[SETUP] Bloodline Mafia

[Kanna]

Never made a setup before so any feedback (even if it's fun or not) is appreciated!

Bloodline Mafia

1 Mafia Mother

1 Mafia Father

1 Mafia Family Child

1 Town Mother

1 Town Father

1 Town Family Child

3 Vanilla Townies

• Pregame, it is randomised whether the
  Mafia Family Child
  receives
  Mother's Love
  or
  Father's Love
  . The
  Town Family Child
  always receives both.
  
• Children do not know which family they belong to, whose love they have, or who their parents are. Parents know their child's identity, but only mafia are confirmed to each other/have daychat.
  
• When a child dies, their loved parent(s) commits suicide.

Mafia wins when they gain parity or if everyone is dead. Town wins when all mafia are dead and there is at least one townie alive.

[popsofctown]

I think mafia should win if everybody dies (since that happens after getting a mislynch in 3p "LyLo")

[popsofctown]

I'm not sure on balance but from a design perspective I'm wary about setups where the town can be caused to play similar to scum (informed minority, fighting to prevent certain lynches from happening). This seems even heavier than simply having masons due to the loverdom.

[Krazy]

In massclaim, you can just lynch one out of mother and father to basically instant win, and for that reasons mafia mother and mafia father can't cross-claim their counterparts I think.

so the way the setup would actually play out would be mother and father claim, 2 ICs since scum mother and scum father do not CC

After that, the game proceeds as a mountainous with two ics, lynching inside what should be 5 vt claims to hit the mafia mother and mafia father

it's not full autowin I think but it would be clunky for scum to play vs 2 ICs, and if town did hit the correct family child it goes to a really rough serial killer game

[Hectic]

Isn't that the case with a 2 masons, 2 mafia, 5 VT setup? Sure, the masons can claim to "IC" themselves, but I don't think they want to.

If the town family claims, it means mafia can either kill both town masons first 2 nights, or shoot for the Town Child the first 2 night in an increasingly shrinking pool. For example, if a VT is mislynched day 1, scum shoot for the Town Child in a pool of just 3 people. Since 2 of the 6 townies are the parents, and 1 is the Mafia child they're informed about.

[popsofctown]

I don't think it's optimal to claim immediately as Named Townie, in general.
2 ICs are a lot easier to deal with if they can be removed from the game without using up a nightkill, and that's what offsets the unexpected perishing of one mafiosi, so this is not strictly better or worse for scum than 2 masons 2 mafia 5 vt. I think it's harder for scum than that, but 5-2-2 is only townsided in newbie queue playerlists under most conventional thinking so there's room to shift in that direction.

[Kanna]

I think mafia should win if everybody dies (since that happens after getting a mislynch in 3p "LyLo")

Not sure I understand this. I actually think it should be parity because of mother’s/father’s love potentially dragging down the last mafia.

I'm not sure on balance but from a design perspective I'm wary about setups where the town can be caused to play similar to scum (informed minority, fighting to prevent certain lynches from happening). This seems even heavier than simply having masons due to the loverdom.

This is true though. Do you think town is too informed?/Should town be less informed?

[Kanna]

I think mafia should win if everybody dies (since that happens after getting a mislynch in 3p "LyLo")

orz nevermind I get it now. I’ve changed the OP.

Also I agree with Hectic in that parents claiming shrinks the town child pool. Mafia killing that child early is supposed to swing it massively in their favour. I think there can be some fakeclaiming strategies but ???

[popsofctown]

The main informational chain I'd be interested in removing is Town Father knows Town Child and Town Mother knows Town Child. They have a strong incentive, even stronger than masons, to steer lynches away from the town child knowing that 3 townies will die, and that running the child up to L-1 claim generates almost as much of a problem. Part of how we play mafia is knowing how a Mafiosi will act when a lynch on a partner threatens to remove a huge fraction of his/her/their team, but a half and 3/7ths aren't terribly different so that's where I see a major convergence. Might be why people say no one wants to actually play Assassins in the Palace.

If you remove the Town Parent's non-spousal knowledge I think it's a better setup. You still have something interesting in the form of the town child knowing it is meaningful whether they die or not.

[Kanna]

Flavour-wise, I was actually going for parents wanting to protect their child at all costs

I like the suggestion but I’m just worried that as town parents, you’d be walking on eggshells the whole game because you want something that you don’t even know you want (you want to protect your child, but you don’t know who they are). I think that would be more confusing than fun.

Another idea could be town parents are both informed of their child’s identity, but not each other’s. That way they’d both be trying to protect the child and *may* be able to deduce who the other is while also giving mafia a chance to fakeclaim/step in. I think this could also differentiate from scum because
>less information with the masonry removed
>the town child isn’t aware they’re on the same team/won’t be helping?
>plus, as scum, you can try pick up on parent/child signals to find out who they are

[popsofctown]

Yeah, that helps a lot. Sometimes it's not clear which part of a setup idea is the sacred cow and which isn't. "divorced parents" removes some of the associatives but at the cost of the daychat.

[Kanna]

I like the change too. In retrospect, it definitely makes sense to have the town family less informed so mafia can manipulate and take advantage. I even think this reduces claiming because of what Krazy said since a parent isn’t IC

This was informative, thanks guys <33