Micro 228: Con Mafia (Game Over)

[serrapaladin]

Micro 228 - Con Mafia: Anything Goes

Spoiler: Result

The Scourges of the Underworld, consisting of Drunken Monkey and Antihero, win the game.

Player List

1. Antihero
2. StubbsKVM
3. Twin Flames (Hydra of NS and Rach)
4. Apocalypse (Hydra of Who, Nati, Sakura, GiF, Saki, etc.)
5. Bertkerberos (Hydra of Bert, Nacho, and Syry)
6. Drunken Monkey (Hydra of Ree and Yates)

replaces Mr_Ree pregame

7. broomhead
8. Honeybear (Hydra of Mara and fuzzy)
9. Marquis

Spoiler: Alive (2/9)

1. Antihero,

Philip S. Van Cise

, survived and won Day 4
3. Twin Flames,

Frank Abagnale, Jr., Town JoaT

, endgamed Day 4

Spoiler: Dead (7/9)

2. StubbsKVM,

Lou Blonger, Global Town Enabler

, lynched (and totally removed from the game and stuff) Day 1
7. broomhead,

Henry Gondorff

, killed Night 1
9. Marquis,

William Chalinor

, lynched Day 2
4. Apocalypse,

Bret Maverick, Odd-Night Lie Detector

, killed Night 2
6. Drunken Monkey,

Isaac Newton, Roleblocker/Rolecop

, lynched Day 3
8. HoneyBear,

Victor Lustig, Double Voter

, killed Night 3
5. Bertkerberos,

Natwarlal

, indicted Day 4

10 Simple Rules

0.

Read these rules carefully, as they differ vastly from the standard.

1.

The site-wide Mafia rules explicitly do not apply

to this game as a whole. In particular, outside communication and influences are allowed, including contacting people not part of this game and using alternate accounts. (You may not, however, discuss other ongoing games in this thread.) Site-wide rules that do not refer to Mafia in particular still apply, which includes limiting abusive language and forbids anything illegal.

2. Days will last for two weeks, and Nights last for 48 hours.

3. Votes must be in bold. Unvotes aren't necessary.

4. Lynches or No Lynches occur through simple majority. No majority by deadline is a No Lynch. Once a player has been lynched or killed, his alignment and role will be revealed.

5.

Only players that are alive and part of this game may post in the game thread with the account they signed up with.

A player that has been declared lynched or killed may no longer post in the game thread.

6. Prods will go out to players after 48 hours of not posting in the game thread. A post with no game-related content gives at most an additional 24 hours before a prod is issued or replacement is sought. For the purpose of activity, weekends count as one 24-hour period. 3 prods are a replace, so please announce V/LA's.

7. You may NOT sign up to this game with multiple accounts. You may NOT allow others access to the account you signed up with or take measures which would give you access to someone else's account. If you have access to list-mod/admin privileges, you may NOT use them for the purposes of this game (this goes for players and non-players). Please do not contact anyone with such privileges to elicit information from them.

8. You may NOT threaten other players, or enter a binding agreement in any way related to this game. Informal agreements are allowed.

9. Anything not mentioned above is ALLOWED. [You can PM me as a courtesy, but unless you know someone's address and want to go beat their alignment out of them, the answer is probably 'yes'. Trickery is strongly encouraged.]

10. Follow all orders given by the moderator.

10b. More a request than a rule, but I would highly appreciate it if you could BCC me (or send me links to) all game-related communication outside of this thread, both for the sake of posterity and my own curiosity. In particular, if you do need to replace out, I will forward your replacement all of your communication.

Setup

This is a closed theme setup based on famous con artists from history and fiction. The setup does not include cults or jesters, but may not be entirely normal. The flavour for (night-)actions is different from that in normal games and the night action resolution may be non-standard. It would be in your interest not to make assumptions about how roles work and interact.

[serrapaladin]

Prologue

10pm
December 27, 1999
The Berkeley Hotel's Pavilion Conservatory Suite, London

The eight were eyeing each other in silence. None of them easily lost for words, they had no idea what to expect, but didn't want to appear less informed than their neighbours. They had all been promised money. Enough money, it would seem, for them to leave behind families and business opportunities (mostly the latter) and make their way to cold and rainy London at such a miserable time of year.

John Constantine, newly lit Silk Cut in one hand and the other in his pocket, had waited long enough. He hadn't travelled far, only 6 stops along the Jubilee line, but felt entirely out of place. He turned up the collar on his trenchcoat - Constantine was the only one not in a full suit - and headed for the exit, when the door in front of him swung open.

"Mr. Constantine, thank you for coming. Please, sit!" said the dominant voice of the small and unassuming old man who had just entered.

"For those who don't recognise me, my name is Blonger. I have asked you all here today because I have a proposition." Constantine was irritated, but he recognised the name Lou Blonger and decided to hear what this disgraced Denver kingpin had to say.

"To put it simply, my offer is this: four days of your time for one hundred million British Pounds. As some of you might be aware, there is something particular about this turn of the year that has governments and corporations in fear. I just so happen to have a way of turning this fear to terror, and you are exactly the group of people who can use that terror to turn a profit.

"I will be expecting you all tomorrow morning. My assistant will give you the details." concluded Lou Blonger and turned around on the spot to head back through the antique door, yet again leaving the eight perhaps greatest conmen of all time in silence.

Welcome, everyone, to Con Mafia.

I hope you have all read the rules

, which are somewhat different to those you will normally see. If you haven't read them, please do that now.

Also, please read all text in purple.

There will be important information about the game, particularly in the first few. Boxes like the above contain flavour that gives no indication of players' alignments and shouldn't convey any information my commentary doesn't, but it won't hurt to read those as well.

This is a themed game for 9 players, centred on Lou Blonger, the boss of the "Million-Dollar Bunco Ring" that operated out of Denver, Colorado in the early 20th century. Anachronistically transposed to the turn of the 21st century, he is joined by a group of eight con artists from history and fiction to pull off the con of the millennium.

The conmen recruited by Lou Blonger are (in alphabetical order):

Frank Abagnale, Jr. (American impostor, mid 20th century)
William Chaloner (British counterfeiter, 17th century)
John Constantine (DC Comics'

Hellblazer

- British detective and conman, late 20th century)
Henry Gondorff (

The Sting

- American grifter, mid 20th century)
Victor Lustig (Austro-Hungarian con artist, early 20th century)
Bret Maverick (

Maverick

- American poker player, approx. 18th century)
Natwarlal (Indian con artist, mid 20th century)
Charles Ponzi (American financial trickster, early 20th century)

Blonger's Crew

(which includes Lou Blonger and the majority of the players above) will constitute the town of this game.

December 28, 1999 will be Day 1 of the game, and subsequent calendar days are equated with game days, such that December 31, 1999 is Day 4.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and Blonger's Crew win the game.

A note about the changed rules: many things are allowed that usually aren't, which should inspire you to be creative with this game. This doesn't mean that you should spend your time trying to "break" the game by comparing screenshots of your role PM's, or something similar. I can assure you it won't work, and there are mechanisms in place that will severely disadvantage that sort of play. Public mass claims are highly discouraged. In general, my best advice for both sides is to be cautious, think ahead, and plan for the worst.

Finally, it is inevitable that people not part of the game will become an influencing factor, so I'd like to remind players that no one outside the game has a win condition related to it. External opinions are expected and encouraged, but it would be foolish to put the result of the game into the hands of someone not in it.

[serrapaladin]

Day 1

8:15am
December 28, 1999
A warehouse in Wapping, East London

"In other news, Saparmurat Niyazov, current President of Turkmenistan, has proclaimed himself - ...excuse me, has been proclaimed President for Life. The Turkmen President has been in power since 1990 and has attracted international media attention through his plans of renaming months after members of -"

"Who cares about this load of bollocks?" snarked Constantine, unplugging the old TV set up next to the table they had wiped clean to have breakfast at.

"Sir, for a man of trickery and persuasion, you are inexplicably unpleasant." William Chaloner had just finished the last sip of his cup of Earl Grey.

"Well, mate, for a famous con, you're inexplicably ugly. Seriously, your head looks-"

They were interrupted by the arrival of Natwarlal, carrying a large briefcase. Now wearing a beautifully embroidered silk Sherwani, the elderly Indian man stopped near the entrance of the warehouse and appreciated what Blonger had managed to organise. There were cables everywhere, hanging from metal rods attached beneath the ceiling and leading to computers - probably thousands of them - neatly arranged along desks that spanned almost the entire width of the warehouse. In an impeccable British accent, the Indian apologised for his late arrival:

"I'm afraid a Bahraini Prince I met in Monaco had expressed interest in acquiring the Millennium Dome not far from here, so naturally I couldn't resist. This here is his downpayment." He placed the suitcase down on the breakfast table next to a visibly grumpy Victor Lustig - a very rare sight, indeed.

Lou Blonger, pleased to see that everyone had arrived, folded up his newspaper, stood up, and addressed the group:

"Gentlemen! As you can see, this is no small operation. By midday, these 1500 computers will have as many busy pairs of hands setting my plan into motion. As I'm sure you have figured out, our game will involve what is known as the Y2K bug. The technical details are boring, but a reliable contact of mine at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory has ensured me that the panic about computers entirely failing or even exploding because they can't display the date 2000 is almost completely unfounded. The widespread fear is largely a result of scaremongering.

"Lucky for us, most people are of course not aware of this, and crucially, neither are the decision makers at some of London's biggest corporations, and even the British government itself. Luckier yet, we already have a handful of plants in IT advisory positions, ready to propagate a last-minute wave of terror about the potential consequences. Add to that our little army of nerds hopping between internet forums and newsgroups, spreading a fake MIT report about even more catastrophic consequences, and you have companies and governments willing to grasp at straws to avoid the imminent disaster of losing a combined trillion pounds.

"Now, before I get to your role in this business, there is something I'm afraid we need to discuss." he said, removing his Smith & Wesson Model 10 from the holster under his jacket and bringing it down onto the table with some force.

"It has been brought to my attention that not everyone among you is who they say they are. Specifically, it would seem we have two infiltrators in our midst -"

"Oi! What's everyone lookin' at me for?"

Toying with his gun on the table, Blonger continued: "I'm sure you can all appreciate that I can't let something like this ruin my operation, so we will need to figure this out, and I'm afraid I can't let you leave until we have. Gentlemen, you are all very capable of trickery and deception, so I expect you to use every available resource of yours to find out who these scum are. Every evening from today until the 31st, there will be a vote on whom to remove from the group, and the lucky target will end up at the bottom of the Thames with a bullet in his brain. Understood? Good."

This game consists of

Lou Blonger and the six loyal members of his crew (the Town)

and

two infiltrators (the Mafia)

.

At the end of Day 4, if the infiltrators have not been eliminated, the con is unsuccessful and the infiltrators win the game.

The role of Lou Blonger is guaranteed to be town aligned. The two infiltrators were chosen at random from the eight remaining characters. Again, attempts to break the game or outguess the mod will almost certainly fail and likely backfire.

Due to the nature of this game, replacements are particularly difficult to deal with, so if you anticipate not being able to complete the game, please consider forming a hydra with someone that could take over. In the case that you do have to replace out, it is very important that you have cc'ed the Mod in any and all communication relating to this game, which I can forward to your replacement. Please remember to cc/send me copies of any game-related communication where possible.

Role PM's are going out randomly over the next hour or so. Once you have your role PM, please don't communicate with anyone about not publicly accessible information until I have opened the thread. I will only start D1 once everyone has confirmed.

[serrapaladin]

Everyone has confirmed, so the game can begin. Mr_Ree has been replaced by Drunken Monkey.

A few final words of caution: not everything is as it seems, so it would be in your interest to be careful when it comes to voting and sharing information.

Good luck and have fun!

VOTE COUNT 1.01

Not Voting (9) - Antihero, StubbsKVM, Twin Flames, Apocalypse, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey, broomhead, Honeybear, Marquis

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

Guys, we talked about this...

[serrapaladin]

My bad, wrong button. But seriously Nati (et al): keep your multiple personality disorder in check.

Spoiler:

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.02

Apocalypse (L-2) - broomhead, Drunken Monkey, HoneyBear

Bertkerberos (2) - StubbsKVM, Apocalypse
broomhead (1) - Twin Flames
Drunken Monkey (1) - HoneyBear

Not Voting (3) - Antihero, Bertkerberos, Marquis

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.03

Apocalypse (L-1) - broomhead, Drunken Monkey, HoneyBear, Marquis

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM
broomhead (1) - Twin Flames
Drunken Monkey (1) - HoneyBear
Marquis (1) - Apocalypse

Not Voting (2) - Antihero, Bertkerberos

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.04

Apocalypse (2) - broomhead, Marquis
Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM
broomhead (2) - Twin Flames, Apocalypse
Antihero (2) - HoneyBear, HoneyBear

Not Voting (3) - Antihero, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

I don't anticipate this being a problem, but the following has been added to rule 7, active immediately:

If you have access to list-mod/admin (or similar) privileges, you may NOT use them for the purposes of this game (this goes for players and non-players). Please do not contact anyone with such privileges to elicit information about the game from them.

I can assure you that you wouldn't get any information out of admins or list-mods anyways, but I'll forbid this so we don't end up getting on their nerves. I'm sure this game has already been more-than-average effort for them.

Thanks!

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.05

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM

broomhead (L-1) - Twin Flames, Apocalypse, HoneyBear, Marquis

StubbsKVM (1) - HoneyBear
Marquis (2) - broomhead, Bertkerberos

Not Voting (2) - Antihero, Drunken Monkey

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

[serrapaladin]

Apocalypse and Drunken Monkey have been prodded. Note that only in-thread activity counts towards your activity quota.

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.06

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM

broomhead (L-1) - Twin Flames, Apocalypse, HoneyBear, Marquis

StubbsKVM (1) - HoneyBear
Marquis (L-2) - broomhead, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.07

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM

broomhead (L-1) - Twin Flames, Apocalypse, HoneyBear, Marquis

StubbsKVM (2) - HoneyBear, Bertkerberos
Marquis (2) - broomhead, Drunken Monkey

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

Could I also remind you to please send me links/forwards of any out-of-thread communication. It doesn't look as though anyone will need replacing, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[serrapaladin]

Sakura Hana has asked me to make public that she's part of the Apocalypse hydra. The opening post has been amended to reflect that. I have left it up to them which heads to publicise under the provision that anonymous heads may not use their main accounts for this game.

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.08

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM
broomhead (1) - Marquis

StubbsKVM (L-1) - HoneyBear, Bertkerberos, Twin Flames, Apocalypse

Marquis (2) - broomhead, Drunken Monkey

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).[/area]

GiF and Saki have been added to the opening post as heads of Apocalypse.

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 1.09

Bertkerberos (1) - StubbsKVM

StubbsKVM (LYNCH) - HoneyBear, Bertkerberos, Twin Flames, Apocalypse, Marquis

Marquis (2) - broomhead, Drunken Monkey

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 1 is in (expired on 2013-09-16 23:59:59).

[/area]

StubbsKVM has been lynched Day 1. He was

Lou Blonger, Global Town Enabler

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, StubbsKVM, you are

Lou Blonger

, namesake of and aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. Once a saloonkeeper and kingpin of an extensive ring of conmen, you were a major player in Denver's underworld until District Attorney Philip Van Cise took you and your gang down. After laying low for the better part of a century, you have yet again put together a crew and are planning the con of the millennium. Since you called together this troupe, there is no doubt about your motives and your alignment (

the role of Blonger is mod-confirmed town

). You are, however, the brains of the operation, so if you are removed from the game none of your crew can use their abilities (making you a

Global Town Enabler

).

Global Town Enabler

: If you are in any way removed from the game, all other players aligned with Blonger's Crew lose their active and passive abilities.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

.

With the Global Town Enabler lynched, all active and passive abilities (this includes those affecting votes) of those aligned with Blonger's Crew are disabled.

It is now Night 1 (that only means

this

thread will be locked), which ends in (expired on 2013-09-10 23:59:59), or once all night actions are submitted and confirmed.

You just

had

to end the Day while I'm relaxing in a nice little Spanish cafe with a cortado and a brandy, so you're not getting flavour until tonight or some time start of next week. Just imagine I posted something about people not trusting Blonger for withholding information and his absence causing chaos among the group, preventing you from using your talents to help you find the infiltrators.

[serrapaladin]

Night 1

9:00pm
December 28

"A leaked report by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has revealed that the potential damage by the Y2K bug might be even greater than anticipated. Conservative estimates of the economic cost in the United Kingdom alone range from 500 billion to several trillion pounds. The Home Office has revealed plans to completely shut down all computer networks owned by the government for the first week of January in order to resolve this issue."


Lou Blonger was leaning against the television set, exhausted, but satisfied with a good day's work. His plan had been set into motion and it appeared his targets had taken the bait. The others had crowded around the television to appreciate just how well Blonger had thought everything through. With such a resoundingly successful first day, even the looming threat of the infiltrators seemed inconsequential.

"Excellent work, gentlemen. I think we all deserve a night off!

..

Day 2
7:30am
December 29
The Prospect Of Whitby Pub, Wapping

Victor Lustig was the first to wake up. An almost empty bottle of Patrón still in hand, he crawled out from beneath the booth where he must have passed out the night before. He had broken the most important of his "Ten Commandments or Con Men" - never to get drunk - and was paying the price for it.

He slowly gathered his senses and dragged himself into stool, from where he could see across the bar.

Spoiler: continued (NSFW/L - Rated M for Mature)

His eyes scanned across the room, moving along the passed out bodies of his comrades and coming to rest on something so horrible he almost toppled his stool had he not grabbed onto a nearby pole and let go of the bottle of tequila, which shattered on the hardwood floor.

His now empty gaze rested upon the rolled up bills now soaked in blood. Lou Blonger lay on the table framed by empty bottles, cut open and missing some of his more important body parts. He was still breathing, but barely.

Lighting one of Constantine's Silk Cuts to ease the pain, it all came back to him: everyone had been entirely out of it, when someone had suggested a game of Operation. No actual game board could be found, so they settled for a set of carving knives and a large slab of meat from the pub's back room and continued removing small parts for points until they had all passed out.

What had they done?! After all having woken up and arranged for the scene to be cleaned up, they vow to never drink again. Damn you, alcohol!

Lou Blonger was dissected to near-death.

("Credit" for the above goes to StubbsKVM)

Lou Blonger was incapacitated.

[serrapaladin]

Night has been cut short by 24 hours. I assume there are no objections.

broomhead has been killed Night 1. He was

Henry Gondorff

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, broomhead, you are

Henry Gondorff

, aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. Based on real-life American con artist-brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff, you were portrayed by Paul Newman in the 1973 film

The Sting

. Your biggest success was a wire scam, in which you pretend to have insider information about the outcomes of sport events, through delaying their transmission via telegram. By having your marks wrongly bet on horse races after a few smaller successful bets, you cheated ambitious punters out of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, modern communication isn't quite so vulnerable to your methods, so your only asset here is your wit and right to vote.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

It is now Day 2.

VOTE COUNT 2.01

Not Voting (7) - Antihero, Apocalypse, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey, HoneyBear, Marquis, Twin Flames

With 7 alive, it's 4 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 2 is in (expired on 2013-09-24 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

@Apoc:

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 2.02

Marquis (1) - Twin Flames
Bertkerberos (1) - Marquis
Drunken Monkey (1) - Antihero

Not Voting (4) - Apocalypse, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey, HoneyBear

With 7 alive, it's 4 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 2 is in (expired on 2013-09-24 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 2.03

Marquis (1) - Twin Flames
Bertkerberos (1) - Marquis
Drunken Monkey (2) - Antihero, HoneyBear

Not Voting (3) - Apocalypse, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey

With 7 alive, it's 4 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 2 is in (expired on 2013-09-24 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 2.04

Marquis (LYNCH) - Twin Flames, Apocalypse, Drunken Monkey, Bertkerberos

Bertkerberos (1) - Marquis
Drunken Monkey (2) - Antihero, HoneyBear

Not Voting (3) -

With 7 alive, it's 4 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 2 is in (expired on 2013-09-24 23:59:59).

[/area]

Marquis was lynched Day 2. She was

William Chalinor

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Marquis, you are

William Chalinor

(not pictured above), aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. You were perhaps the first great con artist whose exploits are still known today. Active in late 17th century England, you made a fortune through various cons and scams, many involving counterfeiting coins, notes and lottery tickets. You gained infamy by defrauding the Royal Mint and Bank of England. Recalled into action by Lou Blonger, your methods are somewhat outdated, so you will have to rely on your voice and your vote.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

It is now Night 2, which ends in (expired on 2013-09-13 23:59:59) or up to 24 hours earlier if all night-actions are submitted.

[serrapaladin]

Apocalypse have been killed Night 2. They were

Bret Maverick, Odd-Night Lie Detector

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Apocalypse, you are

Bret Maverick

, aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. Portrayed by Mel Gibson in the 1994 Western comedy film

Maverick

(and previously by James Garner in the 1950's TV series of the same name), you are a con artist with a particular affinity for card games. Your claim to fame was stealing the prize money of $500,000 from a poker tournament by conspiring with your father (interestingly also portrayed by James Garner). You are an exceptional judge of people, often being able to tell at a glance whether or not someone is telling the truth, making you an (

Odd-Night

)

Lie Detector

.

Odd-Night Lie Detector

: On odd-numbered nights, you may send the Moderator a post by another player (from the game thread). The moderator will reveal whether or not that player was telling the truth when they made that post.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

It is now Day 3.

VOTE COUNT 3.01

Not Voting (5) - Antihero, Bertkerberos, Drunken Monkey, HoneyBear, Twin Flames

With 5 alive, it's 3 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 3 is in (expired on 2013-09-28 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

vc

or not

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 3.02

Drunken Monkey (L-1) - Twin Flames, Bertkerberos

Bertkerberos (1) - Drunken Monkey
Antihero (1) - HoneyBear

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 5 alive, it's 3 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 3 is in (expired on 2013-09-28 23:59:59).[/area]

[serrapaladin]

VOTE COUNT 3.03

Drunken Monkey (LYNCH) - Twin Flames, Bertkerberos, HoneyBear

Bertkerberos (1) - Drunken Monkey

Not Voting (1) - Antihero

With 5 alive, it's 3 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 3 is in (expired on 2013-09-28 23:59:59).

[/area]

Drunken Monkey were lynched Day 3. They were

Isaac Newton, Scourge of the Underworld

.

Spoiler: (Slightly Censored) Role PM

Welcome, Mr_Ree, you are

Sir Isaac Newton

, aligned with the

Scourges of the Underworld

. Together with your partner [...] you have managed to infiltrate Blonger's Crew and your goal is to prevent his upcoming con. Perhaps the greatest physicist and mathematician of all time, one of your less known occupations was Warden and Master of the English Royal Mint. At the turn of the 18th century, you were responsible for the investigation and prosecution of many high-profile counterfeiters and other cheats. You famously prosecuted confidence trickster extraordinaire William Chaloner, who has now been recruited by conman kingpin Lou Blonger.

Personal Abilities:

[...]

Polymath

: You are not limited in the number of different night actions you can execute in one night (although you may only use each action once).

2-shot Outsmart (Roleblock)

: At night, you may choose one player to block from performing their night action.

Investigate (Role Cop)

: At night, you may investigate a player to determine their character name.

Factional Abilities:

Hospitalise (Night Kill)

: Every night, you and your partner may choose to hospitalise a target. The target player is removed from the game.

[...]

At the end of Day 4, if you or your partner is still alive, the con is unsuccessful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone except your partner before that.

Note: THIS IS YOUR REAL ROLE PM

It is now Night 3, which ends in (expired on 2013-09-21 01:59:59) or up to 24 hours sooner if all actions are submitted.

[serrapaladin]

HoneyBear have been killed Night 3. They were

Victor Lustig, Double Voter

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, HoneyBear, you are

Victor Lustig

, aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. Born in Austia-Hungary (a part today belonging to the Czech Republic), you operated scams between Paris and New York City. Your biggest scamming achievement is having sold the Eiffel Tower on two separate occasions. You are known for being a particularly smooth talker, fluent in many languages. Your persuasion is so effective that even your fellow conmen are swayed by your opinion, giving you

Double Voter

status in your group.

Double Voter

: You may cast two votes, either on the same player or on different ones. If you are using both votes, please label these with

Vote1:

and

Vote2:

. (As long as you use 'normal' vote tags, I will assume you are only using your first vote.) You may not simultaneously hammer two players.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

It is now Day 4.

VOTE COUNT 3.01

Not Voting (3) - Antihero, Bertkerberos, Twin Flames

With 3 alive, it's 2 to lynch.

The deadline for Day 4 is in (expired on 2013-10-04 23:59:59).

[serrapaladin]

Bertkerberos was indicted Day 4. They were

Natwarlal

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Bertkerberos, you are

Natwarlal

, aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. India's most famous conman, you were portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan in the 1979 Hindi blockbuster

Mr. Natwarlal

. You are most known for pretending to sell (often repeatedly) Indian landmarks like the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and the estate of the President of India. You have inspired a generation of Indian fraudsters, with the nickname "Natwarlal" now referring to anyone who pulls off a particularly clever con. Although your wit remains, your old age limits you to using your voice and right to vote.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

Twin Flames were endgamed Day 4. They were

Frank Abagnale, Jr., JoaT

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Twin Flames, you are

Frank Abagnale, Jr.

(left), aligned with

Blonger's Crew

. A brilliant cheque forger, escape artist, and impostor, you were famously portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio (centre) in the 2002 feature film

Catch Me If You Can

. In addition to forging cheques to sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you spent years impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and an attorney - all before the age of 21. Your many talents make you a

Jack of all Trades

with the following three abilities:

1-shot Governor

: At any point before a lynch is announced (including twilight, which will be extended by up to 24 hours), you may stop a lynch on your target. That day will end with a No-Lynch. The shot is only used up if a lynch is prevented, but if the shot is used up, you may not use another ability during the following night. Your targets can be submitted during the day in the form: "If serrapaladin is lynched, use Governor". You may not self-target.

1-shot Bus Driver

: At night, you may choose to switch two players. Any night action performed on a switched player during that night will affect the other. You may not self-target.

1-shot Doctor

: At night, you may choose to protect one player. That player will be protected from a single attack made during that night. You may not self-target.

At the end of Day 4, if all threats to Blonger's Crew have been eliminated, the con is successful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone before that.

Drunken Monkey were

Isaac Newton

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Drunken Monkey, you are

Sir Isaac Newton

, aligned with the

Scourges of the Underworld

. Together with your partner

Philip S. Van Cise (Antihero - undercover as Charles Ponzi)

you have managed to infiltrate Blonger's Crew and your goal is to prevent his upcoming con. Perhaps the greatest physicist and mathematician of all time, one of your less known occupations was Warden and Master of the English Royal Mint. At the turn of the 18th century, you were responsible for the investigation and prosecution of many high-profile counterfeiters and other cheats. You famously prosecuted confidence trickster extraordinaire William Chaloner, who has now been recruited by conman kingpin Lou Blonger.

Personal Abilities:

Knowledge is Power

: Through your astonishing powers of deductions, you have been able to analyse Blonger's Crew and identify their skills and weaknesses. A complete list of town role PM's from this game will be sent to you in a separate message. Use it wisely! (You may of course share this information with your partner.)

Undercover

: You are undercover as John Constantine. You will receive two fake role PM's, one for a Vanilla Townie and one for a Follower. It is up to you which one to use, so choose wisely.

Polymath

: You are not limited in the number of different night actions you can execute in one night (although you may only use each action once).

2-shot Outsmart (Roleblock)

: At night, you may choose one player to block from performing their night action.

Investigate (Role Cop)

: At night, you may investigate a player to determine their character name.

Factional Abilities:

Hospitalise (Night Kill)

: Every night, you and your partner may choose to hospitalise a target. The target player is removed from the game.

1-shot Day Indictment

: At any point during the day, if you can correctly identify the character name of a target player, that player is "indicted" and removed from the game. This ends the day. This ability may not be used on the character Victor Lustig.

Counterfeit

: At any point during the game, you or your partner may fake mod-messages to you by sending a message (including a subject) to the Moderator with the request to send it back to you. The Moderator will send that message back to you with the chosen subject.

Communication

: By the nature of this game, you and your partner may communicate by whichever means you would like, but be careful not to leave anything by which you could be identified.

At the end of Day 4, if you or your partner is still alive, the con is unsuccessful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone except your partner before that.

Note: THIS IS YOUR REAL ROLE PM

Antihero was

Philip S. Van Cise

.

Spoiler: Role PM

Welcome, Antihero, you are

Philip S. Van Cise

, aligned with the

Scourges of the Underworld

. Together with your partner

Sir Isaac Newton (Mr_Ree - undercover as John Constantine)

, you have managed to infiltrate Blonger's Crew and your goal is to prevent his upcoming con. After your career as a US Army colonel, you became district attorney of Denver, where you waged war against the Ku Klux Klan and mobster Lou Blonger. To take down Blonger, you famously put together an unofficial and privately funded task-force, so as to bypass corrupt official channels. Now, with Blonger back in the picture, you have come out of retirement to stop him once again. You are undercover as

Charles Ponzi

.

Personal Abilities:

Undercover

: Your fake identity is Charles Ponzi. You will receive two fake role PM's, one for a Vanilla Townie, and one for a Voteless Townie. It is up to you which one to use, but choose wisely.

Politician (Self-switch Voteless)

: You may at any time choose whether or not your vote counts. By default, your vote IS NOT counted. To switch on your vote, send "

Vote On

" to the Mod. You may turn your vote on and off as many times as you like.

1-shot Manipulator (Switched Anonymous Voter)

: If you have not yet used your vote switch, you may at any point during the day submit a vote via PM, which will be featured as "Anonymous" on the Vote Count. The vote will remain active until you either unvote by PM, turn on your actual vote, or the game day ends.

1-shot Arrest (Strongman Kill)

: At night, instead of hospitalising a target, you may once choose to have the target arrested instead. Arrests cannot by prevented or redirected.

Factional Abilities:

Hospitalise (Night Kill)

: Every night, you and your partner may choose to hospitalise a target. The target player is removed from the game.

1-shot Day Indictment

: At any point during the day, if you can correctly identify the character name of a target player, that character/player is "indicted" and removed from the game. This ends the day. This ability may not be used on the character Victor Lustig.

Counterfeit

: At any point during the game, you or your partner may fake mod-messages to you by sending a message (including a subject) to the Moderator with the request to send it back to you. The Moderator will send that message back to you with the chosen subject.

Communication

: By the nature of this game, you and your partner may communicate by whichever means you would like, but be careful not to leave anything by which you could be identified.

At the end of Day 4, if you and/or your partner are still alive, the con is unsuccessful and you win the game.

Please confirm your role by PM.

The game starts when I open the thread for Day 1, so please don't contact anyone except your partner before that.

Note: THIS IS YOUR REAL ROLE PM

The Scourges of the Underworld, Drunken Monkey and Antihero, have fulfilled their win condition and win the game.

[serrapaladin]

Right, I'm sure you guys have quite a few comments and concerns, so fire away. In particular, balancing this was interesting, so feel free to give your thoughts. I'll give mine in a bit. Overall, given what this game was, I quite like how it turned out. If there's interest, there'll be larger games of a similar format to follow. Thanks to everyone that participated in the game in any way, shape, or form for making it the talk of the MS.net town. In particular, thanks to the actual players for being my guinea pigs!

Also, do post any private/secret communication you want! I may reveal some of the things that were forwarded to me later.

[serrapaladin]

Talk to me about balance though, Nacho: is giving scum a free mislynch in a 9p completely infeasible?

@Rach, one of the elements of the game was scum knowing that the Blonger role was an enabler and thus hunting for it to get rid of all town PR's (I love AitP, but hate the way it's played here). A part of that was the lynch not being gov'able. Flavourwise, by the time Stubbs was lynched, your role already didn't work, so you couldn't reverse the lynch. One of antihero's abilities was an anonymous vote, which he could have used to hammer a claimed Blonger without it being preventable.

The game was more or less lost by the quickhammer. My setups are pretty strongly biased against that sort of play, and a lot of my pregame description warned against being careless.

[serrapaladin]

Also, lets share awesome strategies either side could have used, unless you want to keep them for the next one.

Obviously, faking a hydra town hydra-QT as a scum-hydra would have been a good idea (which was one of the reasons it decided to allow hydras).

I'm a bit surprised you didn't use the conftown status of dead townies more. I would have expected the first person to flip town to be sent all role PM's.

I don't think I left any obvious ways to break the game that weren't preventable by either side.

Balance-wise, having loads of externals scumhunting, while allowing for clever tactics that tend to favour town more then scum, made me add another scum kill (and a bit of town power). I think compared to some 7p setups with 2 scum, the Blonger role + the nature of the game should have produced 2 conf-town, giving it quite a similar format to standard 7p games.

@Rach, I know the twilight thing was a bit mean, but I did specifically write "up to 24 hours" in your role PM, and in the setup info I did mention that roles may work differently than you might assume. Really, the Blonger role should never have been hammered, but the fact that it did meant town was majorly punished. Marquis just got pretty unlucky in that respect.

[serrapaladin]

In a 9p game town can never win with 3 mislynches. I did take 1 mislynch away from town, so it's really just a question of whether town had enough compensation for that.

[serrapaladin]

Would you expect town to have a good shot at winning if a townie quickhammers the most important pr d1?

[serrapaladin]

Thanks for all of your comments. I'll give a full round-up once I have regular internet, but I don't particularly think the game was too scum-sided or swingy.

I don't like scumvigs either, but is there another practical way to take away a mislynch from town?

I should point out that between them, Mara and Nacho had basically solved the game N1 through a combination of Skype and site-chat, plus the fact that you could ask for hydra-QT's was one of the contributing factors for Ree getting caught out.

As to swinginess, there wasn't actually that much town-power to be disabled by Stubbs' death. The only true town-power was the odd-night lie detector, so having Stubbs' role really just appeared much more swingy than it was.

Whether or not town need to know when they are in LyLo is an interesting point. In larger games, this is rarely discussed since setups are so variable, but since 9p Micros usually allow for a standard 2 mislynches, it certainly came as a surprise. I don't think town play better in LyLo than they do at other times.

I had originally considered simply making this a 3 vs. 6 mountainous, but I thought I'd put in some mildly interesting elements for both sides, without messing with the game flow too much (hence quite a few roles that more or less neutralised each other but still gave people something to talk about). I'm sorry if that didn't quite work out.

Had I not mentioned anything about the game composition, and town had been "surprised" by a 3-man scum-team, I would expect much of the same complaints. I do still think something like that was needed, though, in order to outweigh the town-sidedness of the always-on elements, being able to ask anyone for screenshots of stuff, etc.

[serrapaladin]

And since I don't actually have them, would you guys post any other QT's you used?