Mafia: Information, Announcements, and Discussion

Darth Caesar said:

Remake is MIA, should we make a new thread? If so I volunteer to do it.

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I'd give it a week or so. He's only been MIA for a week atm.

So...I still could open signups tomorrow possibly or Saturday almost certainly, but any other input on which game to host...?

Springfield. Haa-haaa!!!

Ngoogol!

Nagoogol.

Hmm...I would like to open signups tomorrow but maybe Sunday can do - anyway I still think it's going to a week till the 18th or so till a game starts but we'll want signups open.

Anyone commenting so far or anyone else - only if you feel strongly about something - what are the reasons behind preference for a game. Because it's not a bad thing at all, I don't mind, but if it's a "meta" sort of thing like which game sounds like it'll get more players or whatever, I can elaborate on that:

-I'm happy again to host either. Really, hope they would both be fun games. Different, obviously, y'know settings, factions vs. regular Mafia, much more, but both fun to host. In the Atto Ngoogol game I'd probably have a bit more work as GM but It'd also be more exciting/nail-biting for me as well, a lot more tension and so on.

As for the games themselves then, here's my breakdown:
-The Simpsons game simply needs more players I think. 33, 34, 35, is what we'd want to hit, extras are comparatively easy but not getting enough hurts with each one. So not enough players or too many inactives would be more damaging to this game, if that's what people are worried about - because I don't think to a point we could simply consolidate roles, cut spots and make remaining players more powerful etc... - wouldn't work.

-The Ngoogol game is more flexible on players, I still think 25-40 (well, I don't expect more). The key difference is a player going inactive or something during the game couldn't have as much gamewide effect - but as a faction based game all the players will have to rely on their allies a lot - a few teams of a few players could certainly be in a really tough spot if they get screwed up by external circumstances. Though whatever we get in player signups and character creation, the game will be balanced at the start, so from there it's kinda on the players - this one would take a bit of effort, being crafty and so on and really playing well for the victorious teams you'd hope.

Of course, if there's a need for a bit more down-to-earth summary - the Ngoogol game really is going to be different and new compared to the average mafia game, the Simpsons game is just a good-old Mafia product well-refined. Both undoubtedly fun I would really hope, all those who make it solidly into the game should have a blast, but one's going to require more setup like you all considering character creation and so on, and active participation and effort. The Simpsons game would start off comparatively slowly like any regular Mafia game even though it should have some fun twists and turns too.

If we're not decided at all tomorrow I maybe should touch up the teaser for the Atto Ngoogol game, another blurb of story and rules to see what you all think I guess (well, not really new rules, mostly more intro).

Thanks for hearing me out again.

35 players? I'll start registering my illegal alts.

I do want to be honest about that - anything less than 30 simply couldn't fly with the Simpsons game, and with each fewer from 30-35 the game will probably feel more hurried and stressed, at least for the Innocent team. Simply have to have raw numbers at some point in an Innocent vs. Mafia game to make things work out, and the current roles available I wouldn't want to put in too many spare ones or cut any main ones.

Whereas the Ngoogol game has tons of possibilities I really hope I've layed out well. As in, there could theoretically be like 60 or more possible "roles" that may eventually go out - we'll never get nor need anything close to that, just possible factions, unique abilities, items, etc... that all go with character creations I'm hoping will be all right. As I said in the past, yes, we couldn't have something crazy like every single player wanting to submit an "evil sorcerer" character but given a reasonable balance players will both get to be the type of character they want to be, and the game will work pretty well no matter how signups go down. (And more players/reserves wouldn't really ever hurt either).

Now is not a good time of year for activity. Go for the Ngoogol game. Getting signups open as soon as possible would be good. Is there a need to delay?

No, there's not a real need to delay as far as I know. I'm working on signups for the Ngoogol game, will open that today. Game thread probably couldn't start before next weekend though if that's what anyone is wondering but that seems like a usual time for signups anyway and that could even take longer.

Thanks everyone for the input though. Simpsons will have to wait till some other time but that's fine, we should have a good game regardless.

I'll link this post to the signup thread when I get it up, refining some things plus prologue so just a little bit.

edit: here's the link

FWIW my small game will be centered in the Smurf village and will have 24 roles (tentatively).

It shall be titled "Smurfette's box: releasing the evils of Smurf".

Here is a brief description

Kennigit said:

FWIW my small game will be centered in the Smurf village and will have 24 roles (tentatively).

It shall be titled "Smurfette's box: releasing the evils of Smurf".

Here is a brief description

Spoiler :

Simply put, the Smurf village was once a happy and peaceful place--until the creation of Smurfette. Paralleling Pandora from the greek myth, she was molded from the Earth and eventually releases the evils of the world; her charms and beauty "cause jealousy and competition among the Smurfs in order to cause their fall..... causing chaos among the Smurfs who competed, fighting against each other to win Smurfette's heart".

However, when Smurfette is stolen from the village, the Smurfs unite together to get back their Smurfette. Little do they know what troubles they will endure....

Notes about the game: Like I said, this is a mini-version of my other large game. There is an overall townie vs mafia game: The Smurfs have to get rid off all non-Smurfs and get back Smurfette to win the game.

There are more than one but less than 5 (I won't reveal!) mafia factions that have their own victory condition; all involve 1) having possession of smurfette and 2) accomplishing other goals. This may or may not involve eliminating the other mafia factions as well. Only 1 mafia faction can win--either teh Smurfs win, or one of the mafia do.

There will be numerous items in the game and abilities. Smurfette *should* change hands during the course of the game, and people in possession of smurfette will have their abilites boosted.

There is an HP system that accompanies the various items in the game. There may or may not be "random events" that can occur, such as a plague to hit the village. It depends on what players may want (if they want random events). There are guarenteed to be certain triggers for some people that they do not know about ahead of time..

Roles will be more straightforward than my other game; by that I mean there is the one distinct theme. Every smurf will get a role PM of what smurf he is from the comic (there is a handy list on wikipedia)--the smurfs are already characterised as archetypes, so every smurf's role will relate to the archetype of his character. My large game has factions of archetypes, but those archetypes were gathered from television, movies, literature, etc.


The game starts at night. Smurfette is actually still in the village but she is 100% guarenteed to be stolen night 1. The Smurfs have no abilities the first night.

The reason it starts at night is because the mafia make the first move, and since there are multiple mafia factions, there will be competition amongst themselves to see who gets to start out with Smurfette. Remember, while the innocents are trying to hunt the mafia, the mafia are all trying to get smurfette from each other....

This system is to show how a character from literature/something/Smurfville will have his "essence" or "theme" translated into a mafia game. Here is an example:

my other game does have thievery in it. This one can or cannot have thievery in it . There are many items and so the thieves do play an important part to the game in my large mafia game--this game will not have a large "thief" item system. But if greedy smurf was in my large game, he would have been one of the thieves that are stealing items.

As a fun side note, you can think of this game as a lose-lose for the town....either they are wiped out, or they return Smurfette and go back to chaos. There is no happy ending for humanity smurfanity!

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At first I was like, NO WAY CAUSE SMURFS IS ONE OF THE DUMBEST SHOWS EVER, but after reading that you won me over.

What do you mean, Smurfs is one of the dumbest shows ever? You Americans get no cultural references unless it's hot dogs and baseball, eh?

Still looking to catch those last three spots in my game... if you're interested, just post in the thread! I could use reserves, too!

Sorry, CP. I would if my comp was fixed. Put me down as a reserve, but keep in mind I may not be able to play.

While I'm at it I might as well name my large mafia game as "Archetype Mafia".

edit- FWIW I should also mention smurfette is a NPC for the small game.

Question for hosts.

When I create characters, I get terribly attached to some of them and don't want them to die.

An example of this is 'classical_hero the Foolish Slave' - I really had a hard time writing the update becuase i just didn't want it to be true.

Also when i find it hard when all the active people are the ones that get killed. Quite a few people started getting right into my notw, then bamm.... i didn't want them to die~

I don't actually see what the question is there, unless it's "do you feel the same way." And to that the answer's yes, and I'm sure others have anecdotes but don't want to spoil them, but like Anakin Skywalker dying in the Star Wars game or something.

As far as my own game hosted here, I agree though, you totally root for some characters or some interesting things to happen. I would have been more stressed out about my Lizard, but CCRunner did well, and the Innocent player who's goal and ability was to find and expose the lizard, was inactive, and when replaced, another Mafia team panicked and killed him

It's not just when a character dies though - I also hope the little things catch on. If I were hosting the Simpsons game I'm sure I would have agonized over a lot again because that one is utterly loaded with little details. Again the example from my last game, I was disappointed the clones didn't work out - the 4 players who were clones of each other, but like 2 were inactive, one died early and the last didn't catch on right, and no one else seemed to make it an issue y'know. Or even further, like how with Mafia cover roles I tried to intentionally add a little flaw to them, like James Madison signing the Declaration of Independence...when it turns out almost no Mafia ever even used a cover role at all that game, let alone got to the point of Innocents trying to figure out such.

The only way to avoid some of the stress is if all your characters are roughly the same level of importance - impossible in a normal Mafia game though, Mafia or power roles just have to be something more. But if all players are active and interesting that helps too. Anyway I know for the upcoming game I have now since players are designing their own characters in great part I won't have to get attached to anyone needlessly, though I hope some of the really neat mechanics and factions work out still.

One very last related thing I was reminded of though, just hosting games in general - well firstly, I never too much like when things are decided by random chances on the host's side anyway, perhaps just as a preference, but it can also be done wrong by bias by the host. So I'd avoid that in favor of deterministic things even for complicated situations, like 2 killers attacking each other, think of that and have a reason things work out. But I'd try to avoid giving "random" chances to events in the game too often when there's not much need. Like "You have a 20% chance to roleblock someone" isn't an ability I would try to ever write, I would avoid that like the plague, much better to just say "3 times during the game you could roleblock someone" and then the player at least knows where they stand. If you really have to make things random (hopefully, again, for a better reason than the above, and I'll admit I have done and will do random things when hosting a game, but try to have it be a good reason) I would recommend making your set of random numbers at the very start of the game, and sticking to it. Don't let there be a "50%" chance of someone dying, and then when by the player actions that someone turns out to be a Mafia godfather or something, you have to decide "oh well the chance failed this time" - list the numbers beforehand, stick to them regardless.

Can we start doing the awards thing?

Since I appear to be most excited about it, does anyone mind if I moderate it? If everyone's onboard, could you go ahead and send me nominations for any category you want to?

I figure it'll work like this:
People will PM nominations. The three (or, maybe, two) people who had the most nominations for each category will be the finalists. Then, I suggest we use a social group (or more PMs) to vote on who should receive the official award. Does that sound good?

I say we start a thread for the voting, otherwise everything sounds good.

PS. Are self nominations allowed?