Newbie 763 - The Trap (Game over!)

[Incognito]

Newbie 763 - The

Trap

Current Game Status:

Game over!

Dear _________ ,

You and 8 other candidates have been coordially invited to a beauty pageant being hosted by Cognitive Enterpises, LLC. Please arrive at 7 P.M. sharp bringing along this invitation to the address provided on the reverse. Don't pass up on this opportunity! The winner will receive 50 grand! Be there or be square.

Sincerely,
Nito Cogni

Chairman of Cognitive Enterprises, LLC

The letter.

Yeah, it was dropped on your doorstep by the friendly neighborhood mailman on a typical morning. Seems harmless enough, right? After all, you know how dashingly attractive you are and have been all your life and how you've long deserved to finally receive

some

kind of recognition for your beauty!

The "pageant".

The location was a large, empty concert hall. Where were the guests? Where were the hosts? You see the other 8 contestants entering into the large auditorium along with you.

"Walk onto the stage to meet Nito." read the sign in the center of the long, red-carpeted aisle traversing along the center of the auditorium.

The trap.

At the moment all nine of you stepped onto the stage, a steel cage dropped drom the ceiling, trapping all nine of you inside its heavy bars. From the ceiling of this cage hung ropes cleanly tied into nooses.

The voice.

"Two of you standing within that cage are bad guys - part of the evil Mafia!" said a big booming voice across the auditorium. "Get them before they get you!"

How ominous.

---

Players

Alive

(4/9) (bold means confirmed and

Blue Spider

means

Inexperience Challenged (IC for short)

)

• mikek -

  Townie

  - Survived
  
  
• ivanavich -

  Doctor

  - Survived
  
  
• Riceballtail
  -

  Townie

  - Survived
  
  
• Albert B. Rampage
  -

  Townie

  - Survived

Dead

(5/9)

• fallen angel -

  Cop

  - lynched
  Day 1
  
• Mastin -

  Townie

  - killed
  Night 1
  
• Battle Mage

(replaced krymise during Day 1)

-

Mafia Goon

- lynched

Day 2

semioldguy -

Townie

- killed

Night 2

tubby216

(replaced SisterCoyote during Night 1

who replaced Chief during Day 1)

-

Mafia Roleblocker

- lynched

Day 3

[/list]

[Incognito]

Ze Rules

1) Remember that this is a game. Please enjoy yourself! =)

2) Do not quote any PMs sent to you by me. This includes your role pm or any additional PMs I may send you. Doing so will automatically get you mod-killed. Mod-kills will automatically end the day. Period.

3) Please keep all conversation within the thread unless your role PM specifies otherwise. If I find out that chatting is going on outside of the thread, you will be mod-killed.

4) Votes should be cast using the following format –

Vote: Person X

. I will not count votes that are not

bolded

. If you choose to change your vote, please

Unvote

first and then

Vote

again. Again, I will not count switches in votes unless an

unvote

is used first.

5) Lynching will require a majority of votes. You may

Vote: No Lynch

if you decide that you do not want to lynch during the day. No Lynching will also require a majority of votes. Once the number of votes reaches the number required for a lynch to occur, that decision is final. Any subsequent unvotes will not be counted. You may feel free to converse during this period (called Twilight) until the thread is locked.

6)

*Important

: If you get killed or are lynched, you are dead. You may not post anything afterwards. Not even a “Bah!” post. Srsly. Save it for post-game discussion.

7) If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to PM me.

8) I expect everyone to post regularly. If you must leave us for longer than a 72 hour time period, let me and the players know beforehand. Please don’t leave us hanging. I will automatically prod players after 72 hours of inactivity if said player hasn't notified me beforehand. Any requests made to me within thread should be bolded like so:

Mod:

Do stuff.

9) Treat this game as a commitment and be courteous to your fellow players. I find that this is the best way for everyone to enjoy the game. Thanks. =)

10) I will be setting three-week deadlines at the start of every Day cycle. This deadline may be extended at my own discretion if special circumstances arise during the game.

11) If a majority of votes is not reached at deadline, No Lynch will occur.

12) Please confirm your role to me via PM.

13) No invisible text may be used within the thread. If you have editing abilities, you may not edit your posts.

14) Again, remember to have fun. =D

[Incognito]

Ze Set-Up

This Newbie game is what is called "semi-open" and will be utilizing the F11 set-up. Your set-up could look like any one of the following:

• 1 Mafia Roleblocker, 1 Mafia Goon, 7 Normal Townies
  
• 1 Mafia Roleblocker, 1 Mafia Goon, 1 Cop, 1 Doctor, 5 Normal Townies
  
• 2 Mafia Goons, 1 Cop, 6 Normal Townies
  
• 2 Mafia Goons, 1 Doctor, 6 Normal Townies

If either of the first two set-ups are being used and the situation occurs where the Mafia Goon is lynched first, the Mafia Roleblocker will still be able to submit both night kills and roleblocks (roleblocking is a function of the Roleblocker; night kills are a function of the scum team as a whole).

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

Mafia-Aligned players:

Mafia Goon:

You are a member of the Mafia along with your partner,

name

. 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 PM) and choose another player in the town to kill that night.
  
• You may communicate privately with your fellow Mafia up until the game thread is opened. Once the game begins, all outside communication must cease until the night cycle.
  
• You win when the number of Mafia equals or exceeds the number of remaining Town players, whether you survive to the end or not.

Mafia Roleblocker:

You are a member of the Mafia along with your partner,

name

. 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.
  
• As a Roleblocker, you have the ability to distract any player throughout the night, effectively negating their night ability, if they have one.
  
• Send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to block. If they have a Night action, it will have no effect. You will not be informed as to whether your roleblock worked or not.
  
• During the NIGHT cycle ONLY, you may talk with your fellow Mafia (via PM) and choose another player in the town to kill that night.
  
• You may communicate privately with your fellow Mafia up until the game thread is opened. Once the game begins, all outside communication must cease until the night cycle.
  
• 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 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.
  
• The Moderator will inform you as to that person’s guilt or innocence.
  
• 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 the local physician and can protect people from harm.

• Each NIGHT, you may send the moderator a PM with your choice of player that you want to protect.
  
• If someone attempts to kill that player during the Night, they will be spared.
  
• 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 (no quacks).
  
• You win when all the Mafia players are gone, whether you survive to the end or not.

[Incognito]

Role PM's will be going out. Please confirm within 72 hours via PM. Mafia are allowed to talk during pre-game.

[Incognito]

Sorry for the delay -- been away for the weekend. Everyone's confirmed so we can begin. With 9 alive, it takes 5 votes to lynch. Good luck!

[Riceballtail]

VOTE:ABR

No stupid D1 strange claims plz kthx.

[Albert B. Rampage]

You are without a doubt the worst player I have ever heard of!

But you've heard of me.

My reputation -infamy, depending on who you ask- precedes me. Good.

Welcome to mafiascum!

I understand that many of you have experience in mafia prior to this site, so leave the formalities of IC/Newbe at the door. IC is just fancy wording for someone who's been here longer than you.

Who am I, you ask? For starters, my name is Albert. If you call me abr, I will also make up a funny sounding name for you. Or not, in the case I find you especially plain. You see, mafia is a personal hobby of mine; make yourself interesting enough that I don't dread opening this thread every morning. What this means to me is active posting. Compelling analysis. Respect for one another. These are the values that we promote on this site.

Some of you will have an issue with me, no doubt. I am an aggressive individual that doesn't shy away from conflict, in playstyle and in life. Please inform me straightaway if there are any players under 18 among us, so I may adjust the vulgarity of my analogies to the game.

I've covered everything but my random vote.

Vote: semioldguy

Good luck.

[Riceballtail]

Also, I'm the other IC. While I am not necessairly a "bad" player, I tend to play in ways that are not generally accepted as "pro-town". I will most likely come up with some completely random and nonsensical reasons for the things I do, if I remember to explain them. Few people may understand what I do, but I try to convey the things that will help the town win. Basically, I'm a good example that you don't have to play this game one specific way in order to help the town, but it helps the closer you are to it.

Enjoy having two crazy ICs.

[Mastin]

PLAYSTYLE THING: I like to scum hunt from page negative one. It's a tactic which works amazingly well, as I've personally nailed both scum on page two before from early on scum tells. Keep that in mind as I do this:

Unknown Strength FoS: Chief, ivanavich.

It is a legit scum tactic for the mafia to delay confirming in order to have more time to converse... (and they were the last two to confirm)

Why not vote? 'Cause, well, um, I did random.org of who I would vote for the second I learned I was in this game, and the result landed on me. :/

Mastin Votes: Mastin.

[semioldguy]

Hello ABR (you can call me SOG now I suppose )

I also would like a very active board. I am usually very active in the Mafia games I have played elsewhere. The majority of my game experience is in groups of about 9-21 players in person.

It is my first game here so people don't have any games on this site to look back at for my play style in different situations and roles like we might for some of you IC guys.

The only game history that I have online and in a public forum is still currently going (about to hit Day five), though it is a much different setup and began with 65 players instead of nine. It is also a lot more fast paced, a day-night cycle lasts about 3-4 days instead of that many weeks. Meaning that game could likely end before this day one ends. I only hesitate to post a link to that game because I am not entirely sure about the policy here in doing that.

Vote: krymise

[mikek]

Hello, everybody. This is my first game here at MafiaScum.net! Nice to be here. I have played a few nonce games on other boards, but from browsing the wiki and a few threads it looks like the metagame here is highly developed. Hopefully I will not fall afoul of it!

So what does the meta here dictate? Our first few posts

must

be random votes, thrown around to elicit reactions and discussion. This kicks things off and avoid people sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for someone else to say something. From the votes, the reaction, and the discussion we can (possibly) deduce something useful now, but, more importantly, we can look back at it later to cross reference with other things we learn. Is that about right?

Mastin: Why do you take pains to inform us that your random vote is literally randomly generated? Was there really much need for that; are you worried that people might draw meaning from your "random" vote? Are you voting for yourself so that you don't give away connections between yourself and your scum partner from the get go?

Vote: Mastin

[ivanavich]

hello all. 1st time online.

VOTE: NO LYNCH

why would a cit vote for anything but a no lynch for the 1st round?
Am I missing something or did I read the ze rules wrong?

Also what does this mean?

Unknown Strength FoS: Chief, ivanavich.

[mikek]

why would a cit vote for anything but a no lynch for the 1st round?

A) For the random chance of hitting a mafioso.
B) To provoke reactions and other votes, which can then yield information.
C) Because they suspect someone to be a mafioso.

If we No Lynch on D1, what do we have tomorrow? One fewer townie and little new information. We may or may not have useful power roles but it is not good to rely on them to do our scumhunting for us. If we lynch somebody today, we at least have a chance of taking out a mafia member. If we don't then tomorrow we're in almost the same situation, but one day closer to losing.

Voting patterns also provide useful information. I can't explain such a huge topic in one post, but I'll point out a simple example: If two players never vote for one another, it may be because they are both scum. If we just vote No Lynch, we'll not get any information like that.

Even on D1, scum can give themselves away. Even if they don't slip up totally and reveal themselves, they may give "tells" which allows them to be identified with better than random chance. If you think someone is behaving suspiciously, it may be better to string them up and have a chance of killing scum than to do nothing.

It is in fact widely accepted that No Lynching on D:1 favours scum rather than town. For this reason, voting NL is seen as anti-town. It's not really scummy though, as scum who knew it was bad for town could not afford to be so brazen. So I'm not accusing you of being scum, just trying to explain my understanding of why we shouldn't NL on D1. If you don't follow or agree, ask for more specifics and I or someone else can probably give them to you.

Also what does this mean?

Unknown Strength FoS

: Chief, ivanavich.

The FoS (Finger of Suspicion) is a way of pointing to people you consider suspicious without voting for them. In this case, you've been found suspicious for being one of the last to confirm.

Question for people familiar with this board: I received no e-mail notification when ivanavich posted. I had ticked the "Notify me.." checkbox when I posted before. Any clues what I'm doing wrong?

[ivanavich]

-mikek, i disagree but this is 1st time using no lynch. Odds are 2 in 9 you vote for mafia d1, not taking into account suspicious activity. if everyone votes no lynch thats one more day we survive. I understand maf gets to kill 1 every night but we have a small chance of stopping them. still for my 1st vote i'l stick to no lynch because I still have no strong suspicion.
-To me for example pointing fingers first or making vote#1 with nothing to go on is highly suspicios.
-now is there an abrev for "suspicion" please?!

[mikek]

Hmm, there it is again; I asked to be notified of posts and yet when ivanavich posted I received none. Halp.

Ivanavich, I've tried to explain but I'm not sure how to get through to you! If we vote NL today what do we gain? A dead townie. What does that tell us by itself? Not much! It's better to take our chances of hitting scum and also gain information from vote patterns, arguments, and so on. If we're not going to lynch people I don't see how we have a chance of stopping the mafia from picking us off one by one.

It's fair enough you don't want to vote for somebody specific at the moment. It's important to understand, however, that people voting now aren't particularly pushing for an immediate (and effectively random) lynch. We're hoping to spark some discussion, get some voting data for analysis now or later, and maybe put some pressure on people and see how they react.

Making a random vote is not the same thing as advocating a random lynch!

The most common term for "suspicious" I've seen is "scummy".

By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, I am also one of those who likes an active board with a lot of discussion!

[ivanavich]

ok, i'm starting to see light. I may change my vote later on but not so early. ty for responding.

FWIW I usualy don't check my emails as much on the weekend and after 5 on weekdays.

[mikek]

Cool, glad I made some sort of sense! Out of interest, you're recieving e-mails when people respond? Do you have to set an option somewhere or something? I clicked the checkbox on my replies, but..

I'm mostly posting between the hours of 1000 and 1800 GMT, on weekdays. Quite possibly outside those hours too, though!

Anyone else want to Timezoneclaim?

[Chief]

Vote: No Lynch

Until further notice, I vote no lynch. There's no one suspicious yet, so I'm not taking any chances (:

[ivanavich]

well actualy no, I only recieved 1 telling me I was part of this game. I havent checked a box for nitifications however since when i have time to check emails I will usualy check all the forums i'm checking on also.

[mikek]

Having had a quick search of the forums it looks like the e-mail notification feature is disabled for performance reasons. However you can look in the "Watched Topic" link at the top of the page. Not ideal, but I guess it wil have to do.

By the way, I understand wanting to withhold your vote until you find someone scummy, but voting for NL is actually saying more than that---it's a vote for ending the day right now without a chance of lynching scum. So I wouldn't suggest any more people actually vote NL, even if you don't want to vote for someone specific yet.

[Chief]

Oh ok, so I shouldn't vote for No Lynch, but I should just hold my vote?

[mikek]

Well, I think so. Unless you really want to end the day now. It's probably better to let people talk and vote some to give us some clues, then try our best to lynch scum, though.

If you want to take your vote back post unvote in bold. I wouldn't worry too much about it (probably not going to get three more Nl votes), but you can if you wish.

By the way, it would help me out if everyone got an avatar so I could associate an image with an identity. You don't have to, but it would be helpful.

[Chief]

Alright then.

Unvote

I'll get an avater asap. (:

[semioldguy]

Also the thing with no lynch is that it basically just delays the start of the game and makes it slightly harder for the town.

Think of it this way, whether we have 8 or 9 players we need 5 votes to make the majority. Since two people are always going to be mafia in both those situations, voting for a no lynch on the first day gives the mafia more control and power in the voting. This is both because we need a larger percent of the total players agreeing on a vote with 8 players and because mafia make up a slightly larger percent of the players voting as well in that case.

No-Lynching also gives the mafia a head start, because as a town we have the ability to kill someone each day, each time we don't lynch someone we forfeited a chance to catch someone who is guilty. It's not like the mafia are just going to give the townies second chances.

[Mastin]

hello all. 1st time online. VOTE: NO LYNCH

Vote: No Lynch

Further evidence:

why would a cit vote for anything but a no lynch for the 1st round?

Until further notice, I vote no lynch. There's no one suspicious yet, so I'm not taking any chances (:

Yet more:

ok, i'm starting to see light. I may change my vote later on but not so early. ty for responding.

Oh ok, so I shouldn't vote for No Lynch, but I should just hold my vote?

-They both vote no lynch.
-They both give similar reasoning.
-They both say they'll unvote with similar reasoning.
-This is a very early on buddying. I can link you to an example of why I find this to be a HUGE scum tell, as it nailed BOTH scum that time.

With that in mind,

Mastin Unvotes: Mastin.

Mastin Votes: Ivan,
Mastin FoS's: Chief

.

Anyway, to answer these points:

are you worried that people might draw meaning from your "random" vote? Are you voting for yourself so that you don't give away connections between yourself and your scum partner from the get go?

Both the roll, and the result, are means of generating discussion. Had Ivan and Chief not done something incredibly scummy so early on, I believe most of the attention would've briefly fell onto me, and from those reactions, I'd be able to deduce who reacted like scum would react.