Whitehall mystery | [GAME OVER]

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Whitehall mystery | [GAME OVER]

Postby Joacgroso » Fri Mar 25, 2022 4:17 pm

Whitehall mystery


So, I decided to try my luck at running some small game here. Whitehall mystery is a hidden movement game where 1 player takes the role of an invisible murderer who roams Whitehall, trying to leave pieces of a corpse in certain areas. The other 3 players will be policemen who have to work together in order to track the killer, investigating different places to see if the criminal has been there and looking for a trail. I will summarize the rules, but if you want to read the full document, you can do it here.

The basics:
The game will take place in this map:
Spoiler:
Spoiler: Players will communicate in the main thread. Since this isn't a social deduction game, PMs won't be used.

One of the players will be the murderer. In order to win, he will have to reach his 4 crime scenes without being arrested by the police. Since I'm hosting the game, I will take this role.

The other 3 players will be policemen. They can win by doing any of these things:
-Arresting the murderer (this is the normal goal).
-Preventing the murderer from reaching a new crime scene in 15 moves (this is quite unlikely to happen).
-Cornering the murderer so he can't perform any legal move on his turn (this is extremely rare).

The game can't end in a draw. All policemen win or lose together.

Setup:
Spoiler: The murderer will start by picking his 4 crime scenes, which will be 4 circular white tiles, one in each quadrant of the map. These will be kept secret. Then, the policemen will decide where to start. There are 6 highlighted square tiles in the center of the map. Those are the available starting places. The policemen can discuss among themselves before making any decision. After their starting locations are chosen, the murderer will choose his starting tile among his 4 crime scenes. He will reveal the number of that tile and then the game will begin!

Flow of the game:
Spoiler: The game will be divided in turns. Each turn will be divided into 3 phases.

1)First, the murderer will make a move. The murderer can only be on the numbered circles of the map. He can move from any circle to another one connected to it by a dotted line, as long as no policemen are standing in the way. Keep in mind that the murderer won't be seen on the map, so it's up to the policemen to figure out his location. The murderer has to make a move every turn, otherwise he loses. I will write down where I move and then I'll tell you to make a move. I promise I won't cheat by retconing my position depending on what the policemen do. The murderer can also perform special movements to cover larger distances, but I'll leave that for later. If the murderer ends a turn in a new crime scene without being arrested, he will tell you he reached a new crime scene and reveal his position. If he does this 3 times, he wins. Reaching a new crime scene also resets the time track.

2)After making a move, I will advance the time track at the bottom of the map and then it will be the policemen's turn. Each policeman can move 0, 1 or 2 spaces per turn. They can only stand on square tiles, the ones that aren't numbered. Policemen can move from any square tile to another square tile connected by a black dotted line to the square they are in, regardless of any circular tile that may be in the way. There can never be more that 1 policeman per tile. Policemen will always move (or not move) in the same order, which will be the order in which they joined the game. Remember that policemen can prevent the murderer from passing through tiles they are in.

3) After that, the policemen will get to investigate. Each officer can do one of these things:
-Seach for clues: The player says the number of a tile that is adjacent to them (that is, a tile connected by a black dotted line to the tile they are in, WITHOUT ANY OTHER TILES IN THE WAY). The murderer will truthfully reveal wheter he has been on that tile since he reached his last crime scene or not. If he wasn't, the policeman will be able to ask again until he runs out of adjacent tiles or until he finds a clue. If the murderer was on that tile at some point, he will mark it on the map and the player will finish his turn.
-Execute an arrest: The player names a tile adjacent to their policeman. The murderer has to reveal wheter he is currently standing on that tile or not. If he isn't there, nothing happens and the player finishes his turn. There is no penalty for failing. If the murderer is on that tile, he is arrested and the policemen win.

Keep in mind that players must investigate in the same order they moved, which is the order in which they joined the game. This cicle will repeat itself until the game ends. Remember that the policemen are free to discuss their options and theories, although the murderer will be reading what they say.


Special moves:
Spoiler: Besides walking normally, the murderer can perform special moves to confuse the investigators. Each of these movements can only be performed up to 2 times per game. If I do it, I will have to tell you which move I used immediately. Keep in mind that the murderer can't use a special move to land on a crime scene. The special movements are:
-Coach: The murderer moves 2 spaces and can move through officers. He can't move to blue (water) tiles, and he has to advance the time track 2 spaces (so he doesn't save time). The intermediate space used by the murderer also counts as having been visited by him.
-Alley: The murderer teleports somewhere else in the same block of houses. A block of houses is an area of the map that is completely bounded by black dotted lines, and which does not contain blue numbered circles.
-Boat: The murderer teleports somewhere else in the same block of water. A block of water is an area of the map that is completely bounded by black and blue dotted lines which contains blue numbered circles.

That's all about the game. I hope I was clear enough. If I wasn't feel free to ask any questions. This is my first time hosting a forum game and I'm also new to whitehall mystery, by the way. If someone is more experienced in this game than I am, I have no problem with switching roles with them. In case you are wondering, I'm going to edit the map I posted above in paint to show the state of the game.

Player list:
- Joacgroso (murderer).
- Magmor (policeman).
- Ramen (policeman).
- syjfwbaobfwl (policeman).


edit: This game can also be played confortably by Tabletop Simulator, so if you have that game we can try this there.
Last edited by Joacgroso on Sat May 28, 2022 9:10 am, edited 7 times in total.
Joacgroso wrote:I feel like I went from Light Yagami to Keiichi Maebara.

I still hope one day the game will have private lobbies. They would really help.
Also, please nerf vampire hunters.
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Re: Whitehall mystery | [2/4]

Postby syjfwbaobfwl » Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:32 am

/join


Sounds intresting
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Re: Whitehall mystery | [4/4]

Postby Joacgroso » Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:51 am

Alright, we have 4 players. Since most of them came from Discord, the game will be played in a server.
Joacgroso wrote:I feel like I went from Light Yagami to Keiichi Maebara.

I still hope one day the game will have private lobbies. They would really help.
Also, please nerf vampire hunters.
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Re: Whitehall mystery | [GAME OVER]

Postby Joacgroso » Sat May 28, 2022 9:10 am

ENDGAME ANNOUNCEMENT


The game is over! After 48 irl days of chase, the murderer won by reaching all his crime scenes without being arrested. In case anyone is interested, here's a 2:19 long summary of the game:


Here are some stats: Spoiler: Me:
Crime scenes visited: 3/3
Turns taken: 22
Alleys used: 2
Coaches used: 2
Boats used: 0
Times backtracked: 2

Magmor:
Spaces moved: 32
Clues found: 3
Arrests executed: 2 (non successful)
Times pan could have arrested me (this is the amount of turns that pan started or finished a turn adjacent to me: 1 (turn 3-3)
Prods received: 8

Ramen:
Spaces moved: 31
Clues found: 5
Arrests executed: 2 (non successful)
Times he could have arrested me: 4 (1-5, 1-6, 2-2, 2-4)
Prods received: 10

syjfwbaobfwl aka invalid-user aka empanada aka mote con huesillo:
Spaces moved: 34
Clues found: 1
Arrests executed: 2 (non successful)
Times he could have arrested me: 1 (2-6)
Prods received: 1 (Well done!)


Achievements:
Jack the ripper: Me (for winning the game as the murderer).
Sherlock Holmes: Ramen (for finding the most clues).
Quick thinker: syjfwbaobfwl (for receiving the fewest prods).
Epic fail: syjfwbaobfwl (for forgetting to investigate the tile I was in during turn 2-6).
From the shadows: Multiuniverse and DecDecAttack (for making predictions about the game via DMs).
Identity crisis: syjfwbaobfwl (for making me call him 4 different names throughout the game).

Here are my comments for some moments of the game (wall of text ahead):
Spoiler: -Turn 1.3: I was actually planning to go to 161, which would have landed me right below Ramen. I was lucky he called his movement when he had to act instead of moving, otherwise I would have been in trouble.
-The alleywalks: My original plan was to make the police think I went north to 129 so they would go there and give me space, but sadly no one even considered the possibility until Multiuniverse brought it up. By then I had to do the move I originally only wanted to bluff because I was cornered. When the police was discussing my location they were right for the wrong reasons (they said I was at the bottom of the map, but didn't suspect I had backtracked.). I even got nervous I would run out of time.
-Turn 1.9: I feel like syjfwbaobfwl misplayed here. He moved the the southwestern quadrant, where I had spawned. There was no way I would be there at that stage of the game, especially since Magmor had investigated the zone before. I think it was very likely if not sure he was getting away from me.
-The first coach: I basically only moved one space with the first coach. I was planning for Ramen to think I had crossed the northern bridge, so I thought he would check the least likely tiles first and find my fake clue in the western bridge. Sadly, he investigated clockwise and foiled my plan. I would have escaped faster if I had been more straightforward. This also applies to round 1. If I had inverted my movements with this coach I would also have gained an advantage.
-Turn 2.4: I wasn't expecting Ramen to move right next to me.
-Turn 2.5: When this turn started Magmor had just found a clue at the northern bridge. It was funny when pan shouted "He's at the bridge!" because pan was technically right. I don't really understand what Magmor was thinking, though. I didn't get why the police ignored the possibility of me crossing the northern bridge and being behind Magmor, though after reviewing the game I think the most straightforward moves weren't possible. Still, Magmor's arrest at 64 was super weird because it was impossible for me to be there, as pan had checked that tile the turn before.
-Turn 2.6: at this point I decided to be more straightforward because I felt like overthinking was getting me in trouble. I was expecting syjfwbaobfwl to move right below me, which would have been bad, but I was also expecting to be wrong because there were many times the police didn't make the moves I would have made. I got nervous when he got below me, but then he made what may have been the biggest misplay in the game: he forgot to investigate in 93, the tile where I was, which gave me a lot of time until Magmor found that clue. Maybe if he had found it Ramen and him wouldn't have gotten out of the game at the time.
-After that: Even though Magmor didn't have much to do at the beginning due to bad luck, pan ended up being the only one who could have stopped me (something I like about this game is how if the murderer makes it far every policeman gets a chance to shine). If pan had made the wrong move, I would have won. But Magmor kept making the right moves until the end, pan's only mistake in the final turns was not arresting in turn 3-3. I saw Magmor's last movements coming like 5 turns in advance, but I kept hoping pan would misplay (to be honest, I was also hoping pan wouldn't). In the end I was very tempted to go to 35 in turn 3.3, but I thought "screw it! Overthinking hasn't helped me in this game". It paid off in the end.
-Turn 2.8: I really didn't understand why Ramen and syjfwbaobfwl went to the south in these turns. It was clear I was moving upwards; if I had been down there at that stage of the round I would have probably lost to a timeout.
-General comments: I think the police should have discussed more. I believe it would have helped them if they had tried to theorize where I was in each turn (that's why the time track at the bottom of the map is so useful). At some points near the end I tried to encourage them hoping they would be less lost. I was tempted to give them hints, but in the end I didn't. I'm glad the game could have been decided at the very last turn, though.
I also think they should have panicked a bit more in the final round. They acted like they had time left and never got to arrest. If I was in their place I would have arrested at 36 because it could have been a crime scene. Since the last crime scene was 42, it was likely the murderer was planning to have a very short third round. But even if that wasn't the case, it would have avoided the worst case scenario.
Also, here's a tip: sometimes there are situations where you can look at the time track and notice the murderer couldn't have gotten too far. If you are near a tile that can only be his last move, you should arrest there instead of investigating, which will reveal the killer's position but it will give him a chance to escape. If you arrest instead you either win or confirm the killer was never there.


And that's all for Whitehall mystery! Thanks to Magmor, Ramen and syjfwbaobfwl for playing, and thanks to [https://discord.gg/SDWtwJ4WdQ]Games Hub[/url] for allowing me to host the game there!

If someone wants to host this I'll happily join as a policeman. If not, I think I'll run Chinatown next. Maybe some day I'll run tragedy looper too.
Joacgroso wrote:I feel like I went from Light Yagami to Keiichi Maebara.

I still hope one day the game will have private lobbies. They would really help.
Also, please nerf vampire hunters.
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