POSTGAME
So Underground Mafia is somewhat my brainchild that I’ve been working on from early October to late January. Due to the fact that I was out of commission from Smogon for a little while, in conjunction that my job is boring as hell I had a lot of free time to work on this game. Originally I had bigger plans for the Underground Mafia theme. It started off with an idea for creating a NOC game that would be for the beginner mafia tier. I was thinking about having a cohost for this game, which Jumpluff promptly hopped on board and asked to cohost a beginner with me. I was totally okay with that. Unfortunately, I had a lot of other ideas in my mind that I wanted to work on, and thus the game devolved from it’s original state as a beginner to one that potentially needed 2-3 cohosts.
*Sigh*
I became extremely impatient, however. Taking matters into my own hands, I converted much of the beginner game into a standard game. I wanted to experiment with the idea of items that could individually level up, and thus the Underground Mafia you currently have experienced is the result of that. So the next thing was dividing the roles into factions. Since The World Ends With You had a lot of potential potential for a variety of roles, I began work on determining the faction divisions. I knew for fact that I wanted Taboo Noise vs. Noise to be the main conflict. The Taboo Noise would be a smaller, but relatively informed faction that would be able to take care of the Noise via aggressive game play. The Noise on the other hand would remain decentralized, with a bunch of big roles, which in turn would reflect a defensive and slower game play. Added into the fray were the two partnerships, which were intended to add more conflict and act as a parry to the two warring factions. The idea behind the two partnerships was that each partnership would work towards their own ends, adding a little spice here and there so that the Taboo Noise and the Noise would rage at how incompetent they really were. Joshua was the finishing touch, and was actually one of the more important roles in the development of this game. Joshua was to play the role of reverse-lynchpin, being able to ally with Neku or Beat if either of their partners were eliminated. He was also meant to play as they key role that all factions (bar the two partnerships) would attempt to oust.
Anyways, this game involved the following major concepts that the game revolved around:
-No Lynch. This game involved no lynch. None whatsoever. The lynches you saw in the thread were just a means of someone utilizing their pins’ ability (Daenym >.>).
-Items. Yeah, that’s not too experimental, but this is an ITEM MAFIA. Exactly that. There have not been that many games involving items only. Items also served as a key way of how players were eliminated from the game. The big thing, however, that made up part of this concept was that each item potentially had the capability to “level up”. Compared to FFV Mafia, the leveling up system used in this game was much simpler and proved more successful than FFV’s level up system. The fact that players lacked any abilities also meant that any player could customize their role based on their preferred play-style via items.
-Simplified HP. Nah, this isn’t too experimental anymore, since HP on its own has been used in games like Pokemon TCG Mafia or FFV Mafia. The thing this concept had to offer was the small amount of HP that players had. The maximum any person could even attempt to attain would be 9 HP (Sparkle Charge + Love Charge combined), and even then, nobody tried to do that.
-Open Priority. Not sure if this game is first to implement this, but priority was open to the public. All you had to do was ask whether or not your actions would succeed based on priority. The Partnerships and the Taboo Noise utilized this the most early game, which benefited them quite a bit.
-Individual Drop Pools. Not necessarily a first, but drop pools were meant to alleviate the stress of me having to go and keep track of who obtained what item from a scavenger pile. Drop pools would also work as pseudo-walls against thieves, keeping them at bay if a player already had maxed out their 3-pin inventory and had a few pins in their drop pool (see Neku during cycle 4, he had a bunch of pins fo sho).
-Alternative Win Conditions. Not a new concept. This was suggested to me by user and mod billymills so that it would promote more difficulty for the Taboo Noise to win. The alternative win conditions were workable in theory, but nobody really attempted to put effort into completing these so they are not really worth a huge mention.
-Obscure faction set up. Not a first either, but I tried to keep the set up of the factions as obscure as possible in order to:
a)Attempt to force the Noise to get behind a leader early game (the idea was that someone would claim and the Taboo Noise would be able to try to mole their way into the Noise)
b)Prevent the partnerships or Joshua from being revealed early on
c)Help the Taboo Noise to unify much more easily
As you can tell, though, only b) and c) occurred, and a) happened only once Walrein took initiative and stepped up.
-Obscure theme pre-game. As a means of preventing people from having too much knowledge of the game, I tried to avoid directly mentioning what the theme was, only providing the title and the OP image as a means of promoting interest. I knew that I could gather the right players if I played my cards right. Although half of the original playerbase to this game were relatively new, I don’t think it detracted from the game too much with the exception of players who idled a lot (sorry MK, you really got fucked early and didn’t get any mercy for it either, I’ll make it up to you somehow <3).
Thus this game took the world of HP games and 2v1 games to a whole new level. I’m quite sure people enjoyed having this set up, but I’ll wait for you all to post how much you hate/love me for this game to officially decide if this game was successful.
Game Thread
Spreadsheet
Role Sheet
Notifications Sheet
Checklist
The Factions
Noise
I’ll start with the Noise. The Noise in essence, were the majority of the game. Made up of 12 players, the Noise would have to rely on their big names and tough defenses for them to pull through. They started off uninformed, with only their win conditions as clues to how they were to win the game. The key players that were on this team were: Walrein, Layell, and Cereza. This team played mediocre, with the key players doing the brunt of the work, doing a lot of heavy lifting and keeping the Taboo Noise and Joshua in check.
Taboo Noise
The Taboo Noise were the minority. Being partially informed, they began not unified, with a single clue as to how they would unify. I decided that they would all be given the name of one user, and would unite under said leader, who would take them to victory. This was also set up so that Joshua would have an easier time moling the Taboo Noise, since a fully informed faction would only make things worse. The Taboo Noise had 8 players and would have to rely on aggressive blitzes in order to compete with the Noise. Key players on this team were: Spiffy, Slim Guldo, Ullar Warlord. This team did a poor job uniting early on, partly due to zorbees being inactive and not wanting to take the helm as leader. Once imperfectluck subbed in, the ball started rolling, and was able to successfully unit the majority of the team (with the exception of MrcRanger97, who was an inactive jerk and did not take initiative to contact zorbees/imperfectluck. This team also surprised me by complying with Daenym.
The Partnerships + Joshua
I’ll group both partnerships and Joshua under one banner since they worked together to get their wins. As explained earlier, the partnerships would have their own individual goals and were meant to conflict very little with either faction. The idea was that they would act as a mediating force between the Taboo Noise and the Noise, so that neither side would have favor (e.g. Taboo Noise outmole Noise or Noise overwhelm Taboo Noise with numbers). Joshua acted as the glue, helping the two partnerships realize that they could work towards the same goal. I’ll discuss these in more depth myself later when I examine their roles.
The Players
The Noise
Quagsires
Dear Quagsires,
You are Megumi Kitaniji.
Your Base HP is 6.
Kitaniji is the Conductor of the Reaper's Game. He is the direct superior of Game Masters Yodai Higashizawa, Sho Minamimoto, and Mitsuki Konishi. In turn, he is the direct subordinate of the Composer. On the surface, his job is to ensure that the Game is played exactly to the Composer's specifics. His real motivations are unclear, however.
Pins:
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Mink - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will become “Petrified” the following cycle. They will be unable to communicate in the thread the following cycle.
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Peace Full - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be healed by 1 HP point. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if your fellow Noise win or if you obtain the Big Pin combination and the current holders of the pins making up the combination get eliminated.
Quagsires is a notable player in Smogon Mafia due to his past success and his gameplay. I was putting my money on Quagsires to take up the mantle of leader and help bring victory to the Noise. Since half of the original playerbase was made up of newbies, I knew that the Noise needed someone with plenty of experience who could help mentor the newer players and could bring some heavy gameplay to the table. Unfortunately, Quagsires didn’t live up to my high expectations, being a relatively “meh” player. The only notable things he managed to do was pass a Level 3 Peace Full to Walrein before he died and send his actions late on a consistent basis. I guess there were reasons to his impartial attitude to the game, but I digress...I had high hopes for this guy.
Rediamond
Dear Rediamond,
You are Mitsuki Konishi.
Your Base HP is 6.
While she may not look the part of a villain, Konishi is ranked among the highest in the Reaper hierachy. She is the one who issues the orders for the missions against Neku and his friends, although she rarely appears before them.
Pins:
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Big Crunch - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you obtain it’s sister pin, something good may happen.
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Poison Bones - Level 1 - This pin must reboot before it can be passed. As long as you are holding this pin, you will be afflicted by “Defense Blight”. For every attack against you, you will take an additional 1 point of damage. This pin levels up only by being passed.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if your fellow Noise win or if you obtain the Rhyme pin and eliminate its current holder.
Before the start of the game, I asked user loudkirbyking about Rediamond and Kaxtar’s performance in past mafia games, since I knew they were still relatively new to Smogon Mafia, and since I never saw them in action myself. lkk mentioned that Rediamond was fairly successful in a leadership role in one of the beginner games, so I decided to put him into a position that had a decent role. Unfortunately, early game proved useless for Rediamond, because he was fairly inactive. He became partially involved with Walrein later on, though.
Kaxtar
Dear Kaxtar,
You are Koki Kariya.
Your Base HP is 5.
Although rumored to have high-level abilities, Kariya would much rather sit back and relax than exert effort in completing his assignments. Kariya explained to an enraged Uzuki that he declined a promotion because being an officer meant that he couldn't be out and about in Shibuya; he would only strut around looking important all day, a life he sees as boring. He is always holding a bean paste lollipop and is exceptionally cool-headed.
Pins:
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Righty Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
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Red Skull - Level Max - You are restricted to using only 1 pin per cycle as long as you hold this.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if your fellow Noise win or if Uzuki Yashiro wins and Shiki loses.
Kaxtar was the other person I asked lkk to comment on. lkk told me that he was a relatively active player, who had a few successes in the past. Due to my experience with him in Smogon ASB, I decided that it would be nice to place him with Rediamond on the same team, since they both were ASBers. Kaxtar, however, remained fairly passive playing this game, not taking initiative to look for Uzuki or Shiki.
Layell
Dear Layell,
You are Uzuki Yashiro.
Your Base HP is 4.
Unlike many of her colleagues, Uzuki Yashiro is completely obsessed with her work. Though she has a low rank among the Reapers, she is a perfectionist in every aspect when it comes to her occupation. When she is restricted from working hard, it drives her crazy. Yashiro, like all of the Harrier Reapers, has a total disregard for the lives of Players. She values each competitor as little as trash or a Noise. This only aids her in her zealous demeanor.
Pins:
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Shockwave - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 1 damage. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
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Lucky Panda - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will obtain target <USER’s> role name and faction.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if your fellow Noise win or if Koki Kariya wins and Rhyme loses.
One of the more devoted players in this game. He acted in tandem with Walrein quite well once the two teamed up. He also was fairly lucky early game in that he inspected Ditto, and found the existence of a major neutral. Layell played fairly well, but insisted that he didn’t need to reboot his Lucky Panda pin, since it already did a fine job (though he would’ve benefitted greatly if he would have leveled it up at least once). He played well this game, even though he died Cycle 4. He even suspected that pin brands could play a definite role in how the game worked:
Maxim
Dear Maxim,
You are a Tenor Reaper.
Your Base HP is 5.
A member of the Reaper squad sent out to erase Players. He casts his shadow in the other zone!
Pins:
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Force Rounds - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 1 damage. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
I wasn’t too sure of how experienced Maxim was with mafia, so I didn’t know how exactly to fit him onto the Noise. I decided it would be best to give him a fairly vanilla role so that he could fire away at the Taboo Noise. The thing that he did wrong, however, was suspect Quagsires, and ended up being the one to kill poor Quag, right as Quagsires looked like he was going to be an active player. He also managed to crossfire at Walrein, which wasn’t a smart move either, but once he joined up with Walrein’s Aquanaut Scumbuddy group, he started playing more reliably, taking down Daenym with Layell.
smashlloyd20
Dear smashlloyd20,
You are a Jelly Germanic.
Your Base HP is 4.
Jelly neocoustics may split into these fiends. Some folks wait around just to see one...
Pins:
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Rhyme - Level Max - You are not sure what this does. It doesn’t look like it’s all that useful either.
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D.I.Y. - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be afflicted by “Attack Blight” for the duration of 2 cycles. The amount of damage they can deal with any of their pins is decreased by 1 point . This pin must reboot after each use.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
smashlloyd20 played a fair job. He really didn’t manage to do anything notable, and even said that D.I.Y. was only partially useful. Sadly, Attack Blight which, by far, is more crippling than Defense Blight early game, never ended up being seen a lot, so smashlloyd20’s usefulness for the Noise was pretty much void.
Walrein
Dear Chomz/Walrein/loudkirbyking,
You are a Jelly Neocoustic.
Your Base HP is 4.
Let this jelly violate your space, and that obscene tentacle may start violating your HP!
Pins:
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Aqua Demon - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be shrouded in an aura for the duration of this cycle. If anyone targets <USER> this cycle, they will take 1 damage.
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Thanx - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be healed by 1 HP point and cured of any status. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
Chomz was one of the newer players, and for some reason I thought that Chomz knew how to play mafia. Unfortunately he was overwhelmed and I went in search of a sub. Walrein quickly scooped up Chomz role, and after a little deliberation, decided that it was best if someone got the ball rolling. He stepped up, and although many people thought he was originally trolling, he proved to be the real deal and managed to gather Noise’s best players for a showdown with the Taboo Noise. Also, I would like to say that his role’s flavor goes well in tandem with his reputation as a caught masturbater. Walrein also had a heavy tendency to lord of his healing pins.
MK Ultra
Dear MK Ultra,
You are a Goth Metal Drake.
Your Base HP is 4.
This wyvern fires a piercing blast of laser breath! When it begins gathering energy, run!
Pins:
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Frog - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER1>, <USER2>, and <USER3>. If <USER1> targets <USER2> with a damage dealing pin, it will be redirected to <USER3> instead.
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LIVE! - Level Max - This pin must reboot before your first use. Once during the game, you may pm Acklow the usernames of 3 active <USERs>. Any time during a cycle, you may post “LIVE!” in the thread (which must be bolded). If you do so, all 3 <USERs> will be affected by “Immobilization” the duration of 2 cycles. They will be unable to use their pins against you. Upon doing so, this pin must reboot the following cycle.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
I gave MK a role that I thought would fit well with his persona. Being a player who could tend to be outspoken, I put my money on MK to troll the game, hopefully attracting attention from players and attacks with his LIVE! pin. Unfortunately, he got stripped and raped by Ullar, who stole MK’s pins right under his poor British ass. I’m quite sure MK would’ve been much more active had he had some actions to work with, but alas, Ullar’s dick move utterly ruined MK, who promptly stayed pretty idle for the majority of the game. Sorry MK, like I said before, I’ll find a way to make it up to you. :(
Jalmont
Dear barty the beetle/Jalmont,
You are a Thrash Mink.
Your Base HP is 4.
This mink Noise floats in midair. Its powerful claws attack with the wind itself.
Pins:
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Onmyo - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a message. Whatever is listed in the message will be posted along with the update. If target <USER> is listed in the message, you will drain said <USER> of 1 HP point (and thus receiving 1 HP).
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1 Yen - Level 1 - Every time this pin reboots, it will increase in the amount of yen. If you will be able to save up to “10,000 Yen”, you will be announced as a winner of the game. This pin will reset back to “1 Yen” if you pass it along to another player, if it is stolen from you, or if you die. This pin also does not take up a pin slot, therefore, your max carry amount for pins is effectively 4 (including this pin) as long as you are holding this pin.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
barty the beetle. What a mouthful of a username. While he was active the first two cycles, barty proved to be a force to be reckoned with. He maxed out his Onmyo pin before attempting to brutally damage ginganinja. Unfortunately, he was not active on IRC enough, nor did he send in his actions Cycle 3, which I used as an excuse to sub the noob out. As soon as Jalmont subbed in, things began to turn much more in favor of the Noise, as Jalmont remained active enough to cripple Ullar and overkill Daenym. theangryscientist and I joked about the idea of barty the beetle winning based on his 1 Yen pin alone. We thought it would be funny if a total noob would get an undeserved win due to him laying low under the radar.
Metal Bagon
Dear Metal Bagon,
You are a Orchesprog.
Your Base HP is 4.
Red, poisonous tadpole noise. Stay away from their poison grip if you value your HP!
Pins:
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Long Live the Floe - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will become “frozen” the following cycle. They will be unable to communicate beyond the means of the thread during that cycle. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
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Pegaso - Level Max - Any pin you possess that deals damage will deal 1 additional point of damage.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
To be honest, I gave Metal Bagon a filler role and didn’t expect much. Well, I got what I though: not much. Although he could have been potent, Metal Bagon made no effort to level up his Long Live the Floe pin, and made a horrible move in contacting Ullar Warlord to trade. Thus, he was stripped and raped by the molester known as user Ullar Warlord, who rendered Metal Bagon useless. Metal Bagon was promptly eliminated the following cycle.
Cereza
Dear Cereza,
You are an Alterna Wolf.
Your Base HP is 4.
Attack these golden wolves as they begin their lightning quick charge, or brace for impact!
Pins:
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Sexy D - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will steal 1 pin from target <USER>. You may not use this pin if you already have 2 other pins. This pin may not be stolen.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
Quiet as ever, Cereza was one of the major players on the Noise. The thief pins proved to be very vital to playing hot potato in this game, and Cereza made some pretty lucky guesses by targeting Daenym and ginganinja early game. These moves proved to be well placed because it rewarded Cereza with two inspection pins. However, this was shortlived, because Cycle 4, she was brutally silenced/frozen and stolen from. Overall, however, Cereza was able to do a fantastic job at staying under the radar long enough to get the info she needed to help the Noise with.
Engineer Pikachu
Dear Sir/Engineer Pikachu,
You are a Mosh Grizzly.
Your Base HP is 4.
Massive bears with tattoos for arms. The pain they deal is as hardcore as the tats.
Pins:
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Top Gear - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be protected from one non-damaging ability this cycle.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua.
Sir will forever be immortalized for the following line:
[7:58pm] Sir: this is too complicated...
[7:58pm] Sir: I quit -_-
[7:58pm] Acklow: lol
As quickly as he began the game, Sir was subbed out very early. Engineer Pikachu took over and managed to play decently, although I’m not sure if he ever contacted Walrein. I assume he did, though, because he made sure to cover his bases pretty well, preventing Kaxtar and Rediamond from being KOed too soon by Daenym’s wrath. The fact that Rediamond was protected, though, made Daenym rage to no end. He literally (Daenym), said that he got stressed out as to how things were not going his way in this game. ROFL.
The Taboo Noise
imperfectluck
Dear zorbees/imperfectluck,
You are Sanae Hanekoma.
Your Base HP is 6.
Sanae Hanekoma (also known as Mr. H) is the self-described "hip café barista" of WildKat and is also the successful, multi-talented artist CAT. He is a valuable ally, acting like a guardian of the players, and always making sure that the game is fair and everyone follows the rules.
Pins:
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Big Bang - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you obtain it’s sister pin, something good may happen.
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Gatito - Level Max - Any pin you possess that deals damage will deal 1 additional point of damage.
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Pig - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will obtain target <USER’s> role name and faction.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if your fellow Taboo Noise win or you obtain the Over the Top combination and the current holders of each pin making up the combination get eliminated.
When trying to decide how I wanted the Taboo Noise set up, I figured that I would need an experienced player to take the lead of the Taboo Noise. User zorbees was the first that came to my mind. His long track record of being a successful mafia player attracted the idea that he would do a fantastic job at collecting claims and moling the Noise. Unfortunately, zorbees was a bit bogged down on things outside of mafia, and was unable to continue. In his stead, imperfectluck took over. Let me just tell you, whatever mafia game imperfectluck touches, sparks fly. imperfectluck was able to quickly gather the Taboo Noise in the little time that he played, uniting practically all of them under one banner. However, the thing about great players like imperfectuck, is that they are instant name-target bait. imperfectluck lasted about 2 cycles before going down quickly. Daenym knew imperfectluck’s reputation, and fearing that he was already suspect for being a mole, he began working on eliminating ipl. Thus, very little action was seen out of ipl, but at least his involvement allowed him to bring all the Taboo together.
theangryscientist
Dear theangryscientist,
You are Sho Minamimoto.
Your Base HP is 6.
Sho Minamimoto is the youngest Game Master of the Reapers in Shibuya at 18. He excels in all areas of leadership except one -- he will not cooperate with others. More of a mathematician than a brawler, Sho loves to speak in mathematical terms and cannot refrain from making a calculation or from telling a math joke during conversation, to the point of obsession and perhaps mental instability.
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Lolita Bat - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER1>. <USER1> will be warned by the host at the end of the cycle that you have targeted them. However, the following cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER2>. If you do so, <USER2> will take 2 damage at the end of that cycle. If you don’t, <USER1> will take be dealt 3 damage at the end of that cycle instead.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if your fellow Taboo Noise win or if you obtain 500 yen and eliminate the current holder of that pin.
I honestly can’t say much about theangryscientist’s performance in this game, partly due to the fact that he died so early on. Sadly, Daenym wasn’t about to give him any mercy, and the fact that he was found out fairly early on by the partnerships and Daenym meant that he was target numero uno on their hit list. Being the first of any players to die, he was given the option of becoming co-host. He eagerly scooped up the opportunity and I can say that he has done a fine job. To any of you looking for a decent co-host, theangryscientist is no slouch. He is very organized if his mind is put to it and is able to work well when it comes to updates. So I applaud him for his overall contributions to this game. And, mind you, I don’t know what he’s like when it comes to making games, but when it comes to hosting/co-hosting, well, you get the picture.
Paperblade
Dear Paperblade,
You are a Bass Reaper.
Your Base HP is 5.
This belligerent Reaper uses a shotgun attack to take out a wide swath of Players at once!
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Lefty Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
-
Long Live the Rock - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. <USER> will become “Petrified” the following cycle. While they are affected by petrification, they will be unable to communicate in the thread. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
Paperblade is a fairly good mafia player, and as such I decided he would work well in the Taboo Noise faction. Paperblade did a good job taking orders and making sure that the right targets were being crippled with his Long Live the Rock pin. Once he obtained Long Live the Floe, he was able to successfully prevent Cereza from being useful to the Noise. He also managed to troll Walrein quite a bit with his Long Live the Floe pin, though Walrein still managed to avoid being frozen, thanks to his Thanx pin.
Ace Emerald
Dear MrcRanger97/Ace Emerald,
You are a Trance Rhino.
Your Base HP is 4. (+2)
The gargantuan horn crowning the Taboo rhino threatens to deal lethal damage to all it hits.
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Sparkle Charge - Level Max - Your Base HP is increased by 2 points as long as you are holding this pin.
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Black Mercury - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER1>, <USER2>, and <USER3>. If <USER1> targets <USER2> with a damage dealing pin, it will be redirected to <USER3> instead. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
The amount of inexperienced players equaled the number of experienced players in this game, and MrcRanger97 was one of them. MrcRanger was fairly confused as to how to approach this game, idling for the first few cycles. Unfortunately, he missed out on one cycle, so I had to sub him out. He also never contacted zorbees/imperfectluck, so the number of people on the Taboo Noise never arose concern (since Daenym was moling them, 8 people seemed reasonable). Ace Emerald replaced MrcRanger, and since I let Ace know who one of the main people on the Taboo Noise were, which helped him get in touch and on track with the Taboo Noise.
Spiffy
Dear Spiffy,
You are a Chaotic Corehog.
Your Base HP is 4.
Quills from the Taboo corehog will detonate at random. Stay light on your feet!
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Diss - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be afflicted by “Defense Blight” for the duration of 2 cycles. For every attack against them, they will take an additional 1 damage. This pin must reboot after each use.
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Cure Drink - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be healed by 1 HP point. This pin has two uses per cycle.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
Before the start of the game, I had asked what kind of role Spiffy preferred, he asked me to have a defensive role that could support his teammates. Thus I decided to hand him the Chaotic Corehog role, placing him among the Taboo Noise. Spiffy, contrary to what some may say, is a decent player, and he had enough experience under his belt for me to have confidence in giving him a supporting role in the mafia faction. He did a good job, making sure to prioritize the rebooting of his Cure Drink pin so that he could support his team to the best that he could, which ended up being a smart decision. Cure Drink managed to keep many of the Taboo Noise alive late game.
UllarWarlord
Dear UllarWarlord,
You are a Carcinopunk.
Your Base HP is 4.
The Taboo carcin waits behind an impervious shield, ready to counter any attack...
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Sexy + - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will steal 2 pins from target <USER>. You may not use this pin if you already have 1 other pin. This pin may not be stolen.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
As it was mentioned earlier, there was a handful of new people to the Mafia genre that ended up joining this game. Of all the newer players, UllarWarlord was able to do a great job as a rookie. Underground Mafia being his first game, he was given a thief role on the Taboo Noise. Thankfully, he did not ragequit over the complexity of this game, and stayed, making quite a few masterful plays. One of his first moves involved crippling MK Ultra, removing both of MK’s pins from his possession. The fact that his pin allowed him to target 2 pins from one person meant that he could easily render any person useless for the duration of the game, assuming they did not take initiative to obtain pins from any other player. I would say that while it was a gamble to put a new player into a role that could wreak havoc if used inadequately, I don’t think I could’ve asked more out of Ullar, because he managed to do a great job as a new player. “And then he went full retard” (quoted from Paperblade). Of course, it didn’t ruin the game or anyone’s actions. In fact, it only reinforced ginganinja and Snike’s win.
Slim Guldo
Dear Slim Guldo,
You are a Choir Frog.
Your Base HP is 4.
The Taboo frog. It’s foamy spray hides a single, differently colored lethal bubble!
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Thunderbolt - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER1> and <USER2>. Both <USER1> and <USER2> will take 1point of damage each.
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Sprog - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will become “frozen” the following cycle. They will be unable to communicate beyond the means of the thread during that cycle.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
Slim Guldo is another one of those players who has had a decent amount of experience playing mafia. I wanted to be able to balance out some of the more inexperienced players on the Taboo Noise with a some of the relatively experienced players, so Slim was one of my first choices. Slim did a fantastic job taking over the Taboo Noise once Daenym was out of the picture, asking them all to contact him so that they could collaborate all of their actions to their entirety.
Galladiator
Dear Galladiator,
You are a Eurobeat Boomer.
Your Base HP is 4.
The Taboo boomer boasts a fearsome jump kick capable of penetrating any defense!
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
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Pyrokinesis - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 1 damage. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
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Poison Skull - Level 1 - This pin must reboot before it can be passed or traded. As long as you are holding this pin, you will be afflicted by “Attack Blight”. The amount of damage you can deal with any of your pins is decreased by 1 point. This pin levels up only by being passed or traded.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua.
Galladiator is commonly known for his inept capabilities as a Mafia player. However, that doesn’t mean he was meant to be underestimated. Unfortunately, I did the opposite, overestimating his experience as a mafia player and placing him on the Taboo Noise. Galladiator did the smart thing by rebooting his Pyrokinesis pin to the max before utilizing it. Unfortunately, he did not realize that his Poison Skull pin was meant to be passed along to other players, and thus remained in his possession for quite some time.
Partnership #1
Flamestrike
Dear Flamestrike,
You are Neku.
Your Base HP is 5.
At fifteen, Neku is an ardent fan of graffiti, but far less enthusiastic about forging relationships with other people. When the Reapers' Game throws him into contact with other Players, he has two choices: open up...or get picked off.
Pins:
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Fresh Line - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 1 damage. This pin has 1 use per cycle.
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Sexy B - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER1> and <USER2>. You will steal a pin from <USER1> and automatically pass it onto <USER2>. This ability works even if you have 3 pins in your possession. <USER2> cannot be yourself. If <USER2> already has 2 other pins, this ability will fail. This pin cannot be stolen.
You are in a partnership duo with Shiki. Shiki is USER. You win if you outlive Sho Minamoto, Megumi Kitanji, Koki Kariya, along with 3 other noise and/or taboo noise.
Flamestrike played in basically every game that I have hosted thus far. So as a reward to his loyalty, I wanted to give him a decent role to play with. He told me he wanted to be allied with Ditto, or ginga, or someone else that usually played my games, so I gave him Ditto as a partner. Flamestrike was the heavy hitter of either of the two Partnerships, making sure that damage was at the forefront, cleaning up anybody that Daenym failed to kill. The fact that he had Sexy B in his possession, coupled with the fact that Poison Bones was passed to ginganinja fairly early on, meant that Flamestrike basically had ownership over who would be affected by the lethal and deadly Level Max Defense Blight.
Ditto
Dear Ditto,
You are Shiki.
Your Base HP is 4. (+1)
Fashionable and fabulous at fifteen, Shiki knows clothes. While she puts on a cheerful face to lend Neku some much-needed moral support, deep down she harbors a secret... She never parts with her homemade stuffed animal, Mr. Mew; to survive, Neku can never part with her.
Pins:
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Splish Splash Barrier - Level 1 - This pin must reboot before your first use (this does not count as levelling up). Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be protected from all actions/attacks while this pin is targeting them. <USER> will also gain 1 HP point per cycle and will be restricted to using only 1 pin each cycle as long as this pin is targeting them.
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Love Charge - Level Max - Your Base HP is increased by 1 point as long as you are holding this pin.
You are in a partnership duo with Neku. Neku is USER. You win if you outlive Sho Minamoto, Megumi Kitanji, Koki Kariya, along with 3 other noise and/or taboo noise.
Ditto is a cute user. Therefore, Ditto got a cute role. Me /huggles Ditto. That is all.
But seriously though...Ditto did a fairly decent job playing. I guess part of the reason he was able to stay so long in the game was thanks to Splish Splash Barrier, which honestly is a pretty broken pin in my opinion. I’ll talk about that pin later though...
Partnership # 2
ginganinja
Dear ginganinja,
You are Beat.
Your Base HP is 6.
Hot-blooded and hard-headed, Beat is the polar opposite of Neku—even if they are the same age. Still, despite his emotional outbursts, he has a big heart. He's always ready to throw down and ollie into combat on his board, with Rhyme right there beside him.
Pins:
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Lolita Mic - Level Max - This pin must reboot before your first use. Once during the game, you may pm Acklow the usernames of 3 active <USERs>. Any time during a cycle, you may post “LOLOLOL” in the thread. If you do so, all 3 <USERs> will be affected by “Defense Blight” for the duration of two cycles. For every attack against them, they will take an additional 1 damage. Upon doing so, this pin must reboot the following cycle.
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Lady Luck - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will receive target <USER’s> pin information and faction.
You are in a partnership duo with Rhyme. Rhyme is USER. You win if you outlive Sanae Hanekoma, Mitsuki Konishi, Uzuki Yashiro, along with 3 other noise and/or taboo noise.
ginganinja was another experienced player, who I thought would work well as a neutral. I wanted the neutrals to have at least 2 experienced players, along with 1 or 2 newbies. ginganinja did a good job making sure that Snike was helped out.
Also, since I didn’t mention it earlier, both ginganinja and Flamestrike could’ve had the opportunity to ally with one another, thus creating a new partnership, assuming that Ditto and Snike both died. Of course this never did happen, but it was a possibility which I think would’ve been interesting to see play out.
Snike
Dear Snike,
You are Rhyme.
Your Base HP is 4.
Rhyme's earnest and hard-working attitude proves a big help to Neku and Shiki early on, as well as to her partner, Beat. She has an addiction to adages and no shortage of smiles, and without her, the others would be lost.
Pins:
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Brainy Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
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Flower of Fire - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow up to 5 <USERs>. They will all take 1 point of damage each. However, for every <USER> you target, this pin must reboot that many cycles following your attack.
You are in a partnership duo with Beat. Beat is USER. You win if you outlive Sanae Hanekoma, Mitsuki Konishi, Uzuki Yashiro, along with 3 other noise and/or taboo noise.
Snike is fairly new to Smogon mafia. However, he has had a decent success rate playing mafia, according to some of the other players. Thus, I felt it would be nice to have a decent newbie put into a role that would not be entirely powerful, but would have enough guts to support ginganinja and the other Partnership/Joshua. Snike basically covered his bases, taking orders and cleaning the table with Flower of Fire.
Joshua
Daenym
Dear Daenym,
You are Joshua.
Your Base HP is 5.
It's quickly evident Joshua is clever beyond his fifteen years—as sly as they come. Unfortunately, his insufferably snotty attitude only serves to widen the gulf between him and Neku...but his knowledge, especially about the Game, does earn him some points.
Pins:
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Follow Suit, Fall in Turn - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may post “Lynch <USER>” once in the thread. Upon rebooting this pin, all <USERs> you have “Lynched” up to rebooting will take 1 damage. You may only target any given <USER> once before rebooting, however.
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Gimme Dat Hippo - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will be unable to communicate via the thread or the main chat through the duration of the following cycle. <USER> will also be unable to use any abilities during that period as well. However, the following cycle, the effects that affected <USER> will affect you.
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Lucky Star - Level Max - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will receive target <USER’s> role name and win condition.
You are not allied with anyone this game. Although you are a neutral, if Shiki or Rhyme are killed during the midst of the game, you may ally with their remaining partner. Their win condition will replace yours if you do so. You may not ally with both partnership duos at the same time, however. You also know that Neku and Beat can potentially become a partnership duo, assuming each of their respective partners dies. Neku is Flamestrike, Shiki is Ditto, Beat is ginganinja, and Rhyme is Snike. You win if at least one of the two secret partnership duos is left standing, regardless of whether or not you are alive.
You also have two fake-claims up your sleeve. One will automatically be applied when you are moling the Taboo Noise (i.e. inspection-proof). The other fake-claim is up to your discernment in how you use it.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Fat Acklow
Dear Daenym,
You are a Fusion Shark
Your Base HP is 5.
Hammer-horned and hungry, this Taboo shark is able to pound out killer tsunamis!
Sanae Hanekoma is zorbees. You know that you will be able to unify with your fellow Taboo Noise if you claim to him.
Pins:
- Follow Suit, Fall in Turn - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may post “Lynch <USER>” once in the thread. Upon rebooting this pin, all <USERs> you have “Lynched” up to rebooting will take 1 damage. You may only target any given <USER> once before rebooting, however.
You are allied with the Taboo Noise. You win if you outlive more than three-quarters of the Noise and you eliminate Joshua. |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Fat Acklow
Dear Daenym,
You are a Metal Corehog.
Your Base HP is 4.
It takes lightning reflexes to evade the bang these hedgehog Noise pack in their giant quills.
Pins:
- Lucky Star - Level 1 - Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. You will receive target <USER’s> role name and win condition.
You are allied with the Noise. You win if you eliminate the Taboo Noise along with Joshua. |
Dang, his role PM was well informed. Honestly, this game really revolved around Joshua. I wanted somebody who I knew could get the job done with Joshua, and boy, did Daenym serve. Daenym was probably the most productive player this game, which I would expect out of anybody who would have been in his shoes. He did a great job moling the Taboo Noise, taking leadership over the Taboo Noise, and even going out with a bang. I would say that the role was probably one of the easier win conditions to fulfill. However, in response to that idea, I would also say that that was not a guarantee. Assuming any of the two Partnerships were discovered and mass targeted early on, Daenym would not have stood a chance. Anyways, props to Daenym for doing a fantastic job, even with the entire game (except the Partnerships) on the lookout to kill him.
Comments on the Pins
Pins were the biggest aspect of this game. Of which I would like to point out a few that either had mistakes attributed to them, or were broken, or were just pins that I wanted to point out:
FS,FiT was the biggest game changing pin during this game. Probably one of the more broken pins, I originally intended FS,FiT to increase in damage dealt each level it was. A last minute decision before the game started, and a rather not well-thought decision, was to give FS,FiT more uses as well. As soon as I realized this only broke the pin, I quickly attempted to devalue the pin by the time it hit Level 4 and Level Max. The reason I did so was that if I let Daenym not reboot for two cycles, he could have potentially massacred a bunch of players at Level 3. Thankfully, my decision to reduce the number of uses down to 1 again prevented the game from being entirely broken due to this one pin.
This pin is broken in theory. Anyone could just target their self and then just wait for the game to be over. Once I realized how broken this pin really was, I lowered its priority one tier in order to provide at least some way of preventing this pin from being used.
Over the Top Combination
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Brainy Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
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Righty Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
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Lefty Cat - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you find the other Cat pins, you might get something good.
Once all combined, here is what would happen:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Fat Acklow
You now have in your possession Brainy Cat, Righty Cat, and Lefty Cat. These three pins have automatically synthesized a new pin: Over the Top. The ability this pin has is:
“Every pin that you gain possession of is automatically fully leveled up. Over the Top cannot be stolen or given away.”
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The Over the Top combination ended up being the Alternative WC of Sanae Hanekoma (zorbees/ipl). This combo really isn’t all that great late game (in theory), since I was hoping people would work hard early game to try to obtain the combo pins. In this game, however, it could have been very useful late game, since some pins were way better maxed out than not.
Big Pin Combo
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Big Bang - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you obtain it’s sister pin, something good may happen.
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Big Crunch - Level Max - You are not sure what this does, but if you obtain it’s sister pin, something good may happen.
Once combined, this is what would happen:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Fat Acklow
You now have in your possession Big Crunch and Big Bang. You can now utilize both pins combo ability:
“Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 5 damage. However, because of the massive power, both pins must reboot between attacks.”
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This pin combo is pretty much one of the more powerful default pins. These pins, if combined with the likes of Pegaso or Gatito would just wreak balls. This combo basically guaranteed a kill every other cycle. However, it is pretty much outclassed by Follow Suit, Fall in Turn late game, since FS, FiT could do the same thing by C4.
Sexy + was basically the most broken thief pin in this game. It pretty much rendered anybody useless if they did not have 3 pins or any pins in their drop pool. I think if I would’ve had a chance to rewrite the ability to this pin, I would have had it steal a pin from 2 users instead of 2 pins from 1 user.
1 Yen was basically a second win condition manifested in the form of a pin. The point of this pin was to a) act as a cookie in the game and b) create a feeling of needing to stay under the radar for the player holding it. Both barty the beetle and Jalmont kept under the radar concerning this pin, not mentioning it to anyone. Unfortunately, the game didn’t last long enough for Jalmont to win with this pin.
Rhyme
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Rhyme - Level Max - You are not sure what this does. It doesn’t look like it’s all that useful either.
The Rhyme pin was a very conditional pin. It required Rhyme (Snike) to die in order to be properly used. And even then, only Neku and Beat had the ability to use the pin in that situation. Therefore, it was more or less a hot potato pin for players to pass around. Here is what would happen if Neku/Beat were holding the pin after the death of Rhyme:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Fat Acklow
You now have Rhyme in your possession. Since Rhyme is no longer in the Reapers game, Beat managed to revitalize Rhyme in the form of a Noise. Unfortunately Mitsuki Konishi turned her noise form into a pin. Thankfully, you can use Rhyme as an actual pin now. The ability this pin has is:
“Every cycle, you may pm Acklow a <USER>. Target <USER> will take 3 damage. It does not need to level up or reboot.”
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Rhyme never got to see play. It was supposed to be used as a last resort damage pin late game assuming the player, Rhyme (Snike), was eliminated from the game. However, since that never ended up happening, well I won’t repeat myself... Just read the stuff in the hide tags. If this pin would have been activated, it would have been very strong, as it was basically a Force Rounds/Pyrokinesis pin, without any leveling up. I probably would have re-written this pin as well, due to its conditional ability, to something more plausible (like if either Rhyme or Shiki died, or if either Rhyme or Beat died). The real reason this pin was actually tossed in the game was more or less for flavor purposes, though.
Awards
And now for the awards. Please don’t hate me, I based these opinions on my mid-game evaluation of all of the players.
Best Noise: Cereza
Worst Noise: Rediamond
Best Taboo Noise: Slim Guldo
Worst Taboo Noise: MrcRanger97 (not Ace Emerald)
Best “Player”: Daenym
Worst “Player”: None
Best Move: Daenym claiming Joshua to the Taboo Noise in secret/Daenym uniting both Partnership Duos ftw
Worst Move: Daenym outing himself as an “Anti-Noise” Neutral to Walrein/MK Ultra getting both of his pins stolen from him C0
Most Inactive Player: MrcRanger97 (Not Ace Emerald)
Best Pin: Lolita Mic, because it forced ginganinja to make such a quality post.
Worst Pin: Frog
Cutest User: Ditto /huggles
Best Co-Host: theangryscientist
Best Post: ginga’s Susan Coffey Catalogue
2nd Best Post: Layell's death post
MVP: Daenym
So now for the last part of the Postgame, I would like to address things that could be gained from this game:
-The use of a reverse-lynchpin is something fairly interesting. The lynchpin concept on its own is interesting, but not used often. I think the thing about lynchpins is that if they are overused,especially in standard 2v1s, then they begin to lose their surprise value. Therefore, from a hosting perspective, people should limit themselves if they plan on using lynchpins, either reverse or standard. One way I went about doing this was keeping all of the factions obscured.
-If HP is simple, it means less calculating errors for the host. Comparing this game to FFV, I made a lot less mistakes in calculations and in each of my updates. I would also say that hosts should try to limit themselves in the number of concepts that they experiment with. Games like FFV or EXPERTS were decent (well FFV was pretty much awesome), but become train wrecks because of the amount of things that hosts need to work with.
-No lynch. Don’t use this concept unless you have a good reason to, like lots of kills or an alternative means of eliminating players from the game. This game used that concept because of a) low HP and b) the large number of damage dealing pins, which made up for the loss of a lynch. I like the fact that this game could do that, so I’ll just *pat myself on the back*.
-Item Mafia. Oh boy, I don’t think I’ll do another one of these...at least not one that involves thief items as well.
-1st Player to die becomes co-host. Actually, this concept I borrowed off of Wikipedia. I thought it would be interesting since I was hosting by myself and it didn’t hurt the game if a player became a co-host, since I knew I could handle the majority of the work myself.
-Ditto is a cute user.
And with that I leave you with one final song: