Looking for game mode idea feedback

[markkirschstein]

Hello,

Please forgive the first post being quite long winded!

I've run a setup twice and I'm looking for outside perspective for feedback/ideas for it.

For background, both were quite large games (30-45 players) and multifaction, which are fairly standard on my homesite. Given the amount of players, I wanted a bit more than good old social deduction, I wanted as much player agency as possible and also wanted to see good old fashioned scheming and backstabbing thrown in. The mode was dubbed "Kingdom" and there were three unique mechanics. Influence, Aristocrats and Deities. The game still ended on standard parity rules.


Influence
The main mechanic in the game was that most players began as a vanilla variant of their faction but could acquire new roles and items throughout the game. The currency was called "influence" and was gained by players secretly voting in favour of you during the night phase. Influence voting was mandatory. E.g. if 4 players voted for you during the night phase, you would have 4 influence points to spend the following night, or you could save it up for a more powerful purchase on later nights.

Aristocrats (and the Monarch)
There was one village role that was pre-assigned that could not be bought with influence, and that was called the Monarch. The Monarch received a x3 multiplier to influence gains and could bestow extra influence to another player at night. If the Monarch died the Aristocrat with the most influence immediately became the next Monarch. The original Monarch won if the village won.

There were a bunch of neutral players, called Aristocrats in the game. They gained influence at a x2 multiplier. Their wincon was either to A) lose their Aristocrat status and join an evil faction (see Deities) and win with it or B) to win with village as the living Monarch, or the last Monarch if they were dead (e.g. eliminate the Aristocrats before they died)

Deities & Deity Battles

If you're still with me at this point, congrats! Onto the most confusing mechanic.

Each faction had a corresponding Deity. Influence could be spent to power up a Deity, which would trigger a battle if an Evil Deity had more power than the village Deity.

An impending battle was announced at the start of the night phase. The faction whose Deity was initiating the battle could choose their reward should they win the battle, the stronger the reward, the more power it would cost. Win or lose, the Deity would lose that amount of power. One Aristocrat per battle could join the evil team, by spending the most influence on the battle in the evil Deity's favour.

The battle would be resolved by deity powers + influence pledged from players. If the village won, nothing happened save the evil Deity losing some power. If the evil faction won, they got the bonus they opted for and potentially a new faction member from a converted Aristocrat.

Power that the village Deity had could also be spent each night via a special item that moved to the player with the most influence (good or evil). It allowed things like getting a bonus yeet the following day, increasing the amount of influence gained, revealing the role of the yeeted player etc. Most of the options were village favoured, but not always a great option. So an evil player could whittle down the village power by wasting these abilities if they had the item. I considered control of this item crucial as to gain the extra yeets in later stages of the game.

The feedback I'm looking for
I'm hoping to run this mode again soon-ish but I'm considering making some tweaks to it (actually more likely a version 2 than tweaks if I'm being honest).

I'm looking for some thoughts and ideas from an outside perspective of what could be an interesting evolution of some these ideas.

I have some loose thoughts at the moment but I'd like to hear some others. (In spoiler text, I'd love feedback before seeing them and after if possible)

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