Themed games are too easy?

[Darthe]

Yeah, I was meaning more like after giving EP some form of cop twice I think the balance of my games may be safer if I avoid that for the next few ).)

 

Having my cop NK'd N1 to put mafia on the fast track to victory is something I have seen enough of lol

 

Fair?

[Darthe]

  On 6/24/2013 at 11:04 AM, Misheru Sedai said:

Well that explains how I'm always vanilla in your games Darthe :P lol

 

Are you really?  Gosh, I would love to see you get a good role like town RB.  So fitting.

 

Of course, I keep wanting to be an SK myself, but nobody will give me that or vig shots.

[WWWwombat]

  On 6/24/2013 at 12:43 PM, Darthe said:

Yeah, I was meaning more like after giving EP some form of cop twice I think the balance of my games may be safer if I avoid that for the next few ).)

 

Having my cop NK'd N1 to put mafia on the fast track to victory is something I have seen enough of lol

 

Fair?

Anti-reveal post restriction?

[michellem]

  On 6/24/2013 at 12:44 PM, Darthe said:

 

  On 6/24/2013 at 11:04 AM, Misheru Sedai said:

Well that explains how I'm always vanilla in your games Darthe :P lol

 

Are you really?  Gosh, I would love to see you get a good role like town RB.  So fitting.

 

Of course, I keep wanting to be an SK myself, but nobody will give me that or vig shots.

 

 

Lol yeah I think I've been. Except for when I replaced back in the Chess game and got Visitor. Useless role XD

[_CLOUD]

  On 6/24/2013 at 12:49 PM, WWWwombat said:

 

  On 6/24/2013 at 12:43 PM, Darthe said:

Yeah, I was meaning more like after giving EP some form of cop twice I think the balance of my games may be safer if I avoid that for the next few ).)

 

Having my cop NK'd N1 to put mafia on the fast track to victory is something I have seen enough of lol

 

Fair?

Anti-reveal post restriction?

 

 

Only for EP lol :P

[Tyler Glembo]

As for roles, I recently ran a game based on Enter the Dragon.  The idea was that everyone was in the hall of mirrors so everyone had the same reflection.  Thus, the game started with pretty much everyone claiming the same character.  It helped alleviate the issue to some degree IMO.

[Yates]

  On 6/22/2013 at 8:28 PM, Tiinker said:

You play with a big name Theme like Lord of the Rings or WoT and it doesn't even really matter how well you play the early part of the game because once people start claiming characters it's pretty much game over unless you can come up with a great character claim yourself and it's doubtful more than one on your team is going to get away with it.

This is easily resolvable.  You list the characters in one column.  You list the roles in another column.  You go to a site such as random.org and enter the information.  Bilbo Baggins could end up a mafia godfather and Golumn could be the Town Doc.  That's how you prevent mass roleclaims from breaking games.

[Tiinker]

  On 6/24/2013 at 6:10 PM, Yates. said:

 

  On 6/22/2013 at 8:28 PM, Tiinker said:

You play with a big name Theme like Lord of the Rings or WoT and it doesn't even really matter how well you play the early part of the game because once people start claiming characters it's pretty much game over unless you can come up with a great character claim yourself and it's doubtful more than one on your team is going to get away with it.

This is easily resolvable.  You list the characters in one column.  You list the roles in another column.  You go to a site such as random.org and enter the information.  Bilbo Baggins could end up a mafia godfather and Golumn could be the Town Doc.  That's how you prevent mass roleclaims from breaking games.

 

 

Well you're not exactly following the theme then are you? Call it "Lord of the Rings but not really Game" then. Sure you can write the scenes and twist the entire thing to your liking but that's not really the point of the thread. 

[Yates]

It's still a theme game.  It's also common practice on other sites.

[Nolder]

When you care about theme you don't want Gandalf on the same team as Sauron.

When you care about balance that's exactly what you do.

 

I have to admit I'm more of the former than the latter most of the time but I do try to strike a balance between the two.

[Tiinker]

  On 6/24/2013 at 7:02 PM, Yates. said:

It's still a theme game.  It's also common practice on other sites.

The theme is there, but then again it isn't. If you're okay with that then that's cool, but from what I've seen, most people like to get the whole package. If character claiming is rendered meaningless then again you're running the game that's themed for the sake of it and the added flavour of the themes. If character claims are rendered meaningless then imo it defeats the purpose of having the theme in the first place - unless you add other modifications that fit the theme ingame. If it's introduced here then I'll happily play knowing that characters can end up anywhere in any team. 

[Yates]

Yeah, it's just another way of dealing with things.

 

Another thing you can do is leave some awesome fakeclaims for scum.  I was in Ghostbusters Mafia once where Peter Venkmin and Ray Stanz were BOTH fakeclaims available.  I was Egon.  I think it just depends on the Mod and trusting them to think through ways of preventing game breaking roleclaims.

[peacesells]

  On 6/24/2013 at 7:28 PM, Yates. said:

Yeah, it's just another way of dealing with things.

 

Another thing you can do is leave some awesome fakeclaims for scum.  I was in Ghostbusters Mafia once where Peter Venkmin and Ray Stanz were BOTH fakeclaims available.  I was Egon.  I think it just depends on the Mod and trusting them to think through ways of preventing game breaking roleclaims.

 

Welcome to the site Yates.

[hazelkrs1]

Yeah, I'm not that big a fan of re-rolling. I think it might be necessary at times, but I agree with other players that the only way to get better sometimes is to get the chance to impress. I personally have noticed many times that newbies who get some kind if PR, town or mafia, usually have a MUCH faster learning curve than newbies who are vanilla in their first few games.

 

And yeah, EP can continue to reveal early as long as I'm on the other team

 

If he's on my team, I'll continue to scold him for it

[hazelkrs1]

Also, welcome to the site Yates!

 

[DPR]

The problem with themed games that include characters true to their source material is... 

 

It takes the "guessing" out of a guessing game. All you're doing at that point is role playing, in which case you should use dice to keep things random.

 

When you play "Aragorn" or "Rand" or "Iron Man" with a role, whether you intend for it to happen or not, you will be bound by that character in the way that you play and the way that people see you. This has nothing to do with your playstyle or developing your skill at mafia. 

 

Being "trapped" in a character (especially one you may not care for) will cause disinterest and inactivity, just as an overly complicated setup will. 

 

Themes are great for backdrop and flavor, but one you try to weave them into the game, it's a slippery slope. It can be interesting to use them as a distraction, but that's with the goal that the player has to make an effort to ignore the theme.

 

Re-rolling is a problem because once people know that you do it, they won't bother to sign up for your games anymore. What's the point, right? This is a cheap way to get out of modding - you let the roles fall where they may and as a mod, you stay in close contact with someone who may need help. Instead of "leading" them, make sure that they know all of the options that are available to them, and help them learn the role. I never did understand players when they said that they sucked at a certain role - it's likely one that they just don't have experience in. Inevitably players will have favorites, etc., but one of the ways to keep the game exciting is to make sure that everybody is constantly switching roles up. Otherwise, it just turns into a playground where the big kids get the swing set everyday, leading to disinterest and inactivity...

 

This thread faces the same challenge as the Inactivity thread - it's all in the modding.

[Tiinker]

Mod Academy - coming soon to Dragonmount

[WWWwombat]

Professor DPR - Advanced Narrative, Emergent Gameplay

Professor Verbal - Bastard Modding

Professor Wombat - Osbcure/Custom Roles

Professor Lily - Triggers, Conversion

Guest Lecturer Kivam - TBD

[Verbal32]

Professor Wombat - NOT spelling   ;-)

[Songstress]

*snerk*

[Lenlo]

Hmm... How much is it a Semester there? I wanna register.

[Songstress]

Kaylee and I sat in on Modding 101 with BG as an instructor... not sure if he's a full professor in this academy or not, but it was a most useful class.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

when you get to the kobayashi maru, just shoot him.

 

only way to pass.

[John E. Kelley]

I'm the typical eight-year drunken fratboy at said university. I doubt I ever graduate.

[Nolder]

  On 6/25/2013 at 11:15 AM, DreadPirateRoberts said:

Re-rolling is a problem because once people know that you do it, they won't bother to sign up for your games anymore. What's the point, right? This is a cheap way to get out of modding - you let the roles fall where they may and as a mod, you stay in close contact with someone who may need help. Instead of "leading" them, make sure that they know all of the options that are available to them, and help them learn the role. I never did understand players when they said that they sucked at a certain role - it's likely one that they just don't have experience in. Inevitably players will have favorites, etc., but one of the ways to keep the game exciting is to make sure that everybody is constantly switching roles up. Otherwise, it just turns into a playground where the big kids get the swing set everyday, leading to disinterest and inactivity...

Curious to know your position on rerolling or redistributing specific roles because a certain player is known to be very inactive or even go MIA without notice.

In the most basic setup with power roles you'll see (cop, doc, godfather) losing the cop or doc to inactivity is a huge loss.