Mafia 96 - A dissimulation of birds

[House Targaryen]

This is the sign-up thread for Mafia Game 96 "A dissimulation of birds".

This game will be modded by Mentat and Combat Wombat, and it will be an object game, meaning the players have objects they must use rather than traditional mafia roles.

It will be set in Westeros, with Varys' little birds as protagonists. Please PM me to sign up.

If you've never played mafia before and you'd like to try, as well as signing up for the game, you must create an account in Sophelia's Board and PM me so that I can validate your account.

I'm aiming for 15 players, so if you'd like to play, sign up now!

[House Targaryen]

This game will be played under the Standard Westeros Mafia Rules and Game Mechanics except as follows:

Special game rules:

- There is no CF in this game. Neither faction nor player identity will be revealed upon death.

- There are two factions in this game, FM and innocents. FM win when all innocents are dead, innocents win when all FM are dead. If everyone dies it’s a draw. Mods may end the game early if one of these outcomes seems inevitable.

- There are no roles in this game. Objects take the place of roles. There is no symp in this game. Edit: FM no longer have special abilities, there is an object called 'Garrote' instead.

- Members of the FM faction may communicate amongst themselves through a secret forum on Sophelia’s board, as usual.

- This game has alts for cosmetic/RP purposes, as well as to make reading other player’s posts easier, but no alt rules of any kind will be enforced (except that you must always post on the game thread with your assigned game alt, obviously). You may reveal your own identity or speculate about other player’s identity freely. You may also hide your identity or lie about it. ETA: We also ask you to refer to one another by your game alts while playing the game, even if you know (or think you know) someone's identity. It helps keep things impersonal.

- PMs may be sent in a narrative form for the sake of flavour. Do not paraphrase them in order to make any kind of claim more believable. This rule will be harshly enforced and non-compliance may swiftly lead to a modkill. You have been warned. You may only reveal (or false reveal) the result of your action if applicable.

- The day will last for up to 36 hours. The nights will be no longer than 8 hours, but all night actions must be in no later than 4 hours after the day phase ends. Any night action that doesn’t respect this limit will only be counted if there are considerable extenuating circumstances and always at the mod’s discretion. The subject of a post containing a night action must be ‘Night action’.

- A player will be mod-killed if they don't post during a whole day phase. Their death will be announced in the evening scene. If a player doesn't post during the first 24 hours of a day phase they will lose their ability to vote and the numbers needed to lynch or go to night will be adjusted accordingly. A player who can not vote may still post in the thread to avoid a mod-kill. ETA: A player won't be mod-killed for failing to post in a day phase that lasts less than 24 hours. Extensions won't be given, and replacements will only be made before the end of the first day phase. If neither the replacement nor the original player post at least once during day one, they may be subject to a mod-kill regardless.

Special object rules:

1.- In this game, the place of roles is taken by objects. Each player may start the game with none, one or more than one object. Objects are distributed randomly within each faction. A player may accumulate any number of objects during the game.

2.- Each player may take a maximum of one night action each day. Using a single object is considered a night action (exception: sending a Parchment is not considered a night action).

3.- Every night, each player who owns an object, instead of using it, may send it to another player, discard it (destroy it) or do nothing. None of these count as a night action.

4.- Objects may be confiscated by the guard from players who reveal on the thread that they (ETA: or other players they know have them) have them (whether directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly). This will be entirely at the mods’ discretion, and considerations other than the obviousness of the reveal may be taken into account. Reveals made on a Parchment are safe. The confiscation will be announced to the affected player via a PM, but it won’t be posted on the thread. Confiscations will not be subject to discussion until after the game has ended, and we hope you understand what entirely at the mods’ discretion means. Also note that revealing you have an object is not against any rule, and you may do so if you think it’s to your advantage, just be warned it may be confiscated.

5.- If a player is night-killed or lynched, the objects he possessed at the moment of his death will be revealed in the morning or evening scene on the thread and confiscated by the guard.

[House Targaryen]

Objects:

Dagger: You may kill one player at night. After one use, successful or not, the dagger will be lodged in the corpse or otherwise lost. The following morning, the mods will post that the player has been stabbed at night if the kill went through.

Straw Dummy: You may target a player at night, preventing them from dying. You may use the straw dummy on yourself. After one successful use (i.e. one that prevents a kill), the dummy is ruined and lost. The owner will be told if an attempt was successful. On a single night, a Straw Dummy can prevent any number of kill actions.

Old Key: You may lock a player in their alcove at night, preventing them from performing any action and at the same time protecting them from any night action, as well as from sending or receiving (but not discarding) objects. The key is lost after one use. Exception: A locked player may receive (but not send) a message through the use of the Parchment object (it is slid under the door). A player who has been locked in will be told of this if he tries to use or send an object at night, as will a player who tries to use an object on or send an object to a player in a locked room (again, except for a Parchment).

Parchment: Parchments are objects that have no use other than sending them to another player. Thus “using” a parchment does not count as night action (it’s considered sending an object, not using one). You may write a message on a piece of parchment before sending it. All messages must be sent to the mods, telling them the name of the recipient, never to the actual player you want it sent to, the mods will then re-send the message to the recipient and will post them in the spoiler thread (so don’t use Parchments to confess RL crimes, perform embarrassing love declarations, etc.). You may sign a message with your name, with another player’s name, or send it anonymously.

Rag doll: You may target another player at night. If they possess any object, you will swap it for the Rag doll. Though night actions are normally resolved simultaneously, the use of a Rag doll always goes last (meaning, amongst other things, swapping a Rag doll for another object doesn’t prevent it from being used and consequently lost, and if a player sends an object to another player, you can’t swap with the sender, only with the recipient). If your target is the recipient of a Parchment, you may be able to intercept it and read its message! If your target possesses several eligible objects, the one you take will be randomly determined. The Rag doll is passed on to the target of a successful swap, who may use it in turn on consecutive nights. There will never be more than one Rag doll in play at any time.

Candle Stub: The FM use lemon juice to write secret messages on their Parchments to communicate with each other. Once in the game you may light your Candle Stub under a single piece of Parchment you possess. If at any point in the game it was owned by an FM, you will be able to see undecipherable secret writing on it. This will ruin (destroy) both the Candle Stub and the Parchment (regardless of the success of the attempt).

Lamp Black: You may smear Lamp Black (a pigment produced by collecting soot from oil-lamps) on the door knob of any player’s alcove (including your own). The following morning, any players who tried to visit your target’s alcove at night (for whatever reasons, and regardless of if they were successful or not) will be described as having black fingers in the opening scene. You only have enough Lamp Black for a single use. Note that the death of the owner of the Lamp Black will not prevent it from working. The owner of the Lamp Black is astute enough to wash their own hands.

Copper Groat: You may bribe the guard to give you any object they have confiscated (either by finding it on a dead player’s corpse or by taking it from a player who revealed on the thread that they had it). Bribing a guard is a night action, and you must specify which object you want. If you ask the guard to give you an object they haven’t confiscated they will not be able to comply, but will still keep the bribe. There will never be more than one Copper Groat in play at any time.

ETA: Garrote: This object may only be in possession of a member of the FM faction. Its owner may use it to strangle one player every night. The following morning, the mods will post that the player has been strangled at night if the kill went through. The Garrote is indistinguishable from a common piece of cord, so it will not be confiscated by the guard, and may not be swapped for a Rag doll. If the owner of the Garrote dies but he has an alive partner, he may use a night action to retrieve it.

ETA: No object not on this list will be used in the game. Unless specifically noted otherwise, there may be multiple copies of the object present at a time.

[House Targaryen]

Opening scene:

With an agility born of many years of practice, you climb on to the clay-tiled roof. This one has seen better days. Many of its tiles are missing and you could probably slip through the straw thatch into the small attic below without too much trouble. Always good to know. You peer down at the ruckus bellow and try to make sense of it. Crowds aren’t friendly to those of your slight build. People tend to be scared and careless, so things can get nasty very quickly. You sometimes wiggle in, using your small size to dodge through the mindless mass of kicking legs, grabbing hands and smelly street muck, but if you have the choice you’d much rather take a look from above, little bird that you are.

They seem to be staring at something on the floor, muttering to each other. You can hear guards Pod and Pate, two oafish gold-cloak brutes you usually try to avoid, huffing and puffing around the corner. Gold-cloaks mean whatever it is, it’s serious. The crowd breaks to let the guards past and you almost gasp when you recognize one of your own. Martin, you called him. He seems to have fallen from high up and bashed his heads against the stone-cobbled alley. Suddenly apprehensive, you wonder if it was this very roof you stand on from where he slipped… or was pushed.

A noise behind you makes you look over your shoulder, only to see another of your flight who seems to have climbed up here with the same idea as you. You greet her with your hand, and then beckon her to approach and look. After she has seen the little corpse, she turns to you. Her hands flicker, in the motions taught to you by Varys to signify words and communicate with each other. “It’s the second one this week” she gestures with concern “The flight needs to meet and confer”. You nod.

Varys has been absent since the death of Lord Tywin and the escape of Tyrion Lannister, the Imp. Some think he has left King’s Landing, gone east to tend to whatever secret interests led him to help Tyrion murder his father, the King’s Hand. He’ll return shortly, they say. Others think he’s dead, murdered by the Imp to ensure his silence. Some think he’s in hiding, waiting the Lannister’s inevitable fall from grace to return to court, as if nothing had happened. You know not, but you do know he has left you. In his absence, the flight sticks together. It’s what you’ve always done.

Your meeting place is a pigeon coop, located above a dingy attic in one of the tallest buildings in King’s Landing. A flimsy looking tower, it seems each level was built on top of the next by a different owner, neither of them concerned with trifles such as aesthetics, decorum or safety. Varys acquired the building for a pittance, and you all have a tiny alcove you call your own. Once upon a time there was a key to each of them, but they’re long lost. Your headquarters are a flimsy looking shamble, which seems like it holds together from the sheer amount of filth that clings to it, but it’s better than sleeping in the street. The views almost make up for its ruinous state. Almost. From the top of the building you can see the whole city, from Baelor’s sept to the mouth of the Blackwater. Right now, you stare intently at each other, though, taking strict turns to signal your opinions.

“It could be a coincidence” signals one of you “Martin could have slipped, and Sparrow might have been assaulted”.

“Why would someone kill a penniless orphan?” one of you inquires, but the answer is so many shrugs. The low lifers in King’s Landing rarely need a reason for hurting one of you.

“I don’t think it is” signals a pensive little bird “we are sure footed enough we almost never fall from roofs. I can’t remember when, if ever, it happened last. And Sparrow wasn’t abused or beaten. It was a clean and serious business. It doesn’t smell right”.

Most of you nod. “They also both happened to tell us where they’d be before we parted” the bird finishes.

You look at each other. Little birds are trained, fed and housed by Varys, but it’s a life of many risks and few luxuries. Varys has many enemies, and some of the most cunning ones know of your existence. A little bird turning isn’t something that happens often… but it has happened. With Varys disappeared, and maybe even dead, the prospects seem more enticing than they’ve ever been.

“Are we still loyal?” one asks “are we still the Spider’s little birds?”. You all nod, but the seed of doubt has been planted. Small cliques arise and swap secret messages, and the hunt for the traitor becomes your sole interest. The flight protects its own, but if it the majority thinks someone has betrayed its trust, it can be merciless.

[House Targaryen]

I have 7 sign ups right now, and am still quite short of my target number of players, which means the start of the game will probably be delayed to next week.

Please sign up if you'd like to play!

[Ser Justin Scummy]

*

[Top12Gun]

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[The Kingmaker]

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[K.C.]

[The Kingmaker]

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[Top12Gun]

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[House Targaryen]

The game hasn't started yet. Just in case this wasn't clear from the rules I linked to on my second post:

Players must not

B10) Make any posts to the game thread with any account other than their game alt, before the game is over. Any posts made "out-of-alt" should be edited blank as soon as possible.

Just to clarify, the game thread is this and as soon as possible is now. If you're bored, poring over the Standard Mafia rules is a far better way to spend time than breaking them :angry2: .

That said, I'm still a couple of players short of my target. Please sign up if you'd like to play. We'll be starting no later than the end of the week regardless, but I'll be forced to adjust some of the rules if I don't make my target.

[K.C.]

[House Targaryen]

13 of you. A bad omen? Possibly. Things haven't been right since Martin and Sparrow died, and they're not likely to get any better until you find those of you who were responsible for their deaths.

The streets of King's Landing bustle with activity, and you go about your business: watching, listening and remembering, good little birds that you are. Varys taught all 13 of you your letters, so you can also write things later.

Most of the time you watch other people, foreigners, odd-bods or anyone Varys has marked as a target, but this time you're watching each other. Since your last meeting you've been ill-at-ease, and for one in a business such as yours this malaise quickly leads to suspicion, and from there to paranoia. The tell-tale signs that might mark a traitor seem far too ubiquitous for your liking, and you're pretty much convinced that not all of them are in your head.

There must be some of the flight you can trust, though. Most of them, even. You decide to make common cause with the most trust-worthy and try and weed out the traitors. They shouldn't be a match for your combined wits, surely.

It is day 1

13 players remain: Cardinal, Curlew, Finch, Petrel, Pewee, Phoebe, Pipit, Quail, Stint, Swallow, Thrush, Titmouse, Warbler.

7 votes are needed for a conviction or 7 to go to night.

13 players have not voted: Cardinal, Curlew, Finch, Petrel, Pewee, Phoebe, Pipit, Quail, Stint, Swallow, Thrush, Titmouse, Warbler.

You may start posting as of now!

[House Targaryen]

By the way, some of the rules have been adjusted to make up for having less players, so give the rules a re-read!

Better comprehension of the rules will augment your chances of winning the game and make it less likely you'll annoy the mods :)

[House Clegane]

Car-a-a-rdinall!

[House Dondarrion]

what's a finch? lol

[TheMalcolm]

/

[House Dayne]

Cardinal. Dude's evil. Like, R'hllor evil.

[House Ashford]

Sorry, I'm late. I couldn't find the door so I looked for an alternative way to get in.

<--- Got the pun?