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Greetings,

After deep personal introspection I have decided to try to start up a game of Mafia with a 40k theme. What is Mafia? you may ask. The link is to a dedicated Mafia site's Flash application that explains the basics (and less basics) of the game, but I'll include a brief breakdown for those of you who don't care to deal with a Flash App.

-----------------Brief Rule Breakdown-----------------------
The game is based around deception, detection, and some other 'd' word that is applicable but which I cannot think of to continue the alliteration. It is a game of logic, psychology, and bluffs where the clever can sniff out the truth (or obscure it) and the foolish are left swinging at the end of a lynch rope.

A group of players (Imperial Citizens) are in trouble for amongst them, pretending to be normal citizens, is one or more members of a vile group out to kill them (Genestealer Cultists, egads!). The game is split into two parts; a day and a night cycle.

During the day the Imperial Citizens have to talk amongst themselves to see if they can figure out who is innocent and who is a lying scum heretic and mutant. They do this by asking questions, looking for suspicious behavior or voting patterns, and casting votes against those they suspect. The day cycle ends when a plurality is reached and they decide to lynch one of the players. That player is killed and his identity (Citizen or Genestealer Cultist) is revealed to the other players.

At Night the Genestealer Cultists may secretly discuss (PM) their plot and send to the game moderator their decision of who amongst the innocent to kill. The town awakens to find their dead friend and the day cycle begins anew.

The Imperial Citizens win if they manage to kill all of the Cultists so that only Citizens are left alive. The Genestealer Cultists win once they kill all the Citizens (or begin a day cycle with an identical or greater number of Cultists to Citizens whereupon statistically they cannot lose.)

To aid the Imperial Citizens they may have amongst them an Imperial Inquisitor (equivalent to Mafia's cop) who is capable every night of investigating one player and learning whether they are a Citizen of Cultist. Or perhaps a Doctor, who each night can select to protect a character from being killed if the Cult targets them. Many other possible roles exist, and as games get larger there can become some interesting roles to be found. All roles, from regular Citizen to Cultist and everything in between is assigned randomly by the game moderator to the players.
-------------------------------------------------------------

I'd love to organize a game presuming there's enough interest. As a cautionary note, games of Mafia can go on for a fair bit of time (especially the initial Day vote) so expect that the first vote may take a week or two easily, though sometimes they can go frighteningly quickly too (I will probably put an arbitrary three week cap to all day cycles). So keep that in mind if you want to sign up. Also, be aware that though there is a certain strategy to lurking (and when to do it depending on your role) the detective/voting aspect of the game requires information that can only really be gained from posts, so you should probably be willing to post a message or two every few days (real life ones).

You can run a fairly optimal mini game with seven players, and for a first time out I think that's a fair goal. If there's enough interest I might expand the game up to a field of up to thirteen players (with some additional roles perhaps worked in at that point). If we somehow end up with a huge outpouring of interest extra players will probably be placed in a reserve pool in case anyone needs to be replaced during the course of the game for inactivity.

So, if you're interested please post in this thread with any questions or simply express your desire to participate.

Committed Players, seven is minimum game size (may go as large as thirteen), game will use odd number of players, extra players as potential replacements;
1. Manchu
2. Gwar!
3. Demogerg
4. Orkeosaurus
5. Lord-Loss
6. jwelvis629
7. Vahallan42nd
-----------
8. Brother Stynier
9. Frenzied Potato
10. Dark Lord Seanron
11.
12.
13.

I'll play, Thor. Your posts are always good so your games should be good, too.

I read the rules over and it does look quite fun. I don't fully understand whether the townies know who among them is the doctor or cop and, if so, how this doesn't just break the game from the start.

Name Suggestions?

Townie: Citizen
Mafia: Genestealer
Cop: Arbitrator
Doctor: Governor
Godfather: Hybrid
Serial Killer: Chaos Cultist
Mason: ??? (I love the concept though--innocence proves nothing)
Vigilante: Radical Inquisitor
Role-Blocker: Puritan Inquisitor

I think it'd be good to add in the last two roles gradually as the game progressed (if there are a goodly amount of players), maybe recruiting from the dead players (although alignment could be an issue)--as things get worse, the Inquisition gets called in!

I'm In

Im in too

EDIT* looks like all the "hardcore" space wolf dakkaites are in.

I'll give it a shot.

For the (four-armed, purple) Emperor!

Orkeosaurus wrote:
For the Brood!

maybe?

Im in, that sounds like great fun!

I'll play

Manchu wrote:I'll play, Thor. Your posts are always good so your games should be good, too.

No pressure, right?

I read the rules over and it does look quite fun. I don't fully understand whether the townies know who among them is the doctor or cop and, if so, how this doesn't just break the game from the start.

The basic strategy there is interesting - the players are told their roles and are (sometimes) told what 'power roles' exist. However, they are unaware of what role anyone else may have. So, you are correct, someone can role-claim. For instance, on Day 2 someone might say "Hey guys, I'm the cop, I investigated Manchu, he's a Genestealer."

The catch?

Well, first off - is he the cop? Only the real cop knows for sure. Manchu, if you're really a Genestealer you might know the truth now as well (as would any Genestealer buddies). However, what if you're a Citizen? Is the "cop" really the cop, or is he a Genestealer trying to get the town to lynch you? Also, if he really is the cop then now you and your Genestealer buddies *know* he's the cop, and that means if there's no doctor then even if he gets you lynched, he's dead on the next night sequence, and a dead cop hurts the town. Usually people try to play the cop stealthily near the beginning just trying to steer people gently towards the right (or away from the wrong) person to lynch. The mid game becomes more interesting as it becomes a more and more viable strategy to declare cop as there are less and less Genestealers to worry about.

Name Suggestions?

Townie: Citizen
Mafia: Genestealer
Cop: Arbitrator
Doctor: Governor
Godfather: Hybrid
Serial Killer: Chaos Cultist
Mason: ??? (I love the concept though--innocence proves nothing)
Vigilante: Radical Inquisitor
Role-Blocker: Puritan Inquisitor

I think it'd be good to add in the last two roles gradually as the game progressed (if there are a goodly amount of players), maybe recruiting from the dead players (although alignment could be an issue)--as things get worse, the Inquisition gets called in!

Oooh, thanks, I'll add these to my own idea pool. And, yes, the bigger the number of players the more power roles can be included. For instance - seven players usually calls for one, or at most two power roles to help the town (a cop and, if two, a doctor as well) If we get 9+ players interested I'll probably add in at least one more power role, fear not.

Gwar! wrote:I'm In

You're officially my pick for most likely to be lynched day 1 .

Thanks everyone for expressing interest! I'll add your names to the sign-in sheet.

Wow, i was almost worried day one when I barely got any interest. But now we're already almost to a potentially functional game.

Demogerg wrote:looks like all the "hardcore" space wolf dakkaites are in.

Not quite, gotta get Stynier in here, too.

Demogerg wrote:

Orkeosaurus wrote:
For the Brood!

maybe?

Required watching for the game:

Orkeosaurus wrote:

Demogerg wrote:

Orkeosaurus wrote:
For the Brood!

maybe?

Required watching for the game:

Is that a preview from ULTRAMARINES: THE MOVIE?:p

Why did it have to be Spess Wholves :(

Directed by George Lucas, to be sure.

Gwar! wrote:Why did it have to be Spess Wholves :(

I know! Shutting down this, this, inspired so much butthurt and vitriol against GW??? (Disclaimer: I hereby acknowledge that those German dudes are super awesome for trying so hard, blah blah blah.)

In like flynn. If there is still space.

Manchu wrote:

Gwar! wrote:Why did it have to be Spess Wholves :(

I know! Shutting down this, this, inspired so much butthurt and vitriol against GW??? (Disclaimer: I hereby acknowledge that those German dudes are super awesome for trying so hard, blah blah blah.)

No, this is not Damantus. Damantus is awesome and Win and High Quality. I have it somewhere -Digs through mounds of backup DVDs-

Oh, cheers. I did think it had something to do with AdMech and not termies but figured I must be remembering a dream or somesuch.

They came out with a movie called Inquisitor, where some Dark Angels and an Inquisitor investigate a world with a Chaos gate on it. It's of pretty hilarious quality.

The Genestealer and Ork clips were discarded ideas, or extra trailers, or something. Very quotable, for sure.

The Broooooooooood!!!!!

Manchu wrote:

Demogerg wrote:looks like all the "hardcore" space wolf dakkaites are in.

Not quite, gotta get Stynier in here, too.

Im in, sounds pretty cool to me, and is sure to be fun and entertaining. Looks like we now have pretty much all of the "hardcore" Wolf dakkaites.

With Valhallan42nd and BrotherStynier we have eight people registered. I think my plot will be to now go to bed (ah, sweet, sweet bed) and in the "morning" when I finally ooze into a human like shape again I'll put together the game thread and send out the role PMs to the players.

As I prefer to run games without an opening night sequence we'll stick to the odd number of players - which will make BrotherStynier the first replacement if needed. Of course if between now and then someone else wants to toss their hat in the ring both Stynier and they will be added to the game.

After the game is in progress anyone expressing interest will be placed in order on the fill-in list.

Regards,
Thor.

Thor665 wrote:With Valhallan42nd and BrotherStynier we have eight people registered. I think my plot will be to now go to bed (ah, sweet, sweet bed) and in the "morning" when I finally ooze into a human like shape again I'll put together the game thread and send out the role PMs to the players.

As I prefer to run games without an opening night sequence we'll stick to the odd number of players - which will make BrotherStynier the first replacement if needed. Of course if between now and then someone else wants to toss their hat in the ring both Stynier and they will be added to the game.

After the game is in progress anyone expressing interest will be placed in order on the fill-in list.

Regards,
Thor.

I am interested as well. I read the rules and have an good understanding.

Frenzied Potato wrote:I am interested as well. I read the rules and have an good understanding.

Excellent o most energetic of spuds - I shall put you down and if we have any drops outs from the current game you'll be the second option after BrotherStynier.

Hmm, I have two questions-

(1) Can I be a tech-priest?

(2) Can I join?

1. All power roles are determined by random chance and at the moment I'm not even sure if there will be a power role titled tech-priest (though I'm leaning towards Ad Mech for Masons).

2. The game is currently underway and extra players can't be added once it's started. However, I will put you down on the list to fill spots if a current player needs to drop out (there are two people ahead of you)

Also, if you like, when this game is finished as long as there is enough interest I'll probably organize another (hopefully with more players as that equates to more power roles. But anyone who has signed up here will definitely be on a PM alert list when i start up the second game.

I'm up for the next game as well. Hopefully I won't need to have such a spectacular exit.

You certainly made a splash.

You desire is so noted - mayhaps I'll turn this thread into registration for a second game as well. I know Frenzied Potato is already chomping to be a part of this/next one as well.

Any chance of me joining a second game too?

I see no problem with that Mekboy - as I'd like to make the second game larger (hopefully at least 9 or 11) which will let me work in a few more power roles and maybe even an independent character - like a serial killer (I should probably try some PM collaborations with Manchu to help me name the roles)

I reckon anyone who expresses interest in this thread will be on a PM alert list when I open registration for the second game.