Good evening and welcome to this festive edition of Play of the Week. I'm am your Head Righter.
You may have heard that in an incident earlier tonight, we
might have accidentally actually burnt down part of the studio, and possibly a few contracts as well. And with our Actors angry and/or injured beyond belief... we've had to hope for a Christmas Miracle to save us.
And thankfully, we were able round up a whole new Cast of
Christmas Temps! Welcome to you all:
For legal reasons, we need to make absolutely certain that none of you bear any connection to the wayward Actors who abandoned
me during the fire their obligations to continue Acting in the ORG.
So if you are in any way connected or related to any of those original Actors (or in an unthinkable extreme, if you somehow
are them) - you should not give that away.
Do not tell anyone what your prior identity or roles might have been. Do not even
hint at anything about any past reps. You are now a
new recruit to the Cornley Polytechnic Amateur Dramatic Society and there will be
grave, possibly Game-ending consequences for anyone who slips up and reveals who the were before now.
In fact, you should go to great lengths to hide it. And perhaps even take this opportunity to, well,
Act. Try writing or behaving in a different style. Imitate other Actors, or take inspiration from entirely different places as you forge your new anonymous identity. Log on at unpredictable or unusual times, taking advantage of the fact that everyone is on invisible mode, and generally has strange schedules through the weekends anyway. Upend what you think you know about other people's activity times, and expect them to be changing things up as well.
Amnesia:
Do not make any reference to any previous events in this ORG, or any past Actors, formats, etc. This Episode is a stand alone, a spinoff, using only your new identity. So as far as you are concerned, we are dropping the 0 and keeping the 1, so that this 'Episode 10' is actually a new Episode 1.
All the old Actors shall be back by the start of the next Episode. But for this one, they and everything they wrought over the past few weeks are persona non grata, completely off-limits. Your job this weekend is to get to know one another
as if for the very first time. Make a new first impression, perhaps even a better one than ever before.
To reiterate, because these are the most important rules of this entire ORG and will be enforced without mercy:
DO NOT REVEAL OR HINT ABOUT YOUR PAST REP IN THIS GAME.
IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM.
THE MORE YOU GIVE AWAY, THE MORE LIKELY YOU ARE TO BE REMOVED FROM THE GAME.
Now with that out of the way, let's make sure we're all clear on the Format of this new Episode!
To impress upon the BBC that we have experienced a 'come to Jesus moment' and learned the 'errors' of our 'ways' we are using the new cast of Christmas Temps to rebrand and reboot our ORG with all the pizzazz of modern *checks notes* 'social medias'. Here's how:
1. You'll have the chance to meet and greet, but only one-on-one. So
you can send PMs. But you cannot send any group Missives.
2. We're all about positivity here now, by God! So by the end of the weekend, you'll need to submit a
Holiness Ranking of the seven new faces you've just met. The two Christmas Temps with the best Rankings overall will become
God's Chosen Influencers 
and win Safety for the Round via divine protection or some such.
3. Each of God's Chosen Influencers will then need to
Nominate two Christmas Temps for elimination. So there will be
four vulnerable players overall.
And alongside your Holiness Rankings, we'll need everyone to submit a list of whom they would Nominate, to be used if they do become one of God's Chosen Influencers.
Your Rankings and potential Nominations must be submitted in your Decisions threads.
You can revise them as much as you like until the deadline:
9:30pm Sunday night AEDT (for Australians), which is 10:30am Sunday GMT (for Europeans), and 6:30am Sunday EDT (for Americans).
4. After that deadline, we'll announce who the Influencers were, and whom they have Nominated. Then you'll all have some 31 hours to decide who should be saved, and who should be eliminated from this Game for good, whatever guise they are currently wearing.
5. We'll reveal the exact mechanics of that decision once the Nominees are announced. For now, just know that the Holiness Rankings positions will play a role, and that you will also be Voting.
The voting deadline for this Episode will be:
6:00pm Monday evening GMT (for Europeans), which is 1:00pm Monday EDT (for Americans), and 5:00am Tuesday AEDT (for Australians).
6. Also by the Voting deadline, we'll be asking you all (in private) to make your best guesses about which Christmas Temps line up with which Original Actors. These guesses will not directly impact
this Episode, but we do still
highly recommend that you do everything in your power to limit everyone else's ability to guess your identity. The fewer people able to correctly match your reps together, the better off you will be going into Episode 11.
Oh! And I very nearly forgot... one last thing...
You may have noticed that we've hired
eight Christmas Temps for this Episode. Not just seven.
This is because one of them is actually
a previously eliminated Actor in disguise! Not quite a lowly Critic, but also not yet a professional Actor, their task here is simple: if they can survive this round, then they will return into the Game next Episode, as themselves.
I won't say any more because of the strict Rules about Anonymity and Amnesia. Just like it would be against those Rules for any of you to discuss who the 'returning player' might be.
And I certainly cannot go so far as to reveal who was actually eliminated in Episode 9 - that would simply be crossing the line, I'm afraid. You'll just have to proceed, like the rest of us, with absolute existential doubt about to what in the world is going on here.
TL;DR - EPISODE TEN
Your format is Survivor, but Reset.
- You have new reps! They're only temporary.
- Do not give away who you were playing before this Episode, and do not mention anything from any previous Episodes.
- Do everything in your power to avoid being identified! If you slip up, you will regret it. And may be removed from the Game.
- Treat this as a fresh start; change your shtick, post/PM at inconsistent times, and expect everyone else to also be doing that.
- One of you is a Critic hoping to return to the Game; they will succeed if they are not voted out during this Episode.
- You can send PMs to other Christmas Temps. But you can only talk one-on-one, so group Missives are not allowed.
- Everyone must submit a Ranking of the other players, and the two highest Ranked overall will become God's Chosen Influencers.
- They'll each Nominate two players each to make vulnerable.
- So you'll also need to submit a list of the players you would most like to see Nominated.
- Submit your Rankings and potential Nominations lists by 9:30pm Sunday AEDT = 10:30am Sunday GMT = 6:30am EDT.
- After that deadline we'll announce who the four nominees. And explain how the Vote between them will work.
- You'll also need to eventually guess who each new rep was originally; do your best to ensure nobody can correctly match your reps.
- Votes and those guesses will both be due at 6:00pm Monday GMT = 1:00pm Monday EDT = 5:00am Tuesday AEDT.
If you have any questions - we know you're new here - please do not hesitate to ask.
But in the absence of any pressing concerns at this precise moment, beyond the ever-present 'WHY?'...
Well, the new Actors are prepared. The stage is set. Please enjoy The Nativity!
Brookshaw Corporate Finance
You're both safe players now. Switch on!
