The Art of Game Creation

[Kasimir he/him]

Old Kingdom Game:

 

1. Fair enough. That sounds like it's going to be a blast, since the Elemental gets to troll. Big time. It's like having the greatest ingame troll on speeddial or something. But in that case: just to check: Saying, "Look, would you please just shut up?" does not count as a compellable action. Or, does it? (In other words, will players be aware of roughly what a compellable action/question would look like?)

 

2. Ah, right, fair enough. Yes, then: someone who could return to life could make things problematic by revealing the Abhorsen's identity and all. That's one chull of a balance right there. Shadow Hand would make things somewhat complicated, I reckon, since it's basically giving Evil a free resulting conversion. Would the Abhorsen be able to exorcise the Shadow Hand and restore the original player in such a case? But of course, that would really be an incentive to only enter Death if you really have to.

 

3. That is pretty true, but I was thinking that the Charter Mage role at the moment is really a first-class Charter Mage. There are a lot of lesser ones who could do things like leave a death message for the Abhorsen/a select person (IIRC, the guards at Barhedrin/Cloven Crest, at the beginning of Sabriel) or send PMs. Other options/suggestions for inclusion I can think of might be: diamonds of protection, or the use of guardsmen/sworn swordsmen. Guardsmen are probably just generally protective roles, but sworn swordsman brings into mind Touchstone--people who basically just pick one person and protect them until they die.

 

Fair enough about the Abhorsen and the Necromancer.

 

4. If you're allowing the Dead to come back, e.g. as a Lesser Dead or Shadow Hand, would it be possible to allow the Necromancer to raise someone and give them the Lesser Dead template? The worry then would be that this still allows the Necromancer team much more information than they could have, or that the Lesser Dead just end up being meatshields, though.

 

WoT game:

 

Awww, shucks. Good point. I could fix it by specifying that Trap Wards require the caster to still be alive to trigger the next cycle, but that kind of takes away the point. The other option is that the Trap Ward only informs the caster, in order to allow for lying. Or I could just scrap the Trap Ward and go with my initial inclination: just allow them to cast Compulsion as a support weave and do one vote change, though with Compulsion in the mix, there will be shenanigans, for sure.

[Aonar he/him]

Old Kingdom Game:

1. The question would have to be game-relevant, but it's up to the Elemental's discretion as to what exactly that means. There's no reason why they couldn't consider a request to shut up a compellable action; they could be unable to vote/participate in the thread or PMs. I'd probably just have to make it very clear to be careful with what you say to a bound Elemental.

 

2. The Abhorsen would be able to conceal his identity from the Dead. Either through Free Magic, or wiping their memories with Belgaer. Remember, dead Eliminators can still communicate with the Necromancer, as they are still bound into his service. If there wasn't a way for the Abhorsen to conceal their identity, then they would never use their power to question an Eliminator. 

 

I'm not sure I want to be giving the Abhorsen a bunch of special actions that depend on certain circumstances. I might keep the Shadow Hand though. The idea being, "Sure, you can ask the Dead to tell you who the Necromancer is. Just remember, there's a fifty-fifty chance that when you do, one of the people on your side is converted." It's a nice sort of parallel to freeing an Elemental; a really powerful ability that comes at a substantial risk.

 

3. That's a good point. What I might end up doing, as well as including a couple more roles, (guardsmen/Wallmakers, etc.) is give the Charter Mage a list of abilities, but only give each Mage role one or two powers. That would balance things out a little better. The way I'm thinking of things right now, Charter Mage will be the most common role, (or tied with roleless or something) but each individual Charter Mage will be capable of doing different things. (Tracking, Binding, Killing, Protecting, starting PMs, etc.)

 

4. Yeah, I don't know about letting them raise Lesser Dead freely. Each time they raise a dead player, they would get another layer of protection, and if the players ignore the Dead in favour of searching for actual Eliminators, it wouldn't be hard for them to suddenly find themselves outnumbered. The way I was thinking it over in my head, the Lesser Dead would be raised during the Night, preform an action (most likely either killing or protecting) then be discovered and destroyed at daybreak. Sort of like Lifeless from Claincy's game. Actually, it might work well giving them an ability exactly like Lifeless from Claincy's game. They can choose to spend a cycle raising a Lesser Dead. This affords them a passive protection, until they decide to use to Lesser Dead to protect another, or perform a kill. Only one would be allowed to be raised at a time, and I'd probably have to add some other restrictions to balance things out; probably similar things to the Abhorsen's questioning ability.

 

WoT Game:

Having Compulsion to mess with votes is probably going to be better in the long run, yeah. Seeing how everyone will be able to mess with votes every cycle... there are definitely going to be shenanigans.

 

 

EDIT: If anybody reads this, I've stuck the more fully fleshed out version on the ruleset to my Old Kingdom Game on the Google doc with my Roshar ruleset. (Just scroll down a little ways.) What do you think? 

Edited November 25, 2014 by AonarFaileas

[Mailliw73 he/him]

About the prizes, In past games, (Mailliw's) Those have been met with extremely negative feedback, since they turned a Rout into a Victory at the last minute. They're rather unfair.

 

As for the Koloss and the Kandra, The Kandra are OP in their Lynch Immunity, and the Koloss just doesn't make any sense canonically. Alsy, they're way underpowered.

 

 

Point of order, the prizes weren't what turned it around. They helped by making it slightly shorter, but the Village would still have turned it around due to the number of role blocks we had. But you're right that they tend to be met with negative feedback, particularly since they're highly dependent on your timezone as well.

 

I agree with Joe on this. But I don't completely discourage them. In Claincy's game, (LG4) they went quite well, I think. In my game, it was just something too game changing. 

 

Wyrm, I don't remember the entire scenario, but I feel like the Ghostbloods would've won without the MAce.

[A Joe in the Bush]

I just re-balanced my Alcatraz Game, and I added a New Role: Smedry Talent: Bad at Math. Once per Cycle, the Player may take one Item on the Order of Actions, and move it to a different Position.

 

Example: Original Order of Actions:

Voting

Soothing/Rioting

Lynch

Seeking

 

Then Bad at maths happens, and now:

Voting

Lynch

Soothing/Rioting

Seeking.

 

So now Soothers and Rioters would be unable to save their lives by changing the vote.

 

Is this Role Too OP? Too hard to understand?

[mail-mi he/him]

The Royal Oculator's Archive (not a library):  The Archive contains multiple Copies of every known Lenses. Any Player, even non-Occulators, may check out a Lenses once per Cycle. They may keep it, or give it to another player. After that Lenses has been used once, it is returned to the Archive. The Archive posts a List of everybody who checked out a Lense during the day. This does count as a Non-Vote Action.

 FTFY.

[A Joe in the Bush]

It's an Archive. There's no books in there. Only glasses.

 

I was tempted to put that there, but i decided against it, since there's no books.

[Macen he/him]

I agree with Joe on this. But I don't completely discourage them. In Claincy's game, (LG4) they went quite well, I think. In my game, it was just something too game changing. 

 

Wyrm, I don't remember the entire scenario, but I feel like the Ghostbloods would've won without the MAce.

It was close. I think Wyrm and I would have ended up pulling through in the end though, just hard to tell for certain. I only swung the MAce once and it didn't kill until the next day (and it was the final kill). We killed the other two remaining GB with the Bow and the Lynch.

I will agree though and say the potential is very high for it to be over-powered.

[Alvron he/him]

It was close. I think Wyrm and I would have ended up pulling through in the end though, just hard to tell for certain. I only swung the MAce once and it didn't kill until the next day (and it was the final kill). We killed the other two remaining GB with the Bow and the Lynch.

I will agree though and say the potential is very high for it to be over-powered.

I have to agree with Wyrm and Macen.  The Ghostbloods were done for once we were IDed.  The MAce just speed it up, the Pain Knifes were what done us in.  Having a role block item that blocked all actions that night instead of just one allowed the villagers to completely control two of us at a time.

 

Item prizes should probably be one shot rewards to help keep the game balanced.  Like the shields that Mal gave out.

 

I just re-balanced my Alcatraz Game, and I added a New Role: Smedry Talent: Bad at Math. Once per Cycle, the Player may take one Item on the Order of Actions, and move it to a different Position.

 

Example: Original Order of Actions:

Voting

Soothing/Rioting

Lynch

Seeking

 

Then Bad at maths happens, and now:

Voting

Lynch

Soothing/Rioting

Seeking.

 

So now Soothers and Rioters would be unable to save their lives by changing the vote.

 

Is this Role Too OP? Too hard to understand?

If my understanding is correct then theoretically the Math Smedry could move the lynching to before the votes and therefore cancel the lynch for the day.  Might be a bit OP if that's allowed.

[little wilson she/her]

If my understanding is correct then theoretically the Math Smedry could move the lynching to before the votes and therefore cancel the lynch for the day.  Might be a bit OP if that's allowed.

 

This could be rectified by saying that the Math Smedry could only move positions one place either way. Then the lynch would always take place after the vote, regardless of any other shenanigans they try to pull.

[A Joe in the Bush]

Actually, the votes would still count, just for the Tomorrow's Lynch. So yes, that bit is OP. That can be rectified by Wilson's idea though. Or by simply making the Lynch and the votes the same item.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Alright, I've got something here:

 

Quick Fix Game: The Dula Revolution

 

--------------------

 

Welcome to Duladel, the greatest nation in Opelon, Kolo? It's election season here, and people are campaigning left and right. Of course, some Derethi rulos have shown up and are causing trouble, but what harm could they possibly do?

 

--------------------

 

This scenario takes place in Duladel just before Hrathen begins the revolution. There are three distinct groups with their own victory conditions:

 

-The Derethi Converts: They win if they outnumber every other religious sect combined, and lose in any other situation

 

-The Jeskeri Mysteries: They win if the Derethi Converts are exterminated while half or more of the Senate belongs to the Mysteries. If the Derethi religion is stamped out and the Mysteries Cult does not control the senate, the members of The Cult will be executed.

 

-The Dulas: The Korathi, Jeskers, and Shu-Kesegans. They win if the Derethi religion is stamped out, but if The Cult controls half or more of the Senate seats at the end of the final cycle, all Non-Cultists will die horrible deaths 

 

There are 4 Cycles: A,B,C, and D. These happen sequentially and the order repeats. To break down what happens in each of them (this will make sense later):

 

A- Derethi Murder, Recall vote, Lynch

B- Election, Derethi Conversion/Murder, Cult Sacrifice, Lynch

C- Derethi Murder, Recall vote, Lynch

D- Election, Derethi Conversion/Murder, Cult Sacrifice, Lynch

 

 

There are also 4 docs:

 

Korathi forum- (Members of Shu-Korath) -Private-

Derethi forum- (Members of Shu-Dereth) -Private-

Cult forum- (Members of The Cult) -Private-

Senate forum- (Members of the Senate may write on it) -PUBLIC-

--------------------

 

Every player is granted 2 distinct traits at the start: Religion and Role.

 

Religion:

 -Shu-Dereth (2) - All members of Shu-Dereth can use their secret doc. If both the Gyorn and Derethi Monk are dead, the remaining members get to agree on a player to kill on "A" and "C" cycles.

 -Shu-Korath (1) - All members of Shu-Korath get a secret doc and can PM as much as they want to other confirmed members, list of members will be PM-ed to you at the start of the cycle

 -Shu-Keseg  (1) - There's only one of you.

 -Jeskeri Mysteries (3-5) - All members of The Cult get a secret doc, list of members will be PM-ed to you at the start of the cycle.

 -Jesker (Everyone else) - You have no idea who is a member and who isn't, no PMs.

 

 

 

Role:

 

-Gyorn: This is the leader of Duladel's branch of Shu-Dereth. The role is only available to a player who started as a member of Shu-Dereth.

  -Abilities:

     - Derethi Conversion: On "B" and "D" Cycles, the Gyorn may choose a player to convert. If the selected player is a member of Jesker (and has not been selected for conversion by the Korathi Monk), they will join Shu-Dereth. If not, the selected player will be informed of the conversion attempt, but not the Gyorn who attempted it. The fact that a conversion took place will be revealed in the write-up.

     - Assassination: On "A", "B", "C", and "D" Cycles, the Gyorn may choose a player to kill. This kill is blockable. This ability cannot be used at the same time as the "Derethi Conversion" ability.

 

-Derethi Monk: This is the other player who started as a member of Shu-Dereth.

  -Abilities:

     -Ambition: If the Gyorn is killed, the Derethi monk will gain the Gyorn's powers of Assassination

 

-Korathi Monk: This is the player who started as a member of Shu-Korath.

  -Abilities:

     -Korathi Conversion: On the first cycle, and thereafter once in every sequence of "A", "B", "C", and "D" cycles, the Korathi monk may choose a player to convert. If the selected player is a member of Jesker or Shu-Keseg,  they will be converted to your cause. If the conversion fails (The convertee is a member of Shu-Dereth or The Cult), they will not be notified of the conversion attempt and the conversion ability can still be used later in the sequence. When a Korathi conversion goes through, the fact that someone was converted will be revealed in the write-up.

 

-Kesegan Monk: This is the player who started as a member of Shu-Keseg

  -Abilities:

     -Charge: This uses up your action for the cycle.

     -ChayShan: If a Kesegan monk has charged their ChayShan for one cycle, they recieve a blockable kill action. If they have charged it for two cycles in a row, they recieve an unblockable kill action. Once a kill action has been used, the power will go back to an uncharged state.

 

-Cult Leader: This is the leader of the Jeskeri Mysteries

  -Abilities:

     -Ritual Sacrifice: On "C" cycles, this leader can choose a player to kill. This is a blockable kill action

 

-Merchant: These are seeded among the rest of the players.

  -Abilities:

     -Business Trip: Twice per game, these players can skip a cycle. They will not be able to take any actions that cycle, but are immune to blockable kill actions

 

-Duelist: There are 3-5 of these

  -Abilities:

     -Guard: These players can select a player to defend, and during that cycle, all blockable kill actions used against that player will be blocked. The duelist will be wounded once he has successfully defended someone, however, and will not be able to perform this ability again

 

-The Landlord: An affluent citizen. There is 1-2 of them

  -Abilities:

     -Affluence: When this ability is used, the landlord's vote towards the Senate counts double.

 

----------------------------------------

 

The Senate:

 

The Senate (I'm calling it the Senate, though the canon probably has a different, as-of-now unstated name for it) is the center of Dula society. On cycles "B" and "D", there is an election, in which a player is selected to join the Senate. On "A" and "C" cycles, there is a recall election, where a member of the senate is recalled.

 

5 players will be randomly selected to be the initial Republicans. These players can have any role or religious affiliation. Once the controversy over Shu-Dereth starts (the entire game), however, the public will grow much more suspicious, preventing the Gyorn from converting Republicans who are already in office.

 

Republicans get a public doc to discuss... Senate stuff.

 

In addition to their public lynch vote, Senators get a special "Senate Lynch" vote that they can send in via PM. The person who the Senate chooses (by simple majority) will have 2 extra points put on them for the lynch. It will be announced who was selected by the Senate to get the extra points put on them.

 

A senator must have at least 2 Senate votes on them to be elected.

 

A senator must have at least 4 Senate votes on them to be recalled

 

Votes for lynching are in red (and bolded)

Repealing lynch votes are in green (and bolded)

Votes for Senate are in pink (and bolded)

Repealing Senate votes are in orange and (bolded)

 

-------------------------------------

 

Senate Proposals: These should make the game a little more interesting. Once per cycle, a Senate Proposal will go forward in the public doc. Each sequence has 4 distinct proposals (1 for each cycle) that will go through in random order.

 

Senators will vote Yes-Kolo or No-Kolo on the public doc. A simple majority will determine if the proposal goes through.

 

-First sequence: The Phantom Menace

   - Institute a Holiday: No lynch and no murders next cycle

   - Survey: Two Non-Republicans will be randomly selected, and those players will learn each others' roles

   - Employment Project: Two random players with no role will randomly receive one of these roles:  Merchant, Duelist, Landlord

   - Sewage System Renovation: No in-game effect

 

-Second sequence: Attack of the Derethi

   - Investigation: The identity of the Korathi Monk and Derethi Monk will both be revealed

   - Census: A rough census will be taken to see how many members of each religion there are

   - Banishment: Two random Non-Republicans will be banished (effectively dead, but technically survive the game. Role and religious affiliation will NOT be revealed. The players to be banished will be announced at the start of the cycle.

   - Formation of "Citizen Action Committees": Three sets of two random players will have a PM started between them.

 

-Third sequence: Panic of the Republic

   - Xenophobia: The names of all Korathi converts and a single Derethi convert will be revealed

   - New State Religion: Automatic victory for The Cult and all Non-Cult players will die horrible deaths. 

   - Terror: Each Non-Republican has a 50/50 chance of having their religious affiliation revealed

   - Declaration of War Against Fjordell: No in-game effect

 

-------------------------------------

 

I suggested that this be a Quick-Fix Game because their aren't very many kill actions floating around. It could take a lot of cycles for the spies to finally be rooted out. Or to root out everyone else...

 

And an award goes to the player that creates the most posts that use the word "kolo" more than twice.   

Edited January 16, 2015 by mckeedee123

[Wyrmhero he/him]

For some reason, I wanted to try a more sci-fi style game, combining a load of ideas. For the most part, these rules are pretty vanilla. The only differences really are the presence of a Bulletproof Role, as well as the potential for Role-switching shenanigans, the PMs only being at Night, and the Hemalurgic Intelligence going rogue. I would also potentially look to run this as all in-character (except for rules clarifications etc).

 

I think what I'm looking for with regards to advice is whether I should decouple Roles and abilities (though arguably it would no longer be a Sanderson game, it would have to rely on Roleplaying instead to make it so), as well as whether anyone can think of a thematic, but somewhat minor, ability for the Engineers to have. Also, should Kandra have the ability to steal dead bodies and show up as that player, or is that too strong?

 

I blame playing Space Station 13 for this.

 

Shardship Ingenuity (LG)

 

Space: The final frontier (at least, after the Cognitive Realm was sorted out, anyway). These are the voyages of the Shardship Ingenuity. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilisations; to boldly go where no Invested being has gone before.

 

With a crew hailing from many different star systems, with many strange and useful powers, it is inevitable that conflict would arise. Whatever the reason, a few months into its maiden voyage, there has been discovered to be treachery afoot. And they cannot simply call for help, as the ship requires time to make the jump back to a known, safe planet. The crew must survive on their own for that time, with their own wits and individual strengths. May Adonalsium help them.

 

General Rules

This plays similarly to a standard game of Elimination. There will be several Traitors sprinkled within the crew, who collaborate on a Google Doc, and the game follows the normal sequence of Day/Night Shifts, with votes being taken in the day, and most actions taking place at Night. Players have one action per Cycle.

 

Each Day, a lynch will occur if one player has two or more votes, with no lynch occurring in the event a tie. Each Night, the Traitors will be able to kill a player. The game continues until the Traitors can successfully overpower and lynch the Captain.

 

Roles

• Captain (Hemalurgy) - Played by the GM, he is the target for the Eliminators. As a Hemalurgist, he has many abilities and cannot simply be killed by the Traitors at Night. He cannot vote, cannot be targeted, and has no actions.

• Hemalurgic Intelligence (Hemalurgic Construct) - At the beginning of the game, after Roles have been distributed, a loyal player at random will be killed off and made into the HI. The HI is a publicly known Role, and starts off as a loyal crew member. Hemalurgically bound to the computer systems aboard the Ingenuity, the HI is in full control. But while the HI is mechanical, it still is human behind that, and cannot devote its mind totally to any one task. Each Night, it may discover one player’s Role. Without a physical presence, the HI cannot be killed or affected by Roles, nor can its vote be used to overpower the Captain. When all the Engineers on the station are dead, the HI is subverted to the side of the Traitors, and will join their doc. The crew will not be informed of this. This happens at the end of the Turn.

• Navigational Officer (Voidbringer) - The Navigator has the power to see things, most notably the future. They cannot be killed at Night. Indeed, any kill action targeting them is Roleblocked automatically, and never even happens. The attempted-killer will be informed that they could not find their target.

• Communications Officer (Artifabrian) - While the Comms Officer is alive and can create the Spanreeds the ship needs for instantaneous contact, the crew may send messages to each other freely during the Night only. In addition to that, they can anonymously send a message to the GM each Night to post with the writeup.

• Medical Officer (Elantrian) - The Doctor is able to cure people of any injuries they may have, and so can protect and heal a player of their choice each Night. This includes themselves.

• Personnel Officer (Forger) - While the Personnel Officer is alive, they may bestow any dead player’s Role onto a player at Night. This will reveal who the Personnel Officer is to that player, and removes the player’s old Role, if any. They cannot give a player the Assistant Role. While the PO can Forge themselves into a different Role, they will no longer be able to Forge afterwards. This does not block a player from taking their action that Night.

• Culinary Officer (Feruchemist) - The Chef’s job is to keep moral up, using his vast culinary knowledge and ability to taste and smell even the most subtle of flavourings. They can also use their abilities to cajole people to their way of thinking, and may either remove a player’s vote, or change it from one person to another, at the expense of their own (this must be on a player who has voted). They may also quietly poison a player once per game during the Night, but don’t expect to keep your job afterwards.

• Security Officer (Mistborn) - A Mistborn is a force of nature that few can stand up to. On a ship of dangerous individuals, it is they who enforce the peace. They are there to protect the crew from threats both outside the ship and inside. Each Night, a Mistborn can enforce the law a little too much and kill a player.

• Police Officer (Kandra) - By hiding their true form and treading lightly, Kandra are able to go unnoticed by almost everyone, to discover anything suspicious on ship. They can use this ability to discover one player’s Alignment each Night.

• Custodial Officer (Awakener) - While the janitor may not be the most noble of jobs, cleaning the ship up and ensuring everything is tidy is vital for the safety of the ship, and to ensure that the crew remain healthy. The best of them use their Awakening abilities to create more little janitors, and so while the ship is rather large, there are actually very few actual people cleaning up. Once per Night, you can ‘forget’ to put your ‘caution: wet floor’ signs down, and trip a player up, landing them in the infirmary for the rest of the Night.

• Engineering Officer (Surgebinder) - By manipulating the very forces felt by the world, a Surgebinder of almost any type can create amazing physical effects. These effects are used all over the ship, from powering the engines to forming repairs with Soulcasting to creating artificial gravity. They are also in charge of the ship’s robotics. When all Engineers are dead or have had their abilities removed by Forgery, the HI will go rogue and join the Traitor team. If an Engineer is Forged after this, they will be informed that the HI is subverted.

• Assistant (Any) - Assistants have many varied forms of Investiture, but for some reason they don’t quite have the technical knowhow to perform any specific task on the ship. They may have their abilities modified by the Personnel Officer, but until then, they are considered to have no Role.

I am now leaning towards the Roles being power-less, and letting people choose their powers with their character and attempting to bend their claimed Investiture abilties to the Roles instead

Edited December 12, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[little wilson she/her]

Some of you know I've been creating a Roshar game for a bit now, and I linked to it in the Dead Doc for MR4. Thanks to some of the comments I got because of that, I've got it fleshed out enough to put here, just to get some finishing touches on it.

 

I don't have a name for it, yet. But here it is:

 

Two main factions: Sons of Honor and Ghostbloods

Eliminator team: Diagrammists.

 

Factions are kept secret (player roster for each faction is not revealed in thread)

Roles and Alignment are not revealed upon death

 

Win Conditions

Primary Win Condition

Sons of Honor and Ghostbloods: Kill the Diagrammists

Diagrammists: Kill everyone else.

 

Secondary Win Condition

Sons of Honor or Ghostbloods need to kill the other faction’s KRs. Each faction has four (only four Orders are in the game, but there is only one Bondsmith; the faction without the Bondsmith gets a random additional KR). If, when all Diagrammists are dead, both factions either still have Radiants alive or all Radiants are dead, the Sons of Honor and the Ghostbloods tie.

 

Alternate Win Condition

If an equal number of each team (Sons of Honor, Ghostbloods, Diagrammists) is alive at any point in the game and the Bondsmith is still alive, the remaining players win together, united in one cause by the Bondsmith.

 

Roles

Bondsmith - uses surges of Tension and Adhesion

• Tension -  Each night turn, can create a PM with one player (GM sets it up at the end of the night, accounting for any and all redirections and/or roleblocks). PMs continue as long as both participants are alive.
• Adhesion - Choose two people each night. Those two people must vote the same the next day. (GM will PM them)

Edgedancer - uses surges of Friction and Progression

• Progression - can protect any player (not themselves) from one attack/cycle.
• Friction - spy on all outgoing PMs from one person/cycle (PM recipient not included)

Lightweaver - uses surges of Illumination and Transformation

• Illumination - redirect one random (or all?) action from target to a different target
• Transformation - change a vote (including no vote) to another player

Elsecaller - uses surges of Transformation and Transportation

• Transformation - change the appearance (alignment and role) of a dead player for two cycles.
• Transportation - prevent any action on them that night. (self-target)

Reverse Seeker (?) - Seek the dead to discover alignment and role.

Surgeon - can protect any player (not themselves) from one attack/cycle.

Vote manipulator (?) - change a vote (including no vote) to another player

Scout (?) - prevent any action that night. (self-target)

Runner (?) - Each night turn, can create a PM with one player (GM sets it up at the end of the night, accounting for any and all redirections and/or roleblocks). PMs continue as long as both participants are alive.

Assassin (?) - Kill attempt on one player/cycle

Action Discovery (?) - learn the identity of a random player who affected (or tried to affect) target (possible self-target)

Ardent (?) - Pick a target. One random action that would affect target comes to you instead.

 

The roles with question marks either don't have a name at all (non-bold) or have a tentative name (bolded). Thoughts about the game mechanics, KR surge abilities, and other roles--as well as name ideas--are much appreciated. Thanks!

Edited December 15, 2014 by little wilson
tweaking things

[Wyrmhero he/him]

I'm not sure what I blame this on... Probably my brain at 2AM. Here's a sequel(ish) to my House War game. Standard rules for Scadrialish games, but with a small change to the Pewterarm, and the addition of a Mayor-esque function, as seen in LG6, and another personal victory condition.

 

A House Divided (LG)

 

House Heron has been a major part of Luthadel's circle of intrigue for over four hundred years. It has survived assassinations, censure, Inquisitions, and even the Skaa Rebellion infiltraiting it to overthrow it. With strong ties to the Steel Ministry, and in particular the Inquisition, it is perhaps one of the strongest, richest and most knowledgeable Houses in The Final Empire.

 

But Lord Heron is dying, and he has no children.

 

House Heron cannot fall because of the death of one man, even their Lord. And so, he has decreed that he shall adopt a child from a branch family as his heir, and they shall be the Lord or Lady Heron after him. It is up to the candidates to show that they are best to inherit, whether through cajoling or lying or blackmail or killing off the competition.

 

But while such subterfuge is complicated, it is the easiest part of this. One of the candidates has been killed in an accident (a real one, not an 'accident'). They have been found to have writings that claim they are a part of a secret group, trying to take control of House Heron. On their body, metal pierced them in many places. Lord Heron will not say what that means, only that their allies cannot take control of House Heron and its secrets.

 

General Rules

This plays similarly to a standard game of Elimination. There will be several Spiked players hidden amongst the candidates, who collaborate on a Google Doc, and the game follows the normal sequence of Day/Night Turns, with votes being taken in the Day, and most actions taking place at Night. Players have one action per Cycle.

 

However, where this game differs is in the voting system. Political capital is difficult to obtain, and one cannot make allies without also making enemies. Whenever a player votes, they must choose one player to Condemn, and one player to Praise. A player cannot Condemn without Praising, and vice versa. Players cannot Condemn or Praise themselves, nor can they Condemn and Praise the same person. A player can change their vote, but cannot simply remove their Condemn or Praise votes without removing both.

 

At the end of the Day Turn, the player with the most Condemnation votes has a little... 'accident'... arranged for them by House Heron to prevent their reputation being sullied (i.e., this is the lynch, renamed. It's unseemly to just kill people, after all). The player who has been Praised the most will be noted, and their vote will count double during the next day - for both Condemn and Praise votes. They will also gain one Inheritance Point. Players who die during either the Day or Night will have their Role and Alignment revealed, but not the number of IPs they obtained.

 

Players may gain additional IPs through voting or their Roles. Each player who votes for an Eliminator when they are killed by an 'accident' will gain 1 IP. There will not be a running total on IPs, nor will players be informed as to when they have gained them.

 

The game ends when either all the Spiked are dead and the Loyalists win, or the Spiked can outvote the Loyalists, and the Spiked win. The surviving player with the most IPs becomes the new Lord or Lady Heron. If they are also on the winning team, they win a personal victory if Loyal, or enhance their team's victory if Spiked (and get bragging rights for being able to manipulate the Loyal players into putting them in charge).

 

Roles

Each player will have one of the Roles assigned below, which are mostly standard for Scadrial games with Allomancers, but with a small twist. Note that Physical Metals are Night abilities, whereas Mental Metals are Day abilities.

• Pewterarm - You cannot die at Night when you use this metal (it must be declared as your action). As you are hard to kill, you would make a fairly useful candidate for leader of the House. As such, when you are attacked in this way and forced to reveal your power, you gain 2 IPs.
• Tineye - As long as a Tineye is alive, players may send messages to each other, but only during the Night Turn. They may also send a message to the GM to be posted anonymously during the write-up, and they may discover the number of IPs that a targeted player has. Both may be done in the same action. If the player they target has the highest number of IPs at the end of the Night Turn, the Tineye will gain 1 IP.
• Coinshot - You may target another player during the Night and attempt to kill them. Whenever you attack a Spiked player in this way, even if they do not die, you gain 1 IP.
• Lurcher - You may protect a player (including yourself) during the Night from one kill attempt. If your target survives the night despite being attacked, you gain 1 IP.
• Rioter - You may change another player's vote during the Day. You may target a single player, changing their Condemn vote, their Praise vote, or both. Your own vote(s) of the same kind will be nullified that Turn.
• Soother - You may cancel out other players' votes during the Day. You may target either one player's Condemn vote, or two players' Praise votes.
• Smoker - You can hide Allomancy from Seekers, as well as prevent Rioters and Soothers having an effect the next day. Each Day that you use your metal, you protect yourself and up to one other player from Seeking, Rioting and Soothing. Whenever you protect another player from these abilities (even if they would have no effect, such as Seeking a Non-Allomancer), you gain 1/2 an IP.
• Seeker - You can detect not only when metals are used, but also the presence of a Hemalurgic Spike (not that you know what they are). Each Day, you may choose a player to Seek. You will be informed at the end of the following Night Turn what metal they used (if any), and if they are Spiked. Whenever you discover a Spiked player for the first time, you gain 1 IP.
• Mistborn - Mistborn are given a matching push/pull pair of metals at the beginning of each Day Turn. They may choose and use one of those metals that Cycle.
• Non-Allomancer - While you may have no Allomancy, that just means you have more time to gossip and plot. As such, you gain 2 IP whenever you help lynch an Eliminator, rather than 1.

As these are pretty simple rules, I'm mostly just looking at whether the Inheritance Point mechanic is fair for all Roles, and perhaps if anything else could be done with the Condemn/Praise system. With the half-point bonus from Smoking rather than 1 point, it should be alright, I think?

Edited December 17, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[little wilson she/her]

I'm looking at adding a new mechanic to my game. Due to the setting and such, I realized it doesn't make much sense for the factions to be entirely secret. Flavor-wise, the Ghostbloods would know who the other Ghostbloods are. Not all the Ghostbloods, but some. And one would know all of them. Same with the Sons of Honor. A chain of command. So I came up with a way to incorporate that in. Let me know what you think. (Also, the names/positions are tentative)

 

Thaidakar (Ghostbloods), Restares (Sons of Honor): knows all members of their respective faction, including the identities of the Commanders and Captains

Commander: knows the identity of Thaidakar (if Ghostblood Commander) or Restares (if Son of Honor Commander) along with a fraction of the members (fraction depends on how many Commanders there are, which will likely be 2 or 3)

Captain: knows fraction of members (fraction dependent on number of Captains, so if there are 4 captains, each will know a quarter of the number. Thaidakar/Restares and Commanders not included.)

Regular: knows the identity of their superior officer (so the Captain who knows them)

 

The Diagrammists will be randomly distributed in these positions, so there's a chance one of them could end up being Thaidakar or Restares, but there's also a chance all of them could be Regulars.

 

My hope is that this gives each faction a jumping-off point in terms of planning, depending on what position the different roles get (since you could have a KR as a Regular), but also that it doesn't make it too easy for the factions to target each other (assuming they care about the secondary win, which I hope they do). Does it seem to accomplish that? Anything you can see that could be tweaked to make it better? Again, any help provided is much appreciated.

[Alvron he/him]

Players may gain additional IPs through voting or their Roles. Each player who votes for an Eliminator when they are killed by an 'accident' will gain 1 IP. 

It might just be me but this system seems like it will cause bandwagons.  If there is even a small chance that the one being killed is an eliminator then everyone will just pile on the votes.

 

 

Edit:  Been tinkering with a few roles for a while.  Let me know what you think.  Meta is too slow in getting back to me. 

 

Primary Roles:

Demolitionist:  You love to see things go boom.  You enjoy it so much that you no longer care if anyone is killed by your explosions.  You have a small supply of explosive caps that you can attach to an item.  Once you attach one of your ‘surprises’ you can choose who gets the item.  After a full cycle has passed you can choose to detonate the cap and kill whoever has the item. (Death won’t be revealed until rollover but whoever has your rigged item at time of you placing order is killed)

 

Graverobber:  Plundering from the dead isn't glamorous but everyone has to make a living right?  Once per cycle you can search a dead player and recover one item they died with. (chosen by GM roll.)

 

Rookie:  You have no role at moment however once another player dies you will gain their role but with slightly reduced power.  i.e if you become the sniper you will only be able to attack someone every second round.

(Good way to keep a role active given the habit of losing a power role near start of games lately.)

 

Beggar:  Years of begging on the streets have taught you how to blend in with your surroundings.  Once per night you can target another player and learn who they have targeted that cycle.  (Reveals day targets as well.)

 

Body Snatcher:  Disposing of bodies is your specialty.  During the night phase you may choose to remove a body from play.  If target is being killed that night then the players role and items are not revealed in the following days write up.  (Limited to three clean ups.  Can be used with the faction Kill.)

 

Mortician:  During the night phase you may choose a dead players body to inspect and learn the names of all who have targeted said player during the game.  (Includes votes.)

 

Hacker:  You somehow managed to hack into the mobiles of your fellow thieves.  Once per night cycle you can send a message to all crew members via writeup.  Additionally you can choose if PMs are allowed during the following phase by PMing the GM.  Should you die then however you left the PMs (On or Off) will be how they stay for the remainder of the game.

 

Snitch:  Once each night phase you can choose to slip a note into one players pocket revealing the role and faction of a different player.  (Cannot self target.  Must PM the GM with name of target for note as well as target you ‘snitch’ on.)

(Twist on the seeker role.)

 

Side Roles:

Heavy:  Growing up on the streets is tough.  You either grow up strong and fast or you die.  You grew up strong and fast and became one of the crews enforcers.  If attacked you will die but will also lash out at your attacker wounding them. (Your killer is named but role/faction is not revealed.)

 

Blind:  Living in a gang is hard work.  You are either a predator or you are prey.  You may be blind but over the years you have learned to fake being able to see.  Every time you use your ability there is a 50% chance that you will target another random crew member instead. (Chosen by GM roll.  You are not informed if your target is different than what you chose.)

 

Braggart:  You have claimed to all who would listen that you cannot be killed even by Epics like Steelheart.  So often have you boasted about being the ultimate survivor that even you have started to believe it.  You are unable to be targeted by any protective roles or items.

 

Bloodthirsty:  You love to watch blood flow.  Seeing the light leave the eyes of the dying gives you a thrill.  In addition to your main win condition you have a bonus victory goal.  Secondary Win:  Have your vote be in at least four successful lynches.

 

Trusted:  You are one of the most trusted people in the gang.  As such you automatically cancel one vote placed on you each cycle.

 

Living Legend:  You are famous.  Like really famous.  Everyone has at least heard of you even if they don’t know what you look like.  When you die those that killed you will be so devastated that any actions they take during the next night phase will be cancelled. Hidden: This side role will not be shown on death.  (If lynched then all those who voted for you will be affected.)

 

Shadow Leader:  You are the force behind the leader of the gang.  Your word is law even if the others don’t know that it is you.  Once per game you can choose to cancel the lynch for that and only that day cycle.

 

Compulsive Liar:  Your desire to appear more important than you really are has gotten out of hand.  You cannot stop lying.  Whenever someone tries to find out your role, faction or actions that you have taken they will be told lies.  Hidden: Player with this side role will not be informed that they have it.

 

Strong Willed:  You will is as strong as iron.  No matter how hard they try no one can force you to change your mind.  You are immune to all vote manipulation roles.

 

Edited December 17, 2014 by Alvron

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Ghostblood Initiation (QFG)

 

Free-For-All

 

 

We've all been there. You impressed some odd fellow with a mysterious tattoo, and he's invited you to participate in the next Ghostblood Initiation, whatever that is...

 

This is a game based around the same idea as Quick-Fix Game 5. The last initiate alive wins. You are not supposed to kill any of the players who are already members. Kill someone, and you'll get their item.

 

Victory Conditions:

 

Member: Kill all of the moles. You lose if a mole wins the game

 

Initiate or Mole: Be the last non-member left alive

 

 

Roles:

 

Members (2? of these): You're playing a different game than everyone else. You are trying to root out the 4 moles and survive. If anyone attacks you (not necessarily kills you), they will die automatically in the next write-up. You get a special doc on which you can convene.

 

Moles (4? of these): You are all acting independently. To be clear: Moles are not working as a team. The only difference between them and regular initiates is that Moles start with an item.

 

Initiates (Everyone Else): You don't have an item. 

 

 

Actions:

 

Every turn, you will perform one action.

 

 -Attack: If the victim has no one defending them, they will die. A player must have more attack actions than defend actions to die.

 

-Defend: Blocks an attack if the number of attack actions used on the victim is less than or equal to the number of defend actions. If no action is sent in, the player will be assumed to be defending himself

 

 

Items:

 

Moles will have a random item. It goes to the person who kills them if they die. Items can be given to other players, but the item-giver will not be able to perform an action that turn. An item will be used de facto every cycle unless the player specifically PM's for it not to be used

 

-Shardblade: Obviously included. Kill actions are always successful

 

-Warning Fabrial: Counts as an automatic "defend" action used on you.

 

-Aged Blackbane: Instead of attacking the person you choose to attack, you will be attacking anyone who defends that person.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2014 by mckeedee123

[A Joe in the Bush]

Wow, ok lots of games to look at, review, and make suggestions for.

 

Mckeedee's Dula Revoloution:

 

 

-The Derethi Converts: They win if they outnumber every other religious sect combined, and lose in any other situation

The problem with Cults winning together is it's too easy, (As we learned in my hoid game). Herowannabe had the brilliant idea of how to counter that with the converts losing, but the Gyorn and Monk winning.

 

 

 

There are 4 Cycles: A,B,C, and D. These happen sequentially and the order repeats. To break down what happens in each of them (this will make sense later):

Just why? this limits a lot of stuff, like giving the cult one kill per 4 cycles.

 

 

-Merchant: These are seeded among the rest of the players.

  -Abilities:

     -Business Trip: Once per game, these players can skip a cycle. They will not be able to take any actions that cycle

Can other actions affect them? 

 

 

-Duelist: There are 2-3 of these

  -Abilities:

     -Guard: These players can select a player to defend, and during that cycle, all blockable kill actions used against that player will be blocked. The duelist will be wounded once he has successfully defended someone, however, and will not be able to perform this ability again

There might need to be more than two or three, since they're one time use only.

 

 

A senator must have at least 2 Senate votes on them to be elected.

 

A senator must have at least 4 Senate votes on them to be recalled.

Does this mean that you can keep the same five people in the senate the whole game?

And do these votes have to be made by senators, or can they be made by anyone?

 

 

 

- New State Religion: Automatic victory for The Cult and all Non-Cult players will die horrible deaths. 

Is this the only time the cult can win?

 

Wyrm's Shardship Ingenuity

First off, I would love to play an an in-character game. and on to questions.

 

 

 

With a crew hailing from many different star systems, with many strange and useful powers, it is inevitable that conflict would arise. Whatever the reason, a few months into its maiden voyage, there has been discovered to be treachery afoot. And they cannot simply call for help, as the ship requires time to make the jump back to a known, safe planet. The crew must survive on their own for that time, with their own wits and individual strengths. May Adonalsium help them.

Does this mean there will be a set time limit for finding the Traitors/outnumbering the Loyalists?

 

 

 

Engineering Officer (Surgebinder) - By manipulating the very forces felt by the world, a Surgebinder of almost any type can create amazing physical effects. These effects are used all over the ship, from powering the engines to forming repairs with Soulcasting to creating artificial gravity. They are also in charge of the ship’s robotics. When all Engineers are dead or have had their abilities removed by Forgery, the HI will go rogue and join the Traitor team. If an Engineer is Forged after this, they will be informed that the HI is subverted.

Can traitors start out as engineers? And can a traitor be turned into an Engineer? What happens if the last engineer is killed the same cycle that a new one is made by the P.O.?

 

Wilson's Divided Loyalties:

Yes, I did just name your game for you.

 

Restares and Thaidakar should probably be 'Safe' Roles.

 

 

Friction - spy on all outgoing PMs from one person/cycle (PM recipient not included)

Friction just doesn't make sense for what it did in the book

 

Reverse Seeker (?) - Ardent maybe? They're responsible for soulcasting the dead.

Vote manipulator (?) - Lighteyes? or maybe Landlord?

Scout (?) - Survivalist? or Hunter.

Runner - Good name

Assassin - Good Name

Action Discovery (?) - Um, fabrial engineer? or, Investigator?

Ardent (?) - Ardent works, but it goes better with the reverse seeker.

 

Wyrm's House Divided

 

 

 

With the half-point bonus from Smoking rather than 1 point, it should be alright, I think?

Yeah, since they can target more people, that nicely balances them.

 

Alvron's Game:

Is this going to be your follow-up Epic Game?

 

And the Hidden roles are really nice. A good addition to the game.

 

Winter Cloud's Inter-Planetary Complications:

 

 

Each faction can lynch one player in their faction. The only way to kill someone from another planet is if you have a Role, Item, or NPC that lets you.

You're effectively running three games, with a few players who are in all three. and you have 7 factions if I'm counting correctly, plus spies in various factions. This is even more complicated than The Stormfather and the Nightwatcher.

 

Are you honestly intending this game to be run? or do you just want the distinction for having the most complicated game? If the former, good luck.

 

Mckeedee's Ghostblood Initiation.

Not much to say. It works.

 

 

 

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

The problem with Cults winning together is it's too easy, (As we learned in my hoid game). Herowannabe had the brilliant idea of how to counter that with the converts losing, but the Gyorn and Monk winning.

 

Fair. The reason why I thought it was OK was that the conversion action only has about a 60% chance of succeeding (About 6-7 players will probably be immune at any given time). In addition, the convert can't bring any information with him/her, because they would have to be a member of Jesker (who don't have any PM's or Docs) for it to go through.

 

If you really think it would make it too easy, though...

 

Just why? this limits a lot of stuff, like giving the cult one kill per 4 cycles.

 

Well, I did the "Sequence Thing" as I was trying to figure out how the kill actions would all fit together. 3 Eliminator kills/conversions every 2 cycles seemed a little high. I suppose I could simplify it, but...

 

The Cult, I think, is practically on the good team. I didn't want their kill action to be too powerful. That was the main thing, I suppose.

 

Does this mean that you can keep the same five people in the senate the whole game?

And do these votes have to be made by senators, or can they be made by anyone?

Theoretically, no one has to be elected, and it's quite probable that no one will be recalled.

 

And, yeah, with all the vote actions, I figured it would get kind of confusing. 

But anyway, regular players get two votes every cycle: The Lynch Vote and the Senate Election/Recall vote. Senators get four votes: Lynch Vote, Senate Election/Recall, Vote for who gets the Senate Lynch Votes, and Resolution Pass/Fail.

 

Not sure if that explanation made it less confusing, but...

 

Is this the only time the cult can win?

 

Nah, but they can win this way. If someone came up with a better Resolution, though, I could go with that.

 

--------------------------------------

 

Everything Else: I'll take your word for it.

 

--------------------------------------

 

And thanks for the feedback. It was exhilarating. 

Edited December 21, 2014 by mckeedee123

[A Joe in the Bush]

Does anyone else see Mckeedee's third quote as being said by Alvron? Or is that just my computer?

[Alvron he/him]

Sneaky sneaky.  You never know where I might turn up.  

Edited December 21, 2014 by Alvron

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Of course Alvron said that. It was back when he was talking about that one thing, with the... thing. 

[A Joe in the Bush]

Did you deliberately edit that quote to make Alvron say it instead of me?

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

No. It was a multiquote that went horribly wrong. I'll fix it.

[Wyrmhero he/him]

Wyrm's Shardship Ingenuity

First off, I would love to play an an in-character game. and on to questions.

 

Does this mean there will be a set time limit for finding the Traitors/outnumbering the Loyalists?

 

Can traitors start out as engineers? And can a traitor be turned into an Engineer? What happens if the last engineer is killed the same cycle that a new one is made by the P.O.?

There is no time limit. That's just a bit of flavour, really, to explain why they can't just get help. Engineers can be traitors - They can start as them, or turn into them. In this case, they do not count for whether or not the HI is subverted. Essentially, they would be Assistants. This is part of the reason I would like a little more for the Engineers, to prevent them from just being roleless but vital, if you see what I mean. The Personnel Officer's ability will happen before kills, so the HI would not be subverted in this case.

Wyrm's House Divided

abe lincoln.jpg

 

Yeah, since they can target more people, that nicely balances them.

As only their target gets them IP, it's more that they can gain points off of thrice as many Roles as other players.

It might just be me but this system seems like it will cause bandwagons.  If there is even a small chance that the one being killed is an eliminator then everyone will just pile on the votes.

Yes, it will probably cause bandwagons. I'm not entirely decided if that's a good thing or not, since it works entirely with the theme of the game. However, that many disruptive influences may be a few too many to make it justified.