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Post by stanislaus on Dec 15, 2010 8:33:10 GMT -5
Hi folks,
We're having the inevitable Christmas team meeting with mandatory fun and someone (not even me) suggested this "Mafia?" game they'd heard about. So I got all enthusiastic and then realised I don't necessarily know a good setup.
I'm not looking for colour so much as a good, interesting set-up suitable for novices. There will be 12-15 people (so one will have to moderate). I want to include a relatively high number of roles, to keep people interested, and a high enough body-count to keep the game(s) moving quickly.
Is there an off-the-peg set up for this? I'm thinking 3 Mafia, 1 Detective, 10 Vanilla (e.g.) but I want to move on to adding in Godfathers, Doctors, Vigs etc. to keep people interested?
Can anyone offer some guidance on balance for groups this size?
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Post by NAF1138 on Dec 15, 2010 14:50:40 GMT -5
Yes.
The first thing that is important to remember about live action mafia is that most of the roles in online mafia don't actually make any sense when put into a live situation. You need roles who's actions can be communicated to the narrator quickly and silently while the rest of the group has their eyes closed. Redirects or anything complicated are hard to work out via pantomime and everyone will hear what is going on.
The second is that since the game moves very fast simple will always be more fun. You don't have a lot of time to work stuff out and you don't have text to go back and analyze. It's a different beast, and simple is better.
The third is that it is actually a bit harder for mafia in real life games than it is online, so you don't really want to give the town powers anyway or the mafia almost can't win. Remember, most of the roles were invented to give town a chance against mafia members who could lie without any physical tells. Mafia doesn't have that advantage in real life so town doesn't need the boost.
Traditional live mafia for 12-15 people I would say give the game 3 mafia, 1 snitch, the rest vanilla. The snitch role is someone who at game setup get's the chance to find out the alignment of just a single player of their own choosing.
Getting much more involved than that (doctors etc) makes it almost impossible for the mafia to win. If it weren't such a large group I would say to take the snitch out too.
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Post by Rysto on Dec 15, 2010 15:36:35 GMT -5
By the way, an easy way to randomize the roles is with playing cards. For NAF's setup take 3 black cards, 8 red numeric cards and 1 red face card. Shuffle them and pass them out. People who get a black card are mafia, people who get a red numeric card are vanilla town and the person who gets the face card is the snitch.
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Post by stanislaus on Dec 15, 2010 17:44:24 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Sounds like good advice. The party's tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes.
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Post by Mister Blockey on Dec 22, 2010 0:37:36 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Sounds like good advice. The party's tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes. LIES!!!
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Post by stanislaus on Jan 14, 2011 5:51:44 GMT -5
As you've probably guessed, it was one hell of a party. We promised each other we'd never speak of it again; all I can say is that we eventually made it back to shore, the chemical burns have now healed, the last of the wallabies has been returned to captivity and the government has agreed to keep the press from publishing on the grounds of national security.
In all seriousness, it was a big success - people took a while to work out what they were meant to do during Day One, but once it took off everyone really got into it. And we've discovered who the good liars are, which is always useful info.
Thanks for all the tips - I'd have made it way too complicated.
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