Everquest - The Mafia / EQ Mafia Q and A / Verileah 20 years ago

EQ Mafia Q and A

In order to clear up any confusion, I thought a question and answer thread was in order to resolve any lingering issues .

So, first off, if you are too lazy to read my long assed epilogue and draw the conclusions from that, I shall now reveal the roles!

Sheriff
Danq

Doctor
RasberryTart

Townies
Aramous
Larene
Mae
Aziyade
Nards
Vulash
Yalelini

Godfather
Immy

Mafia
Nalla
Stormystone
Rikr

And before you ask what the hell I was thinking with my clues, here's a quick run down:

Day 1 Hit:
I had intended to hint at two things with this scene. For one, I wanted to indicate how many mafia members there were; this can actually be useful information. I put in the octopus comment hoping that you would draw the conclusion that there were eight arms drowning Fahrnold, thus four people.

The second hint was much more vague and I was surprised that so many honed in on it so quickly. My intention was, over the course of many days, to lay out a motif of "elemental" based clues. You guys picked up on the water hint and just ran with it...a shame you picked the wrong mage. In later days I tried to continue this theme, using Air and Earth, but to no avail.

Day 1 Lynch:
The whole scene was kind of pointing to Nards's innocence, but there was nothing specific really.

Day 2 Hit:
Beyond a really subtle earth reference and the fact that it would have taken great strength to throw someone over a balcony (as someone brought up, I believed) this scene didn't have a whole lot to go on. Honestly, I figured you guys had zeroed in so well on my first clue without me even really trying to make it obvious, so I was nervous about spelling anything out. Alliances were being formed, everything seemed to be going really well, until...

Day 2 Lynch:
This scene was my charming way of saying "Townies, you fucked up." No offense or anything.

Day 3 Hit:
Ouch, the doctor in the lynch and the sheriff in the hit. That's gotta hurt! Verileah was, as you probably now know, really freakin upset and slightly hysterical because her friend disguised as Danq had been offed.

Other than that, air references were laid on pretty thick here. I even added another little bit and threw air in again. I also mentioned that Carlan's body was beaten and bruised, indicating physical strength.

At one point I wanted to post something along the lines of "THERE ARE TWO MAGES IN THIS STORY" but I held myself back. Sorry Rikr, btw. Sometimes Mafia just get sold out in this game.

Day 3 Lynch:
This one was pretty open. If you were really reading into it, there might have been an argument for the ones who shot the arrows being guilty, but there wasn't really anything pointing to Aramous's guilt or innocence.

Day 4 Hit:
Vulash was hit over the head with a blunt object. Clerics use one hand blunt. I have to admit though, it was pretty much too late anyway :X.

Day 4 Lynch:
This kill sealed the deal for good. No real need for clues as I figured I would clear Mae's name in the epilogue.

BTW, I didn't post the clue breakdown to rub anything in anyone's face. This was our first game and both sides did a great job, but I'm hoping this post will clear up my "style" for clue giving. I like "themed" clues that tie scenes together, and I take special delight in clues that narrow down the suspects rather than pointing at one specific person.

Anyway, if anyone has any more questions of me or of each other, post them here!

Verileah 20 years ago
Some questions from me!

Immy, what strategy did you use for your hit targets? Did the Mafia decide together or did you make all of those decisions yourself?

Mafia, what was your voting strategy? How did you decide which of you should vote for which players?

Mafia, did you have any guesses as to who the doctor or sheriff were? What were they, and when did you come to these conclusions?

Larene, although you were suggested for the chopping block a few times, you managed to be the last townie standing. What did you do to keep those pesky votes away?

Aramous, although you were accused pretty much the entire game of being mafia, you never loudly declared your innocence. You actually lasted a fairly long time for being so pursued; do you feel your strategy of staying in character and focusing on finding the real bad guys rather than taking a defensive stance helped or harmed you?

Rasberry, you posted a scene of yourself practicing your own unique form of divination . Was this meant as a clue designed to reveal yourself as the doctor in hopes of avoiding the axe and possibly finding an alliance?

Aramous, Mae, and Vulash, early on you seemed to form a townie alliance. What led to its downfall? I know Aramous suspected Mae at the end, but was there ever a point where you had confidence in each other?
ROzbeans 20 years ago
What...the fuck?

Sheriff
Danq - WHAT????

Doctor
RasberryTart - what in the f-....?

Townies
Aramous
Larene
Mae
Aziyade
Nards
Vulash
Yalelini

Godfather
Immy - IMMY YOU LIED TO ME! Duh, of course but OMG!!!!!

Mafia - wow i thought nalla was the sheriff!
Nalla
Stormystone
Rikr


********

K I thought there were more mafia =x I figured rikr and stormy were too quiet to be anything but the GF or mafia. But immy as the GF? WTF? I think everyone townie thought she was the doctor. This totally blows my mind but reading how you explained the clues, it all makes sense. Vulash and I formed an alliance, but we were wary of each other the entire time. At the end I almost called him out as the GF HAHAHA. I figured brujah was innocent, necros get a bad rep! Larene, you were all over the place lol, i thought for sure you were mafia but vulash convinced me you had to be townie.

Great game guys. I can't wait to do this again. Everyone give Verileah her props on exceptional writing and a well thought out story!!! This was incredible!!!

Rasberry 20 years ago
Wtf, I was the doctor??

Tentative Schedule
Day One: save self
Day Two: burn at the stake

I thought from the start Ladina was a strange pick to be the doctor. It was good in a way, cuz I wouldn't be a quick target for the mafia... but bad cuz the townies were the ones who voted me off the island!

I think the meditation post was to humanize her a bit (something that, if I stayed in character, she would never do in public). I wanted to show that she cared that people were dying, but it didn't really work lol
immy 20 years ago
Ok, this is gonna be long.

First Vote:
Voting for Nards for the first lynching was to protect Rikr. Since both were mages, and everyone had decided it was a mage. Rikr was mafia, so of course, I wasn't gonna vote for him.

First Hit:
The first mafia hit was decided by myself. I wasn't exactly clear if I could discuss it with the other mafia members or not. =) I chose Yalelini for no specific reason, sorry hun. =/ I had to choose someone.

Second Vote:
I voted Ladina only because most everyone else was. Just trying to 'blend in'. What's funny is at times mafia members voted differently, which is good. Why would you consider people part of one team if they didn't vote the same. It wasn't until the final vote that we had to vote the same to make it a majority.

Second Hit:
Danq was actually Rikrs call on this one.Here are some PM's that went back and forth regarding the 2nd hit:
immy
Ok, in my crazy head, this is what I've come up with.
Since Brujah may very well be lynched, that means Ladina will be kept alive. Since she voted for Hammerthynn, I may have him hit by the mafia. This would make it look like Ladina did it, and perhaps the town will lynch her next.

immy
I think the lynching is gonna be on Ladina. Not sure why they suggest her, but we'll let them! *laughs manically*

Any suggestion on who to keel off tonight?
I dont want to off Aramous, simply because he voted for Stormystone. Since he was the only one, it would make it look suspicious that he died shortly afterwards.

I dont want to off brujah either, too many people are still voting for him. I think if he lives through tonight, he may be lynched the next day. So we'll let the townies off him, themselves. =)

immy
Whats your reasoning for choosing Danq? I open to a different idea on who to kill. My only reason behind Vulash, was as I said, I fear his ability to figure out the clues.

Rikr
I dunno, I just think Danq would be the next to figure things out. He seems pretty sharp. He's just not saying a whole lot now.

immy
Rikr had suggested Danq to be hit cause he thinks he is sitting and watching, figuring it out. Personally, I didn't want to kill another dark elf, since they think it has something to do with race. Me being a high elf, thought it may look bad. Sooooo, Danq, if I'm not mistaken is human. THis will at least throw them off the 'race' trail. =)

Next, I would like to kill off Vulash / Kiltheranos.
He is too smart for my likings.

Soo, I went with Rikr's gut feeling on that one and made the call for Danq to be hit.

Third Vote:
I only voted for Brujah (Aramous) then because he made it easy to. Larene had posted the first vote for him, so I, again, made it look as if I was 'blending in' and following the crowd.

Third Hit
We decided Vulash or Mae had to go. They had an alliance together and were making us nervous, so we broke up the alliance. Mae and I had been in tells all day that day, so I didn't want to off her character, I thought it may be too obvious. Sooo, poor Vulash had to go. =/

Fourth and final vote
We had to vote Hammerythnn on this one to make it a majority vote.

Final Hit
This was a coin toss on who to hit last. I literally wrote both names down and drew one out of a hat.
_____________________

Well thats the method to our madness. Mae had me worried at one point, she called me out in PM's asking if I was the doctor. I -never- once said I was, nor did I say I wasn't. =) From talking to her I decided neither her nor Vulash were the doctor or sherrif.

I honestly had NO CLUE what-so-ever who the doc and sherrif were. The fact that they died in the same day was pure luck on our part.

I had a ton of fun doing this, and I felt really bad about offing people. When Danq said "someone is being a sneaky bitch", I'll admit... I got skeered.

Thank you much Verileah, it was fun as hell. =)

Sincerely,
The Godfatha

(this is how much fun I had, I actually signed all the PM's to mafia and Veri with this picture)
Larene_Stormfire 20 years ago
Verileah
Some questions from me!

Larene, although you were suggested for the chopping block a few times, you managed to be the last townie standing. What did you do to keep those pesky votes away?



No clue actually, I thought for sure I would get whacked the first couple days.
Vulash 20 years ago
I got the coolest PM ever from Rasberry - I'll leave it up to her to reveal but man it just made me get kicked in the gut

Sorry I just moved 600 miles and didn't have internet to respond a couple of days after I died or something. This is all really cool.

Mae and I never trusted each other. She said she was about to reveal me as GF at the end, and I was about to do the same with her. We've known each other to long for there to be any way at all for either of us to convince the other completely. We both can be sneaky and we both know it . I think I convinced Aramous she was the GF too which didn't really help our alliance.

In all honestly - our alliance was for no other reason then simply to force people's hand. Unfortunately some of our assumptions were based on wrong people but hey ;p Our moves and posts were intentionally bold and arrogant to draw mafia out. They all stayed pretty quiet though

I actually got one big hint that I missed. Immy had Mae convinced she was the doctor, but after Rasberry was dead I figured out that she was indeed the doctor. I guess I should have taken that a little farther and come to the conclusion immy was GF but I missed it =/
immy 20 years ago
/nod, I didn't come out and say I was the doctor, but being a cleric, I figured I could play on it.

I can tell ya, when I read what my role would be in the beginning I was shocked. I thought for sure I'd end up being the doctor since my class was a cleric. Sneaky Verileah!
Vulash 20 years ago
I think that is what saved you because Mae said you never came out and said it so that threw me off (cause it did cross my mind I just dismissed it fast). Had you admitted to being sheriff I'd have known the day before I died ;p I *think* I could have gathered support ot lynch but who knows! Although it was pretty shaky ground so probably not
Rasberry 20 years ago
Regarding my PM to Vulash

When I saw that I was voted out that night I figured Ladina had about half an hour or so to live while Verileah wrote her death scene... so I thought I would throw someone a hint. I took a guess that Vulash was a townie, he said something like "Now I just need the doctor to save me..." in his vote for ME lol, so I sent him this:

"A hastily written letter"

A small folded piece of parchment arrives at your doorstep. Upon opening it you notice that the script is misalligned and the ink still wet, as if it was written in a great hurry. It contains only the following:

There will be no one to save you now...



pretty darn close to what Verileah had her screaming as they burned her!

Honestly, I had no idea about Immy... if I'd had my way that night they would have lynched Mae.
Aramous 20 years ago
Verileah

Aramous, although you were accused pretty much the entire game of being mafia, you never loudly declared your innocence. You actually lasted a fairly long time for being so pursued; do you feel your strategy of staying in character and focusing on finding the real bad guys rather than taking a defensive stance helped or harmed you?



Ok here goes. I think I plain out picked the wrong character for this scenario. From the get go my job was to declare my innocense which made my job overwhelming and hard to focus on the true. It came to a point that I needed to talk to a couple of people to calm me down beause at first it seemd everything pointed to me and I had left clues that it couldn't be me. The incident about the person being thrown from the balcony, I knew right off the bat and thought I had clarified it pretty well in the statements Stormy made in the dialogue and the clue about the imprint was a dead give away. But again it led to me.


Verileah

Aramous, Mae, and Vulash, early on you seemed to form a townie alliance. What led to its downfall? I know Aramous suspected Mae at the end, but was there ever a point where you had confidence in each other?


There were things said that gave me this conclusion. Here we go.

Someone is a sneaky bitch!


I think I misinterpreted this comment because it was during a meeting I was currently in, in the Tavern.

but then I saw this.

Nards
Gentleman I suggest we close discussions for now. I feel we are chasing a ghost. I bid you good night.' He touched his right hand to his heart and stepped away from the table. Not much longer Brujah left the table, as did the last dark elf.



Not chasing, following.


and

Maelarya
After a few hours of dicussion Hammerthynn seemed more confused than ever. The day had creeped into the night and he stood.

'Gentleman I suggest we close discussions for now. I feel we are chasing a ghost. I bid you good night.' He touched his right hand to his heart and stepped away from the table. Not much longer Brujah left the table, as did the last dark elf.

Murmuing to himself as he climbed the oak stairs to his room, 'let this night be a peaceful one.' Unfortunately his prayers were not heard by Carlan as they were to find out the following morning.



I received a PM with it ending " I will follow you" led me to my outcome.

That was incorrect as well. Sorry Mae I had you to be the Godfather. Still have a whole lotta for ya Mae, but I think the timing was just way off for everything that had happend here.

Those letters I sent to the GM were kinda twisted when you put them to the game. To all in game, I had left notes that even if I were deaded I would still win, which was due to my anger about always being accused without proper proof. Ven put them right into game which is not what was suppose to do.

Here is how I concluded my part in game the day before knowing I was definitly gonna be lynched.


Since you are the, sorta, GM I will give you this information that you can use after my death as you see the best way. If I do not die the letters are not to be used because they would not exist.

Bartender note:

My intentions, coming into this town, was to find clues to my lost brother. Somehow I have stumbled upon trechery and hate among the town and was pulled into the hate because of who I am. When word of my death is spreading across the town, my breathren are instructed to come to you for the sealed note. My brethren are instructed to kill you if you either break the seal or no longer posses it. You are to direct them to the Sheriff of this town. They will hansomly reward you for you dedication. If I come to you and ask for the sealed note, you will give it back to me and I will hansomly reward you.

BRUJAH

--->----->


Sealed Note:

Upon receiveing this note you can be rest assured I was killed or lynched. I would have to say you are not in a good spot for you are now confronted with my clan and have their instruxtions. After listening to the whispers in the wind and the accusations flowing around, I have come to be rest assured of who is responsible for the debocle of this town. The Godfather would be Hammerthyn. My men are instructed to kill him and you are to direct them to him. If this person is already dead or you fail to adhere to their word,they are instructed to kill you for allowing me to be lynched. May this filthy god you worship guide you in taking the correct path.


BRUJAH
-->-->--

It was entertaining and I enjoyed it.
Rikr 20 years ago
Immy explained our side pretty well.

Excellent job on this Verileah!!!!
Verileah 20 years ago
I thought the letters made things more interesting. I was planning to reveal them in their entirety when I did the streamlined story, but I liked the idea of working an “in the event of my death” letter into the plot. I thought it would be interesting for the townies to try to guess who you accused in your dying words, and maybe get people to reread stuff you said. I was kind of hoping they would take a good look at who you last accused . Obviously, though, since 1.the sheriff was dead and 2. the person you accused was innocent, I couldn’t very well let things carry out on the course you had planned.

I really did attempt to stay on the same page as you :\. Sorry.

On the assigning of roles, there is a reason I have people write their characters before I give out parts. The overriding theme in all Mafia games is that people are not always what they seem. That even the apparently pristine can have dark secrets and their own views on what is moral and right, and shady characters with serious flaws can still be essentially good, or at least redeemable. That people can make unlikely choices. So even if you write a character that you think is tailor made for Mafia…that might not be where you end up. It makes the game more challenging, but I would hope it also makes the game more fun and complex, and the characters more deep and compelling.

That’s not to say that I don’t consider characters at all when I assign roles. I just might not think about things in the expected way, heh.
Aziyade 20 years ago
I am sorry this is late in coming Veri but you truly did an outstanding job. I was kind of out of the loop, no one was doing any plotting with me, but I wasn't doing much plotting either. Plodding yes, plotting, no... *sigh* At any rate, I know I have a much better idea of what to expect the next time.


Cheers to Verileah for running this fantastic community story!
Vulash 20 years ago
If it helps Azi you were plotted about and almost lynched! :P
Aziyade 20 years ago
As long as you were thinking of me! /hug