"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious." -- Sun Tzu
(Image from Smogon.)
Sometimes life is too busy for sustained mafia playing, and it's ever harder to find a "casual mafia game." Mafia games played out in real-time can solve both problems. In this thread I'd like to organize event times for and invite people to mafia games played over IM services (Skype, AIM, MSN, or whatever service you use to feel good about yourself.) Think of this thread as a club for scheduling more social games. (Approved by Mintaka and Paperhorse, in that order.)
Anyone is welcome to propose a date or arbitrarily start a game.
Since this is more informal you'll want access to The Skype TWR Chat to play. Their skype names for bugging them about it:
Mintaka - minbmgf
Paperhorse - lilypotter37
Parma - parmalai
Zenax - theamazingzenax
My own Skype name is nick.murray57 if you want me.
Per Mintaka's suggestion I've added some suggested role setups and some basic small-game vocabulary.
Basic Vocabulary:
WIFOM (Wine In Front Of Me): Any thinking that boils down to "You did X, so you must be innocent. Unless you knew that I'd think that, so you must be mafia. And you knew that I'd do that, meaning you're innocent..." Named for this scene from The Princess Bride.
OMGUS (Oh My God You Suck): The act of voting or suspecting someone because they suspected you. (I.e.: Alice votes Bob, so Bob says that Alice must be mafia because she voted for him.)
LYLO (Lynch Or Lose): When there is only one more townie than mafiosi and mafia allies during a dayphase. (I.e., 3 townies and 2 mafia. If town Mislynches or No Lynches and lets play go to night, the mafia will win.) The town must correctly lynch mafia on this day or lose.
MYLO (Mislynch Or Lose): When there are two more townies than mafiosi and mafia allies during a dayphase. (I.e., 4 townies and 2 mafia. If the town Mislynches and play goes to night, the mafia will kill and win the game. If the town No Lynches then the mafia will kill and put the game in LYLO.) If the game is known to be in MYLO, most towns will generally vote to No Lynch. It is generally easier for towns to win in LYLO than MYLO.
No Lynch: Voting not to lynch anyone at all during the day.
Mislynch: The act of lynching an innocent player, or the state of being able to lynch an innocent player without losing. (I.e., 5 townies and 2 mafia. If the town kills an innocent and the mafia nightkill, there town will not have lost.)
CC (Counterclaim): When multiple players claim the same role. If a role is CC'd then generally one of the claimers is mafia. This can also be a technique to get a townie to claim and clear themselves (I.e.: 2 vanilla townies, 2 mafia, and 1 doctor. If the doctor claims then there is a leader, but claiming ensures that the doctor will be killed the next night. A townie might claim doctor, let the real doctor CC, and then retract his claim so that the doctor is forced to lead.)
PR (Power Role): Any town-sided role that has a nightaction.
Joint Win: This only applies when the Fool exists (whose win condition is to be lynched). If the fool is lynched and the act of fool dying causes the mafia to equal or outnumber the town, the mafia will also win. (I.e., 2 townies, 1 fool, and 2 mafia. The mafia and the fool can all vote for the fool, lynching him. At the exact moment he's lynched, there are 2 townies and 2 mafia, giving the mafia a joint win with the Fool.)
If you're hosting you generally want your setup to be known to all players. Exceptions can be made for Insane Mafia (give every player a broken role).
3-6 Players:
1 Mafioso
2-5 Vanilla Townies
If you have 4 or 6 players, start on a nightphase. If you have 3 or 5, start on a dayphase. This is so that when lynching begins you have an odd number of players. If you have, say, 4 players on a lynching phase and 1 mafioso, then lynching 1 innocent leaves 2 innocents and 1 mafia, meaning that you need to go to nightphase anyways.
1 Mafioso
2 Vanilla Townies
1 Bulletproof
Nightphase start.
This is like the other setup. If the mafioso kills a vanilla townie, the day has 3 players and the bulletproof can claim for a 50% chance at lynching correctly. If the mafioso hits the bulletproof, than the mafioso can either claim bulletproof and give the other townies a 50% chance, or claim vanilla for 1/3 odds. This is more town-sided than the above setup.
7 Players:
2 Vanilla Mafiosi
3 Vanilla Townies
1 Doctor (Can not self-protect.)
1 Cop
Nightphase start.
Here one mafioso is supposed to claim cop and fake reports (if the cop survives Night 0). With 6 players, the town will generally No Lynch to get to LYLO. On that day people can listen to the cops and try to discover the real one. If the doctor ever saves the game can tilt toward the innocents; if the doctor is killed the game can tilt toward the mafia. If the doctor does not save and is not killed, the game is neutral. This is my personal favorite setup.
4 Bulletproof Townies*
1 Doctor (Can't self-protect.)
1 Vanilla Mafioso
1 Serial Killer**
*Can survive the first nightkill, but not one lynch.
**Aligned with himself, the Serial Killer wins only by surviving to the end of the game. He can kill one player every night.
I've never tried this one but it looks balanced and gives everyone a power role.
8 Players:
2 Vanilla Townies
1 Doctor (Can't self-protect.)
1 Cop
1 Vigilante
1 Fool
1 Vanilla Mafioso
1 Mafia Roleblocker
Private Communications allowed.
Nightphase Start.
Claiming is HIGHLY recommended in this setup. If someone claims a role and no one counterclaims, then there is a cleared player to which all players can PM their claims to. In turn mafia generally want to avoid this and will counterclaim the power roles so that no one is entirely safe. The fool will generally try to work with the mafia because they are willing to lynch him for a joint win (however, the fool does not know who they are.) This setup is great because it's relatively balanced no matter who is killed Night 0.
2 Vanilla Townies
2 Millers*
1 Cop
1 Doctor
1 Vanilla Mafioso
1 Godfather**
Night Start
*If the miller is inspected by the cop then the cop will believe him to be a mafioso. If the miller is lynched then the host will announce that he was a mafioso. If the miller is nightkilled then the host will announce that the miller was a miller.
**If the godfather is inspected by the cop then the cop will believe him to be innocent. If lynched, then he is announced to have been the godfather.
This setup is most fun because lynching a miller leaves the town in doubt as to whether they lynched a mafioso or a miller. The cop can get some evidence but is never 100% Sure. It's very balanced in practice.
4 Vanilla Townies
1 Governor*
1 Cop
1 Vanilla Mafioso
1 Godfather
Night Start
*Once in the game the governor can overturn a lynch to a target of his choice.
This setup is my other favorite. On Day 1 usually neither the cop or governor claim because there is no doctor to protect them at night. With 5 townies on the first day and 2 mafia, there is a mislynch phase than can be especially fun as players try to accuse each other with no evidence to go off of. Mafia will never counterclaim governor because if they try to lynch him, he can just overturn the lynch onto the faker. It is a very fun setup and I have seen some versions go on for hours. Allow longer day phases for this setup than for other setups.
3 Vanilla Townies
1 Oracle*
1 Bulletproof Townie**
1 Miller***
1 Vanilla Mafioso
1 Mafia Rolecop****
Night Start.
*The oracle targets someone every night. If he is killed, then the person he last targeted is publicly confirmed by the host as their true role.
**Can survive one nightkill, but not one lynch.
***Shows as mafia if lynched and miller if nightkilled.
****Learns the role of his target.
This setup is fun. The mafia hope not to hit the miller or the oracle and will sometimes not nightkill to prevent that from happening. Generally the oracle will claim because the mafia will not counterclaim. If the mafia plan ahead, the rolecop can create a code so that his partner can figure out what the rolecop's target was, as they can't communicate privately during the day.
9 Players:
1 Vigilante
3 Hunters*
1 Townie Reporter**
1 Jailer***
1 Serial Killer****
1 Mafia Rolecop
1 Mafia Reporter**
Night Start
*If lynched can automatically shoot another player.
**At any point may message the host with a report to be given to the town. The only limit is no Spam.
***If the town no Lynch, the is empowered to kill a target at night.
****Aligned with himself, the Serial Killer wins only by surviving to the end of the game. He can kill one player every night.
This setup is odd but viable if there are 9 players. Play is quick as most players take advantage of randomly killing for the fun of it.
1 Doctor
1 Vigilante
1 Watcher*
1 Tracker**
1 Granny***
1 Serial Killer****
1 Fool
1 Mafia Roleblocker
1 Mafia Janitor*****
Night Start
*Visits one person every night. Knows who visited his target.
**Visits one person every night. Knows who his target visited.
***Whoever visits the granny at night is automatically killed.
****Aligned with himself, the Serial Killer wins only by surviving to the end of the game. He can kill one player every night.
*****If the Janitor's target is killed on the same night that the Janitor visits him, then only the janitor will know what role his target had.
This setup is highly variable and still very viable. With so many power roles, the Janitor can safely claim whatever role he happens to kill with no one being the wiser. The Serial Killer has a good chance at winnig but not an unfair one. The Granny prevents people from being too careless in who they choose to visit. Many games have seen dramatic turnarounds when 5 people die at once from visiting Granny. Very fun for large groups.
Misc.:
Broken Mafia
Have the host make random roles and see how the players respond. Balance not suggested. An example courtesy of Neosquid:
-1 Doctor who can protect 3 times in the night
-1 Cop who can inspect twice
-1 Voteless
-1 Triplevoter
-1 Mafioso with a lynch protection, roleblock, and a double vote
It's all in good fun.
