General Mafia Theme Suggestions

[Ningal]

Well, I'd say it's a "radically themed Mafia". Hey, I've seen flying pumpkins shooting laser beams on this board.

Yes, but that still fit the basic Mafia dynamic; the description as a laser-beam-shooting flying pumpkin rather than as a normal vigilante was, so far as I can see, basically flavor. In your Survivor 'theme', who precisely are the Mafioso-equivalents? Where's the collaborative aspect?

[Antrax]

"flavour" which also gave the role immunity to night attacks while a certain other role was alive, gave it 25% protection and gave it the "aim" ability, which is basically a way of investigating. Oh yeah, just a vigilante.
Antrax

[Ningal]

More evidence that I can't communicate worth a damn. *sigh* Antrax, you know full well what I mean - that even

with

the twists put on the role, it still fit the vigilante archetype, which in turn is part of the normal mafia

thing

.

[Antrax]

But you're very wrong. It's true that most roles can be attributed to an archtype, which is the reason mith and myself came seperately with the same idea of creating a "formal language" for mafia roles, but the flying pumpkin was different enough than a regular vigilante to not fit in a regular mafia game, even without the funky name. The "animal" mechanic itself would disqualify it.
Antrax

[Dragon Slayer]

I'm not saying it has no connections I just don't think it fits that well in wih the mafia gaming theme of this website. Brunchma would probably be great for it.

[Muser]

Well, I'm not that familiar with Mafia, being relatively new to it. I guess I didn't realize that there were certain "rules" that a scenario had to abide by.

In my "Survivor Mafia" game, I see the "tribes" as separate Mafia families, and simply no Townies. Would that qualify it as an allowable Mafia scenario?

Rewards like altering votes, protecting people, and getting extra votes are unique to Mafia, and not part of the Survivor TV show. Same goes for the whole "unknown identities" concept, which is the most basic premise of Mafia.

I'm just thinking of a Mafia game themed like Survivor. I'm not sure how this is any different than other themed Mafia games. Survivor just happens to also use the mechanic of voting people out.

[mith]

The main reason it's not like Mafia is that there is no good vs. evil. The only basis you would have for voting for someone is that you think they're tribe is doing better. I mean, what are you going to say if you get voted for? "Don't vote for me, I'm not Mafia... oh, wait, everyone is, nevermind."

[mith]

Incidentally, dethy was going to run a game that's a combination of Mafia, the Mole, and Survivor. I just think your particular idea isn't Mafia like, I do think that a Survivor theme might be made to work.

[ambic]

I really wanted to do time travel mafia - and I have spoken to others about it - such as what to do with paradoxes....


I think a 50 player game in which the mafia make a kill, and then make it happen on any night of the game could be interesting. Eg Kill Mole, Night 2. The doctors can do the same thing, protect mole night 2, thereby bringing him back to life.... And then if a player dies, the numbers required to lynch changes, and the players vote is gone... confusing,.... Hell to mod.... but so much fun.....

A few other roles like paradox preventers would be cool too.... And when lynched no roles are revealed.... The cops will have to investigate the player by travelling back in time to before he died to find out the alignment....

Holy cow what a game....

[mith]

Have you talked to mole about it? He and I discussed something similar once, I don't know if he ever got anything close to working. Your ideas seem to be a big step in the right direction, though I'd like to see something more concrete before I'll be convinced it'll work.

[ambic]

Yup - Moles the one I have primarily talked too about it...

[Chuck]

One hundred U.S. senators, some of whom are commies (mafia). Joseph McCarthy is the only cop but can investigate three senators per day.

[ralphmerridew]

Two ideas I had which are open to anybody who wants them: (both posted previously on GL)

1) Medical Mafia
Each night, the mafia has (1+#(mafia living)) points of attacks, which they can distribute amonst the other players however they please. Everyone else is a doctor and gets one point of defense, which they can place on any other player. Anybody who gets more points of attack than defense dies.

I'm not sure how to balance this, though, but its mostly ready to run.

2) Auction Mafia
At the beginning of the game, each player gets a fixed amount of money, and a vague list of the roles is posted. Each player chooses how much to bid on each role, and the high bidder for a role gets it. (The person who makes the highest single bid gets that role, and his/her bids are removed from all other auctions. Everybody must bid on each role, with a different amount for each bid.)

Also, each day there are some services offered (one-night bodyguard, investigation), so that people don't spend all their money on the initial auction.

There's a fair amount that would need to be done before this is ready, though.

[Antrax]

Hm, is the auction secret or open? If it's secret, it's not really an auction, and if it's open, everybody know who has which role.
Antrax

[cuban smoker]

Time travel Mafia... Wow... I am all of a sudden absolutely fascinated. Just so you guys know, I'm going to start from scratch, and see what I come up with over the next few days. If I come up with a working model, I'll contact either mole or ambic.

I think the secret might be to use the multiverse theory of time travel, and have the mod decide which multiverse the players are actually conscious in, based on the events that have occured. You see, you could track all the possible universes in a database like excel, or even access. Hmm... Oh well, off I go to start theorizing about this...

[ralphmerridew]

The auction is sealed price, first bid, and bids are not revealed until after the game is over.

[jadesmar]

What happens in your auction when everyone ties because they bid one dollar on each role they didn't want and the rest on, oh, let's say cop.

[RubberDuck]

What about a Resident Evil mafia?

If someone does want to try this one but doesnt know any roles just ask me and I can tell you.

[Green Crayons]

I've actually been tossing a Macbeth themed mafia around in my head for a short while. After i iron out all the kinks that i see, anyone willing to look over the role descriptions i have managed to come up with?

[Dragon Phoenix]

sure, just email me.

[Windchill]

Macbeth?

I suppose the game will have a curse on it

Ive been waiting for someone to suggest Shakespeare mafia. About time, and Ill be in....

[Beaudoin]

Discordian Mafia. Expect visits from Mr. Morimoto, Famous Japanese who can swallow his own nose, and St. Gulik, Messenger of Eris (and a Roach).

[Angel Fish]

I've been turning over some ideas for "SimsMafia" in my head for a while (when I started to see some gaming-related theme games spring up, I relaised the only game of this type I could possibly do was one based around "The Sims").

So far I have three set ups; a mini-game, a straight game (with tweaked roles) and a whacked out, random events, freaky game.

Anyone else thought about this theme? Any suggestions for roles and so on? I'd like to get at least one, interesting-but-workable game out of it.

[Gaspode]

Since people's characters are always different in The Sims, I don't really get how you could make roles out of it, but go ahead, try it. My only suggestion is that many people can't stand randomness, so either leave it out or put in a disclaimer.

[Angel Fish]

I want to cut out the randomness totally, hence askign for hints.

Roles could work around the NPCs - You've got loads to choose from, maids, gardeners, gatecrashers...the aliens who abduct you, racoons, stray dogs, the Grim Reaper, mimes, Drew Carey, etc.

I'd really like to try and do a series of mini-games, four in total, one for each location (residential lot, old town, vacation Island and DownTown) but that might require a) patient players and b) my own mafia board where no one else whats to mod