GeneralHankerchief
02-16-2017, 13:45
"Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow."
~ Hugo
"The French Revolution gave birth to no artists. The only poet of the times was the guillotine."
~ Camus
--------------
Paris, 1793
It is the fifth year of the French Revolution, and its fate is balanced on a guillotine’s edge.
The country is besieged on all sides by enemies, currently fighting against Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain in a fierce war that threatens the new republic’s survival. In response, the governing body of France, the National Convention, has declared a levée en masse, or mandatory conscription of the country’s young men. While the sheer numbers of troops suddenly available to France may even the odds, they still have a long way before turning the tide.
While these external threats are certainly potent, it is the nation’s internal problems that truly threaten to tear France apart. Across the country, particularly in the western region known as the Vendée, counter-Revolutionary violence has sprung up in response to the increasingly radical direction the government has gone in recently. Divided at all levels of society - community, family, church, and more - every individual has had to make a choice: Where exactly do you stand politically? With the stakes of selecting the “wrong” answer to this question growing ever more severe, everyone is on edge.
Louis XVI is dead, sentenced by the Convention and executed by means of that great equalizer, the guillotine. Lafayette and Mirabeau, those great noble heroes of the people, are either in exile or dead. In Paris, the common people, known as the sans-culottes, have taken to patrolling the streets in paramilitary groups in order to enforce their ideals of the way things should be. The optimistic verses of the Revolutionary anthem Ça Ira (“It Will Be Fine”), so popular in 1790 and carrying the hope of every Frenchman that the dreams of 1789 would be realized, have largely been replaced by more bloodthirsty stanzas calling for the death of the aristocrats and priests. The ambitious Constitution of 1793, designed to further the aims of the Revolution and to continue the march towards equality, was suspended before ever going into effect due to the national emergency.
The Revolution’s innocence has departed, and the Reign of Terror has arrived.
In the National Convention, four separate factions vie for power:
- The Mountain (or Montagnards), a fast-rising political group who want to continue the radical turn the Revolution has taken. They are ruthlessly competent, have some of the brightest political thinkers of the era, but have also racked up quite a high body count in pursuit of their goals.
- The Girondins, the formerly-majority party who have lost some of their influence but are still strong. The Girondins are seen as moderate (for those who view that as a good thing) and experienced, but are also increasingly perceived as lazy, corrupt, and largely to blame for France getting into so many wars.
- The Populists, who have seen what the common people of France can do when truly inspired and want to further tap into that power for the sake of the nation. The Populists more than anyone else enjoy the support of the sans-culottes of Paris and elsewhere, but are also disunited in political views (ranging from somewhat moderate to ultra-radical) and are seen as ineffective at actually governing.
- The Militarists, hypercompetent specialists in usually one or two fields who want to put their expertise to better use. The Militarists, if united, can almost certainly do what is needed to keep France afloat, but they are also seen as little more than ambitious technocrats who are largely distrusted by the people (and themselves).
All four of the factions have roughly equal representation in the National Convention, each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, only one faction can emerge triumphant and direct the course of the Revolution to their will.
However, what they don’t know is that a fifth faction has secretly infiltrated the Convention: The Royalists. Driven underground but not entirely exterminated despite the Convention’s best efforts, this faction’s greatest desire is to kill everyone else, take back control of the government, and restore a Bourbon to the throne and end the Revolution altogether, a completely unacceptable result for anyone other than themselves.
Will the four main factions put aside their differences long enough to stop the Royalist threat, knowing that only one of them may emerge triumphant at the end? Will the Royalists complete their goal and turn the clock back on the country forever? Will the draconian policies of the Terror be enough to truly safeguard the gains of the Revolution? The world is waiting to find out.
French Revolution Mafia
https://i.imgur.com/BRTh2i1.jpg?1
Overview:
Welcome to French Revolution Mafia! You will play an elected member of the National Convention - the governing body of France during the Reign of Terror - and are part of one of four political factions, as described in the above flavor as well as the rules below. Your job is simple: outnumber the other three factions by the end of the game, and eliminate the Royalists, who have infiltrated the Convention and serve as the mafia faction this game. Maintaining a perfect balance between these two aims will be the key to obtaining victory.
Game setup and rules:
French Revolution Mafia is a game designed for 24 players. Each player will be randomly assigned a role belonging to one of four factions. Once this is decided, a second rand will determine the mafia, who are an unspecified number. This means that, while unlikely, it is theoretically possible for all of the mafia to be a part of one faction.
Each faction will be assigned factional abilities, which will be further described in the “Factional Abilities” section of your role PM. In addition, a small amount of players will have individual personal abilities.
Voting is to be done in the traditional .Org style, like so:
Vote: GeneralHankerchief
Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Sasaki Kojiro
Simply bolding a name is not enough and will not be counted. Abstain and No Lynch are both allowed. You do not need to unvote (or specify who you are unvoting), but it is appreciated. I will be tallying by hand, so any vote counts made by novice's tool (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?152304-Vote-Counter) or other software, while welcome, are unofficial.
Phase lengths will generally run 48/24, with some exceptions (I will be out of town for the first weekend in March, so that one will probably be extended). The start/end times of phases may drift over time as the game progresses - please allow for my work schedule and dedication to providing good flavor.
You may not directly quote role PMs or any other communication from me. No screenshots are to be used.
You may not talk to players outside the game thread or host-provided Quicktopics.
Posts are not to be edited, however, I will give you a one-minute grace window to correct spelling/grammatical errors. No actual content is to be added or deleted. As moderator, I have the power of viewing the original version of an edited post, so I will be checking this!
Tie votes will be decided by random selection.
Inactive players will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
I will lock the public thread at night, however, your individual faction Quicktopics (including the mafia one) will be open 24/7.
Roles and factions will be revealed upon death; individual abilities will not.
There is to be no posting after death, for the first time ever in one of my games (I will allow for one generic comment immediately postdeath). A spectator chat for the dead will be provided.
Lastly, all of the Gameroom rules (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?135992-Gameroom-Rules-and-Reference-READ-THIS-BEFORE-PLAYING&p=2053323525&viewfull=1#post2053323525) apply: Be reasonable, friendly, and, of course, have fun! :bow:
Historical disclaimer:
This mafia game is intended to explore two of the most debated historiographical questions of the French Revolution: Were the excesses and killings of the Reign of Terror justified in keeping France secure, and was the Terror necessary in preserving the gains made in 1789 or were they a perversion of the Revolution’s original ideas?
While I have made an effort to remain historically faithful, this game takes place during a very complex period of history and some concessions will have to be made for the sake of simplicity. A partial but by no means complete list of these are as follows:
- The historical Reign of Terror took place during a period of little more than a year, from Spring 1793 to July 1794. I’m condensing its events into a period of around a week.
- I’m setting the game during an indeterminate time in 1793. Events during the period, both early and late, will be cherry-picked and inserted in the game possibly out of chronological order for flavor purposes.
- Not every character I’ve made into a role was an actual delegate of the National Convention.
- During the Terror, many of the characters present in this game were out of Paris on various missions and otherwise for portions of the year. Obviously we will assume that they were all present in the city for the duration of the game.
- The Montagnards were pretty much the dominant political faction for the entire period. Here, I’ve made it more even. This includes some fudging of characters’ political affiliations.
Selected bibliography:
McPhee, Peter. Liberty or Death: The French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
Mercier, Louis-Sébastien. Le Tableau de Paris. Edited by Jeremy D. Popkin. State College: Penn State University Press, 1999.
Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled: The Committee of Public Safety during the Terror. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941.
Roux, Jacques. “Manifesto of the Enragés.” Translated by Mitchell Abidor. Address presented at the National Convention, Paris, France, 1793. https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/roux/1793/enrages01.htm
Scurr, Ruth. Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. London: Chatto & Windus, 2006.
Tackett, Timothy. The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.
Thompson, J. M. Leaders of the French Revolution. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 1988.
More on factions:
As detailed above, there are four separate factions in this game:
- The Montagnards
- The Girondins
- The Populists
- The Militarists
With the Royalists serving as the mafia.
Each faction has their own unique set of powers. Anybody in the faction can perform any ability at night, however, some abilities are secretly linked to a player known only by me. Upon that player's death, the faction will lose access to that ability. For example, if I (unknowingly) was linked to my faction's 2x vig shot ability, anybody could perform those vig shots, but if I died before those shots were taken, my faction could no longer make use of that ability.
Each faction will have access to a Quicktopic where members can discuss strategy with each other (open both day and night), but there is a chance of your faction being infiltrated by the Royalists, so beware! The Royalists will not be allowed to share these links with each other, nor will they be allowed to excessively quote from them. They will only be permitted to paraphrase bigger-picture stuff.
Only one faction will ultimately win the game, with a single specific exception that will be described in your role PM.
Partway through the game, new abilities or additional uses of present ones may be given to each faction at my discretion. I will not unfairly favor or penalize any one faction when and if this event transpires.
Signing up:
We're aiming for a February 28th start. I'm going to be pretty hard and fast about sticking to 24 players for this one. First come, first served, all subs are welcome! I'm not 100% confident this game is balanced, but I am pretty sure it will be fun. And hey, you might learn something!
Signed up (24/24):
Montmorency
Csargo
Lewwyn
Renata
Dp101
BSmith
Zack
Arakhor
seireikhaan
Choxorn
atheotes
Kagemusha
Snerk
Fenn
Askthepizzaguy
Sooh
autolycus
Al Sipsclar
El Barto
Jabbz
NotACop
Logic
Manasi
Monstrdude
Subs:
~ Hugo
"The French Revolution gave birth to no artists. The only poet of the times was the guillotine."
~ Camus
--------------
Paris, 1793
It is the fifth year of the French Revolution, and its fate is balanced on a guillotine’s edge.
The country is besieged on all sides by enemies, currently fighting against Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain in a fierce war that threatens the new republic’s survival. In response, the governing body of France, the National Convention, has declared a levée en masse, or mandatory conscription of the country’s young men. While the sheer numbers of troops suddenly available to France may even the odds, they still have a long way before turning the tide.
While these external threats are certainly potent, it is the nation’s internal problems that truly threaten to tear France apart. Across the country, particularly in the western region known as the Vendée, counter-Revolutionary violence has sprung up in response to the increasingly radical direction the government has gone in recently. Divided at all levels of society - community, family, church, and more - every individual has had to make a choice: Where exactly do you stand politically? With the stakes of selecting the “wrong” answer to this question growing ever more severe, everyone is on edge.
Louis XVI is dead, sentenced by the Convention and executed by means of that great equalizer, the guillotine. Lafayette and Mirabeau, those great noble heroes of the people, are either in exile or dead. In Paris, the common people, known as the sans-culottes, have taken to patrolling the streets in paramilitary groups in order to enforce their ideals of the way things should be. The optimistic verses of the Revolutionary anthem Ça Ira (“It Will Be Fine”), so popular in 1790 and carrying the hope of every Frenchman that the dreams of 1789 would be realized, have largely been replaced by more bloodthirsty stanzas calling for the death of the aristocrats and priests. The ambitious Constitution of 1793, designed to further the aims of the Revolution and to continue the march towards equality, was suspended before ever going into effect due to the national emergency.
The Revolution’s innocence has departed, and the Reign of Terror has arrived.
In the National Convention, four separate factions vie for power:
- The Mountain (or Montagnards), a fast-rising political group who want to continue the radical turn the Revolution has taken. They are ruthlessly competent, have some of the brightest political thinkers of the era, but have also racked up quite a high body count in pursuit of their goals.
- The Girondins, the formerly-majority party who have lost some of their influence but are still strong. The Girondins are seen as moderate (for those who view that as a good thing) and experienced, but are also increasingly perceived as lazy, corrupt, and largely to blame for France getting into so many wars.
- The Populists, who have seen what the common people of France can do when truly inspired and want to further tap into that power for the sake of the nation. The Populists more than anyone else enjoy the support of the sans-culottes of Paris and elsewhere, but are also disunited in political views (ranging from somewhat moderate to ultra-radical) and are seen as ineffective at actually governing.
- The Militarists, hypercompetent specialists in usually one or two fields who want to put their expertise to better use. The Militarists, if united, can almost certainly do what is needed to keep France afloat, but they are also seen as little more than ambitious technocrats who are largely distrusted by the people (and themselves).
All four of the factions have roughly equal representation in the National Convention, each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, only one faction can emerge triumphant and direct the course of the Revolution to their will.
However, what they don’t know is that a fifth faction has secretly infiltrated the Convention: The Royalists. Driven underground but not entirely exterminated despite the Convention’s best efforts, this faction’s greatest desire is to kill everyone else, take back control of the government, and restore a Bourbon to the throne and end the Revolution altogether, a completely unacceptable result for anyone other than themselves.
Will the four main factions put aside their differences long enough to stop the Royalist threat, knowing that only one of them may emerge triumphant at the end? Will the Royalists complete their goal and turn the clock back on the country forever? Will the draconian policies of the Terror be enough to truly safeguard the gains of the Revolution? The world is waiting to find out.
French Revolution Mafia
https://i.imgur.com/BRTh2i1.jpg?1
Overview:
Welcome to French Revolution Mafia! You will play an elected member of the National Convention - the governing body of France during the Reign of Terror - and are part of one of four political factions, as described in the above flavor as well as the rules below. Your job is simple: outnumber the other three factions by the end of the game, and eliminate the Royalists, who have infiltrated the Convention and serve as the mafia faction this game. Maintaining a perfect balance between these two aims will be the key to obtaining victory.
Game setup and rules:
French Revolution Mafia is a game designed for 24 players. Each player will be randomly assigned a role belonging to one of four factions. Once this is decided, a second rand will determine the mafia, who are an unspecified number. This means that, while unlikely, it is theoretically possible for all of the mafia to be a part of one faction.
Each faction will be assigned factional abilities, which will be further described in the “Factional Abilities” section of your role PM. In addition, a small amount of players will have individual personal abilities.
Voting is to be done in the traditional .Org style, like so:
Vote: GeneralHankerchief
Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Sasaki Kojiro
Simply bolding a name is not enough and will not be counted. Abstain and No Lynch are both allowed. You do not need to unvote (or specify who you are unvoting), but it is appreciated. I will be tallying by hand, so any vote counts made by novice's tool (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?152304-Vote-Counter) or other software, while welcome, are unofficial.
Phase lengths will generally run 48/24, with some exceptions (I will be out of town for the first weekend in March, so that one will probably be extended). The start/end times of phases may drift over time as the game progresses - please allow for my work schedule and dedication to providing good flavor.
You may not directly quote role PMs or any other communication from me. No screenshots are to be used.
You may not talk to players outside the game thread or host-provided Quicktopics.
Posts are not to be edited, however, I will give you a one-minute grace window to correct spelling/grammatical errors. No actual content is to be added or deleted. As moderator, I have the power of viewing the original version of an edited post, so I will be checking this!
Tie votes will be decided by random selection.
Inactive players will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
I will lock the public thread at night, however, your individual faction Quicktopics (including the mafia one) will be open 24/7.
Roles and factions will be revealed upon death; individual abilities will not.
There is to be no posting after death, for the first time ever in one of my games (I will allow for one generic comment immediately postdeath). A spectator chat for the dead will be provided.
Lastly, all of the Gameroom rules (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?135992-Gameroom-Rules-and-Reference-READ-THIS-BEFORE-PLAYING&p=2053323525&viewfull=1#post2053323525) apply: Be reasonable, friendly, and, of course, have fun! :bow:
Historical disclaimer:
This mafia game is intended to explore two of the most debated historiographical questions of the French Revolution: Were the excesses and killings of the Reign of Terror justified in keeping France secure, and was the Terror necessary in preserving the gains made in 1789 or were they a perversion of the Revolution’s original ideas?
While I have made an effort to remain historically faithful, this game takes place during a very complex period of history and some concessions will have to be made for the sake of simplicity. A partial but by no means complete list of these are as follows:
- The historical Reign of Terror took place during a period of little more than a year, from Spring 1793 to July 1794. I’m condensing its events into a period of around a week.
- I’m setting the game during an indeterminate time in 1793. Events during the period, both early and late, will be cherry-picked and inserted in the game possibly out of chronological order for flavor purposes.
- Not every character I’ve made into a role was an actual delegate of the National Convention.
- During the Terror, many of the characters present in this game were out of Paris on various missions and otherwise for portions of the year. Obviously we will assume that they were all present in the city for the duration of the game.
- The Montagnards were pretty much the dominant political faction for the entire period. Here, I’ve made it more even. This includes some fudging of characters’ political affiliations.
Selected bibliography:
McPhee, Peter. Liberty or Death: The French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.
Mercier, Louis-Sébastien. Le Tableau de Paris. Edited by Jeremy D. Popkin. State College: Penn State University Press, 1999.
Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled: The Committee of Public Safety during the Terror. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941.
Roux, Jacques. “Manifesto of the Enragés.” Translated by Mitchell Abidor. Address presented at the National Convention, Paris, France, 1793. https://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/roux/1793/enrages01.htm
Scurr, Ruth. Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. London: Chatto & Windus, 2006.
Tackett, Timothy. The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.
Thompson, J. M. Leaders of the French Revolution. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 1988.
More on factions:
As detailed above, there are four separate factions in this game:
- The Montagnards
- The Girondins
- The Populists
- The Militarists
With the Royalists serving as the mafia.
Each faction has their own unique set of powers. Anybody in the faction can perform any ability at night, however, some abilities are secretly linked to a player known only by me. Upon that player's death, the faction will lose access to that ability. For example, if I (unknowingly) was linked to my faction's 2x vig shot ability, anybody could perform those vig shots, but if I died before those shots were taken, my faction could no longer make use of that ability.
Each faction will have access to a Quicktopic where members can discuss strategy with each other (open both day and night), but there is a chance of your faction being infiltrated by the Royalists, so beware! The Royalists will not be allowed to share these links with each other, nor will they be allowed to excessively quote from them. They will only be permitted to paraphrase bigger-picture stuff.
Only one faction will ultimately win the game, with a single specific exception that will be described in your role PM.
Partway through the game, new abilities or additional uses of present ones may be given to each faction at my discretion. I will not unfairly favor or penalize any one faction when and if this event transpires.
Signing up:
We're aiming for a February 28th start. I'm going to be pretty hard and fast about sticking to 24 players for this one. First come, first served, all subs are welcome! I'm not 100% confident this game is balanced, but I am pretty sure it will be fun. And hey, you might learn something!
Signed up (24/24):
Montmorency
Csargo
Lewwyn
Renata
Dp101
BSmith
Zack
Arakhor
seireikhaan
Choxorn
atheotes
Kagemusha
Snerk
Fenn
Askthepizzaguy
Sooh
autolycus
Al Sipsclar
El Barto
Jabbz
NotACop
Logic
Manasi
Monstrdude
Subs: