ODD MAN IN

A word of explanation. This is the play-by-play I kept during my first game of Odd Man In over at Ben Garvey's place (it was the "Holiday Shootout"). I didn't win, in fact I only got about halfway through, but I had a good time and felt pretty good about the way I played the game. I hadn't developed any complicated strategies yet, so I was happy to hook up with a few people who were good at that. I lasted just long enough to get completely hooked on this game.

A quick explanation of the rules is in order before you read this. You're randomly assigned a color identity (Mr. Black, Mr. Red, etc.) so you don't know who anyone really is. You can send messages to other individual players or to everyone, either as yourself or anonymously. In each round you fire one bullet - either at another player, at no one, or at yourself. (If you don't make a move at all, the game will AUTOKILL you.) Getting shot an even number of times in the round means you're dead, getting shot an odd number doesn't -- so if a pair of players shoots you, and you shoot yourself, you live. These rules lead to an awful lot of strategy, teamwork, and backstabbing, not to mention paranoia and deception. It's a blast.

Round One.

The game begins on Monday and by the time I log in and see who I am -- Mr. Black, it turns out -- I have two messages about teaming up. Mr. Gray suggests a color-relation alliance, which indeed had crossed my mind as well, and Mr. Azure seems to have already done a lot of legwork. Something about Azure doesn't sit right, but I tell both Azure and Gray I'm in. I suggest to Gray that we get White and Silver involved in our color scheme.

I approach White, and it appears Gray has reached him the same way. White has talked with Chartreuse and we agree to fire our four individual shots at Aquamarine.

Later in the day, things change. Azure offers me the option of waiting till the next round to team with him, and I take the opportunity. White tells me that Azure thinks White is joining Azure, Silver, and Cyan in shooting Brown. He tips Brown off to the plan, and we have a potential future ally. White and I agree Azure could be dangerous, and ask Gray and Chartreuse to take out Cyan while we take out Azure, leaving Silver another potential recruit later on.

Turns out a bit different. Chartreuse has joined an 8-sided alliance, who take out Indigo. Aquamarine shoots Azure, unbeknownst to me and White, so Azure lives. Four colors are autokilled after not making moves. I tell Azure that Gray and I realized late in the round that White was playing us and broke his four-way alliance shooting Azure.

It is a complete fabrication. Azure buys it.

Round Two Prep.

I've warned White and Gray about my story to Azure, just in case. I didn't want to make White a target for Azure later on, but we should be able to keep Azure from extracting revenge if it comes to that. Crimson suggests a small alliance including myself and White. Chartreuse has clearly betrayed the 'colorless' group and sabotaged our plan to take out Azure. White and Gray team up for this round, and I'm urged to work with Crimson.

Then Azure points out, to everyone but the "Crazy Eights," that there are 16 of us not involved in that alliance, and this round is the only time we could potentially take out the lot of them. He pairs us and our targets alphabetically, and it turns out that puts me and Crimson aimed at Chartreuse. White and I discuss it and both like the plan. Although he's a target in the 16-way teamup, Brown is still a silent ally to White, and he's got a plan to take out one of the greens.

I hope I don't get screwed here, but when it gets right down to it, I trust Gray and White above all others, so we'll see how it goes. Crimson seems like a good ally for now as well, and White says he has many connections, so who knows.

Round Two Post.

Some of Azure's Round Two plan worked, some didn't. White shot himself, which seemed strange at the time, but I knew he wouldn't shoot Brown, his assigned target and secret ally. Crimson and I took out Chartreuse as planned (Chartreuse, it turns out, shot me in round 2, my only hit), and some of the other pairs did their part. Several folks screwed up simply by getting AUTOKILLed. Azure made himself out to be a decoy for the rest of us, got killed by Maroon and Olive, then sent a long note about who from the 16-piece group can and can't be trusted.

Round Three Prep.

Crimson messages Magenta, Purple, and me and suggests a two-pair teamup for this round. I don't know about Magenta, as Azure says he messed up the plan. Of course Azure doesn't trust White either and despite a little waffling after seeing him shoot himself, I still do. Gray's still a standup guy, so I suggest we dump Magenta and get Gray involved with me and Crimson instead.

Over the weekend, it all gets very complicated. To keep confusing outsiders about who's working with who, we've split up the previous teams yet again. As of Monday, the teams are Purple/Black, Crimson/Gray, and White/Silver, with Magenta/Beige a possible fourth. White's got a plan for the two of us to protect ourselves, with each of us recruiting one person to shoot the other, so that if another pair is targeting either of us, we each have one 'stray' shot as well to keep us alive. That should help me if Magenta and Beige take shots at me for trying to recruit them or something.

White is still working with Brown behind the scenes, and once we take out the rest of the Crazy Eights Brown will probably move towards the chopping block. First, though, Brown may be able to help us quietly clean out the other ranks, including Magenta and Beige, who appear to be big question marks right now. I'm letting White do all the work with Brown so Brown doesn't know I'm a part of any of it.

I'm uncomfortable about looking like a ringleader this round, and hope that I don't get shot for it. I've told so many people so many different stories this round that I have to backtrack and research before each new message I send. I still feel pretty good about the colorless alliance, largely because no one seems to have figured out that Gray, White and I have been working together all along -- in fact, I have yet to shoot the same target as Gray, who's been my closest ally since the beginning. Even Gray's not sure what to think about White, in part because he doesn't know White's been cross-checking with Brown since the first round.

And there's still a day and a half until the shots are due.

Round Three Post.

Some of the plans work. The core group -- Gray, Crimson, Purple, and I -- are successful, but Purple is killed along with Copper and Cyan. Cyan's supposed to be my insurance shot, but he shoots Orange instead. White and Silver were supposed to shoot Salmon but shoot Orange together instead, and their shots are canceled out by Cyan's. Bistre takes his planned shot at White and I later tell him Beige must have turned away from the plan. Beige is my patsy for the fib to Bistre since he apparently hasn't answered anyone's messages anyway, thus making it a hard thing to disprove.

There are no blues, yellows, or greens alive, and some of the anonymous postings point out that all the "Shades" are still around. At this point, four of the Eights -- Salmon, Orange, Maroon, Brown -- remain, the team of White & Silver, the team of Crimson, Gray, and myself, plus Magenta, Beige and Bistre all apparently working solo or in secret conjunction with others.

I tell both Crimson and Gray that they're the only two left I trust. I don't tell Crimson that it's Gray I trust the most. I tell Crimson and Gray I'd love to see the three of us be the last ones standing, but it's hard to say at this point what will happen. Crimson's nervous about high scores making us targets when the Eights are gone, but he's also nervous that if we don't finish them off now, there won't be enough of us left to do it later.

Round Four Prep.

I get a message from White immediately after round 3 ends. He tells me it's time to take out Brown, and apparently he and Silver are planning to do that. He says he'll be away most of the next day, and indeed no one hears anything from him all day. After two consecutive target changes on his part, it's hard to trust him at all anymore, but I think I'll cautiously give him one more chance.

Gray and I briefly consider shooting ourselves for protection. The three of us (Crimson, Gray, Black) try to recruit some help to take down the remaining Eights. I invite Bistre to join us, but he's afraid Magenta and White are after him and decides he's better off shooting himself this time.

The site is down for several hours on the day shots are due, so we get a second full day to make plans for round four.

Magenta thinks Crimson is still part of a 'Reds' alliance, and wants him to help take out Gray. Crimson says he'll tell him he's in, but instead will shoot Magenta with me to eliminate the threat. Beige wants a partner to shoot Brown, and Gray joins up. If it works, and White and Silver shoot Brown too, they'll get a nice points boost, and that would make me and Crimson less obvious 'high-point' targets next round. If we're still alive.

White continues to make himself look suspicious. I get a message from him saying he'll be offline the rest of the day, and asking for one of the core threesome to shoot Salmon with him. He doesn't explain why Silver's not the other shot. Crimson offers to get Magenta to do it, again convincing Magenta that Crimson's partnering with him, but Gray's gotten an anonymous tip that either two or four people will be shooting him this round, so he'd rather have the stray shot from Magenta. Crimson and I stick with the plan to shoot Magenta, Gray's still shooting Brown, I tell White that I don't know who will be helping him shoot Salmon since we've all partnered up. I suppose it's possible that one of the remaining free agents will shoot Salmon and he'll be out of the way. I guess that means the four-point jump potential for Gray and Beige is out, unless it's all a sham from White. We'll see in a few hours.

Round Four Post.

I'm dead.

Magenta, Brown, and Maroon all went down this round too, but Salmon and Orange took me out. Beige got killed too, by Brown and Maroon before their deaths. It's down to Gray, White, Silver, Bistre, Crimson, Orange, Salmon. It was fun while it lasted, and I'm looking forward to the next game. Four rounds my first time out isn't too bad a way to start.

Epilogue.

White, Silver and Crimson get to the final round (round 8). White shoots Crimson, Silver shoots no one, meaning Crimson can't win, but with his shot he can choose which of the other two does. He shoots Silver, and White wins, pretty deserving in my book.

The next game starts a few days after this one ends. This time I'm Mr. Azure. Karma, I guess.