Can someone explain the basic premise of Snakes and Foxes? I've never played one.
I'm not the best person to describe the game as I only half-played one back in the day (my arm was twisted extensively to get me to play), but I'll give it a go.
Basically, the player pool is divided into teams, which the players can select themselves. Once in teams, the Mafia (Marks) are randomly selected and play can begin. The setting is FFH based, though no knowledge of FFH is actually required to play the game.
The method of selecting kills for both sides is very different than traditional mafia/NOTW games. During the day phase, players vote on a gladiator-style matchup of two players. The two players with the highest number of votes will do battle in the arena, with the player receiving the lesser number of votes being able to select the 'venue,' usually something that plays to the underdog's strengths. Before the battle can begin, players can bet gold on who they think will win, and the GM keeps a running tally of the current odds. Gold is used in a number of ways, namely purchasing individual items for the coming battle (if needed), team scanning items that allow the team to scan other players for trait bonuses and weaknesses, plus other things that I'm currently missing. The battle is resolved using a (+) and (-) system with regards to particular traits. Each player has three (or four) particular trait strengths and weaknesses that the GM uses to compile the actual battle. Each player will know their own strengths and weaknesses at the start of the game but know no one else's.
The battle is then resolved with an epic-style writeup, usually something grandiose and over the top. Contrary to most NOTW/mafia games, the writeups do get very extensive as it describes in detail all of the actions the combatants use throughout the engagement. From the writeup, players can then deduce who is strong in what and figure out ways to beat said player. The winner of the battle gets half of the total betted gold, with the rest of it distributed among the players who bet for the winner. The loser usually dies, though I think if the battle is close the loser might only be injured and unable to fight for the next (x) rounds. Ditto for the winner, the winner can also be injured as well and be out of commission for a time.
The Mafia (Marks) during the night phase then select two players to duke it out the following morning and also can select which player will have home field advantage (ie, the underdog). Once morning comes, the battle is announced, and players place their bets. Once this battle is resolved, the next battle is decided via the vote, and this pattern continues until the endgame.
The Marks win by killing almost everyone. I don't recall, but there may be a strength number for each player used to determine when the Marks strength is greater than the innocent's strength. The innocents win by killing all of the Marks, though a team can win by being the last team standing before the Marks are all killed (I think - I'm sketchy on this portion). There aren't any prophet/detective scanners present at the start, though depending on setup one may be able to purchase one for an exorbitant amount of gold, so finding the Marks is done through careful analysis of the votes and the battles the Marks attempt to fix during their portion of the game.
These games usually take a while and are a ton of work for the GM. The last one I played in died due to the GM being unable to continue hosting it. They are very labor intensive for the GM's, but also incredibly enjoyable due to the number of different elements present and how they all interact with each other. It's also designed to be a large/huge game, as greater than 30 players minimum is required to get 5 players per team and at least 6 teams from the start. The last game hosted I believe had 40 players. All in all, any fan of mafia and/or NOTW would enjoy playing in one of these, so getting that many players may be doable.
I hope I enlightened everyone somewhat. As I said, I'm not the best person for this, so there's probably something I missed/screwed up somewhere that isn't 100% accurate. Still, I think you get the gist of it.
