Monsterhearts Mafia II - The Prequel - AAR Mafia Win

[Nimb]

game spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0


Gatbae - The Angel

You know they’re trying. Honestly, deep down, you do know that. But they’re not like you, not dedicated to an ideal, to a True Cause. Your zeal separates you from the masses, but not so much that you can’t offer them a hand and build a bridge. Guide them, teach them, tell them the right stories. Strike down the ones that would lead you from the path. Because they can’t be right. Because if it’s all a lie, if you can’t live up to expectations, then what’s left of you?

Hopeful, giving, and deluded. The Angel is that kid who has been sworn to something they don’t fully understand.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Blissfully Aware: When you are in a moment of intimacy, you may learn truths about the person you're with. Give someone a string to bring them close; you'll vaguely glimpse what special powers they have. You'll learn both their night and string roles in vague terms.

Gehenna: Denounce their false promises, break their rules, destroy them as hypocrites. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) if you lied in the game thread during day (Y); tonight, you die. (Lies about alignment are exempt). If your target has lied in the thread about something else other than their alignment during that specific day, they'll die that night.

Given the happenings of Clone Wars, I wanted to design a game without cops. This game initially had a cop; it was the Angel. But then, after Clone Wars, I changed it. I decided to explore a few alternatives to Cops, and you'll see a few throughout the design. In a way, it probably had too many cop-like roles, but alas, yall were sort of a bit of testing grounds for me. I tried to make that not harm balance, and I don't think it did.

Now, for this role specifically, a big thing with the Angel skin is having a cause and fighting for it. I made the powers from that, the orange power is meant to rule out "non-believers" in the cause (in the game, liars), that coupled with their night power was a combo (find someone who lies about their role, kill them. It had huge potential for collateral too: it's better than a vig because it might not kill a townie, but it's also very likely to kill whoever it targets; chances are most people will lie about one thing or another.

justy - The Calaca

Spooky scary skeletons? Ha! That’s so passé. You’ve been dead for a while, and you don’t think you’re spooky at all. In fact, it’s given you a much greater perspective on life than you ever had when you were looking at it from the inside. Your friends still have that mortal stupidity hanging over them, poor chumps. It’s time that they got the guidance they needed, whether they know they want it or not.

Optimistic, perceptive, and invasive. Not everyone fears death and not everyone who has died really cares that much.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Ossuary: You have a collection of human bones, you freaky jerk. You can tend to other peoples' wounds. You can give someone a string; if they were to die that night due to a night action, they won't.

Morte Alata: You are Death, so start acting like it. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) if you've ever been near a corpse; tonight, you die. If your target has ever been near a corpse (in game), they'll die that night.

Doctor. But with a twist. I thought it was really funny to have Death be the Doctor, so I made it so. I also heavily incorporated the darkest self into a power (you're death, so start acting like it), I knew I wanted the Skin to be both savior and killer, and having the person die directly related to having been near a corpse (death) felt very nice. Some roles, you just have fun with the flavor. This was also one of several roles meant to slow down the game. It's funny; on design, I thought it was going to be more chaotic than MH1 (and even wrote that) with all the dying. It ended up being a very vanilla game in the end, lol.

AKFD - The Minotaur

It wasn’t like you set out to be a bully. It’s not your fault you’re bigger than the others, or that you stumble over your words, or that you’re just kinda naturally scary. But it is what it is. You know your friends aren’t real friends, that they see you as a big dumb tool. But at least if you beat people up for them, they hang out with you. It’s better than being alone. Sure, sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it hurts a lot. But you know how to fix that. Getting angry fixes everything.

Angry, scary, forceful, and hurt. The Minotaur is a bully that wants desperately to be accepted even though it seems like all they’re good at is hurting people. They want to do better, they may even try to do better, but a clumsy beast is only good at a select few things. When all you have is a hammer, it’s easy to see people as nails.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

In The Maze: Give someone a string to bring them into your maze, and then lock them up there. They'll be unable to leave for the entire night, and any night actions they carry out will be blocked.

Seeing Red: Hunt someone down and see what they're up to. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) tonight I'm hunter and you're prey. Where you go, I go. You'll be informed if you can see your target visiting anyone at night.

Another role that was there to slow down the game: I didn't want to give town a jailer, though, being that they already had a doc. Doc and Watcher is already a strong combo, giving them a jailer just seemed stupid. So I settled for what's usually a scum role: roleblocker. I thought that was nice and would play well with design intents of making some claims not really super trust-worthy: role-blocker can be proven, but is also a common mafia role; what then? The String power was a tracker, much less powerful than a normal tracker because it required a string, therefore the Minotaur couldn't choose the target freely. Plus, scum had a ninja.

Strategus - The Unseen

Last week at the prom, the captains of the football and basketball teams were making out in the locker room while their girlfriends wondered where they’d disappeared to. None of them saw you. But you saw them. Earlier tonight, when the nerdy, sickly kid everyone picks on lured the head cheerleader into a dirty alley, sprouted fangs, and sucked her dry, they didn’t see you either. But you saw them. Nobody ever notices you. But you can see everything. All the things they do when they think no-one is watching. And maybe it’s time you started taking advantage of that.

Overlooked, watchful, needy, and seething. The Unseen is ignored and forgotten more than they are actively excluded; always an afterthought, just on the outskirts of everything

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Voyeur: Give someone a string to spend the entire night with them without them seeing you. Then watch. See all who come to them. You'll be informed if you can see anyone visiting your target.

Blackmailer: When you tempt someone, they can't refuse. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) Tonight, you'll see me. You'll remember me. You'll come with me. You'll notice me. Tonight I won't be picked on. Tonight you won't let harm come my way. Your target will act as your personal bodyguard for the night; if you are killed as a result of a night action, your target will die instead.

Your standard watcher, I think that's the first role anyone would think for this skin, so I went there. Maybe too confirmable on flavor? Maybe. This was probably the strongest combo town had, a Watcher that can generate a bodyguard for himself? Strong. The downside was the orange text was fairly clear on what would happen, so I thought scum had a fair chance of picking up that that shouldn't be their target that night in case it was pulled on them.

sharkfinley - The Chosen

The world needs you. It needs someone brave enough to walk blindly into the darkness, and to shine a light for all the lost souls out there. They need a champion. They can’t do it alone. There’s just that one nagging worry, the one that rears its head at the worst possible moments: what if you’re not good enough?

Powerful, vengeful, conflicted, masochistic. The Chosen is a monster slayer who finds themselves drawn to the darkness.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Come Prepared: You have an outlandishly large armory, complete with ancient artifacts. Just in case the need arises. If you were to die, you can survive almost anything. Once.

Take the Blow: You leap into the way and take the blow instead of someone else. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) Your orange text affects me instead of (Original Target). You can only use this after someone you have strings on activates an orange power. You'll become the target.

When I thought the game was going to be a bit of bloody with all the killing, I wanted to give town a 1x BP. The almost there is doing a lot of work, though: scum had a strong kill in The Fury, so I didn't want the role PM to lie and say they'd survive anything. But it worked on anything else, including orange powers above.

Pinnsmouth - The Mortal

None of them would understand. What you have here, in this dark and secret place, it’s beautiful. They’d warn you that this sort of beauty is dangerous, like a raging fire. Well some things are worth getting burned for. Love has eclipsed all hope, and the dark has left you feeling beautiful.

Vulnerable, magnetic, and beautiful. For anybody else, giving away a String would represent a loss of control. For you, it’s more symbiotic - you get power by giving it away. The Mortal explores co-dependency, power imbalances, and wide-eyed eagerness.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Sympathy is My Weapon: You can easily forgive someone for hurting you, and excuse their base nature. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person); you can't pull strings on me today, nor can you target me tonight. That player won't be able to use their orange power on you nor their night action.

VT with a little more survivability.

shadowface - The Mortal

None of them would understand. What you have here, in this dark and secret place, it’s beautiful. They’d warn you that this sort of beauty is dangerous, like a raging fire. Well some things are worth getting burned for. Love has eclipsed all hope, and the dark has left you feeling beautiful.

Vulnerable, magnetic, and beautiful. For anybody else, giving away a String would represent a loss of control. For you, it’s more symbiotic - you get power by giving it away. The Mortal explores co-dependency, power imbalances, and wide-eyed eagerness.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Mess With Me, Mess With Him: Use their name as a threat. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person); anyone who messes with me tonight messes with you. Any special folks wanna come and use their abilities on me; they'll be special to you too. Any night powers that are used on you will also affect that player.

Honestly? This power is meant to detract and cause some confusion in the night game. It had a couple of useful aspects other than as a threat/defense (which shouldn't be understated, I think if pulled on a scum, scum would've avoided killing here that night due to fear), but it didn't work on the night kill, just night powers. So it had the potential to give the Watcher weird results, or for example, allow for the blocker to block two people, for the doc to doc two people, etc.

Keirador - The Mortal

None of them would understand. What you have here, in this dark and secret place, it’s beautiful. They’d warn you that this sort of beauty is dangerous, like a raging fire. Well some things are worth getting burned for. Love has eclipsed all hope, and the dark has left you feeling beautiful.

Vulnerable, magnetic, and beautiful. For anybody else, giving away a String would represent a loss of control. For you, it’s more symbiotic - you get power by giving it away. The Mortal explores co-dependency, power imbalances, and wide-eyed eagerness.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

True Lover: You always have exactly one lover. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person); tonight we dine and talk; you take me somewhere fancy. You'll be able to chat privately with that player during the night. You can't make the dinner awkward and invite more than one person on the same day.

Like Synth said in the scum chat, a lot of my roles are more interactive rather than mechanical; this was one of them. Private night chat is cool and can be very useful.

PBubs - The Mortal

None of them would understand. What you have here, in this dark and secret place, it’s beautiful. They’d warn you that this sort of beauty is dangerous, like a raging fire. Well, some things are worth getting burned for. Love has eclipsed all hope, and the dark has left you feeling beautiful.

Vulnerable, magnetic, and beautiful. For anybody else, giving away a String would represent a loss of control. For you, it’s more symbiotic - you get power by giving it away. The Mortal explores co-dependency, power imbalances, and wide-eyed eagerness.

You are Loyal. You win when all Traitors are dead.

Down the Rabbit Hole: When you go poking your nose in affairs not meant for your kind, sometimes you learn things, and sometimes you get hurt. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person); You, you're coming down with me tonight, down down the hole, we're going to see who you really are. You'll learn if that character is special or a mere mortal, like you, as well as if they're a potential danger to your life. This is not alignment indicative, ie, if they're dangerous, it doesn't mean they're a Traitor; it means they can harm others.

At face value, this role isn't extremely useful: There are 6 string giving people in the game, 2 scum 4 town. Of those, 5 would return a dangerous value (2 scum + Angel, Calaca, Unseen) only The Minotaur could be cleared by this power. Yet, I think it's true power lies in catching people who lie about their roles; PBubs did say what they were going to get before Synth revealed, which I think was a mistake: the scenario was make them claim, then when they claim a non-dangerous role, call them out on it.

Justinrs2 - The Fury

You never wanted this. You never wanted to be different or special or a freak. All you ever wanted was to fit in. To be liked. To be accepted. Maybe even to be loved. Was that so much to ask? You’re not a bad person. But they wouldn’t let you fit in. They hurt you. Taunted you. Called you names. Exploited you. Betrayed you. They pushed and pushed and PUSHED and PUSHED. They’re all going to be sorry when you start pushing back.

Introverted, skittish, and naive. All that the Fury wants is to have a friend or maybe a lover. Someone who won’t end up being selfish to the core or take advantage of them. They try to control themselves, to make the best of every situation but when they’re pushed things just seem to have a habit of going wrong. Terribly so.

You are a Traitor. You win when all Loyalists are dead or when the number of Traitors equals Loyalists.

Futile Hope: Even after everything, you still hope to blend in; you still hope that by pretending they'll accept you. Until you decide that there’s nothing left for you here but revenge. When you do, give a Loyalist a string to burn it all down. Smash everything to pieces. Rip their secrets out and make them dance like dolls for your amusement. If you carry out the mafia night kill that night, your kill is unstoppable. It'll resolve before any other powers and the target will die. The person you gave a String to can't be targeted with the factional kill that night.

Third Eye Open: If they won't tell you, you'll see what they see; you'll watch, and you'll learn by yourself. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) Tonight; I see what you see. Tonight, we are one. You'll be privy to the same result that the player is and know who they targeted.

Town had a doc, a blocker, and a 1x bp PR: I really thought scum needed a Strong kill. The other aspect of this role was that it was never in RAW that the target would be the one getting strings, but I thought town was likely to assume that was the case, and this broke that. It created the option for the fury to claim a PR and a target other than the NK and have that "verified" by the String

SynesthesiaArtist - The Jorogumo

SynesthesiaArtist:

I see you, the real you, the one you try to hide from other people. I know what’s best for you. I know it for sure and am going to make it come true. Go ahead, run or try to hide. I have so many eyes and so many arms that I’ll have you. Soon.

Calculating, manipulative, brazen, and clingy. The Jorogumo is about knowing what you want and going for it however you best see fit. Perhaps this won’t be the best plan, but the results will be a spectacular splatter of desire and delight. Or you’ll die (perhaps kill...) trying! For the thing that matters most to you, the ends justify the means.

You are a Traitor. You win when all Loyalists are dead or when the number of Traitors equals Loyalists.

Eight-Legged Freak: You can climb walls and stick to anything that could hold your weight. This way, no one will see you kill. You use your night powers unseen, including the factional night kill.

Said the Spider: You have creepy crawly friends. They tell you things. You can give a player a string to learn their full night power, but not their orange power.

A pawn who can shoulder the consequences for you: You’ve been tangled in your own web, and now you’ll sacrifice anything to escape. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) You know what you did. Think about it while you serve detention tonight. Any night actions from your target will be blocked.

Town had a watcher and an orange power tracker; the Ninja felt right. The flavor felt right too. With the several roles, I wanted to have a way for scum to gather information, so I gave them a role-cop. However, the Orange Powers were supposed to make them afraid, so I didn't let the Role Cop to learn those. With all the town PRs, I also gave scum a blocker. A scum blocker a town blocker, in the same game: I thought that could also create some chaos in the right circumstances.

UpsideDownChuck - The Mummy

UpsideDownChuck:

It was all yours. Once. You had it and it’s gone. Now all that’s left is bitterness and ashes. But you’ll have it all again. Money? Power? Prestige? Whatever you crave is all yours for the taking. Anyone standing in your way will fall before you if they dare to keep you from your divine right.

Regal, controlling, empowered, and short-sighted. The Mummy is a person who knows they can demand the finest of the fine and get it. Other people need to watch out for you or their luck can turn on a dime. However they don’t tend to consider the needs of others very well which leads to a line of broken hearts and promises in their wake. Those who knelt down to allow the Mummy to use their back as a stepping stone may turn real mean when no hand is offered out to them.

You are a Traitor. You win when all Loyalists are dead or when the number of Traitors equals Loyalists.

Ambassadorial Grace: You may target a Loyalist; you can send them one message, and they can submit one reply if they wish. This power persists if you die. Upon death, choose one:
1) Gain access to the game spreadsheet (every player and their roles);
2) Continue participating in scum chat and learn at random one dead townie's role.

Royal Decree: You are a ruler, born and bred. They will obey. If you have Strings on someone, you can spend one by writing (X person) I hereby declare that you may only vote for one of these 2 people today: (Person A) or (Person B). If you don't, you shall forevermore become powerless in the night. Your target will be forced to vote for one of the two players; if they don't, they lose any night powers they have. You can only use this power in the first 36 hours of the day. Your target cannot be named Person A nor B.

What can I say, I guess I like private messaging roles. I honestly thought the messaging beyond the grave + being able to look at the game spreadsheet was strong. They could use it to cause a lot of fuckery, so I put it there. I like roles that can cause fuckery. I think I may have gone a bit too far in nerfing the Orange Power, though: 36 hours is probably too little, should've been 48. I also think there's room for allowing the target to be named person A or B, Nook and I put that there because we couldn't give a suckers choice of vote for yourself or that person, but with the consequence being lose night power (initially it was going to be just straight up die, but nook talked me out of that thankfully), there might've been room to allow it.
This messaging power also allowed cover for the other scum roles (which Synth picked up on and used on PBubs), because it was something they could fake as being the origin of the String, since it didn't give Strings itself and was anonymous. Alternatively, the role could stay in scum chat to give guidance to lesser experienced partners or to coordinate what to continue messaging, giving bigger credence to the scum who was pretending to do the messaging.

Design thoughts
Overall, I'm very happy with this design - I think it's my best one to date. I wanted to give a day-focussed game instead of a mechanically focussed game, for how mechanically complex this game could be, I think it largely succeed, that is due to some clear design decisions as well as to how the game played out.
Most of the chaos was in the String powers, but they were never going to be used a ton. Never on D1, and even then, only half the players in the game gave out Strings anyway. Then it didn't help that everyone who could give Strings died early; not only that, but a couple of people died with Strings on hand without using them (Including a blocker Synth, who very likely should've blocked Strat as a death curse once it became clear she was dying that day). The PRs dying + people who got them dying without using them made them rarer than they should've been: I'm not necessarily unhappy with it, but it did mitigate a lot of the chaos/deaths this game could've had.

However, Strings also worked with making people being more careful around using their night powers, which was also sort of the idea, to give a cost to it. I wanted to make a game that was more day-focused but not mountainous, but also not role-fest. And it's still (for how much Keir talked about it) a mechanic I like. There might be some more fine-tuning with like more people giving out Strings, not necessarily the target being the one who gets it, etc. But as a concept paying a cost (that will enable someone to do something with you) to activate a night power is something I'm interested in continuing exploring.

I also like the different cops (vague cop, dangerous cop, and half-role cop). The "dangerous" or not result particularly is something that I was happy with: making its power not explicitly a confirmation but generating readable moments; it's a role that informs people because of its day impact, rather than mechanical impact (obviously now that the ratios are known it's much less useful, but when that was unknown, it's intriguing).

I think scum had the needed tools to counterbalance the town's PRs, which is something I rarely don't put there, had some great information-gathering tools (Fury's power to be privy to the same result PM and the half-role cop), and could create some chaos with the Mummy's messaging ability (particularly from the grave).

I definitely like the string-pulls-must-be-public aspect of it and think it's for sure an improvement over the first game. It also allowed me to play more dangerous with some stronger/weirder roles because at least there was some forewarning that it was going to happen and what "it" was.

I'm happy that people actually read the rules and referenced to it in-game too: a lot of care goes into making them and including little tidbits of information there as well as in the roles. For example: scum knew how many PRs town had. They knew their own skins (3), and knew how many skins max there were (8), so they knew town had at max, 5 PRs, not 6 (like the rules stated). Therefore, scum could safely claim one PR/Skin that would be in math. This is something Synth noticed night 0. Town also had some information to gain from rules, like the fact that not every PR gave Strings to their target (didn't come up, but was there), and that each person had a different orange power, including those with the same skin (mortals).

I'm also happy with the flavor; some roles were clearly bound with flavor (Unseen, Jorogumo, Fury), and others were more loosely associated but still flavorful (Calaca, Minotaur, Mummy). Interestingly for how the game ended and the whole discussion about NKing day 5, the Fury was initially an extra kill, so Keir's sense of danger was definitely not not a possibility (given that an earlier iteration of the design had an extra kill). Nook and I decided to remove it because the bloodbath potential was already too high, and changed it to Strong instead.

Another thing I'd possibly change is one or two more String-giving roles, just to increase the likelihood that they happen. But I didn't want to make the Town even more powerful; I think they were decently powerful already.

Questions
I don't want to remove No Kills completely because I like the option, but I'm heavily considering making a "No team may no kill twice-in-a-row" rule part of my ruleset going forward. Having both teams not killing repeatedly is stupid (day 12, heh), but I also like the option to deciding not to kill a day/night once in a while because it makes sense in terms of game state rather than manipulating numbers. With the no-kill twice-in-a-row rule, it removes the manipulate numbers aspect. So a natural f4 town has no reason to No Kill, because then scum No Kills and town has to kill. The same way, on F5, scum can't force an F4 from an F5 miss-kill. (Scum holds on 4 from a 5 misskill, town no Kills, scum has to kill and bring it to f3). Does this seem like a good rule?

What do yall think of 24h nights vs 48h with/without speed deadlines? I like nights; they provide a breather from the action and also let the town take some time and recollect. Is 24hrs enough for that, though?

3/5 Hammer, do you like it or not??

Any design thoughts/complaints/things you really enjoyed?

[Justinrs2]

Well done UDC! Make sure to stretch, carrying the scum team on your back could create long term health problems.

For your play in this game, I bestow upon you the Talisman of Greater Scumminess

Not even in the top two candidates in the F4, untouched

[Pinnsmouth]

I have never been more disappointed to be proven right.

[Keirador]

Well fuck, that was the most fun I've had playing a game of mafia in a long time. Sorry to take the L of course, but UDC earned it. He just out-worked most of the roster. If we had talked about UDC at all today, I would have liked to talk about me switching off shadow EOD yesterday was shortly before UDC, so it was technically possible it was him. We didn't, though.

I think this game benefited tremendously from some of the things we've discussed in AARs before: no mechanics to talk about D1, scum team get free night-kills that don't require solving a puzzle. And given the wire it came down to, I don't think it could be argued in good faith that it wasn't balanced. . . though I do wonder how this would have turned out if we hadn't massacred a bunch of town PRs straightaway.

[condude1]

Damn, well played UDC. I seriously underestimated your ability as scum in the spec chat! I got convinced it was Keir shortly after I died, and never looked back.

[Keirador]

Not even in the top two candidates in the F4, untouched

Well, depends who you ask.

[Justinrs2]

FTR we had most of the PRs pegged mid D1, Synth was scary good at finding them and a lot of people spewed themselves as VT. We thought the AK kill would flip a PR and were not surprised.

[Pinnsmouth]

I'm at least glad that my gut reads are getting better.

I just wish that I had been able to find any evidence to back it up lmao.

Well done UDC, that was a good ass game

[Keirador]

Really shoulda stayed on "why isn't UDC dead yet?" Not sure I was gonna be able to sell that line to anybody else though.

[UpsideDownChuck]

Thank you everyone! This was I think my best scum game to date, and that final four in particular was the most engaged endgame I've ever been a part of. I'll write a more detailed AAR when I get home. I'm curious to hear what the dead townPRs were, for the most part it didn't feel like we had super powerful roles on the scumteam, and the one time we tried to use our roles it backfired on us. Special shoutout to Pbubs for playing great in their first game and shark/Pinns for playing very well in their second, hope all 3 of you stick around