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Greetings Wintreans, it's I, Rrrrichard Nixon Pengu here running for President of Earth Thane of Werewolf once again.

It's been a tough road these past few months, and proven to be one that in the end brought us together.  And who can we thank for bringing everyone together?

The great taste of Charleston Chew!



But seriously folks, what a journey it's been, and what an exciting road I see ahead of us now, now that we can work toward hopefully a much better future.  And what better way to help work toward the path of progress and friendship than endorsing the games that support paranoia and suspicion?!

As your Thane of Werewolf, I'll continue doing my best to support the game that has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in Wintreath.  I'll find ways to continue to innovate for hardcore expert players and newer players alike.  The wheels have already started with a Back to Basics game, and I have some other plans in mind as well:


1. On top of hosting the more extravagant Werewolf (the ones with the bells and whistles), I'd like to start hosting a Basics Werewolf as well.  This would benefit players who prefer the simpler mechanics, and would also be a great starting point for new players to jump in.  At the same time, it wouldn't interrupt the "bigger" games for players who prefer the more complex mechanics.

With that, you might be wondering "Is it going to be bare bones simple every time with little focus spent on it?" And the answer is no.  Like Werewolf XXI: The Beginning of the End it'll still be very much its own game.  But rather it being a dime in a dozen somewhere hidden behind all the big games, it'd be hosted alongside them.  Mechanics would be as you'd expect in a normal Werewolf game, and the story and theme can always change, but it'll be secondary to the game itself.

"But how will this work? Will you be hosting two games at the same time? Will players be signing up for multiple games? Won't all of this get confusing between the two games being played?" The answer for these are: No, I won't always be hosting both.  Like with what is allowed currently with the bigger games, interested members are always welcome to host their own games. If the idea is popular and there's worry about confusion, there can always be talks further down the road of Werewolf having its own section with the bigger games and the "smaller" games having their own forums(sort of like how Mafia Universe separates their games) so that people can see both separately on the main page alone.  But at this time, notifications can be posted on Discord to distinguish between the two, and players can both be tagged and can bookmark the games to distinguish between them.  Players won't be barred when it comes to signing up for both titles, though it will usually be recommended that they choose one or the other simply to avoid their own confusion in keeping up with the games.

2. I'd want to work with Ruguo (and Wuufu) on ideas on how to better integrate Werewolf to Discord

At the moment, we have Werewolf functions for Zaphyr if I recall, but they're still in beta with some bugs.  Eventually, I'd like to see these bugs fixed so that we can start hosting Werewolf on Discord more often.  Friday is currently CAH game night, and I'd love to see Wednesday become Werewolf Wednesday.  I'd love in general to see more games on Discord daily (like Spyfall Saturday or Sunday), and this would be a step toward that.

3. I want to continue to make memorable big games

With new focus on having a more basics-driven game alongside the "bigger" ones, I want to continue innovating the bigger, more complex games.  I've tinkered with the idea of using Time as a mechanic, and I really want to find a way to make Choose Your Own Werewolf much more stable and less chaotic.  I think CYOW is a great idea (and is still our most responded to WW topic to date), but I do agree that it can get out of hand and unpredictable unless it's tempered down.  I have a few ideas, and I really want to work them out in a potential CYOW 5 somewhere down the road.  But in general, I love making big games with unique roles, and I love creating new roles and gameplay mechanics.  I want to continue doing that and continuing to make Werewolf interesting.

Possible asked Questions:

Q: But Pengu, aren't you leaving for China soon?
A: With the Coronavirus doing a spread now outside of China (and with them asking if I can get my Z-Visa extended for longer), I get the feeling it won't happen till May at the earliest.  However, I'm giving them till mid April, and then turning the job down, spending time with my folks, and getting my teaching certificate here in the US so I can just get a teaching job here.  While China is still ideal (despite the virus having terrible timing), I'm not going to spend even more money to extend my visa for them to potentially push back the date even further.  So in short, no, I don't think I'll be leaving quite that soon.

Q: Are you going to do anything to help ease the newer players?
A: Yes.  As mentioned, I want to start hosting the more "simple/basic" games alongside the big ones.  At worst, save the big ones for every 3-4 months and host the basic ones in between.  The point is to make games that welcome all players from every skillset, and I think either option would be readily welcomed.  I'd also like to have Wednesday be a night for Werewolf for Discord to give our Discord base a taste of what it can be like, hopefully encouraging them to see what it's like on the forums.  Likewise, I'd like to take the existing guide topics and streamline it into one large Werewolf Player's Guide, a one stop topic for all you'd ever need to know about Werewolf front to back including specialized roles that may occur, possible gameplay tweaks, and whatnot.  Basically, if it relates to Werewolf in a way that helps players, I'd want it in the guide.

Q: How will you handle hosting two games simultaneously if you do it that way?
A: Thankfully, I always have ways to manage when it comes to multitasking.  However, I'll also continue to recommend people to give hosting a shot on either game type.  Hosting can be a lot of fun, and I'll say that if you choose to host on the basics side, it's as easy as making a template for the rules and roles, and altering the introduction/story, dates, etc...  I think I could actually make a decent template to use for people wanting to host basics games with the amount of changes they have to do being minimal.  Maybe that's something else I can work on this term!

Q: In the past you've been shaky with activity or upholding your campaign promises, what makes this time different?
A: In the past, I've had a job on top of my time here and little time I could devote to doing a huge amount, despite wanting to.  Currently, I'm jobless as I'm waiting for the Disney job to start.  I'm sitting back at my folks' place, helping out when they need it but otherwise taking a long extended vacation with no video game consoles to eat away my time, so I have plenty of time to be both active and find ways to uphold the promises I'm making with this campaign.  Some of them might take time...a lot of time, and some might not be upheld in this specific term, but if I have to run another term to get it fulfilled, I will.

Moot's Campaign Questions

1) Why are you running for this position?
I'm running for this position because I love Werewolf.  I loved it when I first played the offline version (aka "Mafia"), I loved it when I first played it in the 10000 Islands region, and I loved it when I hosted my first games on there as well as on Wintreath.  There's just something about the limitless possibilities with this game that intrigues me.  It's a game of liars, but it's never the same game whenever you play.  The roles may be the same sometimes, but the outcome is always different.  The story is always different.  Even the roles or gameplay can be different.  It's just a true endless experience that changes with every playthrough.  And I want to continue exploring that limitless potential as much as possible.

2) What do you aim to accomplish as thane? As part of this, you must include at least one thing that you promise to do beyond the minimum listed duties of the position during your term. It should be measurable, so that it's black and white whether you fulfilled this mandate at the end of the term if you are elected.
2a) If you are an incumbent running for re-election, did you fulfill your mandate from the September election? If not, why didn't you?

I want to make Werewolf great again.  New players, old players, casual players, hardcore players, it doesn't matter who plays.  I want it to continue being a game that embraces the skillset of anyone who plays, even if that means making a separate but still exciting game for newer players or those that prefer the more casual game.  I want to continue making it a game that people can understand and get into with no issues whatsoever, a game that can be played on here or Discord to the point where it can be a weekly event.

3) What qualifications or experience do you have in the area that you are running in?
I've been hosting and playing Werewolf on Wintreath since 2014, bringing it its first game when I joined.  I also hosted and played games on 10000 Islands from 2013 to 2014.  I've also written guides, topics containing past games, and even first established the Hall of Winners, where we tally up the top players (though the system has changed around a bit with some better ideas, and probably needs to be cleaned up a bit and revamped).

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in March?
As I said, currently I'm sitting at my folks' place doing nothing until I hear back from Disney about my job...which I imagine will be a while.  That being the case, I'll have plenty of time to devote to my duties here.

5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.
No.  I'm in other regions, but Wintreath is the only place in which I have any type of position outside of being a citizen.



On a final note, if I'm elected:



*waves with robotic arm* I am not a crook's head!

Well, damn. How am I supposed to think of questions if you've already asked and answered them? So I guess I'll have to expand things just a bit.

1) What are your thoughts on the other forum and Discord games? In a perfect world, what role do you think each should play as part of our overall regional culture?

2) Besides the long-delayed Werewolf hosting tool I started working on, do you have any ideas on how to make it easier for other people to host their own Werewolf games?

3) Usually our Werewolf games run from 12-18 players. Do you think it would be desirable to have more players in our games, and if so do you have any ideas for attracting players either from within the region or from other regions?

Always glad to make things easier that way. 

1) As I stated, ideally I'd love to see a game a day on Discord.  Spyfall on Sunday, a game on Monday, Tuesday, Werewolf on Wednesday, a game on Thursday, CAH on Friday, and a game like a more refined point-based 20 Questions on Saturday to complement/break away into the Weekly Meeting later that same day.  While it's always encouraged that people play games when they want, I feel like we generate more activity when games are a regional event.  When we're having daily games that are announced and hosted, I feel like they'd be met with a bigger reception.

Forum wise, there should always be some kind of game running outside of the spam forums.  When Werewolf concludes, another game should play.  Or heck, have another game playing at the same time.  But one reason people enjoy Wintreath beyond the values is participating in whatever game we have going on next.  Spyfall, Clue, Resistance, Werewolf, Escape Room, there's a lot of possibilities for games to run and get people interested in.  I think they're a huge part of our regional culture because they're always such a big draw for people.  They encourage friendly competition and work either alone or with other players, which can be the beginnings of fostering friendships.

2) When it comes to Discord, I think the beginnings we've put into Zaphyr just need to be more finely tuned, and then it can be good to go.  Hosts can create their own story and theme for the more "basic" games, and Zaphyr would be ready to go role wise.

When it comes to the forums, I'm going to look into creating some template examples for hosts to create the threads, and possibly the idea of a Werewolf Encyclopedia type of deal that has all sorts of roles, themes (past, present, possible future), ideas on creating your own themes, gameplay tweaks, and the like as well as suggestions for how they can mix them together for effective games.  Anything that helps make hosting easier and less time-consuming/stressful for hosts is how I want it to be.

3) That completely depends on what type of Werewolf you're wanting to host.  If we're going the "bigger" route with more complex games, the bigger player pool is always more ideal.  Yet for something like basic Werewolf or especially 1 Night Werewolf, a medium to smaller player pool is fine as well.  It's usually only the complex games that can't thrive with a smaller participation.

When it comes to attracting other players, I think the way we advertise is fine, we just don't do it a whole lot.  But I might look into more effective advertising strategies that we can work into future TGs to outer regions as well as possible NS in general.  On the note of that latter bit, have we thought about posting advertisements in the appropriate forum of the NS forums when we're getting ready for a game?  Maybe it's time to open it up to people outside of just our ally regions, and more into people across the NS board who might just want to play.

Thanks for your reply back.

1) I agree that would be awesome on the Discord, I think the challenge is finding people to manage that. In a perfect world, we would simply announce it, people would come together, and someone would start it up, but in my experience you need a point person to manage it and make sure those things happen. I also agree on the forum side, though again it's a matter of finding the people to host each game.

2) Those sound like excellent ideas.

3) To answer your question, our only presence on the NS forums was our NSGP embassy, which we abandoned in 2015. I'm not sure if there is an appropriate forum for games on regional websites, but it's something that we can look into.

As far as hosting on Discord goes, why not branch Thane of Werewolf into a role that handles the forum/discord based games like WW, Spyfall, and the like?  Werewolf is one of the most popular games, but I'll easily say that compared to the other Thane responsibilities, Werewolf Thane is a cakewalk.

But a more expanded Thane when it comes to Wintreath hosted games on the forums (IE ones that we play on the forums specifically or even Discord) could be a better opportunity as well as a challenge.  They could expand into helping make sure that Zaphyr has the necessary tools to host a variety of games, assisting in getting him set up for the daily games (IE helping Wuufu with preparing him for Spyfall or even 20 questions), as well as responsibilities that are currently asked of (game activity on the forums, consistent inovation and finding ways to get players interested, etc...).

Like with Werewolf, things such as hosting could also be delegated and it become a team effort for hosting games on Discord.  Ideally sometime in the future, I'd like to see a different person hosting each daily game, just as I'd like to see others continuing to host games on the forums.

Sounds like this^ (a Discord games group) could be one of those clubs we have yet to create. Could work together to come up with a schedule and decide who'll host each game. And the Dyno bot could be used to make a role for members to @ before games.

That's actually an excellent suggestion as well.  Lord knows we could use some more clubs, and a DGC (Discord Games Club) is a great idea.