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Yeah, it's an amicable disagreement. My post on the deadboard was at 5 in the morning when I woke up to use the washroom, sorry. And I really do disagree. I know EB doesn't use a framer much, but it's not a weird role, nor is the miller. I love the miller, always will. Pie was able to claim he'd read as scum, and still build up trust. That makes it a good role. And the read on Shadows was pure luck. It was frustrating for you, I'm sure, but it would have been frustrating if you investigated the godfather too. And if the Tailor had hit the godfather, you would have read them as scum, so the scum could have neutralised their own godfather by accident. It happened the way it happened, but it wasn't likely to. Your investigator role was going to be correct 90% of the time. That's a fair ratio, and just allowing for a little randomness. And so I consider it balanced. They managed an advantage on town through sheer luck. As well, Dannylonglegs was meant to be able to get a solid clear on a player with his lie detector, but didn't because of Zepher. That was an extra information role for town. So add that to town's powers. Town was stacked up front, and scum didn't have much except for their kills and recruitments. The tailor was genuinely unlikely to succeed. They had a lucky first few days, and Shadows was smart with his kills, and then were able to sit tight to the end. But if there had been two more townies, the town was likely to turn it around. A town block had formed, they'd caught more scum lying and were suspicious of the rest. It was scum 6-5 over town, but I still consider it close because town was strong at the end. And that also says balance to me. I'm glad you were able to enjoy it regardless though

On the final days of Heartlake, I told Hinck that Draggy and Amy were being totally scummy in thread. I've seen Draggy's "We're doing good " scum-play more than once, and Amy's "Ooops! We lynched a townie" too. It was total metagaming, and I didn't follow the lead, since Draggy with supposedly giving us night results. It's a case by case thing. There are times metagaming fails too.

I have no idea what you mean. I thought you did fine the day you had to love Shadows

Really, the roles shouldn't be designed based on who gets them As I said somewhere, it was all designed before I inputted the list of players in at Random.org, so I couldn't have known that the godfather would be a lesser investigated player like Badboy, and the thug a more investigated one. Ironically, if you had been godfather, Pandora would have gotten a scum reading on you when she investigated. I think the killers team did well, hitting targets that weren't so predictable (except Pandora), but there was a fair chunk of luck making that go down so smoothly.

I dropped him a PM that first day and told him he could dial it back, and he didn't. About the night kill, I'm a fan of the floating kill, where more than one scum can perform the kill, but I think that's something I would also change for this game, I would make the thug the defacto killer, and the godfather performing it if the thug died. There are a few points about the mechanics I would tweak, and will if I decide to run this again (and if anybody else wants to simply rip it off, feel free). -thug has to kill -seven possible recruits instead of eight -28 players instead of 26 (maybe)... This game just seemed so scum-heavy since Zepher didn't happen to kill a scum. If he'dl killed Shadows night two, the whole game would have gone a different direction. Scum would have been down, and he wouldn't have been in the town block. -night kills aren't delineated at all, so the vig can lie better... though I'm not sulre what the SK would be doing -doctor protects against recruits The town gets a little more defense and space to breathe, while recruiting is a pinch more difficult. Being down six townies by day two was too much. A couple more players would have made this game better, but I can't guarantee it would work that way in future games. Another point, on another topic, did anyone actual believe this game was anti-metagaming, or was it just scum who said so? I am always pro-metagaming, in regards to rules and to the actions of players. One point of this game was that people could call out other players on their behavior, and not have people complain that they were meta-gaming. They were playing the Eurobricks members, so it was all good! And players could have looked to my comments in the Heartlake conclusion thread, and got ideas about what I consider fair mechanics. It was all up to you. Given thought though, there was no motive for town to impede someone's posting. The cupids arrow in Bloodbrick was different, since it was automatic (only romance), but the curses were being created, so I don't think a good townie would want to use it. I like those as scum roles,or in a game like Bloodbrick II, lame 'powers.' They give the day thread a lighter touch. I'm glad I don't have to type like that though

Town claiming to scum only have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. That, plus going on what they know, but with Badboy and Alopex both targeting Pandora, there was still only a 50/50 chance. As I said in the deadboard, I may host this exact game over again, with all the same roles, and maybe a little tweak or two. It would still make for a challenging game, but each side would clearly know what they are up against. Would people want to play this again, or was once enough?

Cam, I wanted to second what JimB said... If this were a traditional game, your play would have been great, and the scum would have made you a priority to take out, I think. Except the part where you said that you thought the game was trick. I did one of these The whole point of the game for me was not to have some tricks. I wanted the winners and losers to have done so on clear terms, and not because of over complicated game mechanics. It wasn't, and I hadn't given it any thought, but maybe I would add that in if I did it over again It would be nice for town to have some protection from recruiting other than simply the cop role... Wouldn't have changed anything in this game I think, but it would be a better balance.

I can't say what you guys did in private, so take all that with a grain of salt. Really, you know if you were exploiting the rules or not. There will be a day's end, but not while I'm at work! When I get home tonight, I'll wrap up the narrative for everyone. Since the scum united while I was sleeping last night, I saw no reason to let day five drag on, and let you guys start on the conclusion. Ferris Bueller had already claimed it: it's over.

It wasn't that you weren't interesting, it's that you came across as uninterested in playing, it's a different point. Honestly, when the conversation tanked on day three, I felt that about a number of players. Cecilie was very interested in playing, and since she died at the start of the game, I let her see behind the scenes, and griped a few times to her. It's a real common thing in mafia, and even more common on EB, that vanillas have a 'what am I supposed to do?' attitude, and contribute little. Maybe it wasn't the case with you, Potato, but you weren't particularly active in thread or behind scenes. You were more of a lurker. I was real disappointed that town never really tried to pull a fast one on scum. They didn't know the other team until day five. Say Big Cam lied about CallMePie targeting someone, and they say it's proof his miller claim was a lie. There was a fair chance of some scum opening up a line of communication with him. I thought that the town weren't trying to take advantage of their advantage of having the scum teams split up. Scouty seemed to be with the business with Hinckley, so that was something, but it was something to push further. There were ways town could use the scum being split to their advantage. At least Flare, on day one, could have claimed to be scum in the last two hours of the day, and tried to drag someone with him, and make the scum more paranoid about contact. It was a new mechanic, so I can't blame people for not exploiting it as much as they could. I was hoping since it was explained in the sign up that people would give it deeper consideration. All the same, better to focus on the good, and there were some good players here.

Thanks

The purpose was to give them something lucky. That was the intent. I figured it better than the self-destructing grenade. Next time, I'll stick with the self-destructing grenade. Here's a joke: Q: How do you tell when Hinck lost a game? A: constructive criticism. Heartlake's secret cult with multiple leaders? Totally fine. A tailor role? Totally overbalanced. What's the difference? Well, which side was Hinckley on. Just a little constructive criticism.

I figured you could tell Adam and Potato were vanilla. I could tell from their uninterested posting, or so it appeared to me. Players who barely check in scream vanilla or scum, and in this game, you didn't want to do that. Not all vanillas were recruitable, just 8, meaning you had 1 in 3 to find them. With Adam, less than 1 in 5, and Potato even lower, but there was no doubt...

Way too many lurkers in this game. It gave scum a place to hide, and made the townie-townies stick out like a sore thumb, making there be no worry that the killers might kill a recruiter. How could they, when others were playing such a blatant townie game? Lurkers took the game, yet again.

I really appreciated you going into this in the spirit of the game after I explained that your role was virtually unwinnable. Maybe not trying to win so much was a kind of freedom...

Not at all. I had planned to include the role months before Heartlake started, which was part of the reason Scumba's insistence it couldn't happen was moronic. It was going to appear this game. But it's also part of the reason I thought you were claiming it. For the recruiters, two quick questions: did you know Shadows was going to be investigated the night you framed him, or was it dumb luck? And secondly, how confident were you that Adam and Potato were vanilla, recruitable players when you selected them?

You killed a townie on night zero when your role was optional I was pretty pissed off at that, but you did do much better when you hit badboy. And Big Cam, you should take some credit for helping the scum unite, and Dragonator too! The approach of the game had to be a little different, and simply announcing people's allegiance in thread was not the best way to approach it. It was a new game, so I would have thought the townies would have discussed this a little in thread.

You didn't give me trouble at all. There's no problem clarifying your role and the rules with the host. It's the host's job to make sure everyone knows their role and how it works. With that, an apology to Scouty, I'm sorry your role was poorly worded. I was sloppy when sending out roles. I had them written in my book, but didn't type them up until after I'd posted the Night Zero thread. With Scouty, it was titled psychic, but I changed it as I was typing, not thinking about a werewolf game role (I've never played werewolf rules mafia). As well, I wrote "must" in most roles, but halfway through, I shifted to "may", so TinyPies, and the scum killers had the notion that their night action was optional. It wasn't my intent, but since I had sent it, I left it as is. All roles were to be mandatory, except the vig, which was expressly stated in his role.

Big Cam, high off of his Day Four railroading of Alopex confronts Shadows. "J'accuse, Shadows, J'ACCUSE!" Shadows chuckles. "Oh, why do you laugh? We have you surrounded." Shadows looks him in the eye and clearly explains, "You were all we needed to unite. You were such a townie, your claim cleared me to the scum!" Five figures walk up to the remaining townies. def and his menagerie watch on dispassionately as the newly empowered scum unite and behead their compatriots. "Bravo!" def says, slowly clapping. "You weren't as bold as I'd hoped, but you were effective, to be sure." As his mates leave on ahead of him, def bids farewell to the remaining players of his 'game.' "Good game!" Iamded cries at him, "Hey, where's that reward you promised?" JimB supports him, "Yeah, what do we get?" def squints a little. "Why, I didn't promise you anything. It was simply a game. You won. Congratulations!" And with that he exits, locking the door behind him. "Now what?" Nightshroud asks. Adam just looks at him. They wait. Tammo breaks the silence. "How do we get out of here?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scum win! I have to go to work in a bit, and won't be back for about 14 hours, so the photos and story will come then. No use making you wait and puzzle over things. Congratulations to the surviving scum team, the killers, Nightshroud and Shadows, and to the recruiters, JimB and iamded, as well as their recruitees, Tammo and Adam, and to the departed, badboy, Alopex, and Darthpotato. Thanks everyone for playing! List of actions:

Day four ends, and def goes down to greet Alopex. "Aren't you going to send out some wacky character to wipe me out? What's this?" def clears his throat. "You can't be bothered to post or play, I can't be bothered to give you an interesting death. Puzzle over that in the afterlife." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darth Potato has a late night rendezvous. "Really? You want me? You must have been really impressed with my playing. No worries, I've got you." "Wow, me, scum. How awesome. They must have really wanted me on their team!" He runs into another dark figure. "Who are you? Eh, no matter, I'm already on a team, sorry." The cloaked figure makes an ambiguous reply. "Kekeke." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scouty comforts that damn frog. "Don't worry, I won't vote you out. I was just joshin' everyone. Trust me, I love you." Scouty gets a little nervous. "I hate being in night pictures, it's such a trope." "Did somebody ask for a trope?" a mysterious figure asks, not comprehending what a trope is. "Requiescat in pace." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Morning comes. def greets his tired captives. "Ohayo! I think you'll be intrigued by last night's results. More intrigued than I was by yesterday's day thread, at least Two pages on day four... two pages on day four. Is there any scenario where that is remotely interesting? I suppose the PM's are utterly compelling, and look forward to highlights when you're all done with this... Those that survive, at least." The crowd yawns, already bored. "Fine, Alopex was scum, Potato was scum, and Scouty was town." "This day is starting a pinch early, at my convenience, but it will end on schedule, at 72 hours + 2 hours or so from this moment. Good luck to you all!" The host defThe players Shadows CallMePie Adam Tamamono JimButcher Nightshroud99 Trumpetking67 iamded Big Cam TinyPiesRUs Dragonator The Deceased Capt. Redblade (Town) Chopped up night zero. Cecilie (Town) Smooshed the morning of day one. Flare (Town) Lynched on day one. Darkdragon (Town) Chopped to itty bitty pieces on Night one. Cornelius Murdock (Town) Throat slit Night one. Dannylonglegs (Town) Got in the way of wild horses on Day two Hinckley (Town) Lynched Day two. Rick (Town) Throat slit Night two PirateDave (Town) Chopped up Night two Zepher (Neutral) Lynched and unremorsefully capped by Cecilie Mk II on Day three Pandora (Town) Throat slit, now at peace on Night three. Badboy (Scum) Chainsawed on Night three. Alopex (Scum) Lynched on Day Four Darth Potato (Scum) Grinded up on Night Four Scouty (Town) Given peace on Night Four Rules (deviations from the normal EB rules are struck-through) 1. Each player will be given a character to play, who will be aligned with either the Town or the Scum. To win the game, the Town must kill off all the Scum, while the Scum needs to (knowingly) outnumber the Town. Third-party (neutral) characters have their own win conditions as outlined in their roles. 2. Each day you will be able to vote to lynch a player. Voting will be done in the following format; Vote: Player. Similarly, unvoting is to be done in the format; Unvote: Player. No other format will be accepted. A majority vote is required to lynch a player. The player with the most votes will be lynched. In the case of a tie, the mayor will decide the lynch, through their vote, or by PM if necessary. Voting is mandatory. Failure to vote will incur a vote penalty the following game day. 2.5. A mayor will be elected in the first 24 hours of the game day one. Voting for the mayor will be done in the following format:Mayor: Player. Unvoting for the mayor will not be allowed. One may vote for themselves. In the case of a tie, the first person to achieve that number will win. In the case that the mayor loses their life, a new mayor will be elected in the first 24 hours of the following game day. The mayors single duty will be that of tiebreaker. 3. A game day will last a maximum of 72 hours. You may not vote in the first 24 hours. The day will end when a majority vote has been reached after 72 hours. In the case of a unanimous vote, the day may end 24 hours early. After the day has been concluded, a night stage will commence, which will last 24 hours (or 48 hours if an emergency comes up). Night actions must be sent to the host in the first 24 20 hours of the night stage. 3.5. Players may not target the same player two nights in a row, and may not target themselves. 4. The alignment of lynched players, as well as any that died during the night, will be revealed at the beginning of the next day. 5. You may not quote or pretend to quote anything sent to you by the host via PM. That includes all the details of your character and role, as well as any night action results. Role claims and reporting of night action results are acceptable, but in your own words only. Do not attempt to use the structure of your role PM to your advantage. 6. Do not play the game outside the thread. Similarly, do not post out of character inside the thread. Game tactics and roles may only be discussed in the game thread or via PM with other players. Private discussion is done at your own risk and should be treated as part of the game. 7. If you are dead, you may not post in thread or discuss the game with any of the players. Any information you had becomes void, and may not be passed on. 8. You may not edit your posts. 9. You must post in every day thread. 10. If you encounter a problem or have a question, please contact the host via PM 11. Violation of the above rules may result in a 5 vote penalty vote penalty per every 4 living players against you, and death upon further offense.

I usually say LEGO, but if a person in real life talked like this to me, I would go out of my way to say legos. Legos, legos, legos. I love legos.

Ant-Man and Doctor Strange have been announced. Looking real forward to that Ant-Man one. http://splashpage.mtv.com/2013/01/25/ant-man-doctor-strange-marvel/

With a unanimous vote for Alopex, boring Day Four ends. You have 20 hours to get your night actions in. Day Five will begin at midnight Japan time, just over 25 hours from this post.

Maybe because you're Italian? He speaks in a way very close to the way blacks used to be portrayed in films, and acts a fair amount like it too (bumbling, needy). There were a lot of complaints when it came out, and I'm guessing the reason they died down is because everyone hated him, including kids. I'm sure if you googled jar-jar and black, you'd get a lot of hits.

I asked you some direct questions, and you chose not to answer them No, I'm not complaining about it. I'm saying the stuff I said, that is: some groups have a legitimate reason to complain. I love Star Wars, mostly. I've bought thousands of dollars of Star Wars Lego, and the DVDs. It's possible to understand and respect an argument without fighting for it. I'm not fighting to end Star Wars or edit out anything. Really. Just acknowledging that it might rub some groups the wrong way and not writing them off as whiny or myopic.

Thanks a lot, Jim and Zilcho! Keeping busy. These are the best and worst I've done of these diary strips. Amazing how close to each other I can make them. Here's some LEGO content: