(I know that Norinel wanted to wait until his newbie game was over before discussing this, so apologies to him. I just wanted to get the idea down while it was in my head.)
There has been some discussion of concerns that the current set up of newbie games favours the mafia. (Results so far: Town 5 wins, Mafia 9 wins).
Firstly, I guess we need to decide if it's actually a problem that the mafia seem to be at a slight advantage. I agree it would be nice if both sides had an even chance of winning, but how important is it?
The current idea to address the imbalance was to give the cop a night 1 investigation but leave the rest of the setup the same. (2 mafia, 1 cop, 1 doc, 3 townies, game starts with a day).
I wonder if that will cause more confusion to newbies (who are already having to grapple with learning about Day vs Night and everything else), considering
- the fact that most games start with a night while newbie games start with a day,
- the fact that someone gets a Night 1 choice while the others have to wait until Night 2
Would you start the game with a Night or still start with a Day? Would you let the mafia communicate before Day 1 started?
To me it gets a bit complicated.
My solution would be to add another player to the game, have 4 townies instead of 3, and start the game with a night. This would make the game more similar to other games that are played on the site and a therefore a better introduction to mafia. It would also solve the awkwardness of starting with a day - with no information whatsoever - and only a made-up kill to inspire the town to action. It would give the mafia a chance to collaborate and get the feel of their role, etc.
There are a couple of downsides that I can see. Firstly there will be newbies who are killed Night 1 and that seems a tad unfair. (Although I'm sure someone would send such newbies a nice PM and encourage them to sign up again). Second (not sure if this is actually a problem), there'd have to be a different ratio of new and experienced players, 4:4? 3:5?
Are there any other problems with this idea that I haven't thought of?
Is this idea an improvement on the current set up?
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