Right now, the list hides information that everyone will know eventually, one way or another.
It just hides information from new players, so I think we should make it more informative:
1 King
1 Prince
1+ Sheriff/Paladin
1+ Physician/Alchemist
6-9 Blue Dragon
1 Mastermind/Cult Leader
1 Assassin/Cult Member
1 Neutral Killer
0-3 Other Neutrals
Mechanically, this changes nothing.
First of all. According to that the following is a valid class list:
King
Prince
Sheriff
Alchemist
Drunk
Drunk
Butler
Butler
Knight
Hunter
Mastermind
Assassin
Reaper
Fool
Scorned
Alchemist
5 total Neuts
Or
King
Prince
Sheriff
Physician
Drunk
Drunk
Butler
Butler
Knight
Knight
Observer
Observer
Hunter
Mastermind
Assassin
Reaper
1 NK
No. Right now there is a max of of 3 neuts (4 counting NK) and min of 1 (2 counting NK)
The problem is, the class list does exist.
I agree that I hate gameplay where BD can just skim the class list and check off possibilities until the evils have nowhere left to hide. But it’s even worse to have a hidden class list that only vets know, since that makes the game harder to learn and gives older players an unfair advantage. A game like ToL is already hugely complicated, so we should try to make learning it as painless as we can by having the game be honest and upfront about the mechanics.
I’d be all for loosening the class list in any way that people feel wouldn’t break the game. But to the extent that it does exist, the game has to tell players about it.
(That said, it’s true that the “physician / alchemist” and “3 neutrals max” rules are hard to convey. Also, the game needs to more prominently tell people that there’s at most 2 of each class - that is far more important than the Phys / Alch requirement or even the Sheriff / Paladin requirement; it comes up almost every game. Yet right now it’s sort of hidden and hard to find.)
