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Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:37 pm
by pmchugh
Out of interest has anyone run a game where players were able to choose what powers you have?

I think this could make for an interesting game but the main problem I see with it is no one is going to want to be left with a crap power and I personally don't like games filled to the brim with power roles.

I think it could work well in a class war game though where people are able to choose from 3 groups in a Day 0 phase.

Upper Class- Votes count double (or maybe even more), powers are almost useless. (flavour cop, hider etc)
Middle Class- Votes count single, powers are semi useful. (roleblocker, bodyguard, random secret missions)
Lower Class - Cannot vote but are overpowered (JOAT, vig, cop, reviver)

Opinions?

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:53 pm
by ghostly447
pmchugh wrote:Out of interest has anyone run a game where players were able to choose what powers you have?

I think this could make for an interesting game but the main problem I see with it is no one is going to want to be left with a crap power and I personally don't like games filled to the brim with power roles.

I think it could work well in a class war game though where people are able to choose from 3 groups in a Day 0 phase.

Upper Class- Votes count double (or maybe even more), powers are almost useless. (flavour cop, hider etc)
Middle Class- Votes count single, powers are semi useful. (roleblocker, bodyguard, random secret missions)
Lower Class - Cannot vote but are overpowered (JOAT, vig, cop, reviver)

Opinions?


That actually seems rather interesting. Except I can only see 1 problem, and that is that everyone would go for middle class or lower (Likely middle so they can still vote, but are semi decent roles). And I am assuming only the town would get this option, in say, a PM mail?

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:01 pm
by pmchugh
I was thinking it would be openly discussed, so that people can try and organise themselves to make a good town. I think it could be interesting if you handed out mafia/town alignments first as then people could discuss and talk about why people want certain roles. Then say after a deadline who ever first claimed a role got it.

I think you are right though, there would need to be more incentive to pick upper tier and less incentive for middle tier. Perhaps triple voters? This would cause huge imbalances during the day if one faction had it but the other didn't. And maybe the middle tier would only be able to take actions on odd numbered nights or something.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:59 pm
by edocsil
My Pantheon will allow players to choose sides, but not roles, in the final game. Closest I have heard of to what you are suggesting.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:11 pm
by pmchugh
edocsil wrote:My Pantheon will allow players to choose sides, but not roles, in the final game. Closest I have heard of to what you are suggesting.


That sounds interesting, I take it the selection must be private? How will you maintain balance etc.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:36 pm
by edocsil
pmchugh wrote:
edocsil wrote:My Pantheon will allow players to choose sides, but not roles, in the final game. Closest I have heard of to what you are suggesting.


That sounds interesting, I take it the selection must be private? How will you maintain balance etc.


Yeah, I'll tell the top few to PM me a side. They will get some of the more powerful roles for that side and then the rest of the roles will be assigned. It is going to add a lot of meta to the game.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:46 pm
by pmchugh
edocsil wrote:
pmchugh wrote:
edocsil wrote:My Pantheon will allow players to choose sides, but not roles, in the final game. Closest I have heard of to what you are suggesting.


That sounds interesting, I take it the selection must be private? How will you maintain balance etc.


Yeah, I'll tell the top few to PM me a side. They will get some of the more powerful roles for that side and then the rest of the roles will be assigned. It is going to add a lot of meta to the game.


Hmm I will be interested to see how that pans out. Will the choices be based on anything other than arbitrary names?

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:12 pm
by edocsil
I am not certain what you mean. I am going to ask, "Angels or Demons" and they are going to reply with one or the other.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:12 pm
by spiesr
Game like this one from way back when have been done where player's could publicly choose their power with alignment then randomly assigned afterwards. I don't recall any of the sort being done in recent years.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:57 am
by pmchugh
spiesr wrote:Game like this one from way back when have been done where player's could publicly choose their power with alignment then randomly assigned afterwards. I don't recall any of the sort being done in recent years.


Aye something like that are you still playing after all this time?

edocsil wrote:I am not certain what you mean. I am going to ask, "Angels or Demons" and they are going to reply with one or the other.


Question answered, I was just wondering if there was a difference between which one you chose that was known prior to choosing.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:02 am
by trinicardinal
Mr. Squirrel had done something like this where he gave the mafia roles to choose from - viewtopic.php?f=610&t=157738

Mr. Squirrel wrote:Before the game begins, all mafia players will be allowed to choose which character they want to play as from a list of 16 different options.


Unfortunately due to the circumstances the game had to be shelved so I can't say how it turned out exactly.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:12 pm
by Rodion
I've found a similar setup on mafia scum and I'll start a similar game right now with some tweaks.

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:23 pm
by pmchugh
Rodion wrote:I've found a similar setup on mafia scum and I'll start a similar game right now with some tweaks.


Awesome, I look forward to playing it :)

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:04 pm
by AndyDufresne
I've ran a game or two with 'Locked Roles' and keys. Essentially, some townies had locked roles, and they got a chance to search through someone's pockets in the night. Depending on who they search, and what 'key' they found, that effectively allowed them to "choose" their role to a degree. If two people tried to search the same person, whoever sent in the night action first got it, and the other person got notified all they found was lint or something. I also typically had Night 0 as you young folks call it, so the game opened up with a murder and one unlucky player was out of luck from the get go.

I've also run a game where there were 'scenarios' were locked...essentially alternate win conditions for the town or mafia if they did certain things. Didn't get to experiment with it very much, but I think there is something fun to it if you can balance it right and it fits within the theme.


--Andy

Re: Choosing your roles.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:44 pm
by chapcrap
AndyDufresne wrote:I've also run a game where there were 'scenarios' were locked...essentially alternate win conditions for the town or mafia if they did certain things. Didn't get to experiment with it very much, but I think there is something fun to it if you can balance it right and it fits within the theme.


--Andy

Something like this was done by zimmah in the Romeo and Juliet mafia that just ended. Very interesting to see some of the people's WC and twists that were involved. Unfortunately, the twists didn't get to play a large part in his game, but I would be in favor of have changing/altering WC based on things that happen in the game. Makes the mafia game more like an RPG. The same goes with powers/roles. Changing things up in the middle seems like a great idea. Very interesting.