Proposal for how the Mystery Mafia game will work

[lokiduck]

Hey everyone reading this o7 I hope you are having a nice day!

Anyways, here are my plans for the Mystery game I have been planning for a while.

BASIC IDEA:

This will be a bastard game with a special twist. To hide the twist so players won't guess what it is right away and to have some fun with it, I want to actually hide the games flavor from all the players for the first day of game play.

Everyone's role and alignment will stay the same, but the flavor and their flavor name will be kept hidden until the flavor is revealed on day 2... or at least that's what seemed reasonable. I was actually kind of tempted to keep the flavor a secret until a player correctly guessed the twist, but that seems to complicated and would require modwatching even more than normal, so better to keep it simple right?

Anyways, that's the basic premise. The game will be called Mystery Mafia until the real flavor is revealed. If possible I'd love to even have a different tagline for the OT that gets changed along with the game's name when the flavor is revealed.

Role PMs will look like this basically:

You are a Tracker,

You are aligned with Town

How a tracker works

You can vote

Good Luck!

The Sample Role PM will be something similar and will be listed as a Vanilla.

 

[lokiduck]

The Twist

Everyone is a messenger. Every single player in the game will have a messenger power besides their other abilities (if they have any) and they will be able to send a message to other players every single night.

The reason for concealing the flavor is largely so that no one will realize this twist until day 2 when everyone has possibly received messages and only if players disclose that they did. I feel like on day 2 it'll become obvious that everyone is a messenger at this point, which is why I'm electing to reveal the flavor then, but if anyone thinks we can prolong the reveal then please suggest other options.

Since the game is based around everyone being a messenger, we definitely need some powers that can throw off people's info such as messing with them or being affected by them (I feel bad already for the tracker in this game).

And because it's bastard we can have some added fun with it as long as we make it fair for the players.

The Flavor

The flavor for this game is that every player is actually an employee working in a Post Office, and the actual name of the game will be Post Office Mafia which some catchy tag line like "Don't @ Me your reads!" or something like that. Instead of Mystery Mafia, I was tempted to name the game "Name Still Pending Mafia" but I was worried that'd be to obvious.

But yep that's the special reveal about this flavor. It is set in a post office, and all the powers will be based upon made up positions I have come up with.

For instance that tracker I mentioned in the example up above will become a "Package tracker" and other roles like doctor will become "box mender."

Silly shit like that.

How Will Players Learn They Are a Messenger

During the Night Phase I will message all players "Congrats you have been given a new power! You are now a messenger! (explanation about power) and will encourage the players to use it. The idea is to make them think they are the only one with this power, though we'll have to discuss how it works with scum.

What Happens With the Reveal

When the reveal happens mostly likely on day 2, the OP and Header will be changed to fit the flavor for Post Office Mafia, the Sample PM role will be changed from vanilla to messenger (Since everyone is a messenger even if they don't have any powers. Pre-Reveal they'll just be a vanilla). I'll also send out the full Role PMs which will include their flavor name and info, and the detail about being a messenger.

Alternative option

Instead of changing the OP and thread title, we'll keep the game as mystery mafia so that future readers are spoiled ontil they get to day 2.

 

[lokiduck]

THE SPREADSHEET

Mystery Mafia - The First

docs.google.com

The Roles:

X Shots will be 1-2 shots based on fairness and due to amount of roles.

Town (Good Post Office Employees! \o/)

- Larry the Lazy Employee - Miller Messenger. Additionally his messages are sent to a random person via RNG and we will not tell his player that. His player will request to send it to a specific player, but RNG will decide the real target.
- Heather the Head of HR - x Shot Alignment Cop Messenger.
- Boris the Box Mender - Doctor Messenger
- Patricia the Package Tracker - Tracker Messenger
- Brandi the Brownnoser- Loyal Messenger. Can only send messages to town players except for Larry. Will not be told whether their message was delivered or not. Also she will be listed as vanilla during pre-reveal.
- Orville the Office Gossip - Gossip Messenger
- Dan the Deliveryman - Even Odd Commuter, messenger, and fruit vender. Can't send messages when commuting, but will instead send packages that do nothing without his knowledge.
- Medina the Manager - Medium Messenger - Is able to ask spec chat questions that can only be answered with yes or no.
- Petrushka the Package Scanner - Bomb Defuser Messenger - Scans packages. If they are a bomb, he reports them to the police, and they are defused.
- Yennifer the Ordinary Employee - Messenger
- Ramachandr the Ordinary Employee - Messenger

If having a loyal messenger and an alignment cop is too much alignment checking, then I propose we either severely limit Heather's powers (say it's because of budge cuts), or we make her power different all together. We have a commuter and a doc, but we could make her a Jailer instead.

Mafia (Bad Post Office Employees! \o/)

- Barry the Box Breaker - Godfather Strongman Messenger - For the doc and possibly jailer if we have one. GF role is to counter Alignment cop if we keep her and Brandi. He's a GF flavor wise because he is an older employee that has worked there for years. XD
- Stanford the Stamp Thief - Role Thief Messenger - If the player targeted has a power, Stan will receive the item they use that power with which serves to not only roleblock the player for the night, but to learn what role that player is based on if they can guess what the item is for. (doctor will have tape, package tracker will have a tracking number) For roles he can't RB, he'll just receive a clue about what role they are.
- Lisa the Label Maker - Switcher, Messenger, and package thief - Mainly here to mess up messages, but also to counter the good roles. She also steals the packages of the people she targeted for switching which serves as a counter to her lol.

No need to make fake claims for the scum team as they can just claim messenger.

Neutral (Going Postal! \o/)

- Bob the Mail Bomb maker - Arsonist Messenger. Sends packages to other players. If three are still alive then he can detonate them, killing them and winning the game for himself. His player will then leave the game. Alternative suggestion is a serial killer where again he blows people up. XD

If we need a counter to the Bomber then we'll need a bomb defuser I guess, another alternative for HR?

 

[lokiduck]

I realized that the Gossip and their conversation partner may figure out the twist if they elect to talk about both becoming messengers, this at least means that some part of town may figure it out such as the scum team will.

Speaking of which we need to decide how to handle them. Telling them all privately that they are messengers will really clue them in on what's happening.

Proposed Solution: Either Scum share the message ability, only sending one message out and making it less obvious, orrrrrr we just tell them in Scum chat they all have messenger powers and let them deal with it.

 

[Verelios]

We could always keep Brandy as is but not tell them if their message was delivered or not.

 

[Verelios]

As for the message...hm, I guess you have to tell scum chat something, though they just might tell the thread D1.

Scum really need a message thief or lightning rod (message) equivalent to make the most of the set up.

 

[lokiduck]

We could always keep Brandy as is but not tell them if their message was delivered or not.

I wasn't planning on telling them at all if their messaged delivered. XD My personal opinion was to let them send a message to someone, and then try and find out if said person got the message.

Best part about this is that if the person didn't get the message, Brandy's player may think the target was scum when it could just be it was Dan when they were commuting, or the switcher changed who they targeted.

As for the message...hm, I guess you have to tell scum chat something, though they just might tell the thread D1.

Scum really need a message thief or lightning rod (message) equivalent to make the most of the set up.

ooooh I like the idea of a vote thief.

Which scum member do you think should have it? Stanford seems like the obvious choice (maybe have it combined with his role thief power?) but flavor wise it could work with Lisa or Barry. XD

 

[lokiduck]

LOL so I can't like any posts. I think Retro gave me like super mod privileges and I can even edit your posts. XD

Since I can't like I'm horribly tempted to edit any of your posts I like with a +1 XD

 

[Verelios]

Stanford seems good for it. This is a 15 player game?

 

[lokiduck]

16 c: With Bob the neutral. XD

Oh and LOL I can like the posts :o

 

[lokiduck]

So with the switcher, messengers, role and mail thief, and other fun stuff we are going to have to put in a lot of work as mods. But secretly this is the super special twist.

In a game about mailmen at a post office, where everyone is sending everyone messages every night, and the mods are having to deliver those messages, everyone will be wondering who is the real mailmen in the end. XD

 

[Verelios]

Lol, I just realized that the workload is going to be tight. Especially because people love to put it off until the last minute.

Where are you on people who miss the deadline by 1-5 minutes by the way? Strict or casual?

 

[lokiduck]

Lol, I just realized that the workload is going to be tight. Especially because people love to put it off until the last minute.

Where are you on people who miss the deadline by 1-5 minutes by the way? Strict or casual?

The way I figure, people will have until the two hours before day start to submit their commands, which gives us a two hour window to process everything (We should plan to have this period at a time when both or at least one of us is able to do it since it will be a ton of work. If someone doesn't submit the command before that deadline, their action will not be counted, because we have a lot to deal with.

My general plan is to keep notes on what everyone is doing and what they are doing to people, updating it as people change things around.

If player 1 messages 2, I write that down, and then if the switcher swaps 2 for 5 I'll update it and so on. Then I'll just go down the list once actions lock until everything has been dealt with.

The good news is we'll get a taste of what moderating is like when we sit in on a game with the mod team before Nier happens, and running Nier. XD

We can plan further from there, but the main thing is we should be really strict about the actions cut off deadline.

I forgot what else I was going to mention XD

 

[lokiduck]

Oh right. How do you want to handle the whole PMing people about them now being messengers. My only concern with that is that people who are vanilla may not check on the game until day start the next day and there won't be as many messages. I doubt that could happen because surely someone will be doing something else on Era, but I was sort of wondering if we should have some random message in the thread at day end that doesn't say what's going to happen, but just something?

 

[Verelios]

Oh right. How do you want to handle the whole PMing people about them now being messengers. My only concern with that is that people who are vanilla may not check on the game until day start the next day and there won't be as many messages. I doubt that could happen because surely someone will be doing something else on Era, but I was sort of wondering if we should have some random message in the thread at day end that doesn't say what's going to happen, but just something?

Uh...we can just roll it out with their regular PMs I guess, but having a cryptic Game runner not at day start is the best of both worlds.

 

[lokiduck]

The only thing with having the regular PMs mention they are a messenger is:

1. Scum will know from the start that there seems to be something up with them all being messengers (unless we give scum one message ability, but that'd limit the amount of messages going out) from the start, while by messaging everyone at night allows everyone to at least know they are now a messenger at the same time.

2. People may wonder what's going on if they already have other powers. For the vanilla's it won't be that big of a deal, but with people like the doc or alignment cop, they may wonder why they have the message ability. It might be fine as again only scum will be aware everyone is a messenger possibly, but I'm deeply worried about a player that likes to role claim going "Yo I'm a messenger" for some reason on day 1 and the cat being out of the bag, making the whole point of keeping it a secret moot.

By messaging everyone at night people will wonder what's up, but they won't be able to discuss it except in scum and gossip chat and gossip may not even discuss it.

My goal was to make people think that someone has a power that gives people abilities or something until it's revealed everyone is a messenger. The lie by the game runners is that every is not a messenger when they are in fact. XD

I guess we could just take a risk some people won't see the message in time. To make up for this, we could start sending out the messages immediately after day end, especially for peeps in time zones that may miss it if not? I mean the players are probably going to be doing something on Era right? XD

 

[lokiduck]

Additionally we need items to represent all the different roles for the role thief. XD

Also does Stanford prevent people from send messages or should those be allowed to go through? If RB'd the item should be envelopes or boxes. XD

Here are my possible suggestions for the roles that apply as being Roleblockable.

Heather the HR Head: Parity cop - Employee records
Boris the Box Mender: Doctor - Duct tape
Patricia the Package Tracker: Tracker - tracking code
Bob the Mail Bomberer: Arsonist - Clock
Petrushka the Package Scannerer: Bomb Defuser - Package Scanner
Brandi the Brownnoser: Loyal - Employee of the month plaque?
Medina the Manager: Medium - Phone

The role thief is a RB meet Role Cop so we'd need items to rep the other non mail powers:

Larry the Lazy Employee: Miller - Bad employee records
Dan the Deliveryman: Even Odd Commuter - His Mail Truck
Orville the Office Gossip: Gossip - Water cooler XD

For fun:

Barry the Box Breaker: His fists???
Stanford the Stamp Thief: You stole your own pants \o/ !!!
Lisa the Label Maker: White Out.

 

[lokiduck]

Proposal Orville's gossip chat is called "Around the Water cooler" to really cement the water cooler is his RB'd item. XD Lore wise he can't gossip because he can't find the Water Cooler. XD

 

[Verelios]

Proposal Orville's gossip chat is called "Around the Water cooler" to really cement the water cooler is his RB'd item. XD Lore wise he can't gossip because he can't find the Water Cooler. XD

Hilarious, but do mail offices even have water coolers nowadays?

 

[Verelios]

The only thing with having the regular PMs mention they are a messenger is:

1. Scum will know from the start that there seems to be something up with them all being messengers (unless we give scum one message ability, but that'd limit the amount of messages going out) from the start, while by messaging everyone at night allows everyone to at least know they are now a messenger at the same time.

2. People may wonder what's going on if they already have other powers. For the vanilla's it won't be that big of a deal, but with people like the doc or alignment cop, they may wonder why they have the message ability. It might be fine as again only scum will be aware everyone is a messenger possibly, but I'm deeply worried about a player that likes to role claim going "Yo I'm a messenger" for some reason on day 1 and the cat being out of the bag, making the whole point of keeping it a secret moot.

By messaging everyone at night people will wonder what's up, but they won't be able to discuss it except in scum and gossip chat and gossip may not even discuss it.

My goal was to make people think that someone has a power that gives people abilities or something until it's revealed everyone is a messenger. The lie by the game runners is that every is not a messenger when they are in fact. XD

I guess we could just take a risk some people won't see the message in time. To make up for this, we could start sending out the messages immediately after day end, especially for peeps in time zones that may miss it if not? I mean the players are probably going to be doing something on Era right? XD

There's not really a good way to do this while everyone is taken into account. I think your idea of telling players immediately at day end that they're able to message is the best solution that we'll get, just that we also have to be on top of that pretty soon for anywhere from 15-16 people.

 

[Verelios]

Additionally we need items to represent all the different roles for the role thief. XD

Also does Stanford prevent people from send messages or should those be allowed to go through? If RB'd the item should be envelopes or boxes. XD

Here are my possible suggestions for the roles that apply as being Roleblockable.

Heather the HR Head: Alignment cop - Employee records
Boris the Box Mender: Doctor - Duct tape
Patricia the Package Tracker: Tracker - tracking code
Orville the Office Gossip: Gossip - Water cooler XD
Bob the Mail Bomberer: Arsonist - C4

The role thief is a RB meet Role Cop so we'd need items to rep the other non mail powers:

Larry the Lazy Employee: Miller - Bad employee records
Brandi the Brownnoser: Loyal - Employee of the month plaque?
Dan the Deliveryman: Even Odd Commuter - His Mail Truck

For fun:

Barry the Box Breaker: His fists???
Stanford the Stamp Thief: You stole your own pants \o/ !!!
Lisa the Label Maker: White Out.

For the items Stanford gets on RB for messages, envelopes are fine.

C4 is a bit on the nose for Bob. How about a ticking package, or something of the like?

Lol at Dan. Mail truck or bag is cool, while the rest are pretty great. I kind of want there to be some uncertainty to the items to balance out it also being a RB.

 

[lokiduck]

Hilarious, but do mail offices even have water coolers nowadays?

Yes... yes they do >>*Scribbles note on hand to sneak into local post office to find if true* I still think it'll work still as it'll seem like a weird object to get, but it'll make sense if they get the reference.

There's not really a good way to do this while everyone is taken into account. I think your idea of telling players immediately at day end that they're able to message is the best solution that we'll get, just that we also have to be on top of that pretty soon for anywhere from 15-16 people.

Yep... XD Like I said, we should probably start with the people around at EoD since they'll be more likely to see it right away, then work our way down the list of people who weren't around. Good news is we can copy paste the message since it'll be the same... maybe just have one for plain messengers (who think they are vanilla) like "You have received a power!" and one for those with powers "You have received a new power!"

I think in the end the players are going to assume the GR gave them this power because it when they get it, but it'll still be fun because with it being bastard they may be suspicious of it. XD

For the items Stanford gets on RB for messages, envelopes are fine.

Neat! c: So if he RB's a messenger he'll get "You stole some envelopes!!!" and if he RB's someone with other powers he'll get "You stole some envelopes!!! And a Water Cooler!!!"

C4 is a bit on the nose for Bob. How about a ticking package, or something of the like?

Ticking package may be too obvious as well... What about a clock? Lore wise it's apart of his bomb. They'll wonder why an employee would have such a thing, but if they are smart they'll figure it out.

Lol at Dan. Mail truck or bag is cool, while the rest are pretty great. I kind of want there to be some uncertainty to the items to balance out it also being a RB.

I think stealing the mail truck is hilarious, but maybe it'd be better if it was a mail bag like you suggest. XD They'd think he's a mail carrier but not figure out he's a commuter.

As for the other items, what do you suggest as alternatives?

I like Larry's because it being a bad employee record, may imply he's a cop, unless of course his player has already claimed. I also think Boris' item works because duct tape isn't that obviously connected with healing. XD Part of his flavor should be "You personal motto is that everything can be solved with duct tape." (Possible suggestion: Give every character a favorite motto?)

The two most obvious items for me is the Employee Records, and Tracking code? So any other suggestions?

 

[lokiduck]

Additional proposals:

1. I think right now Stanford is too powerful and it may hurt his team if he dies early. He should still be a role thief, but I think we should make Lisa the Mail Thief.

Here's how it breaks down.

Barry: Strongman and Godfather counter to cop roles and doc.
Stanford: RB and Role Cop. Dangerous to serious powers on both accounts.
Lisa: Switcher and Mail Thief. The main disturber of the mail besides Stanford's RB. She messes up who gets what mail, she messes up serious powers, but she also steals mail by changing the labeling address to her place. (She'd basically have two powers beside the faction kill. She can choose to Switch or Mail Steal. Maybe if She's last scum she can do both XD who knows XD)

2. If we need to remove a more useful power (based on what Review team says) The most obvious power we are missing out on would be a fruit vender that delivers random packages to people that do nothing in the game. This might be fun because people will be possibly receiving packages from the Arsonist and it may cover their tracks.

One possible idea, is we give this ability to a really good role as an additional power they can't control. (If Stanford steals from them, he gets the package instead. XD) However, if it's on someone with a good power, maybe this ability only happens when they use their regular power (so we don't flood the game with a bunch of boxes every night? XD)

However if we do this which gives more cover to the Bomber, then do we need a bomb defuser to counter it? That way if someone announces "I got a package" the Bomb defuser will waste a night defusing an empty package instead of the real bomb.

 

[lokiduck]

Lol so how have things been Vere? XD

 

[Verelios]

Half/Half. Pretty tranquil ever since the quarantine. How about you? Everything alright?

 

[lokiduck]

Half/Half. Pretty tranquil ever since the quarantine. How about you? Everything alright?

Yeah I'm fine. I was going to be working through my state's shut down, but an employee got Pink Eye so they gave me two weeks off and now I have to apply for other jobs because even though my current one is still paying me, my roomie wants me to find a full time job. XD This one was supposed to make me full time, but they still haven't yet.

Anyways... while we are both free... want to look over my recent ideas for this mafia? XD

 

[Verelios]

Yeah I'm fine. I was going to be working through my state's shut down, but an employee got Pink Eye so they gave me two weeks off and now I have to apply for other jobs because even though my current one is still paying me, my roomie wants me to find a full time job. XD This one was supposed to make me full time, but they still haven't yet.

Anyways... while we are both free... want to look over my recent ideas for this mafia? XD

Absolutely. Wishing you the best in your job search too.

 

[Verelios]

Additional proposals:

1. I think right now Stanford is too powerful and it may hurt his team if he dies early. He should still be a role thief, but I think we should make Lisa the Mail Thief.

Here's how it breaks down.

Barry: Strongman and Godfather counter to cop roles and doc.
Stanford: RB and Role Cop. Dangerous to serious powers on both accounts.
Lisa: Switcher and Mail Thief. The main disturber of the mail besides Stanford's RB. She messes up who gets what mail, she messes up serious powers, but she also steals mail by changing the labeling address to her place. (She'd basically have two powers beside the faction kill. She can choose to Switch or Mail Steal. Maybe if She's last scum she can do both XD who knows XD)

That's good, although I'm unsure about the utility of giving her switcher and mail steal commands since it's likely she'd almost never use the latter. Hm. What if mail stealing was passive and it triggered on the person being switched? So not only would she switch the action to that player, she'd steal their mail too. But this leaves a lot of messy situations open for action priority and tracker placement so I'm not sure.

2. If we need to remove a more useful power (based on what Review team says) The most obvious power we are missing out on would be a fruit vender that delivers random packages to people that do nothing in the game. This might be fun because people will be possibly receiving packages from the Arsonist and it may cover their tracks.

One possible idea, is we give this ability to a really good role as an additional power they can't control. (If Stanford steals from them, he gets the package instead. XD) However, if it's on someone with a good power, maybe this ability only happens when they use their regular power (so we don't flood the game with a bunch of boxes every night? XD)

However if we do this which gives more cover to the Bomber, then do we need a bomb defuser to counter it? That way if someone announces "I got a package" the Bomb defuser will waste a night defusing an empty package instead of the real bomb.

That's interesting. Thinking about it, that would be taking a role from positive to negative utility which might be alright if the balance needs it. Hm. When talking about useless roles, what do you think of mediums? We can even frame it as the player calling the Postal Service headquarters in Washington for advice/information.

The play with the bomb defuser is very interesting. Having a 3 way struggle between fruit vender mailing packages-->Bomber sending bomb packages-->Bomb defuser checking packages is cool. Hmmm, what if Dan delivered the mail haphazardly when commuting, so he'd also be a fruit vendor?

 

[lokiduck]

That's good, although I'm unsure about the utility of giving her switcher and mail steal commands since it's likely she'd almost never use the latter. Hm. What if mail stealing was passive and it triggered on the person being switched? So not only would she switch the action to that player, she'd steal their mail too. But this leaves a lot of messy situations open for action priority and tracker placement so I'm not sure.

True I guess. Having it be attached to her switcher role might be a good idea. How about we see what the reviewers think to decide on how her switching/mail thieving would work.

The play with the bomb defuser is very interesting. Having a 3 way struggle between fruit vender mailing packages-->Bomber sending bomb packages-->Bomb defuser checking packages is cool. Hmmm, what if Dan delivered the mail haphazardly when commuting, so he'd also be a fruit vendor?

Yesssssss Love this idea. As for who should be the bomb defuser, I was sort of thinking we could convert one of the vanillas into one, and if the reviewers think town is two powerful, we can get rid of one of the more useful powers (again either the cop or tracker) and give them the bomb defusing or let the former vanilla keep it.

The bomb defuser is now Salim the Scanner of Packages :D

The bomb defuser can be RB'd (item is a scanner). Do we want Salim to be notified if he defuses a bomb? It might add to the confusion if he's not notified at all.

That's interesting. Thinking about it, that would be taking a role from positive to negative utility which might be alright if the balance needs it. Hm. When talking about useless roles, what do you think of mediums? We can even frame it as the player calling the Postal Service headquarters in Washington for advice/information.

I love that idea. Again I'll just convert one of the vanillas. Speaking of Spec chat... we should call spec chat once the flavor has been revealed "HQ in Washington" :D Or we could even call it that before the reveal. XD I was kind of hoping to conceal the flavor from everyone until the reveal. So whatever works. XD

The medium is now Medina the manager :D

Can the medium be roleblocked? Her item would be a phone. :D

---
Spec Chat: HQ in Washington
Gossip chat: By the Water Cooler
Scum Chat: (Something related to where they all sneak off too when they don't want to work) Behind the dumpsters?

Scum Chat as suggested by Vere: The second Bathroom.

---

OOOOOOH ANOTHER IDEA. since the game is bastard, if town is too OP why not make the HR Head a sleepwalker, but have her player think she is something else? All she does is go around the office checking on employees, but not actually doing anything productive. It messes up the tracker further and allows me to keep the HR Head, but not actually have it be a useful power. XD

 

[Verelios]

True I guess. Having it be attached to her switcher role might be a good idea. How about we see what the reviewers think to decide on how her switching/mail thieving would work.

Seems good. We can re-work it if reviwers find it too much.

Yesssssss Love this idea. As for who should be the bomb defuser, I was sort of thinking we could convert one of the vanillas into one, and if the reviewers think town is two powerful, we can get rid of one of the more useful powers (again either the cop or tracker) and give them the bomb defusing or let the former vanilla keep it.

The bomb defuser is now Salim the Scanner of Packages :D

The bomb defuser can be RB'd (item is a scanner). Do we want Salim to be notified if he defuses a bomb? It might add to the confusion if he's not notified at all.

Let's make it so that they're not notified then to give an equal opportunity. But then how would town get a chance for the bomb...um, what about alerting the person holding the bomb that an irritating ticking sound has stopped?

I love that idea. Again I'll just convert one of the vanillas. Speaking of Spec chat... we should call spec chat once the flavor has been revealed "HQ in Washington" :D Or we could even call it that before the reveal. XD I was kind of hoping to conceal the flavor from everyone until the reveal. So whatever works. XD

The medium is now Medina the manager :D

Can the medium be roleblocked? Her item would be a phone. :D

I think the medium can be RBed...can't they?

Spec Chat: HQ in Washington
Gossip chat: By the Water Cooler
Scum Chat: (Something related to where they all sneak off too when they don't want to work) Behind the dumpsters?

Probably the second bathroom for scum?

OOOOOOH ANOTHER IDEA. since the game is bastard, if town is too OP why not make the HR Head a sleepwalker, but have her player think she is something else? All she does is go around the office checking on employees, but not actually doing anything productive. It messes up the tracker further and allows me to keep the HR Head, but not actually have it be a useful power. XD

Great idea! That would be fun, and I'd rather HR head be affected than tracker out of our powerful town PRs if we had to depower one.

 

[lokiduck]

Let's make it so that they're not notified then to give an equal opportunity. But then how would town get a chance for the bomb...um, what about alerting the person holding the bomb that an irritating ticking sound has stopped?

My general plan was if someone gets a package (either via mail bomb or commuter), they'd just get a message saying "You received a package :D I wonder what it is?"

Having it tick would make it pretty obvious LOL. However, if it is a bomb and it gets defused maybe the receiver could get an additional message like "The bomb squad came and confiscated your package because it was in fact a bomb. Who could have done such a horrible thing?"

Since flavor wise Salim is scanning packages to see if they have any contraband in them and the bomb squad gets called if it's a bomb... However in that case it doesn't make sense for Salim not to get notified... but having him and the receiver both be notified would easily confirm his role... Hmmm

I think the medium can be RBed...can't they?

I guess they can. We can always ask the Reviewers. I'll consider Medina as RB'able for now. At least I have an item for her. XD

Probably the second bathroom for scum?

Yessssss. Kind of want to call it something like "The gross employee bathroom by the label machine." or something like that.

 

[lokiduck]

@Verelios I really want to start getting our games worked on, not that we've had experience with Nier. Would it be okay if we signed up to have this game reviewed? There aren't many reviewers so it might take a bit anyways.

This is just one our few games that isn't waiting on us to finish another one and if we can schedule this one or the other game being reviewed, then I can probably ask for another board to be made so we can start brainstorming some other games. XD

 

[lokiduck]

Also. Lisa steals the mail of the person she targets... does this mean she has a chance of stealing one of the exploding boxes if she happens to target them the night it gets sent to them? XD

 

[Verelios]

@Verelios I really want to start getting our games worked on, not that we've had experience with Nier. Would it be okay if we signed up to have this game reviewed? There aren't many reviewers so it might take a bit anyways.

This is just one our few games that isn't waiting on us to finish another one and if we can schedule this one or the other game being reviewed, then I can probably ask for another board to be made so we can start brainstorming some other games. XD

Yeah, let's put it in the queue. This ironically enough seems like the most simple of the games we're running, so we get more experience too.

 

[Verelios]

Also. Lisa steals the mail of the person she targets... does this mean she has a chance of stealing one of the exploding boxes if she happens to target them the night it gets sent to them? XD

I...think so, haha. That would be a hilarious coincidence.

 

[lokiduck]

Okay then I'll contact the review team, I just need to make the spread sheet because I didn't make an official one yet >>

 

[lokiduck]

I...think so, haha. That would be a hilarious coincidence.

I just thought about it more and I'm unsure we want her to be a mail thief. The point of the switch is to mess with the serious stuff like the tracker and the alignment check ,but also to change who is the sender.

I'm cool with her being a package thief tho... Basically if either of her targets are getting packages that night (from dan or bob) she gets them instead. It could be a counter to her switch lol as it makes things more risky for her.

 

[Verelios]

I just thought about it more and I'm unsure we want her to be a mail thief. The point of the switch is to mess with the serious stuff like the tracker and the alignment check ,but also to change who is the sender.

I'm cool with her being a package thief tho... Basically if either of her targets are getting packages that night (from dan or bob) she gets them instead. It could be a counter to her switch lol as it makes things more risky for her.

Hm, that's good too. It'll stop messages from being too confusing, not to mention we'll be the ones doing that criss crossing leg work, ha.

 

[lokiduck]

Hm, that's good too. It'll stop messages from being too confusing, not to mention we'll be the ones doing that criss crossing leg work, ha.

Yep. We can see what the reviewers think about it as well. It might be too harsh of a punishment to scum after all.

 

[Faddy]

hi

 

[Faddy]

I feel like the game doesn't have enough packages

 

[Faddy]

If you want to hide the messenger aspect until after day 1 I would suggest the following

The game is originally branded Office Mafia. Then revealed to be Post Office Mafia in PMs.

The mafia team can be that they are the Mail Room so they don't question the flavor stuff.

 

[Ty4on]

I was thinking something similar about having a pretty fully fledged flavor for D1 which is then revealed.
Could still be mystery mafia, but the players have a backstory about why they don’t know what’s going on.

 

[Ty4on]

Seeing scum switcher I’m reminded of MGS mafia where poor cabot was a useless doctor because scum kept switching their kill target to kill the strongest town in peace.

 

[Faddy]

Seeing scum switcher I’m reminded of MGS mafia where poor cabot was a useless doctor because scum kept switching their kill target to kill the strongest town in peace.

I'm not worried about that.

1. that is high level scum play
2. the switcher has counters in the commuter and the tracker.
3. the switch is highly likely to end up with at least 1 bomb.

 

[Verelios]

If you want to hide the messenger aspect until after day 1 I would suggest the following

The game is originally branded Office Mafia. Then revealed to be Post Office Mafia in PMs.

The mafia team can be that they are the Mail Room so they don't question the flavor stuff.

That's a cool idea. So position the flavour as just regular office work and then throw out the superior post-office work when they're not looking.

 

[Verelios]

Seeing scum switcher I’m reminded of MGS mafia where poor cabot was a useless doctor because scum kept switching their kill target to kill the strongest town in peace.

The world needs a hero, and it isn't Fedex, or UPS, or Amazon Mail. It's goddamn USPS, so some mail getting switched around is a small price to pay.

 

[Ty4on]

The world needs a hero, and it isn't Fedex, or UPS, or Amazon Mail. It's goddamn USPS, so some mail getting switched around is a small price to pay.

USPS would never switch the mail sobs

 

[Ty4on]

I was today’s years old when I learned that Postal was a video game adaptation :O

 

[Ty4on]

Oh right. How do you want to handle the whole PMing people about them now being messengers. My only concern with that is that people who are vanilla may not check on the game until day start the next day and there won't be as many messages. I doubt that could happen because surely someone will be doing something else on Era, but I was sort of wondering if we should have some random message in the thread at day end that doesn't say what's going to happen, but just something?

Push it out around the same time as the D1 flip is announced, most players will be checking the thread around that time. I assume messages start flying around on N1 already?

 

[Ty4on]

Yep... XD Like I said, we should probably start with the people around at EoD since they'll be more likely to see it right away, then work our way down the list of people who weren't around. Good news is we can copy paste the message since it'll be the same... maybe just have one for plain messengers (who think they are vanilla) like "You have received a power!" and one for those with powers "You have received a new power!"

-_-;

 

[lokiduck]

I feel like the game doesn't have enough packages

:o How do you propose we add more? We do kind of want to make it hard for Petrushka to do their job. XD

If you want to hide the messenger aspect until after day 1 I would suggest the following

The game is originally branded Office Mafia. Then revealed to be Post Office Mafia in PMs.

The mafia team can be that they are the Mail Room so they don't question the flavor stuff.

That's a cool idea. So position the flavour as just regular office work and then throw out the superior post-office work when they're not looking.

I like this idea a lot, like a lot, but I really kind of wanted to throw off expectations by not revealing the flavor at all. See the reason why is because I wanted to pitch the game as:

"Come play mystery mafia, so bastard you don't even know what the flavor is!!!"

If people think it's a game flavored around a office, that's not as fun. :< I want to see people speculating what the flavor might actually be only to find out it's just based around a post office. :< Plus the game is mainly bastard because I wanted to do the flavor reveal.

Also in the scheme of things I'm okay with the scum team and possibly gossip figuring it out night 1.

I was thinking something similar about having a pretty fully fledged flavor for D1 which is then revealed.
Could still be mystery mafia, but the players have a backstory about why they don’t know what’s going on.

This however isn't a bad idea. One idea is all the characters had a party (later flavored as an office party) and everyone got shitfaced drunk and were hungover on day 1.

I'm not worried about that.

1. that is high level scum play
2. the switcher has counters in the commuter and the tracker.
3. the switch is highly likely to end up with at least 1 bomb.

Oh good you think the scum switcher getting a bomb possibly is a good idea. x3

Push it out around the same time as the D1 flip is announced, most players will be checking the thread around that time. I assume messages start flying around on N1 already?

Yes they will start flying out. Part of why I wanted to keep the flavor a secret until after night 1 (also why I don't want to have it be office mafia) is on night 1 most of the players will be told they have the power to send a message.

1. If it's called office mafia, most players will probably figure out what's up when they unlock the power.
2. I want to see what happens when people are told they have this power without knowing the flavor, because there's a high chance those not in the know (aka players that are talking to each other at night like the gossip and scum team) may think they are the only messenger and send out something fun or crazy.

Basically I want night 1 to be a crazy night as a ton of messages are sent out, especially since there is a chance that players won't send messages on later nights :<

Speaking of...

Could we make it a rule that sending a message is mandatory and they are only allowed to not send a message once which results in them being warned not to do it again?

 

[Verelios]

:o How do you propose we add more? We do kind of want to make it hard for Petrushka to do their job. XD


I like this idea a lot, like a lot, but I really kind of wanted to throw off expectations by not revealing the flavor at all. See the reason why is because I wanted to pitch the game as:

"Come play mystery mafia, so bastard you don't even know what the flavor is!!!"

If people think it's a game flavored around a office, that's not as fun. :< I want to see people speculating what the flavor might actually be only to find out it's just based around a post office. :< Plus the game is mainly bastard because I wanted to do the flavor reveal.

Also in the scheme of things I'm okay with the scum team and possibly gossip figuring it out night 1.

This however isn't a bad idea. One idea is all the characters had a party (later flavored as an office party) and everyone got shitfaced drunk and were hungover on day 1.

Oh good you think the scum switcher getting a bomb possibly is a good idea. x3

Yes they will start flying out. Part of why I wanted to keep the flavor a secret until after night 1 (also why I don't want to have it be office mafia) is on night 1 most of the players will be told they have the power to send a message.

1. If it's called office mafia, most players will probably figure out what's up when they unlock the power.
2. I want to see what happens when people are told they have this power without knowing the flavor, because there's a high chance those not in the know (aka players that are talking to each other at night like the gossip and scum team) may think they are the only messenger and send out something fun or crazy.

Basically I want night 1 to be a crazy night as a ton of messages are sent out, especially since there is a chance that players won't send messages on later nights :<

Speaking of...

Could we make it a rule that sending a message is mandatory and they are only allowed to not send a message once which results in them being warned not to do it again?

Agreed with having messages be mandatory. We can even fashion it as telling them 'please don't let USPS go under' but everyone has 1 pass.

 

[lokiduck]

Agreed with having messages be mandatory. We can even fashion it as telling them 'please don't let USPS go under' but everyone has 1 pass.

Sounds good. LOL I was thinking of making them mandatory work emails (because you can't just ignore mail from your boss right???) but that also works. XD

 

[Ty4on]

Sounds good. LOL I was thinking of making them mandatory work emails (because you can't just ignore mail from your boss right???) but that also works. XD

I feel like it’s more fun if they’re more like letters because of the post office flavor. I was thinking Brandi could be someone who strictly followed protocol when sending letters which is why bad employers won’t get her messages.

 

[Ty4on]

- Boris the Box Mender - Doctor Messenger

Is the death flavor settled? It sounds like the mail they’re responsible for it’s ruined so they’re fired lol

 

[lokiduck]

I feel like it’s more fun if they’re more like letters because of the post office flavor. I was thinking Brandi could be someone who strictly followed protocol when sending letters which is why bad employers won’t get her messages.

oooooh I like that. A+ Idea.

Is the death flavor settled? It sounds like the mail they’re responsible for it’s ruined so they’re fired lol

LOL that wasn't what I had planned on, but I love it. Unless the players die via bombing, they'll just be fired from the office. XD

Lunched = Fired for not being a team player.
NK = Their job was sabotaged by the scum team and they were fired for being a bad employee.
Bombed = this is obvious.

 

[Faddy]

:o How do you propose we add more? We do kind of want to make it hard for Petrushka to do their job. XD


I like this idea a lot, like a lot, but I really kind of wanted to throw off expectations by not revealing the flavor at all. See the reason why is because I wanted to pitch the game as:

"Come play mystery mafia, so bastard you don't even know what the flavor is!!!"

If people think it's a game flavored around a office, that's not as fun. :< I want to see people speculating what the flavor might actually be only to find out it's just based around a post office. :< Plus the game is mainly bastard because I wanted to do the flavor reveal.

Also in the scheme of things I'm okay with the scum team and possibly gossip figuring it out night 1.

This however isn't a bad idea. One idea is all the characters had a party (later flavored as an office party) and everyone got shitfaced drunk and were hungover on day 1.

Oh good you think the scum switcher getting a bomb possibly is a good idea. x3

Yes they will start flying out. Part of why I wanted to keep the flavor a secret until after night 1 (also why I don't want to have it be office mafia) is on night 1 most of the players will be told they have the power to send a message.

1. If it's called office mafia, most players will probably figure out what's up when they unlock the power.
2. I want to see what happens when people are told they have this power without knowing the flavor, because there's a high chance those not in the know (aka players that are talking to each other at night like the gossip and scum team) may think they are the only messenger and send out something fun or crazy.

Basically I want night 1 to be a crazy night as a ton of messages are sent out, especially since there is a chance that players won't send messages on later nights :<

Speaking of...

Could we make it a rule that sending a message is mandatory and they are only allowed to not send a message once which results in them being warned not to do it again?

You could do anything you want to add parcels. The game is bastard after all.

You could just send out random parcels
Spec chat could send a parcel to a player of their choice
Every dead player gets to send a parcel

I think your mystery flavor is fine but I don't think you are going to get any sort of reaction to the reveal because it wouldn't come off as a twist. Everyone is expecting flavor.

I think you can slow roll the flavor reveal. Day 1 is office mafia, night 1 is solely info from PMs and then you can wait to some point in day 2 to reveal the post office flavor.

I agree that messages must be mandatory. You could have a variety of punishments. Vanilla-ised for a night, vote removed, post restrictions, hated modifier.
So you send something like this on night 1.

"Tonight you are a messenger. Please write a message to one of your fellow players. Failure to do so will result in negative consequeneces"

If you are going to be a bastard game you might as well go all out imo.

 

[Faddy]

Other bastard ideas.

If the bomb goes off and the game continues, all the reveals are jumbled together so players don't know who had what role/alignment.
Oops the mail got mixed up.

 

[Ty4on]

Other bastard ideas.

If the bomb goes off and the game continues, all the reveals are jumbled together so players don't know who had what role/alignment.
Oops the mail got mixed up.

lol

- Dan the Deliveryman - Even Odd Commuter, messenger, and fruit vender. Can't send messages when commuting, but will instead send packages that do nothing without his knowledge.

Flavor idea, Dan has an assistant or an intern who takes over when he's away, it's the flavor in his role PM like "Every odd night Andy the Assistant will take over your duties" as a reason for why the stuff doesn't target him. This is also why they're a random fruit vendor since the person taking over doesn't know how to do their work and sends out packages at random.

 

[Ty4on]

You could do anything you want to add parcels. The game is bastard after all.

You could just send out random parcels
Spec chat could send a parcel to a player of their choice
Every dead player gets to send a parcel

Should some be useful since we've got bombs :thinking:

 

[lokiduck]

You could do anything you want to add parcels. The game is bastard after all.

You could just send out random parcels
Spec chat could send a parcel to a player of their choice
Every dead player gets to send a parcel

LOL This sounds fabulous. I want to here what Vere thinks we should do out of these ones, but personally I like the idea of Spec chat sending out a package. Since they are Medina's boss because she asks them question (we should call spec chat something flavor related to this role) they should be able to send a package out every night.

Should some be useful since we've got bombs :thinking:

And the item they send out is an useful item. GUYSSSSSSSS I JUST HAD AN AMAZING IDEA. More on this below in the next post.

I think your mystery flavor is fine but I don't think you are going to get any sort of reaction to the reveal because it wouldn't come off as a twist. Everyone is expecting flavor.

Well of course everyone expects the flavor I want to advertise it as the flavor being a mystery that will be revealed. I just want to have them guessing what it is LOL until it's revealed.

I think you can slow roll the flavor reveal. Day 1 is office mafia, night 1 is solely info from PMs and then you can wait to some point in day 2 to reveal the post office flavor.

Idea... I like this one you had BTW.

What if day 1 there is no flavor. It's just a game of mafia with the flavor a secret. Night 1 everyone gets to message people. Day 2 we reveal that the game is set in an office and PMs are updated partly. The Messages are passed off as Office Mail.

However we don't reveal that it's Post Office Mafia until the players themselves figure it out in the main thread. LOL

If you think having it be revealed if the players can publicly guess the twist... then we reveal the post office flavor at the end of day 2 or day 3. I'd be content with day 1 being a secret and trickling info from there. LOL

I agree that messages must be mandatory. You could have a variety of punishments. Vanilla-ised for a night, vote removed, post restrictions, hated modifier.
So you send something like this on night 1.

"Tonight you are a messenger. Please write a message to one of your fellow players. Failure to do so will result in negative consequeneces"

Love this idea. Will definitely do this.

Other bastard ideas.

If the bomb goes off and the game continues, all the reveals are jumbled together so players don't know who had what role/alignment.
Oops the mail got mixed up.

LOL Love it. We can say because of the explosion the mail got mixed up. :<

Flavor idea, Dan has an assistant or an intern who takes over when he's away, it's the flavor in his role PM like "Every odd night Andy the Assistant will take over your duties" as a reason for why the stuff doesn't target him. This is also why they're a random fruit vendor since the person taking over doesn't know how to do their work and sends out packages at random.

Yessssss love this idea.

 

[lokiduck]

THE IDEA
Three words: TWO SPEC CHATS.

Spec Chat 1: "Upper management", they are the ones Medina asks questions of and they get to select a player to receive a package (that lol Lisa can steal) that has a useful item (or maybe not) in it. The packages are called "Employee incentive packages." This spec chat will be spoiler free for the sake of the Medium but will be that way all game. Also all players in the game are sent to this spec chat. So if the Medium dies day one Upper management will still exist because they can send a package to a player of their choosing the whole game.

What they aren't told... is that they are secretly playing... because there is also...

Spec Chat 2: "Chat Name Still Pending" which is a regular spec chat that allows spoilers, but they don't know about the first spec chat. This is mostly so they'll be confused when the medium is revealed, but they should figure something out when the dead players don't join their chat.

How to handle both spec chats
When peeps sign up for spec chat, they will be randomly RNG'd into Spec chat 1 and 2 and be lead to believe they are in the only spec chat. Spec chat 2 will eventually learn of the other spec chat tho. For fun, you guys since you are our reviewers can help us with the deception by filling in spots in either chat if you want, maybe even do both if you feel like it.

All dead players go to Upper Management (to fill out the paper work for their firing) until the game ends.

But won't the package items make one side two OP?
The beauty of this is they can be sent to any player in the game because the spec chat will choose who they want. Plus Lisa might steal it. The items should vary from being slightly useful (like a double vote or 1 self protect) to something harmful (like a vote loss, role block, randomizer that means all their targets are random).

 

[Ty4on]

I think it would work better to just have one spec and let it remain unspoiled. I think with two there will be like "I saw so and so sign up, where are they?" and it might make one spec too small. Usually spec is quite empty until half the thread is dead.

 

[Verelios]

THE IDEA
Three words: TWO SPEC CHATS.

Spec Chat 1: "Upper management", they are the ones Medina asks questions of and they get to select a player to receive a package (that lol Lisa can steal) that has a useful item (or maybe not) in it. The packages are called "Employee incentive packages." This spec chat will be spoiler free for the sake of the Medium but will be that way all game. Also all players in the game are sent to this spec chat. So if the Medium dies day one Upper management will still exist because they can send a package to a player of their choosing the whole game.

What they aren't told... is that they are secretly playing... because there is also...

Spec Chat 2: "Chat Name Still Pending" which is a regular spec chat that allows spoilers, but they don't know about the first spec chat. This is mostly so they'll be confused when the medium is revealed, but they should figure something out when the dead players don't join their chat.

How to handle both spec chats
When peeps sign up for spec chat, they will be randomly RNG'd into Spec chat 1 and 2 and be lead to believe they are in the only spec chat. Spec chat 2 will eventually learn of the other spec chat tho. For fun, you guys since you are our reviewers can help us with the deception by filling in spots in either chat if you want, maybe even do both if you feel like it.

All dead players go to Upper Management (to fill out the paper work for their firing) until the game ends.

But won't the package items make one side two OP?
The beauty of this is they can be sent to any player in the game because the spec chat will choose who they want. Plus Lisa might steal it. The items should vary from being slightly useful (like a double vote or 1 self protect) to something harmful (like a vote loss, role block, randomizer that means all their targets are random).

I like the idea of spec chat sending packages too. Thinking about it, having chat choose seems unfair for scum so how about having spec members choose who they want to send the package to and we randomize the winner?

 

[lokiduck]

I think it would work better to just have one spec and let it remain unspoiled. I think with two there will be like "I saw so and so sign up, where are they?" and it might make one spec too small. Usually spec is quite empty until half the thread is dead.

I've always wanted to do something like this, so I thought it would be a fun way because it'd involve the spec thread without them realizing this other twist, but I can partly see your point. I still think it'd be a fun idea to do tho.

Your point about people noticing that someone who signed up for spec might find it suspicious, but maybe there's a solution we can figure out like having people pm if they want spec. I'd also point out that spec spec is going to figure it out at some point anyways, especially when the fired players don't join spec chat lol.

Doesn't help those in upper management noticing not everyone who signed up for spec is there, but people that do don't always comment so maybe we'll get lucky >>;

I like the idea of spec chat sending packages too. Thinking about it, having chat choose seems unfair for scum so how about having spec members choose who they want to send the package to and we randomize the winner?

That's partly why the thread sending packages will be unspoiled. They don't know who scum is fully and who knows, maybe they end up rooting for scum anyways? XD

I do like the idea of every player suggested by spec gets added to the list of candidates and we randomize the winner. Spec members have to use the highlight feature to vote for who they want and when actions lock, we random.org based on the number of candidates. :D

 

[Ty4on]

Unspoiled works well with the Medium too, they could get some actual messages from spec instead of just yes/no

 

[lokiduck]

Unspoiled works well with the Medium too, they could get some actual messages from spec instead of just yes/no

I was thinking that too.

Because of the present that spec chat has to remain unspoiled so as a result Medina will be allowed to ask any question of said spec chat.

The thing with having it be a yes/no answer is usually the response that is voted on the most is the one sent to the medium... which is easier to do than just any answer.

But we could probably do it by saying that people can give an answer in red or vote for a response given previously or both (I.E. voting for their own response). The response with the most votes is the winner, and if there's a tie of any kind the medium will just get a no result XD

Either way :< I still want my two spec chats. I'll settle for a graveyard chat all of the fired players go to if i have to make it happen (tho it won't be as fun as having a twist there's two spec chats). To make it more fun only fired players go there to fill out their unemployment paperwork. Anyone killed by the bomb and Bob get to go to normal spec chat.

However, if Bob fails his wincon via getting fired he gets sent to upper management and no players go to normal spec chat until the game is over.

If we do it as a graveyard chat, then that might be fun because whoever gets lunched will have all the power the first night. So if it's town they'll give the first package to their largets town read and may even happily answer Medina. If they are scum, they'll send it to the scum team and probably troll answer and Medina will be more suspicious of it. XD

As more people are fired, it'll get more complicated and it'll even balance out a bit since the winner is random anyways. If a lot of town dies, they'll push town reads for the package... if a lot of scum scum will protect their own possibly, so in someway it balances out for which ever side has lost more peeps possibly.

 

[Ty4on]

- Publicly asking for spec in the thread (people will do this unless we make it really obvious something is different)
- Dead people from the game

Are all put into the unspoiled spec

- People PMing about spec access

Are either RNGd into unspoiled or spoiled depending on numbers. Immediately put into spoiled area if there are very few PMing, RNGd if there are many to make them somewhat similarly populated.

I guess people subbing out could go into the spoiled.

 

[Ty4on]

Rationale is that the unspoiled, inner spec stays the most hidden and sheltered while the spoiled outer has some clues as they will eventually figure it out.

 

[lokiduck]

- Publicly asking for spec in the thread (people will do this unless we make it really obvious something is different)
- Dead people from the game

Are all put into the unspoiled spec

- People PMing about spec access

Are either RNGd into unspoiled or spoiled depending on numbers. Immediately put into spoiled area if there are very few PMing, RNGd if there are many to make them somewhat similarly populated.

I guess people subbing out could go into the spoiled.

Rationale is that the unspoiled, inner spec stays the most hidden and sheltered while the spoiled outer has some clues as they will eventually figure it out.

Yeah i could get behind doing it this way with that back up solution if we don't have many PMs because I'm pretty sure most won't PM and will just post in thread.

One idea however... is last time I @ people in thread to ask if they wanted spec if they didn't sign up, but this time I can PM them secretly recruiting them for spoil chat.

Also i talked about our reviewers possibly helping keep the illusion in both chats, but might be able to swing that with the game watchers too if they are up to it. XD They can't make any choices in spoil chat tho...

 

[Ty4on]

I need to go over the town roles.

- Larry the Lazy Employee - Miller Messenger. Additionally his messages are sent to a random person via RNG and we will not tell his player that. His player will request to send it to a specific player, but RNG will decide the real target.

Ok. I like that this hints to town there's stuff messing up investigations.

- Boris the Box Mender - Doctor Messenger

Is a full doctor in a game with a cop, but mafia has switcher and godfather and town is a bit down number-wise.

- Patricia the Package Tracker - Tracker Messenger

Ok. Little extra info over the cop, but switcheroos possible.

- Brandi the Brownnoser- Loyal Messenger. Can only send messages to town players except for Larry. Will not be told whether their message was delivered or not. Also she will be listed as vanilla during pre-reveal.

I really like this flavor-wise. I try to look at this as a regular cop from a balance perspective since a decent player will probably figure out some hidden information they can send and extract without it being too obvious. One issue will be to define what their boundaries are, as an example are they allowed to message

I AM COP. PLEASE INCLUDE THIS HIDDEN PHRASE IN A POST TOMORROW AND I WILL CLEAR YOU.

or do they have to be more subtle.

- Dan the Deliveryman - Even Odd Commuter, messenger, and fruit vender. Can't send messages when commuting, but will instead send packages that do nothing without his knowledge.

Ok. Slight chaos from town.

- Medina the Manager - Medium Messenger - Is able to ask spec chat questions that can only be answered with yes or no.

I like this role, I guess there's some stuff left about how they message spec and how spec replies.

- Petrushka the Package Scanner - Bomb Defuser Messenger - Scans packages. If they are a bomb, he reports them to the police, and they are defused.

Third party needs a little challenge so nice to see. I'm curious how it works in edge cases:
- Do they detect the package the day it is sent or do they need to scan someone who's received one?
- What if they scan the bomber?
- Do they successfully disable a bomb if scanned the night it is detonated?


So it looks decent overall. I guess one thing is that there isn't much craziness from town's side. That leaves two town roles.

- Heather the Head of HR - x Shot Alignment Cop Messenger.

- Orville the Office Gossip - Gossip Messenger

The first one I feel like it is kinda accepted is a placeholder, right? A x-shot cop when there already is one is a bit strange.
The second one I'm a bit torn on. There's nothing really wrong with a gossip, but I just felt like this game has an interesting communication gimmick with everybody being a messenger and the gossip feels a little odd since it is an unrelated communication ability. There's also the whole messaging business being hidden to town and the gossip kinda breaks that.

So to summerize there's nothing wrong with these roles really, but it would perhaps be fun to see town throw mafia some curveballs too. Town's biggest strength is a fair bit of muscle if their night actions are reliable, tho mafia have the switching and godfather countering it.

 

[lokiduck]

Ok. Little extra info over the cop, but switcheroos possible.

The main counter to the tracker besides the switch is... the messages too. \o/ The tracker will know who someone targeted with their messages and their actions, so if scum targets and messages the same person they can just claim they messaged them. Even if they target someone else for the message they can always try and claim that they messaged a different person as long as their message can't be tracked back to them.

Either way all these messages will cause a lot of noise for the tracker.

I really like this flavor-wise. I try to look at this as a regular cop from a balance perspective since a decent player will probably figure out some hidden information they can send and extract without it being too obvious. One issue will be to define what their boundaries are, as an example are they allowed to message
or do they have to be more subtle.

For one thing... if we keep the x shot alignment copy they'd get counter claimed if they tried to claim cop in a message LOL. However, I wouldn't be against the brownnoser having a restriction. After all she's a brownoser and goes super by the book. She'd want to make sure that even her messages follow work protocol LOL.

We just need to decide what restrictions would work.

I like this role, I guess there's some stuff left about how they message spec and how spec replies.

How mediums usually work is that spec is informed there is a medium and the medium sends us the question during the day phase. We ask spec chat the question who has until the end of the night phase to answer.

Once night actions lock we give the medium their result.

The package giving will also work this way, where upper management spec has until actions lock to vote for a candidate to get the package. Then we RNG the winner from the list of targets and send the gift to that player.

Third party needs a little challenge so nice to see. I'm curious how it works in edge cases:
- Do they detect the package the day it is sent or do they need to scan someone who's received one?
- What if they scan the bomber?
- Do they successfully disable a bomb if scanned the night it is detonated?

-They have to scan someone who has received a package. Basically during the night they pick someone, and if the person has a bomb then it is deactivated. As for if they can deactivate it the night it was sent... I want to say no.

The player checked someone when they didn't have a bomb, since the bomb would be delivered after actions lock so after the player was scanned. Petrushka would have to scan them again to deactivate it.

- I'm not sure... but since the bomber still has the bomb until action lock, I want to say that he basically gets roleblocked.

Petrushka scans Bob who is holding a mailbomb, so the bomb gets deactivated and confiscated. However, to be fair to Bob, that should be all it does. Bob can just claim he was given a bomb LOL

If you don't agree guys then please give your suggestions.

-Ummm not sure. If we make it a rule that the player has to have received a bomb the night before for it to be deactivated then no.

Basically, if Petra scans one of previous bomb targets, the bomb gets deactivated and they don't detonate until a new 3rd bomb is sent out.

If Petra skins Bob's last victim then there is no bomb to disarm until after the scan meaning the bombs go off.

However, if we make it that Petra can disarm bombs sent to the person they are targeted that night, then yes.

The first one I feel like it is kinda accepted is a placeholder, right? A x-shot cop when there already is one is a bit strange.
The second one I'm a bit torn on. There's nothing really wrong with a gossip, but I just felt like this game has an interesting communication gimmick with everybody being a messenger and the gossip feels a little odd since it is an unrelated communication ability. There's also the whole messaging business being hidden to town and the gossip kinda breaks that.

So to summerize there's nothing wrong with these roles really, but it would perhaps be fun to see town throw mafia some curveballs too. Town's biggest strength is a fair bit of muscle if their night actions are reliable, tho mafia have the switching and godfather countering it.

Yessss one suggestion if having two cops was two much, one idea was to make her a Jailer XD However, with the godfather, switches, and role thief, I feel like it might be okay town to have a x shot alignment cop.

As for the gossip I really want to have a gossip because I like gossips :D It'd be towns chance to figure out the twist! and that's only if they happen to mention they are now mailmen.

Admittedly I mostly want Orville so his stealing item can be a water cooler \o/

 

[Ty4on]

Yessss one suggestion if having two cops was two much, one idea was to make her a Jailer XD However, with the godfather, switches, and role thief, I feel like it might be okay town to have a x shot alignment cop.

Yea, jailer can be a bit much since the town suddenly has a lot of ways of stopping a kill.

Is an x-shot flavor/role cop a bit much or ok? I was thinking the type that gets the flavor name of the role. They get very different info, but it’s not immediately obvious someone is bad except for the bomb maker. The mafia called label maker sounds like a harmless role while the town called brownnoser sounds like it could be bad. It’s still a utility for town since the other mafia roles sound bad and they could figure out the godfather or maybe even miller.

 

[lokiduck]

Yea, jailer can be a bit much since the town suddenly has a lot of ways of stopping a kill.

Is an x-shot flavor/role cop a bit much or ok? I was thinking the type that gets the flavor name of the role. They get very different info, but it’s not immediately obvious someone is bad except for the bomb maker. The mafia called label maker sounds like a harmless role while the town called brownnoser sounds like it could be bad. It’s still a utility for town since the other mafia roles sound bad and they could figure out the godfather or maybe even miller.

I guess that's a possibility, Stanford is basically the most likely to be caught besides Bob XD as for Barry... box breaker doesn't sound too bad (as he could just be in charge of breaking down old boxes) but if her player finds out that Boris is a box mender, she might realize he's scum.

I guess it does work since one scum role and some of the town roles like lazy employee and brownnoser might work as good counters.

I still think she should be x shot tho as learning too many flavor names night make her too powerful info wise.

how would the result on night 1 work though?

 

[Faddy]

i think you shouldn't bother with 2 spec chats.

Make it unspoiled. No one is allowed to post even marked spoilers for lets say the first 3 days.

The medium only gets power for the first 3 nights. And chat stops sending items after night 3.

That way it doesn't become too complex. Spec is fun but often times not busy so I wouldn't want to put too much of the game based on it.

 

[lokiduck]

i think you shouldn't bother with 2 spec chats.

Make it unspoiled. No one is allowed to post even marked spoilers for lets say the first 3 days.

The medium only gets power for the first 3 nights. And chat stops sending items after night 3.

That way it doesn't become too complex. Spec is fun but often times not busy so I wouldn't want to put too much of the game based on it.

Why do the package sending for the first three nights? Or even the medium's power?

I'm okay with only having one spec chat if we have to, but should we limit the power that much?

 

[Faddy]

Why do the package sending for the first three nights? Or even the medium's power?

I'm okay with only having one spec chat if we have to, but should we limit the power that much?

the problem with interacting with spec is that many people can't help spoiling things. not intentionally all the time but sometimes you can tell from the way a mod posts or someone makes a comment that gives away something.

So having a strict deadline will let people speculate and enjoy sending packages to start with and then concentrate on spectating the game afterwards.

And 3 days is still going to be a signficant part of this game. With the arsonist it could be MYLO on day 4.

I think a hardline on no spoilers for 3 days/nights is a good compromise in not needing two spec chats.

 

[Faddy]

i think this game might have too many cops.

There are 3 town roles that can check alignment. And the medium can ask spec about a player's alignment.

 

[lokiduck]

the problem with interacting with spec is that many people can't help spoiling things. not intentionally all the time but sometimes you can tell from the way a mod posts or someone makes a comment that gives away something.

So having a strict deadline will let people speculate and enjoy sending packages to start with and then concentrate on spectating the game afterwards.

And 3 days is still going to be a signficant part of this game. With the arsonist it could be MYLO on day 4.

I think a hardline on no spoilers for 3 days/nights is a good compromise in not needing two spec chats.

Okay that's fine then.

i think this game might have too many cops.

There are 3 town roles that can check alignment. And the medium can ask spec about a player's alignment.

1. The medium can ask spec chat for a players alignment, but spec chat won't know for sure and if scum is already in the thread they can force bad answers if possible, especially if we handle the medium answers similar to the package where spec chat can suggest an answer, but one is picked via RNG as the one sent to the medium.
2. We could always limit the type of questions the medium is allowed to ask, and directly asking for a players alignment is one of them.

An alternative I was thinking for Heather the Head of HR our current alignment cop is what if we make her a negative town utility but don't tell her. We can let her player think she's one type of power, when she's actually another due to budget cuts.

Another alternative is we let her think she's an alignment cop, but the results she gets back is all nonsense like "We'll check your inquiry in 3 months," "Please refile application supplement 2-3b before we can complete your request."

Basically flavor wise is the idea is she's doing background checks on different employees but for some reason the paperwork keeps being messed up so her requests never go through.

 

[Ty4on]

i think this game might have too many cops.

There are 3 town roles that can check alignment. And the medium can ask spec about a player's alignment.

But there is a switcher and a godfather

 

[lokiduck]

But there is a switcher and a godfather

Not to mention a role thief that roleblocks the player for the night if they are roleblockable :p

 

[Ty4on]

i think this game might have too many cops.

There are 3 town roles that can check alignment. And the medium can ask spec about a player's alignment.

I don’t totally disagree with you, it’s just I feel town is otherwise a bit weak :/

I’m not sure if y’all agree, but I feel a killing role for town would be too much as a worst case for town can already kill every single townie in four lunches and four nights.

 

[Faddy]

I don’t totally disagree with you, it’s just I feel town is otherwise a bit weak :/

I’m not sure if y’all agree, but I feel a killing role for town would be too much as a worst case for town can already kill every single townie in four lunches and four nights.

I think my issue is that the alignment cop and loyal messenger do almost exactly the same thing.

The messenger just needs to use a code. Either ask the person to use a specific word/image in one of their opening posts of a phase which can be used to confirm they received the message.

I think doing something more instead of a standard alignment cop would be best. (perhaps a 2 shot parity cop would be neat)

Does the Miller know they are a Miller? Since this is a bastard game they don't have to know.

I don't think we need more killing with an arsonist in play. I don't think the game is big enough and puts a lot of emphasis on the vig making the correct shot.

 

[Ty4on]

I think doing something more instead of a standard alignment cop would be best. (perhaps a 2 shot parity cop would be neat)

That’s why I was suggesting a role cop since they get quite different information.

Does the Miller know they are a Miller? Since this is a bastard game they don't have to know.

I think the miller knowing that is helpful for town having a hint of a godfather. That preemptively weakens cop results and prevents a boring game where a cleared godfather coasts to victory.
Though I do approve of more craziness ._.
My killing comment was because I was floating the idea of a veteran like role, but yea.

 

[Faddy]

I think the miller knowing that is helpful for town having a hint of a godfather. That preemptively weakens cop results and prevents a boring game where a cleared godfather coasts to victory.
Though I do approve of more craziness ._.
My killing comment was because I was floating the idea of a veteran like role, but yea.

I think town knowing is fine but the optimal Miller play is to openly claim at the start of the game to avoid wasted checks which improves the multiple cops chances of actually hitting mafia.

I was going to suggest that if we want town to know there is a miller in the game then it is just announced at the start of the game that one of town is a miller.

The miller would get the vanilla town pm and just flip as vanilla. While they are a miller and their messages are being randomised and they don't know it.

 

[Ty4on]

But they could also be mafia

 

[Ty4on]

A claimed miller is usually not someone you wanna have hanging around at lylo

 

[lokiduck]

Does the Miller know they are a Miller? Since this is a bastard game they don't have to know.

The miller does know they are one, what they don't know is taht their message is sent to a random player instead of their intended target (unless they get lucky LOL). This was done mainly to mess more with the results especially if the Tracker checks them and later accuses them of lying because their target was different than what they said.

I think my issue is that the alignment cop and loyal messenger do almost exactly the same thing.

The messenger just needs to use a code. Either ask the person to use a specific word/image in one of their opening posts of a phase which can be used to confirm they received the message.

While this is true, the godfather can receive the messenger's message and there is a switcher and Role thief. Mind you... we did originally have Lisa the Label Maker as a mail stealer where she steals the mail of her switching targets (now a package thief). What would you think of her being able to steal a message from her switching targets if... it was sent by brandi? Or would that be too much? It'd help mess up Brandi's result more.

Flavor wise, Lisa is Brandi's best friend and Lisa would recognize her handwriting anywhere, so she takes the message.

I think doing something more instead of a standard alignment cop would be best. (perhaps a 2 shot parity cop would be neat)

What's a parity cop? :o And what did you think of my earlier suggestion of making alignment cop a negative utility or just getting non results.

I think town knowing is fine but the optimal Miller play is to openly claim at the start of the game to avoid wasted checks which improves the multiple cops chances of actually hitting mafia.

I was going to suggest that if we want town to know there is a miller in the game then it is just announced at the start of the game that one of town is a miller.

The miller would get the vanilla town pm and just flip as vanilla. While they are a miller and their messages are being randomised and they don't know it.

:o I like this idea a lot. However, I still wouldn't mind Larry being called "the lazy employee" all though it'd probably hint he's the miller even if he's listed as a vanilla. So I guess we can call him Larry the ordinary employee.

Addtionally, since i like flavor, I was going to write a one flavor line for each of the roles in the official PMs just to give them a little character. For instance Boris's would be "You really love boxes, so getting to fix them is your passion in life." while Barry's is "You've been working here for a very long time, which has made you respected among your coworkers that you secretly hate."

Could I possibly for Larry do something like "For you this is just a way of making money, but man do you wish you were somewhere else."

To help the vanillas would also get different flavor lines from each other so his wouldn't stand out.

 

[Ty4on]

What's a parity cop? :o And what did you think of my earlier suggestion of making alignment cop a negative utility or just getting non results.

Parity cop gets to know whether someone's alignment lines up.
The first investigation is meaningless since they check parity with someone else, but the second investigation will tell them if the second person has the same alignment as the first one or not and so on.

Parity Cop

wiki.mafiascum.net

 

[lokiduck]

Parity cop gets to know whether someone's alignment lines up.
The first investigation is meaningless since they check parity with someone else, but the second investigation will tell them if the second person has the same alignment as the first one or not and so on.

Parity Cop

wiki.mafiascum.net

ooooooh that might be cool then. Flavor wise Heather is comparing performances between employees. :D

 

[lokiduck]

Also @Verelios What do you think about all these suggestions.

 

[Verelios]

Parity cop gets to know whether someone's alignment lines up.
The first investigation is meaningless since they check parity with someone else, but the second investigation will tell them if the second person has the same alignment as the first one or not and so on.

Parity Cop

wiki.mafiascum.net

This seems a lot more useful for town than a flavor cop so I'm not sure how this plays out. Would it be an X shot? I personally like it more than regular cop because it has more set-up and introspection.

 

[Verelios]

The miller does know they are one, what they don't know is taht their message is sent to a random player instead of their intended target (unless they get lucky LOL). This was done mainly to mess more with the results especially if the Tracker checks them and later accuses them of lying because their target was different than what they said.

Hmmm, the miller is always a problem since they usually claim D1.

While this is true, the godfather can receive the messenger's message and there is a switcher and Role thief. Mind you... we did originally have Lisa the Label Maker as a mail stealer where she steals the mail of her switching targets (now a package thief). What would you think of her being able to steal a message from her switching targets if... it was sent by brandi? Or would that be too much? It'd help mess up Brandi's result more.

Flavor wise, Lisa is Brandi's best friend and Lisa would recognize her handwriting anywhere, so she takes the message.

This seems a bit complicated. Would this be something Lisa knew in game or hidden underneath the setting?

:o I like this idea a lot. However, I still wouldn't mind Larry being called "the lazy employee" all though it'd probably hint he's the miller even if he's listed as a vanilla. So I guess we can call him Larry the ordinary employee.

Addtionally, since i like flavor, I was going to write a one flavor line for each of the roles in the official PMs just to give them a little character. For instance Boris's would be "You really love boxes, so getting to fix them is your passion in life." while Barry's is "You've been working here for a very long time, which has made you respected among your coworkers that you secretly hate."

Could I possibly for Larry do something like "For you this is just a way of making money, but man do you wish you were somewhere else."

To help the vanillas would also get different flavor lines from each other so his wouldn't stand out.

Lol, yeah this sounds great. I think having their roles explain something about themselves is nice, and I like having that bit about Larry wanting to be somewhere else. Thinking about Miller, maybe we can make it Larry the Terrible employee, Worst employee of the Month or The 'Can I help you' Employee.

 

[lokiduck]

This seems a lot more useful for town than a flavor cop so I'm not sure how this plays out. Would it be an X shot? I personally like it more than regular cop because it has more set-up and introspection.

The suggestion would be she'd be an x shot correct. I think having her be a 1 or 2 shot might be fine

This seems a bit complicated. Would this be something Lisa knew in game or hidden underneath the setting?

I'd say hidden. If she steals mail it'll come with the flavor "you were looking through the letter outbox while getting your handy label maker ready when you notice a letter with your BFF Brandi's handwriting on it. Brandi is a real brownnoser in the office... so maybe this could get your group some good info. You pocketed the message, completed your business and went on your way. The message reads: (MESSAGE).

Lol, yeah this sounds great. I think having their roles explain something about themselves is nice, and I like having that bit about Larry wanting to be somewhere else. Thinking about Miller, maybe we can make it Larry the Terrible employee, Worst employee of the Month or The 'Can I help you' Employee.

I like this idea. Part of why he was called the Lazy employee is to explain why his message sending is randomized. XD and His name is Larry because he's lazy :P (Surely you noticed my naming pattern :P) So if we change his title to the terrible employee his name has to be Terry :p

 

[Verelios]

The suggestion would be she'd be an x shot correct. I think having her be a 1 or 2 shot might be fine

Hm. That seems perfect.

I'd say hidden. If she steals mail it'll come with the flavor "you were looking through the letter outbox while getting your handy label maker ready when you notice a letter with your BFF Brandi's handwriting on it. Brandi is a real brownnoser in the office... so maybe this could get your group some good info. You pocketed the message, completed your business and went on your way. The message reads: (MESSAGE).

Sounds good. I do like how there are interpersonal relationships that affect PRs. It makes me want to do a web of relations but I'm pretty sure that would be overly complicated.

I like this idea. Part of why he was called the Lazy employee is to explain why his message sending is randomized. XD and His name is Larry because he's lazy :P (Surely you noticed my naming pattern :P) So if we change his title to the terrible employee his name has to be Terry :p

Yeah, I noticed, haha. I was just throwing out the kind of feeling his flavour gave me and hoping we could go in that direction.

 

[lokiduck]

Sounds good. I do like how there are interpersonal relationships that affect PRs. It makes me want to do a web of relations but I'm pretty sure that would be overly complicated.

:O You should totally do that. We could mainly use it for the flavor like day end and start stuff even :o I want to know how the relationships work at work. :o

It doesn't have to affect the gameplay (we could even largely use it as a misdirect XD) but stuff like if Orville gossips with someone we have listed as his friend, then we can say shit like "You take a drink of water and begin chatting with your good firend" or shit like that.

Yeah, I noticed, haha. I was just throwing out the kind of feeling his flavour gave me and hoping we could go in that direction.

Yeah yeah i get it :D Your ideas sound pretty good tho so if you want to do it we can :D

 

[Ty4on]

Sounds good. I do like how there are interpersonal relationships that affect PRs. It makes me want to do a web of relations but I'm pretty sure that would be overly complicated.

Doesn’t that contradict being unable to read Brandi’s messages?

 

[lokiduck]

Doesn’t that contradict being unable to read Brandi’s messages?

In this specific case Lisa is stealing it directly so it'd be silly to have her not ready it. However if we want to keep Brandi's role consistent we can make it that Lisa steals the letter but she doesn't get to read it, basically poofing the message.

 

[Ty4on]

In this specific case Lisa is stealing it directly so it'd be silly to have her not ready it. However if we want to keep Brandi's role consistent we can make it that Lisa steals the letter but she doesn't get to read it, basically poofing the message.

It seemed inconsistent that the messages are made so scum can’t read it, but she can if she steals it.
This is effectively a framer role

Framer

wiki.mafiascum.net