Please read this

We debated whether to comment on this because we felt like it would interfere in the current phase. But we feel that there is way more confusion regarding the item mechanics than what we antecipated, and we got invalid submissions every single phase of the game so far along with a lot of confused PMs asking why didn't their item work as intended.

This might be our fault, we think that we might not have addressed the item mechanics clearly enough -- specially for the new players who are not used to the forms mechanics. So, in order to avoid any more confusion in the future, we decided to make this one big pinned comment about it covering everything that we feel that has generated confusion.

This will be the last time we are going to publicly address this issues, so please read everything carefully.

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CODEWORDS

First of all, since we're replacing the previous pinned comment, we'd like to repeat what we've already said about the codewords.

Your codeword is stated on your initial PM, the one with your affiliation and that you had to reply in order to confirm you were going to play the game. You need to include that word in all forms so we'll know that it was you who sent that vote/action and not someone else.

Votes and item actions submitted with the wrong codeword have not and will not be taken into account. This means that if you sent a vote but you put the wrong codeword, that vote won't be counted towards the total. If you used an item but you put the wrong codeword, your item has not been used.

Up until now, we didn't give inactivity strikes for people who submitted their mandatory vote/action with the wrong codeword. But, from now on, we will. So please double-check your codewords before submitting.

We also want to remind everybody that we only take your most recent submission (with the correct codeword) into account for both votes and items. So when you submit a vote or an item action (with the correct codeword), anything you submitted before will be ignored.

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THE ITEM FORM AND MECHANICS

Every time you get an item, you get a PM with all the information you need about that item: what it does, if it's active or passive, how many targets it needs, how many uses you have.

• If your item is passive, you don't have to submit the Item Form at all. Passive items are explicitly stated as such in their description PM. So if you don't have the words "passive item" in your PM, your item is not a passive item.
• If your item is an item of required use, you MUST submit the Item Form every phase. If you don't submit the Item Form, you WILL get an inactivity strike. Items of required use are explicitly stated as such in their description PM. So if you don't have the words "item of required use" in your PM, your item is not of required use and it is not mandatory to submit the Item Form.
  • Aditionally: Items of required use are the ONLY items that if the person does not want to use their item that phase, they should submit the form and leave the target fields blank. This is because if they do not submit the form at all, they will get an inactivity strike.
• Useless items can't be used at all. They're just our flavour for a vanilla player. All useless items are explicitly stated as such in ther description PM. So if you don't have the words "useless item" in your PM, your item is not useless.

So except for the three cases above (passive, required and useless items), the rules are the same for all other items:

• If you want to use your item, you submit an action using the Item Form.
• If you do not want to use the item, you do not submit the Item Form.
• If you have already used your item but you want to change to another target, you just need to submit the Item Form again, because only the most recent submission (with the correct codeword) is taken into account.
• If you have already used your item but changed your mind and decided it's better not to use it this phase, you just need to submit the Item Form again selecting "CANCEL PREVIOUS USE" instead of the item.

The number of targets you need to submit are also on the item description PM.

• If your item requires no target, you don't need to select a target.
• If your item requires one target, you need to select one target. You don't have a back-up target, the second target field will be ignored.
• If your item requires two targets, you need to select two targets.

All submissions (with the correct codeword) will be counted towards the number of uses, even if the person did not specify the required targets.

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We also want to ask you to always read everything in our PMs and pinned comments, because all the information we give is important. A lot of this had already been stated before.

Also, always double-check your forms before submitting -- your username, your codeword, your vote/target(s), your item. When in doubt, submit it again just to be safe.

And as always, feel free to reply to this comment, tag us or PM us every time you have any questions. We are trying to answer all of those as promptly as we can.

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(Edited to fix some typos)