Newbie Setup

This is a history of the Newbie setups that mafiascum.net has employed over the years. The current one is 2d3.

Original Newbie Setup

Originally, the setup for Newbie Games had two Mafia, three Townies, one sane Cop and one Doctor. All of these games start with the Day phase, to give all players a chance to play before any night kills are made. They almost never last more than three days of game time due to the small size.

After 60 or 70 games in the Open Setup listed above, it became obvious that there was a real potential to have a Breaking Strategy in Newbie Games; with the small size and short possible duration, number crunching became simplified, and a strategy of having the Cop roleclaim on Day One and then engaging in a series of Investigations while automatically protected by the Doctor until the Doc was found and killed by the Mafia became de rigueur. In response, a variety of other options have been used since then.

C9

The first major variation was a semi-open setup, collectively known as 'C9' (see below):

• 1 Cop, 1 Doc, 2 Mafia, 3 Townies (identical to the original setup);
• 1 Cop, 2 Mafia, 4 Townies
• 1 Doc, 2 Mafia, 4 Townies
• 2 Mafia, 5 Townies,

with the players unaware of which variant was chosen for that particular game. Officially this should be done at random, with a 25% probability for each of the four, although some game moderators did not follow that instruction.

This reintroduced some variability into the games, leading to better play by both sides and a new vitality into what had become stale. However, C9 was eventually found to be more difficult and demoralizing for town, and swingy to boot.

The name 'C9' comes from Norinel, the List Moderator for Newbie Games, who used it as a hexidecimal shorthand for the binary sequence 11001001 - and if you have to ask more than that, look at this post.

Pie E7

Starting with NG #518, Pie E7 was explored as a more balanced 7-player setup than C9. It traded the variable nature of C9 for certain power roles, and added a Roleblocker on the Mafia's side.

California

As of NG #554, a variation with only the Cop as the power role was experimented with.

F11

As of NG #576, a 9-player variant that re-added variability to the role selection was tried. It added two townies for a total of 9 players, and makes the Mafia Roleblocker a partial chance, in addition to the Cop and Doctor.

2of4

As of NG #1097, a new variant was tested to repair balance issues in F11 -- it raised the Mafia Roleblocker to a permanent position and changed the town PRs, adding a possible town Jailkeeper and removing the mountainous option. As of NG #1102, the Mafia Roleblocker was changed to a Mafia Rolecop, largely to avoid possible Jailkeeper/Roleblocker action resolution issues.

Matrix6

After extensive discussion, a wider variety of role distributions was incorporated into the new Matrix6 setup - there are now 6 possible setups, with the exact variant being chosen by the List Mod due to continued problems with game moderators favoring certain distributions. Player role assignment is still the job of the Game Moderator. First Game: 1370

2d3

Matrix6 did quite well statistically, with a stable winrate for both factions. However, eventually a strategy was developed for town in which the 1-shot Bulletproof would claim immediately, which while not definitively helpful for town was a detrimental newbie experience. While 3d3 was the first-developed candidate for a new setup, public reaction was mixed to its merits and complexity, and 2d3 was the eventual replacement beginning with Newbie 1845. 2d3 is the first Newbie setup with daytalk as the standard for the scumteam.

Other Changes

Other

Newbie Game #69 added a Vigilante and a Serial Killer for a total of nine players, and Newbie Game #68 had either a Doctor or a Cop (but with Cop Head Start), and a 4th Townie in place of the role that was not present. These games predated the codification of C9 as the new standard.

Pre-game Night Talk

One common variation with very little effect on gameplay is to allow the Mafia to communicate by PM or private topics during the confirmation stage of the game, before Day starts. There are still no Night Choices before the game actually begins; this just allows them to strategize a bit. This was originally to compensate for the fact that the game was Day Start, which was abnormal at the time.