Smalltown

A Smalltown setup is a setup where almost not only are all the roles in the game public knowledge (as with an Open Setup), but also who has what role. That is, if one of the roles is a Tracker, everyone in the game not only knows that there's a Tracker, but they also know which player it is.

Alignment is still hidden, and is very commonly distributed randomly. Instead of being tied to specific roles in the design, random roles will be picked to be in the Mafia or to be the Serial Killer, and will then gain factional kills or abilities in addition to their normal ones.

Smalltown setups can be extremely difficult to balance due to their open nature. In addition, if the anti-town roles are distributed randomly, care needs to be taken to ensure that scum can't end up with ridiculously overpowered roles (eg, a scum Vigilante) or ridiculously underpowered roles (a scum Doctor may be in a position where they can't kill a confirmed town without outting themselves).

Smalltown games, by their nature, remove roleclaiming and mass claim as an element of the game. On the other hand, since all roles are known, they do introduce a kind of logic puzzle element with regard to directing the town's night actions in order to narrow down the possible killers on a given night.

Because the entire setup is open, some moderators perform a draft where players are allowed to pick their role, very similar to a Pick Your Power game.

Examples

Adele is the one who first hosted a Smalltown setup.

Mini 382: Smalltown
Mini 421: Smalltown Scrubs
Mini 536: Heroes Smalltown
Mini 589: SSBB Smalltown
Mini 627: Riverworld Smalltown
Mini 655: Eddie Izzard Mafia
Mini 717: Alpha Centauri Smalltown
Mini 779: Killer in Smalltown Y
Mini 849: Return to Smalltown Y
Mini 969: Smalltown: Stardust Mafia

See also Split Motive/Role.