Pirate Ship Mafia III [Concluded]

[Zack]

re: "solve by spreadsheet"

I personally feel the delayed reveals fuel this. For example, the spreadsheet would never have been used to try and pin down the frenchman if ishmael was already revealed as such. And looking at the spreadsheet is forced due to a lack of info that reveals would normally provide. You can't use old-fashioned analysis because you don't know alignments, so you have to rely on other means.

Also, imo the delayed reveals are incredibly, unbelievably annoying, and no reveals at all even more so. I don't understand what exactly it adds to the game besides pointless frustration.

[spaceman98]

re: "solve by spreadsheet"

I personally feel the delayed reveals fuel this. For example, the spreadsheet would never have been used to try and pin down the frenchman if ishmael was already revealed as such. And looking at the spreadsheet is forced due to a lack of info that reveals would normally provide. You can't use old-fashioned analysis because you don't know alignments, so you have to rely on other means.

Also, imo the delayed reveals are incredibly, unbelievably annoying, and no reveals at all even more so. I don't understand what exactly it adds to the game besides pointless frustration.

The delayed reveals did help us, which was nice in a game with a lot of perks for the town (a lot of the mislynches of Kage loyalists like Xiahou would not have happened had Kage's town status been revealed). That said, delayed reveal is an annoying mechanic overall, since the lynch is supposed to be the town's tool for gathering information, and delayed reveals denies the town that, forcing spreadsheeting.

________________________________________

If you hadn't bothered with the protection group, I would have abandoned ship. The impacts were getting too close and I was proven right the next day. That's always the most frustrating parts about Mafia games, where you're doomed because of something you did two weeks ago and there's nothing you can do to save you. Also my window of playing (now) didn't really fit with the other players. All the important lynch decisions and back and forth vote trading, alwasy happened when I was asleep.

Overall I enjoyed the game though. I thought the stealing and guarding would be more important, and I really enjoyed that part. In hindsight though, I think the specific writeups favour the town. Ideally the Captain would have organized nightly mock fights, with people put in Vigging and protections groups that would then duke it out and have everybody accounted for. Everybody who doesn't play along would be French.
Also trying to get the Captaincy to a Frenchman would probably have been the best option to win the game as the French. That or the Myrdraal approach of just going along with the vig kills until the crew is properly decimated.

Reading this, I was fully in support of Kagemushas captaincy and don't really understand why Visor and co pushed for the mutiny. I thought they might be afraid of him being French, but never said so and he was revealed as town later. That coupled with my fear that the French would install themselves in the Captaincy was responsible why I couldn't get to trust Visorslash throughout the game, which probably got me killed for being too uncooperative.

Thanks to GH for putting in the effort of hosting thig. I know I asked enough rules questions and always became a prompt and friendly reply. I can only imagine how much work it is to host a game of that scale. So thanks a lot, really!

"That or the Myrdraal approach of just going along with the vig kills until the crew is properly decimated."

That's basically what we did. Only problem is, some of the vig kills were actually aimed at us

__________________________________

This game really put town vs. scum game in perspective for me. I've always thought that my town and scum game were pretty similar. But if I was town, I would have probably been a vocal Kage loyalist. I still don't get why he was mutinied frankly

[spaceman98]

actually, re-reading that day, its hard to say which side I would have taken as town. Still, I'm curious: was there any backroom conspriacy or knowledge behind that mutiny, or just general frustration?

[autolycus]

I think the other thing that made me feel more like Bsmith came out of left field, and this is partially on me, is that I read khaan's death as a five man kill, rather than a four man kill and a one man kill, both successful. I also read Curio's death as being a one/one/one, where only one succeeded, rather than a one/one/one where two succeeded. Therefore, I hadn't perceived any solo kills besides the first mate.

If that ambiguity wasn't intentional, I think adding a recap of publically visible actions to nights, as I think was present in Capo (but I wouldn't swear to it), would improve the experience.

[BSmith]

I did try to hide the fact I could solo kill as long as possible so as to avoid the inevitable questions. Remember I was ultimately after the items and really needed people to work with me so I could find them. If I could kill as a group instead of solo I went that way. Originally the GSC kill was supposed to be as a group too, but I could sense it falling apart and went solo.

[GeneralHankerchief]

actually, re-reading that day, its hard to say which side I would have taken as town. Still, I'm curious: was there any backroom conspriacy or knowledge behind that mutiny, or just general frustration?

There was, in the main Treachery on the High Seas QT group, but I think everyone's motivations for participating in it were different. It ended up just all snowballing together eventually. A really weird phase for me to preside over.

Ideally the Captain would have organized nightly mock fights, with people put in Vigging and protections groups that would then duke it out and have everybody accounted for. Everybody who doesn't play along would be French.

I was ready for this if anyone tried it. There was a provision in the rules that any townie who ended up in a solo attack or protection, whether by intention or by just the group falling apart, had a chance of not just failure but death (Csargo actually came extremely close to dying as a result of his solo "protection" of Curio the night he was converted). There would have been one night of it and then I think enthusiasm would have been sapped once there were about four casualties due to collateral damage.

[Montmorency]

On the other hand, players in the writeups seem to take 'flesh wounds' fairly-frequently with no problem.

[GeneralHankerchief]

On the other hand, players in the writeups seem to take 'flesh wounds' fairly-frequently with no problem.

Flavor. After three games, you start to run out of ideas for how fights go on a pirate ship.

[Montmorency]

Writeup detail isn't sine qua non IMO, though I do like the Capo IV writeups for being some of the densest and most inventive of any of my games.

[Montmorency]

By the way, let's have a shoutout for Andres.

After apologizing to him following Ishmael's death, when I came to see him as town, after the late-day discussion of D8 I sent him a final PM expressing my disgust in his evil nature and revealing his fate.

And in the end, he still sent in his orders for the obviously-defunct Golden vig, even with the public outcry against him, even with (I assume) the lack of anyone CCing him orders, even when he could have abandoned ship or stolen from someone.