The Syndicate

For Beatrice -

When first I saw you I was over the moon.
When last I saw you you were under the ground.

CIVVIES (13) Need both mafia teams dead to win.
Violet Baudelaire – Violet is a brilliant inventor. She will create a new device every night and send it to a player of her choice.

Klaus Baudelaire – Klaus loves to read, and is constantly learning. Twice in the game Klaus can send in a role and discover which player has that role.

Sunny Baudelaire – Sunny may be small, but her teeth are razor sharp. To defend her siblings, Sunny will kill every even night.

Mr. Poe – Mr. Poe is the executor of the Baudelaire estate, but even though he means well, he is unbelievably incompetent. Every night Mr. Poe will try to help a player. There is a 1/3 chance that player will be blocked, a 1/3 chance they will be silenced, and a 1/3 chance they will be killed.

Dr. Montgomery Montgomery – Uncle Monty is one of the few kind, reasonable people in this story. He will protect a player every night by hiding them in his Reptile Room.

Josephine Anwhistle – Aunt Josephine is afraid of nearly everything, but she's never afraid to correct someone's grammar. She will select a statement each night and discover whether it is true or false.

Hector – Hector is a friendly handyman. He may use his flying machine to stop one lynch and switch another.

Jerome Squalor – Jerome is a decent guy, but he's a total pushover at first. Every other day Jerome's vote will increase by 1.

Isadora Quagmire – BTSC with Duncan.

Duncan Quagmire – BTSC with Isadora.

Hal – Hal works in the Library of Records. He will search the records to role check a player every night.

Justice Strauss – In the event of a tie, Justice Strauss' vote will be the tie breaker.

Kit Snicket - SECRET


BADDIES (8)

COUNT OLAF'S TROUPE (4) Kill every odd night. Need the civvies and Ghastly Guardians dead to win.
Count Olaf – He is obsessed with the Baudelaire fortune, and will stop at nothing to get it. Olaf is a master of digsuise, so if role checked he will come back as a random civvie. SECRET

The Hook-Handed Man – He may discover the identity of a dead player every night.

The Powder-Faced Women – Their vote counts for two as long as at least one other member of the Troupe votes the same way.

The Person of Indeterminate Gender – This huge androgynous person will block a player every night.


THE GHASTLY GUARDIANS (4) Kill every even night. Need the civvies and Count Olaf's Troupe dead to win.
Esme Squalor – Esme is obsessed with fashion and high society. She won't allow herself to be lynched unless she gets at least two-thirds of the votes. SECRET

Vice Principal Nero – Nero is the tyrannical authority at Prufrock Preparatory School. He will dole out a different punishment to a player every night.

Carmelita Spats – Carmelita is a spoiled, obnoxious rich kid. Her wealth allows her to buy a player off every night. If that person attempts to target Carmelita, it will fail on the first attempt.

Sir – Sir is the co-owner of the Lucky Smells Lumbermill and a ruthless businessman. Every night Sir can redirect a player's power.


INDEPENDENT (4)

THE VILLAGE OF FOWL DEVOTEES (2) – The Village of Fowl Devotees are a reclusive, authoritarian society with a strict code of laws. However, they are not actively malicious. They will win by surviving to the end. Each night the VFD has a block and a protect to use between them.

Mrs. Morrow

Mr. Lesko


Olivia Caliban – Olivia just wants to make everyone happy, but she can't please everyone. She can use her crystal ball to role check a player every night, and on Night 5 she must choose a team to align with.


Ishmael – Ishmael is the leader of a peaceful island community. Every night he will attempt to recruit a player. He will have a 50% chance of bringing them into his fold. Ishmael's team will win if they outnumber the other living players at any point. He will also survive the first NK and lynch attempt on his life.



Rules (A word which here means statutes):

1. No unauthorized BTSC.
2. No role outing or hinting of oneself or others. No other infodumping either.
3. Votes are not changeable.
4. No double targeting.
5. Keep it civil. If you have issues, take it to the MoD.
6. No editing posts.
7. Host colour is fuchsia. Nobody else post in fuchsia.

PLAYERS:
1. Epi - killed by Sunny Night 6 - Kit Snicket
2. Dom - lynched Day 3 - Josephine Anwhistle
3. Quin - Mrs. Morrow
4. MP - Ishmael
5. Soup - killed by Sunny and Esme Night 2 - Hector
6. Golden - Mr. Poe
7. DDL - Duncan Quagmire
8. Daisy - Sunny Baudelaire
9. Scotty - Killed Night 1 - Justice Strauss
10. Jackofhearts - Mr. Lesko
11. LC - lynched Day 6 - Olivia Caliban
12. Sprityo - Lynched Day 1 - Hal
13. Soneji - killed by Mr. Poe Night 4 - The Hook-Handed Man
14. Wilgy - killed by Count Olaf Night 3 - Carmeita Spats
15. Lorab - killed by Mr. Poe Night 2 - Isadora Quagmire
16. MM - killed by Mr. Poe Night 5 - Esme Squalor
17. INH - Killed by Mr. Poe Night 3 - Klaus Baudelaire
18. Sorsha - lynched Day 7 - The Person of Indeterminate Gender
19. Marco - replaced by Dom Day 4 - Jerome Squalor
20. Zebra - killed by Count Olaf Night 5 - Vice Principal Nero
21. Snow Dog - lynched Day 4 - Dr. Montgomery Montgomery
22. Glorfindel - replaced by Sprityo Night 1 - Lynched Day 2 - The Powder-Faced Women
23. Sig - Violet Baudelaire
24. Elo - lynched Day 5 - Sir
25. Nacho - Killed by Sunny Night 4 - Count Olaf
Roles and the Day 0 post are incoming.


DF

Epi
Dom
Quin
MP
Soup
Golden
DDL
Daisy
Scotty
Jackofhearts
LC
Sprityo
Soneji
Wilgy
Lorab
MM
INH
Sorsha
Marco
Zebra
Snow Dog
Glorfindel
Sig
Elo
Nacho

Yay game!

I'm going East because Mr. Randomizer told me to.

Whoa... Briny Beach is a shore with a SW to NE angle. Moving East OR South would take one directly into the water. Is that legit?

I just want to say that this game is already awesome - I am loving the classic array of roles and high power levels in play!! I feel like I'm playing one of my game in that regard. And some of the roles are cool and new as well.... like "The Powder-Faced Women – Their vote counts for two as long as at least one other member of the Troupe votes the same way. " I have never seen that before, and I be diggin' it.

And finally, although I haven't read the books, I feel like that opening post is true to the narrative style, and I enjoyed it very much.

I think you'd like the books, LC--and they are quick reads. They are full of dark humor, mystery, and fun. I loved them.

I'm going to vote east before I forget to vote. I have a busy day tomorrow at work and am then likely heading into NYC for the night. I have plans with my parents on Monday night (to see Hamilton. Whoo hoo!!!!!) and will be doing city things during the day. At any rate, I will be busy tomorrow, and may not get a chance to vote, which was really my point here.

I don't know anything about these books. The south is nice and warm this time of year though (in the US anyway) so that's where I'm headed.

I haven't read the books either. I might pick it up the next time I head to a book store. I voted north, because the voices told me to.

Woot!

First Syndicate game.

I'm thinking the auto janitored nightkills are going to be the toughest thing to get used to.

Open setups? Lots of power roles? Inability to roleclaim? Been there (though only in vanilla games for that last one).

Not knowing how many bad guys have been killed off by vig/sker/other mafia? That's a massive change from what I'm used to and I'm not sure how exactly to deal with that.

Inability to claim and infodump significantly changes how one would play a survivor or info gathering role, respectively. Janitoring vig changes how one would play the vig role. This will be good for survivors, who I generally view as way too easy/boring to win with when you can claim. Info gatherers will be harder to play as but I think I'll like this better as they can't be a crutch. I guess I'd be tempted to not use a vig kill much under these rules. On my home board, I'd usually vig kill every night, seeing it as an extra lynch but here, a lynch is far more valuable than a nightkill to the town just because of the autopsy. All other roles should play pretty darn similar to what I'm used to.

Anyway. That's enough musing about the rule changes from what I'm used to.

Long Con wrote:Whoa... Briny Beach is a shore with a SW to NE angle. Moving East OR South would take one directly into the water. Is that legit?

LoRab wrote:I'm going to vote east before I forget to vote.

Sorsha wrote:The south is nice and warm this time of year though (in the US anyway) so that's where I'm headed.

Three consecutive posts. Makes me laugh.

What's the likely significance of the direction choice?

Not being able to change my vote is also going to take a bit of getting used to.

Yeah, you just have to theorize how many baddies are left, and learn to assume the worst.

What is VIG and what is janitored?

LoRab wrote:What is VIG and what is janitored?

Vig = Vigilante, or a (usually) civ with a night kill.

Janitor is a mafia role that hides the role of players that are night killed. It essentially does what is already the norm here, where players killed at night don't have their roles revealed.

I just realised that I'm playing three games. Ironically, I'm now glad that I completely fell off the wagon in Lost because if we were still in it I'd have four games to deal with.

I was supposed to be taking a break.

I think it's weird that there are places that tell the role of the nightkilled player by default. Everything I have seen, it's part of the essential mystery of the game to have nightkills be unknown.

Just a brief pop in. I'll probably wait until the morning to give this thread a proper read.

It's hard work to stop myself from writing in haiku. I may have screwed my brain over by playing both of these games at once lol.

North is where the snow (and the Quin) is.

I'm playing without reading my role.

Jackofhearts2005 wrote:Woot!

First Syndicate game.

Welcome to The Syndicate and welcome to this game, my friend I trust this will be the beginning of a long and happy association that you will have with us all here

I've just had to endure a week of near heat-wave temperatures and as a consequence of my now oft-repeated threats to move to Tasmania to escape this intolerable Queensland heat, I'm voting south!

I have read the books(first four or five, so some of them, with the full intention of continuing. Possible very soon. I stopped for a break which lasted many years. Time slips away.) and I have seen the film (rather good, based on first three books) and intend to watch the TV series (which seems to take it cue from the film, at least visually it does).

Long Con wrote:I think it's weird that there are places that tell the role of the nightkilled player by default. Everything I have seen, it's part of the essential mystery of the game to have nightkills be unknown.

Totally agree. Although I have very limited experience in these matters.

I do believe that this is my first DFaraday game, so am looking forward to this.

Glorfindel wrote:I've just had to endure a week of near heat-wave temperatures and as a consequence of my now oft-repeated threats to move to Tasmania to escape this intolerable Queensland heat, I'm voting south!

Jackofhearts2005 wrote:What's the likely significance of the direction choice?

Not being able to change my vote is also going to take a bit of getting used to.

There may or may not be some rewards/pitfalls/game events connected to the map, and the chosen direction could influence how that plays out. Or, it could group all the players into four different sections, and something like "the Mafia teams were told that South is wrong" could come out later, leading to some theorizing based on how people voted. Or, the poll could be just a timing placeholder to denote when Day 0 ends, and have no meaning or impact beyond that.

Feel free to place a 'non-vote' on someone in the thread, if you need the threat of your vote to make them squirm. Like "my vote is on Long Con as of now, for *reasons*, we'll see if that changes by the time I cast my real vote!"

Long Con wrote:

Long Con wrote:Whoa... Briny Beach is a shore with a SW to NE angle. Moving East OR South would take one directly into the water. Is that legit?

LoRab wrote:I'm going to vote east before I forget to vote.

Sorsha wrote:The south is nice and warm this time of year though (in the US anyway) so that's where I'm headed.

Three consecutive posts. Makes me laugh.

Just realized I misread the map... I thought the land was water and vice-versa. So I want to correct this to say that North and West are the choices that take one directly into the water.

SO.... I will head East as well, because that's where most everything is. Including that intriguing little pyramid!

Where are we on the map?

Snow Dog wrote:Where are we on the map?

Briny Beach

Long Con wrote:

Snow Dog wrote:Where are we on the map?

Briny Beach

East it is then.

Snow Dog wrote:I'm playing without reading my role.

If we lynch you, do we get to read your role?

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Snow Dog wrote:I'm playing without reading my role.

If we lynch you, do we get to read your role?

Sure!

Snow Dog wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Snow Dog wrote:I'm playing without reading my role.

If we lynch you, do we get to read your role?

Sure!

Excellent! I know where my Day 1 vote is going.

My one true love waits for me in the south...

Long Con wrote:I think it's weird that there are places that tell the role of the nightkilled player by default. Everything I have seen, it's part of the essential mystery of the game to have nightkills be unknown.

This way certainly makes the game more difficult for town, that's for sure.

Long Con wrote:I think it's weird that there are places that tell the role of the nightkilled player by default. Everything I have seen, it's part of the essential mystery of the game to have nightkills be unknown.

The only true mystery there needs to be in the core mafia game is who is mafia. Part of the unraveling of that mystery is seeing who flips mafia to make associative reads, default janitoring hinders that to an extent. I also can't get behind a system where there is no info dumping alongside default janitoring, the balance of no info dumping is still being able to see the cop/tracker/watcher flip then work out if their strong reads were based on scumhunting or ability info.

Janitoring should be tied to a role and/or be a limited resource.

Like Link in MM, we head South to the first temple.

Nachomamma8 wrote:My one true love waits for me in the south...

True love is best manifested in a firelit cabin in the cold, snowy tundra to the north.

Tell your true love to head for Calgary.

Linki: Come again?

Oooh, Majora's Mask (not me). I get it now.

Soneji wrote:Janitoring should be tied to a role and/or be a limited resource.

I've been playing Mafia online for almost nine years, and this is the first time anyone has ever even suggested that nightkills should be revealed by default. I think "should" is much too strong a word here, the game is well-balanced this way.

Long Con wrote:

Soneji wrote:Janitoring should be tied to a role and/or be a limited resource.

I've been playing Mafia online for almost nine years, and this is the first time anyone has ever even suggested that nightkills should be revealed by default. I think "should" is much too strong a word here, the game is well-balanced this way.

To be fair, the Syndicate is the only place I've ever played that employs this mechanic by default.

I like it a lot! But I think we're generally in the minority here.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Long Con wrote:

Soneji wrote:Janitoring should be tied to a role and/or be a limited resource.

I've been playing Mafia online for almost nine years, and this is the first time anyone has ever even suggested that nightkills should be revealed by default. I think "should" is much too strong a word here, the game is well-balanced this way.

To be fair, the Syndicate is the only place I've ever played that employs this mechanic by default.

I like it a lot! But I think we're generally in the minority here.

Besides Lostpedia, The Piano, and Revolution Mafia, of course. RYM forums or SpoilerTV? I never followed the Championship games too closely, were all nightkills revealed there?

Not revealing nightkilled roles made Llama's recent Monkey Island game much more interesting near the end than it would have been. We didn't know if one or both Mafia teams were still around... if EVERY dead player's role was known, there's a lot more process of elimination that can be done. Sounds like a simpler game to play.

I could get behind splitting the difference with alignment only flips. While no janitoring is more comfortable to me, I'm big on trying new things.

Snow Dog wrote:I'm playing without reading my role.

This seems like a terrible idea.

If you're being truthful and you're town, this only hurts your performance.

If you're being truthful and you're scum, maybe you don't accidentally give yourself away with a scumtell.

You could also be scum and lying, using this as a shield. "Anything scummy I say can't actually be scummy cause I don't even know my alignment."

I'm with the marmot. You seem like a great first lynch.

Nightkills were revealed in the Championships, yes.

This is also the first site that I've seen that janitors nightkills as a default; I think it's annoying in multiball where difficulty for town is already increased (scum can and should probably legitimately scumhunt), but I don't really mind it here because the people are fun enough to make up for that particular pitfall.

I disagree that vigs should hold their shots, though; increased town-directed kills are well worth the tradeoff of less information.

North, one of the greatest movies of all time.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Hey gang,

Sloonei and I are going to cooperatively serve as MoDs in this game. If you have any concerns at all or become frustrated, angry, or otherwise miffed, please shoot one of us or both of us a PM and we'll talk it through with you. I'm sure it'll be a great game and I look forward to following along.

Hello folks! I am indeed the other member of your RYM MoD Squad for this game. Ditto everything Jay just said. This is a great looking crew and I look forward to watching the game unfold.