To moderate a Normal game, you must meet the following requirements:
- You must have been active on this site for at least three months and have completed at least one Mafia game as a player.
- Additionally, if the game is a Large Normal, you must have successfully moderated one Mafia game. The best queues to gain moderating experience are Micro or Mini Normals and Approved Open setups (these game types do not require any experience to moderate games).
- If you have not moderated any Large games before, you may not have more than 21 players in your game (may be waived by the Listmod on a case by case basis).
If joining the moderation queue could cause you to be moderating multiple games at once, you need at least as many games of moderating experience as the number of simultaneous games you might be moderating.
If you have experience moderating offsite games, you may request these games to be considered as equivalent experience. It is up to the Listmod's discretion whether they will qualify.
Backup/co-moderator requirements:
A backup or co-mod will be required for all Normal games unless it is the only game you are running across all queues
and
your game has thirteen or fewer players. If this is the only game you are running across all queues and your game has thirteen or fewer players, a backup/co-mod is strongly recommended but not required. If your game has fourteen or more players, a backup or co-mod is always required. Backup mods/co-mods must also meet the modding requirements for the game on their own such that they would be qualified to take over in the event the original game moderator cannot continue moderating the game.
First-time game moderators must always have a backup or co-mod.
Thread access: You must make a moderator private topic in the
Private Topics subforum that fully describes your setup and contains the list of roles assigned to players. If you have a backup/co-mod, you must give them access to this and all PTs you make for the game, and make them a thread moderator for your main game thread. If you do not have a backup/co-mod, you must give access to your PTs to the Listmod.
Game moderators may choose to design their own setup or use a setup pre-designed by the
Normal Game Review Group. If you decide to design your own setup, you must submit the setup to the Listmod when you sign up to moderate a game, and the Listmod will facilitate the setup review.
Mafia games must meet the following criteria from the
Normal Game wiki page in order to be run in the Normal queue:
- The game is reasonably balanced and does not deviate from what one would reasonably expect in a standard Mafia game.
- The game is reviewed for balance by the Normal Game Review Group.
- If the game is a Micro or Mini, the game contains exactly one anti-town informed minority faction of at least two members and no other anti-town factions.
- If the game is a Large, the game contains at least one, but no more than two, anti-town informed minority factions of at least two members, and contains no more than one serial killer.
- The game contains at least one Vanilla Townie. The rules post contains a sample Vanilla Townie role PM.
- All roles and modifiers used are on the normal role whitelist (refer to the Normal Game wiki page).
- The game does not contain any explicitly Non-Normal mechanics (refer to the Normal Game wiki page)
- The game moderator announces any deviations from the standard Normal parameters regarding phase length, daytalk, action resolution, Day/Night cycle, multi-tasking, etc (refer to the Normal Game wiki page).
- Roles use standard names and role PMs do not contain flavor.
- All flavor is public and entirely original. (Flavor based on any kind of source material should be run in the Theme Queue.
- Flavor does not have any impact on the game - it should be possible for a player to read only the role reveals and gain all information needed to play. This information is formatted to stand out from any flavor.
First-time game moderators are encouraged, although not required, to use pre-designed setups, as they are designed by players who are familiar with the site’s meta.
All Normal games are required to be reviewed by the
Normal Game Review Group. Game moderators who choose to design their own setup must submit the setup to the Listmod when signing up to moderate a game, and the Listmod will facilitate the setup review. The game moderator must provide the following information when signing up to moderate a game:
- Number of players
- List of roles, including role PMs
- Opening post, including game rules
Game moderators who choose to use a pre-designed setup will receive a setup that has already been reviewed by the NRG and do not have to undergo any further setup review. You should specify what playerlist size you wish to use. You may also ask who designed the available setups, if you would prefer to run a setup designed by a specific member of the NRG. You will receive the setup when your game enters signups so that you can familiarize yourself with the setup.
Game moderators can run a maximum of two games with ten or more players at a time. Game moderators must wait until they are only running one game with ten or more players before they can enter a queue for ten or more players again.
There is no limit to the number of games with nine or fewer players that a game moderator can run at a time. However, game moderators cannot enter a new game into the queue until any games they have previously queued have entered signups. This is to prevent a game moderator from taking up multiple consecutive spots in the queue when there are multiple other game moderators waiting to run games as well.
Players can directly contact the game moderator before a game goes into signups to request a reserved slot ("pre-in"). Games are allowed to have up to half of its slots, rounded down, reserved for pre-ins.
Once a game has entered signups, the game moderator has 72 hours to confirm their game slot and list any pre-ins in the queue thread. It is the game moderator's responsibility to make sure that players with pre-in slots confirm them within 72 hours of the game entering signups.
Game moderators can reject signups from players for any reason, referred to as "Wisdom of the Mod" (WOTM). The game moderator has final discretion over their player list.
Moderation activity expectations:
Moderators should create their game thread within 72 hours of receiving their playerlist, moderator access to the subforum, and game number, and start the game within 10 days of receiving their playerlist. If they fail to do so, the game will be considered abandoned. Moderators should update their games at least as often as the prod timer for their game, and if they fail to update it after triple the prod timer for their game, the Listmod may have someone else take over moderation for the game (and there will be other penalties if this happens.) You should treat moderating a game as a commitment. Note that backup moderators and co-moderators are an excellent way to avoid these scenarios. Backup/co-mods should be prepared to run the game to completion if the game moderator is unable to do so.
Other game moderator expectations:
Game moderators must follow the
Rules for Mafia Game Moderators section of the Forum Rules and Guidelines.
Game elements at moderator discretion:
The following game elements can be decided at a game moderator’s discretion, and must be announced when entering the queue as part of the queue entry form:
Alt policy
: Alts are not required by default to declare themselves or reveal the identity of their main account when signing up for a game. However, game moderators may choose to require all alts to disclose their identities to the game moderator. Game moderators can also require alts to reveal their main account later on in certain cases, i.e. if a rule infraction occurs.
Player list discretion
: Game moderators have full discretion over their player lists, including the use of WOTM or WOTC, as well as whether they wish to consider blacklists. Game moderators should exercise this discretion over player signups by privately contacting players to let them know their signup is not being accepted. If a player does not remove their signup on their own, the game moderator may then post publicly in the queue thread to remove the player’s signup.
- Wisdom of the Mod (WOTM): The game moderator can choose to reject players from their player list at their own discretion.
- Wisdom of the Crowd (WOTC)/Blacklisting: Players can privately contact the game moderator if a player signs up after them that they will not play with. The game moderator has discretion over whether to accept the player’s signup. Generally this option requires multiple players to WOTC a player before a game moderator would choose not to accept a player’s signup, although ultimately the game moderator can decide the threshold they require in order to remove a player’s signup.
Requesting exceptions to site rules
: Game moderators can request certain exceptions to the site’s mafia rules, including players being able to replace back into their slot after previously replacing out, allowing discussion of their game in other threads while it is ongoing, requesting to be able to use site users in flavor without requiring listmod review of the text, etc. Game moderators may not supersede site rules without prior Listmod approval.
Note that unlike the Open and Theme Queues, game moderators may not specify experience requirements for Normal games. In addition, hydras are not allowed in Normals.
Game moderators should also describe any other nonstandard elements to their setup or rules when entering the queue.
