Newbie #1185 (Game Over!)

[iamausername]

The mafia has invaded your town, and you will stand for it no longer! To the town square, everybody, we've got a lynching to organise!

The Players:

Alive (9/9)

Cav

BBmolla†

FAD

inte
fathom42
haycorn
Sampson†
Shiidaji†
syndromeofadown
Tierce
Workdawg*

(Names marked with a * are Inexperience Challenged players. Names marked with a † are Semi-Experienced players.)

Dead (0/9)

No one yet!

Current Status:

Phase: Day One
Deadline: (expired on 2011-12-10 14:00:00)

[iamausername]

The Rules:

1. Social Contract

*This is a game. I've done my best while setting it up to make it enjoyable for everyone. Fun is our first priority.

*I will do the following:
=treat this game as my MafiaScum priority, as a committment to the players
=post votecounts at least once per page whenever possible
=prod players w/o prompting
=answer questions as soon as possible

*I expect all players to do the following:
=have fun and play to win
=treat the game as a commitment to yourself, to the other players and to me
=not make personal attacks
=stay active per my activity policy
=bring concerns or problems to my attention as soon as possible

2. Activity

*This game will have fixed deadlines (extensible only in extreme circumstances) and I expect players to actively participate.

*Deadlines for days are 3 weeks long. Deadlines for nights will be 72 hours long. All deadlines will expire at 7PM GMT. However, if a player is in need of replacement during a night phase, the night will not end until that replacement is found, regardless of whether or not that player has a night action to perform.

*Players not posting for 72 hours will be prodded and must respond in the game thread within 24 hours, or risk being replaced.

*If you see a player has not posted in thread for 72 hours and I have not announced a prod, please PM me. All prods are stated publicly.

*If you will be away and unable to post over 48 hours, please let me know. You may be replaced if I believe your absence will disrupt the game.

3. Votes and Lynches

*Lynches will only occur with a true majority of voters (Half the number of living players plus one). Once a person has reached a majority, they are dead and unvoting them will not stop the lynch.

*If the deadline hits before anyone has been lynched, then no one will be lynched.

*Votes and unvotes should be bolded in the following format (

vote: iamausername

,

unvote

) or with vote tags (VOTE: iamausername). It is not necessary to unvote before making a new vote.

*Players may vote for no lynch to occur on any given day (

vote: No Lynch

, VOTE: No Lynch). A majority of votes for no lynch will end the day and no one will be lynched.

*Until I have counted the votes and posted the death scene and role reveal, all players including the lynchee may continue to post.

*Once I have posted a scene indicating that a player is dead, they are not to post anything else at all, not even a "Bah!" post.

4. Other (but still important!) Stuff

*Do not post or quote directly from any PM or communication outside this thread between me and you or you and another player. Do so and I will modkill you. Don't even fake it. Put whatever you have to say in your own words.

*Modkills end the day.

*Do not post in invisible/small text or otherwise attempt to hide the text of your posts.

*Do not edit your posts or the posts of others.

*Do not discuss this game with other players (whether in this game or not) outside of this thread, unless I have told you otherwise, until this game is completed.

*At my sole discretion I reserve the right to remove any player from the game and replace or modkill their role.

[iamausername]

2of4 Setup

The 2of4 setup is a test game format we’re trying out in Newbie games to get around balance issues with the F11 setup. To prevent the development of game-breaking strategies, these Newbie Games are Semi-Open, wherein the actual game setup is randomly chosen as detailed below:

• 1 Mafia Goon
  
• 1 Mafia RoleCop
  
• 5 Vanilla Townies
  
• 2 of the following (no duplicates possible): (Cop 25%, Doctor 25%, Jailkeeper 25%, Vanilla Townie 25%)

Notes

1. The RoleCop has the option of submitting both the night kills and investigations, even when the Goon is still alive.
2. Mafia must specify who is performing what Night action when the Night action PM is submitted!

These are the Role PMs that have potentially been sent to the players:

Mafia-Aligned players:

Mafia

name

(a Mafia RoleCop) and

name

(a Mafia Goon) are part of the local Mafia crime family. Since your plot to quietly overtake the town has failed, you will attempt take it by force by eliminating the others until you outnumber the populace.

• During the day, try to blend in with the normal Townies and attempt to get someone lynched.
  
• During the NIGHT cycle ONLY, you may talk with your fellow Mafia (via QuickTopic, linked below) and choose another player in the town to kill that night.
  
• One of you must send the moderator a PM with your choice of who to kill
  and who is performing the kill
  before the Night deadline.
  
• The Mafia RoleCop has the ability to investigate another player and learn their specific role (Townie, Cop, Doc, or Jailkeeper).
  
• One of you must send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to investigate (usually along with the kill) before the Night deadline.
  
• If the Mafia RoleCop is blocked by a Town Jailkeeper then the RoleCop will receive a PM stating “No Result”.
  
• You may communicate privately via QuickTopic with your fellow Mafia up until the game thread is opened (this is called Night 0). Once the game begins, all outside communication must cease until the night cycle.
  
• Please do not communicate with each other outside of the QT.
  
• You win when the number of Mafia equals or exceeds the number of remaining Town players, whether you survive to the end or not.

Town-Aligned players:

Townie

You are a normal townsperson, trying to make a living and survive this insanity.

• You have no abilities at Night other than getting a good night's rest.
  
• Although you do not have any special abilities, your voice and vote are powerful weapons in their own right. Use them to your best advantage!
  
• At no time may you privately communicate with any other player.
  
• You win when all the Mafia players are gone, whether you survive to the end or not.

Cop

You are a member of the local law enforcement, and can tell the good guys from the bad.

• Each NIGHT, you may send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to investigate before the Night deadline.
  
• The Moderator will inform you as to that person’s guilt or innocence.
  
• If you are blocked by a Town Jailkeeper you will receive a PM stating “No Result”.
  
• At no time may you privately communicate with any other player.
  
• In a Newbie game, you will always get a correct result (no sanity issues).
  
• You win when all the Mafia players are gone, whether you survive to the end or not.

Doctor

You are a physician, and can use your medical training to protect people from harm.

• Each NIGHT, you may send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to protect before the Night deadline.
  
• If someone attempts to kill that player during the Night, they will be spared.
  
• You will not be informed as to whether your protection was successful or not.
  
• You may not protect yourself.
  
• At no time may you privately communicate with any other player.
  
• In a Newbie game, your protection target will always live through the night.
  
• You win when all the Mafia players are gone, whether you survive to the end or not.

Jailkeeper:

You are a prison guard, and it’s your job to ensure the undesireables are kept in their place.

• Each NIGHT, you may send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to send to jail before the Night deadline.
  
• If the jailed player attempts to use a Night action (Investigate, Protect, or Kill), their action will not resolve.
  
• If the jailed player is the target of a Kill that action will not resolve. Any other actions (Investigate or Protect) will resolve.
  
• Neither you nor your target will be made aware of whether your own action was successful.
  
• You may not put yourself in jail.
  
• At no time may you privately communicate with any other player.
  
• You win when all the Mafia players are gone, whether you survive to the end or not.

[iamausername]

-=All Role PMs have been sent. Game will begin in (expired on 2011-11-19 14:00:00), or when everybody has confirmed (whichever comes first). Until then, mafia members may communicate in private.=-

[iamausername]

-=inte replaces FAD=-

-=It is now Day One. Deadline will fall in (expired on 2011-12-10 14:00:00). With 9 alive, it will take 5 votes to lynch.=-

[Shiidaji]

Hey guys, let's have a good game. Haven't played with any of you beforehand, you can call me Shii.
The SE slot isn't really much, as I'm rather new myself, but If the IC isn't available, feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to respond.

One question to everyone, how much Mafia experience do you have?
-I've completed another game on-site, died in one, and am in a few currently.

Vote: haycorn

[fathom42]

Oh look, the game's open!

--
Before we start, I'd like to note that I'm a college student, and while I'll be able to post a lot in the coming week due to fall break, my activity will severely drop when I return to my school. I'll still be around; you can expect a single post per day from me, as opposed to the multiple posts I'm making now.
--

Hey, y'all. I'm rather new to online mafia, as I've only played three games in the real world. They were pretty small games, with only 7 players. The games really interested me, so I decided to find a place to play online. Thus, here I am!

I'd like to add an addendum to Shii's question, and ask if anyone has been scum in their games. If they were online, it would also be nice to have links to the games in question.

[fathom42]

Oh dear, looks like I failed to answer my own question. Yes, I was scum in one of those games (the only one in the mafia, in fact). I did reasonably well in it, managing to survive until lylo by fueling suspicion on one of the more aggressive town members. Unfortunately, in the end, the town chose to believe her instead of me, and I lost the game.

If anyone has specific questions about that game, feel free to ask!

[Tierce]

Hi folks. New to mafiascum and forum mafia, though I've played face-to-face and over IRC ages ago. I've never played on a game with a third-party (nor jailkeeper, for that matter), and like to play mafia and town equally.

Dancer, geek, dumpster diver/shovel monkey in training. I'm on GMT and tend to nightowlism when life isn't frantically waving at me for attention. Another note: English is not my first language. This shouldn't be a problem, but if I write something that doesn't make sense or is otherwise confusing,

I'm obvious scum

feel free to ask for clarification.

With that said, VOTE: fathom42, due to a certain answer to life, the universe and everything.

[Workdawg]

This is my first game as IC, though I have 7 newbie games under my belt so far.
Please refer to the following spoiler text for my IC introduction information. Obviously since this is my first game, it will be constantly evolving. If you have any questions not covered in the below, PLEASE feel free to ask, I am here to help!

Spoiler: IC Intro

y halo thar! I am your IC (Inexperience-Challenged) player for the game.

What does this NOT mean?

- I am town (I could be scum, watch out!)
- I am the best or most experienced player here. Other players might be more experienced than me, and it's very possible there are better players than me as well.

What does this mean?

- I am bound by the information contained in this wiki article: Being a Good IC.

Like everyone else, I will first and foremost be playing to my win condition. I will do my best to assist anyone and everyone along the way with any questions about gameplay, etiquette, lingo, and that sort of thing. I promise to answer all general questions honestly and to the best of my ability.

Common Lingo:

L-1 (L-2, L-3, etc)

- This refers to a players vote count. If a player is one vote away from being lynched, they are commonly referred to as being at "L-1" (lynch minus 1 vote).

Hammer

- Common slang for the final vote that is cast to lynch someone. Reference to a judges gavel.

Basic bits of advice:

- Post a lot. One of the easiest ways for scum to win is to "lurk" by not posting anything in the thread. The less scum has to post, the less chance they have to mess up and be found out. Which leads sort-of into the next post.
- Honesty is the only thing town has on it's side. Scum have the huge advantage of knowledge. They know everything they need to know to win, but they have to lie. Town lacks the knowledge that scum has, but because they are genuinely looking for scum (rather than trying to trick town into lynching their own), the truth is on town's side. Be honest in your scumhunting and let your actions speak for themselves. If you are trying to scumhunt with good intentions it shows.
- Do not claim your role unless you are about to be lynched and someone asks you to. Scum know who the town players are, but they don't know who any potential power roles are. Every time someone claims, scum gain another bit of information they can use. Don't help the scum!

Useful Links

-Common abbrevations
-Glossary

I have played a game very similar to mafia IRL, but most of my experience is here. 7 games down, you can see my record in my sig.

I'm from the US, GMT-6 right now I think, due to daylight savings time.

If you want to check out all my other games, you can browse my wiki page here: http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Workdawg

Lastly VOTE: syndrome, for having a name that I can't tell if it's inappropriate or not.. <.<

[fathom42]

VOTE: Tierce, for being the first person to "fathom" my moniker on the interwebz.

About time someone got it. XD

[syndromeofadown]

One question to everyone, how much Mafia experience do you have?

Let's see, I've played real life mafia once a long time ago, I've played IRC mafia quite a bit, I've played once on-site as town 2 years ago (I really sucked though my team won). For those of you familiar with Smogon, I've played their bastardized version of IRC mafia (basically 5-minute, power role, follow the cop, don't think for yourself mafia. Not fun). If you're wondering why I just randomly decided to play a game here after not playing for over 2 years, honestly I have no idea. I just remembered this place existed after forgetting about it and decided it might be fun to play a game since I have time.

As far as my name being inappropriate or not, I was like 16 when I came up with this username and thought it was funny and clever. Now, not so much . Good luck everyone and have fun!

[Cav]

Hey all, this my second game online, I played a bunch in real life back during my undergrad degree, but postgraduate life is all work and no play so not so much any more, sadly. I'm on GMT but have abandoned sleep in favour of Skyrim, rendering time zones obsolete. In my last game I was a townie, plain and simple.

VOTE: Shiidaji for that clear attempt to lead the town with all this 'let's have a good game' nonsense. I'm sooo on to you

[Sampson]

So yeah. I'm Sampson and I'm an SE--which stands for Sampson Eternal, in case you didn't know.

Vote: Cav

because his name is three letters.

[fathom42]

'Ay, Sampson. I know you've played a few games because you're an SE, but it would be nice to know what they were like. Care to post them?

[Tierce]

fathom42's immediate NO-YOU! vote on me and his obviously fake interest on Sampson's experience make clear he is scum. :P (And Sampson: IGMEOY, scum-partner who has already spilled the beans to fathom42 before Day 1.) I stand by my very serious vote.

[fathom42]

Tierce, whats wrong with giving town more information? Everyone besides Sampson gave relatively detailed summaries of their experience, and I'd like to know what he plays like. He's a SE on this site, which means he must have SOMETHING to post.

[Tierce]

I'm joking. Of course I'm interested!

[haycorn]

Hi! I'm haycorn. This is my first game on the site, but I was a huge fan of Cry Wolf back in the day, so if I start entering the day phase by rapidly typing suspicious visions, please forgive me.

I am looking forward to participating, and oddly pleased that I got the very first vote.

[fathom42]

Noted.

Since we probably won't get that much discussion out of our histories with the game (still want to hear from you, Sampson!), I'd like to ask everyone about their opinion of bandwagoning. I've found that, while it can be useful getting past the random voting stage, its more productive to begin the game with conversation. Bandwagoning, imo, doesn't produce much content for the town to use when compared to good old fashioned questioning.

For example, what do folks think of the exchange me and Tierce just had? I'd say that its the most meaningful thing to happen in the game thus far. I understand that its the early game and that joking around will be rampant, but I'd prefer to take things seriously. Once again, content is important above all else.

[syndromeofadown]

Discussion can only get you so far, mostly its just a way to feel out other players and get a glimpse of how they might be dangerous/helpful later on. I really don't like when people over-analyze every little detail and try to use that as evidence for or against someone as being scum at this early stage in the game. The real scumhunting, imo, doesn't start till day 2 when we find out:
>what alliance the day 1 lynchee was
>who voted/didn't vote the day 1 lynchee and why
>who was killed n1

Really, until we have more information there are no "tells" and voting is mostly random/arbitrary. Don't take day 1 so seriously. If you want to discuss something, discuss, but I doubt you'll figure out anything very meaningful.

[Tierce]

I can be serious if you prefer. My interest is to lynch scum quickly and thoroughly, so wouldn't want to act in a way that may prevent that.

Bandwagoning, in my opinion, is a good tool for getting scum stressed and making mistakes. Of course, since this is over forum, they have time to review, ponder and only then submit posts. It depends on the level of experience and the current mood of the target; a newbie townie can get as stressed or more as any scum.

Elaborating a bit more: I'm a strong subscriber to Sturgeon's Law. Even though we have all the written record and people can slip, it's relatively rare for scum to get caught in their own net unless town can prove through hard facts (flips, cops, etc.) that someone is guilty. Readers can interpret things incorrectly. In my experience, WIFOM usually plays out in favor of the mafia, since they have most of the answers and the bulk of the town is limited to scumhunt guesswork.

And while I was writing all that, soad summarized it quite nicely. Unless there's some serious slip day 1, we're going to have to suffer a possible/probable NK before doing anything actually effective.

HOWEVER.

Day 1 discussion may not be important on day 1, but its analysis may be important for day 2 and subsequent days.

[Cav]

Well, I think bandwagoning and conversation aren't separate; from what I've experienced and read bandwagoning can lead to some good conversation, and equally conversation can lead to a bandwagon. I prefer to start with conversation, because it seems like a bandwagon which picks up steam quickly can lead to one player becoming the focus of attention to the exclusion of all others for a day, particularly if they're aggressive.

As to your exchange, fathom, I think Tierce was joking... what makes you think it was particularly significant?

[Workdawg]

Bandwagons are essential for many reasons. Putting pressure on a potentially scummy player, providing evidence that might prove useful later, etc.

Others have mentioned that D1 is a rough day as it's pretty much all based on speculation. That's very true. We'll have ZERO factual information to use until D1 ends, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't hunt for scum. It's still very possible for scum to make mistakes and do things that end up making themselves look scummy. If we can catch scum D1, it's a huge advantage to us.

I'm not sure if I have a different definition of "bandwagoning" from the fathom/Tierce, but the way you both seem to be referring to it is simply piling votes onto someone and seeing how they react. While I suppose it might be accurate to call that "bandwagonning", I would advise everyone to have at least some reason behind their vote when they place it. Joining a wagon "just because" is generally pretty scummy. If you see fit to vote someone, you have to be prepared for them to be lynched... so make sure if you aren't ready for that, you make sure the danger of that person being lynched is low. I suppose if we use that assumption, that bandwagonning is done without reason, than discussion would probably be more fruitful. However, the normal course of scumhunting generally involves discussion, that leads to votes, and eventually a bandwagon on whoever seems the most scummy at any given time.

@fathom

- To answer your question about your interactions with Tierce. You're probably right that it's been the most "meaningful" thing to happen so far, but really that's just because it's been the first real interaction between any of us that doesn't involve theory discussion or the random "how much have you played" type stuff. That said, I'm not totally sure what to make of Tierce's post 15. He's obviously poking at fathom for a couple, likely insignificant things, but there is one quote that I'm not really sure what he's talking about...

@Tierce

Can you elaborate on what you mean with the following quote?

And Sampson: IGMEOY, scum-partner who has already spilled the beans to fathom42 before Day 1.

[Workdawg]

Really, until we have more information there are no "tells" and voting is mostly random/arbitrary. Don't take day 1 so seriously. If you want to discuss something, discuss, but I doubt you'll figure out anything very meaningful.

I touched on this above, but I disagree with this overall. D1 is still important and it concerns me that SOAD seems to be trying to stifle conversation because it won't be very meaningful.

Are you trying to discourage conversation so we don't find out you're scum, SOAD?

VOTE: SOAD