Natural Action Resolution

Natural action resolution is a system of resolving night actions designed by Xylthixlm for use in his mafia bot XylBot. This is a simplified version suitable for human-moderated games.

The system is called natural action resolution because it always gives the intuitively "natural" result for simple situations. It is compatible with the order suggested in Night Choice but covers more cases.

The Golden Rule

Apply actions which modify other actions before the actions they modify.

Applying the Golden Rule in Three Easy Steps

1. Find an action whose effect couldn't possibly be modified by any other action.
2. Resolve it.
3. Repeat from step 1 until all actions are resolved.

Paradox and Ambiguity

Sometimes the actions that might affect each other form a loop, so that there's no action to pick in step 1. In other cases, the order of two actions matters but it isn't clear that one affects the other. When that happens, pick an action to resolve in this order:

1. Copy
2. Hide
3. Bus
4. Block
5. Redirect
6. Protect
7. Miscellaneous
8. Kill
9. Recruit
10. Inspect

Count minor modifications of the actions listed above the same as the basic action (e.g., randomize would be the same priority as redirect). For actions which combine two other actions use the first one listed.

If the list still doesn't narrow it down to a single action, pick one of the best candidates using any fair method, such as by taking the first one submitted.

Resolve the action you picked this way, then go back to the golden rule until you get another cycle. Usually one or two picks are enough to make everything work.

Killing

Killing doesn't stop the actions of the dead player. (Imagine that all kills happen at the end of the night, and everyone pulls the trigger simultaneously.)

Roleblocking

It can be hard to decide what can, and what can not be roleblocked. As a general rule of thumb, actions which players choose to use can be roleblocked, and actions which don't involve player choice can't be roleblocked. A general exception to this rule, is roles that can talk during the night phase (for example Masons or Mafia). The reason for this is by the time the mod receives the roleblock target during night the masons may have already talked for hours on AIM, via private message, or on a party line.

Triggered Actions

Some roles might take actions that are triggered by other actions. For example, a Paranoid Gun Owner will kill if targeted by an action. Resolve triggered actions along with the regular actions, using the golden rule as normal. Any action which triggers when a player is targeted should "go off" between steps 1 and 2, before resolving the action that triggers it. When that happens, stop and go back to step 1, this time considering the triggered action as well.