I get more and more furious with Battle Mage each time I look at this thread. I don't think I can recall ever having been more p***ed off with a player in a game of Mafia.
I'm pretty sure that I am going to end up voting to save Van Damien, for two reasons.
: The nomination system is absolutely essential for maintaining discipline. If all the individual Townies simply act unilaterally as BM did,
then the Town will lose
. I am absolutely sure of that. As I have already said, and everyone (except Sparks-scum) agreed:
Mr Stoofer wrote:This game involves players unilaterally attacking others -- without the necessity of getting a majority of people to agree with you. Previous games of this sort (Bad Idea Mafia I & II; M.A.D. Mafia) have all gone the same way: the Townies kill off each other and the Scum coast to victory. Townies have less to lose and so are more reckless; the Scum are more cautious in a such a game, so that sit back, keep their heads down, and the Townies ignore them. We have to avoid doing that. DO NOT CHALLENGE RECKLESSLY.
This point is reinforced by the fact that there was a growing consensus in favour of keeping VanDamien alive for a little bit longer. At the time of the challenge Van Damien had
0
primary nominations (as against 4 for dylan) and only 1 secondary nomination.
It's quite clear that if BM is Town and he stays alive he is a loose cannon who is going to screw this game for the Town.
: I don't think we can assume that BM is Town anyway. Quite the reverse. There are plenty of grounds for thinking that his challenge was a Scum gambit:
- Battle Mage's play screws up the nomination system which has so far been spectacularly successful at catching Scum. And if we don't lynch him for it, it threatens to do long term damage to the system as other players, Scum and Townie, see that they can get away with unilateral action.
- I don't think we should or can ignore that fact that Battle Mage challenged claim Scum. I have no doubt that he thought he would have no difficulty winning the vote in the circumstances. I could easily imagine that Battle Mage's tiny brain might think that he could make himself look pro-Town by killing a Scum bag.
- All the reasons why the Town wants to keep VanDamien alive for now are reasons why the Conservative Scum want him dead (assuming he is Liberal).