Time-Travel Mafia

[cuban smoker]

If you haven't been following the game, now is the time to tune in to catch the exciting conclusion. With day 3 about to end, and most roles "revealed", only one thing stands between the town and victory: the mafia still hide among them.

Is Gaspode the last Mafia? Perhaps there are more than one?!? Or is jeep the lying scum? Maybe ambic's claim is all a comlicated gambit! How deep does the conspiracy run? What will happen tonight!?!

[jeep]

Hmm... can we read anything into you ignoring the "Lucresia is godfather?"

-JEEP

[cuban smoker]

Absolutely not. I almost put it, and then decided it hadn't been mentioned enough to warrant me pointing it out. The first post is purely creative liscence.

[Werebear]

maybe I'm a time-travelling mafia doc with investigative abilities that can do three actions in one night. And maybe I'm a flying pumpkin that can shoot laser beams out its ass. Or a... what was it? Chinese schoolgirl? *G*

[Ningal]

16-year-old Japanese girl serving someone in a mansion, if memory serves.

[/helpfulnin]

[quercitron]

Another gem from that game, from mith.

Ok, you've got me here. You're right, there *is* some chance that quercitron was smoking some crack when he made this game, and there are actually 5 Mafia, one of whom is a Godfather with three votes, two extra kills, and a protection, and you can shoot lasers out of your schoolgirl ass.

[Windchill]

What will happen tonight

Or last night

Or the night before

Or before that too...

This game needs to be fully discussed at the end - but not while it is still being played surely.

Mod - you may have given your players a hint doing this thread....

[Green Crayons]

I dont see how he's giving a hint by just repeating whatever has been said already in the post by the players themselves.

[jeep]

Well, the fact that he thinks the game is almost over, for one.

-JEEP

[cuban smoker]

Actually, its just getting exciting now thats all. It could take turns upon turns to finish this one off. But ooohhh... I'm getting so excited!

It all depends on the night choices obviously. No matter what happens, its going to be fun.

[jeep]

So was it balanced?

I don't think so, but let's discuss. For a primer on the mechanics of time travel, read the first reply in the game thread

12 players total

• 3 Mafia: could send one person through time to kill another player. On even nights could send another player through time to kill someone
  
• 1 Time Cop: could travel through time to investigate one player- I do not know how investigations in the future worked
  
• 1 Deputy time cop: took over for time cop
  
• 1 Time Doc: could travel through time to save one player
  
• 1 Doc: normal doc, could not time travel, could heal self
  
• 1 Coroner: got full role description of all dead players
  
• 1 Psychic: got alignment (mafia/not) of all dead players
  
• 1 Time Vigilante: once per two nights- could travel through time and kill one player (could travel once on nights 1 and 2; once on nights 3 or 4...)
  
• 1 Forensic scientist: found out method of kill (vigilante or mafia)
  
• 1 ?? Scientist: Could prevent one player from travelling in time, so that players action would occur that night instead of in the night he tried to travel to

Note that the roles were not revealed to all players on death, since people can come back to life.

Here are some things to consider:
Time Doc: He can prevent past kills with 100% accuracy. This is a very powerful role! The existance of this (or suspected existance) means that the mafia need to set up a massacre and cannot just kill each night. This is an extremely powerful role

Time cop: Can find alignment of dead people as well as living (by travelling to night 1). This is a well balanced role. This role had a backup.

Time Vigilante: By travelling in time, he can prevent kills more effectively than a doctor, if he knows a mafia. If he is sure that someone is mafia, he should always travel to night 1 to do his kills. This is an extremely powerful pro-town role.

Coroner: Holy CRAP! This was a hugely powerful role. So powerful that I thought he was a serial killer or something. He gets the FULL ROLE description of all who die. That means if anyone comes back to life, he is 100% cleared. If he gets cleared then he can clear ALL players who are dead.

Psychic: A more balanced, but still big, back-up to the coroner.

Normal Doc: A little weaker in this game, but still a decent role. If he was also a back-up time doc, then he would be hugely powerful.

Time Travel Stopping Scientist: Excellent, well balanced role.

Forensic Scientist: Well balanced, slightly weak pro-town role.

Mafia: The mafia could travel in time... which was a huge asset, but they had to worry about the doc being 100% accurate. The second kill was a decent counter to the doc's insane ability. Another possible solution was to have the mafia have some number of unblockable kills or to be able to send two people to kill one player (requiring two doc saves).

Missing roles

Roles that might have existed that didn't

• Time travel detector
  
• Townies!
  
• Serial Killer (good thing!)

Overall, I think that three people (+backup) that could confirm a dead person's alignment was a little excessive and getting their role was too overpowering.

Granted the mafia won, despite the town finding and killing two mafia on night+day 2. That was simply because of a couple glaring errors that the town made. They were extremely big, because the error killed the time doc and no one corrected it.

-JEEP

[Porro]

Another gem from that game, from mith.

Ok, you've got me here. You're right, there *is* some chance that quercitron was smoking some crack when he made this game, and there are actually 5 Mafia, one of whom is a Godfather with three votes, two extra kills, and a protection, and you can shoot lasers out of your schoolgirl ass.

Am I the only one that finds mith's comment a tad worrying, given that he's a sort of schoolteacher and all? 8O

[jeep]

Yes, you are.

-JEEP

[Green Crayons]

I thought the town was going to win, because i frankly didn't see how Jeep was going to pull the win out've his ass over the night (i thought he would go back to kill DS, but didn't remember BF actually coming back), and then have to survive another whole day for the massacre to take place.

Very nice, kudos.


I just want to know how DS decided to kill Bigfella on Night 2. Talk about disheartening way to start the day as the mafia.

[jeep]

I just want to know how DS decided to kill Bigfella on Night 2. Talk about disheartening way to start the day as the mafia.

Especially after quercitron had just told me that he thought GC and I were mafia with someone else. He didn't know the third.

-JEEP

[Werebear]

This will help you, Jeep. My original email. (edited only for succintness)

RoadBird was, and now you are

You are an experienced time-traveling Cop (Innocent)

On every night, you may travel to any night in the past or present, and investigate one person who is still alive. You may not investigate dead people. However, if you investigate someone on the same night they are murdered, you will still receive a correct investigation. You are sane.

It is important to note that you CAN travel back in time to investigate someone who is currently dead, but was not dead on the night you choose to travel back to. You may find this is helpful in determining the role of dead people.

Because I cannot predict the future, I will not allow you to travel in to the future. It would be impossible for me to give you results now, because you are not allowed to investigate dead people (and I cannot know what the status of the target will be on any given night in the future), and it would not make sense for me to give you results in the future! You may as well investigate them tonight. Very simply: choose between tonight, and a night in the past.

Oh, one more thing: “experienced” means I will reveal ALL of the target’s role to you.

on night 1, RoadBird investigated Lucresia during night 1, and received this information:

Luresia is the forensic scientist (Innocent)
Whenever a person dies, she is told which “killing group” performed the kill. She is sane.

[Werebear]

I have an idea, let's play the game again. Start over. Everyone in? *Grin*

[jeep]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that you got the full role! So you could clear Ambic 100%! Holy crap! Holy Crap! Holy Crap!

I change my mind. This was HEAVILY weighted against the mafia.

-JEEP

[Werebear]

...but I couldn't go in the future, which led me to believe the mafia couldn't either.

I thought of a problem for the 1-2-3 method - they have to include the dead as well, or the raised mafia like Bigfella will never get the votes.

Think about it - in a large mafia - let's say the vigilante kills a mafia night 2, and again night 4 - and then night 6 the mafia goes back kills the vigilante night 1. So now the mafia get one member alive for 4 days, able to cast his votes for 4 days

any way he chooses, even to tie lynches, with no reprisal at all from the town, and noone investigates him or gets a chance to vote for him

. And even worse, night 4 his partner joins him, and all of a sudden they get more votes and more kills, again with no reprisal from the town at all. The fact that raising BigFella gave you an extra time-travelling kill was even worse! That makes it so in one night, they kill the vigilante, both vote for one person on a unanymous day, and then someone goes back and kills the townie that was supposed to be lynched that day... that makes up for the town's more powerful roles somewhat.

The thing about this game that sticks in my craw the most is I was sure if Gaspode was lynched and turned out to be a psychic, that one more day would be all that we needed, whether you unlynched the three or not. I didn't consider the possibility that the day would end, when I was sure about three other town collegues. *Grin* Again, kudos.

[cuban smoker]

Despite all your complaining jeep (just teasing), you cannot ignore the power the mafia held at the end of the game. You have the ability to change the course of time, and completely reverse the fortune of the town.

I could not think out all the situations in my head, and I was trying to leave the game's mechanics mostly intact. I wanted a tt doctor, a tt cop, a normal doctor, and at least one person who would actually know the alignment/roles of dead people. These were, in my oringinal opinion, the townies. How powerful was ambic's role, really? Did ambic save anyone? If the tt doc had been killed, there wouldn't have been anyone to save him!

I have learned much, and the full version of tt mafia is almost complete, and ready to run. The rules will be fairly different, as I try to incorporate as much of the input I have received.

Werebear, you just keep on bringing up issue after issue, don't you? If you include the dead, why limit it to 3 votes? ahhhhh. Ok ok... let's think this one out...

[jeep]

One mechanic that I think you should add: Have the dead cast a vote to you each day before the lynch is complete.

I "got lucky" and hit the one scenario that allowed me to win.

Had Goo read the rules, had I been town, had the town thought more on the first day, there wouldn't have been an opportunity for a multiple lynch on day 1. That was my ONLY hope that game.

Had the time doc not been one of the members with one vote he would have saved mathcam. (I took a HUGE risk in killing mathcam because I saw no other possible win for me.) Had there been a second time doc... Had goo survived (he'd have almost certainly stopped me from time travelling that night...)

Had the vigilante gone to night 1 to kill me instead of going to night 5...

The only other possible win was if we voted no lynch (then Bigfella could have lynched someone alone on day 3).

None of those will occur again... and never would have happened had I been pro-town. You'll never have a multiple tie for second place in the lynch. You'll never have a time cop that doesn't go back to day 1 (unless he suspects there's a recruiter). You'll never have a town vote no lynch, if anyone hasn't voted that day.

Seriously, the

only

reason I won was because of poor play on the part of the town. I guess not many people think about time travel nearly as much as I do.

Knowing that there was a time travelling doc meant that we had only one winning condition that didn't rely on the town completely: Set up a massacre. That is SO risky because we need to steer the lynching away from the people we set up kills on. I got lucky in that the town was stupid and allowed a three person lynch on night 1. Had I been the doc, I would have set up a protection on mathcam night 2. (actually, I wouldn't have let the tie exist...)

With that set-up, I guarantee that the mafia can never win again if

any

pro-town role understands the basics that I understood through that whole game.

-JEEP

[cuban smoker]

Yeah, the game definetly needs to be refined. Bu I knew that from the start. This game was a play-test, and thank you all for being so creative.

[Werebear]

One question - what do you think of limited visits to each night? Like maybe 2? Otherwise, everyone will keep revisiting and revisiting the same night. ALSO - what do you think of this--

Night 4, the mafia decide to kill the cop, as of night 2. But the cop night 2 was visiting night 1! they get there, and find an empty house. No kill that night. Amazingly enough, night 5 the cop goes back to night 2 to investigate... and gets killed from the previous night's kill. *evil grin*

[jeep]

The town is already a serious favorite, no need to make them more powerful.

-JEEP

[jeep]

Polotet, whom did you protect and when?

-JEEP