When did you first start playing mafia and where? Can you remember the first setup you played in with any detail and if so can you tell us what is was? And what you rolled?
https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/mini-mafia-1-the-battle-of-hogwarts.22357/
August of 2012, Dark Lord Potter, a site that I frequented because I enjoyed reading Harry Potter fanfiction. I was 17. I rolled vanilla town, was flavored as Neville Longbottom, and was promptly yeeted Day 1 by one tunneling town (Rubicon) with some assistance from scum. The setup was fairly basic, 13 players, only a few power roles. There was a serial killer, which I remember, because he helped yeet me.
What was your initial impression of the game of mafia? How would you say your relationship with the game has "evolved" over your time playing?
It’s been a long time, but I imagine I first saw it as a mix of puzzle solving and presentation. It’s hard to assess how much I’ve changed over hundreds of games and several years. I’ve definitely softened, and have learned to value the people in the games more than the game itself. I’ve learned that most reads are gut based, and everything we say about them is a translation of our feelings, not the real thing. Talking about our reads can actually lead us astray, because we try to find justifications for things that do not need to be justified and in the process lead ourselves away from what our gut already knew and lock ourselves into certain lines of thought. This is a problem you in particular struggle with, by the way, and until you understand that your ability to construct persuasive arguments can be a liability because of how /you convince yourself/ you will be vulnerable to manipulation. I’ve learned to doubt myself, a lot, question assumptions. In late games I’ve learned to step outside the game and assess it as if I were someone else looking in, and use that to give myself perspective.
Do you have a "favorite" mafia game that you remember particularly fondly? Why does it stand out?
https://clips.twitch.tv/DarkCallousRutabagaNerfRedBlaster
Do you have a game you consider to be your "best career performance?" Or if not that definitive, a game you think highlights your particular strengths as a player? If so what game was it and what sets it apart from other performances?
In American Gods mafia, a few years back, I rolled Desperado (I had a one-shot day vig, and if I was wrong I died instead of my target). I shot scum!Citrus about 2/3rds of the way through Day 1, let a yeet on scum!Titus immediately afterwards, got neighborized by scum!TMNTurtwig during N1, immediately called him out and yeeted him during D2, and then got shot N2 by the one remaining scum. That game worked for me because it gave me a tool I could use to pressure and force out reactions, and because I happened to know Citrus’ scum game very well. Tl:dr if we’re ever in a game together and you have the ability to give out a gun, please give it to me.
I don’t know, I think in general my gameplay tends to be fairly consistently decent. I try to make myself obviously town. I like to be in a position where I can find and support town leaders, and not have to do that leading myself. My specific strengths, as described by others, are that I can and will drive a yeet by myself if I feel like I need to.
Favorite open or semi-open setup? (Top 3 is fine if a few are close)
Witchhunt or mountainous.
Which is your preferred format between IRL mafia, live chat mafia, and forum mafia when it comes to personal enjoyment of the game? Why?
I don’t do much live chat mafia. I have played a lot of irl, video and forum. They’re all really the same game when it comes down to it, it’s just different moods and timing. In person can be very fun because it can get pretty ridiculous. Forum can be fun because it’s over a longer period of time, so I can do ridiculous **** like charting out someone’s sleep patterns in a thing game to prove that they /definitely/ double jumped. Video is maybe my least favorite of those three, though I still really enjoy it, because it’s an unknown time commitment that’s not as engaging as in person play when you die. I still enjoy it.
Of those 3 formats, which do you believe to be the best "test of skill" as an overall mafia player? Why?
I’m not sure they can be ranked that way, as they required different skills. Video mafia is about knowing how to use time, when to step in, and how to take over a room. Video and in person both required a skill at persuasive speaking, with video usually involving addressing the whole group and in person being much more personal. Body language can also be very useful in video, e.g. as a woman playing video mafia with mostly men, I’m more likely to survive a situation where I might otherwise be yeeted if I lean into the camera and smile. That’s not great, but it is useful to know. Both video and in person mafia require a decent memory for events that isn’t needed in forum, because I can just go back and check any information. In person is the best format for learning if you can actually get a feel for when people lie to you, followed by video, followed by forum, because there’s so much more to work with. Forum allows for more precise inquisitive styles, a focus on wording and process that you can’t really get into with the limited time in other formats. I don’t think it’s valid or fair to say any one format is a better test of skill than any other.
Favorite game size (# of players)?
12-13.
Multiball/Indys, yea or nay? Regardless of your personal take, what format of multiball or type of indy roles do you think are the most robust from a game design perspective?
Hard nay. Ugh. Most indy roles are bad. If I had to choose something, I’d go with a multi-ball open or semi-open setup, so it’s not a surprise.
Favorite town role to roll? Scum? Indy? Why?
Vanilla town. I see roles as kind of distractions for the core of the game. I prefer sheer behavioral analysis. I know that’s not a really
(Most Mountainous) 1 - 10 (Most Role Madness), rank your personal preference on this continuum for setup powerlevels
1, see above.
Do you have someone you think of as a "mafia mentor?" How did you come into contact with them? What about a mafia "rival?"
Eidolonic, also known as Voxxicus. He ran my first game and several after. I don’t have a rival, I’ve played with too many people over too long of a period and across too many sites.
If you could pick any "normal" role and guarantee you'd never see it again in any game you signed up for no matter what, what role would you pick? Is there any role that you would like to guarantee showed up in every, or a disproportionately common amount of setups? (For the purposes of this question, disregard any potential strategic personal advantage you would get from being aware of your cosmic rigging while other players were unaware)
Serial killer. There’s no role I’d like to guarantee.
What made you decide to come give Dgames mafia a shot?
Osie asked me to replace into a game. I took a look at it and saw things had gotten toxic, and thought I had a shot at reducing that toxicity. I was also fairly certain I would be replacing into a scum!slot, which is normally something I avoid, but I figured since no one knew me that’d be the best time to role scum anyway.
Would you consider me to be a liability if we rolled scum together? What would have you the most worried? (Be honest!
)
No.
Other than mafia, what are your favorite games to play? (Video, board, card, or otherwise!)
Video games: Crypt of the Necrodancer, Dark Souls (mostly Scholar of the First Sin), ARK, Skyrim, Monster Hunter: World, Tabletop Simulator
Board games: Betrayal at the House on the Hill, DnD 5e, Love Letter, Coup
Card games: ERS, Rummy 500, Caps
Generally speaking, where are you from? (Feel free to skip, not trying to doxx I'm legitimately curious!)
Virginia, mostly near DC.
What's something you're really passionate about?
Pass again.
Favorite class from highschool? Why?
Lord, I don’t know if I even liked any of my classes in highschool. I burned myself out hard in highschool and college, via a pretty extreme course load and some undiagnosed adhd. It wasn’t really a joyous time. I enjoyed European History, probably, because it was an elective class that let me do a fair bit of independent research. I was good at Physics and enjoyed helping other students with it, but that was more an enjoyment of the subject than the actual class. Analog Electronics was interesting and I loved the teacher but I also, humm, felt lost in it and on some level felt like I didn’t belong there, which was probably internalized sexism. Marine Biology and Geosystems were interesting. I also remember liking my U.S. History teacher even though I didn’t really enjoy the subject. Yeah, I don’t know if I ever actually liked any of my classes, they were just something I did because they were what I was supposed to do. That’s kind of a bummer.
Where was the farthest you've ever been from home?
Australia, visiting the woman who is now my wife.
fontisian
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that game looks like it was a riot, large IRL games with friends really do reach a level of fun that's hard to match in any other format, I used to play weekly with my best friends during college, we had a little club and had lots of moments very similar to this clip haha. What was the occasion here? One off game at a big event or was this something you did regularly with friends?
(will be big mad if you end up shooting me with it 
