Theme Test Market

[Ythan]

I am absorbing as much Nethack knowledge as I can as quickly as I can and I feel that it would lend itself to a good game.

[jmj3000]

Mind Screw Mafia 5 (21 players?) - It's baaack... and I'm going for more of a Mind Screw 1 feel this time. In the late stages of preproduction, it's about ready to start writing roles - I have some HILARIOUS ideas, but I still need to flesh out the more normal stuff. (Heh. Mind Screw and normal in the same sentence.) Needs reviewers, backup mods, and anyone with awesome ideas. Knowing the player base around here, this will probably be my next large theme.

Do you really need to ask?

[Espeonage]

Doing Pokemon Black/White mafia when theme queue finally gets to me.

[Tragedy]

Doing Pokemon Black/White mafia when theme queue finally gets to me.

FUCK YES.
Except I have the French version.

[animorpherv1]

The Sims 3 Mafia.

It would be somewhat U-Pick ish, so I'd probably need at least 3 balancers, at least 1 of which would need to know the game. There would be a list of traits. Each trait picked would give that player a chance of being that role. (not sure how many would end up being put in the list. The more traits, the greater the diversity, and possibly amount of swing in the game. It could end up being a bastard.) Everyone who signs up would pick 3 - 5 traits, and preferably make up a name as well (name would be nothing other than flavour). Alignment would be picked regardless of the trait, so someone might pick Evil in hopes of getting mafia, but get town instead.

For example:

Tragedy /ins to the game, and picks the following 5 traits:

Evil - Killing role
Charismatic - Roleblocker
Couch Potato - Vanilla Townie
Family Oriented - Mason
Coward - Commuter

Tragedy may now either be a killing role (Vig, SK or Mafia), Roleblocker, VT, Mason or Commuter. The specific role Tragedy would get would be picked by the review/balance team.

Thoughts?

[Tragedy]

Cool for the Sims...
So mean, ani. I should be a killer then.

[animorpherv1]

We'll see... *cackle*

[Robotnick2]

Ani, I'd /in to be on the review board?

Also, I think you could expand the Sims 3 theme a bit more... not sure how though. :L

[animorpherv1]

Um, I was actually hoping for people who have reviewed games before and/or are good at balance + are able to mod a Large Theme.

[DemonHybrid]

I'd like some opinions on a game mechanic that I'll be introducing with my Mortal Kombat Mafia.

In a Day phase, instead of voting to lynch, you vote to choose.

Choose: DemonHybrid

.

Once there has been a majority vote on a choice, that player is chosen for Mortal Kombat. That player can still speak and vote to choose.

The Day continues and you vote to choose another person.

Choose: Faraday

Once a majority vote on the 2nd choice has been reached, Mortal Kombat begins. During that phase, only the two people chosen for Mortal Kombat can speak. However, they cannot vote. The rest of the players vote, but cannot speak other words.

Vote: DemonHybrid

or VOTE: Faraday.

Once a majority has been reached, the surviving player posts one more thing, and then the losing player dies.

A few potential problems:

-Games can dry up when it's just a back and forth between two people
-It may become a "who's a better debater" deal instead of a fight for survival
-It could become boring for those not posting

A few of the upsides:

-Phases can go as quickly or as long as the non-Kombatants choose; they're the ones choosing for the lynch.
-With no justification for votes, it promotes discussion for the next day
-It can be seen as a fight for survival instead of a debate.
-Creates interesting interactions if the two people are on the same faction and they know it
-Focuses scumhunting to two players.

Thoughts? I think I need a more general opinion on this.

[animorpherv1]

Seems similar to Faraday's recently completed Theme Game, but the main difference being it would take longer, as in that one, we could vote for all 3 players we wanted to put in for supposed elimination at once.

Edit: Here it is! http://www.mafiascum.net/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=16952

[Seraphim]

*farside, not Faraday

What it reminds me most of is Prisoner Dilemma's Mafia, where the town's choice is super limited in who can actually be lynched. This mechanic seems fairly interesting though. Maybe instead of publicly voting, since no one can talk, make the topic open to the two Kombatants for a period of time while everyone submits votes privately, and then reveal the votes at the end of that period. Plurality wins.

[gandalf5166]

I like public voting better. Allows for wagons.

[gandalf5166]

And makes people less apathetic, since their votes are going to be scrutinized more.

[Faraday]

Private means scum can pile on a townie too, making it more likely a townie is lynched (assuming they stay private)

[Seraphim]

make the topic open to the two Kombatants for a period of time while everyone submits votes privately, and then reveal the votes at the end

Folks gotta read.

[gandalf5166]

wHAT i'M SAYING IS THAT IF YOU MAKE VOTES PRIVATE, YOU MIGHT HAVE PEOPLE SUBMITTING A VOTE RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING AND NEVER BOTHERING TO CHANGE IT

Aw dammit, sorry about the caps but I'm too lazy to fix it.

[DemonHybrid]

I agree that private votes may tilt it too heavily into scum's favor. Not having it revealed real-time takes the strategy out of it.

[Hoppster]

I'd like a reviewer or two for a 13p Mini Theme, comparethemeerkat.mafia.

Flavour knowledge not required.

EDIT: Aha, now I get why I was so confused. >>

Ignore this, wrong thread, my mistake, sorry all, etc.

[animorpherv1]

Can I get some more comment on my idea?

[Seacore]

@DemonHybrid

We trialled something like this in Storm of Swords. Most of the game had the normal lynch mechanic, but one of the days resulted in two people being chosen, and then the town privated voted for which one of them would die. Our theme was that it was a duel, so that's similar to mortal kombat.

Here are the practicalities -
1. If all the votes are public it makes no difference to the game. Town will discuss. The deadline will loom near. Town will choose the scum/compromise. The second kombatant is meaningless because town will all vote for the first person. Therefore, same as a normal lynch.

2. If all the votes are private, both choosing and voting, then the game gets a little silly, so lets ignore that one.

3. If the choices are public, but the voting is private, with a smart town, will be no different to a normal lynch. Choice A will be the scummiest person. Choice B will be super obv town. Then all the town should, no matter what, vote for Choice A.

4. If the choices are private but the voting is public. This could get a bit more interesting. What you do, is you don't have a majority. At the start of the day you get everybody to privately choose a combatant, or two combatants. The choices are tallied and the two highest enter the arena. The voting for who wins then becomes public.
This still doesn't do much though. If town is dumb, it's incredibly scum powered, since scum will all vote for the same one or two people, and will never vote for themselves, therefore it's hard for them to die. However, smart town will declare who the combatants will be each day and follow those instructions. So it becomes just like the others.

Private votes that are revealed are almost identical to public votes (except in lylo). A compromise might be that private voting stays private, but the final numbers are revealed. That makes it a little harder for scum to never vote privately for each other.

Much of the above can change if players have PRs that interact with the 1v1 system. But I think at a point it crosses a line and stops being mafia.

[DemonHybrid]

1. If all the votes are public it makes no difference to the game. Town will discuss. The deadline will loom near. Town will choose the scum/compromise. The second kombatant is meaningless because town will all vote for the first person. Therefore, same as a normal lynch.

Would it make a difference if only the kombatants can speak, do you think? And on every day?

[Seacore]

Restricting players from speaking is a bad idea. I can see what you're trying to do, but it encourages disengagement from the game for very little gain.

Perhaps, and I haven't completely thought this through, the players during D1 decide on a "roster" of fighting.
D1 = Player A v Player B
D2 = Player C v Player D
D3 = Player E v Player F

DX = Winner of D1 v Winner of D2

If your opponent is dead prior to your match, it is a bye and you win.

D1 would have to be much much longer than any subsequent days. And all votes SHOULD be able to be public, both for the roster building (which would unfortunately be complex) and for the kombats.

If this idea interests you, please let me know I'd be happy to work on it with you. If my idea doesn't interest you. I bags it for my next game.

[Seacore]

To make it clearer, because I've had a closer read at your idea.

In nearly all cases, the lynch for they day will have been decided by the time the first Kombatant has been chosen. And that Kombatant will be the lynch. Town know that scum are going to try and screw with the voting. So prior to the kombat starting, town will decide (using FOSs if necessary) who the lynch will be using whatever democratic methods they can. The 2nd kombatant will be unimportant. Only stupid town will vote for the 2nd kombatant whether it's public or private, regardless of who can talk, because the whole town had a hand in choosing the original decision, scum might have a stronger hand in the final decision.
Does that make sense? There will be NO NEED for spectators to be able to talk, the votes will be a formality by that point.

[Seacore]

Okay, so DH hasn't responded, and I think he's going a different direction with his game anyway.

So I'd like to discuss this idea as my next game. Some kind of pit fighting theme. Probably not based on any specific fiction since none leap to mind and I don't want to force it into anything.

Initial Thoughts:

16 players. 12 Town, 4 Scum

D0 - This will probably be 3 weeks long. Players discuss and vote on who will be paired with who in combat. When a simple majority has been reached on any match, that match is locked in. Example.

Vote: Player 1 v Player 8

. Eventually, all players will end up in matches. The order of the roster will be the order of the locked in fights.

N0 - Maybe no actions, I haven't decided yet. I'm leaning towards no actions, but QTs open.

D1 - First fight. Whatever the first match was takes place. All players, including those involved (but duh, as if they'd vote for themselves) vote for who is to die. Like a standard lynch, except only two options are available.

N1 - Normal night, with normal night actions

D2 - Rinse and repeat

DX - Winner of D1 fights winner of D2

DZ - Last two players fight.

Other rules:
If a player's opponent is dead prior to the start of the Day of their combat, they win by default and their fight is skipped. That Day, the next fight takes place instead (so the fight is skipped but not the Day)

There will be some standard roles. Doctors, Trackers etc. But maybe also some Pit fighting specific ones. Maybe a one off ability to throw dirt in somebody's face, lowering the vote threshold... stuff like that.

Help:
Okay, DZ is obviously the first problem to overcome - with two people left, some mechanism needs to be in place. Maybe for the final fight (if it gets that far) all the dead players come back and vote. Obviously this is a huge town advantage and I'd need to stack the numbers in scum's favour.
Or maybe 16 is the wrong number to start with, maybe I need to make the final fight a 3 way. Meaning it's a 24 player game (or 12, but that seems low) Hmmm, that seems like a good option. Any others?

What are some good pit fighting specific power roles?

Other thoughts?