[D'rek]

Loosely based upon the ideas of the Fate/ series of web novels/anime/manga/games/Japanstuff, this is a solo-elimination-style mafia game (sort of like Team Fortress 2-2 was) where players take on the roles of mages who summon servants based on historical figures and then compete in an all out deathmatch.

The original concept was to run this in teams of two (a master and a servant), but the number of players required for that would probably be prohibitive, so I will run the game now with players controlling both their Master and Servant, instead. This also means you get more flexible alliance-making (and betrayal) capabilities!

[D'rek]

Standard ME Mafia rules:

Quote

GAME MECHANICS

1 - General Structure
Players may begin posting as soon as the mods announce that the game has started on the thread. The game begins during the day. The day ends when when a sufficient number of people have voted to lynch a player (remove that player from the game) or voted to end the day without a lynch. Many games also have time limits on the days, and if no consensus is reached when the time expires, the day ends with no lynch. When the day phase has ended, night begins. The mods will then post a scene reporting the outcome of the day. Players may continue posting in the thread (unless they've been voted out) but no voting is allowed. Night ends when the mods post the morning scene reporting the outcome of the night actions. Day and night phases continue to alternate until the game ends.

2 - Day Phase
During the day, players may post in the thread and vote. Some roles may have special powers which can be used during the day.

2.1 - Voting Mechanics
To vote for a player: bold "vote" and that player's name.
To vote to end the day without a lynch: bold the phrase "vote night".
To remove your vote without casting a new vote: bold the phrase "remove vote".
To change your vote for a player: First bold remove vote then vote for the new player.

The vote should be positioned at the end of a post, and be clearly seperated from the rest of the post. Example:

Quote

your text, many quotes, brilliant arguments and a clever and convincing conclusion. Alternatively, a lame joke.

remove vote

vote Killer

2.2 - Voting Restrictions
You may only vote during the day phase. You can only have one vote outstanding at any time. You may not edit a vote into a post. You may not edit a vote out of a post.

2.3 - Bold Restrictions
The use of bold should be limited to voting. If you want to emphasize a players name or another word, you can underline the word or post using a different color

2.4 - Majority Defined
A majority means either more than half of the active players voting for one player's lynch or half or more of the active players voting to go to night without a lynch.
Typically, if a player is modkilled during the day the majorities will not adjust.
Typically, if a player dies during the day due to a player's ability majorities will adjust.

2.5 - Ending the Day
The day ends as soon as a majority is reached (or, if the game has a day time limit and the players fail to achieve a majority, once the time limit has elapsed). Anyone lynched is no longer an active player and must not post in the thread. Votes can no longer be withdrawn and new votes cannot be cast until the night phase ends.

2.6 - Evening Scene
The mods will post a scene shortly after the day ends to report the results of the day actions. If the day ended with a player's lynch, the mods might also reveal information about the lynched player, such as the player's alt or alignment. This is the mods' choice, and they'll explain what, if any, information will be revealed in the game rules. Typically, there are no hidden clues in the evening scenes.

3 - Night Phase
During the night, players may post in the thread but may not vote. Some players will have the ability to perform special actions. Once again, the mods decide which roles will be included for their game, so be sure to fully read the game rules and any role descriptions which may be included.

3.1 - Performing a Night Action
If your role includes the ability to perform a special action at night, you need to PM the mods to indicate the action you wish to take. Most, if not all, roles have the ability to "withhold" their powers (i.e. take no action). This will be made clear to the roled players, and, usually, to all other players as well. If you chose to not perform your allowed action, you must PM "no action" to the mods. Most games have a time limit on nights. All players must PM their night actions to the mods within this timeframe. Players are strongly encouraged to send their night actions as soon as possible. You may also send in a PM for your special action during the day phase, this is very strongly encouraged.

3.2 - Contingent PM
If you send in a PM during the day phase, you may choose to list alternative actions contingent on the manner in which the day ended. If none of the contingencies you list actually occur, your PM will be disregarded, and you must send a new PM to the mods (example: if Meanas is lynched I kill Kaschan, otherwise I kill Hood's Path).

3.3 - Provisional PM
You may choose to send a provisional PM if you want to further consider your night action but do not want to extend the night if all other roled players have decided upon their actions. Provisional PMs must be clearly marked as such. A provisional PM will not be acted upon by the mods until it becomes a 'definite PM.' A provisional PM becomes definite as soon as ( a ) you confirm your choice with another PM, ( b ) all other roled players that need to send night actions have done so, or ( c ) the time limit for the night has expired.

As a courtesy to other players we ask that you confirm your provisional PM as soon as you are able.

3.4 - Last Resort PM
In extraordinary circumstances you may be allowed to send in a last resort PM. A last resort PM will not be acted upon by the mods until ( a ) you confirm your choice with another PM or ( b ) the time limit for the night has expired. Should you need to send a last resort PM, you must first seek the mods approval by explaining the circumstances that necessitate such a PM. Last resort PMs are accepted only at the discretion of the mods.

3.5 - Failure to PM
If not all PMs are received within the time limit, everyone who has failed to send in a PM will be considered to have taken no action. In addition, those who failed to send in a PM will be warned by the mods or may risk further penalties.

3.6 - Changing a Night Action
PMs to the mod can be changed at any point before the new day is announced. A PM is considered to be changed only after the mod receives and has read the PM. The player bears the risk that the mod will post the morning scene after the player has sent in a new PM but before the mod has actually read it.

3.7 - Abusing the Time Limit
If the mods have included a night time limit, it begins as soon as the previous day ended, regardless of when the mods posted the evening scene. However, this time limit is a maximum limit, and all players should send in PMs as soon as they feel comfortable doing so. Players (and mods) prefer shorter nights, as people are anxious to see who may have died and to begin voting again. If the mods feel that a player is abusing the time limit by unreasonably stalling, they may force the player to take no night action or take other appropriate action.

3.8 Preventing Night Actions
Except where expressly noted, no night actions prevent any other night actions sent in from taking effect.

3.9 - Morning Scene
The night phase ends when the mods post the morning scene. The mods will post the scene shortly after all night action PMs have been received. The scene will report any player deaths that occurred during the night, and might also reveal information about the lynched player, such as the player's alt or alignment. There are no hidden clues in the morning scenes. As soon as the scene is posted any players who have been killed at night will no longer be active players and can no longer post in the thread. The time limit for the new day will begin with the morning scene.

4 - Endgame
The game will continue to alternate between day and night phases until the game ends. The game can end after either a day or night phase.

4.1 - Winning Conditions
The game ends once one faction has reached its winning conditions, which the mods will state in a later post.

Mafia is a team game. Once one faction achieves its winning conditions, all members of that faction have won whether or not they are active players when the winning conditions are achieved.

4.2 - Ending Scene
The mods will post an ending scene and declare the game over shortly after one faction achieves its winning conditions. If for any reason it becomes impossible for either faction to achieve its winning conditions, the mods will declare the game a draw.

The game is only over when a mod posts the ending scene. Even if you know (or believe you know) the result of the game before then, you may not post in the thread unless you are an active player.

4.3 - Calling the Game Early
The mods reserve the right to end the game at any time before a faction achieves its winning conditions provided there are compelling reasons to do so. In general, the mods will end the game early as soon as one faction's victory becomes inevitable.

4.4 - Spoilers
When the game is over, the mods will reveal the alts and roles of everybody who played and also give everyone access to the spoiled spectator threads on the spoiler board.


RULES

All players must:

A1) Have an account on forum.malazanempire.com

A2) Log in and view the thread and the discussion board anonymously at all times, unless they have informed the mods that this is not possible for technical reasons.

A3) Post at least once every 36 hours. Any player who has not posted within the last 36 hours will be automatically modkilled, whether or not the mods announce this on the thread. Warnings will usually be issued after 24 hours and subsequently closer to the deadline.

The mods may grant extensions to this limit in some cases (if so, they will give details in a later post). However, if they have not posted on the thread to announce an extension before the 24 hour limit is reached, no extension will be granted, whatever may have been said elsewhere. Please contact the mods as early as possible if you wish to request an extension.

A4) Send in role prescribed night actions (including the desire to take no action) within the time limit

A5) Treat everybody else playing with courtesy and respect

A6) Make any edits the mods request of them as soon as possible, whether or not they believe that the posts need to be edited.

A7) Contact the game mods as soon as possible if they feel you are at risk of breaking a rule or fear they or another person may have already done so.


Players must not:

B1) Edit their posts unless to change spelling or grammar.

B2) Act in any way intended to reduce the chance of their faction achieving its win conditions. (However, should all surviving members of a faction agree that they wish to resign and end the game early, they may do so by PMing the mods privately, without stating their intentions on-thread until the mods post to announce that the game is over.)

B3) Discuss the game with any other living players outside this game thread except when told they may do so in their role PMs.

B4) Reveal any information about the game at all in any other thread than this one, or in any other forum (including message boards and chat rooms) where it may be seen by a living player.

B5) Give anybody access to any of their accounts (including game alts, if the game is using them), either here or on the mafia discussion board.

B6) Attempt to obtain advice about the game from anybody not currently playing.

B7) Post information on the thread relating to another player's past or current activity on (or absence from) the board that would not otherwise be available to anybody reading the thread.

B8) Quote, in whole or part, PMs from (or other private conversations with) the mods on the thread, or discuss the timing of any PMs sent to the mods, if this behaviour is forbidden in the current game (it usually is).

B9) Post on the thread at any time after they are dead until the mods themselves post on the thread to announce that the game is over. Any posts accidently made after death should be immediately edited blank.

B10) Make any bets about the game.

B11) Offer to break any of these rules or any other rules the mods have set in place for the game, encourage others to do so or help to conceal the fact that rules have been broken.

B12) Reveal any information about their role within the game when such reveals are forbidden (this is only forbidden in certain games). .

AND JUST SO YOU KNOW

C1) Failure to comply with the rules may result in any punishment the mods deem appropriate, including, but not limited to: a request to edit posts; formal warnings on thread; "modkilling", restriction of access to the spoiler thread(s), lashing, spanking, paddling, the rack, thumbscrews, waterboarding, time-out, death and/or ending the game prematurely in favor of one faction or none. Except where clearly stated in the rules, the mods are free to respond to any rules violation in whatever manner they wish. In all cases the mods' decision on these matters is final.

C2) Feel free to PM your thoughts (or questions) to the mods. We love to hear them!

C3) The mods reserve the right to amend the rules during the game if we realize we've forgotten to cover something.

-------------------------

As well as running the game on this thread, the mods are also responsible for administering the spoiler thread on the spoiler board and anybody not actively involved in the game (whether spectators or dead players who no longer wish to play) can request access to this thread by PMing the mods. Please note that while in general the mods will be happy to let anybody have access to this thread, they do reserve the right to refuse access to anybody for any reason. Accordingly, please do not ask anybody other than the mods for access to the spoiler thread or give yourself access to it, even if you have the power to do so. Any posts found to contravene these rules will be deleted and the responsible players will usually be added to a blacklist for any future games run by this mod.

Once given access to the thread, spoiled spectators should also take note of the following rules, and must not:

D1) Share any information from the spoiler thread with living players, or post such in a forum where it may be seen by living players.

D2) Offer any advice, hints or strategy to living players.

D3) Make personal attacks on players in the game or on posters in the spoiler thread itself.

D4) Post on the game thread before the mods announce that the game is over.

D5) PM living or dead players with comments on the game.

[D'rek]

Master Roles

All Master roles are unique, but they can largely be divided into five groups:

Elite Mages - Leaders of the Great Houses, these mages have the ultimate magical skills. Expect their abilities to be almost entirely magic-based and probably quite powerful. Each Elite Mage knows the names of the other Elite Mages present in the game and they can recognize each other more easily.

Lesser Mage - Similar to the Elite Mages, their skillset will still be almost entirely magic-based, but expect less variety and less overall power.

Mercenary - Characters which focus on a combination of stealth, tracking and offensive abilities in order to eliminate enemies before being detected, themselves. May have a couple magic abilities.

Warrior - High on physical offensive and defensive capabilities, but with no magic nor any major tracking abilities.

Bystander - These characters have very little ability to track or deal damage to other players, but blend into crowds much more easily. They can often avoid arousing suspicion even when other players investigate them directly.


Servants

Each Master must summon a Holy Servant during the first day. Further instructions towards this will be sent in PMs.

Holy Servants are historical figures summoned into magical bodies which fight on behalf of their Master. Most Servants can blend into a crowd fairly well when not invisible, though they may not hold up under intense scrutiny.

Servants and Masters have separate alts. They can travel separately, perform actions independently, etc.

Some examples of Servants from the source material:

King Arthur
Gilgamesh
Alexander the Great
Hassan-i Sabbah
Lu Bu
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne

In the books there are all sorts of restrictions and characterizations of the Servants into "classes" (Archer, Assassin, Rider, etc) which dictate what they can and can't do, and what their weaknesses are... I'm not going to get that complicated. Each Servant will be given a "class" but that will just be flavour (though if you learn of an enemy Servant's class it will give you a vague idea of what sort of actions they can do... ie an assassin can probably avoid detection and bypass defenses).


Other Alts & Visibility

In addition to Masters and Servants, there will be a large number of other alts that are considered 'active'. These represent miscellaneous civilians living in Fuyuki City who have no knowledge of the Holy Grail War. Masters and Servants can hide amongst them while they go about their day-to-day lives.

Killing innocents without cause is extremely frowned upon.

In a particular location, Masters and civilian alts will normally be able to see each other. Masters won't immediately appear suspicious to civilians. However, performing hostile actions or any action which mentions it is suspicious will potentially be noticed by the civilians and other alts present. Servants, meanwhile, can turn themselves invisible so other alts will not normally even know they are present. However, they must become visible in order to perform any actions that are hostile or that target non-allies directly, and like Masters these actions will arouse suspicion. Depending on the Servant, their unusual appearance might be noted by the civilians, especially if they do not look like a normal human.


Game Threads, Phases & Lynches

There will be two threads open - the Celestial Thread and the Fuyuki Thread.

In the Celestial Thread, players post using their regular forum account. Here, players may discuss the game and may vote to lynch during the Day phase. Players may perform multiple lynches each Day. Each lynch is resolved immediately once a majority of votes is achieved. A full CF is posted for each lynch.

The Day phase will be 40 hours long, unless ALL players vote for night (this is to prevent a player who hasn't had time to get their action orders in being marginalized by a majority of others). The other phases (Dawn, Dusk, Night) are a theoretical 0 minutes long, and will be resolved as quickly as possible.

All Day actions are Ironman submissions and will be resolved as immediately as possible. There are no provisional actions permitted in the Day phase.




Alliances, Victory Conditions & the Holy Order

If a Servant dies, its Master may continue playing. If a Master dies, the player is eliminated from the game and the Servant goes wild (moving and performing actions on random targets according to their historical personality in a generally aggressive fashion).

A Master who has lost their Servant can try and claim a Servant who's Master has died. You need to know (or guess) the alt and identity of the Servant to accomplish this, though.

The last Master alive wins - they claim the Holy Grail for themself and can ask of it any one miracle.

Players can form their own partnerships or alliances, but there is no official framework or abilities for this - it will be up to them to establish their own terms. Backstabbing such a partnership is, of course, possible. If two Masters have an honourable partnership throughout the game and are the last two alive, and neither is inclined to backstab the other, they can win together.

The Holy Order monitors the proceedings of the Holy Grail War. Most importantly of all, they seek to ensure the War is conducted in a clandestine fashion. Players who murder a large number of innocents without cause (ie about 5 or more) or brazenly commit violent acts in the daytime in public may face public warnings from the Order. If the warnings are ignored, the Order may reveal information about the offending Master and encourage other Masters to gang up on the offender.



Locations

The Holy Grail War takes place in Fuyuki City. The city has many suburbs and points of interest:

--Kadomine College
--Mount Ryū
--Masami Plaza
--Bakyomi Station
--Kima Cemetary
--Ansora Industrial Park
--Hasai Business Campus
--Heiji Gardens
--Shiwazuo Arts Centre
--Oriya Terminal
--Haizayara Warehouse District
--Kishi Beach
--Tarani Wharf
--Shikuro Market
--Aonuba Temple
--Roji Airport
--Madogiri University
--Yonai Factory
--Jinzuo Forest
--Kaishinoda Tower


All alts will always be at one and only one location.

Some abilities target all alts in a location. Some abilities require that the target be in the same location. Some abilities can transcend location boundaries. Any ability labelled as a "standard" ability (ie "Standard Guard") will only succeed on targets in the same location, unless otherwise indicated.

Each player has a Home Base in one of the locations. In some cases this provides special benefits, in some cases it does nothing.

Each Dawn and each Dusk, you may move to any other location.

At the start of the Day phase, each alt learns what other alts are present in its current location.


Tracking

Any alt can track another alt - this is "physicall tracking". Once Alt A is trying to track Alt B, as soon as the two alts are in the same location then Alt A will automatically (and immediately) start following Alt B wherever it goes, so they will always be in the same location. If Alt A makes any moves to another location, though, they lose track of Alt B.

Additionally, some abilities allow players to track other alts remotely (usually through summoned minions or magical effects which are too small to be represented by alts). When this is occurring, the player receives constant updates of the Tracked target's location and can immediately move to the target's location at any time (beyond the usual Dawn and Dusk moves).

Remote Tracking also works when one of your alts performs an action on a target another alt is tracking.

ie: D'rek has two alts: Dragon and Goat. Dragon is her Master, Bob, and Goat is her Servant, Noah. Dragon is Tracking an alt, Horsie. Wherever Horsie goes, Dragon will immediately move with Horsie to that location. At night, Horsie and Dragon have moved to Ansora Park. D'rek decides to have Noah use his Turnip Attack on Horise. Even though Goat/Noah is not in Ansora Park, because Dragon/Bob is Tracking Horsie any of D'rek's alts have Tracking on Horsie (they're a team after all!) so Goat/Noah immediately moves to Ansora Park at the start of his Turnip Attack.

Tracking is very important for targeted abilities, since it removes needing to guess your target's location. There are, of course, a few ways to avoid being tracked or get rid of it.

[Gnaw]

FIRST!

[Azathmaster]

Second?

[D'rek]

I should be able to finish off the alt passwords and get the game rolling in about an hour and a half. I'll make Day 1 extra long, too, to get the questions out of the way and allow for Servant summoning.

Feel free to chat here in the meantime if you want.

[D'rek]

It is Day 0. *** hours remaining. The game setup is being finalized.

14 Masters remain: Andorion, Azathmaster, Blend , Bubba, EmperorMagus, Gnaw, Gust Hubb, HO, Inane Babble, Khell, Messremb, Nicodimas, Tattersail, Tapper

[Gnaw]

D, on 11 March 2015 - 09:36 PM, said:

It is Day 0. *** hours remaining. The game setup is being finalized.

14 Masters remain: Andorion, Azathmaster, Blend , Bubba, EmperorMagus, Gnaw, Gust Hubb, HO, Inane Babble, Khell, Messremb, Nicodimas, Tattersail, Tapper

Heh. "Masters".

How have you been Master Azathmaster? Long time no see.

[Inane Babble]

Holy god does anyone else not understand a word of this either? So awesome

[Tattersail_]

YO EM good to have you playing with us again.

[bubba]

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:52 PM, said:

Holy god does anyone else not understand a word of this either? So awesome

Your regular alt name is on the money

[Inane Babble]

Bubba, on 11 March 2015 - 09:55 PM, said:

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:52 PM, said:

Holy god does anyone else not understand a word of this either? So awesome

Your regular alt name is on the money

Your words, they hurt me.

[bubba]

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:57 PM, said:

Bubba, on 11 March 2015 - 09:55 PM, said:

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:52 PM, said:

Holy god does anyone else not understand a word of this either? So awesome

Your regular alt name is on the money

Your words, they hurt me.

The name is on the money for how much of this game I understand....

not a dig on you.....

[Inane Babble]

Bubba, on 11 March 2015 - 10:09 PM, said:

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:57 PM, said:

Bubba, on 11 March 2015 - 09:55 PM, said:

Inane Babble, on 11 March 2015 - 09:52 PM, said:

Holy god does anyone else not understand a word of this either? So awesome

Your regular alt name is on the money

Your words, they hurt me.

The name is on the money for how much of this game I understand....

not a dig on you.....

At least we are getting off on the right foot here as well, stumbling over each others posts and we haven't even reached half a page. Gonna be a whole lot of fun

[Nicodimas]

This one seems very creative, going to enjoy!

Quote

The last Master alive wins - they claim the Holy Grail for themself and can ask of it any one miracle.

How will implementation of winning the Holy Grail work? Any wish could get complicated..

A) Will the wish be limited to... just Mafia?
Will wishes be granted if we ask for Mod like powers-- or more Rep than Apt, or vice versa?
C) Will Wishes Carry over to the next game ?

[Azathmaster]

Nicodimas, on 11 March 2015 - 10:37 PM, said:

This one seems very creative, going to enjoy!

Quote

The last Master alive wins - they claim the Holy Grail for themself and can ask of it any one miracle.

How will implementation of winning the Holy Grail work? Any wish could get complicated..

A) Will the wish be limited to... just Mafia?
Will wishes be granted if we ask for Mod like powers-- or more Rep than Apt, or vice versa?
C) Will Wishes Carry over to the next game ?

B would make for some fun shenanigans

[Messremb]

I opened my PM and was like "what the ****? This isn't the mindfuck I signed up for"

Had got all Tappers shizzle into my brain too, damn that was a waste.

Excuse me for a time whilst I try and make sense of what is going on.

[Messremb]

Also, I see I'll need to install another browser like Gnaw does.

[D'rek]

Uh, problem. Melting ice has severed my internet cable.

Alright if we start tomorrow?

[Gnaw]

no poblem