This is the signup thread for a game of Mafia. If you don't know Mafia (aka Werewolf) it's a social deduction game, where an informed minority (Mafia) plays against a uninformed majority (Town).

The only things you need to be able to play are:
- the ability to post on this forum regularly (so don't get banned!), and
- a brain (so I'm afraid our favourite potion selling bots are excluded).

The game is asynchronous, so you don't need to be online at a specific time, you just need to be able to read the game and participate at least every 48 hours.

More information about this type of game:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/forum_mafia_administration_and_general_discussion_1/page1

While it's common for mafia games to include power roles that allow certain players specific actions at night, this game will be vanilla only (sometimes known as a Mountainous setup). The only thing happening at night will be the mafia's night kill and the townies have only their wits to help them.

I can be flexible about the number of players, but I think 7 is the realistic minimum. I'll expand the game based on interest, but because the town:mafia ratio is the only way to balance I can't necessarily increase the game size 1 player at a time.

Standard players:
A) Engerek01/Micro
1) trentonlf
L) Lifthrasil
1) bucktoothgamer
2) ZFR
F) korotan
#) JaiSpohpere
slot Z) GymHenson
*&%) not dedoporno
42) joppo
WAI) Pookina
Nmillar) ????

Observement peeps:
Micro

Sub(standard player)s:
gogtrial34987
cristigale (after 15/11/20)

GymHenson is running a giveaway alongside the game. The two are not officially linked, but they share this signup thread so direct all questions regarding the giveaway to GH.

Rules, stolen from Lifthrasil in time honoured fashion:

0. catte is the moderator for this game. If you have any issues, contact him via PM.

1. Cryptoclaiming is forbidden.
(In short, cryptoclaiming is having everyone fullclaim in some sort of, preferably nearly unbreakable, code, which makes it all but impossible for the Mafia team to win.)
Unlikely to be a problem in this particular game, but the rule stands.

2. Betting among players is strictly forbidden.

3. Real Life issues and situations should and will always take priority over what happens in the game. If a player presents a real life issue as a reason on why they need a bit more time or are temporarily unavailable to partake normally in the game that reason should be accepted and respected by everyone else (including the mod). Everyone should always treat real life problems/situations in a gentlemanly manner and never try to make accusations or gain leverage in the game based on that. If these issues become too overwhelming the incapacitated player should inform their mod and ask for a replacement as soon as possible or if they are unable to do so the mod should take steps in finding a replacement for them. Everyone should be playing the game for fun and treat each other with the necessary respect. Therefore we shall always assume that every real life reason for inefficient participation in the game is 100% real and has to be taken as such. We shall also count on everyone playing the game to show proper respect and sportsmanship to their fellow players and the mod by never abusing this "free pass". If someone is caught taking advantage of everyone's good will they will be immediately allowed to find another place to play forum mafia.

4. This is a game of lying. Players are expected to lie. No statement or promise a player makes within the game has any force outside the game. As an example, a bet offered in a game is not something you can collect if you win (see also Rule 2). An exception to this is Real Life issues, as per Rule 3.
With that in mind, you might want to avoid sensitive topics, ones which would benefit from having all the participants telling the truth, till after the game is finished.

5. Have fun and enjoy the game. While shouting at each other is expected in a game of Mafia, please remain civil to your fellow players.

6. Please bold any questions you have for me, so it's easier for me to see them. You may use bold for other reasons (like stressing a point) but please avoid doing so excessively.

7. It goes without saying that discussing this game outside this thread is prohibited.

8. Do not edit your posts for any reason. Remember there is a forum feature that automatically merges posts made within 10 minutes. There is also a forum bug which prevents your post from appearing sometimes when it should appear on a new page. Making a second post in this case after less than 10 minutes can cause your post to be merged and appear edited.

9. If you die, stop posting in this thread. A single "Oh, boobs" post is allowed and encouraged. Your "Oh, boobs" post should not contain any game-relevant information.

10. You are expected to make a post at least once every 48 hours. If you know you'll be away for longer, please let me know in advance. Posting more frequently makes for a more interesting game. So try to participate as much as you can.

11. Please do not directly quote your role PM or any other communication with me. You may post your Name and Role, but anything else has to be paraphrased. Note that simply changing "you" to "I" is not considered paraphrasing. When in doubt, ask me first.

12. You may discuss the (paraphrased) flavour of your role PMs, or any technical details that are related to gameplay, but you may not discuss technical minutae that are not gameplay related. For example asking someone if their PM mentions them allowing to target themselves is OK since it's gameplay related. However asking for the exact spelling of their role, or the timestamp at which PM was received is not.

13. If you do something intentionally in a way that goes against the spirit of the game, you will be penalized. When in doubt, ask me first.

14. Breaking rules, depending on the severity of the infraction, can get you modkilled at my discretion. Getting modkilled can be hazardous to your health and usually means you lose regardless of whether your team wins or loses. It's also bad in general. Please don't get modkilled.

15. Once a majority votes for a player, that player gets lynched. No amount of unvoting is going to help them.

16. If no majority vote is achieved before Day ends, then no lynch takes place.

22. You have to read the rules before playing.

73. Even this one.

2vs5, means a D1 mislynch leads to LYLO.

sign me up.

Which is precisely why I was thinking of doing exactly not that ratio. But of course!

Ah, 1 scum only. Interesting.

Can you suggest a theme so poor Joe knows what avatar to draw? I don't think he'll like to play otherwise. Last time I went themeless he just scribbled over my gold bars.

Are you familiar with the Expected Value formula?

[url=https://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?title=Category:Vanilla_(Open_Setup)]Link[/url]

(GOG throws a fit if a URL ends with a bracket apparently)

EV isn't too useful with lots of roles because the formula doesn't take them into account and town tend to have more of an advantage than the EV would suggest. However in a vanilla game where you'd think the EV would be more useful, apparently town generally do worse in practice than the EV suggests.

6:1 gives an EV of 54.29% which looks fairly balanced and gives the town a slight boost. 7:1 also works because there's an inevitable no lunch at some stage.

Thanks for the link.

I worked out the probabilities at one time, but thought Town would usually get an advantage over them, since they don't lynch blindly. It's very interesting to see Town actually underperforms. So the "better" strategy would be to just lynch randomly.

Count me in :-)

The again Mafia doesn't lynch blindly either, since they use their skill to direct the lynch away from their members

Yeah, I think the town underperform because they can be manipulated by the mafia. Lynching completely randomly makes you immune to that. Done! Exactly. The advantage of being an informed minority really comes into play there. Basically, the 1/4 guideline we normally use would make the mafia way overpowered in this game.

Thanks for signing me up.

Will the game get any flavour?

A 5 (or 6) vs 1 will give Town a relatively high chance of getting a flawless win.

Hmmm, with how slow the Secret Hitler game went, i'd have to say it doesn't really appeal to me. Also i don't know how Mafia is played.

Then again some years ago (2013-2014?) A year went by in a PbP game for D&D where 1 day went by in game.. Sooo... yeah...

This seems like a noce pallette cleanser after the role madness game.

I'm hesitant to jump right in with such a small sign up list, rather give room to someone who may have not gotten a chance to play the last game.

If you need to fill a spot in the final hours I'll gladly jump in, but I'd be glad to observe if possible as well.

How? D1 is basically chance, since there isn't much to analyze. So at 7 players, one of which is scum, Town has approximately a 1/7 chance for a flawless win.