Let’s cut my usual flavor text and jump straight in. This is a social deduction RP, doing a mix of Mafia/Werewolf, Bang!, and Clue/Awkward Guests. It will still be using the longer format of the MB RPs, but utilizing some of the rules and scenarios of the above games.
The Situation:
It’s the 19xx’s in the US sometime after WWI and before the States’ involvement in WWII. Most of you will be playing as members of the Hopscotch Mob, whose boys have just returned to La Batea City after a successful transaction at some little nobody town. The boss has decided to throw a celebration party tonight on a good job. This party doubles as a social ploy to further get their man’s reelected as city mayor. Unknown to everyone, however, a witch from the decimated town is quite upset her stock of people were killed and has cursed one of the mobsters with lycanthropy. After the party closes for the night, someone will be dead, and they need to find out what and who did it quickly before it strikes again.
To complicate matters, the gang also needs to win the election for mayor. A new contender has come to challenge their incumbent mayor and threatens to end corruption and change laws to end the mob. They can’t afford to keep everyone around to stop this little murder problem. Let alone other operations they still need to run.
Means of Operation:
Like Mafia, there is a day/night cycle. The exact constraints for when day and night will change is going to be played by ear. But there is only so much people can do during the day and much less at night.
The game will open up with a “day time” portion with the party at the godfather’s estate. This should be a brief section of mobsters and others having a good time and establishing what happened before the night and first werewolf transformation/murder. Whoever has the werewolf role will send me a PM on their chosen target and then I’ll create a group PM so that the murder can play out between both players. Similar expectation for anyone with nighttime activities.
Once that is completed, day time will occur and the first murder will be discovered. How the gang wants to handle this first murder, and all future murders, is completely up to the players. They can call coppers on their payroll to help investigate, using their roles’ skills to help figure things out, or both for a more Clue-like segment. Like in Mafia, they can vote to imprison or off a suspect, choose to do nothing, or even not bother with the investigation and do business as normal.
After this, while the day sections will still be used for investigations and voting it will also be used to make moves on the new political challenger. While everyone else’s roles will be unknown to each other, the player of the Mayor role will be known to everyone else. The Mayor will have allies but won’t know who they can really trust. They must be careful as they plan their big campaign rally while also working to expose the mob.
Speaking of roles.
The Roles:
Like with Mafia, there are several roles each player could receive. These roles are guaranteed abilities/actions your characters can take both during the day and nighttime portions. They aren’t the only thing you can do, so treat them more as suggestions on alignment and what skills they’re good at. You can always opt not to take actions during the night.
Similarly, while most of you may be mafia, not all of you are permitted to kill on behalf of the gang. This does not mean your character isn’t allowed a gun or can’t killing someone, it just means your likelihood of successfully getting a kill is low.
While you could wait until you receive your randomized role before making your character, I highly encourage making your character first and then make edits as desired/needed based on what you received. If you do choose to make edits, please send your updated character profile to me in a PM and leave the profile here as is (unless otherwise negotiated). Oh. And your character and role don’t necessarily need to match. You could, for example, be the boss/leader of the gang but not have the “Godfather” role. This will make more sense in a bit.
Here is the list of known roles:
- 1 Mayor - The only publicly known role. This one can be picked voluntarily but will be randomly assigned if no one does. As stated, you are working against the mob and their active target. You cannot be a victim on the first night, attending the party is optional. If involved in votes, you get two. Never considered a suspect, you’re basically the Sheriff from Bang!.
- 1 Werewolf - Picks someone nearby or at random to kill at night. Unaware they’re the werewolf initially, can eventually learn their werewolf status. What they do with that is up to them.
- 1 Godfather - The heart of the mob. If they’re killed, even if the boss is alive, the gang will disband.
- ??? Innocent - Regardless of side, cannot kill or defend oneself during night segments.
- ??? Mafia Soldier - The boys who can kill someone at night. They can try to defend themselves if attacked but not guard others.
- ??? Bodyguard - Can defend someone for the night or day. Can be killed in the process.
- ??? Detective - Has an easier time finding motives for murders and can potentially learn other people’s roles or faction. Need to specify what they’re hoping to find.
- ??? Doctor - Can save a character from death if they were attacked.
- ??? Medium - Can speak to the dead and other spirits to learn additional information.
Note that there are secret roles that you could receive and are left out of this list for dramatic purposes. Role suggestions are welcomed if you’d like them added to the spinning wheel. Though if a role isn’t on either known/hidden lists, and seems unnecessary to add, I might allow you to have it as part of your character. Like a baker, dentist, even a hypnotist, etc.
Misc. Info:
The gang has their own personal newspaper known as The Phonebook, though might sometimes be referred to as the Directory instead. Every member receives a copy in the morning and it is, conveniently, destroyed before the public or cops can find it. The city’s main paper is also influenced by the mafia, which may include different information than provided in The Phonebook.
Maps:
A map of the city and a map of the mansion/estate of the godfather will go here. But on whether you would like a map for either of these and how they are to be created. The layout of the mansion could be decided/created by whoever claims their character is the boss. As long as there’s a second floor for guest rooms, everything is a go for layout design.
Similar with the city. I can make a simple map for part of the city, my city map can be the starting point and players can add to it, we could do without it, or someone else can make a map.
Profile Template:
Name: - People do call you something, right?
Occupation/Position: - Day job and/or position in the mafia, or both.
Role: - Unless you’re the Mayor, leave this part out in the public profile.
Appearance: - You have to wear clothes.
Personal Effects: - What stuff do you have? Last wills and testimonies on your person are encouraged.
Personality: - Who are you really?
Motives: - Include 2-3 different motivations your character might have for killing someone. Outside of being ordered by the boss. You can specify if they’re rumored, known to the police, only by close friends, etc. to help determine how difficult it might be for others to learn of them. But they must be learnable.
- Motive #1
- Motive #2
- Motive #3
Biography: - Talk about yourself.
Example Profile
Name: Double-Dip Jerry, Two-Scoops Johnny
Occupation/Position: Ghost reporter-journalist, photojournalist (mafia informant)
Role: Narrator
Appearance: A decently built man in his mid-thirties, about 5’8" tall, often seen in a full black pinstriped suit. Short, slicked-back black hair with a fedora matching his suit. Face is often obscured by a large flash photography camera.
Personal Effects: A large camera, several pens and pencils, and a notepad.
Personality: A man of crushed dreams looking to make enough money to move somewhere else and get a real job. Hard yet smooth talker, able to get plenty of info out of people without them realizing it.
Motives:
- Would do anything to be properly credited (known).
- Having an affair with another ghost writer (rumored).
- If his goldfish ever died, he’d lose it (rumored).
Biography: - Moved to La Betea City some years back with dreams of kicking off the next step in his reporting career. Instead, his name was taking off the byline and left as a ghost writer for less professional men. Without money to leave, he became an easy target for the Hopscotch Mob’s influence. He feeds the city’s paper with whatever headlines and stories that make the gang look good or tell whatever story they want the city to know. In the meantime, he fully runs their internal newspaper. Most don’t acknowledge he exists or question how he gets his info, they just trust his paper.
Player Decisions:
As I’m just the narrator and this is supposed to be a largely player driven game, things can operate differently than laid out. If you’re thinking of joining, please vote in the poll options below:
Polls
- Done through PMs like in normal Mafia.
- All posts in the main RP topic. Nighttime and sensitive scenes can be done in dropdowns and spoiler text.
- Forget secrets, let everything be known between players and go with character irony.
- Other.
- Yes, play out the party scene to establish alibis.
- No, start with the murder and after party scene. Alibis will be adlibbed to see how testimonies fall apart.
- Other.
- Narrator makes a city map.
- Players make a city map.
- Narrator and players make the city map.
- Who needs maps? Not me.
- Other.
The Cast:
TBD