Anybody want to help a prospective GM?

[JoeHoya06]

Not sure what the right venue is for this post, so I'm putting it here.

I have an idea for a theme for a game, and have a couple thoughts on some of the mechanics as well. However, I've never run a game before, so there are questions I will inevitably have along the way.

Are any of our humble GMs willing to be pestered by some PMs over the next couple weeks or months as I work on this, and to serve as a sort of sounding board? I don't know if it would preclude them from playing in the game – I assume that it will, as I'm sure I'll be asking specific questions that might give them more insight into the game than a standard player would have – but I would greatly appreciate the assistance. Having someone else to talk to about it along the way might also spur me on to make sure I finish it, too.

The idea is "Football/Soccer Mafia," where the "town" is a team where some members are actually trying to destroy the club from the inside, for reasons I have yet to make up.

As such, the obvious number of players would be 11, but I was also thinking it could be for 12. My first question, in either case, is what is a good balance of town/scum at those numbers? Are there any good articles somewhere on the internets that talk about the basics of game construction and would cover this topic?

I appreciate any info/input, and also if this theme has already been done, please let me know so I don't get halfway down the rabbit hole just to discover I'm late to the party!

[Nanook]

Feel free to pester me with questions. I'm not much of a soccer fan, but I know the basics and I am reasonably decent at getting weird games playably balanced.

[shadowface]

Yay, sounds fun Joe! I'd be happy to answer your questions or act as a sounding board.

As such, the obvious number of players would be 11, but I was also thinking it could be for 12. My first question, in either case, is what is a good balance of town/scum at those numbers? Are there any good articles somewhere on the internets that talk about the basics of game construction and would cover this topic?

With 11 players, I'd go 2/9 or 3/8 dependent on the other mechanics in the game. If the ratio isn't obvious, other factors can be adjusted for balance (such as power roles or whether the scum get day chat).
Don't know much about resources for this but this ol' post is solid IMO: https://playdiplomacy.com/forum/viewtop ... 07&t=20802

And I don't think it matters if the theme's been done, just run it anyways! You'll add your own flare to it.

[mhsmith0]

Also in case you're curious a really awesome dude (whoever could it be? ) wrote up an article on balancing that was posted on MU:
https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/th ... hsmith0%29

Another decent piece on the subject was:
https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/th ... n-Angel%29

I'd probably generally suggest running your first game as an open (i.e. all roles/rules/etc are known in advance by all players) and trying to eyeball results from some other opens that have been run (ones you've played in should be particularly easy to remember ) to get an overall sense. It'll also give people a chance to pipe in and give you a sense of something that's broadly reasonable balance-wise.

PS You can always run a sports team theme relating to stuff like steroids (maybe the "scum" are the people trying to expose the team's cheating?), gambling (the scum are working with gamblers to run the team into the ground), etc

[mhsmith0]

You'll add your own flare to it.

[JoeHoya06]

Thank you everyone for offering to read things over/sharing those links. I appreciate it!

That said, I saw in the AAR of a past game that Condude wouldn't be playing again for a while but was available for GM assistance, so I reached out to him to see if he'd be willing to help me out, and he's been incredibly gracious the last couple days in reading over what I'd put together thus far.

The reason I asked him is, of course, so you all could join the game when it eventually runs!

I'm going to post something in this thread tonight with some of the bare bones and look forward to everyone's input!

[shadowface]

That said, I saw in the AAR of a past game that Condude wouldn't be playing again for a while but was available for GM assistance, so I reached out to him to see if he'd be willing to help me out, and he's been incredibly gracious the last couple days in reading over what I'd put together thus far.

Condude is a noob though

[JoeHoya06]

That said, I saw in the AAR of a past game that Condude wouldn't be playing again for a while but was available for GM assistance, so I reached out to him to see if he'd be willing to help me out, and he's been incredibly gracious the last couple days in reading over what I'd put together thus far.

Condude is a noob though

Don't worry, I declined his suggestion that one of the rules be "Shadow is auto-lynched on D1."

(I changed it to "Shadow is auto-NK'd on N0.")

[shadowface]

That said, I saw in the AAR of a past game that Condude wouldn't be playing again for a while but was available for GM assistance, so I reached out to him to see if he'd be willing to help me out, and he's been incredibly gracious the last couple days in reading over what I'd put together thus far.

Condude is a noob though

Don't worry, I declined his suggestion that one of the rules be "Shadow is auto-lynched on D1."

(I changed it to "Shadow is auto-NK'd on N0.")

Yeah, you see? Classic noob mistake to let me make it to Day 1