How to Create and Host your own TWG

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:54 am

Not finished yet

~Introduction~

Ever played a game of mafia and suddenly wanted to host your own? Perhaps because you were inspired to try out a certain game mechanic or role, or maybe you just like the idea of being omniscient? Then this guide is for you.

The entire process of hosting a Mafia/The Werewolf Game can be laid out in two steps.

-Designing the game
-Hosting the game

There are some additional small steps, such as getting the game approved, gathering players, and writing a post-game. I will dedicate some time to those too, but the core of this article is about designing and hosting.

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:55 am

Designing the Game

When you get the idea to design a game, it's usually because you want to incorporate a certain unusual concept. That can be almost anything: a role you want to try out, a way of splitting up factions, a way of handling win conditions: you name it. Of course, it's also possible you just wanted to create a nice basic game.

Optional: For first timers, you will probably want to find a co-host to help out. Which can usually help you catch flaws that is within your own game. Try to involve your co-host as early in the process as possible. Half the fun of hosting a game is designing it, and by involving a co-host very late in the process you're depriving him of also making this his/her game.

But either way, you will want your game to be balanced. Balancing a game is harder than it might seem, and it's unrealistic to expect your game to be perfectly balanced, because the way it will be played out will rarely be according to your expectations due to the large variety of possible actions.

A example on a starting page should look like~

Kazmir wrote:A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
Trapped on the long lost world of Mortis, a group of Force-sensitive individuals were summoned by the voice of the Galaxy. The primordial world of Mortis is fraught with dangers beyond the wildest of imaginations, requiring careful teamwork to survive. Yet amongst those that had appeared on the planet were adherents of the Dark Side of the Force. Experts at hiding their true alignment and vanishing from plain sight, these assassins bore a natural hatred for their Jedi counterparts.
In order to ensure their survival; the Jedi will have to work together to survive the dangers of Mortis, and rout out their would-be killers.

Roles:
- (Jedi) Knight: The Jedi Knights gathered on Mortis strive to survive in their new hostile environment as they uncover its secrets.
Abilities: Regular players, no special abilities, vote during day phase to kill Sith Assassins.

- (Sith) Assassin: Fueled by their hatred for the Jedi, these assassins seek to conquer Mortis for their own.
Abilities: Also vote during day phase in an attempt to keep hidden. Vote amongst their own kind to kill a Jedi during the day – One will notify the GM with their chosen target

- (Jedi) Master: Powerful members of the Jedi Order. Their knowledge and wisdom is second to none. The rarity of being granted this rank means that all Masters know each other.
Abilities: Regular players, no special abilities, but know other masters.

- (Jedi) Prophet: A prophet’s strong connection to the Force enables them to see visions of the future. Their strong sense and visions allow them to uncover hidden threats.
Abilities: During the night phase, the Prophet may ask the GM to reveal the role of a chosen target

- (Jedi) Guardian: The Jedi Guardian is an exemplar of self-sacrifice and loyalty. Risking their own lives to protect those around him.
Abilities: During the night phase, the Guardian may ask the GM to protect a chosen target. Should their chosen player be a target of the Sith, they will not die

- (Jedi) Shadow: Trained to hunt down the corruption of the Dark Side. The Jedi Shadow is often times seen as a rogue by other Jedi as they will stop at nothing to eliminate the Dark Side.
Abilities: During the night phase, the Shadow may ask the GM to kill a chosen target (preferably a Sith Assassin). Though they are limited to doing this ONCE.

- Mortis: The planet of Mortis seems to be alive, possessing a will of its own.
Abilities: GM role

Mechanics:
- Day Phase: Every player votes for who is to be killed. Voting will occur on the thread.
- Night Phase: No player voting will happen in the night phase. Sith Assassins will vote amongst themselves to kill a target.
- Ties: Should 2 players be tied in votes during the Day Phase. The planet will kill either of them by chance (coin toss)
- Guardian Death: Should the Guardian be slain, his protective powers will still protect their target at night
- Shadow vs Guardian: Should the Shadow’s target be under the Guardians protection, the target will live, but the Shadow will lose his powers.
- Inactivity: Should a player miss 2 day phases, the planet will mercilessly eradicate their sorry ass.

Rules:
- A player is under no circumstance allowed to reveal their role. They may claim to hold a certain role for the sake of gameplay, but never provide substantial proof to back up his/her claim.
- All players vote during the day phase.
- Players are allowed to change their vote at any time
- ^ voting will be LOCKED in the last 30 minutes of a phase
- Dead players are not allowed to reveal roles (the dead don’t talk, don’t be silly)

Even with long game, reading though ton of pages can be a pain to find an update post. It is recommended to leave room on the first page for the history of the game.

rhaidot wrote:DAILY VOTING / NIGHT PHASE

DAY 1
Lost in Google Translation (NPC), the Doctor, has died a bloody death.
Spoiler:

NIGHT 1
God of Peace (NPC) the Villagerwas killed by the Werewolf (Alpha)
Shakila the Singer (NPC) the Werewolf (Alpha) was killed by the Killer.
Night 1:

DAY 2
Dick Lizard (NPC) the Werewolf (Regular) has died a bloody death
LYNCH DAY 2:

NIGHT 2
DragonEye is missing!(He is death, but only the Janitor knows his role)
NIGHT 2:

DAY 3
Justino Bieberino (NPC) the Killer has died a bloody death.
DAY 3:

NIGHT 3
Trojan noobot (NPC) the Detectivewas killed by the Werewolf (Regular)
NIGHT 3:

DAY 4
Emonem (NPC) the Zombie has died a bloody death.
DAY 4:

NIGHT 4
Picard Chu (NPC) the Cop was killed by the Werewolf (Regular)
Spoiler:

DAY 5
Iamnot Yourmama (NPC) the Werewolf (Framer) has died a bloody death.
DAY 5:

NIGHT 5
Supermanly (NPC) the Cop was killed by the Werewolf (Regular)

NIGHT 5:

DAY 6
Netter Mizuno the DEVIL has died a bloody death.

DAY 6:

NIGHT 6
Sash the Bodyguard was killed by the Werewolf (Regular)
NIGHT 6:

DAY 7
Destroya1103 – The Celebrity Zombie has died a bloody death.
DAY 7:

NIGHT 7
HeVi Storm the Werewolf (Regular) was killed by his inactive status.

NIGHT 7:

DAY 8

Nafuckto Uzumankind (NPC) says: I detected Athenril008 as Guilty

FINAL VOTING
3 Athenril008 - by Happy Poster the Wizard (NPC), Nafuckto Uzumankind (NPC), Black Fang
2 Black Fang - by Bart Thomson (NPC), Serious White (NPC)
1 Sound Goreku (NPC) - by Jimbo
1 Happy Poster the Wizard (NPC) - by Sound Goreku (NPC)

CHANGES VOTES
Sound Goreku (NPC)
Jimbo
Black Fang

NO VOTING
Shadower
Athenril008

You have 24 hours (more or less) to vote. There is a 33% chance of the game ending in the next update. 99% of ending in the update after that.

LYNCH OF THE DAY
Athenril008 the Werewolf (Janitor) Infected has died a bloody death

When the town found out that they lynched the last werewolf, they thought that the good guys were going to win.
But they were wrong.
Because the only members of the town were NPC. And all the players were zombies. And the players always were smarter than the NPC.

THE GAME HAS ENDED

NPC ROLES
Happy Poster the Wizard (NPC) - Bomb
Bart Thomson (NPC) - Hunter
Nafuckto Uzumankind (NPC) - Cop (Regular)
Sound Goreku (NPC) – Samurai
Serious White (NPC) - Villager

WINNERS ROLES
Shadower – Zombie (Former Villager)
Black Fang – Zombie (Former Werewolf Lawyer)
Jimbo – Zombie (Former Bulletproof)

Thanks to all who were in this game :cheers:

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:55 am

The Numbers Game

A great way to start designing your game is with the use of a Text Document or Notepad. Put the total amount of players and roles and randomize the roles A very basic set-up would be:

Players of 15
><> Roles
1-3 Villagers
1-4 Mafia/Wolfs
1-4 Masons
5 Power roles (Guardian Angel, Vigilante, Seer, Etc)

Note the following properties about this basic set-up:

Each individual mafia is significantly outnumbered by the village: for each of them, there are between 3 and 4 villagers.
If all non-villagers vote against the village, they are still short in number of votes. This means that even after a mis-lynch and a night of 3 kills against the village, they still couldn't overtake the lynch.

The number of people obviously isn't everything there is to it. You have to think about whether to put in a Night 0 (first night in the game where all kills fail), how many kills per night each evil side will have, and what vote-altering roles there will be in play, such as silencer, persuader, or mayor. For example, if one mafia has a persuader and the other a silencer, suddenly the evil sides could take over the lynch very quickly if they all worked together (though this can also be counteracted slightly with the village's safeguard and bodyguard). Thankfully, this rarely happens, as the mafia will likely prefer to keep themselves hidden.

The best way to figure out how to distribute kills and roles that affect the numbers in another way is to make scenarios of how the game could go. As noted earlier, the game will never go exactly as you planned, even if you make up a thousand scenarios. The game might end up being played out in an imbalanced way, but the least you can do is make sure that it isn't flawed by design.

In the above, if you give a kill to each evil side (and no vigilante), that means there will be three kills every night until one evil side is eliminated. Assuming they are targeted completely randomly, the chance for an individual mafia to kill a villager on night one is 14/19, or ~73%. The chance both of them do so is 54%. The chance for a wolf to kill a villager is significantly lower, since unlike the mafia he does not have three teammates to write off as non-villagers: 14/22, or ~63%. The chance of a triple villager kill is around 34%, which is considerably likely, but there's a large chance of crossfire (one evil side hitting another).

Here's an example of a somewhat likely game scenario, to give you an idea of how to write it out:

Night 1 - 14 / 4 / 4 / 1
mafia 1 kill a villager, mafia 2 kill a villager, wolf kills a mafia 1
Day 1 - 12 / 3 / 4 / 1
villagers lynch a mafia 2
Night 2 - 12 / 3 / 3 / 1
mafia 1 kill a villager, mafia 2 kill a villager, wolf kills a villager
Day 2 - 9 / 3 / 3 / 1
villagers lynch a mafia 1
Night 3 - 9 / 2 / 3 / 1
mafia 1 kill a mafia 2, mafia 2 kill a villager, wolf kill fails
Day 3 - 8 / 2 / 2 / 1
villagers lynch the wolf (wolf is eliminated)
Night 4 - 8 / 2 / 2
mafia 1 kill a villager, mafia 2 kill a villager
Day 4 - 6 / 2 / 2
villagers lynch a mafia 1
Night 5 - 6 / 1 / 2
mafia 1 kill a villager, mafia 2 kill a villager
Day 5 - 4 / 1 / 2
villagers lynch a mafia 1 (mafia 1 is eliminated)
Night 6 - 4 / 2
mafia 2 kills a villager
Day 6 - 3 / 2

At this point, if the village lynches right twice more, they win; otherwise, they lose. This scenario had one failed kill and two crossfires, with the wolf being found out and lynched at day 3, which are all "lucky" things in the village's favor. And if mafia 2 had a silencer alive during Night 6, they would have won.

So you could make an educated guess that this game is close to balanced, but adding a slight amount of power to the village would be welcome. Either by adding a Night 0, where the village essentially get an extra lynch and more time to gather information, a mayor, or just one or two extra villagers. None of these solutions are perfect, though: the mayor could be silenced, persuaded, or killed before the days where every vote matters, for example. Try adding one village addition at a time and change your scenario.

A sign of a balanced game can be that the game ends in a kingmaker scenario, where the winner between two is decided by a third faction who cannot win. A good example of a kingmaker scenario in mafia would be where a villager with no significant night role is up against a wolf and the last remaining member of a mafia faction. It's daytime, and everyone's vote counts for one. Assuming one of the evil sides has a higher killing priority than the other (in this example we'll assume that is the wolf), the villager cannot possibly win. The wolf wins if either of the opposing sides votes the other, as then he can seal that person's fate with a vote of his own, then safely kill the other. The mafia only wins if the villager votes for the wolf. As you can see, the villager is the deciding factor between the mafia and the wolf win here, but has no chance of using it to his own team's advantage.

While such an ending is undesirable for your game, it's a relatively good thing to reach to when sketching balanced scenarios, since it's a sign of a game where each side can win. The game's numbers are balancing itself out, so the remaining deciding factors involve smart voting, targeting, and predicting. Of course, part of this will still be luck.

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:56 am

Hosting the Game

Now the real hard work begins! While the designing phase has no real deadlines, and you can work on it whenever you like, hosting often has a very large amount of work crammed into a small amount of time, also known as the updates. This is when people realize: "Wow, hosting isn't as easy as I thought!" When making an update for a game involving 25 players, take a moment to appreciate hard work of the hosts of past big games of over 50.

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:57 am

Sources:

My guideline on making this thread. As you seen most of it is copy and paste from it, so I'll give credit where its needed. Since this has helped me in making this guide faster for you all.

Designing and Hosting a Mafia Game ~ By Mekkah.

Quote sources:
TWG: Secret Wars ! rhaidot
The Terror of Mortis ! Kazmir

DragonEye Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:58 am

UPDATES:

You may now post

Rex Evan Wed Nov 20, 2013 9:34 pm

Yay... Finally Someone make a thread like this... :cheers:
maybe i could make a TWG game later lol!

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