A question for Mafia Balancing

[varkarrus]

Once I become eligable for Mafia hosting, I want to be able to host quickly, so I want to prepare ahead of time.

The question:

What's a good number for normal Townies, and a good number for the amount of mafia. I've looked at a lot of Mafia games, and they all have different amounts.

[Sillyman]

Depending on powers, 1/4 of the players should be SCUM.

[Coolguy]

3/4 town and 1/4 Mafia is almost always the best set-up, though in special games with cults, extra Mafia teams, or a powerful town, the ratio might be different.

Also, I suggest not doing very many unique roles for your first game.

[Jamul]

INSANE twist idea: all vanilla mafia vs. all vanilla townies.

[varkarrus]

*gasp*!

[Connor S.]

Its just so crazy, it might work! :mrgreen:

[PurpleKoopa]

Also, I suggest not doing very many unique roles for your first game.

Games don't always need unique roles for them to be good.

INSANE twist idea: all vanilla mafia vs. all vanilla townies.

Yay for mountainous mafia!

[Sillyman]

Anybody have any idea what the ratios should be if there are two townie teams and two mafia teams?

[CheeseLord]

Roughly three townies to one mafia, but give the mafia a bit more power (in the form of power roles or extra players), as they can kill each other.

[Sillyman]

Have you considered that the townies can kill eachother as well, and won't care?

[CheeseLord]

They can, yes, but they can also kill the mafia for the other set, so that part balances out.

[Sillyman]

Sure, okay. Mafia cops would make sense, so that the Mafia could know who they want to kill. Maybe just a mafia cop, a townie cop, and a townie doc on each side?

[PlasmaCannonsRule]

Political Mafia will be a (hopefully) good example of multiple mafia teams.

[AtkinsSJ]

How can you have multiple townie teams? Townies don't know who their teammates are!

[CheeseLord]

I think the point is that the mafia are trying to kill off the townies from their own games, and the townies from the other game are unimportant to them. The two teams of townies have different win conditions as well.

[Sillyman]

Exactly. Neither townie team cares about what happens to the other half of the game. Neither mafia team cares about the other side as well. However, nobody knows who is in what half. There will be 2 winning factions.

[blackmyth]

Extra twist: Have various enablers that enable roles on other teams.

:p

[Julian]

Extra twist: Have various enablers that enable roles on other teams.

:p
Nice twist. :P

[Coolguy]

Extra twist: Have various enablers that enable roles on other teams.

:p

There's a role called a Switch that I had in Dawn of the Dumb Mafia that can choose whether to let a certain other role use its powers or not, so there could be a Cop Switch on the Mafia team that the town would be trying to lynch to get a cop. :p Or you could put the powers of a vigilante in the hands of somebody who would be incapable of using it and then give vigilante switch powers to somebody more capable.

[blackmyth]

I just noticed a new role on the mafia roles site: The Lightning Rod. All night effects are redirected to this person. This makes me think of a game where every time the Lightning Rod dies, somebody is randomly changed (of if they're already a special role, this is added to it) to the Lightning Rod.

Then, there would be a Lightning Rod Switch (also a randomly selected person), and the Switch would strategically decide when to allow the Lightning Rod to be active. New Switches would be randomly chosen whenever the old one died out, like the Lightning Rod.

[Coolguy]

I just noticed a new role on the mafia roles site: The Lightning Rod. All night effects are redirected to this person. This makes me think of a game where every time the Lightning Rod dies, somebody is randomly changed (of if they're already a special role, this is added to it) to the Lightning Rod.

Then, there would be a Lightning Rod Switch (also a randomly selected person), and the Switch would strategically decide when to allow the Lightning Rod to be active. New Switches would be randomly chosen whenever the old one died out, like the Lightning Rod.

That role's been there a while, actually.

[blackmyth]

It has been a while since I looked at that list. :p