whiteflame

Town wins!

1st place: Town (Pie, Thoth, Luna, Banana, Rex, Mikal, Mag1c)

2nd place: Scum (Wylted, Magoroth)

Setup and Night Actions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1niRfIL8FkBSSc-NUNepFLUKQ884Ly48LmLlK6L4G2j8/edit?usp=sharing

Being absent was scum's biggest problem this game. Life gets busy and it seems like that really affected both Magoroth and Wylted throughout much of this game. Very little posting DP1, either in game or in the scum chat, so when the CFD happened, it was all crickets on my end. Wylted didn't even know Magoroth had been lynched and I didn't see any posts from Magoroth afterward. It's a pretty disappointing way for scum to go out. I was planning to sub Magoroth out after the first DP ended, but obviously that didn't happen. In the future, if something like this happens where you just can't see yourself being active for a couple of days (particularly if you're scum), just best to let the mod know.

And yeah, losing his character was a big blow to scum. Loss of the Rolestopper and the False Inventor I'd included. You can see the roles that using those Grimoires would have applied to the target, I think that could've been fun.

As for Wylted, yeah, he got a fake character and role claim, but they were never tested in game. Just straight up claimed his character. That's not surprising and Ubel was probably expected to be town here, but the Lie Detector claim was a big gambit that massively backfired. Made it so that it was heads up between Wylted and Thoth, which meant no one else had to claim, which meant the Spell Copying role was useless NP2. Didn't help that the Lie Detector role is infamously hard to manipulate, would've been worth asking me some questions about that one before putting it out there.

Not that it matters at this point, but the theme split was anyone who had ever teamed up with Frieren as town and anyone who hadn't as scum. Hence Serie and Ubel. The fake claim was Sense, though I had a list I randomized. I did leave out some big players like Eisen and Fern from this game, so there were opportunities there.

Not really a town MVP per se, but the CFD in DP1 was pivotal, so I'll give it to Luna for driving that wagon over Magoroth.

As for balance, I'd say this was just a little scumsided. I gave town ways to interfere with the NK, but Wylted's Strongman could pierce all of them except for Mikal's Deflector. I put all the investigative roles on Mikal as well, so losing him would have been a big deal if both scum had survived into DP2. Luna's role couldn't prevent the NK, and with Rex's Magistrate, there could be some fuckery to prevent lynches in play, particularly if Wylted used it. Not a lot of ways to obviously reduce POE with only Rex's role being obviously confirmable, and with the Odd Night White Mage for Banana, protection targets couldn't shift every night.

Anyway, appreciate any feedback on the setup.

We enter DP2 with heavy hearts. The elven race, already so few in number, has now lost another two members. One had to be removed, the Living Grimoire herself having become a danger to so many around her. The other, despite having survived so many brushes with death and even the Demon King himself, finds herself at the mercy of a more powerful opponent while vulnerable in the night.

Lynched:

Magoroth -

You are Serie. One of the oldest known characters and a Mage with such an expansive knowledge of magic you are known as the Living Grimoire, you are a legend in your time. You have taken many apprentices and prize ambition in those around you. You are the manipulative JOAT.

Living Grimoire: You can hand one of the following three Grimoires to anyone else during the NP. Your target will be given an option to use them and no information on what the Grimoire will do. They will have to use it as their sole night action, and it will last the duration of the NP. All of these roles are negative utility, titles may or may not indicate their effects.

Titles:

Sleep soundly

Locate family remains

Making clothes clean and spotless

Mana Concealment (2X): You have completely mastered limiting and concealing your mana output to the point that scant few Mages can detect the difference. You are the Ninja. Roles that would detect your movement during the NP will show that you have not moved.

Barrier Magic (1X): You are talented with creating gigantic, largely impenetrable barriers. This is a Rolestopper. You can select any target and make them unable to be targeted by any night action.

Died in the Night:

Mikal -

You are Frieren. A storied elven Mage who joined the Hero Party that succeeded in killing the Demon King, you have since learned to treasure many of the moments and people in your long life. You are obsessed with obtaining new and varied grimoires, treasuring those spells with niche appeal. You are the JOAT. You win with Town.

Mana Detection (1X Tracker)

Sensing (1X Watcher)

Defensive Magic (1X Deflector)

1. ILikePie5
2. RexFavilla
3. Lunatic
4. Mag1cman
5. Banana
6. Wylted
7. Thoth

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to reach majority for a lynch. Plurality lynches are in effect, so if no one reaches 4 votes, the DP will end with a lynch on whomever has the most votes. This day phase will end on Sunday, 5/20/26 at 10:00 PM EST. 

Note: Banana cannot vote this DP nor be voted herself. The game would still automatically register her votes and votes against her, but I will not count those votes in the final vote count.

Welcome to Frieren Mafia! Yes, we're back with more anime, this one focused on an ageless elf who regularly gets stuck in Mimic chests during her endless search for folk spells. Despite its high fantasy setting, intense battles and non-human characters, this is a relatable adventure about choosing to live in the moment, forge connections with others, and clashing ideologies.

To answer some of the obvious questions:

There is a theme split.

Mafia has been given a choice. They can either ask about four characters or roles (total of four questions), or they can opt to receive a single character and role claim.

I will neither confirm nor deny the existence of possible third parties.

There are no mechanics this game that activate with claims (i.e. anti-claim), but players should be aware that there may be a cost to claiming nonetheless.

As usual, I will attempt to keep up with the DP to the best of my ability and respond to both public and private questions (with limitations - I will respond within reason but I'm not going down the endless rabbit hole of "what ifs" and other theoreticals).

The usual rules:

1) No editing or deleting posts of any kinds.

2) No copy/pasting your role PM (please paraphrase).

3) No cryptography of any kind.

4) No communication outside of the mafia game.

5) No liking/upvoting posts after you die.

6) No using ChatGPT/AI to paraphrase your PM.

And one more that's going to be within my discretion.

7) Angleshooting will be kept to a minimum here as will discussion of out of game (OOG) content. I can't prevent you from forming your own reads based on that information, but please, keep any publicly-posted reads focused on in-game content.

All DPs will be 72 hours and NPs 24 hours unless the NP ends with everyone submitting actions earlier.

Remaining Players:

1. ILikePie5
2. RexFavilla
3. Magoroth
4. Lunatic
5. Mikal
6. Mag1cman
7. Banana
8. Wylted
9. Thoth

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to reach majority for a lynch. Plurality lynches are in effect, so if no one reaches 5 votes, the DP will end with a lynch on whomever has the most votes. A VTNL is allowed for the first DP only. This day phase will end on Sunday, 5/17/26 at 1:30 PM EST. 

We’ll get back to mostly normal with this one. It’s a themed game based on a recently popularized anime called Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. For those unfamiliar with the series, it follows an elf named Frieren in her travels many years after a successful journey to do what so many fantasy adventurers aim to do: kill the Demon King! But the series is more introspective for the most part, focusing on bonds between party members and an immortal elf living in the moment.

I have a rough sketch of how I’m planning this one out, but it’s still got a ways to go and I’ll be re-tooling it based on how many people we get. Yes, there will be a theme split, but I’m going to avoid making this one too theme-heavy so that I don’t give show watchers an outsized advantage.

For now, I’ll aim for 9 players.

1. ILikePie5
2. RexFavilla
3. Magoroth (low priority)
4. Lunatic
5. Mikal
6. Mag1cman
7. Banana
8. Wylted
9. Thoth

Backup:

Casey_Risk

Helz

1st place: Mafia (Pie, Thoth)

2nd place: Town (Luna, Shining, Kohai, Wryly, Cerulean, Vader, RexFavilla)

Roles: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mdCEiMJmyiKynOr1bjK72cRU5Ye_B_CSK6ONyJ53mXQ/edit?tab=t.0

Night Actions (NP1):

RexFavilla recruited Wryly

Wryly Watched RexFavilla (no visit)

Thoth Janitored/Muggered Lunatic

Pie RB'd Wryly (JK'd by Shining)

Night Actions (NP2):

Thoth Strongmanned Wryly

Pie RB'd RexFavilla

Going to start by owning up to a pretty big goof on my part. You might notice that Lunatic had a flip... despite being Janitored. That was my error, I posted the DP before I realized that I'd forgotten to factor that into the night actions. My focus was on the Mugger aspect and since that didn't do anything with the Informed role, in my head, I must have decided that the Janitor didn't, either. My response to that was initially just to give them another shot of the Janitor, but Pie opted for me to give them a fake character claim they didn't use instead. So the long and short of it is that Lunatic's flip shouldn't have gone up at all, though doing so may have helped scum more since town struggled with the information that Luna flipped with and I think that helped them secure a lynch on Shining.

Oh, and to answer the question I've been asked a few times already, the "greater nuisance than they know" was actually in Luna's own role: he was a hidden Nexus. Back when I designed the Castlevania game, I included a hidden Sleepwalker that also sadly went nowhere, but the idea here was to cause some confusion and paranoia and I guess that ended up happening, just not the way I'd intended. Mharman and I made this change at the final stages of designing this game (I had Sally as the just straight up Nexus, but we didn't want two SOP claims to mess with POE that much and we both still wanted the Nexus). It might have been a little too cheeky looking back at it.

Setting that aside, I think this might have been a little scumsided, particularly with the Mugger which would have been a much bigger deal if it had succeeded in taking a role along with the Janitor hiding that flip. The 3X RB was a little excessive as well, though given that Pie only got one actual shot off (the JK prevented his first), it didn't end up being a factor here. I might be thinking differently about this if town had gotten their Dreamer off, but I do think I shorted town a protective role.

In terms of what went wrong for town, the biggest problem was inactivity. Inactivity up until the closing hours of the first DP led to a hasty lynch on Kohai, who hadn't even claimed and whose results could really have helped town. He might have been lynched anyway if he'd claimed, but I doubt it. Pie probably would have RB'd him, but given the JK stopped his night action NP1, the Dream could very well have gotten off and town could have had significantly more insight than it did. Wryly's Watcher result didn't do anything to narrow the field, and she didn't end up trusting REF enough to discuss it in chat with him.

I found the Shining lynch pretty baffling. He was the sole claimed protective role at that point (there weren't others), so he seemed pretty lock town on that basis. I better understand the decision to lynch REF in the end, but only a little. It would not be a first for a game to include a scum Mason who can recruit town members and pass themselves off as town, but with Pie's unused Hider claim on the table making him entirely unconfirmed, he looked like the obvious lynch to me. Pie was preparing for it too, hoping that his flip would help "confirm" Thoth's Strengthener claim (one of the two roles they asked about - the other was Dreamer).

Game MVP was Pie. Dude domineered through much of the game. I agree with him that that kind of approach is NAI, but whether he's scum or town, I always worry when he's taking control of the game.

Moving right along to DP3.

Lynched:

Shining - 

You are Jim Moss! As a former Army soldier, you enter the story when your daughter, Janice Moss, winds up dead. Despite repeated efforts to waylay your search for the killer, you remain dogged in the pursuit. You are particularly adept at psychological torture, interrogating multiple characters and wringing the truth out of them with ease. As such, you are the 2X Jailkeeper! You may put a player in jail, which will protect that player from death, but also prevent them from being able to successfully perform any night actions on that same night.

You win with the Town.

Died in the Night:

Wryly - 

You are Janice Moss! Your part in the series begins with an Los Angeles murder case and spirals as you find yourself following a bloody path of kills through the city. Dragging along your depressed partner John Loach, you end up in a relationship with Gene Cousineau and discover Barry Berkman’s role in the murders through him. As such, you are the 1X Watcher/1X Tracker! You may choose to either watch a player to see who visits them during the night or track a player to see who they visit, having one shot of each.

You win with the Town.

Graveyard:

Kohai (Gene Cousineau, 1X Dreamer) | Lynched DP1

Lunatic (Sally Reed, Informed Townie) | Killed NP1

Remaining Players:

1. Thoth
2. Pie
3. Vader
4. RexFavilla
5. Cerulean

With 5 players alive, it takes 3 votes to reach majority for a lynch. This day phase will end on Monday, 12/22/25 at 11:00 AM EST. 

Onto DP2!

Lynched:

Kohai - 

You are Gene Cousineau! You enter the story as Barry Berkman’s acting coach and his closest mentor, running an acting class in Los Angeles to make ends meet after your acting career crashed and burned along with any bridges you had built in Hollywood. Though their successes are few and far between, you encourage your students in the hopes of vicariously living through their successes. As such, you are the 1X Dreamer! You will receive a dream containing the names of three players, at least one of which does not win with town. If you are visited during the night, you will not dream.

You win with the Town.

Died in the Night:

Lunatic - 

You are Sally Reed! A fellow student of Barry Berkman’s in Gene Cousineau’s class, you started along this path after being physically abused by your partner, aiming to become a great actor and falling into a tumultuous relationship with Barry in the process. Your revelations about Barry’s life as a hitman influence much of your choices over the course of the series, including going on the run with him for much of the series. As such, you are the Informed Townie! You know additional information about the setup for this game: 

"You are informed that someone’s role is a greater nuisance than they know."

You win with the Town.

Remaining Players:

1. Thoth
2. Pie
3. Wryly
4. Vader
5. RexFavilla
6. Shining
7. Cerulean

With 7 players alive, it takes 4 votes to reach majority for a lynch. This day phase will end on Thursday, 12/18/25 at 11:00 AM EST. 

Welcome to Barry Mafia! I've loved this show ever since it started airing and it's nice to get a theme that really fits into mafia so well, especially given how various mobs feature in this show. Huge thank you to @Mag1cman for helping me design this game, stepped in and really helped with the balancing.

To answer some of the obvious questions:

1. There is a theme split.
2. Scum can to ask two questions. Those can break out to two roles, two characters, or one of each.
3. I have not directly included anti-claim mechanics, though there may be other costs to claiming.
4. As usual, I will attempt to keep up with the DP to the best of my ability and respond to both public and private questions (with limitations).

The usual rules:

1) No editing or deleting posts of any kinds

2) No copy/pasting your role PM (please paraphrase)

3) No cryptography of any kind

4) No communication outside of the mafia game

5) No liking/upvoting posts after you die

6) No using ChatGPT/AI to paraphrase your PM

I'll add extra rules as needed.

All DPs will be 72 hours and NPs 24 hours unless the NP ends with everyone submitting actions earlier.

Remaining Players:

1. Thoth
2. Pie
3. Wryly
4. Vader
5. Kohai
6. Lunatic
7. RexFavilla
8. Shining
9. Cerulean

With 9 players alive, it takes 5 votes to reach majority for a lynch. This day phase will end on Thursday, 12/14/25 at 11:30 AM EST. 

I'm still a ways off from getting this one in shape (changed over from Frieren and now I'm having to redesign a lot), but I should have time to get it there. In case you don't know it, the theme of this game is the show Barry. The lead is a depressed hitman who becomes captivated by acting and starts leading a double life. Great dramedy with a litany of fantastic actors, highly recommend it.

To answer some of the usual questions: the standard rules will apply, there will be a theme split, I'm going to aim for 9 people but will adjust accordingly if I fall short/go over that number, there will be no required viewing for this but theme knowledge is of course helpful.

1. Thoth
2. Pie
3. Wryly
4. Vader
5. Kohai
6. Lunatic
7. RexFavilla
8. Shining
9. Cerulean