I don’t know if anybody else is watching, but I wanted to express my feelings without cluttering the other thread.
Thought 1: this game is really cool, especially in that it technically does not need a moderator (although a mod is helpful for keeping things moving when somebody is called out by the godfather).
Thought 2: holy crap, this game is just a giant logic puzzle! It’s like those exercises I had to do back in elementary school where Jenny is taller than Frank and Frank is shorter than Marty and all but one of them are vegetarians so who got invited to the dance? I was never very good at those. I’m glad I sat the game out, but I’m also glad there’s a new element in the mix of Mafia-style games. This seems to be working a lot more smoothly than our attempts at Resistance.
I have skimmed the thread but not had time to attempt to follow the logic. I’d be keen to give it a try, given I was trying (and failing) to apply logic to the last Mafia game. But I think I’d need to play at a time when I could spend several hours of the day watching the thread in order to respond to developments, and that’s not likely to be possible for me any time soon.
Also, I’m getting scummy vibes from TexCat - but that’s based 100% on gut feeling, 0% on logic. My gut feeling was right a lot of the time last game though! Except with you, WFTomba. Sorry about that.
That’s the thing. The time involved to play well is several hours a day. I have been following the current game and it looks like lots of fun. But if I was playing I would feel the need to have logic charts and pages of notes.
Several times this week I have wished I had signed up to play. But how to make it work? (BTW, I am very suspicious of** Prof P. **in the current game. Seems to be claiming “henchman” too loudly.)
I don’t suppose there is any way to make Mafia less time-consuming?
They’ve not caught on on the dope but several online boards with ancillary chatrooms have found 20 minute mafia to be quite fun. There’s also a browser game called Town of Salem that’s basically mafia.
Quicker versions invariably rely far more on gut instinct and knowledge of players’ tells than the more extensive several weeks long version.
I think the general idea is that if Prof P was a Thief, Mahaloth and/or TexCat would know it. Someone has to be the second henchman and someone is the driver. Both Mahaloth and TexCat are claiming Driver, so Prof P has to be Henchman.
If Prof P is NOT the henchman, then one of Mahaloth and TexCat has to be the henchman and should not be lying to their own team.
Therefore Prof P has to be the henchman.
The current state of assumptions leaves the choice between Mahaloth and TexCat as the Thief.
septimus has a super boring role. I suppose given the win conditions septimus should have lied and contradicted TexCat to muddy the waters. Am I correct in the rules reading that septimus should try and get accused and that would lead to a Thief win? That’s kind of messed up, but it seems correct given the rules. I’m guessing septimus answered honestly before he realized the ramifications.
I think I might like this format better than regular mafia. Not sure yet though. I’d probably suck at it just as much. I’m much better at games like Clue where a deduction is based on facts and not lies.
A really interesting twist to this game is that most of the players chose their roles. Once the box was given, the player could choose from among the remaining options based on which option gave them best chance of winning AND based on what role the player would be most comfortable in playing.
Play it in person with a group of friends sitting around a living room. It goes really fast. Fifteen minute days, three minute nights. Eight or nine players can still go by in an hour or two.
Having body language to read adds a whole other dimension to the game which makes it a richer game, IME.
Darn it. I’m late.
It occurred to me this morning that TexCat, if the driver, would need Mahaloth, presumably a Thief, to win in order to win herself. So even if TexCat was the driver, TexCat was not trustworthy. But as a thief, everything TexCat has done makes sense.
I think it takes a bit of time to get used to the rules of a new game.
I think septimus knew the ramifications since I specifically pointed them out when I passed him the box, but with TexCat outing him as an Urchin early, there was not much he could do. There are times in this game where you do just get stuck without much to do, but fortunately the game is not that long.
The problem with live Mafia is that it still takes an hour or two and if you get killed on the first night, you’re turned into a spectator.
There are a lot of games that have tried to fix this - Resistance is a popular one. There’s a game on Kickstarter right now called Secret Hitler that’s getting a lot of hype as the best version of live Mafia to yet be developed.
Get a group of five or more people and a place to play(bar!), a deck of cards and play The Resistance. I think you’d like it. Much faster pace, no one dies, but still frustrating and challenging.
I never claimed to be the driver. Others thought I might be. And I was trustworthy. If you tell two truths before every lie, people believe you more often.
I could never play this game live. I always get nervous and blush when telling a lie. I’d never get away with it.
