I compiled a list of problems with the setup in my head as I played. Then I managed to directly contradict half my points by winning, but here they are anyway.
- The traitors were pretty much at a complete disadvantage. The town outnumbered them
and had a confirmed player, making them an informed majority. I suppose the balancing factor was meant to be the ability to ninja the Prince, but without very lucky deadlines or roles it would be almost impossible to do this without getting a majority first. This could be solved by referring to the other points.
- I kindof contradicted this point by winning, but my victory required a lot of luck. If any other player had so much as considered the possibility that I was a stalwart guard that would've been the end.
- As Dariush said there wasn't really much difference between town and scum. What we did was not so much scumhunting as "kill ourselves off in order from worst at arguing their case to best". We all had no idea who our allies were, and a desire to not die... trying to identify scum under those conditions was difficult. It became harder still as a traitor where you had to identify town and then attack those townies as if they were scum. Giving the traitors at least some knowledge of each other (maybe each traitor could know the identity of one other traitor, or one central traitor could know the identities of all the others) would help.
- But I did somehow get a traitor vibe of ToonyMan, which is why I avoided attacking him. Tiruin I got wrong, oops.
- There was no sense of urgency at all with regard to phases. The town could take as many turns as it wanted, undermining the idea of mafia as a time limited exercise. Giving the traitors some kind of hidden action (like, the ability to secretly damage a town player other than the prince once in a while) would help.
- If we'd just chilled out and allowed another phase to go by I wouldn't've been able to win.
- All roles other than Stalwart Guard/ Guard cannot be falseclaimed or hidden. This is because of the "try to attack again" exploit I conveniently revealed on turn 6. This isn't a big point on its own, but combined with the other points it means...
- ...the game was breakable, I think. The thing that prevented it from being broken was the fact that nobody other than me seemed to notice the mechanics exploits. Let's run a thought experiment: imagine that me and IronyOwl had our roles swapped.
I at the start of the game demand a massclaim. Let's for the sake of argument assume that all town players respond truthfully (they should) and traitors can only lie about being a stalwart guard (if they lied about anything else they'd be outed). I could then spend 2 or 3 phases confirming everyone's role. The playerlist would then look like this, from my perspective:
Leafsnail - Prince, definitely town so doesn't need to die
Toaster - Swordmaster, 3HP
Jim Groovester - Shieldman, 4HP
Dariush - Stalwart Guard, 5HP
IronyOwl - Guard, 4HP OR Stalwart Guard, 5HP
Tiruin - Swordsman, 4HP
Caz - Swordsman, 4HP
Deathsword - Shieldman, 4HP
ToonyMan - Crossbowman (I think the same exploit would work for crossbowmen), 4HP
Then all I'd have to do is gradually reduce everyone to except me to 1HP (or 1HP/2HP in IronyOwl's case). Then, using a similar plan to the one we had on the last phase, kill everybody. It would maybe be possible for scum to rebel, but it would be extremely difficult and rely on them happening to be near the end of the "kill everybody" plan. In addition if Tiruin went down it wouldn't really be possible for any other traitor to reduce me to low enough HP to beat me at that point.
Holy damn Leafsnail you are the best. I will never lose any mafia games at this rate.
That is what it means to be King. The former-Prince would never understand that.