Girl Genius (END)

[Dragon D. Luffy]

All Roles with Hidden Abilities:

Agatha Heterodyne

The heir to the nefarious Heterodyne clan, the maddest geniuses of Europa, she just wants to be left alone to do some science in her castle. Unfortunately, everyone in the continent wants to either control, or eliminate her.

[Dingbots]: Agatha’s first invention, little robots that also have the spark. She can make one per night, and have them use their ability immediately or save it for later. Each robot will be able to use one ability before being destroyed. She must make all types of robots once before making them again. Agatha can use up to three robots per night.
Agatha may use up to three robots per night.

- Flying Robot: this robot will track a player and learn who they targeted in the night.
- Bomb Robot: this robot will explode on a player and roleblock them for a cycle.
- Fighter Robot: this robot will protect a player from one regular kill with its life.

[Heterodyning]: Agatha’s family has developed a special type of humming that helps them concentrate. After activating this ability in the night, she won’t receive any votes due to the Madness Meter in the next day. Two-shot.

[KNEEL!]: Every other day, Agatha can use her powerful voice to intimidate a player into voting for whoever she wants to.

["People keep giving me rings, but I think a small death ray might be more practical.”]: Agatha will fire a death ray on a player, super-killing them. One-shot.
 
Gilgamesh “Gil” Wulfenbach

The adventurous son of Baron Wulfenbach. He’s in love with Agatha. Once per night, he searches for her. If he finds her, he will learn her identity and full role.

[Lightning Staff]: Gil has a staff which can absorb energy from lightning and unleash powerful blows of electricity. Every night, he can either fire it at a player to roleblock them, or charge it so he can roleblock three players the next time he uses it. Charging it still makes the Madness Meter go up in that night.

[Construct]: Gil is skilled at science involving human bodies. Once in the game, he can bring a dead player back to life.

Tarvek Sturmvoraus

A noble who wants to be the Storm King. Also known for being a devious snake. However, he is in love with Agatha too. Once per night, he searches for her. If he finds her, he will learn her identity and full role.

[Wasp Vaccine]: From his time pretending to work with Lucrezia, Tarvek has managed to develop a vaccine against the slaver wasps. Once per night, he can target a player to make them immune to being recruited by those, or to being used to recruit others. The effect lasts two nights.

[Double Agent]: Every night, Tarvek can pick one player to stay close to. They will gain BTSC for the duration of the next day. If, after the day ends, Tarvek correctly names the player’s role, he will receive a confirmation of it and learn all their abilities. He won’t learn if the player has been recruited by The Other.

[Spark Wasp]: Tarvek is in possession of one unit of a special breed of slaver wasp that can infect sparks. If he dies, The Other will obtain it. The Other is also capable of searching players each day to find it. This wasp will disappear from the game after Night 4.

During the night, Tarvek may choose to give it to another player.

Othar Trygvassen

A dashing hero to some, a dangerous madman to others.

He believes sparks are the source of all evil and wants to kill them, even though he is a spark himself. He wins the game when all the other sparks are dead. He loses if only one faction other than himself is left, and it still has living sparks in it.

Othar knows who all the sparks are, though he doesn’t know who has which role. He is forbidden from revealing them and will be modkilled if he does so.

However, Othar is too clumsy to kill them by himself, so he must manipulate other players into voting for the sparks. Once per night, he can choose a player to be his sidekick. That player will have +1 vote power in the next day.

Othar can’t be killed. Period. Whenever he dies, whether it is caused by a kill or a lynch, he will disappear from the game for a cycle, then come back afterwards. During that time, he is forbidden from posting, voting or using abilities.

Baron Klaus Heterodyne

The ruler of Europa, and a powerful spark who ensures the continent lives in peace and order. Or else.

He is convinced Agatha Heterodyne is The Other, and will do whatever it takes to contain that threat.

[Pax Transylvania]: The Baron has a good reputation as a keeper of peace. He appears as civilian on investigations.

[Construct Body]: The Baron has an abnormal body. He survives the first regular kill that hits him.

[Castle Wulfenbach]: A giant military blimp that is more like a city, and can attack a player in the day to make them lose all their vote power.

[Wasp Eater]: The Baron has commissioned the research of genetically modified weasels that can smell the scent of people infected by wasps. Once per night, he can have a wasp eater investigate a player and learn if they have been infected.

[Take Five Bomb]: One-shot. If The Baron is about to be lynched, he can activate this bomb. It will freeze himself and another two players of his choice in a time bubble, making them unable to be lynched on that day. It will also make them unable to post, use abilities or be targeted by abilities, during the next cycle.

The effect will wear off right before the next day’s lynch. Once that happens, the three players will receive any votes they had on them the moment the ability was used.

If there are less than 10 players alive, only 1 player will be frozen with the Baron instead of 2. If there less than 6, only the Baron will.

Lucrezia Mongfish

Agatha’s mother. Lucrezia has developed a technology called Slaver Wasps, mechanical wasps that can infect a player and make them a slave to Lucrezia, forever.

[Hive Engine]: Once per night, Lucrezia can place a Hive Engine next to a player, which will release Slaver Wasps in their vicinity. Anyone who targets that player with an ability during that night will be converted to Lucrezia’s faction. They will keep their role abilities, except for kills.
No more than 4 players can be converted for the duration of the game.

This ability fails on mafia and independents. It also fails on sparks, unless…

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[Dragon D. Luffy]

List of Actions

Day 1
Rej was lynched.
Night 1
Owner protects Dragomir
TSP makes Dragomir vulnerable (redirected to Owner)
Creature jails Epignosis
Timmer blocks Jack
Jack protects Sloonei from culting (RB'd)
Michelle roleblocks nutella
Oreki kills Epignosis with Wolf Pack (fails because jailed, learns role)
Sabie super-kills Dyslexicon
nova kills Sig
nutella places hive on Dragomir (RB'd)
Epignosis investigates Lunalee (jailed)
Dom tracks Epignosis (result = nothing)
Sloonei investigates Mac (gets role)
Sig investigates Epignosis (dead)
Dyslexicon tracks Quin (dead)
juliets silences Dragomir (redirected to Owner)
Jack invites Epignosis to talk (RB'd)
Lunalee chooses to side with the Wulfenbach Empire

Day 2

Sprityo replaced Oreki
Nutella was lynched

Night 2

Michelle blocks Mac
Timmer blocks owner
Dom blocks LC
Mac charges lightning staff (RB'd)
LC buffs TSP (RB'd)
Creature jails LC
Owner protects nova (RB'd)
Jack invites LC for a chat
Sloonei blocks nova
sabie super-kills Mac
Sprityo uses Metal Arm to kills Epi
nova kills Dom (RB'd)
Jack vaccinates LC
Epi checks Creature (dead)
Mac searches Lunalee (dead)

Day 3

Lunalee was lynched
Jack guessed Long Con’s role and learned it.

Night 3

owner protects juliets
Creature jails Jack
Quin protects Jack
Michelle blocks Jack
LC buffs Dom
nova kills Quin
sabie super-kills nova
jack talks with Michelle (RB'd)

Day 4

Dyslexicon replaced Sloonei
Quin replaced Poison Chan
Epignosis replaced RainyDay
Juliets reduces Creature’s VP
Creature was lynched

Night 4

Owner protects Epi
Dom protects Epi
Epi attacks sabie
Michelle blocks Timmer
Timmer blocks Epi (RB'd)
Dyslexicon blocks LC
LC buffs Jack (RB'd)
Sabie super-kills Quin
Jack invites Tony to BTSC

Day 5

Sabie12 was lynched
Jack confirms TSP's role.

Night 5

Dyslexicon blocks Jack
Michelle blocks Epi
Owner protects Dyslexicon
Epi attacks Timmer (RB'd)
Dom protects Epi
Dyslexicon super-kills LC
sprityo kills Epi (protected)
Jack invites Epi to talk (RB'd)
Dom makes Jack vote for TSP

Day 6

Timmer is lynched
Dragomir is modkilled

Night 6

Owner protects Dom
Michelle blocks Dom (redirects to Owner)
Dyslexicon blocks Epi
Epi attacks Jack (RB'd)
juliets kills Epi
Jack invites Dom to talk

Day 7

Sprityo was lynched.
Jack guessed Dom’s role and learned it.

Night 7

dizzy blocks owner
michelle blocks Dom
Dom blocks juliets (RB'd)
owner protects tony (RB'd)
dizzy kills tony (stopped by bulletproof)
Dom kills Michelle (RB'd)
Tony reduces Michelle's vote power

Day 8

Juliets used Take 5 Bomb to remove herself and Michelle from the poll.
Owner was lynched (due to Michelle not having VP, it went down to RNG)

Night 8

TSP blocks Dizzy
Dizzy blocks Dom (RB'd)
Dom blocks Dizzy
Dom kills juliets (fails because of Take-5)
Dizzy kills TSP (RB'd)

Day 9

Dizzy was lynched

Night 9

michelle blocks dom
michelle kills TSP
dom kills juliets (RB'd)
dom tracks michelle (RB'd)

Day 10

Juliets reduces Dom’s vote power
Dom was lynched.

[juliets]

Good game townies! We killed you as fast as we could but still a handful of awesome civs were left in the end. We really sweated bullets and made some critical errors. We finally figured out what Quin was doing and I'm sorry he does not share in this win. nutella, it's a shame you died early because one more faction would have added even more complexity and you would have been a formidable foe. Finally, kisses xx to Dizzy, Michelle, sable and sig. Thank goodness Dizzy was the one to replace in he is awesome at strategy.

[Michelle]

Thank you for the game everyone, it was so full of events and i loved to play it.
Thanks DDL for hosting.

[Dom]

Baddies with a role checker and a role blocker with no double targeting rules means that a civ can never get their night kill through.

Good game.

[juliets]

Oh wow Luna had sided with us so she would have betrayed us! That would have really hurt. Glad she died. Cool role though.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

Good game, gang.

[Dyslexicon]

Yay! ^^

Thanks for the game, DDL! It was very complex with all kinds of factions, and it still became a thriller in the end. I enjoyed playing it as both town and mafia.

Good work, Juliets and Michelle, it was fun scumming with you!
And gone too soon, Sabie and Sig <3

[Quin]

Aw. So close. But it really was a stretch for me to stand a good chance of winning this. When I subbed in the game was more or less solved and most of the popular lynch candidates weren't sparks.

In the end, if I'd had juliets lynched today, I'd have boosted Michelle's vote tonight and won with mafia by lynching the last spark tomorrow. Town had already lost the game on Day 10 unless they managed some lucky tie shenanigans, I'm assuming jack was aware of that which is why he wouldn't go for juliets. Phooey.

[juliets]

Aw. So close. But it really was a stretch for me to stand a good chance of winning this. When I subbed in the game was more or less solved and most of the popular lynch candidates weren't sparks.

In the end, if I'd had juliets lynched today, I'd have boosted Michelle's vote tonight and won with mafia by lynching the last spark tomorrow. Town had already lost the game on Day 10 unless they managed some lucky tie shenanigans, I'm assuming jack was aware of that which is why he wouldn't go for juliets. Phooey.

Actually in discord I found out (after the game was over) that Jack is out of town with his family. I'm not sure he remembered that the lynch ended today but maybe you are right Quin. Once we figured out that you could only win with us we knew we would probably win. I was really sweating it before that. Sorry it worked out the way it did, it would have made up for killing you in the first place if you had been able to win.

[Dom]

Aw. So close. But it really was a stretch for me to stand a good chance of winning this. When I subbed in the game was more or less solved and most of the popular lynch candidates weren't sparks.

In the end, if I'd had juliets lynched today, I'd have boosted Michelle's vote tonight and won with mafia by lynching the last spark tomorrow. Town had already lost the game on Day 10 unless they managed some lucky tie shenanigans, I'm assuming jack was aware of that which is why he wouldn't go for juliets. Phooey.

I would have killed Michelle at night.

[Epignosis]

Too many lynches had to go right, and civilians weren't afforded enough of them. DDL, how were the civilians expected to win?

"The Baron has a good reputation as a keeper of peace. He appears as civilian on investigations."

" [Construct Body]: The Baron has an abnormal body. He survives the first regular kill that hits him."

"Juliets used Take 5 Bomb to remove herself and Michelle from the poll."

When you ensure mafia can't be lynched or killed, mafia win.

[juliets]

You missed the part where the bomb meant we were silenced the next phase and the votes at the time we dropped the bomb would be assessed the next day so there were definitely negative consequences for using it.

[juliets]

Aw. So close. But it really was a stretch for me to stand a good chance of winning this. When I subbed in the game was more or less solved and most of the popular lynch candidates weren't sparks.

In the end, if I'd had juliets lynched today, I'd have boosted Michelle's vote tonight and won with mafia by lynching the last spark tomorrow. Town had already lost the game on Day 10 unless they managed some lucky tie shenanigans, I'm assuming jack was aware of that which is why he wouldn't go for juliets. Phooey.

I would have killed Michelle at night.

Did you have a strongman kill? I can't remember. She would have blocked you but if you had a strongman it would have gotten her.

[Epignosis]

You missed the part where the bomb meant we were silenced the next phase and the votes at the time we dropped the bomb would be assessed the next day so their were definitely negative consequences for using it.

You're mafia. Your silence is a benefit to you. Mafia don't want to talk.

The civilian faction had to lynch or kill eight in order to win.

This lasted 10 Days.

Think about that.

[juliets]

You missed the part where the bomb meant we were silenced the next phase and the votes at the time we dropped the bomb would be assessed the next day so there were definitely negative consequences for using it.

You're mafia. Your silence is a benefit to you. Mafia don't want to talk.

The civilian faction had to lynch or kill eight in order to win.

This lasted 10 Days.

Think about that.

I'll have to leave the balance explanation to DDL. He explained it to me but I can't do it justice.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Too many lynches had to go right, and civilians weren't afforded enough of them. DDL, how were the civilians expected to win?

Lynch more than one baddie in the first 7 day phases.

[Epignosis]

Too many lynches had to go right, and civilians weren't afforded enough of them. DDL, how were the civilians expected to win?

Lynch more than one baddie in the first 7 day phases.

How do you lynch more than one? You only get one lynch.

[Dyslexicon]

Power madness games are very hard to balance. A lot is up to luck and chance. For example, had certain mafia roles died earlier while certain town roles had survived, the game could easily be very town sided (or sided with an Indy role getting the upper hand). That's just part of a role and mechanics heavy game. There's usually some salt left after that, and that's fine. I'm very happy with my play in any case, as I am with the other active mafia and I think it was a deserved win that of course was helped by a fair share of luck. As would any win in a power madness game. One side losing doesn't mean they played badly. Such is mafia.

[Epignosis]

Civilians needed nutella dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed Lunalee dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed sprityo dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed five more people dead.

That's eight.

That's too many.

[juliets]

Power madness games are very hard to balance. A lot is up to luck and chance. For example, had certain mafia roles died earlier while certain town roles had survived, the game could easily be very town sided (or sided with an Indy role getting the upper hand). That's just part of a role and mechanics heavy game. There's usually some salt left after that, and that's fine. I'm very happy with my play in any case, as I am with the other active mafia and I think it was a deserved win that of course was helped by a fair share of luck. As would any win in a power madness game. One side losing doesn't mean they played badly. Such is mafia.

Totally agree, well said Dizzy.

[Epignosis]

Power madness games are very hard to balance. A lot is up to luck and chance. For example, had certain mafia roles died earlier while certain town roles had survived, the game could easily be very town sided (or sided with an Indy role getting the upper hand). That's just part of a role and mechanics heavy game. There's usually some salt left after that, and that's fine. I'm very happy with my play in any case, as I am with the other active mafia and I think it was a deserved win that of course was helped by a fair share of luck. As would any win in a power madness game. One side losing doesn't mean they played badly. Such is mafia.

They're very easy to balance. I do it all that time.

Bad or good luck is certainly a factor in any given one, but that doesn't mean it isn't balanced.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

This game was a stomp. Mafia was much better than the civilians, as observed by how the civilians had an incredibly low scum lynch ratio.

Granted, you guys spent half the games milling through the indies, but if civs and indies only attack each other that means the mafia is doing well.

The only reason the game wasn't over by Day 8, which it should when civs are that bad at lynching mafia, is because of the Tarvek role. That role was allowed to be that good because I assumed it would be balanced by its inability to detect culted civilians. But nutella died too early so Jack was allowed to build a perfect PoE, which ended up breaching through the non-claim rule (something I allowed it to do or the role would have been pointless), and turn the endgame into a boring stalemate. Mafia was able to power through in the end because I like to ensure mafia always has the tools to shut down civilians who reveal their abilities in the open (like they did here), as well as prevent civs from beating mafia with abilities only. Civs need to lynch, and civs didn't lynch mafia in this game. At least not until Jack started monopolizing it with his role.

Juliets was one-shot BP. Big deal. So was Higgs an most of the indies. In a game with so many kills, mafia also needs kill protection. Everything in mafia's arsenal was meant to counter something the civs had.

The Take 5 Bomb was considerably more powerful. But town had a revive, which Mac could have had used but he decided to save it for later for some reason and then mafia managed to cop him and take him down before he could). And the Take 5 Bomb pratically ensured the saved mafioso would die next day, unless they pulled a huge vote fliparound, as well as blocked and silenced 2 mafiosos.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Civilians needed nutella dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed Lunalee dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed sprityo dead (not mafia).

Civilians needed five more people dead.

That's eight.

That's too many.

Mafia needed nutella, Lunalee and sprityo dead too.

It's unfair to pretend only civs needed to eliminate the indies. This is a multi-ball game. You assume mafia will do some work attacking the indies, and vice-versa.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Too many lynches had to go right, and civilians weren't afforded enough of them. DDL, how were the civilians expected to win?

Lynch more than one baddie in the first 7 day phases.

How do you lynch more than one? You only get one lynch.

You lynched 1 baddie, 3 indies and 3 civs.

If a civilian faction is ever allowed to win a game after doing that, the host did a bad job balancing it.

[Epignosis]

Civilians didn't have an "incredibly low scum lynch ratio." They had an "incredibly high [evil] independent lynch ratio," which was necessary to win the game as well.

The problem is those aren't independents, as you call them. Those roles were detrimental to civilians, and therefore not independents.

[Epignosis]

Too many lynches had to go right, and civilians weren't afforded enough of them. DDL, how were the civilians expected to win?

Lynch more than one baddie in the first 7 day phases.

How do you lynch more than one? You only get one lynch.

You lynched 1 baddie, 3 indies and 3 civs.

If a civilian faction is ever allowed to win a game after doing that, the host did a bad job balancing it.

They're not independent! My win condition said I needed them dead.

[Epignosis]

Civilians only get so many lynches to get it right. Mafia have lynches AND kills.

Piling on additional people civilians have to eliminate doesn't balance your game. It makes it harder.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Which means, if I could redesign the game, the first thing I would do is nerf the Tarvek role.

I could change a few other things but that would be the main one. I guess the game would be healthier if it had fewer 3Ps, though this was always meant to be a struggle to add many 3Ps because I liked the characters, so not sure if I would change that.

[Epignosis]

A TRUE independent is someone who can win regardless of whether civilians or mafia win.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Where I come from an independent is any role that s not aligned with civilian or mafia.

It's synonimous with Third Party.

This game had a serial killer, a cult, and two custom roles. All independents.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Civilians only get so many lynches to get it right. Mafia have lynches AND kills.

Piling on additional people civilians have to eliminate doesn't balance your game. It makes it harder.

It makes it harder for the mafia too.

The more factions a game has, the harder it is for each individual faction to win.

[Epignosis]

Civilians only get so many lynches to get it right. Mafia have lynches AND kills.

Piling on additional people civilians have to eliminate doesn't balance your game. It makes it harder.

It makes it harder for the mafia too.

The more factions a game has, the harder it is for each individual faction to win.

I do not agree.

The more people everyone has to get out, the easier it is for mafia, because it's a goose chase for the civilians.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

This game had 5 factions, excluding Quin.

CIvs, mafia, SK, cult and Zola.

So the game is balanced if each's faction chance of winning is as close as possible to 20%.

[Epignosis]

When you want to balance something, look at your game and ask yourself this:

"I am signing up for this game. Which side do I want to be on?"

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Civilians only get so many lynches to get it right. Mafia have lynches AND kills.

Piling on additional people civilians have to eliminate doesn't balance your game. It makes it harder.

It makes it harder for the mafia too.

The more factions a game has, the harder it is for each individual faction to win.

I do not agree.

The more people everyone has to get out, the easier it is for mafia, because it's a goose chase for the civilians.

Unless one indie escaped through them. Then you get a scenario where a SK could stay hidden and win with its superior role (like DH did in my last game). Or get backstabbed by Zola. Or maybe the civs are taken over by the cult and the later outnumbers the mafia.

The indies went down because they were more scummy than the mafia, so they were lynched first. An indie's advantage is that they can hunt the mafia and appears less scummy than it, but mafia managed to earn the town's trust while the indies were slaughtered. That looks like a clean mafia win to me.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

When you want to balance something, look at your game and ask yourself this:

"I am signing up for this game. Which side do I want to be on?"

Honestly, I went in thinking the civs had the highest risk of being OP.

[Epignosis]

When you want to balance something, look at your game and ask yourself this:

"I am signing up for this game. Which side do I want to be on?"

Honestly, I went in thinking the civs had the highest risk of being OP.

I had the opposite opinion. They need eight dead. The mafia have ways to stop being lynched. This means mafia can go after non-civilians.

This game had 5 factions, excluding Quin.

CIvs, mafia, SK, cult and Zola.

So the game is balanced if each's faction chance of winning is as close as possible to 20%.

If your SK has a 20% of winning, no. That's daft.

How many mistakes can the civilians make before they lose? That's where I start.

[Epignosis]

I want to say this though:

DDL, you are a writer who knows what he's doing. I liked reading your stuff. And I did read your stuff. Even when I was dead.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

If your SK has a 20% of winning, no. That's daft.

How many mistakes can the civilians make before they lose? That's where I start.

That gives every individual player the same chance of winning. I don't think someone should be punished with a lower chance just because they drew a SK role.

As for the later question, I don't know. What I see is that this is a multiball game where one faction was left alone. So that faction went and won it.

[Owner of a Lonely Heart]

Yay! ^^

Thanks for the game, DDL! It was very complex with all kinds of factions, and it still became a thriller in the end. I enjoyed playing it as both town and mafia.

Good work, Juliets and Michelle, it was fun scumming with you!
And gone too soon, Sabie and Sig <3

Well played scum. I had figured out that myself, Dom, Tony and Jack were the town before my rng death. Juliets instead Dom was my tin foil world, but I still protected some baddies. But town always needed to vote together to win there with all the vote negation stuff.

If I didn't move my vote to timmer, that one day, we would have gotten a lynch or kill on Michelle, cause it sounded like Tony was going to move his vote over. I mean juliets would have stopped it, but we would have had an extra lynch to play around with and better numbers. Also, town getting mod killed there didn't help our odds.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

I want to say this though:

DDL, you are a writer who knows what he's doing. I liked reading your stuff. And I did read your stuff. Even when I was dead.

Oh man, thanks for that. I have to say, I don't really prioritize doing write-ups. Sometimes I even skipped them. But when I did them I tried to give them some fun event related to the comic so it didn't feel like I was just phoning them in.

[Epignosis]

I want to say this though:

DDL, you are a writer who knows what he's doing. I liked reading your stuff. And I did read your stuff. Even when I was dead.

Oh man, thanks for that. I have to say, I don't really prioritize doing write-ups. Sometimes I even skipped them. But when I did them I tried to give them some fun event related to the comic so it didn't feel like I was just phoning them in.

You're a good host. I think highly of you. My one piece of advice would be this:

Don't incorporate every aspect of a theme at the expense of the balance of your game. Cut things.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

Anyway, I hope this doesn't come across as me trying to bash the civ faction. I don't think you guys were terrible, and while I didn't read it much closely I saw some good scumhunting going on. I just have this game theory of "the setup should ensure mafia wins if they escape a certain % of lynches" and that's what I think happened. If mafia lost even after surviving a bunch of lynches I'd think town had too may abilities or something. Which has happened countless times before in my games.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

Something I have never paid proper consideration in my musings over balance is a cult faction. It strikes me as something typically implemented for fun/because it's cool, and that is of course perfectly fine. Even in isolation though, as the sole anti-civilian faction, I wonder about its balance. In a more standard game, particularly with multiple mafia teams, it strikes me as troublesome for the civilians and only the civilians (given that mafia members cannot be recruited by necessity).

[Dragon D. Luffy]

I want to say this though:

DDL, you are a writer who knows what he's doing. I liked reading your stuff. And I did read your stuff. Even when I was dead.

Oh man, thanks for that. I have to say, I don't really prioritize doing write-ups. Sometimes I even skipped them. But when I did them I tried to give them some fun event related to the comic so it didn't feel like I was just phoning them in.

You're a good host. I think highly of you. My one piece of advice would be this:

Don't incorporate every aspect of a theme at the expense of the balance of your game. Cut things.

Ok I will give it that the game would be more balanced with fewer indies.

Not in the sense that I think this would make town more likely to win than mafia, but I guess the game feels more random and less rewarding of skill when it has more factions.

I also think highly of you, by the way. I've copied a bunch of ideas from your games in mine before.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

Another wrinkle of balance that is very difficult to account for is culture. One's conception of what "balance" means tends to be reliant upon their culture of origin, specifically when it comes to the behavior of the civilian faction. When a host is designing balance to give the civilians their fair shot, is it truly about balance in a vacuum, or are concessions being made in that balancing equation in anticipation of a civilian faction who doesn't do all the work possible (as is usually the case on most sites if we are honest)?

[Owner of a Lonely Heart]

I should probably should not sign up for games that I'm just a "maybe" on. I was a good bit out of it for parts of the game. I just didn't feel up to it.
Sometimes, it is the theme. Sometimes, it is the players. Or sometimes, it is just life.

I didn't really go into this as the game was being played as I didn't want to sound like I was giving up or anything. And/or didn't want to bring game morale down.

But feels a little annoyed to be rnged lynched when there were exactly no votes on me.

[Epignosis]

When I played, I had fun. That's important.

[Dragon D. Luffy]

One mistake I admit was made was insisting on 24 players when it was clear there were not 24 people wanting to play.

That caused me to recruit a bunch of maybes and other people who might not have really wanted to play. I advertised this on Reddit ffs.

I should have just redced the role count. But it hurts to do that so I didn't.