Game Queue Something

[Novae]

• The role flavor is based on my OC's, because why not.

like that worked out well last time

 

[Keldeo]

So an interesting game format I've seen is allowing out-of-thread communication - that is, anyone can privately message anyone at any time. As a result, the game becomes more focused on one-on-one manipulation and reads, control of information, and mechanical planning. If there's interest in a game like that here, I may try to run one at some point after all the current signups are done.

 

[mewtini]

that's like ... horrifying. i love it

edit: oh yeah. obviously i’m in.

 

[Butterfree]

So an interesting game format I've seen is allowing out-of-thread communication - that is, anyone can privately message anyone at any time. As a result, the game becomes more focused on one-on-one manipulation and reads, control of information, and mechanical planning. If there's interest in a game like that here, I may try to run one at some point after all the current signups are done.

I think I was in a game like that in like... 2007, and I didn't really enjoy it much because the entire game just kind of got solved by x number of people behind the scenes and then it, like, ended very early and all I really distinctly remember is a feeling of total confusion as to what had actually happened and frustration that I didn't feel like I'd gotten to do anything.

Buuuut I've actually also been having thoughts that it could be interesting to try that kind of game again and see how it works out. So sure, count me in for an experiment.

 

[Keldeo]

So an interesting game format I've seen is allowing out-of-thread communication - that is, anyone can privately message anyone at any time. As a result, the game becomes more focused on one-on-one manipulation and reads, control of information, and mechanical planning. If there's interest in a game like that here, I may try to run one at some point after all the current signups are done.

I think I was in a game like that in like... 2007, and I didn't really enjoy it much because the entire game just kind of got solved by x number of people behind the scenes and then it, like, ended very early and all I really distinctly remember is a feeling of total confusion as to what had actually happened and frustration that I didn't feel like I'd gotten to do anything.

Buuuut I've actually also been having thoughts that it could be interesting to try that kind of game again and see how it works out. So sure, count me in for an experiment.

Yeah, from what I’ve seen happen in other places that this game type is run, one or two townies get cleared and then they amass information / tell everyone else what the optimal night actions are, and the thread isn’t used all that much except for voting. So if you’re identified as mafia and locked out of the town’s information flow, for instance, the game could get kind of frustrating. But there’s definitely lots of opportunity for intrigue and backstabbing and such.

 

[Mr. Ultracool]

I originally started playing this game in a meta where pretty much all of the games allowed this kind of interpersonal communication, and Townchats, where four confirmed townies got together and basically soloed the game, where pretty common, especially in themed rounds with more or more powerful PRs. That said, getting someone to accept you as a confirmed townie was also often rather hard, as it was an ever- present danger that you could be spilling your role details and reads to a maf who told you he was innocent. All in all, the setups were often a bit scewed towards the townie side of things because of this.

 

[Novae]

If we’re running an out-of-game communication game I would actually prefer it be something like Everyone Is Mafia Mafia [citation needed] or survivor compared to normal mafia

 

[qenya]

I originally started playing this game in a meta where pretty much all of the games allowed this kind of interpersonal communication

Likewise. The difference being that the mods there changed tack pretty quickly after one guy fully solved three games in a row by himself.

I'm not totally against it, and it would be kind of interesting as an experiment, but I'm pretty dubious that it'll work out.

 

[M&F]

full private communication, as has been expressed, might be a bit much for a variety of reasons, but I do happen to have been thinking of some experiments with some forms of limited additional private communication...

for example, something like the server chain from Homestuck Mafia 4, if anyone happens to remember that from a lifetime ago; since it's been so long I was thinking soon might be a great time to try working something like that into a round of MFia in the near future (for some definition of "near" anyway-)

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

I definitely want to host another Fandom Mafia at some point

But also, maybe some kind of game that incorporates Magic: The Gathering mechanics

But also... hear me out... what if there actually was some kind of mafia game with time travel mechanics?

 

[Herbe]

But also... hear me out... what if there actually was some kind of mafia game with time travel mechanics?

ooooooh! What immediately came to mind was a mechanic with the paradox about "if you recieve a message from the future, you must later send that message to your past, or else a paradox will occur." Maybe play around with like, an avoiding-paradoxes mechanic? where scum wants to maximise them, and town wants to minimize them, or something?

 

[Eifie]

I saw a game once where basically players had some units of time-travel fuel or whatever and they could spend one unit to go back or forward one day/night cycle and they could use multiple at once, so the mafia could e.g. try to go back in time and make all their kills happen n0 to invalidate people's later actions and votes and make it so that doctors would have to spend a lot of fuel to go back in time to heal them that night if they wanted to resurrect them

or something

 

[Eifie]

ok ok sorry mewt

 

[Zori]

3rd party paradox stopper
gets free time travel
wins if sucessfully manages to stop all paradoxes

 

[Ampharos]

I'm like a week late to this discussion, but as the one who spoke to Keldeo about mafia w/ out of thread communication, I figured I could offer some elaboration/spark some further discussion.

OC (Outside Contact) Mafia was the primary format we played on my original homesite for a number of years. In its purest form it's exactly what it sounds like: a normal game of mafia, but with players having the ability to communicate with each other outside of the thread. This opens up a lot of space for private conversation, 1-on-1 manipulations, town having greater agency to be sneaky with night actions, etc. etc.

Of course, what the fine folks over at smogon dot com soon figured out is that the optimal way for the village to play generally involves consolidating everyone's information with one cleared villager, who then attempts to find other cleared villagers with whom to discuss night actions and delegate them among the rest. This does often lead to fringe villagers being frozen out of having a ton of agency, and also makes the game MUCH harder for wolves (since you pretty much HAVE to have a good fakeclaim or you're screwed).

Instead of ditching OC games, the meta evolved to counteract the effectiveness of this strategy. Village numbers were lowered. Multiball became the standard, and modified (read: buffed to hell) SKs became very common. Scum roles were assigned that became easier and easier to fakeclaim. Information falsification/denial became rampant. It was an arms race of game mods attempting to balance their game against what was in all honesty an imbalanced mechanic. And honestly, it kinda worked. The format stayed fun, and remains fun, as long as the host is balancing the game around player expectations. The only reason they don't run on Smogon anymore is because both the OC playerbase AND the OC game mods (read: me) moved on.

I will note, however, that a couple of... alternative formats spun out of this.

At one point, a guy by the username of Exarius asked himself, "why are we limiting ourselves to one villager vs. X number of mafia? why not just... teams?" Thus was born the multifaction game. A lot of people lobbied to have it not called mafia, because it's really not - there's still a daily vote, and players still use night actions, but the actual strategy and format of the game is completely different. At the end of the day, though, we still considered multifaction games to be mafia, and they're a blast if you're into politicking, sneakery, and teamwork.

Mist mentioned Everyone Is Mafia Mafia earlier, which is sort of another spin-off of the OC mafia game, the free-for-all - which is exactly what it sounds like. Free-for-all is probably the furthest you can get from actual mafia while still making an argument to call it "mafia". Everyone has a role, and they use night actions, but there's often not even a daily vote, and at the end of the day the only wincon you're trying to fulfill is your own. EIMM is a very specific format in which the winners are always the final X players remaining, where X is like 3-5, but plenty of FFA games have been run where the wincons are more specific and varied.

I realize this is quite the wall of text I'm building here, heh. Keldeo mentioned y'all had recently had a mafia revival and we started talking about homesite mafia stuff, and he seemed intrigued by the concept of OC games, so I figured that if there was any interest at all I'd love to help out in getting one going. They're how I got my start in forum games in general and I've got a huge soft spot for 'em, there's just... not really the community or interest for them on any of the other sites I play on.

ama or whatever lol

 

[Eifie]

see, I knew Keldeo was responsible for this

 

[Zori]

The size of games for me only impacts the number of core mechanics (read: shenanigans) I can fit in
9 - 1 moderate core mechanic
13 - 2 simple core mechanics or 1 convolute core mechanic
17 - 2 moderate core mechanics
21 - a lot of fun probably
a bit of a random thought but here it is

 

[Zori]

I was brainstorming some ideas for a 2 uninformed equal teams game instead of a uninformed majority versus an informed minority?
that could be fun and less yelling/accusing than mafia

 

[rari_teh]

I was brainstorming some ideas for a 2 uninformed equal teams game instead of a uninformed majority versus an informed minority?
that could be fun and less yelling/accusing than mafia

if the schedule doesn’t clash much with any mafia game i’m currently subscribed to (i.e. tarot and ooctvtmqm), i am definitely in

 

[Mawile]

I was brainstorming some ideas for a 2 uninformed equal teams game instead of a uninformed majority versus an informed minority?
that could be fun and less yelling/accusing than mafia

whatever this will be, i'm in for it tbh