Roleplay / NTWF Mafia

NTWF Mafia was a play-by-post game based on the party game Mafia, played on the Neopian Times Writers Forum in the summer of 2011. Each player was assigned the role of either a mafioso or a townsperson (plus a few more specific roles within the latter category). The Mafia would kill one townsperson each night, and during the day, the townspeople would choose a suspect in the murders to lynch.

The game was played out through a roleplay, in which each player crafted a distinct character and interacted with each other. The setting was the small country town of Netwaffle, which had recently been plagued by crimes that had finally escalated to murder. Most citizens were aware of the Mafia lurking in the shadows... but things had finally gone too far, and they could sit idle no longer. Meanwhile, the Mafia was planning... who knows what?

A Spin-Off, The Island, was created a few months later, though it was never finished.

Then later, in the summer of 2013, a sequel NTWF Mafia game was started - this time set in the farming town of Wafflenet, with an entirely new cast of characters. The tropes for that roleplay are listed below as well.

In the spring of 2014, another NTWF Mafia game was started. This time, it took place in Aifam Cove, a seaside tourist trap caught between two warring mafias in the dead of winter. The tropes for that roleplay are also listed below.

Beware Unmarked Spoilers!

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Mafia (or most of the games) in General

• Anti-Villain: Some mafiosos can be this...
• Anyone Can Die: For obvious reasons, in a Mafia game.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: Two deaths a round, with a couple rounds being in the same day.
• Dwindling Party: Numbers tend to drop pretty fast.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: Most Mafia roleplays have ended with most of the town having been killed off.
• False Friend: Since the roles are kept secret until death, unsuspecting townspeople often end up making friends with mafiosos.
• Ghost Shipping: Naturally, with so much death and 'shipping going on in these roleplays, many 'ships end up like this.
• He Knows Too Much: The mafias always want to kill the witness/detective for this reason.
• Incriminating Indifference: Some mafiosos noticeably don't react properly to the deaths, which ends up getting them killed.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: Usually, the mafia members eventually die at the hands of the townspeople.
• There Are No Therapists: Many characters, both mafia and non-mafia, could use a good psychologist.
  • Especially by the end of the game.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: There's always at least one Detective role in the games, so this is inevitable.

The First NTWF Mafia roleplay

• Ax-Crazy: At least some of the Mafia. This really comes out into the open with Terra and Luna after they're executed.
  • Completely the opposite for Mr. Amati who only wanted a kingdom for his cat.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Mafia was killed, along with most of the town. But Netwaffle becomes a tourist magnet thanks to their ghost population.
• Dead Person Conversation: Nearly everyone who's killed comes back as a ghost, so this happens several times throughout the roleplay.
• Disposable Sex Worker: Not really a sex worker, per se, but Hunty the Floozy was the first (unofficial) victim of the mafia.
• Distant Finale: The last round, which takes place six months after the previous one.
• Dwindling Party: The main characters, excluding Candy and Icon were all either lynched or murdered, up until Drake, the last Mafia member, was killed... And then the last mains were killed.
• Easily Forgiven: Glenda doesn't hold a grudge when she's killed by Drake, the last mafioso. In fact, when they meet up again after Drake is executed, they discuss business ideas.
• Expy: Nelly, of Mrs. Lovett.
• Fortune Teller: Madame Ginz.
  • Phony Psychic: She seems to be this at first, but then her predictions start getting eerily accurate...
• Ghost Shipping: Meowington/Ariana, once Ariana was killed by the mafia.
  • Also Robyn/Icon (Robyn was killed by the mafia very early on, while Icon committed suicide at the end of the game.)
• Ghost Town: By the end of the game Netwaffle becomes this. Literally.
• I'm a Humanitarian: If you eat at Nelly's bakery...
• Jacob Marley Apparel: This seems to hold true for the ghosts of Netwaffle. Terra even finds out that she still has a ghostly version of the knife she had hidden when she died. She takes advantage of this.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Candy casually reveals that Mayor Porpington is her father.
• Mayor Pain: Mayor Porpington. He locks the entire town in the civic center...including the Mafia. Oops. He gets hanged for his trouble.
• The Men in Black: The GSIS, or Greater Splatterboard Investigation Squad. They end up being a bit less effective than MIB-types usually are.
• Properly Paranoid: Esther Rickshaw, the town librarian. She goes to extreme measures to hide from the Mafia, who are, obviously, not an imagined threat at all.
• Secret Identity: Celes Teal. Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense by day, guardian angel by night!
• Upper-Class Twit: Joseph which made him the second person to get lynched.

The Island NTWF Mafia roleplay

• The Cutie: Christopher Dylans.
• Continuity Nod: Plenty of them to the Mafia Roleplay, right down to Nelly.
• Creepy Child: Callista, a Mafia Member.
• Deserted Island: You betcha.
• The Ditz: Danielle.
• Enfant Terrible: Callista
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a roleplay that takes place... on an island.
• Farm Boy: Or Farm Girl, in LuAnne Samantha Pickett's case.
• I Am a Humanitarian: Discussed but ultimately rejected by the townspeople... or so they think.
• Long-Lost Relative: Moonflower Journey and Luanne Samantha Pickett are long lost sisters.
• Morality Pet: Christopher Dylans for Nelly. He's the only person she's ever cared about.
  • Not that it keeps her particularly, well, moral.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Moonflower Journey.
• Our Angels Are Different: Shani.
• Tempting Fate: Calling the ship SS Unsinkable was probably not a good idea.
• The Pollyanna: Several. Danielle and Moonflower Journey come to mind.
• Upper-Class Twit: Thomas Everington (of Everington Cakes Limited) definitely falls into this category.

The Wafflenet NTWF Mafia roleplay

• Afterlife Express: Where Osi finds himself after his death in Round 6. It's full of bird-people, and while this promising afterlife is tempting, he soon breaks out to get back to Wafflenet.
• Bag of Holding: Fluffle's fluff. She has even rented rooms in there.
• Berserk Button: Do not. Harm. Britknee's. Dog.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Nora seems like an unassuming old lady who doesn't talk much, but she turns out to be the Wafflenet Slicer.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens constantly, but is most notable with Metastophelous - then again, what else would you expect from a character named Meta?
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Several characters experience this after their deaths, most notably Mick.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Tracy. One word: aliens.
• Deadpan Snarker: Metastophelous. So much.
• The Dragon: Julie Merlot is this to Diana Pallada.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Diana Pallada, mafia Godmother and glasses wearer.
• Heel–Face Turn: Mick, a Mafia member, becomes committed to thwarting the Mafia's plans after his death.
• Interspecies Romance: Mick (a human)/Fluffle (an MLP-based pony)
• Likeis Like A Comma: Like, Britknee is, like, a PERFECT example of, like, this trope! Like, totally!
• Magical Girl: Dove's alter ego, Puella Paloma Columbidae. (The good intentions are there, but without actual powers, she can't do much.)
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Diana Pallada, who was mafia and a sociopath on top of it.
• Must Have Caffeine: Diana Pallada always needs (terrible) coffee.
• No Indoor Voice: Practically all of Blaze Wolfstorm's lines are SAID AT LEAST PARTIALLY IN CAPSLOCK.
• Otaku: Dove, of the anime, manga & cosplay variety. This tends to alienate her from the other Wafflenetters, but it's okay because they're all unsugoi bakas anyways.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Mick only joined the Mafia to earn money for culinary school.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Mick/Fluffle. Commonly referred to as Muffle. Flick also works, but come ON! How non-romantic is that?!
• Punny Name: Metastophelous, which also references Phelous, an internet critic. The Mahb family, which, ironically, is completely innocent. Don Dan Maphia who happens to be a mafia member.
• Straw Misogynist: THE PYTHON.
• Theme Twin Naming: Annabel and Claribel, the latter of which is Blaze's real name.
• The Bard: Julie.
• The Silent Bob: Osi.
• Third-Person Person: THE PYTHON.
• Tinfoil Hat: Tracy gives every townsperson a personalized one over the course of the game.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Every day, THE PYTHON graces the townspeople with a new look; OFFICER PYTHON, PYTHON BALBOA, ATTICUS PYTHON, and then finally PYTHON THE FRIENDLY GHOST.
• Valley Girl: Britknee.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Britknee calls out Blaze for witnessing the Mafia's crimes but not saying anything until after most of the town was already dead.

The Aifam Cove NTWF Mafia roleplay

• Actual Pacifist: Liliana Parker.
• Aerith and Bob: Dakota Allen, Cheryl Lewis, Jack Smith and... Rilen Forsythe?
• Agent Peacock: Leopold Endicott.
• Agent Scully: Professor Bardsley. There is no such things as ghosts at all.
• The Alcoholic: Beatrix Devon.
  • "Amy" is also one, if you ask Travis Richem.
• Ambiguous Gender: Dakota and Khiran
• Anachronism Stew: Fella C. Rapture is a raptor in a somewhat modern town. This is not considered strange.
• Animal Mecha: Robodino.
• Anti-Hero: Lucille, who is a criminal, but still resolves to fight the mafia even after her death.
• Arch-Enemy: Piper Boudreaux's arch-nemesis is a giant ghost crab named Webster.
  • As the roleplay progresses - Cheryl Roxanne Lewis (or Tiffany) finds one in Travis Richem.
• Ascended Extra: Morty Gunderson began as just another background NPC; a worker at the Burger Hut. But after he made his debut in Lindsey's execution, he grew into a fully-fleshed character (a paranoid, bitter vigilante), arguably just as prevalent as all the player characters in the game, and was central to the game's climax.
  • It got to the point where Aifam Cove doesn't have mob lynchings - it has Morty.
• Berserk Button: Do not talk smack about Alma's family.
  • Cheryl does not appreciate being called Tiffany.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Lindsey Lukas and Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Travis Richem and Piper Boudreaux.
• Break the Cutie: Poor, poor Christopher Dylans.
• Butt-Monkey: Travis Richem, who constantly gets beaten up by annoyed townspeople. Granted, it's always his fault.
• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Two major examples of this trope live in Aifam Cove.
  • Winston Teakes is a twenty year old gamer shut-in. He also happens to think that Aifam Cove is just another game setting, all physical actions are controlled by game mechanics, everyone around him is an NPC, and that he's personally the hero of every video game he's ever played. This leads to some... interesting interactions with others, when he can be bothered to leave the house.
  • Travis Richem believes that Aifam Cove is all an elaborate set to a reality TV show (Travis Richem IN YOUR FACE), and that all its inhabitants are actors, placed to complement and enhance his brilliance. While Winston is mostly regarded with confusion and mild derision, very few of the townspeople will put up with Travis's antics. Especially when he decides it's time for another romance arc.
• Characterisation Marches On: At the beginning of the game, Winston Teakes was still considerably deluded about how real life worked, but he was more affected by the events around him (such as Christopher's murder), and did have a vague separation of reality from gaming. A few rounds into the game, he was fully convinced that he was the hero of everything he'd ever played, and that Aifam Cove was just another game he could turn on and off at will.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Piper Boudreaux, Travis Richem, and Winston Teakes. Those are the most prominent examples, although Aifam is filled with tons of colorful characters.
• Continuity Nod: Lots of them. Everington Cakes, Diana Pallada's book, a pamphlet written by THE PYTHON...
  • Christopher comes directly from the Island to Aifam.
  • Towards the end of the game, this becomes even more apparent, with Wafflenet characters such as Mick, Flufflepuff, and Diana Pallada making an appearance.
• Cradling Your Kill: Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon cried over the corpse of her friend Liliana Parker, who died by her hands.
• Creepy Child: The kids of Aifam Cove building snowmen out of dead bodies.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to previous games of Mafia, Aifam Cove has a much darker, bleaker setting - and that's saying nothing about how the deaths play out...
  • Darkened further by the mafia's victory.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pratchett and Metastophelous, who returns just as snarky as ever.
• Despair Event Horizon: Winston Teakes has a few harrowing moments in his deluded version of events, and even breaks down a few times, as heroes often do. But when the mafia ultimately wins, some of the members even coming back to life (including the unnamed Hair Villain, the plot’s main enemy), and he can’t harm them as a ghost, he just shuts down, unable to deal with ‘this game’ anymore. He compartmentalizes Aifam Cove as just a malicious developer joke and succumbs entirely to his delusions, huddling in his Xbox’s circuitry and dreaming of being the hero for the rest of his ghostly life.
• Destroy the Evidence: According to their writers, both Piper Boudreaux and Professor Bardsley started collecting the constable's notes with this in mind. A short side story PFA wrote indicated that Bardsley actually did destroy evidence.
• Dissonant Serenity: Mafia member Professor Bardsley is notorious for calmly watching the chaos befalling Aifam Cove.
• Downer Ending: The Mafia won, and most the townspeople died. Thanks to the Chemist's potion, all the dead mafiosos were resurrected, leaving Aifam Cove a terrified populace living under an iron fist.
• Dying Alone: Liliana Parker's greatest fear and ultimate end.
  Liliana Parker: I… I don’t want to die alone.
  Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon: We all die alone, Liliana.
• Epic Fail: Piper Boudreaux spends a late night constructing an elaborate crab trap on the beach in order to catch a photograph of Webster, but dozes off. She wakes up to find Webster standing right where she wants him... holding her camera in its claws. She freaks out and tries to take it back before the crab can destroy it, only to have Webster snap a photo of her and scuttle off. Then she crashes into her elaborate trap, which goes off.
• Escaped from Hell: After being trapped in a seemingly endless void at the end of the last Mafia game, Diana Pallada emerges out of a chasm that opened up by Aifam Cove.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon and her husband and daughter, MURDERSHIPPING, Nathan and Lindsey Lukas.
• Even the Guys Want Him: It's a common joke that everyone in the RP is Travissexual. Also, everyone loves Professor Bardsley's luscious hair.
• Evil Teacher: Professor Bardsley.
• Fake Cutie: Liliana Parker.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Professor Bardsley.
• Gender-Blender Name: Dakota Taylor Allen and Khiran Chandler, both nonbinary.
• Ghost Shipping: Kylie/Lucille after Lucille is lynched by the mafia.
  • Professor Bardsley/Diana Pallada especially after Bardsley was resurrected by the potion.
• Giant Enemy Crab: WEBSTEEERRRRRRR.
• Grave Robbing: There's a group of kids going around stealing bodies, including Enna Tweff's urn straight from the funeral, and turning them into snowmen.
• Heroic BSoD: Winston Teakes tries to capture Merry the dog, but when the pokeball bounces off, he realizes that she's an owned pokemon and that he's a thief. He promptly falls apart and runs home sobbing.
  • Again, when he realizes that he's dead.
  • Liliana Parker, when she finds out that Professor Bardsley was a sociopathic murderer.
• Heroic Wannabe: Winston Teakes.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Morty Gunderson.
• Intrepid Reporter: Cheryl Roxanne Lewis.
• Kid Detective: Ris Monaco. She takes her detectiveing very seriously.
• Large Ham: Travis Richem.
• Last Disrespects: Enna's funeral is a solemn occasion which brings the town together. So the mafia kill a child and leave his body in the coatroom for everyone to find, and when everyone panics, the local children steal the urn with Enna's ashes and build a snowman around it.
• Magician Detective: Aaron Greenhand, the magician, was asked to check a coat closet for secret doors when Christopher's body went missing. Even more appropriate, as it turned out that Aaron actually was the Constable.
• Make an Example of Them: The townspeople decided to bring their first mafia kill (Lindsey Lukas) to the town square as a warning to the mafia. Though the mafia fought back next round by killing the Constable.
  • At the end, in a complete role-reversal of the previous example, the mafia does this to Morty.
• Mama Bear: Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon. Don't mess with her kids.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: Turns out that the Aifam Cove mayor is actually a rock.
• Meaningful Name: Aifam is Mafia spelled backwards.
• Memetic Mutation: As with any good community, a few.
  • Early on, somebody misspelled Abominable Aifam (one of the two mafias) as Abdominal Aifam. Since then, the meta community has come to refer to AA as Abdominal Aifam; the bodybuilding bro mafia that meets in the town gymnasium and crushes victims with their rock-solid abs.
  • Travis Richem's thunder thighs.
  • Afe was initially described as wearing a 'pear of boxers' on his head. Nobody is quite sure what the legendary pear boxers are, exactly. But they. Are. Glorious.
  • WEBSTERRRR!!!
    • Which only got worse when this◊ picture was discovered, which appears to be a rather shockingly accurate portmanteau of Travis and Webster as seen in Piper's Nightmare Sequence.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Leo... at least, according to Winston's version of events, since Leo was Winston's mentor in STYLE.
• Mob War: The Aifam Cove RP features two rivaling mafias: Abominable Aifam and Chill of the Night. At least, at first.
• Mood Whiplash: The roleplay is full of it. One moment, someone will be brutally murdered; a minute later, a robot dinosaur is eating cupcakes.
• Moral Sociopathy: Professor Bardsley has a pretty skewed sense of morality, and he seems to believe there's nothing wrong with that.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Professor Leland Bardsley, who was mafia. It is assumed that he has a doctorate due to being a professor.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Winston, after attempting to capture an owned pokemon. (Bea's dog.)
  • Alma, after she sees the results of her mafia-alignment; her husband leaves her, sweet little Chris hates her, and she realizes that her daughter is dead, possibly killed by the same mafia she joined.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Anna Dywight, the Chemist, gives her revival potion to Leland Bardsley right before she dies. Bardsley ends up being a mafioso... and even worse, he uses the potion to create an improved formula that's then used to resurrect all the fallen mafiosos.
• The Nicknamer: Travis, who constantly renames people.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Dakota Allen, the Mad Constable. Ever since Round 1, Chill of the Night greatly considered killing Dakota, but always switched to someone else to kill (sometimes even a few minutes before the deadline.) Avoided at the very end - Dakota is killed by Winter's Wrath in Round 8, making them the last person to be killed in the roleplay.
• Nightmare Sequence: Piper's death post. It starts out as a wonderful dream, in which she's finally captured a magnificent photo of Webster, and everyone lauds her from her work. It swiftly spirals down into nightmare territory when she finds that everyone in the town has become a ghost crab.
• Noodle Incident: "House party at Juan's!"
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Liliana Parker learns that Professor Bardsley, who she was beginning to fall for, is a mafioso, she has a breakdown, realizing that the way she acts and manipulates others is exactly what he did.
• Nun Too Holy: Sister Lucille swears, drinks, fights, has no regard for any kind of vow of chastity, and runs an alcohol smuggling operation.
  • Perfectly encapsulated by her ghost-fighting weapon of choice: holy vodka.
• Oh, Crap!: Lindsey Lukas immediately realizes her mistake after directing Neah Potter to the cabinet... which was full of Chill of the Night's Calling Cards.
  • The townspeople are in need of the mayor, but he won't talk to them! When they finally cave and break down the mayor's door, they find out that the mayor is actually a rock with googly eyes. Apparently Jack Ryan Smith, the assistant mayor, had been acting as de facto mayor in absence of a real one... but he was executed by the townspeople in round one.
• OO Cis Serious Business: Barbra T. Manna, usually talkative, falls completely silent after Miko's death.
  • Christopher Dylans blames nobody - he instantly forgives the mafia members, and repeatedly apologizes to them for whatever he did to deserve being killed. But when he finds out Alma, who he trusted, is mafia, he lashes out with a tearful tirade on how much he hates her and never wants to see her again.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves take the form of highly intelligent, muscular wolves. They transform with the lunar cycle but can also take their wolf form voluntarily, and are generally sane while transformed. Melanie and later, her friends, are some.
• Poor Communication Kills: Alma and Lili often hold back they way they feel in futile attempts to spare each other pain. The lack of meaningful communication between them contributed to both women mentally breaking down, and Alma killing Lili.
• Private Eye Monologue: Ris Monaco has a lot of these. A lot.
• Punch a Wall: Dr. Evan Parker, when Anna Dywight is thrown off a cliff, and he realizes he may have indirectly caused her death.
  • And again, when everyone gets trapped in a theatre and end up killing an innocent townsperson (Miko Shamen).
  • Also Melanie Porter, when she realizes that both Piper Boudreaux and Professor Bardsley, members of the makeshift investigation team, were mafiosos.
  • Lucille Erata tries to punch a wall, despite there being none present, after she dies.
• Punny Name: Coena T. Bhaloid. Say it out loud.
  • Also Alma Mathers and Enna Tweff.
  • Also Leo's shop - Stop! Glamour Time.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Liliana Parker yells at Professor Bardsley for being a heartless monster, both he and Diana Pallada retaliate with a collaborative speech on how wrong she is.
• Resurrective Immortality: With the addition of the resurrecting potion, the members of Winter's Wrath will never die.
  Professor Bardsley: And just in case you bright folks get the idea to murder us once again, well. I think that I am standing here now—as well as Miss Boudreaux, Miss Lukas, and Mister Richem—proves that death is not a major problem for us. We can overcome it. And so if you kill us, we will arise again. We cannot lose. So it is best for everyone to obey.
  • Surverted eventually as the mafia lose the notes for the potion in the end.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Nathan to Bea, after it was revealed that he was the mafia leader. Bea could either marry Nathan and have him protect her and Kylie as the mafia take over the town or refuse, effectively robbing them of protection in a mafia-ruled town.
• Shipper on Deck: Leopold Endicott.
• Siblings in Crime: Both Lindsey Lukas and her twin brother Nathan are mafiosos.
• Single Tear: Dakota leaving Christopher when they notice he's too preoccupied talking to the Mafia to notice that they're floating behind him, dead.
• Snow Means Death: The roleplay takes place in the dead of winter.
• The Sociopath: Several of the mafiosos possess sociopathic traits, but most prominently Professor Bardsley.
• Softspoken Sadist: Professor Bardsley.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: At Enna's funeral, Travis Richem monologues for half an hour on "Amy's" raging alcoholism, sordid secrets, and ugly face.
  • "But guuurl, let me say just one thing: red is definitely not your colour."
• Split Personality: Jack and Afe. It becomes more apparent after Jack dies, when he literally splits into two entities.
  • Also Miko Shamen.
• Taking You with Me: One of the roles in this game was the Bomb, where if they died, they'd take one other person to the grave with them. Dr. Marie Robinson was able to fight back against her killer, Travis Richem, and they both died.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Christopher Dylans, one of the sweetest characters in the game, died first round.

• "Truman Show" Plot: Inverted, in that Travis Richem believes his life is actually a TV show, when it actually isn't.
• Unholy Matrimony: Professor Bardsley and Dr. Diana Pallada, who are canonically a couple by the end and oh so evil.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Fella C. Rapture, one of Aifam Cove's permanent residents and avid purveyor of the film industry, happens to be a velociraptor. Nobody particularly finds this unusual.
• Vehicular Sabotage: How Aaron Greenhand was killed.
• Vigilante Man: Morty Gunderson. A very dangerous one, though, considering that most of his justifications were very flimsy, causing him to execute mostly innocents.
• Voodoo Doll: Nathan Lukas has a thing for these.
• What the Hell, Hero?: More meta than in-character, as most execution deaths were written as Morty's actions, but the townspeople were incredibly bad at voting.

• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Travis Richem is convinced that his life is actually a reality TV show, but the way he handles it is closer to a soap opera.
  • Winston Teakes treats life like a video game, right down to game mechanics.