User:Ponytailguy/Elom:Main

"The Mole"? Whaaaa?
The Mole is a 12-player, long-term game. The pot begins empty, but will grow as the players complete challenges, ranging from mental to creative to physical to social and everything in between, and might go as high as a million PoE.

But one of the players is a double-agent, picked by the host to work against the team from within. Trying to sabotage, trying to derail, trying to frustrate and trying to betray. At the end of every cycle, the players will complete a quiz: ten questions about the identity of the mole. The player who scores the lowest on that quiz will be eliminated from the competition.

Coalitions will form, and coalitions will fall. Players will work together and work against each other, simutaneously. It's just a game, sure... but a million PoE? How hard will you play?

Applications
Applications will open in October (if everything else happens on schedule) and run for a period of two weeks. There will then be a one-week selection/interview process, and a one-week orientation period before the game actually begins, so the players can get to know one another.

Applicants:
 * Must be ranked Officer or higher in a crew, on any ocean.
 * Should be subscribed, ideally through the end of the year. Otherwise they'll have to sit out of tasks which require subscriber-only powers, which unfairly handicaps the other players.
 * Should be able to leave their crews temporarily. Some tasks may require commanding ships, and we'll need to officer you up in order to do that. (You can also just use an alt for those tasks.)

Cycles
There will be 10 "cycles". Each cycle will consist of:
 * A mandatory, interview-format confessional (delivered over a forum or by e-mail)
 * A "recap" meeting, with about 20 minutes (possibly longer) of directed discussion and social time amongst the players as a group
 * Two "challenges" (Note that some challenges may be meta-challenges), a specific activity the team must complete in order to achieve a given reward, such as adding PoE to the pot, or for an exemption (see below)
 * A mandatory but quick pre-quiz confessional
 * The execution quiz
 * The execution (which will be conducted by flash animation over a website)

Game Concepts

 * Mole : A player, selected by the Host prior to the beginning of the game, working against the other players from the inside.
 * Quiz : The execution quiz. Ten questions about the identity of the mole. "What colour is the mole's hair?", "In the Chess challenge, was the mole on the white or black team?" and so on.
 * Journal : A player's private sanctuary of thoughts, confessionals, and theories. They may store whatever they wish in their journal, and may access it at any time up to their execution.
 * Confessional : A statement of opinion related to the game... "At the last challenge, I really thought Bob was trying to sabotage us, how he insisted on getting every little detail right even as we got close to deadline."
 * Exemption : A free pass into the next round of play. Players are still expected to complete the quiz, but they will automatically score 10/10 regardless of their answers. Will be represented as a green card trinket bearing the word "Exemption" and a special passcode. Exemptions are transferrable, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Exemptions may be "cashed in" on any quiz, except for the final two cycles of play.
 * Freebie : A single bonus point on a single quiz. Freebies will be represented as navy cards, bearing the value of the freebie and a special passcode. Freebies are transferrable, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Freebies may be "cashed in" on any quiz, except for the final two rounds of play.
 * Neutralization/Neutralized : A player who has been neutralized may not activate exemptions nor freebies for the duration of their neutralization. They also become unable to win any freeies or exemptions for the duration... if they do win any, they will not be awarded. Players may be neutralized as discipline, as a part of a challenge, or for other reasons undiscloseable at this time.
 * Challenge : A task, with the goal of adding PoE or other prizes to the group pot. Not all tasks will be publically-announced.
 * Meta-challenge : A challenge of challenges; a task for which the team will be subdivided and assigned individual tasks.
 * Forum : A special, third-party forum will be set up for the game. All scheduling, journal entries, and other gamerelated stuff should happen there.
 * Winning : In order to win the game, a player must answer the final (50-question) quiz to 90% or higher accuracy. If they succeed, they win a familiar in addition to their prize monies. (If both players top 90%, then the player who scores the highest wins the familiar) However, if neither player answers 90% or more correct on the final quiz, then the mole walks away with the shoulder friend.

A few promises

 * There will be no journal switches.
 * Clues will be provided. It's up to the mole to leave them lying around, though.