CP Mafia 4 - The Unknown Host - Game Over!

[Mazrim]

CP Mafia - The Unknown Host

Life was pretty boring in space. It’s always the same black view, maybe a point of light from a distant star will be a different colour than usual, but as Captain Burton knew, that view wasn’t getting any better in this system. His transport ship gave him some creature comforts he never had in a cargo hauler, and he tried to be friendly with the passengers, but the cold of space was no friend to him.

Looking back on his childhood, it was easy to see how they could tease you with the sense of the unknown. There’s a whole galaxy to discover! You could be the first person to see a new phenomenon, a previously undiscovered race, or an ancient artifact. Years of training to be a pilot only got him stuck on a junky old cargo hauler for a decade. He was lucky enough to find out from an acquaintance about this operation. It wasn’t great money, but it would do until…

Burton was snapped out of his reminiscing when the ship shuddered slightly. That was odd...the ship’s radar would have detected even micro-meteorites or debris near the ship before it hit. Damage reports came up negative, so the hull didn’t suffer any significant damage from the collision.

Captain Burton yawned and leaned back in his chair. That was probably the most excitement he would see on his way back home. Why did he agree to this route again?

Several days later, the crew made an alarming discovery. Not only had the Captain locked himself in the cabin, but the ship was slowly turning. Eventually, they pulled a mining laser out of the hold to cut open the hatch to the cabin. The Captain wasn’t there. On the chair were...veins. A mass was growing there, pulsing in a regular rhythm, and they flowed from the chair to the consoles around the cabin.

How did this thing get here? What did it want with this ship? The crew immediately contacted headquarters to find out anything they could. Unfortunately for the passengers of the ship, they wouldn’t hear from the crew again. The ship was under the alien species’ control, and they had to figure out what they could do before they also became a part of this host.

Rules

• If you need to contact me, use Personal Message (PM) on Calgarypuck. I will receive an email and Tapatalk will push the message to my phone, so I will see it quickly.
• Absolutely NO talking about the game outside this thread unless you have been specifically told that you can. This means PMs, other forums, Skype, MSN, IRC, ICQ, you name it. Please respect this, as it ruins the game otherwise.
• I would suggest turning on "Invisible" mode in your User CP (under Edit Options) to prevent people from trying to guess your identity based on what you're viewing in the forums or when you're online.
• Don’t edit your posts, this is cheating. If you make a mistake, quote your post and fix it in another post.
• To vote for someone, you must put the vote in bold: ie. Vote: Mazrim or it won’t count. Don’t use bold for anything else unless you have been specifically told otherwise. To cancel your vote (you must do this before changing it to someone else), post Unvote.
• You cannot quote any PMs I send you in the thread. You cannot quote any outside communications in the thread. Investigation results may be revealed, but you can’t quote the PM to prove it. If you absolutely want to talk about something like this, be very careful with what you say.
• Do not post any fake day actions.
• No "truth or dare" or "Toxx Clause" or metagaming to prove your identity. This includes things like posting screenshots of your profile or saying "I'll eat my pubes if I'm a Mafia." Basically anything outside the thread itself being used to confirm yourself is against the spirit of the game.
• If you’re not playing or you are killed, you are not allowed to provide advice in any form to the living players. You may post a final message after being killed, but you can’t reveal any information that may assist the living players. Prefix these posts with “-----Dead Post-----”
• Please try to post at least once per real time day. If you aren’t participating enough I will have to replace you. It’s in the Town’s interest to encourage as much discussion as possible, because otherwise it’s far easier for the Mafia to lay low the entire time.
• At the start of each day I will post how many votes are required to lynch a player. When that number (the final vote is known as the hammer) is reached, the day is OVER.
• Do not post after hammer has been reached. Do not post during night phases.
• If you break these rules, you could be modkilled, which means you are immediately lynched and the day ends. Please don’t let that happen.

If you need general information about anything mafia related, feel free to browse this helpful wiki: http://mafiawiki.notesmash.org/wiki/Main_Page

Game Setup

Alignment and roles of all players was determined by random.org, ie. I gave each player a number, and ran it through the RNG to assign roles. Be careful with your assumptions.

This is a semi-open format game, which puts 14 innocent passengers against a host faction which will try to turn them to help their kind. The passengers need to live long enough to try to remove the host from the ship. Because the number of players on the scum (Host) side will changing throughout the game, that is why the format is “semi-open”.

Just like a normal mafia game, the town (Passengers) will vote on a person to lynch each day. The converted hosts (Turned) do not need to be killed for the town to win, only the 3 main hosts themselves - what remains of The Captain, his Second in Command and his Engineer.

The Captain will send the host spore first. On Night 0 (pre-game night), he will send the spore to a player of his choosing, so there could be a player turned on Day 1. The spore works as follows:

• Each night, whoever has the spore must pass it on to another player. If they do not submit a choice, I will decide via random.org.
• Whoever receives the spore has a 50% chance of being turned, assuming they are town-aligned at the time. If turned, they will change alignment and goals to align with the host. I will use random.org’s coin flipper (with a Canadian Loonie, of course) to determine this. Heads, you stay town, tails, you are turned.
• If the holder of the spore is lynched, it will return to the Captain, but he must kill a turned player for this to happen. Otherwise he must wait a full day to regain the spore.
• If the Captain is dead when the holder of the spore is lynched, the Second in Command can receive the spore ONLY by killing a turned player, and he must also wait a day. The Engineer is the same, after the Second in Command dies.
• If the holder of the spore is not lynched and the host wishes to recover it, they must kill a turned player and wait the timeframes listed previously.
• The hosts are protected from the spore, and cannot be turned by receiving it.

Scum/Host:

Captain - Aside from starting with the spore, he may also send telepathic messages (no more than 30 words) to all turned players each night. He is not allowed to reveal his or the other host’s identity in these messages (not even via slight hinting). The hosts will know the identities of the currently living turned at all times.

Second in Command, Engineer - These two roles do not have the ability to send messages, but can communicate with the Captain in a Quicktopic thread.

Turned - They will have their own Quicktopic thread to communicate with each other outside the thread, but they will not know the identities of the hosts.

Town/Passengers:

Government Agent - He was in transit but now finds himself fighting off the government’s secret enemy. Each night, he can determine a player’s alignment and kill them if they are turned. He is unable to detect the hosts as he does not have the necessary equipment with him. Because his skill takes place before the spore turns a player, targeting the person receiving the spore will always fail unless they were already turned. As he has some training against the host, he will be harder to convert. I will flip two coins for him, and he must turn tails twice to be turned. If he is turned, he will lose his ability to kill.

Smuggler - The smuggler was transiting to a new location, and his skills can come in handy in this situation. Every night, he can open a hidden compartment he found for himself or another player and hide for the night. The player who hides in the compartment will be safe from being turned. A player can only hide once, however. If the smuggler hides the person passing the spore, the smuggler will take the spore. If turned, he will lose his ability to hide.

Genetic Anomaly - One of the passengers has a natural resistance to the spore. The first attempt to turn them will automatically fail, but any further attempts can succeed.

Vanilla - Just a generic passenger. There are 11 initially.

Cardflip

Role and alignment will be revealed upon death (also known as a cardflip). No cardflip will contain an explicitly false alignment for the deceased.

Cardflips will be posted approximately 30 minutes after deadline. Hammer functions much like the deadline, and I will post cardflip as close to 30 minutes after hammer as I can.

Only investigative roles will be told if their action fails. If it does, they won’t be told why.

Victory Conditions

The Host wins when they and the Turned account for 50% or more of the total living players in the game.
The Passengers win when the Captain, Second in Command and Engineer have been killed.

Deadlines

Days will last a maximum of 5 real time days and may be extended at my discretion. Nights will last around 24 hours (timing will depend on when the last day ended). Excluding nights, deadlines will always be set for 10:00 PM Mountain Time.

Hammer cannot occur in the first 24 hours of a day. If a majority has been reached sooner than that, the hammer will drop automatically at the 24 hour mark, provided there is still a majority vote. This way days can’t be rushed, giving everyone a fair chance to post.

A majority of votes are needed to hammer someone. More than 1/3rd of the votes is needed for a deadline lynch. If the deadline passes with a tie, there will be sudden death. Any votes not placed on the leaders will be wiped, allowing for a potentially larger pool of players to hammer. If no one hammers within 30 minutes, there will be no lynch. Note that sudden death would push the cardflip up to 11:00 PM Mountain Time.

GOOD LUCK!

Players

Victorious
squiggs96 - Passenger
Puxlut - Genetic Anomaly
GGG - Government Agent
Lego Man starseed - Passenger
dissentowner - Passenger

Dead:
activeStick, Smuggler - Lynched Day 1
GirlySports, Passenger - Lynched Day 2
East Coast Flame, Passenger - Lynched Day 3
devo22, Passenger - Lynched Day 5
SebC, Turned - Killed Night 5
Timbo, Passenger - Lynched Day 6
mrkajz44, Second in Command - Lynched Day 7
Oling_Roachinen, Turned - Killed Night 7
bizaro86, Captain - Lynched Day 8
Peanut, Engineer - Lynched Day 9
Party Elephant, Turned - Killed in Endgame
Hockeyguy15, Turned - Killed in Endgame

Timeline

Day 1 Ends, activeStick lynched.
Day 2 Begins
Day 2 Ends, GirlySports lynched.
Day 3 Begins
Day 3 Ends, East Coast Flame lynched.
Day 4 Begins
Day 4 Ends with no lynch.
Day 5 Begins
Day 5 Ends, devo22 lynched.
Day 6 Begins, SebC killed Night 5.
Day 6 Ends, Timbo lynched.
Day 7 Begins
Day 7 Ends, mrkajz44 lynched.
Day 8 Begins, Oling_Roachinen killed Night 7.
Day 8 Ends, bizaro86 lynched.
Day 9 Begins
Game Over! Peanut Lynched.

[Mazrim]

It is currently Night 0. No one may post in the thread at this time. Day 1 will start as soon as I get responses back and process them.

Role PMs are going out now.

[Mazrim]

The passengers were scared. Were they scared of the unknown, or scared because their lives may end on this nondescript transport ship? Every person seemed to have a differing opinion on this, and on what to do. Some were ready to give up and accept that their lives were lost, and some refused to believe that they had no chance to survive.

They had begun to figure out exactly where the alien species was. It was hard to miss the tendrils on the hatchways and closed doors. They were slow to move, but seemed to be targeting key areas. The bridge, the engine room, and the crew mess were all off limits to them now. One could only wonder what happened to the crew...

One of the passengers ran into the cargo bay they had determined was the furthest from the alien tendrils. As he came into the room, he was yelling "I found a console!"

This was a surprise. So far almost all the communication devices were offline or the alien species had already taken control of the consoles. "I was able to see the crew communications before they were cut off by the aliens, and they got a response!"

He pulled out a common holographic data projector from his jacket and displayed the information he got from the console.

• WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK FROM AN ALIEN SPECIES. DO NOT ATTEMPT CONTACT.
• THE SUSPECTED SPECIES HAS THE ABILITY TO GRAFT ITSELF TO HUMANOID OR MECHANICAL SURFACES AND TAKE CONTROL.
• THE HOST CAN TRANSFORM TO RESEMBLE WHAT IT HAS GRAFTED ITSELF TO, OR DISGUISE ITSELF. FOR THIS REASON, THE HOST PREFERS TO REMAIN IN HUMANOID BODIES. BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS IF INFECTION IS SUSPECTED.
• IF INFECTION IS CONFIRMED, DESTROYING THE BODY THE HOST IS ATTACHED TO CAN ALSO KILL THE HOST.
• WE HAVE DISPATCHED SHIPS TO YOUR LOCATION. SEND LOCATION INFORMATION AT REGULAR INTERVALS.
• WE WILL SEND FURTHER INFORMATION AS WE RECEIVE IT. STAY SAFE.

"Who was it from?" asked one of the passengers. "It was from home. Well, home for many of us here, I assume. It was signed by Commander British from the Gradian Military."

Some of the passengers looked ill. "The military...are they going to destroy us to stop these aliens?" Many recalled the incursions of the past and the force the military used to save their way of life.

The electronics were too difficult for the unarmed passengers to destroy without being turned by the host themselves. They realized their only chance was to find the source of the host and hope they were using the bodies of the crew to take the ship.

It is now Day 1. With 17 alive, it takes 9 votes on any one player to hammer. It takes 6 votes to deadline lynch.

The deadline is Tuesday, May 26th at 10:00 PM Mountain Time. Hammer cannot be dropped before Friday, May 22nd at 10:00 PM Mountain Time.

[Timbo]

Yikes Parasitic aliens! Way to spooky.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Timbo

Yikes Parasitic aliens! Way to spooky.

2spooky4you?

[devo22]

stupid aliens. Kill them with fire!

[bizaro86]

Great storyline/flavour Mazrim!

Very excited to be playing again. Interesting to see the "information from earth." I am curious to find out whether that will be a regular feature of each new day or if its more of a one off.

[Oling_Roachinen]

So, correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but someone already received the spore and passed it on?

If that's the case, and assuming (50/50 here) that the passenger wasn't turned, I feel that they should reveal who they passed the spore onto and we vote out that person ridding ourselves of the spore for a day.

If the holder of the spore is killed, it will return to the Captain, but he must kill a turned player for this to happen. Otherwise he must wait a full day to regain the spore.

The captain wont have a turned person to kill, so we wont have to worry about the 50/50 spore for the night.

[Oling_Roachinen]

So, correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but someone already received the spore and passed it on?

If that's the case, and assuming (50/50 here) that the passenger wasn't turned, I feel that they should reveal who they passed the spore onto and we vote out that person ridding ourselves of the spore for a day.

If the holder of the spore is killed, it will return to the Captain, but he must kill a turned player for this to happen. Otherwise he must wait a full day to regain the spore.

The captain wont have a turned person to kill, so we wont have to worry about the 50/50 spore for the night.

[Hockeyguy15]

The way I read it is that the Captain passes the spore on night 0 to someone, they may or may not be infected. Then the next night whoever has it can pass it along.

So I think whoever the Captain gave it to should still have it.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

So, correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, but someone already received the spore and passed it on?

If that's the case, and assuming (50/50 here) that the passenger wasn't turned, I feel that they should reveal who they passed the spore onto and we vote out that person ridding ourselves of the spore for a day.

The captain wont have a turned person to kill, so we wont have to worry about the 50/50 spore for the night.

If someone has the spore and wasn't turned, couldn't they reveal themselves and we kill them. Then the spore doesn't get passed on in night one. Maybe this is what you meant.

Also, the chances of a turn are a bit less than 50/50, since a few passengers have resistance to the spore. Also, it will go down to quite a bit less than 50/50 on subsequent nights, since a passenger who is passing it on could also pass it to a member of the host, who wouldn't turn.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

The way I read it is that the Captain passes the spore on night 0 to someone, they may or may not be infected. Then the next night whoever has it can pass it along.

So I think whoever the Captain gave it to should still have it.

Okay, that changes things. Still the passenger with the spore would already know if he was turned, right?

So let's assume that the passenger wasn't turned and is still a passenger:

Revealing him/herself would make them a target for the lynch because the spore would be stopped for the night.

However, I propose if the spore career reveals himself we grant him safety for today, he tells us who he is targeting for the spore on Night 1 and we lynch that person on Day 2 ridding ourselves of the spore for Night 2. Whoever the target is would be random really by a person we have a pretty good idea is a passenger or else they wouldn't reveal.

Remember that the passengers win if the captain, second and engineer die, not if we live.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

The way I read it is that the Captain passes the spore on night 0 to someone, they may or may not be infected. Then the next night whoever has it can pass it along.

So I think whoever the Captain gave it to should still have it.

This is how I read it as well. Thinking through it more, there are two possibilities. Either:

1)The spore worked and infected someone, then we shouldn't expect to hear from them.

2)If it didn't work, then a passenger has it. The best play there is probably to kill that passenger and save ourselves from having the spore do anything the next night.

So if we don't hear from anyone, I think we should assume the spore worked.

[Oling_Roachinen]

I agree with bizaro86 about 1) if the person was turned he's probably not going to be telling us who he is.

)If it didn't work, then a passenger has it. The best play there is probably to kill that passenger and save ourselves from having the spore do anything the next night.

Yeah, but then we are also killing a 100% passenger.

If we were to grant the current spore carrier immunity, they could reveal themselves tell us who they were selecting on Night 1 to carry the spore, on Day 2 we kill that person (ridding ourselves of the spore for Night 2) and we have a decent idea that the target was picked by a passenger.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

This is how I read it as well. Thinking through it more, there are two possibilities. Either:

1)The spore worked and infected someone, then we shouldn't expect to hear from them.

2)If it didn't work, then a passenger has it. The best play there is probably to kill that passenger and save ourselves from having the spore do anything the next night.

So if we don't hear from anyone, I think we should assume the spore worked.

The issue is if the spore was given to one of our special passengers, and now with the idea of killing the person with the spore has forced them to keep quiet.

[mrkajz44]

Haha - leave it to Oiling to get the ball rolling early!

Is it possible the person who received the spore would not know about it until the night phase? That would throw a kink into the assumption that if the spore already turned someone, then that person would remain silent. Maybe I'm not reading the description of the spore correctly?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

I agree with bizaro86 about 1) if the person was turned he's probably not going to be telling us who he is.



Yeah, but then we are also killing a 100% passenger.

If we were to grant the current spore carrier immunity, they could reveal themselves tell us who they were selecting on Night 1 to carry the spore, on Day 2 we kill that person (ridding ourselves of the spore for Night 2) and we have a decent idea that the target was picked by a passenger.

Good point that we'd be killing a 100% passenger, I hadn't thought of that. Obviously the host wouldn't pick scum for their first spore target.

However, realistically on day one we only have a 3/18 = 16.6% chance of hitting scum, while if the spore continues it has a nearly 50% chance of infecting one of us.

I did some math. (Assuming the spore didn't work, if it did we're not hearing from anyone and we should guess or pick someone inactive or something).

If we kill the spore holder we're guaranteed to go into tomorrow with 3/17 scum, since we'll kill one passenger and no new infections. 17.6% of players will be scum

If we don't kill the spore holder there are two possibilities, either we get lucky and get a scum or we don't. In each case the scum have about a 50% chance of converting someone.

Get scum: 3/18 chance of happening times 2.5/17 scum remaining (we kill one plus they get a 50% chance of getting someone new)

Don't get scum: 15/18 chance of happening times 3.5/17 scum remaining (we kill one passenger plus they get a 50% chance of getting someone new).

Weighted average scum remaining = (3/18)*(2.5/17)+(15/18)*(3.5/17) = 19.6% of players remaining will be scum

So killing the spore holder on day one works out statistically better than not doing it, although it is close.

I can see why the spore holder may not want to embrace this plan, as its more fun to keep playing, but I think it's better for the passengers if they come forward. It has less huge upside (if we guess right on the first day we probably have the game in the bag, similar to the NHL one) but is statistically the right play.

[Oling_Roachinen]

mrkajz44 could be right that the person with the spore doesn't even know it.

But assuming the passenger does know, I think this is our best bet if they weren't turned:

The spore-carrying-passenger needs to reveal themselves. Tell us who they are sending the spore to on Night 1. Government Agent can check to see if the spore-carrying-passenger was telling the truth (and kill them if they weren't). The Smuggler can also hide the target of the spore for Night 1. Day 1 will still require a 'random' lynching.

Assuming the Government Agent wasn't lynched Day 1 (or extremely unlucky for us turned Night 0), we will have stopped the spore for Night 2 and have pretty much confirmed a passenger.

[Lego Man]

Wow, quite a bit for my lego brain to digest in such a short time!

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Good point that we'd be killing a 100% passenger, I hadn't thought of that. Obviously the host wouldn't pick scum for their first spore target.

However, realistically on day one we only have a 3/18 = 16.6% chance of hitting scum, while if the spore continues it has a nearly 50% chance of infecting one of us..

If the current carrier reveals and tell us who he is targeting, the smuggler could hide the target though.

The Government Agent, without having to reveal himself, would be able to check to see if the current-carrier was telling the truth as well.

So if Initial Carrier tell us, we don't kill him, he targets JoeSchmo. Smuggler hides JoeSchmo, Government Agent targets Initial Carrier. If Day 2 happens with Initial Carrier alive, we know he was passenger, we know JoeSchmo was real target, we'll know that JoeSchmo was protected.

Now if Smuggler ends up dieing as our Day 1 lynch, we kill JoeSchmo because he still received the spore.

I think it makes most sense for carrier passenger to reveal and us not kill him. You know, assuming this is working how we think it is - which might not be the case.