Well, we are now on the threshold of Mafia 75. We made it like I thought we could.
Now, I'm sure some of you are eager to get to the next game but, due to my intent to make this a special game, I want to do some prep work and see if I can reach out to some long time lapsed users to have them come by for one more hurrah.
Part of the prep work has been determining a theme. We have covered a lot of different things over 75 games and while I could do an original theme, like the early games or my Wild West theme for example, I'd rather stick with a brand that allows for more jokes and roleplay if possible like we've been able to experience in Lucario's games. At the same time, it helps to have something with a lot of characters and preferably ones that flexible as to being possible good or bad to make the story and roles not seem against type. F-Zero could work and it might make a fitting bookend to be the theme of my first game hosting and possibly last game hosting but I just don't think it's popular enough. A Legend of Zelda theme hasn't happened but with Breath of the Wild and some of the other side characters from past games, it could possibly now work in this regard.
However, I think the best choice would probably be Pokémon for the amount of games it sells and popularity it enjoys. We've only had one Pokémon Mafia game and that was back in Mafia 7 so it's not like the theme has been overdone. Of course, I'm not sure how much character one can get out of a Pokémon but there are other humans, I suppose. The other issue is having not really played most Pokémon games and having only gotten to the second gym in LeafGreen, I'm not really an expert on Pokémon though I have time to read up and study on the games for that.
Unless someone has an idea for a theme I'm not thinking of (or one that might be worth repeating), this is sort of where my thinking is as I begin working out these details. I thought I'd mention it now and let everyone know what the current plan is and to allow for some feedback ahead of time.