FAM5 - Thread 1 - Day 1

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:07pm

FoL Annual Mash 5: Welcome to FoL University

From the twisted minds of @Arete, @Marshal, @Zone_Q11, @Ash, @May, @notblackorwhite, and @astand.

with possibly more hosts to come

Hosted on the account @FAMHost

Rules

Follow the Global Rules as well as the Forum Game Rules, or else.
Activity and cordial behavior towards your fellow player is expected. (At minimum, you must make 15 substantive, on-topic, game-related posts per phase.)
Have fun!

Phases And Timing

The game will begin 2025-07-05T21:00:00Z. Rolecards will be sent out before then.
Day phases will last for 24 hours. Night phases will last for 24 hours.
All phase changes will happen at 9:00:00 PM
During the night, the deadline for action submission is 2 hours before SoD (7:00:00 PM). Any action submitted after that time will NOT be processed.
During the day, actions will open 1 hour after the start of the day (10:00:00 PM) and close 1 hour before the end of the day (8:00:00 PM). Day actions may be pre-queued for a specific time.
All ITA sessions will last for 1 hour exactly. If you don’t know what that is, consult the next section.
Session 1 lasts from 1:00 AM→2:00 AM
Session 2 lasts from 7:00 AM→8:00 AM
Session 3 lasts from 5:00 PM→6:00 PM
Events may begin at any time, but will be scheduled mainly for times of high activity. Events are subgames where players may win prizes, or even death.

In-Thread Attacks (ITAs)

All players may use In-Thread Attacks during an allotted ITA session, which will begin on day 2. ITAs allow players to publicly attempt to kill other players. (See detailed explanation below in How ITAs Work)
By default, you have 1 ITA shot per day. Effects may modify the number of shots you have or any other ITA characteristic.
To fire an ITA shot, simply ping @FAMHost with **/ITA [player]**
At some point, ITAs will be disabled. This will be whenever the hosts deem fit.

How ITAs Work

Instead of having accuracy, ITA shots always hit, and deal damage to a player’s HP. However, each shot still has a chance to kill.

Every player in the game starts with 100 HP unless otherwise noted. ITA shots deal damage (base 10). If a player reaches 0 HP, they die. Additionally, each shot has a chance of a direct hit, which will kill the target regardless of their HP. The chance of a direct hit is based on the target's current HP.

Damage / Target’s Current HP = Direct Hit Chance

The chance is rolled before the damage is dealt. For example, if a player at 100HP is targeted by a shot with 10 damage, the direct hit chance is 10/100, or 10%. If the shot isn’t a direct hit, then the target’s health is reduced accordingly to 90.

ITA Feedback

Shot feedback:

“The shot connects.” — We have processed the shot, and its damage has been applied (damage may be 0). The target is at a non-zero HP, and the shot was not a Direct Hit. To be extra clear, this shot DID NOT KILL if you see this feedback.
“Direct hit! [Player] has died!” — The shot rolled a direct hit.
“Hit! [Player] has died from their wounds.” — The target reached 0 HP.
“Miss!” — The shot was mechanically stopped, and no damage was dealt.

HP feedback:
A player’s HP is private information. We will not reveal a player’s exact HP to anyone (unless otherwise noted), including the player.

Voting

There is no majority, only a deadline elimination. Whoever has the most votes at the end of the day will be eliminated.
All votes must be in the form of [vote]player[/vote] or [v]player[/v] to be counted. Unvotes should be formatted as [unvote][/unvote]. To guarantee that the votecount bot counts your vote correctly, it is best to type the player’s full username; however, shortened names may still work.
You may self-vote. Along with this, no-elimination is a valid vote. In cases where no-elim and another vote are tied at the end of the day, no-elim will have priority in the rand.
Tied votes will result in a player being eliminated at random from among the tied players.
MyLo (mis-eliminate and lose) and LyLo (eliminate or lose) will not be announced, and votes will not be locked. This is not in place for a final 3 scenario.
You may see the votecount as of a specific post by clicking the hammer icon on that post.

The Setup

All roles in this game are based off a user (Character) of FoL, and will feature Abilities & Flavor based on that person, their personality, and memorable moments from their time on the site. These Abilities will be summed up by a Major.

You MAY claim:	You may NOT claim:
Your assigned Character, School Year, and Type, but doing so may carry mechanical risks.	Your Flavor text, a short paragraph describing the person your role is based on, either directly or paraphrasing it.
Details about your Abilities, so long as they are paraphrased.	The name or exact text of any of your Abilities.
Details about your Major, so long as it is paraphrased.	Your exact Major.

Anti-claim mechanics exist.

This game is Closed. The exact set of abilities, win conditions, and factions in play is unknown. However, the following details are known:

The uninformed majority faction is called the Town, also known as the School of Villager Studies and its win condition is this:
You win when the Mafia and all other threats to the Town have been eliminated.
The primary informed minority faction is called the Mafia, formerly the School of Wolfing, and its win condition is this:
You win if no more threats to the Mafia exist or nothing can prevent that from happening.
Other factions, as well as Neutral roles with their own win conditions, may exist.
This game is Role Madness; every player has their own, unique ability.
No alignment conversion, false flips, game-ending jesters, or direct lies in your own rolecard. Everything else is fair game.

Example Rolecard

Fortress of Lies University Student ID
discobot School of Villager Studies (Town) Major: Dicebot School Year: Senior Type: Steel/Psychic \|\|\| \|\|\| \| \|\|\|\|\| \| \| \|\| \|\|\|\| \|\| \| \|\|\| \| \|\| \|\|\| \| \|\| \|	ID: 198480483

You win when the Mafia and all other threats to the Town have been eliminated.

Welcome to Fortress of Lies University, discobot!

Known for your knowledge of DICE, lengthy analytical TUTORIALS, and generally being an absolutely FORTUNE TELLER beloved by MOST, for this game, you will serve as an example rolecard not dealt to any player.

Please familiarize yourself with your course schedule (see below). If you have any questions regarding your classes, clubs, or university life, please ask in your rolecard. And whatever you do, please don’t lose your Student ID: we are unable to manufacture replacements at this time. All students found without an ID will be expelled immediately.

Course Schedule

ADMN 1000: Orientation Week
Passive
You are automatically added to every player’s role card.

STAT 1001: Dice Rolling
Day Action | Day 2+
Generate a number between 1 and 20 in your role card. Today, your ITA will do that much damage.

Extracurricular: Divination Club
Night Action | Even Night
Ask a yes-or-no question. You will receive an answer corresponding to the Magic 8-Ball Fortune that best answers your question, in the judgment of the hosts.

In this role card, your Character is Discobot, your Major is Dicebot, your School Year is Senior, your Type is Steel/Psychic, and your Abilities are Orientation Week, Dice Rolling, and Divination Club.

Signups

If you wish to sign up with an alternative account, please consult the hosts beforehand. Alts will only be allowed on condition of their main account being publicly known and stated on the playerlist. If you are unsure which account qualifies as your main, consult the hosts.

Backups

Specs

Signups close 2025-06-28T21:00:00Z

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:07pm

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:08pm

Threadmarks

None so far :)

Alphabetized Playerlist

This is an unofficial playerlist provided for player convenience. Any effects that depend on the order of the playerlist will NOT use this list.

Summary

@Amelia
@Apocryphal
@Atlas
@beancat
@benguinedparbecue
@BradLand
@bystander
@Cape90
@carbonated
@CarrotyReaper
@catbae
@childe
@Chloe
@Creature
@Daeron
@DramaMillMisc
@Dz1
@ElizaThePsycho
@Ephemera
@ExtremeWays
@Frostwolf103
@Garfooled
@Geyde
@Gocj
@gori
@Hazardwaste
@HeroShotter9000 (@Hippopablompoyeetus)
@iamagummybear
@ImaginaryNeon
@Italy
@Jarek
@Kelsier
@Kiiruma
@Kork
@krii
@Leafia
@Litten
@LittleLee
@lol
@Luka
@Magnus
@Marluna
@Memekingpizza
@Mistyx
@neil_the_eel
@nutella
@pandora
@Pqwerty
@Ratchet
@Relm
@RetrogradeDusk
@Ruby
@Selkie
@Silviu200530
@soweli
@spookycat27
@sulit
@Tasqar
@tepig19283
@TheBlueElixir
@thepigeonnyc
@tutuu
@Wazza
@whatdafucc
@Wisdom
@YoubutWorse
@Zugzwang

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:15pm

Abilities, Effects, and Action Resolution

I. General Ability Information

The following is true about abilities:

Actions cannot be used and abilities cannot trigger during Night 0 unless otherwise stated.
Unless otherwise specified, Immediate Day Action submissions are ignored during ITA windows. We prefer you do not try to submit them during ITA windows at all.
You may not choose or target yourself as a player with actions unless otherwise stated. This only applies when a player is selected.
To “visit” another player means you have targeted that player with an action, and that action has resolved. An action does not resolve if it is blocked or fails for another reason (e.g. the player is un-targetable because of a commute). It does resolve if its target was protected, immune, or otherwise unaffected. An action that does not target, does not visit (even if it says “choose”).
If two or more actions create a situation that cannot be resolved in a way that is deemed to be sensible and deterministic, all actions involved will fail. For example, Bus Driver A targets X and Y, and Bus Driver B targets Y and Z. As we cannot direct actions that target Y to both X and Z, the actions of both Bus Drivers fail.
By default, you may only use one action during the day and one action during the night. This does not apply to multitasking actions.
Items, event prizes, etc. are multitasking by default, unless otherwise specified. This means that you can use them alongside your role abilities.

II. Ability Types

There are 2 kinds of abilities, Action and Passive. An ability’s “tag line” (the line below the bold name) will say what kind it is. Actions may have 1 or more prefixes that affect when it can be used, or how often it can be used:

Click here for a list of prefixes

Day or Night — May only be used in that respective phase.
Cycle — May only be used once per Cycle, but in either phase.
Even or Odd — May only be used on even or odd Cycles respectively.
Immediate — Resolves as soon as the hosts are able to after it’s submitted. Immediate actions are ignored during ITA windows.
Factional — May be used by allied players instead of the player who owns it.
Innate — Are granted to players via game rules (e.g. ITA shots). “You may use an additional [reference to Innate action]” means you can use the referenced action an additional time. They may implicitly be used in addition to other actions during the same phase. They are not considered to be an ability of a role or player, and are ignored by effects that modify, inspect, or cause a player to lose abilities, unless otherwise stated.

There may be additional prefixes not listed here. If you are confused about your abilities, please ask the hosts.

Unless otherwise noted, actions must be submitted before the Phase’s respective action deadline, and resolve at the end of the Phase (unless it’s Immediate).

III. Effects

You probably don’t need to read this unless you’re confused about mechanics. It works as most would expect, but here’s an overly technical explanation of it anyways:

Click here to read more

Abilities have 1 or more effects. There are broadly two kind of effects: investigation, and state-changing.

Investigation is broken down further:

Observation — learns about visits (e.g. track or watch).
Inspection — learns about a player’s state (e.g. alignment cop, role cop, flavor cop).

State-changing is broken down further:

Killing — directly results in a player’s death.¹
Protection — prevents other effects from being applied (e.g. a Doctor protects against killing actions). All effects, not just killing, can be protected against if specified. If it protects against killing actions, it will prevent all effects of an action with a killing effect. If it only protects against killing effects, all effects other than a killing effect will be applied as normal if possible.
Blocking — causes actions to fail. If an action becomes blocked, the acting player does not visit if they otherwise would.
Redirection — changes the target of another player’s actions. If an action would be redirected to an illegal target, the redirecting action fails instead.
Diversion — changes the target of another player’s actions that visit a particular player (e.g. Bus Driver).
Communication — changes when, where, how, etc. a player may communicate. This includes private chats, extra public chats, posting restrictions, and having the host account post a message.
Inventory Changing — giving, removing, stealing, swapping, or copying Items, Charges, or other game objects.
Property Changing — modifying player or ability tags; giving, removing, stealing, swapping, copying, inheriting abilities (or roles); modifying vote weight, or otherwise modifying player, role, or ability properties.
Rules Changing — modifies the normal rules of the game. i.e. a conventional Commuter (the game generally treats them as if they don’t exist while commuted) or an Accelerator (makes an affected action resolve entirely before other actions begin resolution).

Other state-changing effects not named above include things like modifying tags, abilities, Charges, ITA accuracy or shots, vote weight, and modifying other mechanical markers. The above effects (besides Communication, Inventory Changing, Property Changing, and Rules Changing) can usually be recognized by the verbs “kill,” “protect,” “block,” “redirect,” and “divert” respectively.

Communication effects are often recognizable by what they do. Inventory Changing and Property Changing all typically use verbs like “give,” “steal,” “swap,” and “copy.” Rules Changing effects (and sometimes Property Changing and Inventory Changing) are only recognizable by what they do rather than the particular word choice.

Anything that refers to state-changing effects also refers to Killing, Protection, Blocking, Redirection, Communication, etc. but not the other way around. That is, effects that specify Killing only apply to Killing effects and not any other state-changing effects.

Additional Vote Weight is always private and lost in XYLO unless otherwise stated.

¹Effects are not considered “killing” effects if they do not kill a player when they resolve, even if they would eventually cause a death or are likely do so. For example, vanilla Poison action has a state-changing effect that applies a mechanical marker (what we’d call a tag in this game) that has the effect of killing the player its attached to if not removed (“healed”), but the action itself does not kill when it resolves. A vanilla Arsonist’s Douse action works similarly by placing a Doused tag on players that the Ignite action kills, but similarly it does not itself kill. Therefore, a vanilla Doctor’s action (“Protect target player from killing actions.”) would not stop such actions, and a vanilla Voyeur/Follower would not observe them as killing actions. An inspection action that lets a player learn the kind (effects) of actions their target has would not see a Poison action or Douse as killing.

If an effect lets you learn the kind (effects) of an ability, we will be as specific as possible, and list each different kind of effects present. If we say “investigation”, it’s neither observation nor inspection. Similarly, if we say “state-changing”, it’s not any of the more specific named variants (or couldn’t reach a decision regarding which it specifically is). If it has multiple effects of the same kind, we will still only list it once. That is, if an action is “killing and state-changing”, it has one or more killing effects and one or more state-changing effects.

IV. Allied Players

An allied player is a player of the same alignment, whose alignment has been either publicly confirmed, or confirmed to you personally (such as your Mason, other members of the Mafia, or someone you alignment peeked.)

An unallied player is a player of a different alignment or any player whose alignment has not been confirmed by the host in some manner.

V. Action Resolution

Action resolution does not have an order-of-operations.
No effects have implicit priority over the others unless the effects interact. Resolution is done in a manner similar to “natural action resolution” or “golden rule resolution,” and essentially means it’ll happen in a way that makes intuitive sense (e.g. a block resolves before the action it’s blocking).

Click here to read more

Certain actions that interact with each other may be given priority based on their effects. Actions that change the acting player’s state (it affects themselves, targeted or not) are given priority over actions that would be affected by that state change (i.e. a self-commute resolves before a block targeting them). Additionally, when a block and redirect are cross-targeting, the redirect is given priority. That is, if a redirector and blocker cross-target, the block is redirected, but if a blocker targets a redirector and the redirector goes somewhere else, the redirect is blocked.

If two or more actions interact, and one of the above priority rules cannot be used, all interacting actions fail (none of their effects apply and the acting player does not visit). For example, cross-targeting blockers and redirectors will have their actions fail. If two Bus Drivers have overlapping targets, both fail.

The result of investigation effects is determined at the end of the Night, not when it resolves. For example, two trackers cross-targeting will successfully observe each other.

The name of the investigated player is not normally included in results. However, if an investigation action is redirected, the investigating player will be informed they were redirected, but not to whom they were redirected.

VI. Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for the FAQ

Q. If an action specifies an unallied player, and a member of the Mafia targets a Lost Wolf with it, what happens?

A. The Lost Wolf would be considered an unallied player until the moment they rejoined the pack, if able.

Q. How does allied and unallied work with 3rd Party or Neutral players?

A. 3rd Party or Neutral alignments may or may not be considered allied with each other, but are never considered allied with members of others factions.

Q. My Night action requires the target be unallied, but they’re host confirmed to be an allied player at the start of Day. What happens?

A. For the purposes of allied and unallied, we only care if it’s true when you submitted the action. The action would resolve normally, if able.

Q. Wait so what if the Mafia use an unallied kill on their Lost Wolf who submits their action to rejoin the pack that same Night?

A. Tragedy.

Q: Without an OOP, how am I supposed to know how certain roles will interact???

A: You may ask the hosts how certain interactions would resolve. You can use actions from your role, flipped roles, vanilla roles, or descriptions of hypothetical actions that may or may not exist when asking your question. We will give you an answer to the question you ask, and we are never confirming or denying the existence of certain actions by answering these questions. If you ask us a question that has an ultimately misleading answer relative to the game state, that’s on you.

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:21pm

Player & Ability Tags

I. Tags

Tags are mechanical markers of players and abilities. Some tags modify the player or ability they’re on, some are hooks that effects can refer to, and some may just be there for flavor. Players know what tags they have, and what tags their actions have at all times unless otherwise stated.

II. Common Tags

We recommend looking through these at least once!

Most (but not necessarily all) of the following tags are in the game. These will often not be explained in role cards when they appear. Tags may exist that are not on this list, and they will be explained on role cards when they appear.

Player tags:

Enigmatic — This player cannot claim or soft any role flavor, role tags, role abilities, or any non-public game actions. If they do, they lose all role abilities and tags (You may know this as Scared), and any ongoing effects are canceled (e.g. if the role created an ongoing event, the event would end immediately). The claimed/softed flavor, tags, abilities do not have to be real. Claiming/softing anything mechanical relating to your role at all violates this restriction. You are able to talk about things that everyone has access to or knowledge of e.g. you have a role (no one is vanilla), you have an ITA shot (everyone does), or that you’ve used an event prize (this has nothing to do with your role). YOU MAY CLAIM THAT YOU’RE ENIGMATIC .
Enigmatic About {Something} — Similar to Engimatic , the player cannot claim or soft anything specifically related to X. As long as it does not imply a relation to the thing you’re Engimatic about, it does not violate the restriction. This has the same consequences as violating a normal Engimatic restriction. YOU MAY CLAIM THAT YOU’RE ENGIMATIC ABOUT SOMETHING .
Vulnerable — This player cannot be protected from kills (think Macho).

Ability tags:

Compulsive — This action must be used at every opportunity. Choices and targets will be selected randomly if the action is not submitted.
Hidden — This action cannot be observed e.g. can’t be tracked, watched, etc. (think Ninja).
Inactive — The ability’s passive effects do not apply, its triggers do not trigger, and it cannot be used if it’s an action.
Loud — The players visited by this action are publicly announced at the beginning of the next Phase or after they resolve if Immediate. Example: “Adora visited Catra during the Night.” (Those names are Chloe’s fault. She knows what she did.)
Multitasking — This action can be used in addition to other actions in the same Phase, Cycle, etc. Items are multitasking by default, unless specified otherwise.
X-shot — This action can only be used X times per game.
Overwhelming — The action ignores effects that protect the targeted player, or diversion effects on their target (i.e. a Bus Driver).
Strong-willed — The action cannot be blocked, and ignores redirection targeting the acting player.
Unstoppable — The action is both Strong-willed and Overwhelming, and ignores all other effects that would prevent it (e.g. a Commuter).

Player or Ability tags:

Sealed (Player) — This player cannot be interacted with while dead (this includes all of their abilities and Items). When a dead player becomes Sealed , it is publicly announced at the beginning of the next Phase that they became Sealed during the previous Phase. If a living player is Sealed, it’s never announced, but instead will be noted when their role is revealed. There is an ability tag of the same name that works the same way, but is limited to only the ability it modifies.
Sealed (Ability) — This ability cannot be interacted with while the player who owns it is dead. When an ability owned by a dead player becomes Sealed , it is publicly announced at the beginning of the next Phase that it became Sealed during the previous Phase. If the ability of a living player is Sealed, it’s never announced, but instead will be noted when their role is revealed. There is a player tag of the same name that works the same way.
Cycling — The player must use each Cycling ability in their role, or each Cycling mode of a single ability, an even number of times. (For example, if a player must Cycle between abilities A, B, and C, and they have used A and B once but C zero times, they would need to use C before using A or B. If they have used A and B twice, and C once, they would likewise need to use C before using A or B.)

THIS LIST IS NOT EXHAUSTIVE. OTHER TAGS NOT LISTED HERE MAY EXIST .

III. General Details

Click here to read more

Tags may have implicit mechanical effects. Tags may implicitly add other tags, and when it does, effects that care about the tag will resolve as if it had the implicit tags (see Unstoppable).

Tags may have a value. For example, the X-shot tag always has a numerical value that can vary from instance to instance, and X is replaced by whatever the value is e.g. 2-shot and 3-shot are both instances of X-shot, but the former has a value of 2 and the latter has a value of 3. Values are secret by default.

Tags do not stack, and neither players nor abilities can have more than 1 instance of a tag at a time. If an effect would put another instance of a tag on a player, it does nothing instead. If the effect is passive, it is ignored while the player or ability has the same tag. If two or more instances of a tag would be applied to the same player or ability during action resolution with different values, none are applied unless otherwise stated.

Tags of actions only apply to that action. That is, if a player is blocked, all actions would be blocked accept those that are Strong-willed or Unstoppable. If the player has a tag that normally only applies to abilities, like Unstoppable, it is identical to all of their abilities having the tag i.e. effects that care about an action being Unstoppable would see that action as Unstoppable if its player had the Unstoppable tag. For tags that have distinct meaning as both a player tag and an ability tag (e.g. Leader or Sealed), the player tag does not necessarily mean it is the same as all abilities having that tag.

Tags can often be recognized in the construction “becomes [Tag]” e.g. “becomes Overwhelming”. This construction may change to ensure it is proper(ish) English grammar e.g. “becomes a Key ability”. Roles that start with tags will often see it written as “You are [Tag]” e.g. “You are Enigmatic.” Abilities that start with a tag will find them in a space delimited list followed the em dash (“—”) on the tag line (the one that starts with “Day/Night Action”, “Passive” etc.).

IV. Tag-specific Details

Click here to read more

Sealed has a slightly different meaning when on a player instead of an ability in that it does a bit more when on a player than treating all of its abilities as Sealed, but an ability being Sealed is still redundant if its player is Sealed. When a player is Sealed, they cannot be interacted with at all (abilities or otherwise). If an ability is Sealed, it will be ignored by backups even if the rest of the role could be copied. We will update flips if the player or their abilities become Sealed after death (either editing it into the role itself, or making a note somewhere), but we will not make an announcement when this happens.

A Hidden action cannot be observed e.g. can’t be tracked, watched, etc. (think Ninja). The action must be Hidden when it resolves e.g. if an immediate action resolves during the Night and that action later becomes Hidden, observation effects still see the immediate action.

An Overwhelming action ignores effects that protect the targeted player, or diversion effects on their target (i.e. a Bus Driver). However, it can be blocked or redirected by effects targeting the acting player. In other words, it ignores anything that would somehow shield its target (think Strongman but bypasses a few more things). If an effect would cause ITA shots targeting a player to have their damage reduced to 0, Overwhelming would ignore such an effect, but it would not ignore an effect making the player’s shots deal 0 damage.

A Strong-willed action cannot be blocked, and ignores redirection targeting the acting player. However, it would not ignore things such as their target being protected or redirection from a Bus Driver. In other words, it ignores anything that affects the acting player (think Strongwill but bypasses a few more things). If an effect would cause a Strong-willed player’s ITA shots to deal 0 damage, they ignore such an effect. If an effect would cause ITA shots targeting a player to have their damage reduced to 0, it would not ignore that effect, and would deal 0 damage.

While Unstoppable ignores an effect that makes a player un-targetable or otherwise immune, it does not allow the action to ignore its own targeting restrictions. For example, if an action says it can only target members of the Mafia, it cannot ignore that restriction if it becomes Unstoppable. Additionally, anything that references Strong-willed or Overwhelming also applies to Unstoppable e.g. “Assist target player, and copy Key actions they use that are not Strong-willed.” would not copy Unstoppable actions either. Effects may still say things like “Overwhelming or Unstoppable” for the sake of clarity, but simply “Overwhelming” would have sufficed.

V. Charges & X-shot

Click here to read more

Charges are countable mechanical markers. Each Charge has a unique name such as Whatever Charge, and is not interchangeable with Charges of any other name unless otherwise stated.

X-shot is a tag with a positive integer value that replaces X in the name (e.g. 1-shot, 2-shot, etc.). X-shot checks how many times an action has been used, and will prevent a player from using the action further if they’ve used it X or more times. That is, if a 1-shot action has been used one or more times, it cannot be used again.

Click here for a (very) detailed explanation

Abilities may care about how many Charges you have, or require them as a cost to use an action. In this way, they can be similar to the X-shot tag in that the number of times you can use an action is limited (i.e. an action that costs 1 Bullet Charge and you have 3 Bullet Charges with no way to gain more is nearly identical in practice to the same action with a 3-shot tag. However, unlike Charges, X-shot is not a cost. It merely compares the number of times the action has been used that game to its number, and says the action cannot be used if its been used as many or more times than its number. That is, you cannot gain more shots of an X-shot ability. The only way to use an action more times than its X-shot tag says is by removing that tag.

Charge costs and X-shot are checked when the action is submitted, not when the action resolves. For example, you could not steal a Charge and make a player unable to pay a cost for an action they’ve already submitted (the cost was essentially deducted upon submission). Another example would be if an action that has been used on a previous Night, and submitted for the current Night, were to gain a 1-shot tag before resolving, it would resolve normally even though it will now have been used twice. This is similarly true if an action were to somehow gain a cost of Charges; it still resolves if it was already submitted. (An action is “submitted” once the action submission window is closed for that phase. If an Immediate action were to make an action X-shot or have a cost of Charges, this could prevent a non-Immediate action from resolving at the end of the phase.)

Passive abilities with effects based on Charge thresholds are updated as soon as Charges are gained or lost. For example, if a passive made a player Unstoppable if they had 3 or more Bulldoze Charges, and somehow gained a Bulldoze Charge during action resolution before their actions resolved, their actions would be Unstoppable. However, this still cannot fizzle actions that are already submitted. If an action is Inactive unless they have at least 5 Level Charges, it will resolve if it’s already submitted even if that player would dip below the threshold during action resolution (but would still technically be Inactive as it resolved).

If an action with the X-shot tag would be given another instance of the X-shot tag, the tag with the lowest value will be applied and all others are lost (this is not necessarily true of other tags with values).

If an action is copied (the text may say things like “inherit” or “gain”), its state is copied as well, which includes the number of times its been used. That is to say, if a 1-shot action has been used once, it still cannot be used again once copied.

VI. Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for the FAQ

Q. Why did you rename some of these that are in the List of Vanilla Roles?

A. Because notblackorwhite is incredibly opinionated and argumentative and we were tired of arguing with her (this was written by notblackorwhite and does not necessarily reflect the views of other FAM4 hosts). (There actually were not arguments about this.) The real reason is they were changed to have names more evocative of their mechanical effect, and be more flavor neutral/flexible e.g. Macho as an adjective has a lot of implications and doesn’t make sense in all contexts like making someone “macho” doesn’t make as much sense flavor wise as making someone “vulnerable”. Ninja is another example of a modifier that’s overly specific in terms of the flavor it implies, and Hidden evokes a similar meaning without the same flavor connotations.

Q. Aren’t these just modifiers? Why not call them modifiers?

A. They don’t all modify. All modifiers are tags, but not all tags are modifiers. Some have an implicit mechanical effect (they modify), but all of them are useful because they can be cleanly.

There is an example rolecard in the OP.

FAMHost · July 4, 2025, 9:25pm

In-Thread Attacks

Instead of having accuracy, ITA shots always hit, and deal damage to a player’s HP. However, each shot also has a chance to kill.

To fire an ITA shot, ping @FAMHost with **/ITA [player]**. YOU MUST PING FAMHOST OR YOUR SHOT WILL NOT BE COUNTED.

I. Short Explanation

ITAs are handled via damage and HP, but all you need to know is that at the base rate (10 damage), you have an average ITA accuracy of ~18% over the course of the game if they worked conventionally (just trust us).

In short, your shots always deal damage if they connect, but have a chance to kill via a “direct hit,” and there’s a max number of shots someone can take before being guaranteed to die. Every player in the game starts with 100 HP (unless otherwise specified).

Effects that deal damage do not necessarily roll for direct hits. ITA Shots roll for direct hits because they say they do. If another effect that deals damage would roll for a direct hit, it will say so.

II. Shot Feedback

Read this at least once

“The shot connects.” — We have processed the shot, and its damage has been applied (damage may be 0). The target is at a non-zero HP, and the shot was not a Direct Hit. To be extra clear, this shot DID NOT KILL if you see this feedback.
“Direct hit! [Player] has died!” — The shot rolled a direct hit.
“Hit! [Player] has died from their wounds.” — The target reached 0 HP.
“Miss!” — There was an effect that interfered with the shot. This could be something like a “day angel”, a vest, or an effect that makes a player’s shots “miss”. Please note that an effect that reduces another player’s damage 0 would be still be processed as “The shot connects.”

III. HP Feedback

Read this at least once

HP Feedback will not be provided.

IV. Armor Plates

Read this at least once

Armor plates have been slightly modified from last year. 1 Armor Plate negates 1 point of damage against a player, and is then destroyed. However, different armor plates from different users do not stack. For example, if Arete gives you 10 Armor Plates, and then Marshal gives you 15 Armor plates, you have 15 Armor Plates, not 25. (Think Temporary Hit Points in D&D 5e).

If there is damage left over from an ITA after an Armor Plate is destroyed, the remaining damage is processed as a normal ITA.

Armor plates will expire at the end of the Day phase.

V. Longer Explanation (for nerds)

Click here for the longer explanation

Every player in the game starts with 100 HP (unless otherwise noted). ITA shots deal damage, and have a base damage of 10. If a player reaches 0 HP, they die.

Additionally, each shot has a chance of a direct hit which will kill the target regardless of their HP. Direct hits in this sense operate similarly to conventional accuracy based ITAs, but instead of having a (mostly) fixed accuracy, the chance increases as the target’s HP gets lower. The following formula is used to determine the chance of a direct hit:

Incoming Shot Damage / Target’s Current HP = Direct Hit Chance

The chance is rolled before the damage is dealt. For example, a player at 100 HP is targeted by a shot with 10 damage, the direct hit chance is 10 / 100, or 10%. If a shot isn’t a direct hit, then the target’s health is reduced accordingly to 90. The damage used for the shot is after all effects that would increase and decrease its damage for shooting its target have been applied. In other words, we looked ahead at the damage it’s going to do when rolling for a direct hit.

Only ITA shots have a chance to direct hit unless otherwise noted. Other effects that deal damage, are not ITA shots, and do not explicitly say that have a chance to direct hit, cannot direct hit.

A shot must deal damage to have a chance at a direct hit. If the shot deals 0 damage, or the damage would be otherwise prevented, it cannot be a direct hit.

Health cannot go below 0. If an effect would reduce a player’s health below 0, it goes to 0 instead. A player’s starting HP and max HP is 100 unless otherwise noted. Your HP cannot go above your max HP, and if an effect would, it’ll have it go to your max HP instead.

VI. Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for the FAQ

Q: But isn’t this system super town-sided???

A: Nope! Not significantly more so than conventional accuracy ITAs anyway. We had more than one discussion about it, and designed with the potential differences in mind. It’s not exactly untested either.

Q: What would the feedback of a “day angel” be?

A: The exact feedback would depend on the wording of the effect with the ultimate goal of “preventing death from ITAs during the Day”. In practice, we could do:

Shield target player from ITA shots by reducing shots that target them deal 0 damage during the next Day.

The above would have the feedback of “The shot connects.” because the damage is reduced to 0.

Protect target player from ITA shots during the next Day.

The above would have the feedback of “Miss!” because protection stops the shots from having any effect (they do not deal damage, and cannot direct hit).

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:00pm

Setting up votecounts

ElizaThePsycho
benguinedparbecue
tutuu
nutella
soweli
Atlas
Daeron
Amelia
Frostwolf103
Apocryphal
carbonated
Zugzwang
BradLand
beancat
sulit
Selkie
Mistyx
YoubutWorse
bystander
Kiiruma
Ephemera
Magnus
gori
Leafia
Silviu200530
Marluna
neil_the_eel
catbae
Garfooled
childe
HeroShotter9000
Gocj
spookycat27
Luka
Jarek
Litten
Hazardwaste
Kelsier
thepigeonnyc
Cape90
Wazza
Geyde
Italy
Ruby
Kork
Pqwerty
LittleLee
Relm
iamagummybear
TheBlueElixir
lol
krii
Tasqar
CarrotyReaper
pandora
Creature
RetrogradeDusk
whatdafucc
Memekingpizza
Chloe
tepig19283
Dz1
Ratchet
Wisdom
ImaginaryNeon
ExtremeWays
DramaMillMisc
Willow

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:00pm

SOD1 FLAVOR

Subject: Welcome to Fortress of Lies University!
`Campus Announcement Board` `<anoungcmitz@folu.edu>`
`To:` `Incoming Students 2025` `<incomingstudents2025@lists.folu.edu>`
folbannergradient1600×319 657 KB

Dear Students of Fortress of Lies University,

As many of you are aware, late last night, our student records were vandalized with the message “bye bitches”, rendering them unusable. Given that this comes directly after our announcement that we are shuttering our School of Wolfing for minor accounting errors, such as the embezzlement of our faculty’s pension funds into a giant Ferris Wheel, we are unable to determine which of our students were a part of the former School. We recognize that this is a turbulent time for many students, so we ask that you all please remain calm.

Having said that, we call upon our student body to seek out now-invalid IDs of students from the former School of Wolfing and turn them in through the appropriate channels, like the main office incinerator. This will prevent students from the former School of Wolfing from entering university buildings, expelling them as intended. Additionally, to prevent the creation of fraudulent IDs (as our records at the moment are incomplete), we will be not be manufacturing new IDs at this time, so please keep an eye on your own ID lest you lose access to your classes.

Additionally, the construction of notblackorwhite Hall will be halted immediately after a major donor pulled funding. Please do not do “some urbex shit” in the former construction site.

The Fortress of Lies University President could not be reached for comment, as they are “attending their annual popelarp” this week. Please direct all questions to the secretary, May Fromtheflowers.

Regards,
Campus Announcements Board

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:01pm

Campus Announcement Board

@Kork is the King!

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:01pm

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Subject: Elect your Student Council Today!
`Fortress of Lies University Event Announcement Team` `<announcements@folu.edu>`
`To:` `Event Announcements List` `<events@lists.folu.edu>`
folbannergradient1600×319 657 KB Dear $STUDENT_NAME$, The Events Announcement Team at Fortress of Lies University is pleased to invite you to the following event. Please see details below:

Student Council Elections
Players: Unlimited
Chance of Death: None
Mobile-friendly: Yes
Duration: Until the action submission deadline (1 hour before end of Day)
Discord Access: Not Required
Other Notes: N/A

How to play

You may submit up to 3 names in a ballot for student council elections. Please specify they are for student council elections.
The top 3 vote getters at the end of the day will be added to the student council. The results are not publicly announced. Transparency, schmansparency.
Unlike most events, you may discuss this one publicly.

How to Join:

Submit a ballot for student council. You do not need to officially run or accept the position. The top 3 vote getters are automatically added to the student council.

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:02pm

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Subject: Back to School Questionnaire!
`Fortress of Lies University Event Announcement Team` `<announcements@folu.edu>`
`To:` `Event Announcements List` `<events@lists.folu.edu>`
folbannergradient1600×319 657 KB Dear $STUDENT_NAME$, hey you fucking losers. its my last day in this internship sending out these stupid fucking emails. i hate this job and i hate the event announcement team. its not even a team its just one person who calls it a team to sound smarter. either way, i’m supposed to send out a back-to-school survey, but can you all just do me a favor and only send in wrong answers? Thanks

Sheep (Wrong Answers Only)
Players: Unlimited
Chance of Death: None
Mobile-friendly: Yes
Duration: Until EoD1
Discord Access: Not Required
Other Notes: N/A

How to play:

It’s sheep. You’re gonna get a list of questions, and for the fun of it, you’ll get the right answers too. Your goal is to send in a wrong answer to the question, with the goal of saying the same thing as as many people as possible.
You get a point for each other person that said the same that thing you did. You get NO points if you send in a correct answer.
Please submit a list to us in your rolecard with your answers. You don’t have to re-copy paste the questions themselves, just send us the answers. Semantically identical results will be combined.
All responses will be revealed at the end of the day. The highest scorers will get a prize!

How to Join:

Send a list (should be 8 items) of answers in your PM.

Questionnaire Questions (All answers that would be considered correct are in strikethrough parentheses. Please don’t respond with these. Again, the goal is to mess with the event announcement team.)

What does FoL stand for? (~~Fortress of Lies~~)
What is Fortress of Lies University’s Mascot? (~~Joyson the Joyca~~t)
Name a team sport mentioned in the recently-settled class-action lawsuit against Fortress of Lies University (~~American Football, Curling, Boatsketball, Tennis~~)
Name a student at Fortress of Lies University (~~Anyone on the playerlist~~)
Name a famous/successful alumni of Fortress of Lies University (there is no correct answer to this question)
Name a faculty member at Fortress of Lies University (~~Marshal, Zone, Ash, Astand, May, Arete, notblackorwhite~~)
Name a past or present President of the United States of America (~~Any past or present president of the USA~~)
Name an element on the periodic table (~~Any element on the periodic table~~)

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Subject: Enter our merch raffle!
`Fortress of Lies University Event Announcement Team` `<announcements@folu.edu>`
`To:` `Event Announcements List` `<events@lists.folu.edu>`
folbannergradient1600×319 657 KB Dear $STUDENT_NAME$, The Events Announcement Team at Fortress of Lies University is pleased to invite you to the following event. Please see details below:

Blaseball Elections
Players: Unlimited
Chance of Death: None
Mobile-friendly: Yes
Duration: Until the action submission deadline (1 hour before end of Day)
Discord Access: Not Required
Other Notes: N/A

How to play

Our Blaseball team is Raffling off a Blessing: a pair of Gravity Boots! Submit a vote privately for a player, and they will receive an entry into the raffle. The more entries they get, the better their chances of winning!
The prize will be distributed at the start of the Night.
You may not vote for yourself.
Unlike most events, you may discuss this one publicly.

How to Join:

Submit a vote for the raffle in your rolecard. (Please label it as such for ease of processing.)

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

Day 1 has started and will end in 24 hours at 2024-07-06T21:00:00Z!

The window for day actions will begin 2024-07-05T22:00:00Z and end 2024-07-06T20:00:00Z.

@FAM5Players

FAMHost · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

Litten · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

Mew

nutella · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

sixth

Zugzwang · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Apocryphal · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

Nya

nutella · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

SECOND

Chloe · July 5, 2025, 9:03pm

sup losers