To moderate a Sandbox game, you must have one completed game on this site. Sandbox games do not count as completed games when calculating experience requirements for players or moderators.
In order to create a game thread, qualified mods must first join the
Sandbox Game Mod group. This group allows you to post threads in the Sandbox forum, as well as create any private topics you may need in the private topic forum (game moderators, of course, may utilize/allow other forms of private communication if they desire, such as Discord). See below for more information on joining the Sandbox permissions group.
If you have experience moderating offsite games, you may request these games to be considered as equivalent experience. It is up to the Listmod's discretion whether they will qualify.
Games must meet the following criteria to be ran in the Sandbox Forum:
- The game must have deadlines for phases that last no longer than 72 hours.
- The game should be organized by the game moderator independently from the listmod oversight typical of the other queues.
- The game must be mafia, or a similar social deduction game traditionally held on Marathon Weekends, such as Blood on the Clocktower, Conspiracy, etc.
Reviews are not necessary in order to run a game in this forum. You are, of course, welcome to seek out reviewers in the
Setup Review Thread if desired. You may designate a game as reviewed if any only if the listed reviewers approved the final version, including Role PMs and results messages. Sandbox games will not be reviewed for normalcy by the NRG, but you are free to run an unreviewed game and declare that you believe it follows normal guidelines, if you wish.
Game moderators may run a maximum of one game in the Sandbox forum at a time, unless prior listmod approval is given for a special exception. You may, however, run a Sandbox game concurrently with other long-form games you may be running, and Sandbox games do not count towards the moderation limits that exist throughout the other queues.
Sign-up responsibilities:
Game moderators are responsible for handling their game's sign-ups however they see fit. Game moderators may solicit interested players before a game goes into signups in order to reserve slots ("pre-ins"). Once a game has entered signups, the game moderator must list any pre-ins in the game's thread. It is the game moderator's responsibility to make sure that players with pre-in slots confirm them in a timely fashion.
Game moderators can reject signups from players for any reason, referred to as "Wisdom of the Mod" (WOTM). The game moderator has final discretion over their player list.
Moderation activity expectations:
Moderators are responsible for seeing their game to completion. Moderators should start their game in a timely fashion, or inform players if a game can't run. Moderators should post periodic vote counts, and process phase changes and any actions in a timely fashion. You should treat moderating a game as a commitment. Failure to follow these expectations may result in restrictions with regards to running games in this forum or in other queues.
Other game moderator expectations:
Game moderators must follow the
Rules for Mafia Game Moderators section of the Forum Rules and Guidelines.
Game elements at moderator discretion:
The following game elements can be decided at a game moderator’s discretion, and may be announced within the game thread by the moderator:
Hydra policy
: By default, hydras can enter any game in the Sandbox forum, and must publicly declare themselves as hydras and reveal the identities of their main accounts when signing up for a game. However, game moderators can choose to change the restrictions on hydras for their game, including:
- completely prohibiting hydras
- setting a maximum number of hydras allowed in the game
- setting a maximum number of hydra heads allowed in the game (either per account or collectively)
- allowing hydras to keep the identities of their main accounts hidden from the player list and/or game moderator (note that game moderators can still require hydras to reveal their identities later on in certain cases, i.e. if a rule infraction occurs)
Alt policy
: Alts are not required by default to declare themselves or reveal the identity of their main account when signing up for a game. However, game moderators may choose to require all alts to disclose their identities to the game moderator. Game moderators can also require alts to reveal their main account later on in certain cases, i.e. if a rule infraction occurs.
Player list discretion
: Game moderators have full discretion over their player lists, including the use of WOTM or WOTC, as well as whether they wish to consider blacklists. Game moderators should exercise this discretion over player signups by privately contacting players to let them know their signup is not being accepted. If a player does not remove their signup on their own, the game moderator may then post publicly in the queue thread to remove the player’s signup.
- Wisdom of the Mod (WOTM): The game moderator can choose to reject players from their player list at their own discretion.
- Wisdom of the Crowd (WOTC)/Blacklisting: Players can privately contact the game moderator if a player signs up after them that they will not play with. The game moderator has discretion over whether to accept the player’s signup. Generally this option requires multiple players to WOTC a player before a game moderator would choose not to accept a player’s signup, although ultimately the game moderator can decide the threshold they require in order to remove a player’s signup.
Other restrictions on players
: Game moderators can choose to require players to meet other criteria to be eligible to play, such as a minimum number of games played or an experience requirement.
Requesting exceptions to site rules
: Game moderators can request certain exceptions to the site’s mafia rules, including players being able to replace back into their slot after previously replacing out, allowing discussion of their game in other threads while it is ongoing, requesting to be able to use site users in flavor without requiring listmod review of the text, etc. Game moderators may not supersede site rules without prior Listmod approval.
Game moderators should also describe any other nonstandard elements to their setup or rules when starting up a new game. Game moderators are required to disclose if their game has any bastard elements, such as moderator lies, secret win-conditions, direct moderator influence, non-random role assignment, etc.
