Live Action Mafia

I have just confirmed with God that ghosts are not allowed to interact with game at all. This means no talking to players about game, no answering questions about game, no allowing players to talk to you about game, no talking to NPs about game, etc. From what I understand we are supposed to effectively not be there at all, and if either a player or nonplayer comes up to us specifically and starts talking about game we are to run the other way screaming, "Lalalalala" at the top of our lungs*.

*Maybe not that last part. But we are effectively dead and can only talk to people with access to graveyard. And only in places where live players and NPs are highlymunlikely to walk in on the conversation.

I for the most part realize that I have been a really shitty ghost. So starting tomorrow I'm going to start yelling "Alalalala" and running the other way when someone approaches me to talk about mafia, and I think it would be hilarious if the other ghosts started doing something similar.

Seriously? Well, I've been an even shittier ghost than I thought. Also, I don't think other players, even advanced ones, know these rules. I know I talked to aok about mafia stuff, though not the specifics of our current game, when I was alive and he was dead. Dgrazian has on multiple occasions used us as walls to talk aloud to, with us not saying anything to influence him. I also mentioned the number of living players at one point, thought I had messed up, and then was told by Dgrazian that it was fine because that was highly public knowledge.

Also, some questions:

1) If a player comes up to us and starts talking about game, we actually have to get up and leave? We can't just stay where we are and not say stuff in front of them?!

2) Are we allowed to talk about future games, past games, or mafia in general?

3) If an NP wants to know what live action mafia is, can we not explain it to them if we're in front of a player?

4) Are we allowed to do things like invite a player to a study break, even though them being in a public place could technically affect game?

5) Can we talk to confused NPs that have no idea what's going on? (E.g. my roommate who rarely talks to any other Randomites wondering about yesterday's craziness that she heard snippets of.)

6) Can we correct NPs who are unintentionally messing up game? (E.g. Adam referring to the Cecilia -> Lily messup, though not that it was specifically Cecilia -> Lily, in front of Isaac, which Isaac had not known about.)

1) I don't know if we actually have to get up and leave, but I know I lack the self control to stay at the scene and not say anything, so that is what I plan to do.

2) Just to be safe, I wouldn't talk about it until end-game.

3) We can probably let the player explain it. Because we are dead.

4) As long as study break is actually a study break and not a game discussion it should be fine. Players will probably make their own decisions regarding whether or not to do the study break as they would with any normal NP.

5) Not too sure about that. I think it's dangerous for ghosts to discuss game with NPs in general because we know so much and NPs are outside of God's control. So I probably would have gotten another player to explain it, just to be safe.

6) I believe we aren't supposed to interfere. Players are generally told not to talk to NPs specifically because NPs aren't constructed by gameplay rules, so I would think that ghosts aren't allowed to influence NPs either -- even if they're breaking game I can't imagine that we ghosts can do anything to them that would fix the problem as opposed to affecting it more.

God also told me that aok is an exception to the rule both because he's dead and because he's kinda like God's right hand man right now. Same with David Kaufman. So if any ghosts are feeling lonely you can go bug those two. As for DGrazian, I don't know if he plays by different ghost rules because I specifically asked God if players were allowed to bounce ideas off of us like we were walls and was told an emphatic "no".

Also, I meant David when I said Adam.

Kaufman? He's allowed to do whatever the heck he wants, according to God.

Ok, I'm just gonna say I find these rules ridiculous.

I don't think there's any harm in letting ghosts interact with game, as long as ghosts don't (intentionally or not*) divulge or even tangentially imply any not-absolutely-completely-public information (i.e. things that are ok to talk about: anything in the rules or publicly announced by God, anything completely determined/computable from the rules or public announcements by God) to currently living players (or NPs who might leak info to currently living players). Letting living players talk to you about game is fine if you make sure not to react visibly to anything they say.

In practice, both in past games and the current game, these rules have not been strictly enforced, and nothing terrible has happened. I think allowing ghosts to discuss is really great for game/keeping players interested (and looking forward to future runs). I apparently have an unfortunate tendency to die early in games, and I'd be willing to bet I'd be much less interested/involved in Live Action Mafia in general if I weren't allowed to interact with game after I died. Like, God himself has been spoiling ghosts and encouraging in-person discussion of the game among ghosts *in his presence*. I don't think it's reasonable to enforce the letter of the law here.

*Not unintentionally divulging information is the hard part, but it should be fine if you're really careful.

So, rules, are like, stricter than what I'm enforcing. I'm totally fine with discussion between ghosts in closed places. And fine with somebody talking to dead people. I am not fine with dead people talking to either general NPS (who are free to talk to players) or players, because, yeah, that's totally liable to accidentally spread information. If a living player wants to bounce information off of you and is doing so in a way where they can't accidentally glean your reactions from it, that's fine. If you don't have a great poker face though, it good very well divulge information. Talking with other ghosts is, in practice, fine in relatively private places. Please don't do it in the middle of places where players will walk through though. Accidentally hearing stuff is annoying.

I do not trust either my poker face or my ability to keep quiet, so if a discussion starts and I'm sitting there I will either try to wander off and do something silly or sit very still and do nothing.

If all else fails, a fellow ghost has my permission to gag me or something.