The Well of Ar'Durr - A mafia-style game with several differences

[Ryven]

So, I've been thinking for a long while...several months, in fact, and I've had this idea for a mafia-style game.  However, I have several differences to the ones already being played here.  I'll start by laying out the differences.  If I get enough feedback on this, I may decide to go ahead and test it out, but right now, I just need to get some of my ideas out in the open.

First off, the setting.

I have this vision of a place that is always changing.  It is a world made out of illusions, dreams, and nightmares.  Each new day, the surroundings for the players will change.  One day you could be in a seemingly normal meadow and the next the players find themselves in a jagged mountainous terrain made of blood red glass with jagged shards  sticking every which way.  The surroundings could be fantasy, sci-fi, modern, 'real places,' etc.  I'm also open to suggestions on this.  This is essentially window dressing for the game as it has no real bearing on the mechanics of it, but I like the idea of it.  All the games that I've played here have had very imaginative settings, so I want to continue with that.

As far as players go, they will find themselves waking up to this world with no idea as to how they had gotten their.  It will be as if they'd gone to sleep one moment and woken up here the next.  Perhaps they think it is a dream or nightmare, but whatever it is, they will not be able to leave until the appease the Well of Ar'Durr.

That brings me to the next thing.  The Well of Ar'Durr, or perhaps The Well, is the will of the world I've described.  It chooses who will enter and who will leave, and the players must appease the well in order to escape the twisting world.  How do you appease the well?  I'll tell you.  You vote on who to sacrifice to it each day which means one player will die each day.  At this point I don't think it will be like the other games where there will be a lynch then a death at night.  Instead, there will be one death a day via sacrifice to the Well.

Players and Roles.

I think the ratio of players and roles will be equal to one another, but the roles in this game will be vastly different.  First off, the 'bad guys' will not all be the same like the wolves in the WW game.  Instead, there may be a couple of normal 'Phantasms' as I will call them, but then there will be a couple with abilities.

Before I describe the roles and abilities, let me explain a little about the window dressing for the 'bad guys.'  They will be chosen by the Well like the other players, but instead of gaining entry into the world unharmed, their minds become twisted in the process, giving them powers.

Roles.

The Weirdling
Ability: Once per day or perhaps only once per game, the weirdling may choose any other player as their target.  The player they choose must place their vote for the 'sacrifice to the well' on the player of the Weirdling's choice.

Essentially, the Weirdling gets to choose who a player votes for that day.  This will be done via PM

The Inhibitor
Ability: Once per day, the Inhibitor chooses one other player, including themselves, that player is immune to abilities for that day which goes for both beneficial and detrimental.

Essentially, the Inhibitor cancels abilities, but it could do as much harm as good.

The Seer
Ability: Once per day, the Seer may choose a player and learn their role.  This is just like the role in the other games, however...

The seer's visions will not always be accurate.  At the beginning of the game, it will be randomly chosen between three outcomes of how the Seer's visions will work.  1. Always accurate.  2. Sometimes accurate.  3. Never accurate.

This role will always be on the 'good guys' side.

The Martyr
Ability: Once per game, the Martyr can choose one other player.  The player they choose will be killed along with the Martyr via being thrown into the well.  The well will be appeased the day this happens so no vote will be needed.

This role will always be on the 'good guys' side.

The Ring-bearer
Ability: The Ring-bearer's vote in the 'sacrifice to the well' will count double.

Essentially, whoever holds the ring gets two votes.

Here's the tricky part.  If the ring-bearer is killed, the ring goes missing to appear on another player's finger the next day.  The new ring-bearer could be a good guy...or a bad guy.

This role will always start out on the 'good guy's' side.  The Weirdling's ability can be used on the ring bearer.


The Goal.

The good guys want to escape by appeasing the well, and that means destroying all the Phantasms.  The Phantasms want to remain in the world and covet their power and insanity, that means destroying the Trapped players via offering them to the Well.

Various Mechanics.

I'm thinking of starting everyone off as not knowing who anyone else is.  Phantasms don't know who other Phantasms are and The Trapped don't know who the other Trapped are.  Each side has special roles, and each wants to survive.  It will be up to individuals to learn who to trust, and with each voting round, more will be revealed.  If a tie comes up, but one side wins over the other with no explanation, the ring-bearer could have been the one to tip the tie.  If it looks like someone is voting in an odd way in one round, the weirdling may be to blame.  Be wary of those speaking of other's roles because their information may not always be right.

I'm also thinking about adding in something else I've been toying around with.  I'm thinking of calling it a Prophetic Alignment, and basically, it will happen when a set of randomly chosen players from one side or the other votes for the same person as the other chosen players.  At the end of the vote, one of the chosen players will learn the role of one other chosen player (not sure if this will be random or the player's choice).  This information will always be correct.

I think a demonstration will better explain this particular thing.

Say there are 8 players in the game, and the round of voting starts.  Players 1, 3, and 6 are chosen for the alignment.  This choice is kept secret and happens before the start of the game, so none of the players knows if they are chosen or who the others are.

In the round of voting, players 1, 3, and 6, all vote for the same person as demonstrated below...

Votes:

Player 1:  Player 2, Player 4
Player 2:
Player 3:  Player 5, Player 7
Player 4:
Player 5:  Player 1, Player 3, Player 6
Player 6:
Player 7:  Player 8
Player 8:

You see that the players mentioned (in red) have all voted for the same player. They've formed a Prophetic Alignment and one of them (randomly chosen) will be told a role of another player.


I've also been thinking of adding daily random events which effect the game.  I'm not sure.  This is a very rough idea that I've had, and I know there are a lot of holes yet to be patched in it.  I'm just getting this down and out of my head while letting everyone else mull it over and perhaps even give me feedback.  Is this too complex?  Too ambitious?  Do you see something that looks glaringly imbalanced or just wont work?  Really, anything you have, let me know.  If I can polish it up and have enough interest, I may be able to run a test game.

Anyway, if you've taken the time to read this, thank you. :-)

[Geradine]

i would be interested in this survivor-esque game. i think the mechanic are interesting,, although i have little experience in building them. feel free to pm/im me if you get enough people to start a test game.