GAME MECHANICS AND HAPPENINGS DISCUSSION
A few things referenced/designed by me are not laid out in the role PMs and elsewhere, so here is some of that info and some of my thoughts on how the game went.
Best/Favorite Mechanics
I liked all the serial killer/loner roles and how they worked out; the players were active and had fun. Special thanks to those who were dead and impersonated by the spy for going along with it and helping out.
I also liked the Duncans, I personally was hoping it would be a great way to implement a "mason group" and it was in the end it seems.
Clues/Hints
Cover roles were not talked about or had as much use as they could have, really just threw a couple scanner roles like Diamondeye off another time, but I liked the various cover roles. They also had various flaws:
-William Penn wasn't supposed to vote for people due to being a Pacifist, and there was another player representing the USS Pennsylvania
-Andrew Jackson didn't really have any Presidential abilities and his dislike of Native Americans was questionable; he was really a Lizard.
-George Washington was supposed to be good cover as I already mentioned with the Spy's PM - he even had false teeth to help him tell his lies
-Having the German supervillain with a cover of Duncan Idaho was just crazy, but he never brought it up/tried to use that to defend himself.
-James Madison had a falsely named ability - he didn't write the Declaration of Independence and wasn't a signer of it I think so that was purposefully off with regards to history. Also, again, his actual lack of other role characterizations related to Colonial America may have tripped him up. Someone actually was sent info by Mark Twain about him but didn't realize/didn't think it was cover or something, and DrumStudent died during a night attack rather than fighting a lynch anyway.
The write-ups and radio messages also had some clues, when players didn't tell me what to encode and so on. One quote was modified from Futurama leaving out Moriarty and Evil Lincoln, but Moriarty had subverted Lincoln's vote. All the Lizard messages were meant to be kind of obvious about the Lizard. The one "Wizard" message even referenced the fake "Amulet of Yandor" a real doozy there I know, that was the German initial artifact.
Also, the teaser at the start, where you all killed Charlie (who gave hints about the Lizard/timespace skipping and all too) could have gone other ways as I'm sure you know. The Italian (Mario) would have loudly and obviously complained that the real Axis villains were Germans and Japanese; I may have quoted Catch-22 about Italy as well. The Russian would have been Count Bezukov from War and Peace and he would have been as a "portly Russian gentlemen meant to warn the town about a traitor amongst them but had been stabbed in the back" as a reference to the spy.
Worst/Failed Mechanics
A few things didn't go great- either they were confusing or not much fun, so things to improve on in the future. For one, the lynch system I think ultimately did not go where it could have. Some players actually had GREAT ideas early I wouldn't have thought of - like trying to search people for items and set up a "security system" - I would have let some of these things pull through. Part of it was that not everybody was voting, and I maybe should have made voting mandatory, and explicitly had no form of "abstain/no lynch." Don't know if it would have been rough on new players and inactive players anyway just voting "abstain" every time wasn't what I wanted. But ultimately there were a few failed lynches - those were you all's fault for not having enough votes in a way, but the system could have been better.
Next thing then - I'm sorry to various players that the radios were so disappointing. Players with radios were often inactive or didn't use them to do anything, and on a whole the mechanic just didn't seem to add any fun. Stuff that could have happened, but didn't:
-Japanese and German contact. The German with the radio never decoded any of your stuff and you never found like the only one message he sent. If things were done over again, this could have been quite useful - for instance not knowing who the Germans are, and them not knowing you, but sending messages like "kill x player tonight" could have been interesting
-Two Innocent players were American officers, who were kinda supposed to contact each other with their radios, but never did. Also, though you all didn't know this, as time went on/they got enough messages the Americans would have had a chance to "break" the Axis radio codes
-the only player who sent messages consistently did so automatically; it was part of his role that he didn't specifically know about (though could have guessed, had he not been fully inactive). Shaftoe (kill fire/Niklas) sent those messages at face value (no codes) to warn everyone of the Lizard; I would still say the town and/or most people as a whole were/are stupidly oblivious about the Lizard threat, so whatever. Shaftoe also had a night ability to search for the Lizard that he never used until Niklas joined, and then the Germans killed Niklas. (I lol'd)
-more creative uses - in fact I guess you all don't know this, but Diamondeye, the alien, is not allowed to send PMs/use private messages. So if he needed a way to communicate secretly and effectively, outside of the game thread, the town could have given him a radio or something. Anyway a lot more could have happened with the radios than everyone just sending "hello, anyone else have a radio? Please contact me?"
Locations/Setting
The last thing - while I never particularly had a full explanation of all the mysteries - there were conflicting hints to the alien, Moriarty, and a couple of other roles about alternate dimensions and so on, what WAS clear was that the town was moving around. Different items and effects would have been found at different places. Ultimately, I had these locations
-Midwestern Town: A slice of Americana, just an average town in every way, except for a few things. You all found the shield day one; searching the town would have found in an abandoned auditorium a giant wheel a la
O Fortuna. The town could have turned this ominous device to determine where they would go next (I would describe pictures like a smokestack, or a palm tree, or a crescent, etc... that you should have been able to figure out/associate with locations). In short if you searched the town one day you would have been able to control where you went after that each time you were back in the town. There was increased chance (2/10, plus 1/10 any day to stay in the same place) to go to the town.
-TF2 Industries - the "Industrial Complex" was RED/BLU industries. A more thorough search would have found things like Mann Co. marked crates and another item to be voted on - the
Golden Pocketwatch/Dead Ringer It would fake a person's death and save them once - everyone but the spy would only know it was a golden pocketwatch unless they guessed its real purpose; he would know its function right away. If the Russian had been killed, this location would have been visited first before Hawaii/Pianosa
Hawaii - Nothing too complicated really; gave a strength bonus to the Hawaii-related Innocents (ship captains and Kamehameha) for being there. Went here first cause Charlie from LOST was killed.
Pianosa - fictional island with airbase from Catch-22. The planes could have been piloted if certain characters went out to investigate one at night (or the whole town tried during the day I guess). Mafia could maybe have led a crazy attack run; a couple of Innocents could have simply escaped altogether and survived. Would have went to this location first if the Italian was voted for.
Houston space center - Had a rocket for Wyoming (see unused role PMs) and perhaps if you all had gone there a second time would have had another item to vote on, America-themed.
Volcanic Island - a mess of jungle in the Pacific, good for nothing except that the Lizard felt right at home. Might have had an Artifact/item pop up if the town was sent there again/searched it. Also would have been rough on regular folk if the "supply/food" mechanic wasn't cut.
The Village - from the awesome 1960s
Prisoner. Attempts to escape would have been met with much danger, though a hidden rocket base could have been found. The double-lynch was a feature (Vote, Vote, Six, Six) and also the Umbrella would have granted additional vote weight. The town only got sent here late in the game though.
The Moon - wouldn't have been a location, I originally would have thrown in one more American setting like the Grand Canyon or something cool, but with Wyoming Knott cut there was all that potential wasted, and I could have an NPC or two. Never came up though and wasn't fully fleshed out; the town might have found a laptop computer (since America Shaftoe also cut) and might have been warned about Moriarty if he was still around. Also night actions/attacks in general may have been hampered due to low gravity.
Anyway I'm not sure this system worked out perfectly, certainly there wasn't all too much pressing over where the town ended up. I think perhaps I should have had more obvious effects or something. But then again the setting was mostly flavor and justifying just a bit more general confusion/chaos with alternate realities and so on. Again more investigating the central Midwestern Town "hub" and perhaps something that challenged Hannah Montana earlier could have been exciting for the town I guess. If a few more characters/roles with a vested interest in a location were around (I was thinking of making the Lizard have to be on the jungle island/Hawaii to leave the town/escape) there may have been more interest here.
That about sums up various loose ends I think though. Again I welcome questions on anything else. And as mentioned before, I have most PMs saved and could maybe have one more post as a writeup for interesting things like three way attacks/roleblocks. (Arnold/Moriarty/Yamamoto was one. The Spy was involved in a few; with Uncle Sam being killed at the end that was crazy, another incident involved Kamehameha and Yamamoto).
. He replaced the role of Otto Von Bismarck who would have been the fourth German, for a slight nerfing of the German faction in game balance. The Heliotrope perhaps wasn't my best idea and it wasn't used often and nobody else tried to investigate. Radios of course will be discussed later...see the endgame post, but he had and could use one. Lower Strength so wasn't suited to be a killer. As with the other Germans nice effort and almost made it through to the end; the Innocents have CCRunner to thank for eating another Mafia.
...never really was spread or came into play though. Mr. Bond wasn't actually around in this game but he tried to be a good villain anyway.
