RedSun wrote:Hey guys I'm thinking of hosting a mafia game after Telleo (unless there is another game in queue or if people aren't interested).
I'm going to try to keep it relatively basic as it'll be the first mafia game I host but I have some questions for more experienced mafia designers.
A) How many mislynches should town have before they loose?
In GQ the number was 4 as sjg, Parabellum, UDC and whoever was killed the last day.
Should the number be the same or higher or lower?
B) I want to have some roles. Is it okay to keep some of them hidden mechanics to avoid role calls?
C) Anything else I should know in order to keep balance.
A) I generally go with approximately Acceptable Mislynches=#of scum. I find 10-3, 12-3, 7-2, or 9-2 are generally pretty safe bets, depending on how townsided/scumsided roles are. Others may disagree, but most of my debacles have been caused by messed up mechanics, not ratios.
B) Yes. Roles are generally hidden.
C) Be very very very very careful about role combos. Doc+Cop, for example, turns the game into "follow-the-cop" (Protect the cop with the doc, and use the cop to clear enough people to win), especially if the town knows the doc's in the game. Blockers are supercops with only 1 scum left if they can block the NK, meaning doc+blocker can practically end the game once there's only 1 scum left.
I generally find thinking over how the game could play out is the surest way to stop this sort of thing. Pretend you're a townie with knowledge of everything trying to break the game. Can you? If so, put in the least intrusive counter to that strategy. Make sure it actually stops the problem though (In Push/Pull, I thought of the town's strategy while writing up the rules, but my counter to it failed miserably)!