Sensible Erection | Sensible Épicerie

Friday, 6 June 2008

quote [ Today we start out with an explosion of ideas. ]

Thankfully, little Julie’s party went off without a hitch.

[mafia game] [by sythe@1:24amGMT] [+10 Good]

Comments

sythe said @ 1:25am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Informative]
Google Groups:
The Inn Crowd
The Moldies
The Mothmen - Started only when a second moth had been created

sythe said @ 1:25am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Informative]
Complete Player list (and alignments)

Of note here are the immunities each player had based (loosely) on their food item.
*Redemption was the only player immune to both microplane and torch, although he was never targeted with either.
*Immunity to microplaning meant you got to keep the microplane if you were targeted (ala beerboy), immunity to the torch just meant a wasted canister.

You’ll also note the “Recruitable” and “Can be infected” columns. The first was for the moldies, the second for the moths. Explanations of how those worked in reply.

sythe said @ 1:25am GMT on 6th Jun
How moldy recruitment worked
The moldies were allowed a single recruit over the course of the game. This recruit could come no earlier than Night 5, and at least one of the two recruiters (KingPellinore and beerboy) had to be alive for it to occur. Each of them got 1 chance to recruit (but only one of them could be successful). A failed recruit would have resulted in the target being informed of the recruiter’s identity.

How moth infection worked
This was, perhaps, overly complicated. Unlike the moldy recruit, an infected player was not given the option of accepting or declining the role change. The reason for this was that only 3 people could actually be infected (foobar, KingPellinore, lilmookieesquire). 4 other ingredients (FifthSpango, Jewbacchus, JewyPEZ, Aidentas) would have revolted if infected, resulting in the death of both them and the eldest moth. As it turned out, the moths didn’t get a chance to hit any of these guys so it was an unused mechanic (the moths were warned about this vaguely in their role PMs.) Anyone else not listed above was just killed if targeted by the moths.

sythe said @ 1:25am GMT on 6th Jun
This brings me to what happened on Night 6, which I feel probably determined the outcome of the game. KingPellinore asked to target lilmookieesquire (as a moth), then had to leave for the weekend. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the moldies also wanted to kill lilmookieesquire and wanted KingP to be the one to do it. Had he been around, he might have opted to recruit lilmookie rather than kill him and things would probably have played out much differently. Since I wasn’t about to make that call for him (as it would have exposed him to the moldies) but felt bad that a known conflict was going to result in his ruination, I moved the moth target to his stated secondary target of bodnoirbabe instead. Given foobar’s claims this resulted in much town confusion the next day, so that’s where that all came from.

Bodnoirbabe said @ 4:32am GMT on 6th Jun
Well....I feel rather flattered that I was eaten alive because they wanted to recruit me. I mean, I wasn't the first choice, but still...

-_- said @ 2:15am GMT on 6th Jun
Ah, so I wasn't recruitable or infectable ... that explains it then ;D

sythe said @ 3:49am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Informative]
For balance's sake I had to make sure that the investigators wouldn't get recruited. They were weak enough roles as it was. On a related note, cayenne pepper is one of the few pepper product spices that don't regularly get infected with moths, vs. paprika which is a moth gold mine. (yay, I learned something new with this game)

sythe said @ 1:26am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Informative]
Night actions
Results of the nightly investigations

Things I found particularly noteworthy:
*Assbastard took no action the first two nights, leaving people very confused about the actual number of moths remaining the last day
*No protection item actually saved a life, however poor jewbacchus was blocked 4 out of the 7 times he tried to steal something! So basically theolypse turned the ziplock into an anti-theft device without realizing it. Humorously, none of the targets jewbacchus tried and failed to steal from had anything to steal anyway.
*FifthSpango investigated Jewbacchus on Night 6, while Jewbacchus was torching him. That was fun.

thumble said @ 8:01am GMT on 6th Jun
Humorously, none of the targets jewbacchus tried and failed to steal from had anything to steal anyway.

Well I got a butane canister from eightysix after he sploded on day 1. Fat load of good that did me.

Jewbacchus said @ 8:50am GMT on 6th Jun
I had to check the ziploc bag mechanic description twice, assuming people had been bagging me from night actions, but no.

sythe said @ 9:20am GMT on 6th Jun
yeah, you tried to steal from bagged people three times, were bagged once yourself, and then juju blocked you with cellophane.

theolypse said @ 6:23am GMT on 7th Jun
I was meaningful! Sort of.

theolypse said @ 6:23am GMT on 7th Jun
Wait, four? I only got to use it four times. That's crazy. Get out of my head, Jewby.

sythe said @ 1:26am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
The Puzzle
There was a puzzle?!!
Yes, and I doubt just about anyone other than Aidentas (who admittedly was given a little shove) even noticed it. Sigh, nobody clicks on the main links in these games. For future GMs: they don’t have to be pointless.

I wanted to put a puzzle into the game, but I didn’t want it to be something that’d be a one off google search or some such and it had to be something that would add balance to the game. Giving recruitment to two different bad guy squads should have been a huge bonus, so I figured naming the original bad guys by day 6 (when the puzzle was supposed to be solvable) would help offset that.

The clues:
Day 0: FoodNetwork.com
I realized that starting with the Day 0 post was risky, but I wanted the added challenge in there. The first link was intentionally innocuous, clearly fitting with the theme of the game.

Day 1:
Pretty self explanatory, but still not an unreasonable main link for this theme.

Day 2: A Google search for “angel”
I was hoping to clue people in that something was awry with the day links here as I’m not usually that lazy about this sort of thing.
A search of FoodNetwork.com for “Alton Brown Angel” returns a single result.

Day 3: My personal feelings on Ingrid Hoffmann’s cooking, the one recipe excepted
I first started to use the quotes to add extra hints - an unsuccessful attempt to get people to search for something on the Food Network site: “Making me even more churlish was the fact that it took me far longer than it should have to find this great recipe on the wonderful new Food Network website.”

Day 4: Papas Fritas website
Finding a site that pointed only at the word “fritas” proved more difficult than I thought it would, which is why when I quoted the site I left out the “papas” part. I also was trying to hint with the quote that there was a source of help for the town: “So don't be scared, just call your friends, pick up the phone. Don't be scared, you're not alone – Fritas”
A search of Foodnetwork.com for “Ingrid Hoffmann fritas” returns only a single result.

Day 5: Allrecipes.com
Quote: Sweet potatoes are known as 'kumara' in New Zealand…serve with sour cream. – People were obviously not getting it, so I was already trying to make it more obvious. This is actually a direct quote from the recipe for the fries. Day 5 was also the first time I broke apart the player list, indicating that those dead would not “get cake”.

Day six:Kumara are one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat.
A search of allrecipes.com for “kumara” returns only a single result.
By day six the player list now said dead players “Don’t get cake, burgers, or fries”. I also began to work the word “puzzle” into the daily text and ended the day’s announcement with “The town needed to decipher this quickly, hopefully they could sort through the mess and find the clues they were reaching for.”

Day 7: An article on birds solving a food puzzle together.
I’m really trying to hint at this point. I end the day’s announcement with “Weep now for the angel. The town has frittered their time away with small fries.” in an attempt to work all three recipes in again.

The recipes:
I heartily recommend each of these (though I would omit the onions from the fritas)
Angel Food Cake
Mini Cuban Burgers (Fritas)
Sweet Potato Wedges

When you examine the ingredient lists of each of these recipes you realize that they’re all players in the game. After combining all three recipes the following ingredients are unaccounted for:

Beerboy - Butter
Eon Bleu - Cheese
Jewbacchus – Cumin*
KingPellinore - Chocolate Chips
Kishi - Cooking Spray*
Narrenschiff - Potato Chips
---
Alacron - Soda
Assbastard - Corn Meal
-_- - Cayenne Pepper (-_- ended up being included because he was crazy and because I substitute cayenne for the black pepper in the fries)

*I had intended Jewby and Kishi to be the hardest to identify without this list, being an ordinary spice and a rarely spoiling cooking spray.

By the time the puzzle was actually solved most of these people were dead and nobody really seemed to believe Aidentas anyhow. So it goes.

FifthSpango said @ 1:32am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Thankyou Sythe. An excellent game.

Jewbacchus said @ 1:50am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Good game. We would have lost anyway, but I'm incredibly pissed I flaked on that last vote and didn't switch to myself.

redemption said @ 2:04am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Well done, totally enjoyed that game, even if it got very dicey at times!
Still not entirely sure how we pulled that one out in the end either. Craziness.

-_- said @ 2:18am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
FUN ^_^

juju said @ 3:38am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
sythe, you rock.
Looking at all of the groups, I continue to have no idea how I survived so long.

Alacron said @ 3:43am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Insightful]
A great run game Sythe. Sorry I couldn't provide the large explosions you are used to next time I'll make sure to hold a bigger party before I blow.

KingPellinore said @ 4:09am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
This game kicked serious ass and actually had me biting my nails on several occasions.

Bodnoirbabe said @ 4:37am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Wow! This game was fun! A good one to start with for a newb. I played horribly, but still, you did a great job!

Narrenschiff said @ 4:47am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
daaaamn

Eon Bleu said @ 4:55am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
This was an awesome game, Sythe as yours always are. Also, congrats to Context for a good use of the microplane. I'm hoping that the next game will be the game that I survive past day 4.

Bodnoirbabe said @ 5:11am GMT on 6th Jun
I have a question. The same night I was killed, I received the plastic wrap. I didn't use it because I thought I had to wait until the next night.

Could I have used it?

If I had used it on Fifthspango like I thought I should, would that have saved him from being torched?

sythe said @ 5:51am GMT on 6th Jun
Yeah, you could have used it and it would have worked. I know plastic wrap wouldn't protect against a torch in real life, but sometimes you have to take a few liberties for narrative's sake.

FifthSpango said @ 6:37am GMT on 6th Jun
Oh. :(.

Incidentally, Mookie; How can ya criticise me for trying to tip -_- off with the sanity comment after your fixation with toast?!? The mind boggles ;)

juju said @ 7:02am GMT on 6th Jun
Yeah, reading the Inn Crowd boards was hilarious for the toast issue alone.

sythe said @ 7:17am GMT on 6th Jun
You should have seen it in real time.

juju said @ 7:26am GMT on 6th Jun
Ah, the joys of being a GM

lilmookieesquire said @ 10:04am GMT on 6th Jun
I really think it was the toast strategy that put us ahead of the game. :p

juju said @ 10:21am GMT on 6th Jun
Yeah, between you thinking I was ordering hits, me thinking you were talking to -_-, and -_- thinking I was bad we made a great little melodrama...

Hey -_-, what was up with investigating me the first night anyways? Just assuming I'm always a baddie? ;)

lilmookieesquire said @ 4:21pm GMT on 6th Jun
What the hell did you mean by that. I hate you. Vote Juju.

(it never has to end darling~)

-_- said @ 12:37am GMT on 7th Jun
I just figured milk has a short shelf life is all.

sythe said @ 12:39am GMT on 7th Jun
Well yes, but not less than a week in most places ;)

-_- said @ 12:43am GMT on 7th Jun
Sure, but of all the ingredients we had Milk has one of the shortest shelf lives and I only knew when the game started, if you told us how long the ingredients had been in the fridge I'm afraid I missed it.

sythe said @ 12:48am GMT on 7th Jun
Oh, you were all fresh from the grocery store.

lilmookieesquire said @ 10:03am GMT on 6th Jun
I need someone to place the blame on don't I? :D
I totally totally thought you were eval.

kishi said @ 6:05am GMT on 6th Jun [Score:1 Underrated]
Thanks for running, Sythe. I only wonder how things might have turned out if I hadn't been sent to my doom, but such is my lot. =)

I've started working up a few details on a game of my own- who is keeper of the list? Or are we even really bothering with it much now?

sythe said @ 6:12am GMT on 6th Jun
I have such a list, but it's dibs on theme only, not an official order since that went out the window ages ago.

vahid said @ 7:45am GMT on 6th Jun
ya'll need a good joke....

A guy is walking along the strip in Las Vegas and a knockout looking hooker catches his eye. He strikes up a conversation and eventually asks the hooker, "How much do you charge?"
The hooker replies, "It starts at $500 for a hand-job.
Guy says, "$500 dollars! For a hand-job! No hand-job is worth that kind of money!"
The hooker says, "Do you see that Denny's on the corner?"
"Yes."
"Do you see the Denny's about a block further down?"
"Yes."
"And beyond that, do you see that third Denny's?"
"Yes."
"Well," says the hooker, smiling invitingly, "I own those. And, I own them because I give a hand-job that's worth $500."
Guy says, "What the hell? You only live once. I'll give it a try." They retire to a nearby motel.
A short time later, the guy is sitting on the bed realizing that he just experienced the hand-job of a lifetime, worth every bit of $500.
He is so amazed, he says, "I suppose a blow-job is $1,000?"
The hooker replies, "$1,500."
I wouldn't pay that for a blow-job!"
The hooker replies, "Step over here to the window, big boy. Do you see that casino just across the street? I own that casino outright. And I own it because I give a blow-job that's worth every cent of $1,500."
The guy, basking in the afterglow of that terrific hand-job, decides to put off the new car for another year or so, and says, "Sign me up."
Ten minutes later, he is sitting on the bed more amazed than before.
He can scarcely believe it but he feels he truly got his money's worth. He decides to dip into the retirement savings for one glorious and unforgettable experience. He asks the hooker, "How much for some pussy?"
The hooker says, "Come over here to the window, I want to show you some thing. Do you see how the whole city of Las Vegas is laid out before us, all those beautiful lights, gambling palaces, and showplaces?"
"Damn!" the guy says, in awe, "You own the whole city?"
"No," the hooker replies, "but I would if I had a pussy."

sythe said @ 10:12am GMT on 6th Jun
You should discuss oreos with Narrenschiff.

Narrenschiff said @ 4:20am GMT on 7th Jun
Dammit, you beat me to it.

brat#3 said @ 5:33am GMT on 7th Jun
Y'know, I tried to tell that Oreo joke out with friends last week, and it bombed horribly. I should really have known better.

Omegaphobic said @ 10:08am GMT on 6th Jun
I'm really annoyed at myself for the thumble goof I caused. For the record, I would have gone for KingPellinore if I'd spent time going over the voting records and comments, and after I was dead I was gnashing my teeth and muttering 'GET KING P! GET HIM!' each day. When the town actually voted for him, I was like 'YAH!', and did that cliched air-punch thing.

I think I get a little too much into this sort of game at times. >.>

-_- said @ 10:18am GMT on 6th Jun
I make little altars for each game and then when the game ends I box them up and hide them in hard to reach places in my house ... such as under the insulation in the attic, inside a wall I'm sheet rocking, or under the loose floorboard in the back of the upstairs bed room ... for the future homeowner to find ;)

I actually do hide things in houses when I renovate them ... for the next person to find :)

sythe said @ 10:24am GMT on 6th Jun
at some point you will run out of room.

juju said @ 10:29am GMT on 6th Jun
I want to ask what kind of "things," and yet I'm afraid to....

foobar said @ 12:42pm GMT on 6th Jun
I'm betting it's hawt prawns.

Omegaphobic said @ 3:28pm GMT on 6th Jun
Dead hookers?

sythe said @ 9:46pm GMT on 6th Jun
Only in the bedsprings.

-_- said @ 12:42am GMT on 7th Jun [Score:1 Hot Pr0n]
Well, in my Victorian I sealed up a 3ft tall glazed chalk statue of a smiling pot bellied rat in the space beneath the stairs :)
sometimes I put a creepy old doll between the studs in a wall or I'll write things in odd little corners like under a cabinet or behind a shelving unit I attach to the house as a built in.
Someday I want to build a doll house into a wall with windows facing into the room, wiring it for light and movement would be a plus ;)

theolypse said @ 7:30am GMT on 7th Jun
Man.

I thought I was playing -less- crazy than usual. I am starting to believe that impossible.