I Broke Mafia

Since I’ve been dead in our forum Mafia game for a few weeks, I joined some cats on IRC last night for a couple real-time games. Each game has five players, and is more of a logic puzzle than a social interaction. Four of the five players are cops, and one is a mobster. Each of the four cops gets to inspect one other player before the game starts in order to aid them in their search for the mobster.

Here’s the rub: only one of the four cops gets reliable intel. That cop is the “sane” cop. There’s also an “insane” cop, who always receives a false verdict, a “paranoid” cop who sees all his results as guilty, and a “naive” cop who sees all his results as innocent. The goal of the game is to puzzle out everyone’s results to figure out the mental state of each cop, and which of the five players is a mobster trying to poison the well.

So I decided to break the game and inspect myself. Here’s how that worked for me:

* Nich changes topic to ‘DAY 1′
<+Brickroad> I’m either sane or naive.
<+nameless> hito as guilty
<+fbm> Brickroad’s guilty as sin
<+Brickroad> I inspected myself and got a return of “What.” which was quickly changed to “clean”
<+Yeoz> fbm is innocent.
<+Hito> I got Yeoz as innocent.
<+Hito> Brick, did you really?
<+Brickroad> Which makes me sane/naive and fbm insane/paranoid.
<+Brickroad> Hito: Fuckin’ right I did. Call me a liar.
<+Yeoz> Hmm.
<+Hito> Shit. I don’t know how to logic without dtsund doing it for me.
<+Yeoz> Hito is either sane or naive as well
<+Yeoz> since he got me as innocent
<+nameless> or lying
<+Hito> Also I don’t know what to do with Brick’s information because that’s weird.
<+Yeoz> which means between the two of you, you are sane/naive/mafia
<+fbm> I’m not sure I trust him
<+nameless> I have to say, that is totally something brick would do
<+nameless> I believe it
<+Brickroad> I’ll accuse whichever non-me player gets two votes first.
<+fbm> If I were nich I’d have said “don’t be stupid, pick someone else”
<+Hito> So if fbm is correct that means Brick is paranoid.
<+Yeoz> since i saw fbm as innocent, if fbm _is_ innocent, then i would have to be sane/naive as well. which would be impossible. so if fbm is guilty, i would be insane.
<@Nich> It’s not actually against the rules I laid out.
<+Yeoz> or one of hito/brickroad is lying
<+Brickroad> Can’t know without killing one of us.
<+Yeoz> so its got to be either fbm/hito/brickroad
<+Brickroad> I suggest Hito. He’s fun to kill.
<+Yeoz> which means nameless is clean
<+Hito> I’m sick of being killed. BRICKROAD.

Note: Saying someone’s name in all-caps means you’re nominating that person to die. Whichever player first gets three nominations on Day One is the first player to die, after which the game moves to the night phase, cops get to make new inspections and the mobster gets to kill someone. If the cops kill the mobster on Day One they win; if they fail to kill him on Day Two the mobster wins.

<+nameless> wait, what does killing hito tell us?
<+fbm> Supposedly, whether he’s guilty
<+Brickroad> Probably nothing. Who cares?
<+nameless> ah, I see
<+Brickroad> We get another night of inspections to work with.
<+Yeoz> hmm. i’m pretty sure it cant be fbm either
<+Brickroad> It reveals something about nameless’s role too, since he got hito=guilty.
<+nameless> but think of the innocence that are going to die, brick
<+Hito> Yeoz could be lying too.
<+Yeoz> and i think its either brickroad/hito
<+Yeoz> feel free to check my logic ?_?
<+Brickroad> Your logic is fine, let’s kill hito.
<+nameless> HITO
<+fbm> You’re appealing to Brickroad’s desire to not kill innocents… that’s not going to work
<+Yeoz> wait dont kill hito yet
<+Yeoz> since it might be brickroad
<+Brickroad> So kill me. Hurry it up, I have to pee.

Note: A dead cop still wins as long as the mobster is eventually killed. I don’t care how long I survive as long as I win the game.

<+Yeoz> and we don’t want brickroad railroading us into killing hito
<+nameless> ohk
<+Hito> Okay, let’s lay out the scenario where Brickroad is mob.
<+Yeoz> go take a pee break ;P
* Brickroad is now known as Brickpee
<+nameless> I did play that scenario, you can’t logic it and I don’t want to doub le think it
<+Hito> If Brick is guilty that means fbm is either sane or insane.
<+Yeoz> if brickroad is mafia, fbm would be sane/paranoid, nameless would be insane/paranoid, yeoz would be naive/sane, hito would be naive/sane
<+Hito> Oh right, not insane.
<+nameless> no, I would have to be insane
<+Hito> I forgot the roles.
<+nameless> and fbm has to be paranoid
<+Yeoz> which forces it to be, if brickroad = mafia, fbm = paranoid, nameless = insane, yeoz/hito = naive/sane
* Brickpee is now known as Brickroad
<+nameless> but there is no conclusive proof here
<+Yeoz> nope
<+nameless> we just know what we knew in the first place
<+Brickroad> Am I dead yet?
<+nameless> nope
<+Brickroad> Christ people I didn’t mean to blow everyone’s minds.
<+Yeoz> if hito = mafia, nameless is paranoid, fbm is insane, yeoz/brickroad is naive/sane
<+Brickroad> Yeah, let’s kill Hito.
<+Brickroad> I agree completely.
<+Hito> ;_;
<+Hito> Every game.
<+Yeoz> hmm
<+nameless> hito has a tendency to die
<+Yeoz> well theres not enough information either way
<+Brickroad> He’s really good at it!
<+Brickroad> What’s our vote tally Nich?
<+Yeoz> but its got to be either Hito or Brickroad i think 😐
<@Nich> BRICKROAD: 1 (Hito), HITO: 1 (nameless)
<+Hito> Brick, I don’t even know you and you hate me. That’s the fastest anyone has ever done that.
<+Brickroad> I hate everyone equally.
<+nameless> its true
<+Hito> Ah, okay. Nothing personal, then?
<+fbm> He hates you most of all I’m sure
<+Brickroad> Well I hate some people more equally than others.
<+Hito> Wonderful.
<+Hito> I am sick of dying.
<+Brickroad> Are there more accusations forthcoming or are we just cupping our balls at this point?
* +fbm reads Animal Farm
<@Nich> I don’t know, Brickroad, do you want to accuse anybody?
<+Yeoz> i’m naive/sane no matter what
<+Brickroad> I’m going to accuse the first person to get to two accusations.
<+Brickroad> But probably Hito.
<+Brickroad> Unless Yeoz wants to kill me instead.
<+Brickroad> How about it?
<+Hito> I figured as much, since that’s all you can say. “Kill Hito, he’s fun to kill.”
<+Yeoz> nameless/fbm are insane/paranoid no matter what
<+Brickroad> Hito: Try accusing yourself. Feel what I feel.
<+Yeoz> that inspecting yourself was weird
<+Yeoz> who would actually do that
<+Yeoz> 😛
<+Hito> It really was.
<+Brickroad> I would, and did.
<+Brickroad> I kick ass.
<+nameless> I thought about it, but I figured nich wouldn’t allow it
<+nameless> shows what I know
<+Hito> I think Nich was too shocked to say no.
<+Brickroad> Here’s some logic:
<+Brickroad> If you actually believe I inspected myself and that Nich let it fly, then you already believe I’m a cop.
<+Brickroad> If you don’t believe I’d do it, or that Nich would let it fly, I must be mafia.
<+Brickroad> So make your decision based on that if you must.
<+Brickroad> But, consider:
<+Brickroad> Nich has already clarified that it’s NOT against the rules. Ergo he WOULD let it fly. So the only question is, am I a crazy enough bastard to do it?
<+Brickroad> I submit that I am, indeed.
<+Yeoz> perhaps the question should be, are you a crazy enough bastard to bluff your way through claiming that you did it? 😛
<+Brickroad> I think I’m a pretty crazy bastard either way, which is fine by me.
<+Hito> Maybe you didn’t do it but said you did just so Nich would clarify it for a later game.
<+Brickroad> Maybe I did.
<+fbm> He would have noticed by now that the Mafia tends to have trouble making their accusation blend
<+Yeoz> did anyone else accuse anyone else?
<+nameless> so much for the faster irc mafia games
<+Yeoz> i dont have enough information to go any further, so it’s guessing time 😀
<@Nich> No. We still have 2 accusations on the table.
<+Brickroad> Hey Nich I broke your game dude.
<+Hito> I accused Brick, nameless accused me.
<@Nich> BRICKROAD: 1 (Hito), HITO: 1 (nameless)
<+Hito> For what it’s worth, I was right the last two games we played.
<+Brickroad> That’s worth nothing.
<+Yeoz> nameless: why did you accuse Hito?
<+Hito> Even though y’all killed me off for whatever reason.
<+nameless> cause I think brick is innocent
<+Yeoz> Hmm
<+Brickroad> Hey dudes, if you’re wrong it ain’t no thang, just try again tomorrow.
<+Brickroad> You can both vote for nameless if you want, I’ll back you up.
<+Yeoz> nameless: so if we kill of hito today, and we dont win, can we agree to kill off brickroad tomorrow?
<+fbm> I’d go for that
<+Yeoz> yeah not voting for nameless since he’s inno
<+nameless> sure
<+Yeoz> ok accusing HITO
<+Brickroad> Die, HITO
<+fbm> HITO
<@Nich> Brickroad sings himself, and celebrates himself, and inspects himself, and what he shall assume, you shall assume.
* Nich sets mode: -m
<+Hito> Balls.
<@Nich> Congrats, cops.

So I broke the game, then I won. I rule.