So, I've been sitting on this for a day and figured I'd write some manner of final thoughts / feedback post. I originally didn't want to, maybe it'd be better to let things stand where they are. But I think it's something I have to do for the sake of closure. Feel free to skip if I seem too rambly; I know I tend to run my mouth a lot in these kinds of games.

First of all, I overall enjoyed the setting and map. The amount of findable lore was nice, even if I didn't find too much of it myself. It was good to see others uncover stuff and engage with it enthusiastically. The night time exploration was also handled well; I don't think I've encountered any significant hurdles where I was told "You can't do that" and was confused as to why not. Usually anything I wanted to do was possible in some form.

Player engagement was also very solid. Shout-out to my part-time partner in crime Roland. Was fun to get to team up with FWD as players again sort of like in AKGO, but with a less wholesome ending this time. While many players embodied their characters well, I think the stand-out of this game was McJango, whom Kright infused with so much personality and care in every single testimony post (and beyond). And of course there was Bud, who started as a joke character but unexpectedly wound up as the emotional heart of the ensemble. And then kudos to my sous chef Lynne as well.

Okay... With regards to my role in the finale... This is somewhat awkward, but there are some misgivings with what happened that I'd like to work through. I did not want to mention those things yesterday; everyone was really hyped in chat and I did not want to ruin that. In the end, my struggle to forcefully keep myself silenced proved a bit too overwhelming to me, which is why I decided to remove myself from chat to not get in the way of the celebration... admittedly in a needlessly confusing way.

So...

First, let me begin by saying this has nothing to do with the fact that I died. I actually knew that would happen in advance, much like anyone else who did. I figured I would probably croak since I put myself into a villainous role against several other players who were all working together. Doing that and not expecting at least the possibility of dying would be pretty stupid. My issue is more with HOW it happened, and the entire situation surrounding my betrayal.

So, I didn't communicate this well at the time, but this is likely to be my last participation in a longform KG. The reason why I even considered doing a betrayal play on this scale was that I thought this was going to be my last game, so I wanted to go out in a memorable way. Play big, try to come out on top, go for the sole survivor ending in an era where team victories are usually considered the norm. I quickly backtracked from that when I realized I would have to kill Ace, whom players worked so hard to get into endgame, and I didn't want to ruin that. I also didn't want to kill McJango because I was told Kright usually dies early in these games. So I scaled back my plan from one to three survivors. Seemed still cool, as long as the double-cross was going to be memorable in some way.

Then the finale happened and I died almost immediately after declaring my villain-turn. It read kind of comical to me. Just prior to the announcement I made a post in chat to the effect of "Now you have to deal with me, can you survive?" I ended up deleting that post in embarrassment after seeing just how quickly I was dispatched. Like, I was cringing at myself; at the thought that I could ever be taken seriously. Taunting like I'm the final boss when the way things unfolded I was maybe a minor obstacle at best.

I don't begrudge that North Star killed me. That actually makes sense. I've repeatedly identified him and Roland as the most dangerous forces in opposition to me, and if I died, there was little doubt in my mind that one of those two were going to be responsible. But like, rather than having both North Star's and my submitted actions clash against each other and let the scene play out to determine the winner, the impression I got was that North Star was determined as the winner ahead of time, and any precaution I took against him to get an edge were artificially nullified.

If you re-read my actions, I actually explicitly state that I did not want to engage North Star in a direct fight. I did this because I knew Dude is one seriously crafty player and that if I got locked in a 1v1 fight against him, there'd be a 90% chance of me ending up dead. He is notably the only player I specified NOT to engage directly and instead try to kill via a remote trap. The setup for this trap was arbitrarily skipped, so I never got to set it.

So that said, let me go through what happened in the finale, after my betrayal. I knew that I would have no chance against everyone at the same time, so it would be necessary to separate the team. To this end, I devised a plan to use my role power creatively, scattering the survivors across the entire map so I would be able to pick them off one by one. That was the keystone of my strategy and what I intended to be my "big moment". I thought that was going to be a cool set piece, I could stalk people through a building maybe, and eventually one of them would get one over me and kill me in a memorable way.

It ended up amounting to nothing, because after everyone scattered, they basically came back 5 seconds later; I couldn't even finish one fight before that entire strategy fizzled out and everyone ganged up on me, which is the exact scenario I tried to prevent by doing that. The trap I specified to set for North Star also didn't happen because I never got to set it up. So in the end, despite me saying I DON'T want to get locked into direct combat with North Star if I can avoid it, I got pathed INTO the building he was in, where he handily dispatched me exactly like I predicted he would.

I hope I'm getting my grievances across here, like, how basically nothing I wanted to do in that fight happened, and instead something I DIDN'T want to do came to pass, against my instructions. And then I died, and I'm trying to reconcile why that happened. Like, did I do something to piss the story off? It's like... There were two players who ultimately decided to betray the group: Morgan and me. With Morgan, I felt like the story was celebrating his decision. He got to walk around strutting his stuff, being a menacing presence and credible antagonist for a large part of the story. With me, I got the impression that my decision was a nuisance. Like it was disrupting the narrative and once I was an open antagonist, it couldn't get rid of me fast enough. Like my decision wasn't wanted and that's why all of my plans failed and I was made to walk into the kill zone.

If that was the case, I wish I would have been told that I was fucking things up. Like, I was doing this to make the finale more interesting, but maybe Perch could have said "Hey, I've already got a traitor, you'd just be a complication at this point." I wouldn't have done it then. I gained nothing by doing this; If I had just sat still and done nothing, I would have survived with the others. But I decided to try do more and... quite frankly, I feel a bit humiliated.

When Perch told me I would die in the finale, I asked him if I got to go out as a credible threat in the end. I... don't know why he said "Yes." I think had I been in any other player's position and looking from their point of view, I would not have taken me seriously.

...

Anyway. Hosting these games is stressful. I don't really fault Perch for this decision when he probably had to balance a shitload of other player submissions and get this done. These are just my dumb feelings on the matter, on the way I went out of the story that I tried to help weave over the last months. I don't know how much sense they make, but they're in me, and I had to write them down so I can move on.

Thank you for the picture, Kright. It really cheered me up and helped me work through some stuff. Even though we're both dead, I'm sure in some alternate reality we're still out there, tearing up the country as familiar and witch.

This post was last modified: Jun 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM by Partitio Yellowil.

Preface: Show

(I'd like to preface this to clarify I mean no disrespect to Yap in following his post with an epilogue. His feelings on the finale and his role within are well-articulated, understandable, and deserving of consideration as KGs continue on and hosts continue to construct finales. I do not mean to speak over him. Rather, through this post, I would only like to offer a gesture of gratitude to a few of the players who closely collaborated with me in the course of this game.)

"Haaa… Hooo… It's finished, ain't it? The town's in tatters… but it's over… and they made it. I couldn't tell ya where the line runs, but… She's a fiery one. She'll be fine. And he's… Well, he's got that Marty feller."

"I don't know about you, but after all that's happened, I'm plumb worn out. Without that scoundrel 'round, I'd reckon we won't be welcome in these parts too long. All the better, after what these hands've done."

"Don't know what you were plannin' on, but… Say, Neil. We got ourselves a mighty long trail ahead, one neither of us have ever seen. Never hurts to have company - a kindred spirit to flap gums with, sing a verse of "Big Iron" with.

S'long as we got a walk ahead…

What'd say we mosey on down this one together, partner?"