U-Pick is... Mafia adjacent. The first U-Pick games I ran were on RateYourMusic.com many years ago and this shall be the second such game on The Syndicate. I think I stole the idea from Mafiascum or something but that's not important.
The idea of regular U-Pick games is that it’s a normal mafia game with a theme such as “Superheroes” or “Pro-wrestlers” and you have to pick a character to roleplay as from within that theme. Initially that was what we did on RYM but eventually I decided, fuck it, and let people pick whatever they wanted. So, some people picked their favourite sports stars, some characters from video games, some people picked historical figures etc, but what I really found interesting was when people sent me random gifs and said “this is my role”, or decided that they would be a recipe or even just some incoherent idea. Abstract stuff. Like this.
Now, generally I’d have a real balanced mafia game written up first and then let people pick their characters and they get to just roleplay as that in the confines of a hunk dory, bonafide mafia game, but ... that's boring. What I do is get you to pick your characters, and then I make the entire game and try as best as I can to build something coherent, including roles, theme, story arc and plotlines featuring a cavalcade of characters that make zero sense. It’s a nutso bastard game. So don’t play if you’re going to complain about bastard roles. This game is purely for entertainment. This game is the answer to the question “If MacDougall was a ride at Disney World, what would it be?”
The original Syndicate U-Pick Anything was played a couple of years ago, and highlights included:
- The two mafia teams being “ISIS Cream” and “Al Pieda” which attracted a number of spybots to the site.
- A role designed to get people to complain to the mod about them.
- Turnip Head was “A 20-sided die but one side is weighted just a teensy bit heavier than the others and I'm a gambler's dice and they call me Grifter's Gamble and also I'm black”.
- A Dimension of Lost Souls (Ghouls) that players got banished to where they were tortured (or humoured I suppose) by guest participants roleplaying as demons with various personality defects including people who hadn’t played on the site in years, and myself spending hours upon hours talking to myself with two tabs open just to entertain Juliets.
- Me forgetting to give Dragon D. Luffy a role until halfway through day 1 and then giving him a very broken one to make up for it.
- Four people playing as food and drinks including a salad roll, a bowl of noodles, eggs benedict and beer.
- Epignosis making a new emoji to commemorate his character, some random baseball guy.
- The search for Steven Tyler’s lost nipple.
- A surprisingly close game that came down to the wire.
Testimonials from U-Pick Volume 1
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