The only way to reliably kill the Mafia would be through lynching. The guns in this game dynamic was just the heighten paranoia between Town-versus-Town.
Though I wonder if the 3-point vest factor would've allowed Town to figure out someone was Mafia. If two Townies confirmed they either shot NJW or NQT, and they didn't die, it'd be heavily suspicious.
In no world do I give any Mafia 3-shot bulletproof in a game where half the Town dies on Night 1. Giving them 3 bullets is ALSO bad because Night 1 actually is more likely to end in a win, holy cow! Giving the Mafia a Doctor would make sense. Giving them a Bodyguard would make sense. Giving them a Bus Driver, while incredibly strong, can work (though, this should 100% be visible, or else it's kinda bastardy, since, ya know, shooting people seems to be the intention.) Giving them ways to defend against the shooting without being able to shoot is balanced, since choice is a huge factor. You can make plays around looking suspicious. You can make plays around not looking suspicious. There
A 2-shot Bulletproof vest is massively disadvantaged and still broken. A 3-shot Bulletproof vest is basically unplayable if you want the Town to shoot Mafia. It feels like this setup was created to tell Town: Shooting is for bad people!
I think ways to massively improve this situation is to, firstly, make sure that the Mafia don't have incredibly broken kill methods. Giving them the 3-way kill on one person is massively scum-sided. Hm...
You know, let's have a talk about something that I like to call "Action efficiency."
Scum roles, on average, are more powerful than Town roles. If you give a Town a role, the scum having that exact role is almost ALWAYS stronger. There are a few exceptions, such as a Cop, which only has upsides that apply to Town (or scum), but, for the most part, this is true. Why is this? The simple answer is that there's more Town to hit than there are scum. If a Townie hits a player, the chance of them being scum is at most 50:50, but more likely it is somewhere closer to 25:75. If a scum hits a player, the chance of them being Town is almost always known.
Scum can plan their Actions, so powers in their hands are always more efficient and can be used in conjunction with each other. This means that they must be made weaker in comparison to a Town's power.
In a game where all (okay, not ALL, but let's say all for simplicity) players have a kill, it is still much less likely that a Mafia is killed during the Night, because the Mafia will never accidentally kill a Mafia, but the Town will very often accidentally kill a Town. I think the math can probably be shown that 2-3 Townies dying on Night 1 is expected, but I'm too lazy to show that just yet. Maybe we should do some math for fun!
I was on the fence about Knight, and then I never got around to posting because who starts and ends a Day at 6:00 AM???
Imagine
Being Bri'ish
GET A REAL TIMEZONE! WE BROKE OFF FROM YOU GUYS FOR HAVING WEIRD TIME!