Post by Splinter on Dec 9, 2015 10:04:12 GMT -8
Just getting some ideas down since its all stored in my head at the moment
So the key thing that I want to get working:
*drumroll*
The 'real' game is in the dead thread (let's call it the Afterlife). Everyone in the "main" thread thinks they are playing Mafia. But in fact there is no scum team, and (probably) no power roles. Everyone is (ordinary?) town, bickering and lynching each other... primarily for my amusement.
When lynched/killed, they enter the Afterlife, and receive their real role PMs. (Roles could be assigned at the start but hidden, or assigned on death. Probably the former). Some amount of my trickery will probably have to be revealed to these players, but now they are actually playing Mafia.
Of course, I don't want the Alive thread to (continue to) be completely pointless. Therefore I need some form of interaction between Afterlife and Alive (in fact this will probably need to be a central mechanic of the game). So I need to figure out:
UNKNOWN1:
Alive/Afterlife interaction. Presumably the Afterlife will affect the Alive somehow... Current thought: PRs are in the Afterlife, but they can only act on people who are still Alive. (Example: a cop investigates a living townie, sees what role they will gain on death).
Will the Alive interact with the Afterlife at all before they die? Probably not, since the Afterlife is supposed to be a secret, at least to begin with. This leads nicely to...
UNKNOWN2:
Information sharing. At the start, the Afterlife should almost certainly be a secret, people should think the game has already started. As people die, some portion of this lie will need to be explained for the real game to begin. Keep this alongside, but separate too, the role PMs... figure out this detail later.
But will the living ever learn the truth? Maybe... They should certainly become susicious that everyone is flipping ordinary town. But how? And when?
As an aside, I'm interested in a resurrection occurring (presumably a 1-shot role). This might be part of the answer to UNKNOWN2.
Alright. Fake game for living players. Real game for 'dead' players, who have some sort of one-sided interaction with the living... What the fuck is my win condition?
UNKNOWN3:
What the fuck is my win condition?
...So the scum team don't even activate until death, they then need to be lynched again in the Afterlife (Afterlife 'deaths' will henceforth be called "Banished", "Banishings" etc). So... Banish all the scum? I think they all have to be Banished, even those that aren't active yet (still alive). This is where UNKNOWN2 becomes more important... ok.
Oh, scum win condition might be a little more complicated. Technically they might win as soon as they have a vote majority in the Afterlife... I need to be very careful here (UNKNOWN2a: Do scum know who their living partners are???)
This isn't important yet, but for the sake of completeness:
UNKNOWN4:
Day/Night cycles. Probably keep these in sync to make things (slightly) easier. But do Alive and Afterlife share the same Day/Night? Or do they alternate? Alternating sounds interesting, but I can't (and don't need to) decide this before UNKNOWN1 is sorted.
SO, D1, an ordinary gets lynched (lol), enters an empty thread, and uses his PR despite being the only player in the game (thus potentially revealing his role already). As each player dies, more roles start being used, and it's a pretty narrow pool of people for each role. This is obviously nonsense, and I'll split it into 2 problems.
PROBLEM1:
Roles can be too easily matched to recent deaths.
PROBLEM2:
The Afterlife could have an extremely slow start.
A (partial) solution to PROBLEM1 is for the Alive game to be very death-heavy. I have an idea involving 2 SKs I might use here... But maybe not, because...
The solution to PROBLEM2 is for the deaths in the Alive game to be extremely front loaded. This probably raises its own set of problems, to be considered later.
PROBLEM3:
The living need to matter. Ok so early game is definitely bullshit, but I can't have people survive the entire game only to realise that the real game happened elsewhere, and I've been wasting their time for several weeks for no reason. Somehow the living will probably need to learn more about the Afterlife... maybe even their real win condition. (Aside, UNKNOWN3, I kind of want the win condition to be "banish all scum before the last player dies").
Ok I think that the overview...
UNKNOWN4/PROBLEM4:
Is this still Mafia?
Well... Yes. But proceed with caution.
So the key thing that I want to get working:
*drumroll*
The 'real' game is in the dead thread (let's call it the Afterlife). Everyone in the "main" thread thinks they are playing Mafia. But in fact there is no scum team, and (probably) no power roles. Everyone is (ordinary?) town, bickering and lynching each other... primarily for my amusement.
When lynched/killed, they enter the Afterlife, and receive their real role PMs. (Roles could be assigned at the start but hidden, or assigned on death. Probably the former). Some amount of my trickery will probably have to be revealed to these players, but now they are actually playing Mafia.
Of course, I don't want the Alive thread to (continue to) be completely pointless. Therefore I need some form of interaction between Afterlife and Alive (in fact this will probably need to be a central mechanic of the game). So I need to figure out:
UNKNOWN1:
Alive/Afterlife interaction. Presumably the Afterlife will affect the Alive somehow... Current thought: PRs are in the Afterlife, but they can only act on people who are still Alive. (Example: a cop investigates a living townie, sees what role they will gain on death).
Will the Alive interact with the Afterlife at all before they die? Probably not, since the Afterlife is supposed to be a secret, at least to begin with. This leads nicely to...
UNKNOWN2:
Information sharing. At the start, the Afterlife should almost certainly be a secret, people should think the game has already started. As people die, some portion of this lie will need to be explained for the real game to begin. Keep this alongside, but separate too, the role PMs... figure out this detail later.
But will the living ever learn the truth? Maybe... They should certainly become susicious that everyone is flipping ordinary town. But how? And when?
As an aside, I'm interested in a resurrection occurring (presumably a 1-shot role). This might be part of the answer to UNKNOWN2.
Alright. Fake game for living players. Real game for 'dead' players, who have some sort of one-sided interaction with the living... What the fuck is my win condition?
UNKNOWN3:
What the fuck is my win condition?
...So the scum team don't even activate until death, they then need to be lynched again in the Afterlife (Afterlife 'deaths' will henceforth be called "Banished", "Banishings" etc). So... Banish all the scum? I think they all have to be Banished, even those that aren't active yet (still alive). This is where UNKNOWN2 becomes more important... ok.
Oh, scum win condition might be a little more complicated. Technically they might win as soon as they have a vote majority in the Afterlife... I need to be very careful here (UNKNOWN2a: Do scum know who their living partners are???)
This isn't important yet, but for the sake of completeness:
UNKNOWN4:
Day/Night cycles. Probably keep these in sync to make things (slightly) easier. But do Alive and Afterlife share the same Day/Night? Or do they alternate? Alternating sounds interesting, but I can't (and don't need to) decide this before UNKNOWN1 is sorted.
SO, D1, an ordinary gets lynched (lol), enters an empty thread, and uses his PR despite being the only player in the game (thus potentially revealing his role already). As each player dies, more roles start being used, and it's a pretty narrow pool of people for each role. This is obviously nonsense, and I'll split it into 2 problems.
PROBLEM1:
Roles can be too easily matched to recent deaths.
PROBLEM2:
The Afterlife could have an extremely slow start.
A (partial) solution to PROBLEM1 is for the Alive game to be very death-heavy. I have an idea involving 2 SKs I might use here... But maybe not, because...
The solution to PROBLEM2 is for the deaths in the Alive game to be extremely front loaded. This probably raises its own set of problems, to be considered later.
PROBLEM3:
The living need to matter. Ok so early game is definitely bullshit, but I can't have people survive the entire game only to realise that the real game happened elsewhere, and I've been wasting their time for several weeks for no reason. Somehow the living will probably need to learn more about the Afterlife... maybe even their real win condition. (Aside, UNKNOWN3, I kind of want the win condition to be "banish all scum before the last player dies").
Ok I think that the overview...
UNKNOWN4/PROBLEM4:
Is this still Mafia?
Well... Yes. But proceed with caution.