# Mystery Mafia -- Game Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 17, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025 "2011-08-17T14:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/1 "2011-08-17T14:03:37Z")
The people of Town Village are currently experiencing a bit of an identity crisis. They just don’t know who they are anymore. And to make matters worse, the local Mafia gang (who call themselves the Mighty Werewolves of Town Village, or **Wolves** for short) has started making trouble. Real trouble. And everyone agrees that something has to be done. If only they could figure out exactly what. Welcome to Mystery Mafia. **THE RULES** (Thanks to **rebonkulous** and POG for the original Mystery Mash set-up and the general format and language of this opening post. Many thanks also to **MHaye** for his valuable assistance and feedback in finalizing the set-up and general willingness to help with modding duties.) This is a game for 37 players. There will be good guys (yay!). There will be bad guys (boo!). There might even be neutral guys (whuh?). Everyone has a role, and every role has a night action. **But nobody knows what their role is, and nobody knows what their night action does.** At least…not at first. Every player has received a PM. Every player knows what side they’re on. Every player will have a night action, and every player must submit a target for that night action. Every night. As long as you’re alive. There might be ways of finding out your role as the game goes on. When you die, for example! Death reveals will almost certainly disclose a player’s full role and powers. Expect roles you’ve seen before. Expect roles you’ve never seen before. For those of you who have read the original Mystery Mash, do NOT expect the roles to be the same. In addition, do not expect any roles that do not pertain directly to night actions – there will be no godfathers, no millers, no double voters. That much I can tell you. Villagers received the following PM: > [@](#): > > You are a member of the town (known interchangeably as a **Townie** or a **Villager** , because you folk are funny like that). Your role is XXXXX. Each night, you must submit a target for a night action. You may target yourself, but you may not submit the same target two nights in a row. You win when all threats to the town have been eliminated. > > **Please confirm receipt of this PM by submitting to me the name of a target for any n0 night actions you might have.** (The actual PMs had Townie and Villager in blue. I changed it to green. I like green better.) Wolves received a similar PM, which also gave them details about their 24-hour chat privileges. Wolves get a team nightkill every night. In addition, each wolf player has their own night action, for which they must submit a target nightly. **The wolves do not know anything more about their roles than the villagers do.** Each team starts equally in the dark about what their night actions do. Everyone also has a full role PM, which provides information about their powers. This is the role PM that will, as mentioned, almost certainly be disclosed upon death. As of right now, nobody has seen their full role PM. As of right now, nobody is dead. It is also possible that there are other ways of finding out your full role PM. **Night Actions:** Every player must submit a target for their night action every night, including Night Zero. There was **one** Night Zero night action. By Night One, everyone will have a night action. Starting Night One, you will receive confirmation when we have processed your night action. Such confirmation may take the form of a PM stating “No Apparent Result.” This does not mean that your night action failed. It only means that, to the extent there was some result of your night action, that result is not apparent to you. **You may not target the same player two nights in a row with your night action.** If you do submit the same player as a target on consecutive nights, we will randomly select (or “rand”) your second-night target from the pool of living players. If you are unable to submit a night action during any night, your night action for that night will be randed from all living players minus the player you used your night action on the previous night. Because of the importance of night actions, we are allowing a player to submit a conditional night action during the day if you anticipate that you will not be available to submit a night action during the night (for example, you might say “If player xxx is alive, use night action on them; if not, use night action on player yyy”). Nights will generally last one real-life day, and at the end of each gameday we will provide a deadline for the submission of night actions for that Night. You may change your night action target if you reconsider your submission in a timely manner. We will accept whatever your last night action target is; however, please try not to spam the mods, and please try to submit your night action as early as possible. Wolves may consolidate their individual night actions into one PM, which may also include the target of their team nightkill. (Obviously, if a wolf dies, the wolfteam may no longer avail itself of that player’s night action.) **PMs:** As should be apparent, Personal messages (PMs) will play an important part in this game. Please do not quote specific PMs in the thread or talk about any specific communications from the moderators. We will not hesitate to modkill for this infraction. In addition, do not talk about your role PMs. **Handshaking is futile; do not attempt it.** If you are unsure of whether or not you can say something, please PM me. Any questions to the moderators should be PMed directly to me. **Do not ask questions of the moderators in the thread.** **Role Claiming:** Any player may claim anything they wish about their roles, but does so at their peril. Good luck. **Night Chat and Dead Player Chat:** There will be no strategy talk in the thread at Night. Dead wolves may not chat. No player may chat with dead players about this game. There may or may not be resurrection mechanics. **Voting:** Each day, each player is allowed (and encouraged) to vote to lynch a player. To do so, type the name of the player in bold and blue, like: **Gadarene**. You may write something like " **vote Gadarene** , but it is not required. You may abbreviate the name of the player, provided it is clear to other players (and the moderators) who you mean. You may remove your vote by typing “unvote” and the name of the player in bold and red, like **unvote Gadarene**. You may change your vote simply by voting the new player; you do NOT need to unvote. However, it may be courteous to unvote to keep things clear for the other players. At the end of the scheduled game day, the player with the most votes is lynched, and his role is (almost certainly) revealed in the thread. If two or more players are tied for the most votes, one of the tied players is chosen randomly by the moderator. There also may be other tie-discouraging mechanics in place. Ties are bad. Don’t do them. **The Timing:** All times given are Eastern Daylight Time. With the exception of Day One, days will generally last between three or four real-life days, depending on weekends. Nights will generally last between one or two real-life days, again depending on weekends. At the beginning of each Day we will announce the End of Day voting deadline, and at the end of each Day we will announce the deadline for submitting night actions. Day One lasts until Thursday evening at 7:00 pm. That’s tomorrow! Posting at 7:00 pm is acceptable, and votes with that time stamp will be counted. Posting after that, even just a minute after, is not acceptable, even if we have not yet declared it night by posting “ **It is night.** ” **Editing Posts:** There will be NO editing posts. No deleting posts, either. Violators are subject to modkill. **Disclaimer:** We have done our best to balance this game, but it will be high-variance and high-carnage. Hopefully it’s fun for everyone. If so, I’ll consider it a success. Good luck! Role list below. PM any additional questions to me (I’m sure I forgot something) and I’ll answer them in-thread. **IT IS NIGHT. DO NOT POST.** ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/2 "2011-08-17T14:26:46Z")
One More Thing This game is based on the [Mystery Mash](http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/59/puzzles-other-games/mystery-mash-may-23-ww-game-thread-1041064/) that was run by rebonkulous (with the help of pwnsall and Zayana) in the Puzzles and Other Games forum on the Two Plus Two message board. If you have not already read Mystery Mash, feel free to do so. It’s extremely entertaining and well-designed and should give you some idea what to expect here. I caution you, however, not to assume that any particular aspects of Mystery Mash are also present in Mystery Mafia. Some are. Some are not. Some may have been altered in devious fashion. I am also extremely happy that this game features a handful of players who are regular denizens of that other forum. I’ve only been playing with them a few months now, but I consider them friends. Please extend them a warm welcome and treat them with courtesy and respect, as I expect them to do for you. While posters there (like posters here) are sharp, articulate, and generally awesome people who are tons of fun, the Werewolf/Mafia cultures of the two boards are very, very different in many ways, and it should be quite interesting to see how everyone interacts…not just in the terminology used, but in the strategies employed. I have prepared a mini-glossary of certain terms that might be used by Dopers but not by POGers, and vice-versa. The POG term is listed first. _ **wolves:** _ scum, mafia, the baddies _ **wolfy:** _ like a wolf _ **villa:** _ villagers, townsfolk, the good ones _ **villagery:** _ in the manner of a villager _ **angel:** _ doctor, someone who lends protection during the night; may also be used as a verb _ **seer:** _ detective, someone who investigates the truth of roles _ **peek:** _ the result of an investigation; may also be used as a verb _ **leaving a peek:** _ breadcrumbing _ **fakepeek:** _ hinting falsely in some subtle or unsubtle fashion that you have left a peek in order to draw wolf attention and provide seer cover _ **seer cover:** _ a strategy in which non-investigative roles pretend to be investigative roles in order to confuse the other side and prevent effective seer hunting _ **seer hunt:** _ a strategy in which one side endeavors to root out the other side’s investigative roles in order to kill them and such _ **wagon:** _ a bandwagon; someone with a significant number of votes _ **CFD:** _ the practice of starting a bandwagon late in the day in order to change the lynch target and gain information about the other side _ **donuts:** _ an obvious statement Feel free to add more to this list in the interest of promoting goodwill, spreading knowledge, and demolishing the language barrier. **IT IS NIGHT. DO NOT POST.** ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/3 "2011-08-17T14:33:37Z")
**Roster of Players:** We have 37 players at the start of this game. Here is a list of them. Astral Rejection Blaster Master brewha bufftabby crackedquads Dancecat Drain Bead Episkey Giraffe gnarlycharlie GuiriEnEspaña Hirka T’Bawa Idle Thoughts Inner Stickler Krayz LightFoot lilflower Mahaloth Meeko MykBot NAF1138 Normal Phase peekercpa PetW Precambrianmollusc sachertorte Scathach Scuba\_Ben septimus Silman Silver Jan SisterCoyote special ed Suburban Plankton TexCat TimeLady Zeriel **IT IS DAY. YOU MAY POST. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!** ---
**Author:** ![GuiriEnEspana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GuiriEnEspana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuiriEnEspana)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/4 "2011-08-17T14:52:56Z")
First? Checking in. I’m still wading through the 5000+ posts of the original game! I only see one sn that seems to match the player list here. **TimeLady** , do you have any advice or suggestions on how to approach the game? ---
**Author:** ![lilflower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@lilflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilflower)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/5 "2011-08-17T14:54:58Z")
So Day ends tomorrow? Yikes! So what do we talk about? I think the tie-breaking mechanism in this game is interesting - I’ve never seen it before. I’m thinking it could prevent some voting shenanigans so it’s probably a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![LightFoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LightFoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightFoot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/6 "2011-08-17T14:59:02Z")
Now for the strategy of it all. If your Night action bears fruit……………I’m ass/u/ming………it should be kept to yourself unless you can prevent a miss-lynch? The Doc doesn’t even know who the Doc is- so claiming will NOT get you protection. The only safe option for a Cop would to be to build a strong case on a ‘found’ Scum. (It’s been my education that in general you don’t reveal your knowledge at the break of dawn so your ‘found’ Scum has plenty of time to Scum it up before you build your grand case on them) (note to self\* keep track of every Night request and every result in your pocket where you can access it from any computer. You may need it to save your own life) \*\*and anyone else who hasn’t thought of it. \* I ain’t preachin’ here I’m reminding myself of a few things that I may have done in error in the past and perhaps preventing another player from doing the same ```auto Post 318 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14145327&postcount=318 If player A targets player B and player B wakes up dead D1 there is no way for player A to know if it was them OR another player that is the Vig. Now if this happens consistently the odds are player A is indeed the Vig. The roles that will/would know for sure are the ones that actually get PM’d results of their actions . ``` ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/7 "2011-08-17T14:59:42Z")
The donut revolution has begun ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/8 "2011-08-17T15:01:29Z")
wtf i can’t post pics or post in caps lock? lame. ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/9 "2011-08-17T15:06:09Z")
In case it isn’t incredibly super obvious, I’m one of the players from the other board. I played the Mystery game that ran there (but only for a day, I died the first night so I’m excited to have a second chance at it). Here’s a quick word about the mechanics that I posted in the other game and that applies just as much here: > [@](#): > > There may be roles who don’t have the same action each night. There might be peek/block, angel/vig, track/watch, or other roles with any number of possible combos. So if you peek someone tonight, don’t assume that you’re necessarily going to peek your next target tomorrow. > > Following from the above, I think it makes the most sense for every villager to target one of their wolf candidates every night in the beginning of the game. Until you’ve figured out exactly what your role does, use your top suspects as guinea pigs. Obviously after you’ve determined the nature of your role, play it how you see fit and target whoever you feel is best, but until then it’s probably best to err on the side of caution. While this strategy is likely to end up angeling a wolf or two in the early going, it may be well worth it and is certainly better than having seers caught in friendly fire or roleblocking our vigs. > > Angels will have the toughest time determining their role. Roleblockers might have an easier time of it if their targets are informed that they’ve been roleblocked and announce it in the thread, but that seems unlikely. If your night action has yielded no visible result by, say, n3 or 4, the likelihood that you’re an angel or rb is elevated. Choose your targets with care. It’s also worth noting that in the other game, there was a player (or two?) who had a “role revealing” role, where whoever they targeted would learn their complete role information. This is the only real danger in having everyone target their wolf suspects, but I still can’t think of any better/safer way to go about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/10 "2011-08-17T15:07:21Z")
> [@LightFoot](#): > > Now for the strategy of it all. > > If your Night action bears fruit…………..I’m ass/u/ming……..it should be kept to yourself unless you can prevent a miss-lynch? > The Doc doesn’t even know who the Doc is- so claiming will NOT get you protection. > The only safe option for a Cop would to be to build a strong case on a ‘found’ Scum. > > (It’s been my education that in general you don’t reveal your knowledge at the break of dawn so your ‘found’ Scum has plenty of time to Scum it up before you build your grand case on them) > > (note to self\* keep track of every Night request and every result in your pocket where you can access it from any computer. You may need it to save your own life) > \*\*and anyone else who hasn’t thought of it. \* > > I ain’t preachin’ here I’m reminding myself of a few things that I may have done in error in the past and perhaps preventing another player from doing the same > > ```found > > Post 318 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14145327&postcount=318 > > If player A targets player B and player B wakes up dead D1 there is no way for player A to know if it was them OR another player that is the Vig. Now if this happens consistently the odds are player A is indeed the Vig. > The roles that will/would know for sure are the ones that actually get PM’d results of their actions . > > ``` Agreed. Do NOT say what the result of your night action was unless you absolutely must, and even then, be very very careful with your timing. ---
**Author:** ![MykBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@MykBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MykBot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/11 "2011-08-17T15:11:32Z")
Word everyone. If you’re reading the Mystery Mash that Gad linked in the OP I’m CPHoya. I’m pretty sure all of the following are from the other board: crackedquads dancecat (HiFi) episkey (JimHalpert) krayz mykbot (CPHoya) Silman Special Ed TimeLady I may be missing one or two. I would suggest that it’s important to know what your ability actually is, which is why targeting yourself last night was smart. Of course, apparently there was only 1 night 0 action, meaning all but one of us still have no idea what our night action is. If you did NOT target yourself last night, that is still an option - it should reveal what your night action is in a lot of cases. If you DID target yourself last night - like me - try to target the scummiest/wolfiest player you can find tonight. I got no result so I have no idea what my night action is, which should be the case for almost all of us. ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/12 "2011-08-17T15:11:53Z")
> [@GuiriEnEspana](#): > > First? > > Checking in. > > I’m still wading through the 5000+ posts of the original game! I only see one sn that seems to match the player list here. > > **TimeLady** , do you have any advice or suggestions on how to approach the game? for reference, I was Hugh Jass in the other game. Episkey is Jim Halpert. There are others (I think) that I can’t think of right this second. ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/13 "2011-08-17T15:12:54Z")
damn you hoya and your xpost This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 33 seconds. an entire minute?!!? _thud_ ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/14 "2011-08-17T15:13:09Z")
> [@LightFoot](#): > > (note to self\* keep track of every Night request and every result in your pocket where you can access it from any computer. You may need it to save your own life) > \*\*and anyone else who hasn’t thought of it. \* This is one reason I keep copies of PMs both sent and received. It saves my pocket some trouble. ---
**Author:** ![MykBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@MykBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MykBot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/15 "2011-08-17T15:13:55Z")
Yeah do not out your night action unless there’s some advantage to it. Gonna soft-clear lightfoot already. ---
**Author:** ![MykBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@MykBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MykBot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/16 "2011-08-17T15:17:33Z")
To 2+2 people: try to use the screennames from here so that people can search for all the content about us without having to remember both of our screennames, imo. ---
**Author:** ![Dancecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Dancecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancecat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/17 "2011-08-17T15:21:01Z")
fiiiiiiiine, mykbot. good point. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/18 "2011-08-17T15:24:21Z")
> [@MykBot](#): > > Yeah do not out your night action unless there’s some advantage to it. Agree. > [@MykBot](#): > > Gonna soft-clear lightfoot already. Wait what why? ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/19 "2011-08-17T15:25:37Z")
I note that the tiebreaking mechanic, at minimum, DOES result in the death of one of the top candidates. This means that forcing ties is not a blatant scum tell like it has been in the past few games here. Welcome, new folks. I hope we don’t drive you crazy with our idiosyncrasies. As Dancecat is noticing, the board has a number of features configured that have the cumulative effect of slowing and attempting to calm down posts. It is what it is. ---
**Author:** ![LightFoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LightFoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LightFoot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025/20 "2011-08-17T15:26:17Z")
> [@Dancecat](#): > > for reference, I was Hugh Jass in the other game. Episkey is Jim Halpert. There are others (I think) that I can’t think of right this second. I read about 60 pages of that game. Some of the “short hand” left me baffled. We will be mixing languages here…sure to be an education for all [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mystery-mafia-game-thread/593025.md?page=2)