ROLES ONE

This pokemon's tough, rubbery hide serves a dual purpose: As well as being able to withstand violent strikes, the jigglypuff is cabale of sucking air into it's body cavity, stretching its outer skin and making it appear much larger, and more intimidating to predators.

Hello Yogsloth, you are Deuce Bigalow the Jigglypuff
Special move: Sing
Team: Challengers
Your trainer was always laughing and joking. True it was more often at you than with you, but still, the time you spent with him you remember as a happy time. Then suddenly he wasn't around anymore, and the time you spent in the world was in a barred cage, prodded and examined by rough hands. You could squeeze through the bars of those cages, and you should be able to squeeze through the bars of these. Once you're out, your special move 'sing' will prevent someone from being bothersome.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase you can target another player. Any abilities that player attempts to use that phase will fail.


Although in appearance it has a resemblance to a farfetched, this pokemon is more closely related to the mammal family than to birds. The psyduck's unresponsive and inexpressive features are, in fact, a surprising trait that gives this highly intelligent species an advantage when being preyed upon. Predators will often be fooled by its brainless appearance, and leave themselves open to counter-attack.

Hello Trentonlf, you are Dorcas the Psyduck
Special move: Meditate
Team: Challengers
You understand everything that's happened. Your raised you, taught you, loved you, and then when things got to tough for her she sold you to a criminal organisation. It's a tragedy, but that's life. These things happen all the time. You could sit around moping about it, but that would put you at a disadvantage. And you think this game already has you at a disadvantage. You can't get through the bars of your cage, but the locking mechanism that holds the door shut shouldn't be too difficult to crack. If you want a hope of winning this thing you're going to have to get an understanding of the who you're up against. This is a puzzle, a mental challenge. And you have an excellent mind, even by the standards of your species.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase you can target another player. You will learn if that player is on the Challengers' team, or the Killers' team.


An abra sleeps between 20 and 24 hours every day, waking rarely eating very little. Even when it is asleep, however, its defences are near-perfect. This pokemon's amazing mind can perceive its surroundings extra-sensorily, allowing an abra to teleport away from danger, often before the predator is even aware of the abra's presence.

Hello Sage103082, you are Miss Tickle the Abra
Special move: Teleport
Team: Challengers
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... this space is strange... zzzzzzzz... different creatures... fear, panic, pity... bloodlust... zzzzzzzzzz... let me sleep... zzzzzzzz...

ABILITIES: Once per night you can choose to teleport away from danger. If you do so, any other players' abilities that target you will fail.


This pokemon would be perfectly coloured to camouflage with foliage, but for the red warning marking on its crown. This marking is an evolutionary mimic: In reality the caterpie has very little defensive capability. The caterpie's transformation is one of the most striking of any pokemon; when it enters its pupal state, its entire anatomy is broken down and reassembled.

Hello d3adb01t, you are Kietha the Caterpie
Special move: String Shot
Team: Challengers
Where's your trainer gone? Why is it so dark here? Why are there so many other pokemon about? Why do you feel so... afraid? You have battled pokemon before, but never like this. And you never did very well. Often your trainer was sad with you. You hope your trainer comes back soon.

ABILITIES: Your String Shot ability is not particularly useful in or out of battle. Anyway, you're trapped behind bars in the action phase so it's irrelevant.


Tangela's flesh body is much smaller than it appears because it has a symbiotic relationship with the vine-like plant which swathes its entire form. The plant is flexible but tough, providing this pokemon with defensive cover, but by whipping its body back and forth the tangela's vines become offensive weapons too.

Hello Bookwyrm627, you are Ophelia the Tangela
Special move: Vine Whip
Team: Challengers
This is a new type of fighting. You love battling other pokemon. Your trainer must be out there somewhere, cheering for you. It's the first time you've had to fight without your trainers instruction. But you're ready, and keen, and you're going to win! Your trainer's going to be so proud of you when you finish!

ABILITIES: Vine Whip is great for getting the enemies exactly where it hurts the most. You need to be able to get at those enemies though, which you can't do from the bars of a cage.


In classical history, this pokemon has been highly valued for its serene movement and it's striking appearance. It has been used as a symbol of perseverance, due to the magikarp's necessity to swim up-stream, often up waterfalls, to reach spawning grounds. It's fighting ability, in contrast, is notoriously abysmal: The magikarp is capable of little other than flapping about uselessly.

Hello supplementscene, you are Sweeney the Magikarp
Special move: Splash
Team: Challengers
[keep moving forward. keep moving forward. keep moving forward. keep moving forward. keep moving forward. keep moving forward. keep moving forward. jump. jump. jump. keep moving forward.]

ABILITIES: I won't even bother locking your cage door. Your ability to hop about gasping for air is pitifully ineffective.

This pokemon's distinctive cheek pads are what give it its astounding ability: The pikachu stores electricity within these pads, and is able to release it at will, giving its predators powerful shocks. It uses its tail as a lightning rod to generate massive amounts of charge, but the majority of its power comes from static: groups of pikachus will move together in tight huddles, known as 'hugs', in order to create static charge.

Hello SirPrimalform, you are Shanaiah the Pikachu
Special move: Thunderbolt
Team: Challengers
You always had to work hard for your trainer. You loved your trainer, and your trainer loved you. When you did well your trainer would feed you, and if you let your trainer down, you'd get a kick. Sometimes more than a kick. But it was to help you. You could never be the best if you kept losing all the time, and with your trainer's love, you always knew that you could try harder. You could always try harder. And now you've got do your best, because this time if you don't do your best, it won't ust be a kick. If you make a mistake this time, you'll never see your trainer again.

ABILITIES: Thunderbolt is a powerful, accurate move that has a decent chance to leave the enemy unable to fight back. Unfortunately you can't get out of the cage they lock you in, so you won't get a chance to use it.


The grimer's body is one of the most amazing biological forms in the world. It's organic structure is, in fact, many distinct genetic organisms, controlled by the grimer's complex neurosystem. These individual organisms feed web-like constrictors through other matter, incorporating it into the grimer's form. In this way, the vast majority of a grimer's almost-amorphous body is made up of necrotic and inorganic matter.

Hello Vitek, you are Mortadella the Grimer
Special move: Poison Gas
Team: Challengers
Most people don't like you. Your trainer is different. When you first met your trainer was when the world first made sense to you. You both loved to get dirty; to wade in mud or splash in the sandy sea or explore grimy sewers. Your trainer was very small then. Now she's much bigger. You've had to wait a while before you get to play again. But soon she'll remember you, and she'll come and get you. In the meantime there's a game to play. You can easily slip through the bars of these cells. Maybe one of these other pokemon will want to play too.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase you can target another player. That player will receive notification of a repulsive smell; a result of your visit to their cell.


This pokemon has a highly developed brain which is remarkably similar in function to a human brain. The primape's hormonal responses are huge, triggering large adrenaline spikes in its body allowing it to fight without tiring. The frenzied rage of the primape is what this pokemon is most known for. As well as having a very short life-span compared to other pokemon of a similiar size and build, the primape is prone to depressive slumps if its natural routine is unavailable to it.

Hello ZFR, you are Squidge the Primape
Special move: Low Kick
Team: Challengers
Other pokemon. Going to fight. Fight and claw and kick and scratch. Defend myself. Don't need to defend my trainer anymore. This is my space now. Send them all the way away. Get away from me. I don't need anybody. I don't need anybody. I can do this alone. If you don't get away from me I'll kick and punch and bite a shove until you start running. Because I never did need anybody. Now I'm alone. Good. I can show you all. I don't need anybody. I don't need you. I don't need you.

ABILITIES: Your Low Kick can bring down most pokemon in a single instant, but it's entirely ineffectual against iron bars.



Certainly one of the most heavily-researched pokemon, it wasn't until relatively recently that we have been able to understand just how remarkable the ditto is. More than just a mere mimic, this pokemon's amorphous body is capable of processing minute amounts of pokemon DNA, and replicating it throughout it's system, effectively cloning an entire organism in a bafflingly small timeframe. Geneticists continue to learn more from this pokemon's biology every day.

Hello Flubbucket, you are pokemon Dit069 the Ditto
Special move: Transform
Team: Killers. Your teammates are McHack and Lifthrasil. In the action phase you can talk with them here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/xTTJ8QJbYAj

Record: Won 14 Lost 18 Kills 40 KOd 21
You know the game, you relish the kill. But it's a fickle game, and so often recently you seem to be getting the short straw. Pokemon with a record like yours stop playing the tournaments after a while. You don't like to think what might happen to them... Losing this game isn't just going to be missing out on a few meals and being up in the cages without daylight. It might be that if you lose another tournament, they'll turn you into pokemon feed. But that can't be true. Can it?
You've got to do everything you can to make this one count. If you're not killing, you're damn well going to be doing something. Understand the enemy. That's where you've failed before. You're not going to fail again.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase, you can perform the team's kill. Only one member of the team can perform this action per action phase. Target another player to kill, and that player will be removed from the tournament. Alternatively, you can target a player to investigate. You will learn whether that play has any special abilities or not.


Certainly one of the most heavily-researched pokemon, it wasn't until relatively recently that we have been able to understand just how remarkable the ditto is. More than just a mere mimic, this pokemon's amorphous body is capable of processing minute amounts of pokemon DNA, and replicating it throughout it's system, effectively cloning an entire organism in a bafflingly small timeframe. Geneticists continue to learn more from this pokemon's biology every day.

Hello McHack, you are pokemon Dit135 the Ditto
Special move: Transform
Team: Killers. Your teammates are Flubbucket and Lifthrasil. In the action phase you can talk with them here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/xTTJ8QJbYAj

Record: Won 3 Lost 1 Kills 2 KOd 1
This is your 5th tournament. The rest of the team has been doing this a lot longer than you. You can sense the confidence of the big one. It's got a real mean streak to it. You'd better get that way too, if you want to do well. You've won before because your team was looking out for you. These guys old pros. They don't seem to have the community spirit. There's a lot they can teach you, if you keep your eyes open.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase, you can perform the team's kill. Only one member of the team can perform this action per action phase. Target another player to kill, and that player will be removed from the tournament. Alternatively, you can target a player to investigate. You will learn which other players targeted that player, if any.


Certainly one of the most heavily-researched pokemon, it wasn't until relatively recently that we have been able to understand just how remarkable the ditto is. More than just a mere mimic, this pokemon's amorphous body is capable of processing minute amounts of pokemon DNA, and replicating it throughout it's system, effectively cloning an entire organism in a bafflingly small timeframe. Geneticists continue to learn more from this pokemon's biology every day.

Hello Lifthrasil, you are pokemon Dit044, Ditto
Special move: Transform
Team: Killers. Your teammates are Flubbucket and Mchack. In the action phase you can talk with them here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/xTTJ8QJbYAj

Record: Won 37 Lost 11 Kills 79 KOd 14
You've been doing this longer than the others. Your one of the longest surviving tournament fighters. You'd have the scars to prove it, if you were a different pokemon. And you've learned to love it. You love the kill. You love the tearing flesh and snapping bones. You love how soft and stupid and naive the prey is, and you love the moment when they understand the world for what it is. You've learned a lot from doing this. And you can put your skills to good use. If you're not going to kill, you're certainly not going to wait around doing nothing.

ABILITIES: Once per action phase, you can perform the team's kill. Only one member of the team can perform this action per action phase. Target another player to kill, and that player will be removed from the tournament. Alternatively, you can target a player to block. Any abilities that player attempts to use that phase will fail.



out of interest - here are some other pokemon I was considering for the game:
alternate - Farnsborough the Zubat , Camille the Graveller, Hodgepodge the Ponyta, Shorty the Ratticate, Sweetcheeks the Snorlax, Matey the Dratini, Lil the Nidorina, Vindaloo the Rhyhorn, Latoya the Seel, Morrisey the Lapras, Lucy Liu the Farfetchd, Blondie the Exeggcutor (doctor), Mirabell the Kangaskhan, Fatty the Clefairy (jack of all trades), Badpillow the Tentacool, Yoko the Porygon (tracker), Mafsud the Poliwag (watcher), Ruffles the Haunter (Roleblocker), Babs the Oddish,

It was an honour to be part of this slavery programme.

Reading those PMs actually made me sad :( Poor things.

I'm kind of curious now even if it doesn't work.

ACTIONS


FIRST ACTION

lift bkock yogsloth
You TRANSFORM into a creature ideal for your purposes; the ghost-type pokemon Haunter. Such freedom! You slip through the walls of the arena and into Yogsloth's cage. You sneak up behind him... he spins round and gets an eyeful of your HYPNOSIS. Out like a light.
yogsloth bcokc sage bkocked in the roke!
You intend to go and sing to Sage103082, but things just don't work out that way.
flub kill bookwyrm
This will help you relax. You slip through the bars of your cage and scootch over to bookwyrm627's. Ah... a plant pokemon. Mm mm. You're feeling hungry. You squelch through the bars and TRANSFORM yourself into the bug pokemon caterpie. Bookwyrm627 turns and sees you just as you leap at his head. He twists and jerks violently, but you cling on like a vice, and, leisurely, you begin to munch.
bookwyrm killed
You sit on the floor of your cage and wait for something to happen next. A soft noise behind you attracts your attention and as you turn round a caterpie leaps at your face and nestles into your vines. You shriek and try to shake it off, but it clings ferociously. An agonising pain begins as it begins to chew at your body, and doesn't cease until the bug bites into your brain.
You have been murdered.
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/i5SDPqq47xx
trent cop mchack
You lever open the latch of the cage and push back the spring. The door swings out and you pad softly across the dark arena. You come to Mchacks' cage and stare. Though it would look as though you were a simple brainless pokemon that had accidentally been left out of the cage, your sharp senses take everything in. You watch Mchack for a few moments, then turn away and begin to MEDITATE. Things become very clear to you. If he got out of the cage this way... yes. And that would mean... Aha... Which can only mean one thing.
Mchack is on team Killers.
vitek stink mchack
You squoosh your way between the bars of your cage and go to visit your buddy Mchack. You have a great time together.
mchack watch lifthrasil and stinks
You TRANSFORM into the ghost pokemon Gastly. Now nearly invisible you stalk your partner on his jaunt, keeping a close eye on your surroundings. But you don't notice anything interesting.
SirPrimalform thunderbolt vitek
You unleash your powerful attack. Vitek is far away and you miss completely, and only succeed in wasting your power. This was not worth trying.


SECOND ACTION

Hunter Teleports
zzzzzzz.... *blink*
lift block trent
Squish. Squish. Squish. You head straight to trentonlf's cage and bundle into the shadows. There you TRANSFORM into Parasect and shake your fungal mass. The SPORE attack fills the space - breathing that in will render trentonlf unconscious until the battle phase begins again.
yogs block hunter killed stink
You're determined to make this work tonight. You press your face between the bars of your cage and push. Your vision doubles as your face is forced into a tight squeeze. You almost get stuck halfway, but you pop through into the arena, and skip over to Hunter65536's cage. She doesn't appear to be inside, but you SING your song through the bars and trip back home. Once inside you hear a soft crack, then a hefty hand darts out of the darkness and grabs your face. A huge muscular pokemon beats you savagely. It knocks you senseless - off balance and blinded by blood, you pull your wits together and attempt a SING attack, but your mouth erupts with pain and sudden, brutal blows to the face knock you to the floor. A final kick launches you against the wall, where you struggle for breath in agony. After you die your cage stinks like week-old rubbish, but you don't notice.
You have been murdered.
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/i5SDPqq47xx
flub kill yogs
You've been getting frustrated, playing pokemon battles with the others, unable to really let yourself go. This should help relieve the tension. Straightforward. Simple. You Shloop out of your cage and into yogsloth's. It's empty. That's odd but not unprecedented. You TRANSFORM into the fighting pokemon machamp - all thick, dense muscle. After a sort time yogsloth reappears and forces his face straight in to the bars of his cage. His body squeezes like rubber, and in a moment he pops through to the inside. You crack your four sets of knuckles and grab him by the face. A hard punch to the ear, you bring your knee up into his soft flesh, you twist his body into a tight lock; you could break his neck right now, but it would be more fun to play with him a bit longer; and you drop your entire weight on him. He shakes of his shock and opens his mouth, probably to attempt some pitiful attack. With a swift movement you rip out his tongue and, while he chokes on his own blood, you give three swift jabs to the side of his head which, to your satisfaction, dislodge one of his eyes entirely from its socket. You kick the bloody lump of flesh into the corner and wait, listening to the faint gasping breaths gurgle and fade.
trent cop Lifthrasil blocked
You go to unlock your cage, but something happens. Your don't make it to Lifthrasil tonight.
vitek stink yogsloth
Yogsloth seems like a nice pokemon! You go and spend some time with him. You were right! He's very nice.
adaliabooks stringshot someone orother
You attack from within your cage. You're way off target and you feel utterly useless.

THIRD ACTION

lifthrasil bkocs trent
You squelch out of your cage, tumble into to trentonlf's, and TRANSFORM into the humanshape pokemon jynx. You bear down upon trentonlf, grasping his face firmly and planting a long and unrelenting LOVELY KISS on his lips. He struggles for a few moments, before his eyes roll back in his head and he loses consciousness. Satisfied, you regoop and toddle homeward.
trent cops vitek bloked
By some means or other you fail to make it out of your cage before the battle phase begins again.
Hunter commutes
zzzzzzzz.... zzzzzzzzzzzz...
flubbucket kills adaliabooks
You plop into adaliabook's cage. Let's waste no time. You TRANSFORM into the atrocious pokemon gyarados. You're overwhelmed by the raw power that can destroy entire cities. You bear down on the little bug, and unleash the DRAGON RAGE. You have vague memory of picking up adaliabooks in your jaws, but when you plop back to the ground in your own body you remember nothing else. Chunks of adaliabooks are smeared over walls, floor and ceiling, none of them bigger than a chestnut.
adaliabooks killed, stinks
All alone in your dark cage, you watch as a small squelchy pokemon approaches, squeezes easily through the bars of your cage and sits before you, watching you. After a few seconds it begins to change shape, growing tall and lengthening, transforming into a dreadful serpent, many time larger than you, bright blue with grave, ferocious eyes, and long pointed fangs in its gaping jaw, beyond which you can see its dark red maw pulsating hypnotically. The enourmous, barbed serpent towers above you, lifting itself off the ground by some monstrous energy, rippling, twisting muscles and gleaming, hard scales. Saliva drips from its brutal jaws and its rolling eyeballs fix on you with violent intensity. You summon all your strength and let forth a succession of STRING SHOT attacks. Your silk sticks to the pokemon's face, and hangs down in trails. You begin to tire, but you can't let yourself stop. You continue your barrage of STRING SHOT, forcing yourself to give every ounce of strength you've got to fight for your life. After a few seconds the pokemon picks you up in its jaws and flings you against the ceiling. As you drop back it writhes madly, batting you viciously with its tail. You hit the wall hard, and it ploughs into you, crushing you against the wall, splitting your carapace and smearing your insides against itself. It scoops you into a tight bind, smashing itself and you into the ground, smacking you hard with its chin several times, then lets out a bellow like thunder and rips your tail off in its teeth. Again you fall to the ground, and in your last few moments of consciousness, the pokemon beats you fiercely with its tail before dropping its belly heavily onto you and spreading your brains across the floor.
A little while later your cage fills with a powerful stench - like something ate a barrel of chemical waste and died and hung about in a warm damp place for a few weeks. You're much too dead to know this.
You have been murdered.
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/i5SDPqq47xx
vitek visits adaliabooks
adaliabooks seems sad and lonely! You squooze through the bars and shloop over to his cage. He was all alone and depressed when you arrived, but you cheer him up.
sirprimalform haunts flubbucket
While you're still regaining consciousness, you attempt to project your spirit out to flubbucket's cage. It proves far beyond your capabilities, but it was worth a try.


FOURTH ACTION

Liftbkoks trent
You slip into trentonlf's cage. He sees you coming and sighs with resignation. You TRANSFORM into huge venusaur, and waft gentle SLEEP POWDER over trentonlf. He gives you a withering look as he drifts unconscious.
flub kill supplementscene
It's nearly time for the best part. Just get this one out of the way first. You squeeze between supplementscene's cage bars, and scooch up to the prone fish. Its impotence is disgusting. You TRANSFORM into kabutops - you favour its long, sharp blades - and cleanly CUT supplementscene's head away from its body.
trent investigate flubb bkokced in the roke
you try to meditate on flub but WHOOPS you got blocked
supplementscene killed
flubbucket moves towards the bars of your cage. You flap about on the floor. flubbucket squishes through the bars and into the cage with you. You flap about a bit. flubbucket watches you for a few moments before transforming into a tall, vicious-looking pokemon with two wide, curved bladed arms. You SPLASH hopelessly. flubbucket swiftly and cleanly decapitates you. You twitch and flap for a little while longer.
You have been murdered.
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/i5SDPqq47xx

So mchack got no indication that he was... stunk by Vitek?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this visitor role.

oh yeah he did, I must have forgotten about it when I was compiling the results, but I added it into his private message,

"when you get back to your cage it stinks of rot and filfth."

something like that

Finally my avatar updated. Would be nice if GOG forum wasn't shit and it took less than... hmmm some 18 hours to update.

He did not?
Then what about the "Loud" part of my role?

EDIT: Bloody ninjas.

I prefer Mrs. Lynch. :-)

Wow! So when I picked a Clefairy for my JOAT-claim, I actually hit one of your backup roles? What are the odds?

Thanks for indulging my night actions Joe, it was totally worth it.

I tried to bkock myself when I was in the brig in the last game but Poppy was having none of it.

I'm sure David has something to say about that. Unfortunately it'll probably be incredibly confusing.

Yes! I was really impressed. My logic was that the move METRONOME replicates any other ability at random, so I think that role would have been a random-chance jack-of-all-trades, which wasn't strictly amongst the roles I offered. The other flaw was that I couldn't think how a clefairy could bypass the cage bars, but nobody was bothered by that. I'm sure if Ele was playing she'd have picked up on it.

good choice of name! I was also really into "Pokedex the Clefairy" and was quite disappointed that you didn't go for it. If I'd have thought of it, I'd have done it.

TRENTONLF - I didn't make the roleblockers unable-to-target-the-same-target-twice-in-a-row, because it never occurred to me. Is it all that common? I'm not sure I've come across it.

VITEK - mostly your role was pretty weak, but you had the opportunity to confirm yourself - if you'd targeted someone sensible night 2 or 3 then you would have been in a pretty good position "I can't have roleblocked or killed because I was stinkin up your house - so unless there are 3 mafias still I've got to be town!" There was also the chance you'd distract the watcher.

Overall I enjoyed how the game played out. I think town expected much more of a punch from their actions, and maybe if they hadn't been expecting that the game would have been played a bit differently I don't know.

I don't think it was too imbalanced. I wanted to give all three mafias a role, just to give them more of a choice; if it was watcher, blocker and goon they would have had less options (but, turns out, played exactly the same strategy). I don't think a three-powers mafia team is any stronger than a two-powers team, because there's always going to be someone foregoing their ability to do murdering. Am I wrong?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who tried that XD

I actually thought that's what yog was talking about when he claimed a failed action against Sage, so I tried it the next night (on yogs) to see what would happen..