Mafia - Forum game

Soldato
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I was originally going to use the werewolf theme, but then I realised where we were, and with the avatar theme here on OcUK, there was no other option!

For those of you who don't know, Mafia/Werewolf is one of the classic hidden role games, with lots of panic, finger pointing and player elimination. And unlike Avalon and The Resistance, it can actually be played online. Sure you don't have the face to face interaction that you do around a table, but we can play it from our basements!

The gameplay is pretty simple. Everyone who joins the game will be given an identity, for this first game we'll be playing with three. The Mafia goon, the Townie, and the Cop. The number of people who want to play will determine the number of goons we have in the game.

From there, the game will start, and depending on the number of players it will either be night or day. At night, the goons all get together and kill one of the townies, because that's what mafia members do. At the same time, the cop can secretly select one player and will discover their identity.

Then it will be day, people can begin talking, and there will be a lynching! A time limit will be set (Usually 24 hours), and the thread can be used for discussions, pleas and finger pointing, until there is a majority consensus on who to kill. Naturally you want to lynch the mafia members, so watch who is voting for who. The cop will probably learn the identities of some mafia members at some point in the game, but he can't reveal who he is or he will just be killed at night.
If there is a tie at the end of the time limit, we'll use the longest held last vote (LHLV) system - The most recent vote for each person will be compared, the vote which was cast first will win.

No discussion should take place outside of the game thread, except for the mafia members who may only discuss during the night phase who to kill.

Once you are dead, you are also not allowed to post, ghosts can't talk!
Depending on the interest, I may make a separate thread for people outside of the game to comment in, as well as for dead people to discuss what's going on. Though this would only work if the currently alive players are trustworthy enough to never look in there, as that would naturally break the game. So that would probably be down to a vote on here for yes or no.

So, that's Mafia! Generally you want at least 7 players, I'm happy to be the moderator to keep in control of things (Mafia members would email me with their kills, and I would post, the cop would email me with his target, and I would inform him). More than 7 players leads to a longer game, but it's much better with more people because you can get more information the longer the game goes on. Role playing is purely optional, though can add character to the game!

If there's enough interest I'll get everything ready for a game! I hope this isn't against the 'no forum games' rule since this is technically a tabletop game? The threads certainly will be less spammy than the 'this moment' thread in GD :p
 
On my phone right now so I'll write a full reply to JeditOjanens post when I'm home, but this is now 9 players, and I'll take his advice on the player numbers. Expect the game to begin this evening, with a proper rule explanation for those still confused by it.
 
I'm not going to play, but as an experienced player of Forum Mafia I'll offer a little advice.

<snip>

  1. Yup, that's the plan
  2. Thanks for the pointer. Anyone interested once the game has begun will be added to the reserved list.
  3. Again, thanks for the pointers!
  4. I was planning on 48/24 day/nights, but hadn't thought about the weekend activity, thanks again!
  5. Not sure if this will really be needed. I mean, I was just going to leave it up to the mafia players to decide on whatever was easier, be it email, steam chat or whatever. I do like the idea of the doc file for discussion though. Give that document link out to people who are not in the game but interested in watching, and also to players once they are eliminated. That way people can discuss theories on who's on which side, if they so desire. Probably won't for the first game, just to keep things simple.
  6. Yup, that's what I was going to do. Bold text and make it obvious.

I'm just going to make a new game thread which will contain all the rules. Of course people who aren't playing are free to read the thread and figure out in your head who is on what team, but please don't discuss that in this thread until the game is over.
Once we've completed a game I'll see what (if anything) needs to be tweaked.

Also, please make sure all your trusts are working, as that is how I'll be distributing all your roles! Can't give you a role if I can't contact you!
 
Bad timing you three, but if anyone has to drop out of this game then you will be replacements if you so desire, and you'll have first dibs at the next game (Assuming I don't make a complete balls up and ruin the game and end up with everyone hating it!)

Please don't discuss the live game in here, the players will likely read this thread, and if you point out things like 'x is being pretty shifty' it could influence them. If you like, I can create something like a google document to discuss this, and make it public after the game is completed.

And yes, the game does start off with a lynching. Yes, there is zero information to base this on. Yes, it does indeed suck to be the first one killed. Hope you're all popular!

If you are somehow unable to find the game thread, it is here:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18563424

And to confirm, the selected players are:

Burnsy
Pookie
Shamikebab
K1LLSW1TCH
neil3k
kiyoshi
TheMightyTen
Gooner Leroy
Fortyseven

Now I sit here, hoping it will be a success and being paranoid about if I haven't been clear on the rules, and a hundred other things!
 
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Just a reminder, 23 hours until the first lynching and we move on to the night phase. There are 4 people still to vote.

On a side note, if inactivity does become a problem and there are people not voteing at all, I'll bring in the fabulous replacements I have here, though I hope it won't come to that.
 
So the Mafia guys don't even know who the other Mafia guys are at the start? That doesn't sound like particularly organised crime!

Would there be any harm in them having this information at the start? It would at least give the initial lynching some direction rather than it being completely random (The Mafia guys would be trying to avoid getting each other lynched whilst trying not to be too obvious about it and the others would be looking for signs of this)

Apologies for not being clear, the mafia guys do know who each other are.
 
Unfortunately that's just the way Mafia goes, people die.

Better luck next time though! It looks like we should have interest for a larger 13 player game if you want to try that out. Unless everyone here has a sick sense of humour and lynches you right away again :p
 
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With Brabbinho replacing neil3k, I assume mafia/cop roles could still be possible for him?

Correct. He inherited whichever role that Neil had. Any night actions would have been available.
For future reference, if a player that can gather night intel like a cop leaves, the inheriting player will be given the info that the original player had discovered.

iviv, you aren't posting flips in the Mafia game. This is not recommended practice - knowing whether a lynch victim was Town or Scum is essential information for the Town, because you can see who was pushing for the lynch.

I've honestly never played with revealing roles/factions on death. Is that a common rule /variant?
 
Huh, fair enough, from the next game on we'll play it that way. I've always taught the rules the way I was taught. Guess that's the way misinformation and variants get spread!
 
Thanks for the reply, though given the levels of interest I'm looking at stepping it up to a 13 player game so more people can take part. And in that game I will post reveals on death as well!
It's getting late, but tomorrow I'll pull together the info and go through the thread to see who is interested in joining.

Players from that first game, please also post again to confirm your interest if you would like to take part in game 2. Anyone who requested to join since the first game started will have priority (Including Brabbinho since he joined part way through) as well as Shamikebab as the consolation prize for being the day 1 lynch!
 
Hello! I'm still here, just been caught up with life. I'll go through the thread tomorrow evening and hopefully get a 13 player game going though.

You should also consider trying to play a forum version of The Resistance:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/the-resistance

Definitely one of the best games ever made (in my opinion :p) and would translate quite well to a forum.

As much as I love Avalon (The resistance, but better), I don't see it working too well online because of all the interaction required. Selecting who to take on the missions, then voting on if the mission should go ahead, there's far more interaction required than in something like Mafia/Werewolf, and I'm just not sure how well it would translate. Plus with roles like Merlin you have to be able to give subtle signals and tells, which is much harder to do via text.
 
Sorry, due to a combination of family issues and it being Christmas, I'm going to postpone the start of the game until Monday 6th January, as that way there won't be people who can't play due to holidays, etc.
 
Whoops! Yes, thanks, everything is fine, except for my memory XD

Right, I've just gone through the thread and the prospective players for this game are:

Brabbinho
233
The Malteser
Psymonkee
kaiowas
Egon
JoeF1
Pudney
GhostWKD
<Previous players>
Fortyseven
Gooner Leroy
Shamikebab
Pookie Bear
Kiyoshi
K1LLSW1TCH

Now, first of all I want to confirm who out of those are still interested, and if there is interest in anyone else in joining in? The game will be made up of the first 13 players who didn't participate in the previous game, with the exception of any players brought in part way through as standins. After that, slots will be allocated on a first come first serve basis for people who were in the previous game.

So, if you're on the list, please confirm your interest. If you aren't, make your interest known! I will be aiming to start the game on Friday evening, so will need answers before then! I'll add in the rules we'll be using for a 13 player game later, got to run now! Sorry for the delay in the game though!
 
Trust messages have gone out to everyone on the list except for GhostWKD as they haven't enabled their trust.

As for the game, I will be posting the player list on Friday, but we'll be doing a 14 player game, adding a couple of extra roles. Specifically there will be the doctor; each night the doctor selects a player, that player can't be night killed by the mafia that night.
The jailkeeper is similar to the doctor, in that he protects one player from being night killed that night, however that player cannot use any of their roles that night either, they are in jail!

I'll post the exact breakdown of the roles on Friday at the same time as I send out all the role PMs.
 
Sorry, should have been clearer, the message only went out to people who haven't posted here since my update. You guys have already confirmed that you still want to take part so no point emailing you telling you to check the thread!

But given there were 15 people interested, I'm pretty sure we should get the 14 people needed. And it should mean that everyone from the last game will get in as well.
 
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