Oh, and Johnny, I for one did consider the possibility of Cult allying with Scum (though I think I got killed before I got a chance to say too much about it), but that was just one more reason to not lynch cultists.
Completely unrelated:
Reading through the mafia-only thread, I now realize that I spent a good chunk of the game being followed by a mysterious car with tinted windows. Inside was Biotop, polishing a pistol and waiting, just waiting, just waiting.
I’m going to read through the spoilers momentarily. I didn’t actually spoil myself during the game itself.
But I’ve read through the role descriptions enough to learn that I was wrong about Crys and the 3rd party claim. It was accurate. 3rd Party. Non-Hostile. There were 5 of them. I really really thought that some part of that claim was a lie and I was completely wrong.
Alas.
Hey, bufftabby really did think I was Mafia. I’m surprised.
Heh. That was the one part of the setup that actually functioned more or less the way we hoped it would. Having a third party team that really was entirely harmless, but that had no way to prove it 100%, seemed like a nice way to throw a little chaos into things without venturing into true Bastard territory.
In retrospect, I think we had too many mechanics and not enough kills. Once the Wolves, SK, and Vigilante were all gone the game was doomed to a very slow final stretch, which I think hurt momentum overall.
Also, I sucked. I apologize to both Mahaloth and NAF, who basically had to pick up my entire moderation load for the second half of the game. Sorry guys; I’ll do better next time.
Thanks to everyone for playing!
Another random thought - I was feeling pretty lost in the early game, but I’m glad I got to stick around for the later portion.
When the total number of players decreased, we were left with massive piles of data to sift through, including trying to figure out how the scum teams were or were not interacting with one another.
This game is definitely near the top for me in terms of how much fun I had building cases.
Sorry to you townies who thought I was scum based on the early game! I hope I made up for it in the clutch.
No not a smart play strategy wise. But unfortunately it was a smart play fun-wise. And I am always drawn to the fun and possibly even absurd play. I am going to have to work on that. Thing is, I am fond of crazy plays, so I might also do them as Town…
Johnny, my point is you fixated on one scenario where cult could work with scum but failed to think fully think through what the implications of that cooperation entailed. You fixed on the the idea and accepted that you would pursue it and therefore everyone else would too. cult-scum required a huge amount of trust that simply could not be supported by the game rules and mechanics and individualism. Too backstabby for cooperation to work. I think I thought of one scenario where cult would side with mafia and it hinged on the existence of Wolves and a decimated town.
And that’s why I thought you were mafia. Way too fixated on a town asset.
To you. I was suspicious to you. No one else had a problem with me except scummy TexCat.
I didn’t say anything about communicating with other Lutha because I made the power moot by not using it. Bringing it up served no purpose but to add fuel to your paranoia.
Why the fuck am I doing this? I feel like I’m talking to Pizza. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back, you’re so astute because I was lying about communication and you must have picked up on that. Yeah, that’s it. :rolleyes:
And that’s kind of my point. You can’t see past your own way. You think cult should play a certain way and if they don’t then BLAM bad! You would have played with Mafia, but Koldanar wasn’t interested; part of mafia is recognizing that other people play differently. Other people are not you.
I had a thought about abstaining for the rest of the game. But then there was the whole ‘I want to play and have fun thing.’
Strong agree. It was interesting to see play out, but 6 weeks of that was plenty for me. It certainly opened my eyes to the benefits of having a fun win condition. Prior to having played the role, I don’t think I would have thought the win condition problematic. It certainly was an attainable win condition (not any harder than the others, at least), but I hadn’t realized the stifling nature of walking that line.
I argue we had to keep the number of Cult down to a number equal to or less than the Mafia numbers. They were obviously playing for Town, and there would be no way to force them differently unless we had leverage. That’s business. It’s not personal.
Lutha supposedly cared nothing about Mafia or wolves. There was nothing in their roles about not caring about winning. We would have been happy to have won with Lutha, but they chose otherwise. Of course being Mafia, had we come down to three players and then I made the offer they couldn’t refuse again, I would still have Day killed them on principle even if they sided with me. You don’t screw around with the Mafia. They settle old scores. If Lutha found their principles at the end, it was too late.
I think you’re being a little unfair, but we’re past the point where I have to convince you (or anybody else) of anything - I just saw that you’ve brought me up several times since you died and wanted to explain my reasoning to you.
I’m sorry you’re upset and I’m sorry if I made the game less fun for you.
I tried. Someone once wrote that the biggest key to successful Mafia is good manipulation. Emotional manipulation is what you got left if the facts are not your favor.
But golly, **Chronos **, I only confessed because I had the switch because I wanted to help my Town team figure out what was going on with the switches. I would never do that as Scum.(see above reasons)
You did a really good job. I was already doing vote analysis of Plumpudding and raventhief in anticipation of the lynch going badly.
I recognize this strategy as correct. However, willingness to kill cult isn’t going to endear them to you. In “Survivor” terms it is the social game where mafia misplayed that part. And that was a problematic part of the ‘neutral’ third party. There really wasn’t any good way for scum to build a coalition with cult.
On another note, I was very surprised when I read my role. storyteller usually builds in ‘stablizing’ third party roles. i.e., roles with win conditions that align that player with the side that is currently losing. For example, SK’s need to live to final 4 or whatever have an interest in keeping the game going so that F4 can be reached. So if scum are winning the SK needs to help town and vice versa. Cult was the opposite, which surprised me.
You did a good job. I still think the point stands though, that it just won’t work on certain people. But you made it painfull! And I was completely correct, you totally would do that as scum! Haha, making me feel bad, being “disappointed” in me!
I overplayed my hand. But it is such fun to overplay. Sigh.
People are different. What works on one will not work on another. I think it was **Johnny Bravo ** (and I may be wrong about this) who made a point early in the game about every player having a weakness somewhere. Touch on the weakness and you touch a nerve. Mafia is an insidious psychological game. It is no wonder you see players get angry so often.
I don’t think that was me.
I wouldn’t have said that because it’s not true - I have no weaknesses whatsoever.
Seriously though, I hope you know I wasn’t all that irritated with you at the very end. You were just throwing all that guilt around and I wanted to hit you back. 
Okay. It was someone giving advice to **Sunny Daze **back when she was playing the innocent Newbie so well. I think the comment touched on the idea that everyone has a sore point that can get to them emotionally. Anyone remember what I am talking about? I do not have the time right now to go hunt for it.
I was having too much fun to be irritated. You played great.