[SETUP] Citadel Mafia

[Irrelephant11]

I've never played Citadels, but I watched it played once, and it inspired an interesting mechanic. I like the mechanic and want to share it (assuming it hasn't been used before, which idk), even if this setup isn't the most exciting/best use for it (i.e. I hope someone will take the mechanic and run with it to make something much more interesting, but here's my best effort at making something semi-balanced).

Citadel Mafia

7 Townies

2 Mafia

Scum have daytalk and pregame talk.

Power Roles are determined by draft. The draft takes place before Day 1, and happens again before each day phase. The draft order on D1 is determined by scum, done by anonymous & private priority lists, and players choose from the following roles:

1 - Vanilla
2 - Draft Pusher (chooses another player to go last in the next draft)
3 - Universal Backup (after the first death, this slot maintains that new role. If the first death is a lynch, backup can use any inherited night action that night)
4 - Tracker
5 - Bulletproof
6 - Rolecop
7 - Neighborizer (neighborhoods are chosen at the beginning of the day and last one day/night phase)
8 - JOAT (ninja, strongman, fruit vendor)
9 - 2/3 Vigilante Bullet (once a player has a full bullet, they can use it to shoot any following night)

During N1 and every following night, each player will send in a new priority list alongside any night action, and players will be given roles at the start of the following day based on the order of their previous roles. e.g. Vanilla always gets first pick, JOAT gets their preferred choice of the last two picks. Failure to provide a new priority list means the mod will use the previous night's list for that player.

Scum can use their role alongside the factional nightkill (potentially allowing two mafia kills in one night, though this is unlikely)

Dying players bring their current role out of the game with them, causing the list to collapse upward.

Players always include their neighborhood choice with their priority list.

[BBmolla]

Let scum choose draft order, the way you have it eliminates a shit ton of possible scum teams (last 4 in draft all can not be scum together.)

[Irrelephant11]

Ooh I do like that better. Editing.

[mith]

I don't see any obvious breaking strategy yet.

After a couple days town could do a massclaim of priority lists to get *some* information - but I'm not sure scum have particularly strong incentives to target specific roles and then lie about it. And none of the roles are strong for town if everyone is telling the truth about their roles. I suspect mostly this would play out as a huge mass of very weak information that is hiding that it is just Vanilla underneath.

[Irrelephant11]

I mean the first three are kind of intentionally "basically there's three vanilla slots, but each with a perk"

I agree that the power roles don't do enough to make this setup

about

that much more than scumhunting, but I think the way there's always something to talk about makes it more interesting than vanilla. Also, potential vig shots are a thing. I also think it would be fun to be in a LYLO with players arguing things like "why as scum would I choose bulletproof > tracker > fruit vending > vanilla??? That other player's choices of Vanilla > rolecop > bulletproof > JOAT is WAY scummier!!!"

I'm curious to hear thoughts about the central mechanic, too i.e. Drafting roles > the more powerful the role, the later in the draft you go for the next round

[mith]

I like the general idea (big fan of the mechanic in board games). I don't know if it could be balanced effectively if the roles are any stronger.

[Irrelephant11]

I wonder if it could stay balanced if more powerful roles were split into fractions, like I've done here with the vig shot. Something like

1 Vanilla
2 Draft Pusher
3 Tracker
4 Bulletproof
5 Neighborizer
6 1/3 Doctor shot
7 1/3 Cop shot
8 1/3 Vig shot
9 JOAT or something
10 Roleblocker maybe
11 2/3 Doctor shot
12 2/3 Cop shot
13 2/3 Vig shot

Not a lot happens night one, I guess. But it's a way to include more powerful stuff in an interesting way while still not making any one set of choices OP. Idk, just a thought. It's starting to feel like I'm making a different setup where every night you have to decide which power you want a piece of. Well, the mechanic is out there if anyone has a better idea. I do actually like the setup I put in the op the more I look at it, so I'll be happy with that.