When I host games, I tend to really like basing them around flavor and designing factions and roles based on flavor. Most of the time, it comes out a little unbalanced, and I have to pull myself back. Sometimes, I come up with a role that just sounds SO COOL in my head, and perfectly fits the character I'm assigning it to...and it turns out to be broken as hell.
This has happened to me even when I was paired with cohosts; Auramaster and I talked over Grovyle in PMD mafia for a while, and both of us assumed people would use the Time Gear mechanic as it was intended (strategically pass Time Gears to hook enemy players when Grovyle steals them). We never stopped to think that Lady Salamence would walk up to the village leader on IRC and say "Yo, can you just give me the Time Gears?"
In Twilight Princess Mafia, More Cowbell and I had the opposite happen. We thought the recruiting Masons in the village would be far too powerful, and put in several mechanics that were designed to nerf them and keep endgame balanced (Recruiter dies if he targets mafia, has the lowest priority in the game, and neither Mason can claim Mason in the thread). It turned out that the RNG gave the Mason roles to Metal Sonic and Obbmud99, who barely even used the Mason chat and guaranteed their recruit would be hooked every night by claiming PR Day 1.
I'm sure I'm not the only person here who does stuff like this, which is why I wanted to make this thread.
Basically (I'm so bad at writing thread intros lol), if you have a novel role idea but aren't sure of how it'll interact with other roles/affect game balance, post it here. If we all get together and give feedback on crazy roles people come up with, it may help make future games more interesting while keeping them reasonably balanced.
-----
If you want to post up a specific role PM and have your own role PM format, go ahead and use it so I can steal it (mine's both a little messy and a little too rigid). If you don't have hosting experience or don't have a set role PM format, then I have some templates below:
Yeah tl;dr
-if you have a new role you're thinking of using but aren't sure about balance, post it here
-if you're just dropping in, give somebody else feedback on their role
-if this thread is bad for OSI just lock it
This has happened to me even when I was paired with cohosts; Auramaster and I talked over Grovyle in PMD mafia for a while, and both of us assumed people would use the Time Gear mechanic as it was intended (strategically pass Time Gears to hook enemy players when Grovyle steals them). We never stopped to think that Lady Salamence would walk up to the village leader on IRC and say "Yo, can you just give me the Time Gears?"
In Twilight Princess Mafia, More Cowbell and I had the opposite happen. We thought the recruiting Masons in the village would be far too powerful, and put in several mechanics that were designed to nerf them and keep endgame balanced (Recruiter dies if he targets mafia, has the lowest priority in the game, and neither Mason can claim Mason in the thread). It turned out that the RNG gave the Mason roles to Metal Sonic and Obbmud99, who barely even used the Mason chat and guaranteed their recruit would be hooked every night by claiming PR Day 1.
I'm sure I'm not the only person here who does stuff like this, which is why I wanted to make this thread.
Basically (I'm so bad at writing thread intros lol), if you have a novel role idea but aren't sure of how it'll interact with other roles/affect game balance, post it here. If we all get together and give feedback on crazy roles people come up with, it may help make future games more interesting while keeping them reasonably balanced.
-----
If you want to post up a specific role PM and have your own role PM format, go ahead and use it so I can steal it (mine's both a little messy and a little too rigid). If you don't have hosting experience or don't have a set role PM format, then I have some templates below:
Generic NOC Role PM
Generic NOC Informed Team PMDear <USER>, you are a <FACTION><ROLE>. (During the day/At Night), you may post "D/NX-<ACTION FLAVOR> in (your Role PM Conversation/the game thread). If you do, <ACTION FLAVOR>, causing <ACTION EFFECT>. You are allied with <FACTION>. You win if you eliminate all hostile players, or if nothing can prevent the same.
Dear <USER1>, <USER2>, <USER3>, ..., and <USERN>,
you are <FACTION>.
Your members are as follows:
<USER1>-<FACTION><ROLE>
<USER2>-<FACTION><ROLE>
<USER3>-<FACTION><ROLE>
...
<USERN>-<FACTION><ROLE>
Additionally, you have the following team abilities:
Team Chat: You can communicate in this topic at the following times:
Team Kill: At night, you may post "NX-Sending <ALLIED USER> to kill <USER>". You will send the player you choose to kill your target.
You are allied with <FACTION>. You win if you eliminate all hostile players.
These PMs are intended for OC-legal play, not NOC. They're also ideal for themed games because they leave plenty of room for bios and unique action flavor.
Don't feel obligated to fill in flavor if you're just using the PM for this thread. Also, the number of actions listed here is really large for pretty much any mafia game; just cut out all the templates for abilities you don't want your role to have and fill in the blanks on the ones you want to use. Duplicate as necessary.
Sample OC Role PM:
Sample OC Informed Team PM
Don't feel obligated to fill in flavor if you're just using the PM for this thread. Also, the number of actions listed here is really large for pretty much any mafia game; just cut out all the templates for abilities you don't want your role to have and fill in the blanks on the ones you want to use. Duplicate as necessary.
Sample OC Role PM:
Host notes: <any mechanic that this role works off of, but doesn't know about>Dear (<USER>/<ALIAS>),
you are <ROLE NAME> (from <SOURCE>).
<IMAGE>
<X sentences of character background>
You are a <FACTION> <ROLE>. You have the following abilities:
<INFORMATION PASSIVE> (Information) (Passive): You know <information>. Use this information however you wish.
<OTHER PASSIVE(s)> (Passive): <ABILITY FLAVOR>. <ABILITY EFFECT>.
<RAPID ACTION(s)> (Rapid Action): (During the Day/At Night), you may post “<trigger>” (in your Role PM conversation/in the thread). If you do, you will <ABILITY FLAVOR>, causing <ABILITY EFFECT>. This action resolves immediately upon receipt.
<NIGHT ACTIVE(s)>: At night, you may post “NX-<ACTION FLAVOR>” in your Role PM conversation. If you do, you will <ABILITY FLAVOR>, causing <ABILITY EFFECT>.
<X SHOT(s)> (X shot): (During the Day/At Night), you may post “NX-<ACTION FLAVOR>” in your Role PM conversation. If you do, you will <ABILITY FLAVOR>, causing <ABILITY EFFECT>. However, <X SHOT FLAVOR>, so you can only do this (once/X times) in the game.
You are allied with <FACTION>. You win if <WIN CONDITION>.
Sample OC Informed Team PM
Sample Item Information (if the role is meant for a game with items):Dear <USER1>, <USER2>, <USER3>, …, and <USERN>,
you are <TEAM NAME>.
<TEAM FLAVOR>
Your members are:
<USER1>--<ALIAS1>--<ROLE NAME> (from <SOURCE>)--<FACTION><ROLE>--<ITEM>
<USER2>--<ALIAS2>--<ROLE NAME> (from <SOURCE>)--<FACTION><ROLE>--<ITEM>
<USER3>--<ALIAS3>--<ROLE NAME> (from <SOURCE>)--<FACTION><ROLE>--<ITEM>
…
<USERN>--<ALIASN>--<ROLE NAME> (from <SOURCE>)--<FACTION><ROLE>--<ITEM>
Additionally, you have the following factional abilities:
<FACTION> Falseclaim (information): You know that <ROLE NAME 1> (from <SOURCE>), <ROLE NAME 2> (from <SOURCE>), <ROLE NAME 3> (from <SOURCE>), …, and <ROLE NAME N> (from <SOURCE>) are not in the game. Use this information however you wish.
<TEAM KILL>: At night, you may post “NX-Killing (<USER>/<ALIAS>)” in your team conversation. You will kill your target.
<OTHER SHARED ACTIONS>: (During the Day/At Night), you may post “NX-Sending (<USER>/<ALIAS>) to <ACTION FLAVOR>” in your team conversation. If you do, you will send a member of your faction to <ABILITY FLAVOR>, causing <ABILITY EFFECT>.
You are all allied with <FACTION>. You win if <FACTION WC>.
You have no item.
Host notes: <insert any hidden mechanics of the above item here>You have (a/an) <ITEM NAME>. <ITEM EFFECT>.
Yeah tl;dr
-if you have a new role you're thinking of using but aren't sure about balance, post it here
-if you're just dropping in, give somebody else feedback on their role
-if this thread is bad for OSI just lock it