[SETUP] Shell Game

[callforjudgement]

Inspired by this thread, I wanted to make a 7p setup that's balanced, guaranteed to last at least 3 days, and tolerant of communication outside the thread. The result turned out to be possibly even more WIFOM-heavy than Nomination Mafia.

Shell Game

• 5 Townies
  
• 2 Mafia
  
• There are no lynches. Instead of voting to lynch, Day phases consist of voting for a player to give a "shell", basically a transferrable unlimited bulletproof.
  
• At the start of each Day, all players who have a shell are publicly revealed as being shelled (if a player has multiple shells due to transfers, the exact number is revealed). They aren't valid votes for that day (i.e. you can't vote someone a duplicate shell).
  
• During Night phases, players with shells can transfer them to other players if they wish. (Upon receiving a shell, you can't transfer it further on the same Night, mostly for logistical reasons.) Players are always aware that they've received a shell, although not necessarily who they received it from.
  
• Additionally, the Mafia have a standard nightkill (although it'll fail on a player who is shelled at the end of the night, because that's what shells do).
  
• If at the start of a Day phase, town have three shelled players, town win.
  
• If scum successfully kill three townies, scum win.

The winner of the setup will effectively be decided by who screws up more. Town can screw up by voting for scum in the shelling vote (or similarly, no-shelling) or transferring a shell to scum. Scum can screw up by attempting to nightkill a shelled player (or equivalently, no-killing) or transferring a shell to town. Every town screwup requires a scum screwup to balance it out, or scum will win. Note that there's a bit of a self-corrective mechanic in that if scum end up accumulating shells, the townies will probably be annoyed at them for not transferring them away (especially if they have multiples). One potential problem is that there's not much that can be done about known scum (which may lead to them trolling), but knowing scum helps out town a lot with their PoE in knowing who to shell.

I'm not yet certain that these numbers are correct/balanced; they feel like they have the potential to be balanced, but this setup is weird enough that it's hard to know how to measure it. At a guess, it's a bit scumsided. Perhaps town should be allowed a regular lynch instead of (or in addition to) the shelling?

[callforjudgement]

I'm considering running this (with a balance disclaimer as it hasn't attracted any reviews). Given how weird the setup is anyway, I'd be running it as an Open Theme with some experimental rules (e.g. the ability to vote post restrictions onto players; that deals with caught scum trolling, and can probably be used in other creative ways). Before I put it into the queue, does anyone have any advice for me?

[Gamma Emerald]

I dislike the inability to have a scum flip. It's fairly close to no reveal since you can't tell if someone had ill intent.

[callforjudgement]

I was hoping that you still got information from the townflips made when scum kill people (or, if the nightkill failed, the information that at least one townie has a shell, which is mostly relevant N1). That said, it might indeed be a problem.

The thing about this setup is that no day decision is really final – you can always pressure people into passing the shields away later – so voting for and flipping the same players would be problematic. Do you think that the limited-reveal nature is enough of a problem to not run the setup?

[Gamma Emerald]

I think it could work it's just that from my playstyle that is kinda a painful removal.

[callforjudgement]

Now I'm wondering how it changes the balance if shells given to scum are destroyed (rather than being able to be passed on). This would give a pseudo-reveal mechanic to the game. (This might flip scum too; if so, presumably they'd stay alive but be unable to post in thread.)

The main problem with this is that towards the end of the game, the game will be decided entirely on whether town can block the nightkill, with no scumhunting involved and scum having no reason to kill anyone over anyone else, so it'd basically be a pure diceroll.

[Gamma Emerald]

Also does the kill resolve before or after a shell is passed?

[callforjudgement]

After. There'd be little point in the passing mechanic otherwise.