The Syndicate

NANOOKTHEGREATANDFEARSOME wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 7:50 pm Pretty cautiously optimistic about the new his dark materials adaptation. The movie they tried was pretty terrible. Haven’t watched any of it yet but hoping the show is good.

Same

Elephant wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2019 3:41 pm Have you ever been on the stage?

Rarely. I understudied for my mother as Portia in Merchant of Venice once, and I did some other small acting stuff, but stage acting isn't really... my thing. I never really enjoyed it much. I've done it, but not enjoyed it.

juliets wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2019 9:01 am @Lady LambdaDelta I'm going to concentrate on Movies and Literature -

- What are your top 5 movies and what movie are you looking forward to seeing, if any?
- What are your favorite books, fiction and non-fiction or biography or whatever you like to read?
- What book has made the biggest impact on you? It can be one you read as a child that really turned you on to reading or one that you read as an adult that made some other impact.

Movies huh... again, best by genre asked, but I'll take a stab from the top of my head.

The Thing 1985
Halloween 1984
Scream 1996
Alien 1979
The Princess Bride 1987

I like Horror, is what you are getting from this. Lol
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Favourite books

His Dark Materials Trilogy
Kushiel's Dart, and that whole series
The Dark is Rising series
I loved Animorphs as a kid, and they're still very good when I go back and read them now.
Basically everything Christie has ever written ignoring her Marple stories... well most of her Marple stories. But like, Orient Express, And Then There Were None, Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Three Act Tragedy, The Big Four....
Same for Holmes novels. Hounds of the Baskervilles, Study in Scarlet, The Final Problem.... etc
Anything that is Murder Mystery really suits me, honestly.
Catch-22, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World
Frankenstein
Count of Monte Cristo
Wrinkle in Time/Swiftly Tilting Planet etc
Dorian Grey
A bunch of Steven King stuff, but not Dark Tower fuck the Gunslinger series so bad
Neuromancer
Ysabel (and the whole Fionavar Tapestry series but Ysabel was so fucking good)
Black Company
There are more but honestly I could be here and while and I'm not even including series that I read and was like ""this is okay" but not great.
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What book made the biggest impact on me, huh?

Hard to pick just one....

As a kid, I would say The Subtle Knife (book 2) from His Dark Materials? I remember giving a book presentation on it in 3rd grade 4th grade something like that, because I was so taken in by the story.

Though the Dark is Rising(book 2 in the series) is another one that really got me around the same time. Concepts of fantasy and magic in localized settings, urban/low fantasy still to this day my favourite series (Dresden is fun for this, but not great.) They did shape me as a person, I mean my bed time stories were ones about faeries and not the kind that flew and spread dust, the kind that sewd eyes and mouths shut.

Oh and a Wrinkle in Time was about the same time frame for me. I like, read Animorphs and Goosebumps when I was like 3-6 and then Wrinkle in Time, Dark is Rising and His Dark Materials around 7-10. So yeah that kind of works.

as an adult, lots of books shaped who I am over the years at different times. Ysabel was great, Kushiel's Dart... fantastic....

I dunno, they all kind of shaped how I thought, and my parents loved pouring new books into me to see how I'd react, so it really did shape me.

Let's say for biggest, Kushiel's Dart.

nutella wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2019 1:54 am I love escape rooms too! My boyfriend and I actually built a couple rough ones, and he worked in some professional ones for a while.

Also, we had a Genius game on this site last year! Super fun.

What's your music taste/who are your favorite artists?

Favorite animes?

Favorite video games?

Favorite board games?

I like a lot of all music. But for the sake of keeping my recommends small, My favourite band right now is Bastille though, for sure. If I have to tell you to do one thing, listen to Bastille. They're so fucking good.
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Favourite Anime.... god the list is so long it'd be easier to answer for each Genre, really.

For now, I'll give you a list of Anime I recommend to anyone who is in the scene and wants to watch more.

Serial Experiments Lain
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Noein: To Your Other Self
Ergo Proxy
Cowboy Bebop
Cardcaptor Sakura
Another
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Mai HiME
Higurashi

That's just a list of 10 that I thnk are very good from a series of Genres and styles. I have a ton more than I think are great and a ton more I have enjoyed even if they aren't great. Seriously guys I watch so much anime.
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Favourite video games is harder. It's hard for me because I prefer multiplayer video games over single player.

Like I love Dota and League for example.

Right now I love the Blackout Club.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Uh..... You Don't Know Jack, Secret World Legends. Divinity Original Sin 2.

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Board games is the hardest because I own 150 different ones and counting up.

For me though, let me think about it... Let's name 5 games that people probably haven't played or heard of that they'd enjoy.

First off, Argent the Consortium. For fans of worker placements, this is one with Teeth. Its flavour (students in a magical school working for the player who is trying to become the Dean of the school... but everyone is a bit evil, this isn't Hogwarts, after all), it's mechanics (spells, rooms, mage powers, artefacts), it's win conditions (points don't matter as much as convincing secret voters who care about one specific thing to vote for you.) and it's replayability are just the best. So much to see, seriously so good.

Next, let's do a TRADING game that is just.... so fucking good. Sidereal Confluence is a game where players play as alien races trying to work together to benefit the galaxy... and gain prestige by doing so, to become the most renouned race in this galactic alliance. You do this by inventing new technologies and trading for resources to do so. You use those resources to run converters that take in resources and produce slightly more value of different resources. Everyone in the table knows the value of all the resources for each other, in general, but inspecific scarcity and need can change prices. Further, in this game there are two rules: 1) You may trade just about anything, including future deals. 2) All trades are binding, so there's no double crossing. It's a wonderful game to learn with 9 different Asymmetrical races to play and learn and is just so cool.

How about a War game now? I could say Twilight Imperium 4th Edition here and be pretty happy with that choice. That game is so fucking good and seriously if someone has a copy and you have 6 hours, play it. Just play it. But if you don't have a friend who owns it and you're not willing to drop 120 bucks on it, let's pick a more cost managable one. Inis is a four player war game where you need to make deals and play smart, because the drafting system decides what moves you can make with your forces in any given round, and will dictate how you can combat the ground and the world, and how you'll aim to win. Explaining the exact rules would take a while, but it doesn't take long to learn and takes a lot to master. Get yourself a group of strategy minded friends and sink into this game, because learning how to make deals when you're literally drafting the action cards you are allowed to play and trying to avoid someone winning when in the end only one of you can win, is hard. Plus, the Gaelic myth theme of Inis is fantastic, so it's worth a play.

Now how about... cooperative games. You've probably heard about a ton of them, there's lists all over. Let me tell you about one the lists miss. It's called Dead Men Tell No Tales and in it you and your friends play as a team of pirates raiding a Ghost Ship for its treasure while it burns, skeletons and ghosts of the dead crew try to take you down with them, and other nasty surprises may occur. The game is very dependent on players managing their turns well... and knowing when somoene else can do the job better. It's coolest mechanic? You have 5 actions in a turn, but any actions in a turn you don't use? You can GIFT to the next player, up to 5 actions. If any one shipmate dies, you all die, so it's very tense and the fire keep burning, so you gotta be fast and efficient.

Finally, let's talk about a short/small game to round this out. I know I missed a lot of game types (traitor games, for one: I know this site is Mafia focused though so if you want that you'll ask) but I'd be remiss to not talk about this game. Nevermore is a wonderful small game, a drafting game of sets and bluffing. Think of it akin to Hearts, but way more dangerous. You all play as cultists, trying to escape the curse of the Raven, while gathering enough gold to pay your way out and escape this hell. There are two ways to win. Be the last LIVING player who has not been turned into a Raven... or score 5 points. Will you poison your opponents hand? Stack yours?! or perhaps try and shoot the moon with 5 ravens, and make all your opponents suffer. It is a game of bluffing, so any move could be right.

Let me talk about one more game... it doesn't get a whole lot of attention, but it's just amazing. That said, I can't say it better than Quinns did in his review, so let me show you Cutthroat Caverns, as reviewed by Quinns of Shut up and Sit Down.



I think that's it for now! More questions, here we come haha

NANOOKTHEGREATANDFEARSOME wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 10:33 pm Would you say that elli is the town version of you or that you’re the scum version of elli, as far as skill level is concerned

I'd say I'm rather unique, but that Elli is the town version of me. My scum game is really about finding win conditions and getting to them more than anything else and Elli as a townie really does that. He understands more than anyone that, I think.

Maybe it's because we both played Chess, but Elli really understands how to work for win conditions and play to your outs.

Sloonei wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:27 pm Howdy LLD! What does your name mean?

Where else have you played mafia, and for how long have you been playing?

What are your favorite non-mafia hobbies?

Lady Lambdadelta is a character in the Visual Novel and Anime Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. She is the Endless Witch of Certainty, and my name derives from that character. I chose it initially on MS to do some trolling and RP in mafia as her, but the name stuck and I enjoyed it, so I stuck with her.

I have been playing Mafia since.... 2006 maybe? Earlier if you count offline stuff. I was a beta tester for EpicMafia, and one of its very first accounts. I played on Facebook when the Mafia app was a thing, I played on a lot of places. Former mod for DLP, but mostly MafiaScum is my home. So let's cal it 15 years of Mafia to be safe. Also I play on Liar's Club Online.

My favourite non-mafia hobbies are board games, puzzles, escape rooms, anything I can think and compete in, and also Music, Movies, Literature, Videgames.....

Honestly I like a lot of everything and enjoy the time when I get to relax. I also like Reality Game Shows, and my favourite is The Genius or the Mole, both games I have played/hosted versions of.