LARPG

[theaceofspades]

So I'm setting up a LARPG at my college. Just wondering if some of y'all could help me iron out the rules.

Basics:
50+ People
$5 entrance fee. Winners divide the fees evenly.
3 teams. Law-abiding and two rival mafias
6 roles are distributed. 1 person is sheriff. Two are Mafia Godfathers. 1 Is vampire. 1 is vampire hunter Everyone else is unaligned.
The sheriff and godfathers can recruit people into their teams. when a person joins a side they will email me their new alignment.
The goal of the Godfathers is to eliminate the Sheriff and the other Godfather. The Sheriff's job is to eliminate the two godfathers.
The goal of the unaligned is to be on the winning team.
Except for the Vampire who's goal is to survive till the end whatever team he's on. And the vampire hunter wins if he kills the vampire.

so that's the basics. All players will have my e-mail and so can ask any questions they need to.
Mechanics are pretty simple. For ever two members of the Sheriff's team he can investigate one more person every night. (real night. They'll email me) investigating someone will reveal their true alignment (the one they sent me, if they've lied to anyone about who they are their lie is exposed)
For every 3 mafia members a mafia family can kill one more person each night.
The vampire MUST kill someone every 2 days or they die. However. They can only kill someone on their own team (as indicated by their email to me)
The vampire hunter may kill someone on any night. After a certain number of days (how many?) they will be given the identity of the sheriff.

Game continues until two of the major factions have lost their leader.

I also have a vague Idea of a record keeper on the sheriff's side, who if he is killed by anyone they receive all the investigations that have already happened and a new record keeper is chosen (who I suppose could also switch sides, and become a spy, but I'm not to sure about that part)

What do ya think? anything unclear? ANyting you'd add? remove?

[Battousai]

Don't know what college you go to, but 50 people sounds like a lot of people since they have to be interested AND willing to pay 5 bucks for it. I would suggest having more than one setup to accommodate fewer players

Also, what makes this a LARPG? I mean, it sounds like it's going to last a week or something. And it basically reads as a large size, face to face mafia game with the only interaction would be when someone tries to recruit someone.

On balance issue, it's basically 3 cults with a pool of recruits and no town. That means interaction between each other is not required to succeed. Godfathers kill everyone who's not on their team, the sheriff kills anyone who's not on his team, the vampire does shit, and the vampire hunter kills everyone. The whole game could be played in less than 30 minutes if you didn't put in a pointless day phase.

What's the point of giving the vampire hunter the name of the sheriff? Be just as useful to give him a 1-shot investigate in addition to his kill.

[theaceofspades]

because the recruits have no built in loyalty i anticipate them switching sides. Playing both sides etc.

Yes it could go fast if you didn't make them wait. Which people are bad at. they get nervous and they do stuff. Also you're entire goal as a leader is to get your people to find the other leaders. You're not going to just kill wantonly until you happen on the right person.

The thing with the Hunter would be that the sheriff wouldn't have the hunters name. So the hunter has to convince the sheriff to let him into the fold. I added that because the sheriff side is under powered since they can't kill anybody except by steering the lynches. But giving them a kill in addition to their investigation over-powers them. so a delay in getting that power. And adding the stipulation that the vampire hunter doesn't need to take orders necessarily.

There is town. I realize I didn't mention that. The lynch mechanic remains intact with a decreasing rate of lynches (as the pool shrinks so to does the number of lynches each day)
If you don't align and you survive till the end you are a winner. As town. Didn't include that part. My bad

[zoraster]

50 people sounds like a ton for an in person game. I'd start with the more practical aspects. How do you intend to do vote counts? How do you intend to do night actions?

[Mr. Flay]

What incentive do people have to give you money to play? Do you have an established reputation as a Game Master?

[Battousai]

because the recruits have no built in loyalty i anticipate them switching sides. Playing both sides etc.

Yes it could go fast if you didn't make them wait. Which people are bad at. they get nervous and they do stuff. Also you're entire goal as a leader is to get your people to find the other leaders. You're not going to just kill wantonly until you happen on the right person.

The thing with the Hunter would be that the sheriff wouldn't have the hunters name. So the hunter has to convince the sheriff to let him into the fold. I added that because the sheriff side is under powered since they can't kill anybody except by steering the lynches. But giving them a kill in addition to their investigation over-powers them. so a delay in getting that power. And adding the stipulation that the vampire hunter doesn't need to take orders necessarily.

There is town. I realize I didn't mention that. The lynch mechanic remains intact with a decreasing rate of lynches (as the pool shrinks so to does the number of lynches each day)
If you don't align and you survive till the end you are a winner. As town. Didn't include that part. My bad

What you expect players to do and what they will do can be drastically different; even moreso when you are talking about newish players. My guess is the leaders will, no doubt, just randomly kill people for most of the game.

[theaceofspades]

What incentive do people have to give you money to play? Do you have an established reputation as a Game Master?

I do. I've done several already. This is the first one I've written independently.

Also. Incentive. If they win they win cash-o-la!

[theaceofspades]

50 people sounds like a ton for an in person game. I'd start with the more practical aspects. How do you intend to do vote counts? How do you intend to do night actions?

Administration is kind of a non issue. I have a team of 3 other people. Basically we will have a public board (two actually one online one off) where you have your identity logged and you can post a vote.

Night actions are conducted by email.

To the guy who says the leaders will just kill randomly. That's what I thought would happen in ANY mafia game. But it almost never does.
I could be wrong. But it's unlikely that there will be many new players. There is a core group at my school that does this kind of stuff all the time. So the people that would be interested would already know what they were doing, and would want to have an interesting game.

But if not. How would you fix that? Or do you just think the concept is broken in general?

[Mr. Flay]

Ah, missed that line about payout. Yeah, you might have a shot, but if you're coming here for game design help you by-mith better give us a donation of part of your profits!

[zoraster]

ahh okay. so it's a combination online/offline game?

[theaceofspades]

Ah, missed that line about payout. Yeah, you might have a shot, but if you're coming here for game design help you by-mith better give us a donation of part of your profits!

I dont' keep any of the cut.

It's all between the players. I do this to play god, not to make monies

[theaceofspades]

ahh okay. so it's a combination online/offline game?

yeah. anything goes. YOu can email each other call each other use motorcycle couriers, whatever.

But I have an admin email adress that any questions, or actions can be sent to

[zoraster]

how long do you think the game will actually last?

[theaceofspades]

two weeks at the most. Day one there are already 6 possible kills minimum ( 2 lynches, 2 vampire/vampire hunter/ 1 for each mafia team.) with a few recruits the mafia numbers will go up.

I'm planing to start on monday. I'm going ahead with it. I'll post a summary afterwards.

[zoraster]

technically the minimum kills are 4, no? Because the two lynches could fall on the vampire/vampire hunter.

[theaceofspades]

yeah I guess. That would be REALLY unlucky though.

Both godfathers could get lynched too I guess and the game would end day one. That would be funny.

[Untrod Tripod]

we had a larping group at my college

I liked to watch their get-togethers on the quad. they were furn.