Setup Thoughts:
The setup passed review with no notes or changes by the reviewers. As I noted in the submission PM, I intended for this to be a mostly "vanilla" low-power setup that simply played with modifiers and combinations I found interesting. Combined Hider Bodyguard is a role that I want to use again, because I find it interesting the decision making that goes into using a role like that. Seeing how the game played out and reading the Mafia PT, I do think that in hindsight an IC of some sort would’ve been better than the Simple Vig, as it would’ve had the same effect of self-confirming without the swing that comes with a Vig, even as restricted as the one we had.
I am disappointed the Complex Fruit Vendor got no usage at all; I want to revisit that some day because I like the idea of essentially a role cop that doesn’t get its results instantly and has counter-play that doesn’t involve night actions.
Mafia complained a little in both their factional PT and dead PT that the setup felt a little unfair because it was one FV + 2 goons versus 4 power roles but I think their complaints are skewed simply by the bad hand they were dealt with from the start. In reality, the detective got zero results of use, the Combined HB got executed, and the Universal Backup died instantly afterwards protecting somebody. Some of this can be attributed to town playing too fast and not really considering PR claims at all, but I think it’s also a function of the low-power nature of the setup.
Modding thoughts:
Obviously, there was the one big blunder that most likely was the reason Bambi got slapped by the Vig. However, besides that, modding this felt smoother than my previous game and I felt less anxious sending PM’s then I did last time. They were also faster, in general.
It would be negligent of me not to switch to an automated counter for future games. I like using Excel (I just, like using it, I don’t really have a good reason for using Excel over an automated counter, I just like entering data into charts like that.), but this is my second modded game and I already feel like I’ve made too many VC errors across those two games.
I had thought I’d need a backup mod to handle things for my birthday on the 19th and the following days but it ended up not being needed so Datisi just kinda chilled in the mod PT for a bit then left. Didn’t have 5 million replacements like last time, so that’s a plus.
Play thoughts:
As said, scum were dealt a pretty shitty hand with a day 1 scum elim and Rathe flaking. VC blunder into vig shot true combo didn’t help either. That said they played extremely well. Bambi using her prior meta with Almost50 to cause chaos in the thread was a sight to behold and I was caught off guard how fast the tables turned on HEM and nom who I had considered to be in fairly good positions at that point with how well they were doing in terms of being TR’d and leading discussion.
I believe Town’s biggest stumbling here was overconfidence. Town leaders were doing a good job providing and drawing out content and accumulating TR’s but rode the high of a day 1 scum elim too long and ended up unable to reconsider their viewpoints at critical moments, resulting in fast days which proved especially destructive when two PR’s were ousted early on.
None of this is to say that Town didn’t play well or have good players. I think with some more caution Town would’ve eventually gotten on the right track as there were players like Kerset who had voiced suspicion of Dwlee99 and had the days not moved so fast perhaps a more through prodding and poking of that slot could’ve been had.
Overall, it was anyone’s game for the majority of it, and I thought it was a good game from my perspective, blemished only by my own blunder.
