Thesp/Modding Philosophy

History

Original Publication: July 18, 2009 by Thesp

I've long intended to create a page on my approach to moderating. Keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive list of what I think every game should be like, though I admit that I personally tend to appreciate games run under these sorts of principals far more than other types of games. Your taste may vary. Games I run will likely be governed by many (if not all) of these principles. All of these are a work in progress.

Thesp's Philosophies on creating games

• Each side should have a roughly equal chance of winning, regardless of the number of people on their side.
• It's not only the mafia that have secrets to keep. After all, the town desperately and particularly want to conceal their power roles.
  • As a corollary to this principle, massclaiming from the gate should be heavily detrimental to the town. There are things people want to keep secret, and while it may hurt the scum, it should be devastating to the town, and not fatal to scum.
• All players should have a definite win condition, and a specific means to fulfill that win condition.
• Townies are valuable, insofar that they can draw the very valuable nightkill of the mafia. The best thing for a townie to do is get himself nightkilled by a scumgroup who is trying to hit a power role.
• Power roles are special. They should not be given out to everyone (or even most people), and there is a value to keeping them hidden, at least for a while.
• Cops and Doctors should not be in the same game together, unless there is a compelling reason to believe the doc-protecting-the-cop-every-night scenario can be mitigated.
  • As a corollary to this principle, the mafia roleblocker is generally a non-elegant solution to this problem. I think the roleblocker is usually a terrible role.
• I like masons. A lot. I designed the initial "Friends and Enemies" setup as a closed setup - 12 players, 3 mafia, 4 masons, 5 townies. The masons were confirmed innocent to each other, and the mafia knew there was a powerful mason group. Had the masons been able to remain hidden, they could have been very powerful. Instead, the mafia found them all and picked them off one by one at night.
• I'm fascinated by the endgame. I'm particularly fascinated with endgames where the town is able to lynch the scum successfully because there are a lot of remaining confirmed pro-town players. I think this result should come out of excellent pro-town play, and not as a likely result from setup design.
  • On that note, flavor should rarely (if ever) confirm a player's alignment.
• The town's lynch is important, if not crucial.
• The Vigilante makes gambiting far more difficult for mafia, as they only gain half a day on the town on a successful simple gambit, rather than a full day.
• I like mafia gambits. A lot.

The Serial Killer Problem

The Serial Killer poses an interesting problem to game design. If he is to have a reasonable chance of winning, he needs the same thing the other sides need - resiliency and a means to his own success. He is at a disadvantage, as he cannot realistically gambit a roleclaim in either direction, knowing little else about the setup, and his death is the end of his chances of winning. A single errant nightkill can end the game for him. Furthermore, he is neutered and stymied by the presence of a roleblocker in the game - no other team is as devastated by a roleblocker's presence in the game. Moreover, if one places many power roles in a game as a balance for the town on the presumption that there will be a lot of nightkills, this balance can be wrecked by an early loss of the Serial Killer, by lynch or by nightkill.

To improve his resiliency, I often make him nightkill immune. To that end, I am hesitant to put a roleblocker in the same game as a Serial Killer without mitigating it somehow. I also tend to make Cops investigate for mafia/not-mafia rather than the SK, and I nearly always include an FBI Agent in games with a Serial Killer who only finds SK/not-SK. In my experience, this makes the Serial Killer seek different ends in the early going, and alleviates the number of targets the Serial Killer has to kill, particularly because the Serial Killer has significant problems in the endgame. Notably, the Serial Killer has to pick off people who wouldn't otherwise be lynched, and often aims for confirmed townies (especially masons). Masons are the bane of a Serial Killer.

However, if the Mafia is out searching for power roles, and the Serial Killer is hunting confirmed townies, this gives them unique, attainable aims which make the game unique for each of the scum factions. It also makes the town's lynch more important then ever, which I regard as a Good Thing.

Thesp's Philosophies on moderating games

Coming soon.

Thesp's Standard Ruleset

Coming soon.