Round 79 Possibilities

So my round is next and I was trying to figure out what to do for it. Given that I'm a bit on the outside of this community, I've been trying to restrict myself to games that I've run before elsewhere to ensure things are reasonably balanced and to minimize my own mistakes.

I've decided that I'd like to run an open or mostly open game this time around (that is, a game in which all or most of the roles/mechanics are publicly posted at the start of the game). I have narrowed things down to three choices, which I leave for you all to choose from.

Quantum Mafia:
Very simple concept with very far reaching effects. Quantum Mafia will place all of the roles in quantum flux at the start of the game, which means not even the host knows what players' final roles are. Your role is decided through evidence that is gathered throughout the game - for example, everyone can peek, but the player who ends up being the Seer is guaranteed to have accurate peeks. Thus, if you peek someone as mafia who ends up being a villager, there's no chance of you being the Seer. The same sort of logic applies to other roles and is used to figure out who has what role (which happens around half way through the game unless a lot of people don't submit their actions).

The game itself will be extremely simplistic as far as what roles exist, and everyone will know the role list beforehand.


The Battle for Boswell:
This is a game I've run twice before. It basically divides the game up into four to six (depending on the number of players we get) equal teams with the same roles. Each team has a role that is stronger and a role that is weaker, and each team has a unique passive ability and two active abilities. Players don't start off knowing who their teammates are, but most players can peek one a round to find them. Lynch and nightkill are decided based upon an Influence mechanic which I can go into further detail with if there's interest.

Basically, this game is going to have a giant wall of text at the front that will be pretty much mandatory for everyone to read. The game is not simplistic like Quantum Mafia, but, like Quantum Mafia, has new mechanics in it that will take some time for people to get used to. It's a really fun game, but only if everyone reads the first post and asks questions about things they don't understand so they know what they're doing.


Mafia: Sherlock Holmes Edition
This is a pretty basic game of Mafia with one gimmick: pretty much everyone in the game has a peek. The game is balanced by secretly inverting and randomizing some players' peeks. (eg, everyone has a peek, but players aren't told if they are Sane (normal peek), Insane (inverted peek) or Confused (random results) when the game starts, and have to figure that out on their own.)



I can go into further detail about any or all of these if there's interest since all of them are largely open games. Just testing the waters for the moment.

Well the rounds lately have been really small so Boswell probably won't work. Quantum might be interesting, but again, the small rounds might not make it work. Holmes edition sounds like it'd work well with a small round.

All of them work well with small games. Boswell will admittedly want at least 12, but I can probably bug MMage, Hater and/or Shadi enough to get them to play. Not terribly worried about low numbers. Most of what I'm interested in here is what people think is most interesting to play with.

Quantum scales from 9 players up to 30, but higher numbers will result in everyone knowing their role sooner in the game (due to more evidence being collected). Boswell scales from 12 players (four teams of three) up to 32 (six teams of five plus two neutral players). Sherlock Holmes scales from 9 players up to 20, but could easily be adapted to allow for more.

I agree with the points that Zyq raised. Holmes seems like the logical choice; particularly given the inactivity of late. That said, I'll give all 3 options a try.

Hm... yeah, Holmes seems logical given the few people playing nowadays.