First thing is first: THANK YOU ALL FOR PLAYING!
Vanilla mafia games, as a function of their design, are inherently dependent on the participation of the players. The game will only be as enjoyable as those playing wish for it to be. I frankly didn't have a whole lot to do; the game, for the most part, played itself, sans a few hiccups. This was a very different experience for me, as my past large games have been extremely role heavy, with much of the "action" seeming to inevitably happen outside of the thread, involving only a handful of players. The best part of these kind of games is that EVERYONE is equally involved. This was one of my motivating factors for not including a detective. The fact that nobody except for the mafia had any idea what was going on more than anyone else was the aim I was shooting for.
As for the detective; I felt it, ultimately, unnecessary. In the most recent Mafia game, myself and Gaius Scribonius Curio were caught despite not having one. It seemed evident to me that the detective was an auxiliary weapon at the town's disposal which was rather unneeded. Further, the mafia in vanilla games have tended to be absolutely stone-walled at the endgame regardless of detective. This, along with aiming at ultimate thread inclusion, were my two primary reasons for not having a detective. The reason I listed the detective as a possibility was that I wanted to see if the mafia would try and pull a stunt in claiming the role for themselves.
In reference to my earlier statement about the "Curse of 'Khaan", I shall explain. It is really quite basic. I have hosted five games total, three large and two small. And, right now, the town is pulling what we call in sports an "0-for". Yes, the town has yet to win even one of my mafia games. But, it goes even FURTHER than that. The town has pulled an "0-for" in regards to lynching. What I mean, specifically, is this.
The town, in FIVE GAMES, has NOT LYNCHED EVEN A SINGLE SCUMBAG! NOT ONE! Not one mafioso, not one serial killer, NADA. I'm frankly shocked. I can somewhat understand Spirit Mafia, which was still very role heavy despite not having the numbers I seeked, which was a mistake upon my part as host. But, honestly... Five games, and not one single scumbag lynch. I'm still trying to absorb it. I don't know how or why it's happened. The two small games were both vanilla-ish, nothing special. My first two large games were role-oriented, meaning there were plenty of scum-roles to lynch, but they always found ways to kill each other off first. And here...? The only thing I can think of is that
Sigurd and
Boudica both just played that well. But still, the town must shoulder some blame for the Total Mafia Victory. There was a lot of "white noise" in the game, whether it was the Great Wall of Pizzaguy Text, or the discussion about what was or wasn't in the writeups. I guess my general advice in future games would be to always watch for the "gunman on the grassy knoll", as
Yoyoma had put it at some point. In this game, the town too easily allowed itself to get fixated upon a single thing at a time, ultimately never getting around to the lurkers.
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