Westworld Mafia (input welcome)

[kimpossible]

Apparently once I get my first game idea solidified, the floodgates open.

I'm at about verison 6.0 on the ruleset and liking its direction, but I’m still seeking input on any obvious game-breaking strategies for either side, or ways that it seems just not fun.

This is a Westworld (the HBO show) themed game for 12 players. It does not require familiarity with the show. Originally I included a couple mechanics that made it potentially a little spoiler-y, but I think the current version eliminates that problem. The flavor is mostly just flavor, and the mechanics don't really give any plot twists away.

The Basics

1. The game begins with 9 White Hats, 2 Black Hats, and a third party called the Man in Black who will choose his alignment.
2. The White Hats' goal is to eliminate all Black Hats.
3. The Black Hats' goal is to achieve parity with the White Hats.
4. The Man in Black does not count toward either team for purposes of parity, regardless of his own alignment.
5. All players will have either a real identity, or a cover identity for scum and the 3P. Top level identities are flavor only and will be revealed at the outset of the game.
6. The Black Hats will know each others' identities and have access to team chat at all times.
7. Town will have a non-optional lynch every day. Scum will have a kill every night.
8. Scum may or may not have additional roles not listed here.

The Maze

1. An item called The Maze starts out in the hands of a random player. The location of The Maze is not known to town or scum.
2. The player holding The Maze is immune to both lynch and NK.
3. A player may not receive The Maze back the night after they passed it (so a player who held it D1 passes it N1, and cannot receive it again until N3).
4. The player holding The Maze will learn it is in their possession at the beginning of the night phase. They choose a target to pass it to. If an illegal pass is attempted, The Maze will be randomly reassigned to a legal target.
5. Each night scum may target a player to steal The Maze from. If the attempt is successful they may take it for themselves (assuming either is a legal recipient), or redirect it to another player.
6. If the target recipient is night killed, The Maze will be randomly reassigned to a new legal target.
7. In any case where The Maze does not go to its target recipient, the player who passed it will not be informed that the pass was unsuccessful.
8. The Maze is discarded at 1:2 to prevent an auto-loss for either side.

The Man in Black

1. One player is the Man in Black. The Man in Black chooses his alignment Night 0. This choice is permanent.
2. Neither the MIB nor the scum team will know each other's identity, regardless of the MIB's alignment.
3. The MIB is provided a cover identity, but may choose to reveal himself if he deems it strategically advantageous for the team he is aligned with.
4. The Maze is not for the Man in Black. It may not be passed to him, nor sent to him via random redirect. If someone attempts to pass The Maze to the MIB, it will be randomly reassigned to a legal target.
5. Every night the MIB may target a player to search for The Maze. If he is successful...
   
   1. ... and is wearing a White Hat, he may redirect the night kill to the Maze holder, and learn the original target. He may not redirect the shot if he was the target.
   2. ... and is wearing a Black Hat, he may kill the target and take The Maze for himself. This is the only way he can get The Maze. The next night it will go to a random legal target.
6. The MIB shares the victory condition of the team he is aligned with.
7. The Man in Black does not count toward either team for purposes of parity, regardless of his own alignment.
8. The MIB's identity, but not his alignment, will be revealed if he is killed.

Order of Night Operations

These may be consolidated in terms of when the orders are requested in order to keep the night phase as short as possible.

1. Maze location revealed to player in possession
2. Maze holder chooses pass target
3. MIB chooses investigate target and action if successful
4. Scum chooses targets for night kill, Maze steal, and redirect
5. MIB target resolves
6. Night kill resolves
7. Maze pass or redirect resolves

[Strategus]

Really cool idea. I will look through the rules and comment.

[kimpossible]

Really cool idea. I will look through the rules and comment.

Thanks! Appreciate input.

[Strategus]

P.S. Love the new hairdoo!

[kimpossible]

P.S. Love the new hairdoo!

Lol. That's not really me. I have red hair, but it's much shorter. I just loved EAH's description of me delivering a verbal barb between sips of bourbon.

[Strategus]

Looks intriguing. I can't see any obvious problems, but I am not the most experienced in these kind of things.

[Keirador]

This seems really fresh and original, and from my untrained, never-been-a-GM eye, well-balanced.

The only rule I think you could potentially have trouble with is #6, the MIB not being permitted to reveal his identity. That is notoriously difficult to enforce in a satisfying way. Are you prepared to mod-kill the MIB for giving a "hint" that doesn't quite seem fair game to you?

[Keirador]

Like if the MIB is something that for your mechanics you don't want revealed, you could put in mechanics that make it antithetical to the MIB's win condition to reveal. Like if either faction can, by majority, guess who the MIB is, then the MIB will automatically lose. But I kinda suspect that revealing already comes with its own, built-in risks here, PARTICULARLY if the MIB himself can never hold the Maze.

[shadowface]

Looks like a really fun design!

Like if the MIB is something that for your mechanics you don't want revealed, you could put in mechanics that make it antithetical to the MIB's win condition to reveal. Like if either faction can, by majority, guess who the MIB is, then the MIB will automatically lose. But I kinda suspect that revealing already comes with its own, built-in risks here, PARTICULARLY if the MIB himself can never hold the Maze.

+1 to this. It's really hard to stop someone from revealing if they want to, because what if they actually slip up and let the town know their role by accident? If you're not going to punish them for a mistake like that, they can just pretend to do that whenever they want to claim, or just not try to protect their identity at all. Especially if you allow indirect hint attempts... it's not hard to make an indirect hint that everyone will notice and read into. Too much grey area!

This means he may not reveal the location of The Maze during the day phase, and includes being allowed to say he is the MIB if shadowface some wiseass townie calls for everyone else to state that they are the MIB.

Hehe, that must have freaked you out a little

[kimpossible]

This seems really fresh and original, and from my untrained, never-been-a-GM eye, well-balanced.

The only rule I think you could potentially have trouble with is #6, the MIB not being permitted to reveal his identity. That is notoriously difficult to enforce in a satisfying way. Are you prepared to mod-kill the MIB for giving a "hint" that doesn't quite seem fair game to you?

I think my intent here was to not have MIB's player freaked out that they might be killed for saying something revealing by accident, like I was for the first few days of playing Angel in Fable.

Like if the MIB is something that for your mechanics you don't want revealed, you could put in mechanics that make it antithetical to the MIB's win condition to reveal. Like if either faction can, by majority, guess who the MIB is, then the MIB will automatically lose. But I kinda suspect that revealing already comes with its own, built-in risks here, PARTICULARLY if the MIB himself can never hold the Maze.

I guess the "no reveal" rule is largely an artifact from the previous iteration of the rules that I discarded. In that version MIB revealing himself would have been utterly game breaking.

Maybe it's not, in this version. What do you think?

Also, I don't think the rules here indicate that the MIB can't hold The Maze, do they? Was that a suggestion or an interpretation?