Errant Story Mafia!

Home of Viking's Infamous "Three Things" Challenge and some other games likely to make the baby Lord Naughtius cry.
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zanntos
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by zanntos »

yar, i'll /join a i like some activity in my game lair.
BloodHenge
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by BloodHenge »

I'll /join up, so go ahead and move me from the Possible list to the Definite list.
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Vavrek
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Vavrek »

/stoptellingmeexactlywhattotypeIjustwanttoplay

Judging by the "I'd estimate around 30minutes to 1 hour about 2 to 3 times a week", I'll be plenty able to participate. The main Hump I had to deal with is past (and less intense than originally anticipated). So... I guess I have two duties now, then? Wait around for further updates and draw Sareth into the game. Right. I'll get onto that soon.
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Sareth
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Sareth »

Wait, what? Why am I dangling upside down from a rope with a sign in front of me stating "Join The Mafia?"

Alright, sign me up. I read the Wiki page on it. I'm still confused about the Errant Story elements of it. Give me an example of how that would play in. Let's say I'm assigned the role of Ellis. What does that mean?
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Viking-Sensei
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Yes, now that we're actually building a Mafia strike force, I think it's time for some more rules... maybe a practical play example with 1-2 other people so we can see what all is involved.

Also, maybe we should have a Mafia user class too - it wouldn't trump the Monk/Lab Assistant classes unless people wanted to, but it might be nice to set up a user group for it. That way, we could use the Group PM function (assuming I can find where to turn it on) for mass announcements like "We're starting again", etc.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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DarkIntruder
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by DarkIntruder »

All right, I'll jump on the band wagon.

Beats waiting for viking to announce the results for the last "three things" game. ;)
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zanntos
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by zanntos »

hehe, indeed, still waiting on my "dear gods, could you have posted MORE" on that one :p
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Shteven
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Shteven »

Being assigned Ellis isn't that critical to the game. That's why the game themes well, it's mostly just for flavor. Ellis doesn't have any grand powers in Errant story, so he'd most likely be a townie. Where it could come up is if you are under heavy suspicion, it is common to claim. This is usually a last resort move, as you're also exposing who you are to the mafia at the same as your fellow town. In the case of a townie, probably not that big of a deal. But if you're the cop, revealing yourself would probably get you killed that night, which is a significant loss to the town.

If someone claimed the role of Anita, would you trust that she was on your side? This is one of the dangers of making it a theme game - if I follow errant story too obviously, Anita would be a very unsafe role to claim. There are two options here:

1) Don't give someone the role of anita.
2) The player who gets the role of anita (presumably mafia) has to lie. Claim to be....Bani. She's fairly well known, but not too major. She's certainly innocent sounding, and there's a decent chance that no one else has her role. You don't want to run the risk that someone else really is Bani, who will then counter your claim and cause problems.

As for what roles I'll actually be drawing, I have a long list at the moment. When it comes time, I head over to random.org and punch in some numbers, and players get the 12th character on the list, so on and so forth. So some of the major characters will be represented, but perhaps not all. This is so that you can't just start day 1 with "Well everyone should claim and we'll just kill the two who are the most evil in the comic."

Mass claims can still be useful - it's just up to me to ensure they won't completely ruin the chances the mafia have to win. 7 player games tend to favor the mafia, unless the power roles are used effectively. More on this below.
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Shteven
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Shteven »

I started thinking while editing the list and making my previous post, I've been talking about "the cop" or "mafia roleblockers" and probably never gave a good explanation of exactly how that works. Keep in mind that these roles aren't guaranteed, it depends on the size of the game. I will tell you more about the setup when I know if we're running with 7 or if I can get 9.

Smaller games typically start during the day phase. Game opens, everyone's alive, start talking. You have a vote, which must be bolded (because most mods are lazy) Vote: Shteven. Eventually, someone will reach a strict majority (4 votes in a game of 7, 5 votes in a game of 9) and be lynched. Night falls.

The Cop. You're allowed to investigate one player. If that person is scum, you'll be told they are guilty, if they are a part of the town, you will be told they are innocent. It's up to you to convince the rest of the town. As long as you're the only one claiming to be the cop, you have a fairly decent chance. When someone counter claims you, things get messy.

The Doctor. You submit the name of someone to watch during the night. If that person is attacked, you will prevent their death.

The Vigilante. You can take matters into your own hand - Target a player at night and they'll be dead come morning. They win with the town. This role has a somewhat unique ability to harm the town if used inappropriately. You are allowed to choose not to kill.

Roleblocker. You have the powers of nothing! Fortunately, this power spreads, so target someone at night and they'll do nothing. This can prevent anything - kills, protections, or cop investigations. You may choose to not use it.

Examples:

Player C is the cop.
Player D is the doctor.
Player V is the vigilante.
Player M is mafia.
Player T is a townie.

C targets V. V targets T. M targets C. D targets C.

The cop gets an innocent result back, the townie is killed, and the mafia's kill is blocked by the doctor. The morning will find one body, who most people would assume was the mafia's kill, but in this case was really killed by a vig. In a small game of 7 or 9 players, vigs are uncommon. Two kills on most nights would make the game very short.

Edit:
A word about specialized knowledge here: Now 4 roles have information which is not public, assuming there's 2 mafia alive. The cop is the obvious one. The vig knows he was the one who killed, and the mafia know their kill failed. The mafia are the only ones who know that the doctor was successful, and so only they and the doctor know a doctor is in the game (if it was not explicitly listed by the mod).

Also, An example setup for 9 players looks something like this:

Roll a number from 1 to 4. Thanks random.org:

1) 1 mafia goon, 1 mafia roleblocker. 1 cop, 1 doctor, 5 townies.
2) 1 mafia goon, 1 mafia roleblocker. 7 townies.
3) 2 mafia goons, 1 cop, 6 townies.
4) 2 mafia goons, 1 doctor, 6 townies.

This is a relatively new setup that they are testing because the classic 7 man games had some problems with cops being extremely powerful. The setup had a cop and a doctor all the time, so the cop could claim on day 1 and have the doctor protect him. The mafia can't kill the cop until they find the doctor, and the cop's results narrowed the field a great deal.
Last edited by Shteven on March 10th, 2008, 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sareth
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Sareth »

Okay. That helps quite a bit. Thank you.
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