Games Mafia Game 86 - Magic: the Gathering - Planechase - END GAME

[Evil3ye]

by desin, panda and evil

Mechanic Design

Spoiler: Game Pitch

The idea was a mechanic that is part of the core Mafia Game and not just an optional addon that distracts from it. Therefore the mechanic was based on the amount of night actions happening per night, giving people agency as individuals as well as factions as a whole. For full transparency all possible effects would be visible to everyone from the start so there are no information imbalances. As for the effects of the mechanic we once again took a look at the core mechanics being night actions and voting.

Spoiler: Day/Night Effects

In regards to votes we chose "sticky votes" in the sense that every player has 2 locked votes to use. Thus giving every vote meaning and possibly undercutting any mafia last minute vote switcheroos. The intention was to give all three factions more options when it comes to voting ranging from voting your top two suspects as a town or using one vote on your mafia buddy to use later on as an alibi.

"Single vote" phase had a similar intention by putting more pressure on the day discussion and analysis beforehand to make a vote that counts while also leaving mafia less options for deniability for their votes.

"Double lynch" phase was supposed to be possible only very early in the game as it was only achievable with lot of active role uses. During the day town would be at a disadvantage due to it only being D2/D3 but still with a chance to get mafia. During the night in "double action" phase Mafia have a chance for two kills, however early on they would not have enough information to target valuable townies specifically. On the other hand townies had 2 nights for actions to gather information and get a surplus of info from very early on in the game thus speeding up the game. Investigative roles could possibly confirm their sanities and feed in lot of information for the following day discussion. Kill reducing roles had the same chance of stopping a kill just as in any normal night. This was supposed to help town get an information advantage early on by giving them the results of 3 nights by the beginning of D3/D4.

The chance of double kill is nevertheless alluring to mafia who would push for it but this would be balanced out by the automatic mechanic of the following night where the kill would have a 50% chance to fail. During the day the previous votes would be turned into penalty votes giving mafia a chance to manipulate the vote while also being at danger of paying for past suspicion.

Janitor kill was supposed to take information away from both parties opening the chance for mafia to claim a role that the investigator could find out thus catching mafia right there. The day lynch would be hidden as well thus as well only letting the investigator find out who it was while mafia does not know which role (if townie) was taken out and can’t plan around that.

As the game progresses the effects of the mechanic become less and less intrusive thus bringing endgame back to the basic game.

Assuming with almost certainty the game would start off accelerated early on with a double action night followed by a 50% failure chance to bring it back in pace, thus the assumption was D2 using mechanic 8-9 followed by mechanic 10+ which would then cut down actions to 3-6 and then staying in that realm until endgame and no mechanic interventions.

Role List/Faction Build

Spoiler: Game Mechanic Context

The main aspect of the game mechnic - number of the night roles used - was a key element in building the roles list. It was a balancing act of active and passive roles, as well as the timing of possible role uses. Majority of roles were added under the assumption they would start use at the beginning. As the game would progress further would be activated, to balance taken out roles. A number of maximum possible actions was defined and the rest would be filled out with passive roles. Naturally the Town as biggest faction would receive most of it and would have the biggest influence on the mechanic through cooperation. No day action except for one voting related roles were added to keep the focus on night actions.

Spoiler: Town build

The Intel Force
A third of the Town's setup would be the investigative roles, which could feed in new details from active player pool as well as beyond the grave. Due to the possible double night action scenario and resulting in possible information overflow the roles were added in a singlular amount. The Spy role with the potential to varify any night action, bundled with the by hosts confirmed amount of night actions, to make or break any claims made during the day phases. Spirit Medium, similar to the Spy would potentially make or break action claims. Insane Detective to potentially find Mafia/TP, although from 7 non-Townie roles only 4 were detectable, so the potential here was limited. Coupled with the Naive Traitor role this Detective would come "online" with the findings later than usual, as the sanities needed to be confirmed first. And upon death would also have the potential to seed dissesnt amoung the Mafia team to help unfail a TP member amongst them. Investigator was added for the possible Janitor'd night action scenario to unfail hidden roles.

The Protectors
An other third of the Town was designed to increase the durability and be able to reduce number of casualties in double action night scenario. Roles with this intend being used were Sane Doctor, Bodyguard, Prostitute and Jesus.

The Special Force
The two new role Necromancer and Banshee were added for observation as they both never had practical use before. Both seemed more on the situational end of usefulnes, but likewise had potential to be pivotal for a leap forward for their faction.

The Decoys
And lastly, two vanilla Townies were added to potentially attract Mafia's attention and tank a night hit instead of an other role for a possible Sleeper recruting in an early TP death scenario.

Spoiler: Mafia build

Mafia Setup
The Mafia was designed to have two actions per night, and therefore have the possibility in participating in the mechanics as well. For the second action besides the kill there were currently only two possible options available, which are Detective or Escort.

Settling on Mafia Escort as this role was more aligned with the mechanics in mind. Detective with a double action would scout the Town roles too quickly, giving full transparancy. The Apprentice as addition to sacrifice some flexibility in the beginning to be able to react flexibly on the situation at hand. The choices to go along were Strongman for a certain kill, a Bomb for an additional kill at lynch, and a Janitor for an information surplus. Poisoner to give flexibility in timing of kills. Mafia Boss in this setup was more a pro-Town faction choice to give Mafia the impression of higher Detectives presence.

Spoiler: Third Party build

Third Party Setup
With no killing ability, and with passive roles only, (with exception of Mafia member), Third Party was not given the possibility to participate in the mechanics. However, both non-Mafia members were given protection related roles to increase durability, one night protection in Threesome candidate as Bulletproof, one late game day protection role for the town Lover as Innocent Child with a D5 timed confirmation. This role with also start off with the Hot Potato with the same timing. The Mafia Noble role was assigned to the Lover to use it within the Mafia faction, as well as late game potential change to Third Party faction.

Gameplay Analysis

Spoiler: Night Actions

Spoiler: Mechanics Application

As the game kicked-off the analysis around the use of the mechanic started. Different strategies of using it to the best advantage were discussed and weighted off against each other. The dominanting strategy among the players with night roles and therefore influence on the mechanic agreed to be a conservative use of the night roles to not reach the treasholds of 7 to 9 role uses.

This resulted in only half of the night actions being used, successfully denying the "double action"/"janitored" day and night phases the following day and remained the in use throughout night 1 to night 3 as leading strategy from town's side as evident by (periodically) missing night actions from roles such as Doctor, Prostitute and Spirit Medium.

Only by night 4 confidence in night role use increased as the pool of players with night roles has declined enough to not reach the threasholds and stay in line with the initial strategy.

Spoiler: Faction Performance

Townie Faction
The lack of information from performed investigative night actions from the dominant mechanic strategy, and setup, led to analysis of players' behaviours, such as role claims. Those were weighted off against each other and analyzed against plausibility in setup. Behavioural patterns, such as voting as well as cooperativeness with the leading strategy became factors to decide the order of day lynches. More subtile patterns, such as timing of role hints, activity in total were picked up on as well, but were secondary as deemed to be non substantial enough. By end of D4 and four lynched townies in a row, the situation for town became unwinnable, however was not perceived as such, as the existence of third party was not discovered and thus disregarded, but giving a false sense of security through the bloated numbers. Inconsistancies in night role action claims against the confirmed night role action used by the mechanic came in as an additional analysis tool as well, however, already at a very late point in game, and too late to turn the tides.

Mafia Faction
Starting off very cautiously assessing the importance of the mechanic, almost no one participating actively in discussions throught the first day phase, or hinting the nature of a role, before going into first night discussions with the team to talk through and align a working strategy. Through following day phases the team succeeded in dodging day lynches in diverting the players to find someone more suspicious or inconsitant to lynch instead. The strategy to pass the Hot Potatoe secondary role to an investigative townie role and blocking it paid off greatly and was overlooked by the other players long enough to almost tie in numbers with remaining factions. The existance of third party, while couple of times mentioned in the internal brain stormings was not seriously enough considered to start looking into the potential candidates for it. The focus remained heavily on dismantling town, even at the point where it was not possible to lynch townies anymore. The end game strategy became working towards reaching a close enough number and win the game with the additional Noble vote, unaware of it belonging to third party as well.

Third Party Faction
With plenty players to go through Threesome candidate took six guesses to join the Lovers' party and their night discussions. The night protection role ensured survival of one mafia kill attempt, and the false claim by an other townie benefited and made him trusted enough to not be lynched. Mafia, while picking the apprenticed Strongman role chose a different target to use it on, making him literally dodge the bullet until making the mafia lover aware of his own existence shortly after. Similarly unaware of the identity of the candidate the lovers were trying to give hints about their own alignment, as discretely as possible to not expose themselves completely. Town lover although passing the potato stayed under the radar during day phases long enough to get day time benefits from the town role on D5. Mafia lover was from then on faced with a bigger challenge to keep the town counterpart alive, but, was trusted within the faction even while persuading to go for alternative options. During the day Mafia lover remained trusted by town also through incriminating mafia faction members, until only one was left and numbers allowed it to win with the votes.

Spoiler: New Roles Performance Review

Hot Potato played by @MarmaladeSky D1, @Holt D2, @sakura-aneki D3-D5 (killed D5)

The starting position of Hot Potato was given to a Town-aligned secondardy Third Party out of curiosity to see what they do with it. Through the exchange with the Mafia Lover it was quietly passed on to a Mafia player, to then decide within the team. Mafia team passed it on to role revealed Spy and going forward effectively blocked with the Mafia Escort the investigative role as well as the further passing in one action. Due to the novelty of this role and strategy and no indication of a Mafia Escort in the setup to that point Town did not identify this as highly benefitial Mafia strategy and held the passing Mafia Member accountable up until after the Hot Potato exploded.

In role design we categorized this role as a Priority 3 action to potentially block the movement. If this is going to remain a one-sided pro-Mafia strategy only, perhaps the categorization into Priority 3 need be reevalued again. I think this needs at least two or three games further test runs. In any case the movement of the Hot Potato is an important new information for the players to analyze.


Necromancer played by @Demonspeed (killed N4)

This role starts off basically very vanilla and with progressing game increasingly gains strength. All really depends not only on the Town setup, but also the order in which Townies died, thus bit on the harder side to plan around in game design as it could tilt the balance heavily pro-Town, or be completely useless. This situational usefulness of the role could lead to very unique outcomes and memorable moments, thus looking forward to see what our players will do with it in next games.


Banshee played by @SonOfDaws (lost D8)

Due to the longevity of the player this role could not show all aspects of its functunalities in this game, as the killing action was missing for a full review ( why didn't you die daws ;p). My impression was that similar to all other Townie killing roles it incentivises the player to analyze the player pool in selecting anti-Townie targets. We also drafted it as a Priority 3 action, both selecting and killing, which means it could be blocked. Player raised the question about feedback concerning his viable targets upon death, as he wouldnot know which actions have succeeded and which havenot. Perhaps this need further clarification.


Bulletproof Townie (Lover) by D6 previously (Threesome Candidate) played by @Gajeel (won D8)

Threesome Candidate as secondary role was the new addition in this game, and of course can be paired with a lot of roles on-going. This combination in particular is in the upper spectrum strength wise. Most combinations give this role a solid role claim thus increase the time the player can have to find the other members of the Third Party, thus victory becomes more achievable (as demonstrated in this game). No matter the primary role though, if one Lover dies in the first couple of phases this role has same slim chance as before to guess the remaining member.


Mafia Noble (Lover) played by @Lambu (won D8)

This role was added as a big nerf for the self-confirming Townie Noble. Perhaps also due to the fact that it was added just now the players would rather take it as self-confirming Mafia Noble, thus the Mafia team decided it is best to keep it as a last resort role in end game, when the numbers allow it to lynch a last Townie and win the game. I like to see some more bolder usage of the role in a few more test runs to see if it is versatile enough to allow different playstyles, or it will remain this last resort use. But either way I think it makes the previously drafted Mafia Robber obsolete and see its potential to move it to the chopping board and go on with Mafia Noble alone.

Spoiler: Conclusion/Learnings

The built game mechanic is right now the best tool to try out different cencepts in the meta and potentially explore new rules or addition of new roles. What we were most curious about was exploring different voting regulations, concept of collective vs individual choice to select varying night scenarios.

Voting concepts: From the three concepts it turned out to be the least impactful. This might or might not have been heavily influenced through the simultaneous introduction of new tie breaking rule, which turned out to shift the timing of the votes more towards the end. Implementation-wise, some inaccurate wordings led to different interpretations of intended concepts, that were unnoticed by us for some time, unfortunately resulting in some frustrations on the side. Generally the hope to observe some different strategies around the voting concepts werenot observable in the scope as hoped in development.

Collective and individual choice concept: Giving the individual players the option to participate in an overarching game mechanic strategy was the second incooperated concept. Players discussing it already on day one, strategizing around it and arguing for/against the respective positions was perceived by us as positively participative. In this format with night actions, not everyone was given the chance to actually influence it individually with their own actions. Changing that is something I might explore in a future game.

Varying night scenarios concept: Coupled with the previous concept of choices the varying night scenarios concept was a very risky endeavour, that was misjudged in game designing phase, thus in hindsight something I would not do again. The role list was build upon the possibilities of these varying night concepts actually occuring, some even in a particular order, which due to the free choices were not going as drafted at all. Lot of these concepts while being big part of the design were not used, thus best done in a set environment only.

​

 

[SirSamuel016]

@Gajeel can you role be useful still if you don't die today?

This is a very wierd situation, on one hand getting BP lynched is a valuable thing for mafia, on the other hand Sam was already suspect and Gajeel wasn't so why should gajeel want this spotlight if he wasn't sure.

The worse case scenario is that they are both BP.

Could be banking on hot potato taking out the Spy night 3 while they get a kill off? Sakura said they recruited one extra (DD) so maybe they think they can sacrifice a pawn for the bigger picture?

 

[Shad]

Exactly...im thinking its quite the possibility.
Idk why sam would even reveal if he wasnt...
Instead of saying something like bomb in that situation

I think BP is a solid mafia claim in that situation, it very valuable for town and on the spot a lot of people will hesitate to kill him because they will be afraid to make a mistake and help mafia.

I think that a real townie would claim spy of he is BP.

It force people to not kill him but it would also trick mafia into wasting a kill.

 

[gnut]

I think BP is a solid mafia claim in that situation, it very valuable for town and on the spot a lot of people will hesitate to kill him because they will be afraid to make a mistake and help mafia.

I think that a real townie would claim spy of he is BP.

It force people to not kill him but it would also trick mafia into wasting a kill.

But he was going to be lynched...if he was mafia why would he claim bp...smh idk

 

[Shad]

Could be banking on hot potato taking out the Spy night 3 while they get a kill off? Sakura said they recruited one extra (DD) so maybe they think they can sacrifice a pawn for the bigger picture?

Yes they could also be saving DD for the next 2 phases, maybe he has a good mafia role like detective.

There is just too many things to consider, Gajeel should reveal his role, but I think he is waiting for something, I just hope he doesn't wait until the last hour.

 

[Gajeel]

You think in this set up 2 bp is possible?

I don't know honestly

@Gajeel can you role be useful still if you don't die today?

Yes

You can't blame me for being suspect of people who voted and ended up killing a detective now can you? All 5 votes for Erin came in the last 5 hours, xnut voted for her twice so in my books that's worse but given what you're currently pulling and throwing both votes at me without saving one for when the game develops and evolves is just reckless and ill-thought out.

I won't be here for the end of the phase at all Sam, so it was now or never. I see nothing wrong with my vote on Erin honestly, I voted for the person I had in mind, then I left. Funny how you didn't state Detective (Traitor)

 

[gnut]

Im gonna eat and prolly pass out...be back in some hrs.

 

[Nie Li]

I really don't know if sacrificing a mafia's life for getting the townies to lynch the BP is worth it. I don't think it is: once the mafia know who the BP is all they have to do is go for other kills and the BP becomes just a vanilla townie with no investigation powers.

So I'm inclined to trust Gajeel, but I'll wait before voting so feel free to correct my assessment and I may change my mind.


Worst case scenario is both being BP, which is a terrible scenario in which we also lose a couple of days on them.

 

[SirSamuel016]

I won't be here for the end of the phase at all Sam, so it was now or never. I see nothing wrong with my vote on Erin honestly, I voted for the person I had in mind, then I left. Funny how you didn't state Detective (Traitor)

Reaching a bit hard now? Erin hadn't been recruited by Mafia from what we know so your vote on Erin does make sense from the point of how she played, I'll admit that but I'm sure you can understand why I'm irked by you trying to discredit me when we may both be Bulletproof if you're not actually just mafia trying to get me out. I assure you, I'm Bulletproof.

I know this me vs Gajeel thing is a big focus point and it should be, but should we not also be discussing others who are suspicious? I still think xnut could be scum, the starting point of the train on the detective (traitor that was unrecruited?), someone Lawl had suspected previously... make of it what you will.

 

[Shad]

Everybody is sleeping, we still have 11h, let wait and see

 

[Nie Li]

I know this me vs Gajeel thing is a big focus point and it should be, but should we not also be discussing others who are suspicious? I still think xnut could be scum, the starting point of the train on the detective (traitor that was unrecruited?), someone Lawl had suspected previously... make of it what you will.

I don't mean to defend xnut because for all I know he could be the scumiest of scum (no offense), but I don't see why focus on Lawl's D1 accusation since he himself didn't give any reason either.

Unless Lawl and xnut are such big friends that have played so much together that he can recognize when the other is an impostor from a couple of posts on D1? Or Lawl's just that good of a detective.

 

[SirSamuel016]

I don't mean to defend xnut because for all I know he could be the scumiest of scum (no offense), but I don't see why focus on Lawl's D1 accusation since he himself didn't give any reason either.

Unless Lawl and xnut are such big friends that have played so much together that he can recognize when the other is an impostor from a couple of posts on D1? Or Lawl's just that good of a detective.

I tend to trust Lawl because he has a good nose for sniffing out those that are scum, especially when playing as a Townie.

 

[Demonspeed]

Sam didn't you claim BP in your first game when you were Assassin .

 

[SirSamuel016]

Sam didn't you claim BP in your first game when you were Assassin .

Aye in my first game, good times.

I'm legitimately Bulletproof this time though my dude I don't rinse and repeat stuff like that

 

[Demonspeed]

D1, people were eager to give hints but now there is pretty much nothing? What are you waiting for?

With so many actions confirmed at night there is no way we don't have several Townies not restricting themselves too. So, when are you going to hint or reveal everyone?

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Nov 24, 2020 ---

Will be AFK for a while and catch up(Haven't read most of the new posts). But I will reveal my role and my action since I don't believe it's worth hiding ATM.

I am Necromancer. I borrowed Erin's ability last night and targeted Gry. Result? Guilty.

Would be nice if a Town Det had targeted him already since he is a popular night target.

 

[xnut]

Actually my only initial vote was post #730 as I woke up late I ended up only confirming that vote at post #758? From what I understood an underlined vote didn't count as an "official" vote in the rules I didn't realize that the vote counted twice, until after she died but its understandable for the suspicion. It was honestly as I said in my post that her being AFK and telling us she would keep an updated log was quite bothersome to me.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Nov 24, 2020 ---

I woke up roughly half an hour before end of day phase and didn't want to exercise the extra vote unless it was confirmed. So I really meant for one vote on Erinyes.

 

[Demonspeed]

Actually my only initial vote was post #730 as I woke up late I ended up only confirming that vote at post #758? From what I understood an underlined vote didn't count as an "official" vote in the rules I didn't realize that the vote counted twice, until after she died but its understandable for the suspicion. It was honestly as I said in my post that her being AFK and telling us she would keep an updated log was quite bothersome to me.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Nov 24, 2020 ---

I woke up roughly half an hour before end of day phase and didn't want to exercise the extra vote unless it was confirmed. So I really meant for one vote on Erinyes.

Good morning. Hint?

 

[Marmalade]

It did look kind of odd to me, since it came after a vote on Takuan. You sure you weren’t trying to save him with it? Because that’s what it looked like to me.

You quoted your own vote when you voted again @xnut.
Confirming you voted for her, really? So why didn’t you do that on D1 with your vote as well?

- checking in before work, got to go soon -

 

[xnut]

It did look kind of odd to me, since it came after a vote on Takuan. You sure you weren’t trying to save him with it? Because that’s what it looked like to me.

You quoted your own vote when you voted again @xnut.
Confirming you voted for her, really? So why didn’t you do that on D1 with your vote as well?

- checking in before work, got to go soon -

My vote wasnt updated until I quoted it in bold, so I'm assuming host just didn't see it?

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Nov 24, 2020 ---

That reasoning doesn't exactly make sense as I just explained my initial vote was earlier but ok

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020 ---

Good morning. Hint?

Active... You wanna hint friend? I am caught up lol

 

[Marmalade]

Okay, so why didn’t you just tag a host to point it out rather than voting again?
Think at least a couple of people pointed out that phase that you could basically vote twice.
(This phase as well by the way).

This is not an attack on you by any means, just trying to understand

 

[Demonspeed]

My vote wasnt updated until I quoted it in bold, so I'm assuming host just didn't see it?

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020, Original Post Date: Nov 24, 2020 ---

That reasoning doesn't exactly make sense as I just explained my initial vote was earlier but ok

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 24, 2020 ---

Active... You wanna hint friend? I am caught up lol

You already said this, I want more hints from you. I already revealed my role and action above.