Umlaut's Mini Normal Review, May 2021

[Umlaut]

Ego for myself as well.

[Umlaut]

What's the point of having the neighborizer be roaming? Is it to tip off town that there's a scum roleblocker?

I think that's probably the bigger effect. It also means if scum are either skillful or lucky enough to block the neighborizer specifically from neighborizing the Encryptor, they've prevented that guilty once and for all rather than just once, but that's probably unlikely to come into play.

Isis, I'm fine with those changes (I assume you mean change the JoAT's Watcher shot to a Gunsmith shot) but Gunsmith is effectively a cop in this setup so would it be simpler to just have 2-Shot Cop (or 2-Shot Gunsmith)? I feel like having one of each strongly leads players to think there is some other player with a gun, I don't know if you agree that's true (or agree it's a problem). And can you explain why Rolestopper is less bullshitty?

[Umlaut]

Well I was thinking more of "if you block the neighborizer from someone (e.g. the encryptor) once, you've blocked it entirely" as the reason when I put that on there, I just realized after submitting that the stars have to align just so for that to happen.

If you both think it's scumsided I can add some minor town PR. 2-Shot Commuter?

[Umlaut]

So the point of the Strongman-Finder is that they're motivated to target scum, and that way if they actually do hit the Encryptor it's not pure dumb luck? I like that.

Okay, so where we're at now is

• 1x Mafia Encryptor
  
• 1x Mafia Multitasking Roleblocker
  
• 1x Mafia Goon
  
• 1x Town Combined Neighborizer Strongman-Finder
  (should this still be Roaming? I lost track of whether we were changing that)
  
  
• 1x Town Jack-of-All-Trades (1-Shot Cop, 1-Shot Gunsmith, 1-Shot Follower, 1-Shot Vigilante)
  
• 1x Town Loyal Doctor
  
• 7x Townie

is this right?

[Umlaut]

However that might be false if I don't understand the interaction between roleblocks and roaming properly

If the Roaming Neighborizer is blocked one night, they don't get another chance to neighborize whoever they were targeting that night

[Umlaut]

Do we still think this is scumsided? I know you said you like scumsided, Isis, but I'd prefer to have it balanced and I'm fine throwing in another minor town PR for that purpose.

[Umlaut]

Are my follower result PMs okay, by the way? I'm never really sure what level of specificity to give to results for that role. (I do understand that Gunsmith is an investigative action like Cop and the action type should be indistinguishable, I'll make that explicit once the setup is nailed down and I post revised role/result PMs)

[Umlaut]

This seems a bit stalled out, are we approving this setup or making more changes?

Here are some updated role/result PMs. I still think my follower result PMs may be too fine-grained (I think they're only supposed to specify action

category

per https://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?ti ... ormal_Game) so I replaced those as well, tell me whether you prefer the old or new ones.

Spoiler: Role PMs

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Jack-of-All-Trades

, with the following abilities.

• 1-Shot Cop:
  On one night of your choice, you may investigate a player to learn whether they are
  guilty
  (Mafia-aligned) or
  innocent
  (Town-aligned).
  
• 1-Shot Gunsmith:
  On one night of your choice, you may investigate a player to learn whether they have a gun.
  (See the wiki for a list of which roles have guns.)
  
  
• 1-Shot Follower:
  On one night of your choice, you may follow a player to learn what type of action, if any, they take during the night.
  
• 1-Shot Vigilante:
  On one night of your choice, you may shoot and kill a player.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Town Combined Neighborizer Strongman-Finder

Welcome to Mini Normal {NUMBER}! You are a

Town Combined Neighborizer Strongman-Finder

.

Each night you may target a player, with

both

of the following effects:

• That player will be added to a private neighborhood with you. (All players you neighborize are added to the same neighborhood.)
  
• You will be informed whether that player has the role of Strongman or not.

You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.

Spoiler: Result PMs

Jack-of-All-Trades / Gunsmith: Positive

Your investigation determined that {PLAYER} has a gun.

Strongman-Finder: Negative

You learned that {PLAYER} is not a Strongman.

Strongman-Finder: No result

You failed to investigate {PLAYER}.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Gunsmith: Negative

Your investigation determined that {PLAYER} does not have a gun.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Gunsmith: No result

You failed to investigate {PLAYER}.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Follower: Kill

{PLAYER} carried out a killing action during the night.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Follower: Roleblock

{PLAYER} carried out a blocking action during the night.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Follower: Kill+Roleblock

{PLAYER} carried out a killing action and a blocking action during the night.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Follower: Neighborize+Strongman-Find

{PLAYER} carried out a miscellaneous action and a role investigation during the night.

Jack-of-All-Trades / Follower: Protect

{PLAYER} carried out a protective action during the night.

[Umlaut]

Hunh, I never had anyone ask before for me to list the wincons explicitly but I suppose it makes sense if the "control half the town" wincon is more typical. I can add the following subsection to the rules post, under Game Mechanics.

Win conditions

• All Town players have the following win condition: “You win when the Town is the sole surviving faction.”
  
• All Mafia players have the following win condition: “You win when the Mafia is the sole surviving faction, or when nothing can prevent this.”
  
• If the game somehow ends with neither win condition met, it will be considered a draw.

(Normally I would prefer to score the last case as "both factions lose the game," but breaking the zero-sum nature of the game can lead to really weird endgame choices [e.g. why should vig actually take their shot on the last scum in 1:1 if they lose either way?] so it's probably best to allow the draw)

[Umlaut]

I can do the "control half the town" rule if you consider it essential, but since I don't normally use it that probably leaks setup information as well. Could you be more specific as to what I should be writing instead of the above? Those are the wincons I was using before, they're the same ones I had in the role PMs.

[Umlaut]

Yes, that's fine. (I would consider Happily Ever After to be "ending" still but it doesn't really matter)

[Umlaut]

This game has just ended, requesting this topic be unlocked