You know, one thing I always wanted to discuss a bit further in the last Mafia game but left it alone at the time because it was a hot button issue was in regards to my Day 1 vote ruling. Silenced went on to post the following:
I can only assume you were upset I got a successful investigation so quickly that you wanted to keep things interesting. Anyone can tell that was a vote cancel.
Things worked out pretty well for you; the game was extended and Insano died.
Technically, your death was a certainty until the host decided to manufacture tension.
I left it alone at the time since I really didn't want the game to bog down in that minor controversy. However, I do want to address the fact that I did it to manufacture tension or was upset that he had a successful investigation. I've hosted games where things ended very fast with the Mafia achieving a quick victory or the Townies achieving a quick victory. Heck Mafia 12 which was meant to be a quick game ended after 1 day because of a role I put in place that could allow an instant win if that player was voted out. My Hollywood Mafia game (I wanna say 52?) was probably the greatest Townie victory since Lucario's last game. All Mafia members were eliminated in the first 3 days and only 1 townie may have died although I think all the townies did survive that game and achieved the first perfect Townie Victory. I know that a host can create a special role or envision a great strategic situation only to have it evaporate based on who is voted out or eliminated on Day 1. It comes with the game. Sometimes you get a lengthy war and sometimes it is a blow out. All you can do as host is set up the situation but the players will determine how it unfolds.
So, no, that wasn't a ploy to "save" the game or create tension. The ironic thing about it is that my ruling was actually a benefit to Silenced but he didn't see it that way. If things had gone Silenced's way on Day 1, the mafia still makes their hit on Insanolord and Silenced get's the identity of two confirmed townies. That means there are 7 possible suspects out there to be the Godfather. All his ability can do at that point is find the doctor and make it a pool of 6 suspects. Because of the additional day in having to vote out Stogi, the mafia killed Insanolord on Day 1 then killed lolmonade on Day 2 who were both townies. This meant that when Silenced gets the two confirmed townies on Day 3, there are only 6 identities left to uncover with one of them being the doctor which means it is only a pool of 5 suspects to target. It hurt the Godfather's ability to hide.
However, Silenced made it hard for himself by revealing his identity and targeting Stogi early. This kept him from being able to see who Stogi might vote for and target thereby allowing him to deduce who else may have been a townie since the mafia probably wouldn't target each other in a 2 man game. Instead, he had to hunt blindly for the godfather. As well, by revealing his role and then revealing the names of the two verified townies, it allowed the Godfather to narrow down on targets of who the doctor could be. Eliminating the doctor was the key to eliminating Silenced and maybe getting another mafia member. As it turns out, I don't think the Godfather was paying attention to all that info and was able to just successfully eliminate Stevey the Doctor in time but by doing so, Silenced's outspokenness came back to hurt him. He didn't see the downside to revealing himself on Day 1 but the truth is that it he had to rely on the Doctor being active and protecting him from that point on while hoping the mafia never eliminated the Doctor or he'd end up in the situation he did end up in. I just don't think he saw that coming and instead thought it was a result of my not eliminating Stogi Day 1 when I think there was a good chance he'd have ended up the same situation with Stogi eliminated on Day 1. Both him and the Godfather were hunting for suspects in basically the same pool and he was feeding the Godfather a lot of info by being so open about roles.
Anyways, always wanted to clarify that accusation and point out what I saw as the true problem why Silenced was later eliminated. I do like the idea of the Mafia gaining another member by hitting the detective because I think it could help silence the detective from revealing himself in order to expose a mafia member which has happened in games since Mafia 11 at least. It really sucks when you are the mafia member exposed but I guess at the same time it provides an interesting challenge to see if you can survive it and I have had some experience in being able to stave off elimination after that happens which does feel like a victory in its own way. Still, if I use that rule, I think it works best in a game like this with a low mafia count.
That concludes the main thoughts I had on Mafia 71.