Umlaut's Mini Normal Review, March 2022

[Umlaut]

I realized between submitting this setup and now that yeah, it really is scumsided. Happy to add more town power, there are a lot of VTs so I could just add an additional town PR or two if you think that will do it. I considered whether to just make the Detective a straight-up Cop but it seems a lot of people hate ungated Town Cop as a role now.

The intention behind the Informed Traitor is that the Mafia will get that information if/when the Traitor is disabled, providing a bit of anti-swing in case Traitor-Enabler dies early (before the setup is more-or-less known anyway).

The main negative utility of the Traitor is probably just the discoördination of not having all Mafia able to work together.

[Umlaut]

Oh no not the traitor enabler again...

Honestly didn't know this had been done before, here I thought I was clever

[Umlaut]

Adding a Vengeful, or giving the JoaT an additional vig shot, would give town more power

and

increase the chance the Bodyguard comes into play, what do you think?

[Umlaut]

I feel like I've seen a JoAT with 2 shots of something before, but I'm not tied enough to that idea for the point to be worth debating if its legality is unclear.

Vengeful then? Has the additional benefit of getting the game back to odds assuming all kills go through. Can throw in like a Voyeur or 1-Shot [Whatever] or something if town still needs more power.

[Umlaut]

If Traitor-Enabler ends up vetoed I'm going to be taking this whole setup back to the drawing board so I'm working from the assumption it's allowed until I hear otherwise.

Proposal: Replace one Townie with a Town Non-Consecutive Night Vigilante, take away Vig shot from the JoAT, give them an additional Cop shot or something instead?

If you dislike that as well I'd appreciate a specific counter-proposal.

[Umlaut]

In case of Gunsmith I'd want to know whether the death of a [Role]-Enabler disables the [Role]'s gun-having effects. Is there a past setup where e.g. a disabled Town Cop could have been gunsmithed?

[Umlaut]

While awaiting mastina's input I will say that out of Datisi's suggestions I would prefer the Rolecop shot (which is very nearly a cop because Roleblocker is an inherently a suspect role and the other two scum can get hard-guiltied). And if the setup could still use a nudge in the direction of more town power then I'm happy to throw in some low-utility role like Voyeur or Fruit Vendor or whatever.

[Umlaut]

(Actually I guess Traitor-Enabler isn't a

hard

hard guilty but it would be a very weird role to give to town)

[Umlaut]

Do you think Hider and Commuter are too samey in effect for the same JoAT? I could do Rolecop, Follower, Commuter, and something in a different category from those like Rolestopper. (But can just do Voyeur if you think three different investigative shots isn't excessive)

[Umlaut]

I'd actually prefer Rolecop+Follower+Rolestopper+Commuter if that is acceptable (neither of you commented on Rolestopper as a suggestion here). If that gets vetoed I'll do Rolecop+Follower+Hider+Commuter.

[Umlaut]

That's the one. I'll start writing updated role PMs in a bit.

[Umlaut]

Reproducing all role/result PMs here, not just the changed ones, for easier review in one place. Note Mafia will be informed of the Traitor's existence within their private topic; I find this more convenient since I don't have to find a good way to redact it from the PM on flip.

Spoiler: Role PMs

Mafia Roleblocker

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Mafia Roleblocker

.

You and your teammate(s) share a private topic in which you can talk during all phases of the game, as long as you are alive.

Each night you and your teammate(s) may together choose one living player to shoot and kill. You must specify which of you carries out the shot.

Each night you may choose one living player to

roleblock

, preventing that player from taking any action during the night.

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

Mafia Traitor-Enabler Bodyguard

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Mafia Traitor-Enabler Bodyguard

.

You and your teammate(s) share a private topic in which you can talk during all phases of the game, as long as you are alive.

Each night you and your teammate(s) may together choose one living player to shoot and kill. You must specify which of you carries out the shot.

Traitors will lose their Traitor-specific abilities once you have died.

(This means they will become ordinary members of the Mafia.)

Each night you may choose one living player to

guard

, preventing that player from one kill attempt during the night. If you stop a kill in this manner, you will die instead.

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

Mafia Informed Traitor

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Mafia Informed Traitor

.

You know the Mafia are [REDACTED]; however, you have no access to their private topic or factional kill, and you will be endgamed and lose the game when all other Mafia are dead.

You have the following additional information:

There are four non-vanilla Town players in the setup, one of which is a Detective.

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

Town Detective

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Detective

.

Each night you may

investigate

one player, to learn whether that player has carried out a killing action on this or any previous night.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

, with the following abilities.

• 1-Shot Rolecop:
  On one night of your choice you may
  investigate
  another player to learn their role (but not alignment).
  
• 1-Shot Follower:
  On one night of your choice you may
  follow
  another player to learn what if any type(s) of action that player takes during the night.
  
• 1-Shot Rolestopper:
  On one night of your choice you may
  rolestop
  another player to prevent all actions targeting that player.
  
• 1-Shot Commuter:
  On one night of your choice you may
  commute
  , leaving town for the night and making it impossible to take any action on another player, or to have any actions taken on you.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Combined Doctor Checker

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Combined Doctor Checker

.

Each night, you may choose another player to take

both

of the following actions:

• heal
  that player, protecting them from one kill attempt during the night; and
  
• check
  that player, and be informed whether the check was successful.
  (The check has no other effect.)

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Non-Consecutive Night Vigilante

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Non-Consecutive Night Vigilante

.

Each night, provided you have not done so the previous night, you may choose another player to

shoot

and kill.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Townie

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Townie

.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Spoiler: Result PMs

Detective Positive

Your investigation was

positive

: {PLAYER} has killed or attempted to kill.

Detective Negative

Your investigation was

negative

: {PLAYER} has neither killed nor attempted to kill.

Detective No Result

You failed to investigate {PLAYER}.

Rolecop Positive

You learned that {PLAYER} is a {ROLE}.

Rolecop Negative

You learned that {PLAYER} has no special role.

Rolecop No Result

You failed to investigate {PLAYER}.

Follower Positive

You learned that {PLAYER} took a {TYPE} action during the night.

Follower Double-Positive

You learned that {PLAYER} took a {TYPE1} action and a {TYPE2} action during the night.

Follower Negative

You learned that {PLAYER} took no action during the night.

Follower No Result

You failed to follow {PLAYER}.

Checker Result

You checked {PLAYER}.

Checker No Result

You failed to check {PLAYER}.

Are we good to go?

[Umlaut]

Bump

[Umlaut]

I have used exactly that wording for no-result PMs without issue in all my past Normal games (in general I have a preference for minimizing use of "mechanical" terms like No Result, where possible) but I will change it if that is important to you.

Somewhat surprised at "no special role" being unacceptable wording but okay.

Spoiler: Updated Role PMs

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

, with the following abilities, of which you may use at most one per night:

• 1-Shot Rolecop:
  On one night of your choice you may
  investigate
  another player to learn their role (but not alignment).
  
• 1-Shot Follower:
  On one night of your choice you may
  follow
  another player to learn what if any type(s) of action that player takes during the night.
  
• 1-Shot Rolestopper:
  On one night of your choice you may
  rolestop
  another player to prevent all actions targeting that player.
  
• 1-Shot Commuter:
  On one night of your choice you may
  commute
  , leaving town for the night and making it impossible to take any action on another player, or to have any actions taken on you.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Combined Doctor Checker

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Combined Doctor Checker

.

Each night, you may choose another player and take

both

of the following actions upon them:

• heal
  that player, protecting them from one kill attempt during the night; and
  
• check
  that player, and be informed whether the check was successful.
  (The check has no other effect.)

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Spoiler: Updated Result PMs

Detective No Result

Your attempt to investigate {PLAYER} had no result.

Rolecop No Result

Your attempt to investigate {PLAYER} had no result.

Follower No Result

Your attempt to follow {PLAYER} had no result.

Rolecop "Negative" (Vanilla)

You learned that {PLAYER} is Vanilla.

I'd also like to verify that the list of "types of action" for purposes of Follower results is the list on the wiki page Natural_Action_Resolution/Normal_Game, so e.g. following the Combined Doctor Checker returns "a protective action and a miscellaneous action" and nothing more specific than that.

[Umlaut]

Would it suffice to mention multitasking explicitly in the first post of the Mafia PT? I prefer to keep role PMs as close to identical as possible across my games.

If that doesn't suffice then I will go ahead and add "helper text"

(Since this setup has default multitasking enabled, you may use this action even if you are committing the factional kill.)

after the role-specific active ability text for each of the Mafia Roleblocker and Mafia Traitor-Enabler Bodyguard.

Can I consider this passed?