Glad we're all on the same page now.

So here's the thing. Sometimes, when you're making up a mafia game on the fly because your ole pals have some weird aversion to cults or whatever, you see a new role. And sometimes, when reading what that role is on the mafiascum wiki you maybe skim a bit, maybe read the sample role PM down at the bottom and misinterpret the night action from the example where they were also a role cop, normal stuff. So then it takes you like, until a bunch of your players point it out, to realize that you built the role to be a serial killer who's kills only go through if they hit the right *character* which you randomly selected pre-game, when it was supposed to be based on a lynch. Anyhow, not that any of that would ever happen to me, but if it did that'd be real embarrassing and I also wouldn't be able to change it so we'd all have to live with it.

Compromised from the start. The sentence hung in his head as the silence stretched. What the hell was he getting himself involved in? Jacobs looked his perp over once more, his eyes finding new layers of detail in the mysterious man across from him. Body turned towards the door, always ready for the threat. Hands cuffed to the metal desk, but with all of the chain pulled to one side to give him a bit of slack if he needed to move, or to throw something. A hidden weapon perhaps? The blood-crusted, torn shirt he was wearing occasionally revealed a matching wound underneath, but despite his situation this fellow looked as nonchalant as if he were taking a walk in the park. Jacobs wasn't sure if he really cared about his lost teammate or if it was all an act. He waved a hand over his head and a moment later the rookie walked in, staring at this guy like he was straight out of an action movie. "Hey rook, can you bring officer John and I a cup of coffee please?" He hated using the kid like this, but there wasn’t time for anything else. He needed to stall for a break to collect his thoughts. Besides, he needed a second alone. A stony-faced nod and the door closed again, leaving Jacobs and John in silence. "I heard about something like this once before," Jacobs started. "A team, elite team, brought together but someone else is pulling the strings. Patient zero implies there are more to come, and I'm sure you wanna get into all of that, but before you go any further I gotta know something and I need you to be very clear in your answer. Is this game over?" John gave him a look-over as if he were seeing him for the first time. He held that for only a moment before flicking his eyes towards the camera, subtly. "I got that covered. The kid's loyal, the whole damn system's so old it's still recording on a VHS in the other room. You're safe for now." A nod, and John sat back in his chair again. He seemed to relax a bit for the first time since he'd been brought in, taking a moment to stretch his muscles and even close his eyes. Finally, he began to speak, a soft growl that could almost have been a whisper. "Sorry to say I don't think so. Keep your eye out for a Falken, if you wanna stay alive. I-" Light cut into the room as the door opened again, Jacoby obediently delivering two styrofoam cups, wisps of steam curling out of their tops. By the time Jacobs turned his head back, John was in his old position, rigid as ever. Jacobs took a sip and blanched, the rookie'd brought him decaf. John started back into his story. "You can imagine the ride back was unpleasant. We had almost nothing to go on but a clue and a prayer, and most of us didn't pray. Our handler from the agency got to work tracking down the wargames reference and the team all found an opportunity to check in on their families. While they took their turns at phone access on JBSA first class, I watched. And so did Sprout." "Sprout?" he asked. "I need names John." "I'll give you what I can here. We all had codenames, industry standard, and some people never went by anything else in the years I knew them. Mason went by Gaoler." Jacobs nodded, taking what he could for now. "So. Sprout had noticed, maybe the same thing I had, maybe something different. I knew I'd need to follow up there, but first I wanted to get what I could from the phone calls. In short, several of the team couldn't reach whatever loved one they called. Flash, Strummer, Bedrock, Gump... All called Southern States home, all East coast. The Agency had people at those homes before we could've gotten the plane refueled, but it didn't satisfy any of those poor souls to see the footage as CIA grunts combed their homes. Their families, wives, kids, co-ed 'bestie' in one case, gone. At every single house someone had spray painted a stencil on the walls. A letter for each of them, N, M, R, A. Military stencil, not just roughed on." "Just reinforcing that this was always the plan. They knew the houses they were hitting, the efforts were coordinated." he said. John nodded. "That our homes weren't being watched already was a shock to us, it's standard to have protection. Especially on assignment. An oversight, or inside help? Sprout was putting together the pieces, I could see the puzzle forming together in their mind. But I didn't trust. That's the insidious thing in this line of work, you can never fully trust. Those four wanted to head off immediately, but there was just no leaving until we had a clearer sense of direction. I watched them all night, while the others slept. It was under the guise of wanting to assist, but my real intention was to catch an inside man. Misdirection." He somberly shook his head. "By the time Dusty and I went to get a few hours of sleep the deed was already done. Slacks was found hanging from the rafters in the barracks, not a single clue left behind except the L carved into his chest. They were taunting us. We overturned every corner, woke every single person, reviewed every camera. Not a shoe-print, hair, spot of blood, nothing was out of place. Dusty started futile compressions when we got him cut down. His fist was smeared with blood. Ten seconds passed. I thought for sure he was gone, but with a start Slacks shot up, sucking in air. Dusty is truly a miracle worker. Not long after that I received a text on my phone. Both of us did." You lingered too long, so a debt has been paid, Hung from your barracks, a body was laid. Carved with a letter, Part of the clock’s tether, Now chase down the hour we’ve made. The hair was standing on Jacobs arms, "Jesus. What the hell does that mean?" "L. The letter L. Short hand, and long hand. Three o'clock. We had three rats in our midst. More important though, they didn't know about Dusty yet. If we could play our cards right, we had an advantage." In the room behind him, a clock ticked. Once. Twice. Thrice. The young Officer Jacoby, watching from the other side of the glass, shivered at the coincidence. Jacobs felt, for the first time, that he might not be ready for the answers he was asking for. It is now Day Two. Day ends in 48 hours.

Night ends in just under 8 hours folks

Though admittedly I am really tempted to say lololololol, throw you all new role PMs, and welcome you to some bastard setup I spend half the night concocting to make that make sense.

In case you're not pulling my leg, that is the name of his character from the movie.

"The CIA pulled us together, assembled a team coming out of El Paso. No doubt, this was one of the most elite units ever to grace this Earth, but even so - we weren't sure if it was gonna be enough. They came to me first, and I had to call in every favor, every contact, to get this crew... but the job dictated nothing less." "Come to find out I didn't need to go through much trouble to bring these guys in, they all had received the same letter I had. 300 hours to find and stop some of the worst people the world will ever know, and if we didn't they were gonna make Hiroshima look like a roman candle. It's like it was a game to them, the way they sent us challenges, the way they invited us to hunt for them.” John continued. “We'd agreed to split off to search for leads based on some mumbo jumbo intel the CIA had - clues hidden in the letters. We took an oil refinery out in El Salvador, cleaned the place out, and that's when one of our team found his wife tied up in a room. The whole thing about went to hell right then and there, as we found out the real stakes of the game we were playing." Sergeant Jacobs leaned forward in his chair. "Was she okay?" A nod, and he felt a knot in his back unravel he hadn't even known was there. "How did the team respond John?" He watched for a gulp, dropped eye contact maybe - but that cold face gave nothing away. "Not well." John said simply. "Our boys were good - the best - but what they walked into at that refinery wasn't a firefight, it was a message. No one carries a phone in this kind of op, you know? We couldn't know if our families were safe." He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "Maybe this was just the unlucky bastard who got found out first, or maybe each of us would get home and find the door kicked in, all our belongings thrown across the floor and our loved ones disappeared. That she wasn't dead was a miracle, but when we got her out, got her calmed down, we figured out why. She was carrying a message." John hesitated, and Jacobs realized this next bit of information was what John had been holding back. He sat there, waiting in silence, for the other man to speak. After a long moment of weighing him, John shifted in his chair and continued, voice low like an engine idling. "I remember that girl looking at her husband, looking around at our hardened crew, some violent swirl of fear and relief stitched across her face, and she said one word. "WarGames." The instant she said it her eyes rolled back, her head jerked, and she was gone. He hung his head. We found out later that it was a microbomb, no bigger than a pill capsule, injected up the nasal cavity. I've heard a lot of sick things in my years but the sound that came out of Mason at that moment... I'll never forget that sound." There was a pause. "Do you need a moment?" Jacobs asked, voice barely a whisper. John shook it off. "At that point, Mason turned on us. We didn't know how, or why, he seemed to know more than the rest of us but he did. He insisted it was one of us, that we had a mole in the operation. We stood around like fools arguing in the dirt and heat, tempers flared and ego's bruised. Of course, it was all fear. Fear for ourselves, fear for our families. Mason drew his gun, but he never would've fired it I don't think. It doesn't matter though..." He cleared his throat. "He was a good man, but he had five bullets in him before you could blink. I remember helping bury him and his wife, in an unmarked grave off a dirt path outside El Salvador. We searched him just to be sure, but there was nothing on him. “ The steel in John's gaze cut like a blade. "Thing is, there was no question in my mind. It was one of us." Jacobs felt his pulse jump. "How do you know?" "I'd seen a symbol on the door we found her in - a big zero - but it only clicked when she said 'Wargames'." He gave a long, meaningful pause. "Patient Zero. Wargames. Everyone who's served as long as this group would've thought of the military exercises, but me? I thought of the movie. The nukes, the threat — a false flag. No one could’ve found us, grabbed that girl, and set this up without someone in the Agency knowing. No way. This whole operation was designed to bring us together." "Meaning what?" John leaned in. "Meaning someone in this team, someone we trusted, wasn't who they said they were. An imposter. One of them playing hero in our ranks... This wasn't some outside op. Jacobs. We were compromised from the start." Ironeyes - John Mason - Sean Connery - The Rock, Town Vanilla has been lynched. It is now night one. You have ~22 hours to submit actions.

OK, confirmed the VC. Flip coming in under 5 minutes. Consider 10PM the start of night 1, and night will be 22 hours to shift all future days to an 8 PM EST end time.

Final Vote Count (Day One) Marsh (5/7): Ithi, Wes, Key, Dice, Rand Dice (3/7): Nyn, Turin, Marsh Heavy (1/7): Lenlo Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Verb, Ed, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time

End of day as of this post. All further votes will not count.

Official Vote Count Marsh (4/7): Ithi, Wes, Key, Dice Dice (5/7): Nyn, Turin, Verb, Rand, Marsh Heavy (1/7): Lenlo Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Ed, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time Under 2 minutes to end of day.

Final Vote Count (Day One) Marsh (5/7): Ithi, Wes, Key, Dice Dice (3/7): Nyn, Turin, Verb, Rand Heavy (1/7): Lenlo Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Verb, Ed, Tig, Marsh With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time

Edited and fixed, will go back and review all votes before posting a lynch post though. Gotta tell ya'll, I am loving writing for this game.

6 minutes

You are voting dice and I forgot to take you off the not voting list, right?

Official Vote Count Marsh (4/7): Ithi, Wes, Key, Dice Dice (4/7): Nyn, Turin, Verb, Rand Heavy (2/7): Lenlo, Marsh Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Ed, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time 8 minutes to end of day.

Official Vote Count Marsh (4/7): Ithi, Wes, Key, Dice Dice (3/7): Nyn, Turin, Verb Heavy (2/7): Lenlo, Marsh Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Verb, Ed, Rand, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time 12 minutes to end of day.

nah, got that one saved for a rainy day

Official Vote Count Marsh (3/7): Ithi, Wes, Key Dice (3/7): Nyn, Turin, Verb Heavy (2/7): Lenlo, Marsh Rand (1/7): Dice Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Verb, Ed, Rand, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time Just over an hour to end of day.

Official Vote Count Marsh (3/7): Ithi, Wes, Key Dice (2/7): Nyn, Turin Heavy (2/7): Lenlo, Marsh Tig (1/7): Ed Rand (1/7): Dice Wes (1/7): Heavy Not Voting: Verb, Rand, Tig With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch. count down to hammer time Deadline is in just over 2 hours. Night will be shortened a couple of hours to adjust future days to end at 8PM EST.

And thanks for this! notarized

🙂 well done

Totally fine man, not gonna sweat it for things that impact real life, just maintaining the rule for game integrity purposes.

This is a hybrid hammer game. If no hammer is reached the person with the most votes at deadline will be lynched. If two or more people are tied for the most votes at deadline, the lynch will be randomized between those candidates.