I want to make this setup as balanced and practical as possible to make it the best possible game it could be.
The setup includes the following roles:
- 1 Serial Killer
- 1 Bullet Proof Fanatic
- 1 Bullet Proof Fanatic
- 1 Fruit Vendor
- 1 Night Kill Cop
- 1 Tracker
- 8 Vanilla Townies
- 1 Night Kill Cop
- 1 Tracker
- 8 Vanilla Townies
And has the following mechanics:
- Simple majority lynch mechanics.
- Serial Killer + Fanatic are the scum team.
- The SK does not know who the Fanatic is but the Fanatic DOES know who the SK is.
- As such, there is no scum PT.
- The Fanatic will become the SK if the SK dies.
- Each town PR and the SK can !Legacy their roles.
- The SK's !Legacy creates a new Fanatic rather than a new SK.
Using your Legacy on a player basically turns them into the backup for your role. If you have a PR and die with a Legacy on someone, they will become your PR in your place. Players are not told if they are being targetted by a Legacy. Additionally, if you target someone who is already a PR with your Legacy then your Legacy will be unsuccessful and your role will be lost. In the case of the SK, their Legacy becomes the new Fanatic when they die. The person you target with your Legacy can be changed at any time.
Spoiler: To further elaborate on this, here are all the role cards:
Possible problems / things to note about the game:
- This setup is bastard since Vanilla Townies can change alignment in becoming the Fanatic.
- Whenever this occurs, reads essentially have to be fully reset as anyone that isn't a PR can suddenly have a different win objective.
- The Fanatic cannot be detected by the investigative PRs.
- Town cannot hunt by association upon a SK flip but can hunt by association upon a Fanatic flip.
- No NK basically acts as a public announcement that the SK knows who the Fanatic is.
- Lynching the Fanatic also serves as a public announcement that the potential knew Fanatic is of the SK's choosing.
- The only benefit this has to the SK is that they can narrow down who to target with their Legacy.
- The Fanatic is somewhat expendable since the SK can simply choose a new one. (However, every Fanatic death increases the chance that there won't be a new Serial Killer).
- When the Fanatic replaces the SK, they will not know who the new Fanatic is since they were chosen by the SK.
- The purpose of the Fruit Vendor is simply to increase the chance other PRs are lost.
- Due to the design of the game, Legacy games will usually be quite long.
- This setup could potentially be swingy depending on if people are unlucky with who they Legacy.
- A claimed VT is good for both scum and town as they know who to Legacy.
- The effects of mass claim is also good for both town and scum. Town pros: They have confirmed PRs that won't change when scum is lynched + outed results + hunt scum by PoE. Scum pros: They know who to kill + they gain an advantage in who to legacy next since the town PRs won't know who is lying.
- If scum fake claims a PR then the specific PR will know they are lying which reduces the chance that PR is lost but scum may have to fake claim a PR to survive PoE.
- Town PRs announcing who they are going to legacy can help town avoid losing roles but also helps scum kill them again.
- No one will be aware how many PRs are still in play after the first PR flip.
- It will be unclear how many more times town needs to lynch scum after the first scum flip. So, unless scum has never been lynched, no one will know if the town is at MYLO.
Fixes to these problems/things would I consider changing:
- Current SK and Fanatic gain a PT if the Fanatic is targetted by the night kill. (Increase scum power).
- Fanatic is not bulletproof. (Decrease scum power).
- SK is told who the Fanatic is. (Increase scum power).
- SK and Fanatic have a PT by default. (Increase scum power).
- SK does not keep the ability to legacy if Fanatic is killed. (Decrease scum power).
- SK and Fanatic have a PT by default. (Increase scum power).
- SK does not keep the ability to legacy if Fanatic is killed. (Decrease scum power).
- Tracker is replaced by Role Cop. (Increase town power).
- Tracker is replaced by Watcher. (Increase town power).
- Night Kill Cop is replaced by Cop. (Increase town power).
- Fruit Vendor is replaced by a more useful PR. (Increase town power).
- PRs of either alignment are told if a recently deceased player tried to target them with their legacy. (Benefits individuals. This is especially good for scum, however, town can share this information at the cost of a role claim).
- PRs of either alignment are told if a recently deceased player tried to target them with their legacy. (Benefits individuals. This is especially good for scum, however, town can share this information at the cost of a role claim).
Code: Green = changes I like, Red = changes I don't like.
I'd also like to say that this setup/concept isn't entirely my idea. Rather, it is adapted from a game I played on my old site. Here is a link to that game: https://forums.everybodyedits.com/viewt ... p?id=39942
If you read over that game then you'd know it was a disaster. 2 PRs were lost in the first 2 nights, we had no idea of the setup so were assuming there were still 3 scum. A lot of players were inactive either due to not taking the game seriously or being banned from the forum and this eventually lead to the mod straight up quitting the game. The game failed due to the nature of that forum and bad decisions by the mod which I hope I have somewhat rectified with my changes but I get the feeling that the game might be a bit scum sided.
Here are the changes that I have made:
Original --> My version.
Closed game ---> Open game.
SK does know who the Fanatic is --> SK does not know who the Fanatic is.
Fanatic does not know who the SK is --> Fanatic does know who the SK is.
Fanatic can investigate who the SK is --> Fanatic is bulletproof but otherwise has no abilities.
Doctor --> Fruit Vendor.
Role Cop --> Tracker.
Unspecified whether Fanatic gains Legacy ability when they replace the SK even if the SK Legacies someone with a PR --> Fanatic does gain Legacy ability even if the previous SK chooses to Legacy a PR, however, the Legacy will not work. (Giving the impression they can still Legacy even though practically they can't).
So what are your thoughts? I'm interested to know whether people think this concept is just fundamentally terrible and should be scrapped or if they do like it, what changes would they make to help balance it and why? Personally, I quite like the concept. But I'm currently unsure of how balanced it actually is. I'm more interested in people's balancing opinions but non-constructive opinions that simple deem the setup as a bad one are still welcome since they help to give a general idea of how many people would actually be willing to play it.