@Phoebus this happened when we were townies in the Umineko game too! Collaborators for life.
For future reference, those who are tempted to pin us as collaborators: we talk about Mafia all the time in between games. We have similar ideas about gameplay and strategy. We tend to agree not for some shady reason, but because we're pals.
I'd have gotten away with it too, if not for that lousy unicorn.
If I had went with my gut and investigated Lehki or Dys, this would still be going. Bravo, town
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
So, I knew going into this game that it was probably going to feel unbalanced. I had a lot of different ideas flying around, and had so many little experimental things I wanted to try. I -knew- it would probably be a bad idea to try to include most of them in the same game, but I couldn't resist. The result is, as you see, Very Vanilla.
I want to say that even with the cut roles accounted for, the power balance was reasonable, or close to it. But the real problem is just how much power is out there. When a game is this juiced up, it can get snowbally, and it would have taken a dumb stroke of luck for this game to remain closely contested and not snowball for one side or the other.
That said, this game lasted for 12 days. 12 days! This might just be the fastest game to run from start to finish on the lusternia forums in years. While it is somewhat bittersweet that it flew by so fast, I actually rather like how ruthless and incisive the game turned out to be. I wish we could have more games like this from time to time, so it feels like a privilege to have mine turn out thusly.
I do feel bad for the mafia, though. It was going to be rough with the godfather getting poisoned right off the bat, and it only got worse from there. And Dys was alarmingly on point outside of gunning for Othero, but her reasoning for that wasn't even all that bad, just the byproduct of being (understandably) confused by Lehki's power.
And the worst part of this game was making the cuts. I really wanted all the roles to be in there, and in retrospect maybe I should have done some things differently. Maybe someone should have had a malus added to help balance out Desdemona's loss better. Maybe I should have had Ridley in place and cut Lotin instead.
However, I do have this feeling that Hardrada and Wendel would have proven to be too unfun for their players. Wendel would be very likely to be pigeon-holed as a ninja and offed early, and Hardrada is Camus but worse. They had a place in giving town more maluses and being red herrings to chase, but that doesn't make them fun to play necessarily.
And while the pace was hectic for me to keep up with, I loved trying to write PMs for everyone and am sorry if any of you got the short end of the stick - Ayano/Ageha were probably my favourites simply because the other powers involved got my creativity flowing.
Side note - flavour was meant to be generally helpful, but possibly distracting and useless. I had a 25% chance for someone to roll a pure flavour PM that meant absolutely nothing, but could appear to possibly be. That roll failed every time, but I'm putting it out there so it might be thought of in future games anyways! If there's going to be a random chance for something, I feel like this is the kind of way it should be implemented, instead of within player powers.
Some flavour was also meant to be inconsistent. Lotin would either steal or be unable to steal from his target every night, depending on circumstance (he'd never steal from George/Gina since one would always be awake, for example). As a pure flavour nod, I decided that if he ever stole from Camus, he'd feel bad and leave money instead. What luck that he made that specific choice in the game, eh?
Magicbounce and Gina's protection also wouldn't be visible to most targets unless it actually protected them from something - this could have been a more critical point in the late game (especially when compared to Mr. Toots), but again it did not come up.
In closing, the butterflies were actually the Omen of the Taira. Taira is a historical warrior clan I borrowed from, and Ageha happens to be their clan mon - a swallowtail butterfly. It was my way of trying to be clever, and I'm still kind of excited that -no one- got it.
2
SylandraJoin Queue for Mafia GamesThe Last Mafia Game
Theory: either Shaddus is one of my broskis, or he's the investigator and trying to low key let me know who he is. Or he's a consigliere who is trying to cozy me up to him. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Ah, so many possibilities, yes? I must say, I've already had a few surprises myself. A mod can't anticipate every course before the game starts, after all.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
Just now realised that I had been poisoned the whole time. I thought I had caught it from checking Othero.
@Sylandra: that was the idea. I knew I'd check out as town, so when I checked you and you were town as well as harmless to me but usually an aggressive player, I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to make a friend and hopefully use you as a shield
Finding @Kalikai on the first night was a mixed blessing. We knew we had no way to take her out, and we didn't know the extent of her powers, so we played it safe and I generally made friendly with her as long as possible. When both Sylandra and Kalikai decided they "think they know what my role was", I knew I had a few friends to keep the others off my back until I could find a way to get rid of Kalikai.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Also, Vivet, darn you for making me think the unicorn farts were a shield
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
TL;DR Kalikai is the blackswordsman, and you briefly had some sort of rainbow barrier
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
TL;DR Kalikai is the blackswordsman, and you briefly had some sort of rainbow barrier
That was the point of the power, it was meant to disguise as a shield. It could even block the very next power used on you, based on priority!
This was one of the things I wanted to experiment with and see how far a serial killer could get with it, without people catching on. Unfortunately, didn't quite get to see that play out, but I do think powers that can masquerade as other powers (and even function like them to some degree) would be neat to see repeat in the future.
To reiterate, I paired the blocking specifically with the poison to help keep the poisoned target alive. Poison roles are tricky since you get frustrated when your targets die before the poison kills them anyways - it feels like you wasted your turn for that phase, and it could have been used one someone else, much like how arson marks can be "wasted" in the same manner.
At least this way, if someone tried to kill whoever Silvanus farted at, it wouldn't be a "wasted" mark necessarily - in fact, it could make his power look extremely townie. But that's another thing that kind of fell off - no other powers tripped his shields to make them do something significant.
Am kinda wondering how the game would have changed if I hadn't avoided the day 1 lynch by using purple haze.
Notice how there is no town detective? That is definitely on purpose - detective is a bit of a crutch role, and I didn't want town to have one, and I definitely wanted a consigliere. Due to how things played out, you were basically a better detective in this game since the people who resisted your truth check died while you still had more charges.
Definitely want more detective-less town in the future too!
Yeah I figured I had my play setup perfectly for such a good role, I just had to avoid dying. Offing two of them at the same time I figured would cause havoc.
2014/04/19 01:38:01 - Leolamins drained 2000000 power to raise Silvanus as a Vernal Ascendant.
2014/07/23 05:01:29 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Munsia as a Vernal Ascendant.
2015/05/24 06:03:07 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Arimisia as a Vernal Ascendant.
2015/05/24 06:03:58 - Silvanus drained 2000000 power to raise Lavinya as a Vernal Ascendant.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
Yeah bad breaks for mafia this game, but it was fun with all the weird stuff going on. Trying to figure out the best way to make use of my redirect/protection power was fun, and am pleased it at least caused some confusion for the scum and everybody else.
My initial plan was to kill Arix instead of Dys. I wonder how long I would have lasted if we did that. When I was running the numbers, I saw there was no way for me to win even if town believed me that last day and the next.
I think Arix was protected by Lehki that night so would have redirected to Shaddus who was already dying from poison. I believed Lehki because Phoebus blocked him, but I thought Othero was crazy for executing you! Turns out he was crazy like a fox.
I figured since I was pretty protected, being aggressive and trying to get people to target me would be good. It's a bummer nobody tried to off me, I tried to keep that little trick quiet. -shakefist Shaddus-
My initial plan was to kill Arix instead of Dys. I wonder how long I would have lasted if we did that. When I was running the numbers, I saw there was no way for me to win even if town believed me that last day and the next.
I would have been spectacularly happy if you did go for Arix, because I'm pretty sure that would have resulted in you dying on Shaddus' revenge power when you got redirected to him.
Tbh, I'm not a big fan of lie detectors being used to check "I win with town" messages. It's unimaginative and has no counterplay. Even if you don't give town a detective, that's an investigate power. And it's even stronger than a detective when it's visibly used during the day, as no one can dispute the existence of the power because it happens publicly. If a detective finds scum at night, they have to decide if they want to claim in order to get rid of a baddie, or keep it to themself and try to be subtle about getting the person lynched. If they die in the night, they don't get to share their results. Day lie detector has to claim, but there's no way in hell they'd be unprotected at night after revealing, and their results happen instantly. They can also be protected without drawback by jailing.
I think if we're going to have lie detectors in future games, there needs to be a restriction that it can't be used on direct statements of alignment. It's boring. It keeps people from making bluffs, which is a fun part of the game. It publicly confirms townies and makes lynches too easy. Down with that sort of thing, etc.
3
SylandraJoin Queue for Mafia GamesThe Last Mafia Game
This is kind of why I feel lie detectors should be night abilities. It leaves some room for ambiguity, and some debate on whether or not the information the lie detector has is accurate. Public verification is a powerful, powerful combination, I think.
What a gag it would be if a daytime lie detector was mafia, though. That would be something.
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
I don't mind the lie detector but I find abilities they let you know how many people are town to be too strong. Weiwae ended up in an unwinnable situation because of it.
I didn't believe the town count, I thought Silvanus or Shaddus might be exempt and that there might be two mafia left. I didn't totally believe the lie detectors either. Kalikai's supermajority power was more convincing on that (though we didn't test it ).
Comments
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
If I had went with my gut and investigated Lehki or Dys, this would still be going. Bravo, town
Butterflies! Nightingales! Farting rainbows! Lucky coins! What next?!
@Sylandra: that was the idea. I knew I'd check out as town, so when I checked you and you were town as well as harmless to me but usually an aggressive player, I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to make a friend and hopefully use you as a shield
Finding @Kalikai on the first night was a mixed blessing. We knew we had no way to take her out, and we didn't know the extent of her powers, so we played it safe and I generally made friendly with her as long as possible. When both Sylandra and Kalikai decided they "think they know what my role was", I knew I had a few friends to keep the others off my back until I could find a way to get rid of Kalikai.
TL;DR Kalikai is the blackswordsman, and you briefly had some sort of rainbow barrier
This was one of the things I wanted to experiment with and see how far a serial killer could get with it, without people catching on. Unfortunately, didn't quite get to see that play out, but I do think powers that can masquerade as other powers (and even function like them to some degree) would be neat to see repeat in the future.
At least this way, if someone tried to kill whoever Silvanus farted at, it wouldn't be a "wasted" mark necessarily - in fact, it could make his power look extremely townie. But that's another thing that kind of fell off - no other powers tripped his shields to make them do something significant.
Definitely want more detective-less town in the future too!
We never lynched a mafia or the serial killer! Lynches did not in any way contribute to removing the anti-town contingency.
That all being said, was fun to watch. Probably going to have to actually learn mafia strategy of I want to make it past day one in the future.
When I was running the numbers, I saw there was no way for me to win even if town believed me that last day and the next.
I think if we're going to have lie detectors in future games, there needs to be a restriction that it can't be used on direct statements of alignment. It's boring. It keeps people from making bluffs, which is a fun part of the game. It publicly confirms townies and makes lynches too easy. Down with that sort of thing, etc.
What a gag it would be if a daytime lie detector was mafia, though. That would be something.