Umlaut's Mini Normal Review, May 2020

[Umlaut]

Hey there, I haven't actually put together a full rules post and role PM text etc. because last I checked (which was several years ago) the NRG was planning to standardize those and I'm not sure if they ever did so, but if I need those posts I can whip them up fast or just crib from my own past approved games.

Roles:

3x

Mafia Strongman

1x

Town Traffic Analyst

1x

Town Tracker

1x

Town Disloyal Fruit Vendor

1x

Town Universal Backup

[/list]

Rules:

• Daystart
  
• Majority required to lynch, no-lynching is allowed
  
• 10-day (240-hour) days, 2-day (48-hour) nights
  
• Anything else I need to specify?

[Umlaut]

Er, also there are 6x

Vanilla Townie

in the setup, but I can't edit.

[Umlaut]

No daytalk. I'll write up role PMs momentarily.

Spoiler: Rules post

Rules

None of these rules supercede or contradict the Forum Rules and Guidelines, all of which are in full force.

---

Tl;dr

• This game is Normal.
  
• Days are
  240 hours (10 days)
  ; nights are
  48 hours (2 days)
  .
  
• Standard 48/24 prod timers.
  
• Standard majority-only lynch mechanics.
  
• No default daytalk.

---

Conduct

1. Don't use orange, it's my color.
   
2. Play to win.
   
3. Don't discuss the game outside of the game until it's over.
   
4. Don't flame. Don't harass. Don't use insults that target minority, disadvantaged, or legally protected classes.
   
5. Keep interpersonal disputes out of the game thread.
   
6. Don't quote or misquote private communications from the moderator.
   
7. Don't use encryption, tiny/hidden/unreadable text, or anything that could be easily confused for such.
   
8. All replacement requests will be taken as serious, irrevocable, and immediate. Once you request replacement you are no longer a player and may not post.
   
9. Don't game the rules, pretend to break the rules, or intentionally test the limits. All pretended violations will be dealt with identically to actual violations.
   
10. Don't break the rules of any other ongoing game in this thread.
    
11. Don't argue moderator actions in the game thread. If you want to dispute a ruling, do so via PM.

---

Game mechanics

Day

• Days begin with a deadline of
  240 hours
  (10 days).
  
• Days will end when one of the following events occurs:
  • The deadline is reached.
    
  • A lynch (or no-lynch) is achieved.
    
  • A town-aligned player is modkilled.
• During the day, you should be unable to post in any private threads to which you have access, except as specified in role PMs. If for some reason you are able, doing so is still against the rules.
  
• Votes should be made via the vote tag: “[vote]<playername>[/vote]” or “[v]<playername>[/v]”. Full player names or initial segments thereof are preferred.
  
• When more than half of living players are voting for the same player, that player will be lynched and the day will end. Votes are irrevocable once a majority is achieved.
  
• You may vote not to lynch by voting for “No lynch”. When half or more of living players do so, the day will end without a lynch.
  
• If the day reaches deadline without a majority, there will be no lynch.
  
• I will interpret malformed votes according to my own discretion. In general, if it looks like a vote, I will probably count it as a vote. I reserve the right to edit malformed votes for easier counting.
  
• When a majority vote has been achieved but not yet recognized by the moderator, the game is in
  twilight
  . Players, including the lynchee, may continue to post during this period.
  
• Under certain circumstances I may elect to extend the deadline. I will announce this in thread if it occurs.

Night

• Nights will last
  48 hours
  , or until all living players give me their approval to end the night early.
  
• During the night, you should be unable to post in the public game thread. If for some reason you are able, doing so is still against the rules.
  
• Mafia night abilities should be submitted in the Mafia's private thread. Factional kills must specify which mafioso carries out the kill.
  
• Town night abilities should be submitted via PM.
  
• Use of active night abilities is optional unless otherwise specified in the role PM; if no action is submitted, no action will occur.

---

Activity requirements

• Players who do not confirm within
  48 hours
  of receiving their role PM will be replaced.
  
• Players who do not post for
  48 hours
  in a single game-day will incur a prod.
  
• Players who do not post for
  24 hours
  following a prod will be replaced.
  
• Players who incur three prods will be replaced.
  
• At my discretion, excessive “prod-dodging” may result in a mod warning and subsequently in disregard of future dodges.
  
• If for any reason you are temporarily unable to meet these requirements, you may declare V/LA status
  in thread
  and be excused. V/LA declarations must include a definite end date.
  
• Notwithstanding V/LA status, any player who does not post at all for
  7 days
  of consecutive day time will be replaced.
  
• These are minimal requirements, not recommendations; please keep the game active.

---

Sample role PM

At least one player will receive the role of

Vanilla Townie

and the following role PM:

Welcome to the game, [NAME]. You are a

Vanilla Townie

.

Abilities

You have no special abilities.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction, or when nothing can prevent this.

Links

Game thread

[/font]

[Umlaut]

I would expect Mafia in this setup to (correctly) conclude that there are no protective roles at all since it would be kind of lame to include a town doc who can't actually ever doc anyone; the point is scum can just kill whoever they want all the time and they know it. I'm trying to give town enough power to counter that disadvantage, but it's possible I overshot it and I'd be happy to tone that down.

[Umlaut]

Happy to drop the Disloyal Fruit Vendor. Should I add something in its place or just another VT?

[Umlaut]

I'm actually gonna hold off on Role PM text until we have the actual roles nailed down, if that's okay.

[Umlaut]

What if UB is replaced with two Neighbors? This is strictly speaking more PRs, but it makes the Traffic Analyst worse and doesn't add another way of guiltying scum.

[Umlaut]

UB -> night 4 vigilante ?

I like this most of the suggestions so far including my own, if NSG accepts this I'll go with it.

[Umlaut]

Note that that role list is missing the vanilla townies since my original post was...

Anyway, here are the role PMs. I may add some images or other inconsequential sprucing-up.

Spoiler: Vanilla Townie

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Vanilla Townie

.

Abilities

You have no special abilities.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Town Traffic Analyst

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Traffic Analyst

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to learn if that player shares a private topic with another living player.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Town Tracker

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Tracker

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to learn if that player visits anyone during the night.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Town Disloyal Fruit Vendor

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Disloyal Fruit Vendor

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to give them a piece of fruit. That player will be informed that they received fruit, but not who sent it.
  
• You can only successfully visit players aligned against the Town. If you target a Town-aligned player, your action will fail.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Town Night 4 Vigilante

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Night 4 Vigilante

.

Abilities

• On Night 4, you may target one player to kill them during the night.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Mafia Strongman

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Mafia Strongman

. Your partners, #ANOTHERNAME and #YETANOTHERNAME, are also Mafia Strongmen.

Abilities

• During the pregame and night, you and your teammate may talk in a private thread, linked below.
  
• Every night you and your teammate may choose one person to kill. You must specify which of you carries out the shot.
  
• If you personally commit the factional kill, it cannot be blocked.

Win Condition

You win when the Mafia is the sole surviving faction (or when nothing can prevent this).

Links

Game thread
Mafia Private Thread

Spoiler: Night event PMs

Traffic Analyst Negative

Your analysis determined that #NAME

is not

engaging in private communications.

Traffic Analyst Positive

Your analysis determined that #NAME

is

engaging in private communications.

Tracker Negative

You tracked #NAME, and found that {he/she/they} did not visit anyone during the night.

Tracker Positive

You tracked #NAME, and found that {he/she/they} visited #ANOTHERNAME during the night.

Fruit receipt

Someone left a(n) {apple/banana/orange/kiwifruit/whatever} at your door overnight.

[Umlaut]

Yeah, you're right.

Spoiler: Town Tracker (corrected)

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Tracker

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to learn whom if anyone that player visits during the night.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: Night event PMs (improved)

Traffic Analyst Negative

Your analysis determined that #NAME

does not

share a private thread with another living player.

Traffic Analyst Positive

Your analysis determined that #NAME

does

share a private thread with another living player.

[Umlaut]

having multiple fruit results is fine but make sure that you don't allow the fruit vendor to choose which one, it could potentially convey information that isn't supposed to be a part of the role.

Yeah, wasn't planning to.

I'll change the wording to "aligned with the Mafia," I usually try to word as generally as possible to avoid leaking setup details but you're right that there can only be one anti-town faction in a normal.

[Umlaut]

Spoiler: Town Disloyal Fruit Vendor

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Disloyal Fruit Vendor

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to give them a piece of fruit. That player will be informed that they received fruit, but not who sent it.
  
• You can only successfully visit Mafia-aligned players. If you target a Town-aligned player, your action will fail.

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

[Umlaut]

I know this is already approved and in signups so I understand if nothing can be changed now, but I wonder if this setup would be better / more fun with daytalk. That would let Mafia coordinate their response to a Traffic Analyst positive or talk through the implications of having received fruit.

[Umlaut]

@northsidegal do you approve?

[Umlaut]

Changes would be:

• in Rules post:
  • change "No default daytalk." to "Private threads have daytalk." (last bullet point under "Tl;dr")
    
  • completely remove the line starting "During the day, you should be unable to post in any private threads..." (third bullet point under "Day")
• in Mafia Strongman role PM:
  • change "During the pregame and night" to "At all times" (first bullet point under "Abilities")

[Umlaut]

On reading up I realized I again need to change the wording of the Traffic Analyst role and result PMs, because e.g. Mailman is supposed to be a positive result for Traffic Analysts according to the wiki; this means the wording in terms of threads alone potentially leaks the information that there is no such role in the game. I'm going to just put "negative" and "positive" in the result PMs so that there is no question what they mean regardless of what comes after.

Spoiler: New new role PM

Welcome to the game, #NAME. You are a

Town Traffic Analyst

.

Abilities

• Each night you may target one player, to learn if that player is capable of private communication with another living player.
  (“Private communication” is any communication outside the main game thread.)

Win Condition

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Links

Game thread

Spoiler: New new result PMs

Traffic Analyst negative

Your analysis was

negative

: #NAME cannot communicate privately with anyone.

Traffic Analyst positive

Your analysis was

positive

: #NAME can communicate privately with someone.

[Umlaut]

Sure!

Mod PT
Dead PT

[Umlaut]

There's an interaction possible in this setup that I hadn't even considered until just now. If the Tracker tracks the Disloyal Fruit Vendor on a night that the DFV tries giving fruit to a Town-aligned player, what result does the Tracker get?

I think in cases like this where the "targeting" itself fails, the action doesn't happen at all and the Tracker would find that the DFV went nowhere. Is that correct?

[Umlaut]

This game has finished and this thread can be made public.