[2024] The Time to Guess Is At Hand!

[*The Butler]

Please make guesses as your MASQ IDS so that way it HIDES who has participated in the game!

And to add spice because there are so few people this time - please LIE about your MASQ in the guessing, obviously! (Or don't lie and throw people off!)

Use SPOILER TAGS when guessing!

For example, I might say: "I think the Butler is DeadpoolX............"

Even though, clearly I know I am the Butler.

This will throw off anyone who might try to sneak a peek at the spoilers where it says "The Butler is ............me..........." for example!

I will leave the other 2023 MASQ threads open until everyone's made their guesses.

Please remember to use the SPOILER tags when making your guesses so you don't ruin it for anyone else!

I also recommend adding "....." at the end of the person's true name so the spoiler tags look longer than the names! That way it doesn't make it too easy for others to guess without actually checking spoilers!

So for example rather than say "I think The Butler is Tawmis"

You'd say "I think The Butler is Tawmis........"

Also reveal who you are in Spoilers, so when you post guessing others - it's not easy to see, "Hey Tawmis didn't guess who the Butler was! He must be the Butler!"

So for example I would do:

MASQ01 was BBP.....................
MASQ02 was none other than me!
MASQ03 was clearly Jules
MASQ04 Was probably notbobsmith because of how he answered Question01
MASQ05 must be Rath, as the last person!

Also if someone guesses who you are put the Correct or Incorrect in spoilers so it doesn't sway someone else's guess unless they want to see the spoiler.

Feel free to put the "justification" for your guesses in the spoiler, when you're guessing for extra points and fun!


The MASQs were:


* Firiona Vie
* Single Malt Scotch
* Boris
* Grumpy bear
* Ivaylo
* Tardy Tardis
* Irda


When guessing also feel free to include how you came to that guess in the spoiler!

The people wearing MASQs were:

Wait - let's do this different this year.

I am not going to list who participated.

And I will say - at least ONE was a red herring - as in, it was me.

BUT.

MORE than one COULD be a red herring (as in, it could be me).

Was it just you?

And the REST were me?

Posing as red herrings?

You will have to figure it out...

I did reach out to some folks who hadn't logged on here for awhile to see if they would participate. Did they? You must use the clues gathered and the tones of the post to see if you can figure out who is who!

Do any sound like Collector... or BBP... or Rath... or NotBobSmith... or goatmeal or... Semi-Happy Partygoer... or Jules... or DPX... or Qbix... or...?

You figure it out based on how they responded to things.

So - can you discover which of these GUESTS are behind the MASQs?

Feel free to begin guessing in this thread using the rules stated (in regards to using SPOILER tags and ensuring you put ".........." in front or behind or both, next to each guess so it's not easy to tell by the size of the spoiler space for others!)

And to add spice - feel free to LIE about your MASQ!

For example, I might say: "I think the Butler is DeadpoolX............"

Even though, clearly I know I am the Butler.

This will throw off anyone who might try to sneak a peek at the spoilers where it says "The Butler is ............me..........." for example!

I will lock the other 2024 MASQ threads now!

After the guessing is all done and the discussions die down - I will deactivate the MASQ IDs for 2024.

[notbobsmith]

I think I will get started. Here are my guesses.

* Firiona Vie - I think is goatmeal........................................................................
* Single Malt Scotch - I think is a Red Herring..........................................................
* Boris - I think is BBP......................................................................................
* Grumpy bear - I think is a Red Herring. Irda also used "Toad-in-the-Hole" as a food............
* Ivaylo - I think is Rath. Based on the frequency of posts for the most part.......................
* Tardy Tardis - I think is a Red Herring..................................................................
* Irda - I think is a Red Herring. The name is a Dragonlance reference and Tawmis is a fan......

[Tawmis]

Huh. I can see how you might have missed the large, red font...

Please make guesses as your MASQ IDS so that way it HIDES who has participated in the game!

[* Grumpy bear]

Ha-rumpf! All this hullabaloo! Baloo is competition! And this bear suit is nice and warm in this weather. But I fooled at least one person! Which is good because I did post a couple of hints that were a dead give-away. Hrumpf!
Tawm: For score keeping purposes, the one where I posted my name, is one where I think it was one of yours.

* Firiona Vie Tawmis alias.............................
* Single Malt Scotch If it wasn't for Eeyore I'd think that was BBP, but I like to think Jules came to join us. ..............................
* Boris Tawm again! .................................
* Grumpy bear It's.... me! Hurray! ..........................
* Ivaylo This one is Rath, no question about it! History and misunderstanding rules ...............................
* Tardy Tardis NotBobSmith ................................................
* Irda I spied with my starred binocs and found BBP was using this alias! .................................

[* Irda]

* Firiona Vie - This is bbp....................... - she didn't post much
* Single Malt Scotch - ................this is jules - New Orleans and drinks
* Boris - this ...............is tawmis because the old reference
* Grumpy bear - ......................this is nbs very chatting and in other games
* Ivaylo - ..........................................this is rath the history buff gives it away
* Tardy Tardis - this is ....................SHP or... goatmeal?
* Irda - this is me and I am - that's telling

[* Ivaylo]

I still didn't make it to Bulgaria! That makes me want to smash this table! I'll just pick up my sword and ... wait. Art this thing on?

* Firiona Vie is one of Tawm's or BBP's alternate red herring accounts?
* Single Malt Scotch is Jules! She mentioned alcohol and New Orleans
* Boris is one of Tawmis's red herrings ... again, the reference to old cartoons
* Grumpy bear is SHP? Or Goatmeal, perhaps?
* Ivaylo is me, yes. I hope you enjoyed Ivaylo's obsession with pigs and cabbages, Mongols and Byzantines!
* Tardy Tardis is ... or must be ... NBS. No-one else I know on this forum knows as much about science and engineering
* Irda is BBP, since she didn't post much

[* Single Malt Scotch]

* Firiona Vie - I think is BBP............................................................................
* Single Malt Scotch - Me! Of course!................................................................
* Boris - I this is a red herring account...............................................................
* Grumpy bear - I think might be goatmeal..........................................................
* Ivaylo - Rath is a fan of history so...................................................................
* Tardy Tardis - Sounds a little like notbobsmith.....................................................
* Irda - Tawmis because of the Dragonlance reference..............................................

[* Boris]

* Firiona Vie - This sounds like goatmeal
* Single Malt Scotch - This sounds like Jules but Tawm could be throwing us off
* Boris - Why, this is me! Who else would it be?
* Grumpy bear - This sounds like it could be NBS, picking something cute to throw us off
* Ivaylo - This is Rath. History.
* Tardy Tardis - BBP. Regionally close.
* Irda - I think this is a red herring

[* Firiona Vie]

* Firiona Vie - Are we supposed to reveal who we are?
* Single Malt Scotch - Jules. Tawmis mentioned messaging others. She has done this before.
* Boris - This could be BBP. She knows characters and references like this.
* Grumpy bear - I believe this is a red herring.
* Ivaylo - I see Rath Darkblade has not changed. Still enjoys history.
* Tardy Tardis - I believe this could be BBP. Or it's NBS. NBS is my vote.
* Irda - I believe this is Tawmis.

[*The Butler]

How typical... appropriately named, I see... we only await Tardy Tardis to arrive and make their guess!

And to answer one of the MASQ's questions hidden in the spoiler - I will remove the MASQs (disable the accounts) - and then reveal the truth as to who was who in this MASQ of Eternity 2024!

[* Tardy Tardis]

Apologies for the lateness of my reply. I was observing the aftermath of the Big Bang (not as big as one might think) and found myself stuck during a period of cosmic inflation. So here are my guesses:

* Firiona Vie - Just a guess: BBP........................................................
* Single Malt Scotch - I think notbobsmith. I'm not sure why.......................
* Boris - SHP...............................................................................
* Grumpy bear - I think this might be Tawmis........................................
* Ivaylo - I'm pretty sure is Rath........................................................
* Tardy Tardis - Yours truly...............................................................
* Irda - Tawmis............................................................................

[*The Butler]

Ah, thank you, Tardy! I should have known you'd be late! (One might think, going through space and time, one might be better at controlling time...) Ahem, yes! Well! Here we go....

The truth revealed.....

* Firiona Vie - This was Tawmis! Originally Tawmis was going to use chatbot for all her answers! NBS had come up with that idea for... Well, saying it now would ruin the surprise! Firiona Vie, if one did not look it up, is a main character in the MMO, EverQuest, which I am pretty sure I've mentioned I've played before on here!
* Single Malt Scotch - This was the sneaky NBS! But this wasn't the chatbot account! No, sir - or ma'am - I see you there, BBP!
* Boris - This was also Tawmis! Tawmis was googling foods in England in the food portion! It was funny that BBP also mentioned the same food I had mentioned as Boris!
* Grumpy bear - This is the ever super star reminder of the MASQ event, herself! None other than BBP!
* Ivaylo - This as most of you guessed was Rath, because of his love and passion for history, made it so hiding who this was - all too easy to guess!
* Tardy Tardis - This is the second account for NBS! He mentioned wanting to do a red herring as a chatbot - and I created a red herring account for HIM to use!
* Irda - This one was Tawmis! I figured if people googled "Irda" they would see it's a Dragonlance reference, and make it easy to guess it was me! Because I never reached out to the others like SHP or Jules or anyone! All of that was a part of the rouse - so this was intentionally "easy" to guess as me to throw off the scent that the other red herrings might be Jules, SHP, goatmeal, etc!

[*The Butler]

The MASQ's have been collected (accounts deactivated), so feel free to use your normal accounts to reply here, and leave comments!

I was surprised no one started NEW threads! I used Irda to "set that up" - with the Happy Halloween (viewtopic.php?t=6420) thread - then replying with The Butler to say others could start new threads too!

I tried something new with the Clue rooms this time - where if you enter a room that someone else is in - you could ask them a question (and they'd need to answer as the MASQ but answer truthfully to the question as if it were the person behind the MASQ) - but I think I was the only one who ever answered any questions. I thought that would be a fun thing to add and be able to gather clues who is behind the MASQ. And originally I made it so you could only move to rooms that were adjacent or had a secret path - but once it got to the second page, it was hard to remember what rooms were where, without going back to the previous page - and remembering who might be in what room. I figure next time, you go into a room - and just ask a general question of all in the room? Or is none of that fun (asking and only moving to adjacent rooms)?

And this time, I had people answer as their MASQ (ahem, NBS!) because it helps hide who might be behind the MASQ. For example, I didn't email Jules, SHP, goatmeal, to be a part of this - so them not answering who their guesses were was going make it very easy to tell there's more red herrings than I led on to believe. So I thought answering as the MASQ was a good idea this time. Thoughts?

Also any other feedback!

[BBP]

So here it is, here's where I bare it all, so bear with me...

I may have pummled you with the Masq since early September, but in reality I didn't even have the time to come up with a character. I resorted to go to TV Tropes and pick random media until I reached something I vaguely knew. After a myriad of boybands from Asia, I reached a Care Bears page...

Which actually would be a straight-forward pick for me. In my youth I was a big fan of the Care Bears. I have a toy Champ bear and a Care Bears LP and assorted whatnots.
I now work for the complaints department for a travel agency. Our department is named Special Care department, and as such we call ourselves the Special Care Bears. Plus after years of stress, medical issues with Dad and with myself and now house renovation, I am grumpier than normal.

(tries to watch an old-timey CareBears episode, cringes at the voices) (Professor Coldheart starts to sing - can't write, too busy cringing.)


I tried my usual best to hide myself - posting at times that are out of my regular posting hours and even copying NBS's ...
(they're singing again, help!)
...I even copied the Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker joke in the Weapon's topic, that was made a couple of times by other members.

(Tell you what, I have a new appreciation for my dad after listening to the ol' Troetelbeertjes again. Brr.)


Aaaaanyway:
I posted as much as I could while letting on as little as I possibly could, even posting in all threads so that you wouldn't know (normally I shy from story- or answer question with a question) variations. As some of you based my character guess on how little posts there were and none of you guessed me, I'd say Mission Accomplished.

But the biggest hint, so big I would call it a mistake, was naming Seabert in the Character game. Right after my big Seal post in the hobbies photo thread.

Ah well. Seals are cute!

Only request I have is for more members, I've seen Goatmeal around and I know I begged Qbix but he was too busy to join.

[Tawmis]

As some of you based my character guess on how little posts there were and none of you guessed me, I'd say Mission Accomplished.
Only request I have is for more members, I've seen Goatmeal around and I know I begged Qbix but he was too busy to join.

I too was purposely positng rarely with the red herring accounts, to make it look like you, Goatmeal, or maybe Jules (who I fictiously said I may have messaged) - so making it look like people who rarely have time to post on the forums.

Now that said, Goatmeal is for sure on here from time to time (whenever he updates the Betrayal of Krondor PDF that he then needs me to upload, lol) - but I am in contact with Jules from time to time, and I know she currently has a lot on her plate and probably wouldn't have the time for the MASQ.

I have tried, on the Book of Faces, through various "Sierra" facebook groups, mention the forum, to try and recruit more people in this direction. But for many, forums are a way of old things - social media is "where it's at." (I strongly disagree, but then I am also old, and have always enjoyed forums much more than social media outlets). Even on my Let's Play Sierra Games YT channels, I have brought up the forums here a number of times, in an effort to direct people this way.

But yes, I would definitely love more people to participate.

It's just the forum is down to a few of us "regulars" these days.