Theme Test Market

[Leafsnail]

I really like the idea but I think there'd need to be some solution to timezone issues (or even "people post at different times" issues). A British Thing would seriously struggle to assume the identity of a west coaster who usually posts at his 5am (and vice versa).

edit: easiest solution would probably to specify a time when all your game signups need to be most active.

Also there'd need to be an absolute ban on talking about stuff from outside of the current game (it's hard enough to try and absorb someone's entire playstyle and suspicions for that game without having to remember their entire history). I really like the way that "You're not acting like yourself!" allegations would start flying around from day 2 onwards though.

[Leafsnail]

The problems I see with the roles:
- The Chemist's role is almost entirely useless, as far as I can tell, except maybe in some lylo-like situations where delaying a lynch by one day is enough to win. You may prolong a mafia member's life for one day but in return you're probably giving out confirmed townies to protect with the pharmacist.
- The Drugger doesn't seem excessively powerful - it's like a nightkill but with a more limited scope. He can only choose between the group of 3 players the town finds most scummy, and the pharmacist can opt out of being gassed if he roleclaims. In addition in some cases he could just be making a lynch happen one night early.
- The Vaccinated Townie seems overpowered. He can only die to a one-shot role that may or may not be in the game, and which really

must

go for the pharmacist anyway. If someone gets stabbed to death he can roleclaim completely safely, and be an invincible confirmed townie.
- The Sealer would cause serious issues if he were in the same compound as the Drugger - the mafia has no kill. In addition he's easily confirmable by any PR, and could claim fairly safely due to being able to defend himself from knife attacks.
- The Backup Pharmacist is probably unnecessary. Getting the pharmacist, who can claim freely once the Knifer is out of the picture AND resist lynches, killed is already a tough task for the mafia.

So you could have a game with up to 3 virtually invincible confirmed townies and no mafiakill.

[Leafsnail]

I guess they'd be like sample roles then. I'd still give the mafia something like "an ability which kills the target if that player is the pharmacist" or something because otherwise the pharmacist could cause them a real headache.

[Leafsnail]

I presume the council meetings would be anonymous, otherwise they could decide "Yeah let's lynch the guy the scum sent to the council meeting". Assuming they are anonymous both of the elected people could just claim and then ignore the guy the scum sent.

[Leafsnail]

Even if they didn't send one of their own you'd still want to just ignore them.

[Leafsnail]

Have you seen the attempts to create legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff? A lot like that.

[Leafsnail]

It might be playable if you cheated and split it into multiple threads/ ran some sort of "replacing players" (with new playerslots) mechanic so not everyone played at once.

[Leafsnail]

You'd need to split them up into cells or something. I wouldn't really want to have to mod four 25 player games at once though

[Leafsnail]

I assume the usurper wincon would be to make up at least 50% of the players? One problem I see is that there may be situations where an about-to-be-lynched usurper would want to give out the names of (non-usurper) mafia members. Then again as long as that's kept in mind during design it should be manageable.

[Leafsnail]

That'd be true if they gave out

all

the mafia member names, but not if they left one out (then the mafia risks screwing over their last remaining team-mate). Just something to think about.

[Leafsnail]

If you dropped it down to "alignment reveal only" (other than for the Black Hat) when both priests are dead then it could be ok. I can see why the priests

must

be in the game - it gives the mafia a chance to avoid going 1v1 with random people over their claim.

e: Inclusion of priests also helps resist the possibility of a massclaim break, since the mafia can kill the priests to stop the town from PoEing them to death.