Greatest Idea Mafia

Greatest Idea Mafia is a semi-open setup, based on Great Idea Mafia and Greater Idea Mafia, designed to be flexible while adding quite a few extra layers of WIFOM, a creative UPick-esque role choice aspect, and almost entirely removing the need for random votes.

In this setup, each player is dealt three cards from a deck; the same used in Greater Idea Mafia (shown below for convenience). Two of these three cards are combined to produce the player's role and alignment (more on this below) and the final card is discarded. Two cards must be used, so no player may choose a single card to indicate both role and alignment. Once every player has chosen their two cards - and there is at least one antitown role in the game (if all town, abandon or reshuffle) - all players inform the moderator of their role/alignment combination and any roles with partners are informed of their partners.

At the start of Day 1, every player's discarded card is publicly revealed.

Greater Idea Setup

1. Vanilla Townie
2. Vanilla Townie
3. Vanilla Townie
4. Vanilla Townie
5. Vanilla Townie
6. Vanilla Townie
7. Vanilla Townie
8. Vanilla Townie
9. Vanilla Townie
10. Vanilla Townie
11. Vanilla Townie
12. Vanilla Townie
13. Watcher
14. Tracker
15. Cop
16. Cop
17. Cop Lover
18. Seer
19. FBI Agent
20. Doctor
21. Doctor
22. Roleblocker
23. Jailkeeper
24. Bodyguard
25. Vigilante
26. One-shot Vigilante
27. One-shot Dayvig
28. One-shot Dayvig
29. Bulletproof Townie
30. Supersaint
31. One-shot Paranoid Gun Owner
32. Mason
33. Mason
34. Mason
35. Mason
36. Mason Doctor
37. Mason Lover
38. Lover
39. Lover
40. Lover
41. Jack-of-all-trades (One Roleblock, One Cop, One Doctor)
42. Vengeful Townie
43. Retired Werewolf Hunter
44. Retired Marine (Immune to Serial Killer kills)
45. Miller
46. Hirsute Townie (Investigates as Werewolf)
47. Evangelistic Townie (Investigates as Cult)
48. Tentacled Townie (Investigates as Alien)
49. Watchlisted Townie (Investigates as Serial Killer)
50. Wrong Place at the Wrong Time Townie (Universal Miller)
51. Black Goo (Town; anyone who targets it with an action becomes Cult)
52. Ascetic Townie
53. Private Investigator (Gets result "Cult" or "Not Cult")
54. Gravedigger (Shows up as targeting all nightkilled players to Trackers and Watchers on night of said players' deaths)
55. Nymphomaniac (Compulsively chooses a Lover on Night 1)
56. One-shot Governor
57. One-shot Unlynchable Townie
58. Town Godfather
59. Innocent Child
60. Hider
61. Enabler
62. Treestump
63. Conspiracy Theorist (Gets result "Alien" or "Not Alien"; investigates as "Alien")
64. Conspiracy Theorist (Gets result "Alien" or "Not Alien"; investigates as "Alien")
65. Conspiracy Theorist (Gets result "Alien" or "Not Alien"; investigates as "Alien")
66. One-shot Kingmaker
67. Weak Jailkeeper
68. Bloodhound (Gets result "Town" or "Not town")
69. Judas
70. Saulus
71. Mafia Goon
72. Mafia Goon
73. Mafia Goon
74. Mafia Goon
75. Mafia Goon
76. Mafia Godfather
77. Mafia Tracker
78. Mafia Doctor
79. Mafia Roleblocker
80. Mafia Lover
81. Mafia Seer
82. Mafia One-shot Dayvig
83. Mafia One-shot Governor
84. Mafia Strongman
85. Mafia Reflexive Doctor (protects anyone who targets them)
86. Hirsute Goon
87. Mafia Cupid (Targets player Night 1; all OTHER players who targeted same player become Lovers with target)
88. Werewolf
89. Werewolf
90. Werewolf
91. Werewolf
92. Alpha Werewolf
93. Werewolf Roleblocker
94. Werewolf One-shot Bulletproof
95. Werewolf Cop
96. Werewolf Mason
97. Werewolf Watcher
98. Werewolf FBI Agent
99. Ninja Werewolf
100. Werewolf One-shot PGO
101. Werewolf Miller (investigates as Mafia)
102. Werewolf Supersaint
103. Alien One-shot Unlynchable
104. Alien Prober (targets one player; target is roleblocked and Prober gets investigation result of "Werewolf" or "Not werewolf")
105. Alien Vanillaiser
106. Alien Silencer
107. Bulletproof Alien Lover
108. Alien Psychotrooper (While alive, all cops with 'guilty/not guilty' format results are Insane)
109. Alien Psychomagnet (Once per game, choose a player at night. All other players are redirected to that player that night, making the Psychomagnet essentially a 1-Shot Lightning Rod-izer)
110. Survivor
111. Compulsive Bodyguard Survivor
112. Survivor Mason
113. Lyncher (target to the left; or on forum: target above in playerlist)
114. Lyncher (target to the right; or on forum: target below in playerlist)
115. Serial Killer (Two-shot Bulletproof)
116. Serial Killer (Immune to Mafia kills)
117. Serial Killer (Immune to Werewolf kills)
118. One-shot Cult Recruiter

Possible additions

1. Reflexive CPR Doctor

Possibly Confusing Setup-Specific Things

The "choose 2" mechanic can become confusing, but it becomes easier when you think of the setup in terms of all possible alignments (Town, Mafia, Werewolf, Alien, Cult, Survivor, Serial Killer, Lyncher), then think about the abilities that associate with specific roles. Many zany combinations are possible, but become simpler when (for instance) you realize a Vanilla Townie + 2-Shot BP SK is either just a Town 2-Shot BP or a Vanilla Serial Killer. Any gray areas are up to the moderator's discretion, but a good rule of thumb is to take away any abilities (in this example, the 2-Shot BP and the nightkill) and associate them only with the role itself, rather than the alignment.

When originally played at the 2013 Baltimore "Balto" Scummers meet, the Greatest Idea setup included a secret addition in the form of a Self-Aligned "Pikachu" role card, which was required to be kept and not discarded. The Pikachu was the only card that would serve as both role and alignment, and its only function/ability was that it not be discovered. If the entire game passed without mention of the correct player holding the role of Pikachu, or if that player died and flipped before this occurred, the Pikachu player would win with any other faction(s) at the end of the game. Original Face-to-Face play also included slightly arbitrary rules and mechanics thought up by Scummers at the meet in an attempt to troll later arrivals.

• If only one Mason or Lover is chosen, then they are essentially a named Vanilla Townie.
• If more than 2 Masons or Lovers are chosen, then all the Masons form one Mason group, and all the Lovers form one Lover group (rather than separate pairs). The Nymphomaniac, however, creates a separate Lover group when it uses its action on Night 1. It is possible to unite the two groups if the Nymphomaniac targets an existing Lover, however.
• The One-Shot PGO is activated on the first night during which someone targets it. Any and all players who target it in that one night die.
• On the forum, it is strongly advised to only run setups that start with at least 50% Town roles. This should also be advertised to the players. Broken setups are no fun. On scumchat or Skype or a Marathon Day, go crazy. Crazy setups ARE fun.
• The Alien faction has only a one-shot factional nightkill for the whole game. The faction was designed to appear rarely but have powerful role actions.
• The Innocent Child can choose to reveal itself at whatever moment it chooses. It is not revealed automatically at the start of Day 1.
• The Enabler affects one randomly mod-selected other player. If the Enabler dies, its Enablee can no longer use any role powers other than a factional nightkill.

Mechanics

• Roles are assigned to players via the Random.org List Randomizer.
• Balance is explicitly not guaranteed.
• Because of the special "choose 2" mechanic, many new and bastard roles are possible given certain role combinations. The following is a list of blacklisted combinations that should be advertised to players before a game.

1. Mafia Mason
2. Werewolf Lover
3. Mafia Innocent Child
4. Werewolf Innocent Child
5. Alien Innocent Child
6. Serial Killer Innocent Child
7. Survivor Innocent Child
8. Cult Innocent Child
9. Lyncher Innocent Child
10. Judas Innocent Child
11. Saulus Innocent Child

Setup Design

The Greater Idea setup was invented as a Face-to-Face game at the UK Scummers Meet 2013, using a constantly expanded card deck. The setup is intentionally goofy and designed for slightly shorter, less serious games - at the meet, it was frequently played at night. The initial deck was designed by ChannelDelibird but was modified and then vastly expanded by all the other attendees of the UK meet.

A small expansion of 19 cards added to the Greater Idea deck at the 2013 Baltimore meet by the attendees thereof was also intended to serve as the Greatest Idea Mafia deck. CDB was going make a separate page for that game, but Maestro did so instead (with full permission), intending on using it as the basis for the first forum iteration of the game, run a short time after Balto in Summer 2013.