Post by Snaq ◢ ◤ on May 28, 2023 16:24:42 GMT
52 Pickup: A New Low-Power IDEA Theme (X)
By FTF
IDEA themes are often held in high regard by the player-base for their wild, swingy nature. Hand in hand with this, is the difficulty faced when rolling setups, as it is rare to get a balanced role-set on the first try. Observing these two things, I thought about the possibility of moving away from convention, and mirroring an IDEA theme against my favourite genre of theme: near-vanilla.
Near-Vanilla, as I've used the term, entails minimal power role presence, often being restricted to either low-impact targeted roles, or named-townie equivalents, providing town with a short leash and options for night counter-play, without having any single role be too outcome determinative.
The objectives for 52 Pickup were as follows:
Let's look at the decisions behind trying to achieve these objectives:
Simplicity
IDEA themes are often large, complicated and unwieldy. This makes hosting them a nightmare for anyone outside of the most experienced. Too often, I've seen it be difficult to get concrete answers for specific interactions. Look at Greatest Idea for example: in addition to having to know the source document, players and hosts also need to know the various "house rules" used on PS! Mafia, which are on some other document. There's also the list of banned combinations, which adds an additional layer of complexity. I think the player-base has definitely displayed the capacity to keep up with this information overload, but I think there's room for a theme that moves away from the complexity frontier, instead of towards it.
With this in mind, I strived for a slim role-list with minimal variation, as well as a low number of complex interactions. Roles like Jailkeepers or Redirectors were excluded due to unclear and inconsistent knowledge about how problematic interactions resolve. I hoped to produce something that would offer a low number of mechanical related questions, because ultimately, I want mechanics to be away from the forefront of the game.
Balance
The gold standard for 52 Pickup is being able to replicate standard near-vanilla templates at a consistent level. This includes a PR presence large enough to offer some sort of benefit to town, while not being too big so that the game isn't too easily broken open by mass-claim. Additionally, the PR's themselves shouldn't be too strong. Three suits of the deck are comprised of Town roles, corresponding with Killing, Protective, and Investigative categories. The Doctor, the Vigilante and the Tracker were chosen to be the Aces of each suit. They are obviously powerful, but shouldn't be strong enough on their own to win games, save for very correct continued role usage. I consider this an acceptable corner case for individual overachievement, as this level of accuracy probably has a good chance of translating over to day-play. The Bodyguard, The Desperado and The Voyeur were picked to be the Kings and Queens, weaker versions of the Aces of each suit, that were slightly more prevalent on the role list. Again, the idea is for PR's to be non-dominating for the game's outcome.
Furthermore, Mafia having some sort of minimal power role for their faction was also desirable. 7 of the Mafia Roles were non-vanilla, ranging in usefulness and claim-ability. Stronger Mafia roles are harder to conjure up fake-claims for, while the more claimable non-Goon roles are on par with Named Townies in terms of strength. The inclusion of two Serial Killers in the role-list was done with the hopes that it would scale well with larger PLs, adding a multiball wrinkle to the theme. The two individual SK roles are designed to be individually strong, without being able to steamroll the rest of the player-list.
Vanilla Townies should populate the rest of the player-list, with there being potential for other Named Townies as "flex spots". With these Named Townie roles, I tried to choose ones that would be difficult to confirm via mechanical means. Additionally, the theme features town roles that have outside communication powers. I'm a firm believer in the strength of masonries and the like (Go check out my GI Tierlist from last month!), so they were implemented sparingly. This creates an interesting choice layout for town: do they swing on a role that can potentially form a valuable trust block, at the cost of whiffing and ending up as a Named Townie instead?
Here are some ideal-ish role spreads from some playtests I ran:
As you can see, it's difficult to imagine either of those role-lists being won by a mass-claim, and it is also difficult to imagine scum factions being able to steamroll without opposition. The second one in particular is interesting due to none of the Named Townies ever being truly confirmable by mechanical means.
Can it be done IRL?
Mafia was first designed to be played in person. I've hosted and played it many times with friends, so I wanted 52 Pickup to be easy enough to, well, pick up, with minimal difficulty and setup. The role list can be distributed with a deck of cards (hopefully you didn't throw the Jokers away, but the game can run fine without them), which can be labelled with each role. Alternatively, the document can be printed out beforehand. IDEA themes based on standard playing cards is not a new concept, but I wasn't particularly fond of any of the existing ones. I hoped that theming the role-list around the different suits would help in terms of uptake when first looking at the theme, but I don't think anything outside of Protective = Hearts is all that catchy. Regardless, next time I happen to have 9 people or more over, I'll be sure to test out how it plays in person.
Conclusions
I think the setup largely accomplishes what I wanted it to, but I fear that straying too far from convention might have backfired. Near-Vanilla setups are often regarded as boring, but I love them for their ability to facilitate competitive games. I'll bring this to staff in the hopes of getting it added to the script. I would like to see near-vanilla themes being hosted more often, and 52 Pickup eliminates the repetitiveness of playing one particularly favoured setup for too long. Otherwise, let me know what you think!
By FTF
IDEA themes are often held in high regard by the player-base for their wild, swingy nature. Hand in hand with this, is the difficulty faced when rolling setups, as it is rare to get a balanced role-set on the first try. Observing these two things, I thought about the possibility of moving away from convention, and mirroring an IDEA theme against my favourite genre of theme: near-vanilla.
Near-Vanilla, as I've used the term, entails minimal power role presence, often being restricted to either low-impact targeted roles, or named-townie equivalents, providing town with a short leash and options for night counter-play, without having any single role be too outcome determinative.
The objectives for 52 Pickup were as follows:
- Creating something simple
- Creating something balanced
- Creating something that could be played IRL
Let's look at the decisions behind trying to achieve these objectives:
Simplicity
IDEA themes are often large, complicated and unwieldy. This makes hosting them a nightmare for anyone outside of the most experienced. Too often, I've seen it be difficult to get concrete answers for specific interactions. Look at Greatest Idea for example: in addition to having to know the source document, players and hosts also need to know the various "house rules" used on PS! Mafia, which are on some other document. There's also the list of banned combinations, which adds an additional layer of complexity. I think the player-base has definitely displayed the capacity to keep up with this information overload, but I think there's room for a theme that moves away from the complexity frontier, instead of towards it.
With this in mind, I strived for a slim role-list with minimal variation, as well as a low number of complex interactions. Roles like Jailkeepers or Redirectors were excluded due to unclear and inconsistent knowledge about how problematic interactions resolve. I hoped to produce something that would offer a low number of mechanical related questions, because ultimately, I want mechanics to be away from the forefront of the game.
Balance
The gold standard for 52 Pickup is being able to replicate standard near-vanilla templates at a consistent level. This includes a PR presence large enough to offer some sort of benefit to town, while not being too big so that the game isn't too easily broken open by mass-claim. Additionally, the PR's themselves shouldn't be too strong. Three suits of the deck are comprised of Town roles, corresponding with Killing, Protective, and Investigative categories. The Doctor, the Vigilante and the Tracker were chosen to be the Aces of each suit. They are obviously powerful, but shouldn't be strong enough on their own to win games, save for very correct continued role usage. I consider this an acceptable corner case for individual overachievement, as this level of accuracy probably has a good chance of translating over to day-play. The Bodyguard, The Desperado and The Voyeur were picked to be the Kings and Queens, weaker versions of the Aces of each suit, that were slightly more prevalent on the role list. Again, the idea is for PR's to be non-dominating for the game's outcome.
Furthermore, Mafia having some sort of minimal power role for their faction was also desirable. 7 of the Mafia Roles were non-vanilla, ranging in usefulness and claim-ability. Stronger Mafia roles are harder to conjure up fake-claims for, while the more claimable non-Goon roles are on par with Named Townies in terms of strength. The inclusion of two Serial Killers in the role-list was done with the hopes that it would scale well with larger PLs, adding a multiball wrinkle to the theme. The two individual SK roles are designed to be individually strong, without being able to steamroll the rest of the player-list.
Vanilla Townies should populate the rest of the player-list, with there being potential for other Named Townies as "flex spots". With these Named Townie roles, I tried to choose ones that would be difficult to confirm via mechanical means. Additionally, the theme features town roles that have outside communication powers. I'm a firm believer in the strength of masonries and the like (Go check out my GI Tierlist from last month!), so they were implemented sparingly. This creates an interesting choice layout for town: do they swing on a role that can potentially form a valuable trust block, at the cost of whiffing and ending up as a Named Townie instead?
Here are some ideal-ish role spreads from some playtests I ran:
As you can see, it's difficult to imagine either of those role-lists being won by a mass-claim, and it is also difficult to imagine scum factions being able to steamroll without opposition. The second one in particular is interesting due to none of the Named Townies ever being truly confirmable by mechanical means.
Can it be done IRL?
Mafia was first designed to be played in person. I've hosted and played it many times with friends, so I wanted 52 Pickup to be easy enough to, well, pick up, with minimal difficulty and setup. The role list can be distributed with a deck of cards (hopefully you didn't throw the Jokers away, but the game can run fine without them), which can be labelled with each role. Alternatively, the document can be printed out beforehand. IDEA themes based on standard playing cards is not a new concept, but I wasn't particularly fond of any of the existing ones. I hoped that theming the role-list around the different suits would help in terms of uptake when first looking at the theme, but I don't think anything outside of Protective = Hearts is all that catchy. Regardless, next time I happen to have 9 people or more over, I'll be sure to test out how it plays in person.
Conclusions
I think the setup largely accomplishes what I wanted it to, but I fear that straying too far from convention might have backfired. Near-Vanilla setups are often regarded as boring, but I love them for their ability to facilitate competitive games. I'll bring this to staff in the hopes of getting it added to the script. I would like to see near-vanilla themes being hosted more often, and 52 Pickup eliminates the repetitiveness of playing one particularly favoured setup for too long. Otherwise, let me know what you think!