The Syndicate

Hey folks! I've received some awesome submissions for our first assignment but I would love to have more!! Keep those submissions coming!

Okay, get those creative juices flowing! What's the first thing that any successful video game absolutely needs? A hero! This hero, of course, doesn't have to be perfect (see: Bioshock), but we need a protagonist nonetheless.

What I need from YOU varies depending on how much you are willing to contribute! I'll take any or all of the following, and even more if you're feeling extra creative: this main hero's name, a mafia role for said hero, the hero's background (though we'll get to fully developing the setting soon, so I am not asking you to write any story), a picture of said hero either drawn or taken from the internet, the theme song for said hero, etc.

Please submit any or all of the above (and more!) to me via PM. That is how I will be taking official submissions for items to be included in this game.

That said, feel free to please discuss and collaborate to your heart's content in thread. I just want to give people the chance to participate as little as they want and stay anonymous with their contributions if they wish, hence the PM system, but feel free to participate as much as you'd like and put everything out in the thread if you want, or somewhere in between.

Just let me know if you have questions! I look forward to developing this "video game" with all of you and the mafia game based off of it in conjunction! The more submissions I have to choose from, the better!

Also, a final note: If I do not select your submission at any point in time, that is not a personal slight at all, nor does it mean your contribution will not be used or is not valuable. I could end up using it for another function (in this case, perhaps you submitted a role for the hero but it doesn't become the main hero role, but fills one of the many role slots as a secondary hero or heroine). I appreciate absolutely every contribution I can get, and I will use as many of them as I can, so don't be afraid of submitting! This game is nothing without the contributions of you folks!

I will close the submission period for this once I feel I have given all of you enough time and have received enough satisfactory entries.

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:I just had an idea for a role today whose night power is to swap roles with another player. Then they will have that role and they can swap roles. I was planning on folding it into some game I create, but if you want it for this one, you can have it.

That'd be awesome! Were you thinking a civilian or mafia placement for that, or had you not decided yet?

I actually will be starting up our creative process for this game tonight, so definitely keep that in mind as we start crafting this game as a community!

I'll elaborate more later tonight, but essentially, all submissions relevant to what we're currently working on will be sent to me via PM, but everyone (including myself) is more than welcome to collaborate, and encouraged to do so in fact, in this thread.

His alignment would be that of whatever role he switched into, but if he didn't switch at all, I suppose he would be neutral or indie. People would probably have an incentive not to get stuck with that role at the end of the game, like a sort of hot potato.

Oh, got it, that's actually really neat!

thellama73 wrote:I just had an idea for a role today whose night power is to swap roles with another player. Then they will have that role and they can swap roles. I was planning on folding it into some game I create, but if you want it for this one, you can have it.

That'd be awesome! Were you thinking a civilian or mafia placement for that, or had you not decided yet?

I actually will be starting up our creative process for this game tonight, so definitely keep that in mind as we start crafting this game as a community!

I'll elaborate more later tonight, but essentially, all submissions relevant to what we're currently working on will be sent to me via PM, but everyone (including myself) is more than welcome to collaborate, and encouraged to do so in fact, in this thread.

zeek wrote:Somebody should write a game based on the members of the board.

I already sort of did that in The Syndicate's first ever Champions game; I actually had a 'main' game comprised of roles taken from every game played in 2013 speed and full, but a secret second game that appeared later on for those who had died in the first game comprised of roles of everyone playing.

A more comprehensive crack at it would be definitely cool though, something I've considered.

zeek wrote:What is funny about this is I don't even know the guy, yet this is probably spot on.

I've known him for years, and it is pretty hilarious. Sounds like a good independent role to me.

Thanks, Logan!

I think this will be really neat, especially if I get a ton of co-collaborators on this.

zeek wrote:Super Epignosis: He is beyond hero or villain. He has no allegiance. At the end of each lynch he will decide if that player dies or not. They are his play things and he can kill people at random if they question him, but only once every day phase. He can also ressurect them because he might feel like it. Or not, whatever. He will ascend to heaven on the fifth night.

And to explain why I've pursued this idea: I'm not really suffering writer's block (in fact, I probably have too many game ideas), but I thought it would be really neat to apply the "build your own" concept to mafia, of which the only other time I've witnessed it truly applied was in Frex's Build Your Own Mafia game hosted way back when I was still a relative mafia newbie. I tried to put a twist on the concept here by not having each player submit their own role after they've signed up but to be even more active (or less active even) in the game creation process and hold it over an elongated period of time, allowing for people to play even if they don't want to contribute anything, or if they want to contribute a ton, or somewhere in between, and at the contributor's leisure. I also didn't want to strictly limit it to just the game's roles, but instead thought it would be neat to have a collective creation of an object off of which the mafia game would be based, and thus hold everything together through a common theme.

I felt the meta would benefit from at least some sort of specific guideline (a book, a video game, a movie, or something similar) rather than just create your own mafia, and in the end decided the video game setting would prove to be incredibly flexible and most intriguing.

Ever wanted to create a mafia game but are too lazy to do so? Ever fantasized about creating a video game but never had the resources to do so? If either or both of these apply to you, then this will be the perfect game for you! Even if neither of these apply and you love playing mafia, or even if you're crazy and you hate mafia, I want YOUR ideas! This game is no more mine than it is yours!

You've read it right! Your Resident Sockfaced Amateur Video Game Mafia Designer may be the host of this game, but he's suffering severe writer's block, and is asking for your help! Yes, you!

Between now and the game's inception, I will be asking for specific submissions for literally anything and everything to help me create this game, right down to the characters themselves, the roles those characters will possess, the setting of our video game, the game's title, the music, the mission that our heroes are trying to accomplish, even story for the host posts! And literally anything, you name it! This is your chance to contribute individually to a collectively-determined mafia game owned by all the members of The Syndicate who decide to contribute.

You can contribute as little or as much as you want, and it will be reflected in the final product! I will perform the "hard part" by selecting which of your awesome contributions to use in the final game and filling in any gaps; all you have to do is submit your ideas.

I incredibly look forward to your submissions because without them this video game off of which I'm basing a mafia game is literally nonexistent!

Stay tuned for my first request... to come very soon!

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Step #1: The Hero - 9/30/14 - TBD