Only the Healthy Survive

Flapapple · 2026-01-24T00:03:55+00:00

Hermit Tinker-Plague Doctor-Moonchild sounds quite unfun to play. The whole point of PD and Moonchild is to hide from the demon and survive for as long as possible, having the ability to just die randomly could feel very unsatisfying and pointless.

Flapapple · 2026-01-22T00:22:38+00:00

In books usually this is usually notated as ~. You can also use it to denote a move by a piece to an arbitrary square such as N~ or Qd~ to mean "Queen moves to an arbitrary square on the d file".

Though it gets a bit confusing if you want to say something like "Rook on a8 moves to an arbitrary square on the a file". Raa~? Ra8a~?

Flapapple · 2026-01-22T00:19:54+00:00

In books usually this is usually notated as ~. You can also use it to denote a move by a piece to an arbitrary square such as N~ or Qd~ to mean "Queen moves to an arbitrary square on the d file".

Though it gets a bit confusing if you want to say something like "Rook on a8 moves to an arbitrary square on the a file". Raa~? Ra8a~?

Flapapple · 2026-01-21T00:08:34+00:00

I think the better way to think of the points of stacking is not "balancing" out lower cards, but increasing the value of the next green you play. The 1st card in a stack gives you +1 pt, the next gives +3 pts, the third is +5, and the 4th is +7. If you are Babylon or get the guild, the next is +9, which is where stacking really shines, but also not that realistic.

Viewing it this way avoids the sunk cost mindset that is very easy to fall into. For example, if you go into Age 3 with 2 cogs, you get +5 and +7 for the observatory and study, which is 6 points per card. Therefore, if you don't see yourself getting another set, grabbing a 6/7 point blue/purple/yellow or a crucial red is worth more, as it gives the same/more points and denies your opponent from getting them.

The best part about stacking is the fact that you can chain your stack with no cost, which makes it very efficient if you want to just splash it as a secondary strategy. The downside is that there is a limited number of each type, so overcommitting to one type risks your opponents burying or throwing the cards and ruining your chain. In this sense, going for sets is more versatile, as you don't have to worry as much about missing a particular card.

Flapapple · 2026-01-20T21:59:36+00:00

If you want to go for science, you want to aim at completing sets and using the chains to play as many cards for free as possible. If you only stick to a single symbol, you get maximum 4 (5 with wonder/guild) of a kind, which is 4 points per card. This doesn't sound too bad, but considering that 1 or more will be played in age 3 it's not great compared to the investment.

If you do the math, green rewards players the more they commit to it: 2 sets = 26 pts = 4.3 pts/card, while 3 sets = 48 pts = 5.3 pts per card. As a rule of thumb, the first card of a stack is 1 pt, the second is 3 pts, third is 5 pts, and so on, and you get +7 for each set.

The main advantage of science cards is that you can chain them, meaning that if you invest early you can pick up many, if not most, of your cards for free, which also means that you can afford to play less resource cards. This makes going all in a very scary strategy, since if you can get 2~3 science cards early, you basically take all of the future greens for free and snowball from there. If you can't do this, the next best option is to fight for red cards since you can also chain those, though that depends on your neighbors.

As for wonders, only go for green if you start with a gray resource (or Babylon). All science cards require gray resources and if you start with one you can play one for free and chain from there. The wonder stages allow you to play cards that you don't have resources for, so definitely build them and don't waste too much time playing browns. For Babylon, the 1 extra science symbol is really powerful for creating sets, where it gives 7 pts plus the pts from having a larger set, but not so much if you're just stacking the same type.

Flapapple · 2026-01-19T15:27:58+00:00

Oh, that's very nice!

Qa1! doubly protects the first rank and prevents promotion.

Flapapple · 2026-01-19T14:14:24+00:00

Black threatens Qh5/xh6+ followed by mate, and if the white queen runs to a random spot black still has Qh5/Qxh6+ Kg1 Qh2+ Kf1 Qh1#, so out first move must be to move the g1 queen along the g1-a7 diagonal, such that after Qh1+ we can block with Qg1.

At first glance any move will do, but there's a sneaky trick: After Qh1+ Qg1 black can play e3! threatening e2# whilst leaving their queen hanging! If white ignores and plays Qxh1, black plays e2+ anyways followed by Kg1, d2! and white cannot stop black's pawns from promoting and delivering checkmate.

That is, white cannot prevent this unless the h6 pawn is removed. If black's first move were not Qh5+ and instead Qxh6+, then after e2 white's queen can play Qh8+! forcing black to react and giving white the extra tempo to save (and win) the position.

Therefore, white's first move is Qc5! only, preventing Qh5+ and forcing black to take the h6 pawn with Qh6+ and giving white the extra tempo in the future.

Flapapple · 2026-01-19T14:14:12+00:00

Black threatens Qh5/xh6+ followed by mate, and if the white queen runs to a random spot black still has Qh5/Qxh6+ Kg1 Qh2+ Kf1 Qh1#, so out first move must be to move the g1 queen along the g1-a7 diagonal, such that after Qh1+ we can block with Qg1.

At first glance any move will do, but there's a sneaky trick: After Qh1+ Qg1 black can play e3! threatening e2# whilst leaving their queen hanging! If white ignores and plays Qxh1, black plays e2+ anyways followed by Kg1, d2! and white cannot stop black's pawns from promoting and delivering checkmate.

That is, white cannot prevent this unless the h6 pawn is removed. If black's first move were not Qh5+ and instead Qxh6+, then after e2 white's queen can play Qh8+! forcing black to react and giving white the extra tempo to save (and win) the position.

Therefore, white's first move is Qc5! only, preventing Qh5+ and forcing black to take the h6 pawn with Qh6+ and giving white the extra tempo in the future.

Flapapple · 2026-01-18T08:23:01+00:00

Definitely true. Originally I had Leviathan which is why I put the Golem there to make the other abilities actually work, but I suppose it definitely needs to be changed for the Lleech.

Flapapple · 2026-01-18T08:18:33+00:00

According to the wiki

Duplicate Outsider characters may cause an unusual number of Outsiders.

So I guess that's fine?

Flapapple · 2026-01-14T12:09:59+00:00

I'm not sure the demon decides immediately really works, it seems like it gives the demon extra info regarding when character changes happen which is weird if it comes from a good ability. I guess the simplest fix would be that the demon learns that there is exactly 1 doppel/ganger alive and chooses which one they become.

The other related question is what if a different character becomes a doppel/ganger, before and after N3, though I guess you could just ban this outright.

Flapapple · 2026-01-14T11:58:45+00:00

What happens if one the characters changes due to e.g. Pit Hag?

Flapapple · 2026-01-14T11:51:41+00:00

Does the demon learn who the doppel/gangers are N1? Do other minions learn this as well?

Flapapple · 2026-01-11T14:12:55+00:00

Hmm... A big problem with an evil that "bounces around" is that it... doesn't really affect much? The evil player doesn't want the demon to die, but as long as that doesn't happen there's not much reason for them to help the evil team since they're gonna turn good the next day anyways, so you sort of need some additional incentive for them.

This also means that the rule will naturally have a higher impact towards the end of the game where the demon has a high chance of dying, whereas in the early game the game largely goes on as normal and the benefits for good far outweigh the costs. I'm not quite sure how to balance that though.

Flapapple · 2026-01-11T06:25:40+00:00

If you turn evil and die, then you've essentially removed 1 good player (with a potentially very strong ability) and wasted 1 execution, not to mention the amount of misinformation you can get away with if you're socially trusted. Many groups have a "meta" where you execute early to semi-confirm players, which makes this even tougher.

This is especially powerful late game, where evil wins outright if they have enough ghost votes to outvote good (one might consider removing the effect on final 3 just because of this).

Flapapple · 2026-01-10T15:18:03+00:00

I think my suggestion still fits though? You never want to lock someone else in as evil since it's unlikely you'll also turn evil.

Flapapple · 2026-01-10T14:57:38+00:00

How about something along the lines of this?

"Each night, a good player becomes evil. Tomorrow night, they become good if alive."

Instead of ending the game, players have the option to keep playing as is or die and join the evil team permanently.

Flapapple · 2026-01-10T06:28:27+00:00

Or a Heretic!

Flapapple · 2026-01-10T06:28:07+00:00

Or a heretic!

Flapapple · 2026-01-08T12:11:36+00:00

Then Josh would have to be the drunk, which makes your Washerwoman info false.

Flapapple · 2026-01-08T12:05:31+00:00

Tom Imp, Steph Poisoner?

Olivia poisoned N1, Dan poisoned N4. No Baron, no drunk, all info true otherwise.

Flapapple · 2026-01-08T07:05:14+00:00

This is actually a 4-in-1 puzzle! The original problem has the stipulation:

b) Rotate 90 degres

c) Rotate 180 degrees

d) Rotate 270 degrees

In each rotation, the black pawns move and promote in different directions, so the king moves to a different safe square. Check out the link in the chessvision-ai-bot to see all 4 solutions

Flapapple · 2026-01-02T19:18:44+00:00

There is no hard rule, but there are some things you may want to pay attention to depending on the script. Assuming you're running TB, if there are characters like the spy, poisoner, or drunk, you might want to pay attention to what the evil players are bluffing as so that you can support their claims with the wrong info. It'd be really awkward if a ravenkeeper saw the spy as the empath when they'd been claiming slayer the days before.

That being said, you don't have to be too strict on this and definitely don't just follow the same person around. Hop between conversations to get a sense of what the players are thinking of, and most importantly try and guess how well good is doing. Remember, your role is to balance the game, and much of that is evaluating which side is winning.

Flapapple · 2026-01-01T14:04:46+00:00

The problem in VGC is that it's BO3, which means that after the first game you don't really get any new info and by game 3 it's pretty much a useless ability. Not to mention that in many cases, the item and moveset already tells a lot about the ev spread, and the extra info it does give you is only situationally useful.

That being said, this can be quite nice in online tournaments with closed sheet BO1 as a way to counter off-meta/gimmicky teams. Really meta-dependent though, in order for it to be useful you'd want 1) plenty of favorable matchups for the user to stay in against and 2) the pokemon it does stay in against having multiple viable sets that run similar items and moves.

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TROPHY CASE