It's another summer of love down in sunny California. Daytime work and chores give way to night after night of dancing, drinking, and good times for the newly-graduated Class of 2019. This summer promises many flings, crazy nights, and memories - as long as your parents don't find out! And as if sneaking out of the house weren't hard enough, I hear there's some real squares trying to get the party shut down. . .
Factions:
Cool Kids (town) vs Squares (mafia)
Cool Kids win when all Squares have been kicked out of the party, or nothing can prevent this from happening.
Squares win when all Cool Kids have been ratted out, or nothing can prevent this from happening.
MECHANIC: Dance Partners
At the start of the game, players will be paired off as dance partners by the mod. Two Squares will never be paired up; that's just not cool. Cool Kids can be paired with other Cool Kids or Squares. Dance partners will always be public knowledge--you're gonna be dancing together after all. At the appropriate times, you and your dance partner will be able to talk in private. If your dance partner is kicked out of the party or ratted out by the Squares, you may still converse with them at the appropriate times.
Accordingly, no dancer kicked/ratted out of the party should be given access to any private discussion topics pertaining to the game until his or her partner is also kicked/ratted out, at which point either may be given the topic at mod's discretion.
Squares will have their own group talk separate from their partner chat.
Game Schedule and MECHANIC: Dance Prep
Days and nights are reversed in this game. The game starts on Night 0. [NOTE: This is strictly for flavor purposes.]
During night phases, dancers may talk in the game thread and vote to kick someone out of the party. Night phases are six days long, instead of the normal seven.
During day phases, dancers with special roles will submit their actions to the mod, and dancers may chat with their partners as they please. Day phases are two days long, as normal.
At the end of the day, before the night starts, dancers will take an intermediate step called Dance Prep. The day actions will resolve and the results will be announced. Dancers may chat with their partners as they please during Dance Prep. The thread is
NOT
open during this step. Dance Prep is one day long.
After Dance Prep, it's dance time! Dancers proceed to the venue and a new night begins.
SETUP QUICK 'N' DIRTY
For 12 players:
Cool Kids (9): Seven (7) Cool Kids, One (1) Bouncer, One (1) Wink
Squares (3): Three (3) Squares
For 20 players:
Cool Kids (14): Ten (10) Cool Kids, One (1) Bouncer, One (1) Wink, One (1) Cupid, One (1) Doc
Squares (6): Six (6) Squares
ROLES
The following roles
will
be in this game.
Cool Kid -- A regular Cool Kid with no special abilities. Dancers vote for someone to be kicked from the party every night and may converse with their partners during days and Dance Prep.
Square -- A regular Square. Squares vote for someone to be kicked from the party every night and may converse with their partners during days and Dance Prep. Additionally, Squares know who the other Squares are, and may converse with the other Squares during days and Dance Prep. Squares also collectively vote to rat out one of the Cool Kids each day. [NOTE: Ratting out a Cool Kid is a factional action; Squares don't have to select an individual Square to do the ratting out. Squares ride or die together, which is ironic, considering they're all ratting out everyone else.]
Chad "Bouncer" Radkowski -- A Cool Kid who played linebacker for the football team. Charming and very strong, if the Bouncer wants you out, you're done. The Bouncer can unilaterally kick another Dancer out of the party during the day. But because the Bouncer is a Cool Kid who wants everybody to get along, and feels like a father figure to the other Dancers since he took three more years to graduate than they did, the Bouncer limits himself to one eviction. Just know that if he weren't so cool, every last one of you Squares would be thrown out already. Bouncer is Wink's boyfriend, and begins the game partnered with Wink. [NOTE: Bouncer and Wink must be in the game together if they are in the game at all.]
Bernawinke "Wink" Reissmann -- A Cool Kid from Switzerland who led the cheerleading squad. Wink's a pretty little thing, and she knows it. She's the Bouncer's girlfriend, but that doesn't mean she can't talk to other people... During the day, Wink may choose a new dance partner. If she does, then at the start of Dance Prep, she will become that dancer's new partner. The dancer's old partner will pair up with her old partner. The two new pairs of partners will be able to talk during Dance Prep. If the Squares rat out the dancer that Wink chose as a new partner, then Wink's switch will fail and she will remain with her current partner. As mentioned before, Wink is Bouncer's girlfriend, and begins the game partnered with Bouncer. [NOTE: Bouncer and Wink must be in the game together if they are in the game at all.]
The following roles
may
be in this game, contingent upon game size.
Cooper "Cupid" Jackson -- A Cool Kid who became notorious in the Class of 2019 for winning homecoming king all four years, with a different date each time. Cupid is a matchmaker par excellence. Once per game during the day, Cupid can choose a dancer who doesn't currently have a partner. If he does, then at the start of Dance Prep, that dancer will become Cupid's partner. But because Cupid is such a charmer, his original partner won't leave; the three of them will dance the night away. For the rest of the game, all three dancers will be partnered together, and will be able to talk during the day and during Dance Prep. If the Squares rat out the dancer that Cupid chose as a new partner, then Cupid's arrow will be refunded.
Nick "Doc" Holliday -- A Cool Kid on his way to Stanford's illustrious pre-med program, Doc is a selfless guy who would do anything for his friends. At the end of the day, before day actions resolve, Doc will be told which dancer, if anybody, will be ratted out that day. He then may choose to "fess up" and be ratted out in that dancer's stead. If he chooses to confess, then the mod will announce when resolving day actions that Doc was ratted out. Owing to the nature of this ability, it can only be used once. [NOTE: The original target to be ratted out will not be announced; effectively Doc is redirecting the Squares' ratting out to himself.]
Balance Considerations
EDIT: To be clear, the roles are confirmed and known at game start. I wanted to give the GM some options for tuning the setup since the neighbor-heavy nature of the game makes for weird balancing (imo). This is an open setup with GM discretion on which roles to use; the roles will be known.
[EDIT of EDIT: This has been resolved.]
EDIT 2: Balance considerations revised after discussion below. Setups for 12 and for 20 players are included near the top. Spoiler contains original comments.
