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The Idea Factory, I think, was too broad an endeavor and setup ideas are often discussed between potential co-hosts and in IRC. However, the most appealing aspect of mafia undoubtedly is the power role. So this thread will be for creating, discussing, and refining roles. A new twist on an old favorite or a new invention hopefully there can be serious discussion on how a role might fit into a game. And every so often I will host an Experimental Mini Mafia game where the roles crafted in this thread are tested.
I'm going to start with a personal favorite from the first experimental game I hosted. That is, the Pharmacist and his evil duplicate the Poisoner (Mad Chemist, Assassin, call him whatever)
Pharmacist - Sends a bottle of pills (pharmacist chooses a color for the pills) to a different player each day. The player can choose to take them or not (the player has no knowledge as to the purpose of the pills). If the takes the pills it will give him/her immunity that night. It's a bit like a tricky Doctor because the player might not trust the medicine or even know what it is for. If the player doesn't take the pills right away, he can always choose to take them the next night.
Poisoner - Exactly identical to the pharmacist BUT the pills will kill the player who ingests them.
The problem with this is I think the poisoner role is weak unless you don't substitute KP for his power. It loses ground as soon as players claim they got pills and what color they are. Say the pharmacist sends Player X blue pills and the poisoner sends Player Y green pills. They both take their pills and Player Y dies. Now everyone knows not to take green pills or at least that blue pills are confirmed safe. The way around this is to remove the color choosing and keep the pills non-descriptive but I feel like that makes it too much of a coinflip and takes a lot of the fun out of the role.
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Bro of Destiny from PTP was my favorite role I've ever made up. BoD has to get people in the thread to ## Fistpound. If he gets 3 people to do it, he gets a kill. 6 people, night immunity. Every four ## Fistpounds after that, he gets another nightlife.
Its absurdly overpowered if you can conf him town, but if the rest of the roles in the game are as ridiculous...
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Pharmacist/Poisoner is a cool role, but yeah - it isn't all that fun once you figure it out.
Another idea could be - give everyone a set of pills to begin with. You are alerted if a Doctor or Poisoner visits you, but not which. If you take the pills during the day after a Poisoner has visited you, you are fine. If you don't, you die the next night. If you take the pills during the day after a Pharmacist has visited, you Overdose. If not, you're fine. In a game with a fair number of Trackers/watchers, that could be cool
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How about a third party that's not centered around killing. The EH in cosmic horror gave me the idea --
Basically, nightly you try and predict who will die -- after a certain number of correct predictions, you win!
Flavour can be whatever. A Bokor Vodouisant, sneaking dolls into people's houses -- if the person dies, the doll collects their life essence. With enough of these dolls, the bokor can unleash a plague on everyone else, killing them outright 'cause they stole his cheese. Dunno, not a big flavour guy.
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I think adding in more Amnesiac or Secret roles would be fun personally.
Even really odd multiroles could be balanced in as well.
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Vengeful Husband/Vengeful Father
Someone in the town has taken something precious from you, and now you'll repay them by taking their life in return. (INSERT BACK-STORY FLAVOUR HERE, ABOUT HOW YOUR LOVED ONE GOT MURDERED/OTHER BAD THINGS) Using your skills as an ex-cop, each night, you may investigate a group of players, to receive information about them. Comparing the results of your investigation with what you remember of the killer, along with the Police Report you "found" before you left the force, you should be able to find the bastard. Once per game, you may submit the name of a player you wish to murder, and if you choose correctly, you'll be able to leave the town a satisfied man. If someone else gets to him first, you'll join their faction out of gratefulness, eager of finding any way to repay them. If you miss your mark, you will be unable to hide the signs of your misdeed, and will appear as Mafia to investigations. Otherwise, you appear as Town.
Basically, someone gets this role, and someone else get's RNG'ed as the killer from the story. (They will be made aware of this). Each person in the game will also get something like four traits, and up to three or so targets may be chosen for investigation each night, revealing something like two of their traits. The player will also be given a vague description of the killer. Then, it just plays out like Guess Who, or some such game, matching traits to the killer. If the player kills the murderer, he wins, and is removed from the game. If someone else kills the killer, the player joins their faction, and gains their win-condition, but also keeps their alignment indicator; town normally, or mafia if they missed with their KP.
So, this kind've works as a townie with a different win-con, who may become a miller, and who also has the potential to join the mafia, as either a goon, or a covered mafia, if they kill the murderer. If they miss their KP, they must try to direct other KP onto who they believe the target to be, and they may continue their investigations. If the killer dies, they also lose their KP, as they no longer have a motivation to kill.
It would also be funny if there was an SK or other third party with KP, as then they have the potential to become a third-party helper. :p
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Traffic Cop
Roleblocks and checks the alignment of the first person to send in an action each night.
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meh i feel like both pharmacist and poisoner have a large degree of randomness, I personally just would not take the pills ever.
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I want a game with double agents. The Departed comes to mind as inspiration. If there's a game in which we have infiltration roles, spies, etc. that would be sweet.
I imagine that the town-sided double agent would work like this: the mafia doesn't know he exists, so it's not in the role setup. He is given a fake VT claim and he cannot claim double agent. He gets anonymous PM/QT ability with one random blue role on the town side (let's say this is a 30 player game.) by being given a QT and a pseudonym. He appears unknown to town-sided sane detectives, and is trackable. Mafia can choose to send him on night kills. He has one vig shot that he can use after the start of day 3, but his identity will be revealed to the mafia and he will automatically be killed as soon as that happens. When he dies in this manner he flips vigilante. If he is lynched he flips double agent.
Double Agent
You were born into a troubled family, one that has been ravaged by the gangfighting and vice in this city. Despite the majority of your relatives taking part in crime, you always had a strongly aligned moral compass. That morality is exactly what encouraged you to become a cop, after all. For 15 long years, you have been training for this, and finally you can see your path to bringing justice to these criminals. You went to prison and served time on a fabricated assault charge in order to effectively infiltrate the family-run mafia. Now, you are detective ____'s anonymous informant. He does not know who you are, and that's precisely because if he did, he'd be a liability. The mafia do not know you are a mole; to them, you are just another goon. Take advantage of this fact to help the town lynch them.
If persuasion does not work, you may use your trusty pistol after day 3. You know, however, that using it on a "fellow" mafioso would mean your swift end. Sometimes, however, sacrifices are necessary to achieve justice.
___________
I suppose a mafia-sided double agent would be possible too, although that seems less fun. The roles can definitely get some tweaking so that they're not too powerful (take away the vig shot, for example)
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kitaman27
United States9244 Posts
What stops the double agent from just posting the entire scum list?
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true, then he should flip vig/VT no matter how he dies. Then even if he's lynched it's impossible to tell whether he was DA or not
EDIT: Also he's not allowed to claim DA. He'd just be like any other townie.
There should also be a way for mafia to identify the DA, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet. I'll think about that.
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I had an idea for your Haunted Mafia:
Demonic Puppeteer : Changes the action of one player to a roleblock once per night. This ability may not be used on Mafia, and in the event that you are targeted by the roleblock, that player's original action goes through on you.
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On September 13 2011 10:59 wherebugsgo wrote:
I want a game with double agents. The Departed comes to mind as inspiration. If there's a game in which we have infiltration roles, spies, etc. that would be sweet.
I imagine that the town-sided double agent would work like this: the mafia doesn't know he exists, so it's not in the role setup. He is given a fake VT claim and he cannot claim double agent. He gets anonymous PM/QT ability with one random blue role on the town side (let's say this is a 30 player game.) by being given a QT and a pseudonym. He appears unknown to town-sided sane detectives, and is trackable. Mafia can choose to send him on night kills. He has one vig shot that he can use after the start of day 3, but his identity will be revealed to the mafia and he will automatically be killed as soon as that happens. When he dies in this manner he flips vigilante. If he is lynched he flips double agent.
Double Agent
You were born into a troubled family, one that has been ravaged by the gangfighting and vice in this city. Despite the majority of your relatives taking part in crime, you always had a strongly aligned moral compass. That morality is exactly what encouraged you to become a cop, after all. For 15 long years, you have been training for this, and finally you can see your path to bringing justice to these criminals. You went to prison and served time on a fabricated assault charge in order to effectively infiltrate the family-run mafia. Now, you are detective ____'s anonymous informant. He does not know who you are, and that's precisely because if he did, he'd be a liability. The mafia do not know you are a mole; to them, you are just another goon. Take advantage of this fact to help the town lynch them.
If persuasion does not work, you may use your trusty pistol after day 3. You know, however, that using it on a "fellow" mafioso would mean your swift end. Sometimes, however, sacrifices are necessary to achieve justice.
___________
I suppose a mafia-sided double agent would be possible too, although that seems less fun. The roles can definitely get some tweaking so that they're not too powerful (take away the vig shot, for example)
This seems like a lot of fun, the problem of course is claim the entire scumteam, and I don't like solutions that require specific post restrictions, it's just too iffy as to what is claiming, as opposed to saying this guy is scum, to talking really confidently about 5 people being scum, to fairly pushing for lynches. I think this could work but you would need to change more of the game ( which could also make it more fun) I'm thinking someone could make a game that has a lot of traitor, backstab, and betrayal roles/abilities like this, and in this game (which would probably be a closed setup) you could set it up so Mafia know that they are mafia but don't know the other mafia, they could be given a QT with anonymous IDs and an IRC where they will use those IDs, and sure they could just come out and tell each other who they are (again I don't like restricting posts unless absolutely necessary) but it would be very dumb because they'd be aware of the possibility or existence of a mole (so I guess it would be semi-open) and know that the mole could ID all of them the second he finds out.
Also on a side-note I personally would alter some of the mechanisms, like for flipping I think the mole should flip mafia but have a handler (as a seperate role) who is the one person who knows who he is so the handler might help him make his cases, but if the handler dies the mole is out on his own and his death will simply show him as another scum.
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On September 13 2011 13:27 Navillus wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2011 10:59 wherebugsgo wrote:
I want a game with double agents. The Departed comes to mind as inspiration. If there's a game in which we have infiltration roles, spies, etc. that would be sweet.
I imagine that the town-sided double agent would work like this: the mafia doesn't know he exists, so it's not in the role setup. He is given a fake VT claim and he cannot claim double agent. He gets anonymous PM/QT ability with one random blue role on the town side (let's say this is a 30 player game.) by being given a QT and a pseudonym. He appears unknown to town-sided sane detectives, and is trackable. Mafia can choose to send him on night kills. He has one vig shot that he can use after the start of day 3, but his identity will be revealed to the mafia and he will automatically be killed as soon as that happens. When he dies in this manner he flips vigilante. If he is lynched he flips double agent.
Double Agent
You were born into a troubled family, one that has been ravaged by the gangfighting and vice in this city. Despite the majority of your relatives taking part in crime, you always had a strongly aligned moral compass. That morality is exactly what encouraged you to become a cop, after all. For 15 long years, you have been training for this, and finally you can see your path to bringing justice to these criminals. You went to prison and served time on a fabricated assault charge in order to effectively infiltrate the family-run mafia. Now, you are detective ____'s anonymous informant. He does not know who you are, and that's precisely because if he did, he'd be a liability. The mafia do not know you are a mole; to them, you are just another goon. Take advantage of this fact to help the town lynch them.
If persuasion does not work, you may use your trusty pistol after day 3. You know, however, that using it on a "fellow" mafioso would mean your swift end. Sometimes, however, sacrifices are necessary to achieve justice.
___________
I suppose a mafia-sided double agent would be possible too, although that seems less fun. The roles can definitely get some tweaking so that they're not too powerful (take away the vig shot, for example)
This seems like a lot of fun, the problem of course is claim the entire scumteam, and I don't like solutions that require specific post restrictions, it's just too iffy as to what is claiming, as opposed to saying this guy is scum, to talking really confidently about 5 people being scum, to fairly pushing for lynches. I think this could work but you would need to change more of the game ( which could also make it more fun) I'm thinking someone could make a game that has a lot of traitor, backstab, and betrayal roles/abilities like this, and in this game (which would probably be a closed setup) you could set it up so Mafia know that they are mafia but don't know the other mafia, they could be given a QT with anonymous IDs and an IRC where they will use those IDs, and sure they could just come out and tell each other who they are (again I don't like restricting posts unless absolutely necessary) but it would be very dumb because they'd be aware of the possibility or existence of a mole (so I guess it would be semi-open) and know that the mole could ID all of them the second he finds out. Also on a side-note I personally would alter some of the mechanisms, like for flipping I think the mole should flip mafia but have a handler (as a seperate role) who is the one person who knows who he is so the handler might help him make his cases, but if the handler dies the mole is out on his own and his death will simply show him as another scum.
Actually I thought about having the entire scumteam be anonymous to each other. Then in their QT if they release their names they'd be outing themselves to the double agent.
I think the claim restriction has to be in place. If there's a mole or something it'd be really dumb if they just claimed. The claim is a gamebreaker. It's not hard to implement though, if someone actually violates that there is a punishment, after all.
And yeah, the flip could work that way too. Like whoever they had PM ability with, if the mole dies they are informed who their informant was and that they died. Then it's up to them to posthumously exonerate them.
I don't see a problem with the mole just outing the entire scumteam either, cause he'll seem really weird to the mafia team in that case and it's pretty unlikely people will believe him that easily.
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Puppet Master The puppetmaster is on his own team. His victory condition is to be the last player standing. To do this, he has the ability to mimic the GM; that is, he can send the GM messages that he wants sent out to other players, and those players will receive those messages as if from the GM (of course, these messages carry no weight; they are only hollow threats, because the puppetmaster does not have the ability to change roles or traits or autolynch players). The puppetmaster also has a single vigilante shot (because, in order to be the last player standing, the final three players must be him, a scum, and a goodie; after getting one of the other two lynched, he can use his one hunt to kill the other and achieve victory). The puppetmaster is also given the names of two baddies from different teams to help him start manipulating the masses. The puppetmaster does not count for baddie parity and if all other baddies are killed, the goodies win (and the puppetmaster loses). If, at any time, the baddies reach parity with the goodies, the baddies win (and the puppetmaster loses)
PM Game may be necessary for this...
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I say we combine these roles into a single one. Here it goes
Vengeful Demonic Pharmaceutical Poision Double Traffic Agent Master (GOD): Whenever you want, you can give pills to people that might poison them or might give them immunity. if you give them immunity, their next 3 night actions become role blocks on random people. However, if you kill someone with your pills you automatically roleblock the first action that comes in during the night. If you are killed after this has occured you switch teams to the alignment of the person you killed. Every night you may message the mod to send target player X messages of your choice regarding any aspect of the game. You win as a third party if player X dies and you are the last person standing.
Sound fun no?
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On September 14 2011 13:28 GreYMisT wrote:
I say we combine these roles into a single one. Here it goes
Vengeful Demonic Pharmaceutical Poision Double Traffic Agent Master (GOD): Whenever you want, you can give pills to people that might poison them or might give them immunity. if you give them immunity, their next 3 night actions become role blocks on random people. However, if you kill someone with your pills you automatically roleblock the first action that comes in during the night. If you are killed after this has occured you switch teams to the alignment of the person you killed. Every night you may message the mod to send target player X messages of your choice regarding any aspect of the game. You win as a third party if player X dies and you are the last person standing.
Sound fun no?
LOL
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So, in Resurrection Mafia, I included Godsend as a role.
Welcome to Resurrection Mafia. Your role is Godsend. If you are killed by any means, you will be resurrected after 1 day has passed. At any point after you have been resurrected, you may sacrifice yourself to prevent all kills from occurring that day, including Lynches.
What do you think of this role? In the right hands it can be very powerful role, but as Ace nearly did in Res. Mafia, a player trying to be killed for the good of the town can really throw people for a loop, especially since Caller and myself are probably the only two hosts who would consider adding a Village Idiot to a game. (BTW if I ever do, the game won't end for the rest of town.)
Also, has anyone experimented with snowball roles yet? For example, a Vigilante who can shoot again if his shot is successful. Or a cop who can investigate twice if town lynches scum.
Or, anti-snowball roles. Scum with trigger roles that awaken if a scumbuddy is killed.
Welcome to Anti-Snowball Mafia! Your role is Shared Roleblocker. You share this ability with iGrok. If either of you are killed, the survivor will become a roleblocker.
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I read about one role/trait that was called Guardian Angel. Multiple people or all the players have it in a game. "when you die you and other dead players may collectively vote to protect one player from mafia KP in the night phase."
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On September 14 2011 13:28 GreYMisT wrote:
I say we combine these roles into a single one. Here it goes
Vengeful Demonic Pharmaceutical Poision Double Traffic Agent Master (GOD): Whenever you want, you can give pills to people that might poison them or might give them immunity. if you give them immunity, their next 3 night actions become role blocks on random people. However, if you kill someone with your pills you automatically roleblock the first action that comes in during the night. If you are killed after this has occured you switch teams to the alignment of the person you killed. Every night you may message the mod to send target player X messages of your choice regarding any aspect of the game. You win as a third party if player X dies and you are the last person standing.
Sound fun no?
I would like to make an addendum to the above. You send in your Pill target during the night, but the effect does not take place until the next night post. They will always give immunity unless someone, anyone, places a vote for you during the day. In that case then you become consumed by rage, and the pills will become tainted, killing their target. You are a reverse drug addict, meaning you Must give your pills to someone every night.
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we call jesters Village Idiots, as a person who has won as such a role they are fucking retarded to play as and just messes up the game unless there is a high KP count.
+ Show Spoiler +I realize this is hypocritical since i picked being VI that game.
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What ON said. VI is normally not used because people hate it 
Executioner is also called lyncher and that one does get used occasionally. I know it was used in personality mafia, but im not sure if it was used in any others.
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Ok how about this one
Silencer you may target one person each night to not be eligible to talk for the first half of the day. Their speaking priviledges are restored once half the day has elapsed, or if someone posts one of the following code words: X, Y, Z, ect...
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On September 15 2011 09:15 GreYMisT wrote:
Ok how about this one
Silencer you may target one person each night to not be eligible to talk for the first half of the day. Their speaking priviledges are restored once half the day has elapsed, or if someone posts one of the following code words: X, Y, Z, ect...
This could be interesting.
I think it could be even more interesting if they're silenced until the last 2-3 hours of the day or something. Only half the day isn't that fun haha.
other ideas:
Postman:
You are the town's postman. Lately mail's been a bit slow, but the town has been on edge because of the increase in organized crime. As a righteous citizen you feel that you have an obligation to do whatever you can to help.
Each night you may choose to leave an anonymous message in one person's mailbox. PM me the message and I will pass it along to your recipient. Who knows? Maybe they will choose to respond.
Be very careful, however. If you visit a person the mafia target the same night, you may certainly be in danger. If they visit you or any of your correspondents after you've begun talking to them, they may find out that you've been secretly attempting to organize the town against them.
And of course, if you leave a note with the mafia, all bets are off.
_______________________________
Leaves note with townie = townie gets anonymous message from mod with link to quicktopic and message from Postman. Postman is provided the QT.
Leaves note with mafia = 20% chance to die the following night. 80% chance for moderator to send note as normal.
Mafia kills one of postman's correspondents: mafia discover some of the "notes" (given a screenshot of QT or something)
Mafia kills postman: mafia discover postman's QTs, all of his correspondents.
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kitaman27
United States9244 Posts
Hehe that reminds me of the role I was going to use for Fishball before that bully Ver came along and stole the setup :p
You are Fishball! There is a small chance you might be the mole, so don't bother trying until day three. Your love of PMs (and ponies) has inspired you to reopen your post office services, the Pony Express. Once per cycle you may select a mason target. During the day cycle, you may pm the player, but they may not respond. During the night cycle, they may pm you, but you may not respond. You win with town.
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Foolishness
United States3044 Posts
Yes. DrH's Haunted Mafia and Incognito's XVIII. These games aren't as popular because they are hard to balance and you generally need a large quantity of players. Incognito's game had 51 players and DrH's had 61. These games tend to last a long while as well because of the setup. For example Incognito's game lasted until there were only ~6 people alive. @.@
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"However, the most appealing aspect of mafia undoubtedly is the power role."
If a player agrees with this statement, I honestly don't want to play with them.
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WW mafia also had 2 scum factions, if you are still looking cyber
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On September 15 2011 10:26 Zona wrote:
"However, the most appealing aspect of mafia undoubtedly is the power role."
If a player agrees with this statement, I honestly don't want to play with them.
It's the most immediately interesting and usually the first thing people notice/look at when looking through a new set-up.
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FBI Agent - Once per night you may plant a bug on a player. The following day, any night communications they participated in will be returned to you but all names will be anonymous.
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Librarian - Librarian can loan out a book to a player during each night, which the player returns to the librarian next night. If the player used a night action however, the book will become overdue and the librarian will know. The Librarian has 4 books with different due dates (1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days) that he or she can give out at any time. All at once or at different nights.
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On September 15 2011 10:43 GreYMisT wrote:
WW mafia also had 2 scum factions, if you are still looking cyber
as did Insane Mafia 2
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made this role for deconduo's PTP
Whistleblower Once per night, you can track a player by stalking them, recording their actions and taking note of their visitors. When you die, all the information is leaked in the Night/Day post you were killed in. Your alignment shows up as Black regardless of what alignment you are.
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I think Ace's Russian Vigilante needs to be mentioned here, not sure if it was original but it was pretty cool.
You can shoot starting Night 1 and you start with 1 bullet in the chamber. If the target survives the hit nothing happens and you can try again the next night. However, kill a Town aligned player and you will load an extra bullet in the chamber and play Russian Roullete with yourself. If you survive you will lose your Vigilante powers but still appear as a Russian Vigilante. Give me 4 names on a list, and one of them will randomly pick up the Gun and do what you just did, except there will be 2 bullets in the chamber if they fail, 3 for the next...up to 6. If Mafia gets the gun it will act as an extra 1 shot night kill without them having to play Roulette.
Upon someone successfully killing themself or Mafia using it the gun stops being passed around. No one except you knows exactly how the gun behaves. To them it just appears as a gun lying around.
You are compulsive and so is anyone who touches the gun. You win when all threats to the Town are eliminated. Good luck!
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It's original 
After the game is over I'll talk about the role.
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Came up with a few roles during class today. You may recognize the names of some of these.
Lord Kanti, the firestarter
Target Player is consumed by Flame. Anyone who visits this player tonight will die (their actions will still go through). The player dies at the end of the next night if he has not already.
Oblivious Detective and Detective's Aide
Detective investigates a player. Aide receives results. Helps to weaken the Detective role - one part is useless without the other. You can experiment with the Aide and DT not knowing who the other is, or Backup Aides.
Drug Dealer
Anyone who visits you is roleblocked the following night.
Attention Whore
You are immune to all actions and kills. If no one visits you at night, you die.
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney
Once per game, you may Object to a statement made by another player. If possible, the Moderator will confirm the statement to be true or false. (So, things about setup, alignment, role, etc: "iGrok feels scummy" is not mod-confirmable, "iGrok is scum" is mod-confirmable)
Lord Kanti is my favorite. Stems from a setup I was writing that will never be played.
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The DoctorHelvetica - Leaves every game after 2 days because he is upset about something
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On September 23 2011 13:38 DoctorHelvetica wrote:
The DoctorHelvetica - Leaves every game after 2 days because he is upset about something
We call that a Tree Stump.
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On September 23 2011 13:34 iGrok wrote:
Came up with a few roles during class today. You may recognize the names of some of these.
Lord Kanti, the firestarter
Target Player is consumed by Flame. Anyone who visits this player tonight will die (their actions will still go through). The player dies at the end of the next night if he has not already.
Oblivious Detective and Detective's Aide
Detective investigates a player. Aide receives results. Helps to weaken the Detective role - one part is useless without the other. You can experiment with the Aide and DT not knowing who the other is, or Backup Aides.
Drug Dealer
Anyone who visits you is roleblocked the following night.
Attention Whore
You are immune to all actions and kills. If no one visits you at night, you die.
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney
Once per game, you may Object to a statement made by another player. If possible, the Moderator will confirm the statement to be true or false. (So, things about setup, alignment, role, etc: "iGrok feels scummy" is not mod-confirmable, "iGrok is scum" is mod-confirmable)
Lord Kanti is my favorite. Stems from a setup I was writing that will never be played.
rofl this is great.
I love the Ace Attorney one.
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EPT
