lostinthelightss Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 (edited) welcome, one and all, to base camp! we're about halfway up the mountain, so you've still got a trek to go, but for now take off your boots, let your mittens dry next to the fireplace! our elusive host Wren has invited the town to their mansion for a seemingly innocuous ball, but not everything is as it seems. we detectives have uncovered some... interesting information, if you please. as it turns out, a murder happened within the walls of the mansion up the mountain many years ago, and Wren has tasked us townfolk with uncovering the mystery that lies within their walls. what is the mystery, you ask? well one night after a soirée not unlike the one we're attending, Wren's lover was found murdered in cold blood, and it's up to us to determine not only who the murderer was, but where the murder occurred, and how exactly the killer managed to off their victim. once the doors of the mansion unlock, a map will be provided to us all, and it is your job to scour the mansion for clues in the hopes of uncovering the nefarious plot that happened on the grounds so many years ago. you will each be working on this mystery individually, but will require the help of others in this semi-cooperative challenge. as you go about these tasks, we detectives (read: event coordinators) will be available should you have any questions. please note that although Wren has graciously invited us into their home, we are working on a deadline, and as such, there will be three rounds of gameplay, along with sufficient breaks between each for some rest and relaxation of our new private eyes, as well as nominating for our annual Inkys. the schedule for these rounds can be found below. Quote Round 1 - February 15th, 5 PM GMT - February 22nd, 5 PM GMT Round 2 - February 25th, 5 PM GMT - March 4th, 5 PM GMT Round 3 - March 19th, 5 PM GMT - March 26th, 5 PM GMT it is important to note that the trek up to the mansion does get a little dangerous after base camp, however, so a gondola has been provided to bring you straight to the marvelous gates that adorn the premises. you must buy a ticket on the gondola in order to participate in the event but we promise that the prices are very fair, and will likely go on sale as we get closer and closer to our deadline. we do recommend you follow this thread as your lovely detectives will be updating it with information you will need as you continue to unravel this mystery, as well as any of the following threads you may find important: Quote the gondola+ - you must buy a ticket on the gondola in order to participate in the event! q&a+ - where you can ask the detectives any questions you have about the event! self promo+ - where you can promo your own things you'd love to see some feedback on! recs+ - where you can promo other people's stuff you think deserves some love Edited February 13, 2023 by lostinthelightss 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 14, 2023 Author Share Posted February 14, 2023 (edited) THE CASE FILE Wren's lover was mysteriously murdered after their annual murder mystery dinner party event several years ago. Leads initially led down multiple paths of potential killers, but in the years since, all the trails have gone cold. The manner in which they were killed was unusual to say the least, and the fact it happened directly after a murder mystery party where fake blood and weapons were present complicated the investigation twofold. They haven't held such a party since, choosing instead to hold a gala to celebrate their life and give back to the community via a silent auction that occurs during the event. However, as we approach ten years of this unsolved murder, Wren and the local detective agency are hoping that with some fresh eyes on the case, we may be able to solve the mystery once and for all! to solve the murder and earn a delicious amount of points, you must find out three things: who did it? with what weapon? and where? WHO? meet our suspects. one of these suspects is a murderer, and it's up to you to figure out who. Quote Blast McGrouse - Game Keeper Mac Theknife - Jazz artist Paula Nother - Barmaid Kate Nessglass - Local gift shop owner. Heidi Evidence - Swiss Bank Clerk Herr Cutt - German Barber Kiki De’Leggs - French Cancan Dancer Ed Lines - New York Times Reporter Ernest Shingleton - Famous Explorer Marc D'Triumph - French Ambassador Vera Sin - High Society Club Hostess Otto Von Blockwurst - German Ambassador Misty Harr - Ferry Director Dee Sypher - Code Breaker Jean Paul Gauteebeard - French Fashion Designer WHAT? check out the weapons. one of these is the murder weapon, and it's up to you to find out which. Quote Revolver Dagger Lead Pipe Rope Candlestick Wrench Wine Bottle Vintage Lamp Poison Vial Porcelain Vase Straight Razor Horseshoe Trophy Bayonet Sewing Needle WHERE? take a peek at the rooms. one of these rooms is the scene of a crime, and it's up to you to determine where this all went down. Quote copper petals kitchen great centre of novelties pomegranate parlor loquacious library the jade room talented lyre dining hallowed grounds receiving room fearless gym knot lost amber arcade bureau of standardized phonology office golden quest storage linens and logs the amethyst retreat neverland opal aleworks onyx theatre the topaz room walking boots ruby radiance spa pearl quarters secret room 1 secret room 2 secret room 3 secret room 4 we've managed to determine the layout of the mansion, so we've provided you with these handy-dandy maps! Quote FLOOR 1 FLOOR 2 SECRET FLOOR HOW TO PLAY play will be entirely individual, as each of you must make your way around the mansion, fulfilling tasks in each of the rooms to gain points. in some rooms, you may have to collaborate with other adventurers in order to gain points, but have no fear -> if at the end of a round some tasks are still deemed 'incomplete', you will still receive your points at 80% value. for all room tasks, there will be a set number of participants who must complete a set number of reviews to complete the task and get points. tasks can be completed an infinite number of times, however you can only be part of an iteration of a task once with one exception - if 24hrs after your last post, the task is still considered 'incomplete', you may post again. the only exceptions to this are obviously hallways / stairwells, where tasks do not earn your points but instead earn you movement around the mansion, and are entirely individual, rooms where only 1 participant is required to finish the task, and secret rooms (more information below). keep in mind that you cannot move through a room without finishing the task there, so don't get yourself stuck! examples are noted in the spoiler tag below: Spoiler in room A, 3 adventurers are required to post 2 reviews to win 6 points each. our lovely @magemadi posts 2 reviews, then i post 2 reviews. i can then go around the game board (finishing tasks as i go through), and if 24hrs after my last post in room A, a 3rd adventurer has yet to post, i can complete the task by posting 2 more reviews. madi would then receive 6 points, and i would receive 12 points. in that example, since the task is completed, i could then also post another 2 reviews to start the next iteration of the task. secret rooms are rooms where you must figure out the answer to a riddle to get access to (all guesses are to be made in the password guessing thread). posts are automatically hidden in these rooms, so no other adventurer will know when you are attempting to complete tasks in these rooms. you may 'double post' in these rooms more often than others because you will have no way of knowing if tasks have been completed, and the amount of time you must wait before doing so will be listed in each of these threads. but how will you find clues? in the radio communications subforum there are two threads: radio to base camp radio to headquarters once you have enough points, you can radio to base camp to buy information about the case. for 30 points, one of the detectives will provide you with three clue cards, a random mix of the rooms, suspects, and murder weapons that we are sure are not implicated in the murder. there is no guarantee that the cards the detectives provide to you will be new cards - you may receive duplicates - as they will all be automatically generated. once you have decided you'd like to make a guess on the three who what and where, you can radio to headquarters to share your suspicions. for 25 points, one of the detectives will let you know how many parts of your guess is correct - but not which parts they are. as such, you may want to be sure of your guesses before bothering the big shots who are still milling about town. if you have any questions about gameplay, we detectives would love to hear them - especially as the doors to the mansion open in 25 hours! so please please please, if you have any questions whatsoever, we would love to clear everything up, so please feel free to ask us in the q&a+ thread! Edited February 19, 2023 by magemadi 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 15, 2023 Author Share Posted February 15, 2023 as the doors to the mansion are set to open, we've received word from our lovely host about the expectations for this event (aka, here are the rules for reviews left!) reviews must be left either on our archive here on FFT or on AO3* as we are obviously unable to moderate on AO3, we will have additional rules for these reviews: all stories reviewed on AO3 must be compliant with our archive rules here; if detectives are made aware that any reviews are left on stories that do not adhere to our rules, you will be required to resubmit those reviews on appropriate stories reviews must be written during the round they're left in reviews must include a reference to 'FFT's review event' no swaps, requests, review tag, prize reviews, stockpiling between rounds will be allowed as a rule of thumb, reviews should be about 500 characters. we're not going to scrutinize anyone's submissions, but if your reviews are consistently too short or largely about something completely unrelated to the story, we may require you to leave additional reviews to make up for it and/or disqualify the reviews (basically, give it a good faith effort, don't spend the entire review talking about yourself, and you'll be fine) as an example, this bullet point talking about review length is about 420 characters, so in general, you'll want to hit about that length - but again, this is just an good faith expectation, so if every so often you've got reviews that are a bit shorter - don't sweat it! be kind and respectful. it's fine to include constructive criticism, but if you're struggling to say something positive, you might want to just find a different story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 15, 2023 Author Share Posted February 15, 2023 the doors to the mansion are now open! go forth and SOLVE! THAT! MYSTERY! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 15, 2023 Author Share Posted February 15, 2023 please start in the silver oak foyer+ if you've already made your way up the mountain via the gondola! thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 (edited) it has been brought to our attention that we haven't exactly explained the point system very well, which is our mistake that we are here to rectify! so without further ado... POINTS in each room, you will find tasks that give you points. most of these tasks will be tasks you must complete with your fellow adventurers - e.g. '4 participants must leave 3 reviews each on any story', though there are some that you can complete on your own. if you haven't already noticed, the more adventurers have to work together to complete a task, the more points you get per review! so if you're all working in tandem, what does that mean? all points are awarded individually, and as such each private eye can choose how many times they'd like to cash their points in to get clues / make an accusation in the radio comms subforum. you will get points based on the order in which you solve the mystery, which will be revealed later. so what does this mean? well, for those looking for a more lowkey experience, you can just try and rack up your points with some heavy hitter tasks such as serenity outlook where every review is worth 8 points! or if you want to be one of three grand winners to solve the mystery to get the gold, silver, or bronze, perhaps you just want to collect as many points as possible to start cashing them in to get some clues. however you want to go about it, it's all up to you! in between each round, we will be posting the number of points that everyone in the elusive TOP 10 has - but not revealing which adventurer is which, in order to keep the mystery going a little bit longer we are also in the midst of discussing a way in which we can easily allow access to point tallies to individual participants (e.g. you ask us for your point tally and we tell you secretly), which should be available by the time round 1 comes to a close. if you have any questions on points, please feel free to ask us in the q&a+ thread - we want to be sure this all makes sense! Edited February 16, 2023 by lostinthelightss 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 (edited) an addendum to points: please keep in mind that until an iteration of a task is complete, you will be getting only 80% of the points. for example: Quote 4 participants need to leave 3 reviews each on any story for 12 points each. if i leave 3 reviews, i will be getting 4*80% = 3.2 points. once two other people post their reviews, they will also be getting 3.2 points. when the fourth and final participant posts, everyone's points gets bumped to 4. as we are tracking this in our spreadsheet using very complicated equations (they aren't that complicated, but please stroke my ego ), the detectives will have the most up to date / accurate point values once all reviews have been accounted for. in order to keep transparency for our intrepid adventurers, you will be able to request a point check every 24 hours in the radio to base camp+ thread - but please keep in mind that you must also allow for 48hrs for detectives to get back to you. we will be editing this thread with these details, along with the fact that each time you radio in to base camp+ or to headquarters+ for clues / an accusation, you will be provided with an updated points tally. we hope this helps all our lovely little detectives in their mystery solving journey! Edited February 16, 2023 by lostinthelightss 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magemadi Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 (edited) Hey everyone! We've already logged over 300 reviews for the event, which is phenomenal! However, your detectives have had to deal with some incorrectly filed paperwork so far, which increases the amount of time we spend re-filing rather than filing new information. Thank you all for being so great, and carry on reviewing and solving the mystery! As a reminder for posting your reviews when you've completed them: PLEASE use the format listed in each topic -- if you don't, it messes up our spreadsheet formulas and takes us extra time to figure out what's wrong. commas are required after the author and before chapter #'s a single dash after the reviewer's name before story title story titles must be correct! link the chapter your review is on if it's a multichaptered story number them if there are multiple per post Edited February 19, 2023 by magemadi 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magemadi Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 After a slight delay as we wrapped up collecting our finalists for this year's Golden Ink Awards, it is now time, private eyes, to continue your search throughout the mansion and attempt to solve this mystery! As a bonus to those wishing to receive it, any reviews left on a finalist+ is worth TWO REVIEWS -- this means if the task requires you to leave 4 reviews, you can leave 2 reviews on finalists and that'll count as having completed your part of the room's task! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthelightss Posted March 21, 2023 Author Share Posted March 21, 2023 (edited) we've heard some calls for help from our intrepid detectives, so to help you out in round 3, we have decided to allow some teamwork as we round the final bend! feel free to sign up for 1 of 6 possible teams here+ with a review, and feel free to start working with your friends on the elusive mystery! note that you will still be running around the mansion on your own, but you can share team points (and rewards), as well as all strategy / clues you've discovered in your club Edited March 21, 2023 by lostinthelightss 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magemadi Posted April 23, 2023 Share Posted April 23, 2023 Up the Mountain Event Results Thanks to everyone who played along with our little murder mystery Clue-inspired review event game this year in advance of the Golden Ink Awards! No one solved the mystery by the end, but several of you got very close. By the end of the party and investigation re-closed, Wren returned to their reclusive lifestyle until the anniversary returns and interest in the kooky mansion owner and the mysterious murder is renewed once more. (Killer reveal in the spoiler) Spoiler It was Misty Harr (Ferry Director) in the Ruby Radiance Spa with the Wine Bottle. Our trek up the mountain thus concluded, a tally of the final points and summation of statistics: Participants @Felpata_Lupin, @crimson quill, @Aphoride, @RonsGirlFriday, @blackballet, @RogueSlytherin, @ShazaLupin, @Oregonian, @Predictable Chaos, @Pixileanin, @grumpy cat Statistics 502 reviews left 1138.8 points earned 66 clues revealed 2 guesses made to solve the mystery 25/31 rooms investigated 11 participants 43 unique authors reviewed 100 unique stories reviewed Final Points ronsgirlfriday - 408.2 blackballet - 189 rogueslytherin - 142 oregonian - 95.2 felpatalupin - 73.6 crimsonquill - 67 aphoride - 66 shazalupin - 44.8 predictablechaos - 38.2 pixileanin - 14.8 grumpycat - 0 congratulations to everyone and for all of the lovely reviews left for the community during the event 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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