ASB Halloween Mafia 2010 (I)
You'd think they would have learned. You'd think that, after two years of Halloween parties gone wrong in the bloodiest, most gruesome manner possible, they might have reevaluated their priorities.
Of course not! This is Asber, where Halloween tradition is far more important than the body count and the head referee, infuriated by the way the Mafia continues to thwart her security measures, insists that this year, everything will be just fine. Honestly! Now step into the body scanner, please, there's a good trainer.
And for a while, everything does go just as advertised. There's food and drink, dancing and crazy costumes, and Halloween activities from pumpkin carving to apple-bobbing. In fact, if you ignore the security metagross looming around the perimeter and the porygon-z materializing here and there in whirls of pixels to inspect a suspicious guest, you'd never know that there was anything to the party beyond unbridled Halloween revelry.
This year the celebration has been split into two divisions to accommodate a larger number of revelers, and the main party in ASB Central's grand contest hall is hopping. A few are lonely without their pokémon, which this year are banned entirely: only the mechanical security pokémon, their programming rigorously monitored for any sign of outside interference, are allowed in the vicinity of the party this year. There are a few league-certified pokémon performers and assistants as well, but no trainer-owned pokémon at all. And, as midnight approaches, a group of dancing pokémon takes to the stage.
Led by an exuberant ludicolo, the batch of clefairy and togetic float and spin through acrobatic tricks only pokémon can achieve, the swaying of their bodies keeping perfect time with the music. The tapping of their feet, the swaying of their arms, the twitching of their fingers--by the time anyone realizes what all the pokémon on stage have in common, it is too late. There are a couple of bursts of mists and innocuous growls, and then a heat wave rips through the front row of the crowd, cremating three and leaving several more smoldering in agony. A hyper beam disintegrates the near end of the refreshment table, and a blizzard entombs two more partygoers in a thick crust of ice.
At first there is only total confusion as the random attacks wreak havoc on the crowd, but at last people start to grasp what is going on and stampede for the exit. Even as they do so, the air grows oddly stifling, their limbs heavy. A flickering pink dome of energy rises up over the contest hall, patterned with shifting rectangles and vibrating with pure psychic energy. A terrible voice, amplified a hundred times, reverberates around the packed and suddenly all too enclosed hall.
It calls on all nonbelievers to repent and revere the RNG gods as true masters of their pitiful lives. The RNG gods are displeased by the wayward ways of Asber's trainers, and they demand sacrifice--and a few Halloween partygoers would be just the thing.
Outside the time-warping boundaries of the trick room, only hours may pass, but within, the revelers find themselves faced with perhaps days of torment. They mutter to one another in unease, trying to ignore the maddened voice still droning in the background, describing how they will be killed, one by one, until none remain. The mafia were bad enough; who thought Asber could hold such a stock of murderous crazies?
The Cult
Shadow Serenity - By building Asber's famous shrine to the RNG gods, he cemented himself at the center of the budding religion. His fervor takes terrifying and violent forms, and he does not suffer nonbelievers lightly. While ideally he would just let circumstances play out as they might and trust to the RNG gods to smite the impure with their powers, he's smart enough to know that even the gods need a little help now and then and is only too happy to lend a hand in the form of metronome-murder.
Steele - Shadow Serenity's high disciple and second in command, he will not rest until he sees the land scoured of nonbelievers. His fanatical devotion is a little frightening even to his superior and mentor, who secretly worries that
Steele may be plotting to wrest control of the cult from his grasp. If Shadow Serenity is killed, Steele will pounce on the opportunity to take over the glorious purge and continue to direct the killings.
blazheirio889 - After siding with the mafia in last year's bloody game, blazheirio889 found religion in the form of the RNG cult. Not so devout as her two superiors, she nevertheless dreams of someday being granted the opportunity to prove her worth to the forces of uncertainty. Both Steele and Shadow Serenity meeting untimely ends would, of course, create just such an opening.
Crazy Linoone - Somewhat less dedicated than her cult brethren, Crazy Linoone nevertheless knows that it's wise to stay on the RNG gods' good side if you plan to live a long time. Plus, the cult has free food. She doesn't actively participate in the killings and has done her best to make sure the other cultists haven't noticed her presence at the party--they don't know who she is amidst the sea of costumed partygoers--but a win for them is a win for her, and she's hardly defenseless. If the other members vote to kill her during the day, she will make a last stand and turn all her linoone combat abilities on another member of her choice, killing him or her before the execution can be effected. If Alraune checks Crazy Linoone's IP, she will determine her to be innocent.
The Innocents
Walker or Pentimento - Both referees, Walker and Pentimento have mastered the art of laying damage caps to prevent pokémon from taking fatal damage. As elites, they can extend their power to protect humans as well, and they can set a damage cap on up to one person per night, preventing that individual from dying by any means. However, both have been away for some time and are a bit rusty; as a result, if they both target the same person with a damage cap, their powers will clash and backfire, killing the individual rather than protecting them.
Alraune - With her new moderator powers in hand, Alraune is a force to be reckoned with. Her most exceptional ability is that of the IP check, which lets her scan for suspicious activity and immediately identify cult members for what they are. Unfortunately, the forum's IP check runs very slowly, allowing her to use it only once per night.
Big Red Cherry Bomb - moon-panther's rival. The two are close friends and are always battling one another to grow stronger. If moon-panther is killed and Big Red Cherry Bomb is still alive, she will go mad with grief and use her next night action to hunt down and kill the member she most suspects to be responsible. Big Red Cherry Bomb knows who moon-panther is, but the two cannot communicate.
moon-panther - Big Red Cherry Bomb's rival. The two are close friends and are always battling one another to grow stronger. If Big Red Cherry Bomb is killed and moon-panther is still alive, she will go mad with grief and track down one of the members she suspects to be mafia and kill them out of revenge. moon-panther knows who Big Red Cherry Bomb is, but the two cannot communicate.
Kammington - Kammington is a diehard, stubborn to the end and with his own ideas of who the cultists might be. He can identify one guest per night as a potential cultist and, if sentenced to death the following day, will make killing his target his final act.
Mike the Foxhog - This newest ASBer of the year, Mike the Foxhog is a charismatic individual, easily able to draw people's attention away from others and onto himself. This causes them to use any powers they might have on him rather than on their original target. Mike the Foxhog is told all attacks that target him, but not whether they came from the member he distracted or someone else entirely. If he distracts Steele or blazheirio889 before Shadow Serenity has been killed, he will not die, as only the leader of the mafia is responsible for the group's killings.
Brock - Infamous for his amorous attitude, Brock doesn't intend to go through this ordeal alone. On the first night he chooses one other player to seduce, and from that point on that player's goal, regardless of their original alignment, is to be the only one left alive along with Brock. The two of them may communicate freely with one another throughout the course of the game, but if one of them is killed the other will commit suicide out of grief.
Variable Alignment
Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing - Two long-vanished members only recently returned from wanderings beyond Asber. Just their luck that what they had to come back to was mortal peril. Will they stand strong with the trainers, or will they turn their talents towards supporting the cult in hopes of an easy ticket out of this unasked-for game? During the first night, Byrus and Jack_the_PumpkinKing can choose to activate one of their referee powers and choose either the innocents or the mafia to side with. After that they will function exactly like their chosen role and alignment. If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing chooses to align with the mafia, he or she is informed of who the mafia members are and they of who he or she is, but not until the end of the first night. When killed, Byrus and Jack_the_PumpkinKing appear to be innocent no matter what their true alignment was.
Free Agent - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, they may choose to activate it on one night only. Drawing on their own ties to the RNG gods, they can reroll the dice and hope for a better outcome. This power will cause the targets of all night actions to be randomized to anything not the user's chosen target. When the trainers wake up, they will realize that their targets were scrambled, but they will not know who they really targeted. Night actions without a specific target will go through as normal.
Thunder Wave - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, every night, he or she may strike a player with a Thunder Wave attack, causing the target to become paralyzed. That player's night action, if any, will then not happen. If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing choose nothing, they will simply not perform a night action.
Drop Out - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, one night during the course of the game they may choose to end the night early at whatever point they choose during the Midnight stage. Any night actions that happen after this point (see the order of night actions in the Mafia rules thread; this is not a question of when the night actions are sent in) will be skipped, and instead the dead are simply rounded up and the next day starts.
Psych Up - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, every night, they pick a player to use Psych Up on. Instead of being targeted by whatever targeted them that night (excluding Alraune’s IP check and Mike the Foxhog's distraction), they will be targeted by whatever was used on the player they targeted during that night. If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing choose nothing, they will simply not perform a night action.
Immunity - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, on any given night they may choose activate their immunity towards what goes on in Asber. This protects them from nighttime assaults of any kind - and better yet, it does not clash with the healers' damage caps if they are used on them. However, if they use immunity any one night, they can not use it again the next night, and they are of course always vulnerable to execution during the day. If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing choose nothing, they will simply not perform a night action.
Hypnosis- If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, every night they may choose target a player with hypnosis. That player will then sleep through the next day and be unable to participate in discussion and voting. That a player is sleeping through the day will be noted in the morning. If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing choose nothing, they will simply not perform a night action.
Vanished - If Byrus or Jack_the_PumpkinKing selects this power, they drop out of sight entirely, mimicking their recent hiatus. While in this stealth form, they are very difficult to see during the night. If any lethal attack targets them, it has a 50% chance of missing them altogether.
The Alien
MidnightSaboteur - After proving her superiority over all the innocents of ASB Central last October, MidnightSaboteur has decided to take a little break. The lower ranks have the situation well in hand--they'll have no problem wiping out the innocent fools at the other party--and she's entitled to a little fun. If only some fringe religion hadn't decided to muscle in on her gang's turf and start killing off members of the party she's attending. If she survives--if--she'll see to it that their merry little cult is rubbed out in no time. Until then, she's in it to survive, at least until she's attacked. Her experience with the underworld includes plenty in staying alive in the face of adversity, but if the cult makes an unsuccessful attempt on her life, her temper will be roused. After that, any attempt to lynch her during the day will result in her attacking in a berserk rage, slaughtering all who stand in her way. If she does so, she will win, and this is the only way she can win.
If it is voted that she be killed or if she is killed by another means before an attack by the cult enrages her, she still loses as usual. If the cult attack her again after she becomes enraged, or if she is killed by some means other than the vote at this time, she again dies as normal. After her transformation, Alraune will identify her as a cultist, and she will be posthumously identified as a cultist if she somehow dies in this state.
The Game
This is a plain-vanilla game of Mafia, with no unusual roles or rules. If you've never played before, check the general Mafia rules for an explanation of the game. I considered putting this in the main Mafia forum, but as I understand it Butterfree's hack doesn't do a ton yet, and I wanted to make it clear that this game is exclusive to ASB players.
This year I'm going to run two games, with this one capping out at fifteen players and the second taking fifteen more. I hope that this will let the games run faster and be a bit more fun, as a higher proportion of players will actually have roles. I'll keep this open until we gather fifteen players (presumably less than a week) and get started immediately once the cap is hit.
As before, all survivors at the end of the game will win a rare candy. Post here to sign up, and best of luck staying alive!
Players
moon-panther
Psymon
Big Red Cherry Bomb
Mike the Foxhog
Superbird
skylark
dragonair
Mawile
Jack_the_PumpkinKing
Walker
Pentimento
Brock
Zora of Termina
sreservoir
shadow_lugia
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