Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Not the kind with cardstock and pawns. Mostly play by post Mafia so far.
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DanielH
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by DanielH »

This is a long post, because I have a lot of people I want to reply to. I just got back today; I hope to be more regularly available throughout most of the game. I sorted the post into subsections; the first section is in rough chronological order by what I’m replying to.

tl;dr: I say things, much of which are game related; I will post my list later.

--

Before either section, I have something I want to say for the mods; I’m putting it here so it’s easy to find. There’s no bold text after this.

There has been some discussion of this and it wasn’t clarified, but I feel like asking might help: Mods, what information should we expect to get when people die? Role and affiliation but not powers, again, or something else? Unless stated otherwise I will assume it has "the implied qualifier 'unless something is going on' ".

Non–role speculation replies

I’m wary of being swayed by Aestrix’s arguments (in full generality) because of her Mysterious Air of Convincingness, but those do sound like things Aestrix would probably say about anybody if given time; she said some of those things on Day 1 last game.

--

I agree with Shoal that PDV seems suspicious, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. If more than one person dies tonight, though, I will vote for PDV.

--

Kappa, I did not actually intend to read your swearing on your mother’s grave as a worldbuilding detail; if you wanted to actually give a hint about your role I expect you’d be a bit more obvious that that’s what you were doing. It’s a common enough expression that I had not fully considered the possibility that your actual mother (or even your in-game mother) was dead. I probably would not have attempted to make a joke about it if I’d thought more. Even though it appears you don’t particularly mind my doing that, I’m sorry; if you do mind I’m sorrier.

--
kappa wrote: Also, [Aestrix's] post contains a claim with no citation that "Alicorn admitted that our roles are not up to the random number god, but picked based on what would be interesting and unexpected". I have skimmed the first posts of this and the OOC thread and found no such statement, and I don't remember hearing one. I acknowledge that I could be forgetting and failing to find it. Can someone find the citation, please?
That was in IRC, and the log is not updated; I’ll finish reading through what’s there (unless they’re reusing the channel for this game, in which case I will finish reading through what isn’t about this game), update the logs one last time, and then quit the channel. In the meantime, here is the exact quote of that section:

Code: Select all

(04:08:59 PM) omegabeta: i am curious how much of effulgent mafia role assignment was random vs not
(04:09:06 PM) Shoal: oh. so probably just random coincidence
(04:09:22 PM) DanielH: I can *completely* see Renée being extra-susceptible to Chelsea.
(04:09:38 PM) Aestrix: Same, Tamien.
(04:09:54 PM) DanielH: Also, Alicorn, how would a Chelsea’d Alex’s shoulder Bella react?
(04:13:19 PM) Alicorn: The shoulder Bella is as susceptible as Alex themself but would retain most other properties.
(04:13:41 PM) Alicorn: role assignment is not random.  I do it in a way that I think will be both nonobvious and fun.
(04:14:03 PM) Aestrix: Awwww, you picked Libby for me, thank you so much <3
(04:14:20 PM) Aestrix: I had a blast with it! :D
(04:14:35 PM) Alicorn: ^^
(04:15:18 PM) omegabeta: that makes me even happier about being sherlock
(04:15:26 PM) omegabeta: and i was already very happy about being sherlock
--
anthusiasm wrote:Also, does "precommit" have any meanings that can't just be covered by the word "commit"?
It is supposedly a specific type of commitment: limiting the options of your future self because otherwise your future self will choose something you presently don’t want. For example, you could talk about “precommitment” with Kavka’s Toxin (approximately equivalent to Parfit’s Hitchhiker); in that case, you decide at one point that in the future you’ll do something, knowing that in the future you’ll think “I wish I didn’t have to do this”.

The word as originally intended doesn’t apply as well in this case because despite your sadfeels at killing Aestrix, you still now think it is in your best interests to do so. Of course, language evolves and its meaning is getting wider and wider.

Role suspicion replies

Code: Select all

from sandboxen.amountsOfDragon import vocabulary
I’m not sure whether or not it makes sense for dragonishes to be able to absorb a kill (there are ways to die which kill all the forms). I strongly suspect, though, that if you are correct then it is probably bad for any dragons who are thus stuck in natural form if a shren loses a form too.

If I have a pro-town role, then it appears in Summons at least once. I’m skimming Summons and will write up my guess for the role of every character there under the assumption that they are in the game and pro-town; the one I write for my own role will be correct. To avoid information from being different amounts of specific, I will list each role as though it were fact, and will answer any questions about that role that anybody has (to the extent of the information I expect somebody playing that role will have available).

For example, if my list was
Hypothetical List based of Effulgence Mafia game
  • Libby: Can privately communicate with one person per night; wincon: at least one person still alive at end of game
  • Sherlock: Can identify one person’s affiliation per night
  • Eights: Can substitute as the target of any “negative” abilities for one person per night
  • Mark: Any abilities targeting Miles have a 50% chance of hitting Mark instead
and I was actually Eights, I would answer questions about how Eights’s power worked to the best of what the mods would tell me, and I would answer questions about any of the others to the extent of what I think the mods would tell me. This is a nice compromise between actually coming up with a bunch of powers and giving equal information for all of them.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Alicorn »

As players depart you will learn their character True Names and their factions, as before.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by jalapeno_dude »

I count 116 names on the Elcenia cast list. Either I generated 10 unique integers from 1 to 116 and put guesses for the corresponding names, or I generated 9 of them plus my own assignment (phrased as a guess).
What I Just Said
Naraxalar: Jade dragon, caster with high CC, brother of Keo, once mindlinked to Samia. Jade=empath=reading (and potentially altering) people's emotions (which could mean detecting if someone is a murderer, I guess. Dragon=multiple forms, so might be able to soak a kill, but potential vulnerability to shrens if those are a thing. High CC=good at spells, if those are a thing. Brother of Keo=might be able to share a communication channel with her (if this is a thing, I'd expect lots of people to be able to talk to Keo, but not to each other except via her). I guess the Samia mindlink could be a think if she's a villain here.

Lerrel Rysen: presumably an unpowered townie. If family ties are a thing, he has a connection to Rhysel's family and also ex-shrens.

Eryn Lennryth: Image kamai, which means illusions, which could mean faking people's Truenames, though I'm not sure why you'd want to do that (I'm assuming an Eryn would be Town). Is Rhysel's blood sister, but that doesn't actually mean anything in Elcenia canon so I assume it wouldn't here.

Melykor Coranton: wow, this is a person on the cast list? Presumably an unpowered townie, unless dancing is a thing in this game for some reason.

Eresti Elirte: Who? Oh, right, one of Ehail's nephews. Does he ever actually show up in Silver? *checks* Oh, I guess he does (though, side note, it was super annoying to check this because Ctrl+F'ing the page gets all of the instances of the word 'interesting'. I wish Chrome had a case-sensitive search option. Man, this is becoming really stream-of-consciousness, isn't it?). Almost certainly a vanilla townie, though he is a Thudia so has a dragon form, which I guess could be important if that's a thing.

Abel Casten: Um. Talyn's brother, apparently. Apparently paints, judging from the picture on his cast page? Leekath sends him a "generically nice wooden box" in Blood? Yeah, definitely a vanilla townie.

Cyranna Casten: Talyn's sister. Two of Talyn's siblings in a row, weird. Is holding a stuffed rabbit in her picture, which I vaguely remember Leekath talking to in Blood. Vanilla townie, if in the game, I guess. Now I'm thinking about the mafia killing cute children and feeling sad. Well, I had Matilda as my safeclaim last game so I guess the appearance of other children is not outside the realm of possibility, but it seems unlikely to me.

Mallyn Caryllen: Is a protagonist, but I'd be surprised if he was anything other than a vanilla townie. Hmm, actually, maybe the photographic memory and/or sketches are a thing? If he survives a night killing, he can unerringly identify his killer?

Saasnil Fikastel: Korulen's roommate, summoned Rhysel. Wizard, then, obviously, but I don't remember her becoming a kamai--nope, she didn't or at least wasn't part of the first batch. I think Finnah thought she was boring? I guess if wizard is a thing in this game she's one, though apparently she's terrible at breaks.

Vianne Rysen: One of Rhysel's nieces. I guess she must be "Myret's niece" because Sel is obviously "Rhysel's niece" but am too lazy to check. Another cute child vanilla townie.

Ryll Rysen: Rhysel's sister, Vianne's mother. Politician, so maybe there's an official investigation if/when she dies and her killer is automatically revealed?

Thiris Aaarishheiil: half-vampire, Leekath's cousin. Ugh, thinking about half-vampires is sad too (I guess less so than thinking about murdered children, though). Half-vampires are fragile and get tired easily but have trouble sleeping, or at least Thiris does. I guess in game terms this could mean he dies if he overexerts himself (maybe a limit on the number of posts the player is allowed to make per in-game day?) but also that he has a chance of overhearing nefarious things during the night.

Tanzilambe: Is a dragon, judging from the name. A red one, so I guess that means she's good at fire stuff. So boring that she doesn't even get a character description--oh, she's Kenar's sister, that's why she's there. Either cute child vanilla townie or cute child dragon townie, depending on if dragons are a thing. I don't see the fire stuff coming up in game, though I guess she'd be immune to fire-based killing?

Simnelkoedh: Wow, I just reread Elcenia and I have no clue who half of these people are. *checks* The same as what I just said about Tanzil, but Kenar's brother and a blue dragon = more forms, so maybe can tank twice as many killings? But I'm really doubtful about the logic here for thinking more forms means tanking. If we've voted them dead, we're hardly going to be content with a single form, and the...thoroughness...of the serial killer murders in the last game makes me think the mafia (if they're actually a thing this game) won't be content with a single form either.

Tyrrel Rysen: Another cute child vanilla townie, actually Vianne's brother. For some reason Sel isn't listed as his sibling--oh, it looks like something is wrong with the formatting (the link to Vianne is also broken).

Conclusion: Alicorn and Nemo could totally run "Elcenia Mafia: Cute Children Dying Horribly Edition." But I'm guessing that's not what we're playing.
Warning: this got really long and rambly, but I actually had fun writing it, so I guess that's good.

EDIT: Either I was having so much fun writing that I decided to generate 5 more, or I forgot to put in my actual role, realized I couldn't just edit it in in case someone saw this post before writing it, and generated 4 more plus my actual role.
Last edited by jalapeno_dude on Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Alicorn »

Thanks for the bug report on Tyrrel's page, fixed.

Fun fact: I once named more than 200 Elcenia characters from memory.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by jalapeno_dude »

Alicorn wrote:Thanks for the bug report on Tyrrel's page, fixed.
Heh, I was wondering if you were reading closely enough to catch that. Now I know! (Also I just edited my last post. The number of bug reports remains unchanged, though.)
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by modrony »

Kappa wrote:modrony, can you explain your idea more clearly and explicitly? I am having trouble figuring out exactly what it is you want people to do and why.
Much of the point of verified random voting is to prevent scum from influencing the vote.

What if we could do the same thing but not randomly?

People have a lot of suspicions, mostly not based on solid evidence. We don't trust those suspicions for a good reason. We don't want to jump to any bandwagons based on individual hunches.
But what if a lot of people have independently formed those suspicions about the same people? Then a reason probably exsists even if we can't point to it.

What I want to do is collect those hunches in a way where one person expressing an opinion won't influence the others.

I expect a lot of you are familiar with Asch conformity experiment? It's easy to google if you aren't.
Picking a candidate is a lot like picking a line. We have low confidence on our guesses and so when somebody else expresses an opinion it's easy to let others judgement override your own. We often aren't even concious that is what we are doing.
This makes it easier for scum to control non-random voting.
Non-random voting would be better than random voting if we can eliminate scummy influence.

So. I am proposing a brain hack.
1. Choose a suspect, write it down, declare you have done so. (this way you won't change your mind based on what others think)
2. Wait for others to do the same.
3. Collect results.

Maybe it's random noise. Maybe it isn't.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Shoal »

Because I'm happy with PDV's defence of himself for now, and because it seemed to worked on wolffreak (thanks wolffreak!), I'm going to vote Paradox until they get an avatar. All of last game I kept getting them confused with Tamien, even though Tamien has an avatar, and it's still happening.

Vote: Paradox

@Pistachi0n, you mentioned some avatar problems earlier and that you're not entirely happy with the nondescript black circle. Is there anything you want others to help you find a picture of? Maybe some pistachio cookies?

@Paradox, if you are having similar troubles, just give us some suggestions and we'll find you a picture.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Paradox »

My problem is more deciding on what I want my avatar to be than finding a picture of it. I'll try and think of something to use and put it up sometime today.
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Shoal »

Thanks <3
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Re: Elcenia Mafia Game Thread

Post by Kappa »

Hmm. All right, modrony, I accept your logic. I will not personally be participating yet because I haven't conceived of any suspicions firm enough to throw my vote behind, but I encourage others to do so, and perhaps for us to make this a daily ritual.
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