Ok Mafia Party People, we have achieved the 16 player minimum just in time. (We may have one more. TheFleece sent me a pm indicating he might be willing to play. I messaged him back with some more details but haven't heard anything since. That was on Friday. I've been hoping he'd show up and let me know for sure whether he's in or out.)
Because I wasn't sure if this was game was going to happen or not (or which game we might be doing), I left the rules and planning alone and put my attention on inviting people and seeing who might be free to join. So, now I'll have to bang out the actual gameplay information. My goal is to have that done by tonight.
As for which game we'll be playing, less than half the players who signed up voted for the poll which suggest a lot of you will be fine with whatever theme and ruleset is selected. Harvest Moon has a slight lead at 3 votes. One could look at that like the winner. Yet Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin had 2 votes each which suggests 4 people would prefer something a bit more complicated versus the 3 who would like something simple. Because there was no huge majority or really popular choice in the poll and the real majority was not voting implying they are good with anything then I guess I'll take that to mean it is the host's pleasure to select which theme they'd like to do.
And since it seemed to take awhile to gather players for this game making me wonder if it will be even more difficult to get a game launched in the future, I am going to go with the Luigi's Mansion theme. I'd really like to see another game done under the rule set from the Metroid game to see if it is well balanced or if it might be broken in some way. (I also wonder what might happen if a killer does get the flag on Day 1 or 2 and were to win early. Would players be ok with a quick win or decide the rule sucks if it were to happen?) Moreover, most of the players for this game were around for the Metroid game. With the majority having experience of playing a game with that rule set, I'm curious to see if that will result in different strategies this game now that you are familiar with how it works. Plus, with the month of October, a Luigi's Mansion theme seems most fitting.
In the meantime, the sign-up thread will remain open today in case there are any other last minute additions before the game launches or you can think of anyone else you'd like to invite.