The Invincible Man

[jeep]

I don't like the role, they are often too powerful.

Take the end game I was once in. Night: Me=mafia, X=townie, Y=townie with bullet proof vest (permanant invincible to kill)

I could not win. It was impossible. I thought I had it in the bag. Y actually made a comment that indicated that I should kill him, so I killed the other and it was drawn. I found out after the game that Y had the vest.

I don't like roles that the mafia has no way to kill. IMO, they are generally unbalanced or unbalancing to the game.

-JEEP

[jeep]

Actually Sketchwick and I went though many variations on BP vest. Single use, double use, permanent... We finally decided permanent, but also gave the mafia some special kill abilities too. Armor Piercing, Shotgun, and Poison all had special traits. Neither AP nor Poison were stopped by BP Vest. Poison had to have a delay and was cured by a doc if he ever protected a poison victim. That was wonderfully powerful but never got used until Antrax took over in the end game. Shotgun got around doc protection.

With two killing groups, nighttime immunity is different. I actually like the godfather mmunity idea for multiple mafia games. I was thinking about making a game where a mafia member could be "made" a la Goodfellas. The other mafia(s) can't touch a made man without there being hell to pay.

-JEEP

[jeep]

It's never a good idea to counter a role that is too powerfull with another role. That other role will be too important for the balance of the game. You should never let the balance of the game depend on one single role.

Never say never. If you have a situation where a role is just slightly out of balance, adding a countering agent is reasonable. It's a pure numbers game, right? If a game becomes unbalanced, it doesn't mean that the game was designed unbalanced.

It is true, however, that good games will not become unbalanced by the loss of a single person (early in the game, at least).

-JEEP