Ordinarily I’d put an image I like here, but since we were going for low-flavour I instead thought it would be funny to google for a random company called EIMM and steal their logo, as a deadpan joke. I then realised that doing this would be, legally speaking, a risky idea, given that companies borne of senseless acronyms tend to be unnaturally protective of their trademarks, and often haven’t gotten the hang of online trademark law, and really the people who host this website don’t deserve an email from a passive-aggresive agent (or to be forced to know what the fuck an anti-SLAPP law is), so instead I’m stating this anecdote. I hope this wall of text has completely drained all expectation for this game to have a remotely coherent aesthetic ethos. All chaos, baby. Crisp, dry, papery chaos.
Everyone Is Mafia Mafia
A game of Betrayal, but also people in implausible masks doing silly things.
Hosted by @Mistyx and @Icibalus.
Hey, I See The Irreverent Tone You’re Going For With This OP, And I Don’t Like It One Inch, Can I Get A Really Dry Explanation of The Rules Instead?
- You can! Just click this link. Full understanding of these rules is not necessary for playing the game, by the way.
- My looser explanations will suffice in most circumstances, but these comprehensive and rigorously defined rules should help you to understand the systems we’re using to process actions and figure out edge cases.
- If you’ve ever played Magic: The Gathering, it’s like the Comprehensive Rules for that, although much less soul-crushing. Not really the best way to learn the game, but they’re great for consulting in case of unusual stuff.
- I probably shouldn’t have put words into your mouth with the header of this section, sorry. Anyway, with that out of the way, we can begin in earnest.
Rules
- Follow all the Global Rules. I’d link them, but you know where they are.
- Given the nature of this game as a game of negotiation, alliances, and treachery, I would very much urge all participants to remember that it is just a game and treat it as such. Such matters can be emotionally distressing, and quite frankly the aim here is to have a good time, not to have the Optimum Hardcore Social Game Experience. If you feel things getting heated, you can touch grass, or even do something actually enjoyable outside that isn’t a dumb Twitter catchall.
- Following on from this point, genuinely, try to have fun. Make stupid meme plays. We’re in the realm of the tricksters here, and tricksters are fun.
Structure of the Game
- It’s like Mafia (of “That Game You Came To This Site To Play” fame) mechanically, using a very simmilar system of action processing, but to acheive a completely different experience.
- There are no Days. It’s all Night, but you can communicate way more freely- so long as the hosts are included in the means of communication, it’s basically A-OK (more on this later).
- Every single player in this game has the exact same win condition:
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- You win if you are one of the last N players alive. (If this game has less than 24, N=2. if more, N=3.)
- Team up, make alliances, and try to get to the end as one of the last two standing. That’s the game. No finding an informed minority to worry about- it’s all about identifying threats, smooth talking, and plain, simple, murder.
- Night phases are 48 hours with 24 hours to resolve actions. This might get shortened once more people die.
Aliases
- The most notable difference between this game and Mafia is Aliases - when signing up, alongside other details to be explained later, each player will choose an Alias, a name which will anonymously represent them.
- Almost every action in the game doesn’t target *Players, but instead targets Aliases. Which player is behind which Alias is, of course, incredibly valuable information, that can be acquired both through abilities and careful social play.
- When a player dies, their Alias is revealed.
- This game is not, however, anonymous. You play as yourself, everyone knows who’s in the game. The only question is who exactly is behind who.
Roles Part I: The Setup
- When you sign up, along with an Alias, players will also submit a character of their choice- any character, within limits of taste. (Please include the source of that character as well.) That’s right, baby. This is UPick.
- From this, the hosts will design a set of abilities, Passive, and Active. These work how you’d expect them to work, with one major exception- you can perform all (or as many as you wish) of your Active abilities every Night unless otherwise stated.
- You may not target the same player with the same ability two nights in a row unless otherwise stated.
- There is, finally, one ability every single role has, the Standard action, the guiding star.
Basic Attack
Standard, Active, Targeted 1, Unlimited, Damage, HDeal damage to target Alias’s Health Points equal to your Might. You may use this ability on the same target twice in a row.
Roles Part II: HP And Might, The Attributes
- Instead of working off flat kills, all roles in the game have two numbers associated with them, Health Points (HP) and Might (MT).
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- The average, bogstandard values, before you ask, are 10 Healh Points and 3 Might
- When a player is at 0 HP or below, they die. As such, instead of players outright binary killing each other, they instead deal damage to each other, trying to get each other to zero. Don’t think the relatively inability to die instantly by a single ability makes you safe- a concerted effort from an alliance can take you down quickly.
- MT or Might serves a vaguer purpose- as implied by the Basic Attack ability, it usually is used to designate how much damage attacks deal. It can be modified by abilities. High MT is, generally speaking, good- it means you’re good at dealing out damage.
Roles Part III: Actions, In Slightly More Detail But Not Too Much More
- Actions, as seen in the above example, generally have tags. These tags are mostly self-explanatory, but I will point out three in particular:
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- H - Harmful
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- B - Beneficial
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- N - Neutral
- These designate the action’s effect on their targets for the purposes of the priority system, which, if explained in full, would rather drown out the easy-going tone we have so far, so I’ll just post the basic structure for now-
Instant (Outside the hierarchy, triggers, well, instantly.)
High Priority > Disruptive (Mediation > Blocking > Redirecting > Delaying > Other > Empowering) > Utility > Damaging (Lethal > Non-lethal) > Low Priority
Roles Part IV: Example Role
- This is an example role, using fairly standard abilities and terminology. The overall power level of the game should be close to this across the board, and as implied we will try to make sure every role has a roughly equal chance of winnning if they play craftily enough.
- Expect much more unusual abilities on actual roles, though. Much, much, weirder.
Taken from the Codex lniked in the above nerd document at the top. Go read that now you have the rough lowdown, by the way, it’'ll probably be far more legible now you get the actual gist.
A Doctor
A character from Real Life.
Practitioners of health, you have moved through the ranks of Medical School in order to join the battlefield known as the Hospital. You have made it your chief code to protect society from the dangers of disease and injury. While you may not hear it much, you are a defender of Life and Humanity.
Health Points: 10
Might: 3
Morbid Resistance
Passive, B
Your Basic Attack cannot be blocked, redirected, or delayed.
Emergency Response
Active, Unlimited, Targeted 1, Utility, B
Protect target Alias from up to six points of inflicted damge for one night.
Surgeon’s Gambit
Active, 2-shot, Targeted 1, Low Priority, B
Twice per game, choose an Alias to gain 3 HP. This will not work on the same target again.
Hypocritical Oath (Basic Attack)
Standard, Active, Targeted 1, Unlimited, Damage, H
Deal damage to target Alias’s Health Points equal to your Might. You may use this ability on the same target twice in a row.
Private Communication
- Unlike normal Mafia, players may communicate with each other outside of the game thread, so long as hosts are included. We reccomend using Discord DMs for this purpose, but forum PMs work as well.
- If there are only two players in a private group, no more may be added- treat them as if they were personal DMs, just with the hosts in there to check the temperature on the game.
- If there are three or more players in a private group, more players may be added with the consent of all players in the group.
- Do not add dead players or players from outside of the game to DMs about the game- while outside communication is of course an element, we want to keep this within the confines of the game and not let it spill out.
- Also, no making alliances, sharing rolenames or aliases before the game begins with everyone receiving their carfds.
Signups
- We’re aiming for at least 20 players, but we can start with 15 at a bare minimum. The more, the merrier, though. We will swiftly contact you with a DM to put your Alias and Role Name in for safekeeping as soon as we’re available, which will eventually become your Role PM.
- Whysper
- GGhana
- ElizaThePsycho
- Atlas
- Magnus
- Trochillidae
- Ruby
- Zorvo
- thepigeonnyc
- Scorbunny
- Apprentice
- Leafia
- Drinks
- Satori
- YoubutWorse
- Hippopablompoyeetus
- Jane
- Eevee
- Kanave
- PoisonedSquid
- Litten
- Blizer
- Squirrel2412
- Aelin
- Italy
- Apocryphal
