I think I am also going to kinda use this as like a modding blog and also just use this to talk about what I want to accomplish in 2019, because I actually do want to be involved with mafia again as a mod, and I have plenty of ideas to do that.
While enjoying fun and enjoyable games for my players, I want 2019 to be a really special year modding wise. 2018 was kinda meh in that I don't really feel anything significantly stood out. I want to offer experiences that are just different. A lot of mafia games are really similar to each other. You have a setup, you have some roles, you slap something together bada boom bada bam. Its plain old noodle soup. No special sauce or anything. To make it special, you just have to believe its special.
The issue is: no one believes that's special anymore. You are literally advertising noodle soup as noodle soup, you're not advertising it with a special sauce. And the reason is simple:
When was the last time you saw a mountainous game ran?
Mountainous is frowned upon on MS.
Its seen as scumsided and people don't want to play it.
However this mentality is so wrong.
Mountainous IS plain old noodle soup. Its the original formula. You can reuse it as much as you want, its the basis for all games.
Normal Games is a formula that only works once. You use the setup once, and then you have to throw it away, you can't use it again until people forgot about its existance. This goes for most U-Picks, other standard role madness games, and any Varsoon game.
There are 3 setups that stood out to me during my time on MS. These setups are practically my favorite of all time.
FakeGod's dance games. Pretty self explanatory since these are re-ran seasonally. These games are known for being that Open Theme thats ran frequently in the queue, its a pretty dam good and fun setup.
Regfan's
It's an Owners Market (WHICH BTW, I'M GOING TO MOD AS A SECRET ALT GAME AND YOU SHOULD TOTALLY PM ME TO PRE-IN). This setup looked really cool and interesting to me, could be run multiple times.
and finally, Nahdia's
Civilization Mafia, while being known for the clusterfuck that is 749 pages, this setup is timeless in that you can take the skeleton and redesign all of the powers and even if you wanted, all of the resolutions, or cut resolutions entirely if you even wanted to (but don't do this, its just won't give off the same feeling)
btw as a promise, I promise to get someone to rerun Nahdia's Civ Mafia game as their own. I can't do it, but someone else
They are all similar in that:
Everyone starts as VT/Goon
They have fancy mechanics which are doing all of the work, and the game is about the mechanics, not the setup, where as in the current modding community, gameplay involves breaking the setup and revolves around the setup, not mechanics.
If powers are aquired, they are aquired later on instead of at the start. This makes gameplay more dynamic. In Civ and Regfan's game, its about getting the most important things when you need to get them. In
This game that I am currently designing and trying to get several people to look at (btw pre-in its 25 players), its about the rock paper scissors formula, but that formula is SUPPOSED to create a game that (hopefully) a "best" strategy doesn't exist. I can run this game and every run of the game will be different due to how diverse it is.
So, I want try to inspire more open themes and cool semi opens to be moderated in the theme queues. Because some of the best setups and games I've ever seen designed are Open Themes.
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But wait, there's more I want to do.
I want to try to grow the modding community, and work together with other individuals in the modding community to provide amazing games for 2019.
Also, I want to explore the realm of mentor/mentee games.
I also kinda of want try to encourage player growth and improvement.
I feel like the best way to do this is to try to learn from someone else.
What makes this different from just hydraing with each other, is that in hydras are really hard things to get in perfect synchronization and harmony.
The mentee has a game to play.
Hopefully, mentors WON'T PLAY THE GAME FOR THE MENTEE but instead will attempt to help develope the mentee's skills.
Thats the idea anyway.