# Harry Potter Mafia **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 25, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429 "2010-06-25T01:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/581 "2010-07-22T18:27:38Z")
Also, spoil me. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/582 "2010-07-24T16:03:11Z")
The Order of the Phoenix was growing thin, but would it grow thinner? As the few remaining wizards gathered together again, they could immediately tell they had lost yet another one of their Order. They had to search a bit, but they did eventually find the body of Shadowfacts. He was in the secret passageway that ran between the Hog’s Head and Hogwarts. He looked as if he died very quickly. \*\* ShadowFacts, who was Aberforth Dumbledore is dead. He was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and had no additional powers beyond voting for the daily lynch.\*\* “So, we few who remain must work together to save the world,” sighed one wizard. The rest sadly nodded in agreement. It is now Day 6. Day 6 will run until Thursday at Noon Eastern. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/583 "2010-07-24T16:05:37Z")
\*\*Special Announcement: I will be out of town from Tuesday-Monday. I will have internet access and the timing of everything should not change. Also, Red Skeezix will be co-modding to help out when I’m gone. That’s right, folks. Voldemort is back! 😃 Seriously, though, he’s just co-modding.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/584 "2010-07-24T16:21:34Z")
Grr. Hold up a wand-light for Dumble **Facts**. Question one: **Inner Stickler** , what’s up with saying “oh, that’s right, I was playing Mafia?” and then disappearing until a meaningless vote with 18 minutes left? And if you’re going to make that vote, why do it because of apparently a slight disagreement over a philosophy expressed by many people who voted for **Zeriel**? Question two: I considered saying this yesterday but didn’t want to do it without a full day to figure things out: what’s up with the golden snitch? If it’s going to have any benefit to us at this point, I assume that it’s going to be because we’ve talked about it. So what happened to it? Obviously I had it at one point. Where’s it got to now, and what has it done in the meantime? If there exists a way to use it to confirm anybody or catch anybody out in a lie I think now’s the time. And if there doesn’t at least my curiosity will be satisfied. Who’s got it? Has it been moving every night? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/585 "2010-07-24T17:16:38Z")
I feel like it was just a just as good or better reason for a vote than all the people who voted for Zeriel because he had one line votes or because their gut said to. That’s weak stuff in my opinion, especially on Day 5. As for my vote, I felt I was stuck in a bad place. (A place I did have a large part in making because of my procrastination but a bad place nonetheless.) I wasn’t going to vote for Hardly and risk a lynchless day, but I didn’t want to vote for Zeriel just because he was the vote leader and I didn’t think he was scum anyway. I am also getting tired of people saying how confident they are about their votes on now known townies. People were so sure Chronos and now Zeriel were scum. Could it be that your metric for judging scumminess is not calibrated correctly? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/586 "2010-07-24T17:29:46Z")
**Alive** 1. Hardlysanguine 2. OneandOnly Wanders 3. Jimmy Chitwood 4. Chipacabra 5. Inner Stickler 6. Guiri 7. Storyteller **Dead:** \*\* Omi no Kami – Antonin Dolohov(Death Eater – no special powers)\*\* **Drain Bead – Harry Potter(Order of the Phoenix Occlumens and Chosen One)** **NormalPhase – Severus Snape(No Chosen Allignment)** **Red Skeezix – Lord Voldemort(Death Eater – Leader and Occlumens)** **LittlePlasticNinja – Alastar Moody (Order of the Phoenix – no special powers) Rysto – Albus Dumbledore(Vote Charger/Protector – Had to choose one per Day/Night cycle) Chronos – Horace Slughorn(Order of the Phoenix – no special powers) LittlePlasticNinja – George Weasley(Order of the Phoenix – Loving Brother) Meeko – Fleur Delacour(Order of the Phoenix – no special powers Zeriel – Remus Lupin(Order of the Phoenix – no special powers) ShadowFacts – Aberforth Dumbledore(Order of the Phoenix – no special powers)** ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/587 "2010-07-24T17:44:50Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I feel like it was just a just as good or better reason for a vote than all the people who voted for Zeriel because he had one line votes or because their gut said to. That’s weak stuff in my opinion, especially on Day 5. As for my vote, I felt I was stuck in a bad place. (A place I did have a large part in making because of my procrastination but a bad place nonetheless.) I wasn’t going to vote for Hardly and risk a lynchless day, but I didn’t want to vote for Zeriel just because he was the vote leader and I didn’t think he was scum anyway. I am also getting tired of people saying how confident they are about their votes on now known townies. People were so sure Chronos and now Zeriel were scum. Could it be that your metric for judging scumminess is not calibrated correctly? Could be. How’s yours? Be as dismissive as you like about other people’s voting rationale and hit rate. The point is that however you felt about everything else, you voted for **ShadowFacts**. And **ShadowFacts** neither said his gut told him to vote nor voted because **Zeriel** had a one-line vote. He had a lengthy (epic, for this game) back and forth with **Zeriel** which was prompted by a review of **Zeriel** ’s posts. In fact, the only person who referenced a gut feeling about **Zeriel** was **Chipacabra** , who you didn’t vote for. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/588 "2010-07-24T18:00:09Z")
I voted for shadowfacts because he was the one talking about what qualifies as an easy vote. At that point my choice was to impede the zeriel lynch or have no effect on it all. So I chose yo use my vote to establish how i felt about Shadowfact’s rationale. I didn’t vote for Chipacabra, although I thought about it, because it doesn’t take a lot of thinking to see how lazy it is to vote by gut on Day 5. If I thought there was a possibility that Chipacabra was going to get lynched yesterday, then I would have voted for him over Shadowfacts. But I decided to register my disapproval with the reasoning that I thought was more seductive and therefore dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/589 "2010-07-24T18:06:27Z")
And clearly my scumdar is crap because I thought Chronos was scum and he was not. It was possibly the first time in my mafia career that I thought I had hit gold and freakin’ storyteller, a mason and topnotch mafia player agreed with my case. And then I was wrong. It was a long and hard way to fall and I’m feeling petrified at being wrong again. And I see the reason for the misstep as jumping on something like a voting record or phrasing and using it as the case. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/590 "2010-07-24T18:48:11Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > [@ShadowFacts](#): > > > > **Zeriel** thoughts: > > > > The voting record is extremely poor. Late votes on both scum we’ve caught, while simultaneously tossing a little dirt on other players. Early votes on two townies with slim reasoning, both times following someone else’s case. The other thing about those votes is that they’re…not sure how to put this…easy votes. That’s not the right term. What I mean is this: They are the kind of vote you can point to and say “Look, he did something really obviously scummy right there - Vote!” In Chronos’ case it was supposedly Perfect Information Syndrome, in Meeko’s it was seemingly contradicting himself. When I’ve played scum, those were the kinds of semi-legit things I would look for to hang a vote on. > > > > Participation is minimal, though it did pick up a touch yesterday. Is here and voting, but not really contributing much, and not making any waves. Perfect scum “lurk in plain sight” strategy. The “I don’t have much to say” comment really rubs me the wrong way. > > > > After that review, I am feeling confident about this one. > > > > **Vote Zeriel** > > I disagree a little with the conclusions that you draw. I think with the benefit of hindsight, we can pretty much call any rationale that leads to voting for a townie an easy vote. I mean, what happens tomorrow if it turns out Zeriel was town? Someone couls make a case against you saying that yes, zeriel’s vote record was poor but it’s an easy vote. The trick, it seems to me, is deciding which easy voting reasons were made by scum and which are townies. > > **Vote Shadowfacts** because I don’t like this post but I’m not sure if I’ve adequately explained it or if it’s gibberish. Can you explain this please? We’re right sat the death of the day, we have zeriel on one more vote than Meeko and you throw this curveball. You really should have been voting for one of the lynchees. This reeks of trying to avoid accountability and I am HIGHLY inclined to vote you for it. ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/591 "2010-07-24T19:25:27Z")
We’re getting close to the wire here. 7 left; if there are 2 scum remaining then if we miss today, tomorrow is lylo, yeah? Inner’s vote yesterday really bugs me, too. If you really thought that both zeriel and hardly were innocent, why didn’t you speak up earlier and defend them? Why throw in a last minute vote for a third party? ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/592 "2010-07-24T20:00:25Z")
Ah, crap. :mad: I thought I was probably safe for another night. GO TOWN!!! ---
**Author:** ![GuiriEnEspana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GuiriEnEspana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuiriEnEspana)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/593 "2010-07-24T23:02:45Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > I am suspicious of Guiri in part for this reason. I think he’s poking and asking questions in his usual way, but without his usual direction and focus - the fact that he devoted energy (albeit modest energy) to quizzing me earlier toDay seems like a (deliberate) distraction from the actual business of the Day (what difference does it make _why_ I chose to kill Meeko, in the end, given that I am confirmed? All it did was fill up space and cause me to spend game time typing a response rather than Scum hunting). @ **Story** , I asked a single question: why didn’t you open it up for discussion? I felt that Town could have benefited from the discussion and voting. You responded with a detailed explanation of your reasons and I saw no need to comment further. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I wasn’t going to vote for Hardly and risk a lynchless day, but I didn’t want to vote for Zeriel just because he was the vote leader and I didn’t think he was scum anyway. /Snipped, underlined This doesn’t read right to me. You didn’t think **Zeriel** was scum so you didn’t vote for him. But at the same time you didn’t vote for **Hardly** because you didn’t want to risk saving **Zeriel**? Is that what you meant? ---
**Author:** ![HardlySanguine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HardlySanguine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HardlySanguine)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/594 "2010-07-25T10:36:27Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > Well, no, you’re not. “I’m not going to justify any of my actions or inactions here?” Well, OK then. I guess that settles that! What are we to do with you, then, for the rest of the game? Just kind of let you do what you want and never question it or you? Because you’re disinclined to offer a defense or explanation? This is a really strange post. I’m not sure where you got this. All I meant was that I wasn’t going to do a WoW on myself and try and convince everyone I was town. > [@storyteller0910](#): > > _What?_ Why? Why should he “go down for the team?” If he’s Town then he doesn’t know _what_ you are. If he’s Town, then from his perspective, _any_ player who has not claimed a power role is a better lynch than he, himself. [If he’s town] he is 100% sure that his own lynch is a mislynch; even if he’s only 10% suspicious of you, a defensive vote still betters his odds. This is terrible reasoning. Here, I made a mistake. You are absolutely correct in that \*\*Zeriel’\*\*s actions make sense. I can only blame my sleep-deprived brain… excuses are, of course, useless. _That said_, I still would have voted for **Zeriel**. You are absolutely correct that I didn’t want to vote for him based on his vote for me, nor did I see the wagon on \*\*Zeriel \*\*to be more than vaguely substantiated. But **Storyteller** , my vote had context; reread the part just before I voted for him: > [@HardlySanguine](#): > > So, by my reckoning, \*\*Storyteller, ShadowFacts, Chipacabra, \*\*and **Jimmy** are town. > \*\*Guiri **is very neutral to me, and** Zeriel, OAOW, \*\*and **Inner Stickler** are neutral bordering on anti-town or scummy behaviors. > > Given that > a) Of those the three, the majority of voters are vying for a \*\*Zeriel \*\*lynch, and > b) he’s the only one out of all 8 other players I actually noted for scummy behavior, and > c) “If it is a tie….well, there is a plan in place for that, but I would not worry about it yet. Tie if you want to, but don’t whine about it if you don’t like what happens.” \<– **Maha** , post 2. > I must > > **Vote Zeriel** I thought this was pretty clear but to elaborate: I wanted to vote for someone. After reading over the thread, I narrowed my choices to **Zeriel** , **OAOW,** and **Inner** **Stickler** (for various reasons, all of which I described in that post, and all of whom were equally slightly suspicious). Given these three choices, the fact that many other people thought **Zeriel** was scum (_even if_ I didn’t see it), the fact that I thought he’d done something scummy\*, and the fact we don’t know what happens with a tie (and with OAOW voting for me & you/\*\*IS \*\*not yet voting I thought this a real possibility) it seems logical for me to vote for him. ``` *Again, even seeing that I was mistaken in this point, I had reason to vote **Zeriel** over **OAOW** and **IS** , all other things being equal. ``` * * * With regards to the **Chronos** thing, I didn’t “mount a defense” for him because I didn’t have one – I simply didn’t think the case against him was that strong. I said I wanted to look at you if **Chronos** flipped Town because, as I said, “I think [**Storyteller** ’s] analysis convinced/confirmed a bunch of votes towards [**Chronos**].” Makes perfect sense to me to look at the people who argue for a townie’s lynch. But all this is moot (for me) since I consider you confirmed town. And certainly, I see where you are coming from… just trying to explain my thought process. ---
**Author:** ![HardlySanguine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HardlySanguine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HardlySanguine)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/595 "2010-07-25T10:39:32Z")
OK, I’m going to do this assuming I’m town, since, well, I am. When **Inner** **Stickler** voted for **ShadowFacts** yesterDay the vote was 5/4 ( **Zeriel** / **me** ). (I’m totally ripping off **Shadow** ’s post 284, here.) If **IS** is scum he could a) Vote for **me**. Since \*\*IS \*\*is scum, he that knows both \*\*me \*\*and \*\*Zeriel \*\*are town. Voting for me to tie the game when he (presumably) doesn’t know what happens with a tie seems dumb. To quote the late **ShadowFacts** , “Not very plausible.” b) Vote for **Zeriel**. Since **IS** is scum, he knows that both **me** and **Zeriel** are town. Voting for **Zeriel** so that he is lynched would make sense. The downside is that his late vote looks like a cherry-on-top type of thing which I think he would try to avoid. Plausible c) Vote for someone else Given the three options, this makes the most sense, in my mind. I do kind of think it’s odd that a scum would put such a useless (towards lynching) vote on someone they turn around and kill. d) Not vote He already did this on Day 1. I don’t think a scum would do so again (especially in light of **Zeriel** ’s recent posts about lurking). If **IS** is town he could a) Vote for **me**. Dunno what **IS** thinks of me, but a townie wouldn’t put us in a tie not knowing what will happen. Not likely. b) Vote for **Zeriel** Since **IS** is town, we can take him at his word. He said today he didn’t think **Zeriel** was scum. Voting for **Zeriel** would be pointless since it’s clear he was going to be lynched unless **IS** votes for me (unlikely, per above). For a townie, it would be far better to c) Vote for someone else So that, on the off chance **IS** killed his suspicions are voiced. Or, d) Not vote If he genuinely doesn’t suspect anyone. Given **Zeriel** ’s posts about lurking and the fact he was suspicious of **Shadow** , this is less likely. Conclusion: **IS** ’s vote is useless for determining his alignment. In both cases, the best move is to vote for neither **me** nor **Zeriel**. Assuming I am town, is my logic faulty? All this also ignores the fact that **IS** waited so long to vote. On the one hand that seems kind of scummy, on the other, I find it hard to believe a scum would put themselves in such a position (and post as little as **IS** has, in previous days). ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/596 "2010-07-25T14:19:29Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > Grr. Hold up a wand-light for Dumble **Facts**. > > Question one: **Inner Stickler** , what’s up with saying “oh, that’s right, I was playing Mafia?” and then disappearing until a meaningless vote with 18 minutes left? And if you’re going to make that vote, why do it because of apparently a slight disagreement over a philosophy expressed by many people who voted for **Zeriel**? > > Question two: I considered saying this yesterday but didn’t want to do it without a full day to figure things out: what’s up with the golden snitch? If it’s going to have any benefit to us at this point, I assume that it’s going to be because we’ve talked about it. So what happened to it? Obviously I had it at one point. Where’s it got to now, and what has it done in the meantime? If there exists a way to use it to confirm anybody or catch anybody out in a lie I think now’s the time. And if there doesn’t at least my curiosity will be satisfied. Who’s got it? Has it been moving every night? I had it last Night, and passed it. I was asked to submit an ordered list of recipients, which I did. I have some thoughts regarding everything else, but I have limited free time and desperately need to check in on the Conspiracy game that i have been neglecting. More tomorrow (Monday). ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/597 "2010-07-25T15:14:28Z")
I received the snitch day 3 and passed it on that night. I have no idea of it’s significance. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/598 "2010-07-25T16:16:17Z")
Huh. So it doesn’t actually do anything, I guess. I had it to start the game, so I wasn’t sure if it communicated any information upon receipt. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/599 "2010-07-25T17:41:39Z")
> [@GuiriEnEspana](#): > > > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > > I wasn’t going to vote for Hardly and risk a lynchless day, but I didn’t want to vote for Zeriel just because he was the vote leader and I didn’t think he was scum anyway. > > /Snipped, underlined > This doesn’t read right to me. You didn’t think **Zeriel** was scum so you didn’t vote for him. But at the same time you didn’t vote for **Hardly** because you didn’t want to risk saving **Zeriel**? Is that what you meant? No, I didn’t vote for Hardly because I didn’t want to prevent town from getting information. If I had made Zeriel survive Yesterday, who’s to say that we wouldn’t have done it all over again today? ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429/600 "2010-07-25T20:45:12Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > Who’s got (the snitch)? So as it turns out, I do (again). I hadn’t yet received it when I asked the question, but I have now. Unless somebody else has some insight I’m going to assume that whatever it does isn’t something I can use to help us. I was thinking there might be some kind of take it into the bathtub and have it snitch on everybody mechanism, but there’s no indication that that’s true. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-mafia/544429.md?page=31)