Fall 2020 Mafia - Game Thread

[Starlight Aurate]

Fall 2020 Fanfic Mafia

Player List

windskull (Shimmer)
DawningWinds (Iona)
Persephone (Kekoa)
Equitia (Ashwood)
Fusion (Koraza)
Waffle (Luna)
DeliriousAbsol (Enigma)
Tanuki (Desper)
Shiny Phantump (Salac)
SparklingEspeon (Detective Looker)

​

Shadows flit back and forth over the dark, gloomy landscape. The sky is a sort of purple that deepens into black as it approaches the horizon. Lifeless trees with thorns and brambles dot the landscape. All about, wispy ghosts and translucent spectres groan as they fly across the area. There’s a series of tombstones leading up to an abandoned-looking house in the distance.

People and Pokemon alike blink their eyes as they glance around in confusion. How did they get here? Pokemon unfamiliar with people looked at them in fascination while the people returned with their own quizzical stares.

Before anyone said a word, they heard raspy laughter echo from around them, and a lanky teenage boy materializes before them. A small smile plays under his large, slanted eyes.

“Welcome, all of you,” he says in a gravelly voice. “I take it that this is everyone’s first trip here—lovely place, isn’t it?” he says nonchalantly as a moaning spirit flits by him. “You see spirits and ghosts around you everywhere. And you should know that these spirits aren’t particularly friendly; nor are they happy with themselves. A number of your company are already infected by these beings.

“Unfortunately for you, the possessed will violently take out the anger that has festered in them by killing those around them. There is good news in all of this, though! The spirits will only possess living creatures, and once they are gone, they are gone for good. Once you take another’s life, the spirit will leave them.

“Good luck finding them and freeing your comrades!”

With a burst of maniacal laughter, the boy dissipates into the night. All the people and Pokemon stare at the spot where he left as each of them registered the enormity of the situation.


Night 0 has now begun. All role PM's have been sent--if you didn't receive one, please contact me immediately!

Night 0 will last for 48 hours (until 12:00 AM UTC Sunday, October 11th) or until all players with night actions have sent theirs in.

Good luck, everyone!

 

[Starlight Aurate]

All are left blinking in confusion as they look around the curious landscape. Iona has her eyes on the various Pokemon as she toys with the Pokeballs on her belt. Ashwood and Kora both glance around, unsure of what to think of the strange place. A few others, though, appear completely nonplussed: Desper, hardened by the experiences of living in the wild west, appears ready to take on anyone who even glances at him the wrong way. And Enigma spins and dances throughout the air as if it's an ordinary day.

"Spirits and darkness! This isn't unfamiliar to me at all--what's wrong with the lot of you? Afraid of the dark?" the Banette giggled.

"You seem oddly happy about all this," Detective Looker noted.

The Banette's cheerful smile vanished in an instant as he glared back at the human. "Are you suspecting me?"

"I'm just pointing out that no one seems as carefree about this as you do. This is a grave situation, after all."

"S'well, if tha t'ain't a HootHoot's call!" Desper slapped a knee and pointed to the cemetery. "I c'n unnastan' yer 'tempts to lighten th' mood o' this here grim 'n spooky hocus-pocus-witchy-watchy no-good place. But cannit, can ye' jus think o' th' li'l ones for minnit? Them's kids are gunna be seein' this here place behind closed eyes for rest o' their lives an' y'can' e'en spare 'em a mo', can ye?"

The rest of the troupe stared blankly at the Raichu.

"What?"

Night zero is over. No one was eliminated.

Day 1 has begun and will end in 48 hours (5 AM UTC/1 AM EST on October 12).

Also, just a couple of quick notes on gameplay if you haven't done a forum-based mafia before. By the end of the day there should be a vote for one player to be jailed (and thus removed from the game) at the end of the day. To indicate that you're voting for someone, please put their name in bold font. Votes will not count if they're not bolded. At the end of the day, if the vote is tied, then one of the players with the highest vote count will be eliminated at random.

Please do not edit your posts in this thread! If you need to correct something or follow up, simply double (or triple, whatever!) post.

 

[windskull]

Hi all! Quick note that it is late and I have work in the morning, so I'll join you all for day one discussions after work tomorrow. In... 16 or so hours. Have fun!

 

[Tanuki]

Desper took their glances like a hoss takes a saddle: no complaint. A paw pulled down his hat while th’other hover o’er his iron. “New range, same steed,” he declared. “I’on’know ‘bout y’all, but I been through this honky’s tonk afore, ‘n’ we ain’t got nothin’ to go on f’now. I say we cozy up with some’ne we feel comfy with’n wait until we decide to go hog wild’n toss accusations like a miltank steams pies.”

He had himself a right chuckle before splainin’ his point right ‘n’ simple. “Why’on’t we practice a lil bit o’ dee moe craisey with our s’picions. If y’got ‘em, vote ‘em. I got none, so I’m votin’ we skip rope f’now.”

 

[Fusion]

Kora had absolutely no idea what that oddly familiar Raichu with the cool hat was saying. "I like your funny words, zappy 'mon!" he snickered.

He was used to being transported to other places and playing games, but this place was surely a first for him. It's ooky spooky look was kinda homey for him. He fit right in with it's A e s t h e t i c. One of the only things he could pick up from Desper was the word, "vote," so he imagined they'd have to vote on something. "If we're casting a vote, can it be to get some food? Not because I'm hungry, but, you know, just in case?"

Something told him that food might not be the thing to vote for, so in order to not look like a fool, or himself, he quickly cleared his throat and added, "and well, just in case food isn't on the table, I'll just skip vote too then."

 

[Persephone]

Kekoa glances around at the assorted weirdos, talking cowboy raichu least weird among them. Spirits. He pivots on the banette.

“This isn’t how spirits work You’re just trying to talk us into killing each other for your own amusement. Nah, screw that. Screw you. Kill Chibi Pika.”

“Wait, what did I just say?”

 

[Shiny Phantump]

[I haven’t exactly gotten a handle on the whole strategy part of mafia yet. Fortunately, neither does Salac, so I can just write her in-character for now.]

What was this awful place? This was not what Salac had thought she was getting into.

She looked grim. “What have I gotten myself into...”

Whatever happened, she would follow the consensus. (Skip vote.)

 

[Equitial]

[[
Okay, so one moment Ashwood was eating ramen in their bedroom, the next they had been transported to this place -- there was an actual haunted house -- and there were... Pokemon. How? JWhat. Just what --

"The fuck?" Ashwood muttered as the Ghost-type Pokemon, Enigma, giggled and swooped past their face. They sought refuge with the other humans. They just couldn't process the actual Pokemon right now. "What the fuck?" they said again.

And that kid -- the white-haired skinny boy who poofed in to explain the apparent rules of this place and then poofed right back out -- he seemed familiar. At first Ashwood couldn't place him, then they remembered late nights in a front of a computer screen with their sister, giggling as she and they watched dubbed over anime on Youtube. Was... was that guy the British not-gay guy from Yugioh Abridged? (And possibly regular Yugioh -- Ashwood had never watched that.)

Desper, a Raichu who was also a cowboy okay, said something. Ashwood struggled to decipher it. Wait, were people already talking about killing someone off?

"Okay," Ashwood began, their voice atypically high-pitched, "so, fyi, for my sanity I'm just going to pretend that all y'all are hallucinations. I have no idea what the hell's happening, and this feels way too real to be a dream, but I'm going with I'm in a coma or something. No offense.

"But wait -- who said anything about voting anybody off in the first place? We can't just go and choose someone to kill off, right? No one's done anything yet! And, like, how would we even know who vote off? For all we know, we could choose a guy and they turn out to innocent with some super-cool ability or a way of getting us out of here. Why would we do that?"
]]

So, why would we vote someone off Day 1? Note about my playstyle for this game: my balance is about 70-30 for going by my own thoughts and reasoning and going by Ashwood's thoughts and reasoning. Ashwood and I have fairly different playstyles; in roleplay I'll let Ashwood do their thing, but I'll explain ooc to discuss where my opinions differ from theirs. For instance, here...

Should we vote someone off? I'm nowhere near as certain as Ashoowod. Ashwood explained why we wouldn't want to vote someone off today -- we don't have much to go on, and we could potentially take out someone with a useful role. However, the downsides to staying our hand is that we basically allow the Mafia a free move and we don't get information from our pick (for instance, if we choose an innocent and all the Mafia rush to lynch them, or if we choose a Mafia and the Mafia are all hesitant to vote).

Honestly, I'm not sure the best option. I think... if not for Ashwood... I would lean voting someone off??? Hmmmm. Well, I didn't bold Ashwood's decision because I'm undecided. Feel free to put in your arguments for or against.

Probably the best person to vote off Day 1 would be an inactive, though of course it's too early to tell now. (I highly encourage all players to eventually contribute to this game lest I begin to consider you suspicious/deadweight hint hint.) Otherwise I guess the only strategy as of who to vote who be someone random. Which -- I realize that right now I'm the only person I 100% know is innocent. Okay, so I don't want a Mafia to pick our target so I'll go ahead. I choose (draws name from hat) Enigma/Del!!!

So, right now my own opinions are (from greatest to least) --
1 - Vote off an inactive toward the end of the phase
2 - Vote off Del/Enigma
3 - Vote off nobody
-- unless someone demonstrates themselves to be very sus, of course.

So, I think general discussion is overall very good for the innocents! I'd like to know all your thoughts! I'm not voting anybody yet because of Ashwood, but if I weren't accounting for them I'd probably just go Del while clarifying I'm very willing to change my vote at any point. So, right now consider me split between no one/Del.

 

[Persephone]

OOC thoughts for real

Doing nothing does give the mafia a night to kill, but it could also set up a situation where the (probably multiple) info roles on our side can start weaving a trap to catch mafia in and verify villagers in the event of a mass claim. Like last game.

Killing would essentially be random. But there may be some merit to letting everyone pick a "random" target, so that the info roles can subtly push the group towards someone if they picked something up. Theoretically this would make the mafia able to bandwagon someone to death pretty easily, especially if random voting means that no one has too many votes in the first place. But, so long as there isn't a massive bandwagon and a villager is killed, we'd be able to have pretty decent odds of knowing who at least one mafia member is. One of the two or three or four who voted kill. This lets our info roles narrow in on a smaller pool on a night where they might not have much info at all to go on.

My RNG is coming up with Tanuki fwiw. Still not certain which approach is best tho.

 

[Equitial]

OOC thoughts for real

Doing nothing does give the mafia a night to kill, but it could also set up a situation where the (probably multiple) info roles on our side can start weaving a trap to catch mafia in and verify villagers in the event of a mass claim. Like last game.

Killing would essentially be random. But there may be some merit to letting everyone pick a "random" target, so that the info roles can subtly push the group towards someone if they picked something up. Theoretically this would make the mafia able to bandwagon someone to death pretty easily, especially if random voting means that no one has too many votes in the first place. But, so long as there isn't a massive bandwagon and a villager is killed, we'd be able to have pretty decent odds of knowing who at least one mafia member is. One of the two or three or four who voted kill. This lets our info roles narrow in on a smaller pool on a night where they might not have much info at all to go on.

My RNG is coming up with Tanuki fwiw. Still not certain which approach is best tho.

Hmm, I don't vibe with this logic, especially the paragraph I bolded. My intention wasn't that everyone chooses a person to lynch -- that would defeat the purpose of trying to get info from the Mafia. We need at most a couple targets, so we can see who jumps to defend/bandwagon. If we go by your strategy, it will be way too easy for the Mafia to muddy the pot. Plus remember, they can discuss amonst each other and very easily kill an innocent with a single extra vote. (Depending on their roles, they could have potentially found an innocent they really want out of the running for whatever reason.) Ideally, we don't want to kill an innocent, remember. We want to get a Mafia.

And if everyone is choosing a rando, how would we know who has a role and who doesn't? That wouldn't work well. Also, maybe not draw attention to anyone who chooses a target as having a role. People w/ roles would probably figure they could be helpful on their own. (Best-case scenario is you're making a strategic misstep here. Worst is that you're purposefully trying to draw out the roles bc you're scum.)

About what happened last game... I don't think not-lynching Day 1 was what caused us to get caught? I accept the possibility that we vote at random and take out a role, but there were a lot of pieces and random luck back then. Also, we have fewer players now. What happened last time likely will not happen again.

Anyway, I'm not saying for sure you're Mafia, but I don't like your logic. I change my soft vote from Enigma/Del to you. Also, if Perse is scum, consider that she jumped to defend Del.

My thoughts right now:
1. Vote off Persephone/Kekoa, who is kind of sus
2. Vote off no one
3. Vote off an inactive

Ashwood is still an optimistic softie who doesn't really believe this is happening, of course.

Again, would like any other opinions.

 

[Equitial]

Kekoa glances around at the assorted weirdos, talking cowboy raichu least weird among them. Spirits. He pivots on the banette.

“This isn’t how spirits work You’re just trying to talk us into killing each other for your own amusement. Nah, screw that. Screw you. Kill Chibi Pika.”

“Wait, what did I just say?”

[["Holy shit calm down bro," Ashwood said, looking around for Kekoa's victim. "We don't have any evidence anyone's killing anybody else yet!"

 

[Persephone]

[["Holy shit calm down bro," Ashwood said, looking around for Kekoa's victim. "We don't have any evidence anyone's killing anybody else yet!"

"I didn't mean to," Kekoa stamps his foot and turns around in a huff. "Forget it."

[[ I assumed that you meant by your RNG comment that everyone picks someone random. Picking one person at random yourself and then demanding they defend themselves on Day 1 is... what do you expect them to say? "Nah bro I'm not mafia lol." Was it just to cast entirely unwarranted suspicion on a random player? And why immediately attack the first person other than yourself who even talks strategy? I think we would be better going through and outlining people's proposed game plans rather than just wilding after the first person your RNG came up with if you're town, or someone you know is a town player if you are scum. That seems way more productive than asking someone to defend themselves from charges with no basis whatsoever. ]]

 

[Shiny Phantump]

[Wait, we outnumber the Mafia. If we vote someone at random the odds are well in favour of us picking an innocent person... No?]

 

[Equitial]

[[ I assumed that you meant by your RNG comment that everyone picks someone random. Picking one person at random yourself and then demanding they defend themselves on Day 1 is... what do you expect them to say? "Nah bro I'm not mafia lol." Was it just to cast entirely unwarranted suspicion on a random player?

I mean, yes? It's not far into Day 1. We have no info, so any voting would necessarily be a shot in the dark (albeit one I think we will in most cases ultimately benefit from). To make clear: the point is more to see who comes to the random player's defense and who bandwagons, rather than anything that comes from the chosen player.

And why immediately attack the first person other than yourself who even talks strategy? I think we would be better going through and outlining people's proposed game plans rather than just wilding after the first person your RNG came up with if you're town, or someone you know is a town player if you are scum. That seems way more productive than asking someone to defend themselves from charges with no basis whatsoever. ]]

I went after the first person because I didn't think it was good strategy. I agree that I'd like to hear from other people, but you could have potentially derailed Day 1 into chaos. Anyway, I believe that my RNG strat was misunderstood, but your reasoning continues to make you sus to me. If everyone chooses a target, unwarranted suspicion is still being cast on random players, just more of them.

Also, my wilding a random player did work. Discussion has been inspired, and I have turned from my original (soft) vote.

 

[Equitial]

[Wait, we outnumber the Mafia. If we vote someone at random the odds are well in favour of us picking an innocent person... No?]

About 33% of us are Mafia give or take. Yes, just shooting randomly we are more likely to hit innocent, but we gain more information from as a result. But technically we're not shooting randomly, because Mafia will pop up to encourage or discourage the vote.

Also consider that the Mafia knows who's innocent and thus will always shoot correctly.

 

[Fusion]

OOC Thoughts:

Personally, I don't know any of yall or yall's characters enough to know what is suspicious and what isn't, and while not voting give the Mafia a chance to kill more people, voting off an innocent is a lot worse in the long run. The less people town has, the quicker town loses.

 

[DawningWinds]

But there may be some merit to letting everyone pick a "random" target, so that the info roles can subtly push the group

My thoughts on this: RVS is a great way to start a game, plus it gives just a little bit of information. You get to have fun joking around until someone sees something they find genuinely suspicious in some way. I approve!

Vote: Tanuki
I can't read your posts, where's the translator?

Also, re: No Lynching: Ew no. No lynching gives the scum a chance to act while leaving the town with less information. The town is bigger than scum so that they have room to make mistakes. I'd wager the balance of this game is probably 7:2, 3 scum feels like too many in nine players, and I don't think there's been a proper indep on TR so far so I don't really see that happening now.

About 33% of us are Mafia give or take.

No, that balance would be awful. It's usually about 25%. 6:3 would be insanely scum-sided in nature, no lynching today would put us in MyLo tomorrow.

 

[DawningWinds]

OOC Thoughts:

Personally, I don't know any of yall or yall's characters enough to know what is suspicious and what isn't, and while not voting give the Mafia a chance to kill more people, voting off an innocent is a lot worse in the long run. The less people town has, the quicker town loses.

No, it wouldn't! We get information from mislynches, such as wagons to look at and use that to try and figure out suspicions, which is an inherently good thing!

 

[Fusion]

No, it wouldn't! We get information from mislynches, such as wagons to look at and use that to try and figure out suspicions, which is an inherently good thing!

I mean, hey, I've never done this before. I'm treating this like I would Among Us but with more RP involved. If accidentally killing someone or voting randomly works, then I'm all for it. But Kora himself wouldn't have voted someone out turn 1 unless someone convinced him too.

 

[Equitial]

No, that balance would be awful. It's usually about 25%. 6:3 would be insanely scum-sided in nature, no lynching today would put us in MyLo tomorrow.

Sorry, I literally meant to put 25%. No idea what happened there -- you're correct.