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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Shteven
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Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Shteven »

As it would appear a goal is to put things on these here boards, I was wondering if people would be interested in playing a game of Mafia. First, some logistics:

Mafia can be played in person, in chat rooms, or forums. I'm most familiar with forums, and I think they are well suited for the game. It does require a fairly large number of people - at least 8 but I'd prefer to have 13. Consider this an interest thread - just say if you think it sounds good. Honestly I'm a bit skeptical about getting enough players, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Also, you have to remain active - the main portion of the game is a group discussion and you won't be able to finish the game if 3-4 players go missing. Players can be replaced, but you need people willing to replace. Games can go for a few months, depending on how long it takes the town to reach agreement, more below.

So what's the game? Basically there are two teams: the "town" and the mafia. In a game of 12 players, you'll usually see a 9 townspeople vs 3 mafia setup. The mafia know who each other are, the town does NOT know who the other players are. They only know who they are. The game has 2 phases: night and day. During the day, all players (mafia included) discuss and vote for someone they think is a member of the mafia, and can lynch (kill) one person that day. Then night falls, and the mafia select someone to kill at night. The game continues until there's only one side left. Everyone on that team wins, regardless of if they are alive at the end or not. As you may guess, surviving to the end is not typical - many games will only have one or two players alive.

Power roles can be added to the town, such as a doctor who can protect one person at night, or a cop who can investigate someone at night and find out if they are guilty (a member of the mafia) or innocent. Of course, anything he says the next day depends on the rest of the players believing him - the mafia could be making it all up.

For much more detail, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_%28game%29

It is fairly trivial to 'theme' a game of mafia. Your roles would be various ES characters. This doesn't have a huge impact on the game, but it will come up. When you're about to lynch someone, players generally make a claim of who they are, ie "I'm Meji, a simple townie with no powers"...if someone claims this and your own role PM said you were Meji, you know you have a liar on your part. But it's not exactly a roleplaying game.

Questions? Interest?
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Imp-Chan
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Imp-Chan »

Hmmm... this sounds interesting. I'm in if others are, I've never actually played this except in person though, so I'm a bit confused as to the internet logistics of it.

Oh, if only it were possible to teach you people to play Wink...

Incidentally, I've actually played it with some of the people referenced here. The big guy in the middle of the top picture is also a Poe fan, his name is Seth.

^-^'
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BloodHenge
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by BloodHenge »

It sounds like fun. I'll be out of town with unsure access to the internet for a few days, though, so I can't participate immediately..
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zanntos
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by zanntos »

Haven't played on the net before, however i do enjoy me a good game of rampant accusation and deceit.
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DarkIntruder
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by DarkIntruder »

I'm potentially interested, but it depends on how much time I have to spend on the computer.

I'm usually on from about 9:30 (forum time) to 5:30 while I'm at work, but usually not on in the evenings, since my home computer isn't technically mine. I'm on a bit, but usually not after 9:00. (forum time.)
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Vavrek
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Vavrek »

I'm reasonably interested, but very busy for the next week or so. If this actually comes together, but not for about a week and a half or something, then I'd likely want and be able to be a part of it.
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Shteven
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Shteven »

Glad to see some interest. A few things on starting/time commitment, as people have mentioned it: The speed of the game depends largely on the players. I usually play on a site called mafiascum.net, which is basically just a large forum for playing the game. With a somewhat small but still useful wiki for answering basic questions. I've heard on other sites like something awful that their mafia games are usually very fast, but mafiascum games in the 7-12 player range probably take around 2 months. As for how long you'd have to play, I'd estimate around 30minutes to 1 hour about 2 to 3 times a week. Basically it means reading what others have posted to the game, adding your accusations/investigations, and repeating in another 2-3 days.

The next step would be for me to start an official sign ups, have people /join, and then I'll send out roles. I could probably do that in this thread itself so as to not clutter the forum too much, and start a new thread when the actual game starts. After I send out roles, I'd wait another 2-3 days for everyone to confirm their PM's, then open the thread for day 1. So if you're not available for another 1-2 weeks, you won't have missed anything. If sometime, say a month from now, you go on a vacation, just post you'll be away. We'll understand - the game can take absences pretty well, as long as most players are still playing. The hard part is when a game slows down and the overall players stop posting.

Some additional details: I would be the moderator for the game, so I wouldn't actually be playing in the game. This does have the benefit of being able to answer your questions, so long as your question isn't "who are the mafia?" ;)

A 7 player game would have a setup of 2 scum vs 5 town - with some power roles. They are also testing a 9 player format still with 2 scum, as veteran players have noticed the scum tend to win games with only 7 players more often than the town does. The next common format is 12 players, with 3 scum. Tweaking the balance by having various amounts of cops, doctors, or other town roles takes some practice, but we should be fine.

Forum admins: Is it possible to lock/unlock a thread easily? If not, we can just post reminders "no discussion until the next day starts" but a lock protects people who might forget. Town players can't talk during the night phase, when the mafia is choosing who to kill.
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Stick & String
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Stick & String »

It does sound interesting. I would be worried about getting it started and then not being able to respond for a bit and screwing things up (have a major surgery upcoming and will be out of it for more than just a day or two). Have it so it can be suspended for a few days (or week, wahtever) for anyone having life kick them?
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Viking-Sensei
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Viking-Sensei »

I'll tell you what... the Game forum gets a fair amount of traffic anyway, so I'll float the idea of elevating Shteven to forum-specific Moderator. That way, you should be able to lock/unlock forums as need be to facilitate the smooth playing of the game.

My suggestion would be that we all designate a period of time each week that the game is in "active" phase... maybe timed with the normal Errant Story updates, so as to maximize the number of people here and checking in.

Also, in case I didn't say, I am also interested in playing.
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Shteven
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Re: Errant Story Mafia!

Post by Shteven »

Alright I'll take specific signups here, then. Need a minimum of 7 players, although it can be expanded up to 12 pretty easily. The game really has no upper limit, I've been in games of 30 people, but it gets a bit...overwhelming. To join, type /join, /in, or /stoptellingmeexactlywhattotypeIjustwanttoplay. This process may take a few days, a week, or two...Please be patient. Once we get 7-9ish, I'll post a link in this thread to the game thread, which you can probably also just find by it being here in this forum. You'll also get a PM with your role. Make sure you are aware of the forum's private messages - I had to go take a look myself, they are under your User Control Panel. That lovely little (0 new messages) part. If you prefer I send an email, you can post that here (be wary of spam) but otherwise I'll assume PM.

Edit: This post will be updated with the player list. For convience, I figure I won't require people who were clear in their above posts to sign up again.

Moderator: Shteven

Players:

1. Imp-Chan
2. Viking-Sensei
3. zanntos
4. BloodHenge
5. Vavrek
6. Sareth
7. DarkIntruder
8. Tiamat

We now technically have a enough to start a game. I'll wait a few more days to see if we can get 9 though, because I think it's more fair.
Last edited by Shteven on March 13th, 2008, 10:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
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