Mafia Resources Thread [Mafia Rules]

[Celever]

This thread is simply a place for mafia resources, guides, etc..

As projects for the thread are completed it'll be updated in separate posts, and this post will be like a contents page and look cooler and more professional etc.. For now, however, there was a need for us to actually define what "standard NOC rules" are, since all of our NOC games have "standard rules apply" in their rules but they're not codified anywhere. That's the next post, and is why this thread is being posted now.

I have a very WIP hosting / game design guide in my sandbox. Might split that into two and get the hosting guide out sooner, game design guide is both far more work and less important because inexperienced hosts get experienced design advisors anyway. Haven't started the hosting guide section yet though

 

[Celever]

NOC Mafia Rules
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We request that hosts link to this post in the rules of their games. To do this, click the #2 on the top right of this post and copy the web address.

You must still follow all of Smogon's global rules anywhere related to Circus Maximus as a subforum.

NOC rules are considered in two categories.

The first category below are rules in every NOC game:

• Follow all of Smogon's global rules
• No modifying posts in any way after you have hit the post button. This includes:
  • No deleting posts. Staff can see deleted posts even after they're deleted.
  • No editing posts. Staff can see posts' editing history.
    • If you check a post you've made and realise you made an error that you want to amend, you should quote your post and clarify in a new post. Sometimes people use EBWOP (edit by way of post) at the start of the follow-up post to explain what they're doing.
• No screenshotting. Anything.
• No outside communication. This means that you cannot discuss anything to do with the game with anyone at all, unless via a communication channel provided by the host. These communication channels will almost always be the game thread, a discord link for e.g. mafia's chat, or a forum conversation/PM. If you have a role that is permitted some degree of outside communication, such as being a mafia, mason, or neighbour, the host will invite everyone you are able to talk to to your discord server or forum PM; you are not permitted to invite somebody to an outside communication channel yourself.
• You are expected to play to your win condition. We are not interested in punishing well-intentioned but inept or sub-optimal play. However, we will punish severe and indefensible cases of game throwing. Mafia is a team sport, and game throwing ruins it for your team.
• You are expected to meet minimum activity and/or contribution requirements for any games you sign up for. This is up to both host and staff discretion, as providing quantitative minimum activity expectations means people can sometimes play right up to the line and stop there. You can sense if your contributions are less than those of the rest of your team by yourself, and if they are, step it up.
  • Substitutions are not ideal for game health, but they are significantly better than an inactive slot. If you find that you are busier than you thought you would be, ask the host to sub out. Our NOC games consistently have subs waiting to play, and our community is tightknit enough that someone can usually be convinced to sub in if needs must. When considering whether or not to sub out, think to yourself "with the extent that I'm keeping up with the game, would it be fair to the other members of my team for me to be the tiebreaker in LYLO?". If the answer is no, and you realise that you have no capacity to catch up to a satisfactory extent, sub out.
• Baiting anyone into breaking any game or forum rules will be punished as severely as if you had broken the rule yourself. (e.g. telling someone to delete their post).
• Pretending to break any game or forum rules will be punished as severely as if you had broken the rule yourself. (e.g. pretending to copy/paste a fake Role PM in a game where copy/pasting your real Role PM is banned).

The second category below are default rules. Hosts are permitted to contradict these rules in their own NOC mafia game's rules and, if they do, their version of the rule is used for the game. However, if this isn't the case, then these default rules are applied:

• No copy/pasting private communication. This includes host communication such as your role PM, scumchat messages, or neighbour/mason messages, among others.
  • Paraphrasing is permitted, but simply changing one word in a paste is not paraphrasing. The extent should be describing your action in your own words, e.g. "I am a roleblocker on odd nights", or "on odd nights I can target someone and prevent them from using their actions".
    • If in doubt about what your role is, ask your host up-front in preparation for if you later have to claim. There are a lot of mafia roles, and you're not expected to know all of them. Some flavour-heavy games don't include the traditional name of your role (e.g. roleblocker) anywhere in your PM, but hosts are expected to provide you with a claimable name or blurb upon request using universal terminology
• No talking in the game thread at night. Usually the host will lock the thread at night, but even if they don't, don't post after deadline.
  • Private communication channels can, however, be spoken in in both day and night. This refers to things such as scumchats and neighbourhood chats, so only channels the hosted has given you access to. If you weren't sent a private communication link by the host, you can't speak to anyone during the night about the game.
• Tied votes (two players having the same number of votes when the day ends) will result in a random player in the tie dying.
• No heavy-handed roleplay, particularly if it gets in the way of usual mafia gameplay (e.g. scumhunting) or irritates other players.

 

[Celever]

Forced Low-Priority Signups (NOC)

gm, we're putting in a proper framework for dealing with inactive players

If you sign up for a game and severly infringe upon this rule:

• You are expected to meet minimum activity and/or contribution requirements for any games you sign up for. This is up to both host and staff discretion, as providing quantitative minimum activity expectations means people can sometimes play right up to the line and stop there. You can sense if your contributions are less than those of the rest of your team by yourself, and if they are, step it up.
  • Substitutions are not ideal for game health, but they are significantly better than an inactive slot. If you find that you are busier than you thought you would be, ask the host to sub out. Our NOC games consistently have subs waiting to play, and our community is tightknit enough that someone can usually be convinced to sub in if needs must. When considering whether or not to sub out, think to yourself "with the extent that I'm keeping up with the game, would it be fair to the other members of my team for me to be the tiebreaker in LYLO?". If the answer is no, and you realise that you have no capacity to catch up to a satisfactory extent, sub out.

Then you will have a strike applied to you. This strike will have the following consequences:

• For a first offence, you will be on forced low prio for the next game
• For a second offence, you will for the next 2 games
• For a third offence or more, harsher punishments such as gamebans will be implemented.

This will still only apply in the most severe cases of breaking this rule. However, we hope that this framework will give us more ability to justifiably provide consequences for highly inactive or uncontributive players, as it is less punitive than a full gameban and can therefore be given out a little more.

OK but what does this mean:

A player on the beneath list is automatically the lowest priority signup for either the next or next 2 NOC game(s) hosted in Circus. This means they can still play in the game if it helps the game run, but if there are more signups than the maximum size of the game then a player on this list must be bumped off the signup list before anyone else is.

A player on this list is lower priority than a player who signs up as low priority. This should actually give more freedom to people to be able to sign up as low priority, though there weren't reports of this being an issue before anyway.

For games with uncapped player sizes, whether to accept players on this list or not is up to host discretion. Hosts may choose whether to include whether forced low priority signups will be accepted in the OP of their signups thread. This isn't mandatory, and a host is completely free to bump a low priority signup for balance reasons for example (some game sizes are more balanced than others in mafia, after all).

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Forced Low Priority Signup List (last updated after Tracker Jailer Follower)

- ImaginaryNeon

If there's someone on this list and a game has ended since the last updated, ping me on disc. I don't foresee forgetting to add people to this list, but I do foresee forgetting to take people off when their time's up