Mass Effect Mafia: Game Thread

It makes sense for the anti-town elements to bid on it; so they can line up a kill.

It makes sense for a cop or investigative role to bid on it; so they can investigate

It might make sense for a Doc to bid on it; although you arent sure if you are protecting a good guy

 

Ah fuck it. Lynch NotSure.

 

Bit strange.

Assuming you do have a non-investigative, non-killing night role...surely by Night 2 or 3 everyone would have moved on already?

Granted the locations on Night 1 will be guessable - if they are in the Citadel now, that's where they will still be during the Lockdown, and if they are anywhere else they can only really move 1 place to the left or right, and with the Citadel locked down this narrows down where they might be.

But by Night 2 or Night 3, the locations you have spent all you $$$ on right now would be essentially meaningless, unless you have some way of continuing to track a player once you have found them.

The Repears are an anti-town element who seem hungry for this info. And you seem hungry for this info. And you just went all-in with your bid.

I'm not quite sure I trust your motives are good. If anything, I'm really worried that letting you get away with this gambit so early in the game might come back haunt us.

That's why for now I'm going to:

Lynch: Athlai

 

Unlynch NotSure

Lynch Athlai

I am not a smart guy. zorax seems to make sense.

 

To further elaborate on my thinking here...keep in mind I have 0 theme knowledge so someone like Hedger might offer more insights (unless it is against his interests to do so).

We have what, 36 people in this game? It would make sense to me that, for the sake of game balance, there be 3 to 4 killing elements present in the game. Otherwise it goes on for too long and massively benefits the Town,

In the write up, we are already aware of 3 killing elements - NP10, the person who killed NP10, and The Collectors who failed in their kill. There is also mention of another anti-Town element - The Reapers, who seem hungry for information. Hedger mentioned a couple more possible anti-town elements, who weren't mentioned in the write up.

Personally I think 5-6 killers in a game would be way too high, so to me it is possible there might be an anti-town element who don't possess the ability to kill, and whose win criteria is based on collecting information. Or maybe they need a lot of info before they can kill. Either way, the Reapers seem like this kind of anti-town element, purely going off the write up and nothing else.

Now regarding players locations - assuming most, if not all, Night roles need a location in order to be carried out, I can totally see why that would be valuable info. If you know someone's location now, you can narrow down where they will be the following night. They either stay where they are, or move one spot to the left, or one spot to the right.

What's not helpful tho, is knowing the location of someone right now when you intend to carry your role out on them a few nights later. Because they might have moved a lot by then. They might have gone 1 spot either way, or 2 spots either way, or made a whole circle and just ended up where they are. You just don't know. It's as good as guessing at random. The information on a person's location is less useful if you wait one night to act, and is essentially useless if you wait two or more nights.

In this particular circumstance however, given the Lockdown, if you find out someone is in the Citadel, you can rest assured they're not moving this night, and can postpone acting on them for another night. So the information on sale still has value provided your night role requires it.

But the LockDown isn't going to last all game. And there were what, 4 names in that list(?). The LockDown isn't going to last 4 nights I feel. This info could be useful for up to 2, maybe even 3 night phases, but after that it loses all meaning, and you won't get to carry out your role on all the people in that list before that happens. Unless...

1) You can track players around the map after you find them
2) You can carry out your role on multiple people at once

If you can do either of these, this information is hugely valuable. Pretty much worth spending everything you have on it.

However, both these roles sound massively OP for a regular role.

-------------

Commander Shepard is mentioned in the writeup as looking for people in order to reach a resolve of some sort. And The Reapers are looking for information too. It is quite possible that there are people/groups/roles in this game solely focused around finding people.

Athlai and Notsure really want this information. This leads me to believe that this information is far more useful to them than it is to any of us. And given the reasoning outlined above, I am suspicious.

It is entirely possible I am overthinking this. It is quite possible they just put in a bid without thinking it through. But then again, acting dumb is Mafia 101.

-----

Generally speaking, if you are a massively-OP Townie role, you are critical to the chances of the Town winning. That means you want to keep yourself alive for as long as possible.

Athlai has drawn a lot of attention to himself, and has made it clear that he has use for this information for a non-investigative Night role.

That doesn't sound like a wise strategy if your role is critical to the Town's success. Why create a target on your back? Why let all the anti-town elements know that you have a night role that justifies spending all your money on that information?

In my experience, you're only going to draw attention to yourself under the following conditions:

- You know that your role isn't critical to the Town's success, so you act important in order to bluff the anti-town elements into whacking you off. Athlai could be doing this; and by buying the information he takes it to the grave with him.

- You are a lone wolf, and so hope that by being the antagonist during Day phases and keeping the discussion around you, you encourage the anti-town elements to leave you alone at night. You smooth-talk your way out of lynches to the best of your ability during the day as well, by hinting that you are necessary to the town and creating a divide. Athlai is definitely a smooth talker. Add this to the fact that he has a night role and values that information...and I am suspicious.

- You are taking a massive risk upfront to secure information that will help your anti-town buddies. I can totally picture an anti-town group having someone who looks for information on people, and another killer. I've seen that before on other games.

- You're a dick who just cbf. Athlai fits this too tbf

-------------

I want to hear what Athlai has to say. IMO, we err to the side of caution. We know he has a role. We know he is willing to spend all his money on that info. If we let him get away, we may regret it.

 

I keeping my lynch on Athers now, but by no means am I certain he is against Town. I want to hear him out. Also open to everyone's theories and insights.

Just very odd behavior on day 1 from Athlai there by my book.

 

Like, I dont think Athlai is dumb enough to make a move that can so easily be read as being anti-Town, but I also think he is smart enough to make exactly such a move, and then respond indifferently under pressure and insist there was no deeper anti-town sentiment to it. I mean, that's the perfect way to respond isn't it? "Eh, I gave my reasons, go ahead and lynch me if you want, you'll regret it". Any effort to properly fight it will either require a risky role reveal, or come off as super defensive. By dismissing the accusations casually, he turns attention onto the accusers...

Hmmm.

Other players to provide insights plz.