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Some Questions

25,439
Posts
11
Years
What is it that makes mafia fun to you? What do you look for in a mafia game? Are there types of game you'd like to see more (or less) of here in the UG?
 

Nimsy

Jackal The Ripper
1,415
Posts
10
Years
The deducing is the most fun for me. As for games; I play whatever is up, I don't really have a preference.
 

Mars

Lowlight
217
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 23
  • Seen Aug 19, 2021
I see mafia as another form of interaction, a social event. It's really fun to watch everything unfold and witness unpredictable/improbable scenarios. Not to mention that it's very accessible. In terms of gameplay, I'd say that we're on the track but the gimmicks overcomplicate things every now and then. More traditional games would be appreciated.
 

Bidoof FTW

[cd=font-family:carter one; font-size:13pt; color:
3,547
Posts
10
Years
My personal DON'T list


1. RNG determining the success of a role or item

This lessens the amount of skill, preparation, or planning, and can ruin games for certain people depending on the result. It can be the sole reason a game isn't liked, if used too much or for very important actions. Supps 4 is an amazing example of how RNG can ruin mafia.

2. A Messy and Unnecessarily Large OP.

Now, I get it. Your game has a story that you want to highlight, you have a lot of roles and mechanics that you want to highlight. But there are ways to do this without making your players want to kill themselves. My favorite OP's and the ones that I think are done the best feature the following:
No Scroll Wheels. These condense your OP poorly and make it more difficult to look through. If a player has to scroll through a role list 5 times just to check up on roles mid-game then you have a bad OP. This post should be easy to come back to at any moment during the game to check for a specific detail and scroll wheels do not allow this. An example of how this can hurt an OP is Faeries & Legends.​
An incredibly long list of roles with descriptions that lack brevity. If you're going to have a complicated role or several, for that matter, try to explain it/them as clearly as you can with as few words as possible. People are going to say TL;DR and the OP is the LAST thing you want someone to not read as a GM.​
Separate CSS boxes for each section of the GM's post. This might just be me, but I feel like having an obvious division between your Role List, Rule list, Lore, etc. in your OP can really make your post not only easier to read, but also easier to find a specific detail for later in the game. Think of this as the header of a website. It makes your OP look cleaner and prettier, which is always good. However, this does increase the length of an OP, so don't use it willy-nilly. You don't want the first post to take the entire first page of a thread. This is probably just my preference, and you can see how much I like it considering I loved using it for Gotham (Thanks Kiyo for the original CSS featuring headers).​

3. Taking attention away from the game

Events are fun. They are cute little ways to add some lighthearted fun or some crazy items or actions to spice the game up. They can also be used as devices to implant some fun game lore, there's nothing like a good ol' lore infested event to give your game a plot that the players can get into and follow. Too many events is not fun. The point of your game is to play mafia, and if you have an event every day then your players will lose focus from the game and it often gives lazy players a way to remain active without actually doing anything. The pick-a-present styled event is a commonly picked event. You pick a numbered or colored item, and inside is a neat surprise! or a cruel and sudden death. I have a love-hate relationship with this event, because it adds some dynamic elements into the game like guns or other items, but this event has its downsides. Players can often just pick their present then not post for the rest of the day, that's no fun! Often after a GM has posted this, you find posts with like 5 words in them, just because all they're doing is picking their present. It takes away from the game. The point of me bringing up this example, is to highlight that the GM should carefully decide what events they should use in a game, and that they should use them sparingly, so that the game can continue as it normally would, but with a couple extra deaths mixed in.

4. RIDDLES

This is the worst mechanic to ever exist. The riddles are often incredibly difficult or vague, attached to an overpowered effect that is meant to use the riddle as a buffer but it DOESN'T WORK because no one signed up for a mafia game to solve riddles! A prime example of terrible riddles and why using them as a buffer is a terrible idea is the Riddler from Battle for Gotham or the Sphinx in Faeries & Legends. It isn't fun, the effects of not solving the riddle is almost never fun, and it always leaves a salty player or two. It's best to either rework the overpowered role by buffering it with something easier to balance or to nerf the role entirely. Riddle events aren't that great either, as they generally take advantage of timezones and once again, no one signed up because they like riddles.
___________________

This is a long post for me and I feel like I have nothing more to say. This probably wasn't what you wanted by asking the question but I really wanted to say this somehow. I considered the OP as someone asking advice on what I personally think GMs do right or wrong, what they can do better, or just what my personal preference on a game is, and I think this post highlights some of that. Mentioning any game or role is meant as an example to solidify my points, and in no way is meant to attack the GM behind that game and it is meant purely as criticism as for what I think can reduce fun in mafia games or make a game less appealing. I hope my wall of text was worth reading.
 
10,078
Posts
15
Years
  • Age 32
  • UK
  • Seen Oct 17, 2023
As a frequent GM I'd love to quickly query something with other people with GM-hats on.

Is it just me that whips up an event or two to get people actually posting? 90% of events I've made in my last few games have to try tp get people to actually do something rather than ignore the thread and slide through unnoticed :c.

IMO, whilst people can often point fingers towards the design of a game for its flaws, games are often made enjoyable by the players. We've had very very simple games that have been crazy fun, and really complicated games that are equally brilliant. As long as the players understand whats happening and take the initiative to be active, investigative and generally taking part then the game is gonna be good.
 
25,439
Posts
11
Years
As a frequent GM I'd love to quickly query something with other people with GM-hats on.

Is it just me that whips up an event or two to get people actually posting? 90% of events I've made in my last few games have to try tp get people to actually do something rather than ignore the thread and slide through unnoticed :c.

IMO, whilst people can often point fingers towards the design of a game for its flaws, games are often made enjoyable by the players. We've had very very simple games that have been crazy fun, and really complicated games that are equally brilliant. As long as the players understand whats happening and take the initiative to be active, investigative and generally taking part then the game is gonna be good.

I can definitely confirm that the biggest struggle I have when I'm GMing is getting people to actually participate and talk and honestly the less players participate in a game the harder it is for me as a GM to get motivated to do my part. It's when players don't contribute that I start forgetting to change phases etc and I think it's probably the same for a lot of GMs.

In my opinion there needs to be a bit of give and take here from both sides. GMs need to make sure that we're actually giving people the kind of games that they want but if people want to see those games continue to happen they've got to contribute more during day phases and remember to actually submit night actions.


As for answering my original question, I think that a big problem with some games (mine included) is that they can draw on too long. I really enjoyed Merlin Mafia for the most part because even though there wasn't nearly enough participation in my opinion, the game was very well balanced and fast-paced. My own game right now I've messed up the balancing a little bit and made some of the HPs too high for the comparatively low attack values and that's making it drag on a bit and causing people to get kind of bored. So smaller, faster paced games are my personal preference right now I think. We need to get back to basics for a while so everyone can refresh themselves a bit for the next wild game.

Those are my thoughts for now.
 

TheCapsFan

Threat To Survival
424
Posts
12
Years
What is it that makes mafia fun to you?

I like the social aspect, the deduction part, and just arguing with people tbh.

What do you look for in a mafia game?

Typically I like to sign up for games whose themes I recognize. But that won't stop me from signing up for a game. A mafia game is the same overall concept regardless of theme.

Are there types of game you'd like to see more (or less) of here in the UG?

Can someone make a Fire Emblem game? :P If not, I might just have to make one myself...Foreshadowing? Maybe.

Tbh I'd just like to see more games period in the UG. It's such a unique culture you guys have here and I always enjoy myself in your games, it's a shame to seem.
 

Lycanthropy

[cd=font-family:Special Elite;font-size:16px;color
11,037
Posts
10
Years
It's fun because this is legally murdering people of course! I love the psychologically aspect of Mafia, which is pretty unique to the game, as well as doing detective work.

Most important things have been said already. Personally, I like a game that's somewhat close to vanilla without too many crazy stuff, or RPG since that's simply awesome. That said, a theme is always cool and you get bonus points if I even know something about it (which is kinda rare tbh).

The most important part too make a game isn't entirely within the league of the GM, it's the players themselves. If people talking a lot, there's also a lot to talk about and therefore people talk even more.
 

Ullion

[color=#00cc99][i]Simic Synthesis[/i][/color]
4,712
Posts
17
Years
As for what gets my interest going, I'm not picky. I'll play whatever game you have to offer. However, I find that my favorite games have been those with wiggle room for the mafia. Vanilla town roles, roles hidden upon death, tailors, all those make it possible for the mafia to make huge plays.

This. I mentioned to GP the other day, I think my favourite type of setup I've seen used so far in the UG has been Mana's Harry Potter game setup. It gave everyone abilities to use, so no one could complain about being 100% vanilla - but all the townies without special roles were placed into groups that had the same role and abilities. So CC'ing was more interesting and like Bard said, gave the mafia more wiggle room. So long as a GM could do this kind of setup, where innos are placed into mini groups where each group has a recurring NA that isn't too game-changing or impactful, it creates a good balance between the town and mafia. Or so I feel, anywho :)
 

Wicked3DS

[b]Until the very end.[/b]
4,592
Posts
10
Years
Really I just want there to be new games going as soon as games end, it's annoying to be sitting waiting for a new game after game(s) end.

Also for the love of Blarzigord stop with the riddles. I'm not here to hurt my brain just to end up failing it anyway.
 

Demon Lord

Banned
22
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 21
  • Hell
  • Seen Dec 16, 2016
How this gaming foroum works. And why all last thread show up only "Game over" type games. And what are "Day and night" type game.
 
25,439
Posts
11
Years
How this gaming foroum works. And why all last thread show up only "Game over" type games. And what are "Day and night" type game.

Games labeled as "Game Over" are just that, they've finished. As for Day/Night, those are not different types of game but phases of each game and an integral part of mafia. Considering you've already joined games, I strongly suggest you read through the guidelines and explanation stuck at the top of the forum.

Also, please refrain from asking how to play in this thread as it's not really what it is for.
 
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