No Lynch

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This is somewhat tangential, but I typically make it policy that if there are 4 consecutive half-days (i.e. day-night-day-night or night-day-night-day) without any kill attempts (i.e. lynchings or mafia night-kill attempts), then the game is a draw.

Why? Precisely because of the oft-quoted situation with 4 people alive, one of which is mafia. It's in the town's best interest to no lynch so they improve their odds of hitting mafia when one of them dies tomorrow. But if that's the case, it must be advantageous for the mafia not to kill at all that night. And we're back where we started. So if this happens twice in a row, I call it a draw.

Cam

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I agree, at least in the case of a purely hopethetical game. In particular, the assumption that makes this true is that all 3 players are equally innocent in the eyes of everyone game. Every time one of the townies is slightly more innocent than the others, that 66% drops. (On the other hand, every time the mafia is slightly more innocent, the 66% is raised).

But yeah, I've used this rule in several games, and have never had to implement it. Plus, it's always more fun to kill, odds aside.

Cam

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I agree with your conclusion for that last scenario. That's amusingly paradoxical. Another amusing point to this is that the two scum could force a no lynch, thus reducing their odds of both killing each other (although possibly identifying themselves as evil). I'm looking forward to the first time that comes up in a game:

Townie 1: I'm a townie. Kill me! Kill me!
Mafia: Meh. Nope.
SK: Ditto.
Townie 2: *collapes in confusion*

Cam

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In all the above situations, how do you know the amount of mafia left in the end game? In most of the games played here, the complete role setup is unknown to the players. You could guess, but you wouldn't be sure.

Yeah, this is definitely a valid point. In non-hypothetical, there's also a degree of uncertainty as to the setup, but as you've already discussed, there are often ways of being pretty sure. I guess you could try to factor in the probability of how sure you were....

Yeah, the vote manipulator would totally jack everything up. But then again, so would almost every role. A cop or a doc (or even something as inane as a mason) could throw things off kilter.

Cam

[mathcam]

Oh yeah! That was a pretty amusing endgame. It was a fun death scene to write, too.

Cam