The Syndicate

Nobody has to do anything they don’t want to do as a host.

G-Man wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:37 am I realize that the merging of cultures means that newer folks won’t know host tendencies, but I have always put the onus on my players to ask questions. Sometimes the answer will be “hell no, I can’t/won’t answer that,” but I’m usually pretty open with clarifying things. Don’t get mad about sitting in a dark room because you never asked the landlord where the light switch is.

I don't think this is necessarily the wrong idea, but also keep in mind: to ask the landlord where the light switch is, someone must first know that there is a light switch. Sometimes hosting philosophy is so different from culture-to-culture that certain things seem fundamental or obvious -- and nobody realizes they even should ask the question or that a question is possible until it's already too late.

This list of guidelines would help players especially to know what questions to ask.

These will not be rules for the site. They'll be guidelines to help hosts if they want it, and to help players communicate their questions to hosts about their hosting philosophies.

However, if there is any one thing that I think must be an actual rule, it's that we cannot have players talking about other ongoing games. This involves multiple hosts with different philosophies. For example:

I am hosting Game X.

Bob is hosting Game Y.

I absolutely do not want players in Game Y talking about what's happening in Game X while it is still running, and I don't care what Bob's rules are on the matter.

The only way to prevent b/s is to make that one a literal rule. And I don't think it's unreasonable. Hosts work too hard to have the integrity of their games threatened by that kind of cheese.

Justplayingitcool wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:50 am Is this normally standard to reveal the full role on the Syndicate? On my homesite, we only reveal their role title.

Norms will vary considerably around the internet, but I believe the most typical would be a full reveal (presuming a closed setup where this distinction is relevant).

We've been throwing together some rules/design guidelines for what is typical or "standard" around the Mafia landscape (mileage will always vary). I will share a very rough draft here just to give folks view of where my own head is at. Feel free to comment, critique, and question -- but let's try to avoid outright argument. JJJ already has a headache.

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Jay, how did you format this nonsense?
It's just a draft, so any final product will look prettier than this. Essentially the underlined bits and top row details per item indicate a standard based upon what is typical of Mafia across the Internet, not just on The Syndicate. This is a nice baseline, because the multitude of game cultures colliding here will rarely agree on the specifics. So let's start with those standards. The bullet points then describe further guidelines and advisement for hosts who wish to deviate from any underlined standard.

To emphasize this one more time in case anyone gets worried: None of this is mandatory for hosts. It's just a resource.

Number of factions: 2+
- The most standard number of factions is just 2 (civilians and mafia).
- If you incorporate more than 2 factions, it is generally a good practice to inform players even in a closed setup, or at least ensure it's readily plausible for them to figure it out (especially if multiple factions are hostile to the civilians).
- If you incorporate significantly non-standard factions (e.g. no mafia team, multiple mafia teams, cults, any kind of faction change/recruitment, numerous independents) it is prudent to warn players in the sign-up thread.

Day/Night phase cycles: 48 hour days and 24 hour nights
- 24/24 for faster games
- More than 72-hour cycles is uncommon and should be carefully considered
- Cycles not based around multiples of 24 (e.g. 36/12, 60/12, 12/12) are plausible but require more direct host interaction with the poll function.

Thread during night phase: Closed and locked
- Open nights are relatively common, but less standard across other Mafia communities.

Mafia-aligned behind the scenes chat: Open at all times | Dead mafia do not participate
- Some communities more often close this during day phases.
- Sometimes dead mafia can remain for off-topic chat only; this is a nice compromise
- Classical Syndicate games have some precedent for dead mafia game-relevant participation. If this is incorporated it should be made known to players.

Voting: Not obligatory | Freely changeable | Poll-based | Public | Voting for oneself is illegal
- If you view voting as a necessary component of your participation standard, ensure players are informed.
- If you wish to limit vote changes, ensure players are informed.
- If you wish to count votes in an official capacity in some way other than the poll feature, ensure players are given clear instructions for proper voting procedures.
- If a game will feature non-standard voting such a private voting, it's prudent to inform players in the sign-up thread.
- If you wish to make self-voting legal, that ought to be featured in the game rules.

Tie-breaking: Randomization
- Anything else is generally non-standard and players should be made aware (e.g. no elimination, double elimination, mafia decides ties).
- Tiebreaker roles are generally innocuous and can be included without necessarily needing to inform players at the onset of play.

Day phase elimination: Plurality and/or majority hammer | Single eliminations only | No elimination option available
- Most communities likely view the "majority" or "hammer" vote as the first one to exceed 50% of living players. If you desire a different percentage (e.g. two-thirds), ensure players are informed.
- If you don't want a hammer vote and prefer plurality decisions at deadlines, ensure players are informed.
- If you wish to allow non-standard eliminations such as double-eliminations, ensure players are informed.
- If you don't want to include a "no elimination" option, it's good to ensure this would not put civilians in an unfair position near the end of a game.

Survival win conditions: Independent roles only
- Survival win conditions for civilians and/or mafia are extremely rare in other Mafia communities. If you intend for your game to operate this way, it's important players are informed in the sign-up thread.

Civilian-to-mafia ratio: From 3-1 to 4-1 (e.g. 3 vs. 9 with a powerful town faction or 3 vs. 12 with a predominantly vanilla town faction)
- This can vary significantly depending upon game design
- Games are considerably more difficult to balance at ratios less than 3-to-1 or greater than 4-to-1.
- The larger the game in terms of player roster, the more this ratio can skew slightly away from civilians without ruining balance.
- Whatever your ratio, it's important to try to design a power role system that will work appropriately within that ratio.

Balance: Click here to see recommendations and guidelines from JaggedJimmyJay and here for classical Syndicate hosting guidelines from Epignosis. Feel free to message either one of them for advice if you wish it; their games have proven to result in frequent wins for both civilians and mafia at large sample sizes.

Role reveals when players die: Full reveals of both role and alignment for day phase eliminations and night kills
- A classically Syndicate style is to fully janitor (hide) night killed roles and alignments. It's good to warn players of this in the sign-up thread if you intend for it.
- No-flip games (no reveals at all) are somewhat common in some circles, particularly with mountainous (no power role) games. This is still non-standard and players should be made aware.

Night action targeting: Self-targeting illegal | Double-targeting legal except for protective roles
- These rules vary widely along the Mafia landscape outside The Syndicate. Whatever you decide, it's important to make these details clear in your rules.

Participation standards and replacement: Tangible, visible participation in the game thread and via night actions (if applicable) | Replacements only from outside the original game roster
- Players who do not participate interfere with both a host's thematic and design vision and a game's balance.
- Players who are inactive for more than a full cycle should at least be issued a prod or warning to get involved or face a forced replacement or host kill.
- Inactive slots should generally not be left unattended by hosts for multiple consecutive cycles. If a replacement absolutely cannot be found, a willingness to kill players as a host is important even if frustrating. Host kills are usually fairer to everyone, especially civilians, than leaving inactive players alive.
- If you cannot locate a replacement from outside the original game roster and are considering bringing back a dead civilian, do so at great caution. Ensure there are no threats to the integrity of your game even if small ones. Also, it's often prudent to check with your mafia team, as they already got this player killed once (at night or by day) -- it's inherently unfair to make them do it again.

We among the admin team intend to devise a sort of "Core Mafia Game" guideline, featuring basic information such as rules, possible roles, and factional alignments. Hosts will be able to use this as an aid in their own development of games. Nobody will be obligated to implement the rules therein, but it will help players to have some kind of baseline for rules that a host doesn't explicitly state -- that way, if there are questions, the player can simply as the host "do the rules of your game differ from the core game?" and the host can respond however they deem appropriate.

We encourage diversity in our setups and always will. This is meant to streamline the game design process and prevent unnecessary confusion. Our users come from all over the Mafia landscape, and we're all accustomed to different norms. So this will help to alleviate that culture clash.

We welcome your suggestions, and we ask that you post them here. Be aware however that the final design will be in the hands of the site Administrators. We will consider what you suggest and are grateful for your perspectives, but we may not implement everything we see here. There will be much to consider. Thanks gang, and if you have concerns don't hesitate to send me a PM.