AGS WEREWOLF GAME 4 (Phase: End Discussion)

[Sinitrena]

Sorry, it‘s a long time since I startet the last one, but now we‘re back and I invite you all to the next installment of the AGS Werewolf Game.

If you are not familiar with this game, the rest of this post should give you all information you will need to understand it and decide if you want to play.

If you are already familiar with the game, please read this post carefully nonetheless, because there might be small changes to the rules from the last rounds.

Also, there are a couple things I don‘t want to decide without the input of my players, so there are a few questions at the end for you.


What is the AGS Werewolf Game:

The AGS Werewolf Game is an unregularly played game here in the forums where we play a Werewolf/Mafia game. I assign roles to all players and the goal of the game is it to figure out who the bad guys are â€" simply put.

Available Roles:

These roles are assigned randomly once I know the players. I use generic names in this description here but might switch to more setting specific ones once the setting is decided (see below). The number of people playing one of these roles depends on the number of players.

Good Side:

Normal Population:
Ability: None
Description: The most geniric role in this game with no special abilities and no special job except finding the bad guys. This is the role most people will play.
Goal: Uncover who belongs to the Evil Side. Members of the general Population have the right to vote every day for the person to lynch and hopefully for them to eleminate players of the Evil Side that way. Members of the Population can win the game even if they themselves get killed, so as a member you might consider sacrifices for the greater good (for example, a more important Good Side Role).

Psychic:
Ability: Scan another player‘s role once every Night Phase
Description: The Psychic is the main asset of the Good Side, as he or she is the one to have the best chance to uncover members of the Evil Side. The Psychic can scan players once every Night Phase by sending a PM to the Game Master (GM, that would be me) and recieving the role (and nothing else) as an answer.
Goal: The Psychic‘s goal is to eleminate all players of the Evil Side by scanning them and then convincing the other players to lynch them. The physic is allowed to vote for lynchings him-/herself too, of course. The Physic should seek to keep his/her role secret, as he/she is a likely target for murders by the Evil Side. The rest of the Good Side should also try to protect the Psychic as much as possible. The Psychis wins with the Good Side even if he/she is dead when all Evil players are eliminated.

Doctor:
Ability: Protect one player every Night Phase, including him-/herself, but not the same player twice in a row.
Description: The Doctor sends the GM the name of one player each Night Phase to protect. A protected player cannot be killed by the Evil Side in this Night Phase. If a player is protected, nobody recieves any further information than that nobody was killed in the next Day Phase (the Evil Side will know who was protected as will the Doctor, but the GM will not officially reveal this information â€" that point wasn‘t entirely clear last time, so if you have more questions, please ask.)
Goal: The Doctor seeks to protect his own side, including him-/herself but especially the Psychic as the main player to figure out the alignment of other players. The Doctor is the main line of defence (except for subterfuge) for the Good Side.



Evil Side:

The players of the Evil Side know who the other members of their team are (while the Good Side has no such information about their own team). They will recieve this information by PM alongside their own roles once they are chosen. It is recommended, and expected, that the Evil Side players communicate with each other outside this forum thread.

Murderer:
Ability: Participate in one kill during each Night Phase; knows all other players of the Evil Side
Description: The Murderer decides on one person to kill each Night Phase, along with the other murderers and their Leader.
Goal: The Murderer‘s goal is it to reduce the Good Side so that no majarity lynch vote against the Evil Side is possible any longer, at which point the Evil Side would be able to pick the Good Side of one by one and the Evil Side has won. The Murdrer should try to appear non-threatening and as innocent as possible, with the goal that Good Side players get lynched.

Leader:
Ability: Participate in one kill during each Night Phase (and communicate this to the GM)
Description: The Leader of the murderers does not have any more abilities than the other murderers. The role exists to streamline communications to the GM. Should the Leader be lynched, another player from the group of murderers takes up the role (randomly chosen by GM).
Goal: The Leader‘s goal is the same as the other murderers‘ goal. There is no advantage or disadvantage to the Evil Side should the Leader get killed.


The exact role setup depends on the number of players and will be decided once players are registered.


Gameplay Structure and Rules:

The game can end in two ways:
The Good Side wins when all Evil players are dead.
The Evil Side wins when it is no longer possible to get a majority lynch vote against them.
(There was a situation last time where it was logically impossible for the Evil Side to win, even though the win conditon for the Good Side was not met yet (the details are complicated). In accordance with the general opinion in the discussion afterwards, such a situation will be ignored by the GM and the game will run its course. Players are, of course, allowed to speed the game up by, for example, reveal their own roles and basically giving up or even outright forfitting, but this decision is completely up to the individual players. The GM will not answer questions concerning the possibility of different outcomes of the game, as I know slightly more than everybody else and the risk to reveal information a player should not have is high.)

Important Rules:

NEVER EDIT ANY OF YOUR POSTS FOR ANY REASON! IF YOU POST AND NOTICE ANYTHING IN YOUR POST THAT YOU WISH TO CHANGE IN ANY WAY THEN YOU MUST REPOST THE CORRECTION RATHER THAN EVER EDIT AN EXISTING POST.

NEVER SHOW A SCREENSHOT OF ANY PM YOUR HAVE RECEIVED FROM THE GAME HOST OR COPY/PASTE FROM ONE OR RETYPE TEXT FROM ONE OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ABUSE THIS RULE TO PROVIDE PROOF OF YOUR ROLE, OR FOR WHATEVER OTHER REASON.

EVIL PLAYERS SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH TEAM MEMBERS FIRST AND OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE MEMBER IN QUESTION BEFORE PUBLICLY OUTING THEM AS AN EVIL PLAYER AND/OR STARTING A VOTING TREND AGAINST THEM.

Spoiler

This rule exists to avoid resentment from growing within the ranks of the players in this game. It may become advantageous or even necessary at some point for the Evil players to sacrifice one or more of their own on purpose as part of their win strategy. This is known as "Throwing under the bus" in WW game terminology and is a perfectly legal move in the game. But please ask the member to be sacrificed beforehand if you plan to do this and make sure they are okay with it. The only exception would be when the player in question has gone inactive from the game and is unreachable by all other lines of communication. In this case they only have themself to blame.

Casual speculation about same-team members as being the guilty party is perfectly fine in most cases as long as the motive was for the good of the team and not intended to harm theteam's or that particular player's chances in the game. This is, in fact, usually a vital strategy in winning for the Evil team players so they do not appear solidated in the eyes of the Good players. Planning such strategies out with your team members via outside communication is strongly advised, of course. Use common sense here and all should be fine.

Jumping on a bandwagon vote already established by another non-team player against a same-team member is legal without prior consultation as there may not be time to do so, but please try to consult beforehand if at all possible, or at least apologize afterwards.

[close]

PLAYERS MAY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER VIA OUTSIDE MEANS: PM, PRIVATE GROUP FORUMS, PRIVATE IRC CHAT, FACEBOOK, TELEPHONE, CARRIER PIGEON, MENTAL TELEPATHY, OR ANY OTHER MEANS AVAILABLE. BUT PLEASE NEVER BREAK THE RULE MENTIONED ABOVE CORNCERNING DIRECT USE OF GAME HOST PMS.

PLAYERS MAY LIE TO, TRICK, DECEIVE, OR OTHERWISE BULLSHIT, OTHER PLAYERS AS PART OF THEIR STRATEGY FOR OBTAINING THEIR WIN CONDITIONS AS LONG AS DOING SO DOES NOT BREAK ANY OF THE ABOVE RULES.

ONCE A PLAYER IS KILLED; HE OR SHE IS OUT OF THE GAME AND NO LONGER ALLOWED TO POST IN THIS THREAD OR COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER PLAYERS THROUGH OTHER MEANS. This is a change from the earlier rounds where we did allow „Ghosts.“

The game is played in two alternating phases:

Day Phase:

During the Day Phase every player is awake and able and allowed to post for discussion and lynching in this thread.
This thread is closed for all non-players and players who are killed are no longer allowed to post here either.
Lynch-votes need to be bolded. None bolded votes will be ignored.
Votes are not final until the Day Phase ends and can be changed until the last second. They can also be completely taken back (in that case, please bold none in your posts to make this absolutely clear.)
It is never, under any circumstances allowed to edit posts, not even for typos or to add something before someone else posts. (Yes, double posts are allowed.)

The Day Phase will be about 48 hours and end in a time frame of three hours.

During these three hours, the host may close the phase at any point but if the host runs late for any reason, players are not allowed to post after the end of the three hour time frame. (Basically, the night phase begins at the end of this time frame (even if the host is running late) or earlier.)

Day Phases may end suddenly at any point during the provided three hour time frame so get those votes in while you can. Remember that they can always be changed later if you are in time!

Once the Day Phase has ended the Lynching takes place if a majority vote on a single player has been reached.

If a majority vote has not been reached then no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.

Tied votes for the player to be lynched result in a stalemate and no player is lynched and the Day Phase ends.
It is not a requirement that the a player is lynched every Day Phase.
A lynched player's role is revealed after their death.

A lynched player may no longer post in this thread. Every player is allowed to keep a „journal“ that the other players „find“ when they are killed. Every player is allowed to send a PM to the GM every Phase (Day and Night) with information he or she wants revealed in case of his/her death. The information does not have to be accurate or true. The GM will not censor this in any way or form but it is the information a killed player is allowed to give. I will only look at the last PM from any killed player that has „Journal“ in the title. Please keep such PM‘s short and remember that I need them before the player is killed because the reveal of the journal happens at the same time as the reveal of the death.

Night Phase:

During Night Phase most of the Players are asleep and nobody may post in the game thread.

It is now time for all players with Night Phase abilities to PM their choices to the GM:

The Psychic should PM the name of the player they are scanning this night.

The Doctor should PM the name of the player they are protecting this night, if any.

The Leader of the murderers should PM the name of the player the murderers will attack and kill this night. Only the Leader may do so, not the other murderer players.

Night Phase will last about 24 hours.

It is legal to PM the game host with your night action before the Night Phase starts if, for any reason, you cannot maybe be active during the next Night Phase.

Do not send more than one PM with your activities to the host. The first one sent is the action that will take place. (Except for the Journal-PM‘s where the last one sent is the one used.)

At the end of the Night Phase the game host will send out PMs to players who did private night actions such as scanning with the results. These PM‘s go out at about the same time as the wrap-up post for the Phase goes out.

Then the game host will open the next Day Phase, starting with a report on any casualties which may have occured during the night.

Any players killed during the Night Phase must immediately follow the same rules as lynched players (see above): They may no longer post in this thread and their last words should already be out.

If, at any point, the Evil Side equal or outnumbers the other players they win the game as there is no way for the other players to gain a majority vote against them for lynching choices.



Now, I think that‘s all as far as rules go. If there‘s something I missed, just ask.

There are some things you, as players, can decided:

Are there any roles not mentioned above you would like to see? Tell me with an exact description and I‘ll see if I can implement them. Just remember that this depends very much on the number of players. The more players, the more fancy roles we can use.

Would you like a role-playing game, a purely tactical game or a mixture (which is what we had last time)?

What setting would you like to play? I can‘t write every setting but I like a challange, so just let me know. If you want a purely tactical game with no setting at all, that is also possible, but, in my opinion, a bit boring. If no suggestions for settings come up, I have a spaceship in mind, for now.

Last time I used a special rule in the end of the game: The ability to lock lynch votes, which would allow players to lock their votes, which takes the ability away to change votes (other postings are still allowed) but might thereby shorten Day Phases, because they could end earlier once all players have locked their votes. You can decided to have this special rule the whole game or just during the end when there are less players or not at all. Opinions?

So, I think that‘s everything. A less technical, more atmospheric intro will be available once we have our players and have decided on a setting.

You can now sign up to the next installment of the AGS Werewolf Game!

[VampireWombat]

I'm in.

[Sinitrena]

That was quick! Welcome.

Please pay attantion to the questions at the end of my first post, though. For some of them I really need answers before the beginning of the game.

[VampireWombat]

Hmm. I guess a mixture in space could be interesting. Or in some remote location. Maybe something along the lines of the 1982 version of The Thing. Or in space it could be kind of a mix of Alien, The Thing, and Species.

[Riaise]

I was just thinking the other day about how we haven't had one of these for a while. Sign me up!

I think the roles look good, nice and simple for now. I quite like the roleplay aspect of the game, so a mixture of roleplay and tactics would be good. The idea of being on a spaceship is great! The murderers could be shapeshifting aliens that have infiltrated our ranks. Also, I think that being able to lock lynch votes works later on in the game, but it's probably better to keep more to a schedule at the start, rather than ending phases early. So I would say add the rule after something like day 3 or 4, depending on the number of players.

[Sinitrena]

I was just thinking the other day about how we haven't had one of these for a while. Sign me up!

You know how it is: first it was too close to the last round, then I had other stuff to do, then I forgot, then it was Holiday season, then awards season and I thought people should play AGS games and not forum games and now it's finally time to start this up again. 

But we can't play with two people, so come on everyone, this is fun! 

[josiah1221]

I'm game! Now we just need the rest of the regulars to show up. 

[mkennedy]

What about the previous "Murder Most Foul" game? From what I remember it was the start of the second wander phase and I was rather interested in how it would turn out in the end.

[Sinitrena]

I can't answer that, unfortunately. I wasn't involved in that one, not even as a player.

[Kastchey]

Whoo, in!
...
...
...
(I'm soo going to regret it in the morning...)


I second the space + Alien + Thing mix. Murderous shapeshifting aliens is an ideal setting for a Werewolf game
And I like what you did with the Nurse/Doctor role, Sini. I remember being concerned that the Nurse not only protecting their target but also revealing their allegiance if they are targeted could turn out a little too powerful, and this version you posted here sounds just about right.

[Sinitrena]

And I like what you did with the Nurse/Doctor role, Sini. I remember being concerned that the Nurse not only protecting their target but also revealing their allegiance if they are targeted could turn out a little too powerful, and this version you posted here sounds just about right.

I had to re-read what I had written to realize that I had changed the powers a tiny bit.    Anyway, the definition still makes sense like that and is like I had it in mind for the new round...

But we can't play with just four players, unfortunately. I guess we can't really do anything else but wait for more players to show up. 10 would be good, but we could play with 8. Where is everyone? Where are our regulars? Where are some new players? If you feel overwhelmed by the explanation post, I guarantee it all becomes clear once you play. It's a fun challange, come on, sign up, play. Don't you want to get killed through the macchinations of your fellow forum members and the creative and evil mind of your dear host, the Wheel of Fate (who originally called me that? I think I never thanked you for the title, so I do it now. Thank you.    I wear it proudly!)?

[Privateer Puddin']

Hey, in!

[Kastchey]

Don't you want to get killed through the macchinations of your fellow forum members and the creative and evil mind of your dear host, the Wheel of Fate (who originally called me that? I think I never thanked you for the title, so I do it now. Thank you.    I wear it proudly!)?

I did. I wouldn't notice it ended up in your personal text until some time later, and I was even wondering for a while whether you liked it enough to put it there, or if it had been there all along and my brain had subconsciously absorbed it It fits you!

[Mandle]

IN!!!

And the spaceship setting sounds awesome.

Maybe the Normals are called "Crew"

The Doctor could just be "Bones" or "Medic".

The Psychic could be the "Synthetic", an artificial humanoid with special sensing capabilities.

The scum could either be the "Bodysnatcher" / "The Thing" alien morphies or just mutineers depending on what level of sci-fi grittiness you are going for.

[Sinitrena]

Yeah, Mandle! Welcome. And Privateer Puddin too, of course.

So, we currently have:

VampireWombat
Riaise
josiah1221
Kastchey
Privateer Puddin
Mandle

That's 6 - two more and we can start.

(I wish we could play with 6, but that would either mean we only have one person on the Evil side, removing the main ability of this side; or having a game that might run for just two Nights...)

[Thingyman]

Hi everyone

Sinitrena suggested that I just post this here. I don't know if I should run it by someone on staff first or anything. If so, I apologize for overstepping my bounds.

I'm hosting a very big Mafia Championship tournament, featuring 187 different communities, and would like to extend an invitation to your community. I'm hoping this is the best way to go about this.

The Mafia Championship is a super fun event that's been running since 2013. Over the years, 270+ communities, 50+ nationalities and 600+ representatives have participated. More importantly, it has created strong bonds between communities, resulted in countless friendships, and it has even led to people getting married, believe it or not

The concept, to explain it very briefly, is that each community elects one person to go represent them in the Championship. I'd be stoked to see you guys represented.

More details below. If you have any questions, just let me know

_______________

1. DO YOU ACCEPT THE INVITATION?

If your community wishes to participate, please confirm your participation to Thingyman as soon as you can to ensure yourselves a spot. Currently, the plan is to accommodate 187 communities this season (last season featured 170 communities), and if interest is high enough we will expand even further to 204.

If your community agrees to participate, the deadline for selecting your representative is April 26, but the sooner the better.

The games will take place on Mafia Universe. If it's okay, I can link directly to the general discussion thread regarding this topic on Mafia Universe.

Important notes

• You may decide yourselves how you want to elect your representative, but we highly recommend some sort of democratic process (public nominations followed by a poll usually works out well).
• In addition to electing a representative, you should also name an alternate who will be asked to step in if the first choice needs to back out.
• Your representative should be prepared for having to read upwards of 600 posts per 24 hours during the early stages of the game. Additionally, there's a requirement that each player must make at least 10 posts per Game Day. Only active players should apply/participate. I repeat: Your chosen player needs to be able to promise a good amount of activity on a daily basis.

2. SEASON 6 FORMAT

The tournament structure

• 187 communities will participate, each sending one representative.
• QUALIFIERS: 11 Qualifying Games will be played, consisting of 17 players each. I.e. every representative plays in one Qualifying Game. The players themselves vote post-game to determine who is deserving of advancement. 1st place will advance directly to the Finale Game (i.e. 11 of the 17 finalists are found this way), while the 2nd place finishers will advance directly to one of the two Wildcard Games.
• WILDCARDS: A Jury consisting of finalists from Season 5 will discuss and vote to determine 23 players in total deserving of a second chance. They will play in 2 Wildcard Games along with the aforementioned 2nd place finishers that advanced directly to these games. From each game, three players will advance to the Finale Game based on a post-game player vote, just like in the qualifying phase.
• THE FINALE: The Finale Game is played. Once it has completed, the players vote to determine who shall receive the title of Season 6 Champion and a winner's certificate signed by Dmitry Davidoff, the creator of mafia.

This year's setup: Mad17
The setup is called Mad17 and features 17 players.

13x Town
4x Mafia

Each of the following 17 roles will be assigned at random to one player in the game without regard for the player's alignment. Each role is restricted to using its action only on the nights listed on the chart.



Relevant mechanics info
- Day start
- Role reveals at death are alignment only. You will not learn a player's exact role when they die.
- Majority is not in effect.
- Votes are automatically locked in at LYLO.
- Mafia factional kills are assigned. They can be tracked, watched, or roleblocked.
- Mafia share a factional Night Kill, which is a single standard shot for their faction.
- Mafia members may perform the faction kill in addition to their regular action at the same time.
- Mafia may communicate at any time.
- Tied votes will result in a player being lynched at random from among the tied players.
- Each individual player may make a maximum of 200 posts per day phase (this restriction is lifted 2 hours before day end).
- The game will have a host to oversee everything and make sure everyone's following the code of conduct, but otherwise the game is completely automated (automatic votecounts, thread locks and reveals roles automatically, the bot receives and processes actions, etc.).

3. SEASON 6 TIMELINE

There will be 11 Qualifying Games, and your representative plays in just one of these. They will have start dates during the months of April, May and June. So in other words, as long as your representative can play sometime during that period, they should be good and I'll make sure they get scheduled into a game that suits their schedule well. I.e. if your rep is busy until June, that isn't a problem.

Wildcard games will be played in July, and the Finale Game sometime in August/September (whenever we can work out something that suits everyone).

If you want to get in contact with me ASAP, you can find me on Discord (Thingyman#6075).

Kind regards,
Thingyman

[Sinitrena]

I started this thread two weeks ago and we still stand at six players. I could start it with the following setup:

2 murderers (1 leader, 1 normal)
2 general population
1 doctor
1 psychic

That would lead to a very short game, considering the probabilities:
Day 1: nothing happens (that's how it was in all our games so far) (ends with: 2 Evil, 4 Good)
Night 1: First kill - likelyhood of protection by doctor 1/6 (ends with: 2 Evil, 3 Good)
Day 2: more likely member of Good side get's killed 2 to 3; game would end (no majority for Good Side possible in next Day Phase) (if lucky ends with: 1 Evil, 3 Good)
Night 2: Second kill - likelyhood of protection, assuming doctor still alive 1/4 (ends with: 1 Evil, 2 Good)
Day 3: no matter who gets chosen to lynch, the game ends

It's assumed the doctor did not manage to protect anyone, but this is basically the longest a game with 6 players can go.

So, dear players, it is your choice:
Do you want such a short game? (If it goes really badly, it might even end after the fisrt Night Phase.)
Or do you want to wait even longer? (With the problem that people probably had time when they signed up but when we finally have enough people they might not be ready?)

Sinitrena suggested that I just post this here.

To clarify: Thingyman send me this invitation by PM but I didn't feel like advertising for something I know nothing about, so I suggested he post it here where it was most likely to be seen by the people interested in it.
I know that I'm not interested in playing. The one round I did play was enough for me, at least for a while. But if one of you or more than one is, it should be easy enough to get a quick voting going and send one of you to have fun there.

[Kastchey]

I'm perfectly fine with either option so if others are willing to try a shorter game I'm in.

[VampireWombat]

Ditto.

[Mandle]

For a shorter game I would suggest reducing the killer to a single lone person and removing the psychic.

The game could end very fast if the town players get lucky/clever or it could get quite nail-biting if not.