Pirate Ship Mafia [Concluded]

[Reenk Roink]

Not to be mean, but the 4H as MVP? Gibson and Scottish were great lucky shots, but many innocents died needlessly too.
All the other mafia were pinned down by the town. Sigurd was presented on a silver platter by Tincow. Even if Sigurd hadn't been receiving sensitive information from us ever since the first night anymore. Ricera was Pizza's work. Sasaki was a matter of time and a clear suspect to both Pizza and me. CountArach was roleblocked already on the night of his death and ready for the lynch. Tincow was the work of Rabbit and me. (What is it with scum seeking the QM position? It never took CR and me more than two days to clean house). Reenk was identified as scum two days ago, but was given some respite because we couldn't risk losing a possible detective in case the maven had pulled a clever trick at some point.

The fact is, neither the British nor the Maven especially would be in any sort of major trouble had it not been for the four horseman. gibsons' death made Sigurd's death next round a gamebreaker instead of a heavy but not insurmountable loss.

The way I know I felt was: "man we would be in such a great position if the four horseman didn't kill gibsons early on" and I'm sure the death of scottishranger made the Brits feel the same way.

Again, perhaps if you want to look at it a different way, the MVP was cruel fate against the Maven. It does suck when you can't transfer all your gold, are inactive and basically waste round one, are killed off by vig groups, investigated early, wills aren't set right, double hits done don't work because the other guys don't show up, and so on... I can't say how much the actual protown group did in taking down the British, but they did next to nothing against the Maven (it was the FH and TC). You can say in retrospect you knew about me and TinCow, but it doesn't look like it from your posts, your QT, your votes. You were too unsure to make a move. CR did seem to know about TinCow later on, but then we used the fact that he had the luxury of playing it safe to our advantage and ran away. Most of the town was unconvinced that I was guilty just last round, and some were jumping on bandwagons against ACIN, Cent, and Yaro that I started.

And the thing is, this protown group was even more of a liability then the one in Capo III. For all the talk about how overpowered such a setup is, I felt that the Mafia had they had two more members by night 6 (the two killed by the FH let's say), they would have rode to victory) BECAUSE of the protown group. GH got rid of the major imbalance, that a single protection saves from multiple hits.

I know for a fact that we had a handle on splitpersonality from the start, who I had to protect for the very two first nights. My gut was really on Yaropolk, initially, I thought he was a Brit, but soon we figured out he was some kind of protown role and I voted for him nearly every round to get him lynched (which almost happened). We wanted Beskar dead initially because he had done recruiting but it became clear as day after a bit of time, that he was involved in some kind of investigation ring. It seems the Brits had also figured out Beskar was a protown role independently by looking at their QT. Then of course the info given by Atpg, and the complete info given by TinCow not only verified what we knew but put in the final pieces (Cent1 and slashandburn).

CR dealt the killing blow when he smartly tightened up the group and did his work alone. That save of cent1 (which I'm sure Cent1 wasn't even aware of), was the kind of play that would have never worked in a big protown group setting because the spies would be there and plan accordingly.

The groups structure made it hard with the small amount of Mafia to actually do something with our knowledge, just like in Capo III, but the group was small due to reasons unrelated to the group that occurred early game (in Capo III it was the self reveals of entire families and wiseguys and here it was the four horseman's kills). With just a few more Mafia having that knowledge, could you imagine the targeted conversions and hits that would happen?

Also, by far the highlight of the game for me was killing the first mate.

[Crazed Rabbit]

CR dealt the killing blow when he smartly tightened up the group and did his work alone. That save of cent1 (which I'm sure Cent1 wasn't even aware of), was the kind of play that would have never worked in a big protown group setting because the spies would be there and plan accordingly.

Heh. You have ATPG to thank for that; why trust Tincow completely if ATPG had just betrayed me?

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

[miotas]

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

You only have yourself to blame for that

Something else interesting that happened last night was that Subo done his random pick and came up with lord winter, only to have CR message us 2 hours later asking us to kill lord winter.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Lord Winter was random as well? Wow...that is weird.

CR

[TinCow]

Heh. You have ATPG to thank for that; why trust Tincow completely if ATPG had just betrayed me?

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

I would like to point out that, for once, I didn't get you killed while you were pro-town... I only tried to get you killed.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Epilogue

One Fine Morning in Nassau

All of the residents of the last great pirate port in the world, at least those who weren’t still passed out due to excess rum intake the night before, turned their eyes to the northern horizon, where they saw a great ship approaching.

She wasn’t in the best condition. Her mast was barely hanging on, as if being held in place only by the sheer will of her captain and crew. She was also moving very slowly and deliberately, as if she weren’t being manned by enough crewmen to get her at full capacity.

“Odd sight, indeed,” said a younger sailor, watching the ship inch her way into the harbor. “I heard she set out with over 50 crew. Musta been a brutal fight in Charleston.”

“Or afterwards,” said a grizzled old sailor who, from the looks of him, had seen everything in his long life. “Nothing turns a ship on itself faster than the strong tides of treasure.” The two watched in silence as the Presence drew ever closer to salvation. As time went by, the two were joined by more and more denizens of Nassau, at first applauding and then cheering as the crew deboarded, all of them carrying very significant sacks of treasure.

“Thank God!” one of them yelled, kissing the docks as soon as he stepped off. Everybody was embracing, the old animosities forgotten, everybody realizing that tonight would be a night like no other. It was finally over, and now, they would wash their bad memories away in a sea of drink, women, and merrymaking.

…

Down in the Officers’ Club, an exclusive tavern in Nassau in which only men who had achieved rank were allowed to enter, three filled glasses clanked against each other. Yaropolk, slashandburn, and Centurion1 were quietly celebrating their triumph in style. They had endured more than enough raucousness and mayhem on the ship. Tonight was a way to get away from it all. Tonight, they would enjoy the comforts of being Stewards and Watchstanders and all the benefits that came with their positions.

“Hello, boys,” cooed three voices in unison. The three of them turned. Ah, yes. The triplets: Anna, Hannah, and Tatiana, had entered the room. Everyone in Nassau agreed that The Triplets were the most beautiful wenches on the entire island, and the best at what they did. Yaro, slash, and Centurion grinned, setting their drinks down, prepared for the spoils of officerhood.


KukriKhan, the Fanatical Loyalist, had no such use for taverns. In a quiet, secluded alley, he set up camp for the night, lovingly stroking Bess the Blunderbuss. Over the course of the voyage home, four sailors had risked the depths of the deepest circle of Hell just so they could get a little more gold. All four of them met their ends at the mouth of Bess.

“Order prevails once more, my darling,” he cooed, his eyes losing none of their intensity. After doing this for two hours, he finally arose, and disappeared off into the night, never seen by anyone again.


Seamus Fermanagh walked into a lonely tavern far from the rest of the port city’s mayhem. He gathered up his relatively meager stash of gold and ordered an ale from the bartender. Reaching into the bag, he was stopped by the bartender.

“Uh-uh, my friend,” the bartender said, “this one’s on me.”

“Much obliged,” Seamus said, and sipped his ale quietly. When he was about halfway through, the bartender tried a stab of conversation.

“Well?” he asked. “How was it?”

“On the other side? Interesting. Wish I did a bit more. I mean, I *was* Quartermaster for a night, but still slept for half the time. Fell for the stupid treasure trick, as well. I must be getting old. How was your little adventure?”

“Mine?” The bartender, GeneralHankerchief, chuckled. “On the other side? Interesting. Think I’ll stick to being a simple seaman in the future, although something tells me that’s just not in the cards.” The two men laughed heartily and shared several more drinks, telling each other all the old war stories.


The two appointed officers aboard the Presence, Double A and White_eyes:D, entered the main tavern in Nassau, officers no more. Double A looked around, shouted “PARTY!!!” and immediately dove into the crowd, which roared in its approval, doubly so as Double A started showering everybody with dubloons and getting kissed on the cheeks by three women at once.

Eventually swimming his way back to his comrade, he took White_eyes by the shoulder. “It’s okay, matey, ye can stop being paranoid now. We’re home. And we’re having one amazing time!!!” White_eyes looked around, blinked, and finally, abandoning all inclinations of paranoia, dropped his bag and ran for the two bustiest wenches he could find. They squealed with delight as he rubbed his manly beard against their chins. Double A could only chuckle and drown himself with ale.


In that same tavern, Captain Blackadder, Cultured Drizzt fan, shlin28, and Death is Yonder joined in the celebration. They were the unheralded protectors of the ship, working behind the scenes to make sure that chaos and destruction did not overcome the crew. They ended up being handsomely rewarded for their work, acquiring 200, 207, 214, and 226 gold, respectively. As day turned into night and night turned into the wee hours of the morning, the four of them gathered around a table, discussing what they might do with their handsome stashes.

DiY, the richest of the lot, was more partial to retiring and buying a small piece of land, working it and not being beholden to anyone. Shlin and Drizzt, however, were going to enjoy the night as much as they could, have the weeks of their lives back in Nassau, and then head straight back to find another pirating opportunity. They were young, after all, and if they had survived Charleston and everything that followed, surely they could take on anything. Blackadder, meanwhile, seemed determined to spend it all tonight, as he gorged on ale, rum, and women.

“It may have only been good for one night,” he said, “but it was the best night anyone ever had.”


In a different, slightly less crowded tavern, the remaining members of the Four Horsemen, A Very Super Market, miotas, and Subotan, were sharing drinks together (after, of course, enjoying the company of the tavern wenches), already reminiscing about the good times. Already, the events aboard the Presence were the stuff of legend, and none of it more so than the exploits of the Four Horsemen.

“I don’t care how much credit that Captain gets,” Subotan said, “We killed more bad guys than he did. We took out that first Maven, and the first Brit to boot. Then we followed it up with the worst Brit of them all, getting one of his converts to up and off himself out of shame, to boot.”

“Aye,” said AVSM. “Don’t forget Reenk, in that second-to-last night. If it weren’t for ACIN falling that woman’s charms, we would have killed him as well and saved the ship even earlier. Maybe even saved ACIN’s life.” They fell silent at this, honoring their friend’s memory.

“To ACIN,” miotas said finally, holding his glass out.

“To ACIN,” the other two echoed, and clinked glasses.

“You know,” said AVSM later on in the night, “we got a lot of gold from killin’ people. We should do something about it.”

“Aye,” said Subotan, “but what?”

“Well… I was thinkin’ of gettin’ our own ship, to be honest. We can afford a small one, but who needs size when ye have the bravest crew in existence? And besides, we’ll get Able Seamen of our own, especially when they find out the ship’s run by three of the Four Horsemen!”

“That sounds splendid!” said Subotan. “But which of us’ll be the Captain?”

“That’ll be me,” miotas interjected, “Seeing as how I have the most gold.”

The two others grumbled, then laughed good-naturedly. And so it was. In less than a week, the sloop a completely inoffensive name was christened, captained by miotas, with Subotan as First Mate and A Very Super Market as Quartermaster, with a willing crew ready to plunder to their hearts’ content.


A1_Unit staggered around Nassau, unable to believe his luck. Out of all the ship’s Able Seaman, somehow it was he who had acquired the most treasure, 236 of it to be exact. There really wasn’t much explanation for this; he just kept plugging away at night, protecting, being lucky that his target was never attacked, and never forgetting to vote in the day. For his steady, constant service, he had been rewarded. Now, he was going to do something with that money.

Hauling his large sack of goodies into the main tavern, he swam through all of the raucous mayhem going on in the main room, instead heading upstairs. Bypassing all of the wenches’ rooms, he instead knocked on the proprietor’s door.

“Aye, what is it?” came a slurred voice from behind the door.

“A1_Unit, from the Presence!” he called. “How be times, matey?”

The door opened, and the owner, in alcohol-stained clothes, stared out at A1. “They be tough, me lad, they be tough. Tonight be a great night fer business, fer sure, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule nowadays. I’m afraid I won’t be in the tavern business much longer.”

“How about a buyout?” A1 asked. “All my treasure, right now, for the deed of this tavern.”

The owner’s eyes widened. “236 treasure, to be exact,” A1 said. “Ye can count it, and ye know I’m good fer it.”

“I don’t ever want to have to pay for food or drink in here either,” the owner said after a minute.

“Done,” said A1, beaming.

“Done!” repeated the owner, and the two of them slapped hands, eventually making their way back downstairs.

“All right lads!” the owner said downstairs, after taking 10 minutes to get everybody’s attention. “I just been offered an offer I couldn’t refuse. It’s been some great times runnin’ this tavern through all the years, but now I got a ton of treasure and it looks like A1_Unit is now the man in charge. Be good to him, boys!”

“Right!” shouted A1 over the cheers of everybody inside. “My first act as the new proprietor of this establishment is to rename it A1’s Tavern. My second act is to proclaim that everything is on the house for the rest of the night! Drink up, me laddies!” A1’s Tavern erupted in a great roar, and A1 got showered in rum. A great start to his new business.


Elsewhere in the North Atlantic…


“So you’re sure about this, then?”

“Aye,” said SSNeoperestroika, clutching his bag of treasure reassuringly. It was significantly less than what he had right when he abandoned ship, but SSNeo didn’t mind. He had seen enough to know that the crew was going down. Heck, the ship itself had a busted mast, and if that wasn’t a recipe for trouble, he didn’t know what was.

SSNeo had found a small island about a day and a half after he jumped ship, using it to repopulate his food supply and get his energy back. He rested there for a day, and then made his way east. For five long days he paddled, beginning to lose hope as his food and water started to dwindle. But finally, on the sixth day, he spotted land, land that appeared to be much bigger than the tiny island he had landed on a week ago. After a few hours, he think he saw signs of civilization. A few buildings, well-tended-to fields. He started paddling harder, and finally landed right as the sun was going down.

From there, he recuperated once more, and then found out more about where he was. It was an English settlement in the Northern Bahamas, one that saw British ships, merchant ones mostly, every couple of days. SSNeo had used a lot of his treasure first to get himself in good graces with the city’s officials, but secondly to barter passage back home. He had waited a week, until a ship that would take him there had arrived.

“All right, then,” said the ship’s captain. “As ye know, we’ll set out and eventually make port in Blyth. From there you can deboard and make your way north to Scotland. In return for us agreeing to transfport, you have already paid your fee and in addition, will accomplish basic tasks such as swabbing the decks. Nothing too laboring, for already have a crew to do that. Just when we need an extra set of hands.”

“Agreed,” SSNeo said, shaking the captain’s hand.

“I find it interesting that you’re heading back to the Old World to seek your fortune,” the captain said after they had both boarded the ship. “Usually I find it to be the other way around.”

“Tried it,” said SSNeo. “The opportunities may be more numerous, but so are the perils. I prefer a bit more order in me life.”

“Aye, order’s always a good thing,” said the captain. “Take the Presence for instance. Did you hear about that?”

“No,” said SSNeo, feigning only a passing interest. “What happened?”

“Craziest thing. Looks like they channeled a bit of Morgan and hit Charleston hard. Made off with a king’s ransom in treasure. They just stumbled into Nassau a little while ago with more than half the crew dead, though. Looks like they turned on each other sometime during the ride back. Looks like all discipline broke down. That’s the thing about the Royal Navy. Say what you want about all the pirates’ bravery, but the Navy’ll make sure you’ll do what you’re told.”

“They survived, though?” said SSNeo.

“Aye, that they did, and from what I hear they’re all filthy rich. The ones that survived, though. That’ll make for a great story, eh?”

“Indeed,” SSNeo muttered, already softly cursing to himself. He tried not to think about it too much, though. A peaceful life in Scotland awaited, and he still had a significant amount of money to give him a kick start.


TinCow, the Frenchman, and spL1tp3r50naL1ty, the Woman, were resting on an island, tending to their signal fire. TinCow had recently been teaching Split how to fight with a rapier. Split had proven to be a natural at the craft. He was also entertaining her with tales of court life at Louis XIV’s Versailles. She, in return, was providing him with companionship and a bulk of their treasure, which would come in handy for later.

“And then I set off for the New World, in search of adventure and fulfillment,” TinCow concluded, absentmindedly poking the fire. Somehow, he had managed to secure a bottle of wine and was sipping it down, toasting his accomplishments despite the fact that his ship still belonged to someone else.

“So what do we do now, my love?” Split asked. “Get back to civilization, but what after that?”

“Bide our time,” TinCow replied. “Listen for news. Track it down. And then, eventually, make our move. Together, you and I will sail the seas on board the Presence. And the ship *will* be mine, make no mistake about it.” He spotted a ship on the horizon, heading our way, and took another sip of wine. Soon, his pursuit would begin anew.

“It *will* be mine.”


On board the Maven, the sailor manning the Crow’s Nest called out from his post. “A dinghy, headed our way from Four O’Clock!” he cried. “Only one person inside, I think it’s one of us!”

The captain took out his spyglass and, after looking through it for a second, shouted orders to his crew. “Throw him a rope, lads! Throw him a line! Make sure it’s secure, we don’t want a single piece of treasure going to Davey Jones! Hurry now! Reel him in!”

The process went off without a hitch. Once Reenk Roink climbed aboard, he was greeted by multiple slaps on the back and good-natured ribbing. However, everyone soon fell silent as the captain started questioning him.

“Gibson and Sigurd?”

“Dead.”

“Pity,” said the captain. “Well, let’s see how much ye were able to steal!” Grabbing the large bag of treasure, he carefully dumped it out on the deck, going through it quickly. “340?” he said, and Reenk nodded.

“I’m not pleased, Reenk. Even with the base treasure of gibson and Sigurd and ye, that’s only a 40 gold increase. What were ye doin’ all that time?”

Now, Reenk started to get angry. “What was I doin’? I was surviving, Captain. Gibson and Sigurd both died very early on, leaving me alone. I stayed on board for almost an entire week after me buddies died, Captain. I made a 240 treasure profit all by meself, Captain. Not to speak ill of the dead, but don’t be blamin’ me for their failures and my best efforts to make up for them, Captain.”

“You may be right… but I am still not pleased.”

“Would you like to hear the story of how the Presence won?” Reenk asked, his voice going cold. Without waiting for the captain to reply, he continued. “The sailors on board, the first day after the British killed their original captain, elected a new one. Now, this one went to work right away, trying to organize his crew and his officers. He did a decent job, too, pulling the wool over my eyes more than once. But was that the reason why they won? No, not at all.

“You see,” he continued, “there was one vigilante group outside of the Captain’s control that operated every night. They called themselves the Four Horsemen, after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And they killed mostly every night, all the time under no orders to do so. Now, this made the Captain and his officers very angry, because they were supposedly jeopardizing the Captain’s great plan to right the ship. But then, the autopsies on the Four Horsemen’s victims started coming in. First, they killed a Maven; gibson. Then, a British Agent. Then, a night later, they offed the British Special Officer hisself, leaving me pretty much the only saboteur left on board. They even went after *me* one night, and it was only through their captain’s doing that I survived.”

“How interesting,” the captain said.

“Aye, it is,” said Reenk, a cold anger growing in his voice. “The point is, ‘twasn’t the Captain or his officers that saved that ship. It was the *crew*, Captain. The crew took matters into their own hands. The crew saved the ship. Their Captain, while important, was ultimately… expendable.”

“I don’t like where this be going,” the Captain said, finally taking note of Reenk’s voice.

“Aye, well, ye really shouldn’t,” said Reenk, and then in a fluid motion, took out his cutlass and beheaded the Captain.

“Tell me, sailors of the Maven, do ye bless me as yer new Captain? Take note of the treasure I brought back all by meself in the face of difficult odds. Do ye wish for more o’ the same under my lead?”

“AYE!!!” the crew bellowed back in unison.

“All right then, my lads,” Captain Reenk Roink shouted. “Then it’s treasure we seek!” He turned the rudder wildly, and the Maven sailed off into the distance, under new management.


Back in Nassau, Captain Crazed Rabbitlovingly looked over the Presence. His ship. He had spent much of the past week repairing the mast and the Crow’s Nest. It was tough work, but it was honest work, and it saved him some money. Still, out of all the crewman, he had acquired the most treasure, 336 to be exact, but he was saving it for something special. What it was, he wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe equip his ship with more improvements to make her a true terror on the seas, to singlehandedly restart the Golden Age of Piracy. Maybe blow it all at A1’s Tavern, seeing as how business had finally died down after the greatest week of general debauchery that the port had ever seen. Maybe use it to retire, and build himself a nice estate in Jamaica, where he could grow whatever his heart desired.

But, he thought as he lie aboard his ship, exactly what he did with his massive amount of treasure didn’t matter. The fact that he had the treasure in the first place did. He had his freedom. He could do whatever he wanted.

And freedom was the greatest treasure of all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The victorious crewmen:
Crazed Rabbit - 336 (first place)
A1_Unit - 236
miotas - 233
Subotan - 227
Death is yonder - 226
A Very Super Market - 216
shlin28 - 214
Cultured Drizzt fan - 207
Double A - 202
Captain Blackadder - 200
Seamus Fermanagh - 188
White_eyes:D - 185

The satisfied crewmen (those who met their victory conditions but gold was not a factor):
Yaropolk - 161
KukriKhan - 154
slashandburn - 141
Centurion1 - 136

The new Captain of the Maven:
Reenk Roink - 340

The vindicated dead:
Louis VI the Fat - 222
Askthepizzaguy - 212
taka - 203
Joooray - 180
Chaotix - 166
Tratorix - 147
a completely inoffensive name - 141
Khazaar - 128
Beskar - 124
Lord Winter - 115
Psychonaut - 115
Beefy187 - 110
Diana Abnoba - 92
Iskander 3.1 - 92
atheotes - 90
Andres - 85
DisgruntledGoat - 84
Jolt - 74
woad&fangs - 68
YLC - 67
pevergreen - 57
johnhughthom - 53
Xehh II - 50
LittleGrizzly - 46

The defeated Mavens:
Sigurd - 134
gibsonsg91921 - 78

Looking forward to Scotland:
SSNeoperestroika - 187

The devastated British:
Sasaki Kojiro - 118
Yaseikhaan - 85
CountArach - 71
ricera10 - 70
scottishranger - 57

The vengeful Frenchman and his new lover:
spL1tp3r50naL1ty - 239
TinCow - 79

[Beskar]

Good game all.

Also, I was right about Reenk Roink and I had a gut feeling you was French since I first heard about you TinCow.

[A1_Unit]

Good Game.

[miotas]

to the best barkeep and story teller around!

to the other new captains

to random bloodshed!

[Crazed Rabbit]

Arrrrrrrr!! The grandest pirate of all I be!

And many heartie thanks to GeneralHankerchief for a most excellent game!

CR

[Reenk Roink]

On board the [/I]Maven, the sailor manning the Crow’s Nest called out from his post. “A dinghy, headed our way from Four O’Clock!” he cried. “Only one person inside, I think it’s one of us!”

The captain took out his spyglass and, after looking through it for a second, shouted orders to his crew. “Throw him a rope, lads! Throw him a line! Make sure it’s secure, we don’t want a single piece of treasure going to Davey Jones! Hurry now! Reel him in!”

The process went off without a hitch. Once Reenk Roink climbed aboard, he was greeted by multiple slaps on the back and good-natured ribbing. However, everyone soon fell silent as the captain started questioning him.

“Gibson and Sigurd?”

“Dead.”

“Pity,” said the captain. “Well, let’s see how much ye were able to steal!” Grabbing the large bag of treasure, he carefully dumped it out on the deck, going through it quickly. “340?” he said, and Reenk nodded.

“I’m not pleased, Reenk. Even with the base treasure of gibson and Sigurd and ye, that’s only a 40 gold increase. What were ye doin’ all that time?”

Now, Reenk started to get angry. “What was I doin’? I was surviving, Captain. Gibson and Sigurd both died very early on, leaving me alone. I stayed on board for almost an entire week after me buddies died, Captain. I made a 240 treasure profit all by meself, Captain. Not to speak ill of the dead, but don’t be blamin’ me for their failures and my best efforts to make up for them, Captain.”

“You may be right… but I am still not pleased.”

“Would you like to hear the story of how the Presence won?” Reenk asked, his voice going cold. Without waiting for the captain to reply, he continued. “The sailors on board, the first day after the British killed their original captain, elected a new one. Now, this one went to work right away, trying to organize his crew and his officers. He did a decent job, too, pulling the wool over my eyes more than once. But was that the reason why they won? No, not at all.

“You see,” he continued, “there was one vigilante group outside of the Captain’s control that operated every night. They called themselves the Four Horsemen, after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And they killed mostly every night, all the time under no orders to do so. Now, this made the Captain and his officers very angry, because they were supposedly jeopardizing the Captain’s great plan to right the ship. But then, the autopsies on the Four Horsemen’s victims started coming in. First, they killed a Maven; gibson. Then, a British Agent. Then, a night later, they offed the British Special Officer hisself, leaving me pretty much the only saboteur left on board. They even went after *me* one night, and it was only through their captain’s doing that I survived.”

“How interesting,” the captain said.

“Aye, it is,” said Reenk, a cold anger growing in his voice. “The point is, ‘twasn’t the Captain or his officers that saved that ship. It was the *crew*, Captain. The crew took matters into their own hands. The crew saved the ship. Their Captain, while important, was ultimately… expendable.”

“I don’t like where this be going,” the Captain said, finally taking note of Reenk’s voice.

“Aye, well, ye really shouldn’t,” said Reenk, and then in a fluid motion, took out his cutlass and beheaded the Captain.

“Tell me, sailors of the Maven, do ye bless me as yer new Captain? Take note of the treasure I brought back all by meself in the face of difficult odds. Do ye wish for more o’ the same under my lead?”

“AYE!!!” the crew bellowed back in unison.

“All right then, my lads,” Captain Reenk Roink shouted. “Then it’s treasure we seek!” He turned the rudder wildly, and the Maven[I] sailed off into the distance, under new management.

The new Captain of the Maven:
Reenk Roink - 340

Was NOT expecting this. Amazing writeup GH, I really loved the storyteller persona my guy had.

White eyes, I am NOT going to let you claim you thought I was Mafia in this one. At least not at the end. You never voted for me and you even admitted I did a 360 on your wanting to kill me, I claim this one as a victory over you at least.

Agreed that CR/Louis were probably the number two factor in the town win.

People might criticize CR for letting me go and saving me (then again the FH were planning on killing me because they thought I WAS actually a watchstander), but then again, I would like to think a Captain with SO MUCH time to find only one (or two as they thought) Mafia would then play it coolly and safely. CR essentially wasn't hasty and he kept his bases covered. Can't blame him for that at all, and you have to consider the last minute protection on Cent which was probably one of the most important plays of the game. After that point, instead of making plans on what to do, TinCow and I essentially rested our hopes on Cent meeting a pretty lady friend and not having the time to come on the Org and tell his results.

Louis was pretty good at finding holes in our claims, the watchstander bit of mine and TinCow's fake role were both questioned by him first. Thankfully, the "getting gold" excuse along with some well faked results thanks to the info from TinCow allowed me to correct that little oversight about watchstanders not being able to protect.

[White_eyes:D]

Your so full of yourself.....

But that's why I wuz you

[a completely inoffensive name]

Perfect ending this story, at least for me.

In regards to the voting mutiny, I honestly was not paying attention to the write ups and was too busy focusing on the F.H. i saw people saying mutiny, so put mutiny down. Basically i rushed through reading everything one day and I died for it, oh well.

[Louis VI the Fat]

You can say in retrospect you knew about me and TinCow, but it doesn't look like it from your posts, your QT, your votes. You were too unsure to make a move.

And the thing is, this protown group was even more of a liability then the one in Capo III. For all the talk about how overpowered such a setup is, I felt that the Mafia had they had two more members by night 6 (the two killed by the FH let's say), they would have rode to victory) BECAUSE of the protown group.

Also, by far the highlight of the game for me was killing the first mate.

Well...


This spoilered PM should deal with the first and third of your paragraphs. It is me revealing you and Tincow as the scum to one of my trustees, and it explains why you could've killed me at many moments during the game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You were identified as maven two days ago, the day Joooray got lynched. But to be fair, at this point, I thought that there was a maven convert (the guy with the rapier). I didn't know whether you were the original maven. Tincow was identified as the Rapier only the day Taka was lynched.

It was painfully obvious you weren't a watchstander. You claimed actions that a watchstander isn't even allowed to perform (protections). And the investigations you claimed you had done were incorrect to. (You got the actions of A1 and Double A wrong). I even taunted you with this in the thread.

There was more going on in this game then finding the final maven. By N6 two extra mafia members wouldn't have saved the mafia. Neither would four extra members. The town group was most succesful. At this stage we pretty much knew who everybody was. The race was on for gold at this point. I was in no rush to kill the last mafia, on the contrary.

The Brits were a real threat at some point. Once they were gone, finding the last maven was no longer a priority. Alas, those cursed horsemen though kept killing the mafia. Which could prove disastrous to me.

Killing the last Maven would mean I would lose the game. I knew the town would win this game. I also knew that I was very close to being second in gold by this stage. But also that Rabbit had more gold. What to do? What to do!? I wasn't going to support mutiny, or kill CR or anything. No, my hope througout the game rested in a new captain election, and in amassing as much gold myself as possible.

It was all fun pirate roleplaying. Just enough scummyness to be piratey: maps, extortion, Tincow paying us handsomely for his QM position. Getting rid of a few townie competitors for the lead in money suited me just fine too.

But all with pirate honour: no killing/ousting the cap'n, no kills of people whom I knew might leave me money in their wills. And being a manly pirate who relies on his own cutlass, and sends the protection groups to protect the crew.

[Subotan]

By N6 two extra mafia members wouldn't have saved the mafia. Neither would four extra members. The town group was not succesful at all, and it's a miracle they managed to kill any mafia. At this stage we pretty much knew who everybody was.

Fix'd.

But all with pirate honour: no killing/ousting the cap'n, no kills of people whom I knew might leave me money in their wills. And being a manly pirate who relies on his own cutlass, and sends the protection groups to protect the crew.

But your actions directly led to the partial blinding of one of us, and indirectly to the death of another. That's not honourable as I've ever heard it.

[Death is yonder]

Good game, and thanks to GH for hosting



5th most gold ain't bad too, for being a simple townie

[Subotan]

I just noticed, that the quote for the Fanatical Loyalist reads:

It’s your call, Bill. I’ll back you either way.
~ Colonel Saul Tigh, to his commanding officer

AWESOME

[Reenk Roink]

Well...[snip]

But Louis, that screenshot is dated at 10/21 don't you have anything of that conviction earlier...

I'm not going to sit here and argue against you knowing everything and just getting gold.

I will disagree fully with your support of the town group being successful (and four extra Mafia members not doing anything, really? ). When you say "we" figured everyone out, you must mean you, because as far as I could tell in the thread, only Yaropolk strongly had the opinion I was Mafia, aside from that brief voting period which was rolled back just as easily.

As for the Four Horseman and their role, I will let the most eloquent Kanye finish it for me:

Yo Louis, I-I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but the Four Horseman were one of the best Mafia killers of all time! One of the best Mafia killers of all time!

[Iskander 3.1]

Great game everyone! Too bad that vig group took me out early on, I really missed out on some action. GH, those write-ups are awesome.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Wow, I'm a klutz. I just discovered and read Page 83 (at 30 ppp) for the first time. As a lot of that had some interesting commentary, here's some more of my thoughts regarding balancing and such:

-edit- Hmm, in the middle of typing this and it's going way longer than I originally expected it to be. I guess you can count this as my traditional "state of the Gameroom" essay I've been doing after my recent Large games (Mafia VIII and Godfather 3).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I can now say from firsthand experience that hosting these kinds of games is a pain. Highly rewarding, yes, but still a pain. There's so much preparatory work to be done. I knew this was coming and had been working on it on-and-off since May 2008 (which is earlier than some of your join dates. I feel old), but when the time came to finally write up all of the roles and do the entire night phase process, from processing to writing to sending out the feedback PMs, I was still shocked. This was so far from a typical GH game that it felt like it wasn't mine anymore.

I did implement several measures to reduce the possibility of this game turning into a repeat of Capo III, and I think I was successful at this. While the results may have been same, the methods that achieved them were not, and in this I take solace and claim victory. First of all, there was the entire treasure aspect of the game, which forced people to choose their priorities. I'll get to this later. Secondly, which has been mentioned numerous times, was the nerfing of the protection group's power. It was a strict 1-for-1 trade, with no single group being able to thwart multiple kills. In addition, if the mafia or town vigilante groups ever brought more than the minimum amount of firepower, protection groups would have a greater chance of failure.

In addition to this, I totally masked divining other players' actions through your own feedback PMs. Anyone in a protection group that received a night PM from me can attest to this. First of all, whether the protections were successful or whether they were just inconclusive, they read the same way: "XYZ is still alive." Secondly, you received the amount of gold you were expecting to receive, so you wouldn't know if anything went wrong that way. For example, if you sent orders in for a protection group that had 4 people, and only 3 people sent them in, you still only got the 7 or 8 gold instead of the full 10.

Moving away from the groups, the forced recruitment mechanic also helped. One thing the mafia are always concerned about in Capo is, during their recruitment efforts, going after a target that would end up exposing you all (I believe Andres and Louis are intimately familiar with this). In Pirate Ship, you're either susceptible or not, and you get no say in the matter. Once again, I think this mechanic proved to work quite well when CA and the British loaded up on recruits early on and looked to compensate for a sagging Maven team. They were even lined up to get a third, Lord Winter, and I think they found taka susceptible too at that point, but were unable to get it through thanks to a chronic case of Four Horsemen-itis.

I was asked about how I think things would have went had it not been for the presence (no pun intended) of the Horsemen. Ultimately, I don't think it would have changed the end result, although things would have been a lot closer. Say gibson doesn't get whacked early on. Sigurd still gets lynched, but he and Reenk team up to kill for a while, and his presence provides another lynch buffer. Meanwhile, on the British side, ricera still gets lynched and CA still gets targeted by CR's network, but they have one original member alive in scottish. Sasaki may or may not have survived by this point, but I think the ultimate result is two weakened teams by Day 7 instead of just Reenk allying with a desperate TinCow. From there it's anyone's guess, but ultimately CR was still too entrenched for the mafia to really cause chaos.

Moving on to the Faustian treasure offer of Night 7, this was something I had in my mind for a while, kind of a final safety valve to pull in the case of all of my other balancing measures failed and the town was looking supreme (it was, but not because of my balancing). The premise of it was to allow for one night's total breakdown in the testudo strategy and see exactly how much damage the mafia could cause. Gamey? Perhaps, but at the time I was a bit depressed at the game's direction and already treating it as a test run for Pirate Ship Mafia II. I sent the PM to everybody save for CR, Louis, and TinCow, who were the officers at the time, under explicit instructions not to mention it to anyone. Eventually word got out, but most people still went for the treasure. In all, there was 150 treasure waiting to be divided up. I originally thought that 14 players went for it, meaning everybody would get 10.7 treasure (rounded up to 11). However, upon rechecking my PMs I discovered a 15th, but at that point I was too lazy to go back and rework everyone's totals. Congrats on those who resisted the impulse, especially before the leak (only ACIN explicitly refused it before word got out, IIRC).

All in all, I think the treasure mechanic had mixed results. Was it a godsend for immersion and roleplaying? Yes, or at least I think so. However, did it make this game the game theorist's paradise that I dreamed of and Louis made a note of early on? I don't think so. The only time I really felt the game was truly providing the chaos and mayhem and agonizing choice-making I was aiming for was Night 7, when the treasure offer was sent. I attribute this to making the differences in rewards between protection and vigging marginal. If you sent in orders with the minimal amount of partners, you got the same gold, regardless. Likewise, if you upped your crew count by one over the minimum, the average gold given out for protections was 7.5, or 0.5 less than if you did a vig group +1. Combine this with the inherent difficulties of a vig group (lots of protection groups and the stewards/Quartermaster) and it just wasn't worth making up the essentially meaningless difference in treasure. As a result, the individual townie's strategy quite often matched up with the town's as a whole, which is not what I was aiming for.

In tweaking for the sequel, I am going to spend the majority of my time reworking on the above aspect. I want to create the distinction between individual and group motivations. I want the players to have to make difficult choices about what they do every night; almost to have them in Diplomacy-esque situations where you have to screw somebody over. I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to do this yet, be it through increasing the treasure total if you do vig kills, making it harder to gain treasure through protection groups, or more common but less large-scale Faustian offers, almost making them in-game random events. I don't know how it will happen, but it *will* happen.

ATPG mentioned in his wrap-up post that how we needed to shy away from the group games because they were becoming unbeatable. I respectfully disagree. It took me one Huge game to figure it out, but the groups can be overcome if you provide enough incentive for players to not join a group. I'm going to be spending my time figuring out exactly how to do this, and once I finally do, Pirate Ship Mafia II will roll around the corner and we'll be able to test out if I was right.

First, though, I will be returning to my roots and hosting the ultra-vanilla Mafia IX, where the town must root out the mafia purely through posting behavior and good detective work. But after that, though... well...

...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.

~ General Hankerchief

[Subotan]

That was really interesting, and really enlightening as to how much work and effort you put into this. I've been thuinking about roles for my mafia game in the summer all day, and although I've got most of them down, I'm already pretty exhausted

...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.

Arr, of course Cap'n

[LittleGrizzly]

Awesome game!!

Didn't stop reading despite my early death, even when the town was looking strong there was still plenty of entertainment and intrigue... Its no worries about my early death, I just feel bad I ended up taking woad with me...

Thanks GH!