# You-Solve-It Mafia Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 11, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636 "2007-12-11T18:21:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 29
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/561 "2007-12-20T18:47:24Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] unvote faithscum? lol is that some kind of freudian slip? [/QUOTE] Rysto on cock, faithfool being faithscum… either I need to try out this handy-dandy ‘preview’ button, or I need to get my head examined. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/562 "2007-12-20T18:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] unvote faithscum? lol is that some kind of freudian slip? [/QUOTE] I resemble that! ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/563 "2007-12-20T18:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=Diomedes] Rysto on cock, faithfool being faithscum… either I need to try out this handy-dandy ‘preview’ button, or I need to get my head examined. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Do I need to put this in blue to say that I vote for both? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/564 "2007-12-20T18:49:47Z")
[QUOTE=sachertorte] (color removed) I’ve been railing against Dossiers all week, and this is precisely why. Why is it a requirement that everyone be given at least one unique characteristic? I don’t think we should assume this. Similarly, why would a scum OAOW tell us that he had driven a VW bug through the front door of a 7-11 when he already knew that Santo Rugger’s killer had the same characteristic? A Townie wouldn’t lie, but scum easily could. If OAOW were scum, he could have poached a characteristic from the many public dossiers already posted. (My personal opinion is that Santo Rugger’s killer lied about his/her dossier and did not state the VW bug characteristic). From my interpretation of your accusation point #1, implies that OAOW lied about his dossier, thus changing his real dossier which contained at least one unique item into the one he posted, which has no unique items. Simulaneously, you point out that OAOW’s attribute is consistent with the killer, which implies that you think OAOW is the killer and did not lie about his dossier. While I suppose it is possible that a scum OAOW was truthful about part of his dossier and lied about other parts; I don’t think a scum OAOW would choose to lie in the way you describe. I’m very much against drawing conclusions in such a dossier-centric manner. It is too easy for scum to point out random dossier anomalies and indicate that the anomaly equates to scumhood. [/QUOTE] I’m trying to figure out the puzzle just like everyone else. I believe that there is a pattern to the commonalities and the differences, and that’s what we have to figure out. If the majority of the people have something unique, then the ones that don’t are an anomoly and at the very least, a place to start. Yes, I think OAOW lied about his dossier, but cleverly left in the VW part and the self deprication to throw us off his scent. You think a scum wouldn’t lie in that manner, but I do. I think once it was revealed that we all shared some traits with someone else, the scum may have replaced some of their traits with ones shared with others. If we do in fact have at least one unique trait each, then it stands to reason that maybe a scum didn’t figure that out and replaced too many of his traits with someone else’s. I was really hoping that someone would make something up out of whole cloth, but I guess we are all smarter than the average bear. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/565 "2007-12-20T19:07:35Z")
**vote Hal Briston** His claimed ability makes much more sense as a scum then a townfolk. The scum, would arguably need such an ability so they don’t seem suspicious after an inevitable dossier reveal. This way they could claim qualities before others and make it seem like they were copied. As a town ability it just seems way too powerful. Plus from a general theme standpoint, it makes much more sense that the disgruntled employees were keeping track of their coworkers, then the other way around. I find Mhaye suspicious as well but slightly less so for now. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/566 "2007-12-20T19:59:00Z")
[QUOTE=Hawkeyeop] As a town ability it just seems way too powerful. [/QUOTE] Bwuh? Too powerful? People need to stop referring to this as an “ability”. There was no ability here – my PM mentioned that **faithfool** ’s briefcase was mistakenly delivered to my room, and that I was a nosey bastard who went through it and found out her quirks. End of story. No more info to come, no more finding out who revealed truthfully or not, no nothing. That’s the whole big fat 7%. “Too powerful”? Sheesh… ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/567 "2007-12-20T20:07:06Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] Bwuh? Too powerful? People need to stop referring to this as an “ability”. There was no ability here – my PM mentioned that **faithfool** ’s briefcase was mistakenly delivered to my room, and that I was a nosey bastard who went through it and found out her quirks. End of story. No more info to come, no more finding out who revealed truthfully or not, no nothing. That’s the whole big fat 7%. “Too powerful”? Sheesh… [/QUOTE] Hal, Do you have reason to believe that your extra “knowledge” is the entire secret? One person having 1 extra dossier doesn’t seem like 7% to me. I’m not doubting that is all you know, just that there isn’t anything else out there. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/568 "2007-12-20T20:14:49Z")
I kind of agree with **Hal** : his special knowledge isn’t powerful. It’s well nigh useless. Which makes me more suspicious of the claimed knowledge. How does his knowledge of **faith** ’s Dossier help the Town? If **faith** is Town, it helps us not at all, since Townies have no reason to lie. If **faith** is Scum, it just verifies he told the truth. But telling the truth is not a Town-tell. So **Hal** ’s knowledge is marginally useful only if **faith** is Scum, and useless if he is Town. I’m going to keep with my hypothesis that the secret is the source of Dossiers and not special knowledge bestowed to a single player. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/569 "2007-12-20T21:38:15Z")
[QUOTE=Pleonast] I kind of agree with **Hal** : his special knowledge isn’t powerful. It’s well nigh useless. Which makes me more suspicious of the claimed knowledge. [/QUOTE] Well, in the abstract, it either is really powerful or completely useless, and I don’t think either is a good game mechanic. If the dossier Hal received differs from the one revealed, then it guarantees a scum. Without power roles, there is just no reason for town members to lie. In this case the town would get an early scum outings by doing nothing. That I consider to be too powerful. If on the other hand, the dossier matches up, then as you pointed out, it is near useless. Either way, there is nothing the player with the extra dossier can do, but wait to see if they got lucky. There is no skill or ability able to be used to maximize the usefulness of the secret. I still think it makes much more sense as a skum ability then a town one. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/570 "2007-12-20T22:03:35Z")
After some re-planning amongst the project team, we’ve decided to revise the current project’s timeline. Given traditional resource constraints around the holidays, we felt this was necessary. The following Gantt chart represents the milestones for the upcoming couple of Day/Night cycles and their durations. Team assignments have already been made, so no milestones are assigned to individuals. Please be aware this is a living document and subject to change, however the management team has signed off on this schedule already, so it shouldn’t change much, if any. I apologize for any disruption in your schedules and thank you in advance for your cooperation and positive attitude. ```auto Fri |Sat |Sun |Mon |Tue |Wed |Thu |Fri |Sat |Sun |Mon |Tue |Wed |Thu | 12/21|12/22|12/23|12/24|12/25 |12/26|12/27|12/28|12/29|12/30|12/31|01/01 |01/02|01/03| | | | |X-mas | | | | | | |New Year| | | 3:30| | | |Company | | | | | | |Company | | | CST | | | |Holiday | | | | | | |Holiday | | | End | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Day | | | | | | | | | | | | | | One | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **** Night 2* | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ends 3:30 | | | | | | | | | | | | | CDT 12/23 | | | | | | | | | | | | **** Night 2* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ********************DAY 2************************ | | | | | | | Day 2 gets 24 hour extension, runs thru 12/31 | | | | | | | Ends at 3:30 PM CDT on 12/31 | | | | | | ********************DAY 2************************ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *******NIGHT 3***** | | | | | | | | | | | | Night 3 gets a | | | | | | | | | | | | 24 hour extension | | | | | | | | | | | | Ends at 3:30 PM | | | | | | | | | | | | CDT on 01/03 | | | | | | | | | | | *******NIGHT 3***** | ``` Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/571 "2007-12-20T22:34:41Z")
[QUOTE=Hawkeyeop] Hal, Do you have reason to believe that your extra “knowledge” is the entire secret? [/QUOTE] The only evidence I have to that end would be the line in my role PM which read “(psst, you are the secret role)”. From that, I assumed I was the 7% – if someone else has something to share, speak up and I’ll be happy to find that I’m the 3.5%. (Actually, if someone else _does_ have something comparable, you’d probably best keep hush for now. Secret roles aren’t looked at favorably 'round these parts…) ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/572 "2007-12-21T00:10:31Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] The only evidence I have to that end would be the line in my role PM which read “(psst, you are the secret role)”. From that, I assumed I was the 7% – if someone else has something to share, speak up and I’ll be happy to find that I’m the 3.5%. (Actually, if someone else _does_ have something comparable, you’d probably best keep hush for now. Secret roles aren’t looked at favorably 'round these parts…) [/QUOTE] Okay my suspicions are sufficiently quelled for now. Thanks 😉 unvote Hal Briston Vote Mhaye His revealed dossiers are all copies of others except one that was unique. It looks like a profile of a scum to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/573 "2007-12-21T00:25:14Z")
I’m totally clueless at this point. Someone say something suspicious. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/574 "2007-12-21T00:55:32Z")
[QUOTE=Hawkeyeop] Vote Mhaye His revealed dossiers are all copies of others except one that was unique. It looks like a profile of a scum to me. [/QUOTE] Mine works out like that too. Am I next? ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/575 "2007-12-21T01:33:43Z")
[QUOTE=ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies] Mine works out like that too. Am I next? [/QUOTE] Sigh. I knew I didn’t explain that well. First off I don’t think this a great way of finding scum. There isn’t a good way of finding scum the first couple days. I just think it is a bit better method then the normal day 1 lynches, so I’m going to go with it. So let me try explaining this better. I broke all private dossiers into three categories unique, first reveal of a trait, and copy of a trait.. Assumption 1: The scum do not have secret information. Assumption 2: The scum will lie about their dossiers. Given these, the scum would have a couple of options in making up dossiers. They could either make up new dossiers that no one had before or copy other individuals dossiers. However, unless they got really lucky, they would not be the first to come up with any trait that was later copied. It is for this reason that I find players that revealed a trait that hadn’t been seen before, and was later copied to be the least suspicious at this point. Cookies you had one of these, thus I don’t consider you a prime suspect. The players who revealed toward the end, myself included, generally had no firsts for obvious reasons. Mhaye, on the other hand, revealed fairly early, yet had no traits that were firsts. Again it isn’t a great method, but it is the best I got at the moment. When there is more information to go on, I’ll be happy to look at voting patterns and player inconsistencies. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/576 "2007-12-21T04:36:12Z")
Don’t ask me how, but I’d missed it on **Hockey’s** chart (thought I clearly see it now) that I had at least one that I divulged first and was then repeated by someone. :smack: And somehow I was reading **Hawkeyeop’s** shorthand for me as if my 1F and 1U were for the same trait. 😕 I thought I was in the exact same position as Mhaye, but I’m not. 🆒 If he is indeed unique in that regard, I think it is worth noting, and possibly even voting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/577 "2007-12-21T06:16:45Z")
Just now found out I’m leaving for out of town tonight. Apparently I’ll be gone until after Christmas, staying at the home of internet-less folks. They actually do have a computer, but it’s pretty much only to play solitaire on. Since I’ve made my vote, I guess that’ll be all until I return on the 26th. Happy Holidays! ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/578 "2007-12-21T09:18:42Z")
So the Day is ending tomorrow afternoon? I’m almost starting to regret getting behind the revealing dossiers on the first Day thing. At this point I agree with others that it’s really too early in the game to vote based on “patterns” we think we see in the dossiers. Particularly since some of them are bound to be at least partially untrue. On the other hand, we might as well start somewhere. I’m inclined to give **Hal** the benefit of the doubt for now. It fits in with the unknown 7%, although I’m also aware of the possibility that scum could be taking advantage of this unknown 7% with false information. If **Hal** is scum, I dunno what that says about **faithfool**. I suppose it could go either way. Like it usually can. (Although come to think of it, telling the truth about one’s dossier doesn’t necessarily equal town, I suppose - although lying about it certainly smacks of scum.) Good God, it’s 3am. I’ll vote before the Day is out, but now I need some sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/579 "2007-12-21T12:47:33Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] So the Day is ending tomorrow afternoon? [/QUOTE] No, it’s ending -this- afternoon. We definitely are missing votes from an awful lot of people. Vote for someone, or no-Lynch, but it ain’t helpful to the Town to not leave a record. Someone doesn’t wake up tomorrow, remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636/580 "2007-12-21T13:22:06Z")
I don’t think a No-Lynch would be helpful, but there’s not really much suspicion to go on. I have reread the thread: there’s a couple of people who were against revealing dossiers but (1) that isn’t inherently scummy IMO and (2) they laid out decent reasoning for it. There were quite a few people against extending the day, but see (1) and (2) above. I found two little things: **OAOW** had an early post advocating No-Lynch and **MHaye** ’s delayed reveal of the dossier. Okay, and I’ll admit that the **Hal** / **faithfool** thing is definitely weird, but I’m used to Bastard Mods by now. 😉 I’m going to take a shower and think a bit, and then be back to vote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636.md?page=28) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-solve-it-mafia-game/429636.md?page=30)