"There's too much back-and-forth here. I need to keep my thoughts straight," Odette huffed. A pen and paper appeared in her hands as she spoke, and she frowned again.
[[I'll help! Please cut me some slack though :D]]
She sighed. With that, she sat down and began to write.
"Hmmm... yes! You do! But if you lose..." She gestured to the Charmander stature. "I take your soul and your body turns to stone... Then I'm going to punish you for five." She held up a paw and two fingers with the other.
Then, she disappeared, reappearing behind the petrified Charmander. "But if you win, you don't have to worry! Here!" She flicked her wrist, and rulebooks fell from the sky. Along with that, she tossed the bag in the center of the crowd. "And take one of these, too. Inside, there are little badges that can tune to a world beyond... Did you know that every single one of you have guardians floating just over your shoulder? Their voices are strange... but they can help you survive this game. As long as you hold one, everyone will be able to hear what your guardian so desperately wants to say!" She giggled. Still, that deck of cards was still in her possession.
"Let me know if you have any questions~"
She giggled. "Oh, that's right. I guess it's about time that I gave you your powers, right? Once this rainbow light fades... you'll turn to stone! Unless, of course, you hold one of these." Darkwhite held out one of the blank cards. "Each card has the image of a powerful entity, usually a Legendary Pokemon. As long as you're holding that card, you won't turn to stone. Don't lose it! That one refused to play my game at all... and look what happened to him! Uhuhu... huhu..." She pointed at the Charmander, who looked like he had been about to fight. Then, pouting, she pointed at Dave accusingly. "And don't bother telling Shield or Diyem about this, either! Or I'll get MAD!"
The prismatic lights started to fade, and once it was certain that everyone had their cards in hand, Darkwhite lowered her arms. There was a popping noise, and the light washed away--into a tall,
tall hill overlooking a great open field. Far away, there were Pokemon milling about in a natural-looking town, yet as if they were an illusion, none of them noticed or even acknowledged the arrivals on the top of the hill. It was like Darkwhite's captives were already ghosts.
"All riiiiiight," Darkwhite said.
"You won't be able to see what everyone else has... and you're FORBIDDEN from reading it out EXACTLY, either! Oh, but it's totally okay for you to lie and stuff. That's part of the game, after all!" She giggled again, and then dove underground. With one final message, she seemed to be gone for the time being.
"The the sun sets, that's when the real fun begins..."
And that sun felt like it was moving very quickly...
Slowly, everyone's cards became readable to them and them alone.
[[A lot of setup.
Dave picked up the card again and waved it in the air, not that it'd mean anything. "So apparently I'm what's called a 'miller', which means anyone who investigates me is going to be told I'm with the mafia even though I'm fucking not. So don't waste your time checking."
Everyone here really was a Pokémon. People talking about really being human. Like Cibus crossed with the previous mafia games. Fantastic. The one way to improve on the fucking board game dimension.
"Patron legendary's Darkrai. Main thing I do is every night I have to pick someone and increase their 'Dread count' by two. Whoever I've voted for at the end of the day has the dread count go up by one, and anyone who targets me in the night has the dread count go up by one. Anyone with a dread count of four can't use their action until it's 'cured', whatever that means. Anyone with a dread count of six gets eliminated. All in all, I can target somebody and they can confirm, assuming I don't get blocked or whatever. I can't just not target anyone."
He dropped the card again with an exasperated sigh. "I've got something else too that I can't say, but why the fuck would you even believe me? Even if we verify the whole dread thing, it's not exactly proof I'm not in the mafia. So this is all basically unfalsifiable bullshit. I'm saying it now because otherwise one of you fuckers is going to try to investigate me and it'll all sound like a hastily assembled excuse and we're all going to waste a fuckload of time."
Free hardclaims Miller.
[[....You know people can lie, right? We can't just trust that Mightyena! He could be making everything up so we don't investigate him.]]
Letting out another long yawn, Cosmo shot the Mightyena a thoughtful glance. "Why lie? About being good guy that looks bad?"
[[Okay fair. He doesn't stand to gain much if he's a bad guy doing this I guess.
For now I think Free might be telling the truth. At least in that I think their statement of role is more helpful to town than scum, for the moment.]]
Flyg0n tentatively believes claim.
[[I could possibly take a Dread shot to confirm your claim of your ability for the night, seeing as I'm not very sure this–]] The hologram gestured to the Pokémon next to him. [[–kid has anything going for her.]]
Shini offers to take a Dread shot to confirm Free's claim.
He consulted the rulebook in his hands, ignoring the holes in every page he leaned through. After a minute, Sidney snapped the book shut. He was quiet, head bowed in concentration. "Interesting," he said, gaze sliding over to the Mightyena, "that you have a claim that can't be checked by another's night action without a dread count being placed on their head."
Then he tossed the rulebook over his shoulder with a casual flick. "But if what you said is true, there's no way to avoid these dread counters in the first place so why bother."
"You have to give someone two each night. Then you can give one out by voting at the end of the day. *And* anyone who checks on you in the night gets one, too? So essentially someone can end up with *four* all in one day, and if you've got a beef with anyone here, you can eliminate them in three nights, just like that?"
Sidney scowled. "If you really are town, might be worth trying to find that cure of yours, unless you've got a better way to not accidentally start killing off your buddies."
Pano skeptical, asks for clarification.
Arctozolt narrowed their eyes. "That sounds like a bit like an excuse..."
Do you really have to be hostile right off the bat?!
"Shut up! Anyways, I'm suspicious, but I'll believe you for now."
Bench tentatively believes claim.
BARTHOLOMEW:
-- oh yeah!!
-- I think... I think...........
-- I think Dave is probably friendly actually!! Because of his roleclaim!!!!
-- its pretty a lot for a scum to do right off the bat, and his whole dread thingie would be kindof wierd if he was a baddie
-- wierd if he was a scum and lying OR a scum and not!!
Equi tentaively believes claim.
"I don't...really know what to do with that," Odette said. "Like on one hand, I get the play. Might as well whistleblow now instead of possibly when somebody else calls them out. And that whole...ability thing seems too thought out for an on-the-spot claim. But part of me also thinks it's...convenient in a way? Though, I agree, that is a lot for scum to do to start."
I
very tentatively believe claim.
Because it's still too early to decide on anything right now.
Blossom iffy.
[[Thanks, Shimmer. Here's the thing: free is very commonly either eliminated early in the game or investigated early in the game by the cop, due to being good at passing as town when on the mafia side. One of the recommendations on the mafia Wiki for playing a miller is to either claim immediately or else try to lay low and not do anything to get investigated. Which is... Kind of difficult when people just naturally want to investigate you! I definitely think caution is warranted, as it's a easy fake claim for mafia, but I also think this a logical town play. Especially for Free]]
Wind makes a point about Free's claim.
[[If someone investigates it will read that he wants to kill you, but he actually doesn’t.]]
That sounds suspicious. Saying up front ‘hey I know I look like I’m stabbing you, but, trust me, I’m not.’
“Yeah, I don’t like that at all. Weird thing to say unprompted.”
[[It’s a valid strategy if they aren’t lying.]]
“Hmph.”
Persephone iffy on what to believe.
"Alright, so..."--Ajia took a deep breath--"we have to start this day with no night info. That's different from the other games, but not the worst situation. It'll be really hard to catch any mafia today, but we can still use this day to get a feel for everyone's playstyle. The big thing that jumps out at me is that this does mean that the mafia's first kill won't be totally blind, like it normally would be? So I think we should be really, really careful about giving anything away about what we can do. Even more than usual." The last thing anyone needed was for an investigator to get killed without even being able to watch a single person.
His card explanation seemed legit. The level of complexity was similar to Ajia's own card. Revealing it now was an equally good move, regardless of whose side he was on. Although it did mean that not only would no one be investigating him, anyone with any sort of watch power would also be staying away. Hm.
Ajia decided to consider it neutral for now.
Chibi makes point about mafia's first kill not being totally blind; warns everyone be careful about reveals, take today to study play-styles. Willing to believe Free on idea that card explanation complexity matches their own, but also seems iffy. Neutral.
[[
Windskull expresses basically the same thoughts I had about DF's roleclaim. People who have played previous games with DF knows that she's a target for info-roles. Instant roleclaim is pretty much the only valid move for miller!Dragonfree.
Now, for the Dread thing, I may be interpreting things wrong, but I read it as Dreaded people will know they've been Dreaded? Obviously the whole concept of someone just randomly being informed They Have Dread is.. somewhat ominous. As a result, suspicious. I wouldn't expect her to have roleclaimed without being Miller, but being Miller is going to be sus so yeahhh makes sense for her to also get that out of the way.
]]
Equi agrees with Wind's explanation, poses question about Dread ability.
[[I think Dave is bad. The other voices would be suspicious of him. He got out ahead so it would be less bad if he were targeted. He might be innocent, but there are no better leads now.]]
Persephone suspicious of Free.
Dave scowled at the voice of the guardian. Blessingly his hadn't shown up yet, but knowing these games was only a matter of time. "Well, that'd be a pretty counterproductive fucking lie, wouldn't it? Don't want you to investigate me so I tell you upfront that you'd get a guilty result? If I were mafia I'd be fucking thrilled if you wasted your investigations on the guy you already know is going to come up guilty, but I'm not, so don't."
"I mean, if someone's got the ability to cure it I'd say they shouldn't go revealing who they are. For all I know it's a red herring she put in there for shits and giggles, but if not, keep it on the down low and don't get targeted."
"I mean, you only get plus one for targeting me. Theoretically safe if you have to, unless the mafia's got more dread to spread out. Believe me, if you've got a power that could actually verify that I'm not a ridiculously fucking brazen mafioso trying to coast the game in plain sight, I'd be thrilled. I'm not actually sure yet if the miller thing extends to shit other than the standard investigation deal, or if Darkwhite'll even let me know that, but my guess is no. But of course you've got no reason to trust me on that either."
"According to the card, people are told about their dread count at the end of the phase, but not about me or where it came from. So yeah, you'll know if you're at dread count three or whatever. And yeah, obviously I'm not voting for someone who says they're at dread three. If I do, you just fucking kill me."
Free defends self, makes points against being possible mafia and why they claimed, more possible explanation on Dread ability.
[[Part of me wants to lynch on the first night. Part of me wants to wait and see more stuff happen. Also leaning towards town!DF. I don't know, something about the "causing Dread by interacting" thing seems like it would be thrown onto a town as a red herring.]]
Torchic iffy on abstaining or sacc'ing first night, wants to see more happen. Leaning toward believing Free's claim, feels Dread is a possible red herring.
"And nah, I agree on your second point." Sidney shook his head, his cacturne grimace curving into a grin. It still looked terrifying. "Since we know what you can do, and we're told when you give somebody dread, we don't have to out a cure. Better keep that under wraps just in case."
"Gonna be real, I'm kinda glad you came forward with some kinda information, though.
Pano agrees we should keep cure role under wraps.
[[I've been informed by PM that something has attached mental strings to Dave, and while it's not yet in control, it'll become overwhelming and someone else will gain control and win if too many others are affected by it. Seems like a day action someone took, and that probably if they can do it to so-and-so many players they'll get a third-party victory? Something like that.
I have a wild speculative theory that this might have happened because of my claim, one way or another - be careful. Could be something entirely different, but as a GM I've previously had a third party that could kill people based on guessing their roles, and have talked about it with Namo present - maybe this thing can get you if you reveal your associated legendary, for instance? Pure speculation, and we should focus on rooting out the actual mafia, but either way this sounds like Nothing Good. There also could be a downside to revealing your status as having been targeted by this, so prooobably cautioning against that for now unless you have a very good reason to, but at least now we know it's a thing.
Or, I mean, theoretically maybe there's just a role that can just send arbitrary messages to other players and it's hoping I'll blab about it and make everyone go nuts over a possible third party victory that doesn't actually exist, that'd also be hilarious.]]
Free now mentions that they received a PM that strings have been attached to character, and somebody else will win if others are affected by it. Possible third party? Theorizes that it might be because they claimed, or if you reveal associated Legendary--caution against revealing unless reason to do so. Maybe role that sends messages to freak everyone out?
[[Yep. Anyway, what I wanted to say is: Darkrai as a sinister-looking, but not actually malicious character seems like a pretty Namocore thing to do. I was undecided about about how much to read into that, but I figured it was worth mentioning, all things considered.]]
Chibi thinks Darkrai ability is Namocore (lolololol)
Oh thank Arceus, a lead. Mademoiselle carefully considered his words before speaking up. "On the one hand, it can be seen as an easy claim for scum to make to divert attention elsewhere but on the other--" she flipped through the guidebook to read over the events of a previous game "--it reminds me of the game where someone immediately claimed to be a Firefighter in a game with an Arsonist. It's a bold move, which is perhaps why it comes off more as a town play than a scum one." She lowered her head in thought. "His willingness to be read by any confirming role is far too risky a play for scum to make, so for the time being, I will tentatively trust him."
"Indeed," Mademoiselle spat back at the rock. "As for the topic of elimination, I can't say whether or not lynching today is a good idea or not. Normally, I am one to take that risk as there might be some information gained during the opening night but in a game where we do not have such a luxury, it feels reckless unless a major revelation decides to make itself known."
Inke makes points about Free's claim--thinks it's more townplay than scumplay. Unsure of whether or not voting today is a good idea, unless something else comes to light. Though I don't know what you mean by "his willingness to be read by any confirming role" because Free said to
not investigate them.
Despite there being not enough info to randomly vote someone potentially innocent out--
Then the best option might be to abstain for the 1st day. Until at least most of them survived the night so that they'd have something more to work with.
...Provided that Nanu's "guardian" would agree to this assessment. Once he reluctantly un-muted the device so that the friendly voice could speak up again.
As Nanu rubbed the back of his neck and fidgeted uncomfortably at the awkward silence. "...Hey, Chatot? So...I'm thinking that we might have gotten on the wrong foot here--"
[["Gee, ya think you fucking asshat?" The friendly voice flatly stated, sounding as peeved as Nanu suspected. Before the voice sighed and Nanu could picture her glimpsing over at Dave the Mightyena. "...But given how dire the situation is right now, I think we can afford to let bygones be bygones. So, we can check and see if Dave's going to be okay. From whatever unknown power has latched onto him." The voice replied worriedly.]]
[[As he listened to the device blip a few times before the voice spoke up again with a similar contemplative tone. "Aye. That's true since I suspect we have a 3rd party win that is involved in this game. In addition to the normal rules surrounding mafia and town's win conditions. However 3rd party also means that this individual is a threat to mafia as well? So, with that in mind I agree with your assessments about abstaining the vote for today. Until we get more information during Night 1 and part of Day 2"]]
Blossom thinks there isn't enough info to vote yet. Bolded because unsure if that's RP flavor or something else. Leaning toward abstaining.
Midday votes:
Current votes:
Abstain (20)
Nobody has voted by midday lololol
[[The Strings deal seems too easily double-checked by others to be fake. I don’t see why Mafia would need strings, though. They have their own win con.]]
You have no idea what half of that means. As for killing anyone, well, you aren’t a killer. Yet. You might be if it gets you out of this stupid cute body.
[[Plus there should be enough info roles to give us a good idea of where we stand tonight.]]
Yeah, sure, why not?
“I don’t want to kill anyone today. See if the psycho cat is lying or not before we start killing each other on his word.”
Persephone skeptical of strings claim, though unsure how it would help Mafia.
[[With how the last game played out, this tracks to me lol. I'm cautiously willing to believe it.]]
Massaging her gelatinous temple, she sighed to herself. "Considering our only claim so far is somebody we probably don't want to turn our sights onto right off the bat, I'm hesitant to commit to voting today. But we might be putting ourselves at a disadvantage if we don't." She paused. "But we might be shooting ourselves in the foot if we do without more information. I'm in a grey area at this moment."
I agree with Wind's explanation of Free's claim. Unsure of whether or not voting or abstaining is a good idea.
"O-oh," Ajia said. That... that wasn't good. "To be honest, it does seem pretty plausible that it could be because you said your patron's name. Well... all the more reason to not saying anything about our roles, I suppose." But what about in the future, if they needed to, in order to clear up some mystery?
"'If too many others are affected'..." Ajia mused, pacing back and forth. "I feel like there'd have to be some limits to that, otherwise it'd be super easy for them to win in the late game?" Maybe they could only do it so often. And if anyone with mental strings died, they'd probably stop counting. Still dangerous, though...
Chibi agrees strings might have been attached because Darkrai was mentioned; further implicates nobody else should say much more about their roles. Theorizes there might be limits to the power.
[[Well, I don't doubt that there might be a 3rd party involved since this is a pretty big lobby but I highly doubt their win condition is this specific, it's more likely that they'll have to put these 'strings' on a certain amount of people, like say half of the people present maybe? Either that or just a quarter. Hm... if we're going with the half of people present thing, I think it might lean towards the current max players alive count. We also have to take in consideration that there might be more than one 3rd party active as this is a 20 player lobby.]]
[[Anyway, coming back to the idea of voting. I think it's probably a good idea to abstain seeing as there really isn't much we currently have right now, other than Df's claims of being Miller and being 'Stringed'. I'm inclined to belive Free's claim since well, *cough* considering what happened in the last game... This is a logical move by Free if she's town and hopefully, she doesn't get killed on the first night, that ability sounds really damn useful if utilized properly.]]
Shini doesn't think Strings are attached to third party. Shini brings up last game, and leans toward believing Free.
[[A third party? Don't third parties usually want to kill everyone? And with all the Darkrai/Cresselia stuff, who could possibly be the third party?]]
Torchic asks about third parties but mentions Cresselia???? Nobody has mentioned Cresselia???? (I ctrl + F'd to try to find it and couldn't find anybody mentioning Cresselia, so please enlighten me if I missed something??? If I didn't, this is really really weird).
Blossom is first to vote No Elimination.
Okay, so I think to sum up this whole situation: if DF were innocent, roleclaiming at the start would be the most effective, town-aligned thing she could have done. If DF were scum, this would be a whole huge play to cement herself as innocent.
To me, very confident rating DF innocent. Big plays at the start of the game aren't something scum tend to do. They more often lay low, attempting typical town. Also, a risk with a scum!DF attempting this gambit would be an actual Miller in the game, who would counterclaim. I know we've been talking not claiming, but if you're a Miller probably speak up? I don't think anyone would ever believe you if you don't come out now.
Concerning this newer topic of debate, I'd like to remind people to not cling to assumptions or get too paranoid. For instance, Dragonfree's role-guessing TP theory. It's not farfetched or anything, but it just (as DF herself said) a conjecture. We have no proof so far revealing roles/Legendaries could make someone vulnerable to this. No reason not to be careful, but yknow. I have a feeling that a TP Namo made has a bunch of mechanics too it, which we aren't likely to exactly guess.
To end off, uh, that's all I guess?? We appear to be erring on the side of saying nothing and voting no one. I don't disagree, but idk it's a bit boring lol. ehhh, I'm just gonna throw in the first vote for no lynch.
vote: No Elimination
Equi makes some further theories about Free's claim, votes No Elimination.
"But it sounds like there is no way to clear him! He'll read as a mafia member no matter what. What's the point? With that claim, it seems there's no point in anyone targeting him--not inforoles, not a killer, or anyone else. He's just there."
Courtney looked around at the others. "Anyone else got anything useful for today? I, for one, am all for causing chaos!" She giggled. "A bit of extra bloodshed, see what happens--that'll at least reveal one member's alignment!"
[[I'm not sure that's a good idea.]]
[[No. I'm something very different--but don't worry about it. I'm not going to hurt you. Anyway, I just want to point out that everyone has multiple attributes--an 'ability' and a 'move.' I don't know whether I say I fully believe Free, but as it stands, I feel we have literally no other information to go off of. So the town just needs to decide whether it's riskier to abstain from voting and wait until night to get more information, or take a shot in the dark now.]]
"Oh? And how do you suggest we find out? Are you volunteering?"
Starlight indicates there might be no way to clear Free, because they'll read Mafia. Points out everyone has multiple attributes; cannotsay whether or not they believe Free yet. Claims town needs to decide whether to abstain or vote. Also pokes Persephone for their skepticism toward the Strings.
[[Abstaining seems like the smarter choice for now since if we vote someone out, let's say there's a 3-scum-mafia and one 3rd party, that gives us roughly a 20% chance of getting someone that's scum and an 80% chance of killing an innocent.
And let's say that the scum team can only kill one time a night and we DON'T have another 3rd party that can kill. It would mean we'll only have one death every night (Not counting if Free wants to kill someone or not) and that seems a bit safer than voting for someone right now since there'd be only 1 death if we don't vote.
Of course, this is all speculation and I'm 90% sure that something will go horribly wrong and make this assessment look silly.
So yeah... I stick by my vote of not killing someone... unless of course, someone else would like to speak up?]]
Vote: [No elimination]
Shini agrees with abstaining; hypothesizes about scumteam. Don't know what they meant about the bolded part, though. Votes No Elimination.
[[With no night actions going through, our only real lead is Free's role-claim and the subsequent claim of Dave getting some kind of strings attached to him. We've seemed to reach a general consensus with the role-claim (that being that it's probably legit based on flavouring and that such a claim is good info for Town to have) but I feel that we're not getting anywhere productive rambling on about TPs or how the Strings work since most of it is purely conjecture. Continuing to follow the Is-Free-Honest? train/Strings feels like a dead end at this point. For now, we should focus our energy on scum-hunting.
All that really leaves is gauging reads off of the subsequent reactions to this info. To me, a lot of it is vibes (so nothing solid/definitive), but I have gotten a couple towny ones from them. Namely: Shini's willingness to guinea pig to confirm Dave's role feels very pro-town; Chibi's been bringing up a ton of great points in regards to the info we do/don't have with the lack of a N0; and Equi who has been trying to get reads as opposed to just following the lead/banging on about TPs. I'll also throw Pers on that pile, as her skepticism feels very natural and is just trying to follow the only real lead we currently have.
The others feel a bit too neutral/milquetoast to get anything more than a neutral reading, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I'll hold off from voting until we get a bit closer to EoD to see if any new leads/info pops up, but for now it looks like the safest option will be to abstain--which is what I'll do if no such information pops up.]]
Inke gives some vibe checks on Shini (willingness to take a Dread hit to prove Free's cliam), Chibi (bringing up good points), and Equi (trying to get reads). Holding off voting until closer to EoD for now, but leaning toward abstaining.
[[Equi’s points make a lot of sense. If Free were mafia or TP, what would she have to gain by revealing this? I suppose maybe she could be saying this to aid her scumteam since there’s no mafia day chat, but idk, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. This feels like a strong town move to me.
Also, just to be clear, I want to quickly summarize what I’ve read to make sure I’m up to date. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong: Free hard claimed Miller, which is basically something that marks anyone who targets her? I’m gonna have to look up the role on the wiki to get a better understanding. 4 marks blocks a person’s role, and 6 kills them?
I’m really lost on the string thing though. Is this a form of arsonist? What does this mean? If someone can explain this to me, I’d greatly appreciate it, heh.
Anyways, I’m not plugging free as hard town yet, but I definitely don’t feel suspicious of her enough to vote her.]]
Yellow agrees with Equi's explanations, asks for clarification on Strings. Not going with Free as hard town yet, but not sus enough to vote them. Votes No Elimination.
[[Part of me wants to vote someone off to stay on the safe side, but part of me also doesn't want to do anything too impulsive. It's better to try and maybe get a Mafia than not try at all. I don't have any good leads, so I vote...]]
VOTE: No elimination
Torchic votes No Elimination.
“We just wait to see if anyone else reports strings on them. Duh.”
Persephone responds to Starlight's poke.
[[Basically, if we had started with a night phase, I would be a bit more open to voting someone out. But as it is, with even less info to go off of than usual, I'm hesitant to vote someone out. If I have any additional thoughts before eod, I'll try to bring it up.]]
Vote: No Elimination.
Wind votes No Elimination.]]
[[Basically after all of that, I really want to poke
@Torchic and ask what they meant by "Darkrai/Cresselia" because again...nobody has mentioned Cresselia, so I really want to know how that came up for you. Also want to poke
@ShiniGojira for clarification on what they meant by "
(Not counting if Free wants to kill someone or not)"...was that just implying if Free were scum or are you getting at something else? Also just want some clarification from
@Inkedust's
"His willingness to be read by any confirming role is far too risky a play for scum to make" because unless I sickbrain sped-read it, Free was saying to
not waste an investigation them. But like I said, I could have easily skimmed over them saying something else like that so, yes, clarification!
Keep in mind this is all very skimmed and spedread summary, ya gurl is ill :') ]]
