Awesome, many props to ZDS for putting the nail in the coffin. I feel kinda bad, because my gameplan for the day was mainly just to lurk to avoid undue suspicion on the claim (which was just terrible IMHO, seriously, no other unique characters in the town at all).
I had been rolling around the whole "no reason to claim, so I won't" in the endgame scenario for a while (beyond just this game), and decided that it actually displayed a very townie concern for position, so I decided to roll with it. Fairly pleased that it actually worked, although it may not have had the final day run on longer than it did, or had a less impulsive group of townies.
A little tidbit - Asian definitely told us that the Balrog was an SK, so the whole time I was playing to the SK, I was actually almost completely positive that I was right. As it turned out, it was actually more important than I thought, because ITF would have won with the town, but at the time none of us (alive) knew that. And ITF randomly coming out and claiming vig confused the hell out of us (or at least me, I'll admit), because we all thought he was the SK.
Anyway, nicely played all, especially ZDS, and many, many thanks for modding Axel. The flavor was fantastic, and everything was very cleanly modded.
MTGS stats (won/played)
As scum - 3/5
As town - 5/7
As neutral - none
(I really have been scum a lot)
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Wait, Axel, you Didn't have the whole storyline pre-written? Certainly seemed that way from the day and night posts.....seeing Gandalf still leading the party the whole way when he died ridiculously early was a bit jarring.
Otherwise, good play scum, given the big early edge the town got out to.
Private Mod Note
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Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
Quote from Seppel »
I love Joboman, Poggy, Niv, and Vezok, because, while they may not be the best players, they still try to win. Having fun is the most important thing to a game, but I've learned that if you don't try to win, then you're ruining everyone else's fun.
After many hours of walking, at last, the end of their journey was in sight. Or, at least, Frodo thought, the end of THIS portion of the journey. Frodo knew the true quest had but barely begun, yet still it felt an accomplishment to have come even this far. Instinctively, he reached up and touched the Ring hanging from its chain around his neck. It felt colder and heavier, even through the protection of his Mithril vest. Perhaps it senses the presence of the mountains around it, Frodo wondered. In mountains like these it dwelled for many years. Until Bilbo found it. Perhaps it fears to go back. Fears being lost again. Frodo dismissed the idea as silly. The Ring did not think. Instead, it corrupted the thoughts of others. He took his hand away.
The company passed around the edges of the silent and foreboding lake and saw two great holly trees before the Cliffside which loomed large and imposing before them. The Hobbits were weary now, and so it was decided to rest. Gandalf and Gimli assured the others that they should be able to find the true path and the door to Moria without much difficulty, but their early optimism turned out to be unfounded, for now they dithered and paced back in forth and appeared altogether unsure.
Frodo sighed and sat down on a worn piece of rock. Pippin sat down next to him and offered him a piece of meal bread which he took gratefully. As they munched, the wind blew stronger and the air became colder.
It looked to be a long night.
You are Frodo, Heroic Ringbearer.
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and lrd (Pippin). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
As the Ringbearer, you possess the One Ring of Power, forged by the Dark Lord, Sauron. Any attempts by others to sense for the Dark Lord's presence about you will show that you have been touched by the Dark One (translation: you have a Godfather type immunity to inspections or searches for the Dark Lord's presence).
In addition, your Mithril shirt gives you immunity to a single ordinary Night-Kill attempt against you. (This immunity will not work against magical attacks or creatures, such as the Balrog)
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
lrd
Pippin sat on the hard, rough boulder next to Merry and Frodo and Sam and thought of home. It seemed far longer than the few weeks it had actually been since they had left on this great adventure. He did not regret - no, never that. His bonds of friendship and fellowship were too strong for regrets - he would make the same choices again in an instant. Still, Pippin sighed, it would be nice to have mead, and rice cakes, and warm mutton.
"Blast," he heard Gandalf crying out. Glancing sideways, Pippin spied the grey wizard kicking at the stone face of the cliff. Next to Gandalf stood the Dwarf, Gimli, scratching his own boulder-like head.
"Well," said Pippin, "that seems to be going well, doesn't it?"
"Patience, Pippin," said Frodo, smiling weakly, "Gandalf always said the key to opening the Door might not be quite so easy to find as Gimli hoped.
"It's all well and good to speak of patience, Frodo," said Pippin, "but it's getting late, and it's getting colder. And if it's all the same I'd rather not have to spend the night outside here next to the water. I don't like the look of that lake, not one bit."
Frodo nodded. "Nor do I, Pippin" he said gravely. "Nor do I."
You are Pippin, Heroic Sneak
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, each Night that you are not performing the kill, you may attempt to sneak through the Mines and spy upon another player. If successful, you will learn that player's identity (i.e. role-name) but not ability.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
jerubbaal
Legolas and Aragorn took up watch on opposite sides of the camp. From his position atop a rocky outcropping, Legolas stared back along the winding path the way they had come. There were no signs of pursuit. He tested the string of his bow - taught and strong, and then closed his eyes and *listened.* He heard naught but the sounds of the wind, whipping through the trees, and a low grumbling coming from the direction of the mountain where Gandalf stood.
Legolas opened his eyes and watched Gandalf gesturing and muttering to himself for a moment, then turned his eyes to the Dwarf standing next to Gandalf. Dwarves. Why they were following that one's plan Legolas could not now recall. Signing, he shifted his focus back to the path. If it could be done, Gandalf would do it, he knew. No point now in second guessing the decisions which had brought them there.
"Ho, Legolas," came a voice. Legolas turned to see Boromir clambering up the rockface beneath him, "What news?"
Legolas grimaced at the racket the man made as he ascended to his level. "No news, friend Boromir" replied the Elf. "And none to come either if you cannot keep quieter." Legolas did not glare, for elves do not, as a rule, glare, but still he gave Boromir such a look as would make lesser men shrivel up upon themselves.
Boromir was no lesser man, and he did glare back at Legolas, defiantly. "I meant no offense," he said.
Legolas regretted the implied insult immediately. "No offense is taken," he said. "I apologize for my quick words. It is this place. It has an ill feeling about it."
"On that we are agreed," said Boromir.
You are Legolas, Heroic Archer
The other Heroes joining you in this game are lrd (Pippin); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, on one Night that you are not performing this kill, you may perform a special attack with your bow against another player. Unless they are protected (or immune to such attacks), that player will die (1-shot vigilante).
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
ZDS
Boromir knew this was a fool's mission. To return the Ring of Power directly into the heart of the enemy's strength? It was madness. And now this new foolishness. He knew little of the history of the Mines of Moria, but what he had heard was not encouraging. At best, it seemed to him, they would face a dark, barren, and treacherous wasteland, where a single miss-step would lead to certain doom. And at worst? Well, the worst was not even worth contemplating now.
He surveyed the camp. The Wizard and the Dwarf had not yet found the opening mechanism. The Elf clearly did not wish company - at least not from him. The Hobbits had each other, and Aragorn, as always, stood apart, aloof.
Gondor has no King, he thought grimly to himself.
Boromir leapt from his perch atop the outcropping, landed lightly, and began to pace back and forth along the edge of the lake. Every so often he would check on the Wizard's progress, but it appeared to him that no real progress was being made.
The air grew colder and the night seemed to grow ever darker, though Boromir knew that to be only an illusion. He gripped the great Horn hanging from his shoulder, the Horn of the Stewards of Gondor, his birthright, and walked, and waited.
You are Boromir, Heroic Roleblocker
The other Heroes joining you in this game are lrd (Pippin); jerubbaal (Legolas); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, on one Night that you are not performing this kill, you may blow the Horn of Gondor. The Horn quells all Evil that hear it, and prevents any and all actions which they might take (1-shot mass role-block). The actions of the Heroes are unaffected by this.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
AsianInvasion
Gandalf leaned on his staff before the great doorway, his brow furrowed in concentration. For the past several hours he had attempted all the words of opening he knew, every enchantment of unlocking, every spell of unsealing, in every language, but the door defied them all. Its runes glowed softly in the moonlight, almost as if mocking him. He considered a less subtle approach. He could probably break the door. It was, after all, only stone. But if he did so, he knew it would not be quiet. Chances were, that it would be quite loud. No possibility then of slipping through the gates unnoticed. Whoever, or whatever, lay inside would be alerted to their presence. Unfortunately, the Dwarves of ancient Moria were true masters of their craft, and the gate was well warded.
What then? Gandalf pinched the bridge of his nose and considered further.
"I do believe I am going about this the wrong way," he said at last. "I am over thinking the matter."
Standing next to Gandalf, Gimli merely grunted. They had toiled together without success for hours, and there did not seem to be anything further to add to the conversation.
Gandalf raised his eyes and considered his companions. Aragorn stood nearby, watchful and patient. Boromir paced and glowered, and not for the first time Gandalf regretted the necessity of his presence here. The four Hobbits huddled together, shivering in the cold. Finally, at the opposite end of the camp, perched the Elf, pointedly ignoring the Dwarf.
Gandalf sighed. He could still remember a time when the races of Elf and Dwarf were as brothers unto each other. Before this great divide. Back even when this very door was first formed, he reflected. And with that thought it came to him. Of course!
He straightened, faced the gate once more and said in a clear voice, "Mellon!"
You are Gandalf, Heroic Protector.
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); zindabad (Frodo); and lrd (Pippin). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, each Night that you are not performing the kill, you may choose to protect one player. That person will be immune to the first Night Kill attempt against him (a second attempt in the same Night, however, would still prove successful).
You are the only member of the Heroes with the power to destroy the Balrog. Furthermore, if the Balrog attempts to kill you or a player whom you are protecting, then you and he will destroy each other. The Balrog is aware of this.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
The Denizens of Moria:
Zebi
An Orcish Lullaby:
Chewing toes, chewing toes
Dis is what your Mamma knows
Gnawing foes, gnawing foes
Dis is what your Pappa knows
Little baby on my back
Little piglet in a sack
Time to eat and drink and bite
Time for sleep.
Time for goodnight.
You are an Orc, an inhabitant of the realm of Moria. You have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Red Omega
The rats scurried out of the light and into the darkness as the Orc entered the chamber. It lifted its head and sniffed at the air, tasting their presence. Juicy and sweet. It crouched on all fours and moved silently forward, listening. The rats were still.
The Orc had not eaten for more than a day, and it was hungry. It swiped its clawed fingertips against the nearest wall in an effort to startle them into action. One rat moved, and the Orc pounced, snatching up the wriggling form. The Orc quickly plunged it's teeth into the rat's soft underbelly, tearing at the flesh. Delicious. The rat's blood ran from the corners of his mouth and down his chin.
The Masters had said there would be food. The Masters had said they would feast on the blood of Man, and Elf, and Dwarf, but of that there had been none. None thus far. The Orc licked its ridged lips. But later, yes, later. Then he would feast.
For now, the rats would do.
You are an Orc of Moria. You serve the Dark One in all things, but you have no abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
WoD
Wartnob heard the news just as he was sharpening his favorite hunting knife. Enemies! Enemies had opened the door and crossed into Moria. No one seemed certain yet just what kind of enemy it was, or how many - reports varied, but it was most definitely more than one. Some said man, some said Elf, some said child.
He strapped the knife to his leg and quickly pulled on his chain mail vest. He lifted his dented iron helm off the hook jutting from the wall, dropped it over his head, and grabbed his spear from its stand beside the door. He hurried out into the hallway. Other Orcs were already assembling. They jostled and pushed and some snarled in line, waiting for further instructions. He heard the clank of sword against steel, and felt the hot rancid breath of the Orc behind him.
A quarrel in the back row escalated and Wartnob heard the snap of teeth and a loud squeal of pain. The rest of the line snorted and laughed.
This was shaping up to be a good day.
You are an Orc.
You are a soldier in the army of Sauron, the Dark Lord. You are crafty and wily and an enemy of the Light. You have no special abilities in this game, however.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
MMoD
The Uruk-Hai are a breed of especially large and strong black Orcs. Generally considered more intelligent than their smaller, slighter brethren, they can stand upright on their thick, straight legs, whereas normal Orcs are bowlegged and stooped. Uruk-Hai are also capable of withstanding sunlight and can travel abroad outdoors and at great speed.
Some have speculated that the breed was originally created by Sauron in a crossing of Orc-kind and Man, but their true origins have been lost to the shadows of time.
Used now by both Sauron and his Wizard servant Saruman, Uruk-Hai are fierce warriors and leaders of battle. The curved scimitar is their weapon of choice. Man-flesh, their preferred meal.
You are an Uruk-Hai
You are a capable warrior and servant of Sauron. You have no special abilities in this game, however.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Dagger
The Uruk was surprised to notice the great door, standing open.
It was pure happenstance that it was passing by at that hour. It was not supposed to be in that area at all - rather, it had been assigned to patrol the lower halls that night-cycle. But it quarreled with the Orcs in those passages, and left in anger and disgust. It later had thoughts of seeking fish from the drinking pools on the upper levels fed by the lake.
It had forgotten that there even was a door to this section of the Mountain. For such a door had never been opened in all of its living memory. But now he stood before it, amazed, and confused.
What means this, he wondered.
He sniffed the air, tasting for the presence of intruders, but the wind from outside the doorway whipped through the hall, and any scents that might have lingered were long since dissipated.
He peered out the cavernous opening, observing the shore, and the smooth, black surface of the lake. Were those rock formations disturbed? Could those marking on the ground have been caused by the passage of boots?
Whatever the cause, the Uruk knew, this must be reported to the Leaders at once.
You are an Uruk of Moria.
You have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Calvin
Cave Troll Humor:
Question: How many Orcs does it take to feed a Cave Troll?
Answer: How many do you have?
Har! Har! Har!
Question: How do you tell the difference between an Orc and an Uruk?
Answer: Eat them! Orc taste minty!
Har! Har! Har!
You are a Cave Troll. You are aligned with the forces of Evil.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Syrenz
The cave troll roared with fury, and the whip lashed out again, leaving a long black welt along its scaly back. It swung its clawed fingers around, swiping at the source of its pain. The Handler stepped back out of reach and sneered.
"Down, Oggob! Down!" The Handler snapped the whip again, this time directly over the Troll's head. Oggob flinched.
Finally, the Troll relented and slouched its massive shoulders. It glared at its handler, enormous lidded red eyes reflecting the torchlight, but offered no further resistance, and moved ponderously to the archway connecting its cell to the main corridor.
"Better," said the Handler. "Better."
Oggob reached out and grabbed a club the size of a small tree. Dragging the club behind itself, it lumbered down the corridor.
It had work to do.
You are a Cave Troll, dwelling in the Mountains of Moria. You are both strong and fearsome, however, you have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
kpaca
Of the many different types of Troll, the Cave Troll is known for being both the most vicious, and the most stupid. While some Troll breeds have achieved an almost Human level of intelligence, the Cave Troll is far more beast than Being. Used by Sauron primarily as slaves of labor, they stand up to twelve feet high and have enormous strength. They are covered with thick green scales which serve as a natural protective armor. Some believe it was through the use of Cave Troll workers that the Dark Tower itself was first constructed.
They can be trained in use of weapons, though any weapon requiring precise movement is beyond them. The club and hammer are therefore their weapons of choice. What they lack in finesse, however, they more than make up for in pure brute force. There are few who can withstand the raw power of a Cave Troll in full battle frenzy.
You are a Cave Troll. You are aligned with the forces of Evil in this game. You have no special abilities.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
CPE
The Orc sighted along his bow and loosed a black arrow at his target. The arrow pierced the rabbit directly through the breast, slaying it instantly. The Orc grinned, his mouth a circle of jagged sharpened knives. It strode over to where the rabbit's body lay and snatched it up off the ground. The rabbit was small, and bony, he observed. Not much meat, unfortunately. But still, some food was better than none, and rabbit was far tastier than the lizard meat and eggs he had been subsisting on for the past several days.
He sat down, drew his skinning knife and proceeded to flay the animal. As he worked, his mouth watered and he licked his scabbed lips.
It was going to be a good meal.
You are an Orcish Archer. You serve the Dark Lord in all things.
One time during the game, during the Night, you may elect to shoot an arrow at another player. Unless that player is protected or otherwise immune, that player will die.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Yodavader
Above the Pikemen and common Soldiers, were the Orcish Archers. Training was difficult, for the clawed fingers of the Orc do not lend themselves easily to the delicate grasping of strings, and the majority of Orcs did not possess the required patience to learn the skill. But over the years, Sauron developed the talent in his armies, selectively breeding those minions with the most desirable traits, until he had amassed a considerable skilled force.
Orcish Archers were instrumental in the fall of Osgiliath, both in removing defenders from the ramparts and later in defending the walls from human assault.
In Moria there was less use for Archers, as the halls were more cramped and the passageways often dimly lit. But nevertheless, a guard was maintained, for there were still cavernous spaces, and areas of defense that would allow even a single archer to wreak devastation on an invading enemy force.
You are an Orcish Archer. Stationed in Moria, you are a faithful servant of your Dark Lord, Sauron.
One time during the game, at Night, you may attempt to shoot an arrow at another player. Unless that player is protected or otherwise immune, that player will die.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Cyan
Doom, Doom, Doom.
The Orc pounded the ancient drum. The sound reverberated throughout the halls and seemed to sink, down, down, into the darkness.
Doom, Doom, Doom.
Beads of perspiration appeared on the Orc's brow. Soon, it knew, soon, the Beast would come, and someone would perish in Fire. Many had drummed this beat before it, and many had died. But the Master commanded, for the Great Hall had been invaded, and the Orc obeyed.
Doom, Doom, Doom.
The floors began to rumble softly, and the Chamber began to warm. The Orc heard both cries of terror and whoops of excitement from the caverns outside. It raised its fists and beat down even harder.
Doom, Doom, Doom.
The Beast came.
You are an Orcish Drummer, servant of Lord Sauron. You possess the means of summoning the Balrog (who may or may not be a player in this game). Each Night, you must decide whether or not to use the Drum. If you play it, the Balrog will come, and a player will most certainly die. If you do not play it, then the Balrog will be unable to slay anyone. If you yourself are slain, then the Balrog will be completely released.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
ImTehFairy
The Balrog slumbered. Wisps of smoke and fire rose from its form, as it hung, suspended and batlike, from the roof of the enormous cavern. It was alone now. All the others of its kind having passed on from this world. It lay deep, deep within the depths of Moria, in a place known as the Root of the Earth, undisturbed for thousands of years. Until the Dwarves came. Durin's people, delving deep with hammer and axe. They had wakened the Balrog, and terrible was his wrath and fury.
Later came the Orcs, but the Balrog tolerated their presence. For they were touched by the same dark power as the Balrog itself, and as such could be abided. They were the servants of Sauron, and both Sauron and the Balrog had served the same Master - the Dark Lord of all Maiar, Morgoth.
And so, out of respect and in honor of past conquests, the Balrog gave Lord Sauron a gift. A summoning device. But woe be unto the summoner should the Balrog find the reasons for summons insufficient.
You are the Balrog, Demon of Fire and Air.
You are a Mandatory Vigilante. Each night you must send me the name of a target player. If you are subsequently summoned that Night, then the player you have targeted will die. If you are not summoned, you will do nothing. If the summoner is killed, then you are unleashed and will kill on every Night thereafter.
Your power is so great that there is only one who can stand against you. If you target Gandalf, or the player Gandalf is protecting, then you and he will destroy each other. Gandalf is aware of this. You are invulnerable to any other Night attacks against yourself, save for the attack of Gandalf. You lose these abilities if you are the last non-Hero remaining.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Rafaelk
Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Ulairi, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death — The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", 346
You are a Nazgul, servant of the mighty Lord Sauron.
You have the ability to sense for the presence of your Master. Each Night you may target a player. I will tell you whether or not that player has been touched by the Dark Lord (Evil creatures have been "touched" by Sauron. Effectively, this works as a Cop investigation).
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Deaths Vampire
The water of the lake was cold, and dark, and silent. Although fish could be found farther down the lake's mountain course, here there were none. The waters were empty and as still as death. Save for the lone being inhabiting them.
From the depths, the Watcher sensed the presence of the invaders. It felt the vibrations of their footsteps on the shore, as well as the distant murmurring of their voices. The Watcher flowed then, silently, upwards. Gliding effortlessly on its mass of shifting tentacles.
It broke the surface of the lake soundlessly, its skin as dark as coal, virtually invisible to any who might glance in its direction. It watched then as the invaders took up positions around the great Western Door. Watched as they paced, and ate, and argued. Watched even as the Old One, with his Staff of Light, spoke the Opening Words, and the door swung slowly inwards. It watched. It might have struck out at the invaders then, however, instinct told it that now was not the proper time. And it could be patient. There were underwater passages, deep channels, extending all the way throughout the Mountain. It would follow, and watch. And when the time was right, it would strike.
You are the Watcher in the Water. You are a servant of the Dark Lord, Sauron.
You are ancient and powerful and have several 1-shot abilities:
1) Watch - You see whoever targets your target that Night.
2) Track - You see whoever your target targets that Night
3) Role Block - You prevent your target from taking any Night actions
4) Protect - You prevent the first NK attempt on the life of your target (be advised that a second attempt in the same Night, or certain Magical attacks will still be successful)
Each of these abilities may only be used one time during the game.
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Some One
Snagaslag grumbled as he reviewed his soldier's work schedules. Bits of colored paper covered the table from end to end, with many pieces spilling out off the table and onto the floor. More papers had been stuck to walls with knives, and still more had been crumpled up into tiny balls and were currently littering the corners of the room. His clawed fingers were black and greasy from constant marking and subsequent rubbing out of forms.
Snagaslag's hands formed themselves into fists, and he pounded his forehead.
Abruptly, Snagaslag stood and gripped the end of the table with both large hands. With a grunt, he lifted and threw the table forcefully against the wall, the bits of paper raining down in a manner not unlike a winter snowstorm. He surveyed the destruction, brushed off his hands, and nodded his head in a satisfied manner. Then he lurched out of the office.
"Done?" asked Senior Officer Nobbin, removing a finger from one large green nostril.
"Done," replied Snagaslag. "Time for eat."
Paperwork always made him hungry.
You are an Orcish Chieftain. You serve your Master Lord Sauron in all things.
As Chieftain, it is in your power to issue Orders to your fellow players. Each Night you may issue one of the following Orders to one player (PM me with your Order and I will relay it):
1) Stand Guard: You may Order a player to stand guard over another player. If the Order is accepted, the player becomes a bodyguard for that Night, and any actions targeting the guarded player will be re-directed to the Bodyguard.
2) Follow: You may Order a player to follow another player during the Night (you name the player to be Followed). If the Order is accepted, the player will learn who his target targets during the Night.
3) Watch: You may Order a player to Watch over another player (you name the player to be Watched). If the Order is accepted, the player will learn if anyone attempts to target the watched player during the Night.
4) Execute: You may Order a player to execute another player (you name the player to be executed). If the Order is accepted, and the player targeted for execution is not protected or otherwise immune, then the player will die.
5) Confined to Quarters: You may Order a player to be confined to quarters. If the Order is obeyed, the player will be unable to perform any actions that Night, but will also be protected from most killing effects.
You may only use each Order once, and you may not issue more than one Order to any player. Of course, your authority being what it is, and your soldiers being who they are, there are no guarantees that any of your Orders will be obeyed.
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
So seriously, what happened to this game? Scum got lynched the first two days and then..never again? And you guys didn't even think for two seconds about how terrible 2 of the scums claims were today.
Town play has been on a drastic decline of late, and this is a classic example of it. Thoroughly disappointing.
Wait, Axel, you Didn't have the whole storyline pre-written? Certainly seemed that way from the day and night posts.....seeing Gandalf still leading the party the whole way when he died ridiculously early was a bit jarring.
Otherwise, good play scum, given the big early edge the town got out to.
Nope. The story was written as the game progressed. I had some idea early on about trying to closely tailor the story to what was happening in the game, but with Pippin and Gandalf being lynched so early, I couldn't make it work out. So I basically cut it loose and let things develop more naturally. I was still planning to loop things back around ultimately to match the game more closely.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Raf - Investigate Cyan (blocked)
CPE - No action
Cyan - Summon Balrog (blocked)
DV - Watch AI (blocked)
Yoda - Shoot AI (blocked)
Some One - Order Dagger to Watch Cyan (blocked)
ITF - target AI
DV - Track Cyan (no target)
Some One - Order kpaca to kill bman65 (success)
kpaca - kill bman65 (success)
ITF - target bman65 (not summoned)
Cyan - No choice
CPE - No choice
ZDS - kill Cyan (success)
Night 3:
ITF - kill CPE (success)
CPE - No action
Some One - did not submit
jerubbaal - kill Calvin (success)
Night 4:
Some One - Order ZDS confined to quarters. (accepted)
jerubbaal - kill MMoD (success)
Night 5:
Some One - Order zindabad to Watch Some One (accepted)
ZDS - Kill Some One (success)
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I told you flat out that the red omega and DV wagons were clearly attempts to bandwagon weak players as distractions from AI and lrd (I particularly blame the experienced players for going along with that... did you really think we had competing wagons on 3 mafia and no townies on day 1? Really? And then no-one looked back to see who was trying to deflect onto DV at all. No-one, not once. Come on.)
So the entire town decided to turn your brains off and just follow the mafia around on the path of least resistance all game. Seriously, there were a ton of times in this game where almost no townies even posted and it was just the mafia creating the appearance of consensus. I can't believe that jerubbaal at least wasn't lynched (since he was generally the aggressive point man for the mislynches while ZDS and zind hung back a bit).
jerub, ZDS and zind played well and took advantage of the town's apathy, but they didn't play so well that the town shouldn't have been able to get them if they stopped to think for 5 seconds (especially with the terrible roleclaims at the end- LOOKING FOR FRODO, you have to be kidding me that anyone bought that at all)
kpaca (on several occasions) and Syrenz and mmod all looked like turning their brains on and bringing the town back into the game, unfortunately mmod got killed before he did and kpaca and Syrenz kept turning their brains back off after making one good post.
This will be a worthy winner of worst town performance this year I suspect. And it's a shame, it was one of my better day 1 town cameos.
In conclusion:
Incidentally, my frustration aside, the town really was (after day 2) unusually inactive. The point about the scum talking amongst themselves a lot of the time was not an exaggeration, and I believe Axelrod had to do a lot of prodding of townies. For the townies who were inactive- was there a particular reason you found it hard to stay active in this game?
We were never going to lose this game after Dagger was lynched and I'm just glad we were able to clean it up without having to go into night again.
My claim was just fine, thanks. Considering nobody else had even claimed anything besides vanilla, there was simply no way this town was going to lynch a potential power role instead of other scum front-runners and claimed vanillas like Syrenz or Zebi. The only hole in anything that I said was the early claim to have been blocked - not sure what I was thinking, but only Syrenz picked up on it and he was never going to make it stick.
The town suffered from apathy and a lack of leadership. MMoD could've made it happen but we bumped him off, Dagger was so off his game (I think if Dagger had been on Day Four, we would've lost), RafK, Cyan and Calvin all died in succession and the remaining townies were never really in it. I feel like one good re-read might've solved at least me and/or jerub but it never came. Zebi did a good job of facilitating our cause as well.
ZDS was fantastic and jerub was great as well. I was the weakest of our triumvirate but I had a good claim to buy me time and I never felt in any sort of danger.
A little tidbit - Asian definitely told us that the Balrog was an SK, so the whole time I was playing to the SK, I was actually almost completely positive that I was right. As it turned out, it was actually more important than I thought, because ITF would have won with the town, but at the time none of us (alive) knew that. And ITF randomly coming out and claiming vig confused the hell out of us (or at least me, I'll admit), because we all thought he was the SK.
Based on my PM and the flavor behind the story, I couldn't see the Balrog being anything other than the SK. That Axelrod decided to discourage mod-gaming by making the Balrog a townie was a surprise to me, too.
The main problem I feel is that the town just auto-lynched D1, D2, and D3. This let the scum pick off a bunch of players before real discussion began as well as being even more punishing by having the autolynch D3 be town. By the time discussion got started it was all in the hands of the scum and the townies left alive were content to let the scum run things.
However, the scum did play pretty well behaviourally anyway (jerubaal though did give me scummy vibes and Zindabad took off a huge amount of time to go lurk and nobody really noticed - to be fair everyone was lurking somewhat anyway). I'm sort of glad I was killed because I didn't have any real reads on anyone on that point and had pegged ZDS as obv town.
Major props to ZDS. The only real mistake I think he made was how badly he pushed the Dagger waggon but nobody apart from WoD seemed interested in this.
A little tidbit - Asian definitely told us that the Balrog was an SK, so the whole time I was playing to the SK, I was actually almost completely positive that I was right. As it turned out, it was actually more important than I thought, because ITF would have won with the town, but at the time none of us (alive) knew that. And ITF randomly coming out and claiming vig confused the hell out of us (or at least me, I'll admit), because we all thought he was the SK.
It seemed really weird to me that everyone was convinced I was the SK, despite it not really making sense with Cyan's role. Especially when you still didn't believe me after I was lynched.
I almost got on the right track when you asked if I was NK immune, but I discounted it, figuring that it was reasonable enough for you to figure it out if you were town.
But yeah, I played pretty terrible this game. After I claimed vig, I was focusing too much on defending myself, and not really enough time scum hunting. I should have realized that the main people trying to push that I was an SK (ZDS and jerubbaal) were likely scum. The problem was, there were a lot of people on the sidelines agreeing with them, and I thought it was just as likely the scum were laying low and letting the town lynch me.
I still stand by the DV lynch, just because of the way he claimed his N1 action. The way he claimed it, I couldn't see how he was telling the truth about his train of thought. Arguably, him knowing that Cyan did nothing should have cleared him, but there was a possibility that he blocked Cyan (though it wouldn't have made much sense to block Cyan and kill him the same night, he could have had a role that RBs and kills, or something). I do feel like people should have at least discussed the fact that DV knew Cyan did nothing though.
So, the initial inspiration for this game was the idea of flipping the traditional Town/Mafia roles - having the "Mafia" be the Heroes, and the "Town" be the Bad Guys - and then writing it in such a way that the audience would actually be rooting for the Heroes to win. (I realize having the Mafia be good and the Town be evil is not exactly an original idea, but it was more original 4 years ago.) The Mines of Moria seemed a perfect setting for this.
The second inspiration was in having a game with no Serial Killer. Back in the day, Serial Killers were not auto-includes in every Mafia game, but it seems that these days they almost are. So I wanted to shake up convention just a bit and didn't put one in (although, obviously I had a role that could easily be mistaken for a serial killer, if he wasn't careful and/or if the town made the wrong assumptions.)
The Third inspiration was the "Story." I was interested in trying to tell an actual story with this game, as opposed to simply writing the cut scenes between lynches and the Morning/Night scenes telling everyone who died. I was interested in writing something that could be read independently, as a stand alone. I wanted it to be inspired by the game, and as I mentioned I had thoughts about trying to follow the flow of the game with the Story as it progressed - writing out the roles that were lynched/night-killed - but I knew from the start that if I wanted it to be an actual, legitimate, story, I had to have the flexibility of not following what was happening in the game. Because it might easily happen that a role would be eliminated that I didn't want written out of the story (yet).
And indeed that's what happened with Pippin getting lynched Day 1, the only way for me to write that into the story would have been for him to somehow get killed practically the instant they set foot in the mines, and that just seemed wrong. It would definintely have been forced. Like some random Orc shooting an arrow around a corner that just happened to hit him. So I abandoned the idea that the story would exactly track what happened in the game, though I still clung to the idea that the events of the game would inspire the story, and ultimately inform the fates of the characters.
This, of course led to the complete disconnect from the Story and the Lynch results/Morning Scenes. I'm very curious how the players felt about that - whether they were disappointed that the scenes weren't about what had just happened. Whether this took them out of the game at all, made them less interested/invested. Or whether they pretty much just ignored the Story completely.
And then the rest of the design was me trying to stick fairly close to the "feeling" of my first game. Keeping it very traditional and basic with lots of vanilla townies, lots of generic roles, but a few flashy roles as well. The Heroes were the easiest to write from that standpoint. Each of their abilities fit fairly naturally with their characters, and seemed like a good balance for a Mafia team. The Town was a bit harder, I had lots of different roles doing different things at different times, but eventually it settled down into the mix you saw. It's pretty close to the mix of the first LotR game. Eight completely vanilla townies, a Cop, two 1-shot vigs, two Jack-of-all-trades types, a "tooth fairy" type role (this is the role that decides whether or not the vig is allowed to kill each Night) and the (almost) NK immune mandatory vigilante.
I wasn't sure about the Balrog role. At times I thought, he's going to be auto-lynched because he just looks too much like a SK. And then other times I thought, the fact there is a Town role holding his leash is going to make people think he can't be a SK, and if the Town doesn't lynch him, then he's a huge, HUGE problem for the Mafia, because they can't kill him without Gandalf. Ultimately I just went with it, because I figured NK immune Townies are a problem that Mafia have had to deal with in other games, and they did have a way to deal with him, which I informed them about from the very beginning, and his vigilante ability could just as easily end up helping them as hurting them.
No traditional Doctor role was another change from what might be condsidered "standard" Mafia expectations. The Jacks each had protective abilities, but they were limited.
Orcish Chieftain was my favorite role, my parallel role to the Galadrial Role of the first game. Working similarly, but with a different flavor and requiring a different kind of choice. Galadrial gave gifts which, once given, were the reciepient's to use as he or she saw fit. The Chieftain would give Orders that could be obeyed or ignored, but had to be followed the same Night or not at all.
More later.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
His play may be dangerous, but I refuse to think the guy who claimed Cave troll in his first post can be scum (unless he has extraordinary luck).
Extrodarinary luck would have nothing to do with it. I was thinking of the possibility that Kpaca was scum and lrd had investigated a Cave Troll N0 and told his scumbuddies and Kpaca decided to take advantage of that and claim Cave Troll.
For the townies who were inactive- was there a particular reason you found it hard to stay active in this game?
During my first rereads I was trying to find scum by looking at the lrd and AI wagons. That didn't work at all and I got no good reads on anyone. After my second prod I started looking back differently at different points in the thread and made cases against WoD and Zebi (which apparently were wrong) and became a bit more active.
Some One - Order zindabad to Watch Some One (accepted)
Great idea over here SO, sadly the wrong person watched though . Explains why they knew you weren't protected.
Quote from RafK »
(especially with the terrible roleclaims at the end- LOOKING FOR FRODO, you have to be kidding me that anyone bought that at all)
I'm innocent of this one at least.
Quote from MMoD »
After that DV lynch everything just went downhill.
Too true .
Only really considered lynching ZDS after he started pushing for my lynch, but didn't vote for him because I couldn't back anything up and it was largely OMGUS. I was completely sure you were town through most of the game though. gj
Quote from ITF »
I still stand by the DV lynch,
I think that's true for most of us. I was sure that DV was scum.
I really don't like the end of this post, and not because it implicates me. You are really trying to underhandedly throw some dirt on me (makes sense with all the talk about one troll being scum), while trying not to be blatant. You realize you can't create a case on me, so you just take a passing pot shot at the difference in our role flavor. A difference I uncovered ftr.
I understood flavor would be different, I just figured that role description would remain the same and that you would have this:
You are a Cave Troll, dwelling in the Mountains of Moria. You are both strong and fearsome, however, you have no special abilities in this game.
I completely agree with RafK when he says the town was completely apathetic. We did many anti-town things, or sometimes downright scummy ones. It was as if the town's collective brain was turned off and we had complete freedom of movement.
Here is the Link to the google group where I was running the game, and where there is running commentary from myself and many of the players. There is a link in there somewhere to the Mafia quicktopic board as well, which I can't access at the moment.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Can't remember who I thought was scum; but I was actually planning on making a case =/
I realized we were at a point where someone needed to do something since we really didn't have any analysts left and as unlikely as it was going to be I was going to try to get something done.
It's interesting that the Town started so strong and then just completely fell apart. I think it actually shows that too much early success can lead to complacency which can then be much worse than fighting from behind. lrd made a silly mistake early on (which I guess I have to take partial blame for, since it obviously was not 100% clear to the Mafia at the beginning that all the Mafia were "good" and all the Town was "Evil" even though I meant for that to be clear.) AI got caught at practically the same time, and made a poor role-claim, leading to two very quick lynches in successive days. Really, in terms of posts this is one of the shortest large games in recent memory.
And then, the town simply got lazy. Part of it was that the Mafia killed off some of the the most active posters who also tend to lead discussions (Raf/Cyan), but I really can't account for the apparent lack of interest that the rest of the town showed. Maybe it was just an unfortunate mix of players, maybe it was just bad timing, and maybe it was the large amont of vanilla roles leading to general disinterest (though I absolutely did warn players about that). Whatever the reason, ZDS and jerubbaal completely led the Town for the rest of the game, and everyone else seemed content to let them do it. I had to issue more prods to town players in this game than in any game I have ever run.
I thought the Mafia team as a whole was quite strong. I almost can't count lrd's mistake against him here, as it was almost a fluke. AI was bussed harder by his own teammates than by any member of the town. Zindabad lurked, but did it successfully. And like I said, ZDS and jerubbaal dominated the discussions after Day 2.
Points of Note/Trivia:
Neither of the Town's 1-shot vigs got their shot off. Yodavader was Rbed and killed N1, and CPE simply sat on his until he was offed.
Some One missed on every use of his Orders as well (and completely skipped submitting an Order on N3 which I think was a definitely a mistake.)
DV also made some questionable choices (really, Track Cyan?) which helped to lead to his own lynch despite having one of the better roles.
The Balrog went for Gandalf on N1, which would have killed both of them, but since Cyan was Rbed, he was not summoned. This helps the Mafia later when they are able to engineer a Balrog mislynch.
If you read the Heroes' Role PMs in order, they constitute the actual beginning of the Story. Random Town Role PMs are also related, though not quite so closely.
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I still stand by the DV lynch, just because of the way he claimed his N1 action. The way he claimed it, I couldn't see how he was telling the truth about his train of thought. Arguably, him knowing that Cyan did nothing should have cleared him, but there was a possibility that he blocked Cyan (though it wouldn't have made much sense to block Cyan and kill him the same night, he could have had a role that RBs and kills, or something). I do feel like people should have at least discussed the fact that DV knew Cyan did nothing though.
What are you talking about? I was lynched mostly because I guessed that AI was Gandalf. Honestly that was the most frustrating lynch ever for me. I also screwed up when I was drunk and I gave AI a pass when he claimed my exact role.
Can I still have an official MVP even if my awesome also caused the town to be complacent and lose?
Incidentally, I disagree that AI got bussed harder than he was hit by the town. Ai got run in hard by myself and in fairness other townies on day 1, which is why his lynch got treated as a forgone conclusion on day 2.
It will be interesting to see what happens... Kpaca might go ape
s*** on Jerrubal. But I think Kpaca is going to die if he admits he
doesn't have a day kill.
I apparently need to go back to my old ways of acting like a looney.
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Kpaca you shouldn't. We just put all our hope on you because you were the only semi active town player.
Honestly this town was pathetic. It wasn't only lulled into being a bunch of sheep. But it didn't even question things. Like Gollum? And the Eye of Sauron? Really? Two more power roles? Like how many power roles can be here. And TWO people looking for Frodo? Really?
Incidentally, I disagree that AI got bussed harder than he was hit by the town. Ai got run in hard by myself and in fairness other townies on day 1, which is why his lynch got treated as a forgone conclusion on day 2.
Yeah, I suppose I should learn to think like the mod when false-claiming instead of quoting the PM I would have written for myself. I also need to be less random during the early game.
This, of course led to the complete disconnect from the Story and the Lynch results/Morning Scenes. I'm very curious how the players felt about that - whether they were disappointed that the scenes weren't about what had just happened. Whether this took them out of the game at all, made them less interested/invested. Or whether they pretty much just ignored the Story completely.
Can't speak for the players of course. But as i said before, it was a bit jarring for me as a very interested observer (as I've stated, LOTR 1 was one of two games that made me interested in mafia in the first place and it holds a place in my heart). And I think it was a very ambitious idea, but made the flavor off-putting.
(I think Elegant Mafia still stands as the golden standard for Flavored games.)
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Mafia MVP Harry Potter Mafia!
Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
Quote from Seppel »
I love Joboman, Poggy, Niv, and Vezok, because, while they may not be the best players, they still try to win. Having fun is the most important thing to a game, but I've learned that if you don't try to win, then you're ruining everyone else's fun.
LVPs have sort of gone out of style here unless there's a funny reason for them (See Jobie's Sig for his LVP in RottK mafia). People tend to think that they're insulting to players.
But you can award yourself an LVP.
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Mafia MVP Harry Potter Mafia!
Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
Quote from Seppel »
I love Joboman, Poggy, Niv, and Vezok, because, while they may not be the best players, they still try to win. Having fun is the most important thing to a game, but I've learned that if you don't try to win, then you're ruining everyone else's fun.
What are you talking about? I was lynched mostly because I guessed that AI was Gandalf. Honestly that was the most frustrating lynch ever for me. I also screwed up when I was drunk and I gave AI a pass when he claimed my exact role.
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the way you messed up how you claimed was what convinced me that you had to be scum. Otherwise, I think your claim may have saved you (specifically the tracking Cyan part). I could see how you could figure out AI was Gandalf (I figured he was too, but my role also specifically referred to Gandalf, which was why I thought you might be Saruman at first), and I could potentially see how you could trust AI's JoaT claim at first if you weren't paying attention. I couldn't see how you could confuse who you targeted N1 like that if you were town though.
Quote from Loran16 »
Can't speak for the players of course. But as i said before, it was a bit jarring for me as a very interested observer (as I've stated, LOTR 1 was one of two games that made me interested in mafia in the first place and it holds a place in my heart). And I think it was a very ambitious idea, but made the flavor off-putting.
I agree with this. Although, after I died and I went back and read the scenes, I enjoyed them quite a bit.
Quote from Axelrod »
DV also made some questionable choices (really, Track Cyan?) which helped to lead to his own lynch despite having one of the better roles.
What's funny is, this was the only town night action that could have been good for the town. Other than that, we had 2 misvigs (though you could argue vigging bman prevented a mislynch), and a few orders to the scum that didn't do anything.
(I think Elegant Mafia still stands as the golden standard for Flavored games.)
I thought we all agreed not to mention that game ever again.
I still like Sin City for flavour.
Perhaps just as a function of lack of time, but I have a tendency to really skim over flavour these days (especially as flavour arguments are almost invariably red herrings these days anyway).
Hero MVP: goes to ZDS. The least suspected scum, he (together with jerbuuaal, credit here) controlled the game. And he did it by leading from the front as the most prolific poster by a wide, wide margin. That's always going to get you big points in my book. Excellent job. Honorable Mention to jerubbaal, the second leading poster.
Town MVP: well, since he asked so nicely, I think it does have to go to Rafaelk, despite his very early exit. It was his ploy that caught out lrd, which also indirectly led to AI. He was basically right on the money for Day 1. And then he died. But really, that was kind of it for the Town. Two mis-vigs and four mislynches later, they were basically swept away. So this is that rare case where a one day performance is, in fact, the best that the town did.
I'm not doing LVPs. You know how you did.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Incidentally the one event that solidifed ZDS in my mind as town was how aggresively he picked up on RafK's trap and helped with the hounding of lrd. I didn't see scum as being that mean to their scumbuddies. It's one thign to bus buddies but totally another to help out them through flavor shenanigans. Well played.
I still find it amusing that something that was meant to be a joke ended up actually trapping scum.
Also, I read through some of the spectators forum - thanks for the comments Axelrod.
Am I the only one who really wants to read the end of this story?
I know, I know. I sincerely apologize for the delay.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Sigh. No. It's shaping up to be a bit longer than any of the other chapters, however, and I am both unmotivated and trying not to make it suck at the same time.
Maybe finished this weekend....
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Sigh. No. It's shaping up to be a bit longer than any of the other chapters, however, and I am both unmotivated and trying not to make it suck at the same time.
Maybe finished this weekend....
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but it's been two weekends since this post and still no resolution to the story. I understand that we all have lives outside of the Internet, but I was really looking forward to reading the end.
Please don't be upset anyone. I am still working on this. I will spare you my latest litany of excuses (of which there are a few).
Partly in apolopgy, I have gone ahead and edited in the first part of this Chapter, which, as I said, is going to be a lot longer than any of the others. I have the second part completed as well, which I'll edit in if I can't finish the entire blasted thing by Saturday.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
The final Chapter has (finally) been completed and edited in. To any who were waiting for this, I'm very sorry for the delays. I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed writing it (for the most part) though it was more stressfull than I thought it would be in the beginning.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
The final Chapter has (finally) been completed and edited in. To any who were waiting for this, I'm very sorry for the delays. I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed writing it (for the most part) though it was more stressfull than I thought it would be in the beginning.
No worries, we understand that real life takes precedent. Hopefully your back is fully healed soon.
Your tale is fiction of the highest caliber, and I laud you for your excellent storytelling.:ak:
I had been rolling around the whole "no reason to claim, so I won't" in the endgame scenario for a while (beyond just this game), and decided that it actually displayed a very townie concern for position, so I decided to roll with it. Fairly pleased that it actually worked, although it may not have had the final day run on longer than it did, or had a less impulsive group of townies.
A little tidbit - Asian definitely told us that the Balrog was an SK, so the whole time I was playing to the SK, I was actually almost completely positive that I was right. As it turned out, it was actually more important than I thought, because ITF would have won with the town, but at the time none of us (alive) knew that. And ITF randomly coming out and claiming vig confused the hell out of us (or at least me, I'll admit), because we all thought he was the SK.
Anyway, nicely played all, especially ZDS, and many, many thanks for modding Axel. The flavor was fantastic, and everything was very cleanly modded.
MTGS stats (won/played)
As scum - 3/5
As town - 5/7
As neutral - none
(I really have been scum a lot)
I'm now writing for Eye of the Vortex, come check out MTG articles and other geek culture
I also moderate the MTG forum, so register (it's free) and voice your thoughts.
Otherwise, good play scum, given the big early edge the town got out to.
Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
zindabad
You are Frodo, Heroic Ringbearer.
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and lrd (Pippin). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
As the Ringbearer, you possess the One Ring of Power, forged by the Dark Lord, Sauron. Any attempts by others to sense for the Dark Lord's presence about you will show that you have been touched by the Dark One (translation: you have a Godfather type immunity to inspections or searches for the Dark Lord's presence).
In addition, your Mithril shirt gives you immunity to a single ordinary Night-Kill attempt against you. (This immunity will not work against magical attacks or creatures, such as the Balrog)
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are Pippin, Heroic Sneak
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, each Night that you are not performing the kill, you may attempt to sneak through the Mines and spy upon another player. If successful, you will learn that player's identity (i.e. role-name) but not ability.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are Legolas, Heroic Archer
The other Heroes joining you in this game are lrd (Pippin); ZDS (Boromir); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, on one Night that you are not performing this kill, you may perform a special attack with your bow against another player. Unless they are protected (or immune to such attacks), that player will die (1-shot vigilante).
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are Boromir, Heroic Roleblocker
The other Heroes joining you in this game are lrd (Pippin); jerubbaal (Legolas); AsianInvasion (Gandalf); and zindabad (Frodo). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, on one Night that you are not performing this kill, you may blow the Horn of Gondor. The Horn quells all Evil that hear it, and prevents any and all actions which they might take (1-shot mass role-block). The actions of the Heroes are unaffected by this.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are Gandalf, Heroic Protector.
The other Heroes joining you in this game are jerubbaal (Legolas); ZDS (Boromir); zindabad (Frodo); and lrd (Pippin). During the Night phases of the game, you may communicate freely with the other Heroes. I have created a Quicktopic group HERE for your use.
Each Night the Heroes may choose one player to eliminate from the game. If you do, you must also decide who amongst you will perform this action.
In addition, each Night that you are not performing the kill, you may choose to protect one player. That person will be immune to the first Night Kill attempt against him (a second attempt in the same Night, however, would still prove successful).
You are the only member of the Heroes with the power to destroy the Balrog. Furthermore, if the Balrog attempts to kill you or a player whom you are protecting, then you and he will destroy each other. The Balrog is aware of this.
Your Win Condition is: Eliminate all those who are not aligned with the forces of Light (or reduce to such numbers as would make victory inevitable).
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
The Denizens of Moria:
Zebi
You are an Orc, an inhabitant of the realm of Moria. You have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orc of Moria. You serve the Dark One in all things, but you have no abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orc.
You are a soldier in the army of Sauron, the Dark Lord. You are crafty and wily and an enemy of the Light. You have no special abilities in this game, however.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Uruk-Hai
You are a capable warrior and servant of Sauron. You have no special abilities in this game, however.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Uruk of Moria.
You have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are a Cave Troll. You are aligned with the forces of Evil.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are a Cave Troll, dwelling in the Mountains of Moria. You are both strong and fearsome, however, you have no special abilities in this game.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are a Cave Troll. You are aligned with the forces of Evil in this game. You have no special abilities.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orcish Archer. You serve the Dark Lord in all things.
One time during the game, during the Night, you may elect to shoot an arrow at another player. Unless that player is protected or otherwise immune, that player will die.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orcish Archer. Stationed in Moria, you are a faithful servant of your Dark Lord, Sauron.
One time during the game, at Night, you may attempt to shoot an arrow at another player. Unless that player is protected or otherwise immune, that player will die.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orcish Drummer, servant of Lord Sauron. You possess the means of summoning the Balrog (who may or may not be a player in this game). Each Night, you must decide whether or not to use the Drum. If you play it, the Balrog will come, and a player will most certainly die. If you do not play it, then the Balrog will be unable to slay anyone. If you yourself are slain, then the Balrog will be completely released.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are the Balrog, Demon of Fire and Air.
You are a Mandatory Vigilante. Each night you must send me the name of a target player. If you are subsequently summoned that Night, then the player you have targeted will die. If you are not summoned, you will do nothing. If the summoner is killed, then you are unleashed and will kill on every Night thereafter.
Your power is so great that there is only one who can stand against you. If you target Gandalf, or the player Gandalf is protecting, then you and he will destroy each other. Gandalf is aware of this. You are invulnerable to any other Night attacks against yourself, save for the attack of Gandalf. You lose these abilities if you are the last non-Hero remaining.
Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are a Nazgul, servant of the mighty Lord Sauron.
You have the ability to sense for the presence of your Master. Each Night you may target a player. I will tell you whether or not that player has been touched by the Dark Lord (Evil creatures have been "touched" by Sauron. Effectively, this works as a Cop investigation).
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are the Watcher in the Water. You are a servant of the Dark Lord, Sauron.
You are ancient and powerful and have several 1-shot abilities:
1) Watch - You see whoever targets your target that Night.
2) Track - You see whoever your target targets that Night
3) Role Block - You prevent your target from taking any Night actions
4) Protect - You prevent the first NK attempt on the life of your target (be advised that a second attempt in the same Night, or certain Magical attacks will still be successful)
Each of these abilities may only be used one time during the game.
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
You are an Orcish Chieftain. You serve your Master Lord Sauron in all things.
As Chieftain, it is in your power to issue Orders to your fellow players. Each Night you may issue one of the following Orders to one player (PM me with your Order and I will relay it):
1) Stand Guard: You may Order a player to stand guard over another player. If the Order is accepted, the player becomes a bodyguard for that Night, and any actions targeting the guarded player will be re-directed to the Bodyguard.
2) Follow: You may Order a player to follow another player during the Night (you name the player to be Followed). If the Order is accepted, the player will learn who his target targets during the Night.
3) Watch: You may Order a player to Watch over another player (you name the player to be Watched). If the Order is accepted, the player will learn if anyone attempts to target the watched player during the Night.
4) Execute: You may Order a player to execute another player (you name the player to be executed). If the Order is accepted, and the player targeted for execution is not protected or otherwise immune, then the player will die.
5) Confined to Quarters: You may Order a player to be confined to quarters. If the Order is obeyed, the player will be unable to perform any actions that Night, but will also be protected from most killing effects.
You may only use each Order once, and you may not issue more than one Order to any player. Of course, your authority being what it is, and your soldiers being who they are, there are no guarantees that any of your Orders will be obeyed.
Your Win Condition: Eliminate all those not loyal to Sauron.
Please confirm receipt of this role via PM. Have fun and good luck.
[In case it is not completely clear, the "Heroes" in this game function as the traditional "Mafia," while the "Town" is comprised of the denizens of Moria (and possibly elsewhere). This is not meant to be confusing to anyone.]
Town play has been on a drastic decline of late, and this is a classic example of it. Thoroughly disappointing.
Nope. The story was written as the game progressed. I had some idea early on about trying to closely tailor the story to what was happening in the game, but with Pippin and Gandalf being lynched so early, I couldn't make it work out. So I basically cut it loose and let things develop more naturally. I was still planning to loop things back around ultimately to match the game more closely.
Night 1:
Raf - Investigate Cyan (blocked)
CPE - No action
Cyan - Summon Balrog (blocked)
DV - Watch AI (blocked)
Yoda - Shoot AI (blocked)
Some One - Order Dagger to Watch Cyan (blocked)
ITF - target AI
Jerub - kill Yoda
ZDS - Blow horn/RB
AI - kill Rafaelk
Night 2:
DV - Track Cyan (no target)
Some One - Order kpaca to kill bman65 (success)
kpaca - kill bman65 (success)
ITF - target bman65 (not summoned)
Cyan - No choice
CPE - No choice
ZDS - kill Cyan (success)
Night 3:
ITF - kill CPE (success)
CPE - No action
Some One - did not submit
jerubbaal - kill Calvin (success)
Night 4:
Some One - Order ZDS confined to quarters. (accepted)
jerubbaal - kill MMoD (success)
Night 5:
Some One - Order zindabad to Watch Some One (accepted)
ZDS - Kill Some One (success)
I gave you two scum on day 1.
I told you flat out that the red omega and DV wagons were clearly attempts to bandwagon weak players as distractions from AI and lrd (I particularly blame the experienced players for going along with that... did you really think we had competing wagons on 3 mafia and no townies on day 1? Really? And then no-one looked back to see who was trying to deflect onto DV at all. No-one, not once. Come on.)
So the entire town decided to turn your brains off and just follow the mafia around on the path of least resistance all game. Seriously, there were a ton of times in this game where almost no townies even posted and it was just the mafia creating the appearance of consensus. I can't believe that jerubbaal at least wasn't lynched (since he was generally the aggressive point man for the mislynches while ZDS and zind hung back a bit).
jerub, ZDS and zind played well and took advantage of the town's apathy, but they didn't play so well that the town shouldn't have been able to get them if they stopped to think for 5 seconds (especially with the terrible roleclaims at the end- LOOKING FOR FRODO, you have to be kidding me that anyone bought that at all)
kpaca (on several occasions) and Syrenz and mmod all looked like turning their brains on and bringing the town back into the game, unfortunately mmod got killed before he did and kpaca and Syrenz kept turning their brains back off after making one good post.
This will be a worthy winner of worst town performance this year I suspect. And it's a shame, it was one of my better day 1 town cameos.
In conclusion:
Incidentally, my frustration aside, the town really was (after day 2) unusually inactive. The point about the scum talking amongst themselves a lot of the time was not an exaggeration, and I believe Axelrod had to do a lot of prodding of townies. For the townies who were inactive- was there a particular reason you found it hard to stay active in this game?
I knew ZDS was scum -.-
Surprised kpaca was town.
Surprised Zebi was town. You should be less of a sheep
Surprised Zindabad was scum.
Should have made jerubbaal claim.
Surprised scums didn't go for pile-on speedlynch.
My claim was just fine, thanks. Considering nobody else had even claimed anything besides vanilla, there was simply no way this town was going to lynch a potential power role instead of other scum front-runners and claimed vanillas like Syrenz or Zebi. The only hole in anything that I said was the early claim to have been blocked - not sure what I was thinking, but only Syrenz picked up on it and he was never going to make it stick.
The town suffered from apathy and a lack of leadership. MMoD could've made it happen but we bumped him off, Dagger was so off his game (I think if Dagger had been on Day Four, we would've lost), RafK, Cyan and Calvin all died in succession and the remaining townies were never really in it. I feel like one good re-read might've solved at least me and/or jerub but it never came. Zebi did a good job of facilitating our cause as well.
ZDS was fantastic and jerub was great as well. I was the weakest of our triumvirate but I had a good claim to buy me time and I never felt in any sort of danger.
"...a talisman against all evil, so long as you obey me."
Based on my PM and the flavor behind the story, I couldn't see the Balrog being anything other than the SK. That Axelrod decided to discourage mod-gaming by making the Balrog a townie was a surprise to me, too.
What they said, though I love that I still managed to confuse the hell out of people after my death via my false-claim.
Axelrod is a great mod, indeed.
The main problem I feel is that the town just auto-lynched D1, D2, and D3. This let the scum pick off a bunch of players before real discussion began as well as being even more punishing by having the autolynch D3 be town. By the time discussion got started it was all in the hands of the scum and the townies left alive were content to let the scum run things.
However, the scum did play pretty well behaviourally anyway (jerubaal though did give me scummy vibes and Zindabad took off a huge amount of time to go lurk and nobody really noticed - to be fair everyone was lurking somewhat anyway). I'm sort of glad I was killed because I didn't have any real reads on anyone on that point and had pegged ZDS as obv town.
Major props to ZDS. The only real mistake I think he made was how badly he pushed the Dagger waggon but nobody apart from WoD seemed interested in this.
Basic #10-Town-Win
Sword of Truth-Town-Loss
LOTR II - Town-Loss
Indiana Jones - Town-Win
Manipulator - Town-Win
The Asphodel Meadows - Town-Win
Highlander - Neutral Survivor - Win
It seemed really weird to me that everyone was convinced I was the SK, despite it not really making sense with Cyan's role. Especially when you still didn't believe me after I was lynched.
I almost got on the right track when you asked if I was NK immune, but I discounted it, figuring that it was reasonable enough for you to figure it out if you were town.
But yeah, I played pretty terrible this game. After I claimed vig, I was focusing too much on defending myself, and not really enough time scum hunting. I should have realized that the main people trying to push that I was an SK (ZDS and jerubbaal) were likely scum. The problem was, there were a lot of people on the sidelines agreeing with them, and I thought it was just as likely the scum were laying low and letting the town lynch me.
I still stand by the DV lynch, just because of the way he claimed his N1 action. The way he claimed it, I couldn't see how he was telling the truth about his train of thought. Arguably, him knowing that Cyan did nothing should have cleared him, but there was a possibility that he blocked Cyan (though it wouldn't have made much sense to block Cyan and kill him the same night, he could have had a role that RBs and kills, or something). I do feel like people should have at least discussed the fact that DV knew Cyan did nothing though.
The second inspiration was in having a game with no Serial Killer. Back in the day, Serial Killers were not auto-includes in every Mafia game, but it seems that these days they almost are. So I wanted to shake up convention just a bit and didn't put one in (although, obviously I had a role that could easily be mistaken for a serial killer, if he wasn't careful and/or if the town made the wrong assumptions.)
The Third inspiration was the "Story." I was interested in trying to tell an actual story with this game, as opposed to simply writing the cut scenes between lynches and the Morning/Night scenes telling everyone who died. I was interested in writing something that could be read independently, as a stand alone. I wanted it to be inspired by the game, and as I mentioned I had thoughts about trying to follow the flow of the game with the Story as it progressed - writing out the roles that were lynched/night-killed - but I knew from the start that if I wanted it to be an actual, legitimate, story, I had to have the flexibility of not following what was happening in the game. Because it might easily happen that a role would be eliminated that I didn't want written out of the story (yet).
And indeed that's what happened with Pippin getting lynched Day 1, the only way for me to write that into the story would have been for him to somehow get killed practically the instant they set foot in the mines, and that just seemed wrong. It would definintely have been forced. Like some random Orc shooting an arrow around a corner that just happened to hit him. So I abandoned the idea that the story would exactly track what happened in the game, though I still clung to the idea that the events of the game would inspire the story, and ultimately inform the fates of the characters.
This, of course led to the complete disconnect from the Story and the Lynch results/Morning Scenes. I'm very curious how the players felt about that - whether they were disappointed that the scenes weren't about what had just happened. Whether this took them out of the game at all, made them less interested/invested. Or whether they pretty much just ignored the Story completely.
And then the rest of the design was me trying to stick fairly close to the "feeling" of my first game. Keeping it very traditional and basic with lots of vanilla townies, lots of generic roles, but a few flashy roles as well. The Heroes were the easiest to write from that standpoint. Each of their abilities fit fairly naturally with their characters, and seemed like a good balance for a Mafia team. The Town was a bit harder, I had lots of different roles doing different things at different times, but eventually it settled down into the mix you saw. It's pretty close to the mix of the first LotR game. Eight completely vanilla townies, a Cop, two 1-shot vigs, two Jack-of-all-trades types, a "tooth fairy" type role (this is the role that decides whether or not the vig is allowed to kill each Night) and the (almost) NK immune mandatory vigilante.
I wasn't sure about the Balrog role. At times I thought, he's going to be auto-lynched because he just looks too much like a SK. And then other times I thought, the fact there is a Town role holding his leash is going to make people think he can't be a SK, and if the Town doesn't lynch him, then he's a huge, HUGE problem for the Mafia, because they can't kill him without Gandalf. Ultimately I just went with it, because I figured NK immune Townies are a problem that Mafia have had to deal with in other games, and they did have a way to deal with him, which I informed them about from the very beginning, and his vigilante ability could just as easily end up helping them as hurting them.
No traditional Doctor role was another change from what might be condsidered "standard" Mafia expectations. The Jacks each had protective abilities, but they were limited.
Orcish Chieftain was my favorite role, my parallel role to the Galadrial Role of the first game. Working similarly, but with a different flavor and requiring a different kind of choice. Galadrial gave gifts which, once given, were the reciepient's to use as he or she saw fit. The Chieftain would give Orders that could be obeyed or ignored, but had to be followed the same Night or not at all.
More later.
At least I was right about Zindabad.
EDIT:
Extrodarinary luck would have nothing to do with it. I was thinking of the possibility that Kpaca was scum and lrd had investigated a Cave Troll N0 and told his scumbuddies and Kpaca decided to take advantage of that and claim Cave Troll.
During my first rereads I was trying to find scum by looking at the lrd and AI wagons. That didn't work at all and I got no good reads on anyone. After my second prod I started looking back differently at different points in the thread and made cases against WoD and Zebi (which apparently were wrong) and became a bit more active.
Great idea over here SO, sadly the wrong person watched though . Explains why they knew you weren't protected.
I'm innocent of this one at least.
Too true .
Only really considered lynching ZDS after he started pushing for my lynch, but didn't vote for him because I couldn't back anything up and it was largely OMGUS. I was completely sure you were town through most of the game though. gj
I think that's true for most of us. I was sure that DV was scum.
Lair of the Cat (Mafia Stats)
btw kpaca
I understood flavor would be different, I just figured that role description would remain the same and that you would have this:
apparently not though
Lair of the Cat (Mafia Stats)
I realized we were at a point where someone needed to do something since we really didn't have any analysts left and as unlikely as it was going to be I was going to try to get something done.
Then I died.
It's interesting that the Town started so strong and then just completely fell apart. I think it actually shows that too much early success can lead to complacency which can then be much worse than fighting from behind. lrd made a silly mistake early on (which I guess I have to take partial blame for, since it obviously was not 100% clear to the Mafia at the beginning that all the Mafia were "good" and all the Town was "Evil" even though I meant for that to be clear.) AI got caught at practically the same time, and made a poor role-claim, leading to two very quick lynches in successive days. Really, in terms of posts this is one of the shortest large games in recent memory.
And then, the town simply got lazy. Part of it was that the Mafia killed off some of the the most active posters who also tend to lead discussions (Raf/Cyan), but I really can't account for the apparent lack of interest that the rest of the town showed. Maybe it was just an unfortunate mix of players, maybe it was just bad timing, and maybe it was the large amont of vanilla roles leading to general disinterest (though I absolutely did warn players about that). Whatever the reason, ZDS and jerubbaal completely led the Town for the rest of the game, and everyone else seemed content to let them do it. I had to issue more prods to town players in this game than in any game I have ever run.
I thought the Mafia team as a whole was quite strong. I almost can't count lrd's mistake against him here, as it was almost a fluke. AI was bussed harder by his own teammates than by any member of the town. Zindabad lurked, but did it successfully. And like I said, ZDS and jerubbaal dominated the discussions after Day 2.
Points of Note/Trivia:
Neither of the Town's 1-shot vigs got their shot off. Yodavader was Rbed and killed N1, and CPE simply sat on his until he was offed.
Some One missed on every use of his Orders as well (and completely skipped submitting an Order on N3 which I think was a definitely a mistake.)
DV also made some questionable choices (really, Track Cyan?) which helped to lead to his own lynch despite having one of the better roles.
The Balrog went for Gandalf on N1, which would have killed both of them, but since Cyan was Rbed, he was not summoned. This helps the Mafia later when they are able to engineer a Balrog mislynch.
If you read the Heroes' Role PMs in order, they constitute the actual beginning of the Story. Random Town Role PMs are also related, though not quite so closely.
What are you talking about? I was lynched mostly because I guessed that AI was Gandalf. Honestly that was the most frustrating lynch ever for me. I also screwed up when I was drunk and I gave AI a pass when he claimed my exact role.
Incidentally, I disagree that AI got bussed harder than he was hit by the town. Ai got run in hard by myself and in fairness other townies on day 1, which is why his lynch got treated as a forgone conclusion on day 2.
Otherwise I agree with Axelrod's summary 100%
I apparently need to go back to my old ways of acting like a looney.
I am beginning to feel as if I should shoulder all the blame for this loss
Honestly this town was pathetic. It wasn't only lulled into being a bunch of sheep. But it didn't even question things. Like Gollum? And the Eye of Sauron? Really? Two more power roles? Like how many power roles can be here. And TWO people looking for Frodo? Really?
Yeah, I suppose I should learn to think like the mod when false-claiming instead of quoting the PM I would have written for myself. I also need to be less random during the early game.
Scum-Chat: http://www.quicktopic.com/43/H/nsmQvQNs54hV
Can't speak for the players of course. But as i said before, it was a bit jarring for me as a very interested observer (as I've stated, LOTR 1 was one of two games that made me interested in mafia in the first place and it holds a place in my heart). And I think it was a very ambitious idea, but made the flavor off-putting.
(I think Elegant Mafia still stands as the golden standard for Flavored games.)
Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
LVPs have sort of gone out of style here unless there's a funny reason for them (See Jobie's Sig for his LVP in RottK mafia). People tend to think that they're insulting to players.
But you can award yourself an LVP.
Logical Reasoning is dead; Long Live Stupidity
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the way you messed up how you claimed was what convinced me that you had to be scum. Otherwise, I think your claim may have saved you (specifically the tracking Cyan part). I could see how you could figure out AI was Gandalf (I figured he was too, but my role also specifically referred to Gandalf, which was why I thought you might be Saruman at first), and I could potentially see how you could trust AI's JoaT claim at first if you weren't paying attention. I couldn't see how you could confuse who you targeted N1 like that if you were town though.
I agree with this. Although, after I died and I went back and read the scenes, I enjoyed them quite a bit.
What's funny is, this was the only town night action that could have been good for the town. Other than that, we had 2 misvigs (though you could argue vigging bman prevented a mislynch), and a few orders to the scum that didn't do anything.
I thought we all agreed not to mention that game ever again.
I still like Sin City for flavour.
Perhaps just as a function of lack of time, but I have a tendency to really skim over flavour these days (especially as flavour arguments are almost invariably red herrings these days anyway).
Since people are asking.
Hero MVP: goes to ZDS. The least suspected scum, he (together with jerbuuaal, credit here) controlled the game. And he did it by leading from the front as the most prolific poster by a wide, wide margin. That's always going to get you big points in my book. Excellent job. Honorable Mention to jerubbaal, the second leading poster.
Town MVP: well, since he asked so nicely, I think it does have to go to Rafaelk, despite his very early exit. It was his ploy that caught out lrd, which also indirectly led to AI. He was basically right on the money for Day 1. And then he died. But really, that was kind of it for the Town. Two mis-vigs and four mislynches later, they were basically swept away. So this is that rare case where a one day performance is, in fact, the best that the town did.
I'm not doing LVPs. You know how you did.
I still find it amusing that something that was meant to be a joke ended up actually trapping scum.
Also, I read through some of the spectators forum - thanks for the comments Axelrod.
Basic #10-Town-Win
Sword of Truth-Town-Loss
LOTR II - Town-Loss
Indiana Jones - Town-Win
Manipulator - Town-Win
The Asphodel Meadows - Town-Win
Highlander - Neutral Survivor - Win
Thank you lrd
Lair of the Cat (Mafia Stats)
Should have figured ZDS' obsession and persistence on me was unnatural. I'll beat him off with a stick next time. >_>
We'll make you an offer you can't refuse.
Hosting: Vista Mafia
Hosted: Intrigue Mafia (Mini), Seance #43 (Basic), Conflux Mafia (Normal), Goo Mafia (FTQ), Experiment #26 (Basic)
Ongoing/Completed - 0/41
Town/Mafia/SK/Survivor - 30/6/4/1
NKed/Lynched/Survived - 15/11/15
Am I the only one who really wants to read the end of this story?
I know, I know. I sincerely apologize for the delay.
I know you're still alive. You didn't forget, did you?
Maybe finished this weekend....
I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but it's been two weekends since this post and still no resolution to the story. I understand that we all have lives outside of the Internet, but I was really looking forward to reading the end.
I for one am thankful for the flavor we did get, as even incomplete it was still amazing.
Tl;dr, shut up about the story all ready. Pm Axel if it's that important to you.
The verbal dope slap is unnecessary and unwanted.
Partly in apolopgy, I have gone ahead and edited in the first part of this Chapter, which, as I said, is going to be a lot longer than any of the others. I have the second part completed as well, which I'll edit in if I can't finish the entire blasted thing by Saturday.
No worries, we understand that real life takes precedent. Hopefully your back is fully healed soon.
Your tale is fiction of the highest caliber, and I laud you for your excellent storytelling.:ak: