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Also, what does it mean when it says that "ther hares ca"? I'm taking it to mean that ther hares ca yuuz the otters tu fite der foxen, an can recroot thm to any petrol they chooz. But if you have something else planned for them, it might be nice to have a clarification.

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Random Role Ideas:

Kandra:

Every third cycle you can kill one player and gain their role (if the role isn't allomantic). You also gain access to all docs they are in. The player who is killed is not revealed to be dead until the Kandra either dies or kills another player.

Alchemist:

Each cycle you can choose one of five potions to brew the following cycle and who to give the potion to. You are not told what the potion does, however, the name provides a clue to the effect the potion has.

Manipulator:

If multiple people try to target you, the instead target each other.

Ghost:

When you die, you gain access to a secret doc with only you and the person who killed you in it. If you die via the Lynch, you are put in a doc with the last person to vote on you.

Limited God:

You know everyone's role and alignment, and have access to all docs, however, each cycle you gain two of the following limitations:

1. You cannot say anyone's name (including RP names and nicknames).

2. All of your sentences must be palindromes.

3. You cannot tell any lies.

4. You cannot vote on a player that hasn't been voted on this cycle.

5. You cannot vote on any player that has been voted on this cycle.

6. You must mention a color in every sentence.

7. Each post must be equal to or less than 140 characters long.

8. You cannot directly disagree with anyone.

9. You are unable to say the name of any role or alignment.

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13 hours ago, Straw said:

Random Role Ideas:

Kandra:

Every third cycle you can kill one player and gain their role (if the role isn't allomantic). You also gain access to all docs they are in. The player who is killed is not revealed to be dead until the Kandra either dies or kills another player.

Alchemist:

Each cycle you can choose one of five potions to brew the following cycle and who to give the potion to. You are not told what the potion does, however, the name provides a clue to the effect the potion has.

Manipulator:

If multiple people try to target you, the instead target each other.

Ghost:

When you die, you gain access to a secret doc with only you and the person who killed you in it. If you die via the Lynch, you are put in a doc with the last person to vote on you.

Limited God:

You know everyone's role and alignment, and have access to all docs, however, each cycle you gain two of the following limitations:

1. You cannot say anyone's name (including RP names and nicknames).

2. All of your sentences must be palindromes.

3. You cannot tell any lies.

4. You cannot vote on a player that hasn't been voted on this cycle.

5. You cannot vote on any player that has been voted on this cycle.

6. You must mention a color in every sentence.

7. Each post must be equal to or less than 140 characters long.

8. You cannot directly disagree with anyone.

9. You are unable to say the name of any role or alignment.

... the limited god seems really restrictive. Eventually you wouldn't be able to vote on any one 

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13 hours ago, Straw said:

Limited God:

You know everyone's role and alignment, and have access to all docs, however, each cycle you gain two of the following limitations:

1. You cannot say anyone's name (including RP names and nicknames).

2. All of your sentences must be palindromes.

3. You cannot tell any lies.

4. You cannot vote on a player that hasn't been voted on this cycle.

5. You cannot vote on any player that has been voted on this cycle.

6. You must mention a color in every sentence.

7. Each post must be equal to or less than 140 characters long.

8. You cannot directly disagree with anyone.

9. You are unable to say the name of any role or alignment.

I assume the god has a unique win condition? As a village god would end the game in one cycle (plus a couple more to mop up, but that would just be voting, nothing more), no matter which restrictions he gets (the only tricky one would be palindromes, every other one could be circumvented to get the list of elims out).

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Hmmm, an idea for a win-condition for the limited god would be that he/she wants to be a king-maker. That is, you want to have the game end with yourself, 1 villager and 1 elim left. This in and of itself is tricky enough that you could probably drop all other restrictions. Suddenly, the god wants to keep his identity a secret,a s neither faction wants him to get close to achieving his goal. He also wants to be very careful with his knowledge, as he doesn't want either side to win too early.

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19 hours ago, Straw said:

Limited God:

You know everyone's role and alignment, and have access to all docs, however, each cycle you gain two of the following limitations:

1. You cannot say anyone's name (including RP names and nicknames).

2. All of your sentences must be palindromes.

3. You cannot tell any lies.

4. You cannot vote on a player that hasn't been voted on this cycle.

5. You cannot vote on any player that has been voted on this cycle.

6. You must mention a color in every sentence.

7. Each post must be equal to or less than 140 characters long.

8. You cannot directly disagree with anyone.

9. You are unable to say the name of any role or alignment.

This is a fascinating conundrum...how to balance this role?

27 minutes ago, randuir said:

Hmmm, an idea for a win-condition for the limited god would be that he/she wants to be a king-maker. That is, you want to have the game end with yourself, 1 villager and 1 elim left. This in and of itself is tricky enough that you could probably drop all other restrictions. Suddenly, the god wants to keep his identity a secret,a s neither faction wants him to get close to achieving his goal. He also wants to be very careful with his knowledge, as he doesn't want either side to win too early.

Aaand now you've made me want to run a game with a role like this.

Edited by Seonid
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Random roles I thought up:

Data Collector:

Each cycle you can either discover a player's role and alignment, or present a list of alive players (and the role and alignment for each of them) to the GM. You win if you present the correct list.

Paranoid: 

1 hour before turnover, you are told how many actions targeting you have been sent.

Time Stopper:

Once per game, you can delay all actions by one cycle.

Infected:

Each cycle, you can infect one person. Anyone who has been infected by you has two cycles to either pass the infection to another player or die. A player who has already been infected and has passed it on cannot be infected again. If someone is infected twice over (Ex: Becomes infected on Night 2, is infected again on Night 3 by the player infected on Night 1) they will die.

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1 hour ago, Straw said:

Time Stopper:

Once per game, you can delay all actions by one cycle.

I've never played one of these games (I have read through em though), but in the shards vs. Hoid game, this is one of the powers given to the shard of preservation.

 

5 hours ago, randuir said:

Hmmm, an idea for a win-condition for the limited god would be that he/she wants to be a king-maker. That is, you want to have the game end with yourself, 1 villager and 1 elim left. This in and of itself is tricky enough that you could probably drop all other restrictions. Suddenly, the god wants to keep his identity a secret, as neither faction wants him to get close to achieving his goal. He also wants to be very careful with his knowledge, as he doesn't want either side to win too early.

Ooooh I love this. It's probably still not-quite balanced but I'm still fascinated with the idea. And I bet certain adjustments can be made.

If we ever do another kingkiller game... This should totally be the basis for a Cthaeh role. It would be so epic...

It makes sense lore-wise too, because a kingmaker scenario is about as close as you can get to everybody losing. And the Cthaeh would approve of that. It could be an endgame condition where everybody loses but the Cthaeh.

Another idea, to build on that... This role could get one other power, where every cycle they can choose to heal any person that they PMed that cycle. Not only does this fit the lore of taking the Cthaeh's counsel, but it gives them another little tool to give them a chance at actually becoming a kingmaker. This is obviously a two-edged sword, because using that ability risks outing yourself as the Cthaeh.

I'll need to think about this a bit... But I quite like the concept.

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Here's a thought I've had (please forgive the double post, but there is a sufficient time in between, and I believe these two ideas are unrelated enough to logically go in separate posts).

I bet I could make a bot in either discord or slack that automatically administrates a quick-quick-fix SE game. I hear both discord and slack offer some decent APIs.

Personally I think this wouldn't be as good as what we normally get on forums, but there are still certain advantages. Less time investment for our busy players, and a small set of rules that can be run repeatedly and balanced to perfection, without the bot "GM" ever getting tired of rerunning it.

Would people generally be interested in that sort of thing?

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Because my QF is coming around pretty soon, I've polished up the ruleset and changed a few things around.

 

Terror in Minas Tirith

The year is 2756 in the Third Age. The land of Gondor lies dark and silent, menaced by an ever-growing shadow on its eastern frontier. Minas Ithil has fallen to the Enemy, and it will not be many years until Osgiliath suffers the same fate. But the plans of Sauron wait for no man. Even now, when the forces of Gondor are watching the expansion of Mordor, a few of Sauron's most cunning servants are ready to strike a blow at the heart of Gondor itself.

Ground Rules:

Spoiler
  • The game is divided into cycles that are 24 hours long each.
  • The Mordor team get a kill every cycle, submitted as an active action by one of their players, and win if they outnumber the remaining Gondor players. The Mordor team also gets their own doc to scheme in.
  • Each cycle, the players as a group chose one player to lynch. Lynch votes in the active thread must be listed in Red, with retractions in Green. The player will be lynched who has the most votes on them at the end of the cycle. There is no minimum number of votes required for a lynch. A tied lynch will result in the lynch being made at random among the players tied for the lead.
  • The Gondor players win if all Mordor characters are killed.
  • The dead doc will be the same as the spec doc.
  • Actions will be triggered by sending a PM to the GM. Actions that must be triggered this way are marked as "active" in the roles list. The Mordor kill is considered an active action. A player may only trigger one active action per round.
  • A player will be notified if their action was successful or not. A kill targeting a protected player counts as a successful performing of the action. A kill targeting an Outlaw using their ability will be unsuccessful.
  • The write-up will contain a list of all successful kills and kills blocked by the Guard of the Citadel, but not kills blocked by the Outlaw. If a kills is blocked by both the Guard and the Outlaw, it will appear in the write-up. All dead players' roles, alignments, and items (if secret items exist) will appear in the write-up.
  • Players are not allowed to PM other players for game purposes. Out-of-game PMs are allowed.
  • Players must post at least every other cycle. Players who go two complete cycles without posting will die of inactivity, unless they have PM-ed the GM in advance that they will be inactive.
  • Turnover will be at 2:00 PM MST
  • Secret roles/items/alignments are possible.

Roles:

Spoiler

Steward of Gondor: Gondor only

     Palantir of Minas Tirith (active): Each cycle, the Steward may choose to observe one player using the Palantir and learn the target player's role, but not alignment.

 

Lieutenant of Mordor: Mordor only

     Scheme (active): Each cycle, the Lieutenant of Mordor may learn the role and alignment of a player.

 

Guard of the Citadel: Gondor/Mordor

     Guard's Training (active): Each cycle, the Citadel Guard may choose a player to protect. That player is protected from the Mordor kill, but not from any lynching  and not from the Noblemen's kill (see Nobleman, below). The guard is notified if he defended from an attack, but does not learn the identity of any of the attackers.

 

Politician: Gondor/Mordor

    Liar (active): A politician's in-thread lynch votes are not binding. Instead, a Politician votes directly to the GM. If the Politician does not send a PM with their actual vote, their vote defaults to whatever they posted in-thread. Due to this mechanic, the GM's write-up will include only lynch vote totals, not names of voters.

 

Nobleman: Gondor/Mordor

    Elite Company (passive): Noblemen have access to a special doc where they can discuss among themselves.

    Personal Assassins (passive): The noblemen may vote in their doc to assassinate a character. This assassination is unblockable and requires no actions to use, but can only be used once per game and with a majority vote in the Noblemen's doc.

 

Outlaw: Gondor/Mordor

     Underworld Connections (active): Once per game, the Outlaw may choose to disappear into the criminal underworld for one night. While there, he is immune to the Mordor kill, but not to the Noblemen's kill. In addition, the Outlaw learns the name (but not role or alignment) of all characters who targeted him with any of the following actions: Guard's Training, Scheme, and Kill. He does not learn the types of actions used against him, but only which characters targeted him with any of the actions. Players caught using such an action will not be notified that they have been detected.

 

Scribe: Gondor/Mordor

    Publish (triggered): After the Scribe dies, he/she may make one PM to the GM that will be posted in thread by the GM. It may not contain more than 100 characters (spaces included) and may not contain a vote. The scribe may write and submit their PM before death, but this is not required.

 

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Looks interesting, @Elenion. I've got a question about the scribe though. Their message can be written post-mortem, so I assume they won't get access to the dead-doc untill they submit it?

Also, is there a time limit on submitting it? If a scribe gets killed C1, could he publish sometime in the end-game?

Edit: also is the nobleman doc anonymous, or not?

Edited by randuir
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Elenion wanted me to post these @randuir

1. A scribe does not get access to the dead doc until they submit their writing.

2. No, Yes. They can wait however long they want before submitting it.

3. The nobleman doc starts anonymous but the number of noblemen in the doc will be announced. If they want to declare their identity, however, that's totally okay.

 

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Okay, thanks for the answer Elenion/ecth. I haven't seen a role like the scribe before, so I've got a couple more questions/ways to potentially break it.

First, should the message be in english, or could the scribe use another language if it allows for more information to be put into 100 characters? I'm specifically thinking of tricks like google-translating it to Japanese or Mandarin, as that should cut down on the character count (Actually, does the forum support those languages? let me check: 我很怀疑).

Second, it isn't mentioned in the rules that the message is posted with the write-up. Is that an oversight, or will the GM try to post the message at the earliest opportunity (including in the middle of a cycle).

Third, is it mentioned who wrote which message? If there are multiple dead scribes with differing alignments, anonymous messages could result in some interesting situations.

Edited by randuir
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Elenion:

1. Absolutely! (Though, edit your post so it doesn't say that publicly :ph34r:)

2. "If I receive it before the write-up is posted, it will be posted in the write-up. If not, it will be edited into the most recent write-up as soon as I receive it." (He also clarified that with the latter case he would post a message in thread stating that the write-up had been edited with a scribe message.)

3. Yes, messages are not anonymous.

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@Elenion what if the scribe used the language of Mordor...Sauron fit an awful lot onto that tiny little ring :lol:

I can't wait for a LOTR game!! Looks awesome!

@Ecthelion III I just recently re-watched the original trilogy and I realized that's where your name came from haha

I've been hashing out ideas for an Avengers/Agents of Shield type game....would anyone be interested in a game like that? I know it would have to get picked to even run, but I wanted to put together some rules anyways :P

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Right. I've multiquoted 14 posts. Probably not going to get through them all in one sitting. So let's see.... 

On 5/1/2017 at 5:45 PM, Ornstein said:

I been  wondering, is there a mistborn era 2 game?

Well... ish. Seeking Mourning will be a proper Era 2 game whenever it finally runs, certainly. In the past we've had QF14, which is set in the Senate in Elendel. LG11/LG19 are also technically Era 2 games. That's just not revealed until the very end. 

On 5/22/2017 at 8:43 AM, randuir said:

One thing I'm wondering about is the votes. Is this a standard lynch mechanic? I am wondering how/if that works in a purely faction driven game where you know exactly who is bad and who isn't.

It gets odd. It works significantly better if there's an enemy everyone can pretend to be chasing (four factions and an eliminator team in LG23, for instance, so you can pretend to be trying to find the Spiked). In something like MR16, the only challenge is voting while keeping your faction secret, if you care about that. 

On 5/26/2017 at 8:34 PM, Drake Marshall said:

So... I drafted some rules for a game set on the Pantheon Isles. This would be an LG.

Quick Overview:
This game is set after the events in Sixth of Dusk. The Trappers, though normally reluctant to trust each other, have met on Sori to discuss the threat posed by the Ones Above. The meeting proves to be unproductive. Particularly when someone is murdered on Sori, and, distrusting each other, most of the trappers leave Sori for their own islands.

It has been implied that not all of the Ones Above follow the rules that were limiting their interactions with First of the Sun. There is a rogue splinter of the Ones Above who would take the Pantheon by force, so that their people may make use of the Aviar. They have infiltrated this group of island-priests called the "trappers" and intend to destroy them. They may not have the experience to survive in a harsh environment, but they easily make up for it with their alien technology.

Game Basics:
A full cycle is 48 hours long, with a 36 hour day phase and a 12 hour night phase.
One "day action" can be taken in a day, and one "night action" can be taken in a night.
This game does not have free PMing. There is a PM creation power in-game however.

This game has locations. Each player is located on one of the Pantheon islands at any given time (significantly fewer then all 40 of them will be available in-game :P). Some actions may only be taken against a player on the same island as you. The location of a given player is not public.

Islands have an inherent danger associated with them, expressed as two numbers. The percent odds of the island killing an occupant in a cycle, and the percent odds of the island roleblocking an occupant in a cycle.

Actions: These are the basic game actions.
Vote- Submit a lynch vote during the day cycle. You can vote on someone regardless of their island, and there is nothing that can protect from a lynch. Tied votes will randomly kill one of the people in the tie. Voting does not count as a day action, but your vote will be cancelled if you are roleblocked during a day turn. In terms of RP, people who are voted up for lynch are hunted down and killed by the other trappers.

Travel- Travel to a new island. Normally, this has a 40% chance of resulting in death by one of the sea creatures in the deep (this danger can be reduced however). Traveling can be done by either day or night, and will take up a day or night action, respectively.

Trap Aviar- Attempt to capture an Aviar native to your island, as a night action. Each island in the pantheon has somewhat different odds for successfully catching an Aviar, and a different selection of Aviar one could capture. A trapper may hold no more than two Aviar at a time. Aviar can be given away to another player as a day action.

Murder- As an eliminator, make a kill as a night action. Eliminators will submit a first choice and a second choice. If the first choice target is not on the same island as any of the eliminators, the second choice target will be attempted. If neither target is available, no kill will be made.

Special Roles: I may decide not to include some or all of these, but they are a few special roles. In either case, most players will not receive one of these special roles.

Master Trapper: Makes good on the name "trapper." Can spend a night action to either add a trap to their current island or disarm a trap from it. Each trap an island has will increase the island's danger by 5% for killing and 5% for roleblocking. They are immune to their own traps, and 1/3 less likely to be killed or roleblocked by other people's traps.

Herbalist: Well versed in all the vegetation in the Pantheon. Most of it is extraordinarily toxic. Can spend a day or night action mixing a poison, which can then be used as a night action to poison a target on the same island as you (unlike the eliminator kill action, you don't get to submit a second choice for this). Said target will be notified that they have been poisoned, and will die after one cycle. Poisons can be given to other people as a day action. Poisoners have 2/3 the usual odds to capture an Aviar, since trapping Aviar is not their area of expertise.

Aviar Expert: Has a particular affinity with the Aviar. Can hold a maximum of three Aviar instead of two. 4/3 the usual odds to capture an Aviar.

Paranoid: Even more paranoid then most trappers, which is saying something. Intrinsic island dangers are -5% to you. Traps are 2/3 as dangerous to you. This slightly reduces the risk of a dangerous island.

Tracker: Particularly gifted at tracking people. Can use a day or night action to randomly identify one other person on your island, or be informed if they are the only person on the island.

Aviar Powers:

Mindshield- Reduces the danger of travelling to 3%. Also makes dangerous islands safer (does not reduce trap danger). The intrinsic danger on an island is reduced (killing risk is quartered, roleblocking risk is halved). Passive ability. Effects stack. Can be used as an active day or night ability to extend the protection of your Aviar to another player, but during that turn you will not have the protection.

Danger Sense- Halve the danger odds of all risks, including travel risks, natural island danger odds, and man-made traps. 33% chance to save you from a murder (but not from poisoning, because a poison takes a while to actually kill you). Passive ability. Effects stack. Can be used as an active day or night ability to extend the protection of your Aviar to another player, but during that turn you will not have the protection. Note that murder protection is half as likely to work if used two nights in a row.

Mind Tracker- An Aviar that can latch on to someone's mind and use it to find them, within a reasonable distance. Determine the location of another player, at the time the ability is used. Can be used as either a day or night action. 5% chance of a randomized false reading if the target has a mindshield.

Hypnotic- An Aviar that can attack another being's mind, impairing thoughts. 50% chance to roleblock a target, does not tell you if roleblock was effective. Can be used as a day or night action. Will only roleblock target for the part of the cycle you used it, so using it at day will only cancel their day action. Does not tell the roleblocker if their 50% odds succeeded.

Messenger- An Aviar with an uncanny sense of direction and the intelligence to deliver messages quite reliably. Can open a (secure) PM with someone, that lasts as long as one of the pair has a messenger Aviar. Does not count as an action, meaning you can open up any number of PMs with this (without this, you may not open up any new PMs).

Seeker- An Aviar that can sense other Aviar. Can identify the Aviar another player has. Counts as a day or night action.

Islands: Below are the islands one can travel to. On signup, each player will send in their GM PM a choice of what island they would like to begin on. Most likely, all players will be allowed to start on the island of their choosing.

Patji:
Danger rating 20-20
Trapping odds 60
Avialable Aviar: Mindshield (x2), Danger Sense, Mind Tracker

Vasji:
Danger rating 15-20
Trapping odds 50
Available Aviar: Danger Sense, Mind Tracker, Hypnotic, Seeker

Oro:
Danger rating 10-15
Trapping odds 40
Availale Aviar: Mindshield (x4), Hypnotic, Mind Tracker

Arho:
Danger rating 10-10
Trapping odds 35
Available Aviar: Mindshield (x2), Seeker, Messenger

Keiki:
Danger rating 3-10
Trapping odds 25
Available Aviar: Mindshield (x3), Mind Tracker (x2)

Nani:
Danger rating 5-5
Trapping odds 20
Available Aviar: Hypnotic, Mind Tracker

Sori:
Danger rating 0-3
Trapping odds 15
Available Aviar: Mindshield (x2), Messenger, Seeker
Sori has a group PM

Right. So, lots of thoughts! (Also I did some formatting, I hope you don't mind - just spacing and italicising for clarity, and fixing your misspelling of 'vegetation'. :P)

1. 12 hour night cycle. I do not suggest this. Because it is going to disadvantage some people. Some only get on at a certain time of day, for instance, and if that doesn't match up with your 12 hours they're kind of screwed for night actions. Particularly since timzeones tend to get in the way here. (Burnt in LG33, for instance, slept right until the start of turnover for most of the game, which was extremely inconvenient for a Namer.) Plus, it means you either have to do a writeup, sleep, then wake up and do another, or do two in the same day. Both of those sound exhausting, personally. 

2. So, eliminators can only kill people on their island. That... not actually sure where to start. 

In LG19/11, there were rooms. You could submit an order (maybe a second choice as well?) for someone, and if not kill a random person in that room. Since you don't have that third random option, you've significantly reduced the power of the eliminators to kill, which is a bit of a problem. 

Secondly, want to know what might happen? When a kill happens, or once several kilsl have happened, players reveal what island they're on and so can track exactly who's been on islands when kills occurred, and thus figure out who's an eliminator. Maybe just reveal after once and kill everyone on that island. It could hurt the village too, yes, but it does get very annoying for the elims and can force them to stop killing altogether. Though... I suppose there aren't world PMs this time, so you could just lie about what island you're on. Which is dangerous, but possible. Interesting. I'm still a little worried, though. 

Thirdly, the fact that they can only kill people on the same island as them makes it difficult for the eliinators for a different reason: finding their targets. In LG11 they really needed to kill Luckat, but because she wasn't in any of their rooms they couldn't. So if a player is dangerous to them they have no guarantee of being able to actually stop that player. Which also makes their lives difficult. 

Also, that practically guarantees that the eliminators will have a Tracker. They'd be significantly less powerful, otherwise. I'd put it at a 90% certainty, pretty much. 

3. You do realise that with such a high chance of death-by-moving, there's going to be very, very little in the game. Though Aviar will help with that. 

4. Do Aviar restock once some have been captured? Also, you may want to tailor numbers more closely to the number of players, rather than having it fixed. 

5. Honestly, with the number of chances for death this game has (if you keep them), this feels significantly more like a MR. LGs usually have at least 72 hour cycles, and the amount of death could make this game go very, very fast. 

It looks lovely other than that, though. I do like hte concept a lot, and think it would make an excellent game. 

On 5/29/2017 at 3:17 AM, Cluny the Scourge said:

Can someone refer me to a basic vanilla template? I am writing out a game set in the Redwall Series, though I probably will give it to someone else to be the GM.

I'd say what Meta said, but in addition you seem to want the sections in a game, so it'd go something like Factions - Housekeeping (basic info about timing, votes, etc) - Roles, and then additional sections if you have locations like Drake and so on. 

More to come! 

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