*groans*

WHY did you roleclaim!

First off, thanks for hosting, and I mean that.  What follows are some critiques I have, but don't let that detract from the hard work you did and the fun that we had playing.

I still think the game was too imbalanced.  I see why it might look otherwise at a casual glance: both sides have big powers, so it's all good, right?  Unfortunately, the five-person mafia has the invaluable ability to coordinate their powers and work as a team, whereas the town can not do the same. 

We saw this at work in this game:  the mafia could (and did) use their powers in tandem in a way that we could not.  I have to congratulate Nikells and myself (mostly myself; 2/2 baby!   Although shouldn't dtewi's powers have stopped my healing from transferring to hatmoza?) for preventing three deaths: otherwise, the game would have ended much sooner than it did and the town never would have had a chance.  It's also blind luck Khuutra was killed off early, and while I congratulate us for seeking out Squilliam early on he could have done inestimable damage while the rest of the mafia continued to do the same on its end.  Squilliam was doubly-dangerous, since a cop-driven mislynch would likely have resulted in a dead cop the next day. Moreover, several of the town's ability's had limitations, while neither the mafia nor Kratos did.

I also think the number of scum was a bit too high in light of the powers they got.  We started with seven anti-towns out of twenty players, which sounds appropriate, but that number could (and did) grow because of the potential cultist.  Having the would-be cult leader have three bites at the apple each night made it fairly likely that he would succeed unless he got killed off early, and since he was pro-town until the point of his conversion he was less likely to get killed off early.  Having there be a deputy cult leader was a real drag too; to be honest, it seems borderline mean, since the bigger threat from the cult comes from the paranoia it breeds rather than its killing power.  And it did indeed breed some paranoia.

I also don't think the scum should be permitted to become a bomb, let alone a bomb which takes out two of the people who voted for him.  It seems excessive that the mafia already gets to have TWO night-kills: having one of Kratos' powers take out two of the people who voted for him is overkill, especially since he knew he was a bomb and could thus pass word on to his fellow mafia that they should not be the first or last person to vote for him.  It was, in essence, a way for the mafia to take down two townies at the cost of one of its own, which is not a bad bargain.  Even worse, unless one of our vigilantes stuck around we had no other way to remove the threat, and our vigilantes both had limitations on their kills.

To summarize, it seems to me that the only reason this game was as close as it was was blind luck.  I think future games should scale back the power roles, and they should keep in mind that being able to communicate and coordinate privately is one of the most powerful abilities a faction can have.  I mean it when I say that I enjoyed the game, but I still think we can take some lessons from it to improve future games as well.

First off, thanks for hosting, and I mean that.  What follows are some critiques I have, but don't let that detract from the hard work you did and the fun that we had playing.

I still think the game was too imbalanced.  I see why it might look otherwise at a casual glance: both sides have big powers, so it's all good, right?  Unfortunately, the five-person mafia has the invaluable ability to coordinate their powers and work as a team, whereas the town can not do the same. 

We saw this at work in this game:  the mafia could (and did) use their powers in tandem in a way that we could not.  I have to congratulate Nikells and myself (mostly myself; 2/2 baby!   Although shouldn't dtewi's powers have stopped my healing from transferring to hatmoza?) for preventing three deaths: otherwise, the game would have ended much sooner than it did and the town never would have had a chance.  It's also blind luck Khuutra was killed off early, and while I congratulate us for seeking out Squilliam early on he could have done inestimable damage while the rest of the mafia continued to do the same on its end.  Squilliam was doubly-dangerous, since a cop-driven mislynch would likely have resulted in a dead cop the next day. Moreover, several of the town's ability's had limitations, while neither the mafia nor Kratos did.

I also think the number of scum was a bit too high in light of the powers they got.  We started with seven anti-towns out of twenty players, which sounds appropriate, but that number could (and did) grow because of the potential cultist.  Having the would-be cult leader have three bites at the apple each night made it fairly likely that he would succeed unless he got killed off early, and since he was pro-town until the point of his conversion he was less likely to get killed off early.  Having there be a deputy cult leader was a real drag too; to be honest, it seems borderline mean, since the bigger threat from the cult comes from the paranoia it breeds rather than its killing power.  And it did indeed breed some paranoia.

I also don't think the scum should be permitted to become a bomb, let alone a bomb which takes out two of the people who voted for him.  It seems excessive that the mafia already gets to have TWO night-kills: having one of Kratos' powers take out two of the people who voted for him is overkill, especially since he knew he was a bomb and could thus pass word on to his fellow mafia that they should not be the first or last person to vote for him.  It was, in essence, a way for the mafia to take down two townies at the cost of one of its own, which is not a bad bargain.  Even worse, unless one of our vigilantes stuck around we had no other way to remove the threat, and our vigilantes both had limitations on their kills.

To summarize, it seems to me that the only reason this game was as close as it was was blind luck.  I think future games should scale back the power roles, and they should keep in mind that being able to communicate and coordinate privately is one of the most powerful abilities a faction can have.  I mean it when I say that I enjoyed the game, but I still think we can take some lessons from it to improve future games as well.

Wow,  well I think this game was horribly unbalanced.  Definitely not one of the better games on this site.   Sorry GodofWar_3ever.    Although it didnt help that we had a town that tore itself apart with its ridiculous random theories and had the blind leading the blind. 

Also,  Cults should never be used again in a Mafia game, ever.  

Once again, I didn't expect the day time vigilante, cop AND lie detector to die on day one. And hatmoza blew the chance to get a VERY powerful townie.

Once again, I didn't expect the day time vigilante, cop AND lie detector to die on day one. And hatmoza blew the chance to get a VERY powerful townie.

Oh and its my first time hosting. And dsister said that the mafia would be royally fucked when I set up the game with him, and he suggested some of the roles.

I'm sorry to hear that

Oh well....I tried :/

Also,  Cults should never be used again in a Mafia game, ever.