Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[Jasper]

If he did that, he'd just be taking one point from sunshine, putting them all at a tie.

At least, as I understand the rules.

[LMNO]

Hot damn.  I turned on my Kindle's wireless, and it's incredibly easy to access this.

I'll be caught up with the story soon.

[Cain]

Yeah, with a tie, no-one gets Quirrel's special favour at the end of term, and it can, in theory, stop the competitive factionalization of Hogwarts, which was really a masterful stroke and one I should've seen earlier, but didn't.

[Requia ☣]

If he did that, he'd just be taking one point from sunshine, putting them all at a tie.

At least, as I understand the rules.

That would be if he shot himself in sunshine's name, not Dumbledore's.

[Jasper]

Duh?  Nothing ever said you could switch to non-existent armies anyway, so chances are that's what he'll do, is what I'm saying.

[Kai]

If he did that, he'd just be taking one point from sunshine, putting them all at a tie.

At least, as I understand the rules.

That would be if he shot himself in sunshine's name, not Dumbledore's.

No, shooting himself in sunshine's name would be akin to doing nothing (an accidental self kill is meaningless), allowing sunshine to win, as would doing nothing. Shooting himself for either dragon or chaos would allow one of those to win (adding two points to the other army and subtracting 1 from sunshine). But shooting himself for a 4th army would take one point from sunshine (2 to the new army) leaving the score at 255:255:255:2. Which means no one would win. Or perhaps Quirrel would award favors to each of the three armies (less likely than the former).

I've thought about this for about 30 minutes overall, and it seems the most probable conclusion, given the priors (foreshadowing by quirrel, Dumbledore's comments, Blaise's indecision and comments).

[Jasper]

I seriously can't wait.

[Pope Lecherous]

didn't they say suicide was illegal or offered no points in this battle?

[Kai]

didn't they say suicide was illegal or offered no points in this battle?

if you kill yourself for your own army, yes.

If you kill yourself for some other army, no.

[Jasper]

I actually want to see this game done with laser tag, somehow.

[Reginald Ret]

Rules confuse stuff.

lets see if i got this right:

shooting enemy = 2 points.
shouting out the name of another army: your points go to the called army.
so shooting anyone in the name of another army = 2 points for the called army.
shooting friendly = -1 point. This includes traitors, unless they call out another army before getting shot. *
so shooting friendly in the name of another army = 2 points for called army and -1 point for own army.
shooting friendly in the name of your own army would just be -1 right? And you count as a friendly, so a suicide would result in a draw.


* This opens the way for traitors to earn -1 for the army they are betraying twice, once for their kill and once for getting killed. Or am i missing something?
GAH! rules hard! 

[Kai]

Rules confuse stuff.

lets see if i got this right:

shooting enemy = 2 points.
shouting out the name of another army: your points go to the called army.
so shooting anyone in the name of another army = 2 points for the called army.
shooting friendly = -1 point. This includes traitors, unless they call out another army before getting shot. *
so shooting friendly in the name of another army = 2 points for called army and -1 point for own army.
shooting friendly in the name of your own army would just be -1 right? And you count as a friendly, so a suicide would result in a draw.


* This opens the way for traitors to earn -1 for the army they are betraying twice, once for their kill and once for getting killed. Or am i missing something?
GAH! rules hard! 

Except suicides (for your own army) doesn't count as anything, only if you defect.

[Reginald Ret]

But Professor Quirrell had gone on to announce that if you'd been originally assigned to Sunshine, nobody could shoot you in the name of Sunshine - or rather, they could, but then Sunshine lost a single Quirrell point, symbolized by a triple gong. That prevented you from shooting your own soldiers for points, and discouraged suiciding before the enemy got you, but you could still shoot spies if you had to.

Suicide = -1 point.

I can't find any other references to suicide. Can you quote your source or do you concede?

[LMNO]

Well, I've just caught up.  Fuckballs, this thing is good.

[Kai]

But Professor Quirrell had gone on to announce that if you'd been originally assigned to Sunshine, nobody could shoot you in the name of Sunshine - or rather, they could, but then Sunshine lost a single Quirrell point, symbolized by a triple gong. That prevented you from shooting your own soldiers for points, and discouraged suiciding before the enemy got you, but you could still shoot spies if you had to.

Suicide = -1 point.

I can't find any other references to suicide. Can you quote your source or do you concede?

I concede, but still predict Blaise shooting himself for Dumbledore's Army.