Be Excellent To Each Other

GothamScum is an online variant of the game known as Mafia, which supports 20-25 players. It’s not as complicated as it might at first appear. Honestly. The main differences with previous games of MafiaScum are Arkham Asylum and the fact that nobody is a vanilla townie. (The GCPD Cops, Arkham Guards and Alfred come very close, but they do have their roles to play.) Also, there is no equivalent of the cult in this game under the current ruleset.

(By the way if anyone wants to use or adapt any of this for their own games, feel free. Use the whole GothamScum setting or just steal some roles for a normal mafia game or whatever. It’s all up for grabs. Just so you know.)

The game is split into day and night phases. During the day phase, the players are attempting to come to a consensus on who should be lynched by the townsfolk. You are trying to catch out the bad guys, find out who looks suspicious, etc. To begin with, there is very little information to go on - you're all scared, and you're all pretty much suspicious of each other. As the days progress, people will die, revealing their role. Roles like the Commissioner Gordon will uncover vital information, but will they put themselves at risk to share it? Each day phase there will be a lynch if consensus is reached. Once more than half of the players vote for the same player to be lynched, that will be the end of the day, and that player will be strung up. If the deadline passes and there is no consensus, there will be no lynch that day.

During the night phase, and player who has a night ability (revealed in the PMs you will receive) can use their role. When all night abilities have been used, or when the deadline expires, the night phase will be over and a new day will start. Any overnight deaths will be revealed.

The game alternates between day and night until one of the teams has won - see 'Win Conditions' below.


Rules

• To vote for a player to be lynched, you should include [vote:player] in your post. Don’t vote if you’re an Arkham inmate. I will be checking.
• Only people playing the game may post in the game threads.
• Once you are dead, that is it. You may not post again in the threads. You may PM with a 'goodbye, cruel world' type post which I will post, but you must not reveal any information you may know.
• Do not post in the threads during night phases. I will most likely lock the threads at that time anyway.
• Do not discuss what is happening in the game outside the day threads, either in other threads, in person, or via PM. The whole point is that all discussion is visible to all. The exception to this is the mafia and Batman & Robin, who can communicate with each other whenever they like.
• Post. If you don't participate in the discussion for a period, I'll send you a PM. If you still don't participate, you will probably be ModKilled. If you don't take part, the game doesn't run well at all. Each day will run for around 48 hours, so you don't need to be checking the thread too often.
• Always play to your current win condition.
• Do not use “meta data” such as checking the times people are online in their profiles to try to figure out player roles. Such behaviour will result in an instant mod kill. (Calling them out based on their posting frequency in the GothamScum threads is, of course, perfectly acceptable.)
• Reading The Dead Zone while you're still an active player is strictly forbidden.

Arkham Asylum

A new feature of GothamScum is Arkham Asylum.

Players in Arkham Asylum are described as Arkham inmates. Players not in Arkham are described as free players.

Arkham inmates keep their existing roles and can act normally in the game, with two exceptions:

• Inmates cannot vote for a lynch target.
• Inmates cannot perform a night action, unless they are The Joker.

A maximum of one player per night can be taken to Arkham. During the night phase the Batman and Dr. Harleen Quinzel can both nominate players to become inmates. The Batman has first choice and if he is not roleblocked then his choice of player will be taken to Arkham. Dr. Harleen Quinzel has the next choice and if the Batman does not bring a player to Arkham, then her choice of player will become an inmate.

If all Asylum Guards die the asylum will close and all inmates will be set free.

The mafia can perform an asylum break during the night phase instead of a hit. This frees all current inmates of the asylum, but the asylum will remain open for new inmates. Any free mafioso may perform the asylum break, but if any goons are available one of them must be used.

During the night phase Jeremiah Arkham may declare any current inmates as cured and these players will be set free.

Two randomly chosen players will begin the game as Arkham inmates.


Roles

The following roles are in this game:

Mafia Roles

• 1 Black Mask
• 1-3 Mafia Goon(s)
• 0-1 Mafia Rat
• 0-1 Mafia Roleblocker
• 0-1 Mafia Investigator

Gothamites

• 1 Jeremiah Arkham
• 1 Batman
• 1 Dr. Harleen Quinzel (can become Harley Quinn)
• 1 Commissioner Gordon
• 0-1 Azrael
• 0-1 Alfred
• 0-1 Doctor
• 2-6 Arkham Guards
• 2-6 GCPD Cops

Rogues Gallery

• 1 Joker
• 0-1 Penguin
• 0-1 Catwoman
• 0-1 Poison Ivy

Other

• 0-1 Emo Teen (can become Robin)
• 2 Arkham Inmates (secondary role)

Below are the role descriptions for each role.













































Win Conditions

You win the game dependent on your team's win condition. Note that Townies and the Mafia do not need to survive to win, so helping your team win is more important than your own personal survival. The win conditions are:

• Town - You win when all Mafia members and all opposing killing roles are dead or in Arkham.
• Mafia - You win when the all opposing killing roles are dead or prevented from killing by being in Arkham, and you equal or outnumber the other free players (preventing a lynch).
• Joker - You win when everyone but The Joker is dead. Horribly. And hilariously.
• Emo - You win if the mafia wins and you’re still alive at the end of the game to see it.
• Rat - You win if the mafia wins or if you enter the witness protection program.
• Penguin - You win if you’re alive at the end of the game. That’s all.
• Catwoman - You fulfill your primary win condition when you have stolen $100,000 worth of merchandise from the other players. Your secondary win condition is Town.
• Poison Ivy - You win when all the other players are turned into plants.

Note that multiple teams can win in this game, like the Penguin and the Mafia, for example.


Player Values for Catwoman

• Black Mask - $50,000
• Mafia Goon - $5,000
• Mafia Rat - $0
• Mafia Roleblocker - $20,000
• Mafia Investigator - $20,000
• Jeremiah Arkham - $10,000
• Batman - $50,000
• Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn - $5,000
• Commissioner Gordon - $10,000
• Azrael - $20,000
• Alfred - $20,000
• Doctor - $5,000
• Arkham Guards - $5,000
• GCPD Cops - $5,000
• Poison Ivy - $20,000
• Penguin - $50,000
• Emo Teen/Robin - $0
• Joker - You can’t steal from the Joker! Are you insane? If you try to steal from him his traps will kill you dead.

What order do night events occur in?

Mafia Roleblock -> Gordon Roleblock ->Batman -> Mafia Investigate -> Catwoman/Penguin/Ivy -> Protect -> Kills -> Asylum break -> Asylum release -> Witness Protection -> Dr. Quinzel

Gordon and the mafia can roleblock Batman, if they pick him as a target. However, if either of them are picked as a target by Batman and they have not picked him, they will be taken to Arkham and their roleblock will fail.

Two questions:

1) Batman can't be roleblocked?
2) Can the town not win if all there are surviving Maf, but they're in Arkham?

3) Does Harley Quinn need to be dead for the joker to win?

1) Not under the current rules, but I keep going backwards and forwards on that. On the one hand, if he can't be roleblocked, while he's alive Harleen Quinzel has nothing to do. On the other hand, he's the Batman. This may well change before we start playing.

2) Hang on, that needs to change.

4) Does Poison Ivy have to put the poison in the water on non-consecutive nights, or can she do seven in a row and win?

It can be consecutive, just doesn't have to be.

Yes.

Why's that?

So, given that her win condition is joker, she'll actually be actively trying to kill herself if it's just them left?

Because it's funnier that way.

If it's just them left then he'll kill her, yes.

Maybe you could have it that she automatically kills herself due to some unrequited love bollocks...

If it's just the two of them left after a lynching I'll just end the game with Mr J. killing her.

You'll notice that she gets to know who he is, but he doesn't find out who she is. Because he doesn't care.

Oh, hang on, it doesn't say that in the current rules. Damn. It's meant to. To the editmobile!

OK, that's great!

Also, I like having someone who has to kill themselves to win.

Right, I think that's okay.

I've really given myself a lot of work to do with all these night actions.

You'll forgive me if it sometimes takes me a while to get night phase posts up...

No. No, we won't.

It's your own fault. You should do a vanilla game like I'm doing.

A few questions:

1) The Mafia Rat's win condition (WC) is rat, but they can only get this WC if sent to the asylum. What if they are not sent, does it default to Mafia, or have they lost?

2) Will Poison Ivy know if she has been role blocked with her serum administerings?

3) Arkham inmates:
a) will people be told who the inmates are (and any subsequent releases)?
b) can the joker still vote from the asylum?

4) The Emo kid seems to have the hardest WC.

5) Can catwoman be role blocked (I presume so). What occurs in the event that she tries to steal from the joker but is role blocked?

Sorry if these have been answered in the rules, I only had time for a quick scan through.

1) They can win as a normal mafia team member. They don't have to enter witness protection to win.

2) Yes.

3) a) Yes and b) No.

4) I think he probably does. Or it's a tie with him and The Joker. And maybe Poison Ivy, because this game going seven days is unlikely.

5) If she's roleblocked when trying to steal from the Joker she's very lucky, because the role block will have saved her life.

Sounds good. Should be quite different from previous games because there is far less (virtually no) recruitment going on, but people can't afford to sit back because of Poison Ivy.

Can't remember if this is the norm or not, would a roleblocker know that they had successfully roleblocked someone?

Also:


Penguin? I presume he is level with catwoman.

(Sorry for all the questions) Can people (eg Catwoman* ->..->kills) be targeted for kills if they are out (stealing art)?
*same applies for Ivy.

Um, I don't know if people get told if they successfully roleblock their target. Craster? My gut says no, but I'm not sure.

Well spotted with the night action order, thanks. I've changed it.

Don't apologise for the questions! They're very, very useful to help clarify things.

And everyone can be targeted for kills, even if they're doing stuff at night, unless the roles say otherwise. Which I don't think they do for any roles in this game.

Depends. Craster and ComicalGnomes's games, the roleblocker was not told. In my game though the Costumed Vigilante was told, which makes it a minor investigative power.

I'm going to go with no, I think.

I'd probably say no for roleblock info. 'Tis up to you, though.

The only way a roleblocker is not successful is if they get roleblocked themselves, which is a highly unlikely scenario, so it's rather moot I think. Generally I think I told the roleblocker they were successful every time, because they were!

I think he means 'yes you've roleblocked someone' or 'no there was no night action to block'.

I would never tell the RB if their target was attempting an action. Unless it's a deliberate part of the role, like in RGs game.

Bingo bango.

This game looks completely fantastic. It's original yet still feels like mafia; I like the design a lot.

I hope this works.

And I hope everyone gets their night actions in quickly.

Everyone should have had a PM yesterday with their roles. If you're playing and you didn't get one, please let me know ASAP.

Let's lock this now, as I think we're all happy with the ruleset.