The Syndicate

To be honest, my preferred games (open or closed) tend to be vanilla-heavy. I love the purest form of the hunt.

What about this as a compromise:

Night killed players of either alignment can win.

Lynched player of either alignment cannot win.

I still don't like this honestly, but I think it's at least a lot better.

MovingPictures07 wrote:I think the reason "dead wins" were never too typical, from what I would surmise, is due to the fact that it fails to actively encourage players to try their best and survive, especially since we've had problems with inactivity. On the flip side, the argument that civilians must look out for themselves at the expense of their team in order to secure the win ("I have to look suspicious enough not to die!") is a good argument, since such behavior is counterproductive.

There's the rub. If that rule was instilled on RYM, then the quality of town play would plummet. Mafia teams don't leave players alive because they're playing well. If I have to choose between these two things:

1.) A player who doesn't put forth any effort and gets lynched on Day 1 wins the game with the town along with all of the other townies who played their butts off.

2.) A player who played his/her butt off and was night killed for it does not win the game while a player who lived through LyLo because he/she did not play hard does win the game by pure chance.

I choose #1 every time.

fingersplints wrote:Is no lynch an option at RYM?

It is (and it's usually the default result of a tied tally), but it nearly never happens. No lynches are seen by many (including me) as worse than lynches of townies. Nothing is learned, it just gives the mafia team a free kill.

fingersplints wrote:I have played a couple games with a closed set up on awardswatch. I think it's fun and different, but I also felt it was more important for me to know the theme. If you don't and it is a site that encourages info and role claiming, it makes it harder to fake role claim if you end up mafia.

That's definitely true. If there's a theme and characters are relevant alignment, then two things MUST happen:

1. The theme must be known before the game.

2. Fake character claims must be given to players with roles that could be compromised by their true characters being known.

I dig it. And I don't dislike open setups. I have much less experience with them, but they're just as fun. The obvious cultural differences were probably what drew me here the most. The only standard here that I think I'd genuinely struggle with (and haven't seen yet) is the one that doesn't allow dead players to win the game.

Here's a good example of the roleplay potential of a closed setup. Arrested Development

I believe the primary appeal of a closed setup is that it empowers a host to be more creative. Closed setups are much harder to break, meaning there is more freedom to tinker with them without worrying about that. For the players, they allow roleclaiming to be legal (I understand why roleclaiming is not typical here where open setup role madness is the norm), and more important it allows for roleplay. That's the thing I miss most when I play in an open setup: I can't claim my character and roleplay within my game-relevant effort.

In closed setup games where characters and alignment correlate, roleplay is still possible because the mafia team (and anyone else potentially affected, like rogues or power roles) are given fake characters by the moderator. This prevents their exposure through character claim investigation.

It's an interesting culture here. I had truly never previously encountered a Mafia community where info dumping is frowned upon. I'd never even considered the notion of disallowing it. I can see the appeal -- it forces players to stay within the original mafia-hunting atmosphere that Mafia is supposed to be about. At the same time though, incorporating power roles with legal info dumping adds a completely different informational element to the game. I don't think it negatively affects balance either, at least not in places where it is typical.

One setup which could probably use a rule which forbids info dumping is the single cop setup being used in the Champions games on 2+2. Those too often become a mess of logic-based reads and suspicious behavior ceases to be relevant.

I'm curious. Has there been a closed setup on The Syndicate? If so, how frequently do they appear?

If it isn't clear, when I say "closed setup", I mean a game in which the roles included are not public knowledge. "Info dumping" is legal and expected.

Is there a place yet on The Syndicate for general discussion of Mafia theory? By this I mean strategy, setup concepts, game balance, et cetera...

This is a thread I've long wanted to make on RYM, but I always felt it wouldn't be very successful (just because the forum isn't Mafia-oriented and the frequent players already have a general Mafia thread). Would any of you folks like to carry on a discussion like this? Some potential things we could discuss are:

- What constitutes good town play / good mafia play?

- When is it appropriate to bus a team mate as mafia?

- What numerical ratios are best for a balanced setup?

- What kinds of commonplace rules are ideal or not ideal for facilitating the best games?

Any topics like this could be covered. Any interest?