IMO the main difference between Opens and Mini Normals...

[BNL]

...is that Open Games allow Hydras while Mini Normals do not.

Does anyone agree?

[Heat]

Well and the fact that opens have known setups and mini normals have unknown setups

[Zachrulez]

Mini Normals are not banned from having open setups. An open setup in a mini normal just has to conform to normal standards.

[Antihero]

there's a preeeeeeeeeeeeetty big fundamental difference in open/closed setups

[Firebringer]

Well and the fact that opens have known setups and mini normals have unknown setups

there's a preeeeeeeeeeeeetty big fundamental difference in open/closed setups

[Ircher]

Mini Normals are not banned from having open setups. An open setup in a mini normal just has to conform to normal standards.

As devil's advocate

[Antihero]

when was the last time someone ran an open in the mini normal queue?

[Ircher]

Not too long ago. I believe one's ongoing in fact. It was at least semi open.

[Antihero]

semi open isnt open

[Ircher]

Really,mwhat's the huge difference?

[Zachrulez]

Both are allowed to run in the open queue... so...

[Postie]

I'm queued to mod an open set-up in the Mini Normal queue.

[Sméagol]

Opens allow for roles & mechanics that aren't allowed in normals.

[BNL]

Well I guess it'll be more accurate to say games run in the Open queue vs games run in the Mini Normal queue.

The thing is, usually Open games follow the Normal guidelines to some extent, so scumhunting feels the same in both Opens and Mini Normals.

On the other hand, since Hydras are allowed in Open games, it makes me feel that is the best alternative if a hydra wants to play in a Normal game.

[zMuffinMan]

scumhunting feels the same in both Opens and Mini Normals

there really isn't that much difference in how scum hunting works between a normal and a non-normal game, except when the non-normal game goes really overboard with mechanics, so yeah...

honestly, with regards to normal vs non-normal, the majority of theme games that run don't use roles on the normal blacklist, so outside of strange mechanics, the only things a non-normal does that a normal doesn't are hydras being allowed and there's probably more grey-listed roles than allowed in a normal game

the only real difference between setups in the open queue and setups elsewhere (other than the fact the setup is known) is that you're not relying on potentially clueless moderator and reviewers to balance it (and i honestly think the majority of mods on this site are not fit to judge balance, so there's that, too)

[callforjudgement]

There are basically two sorts of Theme games. Some of them are basically just "Normalish games with a theme and maybe multiple greylist roles". Others are "game based around a weird mechanic that would look completely out of place in a Normal"; these often don't have power roles at all, or if they do, they'll be very specialized to the mechanic.