Zhou Tai Rocks & The Hazard present-

Introduction:
A mafia game in its simplest form is a group of
"Town" players against a group of "Mafia" players, with each trying to kill off the other side. Town players can only kill by lynching and only know their own alignment; they have to figure out the alignments of others during the course of the game. The Mafia players know each of the other members of their mafia group [more on multiple mafia groups later] and can communicate with them outside of the thread. The mafia can vote on lynches and have one kill per night. The last team remaining wins.

There are often individual players, who are aligned neither to the town nor to the mafia. Some can win with one or even both groups; others can only win when they are the last surviving character. Individual players that can only win when they are the last man standing must be killed by the Town or Mafia for either of those sides to win.

A final, and less common, type of player is a Cult Member. These players can communicate outside of the thread but do not have a night kill, unless they recruit a player that has one. They win when they outnumber the non-Cult Members.

Games can have multiple Mafias [or Cults, but that�s very rare] and in that case the overall number of mafia players increases but the size of the individual groups decreases. Both have night kills and their goal is to be the last remaining group.

In a themed game, players do not roleplay as the character they have been assigned unless they REALLY want to but it isn't advised as it gives away their character, and often their role and alignment.

This is a thoroughly interactive roleplay but the role you play is that of either a town member or a mafia member [or whatever else you may have been assigned]. During the day phase, you must use the information gained during the night and throughout the game to try and find mafia players to lynch. Unless, of course, you are mafia! In that case, you are trying to get the town to lynch the other town players, without them realising you are mafia.

Everyone, regardless of alignment, has a vote that they can cast on a lynch. Watching voting patterns is a good way to try and spot potential mafia players. You can be very brash with your interrogation of other players, and usually it helps to apply pressure but convincing a few other people to place some votes on a player. That player is then forced to either role claim [which will probably be a lie if he's mafia but you don't know that] or throw suspicion elsewhere. Be advised, don't do this at random too often as you can expose powerful town players, who the mafia can then pick off at night.

Don't always go straight for someone you think might be mafia! Leave it a day or even more to see how they play, let them slip up and then catch them out with a barrage of evidence that results in their downfall. Of course, if there is already overwhelming evidence, go for the jugular!

The commonest tactic on the first day is a speed lynch or speed no lynch. Either way, the result is reached as quickly as possible so that the night phase can come earlier and more information can be learned.

Setup:
A game of mafia can have many different numbers of players but, in my opinion, gets better with the more players that participate. Generally, the mafia have about a fifth of the total number of players, though the percentages suggest it should be about an eighth or ninth for the odds to be even. The reason for having more mafia players than the percentages suggest is because they are based purely on numerical data and don't take human intelligence into the equation. Therefore, as the players should be able to figure out who the mafia players are as the game goes along, for the game to be fair the mafia should start with the odds in their favour, even if that does sound contradictory.

Once everyone has signed up, they are sent their role for the game privately by the game's moderator. Players may not discuss their role with the other players unless they are mafia or their role message specifically states that they can. Roles are almost always assigned randomly by the moderator, so that everyone has an equal shot at getting the various different roles.

Anyone can role claim at any point in the game thread, if they feel it will help them. A role claim is exactly as it sounds: you claim a role. That can include your character if player a themed game, if you feel it will strengthen your role claim. You can make a fake role claim if you wish to, if you feel you can defend yourself well enough when scrutinised. Under no circumstances should you quote any private messages from the game moderator without his/her permission. There will be more on the various different roles later; the majority require the player to private message the moderator in the night phase in order for it to be used.

When everyone has received their roles, the game begins. It will start with an introductory passage that explains why the two sides of the town have turned to killing and lynching, and the game then either moves into a day phase or a night phase, at the discretion of the game moderator.

A day phase is when the players try to decide on a player to lynch. They can accuse, defend, reason, argue and squabble at will but forum rules apply, so don't make personal attacks. The Town Aligned players are trying to find a mafia or individually aligned player to kill off with a lynch, while the Mafia Aligned players are trying to sway the opinions of the town to vote for another town player without revealing themselves as mafia. Individually Aligned players are much like the town in the day phase, in that they don't know who is town or who is mafia, and can only cast votes based on what they learn during the game, though they do have the added plus of knowing they can't do any direct harm to their own chances' unless they vote for themselves! Voting for yourself is entirely legal, if you feel it will increase your chances of winning; dead town players win if the town wins and dead mafia players win if the mafia wins. Sometimes sacrificing yourself for the good of the majority is an effective way to win.




To cast a vote you should use this system: Vote: Player's Name or if changing a vote from one player to another: Change Vote: Player's Name. Any votes not using this system won't be counted, as it provides an easy way for the moderator to view votes quickly and efficiently and so should be followed at all times.

Players can also vote for a no lynch by posting: Vote: No Lynch. A no lynch is different from a no vote because, if the no lynch reaches the required amount of votes, the day phase ends prematurely with no lynch occurring.

A no vote means you are abstaining from voting and has no effect on the vote count. To remove your vote you should post: Change Vote: No Vote. The day phase ends when the deadline is reached or when more than half the active players cast their vote for the same player or for a no lynch.

The deadline is normally set forty-eight hours after the day phase begins but can be shorter or longer at the moderator's discretion. It is never normally shorter than twenty-four hours, to accommodate players in different time zones. When a lynch is reached, the moderator will post to signify the end of the phase and then post a write-up of the lynch or lack thereof. If the town has agreed on a player to lynch, the moderator will usually reveal the alignment and role of that player, though in some special versions of the game the moderator keeps that information secret. When the write-up has been posted, the moderator opens the night phase.

During the night phase, players with a night ability [covered more under Roles] send the moderator a private message declaring how they would like to use their ability or, if allowed, to not use it at all. The night phase ends when the deadline is reached or all the players with a night ability send in a private message telling the moderator their choice for that night. The deadline is usually twenty-four hours after the night phase began to accommodate all time zones but can be longer. In some games the moderator will ban people from posting in the game thread during the night phase but that is entirely up to the discretion of the moderator.

When the night phase is over, the moderator will announce it in the thread and then post a write-up of the night's events, taking into account all the night abilities that have been used. When two night abilities conflict [such as two killers each targeting each other] it is down to the discretion of the moderator what the outcome is, whether that be to decide on the scenario chronologically [for the example used before, whoever sent in their kill first would be successful] or that both are either successful or unsuccessful.

At the end of the night phase, the moderator reveals the roles and alignments of any players that have died during the phase, before announcing the start of the next day phase. Some games don't reveal the roles and alignments of dead players but that is quite rare.

Rules:
- You must adhere to the forum rules at all times. Yes, the investigative part of this game can get aggressive but please don't make it personal.

- Once you die, you can no longer contribute to the game. You can post an obligatory death post if you wish, but do not reveal any information that you know about the game or start any lines of enquiry. To aid this, I will never reveal any additional information to those that have died, so they'll be equally as useless as when they were alive.

- Unless your role PM specifically states otherwise, all players may not discuss game plan, your role, or alignment outside the thread.

- You are not allowed to edit your posts under any circumstances. This is so that if a mafia player slips up and reveals himself, he can't just remove the slip and pretend it never happened. Be very suspicious of people that break this rule that is, if they haven't been modkilled by me for breaking it.

- You must never cut and paste from any PMs that I send you about this game. The idea is to find out information for yourself not just for everyone to say look what I can do. Besides, this is easily faked so doing it wouldn't necessarily improve your standing in the game. If you want to role claim, you can use the one line of the PM that states who you are and what your alignment is but of course that can still be faked so don't immediately trust people that do so. You can paraphrase what I say in my PMs if you wish to but make sure it is your own words and not mine that you are using.

At any point in the game, I may modkill you without warning if you violate any of these rules or act in such a way that I deem warrants you being modkilled.

Other than that, enjoy the game!

POSTED

Sooo how long left ZTR?

9:00 AM eastern time, Friday.

ETH!!!! If your reading this get back on MSN!!!

Friday? laaaaaame I'm gonna miss it all over again.

Haz made the deadline.

HAz is a faggot.

Oh then nevermind, friday works awesome.

Yeah if Haz made it, then its perfect.

omg, trend hurt me in loungin guys. I consider that assault.

I heal you tomarz Guil, promise.

NO!!! Guil!!! I heal you nao.

Anything important happen?