Dungeons & Mafia | |
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Game information | |
Host | plasmid |
Link | Dungeons & Mafia BTSC threads |
Size | 12 Players (Small) |
Start Date | 2013-12-15 |
Winning Faction | Red Faction |
Roster | #, player |
First to Die | Boquise |
Last Remaining | Benjer, Shadow, Hachi, Barc |
MVP | Benjer |
Awards | - |
Dungeons & Mafia was a 3-Faction hybrid game designed and hosted by plasmid based on Dungeon & Dragons characters.
It began on December 15th, 2013 and ended in a Red Faction win in D5 (December 25th, 2013).
Game Mechanics
Factions
- There are three factions: Red, Green, and Blue.
- Each faction has four players with BTSC and the roles of Fighter, Thief, Holy mage, and Evil mage. Powerplay is allowed.
- Wincons: Red eliminate green. Green eliminate blue. Blue eliminate red.
- Game ends when the first faction is eliminated.
- If two factions are eliminated simultaneously, only the last faction standing wins.
Phases
- Each night, players get to use their strike (once per night) and however many abilities they want for however many times they want as long as they have enough MP. There are no spy abilities, but night posts show everything that happens (ie red holy mage heals IAWY and strikes Gub) with some exceptions listed in the role descriptions, and day posts show vote redirects.
- For day phases, the vote leader is not killed outright. Instead, every vote deals 1 HP damage to whoever you vote for. Think of it more as publicly saying "I'm gonna smack so-and-so" instead of a typical lynch, similar to the lolcats games. Unlike in the lolcats games, you may abstain if you wish.
- OOP: Pummel > beguile. Players are not considered dead until they reach the end of a phase with 0 or less HP (kills are not blocking), and players can still be syphoned to give an Evil mage HP even if the target's HP is dropping below zero on that night.
- Every death, whether day or night, leads to role reveal. HP and MP are not shown publicly, just in BTSC or PMs. HP can never exceed the starting amount; there is no limit on MP. Players gain the amount of MP shown in their role description at the end of each day phase.
Role Description
Fighter
- HP: 10
- MP: 2, +1 per cycle
- Strike: 2 damage
- Ironhide (2 MP): target takes no damage from strikes this night
- Pummel (4 MP): block and deal 1 damage to target
The blocked player's actions will still appear in the night post so their role won't be outed, they just won't have any effect. For example, if Phaze is the Red Evil mage it might say "Blue Fighter pummels Phaze" and "Red Evil mage syphons Boquise" but the syphon will actually fail.
- Persuade (5 MP): vote redirect
- Potion (ODTG): restore 4 HP to target, cannot exceed base HP
Thief
- HP: 8
- MP: 4, +2 per cycle
- Strike: 1 damage
- Cloak (2 MP): target's actions do not appear in the posts for this cycle (including vote redirect). Must be used on a faction-mate. Night post will show for example "Red Thief cloaks Red Evil mage" and will not show any of the Red Evil mage's actions. You may cloak yourself, in which case no actions will be shown except for the cloak.
- Beguile (3 MP): redirect. If your target uses multiple actions, it will affect whichever action appears last on their role description. The night post will show your target acting on whoever they originally targeted, not on who they were redirected to. ie if GM is the Blue Fighter the nightpost might show "Green Thief beguiles GM" and "GM strikes Mew", but Mew will not take damage and whoever GM was redirected to will take damage from the strike.
- Quicken (4 MP): target gets to strike twice on the next night. The target's extra strike will not be shown in the nightpost.
- Pickpocket (6 MP): steal all MP from target, cannot steal MP that the target is using this night
Holy mage
- HP: 7
- MP: 7, +3 per cycle
- Strike: 1 damage
- Heal (2 MP): restore 1 HP to target (target cannot exceed their base HP)
- Sanctuary (3 MP): target becomes immune from all (other) actions that use MP for this cycle, but not immune from strikes. Actions attempted on the target still appear in the NP, they just fail.
- Guardian angel (4 MP): if target's HP would have fallen to zero (or less) this night then target takes no damage, otherwise has no effect
- Smite (6 MP): target takes 4 damage
Evil mage
- HP: 6
- MP: 8, +3 per cycle
- Strike: 1 damage
- Blind (2 MP): target's strike will fail for this cycle
- Poison (3 MP): the target will start losing 1 HP per night on the next night. The poison action will appear in the night post but the target will not be told explicitly that they were poisoned (to avoid outing the Evil mage if the poison was redirected). Poison is nullified by a Heal or Potion action and will not cause HP loss on the night that a Heal or Potion is used.
- Syphon (4 MP): transfers 1 HP from target to caster (you cannot exceed your base 6 HP)
- Forsake (7 MP): target loses BTSC with their faction permanently
Host's Summary
With N5's actions Kiwi is down to 1 HP, and rather than have the game run over Christmas I'll call it a foregone conclusion at this point that Shadow and Benjer will lynch her D5 to win for the Red faction.
MVP of the game goes to Benjer, who used Sanctuary as an offensive ability to keep Kiwi from being protected by Hachi's ironhide in the endgame. Had he not done that, it was possible that Kiwi, Hachi, and Barc could have killed off Benjer if they focused their fire N5, and then taken out Shadow by the time Kiwi would run out of HP to give the Blue faction the win.
Overall I'm pretty happy with how the game went. It called for a good dose of strategy, and had an odd situation where two factions were cooperating even though one's wincon was to wipe out the other. I'll probably do another one sometime, with a few changes. First, to keep factions from being figured out too quickly, I'll either A) make it have four factions, or if I feel really plasmid maybe B) not tell people who their faction-mates are and make them decide who they want to trust, with PM allowed directly between players. Second, I might eliminate day phases since they don't really seem to add much beyond helping people figure out factions early in the game, and just make every phase be actions. Third, Greek letter accounts.
Phase-by-phase host's comments in the Actions section
Winning Faction
Red Faction:
- mew - Red Evil Mage
- Benjer - Red Holy Mage
- Shadow - Red Thief
- Segul - Red Fighter
MVP: benjer
Day and Night Posts
Night 1 |
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Red faction
Green faction
Blue faction
Night 1 brought the game's first casualty, as Boquise was killed and found to be the Green Evil mage. |
Day 1 |
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Plenty of punishment was dealt around the room, but no wounds proved fatal. |
Night 2 |
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Red faction
Green faction
Blue faction
Gubbey now lies dead, and was found to be the Green Thief |
Day 2 |
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As night fell, so did two more players. |
Night 3 |
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Red faction
Green faction
Blue faction
Araver, the Blue Thief, and Flamebirde, the Blue Holy mage, have died. |
Day 3 |
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Damage was dealt, but no one was killed today. |
Night 4 |
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Red faction
Green faction
Blue faction
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Day 4 |
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The Green Fighter persuaded Shadow to change her vote, by holding a sword at her neck and suggesting a player to vote for, which was indeed a persuasive argument.
Segul, the Red Fighter, was killed. |
Night 5 |
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Red faction
Green faction
Blue faction
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End of Game Roster
Dungeon master: plasmid
- Kiwifruit - Green Fighter - Lynched D5 (by host)
- Flamebirde - Blue Holy Mage - Killed N3
- mew - Red Evil Mage - Lynched D2
- Hachi - Blue Fighter
- Barc - Blue Evil Mage
- Benjer - Red Holy Mage
- Shadow - Red Thief
- Gubbey - Green Thief - Killed N2
- Araver - Blue Thief - Killed N3
- Segul - Red Fighter - Lynched D4
- Boquise - Green Evil Mage - Killed N1
- Nana - Green Holy Mage - Lynched D2
Actions
List of actions |
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For what it's worth, my thoughts going into the design of the game were that I wanted to make the real point of the game be to have to identify which players outside your own faction are targets and which need to be kept safe. If you can do that, you should be able to win; if not, blindly killing everyone who's not in your faction will probably just be shooting yourself in the foot. Omitting any straight-up spy abilities (aside from weak spies by redirects and blocks and such) was necessary in order to keep that as the main challenge of the game. I anticipate that people will be able to figure out who's in what faction fairly quickly based on actions appearing in the NP, so I kept the HP small enough that players should be able to be killed fairly quickly if they face focused fire from a full faction. Strategy early on and being the first to figure out and take out rival faction members should set the course of the game. Strategy N1 could involve: 1) having everyone attack a random person outside the faction, 2) having everyone attack the same player outside the faction, 3) not acting, 4) maybe having someone hit a player in your own faction just to screw up everyone else's analysis.
Starting game:
Night 1
Boquise is killed and revealed as Green Evil mage
I rescind any thought that not acting might be a good strategy for N1. Too much random damage to make it safe to stay out of the fray. And even if you don't hit your target faction, at least you'll hurt one of the people out to get you. I honestly didn't think there would still be this much uncertainty about people's factions, even though it is still early in the game. And I wasn't expecting a self-strike by Blue because if you use it to try to make a player look not blue then that should just make the Reds think that person is Green and try to kill them. But that and Nana sanctuary-ing Shadow sure does help add to all the confusion. That's why I usually try to design games in such a way that people won't die N1. Even though I knew it was possible, I wasn't expecting it to happen this game. Going into N2:
The red faction made it through D1 with barely a scratch, and are certainly looking like they're in the best shape so far. Of course so far most of the actions have just been based on players' reputations instead of info from the game. We'll see if that starts changing now. Night 2
Hachi losing BTSC is probably having a significant effect. If he could see the stats and that araver is down to 3 HP, he might be tossing him a potion instead. His ironhiding Nana might add to the confusion some, but the Red faction already has things figured out and the Green faction has Nana and so won't be confused by it.
Yep, I thought this might end up being a fast game once one faction got the upper hand. Not quite this quickly, though. Since the Reds have the factions completely figured out, I think they should have enough of an advantage even if Green and Blue try to collude to keep them from wiping out Green too quickly. I think the game was thrown in the Red faction's favor early on by the Blue faction killing Boquise. If Green loses (which seems inevitable) it's not really Green's fault as much as Blue's for the misfire. I rescind my rescinding of the idea that holding back N1 might be a good idea. At the very least, not smiting N1. Although I admit it would be the sort of thing I might try to do if I were playing, I could easily think "I've got a 1/2 chance of being in a really good position if I gamble early and it pays off, and I've got a 1/3 chance of winning if I play like everyone else. Roll the dice!" Going into N3:
The Reds should have enough firepower to bring Kiwi at least into lynching range tomorrow if not kill her off completely tonight, since she can't have both ironhide and sanctuary... I don't think araver knows which Red is which to be able to pull off a strategic beguiling to foil the Reds (might get lucky though). If Kiwi potions herself then it will nullify the damage, otherwise Reds finish her off with the lynch D3. If Kiwi does potion herself (no real reason not to at this point) then the Blues might actually be able to take out the Reds. But I don't envision Kiwi alone taking out the Blues. So no real impetus for her to potion or not if all it's doing is determining which of the other two factions has the best chance of winning. I'm also kind of sad that the endgame conundrum I had in mind during game design didn't really come into play. Once people figured out factions, if one faction looked like it was weakening (in this case Green) then the faction that they're supposed to kill (Blue) would have to decide whether to pursue their own wincon or protect Green to keep the game from ending, or rather they would need to balance those two goals. In this case, it's a no brainer that the Blues need to protect Kiwi. Night 3
Benjer's choice to go after araver and Flamebirde is probably the right one knowing what the Red faction knew at the time, but was a waste of firepower from the ghost thread's viewpoint because araver was going to die of poison and Flamebirde was going to be killed by Kiwi anyway. And now Kiwi has 10 HP, while she would have taken damage from strikes because sanctuary nullifies ironhide. But the Red faction ironhiding Segul really kept them in the lead. Had they not done that, Segul would have been killed and the game would be up in the air again. If this game needed anything, I think it's a fourth faction to keep people from figuring out factions so quickly. Three factions was nice to keep the size manageable while testing out new mechanics, but if there's ever a second Dungeons it'll have four. The Red faction should be able to assure victory by voting Kiwi down to 7 HP, smiting her to bring her down to 3 even if she ironhides and/or they get blinded, and then voting her down to 0. If Kiwi saves her MP to be able to redirect their vote tomorrow, then she won't be ironhided tonight and will die. Segul will be voted down to 2, but should survive the next night and be able to vote Kiwi tomorrow because the Reds still have their potion. If Kiwi makes an unexpected move by pummeling Segul so he can't potion and survive to the day, then she still dies at night because of strikes without an ironhide and smite. But enough weirdness has happened in mafias that it's still too early to end the game. Night 4
Creative use of sanctuary to keep any beneficial stuff from happening to Kiwi since both Green and Blue potions have already been used. But not necessary since the other Holy mages are dead. Doing that instead of smiting Kiwi means they can sanctuary Segul to make sure he doesn't get pummeled while trying to potion himself. It also means that if Kiwi doesn't use any abilities tonight, she'll be able to redirect a vote tomorrow to keep from dying in the lynch. Now that Barc blinded Shadow and Benjer, not smiting Kiwi and relying on strikes will mean only 2 HP of damage on Kiwi. Going into D4 it's:
Is there any way that the Blues could end up killing off the Reds? Segul could be lynched and Kiwi could manip a vote away from herself D4 to be at 3 HP for N5, then be ironhided by Hachi and take no damage and be at 3 HP going into D5. If in N5 the greens and blues all strike either Benjer or Shadow they could kill them in the D5 lynch, while Kiwi would fall to 1 HP during the lynch. Then they could all strike whichever Red is left standing while Barc blinds 'em and have both the last Red and Kiwi be lynched D6. It seems a little implausible that Kiwi would support the Blues even that late endgame, but it's a possible scenario where Blue would win. So the game goes on. Well, if Kiwi isn't going to redirect a vote because she's busy puking, then she goes down to 2 HP at the end of the day. Even if they lynch Segul, there will be two Reds alive going into D5. But she could redirect one of their votes D5 and then be in the same scenario. So game goes on either way. Night 5
It does look entirely possible for Blue rally and take a surprise win. Hachi can ironhide Kiwi tonight and Barc blind either Shadow or Benjer if the ironhide gets beguiled. And they could kill off Benjer tonight if they all target him. The question is what Kiwi will do - how long she'll cooperate with the Blues vs try to attack them and go after her own wincon. Edit: No wait, the move of sanctuary-ing Kiwi and redirecting Barc to her will give them the win tomorrow, unless something really unpredictable happens in the meantime. I think I'll call it game if Kiwi goes into D5 with 1 HP -- the Reds couldn't be redirected or have themselves be wiped out during the lynch at that point. |