Mystery Powers Werewolf game

[The Meal]

Why give the Evil side a new Aside each day? Maybe a different limit so that the total number of Wolf Asides equals the total Number of Villager Asides.

To allow continued communication between wolves, if they so desire. Could easily allow for a wolfy Aside if and only if they didn't use one the previous day. That'd cut down on snacks and also allow for PM coverage (each single Aside allows two folks to communicate, though always with the risk of being Perceived, which as you point out, being detected as participating in multiple Asides really ramps up your wolvenhood probability).

[stessier]

Wolves lose nightime PM abilities on all evenings after Sunday.

I like that. Speeding up the Nights is important as the majority of players do nothing.

I also liked Lars' game where they had Nighttime PM ability buy no one had Daytime PM ability. But then, I really like looking for codes.

[The Meal]

That's interesting, Meal. I have to think on it more, but my first reaction is why would anybody accept an Aside? The possible risk is death with no tangible benefit if you are lucky enough not to talk to a Wolf. Am I missing something?

You are missing my ability to post "stessier has asked me to accept an aside" before I go into the shadows with you thus keeping you from eating me unless you really wish to be outed. Also, it could be the Seer wants to talk to you and tell you "I scanned 2 folks so far, both wolves, please announce it for me."

Or making fake announcements of the same sort.

Would seem to really ramp up the individual strategerizing.

I suppose you'd need a different name, as there is already a nighttime Eavesdropper.

[stessier]

Wolves lose nightime PM abilities on all evenings after Sunday. Each submits "independent" votes during the night cycle (less independent if they used their daily Aside to communicate with each other, or set up a signaling method during their long Sunday night conversation). In the case of a tie vote for munchings, random.org breaks the tie.

What about a Wolf heirarchy rather than vote (Wolf A get choice until dead, then Wolf B, then Wolf C)? No need for random.org that way.

50% of "non-powered" players gain the Eavesdropper ability. Each day cycle they can watch one other player closely. If the watchee participates in an Aside (either through initiation or by accepting an invitation), then the Eavesdropper also hears the entire conversation. The remaining 50% of unpowereds plus 50% of [wolves/evils] have the Perceptive ability. A player who is Perceptive will know that their Aside was monitored. One randomly selected Perceptive player will be SuperPerceptive, in which case they will know the *name* of any Eavesdroppers who heard the Aside in which they participated.

The Eavesdropper ability is only for Villagers, right? So if a Villager is SuperPerceptive, they would be able to identify Villagers?

[The Meal]

Wolves lose nightime PM abilities on all evenings after Sunday. Each submits "independent" votes during the night cycle (less independent if they used their daily Aside to communicate with each other, or set up a signaling method during their long Sunday night conversation). In the case of a tie vote for munchings, random.org breaks the tie.

What about a Wolf heirarchy rather than vote (Wolf A get choice until dead, then Wolf B, then Wolf C)? No need for random.org that way.

You could. That'd beef up the wolves' abilities to control things a little bit (I sort of liked the ~need~ to try to coordinate things to make the Master Plan work out).

50% of "non-powered" players gain the Eavesdropper ability. Each day cycle they can watch one other player closely. If the watchee participates in an Aside (either through initiation or by accepting an invitation), then the Eavesdropper also hears the entire conversation. The remaining 50% of unpowereds plus 50% of [wolves/evils] have the Perceptive ability. A player who is Perceptive will know that their Aside was monitored. One randomly selected Perceptive player will be SuperPerceptive, in which case they will know the *name* of any Eavesdroppers who heard the Aside in which they participated.

The Eavesdropper ability is only for Villagers, right? So if a Villager is SuperPerceptive, they would be able to identify Villagers?

Yes. You'd know a Daytime Eavesdropper could not be a [wolf|evil] (depending on the subsets decided upon).

[stessier]

What about a Wolf heirarchy rather than vote (Wolf A get choice until dead, then Wolf B, then Wolf C)? No need for random.org that way.

You could. That'd beef up the wolves' abilities to control things a little bit (I sort of liked the ~need~ to try to coordinate things to make the Master Plan work out).[/quote]

Ah, yes. That could have humorous consequences. Eggscellent.

[Unagi]

I think the main concern with 'Villagers' would be; if there is anything that allows them to become even remotely 'proven', they stop being cover for the wolves.

So, to maintain that - one would need to give the wolves each and every power the villagers get.

[stessier]

I think the main concern with 'Villagers' would be; if there is anything that allows them to become even remotely 'proven', they stop being cover for the wolves.

So, to maintain that - one would need to give the wolves each and every power the villagers get.

Why? They don't have that now and things work out. (ie. Hunter)

The only one with "proving power" would be the Super Preciever (SP). And he's just a simple Unpowered. Who's going to believe him? Especially when that particular role is not limited to Villagers.

[Unagi]

All I am saying is that the Specials are Special and the Villagers are not. To turn them into Specials removes the fact that there should be some body of people in the game who's 'Abilities' match the abilities that the Wolves have (minus their Wolven abilities, of course).

Does that make sense?

Some of the ideas being thrown around sound fun, but I don't know if removing the idea of 'powerless villager' would dramatically change the nature of the game. Seems like it would.

Just my two cents.

I am not talking so much even about a 'Hunter Proof' (bang bang), but even the "I'm a Seer" vs "no, no, I'm a Seer" proof too.

So if the end game results in a situation where the 'powered villagers' are somehow 'counted' and their population is accounted for, via these powers, then the wolves would painted red.

[Unagi]

So yeah, anyhow - to my point... the fact that the wolves would also get this 'aside' is a good idea... but it should work just like the Villager version, I would think.

The Super Preciever [sic] is a special.

[stessier]

The Super Preciever [sic]

:razzberry:

[Chaosraven]

I had been discussing a couple game options with Sean, MoKtSP a while back.

One was Everyone gets a few One-Shot Powers (with ability to steal or graverob). Think of it like a hand of 3 cards.

The other was an Illuminati Recruiting (much like the Light/Dark) wherein depending which level of recruit and for which side, you ended up with different abilities.

The ennui that affects the Villagers as the game progresses has a couple side-effects. It allows Quiet Wolves to hide amongst Quiet Villagers as Vocal Players from either side spend most of their time shredding each other.

Games (like Grunds) with "stuff to do", or as I tried in a couple of mine, need balance (all Players allowed) or limitation (anonymity therefore no Proof).

The current Mystery Game (and the JLA that I have sitting in the wings) was designed to allow for MORE Specials and hopefully avoid the "Oh look, there's our *X* Specials, now we simply hang the remaining and autowin after Mass Outing"

But you will never be able to overcome the "Oh I'm just a Normal" feeling in some players.

[The Meal]

Part of the reason I dumped this idea in this thread is that the concept of "balance" is fairly skewed from the get-go based on the ruleset.

[Austin]

Heh. From the one game I ran I can say that no matter how much you balance, the game can swing pretty quickly to one side's favor. A couple lucky scans or kills and it's over. Had Unagi been killed in that game before getting his sword shot off, the baddies would have walked away with the game. (And he was one vote away, and Judas (Triggercut) had a secret vote that nobody knew about that could have put Unagi over but he didn't log in before Unagi used his sword... or something like that) As a mod, you kind of start rooting for the underdog just because you want your rules to lead to a balanced game, but you just have to watch it go.

[Chaosraven]

Part of the reason I dumped this idea in this thread is that the concept of "balance" is fairly skewed from the get-go based on the ruleset.

From a basic game standpoint, the game is skewed to the wolves.

2 Wolves, 1 Seer, (X) Villagers.

The Wolves have the ability to Kill without Majority, talk behind the scenes, and begin this the knowledge of who the wolves are. They have to kill (quantity) rather than (role-specific), whereas the Villagers have to eliminate the Wolves within a timelimit.

Adding powers to wolves, adding powers to the village, etc isn't so much a matter of "balance" so the odds are even, but rather staying away from Irrefutable Proof for the Villagers and Breaking the Ruleset too quickly (overbalancing to the Villager Side).