Swords and Sorcery Mafia Without the Swords [Concluded]

[Jabbz]

Commune with the Dead, or Pathologist (3-1): Most townies were offered this spell, but I'm the only one who used it. BSmith and Choxorn also started with it. Definitely a specialist spell.

Vitality, or Tough Guy (2-3): Half the town was offered this one, but it's arguably the least-useful spell available. Why would anyone cast this when they could be doing anything else, or even nothing? It's only made possible by the ruleset prohibiting discussion after death. If it's going to exist, it might as well permit discussion for the rest of the game, if only as a novelty device. (Then El Barto would use it). Zack and atheotes started with this.

Vitality/toughguy has a couple of things that make it interesting. First it's a two day spell, so you cast it night one, and it provides protection through night one and night two. Second you know you've been hit, but you get to discuss your thoughts after being hit, and lets you participate through half of the day, in a position where town takes everything you say as coming from a town perspective. Plus its cheap as shit.

Basically I have this envisioned as a spell you might cast when you were worried about being targeted, but didn't have better options. Also, its REALLY cheap.

Grease, or Lynchproof (4-2): Many people hate this, and arguably it is a bit bastard. I'm not sure if it would be improved or made worse by having the runner-up lynched following its use. At least, it's use ought to carry heavy penalties beyond mana-cost. Pretty funny to allow Mafia to use it even though it has no effect on them. In combination with Stasis, a long and healthy game would not likely lose much by excluding it. No one in the game selected this, though atheotes and Csargo selected stasis.

I don't see it as being a bastard role. Some people just come across as scummy in their town games (guilty as shit here). This spell provides an opportunity to get out of that, at least once. By only giving it to town (scum couldn't use and it wasn't offered to SK) it provided a towny with an opportunity to stop one mislynch, and that I think is valuable. Plus, it's expensive which means there is a reasonable opportunity cost.

Veritas (5-2), the spell showing the number of corrupted on the lynchwagon, is usually not worth the cost compared to other spells that could take its place. It's unique virtue is that bypasses obfuscation of investigative roles. Very few were offered this, though Stasis, the other Tier-5 spell (see above), was offered to only atheotes and Csargo, and they both took it.

I was actually sad to see no one pick this spell. It's very powerful, but very situational. Picture someone having used that on day 1. They would have been told no scum were on the vote. That person just town cleared six people, five of whom lived through the night. That's over a third of the game. That was the same for both the other two votes. Since scum saw that spell as an option (scum saw every spell option except the unique SK spell, and the hunters retribution) I would have expected them to make sure at least one or two was always on the wagon. Now of course, should the wagon only be 4 ppl and 1 scum, it's less effective, or gods help you its a 7 person wagon with 2 scum, and you still have to sell your results. Still it has the potential to be a very powerful spell, and was largely responsible for a town win the last game I used this ability.

Speaking of the scan (Detect Corruption 4-1), it appeared a bit less than I expected (though everyone who was offered took it). Csargo, BSmith, and Zack had it, and used it up fairly quick. BSmith's only told because I communed with him, and Zack had the unusual virtue of multi-use. BTW Jabbz, looking at the spreadsheet Zack doesn't seem to be marked as having the scan, or really any spells other than Vitality. Is that an oversight?

No I mentioned that I erased the spells used by players as they went so I could keep an account of what spells they had left. You can see which abilities they used on the actions tab.

Another seeming error in the Spellbook, Choxorn is not listed as having Incineration (4-3), though he used it. Incineration was offered to me, Choxorn, and atheotes. Only Choxorn took it, and he used it well. This spell was well-balanced in the setup IMO.

[/quote]

Same as above.

One other thing worth mentioning in regards to Zack's spell choices. I had meant for players to be able to pick up to two versions of any spell tier 1-3, and only one each 4 and 5, but I forgot to mention that in the PM, so I let it slide when Zack wanted two cops. I would have probably drawn the line at someone wanting two incinerates, and definitely would have for two tier 5's. That restriction is definitely something I would impose on using this setup again.