I have been pondering recently about the possibility of a mafia set-up based around people trying to save their own skins. It has most of the basic roles of a standard 20-25 game, and are as follows:
Vig [maybe over-eager]
Doc
Cop
Mafia
As well as the non-standard masonic cult (with limitations on recruiting explained later)
however, it has no normal townies, but instead, the staple role is something along the lines of: [NOTE: "[]" means maybe or possibly changeable]
You are a
Pragmatic Citizen
. All this talk about organized criminals is a bit dangerous, and you don't want to get involved in this. People who get in the way of violent criminals end up dead, and people who don't stay okay. You don't need to worry about protecting your neighbor, he/she should worry about protecting themselves. You know the Coalition of Concerned Citizens want these miscreants arrested, and that's dangerous. Of course, the CCC might also want
you
arrested if they think you are working for the lawbreakers. Or worse, one of the more fanatical citizens might take more drastic measures to ensure that you aren't a threat to other people. You are going for self-preservation, and will do whatever it takes to ensure it. You win if you survive to the end of the game.
The masonic cult is something like this:
You are a member [the leader, NOTE 1] of the
Coalition of Concerned Citizens (or CCC)
. You have learned that a group of dangerous lawbreakers is currently involved in serious crimes that have occured in town, and your organization won't stand for it. You feel it is the coalition's responsibility to turn in these dangerous criminals to the police. You also feel that you should organize others into driving out these criminals, but be careful, most citizens in the area are jaded and selfish, and might not want to join the CCC. Your organization chooses someone to send out to try and recruit someone every [other] night. You win when all of the town threats are eliminated.
NOTE 1: I feel that if the pragmatic citizens are given the abilty to choose whether or not to join, then the masonic cult should start out a little larger. Basically, it would make sure that they aren't completely screwed if the players don't want to join them.
The vig, doc, and cop are all anit-mafia-aligned, in a sense. I think having an over-eager vig might seem a bit, um, mean, but it might force a bit more balance in the pragmatic citizens.
Basically, this whole set-up is based around the idea of mistrust. A person could be confirmed as a pragmatic citizen, but it doesn't mean you aren't working with the mafia. The cop is slightly nerfed, in that his investigations can be worthless. However, this can be remedied if he and another power-role are recruited as masons and can coordinate night abilities.
I can understand if people find flaws in the mechanics, which I would love to hear about. I was only concerned with the basic idea behind this set up when I was coming up with it.