Secret Sinner

Main Match 2: A Sinner's Secret

Secure yourself a similar sinner, or suffer.

RULES

Setup

This game uses the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride) and the three theological heavenly virtues (faith, hope, charity), together called attributes. These sins and virtues are paired up, so there are 21 pairs total.

At the start of the game, each player in Hell is publicly assigned a letter from A to U. Each player in Heaven is publicly assigned three letters. Then, each letter is associated with a unique pair of a sin and a virtue. Only the player assigned to that letter will know what the pair is. The players in Heaven will get three pairs for which all attributes are different.

Queries

There will be 10 rounds in this game. During rounds 1-9, you may make queries. A query consists of three letters, with at least one from each realm, and an attribute, either a sin or a virtue. The answer to that query will be, for each letter, whether it has that attribute.

However, you will not receive the answer to your query. Instead, you must also select a player in the other realm each round to send your query to. You cannot select the same player more than once (if you're in Heaven), or twice (if you're in Hell).

The player you select will get the answer to your question at the end of the round. That is, they will get which letters you asked, and either "Yes" or "No" for each one. However, they will not know the attribute that you queried.

You will also get free communications with the person you select for the duration of the round after you asked the query. For instance, if you submit a query in Round 1, the player you are sending it to receives it at the end of Round 1, and you will have free communication with them during Round 2.

Allies + Locking In

Two letters are considered allies with each other if they share an attribute between them. A letter is not its own ally. Therefore, each letter will have 8 allies -- 2 that share a sin and 6 that share a virtue.

During each round, for each letter assigned to you, you can lock in one letter you believe is an ally of your letter. A letter can only lock in different letters as allies, and up to eight of them.

Endgame

At the end of the game, all letters are given a score. A letter receives two points per correctly locked in ally and loses one point per incorrectly locked in ally. In addition, every time a letter is correctly locked in by one of its allies, it loses three points.

From this, players are given scores. The score of a Heaven player is equal to the sum of the three letters they have. The score of a Hell player is simply the score of their letter.

The winner of each realm is the player with the most points. The loser is whoever has the least points. In the case of a tie, the player with more correct allies locked in wins. In the case of a further tie, the player with earlier correctly locked allies wins. If there is still a tie, we consider the number of times a player’s letters were locked in correctly, with fewer (first consideration) and later lock-ins being better.

The only thing revealed at the end of the Main Match is the relative ordering of all players within a realm.

The loser of Heaven will fall into Hell and gain a Mark of Elimination for the next episode. The loser of Hell will be the Elimination Candidate.

The top two performers in Hell will go into Heaven. The winner of Heaven will select an additional non-losing player in Hell to join them in Heaven. As previously mentioned, a player that has a Mark of Elimination is ignored for these calculations and also cannot be selected to go to Heaven.

At the start of the next episode, there will be 6 players in Heaven, and 6 players in Hell.

TIMELINE

Rules release: Players are moved to their new realms. There are 24 hours to discuss and ask questions. At this time, players do not yet know their assigned letters.

Round 1 start: Players are given their assignments. All players may submit one query, consisting of an attribute name, three letters, and the name of a player from the opposite realm. In addition, players may choose to lock in an ally for each of their letters.

Round 2 start: For all Round 1 queries, the answers are sent to the receiving players, and communications are opened between the two players. Again, players may submit one query and may lock in allies.

Round 3 start: Note that at this time, communications opened at the end of Round 1 are closed (unless they are opened again at the end of Round 2). Otherwise this round is identical to Round 2.

...

Round 10: Identical to Rounds 3-9, but you do not send a query; you may only lock in allies.

End of MM: The results of the Main Match (the ordering of players in both realms) are released.

At this time, the winner of Heaven should choose one Hell player to ascend, and then the Elimination Candidate chooses a player to be the Death Match Opponent. Afterwards, communications for these players are opened, and DM selection takes place between Heaven players.

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Amendment: You may not query two letters that belong to the same player in a single round.

Clarification: A letter can only lock in different distinct letters as allies, and up to eight of them.

The bolded word has been added for clarification. This means you cannot lock in the same letter multiple times per letter you own. Formally, the set of letters that a particular letter Z locks in must both be pairwise distinct (it's a set) and no element can be Z.

(A small additional clarification has been made to the above clarification.)