Worst role ideas?

[Thok]

Looking for a cure SK

You are an SK. You have no immunities to investigations or nightkills. You do not have a night kill. You only win if you can convince somebody to say the word psychologist, which will turn you into a protown miller. Any hinting at this win condition will result in a modkill/loss for you.

[Thok]

You are

Ernest Vincent Wright

, author of

Gadsby

Georges Perec is much cooler than Ernest Vincent Wright.

[Thok]

A variation on mole's role.

You are PJ. You know that there's a cult out there, you can feel it, and you want it dead. Each night you can choose to target somebody and if you think they are cult they will die. You win when the cult recruiter is dead.

Mod note: Cults target, then kills them. (Doc protects cancel culting, as does UNK issues). Wins when dead. Basically a suicidal vig/death miller creator.

[Thok]

Of course, if you kill the Man with the yellow hat, you have to deal with the wrath of Curious George.

[Thok]

No Pressure Mafia had something like that; every role PM started with

Congrats, you've got a power role. You are a cop/doc/vig. Each night you must submit three names; one name to be investigated, doc protected, and vigged, respectively. These names can be the same or different, however you may not submit your own name.

As a cop, you made be any of sane/insane/naive/paranoid

As a doc, you may be a true doc (block one kill against your target) or a quack (completely ineffective)

As a vig, you may be a true vig (kill your target once) or you may be firing blanks (completely ineffective)

Not really so bad, except that I then made it a 16 person game, with every sanity appearing. (Scum had some additional powers to help them out.)

The mass roleclaim on day 2 was quite humorous.

[Thok]

You are a

Power Ranger

. Each night you can choose a Zord to do a night action. Each Zord can do one of sane cop, insane cop, doc, roleblock, vig.

Each night I'll randomly order the five Zords; the first person with your role to submit a night choice will get the first Zord (and the corresponding power), the second person will get the second Zord and so on. If more than five people submit a night choice, only the first five will get a night choice.

You will not be informed of what Zord you got until the next morning. (Although, you may be able to deduce that you got a cop Zord.) Not all people with this role are guaranteed protown. There may be anywhere from 1 to 10 people with this role.

[Thok]

Mason

You are part of the masonry. Unfortunately, you are the only member.

Kelly Chen was a 1 person Mason in CYOR. It essentially confirmed her (because of the setup it was highly likely that there was exactly one masonry.)

[Thok]

With that role, I'd claim Bizarro day 1, with the requirement that Bizarro always tells the truth because Superman always lies.

(It's be more like "Me Bizarro. Bizarro always tell truth. Superman evil, Luthor good." But you know, something so over the top that it's obvious true.)

[Thok]

I'm sure I've heard that song before, but I'm not sure where. Probably it's from a really bad commercial for a CD.

[Thok]

Fingerphobic SK

You are an SK with fingerphobia. If someone says FOS: [Your name], you die immediately. In addition, you have cut off all of your fingers, so you can't point the finger at anyone. (You have no vote and you can't FOS.) Your goal is to rid the town of fingers by killing everyone.

Spleen of Suspicion: Dan Monkey

[Thok]

mod's discression.

discretion, not discression.

Although I guess that fits in with Mod's typo.

[Thok]

Inspired by Yos's role and an episode of the Twilight Zone

A prisoner from Owl Creek: If you are lynched, a new thread will be created. In one game you will be lynched, and the game will go to night. In the other game, your lynch will fail, and the game will go to night. Both of these new threads will continue as normal (and in each game everybody will have the same roles and role powers), however one will be real and one will merely be a hallucination; for win conditions only the real game will count.

[Thok]

What Seol said, 'cept, you can just go hog wild on the lynches in the hallucination thread. Every lynch, you either find a scum (to lynch in the real thread) or confirm a townie. It's a cool concept, but totally game-breaking (so I guess it's right at home here).

While I agree with the power of the double lynching/cop investigations (and I suspect that's an important enough factor that you should just make a double game from the start), the fact that you don't know which game is the hallucination means that you can't sacrifice one to save the other.

[Thok]

Well, actually, you do have some control. I reckon I could make someone not want to be in a game with me if necessary.

It's really, really dependent on who you're stuck forcing to replace. If say, you're forced to get me or Yosarian2 replaced, you're probably completely screwed. At least with a lyncher you could fake a cop claim or something.

[Thok]

What if we made the game unbearable for you? For example, were simply massively offensive in every post? Could we get you to ask to be replaced then?

I'm really hard to offend, especially in a mafia game. Trying to throw swear bombs at me is more likely to get everybody else in the town to lynch you so that the swearing will stop than it is to get me replaced.

Seriously, I've never been replaced ever. You might have success if you try threatening me in real life, but at that point we've clearly crossed a line. (You should never do anything in a mafia game that should get yourself arrested.)

[Thok]

Amnesiac Methodical Cop

You are a methodical cop. Before the game you created a list of people and set up investigations of those people in a well-defined order and each night you will be sent the investigation result for the next person on the list.

Unfortunately you forgot where you put the list, or anything about the order of the list.

You win with the town.

(Mod does create a random list of people in the game, and sends this role innocent or guilty as required. This might be useful for getting a feel for how many scum are in the game, I guess. But it's mostly for amusement value.)

[Thok]

(On a philosophy bent, let's have a Borges reference.)

You are a Librarian at the Library of Babel. The Library contains every book, and in particular it contains a book with the complete set up of this game. In fact there is a book with the complete set up of any mafia game you can imagine. Each night I will send you a book that may or may not contain the set up for this game. Use the information in it as you please. You win with town.

[Thok]

You are Yosarian2

Whenever you make a post, a random player will be sent a PM requiring them to agree with your arguments, and to copy any votes in your post.

[Thok]

Yos is protown role?

I decided to make that ambivalent, as I hadn't decided what would make it the most bastardly. I'm actually leaning towards Yos2 being a survivor.

[Thok]

You are

Richard Stallman

and thus know everyone's roles. Unfortunatly, you must post in Ook! or a varient thereof.

This is utterly broken (the common trick is to turn Ook into an alphanumeric code, run it through a translating program [of which RM has made at least one] and then just have him post the entire setup to the thread.)

[Thok]

You are

Quagmire

. You don't read role PM's.

[Thok]

You are the

Ramones

.

You must speak LOUDLY and insult everybody in the game with lyrics. You may not mention other bands. You win when somebody orders the Rolling Stones to be killed.

[Thok]

Sort of instant scum-confirmation, though, particularly if the game is Aliens-themed... Hope "Juvenile Alien" gets a lynch-immunity.

The role effectively gets two no-lynches and a day kill at any time. It doesn't need a lynch immunity also.

(The best tims to use this role are either when the Face-Hugger is already being bandwagonned or near endgame and in either case scum confirmation isn't really an issue.)

[Thok]

You are

Grant Morrison

. Once each day you may post in thread that a player has a wildly complicated and imaginative role, and as a result of your post, that player will magically gain that role.

If you ever succumb to writer's block, you will be mod-killed. You win with town.

[Thok]

You are a

Bastard Mod

. A long time ago, the Mod had a secret affair, and as a result you were born. The mod denies your existence, and refuses to accept you as his own. You win when the mod admits that you are his child.

(Mod note: Survivor? Lyncher? Jester? Or something else completely crazy?)

[Thok]

You are

The-Really-Big-Idiot-Who-Doesn't-Care-What-Their-Role-Is-As-Long-As-They-Aren't-Lynched/NK'd Wo/Man!

You don't care what your role as long as you're not lynched/NK'd! You win with whoever wins in the end!

Survivors are a well-known role.

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You don't have a title. You must complain about Thok in each post. You win when you gather enough people to pester Thok into approving a one time scumchat conversation (that you'd typically forget about after a week in normal circumstances) as a title.

Mod Note: For purposes of the win condition, people without titles aren't people; also scumchatters aren't people except for Glork and PJ. Thesp, MeMe, and Mr. Flay count double. Fiasco counts triple. Quagmire counts -5.
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You are the Title Fairy. You win if somebody suggests a title that doesn't suck.

[Thok]

You are Bluehost. You win if the site doesn't crash at any point during the game.

[Thok]

You are Christopher Walken. You've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. You win when everybody in the game makes a post with at least two cowbells in it.

[Thok]

You are not a

Number

. You are a free man!

Mod Note: Is Number 6. May, somehow, be Number 1.

You are

Number 2

. Each night you must search for number 6, so you can break him.

Mod Note: If Number 2 targets Number 6, Number 2 dies and somebody else becomes the new number 2

[Thok]

You are

Number 2.

Now you're getting an idea of what a crap role is like.

Just for reference: The Prisoner

[Thok]

The problems with a Chessmaster role:

Assume that both sides will make on average 4 moves each a day (so 8 moves total per 24 hours; I think this is a touch high for this forum). Assume the day phase lasts 14 days (which is a touch short). In that circumstance you have time for a 56 move game, which isn't really enough. (This is the weakest argument, but it's important to think about.)

Also, there's not a strong incentive to resign if you are losing. In that case the losing player becomes a quasivig; he can resign and save his opponent, or stall to the deadline and take his opponent out with him. In particular, if a member of the mafia is playing a member of the town and is clearly losing, he has a strong incentive to stall to deadline.

Finally, the difference in chess skill is likely to be vast in a mafia game, even with an announced theme.

[Thok]

1) When a player is notified that they have been chosen to play, I would predict their posting rate to go up, if only to make their moves.

This is an extremely foolish assumption.

I think I read a Wild West theme game in which players could "duel" each other, executed using RPS. In this scenario, a player more versed in RPS could certainly have an advantage, but as I remember, the game worked out fine.

One can always negate an advantage in RPS skill by rolling dice to choose RPS moves. One can't negate an advantage in chess without violating game rules (I assume this role would have a "no using a chess computer or talking about the game outside the thread" rule.)

[Thok]

When a player is being attacked, or a bandwagon has formed on them, doesn't their activity increase?

This is also a foolish assumption. (It depends on the player, but there are lots of players who wouldn't change their activity in either situation.)