Thanks for the clarification and the comment to the post above. It feels like an honor for a newcomer to be addressed by the ultimate reference for mafia games in GOG.

To be sure, it is reassuring to be reminded that content in GOG Mafia games is subject to common sense and good taste. Without forgetting GOG general policy for the forum.

Yet, since common sense is the less universal and more modifiable of all senses, and good taste turns out not to be that good more often than not, grey areas, disagreement and special requirements may need to be dealt with somehow. Doing so pre-game in simple ways helps a lot in avoiding surprises. Then, if it comes to that (and prevention helps avoiding this), having a way to channel disagreement in a smooth fashion may be helpful. Some people may prevented from accumulating steam for fear of disrupting the game, or from coming across as obnoxious because of a lack of feedback.

Exactly. Thanks for realizing this. The central idea for the sharing of these tools is precisely avoiding censorship, by making clearer some bit of the social contract between the participants that might be grey areas. This way there are not surprises, plus we help preventing censorship: In practice, when things go wrong, complains tend to escalate and often there is an overreaction, with the response often becomes harsher than it ought to have been.

Then, you have special requirements. There is an upcoming game with flavour from The Jungle Book, but, for reasons that you do not need to explain, you cannot stand snakes. Then, why not asking the mod about the chance of meeting Kaa, Nag or one of their cousins?

It sounds simple because it is simple, yet it is surprising how often people on the fence give games a pass (or leave the game) just because of a lack of communication. There is no reason for calling anyone anything for not standing snakes, or spiders, or gambling, or lots of talk on alcohol, or whatever. They ought to be informed about the chance that there is going to be something like that in the game, if they ask, instead of being judged over that.

That's the way I read it too. It's like trigger warnings, the point is to allow people to be informed so that they can decide if they want to participate or not.

Well, in the last game (#66) a player wrote a handful of posts where there was a colourful description of violence against a woman, with a distinct sexual overtone. There was a gray area because the perpetrator was suppossed to be the character of the player, and the victim the character of another player, who appeared to be male, while his character was female. So, from the point of view of the player writing these posts, apparently it was a joke, and it is suppossed to be that a hilarious one at that. So there was a gray area.

However, for some other players, it was still a description of a woman having her clothes forcefully ripped, then receiving a beating on her rear part, bent over the knees of the perp, a fiction character (the player's) who seemingly was being aroused by all that action.

There were three reactions in the game thread (IIRC). Most players did not say anything, and, possibly, for some of them this might have seemed OK. About those who wrote: One, a (female) player wrote a "WTF". Another (this one) tried to steer the situation ingame, subtly giving the offending player a hint. The attempt failed miserably, of course. The player did not take the hint and, arguably, the attempt to steer things ingame possibly made things worse. Eventually the third reaction came (we are guessing here) in the form of a general request from the mod to keep things SFW, which was fair and to the point.

For some, such content, in that situation, might be OK, or a bit gross, but with a pass. For others (the one who writes this included) behaviours of agression or sexual agresssion against women should not be normalized, even in jest. Subtle hints did not work, and a PM might have been frown upon, according to the strict mafia rules that we are to respect. So, next time I see something like that (I hope not) I might send a PM to the mod to see about it, and that is really what that long post on tools was about. Plus, prevention in order to avoid unsavory(1) surprises when possible. Be it about snakes,
spiders (a game set in the world of Maya the Honey Bee?), or any other thing.

(1) Admittedly, this word is a lend from the narrator in GOG's Restaurant.

Well, that might fall within the boundaries already in place, as long as the content is tasty and not explicit. Even if the first is an elusive quality, dialogue should make things clear, followed by a final decision from the arbiter, if required.

Plus, pieces that suggest are often more powerful than those that show.

All good points and well said.

I am all for players asking such through PM/etc to the mod as well, if it allows them to play the game and enjoy it more.

(That said an aside: I slightly dislike the whole societal shift we have(I mean all of society in general) now where more people seemingly need to be coddled like children (more so seemingly than previous ones) or people think people need such coddling.

i.e. I'm all for people asking such of mods[content of game, etc], but not so much things like people watching what civil/sfw topics they discuss in a game lest they "trigger" someone accidentally)

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To me some of that is more than fair and sounds good(imo) if not overdone.

I think some types of trigger warnings are reasonable but not others.....like if a player PMs and asks a mod or a mod posts the likely content of a game in their OP posts(and follow up posts) I see that as fair and reasonable....but not such things as sending all posts through the mod first to see if they might offend someone, having to put trigger warnings for content on every post one makes, or similar.

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Agreed on this in general...well said.

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All the above aside/said: While I don't want to see games devolve into a chaotic mess, I also don't want to see games turn into a "safe space" ultra-pc style setting either.....I get enough of that when reading social media and on other sites and it would slightly sour my own experience with the games, and hope whatever changes occur in future games will be as minimal as possible in that regard.

(Of course I also want people to be able to enjoy the games as much as is reasonably possible while allowing everyone else the most freedom possible)

It might come across like that, but that is not the intention, at all. A fair warning can only be helpful for everyone involved. These are tools that work in the world of tabletop RPG and LARPG. While some might want to abuse them in order to "sanitize" any game space, what they are truly intended for is avoiding misunderstandings.

Think of it like this: Not a "safe space" sign at all, but one that reads "Here be dragons. Proceed at your own risk". A fair warning. Plus a way of channelling issues.

P (PM): There is a dragon, you did not say there was going to be a dragon.
M (PM): What? The sign was clear.
P (game thread): There is a humongous dragon over there bigger than my house! For f*ck's sake!
M (PM): Language! First warning.
Q (game thread): Read rule #23, it is the one after rule #22. "There might be or not dragons in this game".
P (game thread): OK. I guess I did not read the OP.
M (PM): That is better.
P (PM): You were a bit too harsh about the language thing, don't you think?
M (PM): Read rule #24.
P (game thread): Holy f*ck!! There is a rule on language in the game? WTF, J3$u$ and the &%$@ed @%&$#1€$ of f*#&ing #@%&, can't f&%@ believe it?!!



Yes?

That's actually the things I am ok with.

(I just don't want it to get out of hand & perhaps see everyone needing to watch every single word they say more than is reasonable[in case something might bother someone somewhere])

Yes, that seems fair.

Agreed! Information, not analysis.

Bloody boffins with their gadgets.

Well you wouldn't have trouble said gadgets, Mr. Bahnd, if you read the bloomin manuals. ;D

Are you insinuating he's a sheep? Well I guess he does mostly do what he's told without question...

Maybe, maybe not....or maybe i'm trying to avoid the protective copyright protection police with a palpable passion. :)

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Btw I am preparing possible "breadcrumbs" for if I get certain PRs.....could you check the one pic attached and tell me if that is a subtle enough COP PR breadcrumb? ;)

So, I'm way late to the party, but what about this?

The game starts with only one scum player, scum have a factional night kill. Everyone else is a worshiper, which is a compulsive 1-shot role, where the action is performed on N1. Everyone that worships the scum player joins the scum team.

The more people that choose the scum leader, the larger the scum team. The entire scum team dies if town nails the leader. The fewer people that worship the scum leader, the more people that may be chain killed by a single NK.

It will be swingy as all heck, and should only be played for the lulz, but it could make for an amusing one-off game.