[Endgame] Masters of the Universe Mafia

#4251

I'm so insanely nervous about the outcome of this lynch and this game.

#4252

Flyin' High wrote:You know what, I'm going to take a risk and *Vote BF*

I really hate the thought of voting him, but he's not here defending himself and you are, Elohcin.

And if this bites me in the butt and civvies lose, well at least I tried my hardest for the civvies this game.

You won't regret not voting me

I promise.

#4253

sounds good to me.

#4254

The game won't end I assure you, because I'm not bad. Sucks I lasted so long to have the victory stolen from me :/ oh well gl civvies. Voted Eloh.

#4255

Day 22: Desperation

Four people walked the Eternian wilderness, the arid air eroding their false features by the hour. They felt as though they had aged years in a manner of days.

“It has to be you,” Flyin’ High said to blindfaeth.

“What are you talking about, Flyin’ High?” blindfaeth asked.

“It has to be you who has betrayed us, who is now the servant to our adversaries.”

“Flyin’ High! How can that be? No- your mind must be addled by this distasteful place.”

“You’ve been so quiet lately.”

Before blindfaeth could defend himself, Elohcin held blindfaeth's arms from behind, and Flyin’ High tore through his tough, grisly windpipe. He was soon dead.

Everyone was surprised to see that Duncan was clean shaven.

blindfaeth has been lynched. He was Man-at-Arms.
It is now Night 22. You have 24 hours to send in your PMS.

#4256

If all PMs come in soon, I can post again tonight.

#4257

I don't know what to tell you, FH. I guess we try Timmer again if we are still around.

#4258

I'm really sorry, Kev.

#4259

I have all PMs. Please stand by for a post.

#4260

#4261

timmer wrote:

#4262

I'm sorry for the suspense everyone. I had two unexpected phone calls last night and then I fell asleep in my chair writing.

Coffee's on though, and I'll be back to it.

#4263

Night 22: The Ruins of Zelesia

How strange it was that the group could travel so swiftly over land elsewhere, yet near the Ruins of Zelesia, it was as though their destination was a mirage. But on this night, the remaining trio beheld the ancient ruins.

They remembered, despite everything that had happened, Zanthora’s words: They must provide a sacrifice. And there was a portal of flame, ready to devour whomever that sacrifice was to be.

“I’ll do it,” Elohcin said. “For Bow.”

“Okay,” said Flyin’ High.

timmer said nothing.

Elohcin walked so willingly into the fire that the others could not help but entertain the suspicion that some ancient power within the ruins compelled her thence. Before Elohcin turned to ash, she turned to a brilliant light, dazzling and radiant.

When she was consumed, they watched as the fire died out. It was quiet, and only a steady breeze moved.

But the night would not remain so.

The pair stood among the Ruins of Zelesia and beheld strange lights in the sky. The lights grew larger and an eerie hum accompanied them as they descended. At last they identified it as a starship, one different from any craft to be found on Eternia.

Upon landing in a barren clearing nearby, strange men and women disembarked. Without a word, they surrounded timmer. Upon doing so, a tall, gaunt man with a dominant breastplate and beard spoke.

“I am Zanthor, Ambassador of the Cosmic Enforcers. You know who I am, Zodac. And you have disgraced us by failing to maintain the balance on this world.”

A shamed timmer bowed his head.

“Board our ship and depart with us. You must be chastised and reassigned.”

The visitors paid no heed to Flyin’ High, who stood there, bewildered, and watched as they led timmer to the alien vessel. Upon liftoff, it hummed so greatly that the infertile hills vibrated.

And in a moment, it was gone.

#4264

Epilogue: A New Stratum

Flyin’ High was alone, and with Zodac gone, her disguise was lifted from her.

Stratos stood there, letting the wind batter his body, and he considered all that had come to pass: He-Man was dead. She-Ra was dead. The Sorceress of Grayskull was dead. So many friends were dead, gone.

Yet Snake Mountain and The Horde were gone just as well.

Stratos stood alone, so alone, considering all that had taken place, mystified and in despair.

But Stratos could still fly.

In stoical sympathy, Stratos watched King Randor and Queen Marleena weep openly over the death of their twin children. The entire court mourned the loss of their heroes. Yet they grew in the realization that Eternia was safe, and after some time they held a banquet in honor of the one who had preserved them. It was suggested that the banners be lowered to half-staff, in memory of their fallen champions. But Stratos intervened.

“No,” he said. “For the honor and the power of Grayskull, and in memory of the strength and courage of our friends, keep the flags flyin’ high!”

THE END

#4265

Congratulations to the Civilians! And especially congratulations to Flyin' High!

I will add the end game analysis this morning.

#4266

Holy cow!!!!!!! What an ending! I'm in shock! What an incredible game!

#4267

Epignosis, your host posts are simply the most epic of any game ever. I love your writing style and this game kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I seriously cannot wait to hear about all of the behind the scenes stuff because I know my teammates and I were certainly baffled at times.

Great game everyone!

#4268

Flyin' High wrote:Epignosis, your host posts are simply the most epic of any game ever. I love your writing style and this game kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I seriously cannot wait to hear about all of the behind the scenes stuff because I know my teammates and I were certainly baffled at times.

Great game everyone!

Thank you for the kind words. They are a great encouragement!

And I'm sorry you lost sleep over this!

#4269

This was an amazing game to watch.

Congrats civs, and Flyin High.

And Timmer, very well played game

#4270

#4271

Hehe, I didn't lose sleep until this week when it was clear endgame was in sight. I was just so nervous and excited!

So were you sacrified due to llama's rezz , Elohcin? You played an amazing game and I honestly trusted you right up until the very end when it really came down to no one being left (I actually thought at one point that I was bad and that Epignosis just never told me and that was one of the twists

).

Timmer played an amazing indy.

Kate, were you the Sorceress? That's who I had you penciled in as.

Also, big hug to my teammates, blindfaeth, indiglo, and DFaraday (and juliets by way of blindfaeth). We had so much fun in BTSC and I missed our in depth game discussions.

Also, I think MP has truly earned FEB status.

#4272

Congrats Flying High!!

And poor blindfaeth! My partner, I rooted for you and our merry band of brothers (well three of us were girls but whatever) throughout the game after I was deaded. And I think it was reywas who deaded me - why reywas, why?

And I just want to understand that wacky day 1 vote!

#4273

Endgame Analysis

Together we’ve traveled all over Eternia, fought Illkorts, solved riddles, discovered treasure, heard stories, laughed in happiness, scowled in frustration, and did this thing we call Mafia. I never expected this event would last a whopping twenty-two Days and Nights, almost 4,400 posts, over two months in real time, over 20,000 words in Host posts (that’s a novella, folks) and over 1,000 private messages sent to me, but there we are. Thank you for your participation and your patience as this played out.

I also thank S~V~S, our marvelous Mod, without whom this would not have been possible. I do not say that as a platitudinous gesture- I mean it. She not only was the Mod on duty, she was an invaluable mentor who helped me shape and balance everything, and her criticisms and insights were vital. If I should ever meet her, I owe her a beer.

What follows is a detailed analysis of each Day and Night period, unraveling all of the mechanics and mysteries you encountered throughout the event, and my commentary.

But first, the cast of characters, their roles, and their secrets!

Cast of Characters:

Civilians

The Eternians

Prince Adam / He-Man (AceofSpaces) - Each night, Prince Adam must decide whether or not to transform into He-Man. As Prince Adam, he has no abilities. As He-Man, he role blocks any player that night and cannot be lynched the following day. He is limited to three transformations.

Man-at-Arms (blindfaeth) - Duncan is a master of technology. He is working on a “Role-Finder” device that can discover the role of any player once per day. Initially, it has a 10% success rate. Each time it fails, Duncan tweaks the machine, and increases the success rate by 2%. Has BTSC with Teela and Orko.

Teela (juliets) - Submits a player’s name each night and guards that person against lynching the following day. Has BTSC with Man-at-Arms and Orko.

Orko (Vompatti) - The silly court magician, Orko tries to help his friends, but sometimes just doesn’t get it right. He casts a spell to either boost Man-at-Arms’ technical research by 3% (80% success rate) or help Teela protect the innocent from lynching by enabling her to submit a second name (70% success rate). If the spell fails, Orko silences a random player. Has BTSC with Man-at-Arms and Teela.

Man-E-Faces (DharmaHelper) - Each night, Man-E-Faces must choose whether to be a human (no effect), a robot (may attempt a role check at a 60% success rate while doubling the number of lynch votes for himself the next day) or a monster (may attempt a night kill at a 40% success rate while quadrupling the number of lynch votes for himself the next day).

Ram Man (Russtifinko) - Uses his brute force to ram into any player, role blocking that person for the night.

Fisto (orsonkidd) - Uses his mighty gauntlet to deliver a punch to any player, role blocking that person for the night.

Moss Man (Ishar Morrad Chuain - The master of camouflage blends into his environment. He can never be lynched.

Stratos (Flyin’ High) - The prince of the skies may swoop in on two occasions to rescue someone from a night kill.

Sy-Klone (Dom) - Sy-Klone may generate a tornado that redirects his target’s night action. If the target has no night action, the whirlwind fails.

Mekaneck (DFaraday) - Uses his bionic neck to search for allies. If he finds an Eternian, he establishes BTSC with that player. Has BTSC with Buzz Off.

Buzz-Off (indiglo) - Uses his flight to spy on others. The buzzing hero selects two players and will discover if they share BTSC. Has BTSC with Mekanek.

The Etherians

Princess Adora / She-Ra (the_untamed / Nevinera) - Each night, Princess Adora must decide whether or not to transform into She-Ra. As Princess Adora, she has no abilities. As She-Ra, she role blocks any player that night and cannot be lynched the following day. She is limited to three transformations.

Glimmer (Elohcin) - Glimmer- The leader of the Great Rebellion sheds light on situations. Whenever she is targeted, she will know by whom. Has BTSC with Bow and Madame Razz.

Bow (thellama73) - Scouts for a member of The Horde each night. If he finds one, he shoots an arrow and role blocks the player. If he finds Princess Adora, he recruits her, earning BTSC. Has BTSC with Glimmer and Madame Razz.

Madame Razz (LittleTiger) - The loveable witch from Whispering Woods can conjure a spell to help her friends. She often messes up, but she means well. Has BTSC with Glimmer and Bow. (Secrets)
Madame Razz has a 70% chance to conjure something beneficial to her friends. If she fails, a random player will be transformed into a goat, and will be unable to participate in the game until Madame uses a turn to transform the player back. Beware that goats may still be lynched or otherwise killed.

Snake Mountain
Kills every odd night. Has BTSC.

Skeletor (reywaS) - The evil lord of destruction may use his Havoc Staff to place a hex on any player. While under Skeletor’s power, the target must vote during the day phase as Skeletor directs; the curse lasts two day periods.

Evil-Lyn (Roxy) - Wicked illusionist and Skeletor's right hand (Secrets).
On one night only, Evil-Lyn may cast a powerful illusion. This illusion creates a phantom double of each player in the lynch poll. One name in the poll represents the real player, and the other represents the illusion. Upon casting the spell, Evil-Lyn decides whether the first instance is real or the second. Also, she protects Skeletor against his first lynch.

Beast Man (spacedaisy) - Skeletor’s furry henchman kidnaps one player each night and brutally interrogates them regarding any previous night action. That player’s night action from the chosen night will be known to Beast Man.

Merman (AllAlongTheBoardwalk) - Merman will search the waterways each night for treasure and magical relics. His base chance to find something is 10%, but because Merman is nervous and does not wish to displease his master, it increases 6% for each lynch vote Snake Mountain receives.

Tri-Klops (He-Man) - Each night, Tri-Klops may choose an eye to see with (Circle, Triangle, or Square). The Circle enables Distavision, which allows Tri-Klops to see something from afar (he can see what votes during the following day phase are manipulated). The Triangle enables Nightvision, which allows Tri-Klops to see something that happened at night. The Square enables Gammavision, which allows Tri-Klops to see around things (thus finding a way around a situation and canceling out one role block against Snake Mountain). Each eye must charge two nights before being used again.

Trap Jaw (Boomslang) - Each night, Trap Jaw may choose an arm to use (Stunner, Hook, or Magnifier). The stunner renders a player useless for the next day. The hook parries any night action taken against Trap Jaw. The Magnifier doubles Trap Jaw’s lynch vote for the following day. Unlike Tri-Klops, Trap Jaw may use any arm he wishes on any given night.

The Horde
Kills every even night. Has BTSC.

Hordak (MovingPictures07) - The ruthless leader of the evil Horde may fire his arm cannon, taking a 20% shot at killing the targeted player outright. Alternatively, Hordak may spend his night studying science, possibly producing a piece of technology that the Horde may utilize. The success rate depends on the item’s greatness: A simple technology has an 80% chance of success. A moderate technology has a 60% chance of success. A powerful technology has a 40% chance of success.

Shadow Weaver (Disgruntled Porcupine) - Mistress of dark tidings (Secrets)
Each night, Shadow Weaver forces someone to sleep. She will then craft a nightmare to be revealed to the sleeper via PM from the host. Also, she protects Hordak against his first lynch.

Leech (>SpaghettiEverywhere) - Targets one player each night, and adopts their known night power for the next night. If there is no known night power, the drain fails. Leech must use this power before attempting to drain another player.

Mantenna (birdwithteeth11) - Pops out his eyes each night and uses his stun beam to stun someone, rendering that player useless for the next day. Alternatively, he can use his eyes to spy on someone, discovering if that player was manipulated in any way on the previous day.

Grizzlor (Snow Dog) - Can jail one player each night, rendering that player useless the next day. Alternatively, he can work with Hordak in the development of a new technology, giving Hordak a 9% technology bonus for that night.

Modulok (Stormcrow) - Grows more powerful the longer he fights! (Secrets)
Each time Modulok is targeted for anything but not killed, his lynch vote increases by one, cumulatively.

Individuals

The Sorceress (Kate) - The Protector of Castle Grayskull, The Sorceress uses her mystical power to guard against the forces of evil. She perishes if all the Eternians are slain. (Secrets)
Each night, The Sorceress may protect one player from a night kill. Or, instead, she may invoke the power of Grayskull to resurrect any player (she may do this only once). Perishes if all the Eternians are slain. Shares victory with the civilians.

Zodac (timmer) - The Cosmic Enforcer (Secrets)
Each night, Zodac can select two players and level the lynch votes they receive between them, adding them together and dividing them by two the next day. If there is ever a tie, that night Zodac chooses who among the tied players will be killed. Zodac inherits the night kill from an eliminated Snake Mountain or Horde. Inherits the Night kills from Snake Mountain or The Horde if they are eliminated. Must be the Last Man Standing.

Prologue

The mathematics of the vehicle choice were straightforward. The greatest chance of getting the prize was Wind Raider (50 points max). The lowest chance of getting the prize was Stridor (30 points max), but Stridor came with information.

Flyin’ High won the prize, which was the Amulet of Charisma. This amulet gave Flyin’ High a -2 received lynch vote total at the start of each Day period.

If you chose Stridor, you were able to choose any location on the light hemisphere and inquire about it. Stridor would give special information about that place.

The assumption among the players that Stridor’s information would be static across the board was what I hoped,

Finally, this opening poll served as a springboard for Day 1 discussion, and it worked: That was an incredible degree of conversation for an opening lynch. I really enjoyed it,

Day 1

As I said, the Day 1 discussion was riveting, and I loved watching how some were absolutely right and how others were way off the mark.

There was no vote manipulation on Day 1. It was a straight lynch, except Flyin’ High started a negative two received votes because of her prize.

I had the entire post ready to go, thinking blindfaeth was to die, when the vote tied at the last minute. This, while somewhat frustrating (since I had to rethink- and rewrite- the Day post) was exceedingly interesting.

You see, Zodac was the tie-breaker. Any time a lynch vote was tied, Zodac (timmer) got to decide who among the tied players would die, and that player would be lynched that Night. This element of his role was ancillary, but combined with his Night power, made him an interesting character: His Night power allowed him to submit two names, and those two players would receive the mean of their votes. For example, if he selected Players A & B, and A received two votes and B received fourteen, then both A & B would have eight votes apiece, and if no one had more than eight votes, Zodac would get to choose who would die, A or B, that night.

Well, timmer initially chose blindfaeth, but changed his mind, and Boomslang was lynched on Night 1.

Night 1

The players had to determine who would receive the Shield of Grayskull, a powerful item that protected a player from ALL night actions that night, but that player would have to choose someone to give the shield to for the next period.

This was an important poll for the civilians, because obviously any players who shared BTSC could pass the shield among themselves, including evil players.

Little Tiger won it.

The only manipulation in this poll was that Kate, The Sorceress, had a vote that was worth four times.

The other aspect about the shield is that if someone gave it to He-Man, it’s purpose would change to allow He-Man be protected from Night actions whenever he chose to transform, and the shield would no longer be passed. This never happened.

Snake Mountain targeted MovingPictures07, but Flyin’ High was protecting him.

That’s right, Flyin’ High. You kept Hordak alive.

Day 2

Very little to say here by now- timmer chose himself and Roxy to spit their lynch votes, and timmer got all but two of them. That meant a second tie, which meant he got to choose Roxy to die.

Ironically, Roxy missed the vote for Day 2.

reywaS confirmed that he did indeed screw up his vote, which I had interpreted as an opportunity to score more percentage points for Mer-Man.

And Vompatti...may well be the “true” individual among us, having stood alone in this one.

Night 2:

AceofSpaces survived Modulok’s assault solely because of the Furlong meat, which gave a 50% chance of surviving Night actions. Had he not chosen that, he would have indeed been a soggy corpse at the bottom of a river.

Crawler meat had no effect.

Chimparilla meat gave a 50% chance of failing one’s night action (the superstitious believe consuming it is bad luck).

And, as you all saw, Abyss Spider meat meant silence. I was taken aback that so many had chosen to consume it. I mean, what the hell is wrong with you people? Spider?

Day 3:

On Night 2, The Horde unlocked The Slime Pit, which meant the Day 3 lynch was unique. Essentially, whoever got lynched on Day 3 would be a slave to them for quite possibly the remainder of the game. The Sorceress and Zodac, however, could only be slaves for one cycle, and they would both learn about The Slime Pit and have a 25% chance of breaking the spell each night, freeing the enslaved if successful.

DharmaHelper, even though he received two fewer votes than He-Man, was slimed, because the Night prior he chose Robot mode (correctly identifying Snow Dog as Grizzlor), and had to accept 2x the lynch votes. Hence, his five became ten.

The greatest thing to happen on this day was DH’s first bad translator post, which I have adopted as my signature: "When it comes to my mind is about 500 and sorry night hope for women." Truer words were never spoken.

I think we will be seeing a lot of bad translator from here on out, don’t you?

Night 3:

In Andreenos, two players were selected to fight Webstor. AllAlongtheBoardwalk and thellama73 did that. The person to receive the most votes would fight and survive, and the second most would fight, die, and be brought back by the Andreenids.

The Ambrosia, when consumed, would double that person’s Night power. AllAlongTheBoardwalk would use it Night 6, and because he was Merman, he would get two chances to get items (which he did).

Day 4:

Once again, this was destined to not be a straightforward lynch. On Night 1, The Horde had unlocked The Magna Beam, which would gain a charge each time someone was lynched. On any Night period the beam had a charge, they could fire it, and the vote tally the next Day would transfer down each poll slot the number of charges it had. The opted to use it for the Day 4 lynch vote.

Also, DharmaHelper had just killed spacedaisy, so his vote tally started out with a 4x modifier. Interestingly enough, Skeletor had forced MovingPictures07 to vote for DharmaHelper, and MovingPictures07 had forced DharmaHelper to vote for himself.

But those votes would not affect DH, since the Magna Beam would be moving the entire vote tally down one space (i.e., the_untamed’s received votes would go to timmer, timmer’s received votes would go to AceofSpaces, etc.)

birdwithteeth11’s votes got transferred down to blindfaeth, whom Teela was protecting. Hence, no lynch happened.

The Magna Beam was an intense source of frustration throughout.

Night 4:

The weapons in this poll were selected because in the original toy line, the generic weapon accessories were a sword, ax, mace, spear, and halberd. The correct thing to do to figure it out would have been to go into the Marketplace in Gladiators. Halbred would have been the best choice (unless you were evil, then spear would have been better for you. See below).

Each player got a roll, and that equaled the number of Ilkort that player killed. If a certain number of Ilkort were not killed, the Egg of Avion would be lost, and Flyin’ High (Stratos) would have lost her powers.

blindfaeth had the highest number of kills (12), so he was chosen to carry the Staff of the People’s Voice. This staff would cancel any lynch vote manipulation for the next Day period when used, EXCEPT for Zodac’s ability to force a tie. Unbeknownst to blindfaeth, the staff was limited to just two uses.

Day 5:

Had Teela not been protecting MovingPictures07, timmer would have forced yet another tie, and the lynch vote would have been decided on Night 5. I’m quite glad it didn’t happen this way, because then I fear the players would want to lynch the Host!

Night 5:

Zodac's Mountain is the Cosmic Enforcer's retreat, where he monitors the comings and goings of the universe. It is where he meditates and determines how best to preserve a fragile balance. The computer before you responded in a language that only Zodac can understand- a tongue as ancient as the world itself. It would reveal to him and him alone how many of the selected faction remain alive, what precious objects they possess, if any, and the effects of those objects.

Zodac therefore learned that Snake Mountain had three people left, and that one of their members had Ambrosia, that allowed that person to use a Night power twice in one night.

In other words, timmer should have quickly figured out that AllAlongTheBoardwalk was from Snake Mountain.

Now the Night PMs were interesting. DharmaHelper (Man-E-Faces) attempted to kill Snow Dog, but was unsuccessful and was in turn killed by Snake Mountain.

DFaraday and indiglo also gained BTSC with blindfaeth. Moreover, indiglo learned that thellama73 & LittleTiger had BTSC. Finally, blindfaeth learned that He-Man was Tri-Klops.

MovingPictures07 and Snow Dog developed a third powerful technology: The Horde Trooper. This would harass two players at Night, making their votes the next Day worth nothing. It would also protect the Horde from being Night killed one time, and would be sacrificed in the process.

Day 6

I knew this would be a fun lynch vote to watch.

The Horde opted to use the Magna Beam again (one charge), but blindfaeth used the Staff of the People’s Voice. In other words, The Horde would be thinking that the lynch votes would shift down as they had on Day 4, and I had predicted they would try to throw one of their members under the bus. But since the votes would NOT move (due to the powerful staff intervening), a Horde member would be lynched. Or, since four civilians now knew that He-Man was Tri-Klops (DFaraday, indiglo, blindfaeth, and juliets), He-Man was a likely lynch. Either way, I was sure a bad guy was going to get it.

It turned out I was wrong, and votes for a silent Dom started piling up.

And although he pretended to be hexed, He-Man voted for LittleTiger of his own volition and even pretended to have been punished for making it obvious. A bold move, but a vain one.

Night 6

The drinks had an effect on everyone’s votes. Pelleezean liquor imparted a -4 vote, the Orakas Island red wine imparted a -2 vote, the Stilian ale imparted a +2 vote, and the Laughing Swan white wine imparted a +4 vote.

Another factor manipulating the votes was yet another Horde tech, the Horde Trooper, which repressed the votes of two targets each Day. In this case, Elohcin’s and juliets’ votes were not counted at all.

Day 7

In the end, the drinks did not matter, because Dom wound up getting the most votes, and only one person quaffed the liquor.

What did matter was that timmer was targeting Dom and orsonkidd, and, as you now know, this was the reason for orsonkidd getting lynched on Night 7.

Night 7

There was no Night 7 poll- a bit of a break for the players (and for me, since, as you recall, our car broke down and I was exhausted).

Not only would Stinkor make his targets post through bad translator, but their votes would count -4 (and the targets knew this, but were not allowed to make it obvious, although, as Snow Dog cheerfully pointed out, “How can I make it obvious through bad translator?”)

Stinkor, by the way, was my five-year-old son Simon, who had a blast picking the names of his targets and telling people he was going to make them stink.

In case you’ve not been keeping up, Snake Mountain has been all but decimated, with a lone Skeletor (reywaS) keeping Eternian evil alive.

In a remarkable turn of events (and quite canonical, I might add), The Horde would send reywaS this message via Shadow Weaver’s power:

"We know who you are, Skeletor. Your team and ours have a mutual interest: keeping the civvies from winning this game. If you're in for a truce and willing to work together, a baddie team can still win this game, even if it won't be yours. If you agree to the terms of this truce, then post

in one of your posts tomorrow and have your other remaining teammate post

.

If your partner in crime is missing in action or lynched on Day 7, then post

in a post of yours instead, and in that same post mention the screenname of your partner in crime (assuming his or her identity is not already made public). It does not have to be the same post as the

.

Assuming you accept these terms, we will communicate with you further, and we expect you will not betray our trust and likewise we will not betray yours. Unfortunately, because of double targeting, we cannot communicate with you directly every night, so we will have to try our best to coordinate lynches and NKs as often as we can. For Day 8, we should try to get timmer, blindfaeth, indiglo, or juliets lynched. In reality, whoever is lynched tomorrow will not actually be lynched, so it will set up the person with the most votes as bad, and the set-up victim can be lynched on Day 9. This is assuming nothing interferes with our plan.

If we do not hear from you within the coming day period or you try to defy us, we will assume you have declined our terms, which would be unwise. The fate of your team is in our hands and, given your situation, you don't have another good option. If any bone in your body truly aligns with that of evil as it should, you will understand the desire to crush the civilians this game and instead ensure a Horde victory. We do sincerely apologize for your team's loss, as you have played a great game. Don't take it personally.

We need your help in ensuring that evil triumphs in this game. We look forward to seeing your response.

Thanks,
The Horde"
++++

So, just like in the actual Masters of the Universe mythology, Hordak would join forces with Skeletor in order to defeat a common enemy (interestingly enough, Skeletor would also work with He-Man to team up against Hordak sometimes in the series).

Unbeknownst to The Horde, however, spacedaisy had been killed, so reywaS had no teammate by this point.

Finally, Zodac would choose orsonkidd to be lynched, while reywaS saw to the death of juliets.

Day 8:

Oh dear. This is where MovingPictures07 stepped in it.

On Day 8, The Horde elected to fire the Magna Beam again, and, as I predicted, blindfaeth chose to use the Staff of the People’s Voice for its second and final time. This meant that MovingPictures07 was taking a risk in allowing himself to be engaged with indiglo’s suspicions. Of course, MovingPictures07 would not have wanted the lynch vote to have fallen on himself anyway, since that would shift the lynch to reywaS, whom The Horde had just “unofficially” tried to recruit through Shadow Weaver.

But because of the staff, those affected by Stinkor would NOT have -4 votes, but regular +1 votes, and they would not be aware of this fact. In summary, many players believed they were manipulating the lynch vote in a certain way, but they were not doing so at all.

It’s safe to say that had blindfaeth refrained from using the Staff of the People’s Voice on Day 8, this would have been an altogether very different game, because DFaraday would have been lynched instead.

I was biting my nails up till the deadline myself. What an intense Day!

Snow Dog was lynched and MP outed himself.

Night 8:

I was disappointed that my puzzle was so easy to solve. In forty minutes, Flyin’ High had the solution. And thellama73 was right behind her. The reward for solving the puzzle first was the Eternium armor, which would protect that player from being Night killed indefinitely.

Day 9:
Unlike Day 8, Day 9 was nearly dead in terms of participation. You folks must have had a “busy” St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

While it was true that MovingPictures07 could not be lynched due to Shadow Weaver still being alive (that role protects Hordak against his first lynching), the lynch result was, again, all timmer, who had targeted MovingPictures07 & DFaraday. Due to the negative Stinkor votes, and timmer’s manipulation, the result was very close. Had someone actually believed Flyin’ High’s “reasoning” against indiglo, there would have been a three-way tie, and timmer could have opted to kill indiglo instead of DFaraday on Night 9.

Night 9:

The Horde finally had the idea to start targeting Stormcrow themselves in order to increase Modulok’s voting power. It was a gambit, and a slow-moving one (since the double-targeting rule still applies), but I was interested to see how it would work out for them.

Day 10:

MovingPictures07 was protected from his first lynch by Shadow Weaver.

Interestingly enough, if everyone had voted for >SpaghettiEverywhere, he would have been lynched despite timmer’s interference because juliets was guarding LittleTiger.

Night 10:

This was the information you received from your horoscope:

The Knife
Information on the Day 11 lynch poll
The Flower
Information on Items
The Shield
Information on who was protected from Night kill
The Lovers
Information on BTSC
The Golem
Information on the Horde Trooper
The Scales
Information on Zodac
The Adder
Information on The Snake Men
The Tower
Information on Count Marzo at the Temple of Hordak
The Crown
Information on Skeletor and Hordak
The Skull
Information on the Dead

Frankly, I was relieved that no one picked The Adder, as my development of the Snake Men was premature, and I wasn’t sure how’d they’d factor into the game later.

Day 11:

The information gleaned from the consultation with Shokoti gave everyone some insight into what was going on. Using it, the civilians managed to lynch Leech.

Night 11:

Again, my puzzle was solved very quickly, and everyone was successful in keeping Count Marzo’s ingredients balanced.

Day 12:

Madame Razz conjured A Set of Dolls the previous Night. These dolls enabled her to cast votes via proxy for anyone who did not vote on Day 12. Hence, thellama73 made the bold move of trying to convince everyone to refrain from voting.

Night 12:

This Night vote would grant Skeletor a powerful object.

A Battle Axe incrusted with the Diamond of Disappearance
Terror Claws
Armor for Panthro

I must confess that I don’t recall what all these would do, but the Armor for Panthor was chosen. This protected reywaS against a Night action, and imparted a percentage chance that whoever targeted him would be killed by Panthor.

Day 13:

Stormcrow’s vote by this point was worth six. The Horde opted to use both vials of stench on DisgruntledPorcupine, making his vote worth -1. Both Elohcin and timmer had votes worth zilch due to the Horde Trooper.

The Magna Beam was in play with a charge of one, which shifted everything down one space.

In other words, had blindfaeth actually registered a vote in the poll, it would have caused a tie between LittleTiger and thellama73. Unfortunately, he did not, so Kate had one more vote. Then the votes shifted down one.

Hence LittleTiger’s unexpected demise.

Night 13:

Regarding the rock people, the two selected players to receive the blessing would be protected against Night actions and receive a vote worth 5 in Day 14. Flyin’ High was targeted for the kill, but she had the Eternium Armor.

Day 14:

With the power of the rock people behind them, the civilians were able to take down Stormcrow.

Night 14:

A second “Sabbath.”

And Flyin’ High got targeted again for the kill. Tsk tsk.

Day 15:

Silent Dom gets lynched.

Night 15:

This was your nasty encounter with the Snake Men, in which you voted for someone to torture you.

King Hiss (not an option) “If you choose no one, then I will personally flay you myself with my fangs.” (No-show voters receive all five punishments for Day 16)

Rattlor – Bites, leaving a venomous wound (Player has a 20% chance of death)
Tung Lashor – Whips with his sticky tongue (Player begins next lynch with 3 received votes)
Kobra Khan – Debilitating mist (Player cannot speak or vote in next poll)
Sssqueeze – Uses python-like arms to squeeze (Player will be role blocked)
Snake Face – Terrifies with his horrifying visage (Player must speak gibberish)

Three people chose Rattlor, but all of them rolled safe.

Day 16:

Straightforward lynch for reywaS here.

Night 16:

The first letters of each word of the maze-keeper’s message was a message in and of itself:

“Do this. Turn left only.”

blindfaeth did this (it doesn’t make a circle, by the way, because you have to take into account how far straight one goes before making the next turn).

The Star of Lithos would let blindfaeth see how a person’s vote and received votes were affected the next Day.

Day 17:

The Magna Beam was in effect for an unprecedented three spaces. This sent DP’s vote down to the absentee Ishar Morad Churain, who, being Moss Man, couldn’t be lynched.

I almost lynched Flyin’ High by mistake, thinking the Magna Beam only had a two charge.

Night 17:

As dangerous as the Orange Sea Leviathan sounded, the only purposes of this poll was to divide up the players, such that those who stayed below deck could not target those above, and vice versa. It proved to be a moot poll, however.

The thought about the Leviathan killing everybody but DP made me chuckle. I would never be so cruel.

Day 18:

Straightforward lynch of DisgruntledPorcupine. Finally, right? The destruction of The Horde trooper also happened since the Horde was eliminated.

Night 18:

This Night poll hinted at roles.

The Hero (AceofSpaces)
The Engineer (blindfaeth)
The Light (Elohcin)
The Airborne (Flyin’ High)
The Forest (Ishar Morad Churain)
The Archer (thellama73)
The Traitor (Nevinera)
The Galaxy (timmer)

I must confess to breaking the fourth wall here a bit.

Whichever tale was chosen, I would give a clue meant for that player. In this case, the Archer was chosen (Bow), and Bow had not located Adora yet. I was hinting here that he should look “close to home,” which meant his brother-in-law who had just replaced the_untamed.

I want to point out that I had NO idea what tale would get told. No clue, and I sure as hell wasn’t writing eight different short stories. I came up with and wrote the tale of the archer in ten minutes.

Day 19:

Everyone has to lynch timmer to win, but timmer could not be lynched on Day 19. I’m sure you’ve figured out why by now. He was blending the votes of AceofSpaces and himself.

Which meant AceofSpaces would be lynched on Night 19.

Night 19:

There were no more Night polls or puzzles from this point on. I was tired!

Day 20:

You people had a chance to lynch timmer, and instead you entertained wild notions of thellama73 being recruited. Recruited to what? There were two Mafia teams, not one. Also, what if a Mafia member had been resurrected instead?

Then half of you voted without hearing from Flyin’High or blindfaeth!

timmer knew what he was doing when he withheld his kill (though he wound up role blocked by Nevinera anyway).

And after twenty Day and Night periods, I wound up making a bad mistake: Adora had transformed the previous Night, and so was not able to be lynched on Day 20. But I screwed up and lynched her.

It was for this reason that I invited Nevinera to replace Ishar (since he wouldn’t really know anything that wasn’t revealed except that She-Ra had transformed twice). I didn’t want to resurrect She-Ra, because that wouldn’t quite be fair to timmer (and since she was outed, thellama73 could target her and gain BTSC).

So, no harm no foul (sort of).

Sorry for screwing this up though. It does bother me.

Night 20:

Correctly believing Nevinera Mark II to be Moss Man, timmer kills him.

Day 21:

As blindfaeth found out, timmer was forcing a tie between himself and thellama73. This is how thellama73 would be lynched on Night 21.

Night 21:

For the second time this (literal) week, the game could have ended. Since timmer could have killed (but chose not to) and used his vial of stench (but chose not to), this could have resulted in a 1 on 1 game for the purpose of a lynch, and then timmer would have called that tie.

He targeted thellama73, and so upon receiving the votes (he even voted himself), thellama73 would be lynched the next Night.

Day 22:

Flyin’ High trusts Elohcin and they lynch blindfaeth. Whoops!

I have to say, all this paranoid talk of recruitment had me laughing and on the edge of my seat at the same time!

Night 22:

This was a Mexican standoff!

On Night 22, the three remaining players all used their vials of stench on someone else, meaning all players have a zero vote. This meant Day 23 would have resulted in a tie (of -1 since FH has a charm that gives her -2 received votes). timmer was averaging the vote total between himself and FH. This means:

Eloh: 0 votes received
FH: -1 votes received
timmer: -1 votes received

So timmer could not decide who would die. Elohcin would have been lynched on Day 23 no matter who voted what, since she would have had the highest total (with zero).

timmer could not Night kill Flyin’ High because of the Eternium Armor.

That meant two players remained on a hypothetical Day 24. They would both have a vote worth one. Now this is why Flyin’ High won:

The Amulet of Charisma was giving her a -2 received vote total. And timmer could not double target.

Assuming they voted for each other:

Flyin’ High: -1 vote received
timmer: 1 vote received

Resulting in a timmer lynch.

Who would have ever thought that an item won on Day 0 could decide the game? :eek :airguitar:

++++

The issue regarding no-shows with BTSC having their powers used via proxy was ultimately moot: No terribly inactive player had BTSC this game, and even those with lower post counts had passive powers.

Regarding why I chose not to modkill inactive players:

1. As a general principle, I don’t believe in the mod doing the Mafias’ job.

2. In this specific case, each of the inactive players was civilian with no BTSC.

3. One major source of lynch manipulation was The Horde’s Magna Beam, and by eliminating positions from the poll, this put active players at a greater risk of being lynched.

4. All of the inactive players were civilian. Thus, modkilling them would have unilaterally harmed the civilian cause.

++++

Here’s a list of all the stuff LittleTiger (Madame Razz) conjured. I had a lot of fun with this.

Little Tiger

Wand of Convincing

Once, Madame Razz may enable her BTSC team to have their lynch votes double for the next day. The decision to use the wand must come in the night prior to the lynch vote. Upon using it, the wand crumbles into dust.

The Hircus Flower

Madame Razz may give this gray, odorous flower to any player. Upon receiving it, that player shall transform into a goat.

The Nothing Reed

Once, Madame Razz may demand that someone’s words to be emptied of their usefulness. This nullifies that player’s next day vote.

The Book of Hidden Knowledge

This book appears to have blank pages, but when the spell caster attempts to read it, words appear, sharing new knowledge. Use this book during any one Night period to learn the mechanics behind that particular Night poll.

The Wine Glass of Exclusion

Each time this ordinary-looking glass is filled with wine from a stranger’s bottle, and a name spoken over the drink, the face of someone who is NOT that person will appear briefly. Now if only you had some wine…

The Spyglass of Actuality

Use this item one Night to see how the votes will be manipulated the next Day period.

The Scarf of Eavesdropping

Wearing this scarf at Night will not only keep you warmer, it will magically transmit a piece of information coming from a random person. This is not a one time use item: Madame Razz will receive information each Night automatically. If Razz is killed, the scarf is forfeit.

The Obedience Flute

Play this flute one Night- it only works once! It’s very quiet, and will probably only be heard by one person, but whoever hears its sound will be compelled to vote the next Day as the flute player directs!

The Blowgun of Silence

Shoot someone with this to make them be quiet for one Day period.

Magic Perfume

Give this tiny bottle to any player at any time, and they will cease to stink.

A Set of Dolls

These dolls, with emphasized mouths, appear eager to speak. At first you are confused as to what their purpose is, but then it hits you: These dolls want to speak for those who will not. But they are easily swayed to say what you want them to say! You may, in the next Day only, vote by proxy for any people who do not submit a vote in the lynch poll.

Broom

Broom is here to help you! One Night, Madame Razz may use Broom to fly to any location on the Dark Hemisphere to learn something about it.

++++

Well, that’s about it I suppose. Thanks for letting me Host. I had an awesome time.

And always remember to smile for the ass.

#4274

Part of the fun for me was finding all the artwork for the characters, locations, and so forth. Here is a gallery of all the characters.

He-Man

Man-at-Arms

Teela

Orko

Man-E-Faces

Ram Man:

Fisto

Moss Man

Stratos

Sy-Klone

Mekaneck

Buzz-Off

She-Ra

Glimmer

Bow

Madame Razz

Skeletor

Evil-Lyn

Beast Man

Mer-Man

Tri-Klops

Trap Jaw

Hordak:

Shadow Weaver

Leech

Mantenna

Grizzlor

Modulok

The Sorceress

Zodac

#4275

Awesome.

#4276

Holy cow, what a complex game and ending! Congrats to FH, and go civvies! This was a really fun introduction to mafia, even though I was completely lost. 3 of my 4 Night Powers were used to block civvies (sorry, guys!).

#4277

Winner's banner. Grab one, civilians!

http://bit.ly/12vbqgT

#4278

Omg!

Thank heavens fh! Since I got killed BY TIMMER I've been screaming at my computer to lynch him!

Way to go I would have been mega pissed if he won. It was bad enough dying on night 18... Ugh!

#4279

Wow, Epignosis! That is an incredible summary and it is so awesome to finally have answers to the mysteries.

I can't believe I used one of my two night protections to save MP on Night 1!

And yes, that Amulet of Charisma truly worked for me in the end. So crazy that a Day 0 item literally affected endgame.

Thanks again for hosting!!!! :yay:

#4280

I remember having a blast in this game until I died.

Info is a bitch as a baddie, but hey ho, karma is a bitch

I enjoyed my btsc plotting etc.

I agree the posts were epic, and you had a really balanced game snake mountain just had a real unlucky streak in the beginning.

Well done civvies:)

And thanks epig look forward to playing another one of your games, hopefully with just as good theme as this....

#4281

This was an Epig-ly epic game Epig! Loved everything about it!

Except for that little bitch Timmer who foiled my baddie plans for world domination - I would have succeeded too if only! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

I totes enjoyed my bts time with my awesome team <3 and agree with Dex - we had an unlucky streak this game

#4282

First off, before anything else, Epig... this was epic. You have a gift, my friend. Truly. Not only is your storytelling amazing, but it also proved to be insanely balanced! Baddie teams of 6? A million prizes given out? For a first-timer, you juggled an amazingly complex game with aplomb.

Oh, and thank you for giving me one of my favourite roles ever! Disruptive indies 4 lyfe, yo!

I can't believe how close I came. Ugh! I executed my gameplan as well as I possibly could (except for fucking up near the end which I'll get to in a sec). I figured early on that the best thing for me would be to make everyone realize that I was an indie. That would back the bad guys off from NK-ing me, which I had no protection against. And I figured if I would establish the idea that I was un-lynchable, that would keep the civs off my back as well. Plus, I deliberately played pro-civ at first, too well in fact, dipping the all important cosmic balance too far in the civ's direction.

The lynch thing. Honestly, had you ever even one time tried to lynch me two days in a row, I was toast. I had to scramble each night to gauge whether the next day would be a day you tried to lynch me or not, because I had to time my night actions to protect myself. Also, I had to scatter my kills near the end to make it confusing, otherwise I figured I was dead. The end was a nightmare to plan, lol. And I knew FH had won some prizes, so I had to think... are they prizes to protect against NKs? Or prizes that prevent lynching? Whichever she had, if I picked wrong, I would lose. If I picked right, I would win. And I picked wrong, dammit.

As for my fuckup. I misinterpreted one of Epig's last posts. Everytime I was up for lynch but shared my votes with someone else, his post made it sound like they were sick, or hurt, or posioned, or something! But when i read his post about thellama, my brain told me that he had somehow survived lynching, which was stupid on my part, because the lynching hadn't been attempted yet, my special lynch move made the lynch happen at the end of night. So my misinterpretation of llama's situation caused me to miscount who was left, I opted not to kill or anything that night because of it, and we landed here. FUCK!!!

Anyway, guys, always remember. An indie Timmer is a baddie indie Timmer, lol.

this was a blast, great game civs and Roxy sorry for killing you but I could smell your baddieness a mile away lol

#4283

And on that note, I'm taking a few months off from mafia to work on a screenplay. I'll seeya in awhile!

#4284

That was the best first game of mafia I could imagine! I really hope I can get in another game of yours someday :-D

#4285

timmer, you deserve recognition for how you handled a complex role. Either targeting offensively (to confuse people) or defend yourself (to make yourself seem invincible), and the way you spoke in the thread to manage this illusion...absolutely brilliant. I genuinely thought you had this one once the civilians began offing one another! To be the 29th out...damn!

I want to thank my darling wife Elohcin too (and rib her a little too- calling me a nerd...and now look who's here among us

). She gave me the time I needed to write posts, respond to PMs, and so forth. And we have three young children, so you can imagine!

And thanks to all who served as a replacement (especially Nevinera for doing double duty). I do hope you will join in my next adventure, which I already have in development.

#4286

I cant believe you voted to kill me FH!

#4287

blindfaeth wrote:I cant believe you voted to kill me FH!

I couldn't believe it either!

#4288

Oh well, I think I played a pivotal role in the civvie's win, so I'm happy. It was fun having to be a middle-man between juliets my original teammate, and indi/dfaraday, the civvie team that found me. And we acquired FH on the way. I got the staff which I think saved us a lot of headache on two lynch days, got the brooch and voted the knife that helped get the right person lynched another day.

FYI for timmer, the couple times that I voted you, it was because skeletor made me.

I should have realized it was timmer sooner. From my knife PM I knew the people tying was a thing going on, and when I used my brooch on llama i knew he was sharing with timmer, so in retrospect it was kind of obvious what was going on, but I was blinded by his helpfulness in the earlier part of the game. In fact I don't blame FH because I began to suspect her as well.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, just sad that I lived so long only to die at the very end. I still cant believe I survived that day 1 lynch. Everything went just perfectly for me. My teammate at the time was reptaronice, who never posted if I recall correctly, and i found Juliets as a replacement <3. Anyway, he just happened to drop in and vote boomslang to try and save me, and I'll never understand why. Two people who would have voted me didnt make it to the poll in time, He-Man voted boomslang, his own teammate instead of me, everything just lined up. And apparently Timmer ultimately decided to keep me alive over boomslang. To think I was on the brink of death like that day 1 and made it all the way to end game is incredible. I didn't have any sort of NK protection, so TBH I'm not sure why anyone kept me around - after about halfway through the game I'd argue I wasn't suspicious enough that anyone would lynch me until I was one of the last options.

#4289

This game was amazing, incredible and an absolute blast! Epignosis, you did a magnificent job with everything and I will play any game you host in the future

I had a lot of fun BTSC with llama and Elo - we did figure some things out, and some thing we got wrong.... but the worst thing was thinking llama had maybe been recruited

hehehehe

I was REALLY upset to be lynched on D13, but I still had fun following along and trying to figure out what the hell was going on

All in all, great game, great players and booooooo to those who signed up and didn't play, you missed out!

:yay:

#4290

Kate wrote:Omg!

Thank heavens fh! Since I got killed BY TIMMER I've been screaming at my computer to lynch him!

Way to go I would have been mega pissed if he won. It was bad enough dying on night 18... Ugh!

I loved how you used the "wave to the game after death to remind people that you were killed" strategy, lol. It's like "recruits? honestly, guys? Who killed me? Just... just look at who killed me... it was Timmer. He's right fucking there. Just.... lynch him!"

I felt your pain.

#4291

timmer wrote:
Kate wrote:Omg!

Thank heavens fh! Since I got killed BY TIMMER I've been screaming at my computer to lynch him!

Way to go I would have been mega pissed if he won. It was bad enough dying on night 18... Ugh!
I loved how you used the "wave to the game after death to remind people that you were killed" strategy, lol. It's like "recruits? honestly, guys? Who killed me? Just... just look at who killed me... it was Timmer. He's right fucking there. Just.... lynch him!"

I felt your pain.

Lol. I figured you were gonna be the only one to catch what I was doing...

#4292

blindfaeth wrote:Oh well, I think I played a pivotal role in the civvie's win, so I'm happy. It was fun having to be a middle-man between juliets my original teammate, and indi/dfaraday, the civvie team that found me. And we acquired FH on the way. I got the staff which I think saved us a lot of headache on two lynch days, got the brooch and voted the knife that helped get the right person lynched another day.

FYI for timmer, the couple times that I voted you, it was because skeletor made me.

I should have realized it was timmer sooner. From my knife PM I knew the people tying was a thing going on, and when I used my brooch on llama i knew he was sharing with timmer, so in retrospect it was kind of obvious what was going on, but I was blinded by his helpfulness in the earlier part of the game. In fact I don't blame FH because I began to suspect her as well.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, just sad that I lived so long only to die at the very end. I still cant believe I survived that day 1 lynch. Everything went just perfectly for me. My teammate at the time was reptaronice, who never posted if I recall correctly, and i found Juliets as a replacement <3. Anyway, he just happened to drop in and vote boomslang to try and save me, and I'll never understand why. Two people who would have voted me didnt make it to the poll in time, He-Man voted boomslang, his own teammate instead of me, everything just lined up. And apparently Timmer ultimately decided to keep me alive over boomslang. To think I was on the brink of death like that day 1 and made it all the way to end game is incredible. I didn't have any sort of NK protection, so TBH I'm not sure why anyone kept me around - after about halfway through the game I'd argue I wasn't suspicious enough that anyone would lynch me until I was one of the last options.

I could never tell if I was successful or not but I protected you many times.

#4293

Kate wrote:
timmer wrote:
Kate wrote:Omg!

Thank heavens fh! Since I got killed BY TIMMER I've been screaming at my computer to lynch him!

Way to go I would have been mega pissed if he won. It was bad enough dying on night 18... Ugh!
I loved how you used the "wave to the game after death to remind people that you were killed" strategy, lol. It's like "recruits? honestly, guys? Who killed me? Just... just look at who killed me... it was Timmer. He's right fucking there. Just.... lynch him!"

I felt your pain.
Lol. I figured you were gonna be the only one to catch what I was doing...

I sure as hell didn't catch it. I was like, "Who the hell is she waving at?"

#4294

Kate wrote:
blindfaeth wrote:Oh well, I think I played a pivotal role in the civvie's win, so I'm happy. It was fun having to be a middle-man between juliets my original teammate, and indi/dfaraday, the civvie team that found me. And we acquired FH on the way. I got the staff which I think saved us a lot of headache on two lynch days, got the brooch and voted the knife that helped get the right person lynched another day.

FYI for timmer, the couple times that I voted you, it was because skeletor made me.

I should have realized it was timmer sooner. From my knife PM I knew the people tying was a thing going on, and when I used my brooch on llama i knew he was sharing with timmer, so in retrospect it was kind of obvious what was going on, but I was blinded by his helpfulness in the earlier part of the game. In fact I don't blame FH because I began to suspect her as well.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, just sad that I lived so long only to die at the very end. I still cant believe I survived that day 1 lynch. Everything went just perfectly for me. My teammate at the time was reptaronice, who never posted if I recall correctly, and i found Juliets as a replacement <3. Anyway, he just happened to drop in and vote boomslang to try and save me, and I'll never understand why. Two people who would have voted me didnt make it to the poll in time, He-Man voted boomslang, his own teammate instead of me, everything just lined up. And apparently Timmer ultimately decided to keep me alive over boomslang. To think I was on the brink of death like that day 1 and made it all the way to end game is incredible. I didn't have any sort of NK protection, so TBH I'm not sure why anyone kept me around - after about halfway through the game I'd argue I wasn't suspicious enough that anyone would lynch me until I was one of the last options.
I could never tell if I was successful or not but I protected you many times.

Thank you!!

#4295

I could hardly believe my eyes at the end when all the civs started turning on each other and stopped trying to lynch timmer. It seemed obvious that he needed to go. It was fun to watch you bripping into each other. the mistrust..everything.

#4296

Yeah, Timmer continuing to survive lynches was so lucky/well-planned on his part because it made me soooooo paranoid. I was scared of trying to lynch him again since I hadn't figured out how he kept surviving.

I really, really, really felt bad at turning on blindfaeth though. That felt all sorts of wrong and I should have trusted my heart that he wasn't who we were looking for. But paranoia is a powerful brain manipulator.

Hugs Kevin again.

#4297

Wow! What an absolutely stunning game. I have to say, Robert, for your first hosting experience ever and for anyone's hosting experience regardless of how experienced they could be, this was very impressive. I agree that you have a gift; your writing, as I've always known it to be, was very outstanding. I do agree with timmer that your game turned out to be balanced, a fact I did wonder about at times. It is insane when you think about it, baddie teams with 6, something as crazy as the Magna Beam, all the possible civvie BTSC, many unconventional and risky items, but it all seemed to work out somehow. Props to you. What a game. This will go down as one of my all-time favorite mafia games, I'm sure of it.

Now I have so much to say here, I hope I don't forget anything! I'm sure I'll forget something that was in my mind at some point throughout the game that I wanted to say at endgame.

Flyin' High, I thank you so incredibly for saving me on Night 1. There's a funny story about that. BWT and I were at the Meshuggah concert at the time and I was already loving this game so much. I really wanted to be able to snag that shield but I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to be. When I saw that LT ended up winning it decisively and I was in second, in addition to how I went after He-Man and how all of the Day 0 and Day 1 discussion went, I had that sinking feeling in my chest that I was going to die. I seriously thought I was a goner. BWT used his phone to check for me and it said MovingPictures07 in the poll title (the post was not up quite yet when we had checked) and so I was like, "I died, didn't I?" and David just gave me this look... my heart sunk. I couldn't believe it. Damn! I was so upset. After the opening act was over, we checked again, only to find the actual post was up... and that I survived! Man, that was one of the best moments I ever had in a mafia game, I was so thrilled. I had no idea how I survived, but I figured it had to be because Stratos took the big risk and protected me or something. I would have never thought that was you and never considered you to be that role!

This game I tried my absolute hardest of any game ever to take everything anyone has ever said about me regarding my civvie behavior v. baddie behavior in games and really put on my best face for this one. It seems like it worked! I even had Daisy 100% fooled and she usually can pick me up pretty well. This game COMPLETELY CONSUMED me. I have no idea how many hours upon hours I spent in BTSC scheming everything, and even while I was busy studying CPA or spending time elsewhere, I was thinking about this game. I was so proud of my performance this game, so the fact that I didn't walk away with a winners' banner at first was very disappointing to me, but I got over it, and I was rooting for my team all the way. I took some very risky moves this game which did not pay off. If even half of them had, I am convinced The Horde would have won this game. Big time.

First off, I decided I absolutely had to defend Snow Dog. That was a risky move, but as his name came up throughout the game, I thought it best to defend him because I thought I could argue away suspicion of him for quite some time using the fact that I knew him argument. It sort of helped that I honestly thought Snowie would behave that way if he had not had BTSC. That was what I told him from the very beginning. He said he wouldn't post all of his thoughts at one point, and I said, No. I told him, go for it, post every single thing, act as though I am not here and no one else is here and you are playing this game absolutely solo. That is your mission, you have to convince everyone of that throughout the game, and you can't do that if you can't first convince yourself. He also mentioned he was going to vote for me on Day 1, I said go for it. Just in case I ever had him throw me under the bus, I wanted him to be clear. He was my ace in the hole, I wanted him to last a while, especially because I decided he could throw me under the bus at will.

Second off, I decided I needed a sacrifice, and I quickly realized it needed to be BWT. Firstly, I suspect BWT often in games, and I thought it would be weird if I had defended him in this one. Second, I told him from the beginning that Rox was eyeing him and he was flip flopping hard, so I really wanted to lead the lynch on him and gain some civvie cred. I then thought, with the acquisition of the Magna Beam, we could seriously cause some chaos and confusion, and I was hoping we could get in a lynch on Day 3 where we could frame a civvie for being baddie by having the Magna Beam freak out and flip the lynch downwards one, taking the focus off of BWT for another day or two, and then I could lead the lynch against him. That failed when Skeletor forced me to vote DH on Day 3, something which frustrated me greatly, as it ruined my plan.

Okay, let's see... now, NKs. Here was my strategy here. As big of a threat Snake Mountain was, they seemed to be taking care of themselves on that front, and I so desperately wanted to get rid of Man-E-Faces because he could be a HUGE problem later, especially for me, as I wanted to take the crusading, very active civvie role to the absolute max, but in doing so I played a very risky game where people were likely to target me with night actions. Speaking of which, I was insanely paranoid that Snake Mountain would try and NK me again at any moment. It was driving me nuts and I was sincerely hoping to see another shield poll, eventually realizing that it was being passed amongst the civvies behind the scenes. Anyway, yes! As to whom we decided to NK... well, I told everyone in BTSC that the mission should be firstly to rid ourselves of Mekaneck. Because the longer we keep him around, the more civvie BTSC we'll have to combat, and that could be very difficult as the game progresses. At the time, I thought LT was in the green civvie BTSC group with Man-E-Faces, so that was the reasoning behind killing Aces on Night 2. I didn't even think that the night poll would affect that kill until it showed unsuccessful, and then I was kicking myself for that one.

On Night 4, I really desperately wanted to get rid of Mekaneck, who I was after Aces, was thinking could be DH. II wasn't sure about DH being Mekaneck, I also thought he could be Man-E-Faces. But then! This was a bizarre twist in the way I had everyone pegged as roles. But as Robert explained, we got to control DH's night actions and votes via the Slime Pit. Robert told us to submit 0, 1, or 2 names, which made me think he had to be one of the roles that submitted one or two names, so then I got rid of him as Mekaneck or Man-E-Faces and I was convinced he was Buzz-Off. This threw me off of DFaraday's trail and really kind of screwed up my pegging of civvies for quite some time.

I absolutely knew Russtifinko was a civvie from the start. I thought we could maybe get him lynched after his behavior during the BWT lynch on Day 4, but Night 4 was a very interesting night. I had a grocery list of possible candidates to kill, but I told everyone that with a few recent posts, I was beginning to wonder if Russtifinko was Man-E-Faces. The post where Russ said something about "Nice job, Man-E-Faces!" and then said with 100% confidence that Daisy was bad, that's what got me. I thought, he is very likely Man-E-Faces, especially now that it's not DH. I know Russ really well and the fact that he said nothing else this game with confidence and then is so confident that Daisy was baddie, it made sense. So that's why I killed him.

We killed AATB on Night 6 based on the fact that I was thinking he was Mekaneck. Whoops! Sorry about that, Snake Mountain. I so desperately wanted to find Mekaneck that I went through FH, AATB, DFaraday, LT, Aces again, and so many other people's posts from the start to see if their thoughts changed as the game went on, i.e., if they suddenly thought someone was good when they hadn't before. Now here's what got me. I thought for sure LT and Vomps had BTSC from the way Vomps was acting, so I had them pegged as two of the green civvie BTSC trio roles. AATB questioned Vomps's vote big time, and then the next day period, he was all like, it's OK, I understand now. That's what pushed it over the edge for me and I decided to kill him over anyone else. I thought maybe he had recently picked up LT as a BTSCmate.

It killed me later on in the game to realize I had the groups of BTSC backwards! I thought BF, juliets, and indiglo were the pink ones, with FH a possible fourth, and then the LT group as the green group, because for some reason it seemed like the people gaining BTSC with LT was growing throughout the game. It wasn't until shortly before DFaraday's flip as Mekaneck did I start to wonder if I was wrong, and then his reveal made me wonder I had everything backwards. Which was NOT good because I was trying to play the role of the civvie here, so I was hoping to prove myself.

The Snow Dog lynch. Man, I had so much riding on that one. The reason I reacted the way I did there, guys, was because we had used the Magna Beam the night before so it would automatically shift 1 person down. The very fact that Snow Dog could have been lynched, when his name was being thrown around, scared the hell out of me. Because if Snow Dog was lynched, then SE would have been lynched instead, a teammate of ours who currently was under NO suspicion, and it would have simultaneously made Snow Dog look baddie. Then he would have likely been lynched the following day. Then who was defending Snow Dog big time earlier in the game and also was leaning perhaps civvie on SE? This guy. I thought, oh god, it's going to be a lynch of three Horde right in a row, including myself. I could NOT have that happen. So I took a huge gambit risk and desperately wanted to get someone other than Snowie lynched. I was totally coming up with all of that out of my ass. Knowing how powerful some of our technology actually was, I thought it might work. Snow Dog disagreed with me. He told me to throw him under the bus from the beginning, but I ignored him and told him I had this. The worst part was I was forced AGAIN by Skeletor, this time to vote DFaraday.

By this time, we also had the Horde Trooper, which could cancel out two player's votes. And I knew Stinkor's vote had an effect of -4 from the fact that Snowie was Stinkored. I was hoping all the numbers worked out perfectly. It's why I didn't have Snow Dog vote for himself for security, was for DFaraday to get the most votes, thereby lynching the one beneath him. Two civvies out in one fell swoop! I told myself. Of course, I thought DFaraday was a lone civvie at the time, so I thought I could get doubt cast on him perhaps. But still, we could have at least kept Snow Dog alive longer. Nope. There was civvie vote manipulation I was unaware of. As soon as Snowie flipped, I knew it meant two things. 1. The civvies had vote manipulation. 2. My Magna Beam didn't work. At that time, I knew my giant gambit had failed, and I thought it would be silly for me to keep arguing it. My heart sank. I went ahead and outed myself. I knew DP would protect me from my first lynch, so there was one. I thought I could also use the Magna Beam to take an approach similar to timmer, to make you guys think I was near unlynchable, all the while being outed and taking attention away from uncovering my other teammates. It did work.

I think my biggest folly in this game was being tricked into keeping my entire team alive as much as possible. My strategy up until like Day 5 or 6 was more so to have most of my teammates readily available for me to throw them under the bus, but also keep them out of the spotlight without making it obvious, and it worked. But then I started thinking. We had the Magna Beam. We had the Horde Trooper which could cancel out two votes. I made my sacrifice of BWT. If we could just keep all 5 of us until the point where there are about 15 players left alive, especially if we team up with Skeletor, who I KNEW was reywaS because we had SE leech him, then we could definitively control this game. So that was my new plan. And the fact that Snow Dog could have been lynched on that day where we used the Magna Beam threw a HUGE wrench in my plan, so I told myself I had to make sure that didn't happen. I was in damage control mode from the day thereafter onward.

Now, as to my strategy as Hordak. I thought, sure, it'd be nice to get an extra kills of civvies, but my chance of that extra kill was only 20%. I was very curious was the powerful technology was, so I decided to gun for that, with Grizzlor (Snow Dog)'s assistance, thereby giving me 49% chance every time. We were successful! And we got the Magna Beam out of it, a piece of intense lynch manipulation. I thought, damn, we need to keep doing this. So I continued to gun for powerful technology every night. We then got the Slime Pit, the Horde Trooper, and towards the end there we also got something which allowed me to target two players with my extra kill instead of one, something I didn't get to use or think about at all because I was in damage control mode at that point and just trying to screw with everyone as much as possible with my outed baddieness and the Magna Beam.

Now... backing up... as to the lynch of He-Man... Snow Dog and I came up with the plan to send BF a message using DP's secret power trying to incriminate He-Man because we had recently discovered He-Man was Tri-Klops from SE's leech power (right after we discovered reywaS was Skeletor). I thought, wow, He-Man is playing an intense game, so let's get rid of him, anything to keep attention off of us for a day or two. I thought, using the Magna Beam while getting Dom or He-Man lynched would be GREAT because it would effectively save us for the next four lynches or so. You guys would lynch Dom, for example, it moves down, you think Dom is bad. You lynch Dom the second day, he flips whatever. Then you lynch He-Man, we use Magna Beam again, it moves down. Then He-Man gets lynched the following day. That was the plan. But BF's staff was what was causing our Magna Beam not to work here with He-Man and then again with Snow Dog, something which irritated me. I figured it was either LT, BF, or timmer's doing. But anyway! We manufactured that message to BF that He-Man was Skeletor, thinking that would get him lynched. I actually almost thought to frame another civvie, such as FH, with that instead of He-Man, a fellow teammate of Skeletor, but Snow Dog thought it was too risky.

It's funny. The night before the Snow Dog lynch, we sent a message to reywaS/Skeletor, trying to get him to team up with us to ensure our numbers to win this game. Because, let me tell you, our chances of winning looked REALLY good at that time. We had Magna Beam, Horde Trooper, and all 5 of us still, and if we could just get Skeletor and his force vote and NK affirmatively on our side, we could have easily won. I sent this insanely long message to him, trying to get him to side with us. And then... everything sort of fell apart and I was too busy taking up the following day with my gambit, lol, and reywaS was on vacation starting around that time so he never officially responded in code (by using a particular emoticon) in the thread. At the time, we were thinking he probably had a second teammate alive, which was probably Dom, but later on I realized my mistake with AATB. But the way he kept Skeletoring civvies from then on out made us realize he had the same goal in mind as us.

I made two major mistakes in this game, in my eyes. First was the Snow Dog gambit/lynch, even though it was so much fun to play the game from thereon out that way. I should have made it easier to throw him and a few other of my teammates under the bus, thinking it would be better for two or three of us, or even just me, to make it to endgame, instead of as many of as possible. I got too obsessed with overwhelming the game by having our numbers as 5 when there were 15 or so players left, thereby ensuring our victory. The second was not realizing how powerful Stormcrow's Modulok power could have been. It was only once Snow Dog died that I realized that we could be targeting her with our OWN actions to boost up her voting power, so I proceeded to make that my goal for the remainder of the game, to help my team keep her and DP alive over the rest of my teammates so that maybe they'd have some chance in hell of winning this thing after I blew it with the Snow Dog gambit. If only I had realized that earlier, we could have (perhaps unfairly) pumped her voting power very high.

Let's see... what else... I do have to say my BTSC in this game has to go down as some of the best I've ever had, largely thanks to Snow Dog. We talked so much about the game and schemed and planned so intensely. At many times, we thought we might be able to secure victory here. I also want to thank SE, BWT, Stormcrow (who replaced in and then didn't really get into the game, so thanks for your effort in appeasing me), and DP because you guys were equally great. Such an awesome BTSC with all of you.

I was very surprised the game lasted as long as it did. After the way all the lynches went on, I thought for sure the civvies had this one, and I thought they clearly deserved it by avoiding lynches for so long and playing such an awesome game. Props to indiglo, FH, and LT for seeing through my shenanigans and playing an incredible game. BF and Elohcin and DFaraday and other civvies as well, such an awesome game. You guys all deserved to win in my eyes. Well-played. Same to He-Man and reywaS in particular. After the way your team fell apart, you both played such an amazing game.

I have to stress again, what a game this was! It will certainly go down in mafia history as something else, I'm sure.

#4298

Snow Dog wrote:I could hardly believe my eyes at the end when all the civs started turning on each other and stopped trying to lynch timmer. It seemed obvious that he needed to go. It was fun to watch you bripping into each other. the mistrust..everything.

I agree with this, it was nuts! I couldn't believe it. It was almost like a heart-sinking trainwreck, especially seeing how much you guys had invested into the game and to see it all thrown away like that.

Timmer played an absolutely impeccable game. Very well played, my friend. I thought we'd be seeing another FEB win by you towards the end there.

#4299

And I want to say, thank you, FH, I do agree; I like to think I definitively earned my FEB status this game.

I think He-Man earned his as well, without a doubt.

Ironically, the games where I have most been an FEB always end the same, with my team losing for some reason or another. In ACTA 2 it was because of that stupid amulet; in SOT it was because our team was pretty much doomed from the start and DD caught onto my relationship with aapje; in AHS it was because of that pesky orsonkidd and the fact that all dead civvies could use their night actions! But I think my FEB level in this game was something else. As I told Robert and said in my long TDLR post (sorry about that), I was surely consumed by this game, and I feel very proud of it. Usually I nitpick myself to hell after games and always feel there was somewhere for me to improve. I do feel I made mistakes here, but I don't feel that nearly as much as I have with most other games I've played. I honestly think it may be my best performance in any game I've ever played to date.

The problem now is that no one will ever trust me ever again. I already had a very difficult time with that before after my previous times as baddie, now this game is sure to do nothing other than make it worse!

#4300

Did he man ever come explain that vote to save blindfeath?