Utropia

[gac3]

Welcome to Utropia!

Static
Welcome one and all. Utropia is an idealic place. That is, it was. Last night our lovely Mayor Invincible has died. Don't worry folks, this happens from time to time. However, town will likely be in chaos until he returns or we root out those responsible. Be safe and feel free to hunt eachother to death. Without the mayor, the world often descends into Distropia.
End Transmission

The Invincible Mayor has died.

Gac3 you are the The Invincible Mayor, Neutral.
Your win condition: Resurrect before game ends. Countdown begins now
Your tropes are
>>> Resurrective Immortality: You can die. For a short time at least. You will resurrect [REDACTED] phases after the start of game.
Above Good and Evil: You are above the petty squabbles of citizens. You hold no allegiance or preference to any force in the game. You have no alignment and are immune to all powers.
Deus Ex Machina: Wouldn't they all like to know.

"Let's not worry though citizens. I am here to protect you," This message was shared by Caiohmin the Cape, Town hero who is certainly not responsible for the death of the Invincible Mayor.


I would like to try to end Day one Thursday at Midnight EST. However I may need to extend that depending on what drugs I am on post proceedure tomorrow. I likely will not be around much the first 24 to 36 hours of the game but don't be afraid to reach out as I will have my phone on me if I'm able to talk.

Spoiler: Recruitment Post

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Welcome one and welcome all!

Time for another UPick. The previous ones are listed below. That said I didn't run the previous ones. This one will have a somewhat different gimmick. Instead of picking a character, we will be using Tropes from TV Tropes.

So this is welcome to all players and new players are encouraged. Once you sign up, sometime before the end of the recruitment (approximately 2 weeks), send me ((in a PM)) 3 tropes from TV Tropes (with link) for me to choose from to make your powers. Your power/role will be based on the tropes you send me.

Things to know for new players:
This is a standard mafia game with two phases. A 48 hour day phase and a 24 hour night phase.
Check out the community page for mafia on the forum. We are always starting new games and you can feel free to try out different ones. The more people, the more fun and chaotic things get. So let come check it out.

Spoiler: Links to More Inforamtion

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Mafia Hub
Previous Games (not ran by me):
UPick
UPick 2: Electric Boogaloo

If I should include more information here, let me know.

Spoiler: Players

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Avatar Vecna
Flat Footed
Xihirli
Bladescape
Batcathat
Snowblaze
Book Wombat
Metastachydium
Let'sGetKraken
3SecondCultist
KevinTheCape
Rogan MAYBE
Ripptor
JeenLeen
Moonfly7
Persolus
Zelphas
Taffimai

[Persolus]

Gosh dang it, not again, mayor!

Hello everyone! I'm Persolus and think that you shouldn't kill me first round!

[moonfly7]

Alright boys and girls, let's start the fun. First and foremost, I don't trust gac.
Second off, someone remind me the code for red words so I can vote Snowblaze. Best to just kill the eternal wolf early, I say

[Persolus]

Alright boys and girls, let's start the fun. First and foremost, I don't trust gac.
Second off, someone remind me the code for red words so I can vote Snowblaze. Best to just kill the eternal wolf early, I say

The code for red is COLOR="#FF0000"

- - - Updated - - -

...wait, why Snowblaze?

[AvatarVecna]

The code for red is COLOR="#FF0000"

- - - Updated - - -

...wait, why Snowblaze?

I mean, if you're typing it on mobile, you can also just do [color=red]. Observe: Snowblaze.

[moonfly7]

The code for red is COLOR="#FF0000"

- - - Updated - - -

...wait, why Snowblaze?

I guessed Snowblaze last Upick in the begining, road that wagon hard day one. Then the other guy who I defended turned out to be a wolf. I thought show was innocent after that despite my instincts telling me not to trust her, and in the end she was the last wolf standing and almost killed us all.

Plus, she gets wolf a lot

So this time, I figured my day one placeholder vote would just be Snow.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean, if you're typing it on mobile, you can also just do [color=red]. Observe: Snowblaze.

Snowblaze

Ah, I see. Thank you my good AV!

[Xihirli]

How do you do, fellow towns? I believe I promised to kill Let'sGetKraken.

[AvatarVecna]

Hmm...for my real vote, I could trust in RNGesus, or I could do a name-test...decisions decisions...

[Zelphas]

So... I will be on a plane for most of tomorrow, so I may not be able to post.

For now, I rolled to see who to vote for, and I rolled 17, which is... me.

Zelphas.

Hopefully this does not kill me.

[AvatarVecna]

Spoiler: Color Test

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AvatarVecna
flat_footed
Xihirli
bladescape
Batcathat
Snowblaze
Book Wombat
Metastachydium
LetsGetKraken
3SecondCultist
CaoimhinTheCape
Rogan
Ripptor
JeenLeen
moonfly7
Persolus
Zelphas
Taffimai

Hmm flat_footed, Persolus, or Zelphas...

RNGesus guided by color test says Zelphas

[moonfly7]

Hmm...for my real vote, I could trust in RNGesus, or I could do a name-test...decisions decisions...

I'm sticking with Snow as a legit vote until I get solid evidence otherwise.

Although mayhaps we should start some form of discussion? Specifically about Gac3 actually having a role, I reckon that'll be important.

Last upick we got a cryptic warning that it would be a good idea to hide the names of our chosen characters and we mostly ignored it besides brief bouts of paranoia(extended bouts of paranoia for me) and in the end, it turned out the warning was actually about Snowblaze's kill ability that instantly murdered anyone whose role she guessed correctly in day time, only stopping if she got it wrong, in which case she then died.

What I'm saying is, this Upick we get a pretty decent warning at the beggining, we need to think about what it could actually mean, I refuse to just assume it's just flavor this time.

[AvatarVecna]

So... I will be on a plane for most of tomorrow, so I may not be able to post.

For now, I rolled to see who to vote for, and I rolled 17, which is... me.

Zelphas.

Hopefully this does not kill me.

RNGesus wanted me to kill you too. So he hath commanded!

- - - Updated - - -

I'm sticking with Snow as a legit vote until I get solid evidence otherwise.

Although mayhaps we should start some form of discussion? Specifically about Gac3 actually having a role, I reckon that'll be important.

Last upick we got a cryptic warning that it would be a good idea to hide the names of our chosen characters and we mostly ignored it besides brief bouts of paranoia(extended bouts of paranoia for me) and in the end, it turned out the warning was actually about Snowblaze's kill ability that instantly murdered anyone whose role she guessed correctly in day time, only stopping if she got it wrong, in which case she then died.

What I'm saying is, this Upick we get a pretty decent warning at the beggining, we need to think about what it could actually mean, I refuse to just assume it's just flavor this time.

gac is immune to powers, but not the lynch, and maybe not the nightkill? I mean, unless that's what DEM is ("once you return from the dead, you can't die again, unless a very specific power combo is used" or something like that).

[moonfly7]

RNGesus wanted me to kill you too. So he hath commanded!

- - - Updated - - -



gac is immune to powers, but not the lynch, and maybe not the nightkill? I mean, unless that's what DEM is ("once you return from the dead, you can't die again, unless a very specific power combo is used" or something like that).

See, it's the deus ex machina that has me concerned

[AvatarVecna]

See, it's the deus ex machina that has me concerned

I don't disagree, but there's also literally nothing we can do about it. Last game the cryptic warning was "Don't share names" or whatever, and we just didn't take it seriously. This game the warning is "the narrator is up to shenanigans" and also we can't do anything about it.

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Maybe DEM is that he's allowed to lie about his powers, and he's not actually immune to powers? I guess we can't know until we try...

[Xihirli]

I'm also allowed to lie about my powers.

[moonfly7]

I don't disagree, but there's also literally nothing we can do about it. Last game the cryptic warning was "Don't share names" or whatever, and we just didn't take it seriously. This game the warning is "the narrator is up to shenanigans" and also we can't do anything about it.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe DEM is that he's allowed to lie about his powers, and he's not actually immune to powers? I guess we can't know until we try...

I mean, I don't disagree it won't do much, but I have a brilliant counter point: is there anything else we can talk about that would further the game at all? At least this is semi relevant.

[AvatarVecna]

I mean, I don't disagree it won't do much, but I have a brilliant counter point: is there anything else we can talk about that would further the game at all? At least this is semi relevant.

A fair point, and nothing lost by speculating. Let's see...

...let's put aside whether "immune to everything" is a lie or not. What does Deus Ex Machina do, you think? My initial guess is, gac can declare one person A Winner even if the rules would otherwise indicate they wouldn't win. That feels very appropriate to a DEM power, and I've seen it before (not often, but still).

[Batcathat]

Based on the number of posts, this Upick promises to live up to its predecessor's stressful chaos. Fantastic. Even I don't know if that was sarcastic or not...

Let's see... I already did (try to) take my vengeance upon flat for the curse and my default target Snow actually did die last game (not to mention it seems a little early in the day for a wagon) so let's welcome Taffimai back to playing by reminding her of how friendly we are.

No thoughts on gac's powers so far, but a ticking clock certainly adds a little extra stressful fun to the proceedings.

[Book Wombat]

The die has spoken! And it hath said Persolus.

[Snowblaze]

Let'sGetKraken is always a wolf.

Welcome back, Taffimai! I'll try not to deathtunnel you!

Safest way to deal with the gac thing is to end the game as quickly as possible by killing wolves as quickly as possible.

Zelphas 2: Zelphas, AvatarVecna
Let'sGetKraken 2: Xihirli, Snowblaze
Snowblaze 1: moonfly7
Taffimai 1: Batcathat
Persolus 1: Book Wombat

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My initial guess is, gac can declare one person A Winner even if the rules would otherwise indicate they wouldn't win.

So, did I mention I think gac3 is an awesome narrator? ;)

[Rogan]

Based on the number of posts, this Upick promises to live up to its predecessor's stressful chaos. Fantastic. Even I don't know if that was sarcastic or not...

Yeah, right. And that's before I got to check in. Which I'm going to do approximately... now!

Hello fellow citizens!

I'd like to vote for keeping Snowblaze alive today. Keep the (usually) active players active some more, so we don't end up with a whole bunch of low posters in the endgame.
This vote might or might not have meaning and might or might not be a hint to my power

---

Regarding our beloved mayor (and more important, narrator) I think there is one important question, which I can't answer and I actually doubt anybody else can do this:
Is the victory condition of the narrator mutually exclusive with the victory condition of anybody else? Maybe even everybody else?
A related question: Will the game go on when the countdown ended?

If it doesn't hurt anybody: well, showing some gratitude towards the narrator by supporting his victory is something I definitely won't mind. Plus, a classical DEM is to the benefit of the good guys. But I can't really blame anybody for being afraid of the unknown.

So, is there anybody willing to claim additional information about this whole process?
Could we get some informal vote about this topic?

I'm in favor of supporting the narrator as long as doing so is not throwing the game.

---

Slightly related to the question above:
Anybody interested in claiming neutral and sharing their victory condition? I suppose we have got enough players that neutrals are possible and the tropes might allow for some interesting victory conditions instead of the usual survive or kill all.
Fair warning: Outing yourself as neutral with an untestable victory condition might turn you into a lynch target on the ground of "they could be lying" and "we can be sure to hit non-town". I'm unlikely to take this route, but there had been enough talk about this before that I feel like I should mention it.

---

Out of curiosity: Is anybody willing to claim to have picked a trope in order to increase the likelihood of a certain alignment?
I tried to get a neutral role with one of my picks, but nope. Non-Neutral. (Would you believe me if I said town?)

---

Enough of the general questions, here are some more specific ones:

AV: Welcome back to the games. I hope you enjoyed the short break from the murdering and, more importantly, getting murdered. What would it take to make this game really enjoyable for you?

Bat: Can I recruit you to the "keep the talkative players alive as long as there is no strong case against them" club? (Currently I'm the only official member, I'm afraid)

Book: You said you picked a story, right? Action, object and idea. Are you satisfied with your outcome?

Flat: I think you've been a silent wolf the last two mafia games (and were a silent townie the match before). What does it take to get you to talk some more?

Kraken: How does it feel to be a wolf all the time?

[Batcathat]

Regarding our beloved mayor (and more important, narrator) I think there is one important question, which I can't answer and I actually doubt anybody else can do this:
Is the victory condition of the narrator mutually exclusive with the victory condition of anybody else? Maybe even everybody else?
A related question: Will the game go on when the countdown ended?

I am leaning towards the narrator's wincon being mutually exclusive with anyone else's, but that's admittedly based on nothing but my own cynical and distrustful nature, so I might be wrong.

Bat: Can I recruit you to the "keep the talkative players alive as long as there is no strong case against them" club? (Currently I'm the only official member, I'm afraid)

On one hand, I support the idea of trying to avoid the active players tearing each other to shreds while the wolves just cruise along in the shadows. On the other hand I'm generally opposed to lynching inactive (or nearly inactive) players since that gives so little information going forward. So I guess I'm hoping for someone semi-active to say something really suspicious?

Flat: I think you've been a silent wolf the last two mafia games (and were a silent townie the match before). What does it take to get you to talk some more?

I wonder if there's a trope I could've picked that would've given me the ability to curse flat into talking non-stop. Because that would have been the Ultimate Revenge.

[Snowblaze]

Hi Rogan. Hopefully whatever you're doing with the green vote is pro-me. I would like to join the "keep the talkative players alive as long as there is no strong case against them" club (#DefinitelyNotBiased).

I'm claiming not neutral, and I did not choose tropes to try and get a certain alignment.

On gac: I kind of want to help them win but also I don't want to risk screwing ourselves over by doing so. Deliberately extending the game when town is in a strong position sounds like a good way to throw away said strong position, and that's if gac winning doesn't mean us losing.

Also, is there a reason why you're not voting in ordinary red text? (You're allowed to just say "yes" if it's power-related or you want wolves to think it is). (That question goes for whoever else has posted but not voted... oh, right, that's just Persolus. For some reason I thought there were more in that category.)

...I'm wallposting already, help.

[Rogan]

I am leaning towards the narrator's wincon being mutually exclusive with anyone else's, but that's admittedly based on nothing but my own cynical and distrustful nature, so I might be wrong.



On one hand, I support the idea of trying to avoid the active players tearing each other to shreds while the wolves just cruise along in the shadows. On the other hand I'm generally opposed to lynching inactive (or nearly inactive) players since that gives so little information going forward. So I guess I'm hoping for someone semi-active to say something really suspicious?



I wonder if there's a trope I could've picked that would've given me the ability to curse flat into talking non-stop. Because that would have been the Ultimate Revenge.

I guess that's hardly a surprise. Although I think you could really get a bit more trusting (so backstabbing you gets easier) (I didn't say nothing!).

Sounds good to me. Although on Day 1, I think it's usually more interesting what other people say (or don't say) about the lynch target. Like "yeah, I guess this player is town, but I'd still rather lynch them instead of a player I'm more suspicious about" which basically happened during the tarot club when Snows survival steak ended.

This might have worked? At least it would have been a funny little revenge. Which would probably be pro town, no matter what alignment flat really has this time.

Hi Rogan. Hopefully whatever you're doing with the green vote is pro-me. I would like to join the "keep the talkative players alive as long as there is no strong case against them" club (#DefinitelyNotBiased).

I'm claiming not neutral, and I did not choose tropes to try and get a certain alignment.

On gac: I kind of want to help them win but also I don't want to risk screwing ourselves over by doing so. Deliberately extending the game when town is in a strong position sounds like a good way to throw away said strong position, and that's if gac winning doesn't mean us losing.

Also, is there a reason why you're not voting in ordinary red text? (You're allowed to just say "yes" if it's power-related or you want wolves to think it is). (That question goes for whoever else has posted but not voted... oh, right, that's just Persolus. For some reason I thought there were more in that category.)

...I'm wallposting already, help.

I certainly mean you no harm with my vote. Unfortunately, there is enough potential chaos to prevent me from making any accurate predictions about the outcome. But yeah. Welcome to the club!

Definitely a point I can't argue against. But let's consider a situation where extending the game doesn't hurt, like a misslynch-and-lose. I think it's better to prolong the game, which will help the narrator and probably will be helpful for town as well.

Well, voting you in red would be polary opposed to my goal of keeping you alive, right?
Other than that... No comment yet.

[Metastachydium]

Man. I almost missed page 1. Can't a flower have a flower's beauty sleep?

Now, before I'd fall further behind: a couple games ago you people killed Snowblaze without my participation. Permit me to try and remedy that.

[Taffimai]

Bladescape

and hello to everybody else as well

Have only read half of posts up till now, but if we're going to try to vote the narrator then I'm in favour of doing so now rather than at the end of the game. I'm still traumatised.

[Metastachydium]

Although mayhaps we should start some form of discussion? Specifically about Gac3 actually having a role, I reckon that'll be important.

Last upick we got a cryptic warning that it would be a good idea to hide the names of our chosen characters and we mostly ignored it besides brief bouts of paranoia(extended bouts of paranoia for me) and in the end, it turned out the warning was actually about Snowblaze's kill ability that instantly murdered anyone whose role she guessed correctly in day time, only stopping if she got it wrong, in which case she then died.

What I'm saying is, this Upick we get a pretty decent warning at the beggining, we need to think about what it could actually mean, I refuse to just assume it's just flavor this time.

gac is immune to powers, but not the lynch, and maybe not the nightkill? I mean, unless that's what DEM is ("once you return from the dead, you can't die again, unless a very specific power combo is used" or something like that).

Regarding our beloved mayor (and more important, narrator) I think there is one important question, which I can't answer and I actually doubt anybody else can do this:
Is the victory condition of the narrator mutually exclusive with the victory condition of anybody else? Maybe even everybody else?
A related question: Will the game go on when the countdown ended?

If it doesn't hurt anybody: well, showing some gratitude towards the narrator by supporting his victory is something I definitely won't mind. Plus, a classical DEM is to the benefit of the good guys. But I can't really blame anybody for being afraid of the unknown.

I am leaning towards the narrator's wincon being mutually exclusive with anyone else's, but that's admittedly based on nothing but my own cynical and distrustful nature, so I might be wrong.

On gac: I kind of want to help them win but also I don't want to risk screwing ourselves over by doing so. Deliberately extending the game when town is in a strong position sounds like a good way to throw away said strong position, and that's if gac winning doesn't mean us losing.

Have only read half of posts up till now, but if we're going to try to vote the narrator then I'm in favour of doing so now rather than at the end of the game. I'm still traumatised.

Well, for starters, what are we to do about it? Gac is dead, currently, and what is dead may never die (as long as it's dead). Voting 'em now or, for that matter, ever before they'd rise again sounds like a waste of our time. We can, of course, try to all kill each other faster to make sure gac doesn't get to respawn, but that's, like, what we would be doiing even if there wasn't a god in the machine (assuming we don't want another 70 page monstrosity, that is).

[Rogan]

(assuming we don't want another 70 page monstrosity, that is).

I like 70 page monstrosities! They imply I'm still alive at the end of the game.

I guess we could try to elect another mayor (I think something like that had been done in the distance past, without mechanical impact) but other than that, there is not much we can do except using or not using deadly powers without a good target. Or strictly speaking, governing the use of any power which might influence the number of deaths.

[Batcathat]

Yeah, as long as we don't know a) when gac will resurrect b) how we can stop/delay that (if at all) c) what happens when he wins and/or uses Deus Ex Machina, we can't really do anything on tha matter but speculate wildly (which is fun, as long as it doesn't distract us from speculating wildly about the wolves).

Electing a new mayor does sound fun though. If nothing else, it'll be entertainingly awkward when gac returns to life and someone's sitting in his office.

[Taffimai]

Fwiw I think the Deus Ex Machina is either just a joke to make us nervous and does nothing, or tied to the power of one of the players. It would have been a clever trope to ask for.