French Revolution Mafia [Concluded]

[GeneralHankerchief]

"Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow."
~ Hugo

"The French Revolution gave birth to no artists. The only poet of the times was the guillotine."
~ Camus

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

Paris, 1793

It is the fifth year of the French Revolution, and its fate is balanced on a guillotine’s edge.

The country is besieged on all sides by enemies, currently fighting against Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Britain in a fierce war that threatens the new republic’s survival. In response, the governing body of France, the National Convention, has declared a levée en masse, or mandatory conscription of the country’s young men. While the sheer numbers of troops suddenly available to France may even the odds, they still have a long way before turning the tide.

While these external threats are certainly potent, it is the nation’s internal problems that truly threaten to tear France apart. Across the country, particularly in the western region known as the Vendée, counter-Revolutionary violence has sprung up in response to the increasingly radical direction the government has gone in recently. Divided at all levels of society - community, family, church, and more - every individual has had to make a choice: Where exactly do you stand politically? With the stakes of selecting the “wrong” answer to this question growing ever more severe, everyone is on edge.

Louis XVI is dead, sentenced by the Convention and executed by means of that great equalizer, the guillotine. Lafayette and Mirabeau, those great noble heroes of the people, are either in exile or dead. In Paris, the common people, known as the sans-culottes, have taken to patrolling the streets in paramilitary groups in order to enforce their ideals of the way things should be. The optimistic verses of the Revolutionary anthem Ça Ira (“It Will Be Fine”), so popular in 1790 and carrying the hope of every Frenchman that the dreams of 1789 would be realized, have largely been replaced by more bloodthirsty stanzas calling for the death of the aristocrats and priests. The ambitious Constitution of 1793, designed to further the aims of the Revolution and to continue the march towards equality, was suspended before ever going into effect due to the national emergency.

The Revolution’s innocence has departed, and the Reign of Terror has arrived.

In the National Convention, four separate factions vie for power:
- The Mountain (or Montagnards), a fast-rising political group who want to continue the radical turn the Revolution has taken. They are ruthlessly competent, have some of the brightest political thinkers of the era, but have also racked up quite a high body count in pursuit of their goals.
- The Girondins, the formerly-majority party who have lost some of their influence but are still strong. The Girondins are seen as moderate (for those who view that as a good thing) and experienced, but are also increasingly perceived as lazy, corrupt, and largely to blame for France getting into so many wars.
- The Populists, who have seen what the common people of France can do when truly inspired and want to further tap into that power for the sake of the nation. The Populists more than anyone else enjoy the support of the sans-culottes of Paris and elsewhere, but are also disunited in political views (ranging from somewhat moderate to ultra-radical) and are seen as ineffective at actually governing.
- The Militarists, hypercompetent specialists in usually one or two fields who want to put their expertise to better use. The Militarists, if united, can almost certainly do what is needed to keep France afloat, but they are also seen as little more than ambitious technocrats who are largely distrusted by the people (and themselves).

All four of the factions have roughly equal representation in the National Convention, each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, only one faction can emerge triumphant and direct the course of the Revolution to their will.

However, what they don’t know is that a fifth faction has secretly infiltrated the Convention: The Royalists. Driven underground but not entirely exterminated despite the Convention’s best efforts, this faction’s greatest desire is to kill everyone else, take back control of the government, and restore a Bourbon to the throne and end the Revolution altogether, a completely unacceptable result for anyone other than themselves.

Will the four main factions put aside their differences long enough to stop the Royalist threat, knowing that only one of them may emerge triumphant at the end? Will the Royalists complete their goal and turn the clock back on the country forever? Will the draconian policies of the Terror be enough to truly safeguard the gains of the Revolution? The world is waiting to find out.

French Revolution Mafia

Overview:
Welcome to French Revolution Mafia! You will play an elected member of the National Convention - the governing body of France during the Reign of Terror - and are part of one of four political factions, as described in the above flavor as well as the rules below. Your job is simple: outnumber the other three factions by the end of the game, and eliminate the Royalists, who have infiltrated the Convention and serve as the mafia faction this game. Maintaining a perfect balance between these two aims will be the key to obtaining victory.

Game setup and rules:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

French Revolution Mafia is a game designed for 24 players. Each player will be randomly assigned a role belonging to one of four factions. Once this is decided, a second rand will determine the mafia, who are an unspecified number. This means that, while unlikely, it is theoretically possible for all of the mafia to be a part of one faction.

Each faction will be assigned factional abilities, which will be further described in the “Factional Abilities” section of your role PM. In addition, a small amount of players will have individual personal abilities.

Voting is to be done in the traditional .Org style, like so:

Vote: GeneralHankerchief

Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Sasaki Kojiro

Simply bolding a name is not enough and will not be counted. Abstain and No Lynch are both allowed. You do not need to unvote (or specify who you are unvoting), but it is appreciated. I will be tallying by hand, so any vote counts made by novice's tool or other software, while welcome, are unofficial.

Phase lengths will generally run 48/24, with some exceptions (I will be out of town for the first weekend in March, so that one will probably be extended). The start/end times of phases may drift over time as the game progresses - please allow for my work schedule and dedication to providing good flavor.

You may not directly quote role PMs or any other communication from me. No screenshots are to be used.

You may not talk to players outside the game thread or host-provided Quicktopics.

Posts are not to be edited, however, I will give you a one-minute grace window to correct spelling/grammatical errors. No actual content is to be added or deleted. As moderator, I have the power of viewing the original version of an edited post, so I will be checking this!

Tie votes will be decided by random selection.

Inactive players will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

I will lock the public thread at night, however, your individual faction Quicktopics (including the mafia one) will be open 24/7.

Roles and factions will be revealed upon death; individual abilities will not.

There is to be no posting after death, for the first time ever in one of my games (I will allow for one generic comment immediately postdeath). A spectator chat for the dead will be provided.

Lastly, all of the Gameroom rules apply: Be reasonable, friendly, and, of course, have fun!

Historical disclaimer:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This mafia game is intended to explore two of the most debated historiographical questions of the French Revolution: Were the excesses and killings of the Reign of Terror justified in keeping France secure, and was the Terror necessary in preserving the gains made in 1789 or were they a perversion of the Revolution’s original ideas?

While I have made an effort to remain historically faithful, this game takes place during a very complex period of history and some concessions will have to be made for the sake of simplicity. A partial but by no means complete list of these are as follows:

- The historical Reign of Terror took place during a period of little more than a year, from Spring 1793 to July 1794. I’m condensing its events into a period of around a week.
- I’m setting the game during an indeterminate time in 1793. Events during the period, both early and late, will be cherry-picked and inserted in the game possibly out of chronological order for flavor purposes.
- Not every character I’ve made into a role was an actual delegate of the National Convention.
- During the Terror, many of the characters present in this game were out of Paris on various missions and otherwise for portions of the year. Obviously we will assume that they were all present in the city for the duration of the game.
- The Montagnards were pretty much the dominant political faction for the entire period. Here, I’ve made it more even. This includes some fudging of characters’ political affiliations.

Selected bibliography:

McPhee, Peter. Liberty or Death: The French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015.

Mercier, Louis-Sébastien. Le Tableau de Paris. Edited by Jeremy D. Popkin. State College: Penn State University Press, 1999.

Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled: The Committee of Public Safety during the Terror. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941.

Roux, Jacques. “Manifesto of the Enragés.” Translated by Mitchell Abidor. Address presented at the National Convention, Paris, France, 1793. https://www.marxists.org/history/fra.../enrages01.htm

Scurr, Ruth. Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. London: Chatto & Windus, 2006.

Tackett, Timothy. The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015.

Thompson, J. M. Leaders of the French Revolution. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 1988.

More on factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As detailed above, there are four separate factions in this game:
- The Montagnards
- The Girondins
- The Populists
- The Militarists
With the Royalists serving as the mafia.

Each faction has their own unique set of powers. Anybody in the faction can perform any ability at night, however, some abilities are secretly linked to a player known only by me. Upon that player's death, the faction will lose access to that ability. For example, if I (unknowingly) was linked to my faction's 2x vig shot ability, anybody could perform those vig shots, but if I died before those shots were taken, my faction could no longer make use of that ability.

Each faction will have access to a Quicktopic where members can discuss strategy with each other (open both day and night), but there is a chance of your faction being infiltrated by the Royalists, so beware! The Royalists will not be allowed to share these links with each other, nor will they be allowed to excessively quote from them. They will only be permitted to paraphrase bigger-picture stuff.

Only one faction will ultimately win the game, with a single specific exception that will be described in your role PM.

Partway through the game, new abilities or additional uses of present ones may be given to each faction at my discretion. I will not unfairly favor or penalize any one faction when and if this event transpires.

Signed up (24/24):
Montmorency
Csargo
Lewwyn
Renata
Dp101
BSmith
Zack
Arakhor
seireikhaan
Choxorn
atheotes
Kagemusha
Snerk
Fenn
Askthepizzaguy
Sooh
autolycus
Al Sipsclar
El Barto
Jabbz
NotACop
Logic
Manasi
Monstrdude

[GeneralHankerchief]

Game status and important posts
(This post will be continuously updated throughout the game)

Game status: Postgame!

List of all writeups/other important posts:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Game start
Day 1 - Jabbz is lynched
Rule clarification about the dead posting in factional Quicktopics
Night 1 - Fenn, Monstrdude, Logic, and Kagemusha are killed
Winston Hughes replaces Sooh
Day 2 - Arakhor is killed by Manasi
Day 2 - atheotes is lynched
Night 2 - BSmith and Askthepizzaguy are killed
Day 3 - Dp101 is lynched
Night 3 - Renata is killed
Announcement on the Yes/No vote and clarification as to what it does
Day 4 - El Barto is lynched, Law of 22 Prarial passes
Night 4 - autolycus, Al Sipsclar, Snerk, Winston Hughes, seireikhaan, and Montmorency are killed
Day 5 - Lewwyn is lynched
Night 5 - NotACop is killed
Day 6 - Csargo is lynched
CONCLUSION
Postgame - all role PMs

[GeneralHankerchief]

General Rules and Guidelines (abridged version)

1. Be excellent to each other.

2. Try to cut down on the profanity if possible. The : daisy : smiley is a good replacement.

3. As moderator and game host, I reserve the right to edit posts that I deem breaking the rules/toe too close to the line. In every occasion where this arises I will strive to keep the overall content of these posts unchanged.

4. Questions? Need to vent? Just feel like chatting? PM me.

The full list of Gameroom rules can be found here

[GeneralHankerchief]

"Terror, salutary terror, is here in truth the order of the day. It represses all the efforts of the wicked, it divests crime of all covering."
~ Joseph Fouché

Game start

Each successive government in Revolutionary France had its own traits attached to it, as if these bodies were individual persons. The first one, the National Assembly, had been full of hope and promise and ready to work. The second, the Legislative Assembly, had been marred by inefficiency, wrong decisions, and bad feelings among its members. The current one, the National Convention, was far more effective and ruthlessly determined to weed out and destroy all of France's enemies - including and especially those who sat in the very Convention chamber.

This chamber was located in a section of the Tuileries Palace in Paris, capital residence of all the Bourbon monarchs starting with the great Henry IV up through the headless Louis XVI. It once represented the power and prestige of the French monarchy, and now it housed the most anti-monarchist and radical governing body the world had ever seen. In another time, perhaps the members of the Convention - who were all intelligent and were largely well-educated - would reflect on this irony and take the scene in.

Now, though, there was business to attend to. France was in danger, and it was their solemn duty to put a stop to it.

The President of the Convention called the meeting to order, banging on his gavel loudly. "Messieurs," he said several times, trying to get everyone to quiet down, "Messieurs, the next item on the agenda for today is the Law of Suspects, which will build on the earlier Revolutionary Tribunal law and grant this government further power to prosecute its aims against all traitors. We will now hear the arguments."

One of the Montagnards instantly shot up from his bench and commanded the floor. "We of the Mountain believe that this law is an absolute necessity in terms of allowing this august body the tools and powers that it so desperately requires to see France through the current emergency! All of Europe is bearing down on us, the Vendée is in open revolt, and who knows how many agents that the foreign governments and hated Royalists have in their pay scattered throughout the country? Passage of this much-needed law will allow us to clamp down on ALL of the traitors of the nation, not just certain ones! We must be ever-vigilant, ever-diligent, and this law reminds us all to be such!"

This speech was followed by general applause, especially from the speaker's section, but it was not unanimously well-received. A member of the Girondins was next to rise. "Non, I say! You go too far! Citoyens, is this the goal of our Revolution? Is this what we have come to as a people? Those of you who were here in 1789, was this our sacred mission when we set out to reform what had been holding us back? Is this the culmination of July 14, of the foundation of our glorious republic? Indiscriminately killing our own? I say again, non! These are dark times, oui, but they get even darker with misplaced efforts like these which only serve to demonize us amongst both the people and those who we so desperately need to make peace with in order to survive!"

This last line caused somewhat of an uproar, and after much shouting one of the Populists was recognized. "Goes too far, you say? HAH! *I* say this law does not go far enough! When you are building a house, after you have laid the foundation and maybe the walls but not the entire project, when the work gets hard, do you step away and leave your house incomplete? Of course not, you simply work even harder to finish it! Would you leave the work of the Revolution similarly unfinished, you incompetent contractors? Of course, you obviously would... IF YOU WERE A DIRTY ENGLISHMAN WHO COLLECTED ALL OF HIS MONEY AND LEFT MY POOR BROTHER'S FARMHOUSE IN SHAMBLES TO GO CHASE SOME PROVENCAL PEASANT GIRL! Ooh, I swear, if I ever get my hands on him, I... I-I seem to have lost track. The point is that we cannot stop now simply because we are in an emergency. If anything, we must progress ever onward because we are in an emergency!" He sat down, somewhat red-faced.

Finally, the designated speaker for the Militarists stood up, coughing and adjusting his notes. "We of the Militarists have concerns that need to be addressed before we can add our support to this bill. First of all, practicality. The judicial system will be heavily burdened with the additional suspects that need to be tried and otherwise dealt with under the parameters of this proposed bill. Where will the money come from to hire additional personnel and build new facilities to accommodate this need? It cannot be taken from the war effort or anything that remotely touches upon that. How will these new judges be trained? Secondly, efficiency. Is there a way that the goals of this can be accomplished in a less costly and time-consuming manner for the populace? Thirdly, duration. One of my colleagues has discovered that the wording of this bill is very open-ended about when precisely the contents are to expire. In short, unless and until these issues are handled, the Militarists will-" - there was some commotion outside - "Will..." - the commotion grew louder, the members could hear screaming....

"Will..."

BANG! The main doors blasted open and a series of progressively softer thuds could be heard. Something was rolling down the aisle, though most had to strain their heads to see what it was until the President reached down to pick it up.

"A head! Of one of our unaligned members! Messiuers, one of our own has been brutally slaughtered!"

Instantly the Convention erupted into outrage. The President sighed to himself. "I knew I should have led off with the second part," he muttered, before banging his gavel repeatedly. After about five minutes of this, people finally settled down enough for him to speak.

"Messiuers, there is a note attached. It says 'You argue about which of you gets to drive the carriage when the horse is leading you off a cliff. No law can stop us. We have penetrated every facet of society including this very Convention. We are not dead and France will return to its rightful rulers. More will follow. Vive les Bourbons!'"

Even more pandemonium followed this. The Royalists were back and they were out for blood! They were even hidden among the members of the Convention itself! Potentially, this was the one thing that could unite the Convention and the country - provided that the will to unite was there in the first place.

In the meantime though, due to this shocking turn of events, the Law of Suspects - with a hastily-added amendment that stipulated that members of the Convention would pass judgment on their own until the emergency elapsed - passed nearly unanimously. The Reign of Terror was on and nobody - not even the members of the Convention itself - was safe.

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

OOC: It is now Day 1. You are voting to lynch. The proper format for doing so is as follows:

Vote: GeneralHankerchief

Vote changes are to be made like so:

Unvote: GeneralHankerchief
Vote: Sasaki Kojiro

You do not have to specify who you are unvoting or even unvote at all, but it is appreciated.

Voting will last until 10:00 AM US Eastern Time on Friday, March 10th.



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

Still alive:
Al Sipsclar
Arakhor
Askthepizzaguy
atheotes
autolycus
BSmith
Choxorn
Csargo
Dp101
El Barto
Fenn
Jabbz
Kagemusha
Lewwyn
Logic
Manasi
Monstrdude
Montmorency
NotACop
Renata
seireikhaan
Snerk
Sooh
Zack

[Renata]

vote: Manasi

Welcome to the Org!

By the way, be sure to check out our smilies. We have awesome smilies.

[Monstrdude]

softclaim role cop

n0 monstrdude rolecop

[Renata]

softclaim role cop

n0 monstrdude rolecop

lolyou GH hates cops.

[Montmorency]

Not French ones.

So, mass reveal factions? Bring the counter-revolution into the light.

[Dp101]

Vote: Pizza
Hasn't been the wrong choice yet.
Also, this game is going to be so great! I'm feeling a lot better about myself after managing to focus and get my work done on time for the crust time in ages, and no longer feel like a failure. Now, I feel like I have energy to go back to my previous style of play, full of constant tone reads and crazy tinfoils. Let's kill those filthy royalists together!

[Montmorency]

Vote: DP

[Dp101]

Not French ones.

So, mass reveal factions? Bring the counter-revolution into the light.

I've yet to figure out if this is a good idea or not. Keeping the factions secret seems kind of pointless, as we all want to kill each other regardless, but at the same time it seems like everything could go horribly wrong.

[Dp101]

Vote: DP

How dare you.

[Renata]

This is why Dp is one of my favorite players. <3

Monty, on the other hand, is trying to suck all the fun out of everything.

[Montmorency]

This is why Dp is one of my favorite players. <3

Monty, on the other hand, is trying to suck all the fun out of everything.

Shouldn't we know when someone is voting to lynch against a royalist, and when someone is voting to lynch against a rival?

[Dp101]

This is why Dp is one of my favorite players. <3

Monty, on the other hand, is trying to suck all the fun out of everything.

<3!

[Dp101]

Shouldn't we know when someone is voting to lynch against a royalist, and when someone is voting to lynch against a rival?

Shouldn't that become clear from people's arguments?

[Renata]

Shouldn't we know when someone is voting to lynch against a royalist, and when someone is voting to lynch against a rival?

Reveals would only present the illusion of certainty.

[Montmorency]

Shouldn't that become clear from people's arguments?

By the time our enemies are known to us, it will be too late to divert them.

[Montmorency]

Reveals would only present the illusion of certainty.

Are you saying the post-mortem investigations are invalid?

[Renata]

Are you saying the post-mortem investigations are invalid?

No, I'm saying that all of us revealing our factions and then playing from there would not be as revealing of people's motivations as you think. Faction members would still be trying to whittle down opposing numbers whenever they could get away with it. Royalists would still be hiding their motivations.

All it does is remove the fun of trying to hide your own faction alliances and to ferret out connections between other players.

[Zack]

[Lewwyn]

This is why Dp is one of my favorite players. <3

Monty, on the other hand, is trying to suck all the fun out of everything.

How was it fun. Do you mean it was aggressively cheerful?

[Renata]

I just noticed your undertitle. *tinfoils*

[Renata]

How was it fun. Do you mean it was aggressively cheerful?

Those comments are not connected and probably should have been in different posts with proper reply chains and stuff but I got lazy.

[Manasi]

vote: Manasi

Welcome to the Org!

By the way, be sure to check out our smilies. We have awesome smilies.

Oh jeez, hi.

Okay.

Nice.

Hi everyone.

N0 Zack etc.

[Montmorency]

No, I'm saying that all of us revealing our factions and then playing from there would not be as revealing of people's motivations as you think. Faction members would still be trying to whittle down opposing numbers whenever they could get away with it. Royalists would still be hiding their motivations.

All it does is remove the fun of trying to hide your own faction alliances and to ferret out connections between other players.

In secrecy our convention cannot help but indulge in tyranny, against the genuine pressing needs of the country.

[Manasi]

can u relax

[Manasi]

Omfg 20s posting limit help how will I survive

[Lewwyn]

Against faction reveals. I think... Scum is scum, even if its in my faction or another faction. Scum is scummy and as long as we all partake of scumhunting in the main thread then scum will be caught out.

[Lewwyn]

Omfg 20s posting limit help how will I survive

maybe you shouldn't.

Vote: Manasi