I did look that up, and also searched for the origin of "stay cool," and so far I'm not finding anything saying they're related. The only explanations I've found so far for the origin of "stay cool" are that it's either related to the body's physical reactions to stress, or that it's the same as the general slang use of "cool," which was popularized in jazz.

I don't know if it's a false etymology or I'm just not finding it.

Ok, fair. My knowledge of the mafia has been highly colored by popular culture, and they may be more morally complex than I first gave credit for.

I am in favor of keeping the new word violent, because we're still talking about violence. Within the narrative, the town is still gathering together to put someone to death. We aren't talking about exile or removal. I believe that a violent word with less contextual baggage is called for.

"Vote Blank" is fine, but for the day phase write-up "Blank has been removed" feels too neutral to me.

Wish I knew a good link to give you (Gira listed a book he read). That part of my family came over to work building the railroad (and then more came over to escape before the Japanese really went to town in the lead up of WWII). It’s how they met the Italian part that was here as stoneworkers for the railroad (and then a generation or so later there was just natural “Uncle met aunt at college” type deals). I had older relatives that would tell stories of “stay cool” being used as a taunt to them - especially if they tried to interact with white people (ie: stay with your own kind) - by the white workers so that’s how I learned it was a slur. Not sure I ever read it anywhere.

Then you’re still facing the fact that depending on peoples’ life experiences you may still be hitting something touchy for them by using a term of violence.
Let’s say “executed”: now, taking away my personal memories of seeing relatives in Albania dragged out in the streets and shot while kneeling, by soldiers for speaking out against Communism or, swear to God, lynched by neighbors whom were trying to curry favour with the regime by getting rid of the anti-Communists because the neighbors were scared the police would descend on the whole tenement...you may have people here who point to the dispoportionate amount of Blacks facing death penalty.

Killed? More direct murder term than others used.

I guess “defeated” could work but it could get confusing as it sounds like they had a separate win condition.

Heck. Even “booted” feels like a punishment term more than a game one as we’ve always saved it for mods having to remove someone.

Listen, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry if I’m coming across as a naysayer. I agree there’s an an issue but I’m not exactly presenting good solutions. I’ve been full of a lot of hurt the last four years - no, not because of the ex; I’m divorcing her to be rid of an anchor to try and fix things - and after a bad day it manifests more aggressively than I mean it. I’m sincere when I call this group a family and why I get so defensive about people getting, say, a chance to enjoy a game. So similarly I don’t want anyone’s enjoyment ruined by terms that maybe my life has made me “jaded” from first hand dealings.

I’m sorry and more than willing to back whatever play you all see fit. I was just trying to caution of the tightrope nature and got totally off track so I’m stepping back.

I'm ok with "elimination" in the sense of referring to "yesterday's elimination." I just didn't like the idea of a mod using "Blank has been eliminated" in a write-up. I don't know why my brain is making a distinction, but it is.

We're gameifying violence, and even if they don't get explicit, the write-ups are still going to be detailing violent acts. Unless we change the entire culture that we've created, no amount of word substitutions are going to make someone who is uneasy with violence comfortable. So if we're going to gameify violence, I don't want us to pretend that we aren't.

Most night kills get narrated as "Blank is dead" A successful elimination could be written up the same way during the day.

I like consistency and words that are easy to understand for outsiders. I like using vote: [player] and [player] is dead across the board.

It's been years since I played, but I think this suggestion is fine and gets the concept of the game across. Of course there are games where player's don't 'die', but that's up to the GM anyway. I except GMs to express some sensitivity to the terms they use for concepts such as 'insta-kill'. In terms of fiction, the words 'insta-kill' isn't something I find offensive, but I can imagine there are potential replacement terms used that would be insensitive.

In the game, "voting" is what is happening. It's not as if it was a crowd vote that decided Emmett Till's fate.

As for the term 'Mafia' itself, I'm open to learning if the origins are actually racist or if it is co-opted in such a way to be applied in a racist way. My personal origins have lead me to believe that it is a more general term used to describe an organizational structure and that the association with Italians (not just Italian Americans) is nearly completely due to some little books written by Mario Puzo. It's not as if the 'Mafia' game is called 'Casa Nostra' or 'Familia' (or 'Bratva' or 'Yakuza' or 'Stidda'...)

I suppose a more term viewed as more neutral might be 'Syndicate', but keep in mind that specific term (in the USA) was specifically used in popular culture to avoid using terms like 'Organized Mob'. (see Mission Impossible!)

TLDR: For general crowd-sourced fiction and games I'd suggest moving away from descriptive actions that are specifically demeaning/offensive/unacceptable-in-general such as 'lynching' (honestly, would anyone support a mob game that used 'rape' as an equivalent) and excercise some sensitivity/common sense when it comes to character descriptors.

This is not inherently a good thing.

And right there, that strikes me as what could be part of the problem. The social justice crowd is inherently a group that run on and is fueled by control and reshaping of society to shape their particular vision of reality.

Consider, for example, that the BLM and Antifa movements have "Defund the police" as one of their major talking points. But that the larger black community, the people they claim to support, by contrast actually want as much or more police to keep them safer. The people who claiming to be the 'sensitive' ones are acting in direct contrast to the people they claim to represent.

And the Social Justice crowd is never satisfied. When you concede one of their demands, they will always find another reason to be upset.

I think the fact that people are having such a problem picking a natural followup to Lynch should highlight the underlying issue with this discussion in the first place - how many words have been put down now that get a response of "No, that's problematic too for reason X"?

What part of our language isn't "problematic" anymore? What part of our language will never have someone who will find a way for it to be problematic in some way, shape, or form?

And quite frankly, where does it end, and at what point do we ask ourselves if all this language cancelling starts turning language into 1984's Newspeak?

EDIT:

Also worth considering - this conversation currently isn't happening because someone complained about being directly offended or hurt by the word "Lynch". And looking through it to double-check, I don't see anyone speaking out saying "I am offended by the world 'Lynch' and it is hurtful to me because...".

This conversation is currently happening because people have decided to be offended on other people's behalf.

Resetera was playing around with the following terms: "lunch," "flip", and "defenestrate."

I actually really like "flip," relating to the idea of the role card being flipped over to reveal one's identity.

This occurred to me, and I almost suggested that we start playing Werewolf instead of Mafia.

Firstly, we should probably stay away from discussing current political movements. The ceiling is a bit higher in this forum, but politics is still one of the big three forbidden topics.

And now I can take off the mod hat and point out that we definitely have members that are uncomfortable with the term:
This was posted in the Chit-Chat thread in August 2017, so three years ago. Led to some discussion, but since not a whole lot of games were running then I guess we kind of forgot about it.
Some people being uncomfortable with the terms used is definitely a reason to at least try to find alternate terms that are more acceptable. I will definitely try to stay away from the L-word from now on.

It would probably be trivial to rename the forum the Werewolf game forum. Not sure I want to go through all the old chit-chat threads and rename them all to "Werewolf chit-chat", but on the other hand they aren't getting bumped anymore so it probably doesn't matter.

As an aside, the kid wants to watch the James Bond movies with me, and I certainly don't mind an excuse to rewatch them. Goldfinger is up next, and while it is a movie I dearly love the scene in the barn is extremely uncomfortable to watch even as a grown-up. I will have to explain that that sort of behaviour was considered acceptable and even impressive when the movie was made. Fortunately I have a smart kid who understand these things well. Just an example of how things don't always age gracefully.

“Daddy, what kind of name is ##### Galore?”

I don’t think anyone is going to go back and edit out any instance of “##### Galore” from the movie and I think that’s a little overkill. Similarly, you shouldn’t have to go back and edit every instance of Mafia in this entire forum (if that’s the route everyone elects to go).

I’m all for making adjustments going forward in order to make people more comfortable, though!