Play Diplomacy Online

Based on the tabletop game (by Oink Games) of the same name, Insider combines the social deduction and uninformed majority aspect of Mafia with 20 questions. In short, a word or phrase has to be guessed. A representative of the "Town" faction knows the word or phrase and will be able to respond to yes or no questions posed by all other players. That player is The Master. The rest of the town, known as The Commons, must ask the questions to the master to identify the word or phrase.

If the word or phrase is not guessed, everyone loses.

Oh, and one other thing: The Insider. The Insider, like the Master, knows the word or phrase. And the Insider is pretending to be one of the Commons. And that leads us to the full set of victory conditions:

The Master (1 player): The Master will know a word or short phrase. The other players will ask the Master Yes or No questions to attempt to determine the word or short phrase. The Master’s victory condition is the same as The Commons. The identity of the Master is known to all.
The Commons (2-6 players): Essentially the town faction, they do not know the short word or phrase and are attempting to figure it out by asking the Master Yes or No questions. They win if the word or phrase is guessed in time and if the Insider is correctly identified.
The Insider (1 player): The Insider, like the commons, can ask the Master Yes or No questions, but the Insider will have received the word or phrase and will know it at the start of the game. The Insider wins if the word or phrase is guessed in time and if the Commons fails to successfully identify the Insider. The identity of the Insider is known at the start of the game only to the Insider and the GM.

In short, the Insider has to help the Commons guess the word and phrase, because the Insider loses if it is not guessed. But... if the Insider is too obvious about helping, the insider can lose because they are too easily identified.

A preliminary rule set for a forum adaptation I have worked on is here. Please let me know what you think!

Alright, I think this could be interesting.

Sounds really fun Zoomzip! Unlike 20 Q's, there is no limit to how many questions the town can ask, right? It's just a time limit?

shadowfriend1 wrote:Sounds really fun Zoomzip! Unlike 20 Q's, there is no limit to how many questions the town can ask, right? It's just a time limit?

That is correct, but do note the one rule about not being able to ask more than three questions in a row before another player can ask a question.

When live, we played it as "As many questions as you can in 5 minutes, and no player can ask two questions in a row" -- It seemed to work well.

Seems interesting for sure. Is there a backboard the town eventually runs up against in terms of time? If not, what's the incentive for the town to search for the phrase at all until after they've identified the Insider?

Telleo wrote:Seems interesting for sure. Is there a backboard the town eventually runs up against in terms of time? If not, what's the incentive for the town to search for the phrase at all until after they've identified the Insider?

So there is the 48 hour deadline in which if the phrase is not guessed, everyone (including the town) loses. Now, you might say, "OK, let's have the town shut up and force the insider to guess the phrase, outing the insider and making our life easier." That is why there is this rule in the game:

"The GM reserves the right to award the game to the Insider if he feels a sufficient effort to guess the word or phrase was not made by the Commons."

If the Town just sits back for 46 hours in the thought they can force the Insider's hand, I will simply award the game to the Insider.

All:

Insider may be one of the next games to go and may enter sign-ups in the near future. Please be advised this will be a short game, lasting no more than one week from start to finish. If you have questions or thoughts, please share them!