The Syndicate

Locking thread. Will be sending role-cards in the next few minutes once I attach a link to the game thread to all role-cards.

Oh and nearly forgot to courtesy tag MoDs @Hally and @Made for the post above.

The game has been resized and rebalanced to have 13 players.

This means the game is instantaneously full. However, as I said in the past, I'm giving a roughly a 1-day grace period for people to /out or otherwise just in case they forgot that they /in'ed here. So in ~24 hours from now (at 8 PM EST) I will submit role-cards if there is still enough signs for the game to run. The normal 48-hour gap after role-cards are sent will be shortened to 44 hours if this is the case, to ensure the game will begin on this Wednesday, at 4PM EST.

Currently, there's 14 players and not 13 players who are /in'ed (the game now only needs 13). Master Radishes has been kind enough to volunteer to sub instead, which I will opt for them to do if no one /outs or otherwise by the end of the grace period.

On a separate note, on certain IRL days I may have to move the SoD/EoD time to be an hour earlier, at 3PM EST. Meaning some day phases or night phases will either be 1 less or 1 more hour long instead of the normal 48/24 hours. If this happens, I will be sure to let the game know as soon as possible. I apologize if you find an issue with this, but this is the most consistent time I can give for me to be there at every SoD/EoD as the host while processing various events or actions.

With regards to balance, I believe the game is balanced enough but please keep in mind several roles and/or abilities were changed as a result of the re-balancing, and so it may be slightly less balanced than it originally was with the larger game size.

dunya wrote: ↑Sat Aug 21, 2021 7:15 pm 3 more players needed and those 3 are gonna be YOU

As much as I appreciate the final push for this, per one of my previous posts here I'm downsizing the game to about 12-13 players within the next 10 hours.

So getting more people to /in would cause an issue where someone may have to voluntarily /out for the game to run. Though I guess I could try re-balancing again, to for example meet 15 players, but that would take more time and If I rushed it then it could just be fairly unbalanced. Also I would be kinda going against my own word there : p.

I have added Jay's (Link) recommended blurb on site rules to the rules listed on the setup. This blurb will also be in any future games I host unless it is modified, replaced, or removed. I have also clarified that the additional rules listed in the setup, but outside of the blurb, are my personal rules and in that sense usually don't carry the same weight outside of potential in-game consequences.

The linked post for my personal rules also has been modified; There aren't any new rules, but three rules that used to be there I figured were likely covered by the concept (and emphasis on) respect and so I removed them as they were potentially already covered by the site rules.

Gavial wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:39 pm Message me on Discord about it Martin.

I'm preety sure if I told you something in private that I did not tell others then that would be unfair.

Anyways, I don't mind answering this publicly, there aren't any purely-vanilla roles. There may be power roles that are probably stronger or weaker than others though, and could be seen as "vanilla".

Additionally every role has a limited number of shots to their ability/abilities, so you will effectively become vanilla at some point provided you live long enough.

If the game does not fill by August 20th:

The size of the game will be reduced by 25-30% (i.e. down to 12-13 players), depending on a re-evaluation of balance in accordance with the smaller game size. Such changes will then be made by the end of the 22nd of August, EST time zone.

If the re-balance and re-sizing of the game would mean that the game is automatically full, I will give a 1-day grace period before roles are sent out (the normal 2-day grace period after roles are sent out will still exist) to allow the then-current signs to recognize the change in game size and to reconsider their sign-up if necessary for them.

After such changes, signups will likely only be up until September 5th at which point signups will be canceled voluntarily by me if the game is not filled.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:38 am Perhaps some clarification will help:

Will players have to post exclusively with smilies, or are smilies just the theme? The former is a relatively common phenomenon abroad.

Really? I didn't know that. I checked out that one Syn mentioned to me before:

Syn wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:38 pm On CFC, we've run a couple smilies games.

If you need inspiration, feel free to check the latest to run.

Smilie Mafia 3: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/ ... ry.659154/

Its not guaranteed at all that it is closely similar to this game aside from theme, but using smilies to post wasn't required.

Personally, I'm not sure how that would affect balance too if I did add such a requirement. I mean, would the mafia be force to post emojis in their mafia chat as well, for example? It just adds complications that the current setup I doubt accounts for at the moment by hindering effective communication.

Edit: Added this clarification to OP.

This may take awhile due to the time of the year + other signups : p

Which I'm find with waiting, though the EoD may have to be changed if this reaches mid-august.

This is a semi-open setup.

~~Public Setup Information:


-General:


Each player gets two completely unique smilies, and an additional alignment smilie. Here are the alignment smilies for the Mafia and the Town:

Your alignment is Town.

Your alignment is Mafia.

There may or may not be a third party.

Most non-alignment smilies have abilities or effects/passives. Aside from a smilie that doesn't give an ability or effect, there are no duplicate abilities. Anyone with a smilie that doesn't give an ability for that smilie will have this written:

You don't have any more abilities.

All active abilities have limited shots or something to that effect. Some may have more limitations. All abilities, active or not, are at least somewhat inspired by the smilie that has it. Additionally, for player & host convenience, all active or passive abilities have an assigned "Processing Level" to it to give you an idea as to when your ability occurs. See the spoiler for full details.
You are informed if your abilities fail, including abilities that may not normally generate feedback. If your night abilities fail for whatever reason, either due to interference or due to ability limitation or otherwise, you would receive something like this as feedback:

Your ability/night-action failed.

You may claim abilities/smilies in this game. You may mass-claim too, but if you do then I would begin to wonder whether you're a player or rather an agent of Chaos. In other words, there is no strict soup-kill or rule preventing claiming. There is no guarantee of negatives or benefits from mass-claiming BUT it could back-fire in a number of ways in varying degrees. Probably even more ways than I can think of. Or someone just straight soul-reads me and my past few month's occasional work into this setup and throws all non-town into oblivion.

I will not be commenting on the nature of fake-claims for non-towns.

-Rules:

Firstly, a reminder of the site/community rules:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑ Remember that the premier rules in any Syndicate Mafia game come straight from the site rules. Review those rules below, and direct any concerns you may have to the host or moderator(s) on duty.

[Link] Rules and Guidelines on The Syndicate

Also always be mindful of the culture of respect that must be maintained in all Syndicate spaces at all times, to include this game thread and any external communication spaces relating to the game. Players must be respectful to one another, to the game host, to the members of the staff overseeing the game, to the game itself by way of its rules and spirit, to the Syndicate community in general, and ideally also to themselves. Respect is never optional. See our full manifesto on our culture of respect below.

[Link] A Syndicate Mafia Culture of Respect

Please remember that there is always a game "Moderator On Duty" (MoD) or "Game Facilitator" assigned to every game on The Syndicate. They are there to listen to your problems during the game and can potentially assist you if you have any issues with another player or the host. Their purpose, in that aspect, is to make the game more enjoyable for everyone involved while also more respectful if need be.

Secondly, here are my personal game rules. If you break these, you likely won't get administrative action from staff (outside of maliciously disrespecting the host and/or other players when doing so) but you may suffer in-game consequences if I deem it reasonable.

You don't *have* to read my personal rules, as most of it is just the unwritten rules of Forum Mafia written down, but if you want to make sure you don't step on any toes then read it. It also contains my definitions of angle-shooting and bastardry (towards the end of it) which may be relevant to you even if you knew all the rules.

Link: Martin's General Setup Rules & Clarification

-Mechanics/Other:

~~~Phases:
Day 48h / Night 24h
-SoD/EoD will be at 4 PM (EST).
-There is no night 0; the game begins on day 1.
-During the night, the thread will be closed.
-Actions are submissable up to 1 hour prior to an EoD/SoD.
-There may be temporary slight adjustments to SoD/EoD/Day/Night times or lengths if I run into a very unexpected scheduling issue. When I host for a set time, I expect myself to be there and able.

~~~Day Elimination/Execution/Chop (EEC):
-There is no single term I use when referring to EEC's. I may end up even using the word "Deletion/Deleted" instead at times on a whim.
-EEC's are done by vote in a poll at the top of the page. It will be in a plurality-based format.
-The very moment the EoD time hits :00 on my computer is when I will refresh the page, screenshot the poll, and then post it + lock the thread. Role flip(s) after death will be posted soon after as well processing as any day actions.
-Any ties for EEC will be determined arbitrarily by whoever posted first in the game. The person who posted last will be the day's EEC.
-There will be an option to skip. However, the number of players voting to skip must be greater than the total players voting to chop anyone (Ex: 2 votes on A and 1 vote on B means 4 votes are needed to skip).
-Votes are never locked unless you were forced to vote by an ability. This doesn't mean that there is a vote-forcing ability in the game.
-It is recommended that you make a post with the [VOTE: ] aubergine tag whenever you do vote in the poll. It is not required, however.

~~~Factional kill Mechanics:
-Members of a faction that can kill may vote who to kill each night.
-In the event of a tie among the votes, the voter with the longest Syndicate name arbitrarily wins the vote.
-Factional kills are mandatory. If there are no votes, the kill will be randomized among non-faction players.
-Factional kills are assigned to be done by a faction member. If there are no volunteers, this is randomized.
-Factional kills don't cost a player their night-action. If they used one of their abilities and did the kill in a night, a typical tracker role could see them visiting two targets at the same time.

~~~One last Note~~~
There will be at least a 48-hour gap from when role-cards are sent out and the start time/date of the game. During that time, you are to reply to the role-card PM to confirm you are aware of your role and that the game is starting. Doing this task takes very little time, and unless your local power line got zapped by Zeus I don't expect any excuses for not confirming your role-card. Therefore, you will be replaced if you don't confirm/respond.


Role-cards will be sent out when the following are true:

• Edit: See my latest post(s) down below.