Setting up anew game (numbers)

[Angel Fish]

I'm soon to mod my first game elsewhere...I've looked htorugh threads here, and played a few games on Brunchma, but I was wondering if anyone had ideas about 'proportionality' in assigning numbers of mafia and so on...

For example:
In a game of 20 players, how many families can you support? Is it big enough for a serial killer? Do you need 'retired' players to fill in roles? How many roles supporting the town do you need to balance X or Y number of mafia? How many members should a recruiting group start with?

I don't want to post details (that'll spoil it for anyone playing at both sites) but I was wondering if anyone could describe how they work out their proportions, or what set-ups they've used sucessfully. (If anyone wants to PM me information - I'm only playing the Buffy game - that'd be great).

[Sofis]

I think one important question to ask yourself is, "How many innocents can the town afford to lynch?" If you have a serial killer, several families, a vigilante, doctors, then that will of course make calculating such a number difficult, but some sort of estimate should be possible (perhaps by comparing worst case and best case scenarios). This number shouldn't be too much smaller than the number of mafia the town must lynch...
In a straight townie/mafia scenario, I think it makes sense to allow the town a number of missed lynches that is one less than the number of mafia - ie, require the town to have better than 50% hit rate, but not much better. Every supporting role the town has decreases the number, and every supporting role the mafia has increases it... how much is pretty much touch and feel.

Disclaimer: I have never modded a game, but these are the ideas I've thought about for balancing my upcoming mafia game.

[Antrax]

Yeah, this is pretty much what I do. In addition, I try not to create very strong or influential roles, because then the luck factor increases. For example, if I have the Tri-doc, who can protect three people each night, I have to balance it by giving the mafia a big edge. Then, if the town lynches the Tri-Doc, they're very likely to lose horribly. You shouldn't hang too much on one person.
Antrax

[Angel Fish]

Would either of you (or anyone else) be willing to run your experienced eyes over a quickie outline of my game if I PMd it to you, just to see if you think it's balanced enough? I'd really appreciate it...

[Sofis]

Sorry, I can't. Since my plans to brutally murder mith and steal Luna from him have yet to come to fruition, I do not currently possess a set of experienced eyes .
I'd be willing to run my

un

experienced eyes over it as long as it can wait until tomorrow, but I don't know how useful that would be.

[Internet Stranger]

Sofis, you should have said so, i would have killed mith and tested luna for you when they were last here

[Sofis]

That's very sweet of you, IS. I think I'd like to handle it myself, though. You can't really do the whole "Ar-har, my sweet flower of the desert, you're coming with me"-while-twirling-oily-black-moustache thing by proxy.

(Note to self: grow black oily moustache. Train ar-harring and twirling in front of mirror)

[Internet Stranger]

Could I be the loyal goon then?

[Sofis]

Well, certainly, if you want to. It's a pretty thankless job, though. There will probably be escape attempts involving your testicles and a foot, and the dental plan... *shudder* As a goon, you're

expected

to have bad teeth.

[verge_of_taboo]

why not kidnap luna while i distract mith? i could have fun doing that... lots of fun...