I'm sure people will find flaws in it (there are many, seriously) but I typed it all up so I'll paste it here. I know it will require tweaks but it might be something workable for a future Werewolf style game. Also I did some heavy editing over the past 90 minutes of writing this so some stuff may make for complete nonsense anyway.
I'll just call this Werewolf+ although it might be Werewolf-----------. Who knows.
Feel free to think of this as a Werewolf game, but it's not strictly a werewolf game. I'll mention similarities to the Werewolf games.
My main issues with the current Werewolf games is the following:
So now I present to you, in a hopefully readable format, my reformatted 'notes' that I've been making about a new game. The rules are not finalized at all, some things break other things for sure, and I recognize this. I've made and scrapped a bunch of roles. Some of the roles don't make sense if a certain rule is tweaked one way, some don't make sense if the rule is tweaked the other.
Feel free to suggest roles/rules and be sure to include 'this only works if rule xxx is this way' or 'this only works if role xxx is excluded/included'. All rules and roles are changeable since this is more of a brainstorm. I'm only stating things as if they are fact because stating them as "well maybe" will get tiring. But it's all up for debate or ignoring.
Setting
This game takes place in a large house/mansion. There are two floors to the building (we'll call them upstairs and downstairs) along with a lobby on the lower floor (although this likely doesn't matter). Each floor will start off with the same number of rooms based on roughly the total player count divided by 2. If we had 10 players there would be 5 rooms on each floor (actually I think 6, since we might need 1 extra per floor in case the screamer screams, but I'll get to that later).
Instead of a day/night cycle the game will operate on an even/odd hour cycle. Even hours would be similar to daytime, players would meet in the lobby. During the odd hours, each player would go to a different room. For the most part, no two players would go to the same room.
Room assignment is still a bit up in the air. There's 3 ways to do it, autoassign rooms (makes rooms somewhat useless), players choose rooms (seems tedious for the most part and players would need to put their chosen rooms in priority order in case 2+ chose the same room), or a mixture where roles that actually benefit from choosing a room choose and those that don't are randomly assigned by the game master. I'm preferring option 3 for the time being. Rooms will likely be numbered for ease of use but can also be named for story purposes. Regardless, players will only know which room they are in but not the room that other players went to. The rooms are important because they assist with the logic bit when mashed together with the information people have (point 1 above).
Even hours - day
During even hours, the players meet up in the house lobby. Players do not lynch. They vote on a player to restrain. The restrained player will be stuck in the lobby during the following odd hour (night). The restrained player will not be able to use their ability. However I am not opposed to roles that are only usable by restrained players or potentially only become usable if a player is restrained.
The next even hour (day) the players can either free the restrained player and restrain a new one or have them picked up by the police. If the player is one of the bad guys they will be removed, if they are good, they will be stripped of their role (police searched them but didn't return their role equipment) and returned to the house.
Odd hours - night
This is when the killer... kills. Not too surprising. This is also when most of the roles do their thing. Again, not too surprising.
All players will know which room they were in, which when paired with other players information could be useful for figuring out who the killer is. But it may be a gamble to give out that information early on.
Bad guy roles
Good guy roles
Dead guy roles - Helps with problem #2.
The murder
When a player is killed the body is left until another player enters a room the following odd hour. That player will be informed they found a body (except the Butler), they can then perform their action on the body if they have one, and upon leaving the room the door will be closed off for the rest of the game.
Winning
Good guys when when the cops have all the bad guys!
Bad guys win when they've killed all the good guys!
Exception: Bad guys can't win on February 29th.
Okay that's enough for now. As stated earlier, I'm certain the game has flaws, maybe even enough that it should be tossed out the window. Also all the roles probably will not be used. I just made a bunch for the purposes of mixing and matching.
I'll just call this Werewolf+ although it might be Werewolf-----------. Who knows.
Feel free to think of this as a Werewolf game, but it's not strictly a werewolf game. I'll mention similarities to the Werewolf games.
My main issues with the current Werewolf games is the following:
- There's not a lot of logic to it. If we were playing in real life we might be able to discern something from body language, but here all we have is the text. So for the most part it's a pure guessing game. It gets slightly less guessy the closer we get to the end of course, but then there are very few people left.
- People get all excited to play and then die in the first day or so and really have no contribution or need to pay attention to the thread after. "Hey you wanna play Monopoly with us? Oh you rolled a 2! Do you want to buy that proper... oh wait you can't play anymore. Bye!" There do need to be consequences and a diminishing pool of active players but can we make inactive players be participants in some fashion?
- While I haven't been a non-role person in the past 2 games (can't recall my earliest games), it has to be somewhat disheartening.
So now I present to you, in a hopefully readable format, my reformatted 'notes' that I've been making about a new game. The rules are not finalized at all, some things break other things for sure, and I recognize this. I've made and scrapped a bunch of roles. Some of the roles don't make sense if a certain rule is tweaked one way, some don't make sense if the rule is tweaked the other.
Feel free to suggest roles/rules and be sure to include 'this only works if rule xxx is this way' or 'this only works if role xxx is excluded/included'. All rules and roles are changeable since this is more of a brainstorm. I'm only stating things as if they are fact because stating them as "well maybe" will get tiring. But it's all up for debate or ignoring.
Setting
This game takes place in a large house/mansion. There are two floors to the building (we'll call them upstairs and downstairs) along with a lobby on the lower floor (although this likely doesn't matter). Each floor will start off with the same number of rooms based on roughly the total player count divided by 2. If we had 10 players there would be 5 rooms on each floor (actually I think 6, since we might need 1 extra per floor in case the screamer screams, but I'll get to that later).
Instead of a day/night cycle the game will operate on an even/odd hour cycle. Even hours would be similar to daytime, players would meet in the lobby. During the odd hours, each player would go to a different room. For the most part, no two players would go to the same room.
Room assignment is still a bit up in the air. There's 3 ways to do it, autoassign rooms (makes rooms somewhat useless), players choose rooms (seems tedious for the most part and players would need to put their chosen rooms in priority order in case 2+ chose the same room), or a mixture where roles that actually benefit from choosing a room choose and those that don't are randomly assigned by the game master. I'm preferring option 3 for the time being. Rooms will likely be numbered for ease of use but can also be named for story purposes. Regardless, players will only know which room they are in but not the room that other players went to. The rooms are important because they assist with the logic bit when mashed together with the information people have (point 1 above).
Even hours - day
During even hours, the players meet up in the house lobby. Players do not lynch. They vote on a player to restrain. The restrained player will be stuck in the lobby during the following odd hour (night). The restrained player will not be able to use their ability. However I am not opposed to roles that are only usable by restrained players or potentially only become usable if a player is restrained.
The next even hour (day) the players can either free the restrained player and restrain a new one or have them picked up by the police. If the player is one of the bad guys they will be removed, if they are good, they will be stripped of their role (police searched them but didn't return their role equipment) and returned to the house.
Odd hours - night
This is when the killer... kills. Not too surprising. This is also when most of the roles do their thing. Again, not too surprising.
All players will know which room they were in, which when paired with other players information could be useful for figuring out who the killer is. But it may be a gamble to give out that information early on.
Bad guy roles
- Killer - The killer will choose a player to kill each odd hour (night). The Killer, Trapper, and Poisoner all know of each other at the beginning. The bad guys can skip 1 odd hour (night) of killing.
- Secret Admirer - This player is on the killers team once the killer discovers them. Every time the secret admirer visits a room, they leave a message that only the killer would notice. If the killer then visits a room the secret admirer has been to, the killer will be able to contact the secret admirer. If the secret admirer finds the body of a victim (more on that later), they can recognize the handiwork and contact the killer. Will take over for the Killer should the killer die. While killer is active and they have made contact, the secret admirer can perform a kill instead of the killer. The killer can potentially kill this player.
- Trapper - The trapper can set a trap in a room they are in. The next player to enter that room will die from the trap and no other killing will take place that night. This happens even if the drunk is present in the room for the trap kill.
- Poisoner - Has a one time ability to kill the person that is restrained. This happens instead of the nightly killing.
Good guy roles
- Priest - The priest has a protection ability. The priest will protect a player and that player cannot be harmed over that odd hour. They also won't die if they protect the killer. They cannot protect the same person twice in a row. It's quite similar to the protection ability we have now.
- Screamer - The screamer has a passive role. Upon their death they will scream and alert everybody on the same floor. They will still die but all players on the floor of the murder will know all other players who were on that floor as they will all run to that room. This basically cuts the pool of potential killers in half. Let's say the screamer was on the upper floor. All players on the upper floor including the killer would receive a PM stating the names of all players on that floor. The players on the lower floor would receive no such message. Of course the players on the upper floor would likely share the list, but there might be an interesting situation where they wouldn't want to. The main purpose is to cut the killer candidate pool in half.
- Butler - This is the person that is extremely fickle about the cleanliness of the house. The player will know that they are the butler, but should they stumble upon the scene of a murder, they will automatically clean up the crime scene and discard it from their memory. This is a passive role but knowing which rooms have potentially been cleaned may be useful to the good guys later in the game. The butler will not be informed if they clean up a crime scene.
- Lawyer - If the lawyer stumbles upon a crime scene, they can find the deceased players will and interpret it. They may then disclose the contents of the will if they see fit. If the lawyer finds the will, I will ask the deceased to write up a note containing whatever information they desire to pass to the lawyer. This could truth, lies, or a mix of both depending on the victim.
- Detective - Upon entering a room, they can know the last role performed in the room they are in.
- Drunk - After all players, including the killer, are assigned rooms, the drunk stumbles into a random room. This has a random chance to prevent whatever role was about to act in that room from happening, including killing. The further along in the game we are, the more drunk the drunk is, and the probability decreases. This is a passive role.
- Secret Agent - This player places a hidden camera in the first room they end up in. Whatever other players enter this room and perform their role, it will be communicated to the secret agent via PM. To some extent this is a seer role but they get to choose a room instead of a player. If a murder happens in the room it is assumed the killer has turned off the camera. The secret agent can then place a new camera in their next room.
- Tracker - This player can track a given player and know which room they ended up in. They can switch their target prior to room assignment.
- The Contact - Can return a role to a single player if they are returned as 'good' by the police.
- The Paranoid - Can insta-kill a single restrained player if a preset amount of the player base is deceased (roughly half of the initial players). Normally a player is restrained, then the next even hour taken to the police, then the next even hour a new player restrained. Instead the player will be restrained then the next even hour instead of being taken to the police, the restrained player would be killed and a new player could be restrained. It saves a day if you feel very certain that player is a bad guy. But a good guy could get killed as well.
- Citizens - A citizen will attain the role of a dead person if they stumble upon the body of a role. They won't get the prior knowledge from the role though. This helps with problem 3 as listed at the top.
Dead guy roles - Helps with problem #2.
- Ghost - Dead players will default to ghost. Each night dead players can leave a one word message. It will be assigned to a random room. Non-special players can read the message. Messages are wiped after each odd hour (night). At most there will be one message per room.
- Bad Ghost - Same as ghost, but the secret admirer if killed by the killer, will become a bad ghost. Also a bad player that is killed by the insta-kill of the Paranoid would become a bad ghost. Bad ghosts also leave one word messages. There's no way to discern the difference between the good and bad messages.
The murder
When a player is killed the body is left until another player enters a room the following odd hour. That player will be informed they found a body (except the Butler), they can then perform their action on the body if they have one, and upon leaving the room the door will be closed off for the rest of the game.
Winning
Good guys when when the cops have all the bad guys!
Bad guys win when they've killed all the good guys!
Exception: Bad guys can't win on February 29th.
Okay that's enough for now. As stated earlier, I'm certain the game has flaws, maybe even enough that it should be tossed out the window. Also all the roles probably will not be used. I just made a bunch for the purposes of mixing and matching.
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