Umlaut's Mini Normal Review, September 2020

[Umlaut]

Ego.

[Umlaut]

Primary: mastina
Secondary: Umlaut

Uh

[Umlaut]

I will confess part of my motivation is "since I suggested this Checker role and ended up getting it whitelisted I should at least use it for something"

I have no problem just giving town more power and I don't mind if that turns the Checker/Ascetic interaction into more of a minor detail than a centerpiece of the setup. It's hard to make any investigative PR really useful while keeping the Mafia Ascetics, though; do you think it's possible to balance purely with non-investigative roles?

Ideas off the top of my head:

• Add a pair of masons
  
• Make the game 13p and add a Vigilante (either full or 2-Shot, probably doesn't make a difference which)

[Umlaut]

As secondary reviewer I say that not only is this setup perfect but the creator should receive some sort of monetary award for such a breathtakingly excellent design

[Umlaut]

I'm going to wait for Mastina's input, but if we want to add a town investigative then I might be partial to an Informed Rolecop who knows there are no Mafia Goons (so vanilla results become innos).

[Umlaut]

Want to note here that the Day 4 IC is already better in 13p because the game is guaranteed to reach Day 4 unless town has already won.

I think the most important disadvantage of a traitor is not that the scum might accidentally kill them but that they are endgamed when the other two scum die, so town doesn't actually have to find them at all.

[Umlaut]

Are we waiting for something from me here?

I think Informed Vanilla Cop is just a shade better than Neapolitan simply because it knows more about the setup, but I agree there's something to be said for compactness.

Here's another setup proposal trying to incorporate both your suggestions. The change from Nurse to Neighbors is because I need one more player for 13p but we're wanting to keep it at four Townies.

• 2x
  Mafia Ascetic
  
  1x
  Mafia Bulletproof Traitor
  
  1x
  Town Checker
  
  1x
  Town Loyal Jailkeeper
  
  1x
  Town Neapolitan
  
  1x
  Town Day 4 Innocent Child
  
  2x
  Town Neighbor
  
  4x
  Townie

I will say I'm a bit worried this Mafia is

too

weak in a 13p (they can lose Day 2 if they are unlucky), but I'll defer to your judgment on that.

[Umlaut]

In anticipation of the setup possibly being approved, here are the new role and result PMs.

Spoiler: Role PMs

Mafia Bulletproof Traitor

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Mafia Bulletproof Traitor

.

You know the Mafia are {MAF1} and {MAF2}. However, you have no ability to communicate privately with them.

If anyone attempts to kill you during the night, the kill will fail.

You win when the Mafia is the sole surviving faction, or when nothing can prevent this.

Town Neapolitan

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Neapolitan

.

Each night you may

investigate

one player. You will be informed if they are a

Townie

(a town-aligned player with no special abilities) or

not a Townie

.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Neighbor

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Neighbor

.

You and your neighbor {PLAYER} share a neighborhood, in which you may communicate privately during all phases of the game, as long as you are alive.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Spoiler: Result PMs

Neapolitan (Townie result)

You discovered that {PLAYER} is a

Townie

.

Neapolitan (non-Townie result)

You discovered that {PLAYER} is

not a Townie

.

Neapolitan (no result)

You failed to investigate {PLAYER}.

Two possible quibbles:

• If there is worry about possible confusion regarding the Neapolitan results, I can change "Townie" to "Vanilla Townie" throughout the game even though I believe Townie is an acceptable synonym for Normal games. I'd prefer not to do this because I've been using just "Townie" lately when possible and on the off-chance someone is tracking my mod meta I would rather not tip my hand that there was some reason I had to change it.
  
• The Town win condition as written arguably implies that the presence of a lone Traitor would prevent the town from winning, which is not the case. If this isn't considered a problem then so be it, but if so then I'm open to alternate wordings.

[Umlaut]

I'll go with "(vanilla)

Townie

" to extra-emphasize that Vanilla is not part of the role name. I can repost the whole modified set of PMs here if you like but I think we agree on how they'll look.

Traitor role PM, take three:

Mafia Bulletproof Traitor

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Mafia Bulletproof Traitor

.

You know the Mafia are {MAF1} and {MAF2}. However, you have no ability to communicate privately with them.

If all other Mafia-aligned players have died, you will be

endgamed

and exit the game (thus the Mafia will lose).

If anyone attempts to kill you during the night, the kill will fail.

You win when the Mafia is the sole surviving faction, or when nothing can prevent this.

[Umlaut]

This game is over, so feel free to make the review thread public.