Mafia III: Return of the Mafia [Concluded]

[GeneralHankerchief]

My commentary/writeup. It's long, and some of it overlaps, but it's informative.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Session 0

Mafia: Kommodus and Gertgregoor
Detective: Crazed Rabbit

I laughed when I picked the mafia out of a hat. First of all we had Kommodus – a mafia veteran and one of the heroes of the Frontroom in the last game. Then we had Gertgregoor – A newbie to the game who, judging by a couple of posts in the Talk Your Own Language Thread, really wanted to outlast Drisos. Immediately the opposites showed themselves, with Gert PMing me several questions on how the game was run/how he was to send his kills and Kommodus getting right into the flow of things, giving me his first kill, story already pretty much written out.

The mafia’s opposite in this game was Crazed Rabbit, who had played in the other two games with mixed results. I wondered if he would be as successful as Tiberius, the Detective in Game II.

All in all I really liked the cast, although a couple of notable vets were missing. Dutch_guy was away, and Craterus had left the Org at that time. Oh well, I still knew that this would be an exciting game.


Session 1

Kommodus kills Sigurd Fafnesbane Gert kills discovery1
Crazed Rabbit investigates Ignoramus

Poor Sigurd. This was the first time I really didn’t want to see somebody else killed – I hate having a newbie come to play only to die in the first round.

I was mildly surprised when Gert told me that “arrivederci” was to be a recurring theme. On one hand, there was a possibility that somebody might figure out who was behind it. But on the other hand, I realized that the mafia could manipulate its presence/lack thereof to their advantage. Btw, I had to look the spelling of that word up in order to make sure that I got it right.

Once again I watched and chuckled to myself as the villagers stumbled all over themselves in executing Banquo’s Ghost. Guys, with the first execution it’s a good bet that you’ll lynch an innocent. So don’t kid yourself – the only purpose for the first execution is to keep the game moving on.

One last note: I realized that Kommodus was already outsmarting his spreadsheet by voting for a non-bandwagon candidate.

Executed: Banquo’s Ghost


Session 2

Kommodus kills UltraWar Gert kills Zalmoxis
Crazed Rabbit investigates The Spartan

This marked the beginning of two recurring themes: Kommodus starting his master plan and Gert killing somebody with an ancient, exotic weapon.

Really nothing that happened here was too special. DoH got a ton of votes, but had not posted since saying that he wanted to play. As a matter of fact, that was his only post in the game.

Finally, four people were really standing out as good villagers who tried to find the mafia: Sasaki Kojiro, Divinus Arma/Eclectic, B_Ray, and Pannonian. They had done this in a variety of ways; openly suspecting people and challenging them on their posts, and asking me questions on how I ran things/rules of the game.

Oh yeah, and this is the point where Lemur said he wanted to die an interesting death. The suspicions begin anew…

Executed: Destroyer of Hope


Session 3

Kommodus kills Tiberius Gert kills Silver Rusher
Crazed Rabbit investigates Pannonian

(Note: I wrote this section WAY before anything else so a lot of the information is probably known already)

Here you go SR, your original way of dying before I made Gert change it:

I'll kill Silver rusher. By dropping a whale on him from out my aeroplane. Then I'll write in smoke letters i the sky the infamous word.

Note that how later on during Hiji’s death there was a “whale blocking Tosa Ave.”

Things got really interesting here. First of all, Gert killed Silver Rusher, who was under a lot of suspicion during the time. It only got weirder from there. Due to Tiberius’ after-death note, suspicion immediately fell under The Spartan. He tried in vain to turn the execution to Csar.

Facing almost certain execution, Spartan pulled perhaps the weirdest move ever in a Mafia game: He “admitted” that he was a mafioso.

I have no idea why he did this; this is his explanation.

this will either one, mess up the mafia, or two confuse the villagers. i hope the mafia mess up.

Don’t ask me how it would do this. My personal opinion at the time was that he would give the mafia the same effect that Sasaki gave the Detective the last game – carte blanche. The mafia shared my sentiments. Immediately Gert PM’d me to say “no more arrivederci” (If you recall, Spartan confessed to all the “arrivederci” deaths). In any case, there was instant rejoicing, mixed with some confusion, plus a little suspicion.

A smart villager could put the pieces together and discover that Spartan was not a mafioso. First of all, the “PM” that he posted pretending it was from me. In it, he forgot to type the word “mafia.” Also, as any present or past mafioso would tell you, I do not list the titles of the thread or put a balloon in my PM. Next, I explicitly put in the PM that you are not allowed to reveal your identity until the game is finished. This was stated publicly by me as well as picked up on by Orb and a few others. Finally, I try to make it so it’s the “good of the team” over the individual’s result. Those would give the past mafia an advantage in determining Spartan’s innocence.

Anybody else could see where I posted that the mafia was not allowed to reveal themselves, too. Finally, I put in a hint in the execution scene.

Beirut looked him in the eyes for a moment, then shrugged.

Not exactly what you would do to a true mafioso, would it?

In any event, Crazed Rabbit would have a fun time convincing everybody that Spartan was innocent when it was time to reveal. Unless of course, other people figured it out.

Executed: The Spartan


Session 4

Kommodus kills Sasaki Kojiro Gert kills B_Ray
Crazed Rabbit investigates Alexander the Pretty Good

Ah, the aftermath of The Spartan’s “confession” started immediately. I knew right away when Gert PM’d me his kill that Kommodus wrote it. After all, go back and check the kill (which is pretty much in the form that it was sent to me) as compared to one of Gert’s previous PM’s:

I want to kill Zalmoxis this time.
hmmm let me think.
He will be killed using a falx after I lured him in to a small room using a pretty girl. (you'll make something up?)
before he dies I say: Now Zalmoxis yu can actually see if the soul is immortal or not. (cf the thracians' Zalmoxis.)
As I wakl out the room I light up a sigaret and say the famous words.

I’m not making fun of the guy; he’s not a native English speaker. Just pointing out the differences. And in case you’re wondering why I don’t put up an example of Kommodus’, all his later kills were just copy & pasted into the thread.

Thanks to a bit of detective work by the two remaining members of the Fantastic Four, as well as a terrible job of defending himself, Uesugi Kenshin was executed in a landslide. I remember some people thinking that the game was over. Heh. How wrong they were.

Executed: Uesugi Kenshin


Session 5

Kommodus kills Divinus Arma Gert kills Orb
Crazed Rabbit investigates SSNeoperestroika

First of all, the roles were switched up a bit. A few rounds earlier Kommodus told me that he had a “hilarious” death for DA planned, but said it didn’t fit with the main story. So this time he had Gert kill Orb with the latest part in the plan while he Jigsawed DA to death.

There were two bits of irony in this: First of all, DA died laughing, signifying that UK was innocent. Second, Kommodus’ title of Airplane-mafioso came from Orb’s kill, although technically Gert was the one who killed Orb.

Meanwhile, I realized what the mafia was doing – killing off the Fantastic Four. In doing so, the main posters in the game were gone, leaving me with the danger that the game might end with a thud. Kommodus PM’d me to apologize for doing it and Pannonian PM’d the other members of the Fantastic Four/me tossing suggestions back and forth on what to do. I finally decided on a drastic move, but one that might save the game. Plus, I got to feed my ego a bit.

During the execution (which was Ignoramus), I, in the form of God, killed six lurkers in a move that would come to be known as the Wrath of God. Five of them were from Pannonian’s list of inactive players plus Ianofsmeg16, who PM’d me earlier requesting to be suicided. Out of the list, Hiji and Alexander the Pretty Good were spared, mainly because I didn’t want the game to end too quickly.

IMHO this saved the game, as all of a sudden there was a spur of activity. I have no idea why…

Executed: Ignoramus


Session 6

Kommodus kills Ice Gert kills Pannonian
Crazed Rabbit investigates Peasant Phill

Well, “arrivederci” was back on. Thanks to Silver Rusher’s post back in the last session about Spartan’s innocence(which I confirmed to him in the chat after he posted it – or maybe it was before, but he had already told me his suspicions, I can’t remember), people had started to realize the truth and Gert went back to writing his own kills.

At this point, for whatever reason, people started gunning for the much-maligned Lemur again. I kind of felt sorry for the poor guy because the mafia was obviously leaving him hanging, but mostly I was amused. Silver went 0-for-2 in his thoughts on Lemur’s role. It was looking bad, but Lemur fought his way out of a huge hole and started posting very sarcastic, defeatist responses. Somehow, this had worked and the lynch went to Divine Wind and his bizarre Snowman of Death.

Also around this time Dutch_guy, who wasn’t even playing, once again proved his freakish accuracy with Gert, the first time either of the mafia I think was seriously accused. Guys, listen to him. He knows what he’s doing.

Once DW got the axe I received a couple of predictions. The first one, from Sasaki, was PM’d to me.

Lemur and Crazed Rabbit for Mafia.

AggonyDuck for detective.

Silver, on another forum thought it was Kommodus and Reenk Roink, but this probably changed several times.

My private prediction at this point that it would be a sure mafia victory, if not a Total mafia victory. Crazed Rabbit was still alive but extremely unlucky; his information was pretty much worthless at this point. The mafia had a couple more rounds to survive, but really I thought they had it in the bag at this point.

Executed: Divine Wind


Session 7

Kommodus kills Drisos Gert kills Cowhead418
Crazed Rabbit investigates Drisos

At this point in the game I was waiting for Rabbit’s name to come up on the kill list. Especially after the fact that he had investigated Drisos, Rabbit just seemed fated to be unlucky. But he survived for another round.

After the Wrath of God, there really weren’t this many people left in the game, so I believe that everybody was accused at some point in this round (except, oddly enough, Rabbit – I wondered why the mafia didn’t take him out).

Apparently Reenk Roink’s list had angered enough people in order to execute him, though, and the mafia survived another round. One more round and they would clinch victory. I was just wondering whether they would manage a Total Victory or just a plain victory.

At this point they would need to totally collapse in order to let the villagers win.

Executed: Reenk Roink


Session 8

Kommodus kills Peasant Phill Gert kills Hiji
Crazed Rabbit investigates Wonderland

Rabbit survived another bullet, although once again he didn’t get what he was looking for. He was now 0-for-8 in investigations, although later on this one would actually be helpful.

I think it was around here that AggonyDuck took up the role of the long-departed Fantastic Four. His sensible posts combined with Gert’s posting while drunk (NEVER a good idea) drew some heavy suspicion on him. The fact that he was accusing Kommodus and bringing up some pretty good points forced Kommodus to do some damage control and vote for Gert.

I couldn’t believe it. They were so close to winning. It’s like they were a champion racehorse that was way out in front, but broke its leg right before the finish line.

Still, they had a chance. Suspicion eventually went to Wonderland and Evil_Maniac_From_Mars, and the two retracted their votes for each other (Personally Kommodus, there was so much vote-changing in that round I don’t think your enemy as Gert’s enemy was damaged). Then came the vote-tallying fiasco.

I still don’t know the exact order of events, and probably never will, no matter how many times anyone tries to explain it to me. All I know is that first I overlooked Lemur’s edit, and then forgot to include Crazed Rabbit’s vote in the tally. I realized that I had wrongfully executed Wonderland – on his birthday, no less!

So after a little bit of divine intervention, I called a re-vote. It might have been a little unfair to the mafia but really, it was the only thing to do. Gert picked up a couple more votes and Kommodus, sensing defeat, went with the bandwagon.

Okay, so he lost his partner, but he could still pull himself through, right?

Executed: Gertgregoor


Session 9

Kommodus kills Crazed Rabbit and SSNeoperestroika
Crazed Rabbit investigates AggonyDuck

Rabbit was pretty much desperate at this time. First of all, he asked me flat-out how many mafiosi were remaining. I told him I couldn’t tell him, and waited for his investigation (Kommodus had sent his kills at this point).

A few hours later, he sent it.

Goodnesss, I've got the very worst luck. Luckily, I only have three suspects.

I pick AggonyDuck.

Please, let me be right.

Crazed Rabbit

After sending my response (“Sorry. ”), I waited for Rabbit to receive it. I would give him one chance to reveal himself; to post what he knew. I watched his user profile as he got the PM, checked the thread, and logged off. He didn’t reveal himself, so I posted the death of the Detective. Apparently he had made some friends by defending his known innocents, so his influence wasn’t completely gone.

At the same time, Kommodus was asking me how the game would end if he survived this round – after he killed, there would only be two people left. We threw a couple of ideas of things I had done in Mafia I back and forth, but as a sort-of “make up” to the mafia for allowing a re-vote as well as out of a desire to finish this, I decided to just let him kill all three.

I realized this wouldn’t be very fair to the villagers without warning them, though, so I posted that announcement. At that point they were hemming and hawing, but had nothing concrete.

At this point, I think a terrible indecision came over Kommodus that ultimately doomed him. He had voted for Gert, but switched it, but switched back to Gert, making it appear to me that he was going with the “Gert’s a mafioso, I went against him” approach. But then looking at his kills he decided not to go with that approach, making it seem to me that he wasn’t sure how to finish up. K, you played it great all the way through but I think if you were a bit more decisive at the end you would have won.

Despite everything that had gone wrong the previous two rounds, Kommodus still had an extremely good chance of winning – after all, there was only a one-in-five chance of him being executed. Even when AggonyDuck posted a pretty good reason for getting him, it still seemed hopeless for the villagers, until K voted for good ol’ Lemur. That meant that Lemur, facing execution, really had no choice but to vote for Kommodus. That left it 2-2, with the fate of the game in the hands of Evil_Maniac_From_Mars.

EMFM gave no reason for voting Kommodus, he only put in a knight smiley in his post. I guess it was his trust in Rabbit for defending him that won the day. Amazed at the turnaround, I posted the final execution.

Executed: Kommodus


Game end

Instantly after Kommodus’ execution people were doomsaying about the fact that Lemur was still alive – surely he was the mafia, the Frontroom was gone. Laughing at this, I typed up a fake execution where Lemur was the mafia and he infested the world with robotic little lemurs while he lived with the people from the Babe Thread in space. Just a humorous, shocking ending before the real execution was posted. I hope it got at least one person.

That still left K’s plot to be resolved, though. I thought it was a waste of a good story just to have all those nanites lying in stasis forever so I had Beirut play secret agent and blow up the factory. My goal was to provide a satisfying ending while leaving you guys in suspense for as long as I could. I was pretty happy with the result.

Guys, thanks for playing and being involved in Mafia. It really makes my day when I log on and see that somebody’s been accused with “evidence” and that person is vigorously defending himself, etc. I hope you’ll continue to play further along and I apologize to all those in the chat who don’t feel like talking about the game but are forced to listen to people going back and forth about innocence.

That about does it for Mafia III. Soon I’ll be playing Silver Rusher’s game and hopefully survive longer than three rounds. Look for Mafia IV when Sasaki’s finishes up. Thanks for playing!