Short Stories Mafia Post Mortem

[Alicorn]

Well, that was anticlimactic.

Here is the short story of short stories mafia.

Cast of Characters, Winning Players Bolded:

Player Name | Character Name | Safeclaim

anthusiasm | Helen Swansea
BlueSkySprite | Unnael
DanielH | Klaon | Ens
epsilonbeta | Millicent
Eva | Death | Harriet
HybridZizi | Holly/Crystal
jalapeno_dude | Visitor
modrony | Sharpe | Mel
MTC | Queen | Key
Paradox | Davina | NONE
PDV | Ananda
pistachi0n | Lyle
Shoal | Nuan
Tamien | David Altman
Yadal | Immortal | Bree

We may have overcompensated for the scary effectiveness of last game's mafia. This mafia knew one another's identities, but couldn't talk to each other - it was just Davina (who had no safeclaim given for flavor reasons) and her pet monsters. The monsters were each allowed to submit a list of names each night and would collectively eat anyone they agreed on, and if they could come to no agreement Davina would perform a single kill herself. At least that's how it would have worked if the klaon hadn't got sniped by the vigilante (Helen Swansea) on night one. They had no other special powers except that if the vigilante had had the courtesy to shoot at the death instead the death would have reproduced due to Helen's raygun not being a deathsbane sword.

Town powers included,in addition to the vigilante: Unnael the Recordkeeper receiving copies of investigative reports. Millicent Murk, Tracker. Holly and Crystal - switch no more than once a day and no less often than once every three, with each person entitled to a vote and Holly (when active at night) capable of doctoring targets. Visitor - namecop. Sharpe - could place name and numerical vote in different places if desired, and also increase any vote count by 25% (neither power saw use). Lyle - could cast two votes and have the vote automatically go to whichever of the voted was scummier (independent over a townie, scum over an independent or a townie, in case of a tie more recent vote took precedence). Nuan could turn into Mei, but didn't know what that would do, and didn't happen to try it. David Altman - cop.

Independents: the Queen needed to survive and determine the role name of another player. ("Death", "klaon", "Visitor", and "immortal" do not constitute names.) The immortal needed to survive (qua immortal, not qua player) to the end. And Ananda was Patient Zero of the Muse pathogen, which didn't manage to infect a single other person. (The first person each day to vote for an infected would have a 50% chance of catching it, and then would be randomly assigned a wincon requiring that either player names with odd numbers of characters or ones with even numbers must outweigh even/odd respectively at the end of the game. Patient Zero automatically got the nonsuicidal version but this would not have been guaranteed for others.)

Day One you lynched jalapeno_dude (Visitor). At night, Millicent followed Shoal, who went nowhere, David investigated PDV, an independent, and Holly doctored pistachi0n. The klaon wanted to eat Tamien, modrony, and epsilonbeta, and the death wanted to eat pistachi0n and Shoal. In the absence of agreement, Davina killed modrony (Sharpe). Helen shot DanielH (klaon).

Day Two you lynched Yadal (the immortal). At night, Millicent followed pistachi0n, who went nowhere, David investigated Paradox, a mafioso, and Holly doctored pistachi0n. Absent a klaon, Davina did the killing herself, but bounced off pistachi0n because of Holly. Helen shot MTC (the Queen).

Day Three you lynched Paradox (Davina). At night, Millicent followed Eva, who ate pistachi0n, David investigated herself (Tamien) to pass the information securely to BlueSkySprite (Unnael), and Holly was not out because she'd had to switch to Crystal during the day. Helen attempted to shoot HybridZizi but failed due to technical difficulties.

Day Four you lynched Eva, and that was that.

WE HAD NOT LEARNED ENOUGH VALUABLE DESIGN LESSONS, APPARENTLY.

[pistachi0n]

What would have happened if Nuan had turned to Mei?

[pistachi0n]

What were the technical difficulties that made Helen not be able to shoot Hybridzizi?

[Alicorn]

We were going to randomly determine whether Shoal would survive the process, but either way they and Unnael would have gotten a small data dump about the game structure (e.g. "there are a total of three mafia").

I didn't get the IM because anthusiasm had some kind of connection difficulty.

[epsilonbeta]

So of the three survivors, the only actively scummy wincon was PDV's "The cop, halfcop, vigilante, and doctor might need to die eventually", which wouldn't have kicked in until game!tomorrow. Who is the only one we left alive; and lynching him would /still/ have been a bad idea, because transmission and e.g. the vigilante had been trying to kill the doc anyway.

This of course does not apply to future games, where I expect VALUABLE LESSONS will be unlearned back in the direction of general scumminess :P

[Alicorn]

PDV wasn't a survivor and didn't have to live to win.

[epsilonbeta]

we left alive the only nonsurvivior* and passively scummy independent :D

[jalapeno_dude]

So that was fun to watch. I felt very smug that my suspicion of DanielH turned out to be correct... :p

[jalapeno_dude]

Oh, and: Shoal, why did you switch from reading DanielH as scum to reading me as scum? At the time you declared me as scum I had made five posts in thread, and even in retrospect I'm having trouble determining what in them made me so suspicious, especially given that you seemed to share my suspicions of DanielH initially. I do think I understand why people ended up lynching me given my posts after that (though I think I still stand by my argument for No Lynch even in retrospect), but not that initial accusation...

[anthusiasm]

That was a fun one to join halfway!

I am extremely relieved that I did not actually have to kill someone, because I was really making all the wrong calls.