Excalibur 2.0: Conclusion

[AwesomeStar]

Well, it's 2am and I got what I stayed up for

Good night and well done to everyone! Definitely one of my favourite mafias.

[Scouty]

First Officer Commander Cameron Walters (Scouts)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Commander Cameron Walters, first officer of the Excalibur. You operate and control the bridge while the Captain is either off the bridge or off the ship. You’re completely loyal to United Earth, and have a great distain for those who seek to halt the exploration of space. You have been in the navy for twelve years, and are one of the youngest first officers to ascend to your position. You work under Captain Ross McTague, and you admire him. He is your teacher, and one day you hope to take his spot as captain of the Excalibur.

You are a loyalist, and love space and the Excalibur’s mission of exploration. You have no night actions, because you must rest for your daily duties. Please confirm in the discussion thread

I think I did the role justice. It's my third time as a vanilla (I was vanilla in the first one, too), and my second as dying as one. I really think, if I had not been so stupidly killed by a paranoid town (Which, I forgive you guys...mostly ), I would have most likely lasted to the end. But that didn't happen, so who knows what could have been. I wish I had not been killed off with my opinion of there being a leak, which there never was one, and that WBD was mightily suspicious as being said leak. Somehow it was imagined that I was the leak, over something I never said, so the town just froze me in carbonite forever. Jerks. I have to give you props on your analyses, though, WBD. They're not flawless, but you were very close and right on with swils, and made the dead sad when you apparently dropped it until the last day. You were the savior of the town .

[Shadows]

Ok, but you didn't work very hard to get any of us lynched or killed as far as I could tell throughout the game (except with swils). I mean other than telling us all we suck

I was trying to stay alive, I had a role to protect and when I accuse people, I just get metagamed myself killed. Privately, I pushed as hard as I could, but the town blockheads didn't listen well.

Telling you all that you sucked was part of my plan to justify my roleclaim that I couldn't be killed easily, almost taunting you to do it. Look how long it took before anyone bit? Plus it was just fun, and fun is what this game is about. I never told anyone else that they sucked, did I? York does not count, I think we can agree on that.

if I had not been so stupidly killed by a paranoid town (Which, I forgive you guys...mostly )

I really was pissed when they did that. If I had known, I would have protected you myself.

They're not flawless, but you were very close and right one with swils, and made the dead sad when you apparently dropped it until the last day. You were the savior of the town .

Yeah, he did a better job than even I realised during the game, I should have contacted him directly with my last-minute suspicions instead of who I did. It didn't help that the two I chose were really not the best, Draggy and fhomess: one person nobody ever wants to trust and one who just disappeared on the town at the last minute, and never listened overly well anyway.

[Scouty]

York does not count, I think we can agree on that.

Yup !

I really was pissed when they did that. If I had known, I would have protected you myself.

I believe it was a last minute decision and they never bothered to even test me about it. Stupid to the max, I'm sorry to say. My only indication that something was wrong was the terseness in writing of both Tammo and fhomess in our PM threads. I ought to have asked for protection, but some would consider it a scummy move !

[Hinckley]

Several are confused as to how Fhomess and Inky died.

Fhomess died due to lack of participation, but Inky died due to lack of town participation. I numbered each member of the town 1-4, and then used a random number generator to pick one. He was picked.

[Shadows]

I believe it was a last minute decision and they never bothered to even test me about it. Stupid to the max, I'm sorry to say.

The justification for it was that you had claimed not to know something that they had told you. Considering how many times both of them contradicted themselves, it was just a horrible decision.

[Scouty]

The justification for it was that you had claimed not to know something that they had told you. Considering how many times both of them contradicted themselves, it was just a horrible decision.

I know that the "justification" for the kill was that I was claiming I didn't know about darkdragon's kill targeting on Night 4. Two problems with that (after scanning all my pm threads): 1) I never said that 2) I had been vehemently in support of lynching darkdragon for a while by then. What retard of a scum would I have been if I did that? Even your small suspicion of darkdragon in our conversations, and seeing her end up scum, confirmed to me that you were town, so I don't know how that couldn't have applied to me as well (except I was killed before the confirmation of DD's scumminess.)

This is definitely a good lesson in not being stupidly paranoid and making rash decisions, one that I will certain take for my next game.

[Tamamono]

Thanks for hosting this, Bob, you really did a great job! I know it must be hard having to host back-to-back games (almost), so I'm very grateful that you continued on and finished it out.

And congrats and kudos to the town team who made the win possible (namely WBD). You guys were all great allies, and while you started fucking up a bit near the end (which was mostly my part, so I'm sorry about that. ), you pulled together and wiped out the last of the scum with one final push! Great job, guys!

And Scuba, you were a great ally too, even though you were planning to kill me the whole time. We were star-crossed allies, as they say.

Here's my role PM:

Science Officer Lieutenant Michael McAndrews (Tamamono)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Lieutenant Michael McAndrews, science officer aboard the Excalibur. You like science and enjoy studying and learning new things every day. You’re the most knowledgeable of your staff, despite the fact that some have attended excellent and prestigious universities such as MIT.

You are a loyalist, and each night you may block someone. Please confirm in the discussion thread.

[Darkdragon]

I was trying to stay alive, I had a role to protect and when I accuse people, I just get metagamed myself killed. Privately, I pushed as hard as I could, but the town blockheads didn't listen well.

Telling you all that you sucked was part of my plan to justify my roleclaim that I couldn't be killed easily, almost taunting you to do it. Look how long it took before anyone bit? Plus it was just fun, and fun is what this game is about. I never told anyone else that they sucked, did I? York does not count, I think we can agree on that.

Ok, if you say so. I guess they didn't listen to you since the only reason scuba was killed day 4 was Stumpy.

I don't really find it amusing or fun and seems like a ridiculous troll. But hey, that's just me...scuba can expand. He's great with that sort of thing.

[Scouty]

By the way, I've been meaning to ask...What were the differences between the first and second Excalibur games?

[Brickdoctor]

Thanks for hosting, Bob.

Okay, so much to say...

I had a lot of fun in Excalibur 1.0. I was ready to play Scum again, and felt like I played well. Also, Dannylonglegs is awesome. Ironically, I probably would've lost that game, but the game restarted with me on the Town side, and I definitely played worse in 2.0, and ended up on the winning team. By the time 2.0 started, my Scumdar was seriously messed up, because I'd taken the time to record notes for all the players during 1.0 as if I were Town, and when I started playing 2.0, I kept getting some players and my reads on them confused with other players and my reads on those from 1.0. I'd also catch myself thinking that it'd be a good idea to get someone lynched because they would be a threat to me and a powerful Townie, and then I'd remember that I really had no idea which team that person was on and that I was a Townie and wasn't supposed to be thinking of metagame-killing probable Townies. I'd start putting together cases against people, and then I'd realize that portions of my case didn't even exist because they were examples or gut feelings from different players from 1.0. The fact that all the names stayed the same and that the names weren't related to our usernames didn't help. (one example is that people kept talking about a 'York', and I'd go, "York is the Godfather! I've got to think of a way to protect her...oh, wait...")

Also, this is the second time in three games that I've been on the winning team and lynched, and the game wasn't team-win.

[Darkdragon]

I've said it before, but thank you for hosting. This has been the most fun I've had in Mafia game so far. Thanks to the scum team for being great! Especially Scuba, you did really great those first 3 days!

Here's my role PM. Bob forgot to tell me who the scum were. Since it was my first time as scum, I wasn't even sure I was suppose to actually know.

Ensign Toby Rockford, security (darkdragon)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Ensign Toby Rockford, security aboard the Excalibur. You are a member of the League of Purists, and hate the increasing threat of space travel. Since you are a low level security guard, you’ll be able to blend and even potentially sabotage the vessel if you have a chance.

You are a member of the League of Purists, each night you may block another player. Please let me know who you would like to block. Please confirm in the discussion thread.

[Shadows]

Ok, if you say so. I guess they didn't listen to you since the only reason scuba was killed day 4 was Stumpy.

They never listened well at all, I was beating my head against the wall all game long.

I don't really find it amusing or fun and seems like a ridiculous troll.

Perfect, that was the point, you reacted exactly the way scum would (and shouldn't) to that.

[Dannylonglegs]

Yay! I win! Haha! I'm the retarded head with the grey hat!

Spectating was fun, and the crazys in the dead thread made the game spectacular! It's a shame I couldn't pay attention to the game for the past week, but it was fun regardless!

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Shadows]

Also, this is the second time in three games that I've been on the winning team and lynched, and the game wasn't team-win.

All games here are team-win (and despite being on that winning team, I despise the team-win concept).

[Darkdragon]

Perfect, that was the point, you reacted exactly the way scum would (and shouldn't) to that.

I think anyone would react that way. I don't think it's a scum thing at all, if you were scum and say the same thing to townie they will be upset. If you are town and say the same thing to town, they will be upset. Game or not, I think it's dickish. But hey, at least you used the character names and not the player names. So that shows something I think.

[DarthPotato]

Congrats to the Town! This was fun to read from start to finish. I look forward to joining the next Mafia School, which I think is Police Infiltration.

[Shadows]

I think anyone would react that way. I don't think it's a scum thing at all, if you were scum and say the same thing to townie they will be upset. If you are town and say the same thing to town, they will be upset. Game or not, I think it's dickish. But hey, at least you used the character names and not the player names. So that shows something I think.

Sure, but I knew I wasn't talking to townies, so I didn't care. I said all of my dickish things to the town in private.

But yes, that's actually a valuable lesson, being able to separate the game from real life. The way you treat someone in game could be the same as how you would treat them in life, but it doesn't have to be, it's ... ROLEPLAY! Yay for roleplay, the best part of mafia!

Except York.

[Darkdragon]

Sure, but I knew I wasn't talking to townies, so I didn't care. I said all of my dickish things to the town in private.

But yes, that's actually a valuable lesson, being able to separate the game from real life. The way you treat someone in game could be the same as how you would treat them in life, but it doesn't have to be, it's ... ROLEPLAY! Yay for roleplay, the best part of mafia!

Except York.

Yeah, probably the hardest best lesson I've learned in this game.

[Dragonator]

Wellthat was fun! Frustrating, brain-hurting fun, but fun none the less. Thank you Bob for a stellar game and for your dedication as a host through thick and thin, you did a great job.

It is nice to have survived a game as town, I was beginning to think I never would again! The scum didn't even test out my vest! Speaking of my vest, here is my role:

Chief Security Officer Lieutenant George Harper (Dragonator)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Lieutenant George Harper, chief security officer aboard the Excalibur. You are in charge of security, as stated, however there are usually no incidents onboard the regularly quiet Excalibur. You used to serve on the Excelsior, however you were reassigned to the Excalibur a year ago due to your personal friend, Captain McTague, requesting you to come aboard.

You are a loyalist, and each night you remain in your cabin. You are an expert in self-defense, and will try to defend yourself each night if you are attacked. You have no night actions. Please confirm in the discussion thread.

I liked playing as town in this game, particularly getting to work with Shadows when we eventually decided to trust each other for once. Scummy bastard that he is. I wasn't overly impressed by some of the town at times, particularly the ridiculously obvious "sting" attempts which were done to death (wth was that last day roleclaim, I had a breakdown ), but on the whole we pulled through and managed a win in tough circumstances, so go us.

EDIT: The deadboard is going to take a week to read...

Edited August 14, 2012 by Shadows
Because I can

[Capt.JohnPaul]

Thanks for letting me play Bob! Too bad you won't be hosting for a long long time. Though I have to ask... how was Shadows electrocuted? If you're in space, electricity goes to the ground, but there's no Earth to go to so..... nevermind.

Except York.

Is that a compliment or?

[swils]

Bob, I need to say it up front: I loved playing 2.0. Even when it got frustrating (and believe me, there were occasions where it got really, really frustrating), I still loved to hate it. The timing was unfortunate, as I really was bedlining my jeep (a 2-day project that became a 4-day) for most of Day 1, and then I got a new job before Day 2 was up. I guess the relative inactivity did help my 'clueless townie' appearance, though I checked in as often as I was able, even reading & posting from my phone during breaks at work. Very sorry that I couldn't devote more time to the game, I know you worked hard to make it happen twice!

It is nice to have survived a game as town, I was beginning to think I never would again! The scum didn't even test out my vest! Speaking of my vest, here is my role:

Ah, I was about to quote my role from 1.0, but it appears that it did carry over. I never actually got clarification on it, but I interpreted "You will try to defend yourself each night if attacked" as some sort of retaliatory role (bomb/pgo). That's why I mentioned it to fhomess in the first place (I was Player Y, if anyone remembers that). It is quite possible that my interpretation was wrong, but at the time, I just wanted to smack you across the face, Shadows, for thinking that your bomb-claim was the inspiration for it, heh.

Telling you all that you sucked was part of my plan to justify my roleclaim that I couldn't be killed easily, almost taunting you to do it. Look how long it took before anyone bit?

Certainly, there could be no reason to avoid killing you other than your claim. Granted, I did question it at one point, but trust me, you weren't left alive solely because of your retaliatory claim, heh.

And congrats and kudos to the town team who made the win possible (namely WBD).

I'll admit, he played a very strong game in the latter days, but I think the town owes their win, in large part, to Hinckley and his stump role. Such a powerful investigation role. Being allowed to hang onto the investigation for more than just the night of his death, being allowed to further narrow down his suspicions by asking players for their alignment? Even though he wasn't allowed to investigate those players after asking for their alignment, he was able to check them off his list of potential targets. I think that we had a pretty strong scum line up, but that role really just pulled the carpet out from under all of Scuba's efforts. That single investigation was the turning point of the game, and you'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise.

Ensign Allison Williams, engineer (swils)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Ensign Allison Williams, engineer aboard the Excalibur. When you were younger, your father taught you how to fight primarily because you lived in a rough area and were usually alone. You also enjoy crossword puzzles, but you hate spiders. You like working in engineering, and look up to your boss Chief Engineer Wilder. You hate exploring though, only wishing to work on engines in naval vessels. You were drafted to work onboard the Excalibur unlike most other engineers. As a result, you are a member of the league of purists, as well as Andrew Gordon, Richard Francis, Toby Rockford, and Suzanne Vanderbilt.

You are a member of the League of Purists, every night you may choose to kill another player. Please choose wisely. Please PM me in this message thread who you would like to kill. Since you have a powerful role, it would be in your best interest to keep it secret. Please confirm in the discussion thread.

I didn't actually know that I was the godfather (and thus, investigation-proof) until Day 6, when I asked Bob, because none of us had any mention of it in our roles. That knowledge from Day 1 would have definitely resulted in a different approach from the get go. But alas.

I liked playing as town in this game, particularly getting to work with Shadows when we eventually decided to trust each other for once. Scummy bastard that he is. I wasn't overly impressed by some of the town at times, particularly the ridiculously obvious "sting" attempts which were done to death

Oh lord, the stings / 'set-up wagons'. Seriously.

Oh, and one last thing WBD was on to me, in public, long before Aug. 8th, Shadows, so your PM doesn't prove that you were on to me before any sort of public and serious suspicions /dance

[Shadows]

Certainly, there could be no reason to avoid killing you other than your claim. Granted, I did question it at one point, but trust me, you weren't left alive solely because of your retaliatory claim, heh.

If you ever read the deadboard, you'll see that it was certainly believed longer than it should have been considering that I made it as obviously fake as possible.

Oh, and one last thing WBD was on to me, in public, long before Aug. 8th, Shadows, so your PM doesn't prove that you were on to me before any sort of public and serious suspicions /dance

That's just when I knew you would kill me and sent the official word out, but whatever, now we can document that at least two of us were on to you. Good job, scum!

Though I have to ask... how was Shadows electrocuted? If you're in space, electricity goes to the ground, but there's no Earth to go to so..... nevermind.

Forever York.

Is that a compliment or?

[Waterbrick Down]

Ensign Robert Holloway, engineer (Waterbrick Down)

Welcome aboard the U.E.N. Excalibur! You are Ensign Robert Holloway, engineer aboard the Excalibur. You serve with Timothy Mandel and Allison Williams, and serve under Lieutenant Commander Wilder. You’re okay with what you do and you like spending long hours in the engine room.

You’re a loyalist, you have no night actions. Please confirm in the discussion thread.

fhomess, I don't know whether I should clock you or hug you, I hate having no one to talk to and bounce ideas off of during a game and as soon as Scuba bussed you on day 4, I pretty much took you into my full confidence without looking back. I can see from your perspective it must have been wierd for some player to come completely out of the blue and start dumping information on you, so sorry about that. You took it in stride though and I thank you for not vig killing me at any point in the game, which considering how you were shooting us in the foot by trying to find a non-existant mole I was pretty lucky. Good game.

Masked Builder, you really got to speak up more man, I never knew whether you were a neutral investigator laying low, or you were a townie sheep, but without you we wouldn't have been able to narrow down the suspects, so I for one am glad you helped us.

Tammo: I was sorry that you got knocked out so early as you were really the solid rock of the town block after Scuba was exposed and your logic at getting DD lynched was a life saver in my book.

Swils: You did a good job of staying under the radar and contributing just enough to appear active, I'll admit your posts came off as far-fetched and wierd, but I discounted that as being an in-the-dark townie instead of an in-the-dark scum. Well played sir.

Shadows and Dragonator: I know you are both much more experienced than I and my apologies if I got on your nerves which I know as a townie can be extremely frustrating, but I hope to play with you both again in a more active setting as my only suspicions against you were your inactivity, other-wise I wouldn't have pushed fhomess so hard to vig-kill you.

A few comments to clear my side of things up:

1. I had no real suspicions that Foog was scum, but knew I had to use my day action fast, so I went with trying to eliminate another person off the list who hadn't been varified.

2. I would have rather lynched Swils the day we got AS to verify my earlier theory, but I knew we couldn't get enough votes against him in time, so I went with the easier lynch.

3. As to my post analysis method, although it aided in establishing my intial contacts it did lead me astray (mainly with AwesomeStar whom Scuba bussed extremely early in day 1 which made me think he was town), unfortunately I was hesitant to reveal the details of the method because I wouldn't be able to use it in any future games (i.e. don't tell scum, scum tells/town tells otherwise they'll avoid them or utilize them to deceive you). It almost seems more trouble than it was worth as it lead to me being almost lynched on several occasions, but thankfully it did come in handy when it came to trusting Draggy and Inky in the latter half of the game.

Finally as a general note and to echo what Dragonator said in the C&D, I really believe all comments concerning the game or the players, whether they are praises or criticisms, game-breaking or entirely free of any "hints", made between dead players and those alive should be extremely discouraged. I don't care how fed up or elated you are with how the game is going, whether you mean to or not, it effects the game. I know on three seperate occasions I received PM's from dead players who wanted to comment or question on the current situation, I can ignore these as best as I can, but it's hard not to read the first 1 or 2 sentences at least before you hit the ignore button. So please as a player who enjoys these games and wishes for them to be run in the most honest and fair manner, avoid this behavior. Thanks.

In other news, the writeboard is definately more fun than the day threads, I sort of wish fhomess had vig-killed me earlier.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Waterbrick Down

[swils]

Heh, I have really bad short term memory, apparently. I was trying to reply to:

"In the end, I can say I pegged each scum before they were revealed (though early on I thought WBD was the 5th"

but thought it had read as "before they were serious public targets" or something similar.

In the process of reading the deadboard now (and would have to check the date on your actual post about it in the day thread), but as of 2 Aug..

swils said… (02 Aug 12, looking at version 11)

I find it really hard to believe that Shadows is a thorns-aura’ed (read: vengeful/PGO/whatever) doctor. Then again… who knows.

swils said… (02 Aug 12, looking at version 11)

Honestly, I’d rather we get Shadows lynched. If it looks like he’ll be the lynchee, then I’d be willing to bet that he’ll at least strongly urge fhomess to follow through on WBD tonight, which would leave fhomess dead, hornby and wbd showing town in the morning, and masked as the alleged mole.

of course, that’s just wishful thinking.

swils said… (02 Aug 12, looking at version 11)

*And, even moreso if he actually does have some sort of way to kill his aggressor if he’s targeted for a night kill

Swils: You did a good job of staying under the radar and contributing just enough to appear active, I'll admit your posts came off as far-fetched and wierd, but I discounted that as being an in-the-dark townie instead of an in-the-dark scum. Well played sir.

Thanky! I hope I didn't come off as discrediting your efforts before--you really pulled through for the town (and got on my case way earlier than I'd have liked, heh). That was a wicked last two days for you, I must say.