View Full Version : Large Mafia Game Pirate Ship Mafia III [Concluded]
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GeneralHankerchief
10-17-2015, 00:02
GeneralHankerchief, I presume it's ok to post role pms?
Yeah, you're fine.
GeneralHankerchief
10-17-2015, 01:17
Also, every time I protected someone solo I risked my life and GeneralHankerchief can corroborate that.
Let's address this hypothetically. Here's a relevant section of the rules for everyone to chew over:
When actively performing at night, in your orders PM you must send me the exact specifics: What you are doing, the name of every person who is doing it with you, and who you are doing it to. If there is miscommunication and the orders do not match up, they will not be executed. Not only will this deprive you of treasure, but it may also put you at risk of public exposure or dying! Beware!
Now, I haven't revealed my exact die roll criteria for these sorts of situations in the previous two Pirate Ship games and I have no plans to for this one either, but it stands to reason that people who cannot perform actions solo (i.e. townies) who *do* end up performing actions solo are in danger of a greater backfire than if only one person was missing in their group or something. :yes:
You know what Monty, I'm sick of you ordering me who to vote for every phase. Bugger off. Make a convincing case in the thread, don't send me a PM demanding I change my vote because reasons.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 02:21
And who would you like to vig tonight, given a Golden lynch? :yes:
I'd be fine vigging Ituralde, assuming the game isn't over, but vigkills have been proven to be unreliable and the leaders have shown a reprehensible like of setting up protection groups to counter vig groups. So my vote stays on GoldenKnight.
Now are you going to actually make a case, or explain your beef with Csargo? Or continue to dodge the issue
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 02:25
leaders have shown a reprehensible like of setting up protection groups to counter vig groups.
That's often a good idea - they've just done bad jobs organizing them, the two or three times they tried it. Otherwise, Visor has been pretty vig-crazy if you haven't been paying attention.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 02:26
Now are you going to actually make a case, or explain your beef with Csargo? Or continue to dodge the issue
Why kill Golden, in that case?
Everyone is town! Hooray!
Elect: choxorn
Vote: choxorn
El Barto
10-17-2015, 03:37
On and on they go, El Barto and Askthepizzaguy. After the latter is exahusted from all the extra rowing, El Barto hoists the small sail and lazily steers Nassau-wards…
By the way, the plank is way, way too big for this dinghy.
I.... did not think this through. I just take whatever's not nailed down.
And then I go back and take the nailed down stuff.
Dinnae make such a fash o' things! I be sure that me cousin's bank be hirin' more repossessors, an' ye be allowed ta swing a cutlass at the debtors if ye promises not ta stain yer clothes too much.
Ah, askthepizzaguy you lyin son of a pirate! Where's me gold.Floating away on this dinghy.
https://i.imgur.com/6PlRXhI.gif
See? Ye already has a repossessor's instinct.
I just had a eureka moment while in the shower - and not the kind you're thinking of.
The Frenchman CANNOT have been in the vig groups.
A maven agent HAD to have been.
I just had a eureka moment while in the shower - and not the kind you're thinking of.
The Frenchman CANNOT have been in the vig groups.
A maven agent HAD to have been.
Explain?
The maven agents can't roleblock according to the OP - IIRC so the Frechman has to have been outside of those because the vigs didn't lose an arbitrary members.
https://i.imgur.com/EUT9Tsz.png
Csargo, Ituralde, and Montmorency.
All unaccounted for Night 1. ATPG was town and Gaius is dead.
Gaius could be the frenchman of course but eh.
Oh and perhaps Andres as well.
The maven agents can't roleblock according to the OP
All I can find is
Frenchman Agent (2)
Capable sailors hired from the Maven, the Frenchman Agents were assigned a clear duty by their Captain: Help the Frenchman gain the Presence back by whatever means necessary. They are all too happy to fulfill this task and get a huge share of the loot (plus a hefty reward from the Frenchman). Their powers include but are not limited to killing (obviously), working to see if any sailors aboard can be converted, and being able to work with loyal sailors in order to increase subversion.
bold mine
Yeah I saw that and it throws a wrench sort of in our plans - but thats a lot of power for a hired agent.
We know nothin about the frenchman and it would not be unreasonable to suggest he has a roleblock no?
If we eliminate these people: Csargo, Ituralde, Montmorency, Andres - the game should end. I THINK.
The converter group is now limited to: Andres, Ituralde
The roleblock group is limited to: Csargo, Ituralde, Montmorency, Andres
The BSmith 'block' is limited to Andres.
Of alive players - if we have a french flip meantime this doesn't matter perhaps.
BUT if the frenchman is the roleblocker (which I believe, the henchman do the scanning, he does the killing, roleblocking) I THINK we have the game solved.
Why is GoldenKnight absent from that list? He was also unaccounted for n1 and "forgot" orders on at least one occasion
Why is GoldenKnight absent from that list? He was also unaccounted for n1 and "forgot" orders on at least one occasion
Misread the spreadsheet, my bad.
The converter group is now limited to: Andres, Ituralde
The roleblock group is limited to: Csargo, Ituralde, Montmorency, Andres, GoldenKnight
The BSmith 'block' is limited to Andres.
Of alive players - if we have a french flip meantime this doesn't matter perhaps.
BUT if the frenchman is the roleblocker (which I believe, the henchman do the scanning, he does the killing, roleblocking) I THINK we have the game solved.
What do you think Zack?
I think its highly likely the frenchman himself has a roleblock. After all - he is supposed to be quite powerful.
Did Monty not confirm Andres' steal? Why is he in the converter group? or are you not taking monty's word because he's a potential suspect
Unelect, Elect: BSmith1068
Let's make someone captain who is not suspected of being the frenchman, even if monty was offering me 10 gold and a potential future spot as an officer
Did Monty not confirm Andres' steal? Why is he in the converter group? or are you not taking monty's word because he's a potential suspect
It's a 'steal'.
I'm not taking his word necessarily because it isn't confirmed.
In the world where we take it as confirmed.
The converter group is now limited to: Ituralde
The roleblock group is limited to: Csargo, Ituralde, Montmorency, Andres, goldenknight
The BSmith 'block' is limited to Andres.
Of alive players - if we have a french flip meantime this doesn't matter perhaps.
No, we can elect montmorency for now - he is defintiely not suspect numero uno.
And I don't think we can swing the votes at this stage.
Assuming Ishmael was french, wouldn't he be the converter? Not Ituralde.
No, we can elect montmorency for now - he is defintiely not suspect numero uno.
And I don't think we can swing the votes at this stage.
Not a suspect at all is better than mild suspect
worth a try
BSmith
can you confirm you were blocked?
Assuming Ishmael was french, wouldn't he be the converter? Not Ituralde.
Yes - but thats assuming hes french, with the delayed reveals its a pain so I'm suggesting we clear the group out. That way 100% they're hgone.
Not a suspect at all is better than mild suspect
worth a try
True, I wish I thought of this earlier rather than in the shower :laugh4:
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:30
:inquisitive:
The Frenchman can convert. We've seen it. If the French team has a block, it's presumably given to the Frenchman. The Maven officers can scan and kill. Can they convert? It's not clear.
But again, the Frenchman is the one who did the converting on N6: "refined accent". Would the Maven officers have a refined accent characteristic of noble upbringing just because they were on a Frenchman's team? I doubt it's pure flavor, otherwise why include it at all?
To take me as a suspect for not being in the N1 writeup, you would have to accept that I am accounted for N5, yet BSmith was blocked, and I was accounted for N6, yet the Frenchman converted a player.
I am not a suspect for Frenchman.
But again, the Frenchman is the one who did the converting on N6: "refined accent". Would the Maven officers have a refined accent characteristic of noble upbringing just because they were on a Frenchman's team? I doubt it's pure flavor, otherwise why include it at all?
oh crap you're right
lemme go reread it
The converter group is now limited to: Andres, Ituralde
The roleblock group is limited to: Csargo, Ituralde, Montmorency, Andres, GoldenKnight
The BSmith 'block' is limited to Andres.
Since Andres is the only person in all three groups, doesn't that make him the Frenchman?
Was the individual in question either of the two men who had been sitting at the aft of the ship and chatting idly for the past hour or so? No, they were undisturbed, thus allowing their conversation to go in a number of directions. They talked about the ship, their piratical careers, their lives, their loves, the homes they abandoned to go pirate, and the things that really mattered to them.
As the conversation went on, the subjects grew deeper. They two men got into the subjects that was truly important to them, and one started going on about what he fought for and why he was doing what he was. Peppered with an accent far more refined than the typical brogue usually associated with pirates, one that suggested nobility, and combined with the passion of his cause, the first man spun a worthy argument indeed. By the end of the conversation, the second man became convinced that he was joining a worthy cause indeed. No longer loyal to the crew of the Presence, he set about on his new mission.
Alright, so the frenchman definitely converted on night 6.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:35
Difficult to see a scum bussing his own Godfather at the beginning of the game.
Unvote; Vote: Andres
Block and kill Ituralde tonight!
Difficult to see a scum bussing his own Godfather at the beginning of the game.
NOW you don't want to vote Andres?
empirical > circumstantial
We need to check WHEN spaceman threw that vote on. If the tally was massively in favour of spare - then its an easy bus for him.
Spaceman did try to kill andres - but perhaps they knew he wouldn't die immediately at end of phase.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:40
NOW you don't want to vote Andres?
empirical > circumstantial
I have explained already why Andres cannot be OS. Check the earlier posts from today.
We're both relying on circumstantial evidence, mind.
We can still have andres vigged by a five man team tonight.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:41
Spaceman did try to kill andres - but perhaps they knew he wouldn't die immediately at end of phase.
There was the lynch, then he urged for vig on N2, then he supported Andres lynch D3, then again urged for vig N3.
Golden1Knight
10-17-2015, 04:41
Since at least half of you want to see me dead, if I survive the day I will abandon the ship. It was an honor to travel and loot with you, but this old pirate still prefers to leave this ship alive.
In the case of my death, I left BSmith as my sole beneficiary. Don't waste it all, young Anne. (OOC: A small thank, for showing me such an interesting game :) )
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:46
*sigh*
Very well.
Golden, abandon the ship.
Visor, block Andres.
Zack, Auto, Myrd, Monty will kill Andres.
Csargo, Ituralde, and Montmorency.
All unaccounted for Night 1. ATPG was town and Gaius is dead.
Gaius could be the frenchman of course but eh.
I was in the same group as atpg. It's like people don't pay attention at all. All 4 of us confirmed that.
I was in the same group as atpg. It's like people don't pay attention at all. All 4 of us confirmed that.
Not in the writeup - I should clarify.
So by getting rid of Andres and Ituralde we can basically guarantee we have the frenchman dead.
Leaving perhaps just the maven operative alive.
Yarr, now that's more like it lads. This old salt talks like a true pirate. Besides I don't even know who this Jim fellow is... or isn't, for that matter
Aye, I to am in need of gold mates, and I'll vote for ye if ye give me some (Likewise if someone bids higher, I'll vote for them).
Elect: Kagemusha (entering vote to make sure I have a legal one before the deadline. I'll change it if not bribed adequately compensated!)
Elects Kagemusha who made Andres an officer
vote: Mutiny and vote: Anders
Telling other people to vote, but not voting for anyone yourself? unvote: Anders. vote El Barto
Why can't I lynch both of you?
immediately unvotes andres so he's not in any real danger
Andres: 7
Landlubber: 5
Ironside: 3
One more vote on Andres to clinch.
unvote: vote: Anders
The landlubber wagon is bad, as is the Ironside one frankly
Jumped on when Andres seemed to be running away, typical bussing spot
Agreed.
vote: kill
and if Anders survives today, I'd be up for vigging him
Spare was way in the lead at this point, and it wasn't really ever close. Easily persuaded to not vig andres that night (see qt m257)
Ok, I have a lot to sift through, and I have to say I'm rather confused.
I think enough has been said about the perils of rounding. Moral of the story: don't do it.
Xiahou if you got some of your gold from a will why didn't you say so immediately? The initial charge was that you had more gold than a townie reasonably could at this stage. Was that adressed and burried under all the spam? Or did you just ignore it?
Ok this explains how two groups of people could "include" Csargo, but clearly he couldn't be in two places at once. Csargo, care to elaborate?
Also, why have all of us forgotten about Andres? Here he is, making unsubstantiated and unproductive votes, contributing nothing to the discussion, etc.
Well we know that now, but a lot of people seemed to believe that things like protection are much more verifiable than they actually are so Xiahou could have assumed claiming inactivity was the safer option
Can we have a tally please? I'm totally lost. Keeping my vote on Xiahou becuase I don't like the Monty lynch and because several things about his behavior, especially him jumping haphazardly from vote to vote, strike me as suspicious
WTF is with El Barto (aka Tak) switching votes continuously?
How is Andres in any way town?
rants against andres without actually voting him, voting for xiahou instead
He doesn't mention Andres again in the thread, despite earlier statement that he was not "in any way town". He was on the vig attempt on Andres during the night of the storm, and I assume the Frenchman has nightkill resistance anyways (he did in the last game when he wasn't even mafia).
I think it's weird how insistent Monty is being that the above somehow PROVES andres/spaceman are not affiliated. It seems like standard distancing/bussing to me. spaceman never really pushed that strongly to eliminate andres - suggested it, sure, but never pushed in the way others this game have pushed to eliminate some. If Andres isn't the Frenchman, I'd like to hear who could be, because no one else could have done both blocks and the conversion.
LYNCH ANDRES
ELECT BSMITH
:whip:
I was in the same group as atpg. It's like people don't pay attention at all. All 4 of us confirmed that.
Did you even look at the spreadsheet? ATPG was in a different group protecting zacl.
Unvote; Vote: Andres
yes m;lord
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:55
OK. Fine. Given analysis of N5 actions, the only possibilities for a BSmith block:
Andres
JHT
Gaius
The last two are dead. Very well, we kill Andres tonight.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 04:55
Visor, do you want Golden lynched, or what? Wise up. Finish Ituralde and let us see how much Zack wants Andres dead.
OK. Fine. Given analysis of N5 actions, the only possibilities for a BSmith block:
Andres
JHT
Gaius
The last two are dead. Very well, we kill Andres tonight.
Why so insistent on killing Andres instead of lynching him? Because you're the french recruit and you know andres is resistant to nightkills? HMMMM
Unvote; Vote: Ituralde
yes m'lord
what is even the tally?
does day end in a few minutes
To take me as a suspect for not being in the N1 writeup, you would have to accept that I am accounted for N5, yet BSmith was blocked, and I was accounted for N6, yet the Frenchman converted a player.
I am not a suspect for Frenchman.
I don't understand how you can use this defense and NOT vote to lynch andres here
GeneralHankerchief
10-17-2015, 04:59
Voting closed.
...can I get off the merry-go-round now? :dizzy2:
damn it visor shower earlier
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 05:06
Zack, don't try to derail lynches in the last 10 minutes.
Andres will die, so long as you follow your orders.
Zack, don't try to derail lynches in the last 10 minutes.
Andres will die, so long as you follow your orders.
I am not your pet, stop trying to control my every move. You cannot plan out every single action every single person will take in every single phase, it will not work, the game is not played that way. I don't care about your perfect little plan you have mapped out for the rest of the game. I care about killing the french, and I apologize if that conflicts with your meticulously crafted, rigid schedule for how the game is supposed to play out.
Back off. I need some breathing room.
You need to talk with people. Explain your thought processes. Do not simply give commands and refuse to explain further, that's unacceptable. Stop avoiding questions and give some damn answers to them.
Montmorency
10-17-2015, 05:28
It's pretty simple.
We seem to agree that Andres is a good candidate for Frenchman now.
So we kill him.
That can happen through a vig, or through my administration.
I would prefer a vig.
BSmith, Ituralde, Andres, Golden, and my 3 - out. Who's left?
Csargo, Auto, Myrd, Double A (nominally) - and yourself. So do you want Andres dead or not?
Why not just blunderbuss or have the first mate get him? Why the insistence on an unreliable vig group
To ensure no chance for conversion.
People being in the writeup is very important at this stage.
GeneralHankerchief
10-17-2015, 05:38
Day 8
Anger at the continued situation and the perceived lack of progress aboard the Presence quickly turned to shock when Double A announced early on in the day that he was stepping down as Captain, effective immediately. The hopeful saw this as a chance to insert more active leadership aboard. The opportunistic saw this as a chance to increase their gold stashes a bit by gaining the position for themselves. The cynical were disappointed that Double A deprived them of a chance to mutiny and take his gold. Nonetheless, the voting went on, this time complicated by a new election for the Captaincy - the third in a week.
The election, unlike the previous ones, was not determined by who was going to be the most effective leader, or who handed out the most gold in bribes. Instead, it was determined by the person that the crew believed was least likely to be the Frenchman or in his pay. After some discussion and a minor challenge by BSmith, this person was determined to be Montmorency.
"Right then," said Montmorency, addressing the crew at sunset when his ascendancy had been confirmed. "We're going to be doing things a little differently aboard this time. I have, in my hands, a thoroughly crafted, 487-step plan entitled OPERATION BLENHEIM that, assuming proper implementation, is guaranteed to rid this good ship of all French influence once and for all! Now, let me carefully explain how this plan is to work. We are currently on step 6(f), which means that you, autolycus, are to take three steps to your left, while simultaneously Myrddraal is to take the helm in order to ensure that we stay on course. Now, as per Guideline R7, I need to be repeatedly jumping up and down while reading this next section..."
And Monty droned on and on, dcmort93 and Visorslash, who would be keeping their previous positions as First Mate and Quartermaster, respectively, took control of the proceedings, most notably reading the votes for execution. These had been splashed in a few different directions, most notably Golden1Knight and a very brief effort to take out Andres right before sunset, but at the end of the count Ituralde was in the clear lead.
"Oh come on!!!" Ituralde protested, upon hearing this. "I be giving a full account o' me actions time and time again! This is how I be repaid? First thrown in the brig, denied me treasure, and now being thrown off the ship? This be how you treat yer crewmen?"
"You can always appeal to the new Captain, if ye want," dcmort said, a smirk on his face. Ituralde looked up with the intent to do so, but Monty was now explaining the new dietary patterns the crew needed to follow if they were to stop the Frenchman. No luck there.
"Okay, now then, Step 23(j) requires Golden1Knight to close your eyes, turn around, walk four paces in a 45-degree angle to the left of his about-face, and then take his cutlass out and execute a wide diagonal slashing motion- Golden1Knight? Are you even paying attention? This is important!"
"Oh, uh, sorry boss. What be my instructions again?"
Sighing, Monty told him, and everybody watched as Golden closed his eyes, made an about-face, walked four paces in a 45-degree angle to the left of said turnaround, took his cutlass out, and executed a wide diagonal slashing motion... which caught Ituralde perfectly in the chest and had him staggering back in pain.
"What... but..." he murmured, and then toppled over the side of the ship from loss of blood. Everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"d and starting applauding. Maybe this plan of Montmorency's would work out, after all.
Day 8 tally:
Ituralde: 6 (Montmorency, dcmort93, Golden1Knight, autolycus, BSmith, Visorslash) :skull:
Golden1Knight: 3 (Myrddraal, Csargo, Andres)
Csargo: 1 (Ituralde)
Double A: 1 (Double A)
Andres: 1 (Zack)
Captain election:
Montmorency: 6 (Visorslash, dcmort93, BSmith, Montmorency, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight)
BSmith: 3 (autolycus, Ituralde, Zack)
dcmort93: 1 (Double A)
Csargo: 1 (Csargo)
Andres: 1 (Andres)
It is now Night 8. Please send in your orders. Night 8 will conclude on Sunday, October 18th, at 11:00 US Eastern Time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3, n7), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6)
Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6)
Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)
Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6), Askthepizzaguy (n7), El Barto (n7)
Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (d4), TheFlax (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (d7), Ituralde (d8)
Souls aboard: (11)
Andres
autolycus
BSmith
Csargo
dcmort93
Double A
Golden1Knight
Montmorency
Myrddraal
Visorslash
Zack
Ituralde
10-17-2015, 13:21
Yeah, shower earlier Visor. I could still be alive. Also dcmort missed scanning last night? That's... something.
Time to hang out in Davy Jones Locker! Yarr!
BSmith
can you confirm you were blocked?
Yes. I was blocked the night we tried to kill JHT.
We should get John's flip in the morning so that will paint a nice picture,
To ensure no chance for conversion.
People being in the writeup is very important at this stage.
But I mean why not also do that. What is the blunderbuss being saved for and how important are scans at this point?
But I mean why not also do that. What is the blunderbuss being saved for and how important are scans at this point?
Scans are still important to find the convert
dunno what the blunderbuss is being saved for but there is not a real need to save it or spend it
Golden1Knight
10-17-2015, 16:23
I am announcing that I changed my mind and I will stay aboard (at least for now). It seems that I have some more work to do here.
Myrddraal
10-17-2015, 18:01
Is this supposed to stop us from instantly lynching you tomorrow?
You could give a better justification at least.
Golden1Knight
10-17-2015, 18:24
Is this supposed to stop us from instantly lynching you tomorrow?
You could give a better justification at least.
I was told to stay, to help a group.
blunderbuss / fm kill goldenknight please
Scans are still important to find the convert
dunno what the blunderbuss is being saved for but there is not a real need to save it or spend it
Who cares about the convert? They're a distraction from the real prize.
The maven agents can't roleblock according to the OP - IIRC so the Frechman has to have been outside of those because the vigs didn't lose an arbitrary members.
https://i.imgur.com/EUT9Tsz.png
AHEM
Personally I agree with him, I'm not a big fan of spreadsheeting myself.
ok i just got out of my bubble bath and realized visor is the frenchman, he even admitted to it:
Yes I'm the Frenchman as you have no doubt figured out.
AHEM
sprig already did it, I was just filling in his blanks.
and well, it needed to be done!
ok i just got out of my bubble bath and realized visor is the frenchman, he even admitted to it:
goddamnit zack have your baths later
I'll do some more hard-hitting shower analysis later.
And no, it isn't what you're thinking either. :stare:
Golden1Knight
10-18-2015, 03:33
blunderbuss / fm kill goldenknight please
Do you really think I'm a French or you simply want to kill as many seamen as possible in order to avoid conversions?
As if you're a choice conversion target?
Or that I even care about finding converts?
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 12:11
Tonight: Double A robs one of us and wins the game with almost no effort.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 16:00
Night 8 has ended, no more orders will be accepted.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 17:01
Night 8
It was a cloudless night and the full moon was out, its reflection sparkling on the Atlantic's surface. The night promised madness and mayhem, and the remaining crew of the Presence certainly delivered.
Andres advanced forward, his steps uncertain. He had been perfectly content with robbing his way to success (with the occasional treasure protection, naturally) and helping his friends out of jams. That was what he had been doing, and that was what he was good at. Why change what worked? But earlier in the night he had received a direct order from his Captain as part of Operation Blenheim to go killing, and, well, it was crunch time. There weren't that many places left to hide, so Andres sucked it up and figured he'd do his duty. The fact that he had been thrown in the brig was only a minor inconvenience for an accomplished criminal like himself.
There was only one problem: Where was everybody? Andres was a pirate, but he wasn't talented enough to murder one of his own without backup. In addition, his target, Golden1Knight, was also missing. Andres had checked below decks, walked across the ship on multiple occasions, climbed the mast, even peered into the officers' cabin. No sign of anyone.
Stopping at the starboard side of the ship, right around the dinghies that so many people had commandeered for their own uses, Andres paused to consider his next move when he saw it: Three figures, cutlasses drawn, advancing towards him. The one off to the side, looking slightly confused at the makeup of the group, was his "quarry", Golden1Knight.
"Hellfire, I be betrayed!" Andres shouted, cursing Montmorency and his plan. "Right lads," he said, now trying to talk his way out of this before resorting to violence, "let's be reasonable about this. It be fairly obvious that the Captain just set me up. Is this a man whose orders ye want to faithfully follow? Truly? If he did this to one o' his loyal crewmen, where does it stop, says I? Who's to say that you won't be his next target? Lads? Lads? Oh, fine." Clearly seeing that his talk had no effect, Andres sighed and drew his own weapon. The battle was on.
*CRASH*
Five seconds later, the battle was off, as two separate people had barreled into the four fighters, leaving them all collapsed in a heap.
"Oh come on, just let us by!" the lead figure pleaded, looking absolutely terrified. "All we want to be doin' is using one of them dinghies! Then we'll be out of yer way forever!"
"autolycus? Csargo? Waitaminute, shouldn't the two of ye be attackin' Andres with us?" Zack, another one of the attackers said. The third, Myrddraal, nodded his head in agreement.
"Ah, about that," auto said. "Ordinarily I'd be happy to, ye know that, but when ye have a great fire-breathin' woman claiming something about lost property and swearing eternal vengeance and deaths so painful that no other human in history has even dreamed to conceive of them, I be takin' a rain check! Some other time, lads. Help us get this dinghy lowered!" He and Csargo frantically started to pull on the ropes, leaving the four original fighters to stand there, dumbfounded.
"You're not getting off that easy!" a feminine voice called out, a second later launching a harpoon from her location. Luckily for autolycus, the distance was long enough where he had the time to take his cutlass out and parry it, but BSmith, the figure in question, closed the distance fast. "I want my hat back!" she called out, drawing a familiar-looking fancy cutlass and swinging it at auto with fury.
"That be what this is about??!?" auto said, barely able to parry BSmith's blows. "I give it to ye and we be square?? Take the bloody thing, then!"
"There will be no negotiation!" BSmith yelled, only amping up the pressure further. "All of the New World shall know of me and tremble with fear at my actions!"
There were now seven people around the dinghies in total. Csargo was still preparing one for his and auto's escape, but was struggling to do so with the lack of a partner. BSmith, of course, was looking like a force of nature with her fancy cutlass, it taking autolycus every ounce of his effort just to stay alive. Finally, there were the four original attackers: Zack, Myrddraal, Golden1Knight, and Andres, just standing around openmouthed at this display. Eventually, this commotion brought the three officers to the scene: Visorslash, dcmort93, and Captain Montmorency.
"What in the name of Morgan and Drake is the meaning of this??!?!" Monty said, but everybody ignored him. "Andres, how did you escape the brig?" Everyone ignored that, too. "Dammit, pay attention to me!" Nobody did. "This is not part of the plan at all! You're ruining everything!!"
"*I'm* not, *he* is!" BSmith snarled, clearly indicating autolycus. "He must pay for his insolence! He has to!" At the same time, Csargo desperately tried to signal autolycus's attention, saying that the dinghy was finally ready.
"It is?" auto said, taking his attention off BSmith for a brief moment to see Csargo's work. This was all the time BSmith needed, as she wound up for a finishing strike. "Thank the Lord, not a moment too s-" SLICE! Where autolycus's head had been an instant ago, there was now a brief flash of silver and then a fountain of red. BSmith's fancy cutlass had managed to decapitate autolycus with a single stroke. His head landed and, lips still moving, rolled around until it eventually fell overboard into the dinghy.
"Everybody stop!" Monty called out, but he was once again ignored by everybody screaming in shock. None of these were louder than Csargo's, who had a significant amount of despair mixed in with his.
"Oh come on!" he cried. "What am I supposed to do now??!?"
"Silence yourself and listen!" Monty said, "Just follow my plan and all will be well!"
"Not that, you fool" Csargo wasn't having any of it. "I turned my back on the crew! First Ishmael promised me the moon and wove me sweet tales of justice, but he died. Then autolycus said not to worry, the Captain of the Maven had planned for this, but now *he* died! I stole from BSmith too, got a pair of boots out of it, so I imagine she's after me next! I've been trying to kill myself for the past week, with protection works that I know would fail, but Ishmael and autolycus talked me out of that now, and they're gone! I'm done, I'm just done!" And before anybody could stop him, Csargo drew his own cutlass, slit his throat, and purposely fell overboard into the ocean.
Pandemonium. Everybody started screaming and running around at once. People were shouting that the threat was over, people were moaning over Csargo's fate, people were yelling at BSmith at the top of their lungs if she really was a woman. Monty, getting progressively more agitated, called for silence several times, but continued to be ignored. Finally, incensed, he pulled out a blunderbuss.
"I WILL HAVE ORDER!" This quieted a few people down, but his next move got everybody to shut up. He raised the blunderbuss, aimed it, and fired a shot directly into Andres's face. He was dead before he hit the floor.
"I regret the need to do that," Monty calmly said, clearly not regretting anything about what he did, "but you people seriously need to listen to me. Now, let's look at this logically. autolycus is dead, thanks to BSmith. Clearly his death affected Csargo, who unfortunately - or perhaps very fortunately - killed himself immediately thereafter. Now, right before he did so, he started babbling on about how Ishmael promised him this and that and said everything would be better. We know that spaceman98 was in the Frenchman's pay, meaning that at most, there were three French-aligned sailors aboard. It stands to reason that their leader was Ishmael and autolycus was the other original agent, them having recruited Csargo to the cause at some point during the voyage home. I think we're finally safe, lads."
"Waitaminute," somebody said, trying to process all of this information. "Everyone's up here anyway! If the French were thinking, they could have just activated a grenade and blown us all to hell at any point in the last ten minutes and slipped off! Clearly, nobody's done that! Who's left to be unaccounted for, anyway?"
Everybody looked around. Double A, of course, was still below decks, snoring incredibly loudly. He had missed the entire thing.
"It doesn't matter," said Montmorency. "Look, the sun is coming up and Nassau is in sight. We're finally home, boys."
Day broke over the Presence. For the first time in over a week, all was quiet.
OOC: I couldn't think of a better way for Pirate Ship Mafia III to end: with a ridiculous amount of violence that probably could have been avoided. :laugh4: Thanks for playing, everyone! I'll get started on the postgame stuff later today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1, n3, n7), Csargo (n2), Andres (n3, n6), johnhughthom (n5), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n5, n6), autolycus (n5), Ishmael (n5, n6), Andres (n8)
Killed: TFT (n1), seireikhaan (n2), Ice (n3), landlubber (n4), Lissa (n4), Gaius Scribonius Curio (n6), autolycus (Frenchman agent/Maven saboteur) (n8), Andres (n8)
Mutinied: Kagemusha (d2)
Committed suicide: Csargo (Frenchman/Maven Convert) (n8)
Abandoned Ship: Ironside (n2), Choxorn (n6), Askthepizzaguy (n7), El Barto (n7)
Walked the plank: Xiahou (d3), spaceman98 (Frenchman agent) (d4), TheFlax (Dutch Trader) (d5), johnhughthom (d6), Ishmael (The Frenchman) (d7), Ituralde (d8)
Survived: (8)
BSmith - Anne the Tavern Wench
dcmort93
Double A
Golden1Knight
Montmorency
Myrddraal
Visorslash
Zack
seireikhaan
10-18-2015, 17:12
Seriously, you stole from Bsmith? :laugh4: Looks like someone didn't learn the lesson I got.
Anyways, good game all. Sorry I got salty. Thanks for the game, GH.
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 17:21
Ha, so Auto defending Ishmael was the tip-off we all really needed to heed.
Apparently, once the Frenchman died the Maveneer had a chance to stay longer, build up loot for the escape or whatever. Really unluckily for Csargo, he got converted the same night he stole from BSmith.
And so they died a most ignominious death:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58cPYCTiPM
But then how was BSmith blocked on N5? I would have liked a nice epic battle between me and Andres...
autolycus
10-18-2015, 17:26
I read your death as a team of five, rather than what I guess it actually was, 4 and Bsmith.
How exactly did Bsmith's character work? I enjoyed this game a lot, but I have to say that in both this one and the last one (I think it was the no-mutiny guy), I felt like the townie with a chip on their shoulder did not add to the game (and I'm not just saying that because she killed me :P)
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 17:27
On my list to be done, in order:
- Epilogue
- Role list/commentary
- Player summary
- My traditional postgame essay
For now though, the biggest mystery of the game for a lot of the town was "how could the French have hidden in groups so well?" The answer to this was that they got two actions per night: a primary action of group work/mafia activities, and a secondary action of stealing (Ishmael also had a roleblock as a secondary action every other night). This was how they were able to give themselves cover for when they were off scanning or converting.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 17:30
How exactly did Bsmith's character work? I enjoyed this game a lot, but I have to say that in both this one and the last one (I think it was the no-mutiny guy), I felt like the townie with a chip on their shoulder did not add to the game (and I'm not just saying that because she killed me :P)
I'll let BSmith explain his perspective while we wait for me to finish all of my postgame stuff - I'll tell you what I personally envisioned the role to be when I get to the role list. :yes:
Happy to see the tradition of the Frenchman losing Pirate Ship Mafia continues!
:rtwyes:
Unfortunately my masterful performance from last game didn't carry over, as I was a total shitshow this time around. :laugh4:
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 17:41
On my list to be done, in order:
- Epilogue
- Role list/commentary
- Player summary
- My traditional postgame essay
For now though, the biggest mystery of the game for a lot of the town was "how could the French have hidden in groups so well?" The answer to this was that they got two actions per night: a primary action of group work/mafia activities, and a secondary action of stealing (Ishmael also had a roleblock as a secondary action every other night). This was how they were able to give themselves cover for when they were off scanning or converting.
That explains all the stealing, but the failure to commit to conversion was crippling given the power of the leadership.
Indeed, the tendency toward strong Town executives is what makes Pirate II and III so unbalanced in favor of Town.
Without making gold more than just a hi-score, Pizzas and Andres' become outliers, and networks win the day.
The only real chance for a scum-team is to get the Captainship straight away and bluff scans and protections while converting to shore up their position.
Interesting to see the difference in networks between II and III, though.
In Pirate II, Zack ran a ruthless Stalinist autocracy, while in this game the successive administrations managed more of a classic profligate-American-managerial-bureaucracy dynamic (which was alluded to a lot in both player discussion and your writeups).
In Pirate II, Zack ran a ruthless Stalinist autocracy
That's a bit of an exaggeration.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 17:43
Yeah, by all means, feel free to rip the mechanics of this one apart. I'll be giving my side of the story a bit later on, but in the meantime, I definitely want to hear as many perspectives on the matter as possible. :yes:
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 17:44
That's a bit of an exaggeration.
Not from my perspective. :laugh4:
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 17:45
In conclusion, Visorslash = Townie MVP
I like to think of myself as #2, though...
In conclusion, Visorslash = Townie MVP
I like to think of myself as #2, though...
Nah...
Ituralde
10-18-2015, 19:02
Dead on the last day. What a shameful display. I came so close to the finish line.
Also I can never make heads or tails out of these large games. Too many actions and roles just confuse me.
Askthepizzaguy
10-18-2015, 19:23
Stick around, though, Ituralde.
I say, as I continue sailing away on a dinghy with El Barto....
Askthepizzaguy
10-18-2015, 19:25
The ability for townies to abandon ship is a little overpowered. It's essentially suicide with little downside, and it's an action the french/maven folk don't really want to take.
When I came under suspicion as did a few others, we simply left, removing us from suspicion. It's like free lynches for the town side.
Well played to the French/maven team, under those circumstances.
I had a lot of fun this game. My goal was to get the 4 items of clothing. By working with people i would be able to detect if they had an item and then I could solo kill them the next night. If i was in a vig group and our target had an item, i'd get it. Lastly if i wad stolen from, i could find out who did it an had to kill them within 3 nights. Csargo was next. I got stolen from 3 friggin times and was never able to secure more than 2 of the items at once. If I had 3/4 items I would act as 2 townies for night actions. If I got all 4 I would have gotten a new goal. My guess is that I would need to become captain. I thought about pushing harder for the captain role, but frankly I have been out of town the past few days and not at a keyboard making posting much more difficult. I didnt want the FM or QM roles becuse they would interfere with my looking for and getting the clothing items.
If i hadnt have been blocked and the JHT kill went through i would have had 3/4 items and known gaius had the 4th allowing me to kill him the next night. I was so close!!
I think the lack of conversions was because of not scanning players that were susceptible to conversion. Ishmael, auto, and spaceman will know better than I, but that's what I understood.
I think the fact that vig attempts show clearly how many attackers show up, it doesn't allow much wiggle room for other actions. Unless they could vig, steal, or protect as an alibi and then convert, scan, or kill as well. Whether that would have made the French overpowered or not I'm not really sure. From what I understood is that they could vig, protect, scan, etc. and then steal as an alibi if they were doing French things. With the majority of the town wanting to vig, it left no room to do other things. If they refused to participate or didn't show up they'd be suspicious. I guess GH would be able to explain exactly what the French could and couldn't do in one night phase.
The game definitely felt unbalanced towards the town, but that just might be because of when I got converted Ishmael was basically a guaranteed lynch that next day. That left me and auto as the only two French. I scanned ATPG and El Barto the next night, but should have blind converted ATPG instead like auto suggested. I wasn't back in time to change my orders, and both of them abandoned ship. ATPG was susceptible and who knows how that would have changed the last phase.
autolycus
10-18-2015, 19:51
As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered, because once I stole from Bsmith, I was effectively dead. It sounds like Bsmith himself had an interesting and challenging role, but because scum were the only ones who were likely to be able to steal every night, we were much more likely to get picked up on his radar than other people. I think it would have been more fair to both him and the scum if he couldn't lose items (presumably because he's wearing them).
spaceman98
10-18-2015, 20:07
Here's what I posted in the French QT about the game's balance:
First, I'd like to say that I enjoyed this game a lot, despite my early demise. I'm skeptical that it was balanced (more on that later) but that certainly didn't make it less fun.
Second: A lot of our sucess was dependent on early luck. Speciffically whether we scanned convertible people. It looks like the number of convertible individuals was small, though that will be more clear in the post-game. If so, we had the main disadvantage of a cult (heavy dependence on one person, the Frenchman) but not the main advantage (potential for rapid recruitment).
Third: In many ways, I would say we got lucky this game: The town was disorganized, and spent a lot of time fighitng itself. If I understand correctly, the mutiny against Kage was the first ever in Pirate Ship Mafia. If it weren't for the chaos that created, I would probably have been lynched a lot earlier. At the same time, every townie having a gold-centric VC did promote intra-town disorganization and helped us significantly.
Fourth: Despite 2, we lost fair and square. Visor caught Ishmael with old-fashion in-thread scumhunting. Honestly, you should probably have bussed me. That would have given you town cred, and you could have recruited Csargo as my replacement. Shame we didn't think of that earlier.
Basically, it was possible for us to win, but the small number of convertible people means a town victory was more likely IMO (something like 60% town, 40% mafia I'd say)
The BSmith thing actually helps the town even more, because only the French are free to steal often.
Town disorganization made us competitive this game. If Kage hadn't been mutinied, I would have been lynched much earlier, most likely, because of the roleblock thing. A well-organized town could have set things up such that everyone appeared in the writeup, thus preventing us from converting.
question: Who was Andres and how did he die?
spaceman98
10-18-2015, 20:09
Did the Fancy Cutlass do anything aside from marking me for BSmith-ellimination?
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 20:10
I think the main thing I'd change, if I had to run the game again tomorrow, would be that I would make every night writeup ambiguous like it was the night in the storm. You'd know there was an action against this person, but not how many people took part. This would give people more cover to go off and do their own things at night without feeling pressured to be locked into a group or else.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 20:15
Did the Fancy Cutlass do anything aside from marking me for BSmith-ellimination?
No, BSmith was the only person those items meant anything towards. I got the idea in my head that eventually it would become known that these items marked you for death and then the race was onto avoid BSmith until you could pass them on, but due to the way the game went that idea never materialized as much as I thought I did.
The more I hear from you guys, the more I question that BSmith's role inclusion was a good idea, but there was a method to my madness, I promise. :laugh4:
Oh man that is a weight off. Good job guys.
I think the main thing I'd change, if I had to run the game again tomorrow, would be that I would make every night writeup ambiguous like it was the night in the storm. You'd know there was an action against this person, but not how many people took part. This would give people more cover to go off and do their own things at night without feeling pressured to be locked into a group or else.
I agree with that.
I agree with spaceman that the mutiny allowed him to survive longer than he would have otherwise.
I'll read comments later, but I feel like frodo at the end of lotr after they just destroyed the ring and are sitting on the slope of Mount Doom.
Good job guys.
After setting up club kill, I didn't kill a single person in the game. :laugh4:
Golden1Knight
10-18-2015, 21:15
I almost left the ship at the end xD
My choice to rob someone I knew was about to die on the first night was not very wise of me, and when I forgot to send orders I should have said I was protecting my gold :P
Anyway, I had a great time. And BSmith almost got the fancy cutlass at the beginning of the game, I was going to sell it to him.
El Barto
10-18-2015, 21:19
I be havin' ta agree wi' wha' was said earlier: this game be a contest o'er whether th' cap'n can rule his crew, or at least a sizable enough subset o' it, with an iron hand. If an' whan he do, then the Frenchman be toast.
Good job guys.
Thanks, laddie!
Is there a mafia qt we can read?
Golden1Knight
10-18-2015, 21:31
Out of curiosity, who else here came from CFC?
Out of curiosity, who else here came from CFC?
There is a lot of us that play on cfc (Zack, choxorn, spaceman started at cfc Iirc) somewhat regularly.
Myrddraal
10-18-2015, 21:39
Well, that was short and sweet for me :smile:. Thanks for putting up with me as I got used to the game, and thanks for the 5 gold Monty :wink:
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 21:43
Well, that was short and sweet for me :smile:. Thanks for putting up with me as I got used to the game, and thanks for the 5 gold Monty :wink:
That reminds me: Sprig's "mercenary" role was completely fake. :laugh4: Major credit to him for coming up with an innovative way to get more gold, and major credit to Myrddraal as well for not only running with it, but faking a PM for it too!
Montmorency
10-18-2015, 21:56
MY GOLD
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 21:57
MY GOLD
Don't complain too much, you were the sole recipient of Csargo's will. Your total is actually somewhat respectable now. :tongue:
Congratulations to the town and particularly Visorslash, who apparently has the oddly specific superpower to always be able to pick me when I'm scum :beam:. I had a tremendous amount of fun this game, particularly in those two day/night phases where I was desperately trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. I posted my thoughts on the game towards the end of the quicktopic - I might expand later, but that will do me for now.
French QT (http://www.quicktopic.com/51/H/hwcfWBrq57UP)
Don't complain too much, you were the sole recipient of Csargo's will. Your total is actually somewhat respectable now. :tongue:
You're welcome. That's 80ish gold.
GeneralHankerchief
10-18-2015, 22:35
All wills maxed out at 50 (the dead keep the rest), so not quite 80. Still respectable though.
Askthepizzaguy
10-18-2015, 22:47
I think the lack of conversions was because of not scanning players that were susceptible to conversion. Ishmael, auto, and spaceman will know better than I, but that's what I understood.
I think the fact that vig attempts show clearly how many attackers show up, it doesn't allow much wiggle room for other actions. Unless they could vig, steal, or protect as an alibi and then convert, scan, or kill as well. Whether that would have made the French overpowered or not I'm not really sure. From what I understood is that they could vig, protect, scan, etc. and then steal as an alibi if they were doing French things. With the majority of the town wanting to vig, it left no room to do other things. If they refused to participate or didn't show up they'd be suspicious. I guess GH would be able to explain exactly what the French could and couldn't do in one night phase.
The game definitely felt unbalanced towards the town, but that just might be because of when I got converted Ishmael was basically a guaranteed lynch that next day. That left me and auto as the only two French. I scanned ATPG and El Barto the next night, but should have blind converted ATPG instead like auto suggested. I wasn't back in time to change my orders, and both of them abandoned ship. ATPG was susceptible and who knows how that would have changed the last phase.
It wouldn't have changed much for your team because I had been telling Visor and the captain I would leave any night they ordered me off the ship, no questions asked. When I didn't do so I would always be the lynch the next day. I also spread it around publicly that I would leave if asked. So I did that to discourage myself from being recruited.
At that time, because Visor began suspecting the thieves, I was going to be asked to leave soon, so I felt like I'd rather leave now than wait much longer. It was a good idea, it denies recruits to the French. I also said I'd have to leave if I was scanned susceptible to conversion and not made into an officer, because eventually, I would become an obvious convert from the ever shrinking pool.
I had been playing a fairly anti-French game despite my lack of desire in forming groups and also doing vigs, I didn't even want to appear in protection groups because I wanted the fairness that comes with the ambiguity of having to trust the folks I said I had stolen from as being reliable witnesses to my own location, obviously, the French could have said they had stolen from a convert for example. It's risky but it's one way of blending in. The trouble is not enough townies did what I was doing.
I wanted there to be room for the French to do what they were doing without it being a simple solve by spreadsheet, but I also wanted to fight the French at every turn and find them myself.
I also wanted to accumulate gold from my fellow players as part of the sport of the game because otherwise it totally overlooks that mechanic. I felt like it needed more than a token nod from the players.
I get that some folks wanted to simply catch all the french by vigging and lynching as much as possible, and I don't begrudge them that, but I also thought that stealing and the bonuses associated with stealing should be emphasized.
I believe the folks who did stealing often got triggered an event just for them that made it much more profitable to steal, that one night, which encouraged them to not participate in night actions.
That sort of thing was really good, fun, and balanced- I think if the thefts were a bit more dire, as opposed to likely not being as good as a protect that did nothing, and people lost more gold that way or gained more gold that way, more people would have bothered protecting their own stashes and stealing.
As it stood, most of the thieves in the game were kind enough not to steal from the same person over and over again, and more people were attacking and defending, so there wasn't much worry about being stolen from in general.
I could be wrong, I know Visor got stolen from a lot just as an example. The officers are generally sitting duck steal targets.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this game, and I hope to be able to play in the next game coming up on the site.
GH - I love your writeups! They had me in stitches multiple times!
It wouldn't have changed much for your team because I had been telling Visor and the captain I would leave any night they ordered me off the ship, no questions asked. When I didn't do so I would always be the lynch the next day. I also spread it around publicly that I would leave if asked. So I did that to discourage myself from being recruited.
At that time, because Visor began suspecting the thieves, I was going to be asked to leave soon, so I felt like I'd rather leave now than wait much longer. It was a good idea, it denies recruits to the French. I also said I'd have to leave if I was scanned susceptible to conversion and not made into an officer, because eventually, I would become an obvious convert from the ever shrinking pool.
I had been playing a fairly anti-French game despite my lack of desire in forming groups and also doing vigs, I didn't even want to appear in protection groups because I wanted the fairness that comes with the ambiguity of having to trust the folks I said I had stolen from as being reliable witnesses to my own location, obviously, the French could have said they had stolen from a convert for example. It's risky but it's one way of blending in. The trouble is not enough townies did what I was doing.
I wanted there to be room for the French to do what they were doing without it being a simple solve by spreadsheet, but I also wanted to fight the French at every turn and find them myself.
I also wanted to accumulate gold from my fellow players as part of the sport of the game because otherwise it totally overlooks that mechanic. I felt like it needed more than a token nod from the players.
I get that some folks wanted to simply catch all the french by vigging and lynching as much as possible, and I don't begrudge them that, but I also thought that stealing and the bonuses associated with stealing should be emphasized.
I believe the folks who did stealing often got triggered an event just for them that made it much more profitable to steal, that one night, which encouraged them to not participate in night actions.
That sort of thing was really good, fun, and balanced- I think if the thefts were a bit more dire, as opposed to likely not being as good as a protect that did nothing, and people lost more gold that way or gained more gold that way, more people would have bothered protecting their own stashes and stealing.
As it stood, most of the thieves in the game were kind enough not to steal from the same person over and over again, and more people were attacking and defending, so there wasn't much worry about being stolen from in general.
I could be wrong, I know Visor got stolen from a lot just as an example. The officers are generally sitting duck steal targets.
After Ishmael died our VC was based on gold, so I chose you and El Barto because I thought you two would have the most gold. I don't know what exactly the other orders were for last, but we were planning to leave until BSmith got auto and me by killing him. We weren't sticking around.
El Barto
10-18-2015, 23:20
So, how came th' gold ratin's?
I seriously be no' savvy as to why nae one ever stole fram me.
-I collected money on every vote
-I received money fram twa wills (Curio an' Ishmael)
-I sold almost all me night actions
-I got extra gold for roleplayin'
Seriously, lads?
El Barto
10-18-2015, 23:21
After Ishmael died our VC was based on gold, so I chose you and El Barto because I thought you two would have the most gold.
This be unfriendly o' ye. I's sendin' Arrrskthepizzaguy ta repossess yer goods.
-I received money fram twa wills (Curio an' Ishmael)
Although in fairness, you only received 1 gold from my will (sorry about that, by the way!).
This be unfriendly o' ye. I's sendin' Arrrskthepizzaguy ta repossess yer goods.
Why's that?
El Barto
10-18-2015, 23:44
Although in fairness, you only received 1 gold from my will (sorry about that, by the way!).
But tha' meant ye fulfilled yer deal -an' did outbid wee Visorslashie. Incident'lly, deals such as yers were wha' got AdmiralHankerchief ta pay me me bonuses fer host amusemen' an' consisten' roleplayin'.
Why's that?
Ye war covetin' our gold! An' also, ye be dead noo an' has left gold strewn around, we must repossess it afore anywan else do it!
I'd like to thank The Flax and presumably landlubber for their kind donations to the visor fund. Gave me a shot in the gold race.
Out of curiosity, who else here came from CFC?
You came from CFC?
I expressed this in private to some, and while I don't know the actual details of the role, just what Double A told me, TheFlax's role seemed problematic. The Captain can choose at any time to make Flax an officer, they both win, and everyone else loses? What was the thought process behind that role, because to me it looks... poorly designed, to put it diplomatically. Of course, Flax could have simply been lying. :laugh4:
Golden1Knight
10-19-2015, 01:03
You came from CFC?
Yes, but never played Mafia there.
Autolycus
How do you want to play this, with Zack wanting us both in the landlubber kill?
Ishmael
I think it might be hard to beg off the kill, especially since we're both on the same one. As much as it pains me to say it, we might have to go along with it tonight and delay recruiting Csargo until the next night phase.
See, my efforts that night weren't a complete waste.
re: "solve by spreadsheet"
I personally feel the delayed reveals fuel this. For example, the spreadsheet would never have been used to try and pin down the frenchman if ishmael was already revealed as such. And looking at the spreadsheet is forced due to a lack of info that reveals would normally provide. You can't use old-fashioned analysis because you don't know alignments, so you have to rely on other means.
Also, imo the delayed reveals are incredibly, unbelievably annoying, and no reveals at all even more so. I don't understand what exactly it adds to the game besides pointless frustration.
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 01:13
What was the thought process behind that role, because to me it looks... poorly designed, to put it diplomatically. Of course, Flax could have simply been lying. :laugh4:
Ouch, my secret roles have been taking a beating so far in this game! :laugh4: He wasn't lying, I'll address my thinking behind that one as well when I get to it. For now, though, I have an epilogue to finish.
That reminds me: Sprig's "mercenary" role was completely fake. :laugh4: Major credit to him for coming up with an innovative way to get more gold, and major credit to Myrddraal as well for not only running with it, but faking a PM for it too!
Okay, I'd like to clear something up on my gold.
In the interests of complete transparency, my handover PM from GH states that the payments so far went as follows:
N1: Visor
N2: Zack
N3: No payment received (attack failed)
N4: Zack
N5: Ishmael
N6: BSmith initially sent payment, but cancelled the transaction when it became clear that the group wasn't going to be a success (attack failed)
I never paid Sprig on Night 4. I paid him Night 2:
I, along with Sprig, Ishmael, and Golden1Knight, will kill seireikhaan.
I give Sprig five gold for his participation.
I am also working with BSmith on this kill.
But I was not working directly with him n4 and did not send an order to pay him. He paid me back the five gold I gave him n2:
5 golf for Zack for doing the services of not voting for me
Do you accept?
So Sprig and I should have a net neutral exchange as far as gold goes.
Sprig also offered to pay me back 5 gold, but I could not be bothered.
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 01:53
My bad, yeah, autolycus paid Sprig N4. I saw the Sprig/Zack transaction in my records for that night when I sent Myrddraal his orientation PM and didn't bother to check which way the gold was flowing.
El Barto
10-19-2015, 02:12
Sprig also offered to pay me back 5 gold, but I could not be bothered.
But it be five doubloons!
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 02:16
Epilogue
Yet Another Fine Morning in Nassau
Eight of them stepped off the Presence that morning, still looking a bit dazed at the turn of events that had taken them there, but overall they had varying looks of contentment on their faces. After all, despite their individual journeys to get there, each of them had two immutable things in common: One, that they were alive, and two, that they were rich. They looked to take advantage of both of these new facts of life in Nassau immediately.
Myrddraal, with 175 treasure to his name, made sure to set up camp in a bar far from the main district of town. The reason for this was that he had fabricated an entire backstory aboard the Presence about him being a well-known mercenary who required payment before he killed anyone at night. The rest of the crewmen had bought this and thus paid up pretty much every night aboard, giving him a sizeable total that would have been even larger had more of his murders gone through successfully.
While Myrddraal may not have had any mercenary talents whatsoever, one of the talents he *did* have was a sense of when to get out while he still could. He knew on the final day that the fabrication had been close to falling apart. He knew that greater scrutiny fell upon him, that his story would not hold up to it and the rest of the crew would assume the worst. He knew that it was time to bid his crewmates farewell. A very brief farewell, at that.
So Myrddraal sat in a relatively empty bar, sipping on his ale and ruminating over the events that had transpired for the past week-plus with a smile on his face in spite of everything. Yes, the crew would have figured out by now that he wasn't actually a mercenary. But really, who cared? He had enough treasure now to hire *real* mercenaries if anybody came after him. Life was good.
Closer to the center of town, in the main tavern, several of the crewmen gathered there to make their merriment, including Golden1Knight and Zack. The two had been allies for a short while, killing together on more than one occasion and Zack dissuading other groups from going after Golden at night, but like all things on the Presence, their alliance was fleeting, taking different approaches to finding the Frenchman during the day. However, gold and rum served to reignite all friendships, and soon the two of them were drinking and laughing again like nothing had happened. Double A would have joined in, but he was once again napping, having emptied out his entire sack of gold and used it as a very rough bed. Double A hadn't been the most active of Captains, but his steady leadership and refusal to change course in the heat of the moment certainly served the Presence well in the end, as even further chaos might have turned the tide in the Frenchman's favor. In his mind, Double A completely deserved the rest he was getting... his lavishly-displayed rest.
Elsewhere in the same same bar was Anne the Tavern Wench, BSmith, for once taking part in the festivities instead of seeing that they didn't get too rowdy. Anne, seizing an opportunity when she saw it back in New Tortuga, had made the most of her time aboard. And while she didn't quite succeed in her goal of becoming the most famous pirate in this part of the world, she certainly made a name for herself among the rest of the crewmen with her skills with a harpoon, fancy cutlass, and general proclivity to kill just for clothes. She would be treated with respect in certain circles from now on, and that, at least, was a start.
BSmith sat, drank, laughed, drank some more, and splashed ale (only the cheap kind, obviously) in the faces of anyone who tried to hit on her for the entire night, secure in her superiority. The Presence had been full of danger, but it was also a great start to her new life of adventuring.
The Officer's Club had always been the swankiest tavern in Nassau, the one bastion of Old World rationality and class superiority in the pirate haven. Reserved for the various captains and their lieutenants that called Nassau their main port-of-call, it provided a refuge for those who needed to step outside the boisterousness and raucous behavior of the main taverns and think. It was no surprise, then, to find Montmorency and dcmort93 make their way there at some point in the day after they got the initial partying vibe out of their systems.
At first, Monty wasn't sure if he was going to be allowed in. He was Captain upon the Presence's docking, yes, but he had also been somewhat poor. Being stolen from on multiple nights on board (including a staggering 33 gold on Night 6), not being entirely successful in his group killings, and spending lots of money in bribes in order to make his beloved Operation Blenheim go off without a hitch, Monty's gold had hovered around its starting total only one day before. But then, he struck some luck at last on the final day. First, he got elected Captain, with all of the salary benefits it provided. Secondly, he ended up being the sole benefactor of Csargo's will, receiving a cool 50 gold just because BSmith had chopped autolycus's head off with that fancy cutlass. As a result, Monty was sitting on a far more respectable 174 gold at the start of the day, definitely enough to enjoy the full benefits of the Officer's Club for quite some time.
dcmort, having been First Mate for a week, was much richer, but he didn't rub it in much. They were both in too contemplative of moods anyway. It had been a hectic ride for dcmort - a closely-contested Captaincy election, the mutiny which put him in as First Mate, trying to do good at night by figuring out who was French, trying to balance it with placating the town with his scans, a mild identity crisis in which he felt like he switched personalities about halfway through the voyage - yes, dcmort had had a heck of a trip, indeed. And now, as he returned the suggestive smiles of two buxom wenches, he figured he was going to have a heck of a night.
Elsewhere in the North Atlantic...
Ironside had found land fairly quickly, a deserted, medium-sized island that was clearly around the southernmost part of the Bahamas. At first, he was going to use it strictly as a resupply point before he continued his journey to civilization. But the more time he spent on that island, the more he realized two things. First, he really did not feel like rowing that cursed dinghy any further, especially not the night after that hurricane. Secondly, this island was actually not bad. Sure, it was deserted, but it had protection from the elements, a good source of fish nearby, and fertile farmland.
With time, this island could become a self-sustaining habitat for Ironside. The fish would sustain him until his first supply of crops were ready. In the meantime, the solitude would be good for him - he could reflect on his actions, and the fact that sometimes there were more important things than gold.
Choxorn, meanwhile, had found a good wind and followed it... and eventually found himself right back in New Tortuga, where the adventure of theirs had started. Cautiously making his way into the town and looking around, he find it to be more or less the same as it had been, although certainly a bit quieter than usual. Eventually Choxorn worked up the nerve to visit the tavern (alas, a certain favorite tavern wench of his wasn't working there when he walked in) and asked for some information.
"Ah yeah, the French scare about a week or two back?" the bartender said. "Aye, that was a bit o' a weird one, but all fer nothin' really. The bit of news that got all them pirates scurrying around and taking our stuff turned out to be a complete fake - there wasn't no French navy in sight. Methinks somebody used it as a big diversion or cover fer somethin' else, certainly someone more crafty than me anyway. Can't imagine what for, though. Anyways, we be takin' it in stride and spreadin' the world that New Tortuga still be open for business! We'll recover, laddie, don't you worry about that."
Choxorn nodded his thanks and stepped outside to take this news in. The French attack on New Tortuga a fabrication? Cover for something else? What on earth was going on around here?
The world was a weird and complicated place, he decided, and then went back inside to partake in the activity that usually made everything simpler for him. He ordered a drink.
After some hard rowing, Askthepizzaguy and El Barto reached Nassau about 15 hours after the Presence did, truly an accomplishment considering they had abandoned ship more than 24 hours before docking and only were in a dinghy as opposed to a sloop or any sort of real ship. It was the dead of night, but this had never stopped the people of Nassau from getting their party on in the past, and judging by the sounds emanating from the main district of the town, it wasn't stopping them tonight, either. They looked at each other and grinned.
"Party be windin' down, boys," said a dockworker who passed them by. "All the taverns in the area just ran completely out o' everything. Most of the revelers be nursin' what's left and then nodding off."
"Ah, hellfire!" Pizza said, clearly annoyed. "We up and missed the party! I told you you should have taken more turns rowing, ye had me totally exhausted by the end! Why'd I have to do most of the rowing, anyway?"
"Because, my lad," said El Barto, "I have more gold than ye! Money talks, aye? Ye should have learned that from me if nothing else. Anyways, no matter. My cousin's got a bank around here but I wanna keep you sober for another idea o' mine. It's guaranteed to make us even richer than me cousin and more popular with the locals. All we need is a bit o' capital investment, supplied mostly by you of course."
"What be this idea of yours?"
"Simple: A casino!"
A casino! In a pirate haven like Nassau, that would work almost too well. Pizza was instantly enamored. "I'm in," he said.
"Great! I'll be the owner an' big idea man, and ye can be the manager overseeing the mundane day-to-day affairs!"
"Waitaminute, why do you get to have the cool title while you leave me to be stuck with all the grunt work?" They paused for a bit, admiring the inanity of the question, before Pizza supplied the answer to his own question. "Because you have more gold than me, right."
Visorslash had eventually left all the taverns - including the Officer's Club - behind, saying his goodbyes and taking in the sights of the town, passing Pizza and El Barto by and nodding his greeting. His eight days and nights aboard the Presence had certainly been eventful, and he appreciated the need for solitude. It was fair to see that Visor had gotten the full Presence experience - having engineered a mutiny, becoming Quartermaster, working hard to find the Frenchman, having a bounty openly placed on his head, getting in an hours-long argument about the semantics of rounding, experiencing the joy of finding out that one of his targets was indeed working for the Frenchman, and now feeling utter relief that it was finally over, that they were all safe.
Visor had definitely made some enemies aboard, but a lot of them were dead. And he had made some friends too, especially the kind that left him money in their wills. Despite being stolen from on multiple occasions, these wills had left him the leader in terms of treasure among the survivors, to a cool total of 336.
He would spend it, obviously, but eventually. For now, this evening, he was content to walk around and take it all in. It was 1723 and piracy was clearly on the downswing, but for at least one night it remained alive and well. Regardless of the Presence's fate, that alone was cause for celebration. With this fact in mind, Visor walked back into the tavern, loudly greeted everyone hello, and called for a round of ale on him.
Coda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU
Ishmael, the Frenchman, was in parts unknown, starving, dehydrated, and bleeding from multiple wounds. The number of slashes he had taken meant that his initial dip in the Atlantic after being tossed overboard was extraordinarily painful, but even that had numbed over the next several days. He vaguely remembered a cannon going off an instant he went over, depositing a large chunk of wood into the ocean next to him. Ishmael had been clinging to this piece for dear life for several days now.
Floating in the ocean, too weak to attempt to paddle or steer to any particular destination, gave Ishmael quite a lot of time to think. This entire adventure had started eight years ago, shortly after Louis XIV died, when it became clear that life at Versailles would no longer be the same. Seeking fulfillment from other sources, the Frenchman acquired a brand new ship, the Presence, and sailed it to the New World to experience life on the frontier.
The times he had on the voyage over as well as the first year in the Americas were nothing short of amazing. Many of the Frenchman's greatest memories were formed on that boat. From experiencing sunrise in the Crow's Nest the morning after a bad storm, from feeling the spray of the sea on him after the ship was rocked by a wave, to sailing out into the unknown on *his* ship with the possibilities stretched out on the horizon before him, the Frenchman felt that he was truly making the most of all that life had to offer.
And then, it ended. He made port in some town he couldn't quite remember now, possibly Nassau itself, and went down to one of the local taverns. He got caught up in a game of chance, got drunker than he was expecting, and lost a wager he wasn't willing to part with: the Presence itself. Just like that, the good times were over. Keeping those good memories in mind were what sustained him for the next year, as he formulated a plan to get his beloved ship back. In 1717, he snuck aboard in the aftermath of the ship's sack of Charleston and made a play for the Captaincy. He failed, but he would make two important connections during that voyage. The first was the man who would eventually become the Captain of the Maven, a competing pirate ship whose crew was always up for sticking it to their more famous brethren. The second was the love of his life.
The Frenchman and his consort spent the next three years in bliss, married in all but name, as they taught each other the ways of the world. These were the happiest years of his life, with memories that even now worked to take his current pains away, but something was missing. It wasn't quite perfect yet. The two of them had a built a life for themselves, but they both agreed that the only way to make it better is if they sailed the world together on the Presence. Never settling for "great" when "perfect" was in sight, the Frenchman once again worked to smuggle himself on board, this time with his consort.
In 1720 he did so in the confusion of the attack on the Spanish Treasure Fleet. They were both capable fighters and cunning planners, ready to take on all comers... but on the second night, his consort died. It wasn't an ultimate sacrifice for the cause, it wasn't a final act of defiance before the inevitable, it was just a random killing from the ship's First Mate at the time. He didn't even get to say goodbye. The Frenchman got his revenge, but emotionally spent, his heart wasn't in the takeover. His better half had departed him, and though he tried to reclaim the ship, he fell short once again, ultimately paraded around by the current Captain as his ultimate act of triumph.
Grief led to anger. Anger led to a plan. He tracked down his old friend, the Captain of the Maven, and sought out his help. He hired out two of the Maven's best crewmen and waited for the time to be right. He had always wanted his ship back, but this time it was personal.
But for a third and final time, things didn't go to plan. He had survived for far longer than he had any right to, continuing to display a trait he had shown on the previous two occasions he had tried to reclaim the ship, but eventually even he had to succumb to the inevitable. And thus the events on the seventh day happened, leading to his current situation.
Still... it had been a good life. It hadn't been as long as he had liked, but it had definitely been full. Better this than some of his peers in the Old World, getting fat off the taxes of their subjects and endlessly scheming against each other. He had learned, he had loved, and he had lived.
And now he could feel the darkness about to overtake him. Sparing one last glance down at the chunk of wood that was holding him up, he murmured the softest of gasps. Staring back at him was something that had not caught his eye until now: A minor piece of vandalism, carved into the wood: a love declaration between the Frenchman and his consort, dated 1720, the first night they were aboard the Presence together in his second attempt to retake the ship, the last night before she died. How fitting.
Clinging to the two great loves of his life, the Frenchman passed into the great beyond.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The victorious crewmen:
Visorslash - 336 (first place)
Double A - 248
dcmort93 - 229
Zack - 199
Golden1Knight - 186
Myrddraal - 175
Montmorency - 174
Xiahou - 152
Ituralde - 149
Andres - 142
Gaius Scribonius Curio - 137
johnhughthom - 102
seireikhaan - 101
landlubber - 98
Lissa - 83
Ice - 62
TFT - 30
Kagemusha - 0
Would have scored higher, if not for those meddling thieves:
BSmith - 163
Abandoned ship, for better or for worse:
El Barto - 218
Askthepizzaguy - 198
Choxorn - 160
Ironside - 96
Would have made it off alive, if not for those meddling clothes:
autolycus - 337
Csargo - 134
Died in the line of duty:
spaceman98 - 93
Absent from next year's AGM of shareholders:
TheFlax - 79
Adieu, mon amour:
Ishmael - 76
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 02:36
Visorslash - 336 (first place)
Crazed Rabbit - 336 (first place)
Good on ya', Visor.
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 02:43
A funny thing I have to mention:
When BSmith first approached me at the end of D8, I decided to have him kill Csargo, which would have allowed Auto to get away with a Plan B success.
However, I then realized that if Andres were the Frenchman that he would have converted Csargo; this realization coupled with the earlier discussion of Csargo vs. Auto's scumminess led me to change BSmith's order to killing Auto a few hours later.
It's the Captain's prerogative to deal out death and justice. :smug:
Zack - 199
Askthepizzaguy - 198
Who's one gold ahead now?!
A funny thing I have to mention:
When BSmith first approached me at the end of D8, I decided to have him kill Csargo, which would have allowed Auto to get away with a Plan B success.
However, I then realized that if Andres were the Frenchman that he would have converted Csargo; this realization coupled with the earlier discussion of Csargo vs. Auto's scumminess led me to change BSmith's order to killing Auto a few hours later.
It's the Captain's prerogative to deal out death and justice. :smug:
I had pretty much decided to kill auto regardless. His situation was the most suspicious to me and I had one less night to kill him than I did Csargo.
El Barto
10-19-2015, 03:23
Abandoned ship, for better or for worse:
El Barto - 218
Scored more'n anywan wha didna have an officer's salary. Awricht!
But wha' do we count as? This be no' an ordinary game, Hankie me mate.
Thanks for the game GH, I had a ton of fun (besides that one day). Its nice to get redemption from the last game and that horrible failure. :laugh4:
Excellent writeups, excllent game, a pleasure. My apologies to you and the rest of the game for getting things heated at stages - that was definitely something I should've worked to avoid.
Scored more'n anywan wha didna have an officer's salary. Awricht!
But wha' do we count as? This be no' an ordinary game, Hankie me mate.
And I would have scored higher than you if you didn't receive those wills. I have never received any gold from a will in one of these games.
Thanks for the game GH, I had a ton of fun (besides that one day). Its nice to get redemption from the last game and that horrible failure. :laugh4:
Excellent writeups, excllent game, a pleasure. My apologies to you and the rest of the game for getting things heated at stages - that was definitely something I should've worked to avoid.
My advice is stop playing on 2+2. Sometimes you can see the influence seeping into your posts.
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 04:21
But wha' do we count as? This be no' an ordinary game, Hankie me mate.
BSmith and above got a victory (BSmith's was minor), the four people who abandoned ship scored a draw, and everyone from autolycus below took a loss.
Roles are coming tomorrow (US time), my traditional essay probably a day or two after that.
landlubber
10-19-2015, 04:38
Phenomenal game, tons of fun to play in (and spectate after my death). Thanks to everyone for making such an engaging game possible.
2000 posts is a lot. Been a long time since a game on either the Org or CFC got there, NSP 1 got close(actually got above 2000) I think, and that was also another classic.
I was gonna say, None Shall Pass (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=513049) had well over 2000 (2323 game posts and 111 post-game). It also lasted longer and had more players, so by my calculations Pirate Ship Mafia III was actually more active.
And this is my post 402 in this thread, bet yall are sick of seeing my name in this thread! :laugh4:
Re: BSmith - I agree with auto, I think the townie with the chip on the shoulder roles are't that fun (fun for those who get it though, I think). Perhaps he could've had a 1 shot kill and a block instead of killing those who stole from him.
Flax had a very difficult role as well I think - not sure how he could've won unless he got lucky.
The captain/officers position was pretty important again this game - seems like having strong officers and a captain really helps in driving the game forward somewhat.
The captain/officers position was pretty important again this game - seems like having strong officers and a captain really helps in driving the game forward somewhat.
And yet the captain was essentially a figurehead and the first mate's scans were largely ineffective (at least in their use).
Any more QT links?
None from me. I can post some more chat logs if you guys are interested in that?
Actually here is one:
http://www.quicktopic.com/51/H/5yAJZ2MesLimB
this is me arguing for full yolo after monty threatened aa with mutiny
[9/10/2015 12:41:30 PM] No Lynch: what are the chances of me getting lynched if i ask flax to kill zack and rescind from el barto
[9/10/2015 12:41:33 PM] No Lynch: near 100?
[9/10/2015 12:41:58 PM] GH: well, that'd be my chances of amusemet
[9/10/2015 12:42:04 PM] GH: amusement*, too
[9/10/2015 12:42:17 PM] No Lynch: i almost want to suggest full yolo
[9/10/2015 12:42:21 PM] No Lynch: dc kills monty
[9/10/2015 12:42:24 PM] No Lynch: flax kills zack
[9/10/2015 12:42:28 PM] No Lynch: i rescind from el barto
[9/10/2015 12:42:35 PM] No Lynch: now that would be a night worth remembering
[9/10/2015 12:42:52 PM] GH: you know, I haven't had a "signature" night yet to this point
[9/10/2015 12:42:55 PM] GH: had one the other two games
[9/10/2015 12:43:02 PM] No Lynch: don't remind me
[9/10/2015 12:43:04 PM] No Lynch: :P
[9/10/2015 12:55:43 PM] No Lynch: cmon dc
[9/10/2015 12:55:47 PM] No Lynch: whaddya say to full yolo
[9/10/2015 12:56:03 PM] No Lynch: i don't want to be confirmed town
[9/10/2015 12:56:09 PM] DCmort: It's tempting
[9/10/2015 12:56:15 PM] DCmort: why not?
[9/10/2015 12:56:23 PM] No Lynch: because its boring!
[9/10/2015 12:56:32 PM] No Lynch: beign confirmed town means nobody tries to lynch you
[9/10/2015 12:56:39 PM] AA: 131 new messages jesus :daisy: christ
[9/10/2015 12:56:54 PM] No Lynch: hello aa
[9/10/2015 12:57:11 PM] No Lynch: even better!
[9/10/2015 12:57:13 PM] GH: GH (me) finally succumbed and decided to join the party
[9/10/2015 12:57:20 PM] No Lynch: aa shoots atpg with the captain power
[9/10/2015 12:57:30 PM] No Lynch: dc shoots zack because it'll implicate me more
[9/10/2015 12:57:34 PM] No Lynch: flax shoots monty
[9/10/2015 12:57:39 PM] No Lynch: i rescind takh
[9/10/2015 12:57:42 PM] No Lynch: now THAT is a night to remember
[9/10/2015 12:58:25 PM] DCmort: I'm all for it. I could use some shenanigans right now anyways
[9/10/2015 12:58:40 PM] No Lynch: you're the best dc
[9/10/2015 12:59:00 PM] No Lynch: aa whaddya say
[9/10/2015 12:59:18 PM] AA: GH did you send mort all the pms you sent nj
[9/10/2015 1:00:00 PM] GH: I sent him his initial role PM, his FM pm, and recapped his night actions as well as giving him his current gold total
[9/10/2015 1:00:39 PM] AA: also did anyone ever try to steal from the previous Presence captains
[9/10/2015 1:00:43 PM] GH: yes
[9/10/2015 1:01:04 PM] AA: why would I shoot pizza
[9/10/2015 1:01:19 PM] No Lynch: for lols
[9/10/2015 1:01:27 PM] No Lynch: also it'll make it the third time in three games
[9/10/2015 1:01:31 PM] AA: pft
[9/10/2015 1:01:34 PM] No Lynch: cmon man
[9/10/2015 1:01:36 PM] AA: Nah Pizza's town.
[9/10/2015 1:01:38 PM] No Lynch: it'll be funny
[9/10/2015 1:01:41 PM] No Lynch: who cares tbh
[9/10/2015 1:01:51 PM] AA: me and my only useful ability
[9/10/2015 1:01:55 PM] No Lynch: shooting pizza
[9/10/2015 1:02:00 PM] AA: I wanna kill Kermit himself with it
[9/10/2015 1:02:01 PM] No Lynch: haven't you wanted to shoot pizza before?
[9/10/2015 1:02:10 PM] AA: actually no :P
[9/10/2015 1:02:13 PM] No Lynch: this is your golden opportunity!
[9/10/2015 1:02:20 PM] No Lynch: first time to shoot pizza
[9/10/2015 1:02:23 PM] No Lynch: its fun, take it from me
[9/10/2015 1:02:32 PM] AA: actually I coulda shot pizza the first time I was a vig
[9/10/2015 1:02:36 PM] AA: and if I had I woulda won the game
[9/10/2015 1:02:46 PM] No Lynch: i shot pizza in my second game iirc
[9/10/2015 1:02:55 PM] No Lynch: but he was recruited cult
[9/10/2015 1:02:56 PM] AA: besides
[9/10/2015 1:03:02 PM] No Lynch: do eet
[9/10/2015 1:03:04 PM] No Lynch: cmon man
[9/10/2015 1:03:07 PM] No Lynch: live a little
[9/10/2015 1:03:13 PM] AA: if I really think pizza is working against us I can tell him to jump ship
[9/10/2015 1:03:18 PM] No Lynch: he won't jump ship
[9/10/2015 1:03:20 PM] No Lynch: are you kidding me
[9/10/2015 1:03:31 PM] AA: yeah
[9/10/2015 1:03:43 PM] AA: but if he doesn't then we can convince the town to lynch him
[9/10/2015 1:04:01 PM] No Lynch: yeah and put up with another day of me getting berated for things i didn't do :P
[9/10/2015 1:04:11 PM] No Lynch: he won't and the town won't be convinced
[9/10/2015 1:06:07 PM] AA: psh I could get them to do it
[9/10/2015 1:06:17 PM] DCmort: how so?
[9/10/2015 1:06:19 PM] No Lynch: no you couldn't
[9/10/2015 1:06:27 PM] No Lynch: the town will say of course he won't
[9/10/2015 1:06:32 PM] No Lynch: and go back to lynching jht or curio
[9/10/2015 1:06:48 PM] No Lynch: i'm telling you now
[9/10/2015 1:06:51 PM] No Lynch: this is your big chance
[9/10/2015 1:07:05 PM] No Lynch: you will never laugh as hard after the night writeup
[9/10/2015 1:07:08 PM] No Lynch: if it all goes through
[9/10/2015 1:07:10 PM] No Lynch: well i won't
[9/10/2015 1:07:41 PM] AA: there is next to no way you're gonna get me to use the only uberkill in the game just because it'd be absolutely :daisy: hilarious
[9/10/2015 1:07:41 PM] GH: all I'm gonna say is that it would almost certainly qualify for a host amusement gold bonus
[9/10/2015 1:07:54 PM] No Lynch: see!
[9/10/2015 1:07:56 PM] No Lynch: free gold
[9/10/2015 1:07:59 PM] AA: 4 gold isn't worth a kill mang
[9/10/2015 1:08:04 PM] No Lynch: it totally is
[9/10/2015 1:08:11 PM] No Lynch: i'd sell out my family for 4 gold
[9/10/2015 1:08:16 PM] No Lynch: in fact I did for 3
[9/10/2015 1:08:18 PM] No Lynch: but dont tell anyone
[9/10/2015 1:08:36 PM] AA: besides
[9/10/2015 1:08:45 PM] AA: if I was gonna kill someone for literally no reason
[9/10/2015 1:08:48 PM] AA: we all know it would be john
[9/10/2015 1:08:53 PM] No Lynch: heh
[9/10/2015 1:09:21 PM] No Lynch: can i bribe you to look the other way theb
[9/10/2015 1:09:26 PM] No Lynch: maybe you don't have to kill atpg yet
[9/10/2015 1:09:48 PM] AA: based on what pizza's said
[9/10/2015 1:09:57 PM] AA: we could bribe him and he'd actually act like a townie
[9/10/2015 1:10:04 PM] No Lynch: screw that
[9/10/2015 1:10:11 PM] No Lynch: its all stuff for gold
[9/10/2015 1:10:17 PM] No Lynch: ive been chatting with him in private
[9/10/2015 1:10:22 PM] No Lynch: he has no intention of acting like a townie
[9/10/2015 1:10:27 PM] AA: yeah of course screw that I'm not giving him :daisy:
[9/10/2015 1:10:43 PM] AA: otherwise I woulda done it already
[9/10/2015 1:11:25 PM] No Lynch: gh you reckon you could bump that up to 5 gold
[9/10/2015 1:11:33 PM] No Lynch: might sweeten the deal up a bit
[9/10/2015 1:11:39 PM] No Lynch: i'll even give you 10 gold
[9/10/2015 1:11:42 PM] GH: amusement bonus ranges from 1-5
[9/10/2015 1:11:49 PM] AA: are you gonna throw in a fish too
[9/10/2015 1:12:01 PM] No Lynch: fresh barra from the coast
[9/10/2015 1:12:08 PM] No Lynch: nevermind we're nowhere near australia
[9/10/2015 1:12:46 PM] AA: mongers gonna monger
[9/10/2015 1:16:29 PM] AA: right if I don't kill pizza, will vigs?
[9/10/2015 1:16:45 PM] No Lynch: no
[9/10/2015 1:16:55 PM] No Lynch: they'll be hitting curio/jht probably
[9/10/2015 1:16:56 PM] No Lynch: or flax
[9/10/2015 1:18:00 PM] DCmort: or you
[9/10/2015 1:18:14 PM] DCmort: if zack decides to rally them
[9/10/2015 1:18:40 PM] No Lynch: nah, they're gonna hit jht tonight
[9/10/2015 1:18:48 PM] No Lynch: and the other is going to be on some other target
[9/10/2015 1:18:52 PM] No Lynch: so everyone will be doing something
[9/10/2015 1:23:22 PM] No Lynch: atpg has claimed to steal itals gold twice in a row now
[9/10/2015 1:23:27 PM] No Lynch: iirc
[9/10/2015 1:23:31 PM] No Lynch: yet ital doesnt care
[9/10/2015 1:23:43 PM] No Lynch: establishing an alibi between them>
[9/10/2015 1:24:19 PM] No Lynch: can you check aa?
aa/nj/dc/gh/myself talked a lot of non game related things as well - which pads the convo up a bit.
talked to atpg a lot - but can't remember the juicy bits.
Not from my perspective. :laugh4:
I mean, the guy who campaigned against me, threatened to mutiny, and tried to steal from me - I rewarded him for his efforts by bringing him into my inner circle. Hardly Stalinist, who ordered anyone who looked at him the wrong way to be executed. I didn't run as tight of a ship as you're implying or might remember. I never did anything like kage did n1 or Visor did n7 or you did n8 (giving every living player specific orders), though I did frequently give suggestions to vig groups (including the Frenchman and several Spaniards) and I asked people to report on their night activity (only after I was essentially confirmed town publicly). I (and the officers) were leaders, not micro-managers. :crown:
CAPTAIN ZACKBEARD DID NOTHING WRONG
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 05:25
Fine, Roman imperial autocracy.
Zack, on the other hand, did plenty wrong this game. Plenty.
Kill ATPG.
Seriously? lol
Lol, I figured you wanted to do it, so I'd let you do it
How do I know you're not protecting him I thought you were buddies
i'm not protecting him lol
we did chat a bit but i'm wondering whether he will actually leave the ship if i tell him
your trousers are aflame liar
To be fair - he had already bribed a protection group together - so I was just telling them to keep doing it.
As long as anyone who wasn't me was losing money I was all for it. I wanted to mutiny AA specifically for the gold lol.
He bribed a protection group he abandoned ship? ...why?
Also I hope you're happy whining about your "low" gold total all game now that you have almost 100 more than anyone else
What were the events this game GH?
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 05:57
The storm and then a private event I sent on N6 to everyone alive that had stolen by that point in the game - I'll post that when I get to the roles. Had another one in the pipeline if we got to N9 but I'm going to keep it unrevealed in case I feel like using it in the future.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?150782-Pirate-Ship-Mafia-III-sign-up-thread&p=2053658422&viewfull=1#post2053658422
Askthepizzaguy
Posts: 133
:laugh4:
He bribed a protection group he abandoned ship? ...why?
Also I hope you're happy whining about your "low" gold total all game now that you have almost 100 more than anyone else
Well I whined so people would NOT steal from me anymore. I did get stolen from at least three times.
The 100 more is from Flax and Landlubber, without them I wouldn't have won the Gold victory. :bow:
landlubber
10-19-2015, 06:31
The 100 more is from Flax and Landlubber, without them I wouldn't have won the Gold victory. :bow:
I actually set my will to give you fifty gold on N1. Not really sure why, but you definitely deserved it after trying to talk everyone out of vigging me and Lissa, so I just didn't change it. :p
Where's my 50 gold for discouraging a GoldenKnight vig?
Askthepizzaguy
10-19-2015, 07:16
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?150782-Pirate-Ship-Mafia-III-sign-up-thread&p=2053658422&viewfull=1#post2053658422
Askthepizzaguy
Posts: 133
:laugh4:
A full five actual players (Including Csargo of all people :wink:) were ahead of me in post count, I barely did anything by day by my standards and by night I actually went anti-group and flew solo most of the game.
As for my last night on the ship-
I put a protect group on myself so I could stay on board the ship and continue stealing from you, and Andres, and I thought about stealing from Myrddraal as well.
But, I was told I'd probably be ordered off the ship soon, so paying 20 gold to protect myself seemed dumb.
I immediately withdrew payment from Andres because he initially decided he didn't want to protect me even though I offered him a sweet deal on it, better than the deal he asked for from me earlier in the game, and I felt he was doing fine gold-wise anyway.
I withdrew payment from Ituralde because I heard he was about to die and he did try to steal from me.
I continued payment to Autolycus and Golden1Knight because they were good crewmen who volunteered and did good work in other groups. I figured 10 gold wasn't that much of a big loss, and I wanted to keep my word as much as possible.
I could have abandoned all of them but the idea I needed to leave the ship the next night was tossed at me and I realized I wouldn't be able to do more stealing to make up for the gold investment for the protect group that night.
I figured after that night you wouldn't have enough people to realistically vig me and you'd have bigger fish to fry. So I was all set to continue our stealing rivalry but Visorslash interfered with it.
The alternative was for me to defy Visor and there was no way that wouldn't have ended violently, so I did leave.
If Visor had told me sooner I'd be ordered off the ship soon, I'd have never bothered with the protect group.
Thanks all! Thanks GH for hosting.
Also many thanks to Myrddraal (My holiday was fantatistic) for picking up Squawky Jim, whose whole strat was 'Zack is town I'll follow him.'
Ituralde
10-19-2015, 08:25
If you hadn't bothered with the protection group, I would have abandoned ship. The impacts were getting too close and I was proven right the next day. That's always the most frustrating parts about Mafia games, where you're doomed because of something you did two weeks ago and there's nothing you can do to save you. Also my window of playing (now) didn't really fit with the other players. All the important lynch decisions and back and forth vote trading, alwasy happened when I was asleep.
Overall I enjoyed the game though. I thought the stealing and guarding would be more important, and I really enjoyed that part. In hindsight though, I think the specific writeups favour the town. Ideally the Captain would have organized nightly mock fights, with people put in Vigging and protections groups that would then duke it out and have everybody accounted for. Everybody who doesn't play along would be French.
Also trying to get the Captaincy to a Frenchman would probably have been the best option to win the game as the French. That or the Myrdraal approach of just going along with the vig kills until the crew is properly decimated. :yes:
Reading this, I was fully in support of Kagemushas captaincy and don't really understand why Visor and co pushed for the mutiny. I thought they might be afraid of him being French, but never said so and he was revealed as town later. That coupled with my fear that the French would install themselves in the Captaincy was responsible why I couldn't get to trust Visorslash throughout the game, which probably got me killed for being too uncooperative.
Thanks to GH for putting in the effort of hosting thig. I know I asked enough rules questions and always became a prompt and friendly reply. I can only imagine how much work it is to host a game of that scale. So thanks a lot, really! :2thumbsup:
spaceman98
10-19-2015, 08:46
re: "solve by spreadsheet"
I personally feel the delayed reveals fuel this. For example, the spreadsheet would never have been used to try and pin down the frenchman if ishmael was already revealed as such. And looking at the spreadsheet is forced due to a lack of info that reveals would normally provide. You can't use old-fashioned analysis because you don't know alignments, so you have to rely on other means.
Also, imo the delayed reveals are incredibly, unbelievably annoying, and no reveals at all even more so. I don't understand what exactly it adds to the game besides pointless frustration.
The delayed reveals did help us, which was nice in a game with a lot of perks for the town (a lot of the mislynches of Kage loyalists like Xiahou would not have happened had Kage's town status been revealed). That said, delayed reveal is an annoying mechanic overall, since the lynch is supposed to be the town's tool for gathering information, and delayed reveals denies the town that, forcing spreadsheeting.
________________________________________
If you hadn't bothered with the protection group, I would have abandoned ship. The impacts were getting too close and I was proven right the next day. That's always the most frustrating parts about Mafia games, where you're doomed because of something you did two weeks ago and there's nothing you can do to save you. Also my window of playing (now) didn't really fit with the other players. All the important lynch decisions and back and forth vote trading, alwasy happened when I was asleep.
Overall I enjoyed the game though. I thought the stealing and guarding would be more important, and I really enjoyed that part. In hindsight though, I think the specific writeups favour the town. Ideally the Captain would have organized nightly mock fights, with people put in Vigging and protections groups that would then duke it out and have everybody accounted for. Everybody who doesn't play along would be French.
Also trying to get the Captaincy to a Frenchman would probably have been the best option to win the game as the French. That or the Myrdraal approach of just going along with the vig kills until the crew is properly decimated. :yes:
Reading this, I was fully in support of Kagemushas captaincy and don't really understand why Visor and co pushed for the mutiny. I thought they might be afraid of him being French, but never said so and he was revealed as town later. That coupled with my fear that the French would install themselves in the Captaincy was responsible why I couldn't get to trust Visorslash throughout the game, which probably got me killed for being too uncooperative.
Thanks to GH for putting in the effort of hosting thig. I know I asked enough rules questions and always became a prompt and friendly reply. I can only imagine how much work it is to host a game of that scale. So thanks a lot, really! :2thumbsup:
"That or the Myrdraal approach of just going along with the vig kills until the crew is properly decimated."
That's basically what we did. Only problem is, some of the vig kills were actually aimed at us
__________________________________
This game really put town vs. scum game in perspective for me. I've always thought that my town and scum game were pretty similar. But if I was town, I would have probably been a vocal Kage loyalist. I still don't get why he was mutinied frankly
spaceman98
10-19-2015, 08:47
actually, re-reading that day, its hard to say which side I would have taken as town. Still, I'm curious: was there any backroom conspriacy or knowledge behind that mutiny, or just general frustration?
autolycus
10-19-2015, 13:26
I think the other thing that made me feel more like Bsmith came out of left field, and this is partially on me, is that I read khaan's death as a five man kill, rather than a four man kill and a one man kill, both successful. I also read Curio's death as being a one/one/one, where only one succeeded, rather than a one/one/one where two succeeded. Therefore, I hadn't perceived any solo kills besides the first mate.
If that ambiguity wasn't intentional, I think adding a recap of publically visible actions to nights, as I think was present in Capo (but I wouldn't swear to it), would improve the experience.
I did try to hide the fact I could solo kill as long as possible so as to avoid the inevitable questions. Remember I was ultimately after the items and really needed people to work with me so I could find them. If I could kill as a group instead of solo I went that way. Originally the GSC kill was supposed to be as a group too, but I could sense it falling apart and went solo.
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 14:45
actually, re-reading that day, its hard to say which side I would have taken as town. Still, I'm curious: was there any backroom conspriacy or knowledge behind that mutiny, or just general frustration?
There was, in the main Treachery on the High Seas QT group, but I think everyone's motivations for participating in it were different. It ended up just all snowballing together eventually. A really weird phase for me to preside over.
Ideally the Captain would have organized nightly mock fights, with people put in Vigging and protections groups that would then duke it out and have everybody accounted for. Everybody who doesn't play along would be French.
I was ready for this if anyone tried it. There was a provision in the rules that any townie who ended up in a solo attack or protection, whether by intention or by just the group falling apart, had a chance of not just failure but death (Csargo actually came extremely close to dying as a result of his solo "protection" of Curio the night he was converted). There would have been one night of it and then I think enthusiasm would have been sapped once there were about four casualties due to collateral damage.
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 15:05
On the other hand, players in the writeups seem to take 'flesh wounds' fairly-frequently with no problem.
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 15:14
On the other hand, players in the writeups seem to take 'flesh wounds' fairly-frequently with no problem.
Flavor. After three games, you start to run out of ideas for how fights go on a pirate ship.
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 15:39
Writeup detail isn't sine qua non IMO, though I do like the Capo IV writeups for being some of the densest and most inventive of any of my games.
Montmorency
10-19-2015, 15:45
By the way, let's have a shoutout for Andres.
After apologizing to him following Ishmael's death, when I came to see him as town, after the late-day discussion of D8 I sent him a final PM expressing my disgust in his evil nature and revealing his fate.
And in the end, he still sent in his orders for the obviously-defunct Golden vig, even with the public outcry against him, even with (I assume) the lack of anyone CCing him orders, even when he could have abandoned ship or stolen from someone.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/asset.php?fid=3153&uid=74339&d=1366511582
spaceman98
10-19-2015, 17:16
I still don't understand how Andres died. Was it the first-mate kill? Or did the captain have their own?
I still don't understand how Andres died. Was it the first-mate kill? Or did the captain have their own?
Captain gets a one shot unstoppable kill.
El Barto
10-19-2015, 19:04
Well, I fer one had a lot o' fun here, really, 'specially wi' all th' roleplayin'. Wo-wee!
Thanks all an' I hope I didnae make th' accent too thick fer ye lot.
Golden1Knight
10-19-2015, 19:28
It's interesting to read the thread posts now that we know the roles of everyone. If NotJimRV had managed to have been elected captain, the Frenchman could have been his First Mate (Ishmael started the wagon, after all). Not sure if that would have changed the game, anyway, its fun to think about the "what if's".
GeneralHankerchief
10-19-2015, 19:33
And now, the roles! (also known as "the section in which GH defends his decisions in balancing, Part 1" :tongue:)
As per the previous two games, I had a set order in which I would send out role PMs: the secret roles first, followed by Team Frenchman, followed by your regular Able Seamen, followed by those with a bonus. The order in which random.org spat back the player names out at me would be the order in which I sent the PMs. This was as follows:
TheFlax
BSmith
Ishmael
autolycus
spaceman98
Sprig (later Myrddraal)
landlubber
johnhughthom
El Barto
Montmorency
Ironside
Askthepizzaguy
Double A
Choxorn
Ice
Csargo
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Visorslash
Andres
Golden1Knight
Zack
Ituralde
Xiahou
TFT
seireikhaan
Lissa
Kagemusha
NotJimRV (later dcmort93)
Susceptibility was determined by a further randomization, one that was not indicated at all in the PMs. Of the non-French, non-secret roles, 8 of the remaining 23 Able Seamen were at least partially susceptible. Askthepizzaguy, Double A, Csargo, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Xiahou, and Lissa were susceptible to both the Frenchman and the Maven team (in case the Frenchman died), while Ironside and seireikhaan were susceptible to just the Maven team in order to give them a bit of a boost. This percentage was roughly in line with what it had been during the previous two Pirate Ship Mafia games, whose mafia teams had a far easier time of identifying and recruiting converts for whatever reason.
What now follows is a list of every role PM in the game, along with some brief commentary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dutch Trader
Sent to TheFlax
Your role is:
Dutch Trader
“Business. Always business.”
~ “The Greek”
Throughout its history, the Dutch Republic has always relied on its economic power to punch above its weight class. What they lack in terms of soldiers or key territory, the men of the United Provinces have made up for it with their vast monetary influence - both at home and especially abroad - in order to help shape the world to their liking.
You are a representative of the Dutch West India Company, a government-sanctioned monopoly that has near-total autonomy in the New World. Your employer’s mission: To increase Dutch influence in this part of the world at any cost. You’re paid a lot of money to help enforce this mission, the act of which requires being able to sniff out opportunities and to take advantage of them.
You think right now is one of these opportunities. Relations between the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of France could always use a boost. The return of a significant percentage of New Tortuga’s assets to French hands could certainly go a long way towards generating this boost. Recently, the West India Company has come under more and more pressure from Britain. Perhaps any Franco-Dutch cooperation here could ultimately lead to an outright alliance and the reduction of the hated British presence in the New World.
Your goal: The Presence’s current destination is Nassau. You want to have it dock in Sint Maarten (a Dutch colony in the Lesser Antilles) instead. Doing so will be the first step in establishing a Franco-Dutch alliance. There are two ways to go about doing this:
- You may persuade the Captain to change course. This requires you to be in an Officer position as well as independent confirmation from the Captain. This course will result in victories for you and the Captain and defeat for everyone else once all other threats aboard the Presence are eliminated.
- You may attain the role of Captain for yourself and change course on your own. You must still deal with all threats on board, but steering the Presence into Sint Maarten at game’s end as Captain will result in a solo victory for you.
Powers: As a successful businessman, your skills mostly lie with your tongue and your coin rather than any physical abilities.
- As such, the amount of gold you acquire has absolutely no impact on your overall score whatsoever - any share taken from this venture is a pittance compared to your annual salary.
- However, sometimes unorthodox methods are required in order to get deals done. One time during the entire game, you may kill one person at night on your own. This ability is not special in any way aside from the fact that it is a solo kill and will thus not be effective against protection. Furthermore, use of this ability will prevent a “perfect victory” on your end (though, used wisely, it certainly could help prevent a defeat).
- You may take part in standard townie activities at night for the usual rewards.
- You’ve acquired expensive armor for situations just like these. The first time you are attacked at night (assuming the hit would ordinarily be successful), you will probably survive. This ability expires after Night 2.
Finally, you are aware that the Frenchman that everyone is hunting on this ship is a figure of some nobility. If you are somehow able to get in contact with him, perhaps he could help facilitate the exchange. Good luck!
In the previous two games, the Frenchman served as the anti-officer third party role. When I made the decision to shift him into a more traditional mafia role in this game, I knew that I had to fill the created void somehow. However, I wanted to try something different. While the Frenchman had a "become Captain or else" VC, which naturally led to huge gambles and violence, the Dutch Trader was more of a corrupter. He could go for the full glory, of course, but he could also simply worm his way into a junior officer's role and whisper sweet nothings in the Captain's ear on his way to victory.
There's been a bit of discussion that this role was not very balanced. Looking at it from a purely mathematical perspective, it isn't. Flax could make his offer, a greedy Captain could accept, and nobody would be any wiser. However, Mafia has always been more than about mathematics for me. I was interested in the human element this role would provide.
The first two Pirate Ship Mafia games had very dedicated and involved Captains leading the crew to victory. I felt like they were both personally devoted to the cause. The whole "I am going to lead the crew to salvation" thing, etc. If Flax had made his offer and the Captain accepted, I was really going to start laying it on thick in the writeups. I really wanted the Captain, who would presumably be town, to be put in a moral dilemma about whether this was the right thing to do. I was also going to put hints in the writeup that something was terribly wrong. Go back and look at my night writeups. They almost always start with some variation of "the Presence's northward journey to Nassau continued," as Nassau is geographically north of Tortuga. Should the Dutch Trader's offer be accepted, I would have altered this to say the Presence was now heading east (the direction of Sint Maarten). Eventually I would have been more ham-handed and put stuff like "the stars looked all wrong" etc. in. Basically, there would have been breadcrumbs for the rest of the crew to spot should they have been so inclined.
As per the PM, Flax could have worked with either side to ensure his victory, and had he and the Frenchman paired up, the Presence would have landed in Sint Maarten, business would have been taken care of, the two would have shaken hands, and then the Frenchman would have sailed off with his ship. My mistake was not giving the French more of an indication that they could work with Flax (see below) - indeed, they ID'd Flax early on as a third party but automatically assumed incompatibility, which helped lead to Flax's demise.
Anne the Tavern Wench
Sent to BSmith
Your role is:
Anne the Tavern Wench
“If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!”
~ Mary Read
For the past two years, you’ve found yourself serving drinks (and unofficially playing bouncer) in New Tortuga, a job that far undersells your true abilities. You’ve known for years that you’re the biggest badass in the New World, you see. Now is as good a time as any to prove it to everyone else.
When you realized what was happening, you snuck aboard the Presence, (with your awesome new hat in tow) because adventure seems to follow that ship. You didn’t really have any set plan or goal in mind, but you know there’s most likely going to be attacks at night. You also know that somewhere on board are several pieces of stylish clothing that you’d really like to have - everybody knows you can’t be a legendary pirate without looking the part.
Your goal: As things currently stand, you have the same victory conditions as the town’s: You’d like to survive the voyage, preferably by eliminating the scum aboard, and finish with a big haul of treasure. However, you don’t want to just be an ordinary pirate. You also want to acquire the three pieces of stylish clothing that elude you (you already possess the hat): The robe, the boots, and the fancy cutlass. Should you acquire all four objects, you will receive a PM outlining your new goals and powers. (Note: Acquiring all four pieces of stylish clothing will enable you to score a “higher” victory than you would be able to as a normal townie.)
Powers: You may be a badass, but you’re also on a ship full of battle-hardened buccaneers. You don’t stand out from them… yet.
- You may participate in the standard townie activities at night for treasure.
- If you acquire three of the four pieces of stylish clothing, you will count as two townies in terms of group actions.
- If you are working with someone in a group at night, you will be able to tell if any of them has a piece of stylish clothing. If someone is the target of your group’s night action and they have a piece of stylish clothing, you will automatically acquire it (note: you are limited to one acquisition in this fashion that is NOT a kill).
- If you identify someone that has a piece of stylish clothing, you may solo-kill them the following night. Your ability will become stronger with the more pieces of stylish clothing you possess.
- You do not allow any actions taken against you to go without punishment. If someone steals from you at night, you MUST kill them within three night phases. You are allowed to spend one night generally investigating the ship to determine who stole from you. After that, you will be able to solo-kill them in the same manner as if they possessed a piece of stylish clothing.
Finally, keep in mind that clothing can be passed around from owner to owner (especially if people realize you’re killing for it), so it would behoove you to act quickly once you identify who has a piece. Good luck!
The most controversial role in the game, if the postgame comments are anything to go by. Let me give you a quick history of this first before delving into the specifics.
The secret roles in all of the Pirate Ship Mafia games have pretty much fallen into two camps: anti-officer, full third-party (the Frenchman v1 and v2, Dutch Trader), or technically neutral but town-leaning. The first camp have usually been successes for me from a balancing perspective. The second... not so much. In the first game, the second camp featured the roleblocker, out-for-nobody-but-herself Woman who immediately sided with the town and became another weapon in their already overpowered setup, and the anti-mutiny Fanatical Loyalist, a triggered SK that was a huge miscalculation on my part designed to keep mutiny votes down. In the second game, I got slightly better with the balancing, turning the Woman into the Frenchman's Consort and moving her into the anti-officer camp, and replacing the Fanatical Loyalist with the Drunken Pirate, who acted like two normal townies, could potentially be a deterrent against stealing, but also had to spend a night resetting his powers every so often and was not allowed to take direction from officers. The Drunken Pirate was fine and survived the game, but wasn't very impactful.
My goal for this game was to take elements of the Drunken Pirate and package them into a more active role. My biggest fear in these types of games is always that people end up getting too locked into their groups/actions every night. Anne and her perpetual search for clothing was designed to combat this.
She was to be an agent of chaos, switching partners as often as possible in order to widen the scope of her search and killing indiscriminately if anyone had what she desired. It didn't matter if you were a regular townie, a pivotal officer, or the Frenchman himself. If you had a piece of clothing and BSmith identified you, Anne was coming after you.
The clothing mechanics worked as follows. Around the start of the game, I randed the three accounted for pieces of clothing (BSmith started with the hat as per the opening writeup of the game) to johnhughthom, Double A, and Golden1Knight. They received the following PM, which might look familiar to some of you:
You find yourself in possession of a robe. You're not quite sure how it got there, but it's in your stash nonetheless. You can choose to hold onto it or pass it along to someone else. Note: You must hold onto your item for at least one night phase. You may pass it along to anyone else in the game besides the Captain. It is up to you whether or not to tell anyone about this.
(The pass-off mechanic was designed to give people a fighting chance of survival if they were savvy about the true purpose of the clothes.)
If you died with the item in your possession, its new owner depended on a variety of factors (you had to leave the item behind if you abandoned ship). If you left it in your will, then I would give it to whoever you specified (unless BSmith killed you). If you didn't leave it in your will, then I randed it to someone who had a part in your death: either someone who voted for your lynch or someone in the group who killed you. If BSmith encountered you at night via being in the same group as him, or if you were his protection target, he was alerted that you had a piece of clothing he wanted and would thus try to kill you the next night. If you passed off the item in time, it would read as a failed attack and thus you were spared. If you didn't, and he was killing you as part of a group, he would automatically receive it. If you stole from him, though, you were screwed. Even if you managed to pass off the item before, he was still going to kill you out of principle and the only way you could avoid it was if you abandoned ship immediately.
All in all I think this role was moderately successful, but could have used some further refinement. There were two main problems with it: One, I failed to account for networking. After some private discussion, I allowed BSmith to acquire some of his items peacefully, but otherwise he had to kill for most of them as usual as per the envisioned purpose of the role. Secondly, the fact that BSmith was stolen from so often meant that he wasn't given as much freedom to rove around and cause as much destruction as I would have liked - though that one, at least, isn't on me.
Had BSmith managed to acquire all four pieces of clothing, he would have received a new set of goals, basically directing him to undertake actions that would give him as many "fame points" as possible. These could be acquired by killing officers, getting X amount of treasure, becoming captain, etc. If BSmith had reached a certain threshold of points, he would have automatically achieved first place regardless of how the rest of the game went or even if he managed to live through it, the legend of Anne living long after Anne herself had passed.
Mercenary
Sent to Sprig/Myrddraal
Just kidding.
The Frenchman
Sent to Ishmael
Your role is:
The Frenchman
“The two happiest days in a boat owner’s life are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells that boat.”
~ Traditional
Back home, you lived the high life. You were educated in the finest schools and knew nothing but the best of everything. Visits to the great new palace of Versailles under the reign of Louis XIV were not uncommon. But eight years ago, the Sun King died, and life under his two-year-old great-grandson (and his regent) wasn’t the same. So you set off for the New World, seeking continued adventure. You acquired a sleek new ship, the Presence, to take you there and beyond. Once you got there, though, you lost your ship to an enterprising pirate captain in a bout of trickery.
Your pursuit of the Presence has defined you for the past seven years. In your various bids to get it back, you’ve taken wounds, gained lifelong friends, survived death on a great many occasions, and knelt before others in a plea for mercy. You’ve fallen in love aboard this ship and lost your love aboard this same ship. The one constant is that you’ve always failed.
No more. After the Presence’s last big heist, you approached an old friend of yours, the Captain of the Maven, and hired him out to help take your ship back. After three years of planning, opportunity has presented itself. In the (engineered) chaos of the flight from New Tortuga, you and two Maven crewmen stowed away on board, ready to wreak havoc. This time, you’re going to take the Presence back or die trying.
Your goal: Unlike the previous two Pirate Ship Mafia games, you do not necessarily have to become Captain in order to achieve victory. Instead, you must eliminate or subordinate every single non-affiliated person aboard the ship. You must also personally survive. Gold means absolutely nothing to you.
Due to your previous relationship with the Captain of the Maven, you have hired out two of his crewman to assist you in this task. They are PLAYER and PLAYER. They are loyal to you, but will receive a new set of victory conditions should you die.
Powers: You and the members of your faction each have a set of Primary and Secondary night actions to choose from. You are allowed to choose one action from each group per night.
Primary actions:
- Investigate two persons to determine susceptibility to joining your faction. Note: Only one of you is allowed to do this per night.
- Team up with one of your cohorts to kill one person per night. However, if you are the only agent left, you may kill solo. Attempting a mafia kill while also participating in a secondary action stands a 1-in-6 chance of failure.
- Go out individually and recruit one person to your faction. Recruitment is a forced mechanic in this game determined solely by someone’s susceptibility. Note: Only you can do this.
- Participate in town group activities (including protection).
Secondary actions:
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-15 gold, unless your target is guarding his stash. You also have the option of doing this as a primary action, in which you will receive 5-20 gold.
- Guard your gold.
- Roleblock one person per night. This is a unique power available only to you. Note: You are limited to doing this to once every other night.
You will also probably survive the first kill attempt somebody makes on you at night that would have otherwise been successful.
Finally, you noticed a ship bearing the seal of the Dutch West India Company during your time in New Tortuga. You have no idea what anybody from that company could be doing there, but you might want to keep an eye out for strange happenings just in case as you know from personal experience that there’s usually more than meets the eye with the WIC agents. Good luck!
For the Frenchman's last stand, I spent far too much time debating on what exactly to make him before finally settling on making him a general mafioso role. Considering how many times the previous games in the series were referenced, this was definitely for the best - everybody knew the Frenchman would be coming regardless.
By giving the mafia the capability to do a second action at night, I was worried that this would tip the balance in the mafia's favor. One way I sought to mitigate this was by concentrating much of their power in the Frenchman's hand. Only he could recruit while he was alive. Only he could roleblock. Considering the mafia's previous track record with being able to successfully identify a large amount of potential converts early on, I was terrified that a greater diversification of power would lead to a runaway cult with everybody involved having semi-convincing alibis.
Obviously, this didn't happen, and luck was against the French team when it came to scanning for conversions. For the first time all series, a mafia faction lost to attrition rather than burning brightly and then utterly collapsing. Ishmael did TinCow and Visorslash proud by staying alive for essentially five phases longer than he had any right to, but at the end of the day he succumbed to the inevitable. I made sure to give the greatest role I've ever come up with a good death scene, though (if you're interested, the video I was going to use if the game ended in a Frenchman victory was Edith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien").
Frenchman Agent
Sent to autolycus, spaceman98
Your role is:
Frenchman Agent
“Cursed be he who taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
~ Deuteronomy 27:25
You are one of the best sailors aboard the pirate ship Maven, proving to be an asset in both sailing and fighting. You have no personal stake in the Frenchman/Presence conflict, but your Captain was hired out by the Frenchman, and you were specifically chosen to carry out the task at hand. Now, you’re stuck on board the ship with only the Frenchman and one of your friends looking out for you. It’s in your best interests to work with them to fulfill the Frenchman’s mission.
Your goal: Your initial victory condition is to, along with the Frenchman and your partner, eliminate or subordinate every single non-affiliated person aboard the ship. Should the Frenchman die before you do, you and your partner will receive a new set of victory conditions. This will involve the acquisition of gold (in other words it’s not in your interests to betray the Frenchman, but if it’s looking bad for him you’re not totally screwed).
The Frenchman is PLAYER. Your partner is PLAYER.
Powers: You and the members of your faction each have a set of Primary and Secondary night actions to choose from. You are allowed to choose one action from each group per night.
Primary actions:
- Investigate two persons to determine susceptibility to joining your faction. Note: Only one of you is allowed to do this per night.
- Team up with one of your cohorts to kill one person per night. However, if you are the only agent left, you may kill solo. Attempting a mafia kill while also participating in a secondary action stands a 1-in-6 chance of failure.
- Participate in town group activities (including protection).
Secondary actions:
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-15 gold, unless your target is guarding his stash. You also have the option of doing this as a primary action, in which you will receive 5-20 gold.
- Guard your gold.
Finally… good luck!
For the most part, auto and spaceman blended in well - spaceman got lynched for other reasons, and auto only died because he stole from BSmith. However, they blended in so well to the point that they struggled to get in many mafia-specific actions such as scanning or killing. As I mentioned earlier in the postgame, were I to run this again, I would have the night writeups not detail the specific amount of people involved in each action so as to give the scum more cover to do their thing.
Frenchman Convert
Sent to Csargo
Your new role is:
Frenchman Convert
“Every man has two countries - his own and France.”
~ Henri de Bournier
Last night, you were personally visited by the Frenchman. He probably had the opportunity to kill you - but he chose not to. Instead, he spoke, telling his side of the story, how he was wronged time and time again by the various Captains of the Presence over the years… and you listened. By the end of the night you were thoroughly convinced to join his side.
Your goal: Your initial victory condition is to, along with the Frenchman and his accomplices, eliminate or subordinate every single non-affiliated person aboard the ship. Should the Frenchman die before you do, you and your partners will receive a new set of victory conditions. This will involve the acquisition of gold (in other words it’s not in your interests to betray the Frenchman, but if it’s looking bad for him you’re not totally screwed).
The Frenchman is PLAYER.
Powers: You and the members of your faction each have a set of Primary and Secondary night actions to choose from. You are allowed to choose one action from each group per night.
Primary actions:
- Team up with one of your cohorts to kill one person per night. However, if you are the only agent left, you may kill solo. Attempting a mafia kill while also participating in a secondary action stands a 1-in-6 chance of failure.
- Participate in town group activities (including protection).
Secondary actions:
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-15 gold, unless your target is guarding his stash. You also have the option of doing this as a primary action, in which you will receive 5-20 gold.
- Guard your gold.
Finally… good luck!
I spent weeks debating on whether or not to make recruitments public. Eventually I decided in favor of it, my reasoning being that I already gave the mafia minor cover every night in the form of their secondary actions (ideally, Ishmael would time any recruitments with his roleblock to cause maximum confusion). Generally, when I'm deadlocked in terms of a balancing issue, I'll usually rule in favor of the town benefiting. The mafia have cooler roles, it only makes sense that they should have to work harder for their victory.
Able Seaman (basic)
Sent to Sprig/Myrddraal, landlubber, johnhughthom, El Barto, Montmorency, Ironside, Askthepizzaguy, Double A, Choxorn, Ice, Csargo, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Visorslash, Andres, Golden1Knight
Your role is:
Able Seaman (townie)
““This is definitely a pirate adventure. Pirates pillage. Pirates steal. Pirates take advantage.”
~ Rupert Boneham
Set sail! After a chaotic retreat from New Tortuga, you and the rest of the men aboard the Presence have found yourself with a massive haul of treasure (and without a Captain, but we won’t go there). However, there are enough old salts aboard to know that this large of a bounty never comes without any complications. If things stay true to form, these complications will most likely come in the form of the Frenchman, who’s been after the Presence for years. He is as wily as a fox and will never stop trying to get his ship back so long as he is alive. You’re going to have to be ready for anything and work together if you want to make it to Nassau to spend your loot… but you also see no harm in increasing your own share, either. You weren’t expecting a moral dilemma when you joined this particular crew, were you?
Your goals: You have two main goals, each of which is equally important.
First of all, you want to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. Naturally, this threat comes mainly in the shape of the Frenchman but there could be other enemies looming…
Secondly, you want to acquire as much gold for yourself as possible. While there will most likely be a winning faction on Pirate Ship Mafia, in essence there can only be one *true* winner, and that’s whoever has the most gold. However, you will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.
You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.
If there is a Presence victory, the game will end the first night after all outside threats have been eliminated.
Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:
- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he or she is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-20 gold, unless your target is guarding his or her gold.
- Choose to guard your (or someone else’s, see below) stash of gold. Should anyone try to steal from gold the nights you are guarding, they will be unsuccessful and you will have a good chance of knowing who stole from you.
- New for Pirate Ship Mafia III: As a supplementary action, you may designate someone else to guard your gold for you (if you are guarding someone else’s stash it is still the only thing you are allowed to do at night). However, be careful with whom you trust: Anyone you designate to guard your gold will instead have the opportunity to steal from you instead and take a large amount of gold from your own stash. Only one person is allowed to guard an individual stash of gold.
- If offered an event by me, you may choose to take part in that event as opposed to your normal night actions. Further details will follow in my “event” PM.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this.
In addition, you may perform the following actions during the day:
- Vote to determine who will walk the plank.
- Vote for a new Captain on Day 1 and whenever else it is necessary.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If 50% or more of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You automatically gain 10 treasure for a successful mutiny, plus the Captain’s entire stash of gold is evenly divided up among mutineers. In addition, only those who mutinied will be eligible to select the next Captain.
At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.
Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.
Finally… good luck!
The new mechanic, assigning someone to guard your gold, was never used, but it wasn't a bad idea. The idea of Pirate Ship Mafia is to give people as much freedom as possible at night, so it's always there as a backup. Besides, people might decide to make use of it in future games - an example of this is the abandon ship mechanic. Used once or twice in the first game and not at all in the second, quite a few people either bailed or tried to bail in this game.
I also disagree with the argument that abandoning ship can be OP for the town. At the end of the day, you're still asking someone to depart the game entirely, and that's a big ask. I know that if I was a townie and I was ever playing in a Pirate Ship game, I would only ever abandon ship as an absolute last resort, and not before probably causing some damage out of spite on my way out. Plus, if you're town, and you abandon ship, and the town wins, you're getting a lower level of victory. Finally, I'm keeping it in, because, well... I like the mechanic, and I'm the host. So there. :tongue: In the future I'm just going to have to work so the occasional scum has to use it or something.
Able Seaman (with "strong" bonus)
Sent to Zack, Ituralde, Xiahou, and TFT
Your role is:
Able Seaman (townie)
“Let’s jump on board and cut them to pieces!”
~ Edward “Blackbeard” Teach
Set sail! After a chaotic retreat from New Tortuga, you and the rest of the men aboard the Presence have found yourself with a massive haul of treasure (and without a Captain, but we won’t go there). However, there are enough old salts aboard to know that this large of a bounty never comes without any complications. If things stay true to form, these complications will most likely come in the form of the Frenchman, who’s been after the Presence for years. He is as wily as a fox and will never stop trying to get his ship back so long as he is alive. You’re going to have to be ready for anything and work together if you want to make it to Nassau to spend your loot… but you also see no harm in increasing your own share, either. You weren’t expecting a moral dilemma when you joined this particular crew, were you?
Your goals: You have two main goals, each of which is equally important.
First of all, you want to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. Naturally, this threat comes mainly in the shape of the Frenchman but there could be other enemies looming…
Secondly, you want to acquire as much gold for yourself as possible. While there will most likely be a winning faction on Pirate Ship Mafia, in essence there can only be one *true* winner, and that’s whoever has the most gold. However, you will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.
You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.
If there is a Presence victory, the game will end the first night after all outside threats have been eliminated.
Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:
- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he or she is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-20 gold, unless your target is guarding his or her gold.
- Choose to guard your (or someone else’s, see below) stash of gold. Should anyone try to steal from gold the nights you are guarding, they will be unsuccessful and you will have a good chance of knowing who stole from you.
- New for Pirate Ship Mafia III: As a supplementary action, you may designate someone else to guard your gold for you (if you are guarding someone else’s stash it is still the only thing you are allowed to do at night). However, be careful with whom you trust: Anyone you designate to guard your gold will instead have the opportunity to steal from you instead and take a large amount of gold from your own stash. Only one person is allowed to guard an individual stash of gold.
- If offered an event by me, you may choose to take part in that event as opposed to your normal night actions. Further details will follow in my “event” PM.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this.
In addition, you may perform the following actions during the day:
- Vote to determine who will walk the plank.
- Vote for a new Captain on Day 1 and whenever else it is necessary.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If 50% or more of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You automatically gain 10 treasure for a successful mutiny, plus the Captain’s entire stash of gold is evenly divided up among mutineers. In addition, only those who mutinied will be eligible to select the next Captain.
At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.
Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.
Finally, you are stronger than many men on board and thus you can defend yourself better than a lot of these scurvy landlubbers. Any time a minimum group of players attacks you, you stand a 50% chance of survival. This ability does not expire. Good luck!
The "strong" bonus has always been snakebitten in Pirate Ship Mafia. In the first game I forgot to BCC the recipients of the bonus, leading them to become accidental masons and thus fall under the suspicion of the town. They eventually all died. In the second game, the bonus failed literally every single time it was tested, most spectacularly when First Mate Choxorn was attacked N2 and only had a 25% chance of dying. Here, it was only tested once - TFT died N2, and Ituralde and Xiahou were both lynched for other reasons. Still though, congrats to Zack for at least somewhat breaking the curse and surviving!
Able Seaman (with "food" bonus)
Sent to seireikhaan, Lissa, Kagemusha, and NotJimRV/dcmort93
Your role is:
Able Seaman (townie)
“Oh, better far to live and die/Under the brave black flag I fly/Than play a sanctimonious part/With a pirate head and a pirate heart.”
~ Gilbert & Sullivan
Set sail! After a chaotic retreat from New Tortuga, you and the rest of the men aboard the Presence have found yourself with a massive haul of treasure (and without a Captain, but we won’t go there). However, there are enough old salts aboard to know that this large of a bounty never comes without any complications. If things stay true to form, these complications will most likely come in the form of the Frenchman, who’s been after the Presence for years. He is as wily as a fox and will never stop trying to get his ship back so long as he is alive. You’re going to have to be ready for anything and work together if you want to make it to Nassau to spend your loot… but you also see no harm in increasing your own share, either. You weren’t expecting a moral dilemma when you joined this particular crew, were you?
Your goals: You have two main goals, each of which is equally important.
First of all, you want to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. Naturally, this threat comes mainly in the shape of the Frenchman but there could be other enemies looming…
Secondly, you want to acquire as much gold for yourself as possible. While there will most likely be a winning faction on Pirate Ship Mafia, in essence there can only be one *true* winner, and that’s whoever has the most gold. However, you will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.
You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.
If there is a Presence victory, the game will end the first night after all outside threats have been eliminated.
Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:
- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he or she is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-20 gold, unless your target is guarding his or her gold.
- Choose to guard your (or someone else’s, see below) stash of gold. Should anyone try to steal from gold the nights you are guarding, they will be unsuccessful and you will have a good chance of knowing who stole from you.
- New for Pirate Ship Mafia III: As a supplementary action, you may designate someone else to guard your gold for you (if you are guarding someone else’s stash it is still the only thing you are allowed to do at night). However, be careful with whom you trust: Anyone you designate to guard your gold will instead have the opportunity to steal from you instead and take a large amount of gold from your own stash. Only one person is allowed to guard an individual stash of gold.
- If offered an event by me, you may choose to take part in that event as opposed to your normal night actions. Further details will follow in my “event” PM.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this.
In addition, you may perform the following actions during the day:
- Vote to determine who will walk the plank.
- Vote for a new Captain on Day 1 and whenever else it is necessary.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If 50% or more of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You automatically gain 10 treasure for a successful mutiny, plus the Captain’s entire stash of gold is evenly divided up among mutineers. In addition, only those who mutinied will be eligible to select the next Captain.
At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.
Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.
Finally, you have been secretly stealing rations for a while now and as a result are better fed than most of the sailors. This doesn’t really have an effect on you from the outset, but as time wears on and life as you know it starts breaking down, you will be in a better position to deal with it than most of the crew. As a result, if you are attacked anytime from Nights 4-7, you stand a 50% chance of survival. Good luck!
After three games, my well for relevant pirate quotes to include in the role PMs is getting a little thin, but I haven't quite hit bottom yet. :laugh4:
Unlike the previous game, the townies with the food bonus didn't receive any special status in terms of getting events, even though people hypothesized that this was the case at various points in the game. Don't automatically assume I'm going to keep everything the same, people!
Captain
Sent to Kagemusha, Double A, Montmorency
You have been elected to:
Captain
“Look at me. Look at me. I’m the Captain now.”
~ Abduwali Muse
The sailors’ stupidity in leaving their previous Captain behind in the retreat from New Tortuga is your gain, as they have elected you to take up the post! With your new position comes some major benefits, including a fat salary, but also an increased amount of danger. You know that the Frenchman is on board somewhere, gunning for your head, and that’s not getting into any other threats that may be present.
Your goals: Your goals remain the same as they were before you took office, regardless of your faction. You will not be able to be converted while in office, even if you are susceptible.
Powers: As Captain, your main powers are of delegation and placing your trust in the right people. However, you do have a couple of your own abilities to be used when they’re really needed.
- If you have not done so already, you must make your choice of who is to be your First Mate and Quartermaster. Your First Mate can kill one person or investigate two persons per night, and the Quartermaster can individually protect or roleblock one person per night. You may replace these two officers at will.
- You personally cannot be killed at night. The only way you can die is if your crew mutinies against you, or if you resign the Captaincy for some reason and get killed the normal way.
- You may still take part in night actions as usual. However, your treasure count for performing any such activities will be wiped away.
- Instead, your salary as Captain is 15 pieces of treasure a night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- Naturally, for the duration of your Captaincy, you cannot Abandon Ship. Doing so would violate every code of honor you have ever heard of, pirate or not.
- You have no vote, however you will still gain the 3 pieces of treasure for making a post in the day phase. Should there be a tie, it will be up to you and your officers to break the tie. Each of you has one equal vote in this. Should you and your Officers be deadlocked, you have the final tiebreaking vote.
Finally, you have a one-time power in the Captain’s Prerogative ability. Once in the game, you may go out at night and personally kill one target of your choice. This is the only guaranteed kill in the entire game and will override any and all forms of protection the target may have. In addition, you will be publicly announced as the killer in the writeup. This ability will not be recycled should a new Captain be elected, so make it count. Good luck!
For the first time in three games, we had a mutiny and thus a Captain change. All in all it worked out pretty much as well as I expected, even if I didn't anticipate it would happen on D2. Around that time, I privately PM'd Visorslash and Zack, two people that had been heavily for the mutiny, and pretty much told them I wouldn't accept constant mutinies for the sole purpose of using it as a way to kill more people/take their gold. Happily, they agreed with me and all other potential mutinies in the game were organic.
Double A was under threat of mutiny on D8 but resigned early on in the phase. To prevent Captains from taking advantage of this in the future, I'm most likely going to implement a mechanic that prevents them from resigning after a certain point in the phase has passed or if they reach a certain threshold of mutiny votes. However, I honestly might just wing it and determine whether I accept Captaincy resignations on an individual basis. :laugh4:
First Mate
Sent to Andres, NotJimRV/dcmort93
You have been appointed to:
First Mate
“Yes, I do heartily repent. I repent I had not done more mischief.”
~ Anonymous pirate, being asked if he repented while on the gallows
Congratulations! The Captain has enough trust in you to the point where he has made you an officer in his efforts to rid the Presence of the Frenchman and any of his henchmen on board. Though you were originally part of the regular crew and thought of little more than increasing your gold stash and staying alive until Nassau, now you actually have responsibility. Curse it all. At least responsibility comes with a good salary.
Your goals: Your goals remain the same as they were before you took office, regardless of your faction. You will not be able to be converted while in office, even if you are susceptible.
Powers: Your nighttime abilities as First Mate override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.
- If you are attacked at night, you stand a 50% chance of dying before factoring in protections, larger-than-usual kill groups, and the like. This immunity may be reduced or eliminated in the endgame at my discretion.
- You may kill one person per night on your own.
- Alternatively, you may investigate two people per night to determine their actions and other information. The first investigation will reveal the target’s actions that night. The second will reveal their susceptibility to Letters of Marque. The third will reveal their true affiliation..
- If you wish, you may choose to only investigate one person per night to immediately jump to Tier 2 results on the target.
- Your salary as First Mate is 12 treasure per night. This overrides any treasure you would have ordinarily received for night actions, however, you still get the 2 per night you get for submitting an order.
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the Quartermaster will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.
Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. You and the Quartermaster each provide 50% of the nightly protection on the Captain, therefore, if you leave him unprotected but the Quartermaster does not, he has a 50% chance of surviving the attack without counting other factors. However, you cannot be the one to deliver the killing blow – the Captain must be murdered by an outside source. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!
At first glance, the First Mate appears to be an incredibly powerful role: it can solo-kill, *and* is the only potentially town-aligned role scanner in the entire game. However, it's hamstrung by the fact that it can only do one of these two things per night. Whoever the First Mate is has to decide which is more advantageous at any given time: On one hand, you can scan and hope you strike gold, but vig groups are notoriously unreliable. On the other hand, you can personally make sure someone is dead, but a) they might be innocent, and b) it means fewer people are cleared in a game where there's already a ton of ambiguity.
Over the course of the game, NotJim (it might have been dcmort by that point but I don't think so) got to Tier 3 on BSmith and received the result "currently aligned with the crew of the Presence" but took it for gospel that this would always be the case. I don't think dcmort noticed the distinction either.
Quartermaster
Sent to Double A, Visorslash
You have been appointed to:
Quartermaster
“You there! You were in charge of railing dust! Thirty lashes, and then you walk the plank!”
~ Samuel Arrow
The Presence may be a pirate ship, but there still needs to be discipline on board - especially so when it’s under threat - and you are just the person to dole it out. In return for a decent increase in salary, you are expected to do everything within your power to ensure that the Frenchman is defeated (unless you were already on his side, of course) and that anarchy does not prevail.
Your goals: Your goals remain the same as they were before you took office, regardless of your faction. You will not be able to be converted while in office, even if you are susceptible.
Powers: Your nighttime abilities as Quartermaster override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.
- If you are attacked at night, you stand a 50% chance of dying before factoring in protections, larger-than-usual kill groups, and the like. This immunity may be reduced or eliminated in the endgame at my discretion.
- You may protect one person per night on your own.
- Alternatively, you may throw one person into the brig (prevent them from doing anything at night) per night. As a by-product of throwing them into the brig, you will also gain an accurate report of that person’s treasure count.
- Your salary as Quartermaster is 12 treasure per night. This overrides any treasure you would have ordinarily received for night actions, however, you still get the 2 per night you get for submitting an order.
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the First Mate will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.
Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. You and the First Mate each provide 50% of the nightly protection on the Captain, therefore, if you leave him unprotected but the First Mate does not, he has a 50% chance of surviving the attack without counting other factors. However, you cannot be the one to deliver the killing blow – the Captain must be murdered by an outside source. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!
As per discussion in the previous games, I made the possibility of an officer-driven coup against the Captain more likely by giving each officer the ability to remove 50% of the Captain's protection as opposed to the previous system of "both agree and he's left 100% vulnerable or otherwise he's got full immunity". However, it never came into play this time - maybe if the Dutch Trader was involved I could see it happening.
After Ishmael's lynch - "The Secondary Protocol"
Sent to autolycus, Csargo
Your new role is:
Maven Saboteur
“How many times do I have to tell you, John? I *always* have a plan.”
~ Benjamin Linus
Before you departed for your current mission, the Captain of the Maven handed you a wax-sealed envelope and instructed you not to open it under any circumstances unless the Frenchman perished. As this has now come to pass, you gather your team around, open the envelope, and read its contents.
Inside is a set of instructions from the Captain, saying that the mission would continue. Since the Frenchman was no longer around to pay his fee, the men of the Maven would instead receive payment the traditional way: by robbing and killing as many people as possible.
Your new goals: Your primary goal is to accumulate as much wealth as possible and then get off the Presence alive. Your exact victory level will depend on how much gold you are able to accumulate. Your secondary goal is to kill everyone aboard the Presence and claim the ship in the name of the Maven. This is a much more difficult task to accomplish, but your victory will be far more spectacular if you are able to obtain it.
At least one original Maven crewman must survive. Upon death of the last original crewman, all converts will commit suicide out of shame for abandoning their original comrades on the Presence.
Powers: These are mostly unchanged from when you were working under the Frenchman, but there are one or two minor differences.
Primary actions:
- Team up with one of your cohorts to kill one person per night. However, if you are the only agent left, you may kill solo. Attempting a mafia kill while also participating in a secondary action stands a 1-in-6 chance of failure.
- Participate in town group activities (including protection).
- Investigate two persons per night to determine susceptibility to treasure. Persons previously determined susceptible to the Frenchman’s cause may not necessarily be susceptible to treasure.
- Attempt to recruit someone at night based on susceptibility to treasure.
Secondary actions:
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-15 gold, unless your target is guarding his stash. You also have the option of doing this as a primary action, in which you will receive 5-20 gold.
- Guard your gold.
You may also choose to Abandon Ship at any time. This decision must be unanimous amongst all crewmen.
Good luck!
This hearkened back to the first Pirate Ship Mafia game, where one of the mafia factions was very gold-centric: they could only recruit if one of them was the leader in terms of treasure, and they could abandon ship at any time if they thought they had enough gold to please their Captain.
Here, if the Frenchman died, I didn't expect the Maven crew to follow through with their original mission, unless the Frenchman's death had been a random D2 lynching or something. Instead, it was more of an escape valve to give them a chance of a victory after their leader was out of the picture. It almost would have worked: between them, auto and Csar certainly had enough gold to keep their bosses happy (auto alone had 337 after death, the most anybody had ever managed to acquire across the entire series!) - and they would have made it off alive had auto not stolen from BSmith on N6.
N6 event: The Robbening
Sent to Andres, Askthepizzaguy, autolycus, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Golden1Knight, Ituralde
The following PM is a special in-game opportunity and its contents are not to be mentioned to anyone during the course of play aside from the fact that it is an in-game opportunity.
As someone who has stolen treasure aboard the Presence during this voyage home, you're always on the lookout for potential openings and ways to increase your own share of the stash. Tonight is one of those opportunities.
With tensions running high aboard the ship, you sense that everybody is going to have something other than treasure on their minds tonight. Fools. If there was ever a time to really take a chunk out of someone else's share for yourself, now would be it. For tonight and tonight only, the range of treasure you can acquire from theft has doubled on both ends (i.e. 10-40). However, as you're taking a huge risk by stealing so much, if you are caught stealing, you will have to give a flat 20 treasure to the person who caught you as payment to smooth things over.
It's the ultimate gamble... will you roll the dice?
I sent this to everyone who had stolen in the game by that point who was still alive. The goal was twofold: One, to provide less of a vice grip on any attempts at networking which I figured would be in full force by this time in the game. Two, I wanted to see how many people would take the offer despite the consequences of failure.
Very few people guarded their gold in this game, and I can understand why: there was very little incentive to. There's a small chance you get your gold stolen at night, and in the meantime you lose out on the opportunity to actively add to your stash. Meanwhile, even if you actually catch someone, you just got notified that you caught someone and that was that. In the future, I'm going to make the penalty for being caught stealing monetary - probably along the lines of 15-20 gold to give more people incentive to protect their own stash.
At the end of the day, the event worked: Five people took advantage of the opportunity (with Andres as the clear victor, taking 33 gold from Monty), and only Golden1Knight opted to stay in a group. It was doubly successful for Andres - not only did he receive a king's ransom from Monty, but of the group set to kill him that night, two were off stealing and would have killed him had they showed up.
Okay, that was a lot of text. And it's not over yet! Still to come are my individual player action writeups not to mention my traditional postgame essay. :yes:
Great game. Thanks for hosting, GH :bow:
RL nowadays no longer allows me to be very active in mafia games, but still had a tremendous lot of fun being noncooperative.
Disappointed that I got killed on the last night, but I guess I deserved to die eventually, after all the stealing from my fellow crewmen :laugh4:
I for one loved my role. It was a great challenge and I was completely focused on getting the items. I could have been more upfront about the dangers of stealing from me, but while that would have likely reduced the thefts it could have opened me to questions I didn't want to answer. The Khaan kill could have been my opportunity to make a statement, but I chose to stay more in the shadows and conceal my role as best I could. All round it was a great challenge and I had a blast with it.
GeneralHankerchief
10-20-2015, 00:05
The Crew of the Presence
Andres - Able Seaman, not susceptible, First Mate from N1 to D2 - ended with 142 gold
A lack of RL time meant that Andres would always be chasing the gold, whether by his attempted “Golden Hands” mercenary group, his salary as First Mate, or his rampant theft at night. After starting the investigation chain on Kage and Double A, this quickly became moot after the mutiny and Andres settled into his new role by stealing modest amounts from Ishmael and ATPG. Struck gold (literally!) during the Robbening by pilfering a massive 33 gold from Montmorency before finally, finally taking part in group actions the final two nights. A consummate survivor, Andres lived through a mutiny, an explicit kill/spare vote, and blatant noncooperation with town organizational efforts, leading people to ask throughout the game why he was still alive. His erstwhile nemesis Monty (for both the theft and the refusal of participation) finally settled the score on the last night of the game by using the one-shot Captain’s Prerogative on him.
Askthepizzaguy - Able Seaman, susceptible to conversion - ended with 198 gold
Spent most of the early game in the background due to his trip to Norway, protecting Zack N1 and then catching Ituralde in the act of trying to steal his gold N2. He then began his crime wave, stealing progressively larger amounts from NotJimRV, Ituralde, Double A, and Zack before finally abandoning ship on N7 out of protest of the town leadership’s attempt to solve the game by brute force. I wonder what 2009 Pizza would have thought about this. :laugh4: Survived three separate attacks and offered pertinent advice when he wasn’t taunting the various people he had stolen from. Plus, it was the first time in all three games that Pizza wasn’t shot in the face by the Captain’s blunderbuss!
autolycus - Frenchman agent, turned Maven saboteur on N7 - ended with 337 gold
Of the three original members of Team Frenchman, autolycus was the most successful at infiltration, his name never really coming up in suspicion more than anyone else’s and being included in multiple sets of orders that he was never going to show up for right until the very end. Participated in the spaceman kill he knew was going to fail N1, then scanned Flax and Choxorn N2 that set into motion the mafia laying down the groundwork for Flax’s lynching. From there he helped take out Ice and Lissa and participated in failed efforts on Curio and Andres, stealing from BSmith and gaining the hat as his secondary action as part of the Robbening on N6. By N7 Ishmael was lynched and auto was looking to increase his gold total more than anything else, and duly successfully protected Pizza. He was all set to abandon ship with Csargo on N8 (with the single largest amount of gold acquired in all three games), but BSmith tracked him down and summarily ended the game by killing him. All in all, a commendable effort, and I personally think he was safe for another round or so were it not for the BSmith thing.
BSmith - Anne the Pirate Wench, original owner of the hat - ended with 163 gold
A true angel of death on board, BSmith was either solely responsible for or helped contribute to six nightkills throughout the game. I need to go back through my old Pirate Ship games, but I think that might be a record (off the top of my head only the original Four Horsemen come close). Started off 4-for-4 with kills on TFT, khaan, Ice, and lubber. BSmith was always looking for new people to interact with at night in order to further his search. Ran into a bit of a wall in the midgame being roleblocked by Ishmael on N5 - as it turned out a huge disadvantage as two people he was set to encounter that night had an item - but then Curio made the critical error of disclosing he had the fancy cutlass in the thread. BSmith had his target for N6. Got stolen from on successive nights by autolycus and Csargo, which frustrated his attempts to collect the set, but he got a modicum of revenge by killing autolycus on the final night and ending the game. Always made sure to stay in the town leadership’s good graces, which meant that there was never more than a low level of suspicion around him and he was free to continue in his killing spree. Well done!
Choxorn - Able Seaman, not susceptible - ended with 160 gold
Had the worst luck with kills. Participated in failed attempts against Pizza (partner was thrown in the brig), Csargo (auto was scanning for recruits), and Andres (got saved by a die roll due to the hurricane event), before finally taking out landlubber on N4. After reverting back to form with a failed attempt on autolycus on N5, Choxorn believed that the officers were infiltrated due to their inexplicable pushing of a johnhughthom lynch over Ishmael and abandoned ship on N6 rather than stick it out. A low-level but consistent contributor while he was on board, Choxorn never missed a vote nor a night action.
Csargo - Able Seaman, converted on N6 - ended with 134 gold
One of the biggest contrarians on board, Csargo was a Kage loyalist who I don’t think ever forgave or trusted the mutineers again after D2. Never once voted for the lead candidate besides the initial election. After a protection on Zack N1, he worked hard to keep people alive who he knew the town was going to target at night to varying degrees of success, trying for saves on Monty, Lissa, john, and Curio, the latter three being solo protections the night they were killed which put Csar in danger of death himself (he understood the risks and I think a part of him wanted it). After his N6 recruitment, he dutifully scanned El Barto and Pizza for conversion - Pizza was susceptible, but the timing was terrible, as they both abandoned ship the same night he scanned them! I had a nice ending for Csargo prepared and ready to go if he made it off alive, as he certainly deserved it after his experience, but BSmith’s killing of autolycus meant that Csargo had to self-terminate.
dcmort93 - Able Seaman with food bonus, not susceptible (replaced NotJimRV D5), First Mate from D5 onwards - ended with 229 gold
Threw himself into the game after replacing NotJim, and his eagerness and willingness to help convinced Double A and Visor to keep him in the First Mate slot. dcmort’s night actions as First Mate weren’t the most effective - T1 and T2 scans on Visor by town demand, a solokill on Curio the night BSmith was doing the same, inactivity on N7, and then figuring out Myrddraal’s exact role the final night - but his steady presence kept things from degenerating into further chaos than what was already present. Kept his vote on Ishmael during the inexplicable D6 lynching of john which, if he was listened to, probably would have ended the game much sooner.
Double A - Able Seaman, susceptible to conversion, Quartermaster from N1 to D2, Captain from N2 to D8, original owner of the boots - ended with 248 gold
Probably the only figure who was universally trusted throughout the game, even during the later parts. Double A was seen as loyal to the pro-Kage faction for refusing to take part in the mutiny until it was a foregone conclusion, but also seen as a good replacement for Captain by the mutineers. Worked to prevent further bloodshed by peacefully giving his boots to BSmith and helping direct a vig group towards the already-doomed khaan instead of a different target. Wasn’t the most active Captain, his only non-guard night action being an attempt on Ishmael N6, but everybody’s trust in him meant there was never really a drive to mutiny as that would mean killing Double A (town sentiment finally started to boil over on N8 but he stepped down before a vote got rolling). His previous loyalty to the Kage faction ended up paying off, as Andres never took AA off his will. This 20 gold windfall on the final night allowed him to leap dcmort for second place overall.
El Barto - Able Seaman, not susceptible - ended with 218 gold
My favorite “persona” in the game, El Barto always took the path that offered the most gold and shamelessly solicited bribes for undertaking pretty much any action under the sun - and it worked! Involved in kill attempts on spaceman (failure), Ironside (bribed), landlubber (success), autolycus (failure), and Ishmael (failure) in addition to guarding his gold on N3 before finally determining that there was no further profit to be had aboard and abandoning ship on N7. Barto’s signature moment was probably the D5 vote between Ishmael and TheFlax, when his being around at the deadline allowed him to rake in some serious gold for bribery, even forcing himself to be in included Ishmael’s will (Ishmael, getting the last laugh, kept his word - to the tune of 1 gold :laugh4:). This move kept the mafia team alive for several days longer than otherwise and greatly incensed Visor, though there were always bigger targets to go after.
Gaius Scribonius Curio - Able Seaman, susceptible to conversion - ended with 137 gold
Determined to forge his own path on the Presence, Curio formed his own mini-network early on with Csargo, johnhughthom, and Askthepizzaguy, the four of them executing an untested-but-would-have-succeeded protection on Zack N1 before going their separate ways. Curio then stole from Visor on three consecutive nights(randomly drawing the fancy cutlass the final night after spaceman’s lynch), using the bounty to fund a bribe to El Barto. Participated in a failed vig attempt on former comrade JHT N5 that was set to include BSmith, but he caught a break when BSmith was roleblocked that night. However, he mentioned in the thread that he was carrying the cutlass, which was enough to trigger BSmith’s attention. Perished on N6 in one of the biggest cases of overkill I’ve ever seen as the town was closing ranks - got thrown in the brig, stolen from, and had three separate kill attempts on him, two of which would have succeeded on their own!
Golden1Knight - Able Seaman, not susceptible, original owner of the fancy cutlass - ended with 186 gold
I believe this was Golden’s first mafia game ever, and if so, he did very well for himself, becoming one of the eight survivors and acquiring a solid amount of gold, especially after being stolen from by spaceman and then auto the first two nights (the first theft depriving him of the fancy cutlass, which was probably best for his lifespan in the long run). He was always a reliable body for the main town nexus, whether for a night action or a vote. After stealing the max 20 from the doomed TFT on N1, he participated in attacks on khaan (N2, success), Lissa (N4, success), Ishmael (N5, failure), and Andres (N6, failure) before taking a bribe to protect Pizza on N7. Tried to kill Andres again on the final night, a loyal crewman to the very end.
Ice - Able Seaman, not susceptible - ended with 62 gold
This was Ice’s first mafia game in eight(!!) years, so I’m inclined to forgive him for his low level of activity. Didn’t cast any votes in the thread, but did participate in a protection on Visor N1 with spaceman and Monty that would have failed if tested (spaceman was off scanning for converts). Got hit by a vig group (consisting of BSmith, Monty, auto, and lubber) looking for an easy target on N3.
Ironside - Able Seaman, susceptible to Maven conversion only - ended with 96 gold
A solid contributor in the early game, Ironside was one of Kage’s bigger supporters, electing him as Captain and only joining in on the mutiny vote for the gold after it was already decided. Participated in an untested protection N1 on Andres with Ituralde (Csargo was included in on orders but he was protecting Zack) before abandoning ship the next night for RL reasons (though he also told me he suspected he’d be a vig target). This was good timing, as he was indeed attacked that night. Ironside got a “moderate” die roll, which allowed him to escape with his life but still had him give up a good amount of gold to placate the attackers.
Ishmael - The Frenchman - ended with 76 gold
Ishmael was well-placed to infiltrate early on, joining both the main “Treachery on the High Seas” quicktopic as well as Zack’s subgroup for the people that succeeded in their N1 vig of TFT. He went 2-for-2 with a kill on khaan the next night before successfully scanning Csargo (and also Zack, stealing from lubber as his secondary action) for conversion during the hurricane on N3 and taking out Lissa N4. Despite - or possibly because of - this level of reliability, Ishmael fell into the classic mafia trap of just going with the flow, and Visor eventually sniffed it out. In what became one of the funniest story arcs for me personally, Ishmael lived up to the Frenchman’s previous players and survived far longer than he had any right to through a combination of an epic amount of bribery, his innate ability to survive one attack, and the town shooting itself in the foot again and again, time which allowed him to finally convert Csar on N6. Finally succumbed to the lynch on D7 when there were literally no alternatives, but that point he, his team, and I were laughing too hard to care.
Ituralde - Able Seaman with “strong” bonus, not susceptible - ended with 149 gold
Ituralde struck me as eager to experience as much of the game as he could, and he certainly did so, surviving until the final day phase of the game. His night actions were all over the place: protecting Andres N1, being caught stealing by Pizza N2, successfully stealing from Lissa N3, killing her the next night, a failed vigging of johnhughthom N5, a big theft of Ishmael N6 during the Robbening, and finally a successful protection of Pizza on N7. Unfortunately, the majority of these actions, most specifically the N6 theft (the same night as the conversion), were not writeup-confirmed, and thus Ituralde fell under suspicion. He unsuccessfully argued his case and was lynched D8, another victim of the solve-by-spreadsheet mentality.
johnhughthom - Able Seaman, not susceptible, original owner of the robe - ended with 102 gold
Notable for being one of the very few townies who was not a part of the Treachery on the High Seas group, and also for never once attempting to kill anyone at night - of the people who lived as long or longer than him, only Pizza can say the same (Andres went without killing for a longer period but participated in a failed vig on the final night of the game). John’s activity record was spotty but he was always around, sometimes just forgetting to lodge a legal vote. He protected Zack and Monty on N1 and N3, respectively, and then stole the max 20 gold from Andres on N4. His posts were usually contrarian and contained barbs at the town’s solve-by-spreadsheet mentality, but he did have a crucial vote on spaceman during his D4 lynch. John met his demise by a D6 lynching over Ishmael, a result in which I’m still not entirely certain how it happened. Having never encountered BSmith at night, random.org passed his robe to Visor after john’s death.
Kagemusha - Able Seaman with food bonus, not susceptible, Captain from N1 to D2 - ended with 0 gold
Talk about your meteoric rises and falls! Kage won the initial Captain vote on D1 - the previous two winners of such being the two first-place finishers in the other Pirate Ship Mafia games - but all was not sunshine and roses this time. He had the support of the silent majority, but not the vocal minority, and in this case they were working hard to take him out. Part of it was because they disagreed with Kage’s hands-on leadership style, but the vibe I got from most of them was that they wanted a Captain who enabled them going out and doing whatever they wanted. Fell victim to the first ever mutiny on D2 when everything started to snowball. Despite this, Kage took his death well and continued to participate, at first offering his comments on who he suspected as French, but eventually this gave way to him trolling the people who took him out as the abyss started to stare back at them.
landlubber - Able Seaman, not susceptible - ended with 98 gold
An early participant in the Treachery on the High Seas QT, lubber was thus included in some early vig attempts (N1 failure on Pizza, N2 success via bribery on Ironside, N3 success on Ice), and was wholeheartedly in the anti-Kage camp. Despite this early loyalty, lubber always seemed to be in danger. First, on D2, he was the alternative lynch candidate to Andres. Then, the town group eventually turned on him, finding several of his in-thread comments suspicious. lubber taking umbrage over other people’s direction certainly didn’t help things, and them openly discussing the particulars over vigging lubber in the group he had access to(!!) was the final straw. Attempted to abandon ship in order to save himself, but he got an unlucky die roll and was killed. Continued to defend his actions in the thread and pointed out what he saw as flaws for a while after death.
Lissa - Able Seaman with food bonus, susceptible to conversion - ended with 83 gold
A new arrival on the .Org, Lissa found herself thrown in the deep end right from the very start as a lot of actions in the first half of the game revolved around her. She was famously roleblocked by Ishmael N1 when trying to kill spaceman, before getting vig-bribed by Ironside on N2 and then failing to kill Andres due to the storm on N3. The fact that she got blocked without any flavor text (I kept that feedback as vague as possible to prevent people from getting any sort of hint as to who did the blocking) made her inherently suspicious to the town leadership, as it was not a feature in previous games. Eventually her time came on N4. Lissa chose to die with dignity and her final orders were to “sleep” rather than abandon ship, even though I think she knew the hit was coming. A casualty of circumstance, really.
Montmorency - Able Seaman, not susceptible, Captain from N8 onwards - ended with 174 gold
Oh, Monty. The main disciple of the solve by spreadsheet strategy, for better or for worse (usually worse). He got chewed around by the game a lot, being stolen from on N1, N2, and N6 (for totals of 16, 19, and 33, respectively), but was also a major focus of information and activity. Was convinced that the gaps in his knowledge had to account for the remaining French, but they usually just ended up angering people and killing townies. Monty’s individual actions started off strong, with an untested protection of Visor N1 (would have failed), being bribed by Ironside N2, and successful kills of Ice and lubber. The second half of the game proved to be more unkind, with two consecutive failed attempts on Ishmael followed by a try at a protected Pizza. Monty received all the redemption he needed at the end, though, first being elected Captain, reaping the benefits of Csargo’s will, and exacting revenge on Andres, a perpetual hole in his beloved spreadsheet, on the final night via the Captain’s Prerogative ability. Not a bad showing for the very first casualty of Pirate Ship Mafia II!
Myrddraal - Able Seaman, not susceptible (replaced Sprig N7) - ended with 175 gold
Hit the ground running after he replaced Sprig, immediately contacting the people Sprig had worked with in the past in order to give himself a good baseline to work with. In the final days of the game, he provided some much-needed actual analysis beyond “well I don’t know what he was doing on this night” by first arguing that Andres was innocent and briefly focused on auto before the latter countered with a night action alibi. Had two failed kill attempts on Pizza and Andres the final two nights. Gave me no end of amusement when he produced that fake PM, giving me flashbacks to Mafia circa 2006-2007! :laugh4: The one thing I was sorry about in terms of Myrddraal’s contribution was that it couldn’t have gone on for longer, with the game ending relatively quickly after his entry. I do wonder if he would have kept up the mercenary deception if the pressure was ever turned up, though.
NotJimRV - Able Seaman with food bonus, not susceptible (replaced by dcmort93 on D5), First Mate from N2 to D5
NotJim was the figurehead in the Visor-driven Captain campaign on D1 and came really close to winning the position, but I’m not sure if he would have been content to idly sit back if elected. Participated in the failed vig on Pizza N1. In any case, the mutiny on D2 put him in the First Mate role, where he rolled off a series of investigations - BSmith and khaan (who died the same night), T2 and T3 on BSmith (though my PM said “currently aligned with the town”, NotJim took it as gospel that he would always be town), and finally Choxorn and Sprig. This gave him a good baseline of results to work with, but he wasn’t able to catch anyone in the act of doing what they shouldn’t have been. Asked to be replaced due to lack of RL time on D5 and I complied.
seireikhaan - Able Seaman with food bonus, susceptible to Maven conversion only - ended with 101 gold
If Choxorn had the worst luck with kills, khaan had the worst luck, period. On N1, he stole from the one person in the game who you absolutely did not want to steal from: BSmith. This immediately put a hard limit on khaan’s lifespan (unless he was to abandon ship the very next night), but khaan only made things worse by telling Double A about the hat he stole… with Double A of course being in contact with BSmith, which meant that BSmith didn’t have to spend a night investigating and skipped right to the killing part. Stole from Monty the night of his demise. Afterwards, khaan passed his bad luck on to Xiahou by making him the sole benefactor of his will. Xiahou inherited khaan’s money the same night he was thrown in the brig, which struck Visor as odd and kicked off that infamous “200 vs. 199” argument that ended in Xiahou’s lynching. khaan stayed active after death to mostly troll the people he deemed most responsible for his demise: Visor, Double A, and BSmith.
spaceman98 - Frenchman agent - ended with 93 gold
A victim of the butterfly effect if I’ve ever seen one. Spaceman was traveling early on in the game, which meant his activity levels were much lower than his baseline later on, which meant that the Treachery on the High Seas quicktopic group saw him as an easy N1 vig. Ishmael’s roleblock of Lissa saved him at that point and he got three nights of activity in (scans of Visor and BSmith, kill attempts on Csargo and Andres), but eventually the town correctly figured out that the block on Lissa was most likely an attempt by the Frenchman to save his scumbuddy, and spaceman was duly lynched on D4. The lesson here is obvious: never travel! :laugh4: Spaceman remained active behind the scenes after his death and provided advice to his living partners on multiple occasions.
Sprig - Able Seaman, not susceptible (replaced by Myrddraal on N7)
Determined to get a leg up in the race for gold, Sprig started off the game in style by fabricating a mercenary role which demanded 5 gold payment for each night action he took, failure to do so resulting in his not showing up. Amazingly, this claim passed muster without further investigation for pretty much the entire game and had me in stitches for a good portion of it. Sprig was in on the TFT (N1), khaan (N2), and Lissa (N4) kills as well as the attempts on Pizza (N3, exposed but was never in danger of lynch) and Curio (N5). Was abandoned by his group a second time on N6 and was thus the one person who did *not* get credit for killing Curio, though he wasn’t exposed this time. Missed a couple of votes, which would have boosted his gold count further, and was also stolen from by autolycus on N1. Gave me a nice and long heads-up about his need to be replaced, which allowed me to seamlessly transition Myrddraal into the game - much appreciated. :bow:
TFT - Able Seaman with “strong” bonus, not susceptible - ended with 30 gold
Every mafia game needs a first sacrifice, and in this case it happened to be TFT, who was targeted by the main quicktopic coordination group on N1 for his low activity the previous day. Captain Kage eventually got word of this and directed Golden1Knight, who was looking for something to do, to steal from him. Adding insult to injury, Golden got the max 20 gold from this theft. TFT, in case you ever read this, I’m sorry, and I promise it gets better from here. Sometimes. :laugh4:
TheFlax - Dutch Trader, susceptibility listed as “unclear” - ended with 79 gold
In a bit over his head with this role by his own admission, Flax did his best. Participated in the failed spaceman vig N1, and I have a suspicion he leaked some info to Kage about the big group against him in a bid to get in Kage’s favor, though I can’t confirm this. Failed to vig Csar on N2 before going inactive and guarding his gold the next two nights. At some point, D5 at latest, Flax made contact with Double A as per his role, but by that point the officers were too well-entrenched for Double A to consider a change. Making things worse were the fact that he had been scanned as “unclear” for conversion by the French, which immediately tipped them off that Flax was a danger (even though he *could* have worked with them). The bad guys were sure to always keep a low level of pressure on Flax as a result, and this paid off by Ishmael successfully making him the alternative lynch candidate on D5 before Flax could think of a different path to officer-dom.
Visorslash - Able Seaman, not susceptible, Quartermaster from N2 onwards - ended with 336 gold in first place
Nobody worked harder in this game than Visor. He was at or near the center of every major event in the game, from the setting up of the main town QT, to the mutiny on Kage, to That Argument with Xiahou, to the cases on spaceman and Ishmael. Probably rubbed people the wrong way at times, but then again he was also the game’s most successful scumhunter, leading the charges on spaceman and then the Frenchman himself, Ishmael. His N1 action would have been a successful attempt on Pizza, but got thrown in the brig. Once he became Quartermaster, he ended up blocking Xiahou and El Barto, then protecting BSmith, then blocking Ishmael (the night he would have killed Curio), Curio, Ituralde, and Andres - the last of which I completely ignored for storyline purposes. Ironically, it was his attempts to take full control over everyone’s actions and fill in the gaps in the spreadsheet that were his least effective actions. Still, his tenacity paid off, being included in multiple people’s wills, and he was never in real danger from the mafia or other factions within the town. Not bad for a role (Quartermaster) that was previously known for getting its recipients murdered!
Xiahou - Able Seaman with “strong” bonus, susceptible to conversion - ended with 152 gold
Focusing heavily on gold acquisition while he was alive, this served Xiahou well early on as he got a big steal from Monty on N1, not to mention being tipped by Kage for his support and later benefitting from the mutiny. However, this focus was also the cause of his downfall. khaan put Xiahou in his will because they were of similar minds, and thus his gold total was inflated on N2 when Visor threw him in the brig. Visor’s rounding his total and Xiahou’s insistence that Visor was wrong (in an attempt to deter people from targeting him at night for his high total) prompted That Argument, which ultimately ended in Xiahou’s demise.
Zack - Able Seaman with “strong” bonus, not susceptible - ended with 199 gold
I was never sure what to make of Zack in this game. I know he wanted the freedom to kill at night no matter what, and anybody who stood in his way of achieving that objective became his enemy, but beyond that he seemed to vacillate between gunning hardcore for the French and trying to settle scores at a moment’s notice. The one constant was that he was a persistent thorn in the leadership’s side. :laugh4: True to his word, Zack was involved in a kill attempt on every night but N7, trying to murder, in order, TFT (success), khaan (success), Andres (failure), lubber (success), Curio (failure), Ishmael (failure), and Andres (failure). Stole from Pizza N7 to return a “favor”. Also created was part of a second, private Quicktopic for the people who had succeeded in killing khaan N1, which included both Ishmael and BSmith, not to mention our fake mercenary Sprig. Hilariously, BSmith first started dropping hints about his role in this group, which Ishmael relayed to the rest of the team under the advice of “It might be best not to steal from BSmith from now on. He's hinting that he's got some means of identifying whoever stole his gold last night phase, and it's probably not worth calling his bluff.” autolycus would have done well to heed his boss’s advice!
El Barto
10-20-2015, 02:16
Methinks ye should take steps ta prevent somethin' like our huge netwark fram takin' place. An' the Dutchman was nae powered enough.
Technically Sprig created the QT, not me.
thanks for the game. It was a neat game and I enjoyed playing/following along after I died (which I did do, although I wasn't posting anymore).
I didn't have a great grasp of what was going on outside the thread, though that big QT helped with that some.
Did 5 people vigging me cancel out the food bonus or did I just get unlucky?
GeneralHankerchief
10-20-2015, 03:16
Just unlucky, I'm afraid. Having a larger-than-normal kill group affects the strong bonus, but not the food one.
El Barto
10-20-2015, 03:18
Sae, should we schedule a spot in our lives fer September 2018, Pirate Ship Mafia IV: On the Coasts of Barbary?
spaceman98
10-20-2015, 09:19
Zack - Able Seaman with “strong” bonus, not susceptible - ended with 199 gold
Don't you mean 200 :p
Myrddraal
10-20-2015, 09:43
Fascinating write up. Are fake role PMs no longer a thing? I started work on one as soon as people started sniffing around the mercenary role (realising that a Strong PM had already been posted, so it was clearly permitted).
The hardest bit was the quote! I knew from the Strong PM that it should be different. At first I considered Treasure Island and Pirates of Penzance as sources, but then noticed that the only two available were attributed to actual pirates. I spent a good 15 minutes searching for 'pirate quotes', 'real pirate quotes', 'quotes of actual pirates' etc before finding something suitable!
Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk
GeneralHankerchief
10-20-2015, 23:21
The hardest bit was the quote! I knew from the Strong PM that it should be different. At first I considered Treasure Island and Pirates of Penzance as sources, but then noticed that the only two available were attributed to actual pirates. I spent a good 15 minutes searching for 'pirate quotes', 'real pirate quotes', 'quotes of actual pirates' etc before finding something suitable!
I think only about a third to a half of the quotes I've used in role PMs throughout the series came from actual pirates (and I actually did end up using Penzance for one of them, hah). The rest came from vaguely naval-themed sources, but sometimes I just went with a quote that was very relevant in context. The quote for the basic Able Seaman PM, for example, was actually made by a contestant on Season 7 of the US version of Survivor. :laugh4:
Got one more bit of postgame material to give you all and that's my traditional essay. Hopefully I'll have it up within 24 hours.
I guess I was wrong about the officers- but seriously, guys, Ishmael was superobviousscum on Day 6, how did we not lynch him then?
Ramblings:
It was nice to get to experience the town side of this game - I had a lot of fun with what happened in this game, even if we had lost I would have regarded it as one of the funner games I had ever played. Regarding a few of my decisions this game - I actually wanted to vig autolycus night 1 because he had one post and he is typically not a high poster but couldn't because I needed numbers for the third group of people - I ended up limiting my targets quite a bit thanks to that - with only one frenchman outside the vig group - but I got lucky in targeting him (spaceman). Wasn't entirely random (his selection) but who's complaining?
The vig groups started off with me PMing the Australians in the game to start an all australian vig group (just for fun really), but I invited sprig (kiwis are close enough ~;)) and I knew Zack would be down so it spiralled out from there. Those of you who have played with me or my games would know I like to have nonserious QT title, so treachery on the high seas sounded like an excellent name. Regarding the mutiny - I lied a lot about what I found suspicious with Kage, I pushed for a mutiny because I was really enjoying taunting the captaincy and then used the block on me as an excuse to throw off Kage's lot so we could do what we liked - I didn't want to be thrown in a brig all game. When I brigged Xiahou and saw he had 200 (~;)) gold I did actually think he was french before that day, but mostly claimed his gold total in thread to get him robbed or killed at night because he had a much higher gold total than me and well, I wanted to win the gold race. :laugh4: (You can see in the QT I suspected Khaan to have willed him gold - and would have dropped it had he claimed immediately but we had to tango first apparently.)
Unfortunately that day went downhill fast - and he got lynched even though I unvoted him before the end. There is a period of time here where I am basically phoning the game in before I get back into it. Eventually spaceman gets lynched thanks to Lissa getting blocked (should've been lynched D2 to be honest but us mutineers had different plans). A lot of the other things that I had a hand in have already been discussed to death - me keeping Flax quiet from the rest of the crew, the Ishmael plan, etc.
Its funny how many arguments Zack, Monty and myself had, Monty threatening with mutiny at least twice (at that stage I was practically the only active officer, AA and NJ having problems IRL) even though we were all on the same side. DC, AA and NJ were good when they were around - all three were easy townreads which were good, helped a lot, and it was fun to chat to them about the game and other things (GH too).
I was very tempted to save Khaan, Landlubber and lissa somewhat but was afraid of being ousted thanks to following the Kage school of 'meddling' - which is the real reason I didn't protect them. When I got the wills from Flax and lubber I was pretty happy because I knew I had probably won the gold race bar losing my position for an extended period or dying, so I sought to keep AA in charge as long as possible and only attempted to mutiny him once the playerlist got low so I could get more gold.
I also didn't run for captain then, because I was mildly afraid of the 'badwill' I had generated thus far - and if someone knew my gold total I'd be mutinied quick smart - so I stuck as Quartermaster - I mentioned to GH a few times I was tempted to abandon ship after mutiny on AA because I would have a ton of money and well the reactions of everyone else. :laugh4:
Glad I stuck it out in the end though, and it was nice to get first place after putting in a lot of hours on this game.
Fun game GH, one I will remember for a long time. Thanks for hosting it.
I guess I was wrong about the officers- but seriously, guys, Ishmael was superobviousscum on Day 6, how did we not lynch him then?
Because (to me) there was a lot of scummy one line no other text but votes on Ishmael.
My bad, but it made for a better game, don't ya think? :laugh4:
Oh, and I really enjoyed the epilogue for the Frenchman, it was a well done ending for an interesting character.
El Barto
10-21-2015, 18:53
I guess I was wrong about the officers- but seriously, guys, Ishmael was superobviousscum on Day 6, how did we not lynch him then?
Fer some reason, Monty actually went outta his way ta pay good gold fer johnhughthom ta be lynch'd instead o' Ishmael.
Tha' was the kind o' thin' tha' persuaded me as ta the officers bein' either not in their right minds or traitorous Maveneers, sae I decided ta leave as soon as I reach'd 200 doubloons' worth o' treasure.
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 18:55
You act like that's the worst trade I made.
On D1, I paid Gaius 10 gold to privately recommend to NotJim that I be made quartermaster. :blush:
El Barto
10-21-2015, 18:57
You act like that's the worst trade I made.
On D1, I paid Gaius 10 gold to privately recommend to NotJim that I be made quartermaster. :blush:
Ah, sae tha' be why Gaius felt free ta pay me 10 gold fer me services… and then made me inherit somethin' fram his will.
Damn, a month late :(
Sorry for robbing you of 10 recruitment gold El Barto ;)
Thanks for the game anyway, I've just spent an hour reading through the updates thread.
GeneralHankerchief
10-21-2015, 19:55
Okay, final piece of postgame commentary from me. This one is my traditional essay. Generally when I write these I focus them on a larger issue, but considering the discussion that's taken place over the past few days, I decided to solely focus this one on my efforts to balance it and why I made the decisions I did.
I kept this one relatively short, only a bit under 2,000 words. :laugh4:
Before I begin, credit needs to be given to certain people who helped make this game a reality. First of all, naturally, everyone who indicated interest and signed up and contributed to the game deserves thanks, that goes without saying, as there would not have been a Pirate Ship Mafia III without your support. I must, however, single out Zack, Askthepizzaguy, and El Barto, who have been needling me about this game for years and who always kept the idea in the back of my mind that if the urge to host ever returned, there was interest on the other side. I also have to give thanks to johnhughthom, whose initial roll call thread in the Gameroom during the summer was the spark I needed to get back into the Mafia scene.
After I committed to hosting in September, I was in a bit of an odd spot when it came to designing the game. The Pirate Ship Mafia series has always been my response to Seamus Fermanagh’s famous “Capo di Tutti Capi” games here on the .Org. I first started designing the game in the spring of 2008, after Capo II - easily the best in the series, for my money - had finished to wide acclaim. After a false start later that year, I finally got Pirate Ship I off the ground in September 2009, with several included features that were designed to tweak some balancing issues that Capo III had. Pirate Ship II took place nearly a year after Capo IV and was my attempt to feel good about Mafia again after my experiences with that game.
This tradition of “call/response” from Capo to Pirate Ship put me in a bit of an odd position this time around: There was no new Capo game for me to use as inspiration. As a result, this made me turn to my previous games with an even more critical eye than usual.
The place I visited earliest and most often was the postgame for Pirate Ship II, in which I pretty much led an open discussion on the balancing of that game after the town had won a shocking victory only 6 (but really 5) night phases in with under 50% total casualties. In my traditional postgame essay (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?142535-Pirate-Ship-Mafia-II-Concluded&p=2053490500&viewfull=1#post2053490500) for that game, I dissected the town’s reasons for victory, focusing in on three specific incidents. I came to the conclusion that only one of those incidents was a result of host error and that the other two came down to luck and good play. Other players, both before and after the essay, mostly agreed with me. I proclaimed the game “balanced”, washed my hands, and called it a day.
Nearly three years later, dispassionate analysis proved otherwise. The three incidents I mentioned in the postgame essay definitely factored into it, but they were only on the surface. Digging deeper, I realized that the town still had the mafia mostly pinned regardless of the various intrigues that were happening. Had things gone a little bit differently, the game might have taken longer, a few more townies would have been whittled away, but the ultimate result would most likely have been the same. This would require more fixing than I initially thought.
The ultimate solution I came up with, which you all know by now, was to give the mafia a secondary action each night: they could steal, and the Frenchman could also pull off a roleblock every other night. Now, stealing isn’t a perfect alibi, since it doesn’t show up in the writeup, but it still is checkable to some extent. Proper application of this would serve the mafia well, and I was confident that it was enough to defeat the dreaded solve by spreadsheet, which has always been my archnemesis in these types of games.
True dispassionate analysis will have to wait for some time, but my current reaction is that I believe this move was somewhat successful. Ishmael, autolycus, and spaceman were all able to successfully hide in their groups, and the reasons for their deaths were unrelated to the spreadsheet (spaceman was a casualty of the town further examining the roleblock on Lissa, Ishmael got a little too comfortable and it showed, and auto triggered BSmith). Furthermore, the times where the town did look to the spreadsheet for guidance, they were always off.
That said, I still didn’t completely solve the problem. In Pirate Ship II, the mafia were highly visible: they scanned, they converted, they killed. They were also thus vulnerable to the spreadsheet and were quickly sniffed out. This time, the mafia avoided the mistakes of their predecessors… but they also, I believed, were too fenced in. The spreadsheet, and the way I set the game up, allowed them to take almost no independent action. They got in a couple of scans, Ishmael got one conversion in the night before he died when he figured he was already doomed, but that was it. They never once attempted a mafia kill. I don’t even think they considered doing it at any point. They lost by attrition instead of burning brightly and then shorting out. Maybe a bit better, but still not what I wanted.
In my perfect world, the mafia are able to foil the spreadsheet, but they’re also allowed to go out and do mafia things without standing out like a sore thumb. The town has to rely on good old-fashioned scumhunting in order to catch them, or otherwise they die.
Assuming that I had fixed the above issue for this game, my next challenge was to make it so that the pendulum didn’t swing too far to the other direction. I gave the mafia secondary actions, but limited them to theft. I gave the Frenchman a roleblock, but only every other night. After a very long internal debate, I kept recruitments public. My reason for all of this limitation was simple: When balancing, I’ve always followed my own rule of “the better the role is, the harder it should be for them.” Nobody wants to be stuck with a crap role anyway, doubly so when it’s compounded by a godlike, super-overpowered faction (mafia *or* town) that easily waltzes to victory. If you get a cool role, I expect you to work for your victory. This rule is possibly why my games have such a disproportionate percentage of town victories when you weigh them against the rest of the forum.
As it turned out, though, these checks I put on the mafia only accomplished the scenario that ended up playing out. They were too limited, too confined. No, they didn’t lose because the spreadsheet conquered them, true. But they were also unable to branch out and do any mafia activities either. That may have been balanced in its own sense, but it was also not the game I wanted to run. Hiding for essentially 8 nights may be the best strategy sometimes, but it’s also boring. I do not want Pirate Ship Mafia to be boring.
Once I hashed out the mafia, the form they’d take, and the exact limitations on their powers, I moved ahead to the secret roles. This was the point where mathematics and likely percentages of victory took a backseat to “I want these storylines to happen in the game and these roles will likely cause that” for me.
The biggest challenge, for me, was filling the void that the Frenchman created by moving to a purely mafia role. Despite his lack of success in the first two games, the Frenchman did drive quite a lot of the action - his attempted coup d’état against the Captain on N4 in Pirate Ship II might have been the high point of the entire series for me - and I wanted to make sure that intrigue involving the officers remained. Hence was the creation of the Dutch Trader role, the specifics of which can be found my post with all of the role PMs.
After that, I developed the final guard against solving by spreadsheet: BSmith’s “Anne the Tavern Wench”. Considering how I already spent nearly 1,000 words on this role in the aforementioned role PMs post, I’ll be brief here and say that this role was successful at what I primarily envisioned it to do: cause chaos and have BSmith kill intermittently between town and mafia. It was only failing to see unforeseen complications that the role caused in which I erred here.
I did have other secret roles in my pocket that I eventually ended up deciding not to use. I was briefly debating on whether or not to include a person or even a semi-faction whose sole victory condition was gold acquisition, but eventually decided against this.
The reason for this ties into the one thing that I believes still eludes me after three Pirate Ship games: It’s not about the math, it’s not about gunning for the solve no matter what. It’s about having fun and acting like real pirates. It’s about screwing each other over in the gold race, and bribing, and going back on your word because you got a better offer while at the same time looking for the scum in all of the traditional ways. I didn’t want to force that behavior here via mandated roles, I wanted it to happen naturally.
To an extent, this was successful. Visor always had the gold race in mind. You certainly had people like Andres and El Barto who were of the same mind. But at the same time, the attempts to solve by spreadsheet were there. They weren’t the main reason for the mafia’s defeat, or even the second or third, but they were still there, and that was on me.
All in all, I had a fantastic time hosting, and I thank you all once again for both playing and giving me your thoughts on how to continue to improve the experience in the future. I’m glad to hear so many of you enjoyed it as well, and I’m glad that the .Org Gameroom is once again home to mafia games and that our tradition of quality and enjoyable games will continue.
As for me, the perfect Pirate Ship Mafia game remains my white whale. I thought I had it this time, and I *am* getting closer, but clearly there still remains work to be done. Because of this, and because I’m an obsessive perfectionist, means that the probability of Pirate Ship Mafia IV existing at any point remains far more likely than it did six months ago (heck, it remains more likely than the probability of Pirate Ship Mafia III existing six months ago…). I have no idea when it will take place, or the form it will be in, or even if it will happen at all.
But if it does, then I am going to kill that whale once and for all. There remains hope for the future. And as a result, let me close this essay once again with the familiar, comforting words:
… the sky is clear, the decks freshly swabbed, and the ship afitted with new sails. Treasure awaits, laddies, and the Presence may just be ready for another voyage. I hope you'll all join me aboard when the time comes. :bow:
~ General Hankerchief
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 20:07
They lost by attrition
Why no love for the Redeker Plan? (http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Redeker_Plan)
El Barto
10-21-2015, 20:30
This be no' about Zombies, this be aboot Pirates! *swings cutlass wildly* Yarrrrr!
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 20:33
Close enough (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?141799-Pirate-Ninja-Robot-Zombie-Mafia-IN-SPACE-Concluded).
I think the core of the balance problem is that the townies control all deaths. In a normal mafia game, the townies mandate the lynch, but the mafia use the nightkill for their own nefarious ends; in the Pirate Ship games (and group-action type games in general) the townies still control the lynch, but they also control the nightkills. The captain and officers are basically untouchable if they avoid suspicion, which is very often going to be the case, making them unstoppable mafia destroying machines. The mafia had no way to neutralize Visorslash here, and his ability to go unchecked was a huge burden to them (see also: mafia being unable to counter me in II). Maybe this is mitigated if a mafioso manages to get into an officer position (or even the captaincy), but that's unlikely, and unfair to hinge such a pivotal swing on the (low) probability of that happening.
This means that the mafia are a a big disadvantage in battles of attrition, which mafia is most of the time. The town only needs to eliminate three people, and they control the lynch and all of the kills. Any person's efforts to counteract a kill will naturally look suspicious (see the block stopping the spaceman kill) because one mafia dying is a huge blow, while one townie dying is negligible.
This might be mitigated by recruitment, where the mafia can win by attrition by rivaling the town in sheer force of numbers, but conversion availability and success is quite limited, and they don't count as full members anyway and can be safely ignored by the town (as in this game I said, rather blatantly, that I did not care about finding recruits and was not going to even try to do so). The mafia are thus caught in the awkward position of not having the advantages of a conventional mafia team (reliable kills) or a cult (power in numbers).
The scum need a boost in one direction - they need to become better at killing or better at recruiting in order to stand a chance of defeating the town. It might even be worth considering including two such factions, which could potentially force the town to keep the mafia around as a counterbalance against the cult, though this would really only work with a much larger game. As it stands, the mafia don't have a clear path to victory - a short game means they can't eliminate the townies in time, and a long game means the original members can't survive long enough.
Potential solutions that I suggest to help the mafia survive the attrition game:
- Keep recruitment in its limited form seen here, in that not very people are susceptible and it's a fairly involved process, but converts are considered full members and have to be eliminated. eg the game keeps going since Csargo is still alive.
- Make recruitment easier and/or faster, but keep the converts as junior members who suicide when all original mafia are eliminated.
- Keep recruitment the same, but enable the mafia to counter vig groups more effectively. This could mean more powerful and/or more available roleblocks, increased survivability and/or protection (which in turn could make people suspicious of townies with food/strong bonus), easier avenue to perform mafia kills, etc.
Secondary actions for the mafia is a great step in the right direction, and I think any of the paths listed above will make the mafia better able to stand a real chance at conquering the town, and clever implementation could even further hamper "spreadsheeting" as a strategy. I must also mention that including immediate alignment reveals might be necessary in a game with more powerful recruitment, and of course is a greatly appreciated convenience. :laugh4:
edit: also also some of the changes I suggested will incentivize townies to participate in vig groups already more than they are, so you might want to do something about that. Maybe frequent killers are more susceptible to recruitment, or descend into madness, or there's incentive to perform actions other than vigging.
GeneralHankerchief
10-21-2015, 20:50
I think I might just bite the bullet and give the mafia unrestricted secondary actions next time: i.e. they can do mafia stuff *and* participate in groups every night. That alone would give them more agency and I think avoid a lot of the problems that arose this time around.
Things I'm definitely keeping in no matter what:
- Stealing. Great for flavor and it's a good fallback for townies who get stuck when groups don't materialize at night for whatever reason. Need to tweak the guard mechanic though.
- Abandon ship. I get what people say about it being a sort of alternative to suicide pacts, but I still don't see the ultimate incentive - there should be enough reason to stay on the ship unless you're completely pessimistic about the town's chances/your own survival. May have to adjust it to prevent a mass abandonment if it becomes clear the mafia's doing well, though.
Things I'm open to changing:
- Delayed reveals. I'm still adamant about more vanilla games not needing reveals at all, but in the complex games like this I see the need for it. Honestly I just took this system from Capo without thinking twice about it, this it the first game where I've really seen pushback. I'll make the call on this depending on the other changes I make and deciding whether the town or mafia needs a bit of an extra boost.
- Clarity, or lack thereof, in the night writeup in terms of how many people show up for actions. As mentioned earlier. Though if I give the mafia complete freedom with secondary actions, this might not be needed.
Stuff for me to think about, but not now. :yes:
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 20:51
How about loosening groups.
Protections and vigs can succeed even if one person is involved, no matter what their role - it's just the odds that are affected. Combined with hidden numbers in writeups, this would completely eliminate the usefulness of vigs in spreadsheeting. A vig, especially one involving multiple people, would only make sense if you really want the target dead. Also has the effect of making gold more important, as well as making protections more useful.
In Pirate games, the protections have been one of the less-valuable actions, along with "Sleep" and "Guard gold".
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 20:52
About abandoning ship: How are there so many dinghies on this ship?
GeneralHankerchief
10-21-2015, 20:55
About abandoning ship: How are there so many dinghies on this ship?
Specially designed. To haul back all that treasure after the Presence's many raids, of course!
How about loosening groups.
Protections and vigs can succeed even if one person is involved, no matter what their role - it's just the odds that are affected. Combined with hidden numbers in writeups, this would completely eliminate the usefulness of vigs in spreadsheeting. A vig, especially one involving multiple people, would only make sense if you really want the target dead. Also has the effect of making gold more important, as well as making protections more useful.
In Pirate games, the protections have been one of the less-valuable actions, along with "Sleep" and "Guard gold".
More rng is bad imo
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 20:57
Everyone who can abandons ship N1, leaving only the scums. But that would be a draw, so the townies swarm the ship on D2 and kill everyone on board.
Instant town victory.
Montmorency
10-21-2015, 21:00
More rng is bad imo
Fusion: remember GH's RPS tournaments?
GeneralHankerchief
10-21-2015, 21:03
Fusion: remember GH's RPS tournaments?
I was actually thinking about running another one soon, but I've already put out tens of thousands of words over the past month and want to rest a bit first. :yes:
El Barto
10-21-2015, 21:28
I's been cogitatin'. Methinks tha' the only way ta make the gold race be import'nt fer those wha' be uninterested in the gold race be makin' th' gold be useful, havin' wan or twa special events like dockin' at a merchant harbour or pillagin' a passin' ship, an' there th' gold be useful fer, say, buyin' new ammunition fer th' cannon, payin' an NPC informant, findin' oot whaur an' hoo ta lift an Aztec curse fram the days of Cortez, an' sae on.
El Barto
10-21-2015, 21:29
I's just seen this…
Sorry for robbing you of 10 recruitment gold El Barto ;)
‘Sorry’ bain't enough, laddie. Pay up!
How about loosening groups.
Protections and vigs can succeed even if one person is involved, no matter what their role - it's just the odds that are affected. Combined with hidden numbers in writeups, this would completely eliminate the usefulness of vigs in spreadsheeting. A vig, especially one involving multiple people, would only make sense if you really want the target dead. Also has the effect of making gold more important, as well as making protections more useful.
In Pirate games, the protections have been one of the less-valuable actions, along with "Sleep" and "Guard gold".
One interesting idea could be that people who are attacked can passively bribe their attackers to leave them alone- maybe the attackers automatically accept a certain amount of gold, or have a chance to be immune, or something. Not quite sure how it would work, but it would be an interesting idea to work out.
El Barto
10-21-2015, 21:38
Ye can always beat someone on th' head wi' a sack full o' gold coins, Choxorn.
I's just seen this…
‘Sorry’ bain't enough, laddie. Pay up!
Arr, but I seem to have spent the last of my 213 gold from the previous adventure on this lonely little beautiful bottle of rum.
El Barto
10-21-2015, 22:47
Ye's paid fer material goods instead o' seizin' them? This be unheard of in piratedom.
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