What is truly Bastard - and what is not?

[callforjudgement]

A doctor that can become a survivor isn't fully useless. In fact, it's fairly powerful: if they ever end up in mylo or lylo, they can convert at that moment, claim, and start voting random players until there's a scum quickhammer for the mafia+survivor win. So the game balances as though the role were scum, even though it can win with town if town does well.

I don't think it's bastard on that player themself: they know from the start that helping town and helping scum are both potentially viable paths to victory, and are fully informed in making their choice. However, it may be somewhat bastard on the rest of the players because it's hard to guess and effectively impossible to balance around.

[callforjudgement]

Town Mole: The mole is given access to the identities of the scumteam and implied to be a part of the scumteam when in actuality their alignment is actually pro-town. Mod hangs hat on the idea that the scum were never informed of the role and alignment of the other members who had access to QT.

Thought I'd put this one out there for consumption in 2020 because this one actually happened and was run in a game before. (With a mod warning that the game

might

have mechanics that are considered bastard.

MIGHT.

)

I think this one has happened at least twice in the past.

It is likely to fail utterly if an experienced setup reviewer is in the game: it's a role so powerful that either its mere existence distorts the rest of the setup to the point that either the game is massively unbalanced, or else measures are taken to balance it, but those measures have to be so extreme that it's really obvious what they're guarding against.

(Silly idea for a bastard game: put those measures in the game

without

the Town Mole and see how long it takes the scum to nightkill each other looking for them. I don't recommend ever running this (nor running a game with a Mole in, for that matter), but it's still amusing to think about.)