UPick

[Unavenger]

Serial Killer Victory

The Serial Killer, Eidolon, played by AvatarVecna, won the game on Day 4.

Spoiler: Original OP

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...So I guess this is gonna be a weird one, huh?

Welcome to Upick, a weird twist on regular Mafia in which you pick your own role. How does this work, exactly? Read on!

Spoiler: Standard Mafia Stuff

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Mafia, AKA Werewolf, is a game in which members of an uninformed minority, known as the Town, who don't know anyone else's alignment but their own, try to find members of an informed minority, called the Mafia, who know who is one of them and who isn't. The game starts at "Day", and players vote for who they think - or are pretending to think - is a member of the Mafia. Whoever gets the most votes is eliminated at the end of the Day. After each Day is one Night, in which people activate abilities that they may have access to, and the Mafia can choose one person between them to eliminate. The game ends when only one faction remains, or nothing can prevent this from happening.

Spoiler: Specific Game Rules

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• Days and Nights are 48 hours each.
• The execution vote will kill the person with the most votes, counting the last vote that is not crossed out. For example, Avatarvecna, Xihirli, Avatarvecna is a vote for Xihirli, not AvatarVecna. Tied votes will kill the person who was first to get to at least that many votes the last time they did so. For example, if Xihirli is at 4 votes, then AvatarVecna is at 4 votes, then Xihirli drops to 3 votes and goes back up to 4 votes, AvatarVecna will die, not Xihirli.
• You may vote for No Execution. No Execution is calculated the same way as any vote for a specific person, but choosing not to vote is not counted at all. For example, four votes for No Execution and four votes for AvatarVecna is resolved like any other tie, but if there are four votes for AvatarVecna and four people not voting at all, AvatarVecna will die.
• No early day end or "Hammer" vote is used, even if more than half of people end up voting for the same person at some point. Days are always 48 hours.
• Some abilities may require a public broadcast that you are using them. I will resolve them as soon as possible; if you have an ability that won't be useful at the end of the day, using it near the end of the day might be inadvisable! Do not fake using abilities requiring a public broadcast (Such as REVEAL: INNOCENT CHILD or DAYVIG: XIHIRLI). This means you, Vecna and Valmark. Anyone doing so will die, and also lose the game even if their faction would otherwise win the game.
• Kill flavours may tell you something interesting about how someone died, and what faction did it.
• All actions are given a priority number. First goes first, last goes last. Generally, this tends to follow Natural Action Resolution, which is to say, abilities that can't possibly be affected by another ability go first.
• Either you'll get a faction QuickTopic because you're the Mafia, or you won't, because you're not, and will have to use your personal QuickTopic. You can't get more QuickTopics unless you have an ability that says you can, so no chatting with your fellow players behind the scenes.

Spoiler: Role Assignment: Upick

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Upicks are so named because you pick your role!

When the game is in the preparation stage - that is, after everyone has signed up to the game, just before Day 1, you will have a chance to send me two character concepts. These character concepts can be whatever you like so long as it's board-appropriate and otherwise just obviously not yikesy in any other way (be reasonable about this); the first concept should be your first preference, and please link an explanation for both concepts if they're something I might not know about. Other Upicks I've seen have featured anime characters, tanks, and the concept of YouTube Music videos as characters so do whatever you like.

Please don't use other real people - board members or otherwise - as characters, partly because yikes and partly because I don't want to have to write the sentence "AvatarVecna's role was Xihirli".

I will roll up the list of who is which faction before I create your character roles, so if you use a character who's actually a mafia member or actually a werewolf, you may still end up as town. I will then assign abilities that I think are appropriate to one of your chosen characters. I will try to use the first one, but if there's some problem with them I'll use the second one instead. They will match as best as I can make them while also (a) making sense within the context of Mafia, (b) not being very terribly overpowered, and (c) not being horrible to play with.

Abilities I promise I won't be using are:

• Cults and other alignment changing abilities;
• Dreaming gods, false seers, inventors who don't know what their inventions do, and other hidden/random chance abilities;
• Jesters (a role which wins the game by being executed);
• Antisocial, Flagbearer and other modifiers which mess with who wins and loses the game to a significant extent;
• Effects such as death millers which lie about death-reveal information;
• "Janitor", "Cannibal" and other effects which can prevent deaths from being revealed.
• Effects such as Beloved Princess which mess with the day/night order;
• Effects that restrict how a player can post other than by killing them;
• "Enabler" or "Switch" effects that can shut off a specified type of role (rather than roleblocking a specific player);
• "Bus Driver", "Transporter", "Transmuter", "Mind-controller" "Mindslaver", "Witch", "Lightning Rod", "Mirror" or other names for a variety of effects which force someone to target someone other than their intended target;
• "Normalizers" or other effects which permanently alter other people's roles (short of killing them);
• "Phantom Queen", "Reviver", "Resurrectionist", "Retributionist" or other effects which change how death works for players other than yourself.

However, this does not mean that any of these won't show up:

• "Doublevoter", "Loved", "Hated" and other modifiers that can change the number of votes flying around or the number needed to kill someone;
• "Gladiator" or other effects which limit who is a valid target for a vote;
• "Godfather", "Framer", "Lawyer", "Psychotrooper" or other effects which cause someone else's investigation to provide misleading information;
• "Lover" and other roles that can cause a player to die when a condition is met;
• Roles which return the truth or falsehood of an arbitrary statement;
• "Copier" or "Illusionist" abilities which copy someone else's ability and use it on another specified target;
• "Parity cop" or "Parity seer" roles, which provide the same result for two members of the same faction, but no indication of which faction yields which result (so it might yield "Winter" for town and "Summer" for Mafia);
• "Restless Spirit" or "Vengeful" roles which change how death works for you;
• "Medium" or "Necromancer" roles which can talk in dead chat while alive.

Recruitment is open!

Players so far:

1. AvatarVecna
2. Captain Cap
3. Xihirli
4. Elenna
5. CaomhinTheCape
6. JeenLeen
7. Aleph Null
8. totadileplayz
9. Book Wombat
10. Apogee1

List of players:

1. AvatarVecna, Eidolon, victorious Day 4.
2. Captain Cap,Baron Munchausen, disintegrated Day 3.
3. Xihirli, Dead Poet Society Member, endgamed Day 4.
4. Elenna, Nico De Angelo, executed Day 3.
5. CaomhinTheCape, You Meddling Kids, executed Day 1.
6. JeenLeen, Light Yagami, disintegrated Day 2.
7. Aleph Null, Vael'sekhariish, executed Day 2.
8. totadileplayz, Ben Tennyson, buried under a pile of bones Night 2.
9. Book Wombat, Anonymous Reporter, hit with a bell Night 3.
10. Apogee1, Big Brother, disintegrated Day 2.

Preparation Phase Start

This phase will end at 17:00GMT 15/03/2021.

[Unavenger]

No one died during the preparation phase.
No additional players joined the game during the preparation phase.

Day 1 Start

Day 1 will end at 17:30GMT 17/03/2021.

[Book Wombat]

The die says number eight stole the cookie!
totadileplayz, how dare you!

[totadileplayz]

Hello, I'm definitely not the person who should be posting first, but Someone needs to start.

Hmm... Well, Let's Start by talking about our characters.

So, what did everyone pick?

I'm Ben Tennyson.

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And... Apparently. Someone posted, while I was making my post.

I'm 10, of course I'm going to steal a cookie, at least I save the day!

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Book Wombat
I have to say the person who sends a hero to death, is definitely a villain, even If I may very well have stolen that cookie.

[Book Wombat]

Book Wombat
I have to say the person who sends a hero to death, is definitely a villain, even If I may very well have stolen that cookie.

Never. Ever. Forget. Rule Number. One.

Rule Number One: Do not steal cookies.

[totadileplayz]

Never. Ever. Forget. Rule Number. One.

More, Seriously where did that rule come from, because I feel like I'm missing something, Though you definitely sound like a kid. Perhaps your rping your character?

[Book Wombat]

Also Rule #192 says not to trust shapeshifters.

EDIT: Not RPing, just doing nonsense.

[totadileplayz]

Also Rule #192 says not to trust shapeshifters.

EDIT: Not RPing, just doing nonsense.

Well, then. Rule #2 is don't trust people who won't give their names.

[Book Wombat]

Well, then. Rule #2 is don't trust people who won't give their names.

My name's ■■■■■■■■.
Not going to give clues to my power. Probably not a good idea at the beginning, also it's easy to lie.

Rule Number Two: Eat delicious cookies.

[totadileplayz]

My name's Book Wombat.
And give clues to my power? Probably not a good idea at the beginning. also it's easy to lie.

Ah, Well Yeah I kind of figured the powers were kind of obscure, seeing as how my top 8 power ideas for my character weren't included.

[JeenLeen]

Anyone want to discuss the pros and cons of totadileplayz's idea of saying our roles?
I'm not sure what benefit there would be. It potentially gives info to the wolves (even if things to just guess about), and a wolf could lie. I strongly recommend anyone with a role that strongly implies your power not to speak up. For example, someone with Professor X claiming is probably asking for the wolves to kill you as the seer.
I lean towards us not claiming, but I'd be willing to hear arguments towards claiming.

And I'll poke AvatarVecna.

[AvatarVecna]

Well, then. Rule #2 is don't trust people who won't give their names.

If you want names, call me...David.

Speaking personally, sometimes you just gotta put things in the hands of Fate...and it seems Fate doesn't like Book Wombat.

[Book Wombat]

Anyone want to discuss the pros and cons of totadileplayz's idea of saying our roles?
...
I lean towards us not claiming, but I'd be willing to hear arguments towards claiming.

I agree, it doesn't really help town since one could just lie.

[totadileplayz]

Anyone want to discuss the pros and cons of totadileplayz's idea of saying our roles?
I'm not sure what benefit there would be. It potentially gives info to the wolves (even if things to just guess about), and a wolf could lie. I strongly recommend anyone with a role that strongly implies your power not to speak up. For example, someone with Professor X claiming is probably asking for the wolves to kill you as the seer.
I lean towards us not claiming, but I'd be willing to hear arguments towards claiming.

And I'll poke AvatarVecna.

There could be someone who can verify the roles.

[Book Wombat]

Vote List:
totadileplayz (1): Book Wombat
AvatarVecna (1): JeenLeen
Book Wombat (2): totadileplayz, AvatarVecna

[totadileplayz]

If you want names, call me...David.

Speaking personally, sometimes you just gotta put things in the hands of Fate...and it seems Fate doesn't like Book Wombat.

It would be the end of me If I had to come up with the role for that one.

[Book Wombat]

It would be the end of me If I had to come up with the role for that one.

Not really if you get the full name or background information.
For example the name Makoto doesn't mean much but Makoto Misumi does.

[AvatarVecna]

As far as claiming role names goes, I'm not sure it will generally give a ton of information to go on, and even if it did that'd likely help wolves more than us. We were instructed to give character ideas, not mechanics ideas, and I'm sure everybody here was tempted to pick a character who's mechanics would be...obvious, somebody who if they got some other power wouldn't be well-represented. I feel that this would be breaking the spirit of the request though, and we were asked for a second character concept to counter that exact reaction: that if one pick was very obviously leading Unavenger towards a particular mechanic you wanted to have, they'd give you the other role that probably is a bit more broad in what kind of powers it can justify. I guess if you're a real knob you could've suggested two roles that are both super-type-cast into a very particular mechanical power, but I don't feel like getting on the narrator's bad side is a good idea - seems like a good way to get saddled with downsides. All of this is to say that, I'm of the opinion that even if people are being generally honest, it's more likely that their role name won't give town a really good idea of what their power does right off the bat.

However, I think it gives wolves a bit more: they already know that town is against them, so they don't need to suss out who's a hidden enemy, they just need to suss out who's got dangerous powers. Given the game size, I'm betting there's two wolves, and that means the wolf team has a slightly better idea in general of the power level Unavenger is assigning to people's powers (since everybody else in the game only has their own power as evidence, while the wolves can see how powerful the two of them are...and frankly, how powerful their whole faction is). To use the current example: Ben Tennyson is some kind of shapeshifter, but in typical depictions the watch sometimes gives him a transformation he didn't ask for, or it timed out too early for him to get good use out of it. Somebody with access to a wide variety of powers, but who maybe doesn't have control over which powers they use? My guess at Ben Tennyson's power would be a JOAT role, where they have an array of powers but can only use each one a single time over the course of the game. Or maybe they can only use it once per three nights? That's how the JOAT worked in the specific game the last time I played with them. But my point is that this is only a guess as to the overall power, and I can't even really begin to guess at what the actual JOAT abilities are since too many good ones would be quite powerful and too much more powerful than me? But wolves have a better measuring stick for how powerful a townie should be, so they might be able to better gauge with BT is capable of.

And all of this is assuming the person giving their role name is being honest, which we have basically no guarantee of. A seer ability that confirms alignment is a pretty standard power. A seer ability that confirms a role name and an alignment is a bit uncommon. A seer ability that confirms role name, alignment, and mechanical abilities feels like way too much for a game like this, where the weirdness of all the roles and the resulting uncertainty in people's capabilities is a big part of the appeal. I think it's unlikely that Unavenger would've given a power that broad unless it comes with significant drawbacks. So at best, I'd expect role name+alignment, and that just means the seer can confirm the person wasn't literally lying about their own name, and that's it.

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It would be the end of me If I had to come up with the role for that one.

Hmm? What do you mean?

[totadileplayz]

As far as claiming role names goes, I'm not sure it will generally give a ton of information to go on, and even if it did that'd likely help wolves more than us. We were instructed to give character ideas, not mechanics ideas, and I'm sure everybody here was tempted to pick a character who's mechanics would be...obvious, somebody who if they got some other power wouldn't be well-represented. I feel that this would be breaking the spirit of the request though, and we were asked for a second character concept to counter that exact reaction: that if one pick was very obviously leading Unavenger towards a particular mechanic you wanted to have, they'd give you the other role that probably is a bit more broad in what kind of powers it can justify. I guess if you're a real knob you could've suggested two roles that are both super-type-cast into a very particular mechanical power, but I don't feel like getting on the narrator's bad side is a good idea - seems like a good way to get saddled with downsides. All of this is to say that, I'm of the opinion that even if people are being generally honest, it's more likely that their role name won't give town a really good idea of what their power does right off the bat.

However, I think it gives wolves a bit more: they already know that town is against them, so they don't need to suss out who's a hidden enemy, they just need to suss out who's got dangerous powers. Given the game size, I'm betting there's two wolves, and that means the wolf team has a slightly better idea in general of the power level Unavenger is assigning to people's powers (since everybody else in the game only has their own power as evidence, while the wolves can see how powerful the two of them are...and frankly, how powerful their whole faction is). To use the current example: Ben Tennyson is some kind of shapeshifter, but in typical depictions the watch sometimes gives him a transformation he didn't ask for, or it timed out too early for him to get good use out of it. Somebody with access to a wide variety of powers, but who maybe doesn't have control over which powers they use? My guess at Ben Tennyson's power would be a JOAT role, where they have an array of powers but can only use each one a single time over the course of the game. Or maybe they can only use it once per three nights? That's how the JOAT worked in the specific game the last time I played with them. But my point is that this is only a guess as to the overall power, and I can't even really begin to guess at what the actual JOAT abilities are since too many good ones would be quite powerful and too much more powerful than me? But wolves have a better measuring stick for how powerful a townie should be, so they might be able to better gauge with BT is capable of.

And all of this is assuming the person giving their role name is being honest, which we have basically no guarantee of. A seer ability that confirms alignment is a pretty standard power. A seer ability that confirms a role name and an alignment is a bit uncommon. A seer ability that confirms role name, alignment, and mechanical abilities feels like way too much for a game like this, where the weirdness of all the roles and the resulting uncertainty in people's capabilities is a big part of the appeal. I think it's unlikely that Unavenger would've given a power that broad unless it comes with significant drawbacks. So at best, I'd expect role name+alignment, and that just means the seer can confirm the person wasn't literally lying about their own name, and that's it.

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Hmm? What do you mean?

I'm not a JOAT that was what I was aiming for with Ben Tennyson, but yeah my power's really strange, in that the best play I can possibly make day 1 is what I am doing.

[Xihirli]

As far as claiming role names goes, I'm not sure it will generally give a ton of information to go on, and even if it did that'd likely help wolves more than us. We were instructed to give character ideas, not mechanics ideas, and I'm sure everybody here was tempted to pick a character who's mechanics would be...obvious, somebody who if they got some other power wouldn't be well-represented. I feel that this would be breaking the spirit of the request though, and we were asked for a second character concept to counter that exact reaction: that if one pick was very obviously leading Unavenger towards a particular mechanic you wanted to have, they'd give you the other role that probably is a bit more broad in what kind of powers it can justify. I guess if you're a real knob you could've suggested two roles that are both super-type-cast into a very particular mechanical power, but I don't feel like getting on the narrator's bad side is a good idea - seems like a good way to get saddled with downsides. All of this is to say that, I'm of the opinion that even if people are being generally honest, it's more likely that their role name won't give town a really good idea of what their power does right off the bat.

However, I think it gives wolves a bit more: they already know that town is against them, so they don't need to suss out who's a hidden enemy, they just need to suss out who's got dangerous powers. Given the game size, I'm betting there's two wolves, and that means the wolf team has a slightly better idea in general of the power level Unavenger is assigning to people's powers (since everybody else in the game only has their own power as evidence, while the wolves can see how powerful the two of them are...and frankly, how powerful their whole faction is). To use the current example: Ben Tennyson is some kind of shapeshifter, but in typical depictions the watch sometimes gives him a transformation he didn't ask for, or it timed out too early for him to get good use out of it. Somebody with access to a wide variety of powers, but who maybe doesn't have control over which powers they use? My guess at Ben Tennyson's power would be a JOAT role, where they have an array of powers but can only use each one a single time over the course of the game. Or maybe they can only use it once per three nights? That's how the JOAT worked in the specific game the last time I played with them. But my point is that this is only a guess as to the overall power, and I can't even really begin to guess at what the actual JOAT abilities are since too many good ones would be quite powerful and too much more powerful than me? But wolves have a better measuring stick for how powerful a townie should be, so they might be able to better gauge with BT is capable of.

And all of this is assuming the person giving their role name is being honest, which we have basically no guarantee of. A seer ability that confirms alignment is a pretty standard power. A seer ability that confirms a role name and an alignment is a bit uncommon. A seer ability that confirms role name, alignment, and mechanical abilities feels like way too much for a game like this, where the weirdness of all the roles and the resulting uncertainty in people's capabilities is a big part of the appeal. I think it's unlikely that Unavenger would've given a power that broad unless it comes with significant drawbacks. So at best, I'd expect role name+alignment, and that just means the seer can confirm the person wasn't literally lying about their own name, and that's it.

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Hmm? What do you mean?

Your words ring true;
Our choice is nigh.
Time has come to
Choose who'll die.

We have numbers and we've will.
The cookie thieves we must combat.
And whom today will we kill?
May I suggest BookWombat?

[AvatarVecna]

Your words ring true;
Our choice is nigh.
Time has come to
Choose who'll die.

We have numbers and we've will.
The cookie thieves we must combat.
And whom today will we kill?
May I suggest BookWombat?

...okay so definitely not a Shakespearian character. Not sure what else to make of this, other than I'm not liking how quickly this wagon is taking off.

[totadileplayz]

Your a poet, you just didn't know it.

[Book Wombat]

I'm not a JOAT that was what I was aiming for with Ben Tennyson, but yeah my power's really strange, in that the best play I can possibly make day 1 is what I am doing.

A passive? Maybe some kind of vote manipulation ability? Hrrmmm.

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Your words ring true;
Our choice is nigh.
Time has come to
Choose who'll die.

We have numbers and we've will.
The cookie thieves we must combat.
And whom today will we kill?
May I suggest BookWombat?

Nooo, I swear I didn't steal the cookies.

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Vote List:
totadileplayz (1): Book Wombat
AvatarVecna (1): JeenLeen
Book Wombat (3): totadileplayz, AvatarVecna, Xihirli

[AvatarVecna]

So just a temperature check with the town: given the size of the game, and given the game's peculiar set-up, are y'all feeling what I'm feeling, in that we almost certainly don't have any masons?

I'm not a JOAT that was what I was aiming for with Ben Tennyson, but yeah my power's really strange, in that the best play I can possibly make day 1 is what I am doing.

I have some theories, but I'll keep them to myself for now.

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Struckthrough my BW vote for now, getting bad vibes.

[JeenLeen]

...okay so definitely not a Shakespearian character. Not sure what else to make of this, other than I'm not liking how quickly this wagon is taking off.

Oddly, the fact that Xihirli didn't claim to be a mass murderer makes me think she's town.
I have similar vibes; I don't like a too-strong bandwagon early D1, as it gives a wagon for wolves to safely hide in.

I want to see how some of the other players respond/vote before I say more. It's still early D1.

[Xihirli]

No, you're right. I shouldn't decide my votes by how easily I can make a rhyme about them. Unstriking vote. Let's kill Vecna instead.

But I do promise to put up a sonnet-style iambic pentameter post later today.

Anyway, apparently "mass murderer" and "person who kills a lot of people" are too similar so I had to scrap one. But being a poet is a close second.

After all: Art is making people feel. And hey, maybe that feeling you wanted them to feel is death.

[Captain Cap]

I'm sure everybody here was tempted to pick a character who's mechanics would be...obvious, somebody who if they got some other power wouldn't be well-represented.

I swear I didn't even think about it, I just went by inspiration.

As I agree with the position that revealing our roles is of no help to town (at least for now), I'll refrain myself from roleplaying, even if the temptation is so damn strong.

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Even though, now that I think about it, I don't see how anyone could possibly guess my role's power.

[Apogee1]

Hey folks.

AV talk a little bit about the bandwagon too big feeling you were getting? Because from where I'm sitting it looks like you were specifically skeeved at Xihirli hopping on and was wondering if that's something specific regarding them, something else you were picking up from the thread or ?!?

totadileplayz

Half a towncred to anyone who can guess why I want to poke here

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I'm loosely :shrug: on character claiming.

I do think that's something that should be done say late d2-d3 as more mech info comes out

Having a hard time thinking about why I'd need to know before then

Hard to say how scum would benefit

Actually maybe I'd encourage keeping character stuff on the down low for a bit idk.

[Xihirli]

They're vaguely alluding to their role and nudging us in the direction of revealing our roles when that hurts town?

[Apogee1]

They're vaguely alluding to their role and nudging us in the direction of revealing our roles when that hurts town?

Nope :p

Reasonable enough thought about what my reason may have been but I don't really care about it atp

AV apparently has thoughts on roles though and I'd normally discourage explicit role hunting in thread but uh its AV and again, role hunting is one of those "wolfy" things that like, end up being villagers plenty of the time. Especially when its villagers of a certain archetype that I'd figure AV falls into.

So sitting back and popcorning that angle for a bit

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I'll leave the guessing open for another poster or two so we get some of that sweet #content

But then it turns to a distraction so I'll out it in not too long