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[INNOCENTS WIN] Grand Opening Fanfic Mafia - Game Thread

Virgil134

PMD Writer
Partners
  1. sylveon
  2. weavile
  3. kommo-o
  4. noivern
  5. mothim
"Though if Dave is the final Mafia member... what do we do next?" Cabot asked. "How do we get everyone back who disappeared?"
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
"I'll protect Cabot."
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
“Loki—Cabot isn’t someone to protect,” Hecto said with a confused noise. “...Ah... unless you expect to be swapped? Hm...”
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
"Oh, er, then I'll just do Starr again."
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
At last it seems that people are able to speak openly about the powers that they've gained, and slowly, as the day wears on, something like a coherent picture begins to emerge. Each revelation seems to bring something strange with it: two healers? And a double healing that should have been a kill? Legends granted insight, or perhaps blinded by their own naivety? Powers that only even work half the time?

One of these seems different from the others, and as the conversation shifts, Dave finally can't take it any longer. After a raging fit where he calls his own guardian to task, Dave falls comatose, and the rest of the group exchanges uneasy looks. Well, after that outburst, there can't be much question, can there? Once again it's Loki who commands the unsubstance of the confluence, drawing Dave, still unconscious, below its surface. He won't be able to threaten anyone here again.

Dave (Dragonfree) has been eliminated. He was Mafia.

All non-Innocent players have been eliminated. Innocents win!


"Eh? Is that it?" Loki asks, jabbing at the featureless ground with the end of their staff.

"Did we win?" Cabot asks. He looks around at the group, receiving only shrugs or confused looks in response. "We got all of them, didn't we?" the cranidos says, looking down at his claws and twiddling them restlessly.

"I reckon so," Repeat says, but beside him, Melanie's frowning.

"And what did I say?" she says, sweeping her arm to take in the blank and empty plane. "Nothing's changed. Look. We won? What did we win, exactly? We're still trapped here."

Hecto's head is cocked, and he appears to be listening. "I can't hear them anymore," he murmurs. "My guardian spirit... I think he's gone."

Starr scoffs. "Good riddance. I don't need some bossy spirit thing interrupting me all the time." She eyes the spot where Dave disappeared. "Still can't believe it was that guy disappearing people all the time. Surprised he had the balls."

"Yeah. Maybe what we do now is go after those guys," Loki says with a grin. "Sounds like a good plan to me! Who's up for some revenge?"

"Well, it's got to be something," Melanie says. "We can't exactly stay here, can we?"

Lachlan, who'd removed his cap and bubble pipe, sighs and sets them back in place. "Then I suppose it's time for another investigation..."

The hour is late, and clues are scarce--though the scribbled records of Dave's experiments with his newfound people-vanishing powers are interesting, in a disturbing way, if not precisely illuminating. In the end, there seems to be little to do but go to sleep and hope for more insight in the morning.

--​

When they woke, they had all returned home. What powers they'd gained were gone, and though week on anxious week passed, no more would disappear from their worlds. Whatever the threat had been, it finally had ceased. They had won.

But what had happened? Where had that strange ability to disappear people come from, and what had it loose in their stories? What had whisked them away to the interdimensional confluence? And what, if anything, could be done to restore their homes to what they once had been? For though no new disappearances occurred, neither had any of those lost returned home...
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Good game, everyone, and congratulations to the Innocent faction! I... have never actually seen a game go through with zero mislynches before. Impressive play on the part of the Innocents! Special shout-out to NonAnalogue for correctly guessing both initial Mafia players in the first two days of the game and to Chibi Pika for accidentally guessing the full Mafia team shortly thereafter. I laughed a lot. Props to the Mafia players as well, for enduring bad luck from the start and producing some of the best RP posts in the game. Great job to everyone on the IC front--I love where you all chose to take the story and the flavor of the game.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed playing. I'll probably look to run a game about once a year, but if you're interested, please feel to start up your own mafia game whenever! Doesn't need to be fanfic or pokémon-themed. Full role PMs and the night action log are below. I've included links to the fanfics the player characters appear in as well, in case you'd like to read more about them or are just curious where they came from. Enjoy, and thanks for playing!

DeliriousAbsol - Infinite from The Mainframe Saga
Ability: Ruby Daze

Truth be told, the mafia's aims hold some appeal to you--they stand for desolation, for the end not just of one world, but all of them. Perhaps you don't really want that anymore, though. Perhaps you'd like to move on... or at least, see to it that things end on your own terms. You may not be able to cast an illusion large enough to snare all of the mafia, but you can confuse them well enough to make their attacks go awry, and for now, that will have to be good enough.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose to distort reality for two other players of your choice. If you do, any other night actions that would have targeted the first player target the second player instead, and vice versa.

NebulaDreams - Ess from Black Paint
Ability: Vigilante Justice

There was no question you'd oppose the mafia--they're a gang like any of the others you've had to deal with, big ambitions or no. You and The Griefers will do whatever it takes to defend your reality, and if that means working outside the law, well, it's not like you have a lot of respect for laws anyway. If there's someone you think is shady, you and your gang might just pay them a visit--nothing violent, now, just keep an eye on them. Make sure they aren't getting in contact with anybody during the night. For their own protection, am I right?

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to "protect." If you choose to do so, any night action that player attempts will fail, and any night actions taken targeting that player will also fail.

Dragonfree - Dave from Morphic
Ability: Complete Dissolution

Where these fucking reality-wipe powers came from, you can't exactly be sure. There's been enough weird bullshit in your life lately that you pretty much have to take it as it comes at this point. At least nobody sent you a fucking creepy fruit basket this time. Yeah, the duck is fucking creepy, and the fact that it can talk and also erase people from existence is even creepier, but its monologue about perfect freedom through annihilation actually made a weird kind of sense. Which is probably a sign that you're finally losing it for real, that or the fact that you're apparently going around erasing people now, too. But if that's the only way to get back to reality and not whatever bullshit hallucination this is, with its talking ducks and Mias who definitely aren't actually Mia, then what else are you going to do? It's not as though any of this is actually real anyhow.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your superior is Psyduck (The Walrein). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread. Once per night, you may choose one other player to eliminate. Although any Mafia member may send an elimination order, Psyduck, as leader of the Mafia, can override any contradictory elimination orders.

On night zero and night zero only, instead of choosing a player to eliminate, you must choose a player to recruit instead. If that player survives, at the end of night two they will lose their assigned role and ability(s), if any, and become aligned with the Mafia. From this point forward you will be able to communicate with them outside of the game thread.

If the recruitment action fails on night zero for any reason, you will be informed and given the opportunity to try again on subsequent nights, in addition to your ordinary nightkill power, until the recruitment is successful.


Namohysip - Hecto from Hands of Creation
Ability: Surveillance Network

All this fuss and all this pointless activity, when after all it would be trivial to determine who the mafia were if people calmed down and simply watched. Your network of cells gives you unmatched powers of observation, and if it takes a bit of time to gather the information you need, what of it? No mafia can hope to hide themselves from your sight.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to inspect. At the end of the night you will receive a PM disclosing that player's alignment.

Virgil134 - Cabot from Casting Off
Ability: Boundless Determination!

You're hard-headed even for a cranidos, determined to achieve your goals whatever life throws your way. Evil won't prevail--evil will never prevail--if you have anything to say about it! Those mafia goons have another thing coming if they think they can simply make you disappear.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per game, if you would be eliminated during the night, you will survive instead. You will be informed when this ability has been activated, but not why or by whom.

Umbramatic - Loki from The Yangverse
Ability: Divine Intervention

Trouble in the moral realms again--will those humans ever stop causing problems? Like they get any say in who should live or die. That's your job! And if they think they can stand against a god like you, they're in for a rude surprise. Just let them try to erase someone on your watch. It'll honestly be amusing, watching their pathetic struggles against the powers of a god!

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to protect. If that player would be eliminated by a Mafia attack, their disappearance will be prevented.

Sike Saner - Karo from The Origin of Storms
Ability: The Nose Knows

A nosepass' proudest feature is, of course, his schnoz, and yours is a particularly fine specimen! It's useful for sniffing out more than belue berries, too--this nose can detect the festering scent of deceit. Or, well, at least it can give you an idea of where a suspicious person went during the night. And that's much better than nothing, isn't it?

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to track. At the end of that night you will receive a PM detailing which players, if any, your target used an ability on during that night phase.

The Walrein - Psyduck from Even in Arcadia
Ability: Nihilist's Conceit

It's true, you have no care for how those vapid simpletons lead out their insignificant lives. What would be the point in killing them? How could they even properly appreciate what they'd lost, their so blithely unexamined lives? They've never learned what it means to suffer, even in this, their final and most painless erasure.

While you can't say you're not grateful that your psychic abilities have improved, the ability to totally dematerialize other people was certainly not what you were expecting, and neither is the weird compulsion you feel to keep using it. Of course, if this power were to come to anyone, surely it would have to be one so enlightened as you, someone far more deserving than any of those other fools. It's not precisely that the worlds would be better without them in it, but, somehow, when you wipe them out... the headache feels a little weaker, if only for a short time.

You are aligned with the Mafia and win when Mafia-aligned players make up the majority of remaining players. Your subordinate is Dave Ambrose (Dragonfree). You may communicate freely with other Mafia-aligned players outside the game thread. Once per night, you may choose one other player to eliminate. Although any Mafia member may send an elimination order, as leader of the Mafia, your word overrides any contradictory elimination orders.

On night zero and night zero only, instead of choosing a player to eliminate, you must choose a player to recruit instead. If that player survives, at the end of night two they will lose their assigned role and ability(s), if any, and become aligned with the Mafia. From this point forward you will be able to communicate with them outside of the game thread.

If the recruitment action fails on night zero for any reason, you will be informed and given the opportunity to try again on subsequent nights, in addition to your ordinary nightkill power, until the recruitment is successful.


Chibi Pika - Starr from The Legendarian Chronicles
Ability: Informant Network

You may have left the Team Rocket life behind, but that doesn't mean you don't still have certain... resources at your disposal. After all, you've still got friends (or not-friends--LEXX) on the inside, and any Rocket commander worth her salt needs to know where to dig up the information she wants. And if people are disappearing, you need to be using everything you have at your disposal to stop that, whether or not it might mean "falling back into old habits," right? There are people who need watching, and all it'll take is calling in a few favors to make sure they're watched.

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night, you may choose a player (including yourself) to put under surveillance. At the end of the night you will receive a PM detailing which players, if any, targeted your chosen individual during that night phase.

qva - Lachlan from Mongrels in Castelia
Ability: First Aid

Well, what you're especially talented at is pokémon physiology, not human. But there's a bit of overlap there, and growing up on a farm, you have experience dealing with injuries to humans and pokémon alike. It may not be much, but if that's what it takes you're more than ready to put a stop to the mafia through the power of... basic first aid?

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose another player to heal. If that player would be eliminated by a Mafia attack, they will survive instead.

NonAnalogue - Melanie and Repeat from Mew-child
Ability: Body Double

Having a ditto companion is handy in more ways than one. If there's some Mafia creep after you, for example, he can pretend to be you, lead them astray, and then transform into a pidgey and fly back safe. You don't want to use Repeat's powers just to benefit yourself, though: he can emulate anyone, after all, and confuse the heck out of the Mafia, regardless of who they want to target. If you're lucky, you might even be able to get them to stab one of their own goons in the back...

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. Once per night you may choose to misdirect two other players of your choice. If you do, any other night actions that would have targeted the first player target the second player instead, and vice versa.

M&F - Mia from Morphic
Ability: Moral Relativity

Killing people is bad. Dave's explained this to you many times--after all, you don't want to go to jail, do you? Murderers go to jail.

It's different when other people are trying to kill you, though. Then it's self-defense. And if you don't know who it is that's trying to kill you... then the only way to be sure you're safe is to get rid of all of them, isn't it?

You are aligned with the Innocents and win when all non-Innocent players are jailed. However, once per game, if you would be eliminated during the night, you will instead survive. Your win condition will change. You will win only if there is at most one other player remaining. In addition, if you are no longer Innocent-aligned, you MUST, once per night, choose another player to attempt to eliminate from the game. If you fail to do so, you will be modkilled.

While you are aligned with the Innocents, you will inspect as Innocent. If you become aligned with the Mafia, you will lose all unique aspects of this role and inspect as Mafia. Otherwise, you will inspect as being neither Innocent nor Mafia.


-- NIGHT ZERO --

Chibi Pika watches themself!
NonAnalogue swaps Chibi Pika and The Walrein!
qva protects Umbramatic! (oops doctors literally do nothing N0)
Sike Saner does not take a night action.
Namohysip inspects NebulaDreams! (response: Innocent)
The Walrein recruits M&F!

-- NIGHT ONE --

NonAnalogue swaps Dragonfree and Virgil134!
DeliriousAbsol swaps Dragonfree and The Walrein!
Umbramatic protects Sike Saner!
Sike Saner tracks DeliriousAbsol!
Chibi Pika watches Namohysip!
Namohysip inspects Sike Saner! (response: Innocent)
The Walrein eliminates DeliriousAbsol!

-- NIGHT TWO --

NonAnalogue swaps Namohysip and Chibi Pika!
Chibi Pika watches Sike Saner!
Sike Saner tracks M&F!
Namohysip inspects M&F! (response: Innocent, lol)
qva protects Chibi Pika!
Umbramatic protects Chibi Pika! (good thing we aren't playing with overdoses!)
Dragonfree eliminates Sike Saner!
M&F becomes Mafia!

-- NIGHT THREE --

NonAnalogue swaps Dragonfree and Chibi Pika!
Umbramatic protects Dragonfree!
qva protects Chibi Pika!
Chibi Pika watches themself!
Namohysip inspects Umbramatic! (response: Innocent)
Dragonfree eliminates NebulaDreams!
 
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The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
Congratulations to the town team on their big win, and thanks to Negrek for doing all the work of hosting this! And also thanks to Dragonfree! I thought you played really well the whole game, and I don't think I could've asked for a better partner.

Also, I just wanted to make sure there are no hard feelings between me and Namohysip. If you want an explanation for accusing you on day one, well... okay, this is going to sound really stupid now, but I kind of panicked when two people voted for Dave at the beginning of the game. The obvious (and in retrospect, correct) thing to do should've been to just vote no jail, but I thought that there was a real possibility that most everyone else was going to continue to do what they had done previously in the game, that is, not vote, and so that if I voted to not jail anyone, if just one other person voted Dave, there'd be a 3-3 tie (assuming Dave voted no jail) and thus a 50/50 chance that Dave would get eliminated, and then if he did get jailed, I'd look really suspicious for being the last person to vote no jail, and so I'd get jailed on day two, and that'd be game over right there!

So, figuring that this was the sort of game that would be difficult to win without taking risks, I decided I had to try and divert people's attention to someone else instead. I guess the idea that, actually, unlike in most games of Mafia, we had some information on their make-up before anyone even posted (namely, that we know that one of them would be someone whom the Mafia wanted to recruit) seemed more clever to me than everyone else. I got the 'one third are probably Mafia' thing from the Wikipedia article, which states that "the original Davidoff rules suggest a third of the players (rounding to the nearest whole number) be mafiosi". Namohysip was chosen to take the fall because they did seem like a plausible recruitment candidate, and I wanted to get into people's heads that the Mafia would've chosen their recruit based on popularity rather than experience (which, given the relaxed attitude everyone seemed to be taking towards the game at that point, seemed like it might've been plausible).

I did feel genuinely guilty after making that post, which I probably should've taken as a sign that this wasn't the right type of game for me.

One suggestion I have to improve the game next year is that I feel it was a little unfair that Team Mafia was never told that one specific member of us was doing the vanishing each night. I guess my 'leader of the Mafia' role hinted at that, but I honestly thought that was just a mechanism to resolve potential ties in who we voted for each night. I admit I'm no expert at this - this being the first Mafia game I ever played in - but isn't the standard practice to tell the Mafia that they need to choose one particular member to send out each night when the mechanics of the game make that a meaningful choice?
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Ah, so you thought it would be like a vote thing, where each Mafia player would pick a target and then the one with the most Mafia votes being the one eliminated? Sorry about that, I hadn't considered that interpretation of the rules and hadn't thought to clarify. I'll try to make things easier for new players next time around; really, I should probably have put together or at least linked to a rules document rather than trying to run with more minimal explanation. I wanted something that would be easy to jump into and not require a lot of reading for this first event, but it definitely caused some confusion.
 

Namohysip

Dragon Enthusiast
Staff
Partners
  1. flygon
  2. charizard
  3. milotic
  4. zoroark-soda
  5. sceptile
  6. marowak
  7. jirachi
I definitely agree that we spent an excessive amount of time discussing what the rules and mechanics might have been, rather than what everyone actually did. That was a huge disadvantage to the innocents COUGH if we actually didn’t reason it out anyway COUGH from my perspective, but I feel like that isn’t necessarily what we should be focused on for the game~

And no hard feelings at all, Walrein. I took it as a compliment that my many-moving-parts plot and relative well-known status would put a target on my back. I’m used to my work being memed on and welcome it.

A huge amount of my judgement calls went into trying to figure out how the game worked, and not how the players thought, and I think that could be improved upon next time.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
I just enjoyed playing Loki as their usual conniving untrustworthy self when they were both one of the good guys and a Doctor to boot.
 
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