"The president" mafia role

Author: Lunatic

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#1
Lunatic
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"President - Each towns person is privately notified of who the President is. If the President dies, the town automatically loses."
Ever since drafter posted this role in the dart mafia resources thread, I have been trying to think of clever ways to incorporate this role into a mafia game. It seems like a pretty cool concept.

I actually tried using this role in a live mafia game the other night. I made every townie bulletproof except for one president and one vice president. The president and vice president knew who each other were, but didn't know who anyone else was. Half the town players knew who the president was. Half the town players knew who the vice president was. Mafia was told they had to kill the president and vice president to win, and was given the layout of the town role PM minus the part telling them who the president/VP was. I thought this was going to be an interesting concept, especially since the only way a player could die is through lynching, thus making a very active game. Seventh instantly suggested all players pre-type out the name they received in their role pm and on the count of three announce who that player is. I actually thought of this scenario before the game started, and figured mafia would just quickly type the names they saw as they were posted only being a split second behind or so. The mafia (airmax and sui_generis) did not opt to do this strategy, and instead tried to guess who was the president, so the plan instantly failed and outted them. I think this concept would work in a forum setting though, since it isn't really possible to get all players to post at the same time like that. and a strategy like that would cause a town loss.

Regardless, I would like to try this role again in maybe a quick fire game sometime, or see mods use it more. I can see some very interesting situations with this, if balanced correctly. 
#2
Bullish
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That set up is too swingy. What if the mafia NKs the president on NP1?

Here are some scenarios:

  1. only 2 bodyguards who knows who the president is (or X bodyguards where X is equal to the number of mislynches minus 1). You could make it so that if both bodyguards guard the president, they both die. No one else except scum know who the prez is.
  2. 1 bodyguard and the prez is BP. No one else know who the prez is.
  3. the prez is declared as IC, and everyone is bodyguard, except for scum, who are fake bodyguard.

#3
SirAnonymous
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It's an interesting role, but it is really swingy. Testing it in a QF would be good. For a larger game, you would definitely want to have a VP as well.
#4
drafterman
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It is definitely a specialty role not meant for inclusion in your generic games; you have to build a game around it.

As Bullish notes, this is a setup that is very swingy for that reason: President can die in an instant. That's not a reason not to do it, it is just something people need to accept when having a role like this.

Most set-ups with Presidents also have bombs which introduces a hell of a lot of WIFOM because the Bombs want the Maf to think they are President and get killed.

You can add some day-killing abilities as well to make things very interesting.
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#5
Lunatic
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@Bullish
That set up is too swingy. What if the mafia NKs the president on NP1?
In a quick fire game, it's not as big of a deal because those can tend to end pretty quick. In larger games, like I described in that hangout, I balanced it by also including a VP that needed to be killed. The mafia had to kill both in order to win.


Here are some scenarios:
  1. only 2 bodyguards who knows who the president is (or X bodyguards where X is equal to the number of mislynches minus 1). You could make it so that if both bodyguards guard the president, they both die. No one else except scum know who the prez is.

that variation could work but it would be frustrating if mafia targeted the president correctly multiple times, and was punished because of body guard roles each night only to eventually get lynched. It makes the game a little more role reliant that deduction based, unlike the way I set the game up in that live game.


1 bodyguard and the prez is BP. No one else know who the prez is.

So the only way the president could die is by lynching? That's virtually un-winnable for mafia isn't it?


the prez is declared as IC, and everyone is bodyguard, except for scum, who are fake bodyguard.

Same problem I have with number one. Everyone is just gonna guard the president also, it takes the fun out of mafia trying to guess who the president is and makes the role feel pointless IMO.
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#6
Lunatic
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@drafterman
Most set-ups with Presidents also have bombs which introduces a hell of a lot of WIFOM because the Bombs want the Maf to think they are President and get killed.

You can add some day-killing abilities as well to make things very interesting.

bombs and killing roles would definitely spice things up
#7
WaterPhoenix
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@drafterman
As Bullish notes, this is a setup that is very swingy for that reason: President can die in an instant. That's not a reason not to do it, it is just something people need to accept when having a role like this.
I'd be down for that, though that'd be a nightmare for mafia lol


#8
Bullish
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@Lunatic
Actually the DP1 mass prez claim could be avoided simply by having 1 more mafia. This way eve if town figured out who all 3 mafia are, they wouldn't be able to lynch them before all the mafia die. Especially since all the town are BP, 6-3 would be a lot more balanced than 7-2 anyway.

The problem is still that the game could end prematurely, and it's almost impossible to reach LyLo. But I suppose it could be a worthy sacrifice once in a while as a novelty game.

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#9
Lunatic
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Actually the DP1 mass prez claim could be avoided simply by having 1 more mafia. This way eve if town figured out who all 3 mafia are, they wouldn't be able to lynch them before all the mafia die. Especially since all the town are BP, 6-3 would be a lot more balanced than 7-2 anyway.
Maybe in a forum setting, I saw 3 mafia in a live setting as a bit OP for mafia with only 9 town. Gives the town 3 lynches that they have to be absolutely correct on and mafia only have to guess correctly twice. 

The problem is still that the game could end prematurely, and it's almost impossible to reach LyLo. But I suppose it could be a worthy sacrifice once in a while as a novelty game.
The president theme seems to kind of skirt lylo/mylo issues, though it could still happen, it seems more focursed on a one and done type of deal.