Commentary
1.)
Obviously this game was an experimental game in a number of respects. First, it was completely no-reveal (excepting for the Coroner role, which still could never be truly “confirmed”), and secondly, it had a mechanic of allowable players to “talk to the future” in a limited way.
I think I have largely failed in both respects. [See below].
2.)
I am unhappy with how powerful the No-Reveal aspect was. The point of playing No-Reveal was to essentially strip away the power of information roles, and force the town to rely more on their scumhunting skills than the average game would otherwise require. Having a Cop claim is nice in a regular game, but here you
always
have to second-guess a Cop claim precisely because you are
never
sure if they were telling the truth, even if the player they claimed a result on has died.
I think my earlier renditions of the game may have given a fairer chance to the town, but I am unsure about the costs. Any commentary on this would be appreciated.
a.)
I originally was going to include more information roles; I had pondered adding a Tracker role (in place of the Tallyman / Horticulturist) for the
longest
time, but I ended up not liking that since the point of no reveal
was not
to end with a “process of elimination”-type game. Best case scenario (for town), you get Coroner with results being cleared by Cop who becomes cleared by Tracker, who then (with the 1-Shot Vigilante) proceed to win by simply killing everybody who is not them.
More information roles also seemed to be contrary to the nature of the game I was trying to run (i.e. forcing towns to not rely on information roles as much as they currently do).
b.)
I had considered giving investigation results during the night (as opposed to “dawn”) so that investigative roles could include that information in a paper they slip into a capsule overnight. I decided against this, however, as this actually serves as a
disincentive for scum to kill Cops late in the game
as the Cops would (a) be able to get their information out regardless, and (b) through being nightkilled be essentially “confirmed” to be town.
c.)
What I
most
wished I had done was to take a leaf out of another site’s no-reveal structure. I cannot say what ultimately made me decide against it, but if I were to run a 12-player no reveal again, I would
definitely
do so with the following:
- 2 Mafia
- 1 Traitor who knows who the Mafia are (and loses if the mafia is dead)
- The town is told that there are 2 Mafiates and 1 Traitor
This really helps facilitate the town in being able to scumhunt, as the town is aware there is a Traitor who is most likely trying to (a) alert the mafia that they are traitor, (b) be willing to sacrifice their own life over a mafiate’s life if possible, (c) be willing to point out players who might be dropping power role tells, and (d) avoid being nightkilled. Under a system of 3 Mafia, a town is much less likely to be able to catch the relationships between the scum.
3.)
I had intended for the papers to have slightly more of an impact on the game; not necessarily substance-wise, but “strategy”-wise. By supplying the Mafia with a Fumigator, I was inwardly hoping there would be a discussion on whether “everybody should make a note for Day X that both clearly identifies the note-writer and gives information if you have information”. Regardless of whether or not the Mafia Fumigator chose to destroy papers involved in such a discussion, that seemed like a very fun way to get discussion going with a
Bang!
right from the gate, and also when those papers were revealed
or
when the town learns that all the papers are not there.
4.)
The name of "Mafia Fumigator" was inspired by MikeBurnFire's claim of "Fumigator" from Simon Mafia.
5.)
I think the largest problem with this game was that I wanted it to go in a particular type of direction. As a mod, I think I am better served making a set-up as fair and balanced as possible while taking strategies into account and rewarding / counteracting those strategies as necessary (which I feel I did, if not as effectively as I would have liked), while avoiding trying to get towns into walking unclear paths I have tried to lay for them.
What this comes down to: Every modding experience is a learning experience.
