Traditions are hard to change.
For hundreds of years, Unseen University operated on the 'smoking boots' principle. Climbing the social ladder of the Disc's premier magical institution was done by making sure the person whose position you ambitioned, was reduced to a pair of smoking boots in this world and a long walk through the desert in the next one.
The arrival of Mustrum Ridcully is changing all that. By now, he has survived five attempts on his own life; one of his would-be assassins was promoted on the spot for the creative application of the principles behind Torim's Third Law of Equidistant Paraspecialities. The others were given a stern talking-to, leading one of them to realise he actually did want to be a thimblesmith like his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him and leaving the university.
Since the top spot looks less and less attainable by the way, a certain resignation has been growing within the Wizard's community and deaths have been slowly declining. Some Wizards have even tried their hands at some actual research in hopes of getting noticed and perhaps promoted.
But not everyone is willing to let go of the good ole' times...
Game Setup
This is a game for 5 to 10 players. After sign-ups are closed, each player will be either on the side of the Reformers or on that of the Traditionalists. Distribution of these allegiances depends on the number of players:
| Players | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Reformers | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Traditionalists | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
By default, the Traditionalists have been gathering in secret and so they will know their co-conspirators, while the Reformers will not be given any information. However, roles may change that.
At the very least, one of the Reformers will be given the role of Professor of Remote Audition, while one Traditionalist will be the Dean of Retroactive Contructions. Depending on the amount of players, other roles may be assigned as well.
For all roles, see below.
The GM will randomly determine the order of Leadership.
Game Play
The game consists of between three and five Expeditions.
Gather the Party
First, a Party must be appointed to go on the Expedition. The size of the Party depends on the number of players and which Expedition is being attempted, according to the following table:
| Players | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 1st Expedition | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 2nd Expedition | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 3rd Expedition | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 4th Expedition | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5th Expedition | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
The current Leader must choose this many players and reveal their names in public. All players must then vote to either APPROVE or REJECT the proposed Party.
The Party is approved and goes on their Expedition if they receive a majority of approvals (a tied vote means the Party is rejected). If the Party is rejected, Leadership passes to the next player in the order who will make a new proposal. Should there ever be 5 Parties rejected for the same Expedition, then the Traditionalists win the game immediately.
Voting may be done in private or in public. Once all votes are tallied, everyone's vote will be revealed.
Undertaking the Expedition
Each player going on the Expedition must either SUPPORT or SABOTAGE the Expedition. The Reformers must SUPPORT, Traditionalists are free to SUPPORT or SABOTAGE at will.
The Expedition is successful only if every member of the Party supports it; if one or more sabotages occur, the Expedition fails. Note that with games of 7 players or more, the 4th Expedition requires at least two sabotages to fail.
Supporting or sabotaging is done in private. Once all actions are tallied, only the tally is revealed and not who did what.
Victory
The Reformers win when they complete 3 Expeditions successfully, unless the Dean of Retroactive Contructions can find and kill the Professor of Remote Audition.
The Traditionalists win when they sabotage 3 Expeditions, when the Dean of Retroactive Contructions finds and kills the Professor of Remote Audition, or when 5 Parties are rejected for the same Expedition.
Roles
All roles are optional except the Professor of Remote Audition and the Dean of Retroactive Contructions.
Professor of Remote Audition - Reformers
At the start of the game, the Professor of Remote Audition will be given the names of all the Traditionalists.
Dean of Retroactive Contructions - Traditionalists
At the end of the game, if the Reformers succeeded in 3 Expeditions, the Dean of Retroactive Contructions may guess which player is the Professor of Remote Audition. If he is right, the Traditionalists win the game.
Professor of Inclusionary Knowledge - Reformers
At the start of the game, the Professor of Inclusionary Knowledge is given the name of the Professor of Remote Audition. Adding the Professor of Inclusionary Knowledge helps the Reformers.
Lecturer in Distant Realities - Traditionalists
At the start of the game, the Lecturer in Distant Realities' name is NOT given to the Professor of Remote Audition. Adding the Lecturer in Distant Realities helps the Traditionalists.
Reader in Obscure Illuminations - Traditionalists
At the start of the game, the Reader in Obscure Illuminations' name is not given to the other Traditionalists, nor is he told the names of the other Traditionalists. Adding the Reader in Obscure Illuminations helps the Reformers.
Dean of Exacting Impersonation - Traditionalists
At the start of the game, the Dean of Exacting Impersonation's name is given to the Professor of Inclusionary Knowledge in addition to the Professor of Remote Audition's. Adding the Dean of Exacting Impersonation helps the Traditionalists.
Chair of Indefinite Studies
There are always two players with the role of Chair of Indefinite Studies. One of them starts the game on the side of the Reformers while the other starts on the side of the Traditionalists.
At the start of the game, the Traditionalist Chair will have his name revealed to Professor of Remote Audition and the other Traditionalists, but will not be given any names. The other Traditionalists will also be told he is the Chair of Indefinite Studies.
During the game, the two Chairs may swap sides, always remaining opposite one another (see below for the rules). During the game, they must follow all rules of their current allegiance (most notably, a Reformer may not sabotage a Expedition, not even if he is the Chair of Indefinite Studies).
Note that Roles are never revealed to other people, only names or allegiance (Reformers/Traditionalists) with the sole possible exception of the Traditionalist Chair of Indefinite Studies.
For example, the Professor of Remote Audition knows the names of all the Traditionalists (except the Lecturer in Distant Realities) but not what each player's Role might be. Similarly, the Professor of Inclusionary Knowledge would receive the names of the Professor of Remote Audition and the Dean of Exacting Impersonation without knowing which is which.
Optional Rules
Chair of Indefinite Studies
Both Chairs will either switch allegiance in a random manner or in a predetermined manner:
Random
5 cards are prepared, 2 that force the Chairs to switch and 3 that leave them their current allegiance.
After Expedition 2, one card is drawn from this deck, shown to all players as it takes effect and then discarded. This is repeated after every subsequent Expedition.
Predetermined
7 cards are prepared, 2 that force the Chairs to switch and 5 that leave them their current allegiance.
At the start of the game, after roles are assigned, the top 5 cards are drawn and shown to all players. The first card takes affect right before Expedition 1, the second right before Expedition 2, etc.
IMPORTANT! In this variant, the Traditionalist Chair must always sabotage any Expedition he is sent on.
Chair of Indefinite Studies - bis
Another related variant allows both Chairs to receive each other's name at the start of the game.
The Mirror of Ahctog
The last player on the Leader list may start the game with the Mirror of Ahctog.
Immediately after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Expeditions are resolved, the player holding the Mirror must choose another player, whose allegiance will be revealed to him in private. The Mirror then passes to the targeted player.
The Mirror may not be used on a player that has used it himself.
Adding the Mirror helps the Reformers.
The Octiron Staff (with knob on the end)
When the Leader proposes a Party, he must also assign the Staff to one of the players he chose; he may not keep it for himself.
When the player who carries the Staff is sent on the Expedition, he may publically select one other member of the Party after they have all chosen their actions. That member's action will be revealed privately to the Staffbearer; furthermore, the opposite action will be counted for the Expedition's result, ie. a sabotage will be counted as a support and vice-versa.
Note that this does not change what actions a player on a Expedition can take. Reformers may still only choose to support, but the Staff may afterwards turn that into a sabotage.
Formalities
No communication between players about the game may happen outside the public thread. PMs between players are NOT allowed, neither are phone calls, talking in another thread, letting things slip while having a drink, etc. Do not talk about the Resistance.
Each player is solely responsible for clearly communicating to the GM and the other players. Making things like votes and party proposals stand out by using colors, bold text, bigger fonts and such is strongly encouraged. If anything gets missed, it is the fault of the player who did not make himself clear enough.
Votes for or against a party may happen in public or private. Only the last vote will be counted (based on the timestamp).
In order to make the game move smoother, it is strongly recommended to PRELOAD your support or sabotage of the Expedition while the party is being voted on. This allows the GM to make a single update, counting the votes and handling the Expedition all at once.
If a player becomes absent, the GM reserves the right to replace him.
If a player fails to vote, the GM reserves the right to close the vote without him.
If a player fails to provide a Expedition action, the GM reserves the right to default the action to support if the player is Reformers and sabotage if the player is a Minion.
If a player fails to propose a Party, the GM reserves the right to move on to the next Leader in the order.
