The Pearled Bridge
A New Mafia Experience by Alisha
Many hooded figures stood in a circle, refreshed after completing their morning ritual. The supernatural event that shook the world years ago was fresh on all of their minds.
The Order of the Pearl is a cult that started with only one goal; find the pearl that was at the center of the supernatural event. With it they would bring great and irreversible change to the planet, and usher in a new era.
One day, the body of one of the cult members was found. In its possession was the pearl, faintly glowing purple. The cult did a background check on the deceased member, and found them to be a government agent that went missing six months ago on an undercover assignment. This agent joined their cult six months ago.
With the pearl in their possession, the cult now is almost ready to make their big changes. There is one massive obstacle in their way, however.
The agent has friends, hellbent on stopping the cultists from succeeding in their goal. They are ready to murder every last cultist to prevent the pearl from being used to make devastating changes.
And so, the sacrifices must begin.
Foreword
In The Pearled Bridge, you will assume the role of a cult member making sacrifices each day, trying to root out the heroic infiltrators that have snuck into their ranks. Some players are infiltrators, where at night they are killing cult members.
Despite the setup being themed around a cult, no cult like mechanics exist in the game.
In short, you are the bad guys, trying to identify and sacrifice the good guys. The good guys are pretending to be bad guys and are trying not to get sacrificed.
How the Setup Works
This is a modular setup. The roles have been constructed by combining powers and traits. The list of possible powers and traits will be provided in a followup post in this thread, but it will not be revealed how those powers and traits are distributed.
Powers are what players have a choice with using, and are analogous to night actions in other Mafia games. Some examples of powers would be inspect, protect, and block. Powers can have limited or unlimited uses. Only one power may be used per night and you cannot self target, unless otherwise noted.
Traits are passive alterations to a role or powers, and change how something behaves. A lot of traits are analogous to role modifiers or adjectives in other games.
Game Concepts and the Theme
This game is different. There are a few never-before-seen ideas and as such it would be best to be open to exploring unusual concepts and uncommon elements in Mafia games. The setup is balanced to the best of mine and Jivvi's ability and everything new about it is telegraphed by the powers and traits provided in the following post. There will be time dedicated in the signup thread to ask mechanical questions.
This game is themed. Roles have been named according to flavor. There are no alignment or win condition changes in this game, so do not be alarmed by the cult theme. Play around with it too!
This game has a learning curve. Since this is a new concept, I will dedicate time in the signup thread for people to ask questions about how things work, and I will be more hands-on in the PMs and Discord with answering questions and explaining concepts. If you are new or relatively inexperienced with mafia but still want to play, I still will encourage you to sign up and I'll give attention toward getting you up to speed. Since this setup isn't completely closed it's much easier for me to be informative with a lot of the core concepts here.
We're here to have fun. I designed this setup with hopes that everyone that signs up can find something about it to enjoy.
Rules
Taken from mine and GmK's write-ups, formatted, and condensed a little. Please give them a look.
Be respectful and polite.
• Do not edit posts. Make a double/triple/quadruple/penta post instead. Even if your forum rank and permissions will let you edit or delete posts, please do not use them.• You are not allowed to make last statements after you are dead.
• If you have not signed up to play mafia, do not post in the game thread.
• Do not rate posts after you die. It is also preferable to post instead of rate when possible when alive.
• You are not allowed to use the -In a conversation- status as a tool against someone.
• Do not look at posts that have been marked as deleted, even if you have permissions otherwise.
Honesty and Cheating
• In all interactions with the moderator, you must be honest.• Do not contact any player in or outside of the game about the game unless specifically allowed to by the moderator.
• Do not attempt to access another player's information by technological means (such as hacking).
• Do nothing that would be considered cheating. Use common sense.
Gaming the System
• Do not quote your role PM, take a screen capture of it, etc. You may paraphrase the role PM.• Do not attempt to analyze the mechanics of a role PM in comparison to other players. For example, "the fourth word of my role PM is town." Or "my PM was sent at 11:23, when was yours?"
• No outside bets or other contrivances should be made.
• At no time should there be pre-game alliances made.
• If you are confused about an aspect of your role, ask your host about it in a private channel. Do not ask about it in the game thread.
Activity
• You are expected to be an active participant in your game. Do not flake.• If you know you are going to be absent a particular amount of time, post in game and PM the moderator that you will be V/LA. Please include the date you plan to be back and posting.
Behavior
• No excessive racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. language may be used.• Harassment of an individual player is NOT permitted. It is the nature of the game that players will be antagonistic toward each other at times. However, it should always be kept in the spirit of a game.
• Always play to your win condition. Never sabotage your team's chances simply because you're angry at them. This includes self votes and the like.
The Moderator
• The Moderator will post frequent vote counts.• The moderator reserves the right to alter any rule in the game including any of the rules found in this document.
• If the moderator makes a mistake on a vote count, please address it in thread in bold.
• PM the moderator with other concerns.
• The moderator has the final say.
Quitting
• When you sign up, it is expected you are capable of remaining interested in the game throughout its run.• If you have decided you can no longer be a part of this wonderful adventure, send a private message to the moderator announcing you are leaving.
• Under no circumstances are you to reveal your role when you quit, and you should not talk about your role while the game is still running.