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[Mafia] A Murder of Crows

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Conspiracy, unkindness, and treachery! Murder in the corvidae family flock! Grandfather Crow has...
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InterstellarHobo

InterstellarHobo

Cosmic Vagrant
Location
No Fixed Planetary System
Conspiracy, unkindness, and treachery! Murder in the corvidae family flock! Grandfather Crow has been pecked to death, and his Shiny Things have been stolen! Who could have done such a thing?
Well, the Raven conspiracy, obviously. It's always the Raven's fault.
But who are the Ravens, anyways? They look so much like Crows! Anyone could be a conspirator! Anyone could have done the deed, and anyone could have the Shiny Things!

How can you get vengance for Grandfather Crow, if you don't know who the Ravens are?
More importantly, how can you steal the Shiny Things back?
This will take all of your bird cunning to sort out!




This game diverges from standard mafia considerably. Rather than winning through murder, there are three Shiny Things in play. Victory is achieved by stealing, and holding on to, these Shiny Things.
Murder is still, of course, an excellent option.

During each Day, each player may vote for the name of another player that they want pecked to death.
At the end of the Day phase, the player with the most votes is Pecked to Death, and may no longer participate.
Please post in the discussion thread at least once per Day phase.

If there are ties, then the bird pecked is decided by which lynch has a higher bird on the Pecking Order.
If bird holding one or more Shiny Things is pecked to death, their Shiny Things are distributed amongst the players voting for them, as evenly as possible. Players higher on the Pecking Order get first dibs.


At the start of the Night, I will announce how many Shiny Things each species holds.
Once per Night, each player must PM me the name of another player to try to steal from.
At the end of the Night, these thefts are resolved from the bottom of the Pecking Order to the top.
If the target has one or more shiny things at the time of theft, then one Shiny Things is stolen. (This means you lose at most one Shiny Thing per thief targetting you.)
Take note- a Shiny Thing can change hands many times in a single night.

Every player may make at most one theft attempt per Night phase. You may change your mind about your theft target, but please do so sparingly.
Please post in the discussion thread at least once per Night phase.

The Pecking Order is as follows:
Jackdaws win ties for kill votes, and get first dibs on Shiny Things when killing. Jackdaws steal last.
Crows are second for kill votes, and third for thefts.
Ravens are third for kill votes, and second for thefts.
The Magpie steals first, but gets last pick of Shiny Things when killing.

The Standard Rules

  • All roles will be randomly assigned.
  • The game will be separated into Day and Night phases. Each Day phase is 48 hours, each Night phase is 48 hours or when all thefts are submitted. If you have an extremely good reason, I may give an extension.
  • Post at least once per Phase! Failure to do so twice will result in a Modkill.
  • Kills happen when a player receives a definite majority of the votes or 48 hours has passed, and the player with the plurality of votes will be lynched.
  • When you vote for someone, vote for them by like so: [x] Kill [player name]. To rescind your vote, vote [x] Null.
  • Do not write illegible, hidden, or coded messages. Invisitext isn't as cute as you think it is.
  • DO NOT DISCUSS THE GAME WITH OTHER PLAYERS OUTSIDE THIS THREAD. Only talk to another player elsewhere if there is something in your role that allows it. If you're talking elsewhere, impersonating other players is not allowed.
  • DO NOT EDIT YOUR POSTS. If you gotta fix something, doublepost.
  • Do not directly quote any GM messages. Doing so is grounds for an immediate Mod Kill. You may claim your faction name. (i.e. Raven, Crow...)
  • Do not post any quick topic links you possess. Doing so is grounds for an immediate Mod Kill.
  • When you die, you may make one final post within a reasonable timeframe. It may have game value if you so desire.
  • If you've got a question, or you're confused about something, ask me.
  • Finally, do not act against the spirit of the game. This is a nebulous term, but includes such things as "Taking your ball and going home". Always keep fighting for yourself, always be trying to win. Don't give up, basically.
  • If you want to know more about Mafia, our Megathread has a number of useful posts. It may not be so helpful here.


The Very Nonstandard Rules
You are permitted to post during the Night.
You are required to post at least once per Night.
The game will end at the end of Day Eight, or when the Magpie wins.
Shiny Things exist.


Minutia and Edge Cases
If no factions have won at the end of Day 8, the game continues until one faction has at least two Shiny Things at the end of a phase.
Each faction has an internal pecking order, used for resolving ties that the inter-faction pecking order does not. This order is secret, even to the players.
 
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The Roles
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    • This setup is OPEN, and has PRECISELY 16 SLOTS.
    BALANCE is... WELL, I DID MY BEST.

    There are nine of the noble Crow! Perhaps you aren't that impressive on your own, but many crows together can do great things! If only you could tell who your friends are!
    (No powers. The Crows win by having two Shiny Things in their possession at the end of Day 8)

    Four Ravens make up the conspiracy! You Ravens have your own little hideyholes, where you can talk in secret!
    (The Ravens have a QuickTopic, and know each other's identities. The Ravens win by having two Shiny Things in their possession at the end of Day 8)

    The two Jackdaws! What loud birds! Surely, such a noisy bird is worth listening to?
    (During day, Jackdaw votes count thrice. Each Jackdaw knows the other's identity. The Jackdaws win by having two Shiny Things in their possession at the end of Day 8)

    The Magpie- you tricksy bird! So smart! Finding the Shiny Thing will be so easy! But nobody likes you, because you are a notorious sneakthief.
    (The Magpie knows what everyone's role is, but has NO FRIENDS. The Magpie may make two theft attempts each Night.
    The Magpie wins by having two Shiny Things in their possession at the end of Day 8, OR by having all three Shiny Things in their posession at any point.)
     
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    • please allow this bird
    to play with the shiny things
    oh look shiny, caw
     
    This Sufficient Velocity user is incredibly interested in playing Mafia, this time hosted by InterstellarHobo.

    Who is -Rosen?
     
    Oh right I almost forgot about this. Will be absolutely delightful to watch, not gonna play atm though.
     
    Hm. Mark me down as a potential substitute, I think - I won't have time to play until next Wednesday, but if someone drops out after that I'd be happy to join in. Will probably move to participating outright if game hasn't started by then & there's still room.
     
    This looks like it will be very different from any other game I've played. I'd like to play and see how this goes.
     
    Rules Question:
    There is an order to shiny stealing, so stealing happens at one time, so let me imagine a scenario-

    Say someone has a SHINY THING and a Magpie and a Jackdaw both attempt to steal from them, clearly, the Magpie gains the SHINY THING, but what if the Magpie was selected for stealing by a Crow, does the Crow now obtain the SHINY THING because they acted later in the steal order, or is that SHINY THING immune from stealing as the Magpie has already stolen it that phase. I believe given the note of "A SHINY THING can change hands many times in a single day" means that the Magpie's SHINY THING can be stolen from them the night they steal it.

    If so it appears to me that stealing from the killed first, and stealing from the living last is inherently the best combination, setting up the Jackdaws as very well positioned, especially since they know their ally, and each have 3 votes.
     
    ComiTurtle said:
    Rules Question:
    There is an order to shiny stealing, so stealing happens at one time, so let me imagine a scenario-

    Say someone has a SHINY THING and a Magpie and a Jackdaw both attempt to steal from them, clearly, the Magpie gains the SHINY THING, but what if the Magpie was selected for stealing by a Crow, does the Crow now obtain the SHINY THING because they acted later in the steal order, or is that SHINY THING immune from stealing as the Magpie has already stolen it that phase. I believe given the note of "A SHINY THING can change hands many times in a single day" means that the Magpie's SHINY THING can be stolen from them the night they steal it.

    If so it appears to me that stealing from the killed first, and stealing from the living last is inherently the best combination, setting up the Jackdaws as very well positioned, especially since they know their ally, and each have 3 votes.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I can't speak for what hobo settled on, but as discussed, you would get the item chain stolen if the person stealing from you was later in the order than you.

    Thus, it would be theoretically possible for a single SHINY THING to pass through the hands of every living player in one night if the order panned out that way.
     
    Terrabrand is correct, chain theft is possible.
    There is certainly an argument to be made that Jackdaws benefit from this. I do not believe this makes them imbalanced.
    I think I should probably refrain from discussing game balance or strategy any further, I'm afraid.
     
    InterstellarHobo said:
    Terrabrand is correct, chain theft is possible.
    There is certainly an argument to be made that Jackdaws benefit from this. I do not believe this makes them imbalanced.
    I think I should probably refrain from discussing game balance or strategy any further, I'm afraid.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Should such discussions generally wait until game start and/or be limited to active players, or are you just refraining from speaking on the matter due to being the GM?
     
    This is too interesting to pass on.

    Want to say that I'm going to be largely taking this game lax, and that I am going to be massively changing my playstyle for this.
     
    I'll limit myself to 'I actually argued for stronger jackdaws than IH went with' so I don't agree that they're overpowered as is, obviously.

    I'll talk more after the game is over about principles and things, in respect to IH's desire for strategy and balance discussion to wait.
     
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