How does this work?
Also, I will warn you that forum mafia is far more complex than a typical party mafia game. Since mafia communities can thrive for years, they will also develop their own play styles and recurring themes in setups. With this development comes the invention of new roles. And now that communities are borrowing roles from each other more and more, there are hundreds of different roles that could show up in any given game. Some roles may have different names, and the same name may be used to describe different roles sometimes.
Now, you might be thinking it's too much to keep track of, but don't worry. With this variety comes a lot of roles and combinations of roles that are horribly unbalanced. So most of these roles are extremely rare in games. A few are extremely common. Typically, you can deduce what roles are in the game from what other roles you know are present.
For example, if you're Town and you see that your role is Cop (a very common role), you can deduce the Mafia has some role that can counter it, (like Godfather or Lawyer), or Town has role that nerfs it (like Miller). Sometimes, a mod will make the game interesting by using a more rare counter (like Fog), throwing players of both factions off the trail. Or a mod will sometimes use a rarer counter if the standard counter doesn't work as well for that game. But the rare roles are typically used sparingly in a game, so don't get paranoid in a game if you get caught off-guard by something.
Like, do we play the entire game in this forum thread?
Yes.
Do I have to download an app? Is it in Discord?
Sometimes you may need to use Discord. Back in the days of DDO mafia you didn't, but that's no longer the case since this site doesn't have group PMs. Since Group PMs are gone, Discord is used for the Mafia team PM, and Mason PMs if applicable.
I have played Mafia in person but how long do we have for discussions? Will this be weeks long or done in a few hours?
It's kind of arbitrary, but since this is all done online and not everyone can be active at the same time, DPs (Day Phases) usually take about three days. Some can last a week, though. As a mod, I wouldn't recommend making DPs that long; you'd be hard-pressed to find any mod that would. Week-long DPs really only exist when several time extensions are granted for special circumstances.
For this game, I'm going to go with the standard three days. One-day time extensions may be granted sometimes.
NPs (Night Phases) will be 24 hours. 12 extensions may be granted sometimes.
Of course, those are just time limits. DPs can end earlier if a lynch is reached earlier, and NPs can end earlier if all players with possible night actions submit their night actions earlier.
When does it start?
I'll post the DP1 thread shortly after the sign-ups list is full.
