation, and Florence reads off the group assignments before they escort people into their respective rooms.

Lorelei appears on everyone's tablets again to explain the activity.

"Today's assignment will not be involved with the orbs. As I said yesterday, due to the survey results, we have decided to run a team building activity with a trust based exercised built in. Each of you are inside of a room with a panel. They are safe to step on, but I would not suggest tampering with them.

There are six panels ahead of you, and the goal is to make it to the end before time runs out. The way you make it out is by negotiating with another team and deciding whether to cooperate with them, or betray them in your group's best interests. It's structured similarly to the Prisoner's Dilemma."

She will then explain the rules, which consist of the following (all times are IC):

• You will have up to 15 minutes of discussion time with another group paired with yours. You can discuss a strategy, as you decide to either advance one or two spaces up.
  
  • If it's one space, the panels beneath you will activate traps that both groups will have to endure, but the pain will not be as severe.
    
  • If it's two spaces, both groups will have to roll a single number between 1-20 to determine if they can advance pain-free, or take the full extent of the traps' damage while only moving up one space. Unfortunately, the numbers are skewed: Numbers 1-7 will allow groups to advance without injury; 8-20 will result in the latter.
  
  
• After the first round of discussion, there will be an additional 10 minutes in which communication with other groups is cut off. You will have to decide what to do within your own group, though there's a catch.
  
• There is an option to betray the other group and advance yourself two spaces, pain-free and guaranteed, while leaving the other group in place to take their own trap's damage. If both groups choose to betray each other, however, nobody will advance and both parties will be hurt.
  
• After the round is over, groups will rotate and be up against another group.

And...that's that. Lorelei instructs Florence to get ready to begin the activity in five minutes.

OOC NOTE

Hey everyone, welcome to Week 5 Saturday's event. A quick note: We have set up "private conversations" for each group on the mod journal that we have linked to you in your respective chats. These private conversations are meant to be where discussions within your own groups are to be had; this is to allow people to hit the betray button more effectively, should anyone choose to do so. We are going by an honor system here re: peeking at other group convos, so try not to look at other groups' posts.

For every round, everyone will OOCly get 30 minutes for joint discussion, 30 minutes for discussion within your own groups, and 15 minutes to react to the results.

We will have between 4-6 rounds. We will gauge how many rounds are needed based on timing.

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[escardos]

That's right!

[ flat lights up when she mentions efficiency, as if it were his favorite concept. it kind of is, actually. ]

And I'm not trying to cause a stalemate, I just think that it's an easier way to let your intentions be known. Being nervous about whether or not the other team will betray us or feeling guilty because we might cause someone more pain for our success will hinder our progress, so it's best to explain yourself. It's simple!

[imitationsoul]

Out-ruling the idea of betrayal as being counter-productive, we thus have two choices: play with risk and possibly be rewarded with exiting the game faster, or a consistent stream of pain as we slowly but surely escape the traps.

[totaltrashfire]

I'll vote for the not consistent one.

If we choose two every time we get out of this in three rounds... But it could hurt the most.

[totalcatastrophe]

Think it'll hurt more than glass?

[totaltrashfire]

Lots of things hurt more than glass!

[escardos]

Oh, how come you want that one?

[totaltrashfire]

I don't know... it's easier to get a big pain all at once instead of a bunch of little ones? Or something!

[imitationsoul]

Ripping the bandaid off! An old saying.

[ She's just proud to know this one. She didn't even know what exactly a bandaid was before coming here though. ]

[escardos]

Well, you can't decide to hurt people without knowing for sure why you want to do it!

[ flat looks...kind of miffed about it, actually? ]

If you do things half-heartedly, then you'll start to doubt yourselves. If you want to hurt someone for your sake, then you have to believe in your reason one-hundred percent.

[totaltrashfire]

If we lose the dice roll I get hurt too, so I'm not just deciding for others!

[escardos]

Well, fine. As long as you're okay with your decision! It'd be rather inefficient if you started feeling guilty or doubtful about your decision, so keep up your morale!

[herlocksholmes]

A conclusion is that our odds of exiting the game without suffering any pain are very low!

[Unless they get really lucky with the rolls, that is]

In the end our own pain tolerance will determine what choice to follow. What do you all say? Consistent and milder, or risky and stronger?

[imitationsoul]

Personally, I will choose the risky avenue. The odds are stacked against us but not too badly.

[herlocksholmes]

Well said, my dear madam. That's my choice as well. Sometimes one feels the itch of gambling, and I'm willing to embrace it today!

[Figures that Sholmes would go for the risk instead of the consistent choice]

[imitationsoul]

Gambling... so illicit.

[ A small laugh. She likes it. ]

[undertakings]

The odds could be worse. [A shrug.] I have no objections.

[escardos]

The human body is strong. Much stronger than some realize. And yet more frail than others realize.

[ he puts a hand to his chin, thinking. ]

In a casino, my idea would be to take the risky bet, as long as I know that I can win it. But that's not the case here, is it? I think that the former is better, but if the game is this rigged, then I think that the latter is the way to go.

[imitationsoul]

Between you, me and Mae that makes three out of Team F, voting for risk.

[totaltrashfire]

Kind of freaks me out when you put it like that... [But she isn't disagreeing.]

[escardos]

Hm?

[ flat tilts his head. ]

I didn't say that. I said the latter. [ but no, you didn't read that tag wrong. ] But if the majority wants that, then that's just how it is, as long as you guys are fully okay with it. Guilt would be a pretty inefficient thing to feel half way down the line.