Post by Beelzebibble on Dec 18, 2007 15:18:50 GMT -5
MAFIA IV
WELCOME THREAD
I. INTRODUCTION
Hello again! It’s time for the next installment of that most devious and deadly game ever to wash up on the shores of the Archipelago – Mafia! We’re taking things back to the simple way of life in Mafia IV. I, your good old Host from the first two Mafia games, have returned to take the reins for this one, and a lot of game elements that made Mafia II and, to an even greater degree, Mafia III so complex have been removed – this time, anyway. There’s nothing wrong with complex, except for right now. Mafia IV will ideally be anything but complex.
No, you can consider this to be something along the lines of “Mafia I: The Expansion Pack”. Overall, Mafia IV returns to the bare-bones rule system of Mafia I. There are only a few changes, such as the modified role list.
You’ve probably encountered this game in real life or online before – you may even have played it here – but in case you haven’t, these are the basics: Several Mafia members have betrayed a town and are picking off its residents one by one. The Innocents are holding regular executions in the hope of killing Mafia members, but unlike the Mafia members, the Innocents don’t know who’s on which side. The objective of either team is to completely wipe away the opposition. Deceit, treachery, fraud, and every other synonym for “lies” run rampant through the town as the game speeds toward its conclusion.
Sadly, we begin Mafia IV with a slightly smaller player list than I desired. My original plan included sixteen players, and we’ve come up three short. Because of that, the Nurse and the Bomb, as well as one of the generic Mafia Members, had to be cut out of the role roster. Better luck next game for those roles, I guess!
II. VOCABULARY
A brief vocabulary lesson to clarify the terms ahead: “Day” and “night” refer to the full 24-hour game periods, not regular days and nights. “Real-time day” means an actual day of gameplay time. “Role” indicates a player’s powers, but “alliance” simply denotes whether they’re on the side of the Mafia or of the Innocents. “Townsperson” and “townspeople” refer to all the players in the game, and shouldn’t be confused with “Innocents”.
III. PLAYERS
The complete list of players taking part in this Mafia game is below. I’m following Lee’s example and ditching the replacement-voting system – it was just an unnecessary hassle. If you’re not here to vote, tough.
Aurora
Baboon
Cinders
Hok
Kazkame
Kuro
Lamby
Lee
Ocelot
Pikachu
The Pope
RLRL
Vaxx
IV. BOARDS
This board is where the bulk of the game will take place. I will create a new topic for each day, where accusations, voting, and the execution will take place. You are welcome to create your own topics on this board, as long as they pertain to the Mafia game.
Mafia members will conduct their nightly assassinations on a Xanga I have created for the purpose of the game. The Mafia members have been given more detail about how to make that work.
The topic “The Cemetery” is for dead characters to discuss the game. A dead character may no longer post in any Mafia topic created by me except for “The Cemetery” (and “Mafia IV: Deaths!”. See section VIIi.)
V. THE DAY/NIGHT CYCLE
Mafia rotates on a day/night cycle, with different events taking place on each. For the convenience of this online community where nobody’s schedule matches up precisely, this game of Mafia will allow a full 24 hours for each day and 24 hours for each night. I will signal the beginning of a new day by creating a new topic for it on this board; at the beginning of each night, I will lock that topic.
Several things occur during the day:
Immediately, if there has been a consensus among the Mafia the previous night, their choice of victim is murdered. However, if the Doctor successfully guessed which Innocent was chosen by the Mafia, the Innocent does not die. If the Vigilante successfully fired a bullet at a Mafia member (and the target was not rescued by the Bodyguard), that Mafia member dies. If the Coroner examined a dead player’s body, that player’s role is now revealed to the town.
That will all make a heck of a lot more sense once you read the next section.
For the rest of the day, surviving members must make accusations and vote for an execution, which is detailed in section VII. The Mayor may PM me naming a player whose vote to increase. The Brewer may PM me naming a player whose vote to decrease.
Several things occur during the night:
Immediately, if there has been a consensus among the townspeople the previous day, their choice of suspect is executed.
For the rest of the night, Mafia members must confer on the Xanga to select a victim. The Doctor may PM me selecting a player to protect. The Detective may PM me selecting a player whose alliance will be revealed. The Vigilante may PM me selecting a player to fire his or her bullet at. The Coroner may PM me selecting a dead player to examine. The Journalist may PM me selecting a player to track.
VI. ROLES
The following characters appear in Mafia IV:
Mafia Members – There are two “vanilla” Mafia Members. These characters meet on the Xanga board each night to decide which townsperson they should assassinate. The Mafia Members know the identities of each other as well as of the Godfather and of the Bodyguard.
Godfather – A special Mafia Member. S/he is completely identical to the other Mafia Members except for one special trick: the Godfather’s dealings in the underworld are so well-concealed by his/her network of minions that the Godfather always appears innocent to any investigation. Should the Detective ask the Host about the Godfather’s alliance, the Host is required to say that s/he is an Innocent.
Bodyguard – A special Mafia Member in charge of warding off unwanted do-gooders. Every night, the Bodyguard may PM the Host naming a player to protect (the Bodyguard may not name him/herself). If that player is targeted by the Vigilante’s bullet, the player survives. The incident is not mentioned the following morning, however.
Doctor – The champion of the Innocents. The Doctor has the power to rescue assassination targets from the brink of death. Every night, the Doctor may PM the Host naming a player to protect (the Doctor cannot name him/herself). If that player is the one the Mafia Members select, the player survives. The incident will be mentioned the following morning, but the Doctor will not be named. However, the rescued player will be notified by PM of the identity of the Doctor. The Doctor knows the identity of the Coroner.
Detective – Prowling in the shadows, the Detective has arrived in town to sniff out the Mafia. Every night, the Detective may PM the Host to inquire about the alliance (not role) of one player. The Host will reply naming the player’s alliance. Unless the player is the Godfather or Miller, the Host is expected to be truthful.
Vigilante – This trigger-happy sentinel has taken it on him/herself to save the town from that Mafia scum. Twice throughout the course of the game, the Vigilante may PM the Host during the night naming a player to fire a bullet at. If the player turns out to be a Mafia member, s/he is killed the following morning and the incident is reported (the Vigilante cleverly goes back, disguises the bullet wound and makes it look like a Mafia killing). If the player turns out to be an Innocent, the bullet misses and the incident is not mentioned the following morning. The Vigilante is too clever to be fooled by the Godfather’s aura of innocence or the Miller’s aura of guilt, and his/her bullets will fly true regardless of those two role powers.
Mayor – A renamed Gilded Tongue from Lee’s Mafia III, the Mayor holds great sway in all the policktical happenings in this small town. Every day, the Mayor may PM the Host naming one player (the Mayor is allowed to name him/herself). That player’s vote will count as one extra in the execution vote that day. NOTE: Just like the extra votes in Mafia II & III, this power does not allow the targeted player to vote for two different people. It simply adds a point of strength to whatever vote they make in the day topic.
Brewer – The Brewer also holds great sway in the daily vote, although not quite in the same way as the Mayor. Every day, the Brewer may PM the Host naming one player (the Brewer is allowed to name him/herself). That player’s vote will count as one less in the execution vote that day, since they are considered too inebriated to be taken seriously. The Brewer knows the identity of the Miller.
Miller – Now, you might be asking yourself: “Why would Pohatu cut out the Nurse and the Bomb, but not the Miller?” Well, that just wouldn’t make the Detective’s work quite as interesting, would it? At any rate, the Miller is a good-natured soul who toils on the outskirts of the town. Unfortunately, s/he has become the scapegoat in light of recent events, quick to be accused by the more sophisticated townspeople. If the Detective asks the Host about the alliance of the Miller, the Host is obligated to say that s/he is a Mafia Member. The Miller knows the identity of the Brewer.
Ferryman – This character has an extremely simple but useful effect. Since s/he makes a living out of rowing his/her boat into and out of the harbor, the Ferryman cannot be targeted for any kind of action on odd-numbered nights. Any role, Mafia or Innocent, that names the Ferryman as the target of its power on odd-numbered nights will fail. But the Ferryman is quite cunning. If s/he comes back in the morning to find his/her home broken into (in other words, that the Mafia have attempted to assassinate him/her), the Ferryman will make up a story about having been rescued by the Doctor, so as to conceal his/her role from the Mafia. (Any other failed actions, such as the Detective trying to investigate the Ferryman, simply won’t be reported. In this way, other Innocent roles can figure out who the Ferryman is if their attempts to target him/her fail, but Mafia roles can’t.)
Coroner – In Mafia I, players’ alliances were revealed as soon as they died. In Mafia II & III, this became unfeasible due to the possibility of resurrection. Mafia IV takes an altogether different route. Players’ alliances are not revealed when they die. However, the Coroner may PM the Host every night naming one dead player to examine. That player’s role – even more than their alliance! – will be revealed to the public the following morning. The Coroner knows the identity of the Doctor.
Journalist – The Journalist views this whole sequence of events as one fantastic news story, and s/he’s willing to go to any lengths to get the next scoop. Every night, the Journalist may PM the Host naming one player. Basically, what happens next is that the Journalist finds out who that player targeted for any action that night. However, there are a lot of specific permutations:
- If the player is a Mafia Member or the Godfather, the Journalist will be told by PM the following morning about whom that player’s final vote was for in the assassination vote.
- If the player is the Bodyguard, the Journalist will be told whom s/he targeted for protection, and if the Bodyguard didn’t target anyone for protection, the Journalist will be told whom s/he voted for like the other Mafia members.
- If the player is the Doctor, Detective, Vigilante, or Coroner, the Journalist will be told whom that player targeted for whichever power the role has.
- If the player is the Mayor or Brewer, the Journalist will be told whom that player targeted the previous day (since the Mayor and Brewer’s powers don’t work at night).
- If the player is the Miller or Ferryman (whether the Ferryman is at sea or in harbor), the Journalist receive a PM saying that s/he discovered nothing. Additionally, if the player is any role which does have an active power, but the player didn’t use it that night, the Journalist will also discover nothing.
NOTE: The Journalist doesn’t actually learn the nature of the power that permitted the player to target someone else. The Journalist is simply given the name of the player targeted.
VII. EXECUTION
During the night, Mafia Members convene in private to kill off an Innocent. Okay, swell. But during the daytime, all the townspeople gather to execute one of their own. And this is where half the excitement of Mafia lies. You see, it’s no fun just to submit bland little votes for people and kill them off. Pfft! If any of you have encountered the game in real life, it was probably within some sort of theatre context, and executions are precisely the reason for that. Compare:
I vote for Prime.
VOTE: Prime
Alongside:
I think Prime did it. I saw him checking out that library book about medieval weaponry. Dead giveaway! Who else here would even KNOW how to operate a crossbow? I sure don’t.
VOTE: Prime
You’re mostly RPers, you’ve got the talent for it. I want to see real accusations. Make up bizarre motives, or come up with weird circumstances that just happen to lead your target to the scene of the crime. Watch as Prime comes up with a legitimate defense:
It was for my Dungeons & Dragons campaign! I wanted to make an all-new divine weapon and I thought it’d be better to draw on actual history as my source. Look, Cinders does D&D with me, she can back me up on this! And besides, how do you expect me to own an authentic crossbow? You’d have to be rich to get your hands on something like that. As rich as… say… RLRL…
VOTE: RLRL
This is crucial, guys. We’re not a big crowd. If this game is going to be interesting, you’ve got add some flavor to the accusations and counteraccusations. Take away that psychological aspect and you’ve just got a bunch of people jumping on a bandwagon. Dull.
At the end of each day, I’ll tally up the results and the majority vote will prevail. I assume each player will chip in with at least one vote, but the more the better. You can change your vote over the course of the day as you like; your final vote will be the one considered definitive. In order to change your vote, write:
UNVOTE: [your previous suspect]
VOTE: [your new suspect]
That goes for the Mafia in their assassination votes, too.
VIII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Now, kiddies, Uncle Pohatu has already hosted two Mafia games in the past. That doesn’t mean he’s any less excited to get started on this one, but it does mean that the prospect of coming up with another batch of interesting deaths is quite daunting to him. So he’s going to open the floor and let the audience decide!
This board now contains a “Mafia IV: Deaths!” topic wherein all players and audience members can suggest deaths. Those deemed good enough – the topic itself defines what’s “good enough” – may well be used as assassinations or executions. Stipulations that a suggested death be applied to a particular player, however, may not necessarily be honored. Can’t give you ingrates too much freedom.
IX. PRIZES
At the end of the game, 100 EP per real-time day will be placed into the pot. However, there will be some deductions:
- For every player that the Doctor or Bodyguard saves, the Doctor/Bodyguard will be awarded 100 EP.
- For every Mafia member that the Vigilante shoots, the Vigilante will be awarded 100 EP.
- The Mayor and Godfather both automatically receive 100 EP.
After those deductions, the rest of the takings will be split among the winning characters. I will ask Pikachu to add the EP once the game is over.
X. HONESTY
This is pretty vital, for obvious reasons. There’s a lot of change here since the previous games, so listen up even if you’ve played Mafia before.
All previous Mafia games imposed a rule against revealing your role or alliance, or anyone else’s, in any way – whether on the boards, by PM, or through any other means. However, a certain amount of the fun and drama in Mafia comes from breaking that rule. Heck, Ocelot and I utterly shattered that rule near the end of Mafia III, publicly declaring both our own roles and those of some others. So it would be pretty hypocritical of me to take any stance of moral superiority here.
If you want to reveal your role/alliance or anyone else’s to another player via PM, email, instant-messenger, or any other private method of communication, I can’t stop you. It’s only natural for the Innocents to want to form other alliances beyond those which come pre-packaged at the start of the game (e.g. Doctor-Coroner and Brewer-Miller). And if a Mafia member thinks s/he’s pinpointed the role of an Innocent, I would expect nothing less than for that player to communicate it to other Mafia members.
I can stop you from speaking in public, though, and as much as I would prefer to turn a blind eye to it, I won’t. The first person to reveal his/her own role/alliance or anyone else’s will be “disabled” for the rest of the day/night. Disabled, like “frozen” from previous games, means that the player can’t use any powers, and any post s/he makes in the Mafia board will be deleted – the difference between disabled and frozen is that the disabled player can be targeted for actions by other players. Which includes being voted for.
The second player to reveal his/her own role/alliance or anyone else’s will be disabled for the rest of the day/night and the night/day that follows it (that is, for the next two real-time days). The third player will be disabled for the next three real-time days, and so on.
If dead players reveal their roles/alliances or anyone else’s, the offending post will simply be deleted, as there’s no real way to punish members who’ve already left the game.
Let me not sound harsh: I still trust that you guys will keep this to a minimum. But I wanted, for the first time, to outline a specific punishment for breaking this rule. It’s a punishment some of you may be willing to bear. That’s cool. Back in Mafia III, if revealing my role meant I had to spend two real-time days disabled (as Ocelot would have received the one-day punishment), I totally still would have done it. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It was late in the game and I wanted the Innocents to get their side together and finally mop up.
This system is designed to be lenient in such a situation: if the game has been running for far too long, and a disgruntled player wants to let some info out into the open to help finish the game off, and there haven’t previously been any infractions, then s/he’ll get off with a fairly light punishment. What I’m really trying to avoid is an early-game flood. Potentially, one player could stir all the Innocents to reveal their roles on the first day, making it easy for their superior numbers to overcome the Mafia in record time. That hasn’t happened yet and I doubt it ever will on this forum – we all value fair play and a fun game too much for that – but that’s the kind of event wherein this system of escalating punishment really comes down hard. The last Innocents to reveal their roles could find themselves disabled for all of the remaining game time.
And anyway, let’s face it. You’re not that likely to be believed anyway. It would be only too easy for Mafia members to claim to be Innocents. Two or three Mafia members working together could even pose as the Medical or Agricultural Guilds. So publicly or privately, expect that your words will be taken with a bushel of salt.
XI. YOUR MISSION
I’ll put these in big ol’ Impact font so’s you can’t miss ‘em, y’hear?
CHECK YOUR INBOX NOW. You have been private messaged with your role and responsibilities.
POST IN THIS TOPIC. For the rest of today and tomorrow, there won’t be any activity in the village except in this topic. I’d like to see everyone post at least once here to introduce him/herself before we really get the game rolling.
JUST GENERALLY CHECK THE HELL OUT OF YOUR INBOX AS WELL AS THIS BOARD AND, WHERE APPLICABLE, THE XANGA, AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Setting your inbox to give you a popup every time you receive a PM is a really good idea.
IF I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG, TELL ME. I sort of doubt that any serious glitches will arise in this game. All the glitch-prone elements, like money, items, and mini-games, have gone on vacation. And the biggest problem with Mafia I – the “Mafia: Night” board – was already successfully corrected in Mafia II with the introduction of a Mafia-only Xanga. Still, should any problems arise, it’s your Pohatu-given right to tell me as soon as possible. And it’s my Pohatu-given right to step in and do whatever I need to do to solve the problem.
HAVE FUN. You’ve seen this in every game introduction you’ve ever read. Personally it never made sense to me because you can’t just order someone to have fun and expect them to comply automatically. Even if you hand them some potato chips and balloon animals and, I don’t know, hot naked people. What was I talking about?