December 18, 1994
1:05 AM
Echo Bay, Maryland
Howell Hospital
Room 742
"I'm dying, you know."
"that's true, sir."
"and none of my family wants to admit it."
"also true."
"there are going to be... things that happen when I die."
"I understand, sir."
"do you know why I appointed you as the executor of my will?"
"because you trust me to follow through on your plans, sir."
"it will be your job to maintain order."
"I'll do my best, sir. I just have one question."
"what's that, Dorothy?"
"how long will this all take?"
"take as long as you need to get this right. no deadlines."
that's right: we're headed back to Echo Bay. for those of you who don't know, I've moderated a series of games called TBD Mafia, TBD Mafia 2, Mafia Month, and Echo Bay Grits SEO. those comprised season one of the Echo Bay Saga, which was originally just going to be a small handful of loosely connected games but is now a sprawling series of games with Rich Lore! you don't actually need to be familiar with the other games to play this one, but it'll only take you a few minutes to catch up -- just read my iso from those games and look out for text in italicized small caps.
this game's central mechanic is that there are no deadlines for day phases, unless I decide that a given day needs a deadline. that means you're free to discuss the game for a week, a month, or even a year before deciding on a lynch. however, I will be more likely to implement a deadline if activity slows down -- if multiple days pass without new posts or if a large number of players are only occasionally checking in, I will probably institute a deadline. however, there are no hard and fast guidelines about what will cause me to do that, or how soon the deadline will be.
note that this automatically makes this game qualify as bastard, because that's direct moderator influence on the game -- for example, if I wanted to, I could set a one minute deadline to almost ensure that a day ends in no lynch. I probably won't do something like that, but you should not assume that I will be perfectly fair to all parties when it comes to deadlines, because that's impossible. also, this game might have other bastard elements, or it might not.
this is a 24-player game. now, I hear what you're saying: won't it be really hard for 13 out of 24 players to agree on something when there's no deadline pushing them forward? and the answer to that question is "yeah probably lol". mafia, at least as it is played on this site, is something of an endurance test, and this game will be no different. it'll be challenging, but I think it'll also be fun -- with Errantparabola's help, I've put together a setup that I think will be fun to play for however long this thing lasts.
Alisae is the backup mod for this game, but e's promised to hunt me down and end me if I flake on this game, so unless I suddenly die or something, you can probably just ignore em. I mean, don't ignore Alisae, who is a delightful friend, but, like, not a delightful friend who will be actively involved in this game. a backup!
here's the rules to this game. they're pretty standard, but they're here if you'd like to read them:
Spoiler: rules
site rules:
obey all site rules. you can read the site rules here.
do not discuss the game in any capacity outside of this game thread unless your role gives you explicit permission to do so. if you are allowed to do so, I will provide you with a private topic where you can do so.
do not harass other players in this game. while a certain level of confrontation and argumentation is typical in Mafia games, do not bring personal vendettas or outside influences into the game. additionally, do not harm or threaten to harm any person.
game conduct:
play to win the game. there is a chance that you will lose the game, but do your best to avoid that, and do not deliberately throw the game.
do not use the color #8C0000.
do not use any sort of cryptography, hidden text, or other similar methods to hide information in the game thread unless your role explicitly states that you may do so. if you are unsure of what is not allowed, PM me for clarification.
do not quote information from private threads or from the moderator.
if you have access to a private thread, assume that that is the only place where you may communicate privately with the other people in that thread unless your role explicitly says otherwise.
joining the game, leaving the game, and activity:
at the beginning of the game, you will receive a role PM. please confirm by telling me your alignment and any players whose alignment you know, along with a brief summary of any non-vanilla abilities you have.
if you will be away from the site for a set period of time, please post in the thread letting the other players know this and PM me, and update the "Vacation / Limited Access" info in the User Control Panel. I will be more lenient regarding inactivity if you are V/LA, but I may need to replace you if you will be gone for an extended period of time. if you are regularly V/LA at certain times (such as during the weekend), you only need to do this once.
if you do not post for awhile (no specific amount of time -- this will depend on how the rest of the game is progressing), I will prod you (or send you a reminder to check in when possible if you have announced that you are V/LA); failure to respond to prods or needing to be prodded repeatedly throughout the game might result in a replacement.
if you need to be replaced for any reason, you may message me with information to be passed on to the player who replaces you. this isn't mandatory, but if there's strategic advice you'd like to offer to whomever replaces you, you can do this.
gameplay:
living players may vote to lynch living players by writing
vote: player
or VOTE: player in the game thread. you may also vote for no lynch.
once the majority of living players are voting to lynch a player, that player will die.
if you have died, please do not post in the thread anymore. you are not officially considered dead until I announce your death in the game thread.
I might implement a deadline for day phases. if so, I will announce how long the deadline is, and it will be included in votecounts for the rest of the day. if the deadline passes and no majority has been achieved, the day will end without a lynch.
each night phase will last 48 hours, plus however much time it takes me to start the next day.
a sample role PM for the town is included at the bottom of this post.
moderator responsibilities:
I will not edit your posts unless your post breaks the rules in such a way that information needs to be removed from it or quotes a post that does that, or you ask me to edit it to fix a broken tag. I will provide a brief explanation of the edit and, in cases of fixing broken tags, will end the post with a spoiler containing the complete original text of the post.
if you have a pronoun listed on your account, I will use that to refer to you. otherwise, I will default to referring to you as "they"/"them". if you do not have a pronoun listed on your account but wish for me to refer to you using some other pronoun, message me to let me know.
I will do my best to keep the game running as smoothly as possible, but there will be times when I'm not around. the frequency with which I update the game will be somewhat dependent on how the game is progressing, but I'll try to update the thread regularly.
I reserve the right to modify these rules at any time if necessary.
the most important, most fundamental rules of all:
remember the Midnight Amendments:
be cool.
c’mon.
nice.
thanks for vibing and keeping it tight. if you need me, I'm on my mobile.
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Last edited by xyzzy on Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:12 am, edited 26 times in total.
the former. while I might at some point say "hey there's only been one page of new posts in the last week, y'all have a week to get your shit together and just pick somebody," I'll never say "surprise! you missed the Secret Deadline and therefore just lose a day."
activity requirements will be less of a "you must post this often" and more of a "try to stay pretty close to the pace of the other players and be able to follow the game" thing -- in a normal game, you need to be able to sustain a decent pace for maybe a couple months, but it wouldn't be reasonable for me to expect someone to be able to check the game thread literally every day for the full duration of what could potentially be a very, very long game, so I'll be less prone to replace people unless they specifically request to be replaced or just disappear; activity-based replacements will still be possible, of course, because the game might otherwise fall apart, but I'll see it as less of a necessity that must be dealt with ASAP.
in a normal game, finding a replacement is a break in the flow of the game that tangibly affects the outcome, so there's an incentive for moderators to be somewhat aggressive with making sure activity levels are at an acceptable rate; a member of one faction being away from the game for several days has a big effect on that faction's ability to win if you're working with a 2-week deadline, and a deadline extension completely throws off the whole day, but for a game like this one, if I prod someone after a few days of no posts, and then they prod dodge and I prod them again a few days later, and they respond "hey, sorry, I'll be able to catch up on the game this weekend," I have no incentive to not give them the benefit of the doubt that they'll be able to make time for the game. now, obviously if this continues for awhile longer with more assurances that they'll get to the game soon, I'll eventually need to replace them even if they're still technically around, but I'm hoping there'll be less need for that in this game.
I've made a small change to the sample role PM in the spoilered rules -- the win condition for that role was copied and pasted from a game with an open setup with only two factions, so the wording is slightly different now.
I'll let anyone in if they've got a Tabby avatar tbh
also, would allowing hydras result in the game filling faster? my instinct was that it would fill slower since there'd be players who would join as a hydra who would've otherwise joined as single players, but I'm open to changing that if folks feel like it would do the opposite
