OK standard opening - all current players of Pod People Mafia - go away
All others and dead players welcome for wild speculation and the like, please no spoilers if you are an ex player.
OK standard opening - all current players of Pod People Mafia - go away
All others and dead players welcome for wild speculation and the like, please no spoilers if you are an ex player.
Right first off welcome.
Second off, that was a surprise , a recruitment game, I have seen comments in the past to the effect that some people are very strongly opposed to recruitment games so it will be entertaining to see how that pans out.
Two investigative roles, two protection type roles and the nosy reporter who can confirm 5 people out of the 17 playing, that's quite powerful although balanced by the fact most of them can be recruited.
Completely open set up - so at least there will be plenty of discussion on day one on balance and the mass claim.
Balance was my main concern. I enlisted the very kind help of CatInASuit and also my sister who is a mathematician to help me determine balance. The human element, though, was something I couldn't control for.
I was warned lots of people don't like recruitment games, so I'm pleased at the turnout. I'm also delighted to have a number of new players mixed in with the veterans.
I bet I'm going to be surprised by the variables in this game--how these roles are put into practice.
This one looks really interesting, with an excellent setup. I think that as a recruitment game with mainly new players it could be fun and it looks pretty balanced as well.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I would only want to play this game if I was the MM alien or whatnot, otherwise, I think it's too frustrating.
I'm calling this game for the Pod People to win it. Right here right now.
"Dude, your statistical average, which was already in the toilet, just took a plunge into the Earth's mantle." ~ iampunha
Too frustrating because it has recruitment or for some other reason?
My guess is becuase of the recruitment, but I am going to call the game for town instead. I find that recruitment games rarely work well for the team with the recruit.
I am looking forward to watching this one though. Mafia is still one of my favorite spectator sports.
Day 1 has begun, so we'll see what carnage awaits.
Just wondering what happens if the MPP picks the nosy reporter for his list. As the nosy reporter can't be recruited I guess it is a lost recruitment, but would the lack of recruitment for that person give the MPP a clue that the target was the nosy reporter. I suppose lack of recruitment that night could be due to the mad scientist.
I guess the power roles loose their power when recruited. I think they should be able to fake their roles easily enough as there is little external confirmation. The only one that might be an issue is the town drunk communicating with the Reporter, if it is the TD PMing the reporter and the TD loses his power when he is recruited , do the PMs continue? If not the NR will know the TD has been recruited.
Not going to make an early call on this, I think the town has plenty of investiagtoon and protection, I just wonder with the single day lynch, will they be able to keep up with loosing two townies a night to recruitment and the kill.
Going to be interesting to see how people handle being recruited and if there are any serious 'attitude switches' when it happens.
Ooh I remember this argument. I ended up arguing against the entire town until Blaster showed up in the one recruitment game I've played.
In recruitment you are less playing against scum and more against time. If you can kill the recruiter early you are almost ensured victory. If the recruiter is alive and well Day 7 you don't have a chance. The foremost concern needs to be how do we have the best chance of taking out the recruiter as soon as possible. Everything else, including power roles, pails in comparison. A Day 1 no lynch should be a non-starter. Town has a 1/12 shot of lynching the MPP day 1, since no power role should ever be lynched in this game. They need to take that shot.
This game looks good and is making them at least think about what they are doing. A lot of the usual conventions are not going to apply as well.
If I was a vanilla townie, I would be almost tempted to self sacrifice on Day 1. It protects a power role and there is always a possiblity that I had been recruited.
If sonmeone does not get recruited overnight, I would guess on them dying the next Night.
Any chance of getting spoilers and scum board access?
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I'm not familiar with conventional spoilering protocols. I have no objection to giving spoilers. I'm guessing people would PM me for the info? If you do, tell me what level of spoilerage you're looking for.Originally posted by CatInASuit
That works for me.
I agree with CIAS. If I were a VT, I'd feel a strong desire to sacrifice myself to protect power roles in the first few days. If I were MPP, I'd be biting my fingernails a lot.
I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.
[modhat:k9vk8b74]Inner Stickler's last post was deleted at Julie's request. I did so because I am not playing this game and have no dog in the fight, so to speak. Happy gaming![/modhat:k9vk8b74]
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"
IS's post included information that was included in my spoiler PM but not meant to be made available to players in the game, so I requested that MsRobyn delete it for me.
Just so everyone knows what's going on.
That's fair enough. We do not want spoiler information in this thread or in fact in any of the forums.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Oh this game would have my head in a bind if I were playing, the constant niggle in the back of the head of 'have i been recruited, do I have to prepare for it?' would have driven me nuts by now, but in a good way.
Anyone think Angel of the Norths volunteering for a lynch is a good plan. She has reduced the pool in which the MPP has to hunt for power roles, if everyone follows on there wont be a lot of information from voting (although there may not be much anyway). If it is to save a power role from being outed, well I am not sure if outing a power role is such a bad thing if they do have to claim to avoid a lynch. The outed role should be safe as no scum will target them with a doc arouned (Ok Sherrif in this case) and it gives the doc some opportunity to wifom the scum out of a night kill.
Agree with Post 152 from LuciferSmith, although will he follow it up with actual discussion of strategy.
In other random thoughts, has there ever been a game (or is it even possible from a game design standpoint) where a no lynch on day one is an optimal strategy for town?
I think Angel of the North's idea is actually quite sound. As it provides info, but it should be left for later on as the last thing the town needs is for talk to stop while they wait to lynch someone. The only way they will spot the MPP or later recruits is by seeing how their talk changes over time.
I don't think we have had a game where a Day 1 no-lynch is the right play, if only because the towns needs the info and it sets a trend for later patterns.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Did you have a board in which you built your game on? Traditionally designers use a message board, usually proboards, to design the game on. The board can also be used to set-up scum, mason or other boards. Spoiling people usually means giving them a link to that board and to any other boards the game uses. The board will contain allr elevant information of the game. This also allows you have to have a spoilered thread letting people who do what is happening to discuss the events of the game without revealing it to anyone else.Originally posted by Julie
I seem to have misunderstood the rules a bit. To clarify at this point the MPP is pretty much just a godfather right? The MPP can no longer recruit and recruiters still become scum even if the MPP is lynched right? So this less a recruitment game and more one where the godfather gets to pick his team. An interesting concept and one I might consider using though probably without the delayed joining part. The delayed conversion isn't too important as the they will all be scum for the end game (unless you have some really long delays). I do think you had a bit too much randomness in the set-up though. A difference of up two scums based on who the MPP happens to pick is a huge swing.
So while the MPP is less important than I initially thought, I still believe town should focus their attention there. Any other plan, including a no lynch, and a lynch the claiming vanilla is just silly. Random lynch is okay. At least that gives them a shot at the MPP. Pede is right. They need to forget about power roles and just worry about finding scum. They are telegraphing their votes too much as well. If you say I'm going to vote for the lurker makes it pretty easy to not get your vote.
Well day one and a vanilla town dies.
Bit worried this rule may cause scum problems
"Pod People: I will reveal of the status of your recruitment to you as soon as I can after I have received of the relevant Power role PMs. After your discussion, please send me a PM of the player you wish to Night kill."
If town roles are late, deliberately or otherwise, the scum won't have much time to talk to discuss strategy with the new recruit, although can't see anyway around this with the mad scientist inoculation short of forcing the mad scientist to act early or giving the scum a short grace period after the mad scientist actions.
I guess another way to handle that would be to make the mad scientist inoculation a day time activity - so he picks someone at any point prior to the lynch (and if he inoculates a lynch character too bad). As soon as night falls the conversion to full scum happens (unless inoculated), so converted power roles loose the power there and then. Then the night investigation is performed (so if both drunk and psychiatrist investigate the recruit on the psyc gets the result at dawn), the night protect (if sheriff was recruited that night protection doesn't happen) and then the night kill occurs. At crack of dawn investigation results distributed as appropriate to those still alive.
Just my tuppence worth.
Ah , well I see Julie already planned on the grace period, so never mind my waffle, although I still think the day inoculation would help.
I think Angel's play was a pretty smart one, too. Plus even though they didn't go through with it, there's some interesting stuff on the record which can be used to good effect later.
I think Rabid Ren's defense of random voting was pretty weird. But I don't see the MPP going out on a limb like that either.
I think the most interesting thing about a lot of the games recently has been looking at how inexperienced and 'differently-experienced' players can really ruffle feathers, sometimes with good effect.
glad to see Ive still got the knack of getting lynched day one
Good luck with this game Julie!
I have a question: the rules suggest that newly-made Pod people can 'recruit'. Does that mean that each newly-made Pod can drag a Townie to the Master Pod Person on the same night?
My motto is "Never apologise, never explain."
Sorry, I should say that I got that from Colin Hoult...
I obviously wasn't as convinced that AotN's sacrifice was a sound move. What made her think that she was a likely recruit? Because it's so well known that she prefers playing Scum? I'm pretty sure most of the players don't know her. Additionally, if they DID know that, wouldn't that give them extra incentive to NOT pick her?
But, obviously some of you disagree with me. Maybe I'm just not so good at playing this recruiting type game. I did hate that my discussion yesterDay was mostly based on differences in playing style, but that's all I had to go on.
2 points:
If 1) AotN loves playing Scum and hates playing Town and 2) She thinks she's a viable recruit to the Scum side, then why does she want to die? It seems she's convinced she'd get her chance to play Scum, no? And so she'd want to be in the game.
How did she not see the new Day thread when the links are posted right in the old threads? Was she not reading the old threads?Originally posted by Zsofia
I'm not sure where the rules are misleading you, but no. Only the MPP can recruit, and the MPP's list is already made.Originally posted by glee
Gah! I died!
Well, it was a short run, but a fun one. Hopefully this game wont need another sub, but I am available if the need arises (esp. since I was lynched in my other Mafia game).
Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.
Oh great. I die, and then the game gets interesting.
Will we see a counterclaim? I think it's possible.
Assuming Vox is telling the truth...
Ulla can't counterclaim very effectively - the accusation has been laid against her, and claiming will look like a desperate attempt at self preservation. Even if she really is the Psycho-Anal. it would look bad. The MPP would not like to falsely claim under any circumstances, so that just leaves the third Pod person, if there is one. If there are only two active Scum, they would probably write Ulla off as a loss.
Of course, if Vox is lying the Town will find out after lynching Ulla, but by then the real Psycho-Anal. might have counterclaimed.
Of course, this might be some bizarre gambit on part of the Scum. Vox may be the real Psycho-Anal., but has been podded already. If that's the case he may be buying Town cred by outing fellow pod person Ulla. Or maybe this is just designed to sow confusion into the Town and create another mislynch...
I don't know. I find it strange that Vox just dived in and claimed without any discussion from the rest of Town. Mybe the Scum saw this coming and already discussed it some earlier Night, or maybe he is just a little too eager. Either way, if he is lying the truth will come out quickly. If he is lying I think the real Pyscho-Anal. should stay quiet - a lie like this invalidates itself very quickly.
Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.
What a fascinating Day.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Well quite an uptick in activity after a few quiet days, although given the set up , it was always going to be a quiet few days.
I have to go with Vox telling the truth, a scum would really have no reason to expose themselves and accuse Ulla. If Vox is scum and they had tried to recruit Ulla and she really is the TD, then scum would know they picked an unrecruitable role, or she was inoculated. Risking one scum to get her lynched is madness when thy could do it at low risk with a NK. Unless the mad scientist is going to inoculate the same person every night , if she doesn't join the scum board they the second night they would go ahead and kill her.
Vox may not have handled the reveal particularly with the comments of 'no need discuss the lynch and lets talk about the next investigation' I'd say bad/inexperienced play rather than scummy behavior.
I'd be taking a closer look at Lucifer jumping on that comment more closely if I were town later in the game.
From the Ulla side, I don't buy the mix up , she said
So I'm only going to get a "result" if I investigates Pod People.
Where as the role pm says
The TD cannot detect Pods once they have replaced the Recruits.
So if she really did make up the 'enable/unable' misunderstanding, I don't see how she could have misunderstood the 'TD cannot detect pods' line so that would have lead he to the conclusion the TD cannot detect anyone at all.
I say she skimmed the role when looking for an out and made a huge mistake which Special ed picked up on, and she had very little out other than a claim of 'made a mistake reading the role PM' which wouldn't be the first time Scum has tried that.
Angel of the North came out and has pretty much exposed her own role (NR or TD) with the one line emphatic statement that Ulla is lying.
She is too new into the role to be scum and have discussed anything at night and coordinated with other scum. I wonder if any one will try to force her to claim and justify the statement - I suspect most players will leave it alone with a tacit understanding of what she may be.
Now is Special Ed throwing Ulla under a bus with his spot of Ullas misreading of the role PM? Is he scum and knew Ulla was doomed at some point so figured he would get some town cred. I doubt it, but I bet that get brought up later.
Ok so the Nosy Reporter knows who the Town Drunk is, but does the Town Drunk know who the Nosy Reporter is - it says the NR checks in with the TD, but I think our mod said that was just colour, indicating the TD does not know who the NR is.
So TU has questioned AON statements - I mean seriously woulds a scum just come out and make a flat out statement like AONs, knowing it would attract attention to themselves. Ulla is just trying to generate some more discussion and distraction.
I don't understand Sublights suspicion of Special ed, "special ed was too quick to call Ulla on her glaring mistake'. Come on when two people both claim same investigation mechanisms but different roles what exactly are other people supposed to do , give it a 24 hr cooling down period and file an action at the small claims court on form F11.2.21 within one month of the alleged loss?
Ulla Sublight and Lucifer are on my list FWIW (although I have a habit of always voting for town to get lynched if I don't explicitly know better)
I didn't make the misunderstanding up and I'm sorry I even mentioned it.
Julie - I'm thinking of running more mini-games on idlemafia and Giraffe in the future. Would you mind if I borrowed the set-up form this game? I could call the Mini-Julie-Mafia in tribute of you?
Of course I don't mind. Awesome.Originally posted by Total Ulla
I saw you found you way to idlemafia - if you what to do it as a mini yourself, just let me know!Originally posted by Julie
The set-up is so cool and I think the great thing about mini-games is, it allows us to test new ways of playing mafiagames.
Not again - I die, then a battle of claims goes on.
For one thing, sublight has a point. Kat may have been recruited. But I'm going to call bullshit of sublight's Sheriff claim. His argument seems predicated on the idea that 1) the pods somehow knew he was the Sheriff, 2) that the pods need, or at least want, to get rid of him now, rather than later, and 3) that the pods would be willing to sacrifice a pod who is seen as more likely to be Town than others to grab him. It doesn't hold up.
I just hope that the real Sheriff doesn't counterclaim - this is, the way I see it, a Scum ploy to fish for that power role.
Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.
I see hawkeye is thinking the same as me.Originally posted by hawkeyeop
Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.
Well, that pretty much went as I expected. With all the suspicion that was falling on me on Day 4, this was pretty much inevitable.
Funny thing, though. I was town right up until the Night Kat analyzed me. So I was laughing a bit at how cowgirl and RR were crowing over having spotted out the changes in my posting style.
No cage, thank you. I'm a human being.
Well, that's it for me. That was fun!
Spoiler (mouseover to read):
I don't know what Kat is doing, but Special Ed is not a Pod Person! WTF???
Moderator note: let's put a spoiler box on that one to prevent temptation.
He's not?
Wow, WhyNot, you're brilliant! Especially on Thursdays!
no, I'm deadOriginally posted by Kat
Ed, my SIL was following along with the game and when the scum decided to kill you I called her up.
Me: "I have some bad news about the game."
Her: "Omigod, is it Ed? ARE THEY KILLING ED?!?!"
Well, that's a paraphrase, but close enough.
You had a fan club!