If a non-Triumvirate player aligned with the Triumvirate dies before the beginning of Day 5, the next day you will be lynched at L+1.
Nice safeclaim \m/
Feedback time.
The good:
I don't think I'm alone in saying that this game was fun as hell. Major props to NinjaPenguin and sometimes Vracken for the interesting flavor. Regardless of how the game turned out, it was clear that a lot of care went into each role's flavor. This isn't the first time I've consulted a wiki to help me learn more about a game's flavor, but politics in general has always been somewhat interesting to me, so I actually enjoyed reading about the various senators (read as: Caesar), unlike the Gravity Falls game where the extent of how much I cared was trying to crack that dumb cipher ughhhhh.
The certamina were a fun and interesting mechanic, allowing for players to fight for bonuses that might otherwise be relegated to a role. It's a neat way to encourage being active, and I might have to find a way to steal it for my own game because I really liked this idea. Also sorry for not joining more of them, I always noticed them at work and then forgot all about them by the time I got home.
Lastly, though the rest of what I'm about to say is going to seem like it overshadows all the good things that this setup had, I just want to make it clear that I haven't had this much fun playing mafia in a while
because I lived longer than two days. My criticisms aren't about the setup more than the players, so don't think I'm tryna take a dump on your setup.
The bad:
Before I forget, I think it's bad form as a host to recommend any actions to a player. So, NP, I think your post in Triumvirate chat #197 was inappropriate. I don't think it's right telling the scum (but not the town) your plans as a host,
especially when it involves modkilling someone, and that goes double for warning Drac to be careful. I don't think this had any effect on the game, and maybe it's just differences in our hosting styles, but I don't think it's a host's job to prepare the scum for a possible modkill, or anything else, really. They're already aware that their partner is missing, and they should plan accordingly without the host thinking they have to or should hold their hand.
Next, the double kill on night 6 was wholly unnecessary. This
should have had a bigger effect on the outcome of the game, but it didn't (I'll get to that later). When there were two modkills on top of lynching Celever, it could be argued that it was fair to deny the scum their nightkill, because losing four town in one phase is catastrophic. I don't know if I would have done that, but I can understand why a host would do such a thing.
However...
When Samwise was (finally) modkilled and it was revealed that the scum would get to double kill, it felt like we were getting punished for Samwise's inactivity. If the idea behind denying the scum a kill when we lost 3 townies in one day was to prevent the kill count from being racked up too quickly, it doesn't make sense to allow them a surprise double kill to "make up" for losing a kill which I hope I'm correct in thinking was done for balance purposes. At that stage in the game, losing three townies in one cycle was
huge and potentially game-ending. I think it was the wrong call and I want to know your reasoning behind that decision because it seems such a slap in the face, especially since no one knew it was coming.
Lastly, am I the only one that thinks day chat between the scum needs to stop? Just look at the Triumvirate chat; bb spent most of his last day plotting with his team about how to play out the rest of the game. Not only that, but both Nick and Samwise practically lived in the scum chat, which brings me to...
The ugly:
Hoooolyyyyyy shit, you guys. The town was
never going to win this game.
Lemme pause real quick and give props to
@GM DracLord because he deserves the lion's share of the credit for the scum win. Everyone else either died early or sucked.
The main reason why I say that the town stood no chance is because I read Samwise as hard town. If he'd been alive, I still would have gone for Jabberwock's lynch, even Robin's, over his. It could have been me, Samwise, and literally anyone else and I would have pushed them before his. So when he flipped scum, I neary blew up on NP in Discord, because no one could honestly have read him as scum, or at least deserving of a lynch. I immediately dismissed Celever's case on Samwise because it really was complete doodoo; that actually had nothing to do with my read of Samwise, or of Celever.
It's no coincidence that
@TeamAqua4Life #HEYNICK and
@Acetrainer_Samwise were both completely absent from the thread, but they both were highly active in the scum chat. This is a really shitty way to play since it makes it impossible for the town to get a fair read on you. You can't get your posts analyzed if you don't actually post. The end result is exactly what happened towards the end of the game - all the active players, with their willions of posts to sift through, just fought each other and accused everyone else of being scum while two of the actual scum just hung back and let it all happen. They never get seriously looked at because there are other, stronger cases to pursue (because everyone else has posted enough for others to actually form a fair read on) as opposed to a couple of literally whos who have been toeing the activity line the entire game. Case in point: Even Nick was viewed as town by some, and even though it was clear he was scum after Jabberwock flipped town, the case on Jabberwock was stronger (never mind that we all forgot that we knew Jabber's role name, if I'd remembered that it woulda been gg scummies) so Jabberwock was lynched first. Nick didn't really have a lot of content to go over and at that point in the game, it could have been a game loss to guess wrong so it made sense to go with the stronger case.
This is why I take a hard line on activity and why seeing Samwise flip scum pissed me off so much. There's none of this four-strikes-and-you're-out kinda crap with me. The first offense is a warning. The next offense, you're out. I have no qualms with modkilling half the town if that's what it takes to keep the game moving. This is also why, in my last game, I barred use of the scum chat during the day. By doing so, it forces them to actually post (or get modkilled) and not just live in their qt the whole game.
Read it for yourself; the scum handled themselves just fine without being able to day chat. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I'll allow day chat for my next game, because there
are some advantages to being able to do so, but expect heavy restrictions if I decide to go that route.
So them's my thoughts. Again, despite all this salt pouring from every orifice I did have fun and this was a cool game.
PMJ Awards for Mafia 51 go to:
@GM DracLord, for being a real man and actually playing instead of hiding in the scum chat like a wuss
Me, for getting all of my hard scum reads
obliterated and also for making it really easy for the scum to decide who to kill
@NinjaPenguin, for a cool game
