Champions over Domains
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:15 pm
(who else on this site would name a thread that)
Really, really long ago, there was a game called Mafia MetaMafia; it was this really cool game run by this really cool mod. In it, the roles were devotees of scummers who were CHAMPIONS OF DOMAINS of scumhunting.
Let's bring that back! Of the twelve Domains listed below, pick the
Really, really long ago, there was a game called Mafia MetaMafia; it was this really cool game run by this really cool mod. In it, the roles were devotees of scummers who were CHAMPIONS OF DOMAINS of scumhunting.
Let's bring that back! Of the twelve Domains listed below, pick the
two
that you champion.Austerity
- There are, like, twelve other players in this game. You don't have to do everything, or even particularly much. Once you insert yourself into a discussion, your influence will ripple and distort the social fabric, making it harder to see what's going on as people begin to move to acknowledge and persuade you... so you don't jump in all that often. By watching everyone else play, you can stay outside the discussion and look it over with detached clarity, akin to reading your own game like a replacement. You can place a vote whenever you're ready and then retreat. This gives you a pretty sweet meta for lurking, which literally everyone else hates you for. Your opposite is Will
.Concision
- Your posts are usually short for the sake of impact. There's no good reason for them to be longer most of the time. Your opposite is Verbosity
.Fervor
- Mafia is a game on the Internet. It's frigging hard to rattle people the way you can IRL, so people can maintain poker faces that much more easily. Rattle this, bastards - now there's an L-3 wagon on someone and it's rising fast. By using your charisma to garner the other players' confidence, you can watch people squirm under the pressure and decide whether they live or die. You thrive on being crazy enough to break the social norms that enslave others, and relish the leadership and control you can have over the game, but if you fail, you tend to take the entire game down with you and leave a lot of bitter victims behind. Your opposite is Patience
.Justice
- Sometimes a scumtell is actually indicative of scum. Imagine that! Someone on this entire frigging web site needs to go after the lurkers and liars, because lurking and lying are what scum DO. Similarly, sometimes the easiest explanation is the correct one - that someone who allegedly forgot to use their Doctor ability or why they were pushing Yesterday's wagon on Town is actually scum. If they're not scum but just a garden-variety moron, there's still no reason to complain, because "too scummy to be scum" will burn you every time. You are, of course, not friends with Village Idiots and have a relatively high rate of mislynching them - and you don't care. Your opposite is Mercy
.Mercy
(changed from Logic) - More than anything else, Mafia is a game of understanding people. Not everyone with a given alignment will react the same way under certain circumstances. However, if you truly understand what goes on behind someone's eyeballs, you can figure out when and whether they're acting out of character. In other words, you believe in the supremacy of meta and will shrug off so-called "textbook scummy behavior" in favor of your insights into why people act the way they do. You can proudly point to your successful judgment calls, but when you're wrong, you get burned hard and lose friendships. Your opposite is Justice
.Patience
(changed from Asceticism) - Mafia is a game on the Internet. Nothing about it is going to rattle you or change how you view things. When you see a flashwagon, your instinctive response is to argue against it. When you see a deadline, you're going to want to entertain your thoughts until it arrives - and, in practice, ask for an extension more often than not. Through a level analysis of all the information you can get, you believe you will come to the best conclusions you possibly can. Of course, your foes will groan with every post you make that doesn't hammer someone everyone knows is going to get it. Your opposite is Fervor
.Rigor
(changed from Balance) - Few people know how to play Mafia like they mean it. Each and every post you make has a purpose. That purpose may only be known to you, but every time you say something, you've crafted it so the response is as meaningful as possible. You don't stop to crack jokes and you don't bother to say things outside your aim, nor do you spend much time defending yourself as it risks putting you off-message. As a result, you are generally acknowledged as a competent but impersonal player, but it's easy for people to also think you're intensely pretentious and frustrating to deal with. Your opposite is Whimsy
.Solism
- You don't trust other people. That just seems like really, really good sense in a game where you only know your own alignment. You're fiercely proud and protective of your independence, and strongly resist others' calls for you to do what they want. You are that person who will stand alone on a wagon 24 hours before deadline, because you're not going to compromise yourself (or the game, for that matter) by making what you think is a suboptimal move. This fearsome willingness to stand apart lets you cut through the vagaries of the scum's manipulations, but some may also call you a dumbass who jumps pants-over-head into tunnel vision. Your opposite is Syncretism
.Syncretism
- It doesn't matter how correct you are if you can't work with other people to get your preferred wagon to go through. Finding scum is obviously something you have to do, but your preferred goal is find Town instead, and then organize those Townies into a solid bloc of trust. With sufficient skill in aligning people to your side, a solid Town bloc can crush the scum into suffocation in the most satisfying way available, but the process of creating that bloc leaves you open to the danger of being easily manipulated into the wrong targets - if you can even get that bloc started at all in a group of suspicious others. Your opposite is Solism
.Verbosity
- Simply put, thorough posts are better posts. You have valuable insights to share and anyone who reads them should become aware of exactly what you think and why you think it. Done properly, there should never be any reason to question your motives, as happens often with people who pivot from seemingly nothing into new positions. Similarly, you are absolutely capable of simultaneously interrogating others at length, keeping seamless track of several arguments at once as you pursue everything that might concern you. Very little escapes your notice and you very publicly arrive at conclusions that, right or wrong, are respectable for the thought you put in and judgment you apply. Your primary weakness - which has nothing to do with what you're actually saying - is that some people have a tendency to skip over your posts, if not on principle then once they get in a hurry and notice you're not talking to them. It frustrates you to have to chase people down and tell them to respond to you, and your insistent desire for responses can lead to unproductive personality clashes with people. Your opposite is Concision
.Whimsy
- Mafia is a game, right? Games should be fun, right? You're here for the party! All those pages of side conversations, the snarky remarks that are totally relevant to the game... yeah, those are your fault. Your actual strategy can be just as mercurial, with a willingness to try out gimmicks to see what kinds of reactions you get - plus the general kick you get out of, say, faking a post restriction. You're enjoyable as hell to play with and being weird doesn't hurt your ability to function, but some people - let's call them "imbeciles" - will not be able to process what you're doing, and naturally assume that it's suspicious, so you tend to get scumread for things that strike you as absolutely asinine. Your opposite is Rigor
.Will
- There are very few things that you cannot overcome with enough charisma and desire. Your belief in your ability to influence the game is your strength, and you flex that strength early and often to shape the game state to what you believe it should be. Your tenacity makes you a tough target, as at your best you are rarely in the path of least resistance. However, if rebuffed enough, you can become desperate and unbalanced; in addition, if you do not have a cause to believe in, you may lack the conviction to make any contribution at all, making you a target of opportunity. Your opposite is Austerity
.
