Witches' Coven: In the Heart of Darkness"The evils which are perpetrated by modern witches exceed all other sin which God has ever permitted to be done...
For they are called witches (maleficae) on account of the enormity of their crimes..." -
Malleus Maleficarum, Part I Question XIV Welcome to the third Witches' Coven!Set in a version of Europe where legend and folklore become reality, on the cusp of its transition from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Witches' Coven follows the course of events that occurred at the beginning of the great witch hunts.
This is a novel gametype that differs heavily in content and mechanics each time it is run. Here, it is all about
immersion - you as players will not just take on roles but are given an opportunity to embody residents of a richly detailed, living and breathing world. The game rewards exploration and discovery, and allows players with an affinity for inference, investigation and analysis to shine. Though it is not impossible to play the game as any other, paying attention only to the core of Mafia, that is not the appeal of this setup - should you wish a hassle-free, streamlined setup for doing just that, you may wish to seek another thread.
This is a closed game. What this means is that no roles will be published beforehand as you would see them in-game, and the presence of certain characters or roles is not guaranteed. I have made a point of including a short summary of all core roles that have shown up so far, but none of them are guaranteed to be included again and should you wish to investigate them further please refer to earlier runs of Witches' Coven.
This is not a full-out Bastard Mod. By this I mean that I will not, at any point in the game, lie to you or break your trust in me. Rules are as absolute as possible and static. Surface mechanics (the conditions and particulars of role powers, core of gameplay immediately visible, etc.) are transparent. You will not, in the game, be deliberately put in an impossible position, and the game is not deliberately unbalanced nor is it solely for my amusement. It has secrets that will reveal themselves to the inquisitive player, however; do not enter if you intend only to play this as you would a vanilla game.
Nor is this a beginner-friendly game.
I strongly recommend that you have played at least one BM and two other games. I also recommend you to have played a forum Mafia game in the last six months, so I know you are not overly rusty. I make occasional exceptions, but do not expect to do well unless you have exceeded the italicised minimum, and please don't expect me to take your request seriously if you have never played a Mafia game.
Jim Groovester will be co-moderating this game with me, and will serve the same role with the same authority as I do.
Game Rules (please read, changes made):- It will be trusted, on behalf of both the players and the mod, that you will play according to the restrictions (if any) given and that you will play both respectfully and to fulfill your win condition to the best of your abilities.
- All votes must be in red and bold for legibility. Unvoting before voting again is not required, but appreciated. You may vote for No Lynch. You cannot conditional vote. In case of a tie, no one will be lynched. The game is hammerless.
- Days and Nights both span 72 hours. Neither time span includes weekends. Nights may end earlier if all actions are in before the deadline. Days and nights end at 9PM GMT unless otherwise specified.
- Never edit your posts for any reason, including typos.
- Do not PM other players unless explicitly allowed. Players with private chat access will be given a topic on QuickTopic where they may post freely.
- Never quote any PM from the mod or any communication with them unless explicitly allowed. You may give a general summary (for example, a roleclaim), but do not quote directly. Rulebreakers can and will be modkilled with prejudice.
- Any requests to the moderator not in bold will be ignored.
- Dead players may post one “bah post” to comment on their death, but it may not contain any relevant game information. After that, please do not post.
- You may ask for an extension or shorten by putting the respective word in bold. Extensions require 33% of players to agree minus any players opposing, and requires at least three players. Extends are for 48 hours including weekends, and there may only be a maximum of four Extends.
- Shortens require at least 51% of players to agree, and will end the day as soon as I can process the day end.
- Please make an effort to post at least once daily. If you do not post content (that is, nothing along the lines of “placeholder post”, "this is a post" or "I will post later") for 48 hours, you will be given a warning that will last the entire game. If I don’t hear from you within 24 more hours after the warning has been given, you will be replaced or modkilled. Your third warning will be your last. Should you be inactive for more than 36 hours at any point after having received it, you will be modkilled. See also rule 12. This includes weekends.
- If you do not post content for an entire day (72 hours minimum) you will be modkilled at the end of the day. The Day is quite long enough; there are no excuses for flaking.
- Short-term absences need to be stated before you become absent, or I will not be able to take them into account. If you’ll be gone for a longer time, you can either PM me about it and I’ll try to accomodate, or request a replacement as below.
- If you can no longer post, you may Request Replacement. If there is anyone in the replacement queue that person will replace you. If not, you will remain in the game until this happens even if you won't be prodded - please endeavour to post regardless.
- Never underestimate your importance, and always play to win!
Game Action Order:All Day actions will be processed in the order they are posted, as soon as possible.
Night actions are processed according to the principle of
Natural Action Resolution. In case of ambiguity, the following order is used (instead of the one in the link):
- Copy
- Hide
- Bus
- Block
- Redirect
- Misc. Misdirect
- Protect
- Inspect
- Miscellaneous
- Kill
- Recruit
- Resurrect
Previous Roles:Please note that not all roles are guaranteed to appear in the game itself.
Villager: A person without notable powers or skills.
Witch: A subtle creature of magic and dark craft. They rely on their wits as much as their abilities, and are highly sensitive to magical disturbances.
Lyncher: A person consumed with anger or jealousy at another.
Miller: A shifty sort. Not the most well-liked of folks, and may be falsely accused of wrongdoing.
Inquisitor: A ruthless witch-hunter who will stop at nothing to eradicate them.
Elf: Elves are wonderful; they inspire wonder. Elves are terrific; they beget terror. Breathtakingly beautiful creatures normally residing in places of magic, they occasionally wander out into civilisation for reasons unknown. Cities have disappeared at their beckon.
Vigilante: An angry citizen who has decided to take matters into his own hands.
Role PM Ability Tags:I use some variant of this system in almost every game I run. Each ability that is listed in your Role PM will be preceded by a number of tags, enclosed in square brackets and in all-caps, succinctly describing the way it is used. They are as follows:
[POWER]: This is an ability that needs to be activated manually, either by sending the action in by PM or by posting it in bold in the thread, as opposed to a passive ability. Examples include the standard nightkill, a doctor’s Protect, etc.
[PASSIVE]: This is an ability that is active throughout the game, whether you want it to or not. If it reacts to something, it will do so automatically.
[n-SHOT]: This will often be present in conjunction with the [POWER] tag. The ability can only be activated n number of times before it disappears.
[DAY]: The ability can be used or is active during the Day phase. For powers, whether this means that you must post in-thread or PM the mod during the Day is specified in the description.
[NIGHT]: The ability can be used or is active during the Night phase, and if it’s a power, the action must be PMed.
[MAGICAL]: The ability is magical in nature, may potentially be affected by other magical abilities or passives such as the Witches’ Affinity passive.
Attendance Sheet:Green names are wins.
Alive:Ottofar Birdy51 - Mathieu Gendre, stonemasonVector Shakerag - Marie Bouvet, widow- ToonyMan - Jacques de Crussol, Viscount of Uzès
- notquitethere - Anne Morel, Inquisitor
Dead:- Dariush - Michiel Verdomme, Witch Maiden
Deathsword IronyOwl - Pierre Guiot, mercergriffinpup Hapah - Estienne Moreau, Witch Mother- Leafsnail - Martin Brouillart, farmer
- Lenglon - Regnault Coullart, shoemaker
Okami no Rei Solifuge - Colin Fleury, Dark Child- Tiruin - Gillette Doulze, Life Shaman
- Toaster - Jean Petit, Witch Crone
- zombie urist - Denis le Breton, Death Shaman
Special thanks go to webadict and Mephansteras for their help with balancing and speculation!