[CHALLENGE] July Challenge

[Ircher]

Surviving Ropes and Guns

13p setup: 9 Town, 3 Mafia, 1 Neutral Survivor

This game is night start, but there is no kill n0. During night zero, the survivor must choose how many lynches the town gets the following day (think like Double Day). After n0 ends, the town gets to play through that many days. Then, the game enters an equivalent number of nights. At the end of the last night, the neutral survivor (if still alive) gets to choose how many lynches town gets like on night 0. This process continues until the town or mafia have won. If at any point, the survivor is dead, the game goes back to a normal day/night cycle.

[Ircher]

Well the way I see it is that if the survivor believes they can survive the rope easier, they'll choose more lynches, and if they can survive the kill better, they'll choose fewer lynches.

So someone like RadiantCowbells would likely choose 10 lynches.
Whereas I would choose 1 lynch.

[Ircher]

I'd imagine they'd get automatically shot as this mechanic balances out in town's favor.

Maybe I should set a limit on the number of consecutive lynches. 3 sounds like a good limit.

[Ircher]

I don't think that's a breaking strategy?

If the survivor picks zero, that means there is no lynch phase AND there is no night phase. Therefore, 0 is pretty much an invalid choice.

If you meant to write one, well in that case, town has a lot of incentive to lynch the survivor the following day, so that does not work in the survivor's favor either.

Edit: Maybe the game should degenerate into Double Day instead of Mountainous?

[Ircher]

By definition, lynching the survivor causes them to lose as they did not manage to survive.

Still, here's a somewhat modified version:

Surviving Ropes and Guns

v2.0.0.0
13p setup: 9 Town, 3 Mafia, 1 Neutral Survivor

This game is night start, but there is no kill n0. During night zero, the survivor must choose how many lynches the town gets the following day (think like Double Day). This number must be at least one and cannot exceed three. After n0 ends, the town gets to play through that many days. Then, the game enters an equivalent number of nights. At the end of the last night, the neutral survivor (if still alive) gets to choose how many lynches town gets like on night 0. This process continues until the town or mafia have won. If at any point, the survivor is dead, the game immediately shifts to night if the death occurred in the day and to day if the death occurred at night. The game then proceeds with a normal day/night cycle.

[Ircher]

In that case, I'd have to make the number of phases random? I dunno; seems like that defeats the purpose of the setup.

Really, it is dependent on which route the survivor takes imo. Either help scum or help town and hope they survive.

[Ircher]

But I don't see any reason town doesn't choose {max} and mafia doesn't choose {1}

That's why I let the survivor choose. They get to pick their foes.

[Ircher]

Survivor always wins no matter what.

Let's say they choose 3. Best case for mafia is that all of them are town lynches

9 town 3 mafia 1 surv

3 town 3 mafia 1 surv

then surv can just scum side.

Let's say they kill 1 scum.

4 town 2 mafia 1 surv

Again, survivor just chooses 3. Town must get all the mafia to win and they wouldn't waste a lynch on the survivor.

Let's say they kill 2 scum.

5 town 1 mafia 1 surv

Again, survivor chooses 3. If town doesn't get the mafia they lose, so see above. Survivor wins.

And let's say they kill all the scum

Well town wins.

Are you assuming the survivor claims every time? What about if scum counterclaim? Sure, scum lose a member BUT the game becomes mountainous which is advantageous for scum.

Edit: Well there's a 50/50 chance it works in scum's favor each time.

[Ircher]

The Four Seasons

9x Vanilla Townie
1x Town 1-Shot Seasonal Sensor
3x Mafia Goon

During a special pregame/Dawn phase (after everyone has received alignment; mafia can chat during this phase), players privately choose one of the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, or autumn. Players that do not pick in a timely manner are automatically assigned to Winter.

Once the Dawn phase ends, players become neighbors with players that chose the same season as them. Who is in what neighborhood is not publicly revealed. The game then continues like a normal game.

Once per game, the Seasonal Sensor can choose a season. They will learn how many scum-aligned players (both living and dead) are in that season's neighborhood.

[Ircher]

2) an english essay (nk15)

@Not Known 15 --> No one wants to read a setup whose mechanical description is that long. See if you can simplify the design or at least format it in such a way that it's easy to read and doesn't appear as complex as it really is.

[Ircher]

The Four Seasons

v2.0.0.0
8x Vanilla Townie
1x Town Season Cop
1x Town Season Doctor
3x Mafia Goon

During a special pregame/Dawn phase (after everyone has received alignment; mafia can chat during this phase), players privately choose one of the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, or autumn. Players that do not pick in a timely manner are automatically assigned to Winter.

Once the Dawn phase ends, players become neighbors with players that chose the same season as them. Who is in what neighborhood is not publicly revealed. The game then continues like a normal game.

Each night, the Season Cop may investigate a player to learn which seasonal neighborhood that player is in.

Each night, the Season Doctor must choose a season and a player. If the targeted player is located in the provided seasonal neighborhood, the targeted player is protected from a single kill.

[Ircher]

It isn't as swingy. Scum can just shoot elsewhere; town could use an IC in the updated setup.

Tracker + Doc + 5 VTs versus 2 Goons was balanced in Matrix6 days granted the fact that Matrix6 was semi-open. Town is weaker here than in that setup.

Sure, you may get someone like RadiantCowbells as IC, but scum just have to work around that. They shouldn't always be anle to freely kill their opposition.

That said, if you have a better suggestion that fits the theme, I'm all ears.

Edit: I mean, I'd prefer the sensor, but it's hard to counteract its swinginess. The power roles are to balance out the setup. The neighborhoods are supposed to be the fun part.

[Ircher]

The Four Seasons

v3.0.0.0
10x Vanilla Townie
3x Mafia Goon

During a special pregame/Dawn phase (after everyone has received alignment; mafia can chat during this phase), players privately choose one of the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, or autumn. Players that do not pick in a timely manner are automatically assigned to Winter.

Once the Dawn phase ends, players become neighbors with players that chose the same season as them. Who is in what neighborhood is not publicly revealed. The game then continues like a normal game.

During Day 1 OR Day 2, the town may publicly vote to use a seasonal sensor ability on a particular seasonal neighborhood. This ability causes the number of scum (at the beginning of Day 1) in that neighborhood to be revealed. A simple majority of votes for a particular neighborhood is needed to activate the ability.
---
This version is less swingy than the first version since it is no longer dependent on a particular person staying alive. It still doesn't address the other issue of an 8p neighborhood being all town (or something of that sort), but I believe if one were to calculate the probability of such, it would be rather low. (And scum get pregame to decide on how to distribute themselves among the neighborhoods, so an instance of all three scum being in the same neighborhood and the sensor ability revealing such is on them.)

Currently, I have the sensor ability set to be a public majority vote, but maybe it would be better to have it be anonymous plurality vote (with numbers but not names revealed).

Any constructive feedback is welcome.

[Ircher]

In order from most favored to least favored setup:

1. The Four Seasons (Ircher): First of all, it is my own setup. Though it may be swingy, I really like the choose your neighbors-type mechanic in it. It also reminds me of another game I played here that actually did feature that part of the mechanic.

2. Group Investigation (Cinnamon): While a simple setup, I like the idea.

3. Take Two (mith): It's an interesting setup, though it may be a little frustrating since there are no flips.

4. Open Box of Silver (Irrelephant11): I think it's a cool setup, and I like how you model it after a series of closed games. That said, I don't think randomness is that great of a thing, and I also think watcher abilities tend to lead setups that swing too wildly against scum. Jailkeeper is also apparently a strong power to give out as well, so I think the balance of the setup may significantly favor town.

5. 1 of N/2 + 1 (OkaPoka): Having played Liars and Millers by Psyche, which was very similar to this, I'd say this mechanic is pretty fun. The only concern I have is again balance--in Liars and Millers, the setup swung wildly in town's favor. This version seems to be even more swingy especially the longer people wait on doing this power.

6. Dance Party Mafia (Carl Tuckerson): The setup seems interesting, but not one that I'd personally like to play.

7. Don't Gooch Your Neighbor (Boonskiies): This seems like a wild and fun setup, but I'm not sure I fully understand it. If I did, this setup would probably have been higher in my list.

8. Divide and Conquer (Skygazer): A simpler setup that seems to be balanced. (It's a lot less fun though when scum get to choose neighborhoods.)

9. The Scythes (popsofctown): This setup just didn't really interest me that much.

10. Job Application (Oversoul): This setup doesn't look balanced at a glance. It also didn't interest me that much, sorry!

11. Soul Gem Mafia (TemporalLich): While I like the mechanic, this setup is basically 7-2 mountainous, and the site as a whole agrees that pure mountainous setups are bad.

12. Council Infilitration (Not Known 15): While you tried your best to shorten it down, it is still too long and complicated for me to really even try to understand it. I could if I had unlimited time, but I do not. Furthermore, I think that will be a large problem when running the setup in practice--people will not understand how it works because it is so long and so complicated.

13. Invite the Neighbors (chennisden): This setup does not fit the spirit of the rules and should be disqualified.

[Ircher]

In order from most favored to least favored setup:

1. The Four Seasons (Ircher): First of all, it is my own setup. Though it may be swingy, I really like the choose your neighbors-type mechanic in it. It also reminds me of another game I played here that actually did feature that part of the mechanic.

2. Group Investigation (Cinnamon): While a simple setup, I like the idea.

3. Take Two (mith): It's an interesting setup, though it may be a little frustrating since there are no flips.

4. Open Box of Silver (Irrelephant11): I think it's a cool setup, and I like how you model it after a series of closed games. That said, I don't think randomness is that great of a thing, and I also think watcher abilities tend to lead setups that swing too wildly against scum. Jailkeeper is also apparently a strong power to give out as well, so I think the balance of the setup may significantly favor town.

5. 1 of N/2 + 1 (OkaPoka): Having played Liars and Millers by Psyche, which was very similar to this, I'd say this mechanic is pretty fun. The only concern I have is again balance--in Liars and Millers, the setup swung wildly in town's favor. This version seems to be even more swingy especially the longer people wait on doing this power.

6. Dance Party Mafia (Carl Tuckerson): The setup seems interesting, but not one that I'd personally like to play.

7. Don't Gooch Your Neighbor (Boonskiies): This seems like a wild and fun setup, but I'm not sure I fully understand it. If I did, this setup would probably have been higher in my list.

8. Descent Into Madness Mafia (popsofctown): I think the mutation mechanic is rather novel and interesting, but only to the one who manages to acquire it. I'm also not sure about the setup's balance.

9. Divide and Conquer (Skygazer): A simpler setup that seems to be balanced. (It's a lot less fun though when scum get to choose neighborhoods.)

10. Pick a Neighbor (chennisden): While I think the mechanic is sorta interesting, this looks more or less like 10:3 mountainous, which is definitely not a balanced setup.

11. Job Application (Oversoul): This setup doesn't look balanced at a glance. It also didn't interest me that much, sorry!

12. Soul Gem Mafia (TemporalLich): While I like the mechanic, this setup is basically 7-2 mountainous, and the site as a whole agrees that pure mountainous setups are bad.

13. Council Infilitration (Not Known 15): While you tried your best to shorten it down, it is still too long and complicated for me to really even try to understand it. I could if I had unlimited time, but I do not. Furthermore, I think that will be a large problem when running the setup in practice--people will not understand how it works because it is so long and so complicated.

EBWOP to include popsofctown's new setup and chennisden's non-joke setup.