Oh boy. How is it that the game gets so much harder when you stop being the target?
So, courtesy of last round I have the group of four with Oracle, Madame, Margot. That's actually the only group chat I have, which is odd, but I think is a good thing because it keeps my threat level low. If people think I'm disconnected, I'm better off for it at this point.
I also have the unofficial group of five with Gustave/Suzy/Herman/Oracle which is very much a 'Gustave says this and you lot are expected to jump to it' group. Which is fine. Again, keeps my threat level low, and he's putting the target on his own back.
So, now, speaking of low-threat level - this phase, I have had three different people approach me with exactly the same pitch. Herman, Royal, Richie. All exactly the same - 'we're outsiders, we should stick together and keep one another safe.' And it's... kind of insane?
I never built up much of a relationship with any of them. If I was playing my normal BIG STOMPY MEME game, then making friends with them would take a ridiculous amount of effort on my part because they'd see me as a threat, and even that amount of effort doesn't usually work. But... when you're playing UTR, zero effort put into making friends with them suddenly means they view me as someone they can beat (I think) so they now want me on their side.
It feels like I've found a cheat code.
Obviously, it's not all great. In order to get here, I lucked out in not going to TCs and other people (Foxy in particular) shooting themselves in the foot, so I guess UTR is more of a 'harder start, easier middle, harder end' thing. And now I need to juggle all these alliances without making myself look like a threat in any way, because the moment they realise I'm better connected than they thought they'll probably turn on me. But still, it's just amazing to see all these people suddenly want to be friends because I don't care about them at all.