How to setup and mod a game:

[Red2111]

i also agree about dead threads being on QY's if their used. perosnally i like dead threads because it gets you good feed back and keeps dead people still interested in the game. plus it gives you the option of including a role that allows a townie to veiw the dead thread and talk with the dead. which is another role i've been wanting to dust off.

 

 

granted, if you use this role, the mod can't be revealing game mechanics and such.

[Kivam]

as for see-sawing ... theres some roles you just have to counter balance. i agree givign the scum a Silver tounge is basically telling them "theres a LD" and giving them an edge. but an unchecked LD in a game can lead to major unbalance for the scum. i'm thinking mostly of Rey's game a few years ago honestly.

 

Red - think about ways to balance it other than by giving the scum an exception. What if you tilt the numbers in favor of scum? What if you make the town cop insane instead of sane? What if the town doctor can't protect themselves? What if the town doctor is really a bodyguard? What if there's a Nick Riviera in the game (player who thinks he's a doctor but has no protecting ability and a percentage chance of killing the player he protects)?

 

Your point is that a lie detector shifts the balance hard to the town. There are 1,001 things you can do to shift balance over to scum that have nothing to do with the lie detector role.

[LilyElizabeth]

Personally, I hate an unlimited lie detector. I always limit them. That is too powerful a role, in my opinion.

[Blackhoof]

i agree that LD's are overpowered.

 

making them limikted in a way is good, but i think that just having a cop instead is simpler.

[ed2funy]

Personally, I hate an unlimited lie detector. I always limit them. That is too powerful a role, in my opinion.

 

hehe

[Red2111]

what about making a Silver Tongue a passive role ... in other words you don't tell the person they are a ST, like you wouldn't tell a finder if their insane or niave??

 

Kiv, the reason why i prefer role balancing rather than thinking outside of the box is because it's just easier to match powerful roles and balance them. it's also alot easier thsi way to semi predict how the balance might be maintained.

 

 

with limiting the finder or healer if you have a LD, well if the LD gets killed right off then the balance you've set up shifts dramatically in favor of the scum; especially if the only finder type role they have left is niave or insane. with a ST, the role doesn't effect the overall game balance, only equalizes the balance of power the LD presents. once the LD is removed, the ST basically turns Vanilla.

[Red2111]

*snickers* i think next time i might be a bastard mod when it comes to certain powers. like making a few townies and scum give a false reading to a cop of making some players unprotectable .... something like that. with the LD, i'd have a good few people in the game that either always give false readings or truth readings reguardless of the quoted portion.

 

 

something like that

[Kivam]

what about making a Silver Tongue a passive role ... in other words you don't tell the person they are a ST, like you wouldn't tell a finder if their insane or niave??

 

Kiv, the reason why i prefer role balancing rather than thinking outside of the box is because it's just easier to match powerful roles and balance them. it's also alot easier thsi way to semi predict how the balance might be maintained.

 

 

with limiting the finder or healer if you have a LD, well if the LD gets killed right off then the balance you've set up shifts dramatically in favor of the scum; especially if the only finder type role they have left is niave or insane. with a ST, the role doesn't effect the overall game balance, only equalizes the balance of power the LD presents. once the LD is removed, the ST basically turns Vanilla.

 

That's true for any* game; if a critical role gets killed off early (town or scum) the balance shifts dramatically to the other team

[Verbal32]

Lol.

 

Wats bastard modding?

http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Bastard_Mod

 

Basically when the mod lies to players for teh lulz

 

hehe...most of the games I run are examples of Bastard Modding. I'll be bringing a couple of them to DM pretty soon, so you'll get an up-close look at them. ;-)

 

 

 

*snickers* i think next time i might be a bastard mod when it comes to certain powers. like making a few townies and scum give a false reading to a cop of making some players unprotectable .... something like that. with the LD, i'd have a good few people in the game that either always give false readings or truth readings reguardless of the quoted portion.

 

 

something like that

 

That is not Bastard Modding.....that is hidden roles. Bastard modding would be telling the player they are a normal Doc when in fact they are an Insane Doc and they kill the people they protect. That means you lied to the player. Usually a bad idea unless you warn them about it.

 

As for the bolded portion, I would just not bother with the role. That would cause so much confusion and annoyance, it might irritate players. Just a thought - you're the boss of your own games in the end.

[WWWwombat]

I was thinking about making Jessica a naive lie detector in my Dune game but DPR advised me not to because naive roles make people frustrated.

[Sedai]

Jessica?

[WWWwombat]

One of the characters

[Red2111]

thansk for the head up Womby. if i get that character in your game i'll know to watch out for something funky with her

[WWWwombat]

I already ran it on JN so you don't have anything to worry about :P

[Kivam]

I was thinking about making Jessica a naive lie detector in my Dune game but DPR advised me not to because naive roles make people frustrated.

Good thing you didn't, since the town was already underpowered in that game. ;)

 

Wombat, why don't you post the setup of that game here, since it was actually unbalanced in favor of the town (terrible scum play didn't help). We can actually talk about what went wrong in the setup and how to fix it

[WWWwombat]

House Atreides and Fremen (Town)

 

Duke Leto Atreides – Chief of Police (Cop Enabler), Bomb immune

Lady Jessica – Doc, Bomb immune

Paul Atreides – One-shot BPV, becomes a Sensor on Leto’s death or Hawat’s death

Thufir Hawat – Cop, Bomb Immune

Gurney Halleck – Watcher (non-consecutive nights)

Duncan Idaho – Tracker (non-consecutive nights)

Liet-Kynes – Psychiatrist

Dr. Wellington Yueh – Hobo

Stilgar – Vanilla

Chani – Vanilla

Shadout Mapes – Hider

Atreides Guard - Vanilla

 

 

Psychopath

 

Jamis – Psychopath. Wins if among the last three to survive the game (will use bomb to kill other two). Bomb on hammer vote if lynched or NK'd. Can be cured if found by the Psychiatrist, and becomes a vanilla Townie. Views as town to the Cop.

 

 

Symp

 

Emperor Shaddam IV – Symp - is roled as town, and counts as town, but wins with mafia. Once per night, the mafia may try to find the symp, and if found, will recruit the symp. At this point, the symp will count as mafia.

 

 

House Harkonnen (Mafia)

 

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen – Tailor (does not work on Sensor), Bomb immune

Piter de Vries – Poisoner. may send in choice of NK, or poison target, who will die in 2 nights (announce at end of night).

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen – Usurper (needs Baron dead)

 

Then I added Nae (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam) in with her special win condition (needs at least one of Paul and Feyd-Rautha to survive to endgame).

 

 

 

 

Scum was undermanned. The likelihood of the Cop being neutralized early made the Tailor role less useful and the poisoner ended up dying early meaning that the Sensor was pretty much invincible. Maybe I should have added a goon.

[Blackhoof]

Ive been toying with the idea of a game in which Night 1 happens before Day 1 and dead people can still communicate on-thread as "ghosts" (but cannot vote, obviously)

 

there would be a role that can bring them bakc to life and a role that can permanently kill them, as well.

 

this will be counter-balanced by having more kill-roles, and no way to protect people from dying.

 

so, it makes a game in which life is expendable and dying means little.

 

of course, dead people aren't counted when you tally up the town/scum ratio for the purposes of the scum winning.

[Basel Gill]

DPR, I'm wondering about your giving the SK only one shot in the sample game you have in the OP. If the SK only gets one kill, is that unbalanced against him? Once he takes that kill, he is pretty much powerless the whole game and might as well be vanilla. For that matter, a killer who only takes one life isn't serial at all. I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't find this setup that much fun as an SK.

 

If the reasoning is that giving the SK multiple shots unbalances against the rest by killing too many people, can balance be fixed by adding more players to the scenario? Like say, one extra town and scum apiece, and 3 shots for the SK?

[Nolder]

there's a lot of ways to balance out a SK

 

making them only be able to shoot every other night

giving the other teams roleblockers and/or bulletproof vests

or adding more people to the mix like you said

[Ironeyes]

I'm thinking about modding a game soon, so I've got a few questions.

 

1- How do you pull off a good modkill?

2- I'll think of more later.

[Christine]

What do you mean, pull off? You mean, write the scene, or go through with it?

 

1. If it's writing the scene, I just write that the Mod God has deemed them unworthy, and they have been smited.

 

2. Go through with it? If it is for inactivity, I give two warnings. If it is for breaking a rule, depends on how bad. You can normally talk to another advanced Mod and they can help you determine/ talk through if a Mod kill is necessary or if a warning is enough. If they break a rule after a warning, though, Smite them!

[DPR]

Why are you planning to modkill? That's kind of like a police cadet asking how to waste an uppity civilian...

[DPR]

DPR, I'm wondering about your giving the SK only one shot in the sample game you have in the OP. If the SK only gets one kill, is that unbalanced against him? Once he takes that kill, he is pretty much powerless the whole game and might as well be vanilla. For that matter, a killer who only takes one life isn't serial at all. I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't find this setup that much fun as an SK.

 

If the reasoning is that giving the SK multiple shots unbalances against the rest by killing too many people, can balance be fixed by adding more players to the scenario? Like say, one extra town and scum apiece, and 3 shots for the SK?

 

The idea is that a player's finesse is always more valuable than their power, per say. First, the win condition is unique in that the SK only has to survive among the last three players. Second, the lower the player count, the fewer kills necessary to keep the game moving, and the closer to victory that player is. When you get right down to it, it's the power of your argument that wins games, and being able to talk yourself in and out of situations without the benefit of roles. Does that make sense?

 

 

 

[Ironeyes]

Why are you planning to modkill? That's kind of like a police cadet asking how to waste an uppity civilian...

In the game I'm playing, Locke stated that if there was no lynching by the end of the day, a random player would be killed. I assumed it was common practice. And I was asking how to write the scene.

[Christine]

Random Kill is different from a Mod Kill.