Design ~ Unused Roles
Oct 12, 2010 0:02:48 GMT -6
Post by Judge Sam on Oct 12, 2010 0:02:48 GMT -6
So that's the story of the machine operator roles. The idea started at the beginning of Spies 6 and ended up as the Angel, Devil, and Lobbyist. I'm sure there are so many interesting "complete task, get reward" combinations that would be great as roles. I think the ones I did worked out pretty well.
There's a lot more that went into Spies 8! I'm going to flip through my notebook and talk about a few things.
I'm looking at my big role list, a lot of which went into Spies 7 and 8. Here's some unused ideas. Maybe you'd like to use them for your own mafia game!
-"Foolproof" : This person with a role gets to make sure that someone else's role gets through without being roleblocked or stopped. It's like an anti-roleblock. While cool, in the end this proved to have limited applicability. It really wouldn't have come up much.
- The use of self-votes as currency : I really liked this in Spies 3 and would liked to have brought it back. Basically people give themselves secret self-votes at Exile. The more self votes they give themselves, the more power they have. But they have to be careful not to vote themselves out of the game.
- Role thief : Each round, can copy and use someone else's role. Canned because the person would probably steal the same, more powerful role every time which is kind of boring. Thought about giving it to a Spy but couldn't get each role to be also advantageous for a Spy to use.
- A fixed method of Eugenicist : In past games, a Eugenicist got an investigation each time an inactive was removed. I like the concept but in later games it didn't work out so well. Wanted to try and "fix" it, but couldn't come up with a good way to do it, so it got canned.
- "Full House." This became Nita's third party role haha. Came up with it during Spies 4. I don't know why it was called Full House, I think the person had five missions they had to achieve haha. Was expanded into 12 for Nita.
- A fixed version of tracker/watcher. Tried for awhile to fix this, because it's a good concept, but couldn't come up with an interesting solution. Watchers in past games were pretty weak. But tracking would reveal Spies.
- Get Yourself Imprisoned, get a power! Was fun in Spies 4, wanted to try again.
- Do or Die from Spies 3. Oh this one was a definite for Spies 8 for awhile haha. So much fun. Basically, one person has the power to throw out all the votes at Exile. Then they single-handedly choose someone. If that person is a Spy, the Spy is Exiled. If they are not a Spy, the Do or Die person is Exiled. If I did it again I might not have the votes thrown out, but instead just have it tacked on along with the Exile.
-Jailor / Taskmaster / Astrologer - wanted to do these again
- Lawyer : They get a "Get out of an Exile free" card. If they are Exiled, instead they are not. They survive Exile once. Oh man I thought about this one so much haha, before Spies 7 and again for Spies 8. Talked about it a lot with another mafia guy. He didn't like the concept but I kind of did. Was trying to think if this role would be interesting and fun to have in the game.
What would the players think of the alignment of a person they Exiled but had a power to save themselves? Would they think the lawyer was a Spy or Citizen?
What if the Lawyer claimed right off the bat? Would they Exile the lawyer to 'prove' if he was telling the truth? What would that accomplish?
Lots of interesting questions. I still think it might be fun to try. In the end, the idea of having a live Exile without anyone going was too big a drawback, I need to kick you people out fairly quickly to end the game on time!
- Role Searcher: asking, "Is __name__ a ____name of role___?" This is a clever role, but it has the drawback of exposing fake roles. I really like fake roles they are lots of fun. Why would I want to kill them off quickly? haha.
I also thought of doing a "post-restriction" role. On some mafia sites, players are forced to communicate in strange ways most of the game. In the end I couldn't think of anything all that interesting to have people do. Also people kind of do it themselves with the characters haha.
There's a lot more that went into Spies 8! I'm going to flip through my notebook and talk about a few things.
I'm looking at my big role list, a lot of which went into Spies 7 and 8. Here's some unused ideas. Maybe you'd like to use them for your own mafia game!
-"Foolproof" : This person with a role gets to make sure that someone else's role gets through without being roleblocked or stopped. It's like an anti-roleblock. While cool, in the end this proved to have limited applicability. It really wouldn't have come up much.
- The use of self-votes as currency : I really liked this in Spies 3 and would liked to have brought it back. Basically people give themselves secret self-votes at Exile. The more self votes they give themselves, the more power they have. But they have to be careful not to vote themselves out of the game.
- Role thief : Each round, can copy and use someone else's role. Canned because the person would probably steal the same, more powerful role every time which is kind of boring. Thought about giving it to a Spy but couldn't get each role to be also advantageous for a Spy to use.
- A fixed method of Eugenicist : In past games, a Eugenicist got an investigation each time an inactive was removed. I like the concept but in later games it didn't work out so well. Wanted to try and "fix" it, but couldn't come up with a good way to do it, so it got canned.
- "Full House." This became Nita's third party role haha. Came up with it during Spies 4. I don't know why it was called Full House, I think the person had five missions they had to achieve haha. Was expanded into 12 for Nita.
- A fixed version of tracker/watcher. Tried for awhile to fix this, because it's a good concept, but couldn't come up with an interesting solution. Watchers in past games were pretty weak. But tracking would reveal Spies.
- Get Yourself Imprisoned, get a power! Was fun in Spies 4, wanted to try again.
- Do or Die from Spies 3. Oh this one was a definite for Spies 8 for awhile haha. So much fun. Basically, one person has the power to throw out all the votes at Exile. Then they single-handedly choose someone. If that person is a Spy, the Spy is Exiled. If they are not a Spy, the Do or Die person is Exiled. If I did it again I might not have the votes thrown out, but instead just have it tacked on along with the Exile.
-Jailor / Taskmaster / Astrologer - wanted to do these again
- Lawyer : They get a "Get out of an Exile free" card. If they are Exiled, instead they are not. They survive Exile once. Oh man I thought about this one so much haha, before Spies 7 and again for Spies 8. Talked about it a lot with another mafia guy. He didn't like the concept but I kind of did. Was trying to think if this role would be interesting and fun to have in the game.
What would the players think of the alignment of a person they Exiled but had a power to save themselves? Would they think the lawyer was a Spy or Citizen?
What if the Lawyer claimed right off the bat? Would they Exile the lawyer to 'prove' if he was telling the truth? What would that accomplish?
Lots of interesting questions. I still think it might be fun to try. In the end, the idea of having a live Exile without anyone going was too big a drawback, I need to kick you people out fairly quickly to end the game on time!
- Role Searcher: asking, "Is __name__ a ____name of role___?" This is a clever role, but it has the drawback of exposing fake roles. I really like fake roles they are lots of fun.
Why would I want to kill them off quickly? haha.I also thought of doing a "post-restriction" role. On some mafia sites, players are forced to communicate in strange ways most of the game. In the end I couldn't think of anything all that interesting to have people do. Also people kind of do it themselves with the characters haha.
