Best Role Ideas?

[RayFrost]

You are the

Magnet Carrier

. Right now, you have a magical magnet. It grants you the following abilities:

Magnetic Pull (A): Target one player. If they use an item that is metal (i.e.: guns, badges), you will steal it for the night, blocking their action. If they do not use an item that is metal but still use an ability, they will be given a double action.
Electrical charge (A): Target a player. If they do not use an item that is metal, they will be blocked for the night. If they do, they will become invulnerable to action influencing abilities.
Drop it like it's hot (A): You may drop the magnet at any time you wish. It may or may not be picked up by another player.
The Ultimate Attractor (P): As long as you bear the magnet, misfortune is attracted to those around you. Each night, one bad thing will happen to you, your target, or someone who targets you.

Mod note: Result of ultimate attractor is chosen randomly from the following: loss of vote, loss of action over the next night, or a minimum word count for all posts over the day phase.

[Sir Bastion]

You are

The local Priest

, a neutral player with the night ability to put another player in a confession booth each night where their role is revealed and they are both roleblocked and protected from night attacks. You cannot reveal their role but you can win with either mafia or town.

A neutral role that can be used offensively or defensively for either side. Sort of like a hybrid jailor/doctor.

[RayFrost]

That's more of a hybrid jailkeeper (protect + roleblock) / role cop (find out the player's role).

The win with either mafia or town is a bit ambiguous: does the local priest just win the game, or are they survivor?

[David Xanatos]

Wording looks like survivor.. interesting role actually..

[Ythan]

"You can not _____" means this should be in the other thread. There are much more elegant solutions for problems than posting restrictions.

[David Xanatos]

How precisely does a post restriction qualify it for a "Worst" role?

[Ythan]

Is there an answer I can give that you have enough experience with post restrictions to grasp?

[David Xanatos]

I've seen them used extensively, and I've actually been under a couple of them myself. It adds a new dimension, provided it's not something stupid like "You may not use vowels".

Knowing information that you're not allowed to reveal is a post restriction in the same way that claiming scum and declaring your partners is.

[Ythan]

Except that claiming scum and declaring your partners is near universally the worst thing you could do for your wincon, meaning there is incentive. So yeah, slight difference.

[David Xanatos]

Oh?

Large Theme, let's say 27 people. Person claims Scum at.. 15 players remaining. Declares himself and 2 of his.. let's say 4 remaining partners, and two Townies.

Lynch him, then there's a 50-50 shot of them lynching either a partner or a Townie. If it's a Townie, his entire declaration will be written off as untrustworthy, if it's Scum, they'll hit the next, 66% chance of Townie, et cetera. Throw a Scum Rolecop into the mix who's identified PRs to throw on the list and it could be a legitimate tactic.

And the role suggested has a dual wincon, survivor, therefore a modkill would be a loss, therefore revealing that information is the worst thing they could do for the wincon, meaning there is incentive.

[Ythan]

Unfortunately that's not the example you used, nor does it have any bearing on the discussion.

[David Xanatos]

Does my example involve claiming scum?

Yes.

Does my example involve declaring your partners?

Yes.

No bearing? I'd like to hear your reasoning on how that's the case.

[Ythan]

Got absolutely nothing to do with the post restriction on that role, the one that's actually being discussed as opposed to your large theme goon.

[Sir Bastion]

That's more of a hybrid jailkeeper (protect + roleblock) / role cop (find out the player's role).

The win with either mafia or town is a bit ambiguous: does the local priest just win the game, or are they survivor?

Survivor.

I was basing it off how in countries like Italy, Ireland and historically parts of the US some local clergy most notable catholic ones tended to be ambiguous when it came to issues of organised crime because those in organised crime tended to be devout members of the church. But its never been an offficial stance and there have been numerous priests who have opposed criminals as well. So I felt it would fit as a neutral role

its been popularised in films a fair few times as well.

-I guess the *cannot reveal* element wouldnt work, but I didnt want them to have the ability to reveal at will cause my minimal experiance tends to find that investigating roles will more likely side with town if they find a power role of either side early on.

And I wasnt sure if making it more complicated with custom quick topics during each night with whoever they have in confession (and remaining anonymous themselves) would work in a forum scenaio (it would work if this was on the starcraft 2 mod)

[David Xanatos]

Could work.

Priest is known, Mod Confirmed 3rd party. Can select someone each night to learn the role and talk through a QT for that night. Priest gets Role and targets on previous nights.. only objective is to survive.

Perhaps make it so that the Mafia cannot NK him when he has one of their members in confession..

[Cobblerfone]

-I guess the *cannot reveal* element wouldnt work, but I didnt want them to have the ability to reveal at will cause my minimal experiance tends to find that investigating roles will more likely side with town if they find a power role of either side early on.

Finding and revealing are two different things. Also if they claimed a scum the mafia would kill them and they'd lose. If they found a Power Role and outed them the town would lynch them and they'd lose. There's no need for that post restriction.

And I wasnt sure if making it more complicated with custom quick topics during each night with whoever they have in confession (and remaining anonymous themselves) would work in a forum scenaio (it would work if this was on the starcraft 2 mod)

Sounds cool. Remove the anonymity and you get paranoia for everyone. heheheh.

[Empking]

Survivors should still go in the other thread (better that ambigious post restrictions though so its progress.)

[Magua]

David, post restrictions never work to stop the flow of information the player actually wants to get across. There are too many phrasings and gray areas that can be put across. Post restrictions that are variants of "You know X, but you can't tell the other players" are invariably circumvented.

Survivor role is mostly pointless, but mod-confirmed survivor role is utterly pointless. Scum will never shoot him, town will probably never lynch him, so he'll just prod dodge all game because he has no incentive to actually do anything since he wins either way.

[Ythan]

You are

Agnes

. You win when the player above you wins. Once during the game you may change your win condition to "You win when the player below you wins."

[lewarcher82]

you are an

anchor

. You pick a player at any point of the game and win with that player. If you die before picking, you lose.

[Ythan]

Anchor makes me think they would be bound to your success, not (just) the other way around.

[callforjudgement]

you are an

anchor

. You pick a player at any point of the game and win with that player. If you die before picking, you lose.

And here's a version of the above that allows for nicely self-balancing policy vigging:

You are an

Assimilator

. You can kill one player each night. When you succeed at killing a player, you lose this role and instead gain that player's role (including factional kills, QT access, and win condition). You cannot win before you gain a win condition via this role's ability.

Optimal play is to shoot bad players, as you end up strengthening that player's faction (which is the faction you end up on) by replacing a bad player with yourself (who is, statistically, likely to be better). And it's also pretty much self-balancing, as the town:scum ratio stays the same regardless of who you aim at. (The major issue is shooting something like a Cop; you won't find out their previous results in the process. Perhaps the rule should be changed so that you do.)

[Ythan]

(The major issue is shooting something like a Cop; you won't find out their previous results in the process. Perhaps the rule should be changed so that you do.)

I don't think that's necessary. It's like a combination killer/self-backuper, and backup investigative roles tend to work fine without knowing their predecessors' results.

[TheButtonmen]

Inquisitor (Town) - Each night you may target a player, if they are town aligned they are killed.
Provocateur (Scum) - Each night you may provoke a lynch mob, if you do each player in the game will PM me the name of the player they want to lynch. The person with the most votes is then killed; in case of a tie you may decide which one to kill.

[zoraster]

Inquisitor might be confusing as it's already a role