The FOFC Mole Official Thread

[MJ4H]

This thread is for the game FOFC Mole. Observer posting is of course, fine, but we would really appreciate it if you would not interfere with the games, since they are very dependent on lots of factors that can be influenced easily by people not playing. Thanks.


Hello, players. Welcome to The FOFC Mole. As you all know, your goal is to win
money by successfully completing a variety of missions. These missions will vary
in nature from cooperative, individual, to even directly competitive and will
require various levels of trust, skill, knowledge, and even deception. The game
will not be easy as one member of your team is out to get you. One member of
your team gains the money that you do not win. Every time you fail a mission,
one member of your "team" will actually be celebrating. Which one of you is it?

This is your real task. Discover this player. Find out who it is that is out to
sabotage everything you do. Remember everything that this traitor does, where they
go, and how they have done things. This is vital. Only through your success at
this one task can you hope to remain alive. Periodically, the one person that
knows the least about the traitor will be removed from the game, permanently.
Executed, if you will, by this traitor. You must do your best to avoid this fate.

Of course, there will be no neon signs directing you on his hunt. There will, in
fact, be many deceptions. Incorrect answers on your quizzes will be money in the
pocket of the traitor, the mole. The longer the mole stays undetected by the team,
the more their bank account increases.

You may feel inclined to pair up with a teammate. You may find it is your only hope
of surviving such a minefield. Do so with great caution. Your fate awaits you if
you've partnered with the mole, for the mole deals in the currency of lies. One
cannot afford too many quizzes with such a bankroll.

Keep your eyes open, players. The mole is amongst you. Watching you. Maybe
smirking a little as you eyeball each other warily. The mole knows you are clueless.
Will you remain so, or will you uncover the true identity of this saboteur? Can you
figure it out?

WHO IS THE MOLE?



Is it

Passacaglia, from Big Ten Country

samifan24, from CT

kingnebwsu, from Dayton, Ohio

path12, from Seattle, Washigton

Thomkal, from Surfside Beach, SC

korme, from Fairborn, Ohio

Barkeep49, from Not too far away

BrianD, from Green Bay

[MJ4H]

Mission #1: Alphabet Chain -- $25,000

For our first mission, we will see who will take command, who will appoint themselves to be in charge, who finds themselves following orders, and who just can't seem to
get along. It is very, very important to read the instructions carefully. There is $25,000 up for grabs in this mission, and you want to start out your journey on the
right foot.

The goal is to list all the letters of the alphabet, one letter per post. The letters listed must be in the following order: beginning to end, but skipping 2 letters each time. For instance, the first letter must be the letter A, the second letter must be the letter D (skipping B and C). When you reach Z in the alphabet, you simply loop back to A and continue. Following these instructions, there should
be, at the end, 26 posts, one letter in each, and every letter of the alphabet will appear.

Every player must post at least one of the series of letters and no player may post more than one of them in a row. Once the first letter (A) has been posted, any post
that is not EXACTLY the next letter in the chain and ONLY that will immediately forfeit the money. If the last letter is posted and the chain is unbroken and follows all the rules, $25,000 will be added to the group pot.

You may post as many times as you like before starting the chain. However, you may not include in any of these posts a list of the letters to be posted*. If at anytime, an A by itself is posted, the chain is assumed to have begun.

You will have 96 hours (4 days, even) from the time of this post to complete the challenge. An extension may be granted by request via PM to me for a legitimate
reason, but only if the request is made before the 96 hours is up.

*a list of the letters to be posted means a complete list or a partial list. Any attempt to actually list out some of the letters in order to be posted will forfeit the challenge.

Once again, I will stress that any amount of discussion may take place before beginning the chain, but once the chain has begun, any posts that are not part of the chain will result in losing the challenge.

I may periodically post in the middle of the chain to remind you of time remaining or to clarify part of the rules if I feel it necessary. This will not break the chain, but a reply on the team's part in the middle of the chain WILL BREAK IT.

Private Messenging is permitted, but starting other threads to discuss actions is not.

I almost forgot. There is the possibility of an exemption floating around in this mission. How might you get it? Well, that depends on how the chips fall.

Good luck, and your time starts now.

[kingnebwsu]

How do we want to do this? There are 8 of us and each of us needs to contribute at least once. Remember, let's not start the chain until we've all decided on some rules.

I think that we should wait for all 8 people to post one letter each, then have two people log on at the same time and go back & forth. I'll be glad to volunteer to pick a time to logon and post back & forth with someone. Or whatever. That would be the quickest way to complete the challenge.

Maybe we should start tomorrow night?

We have until 7:53 PM on Monday night.

[Barkeep49]

Ok reading the rules, I think we can edit posts. So, I think we edit this post (or one someone else does) with the order. We can also edit as people claim letters, so we know when to expect something from someone. I am around a bunch (though not much tomorrow night) so I'd be happy to update the list. What do people think?

The order, correct me if I'm wrong is:

A
D
G
J
M
P
S
V
Y
B
E
H
K
N
Q
T
W
Z
C
F
I
L
O
R
U
X

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Ok reading the rules, I think we can edit posts. So, I think we edit this post (or one someone else does) with the order. We can also edit as people claim letters, so we know when to expect something from someone. I am around a bunch (though not much tomorrow night) so I'd be happy to update the list. What do people think?

The order, correct me if I'm wrong is:

A
D
G
J
M
P
S
V
Y
B
E
H
K
N
Q
T
W
Z
C
F
I
L
O
R
U
X

Unfortunately players, this challenge has been forfeited by this post.

Originally Posted by Rules for this challenge

*a list of the letters to be posted means a complete list or a partial list. Any attempt to actually list out some of the letters in order to be posted will forfeit the challenge.

[Barkeep49]

Damn it. I misread the friggin rules. I'm sorry. I thought we couldn't post letters once the chain began. Damn

[MJ4H]

Well, I'm pretty sure your list was right, at least.

[kingnebwsu]

Lame.

[Passacaglia]

Wow. I'm glad I skimmed down and saw the list before finishing the rules. I read it, and I was like, "wait, but isn't there a list further down?" Hmm.

[MJ4H]

No worries, players. The Mole is a marathon, not a sprint. Another challenge will be coming soon. The mole may be celebrating this mission, but there will be many chances to come out on top.



For the sake of interest only, had the chain been completed entirely, if one player had posted the C, H, I, P, and S in the chain, they would've received an exemption: meaning they would be ineligible for execution after the next quiz. Alternately, the player that posted the largest number of those letters would've received the exemption. Had there been a tie, no exemption would've been awarded.

[MJ4H]

Good evening players. I have another mission for you. I will need you to divide yourselves into 2 teams of 4 players each. You may do so by posting team 1 or team 2 in this thread. First come first served!

[kingnebwsu]

A

Oh. Wrong game

I'll take team 2.

[path12]

I'll go team 2 also.

[Passacaglia]

Team 2

[Thomkal]

Hmmmm that might have been the shortest game in Mole history. (Glares at Barkeep ) Very clever twist on the exemption though Mj4h.

I guess I will start up Team 1 then. Go team!

[BrianD]

Team 2

[MJ4H]

Team 1:
Thomkal
samifan24
korme
Barkeep49

Team 2:
kingnebwsu
path12
Passacaglia
BrianD

[MJ4H]

Mission #2: Drawn and Quartered -- $40,000

Teams, your task is
simple. You are to use the Paint application at

art.com artPad

You will be given an item to draw. If the other team guesses the item that you have drawn, you will win $20,000 for each correct guess. Sounds too easy, right? It probably is.

Oh, I almost forgot! Each member of your team will only be drawing 1/4 of the item. The four parts will be assembled, by me, and given to the other team. The team will then discuss and submit one guess as a group. A vote may be necessary, but any tie in the voting will result in a no answer. It must be a majority answer to count.

I will be PM-ing each member of each team their team's item and which quadrant they are to draw (NW, NE, SW, or SE).

In this game, private messenging is completely forbidden. It is, of course, on the honor system, so I will trust players to report any unauthorized PMs they receive from other players. Action will be taken depending on the transgression, but reporting a transgression will not result in punishment for you or the overall team, so don't fear that.

Discussion amongst team members is allowed in the thread ONLY once I have received your pictures and posted the assembled pictures in the thread. No hints to the other team about your item are allowed in the thread at all.
Breaking this rule will result in forfeiture. You will have 72 hours in which to submit your pictures to me and 48 hours after the pictures are posted to come up with your answers. If you need help using the paint applet, you may ask for help in the thread. Good luck, and your time starts when I send the final PM of the item to draw.

This applet must be used to draw your quarter:
art.com artPad

When you have finished your drawing, click "Save and Send" and you will see this form:


Find where it says "If you'd rather not send this painting to your friends but would like a link anyway, click here" and click. It will give you a URL. Please PM me that URL when you have finished.

Some additional rules: attempts to circumvent the spirit of the game will be dealt with harshly (read: forfeiture). Examples of this include writing the name of the item or using text as a hint, drawing the complete item in your quadrant, etc.

Let's just make this perfectly clear. You are to draw ONLY 1/4 of the object so that it fits in with the others doing the same. You may not discuss what you will draw with others via PM or in public. You may not use text or other alphanumeric symbols. The spirit of the game should be clear. Stay within it!

[MJ4H]

All assignments have been sent. Your time starts now.

[samifan24]

I just sent my "artwork" in. That is a really cool website and I would've never found it if not for this game. Thanks!

[kingnebwsu]

Sent. Hopefully we won't get DQ'ed for posting in the thread...

[MJ4H]

Yeah I looked hard for a good place to do this online. I was originally going to ask for MS paints but I thought that wasn't standardized enough. This was pretty much exactly what I wanted.

You won't get disqualified for discussion unless it is expressly forbidden in the rules of a mission. Certain types of discussion are forbidden in the rules of this one. For instance, you can't plan how to draw your item with your teammates and you can't give hints or lead the other team when they are trying to guess your item (or before).

[MJ4H]

A quick update. 5/8 of the artwork has been received.

[MJ4H]

Some of the mole's favorite artwork:

to

[MJ4H]

6/8 pieces of artwork have been received.

[MJ4H]

7/8 received. This challenge is pretty hilarious from here, I must say.

[BrianD]

I'd just like to say for the record that I'm glad I get to participate in this challenge. The last one ended way too quickly.

[MJ4H]

I'm glad you got to participate, too. If we can just get one more to participate, we will all be happy.

[path12]

You've got mine, right?

[MJ4H]

Yes.

[MJ4H]

We are still waiting on one player's artwork. 7 players have submitted theirs. Could this be sabotage? There has already been suspicious activity in mission 1. Could there be more intrigue already in mission 2?

One team's drawing is complete, however. I will post the completed drawing tonight at which time, the other team will have 48 hours to reach a majority vote (3 votes for the correct answer) on what the item is.

The drawings I have received, incidentally, are from:
Passacaglia
samifan24
kingnebwsu
path12
Thomkal
Barkeep49
BrianD

[MJ4H]

Alright. We are going to proceed. After about 44 out of 72 hours have elapsed, we are still waiting on one player. This player is on team 1. Team 2 has finished their beautiful piece of art.

The procedure now is this. From the time of this post, Team 1 will have 48 hours to decide on their votes. 3 votes are needed to count. Once you have decided what your vote will be, it must be posted and approved by at least 2 other members of your team. If at anytime I see that 3 out of the 4 people have agreed on an answer, I will close the voting and reveal the correct answer. If the team has guessed the correct answer, I will add $20,000 to the group pot.

There is no rule prohibiting team 2 from posting during this time period, but it is probably safest to avoid it. Anything that can be interpreted as giving hints or leading the other team may result in forfeiting the challenge.

The answer is a one word noun. Deliberations may begin.

[Thomkal]

well I'd say its pizza, but not one that I would ever want to eat lol. Any other ideas?

[graygoose12]

Are you going to reveal who contributed each part? It might not apply in this mission, but in order to detect possible sabotage, you need to know who did what.

By the way, this is an interesting idea, even from someone not participating.

[MJ4H]

Yes, that will be revealed at the end.

[Barkeep49]

I will also vote pizza. I know all of that art is better than mine.

[samifan24]

I agree that it is a pizza. I'm sure that team's worst piece will still be 10x better than my piece.

[MJ4H]

Team 1 has 3 members voting "pizza." The correct answer is stopwatch. OK, just kidding. The correct answer is "pizza."

$20,000 is added to the group pot.

Congratulations! A taste of success at last. Let's see if we can keep it up. Much more inactivity on one member's part and I will be forcd to seek a replacement.

{sigh}

[BrianD]

Is the shot at the other drawing officially gone now?

[MJ4H]

No. There is just under 24 hours left on the clock for the final submission. Even if it is not received, I will still post the 3/4 for the other team to try to guess.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

No. There is just under 24 hours left on the clock for the final submission. Even if it is not received, I will still post the 3/4 for the other team to try to guess.

I almost think it would be funnier to just make them guess with only 3/4 of the puzzle completed.

[kingnebwsu]

I wonder if it will be like the other FOFC Mole thread and the person not playing is the Mole...

[Thomkal]

woohoo Team #1, WTG!

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by samifan24

I almost think it would be funnier to just make them guess with only 3/4 of the puzzle completed.

That's what I meant.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by kingnebwsu

I wonder if it will be like the other FOFC Mole thread and the person not playing is the Mole...

To ease your fears on that:

In case that is the case now or in case that happens in the future of the game, I do have a plan. This game will not die on us. I've put way too much work into some of this already.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by kingnebwsu

I wonder if it will be like the other FOFC Mole thread and the person not playing is the Mole...

Hope not. That would be boring. Even if the person not playing yet IS the Mole, I hope we could continue the game.

[MJ4H]

This game will continue to its conclusion. I personally guarantee it. On a personal note, I had a dream last night about a new mission for you guys. Woke up this morning and made it happen. Now I can't wait to get this quiz and execution out of the way so we can move on to mission 3. I think you guys are going to love this one.



And, yeah, there will be a quiz and execution following the current mission. I've spent a little bit of time on the execution experience, too.

Maybe I'm way too into this?

[MJ4H]

While we are waiting for time to run out, I thought I might explain a little bit about the quiz and executions.

The Quiz

The quiz is the mechanic that defines the game. Winning play money is one thing, and sure it is fun to participate in wacky challenges and win play money, but what makes a player a winner or loser is the quiz.

The quiz will normally be 10 questions. It could be more or less some weeks, though. The questions on the quiz are all about the mole. If you know who the mole is, you should do very well on the quiz. If you aren't sure but have it narrowed down to 2 people, you might want to split your answers between those 2 people, assuring that you will get some of the questions right if one of your two suspects is the mole. If your suspect list is longer, you might need to split it even further.

The player with the lowest score on the quiz is "executed." That player is removed from the game permanently and is no longer eligible for the grand prize and no longer participates in any of the challenges, etc. In reality show lingo, they go home.

In case of a tie on the quiz, the person with the slowest time will be sent home. This brings up an issue since different people will be on the message board at different times. In order to level the playing field here, the quiz must be "requested" by the player. The procedure will be:

1) I will post in the thread that it is quiz time.
2) Each player will need to send me a private message saying they are ready to take the quiz.
3) When I receive a PM from a player, I will immediately send the quiz to the player via PM.
4) When the player finishes the quiz, they immediately send the answers to me via PM.
5) The player's quiz time is then the difference between the time I sent the quiz and the time I received their answers.

The only issue I can come up with in this system is if I am not immediately available to send the quiz. I will try to be available, but of course I cannot always be. I will try to note in the thread what times I will be gone. Additionally, if it has been more than, say, 20 minutes since I've received the PM and I haven't sent it yet, I will probably send a pre-confirmation PM first to make sure that person is still available and ready. I will try to be as fair as possible on this.

[MJ4H]

The Executions

An execution happens following every quiz. Quizzes happen after every two challenges (sometimes three). The execution will happen via a video posted into this thread. Each member should click play on the video to find out their fate.

In the video, you will see me entering each player's name into the computer, one at a time in random order. After a name is entered, the screen will change color. If a green thumbprint appears, that player is safe and continues playing the game. If a red thumbprint appears, that player has been executed by the mole and must leave the game immediately. Once a player has been executed, the execution is over and no more players will be entered into the computer.

The player that is executed will always be the player with the lowest score on the quiz taken just prior to the execution. In case of a tie, again, the player with the slowest time will be executed. It may be necessary occassionally to execute a player that is inactive in the game instead of a player that has the lowest score. This will be noted only after the execution is over.

If you have any questions about the quiz or the executions, feel free to ask.

[samifan24]

I've never watched the show, so this could be a stupid question, but are quizzes the only way to eliminate a player? I thought that the winning team from each challenge could vote to eliminate one player from the other team, no?