Mafia Senario Test Game

[Mr. Flay]

No one uses it (the onsite chat) because it's kind of clunky (see topics in General Discussion with the word "scumchat" in the header, over the last couple days). Maybe we'll move to some sort of better onsite software that gives us the best of both worlds.

[Rathyr]

I tried the onsite chat, but only one person was on. I would be really nice if you could make something like that that people actually used. I would love it.

[al_kohaulec]

Testing this over scumchat would be a good way to test the balance of the game, and we could alter some of the mechanics and such until it's pretty fair for both town and the wolves to win.

Turning everybody into a werewolf isn't necessarily the best option, because as each wolf acts independently of another, the more wolves there are, the more likely you are to die randomly at night. But not turning anybody werewolf would make it very likely that you'll die via lynch since everybody will have confirmation from the herbalist, and/or the herbalist will target the wolf, thus killing him.

[Ghyrt]

/in

[al_kohaulec]

umm... I don't think we're signing up here... but if you want to be a part of testing this, if you have AIM, pm me your AIM username.

[Ghyrt]

Is there a way to get AIM for free? I don't have AIM.

[Fritzler]

Is there a way to get AIM for free? I don't have AIM.

its called aim.com

[Ghyrt]

Alright. My AIM name is "Ghyrt1".

[Anonymities]

The biggest problem I see is that the chance of the herbalist killing the wolf night 1 (one in nine) is too high. If that happens, game over. That is why this would need to include more players so that it could

start

with 2 wolves.

[al_kohaulec]

That is a serious problem I've been contemplating myself. Strategically, and partly for this reason, it's good for the werewolf to convert N1 rather than kill, of course not all players will do this, so maybe making a rule where the first night you have to convert.

Also, one thing I was figuring is what if the werewolf targets the same player the herbalist targets. For this reason I decided that the conversion occurs before the herbalist's ability, because otherwise his ability doesn't provide information except to players who could potentially be werewolves (yes I know they can convert at a later time too) and all it really becomes good for is killing a wolf.

I tested this game once so far over aimchat (thank you for the permission Rathyr). I still wanted to try variants of rules to see what works best. The game started in night, and the innocent found by the herbalist was killed the same night. During day they ended up lynching a townie, and then back into night. This is where I had to replace the werewolf with a more experienced player, and he immediately converted a townie, and the herbalist targetted a different townie. So at 7 players, they lynched another townie, and at night a townie and the herbalist died. So we go to day with four players, and they decide to no lynch. At night the new werewolf targetted a townie, and I expected the alpha wolf to kill the other wolf and win, but for some reason he targeted the other townie (I think some people aren't always realizing each new werewolf is essentially an SK) and it became a draw with only the two werewolves alive.



Now the town did get pretty unlucky this game, and there were lots of replacements which made it go a little worse, so it should've gone better for the town, but that's how the first test played out.

This is actually something I thought of just now. I think that it could be very difficult for the town to win, but I'd need more testing to prove/disprove this, and I was trying to think of balancing factors. Also, the alpha wolf knows who he's converted, so he'll know who most of the other wolves are (assuming the new wolves don't get bite happy), and he could easily take them out after they spread their kills. So one possibility to prevent the spread of werewolves too much is to make new werewolves unable to make new werewolves, or limit the alpha wolf to how many times he can make a new werewolf. We can also delay the conversion of a new wolf. i.e. Player a is bit N1, but is still considered townie (but I think the herbalist should still get something if he investigates this player) N2 is when he'd normally be albe to kill and convert, but instead we make this when he transforms into a werewolf. And then N3 he can act as a werewolf.

Just a few different ideas, thouhgts?

[Glork]

At night the new werewolf targetted a townie, and I expected the alpha wolf to kill the other wolf and win, but for some reason he targeted the other townie (I think some people aren't always realizing each new werewolf is essentially an SK) and it became a draw with only the two werewolves alive.

With 4 alive, Fritzler and I basically claimed to be the werewolves, forced No Lynch, and killed the last two remaining townies. It's called "Honor Among Thieves." Fritz even said that in-thread, directly to me, because he knew that he'd converted me to being a werewolf. Why let one SK win when you can let two win instead?

One variant you could use would be to set it up so that 2 Werewolves alive means nobody wins (they both kill each other). However, that really hurts the second werewolf... the Alpha knows who he is, but he does not know who the Alpha is.

A larger version of this (17 Townies, 2 Wolves, 1 Herbalist) would be much more interesting -- and balanced. Neither "alpha" wolf would know the other alpha's identity... thus, they won't know how many wolves are out there, or who those wolves might be. If you're worried about the town getting slaughtered (double convert N1, 4 kills N2), you could allow only one wolf (plus "descendants") to act on interval nights. That might slow the killing and give the town more of a chance.

[Rathyr]

Cool ideas Glork. What if the alphas were on the same team as their offspring?

[Glork]

....then they'd just be a masskilling cult, and they'd be way overpowered. I don't think they should have the same alignment... but I do think that the basic setup needs some slight alteration, as it feels skewed towards the original Alpha Wolf to me.

[three word name]

i like glorks idea of a larger versoin of this with 2 alpha wolves but maybe there should be 2 herbalists

and i think that the new wearewolves transforming the next night is a good idea

[Tamuz]

There could be a slight change to the wolves' options, they could either target someone, which would be a kill or send to the mod that they want to convert. The conversion would be made randomly from the players who could be converted. Then the Alpha would not know who their converted wolves are.

[three word name]

thats good too