What the hell is this... "Mafia"?

Ever wonder what is going on in the Games' forum? Why it has so many posts? Do kids really talk that much about their vidya games?

Well, yes, but that's not why: it's Mafia!

No, we haven't been invaded by the Cosa Nostra. This isn't the work of Sicilians...

...it's the Russians!*

Mafia was a party-game invented in the 80's. It is known as a "social deduction game" where you have a "Town" team and a "Mafia" team. The objective of each team is to kill the other. The Town, while in the majority, doesn't know who the Mafia are. The Mafia have to Masquerade as Town, convincing them to kill their own (and also have the ability to directly kill Town's people themselves).

Today, it is a commonly played online: in many forums on the Internet and on web sites dedicated to the game, such as Epic Mafia or Town of Salem.

Each place has its own implementation and variation and DART is no different. Because of this, there can be a steep learning curve which can act as a barrier to entry.

No more!

In times past we have held Beginner's Series of game to introduce people to the mechanics and culture that is DDO/DART Mafia. If there is enough interest (~7-8 people) we can resume this series of games.

So if you've ever been interested in what this game is but were worried about being fitted for a set of cement shoes, fear no more!

* - Seriously, Mafia was invented by a Russian.

My only issue with a beginners' series is that we might not have enough interest.

That said, I'd like to do all I can to help keep the mafia community here alive and, ideally, growing.

I'm willing to permanently /in for a vet slot in beginners' games or host the games. However I can best help I will.

This post is basically polling for said interest. If we don't get enough, no series unfortunately :(

Each beginners game will have 2-3 experienced players in a vet slot. That, plus 7-8 beginners, should be enough to get us going.

Toward the end of DDO (so since like late 2016) it was usually 6 experienced and 3 inexperienced just due to the numbers of inexperienced players.

That works, too.

I'd also be down for playing a series as an experienced player.

Curious to learn. Maybe at some point.

I tried once, and it was pretty disconcerting to have everyone talking around you about whether you were a ginius noob, or a monumental idiot.

Not a single one of them seem to  remember they were once new to the game, and how that was.

Worse of all was the faint air of irritation at me being a new player. I saw they needed players, so thought I was doing them a favor by allowing the game to run by making up the needed numbers. They seemed not to think so.

I never tried again. The game should be fun the the first time player. That should be the focus of a series for beginners.

Not a slaughter grounds for experienced players to Halloween out.

If we had that, I'd try again.

This was your experience in a normal game or a beginners game? 

The goal of the beginners game is to warm new players up to the normal games, that way the situation you described doesn't occur. This is what drafter of course is proposing, bringing back the old beginners system to get more people into it. New players are generally welcomed in normal games too, however it is a common strategy to put pressure on new players early, as in the past they have been prone to "noob slip" as mafia (basically make a mistake based on inexperience to indicate that they aren't town).

If people were just being jerks to you about not having knowledge of the game when you were clearly new, you might have just joined a weird one. The group we have now is pretty good, I feel like they wouldn't do that. I would at least discourage that behavior.

If anyone is interested in trying mafia, even if we can't get enough for a beginners series, feel free to join one of the upcoming sign ups so we can start getting new players. It's a pretty fun pass time. 

US States Mafia, my first ever modding game