Theme Test Market

[dramonic]

I'm planning a 25 bastard mod around Cross Edge.
For those who don't know, it's a crossover RPG of Disgaea, Ar Tonelico, Mana Khemia 2, Soul Factory, Darkstalker and Atelier Marie (with some originals)

However since it's a big game, I'm wondering if I should deflavour it...

[Pomegranate]

I know that's Plum.
And nice job on the Picto Mafia II, Pom.

Thanks.

Took you long enough to see that.
I posted that like, 3 weeks ago.

I know... but I don't check this thread very often. But with all the free time I'm going to have soon, I'll probably see things sooner.

[Andrius]

I know... but I don't check this thread very often. But with all the free time I'm going to have soon, I'll probably see things sooner.

I'm just teasing you. lol

[Locke Lamora]

Would anyone be interested in a Mafia game based off the characters in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch?
Quite a big fan of the Discworld novels with the guard in, just an idea.

I'd play this, I like the guard novels a lot too.

I'm thinking of running a Lies of Locke Lamora Mafia as my first mini theme. I have no idea how many people are familiar with the book round here but I think the book would provide some good flavour and interesting role ideas.

[BloodCovenent]

I'm thinking about putting together a small Red Vs Blue mafia game. Based of the web series. But I don't know how to set it up just yet. Here is an idea...

I could maybe have the blues be the mafia. And the Reds + Extras be the town. The game might be slightly bastardly.

Scum team of 4 maybe?

Church - Vig that never hits his target. (while the mafia also get one extra kill. So they think that they have two kills however they really only have one.)
caboose - reviver?
Tucker - mafia Goon.
Tex - Mafia Godfather

For reds... (Town) there is...
Sarge - Post restriction, has to say damnit every twenty posts. (lulz, yea right) I can't think of a PR for him just yet.
Simmons-- Simmons and griff could be masons
Griff--------
Lopez - Town inventor
Donut - just vanilla i guess.
Andy - perhaps a bomb? rofl.
Vic - VT
Washington - VT
Griffs Sister - VT
Alien - VT
Wyoming VT

Doc/O'Malley - I was thinking perhaps SK for this role

-of course we could cut down on several roles.
Link to the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_vs_blue

Anyone that knows much about the web series and would be willing to help balance it out for me, I would Appreciate it.

[Narsis]

I'm thinking about putting together a small Red Vs Blue mafia game. Based of the web series. But I don't know how to set it up just yet. Here is an idea...

I could maybe have the blues be the mafia. And the Reds + Extras be the town. The game might be slightly bastardly.

Scum team of 4 maybe?

Church - Vig that never hits his target. (while the mafia also get one extra kill. So they think that they have two kills however they really only have one.)
caboose - reviver?
Tucker - mafia Goon.
Tex - Mafia Godfather

For reds... (Town) there is...
Sarge - Post restriction, has to say damnit every twenty posts. (lulz, yea right) I can't think of a PR for him just yet.
Simmons-- Simmons and griff could be masons
Griff--------
Lopez - Town inventor
Donut - just vanilla i guess.
Andy - perhaps a bomb? rofl.
Vic - VT
Washington - VT
Griffs Sister - VT
Alien - VT
Wyoming VT

Doc/O'Malley - I was thinking perhaps SK for this role

-of course we could cut down on several roles.
Link to the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_vs_blue

Anyone that knows much about the web series and would be willing to help balance it out for me, I would Appreciate it.

i played an RvB mafia game on another site before, but i can't remember the setup. i'll bug some people and see what i remember from it...

[BloodCovenent]

Oh sweet Narsis. thats cool, i just don't want to make an exact copy of a game though =X

[Narsis]

Oh sweet Narsis. thats cool, i just don't want to make an exact copy of a game though =X

yeah you wouldn't need to make an exact copy, but it might give you some ideas...

[kunkstar7]

Planning a game where abilities are not confined to one specific person. Basically means that you receive a basic role but may or may not receive an ability that effectively makes you a power role for that night. Then the abilities switch out at night's end. Had a reviewer or two say it was an interesting idea, but want to see if anyone would be willing to be the guinea pigs in seeing if it runs as well as it sounds...and if it has been done before?

[Narsis]

Planning a game where abilities are not confined to one specific person. Basically means that you receive a basic role but may or may not receive an ability that effectively makes you a power role for that night. Then the abilities switch out at night's end. Had a reviewer or two say it was an interesting idea, but want to see if anyone would be willing to be the guinea pigs in seeing if it runs as well as it sounds...and if it has been done before?

i ran a game like this on another forum. unfortunately due to forum issues it didnt get a chance to even finish Day 2. i'll pm you with some of what went on.

[totallynotmafia]

I was thinking of doing Mario Kart mafia as a mini theme (as far as I know I haven't seen it done, correct me if i'm wrong though), it may be easily broken though so I thought I'd see what people think about it here first (it wont be run any time soon, gotta finish my mini normal first).

I was thinking of two possible set-ups, both with 12 players:

The first would be everyone racing, only basic town and mafia, with no voting, lynching, or nights and players using items in order to eliminate each other. Instead of vote counts there would be a list of where everyone is coming in the race.

Mushrooms boost you up one place, can get in groups of 3.
Green shells can either be thrown forward or backwards and have a 50% chance of hitting the player either directly in front of you or behind you respectively (maybe groups of 3).
Red shells can be thrown forward for a 100% chance hit on the player directly in front of you or behind for a 50% chance (maybe groups of 3).
Boo steals an item from another player randomly
Gold mushrooms boost you to first place.
Bobombs can be thrown to kill any player in any place (maybe 50% chance).
Stars protect you from one kill.
Lightning destroys all other player's items.
Maybe blue shells which hit the player coming first (in which case players would probably have to be able to discard items, otherwise you'd be stuck with a blue shell if you didn't want to use it.)

Not totally sure on a timeline, but there would be a deadline of a certain amount of weeks until the race is over and in which the town have to eliminate the mafia by, with item boxes coming up maybe each week or every few days.

That's just my ideas for items at the moment, players coming near the front of the pack would have to either be more likely to get an item or more likely to get better items, as otherwise you may as well just sit at the back. Was thinking of making player specific special items like in mario kart double dash (eg toad and toadette get golden mushroom, wario and waluigi bobomb etc) and having a draft for characters at the beginning with the mafia chosen randomly.

The second possible set-up involves a grand prix of a certain amount of races with set deadlines where players get points depending where they place in each race. Town need to prevent mafia from getting a certain amount of points after the GP is finished. Players are not eliminated but simply bumped back a number of places if they are hit by items. In this set-up I'd probably use bananas as well as the shells as protection (wow that sounds bad), as well as hazards and short cuts on each course that can affect your position (such as thwomps on bowser's castle).

So what does everyone think, are both set-ups easily broken? Can anyone think of a better way to go about it entirely?The first could just be a massive bloodbath and be over really quick, the second may be more more fun and would mimic mario kart better but is probably the more easily broken setup of the two.

[Locke Lamora]

How would you stop it from being totally random? What's your system for deciding who gets item boxes, or does every player get items and it's all just randomly generated? If there was no voting or any system of collective decision-making, wouldn't the game just come down to individual use of items? I could see it maybe working in an elimination format with laps; say the player in last at the end of each day, or 'lap', would get eliminated. I think if you restricted the power of the items to only bump players forwards or back a few places, that would reduce the random nature of the game. Would you announce who got what items and who targeted who, or just who the affected players were? In any case, I'd definitely play (or help mod, if you need it!) a Mario Kart themed game, I'm a massive fan.

[totallynotmafia]

I was thinking that players in the front of the pack would be more likely to get items boxes (items are randomly picked, with a greater chance of getting the weaker items), and if I used the second setup players at the back of the pack might have more chance of getting the better items like in the game. Players would use the items in thread (eg

Fire: Red shell forward

) but items would be PMed to players so it's up to them to reveal what they have. The game would come down to individual item use, but the town still have to work as a team to eliminate the mafia (or stop them from winning in setup 2), so I figure everyone will still scum hunt and try and control who is killed etc. so in a way there will still be town consensus. I like the idea of the player coming last each lap being eliminated, but the problem with that I think is that neither town or mafia would want to be in last place so I think there would be less town consensus in that case and it may as well be an individual game.

[Locke Lamora]

I see what you mean, but surely neither town nor mafia would want to be in last place in the same way neither town nor mafia would want to get lynched? I don't think it would prevent the town from working towards a lynch target. There would still be an element of self-preservation but I think you have that in normal mafia games. As long as the items weren't overpowered to the point where one player could have completely change a lynch just by randomly grabbing a good item, I think the balance would be ok.

There are a lot of potentially interesting uses of the items for sure. Would there also be any benefit to winning the race? Depending on the size of the game, you could combine both: have 4 3-lap GPs and have some kind of points system as well as the player (or players) coming last getting eliminated. Perhaps you could do something like Chess Mafia, where the town could decide whether to try and eliminate the mafia (with special killing items) or win the cup, but if the town uses a kill then the mafia get a nightkill between cups too.

[Seraphim]

You could run it like Kingmaker. Whoever wins first place decides the lynch. You could also make it more legitly like Mario Kart by giving the "better" powerups to the people in back. But I think you're already doing that so never mind.

[animorpherv1]

I disagree with giving the best Power ups to last place, because then it'll become a race for Last Place, which is not what Mario Kart is. You need to give an incentive for people to come first if you do it that way (like, a 1-shot 100% gauranteeed sane rolecop investigation for example)

[zoraster]

Oh sweet Narsis. thats cool, i just don't want to make an exact copy of a game though =X

A first I thought you had come across an awesome exclamation.

"Sweet Narsis, that's cool!" rather than "Oh sweet, Narsis. that's cool"

Carry on.

[zoraster]

I was daydreaming while I studied for the bar, and I thought about this. Haven't really run it through the ringer much, but it seemed kind of a interesting, weird concept for a Mini-theme.

Attrition

: (aka "Real Marathon Mafia")

It's a normal game of Mafia. Except:
1. The game is only open one day of the week, every Tuesday.
2. Each person may only post once on that day.
3. If a player misses two possibilities for posting in the same day, he or she is removed from the game by modkill.
4. There are no replacements. Modkills only.
5. Deadlines are set based on posts. First lynch must occur by Post 210 (roughly 4 months).

It'd probably be night start because getting the conversation started quickly is a must.

As many of those who have played my games know, I generally set up very fast games. This would be... something different. I'm also wary of it because it'll take up a mod slot for potentially over a year (though I suspect attrition really will occur). It'd be a huge time commitment in terms of length of the game, but a pretty minor one in terms of amount of effort.

---
This isn't the theme I had been planning on running in August, but it could be if I get some positive feedback. Otherwise, it'll go into the ever-growing folder of ideas I'm not using or haven't figured out a way to work.

[Hoopla]

What's the point in that zoraster? I mean, why would it be fun? The novelty is definitely in the form of altered gameplay, but I don't think it is an enhancement. I predict it would turn into something like Adel's Beta Hydra game which imposed more flexible posting restrictions on players than this, but still had dire consequences overall. Scum received an extra kill after a certain amount of posts had passed, which led to massive wall-posts with players trying to reference everything at once, which in turn led to lurking.

One post once a week (if they're available that day) is just ridiculous and won't be a fun concept, and I can guarentee players will lose interest and some will have to drop out, because I can't see this going anything less than 6 months.

[zoraster]

What's the point in that zoraster? I mean, why would it be fun? The novelty is definitely in the form of altered gameplay, but I don't think it is an enhancement. I predict it would turn into something like Adel's Beta Hydra game which imposed more flexible posting restrictions on players than this, but still had dire consequences overall. Scum received an extra kill after a certain amount of posts had passed, which led to massive wall-posts with players trying to reference everything at once, which in turn led to lurking.

One post once a week (if they're available that day) is just ridiculous and won't be a fun concept, and I can guarentee players will lose interest and some will have to drop out, because I can't see this going anything less than 6 months.

It's a good point. I think there's a good chance it'd stagnate, but there's also a chance that given it's just one post a week (12 posts in all to start), it'd have a chance of not doing so because the mindset is different. Still, I think there's enough truth in what you say to scrap-pile it.

[Mr. Flay]

DP's ongoing Geezer Mafia is probably a good read for a leisurely game. We've had only probably the average number of replacements for a 20p game, but posting requirements are practically nil (once a week is good) and yet we've managed at least some segments of high-intensity posting, usually late in the Day. Each Day seems to be running ~4-5 weeks.

I think a forced 'you can only post once a week' would kill the momentum entirely, though...

[totallynotmafia]

I see what you mean, but surely neither town nor mafia would want to be in last place in the same way neither town nor mafia would want to get lynched? I don't think it would prevent the town from working towards a lynch target. There would still be an element of self-preservation but I think you have that in normal mafia games. As long as the items weren't overpowered to the point where one player could have completely change a lynch just by randomly grabbing a good item, I think the balance would be ok.

There are a lot of potentially interesting uses of the items for sure. Would there also be any benefit to winning the race? Depending on the size of the game, you could combine both: have 4 3-lap GPs and have some kind of points system as well as the player (or players) coming last getting eliminated. Perhaps you could do something like Chess Mafia, where the town could decide whether to try and eliminate the mafia (with special killing items) or win the cup, but if the town uses a kill then the mafia get a nightkill between cups too.

The difference is in a normal game of mafia if you're up for the lynch there's nothing (apart from talking) you can do to get out of it, whereas in this you could just use a mushroom to get out of last place thus avoiding elimination, and even if you're town this is the best option as you know it would prevent a mislynch, so everyone would be just scrambling to get out of last place. The thing I do like about your idea though is even if you do work out who the mafia is, you still have to work together to eliminate them (while the other scum are secretly trying to help them), so this might work with Ani's idea of the cop investigation as an item.

Maybe as well as the last player being eliminated each lap, racers could also vote for a lynch. There could be one item that reveals a racers allignment, but the catch is that any player whose allignment has been revealed cannot be lynched and can only be eliminated via last place. That way it can be easier to find the mafia, but harder to eliminate them if the town choose to do it this way, while still giving them the option to lynch. Perhaps unlike the other items, bobombs could be pmed privately, so the mafia have the opportunity to secretly help their outed buddies. If the town lynch, the scum get a NK. What do you think of this, could it be broken?

[ooba]

Just an idea I wanted to throw out there ..

Smalltown: Round table Mafia

Day start
12 players
2 mafia
1 isolated mafia traitor
- does not know who the mafia are
- can search each night for mafia - joins team at daybreak if thats the case
1 SK
8 townies

Scum have a night kill but cannot use their night ability if they are making the kill.
SK can kill and use his\her night ability.

Setting: A group of players sitting around a rotatable table with role slips in front of each.

Each day town
-

Lynches a person

The person and the role is booted out of the table
-

Also decides how much to spin the table by

works like a normal vote by saying

Spin: <number>

- the spin with the highest votes at lynch wins; earlier vote wins in case of a tie

Example:
I will initially randomize the roles amongst players. This is how the roles will look at the start of D1.

DataStrokers - Role A
LordChronos - Role B
Flava Flave - Role C
Andrius - Role D
Shadow Dancer - Role e
Jack - Role F
Iecerint - Role G
ooba - Role H
Plum - Role I
Johoohno - Role J
Snow_Bunny - Role K
VasudeVa - Role L

Now if we assume Jack is lynched and spin winner is 2, this is what would happen:

Jack dies - his alignment is revealed. Role F is also removed from the game. Then all roles shift by 2. So the distribution going into night 1 would be:

DataStrokers - Role K
LordChronos - Role L
Flava Flave - Role A
Andrius - Role B
Shadow Dancer - Role C
Iecerint - Role D
ooba - Role e
Plum - Role G
Johoohno - Role H
Snow_Bunny - Role I
VasudeVa - Role J

I expect two dominant themes in the game:
a) "Should we really lynch scummy plum when she is powerful role G?" type situations
b) "If we shift by 2, it means we give our pro-town player powerful role C but scummy player also gets a good skill." type situations

I haven't thought much about the roles. Off the top of my head:
Tracker, CPR Doc, Roleblocker, Commuter, Masonizer, Redirector, Self Watcher, VT, Double Voter
Seat switcher: Once per day, can switch seats with another player. (switch places on the player list)
BP Vest: One-shot bulletproof. Gets used after the first kill on it. (Spot converts to VT after that)
Lawyer: Every night you may choose one person to work for. In the day, if that person ever gets voted for, you may use your debate skill once per day to erase all the votes currently dealt on that person, and anyone who had voted for that person would be unable to vote for that person again.

[kunkstar7]

@Ooba, that's essentially the original idea for my mechanic that I posted that page

A few issues I discovered with my own version:
You have to make sure that all roles fit both scum and town to prevent mod confirmation on alignment and are worth it for scum.
You have to make sure also that balance remains when you switch roles.

Its been worked out a bit further now, just need to be able to mod Large Themes to put it into play.

[Andrius]

@ ooba: I like how the players in this instance are all the Greek Mythos players, in reverse kill-order.