This game would have been over faster if Iso had put more effort into convincing us instead of saying he was right all the time, which just made me want to delay the game as long as possible. I didn't really ever have a scumread on Iso. I just wanted the last scum to not be Eco, despite having caught him in the first post of the game.
I was more than willing to talk to people about my reads after I had my heart-to-heart with Az; it's just that it was like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually engage me about them in a constructive manner. I was raging SO hard at you basically from the end of Day 1 until you actually voted Eco, again, when you decided to stop trying to win.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
Ah yes, the four mana 7/7 that has been constantly memed about in the /r/hearthstone subreddit. Drop this bad boy on turn four (or, if you're lucky, turn three with the coin) and your opponents can't deal with this grossly oversized minion now that Big Game Hunter got nerfed to heck. Perfect for clearing anything your opponents play or simply just SMORCing face - the four mana 7/7 clearly trumps anything on the board.
(Just hope it doesn't get Sapped, or Hexed, or, if you're particularly unlucky, Shadow Word: Death'd)
You also know that Argent Squire is not in the game.. because you popped her Divine Shield and crushed her with your 7/7 body.
The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
Come to beautiful Firelands! Where it's "Way nicer than the Abyssal Maw!"'
The Firelands Portal, a card that from the moment it was introduced griefed Arena players everywhere. Mage was already the best class in Arena, so why do they need an overpowered, two-for-one card that completely swings the boardstate? Arena is a format built on board control, and when you have a card that removes something decently powerful on the board AND gives you your own threat to work it, that's a problem right there. Why was this card a common? It could have easily been a rare!
While Flamewreathed Faceless and Yogg-Saron are occupying the Constructed tables, you are ruining the lives of anything with five health or less in Arena. With this two-pronged attack, RNG will reign supreme.
You also know that Azure Drake is not in the game... because you have killed and summoned many Azure Drakes by virtue of it being a five-mana minion.
The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
You are the ultimate RNG card of all of Hearthstone, and the ruiner of tournaments and the cause of many stolen games. When Mother Blizzard designed you, they intended for you to be some "fun" card that wouldn't really be competitive, but something for casual players to have fun with. A couple of Brian Kibler videos and a Monte-Carlo evaluation later, and competitive players quickly grasped your game-swinging powers and abused them - so much that Blizzard nerfed you. Even after the nerf, however, your game-changing power is still incredibly powerful, and should be respected. There are no other cards that can get you out of a hole like you can.
Since you know every spell in Hearthstone, you know that Purify is not in the game.
Once per Night, you or one of the other mafia members may perform a nightkill. You may not perform the nightkill and perform another action unless you are the last mafia player remaining.
Once per Night, due to your vast knowledge of every spell in the game, you can target another player and receive a copy of their role PM.
The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
We are all special unique snowflakes... with 1 Health.
Who says Paladin doesn't have a board clear? With four or six mana, you can combo with one of your two friends, Wild Pyromancer or Consecration, in order to diminish even the most powerful boardstate into nothingness. Seeing as you aren't often played by yourself, you are often paired with one of your friends in order to savagely devastate the board. Luckily, the Pyromancer is here with you today! Since you two are always at the beck and call of each other (and both being in the same deck, and both being played at the same time), you know that you can fully confide in him. Here's to yet another round of board-clearing!
You share a private chat with your partner Sir Chris (Wild Pyromancer). The mason chat is here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/gNeF2k8bnb6. You both are confirmed town to one another.
BOOM BABY BOOM! BAD IS GOOD! DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT!
A two-drop and a combo-piece in many decks, you are often played in Paladin, Priest, or Warrior decks who can take advantage of your unique quality of dealing one damage to everything (including yourself!) whenever your controller casts a spell. As such, you have many friends from high places who have come to rely on you. Cards like Battle Rage or Power Word: Shield have gone hand-in-hand with you to produce powerful effects. However, one of the most powerful things you can do is to be played with your friend Equality, so that you both combined can completely clear the board. It's a good thing Equality is with you today!
You share a private chat with your partner Azrael (Equality). The mason chat is here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/gNeF2k8bnb6. You both are confirmed town to one another.
Hailing from the tombs of Naxxramas, you are one of the basic bread-and-butter value two drops in the game. While some two-drops like being appropriately statted (like by being a 2/3 or a 3/2), you have more ambitious dreams than that. You may just be a lowly 1/2 for two mana, but when you die, your two Spectral Spiders are summoned, which allow the player in control of you to maintain board presence. You are effectively a 3/4 for two mana, if you add up all of the stats together, which makes you a powerful two-drop indeed. You and your brethren hope to figure out who killed the Chillwind Yeti, as you have played many games with and against him.
This is what happens when you allow goblins to be priests.
One of the Priest's most powerful area-of-effect board clearing spells, the Lightbomb is a staple of the Wild format since it was released in Goblins vs Gnomes and was a terror until it.. rotated from Standard. Honestly, your absence left a greater impact on the Priest class than any card addition, because Priest now does not have any spell that deals with multiple minions other than Holy Nova and Excavated Evil, both of which can't clear larger minions. Your oppressiveness and power will be missed.
"Cat or Bear? Cat or Bear?! I just cannot CHOOSE!"
One of the most reliable Hearthstone cards throughout the years, Druid of the Claw is strong because the two options it presents to the player are two cards that you'd probably want to play anyway. A 4/6 taunt holds down the growth very well and stabilizes the board, forcing your opponent to trade a couple of minions into it. The 4/4 charge, however, is still useful in times where you need immediate impact - trading with a larger minion, or example, or simply just going face. Whatever option you pick, the Druid of the Claw is guaranteed to provide you solid value.
Ever since your release in the League of Explorers adventure, you've been one of the top-ranked Paladin cards in Arena and Constructed. Indeed, once League of Explorers was given an offering bonus in Arena, your presence helped skyrocket Paladin to be one of the top classes. Your battlecry is highly versatile in that it can shrink larger minions down to a more manageable size, or it can buff a Silver Hand Recruit up to a more respectable size. Whatever it's used for, there's no denying that you're one of the Paladin's top cards.
Windfury is like Earthfury and Firefury, but more light and airy.
Windfury allows the minion to attack twice. You aren't one of the more exciting cards, but some suboptimality is to be expected in a game with hundreds of different cards. You excel in providing cool moments by Windfurying larger minions like Earth Elemental or Fire Elemental. Another cool thing about you is that you're still alive and kicking in the Arena, while your big brother Windspeaker was removed. Overall though, you're not often played, and that's kind of a bummer, because Windfury is an ability that deserves to be utilized more.
You are one of the most fun Warlock cards because you provide a very unique functionality: You replace every single Warlock card in your deck with a random class card and they become one cheaper. The fun of it is that you don't know what class you will get, and every single class card is cheaper so you can play multiple of them at a time. Your existence is a testament to how fun Hearthstone can be, as this is a card that will never show up in any tournaments but provides endless joy to the people who play Hearthstone for fun.
One of the most powerful Taunts ever printed, the ol' Belcher still sees a ton of play in the Wild format as a solid roadblock to any aggressive decks. Having to get through a combined 7 health is very annoying and the reduced presence of Silence effects has made this minion quite effective at handling two or three smaller minions. The 1/2 Slime taunt is quite the stop sign as well.
Your true power, however, is being in a N'Zoth The Corrupter deck, playing it will re-summon the Belcher and all other Deathrattle minions. A menace in the midgame, and something to prevent your opponent from going face in the endgame. What more could you want?
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
From post game comments, seems like 2/3 members of the scumteam just gave up too quickly, which makes it a disappointing game; even if you get caught out at the beginning of the game, doesn't mean that towns won't change their mind or do something funky.
Good work Iso; look forward to being scum against you in the future :thumbs up:. I appreciate the invitation to the game, it was very nice of you all; am sorry that I couldn't make more of an impact with my.play this game.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
Yeah honestly when I saw Cyan flip I was like "eh, Iso is probably on fire again" in regards to white knighting you, Eco. Just glad I was able to get everything sorted out with Vaimes and once GJ flipped it seemed like Iso had things well in hand. Not my best game but not my worst either, I'll take a very boring town win.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
2014 - Best Mafia Performance (Individual)(Wu Tang) 2014 - Best Mafia Newcomer 2015 - Best Town Performance (Individual) (Predator) 2015 - Best Town Performance (Group) - Predator Mafia 2015 - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - 2015 Invitational 2015 - Best Town Player 2015 - Best Mafia Player 2015 - Best Overall Player
Oh, and I definitely wouldn't have solved the game without Seppel, Az, and Vaimes jumping on Eco so early, or at least not nearly as quickly as I did. You guys were the heroes this town deserved.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
First, the setup. I enjoy low-powered setups and I hate cops, plus I wanted to use masons in an invitational-tier game because they are sweet roles to play as - plus, having a confirmed town buddy who is competent at the game is a huge boon. Masons didn't leave a lot of room for anything else, so I picked the bodyguard because they're one of the weaker protective roles and they're not as feels-bad as a doctor is. I was worried about the situation where the scum try to NK the masons and run into the bodyguard, but seeing as they still get a kill, I considered it an acceptable tradeoff.
I gave the scum a rolecop because there's literally nothing to roleblock in this setup (plus, roleblockers are not all that fun). Rewards skill, since it gives them directions to go in with the nightkill and serves as a good check to the masons. More than that, I wanted a setup that was /simple/. One thing I took full advantage in last year's invitational as scum was the paranoia about there possibly being 2 scum/1 SK in the setup since the players had no idea what to expect from Ged. I wanted a setup that was a traditional, low-powered basic, and I think this setup fit the bill rather nicely.
Given that Eco and Iso were able to figure out the setup so easily based off of my widespread design proclivities, however, I think it raises some questions. I like being pretty public about design theory because I enjoy talking about how mafia games are designed, and I feel like there's not enough literature on the topic. Will I ever get too predictable/modgameable as a mafia game designer if I keep posting my views on setup theory out in the open? I'm really just following mafia design principles I've learned over the years by talking to a lot of people on the subject/developing my own personal views, and I think these principles lead to fair and fun games, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Onto the gameplay.
I predicted the game would be a pretty overwhelming town victory no matter what the randomization was, because the playerbase was incredibly top tier and it would be an incredibly difficult game for any scum team to win. That said, I was a little hopeful when the randomization came out as Eco/GJ/Cyan, as I've seen all of these players carry teams on their backs before (Eco: Cyan's Impossible Mafia, GJ: Star Trek 3, Cyan: The Wall/Archer), so I thought the scumteam could perform pretty well.
Then Eco was pretty much flashwagoned based off of a couple of stray RVS posts, and then his scumbuddies couldn't really do anything but watch it happen. Then Iso kind of nailed the entire scumteam in the first 100 posts and never let go, and the rest is kind of history? The town probably would have won even if Iso wasn't even in the game, since GJ/Cyan weren't playing super strongly. Newcomb said that it's kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario where if Iso didn't just completely nail the scumteam in the first 100 posts of the game, or Eco wasn't run up in the first page, then the scum would have probably played miles better than they did here. It's just that these situations happened, as as a result the scum's morale was pretty much dampened for the entire game.
Not to detract from the rest of the town's performance - the town played excellently this game, and they are fully deserving of this victory. Vaimes, Voxxicus, Newcomb, Seppel, and Nacho pretty much towned it up to avoid being mislynched, but part of me wonders that with a stronger scum performance the more mildly suspicious players like tom/Nacho/Seppel could have been taken advantage of and been mislynched. Basically put, the town gained a whole ton of momentum from the early Eco wagon. Even though Eco successfully avoided being lynched, the other two scum members - Cyan and GJ - were put in a bad spot due to it, and as a result just didn't Town it up while the rest of the town was coalescing and Towning it up throughout Day 1. The masons, plus the large number of behaviorally townie players, could allow a townie in this game to clear 5-6 players - and from there, solving the game isn't the hardest.
I feel like if the scum shifted the momentum on late-Day 1 and had Iso lynched instead of GJ, that could have totally changed the game and provided the scum with a chance to get back into the game. However, the calm, rational townies (Vaimes/Voxxicus/Chris/Newcomb) analyzed the gamestate and determined that GJ was more likely scum than Iso, and as a result switched their votes. That led to, basically, the scum falling over like dominos.
Giving Newcomb and Iso co-Town MVPs in this game. Newcomb for succeeding at the two pillars of Being Town (He was obvious town, engaged with the game, and convinced everyone to lynch GJ near end of Day 1) and Iso for, of course, being correct with every single facet of the entire game, even if he had a difficult time convincing others of his world view on Day 1.
I've already given my thoughts on the trust tell stuff in the Council, but I didn't really want to modkill Iso over it because it's technically not in the rules and I didn't really want to disrupt the gamestate - a common trend in my modding is to flip the table as little as possible. Still, Iso attempting to use his claiming of vanilla town to clear himself, yet not directly addressing it, really isn't something that should be permissible in any community, and it was definitely very angleshooty.
A tangent here, but I feel like there wasn't anything meaningful I could have done to make the game more memorable or fun. As Newcomb put it:
Quote from Newcomb »
Let's say you're right and that's exactly the scumteam and we chain lynch them. That would feel like a pretty hollow victory to me. It would kinda feel like you just divined the role randomization, had that info the whole time, and kind of lazily / perfunctorily pushed the world without ever explaining it in a way that made sense to the rest of us. Which, yeah. Would be a win I guess, and good on ya, but man. I wouldn't count it as one of the most fun games I've ever played.
Bolded the last sentence for emphasis.
I believe that memories and experiences are important with a game like Mafia. We play mafia to have fun, of course, but I also think that experiences are important. Just compare this game to the most recently ended basic, Bare Bones. Bare Bones was incredibly exciting and passionate, with the mafia having a strong lead early until Silver and Vaimes literally teamed up to solve the game and chain lynch all three of the scum in a row. That was exciting. That was memorable. That was fun! I had a great time talking to Eco and Newcomb about that game after it ended.
With this game, the overwhelming narrative that comes out of it is Iso's slam dunk impressive performance, but I'm pretty sure most of you guys would say that this game wasn't especially fun or super-memorable. And I think that's fine - the most I can do as a game mod is to give a game the chance to become great, and if it doesn't, then c'est la vie. I'm honestly just wondering if there was anything I could have done to make this game /better/, since I feel like most of what happened this game was outside of my control. I could have definitely worked more on the flavor - I was really running on fumes with the flavor at the end there, and I think I'm just going to start pre-writing the flavor scenes from now on since people like to see flips fast.
But yeah, those are my thoughts on the game, and hopefully they provide a good jumping off point for further discussion. Let me know what you guys think; I spent a fair amount of reading and thinking about this game, and it kind of just ended up being pretty flat and a wet towel. I'm just wondering if there was anything I could have done to change that.
I really don't think you could have done anything differently, Proph.
I think that was the right kind of setup for this kind of game - you did everything in your power to kind of get out of the way and let it be a pure game of behavior and skill. It was just a perfect storm of Iso being very on point, GJ/Cyan rolling over, the Mason duo being who they were, that kinda locked the gamestate into what it was.
It wasn't "a beautiful game," but it was the only just/fair/reasonable outcome from the set of circumstances that spawned it (this playerlist + that roll + every individual player's contribution.)
I think a good mod with amazing flavor and a lot of creativity and enthusiasm can make a good game great, but they can't really make a meh game anything other than meh.
I wouldn't worry about the setup being easy to deduce, it's always an issue in Bascis. It helped that you talk about them because it means we know you actually know how to design simple setups, but it's not a huge stretch from "scum only have a Rolecop, that means the town don't have stuff we'd want to block" -> Masons, Bulletproof, Bodyguard. Similarly, once the Masons have been revealed, there only other role(s) are going to be weak protective (i.e. no Doc), or like a 1-shot vig.
The fact that we could work it out meant it was a good setup. If you get surprised by a Basic, it's probably not balanced.
Probably, given the town's past history in invitationals, the town really doesn't need significant power. I know it was requested to make it not a mountainous game, but with as many invitational games as have ended with flawless town victories in the last 4-5 years, the two Masons made a bad situation pretty much impossible for the scum, I think.
Probably wouldn't have mattered in the end given the early collapse, but given the trend, the town certainly won't need that kind of help when you have townies like iso in the mix.
As mentioned in the Council thread, I won't be alluding to my trust tell any further. This game ended up with the scum just sort of getting blown out, and I realize the anticlimax is largely my fault. I'm sorry if you guys feel like you didn't have fun as a result of my reads + persistence, but an Invitational is a game where skill is meant to triumph and I wanted to make up for my performance from last year where I got 2 scum on Day 1 and then let myself get convinced to look elsewhere. I don't remember how I died but it was either a Day 1 lynch or a Night 1 kill and given the state I left the game in - unsolved - that just wasn't okay to me. So, I cranked it up to 11 for this performance.
-
Proph: What Eco said. Basics are extremely solvable setups. Due to the recent trend of players preferring uncomplicated games, I've found most simpler setups a bit boring to solve (no offense to this game intended, as there was nothing actually WRONG with it), though it admittedly does make games focus more on behavior. It also adds an interesting dynamic because it forces scum to claim believable roles, given the way setups have become so easily metagameable. That said, it also runs the problem of predictable setups resulting in too-easily confirmable town, which is why I include twists in most of my setups.
Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter. Thanks for volunteering to run this year's game, even though it was partially so you didn't have to play, yourself.
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
Probably, given the town's past history in invitationals, the town really doesn't need significant power. I know it was requested to make it not a mountainous game, but with as many invitational games as have ended with flawless town victories in the last 4-5 years, the two Masons made a bad situation pretty much impossible for the scum, I think.
Probably wouldn't have mattered in the end given the early collapse, but given the trend, the town certainly won't need that kind of help when you have townies like iso in the mix.
I disagree pretty passionately with the notion of taking away the town's power to increase the Scum's chances of winning. I think that the setup was fair and balanced, and I think that it's up to scum play to improve to make the difference and not up to moderators to tip the scales in Scum's favor in order to give them a fighting chance.
And I don't mean to be condenscending or rude in any way (don't have much time to post and would rather get my thoughts out as quickly as possible no matter how jumbled or assholish they come across), but in the game of mafia, what truly excites me and drives me forward is a challenge. Iso beat me the last time we played; next time will be considerably more difficult for him. When I beat him, I want it to be a fair challenge; I don't want to win or lose in a fight that's weighted towards one side over the other. When I beat him, I don't want it to be because townies couldn't outguess the mod and I don't want it to be because the difficulty got turned down, I want it to be because my team was stronger than his. And while other games can and should play with zany setups and adjustments here and there, I think keeping Invitationals as skill against skill and nothing more than that is possible. I think that the power allowed to town in a typical game is reasonable enough and I don't think that twisty setups and lower power setups are the solutions moreso than letting the more ambitious among us catch up to Iso's skill and deliver him the thrashing he is so politely asking for.
Sure. But there are 12 slots in the game. 3 of them mafia. 9 of them town. 2/9 of the town slots were eliminated as lynch targets by mechanics - between 20-25%. Leaving only seven slots out of 12 for the mafia to paint as scum, minus X nightkills. I don't think taking away the masons would make it unfairly weighted in the scum's favor - more like give them a fighting chance. It's just far too easy to clear half or more of those remaining seven and then just POE cruise to a win, even if you can't just crack the scum team D1.
@ Iso - No need to apologize for being good. Just keep right on doing that.
I was more than willing to talk to people about my reads after I had my heart-to-heart with Az; it's just that it was like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually engage me about them in a constructive manner. I was raging SO hard at you basically from the end of Day 1 until you actually voted Eco, again, when you decided to stop trying to win.
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
Flamewreathed Faceless - Mafia Goon
"He's on fire! Boomshakalaka!"
Ah yes, the four mana 7/7 that has been constantly memed about in the /r/hearthstone subreddit. Drop this bad boy on turn four (or, if you're lucky, turn three with the coin) and your opponents can't deal with this grossly oversized minion now that Big Game Hunter got nerfed to heck. Perfect for clearing anything your opponents play or simply just SMORCing face - the four mana 7/7 clearly trumps anything on the board.
(Just hope it doesn't get Sapped, or Hexed, or, if you're particularly unlucky, Shadow Word: Death'd)
You also know that Argent Squire is not in the game.. because you popped her Divine Shield and crushed her with your 7/7 body.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
Once per Night, you or one of the other mafia members may perform a nightkill.
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The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/cAmRfTwVAEYdt
Please confirm via PM.
Firelands Portal - Mafia Goon
Come to beautiful Firelands! Where it's "Way nicer than the Abyssal Maw!"'
The Firelands Portal, a card that from the moment it was introduced griefed Arena players everywhere. Mage was already the best class in Arena, so why do they need an overpowered, two-for-one card that completely swings the boardstate? Arena is a format built on board control, and when you have a card that removes something decently powerful on the board AND gives you your own threat to work it, that's a problem right there. Why was this card a common? It could have easily been a rare!
While Flamewreathed Faceless and Yogg-Saron are occupying the Constructed tables, you are ruining the lives of anything with five health or less in Arena. With this two-pronged attack, RNG will reign supreme.
You also know that Azure Drake is not in the game... because you have killed and summoned many Azure Drakes by virtue of it being a five-mana minion.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
Once per Night, you or one of the other mafia members may perform a nightkill.
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The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/cAmRfTwVAEYdt
Please confirm via PM.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End - Mafia Rolecop
I spell your doom... Y-O-U-R D-O-O-M!
You are the ultimate RNG card of all of Hearthstone, and the ruiner of tournaments and the cause of many stolen games. When Mother Blizzard designed you, they intended for you to be some "fun" card that wouldn't really be competitive, but something for casual players to have fun with. A couple of Brian Kibler videos and a Monte-Carlo evaluation later, and competitive players quickly grasped your game-swinging powers and abused them - so much that Blizzard nerfed you. Even after the nerf, however, your game-changing power is still incredibly powerful, and should be respected. There are no other cards that can get you out of a hole like you can.
Since you know every spell in Hearthstone, you know that Purify is not in the game.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
Once per Night, you or one of the other mafia members may perform a nightkill. You may not perform the nightkill and perform another action unless you are the last mafia player remaining.
Once per Night, due to your vast knowledge of every spell in the game, you can target another player and receive a copy of their role PM.
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The mafia win when they equal or control the vote. The mafia are: Ecophagy (Flamewreathed Faceless), Cyan (Firelands Portal), and Gentleman Johnny (Yogg-Saron, Hope's End). You may chat with them until the game begins and during Night phases of the game here:
https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/cAmRfTwVAEYdt
Please confirm via PM.
Equality - Town Mason
We are all special unique snowflakes... with 1 Health.
Who says Paladin doesn't have a board clear? With four or six mana, you can combo with one of your two friends, Wild Pyromancer or Consecration, in order to diminish even the most powerful boardstate into nothingness. Seeing as you aren't often played by yourself, you are often paired with one of your friends in order to savagely devastate the board. Luckily, the Pyromancer is here with you today! Since you two are always at the beck and call of each other (and both being in the same deck, and both being played at the same time), you know that you can fully confide in him. Here's to yet another round of board-clearing!
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Abilities:
You may vote.
You share a private chat with your partner Sir Chris (Wild Pyromancer). The mason chat is here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/gNeF2k8bnb6. You both are confirmed town to one another.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Wild Pyromancer - Town Mason
BOOM BABY BOOM! BAD IS GOOD! DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT!
A two-drop and a combo-piece in many decks, you are often played in Paladin, Priest, or Warrior decks who can take advantage of your unique quality of dealing one damage to everything (including yourself!) whenever your controller casts a spell. As such, you have many friends from high places who have come to rely on you. Cards like Battle Rage or Power Word: Shield have gone hand-in-hand with you to produce powerful effects. However, one of the most powerful things you can do is to be played with your friend Equality, so that you both combined can completely clear the board. It's a good thing Equality is with you today!
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Abilities:
You may vote.
You share a private chat with your partner Azrael (Equality). The mason chat is here: https://www.quicktopic.com/52/H/gNeF2k8bnb6. You both are confirmed town to one another.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Haunted Creeper - Town Vanilla
Arachnofauxbia: Fear of fake spiders.
Hailing from the tombs of Naxxramas, you are one of the basic bread-and-butter value two drops in the game. While some two-drops like being appropriately statted (like by being a 2/3 or a 3/2), you have more ambitious dreams than that. You may just be a lowly 1/2 for two mana, but when you die, your two Spectral Spiders are summoned, which allow the player in control of you to maintain board presence. You are effectively a 3/4 for two mana, if you add up all of the stats together, which makes you a powerful two-drop indeed. You and your brethren hope to figure out who killed the Chillwind Yeti, as you have played many games with and against him.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Lightbomb - Town Vanilla
This is what happens when you allow goblins to be priests.
One of the Priest's most powerful area-of-effect board clearing spells, the Lightbomb is a staple of the Wild format since it was released in Goblins vs Gnomes and was a terror until it.. rotated from Standard. Honestly, your absence left a greater impact on the Priest class than any card addition, because Priest now does not have any spell that deals with multiple minions other than Holy Nova and Excavated Evil, both of which can't clear larger minions. Your oppressiveness and power will be missed.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Druid of the Claw - Town Vanilla
"Cat or Bear? Cat or Bear?! I just cannot CHOOSE!"
One of the most reliable Hearthstone cards throughout the years, Druid of the Claw is strong because the two options it presents to the player are two cards that you'd probably want to play anyway. A 4/6 taunt holds down the growth very well and stabilizes the board, forcing your opponent to trade a couple of minions into it. The 4/4 charge, however, is still useful in times where you need immediate impact - trading with a larger minion, or example, or simply just going face. Whatever option you pick, the Druid of the Claw is guaranteed to provide you solid value.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Keeper of Uldaman - Town Vanilla
U da man! No, U da man!
Ever since your release in the League of Explorers adventure, you've been one of the top-ranked Paladin cards in Arena and Constructed. Indeed, once League of Explorers was given an offering bonus in Arena, your presence helped skyrocket Paladin to be one of the top classes. Your battlecry is highly versatile in that it can shrink larger minions down to a more manageable size, or it can buff a Silver Hand Recruit up to a more respectable size. Whatever it's used for, there's no denying that you're one of the Paladin's top cards.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Windfury - Town Vanilla
Windfury is like Earthfury and Firefury, but more light and airy.
Windfury allows the minion to attack twice. You aren't one of the more exciting cards, but some suboptimality is to be expected in a game with hundreds of different cards. You excel in providing cool moments by Windfurying larger minions like Earth Elemental or Fire Elemental. Another cool thing about you is that you're still alive and kicking in the Arena, while your big brother Windspeaker was removed. Overall though, you're not often played, and that's kind of a bummer, because Windfury is an ability that deserves to be utilized more.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Renounce Darkness - Town Vanilla
SEE YA DARKNESS!
You are one of the most fun Warlock cards because you provide a very unique functionality: You replace every single Warlock card in your deck with a random class card and they become one cheaper. The fun of it is that you don't know what class you will get, and every single class card is cheaper so you can play multiple of them at a time. Your existence is a testament to how fun Hearthstone can be, as this is a card that will never show up in any tournaments but provides endless joy to the people who play Hearthstone for fun.
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Abilities:
You may vote.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Sludge Belcher - Town Bodyguard
DO NOT GIVE HIM A ROOT BEER.
One of the most powerful Taunts ever printed, the ol' Belcher still sees a ton of play in the Wild format as a solid roadblock to any aggressive decks. Having to get through a combined 7 health is very annoying and the reduced presence of Silence effects has made this minion quite effective at handling two or three smaller minions. The 1/2 Slime taunt is quite the stop sign as well.
Your true power, however, is being in a N'Zoth The Corrupter deck, playing it will re-summon the Belcher and all other Deathrattle minions. A menace in the midgame, and something to prevent your opponent from going face in the endgame. What more could you want?
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Abilities:
You may vote.
Once per Night, you can target a player and bodyguard them. If that player would be killed that Night, you die instead.
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The town wins when all mafia are dead.
Please confirm via PM.
Night 1:
Ecophagy kills Azrael (succeeds)
Newcomb bodyguards Iso (succeeds)
Night 2:
Ecophagy kills Newcomb (succeeds)
Newcomb bodyguards Sir Chris (succeeds)
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
From post game comments, seems like 2/3 members of the scumteam just gave up too quickly, which makes it a disappointing game; even if you get caught out at the beginning of the game, doesn't mean that towns won't change their mind or do something funky.
One of these days we'll get an actual game in together, heh.
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
2014 - Best Mafia Performance (Individual)(Wu Tang)
2014 - Best Mafia Newcomer
2015 - Best Town Performance (Individual) (Predator)
2015 - Best Town Performance (Group) - Predator Mafia
2015 - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - 2015 Invitational
2015 - Best Town Player
2015 - Best Mafia Player
2015 - Best Overall Player
Glad to see you're all still trucking along. Don't regret my decision to retire but still miss you all!
Town Win % = 75%
Mafia Win % = 75%
Overall Win % = 75%
Completed Game Log
2014: Best Mafia Performance (Group)
2014: Most Improved Player
2014: Best Town Player
2014: Best Overall Player
Good to see you again, DCIII!!!
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
First, the setup. I enjoy low-powered setups and I hate cops, plus I wanted to use masons in an invitational-tier game because they are sweet roles to play as - plus, having a confirmed town buddy who is competent at the game is a huge boon. Masons didn't leave a lot of room for anything else, so I picked the bodyguard because they're one of the weaker protective roles and they're not as feels-bad as a doctor is. I was worried about the situation where the scum try to NK the masons and run into the bodyguard, but seeing as they still get a kill, I considered it an acceptable tradeoff.
I gave the scum a rolecop because there's literally nothing to roleblock in this setup (plus, roleblockers are not all that fun). Rewards skill, since it gives them directions to go in with the nightkill and serves as a good check to the masons. More than that, I wanted a setup that was /simple/. One thing I took full advantage in last year's invitational as scum was the paranoia about there possibly being 2 scum/1 SK in the setup since the players had no idea what to expect from Ged. I wanted a setup that was a traditional, low-powered basic, and I think this setup fit the bill rather nicely.
Given that Eco and Iso were able to figure out the setup so easily based off of my widespread design proclivities, however, I think it raises some questions. I like being pretty public about design theory because I enjoy talking about how mafia games are designed, and I feel like there's not enough literature on the topic. Will I ever get too predictable/modgameable as a mafia game designer if I keep posting my views on setup theory out in the open? I'm really just following mafia design principles I've learned over the years by talking to a lot of people on the subject/developing my own personal views, and I think these principles lead to fair and fun games, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Onto the gameplay.
I predicted the game would be a pretty overwhelming town victory no matter what the randomization was, because the playerbase was incredibly top tier and it would be an incredibly difficult game for any scum team to win. That said, I was a little hopeful when the randomization came out as Eco/GJ/Cyan, as I've seen all of these players carry teams on their backs before (Eco: Cyan's Impossible Mafia, GJ: Star Trek 3, Cyan: The Wall/Archer), so I thought the scumteam could perform pretty well.
Then Eco was pretty much flashwagoned based off of a couple of stray RVS posts, and then his scumbuddies couldn't really do anything but watch it happen. Then Iso kind of nailed the entire scumteam in the first 100 posts and never let go, and the rest is kind of history? The town probably would have won even if Iso wasn't even in the game, since GJ/Cyan weren't playing super strongly. Newcomb said that it's kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario where if Iso didn't just completely nail the scumteam in the first 100 posts of the game, or Eco wasn't run up in the first page, then the scum would have probably played miles better than they did here. It's just that these situations happened, as as a result the scum's morale was pretty much dampened for the entire game.
Not to detract from the rest of the town's performance - the town played excellently this game, and they are fully deserving of this victory. Vaimes, Voxxicus, Newcomb, Seppel, and Nacho pretty much towned it up to avoid being mislynched, but part of me wonders that with a stronger scum performance the more mildly suspicious players like tom/Nacho/Seppel could have been taken advantage of and been mislynched. Basically put, the town gained a whole ton of momentum from the early Eco wagon. Even though Eco successfully avoided being lynched, the other two scum members - Cyan and GJ - were put in a bad spot due to it, and as a result just didn't Town it up while the rest of the town was coalescing and Towning it up throughout Day 1. The masons, plus the large number of behaviorally townie players, could allow a townie in this game to clear 5-6 players - and from there, solving the game isn't the hardest.
I feel like if the scum shifted the momentum on late-Day 1 and had Iso lynched instead of GJ, that could have totally changed the game and provided the scum with a chance to get back into the game. However, the calm, rational townies (Vaimes/Voxxicus/Chris/Newcomb) analyzed the gamestate and determined that GJ was more likely scum than Iso, and as a result switched their votes. That led to, basically, the scum falling over like dominos.
Giving Newcomb and Iso co-Town MVPs in this game. Newcomb for succeeding at the two pillars of Being Town (He was obvious town, engaged with the game, and convinced everyone to lynch GJ near end of Day 1) and Iso for, of course, being correct with every single facet of the entire game, even if he had a difficult time convincing others of his world view on Day 1.
I've already given my thoughts on the trust tell stuff in the Council, but I didn't really want to modkill Iso over it because it's technically not in the rules and I didn't really want to disrupt the gamestate - a common trend in my modding is to flip the table as little as possible. Still, Iso attempting to use his claiming of vanilla town to clear himself, yet not directly addressing it, really isn't something that should be permissible in any community, and it was definitely very angleshooty.
A tangent here, but I feel like there wasn't anything meaningful I could have done to make the game more memorable or fun. As Newcomb put it:
Bolded the last sentence for emphasis.
I believe that memories and experiences are important with a game like Mafia. We play mafia to have fun, of course, but I also think that experiences are important. Just compare this game to the most recently ended basic, Bare Bones. Bare Bones was incredibly exciting and passionate, with the mafia having a strong lead early until Silver and Vaimes literally teamed up to solve the game and chain lynch all three of the scum in a row. That was exciting. That was memorable. That was fun! I had a great time talking to Eco and Newcomb about that game after it ended.
With this game, the overwhelming narrative that comes out of it is Iso's slam dunk impressive performance, but I'm pretty sure most of you guys would say that this game wasn't especially fun or super-memorable. And I think that's fine - the most I can do as a game mod is to give a game the chance to become great, and if it doesn't, then c'est la vie. I'm honestly just wondering if there was anything I could have done to make this game /better/, since I feel like most of what happened this game was outside of my control. I could have definitely worked more on the flavor - I was really running on fumes with the flavor at the end there, and I think I'm just going to start pre-writing the flavor scenes from now on since people like to see flips fast.
But yeah, those are my thoughts on the game, and hopefully they provide a good jumping off point for further discussion. Let me know what you guys think; I spent a fair amount of reading and thinking about this game, and it kind of just ended up being pretty flat and a wet towel. I'm just wondering if there was anything I could have done to change that.
I think that was the right kind of setup for this kind of game - you did everything in your power to kind of get out of the way and let it be a pure game of behavior and skill. It was just a perfect storm of Iso being very on point, GJ/Cyan rolling over, the Mason duo being who they were, that kinda locked the gamestate into what it was.
It wasn't "a beautiful game," but it was the only just/fair/reasonable outcome from the set of circumstances that spawned it (this playerlist + that roll + every individual player's contribution.)
I think a good mod with amazing flavor and a lot of creativity and enthusiasm can make a good game great, but they can't really make a meh game anything other than meh.
The fact that we could work it out meant it was a good setup. If you get surprised by a Basic, it's probably not balanced.
Probably wouldn't have mattered in the end given the early collapse, but given the trend, the town certainly won't need that kind of help when you have townies like iso in the mix.
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Proph: What Eco said. Basics are extremely solvable setups. Due to the recent trend of players preferring uncomplicated games, I've found most simpler setups a bit boring to solve (no offense to this game intended, as there was nothing actually WRONG with it), though it admittedly does make games focus more on behavior. It also adds an interesting dynamic because it forces scum to claim believable roles, given the way setups have become so easily metagameable. That said, it also runs the problem of predictable setups resulting in too-easily confirmable town, which is why I include twists in most of my setups.
Anyway, just my thoughts on the matter. Thanks for volunteering to run this year's game, even though it was partially so you didn't have to play, yourself.
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
I disagree pretty passionately with the notion of taking away the town's power to increase the Scum's chances of winning. I think that the setup was fair and balanced, and I think that it's up to scum play to improve to make the difference and not up to moderators to tip the scales in Scum's favor in order to give them a fighting chance.
@ Iso - No need to apologize for being good. Just keep right on doing that.