How to balance multiball games?

[Thestatusquo]

I generally think that crosskills are a balancing mechanic and therefore multiball can and should have more scum in it than your average game.

[Thestatusquo]

I have also noticed in the course of running them that people will complain about their factions power level almost no matter what you do. In a 3 faction game I ran awhile back I think it was reasonably balanced with each side having roughly 25% chance of winning. However most people aren't used to having 25% chance of winning. Their faction will feel underpowered to them. They will complain.

I still think this is the right way to do things but in the moment people are going to be annoyed.

[Thestatusquo]

I have also noticed in the course of running them that people will complain about their factions power level almost no matter what you do. In a 3 faction game I ran awhile back I think it was reasonably balanced with each side having roughly 25% chance of winning. However most people aren't used to having 25% chance of winning. Their faction will feel underpowered to them. They will complain.

I still think this is the right way to do things but in the moment people are going to be annoyed.

A 25% EV for three factions adds up to 75%, which while balanced has a non-negligible chance of a draw or complete loss. The game being multiball does have some expected endgames that are draws (1 mafia and 1 werewolf is a stalemate), but a 25% chance for no winners feels like there is too much of a chance for an unsatisfying endgame.

But yeah equal EVs are balanced, and you won't get 50% EV in a balanced multiball as you have more than two factions that can't win together.

3 non town factions.

[Thestatusquo]

I think you could have maybe assumed I know how to do basic math idk.

[Thestatusquo]

Yeah and I think that sometimes that's what town expects, but I don't think its right.

[Thestatusquo]

I think its ok to have somewhat unbalanced win% per faction, but not so drastically that the town wins the game half the time.

Like if you have like town wins 30% of the time each faction wins ~23% of the time that's probably fine.

[Thestatusquo]

Or like if you're working with a serial killer its usually pretty impossible to give them equal win chances.

[Thestatusquo]

No matter how balanced something might seem in theory you still need to be ready for something like this to happen in practice.

The thing I don't really like about the idea of 10:3:3 is that the town could theoretically lose even with perfect play. I don't really like to say a setup is balanced if something like that is possible no matter how improbable it seems in theory.

Swing and balance are not the same thing