Thanatology - Brainstorming and Designing

Premise

Works similar to VLDR, except has some twists.

  • The player cap is 18 in order to give the game a higher sense of liveliness.
  • Alignments are now separated into a D&D alignment chart rather than Good/Neutral/Evil.
  • Stats go from 1-10.
  • Leader system is added to emphasize the social element.
  • Blood Moon System is added to make the game more dynamic.
  • Ambidex System is removed and the escape method is reworked.

Alignments

Lawful Neutral Chaotic
Good Lawful Good Neutral Good Chaotic Good
Neutral Lawful Neutral True Neutral Chaotic Neutral
Evil Lawful Evil Neutral Evil Chaotic Evil

Wincons

Lawful vs Chaos: In general Lawful wincons deal with the execution and group leader systems. Chaotic wincons go against them and they’re more “I do what I want” kind of thing.

Good vs Evil: In general Good wincons deal with helping remove evils or escaping while Evil wincons deal with going against good-aligned players or preventing the progression towards the escape.

In short, there will even be clashes between Good/Good and Evil/Evil here due to the alignment system. All Good players can win together however the path to victory for LG/CG may clash from time-to-time.

Kill Penalties

Blood Moon:

  • Once a player is murdered, a Blood Moon will be on the sky for twelve hours and the Blood Moon Counter will be raised by 1.
  • If another player is murdered during a Blood Moon then the duration will refresh without raising the Blood Moon Counter.
  • Once a Blood Moon counter reaches eight, the game will end and everyone who has not escaped will die.
  • Nobody can escape when a Blood Moon is on the sky.

Bloodied vs Bloodless: Bloodied players have killed in the match, bloodless have not. This distinction matters in regards to passives and wincons.

Leaders

At the start of each chapter all players cast a vote for a Leader. Leaders have the following benefits:

  • Can begin a vote for the execution of a player up to three times per chapter. The Leader’s vote counts as a tiebraking vote. If the execution goes through then the player will be executed when knocked unconscious, which means nobody will be bloodied nor will there be a blood moon.
  • Must blockade up to three areas, which means nobody can enter them for the duration of the chapter. If no areas are declared off-limits then it will be randomized.
  • Lawful players gain +1 to all stats when they are Leaders.

Gate of Glory

After a player’s wincon is fulfilled, they escape by going through the Gates of Glory. The Gates of Glory are activated once certain in-game events are met, though Evils do not need these events to be fulfilled and can go through them as long as their win-con is satisfied, however there must not be a Blood Moon for it to work.

  • All Good-aligned players need to go through the GoG to win and they must activate it beforehand.
  • Some but not all Neutral-aligned players need to go through the GoG to win and they must activate it beforehand.
  • Some but not all Evil-aligned players need to go through the GoG to win and they do not need to activate it beforehand.

Endgame

For the game to truly end there are two methods to happen:

A) Once there are five or less players alive who have not escaped then the game will end in two hours. If the remaining players do not finish up their wincon, they lose.

B) If an Eight Blood Moon happens, then it’s rock falls everyone dies, including evils. In short evils should avoid raising the Blood Moon Counter unless it’s part of their wincon.

2 Likes

I didn’t play the first one but this feels like it could be problematic if someone is, like, asleep when this happens

finally a misc game where @Chloe can roleplay as herself

can i assume evils may have an advantage in other categories

):<

Evils are basically lone wolves here.

Good is cooperative but can run into issues where one messes up another’s agenda and vice-versa.

The timeframe is higher than VLDR, tho. Then again a “nobody leaves until everyone leaves” agreement can be put into play with survivers at endgame.

game seems super hype

an 18p game of this type def needs a cohost

thats all really all the advice / brainstorming I have

Could try asking on the VLDR forum? :man_shrugging:

Lawful Stupid confirmed

Is the theme/design based on something or just an idea you had?

Idea.

If I play I better roll Lawful Evil

Chants Chaotic neutral
Chaotic neutral

I’d be interested

Reminds me of this too much:
image
(thanks Vul)

4 Likes

But this seems interesting nonetheless.

Reads suck because I’m bad at them

godly quote

1 Like

My favourite quote of mine.

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as all things should be

So I’ve decided to add safeclaims for evils and neutrals.

VLDR1 had 25% of its players modkilled because they claimed despite claiming being explicitly against the rules.

VLDR2 had two evils and the wildcard doinked alongside the third evil being put under suspicion because the former three claimed their actual roles, including one who literally couldn’t win with practically anyone else, and the latter didn’t claim so was sus’d for it.

I think this is the only way to balance out claiming on this site. Thoughts?

2 Likes