The Mafia Discussion Thread

[oldskool]

Game balance first, "omg i love this role i have to keep it" distant second.

EDIT OMG OLDSKOOL IS DEAD IN DISCUSSION THREAD HE WAS OLDSKOOL POSTER ALIGNED GUY WITH ADVICE:

If you don't have safeclaims, using roles you already had built but had to cut is a wise reallocation.

Edited May 8, 2010 by oldskool

[Noah]

To be honest, outside of the top half dozen or so roles, most of mine could be cut without affecting the game too much.

Not to say they aren't good roles but it's just that the top half dozen are so good they would make me cry if I lost them too soon.

[Noah]

I want to make the right first impression, are there any handy hints as to spice up a role pm?

Mine just seem to be looking a little dry.

Pictures are a problem as the majority of the characters appear on the show only through voice, although I suppose I could add real life pictures for them.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

My role PMs generally follow the same format, I think it works pretty well:

Player Uno,

Picture (if applicable)

You are Your Role, Your Alignment-Aligned Funny Tagline For Your Role.

Explanation of who Your Role is in the canon of the theme.

Flavour text somehow tying Your Role to your ability.

Explanation of your ability.

Your winning condition.

[Maxx]

I just send my players a picture and tell them to figure it out.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I don't even give them that much. I'm just like "You're all playing my game now."

[Sousa]

I'm running a game right now and nobody knows about it.

Cloudy, you just got nightkilled.

[MalaCloudy Black]

SHIT. WHO WAS I?!

[wrathofcarnage]

Great, no we're back at the same place we were last dayphase. I wish Sousa would update the opening post so we can figure out Cloudy's alignment.

[Benjamin]

Yeah, so, Dante's Inferno is showing just why Day starts are bad.

[Gongsun Zan]

There is nothing wrong with day starts.

The problem here is that too many players here are used to relying heavily on their abilities rather than going off discussion in the game thread. If you were playing a vanilla game, the only difference between a day/night start would be one dead townie (barring a cop claim day 1). Sure, everyone may joke post at first, but discussion eventually generates. Even though you can't put much context on it at first, eventually you'll be able to look back and pick out information as the game progresses.

[TEOL]

Agreed. Day starts aren't bad, lazy play is what's bad. Day starts don't force people not to discuss things.

[deangelo]

Exactly and this is how most first days go regardless of day or night starts. Sometimes it takes even longer if no one gets anything. I don't know why the town want to give the power to the mafia anyway.

[Pizza]

Thatguywithethemafia is having the exact same start as Divine Comedy, and it started at night.

[Pleatherface]

Joke posts and a lack of discussion is not the fault of day/night start. It is for the most part the natural progression of games, granted my games tend to take lack of discussion to the nth degree, but for most games there's a lull in the beginning whilst everyone figures things out and gets a feeling.

These lulls are in both starts, and in the case of night starts and powered games in general can last much longer if noone comes up with anything the first night, some players willing to sit back and wait for results by they hop in out of fear of being discovered as scum, or simply being lynched for contributing.

I personally don't like day starts, but that's only because I'm not a strong vanilla player and jump to conclusions far too easily, my own preferences not withstanding? Day starts for the most part benefit the town if they'll use the opportunity to base opinions for the first night, so they have an IDEA of where to project power roles, rather than just first instincts about 20 minutes into receiving their role pm.

[Commander Sheepard]

Yeah, this is why I had a day start. Of the games I've been reading back over, every time there's a day start there are people who don't like it, but there are ALSO people who use what was said and done Day 1 to help them later in the game. Even the joke posts can have their place in that.

And what Zan said is absolutely correct: By starting during the day, the people involved actually have to play and not rely on power roles. Which is one of the things I was hoping would happen, and I'm sure will.

[Sousa]

I can rely on my power role.

[oldskool]

Starts of games suck no matter how they start. Nobody wants to step up & be the first one dead so the majority sit back & wait for someone else to talk; then half the game jumps on whatever that first person said, and the other half sits back and lets the prior half tear each other apart determining if scum really would misspell vote on day one.

[TEOL]

So... you're saying we shouldn't play Mafia?

[oldskool]

I'm saying we need some sort of reward for being active, especially early in games, so people are motivated to contribute instead of feeling they're better served keeping their mouth shut and waiting for activity to be required by either game runner or active player demanding input from them.