The Syndicate

This game will be the third in a series of six TV sitcom themed Heist games that I will be hosting over a long period of time.

The first game was Futurama.
The second game was Parks and Recreation.

The remaining themes are as follows: Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, and Scrubs.

At the end of each TV sitcom game, players and non-players will vote on which one I will next submit to the Heist queue; the entry with the most votes will win. At the end of Parks and Recreation, the players spoke, and that's why this Seinfeld game is next!

All TV sitcom games are closed setup, with role outing and infodumping permitted and encouraged.

Following JJJ's Arrested Development Mafia, all TV sitcom games will be U-Pick. Before the start of the game, every player will PM me a list of five characters from Seinfeld they would like to be; if they fail to do so, their character will be selected by the host or MoD.

Roleplaying is heavily encouraged. At the end of the game, I will be presenting an award for Best Roleplay in addition to MVP.

The players have spoken! Sockpuppets will be employed again for this second game, so everyone will post as their Seinfeld character. Depending on player demand, the other games in the series may or may not feature sockpuppets in lieu of regular accounts.

Inspired by Thingyman's Matrix 12 setup for the Mafia Championship Season 3 on Mafia Universe, I have developed my own TV Sitcom Matrix (nicknamed the "What-If Machine" after the device in Futurama) for this series of games. Each game will use one (1) of the following setups, chosen randomly at the start of the game. The setup will not be revealed during the game.




Thus, there are 8 possible setups: 1, 2, 3, 4, A, B, C, and D.

Each setup specifies only 4 roles, so the remaining 11 roles will always be split between 9 vanilla townies and 2 mafia goons.

Each setup has exactly 3 non-vanilla roles, since that is the maximum per Heist rules.


Role Index:
1-Shot Town Vigilante - During one night of this player's choice, he or she may night kill any one player. One-time use.
Town Cop - Every night, this player selects a player of his or her choice to ID (alignment check).
Town Cop (Odd nights) - Every odd night, this player selects a player of his or her choice to ID (alignment check).
Town Cop w/ n0 town check - This player receives an alignment check on a randomly selected town player to start the game. Every night, this player selects a player of his or her choice to ID (alignment check).
Town Sick Innocent Child (d1-4 reveal) - This role will be confirmed by the host to be town publicly at the start of either day 1, 2, 3, or 4. However, that player will die at the start of the following day. At the start of the game, the host will randomize which of the four days will apply to the game; the role will be unaware of which day has been selected.
Town Jailkeeper - Every night, this player selects a player of his or her choice to both protect from all night kills and role block.
Town Masons (2) - These two roles have BTSC and may communicate privately outside of the game thread.
Town Miller - If targeted with an ID (alignment) check, this player will appear as mafia.
Vanilla Townie - This player has no role power.
1-Shot Mafia Vigilante - During one night of this player's choice, he or she may night kill any one player. One-time use.
Mafia Godfather - If targeted with an ID (alignment) check, this player will appear as town.
Mafia Goon - This player has no role power.
Mafia Jack of All Trades - This player has three one-time use role abilities; however, these abilities will differ based on the setup randomized. The abilities could be any of the following combinations.
Setup A: 1-shot roleblock, 1-shot silence, and 1-shot frame (targeted townie will appear mafia if ID'd by the cop that night).
Setup B: 1-shot roleblock, 1-shot protection, and 1-shot role cop.
Setup 1: 1-shot roleblock, 1-shot role cop, and 1-shot frame (targeted townie will appear mafia if ID'd by the cop that night).
Setup 2: 1-shot night kill, 1-shot role cop, and 1-shot silence.

Aside from the Festivus episode around the holidays, I haven't watched this show in a couple of years. That will change in preparation for this game.

Sloonei wrote:Aside from the Festivus episode around the holidays, I haven't watched this show in a couple of years. That will change in preparation for this game.

I plan on marathoning it (again) myself. The level of consistently high quality episodes across 9 seasons never fails to astound and entertain me.

You can pretty much chalk me up as "in". Even if at the time of this game I happen to be a victim in a hostage crisis with no access to the Internet I'll find a way to make it work.

It hasn't had many opportunities to show around here, but my favorite thing in Mafia is to roleplay. On RYM, the Maffie(Socky) award that I always most coveted was Best Roleplay. Sloonei and Mungbean always provided such fierce competition though.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:It hasn't had many opportunities to show around here, but my favorite thing in Mafia is to roleplay. On RYM, the Maffie(Socky) award that I always most coveted was Best Roleplay. Sloonei and Mungbean always provided such fierce competition though.

As a player, I don't like to engage in roleplay unless it's a theme I'm super comfortable with, and even then I'll abandon it fairly quickly most of the time because I don't think I'm very good at it and because my "mafia is about 'the hunt', not roleplaying" mindset takes over.

That said, I'd love to see more games encouraging roleplay on this site, even where it isn't a concerted effort with sockpuppets and such. I've incredibly enjoyed hosting these things so far, and witnessing the all-around excellent roleplay has been a huge contributor to that enjoyment. I also noticed that the players seem to really take to it and enjoy it; they will still engage in playing the game plenty as well.

This should be tough roleplay to pull and I'm saying this having watched the whole thing at least four times.

Ricochet wrote:This should be tough roleplay to pull and I'm saying this having watched the whole thing at least four times.

Yeah, even though there are a ton of quotable, outstanding moments, so many of those moments are based on physical comedy and interactions among the cast. It'll be interesting to see how it translates (or not) into the game.

Looking forward to this.