Posting in twilight - what is the default rule?

[Norinel]

if its a good mod then there wont be much time inbetween the lynching vote and the lynch scene.

Why should when the mod is online have an impact on the game's outcome?

[Norinel]

o me, this is the key point. Mackay, how does one know what the "required number of votes" is? What if someone has an extra hidden vote to dispense? Or if someone's role gives them the ability to require 2/3 majority instead of 1/2 majority to lynch? Unless that information is made public, which the mod presumably would not want to do, there's no way for the players to know. If a mod says at the beginning of the game something like "There are no roles in this game that alter the number of votes needed to lynch, so I'm enforcing a strict moratorium on twilight posting," that's one thing. Witout such a disclaimer, though, the only way this can sensibly work is for the day to be over only when the mod locks the thread.

I'm trying to partially solve that problem in Star Wars Quotes Mafia; remind me when the game's over and I'll explain further.

[Norinel]

And how is it obious to them? What if there's a game trigger that makes people need half the votes to be lynched? Or if a person requires an extra vote to get lynched? There are even roles which have extra votes.

Those are all relatively rare occurrences. In my time on this site, I can remember one game I was in that had a vote-affecting role, and it had a very active mod to minimize an unknown twilight.

It makes a lot more sense to allow it altogether, it enhances the game anyways.

How, exactly, does making the end of the day rely on an essentially arbitrary, random factor instead of the choice of the players enhance the game?

Anyway, I think both saying to not post in twilight but making no other changes and making an arbitrary twilight have their disadvantages. Personally, I believe the former's are easier to deal with, but modifying one or the other should make something acceptable to both sides.

[Norinel]

How, exactly, does making the end of the day rely on an essentially arbitrary, random factor instead of the choice of the players enhance the game?

It's not random. Random implied that the mod would log in randomly throughout the day to check the game. In reality, most people have a routine. I, for example, log in once at 4:00 pm and once at 10:00 pm. Therefore, it's not random, since I would not be able to end the day at 4:00 am. This allows other users with a regular schedule to have their say before the day ends.

In that case, it's merely arbitrary. Still, some players will be able to get on between 4 AM and 4 PM, and some won't, and the fact that it's 4 PM and not 4:05 AM is based on an out-of-game that's outside of the player's control.

This is not a bad thing, because it does not hurt the game. Another thing would be saying something like "Ok guys, with 6 votes, norinel is lynched. He was town. I can't really post the lynch scene because I'm in a rush, but feel free to keep posting" because there is new information, thus allowing the town to plan night actions better. As long as no new information is revealed, neither side benefits, therefore it enhances the game because the players have to be smart to use the little time they have to post wisely.

There

is

new information revealed during twilight: who gets lynched. The lynchee knows any information they don't post will be taken to the grave, and thus has basically no reason not to reveal it. (If you think the lynchee deserves last words, let the players or the rules give him that opportunity, not how everyone's schedules line up.) And some players aren't going to have little time, they will have no time, and which ones will and which ones won't is entirely a consequence of factors that should, IMO, have minimal bearing on the game, if not none whatsoever.

[Norinel]

that argument could go the other way, as well; what if player X would say something before he gets lynched, but can't get on for a few days and when he does get on, he finds out he was lynched?

As Mackay said (And I believe mith did as well in the old thread), then it'd be principally the players' fault, and much less so the out-of-game factor. I agree with minimizing the impact of out-of-game factors on actual gameplay, and arbitrary twilight is one of very few ways the mod's schedule can have any impact. Why not drop it?

Edit: And for the record, I doubt I'd have any problem with a twilight of specified duration, (Say, one post by the lynchee or a span of time at least as long as the mod expects everyone to be online) but I've never seen it in practice.