Mafia: The Conspiracy

The Conspiracy

The Town of Cecilwich is a quaint little village in an isolated corner of New England. Life has been peaceful, if cliquish. Until last Night that is, when Mayor Cecil was brutally murdered. In fact, rumors whisper that he was partially eaten by a Werewolf! The Town is fracturing along lines of paranoia and suspicious. Who could have perpetrated the heinous crime? Who among them are secretly plotting the Town’s downfall? The Town has resolved to purge itself of undesirable elements.

Each Day, the Town must decide whether or not to lynch a suspected troublemaker. Whoever collects the most votes will hang at the end of the Day. Each Night, the residents huddle in their homes and pubs, waiting it out. In the morning, the newly deceased are collected and prepared for burial. Unfortunately, the ineptitude of the Town bureaucracy prevents efficient processing of paperwork–it takes a full two Days for the complete disclosure of the late residents’ identity and other incriminating evidence.

The Coroner and Detective are steady civil servants, hired personally by the Mayor. Too bad only he knew their identities. The Coroner will immediately find the complete identification forms for any deceased resident. The Detective may investigate a recent death to try to determine the perpetrator. The Town’s Vicar, recently out of cloisters and still unrecognized, can perform the final rites on any hapless victims.

Among the loyal Town residents are the Freemasons, an organization so secretive that it doesn’t even know its own membership. Fortunately, each Freemason does know the secret handsign that can be used to covertly identity another member. The Scotsman is hardy soul, and while somewhat shy, can readily defend himself against an attack. The Vigilante, on the other hand, is perfectly prepared to take matters into his own hands, if only he knew who to target. He’d deeply regret making a mistake. The Magician is a sly trickster and escape artist. He has devised an elaborate gimmick to elude an attacker.

The Town has a several citizens with mystical abilities to counter the unknown threats. The Seer may look deep into the souls of others, to determine their true intentions. The Warlock knows a terrible curse that will exact a horrible death on anyone who violates its ward. The Witchdoctor practices a strange juju that will return a person’s soul to their body, after one day of death.

It is rumored that three Witches also live within the Town. They supposedly use their pagan spells to protect and guide it. Their power is dependent on their number, but they can consult with their dead sisters, to gain better insights.

Apparently, the Town is beset by a ravenous pack of Werewolves. They can hunt and feast upon a Town resident each Night, yet pass as a regular citizen during the day. A typical pack will be head by a ferocious Alpha Wolf, ruling the pack with an iron fist, and tailed by a meek Omega Wolf, who will be difficult to distinguish, even with magic, from an honest Townfolk. The wolves must eliminate as much of the Town as possible, in order to dominate it as their chattel food source.

Lurking on the edge of Town, hiding his ghastly profession, is a Necromancer. He seeks to lord over the living by reanimating the dead into his mindless Zombie slaves. Once his army has reached a sufficient number, the dead will shamble into Town to conquer it. A Vampire, in a loose confederation with the Necromancer, sates his hunger on the occasional victim, thoughtfully providing another source of corpses.

Most insidiously, a cryptic organization has infiltrated the Town: the Cabal. With only limited mystic powers, they scheme to take over the Town for their own purposes. They have a secret channel of communication in which they may consult with each other and make plans. Only the Witches can stop them, provided the Town survives assault by the evils of the Night.

Ultimately, the Town must survive against all the forces besetting it. Good luck!

Signing up for the game

I have slots for exactly 20 Players. I’ve have a reserved spots for Chronos and Mtgman for the help they gave in balancing the rules (I do not believe either one has knowledge that would give an unfair advantage), another spot for Blaster Master, as the game master of the previous game, and Idle Thoughts, for helping me with the secret boards, if they want to claim. The remaining 16 slots will be filled randomly from SDMB Members who express an interest in this thread (don’t PM/email for a spot) before noon, Wednesday the 26th, Pacific Time. Day One will start noon, Friday the 28th, Pacific Time, ending the following Wednesday.

Please do not sign up for the game if you are not willing to make a commitment to it. You’re signing up to read the thread, think carefully about it, and post your thoughts to it. Daily. This game in particular will be fast paced and require a lot of thought. That said, there are only 20 Players and I expect the game to last no more than 12 weeks (ending mid-December, accommodations will be made for Thanksgiving [and Christmas if necessary]).

I’m giving plenty of time for sign ups, so everyone who’s interested has a chance. In the mean time, because of the complexity of the rules, it might be a good time to ask questions about the various Roles and discuss possible strategies.

Yes, please. I have a long weekend’s vacation coming up at the end of this month, but other than that I expect to be present and accounted for almost every day.

I am expressing interest in this thread. :stuck_out_tongue:

Me too.

I haven’t played one of these in months, so I’m in.

sigh Twist my arm why don’t you… so much for a break!!!

Should I? ponders How difficult is it to play and mod at the same time?

I’d be interested in playing.

Depends on the games. How hard is it to mod your game? This one, for example, has special powers to resolve both Night and Day. So I’m not playing in any others.

And playing in this one may be time consuming, considering all the power Roles and their interactions. But I expect the typical Doper can handle all that, right? :slight_smile:

BTW, I forgot to point out the links in my sig. (See links in my sig, second post here.)

I’d like to play. I think I have the whole “2 games at once” licked.

I -knew- there was a Scotsman in this game (see some post or other I made in the Firefly game offboard).
I wanna play!

OK, why is it that every time I’m in the middle of one of these games, I swear I’m never playing again, but then a couple of weeks later I can’t wait for the next one?

Oh, hell. I’d like to play.

bSo some thoughts on some roles:

The Undead: The Necromancer will probably be a fairly decent role in this game. Given all he needs to do is out guess the Vicar and the Warlock for a few turns, and then stay alive himself. The Vampire, while a terrifically powerful role in his own right, is darn near screwed if the necromancer dies. Even immune to nightkills and discovery by the detective, he’ll have to be very lucky to manage to kill off everyone for a win on his own.

If the Magician redirects a kill, and the detective investigates is, does Shazzam the Wonderful get implicated in the murder?

The Cabal looks like the least likely to win. There’s not much place to hide in this game, and they can’t win by just hoping the wolves and the undead die early. Counting on the witches to be dead, while unable to do any dirty work themselves, will be difficult. In the end-game, I don’t see how anyone will be able to hide effectively, and the Cabalists will be vulnerable to lynching when the other scum levels start to drop.

By the way, if all roles are used, I count at least 14 players before any freemasons, Cabalists, or a third werewolf is added. 20 players, if all roles are used, wouldn’t give much place for scum to roleclaim, particularly given that the easiest thing to claim would be freemason, which would be quickly and easily checked by any surviving masons. I hope the delay on role-reveal will be balancing enough.

Good analysis, but the Warlock doesn’t really interact with the Necromancer, since the Necro never kills anyone. The Vampire has the bonus of the Wolves wanting to keep him alive.

The Magician redirects the kill, so the the Magician’s would-be attacker kills whoever the Magician points to.

Yep, the Cabal will have a tough time, but no one is actively hunting them, at least in the beginning. Don’t underestimate the power of a blocking role when everyone has a power.

There will be many unused Roles (and potentially unused Sides). Have fun guessing which! :slight_smile: There may also be duplicates of Roles (don’t be misled by my use of singulars), so a counter-claim can’t be automatically dismissed. Expect false claims and expect some difficulty unraveling them.

I’ve never played, but I’ve seen a few of the threads. I’d like to join up.

Count me in, please!

Sorry, I meant Witchdoctor, not Warlock. Sorry, there’s a lot to keep track of.

I’d like to sign up. I’ve got one three-day weekend at the beginning of November, but nothing else planned…

Not very as I’m sure I and Blaster can also tell you.

Yep, still in, Pleonast. Sounds good.

I am interested in playing. (I’ve been lurking here for years and have been following the various mafia games with great interest).

Thanks!