Assassin Poison vs. Butler Poison

Feedback/Suggestions
#1

In a game the other day, I was Assassin, and we had just converted a Butler to Servant. The King put the butler up for trial, and I convinced him to pardon so that the Butler could try to prove by poisoning king.

I used my Assassin poison ability, which instantly told the king that he was poisoned by Assassin, causing him to put the former butler back up for trial.

I see this as a negative outcome, because we, the Unseen, were working together and putting in actual effort to manipulate the perceptions of the court, but the game mechanics immediately made our ruse obvious.

I know that the King could have deduced our ruse anyway when the poison didn’t kill him that night, and that was the gamble I thought I was taking. Hopefully, a healer would have healed him that night, “confirming” our servant. That seems like an acceptable amount of risk/reward in this situation, whereas the king just knowing that an assassin poisoned him rather than a butler seems like a really cheap game mechanic. “Hmm, this wine doesn’t taste like butler poison!”

I’d suggest making poison nonspecific about which class initiated the poisoning. Obviously people can tell the difference between magic cult bleeding and being attacked by a wolf in the middle of the night, but having poison slipped into your wine one way or the other shouldn’t be immediately obvious to the victim.

Thanks!

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#2

Yeah, this has been suggested before, but it’s worth bringing it up again, since it’s definitely something that needs to change.

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#3

This falls under this:
https://forum.imperium42.com/t/how-to-fix-all-of-our-issues/47584?u=orangeandblack5

#4

I mean I guess, inasmuch as that thread covers every issue, we could just replace this forum with that thread and be fine :stuck_out_tongue:

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#5

I appreciate your sense of humor :+1:

But really, specifying who poisoned you is directly in line with the idea of “TMI notifications”, so I think the link is justified :stuck_out_tongue:

#6

I agree there, IMO a possible solution.

  1. Poison may not be applied by anyone with less than 30 seconds on the clock.

  2. King has a negative passive, “day vulnerability”. “If a bleed or poison effect is used on the king, he will die in 1 day instead of 2. In addition the king is unable to tell whether he was poisoned or bled”.

That way. we still solve the problem of “it takes too long to kill an evil king with a butler”. Obviously part 1 is to prevent it being too easy for an assasain or CL to slip poison to the king faster than he can inform a phys/alc.

Come to think of it, a possible alternative option.

Make butlers poison work more like the cult leaders sacrifice. No notification is made in the courtroom whatsoever, the ability is triggered in the day, but the king dies that night if he isn’t healed.

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#7

I don’t understand why people think the king needs to know if he dies in 1 day or 2 days; and I don’t think it’s a huge problem (deliberately sacrificing the king’s life and waiting a day to confirm the Butler is very different than doing it instantly - and evils can still fake-confirm if they kill the king another way that night.)

Just make the message say something like “you will die in two nights, or one night if poisoned by a Butler.”

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#8

How about just “You were poisoned!” I think that would work.

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