Cheers for that - sometimes I think I've missed something and panic a bit - usually I have! Witness several hare-brained theories littering past Mafia games..;o)

So you're not buying into the 'more than one mafia team' scenario then? Or are you suggesting it could be three seperate Mafia teams, consisting of one player in each?

I'm not totally buying into the "Multiple Mafia" theory, but I'll not totally discount either.
At the moment we don't have enough information either way.

I would guess at either a simgle 3 man mob, or 2 two man mobs.

When you originally posed this theory I was sceptical because of the general rule which states that no one may communicate with anyone about the game unless it's specified in their PM (rule 8). In this case, it seemed really unlikely to me that the mafia would be 'mute'.

However, since apparently the Lovers were able to communicate by night, this kind of dampens that idea... Now I'm wondering if you might be onto something there. I've been flipflopping over this idea ever since the now infamous Post 39, and I think I end up siding with Rod - there's simply not enough to go on yet.

(Hope the Americans had a good Thanksgiving, by the way!)

I'm not sure I follow... are you saying that you think, because the lovers were able to communicate at night, it makes it more likely that the mafia can't? o.0

(It's Black Friday now, they're all too busy fighting over TVs to hear you.)

No, sorry, let me try that again:

I was reluctant at first to consider Baz's idea of lone-wolf mafias because the rule list specifically states not discussing the game outside of PMs if you're allowed them.So, I thought this meant that there were clearly people in the game who were allowed to communicate by night, i.e. the scumchat existed.

However, now that a Lover pair has been revealed, who apparently also had the ability to chat at night, it makes that logic far more wobbly. In addition, I originally thought that that rule had been added into the list for this game, but I've since checked, and it wasn't.

Sooooo at this point, I too am wondering about the possibility of there being multiple mafia factions. I'm not entirely sure how this will impact scumhunting though...

Ah yes, I see. I've considered it a strong possibility that we have multiple mafia factions since the start of the game, but the specific identification of the shattered hand mob has made me near certain. I guess tomorrow's flavour will confirm it one way or another?

I have no experience with such situation but I think it helps town because mafia needs to scumhunt but it is bad because it helps to confirm scumhunting mafia as town. So I am not sure.
I still don't think there is more than one mafia. I see mafia composed of more factions, possibly unfriendly to each other, to be more likely.

Prod

Hm. Seems M8 is stealing attention from this game again.

Anyway, I find it rather worrying how many players there are in this game we have far too little data about - Cruward, Grynn/NFY (getting better there), nmillar to some extent, QA who will have to be replaced, even TwilightBard. It doesn't really feel like day two in here, does it?

Also, we're not voting! And we really should be. I admit I'm part of the problem, but that is about to change:

There's one player in this game who makes me oddly uneasy, and it won't be a surprise when I say it's Robbeasy (hey, it rhymes!). His explanation of his vote for itai was charming as always, but something about it doesn't sit right. Here are relevant bits of the vote post (#378):
And here are relevant bits of #501, the explanation:
Am I the only one who can't really follow the train of thought behind these two posts? Note the "This is where my flawed thinking started, linking Itai to Baz". There's an undocumented leap of logic somewhere in the process, which is bothering me. It's also bothering me how can anyone say Rod is town and I am scum; if Rod is town, the "town doesn't lie" rule pretty much implies I am town as well, doesn't it?

Anyway, my three greatest suspects right now?
1) Robbeasy, for using very peculiar logic to get the itai wagon going at a key moment;
2) jefequeso, because of his scummy behaviour on day one and somewhat odd behaviour on day two;
3) Damnation, for you know what, even though I'm not convinced about him, really.

Honourable mention: Rodzaju. Of course.

Vote Robbeasy

No, it doesn't. Rodzaju could know your role, but not your alignment. He's assumed the paranoid doctor / jailkeeper role is a town one, but this is not necessarily the case.

One line that Baz just quoted really jumps out at me:
#501, Robbeasy wrote "Rod couldn't possibly have the info he clearly does have, if he were Mafia."

And yet he is voting me anyway....

I have heard all the arguements & frankly there is a lot of WIFOM.
Confusion or not, if you believe me town, Why the hell are you voting me?

Vote Robbeasy

Hmm, you have a point there. This, however, only applies if there are multiple mafias, otherwise the mafia really has no use for a doctor... But yes, it is a theoretical possibility, I'll give you that.

A theory that I have subscribed to throughout the game!

And ***Humble pie time*** I am now leaning towards.
I can't see a plausible 3 or diferent scum teams, but 2 teams is starting to make some sense.