Pirate Ship Mafia III - information and summary thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

Note: This thread is to only be used by the game host (GeneralHankerchief) to lodge the game rules and notable posts.

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone! After a three year wait, Pirate Ship Mafia III is finally here! Let's get right to it.

Nassau, three years earlier:

Two figures met on a small hilltop that marked the highest point on the island. A rough wooden cross, about a foot high, was stuck into the ground.

"It's been a while," said the first figure, moving to shake the second figure's hand. "How be life treatin' ye?"

"They killed my consort," the second figure, the Frenchman, said, motioning to the cross on the ground. "Right near the start. We didn't have enough time to do anything. I loved her, I truly did."

"Ah, I be sorry about that, matey."

"I'm sure it will pass," the Frenchman said. "Maybe you'll have to tell me one of your stories to cheer me up, but some other time. How about you? How fares business?"

The first figure sighed. "Business be tough. We mortal folk can't just go raidin' some Treasure Fleet every time we feel like it. The navies be crackin' down everywhere, you know that."

"So then, you should be happy that I have a contract for you, yes?" The Frenchman leaned in closer. "This wouldn't be an attack against any colonial power, so there will be little risk of a ship of the line coming in and leveling its guns at your boat. What do you say, are the men of the Maven up for it?"

The Captain of the Maven paused. "What be the target?"

"I'm done playing around," the Frenchman said. "I want the Presence."

--------------

May 23, 1723
Aboard the Presence

Nassau had traditionally been the Presence’s home base, but it did have a few other places it was allowed to dock. New Tortuga was one of these. Built only a couple of years before, due largely thanks to the small uptick in piracy (of which the Presence and its exploits played a good part), the island settlement off the northern coast of Hispaniola quickly became home to all sorts of folk of less-than-upstanding persuasion. The settlement grew, more money was poured into it, and soon New Tortuga became a bustling pirate haven.

The problem with boomtowns, of course, is that they inevitably went bust.

Such was to be the fate of New Tortuga. On one fine late spring’s day in 1723, the usual merriment and mayhem was interrupted by a couple of sailors racing from building to building, all shouting the same piece of news: “The French Navy is on its way! The French Navy is on its way! La Royale is coming!”

Of course it would come to this. Everyone knew that the French would not be happy with pirates encroaching on their territory, especially not with the period of relative peace that Europe was currently enjoying. It was only a matter of time before they came in and reasserted their authority, much as they did with the original Tortuga after 1684. With this knowledge of the inevitable finally occurring, the exodus from New Tortuga back to the ships was uneventful, almost orderly.

At least, it was until two sailors of the Presence looked at each other, with greed in their eyes. While everyone else was filing down, they entered the backroom of the tavern they had been drinking at to take possession of all its gold. Word got passed to the other crew members, and the looting was officially on.

Eventually the other inhabitants of the town realized what was happening, and what had been an uneventful departure descended into the customary chaos of a pirate raid. As the sun started to descend, the mayhem increased. The sound of gunshots and broken windows became more and more commonplace. The town’s pigs were set loose, squealing and running every which way, having absolutely no idea what was happening. Anne the tavern wench walked right up and knifed two pirates to death just so she could take one of their nice-looking hats for herself.

By nightfall, no crew could chance staying in the town any longer, and so they cast off regardless of current circumstance. Every crew’s haul had been tremendous, but the Presence, having a time advantage over everyone else, made out particularly well. Celebrating on the ship late into the night, it took them a while to realize what had gone wrong.

“Waitaminute,” one of them said, “where’s the Captain?”

“Oh hellfire, he was still looting Bertha’s place when I got back on!”

“And you were the last one on board before we cast off, right?”

“...we left our Captain behind!”

This realization put everyone in a sour mood and shortly thereafter they went to bed. They would elect a new Captain in the morning, but until then they would ponder how out-of-control the circumstances had gotten that they accidentally left their Captain to be taken in by the authorities.

One person, though, was happier than ever. The Frenchman smiled to himself. The chaos of the raid, brought about by his well-paid accomplices who delivered the initial message of the Navy coming in, had worked splendidly to get him on board. Phase One of his long-awaited plan was complete.

Pirate Ship Mafia III

Overview:
Pirate Ship Mafia III is a mafia game in the mold of its predecessors and the Capo di Tutti Capi series in that it gives each player a lot of freedom to do whatever they want at night. Its original aim was to rebalance some of Capo's imperfections to keep things more fun for everybody, in addition to adding some new elements that add a new element to the game: treasure (now its aim is to correct my own hosting errors from previous games ). Maintaining a perfect balance between team cooperation and individual competition will be the key to obtaining victory.

Setting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The North Atlantic Ocean, spring of 1723.

It’s a bit past the Golden Age of Piracy, when buccaneers ruled the seas and king’s ransoms of gold were looted and spent in a matter of weeks, but the window of opportunity for those who sail under no colors but their own is still open. In the real world, the final clamp was probably brought down on the pirates in 1718 when the new Governor of Nassau ended the island’s status as a pirate haven, but the men of the Presence’s actions over the first two games have bought the pirates a little bit more time in this universe. That said, the twilight of the pirates is rapidly approaching.

Basic Rules:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At the start of the game, you will randomly be PM’d a role and its description. Once all roles are sent out, the game will begin. Pirate Ship Mafia will begin with a day phase, taking place immediately after the death of the original Captain as per the above story. Instead of voting to lynch someone on Day 1, the only decision made will be who will be the new Captain. Upon conclusion of that phase, the Captain will appoint his two Officers (see below) and Night 1 will begin. In every night phase, players will PM me their night orders which may vary. Starting Day 2, players will vote to lynch and, if applicable, commit mutiny. This night/day pattern will continue until the game concludes.

Night actions:
Players may do a variety of things at night, depending on their roles. There is always the option to rest up, but treasure is awarded for those who take a more active role at night. Many of the actions must be coordinated with other players in order to be successfully executed, similar to Capo.

For the standard able seaman of the Presence (this game’s version of the townie), the following actions may be performed at night:

Sleep (no treasure awarded)
Kill an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 4 to kill any individual
Protect an individual (treasure awarded) – must form a group of at least 3 to protect any individual
Abandon ship - Depart the Presence with all the treasure you have collected, a useful option if you think you're about to die or you think your team is going to lose and want to improve your own victory standing. Note: this option not available to some players.
Steal treasure - You can use this option to make up some financial ground by eschewing group activities for a night in order to directly take money from a crew member.
Guard your treasure stash - This feature allows the paranoid to counteract the above action, at the expense of doing anything else for the night.
Guard someone else’s treasure stash - New for Pirate Ship Mafia III, if you have more important places to be at night, you can assign someone to guard your stash for you. Make sure this person is trustworthy though - should they choose to steal from you, they can take a massive amount of your gold! Stacking of treasure guards is not permitted - i.e. you’re only allowed to have one person guard your gold.

Other roles may do more or complete the same tasks with less people. You may only perform ONE action per night, unless otherwise noted in your role PM.

When actively performing at night, in your orders PM you must send me the exact specifics: What you are doing, the name of every person who is doing it with you, and who you are doing it to. If there is miscommunication and the orders do not match up, they will not be executed. Not only will this deprive you of treasure, but it may also put you at risk of public exposure or dying! Beware!

Example orders PM:

GH – night 3 orders

GeneralHankerchief, Sasaki Kojiro, Kommodus, and Kagemusha will kill Seamus Fermanagh.

At the end of every night I will send feedback PMs detailing how successful you were at night. If the group failed, I will not reveal what exactly what went wrong. I will also let you know your current treasure count at the end of every night.

PMs and orders:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is in your best interests to PM me every night with your orders. Active participation not only helps your team out, it also helps you individually. Not to mention the fact that it makes for a more exciting game! You will get two types of PMs from me: Role PM and feedback.

The Presence Able Seaman (townie) PM will be posted in the signup thread directly following this post, and will also be posted in the summary thread once the game begins.

In addition, at any time, you may PM me with your Will. Wills, to be explained more later, dictate who some of your treasure goes to should you die.

Voting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Voting is your primary action in the day phases. Every day, aside from Day 1, you will be voting to lynch the person you think is guilty. Voting will be done in the usual style, like so:

Vote: GeneralHankerchief

Should you wish to change your vote, please do the following IN A NEW POST:

Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Beskar

To those players originally from another forum, I do not accept a simple bolding of a name as a valid vote. Please put the (un)Vote: _______ tag beforehand. Thank you.

You may also Vote: Abstain should you have no preference as to who is lynched. You may also vote “No Lynch”. All votes must be bolded and votes may not be edited. Should you edit your vote and not change it in a new post, you are faced with a loss of treasure and potentially, removal from play. The person with the most votes at the end of the day phase is lynched. Should there be a tie, the Captain and his two Officers will vote to determine who is lynched. Should there still be a tie (say, if there are three players with the most votes and each Officer votes somebody different), the Captain’s vote takes priority.

There will be at least one occasion in which you will vote to elect a Captain. The format for choosing a Captain is as follows:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

In addition, at any point in the day phase you may vote to mutiny. You may do this by adding in a Vote: Mutiny in with your normal vote. If over 50% of living players vote to mutiny, the Captain is lynched along with whoever has the most votes, and instead of proceeding to night, a new Captain selection process follows. If the vote is tied, the status quo remains.

Should you decide you don’t want to mutiny, you may simply write in Unvote: Mutiny at any time in the day phase. There are no official consequences for participating in a failed mutiny, but the Captain will almost surely remember those who were not loyal to him. A successful mutiny results in large amounts of treasure gained for all those who voted for the mutiny.

The Factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As per the opening story, there is a two-way fight for control of the Presence going on. However, there may be additional threats lurking on board, waiting for their chance to strike...

The crew of the Presence: The main faction of Pirate Ship Mafia. Having just escaped New Tortuga with the collective wealth of nearly the entire town in tow, they are on their way back to Nassau to spend their riches as irresponsibly as they possibly can. However, never before have the men of the Presence had such a successful raid without experiencing severe consequences on the voyage home. Most sailors are predicting further consequences this time around and are preparing for the worst. In addition, even the small fortunes that all of the pirates have collected may not be enough for some sailors, who will be looking to increase their own treasure counts at the expense of others aboard...

The Frenchman and his agents (starts with 3 players): After being a shadowy third-party in the first two Pirate Ship Mafia games, the Frenchman finally steps into the light and becomes the main threat to the town in this edition. The Presence was originally his and he will stop at nothing to get it back. He’s hired out two experienced and capable sailors from the Maven (with their Captain’s blessing, naturally) to assist him in this endeavor. The Frenchman and agents can work to determine which members of the crew are susceptible to joining his side, and eventually, make them such an offer. Upon a successful conversion (which is entirely out of the player’s hands), new recruits will for all intents and purposes have joined the Frenchman’s side. Agents can, of course, kill as well. Their ultimate goal is the elimination or subordination of every loyal Presence crewman on board. The Frenchman must also personally survive.

Once you are dead:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Standard stuff here. If there are any questions, PM me.

The dead may post, but not vote/select nor carry out any night actions. Dead players may not reveal their roles publicly or privately and may not reveal their faction or role particulars either. Dead players may not quote from a PM unless that PM has been posted in the public thread by a living player. Dead players may not reveal, recount or allude to their previous night actions (or results thereof in the case of investigations) publicly or privately – even to confirm a previously made public or private reveal. Remember, even if dead not all of your treasure goes away – pirates do have *some* honor. Your participation must be circumspect, but your continued participation IS encouraged.

No screenshots may be used, from or to anyone, for ANY purpose – this includes during PMs. Feel free to quote from my Role PM’s to you or to fabricate as you see fit. Chatlog conversations may be referenced/quoted, but may not be copied via screenshot. Note: it can be difficult to maintain role secrecy during chat conversations.

"Suicide" will not be allowed in this game (it is possible to create an unplayable game with nothing but suicide pact challenges going on. This is not the intended mode of play for this game).
Players who must remove themselves from play for schedule reasons should send me a PM. I will then write them out of play.

Clarity to balance the ambiguity:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Again, if you played the previous Pirate Ship Mafias or Capo-like games, nothing new here.

Upon death, the captain will launch a full investigation of that individual to try to determine the reason they were killed. Though slow (results reported on the 3rd morning after death), their then-current role will be revealed. Unfortunately, the specific actions of that individual -- what they did with their role -- will remain a mystery (until the post-game!).

The Roles:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Crew of the Presence:

Able Seaman
The standard Townie of Pirate Ship Mafia. Able Seamen have no special powers but may form groups of 4 and 3 to kill or protect a target, respectively, in addition to trying to steal or protect treasure. Their goals are to rid of the Presence of its many threats and get more treasure than anybody else (pirates are a very competitive bunch, you see). Some Able Seamen may be susceptible to conversion to the Frenchman’s side, however, they will not know how susceptible they are.

Elected/Appointed Roles:

Neither the Captain nor his Officers can switch sides for as long as they hold their offices.

Captain
The Captain is elected by the crew on Day 1 and will remain Captain unless he is removed by a mutiny. This is a position of extreme power in that the Captain gets a set salary of treasure every turn he is Captain without having to actively do anything. Most importantly, the Captain gets to appoint his two Officers, the First Mate and Quartermaster, who, if loyal, can represent the greatest threat to the enemies of the Presence. The Captain cannot be killed at night but may take part in nighttime activities. The Captain has no vote unless there is a tie (see above), however, activity treasure is still given to him for posting in the day phase.

First Mate
The Captain names his First Mate to me privately before the Day 1 voting phase is over when it appears that he has a legitimate chance of becoming Captain. The First Mate can be replaced at will at anytime either by PM (preferred) or posting in the thread. Changes in officer position will take effect at the end of the phase, day or night. The First Mate is the Captain’s right-hand man on the ship and may individually kill one person or investigate two persons per night. Attempts on his life at night have a 50% chance of failure, regardless of numbers used against him. The First Mate also collects a salary for his efforts.

Quartermaster
The Captain names his Quartermaster to me privately before the Day 1 voting phase is over when it appears that he has a legitimate chance of becoming Captain. The Quartermaster can be replaced at will at anytime either by PM (preferred) or posting in the thread. Changes in officer position will take effect at the end of the phase, day or night. The Quartermaster is in charge of discipline on the ship and may individually protect or block one person from committing an action per night. Attempts on his life at night have a 50% chance of failure, regardless of numbers used against him. The Quartermaster also collects a salary for his efforts.

Frenchman faction:

The Frenchman (1)
*The* villain of the Pirate Ship Mafia series, though he would categorize himself as its tragic hero. Regardless, this time there is no ambiguity to his side: He is the enemy of all loyal crewman aboard the Presence and he is out for blood. The Frenchman’s exact powers will remain a mystery but I have designed him to be the most dangerous “Godfather” role out of the three games in this series.

Frenchman Agent (2)
Capable sailors hired from the Maven, the Frenchman Agents were assigned a clear duty by their Captain: Help the Frenchman gain the Presence back by whatever means necessary. They are all too happy to fulfill this task and get a huge share of the loot (plus a hefty reward from the Frenchman). Their powers include but are not limited to killing (obviously), working to see if any sailors aboard can be converted, and being able to work with loyal sailors in order to increase subversion.

Frenchman Convert
Individuals who have accepted offers to switch sides become Frenchman Converts, who immediately obtain the same powers as Frenchman Agents.

Secret role(s):

Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Treasure and Wills:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Treasure
The primary standout feature of Pirate Ship Mafia, the pursuit of treasure will significantly motivate you and guide your actions. Everyone starts out with 100 treasure and can accumulate more through various means. For the most part, the more treasure you have at the end of the game, the better off you’ll be. Treasure is disclosed privately to each individual at the beginning of every day phase.

The list of actions you can take and the amount of treasure accumulated for each is below:

100: Base amount
10: For each person you recruit to play Pirate Ship Mafia
3: For each round in which you lodge a legitimate vote (for Captain, you get the three if you make a post in the day phase)
1-5: ***New for Pirate Ship Mafia III*** A small amount of gold, awarded entirely at my discretion, for good pirate-y behavior that amuses me. Actions taken in previous games that would have merited this award include fabricating an entirely fake “treasure map” and selling it off to unsuspecting sailors and putting out a bounty on someone at night just because they annoyed you in the Captain election. A rough, but by no means complete definition would be actions which serve the roleplaying atmosphere I am trying to convey that do not necessarily advance your win condition.
2: For each round in which you submit a night order, whether it is successful or not (can even be simply “sleep”)
10: Amount awarded for successfully killing an individual with the minimum group size of 4.
8: Amount awarded for successfully killing an individual with anything larger than the minimum group size.
10: Amount awarded for successfully protecting an individual (even if he wasn't attacked) with the minimum group size of 3.
7: Amount awarded for successfully protecting an individual (even if he wasn't attacked) with anything larger than the minimum group size.
5-20: Amount awarded for successfully stealing someone else's gold.
Hidden, but large: Amount awarded for stealing someone’s gold who specifically trusted you to guard their stash.
15: Captain's nightly salary
12: Nightly salary of First Mate/Quartermaster (kill/protection awards do not apply)
Mutiny: Every mutineer gets 10 gold; captain’s entire gold supply is then divided evenly among mutineers.

Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.

Finally, at any point in the game you may receive a special "random event" PM from me giving you a one-time choice between two options, usually involving treasure. The exact specifics of this will be detailed in the PM.

Wills
Players may privately message me at any time, saying, in the event of their death, who their treasure goes to. Players may not donate more than 50 of their treasure total – the remainder stays to their name (the only exception to this is if the Captain dies in a mutiny, in which case he loses all of his treasure to the mutineers). Players may divide up their 50 to multiple persons if they wish or choose not to have a Will at all. A Will may be changed at any time and must be sent to me (or updated) at least 3 hours prior to the individual’s death to be considered valid.

Legalese regarding wills:
A player is considered “dead” at the exact minute I first post his death in a public thread, either the main game thread or the game’s story/reference thread.

For example, let’s say Player X’s original will was as follows:

Give GeneralHankerchief all 50 of my treasure.

...but then at 13:00 he changed it to:

Give Beskar all 50 of my treasure; GeneralHankerchief has been written out of my will.

Let’s say that I first posted Player X’s death at 15:59 that day. If this was the case, GeneralHankerchief would get the 50 treasure. If I waited one minute later and posted the death at 16:00, 3 hours would have passed and Beskar would have gotten the treasure.

A final note from the host:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unlike Pirate Ship Mafia II, which at the time I swore up and down was perfectly balanced and that I had accounted for every possible exploitation of the game’s features (and look where that got me ) I am less certain about this game’s overall balance. That said, I am confident that, were I to run this game 100 times assuming players going in have the same level of knowledge each time, there would be a reasonable variance in results.

Overall, while the focus should definitely still be on doing your very best in order to fulfill your victory conditions, it is far more important that you all have fun, enjoy yourselves, and take advantage of the opportunity to act like pirates. Thanks for playing!

Signing up:
As I said, I'm looking for 25 players at minimum to start, though I would much prefer if we got in the range of 30-35. The previous two games were really fun experiences for both me and the players involved, and it was largely due to their enthusiasm and persistence in nagging me that this game is even happening. What are you waiting for? Go out and get that 10 treasure per person recruitment bonus!!! (each player recruited must explicitly post here or PM me saying they were recruited for the bonus to kick in)

Signed up (28):
BSmith
Visorslash
Zack
Xiahou
Kagemusha
landlubber
Askthepizzaguy
spaceman98
Ituralde
El Barto
Choxorn
seireikhaan
Montmorency
autolycus
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Csargo
Ishmael
Lissa
NotJimRV
Double A
Andres
Ice
Golden1Knight
johnhughthom
Ironside
TheFlax
TFT
Sprig

[GeneralHankerchief]

Townie PM:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

““This is definitely a pirate adventure. Pirates pillage. Pirates steal. Pirates take advantage.”
~ Rupert Boneham

Set sail! After a chaotic retreat from New Tortuga, you and the rest of the men aboard the Presence have found yourself with a massive haul of treasure (and without a Captain, but we won’t go there). However, there are enough old salts aboard to know that this large of a bounty never comes without any complications. If things stay true to form, these complications will most likely come in the form of the Frenchman, who’s been after the Presence for years. He is as wily as a fox and will never stop trying to get his ship back so long as he is alive. You’re going to have to be ready for anything and work together if you want to make it to Nassau to spend your loot… but you also see no harm in increasing your own share, either. You weren’t expecting a moral dilemma when you joined this particular crew, were you?

Your goals: You have two main goals, each of which is equally important.

First of all, you want to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. Naturally, this threat comes mainly in the shape of the Frenchman but there could be other enemies looming…

Secondly, you want to acquire as much gold for yourself as possible. While there will most likely be a winning faction on Pirate Ship Mafia, in essence there can only be one *true* winner, and that’s whoever has the most gold. However, you will also score well if you survive and stay on board period, accumulate a lot of treasure before dying, or abandon ship with a lot of treasure and the Presence crew ends up losing.

You will not score so well if you die early on, abandon ship with little treasure, or abandon ship and later witness the Presence crew win.

If there is a Presence victory, the game will end the first night after all outside threats have been eliminated.

Powers: Each night, you may perform one of the following actions:
- Sleep. This means you will do nothing for the night. However, still sending in the order will net you a small gain in treasure.
- Protect a target with a group of at least three people, including yourself. The chances for a successful protection increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful protection. You will be awarded the full amount of treasure if the target is still alive at the end of the night, even if he or she is not attacked.
- Kill a target with a group of at least four people, including yourself. The chances for a successful kill increase with numbers. All orders must match for a successful kill.
- Individually steal gold from a target of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 5-20 gold, unless your target is guarding his or her gold.
- Choose to guard your (or someone else’s, see below) stash of gold. Should anyone try to steal from gold the nights you are guarding, they will be unsuccessful and you will have a good chance of knowing who stole from you.
- New for Pirate Ship Mafia III: As a supplementary action, you may designate someone else to guard your gold for you (if you are guarding someone else’s stash it is still the only thing you are allowed to do at night). However, be careful with whom you trust: Anyone you designate to guard your gold will instead have the opportunity to steal from you instead and take a large amount of gold from your own stash. Only one person is allowed to guard an individual stash of gold.
- If offered an event by me, you may choose to take part in that event as opposed to your normal night actions. Further details will follow in my “event” PM.
- Abandon Ship: Leave the Presence with all of your treasure. Abandoning ship means you depart the game permanently, so choose wisely when you do this.

In addition, you may perform the following actions during the day:
- Vote to determine who will walk the plank.
- Vote for a new Captain on Day 1 and whenever else it is necessary.
- In addition to this, you may also try to remove the Captain by voting for a mutiny. The proper way to do this in the thread is Vote: Mutiny. If 50% or more of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You automatically gain 10 treasure for a successful mutiny, plus the Captain’s entire stash of gold is evenly divided up among mutineers. In addition, only those who mutinied will be eligible to select the next Captain.

At any time, you may privately send me a Will detailing who your treasure goes to in the event of your death. You will automatically lose 50 treasure upon dying, but you can dictate who that treasure goes to, if anybody. Wills will only be considered valid if they are sent to me/updated at least three hours prior to your death.

Furthermore, you are allowed to transfer small amounts of treasure between crew members. The caveats to this are that is a maximum 10 treasure per person per day, the transfer must be for services rendered, and the services must be publicly available (in other words, no breaking the game by pooling all of your gold into one source). All transactions must be confirmed to me via PM by both parties.

Finally… good luck!

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 1 of main thread.

Night 0

Nobody got much sleep the night of the flight from New Tortuga. There was too much on everyone's mind - how could they have left the Captain behind? Look at all the treasure they had procured! Could *I* possibly be the next Captain of the Presence? Pirates alone with their thoughts was an unusual circumstance, and as a result the following morning the crew were actually eager to get to work for once, to put those meddlesome thoughts out of mind.

Of course, this naturally meant that the daily tasks of swabbing the decks, etc. were accomplished in record time, and by that afternoon, there was nothing left to do but elect the Captain - the person who would take the crewmen home. There was a bit of trepidation about this, for some of the more grizzled sailors remembered that the last two times that the Presence had come back with a huge haul, the return voyage to Nassau was always fraught with peril. Most notably, the Frenchman, who had sworn to regain command of the ship by whatever means necessary, had been quiet these past few years. Chances were high that he might be on board once again, ready to strike.

The new Captain would have to be in possession of all his wits and cunning in order to be able to counteract this and any other threat that might arise. At the same time, the Captain of the Presence also received the single highest share of treasure on both the similar occasions: the sacking of Charleston, and the attack on the Spanish Treasure Fleet. The crewman were in full recognition of the fact that they might very well be electing someone higher riches than anyone had dreamed of when they initially signed on to the crew.

After roughly thirty minutes of pretty much everyone milling around, not sure what to do, a senior crewman, a really old salt, finally got fed up with it all and addressed everyone aboard.

"Right ye scurvy scoundrels, ye all know where and why we're here - to make as much loot as we possibly can before Satan claims our souls for good!" There was some goodhearted cheering at this statement. "Before that happens, though, we need to rid ourselves of that loot so that the devil can't claim any for hisself! Now, ye all know what be at stake here should we not make it home in one piece. So let's ensure that we keep this ship in good order and elect ourselves a Captain!" General cheering commenced.

Even though the crew of the Presence were pirates, they were also good at their jobs. They knew that a Captain and his appointed officers would be most effective at ridding the ship of any threats aboard - but at the same time, they were still pirates. 100 gold was good, aye, but you know what was even better than that? *More* than 100 gold! Hopefully the Captain and his officers would... reward... them all for being active in their efforts to rid the ship of no-gooders in the evenings. After all, what was the point otherwise?

With these thoughts in mind, the voting process begun. The Captain would receive a salary of 15 treasure per night no matter his activities. He would have no vote in any daily proceedings that may arise, but did have a say in tiebreaking procedures along with his two appointed officers. Were there any deadlocks to be resolved in the tiebreaking, the Captain would have final say on the matter. Lastly, the Captain would have all to himself a swanky room in the officer's cabin of the ship, meaning that pretty much all night attacks against him would be futile (though he could go out and do activities himself). Of course, removing him during the day would be another matter, thanks to the ever-present threat of mutiny...

Everyone decided not to ruminate on that particular point for now though. They had a Captain to elect, and further riches awaited!

OOC: It is now Day 1. As stated above, you will not be voting someone to walk the plank, you are electing a Captain. The proper format for doing this is as follows:

As stated above, you will not be voting someone to walk the plank, you are electing a Captain. The proper format for doing this is as follows:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Vote changes are made like so:

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

You will be rewarded 3 pieces of treasure for lodging a legal vote.

Voting will last until 22:00 US Eastern Time on Friday, September 25th. Not all phases will be this long - I suggest you use the time to get any night actions sorted out!



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

Souls aboard: (28)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TFT
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 106 of main thread.

Day 1

Unlike the previous two occasions where the Presence had elected a new Captain immediately after scoring a big haul, there were no real, true speeches promising lots of gold for everyone and a safe voyage home by prospective candidates for the captaincy. Perhaps it was that, after all these years, the crew had become jaded to that sort of high-minded rhetoric. Perhaps they all knew the stakes and thus no speeches were needed. Or perhaps - and possibly the most likely explanation - they had simply shifted their priorities, and now valued gold above all else.

As the day went on, voting coalesced around three candidates, and then eventually two: NotJimRV and Kagemusha. Kagemusha, perhaps attempting to tap into what he believed to be the prevailing motivator among the rest of the crew, promised riches and booty aplenty to those who voted for him, including shares out of his own stash simply for ensuring his election that day.

"How much be ye willing to part with?" asked one sailor, eager for specifics.

"One piece of treasure for each person who votes for me," Kage replied. "All for nothing except writin' down me name on that piece of parchment. Easiest money you'll ever make, mateys!"

"One piece of treasure?" There was general grumbling about this. "Why, that be the worst 'bribe' I've ever seen! Those miserly, stick-up-the-rear Brits are more generous when returning favors than that!"

They now turned to the other potential candidate, NotJimRV. "Kage be offering a measly one piece of treasure for each of us that vote him. Can ye match or top that?" NotJim immediately took the occasion to launch into a long and impassioned speech about how there would be no bribery aboard *his* ship and that he would do things right and honorable and focus on eliminating any and all threats aboard and that this was clearly the sensible path to take because there was certainly no point in acquiring all this treasure if you weren't around to spend it and his first priority would be getting everyone home safe.

Naturally, all of the eager crewmen groaned. Kage's one-gold bribe aside, it looks like they were going to have to earn their money the hard way.

At the end of the day, Kagemusha won the closely-contested race by a mere one vote. Briefly acknowledging NotJim in the spirit of competition, he took to address the rest of the crew. "Right then laddies, I think ye for yer faith and trust in my abilities. Under my captaincy I pledge to work me hardest to ensure that the gold continues to flow fast and free towards all of us!" General cheering at this last remark. There was a pause. "Oh, and obviously, uh, hunt down and kill any who would seek to do us harm from within too." Somewhat muted cheering at this one. Obviously the crew had their own priorities.

"Who be assisting ye in this endeavor?" somebody called out.

"Right!" Kage said. "Henceforth, to aid me in my efforts of... fair... distribution, I hereby appoint Andres as me First Mate and Double A as the Quartermaster." Both men walked up alongside Kage, looking pretty pleased with themselves that they were able to get in on the Kage-for-Captain bandwagon early. "Now then, final orders of business. If ye have night duties, see they're performed as usual! Otherwise, below decks with ye. We all have work to do tomorrow!"

And so the men of the Presence retired for the night, at least temporarily. They would shortly find out exactly who was threatening the ship this time around.

Day 1 tally:

Kagemusha: 12 (Double A, Andres, Kagemusha, BSmith, spaceman98, Csargo, seireikhaan, Ituralde, Choxorn, Ironside, Flax, autolycus)
NotJimRV: 11 (NotJimRV, Ishmael, Visorslash, Montmorency, Lissa, johnhughthom, Golden1Knight, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Zack, landlubber, El Barto)
Andres: 1 (Xiahou)
seireikhaan: 1 (Sprig)
Xiahou: 1 (Askthepizzaguy)

Didn't vote: 2 (Ice, TFT)

It is now Night 1. Please send in your orders. Night 1 will conclude on Sunday, September 27th, at 20:00 US Eastern Time. Note: Not all night phases will be this long! In the future it would be wise to have all night activities planned out and organized ahead of time to ensure successful execution of orders.



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

Souls aboard: (28)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TFT
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 165 of main thread.

Night 1

As the Presence sailed northward to its destination in Nassau, very few of its crewmen slept. Some of them worked, completing their assigned nightly tasks. Some of them lay awake in their bunks, ruminating on the past two days and what was in their future. And some of them emerged from below decks, cutlasses in their hands and murder on their minds.


spaceman98 was their target. The three crewmen that had strategized about ending him beforehand had decided that the direct approach would be best for this. After all, as far as the crew was aware, there were no identified threats aboard the Presence. Oh sure, certainly there was that persistent rumor about the Frenchman finally returning to reclaim his ship, but they had been living under that specter for the past three years. No, there was no reason for anybody to suspect foul play.

And so they charged in, cutlasses out, screaming bloody murder. spaceman turned around, looking shocked. As the three had expected, he had been caught completely by surprise.

But then one of them tripped over a loose board, crashing down to the ground hard. One of his compatriots instinctively stopped to check on him, leaving only one man to take on spaceman. These were odds he could deal with. Finally getting his own cutlass out, spaceman dueled his lone assassin while said assassin was screaming for the other two to get back up and join him.

"I think he's got a concussion," the one who had gone down to help said. "Couldn't tell how many fingers I was holding up, didn't know where he was. Probably safest if he sit this one out, matey. I should bring him back below deck, make sure he be gettin' some rest."

"WHAT IN BLAZES BE A 'CONCUSSION'??!?!" shouted the lone attacker, completely furious at this turn of events. "Of course he didn't know where he was, he hit the bad grog from Itchy Lou's stash hard not 30 minutes ago! And of course he didn't know he many fingers ye were holdin' up, ye've got a bleedin' hook for a hand!"

The concussed sailor's helper took umbrage at this. "Well excuse me for not wantin' to follow proper safety protocol! Wouldn't be seemly to put men in danger so early on in the voyage home!" The two sailors started screaming at each other about proper concussion protocol and "overall misplacement of priorities", completely forgetting about spaceman, who slipped off quietly, not quite believing his luck.


TFT, one of the two crewmen who had not voted in the election for Captain that day, was resting peacefully in his bed. A relatively new signing aboard the Presence, he did not share the concern that many other sailors had that there was imminent danger ahead. Perhaps this was because TFT did not have much time to socialize with the crew, perhaps it was because he had not yet experienced a journey home after a big haul firsthand, but overall TFT felt that there were nothing but good times ahead.

The Golden Age of Piracy may have all but ended, but you could have fooled TFT. He was aboard the legendary Presence, the ship that had now pulled off three gigantic heists in six years and had gotten off pretty much scot-free. New Tortuga was founded because of the uptick in piracy that the Presence had almost singlehandedly brought back to the region. All the major navies in the area wanted nothing more than to capture the ship and bring its crew to justice, but there seemed to be a mystique around it, that nothing could go wrong for the ship or its sailors.

This would prove to be a colossal mistake on TFT's part. As he was lost in his own thoughts, he did not hear the footsteps of four sailors sneaking up to his bunk. One of them, coming in first, smothered him with a pillow to muffle any noises TFT might make in resistance. The other three then proceeded to stab him mercilessly - and quietly - until he bled out from his wounds.


Three sailors were chasing Askthepizzaguy around the ship, and ATPG had no such reservations about their intentions. He was running for his life. In a confined space like the Presence was, there was really no such thing as being able to run out of sight, but he had at very least managed to avoid being cornered... at least so far.

He knew it was only a matter of time though; his heavy breathing was proof enough of that. It wasn't looking good for him overall, because despite his running out of breath he still had far too much adrenaline pumping through his system to be able to formulate a rational plan to get out of this. And so ATPG continued running around, gradually losing more and more wind, still pursued, because this was all that his body was capable of doing. Eventually the adrenaline rush subsided and rational thought once again resumed, but at his point ATPG was too tired to be able to do much.

In the end, fate prevailed where his own condition and adrenaline could not. ATPG, still running, tripped over a familiar-looking loose board and went tumbling down in a heap. Before he could even process this, his three pursuers tripped as well, one over the board, two over *him*. The end result was a big pile of all four crewmen involved in the chase, all helplessly tangled together.

ATPG started punching and kicking, biting whatever he could, in an attempt to start a general fight amongst everybody involved. This plan was an instant success, and while ATPG's attackers were now all blindly doing everything they could to pummel each other, ATPG crawled out of the pile and went back below decks. He would live to fight another day.


The morning, Captain Kagemusha awoke to the sound of several people pounding at his cabin door - frantically so, by the sound of it. He sighed. This was the bad part of the Captaincy, he surmised.

"All right, all right, what be yer issue?" he got out, before he was accosted by seemingly half the ship demanding justice.

Stealing!
Attempted murder!
More stealing!
Unjust lockup!
Another attempted murder!
Even more stealing!
"Captain, we be havin' a corpse over here." That one was his First Mate, reporting on TFT's demise.

"Quiet, quiet, QUIIIIIIIII-ET!" Kage roared. Finally there was silence.

"Now then, obviously this past night wasn't exactly as peaceful and restful as I asked for. We be havin' as many crimes and complaints aboard as Bessie's Brothel has girls with the pox, and obviously we can't be havin' any such thing if we want to get home from Nassau safely. It be as I feared: that blasted Frenchman has finally made it back aboard and he be doing what he does best."

"Trying and failing to get the Captaincy?"

"No! Well, maybe, too early to tell. I meant to say sowing discontent and mayhem among us upstandin' crewmen! So it leaves me no choice but to institute the same policy we had in the past when this situation has arisen: Every day, for as long there is crime at night, we shall vote for one person who we think is responsible to walk the plank. By the time we make it home, there may be fewer of us, but we all be safer and richer than ever before."

There wasn't that much of a reaction to this. The veteran sailors of the Presence surely knew it was coming. And so the rest of the crew, following Kage's lead, began the process of voting for the day.

OOC: It is now Day 2. Voting will last until Tuesday, September 29th, at 13:00 US Eastern Time.



Feedback PMs are incoming, please alert me if there are any errors. I will post in the thread once I have sent them all out.

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

Attacked: spaceman98 (n1), Askthepizzaguy (n1)

Killed: TFT (n1)

Souls aboard: (27)
Andres
Askthepizzaguy
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Double A
El Barto
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Golden1Knight
Ice
Ironside
Ishmael
Ituralde
johnhughthom
Kagemusha
landlubber
Lissa
Montmorency
NotJimRV
seireikhaan
spaceman98
Sprig
TheFlax
Visorslash
Xiahou
Zack

[GeneralHankerchief]

Post 437 of main thread.

Day 2

The tale of Kagemusha, "The Fearsome Finn" as he was sometimes known, was an interesting one. Born in a fishing village on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, a little southwest of Helsinki, Kage felt a natural affinity towards the sea from a very early age. He liked nothing more than going to the docks and gazing out the horizon, wondering what lay beyond. When he was of an age to do so, he signed up for whatever ship crew he could, quickly becoming adept at a number of sailing tasks and features.

When Russia invaded and occupied Swedish Finland in the isoviha as part of the Great Northern War, Kage, seeing the oppression and atrocities that his countrymen were experiencing, decided to strike back the only way he knew how: he took to piracy, quickly acquiring a crew and doing his very best to plunder and disrupt Russian trade interests in that area. He acquired his nickname during this period, a direct result of him singlehandedly storming a small Russian fort along the coast, blowing it up, and taking the time to arrange the ashes into the pattern of a nude woman and rude insults directed at the occupiers afterwards.

Eventually, the situation in Finland became too dangerous and untenable for him to stay, and if Kage was being honest, he had had enough tragedy in his life. So, bidding goodbye to his crewmates, he set forth to the New World, where slates were wiped clean and opportunity was limitless. It took him nearly a year, but eventually Kage arrived in the Lesser Antilles. His skillset being what it was, he quickly joined up on a crew of a merchantman shipping goods back and forth from minor islands to the port of Barbados, but this proved to be unsatisfying. After all, engaging in partisan warfare and piracy to protect your homeland was slightly more than just one step up from being a boring trader. And so, for the second time in his life, Kage turned pirate.

Sadly, Kage was about fifty years too late - the Presence's exploits aside, piracy was clearly on the downswing in the New World as navies cracked down. His new ship's Captain was brave, but not much else, and the crew was quickly hunted down and defeated in battle by the Spanish Guardacosta. The crewmen who didn't die were left to rot in a Havana prison, awaiting execution.

Kage was going to have none of that - the devil, after all, would have an eternity to deal with him, but he wasn't ready to meet him yet. That night, as he was being delivered last rites, Kage subdued his priest, stole his clothes, and escaped, getting out of what what was previously considered to be an impregnable fortress. After robbing a villa on the outskirts of the city, Kage decided to head north, to join a pirate crew that had a track record of success. And so, Kage made his way to Nassau and joined the Presence.

The rest was history. He acquitted himself well, made friends among the crew, and took his share in the Presence's many adventures. Finally, during the retreat from New Tortuga, Kage saw his chance: the previous Captain had been left behind in the flight! Kage saw his opportunity to attain the pinnacle of pirate-dom. He would become Captain of the single most successful ship left!

It was to last all of one day. The election was extremely closely contested, and those who did not vote for Kage made it clear that they were displeased by this turn of events. Kage, the old survivor, who pretty much only had to rely on his skills at war and combat up to this point so far, now found himself in an unfamiliar position: he had to use diplomacy.

In the end, it was simply too late to teach an old dog new tricks. The loudest sailors banged the drum of mutiny early, they started politicking and making promises to get more people on board, and pretty soon more than three quarters of the entire crew was out for their newly-elected Captain's blood, apparently dissatisfied with his performance over a span of less than 24 hours to the point where they were going to commit the single-worst and dishonorable of all piratical actions, damning all of their souls to the deepest and coldest layer of Hell.

Some of the mutineers were more apologetic than others, clearly just in it for their own share of Kage's treasure. Kage gave his blessing to others, notably when Quartermaster Double A, looking conflicted, joined the vote. At the end of the day, Kage was at peace with the result. His final thoughts as he was being slashed mercilessly and unceremoniously dumped into the ocean were of large-breasted women, beer, and home.


This vacancy in the Captaincy left some administrative duties to be taken care of. Some of the initial mutineers looked more and more aghast as the day went on and more and more people piled on the bandwagon, meaning that their share of Kage's loot would be less and less.

"Right lads," said one of the mutineers, after having emerged from the cabin with a moderately-sized bag, "It looks like Kage's share of the treasure comes out to 108 gold. Now, what was the final count for mutiny again?"

"Twenty-one sailors out of twenty-eight souls aboard, meaning that each of us gets... 5 gold apiece. It not be a perfect division, so the first three to vote for the mutiny get the leftover pieces. In this case, this be Zack, Visorslash, and Lissa."

Everybody groaned. After all the effort and heartache that had been expended over the past several hours, this was the fruits of their labor? A mere five gold, six for three of them? Some were starting to wonder if this is worth it.

"Anyway, might as well resolve this sooner rather than later. The Presence needs a new Captain, so let's make it happen before we go to sleep tonight! The six sailors who not be supportin' this mutiny can't vote in this, but should we mutineers want them to take the tiller, that be fine."

"Wait!" one of them said. "What about Andres?" In the confusion of the mutiny, he had received the most votes for execution that day.

"Ah, right... well, no sense in further killin' in case we really want to, I guess. Let's decide his fate at the same time we're voting!" Everybody nodded at this, new scraps of parchment were brought out, and the second election for Captain of the Presence in as many days begun.

OOC: We are still in Day 2. Only those listed under voting for Mutiny are allowed to participate in this election. They will be deciding two things:

First of all, the new Captain. The voting procedure is the same as it was the previous day:

Elect: GeneralHankerchief

Unelect: GeneralHankerchief
Elect: Beskar

Furthermore, the mutineers will also be deciding Andres's fate. You have two choices here:

Vote: Kill
or
Vote: Spare

No treasure will be awarded for taking part in this vote, it is purely an administrative one.

Day 2 tally:
Andres: 8 (Montmorency, Sprig, spaceman98, El Barto, Lissa, Ishmael, Choxorn, Golden1Knight)
landlubber: 6 (Xiahou, seireikhaan, Gaius Scribonius Curio, johnhughthom, Ituralde, Andres)
Ironside: 4 (Askthepizaguy, Visorslash*, BSmith, TheFlax)
Zack: 2 (autolycus, Ironside)
autolycus: 2 (Zack, landlubber)
El Barto: 1 (Double A*)
Lissa: 1 (NotJimRV)

Abstained: 1 (Kagemusha)
Didn't vote: 2 (Csargo, Ice)

Mutiny: 21 (Zack, Visorslash, Lissa, Ishmael, Montmorency, landlubber, TheFlax, Sprig, NotJimRV, Choxorn, autolycus, BSmith, spaceman98, El Barto, Xiahou, Double A, Ituralde, seireikhaan, Ironside, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Golden1Knight)
Not eligible to vote in this election: 5 (johnhughthom, Askthepizzaguy, Ice, Csargo, Andres)

Voting will last until Wednesday, September 30th, at 14:00 US Eastern Time.