Posted November 07, 2015
Well, given the table has now officially been flipped, I'd like to reveal a bit more information:
The number of Station Crew and Aliens (Mafia) at the end of the game were 4 and 4. The Neutral faction was doing quite well at effective strength 3 of a possible 5.
And you were about to unveil an important note damaging McHack's "confirmation on" Day 1 as well, when Flubbucket would have had included in his flip:
HE WASN'T: Angela Rimmer (Head of Robotics)
There was something about that condition - it was carefully worded so that if a Neutral human could be found, the Droids could win with them. Flubbucket was recorded as having been aboard Space Station Epsilon, he just wasn't the Head of Robotics.
(Also, with the names revealed so far, there must at least be some evidence of me being a Red Dwarf fan.) :P
As for the Crisis Events? Well, as I assume some of you will have already found out from the Dead Thread, I'd initially gone for something along the lines of adding up the various stats and comparing them against a particular number, but I'd had trouble with that because when I ended up with a betrayal it almost always ended up with a death without much room for middle ground.
So I went back to the drawing board, took inspiration from (as I'm sure Leonard might have worked out) Resistance, and just went with the additional restriction of "This person's stats must beat X to succeed." This, to work with another mechanic that the Aliens had, meant the first mission had to start out somewhat easier so that the aliens would actually have a chance of succeeding if they so wished (they had a maximum stat of 5 at that point). The second one's difficulty was, as I'm sure you would have worked out, 7. Looking back, it's possible I might have done something with the difference between stat and difficulty if I wanted them added up, but by then I'd already added the Health and Safety Executive's ability.
So, to sum up things I would do differently next time:
1) Get the PMs sorted out completely initially, and have less need to interfere with PM attempts. Any required attempts should be done by modkill, which I was possibly too lenient with this game anyway. :P
2) Clarify the Alien mechanics beforehand - I must admit I mangled them a bit when I was adjusting them for a fourth player, and they ended up with a power that was very hard to access without Town accidentally supporting them. Speaking of mangling things:
3) Pay enough attention to the creation of one extra role to ensure that they've got the standard Droid abilities, not the Roleblocker one. Given how the game was going at that point, when I noticed I pretty much thought "Screw it, let's roll with it." :P
4) Work out more time to set aside for running votecounts and such - my schedule's been a bit all over the place, moreso as of late, and I've not been able to be as attentive as I could be.
5) Attempt a similar setup once more with a new intruder objective and repicking which roles are scum and which are Town. A new Neutral objective would be nice as well. (If anyone wishes to use Crisis Events or whatever you want to call similar rules in their own scenario, feel free.)
My apologies to all for the way it turned out, and for my failed attempts at damage control. I'll sit the next game out - less to do with this game and more to do with knowing perfectly well I've got something upcoming that will mean I'm occupied or asleep (no middle ground) for at least 48 hours, which is on the unacceptable side of absence lengths for Mafia. :P
The number of Station Crew and Aliens (Mafia) at the end of the game were 4 and 4. The Neutral faction was doing quite well at effective strength 3 of a possible 5.
And you were about to unveil an important note damaging McHack's "confirmation on" Day 1 as well, when Flubbucket would have had included in his flip:
HE WASN'T: Angela Rimmer (Head of Robotics)
There was something about that condition - it was carefully worded so that if a Neutral human could be found, the Droids could win with them. Flubbucket was recorded as having been aboard Space Station Epsilon, he just wasn't the Head of Robotics.
(Also, with the names revealed so far, there must at least be some evidence of me being a Red Dwarf fan.) :P
As for the Crisis Events? Well, as I assume some of you will have already found out from the Dead Thread, I'd initially gone for something along the lines of adding up the various stats and comparing them against a particular number, but I'd had trouble with that because when I ended up with a betrayal it almost always ended up with a death without much room for middle ground.
So I went back to the drawing board, took inspiration from (as I'm sure Leonard might have worked out) Resistance, and just went with the additional restriction of "This person's stats must beat X to succeed." This, to work with another mechanic that the Aliens had, meant the first mission had to start out somewhat easier so that the aliens would actually have a chance of succeeding if they so wished (they had a maximum stat of 5 at that point). The second one's difficulty was, as I'm sure you would have worked out, 7. Looking back, it's possible I might have done something with the difference between stat and difficulty if I wanted them added up, but by then I'd already added the Health and Safety Executive's ability.
So, to sum up things I would do differently next time:
1) Get the PMs sorted out completely initially, and have less need to interfere with PM attempts. Any required attempts should be done by modkill, which I was possibly too lenient with this game anyway. :P
2) Clarify the Alien mechanics beforehand - I must admit I mangled them a bit when I was adjusting them for a fourth player, and they ended up with a power that was very hard to access without Town accidentally supporting them. Speaking of mangling things:
3) Pay enough attention to the creation of one extra role to ensure that they've got the standard Droid abilities, not the Roleblocker one. Given how the game was going at that point, when I noticed I pretty much thought "Screw it, let's roll with it." :P
4) Work out more time to set aside for running votecounts and such - my schedule's been a bit all over the place, moreso as of late, and I've not been able to be as attentive as I could be.
5) Attempt a similar setup once more with a new intruder objective and repicking which roles are scum and which are Town. A new Neutral objective would be nice as well. (If anyone wishes to use Crisis Events or whatever you want to call similar rules in their own scenario, feel free.)
My apologies to all for the way it turned out, and for my failed attempts at damage control. I'll sit the next game out - less to do with this game and more to do with knowing perfectly well I've got something upcoming that will mean I'm occupied or asleep (no middle ground) for at least 48 hours, which is on the unacceptable side of absence lengths for Mafia. :P
