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Battlestar Galactica mafia


Sméagol

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[..]

And note that I see dannyboy's comment about the jayseven-curse :P Long write-ups are more effort but way more fun for the GM :P

Haha, well, I don't consider myself a writer, I'm more visually inclined, not so much communica..tive..ly? It would have far easier for me to do the single line an action style, but I genuinely thought it would be more interesting if I made them more elaborate, so I put some effort in them.

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Man, I was right, this game was epic. And what a game for people to bail out of :(

 

And yes, I was pretty pissed that I, an investigative president, was killed in the first night. And investigated Cube, on top of things :( The "coma" mechanic was awesome, though.

 

Still, epic is epic. If I have a suggestion, it's to find a way to streamline the info better, as I think the presentation may have intimidated some players. I mean, I thought it was pretty well made, but then again, I also greatly enjoy Magic the Gathering :heh:

But that suggestion is something that you probably reached on your own, anyway, the others will probably be able to give you better criticism, because I thought this was awesome :grin:

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With regard to the write-up debate, the problem lies in the balancing of the game - the thing that has been the main challenge in my games. The mafia has the general advantage in that they know each other, can communicate, work together and even use inactive players' powers. The town has to work for their victory, and as such they're much worse off initially. If they lose some key roles, or if certain players are inactive, it harms the townies' cause greatly.

 

That's why I've always thought of the write-up as the central part of the game. I know chairdriver disagrees greatly with me about this, but it's really a matter of preference - the nature of the write-up greatly affects the nature of the game, and since I've always been a great fan of the detective genre and deduction work, the write-up is my favourite part of the game. It's the townies' key tool for working out what's going on and ultimately identifying the mafia, even if only a few townies are properly participating. Jayseven more or less won my first mafia game for the town by being a true Sherlock Holmes. I know he also shares my opinion on the role of the write-up in the game. ;)

 

Personally, my problem has been that I've made the write-ups too effective in my two games, making it too easy for the town. Where the write-up is the town's greatest weapon, deception is the mafia's greatest weapon, so the write-up needs to be vague enough to leave room for lies and cons. Ultimately, I think of a mafia game as a battle of wits - both the town and the mafia have abilities that can aid them, but ultimately it's a game of deduction and intellect - a battle for the truth, if you will. :)

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I do agree with you :) I see the write-up, for a GM, is the one place where you can really have a bit of fun and inject clues here and there. It's why, typically, I don't become very active in mafia games until the 4th/5th night when I have enough write-ups in front of me to cross-reference things and check people's stories. In my first mafia I was astounded that the town did so poorly, as I thought I'd made it very clear who was good and who was bad. My last mafia I blurred it greatly, as is the benefit of having two mafias, though I still didn't have the balance quite right.

 

The one thing that the write-ups rely on, though, is a willing township ready to trawl them. Ultimately a game is only as good as its players! This mafia felt like it was just taking off as it ended, which suggests that it demanded more players - so damn you all who opted out of this one!

 

Anyway! Smeagol I demand you add yourself to the mafia rota and get another theme planned :P

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Sorry to hear diageo was being diageo again, smeagol - I was worried that I was being a diageo at the start of the game as it took me a few reads to get to grips with things.

 

Because I missed a bit of my role and would therefore waste a turn for myself? How terrible for everyone else. And "again", I thought your complaint was that I normally ask too many questions, or that I talk too much in mafias, or something else you decided annoys you today.

 

 

 

Also Sméagol, Baltar was not Jonnas.

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Sorry I couldn't get myself killed Smeagol! I really tried to be annoying/suspicious/ forgetful.

 

I said I would make a good candidate and then when people tried to guess me I kept saying no etc, but people were too cautious and probably just thought I was being unnecessarily annoying. Then because it didn't work and you said it should be done soon, I sort of gave up since I couldn't get myself killed!

 

Just like Dannyboy, when I am not evil/ need to be killed no-one believes thinks I'm evil. Whereas they easily find me out when I am evil! Curses!

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It's a shame, because you were close to getting killed early in the game, the mafia was helping you. But you were protected. It was one of my highlights.. It was 4 people getting involved with eachother (well, 3 and an NPC), and they all messed up :D. It's also really a shame you missed that night where you had 2 AP's. You really could have caused some mayhem then, giving you a great chance to attract a killer, and / or make you suspicious afterwards.

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It's also really a shame you missed that night where you had 2 AP's. You really could have caused some mayhem then, giving you a great chance to attract a killer, and / or make you suspicious afterwards.

 

I arrested him that night, I thought he might cause trouble :p

 

Is it really that difficult to get yourself killed though? I'm certain if I wanted to I could, but Ellmeister only tried to when I had already said he was a neutral roleblocker who was punching people. It was a fact. Should have just claimed a role someone else was likely to have in the first turn. When he denied that he was punching people I thought he was joking, even if we had somehow lynched him the mafia would have won.

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I arrested him that night, I thought he might cause trouble :p

 

Is it really that difficult to get yourself killed though? I'm certain if I wanted to I could, but Ellmeister only tried to when I had already said he was a neutral roleblocker who was punching people. It was a fact. Should have just claimed a role someone else was likely to have in the first turn. When he denied that he was punching people I thought he was joking, even if we had somehow lynched him the mafia would have won.

Nah, that's when he got an AP from mr-paul. You yourself gave him an extra AP to use earlier, but that's when he missed the deadline, so his 2 AP's got unused. I'd personally would have tried a different approach to getting myself killed myself, but I never had such a role.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm running a BsG mafia on HCR, and was looking through your roles [Hadn't read them before, because I was avoiding spoilers], and the way you did the game is so different to the ideas I have. Like, aside from... [CONFIDENTIAL]

 

Your game feels stunning though.

Edited by chairdriver
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Too bad you already told me your intentions concerning the final 5. I see you have some trouble filling up your slots on that site like I did here (found the site yes), otherwise I'd offered to join.

 

No, please do join, I'd love the feeling. I've changed my mind about the Final Five thing anyway, so it doesn't matter.

 

Obvs you'd have to make an account on HCR and whatnot, but some people on there are jokes / cool / American, but soundAmerican. All the people signed up so far are playable characters in my RPG too, which is so stunning. All the ones I'd choose were I making a team to fight the Final Cylon in close combat.

 

I have 19 roles, and 10 players at the moment, so need people.

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