Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   sodiboo (sodiboo@gaysex.cloud)'s status on Friday, 13-Jun-2025 23:58:38 JST sodiboo

   today I played a hidden role group deduction game. it claimed to be called "mafia".
   
   we had these roles
   
   - some amount of players are "mafiosos"; 3 in this case with a group of 25ish.
   - one player is a "doctor".
   - the rest are "regular" players.
   
   here's how it worked:
   
   - at the start of each round, everyone must choose their eyes.
   - the mafiosos open their eyes and kill one player. then, they close their eyes again.
   - the doctor opens their eyes, and can try to "save" a player. if they pick the player that was killed, that player doesn't die. if they pick wrong, nothing special happens. then, the doctor closes their eyes.
   - all players open their eyes
   - the group must now discuss who they think the mafiosos are
   - the group can, with a majority vote, eliminate a player. and then, the group learns that player's role (i.e. it is always known how many mafiosos remain)
   - if nobody gets voted out, nothing special happens here
   - then, it's nighttime again, and we start a new round. so, everyone closes their eyes, and another player can be killed by the mafiosos, and so on.
   
   that's the whole game.
   
   assuming good acting, the mafiosos have a perfect strategy: simply kill random players and then act like you're innocent. there is no way to deduce who it can be, other than by their pattern of killing. no pattern, no information.
   
   the main issue with how this was executed is that there is absolutely no in-game action anyone can take that can be analyzed to any extent. like, all the interesting stuff happens with closed eyes; and sure you can maybe deduce something about who moved it you're good with hearing but like that's clearly an unintended side channel and also its unreliable.
   
   comparing to like, Among Us, which is similar in its voting mechanic, the innocent players actually have tasks to do, murders can be observed if done poorly, and players can vouch for each others innocence (you can spend time together and basically prove to each other that you're both safe). this game had nothing like any of that. it is among us but instead of interesting gameplay between voting, there is simply a hidden vote for which player gets murdered. and the doctor too but like they have literally no information so they're basically useless. the entire "information gathering" phase is replaced by one that intentionally reveals absolutely no information. the gameplay loop shatters.
   
   so like, what the fuck? I'm assuming there is an actual game like this. but what core mechanic was missing here? clearly something critical was missing because this was not very fun to play.

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse 🇫🇷 (jessew@mk.cpluspatch.com)'s status on Friday, 13-Jun-2025 23:58:36 JST Jesse 🇫🇷

     in reply to

     @sodiboo@gaysex.cloud this is the exact same concept as a popular french game called Les Loups-Garous De Thiercelieux
     
     LLGDT makes it more fun by adding a ton more special roles, such as a witch with the power to either save or kill people (but only once), a villager who can try to open their eyes during the night to spot culprits (but, if spotted, dies), an elder wolf with the ability to eat an additional villager every night, a hunter who kills the wolf closest to him upon his death, an Elder with two lives, etc

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse 🇫🇷 (jessew@mk.cpluspatch.com)'s status on Friday, 13-Jun-2025 23:59:07 JST Jesse 🇫🇷

     in reply to

     @sodiboo@gaysex.cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow english version btw

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse 🇫🇷 (jessew@mk.cpluspatch.com)'s status on Friday, 13-Jun-2025 23:59:42 JST Jesse 🇫🇷

     in reply to

     @sodiboo@gaysex.cloud wow the english version is tiny compared to the french one
     
     anyway there are many editions of the game, the deluxe ones have like 20+ different roles and it's really fun

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse 🇫🇷 (jessew@mk.cpluspatch.com)'s status on Saturday, 14-Jun-2025 00:05:41 JST Jesse 🇫🇷

     in reply to

     @sodiboo@gaysex.cloud yeah there are even more of those, like a bear guy who gets a vague indication of whether a wolf is next to them (iirc the game master growls if a wolf is sitting on either side of them)
     
     also there are more factions than just the villagers or the wolves, such as the lovers (Cupid picks two people at random, and their goal is to live until the end of the game, if one of them dies then the other dies of heartbreak too), the Angel (whose goal is to die on the first round to escape this hellish reality), the flute player (who gets to enchant a person every round, and wins once they enchant everyone), the wild guy (who has to choose whether to become a wolf or a villager after a few rounds)

   • Embed this notice
     sodiboo (sodiboo@gaysex.cloud)'s status on Saturday, 14-Jun-2025 00:05:43 JST sodiboo

     in reply to

     • Jesse 🇫🇷

     @jessew@mk.cpluspatch.com a villager who can try to open their eyes during the night to spot culprits (but, if spotted, dies)this kind of role sounds like exactly the type of thing that was missing. something to break the perfect information seal of the nighttime. like anything at all was needed so that there is any information at all to go off of because genuinely the main phase of what I experienced was just "maybe make an unjustified accusation every round"