As always, the Capo series is a mafia battle game rather than a classic mafia game. I enjoy hosting it because, though I set the tone for things, the story that is enacted is a team effort. I find the results endlessly surprising and terribly funny – of course it helps that I know who’s who when I’m reading things.
Setup and Opening
I’m simply going to have to go to mass mailings next time. Too many individual mailings – though nicely personalized – left the opening dragging a bit. Next time, everyone will get the normal townie role and then I’ll send off the other roles in batches. I’ll do the red text info and allegiance info (where needed) in separate PMs. That should drop me below 40 opening PMs and let me get it up and running in 3-4 hours as opposed to 8.
I was happy with the numbers, but really think Capo will peak at around 100 for ideal numbers play and energy. I hope you all will recruit some more. I’m thinking February 1st for a start with sign-ups in Jan.
This Year’s “Theme”
The first Capo was an homage to film noir and the Godfather series. The second iteration featured a full cast of families and should have featured a clash between the anti-mafia crusaders and the mafia families. The crusaders never quite took off and without that counter-balance, the mafia ended up in the lead – and the fact that darn few townies stayed with the town didn’t help. One specific change made was to include “incorruptible” townies in mini-mason pairs. I wanted a core of “townies” (aside from the detectives and doctors) who were committed to town success. Capo II was practically “townie-free” after day 4 or so.
Now, since we’re into the 1950s, it was time for the Red Menace! Capo 3 was set against the Early Cold War background of McCarthyism and the Chinese intervention in Korea. We had a trio of commies – including a detective! – and a trio of mafia hunters. This time, it was the communists who didn’t get off the ground smoothly. However, they were a factor throughout the game, which helped a bit. It may have ended up giving too much detective power to the town, however.
The “threat” of communism – head to the Monastery for a debate of the history if you wish – did influence most U.S. national policies for decades, and quite a few aspects of daily life. McCarthy, of course, was a political opportunist. He took a host of vague allegations, stapled them to the facts of Alger Hiss, and ran with it. He ignored due process, used scare tactics and intimidation, and encouraged people to be “black-listed” for having any affiliation with any communist or quasi-communist group of any kind. He was also considered a hard drinker by reporters of the 1940s and 1950s. THAT means he was probably a functional alcoholic. It is a certainty that one of the key components of his effort was to create personal political power for Joseph McCarthy.
Playing off the fears of a Soviet bomb (they’d toggled one off in 1949), McCarthy gained a huge amount of political capital very quickly. He also managed to put pressure on communists and soviet agents in the media and in government. He may have been leading a witch hunt, but a few of his targets did apparently ride brooms. Unfortunately, McCarthy’s gross abuses of civil rights and the powers of his office overshadow any successes he may have had. For every communist he discomfited, a hundred or more Americans whose only crime was an inclination toward left wing politics suffered.
During that same era, the FBI more than doubled in size, largely to increase its abilities in the counter-intelligence area. Moreover, since we’d disbanded our bureau of spying and dirty tricks at the end of the war – and suddenly found we needed one since the threat of Soviet spying was real – we established the CIA. As with all good government efforts, the two bureaus are in a constant “pissing match” over funding and reputation. Politics sweet politics.
In Capo 3, I had a CIA agent with mafia ties – and they did have some based on old OSS connections to Luciano’s organization in Sicily in WW2 (the thread already mentions that the CIA was probably using Mafia connections to attempt to kill Castro in the late 50s/early 60s). I also had FBI counter-intelligence types. The Mafia has been fairly strongly anti-communist in its leanings – more because of a perception that communist dictatorships would be bad for business than for any noble civic virtues. In retrospect, I needed to curtail the FBI/CIA investigative powers a bit more than I did. I had thought the loyal/questionable stuff would be more limiting. Perhaps that was moot the moment random.org gave the CIA role to askthepizzaguy.
As Time Progressed….
Day One:
I really wasn’t paying a lot of attention at first, but we ended up with a Capo 1st! Reenk Roink not only said he’d like to be Director, but campaigned for the job with actual evidence – here’s how I do write-ups etc. He ended up taking the job in a landslide. GH was willing to risk his Don in the early game, no doubt assuming he could parlay the lynch write-ups/sense of him leading the town to an even greater measure of safety for his family. Gutsy call that, most mafia roles do NOT benefit from being Director (Mades/Lucas can’t function fully and Dons get put in the spotlight a bit).
Night One:
Blade and YLC made this one fun. Blade had entertainment in mind from the get-go, so I wrote it up with an emphasis on imagery and tried to make the town think SK – just to add to the tension. Meanwhile, YLC’s take on the conflicted serial killer was dramatic and engaging and very edgy on its own (and 90+% his in all but one case). Stranger managed to tip one of the “triggers” by accident. A pair of my “incorruptibles” led a townie hit team on night one. NOT in the spirit I had intended the role, but within the rules. QJC was, to the extent I could tell, a random choice. He was also one of the other incorruptible townies. There is a lesson here for townies of the future. YES you want to up your skills for the endgame battle, but on the first night or two you are significantly more likely to take out a pro-town or neutral-might-get-them-to-our-side role than you are to kill a Mafioso or SK. If you’ve got evidence on someone things may be different, but random kills probably do more harm.
Quite a few mistakes in orders or sloppy coordination – that being par for the course in all three capo games so far. This is probably an inevitable component of Capo, especially as we seem to always draw at least a few players new to mafia in general, much less the capo system.
Day Two:
Reenk promised entertaining lynches and delivered. Club30 rapidly became an icon and will be on the “map” of Fatlington if I ever get around to cobbling one together. Unfortunately, the initial target was FactionHeir – the chap I had just wheedled into replacing one of my Mafia Mades who wanted to bow out early. FH was kind enough to help out and then was dead before he’d had a chance to properly re-read his role PM. Don’t get me wrong, the town’s choice was a good one. Some evidence had surfaced that Imperator was a made – he revealed privately?!? – and any first lynch that can actually respond to semi-credible evidence is a great thing for the town.
I had no idea that I was handing FH an impossible task. If Imperator had told me he’d revealed privately to others not in his family I’d have force him to stay in the game on his own – knowing that it would NOT be a long stay. Revealing your true role to anyone not listed on your sheets as already knowing is highly dangerous and should only be down after that other party has earned a few “points” in your eyes. Security being what it is, early private revelations by Mafiosi generally get them a quick lynch. Early private revelations of simple townie status put you on the list for mafia removal. I’d recommend to all players that you take an hour or so just after getting your role PMs and pump out a few “alternate identities.” You need to be able to adapt quickly when the time comes.
Night Two:
“Trouble” joined into the game with a vengeance (she’d missed the start), hooking up with wiseguy Leet and killing Death. I made that one professional looking enough. Twilightblade continued his entertainment. Chaotix, Death is Yonder, and Split successfully protected DJG (Mafia Don!) from the attack of Gibs, W_E, Khaan, & Dutch (most of the crew who whacked QJC) – Ichigo didn’t have to Luca at all really, though he too got credit for the save.
Day Three:
Losing CountArach this early probably hurt the game a lot. As it was conceived, his detective (commie!) would be in the perfect place to have done what Pizzaguy ended up doing -- and then betray things from within. Instead, too many people got interested in his codeword effort and it got him killed post-haste. Without him there, the FBI ended up too far in front over the commies. Rhyf's never connecting with Chaotix more or less sealed their fate, despite his excellent efforts to mingle and survive -- even managing a recruit! Club30 was a focal point by the end of the lynch though, which made things entertaining on that level. By the way, I'd like to acknowledge RR's efforts there. I made only minor cosmetic changes to put the club in the Bayside district and smooth out a few logistics issues -- the themes and the gore were pure Reenkster.
Night Three:
Fatlington's "Viscious Vigilante" squad (W_E, Gibs, 'Khaan, and a 4th {scot this time} was still operating more or less at random, apparently, targeting Double A for elimination. Since he was a doctor, they were probably happy, at least later on, that his luck held for that night. Double A did have some folks protecting him and all of them (El D, glyphz, 'Goat) submitted orders, but as one of the three, Disgruntled Goat, was a Don, the effort failed. Double A continued his chain of Pizzaguy protection efforts. As near as I can figure it, Pizzaguy was protected every non-director night save for n6, n13, and n17. This was the most consistent component of the entire game. Actually, he would have been vulnerable n4 as well, since his 4-person protection team included two mafia Dons (DJG, who gave orders to stay home and Atheotes who did show to protect)! The only mafia effort night 3 was the Leet & "Trouble" pair. This time they did for Myrddraal (detective) who was heading out on vacation anyway, so that was one less replacement for me to find. Kagemusha, Joe Monks, and Disco all listed in orders to kill Beskar, but Kage switched back to protecting jht so the effort failed.
Day Four:
With the success of the first double lynch in some time on day 3, there were calls for a repeat. Instead, disco ended up as a sole choice for the day. As near as I can figure it, he’d revealed privately to Prole early on Day 1. Since the FBI counter agents were, essentially, pro-town, his death was more or less assured. If anything, I was surprised that GH preceded him.
Night Four:
Jolt’s kill was the most fun to write. Scottish sent me a “do something with Lewis Carroll” command and I went to town. The rabbit suit WAS my idea, not CR’s – I suspect he probably had a skipped heartbeat or two when he read it. I did surmise that the crowd had gone past such obvious referants and would assume I would never do such a thing – so I did! Can’t go to that well next game. Blade kept up his entertainment and Leet & Vernonica only missed due to luck, because the protection team included Luca Ironsides (a fact that came back to haunt him).
On the protection side, Pizza WAS vulnerable on n4, as noted above, with only two valid protectors. Sigurd drew doctor protection (Double A) as did Psycho (SSNeo). Also vulnerable were s&b (two separate protection efforts BOTH of which failed due to Mafiosi on the teams and one missed order by Caius) and Doc Double A (withdrawn orders from Sasaki). Had the Kagemusha team gelled, and had the Jolt and Diana kill teams had any inkling what was going on, then it would have been possible for ATPG, S&B and Dbl A all to have gone down to death in one night. That would have changed the game of course, but it was not to be.
Day Five:
Atheotes caught the chop based on another private reveal. The FBI team garnered 3-4 of these early on and the mafia all paid. Thought for the future: Early efforts to get others to show their role sheets should be viewed with much skepticism. It is better for a Mafioso to say no, get told “reveal or we’ll denounce you” and to respond with ‘lynch away’ than to try to deal with the early reveal shenanigans. Early reveal Mafiosi die. To those who ask, please remember that YOU might be the baddie in a future game. As Sasaki taught me long ago, if you want to keep playing you cannot have strategies that force all or nothing decisions every time.
Night Five:
It was Prole’s night for some fun. She was protected by SSNeo, but targeted by both a vig team (gibs, w_e, ‘khaan) that failed when Scottish didn’t turn in orders, and a mafia team (leet and kage) who failed only because of luck. Craterus stared Diana into inactivity, but then died at the hands of Xehh II based on the vote. Psycho was killed by CR and Scottish while Leet (newly Made) was vig killed by Tincow, Andres, Kommo, and Joe M. Rogue Ricera then used his Buntline to take out Iskander, who’d he’d ID’d as a criminal. Iskander survived on his luck. Rice knew W_E was guilty, but assumed he was a vigilante and never targeted him as he could have.
Tincow had two separate failed protection efforts on n5, one of s&b’s protection teams failed, and so did Double A’s with Diana sidelined. Pizza, Prole, Sigurd, and s&b all had angels on n5.
Day Six:
The lynch was another successful double. However, the real results were only 50/50. Kagemusha had been cozy with the mafia from the outset, and had started to do kill missions the preceding night. AVSM, however, had no mafia connections and was, as far as I could tell, pro-town at that point in the game. Both had detective results on them which indicated criminal (AVSM) or unclear (Kagemusha) and that was apparently enough.
Night Six:
CR and Scottish teamed up to kill Tincow, drawing a blank against his luck. Centurion1 and w&f fared better against Kommo. Rice finished the job on Iskander. ‘Blade continued his entertainment.
Then the two vig efforts swung in. Gibs and W_E, usually a team, were each on separate efforts. FBIc guy slashandburn teamed up with Kukri, W_E and Don Haudegen to kill Khazar an unaffiliated wiseguy who was relatively inactive. Gibs led a squad of one wiseguy commie (Chaotix) and two Mafiosi (Don Goat and Luca Iron) to kill Luca scottishranger.
-- Days and Nights Five and Six broke the back of the mafia. The mafia families were already hurting, having lost 1 Made and 2 Luca’s in the first 4 days. That still left them with some reasonable if uncoordinated hitting power. Days 5 and 6 killed a Don and a half-Made. Nights 5 and 6 killed off 2 Mades, 1 Luca and a pair of wiseguys who may have been or were being recruited.
By contrast, the town lost 1 pro-town wiseguy, 1 incorruptible townie, 1 townie vigilante, and the FBI guy. That’s 5 mafiosi and 2 possibles for 4 townies – nearly two to one.
Day Seven
Rhyfelwyr's death pretty well ended the chance of a Commie victory. Nobody'd really confirmed his commie status -- though he had questionable results -- but his inactivity and investigation results were enough on this day, where no other clear candidates aside from Centurion1 were in the offing.
Night Seven
Prole was attacked by the entertainer and by the five killer, with SSNeo saving her in his doctor capacity. The mafia hit on Shinseikhaan failed when Centurion1 did not get orders in on time for the hit. Tincow was credited with a save on Proletariat by mistake (only two of the 4 named got orders in, but I'd circled it as an active protection. Scanning back quickly later, I ended up giving him credit by accident for this).
Day Eight
The only good fortune for the mafia on this session was that the town were just hesitant enough not to go for the double lynch, choosing Ironside. Both Ironside and Lord Winter were mafia, and Pizza would have killed them both.
Night Eight
Andres managed to kill Ducky via his vote from the previous day, courtesy of the Five killer. Mafia teams killed Beskar (CR & LW) and Drizzt (Cent1 & w&f), while Mafia soloist Haudegen took out Glyphz. Coming after the kill-free Night Seven, this was good mafia effort to get back in the game -- though the numbers were against them. Shlin28 died making a solo townie attack against mafioso Centurion1. His partners, W_E, Beskar, & SpL1t, all did other things that night, leaving him to his fate. Shlin28 had a lot of trouble in this game getting any of his groups to work. On n1 he and QJC teamed up with 'Goat to protect Pizzaguy (who didn't send in other orders AND was a Don!). On n2, he was nearly killed as a solo defender in the pever' fiasco. On n3 he and Sasaki protected Diana -- but both Skooma and GSC failed to get orders in. On n4 shlin protected Diana again, working with Glyphz and Ironsides (who was mafia, so the effort failed). On n5 he and Kukri protected Kommodus, but the group would have failed again as GSC did not submit orders. On n6 Shlin was part of a 4-person protection team for s&b. This one would have worked -- even though the 4th member, Iskander, was a mafioso. On n7, Shlin was protecting TinCow with Tratorix and...Ironsides. If I were Shlin, I might've started taking in personally. He was one of the most active players throughout, but always snake-bit in his night partnerships.
Day Nine
I chose the "Kilkenny Cats" piece as an intro because the entire discussion -- boisterous as it was -- featured far too much mafia on mafia voting and counter argument. DJG, LW, and CR were all playing for the Sicilians, but ended up listed as votees 1, 2, and 3. Townie efforts may have been divided, but nothing was shifting the votes toward a townie for the lynch.
Night Nine
TWO Protection teams, one of them overstaffed, both defened Mafia Commission Rep Sigurd from and attack by the Mafia (CR & C1)! Haudegen killed Diana working alone, while a large Vig squad (Jooo, Joe, TinC, Andres, & Beefy) combined to kill Don 'Goat. Xehh killed Moros on his second try, while Pizza used scheduled-for-death Lord Winter as his accomplice to attack Detective Pannonian (who'd gone inactive a few days previously and who I hadn't gotten around to wogging). Andres received 'Blades loving attentions as Twilightblade continued his reign of....entertainment.
Day Ten
The only confusion centered on my accidentally giving out the wrong results for Rabbit. He'd been guilty as a wiseguy and I made the mistake of thinking he was in a family. Actually, at that point, he'd never gotten made despite all his efforts. After I corrected that, Lord Winter's death went off as Pizzaguy had scheduled it.
Night Ten
Reenk had a wonderful write-up for his attempt on Sasaki, which failed and got him killed -- but he was kind enough to include that possibility in the write-up so it went in smoothly. Sasaki had also played with 'Blade earlier. The attempt on CR failed because Andres, TinCow and Haudegen tried to kill him but Reenk Roink and Caius did not. Moros survived the attack of the vig squad of W_E, Tratorix, and Joooray because gibs didn't get orders in and Andres was off trying to kill CR. Moros was killed by our friendly neighborhood SK. Sigurd, Pizza, and the Doctor squad were all in protection mode.
Day Eleven
Beefy was probably one of the worst lynches by the town all game. At no point did the Beef ever work with the mafia, and he'd dutifully protected and vig-killed all game. He'd been "innocent" prior to the 'Goat killing, and that was enough damning evidence.
Night Eleven
The Mafia, responding to a request by Sigurd, attacked Pizzaguy to no effect (Protected by Split). Haudegen took out Andres working solo. The W_E & Gibs team, now with Joooray and Tratorix, took out Ichigo. Ichigo was pretty well known to be mafia at this point, and made a good clear target.
A mafia team featuring woad, Cent1, and Shinseikhaan failed to take out Kukri due to luck. This was 'Khaan's first killing effort with the mafia. Prior to this he had worked with the W_E & Gibs vig team, as well as protected Prole.
Day Twelve
Centurion1 had enjoyed too much suspicion for too long, and had proven difficult to vig-kill. He ended up being a fairly easy lynch choice.
Night Twelve
Double A protected Split from Mr. Haudegen's superb pistolry, but the town didn't really do very well on n12. The hit on Grizzly failed when Tratorix didn't get orders in for the hit. Pizza teamed up with Rogue Detective Ricera10 to kill Pannonian (innocent detective). On the other hand, the town did get rather lucky. El Diablo had been targeted by a mafia team, but Xehh and Joe M didn't submit orders and w&f and 'Khaan weren't able to finish him by themselves. To top it all off, Grizzly WAS killed by the SK, giving the town their target's head despite the townie miscues.
By this point in the game, the metric was simple. If you come back as "guilty" and you are on our kill teams, that's okay. If you come back innocent and you're a known doctor or detective, that's okay. Anybody else we kill. While brutal, the numbers guaranteed this would be an effective strategy.
Day Thirteen
El Diablo's survival didn't work well for El D. He caught the day thirteen vote.
Night Thirteen
Townie vigilantiism was in fine fettle on n13. Pizza and Rice targeted the last original communist, Chaotix, who was protected (by plan) by Sasaki, TinCow, and ACIN. The vig team killed w&f. Unfortunately, CR and w&f had taken out Ricera10 and Xehh II had killed Joe Monks. Despite the town's dominant position and coordinated targeting, the bad guys were racking up more kills.
Day Fourteen
A thinning field of entrants had finally been winnowed down to Xehh II as everyone's best guess for the identity of the number five killer. His lynch ended that threat to the town. Neither Haudegen nor CR kept a lot of votes on them -- despite my screwing up and reporting Haudegen innocent. Fortunately, I corrected that, and the focus shifted.
Night Fourteen
Pizza and Kukri failed (by plan again) to kill Chaotix. Doctor creation efforts were in full swing. CR once again survived a murder attempt without using his luck as Split protected him. 'Blade renewed his efforts with a purposefully failed attack against a completely inoffensive name -- but the attack ended up getting him killed a night later.
Day Fifteen
There is no luck against lynching. Crazed Rabbit and Sasaki, having both earned the enmity of the town for different reasons, were tied and offed on the same session. 'Khaan, as Director, might have saved one or both had he wished, but did not do so. I was surprised at that actually. At this point there was no way to avoid the noose himself as the town had already judged him as "surplus to need' if not actively as a mafioso. Still, he was scrambling to do what he could and had not been part of a family.
Night Fifteen
ACIN's youtube clip with it's blasphemous title was all our little grey-eyed killer needed as a trigger. YLC didn't get to do that write-up (which is why it was the weakest of his kills) but I did try to keep the basic spirit of things in place. The Vig-team failed to kill Haudegen do to the latter's amazing luck. Haudegen paid Kukri back with interest for the attempted kill by offing him later. I kept the beer un-spilled to honor Kukri's tradition.
Day Sixteen
Sigurd filled in the particulars later on, but Chaotix was a goner from early in the day. Having exhausted the need to create doctors and now convinced that Split was the doctor who'd changed sides, the townie mob sent Chaotix to his maker.
Night Sixteen
Prole issued her final order (confirmed by replacement G-man Louis) and she and slash kidnapped the newly-pinko doctor Split and took him away for a little rendition-interogation. Split had stared pizza into inactivity, but that really never mattered. Haudegen continued his solo efforts, removing Tratorix from play. It was to be his last hurrah. It was also a send-off night for YLC. Sigurd had been designated a target for his blatant manipulation of "God's will" by posting stuff that he KNEW would be trigger material. Gibs would have slid by if he hadn't more-or-less confirmed that he HAD said that. Once it was confirmed, YLC got two kills to try. The second, against a seated Director, was also fatal. Only a SK or the like has a chance to get through the Director's protection, but even they carry a high risk of death in doing so. This time, YLC didn't get lucky. Still, the send off gave this night some verve in what had become something of an anti-climax.
Day Seventeen
I think the town was being a little "pissy" here. At this point, there was really no solid reason to think that 'Khaan was the remaining Don. They were aiming for a double lynch just so that they could have a "clean sweep" mentality. I had decided as long ago as Capo I that Fermanagh would not break ties -- too much temptation to influence the story. Therefore, I sent them back to the vote. I expected it would be Haudegen, but they chose the least likely of the two. I suspect that the parties-that-were allowed/did it that way so that they could night-kill Haudegen rather than "just" lynch him.
Night Seventeen
Haudegen asked to withdraw if possible, acknowledging defeat. Five persons slotted to kill him included both Doctors: SSNeo, Double A; the CIA (Pizzaguy), White_Eyes:D (it would be his 12th kill attempt in 17 nights, something I am virtually certain is a townie record) and Joooray. With Jooray missing, their orders could at least be "technically" thought of as uncoordinated (though I usually would have let them stand as sufficient personnel were present), so I took the opportunity to accept Haudegen's "tipping of the king," and use the narrative of an escape in defeat. I actually think it makes for a smoother ending.
Congratulations to all who played, it was a fine experience. I'd appreciate feedback from those of you with an eye for things. What could be better or different for C4 and so on. Thanks again.
-- Seamus
Re: Capo di Tutti Capi - III (Summaries and Notices)
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