Post by Beelzebibble on Jan 22, 2007 20:41:05 GMT -5
MAFIA
WELCOME THREAD
I. INTRODUCTION
Greetings! This right here is the Mafia Welcome Thread. Here, you’ll find all the rules for Archipelago Exodus’ first (and, assuming it doesn’t suck too hard, hopefully not last) game of Mafia!
You’ve probably encountered this game in real life or online before, 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.
II. PLAYERS
The complete list of characters taking part in this Mafia game are as follows. Names stricken-out have been claimed as replacement voters (see section VI).
UPDATE: All replacement voters have been claimed! From now on, stricken-out names will indicate eliminated players. The game will commence on Thursday. For now, keep posting in this board to introduce yourself. Let's give the Mafia some solid basis on which to judge you BEFORE letting them execute you!
Baboon
Cinders
Loogs
III. 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 the “Mafia: Night” board, which requires a password to access.
The topic “The Cemetery” is for dead characters to discuss the game. A dead character may not post in any Mafia topic created by me except for “The Cemetery”.
IV. 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, and to increase the play duration with so few characters, 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 Bomb was chosen by the Mafia (and not rescued by the Doctor), both the Bomb and the appropriate Mafia member die. If the Vigilante successfully fired a bullet at a Mafia member, that Mafia member dies. If one of the Lovers was killed in the last round, the other Lover now dies. If the Doctor has been killed, the Nurse assumes the Doctor’s power.
That will all make a heck of a lot more sense once you read section V.
For the rest of the day, surviving members must make accusations and vote for an execution, which is detailed in section VI.
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. The alliance of the suspect – but not the specific role – is revealed. If the suspect was the Doctor, the Nurse assumes the Doctor’s power.
For the rest of the night, Mafia members must confer on the “Mafia: Night” board to select a victim. The Doctor (or Nurse) 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.
V. ROLES
The following characters appear in Mafia:
Mafia Members – There are three “generic” Mafia Members. These characters meet on the “Mafia: Night” 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.
Godfather – A special Mafia Member. He/she 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 he or she is an Innocent.
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. If that player is the one the Mafia Members selected, the player isn’t killed after all. Furthermore, the player will be notified of the identity of the Doctor. For his/her own part, the Doctor begins the game with knowledge of the Nurse’s identity.
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 enquire about the alliance (not specific role) of any 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.
Nurse – The hopeful Nurse begins the game with no special powers. However, in the event of the Doctor’s death (by execution, assassination, or otherwise), the Nurse will take on the Doctor’s power of saving players. The Nurse knows who the Doctor is.
Vigilante – This trigger-happy hunter has taken it on him/herself to save the town from that Mafia scum. Once 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, he or she is killed the following morning. If the player turns out to be an Innocent, the bullet misses and the incident is not mentioned the following morning.
Miller – The Miller is a good-natured soul who toils on the outskirts of the town. Unfortunately, he/she 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 he or she is a Mafia Member.
Bomb – What on earth? It seems one of the townspeople isn’t a townsperson at all! Yes, somebody in the village is actually a human-looking cyborg carrying a high-powered explosive in its stomach. Bad news for whoever tries to assassinate this guy. If, on a particular night, the Mafia Members decide to kill this player, then both the Bomb and the last Mafia Member to agree on the victim will be destroyed.
Physically, that rounds off the characters. However, there are two more roles to note: the Lovers. These characters might both be Mafia Members, both Innocent, or one on each side (their roles are added on to whichever roles their players already have). However, if one of the Lovers is killed, the other Lover will commit suicide at the beginning of the next cycle. Yay for tragic, noble deaths! The Lovers know each others’ identities, but not each others’ alliances or primary roles.
VI. 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 all RPers, heck, you’re probably even better at this stuff than I would be. 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 post will be the one considered definitive.
If a player can’t vote, their replacement voter’s vote will have an extra point’s strength. In the event of a chain of silent players, strength will keep being added to votes until “everyone” still in the game has “voted”.
VII. PRIZES
Lee has authorized me to award 100 EP per day to players as I like. However, to make things a little more interesting, I’m going to go for a more devious approach. At the end of the game, 100 EP per day (by which I mean 24-hour period, not the “days” and “nights” defined in the game) will be placed into the pot. However, for every civilian that the Doctor or Nurse saves, the Doctor or Nurse will be awarded 100 EP. If the Vigilante’s bullet takes out a Mafia Member, that’s 100 EP to the Vigilante. And if one of the Lovers dies, his/her will dictates that the other Lover will receive 100 EP. (All these prizes are awarded regardless of whether or not the above characters are still alive by the end of the game.) 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.
VIII. HONESTY
This is pretty vital, for obvious reasons. We go way back, the eleven of us, and I think we can all have faith in each other. All the same:
I’m trusting that you won’t PM, email, or in other way contact other players revealing your role, alliance or replacement voter (or anyone else’s), whether or not you are still alive. Needless to say, I’m also trusting you won’t reveal any of that on the actual boards. However, in “The Graveyard”, dead players may freely reveal their alliance – but not their specific role or anyone for whom they worked as a replacement voter.
Additionally, for you Mafia members, I’m trusting that you won’t give out the password to access the “Mafia: Night” board.
Finally: Avoid looking on profiles unless the devil makes you do it (and I don't mean sitting on your shoulder, I mean pointing a gun at your head). The most recent diseases of a player are visible there, and Mafia members might be revealed for having posted in the Mafia: Night board. Admins, at least, should be able to see that the member has posted there even if they (the admins) don't know the password. If there is a way an admin can fix this gap, I urge him or her to, but otherwise, I'll trust you not to do that.
Again, I don’t think there’s any need to stress this point. We’re all good people here, and cheating = less fun for all.
IX. 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 SOME MORE. Until Thursday, 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 his/herself before we really get the game rolling. If you want to assume a special personality for this game, like importing one of your RP characters to act on your behalf (again, that’s more your turf than mine), this is the place to do it. Say hello at the very least.
JUST GENERALLY CHECK THE HELL OUT OF YOUR INBOX AS WELL AS THIS BOARD AND, WHERE APPLICABLE, THE “MAFIA: NIGHT” BOARD, AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE.
IF I’M DOING SOMETHING WRONG, TELL ME. Helpful critique of my performance as the Host would be appreciated to the utmost. If there is any chance that we’ll ever get another Mafia game together in the future, it will only be because the Host of that game will be able to look at this game and know exactly what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve whatever’s in the latter category. Consider this game a prototype. Forgive me my mistakes, but don’t hesitate to draw attention to them.
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?