[OLD] Open Setup Ideas and Discussion

[Bulbazak]

Factions

7 players, 3 factions:

5 Town

1 Mafia

1 Third Party

Only 1 faction can win.

Setup:
*Prior to the game, the Third Party player is randomly given 1 of: Lyncher, Survivor, 1-shot Serial Killer.
*The lone Mafia player is given a choice of: Ninja, Roleblocker, Godfather
*All town players start off being Vanilla Townies. During the confirmation stage, everyone votes on 1 of the following: Tracker, Doctor, Cop. The role with the most votes will be the town's sole power role. One of the VTs will then randomly become said power role.

A few more things:
*If there is a Lyncher, their target will be decided randomly. There is no guarantee that the target will be mafia or town.
*Should the Serial Killer decide to use their 1 shot, that shot will cancel out the Mafia's shot. This way, only 1 kill a night is allowed.
*All third party roles are win stealing. Remember, only 1 faction can win. This means that should a Lyncher or a Survivor achieve their objective, they will win, and everyone else will lose.

I've ran this game once here. It ended with a Mafia victory. I then rebalanced the game, removing Jester from the possibilities that the third party could be and making the SK 1-shot and having that shot cancel out the Mafia's shot in order to avoid the 2 shots a night scenario that could be present in a game this size. I was going to run a test on that site featuring the changes to the setup, but activity has since fallen, and I couldn't get the numbers needed for a 7 player game.

I think this setup is fairly balanced, but I want some more input. I plan on running it during the Marathon week, and also later as a Micro game.

[Bulbazak]

Survivor wins as they normally do (make it to endgame and survive), only instead of sharing the win, they take it for themselves.

The game is 1 mafia because of the size (7players). I was trying to make something that would work with a small amount of people, yet had the risk/reward elements from larger open setups, such as Pick Your Poison. I felt 2 mafia in a game that size would be unfair. However, I didn't like the idea of 6 town vs. 1 mafia. The third party faction was introduced to balance everything out, by giving the game a dynamic that is normally missing in games that size, more specifically a second anti-town player that didn't sway the game in mafia's favor, while also adding another element to the mafia player's play (i.e. worrying about a third party as well).

I've thought about making the Cop role in the game being able to distinguish between town and not town, instead of mafia and not mafia, as that was not the case in the first game. I think this would not give third party too much of an edge in regards to having nothing to counteract them. I have issues with giving another passive ability to the SK, since using his 1-shot alerts the mafia player to his presence, and seeing as he's the only third party role that can be caught by the tracker. If Cop is able to detect 3rd parties as well, that would make SK the only role of the 3 to be susceptible to 2 possible investigative roles (Remember, they're both not in the game.). If anything, investigative immune should go to the Survivor, since BP would make that role OP, given that the challenge of that role would be avoiding getting lynched AND NK'd. However, I also hesitate in making Lyncher BP or Investigative Immune, since the primary way to stop that role would be identifying him via investigation or him being NK'd. As for the Lyncher target, it really doesn't matter, as the game would end when that person was lynched, regardless of who it was. You can say that it screws the town if the target is Mafia, but couldn't the same be said of the Mafia if the target is town? The Lyncher is going to win either way. And since it's 3 factions facing off against each other, and a Lyncher would win if his target is lynched (and he's on the wagon. That's a way to ensure balance.), what does it matter what alignment that target is? The game is over no matter what.

[Bulbazak]

But people know he's town! So if they follow him they'll be following someone who is 100% town so it's their best bet.

Plus, Doc will be on him so he won't die!

What makes that different than town following the IC (Inexperienced Challenged) in current Newbie games? The IC generally tends to be the slot most trusted by new players and the one most often protected the first night.

[Bulbazak]

5 VTs
1 Red Mafia
1 Blue Mafia

Mafias know the identity of each other
Nightless
Town wins on 1:1:1

Thoughts?

What if town happens to get all the scum lynched? Why keep them from winning in that case?