[CHALLENGE] August Challenge

[OkaPoka]

[3,2] -> [3,0] should be 100% wr in that case

[3.2] scum flip is matrix 3

town flips is matrix 1,2

[3,0] will isolate the the matrix down to one or the other without ending the game

[callforjudgement]

Matrix Elimination

• 6 Vanilla Townies
  
• 3 Mafia Goons
  
• Nightless
  
• Pregame (after role PMs, before Day 1 starts), the Mafia must place all nine players onto a 3×3 grid (with one player in each cell).
  
• Instead of voting to eliminate individual players, the Day consists of voting to eliminate an entire row or column of the grid; every player in that row or column is eliminated.
  
• At the start of Day 3, the Mafia must choose one non-eliminated Town-aligned player; the moderator confirms that player as Town-aligned.
  
• Mafia win if town lose control over the Day vote (i.e. they ever control half the remaining votes).
  
• Town win if all Mafia are eliminated, with at least one townie still remaining.

EV is not trivial to calculate due to the best strategy being non-obvious, but my current best guess is 5/12, or about 42%; this may be too high for a Nightless, but might not be (the Mafia have a lot more control over the elimination than normal because they can place strong townies in positions likely to be eliminated). Likely the win/loss balance doesn't matter much, though, due to the levels of WIFOM involved. If the setup turns out to be townsided, a simple fix is to remove the day 3 confirmation.

[Something_Smart]

I assume it's not allowed to kill everybody?

[callforjudgement]

Indeed, that's supposed to be a scum win (thus town will never do it). I fixed the win conditions.

[TemporalLich]

There are 3 scum in Matrix Elimination?

There's a breaking strategy involving putting all the scum in a diagonal line that ensures town have a literally

zero

EV.

(actually you can just eliminate rows with dead players and there is a series of eliminations that will allow a town win on a diagonal line).

still think diagonal lines are the strongest for scum, but that leads to WIFOMness as "triangles" and "three corners" also are decently spread out

[callforjudgement]

With the diagonal line strategy, you can just eliminate two rows or two columns and then have a 50-50 ending (that's why there's a day 3 confirmation). Alternatively, eliminating one row and one column will also often lead to a 50:50 ending, but is less reliable.

[TemporalLich]

Is a "triangle" strategy better? Probably not.

M	T	M
T	T	T
T	M	T

[callforjudgement]

If town eliminates two columns first, it ends up very similar to the diagonal line strategy. If they eliminate two rows first, they have an EV of 1/3 I think. If they eliminate a row and a column, or a column and a row, it rapidly gets quite hard to calculate. So this might be a preferable option for the Mafia (although there are lots of arrangements that are equivalent to the triangle given that every row and every column is interchangeable). Town seem to have a reasonable chance of winning in this case, though (it's where the "5/12" value came from in my post defining the setup).

I think "three corners" (and the equivalent arrangements) might be the best ones for Mafia; although they carry a lot of risk, they also come with the best possible chance for a D1 win.

[Something_Smart]

I think it's 5/12 if they do two rows first (R1 first = 3/4 win, R2 first = loss, R3 first = 1/2 win) putting the overall EV at 11/24 for that layout assuming the first two eliminations are parallel.

[Not Known 15]

The Tower

16 players
11 Vanilla Townies
1 Town Wanderer
4 Mafia Goons
This is the table that will be used:

(-6,7)	(-5,7)	(-4,7)	(-3,7)	(-2,7)	(-1,7)	(0,7)	(1,7)	(2,7)	(3,7)	(4,7)	(5,7)	(6,7)
(-6,6)	(-5,6)	(-4,6)	(-3,6)	(-2,6)	(-1,6)	(0,6)	(1,6)	(2,6)	(3,6)	(4,6)	(5,6)	(6,6)
(-6,5)	(-5,5)	(-4,5)	(-3,5)	(-2,5)	(-1,5)	(0,5)	(1,5)	(2,5)	(3,5)	(4,5)	(5,5)	(6,5)
(-6,4)	(-5,4)	(-4,4)	(-3,4)	(-2,4)	(-1,4)	(0,4)	(1,4)	(2,4)	(3,4)	(4,4)	(5,4)	(6,4)
(-6,3)	(-5,3)	(-4,3)	(-3,3)	(-2,3)	(-1,3)	(0,3)	(1,3)	(2,3)	(3,3)	(4,3)	(5,3)	(6,3)
(-6,2)	(-5,2)	(-4,2)	(-3,2)	(-2,2)	(-1,2)	(0,2)	(1,2)	(2,2)	(3,2)	(4,2)	(5,2)	(6,2)
(-6,1)	(-5,1)	(-4,1)	(-3,1)	(-2,1)	(-1,1)	(0,1)	(1,1)	(2,1)	(3,1)	(4,1)	(5,1)	(6,1)
(-6,0)	(-5,0)	(-4,0)	(-3,0)	(-2,0)	(-1,0)	(0,0)	(1,0)	(2,0)	(3,0)	(4,0)	(5,0)	(6,0)
(-6,-1)	(-5,-1)	(-4,-1)	(-3,-1)	(-2,-1)	(-1,-1)	(0,-1)	(1,-1)	(2,-1)	(3,-1)	(4,-1)	(5,-1)	(6,-1)
(-6,-2)	(-5,-2)	(-4,-2)	(-3,-2)	(-2,-2)	(-1,-2)	(0,-2)	(1,-2)	(2,-2)	(3,-2)	(4,-2)	(5,-2)	(6,-2)
(-6,-3)	(-5,-3)	(-4,-3)	(-3,-3)	(-2,-3)	(-1,-3)	(0,-3)	(1,-3)	(2,-3)	(3,-3)	(4,-3)	(5,-3)	(6,-3)
(-6,-4)	(-5,-4)	(-4,-4)	(-3,-4)	(-2,-4)	(-1,-4)	(0,-4)	(1,-4)	(2,-4)	(3,-4)	(4,-4)	(5,-4)	(6,-4)
(-6,-5)	(-5,-5)	(-4,-5)	(-3,-5)	(-2,-5)	(-1,-5)	(0,-5)	(1,-5)	(2,-5)	(3,-5)	(4,-5)	(5,-5)	(6,-5)
(-6,-6)	(-5,-6)	(-4,-6)	(-3,-6)	(-2,-6)	(-1,-6)	(0,-6)	(1,-6)	(2,-6)	(3,-6)	(4,-5)	(5,-5)	(6,-5)
(-6,-7)	(-5,-7)	(-4,-7)	(-3,-7)	(-2,-7)	(-1,-7)	(0,-7)	(1,-7)	(2,-7)	(3,-7)	(4,-7)	(5,-7)	(6,-7)

This is the table with designations:

[

(-6,7)	(-5,7)	(-4,7)	(-3,7)	(-2,7)	(-1,7)	(0,7)	(1,7)	(2,7)	(3,7)	(4,7)	(5,7)	(6,7)
(-6,6)	(-5,6)	(-4,6)	(-3,6)	(-2,6)	(-1,6)	(0,6)	(1,6)	(2,6)	(3,6)	(4,6)	(5,6)	(6,6)
(-6,5)	(-5,5)	(-4,5)	(-3,5)	(-2,5)	(-1,5)	(0,5)	(1,5)	(2,5)	(3,5)	(4,5)	(5,5)	(6,5)
(-6,4)	(-5,4)	(-4,4)	(-3,4)	(-2,4)	(-1,4)	(0,4)	(1,4)	(2,4)	(3,4)	(4,4)	(5,4)	(6,4)
(-6,3)	(-5,3)	(-4,3)	(-3,3)	(-2,3)	(-1,3)	(0,3)	(1,3)	(2,3)	(3,3)	(4,3)	(5,3)	(6,3)
(-6,2)	(-5,2 )	(-4,2)	(-3,2)	(-2,2)	(-1,2)	(0,2)	(1,2)	(2,2)	(3,2)	(4,2)	(5,2)	(6,2)
(-6,1)	(-5,1)	(-4,1)	(-3,1)	(-2,1)	(-1,1)	(0,1)	(1,1)	(2,1)	(3,1)	(4,1)	(5,1)	(6,1)
(-6,0)	(-5,0)	(-4,0)	(-3,0)	(-2,0)	(-1,0)	(0,0)	(1,0)	(2,0)	(3,0)	(4,0)	(5,0)	(6,0)
(-6,-1)	(-5,-1)	(-4,-1)	(-3,-1)	(-2,-1)	(-1,-1)	(0,-1 )	(1,-1)	(2,-1)	(3,-1)	(4,-1)	(5,-1)	(6,-1)
(-6,-2)	(-5,-2)	(-4,-2)	(-3,-2)	(-2,-2)	(-1,-2)	(0,-2)	(1,-2)	(2,-2)	(3,-2)	(4,-2)	(5,-2)	(6,-2)
(-6,-3)	(-5,-3)	(-4,-3)	(-3,-3)	(-2,-3)	(-1,-3)	(0,-3)	(1,-3)	(2,-3)	(3,-3)	(4,-3)	(5,-3)	(6,-3)
(-6,-4)	(-5,-4)	(-4,-4)	(-3,-4)	(-2,-4)	(-1,-4)	(0,-4)	(1,-4)	(2,-4)	(3,-4)	(4,-4)	(5,-4)	(6,-4)
(-6,-5)	(-5,-5)	(-4,-5)	(-3,-5)	(-2,-5)	(-1,-5)	(0,-5)	(1,-5)	(2,-5)	(3,-5)	(4,-5)	(5,-5)	(6,-5)
(-6,-6)	(-5,-6)	(-4,-6)	(-3,-6)	(-2,-6)	(-1,-6)	(0,-6)	(1,-6)	(2,-6)	(3,-6)	(4,-5)	(5,-5)	(6,-5)
(-6,-7)	(-5,-7)	(-4,-7)	(-3,-7)	(-2,-7)	(-1,-7)	(0,-7)	(1,-7)	(2,-7)	(3,-7)	(4,-7)	(5,-7)	(6,-7)

The colors:

PINK

:These spots are reserved for the players. The Wanderer may not occupy these spots, except their own. These spots are indestructible.

BLUE

: These spots are indestructible. The Wanderer may move over these.

YELLOW

: The Tower:The Wanderer cannot stop movement here. The tower will be issuing a nightly report(at the beginning of the next day) about Mafia moving through the tower - or not.

WHITE

: These spots can collapse.
Placement: During pregame, Mafia selects their spots. The remaining spots are randomly filled with Vanilla Townies and the Wanderer.
Death: When someone dies, the spots adjacent(including diagonally) to the spot they are standing in collapse.
Day: At the day, someone is executed. This is compulsive on Day 1 and any day following a deadly Night(at least one death)
A townie and a Mafia member not doing the Nightkill can pick any square adjacent(including diagonally) to their home spot, or the home spot itself. They will notice any movement through that spot and any adjacent (including diagonally) spots. The result will be:Movement, or No movement.
A member of the Mafia may perform the Nightkill. To perform the nightkill, Mafia temporarily moves through any designated squares they didn`t move through before until they reach their destination.e.g. (2,2)->(5,2)K, or (2,2)->(2,0)->(7,0)->(7,-5)->(5,-5)K They can NOT move diagonally.
If the spot is empty, the kill fails(no self-kills, of course). The Mafia uses the same path to relocate back to their home spot.
No member of the Mafia may kill twice in a row. The Mafia has one use of a Ninja to prevent their movement from being seen, usable at any night.
The Wanderer may relocate at night. If they leave their home spot the spots adjacent(including diagonally) to the home spot collapse either next morning or when a member of the Mafia moves over them, whichever happens earlier. If a member of the Mafia triggers the collapse, they get killed, and their night kill fails. The Wanderer cannot move next to an occupied home spot, except their own. The Wanderer can only move(not diagonally) over the blue and yellow tiles and tiles adjacent(including diagonally) to their home spot.
The Wanderer cannot move two days in a row, except if they are moving Night 1 and Night 2. Outside of their home spot, they will always notice movement adjacent(including diagonally) to their position.
Priority:
Movement investigation
then Wanderer movement
then Nightkill.
Win Conditions:
Mafia: Gain Parity.
Town: Eliminate the Mafia or see 5 nights without any kills.
Loss conditions:
Mafia:No kills in 5 nights.

[Isis]

Ever Settle

4 Mafia

13 Town

Nightless.
Pre game, all players are placed randomly on a 4X4 board. Only the mafia are shown placements. There is one player to each square, except one square contains two mafia.
Pre game, each player is dealt three random cards. There is a possibility of duplication, both in any one player's deal and across the setup at large. The cards are NorthSouth Knight, EastWest Knight, Bishop 1, Bishop 2, Bishop 3, and Rook 1, Rook 2, Rook 3.
Day one begins with a standard compulsive town exile. The doubled up mafia player is moved to the square of the exiled player.
After the exile but before shuffle phase, the mafia guess cards that the townies are holding in their hands until they guess wrong. Each card they guess correctly, they steal and destroy.
The thread is locked for shuffle phase. The grid is revealed to all players, showing every player's position. During shuffle phase, each player may expend one of their cards and select a space it describes to attempt to move there. The NorthSouth Knight must move at least two spaces vertically and the EastWest Knight mustn't. Bishop and Rook cards must move the number of spaces described exactly.
Each move has a 75% chance to fail. The mafia learn in advance if they will fail. The moderator randomizes an order for all the movements to be processed. The order matters because if the target square is not vacant, the player on the target square is relocated to the square they came from.
After shuffle phase, the new results are shown, and the thread remains locked for joining phase. Each player may expend one card to send a marriage proposal to a particular space described by the card. All expenditures happen simultaneously with 100% success, and then all players receive PMs listing all their courtship offers at one time. They rank their preferences for courtship and submit to the mod.
The mod pairs all players according to their preferences, using NAR-style dependency where chains are formed and R1>B1>R2>B2>R3>B3>NSK>EWK where loops are formed and randomizing when all other methods of resolution fail. Unpaired players flip. Paired players become lovers and receive a PT.
Day 2, players vote to exile a lover pair. Skip Day 2 if eight players failed to pair.
Day 3, players make a special vote to exile a specific player. Their partner will ignore the lover ability for the exile, and will also gain Loved for the rest of the game.
Subsequent days have standard exiles (influenced by the lover ability) until all mafia are exiled or the mafia gain parity, counting Loved as a point towards parity as appropriate.

[Kerset]

Subsequent days have standard exiles (influenced by the lover ability) until all mafia are exiled or the mafia gain parity, counting Loved as a point towards parity as appropriate.

I feel that this setup lacks of some complexity. How about instead of standard exile, day 4 would require players to spare two pairs of lovers?

[Isis]

Not sure if sarcasm

[Isis]

Ever Settle

4 Mafia

13 Town

Pre game, all players are placed randomly on a 4X4 continuum board. There is one player to each square, except one square contains two mafia.
When a player is exiled day 1, the mafia choose a player to move into their space. (compulsive exile)
During N1, there is no kill. Each player is randomly dealt two cards from among Rook1, Rook2, or Bishop1. The grid is revealed to all players, showing every player's position. Each player may expend one of their cards and select a space it precisely describes to attempt to move there.
Each move has a 75% chance to fail. When a player moves, the player in the targetted space is moved to where they came from.
During D2, players can expend a card to propose marriage to an unpaired player standing in the space precisely described. That player must accept or reject immediately in their next post and the card is expended either way. Upon acceptance, the two players become lovers and get a PT.
N2, all unpaired players die, and the nightkill isn't affected by the lover ability. There are no nights after N2.

[Isis]

That's as simple as I can get it. It's probably better.

[callforjudgement]

It seems potentially problematic if you get two cards you can't use at all (Bishop3 when not in a corner, Rook3 when not at an edge). That may well introduce a swing factor that's unrelated to any gameplay in the setup, because sometimes the people in the middle get options and sometimes they randomly don't.

I don't know whether this will be at all helpful, but here's a set of grids I created a while ago that seem like they might be useful for this challenge (either for you or for anyone else thinking of entering):

Code: Select all

AABB  ABBA  ABCD  ABAB  ABCD
AABB  CDDC  CDAB  CDCD  DCBA
CCDD  CDDC  ABCD  BABA  CDAB
CCDD  ABBA  CDAB  DCDC  BADC

Each pair of grid positions are given the same letter in exactly one of the five grids, and each letter appears four times in each grid, so there's no positional bias involved. (Of course, some amount of bias might be good for a setup where scum chooses the positions.)

[Isis]

I am fighting wordcount/complexity complaints, but the word "continuum" in "4X4 continuum board" was meant to indicate that the board is a continuum like Pacman where exiting on the right overflows to an entry on the left, etc.
As an example, a player in the top left corner with a rook 1 card could move one space down, one space right, or use the upward direction to invoke the continuum and land in the bottom left corner, or use the leftward direction to invoke the continuum and land in the top right corner.
This results in every card providing exactly the same number of potential squares to move to, it's always 4. It also means being in the center isn't very meaningful (which might be undesirable in a way, like the grid is more "meaningless", but I think there's still enough going on in the setup).

[Something_Smart]

The word you're looking for is "toroidal"

[callforjudgement]

Oh, in that case, there's absolutely no difference between a 3 card and a 1 card, you have the same reachable squares either way. Also, a Bishop2 gives you only one square to move to (all four of the two-space-diagonally moves will take you to the same square).

[Something_Smart]

Dormitory Mafia

3 Mafia Goons

11 Vanilla Townies

1 Town RA

1 - RA's Room	3 - Dorm Room	5 - Dorm Room	7 - Dorm Room
2 - Dorm Room	4 - Dorm Room	6 - Dorm Room	8 - Dorm Room

The game begins with the

Move-In

phase. This lasts a set period of time (for instance, 48 hours). Pairs of players may agree to become roommates by mutual agreement; to do so, one player must offer to be roommates with another player in a specific room, and the other player must accept. As soon as this is done, those players are placed in that room. Only two players may be in each room. Roommates may not choose the RA's room, and the RA may not offer or accept a roommate request.

Once the time limit is up, the thread is locked while the mafia get to take two actions: one, they can choose a player to

Befriend

. If this player is the RA, they lose all their powers. Two, they may choose any player who does not already have a roommate and assign them a room. Who (if anyone) was targeted for this will not be revealed.

Then, all remaining players are randomly assigned a roommate and a room. The RA will be assigned to the RA's room, the floor plan is publicly revealed, and the normal day/night cycle begins.

Each day, players may vote to execute a player, using normal execution rules. Players may not vote for their roommate unless there are fewer than 5 players remaining alive.

Each night, one mafia member may kill a player. The victim must be in an adjacent room-- orthogonally or diagonally-- to the attacker. Mafia members may never submit a kill on their own roommate.
Once during the game, at night, each player other than the RA may choose to spy on their roommate. They will learn if their roommate was active during the night. A player is active during the night if they are carrying out the mafia factional kill or if they are spying on their roommate.
Each night, the RA may choose any room and investigate it for suspicious activity. They will learn whether someone in that room was active during the night, but not who it was.

The town wins when all mafia members have been eliminated.
The mafia win when this is impossible. (Usually 50%, but if there are for instance 2 mafia members alive along with their 2 town roommates and one other town member, the mafia win as executing a mafia member is impossible.)

[callforjudgement]

It strikes me as very likely that the RA will get nightkilled N1 (counting the move-in phase as D0). That doesn't necessarily unbalance the setup (I think it has the numbers to counter that), but it does feel a bit like a design flaw.

[Something_Smart]

Well, it's possible for town to coordinate one person in each room neighboring the RA to spy in each of the first two nights, which will force a 1v1 if the RA is killed. This was meant to counteract that; do you think it's not enough?

[callforjudgement]

It doesn't force a 1v1. If scum is scheduled for spying, they just kill the RA, then say they didn't see anything. Now you have one of three players, any of whom could be scum.

[Something_Smart]

Hmm, you're right.

Maybe I could give each VT their choice of a one-shot spy or a one-shot bodyguard on someone in an adjacent room?

[Isis]

I deleted all the problem cards, I think 3 cards remaining is enough variety? Not sure what other card I could make up, describing knights gets wordy
reflections and rotations also seem wordy