Community Forums > NWR Mafia Games
Future Mafia Games
Khushrenada:
The rule I generally follow is to have half the people playing as townies. For mafia members, I usually go with a quarter of the people playing as mafia. This can vary. Take my James Bond mafia, which had 16 players. 8 were townies, 4 were mafia, 3 were townie roles and there was a killer. That seemed to strike a good balance. That is one way to figure out the number of roles.
Another good way is to look at it from the mafia perspective. If everything goes right for the mafia and they don't lose a member, how many days would it take for them to win? If the answer is short like 2 or 3 days, you probably have too many mafia roles. 5 Days is usually the sweet spot. 7 days means you might not have enough mafia since it's hard to imagine a mafia lasting 7 days without a loss to win.
So, with those keys in mind, you should be able to come up with a fairly balanced game. As much as last game may have seemed overpowered in the mafia's favor, you have to remember, the townies always a had chance for victory which is pretty amazing considering how badly things seemed to be going for them. That's a sign of a balanced game.
At the same time, as Vudu said, even the most balanced game can be undone by the first couple days. It's part of the fun of mafia. That random element which can change the entire balance in a single day. So, if it becomes lopsided for one side, don't feel too bad. It happens. Just do what you can to make it fair and then manage the chaos.
NWR_DrewMG:
Alright, sounds good. I'm going to go post the signup thread in the Funhouse.
NWR_DrewMG:
I'd like to put my name back on the list for sometime in the future with Super MAFIA Bros 2 (Doki Doki Mafia).
decoyman:
And I'd like to try my hand at hosting again too... but with a very, very simple/barebones, traditional mafia game, supplemented by a dark, detective noir storyline. (ie, Just one detective for the townies, no doctor, no vigilante, no roles other than Townie and Mafia). I'd be curious to see how a "pure" mafia experience like that goes over.
Even though there'd be no roles other than the one cop, I'd hope people would roleplay this one. Maybe with less rules/roles to worry about, we'd get a little town started. Perhaps there's a barkeep, a roustabout, a blue-collar-type, a drunk, a lounge singer, etc. Whatever people want. I think that'd be pretty cool.
NWR_DrewMG:
I thought about doing something like that for my first game, just to get my feet wet, but then I saw the opportunity for the SMB themed game and went that route instead.
I suggest you listen to a few episodes of Mace Detective: Private Detective to get in the mood.