VARSOON VARIETY HOUR : GAME SCRAPPED

[Chara]

as for what type of game: i liked the nonstandard factional aspect of SU and Protomen. i particularly liked the simplicity of Protomen, which still had a very strong flavour and mood.
i'm not a fan of games that have too many powers and choices that don't feel like they matter.
SU was at the higher end of that spectrum, but i enjoyed the execution very much.

[Chara]

another thing i liked in both of those was the multiple win conditions. the "neutrals" could townside or not, and depending on the gamestate either might be a better choice.
normally i dislike games with too much dayplay, but you're a very active mod so it works out.

[Varsoon]

<3
I definitely want to do more non-normal things with factions as I move forward with games, so I'll keep that in mind.
I'm happy to hear that about Protomen, as I never received all that much feedback for that setup and I've been curious if people considered it a success or not. I know other mods have taken the same flavor route I did there, of obscured flavor until a flip happens.

[Varsoon]

That said, how do people want flavor rendered?
It's kind of hard to navigate a space where roles and setup are reflective of flavor but alignment is not. I was never comfortable with seemingly random alignments slapped onto otherwise fitting flavor, which is why I've been doing all these weird/different approaches to flavor in games, like in Protomen and Space Dandy.

[Varsoon]

Ideally, the flavor makes sense in regards to the alignments but doesn't provide a gameplay advantage to people who know the flavor well, which is tricky to put together.

[Varsoon]

also star vs, and Wakfu. western cartoons!
made in abyss is great too.

On Wakfu, I've been bouncing around a setup for a loooong time but it's another series I'd really want to re-watch so I can get the roles just right.

[Chara]

Ideally, the flavor makes sense in regards to the alignments but doesn't provide a gameplay advantage to people who know the flavor well, which is tricky to put together.

option 1: fakeclaims and real flavour are both equally valid. that's difficult to match but workable.

option 2: flavour on flip. i think this only works for certain flavours, personally.

option 3: claimed flavour isn't indicative of alignment at all for some story reason unique to the game itself.

is there an option 4?

[Varsoon]

1: Problematic because it confirms certain flavors. For instance, Steven probably isn't a Fake Claim in a Steven Universe game. You could make it that way, but then there's no Steven role, which feels like it cheapens the setup. Another issue is that even if one main protagonist is scum, it makes it far more likely the others are confirmed town via flavor.

2: I agree. I think it worked with Space Dandy because of the gimmick I went with where everyone's real flavor was an alternative universe Dandy and it worked in Protomen because the flavor for townies was less about concrete characters aligned one way or another.

3: This is usually the option I try to go with if I can or...

4: Pretty much 1 but you give scum lots of ways to punish flavor-gaming, like extra kills and things, and you make it a publicly known thing that claiming flavor is punishable by scum.

[Varsoon]

I'm curious what people do prefer for the flavor when it comes to alignments, though.

[Chara]

right, i forgot about 4.

i like that because i also like scum being able to lock down town when they decide to claim PRs. i personally believe info is precious and that outing all of it should usually hurt that town PRs effectiveness.

in the same vein, claiming flavour being highly punishable does the same job.
that might be my favourite out of the approaches, though i also like 2 and 3 when they work.

[Chara]

like, if everybody claims their flavour immediately, it shouldn't break the game, but and it

should

give some anti-town faction a roadmap to a victory of sorts.

[Varsoon]

Yeah, I try to design with those things in mind.

[NicoRobin]

And also, what about the game where those of us who played more than 3 of your games get the role based on ourselves? You talked about that being possible too.

[Gamma Emerald]

I've also been playing around with a theme game idea that's a U-Pick where everyone picks a player that's one of my regular players and gets a role based on that player's play in my games. Every day would feature a modified set of rules based on theme games I've run in the past and players could vote for which theme to visit for each next day. I think it'd be a much more feasible and less bastard-feeling version of what I was going for here and I could run it as a 13p.

I’d love this
Plus I shouldn’t be in a situation where I can’t play like what happened in this game

[Gamma Emerald]

also star vs, and Wakfu. western cartoons!
made in abyss is great too.

Is be interested in an Avatar: The Last Airbender game
Adventure Time and Regular Show I’d prolly have to sit out because I want to watch those as spoiler-free as I can.

[NicoRobin]

I've also been playing around with a theme game idea that's a U-Pick where everyone picks a player that's one of my regular players and gets a role based on that player's play in my games. Every day would feature a modified set of rules based on theme games I've run in the past and players could vote for which theme to visit for each next day. I think it'd be a much more feasible and less bastard-feeling version of what I was going for here and I could run it as a 13p.

Can we pick ourselves? If yes, I am down for this as well.

[Gamma Emerald]

That said, how do people want flavor rendered?
It's kind of hard to navigate a space where roles and setup are reflective of flavor but alignment is not. I was never comfortable with seemingly random alignments slapped onto otherwise fitting flavor, which is why I've been doing all these weird/different approaches to flavor in games, like in Protomen and Space Dandy.

The best work-around are characters with ambiguous alignments in their series. Like, someone who is a double agent could be either alignment fairly reasonably.

[Varsoon]

I've also been playing around with a theme game idea that's a U-Pick where everyone picks a player that's one of my regular players and gets a role based on that player's play in my games. Every day would feature a modified set of rules based on theme games I've run in the past and players could vote for which theme to visit for each next day. I think it'd be a much more feasible and less bastard-feeling version of what I was going for here and I could run it as a 13p.

Can we pick ourselves? If yes, I am down for this as well.

Yes, you'd be able to pick yourselves, but if someone higher-priority on the randomized priority list put you as their first pick, they'd get the role instead.

[NicoRobin]

Har har. I doubt anyone would pick me, lel.

[NicoRobin]

Har har. I doubt anyone else would pick me, lel.

[Varsoon]

Is be interested in an Avatar: The Last Airbender game
Adventure Time and Regular Show I’d prolly have to sit out because I want to watch those as spoiler-free as I can.

I'd consider doing an Avatar game, though it sort of feels like territory that's already been explored before? I also feel like Korra has a more interesting/diverse cast of characters to pull from whereas Avatar has a lot of neat ones that only show up for an episode or two.

I am tempted to do an Adventure Time or Regular Show game since I've watched all of both and they're both done airing, but, again, feels like something other mods have maybe already explored. I also don't know that Regular Show would lend itself all that well to Mafia, but I could flavor it like voting for people to get fired from the Park or something so lol.

[Reasonably Rational]

I've also been playing around with a theme game idea that's a U-Pick where everyone picks a player that's one of my regular players and gets a role based on that player's play in my games. Every day would feature a modified set of rules based on theme games I've run in the past and players could vote for which theme to visit for each next day. I think it'd be a much more feasible and less bastard-feeling version of what I was going for here and I could run it as a 13p.

Can we pick ourselves? If yes, I am down for this as well.

Yes, you'd be able to pick yourselves, but if someone higher-priority on the randomized priority list put you as their first pick, they'd get the role instead.

tbh I just want to see the different roles you'd make for the different us's.

The town!RR. The one who loses in LYLO every time but has at least one instance of genius, or else is carried completely by other people on his team.
The scum!RR. Where we slog through a game essentially alone forever, create a roadmap to victory and carry it out, but lose in LYLO.
The scum!Cerb/Cerbinhydrathatisn'tRR. Where I/we win every time so far, though in one case I/we definitely didn't deserve it(yay SF)
The town!Cerb/Cerbinhydrathatisn'tRR. Where I/we lose every time so far, though I/we come super close to pulling the game out for the town but lose because I'm about 15 minutes too slow in solving the game(F'ing Bloodborne)
The town!Drixx: He's Drixx doing Drixxy things. I think there have been two instances of this, and he lost to scum!me both times. <3 ILU DRIXX.

I think you should like...make those 5 roles! For lulz! Because it would make me happy to see them.

-Cerb

[Varsoon]

Hahah, see, it's an evocative theme, which makes designing for it a lot easier.

[NicoRobin]

Host that in the name of Babylon.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Any chance of either this game - or one like it - in the works?

Also, do you plan to release all of the PTs?