Surprisingly Normal Mini Mafia VI - Page 3

You can edit your posts since the game hasn't started. Most people here will just double post since that's what we're used to, and this is the only place on TL where double posting is not frowned upon.

There are no typo's in the possible setups. They are designed this way to prevent either side from having complete information about the setup (at least at the start of the game). Consider the possibilities if we do what you suggested:

1 Mafia Role Blocker, 2 Mafia Goons, 7 Town, 1 Medic, 1 Detective
3 Mafia Goons, 1 Medic, 8 Town.
3 Mafia Goons, 1 Detective, 8 Town.

Say you are mafia and your team has a roleblocker. Then you know for absolute certainty that the town has a medic and a DT. However, if you get the DT role, you have no idea if there is a medic or not. This benefits the mafia as they have the information, and can use that to their advantage.

By adding in the fourth option, 1 Roleblocker 2 mafia 9 town, neither side has complete information anymore. Mafia have the roleblocker, but they have no idea whether they are up against 2 blues or not.

To say that the second setup is "weaker" for the town (or what have you) is not entirely true. This is especially true when the player base is good. For every good player, getting a blue role is a stocking stuffer; it's nice to have but not going to do that much in the long term. Good mafia players will kill the blues before they can pose a threat, and good town players never rely on blue roles to win the game.

Consider these two setups:

3 Mafia 1 medic 8 town
3 Mafia 9 town.

Is the first setup more town favored than the second? Yes. How much? Very little (remember the Medic cannot self protect). If we could run an experiment and test each of these 1000 times I doubt we'd see a significant difference in the outcomes. If you RNG these experiments they will converge to the same outcome as well (obviously doesn't mean anything to most people, but I find it interesting).