Shadows

Tip: Shut your face if you don't know how to read. I clearly indicated exactly why I would appreciate protection. I have brought what I can to help this situation, though I admit it isn't much. What have you done to help?

Yes, you do, as soon as I figure out which one I'm using for this or make a new one. Right, you and your entourage. Very nice! I would encourage all of you to build things you think you did and maybe I'll pick one out for a prize.

Just when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, it's like we're spiraling into madness. It seems very obvious that there are at least two insanes who are working together to insure their success, taking us down one at a time. We can't beat that if we don't find and stop at least one of them. There's no point in holding anything back anymore, we haven't got that kind of time. If anyone knows anything, please announce it so we can act before it's too late. On that note, I will start us off. I don't sleep well at night. Sometimes, I get up and wander the island looking for edible plants for my recipes. I am able to pick where I look based on my fellow survivors, and if something happens in that area while I'm looking, I see it. Sadly, I've only had two times where it worked at all. Once I saw the confusing attack on Ricky and couldn't identify the attacker, the protector, or even who they were protecting, him or the killer. The other was the night before last when I was trying to observe Deborah, who I had started to suspect of being insane, and was hit in the head. I still don't understand why that happened, but at the time it made me think that she had a night action that I wasn't supposed to see. If so, I still don't know what it was. Now that she is dead and was sane, I guess it doesn't matter. Whatever the case, I hope someone else out there has something to share that could help guide our decision today. We need an insane kill or I'm afraid we're done for. I'd also like to put out a request that if, somehow, there is anyone who can protect (but I'm afraid he's dead...), please keep me in mind tonight, I may have just had to make myself a target, but at this point, what else can I do?

I have a pistol which I've asked for a bullet count on (to the best of my knowledge it's never left my possession and hasn't been fired). No matter how many times you say it, it's still hard to believe, both physically and emotionally.

A western town is allowed, as long as it's kind of a modern situation, not a stagecoach robbery for example. No medieval towns.

You can sleep when you're dead.

Don't encourage that. You just got lucky that I have a soft spot in my heart for rare parts.

I hadn't even considered any kind of plot twist prior to that, so it added to the confusion and fun. I'm just glad that everyone enjoyed it so much. I really wanted to offer something completely different that would encourage people to explore the Prince of Persia theme, create characters and backgrounds, get excited about the theme and it's elements, and at least in that sense I think it was a pretty decent success. On the mafia side, it was a good chance to torture people experiment with gameplay and develop a faster, more inclusive form of mafia, one that we can use again from time to time. Overall, I'm happy with the whole thing, and especially glad to see how involved everyone got in the name of this excellent theme.

As long as it's something that could be set in a town, sure.

OMG! It's Sandy's hair on a skeleton! OMG! It can't be Sandy! It can't! I was almost fond of her! Well, William... what do you have to say for yourself? You seem to keep being at the center of cases where woman are hurt or dead. Coincidence? I ought to just shoot you on the spot and not take any chances ... Hey, wait a minute. We heard gunshots. I don't think most tranquilizer guns make much noise... I'd like to check my own gun and get a bullet count, please.

Love it! Frontpaged!

Member Ben Fleskes is clearly a fan of the 80's, and how could you not be after taking a look at this fantastic LEGO encased tabletop PAC-MAN styled unit? People have long said that they wanted classic video game characters in LEGO, now here is your chance (from a certain point of view) Go see the LEGO TABLETOP ARCADE PAC-MAN UNIT!

Ah, that was your mistake. Metagaming strikes again. I tell people it's a bad idea, but they don't believe me. They think I'm only trying to save myself, but seriously, it never turns out well and at some point, it exposes the people doing it to experiencing it themselves because once all of the known players are gone, they're next.

Checking my notes, I can share a few details. 1. On day 1, blocks stopped about half of the action. A large portion of the rest was used on a small number of players as I tried to represent with the various mobs in the conclusion. People were clearly divided with large numbers attacking the same person as large numbers were defending. 2. Getting rid of the blocks should have made night 2 a bloodbath, but again, people were largely focused on single players and, for example, used 9 votes on Dragonator. 3. When I said that the earlier you voted the better, I wasn't kidding. That order broke a number of ties along the way and was instrumental in the final sort order for the last day. If the votes had been very slightly different, the whole thing could have easily reversed. 4. The Nizam were organized. They protected each other and voted in small packs to try to insure that their targets died. Oddly, that was largely unsuccessful as they tended to either target people who were heavily protected or who would have died anyway. If they had actually been less organized and taken out more random targets, they may have won. It's one of those things you just can't predict. Pro Tip: As a general rule, I've found that it's always a good idea for scum to go into this with a few different targets in mind, and never go along with the group. Let the loyal citizens have their vengeance, kill the unexpected target, the one they are ignoring. It not only doubles your success rate, but it leaves them questioning why certain people are dying instead of the obvious ones. 5. In order to give the conclusions a more story-like feel, it was sometimes necessary to be vague or change the order of things, but not in a way that could legitimately mislead the players. If, for example, you targeted someone who died, but someone else claimed the kill, it may be true, or it may not. In some cases, 2 people targeted someone but 1 was blocked or was being attacked and defended while the killing took place. In other cases, entire strings of killings were linked with one person killing someone who was protecting someone who was killing someone who was protecting someone, etc. It became very complicated to properly represent without identifying the specific participants (unless they died, for the most part). There are only so many ways to say "the killer", so it did get a bit tiresome after a while. 6. At one point I considered allowing investigation, but that would mean major back and forth PMing, and it's quite enough to be on the receiving end of 52 PMs without having to send some out as well. At the same time, some of you write too often, to the point that I had to add the "one PM per day" rule, and honestly, it's a good rule that will stay in place in future games, but for this one it was probably ok to have a little of it at the beginning, just to help the newer members get acquainted with the format. Speaking of future games: Whew, it's tiring. Seriously. Post day 1, 24 hours, night 1, 24 hours then 2 hours of processing and day 2 was up. Rinse, repeat. That's a tight schedule. In the future, there will not be a day/night, it will just be a 48 hour day with a reminder at midday that there is 24 hours left to vote. Half the topics, half the titles, half the hassles of that, no major loss in terms of plot. At the same time, I may avoid blocks or provide each player with a specific set of actions and only allow a limited number to block. I plan to try public voting in the next game, at least for one of the later days. I think it will add an extra depth to the conversation and potentially more clues to balance out the relative strengths of the sides. This entire format is basically mafia training, a madcap and exciting way to learn general mafia principles without the complications that a real game can provide. This game was totally unplanned, literally spawning from an idea to the first topic in 15 minutes. As a result, it was a little less organized than future efforts will be, but it gave me a lot of opportunities to experiment on you, thus the constant Portal references. So yes, there will be more of these games, but not often. I would like to see them work in association with other events, like it did in this case. In a real mafia game, you would be provided with a full character profile and avatar. In these, you make up your own within the specifications of the host. I like that as a means of getting you to relate to your character and participate in whatever the larger event is. Expect that to be part of future games, and possibly become a requirement, ie, you can't sign up without an appropriate avatar/story. I've heard rumours that next month there is going to be something special that I may be able to tie one of these games to, so keep watching. No, not another theme month, but a contest. Seriously, stay tuned.

CONCLUSION POSTED!

As it was written, "One day the Nizam shall rise again and bring upon the land a great disaster. Many will die as they attempt to reclaim control of the Sands of Time." This is that story. THE CONCLUSION! The Grand Vizier checks his mailbox royal scribe for the last time. It appears that all of the votes have been cast. Guards! You will line up the last citizens on those specially prepared non-stationary scaffolds and then we may begin! Welcome one and all to another exciting episode of Witch Hunt, er, PoP Mafia! I'm your host, Grand Vizier Shadir, the One-eyed and our special guests are... YOU! Hmmm? Oh, that's for the television audience. Television, you know... nevermind. The Grand Vizier is committed to the well-being of all participants. Cake and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the show. If anyone survives. After tabulating the final votes, it seems that you, foul purveyor of all things biryani, Svelte, have received the most votes, a total of 4. "Yay! I'm popular! No, wait, that's not yay. Boo! Boo on all of you!" Yes, right. *pulls the lever, sending Svelte to the hereafter* And he was ... loyal! I will now announce the remaining votes as I pull levers. If, at any point, all of the Nizam are dead, or they outnumber the citizens, I will stop pulling levers and announce the winners. 3 votes for Walter Kovacs. *pull* Loyal! 3 votes for Alice *pull* Loyal! 2 votes for Spyder *pull* NIZAM! 2 votes for hewman *pull* NIZAM! 2 votes for The crazy one *pull* Loyal! 2 votes for def *pull* NIZAM! Hmmm... 1 banana. 2 banana. 3 banana. SCORE! It seems you finally managed to do it, you've found and successfully brought all of the Nizam to justice. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. Congratulations go out to the survivors: Rick, brickme, Darth Hawken, and Stash2Sixx (in the order in which you would have died). Now, we have one small bit of unfinished business to take care of, the non-voters from day 1: Dunjon, indianajones and Pyramid. You three will be given the extreme honour of digging the graves for the dead. Of the 52 original citizens, 45 are now dead. We will need 48 graves, if you will. "48? But sir, if 45 are dead, why do we need 48?" 45 dead + 3 soon to be. "Oh? Who's dying?" The Grand Vizier just stares at the 3 of them and shakes his head. A drunken traveler appears. "To dig your own grave is quite a sight..." OH SHUT UP! Thanks to all who participated, it's been a lot of fun. Now, none of you may ever PM me again! As he prepares to return to his chambers, the Grand Vizier thinks he sees the ghostly images of Svelte and Dragonator, holding hands and skipping off into eternity together, but he could be mistaken. Please feel free to use this topic to discuss the conclusion, send delightful complements to the host or to exchange cake recipes.

The Grand Vizier hears the rambling slander being thrown about outside his window and wonders if people are even able to read. He feels that he made it quite clear that there were 5 Nizam before 2 died, leaving them with a simple calculation that even an uneducated citizen should be able to do through the use of fruit. Let's see, 5 bananas. Take away 2. How many bananas are left? Further, he is pained to hear the continued speculation about his loyalties given that it was also clearly shown that wife #11 actually instigated the trip and the deception, then tried to kill him. Anyone with half a brain could figure out that she was behind the plot, and that he was one of the intended targets himself. Sadly, it seems that his citizens haven't half a brain between them, which should have been obvious given their failure to deal with the Nizam in a more efficient manner. Oh well. He had been feeling guilty to see so many die, but maybe it's for the best. He makes a note to require intelligence testing when selecting new citizens to replace these dimwits.

ONLY PLAYERS MAY POST IN THIS TOPIC! READ EVERYTHING! THE RULES AND WISHES HAVE CHANGED As it was written, "One day the Nizam shall rise again and bring upon the land a great disaster. Many will die as they attempt to reclaim control of the Sands of Time." This is that story. Day 4 - We do what we must, because we can, for the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead. Above the square, a tired looking Grand Vizier appears. Good people of Persia, what's left of you, I, Grand Vizier Shadir the One-Eyed, just got back from a long trip. One of my wives tried to kill me. I spent the night getting reports and putting up with the smell of that deliciously intoxicating biryani. I'm in no mood for this. This is the night it ends, I hope. Here's the new plan for today/tonight! Tonight, you can kill two people and there will be no protecting or blocking. That's right, KILL. KILL. Done. Talk amongst yourselves and when you've come to a conclusion, send me your 2 wishes. The earlier you send, the more successful you'll be. Then, when the day is over (24 hours from now), night will fall (duh) and you'll have 24 more hours to send your wishes. If you haven't sent them by then... :skull: LET THE DAY BEGIN! The Rules of Play: A small number of you have previously received a PM. You are the Nizam. The rest of you will not hear from me at any time during this game. You are all free to use the local Potato Messenging system to any advantage you feel it may bring you, but you may only write me once per day or night. No questions, no retractions, no attempts to change or verify anything. The game will operate on a day by day basis, with each game day lasting exactly 24 hours and then a night lasting an additional 24 hours. During that time, all players may post in the discussion topic for that day (or night, as appropriate) in an attempt to gain information, create alliances, or simply deceive each other. Participation in the game topics is encouraged but not required. What is required, however, is a PM to me detailing your wishes. You may send it at any time during the day or associated night. Failure to send a PM will not be pretty, but it might be amusing. For me. Who you plan to kill. Two targets! Don't be surprised if things don't go as you plan, there will be a lot of people doing a lot of things in the night, plus there are many outside factors that you can't possibly account for. Every day will be a surprise. At the end of the night, a conclusion will be posted. Hopefully, that will lead to a final topic summarizing the results. If both sides have failed, yet again, then another day will appear. Don't fail me. Please. The Living: Rick Svelte brickme Alice Walter Kovacs hewman def Darth Hawken The crazy one Spyder Stash2Sixx The Dead: Dragonator Quarryman WhiteFang Lord Arjay YG-49 Bob the Construction Man PrEtzel badboytje88 I Scream Clone TinyPiesRUs Dunjohn Dannylonglegs pedro General Redwater jamtf Ricecracker Walter Kovacs Big Cam Zapper Brick Inconspicuous Sandy Sir Dillon Eskallon professor flitwick Mac-K Fugazi Gamer Roncanator indianajones CallMePie The Legonater Peppermint_M JimButcher cralegoboy iamded Burman hiny awesomebrick Masked Builder Pyramid ThatGuyWithTheBricks greenskull139

As the night continues, the figure in black appears again on the balcony. Good people of Persia, I have a confession to make. I am not Nizam, as I claimed, I am a lowly citizen who felt that our Grand Vizier was evil and that I must take the risk of stopping him myself. His body lies within these walls, though I have not found proof of his deceit yet. I am still looking, for I know it must be here. In the meantime, I thought that my bravery might spur you to take your own strong actions more seriously, but from what I have seen, I am not so sure. Whatever the case, I am sure he was evil and I am proud to have killed him. Go home now. Do your duty, and then return here for word of your efforts. The last necessary wish was received moments ago and is already being processed, whatever that means. The scribes say it will only take a few minutes to complete and then a conclusion will be posted. I have no idea what they are talking about, just come back here and see what it all means in 20 minutes. *** TIME PASSES *** It is exactly midnight and all is quiet. None of the usual fighting and arguing and killing can be heard. It's as if everyone has taken the night off. Perhaps they have given up, confused by the words of the man in black. But no, doors slowly open and the citizens gather in the market square. "We can't let them win," cries one. "We need to band together, once and for all!" exclaims another. "I'm developing wrinkles from all this lost sleep and stress!" moans another. The crowd pauses, trying to find who said that, but there is only the faint smell of biryani in the crisp, night air. "I say we carry out the Grand Vizier's orders anyway and let that man in black be damned!" "Yeah!" "KILL!" And they did, right there in the square. Knives flashed and whooshed through the air. Swords clanked and clattered and were plunged into victims. A sheep bleated. Rotten bananas were peeled and stuffed and flung. A chandelier was smashed as a grim reminder of days gone by. Barrels were thrown and fires were set. An innocent cake was trampled. Lives were lost. That poor cake, though, so moist... As the battle raged on, a cloud of dust crossed the desert and approached the main gate; it was a caravan of elephants and camels bearing royal markings. The guard at the gate approached the lead camel rider and informed him of the difficulties in the fortress. "I'm sorry sir, we can't allow entry at this time, it's far too dangerous." "Too dangerous?" bellowed a voice from atop a particularly bejeweled elephant. "How can it be too dangerous for me, the Grand Vizier, Shadir the One-Eyed?" "What?" cried the guard. "You're dead!" "Does he look dead to you," inquired the lead rider. "Well, uh... you know..." "Yes yes, I know, but he isn't. Not exactly. Whatever the case, you'd better let us in." "Right, sir!" The gate slowly rose, allowing the caravan to pass. From atop his elephant, the Grand Vizier surveyed the scene. "Hmmm... I think I missed a party. How inconsiderate, having a party when I wasn't here to enjoy it." "They didn't know you weren't here, my love" reminded wife #11. "Yes, my dear, of course, our little deception. I do hope you enjoyed your trip, you were so insistant we make it now." "Oh yes, it was almost perfect, and soon it will be" she replied. "Hmmm?" Just then, Lord Arjay emerged from the Grand Vizier's palace and approached the caravan with fire in his eyes and a spear in his hand. "SHADIR, YOU TRAITOR!" he screamed. "That isn't very nice, nor is it a particularly wise way to address me." "I thought you were dead! I even thought I'd killed you. I stood before these fools and claimed to be Nizam in order to spur them into fighting to save our people, but apparently I failed on both counts!" "You killed the actor I assigned to fulfill my duties during my trip! Now I get it." "No, but you're going to," declared wife #11. "OH, YOU'RE GOING TO GET IT!" screamed Lord Arjay. "She just said that, you know. Wait a minute..." The Grand Vizier turned to face his wife just as Lord Arjay threw his spear, narrowly missing the Grand Vizier and instantly killing her before she could plunge a dagger into his heart. "OOPS! SORRY 'BOUT THAT" he yelled. All that yelling was just too much for the elephant who had finally had enough of the whole thing and promptly stepped on Lord Arjay, crushing him and leaving little more than a bloody print in the sand. "I never expected that," thought the Grand Vizier. "Silly boy, I can't imagine why he thought I was Nizam. Oh well, I hope there's some cake left when I get home." He then ordered his caravan to take him home so he could sort out the whole mess. After a few hours of sifting through the twisted bodies, the Grand Vizier was able to address his people. Someone ate all of my cake. Bastards. Oh, and 12 bodies have been recovered: the actor (who doesn't count, and now doesn't get paid, either ), 9 citizens, and shockingly, 2 Nizam who you knew as jamtf and PrEtzel. Hurrah, it isn't spectacular, but you've finally made a bit of progress. The only problem is that you've killed so many citizens that they are approaching the point of overpowering you. I will ask that you try this again tomorrow. I am fairly certain that is all the time we have left, one way or the other. By the way... why does this place smell of biryani? I absolutely despise the stuff... Now I'm going to have to burn down the whole palace and rebuild just to get the smell out. Stay Tuned for Day 4, which will hopefully be the exciting last day. Please. PS. Lord Arjay really did target me. It was a daring tactic, though in this case, ill-planned. Nice try, but honestly, I killed the host of the last witch hunt in these parts, did you really think I'd be so foolish as to try one myself? The Dead: cralegoboy Fugazi Gamer Inconspicuous I Scream Clone jamtf Lord Arjay Mac-K Masked Builder pedro PrEtzel Quarryman Roncanator WhiteFang

Member marcosbessa proudly presents this work in progress and announces that the final result will be on display at the ARTE em PECAS LEGO® Fan Event to be held next month in Portugal. Go take a look and learn more about the event at the same time!

East coast US. But the sun is out! What do you people expect from me? Look at the times for PoP mafia and most of my posting then wonder just what kind of schedule I'm on.

Ok, seriously, will you people quit convicting while I'm asleep? You're wiping us out! (not commenting so much on the selections as the timing... dammit, it's like I'm missing half the game)

I'm one of those Firefox 3.6.3s and running at a native 1920x1080. I previously ran 1280x1024. I can't imagine anything lower these days.