Vanilla Townies - Are they still despised?

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#1

The good news is: I’ve nearly designed a new large 28-player game! I’m polishing it up but I have some cool ideas that I’m trying to balance and they’re not all entirely unfun.

The bad news is: I’ve gone through the mechanics I have repeatedly and can only conclude that the game will only work the way I have it currently set up if there are vanilla townies, roles with absolutely no special abiltiies.

As such, here’s a poll:

  • I won’t play a game where I can rand VT.
  • I might play a game where i can rand VT.
  • I want to play a game where i can rand VT.

0 voters

You can also use this thread to rant about how you hate/love rolemadness games, although to stop the poll being biased I won’t post anything in here except for answering questions. Let’'s see how long I stick to that rule, eh?

2 Likes
#2

YES

5 minutes

#3

@Icibalus are there ITAs?

#4

we both know that 28 is too small for somebody with my limited design talent to actually balance ITAs in
But as stated, I do have some CoolMechanics™ that should make up for it.

#5

28p inherently needs something to hook players in (or at least wittle the player count down significantly). I see the problem of many people on this site struggling to enjoy games with VTs in them.

Take SCP FM for instance which did include VTs and nothing else beyond some basic roles and interesting takes. While the game had a huge amount of activity in post count, SEVERAL players flat out stopped posting and subbed out over the course of the game. If there is nothing eye-catching or interesting to work with, player retention decreases significantly. This is even more so for games that are larger.

2 Likes
#6

hold that thought
like an idiot I forgot the absolute principle of rolemadness games:

just because everybody has an ability dosen’t neccecarily mean every ability has to be USEFUL :^)

Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather it be a VT game just so it’s less swingy, but I can do rolemadness if 100% neccecary.

1 Like
#7

gottem :^)

But really I don’t think you can go without most roles doing something.
Fk’s game could be a decent place to look for abilities that sorta maybe do something but don’t

#8

VT are bad because celeste

1 Like
#9

Celeste makes putting VTs in your setup a hazard
Also gladiators

2 Likes
#10

Make 2v9 mountainous but everyone have unlimited Use gladiate

#11

Like Pls

#12

I like rolemadness

#13

I like trains

1 Like
#14

I mean, I could just go and have a few people whoose opinions I trust (read: Osie) review the setup and then host it on MU if I wanted, but I really want to host it here for… some reason.

#15

Gah
I’m too tired to make an actual analysis

Rolemadness games are often privy to a lot more highlight moments than vanilla / low power games.

#16

Especially with the right players, rolemadness has spawned so many hilarious moments that haven’t have happened in the same way as vanilla setups do. I can’t put an exact finger on why this is the case, but it may have to do with the general climate of the games.

#17

honestly I agree and I would host rolemadness if I was actually good at setup design

#18

Does your setup have to be perfectly balanced as rolemadness?
Absolutely not.

I’d just make a strong first draft around the central mechanic after gauging its power, then pull out some oddball roles to fill out the rest of the list.

@Icibalus

It’s pretty important to know how your mechanics will affect the game. You don’t have to go into specifics but how do they generally impact the game?

#19

Honestly, to get into that I’d have to explain the entire mechanic, and the mechanic is planned to be closed.

#20

My brain is ringing alarm bells. Might be related to not proper sleep.
This sounds very terrifying from a balance perspective, as unknown mechanics can warp the balance of a setup in a big way.

You have big examples of Enemy Within, but also examples like VCFM, of which had different scumteams (not multiball) to fuck with associative tells.