Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: The special rule. The long and short of it is that as I was drafting role PMs, I noticed two things:
(1) That because the BioShock universe has such a limited pool of characters, I was running into issues with certain characters being a certain alignment. For example, Daisy and Comstock both being town. In BioShock Infinite, they’re mortal enemies hellbent on each others death, and the only way I could conclude to solve that would have been to, essentially, re-write the whole story of Infinite from the ground up, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. The same applies to Booker and Elizabeth (who would never be opposed to one another in Infinite) and Ryan and Fontaine (who would never be allies). My worry was that, given the vast popularity of these games, that someone would try and flavour game, correctly, that Booker and Elizabeth had to be the same alignment and that Ryan/Fontaine would be opposing alignments, thus breaking the game with flavour gaming. That led me to either re-do the characters (which I tried, but I couldn’t get a working set I liked), or just outright ban name claiming to prevent the game from being broken via flavour gaming.
(2) When drafting false flavour, I noticed that the flavour segments were severely lacking compared to the main characters. For example, Elizabeth’s flavour clocked in at 1,347 words. The shortest flavour piece was Jack’s, and that itself was 548 words. None of the false flavours were breaking 350, and I was concerned that if I provided such weak flavour segments for the Mafia to claim, that I would inevitably be tilting the game towards one side and I didn’t want to do that.
Those two points came together to lead to banning the claiming of true IDs. It was a silver bullet, albeit a sloppy one, to a conundrum I wasn’t having much luck solving. I honestly cannot assess how much it impacted the discourse of the game, so I’d like some thoughts from everyone on that.
Lesson Learned: Regardless of whether or not it negatively impacted the game, I wasn’t a fan of such a draconian rule and, in retrospect, wish I had of delayed the game to find a reasonable solution. Going forward, I won’t repeat this mistake.
Next up, the SNL Modkill: First and foremost I believe I owe the Mafia team, collectively, an apology for how that was handled. It should have either ended the day, or I should have done it over Night. In the end, I have no real defence of it. There is a very real argument to be made that had I of ended the day instead of allowing it to continue, it could have impacted the outcome of the game. As a Mod, that’s the last thing you want to do.
Lesson Learned: Modkills always, without a doubt, either end the day or occur over Night.
Next: Fixed Twilight and coloured votes. The whole Fixed Twilight came about out of my personal annoyance of having on more than once occasion been typing a twilight post, only to preview it and see the Mod had appeared and sent it to Night. The Twilight period never really was utilised, so I will end up scrapping that from my games going forward. The coloured votes came about from having read a lot of Guardman’s games, where he requires magenta and it seemed to have worked well for those games. I didn’t account for the fact that a lot of people play on mobile devices now, so trying to input a lot of bbcode can be bothersome (especially in light of how awful this forum is on said devices). That also won’t return in future games I run.
Onto game design!
In the year or so that I’ve been playing Mafia, I’ve pretty much hung out in the Mini queue because they’re like mini-specialities, where God only knows what kind of shenanigans you’ll encounter. For me, my favourite aspect of Mafia isn’t so much playing it, but the mechanics of the game and how that can be played with. I find myself drawn to games where the mechanics are outside the norm to some degree. Two of my favourite games to date are Dr. Polyopticon’s and Futurama, because I enjoyed the twists and turns. In Dr. P’s, we had a modified cult leader and two cop variants: One compared the alignment of two players, and the other investigated the instrument classes to see how many of each there were. That game and its design and outside the box thinking were heavy inspirations for the development of this game. In Futurama, one of the roles was a Doctor/Inventor hybird, and I thoroughly enjoyed it because the Inventor portion of the role was somewhat random insofar as you could send gadgets to planets only, and each planet was associated with a player. It required a slightly different style of play.
So, that said, let’s delve into the roles and examine them (I’ll be going in the same order the role PMs appear on the first page). Also keep in mind this game was originally designed and written as Family Guy, so I’ll be discussing that in each role too.
Booker. Originally started as Meg Griffin, and as a 2 shot Roleblocker. This was changed late in review to a 2 shot Role Cop out of concern that with Fontaine, the Mafia team might be too strong. In the beginning, Booker/Meg started with a device that was a one-shot roleblock and would pass it to Elizabeth/Stewie upon their death, but ultimately, that didn’t make the final cut.
Elizabeth. Originally started out as Stewie Griffin. Elizabeth/Stewie dominated the discussions during review, as Elizabeth is by far and large the most powerful role in the game. We went through several different ideas, both on tweaks and ways to dial back the power without completely neutering the role. For comparison sake, here is the very first draft of Stewie’s role PM:
Welcome to Family Guy Mafia, <Name>!
You are Stewie Griffin, Mafia Evil Genius
<flavour>
Role: Jack of All Trades
Abilities:
Night Kill: Once per Night, you, Eliza Pinchley, and Meg Griffin may submit the name of an agreed upon player to iRebel, as well as an agreement indicating which of you is performing the kill. Unless otherwise noted, your method of murder is a photon blaster weapon. You may not perform the Night Kill and use an item at Night.
Vote: You may Vote during the Day
Passive Ability:
Night Talk with Eliza Pinchley and Meg Griffin: You may talk at Night with Eliza Pinchley and Meg Griffin in a designated Quick Topic thread.
Items (each item will break after using):
Weather Device: You originally invented the Weather Device in your quest to defeat broccoli, however you were foiled by an ill-timed thunderstorm. But never fear, you returned to your armoury where you spent countless days reinventing the Weather Device. Now the Weather Device can be used to create a spontaneous thunderstorm that will illuminate Cherrywood with fierce lightning, allowing you to see everyone moving about that Night.
Mind Control Device: You created this after realising Peter's trial was going south, and the family couldn't afford to lose its breadwinner. Despite your disgust for the fat man, you couldn't allow this to happen, and so you created the Mind Control Device to control the Judge and free Peter. When you use the Mind Control Device, you will be able to control another players actions during the next Night phase.
Laser Gun: You originally designed your Laser Gun to kill Lois (and even hid it in a sandwich). But now it's your trusty weapon of murder; refined after many years, the Laser Gun never fails to kill its intended target. When you use the Laser Gun, you will be able to kill another player without fail. You can only use the Laser Gun if you are performing the Night Kill.
Hypnosis Glasses: Originally they were your Mass Hypnosis Device that you attempted to use on Kids say the Darndest Things to win control of the public (and Earth). However, you realised that the error of your design was that they simply could not be worn as regular glasses. Thwarted by Bill Cosby of all people, you redesigned the Mass Hypnosis Device into a cutting edge pair of glasses. When you use the Hypnosis Glasses, if another player investigates you, you will convince them that you are not guilty. However, there is a chance (33%) that your Hypnosis Glasses will not work – that's the price of relying on cutting edge technology.
False Claim: Ollie Williams, Town Blaccuweather Meteorologist
Win Condition: You win when half the living players are Mafia, even if you are dead.
Instead of having to “upgrade”, Stewie just started out with all of his abilities, which not only makes him more powerful to begin with, but the non-modified version of The Weather Device gave the Mafia team enormous amounts of power right from the get to. We eventually settled on two ways to keep the same general power level, but not make it so oppressive:
(1) Change the Weather Device to a delayed mass roleblock and;
(2) Institute some kind of upgrade system.
This also let us eliminate the item pass from Booker to Elizabeth upon his death, letting the Mafia start with a one shot roleblock instead of inheriting it. I spent a great deal of time on this role — moreso than any other. I must have research about three dozen games on MTGS as well as perusing Mafia Scum’s forums and wiki for ideas. I don’t know how well I can articulate it, but I really like the idea of the Mafia having a JoAT instead of the town. It makes more logical sense, to me, that a three man unit would have a skilled Jack of All Trades compared to a nine person unit who is more likely to have individually skilled persons. Mafia JoATs, correctly or not, strike me as having more design space as well.
From a flavour perspective, Stewie was by far and large the most intelligent person of the Family Guy cast, and the story was driven by Stewie himself, so it made sense for him to assume the most powerful role. The same is true of Elizabeth, to some degree. She’s easily the most powerful being in the Infinite universe, though this story wasn’t so much driven by her as it was the Lutece’s who were trying to achieve their goal of killing Comstock and Ryan.
I can’t say whether or not I’m pleased with how this role came out with Generic/Cantrip being killed so early.
Frank Fontaine. Originally Eliza Pinchley, this slot was a goon up until the very end of the review process, where one of the reviewers thought the game was a little town sided. Originally Fontaine was going to be an odd/even Ninja/Godfather (ie, switching every other night), but one of my reviewers objected to that, so we settled on making it a modular pre-game decision. In the end, I’m only somewhat pleased with it — I like the idea and concept of modular roles, but in retrospect, 9/10 times the Ninja is the correct decision, so it really isn’t all that modular.
Daisy Fitzroy. Originally The Man in White. Taken right from the FG canon, the Man in White tried to poison a group of teenagers to secure his own divinity, which is why this slot was a poison vig instead of a regular vig. Originally Daisy did not start with her shot; she started with the ability to concoct a poison on spot and would gain control of it the following phase and use it that phase (ie, if concocted during the Day phase, you get your shot at Night and have to shoot at Night). Ultimately my reviewers felt that was a little too much hoopla, so we changed it to a straight one shot poison vig. In addition to flavour, I settled on poison because (1) we don’t see it too much and (2) most Vigs are Night Vigs, so I wanted to try something different. I thought having a straight “bang you’re dead” Day Vig was a bit much, and ran into the scenario of having a flip before a lynch (much like the modkill I botched, which in retrospect I wish I had of thought about XD). Poison seemed to be the happy medium.
I was relatively happy with the way this role played out in the end. Lady Comstock. Originally Joe Swanson. Masons in a 12 player game does too many odd things to game math, but I wanted some kind of Mason as they’re one of my favourite roles. The solution? Stealing a role from AsianInvasion straight up, from his Hobbit Mafia. I liked this role quite a lot, and I feel as if it worked out just right in the end, despite the relatively tame nature of it compared to other roles. It allowed a player to have someone with a completely neutral set of eyes help form opinions and bounce ideas off of. Someone, I think it was KoolKoal, mentioned something about having Cythare replace Niv when he died, and I’m sufficiently intrigued by the idea. Might have to toy with that at a later date.
Andrew Ryan. Originally Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa. By far my favourite role in the game. Not a lot to say because LnGrrrR died early, but I will definitely be keeping this in my rotation.
Z. H. Comstock. Originally Herbert the dirty old man. This was my least favourite role in both design and execution. It’s a lot more powerful than I originally thought it was, and in the end, feels very inelegant compared to everything else. It screams that there is either a ninja or some kind of manipulation role within the Mafia, which is poor design I think — roles from the town perspective should not reveal what kind of power(s) the minority has. If I could re-do this role, there’s a number of different ways I would handle it:
(1) Make it double modular, meaning that fulcrum would have been presented two pairs (Tracker/Watcher)(Voyeur/Follower) and would have had to select one from each pair. Then she would have received four one shot abilities, two of each, to use.
(2) Straight modular Tracker/Watcher, similar to Kosakosa’s role (which Kosakosa actually theorised existed; when I saw his speculation I was kicking myself for not thinking of that earlier).
(3) Allow fulcrum to have all four abilities, but require an activation cost for them (points, tokens, whatever). Track/Watch: 5 points each; Follow: 3 Points; Voyeur: 2 points, and have her start with 10 points.
Jeremiah Fink. Originally Glenn Quagmire. So in theory, I really like Jailers because there’s a lot of tension involved. Do you jail someone you expect to be NK’d, but risk roleblocking them? Or do you try and roleblock the mafia? There’s a bit of give and take with it. But the downside to that give and take is that in a game with a lot of power roles, it’s quite easy to find yourself in a conundrum whereby you may inadvertently harm your team rather than help. I’ve walked out of this game with the impression that Jailers would be better suited for a lower power game and that this slot would have been better off as a Doctor instead.
Mr. Bubbles. Originally Carter Pewterschmidt. So this role isn’t all that exciting. It came about from a flavour perspective — Carter is the richest man in all of Quahog so it would make sense for him to have some additional influence. KamikazeArchon was the unknown enabler; should he have died, Wildfire would have lost his double vote. We debated whether or not the enabler should know they are, in fact, an enabler, but we decided against that for the same reason I opted for AsianInvasion’s mason role: it would lead to a scenario where both players would be town confirmed, and in a 12 player game, two confirmed townies from the get go does weird things to game math.
MVPs Town MVP goes to KoolKoal and fulcrum. KoolKoal for his spectacular reads and correctly vigging Cantrip. fulcrum for starting the D1 wagon on DK and successfully pushing it through and was able to see through Kosakosa despite mechanical deception.
Mafia MVP goes to Kosakosa, who I thought played a very strong game with his back to the wall. I’ll be honest, even in a dicey LyLo situation, I went into Day 5 thinking Kosakosa would be able to pull off the victory based on what he had said in the Mafia chat. Sadly it seems RL got in his way, since he was missing in action for most of Day 5 — had he of been around and active, I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if he had somehow managed to pull it off.
So with that, I think I’ve covered everything except for a few questions I’d like everyone to answer:
1. Thoughts on the flavour? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
2. Any critiques/complaints/criticisms?
I know it there a things I should have handled differently, and some design flaws I wish I had of caught before the game went live, but such is life. I do hope you all had fun playing this game — I had a blast designing it and hosting it, and I have learned a LOT from this endeavour that, hopefully, will make the next game I design even more enjoyable.
If anyone has questions, I would be more than happy to field them.
cccccc808 was forcibly replaced
hansanator requested replacement
SelesnyaNewLife was mod-killed for inactivity
Generic requested replacement
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Mod Note: This end scene is long (in excess of 3000 words).
Robert: “Oh bother.”
Rosalind: “Fiddle sticks.”
Robert: “I thought we had Comstock and Ryan this time sister.”
Rosalind: “As did I brother dearest.”
Robert: “Well, you know what they say.”
Rosalind: “Indeed. The 124th time is a charm.”
Robert: “Quite. Well, shall we then?”
Rosalind: “We shall.”
CHAPTER SIX The Rise of Rapture
“…. Good evening guests. I am but heartbroken to inform you that our gathering must come to an end now. It has been my pleasure to serve as your pianist. May you all have a goodnight and safe trip on the bathysphere.”
The masquerade ball had come to an end — just in time, some thought, as the music had descended far too deep into haunted and demonic side. Fitting though, given what happened at the Kashmir. Rapture had been plunged into the midsts of a civil war between Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, also known as Atlas.
Two bathysphere’s arrived, unusual, given there is but one track leading away from the Fort. One was coloured green and said “Columbia” on it, to the confusion of some.
“What is Columbia?” asked Andrew Ryan.
“Our world; not all of us are from Rapture”, responded Elizabeth.
As six of the guests boarded the Columbia bathysphere, it began to fade from reality, leaving room for the rest of the guests to board the bathysphere to wherever they were headed. The last stop on the bathysphere was the Rapture Control Centre, from where Andrew Ryan has controlled Rapture since its inception.
Back in his office, Andrew Ryan had sat down at his desk and pulled out a note that had been passed to him by Zachary Hale Comstock just prior to his departure on the Columbia bathysphere. It said “Arcadia Tea Garden, look for the symbol “AD” in a circle.”
Comstock and Ryan had been in cahoots for some time now, thanks to Rosalind’s plan to bridge the worlds of Rapture and Columbia in order to bring about the demise of Comstock; after failing 122 consecutive times, you begin to look for new angles of attack. Rosalind theorised that should they bridge the worlds of Rapture and Columbia, they would then be able to orchestrate a battle of the minds in a neutral setting and, with their interference, finally bring down Ryan and Comstock. But they knew in order to do this, they would need to present it in a fashion that would have some sort of benefit to Comstock and Ryan: thus was born the argument that defeating your foes in a bridged universe would forever alter the timeline of history, preventing them coming after you. Of course, it wasn’t true; then again, neither Comstock nor Ryan were quantum physicists, either, so they did not question Rosalind or Robert.
The following evening, Andrew Ryan visited the Tea Garden and true to the note, there was an “AD” symbol encompassed by a circle. Ryan knew he had no choice, after being shown the future where his own sun, Jack, would help Frank Fontaine destroy Rapture. It was kill, or be killed; hunt, or be hunted. He had refused to ever go back to the surface — it was poison, and he’d rather take his own life before living in the police states of the surface. Ryan extended his hand forward to activate the “AD” logo.
Rumble.
The boulder upon which the “AD” was circled began to violently shake, as if an earthquake of all things had gripped Rapture.
“What the hell…” murmured Ryan, as beams of light began to emanate from the boulder right before it shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces. In its place stood an open tear to Columbia — to the Hand of the Prophet, where Comstock stood.
“Your personal army, Mr. Ryan. Ready for your command.”
“Rise, defenders of freedom!” commanded Andrew Ryan.
One by one, the eyes of Motorised Patriots far and wide as the eye could see came to life. The rumble of their engines, buzzing in unity, was as menacing as the howling of an evening rain cloaked Kansas tornado. They alone possessed enough firepower to destroy Rapture, Nay, half the surface world’s armies thrice over. With one sentence, Ryan cemented himself as one of the most powerful people on Earth.
It had been two days since the acquisition of the Patriots, and all was quiet throughout Rapture. Neither Ryan or Fontaine had made a move; not that Ryan needed to act in haste, given his army, but he feared Fontaine. He feared giving Fontaine time, for Fontaine has managed to outmanoeuvre Ryan at every turn thus far.
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me” murmured Ryan. It was his favourite quote from Ayn Rand; it was what motivated him to spearhead the creation of Rapture. Ryan needed no ones permission to pursue his utopia — he was a free man, after all. And just as he needed no ones permission to create Rapture, he sure as hell did not need permission to defend his life, liberty, and property.
“Execute Order 17,” spoke Ryan from his secure compound. With that, the beginning of the end of the Rapture Civil War was underway. Squadrons of Motorised Patriots descended to every corner of Rapture, from Point Prometheus to Fort Frolic to the Medical Pavilion. Scores of people were massacred ruthlessly by the Patriots — all known supporters of Fontaine, as Ryan smiled from behind his desk. Area by area of Rapture would be liberated over the coming days.
Two days later, all but one area had been seized by the Ryan blitzkrieg: Neptune’s Bounty. To the surprise of Ryan, the first squadron of Patriots had failed to seize Neptune’s Bounty. But they came close too, and so four squadrons of Patriots were sent to assault the Bounty in waves. After the third wave hit, they were able to punch through. Casualties were numerous as the Patriots advanced — hundreds of Fontaine’s most die hard supporters and warriors were holed up in Neptune’s, waiting for the surprised offensive to hit. It was just that — a surprise, to Fontaine. He had been laying low, planning his own blitzkrieg when Ryan’s gadgets attacked. It was the first, and will be the last time that Ryan was capable of getting the drop on him. Fontaine knew he was hopelessly beaten, that he didn’t have an exit plan this time.
There he stood, alone, in the back of his compound, armed to the teeth. You could hear the Patriots advancing, quickly, the cries and screams of soldiers in the wind.
And then it went silent; like the eye of the storm had passed overhead. Seconds felt like minutes; minutes like hours.
Boom.
The Patriots breached the final compound door. Fontaine immediately fired, winging one of them, but dozens of Patriots and their turret guns unloaded on Fontaine, shredding him from head to toe. The war was over, and Ryan reigns supreme in Rapture.
“Look, mom!” shouted a young boy. “Mr. Sander is back from his trip to France!”
It had been three years since the end of the war. Andrew Ryan ruthlessly exterminated all those who stood in his way; all those who stood with Fontaine. The seeds of doubt were burned, ruined, never to come back again. But winning the war and winning the peace were two different things. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Ryan took to the airwaves to reassure the populace that the dream of liberty and freedom was still alive; that a new dawn was in the works for Rapture.
Ryan spent three years working to rebuild Rapture; to market it above, from below, as the safe haven for the oppressed. Some of the best minds, from the writers to the businessmen were migrating to Rapture, tired of the oppression from the surface world. Within a year, Rapture had turned the corner. Cleanup efforts had begun to restore the charm and beauty that was the city. Businesses had begun to re-open; new ones took the place of those unable to succeed.
Rapture, just two short years after the Civil War, had returned to its hay day of success just before the Kashmir bombings. As the third year of peace begun, Rapture was setting records for success above and beyond what it had in the past. That prompted a meeting of the minds, the business owners and wealthy who were the de facto rulers of Rapture. They had agreed that the success in just three short years had surpassed anything imaginable, and so they wondered, just how far could it really go? By mid year they had arranged a meeting with Andrew Ryan at the Rapture Control Centre to discuss it. Ryan immediately opposed it, saying there was no need to have but the barest of bare contact with the “filth” from the surface. But they continued to press their case and offered a compromise: a trial program. Let an established figure in the community, perhaps Sander Cohen, some suggested, go to the surface and see how it worked out? If Sander was able to be successful and capable of bringing revenue home to fuel the continued success and expansion of Rapture, who are we to stop it?
Ryan relented; he was sure in his mind that it would be a failure of memorable proportions. But the inverse was true. It had been a massive success. Sander’s time in France had drawn the attention of thousands of people, who were interested in purchasing not only his art work by the dozen, but it sparked an interest in all things associated with Rapture. It led to the liberalisation of tourism laws; of import/export laws. It was, ironically, and poetically enough, the last key to the everlasting success of Rapture: That which helped spark a Civil War was the last key to her future.
Rapture has been saved.
CHAPTER SEVEN The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men
”Booker! Watch out!”
Crash.
Just as Elizabeth yelled for Booker to move, a spire from the roof of Comstock house came crashing down, striking Booker in the knees, pinning him. Try as she might, Elizabeth wasn’t able to free Booker before forces loyal to Comstock arrived.
“NO. YOU CAN’T!” shouted Elizabeth as she restrained by two firemen.
“NO. BOOKER NO!”
Bang.
“Booker…” said Elizabeth as she dropped to her knees, tears pouring down her cheeks. Booker had just come into her life all of two days ago, and now he was gone. Elizabeth grew as a person more in those two days than she had in the past two years; Booker showed her what her own city looked like. What it was like to dance and sing; to eat cotton candy. To be vulnerable. Sure, their brief relationship had it stressful moments too — Elizabeth did slap him with a wrench when he attempted to send them to New York. But there was a connection between Booker and Elizabeth that was uncanny; it was as if they had known each other for many years. Now? Now he is gone.
“Did you really think it would end any other way, my child?”
“I’m not your child, you murderer.”
“Take her to the tower.”
Just like that, Elizabeth found herself back in the tower on Monument Island. Back to her prison, where she was condemned to spend her days until Comstock beckons for her. Her and Booker barely escaped Song Bird the first time, and it took both of them. There was no way she’d be able to escape and evade Song Bird herself.
Time went by slowly at first — every hour seemed like a lifetime. No amount of reading, of studying, seemed to help. The hours became days, the days became weeks, and the weeks became months. Eventually she lost track of time, even the date. “What was the point?”, she often asked herself. “Better to keep myself occupied than to dwell” she thought. It seemed to work, for the depression that Elizabeth found herself in eventually gave way to the return of her sunny disposition.
Three years to the day after Booker died, Comstock had finally beckoned her. As she was escorted from her prison to the Hand of the Prophet. There lay Comstock, deathly ill; she knew many a year ago, before even meeting Booker, that Comstock was sick, that he didn’t have too many years left. It appeared as if the Prophet would soon be meeting his end. And so, too, would Elizabeth, because she knew what his death meant for her future. Comstock looked at her, smiling, knowing that he had “won”.
“My child… the time is near.”
“I’m not your child you bastard.”
“OUCH!” shouted Elizabeth as she was stricken by one of the firemen who had escorted her.
“The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men.”
“You understand, do you not, Elizabeth? That upon my death you shall bring to the people the righteous and holy judgement of I, the Prophet.”
“Go to hell, you —“, Elizabeth again was stricken by the fireman.
“Bring the child to me.”
“NO” shouted Elizabeth
“LET ME GO!”
“Quiet, child. It shall be over soon”, whispered Comstock as he embraced Elizabeth’s forehead with his hand, mumbling to himself in prayer.
“The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men. Go forth, my child.”
“Yes, father.”
It was set. The Prophet was dead and the Mountains of Men were destined to smoulder at the hands of his hand chosen executioner: Elizabeth.
“Arm the blimps with Patriots and missiles. Have the Hand of the Goddess ready.”
“Yes Elizabeth!” shouted row upon row of faithful soldiers. The first city that Elizabeth attacked was Paris — Comstock made sure of that. He wanted to take great pleasure in watching from above as Paris, the city of her dreams, burned in judgement for its sins. And that, he did, as the seventh arrondissement was the first target for the firemen and Patriots. They stormed the city, slaughtering all those they encountered. Men, women, children. It made no difference. It took just six minutes for the assault to claim the Eiffel Tower.
Boom.
That was the sound heard as people came to a halt, watching their beloved Tower crumble to the ground.
Once Paris was judged, next was London. Then Moscow. Berlin. Elizabeth and the Patriots marched across Europe, handing down the judgement of Comstock. It wasn’t until Italy, of all places, that the Patriots suffered their first set back. Their assault was blunted, albeit with heavy loss of life, but they did. Peace reigned in Italy for just three short days before the next assault was launched, this time helmed by the Hand of the Goddess. The Italians, who had given hope to others worldwide that this onslaught could be blunted, folded in three hours.
In Washington, DC, they had begun making preparations for when the Patriots came. They didn’t know when they’d come, but they knew they would; it was, after all, what Comstock had promised years ago. Six months had passed since the last of the Patriots were spotted — they had spent three months non-stop delivering what they called the “judgement of the Prophet”. Religious groups from every corner of the world were in shambles, for this kind of devastation was reserved for the end of the world scenarios that religions foretold. Yet none had an answer for what was happening.
It was 2:37 AM on the night of December 23rd when the first Patriots were spotted in New York City. They had attacked in the cover of night; Elizabeth herself, for only the second time, was personally leading the attack. A firebomb hit an apartment complex in Brooklyn, instantly levelling it and killing everyone inside. Patriots soon flooded the cities boroughs as Elizabeth stood on the deck of the Hand of the Goddess, watching the destruction. Building after building fell; screams of despair filled the air as people pleaded for mercy before the Patriots. But on that night, mercy was not to be shown, not even to the child who grasped her teddy bear, calling out for her mommy.
The assault continued on throughout the night into the morning. As the sun rose above New York City, the sky was filled with smoke from the burning buildings. New York had been reduced to a smouldering crater of debris. New York, the home of Booker DeWitt, was no more. New York, according to Comstock, represented the sins of humanity the world over. Greed. Lust. Gluttony. Progress. The world in which New York existed, and stood for, was diametrically opposed to the world that Comstock sought to build, where all persons bowed to him, and the poor were rightfully enslaved by the rich for that was the will of God. City by city throughout America eventually succumbed to Columbia ; after New York it was Boston and Philadelphia on New Years Day. In Atlanta, the Patriots suffered just their second defeat, but unlike Italy, it took Elizabeth and the Patriots six attempts to siege the city, but also like Italy, they eventually succeeded and reducing Atlanta to a footnote in a history book.
Washington, DC, had been spared so far, though no one knew why. But when Columbia was founded, many of the residents, from the citizenry to the Senators and Representatives, remembered that when Comstock was rebuffed on capital hill, he foretold this very sequence of events. That those who stood in opposition would be judged when the seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men.
The Mountains of Men were no more, as Earth fell to the Seed of the Prophet.
Kosakosa has been lynched. His role PM is as follows:
Welcome to BioShock Mafia, Kosakosa!
You are Guest 05
True Identity: Frank Fontaine, Rapture Crime Boss and Mafia Smuggler
Flavour:
You received the following note on your receipt:
Want to be rich? Meet tonight at the Smuggler's Hideout.
Role: Modular Godfather/Ninja
Abilities:
Business Front: During the pre-game, select either "Fontaine's Home for the Poor" or "Fontaine Futuristics" as a business front to set up in Columbia.
Night Kill: Once per Night, you, Booker DeWitt, and Elizabeth may submit the name of an agreed upon player to iRebel, as well as an agreement indicating which of you is performing the kill.
Vote: You may Vote during the Day.
Passive Ability:
Night Talk with Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth: You may talk at Night with Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth.
Business Fronts:
Fontaine's Home for the Poor: If you establish Fontaine's Home for the Poor in Columbia, you will return an innocent verdict if investigated that Night due to your upstanding character.
Fontaine Futuristics: If you establish Fontaine Futuristics in Columbia, you will oversee a scientific breakthrough that allows you to become invisible, thus allowing you to target people without being seen.
Win Condition: You win when half the living players are Mafia, even if you are dead.
BioShock Mafia has ended in a Town Victory. Congratulations to...
KoolKoal, as Daisy Fitzroy, Town Rebel and Assassin
Niv, as Lady Comstock, Town Siren
LnGrrrR, as Andrew Ryan, Town Randian Hypocrite
fulcrum, as Z. H. Comstock, Town Pastor
DCIII, as Jeremiah Fink, Town Billionaire and Dirty Cop Warlord
Wildfire393, as Mr. Bubbles, Town Big Daddy
SelesnynaNewLife, as Brigid Tenenbaum, Town Genetic Scientist
KamikazeArchon, as A Little Sister, Town Little Sister
HookerPunch, as Jack, Town Manchurian Candidate and
Cythare, as A Summoned Soul
Kosakosa has been lynched. End game scenes will be posted before bed tonight -- I would ask that dead players refrain from posting until I have closed out the game.
1. Why do you think lynching scum is better than a firecracker?
2. Although you raised a fair point on JeY (the confidence angle), how would you explain JeY’s behaviour towards the end of Day 1 as scum? She made quite a few posts that would be a goldmine for interaction analysis, which is something scum typically want to avoid. Even new scum. (Note that I know you've since unvoted JeY; I'm more interested in your thought process leading up to voting JeY and how you reconciled it with the question I am asking).
As a note, didn’t Xyre say there’s no self voting, thus negating the self hammer for Asenion? Or am misremembering?
Myself notwithstanding, Wheat, Karn, and Niv’s slot (since Niv appears to be MIA) would be my choices.
1. Duh?
2. i no longer think Jey is scum. I'm yet to finish my reread; I'll explain why.
@iso: please exlain why you like those 3 better than Niv. Very serious question.
1. Duh or not, I'd like you to give us the long answer.
2. Yes, I know you no longer think JeY is scum. What I want to know is how did you reconcile JeY's behaviour at the end of Day 1 (where she was spilling interactions every which way) with the fact you thought she was scum.
1. Why do you think lynching scum is better than a firecracker?
2. Although you raised a fair point on JeY (the confidence angle), how would you explain JeY’s behaviour towards the end of Day 1 as scum? She made quite a few posts that would be a goldmine for interaction analysis, which is something scum typically want to avoid. Even new scum. (Note that I know you've since unvoted JeY; I'm more interested in your thought process leading up to voting JeY and how you reconciled it with the question I am asking).
As a note, didn’t Xyre say there’s no self voting, thus negating the self hammer for Asenion? Or am misremembering?
Myself notwithstanding, Wheat, Karn, and Niv’s slot (since Niv appears to be MIA) would be my choices.
Even if why lynched one scum, the game is far from over. It's highly plausible that I have 4 saint points on me (moved from Void after the mod-kill) and lynching me would immediately end the game. (Killing 5 townsfolk and leavin scum with a majority vote.)
This would also be why ISO is first on my wagon.
Lynching you would result in a highly structured wagon with the intent to stop that probability. Lynching you leaves 8 alive — it's seemingly unanimous that Karn is town, so he'd by #1 on the wagon. There's a very high chance I'd be #2 on the wagon. The ONLY way we'd lose the game is if the third and fourth persons on the wagon were scum (this assuming you do, in fact, have 4 saint points).
I'm willing to play those odds.
Also: What do you mean when you say "moved from Void after the mod-kill"?
I thought we abandoned this game. I'm a couple of days overdue for a prod and didn't get one, so I figured no one was playing.
I like how Jey continues to just do whatever Iso wants voting for me just because Iso says so. I also appreciate that there is no case on me besides "Iso says to vote Asenion" and "Shockwave lurked a bit on Day 1". But I guess in a game where no one is playing and no one cares that's plenty to get a lynch - even when Iso is obviously scum.
And even though it's MyLo, I guess I'll throw a vote on Iso. Maybe you guys will see the light and actually lynch the guy we should have lynched Day 1.
Vote Iso
Give us the long version of why Iso is scum (or point me to it if you've already done it and I've forgotten it)
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room: The special rule. The long and short of it is that as I was drafting role PMs, I noticed two things:
(1) That because the BioShock universe has such a limited pool of characters, I was running into issues with certain characters being a certain alignment. For example, Daisy and Comstock both being town. In BioShock Infinite, they’re mortal enemies hellbent on each others death, and the only way I could conclude to solve that would have been to, essentially, re-write the whole story of Infinite from the ground up, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. The same applies to Booker and Elizabeth (who would never be opposed to one another in Infinite) and Ryan and Fontaine (who would never be allies). My worry was that, given the vast popularity of these games, that someone would try and flavour game, correctly, that Booker and Elizabeth had to be the same alignment and that Ryan/Fontaine would be opposing alignments, thus breaking the game with flavour gaming. That led me to either re-do the characters (which I tried, but I couldn’t get a working set I liked), or just outright ban name claiming to prevent the game from being broken via flavour gaming.
(2) When drafting false flavour, I noticed that the flavour segments were severely lacking compared to the main characters. For example, Elizabeth’s flavour clocked in at 1,347 words. The shortest flavour piece was Jack’s, and that itself was 548 words. None of the false flavours were breaking 350, and I was concerned that if I provided such weak flavour segments for the Mafia to claim, that I would inevitably be tilting the game towards one side and I didn’t want to do that.
Those two points came together to lead to banning the claiming of true IDs. It was a silver bullet, albeit a sloppy one, to a conundrum I wasn’t having much luck solving. I honestly cannot assess how much it impacted the discourse of the game, so I’d like some thoughts from everyone on that.
Lesson Learned: Regardless of whether or not it negatively impacted the game, I wasn’t a fan of such a draconian rule and, in retrospect, wish I had of delayed the game to find a reasonable solution. Going forward, I won’t repeat this mistake.
Next up, the SNL Modkill: First and foremost I believe I owe the Mafia team, collectively, an apology for how that was handled. It should have either ended the day, or I should have done it over Night. In the end, I have no real defence of it. There is a very real argument to be made that had I of ended the day instead of allowing it to continue, it could have impacted the outcome of the game. As a Mod, that’s the last thing you want to do.
Lesson Learned: Modkills always, without a doubt, either end the day or occur over Night.
Next: Fixed Twilight and coloured votes. The whole Fixed Twilight came about out of my personal annoyance of having on more than once occasion been typing a twilight post, only to preview it and see the Mod had appeared and sent it to Night. The Twilight period never really was utilised, so I will end up scrapping that from my games going forward. The coloured votes came about from having read a lot of Guardman’s games, where he requires magenta and it seemed to have worked well for those games. I didn’t account for the fact that a lot of people play on mobile devices now, so trying to input a lot of bbcode can be bothersome (especially in light of how awful this forum is on said devices). That also won’t return in future games I run.
Onto game design!
In the year or so that I’ve been playing Mafia, I’ve pretty much hung out in the Mini queue because they’re like mini-specialities, where God only knows what kind of shenanigans you’ll encounter. For me, my favourite aspect of Mafia isn’t so much playing it, but the mechanics of the game and how that can be played with. I find myself drawn to games where the mechanics are outside the norm to some degree. Two of my favourite games to date are Dr. Polyopticon’s and Futurama, because I enjoyed the twists and turns. In Dr. P’s, we had a modified cult leader and two cop variants: One compared the alignment of two players, and the other investigated the instrument classes to see how many of each there were. That game and its design and outside the box thinking were heavy inspirations for the development of this game. In Futurama, one of the roles was a Doctor/Inventor hybird, and I thoroughly enjoyed it because the Inventor portion of the role was somewhat random insofar as you could send gadgets to planets only, and each planet was associated with a player. It required a slightly different style of play.
So, that said, let’s delve into the roles and examine them (I’ll be going in the same order the role PMs appear on the first page). Also keep in mind this game was originally designed and written as Family Guy, so I’ll be discussing that in each role too.
Booker. Originally started as Meg Griffin, and as a 2 shot Roleblocker. This was changed late in review to a 2 shot Role Cop out of concern that with Fontaine, the Mafia team might be too strong. In the beginning, Booker/Meg started with a device that was a one-shot roleblock and would pass it to Elizabeth/Stewie upon their death, but ultimately, that didn’t make the final cut.
Elizabeth. Originally started out as Stewie Griffin. Elizabeth/Stewie dominated the discussions during review, as Elizabeth is by far and large the most powerful role in the game. We went through several different ideas, both on tweaks and ways to dial back the power without completely neutering the role. For comparison sake, here is the very first draft of Stewie’s role PM:
Instead of having to “upgrade”, Stewie just started out with all of his abilities, which not only makes him more powerful to begin with, but the non-modified version of The Weather Device gave the Mafia team enormous amounts of power right from the get to. We eventually settled on two ways to keep the same general power level, but not make it so oppressive:
(1) Change the Weather Device to a delayed mass roleblock and;
(2) Institute some kind of upgrade system.
This also let us eliminate the item pass from Booker to Elizabeth upon his death, letting the Mafia start with a one shot roleblock instead of inheriting it. I spent a great deal of time on this role — moreso than any other. I must have research about three dozen games on MTGS as well as perusing Mafia Scum’s forums and wiki for ideas. I don’t know how well I can articulate it, but I really like the idea of the Mafia having a JoAT instead of the town. It makes more logical sense, to me, that a three man unit would have a skilled Jack of All Trades compared to a nine person unit who is more likely to have individually skilled persons. Mafia JoATs, correctly or not, strike me as having more design space as well.
From a flavour perspective, Stewie was by far and large the most intelligent person of the Family Guy cast, and the story was driven by Stewie himself, so it made sense for him to assume the most powerful role. The same is true of Elizabeth, to some degree. She’s easily the most powerful being in the Infinite universe, though this story wasn’t so much driven by her as it was the Lutece’s who were trying to achieve their goal of killing Comstock and Ryan.
I can’t say whether or not I’m pleased with how this role came out with Generic/Cantrip being killed so early.
Frank Fontaine. Originally Eliza Pinchley, this slot was a goon up until the very end of the review process, where one of the reviewers thought the game was a little town sided. Originally Fontaine was going to be an odd/even Ninja/Godfather (ie, switching every other night), but one of my reviewers objected to that, so we settled on making it a modular pre-game decision. In the end, I’m only somewhat pleased with it — I like the idea and concept of modular roles, but in retrospect, 9/10 times the Ninja is the correct decision, so it really isn’t all that modular.
Daisy Fitzroy. Originally The Man in White. Taken right from the FG canon, the Man in White tried to poison a group of teenagers to secure his own divinity, which is why this slot was a poison vig instead of a regular vig. Originally Daisy did not start with her shot; she started with the ability to concoct a poison on spot and would gain control of it the following phase and use it that phase (ie, if concocted during the Day phase, you get your shot at Night and have to shoot at Night). Ultimately my reviewers felt that was a little too much hoopla, so we changed it to a straight one shot poison vig. In addition to flavour, I settled on poison because (1) we don’t see it too much and (2) most Vigs are Night Vigs, so I wanted to try something different. I thought having a straight “bang you’re dead” Day Vig was a bit much, and ran into the scenario of having a flip before a lynch (much like the modkill I botched, which in retrospect I wish I had of thought about XD). Poison seemed to be the happy medium.
I was relatively happy with the way this role played out in the end.
Lady Comstock. Originally Joe Swanson. Masons in a 12 player game does too many odd things to game math, but I wanted some kind of Mason as they’re one of my favourite roles. The solution? Stealing a role from AsianInvasion straight up, from his Hobbit Mafia. I liked this role quite a lot, and I feel as if it worked out just right in the end, despite the relatively tame nature of it compared to other roles. It allowed a player to have someone with a completely neutral set of eyes help form opinions and bounce ideas off of. Someone, I think it was KoolKoal, mentioned something about having Cythare replace Niv when he died, and I’m sufficiently intrigued by the idea. Might have to toy with that at a later date.
Andrew Ryan. Originally Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa. By far my favourite role in the game. Not a lot to say because LnGrrrR died early, but I will definitely be keeping this in my rotation.
Z. H. Comstock. Originally Herbert the dirty old man. This was my least favourite role in both design and execution. It’s a lot more powerful than I originally thought it was, and in the end, feels very inelegant compared to everything else. It screams that there is either a ninja or some kind of manipulation role within the Mafia, which is poor design I think — roles from the town perspective should not reveal what kind of power(s) the minority has. If I could re-do this role, there’s a number of different ways I would handle it:
(1) Make it double modular, meaning that fulcrum would have been presented two pairs (Tracker/Watcher)(Voyeur/Follower) and would have had to select one from each pair. Then she would have received four one shot abilities, two of each, to use.
(2) Straight modular Tracker/Watcher, similar to Kosakosa’s role (which Kosakosa actually theorised existed; when I saw his speculation I was kicking myself for not thinking of that earlier).
(3) Allow fulcrum to have all four abilities, but require an activation cost for them (points, tokens, whatever). Track/Watch: 5 points each; Follow: 3 Points; Voyeur: 2 points, and have her start with 10 points.
Jeremiah Fink. Originally Glenn Quagmire. So in theory, I really like Jailers because there’s a lot of tension involved. Do you jail someone you expect to be NK’d, but risk roleblocking them? Or do you try and roleblock the mafia? There’s a bit of give and take with it. But the downside to that give and take is that in a game with a lot of power roles, it’s quite easy to find yourself in a conundrum whereby you may inadvertently harm your team rather than help. I’ve walked out of this game with the impression that Jailers would be better suited for a lower power game and that this slot would have been better off as a Doctor instead.
Mr. Bubbles. Originally Carter Pewterschmidt. So this role isn’t all that exciting. It came about from a flavour perspective — Carter is the richest man in all of Quahog so it would make sense for him to have some additional influence. KamikazeArchon was the unknown enabler; should he have died, Wildfire would have lost his double vote. We debated whether or not the enabler should know they are, in fact, an enabler, but we decided against that for the same reason I opted for AsianInvasion’s mason role: it would lead to a scenario where both players would be town confirmed, and in a 12 player game, two confirmed townies from the get go does weird things to game math.
MVPs
Town MVP goes to KoolKoal and fulcrum. KoolKoal for his spectacular reads and correctly vigging Cantrip. fulcrum for starting the D1 wagon on DK and successfully pushing it through and was able to see through Kosakosa despite mechanical deception.
Mafia MVP goes to Kosakosa, who I thought played a very strong game with his back to the wall. I’ll be honest, even in a dicey LyLo situation, I went into Day 5 thinking Kosakosa would be able to pull off the victory based on what he had said in the Mafia chat. Sadly it seems RL got in his way, since he was missing in action for most of Day 5 — had he of been around and active, I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if he had somehow managed to pull it off.
So with that, I think I’ve covered everything except for a few questions I’d like everyone to answer:
1. Thoughts on the flavour? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
2. Any critiques/complaints/criticisms?
I know it there a things I should have handled differently, and some design flaws I wish I had of caught before the game went live, but such is life. I do hope you all had fun playing this game — I had a blast designing it and hosting it, and I have learned a LOT from this endeavour that, hopefully, will make the next game I design even more enjoyable.
If anyone has questions, I would be more than happy to field them.
cccccc808 was forcibly replaced
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Monument Island, Spectator Chat
Paris, France; Mafia Chat
Memorials Gardens, Mason Chat
I will have my post game notes, thoughts, opinions, and MVP awards written sometime tomorrow.
Yall may post now!
Robert: “Oh bother.”
Rosalind: “Fiddle sticks.”
Robert: “I thought we had Comstock and Ryan this time sister.”
Rosalind: “As did I brother dearest.”
Robert: “Well, you know what they say.”
Rosalind: “Indeed. The 124th time is a charm.”
Robert: “Quite. Well, shall we then?”
Rosalind: “We shall.”
The Rise of Rapture
“…. Good evening guests. I am but heartbroken to inform you that our gathering must come to an end now. It has been my pleasure to serve as your pianist. May you all have a goodnight and safe trip on the bathysphere.”
The masquerade ball had come to an end — just in time, some thought, as the music had descended far too deep into haunted and demonic side. Fitting though, given what happened at the Kashmir. Rapture had been plunged into the midsts of a civil war between Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, also known as Atlas.
Two bathysphere’s arrived, unusual, given there is but one track leading away from the Fort. One was coloured green and said “Columbia” on it, to the confusion of some.
“What is Columbia?” asked Andrew Ryan.
“Our world; not all of us are from Rapture”, responded Elizabeth.
As six of the guests boarded the Columbia bathysphere, it began to fade from reality, leaving room for the rest of the guests to board the bathysphere to wherever they were headed. The last stop on the bathysphere was the Rapture Control Centre, from where Andrew Ryan has controlled Rapture since its inception.
Back in his office, Andrew Ryan had sat down at his desk and pulled out a note that had been passed to him by Zachary Hale Comstock just prior to his departure on the Columbia bathysphere. It said “Arcadia Tea Garden, look for the symbol “AD” in a circle.”
Comstock and Ryan had been in cahoots for some time now, thanks to Rosalind’s plan to bridge the worlds of Rapture and Columbia in order to bring about the demise of Comstock; after failing 122 consecutive times, you begin to look for new angles of attack. Rosalind theorised that should they bridge the worlds of Rapture and Columbia, they would then be able to orchestrate a battle of the minds in a neutral setting and, with their interference, finally bring down Ryan and Comstock. But they knew in order to do this, they would need to present it in a fashion that would have some sort of benefit to Comstock and Ryan: thus was born the argument that defeating your foes in a bridged universe would forever alter the timeline of history, preventing them coming after you. Of course, it wasn’t true; then again, neither Comstock nor Ryan were quantum physicists, either, so they did not question Rosalind or Robert.
The following evening, Andrew Ryan visited the Tea Garden and true to the note, there was an “AD” symbol encompassed by a circle. Ryan knew he had no choice, after being shown the future where his own sun, Jack, would help Frank Fontaine destroy Rapture. It was kill, or be killed; hunt, or be hunted. He had refused to ever go back to the surface — it was poison, and he’d rather take his own life before living in the police states of the surface. Ryan extended his hand forward to activate the “AD” logo.
Rumble.
The boulder upon which the “AD” was circled began to violently shake, as if an earthquake of all things had gripped Rapture.
“What the hell…” murmured Ryan, as beams of light began to emanate from the boulder right before it shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces. In its place stood an open tear to Columbia — to the Hand of the Prophet, where Comstock stood.
“Your personal army, Mr. Ryan. Ready for your command.”
“Rise, defenders of freedom!” commanded Andrew Ryan.
One by one, the eyes of Motorised Patriots far and wide as the eye could see came to life. The rumble of their engines, buzzing in unity, was as menacing as the howling of an evening rain cloaked Kansas tornado. They alone possessed enough firepower to destroy Rapture, Nay, half the surface world’s armies thrice over. With one sentence, Ryan cemented himself as one of the most powerful people on Earth.
It had been two days since the acquisition of the Patriots, and all was quiet throughout Rapture. Neither Ryan or Fontaine had made a move; not that Ryan needed to act in haste, given his army, but he feared Fontaine. He feared giving Fontaine time, for Fontaine has managed to outmanoeuvre Ryan at every turn thus far.
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me” murmured Ryan. It was his favourite quote from Ayn Rand; it was what motivated him to spearhead the creation of Rapture. Ryan needed no ones permission to pursue his utopia — he was a free man, after all. And just as he needed no ones permission to create Rapture, he sure as hell did not need permission to defend his life, liberty, and property.
“Execute Order 17,” spoke Ryan from his secure compound. With that, the beginning of the end of the Rapture Civil War was underway. Squadrons of Motorised Patriots descended to every corner of Rapture, from Point Prometheus to Fort Frolic to the Medical Pavilion. Scores of people were massacred ruthlessly by the Patriots — all known supporters of Fontaine, as Ryan smiled from behind his desk. Area by area of Rapture would be liberated over the coming days.
Two days later, all but one area had been seized by the Ryan blitzkrieg: Neptune’s Bounty. To the surprise of Ryan, the first squadron of Patriots had failed to seize Neptune’s Bounty. But they came close too, and so four squadrons of Patriots were sent to assault the Bounty in waves. After the third wave hit, they were able to punch through. Casualties were numerous as the Patriots advanced — hundreds of Fontaine’s most die hard supporters and warriors were holed up in Neptune’s, waiting for the surprised offensive to hit. It was just that — a surprise, to Fontaine. He had been laying low, planning his own blitzkrieg when Ryan’s gadgets attacked. It was the first, and will be the last time that Ryan was capable of getting the drop on him. Fontaine knew he was hopelessly beaten, that he didn’t have an exit plan this time.
There he stood, alone, in the back of his compound, armed to the teeth. You could hear the Patriots advancing, quickly, the cries and screams of soldiers in the wind.
And then it went silent; like the eye of the storm had passed overhead. Seconds felt like minutes; minutes like hours.
Boom.
The Patriots breached the final compound door. Fontaine immediately fired, winging one of them, but dozens of Patriots and their turret guns unloaded on Fontaine, shredding him from head to toe. The war was over, and Ryan reigns supreme in Rapture.
“Look, mom!” shouted a young boy. “Mr. Sander is back from his trip to France!”
It had been three years since the end of the war. Andrew Ryan ruthlessly exterminated all those who stood in his way; all those who stood with Fontaine. The seeds of doubt were burned, ruined, never to come back again. But winning the war and winning the peace were two different things. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Ryan took to the airwaves to reassure the populace that the dream of liberty and freedom was still alive; that a new dawn was in the works for Rapture.
Ryan spent three years working to rebuild Rapture; to market it above, from below, as the safe haven for the oppressed. Some of the best minds, from the writers to the businessmen were migrating to Rapture, tired of the oppression from the surface world. Within a year, Rapture had turned the corner. Cleanup efforts had begun to restore the charm and beauty that was the city. Businesses had begun to re-open; new ones took the place of those unable to succeed.
Rapture, just two short years after the Civil War, had returned to its hay day of success just before the Kashmir bombings. As the third year of peace begun, Rapture was setting records for success above and beyond what it had in the past. That prompted a meeting of the minds, the business owners and wealthy who were the de facto rulers of Rapture. They had agreed that the success in just three short years had surpassed anything imaginable, and so they wondered, just how far could it really go? By mid year they had arranged a meeting with Andrew Ryan at the Rapture Control Centre to discuss it. Ryan immediately opposed it, saying there was no need to have but the barest of bare contact with the “filth” from the surface. But they continued to press their case and offered a compromise: a trial program. Let an established figure in the community, perhaps Sander Cohen, some suggested, go to the surface and see how it worked out? If Sander was able to be successful and capable of bringing revenue home to fuel the continued success and expansion of Rapture, who are we to stop it?
Ryan relented; he was sure in his mind that it would be a failure of memorable proportions. But the inverse was true. It had been a massive success. Sander’s time in France had drawn the attention of thousands of people, who were interested in purchasing not only his art work by the dozen, but it sparked an interest in all things associated with Rapture. It led to the liberalisation of tourism laws; of import/export laws. It was, ironically, and poetically enough, the last key to the everlasting success of Rapture: That which helped spark a Civil War was the last key to her future.
Rapture has been saved.
The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men
”Booker! Watch out!”
Crash.
Just as Elizabeth yelled for Booker to move, a spire from the roof of Comstock house came crashing down, striking Booker in the knees, pinning him. Try as she might, Elizabeth wasn’t able to free Booker before forces loyal to Comstock arrived.
“NO. YOU CAN’T!” shouted Elizabeth as she restrained by two firemen.
“NO. BOOKER NO!”
Bang.
“Booker…” said Elizabeth as she dropped to her knees, tears pouring down her cheeks. Booker had just come into her life all of two days ago, and now he was gone. Elizabeth grew as a person more in those two days than she had in the past two years; Booker showed her what her own city looked like. What it was like to dance and sing; to eat cotton candy. To be vulnerable. Sure, their brief relationship had it stressful moments too — Elizabeth did slap him with a wrench when he attempted to send them to New York. But there was a connection between Booker and Elizabeth that was uncanny; it was as if they had known each other for many years. Now? Now he is gone.
“Did you really think it would end any other way, my child?”
“I’m not your child, you murderer.”
“Take her to the tower.”
Just like that, Elizabeth found herself back in the tower on Monument Island. Back to her prison, where she was condemned to spend her days until Comstock beckons for her. Her and Booker barely escaped Song Bird the first time, and it took both of them. There was no way she’d be able to escape and evade Song Bird herself.
Time went by slowly at first — every hour seemed like a lifetime. No amount of reading, of studying, seemed to help. The hours became days, the days became weeks, and the weeks became months. Eventually she lost track of time, even the date. “What was the point?”, she often asked herself. “Better to keep myself occupied than to dwell” she thought. It seemed to work, for the depression that Elizabeth found herself in eventually gave way to the return of her sunny disposition.
Three years to the day after Booker died, Comstock had finally beckoned her. As she was escorted from her prison to the Hand of the Prophet. There lay Comstock, deathly ill; she knew many a year ago, before even meeting Booker, that Comstock was sick, that he didn’t have too many years left. It appeared as if the Prophet would soon be meeting his end. And so, too, would Elizabeth, because she knew what his death meant for her future. Comstock looked at her, smiling, knowing that he had “won”.
“My child… the time is near.”
“I’m not your child you bastard.”
“OUCH!” shouted Elizabeth as she was stricken by one of the firemen who had escorted her.
“The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men.”
“You understand, do you not, Elizabeth? That upon my death you shall bring to the people the righteous and holy judgement of I, the Prophet.”
“Go to hell, you —“, Elizabeth again was stricken by the fireman.
“Bring the child to me.”
“NO” shouted Elizabeth
“LET ME GO!”
“Quiet, child. It shall be over soon”, whispered Comstock as he embraced Elizabeth’s forehead with his hand, mumbling to himself in prayer.
“The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men. Go forth, my child.”
“Yes, father.”
It was set. The Prophet was dead and the Mountains of Men were destined to smoulder at the hands of his hand chosen executioner: Elizabeth.
“Arm the blimps with Patriots and missiles. Have the Hand of the Goddess ready.”
“Yes Elizabeth!” shouted row upon row of faithful soldiers. The first city that Elizabeth attacked was Paris — Comstock made sure of that. He wanted to take great pleasure in watching from above as Paris, the city of her dreams, burned in judgement for its sins. And that, he did, as the seventh arrondissement was the first target for the firemen and Patriots. They stormed the city, slaughtering all those they encountered. Men, women, children. It made no difference. It took just six minutes for the assault to claim the Eiffel Tower.
Boom.
That was the sound heard as people came to a halt, watching their beloved Tower crumble to the ground.
Once Paris was judged, next was London. Then Moscow. Berlin. Elizabeth and the Patriots marched across Europe, handing down the judgement of Comstock. It wasn’t until Italy, of all places, that the Patriots suffered their first set back. Their assault was blunted, albeit with heavy loss of life, but they did. Peace reigned in Italy for just three short days before the next assault was launched, this time helmed by the Hand of the Goddess. The Italians, who had given hope to others worldwide that this onslaught could be blunted, folded in three hours.
In Washington, DC, they had begun making preparations for when the Patriots came. They didn’t know when they’d come, but they knew they would; it was, after all, what Comstock had promised years ago. Six months had passed since the last of the Patriots were spotted — they had spent three months non-stop delivering what they called the “judgement of the Prophet”. Religious groups from every corner of the world were in shambles, for this kind of devastation was reserved for the end of the world scenarios that religions foretold. Yet none had an answer for what was happening.
It was 2:37 AM on the night of December 23rd when the first Patriots were spotted in New York City. They had attacked in the cover of night; Elizabeth herself, for only the second time, was personally leading the attack. A firebomb hit an apartment complex in Brooklyn, instantly levelling it and killing everyone inside. Patriots soon flooded the cities boroughs as Elizabeth stood on the deck of the Hand of the Goddess, watching the destruction. Building after building fell; screams of despair filled the air as people pleaded for mercy before the Patriots. But on that night, mercy was not to be shown, not even to the child who grasped her teddy bear, calling out for her mommy.
The assault continued on throughout the night into the morning. As the sun rose above New York City, the sky was filled with smoke from the burning buildings. New York had been reduced to a smouldering crater of debris. New York, the home of Booker DeWitt, was no more. New York, according to Comstock, represented the sins of humanity the world over. Greed. Lust. Gluttony. Progress. The world in which New York existed, and stood for, was diametrically opposed to the world that Comstock sought to build, where all persons bowed to him, and the poor were rightfully enslaved by the rich for that was the will of God. City by city throughout America eventually succumbed to Columbia ; after New York it was Boston and Philadelphia on New Years Day. In Atlanta, the Patriots suffered just their second defeat, but unlike Italy, it took Elizabeth and the Patriots six attempts to siege the city, but also like Italy, they eventually succeeded and reducing Atlanta to a footnote in a history book.
Washington, DC, had been spared so far, though no one knew why. But when Columbia was founded, many of the residents, from the citizenry to the Senators and Representatives, remembered that when Comstock was rebuffed on capital hill, he foretold this very sequence of events. That those who stood in opposition would be judged when the seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the Mountains of Men.
The Mountains of Men were no more, as Earth fell to the Seed of the Prophet.
BioShock Mafia has ended in a Town Victory. Congratulations to...
KoolKoal, as Daisy Fitzroy, Town Rebel and Assassin
Niv, as Lady Comstock, Town Siren
LnGrrrR, as Andrew Ryan, Town Randian Hypocrite
fulcrum, as Z. H. Comstock, Town Pastor
DCIII, as Jeremiah Fink, Town Billionaire and Dirty Cop Warlord
Wildfire393, as Mr. Bubbles, Town Big Daddy
SelesnynaNewLife, as Brigid Tenenbaum, Town Genetic Scientist
KamikazeArchon, as A Little Sister, Town Little Sister
HookerPunch, as Jack, Town Manchurian Candidate and
Cythare, as A Summoned Soul
for winning BioShock Mafia.
I will respond to this (and the last day or two of activity) in a few hours. Need to close out BioShock.
1. Duh or not, I'd like you to give us the long answer.
2. Yes, I know you no longer think JeY is scum. What I want to know is how did you reconcile JeY's behaviour at the end of Day 1 (where she was spilling interactions every which way) with the fact you thought she was scum.
Two immediate questions from your intro post:
1. Why do you think lynching scum is better than a firecracker?
2. Although you raised a fair point on JeY (the confidence angle), how would you explain JeY’s behaviour towards the end of Day 1 as scum? She made quite a few posts that would be a goldmine for interaction analysis, which is something scum typically want to avoid. Even new scum. (Note that I know you've since unvoted JeY; I'm more interested in your thought process leading up to voting JeY and how you reconciled it with the question I am asking).
As a note, didn’t Xyre say there’s no self voting, thus negating the self hammer for Asenion? Or am misremembering?
Myself notwithstanding, Wheat, Karn, and Niv’s slot (since Niv appears to be MIA) would be my choices.
I don't remember seeing that.
Lynching you would result in a highly structured wagon with the intent to stop that probability. Lynching you leaves 8 alive — it's seemingly unanimous that Karn is town, so he'd by #1 on the wagon. There's a very high chance I'd be #2 on the wagon. The ONLY way we'd lose the game is if the third and fourth persons on the wagon were scum (this assuming you do, in fact, have 4 saint points).
I'm willing to play those odds.
Also: What do you mean when you say "moved from Void after the mod-kill"?
Give us the long version of why Iso is scum (or point me to it if you've already done it and I've forgotten it)