Sensible Erection | Sensible Crossfire - Fall of Old Memesville

Sunday, 14 October 2007

Sensible Crossfire - Fall of Old Memesville - Epilogue

quote [ The death clock has stopped at 00:00:03

Someone in the room has died.

But who controls Old Memesville? The citizens, or the ninja? ]

The final fate of Old Memesville, along with my comments and a behind the scenes look at some of the interesting moments inside. Everyone is invited to comment on the rules of this particular game.

Stay tuned for “Return to Old Memesville” and “Revenge of Old Memesville”, which will air during the second lull in games, after my next special project…

* * *

The Final Fate of Old Memesville

Three men locked in a room with naught but a pistol. Blackmage was the first to point a finger. “I see through your games, Dooming Doom!” he shouted in accusation.

Dooming Doom looked shocked and started to protest, until headlessfriar shouted an accusation of his own… at Blackmage “He was on CapnSilver's phoney list, along with the ninja Zelgius. Come on Dooming Doom, let's end this.” headlessfriar implored, hoping for an easy kill and a quick end to the madness.

“Oh, fuck you. I know you're a ninja. I just need to figure out why BlackMage thinks I'm trying to trick him.” Dooming Doom shot back.

“Well, if that’s the way it’s going to be… get a hold of him Blackmage and we’ll kill us a ninja.” headlessfriar took up the pistol of the Dread Pirate Captain Context and pulled back the hammer while Blackmage grabbed Dooming Doom and held him face down against the table.

headlessfriar pressed the pistol against the back of Dooming Doom’s head and leaned in close to whisper in the condemned man’s ear. “Sensei Zelgius sends his regards, vile Matchmaker.”

The pistol spoke, in one moment avenging both the ninja clan and the pirates. Blackmage realized his mistake all too late, as headlessfriar’ drew his katana spitted Blackmage like a suckling pig, thus removing the last Lemming from Old Memesville.

Winding a black scarf around his head to serve as a mask, headlessfriar the Ninja unlocked the door, strolling out the door past Mayor VictorTyne.

The Mayor tipped his hat to the last Ninja and sole survivor of Old Memesville, then gathered his belongings and strolled off into the sunset in search of a new town to cleanse.

Winner: Headlessfriar the Ninja

* * *

The Roles of Sensible Crossfire

Pirates: KingPellinore, Thumble, Justus, Jadedobelisk

Pirate Captain: Context. The Pirate Captain, in addition to casting a tiebreaking vote for the nightly pirate kill, would also choose a nightly killer from among his pirate crew. The reason for this becomes apparent later. The Pirate Captain was also immune to being investigated by the Lookout, and would learn the identity of the Lookout if the Lookout tried to investigate him.

Ninja: DefianceFalcon, CapnSilver, Headlessfriar, Mwoody

Ninja Sensei Zelgius. The Ninja Sensei had all the same responsibilities as the Pirate Captain.

Lemmings: Eightysix, Mego, Blackmage, Macst34.

Fat Lemming: Gmg. The Fat Lemming was given a golden bullet and allowed to make one kill for the entire game.

Admiral: Wtjones. The Admiral would choose a person to protect each night, and could only protect against Pirates. However, should a pirate attack the protected person, that pirate would be killed by the Admiral.

Samurai: Dismortis. As per the Admiral, but the Samurai protected against Ninja.

Gossip: Endopol. The Gossip would have gotten a nightly list of everyone who was out in the streets with a secret role. That included both protectors, both nightly killers, and the two lovers. The gossip would only have gotten a list of names. Unfortunately, Endopol was killed for non-participation on day 1, and so the town never benefited from his insight.

Beggar: Skainsmate. The Beggar was immune to any Pirate attack.

Robot: LoC. The Robot was immune to any Ninja attack.

Lookout: v21 The Lookout could investigate one person a night, but could only detect Pirates.

Shadow: Misanthrope. The Shadow could investigate one person a night, but could only detect Ninja.

Bounty Hunter: Nibbon. The Bounty Hunter could investigate one person a night to see if they were a Serial Killer. If they got a positive reading, that person would be killed. They would also get a positive reading on any Survivalists.

Serial Killer: Blindnerd. The Serial Killer was allowed to kill one person a night.

Survivalist: ThirdSpango, Dothedrew. The Survivalists were immune to the Serial Killer.

Matchmaker: Dooming Doom. The Matchmaker would choose two other people on the first night to become Lovers. If one lover was killed, the other one would die. Dooming Doom chose Ninja Sensei Zelgius and Survivalist ThirdSpango as lovers.

Cosplay Coordinator: CapnSilver. The Cosplay Coordinator was a role made up on the spot by CapnSilver the Ninja with the ability to pretend being a Townie by making up some wild-ass story about being able to tell who’s wearing a costume.

* * *

Notable Notes

* Neither Lookout nor Shadow was active on night 1.

* On Day 2, both Ninjas and Pirates initially voted to kill Dismortis. Given the unique situation, I was going to have the killers reveal their identities to each other. However, the Pirates flipped to Mego almost at the last moment.

* On Day 4, I was sure that gmg was going to use his golden bullet to kill CapnSilver on the same night that Zelgius was going to nominate CapnSilver to kill gmg. It would have marked the second time that CapnSilver was sent to kill someone investigating him. He was investigated by and killed Nibbon on day 3.

* The Admiral was killed by the Serial Killer, the Samurai was killed by Ninja. The Lookout was killed by Ninja, the Shadow was killed by Pirates. The Robot was killed by Pirates, and the Beggar was lynched. None of the immune/investigative/protective roles ever got a positive hit.

* The Ninjas organized themselves very quickly in the beginning, discussing and choosing their targets very carefully. The Pirates took a while to get started, voting in all directions throughout the game. This, more than anything, probably led the Ninjas to victory.

* Nobody but I directly killed a Ninja until day 6. Two were killed for non-participation, and the Ninja Sensei was killed when his Lover was killed. Very few votes were ever cast to lynch any Ninja except for Ninja Headlessfriar’s votes to lynch Ninja Sensei Zelgius.

* Nibbon revealed himself as the Bounty Hunter on day 2, the same day he correctly chose blindnerd as the Serial killer. Blindnerd had the chance to kill Nibbon that same night, but due to his non-participation Nibbon got the kill and survived the night.

* Day 6 saw the showdown between two Lemmings (macst34, BlackMage), two Ninja (CapnSilver, headlessfriar), and the Matchmaker (DoomingDoom). If the town lynched anyone but a ninja, the game would have ended in a ninja win. If the town lynched a ninja and the remaining ninja failed to kill a Lemming, the remaining Lemmings would lynch the ninja the next day.

* On the last day, CapnSilver and Headlessfriar decided to vote against each other because CapnSilver was the obvious lynch choice. It would make Headlessfriar seem innocent and lead to a Ninja victory. Obviously, the gambit paid off.

* * *

Sensible Crossfire - Fall of Old Memesville

Day 0 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67384
Day 1 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67412
Day 2 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67453
Day 3 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67471
Day 4 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67488
Day 5 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67505
Day 6 - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67532
Final Day - http://www.sensibleerection.com/entry.php/67596

Questions for people to discuss regarding the next game:

Was the 28-hour cycle or no night phase too fast-paced for most people?

Did killing off the non-participants help the game?

How did you like playing with three factions?

Any comments on the special roles involved and keeping them a secret until they were killed?

Any other comments on the game?

[mafia game] [by VictorTyne@2:46amGMT] [+4 Good]

Comments

mwoody said @ 3:49am GMT on 14th Oct
Well done, thanks for the game. The only thing that threw me off was the transition from having 24 hours to vote to 18, as my 30-minutes-late lynch vote on my day of doom would attest. Pity, but the ninjas still seem to have done ok.

nibbon said @ 5:32am GMT on 14th Oct
A run down of your questions:
I did like the 28 hour period, its a shame people cant spend 1 minute to cast a vote to avoid non-participation.

Killing off non-participants may have helped, but perhaps they deserved two chances.

I never like three factions, it makes the town winning very tough, I was surprised it was this close.

As a secret role it made me seem more suspicious on day 2 when i had to avoid the lynch by revealing myself. Also it helped capnsilver live for a while longer because he made up a role (which was the most blatant thing I had ever seen). So I guess it was good in the way that it adds more suspicion and more strategy to the game.

I don't think that if blindnerd had chosen to kill me on the same night I investigated him that it should have killed me - thats just my opinion ;p

Good job on the game though, it worked out exactly as you wanted (with a last day three way vote). And interestingly enough, as only the second time that has happened, the town lost. I feel like the lemmings were very bad in this game, they never seemed to swing the vote in the right direction. What would have been really interesting, would have been a pirate, a ninja, and a town on the last day, could cause the first ever tie :)

nibbon said @ 5:34am GMT on 14th Oct
Oh and PS, I didn't mind at all of you making this mini-game since the other one had made it first and only allowed half the player base to actually play (thus disallowing a big game to actually get started). So I, as one who got left out, did appreciate you starting this one, so again, thank you.

VictorTyne said @ 5:56am GMT on 14th Oct
That's why I made it. Too many people got left out of the other one. I actually had the original game set for 51 players with a half-dozen more secret roles.

And I actually did have a plan for if it ended up between a town, pirate and ninja left on the last day. If the pirate or ninja got lynched, the other would kill the townie and win. If the townie got lynched, the pirate and ninja would fight to the death and I would have won.

The real weird end scenario was if the last two people were the Robot and Ninja or Beggar and Pirate.

nibbon said @ 6:09am GMT on 14th Oct
woulda ended in a double lynch mes thinks - mayor wins again wu!

Dioxin said @ 7:53am GMT on 14th Oct
The Admiral was killed by the Serial Killer, the Samurai was killed by Ninja. The Lookout was killed by Ninja, the Shadow was killed by Pirates. The Robot was killed by Ninja, and the Beggar was lynched. None of the immune/investigative/protective roles ever got a positive hit.

How is this possible?

justus said @ 8:35am GMT on 14th Oct
He means the Robot was killed by Pirates; I voted to kill LoC on my last night alive.

VictorTyne said @ 7:21pm GMT on 14th Oct
Anything is possible when God makes a typo.

Dismortis said @ 1:54pm GMT on 14th Oct
Man. The pirates AND ninjas were gunning for me on Night Two? I'd love to know why. Invariably I make well thought, compelling arguments against the player I think is the most likely villain. Invariably I am completely wrong on the first two days. I don't know if my accuracy improves after that, I'm too busy being ganked on night two to find out.

Any chance the "secret google groups" can be opened up for review now?

I very much liked the fast turn clock, even though it took some getting used to.

As for the "idle" kills, killing people who sign up and then do nothing is excellent. However, killing the roles they may have had can trash the game. I really think we may need a blacklist.

Three factions is always an interesting variant. As long as it's not every game, it's fine. The "devoted townie" roles (anti-ninja/pirate investigators and protectors) are very much weaker than in a regular game, even with the added kick of the counterstrike.

The hidden roles may have hurt the town somewhat, as evidenced by the "Cosplay Co-ordinator". Bravo on that bit of bluffing, Capnsilver.

The addition of the mafia leaders selecting the agent on thier crew to do the deed is a nice touch, opens up some good gameplay possibilities.

Oh, and EVERY Mafia round should have a post-game show like this.

dothedrew said @ 7:38pm GMT on 14th Oct
Yeah, I'd like to see the google groups too, I was wondering why I was first hit by the seagoin' scallywags.

v21 said @ 10:20pm GMT on 14th Oct
Yeah, well played capn indeed. In fact, the whole lot of youse ninjas, that was some awesome play.

headlessfriar said @ 4:37pm GMT on 14th Oct
Damn, seeing that it was 2 lemmings vs. 2 ninja at the end really brings home how close this game was. I wasn't sure if I was going to pull it off in the end. I only killed macst34 because it looked like Dooming Doom was clearly townie, having shown the Capn to be lying, and Blackmage looked suspisous (I thought) because he was on Capn's list. I assumed that on the final 3-way, Dooming Doom would try to kill Blackmage, and that Blackmage would try to kill me. My goodbye speech was a bluff to have a plausible excuse for changing my vote, and I was certain that it would seen through. I still am puzzled as to why they voted the way they did, but all I really needed was for one of them to vote to kill the other. One other thing I was afraid might happen was the last players revealing roles to prove innocence. I thought I might have to make up a role like Cosplay Coordinator, but the town didn't use this stratagy to out the final ninja, which was good for me.

justus said @ 7:48pm GMT on 14th Oct
First off, I do want to thank you for the game. It was fast-paced and enjoyable, even if my side didn't have a particularly good showing.

Survey answers:

Was the 28-hour cycle or no night phase too fast-paced for most people?

This wasn't too much of a problem after the initial adjustment, although some days it was pretty hard to remember to cast the vote. I work during the day, so I unfortunately had to cast my vote relatively early in the cycle. This meant that any late developments (like a mid-day role reveal) were pretty much out of my purview.

Having no night cycle is okay except that the person being lynched may end up being the same person targeted for a night kill, which would suck. It might be advisable to have every night killer submit a first and a second choice to prevent wasted kills if you do this in the future.

Did killing off the non-participants help the game?

I think so. The game isn't much fun if people are lying low, and it's definitely harmful to have inactive players soak up deaths; this also contributes to the game running longer than necessary. It's unfortunate that this means some vital roles may be removed, but given there's no guarantee those players would've been any good even if they were active, I don't see that this is enough not to do it.

I will also say that allowing players to jump in the game midstream (like in Innsmouth) is not a good idea. It just confuses the people who are playing and creates a logistical nightmare for the GM.

How did you like playing with three factions?

Playing with three factions is enjoyable, though more difficult to balance. I like the last man standing wins variant better than the Hollywood-style rock, paper, scissors victory. It's less complicated and easier to see who's closest to winning at any given time.

Any comments on the special roles involved and keeping them a secret until they were killed?

I liked the element of surprise ("oh, a ninja proof robot! I didn't know we had one of those"), but it can definitely lead to some resentment and also makes the game less balanced. Without foreknowledge of the roles, the players are essentially at the mercy of the GM—I'd be pretty pissed to find out on day 6 that one of the players was Jesus and shot lightning from his ass, for instance.

Any other comments on the game?

Curse those damn ninja.

justus said @ 7:49pm GMT on 14th Oct
Whoops, forgot to close the fucking bold tag.

thumble said @ 11:29pm GMT on 14th Oct
I said on day two or three that I enjoyed the aspect of discovering secret roles upon death. Definitely added an aura of mystery and intrigue, and where you threw in some new variants like the bounty hunter and the matchmaker it really made things interesting. You could probably go a step further and ask certain special roles whether they'd like their role withheld after death until the game is over, or an undertaker role who is the only person who knows the full truth of the secret business of the recently deceased. Faction membership would, of course, remain public knowledge.

Speaking of factions, I think this one was quite well balanced for a three faction game. People say it's harder for a town win but considering there's a town friendly faction and the two night kill factions are gunning for one another I don't think it's really that bad.

headlessfriar said @ 11:51pm GMT on 14th Oct
Absoulutley. Considering how close it was for my team, and that the town rarely seems to lose, I don't think that having multiple mafia factions is bad thing, although it would get tired if overused.