The time has come for me to take my leave of the site. I no longer have the time nor interest level that I once did regarding mafia and this site in general. As such, I am also relinquishing my seat on the mafia council. To those of you that I've played with in the past, thanks so much because you're the ones that make this game fun. To those of you that I've never played with, I do regret missing the chance to get to know you as it is the community here that makes mafia what it is.
I may be back sometime in the future, but for now, *tips hat and walks out of door*.
- zindabad
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Member for 17 years, 11 months, and 17 days
Last active Fri, Oct, 6 2017 22:10:54
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NaiNebel posted a message on The Mafia Council & Helpdesk ThreadBy the way, guys, we were finally able to do something I know you guys have wanted a long time:Posted in: Mafia
From this day forwards, nested quotes are automatically on for Mafia.
Quote from KittyCupCakeQuote from GuardmanMini: Any game with 13 or less players.
Normal: Any game with 14 to 17 players.
Grande: Any game with 18 or more players.
I think I like Guardman's original suggestion best. Thanks for the link, DRey.
Maybe running 2-2-1? And then letting the people who are currently signed up for Normals and Specialties decide if they want to be on the Normal or Grande list?
atlseal's player-cap based on previous games run is also a good idea.
Rejoice. -
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Sene posted a message on tl;dr - A Plea to the UserbaseUsually Community Issues is about regular users voicing concerns about the staff, but here I am as an admin of the site, trying to express my personal concerns about the regular users of this forum. A little backwards, but I feel this must be said. I won't quote anyone or call anyone out. This is not about that.Posted in: Community Discussion
First off, I love this site. I've been here since I was fifteen, basically a kid. Now I'm 23, and been an active member of this website for almost a third of my life. It means a lot to me. When I'm in this admin position now, spending enormous amounts of free time here, it is only because I would like to do my part to make this site the best it can possibly be.
However, doing it has unfortunately become a massive chore. During the past couple of months, the negativity has been absolutely relentless. The vocal userbase has become so hostile towards us that I wonder why I'm putting in all this effort, hundreds upon hundreds of hours, sacrificing most of my spare time, trying to help all of you out. I just came back from an 8-day break from everything that's the internet, and already I feel like I'm running on empty. When I got that feeling only a few hours in, my alarm bells started ringing.
There is nothing I would love more than just resigning and be done with it (slight exaggeration there, but hey). All this CI drama, all this nonsense about our corruption, all these attacks on the staff - a staff with members who put in multiple hours every day for the site, and don't have a penny to show for it. To be perfectly frank, being an admin of this site has been a pretty crappy job during the last few months.
I do not mind if you think we do a poor job. I don't mind if you post in Community Issues about it. I wouldn't even mind if you asked for the resignation of one of us (myself included). What I do mind is when these threads evolve into being the host of absolutely insane claims of tyranny and corruption, that we're trolling the userbase, excessively sarcastic and unfriendly posts, obscene exaggerations, unpleasantness, and ridiculous posts in general. These posts are 100% counterproductive, serve only to derail what could have been a productive discussion, and they bury real, legitimate concerns under a sea of ludicrousness. This is partly why I've been pushing for more Summits in the future, because those AIM convos would hopefully not include those kinds of messages, but get right to the heart of the issue and leave that which doesn't belong at the door.
Like, if I've done an error, and want to call me out on it? By all means, do so, I will take the criticism to heart. However, if you choose to go over the top and post hyperboles and insults as well, my natural reaction is to instead defend myself. In the Gloves thread, for example, my natural reaction was to defend rianalnn, because of the many preposterous accusations that had been leveled against him, even though some of them were legitimate and needed to be addressed (and were, once we could sit down and talk calmly). There is no need to go overboard. Keep it real.
But I'm not just talking about CI threads, but also the Gutter Pegging Chamber thread, where a discussion about compromise is taking place. I was deeply involved in this thread for a long time - during the first couple of weeks, I fought a large part of the rest of the staff on behalf of the Gutter, so to speak, because I believed that a compromise was the way to go. Most senior staffers disagreed with me, and I got a lot of grief for doing what I felt was right. Within a week or two later, however, I started getting the feeling that the Gutter members would mess this up themselves by being unnecessarily hostile, and acting exactly like the average naysayer on staff said they would. This worried me, because I was pretty sure that the only way to find a successful resolution would be by being reasonable. I decided to call them out on it, because I figured something needed to be done, and I got burned. That moment I decided to just drop it. I'd still be in favor of a compromise, but I wouldn't fight for it like I had, and if nothing came out of it, I felt that many Gutter members (not all!) had only themselves to thank if it ended up being closed after all.
I get that this is a topic that you care deeply about. It's your social space, of course you care. But don't shoot yourself in the foot by harassing staff members over and over and calling dissenters "trolls". You win people to your side by being reasonable and factual. You lose them again once you start trolling.
If you want a drama thread to be resolved in a satisfactory manner, it depends on YOU as well. Every regular user, you all make a difference if you choose to participate, and whether it's a positive or negative contribution depends on you alone. It's not about your opinion, it's about how you arrive at it, and how you present it. That's what matters. If you and I disagree, that's cool. But keep it factual, and keep it respectful. If we all do this, we will surely find a solution that we can be satisfied with, and that benefits the site in the long run.
Additionally, I would like to ask you to at least try to cut the staff some slack. So often, users seem to just assume the worst right away. This is extremely draining. Usually there is more to an issue than what you already know, and we tend to have good reasons for our actions if you let us explain them before jumping to conclusions. And when we don't have good (or good enough) reasons, we'll review our decision, and possibly reverse it, if warranted. We do that, since we're very much human and make mistakes (sometimes huge ones, no doubt), and are willing to admit them. But some amount of goodwill from the users sure would help.
In the end, I want you all to remember that we all actually want the same thing. It shouldn't be Users vs. Staff. It should be Users & Staff. We as a staff need to work on this, and you, regular users of this forum, need to do this as well.
Finally, while this is not actually my resignation letter, we're pretty close. I'm getting seriously worn out, and once this starts to impact my life in a negative way, I have to reconsider prioritizing this site like I have until now. I care for it a whole lot though, so my preferred decision is to stay, but I would lie if I said it would take a lot for me to hand in my badge at this point. There's only so much one can put up with. -
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rianalnn posted a message on Rianalnn's Position on StaffFirst, let me issue an apology to the community.Posted in: Community Discussion
I am & have been very passionate about the success & growth of this site, & I'm not especially good at expressing my enthusiasm without trampling towards the prize – & that is in situations where the goal is something agreed desirable. In conflict, that passion is quite reasonably taken as aggression, & in many cases I just don't take enough time to make it clear that I am considering the other side's position.
So please accept my apology, for those of you who have felt put off or otherwise trampled when interacting with me, as well as the general community, for any doubt or difficulty my actions or the events surrounding them have caused. It's never been my intent to anger or distress anyone. Please hear me when I say that I have never dismissed an argument simply because of the source & I have never intentionally used my position to stifle those who spoke against my actions or place on staff. For these reasons I feel quite comfortable submitting to the tribunal review, & I am actually grateful for Azrael's efforts to pierce the cloud surrounding me. I am eager to see restored confidence in me, & more importantly confidence in the staff of Salvation so that we can all get back to the actual reasons we are here.
I would also like to thank the staff & community, both those who encouraged me to keep on as well as those who spoke up their concerns – I greatly appreciate the effort both those actions take.
Lastly I would like to ask a little patience from everyone in the days ahead & to give me a chance to correct past abrasiveness. I don't think anyone doubts that I care a great deal for the future of this community; continuing to be able to lend my strengths to Salvation is very important to me, & I would like to thank you all for that opportunity.
- To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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The difference is between modern Egypt, which is an Arab culture, and ancient Egypt, which predates Arabic by centuries if not millennia. "Al-Tahid" sounds like an Arabic word (though it is not), while it is utterly unlike Kemetic, which is what we call "Ancient Egyptian." An Egyptian themed plane is overwhelmingly more likely to have an ancient Egyptian vibe rather than a modern Egyptian vibe, unless WotC's market research suggests the players are interested in cards that depict corruption, gender inequality, and waiting 15 minutes to cross the street.
Source: I'm Egyptian.
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Stirring Wildwood definitely gets there, you can get it with Ancient Stirrings too. I'd cut the Ascensions and the Keys for something else, maybe more removal. Another elixir too which you can search up off Stirrings.
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1. Megiddo
2. Prophylaxis
3. AsianInvasion
4. Cythare
5. hansanator
6. EtR
7. Arianrhod
8. Sir Chris
9. Rhand
10. HookerPunch
11. Killjoy
12. Iso
13. Wildfire393
14. Sir Karn
15. LnGrrrR
16. Seppel
17. kpaca
18. rezombied
19. Niv
20. DCIII
21. desCoures
Thank you all for your interest.
Due to the greatly increased difficulty of manipulating colors on the new forum software (this game uses a lot of colors), there'll be a delay in sending out role PMs as I have to recolor them all by hand after copy-pasting them from my setup document.
The thread will go up in the morning tomorrow and role PMs should be out by tomorrow evening.
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- from the Turapian myth of Demernae and the Word
Welcome to the signup thread for Celestial Mafia, the sequel to Seasons Mafia. No prior knowledge of Seasons Mafia is required to enjoy this game. This is a game for 21 players. To sign up, post /in in this thread. Please include the number of games you are currently in.
This game uses a slightly modified version of the RobRoy system of randomization:
Players in 1 game get a weighting of 2.
Players in 2 games get a weighting of 1
Players in 3 games have a weighting of 0. These players can sign up to play, but won't get in unless less than 21 players with a non-zero weighting are signed up. These players can sign up to replace, if they wish.
Once all players have been assigned a weighting, I will use random.org to select the player list for this game.
Please be aware that joining the game will require a commitment to post at least once every two or three days for several months. Absences longer than that should be cleared with me in advance to avoid being replaced or modkilled (both of which are very disruptive to the game, and make it less fun for everyone involved). I take this commitment very seriously and I ask you to do the same: please do not join if you feel you will be unable to meet the above requirement.
This game features the following:
- Flavor completely written from scratch.
- Built-in protection against mod-gaming, flavor-gaming, and early massclaims.
- Central game mechanic based around the struggle to survive the worlds of the Celestials as their vitality slowly ebbs away.
- Randomized scumteam. Almost all roles have been designed to be able to play as either alignment. After all players have been randomly assigned a role, a mafia will be randomly selected from among them.
- Deadlines set at the beginning of each game Day.
This game does not feature spectators. I do not allow anyone (except Xyre and Cantripmancer, my reviewers) to see the setup until after the game has ended.
Signup list:
Megiddo (0)
Prophylaxis (0)
Iso (1)
AsianInvasion (0)
Kosakosa (2)
LnGrrrR (1)
Niv (2)
KamikazeArchon (2)
Killjoy (1)
DCIII (1)
Cythare (0)
Rhand (1)
hansanator (0)
HookerPunch (1)
EtR (0)
Sir Karn (2)
Arianrhod (0)
desCoures (1)
rezombied (1)
Wildfire393 (1)
Seppel (1)
7hawk77 (1)
Sir Chris (0)
kpaca (2)
YugiYami (2)
Cyan (2)
Replacements:
dkingsland967
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If you don't want their "pile of jank" for your "staples", then just don't trade down. Someone comes to you with a bunch of 50-cent cards and wants to trade up? It's the easiest thing in the world to say no thanks.
(I suspect the shoe would be on the other foot if it was their Sphinx's Revelation or Voice you wanted and they looked through your binder and picked out a bunch of $1 and $2 cards.)
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A Magic analogue would be cards like Grip of Chaos. Most players simply don't want to play in "random target-y land where I can't really do anything" and will breathe a sigh of relief when someone finally destroys it. You don't want anything in your game of Mafia to feel like that, even though there may exist a small subset of players who actually enjoy that kind of madness (just like your EDH table may include that crazy, cackling red player that everyone else wants to strangle who slams down Grip of Chaos, Scrambleverse, etc.)
Another thing is flavor. Grim Batol was definitely a top-down affair, and although the flavor was one area of the game (uncharitable but honest people might say the only one) that was successful, I let it make too many decisions for me. Both Seasons and Ataghan were bottom-up designs for the most part. Yes, I had the idea of both the Aeon Clock and the Ataghan as central themes for a game's story long before writing either setup, but from there, I identified a key mechanic that I wanted to make the centerpiece of the game (the seasons/the locks) and let that theme dictate the rest of the setup.
It's a lot harder when you're using source material from someone else, since you feel you have an obligation to make roles/mechanics match the flavor, which leads to top-down design, which is clunky.
I hope this slightly rambling post was in some way useful.
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Very well played by Voxx, DRey, and Zionite. Good play by Seppel too - if he had bussed Star rather than try to pretend his wagon wasn't happening, I probably would've gone with Voxx on the last day, since Voxx's behavior vis-a-vis Star wasn't 100% stellar either.
It has been a great pleasure playing with all of you and I'm glad I'm able to bow out with a win, and a town win at that. I've been talking about calling it a day for quite a while now and I think this is the right time. I plan to remain involved on the modding side of things and devote more time to hosting, reviewing, and improving myself as a mod and game designer. I'll probably be back - everyone comes back - but not in the near future. So happy scumhunting in the meantime and thanks for the fun times.
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/in, 0 games.