Forum Mafia - The Dark Tower Game Thread

Vote count as of #1661 - End of Day

Caluin Graye (6): Pharphis, djmbbandie, Jcakes, [strike]Caluin Graye[/strike], flubbucket, Phillinnicus, TheMouseT
Jcakes (0): [strike]Caluin Graye[/strike]
Noammr (1): Caluin Graye

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The remaining members of the ka-tet and their dwindling allies caught up with the boy, fast growing to manhood, on the edge of the great expanse known as Empathica. His red father had been calling him to the tower, to rule by his side. Mordred Deschain, last of the line of Arthur Eld through two fathers, was not yet wise enough to realize that his red father called him to death and not to rulership, though this is of little import since the boy faces his doom here on the edge of the great plain of Empathica.

The gunslinger stood apart from the crowd, as was his responsibility, and called out to the boy. "No more, Mordred, son of none. Let us have at it between us and see it done."

In answer, Mordred Deschain changed in the space of a moment from a handsome young man, perhaps a glimpse at what the gunslinger may have looked like in his long ago youth, into a grotesque spider with a stretched and grotesquely human face where the head ought to be. He was missing a leg, but the sheer speed at which he moved towards the gunslinger caused those assembled to watch the showdown to pull back in unconscious fear.

The gunslinger watched for a moment, time having slowed down to him the way it might if a film director decides he wants to use some fancy effect to impress an audience, and took note of the eyes. Those blue bombardier's eyes that he saw rushing towards him on that monstrosity were his eyes. The face he saw peering at him was the face of his only son.

Ka had brought him another, in Jake, only to force him to watch the boy die again and again. But enough about sons and long dead sons of ka, it's the fight the crowd has gathered to watch. Roland's eye had never been clearer, and that deadly calm which visited him never deeper. Nobody assembled there could remember him drawing but three quick shots and it was over. The first tore through the boy spider's face and the next two through his belly as he reared up and out the back, pulling dark gouts of liquid with them. The boy spasmed sideways, perhaps trying to run away, but he merely landed on his side and moved no more.

Roland started forward to check that the deed was done before doubling over and clutching his head. The boy's red father screamed out in fury across the distance from the tower, enough to bring the gunslinger to his knees from the pain and shock of it. My son! My only son! You've murdered him!"

"He was mine, too," said the gunslinger, looking forlornly at what remained of the thing which had been his son. He could own the truth. Yes, that much he could do.

"Come then! Come, son-killer, and look at your Tower, but know this - You'll die of old age at the edge of the Can'-Ka before you ever so much as touch its door! I will never let you pass! Space and time itself will pass away before I let you enter, Murderer! Murderer of your mother, of your friends, aye, every one - and now murderer of your own son!

"Who sent him to me?" Roland asked, speaking to the voice in his head. "Who sent yon child - hid inside that black skin - to his death?"

To that, the gunslinger received no reply.

Caluin Graye has been lynched. He was Mordred Deschain. The Red. Nemesis

Please have your night actions in ASAP.
 
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Since today's story is the final death story, I am also including the end of game story as well. The end of game story is a mixture of my own original writing, Stephen King's writing near the end of the series and some alteration of his writing that I made to fit how this game went. Because the game ending by necessity deals with how the source material ended, I am putting it behind spoiler tags. I would urge you to consider carefully reading it. If you have not yet read the series and this game has piqued your interest, I would highly suggest the series to anyone, and this thread will be here for you to come back to after you finish. Once you read the ending I have, parts of the series ending will be forever spoiled for you, so cry off I beg, and read the original first.

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Pimli Prentiss watched the boy spider die, and with that death realized that he alone remained of the Crimson King's agents. Pimli was a deeply religious man, although he had come to his faith late in life, only after the low men had recruited him to oversee Algul Siento, the facade of home in this devar toi, the last stop off before Empathica and the tower itself. It was this faith that kept him steady in these last moments.

Truth be told, Pimli Prentiss didn't much believe that the destruction of the tower would lead to the rise of the Crimson King and his most faithful servants. In the first part, how would one surive the end of all things, and for the second what sort of process or being might reward the ending of its works? But Pimli Prentiss did believe that the world was long past saving and that, at least if its end didn't bring some new beginning, the cold nothingness of non-existence was better than the ever steady decline that had marked the passage of millenia upon the face of the world.

And besides, setting such matters of faith aside, there was the matter of getting even to settle, before the end. He had tried once already to put an end to the one called Sheemie. The boy was slow, but within him there was some kind of power, and Pimli know the boy had played a large role in the betrayal that had seen Pimli's men all slaughtered in ambush.

And now, there was no Ted Brautigan around to put a stop to his vengeance. When it came, it was swift, and Stanley, son of Stanley, called Sheemie Ruiz, barely had time to feel the shot that ended his life.

Pimli Prentiss barely had time to savor the feeling. As Sheemie breathed his last, the last beam began to groan and the whole of the world, what remained of it, began to shudder as it weakened. Like a clarion call, a voice cried out to all who had ears to hear:

"Even though the torture stops, I'll die. And you'll die too, for when love leaves the world, all hearts are still. Tell them of my love and tell them of my pain and tell them of my hope, which still lives. For this is all I have and all I am and all I ask."

And then, with one last shudder, the final beam, the one which supported the tower itself, gave way and with its fall went all of the rest of mid-world, into that nothingness from which who can say what might spring?

Flubbucket has died. He was Sheemie Ruiz. The White. Semi-Sane Random Cop. Final Beam Guardian.

The Red have won.


And now, constant player, comes the end. Endings are expected because we all want closure, but I've never met an ending that could match even the meanest of beginnings. Beginnings are full of promise and potential, but endings are by definition a way of saying goodbye. Cry off now and let your imagination fill in the rest of what might happen. If it do you well, look back upon the Ka-tet as they were at the last before Ka stepped in and put an end to their unity.

If you must know then, read on:


Ka is a wheel. Remember well, constant player, for the wheel does not end.

At the last, Roland came to the tower. Existence itself was failing, but still he would not cry off the quest. "NOW COMES ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER! I HAVE BEEN TRUE AND I STILL CARRY THE GUN OF MY FATHER AND YOU WILL OPEN TO MY HAND!"

If one were present in the field of roses surrounding the tower, they would have heard Roland call out a lifetime of names. Sacrifices, really, on his journey to the tower. And near the end, shall we listen to the last few?

"I come in the name of Susan Delgado, she of Mejis!"
"I come in the name of Rosalita Munoz, she of the Calla!"
"I come in the name of Zalia Jaffords, she of the Oriza!"
"I come in the name of Jake Chambers, he of New York, whom I call my own true son!"
"I come in the name of Aaron Deepneau, he of New York, a guardian of the Rose!"
"I come in the name of Susannah Dean, she of New York, a gunslinger born true!"
"I come in the name of Moses Carver, he of New York, a guardian of the Rose!"
"I come in the name of Marian Carver, she of New York, a guardian of the Rose!"
"I come in the name of Cantab, he of the Manni!"
"I come in the name of Ted Brautigan, he of America!"
"I come in the name of Stanley "Sheemie" Ruiz, he of Mejis, and the truest of friends!"
"I am Roland of Gilead, and I come as myself; you will open to me."

As if in answer, there came a blast like the sound of a great many horns blowing all at once from the field of roses surrounding the tower, And the gunslinger made his way up and into the tower. There was a loud booming sound, much like thunder, as the door closed behind him and the tower began to fall. But Roland, ever the dogged pursuer of the tower, had little notice of the fall, for he had a tower to climb and a destiny to meet at the top.

As if in acknowledgment of his determidness, the tower seemed to call out to him, Welcome Roland, you of the many miles and many worlds; welcome thee of Gilead, thee of Eld." This only reinforced his resolve and he began to climb. With each floor, he found some tableau from his life, some sigil or reminder of the great events that shaped his many hundreds of years. For some years there was only a single floor, and for others there were dozens. In most of them were reminders and scenes of the loss and betrayal of friends to the quest, death dealt by his hands, of carelessness and of love. In one scene he saw again the horn of Eld, lost at Jericho hill when his friend Cuthbert fell.

Time, gunslinger, it always comes back to time. It would have been the space of three seconds to retrieve it and yet for all the gunslinger knew it may yet lay there upon that hill.

In another room, much closer now to the end, he saw his betrayal of the boy ... the one he had named his true son, and though he preferred not to think too long upon it, he spent long moments staring in horror at the scene replayed in the tile mosaic of the room over and over.

Long before he came to the top, Roland realized that the tower was his life, and his life was a place of death. Yes, gunslinger, whispered the voice of the tower, but only because you have chosen to make it so.

After that, he climbed faster.

Finally he came to the top, the stairway barely wide enough to allow him to pass, and found one final door blocking his way. Upon the door was carved a single word in the ancient tongue: Roland.

He grasped the knob, engraved with a rose entwined around a revolver, one of those great old guns got from his father and now lost forever. Yet they will be yours again whispered the tower, but still Roland didn't understand. Finally, the gunslinger opened the door at the top of the Dark Tower, and understanding came at once, falling upon him with the weight of eternity.

How many times had he climbed these stairs, only to find himself sent back, turned away? Not to the beginning, mind you, when things might have been changed and this curse lifted, but back to the desert where he first realized that he would win out in his quest and reach the tower, no matter the cost.

A long forgotten rebuke from his childhood teacher, Cort, came to mind "It'll be your damnation, boy. You'll wear out a hundred pairs of boots on your way to hell."

And it seemed as if his relentless pursuit would bear out those words. How many times had he traveled a loop already? How many times would he travel it?

"No!" he screamed, as the tower fell, and he felt the hands of Gan, of ka, pull him forward, "Please, not again! Have Pity! Have mercy!" but there was no mercy for him. The familiar smells of the desert rushed back to him, even as existence fell in the doorway he was passing through. Death for all ... But not for you, gunslinger. Never for you. You go on, and each time you forget the last. For you, each time is the first.

The Gunslinger made one final effort to pull himself back but it was hopeless. Ka was stronger. Roland of Gilead, last of the line of Eld, walked through the last door. The one he always sought. The one he always found. It closed gently behind him.

The gunslinger staggered for a moment, a feeling of deja vu washing over him. For a moment he almost thought he could see the tower, but that was a trick of the desert. The tower still lay thousands of wheels ahead of him. I will reach it, he thought, I swear on the name of my father that I will.

And perhaps this time if you get there it will be different, a voice whispered - surely the delirium of the desert heat and dehydration, for what other time had there ever been? He shifted his gunna from one shoulder to the other, took a drink even though it wasn't yet time to drink, and then touched the horn that rode on his belt behind the gun on his right hip. The ancient horn had once been blown by Arthur Eld himself, or so the story went. And Roland had given it to his friend Cuthbert Allgood at Jericho Hill, and when Cuthbert fell, Roland had paused just long enough to retrieve it.

This is your sigul, whispered the rapidly fading voice, This is your promise that things may be different, Roland - that there may yet be rest. Even Salvation.

A pause, and then: If you stand. If you are true. The gunslinger shook his head to clear it of the desert visions, and resumed his journey.

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
 
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Thank you all for playing in my first game, and putting up with my faux paus and errors throughout. I hope that first and foremost, everyone had fun at least some of the time and will walk away from the game having enjoyed it to some extent.

I am going to ask for your critique later in this post, but first let me link you to the dead thread so you can see the critique that has already been given: http://www.quicktopic.com/50/H/jsXVpGVwmCDaD

The mafia and Mason teams may post links to their QTs (both teams had more than one) if they so choose. Let me be honest and up-front ahead of time and warn you that you will see me encouraging each team at different times throughout the game. In a couple places I slipped and said things I shouldn't, simply from a lack of experience I think. I did my best to limit this and to keep it balanced for both factions, and since it has already been said that I interacted with the game much more than a mod should, please know that I have taken that consideration to heart.

I am hoping that you will all be willing to do a couple things which will help me to be a better game builder and moderator in the future:

1.) Let me know what you liked about the game. I tried a lot of new things or different takes on well established ideas, and I'd love to know what you felt really worked.

2.) Let me know some things that you think could use improving. Please don't just give me a list of what you didn't like, because such a list only tells me that you didn't like it, but not what you would have liked instead. So give me a list of what you think could use improving, and how you feel it should or could be done better. If you feel like your critique may be harsh, feel free to PM it to me, although I promise I'm not likely to be too upset about constructive critique.


Apart from that, I hope you all enjoyed the game and maybe some of the more experienced mods might take some of the things I came up with and improve upon them. Even more, I hope you enjoyed the setting and the stories. Stephen King has said that all of his stories, in some way or another, connect to The Dark Tower, and while it certainly deals with some fairly mature themes throughout, I would highly recommend that those of you who have not yet read the books find some time to do so, especially if the characters and stories in this game seemed compelling to you.

So thank you again, constant players. I hope my mistakes this time won't make you gunshy when I come up for a game again, because I plan to take your critiques and make the next game a much smoother ride.
 
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Caluin Graye said:
Starting two days ago, this stopped being a game of "Who is who?". It is now a war of attrition, and we intend to win it.
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Prophecy, yo.

(though admittedly we had to change who we were targeting due to Jcakes being a tad bit unkillable... but still).

More in a bit, have actual work to do. Just wanted to say that though at times I might have voiced strong opinions on the game, over all I still found it enjoyable and think you have great potential as a moderator, Drixx.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed your flavour stories for the game, Drixx. It added a lot of atmosphere to the game.

I thought your choice of roles and abilities was quite clever and original, and I especially loved my mafia counter-role Laarz, the silencer/role-cop Dandelo. Nice touch.

Now, more than anything I want a full list of everyone and their roles/abilities and what actually happened each night. I have a few things that are nagging me and won't leave me alone.
 
Phillinnicus said:
I thoroughly enjoyed your flavour stories for the game, Drixx. It added a lot of atmosphere to the game.

I thought your choice of roles and abilities was quite clever and original, and I especially loved my mafia counter-role Laarz, the silencer/role-cop Dandelo. Nice touch.

Now, more than anything I want a full list of everyone and their roles/abilities and what actually happened each night. I have a few things that are nagging me and won't leave me alone.
Click to expand...

It was all me, don't worry.
 
I really loved the stories. You are a very good writer! I'm looking forward to the game you host with Gory.

My critique is in the dead thread. But I want to add one thing here. Not knowing your full role was bastard modding. It influences play style very much and I do not like to play games where such mechanics are in place. Just my opinion. The fix to it is to tell beforhand that bastard modding might be around, then people could choose if they wanted to play or not. I wouldn't have signed up.

Thanks for the game Drixx and thanks everybody for playing. :)
 
I felt like this round had too many hidden mechanisms. From people not being lynchable to secret processes activated by a decision. Maybe next round having less of these would be better.

Also, thanks for the game Drixx.
 
Let me first begin by apologizing if the following post will cause any drama. If you're not keen on dealing with Internet drama, you might want to skip this.

Since you asked for criticism:
1. I've seen it being mentioned and we saw it at the end of the previous day phase that you had % of being lynched / dying to some roles. By doing so, you leave the outcome of the came to chance. No one wants to win a mafia game by chance, but by skill and play style.

2. I would have expected an apology at the end of the game. You are yet to utter the word "sorry" for mistakes being made. I'm not sure if this is you being too proud to admit mistakes and apologize for them, or I've simply missed it.

3. If, for any reasons, you are not able to deal with the end / start times, ask someone who is not playing to help you. It might be OK once or twice, but more than that simply causes confusion amongst the players. Vote tallies not being updated regularly means players are not sure when to vote, if they've locked the target and so on. Again, not sure if this is pride related or something else.

4. If there are any doubts towards mechanics, roles or any other issues, don't be afraid to ask for help. We all want these games to last a long while and make sure they are still enjoyable. I'm pretty sure most of us here visit this forum mostly, if not only, for mafia games.


Drama post
Again, I do apologize if my personal feelings towards one cause unrest within the playerbase. I'm very passionate about the things I love and sometimes I do tend to go overboard with my feelings. Some of you might know the true character of Drixx, and might understand where I'm coming from, but I will refrain from going into detail as that would simply cause more harm than good.
 
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Thundercat

Your post was very reasonable before the last paragraph. I would really like to see you editing it out.
 
Jcakes; Mason Post #110 in #3 said:
I loved CG's xkcd reference :p
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I made an xkcd reference? I mean, I was trolling pretty hard and generally being pretty weird, but I don't recall any xkcd references. But I'll take it anyways. Thanks!
 
First up:
Mafia chat #1
Mafia chat #2

Dead thread

We didn't spam quite as hard as the Masons did, but we suspected a listener from post #1 so you might see us posting a bit strangely. Goryani had the awesome idea of numbering all the players, so we often refer to a person as a number (like when I suggested to Noammr in the thread before my lynch that we target #3, AKA Flubbucket)


Someone rhetorically asked in the dead thread why Noammr and I shifted away from killing masons and onto Beam Guardians. Mainly because we weren't sure of a lot of things:

1) We didn't know for sure that Jcakes would die if I expended my Roland specific kill, though we did know that I would die.
2) We didn't know for sure if DJM had some last trick up his sleeve, like a bullet proof or redirection.
3) We didn't know for sure if pharphis had some last trick up his sleeve, as above.
4) With a doctor still in play, it would have been very likely that at least one kill would have been prevented. We didn't know if we'd have the time to spare killing him first.
5) We (I, actually) assumed at the time that all the Ka-tet members needed to die before Roland did. It didn't occur to me that I might have been wrong about that until we were hunting the last beam guardian.

However, we did know that there were three beam guardians left, we knew that one of them was coju, we strongly suspected Moar was a second, but didn't know the third. We knew they'd be much easier to kill than Masons and less likely to be protected by the doctor.

A special thanks to Gwaihir for distracting the town long enough for us to kill the beam guardians.
 
ThunderCat said:
Again, I do apologize if my personal feelings towards one cause unrest within the playerbase. I'm very passionate about the things I love and sometimes I do tend to go overboard with my feelings. Some of you might know the true character of Drixx, and might understand where I'm coming from, but I will refrain from going into detail as that would simply cause more harm than good.
Click to expand...

That sounds awful personal..

No need for internet drama in the first place.
 
Good game, y'all! :thumbup: Did I miss the list of everyone's names/abilities?
 
Thanks for the game, drixx. I've pretty well expressed my thoughts on the game in the dead thread, so no need to rehash them here.

In the end I do look forward to your next game, I think you do have potential ;)

And congrats to the red on the win, I figured a few days ago that the town had almost no hope of winning this thing, despite only 2 mislynches.
 
And I'll just write a little reminder here:

I am not the mod of this sub forum, so if you've found something offensive use the report button.
 
I'm not sure I have the strength to read the mafia chat. Maybe tomorrow

I feel as though others have said most of what I've felt throughout the game, but I'll say what's been on my mind for the last few weeks:

similar to moar's thought in the dead thread, I think any more than 1 lynch/kill block in a game is too much. Now that I see a lot of it was based on chance it makes it even worse as it's not skill-based as TC said.

Mainly as a result from the above, I hate having nothing to talk about for days on end. I think watching my behaviour this game makes it very clear. You can see how excited I am early on (especially being Roland) but as the days went on there was less and less we could do but spend 72 hours in between killing mafia (that we were already certain of)

Too much mod involvement. A few too many hints and tips in our thread. Perhaps you wanted us to think more about the hidden mechanics but after reading the dead thread there were just FAR too many to even dream of, and again that just makes the non-mason town members feel less important.

Mason team = too powerful. Watcher + elite body guard + other stuff. Large mason team for lore reasons, but too many abilities that took away from the game. . .

The take home message I'm trying to give here is that after 3 days it didn't feel like a mafia game. After reading the dead thread I see that it was almost entirely a game of whether or not the mafia will figure out their win cons fast enough to win, and they did.

Also keep in mind that there were only 2 town lynches (franklin and CDM, right?) and we still lost even though all the anti-town were known days ago. This is something that should never happen

About the mistake from numbers. I truly believe that the best course of action in this case was a mod kill of the offender. Even if bpc couldn't say anything explicitly, there's no doubt that numbers being a confirmed townie wouldn't have affected his decisions and who he spoke about in our QT. I think you also said it was a new player somewhere? That would narrow it down to 3 people immediately.

Now for some positive feedback:

I like the neutral role (though he should know his wincon exactly)
Stories were nice
Lots of thought put into the game.


Also, I had no idea I was THAT important to the game story. I figured claiming was a bad idea at the time but I also figured the benefits outweighed the risks. Technically they did not, at all.
 
I just think this game had so much potential and can be a good Lear ING process for some new mechanics and ideas.

Mafia felt screwed masons felt screwed and Gwaihir probably felt screwed in the end too. Everything was broken. But I still appreciated the ideas.

Thanks for hosting.


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