Games Mafia Game 87 - Baccano! - END GAME

[Hardy]

What about Shapeshifter Illusioned Spy?

Shapeshifter is in the cemetery. Done.

 

[GrySun]

Shapeshifter is in the cemetery. Done.

Uhhh I think we should make a host answer by default for anyone who would normally get a PM back(like Dets) to also get a PM saying „you got no results“ so people don‘t second-guess hosts, and it can happen that hosts forget. This also clears up SS Illusions as those also get back results.

 

[Organizized]

Scary player if you had more time, looking forward to when you play again either when I play or host.

I’m definitely getting more into the mood for MG lately, but I can’t see myself having more time to play than I do now for another few years to come. Still, with this level of activity I’m not the most afk player in the game and can follow it sufficiently for the most part. Maybe if I’m proper Mafia it’s a different situation, but I’ll likely keep signing up as long as people don’t think I’m too inactive in these recent couple games.

 

[Lawl Po Bia]

Quick personal notes on players this game:

Organizized - absolutely crazy. Traitor performances overall lately have been really good(sans scav), starting with a town role helps tremendously in our games where claiming roles is such a big factor. But regardless of that you didn't just stop at Seraph, you played very pro-town in many phases. Only thing bothering me about you and gnut was that you never died as BGs, but had the game continued after sakura gets RT killed I'm not sure who I would've lynched before you. Probably only ones I'd trust above you were gnut and DD. Scary player if you had more time, looking forward to when you play again either when I play or host.

Evil3ye - disgusting what they did to you. Uhh.. maybe more luck next time?

Copy Panda - Ultra spice to get Pirate then immediately call out your target and die N1. What made you go for Hardy exactly, iirc not much was hinted or known D1. In the end mafia's numbers were low and you hit basically their main powerhouse role, so dying to cast suspicion on him was very worth it.

Shad -

Goodboy - I'm sure you had good results with your 2 nights, shame they got you. Probably tanked the Mafia Det hax.

SirSamuel016 - For full redemption I'll want another game, but good stuff regardless. Shame the cointoss didn't go your way, would've probably lynched Gajeel had you killed Seraph, or they'd have bandwagoned DD.

sakura-aneki - You made me doubt you like 100 times. Many things pointed you as scum but the way you talk is really convincing as a townie sakura. You'd be such a great mafia if you only ironed out the inconsistencies, which I'm sure you yourself already are aware of. Never give up! Though yeah it'd be nicer if your playstyle as town and mafia changed away from the sakura that gets very upset at being misunderstood/accused, as this is a lying game and we all need to stomach things that could be said and done. Even if the outbursts are faked I'm not a huge fan of them, but a playstyle is a playstyle. Not doing yourself a favor when you're mafia though as then you have a lot more to fake.
Also Burden isn't that bad, Hardy even considers it great for mafia as it gives town more days to mislynch if you die early. Like had you been lynched D1 the whole game could've gone different as Panda and pudgie couldn't target yet and would maybe change their thoughts on who to target.

Farfalla - sorry for doubting you a couple of times, thought a lot of convenient things were surrounding you. Tho I kinda believe mentioning PMs there is a bad call and not sure if I'd have hostkilled both you and me there for it :/ But I guess the shapeshifter Illusion would remove any and all PMs a Spy would get back, the non-PM too, which can cause a mess. Perhaps something for council folk to think on.

Hardy - sounded very different than your town self, but great defense you came up with and I think I'd have done worse in that situation, hats off for that. Got me doubting myself a bit near the end as you were selling your claim very well, especially with the "I know for sure Panda didn't steal my role" as it ties in well with Freeman, very good play.

digitaldude - Nicely played, consistent enough thoughts and great BP use. My 2nd most trusted guy after gnut at the end. Tho read how Jesus works!!!

Demonspeed - couldn't read you at all this game as usual, didn't even believe the Doc claim at first but seems mafia did.

Vandred - You.... I almost recruited you with Recruiter powers, you were the #1 player I wanted to have in a pad as usual. But I got flashbacks last second of what happens when I recruit you(remember when I did a post saying "I wanna believe you're town Vand but bad things happen when I do", i was referring to wishing to recruit you), so I opted for the Super Masons. But you can't complain you were lynched for nothing, come on. Between you and desin we first lynched desin because you were more trustworthy than desin, than in it's own shows you performed it well and we believed you. But some actions like blocking gnut N2 were weird from a townie pov, would've paid off had he been scum but he wasn't so you took a risk. xnut being Prostitute Lover further made it impossible you were a 3rd Prostitute with the mechanics, tough luck there.

Lambu - Honestly I trusted Shad more than you so I picked him over you, but good to see you were also legit. You been getting us all paranoid about you after your recent good mafia/tp accomplishments so I'm very cautious of you. Had some good reads on some players, but similar to the BlackUchi situation here with Raven, being too agressive on 1 player can make a person too narrow minded if they are town.

desin24 - Did you really not use prostitute first two nights? Was such an uncharacteristic desin thing I couldn‘t digest. Hope you‘re not sick anymore at least.

xnut - I still wonder what made you blurt out to be connected with Holt. Surely there would‘ve been a more subtle way to call out to a threesome that would prolly desperately check posts of people to find a Lover, but was a rough situation I guess.

Holt - Say Holt would you mind if you were recruited into the Masons?

Gajeel - Not sure what was exactly happening behind the scenes or how busy you were, but hope it wasn‘t anything too bad. Farf really put a big spotlight on you.

Belserion - I get Hardy‚s complains but I also get that the game effectively ended for you on D2, you kinda were supposed to drag yourself around aimlessly til town or mafia do the mercy killing. Good thing you still found some way to enjoy playing, and it‘s not like you did anti-mafia things for Hardy‘s complaints to be justified. You gave their Traitor an elixir even, albeit unintentionally.

Hll - Hope to see you again in a game where you got more time, but am glad to know you‘re still alive and fine after so many years. Don‘t overwork yourself and stay healthy

Seraph - Bad luck to get Samuel‘ed so early forcing a claim out of you early, not sure if you were busy or not D1 but I believe the old more cheerful active Seraph worked better for you perhaps. You may still find yourself a good middleground. Who would you have recruited had you survived?

Crescent - am not happy about the hostkill thing but you know that. I just remember you had rough times with Panda and other players in past games and you survived those without throwing the game, hope you can learn to deal better with accusations by thinking back on all these times.

gnut - Missed this hyper active gnut gameplay, impressive. Not always best calls but was good to have you there with your way of pressuring.

pudgiePenguin - well shit, you got the short end of the stick. Not sure if you‘ll be back or only wanted to play this time, or if you spectated later, but hope you enjoyed it somewhat.

Raven - certainly your best game yet and look your first win. Still you should try to not get too personal and rude with people, the game is all about words, lying and accusing. Even the most shameless accusations shouldn‘t be let to get to your head. Otherwise, it can also help to question yourself sometimes and ask „am I really right“ with some of your suspects, it helps a lot to keep a clear head for me.
Good elixir trick though, wp on that.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Dec 24, 2020 ---

It‘s not guaranteed for us to use these properly though, + they coulld be taken away by mafia by having 2 members use protect ensuring no townies can get it that phase. But yes you needed more members to influence the system better, like turn Lambu into a Mafia Mason.

Actually no I didn’t, I was only able to pinpoint that I am sane, was pretty sure we had another det

 

[Juviii]

Thought Necromancer role was your suggestion? It was pretty fun in this game.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Dec 24, 2020 ---

What about Shapeshifter Illusioned Spy?

Oh my role saw the light of the day. Glad you had fun with it. But I see some want to nerf it. Haters.

 

[Lambu]

Holy cow @Organizized ... well played man

Felt bad for the mafias in the end, they lost a lot of drive after Seraph's death and they even had a burden against a strong set of towns. Maybe they deserved an extra member since we had Jesus, BP and Necro.
You guys did well, Had you recruited Orgz I think you had high chances of winning.

It was really cool playing as an unkillable role, its a first time for me and allowed me to chill in these busy times. Not the brightest game from me, but reaching the endgame with high level players was atypical and very fun on its own. I mean, it was Gry, Van, Farf, G, Orgz and the like in the final day.

Its ok @Raven , I dont hold anything for things that happen during the game so its all in the past. I would really appreciate it if you toned down the wording at times though.
Your hunch on Hardy was good, the one part that you failed to get was that there can be many perspectives towards a case. Someone not agreeing with you or agreeing with people you distrust is a legit point for doubting someone, but not to outright decide said person is scum. Having confidence in your hunches is a good thing, just be sure to have an open mind when adressing cases to not miss any pieces of the puzzle. o/

Not much I can add tbh, just that Necro was as op as I expected if played in the right hands. Best Town player was mvp by a long shot so that gave it even a stronger push.

Thank you for the game @SonOfDaws and @Asako . Lovely game, made the wait for xmas so much shorter.

See you all in the next game. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all <3

 

[Shad]

I went back on it C.C but he's a free man

I've never doubted you farf ^^

This is my first game with a weak role like Bomb disposal, having only played with Detective and Doctor, I didn't expect it to be a one time use.
I hinted I have a weak/situational role before I found out I only had 1 use, I realized my role wasn't weak, it was practically a glorified vanilla.

Being hired by Gry gave me the street creed I needed to not be afraid of being misunderstood and lynched, Hardy dying mafia was also very good for me in the early game, in the end I died a happy man, having died serving the great necromancer.

Me and Gry in the pad

 

[Raven]

I dont hold anything for things that happen during the game so its all in the past. I would really appreciate it if you toned down the wording at times though.
Your hunch on Hardy was good, the one part that you failed to get was that there can be many perspectives towards a case. Someone not agreeing with you or agreeing with people you distrust is a legit point for doubting someone, but not to outright decide said person is scum. Having confidence in your hunches is a good thing, just be sure to have an open mind when adressing cases to not miss any pieces of the puzzle. o/

Not much I can add tbh, just that Necro was as op as I expected if played in the right hands. Best Town player was mvp by a long shot so that gave it even a stronger push.

Thank you for the game @SonOfDaws and @Asako . Lovely game, made the wait for xmas so much shorter.

See you all in the next game. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all <3

Nice, good thing that you won't hold grudges, After all it's a game!

But since you want to give advises, I'd like to bring some points and i think it's okay to discuss them here. Like you said i do have problems when i see someone disagrees with me but i don't jump the gun and just claim they are scum without reasons that supports my claims, Like it's not my fault alone in that regard you know. For example Claiming Jesus is anti town, and i think many people found it weird as well. If you are Jesus you shouldn't claim it late. You let yourself getting lynched early and comeback or you don't and if mafia targeted you, They would waste an action. You also thought low of me and thought that i didn't think that Hll might be a Mafia Mason, and to my perspective that would only just add more fuel to my reasoning since i can take it as a mafia move that aims to make me doubt Hll and get either of us lynched out of doubt. Funny that he turned out to be townie after all.

Whether you find my reasons weak or strong, it doesn't mean anything to me, It's me who decide and frankly i don't care what others think of it. It is something that won't change, It has it's pros and cons but it's part of my character being opinionated. What really matters is that i'm trying to play and i apply logic to my decisions not just throwing half assed claims and accusations. You can either agree or disagree with me that's fine but with respect.

 

[gnut]

I've never doubted you farf ^^

This is my first game with a weak role like Bomb disposal, having only played with Detective and Doctor, I didn't expect it to be a one time use.
I hinted I have a weak/situational role before I found out I only had 1 use, I realized my role wasn't weak, it was practically a glorified vanilla.

Being hired by Gry gave me the straight creed I needed to not be afraid of being misunderstood and lynched, Hardy dying mafia was also very good for me in the early game, in the end I died a happy man, having died serving the great necromancer.

Me and Gry in the pad

I stole powers from a dirty rental cop

 

[Organizized]

I stole powers from a dirty rental cop

“The Dirty Rental Cop’s Apprentice” has a nice 2020 ring to it.

 

[gnut]

Nice, good thing that you won't hold grudges, After all it's a game!

But since you want to give advises, I'd like to bring some points and i think it's okay to discuss them here. Like you said i do have problems when i see someone disagrees with me but i don't jump the gun and just claim they are scum without reasons that supports my claims, Like it's not my fault alone in that regard you know. For example Claiming Jesus is anti town, and i think many people found it weird as well. If you are Jesus you shouldn't claim it late. You let yourself getting lynched early and comeback or you don't and if mafia targeted you, They would waste an action. You also thought low of me and thought that i didn't think that Hll might be a Mafia Mason, and to my perspective that would only just add more fuel to my reasoning since i can take it as a mafia move that aims to make me doubt Hll and get either of us lynched out of doubt. Funny that he turned out to be townie after all.

Whether you find my reasons weak or strong, it doesn't mean anything to me, It's me who decide and frankly i don't care what others think of it. It is something that won't change, It has it's pros and cons but it's part of my character being opinionated. What really matters is that i'm trying to play and i apply logic to my decisions not just throwing half assed claims and accusations. You can either agree or disagree with me that's fine but with respect.

But Ravie...he does believe what you say we all do...its the name calling and getting personal stuff...
Its not to be mean or tell you how to live life...only its not for this game.
You know how many times we've all sat looking at the screen....saying are you fukn kidding me...cough @Vandred cough

Just gotta refrain that kinda stuff...believe it or not...in game Im sure not only players want to have fun but also you too.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 25, 2020, Original Post Date: Dec 25, 2020 ---

“The Dirty Rental Cop’s Apprentice” has a nice 2020 ring to it.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 25, 2020 ---

Oh yeah Merry Xmas you bunch of sick lying twisted bastards...love you all.
2020 wasn't to bad here...some good memories....thnx to all of you



Oh yeah typical Xmas here....its raining xD

 

[Farfalla]

Feliz nataaaaal

Ty hosts and comrades for the salt to season our holidays

 

[xnut]

I hope you guys to be on good terms soon, Like why even fight? you both are good ppl.

it really doesn't matter, it's not specific to her overall.

 

[Hardy]

Thought Necromancer role was your suggestion? It was pretty fun in this game.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Dec 24, 2020 ---

What about Shapeshifter Illusioned Spy?

After taking this question seriously and giving it some thought, isn't it basically the same as a role that has been pirated? The role isn't there any more, so the host doesn't PM anything back.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 26, 2020 ---

The same applies to someone that has been blocked afaik but it's nowhere in the interactions. I can add it, too.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 26, 2020 ---

With someone I mean anything that isn't a spy, like a det. It can follow the same principle as a spy, I don't mind.

 

[digitaldude]

so any chance for night actions?

 

[desin24]

desin24 - Did you really not use prostitute first two nights? Was such an uncharacteristic desin thing I couldn‘t digest. Hope you‘re not sick anymore at least.

I actually did the first night and targeted Belserion cause I didn't see the Noble vote from her. Got so annoyed with myself and almost missed N2 deadline that I just brewed the juice instead of messing things up with another random choice. The problem is that I wrote about making the juice the last nightS out of a pure mistake which then could not be walked back since I didn't want to create another inconsistency. Certainly a bad mix of timing due to real life stuff . Since I won't host the January game I shall be a better whore next game. Thanks for the well wishes. A couple days of sleep and I am basically reborn xD

 

[SonOfDaws]

Overview​

As a fun way to end the year and explore a new Mafia Game idea that had piqued my interest, I decided to host a Christmas MG with plenty of playstyle options that rewarded player involvement and were cool to use. What we ended up with was a messy, tragicomedy with an abundance of interesting moments, to say the least.

Seeing as this game isn’t quite a normal one, I’ll make the thought processes when designing of the game the focus.

(Editing Note: This was a lengthy post and I likely need to make some edits to it which will come as I have time.)

Concept & Theme​

Seeing as Baccano was an anime already heavily immersed in mafia activity, mystery, and fun going-ons, that was one of the themes I was interested in seeing as an MG for a long time, but the special mechanics only emerged once I had decided to make it a Christmas game. My goal with the game was to, despite their allegiances tied to their roles, unite the players and have them progress towards a common goal. Of course, this is a game about clear protagonists and antagonists. If the town is going to be uniting, then it has to be against something.

So, I decided “I” would be that something or, rather, pretend that I was to some degree. In the series, the Rail Tracer is actually just a circus performer turned assassin that has a strange ideology and wears his heart on his sleeve, Claire. He’s an extremely powerful human assassin, but a human with human wants and desires none the less. While all that makes for an interesting character, that’s not the place of a MG Host: My role is to set the board, stack the deck, and ensure the players in the game can play within the rules established. However, for the majority of the anime he’s the monster of the story. So, my idea was to make the “host character” seem like both a monster and assassin, but in actuality, would simply be an aspect of the game that performs tasks based on player requests and only had the illusion of real agency (perhaps a bit inspired by Attack on Titan).

Once I had narrowed down what new things the Rail Tracer would enable players to do, a new problem had to be addressed: To accommodate a game of Rail Tracer-enhanced players, players would have to rise to the occasion and become something new. This is where the concept of Baccano’s Grand Panacea elixir and Immortality came into play. Enabling players to hit harder meant we would also need to enable players to actually be able to take the hits and from that eventually came Lesser Immortality.

However, as Uncle Ben’s said before being very tragically gunned down in almost every Spiderman origin story, “with great power comes great responsibility.” So, the mechanics that came about were given to players and based on not simply for signing up and picking out an avi, but based on sacrifice or, rather, investment both in actions and deliberation.

Special Mechanics​

To use any of the special mechanics in the game, a player has to “all” of themselves into it the night of their use: A player must sacrifice their ability to use all other night actions, including bonus actions.

However, both sets of special mechanics are based upon a different time of investment in the game. Lesser Immortality is based upon personal investment while calling upon the Rail Tracer is based upon the investment in the other players in the game.

Lesser Immortality​

Going along with the mechanical themes of investment and unity, this mechanic essentially allows players to bank their “life”/in-game impact cash it out for themselves or another player. Put simply, a player can forgo all other actions at night, including calling on the Rail Tracer and any normal night actions, three times to get an elixir that grants a pseudo-Jesus ability.

The time required and 4 immortal/elixir limit was to prevent the mechanic from coming into play too early, being abused, and allow the mechanic to be present in players’ minds and only come into play mid-late game when predicting and countering the Lesser Immortality would be significantly easier. Additionally, the hard counters to this were made widely accessible to all factions, Rail Tracer kills and, most significantly, lynches or “mislynches”.

Beyond simply improving the survivability, this set of mechanics also allowed for mind games by townies and theft by guilty parties.

However, all these things are only there for players to invest into, not simply gifts requiring little forethought or effort.

Rail Tracer​

This was by far the most ambitious part of the game allowing players on all sides a great degree of impact on the game if they worked with and mindful of the other players both in their group, if they had one, and in the game as a whole.

Due to the huge impact they can have on the game, the rail tracer is limited to one of each of his actions each night and a person can only successfully call upon each of his actions once.

On paper, who gets in what requests for the Rail Tracer is based upon the number of people in a group sacrificing together and upon luck in the cases of a tie, but both are actually based upon cooperation.

The obvious case is that the more people in a group that cooperate and sacrifice together, the more likely you are to be able to beat a request with lower sacrifice numbers. People won’t know for sure that they’ll win the request, but it increases the likelihood

However, the less paid attention to cases of possible cooperation is in coordination to increase the likelihood of a particular action. This didn’t occur, but players could have always agreed to all sacrifices for the same action increasing the chance of that action happening both directly and by iminadation. This could serve as both a townie bluff or a way for guilty parties to mislead others into getting out of the way of their actual actions or performing an action known to be incorrect.

The Kill​

Now for the specific Rail Tracer actions players will be working for and against, the kill action is one that draws the most attention. It can potentially allow any player or, more likely, any group the ability to kill, even townies. This is most notable however when combine with the typical killing ability of the mafia or other multi-person killing parties: An extremely weak mafia or mentor-mentee pair of two people goes from being able to perform 2 kills in 2 nights to 4 kills in 2 nights, a 3-person mafia does 6 kills in 3 nights, and a 4-person can do 8 kills in just 4 nights. In a 25-person game, that means about one third of the game can be taken out by a single party in 4 nights.

This is presuming an appropriate amount of investment of time and action to ensure successful killings, however, a person is only locked out of a Rail Tracer ability if the request is successful: A failed killing means an attempt could be made again later. All-in-all, this is an extremely powerful and relatively lenient ability that the mafia was setup to dominate at the start of the game and went largely uncontested with this ability.

The Block​

To provide some non-lethal force that can be used offensively and defensively, the Rail Tracer also has a weak block ability. This ability is fairly straightforward and has many of the same uses as a prostitute’s or an escort’s, but at a priority-level lower, 2. This means the block can’t function as a complete block to the limited number of protection roles in the game while still being able to counter the actions of game-changing actions, kills, ability takers, and recruitments.

While this is a valuable asset at the disposal of players, the amount of precision needed to have a direct noticeable impact with this ability was tremendous. Additionally, there would be few times in which the average player would prefer a block over their own action, a kill, or protection which requires just as much accuracy.

The Protection​

This is a relatively simple ability: Protect the target player from all other actions that target them. At a first glance, this seems to be simply a faster (priority 0) doctor ability, but this is a gross underestimation of the ability. The Rail Tracer protection nullifies all actions that would benefit or harm a player. This includes all night kill abilities AND all investigative actions, pirate steals, all block abilities, and other actions. This means any player can use it for kill protection but a guilty party can also use it to negate any action that targets them and puts them in a bad light. It can also be used on any other player to ensure that, no matter what else happens in the game, that player will carry out their action, even a kill. So, the ability’s usage is a lot simpler to use for a townie, but the number of different uncounterable uses are far more numerous as mafia or other guilty parties.

However, once again, as with all of the special mechanics, mileage varies exponentially depending on the investment put into understanding how to use them and setting the appropriate groundwork to do so.

Teams & Roles
Mafia​

With this team being the best suited for cooperation and the Rail Tracer abilities inevitably being dominated by the mafia, the team couldn’t be too big, but had to be strong enough to work in a 25 person game with a mid-late game survivability mechanic. So, the team was equipped with answers to most problems they would have to worry about regarding night action and a couple additional members to buff the numbers at a cost of some investment.

1. Mafia Escort - The simplest hard counter to a vocal townie threat, a role-blocker, but a role that can do sacrifices until the role can be used with some precision
2. Mafia Detective - The mafia’s threat detector and method of hit-confirming more questionable kills. This role can be used to find high value targets like detective, confirm players are actually killable and avoid some bait claims done by BP or Jesus, a
3. Burden - What should be the team’s more dedicated Rail Tracer caller, fills in the mafia’s numbers, potentially slows the mafia’s devastating kill rate, and is a role that encourages the town to move towards their previous suspects, encourage the mafia to actually stay alive, and discourage the selling out of teammates that I’ve been noticing more of lately. While an odd pick for such a team, even this role has synergy within the team.
4. Mafia Apprentice - In order to give the mafia new, but more normal killing trump card as the Rail Tracer kill uses reach their limit, the Mafia Apprentice was given three strong killing role options all being able to accentuate the strengths of the team in this game with these special mechanics and mitigate various drawbacks.
   1. The assassin is the most noticeable of the three: Not only does it allow the team to be only reliable day killer in the game and the only team able to kill during the effects of the Burden, but it also allows the team to kill BP and without worrying about doc protection since it doesn’t exist during the day. It enables a very proactive, involved playstyle that doesn’t need to mind natural protection roles and can instead pay more mind to the happenings during the game.
   2. A more certain kill option, the Strongman is for taking out particularly troublesome roles like BP, going through doctor protection, and killing immortals without letting them revive.
   3. Last but certainly not least, Poisoner is a killing role for a cold and calculating team. Instead of allowing the team to perform more powerful kills, the poisoner allows the team to invest their kill action one night for a wide variety of game plans that night and the night of the kill, including having the poisoner be able to sacrifice to perform other actions on the night of the kill. This means the poisoner can poison, talk up a plan in which they perform RT Block on a “clear suspect” the next night, pops up the RT block notification on the townie, and come next day phase they gain trust by not appearing to be the killer and have a townie to vouch for their action that night. This is only one possibility for this overlooked, but powerful role.
5. Bodyguard (Traitor) - This is the final addition or should have been the final addition to the mafia that will boost the team’s numbers to 5. The traitor was made to be bodyguard to allow the traitor to be quickly recruited and keep the mafia and any possible mason group competitive with one another.

Townies​

With cooperation being one of the main goals and the mechanics being built with groups in mind, increasing the presence and impact of masons in some way was the main goal of this team. Note there’s a few different super masons in the game and this is to both slightly up the effectiveness of some roles and indirectly boost the survivability of the masons by maintaining the effectiveness of their recruits

1. Mason Recruiter - Self-explanatory, this is the bread and butter for this town’s cooperative action encouragement, but the role is extremely difficult to use and typically does rather poorly alone and in general due to the temptation to use the role in the early-game when things are very uncertain.
2. A starting mason is what enables the mason recruiter to do their job and carry-on the legacy, give a final action report to figure out what happened to them, in the event of the typical early-game failed recruitment. They also can offer limited support via Rail Tracer usage and possibly going for an elixir to pass to the recruiter, assuming they play well enough for that to be relevant.
3. A 2nd starting mason provides no innate role ability, but is great for utilizing the special mechanics. This 2nd starting mason means the masons can rival the mafia’s dominance with the Rail Tracer mechanic. This of course would more likely just enable townies to hurt themselves early game, but masons are roles that get exponentially more powerful as the game progresses.
4. Spy - Standard townie fare and even more useful considering the night action-based special mechanics
5. Paranoid Spy (super mason) - Another common role that sees some more mileage in figuring out sacrifice usage
6. Sane Detective - Standard townie fare with little changes to its usual effectiveness.
7. Mortician (super mason) - This role with players no having access to three new actions, the mortician becomes a notably more powerful role when it comes to making sense of the happenings in the game.
8. Bomb Defuser (super mason) - A means to counter the Santa Claus bombers and otherwise weak role. This role’s single-use nature makes getting recruited an important part of the role.
9. Sane Doctor - Bread and butter townie protection limited to only one given the presence of Rail Tracer Protection
10. Prostitute - An unreliable but standard method of consistent role blocking. Unlikely to catch a killer early on, but needed for town given the shear number of possible kills that can occur in the game
11. Apprentice (Super Mason) - a risk-reward role meant to increase the likelihood of crucial townie abilities aren’t wiped out too quickly
12. Pirate - similar purpose to apprentice
13. Necromancer (Super Mason) - A one and done role meant to serve a similar purpose to apprentice and pirate. Being able to pick what ability to use and immediately use it after the dead townie went through the process of testing it out is a powerful ability and, as a result, this is a high tier role that could use some more testing. Placing a one night staggering of the resurrected ability role might need to be considered in the future, but the role needs more testing before serious consideration is given to changes
14. Jesus (Super Mason) - a role meant to give the masons some more survivability
15. BP - A role that would be more inclined to perform sacrifice actions that benefit the town as opposed to going by their whims as many townies tend to do
16. Badass Cowboy - This was a means to provide the town more spice, but also served as both a likely townie killer: Unless the Cowboy is particularly calculating and patient, they are far more likely to kill themselves or a fellow townie than any guilty party.

Mentor​

The idea with the mentor was to rival the mafia and town from the shadows and use their unique recruitment and power structure to their advantage. As with any mentor setup, the mentee is the one of the two that should be going out and doing the riskier behavior while the mentor hangs back a bit. This pair is now greatly bolstered by both mechanics. A mentor-mentee combination means one can do Rail Tracer calls while the other performs normal kills. However, the most interesting part about the duo is that a mentee that dies as a lesser immortal enables the mentor to, for a single night, attempt to recruit yet another mentee. This play requires a significant amount of investment, but the duo would be well-rewarded for pulling it off.

Lovers​

This was probably the silliest combination of the game added to spice it up while still providing the town with a significant threat that’s potentially on pair with a mafia if the players work with their synergies.

1. Santa Claus (Lover) - I wanted to use the role of Santa Claus for the Christmas game, however, I didn’t want the uniquely unsatisfying and appalling Santa Claus victory to be anywhere in the game. A player successfully targeting 5 players, most of which probably have little means of defense, deterrence, or investigative capabilities to actually stay competitive with the Santa. I don’t like this role’s win condition in the least and feel it needs to be changed. However, as a lovers, Mr. and Mrs. Claus’ original faction win conditions are overruled by the lover secondary role’s (examples other examples being townie lover, mafia lover, traitor, and threesome candidate). So, that opens up a lot more options when it comes to planning this Santa Claus, but the one I decided to go with was fitting for Baccano and inspired by Nice and Jacuzzi, Santa Bomb Lover. Gifts: Temporary Role: Bomb (x2), Hot Potato (D4 explosion), and Temporary role: Maf. Detective (x2). The idea behind this group was to use their mafia detective temp roles on each other (other lover and threesome candidate) and awareness of the game and its suspects to plant present bombs when they would be most effective: Either on high-value kill targets or top lynch suspects. While three hot potato bombs could have accomplished this, we didn’t want too many crazy unknowns flying around. Plus, the hot potato and the temp bombs both had enough synergy with the other lovers for pretty devastating results.
2. Prostitute (Lover) - This gives the faction some precision-based protection, but also allows a duo to plant the hot potato and keep it there unless the target gets Rail Tracer protection or the prostitute is stopped
3. Noble (Threesome Candidate) - This is the lover recruitable for good reason: Recruiting this role means that the group has the only role besides Badass Cowboy that doesn’t have to decide between using their role and sacrificing. Additionally, the noble lover enables the group to plant a bomb and add on a collective of 4 votes to get the person killed. This is hard to do without getting caught either as a guilty party or just caught up in the explosion, but it is a powerful, rewarding kill option available to the group. Once they’re out of bombs and have this role recruited, then they can also start looking at using the Rail Tracer kills as the Mafia would likely be close to running out of kills at this point.

Night Actions​

While players had a wide variety of options given to them via mechanics, a lot of times the most obvious actions were performed which worked out great in some cases and terribly in others. Overall, interesting interactions with a surprising amount of overlap.

Entity	Role	Night 1	Night 2	Night 3	Night 4	Night 5	Night 6
Rail Tracer	-	Protect: gnut, Block:-, Kill: gnut(fail, protected)	Protect: gnut, Block:-, Kill: digitaldude (fail, BP)	Protect:-, Block: sakura (success), Kill: Demonspeed (success)	Protect:-, Block-, Kill: Shad>>>success	Protect:-, Block:-, Kill: Xnut>>>success	Protect:-, Block:-, Kill: GrySun>>>success
Jacuzzi / Organizized	Bodyguard (Traitor)	-	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer Block >>> Farf (fail, coin toss)	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 2 (PASSED ELIXIR)	PASS ELIXIR to sakura. Protect gnut	Rail Tracer Kill >>> GrySun (success)
Luck / Evil3ye Killed N1	Spy	Spy on Gajeel>>>Goodboy. KILLED
Maiza / Copy Panda.Died N1	Pirate	steal role hardy>>>dies
Isaac / Shad	Bomb Defuser (Super Mason)	Defuse Copy Panda >>> nothing	RAIL TRACER PROTECT >>> gnut (fail, coin toss)	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer Block >>> sakura (success)	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill xnut (fail, low sacrifice)
Dallas / Goodboy	Detective	panda>>>innocent	raven>>>innocent. KILLED
Miria / SirSamuel016	Badass Cowboy
Nice / Farfalla	Paranoid Spy (super mason)	Spy on 3ye >>> DD	spy gajeel >>> no result	(paranoid)spy Van >>> no result	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill Gajeel (fail, low sacrifice)	spy on Hll >>> no result
Keith / digitaldude	Bulletproof Townie	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 2	Sacrifice:NIGHT RITUAL 3 >>> ELIXIR OBTAINED(1)	Pass elixir to Gry	sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill >>> Xnut (success)
Firo / Demonspeed	Sane Doctor	Protect Gry (nothing)	Protect Gnut (fail, RT Protected)	protect Farf (nothing). KILLED
Graham / GrySun	Necromancer (super mason)	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer Protect >>> gnut (success)	Becomes MR and recruit Shad >>> success	Necro>>>3ye to spy on Lambu >>> nothing	Necro>>>Jinx to mortician Hardy>>>role steal on n1	DRINK ELIXIR. Necro>>>Speed to protect to gnut	KILLED (REVIVE D8).
Gustav / Lambu	Jesus (Super Mason)	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer Protect >>> Copy Panda (fail, coin toss)	RAIL TRACER PROTECT >>> gnut (success)	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	KILLED (Revive Day 6).	Returns to life on Day 6
Szilard / desin24	Prostitute	Block Bel >>> nothing	sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	block Van (success)
Czeslaw / Hll	Mason	-	SACRIFICE NIGHT RITUAL 1	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 2	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 3 >>>ELIXIR OBTAINED(4)	-
Lua / Crescent Jinx	Mortician (Super Mason)	Mort. Investigate Sam >>> nothing
Bartolo / gnut	Apprentice (Super Mason)	Learn from Orgz (1) (success)	Learn from Orgz (2) >>> (RT Protected from block)	protect Farf >>> nothing	protect Farf >>> nothing	sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill Van (loss, coin toss)
Goose / pudgiePenguin	Mason Recruiter	Recruit Holt >>> dies
Rachel / Raven	Mason	Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 2	sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 3 >>> ELIXIR OBTAINED(2)	sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill Lambu (fail, low sacrifice)	DRINKS ELIXIR. KILLED.
Nicholas / sakura-aneki	Burden	Sacrifice>>>Vandred	kills lawl (success)	kill desin >>> fail (RT BLOCKED)	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill Shad >>>success	Kill Raven (success)
Ennis / Hardy	Mafia Apprentice	Kill Evil3ye >>> success	sacrifice: Rail tracer kill DD >>> fail (BP)
Chane / Vandred	Mafia Escort	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer Kill gnut >>> fail (RT protected)	block gnut (fail, RT Protected)	Sacrifice>>>Gaj (BLOCKED)	Sacrifice>>>sakura	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill >>> gnut (loss, coin toss)
Ladd / Gajeel	Mafia Detective	Det Investigate Goodboy >>> Detective	sacrifice>>> hardy	Sacrifice: Rail Tracer kill Demonspeed >>> success	kill Lambu (success)
Berga / xnut	Prostitute (Lover)	-	-	-	-	-
Huey / Holt.	Santa (Lover)	-
Eve / Belserion	Noble (Threesome Candidate)	TC guesses (Gaj & Jinx)>>>nothing. Sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 1	TC guesses xnut >>> join/ sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 2	sacrifice: NIGHT RITUAL 3 >>> ELIXIR OBTAINED(3)	PASS ELIXIR To ORGZ
Elean / Seraph	Mentor

Player Highlights​

1. Evil3ye - A strong but brief showing this game. While it seems relatively simple, going to the stats and making them available foiled at least a couple guilty parties all on their own, although, this was at the cost of your own life. Early death aside, many high value contributions made.
2. Copy Panda - Wasn’t in the game long, but your call out of your pirate action and follow through was pivotal in the lynch of a strong mafia member.
3. SirSamual016 - Might have been smart to wait until getting immortality to start shooting, but forced the pressured numerous players for quite a bit of information. Pivotal in the catching of the mentor and certainly made for an.. Interesting Day 1
4. Farfalla - Nice, leveled headed analysis all throughout the game. Caught a mafia lie early in the game too. Welcome consistency and proactivity in any game. Also, of course, a special thanks for the amazing avis.
5. Digitaldude - Another very level headed player that had a pretty good, consistent playstyle that effectively baited a kill
6. Hardy - It garnered a bit of suspicion since it was different, but if it was an overall change and not one made due to alignment, your general demeanor in the day phase interactions this game was a refreshing improvement.
7. GrySun - Strong analysis, very proactive, and great role and special mechanic usage combined with a nice level mindset made for a great town asset. Well done.
8. Vandred - Brought a nice, calm perspective to the mafia that kept the team more level. I would have liked to see a lot more of your planning and introspection this game, but when it was given, it was high-value.
9. Shad - A strong analytical asset to the town and managed to block a kill. Analysis wasn’t correct, but the very proactive playstyle helped the town quite a bit and, in my estimation, did for the more than a more analytically correct but passive player might of been.

Note: I have a lot of thoughts and things noticed about all the players in the game, but these are only some of the players and behaviors I felt should be highlighted. If any player wants to PM me for my full thoughts on them personally, then I’m happy to oblige.

Hosting​

As highlighted about, there were a lot of good and fun plays, players, and playstyles this game. However, between the guilty parties giving themselves away, to PM reveals, one teammate asking for another to purposefully get themselves hostkilled, and, of course, the flaming, this game didn’t exactly turn out as I would have liked. Many of the aspects of the game went gravely overlooked. That said, some of these issues have been addressed elsewhere, so I won’t retread over a lot of that stuff here.

Instead I want to make note of some areas of improvement There’s some things that can’t be helped at a certain point, a TP surviving and submitting 0 actions throughout the entire game being one example, but there are certainly things that I do want to improve upon as host.

Firstly, I’m open to questions, but they slow down efficiency and game flow. Additionally, for the players, if they need to be asked, then it can lead to some players that don’t feel the need to ask as many questions making wrong assumptions and even overlooking or misunderstanding pivotal parts of the game. So, even if my posts and PMs come off as more dry and lacking style (and flavor text) as a result, host clarity should always be first and foremost when communicating to the town (all players still in the game).

Secondly, as much as I thoroughly enjoy games with as many players as can fit in, this means that the games can become particularly difficult to manage and keep up with for players and hosts alike. This can result in sloppiness all around and people becoming overwhelmed. Smaller games to have boring moments every so often, I don't the game to feel like a money-less full-time job. So, for some game setups going forward, player capacity limits may need some more serious consideration for future games.

Lastly, a goal for this game was to create a shorter set of mechanics than the Shingeki no Kyojin game simply for player convenience. That goal was achieved by a large margin (~64% less text), however, the special mechanics were only shorter and that doesn’t necessarily mean they were simpler to understand. I prefer writings that are very idea dense, but more consideration needs to be taken in how idea dense things are going to be for players at any one time. This consideration is most notable at the beginning of the game when player are numerous, active, and, potentially, have a whole new set of special mechanics to consider. I have quite a few more game concepts I will be executing, but in order for things to go more smoothly at the start, I’m going to try to avoid day 1 information overload.

As a means to address that last issue, I’m going to try something different: I’m going to be revealing a preliminary list of special mechanics before the Day 1 start of my next game. My hopes are to have much of the day one confusions cleared up and piecemeal the information players will have to take-in all at once. Hope to see many of you there!

On that note, glad I got to see some new(ish) faces in here. @Hll, @pudgiePenguin, hope to see ya back!

Thanks to my lovely Mini Host, @Asako . The busy exam schedule meant being around a lot wasn't always doable, but her help planning and hosting is greatly appreciated. Been an honor.

Lastly, special thanks to Farfalla, Gry, Panda, Magi, Goodboy, Jinx, Hardy, Gaj, Mr. 3ye, Uber and everyone else that’s helped me along in my journey as a host. I’ll keep trying to improve and put all the hosting advice to good use for some more interesting games!

Epilogue
Speaking of future games...

Spoiler

A preliminary set of special mechanics will be revealed before the game itself, but if you want to get an idea on what I’m going for, look at MG 53 - Fire Emblem: Dawn Breaks and MG 71 - Kingdom Hearts.

But before that, we’ve got Gardy’s upcoming game to look forward to this January. I originally heard it was just going to be one host, but perhaps two heads is better than one after all.

With all that said, best of luck and Happy New Year!​

 

[Evil3ye]

Thanks for the thorough analysis and honest feedback. Looking forward to where you will take us in 2021 with your game designs.

Happy new year and mafia game season to everyone.

 

[Lawl Po Bia]

HOLY FUCK

 

[Raven]

so my kill failed due to low sacrifice and the mafia are the ones who did it after that Jesus claim.

kudos