Setup OP
***NOTE: Bracketed Notes in [[[Pink]]] are for mods/spoilers only.
Core Setup:
This is a Town vs Cult game. There are only two factions:
Adventurers ("Town")
The Adventurers are initially much more numerous but overall less informed. They win when all Bahamudites are dead, either at Dusk or Dawn (ie: immediately after a lynch or at the very start of Day).
Bahamudites ("Cult" or "Scum")
The Bahamudite cult begins the game at an extreme numerical disadvantage, which they must rectify to win. The Bahamudites are a cult, and have a regular recruit ability which can convert an Adventurer into a Bahamudite. The Bahamudites win when a majority-plus-one of all living players are Bahamudites (ie, with 8 or 9 players alive a majority is 5, so Bahamudites need 6 to win). If 7 or less players are alive, they only need a majority. The game ends in Bahamudite victory at dusk (immediately after the lynch) if the Bahamudites have the needed numbers (the game does not end in Bahamudite victory at any other time, even if they have the numbers).
If, at Dusk or Dawn, all players are dead and a faction has not yet won (unlikely, but it can happen), the game ends in a tie.
Day is 34 hours. Night is 2 hours.
Lynches:
Everyone gets 1 vote, achieve a majority vote to lynch a player and day ends immediately. There is one lynch every day.
[[Seriously. If a majority is not achieved the Default Dictator chooses who is lynched.]]
You may not self-vote. You may not vote Night.
Espers:
The story revolves around a misfit band of adventurers unleashing three ancient creatures, the Apostl'eyds. An Apostl'ey is a ghost-like entity of limited sentience which can do nothing on its own, but can inhabit another being. The being hosting an Apostl'ey is an Esper and has access to the ancient knowledge and powers of its resident Apostl'ey. The Apostl'ey, in turn, might influence the Esper in certain ways depending on the Apostl'ey's personality... (this last part doesn't really affect the game other than determining factions)
There are three Apostl'eyds in the game. Any player can become an Esper - a host to one of the Apostl'eyds. While you are an Esper you gain additional abilities and/or information depending on what Apostl'ey you host. You can only be host to one Apostl'ey at a time. One of the Apostl'eyds can only be hosted by Bahamudites and provides the main recruiting ability. The other two Apostl'eyds can only be hosted by Adventurers - one Apostl'ey provides a(n) ability(ies) to help the Adventurers against the Bahamudites and the other Apostl'ey is kinda neutral (but can still only be hosted by an Adventurer, so will benefit the Adventurers more if used well).
When an Esper dies, the Apostl'ey is passed-on to another player in their faction who becomes the new Esper of that Apostl'ey. If the Esper died from a lynch or during the night, the successor becomes the new Esper at Dawn. Otherwise, the transfer happens immediately.
Espers still have access to their basic Character abilities. There are no restrictions (unless otherwise stated in role/Esper PMs) on using multiple actions in one phase.
Characters, Roles, Abilities, etc:
This is where things get complicated, so I am going to use specific terms (underlined and italics). Sticking to the same terminology in-game may help to make things less confusing for you players.
Player - The term Player refers to someone playing this game of mafia, as known by their usual forum alt (ie: Silencer).
Character [Name] - The term Character refers to the made-up identity that the player is assuming for this game (ie: Silencer is playing as Kalam Mekhar). This is the term that is most interchangeable with the traditional "role" term. Each player is assigned one (and only one) Character at the start of the game and will play as that Character until the end of the game.
Additional Character Information - All Characters have a name that they go by (ie Kalam Mekhar), certain behaviours (ie a tendency to stab people), a back-story and a physical description, most of which has little to no bearing on the game other than recognition in scenes and relating somewhat to their abilities (ie: a character who's backstory is being a private detector might have a Find ability). [[Their physical description, ie their physical body, is tied to their alt and so Characters may find themselves inhabiting other bodies throughout the game, but the character's identity remains the same within their new body.]]
Abilities - Every Character has one or more abilities inherent to themself. These abilities might be passive or triggered, unlimited or limited, day or night, informative or active, etc. Some abilities are more powerful than others, some may be considered very impractical and some may be used much more than others, too. No two Characters have the same set of abilities.
Role Type - A brief word or two which summarize a Character's abilities. If they have a standard-mafia set of abilities, the Role Type will be exactly that (ie: "Guard"). If they have a modified standard role, the Role Type will reflect that, too (ie: "Insane Finder"). Some Characters' abilities are too unique for the Role Type to be anything close to a standard role, in which case the Role Type is also unique, but still usually more or less reflective of their abilities.
Alignment - Whether the Character is currently an Adventurer or a Bahamudite.
Alt - The alternate forum account that the player logs into while playing this game of mafia (ie: Fener).
Esper Status - Whether the Character is currently an Esper or not.
Host To ___ - If the Character is an Esper, which of the three Apostl'eyds the Character is host to.
Here is a sample role PM, with colouring showing the various sections. All role PMs have this format.
Quote
Banaschar
Adventurer
The figure standing before the broad-stepped entrance wore the garb of a Malazan sailor, faded waterproof leathers, a worn shirt of thin, ragged linen. His dark hair was in a queue, hanging down between his shoulders and otherwise unadorned. As he turned at their approach, the sergeant saw a middle-aged face with even, benign features, although there was something odd about the man's eyes, something vaguely fevered.
Race: Human
Origin: Jakatakan
Gender: Male
Age: 53
An ex-priest of D'rek, now a drunkard. His favourite food is steamed cabbage and he can bench press 40 pineapples. His backstory is that the mods arbitrarily put him in the game as the example role PM but then he got drunk and fell out of Spoiler Heaven so he won't be in the game any further.
Role Type: Useless Drunkard
Abilities:
Throw an Empty Bottle (NA) - Each night you may throw an empty bottle and it makes a loud crashing noise. Every night that you use this ability a crashing sound will be added into the end-of-night scene.
Coroner Find:
This game has a Coroner Find (CF) for all deaths. The CF is posted on thread after the character's death scene. In the case of modkills, it may be delayed to the end of the current phase (mods' decision).
Initially, the CF will only provide the Alt and Character Name of the deceased, but there is a hidden mechanic that can result in more information about the deceased being included in the CF.
[[
1st time a Character dies - Alt, Character Name
ex: Anomandaris is dead. She was Lilly Garamonde. (He/she follows the character)
2nd time a Character dies - Alt, Character Name, Role Type, Alignment
ex: Tiamatha the Adventurer is dead. She was Namka Taltari, the Hostage Taker.
3rd time a Character dies - Alt, Player Name, Character Name, Role Type, Alignment, if they were an Esper
ex: Emurlahn (D'rek) the Adventurer is dead. He was The Exalted Ectoplasmic Etyno, the High Priest of the Lich King and [not an Esper / the Esper of _____].
]]
[[[Death
When players die - from being lynched, killed by Mekin, killed by Stook, or Zombified by the Bahamut Esper - they become Spectres. Spectres have access to the Spectre Thread in Spoiler Heaven, where they can post. They cannot post in the Game Thread, but they can continue to read it.
Spectres can vote in the Spectre Thread. They have the same voting power as living players. The vote count includes the alts of both living players and Spectres, with no visible distinction between them. The vote count can be posted in both threads. The number of votes needed for a lynch is based on the total number of living players AND Spectres - ie in Mafia Manager the Spectres are left as "alive". So, unless there are modkills, there will always be 15 alts in the vote count post and 8 votes needed to lynch.
If a player is modkilled, they are removed from the game entirely, decreasing the number of players in the game - hopefully this doesn't happen.
Spectres cannot be Espers - if an Esper dies and becomes a Spectre, they lose their Esper abilities.
Some role abilities can be used while the player is a Spectre. Some even work a bit differently while the player is a Spectre. Others cannot be used while dead. Players need to be made aware of how their abilities are impacted when they die.
If a living player is lynched, killed by Mekin or killed by Stook they will simply become a Spectre. However, if a player is Zombified from living to dead by the Bahamut Esper, they will change alts. Furthermore, when a Spectre is Revivified into a living player by the Kirin Esper, or Zombified from dead to living by the Bahamut Esper, they will be given a new alt. In the Bahamut case, players are swapping alts so the passwords will need to be changed to avoid them logging into their old alt and learning things they shouldn't (the players are not told that someone else has taken over their old alt). In these cases, it may be necessary to change the passwords of their previous alts before they see anything and send a PM to their main forum account with the new alt details. Hopefully no one just reads the Game thread, sees they are dead and logs off the forum for a few days...
When players transfer alts, it will be important to copy Role PMs and other important PMs to their new alt.
Whenever a player who is a Spectre comes back to life, the Spoiler Heaven password will have to be changed.]]]
Scenes:
Scenes will be posted in the game-thread every Dawn - resolving the lynch - and every Dusk - revealing the results of night. Additional scenes will also be posted in the game-thread when certain events occur.
Furthermore, many private communications from Path-Shaper will be in the form of a scene (often in a 2nd-person PoV, too).
In general, scenes will not give enough detail to reveal the actions of a Player, nor to closely relate a Character to a certain Alt. There are some specific event scenes which are exceptions to this, but these are all pretty much either unavoidable or beneficial to all involved parties.
So basically, there's clues in scenes but it won't be so bad that you should ever fear to use your abilities because of them.
Reveals:
Generally, all in-game, in-character information is valid for revealing and discussing, but information related to Path-Shaper, how the game is run or meta-topics is forbidden. Some good rules to obey are as follows:
1. You may discuss and reveal your character/role traits:
{a} You may reveal your character name and role type
{b} You may reveal character traits and information (ie: "my hair is green", "I'm from Umryg")
{c} You may reveal your actions and the details of how they work
{d} You may reveal what happened in scenes from private PMs on-thread
2. You may not use or discuss communications from Path-Shaper:
{a} Never quote directly from your role PMs or other information given by PS
{b} Do not take the description of something in your Role PM, change a few words and/or paraphrase it, and then post that as if it is original - re-write completely any PM information you divulge on-thread
{c} Do not discuss/compare the formatting of your PMs
{d} If you are uncertain about if you can say something on-thread, ask PS before you do
{e} Never say/discuss/claim that you are "waiting for confirmation from PS" or "have asked PS about _____", etc, even if you are in the midst of checking something for {d}, above
3. No meta-information
{a} Do not reveal your player name on-thread
{b} You may discuss past mafia games openly, but not individual player behaviours from them
{c} You can discuss meta information pertaining to game design - ie comparing past game mechanics and mod styles
4. All of the above applies to all reveals, regardless of if the reveal is fake, genuine, or a mix of both.
Lastly, resolving night is a long and complicated process. Please do not reveal the results of your NAs until the following Day has begun.
This post has been edited by Path-Shaper: 12 July 2012 - 03:52 PM