is a series of games designed with a twist in mind. They are individual, one-shot games which will likely never be able to be duplicated again by anyone with knowledge of the game. Twists may be subtle, crazy, or perhaps even non-existent (itself being the twist!), but it is my hope that the game will be memorable.
Game Mechanic Expectations
This game has a strong possibility of being distinctly non-normal.
I reserve the right to be considered a “bastard mod” in this game.
If you are looking for a normal-ish game with flavor, then this game is not for you.
Please consider your ability to play the game to completion before signup.
The nature of the game may be such that replacing causes an undue strain on the game in a way more damaging than to typical games.
Games may be wildly unbalanced.
I have tried my very best to make games as balanced as possible, but due to the nature of each twist, that may not always be possible. Some factions may have an easier or harder time of things in any given Mafia with a Twist game. If you are expecting perfect balance or dislike swinginess in games, then this game may not be for you.
Gameplay Expectations
Games will feature strict two-week day deadlines.
The circumstances under which this will be extended will be exceedingly rare. Lynches at deadline will be the single-highest vote-getter, with ties being broken under the longest-held-last-vote principle. I will be providing a link to my votecounting app so you should be able to obtain your own votecount at any given moment, but I expect to be posting regular votecounts so often that you will rarely (if ever) need to rely upon it.
I will be enforcing a “don’t be a jerk” rule.
I don’t expect to ever need to use it (and have come across very few instances where such a thing would be warranted), but we’re playing a game to have fun. Personal attacks which make the game unfun for players will be dealt with by warnings, or in extreme cases, forced replacement.
Signup Restrictions
Hydra accounts will not be accepted into this game.
No exceptions.
Players in this game should have a minimum of 2 completed games on this site before signing up for this game.
I strongly recommend having at least 5 games of experience under your belt before signing up. I reserve the right to waive this requirement, but I have zero expectation that I will do so. I will not be accepting pre-/ins for this game, unless you have replaced into a game (and lasted until the end of it) in which I have played or moderated.
Good luck.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
. Your only power is that of the all-important vote, so use it well!
You win when the Mafia have been killed.
Please confirm via reply PM, telling me what happens at the deadline of any day. (This is how I ensure you have at least glanced at my rules.) The game will begin after all players have responded, and at least 72 hours have passed, in order to allow night-talking groups to communicate before the game.
Game-specific rules:
Don't be a jerk.
Discussions can get heated and sometimes people swear, and that's okay. That happens! But don't be a jerk. If you want to play a game and be a jerk, there are plenty of others on this site you can join.
I expect to enforce this rule if needed, and I expect I won't need to.
I reserve the ability to use any manner of tools to enforce this, including but not limited to warnings or forced replacements. I don't expect to involuntarily replace you unless you've been clearly warned, or the violation is particularly egregious.
Playing to win does not preclude being considerate to others.
Please use vote tags when making your votes. For example, VOTE: Kristen. If you can't be bothered to use vote tags, your vote must be bolded and use a colon, such as
Vote: Kristen
. I am using an automatic votecounter to assist me, and if you don't use either of these formats, it will have problems and make my job more difficult. If a vote is made with incorrect tags, I reserve the right to edit your post solely to correct the formatting of your vote.
This game will begin in Day. Days will last 14 real-time days (excluding Sundays), and Nights will last for 2 real-time days (excluding Sundays). Deadlines will not be extended except in extraordinary circumstances.
At any deadline, a simple plurality will successfully lynch a player, using the longest-held-last-vote method to break ties.
Please do not use or mimic the [ ooc ] tag. If I need to make edits in players' posts, I will use this tag.
Generic rules:
Unless stated otherwise by the moderator or in these rules, the follow are controlling:
Lynchings will require a simple majority of votes. Once a player has reached the necessary majority, his pleas are useless and any attempts to unvote will be unheeded. You may
Vote: No Lynch
– 50% of living players must do this to end the day without a death.
Once your death scene has been posted, you’re dead. Stop typing.
Pretending to break a rule will be treated as if breaking a rule.
Remember, it’s a game. Have fun!
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
...and it will give you what should be an accurate votecount, though it will throw up warnings if it's not sure who a vote should go onto (like on Zoidberg's vote here). There are certainly ways of tricking the votecounter and deliberately show incorrect tallies, but by-and-large it should do a good job. And if you're doing nonsense with your voting just to mess up the votecounter, well, then, phooey on you for making my job harder.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
As an aside, please use the "Unvote" tag when unvoting if you think of it. The votecounter will pick up
most
bolded unvotes anyway (it doesn't like a trailing semicolon, as coded), but is guaranteed to pick up the unvote tag. It's no big deal if you miss it, as I'll try to keep an eye out as well. Thanks!
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
*This deadline updates automatically, and should be current as of when the page is refreshed.
I am seeking a replacement for Zoidberg. I have posted in the replacement thread, but if you're following along with the game and want to replace in, please PM me right away. I am willing to cross-replace if necessary. Thanks.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
The thought of a Mafia still around in town unnerves you to the core of your being. There’s a general murmur among the crowd that this lynch wasn’t enough. However, there’s not enough time to get a consensus on who to lynch next. It’s time to take things in their own hands…
Mafia with a Twist 1: The OK Corral
All pro-town players are given a 1-shot, Night-1-compulsory vigilante power.
Each pro-town player
must
send me a PM with another player's name for an intended nightkill. As long as no one stops them, the submitted player will be killed tonight.
I will follow this notice up with a PM to each pro-town player. N1 will remain open for 48 hours or until all nightchoices are received, whichever comes first.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
Thanks everyone for playing! I hope you enjoyed it. I see several people have already requested pre-/ins for the next one, which is flattering! If you wish to pre-/in for Mafia with a Twist 2, please PM me your desire to do so. I will save all such PMs, and the first 6 will have a slot reserved, and the remainder will be notified when the game is approaching signups so as to give you a warning to jump on it as soon as it opens.
Setup
It was indeed 10 townies and 3 mafia, with no special abilities, other than the N1 mass vig, which no one was made aware of prior to the game. Role PMs were generated with code substantially similar to that in the spoiler below:
from random import shuffle
PM_HEADING = """>>>>>>>>>>ROLE PM for {player}<<<<<<<<<<
Subject: Mafia {game_number} - Mafia with a Twist 1: Title to be Revealed - ROLE PM"""
TOWNIE_PM = """Hello, {player}! Here is your Role PM for [url={game_url}]Mini {game_number} - Mafia with a Twist 1: Title to be Revealed[/url].
You are a [b]Townie[/b]. Your only power is that of the all-important vote, so use it well!
You win when the Mafia have been killed.
Please confirm via reply PM, telling me what happens at the deadline of any day. (This is how I ensure you have at least glanced at my rules.) The game will begin after all players have responded, and at least 72 hours have passed, in order to allow night-talking groups to communicate before the game.
"""
MAFIA_PM = """Hello, {player}! Here is your Role PM for [url={game_url}]Mini {game_number} - Mafia with a Twist 1: Title to be Revealed[/url].
You are a [b]Mafia Goon[/b], along with {ally1} and {ally2}. Each night you may talk with each other in [url={private_url}]this Hidden Private Thread[/url], and one of you can send me a PM with another player's name for an intended nightkill. As long as no one stops you, that player will be killed that night.
You win when all non-Mafia players have been killed, or when nothing can prevent the same.
Please confirm via reply PM, telling me what happens at the deadline of any day. (This is how I ensure you have at least glanced at my rules.) The game will begin after all players have responded, and at least 72 hours have passed, in order to allow night-talking groups to communicate before the game.
"""
game_number = '1598'
game_url = 'http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=58660'
private_url = 'http://forum.mafiascum.net/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=58661'
player_list = ['hiplop', 'ika', 'Klazam', 'Konowa', 'leviathan93', 'MadCitrus', \
'Maestro', 'Natirasha', 'Save The Dragons', 'SleepyKrew', 'Wolfy', \
'Zoidberg', 'ZZZX']
shuffle(player_list)
mafia = player_list[:3]
for player in mafia:
ally1, ally2 = [x for x in mafia if x != player]
print PM_HEADING.format(player=player, game_number=game_number)
print MAFIA_PM.format(player=player, game_url=game_url,
game_number=game_number, ally1=ally1, ally2=ally2,
private_url=private_url)
townies = player_list[3:]
for player in townies:
print PM_HEADING.format(player=player, game_number=game_number)
print TOWNIE_PM.format(player=player, game_url=game_url,
game_number=game_number)
In retrospect, I wonder if I should have said "Vanilla Townie" for the roles, as that seemed a source of confusion. I may likely tweak the win condition of the town, as that seemed to give away that Mafia was the only threat to the town (though I may want that, and may make it more explicit if I do).
The Twist and N1 Choices
Here's what happened N1, in Paint.NET form:
There were a few kills I was surprised by, but I figured the night would be bloody. I thought Save the Dragons' choice to try and overlap kills was innovative. The thought of making all townies a 1-shot vig has been done before, but has been relatively and reasonably gamed by having everyone shoot the person below them on the list. Without warning, I was intrigued to see how people would react. I wasn't sure which side would have better odds here as the town would have 9-10 kills depending on how D1 went, but the mafia would have no power roles to work against other than N1. A good D1 from mafia would have them in the driver's seat (or even auto-winning N1), but here they took it down to the wire. I was happy with the results, as many (most?) players seemed to have enjoyed the game.
Replacements
I was disappointed that Zoidberg replaced out, but understanding. Actually, I thought his wagon was pretty valid until he started posting loads of content, and thought he seemed town, and was a bit surprised that he requested replacing out, but if the game's not fun for you, it's better to get out than drag everyone else down with you. I was worried that his site-leaving would make the slot seem significantly likelier as town, but his N1 death mooted that.
On the flipside, Maestro's replace out was at a dreadfully awful time. He PMed me right as it went into night, which is his right. However, what townie is going to replace out right when given a vig kill shot? (Very few, I imagine!) I would be very concerned if I had to advertise the replacement need at that moment for fear of drawing a lot of kills towards the slot! Fortunately, I already had another replacement lined up. (When I had previously advertised the replacement request for Zoidberg, I had two requests within minutes of each other.) I was then stuck with when to announce the replacement, and ultimately decided to let Riddleton (the replacement player) decide whether to announce now or after N1, and he chose immediately. In another fortunate dodge of the bullet (for me, anyway!), he was killed N1. As a general question to you, how would you have handled this? Would you have preferred me do something different?
In any case, huge thanks to both Aegor and Riddleton for replacing in quickly and being quality players for your duration. Let me know if ever you're modding something and need a replacement and I will do my best to help you out.
The Game Itself
I must preface this by saying that my views and reads are naturally colored by the fact that I knew the alignments of all players. So, I may be horribly wrong in my perceptions simply because I knew too much to perceive it exactly as one who didn't know.
I thought the wagon on Zoidberg early was legitimate, but as he posted content, I thought he looked considerably more town-like. I thought the wagon on MadCitrus made lots of sense, and thought he did himself no favors by being very standoff-ish for much of the early game. (Note to players regarding strategy: if you do things that look scummy and get a wagon, it is silly to suggest that scum must have capitalized on this by voting you. It's hard to argue that you've drawn scum to your wagon, particularly because it's nigh impossible to tell which ones are scum
if any
. The vast majority of players on MadCitrus (save Natirasha, who was very late to the wagon) were town. hiplop was also lynched by a lot of town. Mafia primarily lurked and posted contentless posts during D1 and were allowed to do so. I think I may policy lynch lurkers/low content creators in the future in games I play in, simply because it can be effective. The nature of this particular Mafia with a Twist didn't allow that, but they didn't know that.
I still have no idea why leviathan93 claimed a power role. (Care to explain?) I didn't see the utility
even if it had succeeded
, and it stole the spotlight from other potential players. Wolfy may have gotten to hound ika if not for the attention he drew, and it lead to all three townies lynching the other town, which made D3 even harder.
I also thought Save the Dragons was the most obviously town player throughout the game, but again, this may be drastically colored by the fact that I had actual knowledge that he was town. In any case, ika played well in staying out of the way of the town on this one. If it had gone the other way (with Save the Dragons choosing between ika or Klazam), I don't know if it would have been any different.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed playing the first installment of Mafia with a Twist. I had fun watching, and I hope I was active enough with prods and votecounts to keep things moving as best I could. I am thankful for the effort of each and every one of you, as really it's the players that make a game fun or not, I just keep things moving. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time!
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
Also, thanks for trying to work with the votecounter and being understanding with the lone uncaught mistake it made. It made my job a lot easier. In the next game, I may try to encourage use of the vote tags a great deal more, because it's more foolproof.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -
↑ika wrote:as my rules would be, all replacements are made public immitetly. if it was day 2 and he posted first i would be questioning it if i was town.
if you dont mind what was the reason?
If I waited until D2 to replace, I would have announced it at the open of D2.
The reason was somewhat straightforward - what townie would voluntarily replace out once given a 1-shot vig they have to use? I thought it would be too obviously a scum slot. (This is, of course, colored by my actual knowledge of him being scum, so I may be overstating things.) I thought in this particular instance, offering the choice to the player of when to announce would be the best compromise. I am glad that ultimately it did not seem to affect things.
↑SleepyKrew wrote:Oh Thesp can I pre-in for the next one?
↑Thesp wrote:If you wish to pre-/in for Mafia with a Twist 2, please PM me your desire to do so. I will save all such PMs, and the first 6 will have a slot reserved, and the remainder will be notified when the game is approaching signups so as to give you a warning to jump on it as soon as it opens.
"When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." -