EPTOk so I'm hanging out playing mafia late into the night after the Princeton LAN in the basement of a Princeton dorm.
Names you might recognize present: HotBid, R1ch, Alex Garfield (CEO of Evil Geniuses), Flamewheel, and lots of cool Princeton kids.
So R1ch is moderator, and I get cop. Cool. Last time I played mafia was at IPL3; I'm not really that good at mafia.
First night I check Hot_Bid, because he's such a crafty player, I gotta figure out if he's trolling or controlling the game as mafia because he always talks a lot and accuses a lot during the day. Hot_Bid's clean.
Someone random I don't remember dies first night. Ok, first day, I can trust Hot_Bid. Hot_Bid just comes straight out and accuses the guy sitting next to me, a Princeton guy named Jon who is kind of a troll himself.
Alright, I'm all for the lynch, using the "he's either mafia or bad town" logic. Jon is just surprised that people are jumping on him so quick, and doesn't expect the vote.
It's not entirely clear when exactly the vote is (for some reason we didn't do 3 2 1 vote), so Jon actually comes out as medic after he's been voted dead, saying he healed Flamewheel.
This causes some distress among town, needless to say.
2nd night, I thought Alex Garfield jumped a little quick on the Jon lynch so I check him. He's mafia.
Hot_Bid and Flamewheel die. Town is very distressed, since those two are experienced and valuble town players and our medic is clearly dead. Ok, so town needs some support. I come out as cop, clearing Hot_Bid and accusing Alex.
There's a tense moment as Alex claims cop, I'm worried that it's just going to be my word against his. He's asked who he's checked. He points and me, says he's mafia, points at a dude to my right, says he's clean.....then points at the next two people around the circle and says they're clean too.
Town immediately jumps up, lots of yelling and lolz all around; Alex's formal defense is, "guys I'm cop, I checked myself, I'm mafia". He's lynched, I die the next night, and town wins easily after a clutch vigilante kill. While we're both dead I chat a bit with Alex about stuff from the Symposium earlier in the day. He's a really cool guy, really nice guy.
Ok, so clearly Alex is a gigantic noob at this game. Earnest, but a noob. On to the next game.
Next game I'm vanilla town. Day 1 first thing said is by a guy named Lock (or Lot?), sitting right next to Alex, turns directly to Alex and says something along the lines of "I'm cop, Alex is mafia". Alex gives a bit of a surprised laugh smile with his hands a little over his face, and of course denies it, and Lock immediately gives the "jk lol".
Ok, a little odd, but of course when someone accuses you so directly and quickly you'll have some reaction, and he probably thinks he's being made fun of for being terrible. Hot_Bid says he thinks they're both clean.
Game progresses for a while, people die, people are lynched, etc etc. Hot_Bid somehow survives a couple nights, and I trust him, Lock comes out as vigilante, but cool Princeton kid Bowen sitting next to me comes out as vigi and Lock immediatly backs down, saying fake vigi.
The main conflict is between Hot_Bid and cool princeton kid (and brony! brohoof bro!) Pat, although Hot_Bid is all for lynching some others. Some people don't trust Hot_Bid so there's some discussion of lynching one and shooting the other. Both end up dying.
Game comes down to 5 people. Bowen is clearly the real vigi, and I trust Alex as actual town. The way the alliances worked out, if there is one mafia it's probably a dude sitting to my left, directly across from Alex; but if it's two it's probably me and [some other guy I don't remember], who's sitting across from me. It's a cute little triangle, so I spend some time explaining how this scenario works to Alex. I agree to lynch the other guy on my side of the triangle as it's the more conservative option. I'm confident it's not him and I can convince Alex to lynch [sogidr].
After the lynch the game continues and Bowen dies that night. Ok, showtime. This other dude and I are going back and forth for a long time trying to convince Alex. We do the whole "stick your arm straight out in the air, we'll see who is shaking". Ice cold me doesn't shake at all, the other guy does.
Alex is sitting there in his chair leaning forward with his eyes down and hands on his cheeks, and looks me straight in the eye. "You're not fucking with me dude? If you're fucking with me, I swear..." with a little smile/laugh. My heart rate's up a bit, using my best poker face/sincere face. "No I am not mafia, I'll swear to whatever you want me to swear to."
After like half a fucking hour of this, Alex agrees to vote with me. Everyone who's dead is crowding around the game watching. As the final vote's being cast, someone runs up to Alex and says "I just wanna say, remember this as the time that YOU WON A GAME". I'm like "hell yeah, I convinced him to vote with me so we won."
R1ch: "Mafia wins."
