What if we gave Bonku a second list of secret roles/name pairs to give if anyone figures out he's our patsy? Say something like "For the remaining 8 hours, you are to serve as a neutral matchmaker for ninjas' secret roles, demonstrating that you are unhenged as necessary. If someone approaches you without giving [secondary codeword], give them the extra sheet."
"Master Amai, there is a gentleman asking to see you."
The servant waited patiently for instructions.
Bonku took several seconds to savour the moment. He, Amai Bonku, son of a leatherworker of very limited means, now had his very own servant, perhaps even the first of many. Never again would he wake up to the smell of cow hide. Never again would the high-born sneer at him in the street. Amai Bonku was one of the elite by definition now, with a two-floor house on the Yasuraka Promenade to his name and yes, his very own servant.
"What does he want?" Bonku demanded with the hard-earned arrogance of the nouveau riche.
"He says he is from the Mizukage's Office."
All trace of levity disappeared from Bonku's heart. Had someone denounced him? Had his charitable donation to the inspectors been too miserly? Would his books be found to be in order? Dear spirits of the depths, were his books in order?
"S-Show him in," Bonku said after weighing his odds of success if he dove through the window and started running now.
It turned out that Bonku had made the right call. The visitor was a ninja, and could have caught him within seconds, then added "resisting arrest" to whatever charges were about to be heaped upon him.
"Welcome to my humble home, noble ninja."
The ninja, a slim young man probably capable of breaking Bonku in two with his little finger, gave a light bow.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me, Mr Amai. My name is Shinsa Modoki. I am here to speak with you about the upcoming party."
"Oh, the Chūnin Exam event?" Bonku asked. He hoped his hastily-erected calm façade was fooling the visitor, and not backfiring to make him seem unaccountably suspicious. He'd heard of people being taken away for less.
"Indeed. I am pleased to inform you that my superiors have taken note of your loyalty and reliability, and have sent me to make you an offer."
Loyalty? Reliability? Was this a trap? It had to be a trap. Bonku was as loyal and reliable as any man, but the regime didn't single people out for rewards just like that, not without some heroic act or significant donation.
Then again, the regime also didn't need to entrap people. The Mizukage and his—her—agents had full discretion when it came to rooting out treachery. Could this be for real?
"I would be delighted to serve the Mizukage's Office in any way I can," Bonku said emphatically.
"I knew you would be." The ninja gave a faint smile. "During the party, you may be approached by someone who speaks the code words 'Kurohige's Revenge' during casual conversation. If you are, it would be greatly appreciated if you performed whatever small favour they may ask of you. Rest assured that you will be compensated for any trouble you have to go to, and your willingness to assist will be noted on your record."
His record? So the rumours were true. The Mizukage really did keep detailed records on everyone in the village, noting every act of loyalty and disloyalty in preparation for the day on which he or his minions decided to pronounce judgement on a citizen's soul. That was either reassuring or terrifying... but probably terrifying. If Bonku's rise was to continue, he had to make sure his record was spotless.
"Of course, sir," Bonku said. "Anything to help the Chūnin Exam go as smoothly as possible."
"Good. Good. Then I will leave you to your work."
The ninja turned to leave, but before he did, he asked one final question.
"You do remember when we will be expecting you for the party, don't you, Mr Amai?"
"Sunset of the 12th," Bonku answered promptly. "I'll be there the second the sun so much as touches the horizon."
"Well, then, a good day to you."
It wasn't until the ninja disappeared out of sight at the end of the street that Bonku was able to breathe again.
But how are they gonna intervene if Bonku flubs his roll? That's the worry I'm having, do we even have the ability to do so?
Also shadowing ninja isn't good since the idea is for Bonku to speak with the ninja privately. I don't think it'll be easy and our Stealth is less-than-optimal.
But how are they gonna intervene if Bonku flubs his roll? That's the worry I'm having, do we even have the ability to do so?
Also shadowing ninja isn't good since the idea is for Bonku to speak with the ninja privately. I don't think it'll be easy and our Stealth is less-than-optimal.
Yeah...I was a bit worried about Bonku realizing that we aren't actually Mist-affiliated and then freaking out/double-crossing us to save his skin. I dunno, though; would anyone else like to chime in?
Yeah...I was a bit worried about Bonku realizing that we aren't actually Mist-affiliated and then freaking out/double-crossing us to save his skin. I dunno, though; would anyone else like to chime in?
Can we get this guy to accuse Urahara the Fur Trader of being a ninja ? We could slip him a list of five or six people that are serious concerns and he could go talk to the servants.
If they slap him to check, well he's legit so this lends much credence...
Can we get this guy to accuse Urahara the Fur Trader of being a ninja ? We could slip him a list of five or six people that are serious concerns and he could go talk to the servants.
If they slap him to check, well he's legit so this lends much credence...
I figured out why I'm not enjoying the exams so much, it's because we don't get to shine underneath all these constraints and rules. There is no inventing crazy seals and attacking a place from somewhere unexpected with purpose made seals and a plan made with loads of time with data harvested from a trustworthy source.
But how are they gonna intervene if Bonku flubs his roll? That's the worry I'm having, do we even have the ability to do so?
Also shadowing ninja isn't good since the idea is for Bonku to speak with the ninja privately. I don't think it'll be easy and our Stealth is less-than-optimal.
Ok. So Bonku is a random civilian we have deceived. The only potential consequence is if he reveals that we impersonated a ninja from the Mizukage's office. Then again, most people don't seem to trust civilians much, so there's a decent chance he just gets executed without a trial if he does suspicious stuff for us, which mitigates the risk somewhat. We should probably assume that he'll be compromised if he talks with ninja, but that just means we can't let him know too much.
Can we get this guy to accuse Urahara the Fur Trader of being a ninja ? We could slip him a list of five or six people that are serious concerns and he could go talk to the servants.
If they slap him to check, well he's legit so this lends much credence...
This seems like a reasonable way to use him. I prefer this to a matchmaking serves as it has fewer moving parts. It doesn't net us points, but it should be a fairly safe way to remove points from the top competitors. It also plays some into the cover story we fed him, if we have him identify high power teams from not-Mist. I'd advise against targeting Mist-nin with him though, as that risks people finding out we've been impersonating Mist nin, which I'm sure is a no-go (seeing as our Leaf-allies were angry we wore their faces, I'm confident Mist-nin will be significantly more upset should they find out).
I'm not sure this is a great idea. I don't like the matchmaking service, as it adds a few more variables than I'm comfortable with, and as this update proved, Leaf ninja are largely out for themselves. Honestly, I don't think we should be relying on random un-named Leaf ninja too much. This feels like it opens us up to attack from an opportunistic Leaf-nin while also increasing the chances of an information leak by spreading it further. I'm good with sharing lists as Shikimaru suggested, but I'm not a huge fan of the matchmaking idea.
In general, I think that we've done enough already. At this point, we're either disqualified from the time we spent unconscious, or already have what is probably a greater than average number of points, while having disqualified ~a quarter of the competition. If we can do some targeted disqualification / elimination via Bonku, that's sufficient to me.
As far as things to add, we should probably decide if we're going to defect in the Leaf-nin prisoner's dilemma. I think if we defect or not is largely dependent on if we think the results will be made public or not. If who we accuse and their village and such is public knowledge after the event, it's probably worthwhile to not ID Leaf teams in our ballot (assuming it's a zero-sum game, which is the interpretation of the rules which makes the most sense to me). If it isn't, then it is probably worthwhile to ID Leaf teams in our ballot.
Edit: Also, I'd just like to vocalize how much I love that this plan is a readable length.
I'm not sure this is a great idea. I don't like the matchmaking service, as it adds a few more variables than I'm comfortable with, and as this update proved, Leaf ninja are largely out for themselves. Honestly, I don't think we should be relying on random un-named Leaf ninja too much. This feels like it opens us up to attack from an opportunistic Leaf-nin while also increasing the chances of an information leak by spreading it further. I'm good with sharing lists as Shikimaru suggested, but I'm not a huge fan of the matchmaking idea.
In general, I think that we've done enough already. At this point, we're either disqualified from the time we spent unconscious, or already have what is probably a greater than average number of points, while having disqualified ~a quarter of the competition. If we can do some targeted disqualification / elimination via Bonku, that's sufficient to me.
As far as things to add, we should probably decide if we're going to defect in the Leaf-nin prisoner's dilemma. I think if we defect or not is largely dependent on if we think the results will be made public or not. If who we accuse and their village and such is public knowledge after the event, it's probably worthwhile to not ID Leaf teams in our ballot (assuming it's a zero-sum game, which is the interpretation of the rules which makes the most sense to me). If it isn't, then it is probably worthwhile to ID Leaf teams in our ballot.
IIRC if we were ever disqualified we'd be immediately ejected from the Event, right?
As for the prisoner's dilemma...We actually gain points overall if everyone defects, since we gain points for giving names/village affiliations/team names that the other person doesn't lose, but we have to list them as ninja. If everyone in SuperTeam Leaf defects, they each gain 33 points; if nobody defects they each get 0. So I feel it's better to defect just because we all gain from it. ...Though I would want to confirm this with Keiko, and ask if there's some sort of loyalty trick going on; or if she thinks the rest of SuperTeam Leaf would also realize this and act accordingly. Edit: Moved checking the tipserator's effectiveness under the "continue event" section.
As for the prisoner's dilemma...We actually gain points overall if everyone defects, since we gain points for giving names/village affiliations/team names that the other person doesn't lose, but we have to list them as ninja. If everyone in SuperTeam Leaf defects, they each gain 33 points; if nobody defects they each get 0. So I feel it's better to defect just because we all gain from it. ...Though I would want to confirm this with Keiko, and ask if there's some sort of loyalty trick going on; or if she thinks the rest of SuperTeam Leaf would also realize this and act accordingly.
I'm really unsure how to interpret that aside from "if you specify the Leaf Nin's name, team affiliation, and village of origin, you get points which they lose in a zero-sum manner." This seems really clear to me.
The clarification post which includes numbers outside of the story:
At the end of the event, there will be a closed ballot for which roles belong to contestants. For each civilian ID you correctly identify as belonging to a contestant, you gain 2 points and they lose the same amount. If you correctly identify their secret identity, you gain 5 points and they lose the same amount. You gain one (1) additional point each for being able to specify that ninja's village of origin, team affiliation, and/or name. You lose 2 points for each proctor/real civilian you name as an examinee. There is no penalty for guessing the specifics of someone's village, team, or name.
Doesn't contradict the instructions as delivered by the proctor, and it seems like a weird and easy to close loophole in the rules which just straight up doesn't exist if you go off of what we were told in story. My understanding was that this isn't meant to contradict what was said in story by interpreting "the same amount" to stop having meaning when you gain additional points. It makes more sense to me to interpret it as "they're going to lose the points you gain, it'll be more the more you know about them."
Being seen by a proctor without your assigned disguise is grounds for immediate disqualification. You will not be told that you have been disqualified. If you are disqualified then you will no longer be able to gain points for the event, but will still be able to lose them.
In the context of the event, the whole "defect as cooperate" thing does make a certain amount of sense: It's giving points for having an effective, trustworthy spy network.
@Radvic The event rules were changed after the update though. ...To my knowledge. ugh. @eaglejarl@Velorien@OliWhail Can you clarify whether eaglejarl's rules or OliWhail's rules are canon?
I honestly can't imagine that being a problem. Using deceit to convince some civilian participant in the event to help us thinking we're Mist ninjas is something that's very much in the spirit of this event, and also not at all against the rules. Bonku is also nobody of political or military importance to Mist, so it's not like our deception even helps Leaf in other ways, especially since our instructions were for help with only the event and nothing else.
I disagree with this because the ninja who told us the rules said
I'm really unsure how to interpret that aside from "if you specify the Leaf Nin's name, team affiliation, and village of origin, you get points which they lose in a zero-sum manner." This seems really clear to me.
The clarification post which includes numbers outside of the story:
Doesn't contradict the instructions as delivered by the proctor, and it seems like a weird and easy to close loophole in the rules which just straight up doesn't exist if you go off of what we were told in story. My understanding was that this isn't meant to contradict what was said in story by interpreting "the same amount" to stop having meaning when you gain additional points. It makes more sense to me to interpret it as "they're going to lose the points you gain, it'll be more the more you know about them."
I disagree with this because the ninja who told us the rules said
I'm really unsure how to interpret that aside from "if you specify the Leaf Nin's name, team affiliation, and village of origin, you get points which they lose in a zero-sum manner." This seems really clear to me.
The clarification post which includes numbers outside of the story:
Doesn't contradict the instructions as delivered by the proctor, and it seems like a weird and easy to close loophole in the rules which just straight up doesn't exist if you go off of what we were told in story. My understanding was that this isn't meant to contradict what was said in story by interpreting "the same amount" to stop having meaning when you gain additional points. It makes more sense to me to interpret it as "they're going to lose the points you gain, it'll be more the more you know about them."
Ah fuck it, I'm going to ask. @eaglejarl@Velorien@OliWhail If you specify a contestant's name, village of origin, and/or team name correctly, do they lose the points you gain (in the same way that correctly identify a partygoer as a contestant gains you points and loses them points)?
Proctors, who will demonstrate they are not themselves henged, will be periodically pulling people aside, including civilians and other proctors, to check identities, provide cover for using the break rooms, confirm assignment of blame for rule-breaking, and to expel those who have been disqualified by escorting them to the barracks.
This seems too exploitable to be the case. If you have sufficient reason to believe you are DQed its then in your sole best interest to get everyone else DQed, which likely means you go around and cause a lot of trouble.
Do you mean the thing where we list literally everyone as ninja? Pretty sure at this point, given we have 100 roles known as ninja and will likely soon know more due to further outings, doing that would be counterproductive.
There are a total of 200-250 "civilians" in the Event, and a maximum of 144 contestants (as some people may not have found the Event). Given that a total of 100 roles are known to us, there are only 44 ninjas in a crowd of 56-106 "civilians" we haven't identified.
At this time (read: we don't find anyone else's role) it's still worth it to label everyone as a ninja since I'm guessing that the true number of "civilians" is closer to 200, but chances are we're going to ID enough people that it'll flip.
Of course, if you want to metagame then we know from the retcon'd chapter that there are something along the lines of 100 civilians based on the injured/dying, meaning that the total figure should be closer to 44 ninjas in 106 un-ID'd; so it's a bad idea to label everyone as a ninja.
Edit: I'd forgotten that we'd ID'd 3-4 civilians from earlier: a fur trader, a retired government official, a brewery owner, and Bonku (may be one of the aforementioned). Therefore there are 44 ninjas in a crowd of 52-103 un-ID'd, with the number probably being closer to 103.
