Fake Claims

[Ankamius]

The possibility of it being a fakeclaim.

[ika]

who said they had to be cannon with everthing is my big quesiton i would make a setup and just randomize everyone on who is otnw and who is scum

[Davsto]

who said they had to be cannon with everthing is my big quesiton i would make a setup and just randomize everyone on who is otnw and who is scum

For the sake of a theme game, stuff being canon makes sense.

Like, if I played a Harry Potter themed game, and drew Town Voldemort, that's breaking Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a start.

[Ankamius]

You have to find a balance between reasonable game balance and adherence to the original material. It's not always possible or reasonable to do that, Davsto.

[saulres]

Like, if I played a Harry Potter themed game, and drew Town Voldemort, that's breaking Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a start.

You are Voldemort. Recently you've come into possession of a previously-unheard of Trelawney prediction that you're worried will come true. It says if you work with certain Death Eaters, you will fall to the accursed Potter boy. Using an advanced Time-Turner you created, you have traveled back to now, and using a polyjuice potion, disguised yourself as one of the unnamed Hogwarts students that no one knows. You must help the Hogwarts team find those Death Eaters, who are also disguised, and kill them so that you never will work with them, and more importantly, retroactively you never will have. For this reason you are aligned with the town.

ANY character, any alignment.

[Alchemist21]

Like, if I played a Harry Potter themed game, and drew Town Voldemort, that's breaking Willing Suspension of Disbelief for a start.

You are Voldemort. Recently you've come into possession of a previously-unheard of Trelawney prediction that you're worried will come true. It says if you work with certain Death Eaters, you will fall to the accursed Potter boy. Using an advanced Time-Turner you created, you have traveled back to now, and using a polyjuice potion, disguised yourself as one of the unnamed Hogwarts students that no one knows. You must help the Hogwarts team find those Death Eaters, who are also disguised, and kill them so that you never will work with them, and more importantly, retroactively you never will have. For this reason you are aligned with the town.

ANY character, any alignment.

Alternately, you could make a reverse mafia where the "Town" is actually Voldemort and his Death Eaters trying to weed out the "Mafia" of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

[saulres]

Yes, but I didn't think that's what he was looking for.

The key thing to remember is that "town" is not the same as "good guys" any more than "scum" automatically means "bad guys". "Town" is a bunch of people working together to stop "scum" who is trying to eliminate them all, as a group. The mod just has to come up with a reason for the disparate members of that town to share that common goal for the duration of the game.

[Ether]

Honestly, the vast majority of existing stories just don't make any sense as mafia flavor, period. Most stories don't have that kind of subterfuge. Heroes are heroes, villains are villains, it's pretty clear who's what. Even when it isn't clear, that's usually

because

people have goals that are more complicated than just "you win when everyone on the other side is dead."

And that's okay.

[St Constantine the Hermit]

It might also depend on the specific theme.
If you are doing something like "Batman Mafia," everyone is going to know who the heroes and villians are.

I for one have always wanted to host a Soviet themed game. There would be connections between town and mafia flavor, but it would not be so apparent that a lack of fakeclaims would put to much pressure on the mafia team.

[St Constantine the Hermit]

Agreeing with some other folks. I never hosted a themed game with black and white morality as the basis for town/mafia flavors.