Mafia 21: The Corporate Mafia

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Theben
And then in the runoff between me and Adagio, I had to throw out 'clues' and ideas to make people choose him over me. That was even closer.

As you did this I was very sure it was you, since most people in that case usually just 'throw' the vote to the first voter as a defense mechanism...
I would have found some clues against you, but since I really haven't paid much attention to the last few mafia games, I couldn't remember any clues pointing at you, and I was too lazy to go read the stories again...

[Kassiopeia]

All right. A run-down on the clues, chapter by chapter.

Now, I mixed the clues up a bit, so that clues pointing at Mafia #2 were in Mafia #1's kill description, and vice-versa. This only happened a few times, though.

Prologue:

Kassiopeia's head rested in a massive pool of blood on the table. The screen of the computer monitor cast a pale green hue on his head - or was it his death that had coloured him so?

Green, pointing at the accountant (and the brother of the gardener).

Chapter One:

Chapter one didn't actually have any clues whatsoever. And not until later did I realise that I could use green as a "clue colour" - so my first write-up didn't really include any direct clues at all. Oops.

Chapter Two:

"We should have a new round with only Skanky and Lju... Ljuen... LL to choose from", Theben suggested. "It would be fair and equal for everyone."

Theben's brainwashing emerging. He almost called Ljube "Lenin" and the latter part was just a general hint at socialism. The idea was that someone would remember Theben's communist brother, chegitz guevara is the name he goes by on Poly. I think Theben had a red flag on his profile earlier on as well, and I think the real Theben's a communist (or at least leftist) too, like his brother.

DrSpike lay in the corner of the big toilet. The sterilised-looking, nearly hospital-like pale green walls around him were covered in splashes of blood as his stapled corpse sat there, still grinning in pain, pencils sticking out from his ears making him look like a gruesome halloween monster.

Green again. I was very conservative with clues in the beginning. There might have been something else but if so I can't remember it.

Chapter Three:

"The mere thought makes me feel sorry we don't have any booze here to get hammered."

A hammer, as in the USSR flag. Hey, don't roll your eyes like that, I hate it when you do that! I was thinking that someone would read the whole story in the final rounds from beginning to end, like I often do when playing, and that the trend would emerge that way to the observant. Guess not.

"Maybe it's a ghost. A spectre. Of that girl", Jon Miller thought out loud.

Note the wording. "There is a spectre haunting Europe, the spectre of communism."

The colour red had appeared a few times by now too, IIRC.

Chapter Four:

No real clues. I wasn't quite sure what to do with alva, so I just threw in the gardening scissors to bring up the gardening part. My clues with alva really sucked and I didn't have any good stuff until the very final rounds when I made a certain mental connection.

Chapter Five:

"Oh well, last words are for dimwits who haven't said enough with the time they've had", Theben commented.

"Last words are for idiots who haven't said enough in their life", were Marx' final words.

Chapter Six:

"Ella Green!" he yelped in triumph.

Meanwhile, the SMAC LAN game had to be ended prematurily due to a lack of players. Alva, coloured pale and greenish by the sight,

Green, again. The colour of money, pointing at the accountant. This was also an attempt to try to tie alva into the clues, but not a good one.

Chapter Seven

Soon after, Imran Siddiqui was found dead on the floor of a kitchen. His stiff hands around his throat and the coffee cup on the ground suggested yet another case of poisoning, but a new mysterious aspect was several puncture wounds in his head - apparently done by an icepick which was lying next to the corpse.

Duke picked up on this, and I'm glad he did, means it wasn't a complete disaster clue-wise. After being in exile for a few years, Trotsky was assasinated by one of Stalin's agents in Mexico. By stabbing him with an icepick.

The files under G were deleted because they would have revealed that Ella Green had a sister called alva. He used the President's passocodes to manipulate the information.

Chapter Eight:

According to the information, Ella Green had had a brother who worked in the company who had "supported her appointment". His name was nowhere to be found, though.

Well, alva was a recruiter, and he had convinced the other HR staff to hire his sister. The sister was depressed at that time and when her job as a gardener didn't work out (someone in the story said that she wasn't much of a gardener), she felt like a total failure who had let her brother down. So she jumped down the roof. Alva got messed up by this and wanted to take revenge on the corporation.

"So you think it's the brother of this gardener who is trying to exact revenge on the entire firm?" said Adagio. "Quite an undertaking. It's hard to believe one of us would be able to do something like that. We're just clerks!"

I came up with this clue when vovan said that it's someone who's overdue for being Mafia. Theben and alva both were, which is why I picked them in the first place. Vovan's notion got me really nervous but it didn't catch fire. Heck, someone said "alva is never the mafia, he's cursed".

Chapter Eight and a Half:

Sadly, no clues. In retrospect it'd have been a great place to slip something blatantly obvious in.

Chapter Nine:

Spaced Cowboy watched the spectacle amused and strolled off to make himself something to drink. He nearly picked up a packet of coffee, but then said "Screw it" to himself and instead reached out for a bag of some Manchurian tea.

When Spaced Cowboy was found dead, his cup did not have any coffee, but tea that was slightly cloudy with some sort of substance. All were truly clueless as to what this substance really was. He did deserve it, though, those bags are an abomination.

The Manchurian Candidate, a film about an American soldier taken as a POW by the Chinese (commies) during the Korean War. They brainwash him and send him back to the States to murder a senator (or something). The cloudy stuff was just to indicate it wasn't the coffee, Theben suggested that one.

Chapter Ten:

Night was about to fall and a few stars could already be seen on the dark blue sky.

The EU flag on alva's profile.

She did call him by a nickname, but no one could fathom why it was "Ed". There were no Edwards or the like left alive.

Thomas alva Edison. The mental connection I mentioned before.

The stabbing and slashing had been fierce that time, the blood spillage was all over the room, staining the lightbulb up in the ceiling and transforming its light into a peculiar hue of red. The tools of the crime were the same as before: staples, pencils, and gardening tools.

Edison invented the lightbulb. Red again. I was convinced that alva would be toast after this one.

Chapter Eleven:

When alva rushed after discovering gjramsey's corpse to tell the others, the three suddenly smelled smoke. They rushed to the cafeteria to find an empty canister of gasoline on the floor and a bundle of papers feeding a bright fire.

The three quickly extinguished the flames and sat on the sofa of a nearby lounge, completely exhausted by the events.

"That was close", said Zopperoni.

"Yeah. Got it doused in the nick of time", said Theben.

Theben and co. stopped the attempt at arson in the nick of time. Arson-nick. Arsenic. A poison. This was Theben's idea, he suggested arsenic to me in the beginning. I couldn't find out arsenic's effects, though, so I used cyanide. Of course the clue was really meaningless to the innocents since the Mafia were rapidly outnumbering them anyway.

That wraps it up, methinks.

[Theben]

Heh. When I saw 'spectre' and 'girl' I thought of the singer Ronnie Spectre from the 60's-70's. Ronnie pointing to 'Reagan', which is why I killed Imran.

I figured out it was alva for certain just after I sent the PM to Kass offing gjramsey. He voted for Method and his next time up he killed him. Also the time he 'discovered' the corpse we weren't there for a 1st-hand account.

Also I switched my avatar right after the icepick clue because I had a red flag/communist flag in it. Switching the av was really just an excuse to get rid of the flag, since Kass also mentioned somewhere that "that'll some up some red flags." Pointing to me I'm sure.

Oddly enough it was the Duke who noted I switched my av in the OTF but didn't make any connection to the game.

[Kassiopeia]

since Kass also mentioned somewhere that "that'll some up some red flags."

Ah, didn't remember outright that one. It was an intentional clue, yes.

Method's avatar has erm waving a Soviet flag, I thought he'd be on the line of fire too.

Heh. When I saw 'spectre' and 'girl' I thought of the singer Ronnie Spectre from the 60's-70's. Ronnie pointing to 'Reagan', which is why I killed Imran.

And Imran was a Raygunite, all the more reason for a commie to off him. I almost added a line: "Whoever did this must have really hated Imran", but thought it'd be too obvious.

[vovan]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
I came up with this clue when vovan said that it's someone who's overdue for being Mafia. Theben and alva both were, which is why I picked them in the first place. Vovan's notion got me really nervous but it didn't catch fire. Heck, someone said "alva is never the mafia, he's cursed".

Ironically, I said both of those things.

[alva]

/me bows....

Ah, it's good to be the king[/strike> mafia...

[Method]

I didn't get _any_ of those

[Hercules]

Kassi: your clues were crap. Don't be a GM again.

[DarkCloud]

Theben's brainwashing emerging. He almost called Ljube "Lenin" and the latter part was just a general hint at socialism. The idea was that someone would remember Theben's communist brother, chegitz guevara is the name he goes by on Poly. I think Theben had a red flag on his profile earlier on as well, and I think the real Theben's a communist (or at least leftist) too, like his brother.

Somehow, I did not get lenin from that at all. The letters weren't anywhere near similar.

[DarkCloud]

The biggest clue for me, IMO, was my 1st 3 kills. Smiley, Darkcloud, and Nuclear Master. The same 3 that conspired (even if indirectly) to kill me in the latest Nuclear War game. I even mentioned it an NW post. Yes, I'm a vindictive bastard.

You know, I almost mentioned that... but I didn't- so I guess it's too late now

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Hercules
Kassi: your clues were crap. Don't be a GM again.

Writing clues, be it good ones or crappy ones, at all isn't AFAIK a 'requirement' for the task. Feel free to tell me what was so crappy about them so that I can make better ones the next time I happen to GM.

[Theben]

Originally posted by Hercules
Kassi: your clues were crap. Don't be a GM again.

Not to defend anyone here, but if you can't figure out from "hammer", "red flag", "icepick to the head", and the color red in general that one killer was a communist, then you don't have any reason to fault Kassi. In addition many people picked up on the color green=money=accountant, but no one followed through.

The clues on Alva were pretty thin, though. But also bear in mind that this game went fast- less than 350 posts. Less time to put together a coherent trail as things go on.

My only comment would be next time plan ahead on some clues for both mafias, and if you can't think of ones to fit the poster make them fit the character.

[Method]

herc, that's a little harsh, don't you think?

[Ljube]

Originally posted by Theben


Not to defend anyone here, but if you can't figure out from "hammer", "red flag", "icepick to the head", and the color red in general that one killer was a communist, then you don't have any reason to fault Kassi. In addition many people picked up on the color green=money=accountant, but no one followed through.

The clues on Alva were pretty thin, though. But also bear in mind that this game went fast- less than 350 posts. Less time to put together a coherent trail as things go on.

My only comment would be next time plan ahead on some clues for both mafias, and if you can't think of ones to fit the poster make them fit the character.

Yes, I agree there were more clues on you than on alva and the shortness of the stories made them easy to spot. Particularly the repeating green and red colours made you very suspicious. But the clues in general were more obscure and it was difficult for me to just point at you because of the colour and avoid being ridiculed and possibly dogpiled (not to mention I was dogpiled because of posting a compendium of surviving rules).

But tell me this one Theben: Are you really communist?
Or are you Comrade Tassadars kind of communist?

[DarkCloud]

Not to defend anyone here, but if you can't figure out from "hammer", "red flag", "icepick to the head", and the color red in general that one killer was a communist, then you don't have any reason to fault Kassi

Personally, I didn't have any problem with those... but the "lenin" hint was completely useless.