The Syndicate

Another thing to consider with your two civilian gunmen is that if they fire during the day, they cannot be roleblocked or prevented at all. This means that firing at night would be nigh pointless, as far as I can tell (because at night they can be blocked). One idea I've just had to offset that imbalance could be:

If the gunmen fire during the day phase, they may only target a player who received a final vote from someone else that day phase (specifically someone else so they can't confirm themselves by voting alone and shooting the same person). That way there's a drawback both ways: at night there's the chance of a roleblock, and during the day the options are more limited.

Just one idea though, and it only matters if you're concerned with the problem. It looks like a neat game.

Quin wrote:1) Would it be better to have gunshots by civvies revealed at the end of a phase as opposed to as they happen? It may more efficient to do it that way, because it brings to question how quickly I'm able to respond to it, and given that I'm from a different time zone to most people, that might be a risk. I still think they should be able to kill either day or night. During the day, if someone is shot, their vote won't count, and during the night, they're liable to be protected.

I think you'd have an easier time, and it'd probably be fairer, if the shots resolve at the end of the phase. Immediate shots have more strategic intent (i.e. "I think this guy is going to say something bad in a few minutes and I want to prevent that") which can only be realized if you're online at all times. You won't be, and I think it'd be better to just allow the civvies with guns to know their strategic limitations from the start.

Quin wrote:2) Currently I have Nagisa and Koro-Sensei able to unlock the powers of specific characters and NOT specific players. For example, Nagisa would unlock the role of Justice Kimura as opposed to the role of [PLAYER X]. Is this better suited, or does the fact that there's no potential for role misuse overpower the role slightly? Also, should it be revealed in the thread when a player has had their latent ability unlocked, or should that be only revealed to the player benefiting from it? If you prefer the former, should Nagisa and Koro-sensei be kept in the loop so they know which roles have or haven't been unlocked by the other?

Any time a role is targeted instead of a player, the ability is more powerful -- so it's good that you're mindful of that. Whether it'd be "overpowered" is dependent upon what roles are being unlocked. If you feel those powers may be significant enough to influence the way players are read publicly, and that the game could easily be decided based on these unlocks -- it might be a better idea to switch to player targets instead of role targets. The alternative is to incorporate a mechanic which does in some way facilitate role misuse (maybe a percentage chance of success, or the slight potential for a negative result instead of an unlock for a student who isn't receptive to the teaching -- a lost vote or something). Between those options I would favor player targeting, since almost any element of unpredictability favors the baddies by default.

Quin wrote:3) Should my BTSC civvies be able to establish BTSC even if only one of them have had their ability unlocked? That is to say, if Isogai can search for Kataoka, but Kataoka can't search for Isogai, should it be required that they both have their abilities unlocked before they can communicate? Alternatively, there could be a temporary one-sided BTSC where one could send a message to the other each night, which would evolve into full BTSC once the other is unlocked. In writing this, I feel like these roles are slightly underpowered because first, they have to wait until at least one of their abilities are unlocked, and then they have to search for eachother. I'll have to revisit them.

I think that generally these sorts of "find player X" BTSC roles are underpowered just because it's so hard to find those people. It's almost random guessing. At the same time though, when BTSC is achieved it is very strong. Perhaps a better compromise in the only-one-is-activated scenario than one-way BTSC would be to allow both parties to participate under their ROLE NAMES instead of their player names. That enables cooperation and dialogue without confirming anyone.

Quin wrote:4) I think having a lie detector amongst so many powerful roles (3 secret roles, vigilantes, etc) overpowers the game in favour of the civs. I'd ideally like to change it to something less powerful that still sort of fits that investigative role. Maybe a cop?

I honestly don't like lie detectors period. I don't think players should have to concern themselves with that kind of thing every single time they make posts. A simple alignment checker is usually better, and in a no infodumping setup it's rarely overpowered. The value of that role depends heavily upon whether you intend to reveal the roles of nightkill victims. If you DO, then the killed alignment checker can be back-analyzed for crucial information (very strong). If not, then their information dies with them and players are still making inferences. This obviously doesn't apply if the role is lynched.

Quin wrote:5) In regards to both Kayano and Justice's powers, is having a vote counting for two and a -1 vote each day overpowered? I wonder if I should nerf it slightly to be a limited use power.

I think the biggest issue to consider with any vote manipulation is that it changes town's control over the tally -- even when it's a town-based power that can be a problem for the faction. If these are roles that must first be activated though that lessens their power nicely. I do think a limited use version would be better though, because every day could potentially turn multiple lynches over. If you make them 1-shot or 2-shot, it forces more strategizing.

My dos pesos.