Pirate Ship Mafia [Concluded]

**Subotan** · 10-22-2009, 13:26

That reminds me, who was the leader in terms of treasure? :O

**TinCow** · 10-22-2009, 13:40

Originally Posted by Yaropolk

You had me fooled till this conversation.

Even before the end of that day phase, Reenk and I had already agreed to abandon ship. My public and private statements from there on out had only two objective: (1) some final fun for me since the game was about to end and (2) to make sure your attention was focused on me and not Reenk. I definitely was not trying to hide my scumtasticness at that point.

Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

If anything, you played too aggressively, perhaps. Do you know how close I was to killing you after you tried to kill Pizza, demanding an officer role for yourself? The other two officers were not endeared to you like this. We took our money, and kept our suspicions. Then when you yesterday would not stick up for Rabbit after the crew became restless, we knew for certain you were the rapier. Rabbit left it until the end of the day to remove you so as to avoid your supporting a mutiny.

I had to play aggressively by that point. By Night 4, it was obvious that CR had hugely solidified his hold on the Captain spot. That was a massive problem for me, and I was willing to take big risks to undermine the officers. I also was not concerned with being lynched or killed at that point. Since I was responsible for Sigurd's death, I was very confident in my ability to survive any lynch move against me. I also was immune to a single night attack (an ability which was never used) so I wasn't concerned about you or anyone else killing me.

Like I said, by the time Rabbit removed me from office the game was already over. Even if I had remained QM, we would still have abandoned ship. The only goal I had at that point was keeping Reenk alive during the day and free from roleblocking at night. Some of my threats were intentionally designed to make sure you roleblocked me and not him.

**miotas** · 10-22-2009, 13:53

What's an MVP?

**Andres** · 10-22-2009, 13:55

Originally Posted by miotas

What's an MVP?

Most Valuable Player

**Subotan** · 10-22-2009, 13:55

Most Valuable Player, I think.
Edit: Shiver me timbers, Andres beat me to it.

zero... - Sigurd

**miotas** · 10-22-2009, 14:00

Ah. Well I guess F.H. for MVP would depend on whether you would award it for intentions or actions. Our intent was to throw the town into chaos and escape when it looked like we were going to be taken out, but our actions were to remove 4 mafia, and we would have gotten a 5th if cap hadn't blocked us. We just wanted to kill everyone and nick all your gold. Hardly MVP material

**pevergreen** · 10-22-2009, 14:13

For results, yes, you did well.

However, IMO MVP goes to person who tried and did the best effort. You guys would have got my version (which exists only in my head, so no balloons for you) if you were aiming for town victory. Since you werent, no MVP for anyone, since I was not really anything.

**KukriKhan** · 10-22-2009, 14:23

LOL. Way back Oct 3rd, I had the option of killing Sasaki, and even wrote up a proposed death scene:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I say "optional" because his mutiny vote was lodged 'illegally' during a night phase. After consulting with GH (who left the decision to me), I let him live, in the interest of keeping the game interesting. I pat myself on the back for predicting (to myself) that Sasaki would be some kind of turncoat factor in the game, if not an outright bad guy.

**shlin28** · 10-22-2009, 16:27

I LIVE!!!

Good game everyone! I was kept mostly out of the loop, but its still nice to see the town win.

**atheotes** · 10-22-2009, 16:49

good game to everyone and thanks for hosting a fun game GH...

too bad i got killed on Night2...after being part of a succesful protection on N1. and one my partners in that protection, Tratorix got killed N3

**Reenk Roink** · 10-22-2009, 17:34

Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Not to be mean, but the 4H as MVP? Gibson and Scottish were great lucky shots, but many innocents died needlessly too.
All the other mafia were pinned down by the town. Sigurd was presented on a silver platter by Tincow. Even if Sigurd hadn't been receiving sensitive information from us ever since the first night anymore. Ricera was Pizza's work. Sasaki was a matter of time and a clear suspect to both Pizza and me. CountArach was roleblocked already on the night of his death and ready for the lynch. Tincow was the work of Rabbit and me. (What is it with scum seeking the QM position? It never took CR and me more than two days to clean house). Reenk was identified as scum two days ago, but was given some respite because we couldn't risk losing a possible detective in case the maven had pulled a clever trick at some point.

The fact is, neither the British nor the Maven especially would be in any sort of major trouble had it not been for the four horseman. gibsons' death made Sigurd's death next round a gamebreaker instead of a heavy but not insurmountable loss.

The way I know I felt was: "man we would be in such a great position if the four horseman didn't kill gibsons early on" and I'm sure the death of scottishranger made the Brits feel the same way.

Again, perhaps if you want to look at it a different way, the MVP was cruel fate against the Maven. It does suck when you can't transfer all your gold, are inactive and basically waste round one, are killed off by vig groups, investigated early, wills aren't set right, double hits done don't work because the other guys don't show up, and so on...

I can't say how much the actual protown group did in taking down the British, but they did next to nothing against the Maven (it was the FH and TC). You can say in retrospect you knew about me and TinCow, but it doesn't look like it from your posts, your QT, your votes. You were too unsure to make a move. CR did seem to know about TinCow later on, but then we used the fact that he had the luxury of playing it safe to our advantage and ran away. Most of the town was unconvinced that I was guilty just last round, and some were jumping on bandwagons against ACIN, Cent, and Yaro that I started.

And the thing is, this protown group was even more of a liability then the one in Capo III.

For all the talk about how overpowered such a setup is, I felt that the Mafia had they had two more members by night 6 (the two killed by the FH let's say), they would have rode to victory) BECAUSE of the protown group. GH got rid of the major imbalance, that a single protection saves from multiple hits.

I know for a fact that we had a handle on splitpersonality from the start, who I had to protect for the very two first nights. My gut was really on Yaropolk, initially, I thought he was a Brit, but soon we figured out he was some kind of protown role and I voted for him nearly every round to get him lynched (which almost happened). We wanted Beskar dead initially because he had done recruiting but it became clear as day after a bit of time, that he was involved in some kind of investigation ring. It seems the Brits had also figured out Beskar was a protown role independently by looking at their QT. Then of course the info given by Atpg, and the complete info given by TinCow not only verified what we knew but put in the final pieces (Cent1 and slashandburn).

CR dealt the killing blow when he smartly tightened up the group and did his work alone. That save of cent1 (which I'm sure Cent1 wasn't even aware of), was the kind of play that would have never worked in a big protown group setting because the spies would be there and plan accordingly.

The groups structure made it hard with the small amount of Mafia to actually do something with our knowledge, just like in Capo III, but the group was small due to reasons unrelated to the group that occurred early game (in Capo III it was the self reveals of entire families and wiseguys and here it was the four horseman's kills). With just a few more Mafia having that knowledge, could you imagine the targeted conversions and hits that would happen?

Also, by far the highlight of the game for me was killing the first mate.

**Crazed Rabbit** · 10-22-2009, 17:38

Originally Posted by Reenk Roink

CR dealt the killing blow when he smartly tightened up the group and did his work alone. That save of cent1 (which I'm sure Cent1 wasn't even aware of), was the kind of play that would have never worked in a big protown group setting because the spies would be there and plan accordingly.

Heh. You have ATPG to thank for that; why trust Tincow completely if ATPG had just betrayed me?

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

**miotas** · 10-22-2009, 18:13

Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

You only have yourself to blame for that

Something else interesting that happened last night was that Subo done his random pick and came up with lord winter, only to have CR message us 2 hours later asking us to kill lord winter.

**Crazed Rabbit** · 10-22-2009, 18:24

Lord Winter was random as well? Wow...that is weird.

CR

**TinCow** · 10-22-2009, 18:24

Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

Heh. You have ATPG to thank for that; why trust Tincow completely if ATPG had just betrayed me?

Though I wish the mafia hadn't escaped, especially after killing Louis, I'm glad to be on the winning side in a big game for once.

CR

I would like to point out that, for once, I didn't get you killed while you were pro-town... I only tried to get you killed.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 18:39

Epilogue

One Fine Morning in Nassau

All of the residents of the last great pirate port in the world, at least those who weren’t still passed out due to excess rum intake the night before, turned their eyes to the northern horizon, where they saw a great ship approaching.

She wasn’t in the best condition. Her mast was barely hanging on, as if being held in place only by the sheer will of her captain and crew. She was also moving very slowly and deliberately, as if she weren’t being manned by enough crewmen to get her at full capacity.

“Odd sight, indeed,” said a younger sailor, watching the ship inch her way into the harbor. “I heard she set out with over 50 crew. Musta been a brutal fight in Charleston.”

“Or afterwards,” said a grizzled old sailor who, from the looks of him, had seen everything in his long life. “Nothing turns a ship on itself faster than the strong tides of treasure.” The two watched in silence as the Presence drew ever closer to salvation. As time went by, the two were joined by more and more denizens of Nassau, at first applauding and then cheering as the crew deboarded, all of them carrying very significant sacks of treasure.

“Thank God!” one of them yelled, kissing the docks as soon as he stepped off. Everybody was embracing, the old animosities forgotten, everybody realizing that tonight would be a night like no other. It was finally over, and now, they would wash their bad memories away in a sea of drink, women, and merrymaking.

…

Down in the Officers’ Club, an exclusive tavern in Nassau in which only men who had achieved rank were allowed to enter, three filled glasses clanked against each other. Yaropolk, slashandburn, and Centurion1 were quietly celebrating their triumph in style. They had endured more than enough raucousness and mayhem on the ship. Tonight was a way to get away from it all. Tonight, they would enjoy the comforts of being Stewards and Watchstanders and all the benefits that came with their positions.

“Hello, boys,” cooed three voices in unison. The three of them turned. Ah, yes. The triplets: Anna, Hannah, and Tatiana, had entered the room. Everyone in Nassau agreed that The Triplets were the most beautiful wenches on the entire island, and the best at what they did. Yaro, slash, and Centurion grinned, setting their drinks down, prepared for the spoils of officerhood.

KukriKhan, the Fanatical Loyalist, had no such use for taverns. In a quiet, secluded alley, he set up camp for the night, lovingly stroking Bess the Blunderbuss. Over the course of the voyage home, four sailors had risked the depths of the deepest circle of Hell just so they could get a little more gold. All four of them met their ends at the mouth of Bess.

“Order prevails once more, my darling,” he cooed, his eyes losing none of their intensity. After doing this for two hours, he finally arose, and disappeared off into the night, never seen by anyone again.

Seamus Fermanagh walked into a lonely tavern far from the rest of the port city’s mayhem. He gathered up his relatively meager stash of gold and ordered an ale from the bartender. Reaching into the bag, he was stopped by the bartender.

“Uh-uh, my friend,” the bartender said, “this one’s on me.”

“Much obliged,” Seamus said, and sipped his ale quietly. When he was about halfway through, the bartender tried a stab of conversation.

“Well?” he asked. “How was it?”

“On the other side? Interesting. Wish I did a bit more. I mean, I *was* Quartermaster for a night, but still slept for half the time. Fell for the stupid treasure trick, as well. I must be getting old. How was your little adventure?”

“Mine?” The bartender, GeneralHankerchief, chuckled. “On the other side? Interesting. Think I’ll stick to being a simple seaman in the future, although something tells me that’s just not in the cards.” The two men laughed heartily and shared several more drinks, telling each other all the old war stories.

The two appointed officers aboard the Presence, Double A and White_eyes:D, entered the main tavern in Nassau, officers no more. Double A looked around, shouted “PARTY!!!” and immediately dove into the crowd, which roared in its approval, doubly so as Double A started showering everybody with dubloons and getting kissed on the cheeks by three women at once.

Eventually swimming his way back to his comrade, he took White_eyes by the shoulder. “It’s okay, matey, ye can stop being paranoid now. We’re home. And we’re having one amazing time!!!” White_eyes looked around, blinked, and finally, abandoning all inclinations of paranoia, dropped his bag and ran for the two bustiest wenches he could find. They squealed with delight as he rubbed his manly beard against their chins. Double A could only chuckle and drown himself with ale.

In that same tavern, Captain Blackadder, Cultured Drizzt fan, shlin28, and Death is Yonder joined in the celebration. They were the unheralded protectors of the ship, working behind the scenes to make sure that chaos and destruction did not overcome the crew. They ended up being handsomely rewarded for their work, acquiring 200, 207, 214, and 226 gold, respectively. As day turned into night and night turned into the wee hours of the morning, the four of them gathered around a table, discussing what they might do with their handsome stashes.

DiY, the richest of the lot, was more partial to retiring and buying a small piece of land, working it and not being beholden to anyone. Shlin and Drizzt, however, were going to enjoy the night as much as they could, have the weeks of their lives back in Nassau, and then head straight back to find another pirating opportunity. They were young, after all, and if they had survived Charleston and everything that followed, surely they could take on anything. Blackadder, meanwhile, seemed determined to spend it all tonight, as he gorged on ale, rum, and women.

“It may have only been good for one night,” he said, “but it was the best night anyone ever had.”

In a different, slightly less crowded tavern, the remaining members of the Four Horsemen, A Very Super Market, miotas, and Subotan, were sharing drinks together (after, of course, enjoying the company of the tavern wenches), already reminiscing about the good times. Already, the events aboard the Presence were the stuff of legend, and none of it more so than the exploits of the Four Horsemen.

“I don’t care how much credit that Captain gets,” Subotan said, “We killed more bad guys than he did. We took out that first Maven, and the first Brit to boot. Then we followed it up with the worst Brit of them all, getting one of his converts to up and off himself out of shame, to boot.”

“Aye,” said AVSM. “Don’t forget Reenk, in that second-to-last night. If it weren’t for ACIN falling that woman’s charms, we would have killed him as well and saved the ship even earlier. Maybe even saved ACIN’s life.” They fell silent at this, honoring their friend’s memory.

“To ACIN,” miotas said finally, holding his glass out.

“To ACIN,” the other two echoed, and clinked glasses.

“You know,” said AVSM later on in the night, “we got a lot of gold from killin’ people. We should do something about it.”

“Aye,” said Subotan, “but what?”

“Well… I was thinkin’ of gettin’ our own ship, to be honest. We can afford a small one, but who needs size when ye have the bravest crew in existence? And besides, we’ll get Able Seamen of our own, especially when they find out the ship’s run by three of the Four Horsemen!”

“That sounds splendid!” said Subotan. “But which of us’ll be the Captain?”

“That’ll be me,” miotas interjected, “Seeing as how I have the most gold.”

The two others grumbled, then laughed good-naturedly. And so it was. In less than a week, the sloop a completely inoffensive name was christened, captained by miotas, with Subotan as First Mate and A Very Super Market as Quartermaster, with a willing crew ready to plunder to their hearts’ content.

A1_Unit staggered around Nassau, unable to believe his luck. Out of all the ship’s Able Seaman, somehow it was he who had acquired the most treasure, 236 of it to be exact. There really wasn’t much explanation for this; he just kept plugging away at night, protecting, being lucky that his target was never attacked, and never forgetting to vote in the day. For his steady, constant service, he had been rewarded. Now, he was going to do something with that money.

Hauling his large sack of goodies into the main tavern, he swam through all of the raucous mayhem going on in the main room, instead heading upstairs. Bypassing all of the wenches’ rooms, he instead knocked on the proprietor’s door.

“Aye, what is it?” came a slurred voice from behind the door.

“A1_Unit, from the Presence!” he called. “How be times, matey?”

The door opened, and the owner, in alcohol-stained clothes, stared out at A1. “They be tough, me lad, they be tough. Tonight be a great night fer business, fer sure, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule nowadays. I’m afraid I won’t be in the tavern business much longer.”

“How about a buyout?” A1 asked. “All my treasure, right now, for the deed of this tavern.”

The owner’s eyes widened. “236 treasure, to be exact,” A1 said. “Ye can count it, and ye know I’m good fer it.”

“I don’t ever want to have to pay for food or drink in here either,” the owner said after a minute.

“Done,” said A1, beaming.

“Done!” repeated the owner, and the two of them slapped hands, eventually making their way back downstairs.

“All right lads!” the owner said downstairs, after taking 10 minutes to get everybody’s attention. “I just been offered an offer I couldn’t refuse. It’s been some great times runnin’ this tavern through all the years, but now I got a ton of treasure and it looks like A1_Unit is now the man in charge. Be good to him, boys!”

“Right!” shouted A1 over the cheers of everybody inside. “My first act as the new proprietor of this establishment is to rename it A1’s Tavern. My second act is to proclaim that everything is on the house for the rest of the night! Drink up, me laddies!” A1’s Tavern erupted in a great roar, and A1 got showered in rum. A great start to his new business.

Elsewhere in the North Atlantic…

“So you’re sure about this, then?”

“Aye,” said SSNeoperestroika, clutching his bag of treasure reassuringly. It was significantly less than what he had right when he abandoned ship, but SSNeo didn’t mind. He had seen enough to know that the crew was going down. Heck, the ship itself had a busted mast, and if that wasn’t a recipe for trouble, he didn’t know what was.

SSNeo had found a small island about a day and a half after he jumped ship, using it to repopulate his food supply and get his energy back. He rested there for a day, and then made his way east. For five long days he paddled, beginning to lose hope as his food and water started to dwindle. But finally, on the sixth day, he spotted land, land that appeared to be much bigger than the tiny island he had landed on a week ago. After a few hours, he think he saw signs of civilization. A few buildings, well-tended-to fields. He started paddling harder, and finally landed right as the sun was going down.

From there, he recuperated once more, and then found out more about where he was. It was an English settlement in the Northern Bahamas, one that saw British ships, merchant ones mostly, every couple of days. SSNeo had used a lot of his treasure first to get himself in good graces with the city’s officials, but secondly to barter passage back home. He had waited a week, until a ship that would take him there had arrived.

“All right, then,” said the ship’s captain. “As ye know, we’ll set out and eventually make port in Blyth. From there you can deboard and make your way north to Scotland. In return for us agreeing to transfport, you have already paid your fee and in addition, will accomplish basic tasks such as swabbing the decks. Nothing too laboring, for already have a crew to do that. Just when we need an extra set of hands.”

“Agreed,” SSNeo said, shaking the captain’s hand.

“I find it interesting that you’re heading back to the Old World to seek your fortune,” the captain said after they had both boarded the ship. “Usually I find it to be the other way around.”

“Tried it,” said SSNeo. “The opportunities may be more numerous, but so are the perils. I prefer a bit more order in me life.”

“Aye, order’s always a good thing,” said the captain. “Take the Presence for instance. Did you hear about that?”

“No,” said SSNeo, feigning only a passing interest. “What happened?”

“Craziest thing. Looks like they channeled a bit of Morgan and hit Charleston hard. Made off with a king’s ransom in treasure. They just stumbled into Nassau a little while ago with more than half the crew dead, though. Looks like they turned on each other sometime during the ride back. Looks like all discipline broke down. That’s the thing about the Royal Navy. Say what you want about all the pirates’ bravery, but the Navy’ll make sure you’ll do what you’re told.”

“They survived, though?” said SSNeo.

“Aye, that they did, and from what I hear they’re all filthy rich. The ones that survived, though. That’ll make for a great story, eh?”

“Indeed,” SSNeo muttered, already softly cursing to himself. He tried not to think about it too much, though. A peaceful life in Scotland awaited, and he still had a significant amount of money to give him a kick start.

TinCow, the Frenchman, and spL1tp3r50naL1ty, the Woman, were resting on an island, tending to their signal fire. TinCow had recently been teaching Split how to fight with a rapier. Split had proven to be a natural at the craft. He was also entertaining her with tales of court life at Louis XIV’s Versailles. She, in return, was providing him with companionship and a bulk of their treasure, which would come in handy for later.

“And then I set off for the New World, in search of adventure and fulfillment,” TinCow concluded, absentmindedly poking the fire. Somehow, he had managed to secure a bottle of wine and was sipping it down, toasting his accomplishments despite the fact that his ship still belonged to someone else.

“So what do we do now, my love?” Split asked. “Get back to civilization, but what after that?”

“Bide our time,” TinCow replied. “Listen for news. Track it down. And then, eventually, make our move. Together, you and I will sail the seas on board the Presence. And the ship *will* be mine, make no mistake about it.” He spotted a ship on the horizon, heading our way, and took another sip of wine. Soon, his pursuit would begin anew.

“It *will* be mine.”

On board the Maven, the sailor manning the Crow’s Nest called out from his post. “A dinghy, headed our way from Four O’Clock!” he cried. “Only one person inside, I think it’s one of us!”

The captain took out his spyglass and, after looking through it for a second, shouted orders to his crew. “Throw him a rope, lads! Throw him a line! Make sure it’s secure, we don’t want a single piece of treasure going to Davey Jones! Hurry now! Reel him in!”

The process went off without a hitch. Once Reenk Roink climbed aboard, he was greeted by multiple slaps on the back and good-natured ribbing. However, everyone soon fell silent as the captain started questioning him.

“Gibson and Sigurd?”

“Dead.”

“Pity,” said the captain. “Well, let’s see how much ye were able to steal!” Grabbing the large bag of treasure, he carefully dumped it out on the deck, going through it quickly. “340?” he said, and Reenk nodded.

“I’m not pleased, Reenk. Even with the base treasure of gibson and Sigurd and ye, that’s only a 40 gold increase. What were ye doin’ all that time?”

Now, Reenk started to get angry. “What was I doin’? I was surviving, Captain. Gibson and Sigurd both died very early on, leaving me alone. I stayed on board for almost an entire week after me buddies died, Captain. I made a 240 treasure profit all by meself, Captain. Not to speak ill of the dead, but don’t be blamin’ me for their failures and my best efforts to make up for them, Captain.”

“You may be right… but I am still not pleased.”

“Would you like to hear the story of how the Presence won?” Reenk asked, his voice going cold. Without waiting for the captain to reply, he continued. “The sailors on board, the first day after the British killed their original captain, elected a new one. Now, this one went to work right away, trying to organize his crew and his officers. He did a decent job, too, pulling the wool over my eyes more than once. But was that the reason why they won? No, not at all.

“You see,” he continued, “there was one vigilante group outside of the Captain’s control that operated every night. They called themselves the Four Horsemen, after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And they killed mostly every night, all the time under no orders to do so. Now, this made the Captain and his officers very angry, because they were supposedly jeopardizing the Captain’s great plan to right the ship. But then, the autopsies on the Four Horsemen’s victims started coming in. First, they killed a Maven; gibson. Then, a British Agent. Then, a night later, they offed the British Special Officer hisself, leaving me pretty much the only saboteur left on board. They even went after *me* one night, and it was only through their captain’s doing that I survived.”

“How interesting,” the captain said.

“Aye, it is,” said Reenk, a cold anger growing in his voice. “The point is, ‘twasn’t the Captain or his officers that saved that ship. It was the *crew*, Captain. The crew took matters into their own hands. The crew saved the ship. Their Captain, while important, was ultimately… expendable.”

“I don’t like where this be going,” the Captain said, finally taking note of Reenk’s voice.

“Aye, well, ye really shouldn’t,” said Reenk, and then in a fluid motion, took out his cutlass and beheaded the Captain.

“Tell me, sailors of the Maven, do ye bless me as yer new Captain? Take note of the treasure I brought back all by meself in the face of difficult odds. Do ye wish for more o’ the same under my lead?”

“AYE!!!” the crew bellowed back in unison.

“All right then, my lads,” Captain Reenk Roink shouted. “Then it’s treasure we seek!” He turned the rudder wildly, and the Maven sailed off into the distance, under new management.

Back in Nassau, Captain Crazed Rabbitlovingly looked over the Presence. His ship. He had spent much of the past week repairing the mast and the Crow’s Nest. It was tough work, but it was honest work, and it saved him some money. Still, out of all the crewman, he had acquired the most treasure, 336 to be exact, but he was saving it for something special. What it was, he wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe equip his ship with more improvements to make her a true terror on the seas, to singlehandedly restart the Golden Age of Piracy. Maybe blow it all at A1’s Tavern, seeing as how business had finally died down after the greatest week of general debauchery that the port had ever seen. Maybe use it to retire, and build himself a nice estate in Jamaica, where he could grow whatever his heart desired.

But, he thought as he lie aboard his ship, exactly what he did with his massive amount of treasure didn’t matter. The fact that he had the treasure in the first place did. He had his freedom. He could do whatever he wanted.

And freedom was the greatest treasure of all.

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

The victorious crewmen:
Crazed Rabbit - 336 (first place)
A1_Unit - 236
miotas - 233
Subotan - 227
Death is yonder - 226
A Very Super Market - 216
shlin28 - 214
Cultured Drizzt fan - 207
Double A - 202
Captain Blackadder - 200
Seamus Fermanagh - 188
White_eyes:D - 185

The satisfied crewmen (those who met their victory conditions but gold was not a factor):
Yaropolk - 161
KukriKhan - 154
slashandburn - 141
Centurion1 - 136

The new Captain of the Maven:
Reenk Roink - 340

The vindicated dead:
Louis VI the Fat - 222
Askthepizzaguy - 212
taka - 203
Joooray - 180
Chaotix - 166
Tratorix - 147
a completely inoffensive name - 141
Khazaar - 128
Beskar - 124
Lord Winter - 115
Psychonaut - 115
Beefy187 - 110
Diana Abnoba - 92
Iskander 3.1 - 92
atheotes - 90
Andres - 85
DisgruntledGoat - 84
Jolt - 74
woad&fangs - 68
YLC - 67
pevergreen - 57
johnhughthom - 53
Xehh II - 50
LittleGrizzly - 46

The defeated Mavens:
Sigurd - 134
gibsonsg91921 - 78

Looking forward to Scotland:
SSNeoperestroika - 187

The devastated British:
Sasaki Kojiro - 118
Yaseikhaan - 85
CountArach - 71
ricera10 - 70
scottishranger - 57

The vengeful Frenchman and his new lover:
spL1tp3r50naL1ty - 239
TinCow - 79

**Beskar** · 10-22-2009, 18:57

Good game all.

Also, I was right about Reenk Roink and I had a gut feeling you was French since I first heard about you TinCow.

**A1_Unit** · 10-22-2009, 18:58

Good Game.

**miotas** · 10-22-2009, 19:14

to the best barkeep and story teller around!

to the other new captains

to random bloodshed!

**Crazed Rabbit** · 10-22-2009, 19:20

Arrrrrrrr!! The grandest pirate of all I be!

And many heartie thanks to GeneralHankerchief for a most excellent game!

CR

**taka** · 10-22-2009, 20:05

good game

thanks for hosting GeneralHanky

looking forward to a sequel

**Seamus Fermanagh** · 10-22-2009, 20:26

Congratulations GH, well done!

Well done to the cast of players -- the horsemen included. I was never really sure WHAT was happening but I did enjoy the trip.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 20:32

Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

I was never really sure WHAT was happening but I did enjoy the trip.

Now you know what we all feel like every time you decide to host one of your monstrosities.

**Andres** · 10-22-2009, 20:41

Great game

Thnx for hosting, GH

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 21:00

And now, for the roles!
First, an explanation on how I determined them. I had written up all of the role PMs beforehand, and set them in a certain order. The secret roles came first, followed by the British, then the Mavens. The normal Able Seamen came next, followed by those with minor special abilities. All that remained was to put names to the roles. Gathering all the names from the sign-up sheet, I first alphabetized them. Going to random.org’s List Randomizer, I clicked the button three times to ensure true randomness. This is what came back to me:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

It was the names in this order that I put on my monster Excel Spreadsheet that has literally been opened up on my laptop for a month now. What now follows is every role PM in the game, along with brief commentary.

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

The Frenchman
Sent to TinCow

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Frenchman

The best thing I know between France and England is the sea.
~ Douglas William Jerrold

Back home, you lived the high life. You were educated in the finest schools and knew nothing but the best of everything. Visits to the great new palace of Versailles were not uncommon. You were the epitome of the flourishing high culture under the reign of Louis XIV. But then the Sun King died, two years ago, and frankly, life under his great-grandson (plus his regent) just hasn’t been the same. Still craving adventure, you acquired yourself a nice ship, the Presence, and set off to the New World. There was just one problem: In a bout of trickery, you lost your ship to an enterprising pirate captain. Stranded, but still with a considerable amount of resources, you have been working to get it back ever since.

Right around the time of the sack of Charleston, you finally made your move, joining the ship’s crew and hoping to work your way from the inside. The presence of those perfidious British aboard have complicated matters somewhat, but, ever the innovator, you adjust your goals accordingly.

Your goal: To survive, and to be in command of the Presence at game’s end. You may tell the other sailors whatever you wish to accomplish this mission, for this is the only way you can personally obtain a victory.

Powers: A dashing swashbuckler in the prime of your life, you have several skill sets that will serve your well during your time aboard:
- You may kill one person a night without the help of a partner or group. As always, your trusty rapier, a gift from the Count of Toulouse himself, is with you.
- You may investigate one person a night. Results may vary.
- You may roleblock one person per night. In addition to this, you will also find out how much gold they currently have.

You may do any one of these three activities on a single night, but none of them will earn you any treasure. In addition, you cannot perform the same individual action more than three consecutive nights. In lieu of this, you may also take part in the usual townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others) and obtain treasure. However, as you are already a wealthy man, treasure means very little to you. You just want your ship back and to have a good time in the process.

Finally, as a result of your skill with a rapier and overall flamboyance, you will survive the first kill attempt somebody makes on you without protection. Good luck!

I had thought of this role the night before the game started. Its prototype, called “Captain Blood” as suggested to me by Seamus Fermanagh, had the same objective as the Frenchman, but would go about it by recruiting crewmen much like the Brits and Mavens. Not wanting to create such a powerful third-party, I was leaning against putting it in. However, that final night, on a brainwave probably started because of Louis’s joining the game, I retooled Captain Blood into its current form. The recruitment aspect was gone, but in its place was an impressive arsenal of powers that would ensure it to be a major power player.

In addition to the powers listed above, there were a couple that were not mentioned in the PM. The first of which was partial immunity to investigations. Watchstander or First Mate efforts would and did reveal nothing about TinCow until a Tier 3 investigation, which would return something along the lines of the detective discovering nothing but a single fleur-de-lys in his bag. Considering the Watchstander PM (see below) had a small throwaway sentence that the ship used to belong to a Frenchman, a crafty Watchstander could have put two and two together. TinCow was investigated several times over the course of the game, but nobody had the patience to go to the necessary three tiers. Beskar was the only one that went to Tier 2, but gave up afterwards.

Going along with investigation immunity was the ability to override the First Mate/Quartermaster’s power limitations (which really helped TinCow later on), and a neat mechanic having to do with the Woman, as described below.

All in all, I was quite pleased when random.org spat back TinCow as the Frenchman’s doppelganger. Very few players have the guile and resourcefulness necessary to pull this role off, and while he ultimately failed, he played the role exactly as I intended it to be played: allying with multiple sides at different times, always in the thick of things. Had the Four Horsemen not pretty much solidified CR’s hold on the Captain spot by offing so many bad guys, I think TC may have had a legitimate shot of pulling his difficult victory condition off.

The Woman
Sent to spL1tp3r50naL1ty

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Woman

Had you only fought like a Man, you need not have been hang’d like a Dog.
~ Anne Bonny, her final words to “Calico Jack” Rackham

Yup, that’s right. You’re a female in disguise aboard the Presence, tired of being endlessly hit on in taverns and looking for a little bit more adventure in life. However, now you’re starting to see why all the men aboard believe the tradition that having a woman on a ship is bad luck. You quickly realize that you’ve stepped into something rather large and now you just want to get out alive.

Your goal: To survive. The “Abandon ship” option is not available to you because, frankly, you don’t have the necessary skills to make it out there on your own. Therefore, you’re in this for the long haul. However, there is no reason why you can’t profit from this mess. You want to accumulate as much treasure as possible, preferably the most out of the entire crew so you can buy yourself a nice nest egg once this is all over. Maybe even a tavern!

Powers: Every night, you may seduce and “occupy” one person for the night, which also serves as making them unable to perform any action that night as well. While they’re not looking, you will steal some of their treasure, which will be a random number anywhere from 5-20. In addition, you will also see how much treasure they have left.

You are apparently susceptible to both Letters of Marque and offers to join the Maven and will join if asked, but your conversion is not permanent and you do not count as a member of either crew for their purposes.

Finally, because you are weaker than the rest of the sea dogs who have spent half their lives sailing the blue, you do not count as a part of successful group efforts (example: if there’s a protection group that has the minimum of three participants including you, and your target is attacked, the protection will fail). However, should the group you’re in have an extra member and succeed, you will still be awarded the appropriate amount of treasure. Good luck!

This role was present from my earliest drafts of the game, back in May 2008. It was your standard roleblocker, but had the potential to annoy the living snot out of the rest of the crew by taking their gold as well. The main wrinkle to this role for the longest time was giving her the ability to freely choose her affiliation. She was marked down as susceptible to both Letters of Marque and treasure, but in reality could side with whoever gave her the best shot of staying alive. Again, thanks to TinCow and the Four Horsemen, this side was established to be the town early on, providing another blow to the mafia’s hopes.

Once the Frenchman was created, I decided to give Split’s role the potential to expand a bit. Basically, if the two of them encountered each other at night (whether it be by blocking, killing, investigating, or being in the same group), the two of them would fall in love and ally with each other, with Split now sharing TinCow’s goals. Because this happened on the very last night, TinCow in essence dragged Split down to his level of defeat, despite the fact that she survived. That’s men for ya.

The Fanatical Loyalist
Sent to KukriKhan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

The Fanatical Loyalist:

It’s your call, Bill. I’ll back you either way.
~ Colonel Saul Tigh, to his commanding officer

You are one of those people that believes that mutiny is the single worst sin any sailor worth his salt could ever commit, the kind that calls for a quick and painful death, not to mention eternal damnation immediately afterwards. Stability and order are very important to you, for without it, then the very fabric of society (even pirate society) falls apart. With the colossal disruption of this stability that has been the threat to the Presence , you’re starting to lose it a bit.

Determined to right the ship (no pun intended), you have decided to take matters into your own hands regarding the discipline on board. You have your trusty blunderbuss with you, and you fully intend to make use of it to maintain order.

Your goal: A Presence victory, preferably with the original captain still in command. However, that’s not as important. Treasure is not important to you.

Powers: Anybody that votes for a mutiny in the thread is to be killed. You may kill one potential mutineer a night, with those who were more vocal taking precedence. If the vocalness of the would-be mutineers is about equal, then whoever voted for a mutiny first takes precedence. Those who voted for a mutiny but then took it back must not be spared, however, if they took it back and somebody else left their vote on for a mutiny, you must kill the second person. As your determination to keep order on board is threatening to cross the line into an all-out obsession, your kills are particularly powerful and even stand a chance of blasting through protection.

If there are no targets for you to take care of, you may participate in a townie protection group (but not a kill group). You may not instigate thoughts of mutiny in any way in order to gain yourself potential targets, nor may you alert the Captain, his officers, or anyone else, of your presence at any time (note: if your role becomes common knowledge in the thread, then this rule no longer applies). If the Captain is revealed to be an enemy of the Presence, you must still stay loyal to him.

Finally, if the captain is replaced at some point in the game, your loyalty fully shifts to the new captain and will begin protecting his sovereignty immediately and as intensely as with the previous captain. Good luck!

Another role that had been around from the beginning, I think this one became a victim of my excessive tweaking. On advice from Seamus, I cut the treasure bonus for participating in a successful mutiny significantly. However, what Seamus didn’t know is that I had inserted the Fanatical Loyalist in as a deterrent against would-be mutineers who would do so only for profit. As a result, it just really wasn’t worth it to really work to engineer one this time around, and Kukri spent half his time protecting instead of keeping the ship in order.

Despite this, Kukri took to the role very well, providing his blunderbuss with a name (the now-infamous Bess) and suggesting in I work in Judecca and Cocytus references to give a hint as to the exact particulars of his role. I thank him for his services, but I’m going to spend a long time looking at the mutiny mechanic for the sequel.

British Special Officer
Sent to CountArach

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

British Special Officer

England expects that every man will do his duty
~ Adm. Horatio Nelson, in a coded signal before the Battle of Trafalgar

Congratulations! You’re the de facto main villain in a Huge game. Are you feeling up to it? I hope so, because the entire British High Command, not to mention the good citizens of Charleston, are counting on you to get their treasure back. As a higher rank than the two lieutenants designated to assist you, you have certain powers that are unavailable to them. However, you are also at more risk than them because of this. Exercise extreme caution during your days on the Presence, for your team will be crippled in the event of your death.

Your goal: Essentially, you have been tasked to accomplish your task no matter what. You must therefore eliminate or subordinate every single non-British-affiliated person on board the Presence. You must survive with at least one original Agent.

Your allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY].

Powers: As British Special Officer, you have perhaps the most varied skill set in the entire game. Every night, you may do one of the following tasks:

- Investigate two persons a night to determine susceptibility to Letters of Marque. This is a unique power available only to you.
- Team up with a fellow Agent to kill one person a night. However, if you are the only Agent left, you may kill solo.
- Go out individually and offer a Letter of Marque to one person. If your target is susceptible to Letters of Marque, they will join your team and become a British Convert. If your target is NOT susceptible, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- Take part in the townie vigilante groups with 3 others. However, you do not count as towards a successful protection. If a target is protected with more than the required minimum of players, and you are part of it, you will still be awarded treasure for your efforts.

In addition, your officer training has served you well. If you are attacked within the first three nights on board, you will successfully fend them off, no matter their numbers. However, sea life eventually takes its toll, and starting the fourth night (or earlier, if you are attacked earlier), you will lose this ability.

Lastly, treasure is not a motivator to you, and you may not Abandon Ship under any circumstances, under penalty of death as per the British Naval Code. Good luck!

The thing I was worried about most before the game started was the Special Officer falling victim to a random vigilante hit, thus crippling the British before they had the chance to get their feet wet. Hence my giving him his early-game immunity; the most powerful in the game, second only to TinCow’s. As I’ll detail further in my list of everyone’s actions, CA was amazingly accurate with his investigations, but he really could have benefitted from an extended immunity.

On the bright side (at least for me), the British collapse in Pirate Ship Mafia probably breaks the record for most startling, set in pevergreen’s “The Fight for Inishmore” game set by… the British. Apparently the men of St. George don’t know how to close games out.

British Lieutenant
Sent to ricera10, scottishranger

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

British Lieutenant

For England, for home, and for the prize!
~ Captain Jack Aubrey

You are one of the two British Lieutenants on board, under the command of your equally British Special Officer. Although this is nothing more than a mission to get the treasure from the sack of Charleston back by removing the pirate threat, you still cannot help but feel disgust that so many good Britons have been turned away from the loving embrace of the Crown to the despicable practice of piracy. While you know some of them may still be redeemed, and are counting on this prospect for your team’s success, you still take a grim, professional pleasure in removing Mother England’s enemies.

Your goal: Essentially, you have been tasked to accomplish your task no matter what. You must therefore eliminate or subordinate every single non-British-affiliated person on board the Presence. You must survive with at least one original Agent.

You ally in helping you accomplish this task is [ALLY]. Your Special Officer, commanding the mission, is [COMMANDER].

Powers: Every night, you may do one of the following tasks:

- Team up with a fellow Agent (or your Special Officer) to kill one person a night. However, if you are the only Agent left, you may kill solo.
- Go out individually and offer a Letter of Marque to one person. If your target is susceptible to Letters of Marque, they will join your team and become a British Convert. If your target is NOT susceptible, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- Take part in the townie vigilante groups with 3 others. However, you do not count as towards a successful protection. If a target is protected with more than the required minimum of players, and you are part of it, you will still be awarded treasure for your efforts.

Lastly, treasure is not a motivator to you, and you may not Abandon Ship under any circumstances, under penalty of death as per the British Naval Code. Good luck!

In the future, I may allow the bad guys to successfully be able to hide in protection groups so they can get a better alibi.

Maven Saboteur (basic)
Sent to gibsonsg91921, Sigurd

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Maven Saboteur

It is when pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.
~ William Bolitho

The Maven and the Presence have been the two main competing pirate ships in this part of the ocean for several years now. Ordinarily, the two of you would cooperate, as there would have been more than enough loot to go around, but this is no longer the Golden Age of Piracy. The ever-cursed British have cracked down, and the opportunities are drying up. Your captain, hearing about the ever-spectacular sack of Charleston, has decided that the treasure accumulated is just too much of a bounty to pass up. He has ordered you and two other trusted comrades to sneak onboard the Presence, and steal as much of it as possible before hightailing it. In addition, he would also like it if you were able to eliminate the entire crew and take the ship for yourselves, but that might be difficult to do and he will understand it if you are unable to accomplish this task.

Your goals: The primary goal is to accumulate as much treasure as you possibly can, and then getting out of there alive. The secondary goal is to eliminate everyone on board and take the ship for yourselves. This is a much more difficult task to accomplish, but the victory will be far much more spectacular if you are able to obtain it.

Your two initial allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY]. You may acquire more allies along the way (see below), however, one original saboteur must survive in order for your goals to be accomplished.

Powers: Unlike with the British Agents, there is no overt command structure among the three of you and thus you all share the same abilities. You may perform one of the following activities per night:

- ONE (and only one) of you may investigate one person to determine their susceptibility to treasure.
- Two of you may team up to kill one person a night. The standard pot of treasure is rewarded.
- You may also take part in the standard townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others). As a by-product of your involvement, you will also receive accurate information on one other person’s treasure count, randomly determined.
- Once one of you becomes the active leader in treasure accumulated (I will notify you of this), then you may begin offering Presence sailors to join your crew, promising them greater treasure. If they are susceptible to treasure, they will become a Maven convert. If not, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- You may choose to Abandon Ship. This decision must be unanimous, but unlike your standard townies, you are guaranteed to get off the ship without incident. This takes you out of the game permanently and is to only be done if you don’t think you stand a chance of victory or if you think you have accumulated enough gold to please your Captain.

Lastly… good luck!

The basic premise behind the Mavens and the Brits is that I wanted each to have a specific set of strengths and weaknesses. In the Mavens’ case, their strength was flexibility. All of their men had the same exact set of powers (though Reenk got a little immunity bonus, see below), but they were limited by the gold provision. This in essence forced themselves to kill if they wanted to be able to recruit.

Though the Mavens did end up surviving longer than the Brits, they had also been effectively neutered by Day 4, meaning I think that they had an equal chance of doing as well as the Brits, all other things equal. Again, something I’ll have to look at for the sequel.

Maven Saboteur (Plus)
Sent to Reenk Roink

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Maven Saboteur

It is when pirates count their booty that they become mere thieves.
~ William Bolitho

The Maven and the Presence have been the two main competing pirate ships in this part of the ocean for several years now. Ordinarily, the two of you would cooperate, as there would have been more than enough loot to go around, but this is no longer the Golden Age of Piracy. The ever-cursed British have cracked down, and the opportunities are drying up. Your captain, hearing about the ever-spectacular sack of Charleston, has decided that the treasure accumulated is just too much of a bounty to pass up. He has ordered you and two other trusted comrades to sneak onboard the Presence, and steal as much of it as possible before hightailing it. In addition, he would also like it if you were able to eliminate the entire crew and take the ship for yourselves, but that might be difficult to do and he will understand it if you are unable to accomplish this task.

Your goals: The primary goal is to accumulate as much treasure as you possibly can, and then getting out of there alive. The secondary goal is to eliminate everyone on board and take the ship for yourselves. This is a much more difficult task to accomplish, but the victory will be far much more spectacular if you are able to obtain it.

Your two initial allies in helping you accomplish this task are [ALLY] and [ALLY]. You may acquire more allies along the way (see below), however, one original saboteur must survive in order for your goals to be accomplished.

Powers: Unlike with the British Agents, there is no overt command structure among the three of you and thus you all share the same abilities. You may perform one of the following activities per night:

- ONE (and only one) of you may investigate one person to determine their susceptibility to treasure.
- Two of you may team up to kill one person a night. The standard pot of treasure is rewarded.
- You may also take part in the standard townie group activities (kill with at least 3 others, protect with at least 2 others). As a by-product of your involvement, you will also receive accurate information on one other person’s treasure count, randomly determined.
- Once one of you becomes the active leader in treasure accumulated (I will notify you of this), then you may begin offering Presence sailors to join your crew, promising them greater treasure. If they are susceptible to treasure, they will become a Maven convert. If not, then you stand a chance of being discovered.
- You may choose to Abandon Ship. This decision must be unanimous, but unlike your standard townies, you are guaranteed to get off the ship without incident. This takes you out of the game permanently and is to only be done if you don’t think you stand a chance of victory or if you think you have accumulated enough gold to please your Captain.

Lastly, you are stronger than the other two Maven crewman and thus are guaranteed survival the first time somebody attacks you at night. However, after Night 5, the overwhelming paranoia and constant being-on-your-guard starts to wear on you, and this ability no longer applies. It is your choice whether you wish to tell your fellow crewmen about this ability. This ability does not imply that you are their leader. Good luck!

I wanted one of the Mavens to get some kind of immunity from the early attacks, much like CA. Unfortunately, this went to the wrong person. Gibson went down to the Four Horsemen very early on, and Reenk actually had protection on him the first couple of nights.

Steward
Sent to slashandburn, Yaropolk

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Steward

The first thing you’ve got to learn about this ship is that she was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.
~ Lieut. Thomas Keefer

Although life on the Presence is not nearly as ordered as a career in the Navy, there is still some chain of command as well as discipline beyond that of the Captain and his officers, and you are that chain. A Steward is responsible for the general well-being of the crew. In the past, this usually meant making sure that half the sailors didn’t come down with scurvy and that they weren’t dying from malnutrition. However, your job particulars have somewhat altered in the outbreak of violence that has recently affected the ship. Now, your main job is to make sure that there is a crew that returns to Nassau. Isn’t responsibility great?

Your goal: Ensure a Presence victory by eliminating all her threats. As you are a mid-level officer, you are ensured that you will be well-compensated for your work, and thus the accumulation of treasure is not a motivation to you.

Powers: Unlike most of the Able Seamen aboard, you are somewhat limited in the scope of night actions that are available to you. However, you perform your stated duties particularly well.

- Every night, you may protect one person a night. You are able to thwart the standard two-man villain kill groups and four-man townie kill groups. However, groups over the minimum number of participants stand a greater chance of blasting through your protection. Very large groups may even put yourself at risk.
- You are not the only Steward on board. Should you find others, you may protect them, but at least one of you must protect an outside target (this is to prevent an invincible circle of Stewards from forming).
- You may not Abandon Ship at any time. You are in this until the end.

Finally, if you are appointed First Mate or Quartermaster, those powers replace your current powers. You will gain your original powers back upon being sacked. Good luck!

The standard Doctor role. Not really needed as I think the protection groups had more saves than the Stewards (Yaro had one, and it would have failed anyway because the attack was uncoordinated). If I could do this all over again, I think I would eliminate this role. The presence of the Quartermaster, a roleblocker, and protection groups kind of made the Steward vestigial.

Watchstander
Sent to Centurion1, Beskar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Watchstander

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
~ Vincent Van Gogh

Someone has to keep the ship going while the Captain and his crew get some sleep (or at least pretend to). That someone would be you. Your job entails basic duties such as making sure the ship is straight, nothing’s falling apart, and watching for potential attacks. However, as the Presence is a streamlined vessel (you heard a rumor that it was originally the personal ship of an adventurous Frenchman) and pretty much runs itself, you have a lot of down time. This means looking carefully at what’s going on.

Your goal: Ensure a Presence victory by eliminating all her threats. As you are a mid-level officer, you are ensured that you will be well-compensated for your work, and thus the accumulation of treasure is not a motivation to you.

Powers: Unlike most of the Able Seamen aboard, you are somewhat limited in the scope of night actions that are available to you. However, you perform your stated duties particularly well.

- Every night, you may investigate two persons on board the ship. This basic investigation will tell you what they were doing that night. Follow-up investigations will reveal more about them, including susceptibility and eventually their true affiliation.
- You are not the only Watchstander on board. Should you find others, you may work together to investigate targets, which will bring about more thorough results in a faster period of time.
- You may not Abandon Ship at any time. Doing so would be a dereliction of duty. Even pirates have that much honor, mate.

Finally, if you are appointed First Mate or Quartermaster, those powers replace your current powers. You will gain your original powers back upon being sacked. Good luck!

I wanted to be very careful about this one, especially with the town in Capo III being dictated by “wait for investigations”. Luckily, my experience hosting the small game Omertà back in May/June prepared me for this, and I recycled the three-tier investigation system I used in that. In addition, after being asked for clarification on this issue several times, I made it so that the First Mate’s investigations were entirely separate from the Watchstanders’, disallowing them from getting Tier 3 results immediately.

Ultimately I think I made the Watchstander role fairly well-balanced, especially with the provision that protection groups couldn’t block a double-kill attempt. However, Centurion was inactive for several nights. It’s difficult to speculate how things may have been different had he been operating at full efficiency, much like Beskar.

I eventually provided this PM to Reenk and the British on their joint Quicktopic just as the British were in the middle of their 72-hour death knell. Reenk used it to great effect in the later rounds, though by that time there was little misdirection he could really throw up.

Able Seaman (basic)
Sent to ACIN, White_eyes, Xehh II, YLC, Louis, Drizzt, Blackadder, AVSM, atheotes, Iskander, Jolt, Winter, ATPG, khaan, A1, pever, Beefy, Chaotix, john, Diana, Seamus, shlin, Psychonaut, Khazaar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

I’m sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea/I’ve got to be free, free to face the life ahead of me…
~ Styx

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. 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.

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 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.
- 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. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- 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 over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for 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.

Finally… good luck!

The bare-bones townie PM. Contrary to popular belief, susceptibility was not determined by the quote you received. Instead, I further randomized the names after I sent out all the PMs and made a note of the results in the Excel spreadsheet. The first four names on the list were susceptible to both Letters of Marque and treasure; the next six, Letters of Marque only; the six after that, treasure only. I will show everyone’s susceptibility when I write up the list of every player’s activities, which you should expect in a couple of days.

Able Seaman (with “strong” bonus)
Sent to Joooray, woad, Grizzly, taka, Andres, miotas, Tratorix

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.
~ G.K. Chesterton

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. 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.

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 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.
- 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. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- 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 over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for 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.

Finally, you are stronger than many men on board and thus you can defend yourself better than a lot of these scurvy landlubbers. Any time a minimum group of players attacks you, you stand a 50% chance of survival. This ability does not expire. Good luck!

This was my major mistake of the game. While sending this PM to LG, Joooray, taka, and woad (they all had the same base gold), I forgot to BCC them and instead made the list of recipients public, or at least to them. Combine that with the eerily coincidental Chesterton quote, and these four were sure that they were masons. Joooray asked if it was an error; I confirmed that it was but failed to say whether or not I rectified it (I didn’t). I do apologize to the four of them, especially Grizz and woad, for the error, but still found the mechanic interesting as they were an experimental variable of sorts.

Able Seaman (with “food” bonus)
Sent to SSNeo, CR, Sasaki, Double A, DiY, DisgruntledGoat, Subotan

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Your role is:

Able Seaman (townie)

Yo ho ho ho, a pirate’s life for me!
~ Traditional

Avast, matey! Despite those cursed officers getting all high-and-mighty about their duties, you know that you and your fellow Able Seamen are the backbone of the Presence. After all, it was your hard work that won you the bounty of Charleston, your hard work that keeps the ship in good order, and your hard work that pays for that Captain’s immense salary. This loot you’ve acquired is a huge break, not seen since the days of Morgan, and you’re anxious to get back home and spend it. There’s only one problem: It seems like everyone wants you dead. You’re going to have to fight very hard for this if you ever want to see Nassau alive, and you may even have to… *gasp* use your brains. Don’t panic though, I hear a little rum is good for you mind. Or was that scotch?

Your goals: Unless successfully recruited by either the British Agents or Maven saboteurs, your aim is to eliminate every last threat on board the Presence. In addition, you also wish to accumulate as much treasure as possible. Please check the first post in the Summary thread for exactly how you can boost your treasure total.

Your victory conditions vary, but generally you will score highest if you survive the ordeal, stay on board, and have the most treasure. 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.

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 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.
- 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. Every night, you will have a random chance of being able to do this successfully.

In addition, you can perform the following actions in the day:

- Vote for who you think should walk the plank.
- 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 over 50% of living players vote for a mutiny, the Captain is removed from his position and executed along with whoever has the most votes. You gain a bonus in treasure for a successful mutiny, and only mutineers may participate in the selection for 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.

Finally, you have been secretly stealing rations for a while now and as a result are better fed than most of the sailors. This doesn’t really have an effect on you from the outset, but as time wears on and life as you know it starts breaking down, you will be in a better position to deal with it than most of the crew. As a result, if you are attacked anytime from Nights 6-10, you stand a 50% chance of survival. Good luck!

Crazed Rabbit cleverly used the quote provided in his push for Captain as a way to subtly say that he was a townie without letting the mafia pick up on it, but unbeknownst to him this was not the quote sent to the majority of the townies. However, I don’t really think anyone picked up on it either way.

Captain

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been elected to:

Captain

Have you ever considered piracy? You’d make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
~ Westley, to Inigo Montoya

Congratulations! The Presence is yours to command. Now get to work, because there’s villains a-plenty aboard and the good honest pirates are counting on you to steer them home to Nassau with all of the haul from Charleston intact. As Captain, you are the main authority figure on board and have several powers to assist you with your responsibilities.

Your goals: Eliminate all threats to the Presence. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals. A secondary goal is to remain Captain of the Presence for the rest of the voyage, but should you do a good enough job then accomplishing the first should go far towards accomplishing the second as well.

Powers: As Captain, your main powers are of delegation and placing your trust in the right people. However, you do have your own personal abilities in the case of an emergency.

- If you have not done so already, you must make your choice of who is to be your First Mate and Quartermaster. Your First Mate can kill one person or investigate two persons per night, and the Quartermaster can individually protect or roleblock one person per night. You may replace these two officers at will.
- You personally cannot be killed at night. The only way you may be removed from office is if over 50% of the ship’s crew votes to mutiny.
- You may still take part in night actions as usual. However, your treasure count for performing any such activities will be wiped away.
- Instead, your salary as Captain is 15 pieces of treasure a night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- For the duration of the period that you are Captain, you may not Abandon Ship. This violates every single code of honor you have ever heard of, pirate or not.
- You have no vote, however you will still gain the 3 pieces of treasure for making a post in the day phase. Should there be a tie, it will be up to you and your officers to break the tie. Each of you has one equal vote in this. Should you and your Officers be deadlocked, you have the final tiebreaking vote.

Finally, you have the Captain’s Prerogative. Once in the game, you may go out at night and choose to kill one person. This kill has a guaranteed 100% chance of success and will override all protections, both innate and from external sources. This is the only sure-fire kill in the game and will not be recycled should a new Captain be elected, so use it wisely. Good luck!

I quite liked the Captain’s Prerogative special feature, and am glad that CR got to use it during the game. It’s too bad that ATPG didn’t have protection stacked on him the night he died, though, just to shock the heck out of everybody.

First Mate

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been appointed to:

First Mate

When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result his men were well motivated.
~ Capt. Marko Ramius

Welcome to officerhood! The Captain has entrusted you with the safety and security of the Presence and you are responsible directly to him. Going back over your responsibilities, you start to wonder if the Captain has something against you for putting you in this thankless role, but put the thoughts aside. You have work to do.

Your goal: Using your new powers, your mission is to ensure a Presence victory while at the same time making sure you are at or near the lead in gold count. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals.

Powers: Your nighttime abilities as First Mate override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.

- You stand a flat 50% chance of dying at night, regardless of numbers or powers.
- At night, you may submit orders to either kill one person or investigate two people. Your investigation results will be akin to those of a Watchstander. Multiple investigations are required to determine susceptibility and finally true affiliation.
- Your salary as First Mate is 12 pieces of treasure per night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the Quartermaster will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.

Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. If both you and the Quartermaster choose to leave the Captain vulnerable for a night, then the protection his office provides is removed and he is liable to be murdered at night. However, you cannot be the one to deliver the killing blow – the Captain must be murdered by an outside source. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!

Louis’s impact on this game was very underrated. I think he was the sole person CR had a 100% trust in throughout the game, and he provided some very important services for the Captain. His one kill (Psychonaut) was off the mark, although he was a very entertaining player and did his best to evenly pace his captain in the treasure race by offering pieces of a (totally fake) “officer’s treasure map” to unsuspecting sailors for treasure. Well done and totally within the spirit of the game.

Quartermaster

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

You have been appointed to:

Quartermaster

You, you, you, step forward! You three are a disgrace to salt water! Ten days’ half rations!
~ Capt. William Bligh

While in reality, pirate Quartermasters were usually elected along with the Captain, in this game they are appointed. Lucky you. The fact that they were appointed speaks to the importance and power of their role in Pirate society. As Quartermaster, you are primarily in charge of discipline on the ship, which is fast becoming unraveled thanks to the numerous threats on board the Presence. You are well-versed in the Pirate Articles and issuing punishments for those who transgress the Articles falls entirely in your jurisdiction. This is reflected in your powers.

Your goal: Using your new powers, your mission is to ensure a Presence victory while at the same time making sure you are at or near the lead in gold count. You will not be able to be converted while you are in office, even if you are susceptible. However, in the case that you are already on a different side, congratulations on your deception and continue furthering your goals.

Powers: Your nighttime abilities as Quartermaster override those you had previously. Upon your removal from office, you will get your original powers back.

- You stand a flat 50% chance of dying at night, regardless of numbers or powers.
- At night, you may submit orders to either protect one person or throw one person into the brig (prevent them from doing anything at night). As a by-product of throwing them into the brig, you will also gain an accurate report of that person’s treasure count.
- Your salary as Quartermaster is 12 pieces of treasure per night (plus 2 for submitting a night order).
- Unlike the Captain, you have a vote in the daily proceedings. If there is a tie vote, you, the Captain, and the First Mate will vote to break the tie. If the three of you cannot break that tie (say, each of you votes to execute a different person), then the Captain has the final say.
- So long as you hold this office, you cannot Abandon Ship.

Finally, in addition to your orders, you have the option to leave the Captain vulnerable at night. This is not the default option – i.e. you must specifically let me know that you are doing this. If both you and the First Mate choose to leave the Captain vulnerable for a night, then the protection his office provides is removed and he is liable to be murdered at night. The Captain does not know about this ability. Good luck!

Good God I remember sending this PM so many times throughout the course of the game. Once I realized that CR wouldn’t be removed through mutiny, I was secretly hoping for an officer-driven coup as per the special abilities. TinCow, if he had wrangled Reenk into the First Mate position, could have pulled it off since his role could both leave protection off CR as well as deliver the final blow. It was not to be though.

I still have the individual players’ write-up to finish, but in the meantime feel free to feast on this for a while and enjoy.

I relied heavily on Microsoft Excel for this game, almost obsessively so. For those interested, there were 12 separate sheets: one for keeping track of everyone’s status, one for recruitment, one for transactions, and nine for voting. The status sheet ended up being 52*32 cels in total, or a whopping 1,664 cels of data! And that was only one sheet!

If anyone is interested in seeing the actual spreadsheet, let me know and I’ll send you an email.

**Crazed Rabbit** · 10-22-2009, 21:29

Louis’s impact on this game was very underrated. I think he was the sole person CR had a 100% trust in throughout the game, and he provided some very important services for the Captain.

Indeed. He was a good and loyal man, and supported me through thick and thin, and this meant the mafia would never be able to remove my nighttime protection.

It’s too bad that ATPG didn’t have protection stacked on him the night he died, though, just to shock the heck out of everybody.

I tried to arrange a protection, just so I could blast through it, but twas not to be. But man oh man was it ever satisfying to off ATPG after Capo (nothing personal

) and to be cheered on by the town for it.

CR

**Beskar** · 10-22-2009, 21:34

Beskar was the only one that went to Tier 2, but gave up afterwards.

That would have been a tier 3 if Centurion1 wasn't playing the inactive game. I was killed later. But yeah, when CR said about TinCow's role straight away I thought "French".

Amusing that it was actually correct.

Yeah, I clued onto Reenk Roink straight-away, though I thought ATPG gave it to him, along with the leaked information. Wouldn't since I got killed, there wasn't much I could do and pretty much dropped out of the game.

**Subotan** · 10-22-2009, 21:38

Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

[SPOILIn a different, slightly less crowded tavern, the remaining members of the Four Horsemen, A Very Super Market, miotas, and Subotan, were sharing drinks together (after, of course, enjoying the company of the tavern wenches), already reminiscing about the good times. Already, the events aboard the [/I]Presence[I] were the stuff of legend, and none of it more so than the exploits of the Four Horsemen.

“I don’t care how much credit that Captain gets,” Subotan said, “We killed more bad guys than he did. We took out that first Maven, and the first Brit to boot. Then we followed it up with the worst Brit of them all, getting one of his converts to up and off himself out of shame, to boot.”

“Aye,” said AVSM. “Don’t forget Reenk, in that second-to-last night. If it weren’t for ACIN falling that woman’s charms, we would have killed him as well and saved the ship even earlier. Maybe even saved ACIN’s life.” They fell silent at this, honoring their friend’s memory.

“To ACIN,” miotas said finally, holding his glass out.

“To ACIN,” the other two echoed, and clinked glasses.

“You know,” said AVSM later on in the night, “we got a lot of gold from killin’ people. We should do something about it.”

“Aye,” said Subotan, “but what?”

“Well… I was thinkin’ of gettin’ our own ship, to be honest. We can afford a small one, but who needs size when ye have the bravest crew in existence? And besides, we’ll get Able Seamen of our own, especially when they find out the ship’s run by three of the Four Horsemen!”

“That sounds splendid!” said Subotan. “But which of us’ll be the Captain?”

“That’ll be me,” miotas interjected, “Seeing as how I have the most gold.”

The two others grumbled, then laughed good-naturedly. And so it was. In less than a week, the sloop a completely inoffensive name was christened, captained by miotas, with Subotan as First Mate and A Very Super Market as Quartermaster, with a willing crew ready to plunder to their hearts’ content.
[/SPOIL]

Awesome! Snuffed but not forgotten

Thanks for writing not just this, but the whole game, GH

Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

I relied heavily on Microsoft Excel for this game, almost obsessively so. For those interested, there were 12 separate sheets: one for keeping track of everyone’s status, one for recruitment, one for transactions, and nine for voting. The status sheet ended up being 52*32 cels in total, or a whopping 1,664 cels of data! And that was only one sheet!

If anyone is interested in seeing the actual spreadsheet, let me know and I’ll send you an email.

I'd be quite interested to learn how you managed it, seeing as how this is my first Mafia game, and will thus probably be a big influence on my Chinese Civil War/Second Sino-Japanese War Mafia game in the summer (You scurvy lot better all sign up

), A Bridge Zhou Far.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 10-22-2009, 21:46

My two main pieces of advice would be to immediately enter data in once you get it (this mostly applies to night orders), and to color-code everything. For me, red was successful kills, orange was failed kills, green was for correct protections, blue was failed (or would-be failed) protections, and purple was for protections that were still successful but didn't have everyone take part. There was also a lot of shorthand.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing the actual thing, drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send it off to you ASAP.

**Tratorix** · 10-22-2009, 22:29

GG to all our surviving crew. Drink up lads!

Thanks to GH for hosting, was an entertaining game even if I bit it fairly early.

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