PMsInMafia
From Barbelith
There's a bit of a grey area here currently. The spirit of the game encourages deception & paranoia, but in some ways, the game is best confined to the thread(s) on which the game is played.
Past issues have been:
- Forging Private Messages.
The situation: Player X gets an unusual PM from Player Y. When the PM is made public, Player Y denies all knowledge of having sent the PM. As it turns out, someone *else* sent the message.
Note from Tom: If anyone knows how these messages were forged, could they let me know
(There was no actual forgery or duplication of private messages, as far as I'm aware - during the first game, a player claimed to have received a PM from another player, and he copied and pasted this "message" to the main thread. In reality, no message was ever received - the player made up the incident from the whole cloth. - Todd)
Issues: Impersonating another user online is generally not kosher. However, wild claims and intrigue are at the foundation of the game.
Possible Conclusions?
The lesson I'd take from this - don't trust a darn thing *anybody* says. -- grant
- Using Mayoral Private Messages as "proof" of innocence.
The situation:
Player X is trusted by the village (most likely, after the last detective has been whacked, leaving behind hir list of findings).
To flush out the Mafia, Player X insists that all players forward the exact text of their original PM from the Mayor, defining their role as innocent villager... or mafiosi.
Issues: This possibly broaches Mayoral confidentiality. This also takes much of the play outside the public game threads and into private mailboxes. On the other hand, it is simply another iteration of the point of the game: to prove to the Village that you are innocent. Bluffing and misdirection are still possible, although more difficult.
Possible Conclusions?
Well, in the game I Mayored in which this happened, the player in question didn't realize that I'd basically cut-n-paste the same text for Mafia and Villager PMs - there are 15 players, so why not? ("You are an innocent villager... by day.") Player X tried the gambit, the mafia outbluffed him (by taking off "...by day") and whacked him the next round. -- grant
'This was totally my fault - before I was lynched, I suggested to Chrome that it might be possible (though, I did say I was unsure if it was kosher) to tell innocent villagers apart by using this method, simply because I remembered that when I was Mayor, to streamline PMing 13 players about their roles, I resorted to cut 'n paste very often. I'm duly chastened, as now I have an idea of how out-of-control it got. -- Todd'
Yeah, it's worth noting that a few players found it a bit of a hassle or intrusion. -- grant
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