This is the story of two Mafiosi who had the game well in hand, yet spectacularly lost it in the end through a series of errors and miscommunications. These mistakes were shared by both Gertgregoor and myself.
Game Opening:
I was, of course, surprised to be selected as one of the mafia. I knew immediately our odds of winning were rather slim – we had more people to kill than any mafia team to date, and there was still the matter of the detective. Besides, I’d already identified myself as a threat to the mafia in the second game, and when I wasn’t killed, the townspeople would suspect me. I didn’t know anything about Gertgregoor, my partner, but he quickly suggested killing certain people, including Tiberius, Lemur, and anyone else who appeared to be following the game too closely, as well as several that knew him well.
Initially I didn’t have much of a strategy behind who to kill and who to vote for. I planned to make both my kills and votes mostly random, except that I would plan them in such a way that no one could use my own vote-indexing methods against me.
Turn 1:
Kommodus Killed: Sigurd Frafnesbane
Gertgregoor Killed: discovery1
Sigurd Frafnesbane’s death was a completely random selection. I felt bad about it, since he was new to the game and hadn’t even had a chance to play. Nevertheless, someone had to die, and the random dice-roll chose him. My chosen method of carbon monoxide poisoning didn’t quite come out in the tale that was eventually told. It didn’t matter, though, as this wasn’t a well-thought-out kill.
Gertgregoor wasted no time in drawing suspicion to himself with his bandwagon-jumping. After Sasaki called him out on a suspicious post, I tried to restrain him and prevent him from getting himself into further trouble. Fortunately, Sasaki’s accusation was lost and forgotten. It was this, and Sasaki’s persistent attempts at detective work, that convinced me he had to die. However, it wasn’t safe to kill him… yet.
Also, Gertgregoor suggested killing B_Ray and Zalmoxis, saying that either might be the detective. He thought he’d found a pattern in the way GH selected us, and they fit the pattern as well. I agreed and suggested killing B_Ray first while leaving Zalmoxis for later.
The Banquo’s Ghost bandwagon gathered steam quickly, and I was happy enough to watch it from a distance.
Executed: Banquo’s Ghost
Turn 2:
Kommodus Killed: UltraWar
Gertgregoor Killed: Zalmoxis
I decided that the random killing method wasn’t optimal, and selected UltraWar in an attempt to frame Ianofsmeg16. Tricking him into using a poisoned syringe was not completely original – I’ve seen that method used in a different story. It seemed particularly chilling. Meanwhile, Gertgregoor accidentally killed Zalmoxis instead of B_Ray.
It seems as if Destroyer of Hope is one of those players who are suspected because of their name alone. He always seems to get lynched without any good reason.
Executed: Destroyer of Hope
Turn 3:
Kommodus Killed: Tiberius
Gertgregoor Killed: Silver Rusher
It occurred to me at this point to try to make my kills fit into a larger and more continuous story. Using the money stolen from UltraWar, I wrote a tale in which the Mafioso tricked Tiberius into obtaining a key component of an EMP, and then killed him. The original story was a bit different – Tiberius was the bank manager and the Mafioso was posing as a CIA agent, claiming that the mafia would soon hit the bank, and that he wanted to lay a trap for them inside the bank. GH didn’t want to assign Tiberius a job, so he made some changes.
Gertgregoor and I hadn’t discussed his plan to kill Silver Rusher this turn. I was disappointed when I saw it, as I thought a highly suspected player like Silver should’ve been left alive to draw votes.
My plan to frame The Spartan, of course, went off far better than I could have imagined. His phony confession (out of spite, I assumed) gave a big boost to the mafia. Gertgregoor and I decided to go with it – after this point, even though he chose his own victims, I wrote the killing methods for both. This gave me even greater creative control, which I welcomed. My stories began to grow even more elaborate.
Executed: The Spartan
Turn 4:
Kommodus Killed: Sasaki Kojiro
Gertgregoor Killed: B_Ray
Gertgregoor originally suggested killing B_Ray, then switched to Lemur. I sympathized with Lemur’s predicament (his posts had made me laugh and feel sad at the same time), but the odds were still against us and this was no time for sentimentality. I talked him out of it and suggested he go with his original plan to kill B_Ray. Obviously he did (although I still wrote the
Vespa Mandarinia killing method, inspired by Lemur’s request for killer bees).
Starting with this turn, I began to write my stories word-for-word in the way I wanted them to appear. The General, for the most part, obliged, although he made a few minor changes to B_Ray’s death. After this, I recognized elements he wouldn’t like and left them out of my stories. I think the rest of my kills were left completely intact.
The kill I used on Sasaki Kojiro had originally been intended for Crazed Rabbit; however, at this point I felt safe enough to kill Sasaki. Almost immediately I regretted leaving several clues in the story’s text. Eclectic/DA immediately suggested going back over what had been said by Sasaki and B_Ray. Would anyone resurrect Sasaki’s accusation of Gertgregoor? Would Sasaki recognize me as his killer?
Fortunately, suspicion was drawn in other directions (due to some
wonderfully helpful detective work by certain people) and Uesugi Kenshin was executed. However, B_Ray did note his suspicion of Gertgregoor. This actually saved Drisos’ life, as we decided to keep him alive a little longer and let him draw suspicion.
What really surprised me in this round was how
sure people were of UK’s guilt. Granted, there were good-sounding points made against him, and some of his defenses were weak, but it’s very hard to be certain of anything in the game of Mafia, especially through psychoanalysis.
Sasaki also did something more honorable than I would have, and refused to comment on his suspicions after death (not even in the traditional “whispers from the dead” way). Therefore, killing him off was safer than I thought. He actually seems to have partially started a trend; several of our victims thereafter refused to comment any further after death, although some continued to do so (most notably Silver Rusher and Crazed Rabbit).
Sasaki, your post was hilarious – I’d have given you your two buxom henchwomen, but I was trying to keep the story realistic.
Executed: Uesugi Kenshin
Turn 5:
Kommodus Killed: Divinus Arma
Gertgregoor Killed: Orb
I killed DA this turn because he’d outlived his usefulness; besides, I was able to make his death ironic, which was fun. (Yes, his death was inspired by the movie
Saw, but I also had to think up Orb’s death.) DA had attempted much detective work, and although it was mostly off-base, no one was suspecting him anymore. Gertgregoor wanted to kill Drisos, but I convinced him that this was a bad idea, and he chose Orb instead. The story I wrote for Orb’s death was the longest to that point, and unfortunately not as interesting as I’d hoped. I intended that the “top-secret code” stolen from Sasaki would be used in arming the EMP.
Votes were split fairly evenly this turn, but Ignoramus ended up executed. I can’t remember why. This was also the turn in which GH killed off many of the lurkers with his “Divine Wrath” event. That was a help to the mafia, as it meant we had fewer to kill, but it also meant the villagers had fewer suspects.
Executed: Ignoramus
Turn 6:
Kommodus Killed: Ice
Gertgregoor Killed: Pannonian
Gertgregoor killed Pannonian, once again because he was a frequent contributor. I was beginning to feel that this strategy would come back to bite us if we kept it up, as I might soon be the only “threat to the mafia” left, which would put me in a highly suspicious position. I felt it was time to make a change, and start killing people who were unsuspected, starting with Ice.
Also this turn, Silver Rusher posted convincing arguments that Spartan had been lying about being in the mafia. I was surprised the deception had lasted at all; I immediately made a post supporting Silver, since I knew he would be believed.
As a result of this development, Gertgregoor went back to writing his own kills. We decided there was no point in continuing the deception. Also, with the death of Ice, I finally wrote about the use of the EMP. It actually wasn’t until this point that I chose nanoterrorism as my Mafioso’s ultimate plan, and once I had, the NASA Ames Research Center was a logical choice of target (though I had to research it a bit). I was pleased with how the story turned out.
The voting began with another rash of voting for Lemur. (He even voted for himself.) I, however, voted for Divine Wind, and soon a DW bandwagon started, with people switching their votes to him. At this point I still felt that a living Lemur would still be useful for drawing votes.
Executed: Divine Wind
Turn 7:
Kommodus Killed: Drisos
Gertgregoor Killed: Cowhead418
I originally planned to kill Cowhead418, but Gertgregoor convinced me to let him do the job, and that I should kill Drisos. He had wanted Drisos, who apparently knows him quite well, dead for a long time, but decided it would be too suspicious if the arrivederci-Mafioso killed him.
My motive for wanting Cowhead418 dead had little to do with the fact that he killed me in game 2. I simply killed him because he was one of the unsuspected players, and I thought he might eventually start accusing me.
This time I jumped on the bandwagon in voting for Reenk Roink. He didn’t defend himself very well; in fact, during his execution I thought he came close to pulling a “Spartan.” It was, of course, nowhere near as effective as Spartan’s deception. It might’ve helped if GG and I had gone back to me writing both kills, but we didn’t think of it.
Also this turn, Alexander the Pretty Good was killed under GH’s new anti-lurker policy. He’d missed three turns in a row.
Executed: Reenk Roink
Turn 8:
Kommodus Killed: Peasant Phill
Gertgregoor Killed: Hiji
This time, both our kills reflected our strategy of taking out the least-suspected players. Looking back, I’m not sure we made the right choices this time. I told GG he should kill either AggonyDuck, Hiji, or SSNeo; however, I told him that killing AD would probably bring suspicion on himself. He chose Hiji instead. Regardless, he ended up bringing more suspicion on himself than I could have imagined.
At this point in the game, I felt that we were set to coast to victory. All we had to do was avoid any major mistakes. However, Gertgregoor proved up to the challenge of torpedoing our chances (no offense intended to GG; I made plenty of mistakes as well).
This turn began with GG getting accused by Dutch_guy, and proceeding to make some extremely suspicious posts. What was worse, he brought up some powerful arguments against me – ideas that, surprisingly, everyone had overlooked before, and that I had hoped would stay buried. I understand his motive for doing this, but I don’t think it was necessary. If it hadn’t been for his carelessness, the blame would’ve easily fallen on Wonderland.
We decided to try to salvage the situation by portraying ourselves as enemies. I posted a strong anti-Gert message, and he voted for me. I was sure he would go down easily, but for some reason, AggonyDuck fought for him and I thought I saw a chance to save him. Myself, Gert, and our ally AD made for a total of three votes against Wonderland. I thought we were in the clear as I watched the normal 24-hour period run out.
Sadly, this was not the case. Here’s how the final voting went down (all times are GMT):
1. At 18:37, the 24-hour mark passed. At this point, the score was 4-1-1 for WL, GG, and EMFM. (At least I’m pretty sure of this, since I think Lemur’s initial vote for GG had been changed to WL at this point. He can correct me if I’m wrong.) I prematurely breathed a huge sigh of relief.
2. At 18:53, Lemur changed his vote to EMFM by post-edit, making the score 3-1-2 for WL, GG, and EMFM. This went unnoticed for a long time.
3. At 19:27, WL changed his vote to GG, making the score 3-2-2.
4. At 19:30, GH posted a message indicating the vote was tied. I noticed Lemur’s vote change, and sent GH a message indicating that the score was not tied. I think GH still thought Lemur’s vote was for GG.
5. At 22:00, EMFM voted for GG, assuming he was breaking a tie. This made the score 3-3-2.
6. GH posted WL’s execution under the assumption that Lemur’s vote had gone to WL. After reading my PM, he realized this was not the case and announced a re-vote.
7. As you know, Gertgregoor was executed in the re-vote. I changed my vote to him, thinking to salvage the original plan to portray myself as his enemy.
I felt that the mafia had caught a bad break this turn due to the voting anomalies. Nevertheless, I had no choice now but to proceed alone. I found myself wishing I had simply stuck to my guns and maintained my vote for GG the entire time.
Executed: Gertgregoor
Turn 9:
Kommodus Killed: Crazed Rabbit, SSNeoperestroika
Finally we get to the turn in which I spectacularly lost the game with some bone-headed maneuvering worthy of the Mafia Hall of Shame.
I decided on a change of plans; instead of letting everyone know that GG was a Mafioso and using his accusation of me as an alibi, I would write one of the kills in his style. There were two reasons for this:
1. Since I’d switched my vote to Wonderland, my alibi as GG’s enemy was damaged.
2. If it became too obvious that GG was guilty, then the people who had supported his execution all along would be the ones to look most innocent. That included Lemur and Wonderland – people who I wanted to appear as prime suspects. If this happened, the process of elimination would target me.
I had to look up some information on Persian culture, and make use of an online English-to-Persian translator, to write what I thought was a convincing GG-kill. Unfortunately, GG had one more monkey-wrench to throw into my plans (unintentionally). On Saturday morning, I notified him of the change of plans. However, he had apparently already asked GH to include the message “at least I died for a better cause” in his execution. By Saturday evening, when GH posted the execution, GG still hadn’t logged in and seen my message; as a result, his statement was included in the execution, making it clear he was guilty. Even after this, the game was not lost yet; I had a lot more blundering to do.
I sent my kills to GH early, and my decision to kill Crazed Rabbit was probably ill-thought. He was previously leaning heavily towards Lemur. The problem was that by the time he posted this, I had already sent my kills in. If I’d have been thinking, I’d have sent a hasty message off to GH to change the target (probably to AggonyDuck or EMFM).
Also during this turn, I asked GH how he would handle the endgame scenario if I was left alive with one remaining villager. He originally said he’d let the dead vote. I didn’t like this and asked for a double execution instead. In the end, the General was even more generous than I asked; he announced that if I survived the round, I would be allowed to kill the remaining three villagers. Unfortunately even this generosity wasn’t enough, as I proceeded to shoot myself in the foot.
I saw AggonyDuck’s post announcing he had a new suspect; immediately I knew it was me. “Uh oh,” I thought, “This isn’t good. If he names me I’m history.” I actually PM’d him under the guise of doing an experiment to verify Crazed Rabbit’s analysis of EMFM’s innocence. I hoped this would convince him of my innocence. Apparently it didn’t work; in fact, it may have solidified AD’s opinion of me.
Perhaps if I’d simply been quiet and let the people lynch Lemur, all would have been well. However, I made a post defending EMFM using the results of my experiment with AD. I was attempting to appear helpful, but Crazed Rabbit pointed it out as appearing to wait for a bandwagon to jump on. However, I think it was really AD who sealed my fate, making an unexpected switch and voting for me instead of Lemur or Wonderland. He had no evidence for doing so, but that was the point – I’d been too careful in my strategy. I had positioned myself almost perfectly to deceive everyone else and deflect all suspicion away from me. AD was the first to realize this, and his decision to vote for me was a stroke of inspiration.
After that, Lemur voted for me (which was a given), and EMFM was apparently convinced by the arguments of Crazed Rabbit and AggonyDuck. Thus the game ended. Congratulations to the successful villagers!
Executed: Kommodus
Game Outcome
On one hand, I lasted a lot longer than I thought I would, and it was a hard-fought game. On that level, I’m satisfied. On the other hand, we squandered a great chance at victory, both through what I perceived as Gertgregoor’s carelessness and my erroneous endgame strategies. On that level I’m disappointed.
As you know, I was writing a story which progressed with each kill. I had plans for the ending of it, which I will now never write. It involved unleashing a targeted nanobot plague on humanity (not all humanity, but specific individuals and groups). My Mafioso's plan was not actually to bring an end to the world - in a sick way he really was trying to "save" humanity from itself. I did my best to portray him as a dangerous, psychotic villain, with a warped and twisted philosophy that could make sense within a dark and cynical worldview.
The practical results of this game, of course, are that I’ll never be viewed the same way in a game of mafia here again. I’ve become known as a danger to the mafia
and a danger to the villagers. Most games in the near future will probably see me slaughtered by the mafia early on (as in Sasaki’s game) or lynched by the villagers.
In addition, I think I devoted a bit too much time and thought to this game. It wasn’t a problem early on, when I thought we had little chance; but as the game progressed and victory became possible, I got a little caught up in the strategy. In the end, I found that I didn’t really like lying. When I was successful I frightened myself, and when I was unsuccessful I felt like a blunderer. I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. For these reasons, I’m quite relieved that the game is finally over, and I’ve decided to take a step back from mafia games for a time.
Earlier in this game, when the General announced his wish to actually
play in a game of mafia, I volunteered to administer one. I’ve actually played several games of mafia in real life, and found myself to be
terrible at it, especially when it comes to being a Mafioso. I’m usually a lousy liar in real life, and people have no trouble discerning the changes in my behavior. However, I’ve found myself to be a creative and humorous narrator for the games, so I usually go for that role. Of course, there are still a couple of games going on right now, so I have no intention of starting a new one for quite some time.
I’d like to end with one final comment. Like Lemur in game 2, my views and behavior in this game have no connection to the way I am in real life. I avoid dishonesty, and have a pretty positive outlook on life. You’d probably like me if you knew me. If some of my kills seemed brutal and my lies diabolical, remember that I was writing a story, playing a game, and acting very unlike myself. I harbor no malice towards anyone I “killed,” nor towards those who ended my life.
Again, congratulations to the villagers, and especially to Crazed Rabbit and AggonyDuck, the ones who saw through my deception. This is a hard game for the mafia.
Re: Mafia III: Return of the Mafia
Originally Posted by Lemur
and he's still alive as well...
) but I refused to go quietly, as it were. I was afraid that my defending of half the village the earlier round would make me a target, but I figured that by that time I needed to do something to help save the village. I was not certain gert was guilty, but he was the prime suspect (and you actually were next on my spreadsheet, but I didn't investigate you). I think my defense of EMFM and Wonderland helped in the final round. I was able to use the trust I gained to try and persuade them to go after you.
In next game i need a new approach.Cant wait for another one to start.Great job guys!
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