A Bridge Zhou Far - Three Stars Rising | SIGN UPS

**Subotan** · 06-01-2010, 00:00

Welcome!

A Bridge Zhou Far is a project that I concocted in the closing days of General Handkerchief’s excellent Pirate Ship Mafia, my first mafia game, and thus has a lot in common with it. All the mafia games I’d experienced up to that point (I.e. Just PSM) had multiple factions, an officers corps, group vigging/protections etc, so Early Modern China, with it’s countless factions, civil wars and foreign aggressors was the perfect place to transplant GH’s ideas to a mafia game, in an albeit Frankenstein-ian manner. That said, there are enough differences to ensure that this will be a very different experience to that of a swashbuckling adventure, although I of course hope that it will be just as entertaining.

I won’t post the opening post of the storyline at this point, as I would rather have all of the sign up’s in one thread, and all of the plots/lynches/murders in another.

SETTING:

There are two separate mafia gangs: The Kuomintang ([Chinese] Nationalists) and the Imperial Japanese Army. The KMT and IJA have both separately infiltrated the People’s Extraordinary Detachment, a black ops unit of the People’s Liberation Army, the military of the Chinese Communists. The Communists had by the point in the game been fighting a vicious civil war with the Kuomintang government, but Japanese invasion forced the two sides to unite to face the common enemy. There were still tensions, however, and it is within one of these tensions that the game takes place.

I would like to stress that unlike most mafia games, this is not a game of black vs. white. Rather, it is more of a slushy grey, akin to really dirty snow. Early Modern China was not a nice place, and not coincidentally, it was controlled and fought over by people who were not nice. The various Japanese war crimes in Shanghai and particularly Nanking are well known, as well as some of the more monstrous experiments in Unit 731. The Kuomintang were little better, causing mass famine and economic devastation in the areas under their control, For example, 80% of Sichuan province’s inhabitants, the biggest province by population, were addicted to opium. The Communists weren’t much better. We all know about the catastrophic disaster that was the Great Leap Forward, as well as the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.

But of course, it would be extremely unfair to say that there were no nice people in

China

. The vast majority of Chinese were just trying to survive from day to day, and there are rare examples, diamonds in the gloom, of people who acted according to their conscience, and for the greater good of the Chinese nation. You may choose to play like that. Or maybe not.

MECHANICS:

As aforementioned, there are several features which are similar to that in Pirate Ship Mafia.

OFFICERS

One is the Officers Corps system; the players will elect a Chairman to guide them through the battlefields of

China

and lead them towards a Marxist utopia. The Chairman is elected when there is a vacancy in the position, and there will certainly be an election at the start of the game. In the first election phase, there will be no lynch, only an election.

The Chairman is elected thus

Elect: Mao

If you wish to change your vote, you can do so by

Unelect: Mao; Elect: Deng

The candidate with the plurality of votes becomes Chairman. The Chairman picks four Officers to help aid him, and unlike the Chairman, they can vote in thread. They are: The Political Commissar, a cop (Who can also appoint a deputy to help him), the Medical Officer (Doc), the Director of Proletarian Justice (Roleblocker) and a “Special Operative” (???). Each of these officers has roles to do at night, and any player can become one…even mafia.

Should the Marxists realize that their Chairman is a traitor, or incompetent, then they may Revolt against him, in addition to their lynch orders. If a majority of players agree to Revolt, then the Chairman is deposed and executed, along with the lynch target of the day. Instead of then proceeding to a night phase, a new election is held.

GROUPS & CLIQUES
Another SIMILAR mechanic is that of groups. The town may form groups to kill or protect individuals at night. Only three players are required to protect individuals, whilst five are required to vig an individual.

A new feature is that of Cliques; should the same three people work together in a group three times in a row, then a Clique will be formed. These have extra powers during voting ties, and in the event of a revolt. They also reduce the threshold of people required to kill down to four players (Meaning you still need someone from outside the clique to help you). However, as always, the fear of mafia infiltration should be observed.

Kills will be slightly different than in PSM. All the players will have to specify with which weapon they wish to kill said player. Everyone has in their possession a Blade and a Firearm. When you vig someone, your group must say

I, along with miotas, ACIN, AVSM and Aemilius Paulus shall kill ATPG using knives.

Everyone MUST send in the same weapon, or the kill will be counted as invalid, and will not go ahead.

Certain players have a resistance to certain attacks. This is somewhat similar to Sigurd's Return of the Sith mechanic, but it is does not have as many attacks. For example, if ATPG is naturally skilled in knife combat, he will fend off his attackers, and maybe leave one of them with a nasty scar. But if ATPG is instead skilled in guns, then he will not survive the slicing and dicing that the EB Tavern would inflict upon him. If a kill attempt on a character fails, try again using a different weapon.

INCIDENTS
Another brand new feature is that of Incidents. To reflect the fact that this game will not exist in a bubble floating above [/spoil][spoil]China, the group will encounter problems and dilemmas which they must respond to. These will occur in the night phase, to help stimulate discussion in that typically silent period. For example, say there was a problem with a sick soldier slowing down the group. As the players will have a lot of scope in attempting to solve it, If Mao wanted to propose a solution, then he would say

Suggest: Leave him to die in the cold.

If a player was to agree with a certain plan he would post

Agree:Mao

If he changed his mind, he would post

Disagree:Mao ; Agree: Deng

A player can retract a suggestion by posting Unsuggest, and Suggesting a new, amended version of your plan. Suggesting one thing, getting people to agree with it and then unsuggesting it and suggesting a completely different plan at the last minute will not be tolerated.

Hopefully the above will be clearer when an Incident is in progress.

OTHER RULES

There is also a conversion mechanic, which allows the mafia to recruit traitorous Communists, and bring them into the fold of reactionary thought, so watch out if you're town. You do not have a choice in this, and all old loyalties to the working classes must be discarded.

No Lynch and Abstain are NOT allowed, because I'm spiteful.

On the dead, and other circumstances

Originally Posted by Seamus, via GH

The dead may post, but not vote/select nor carry out any night actions. Dead players may not reveal their roles publicly or privately and may not reveal their faction or role particulars either. Dead players may not quote from a PM unless that PM has been posted in the public thread by a living player. Dead players may not reveal, recount or allude to their previous night actions (or results thereof in the case of investigations) publicly or privately – even to confirm a previously made public or private reveal. Your participation must be circumspect, but your continued participation IS encouraged.

No screenshots may be used, from or to anyone, for ANY purpose – this includes during PMs. Feel free to quote from my Role PM’s to you or to fabricate as you see fit. Chatlog conversations may be referenced/quoted, but may not be copied via screenshot. Note: it can be difficult to maintain role secrecy during chat conversations.

"Suicide" will not be allowed in this game (it is possible to create an unplayable game with nothing but suicide pact challenges going on. This is not the intended mode of play for this game).
Players who must remove themselves from play for schedule reasons should send me a PM. I will then write them out of play.

Originally Posted by Seamus, via GH

Upon death, the Chairman will launch a full investigation of that individual to try to determine the reason they were killed. Though slow (results reported on the 3rd morning after death), their then-current role will be revealed. Unfortunately, the specific actions of that individual -- what they did with their role -- will remain a mystery (until the post-game!).

Although you are allowed to reveal, you are NOT allowed to quote your role PM’s; except for one thing. You may quote the quote that comes with every role PM. And should you be inactive for three phases in a row without informing me, or until I decide that you have been inactive enough, I shall WOG you.

And that’s it, essentially. I’m looking for forty players to join me in this fight for the very soul of China.

Sign ups: 40/40 -All Places are filled. You were just too slow.
ArpeggiateTHIS
Beefy187
Cultured Drizzt fan
Cute Wolf
Double A
Jolt
miotas
Psychonau
Secura
shlin28
Sigurd
Thermal Mercury
Romanic
Chaotix
Beskar
ACIN
autolycus
Death is yonder
Azathoth
Captain Blackadder
taka
Winston Hughes
Renata
johnhughthom
Pinman
Methos
Joooray
Niklas
AVSM
Sasaki
GeneralHankerchief
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
YLC
Wishazu
Seamus Fermanagh
Yaseikhaan
Nictel
landlubber
wideyedwanderer
TheFlax
M3YUZ

Tactical Reserves - 0

Reserve Deployed

Originally Posted by Comrade, Vanilla Townie PM

Your Role is:

Comrade (Townie)

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. ~ Karl Marx

Greetings Comrade! After toiling away for far too long in the rice paddies of China, with taxes sucking you dry to fuel the armies of first the warlords, then the Kuomintang, and now the Japanese, you’ve finally had enough. Communism’s promises have proven to be too much for you, with their promises of land reform and equality inspiring you, the humble peasant, to take a stand against the forces of decadent capitalism and immoral imperialism. Unfortunately, the People’s Extraordinary Detachment has been infiltrated by those very forces, and even your closest comrades could be counter-revolutionaries! You must use guile, cunning, teamwork, and quite a bit of ruthlessness to unmask and punish the imperialist running dogs.

Your aims: The Survival of PEXDET.. You will succeed in this if you manage to expose to the members of the KMT and the IJA and execute them, or if you manage to make it back to Yan’an. However, this will change if you are recruited by one of the above factions, in which case your goals will turn to the destruction of PEXDET, and the survival of the original members of that mafia.

Your methods: As a humble peasant, your abilities are limited. That does not necessarily mean you are unimportant though, as your votes and debate are needed to root out the Rightists.

Day: Lynch, Revolt

Night: Protection group- This requires at least three people, including you, to defend a fellow Communist successfully. All PM’s must match for it to be successful.

Vigilante Group- A vigilante group requires at least five people to assassinate a counter-revolutionary. You must all pick the same weapon to use (Blades/Firearms) All PM’s must match for it to be successful.

Good luck. You’ll need it.

Oh, and one final rule... to encourage roleplaying, the words "mafia", "scum", "town" or any variants upon are hereby BANNED. Instead, you all must use words such as "Imperialists", "Reactionary" "Counter-Revolutionary", "Rightist", "Bourgeoisie", "Anti-People" or "Marxists", "Communists", "Socialists", "Peasants", "Working Class", "Leftists", "Reds" or any such words to describe your faction. I have mentioned the banned words in the above post and in the PMs for clarity, but anyone who mentions them hence shall be subject to severe penalties.

**Cultured Drizzt fan** · 06-01-2010, 00:09

Hey looks like I am already signed up. Cool.

**Subotan** · 06-01-2010, 00:11

If your name is in italics, you just need to confirm

**Secura** · 06-01-2010, 00:25

Ni hao!

**Subotan** · 06-01-2010, 00:30

I have a feeling the

emoticon will be used a lot this game...

**Romanic** · 06-01-2010, 00:31

Definitely.

**Chaotix** · 06-01-2010, 00:37

In.

**Beskar** · 06-01-2010, 00:51

Tuba Sin.

**Double A** · 06-01-2010, 01:12

Originally Posted by Subotan

I have a feeling the

emoticon will be used a lot this game...

Isn't it always?

Oh, and one final rule... to encourage roleplaying, the words "mafia", "scum", "town" or any variants upon are hereby BANNED. Instead, you all must use words such as "Imperialists", "Reactionary" "Counter-Revolutionary", "Rightist", "Bourgeoisie", "Anti-People" or "Marxists", "Communists", "Socialists", "Peasants", "Working Class", "Leftists", "Reds" or any such words to describe your faction. I have mentioned the banned words in the above post and in the PMs for clarity, but anyone who mentions them hence shall be subject to severe penalties.

Wow, you better be pretty light with your punishments, like having people do the next tally if they are caught.

**a completely inoffensive name** · 06-01-2010, 01:28

You can count me in Tavern buddy.

**autolycus** · 06-01-2010, 02:16

Sure, count me in.

**naut** · 06-01-2010, 03:37

In.

**Death is yonder** · 06-01-2010, 03:46

The land of my forefathers, sounds interesting

**Askthepizzaguy** · 06-01-2010, 04:02

Your image is too big, Subotan. It doesn't fit on the thread, or even on the screen too well. I resized it for you.

**Subotan** · 06-01-2010, 08:42

Originally Posted by Double A

Wow, you better be pretty light with your punishments, like having people do the next tally if they are caught.

That sounds severe enough

Originally Posted by Death is yonder

The land of my forefathers, sounds interesting

Another one? I think that makes three people who have signed up or have displayed interest...

Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy

Your image is too big, Subotan. It doesn't fit on the thread, or even on the screen too well. I resized it for you.

You have no idea how hard I worked to make it that big...

What does everyone think of the banner?

**Azathoth** · 06-01-2010, 09:17

Vigilante - Each night, the Vigilante may kill another player (this varies) (by sending their name to the Moderator). The Vigilante is on the Town's side.

Mason - The Masons are a group on the Town's side who know each other and can talk to each other at Night.

Serial Killer - The Serial Killer (often abbreviated as SK), like the Vigilante, may kill another player each Night (by sending their name to the Moderator). However, the Serial Killer is not on the Town's side or the Mafia's side. The Serial Killer wins when everyone else is dead.

Those aren't in the game? Does the roleblocker prevent, say, a doctor from saving someone, or a mafioso from killing someone? If a member of a clique is hindered, does the clique as a whole fail in its action (because the number of people will be below the minimum required?)? Is there a Godfather? Can the cop reveal a player as Mafia in the thread? Will there be incidents involving small action against IJA units? If so, up to how many people can die? In this game, at night, townies can do whatever they want and form cliques or partner up with people at will? Or will that just not be in thread, but in PMs? This whole thing is going to be a PM-fest, right? Will we know the identities of the 4 officers selected by the Chairman? Is the Special Operative a wild card whose role is known only by you, or have you not yet decided? Incidents happen only at night? The Chairman proposes a solution/response and we vote for it the same night? What is a townie victory? Will you announce a townie victory as soon as all the Mafiosos have been killed? Will you announce the identities of the executed? Eahe dnvcvadska basi

Will all this become clearer as the game progresses?

**Subotan** · 06-01-2010, 09:28