Updates to Bastard Tags

[Morning Tweet]

If 1 scum gets to pick other members of their team pregame, and this is known publicly in signups and game start, is that considered bastard currently?

[Morning Tweet]

My understanding is that it doesn't really matter if or how the "bastard" tag applies to publicly known mechanics-- for instance, if a game includes a cult and this is known, you don't have to say "this is bastard", you can just say "this has a cult" and everyone will get the correct message.

I feel like it's kinda splitting hairs to ask these types of questions. If your game has one scum draft their partners pregame, then the proper answer to "is it bastard?" is not "yes" or "no", it's "one scum can draft their partners in pregame." Since it's public info anyway, people should get it up-front so they can best decide whether they want to join.

I'm not the one in charge of this, since players in my queue always know exactly what they're getting anyway, so this is just my $0.02 on the matter.

Well this is something that matters to me since I do have to declare the game as "Entirely bastard" for one small thing

This is especially a problem in closed setups -- does the moderator acting as an NPC (but not revealed as the mod) count as "Direct mod influence"?

I decided yes so I had to declare the game as bastard -- which just feels like an outdated system, maybe moderators used to torture players with false sanities and lying and alignment changes and they weren't announcing at signups.