The Mafia New Game Announcement & Sandbox Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Mafia New Game Announcement & Sandbox Thread

George Kansas: Sep 1, 2008; preface all my posts with this

Welcome to the Mafia New Game Announcement Thread!
^{^{(Here's a link to the Mafia Discussion Thread.)}}

What is Mafia?

Mafia (also known as Werewolf) is a party game of social deduction, in the vein of Town of Salem or Among Us, that has been adapted to a play-by-post forums game. Mafia games usually have two factions: Town make up the uninformed majority of the players, do not know each other�s identities or roles, and cannot communicate outside the thread. Mafia (commonly called Scum in the SA forums) are an informed minority of players that can coordinate outside the thread, and are able to kill other players at night. Both town and mafia players can have additional powers.

After signing up to play, players are assigned a role (via a Role PM) by the Moderator, who is the person in charge of coordinating the game and writing the underlying story. Roles are usually private and sharing them verbatim is not allowed.

Most games nowadays are run using Discord for communication with both the mod and with other players. You will probably be asked to join a Discord group prior to starting play, so be sure to have an account!

Games have two phases:

● Day phase: All players debate in thread and try to reach a consensus about eliminating a living player. Eliminations happen by majority vote; if a consensus is not reached before the end of the day, no elimination will happen. Votes are registered by the votefinder bot, and need to be formatted in the ##vote [playername] (bolded) format. You can also retract your vote using ##unvote. To change your vote to another player, you usually just need to vote again, but you also might be asked to unvote prior to voting someone else � always check the OP of your game to make sure of the system being used!

● Night phase: Threads are usually closed. If open, players will not be allowed to vote, and may be asked to not discuss the game, at the moderator�s discretion. During night phase, mafia players will be allowed to attempt to kill a player, removing them from the game. Night actions that are part of roles will also take place during that time.

Both Day and Night phases have deadlines that are set by the moderator. Always check those carefully; once a deadline is reached, no more actions can be input, and the game will proceed to the next phase.
Game ends when one of the factions reaches their win condition. Typically, for town players this will involve removing any threats to town; for mafia players, they will need to control the majority of the vote. Some players may have additional win conditions that will be specified in their role PM.

What is this thread for?

Listing new Mafia games, and acting as a quick reference guide! Please note, as per any other non-game Mafia threads :siren:

Don�t comment on any ongoing mafia games here :siren:

Be also sure to check General Mafia Discussion thread for general discussion about mafia games, rules, strategies and general mafia chat. Feel free to ask anything you want to know about playing or modding, or ask about future games, if there are none open. You can also join the SA Mafia Discord (for mafia game planning and quick questions) for new game notifications.

General tips

● Signing up for a game
You can sign up for games by posting in a thread that is currently recruiting players. Most games are announced in both this thread and the Announcement thread, so if you want to play, check those up! If there are no games open at the moment, feel free to ask in this thread - sometimes mods will have a game ready that they are planning to drop soon.
If you want to play, but are not sure of how it works, feel free to ask any questions in this thread, or contact the mod for information!
Always read the OP of the game you are joining. Some games will be simpler, while others will have more complex or custom rules. Again, when in doubt, contact the mod and ask them if the game will be fine for a new player. Most SA games are accessible to newcomers, and mods will be happy to explain away any doubts you may have before or after signing.

● During the game
First rule is - have fun! This is a social manipulation game. There will be times you will be pressed, suspected, or accused of lying, but you should try to take it as lightly as possible. There are many reasons that can lead to being suspected, including other players not being on your side! Dying in Mafia is also not a big deal, since there will always be more games to play. Your death can also end up helping your side, even if you don�t think so at the time - you never know!

● Do not talk about an ongoing game outside of the game thread or designated game communication channels. This is a very important rule that all threads will have, no exceptions, and it will be enforced. Even if you are dead, don�t post in any public threads about how the game went or what role you got. After you die, you will usually be given a way to chat privately with other dead players and observers, should you wish to comment, but it is not a given. Games do rely on secrecy to work, so don�t spoil the fun for everyone, or you will probably not be allowed to play anymore.

● Communicate with your mod. They are there to help you play. If you have any doubts about how your role plays, how the game mechanics work, or anything of the sort, always ask them!

● Always remember to be civil. You are playing with other people. Things getting heated from time to time are not unusual during a game, but any personal attacks on other players are extremely not OK. If you feel that you are not taking things well, take a break from playing and return later.

● When in doubt, always post. Do not lurk. You may not be confident in reading the other players� intentions, but posting your thoughts will always help them read you. If you are not sure who is scum, you can at least make sure the other players have enough readable material from you to make them think you are not scum. Lurking in a mafia game is also extremely frowned upon. Most games will have a minimum amount of posts, typically ranging from 10-20, that need to be made during a game day. Real life also happens - if for some reason you are unable to play at a given time, always contact the mod about it.

● Remember that people can lie. Taking everyone�s word as gospel is not a good idea in a Mafia setting. Scum players are liable to be lying on principle, and there are valid reasons for someone to be withholding information as any alignment.

● Odd alignment and role combinations exist. Just because someone claims to be an oddly specific or dodgy sounding role, does not mean they are lying, or that they share your alignment!

● Don�t feel bad about making mistakes. Everyone, from newbies to experienced players, gets fooled sometimes. There is an old saying that goes �everyone is bad at Mafia� . If you get played by someone else, that is just part of the game!

George Kansas fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Apr 17, 2023

# ? Sep 24, 2015 15:39

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 23:51

George Kansas: Sep 1, 2008; preface all my posts with this

Common Mafia terms and abbreviations

● Town - A player who is part of the uninformed majority. Town players do not know each other�s alignment and, except for some specific cases, cannot communicate outside the thread.
● Mafia (Scum) - A player who is part of the informed minority. Mafia players know each other�s identities and can communicate collectively outside the thread.
● Third party (3p, Self-aligned) - A player whose win condition does not align with that of Town or Mafia players.
● Masonry/Masons - Two or more players of any alignment that are allowed to communicate outside the thread. Can be confirmed if the Mod reveals the masons� alignment to each other, or unconfirmed if not.
● Vanilla - A player that has no powers apart from voting.
● Role madness (Role heavy) - A game that will have everyone or almost everyone have an action they can take, as opposed to being vanilla.
● Lunch (Launch, Execute, Eliminate, Yeet) - Removing someone from the game by majority vote during the day. The term �lynch� is frowned upon and seldom used due to unpleasant connotations. Nowadays, use of the other terms in parenthesis in its place is also heavily encouraged.
● Hammer - The final vote that reaches majority, aka �dropping the hammer� on someone. This causes the Day phase to end, and some mods may request that all players stop posting at hammer. (If you are the one hammered, you should absolutely stop posting immediately.)
● EoD - End of day. Typically used in reference to actions that resolve after hammer.
● Flip - When the moderator posts the role/alignment details of a player who has died, aka �flipping the role card�.
● Night Kill (NK) - Removing someone from play during Night phase by killing them. Typically the scum team will have a shared NK that anyone in the team can perform, but other killing roles may exist.
● X-shot - Refers to an ability that can only be used X times.
● Bus - From �throwing under the bus�, refers to a situation where scum players knowingly vote or campaign for the elimination of a teammate. Not to be confused with �Busdriving� , an unrelated night action.
● Win condition (Wincon) - Your condition for winning the game. Typically for town this is �remove all threats to town,� and for scum this is �gain unassailable control of the vote.� Always play to your win condition!
● Lylo (Exlo, ELO, VOLO, YOLO) - �Lunch or Lose� (also known as Exlo or ELO for �Execute or Lose� or VOLO for "Vote out or lose" or YOLO for "Yeet or lose"), referring to a situation where the players must vote someone out that day, or scum are likely to win through gaining control of the vote after another Night Kill. As is the case with "lunch", for LYLO and MYLO abbreviatures in parenthesis are heavily encouraged in its place!
● Mylo (MELO, MVLO) - �Mislunch and Lose�, referring to a situation where executing a town player is likely to result in an immediate scum victory. (Remember, sometimes executing no one at all can be a preferred outcome!)

Common Mafia roles

As a reference, below is a quick, simplified list of roles that can be found in Mafia games. This list is nowhere near comprehensive. Not all games will have all or even most of those, and a lot of variants, combinations or custom roles can also exist in a given game! If you are not sure how your given role should work, always ask your mod.

■ Protective roles

● Doctor - Protects one person from a night kill. Typically cannot target themselves or the same person twice in a row.
● Bodyguard - A weaker version of a doctor, where if they successfully protect another player they die instead. (e.g. throwing themselves in front of the bullet)

■ Investigative roles

● Cop - Finds out their target�s alignment (or simply �SCUM�/�NOT SCUM�).
● Gunsmith - Finds out if their target has the ability to kill at night. (note that this does not necessarily indicate alignment!)
● Tracker - Finds out who their target visited at night, if anyone.
● Watcher - Finds out who visited their target, if anyone.

■ Disruptive roles

● Roleblocker - Causes another person�s night action to fail.
● Jailor - Causes another person�s night action to fail, and causes all other actions targeting that person to fail. (Note: There are multiple interpretations of this role - when in doubt, confirm with your moderator!)
● Redirector/Bus Driver - Redirects another person�s night action to a different target of their choosing, or causes two people�s night actions to target each other. The action is usually referred to as a redirection or �busdrive�.

■ Passive roles

● Bulletproof - Protected from being killed at night. Note that this is usually X-shot, and you may or may not find out when it�s been expended - ask your moderator.
● Stump - May continue posting after being killed, but may not vote.
● Godfather - A mafia player that will return a result of �NOT SCUM� or equivalent if targeted by a Cop.
● Miller - A town player that will return a result of �SCUM� or equivalent if targeted by a Cop.
● Survivor - Has an alternative win condition to survive until the end of the game, and can win with any faction.

■ Killing roles

● Poisoner - Their target will die the following night. (Typically, a Doctor protection or equivalent on that night will save their target from death)
● Ninja - Will not be seen while performing the kill. (Applies to Tracker/Watcher and equivalent)
● Juggernaut (Strongman) - Cannot be stopped while performing the kill. (Applies to Doctor/Jailor/Roleblocker/etc.)
● Vigilante - A town-aligned player who can kill. Typically X-shot.
● Serial Killer - A self-aligned player who can kill, typically with a win condition to be the last one left alive.

Modding A Game: Dos and Don'ts and What Am I Even Doing (original post by EccoRaven)

So you want to mod a game of mafia! The most important thing to know is the basics: how the mechanics of different roles work and how they affect each other in tandem. For instance, a Cop is a standard town role, as well as a Doctor. But if the Cop claims, the Doctor can protect the Cop while the Cop investigates and clears players, meaning the Mafia can only stop the Cop once they find and stop the Doctor! This makes the game a lot harder for the Mafia than the moderator might have otherwise intended. However, giving the Mafia a Roleblocker or Godfather are helpful ways to organize the game so that, in case the Cop and Doc team up, the Mafia aren't left totally high and dry.

Ultimately you want a game that's balanced: a game where everyone has an equal chance of winning the game through roles alone, meaning players win or lose based solely on luck and skill. General pointers and balancing strategies:

The Mafia are always at an inherent advantage over the town because they alone already know everyone's alignment and have a team of players upon whom to rely. One Goon should be considered the equivalent of 2 or 3 Vanilla Townies for balancing purposes.
It can be tempting to fill your game with plenty of roles and powers, but doing so makes the game a lot more chaotic, making it that much harder to keep a game balanced.
Beware roles working in tandem; the above Cop-Doc combo is one example, but a Watcher-Doc combo can be even more devastating for the Mafia without the proper counters.
It is common practice to give the Mafia a role to dodge each town power role: a Roleblocker against a Doctor, a Godfather against a Cop, etc. Be careful with this however, since if you essentially nullify all the town's power roles, the Mafia - with their inherent advantage over the town - will steamroll the game.
Ask yourself: "what if everything goes absolutely right for the town. How quickly would the game be over? What if for the scum?" If your answer is "the game could end before Day 3," your setup is probably not balanced. Dumb down some of the power roles or take a mafioso or two away.
Also try to avoid a game that "plays itself." It's hard to describe what that is precisely, but it's easy to describe what it's not. Player agency should be tantamount: the game should be decided based on what the players do, the alliances they form, the posts they make and the cases they produce. If a game lacks agency - if players are just following roles to their inevitable conclusions - it's a less fun game.
Finally, don't be afraid to experiment! Especially if you're a newer mod, people will be very forgiving if you make an imbalanced game, even more so if they had a lot of fun playing it. Without experimentation games get dull and repetitive. But the best game is one that has new elements combined with solid, predictable balance, and a healthy number of vanilla townies round out the setup.

● Other modding notes

● When designing a game, you may want to take into account the type of setup you are aiming for. More vanilla games tend to favor scum players, who find themselves unchecked by the town. Power-heavy games will favor town, as they get a bigger array of tools to box scum in. No matter the type of game, roles should aim to balance both sides in.

● There are a number of small, fixed traditional setups that can be appropriate for a first-time mod, such as C9 (for nine players - 2 Mafia, 0-1 cop, 0-1 doc, 3-5 vanilla town players) or F11 (for eleven players, four fixed variants).

● Modding/Co-modding help

If you feel like you need a bit more help in designing your game, or you want a more experienced mod to take a look at your setup and check for any balance issues, feel free to ask! You can do so in the thread, and below is also a list of experienced mods that are up to helping you with questions or acting as co-mods for your setup.

○ Grandicap
○ Yami Fenrir
○ Opopanax
○ Somberbrero
○ CapitalistPig

Community Stuff and Resources

○ For Players

○ The Mafia New Game Sandbox & Announcement Thread - Use this thread to find new games that are looking for players, or to announce your game.
○ MafiaScum Wiki - Another Mafia Wiki with useful information (please note - some roles in there may differ from their SA implementation!)
○ Spreadsheet with some more roles (common and uncommon)
○ General SA Mafia Discord for chatting about various things!
○ A more lightweight SA Mafia Discord for new game notifications, planning and questions about games!

○ For Mods

○ VoteFinder - Tracks votes happening in thread and allows mods to register living and dead players and spectators, get a list of players, set deadlines and other utilities. Can also be used to post a list of current votes in the thread.
○ Random.org - Allows to create RNG lists, useful to assign roles to players prior to game start.
○ Time Zone Converter - Easy conversion between time zones. While most Mafia players are from North America, not everyone is, so being mindful of time zones is always appreciated!

○ For Help with Discord

○ Step-by-step instructions to setting up your Discord server for a Mafia game (in .pdf format)
○ A Discord Mafia server template with moderator/observer/unspoiled/player roles set up and basic channels with permissions, based on the above. Just clic it to activate it - will ask for a name and image, and net you a basic, hopefully working, server for your game that you can edit and mess up with.

George Kansas fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Apr 17, 2023

# ? Sep 24, 2015 15:39

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

other jargon that may be helpful to new players: the "flip" is when a player dies and the mod reveals their alignment. such a player is said to be "flipped." This often the only way alignment is truly confirmed. "Claim" is word that has specific meaning in a game, it means to identify what your own role is. A "softclaim" is an allusion to having a role, a "hardclaim" is specifically saying that you have a role.

# ? Sep 24, 2015 17:01

Lumpen: Apr 2, 2004; I'd been happy, and I was happy still. For all to be accomplished,
for me to feel less lonely,
all that remained to hope
was that on the day of my execution
there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should
greet me with howls of execration.; Plaster Town Cop

Let's try SLACK! This is a new experimental Mafia game experience and I need 13 brave volunteers. Rather than being played on the forum, this game instead will play out over the team communication platform Slack. There can be multiple communication and discussion channels, emoji reactions to posts, automated statistics, indexing of namedrops, searchable text, and who knows what other new ways to play will emerge...

Players should install the Slack app on their mobile devices, and use the slack page to play. I have no experience with Slack and I have no idea whether it will be awesome or terrible as a platform for Mafia! There's no better way to find out than to just try.

Slack Mafia #1 is a flavorless open-setup Mafia game for 13 players. There will be a Town Cop, a Town Doctor, 8 Vanilla Townies, a Scum Godfather, a Scum Roleblocker, and a Scum Goon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zVzWU95Sw

Signup thread is here!

Lumpen fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Sep 25, 2015

# ? Sep 24, 2015 17:36

EccoRaven: Aug 15, 2004; there is only one hell:
the one we live in now

I am announcing a new

:coffeepal:

ECCO GAME :coffeepal:

A thread will be made and signups will be taken on Monday of next week. Since it's me it'll probably start sometime Q1 2016.

The theme is "dragons."

It will probably be a big game but it might be a mini stay tuned.

# ? Sep 24, 2015 17:48

Rarity: Oct 21, 2010; ~*4 LIFE*~

Captain Foo posted:

other jargon that may be helpful to new players: the "flip" is when a player dies and the mod reveals their alignment. such a player is said to be "flipped." This often the only way alignment is truly confirmed. "Claim" is word that has specific meaning in a game, it means to identify what your own role is. A "softclaim" is an allusion to having a role, a "hardclaim" is specifically saying that you have a role.

Perhaps a vocab section in the OP would be useful?

# ? Sep 24, 2015 17:57

Lumpen: Apr 2, 2004; I'd been happy, and I was happy still. For all to be accomplished,
for me to feel less lonely,
all that remained to hope
was that on the day of my execution
there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should
greet me with howls of execration.; Plaster Town Cop

Rarity posted:

Perhaps a vocab section in the OP would be useful?

lynch (lĭnch)
v. To execute without due process of law, especially to hang, as by a mob.
etymology
1835, from earlier Lynch law (1811), likely named after William Lynch (1742-1820) of Pittsylvania, Virginia, who c. 1780 led a vigilance committee to keep order there during the Revolution. Other sources trace the name to Charles Lynch (1736-1796) a Virginia magistrate who fined and imprisoned Tories in his district c. 1782, but the connection to him is less likely. Originally any sort of summary justice, especially by flogging; narrowing of focus to "extralegal execution by hanging" is 20c. Lynch mob is attested from 1838.

This is the word we use in Mafia to describe the removal of a player from the game at the end of a game day, usually by majority vote.

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:09

imgay: May 12, 2014; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Very informative thread, rated 5

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:14

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Rarity posted:

Perhaps a vocab section in the OP would be useful?

Probably!!

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:17

EccoRaven: Aug 15, 2004; there is only one hell:
the one we live in now

Rarity posted:

Perhaps a vocab section in the OP would be useful?

I think the wiki covers most common vocab really well, and I suspect Foo just wanted to make a first post without saying "first post yeah woo."

Lumpen posted:

lynch (lĭnch)

Note also that many players also use variations like "execution," "hang," and the humorous "plorp" and "cuddle", since the word "lynch" has a lot of really nasty racial baggage, especially in a US context.

=====

I have a genuine question about alignment-changing roles and I am wondering if you all can help me. As a mod whose games more resembles stories than games, I like alignment-changing roles very much, but it seems to be mixed reaction from players. Some are okay with them, others hate them a lot. I know the few times I've changed alignment it's affected me in different ways depending on a few factors. What would be the best way - if any - for you to have an alignment-changing role be palatable?

Generally I try to keep alignment-changes some variation of:
- In addition to your original win condition (e.g. someone becomes an original-alignment survivor);
- One that is not inherently exclusive to your original condition (e.g. a vanilla town becoming an SK);
- A result of the player's actions in-game;
- Can "wear off" after a time or event (e.g. a player dying returns to their original alignment);
- If recruited, severely limited in focus (e.g., recruitments on power roles are just a normal nightkill, certain vanillas are protected, etc.)

I know many people take a hard-line stance against alignment-changers and it's very understandable why. But if there is a way to "do" them that most people can enjoy, I would like to figure it out.

What have been your experiences with alignment-changers?!

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:19

Asiina: Apr 26, 2011; No going back; Grimey Drawer

Additions that don't change the original alignment may be alright but add something extra might be alright, but I hate outright alignment changes. It can really mess with the game and town's strongest weapon of going back to look for connections. You don't know when someone changed and what that change did to them, so it makes things very difficult. A specific example I can only sorta remember is Ernie being town and changing to scum, but I could not believe that scum Ernie would behave a certain way D1 and D2, and I was right, since he wasn't scum then.

If you're going to have true alignment change it needs to be announced as a mechanic at the beginning of the game so town can adjust, but I still would prefer it not existing at all.

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:31

Pinterest Mom: Jun 9, 2009

Asiina posted:

You don't know when someone changed and what that change did to them, so it makes things very difficult. A specific example I can only sorta remember is Ernie being town and changing to scum, but I could not believe that scum Ernie would behave a certain way D1 and D2, and I was right, since he wasn't scum then.

That was Secret Invasion! Scum got to flip a townie instead of the nk every other night. It kinda made the game unwinnable for town.

Ernie was a public daycop who had outed a scum, so he was very strongly confirmed as town, and him getting flipped to scum was really unfair. He became an insane public daycop when flipped. :v:

Pinterest Mom fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Sep 24, 2015

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:37

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

How would you feel about some sort of ambiguous mod announcement when it happened, perhaps tied into flavor? This would indicate that something happened to that player, but not necessarily what.

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:38

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

EccoRaven posted:

I think the wiki covers most common vocab really well, and I suspect Foo just wanted to make a first post without saying "first post yeah woo."

i did want to firstpost but i was also addressing a couple of things that came up in the previous game i played, which had a bunch of new players in it!

# ? Sep 24, 2015 18:39

EccoRaven: Aug 15, 2004; there is only one hell:
the one we live in now

Asiina posted:

It can really mess with the game and town's strongest weapon of going back to look for connections.

Agreed, though I think balance is a separate (but intimately related) issue to "is it fun for the player." Though something like this:

Pinterest Mom posted:

That was Secret Invasion! Scum got to flip a townie instead of the nk every other night. It kinda made the game unwinnable for town.

at a glance seems like a great way for it to be fun for nobody and super unbalanced.