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[notquitethere]

NQT's Game Formats

Here's a list of mafia or mafia-adjacent games that I have run based on setups I've designed myself. I've been reflecting on how to do the next CYOM, so I thought I'd recap what I've tried before.

Elements

This was a format for five players where each player had two allies and two enemies (in a circle) and they win when their enemies are dead and they're still alive. A bit swingy maybe but a lot of great possibility for back-stabbing drama.

Elements 1

Two more games of this were run by other people.

Procedurally Generated Mafia

Proc-Gen Mafia uses a random role generator, with some very wacky possibilities. Not always very well balanced but always nice and chaotic. Typically I'd make a batch of roles and then weed out ones which would just instantly end the game (like "Twice per day you can kill every player").

Proc Gen 1 - Mafia Win
Proc Gen 2 - Town Win
Proc Gen 3 - Town Win
Proc Gen 4 - Mafia Win

Angry Ghosts

Angry Ghosts is a game where the dead can keep posting, there are no role-flips and only the dead have night powers (but no vote). I had forgotten about this setup, which was never actually run.

Puzzle Temple Panic

Puzzle Temple Panic was a cross between mafia and a turn based adventure game with objects, puzzles, an action economy and everything. It was very ambitious but also quite  hard to run. To my shame, the actual ending stalled out due to waiting too long on a player for an action and me getting busy with other things, but by that point the scum team had basically won. It was probably a little too difficult, but I loved the blended genre ideas here.

Choose-Your-Own-Mafia

CYOM is my signature game. The core conceit is that players pick their roles themselves (often through a point-buy system) and then they can gain new roles to adapt to the game state as they survive successive days. As a format, it's very much a mixed success. There have been some phenomenal highs and some dreadful lows.

Choose-Your-Own-Mafia - Town Win
Point-Buy system. Probably too town-sided. Some players were very good at making role creation choices, others not so much. There were cult conversion powers on the table, which haven't appeared since.

Choose-Your-Own-Masquerade - Town Win
Same point buy system, but with adjusted costs and more powers. This time it was a Masquerade, so players could only target masks and no one knew (prior to claims or mask inspects) whose mask was whose. It was also Deep South, so there was no night phase, everything happened during the day, which makes things nice and dramatic. People had fun with it but it was also felt to be quite town-sided (though the mafia did have more tools at their disposal that they didn't always take advantage of).

Choose-Your-Own-Mafias - Scum Team B Win
This was like the Masquerade game but instead had two scum teams, as well as NPC masks (so someone could kill a mask but it turns out its not a real player). I upped the character creation point value so players started out twice as powerful. There were also third parties. The game went on to 13 days because one of the scum teams managed to cheese the point system in some inflationary way.

Choose-Your-Own-Mafia 4 - Town Win
This game used a D&D style race + class +levels system which was quite elegant. Scum gave up on D1, this was a complete disaster. Town full claimed and came up with a plan to squeeze out the scum and confirm everyone, and so scum threw in the towel. Miserable. Learned an important lesson about doubly ensuring the game can't be won by full claiming D1.

Choose Your Own Spheres

This series of games were BYOR where players made their role elements by choosing paths along a grid of spheres.

Choose Your Own Spheres - Town Win — The first game was a giant tightly fought game with the longest thread in the mafia subforum, in part due to the trading mechanics. Despite being so long, it ended on Day 3 with a town victory.

Choose Your Own Spheres 2 - Scum Team B win — The sequel game was too clever for its own good, two scum teams who had no idea the other team existed, a a third party role that prevented flips for most of the game, several resurrections, and confusing ability-warping powers. In the end, one of the scum team won but under circumstances that were paradoxical. It suffered from the complete opposite problem to CYOM: I'd swung the pendulum too far from completely transparent, to completely opaque!

[notquitethere]

I've been working on a card game variant of Choose Your Own Mafia. It ditches the masquerade and nightless parts (though maybe Masquerade should be kept), and gives a sort of deck building aspect to it. Players make their roles up with cards.

Choose-Your-Own-Collectable-Card-Mafia

This is a Choose-Your-Own-Mafia game, and like every earlier version of the game, it has a different ruleset. In this game you will spend Experience Points (xp) to get Booster Packs. Each Booster Pack contains a number of role cards, from which you will construct your role. During the day, you may also trade cards with other players.

Spoiler: Role Construction and Using Actions (click to show/hide)

By default, each role is composed of the following four card slots. Some cards will grant you additional slots. You don't have to fill every slot.

1 Action
1 Target
1 Reflexive
1 Flaw

Players start with 5xp. Each night survived gets a player 1xp more. Additional cards are gained from buying booster packs (see Booster Packs). Unused cards are left loose in the player's inventory and may be used on subsequent nights. Replacing any card in one of your slots will destroy it.

An action (A) card does something to at least one player. A target (T) card sets who the action can target (usually during the night phase unless the card says otherwise). In order to use an action it must be accompanied by a target card.

If a player has multiple actions then they will all target the same target (e.g. someone may be watched and protected in the same act). If a player can target multiple targets, they may assign their actions to different targets. (e.g. 4maskwolf has a [Kill], a [Block] and a [Target Two Different Players], and so may use the block on one player, the kill on another.

A reflexive (R) card passively (or automatically) changes the nature of someone's role (usually giving them an immunity to some other action). A flaw (F) card gives a downside, but gives the player one of the following bonuses:
Common: +2xp OR a target slot OR an action slot
Uncommon: +3xp OR a target slots and another flaw slot OR an action slot and another flaw slot OR a reflexive slot
Rare: +4xp OR two slots of any kind

Example: When Tiruin joins the game, she opts to have get the standardised Booster Pack. At the start of play, she gets the following cards:

[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) T: One action on one dead player]
[(C) A: Protect (stop one kill affecting the target)]
[(C) F: Hardcore (all protects on you fail)]
[(U) R: Cautious (You ignore Reflects)]
[(U) A: Poison (target dies at the end of the next cycle)]
[(R) R: Double-Voter (You have one additional vote)]

During N1, she plays the following cards on her board:

Action: Protect
Target: One action on one other living target
Auto: Cautious
Flaw: Hardcore

Because she played a flaw, she has an additional slot. She doesn't want to play the [Poison], so she gives herself the double voter auto, becoming a cautious double-voting hardcore doctor. She later might opt to trade away the excess cards with another player.

Spoiler: Booster Pack (click to show/hide)

Standard Pack - 5xp - 7 cards: four common, two uncommon, one rare. One target card guaranteed among these.
Lucky Dip - 4xp - 7 cards, each has 62% chance of common, 25% uncommon, 13% rare. One target card guaranteed among these.
Job Lot - 3xp - 10 cards, each has a 85% chance of being common, 10% uncommon, 5% rare. Nothing guaranteed.

Spoiler: Cards (click to show/hide)

Cards are listed by type and rarity below.

Action Cards

Cards that are {untargeted} may be equipped without a target card.

Common
[(C) A: Pray For (target with no effect)]
[(C) A: Give Fruit (gives the target a piece of fruit)]
[(C) A: Steal (takes a random loose card from the target)]
[(C) A: Scan (learn how much xp a target has)]
[(C) A: Randomise (Randomises the target of actions the target takes this phase)]
[(C) A: Gift (Give a loose card of your choice)]
[(C) A: Protect (protects target against kills this phase)]
[(C) A: Cleanse (One of targets flaw cards is removed; if the target is infected/poisoned, the infection/poison is removed instead)]
[(C) A: Reveal (One of target's loose cards is publically revealed)]
[(C) A: Swap (swap any loose card with a random loose card your target has)]
[(C) A: Delay (Target's action happens a cycle later)]
[(C) A: Point Share (give any number of XP that you have to a target)]
[(C) A: Bless (Target gains a random common auto card)]
[(C) A: Diversify (Target gains a random common action card)]
[(C) A: Corrupt (Target gains a random common flaw card)]
[(C) A: Little Helper (Target gains a random common card)]
[(C) A: Count (find out the number of target's cards in play and loose)]
[(C) A: Taunt (target is redirected to you)]
[(C) A: Upgrade (convert a random loose card belonging to your target into a random card of a higher rarity)]
[(C) A: Do-Over (at the start of the next phase, the target's cards are now all loose)]
[(C) A: Target Cop (Learn a random active target card your target has, if any)]


Uncommon
[(U) A: Track (see who your target targets this phase)]
[(U) A: Patrol (See who targets your target this phase)]
[(U) A: Redirect (redirect one target onto another]
[(U) A: Chi Block (the target's reflexive cards will fail this phase]
[(U) A: Sap (steal all a player's unspent XP)]
[(U) A: Return (Name a card you think the target has on their board. This is sold off and at the start of the next phase, the player gains +1/+2/+3xp for a common/uncommon/rare)]
[(U) A: Mixed Blessings (If the target has no flaw, at the start of the next phase they gain a random flaw in their flaw slot, and a random loose card of matching rarity)]
[(U) A: Curse (target player gains a random uncommon flaw card, which is automatically played to their board at the start of the next phase if possible)
[(U) A: Mulligan (Target loses all loose cards and gain random cards of the same rarity)]
[(U) A: Power-Cop (target a player and choose one: learn all active powers, learn all active reflexives, learn all active flaws)
[(U) A: Santa (target player gains a random uncommon power card)
[(U) A: Copycat (Choose two targets, you perform all of player 1's powers on player 2. Doesn't work for multi-targeted powers. This counts towards the scum-team kill limit.)
[(U) A: Besmirch (Give a copy of one of your flaw cards to the target, which is automatically played to their board at the start of the next phase if possible)
[(U) A: Poison (target is killed at the end of the next cycle if they are not cleansed first. Non-circumspect players don't know they're poisoned.)

Rare
[(R) A: Blackmail (The target's vote counts for 0 votes until after the next lynch.)]
[(R) A: Nerf (Pick a power. That power now costs 1xp point to use each time. A power may only be Nerfed once; requires a target but does nothing to the target)
[(R) A: Vote Steal (take the vote from any other target)]
[(R) A: Reflect (Any action (other than reflects) that would successfully hit the target, hits the actor instead. This bypasses the usual restriction against self targeting.)]
[(R) A: Kill (kills the target)]
[(R) A: Hide (spend 1xp to become incapable of taking actions or being targeted until the next lynch; cannot use during the same phase as taking an action; doesn't require a target card)]
[(R) A: Infect (Target is Infected: Infected players have a 50/50 chance infecting players they target. Infection kills a player at the end of the following cycle. Non-circumspect players don't know they're infected.)]
[(R) A: Recall (pick a power - all players with that power sell it, gaining +1/+2/+3xp for a common/uncommon/rare, and the power card will no longer appear in draws; requires a target but does nothing to the target)]
[(R) A: Benefactor (your target gains either 3 random common, 2 random uncommon or 1 random rare card).
[(R) A: Pardon: Your target cannot be eliminated at the next end-of-day. Any votes on them will not count and hammers will not be in effect for them.]

Targets
[(C) T: One action on one other living target] *special: this card is 6x more common than other common target cards.
[(C) T: One action on a living target's target]
[(C) T: Two actions on two other living targets (no less than two actions, and they can't be the same action or target)]
[(C) T: One action on one dead player]
[(C) T: One action on one random player, dead or alive]

[(U) T: One action on two other living targets]
[(U) T: Two actions on one other living target (can't be the same)]
[(U) T: Two actions on two other living targets (can be the same)]
[(U) T: One action on yourself]
[(U) T: One action on everyone targeting your target]
[(U) T: One action on one dead target during the day]
[(U) T: One action on one other living player, and any number of other actions on any number of other players that do nothing]
[(U) T: Up to two actions on up to two other random living players]
[(U) T: One action on every dead player]

[(R) T: One action on one living target during the day]
[(R) T: One action on every living target]
[(R) T: Up to three actions on up to three other living players (can be the same)]
[(R) T: One action on one other target. Gain another slot of any kind.]
[(R) T: One action on everyone targeting yourself. This may bypass mafia kill limits.]


Reflexives

Common

[(C) R: Bloodthirsty (get 1xp every time an elimination occurs with your vote on the player that gets eliminated.)]
[(C) R: Thrill-seeker (get 2xp every time an elimination occurs with the number of votes on you equal to or one point less than the player with the most votes)]
[(C) R: Power of Healing (gain +1xp every time you successfully protect another player from a cause of death or remove an infection or poison from another player.)]
[(C) R: Bounty-hunter (gain 1xp every time an action you have performed was a necessary part of someone's death.)]
[(C) R:  Cheapskate (you can ignore any xp costs to activate actions.)
[(C) R: Virtuous (you can't be blackmailed or receive a flaw from mixed blessings)]
[(C) R:  Silent (you can't be tracked and you don't appear on patrol reports)]
[(C) R:  Immovable (you cannot be redirected, taunted or randomised)]
[(C) R:  Hasty (You cannot be delayed and any attempts to copy your actions fail)]
[(C) R:  Holy (cannot be cursed or besmirched.)]

Uncommon
[(U) R:  Super-Saint (The person who casts the final vote on you will also die if you are successfully eliminated. This doesn't count towards the scum-team kill limit.)]
[(U) R:  Radiant (Each time someone successfully targets you, that action is also copied onto a random player)]
[(U) R:  Hardy (you cannot be sapped or have your vote stolen)
[(U) R:  Circumspect (you always know the reason why your actions fail and you always know if you've been poisoned or infected)]
[(U) R:  Cautious (you ignore any reflects, super-saints or explosiveness)]
[(U) R:  Secure (your loose cards cannot be taken by others and you cannot be sapped)]
[(U) R: Alibi (Gain a dummy action, target, reflexive and flaw slot: if you have a card in those slots, it will be revealed instead of your actual cards if you are inspected by a cop)]
[(U) R: Grandfathered (Ignore returns and recalls)]

Rare
[(R) R: Prolific (gain an additional target or action slot)
[(R) R: Explosive (you kill anyone targeting a kill at you if you die. This doesn't count towards the scum-team kill limit.)]
[(R) R: Resurrection (After dying, you come alive again- you still get any day xp etc, but this card disappears on use.)]
[(R) R: Double-Voter (you have two votes)]
[(R) R: Immune - (you can't be poisoned or infected)]


Flaws

Common
Gain an additional

[(C) F: Insidious (You gain +1 xp at the end of each day but cannot spend xp on buying new packs)]
[(C) F: Hardcore (all protects on you fail)]
[(C) F: Filthy (all cleanses on you fail)]
[(C) F: Dense (you gain no experience points for surviving the day)]
[(C) F: Minimalist (If you ever receive a card from an action or reflexive card, it is randomly given away to a non-minimalist player if there are any non-minimalist players alive.)]
[(C) F: Mole (At the end of each day, a random player on a different team gets 1 xp.)]
[(C) F: Simple (You cannot receive more than 1xp per day)]
[(C) F: Sentimental (You cannot trade away your cards.)]
[(C) F: Basic (You have a 50% chance of gaining a common card instead when you gain any random non-common card, including from standard packs)]

[(U) F: Generous (you will give away a random loose card to a random player at the end of each night. This giving doesn't count as targeting for action-resolution purposes.)]
[(U) F: Mercenary (all your powers cost 1xp to play. )]
[(U) F: Blinkered (You can only target one target each phase, regardless of what your target cards say.)
[(U) F: Pariah (You are unable to vote.)]
[(U) F: Unreliable (your powers and reflexives have a 50% chance of failure whenever activated.)]
[(U) F: Magnetic (your powers have a 50% chance of targeting yourself.)]

[(R) F: Lover (a random living player is picked; while you have this card played if they die, so do you)]
[(R) F: One-Shot (your powers disappear after they've been used.)]
[(R) F: Intermittent (your powers only work on even phases.)
[(R) F: Fragile (Any rare power that targets you also counts as a kill. This kill counts towards the actor's kill-limit.)]
[(R) F: Guilty Conscience (You die if your vote is on a town player and they get mislynched.)]

Spoiler: Trading (click to show/hide)

You may agree to any trade in principle with any player during the day. At night, as part of your action, you may freely give any player any number of cards. You don't have to honour trades made. Trades are processed after actions and may be disrupted by theft.

Spoiler: Theft and Subversion - OR Why You Shouldn't Mass Claim (click to show/hide)

Mafia are card thieves. They have a special card theft ability, which they may target 1+(xp spent) players, stealing either: a random loose card OR a specific card which they name (whether loose or played)- if they fail to take a specific one (they name it and the target doesn't have it), they will take a random loose card from their target instead. Theft happens before actions are processed and cannot be tracked. It cannot be guarded against except by not broadcasting what cards you have.

Mafia may also subvert the rules: each night, one mafia player may treat their action as if it were a Kill. The card still appears as normal if inspected.

Spoiler: Alignments (click to show/hide)

If you're town you win when all scum team members are dead.

If you're scum, you win when all living players are of your scum team. Scum players have access to the Theft and Subvert abilities (see above). Mafia cannot Kill more than once per cycle, though they may Poison or Infect.

The whole design is that players still get to make their roles, but they're limited at any given time by the number of powers they can take, and what powers are available to take. This should limit really cheesy game-breaking strategies, but still give players some flexibility.

The common action cards are mostly trash (by design), so players will want to get uncommon or rare action cards. Uncommon and rare targeting gives them more power, flaws of all kinds give them more flexibility and power. All of the reflexive (previously called 'auto') cards are useful, so but there are only so many slots, which limits the power. I might add 3rd parties in, or have multiple scum teams, I'm not sure yet.

Some questions:

- Should there be more cards in the packs or is 7 a sweet spot? Here's a selection of random draws for reference:

Spoiler: Random Draws (click to show/hide)

In the real game, the draft draws would be fresh each time and so cards may occur between them, but to maximise variety for this I used unique cards in each of the standard and lucky dip draws.

Standard Pack 1
[(C) A: Corrupt (Target gains a random common flaw card)]
[(C) A: Target Cop (Learn a random active target card your target has, if any)]
[(C) A: Cleanse (One of targets flaw cards is removed; if the target is infected/poisoned, the infection/poison is removed instead)]
[(C) A: Taunt (target is redirected to you)]
[(U) R:  Super-Saint (The person who casts the final vote on you will also die if you are successfully eliminated. This doesn't count towards the scum-team kill limit.)]
[(U) R: Grandfathered (Ignore returns and recalls)]
[(R) T: Up to three actions on up to three other living players (can be the same)]

Standard Pack 2
[(C) F: Dense (you gain no experience points for surviving the day)]
[(C) F: Basic (You have a 50% chance of gaining a common card instead when you gain any random non-common card, including from standard packs)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) R:  Cheapskate (you can ignore any xp costs to activate actions.)
[(U) A: Power-Cop (target a player and choose one: learn all active powers, learn all active reflexives, learn all active flaws)
[(U) T: Two actions on one other living target (can't be the same)]
[(R) A: Recall (pick a power - all players with that power sell it, gaining +1/+2/+3xp for a common/uncommon/rare, and the power card will no longer appear in draws; requires a target but does nothing to the target)]


Standard Pack 3
[(C) R: Bloodthirsty (get 1xp every time an elimination occurs with your vote on the player that gets eliminated.)]
[(C) A: Protect (protects target against kills this phase)]
[(C) A: Bless (Target gains a random common auto card)]
[(C) A: Diversify (Target gains a random common action card)]
[(U) F: Blinkered (You can only target one target each phase, regardless of what your target cards say.)
[(U) F: Unreliable (your powers and reflexives have a 50% chance of failure whenever activated.)]
[(R) T: One action on one other target. Gain another slot of any kind.]


Standard Pack 4
[(C) A: Do-Over (at the start of the next phase, the target's cards are now all loose)]
[(C) A: Pray For (target with no effect)]
[(C) A: Randomise (Randomises the target of actions the target takes this phase)]
[(C) A: Upgrade (convert a random loose card belonging to your target into a random card of a higher rarity)]
[(U) T: One action on yourself]
[(U) A: Copycat (Choose two targets, you perform all of player 1's powers on player 2. Doesn't work for multi-targeted powers. This counts towards the scum-team kill limit.)
[(R) R: Double-Voter (you have two votes)]


Lucky Dip 1
Common x2, uncommon x2, rare x3 (great!)
[(C) F: Minimalist (If you ever receive a card from an action or reflexive card, it is randomly given away to a non-minimalist player if there are any non-minimalist players alive.)]
[(C) T: Two actions on two other living targets (no less than two actions, and they can't be the same action or target)]
[(U) A: Mulligan (Target loses all loose cards and gain random cards of the same rarity)]
[(U) A: Chi Block (the target's reflexive cards will fail this phase]
[(R) F: Fragile (Any rare power that targets you also counts as a kill. This kill counts towards the actor's kill-limit.)]


Lucky Dip 2
Common x3, Uncommon x3, Rare x1 (good)
[(C) A: Count (find out the number of target's cards in play and loose)]
[(C) F: Filthy (all cleanses on you fail)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target] *special: this card is 6x more common than other common target cards.
[(U) A: Curse (target player gains a random uncommon flaw card, which is automatically played to their board at the start of the next phase if possible)
[(U) A: Track (see who your target targets this phase)]
[(U) A: Mixed Blessings (If the target has no flaw, at the start of the next phase they gain a random flaw in their flaw slot, and a random loose card of matching rarity)]
[(R) R: Explosive (you kill anyone targeting a kill at you if you die. This doesn't count towards the scum-team kill limit.)]


Lucky Dip 3
Common x5, Uncommon x1, Rare x1 (ok)
[(C) A: Little Helper (Target gains a random common card)]
[(C) A: Gift (Give a loose card of your choice)]
[(C) A: Reveal (One of target's loose cards is publically revealed)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) A: Point Share (give any number of XP that you have to a target)]
[(U) R:  Hardy (you cannot be sapped or have your vote stolen)
[(R) A: Infect (Target is Infected: Infected players have a 50/50 chance infecting players they target. Infection kills a player at the end of the following cycle. Non-circumspect players don't know they're infected.)]

Lucky Dip 4
Common x6, Uncommon x1 (bad!)
[(C) T: One action on one other living target] *special: this card is 6x more common than other common target cards.
[(C) F: Simple (You cannot receive more than 1xp per day)]
[(C) R: Bounty-hunter (gain 1xp every time an action you have performed was a necessary part of someone's death.)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) A: Swap (swap any loose card with a random loose card your target has)]
[(C) R:  Holy (cannot be cursed or besmirched.)]
[(U) R:  Circumspect (you always know the reason why your actions fail and you always know if you've been poisoned or infected)]


Job Lot 1
x8 common, x1 uncommon, x1 rare (fine)
[(C) T: One action on a living target's target]
[(C) A: Randomise (Randomises the target of actions the target takes this phase)]
[(C) A: Gift (Give a loose card of your choice)]
[(C) F: Simple (You cannot receive more than 1xp per day)]
[(C) A: Count (find out the number of target's cards in play and loose)]
[(C) R:  Hasty (You cannot be delayed and any attempts to copy your actions fail)]
[(C) A: Taunt (target is redirected to you)]
[(C) A: Give Fruit (gives the target a piece of fruit)]
[(U) F: Mercenary (all your powers cost 1xp to play. )]
[(R) A: Pardon: Your target cannot be eliminated at the next end-of-day. Any votes on them will not count and hammers will not be in effect for them.]


Job Lot 2
x7 common, x3 uncommon (bad)
[(C) R:  Immovable (you cannot be redirected, taunted or randomised)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) A: Corrupt (Target gains a random common flaw card)]
[(C) A: Diversify (Target gains a random common action card)]
[(C) A: Do-Over (at the start of the next phase, the target's cards are now all loose)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target] *special: this card is 6x more common than other common target cards.
[(C) F: Mole (At the end of each day, a random player on a different team gets 1 xp.)]
[(U) T: One action on one dead target during the day]
[(U) T: Up to two actions on up to two other random living players]
[(U) R: Grandfathered (Ignore returns and recalls)]


Job Lot 3
x6 common, x3 uncommon, x1 rare (good)
[(C) A: Target Cop (Learn a random active target card your target has, if any)]
[(C) T: One action on one dead player]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) F: Hardcore (all protects on you fail)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) F: Dense (you gain no experience points for surviving the day)]
[(U) R:  Secure (your loose cards cannot be taken by others and you cannot be sapped)]
[(U) A: Curse (target player gains a random uncommon flaw card, which is automatically played to their board at the start of the next phase if possible)
[(U) A: Redirect (redirect one target onto another]
[(R) T: Up to three actions on up to three other living players (can be the same)]


Job Lot 4
x7 common, x1 uncommon, x2 rare (great)
[(C) F: Filthy (all cleanses on you fail)]
[(C) R: Thrill-seeker (get 2xp every time an elimination occurs with the number of votes on you equal to or one point less than the player with the most votes)]
[(C) T: One action on one other living target]
[(C) T: One action on one random player, dead or alive]
[(C) R:  Holy (cannot be cursed or besmirched.)]
[(C) A: Steal (takes a random loose card from the target)]
[(C) R: Power of Healing (gain +1xp every time you successfully protect another player from a cause of death or remove an infection or poison from another player.)]
[(U) A: Mulligan (Target loses all loose cards and gain random cards of the same rarity)]
[(R) R: Resurrection (After dying, you come alive again- you still get any day xp etc, but this card disappears on use.)]
[(R) A: Benefactor (your target gains either 3 random common, 2 random uncommon or 1 random rare card).

- Is Job Lot too good? From the testing above, I think it might actually need to cost as much or more xp than the other booster packs.

- Are there any cards that should be outright removed? The list is based a lot on my revised list after CYOM3. It massively reduces active power stealing that was common in the previous CYOMs.

- Are there any cards that should be included?

- What rules are currently unclear?

[TolyK]

Haven't dug too deep, cuz yeah, but consider what might be reasonable limitations to allow an in-person version of CYOCCM to be playable. With a mod/GM, of course.

[Jim Groovester]

I spot checked if the rarities made sense and it seems to check out. Maybe situationally I would want a common card over an uncommon or rare but by and large the higher in rarity the card is the more desirable they are.

If there are flaws in the setup I think they only get wrung out after playing it a few times.

- Is Job Lot too good? From the testing above, I think it might actually need to cost as much or more xp than the other booster packs.

Half thinking it through it seems like getting more cards gets you more chances for flaws which are pretty good opportunities to increase your utility for relatively cheaply compared to getting rarer cards.

[notquitethere]

This is the game I plan to run next. It's a sort of hybrid of CYOS and CYOM. There's no point buy or sphere grid, and it's like a BYOR in that players bring ideas into the game which are then written up, but the structure is build around modular powers that you can buy and develop throughout the game, so players can rapidly switch up tactics to respond to game events — the core design goal of the original CYOMs. Any thoughts on this at this stage could be helpful.

CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-MATERIA - (CYOM5)
This is a game in the CYOM series. These games always have the same two features:

- Semi-open setup: all possible mechanics are known to the players at game start, though the exact arrangement is unknown
- Power-Creep: Players gain XP at the end of each day they survive, and may improve their powerset with XP.

CYOM is also inspired by the Choose-Your-Own-Spheres (CYOS) games, with their sphere web. Where CYOS had a Final Fantasy 10-style sphere grid, this game has Materia: power spheres that can be put into slots for different effects. This game follows a similar pattern to earlier CYOMs, though it is slightly different:

- Delayed-open setup: all mechanics are contained in materia, but players only know what possible materia there is, and what the materia they own does.
- Materia-As-XP: The materia itself is the form of XP. At the start of the game each player will gain five random materia, and another random materia at the end of each night. Materia can either be equipped, traded in the day, or spent for extra actions and respeccing.

Each player has the following slots with which to place their materia:

Weapon: [Gives them an action that can be used on other players]
Armour: [Gives them an immunity]
Accessory: [Changes their role]

During character creation, each player suggests 1-5 materia for inclusion in the game. Materia inspired by the players suggestions (I may reword or amend names for brevity, or combine similiar suggestions) will form the pool for the game.

Spoiler: Character Creation (click to show/hide)

When you join the game, you may privately PM the mod 1-5 materia ideas. Materia should be 1-2 word elemental types (like FF7 materia, Pokemon types, D&D damage types, CYOM powers or even mafia roles). Don't submit 'Evil' as it's already taken.

By default, you start with five random materia and one slot in each equipment type. You may optionally decide to replace any number of those five with your own suggestions (e.g. if you suggest Pig and Lust, you could choose to x2 pig, x2 lust and one random, or 5 Pig, or 4 random and a Lust etc.).

Equipment slots:
Weapon: []
Armour: []
Accessory: []

At the start of each night, you may spend materia to gain additional slots.

Spoiler: Materia (click to show/hide)

At the start of the game, the name of all Materia in play will be listed, though not what each one does.

Each Materia typically give an effect on attack, give immunity to themselves if put in defence, or give a new role element. Some materia have additional effects such as granting additional slots or unique role mechanics. Abilities do not typically interfere with equipped materia. No ability other than the mafia's unique Evil Materia can kill directly, though poison, conditional kills etc., are all possible. The purpose of most abilities is to either harm players you think are opposed to you, or increase your knowledge about the game and the movements of others. Use these tools appropriately to further your wincondition.

When players are given random materia, duplicates are possible: each draw is an even chance from all possible materia. It's possible for a materia not to be present anywhere at the start of the game (e.g. no one happens to pick or randomly draws Thunder).

Examples
Here are some example materia that probably won't appear in the game, but demonstrate the sort of mechanics:

Weapon | Armour | Accessory
Fire: Burn (inflicts burn at the end of the night; if the player was already burnt, kill the player) | Fire Immunity | Burn anyone targeting you
Slow: Delay | Delay Immunity | Act last
Nurture: Guard (grant your immunities to target) | Guard Immunity, +2 Bonus Armour slots | Guard a random player each night
Theft: Steal (one random loose materia) | Steal Immunity | Your attacks also steal one random loose materia

Evil Materia

The mafia have one copy of the Evil materia. During the first night, they should probably decide who among their number is holding it.

Evil: Kill | Kill Immunity | Kill the first person targeting you each night

The Kill Immunity works for all forms of ability-based kills (example: being frozen then shattered, being burnt twice, death by poison) but not the day elimination.

If the holder of the Evil materia is ever killed or eliminated, the Evil materia reverts to the mafia team at the start of the next phase.

Spoiler: Progression (click to show/hide)

At the start of each day from D2 onwards, players will gain a new random materia.

At the start of each night, before any actions are sent or processed, players may place any loose materia in any empty slots they have. They may also optionally spend loose materia that they have to do the following:

Respec: Spend one materia and remove all materia from all slots, so they may be re-assigned.

New slot: Gain a new slot. Spend materia equal to the new slot's number. (e.g. two materia for the second slot in a weapon). Bonus slots don't count towards the cost. (e.g. if a player had one slot in Armour, with the Nurture sphere giving them two bonus slots, it would still only cost two materia to gain another Armour slot, giving them four in total). Additional slots in weapons give combined slots ([]-[]), in which an attack triggers all combined materia's effects.

Refine: Spend one materia and gain one materia of your choice at the end of the night. Evil cannot be gained this way.

Duplicate: Spend two materia and choose another materia you currently have assigned or loose: instantly gain another copy of the chosen materia. Evil may not be Duplicated.

Spoiler: Trading (click to show/hide)

In the thread during the day, players can opt to Trade [number] materia with {Player} in exchange for [number] materia. Trades are processed at the end of the day, if pairs match. Players may specify to one another what they're trading, wheedle and bargain as much as they like, but all trade contents are blind: players must PM the mod the materia they actually intend to trade. If they fail to PM the mod, the materia will be chosen randomly from the loose materia held by the player, if possible. When trades are received, the materia received are listed alphabetically with no source given.

Trades cannot be unmade and are processed from the first (valid) trade each player makes to the last.

E.g. Bloggs says "Trade 2 materia to Jane Doe for 1 materia - I've got some trash I'll give for anything". Jane Doe replies, "trade 1 materia to Bloggs for 2 materia".  The pairs match and the trade goes through at the end of the day.

The mafia may privately and instantly trade whatever materia they have in their collection at the start of each night, and may do so before or after respeccing.

Spoiler: Alignments (click to show/hide)

In CYOM5, there are only two alignments: Town and Mafia.

Town Wincondition: You win when all mafia are dead, and at least one town player still lives.

Mafia Wincondition: You win when all town are dead, and at least one mafia player still lives.

A draw is possible if somehow no one survives.

There are no alignment inspections (and as such, no millers, godfathers etc.). There are no equipped-materia inspections or thefts, so the Evil materia can never be directly discovered on a player (except if scum decide for some reason to keep it loose, give or trade it away).

[notquitethere]

Going through my folders, I've found some more games I designed but never ran, for one reason or other. Agents of Morrowind I put a lot into but I think I might have made it too complex. Is it something people would even want to play?

Agents of Morrowind

Vvardenfell is at war with Dagoth Ur, the Awakened Lord of the Sixth House, who waits in Red Mountain and sends forth his curses, diseases and cultists. Messages pass between the various great powers on the island, trying to eliminate the threat.

Unfortunately, after one of the representatives was found ritually murdered, it appears that there is a traitor among them. All the leaders of the Great Houses and Guilds have retreated to their various strongholds, communicating through their agents. Secrecy is the rule, and even the agents don't know who their fellow agents are working for. Who among them is working for the Tribe Unmourned?

This is a fast-paced game of mafia-style hidden roles. Days and nights are 24 hours each.

Spoiler: Voting (click to show/hide)

During the day, players may vote on which location they want raided. The location with the most votes is raided, and if one of the players is its leader, that player is removed from the game, as is usual in Mafia.

Voting results in a location being moved against: the base is ransacked and their leader ousted or executed and their agents arrested or exiled. A number of things are learned when a Leader is voted out:
- Their secret allegiances
- Their unique abilities
- Their base location
- The description of any agents currently employed

Days are short! 24 hours and done. It's okay if a day ends without an elimination as any player can attempt to assassinate their suspicions. You can always vote for No Raid.

Spoiler: Factions, Agents & Actions (click to show/hide)

Factions
Each player represents a leader of a different faction.There are a number of possible Factions at play (depending on player count). These include Great Houses and Guilds, and other smaller groupings. These some of the possibilities.  Some of the players are ALSO secretly a member of House Dagoth, working to destroy civilised society as we know it. Each faction is based in a specific location. Many public factions have publically known locations, and some have publicly known leaders.

Agents

A player starts with three agents they can deploy each night. To deploy them, you specify a city and an action. Any undeployed agents will remain at your base, guarding.

Agents have a description by which they can be recognised (by Watch) or targeted (by Assassinate). They are members of a fantasy race, which are usually (though not necessarily) randomly assigned. The races are Argonian, Khajiit, Redguard, Nord, Breton, Imperial, Orc, Bosmer (Wood elf), Altmer (High elf), Dunmer (Dark elf natives of Morrowind). About half the agents will typically be Dunmer, with the rest an even mix. Agents are male or female (equal odds).

Agents have their own base (which may be your own, but isn't always). If they are deployed in a location other than their base, they will travel there (see Travel below).

Actions

Every agent can perform the following actions:
- Watch (a location): report on the description of agents that arrive, leave, or pass through the location, and via what means (road, or quick-travel: silt strider, boat or guild guide). Note: Leaders automatically get a nightly report on everyone who travelled via quick-travel routes through their base.

- Guard (a leader/an agent): prevent assassins and ambushers from killing one person (that you name). You can guard yourself, and you can guard your own agents.

- Assassinate (a leader or agent, at a location): kill the leader residing at this location, or an agent acting in this location. You need a name before you can assassinate a leader. You just need a description (e.g. the female argonian) to target an agent. If the target is guarded, each guard kills 1 assassin, but if any assassins are alive afterwards, the guards and the leader are slain. If there are multiple agents matching the same description, a random one is picked. Assassinating an agent prevents their action. Assassins targeting one another both die if evenly matched.

- Spy (a location), learn the name of any leader residing at the location, or if that is already known, their faction. If no one is there, or they are otherwise hidden, you will get a report that no one was found. If you already know the name and faction of the leader you will learn their first Faction Ability (and then second, third etc. on subsequent spying attempts). More spies sent on the same trip are equivelant to multiple spying attempts (e.g. 2 spies will learn the leader name and faction in one turn).

- Ambush (a road connection between two locations): kill one agent who travels via this connection. Guards protect agents from ambushers in the same way as they protect against assassins. Silt Strider and Boat routes cannot be ambushed.

- Recruit (at location): recruit 2d2-2 new agents from the location. Factions usually have a limit of 5 agents.

- Relocate (location): Move an agent to a new base.

Travel
Agents travel via the shortest road route to their locations. The roads can be dangerous and fast travel means an agent cannot usually be ambushed. You can opt to take fast travel, in which case they will go the most direct route via Mage's guild guide, boat or silt strider (see map). 'Direct' means the fewest connections and fewest changes of transport-type. The downside, is that watchers get more information this way as to where your agents came from.

Compromised
The game has various states Leaders and agents can be under. Compromised is one such state. While all your agents are dead, you are Compromised. If you are Compromised your leader may act as an agent until more agents are recruited. You can also relocate yourself to an empty location this way.

If a Leader is Compromised and also successfully Spied, the Spy can learn their secret allegiances and secret faction abilities (if everything else about the Leader is already known).

Faction Abilities

Each faction has at least one Faction Ability. These abilities interacts with the Action and Agent and Location system in different ways, changing the rules as they apply to them. For example, one Faction may be immune to Ambushes, or another may start with more Agents; one faction might get more information from Watching, or another may gain access to an action unique to their faction. These abilities can be learned by multiple Spy attempts.

Faction Abilities are thematic to the factions in question in relatively predictable ways. i.e. if someone played the leader of the Morag Tong (the native assassin's guild), they would expect to have at least one ability related to the Assassinate action. Some faction abilities are only unlocked under certain conditions.

Secret Allegiances

The House Dagoth is a secret allegiance. Leaders can have any number of secret allegiances beyond their main faction. Each allegiance gives its own faction ability, but these are secret and won't ordinarily be learned by spying. Everyone knows the House Dagoth faction ability:

The Sleeper Awakes (location)[leader]: Designate a location. A new Dunmer agent will instantly be recruited and will attempt to assassinate the leader at that location. (You can send more agents to assist if you wish.) If at the end of the night you are not at your agent cap, you will retain the new recruit.

A [leader] action is a rare once per night ability that can be used without deploying an agent, and cannot be detected. If you have multiple [leader] actions, you can only perform one per night. If your leader is Compromised then every action becomes a [leader] action.

Win Conditions
Most players win when there are no more House Dagoth players.

House Dagoth wins when at least half the living leaders are House Dagoth at the start of a day phase.

Other secret allegiances may give additional wincons, but not necessarily.

Reports

At the end of each night, each Leader who survives gets the following reports:

A report on the description of everyone who travelled to and from their city via quick-travel routes: which route was taken, where to and from. E.g. A female Argonian arrived on the boat from Ebonheart and left on the road to Fort Moonmoth. If the agent stayed, then they will get a report of the form: A male Imperial arrived here in Suran by Silt Strider from Vivec and then later left via the same means.

A report (similar to above but including road routes) from any Watchers.

A report on the outcome of any assassinations, spying, ambushing, etc. If an agent was killed or otherwise went missing in action, you'll instead learn "[Agent name] has gone missing".

Spoiler: Maps (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Gazeteer (click to show/hide)

There are 20 locations in this game. Each location can have at most one leader.

Cities
Ald'ruhn
Balmora
Sadrith Mora
Vivec

Towns
Caldera
Ebonheart
Ghostgate
Gnisis
Maar Gan
Molag Mar
Pelagiad
Suran
Tel Branora
Tel Mora
 
Villages
Dagon Fel
Gnaar Mok
Hla Oad
Khuul
Seyda Neen

Fort
Fort Moonmoth

Spoiler: Public Information (click to show/hide)

Due to the political instability of frequent assassinations, no one really knows all of the factions that are still present on Vvardenfell and who might lead them. There are some exceptions:

The Tribunal Temple is based out of Vivec, led by the Archcanon Tholer Saryoni, a male Dunmer.

House Hlaalu is led by Duke Vedam Dren at his council in Ebonheart, a male Dunmer.

House Telvanni is based in Sadrith Mora.

House Redoran is based in Ald'ruhn.

Census and Excise office is based in Seyda Neen.

It's an open secret that [Playername] is the pen name of the leader of the Morag Tong (whoever/wherever he or she might be)

These other guilds have been known to be active on Vvardenfell: East Empire Company, Fighter's Guild, Imperial Legion, Mage's Guild, Tribunal Temple, Ashlanders, House Indoril, House Dres

This one I didn't come up with anything other than the core concept. It seemed like it would be too much hassle collating lists of roles, as most games the actual roles are revealed on some random post somewhere near the end.

Bring Your Own BYOR Role

In this game, you may pick any role from any BYOR, CYOM, or blah from this subforum. I will then alter as needed (as little as possible) to make it balanced enough with the other players.

Roles are independent of alignment which will be rolled as normal. You may submit a separate mafia role if you wish.

You may wish to go through this search, or look at some of the best games, or pick a game you remember playing in.


Another one I didn't get further than a sketch of an idea. I thought a And Then There Were None / Ten Little Indians type scenario where players are stuck in a murder house. The gimmick would be the killer player would have to pick a location (e.g. the Dining Room) and a murder weapon (e.g. the candlestick)— a sort of reverse Clue/Cluedo situation. I didn't get as far as working out how the deduction part would go, but I think the point would be the killers try to implicate other players by tricking them into being in certain locations. Definitely a work in progress, but I think this has legs.

Murder House Mafia

You have been invited to Ynys Penglog, a remote stony islet off the coast of Wales. The only thing on the island is crumbling mansion belonging to a man you used to know, Mr Standfast.

All the guest are old friends, family, lovers, employees, enemies, of Mr Standfast. The old butler meets everyone off of the boat, brings them up to the house, sets them up in their bedrooms. The first murder happens that very night.

Spoiler: Roles (click to show/hide)

Some players are in league with the vengeful Mr Standfast, delivering his vengeance on the guest. Each night they conspire to murder a player.

I completely forgot I'd designed this. I think I couldn't get the priority processing to actually work and not be completely gameable by either side. Read it and I think you'll see the issue.

One Day Ultimate Mafia

This is a multi-day game of mafia that only lasts one game day. At the end of the one and only day, all players PM a list of all the other players in order of elimination. Mafia additionally submit an order to the players they'd like to mafiakill; the doctor submits a list of players they want to protect; and the Cop submits a list of suspects they wish to inspect. Then the entirety of the rest of the game is automated based on these preferences and we see which team won.

Spoiler: Mafia Roles (click to show/hide)

For 7 players:
Vanilla Mafia x1
Godfather Mafia x1 - Shows up as town in inspects
Vanilla Town x3
Bulletproof Cop x1 - Cannot be doctored. Inspects on even nights.
Doc x1. Protects on odd nights.

Spoiler: Mafia Rules (click to show/hide)

- The day lasts 72 hours
- Players have 24 hours to submit their lists at the end of D1
- Mafia have a team chat in which they can co-ordinate
- Players will know how many mafia are in the game when the game begins
- Be good to each other.

Wincons:

Mafia win when mafia number >= town number
Town Win when mafia number = 0 & town number > 1

Spoiler: Voting specifics (click to show/hide)

Day Voting
- The weightings from each player's lists are counted up (e.g. if there are three players left, one player might appear as #1, #2, and #3 in the three players' lists, and get a weighting of 6 overall). Dead players are removed from lists.
- Each day, the player with the lowest weighting is voted out. i.e. the aggregate most suspected alive player is voted off.
- Ties can result in no one being eliminated.


Mafia Voting
- Mafia will night kill the living player highest on their list each night

Doctor Actions
- On every odd night the doctor will protect the living player highest on their list
- If they protect the mafia's target for that night, that player doesn't die
- The cop is bulletproof and cannot be successfully protected.

Cop Actions
- At N0 the Cop is told the alignment of one random non-vanilla mafia player. Then on every even night, they will inspect the living player highest on their list.
- If a player inspects as town, that person is put to the bottom of the cop's elimination list. If a player inspects as scum, that player is put to the top of their elimination list.