Summon Alien Gods - a Cultist Simulator [Mafia]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Game Room > Summon Alien Gods - a Cultist Simulator [Mafia]

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wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

Really sorry folks, I had a disaster of a day at work yesterday and totally forgot about the deadline.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 14:57

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 03:15

Tired Moritz: Mar 25, 2012; wish Lowtax would get tired of YOUR POSTS

_{_{(n o i c e)}}

Aww man. Oh well

# ? Jun 22, 2023 15:01

Toalpaz: Mar 20, 2012; Peace through overwhelming determination

Gg! Scum played really well. Town should always execute. Gg

# ? Jun 22, 2023 15:28

Deadmeat5150: Nov 21, 2005; OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

I did say that scum played a good game.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 15:58

Rhymes With Clue: Nov 18, 2010

wins32767 posted:

Really sorry folks, I had a disaster of a day at work yesterday and totally forgot about the deadline.

Oh that's okay.

Although I am most sincerely sorry about your bad day, it was good luck for the scum team who you had just fingered in its entirety.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 16:51

Punkreas: May 13, 2013; *chews on head*; Lipstick Apathy

Thanks for the game, it was fun and interesting!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 17:04

wins32767: Mar 16, 2007

Rhymes With Clue posted:

Oh that's okay.

Although I am most sincerely sorry about your bad day, it was good luck for the scum team who you had just fingered in its entirety.

Not punk, but I feel horrible for losing the game for the town.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 17:30

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

So yes. Scum played well. I think the setup was to some extent irrelevant to scum's victory here; town did needlessly sabotage themselves a bit. However, I did make mistakes and learnt a lot from running this.

Things that I think were good:

The general concept of everyone starting vanilla and an empowerer handing out power roles as the game progresses.
Combine the above with the accumulation of items as the player pool reduces (thanks to the will mechanic), and you have a game that changes dramatically in character between the start and the end - which was my intention.
Punkreas' role was well balanced at two empowers a night. I went back and forth a lot on this number, and it feels like I got it right; he could have achieved his wincon if he'd simply chosen to empower Rhymes and Wins on the final night rather than attempt his ritual.
I had a blast writing the flavour.

Things that I think were not so good:

I did not consider the possibility of the empowerer NOT using their empower on the first night. Two whole days of everyone being vanilla really slowed down the early game.
Scum all having the ##will ability meant they could accumulate items (either on their own or via duped townies), and keep them permanently within their group even if they died. This wasn't such a big factor in the end but it could have been a serious source of imbalance under different circumstances.
Underpowered roles. I was worried town would be OP if everyone got empowered, so I gave a lot of them weak roles (e.g. TM's bodyguard or Jen's voyeur) that weren't much fun for the players concerned. I also completely overlooked that Anarc's rolecop would be essentially useless because I used flavoured role names.
The ritual mechanic confused a bunch of people and also kind of sucked in practice. I was honestly expecting people to share their affinities and try to collaborate to make rituals happen despite the interference of scum, but none of that happened. Part of the issue was the complexity of the system (in particular I finally realised last night that Knock and Moth cancelling each other out was wholly unnecessary), but I also think a major factor was -
Lack of information. Of course uncovering mysteries is the whole point of the game, but I should have given more daily study slots (at least 3), and been more forthcoming with the lore that did get unlocked. Giving players e.g. the exact effects of each ritual would have encouraged a ton more strategising.
The first dream effect being a day message almost completely killed that aspect of the game. I was lucky even ONE person decided to try dreaming multiple times. It's a shame because the dream progression was really fun flavour to write, gave progressively more interesting effects, and if the game had gone on a bit longer there was a good chance TMor could have got an orthogonal win from it.

Wall of text lol sorry.

Anyway I'm thinking of reworking this into a flexible player-count, randomised open setup game and rerunning it sometime in the future. I hope some of you will consider playing again at that time. Now that I've got the flavour writing out of my system I'll be able to focus more on fun and balance!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 17:39

Jen X: Sep 29, 2014; To bring light to the darkness, whether that darkness be ignorance, injustice, apathy, or stagnation.

I enjoyed the flavor and I also enjoyed solving the entire setup on the last day

sad that scum refused to let me get a solo win, really rude of them

# ? Jun 22, 2023 17:49

Rhymes With Clue: Nov 18, 2010

I will say the end post really confused me because I thought people being endgamed meant they had lost.

Specifically, I look at the game first thing before I can really see (have to be awake for awhile to put in contacts) and I note that a post is up, which means the game is over, so I stretch it so I can read and come into the middle where it says "IA has been endgamed" and I was like, oh well. Then I went to the beginning, and reversal.

So good game scummates and it ended just in time.

Jen X if you had just said "if this works I exit the game" well maybe we would have helped. Numbers, y'know.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:28

Sandwolf: Jan 23, 2007; i'll be harpo

Go scum, go!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:32

Jen X: Sep 29, 2014; To bring light to the darkness, whether that darkness be ignorance, injustice, apathy, or stagnation.

Rhymes With Clue posted:

Jen X if you had just said "if this works I exit the game" well maybe we would have helped. Numbers, y'know.

yeah but then town would have interfered instead!!!!!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:34

Toalpaz: Mar 20, 2012; Peace through overwhelming determination

Rhymes With Clue posted:

I will say the end post really confused me because I thought people being endgamed meant they had lost.

It does indeed mean that, but you can forgive a first time mod.... .. .

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:46

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

Toalpaz posted:

It does indeed mean that, but you can forgive a first time mod.... .. .

Yeah, my bad, I'll fix it later!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:47

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

Actually I just checked back with Cluedo mafia and the winning town players were listed as "endgamed" so I guess that's where I got the idea from.

Anyway you knew what I meant eventually

# ? Jun 22, 2023 18:56

Punkreas: May 13, 2013; *chews on head*; Lipstick Apathy

Maugrim posted:

[*] Punkreas' role was well balanced at two empowers a night. I went back and forth a lot on this number, and it feels like I got it right; he could have achieved his wincon if he'd simply chosen to empower Rhymes and Wins on the final night rather than attempt his ritual.

Interesting, I had no idea I was this close to winning. I assumed I had to do more than just empower everyone (I thought rituals were involved). I was just sharing the love because abilities are fun!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 19:16

AnonymousNarcotics: Aug 6, 2012; we will go far into the sea
you will take me
onto your back
never look back
never look back

Maug I think this would be a great basis for a game that could be run multiple times with slightly different setups (e.g. Affinity order changes every game, which affinity is wild or negating changes every game)

Definitely great game for a first time mod, and super fun!

# ? Jun 22, 2023 20:30

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

AnonymousNarcotics posted:

Maug I think this would be a great basis for a game that could be run multiple times with slightly different setups (e.g. Affinity order changes every game, which affinity is wild or negating changes every game)

Definitely great game for a first time mod, and super fun!

Thanks!

I'm already working on the repeatable/randomised version, it's gonna be great

# ? Jun 22, 2023 20:39

Deadmeat5150: Nov 21, 2005; OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

I had a blast writing flavor for this.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 20:52

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

Oh and guys

TMor's post restriction was real

# ? Jun 22, 2023 20:56

Idle Amalgam: Mar 7, 2008; said I'm never lackin'
always pistol packin'
with them automatics
we gon' send 'em to Heaven

Lmao

# ? Jun 22, 2023 20:59

CubicalSucrose: Jan 1, 2013; Phantom my Opera and call me South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut

Maugrim posted:

[*] The ritual mechanic confused a bunch of people and also kind of sucked in practice. I was honestly expecting people to share their affinities and try to collaborate to make rituals happen despite the interference of scum, but none of that happened. Part of the issue was the complexity of the system (in particular I finally realised last night that Knock and Moth cancelling each other out was wholly unnecessary), but I also think a major factor was -
[*] Lack of information. Of course uncovering mysteries is the whole point of the game, but I should have given more daily study slots (at least 3), and been more forthcoming with the lore that did get unlocked. Giving players e.g. the exact effects of each ritual would have encouraged a ton more strategising.

What do the rituals do?

# ? Jun 22, 2023 21:07

Maugrim: Feb 16, 2011; I eat your face

A whole variety of different stuff. The ones relevant to this game included -

Rite of Ending - weak vig (kills unascended players, weakens ascended ones)
Feast Incarnadine (never discovered but happened twice in the game!) - evolves target's role, the same as Punk's action
Rite Intercalate - biggest contributor gets a personal win and exits the game
Invocation of the Ivory Dove - plays back all the dead people's testaments, anonymised and in random order
Rite of the Tribune of Scars (which scum were trying for on the final night) - thunderdomes the three targets, they are the only ones who can be voted for the next day

# ? Jun 22, 2023 21:37

CubicalSucrose: Jan 1, 2013; Phantom my Opera and call me South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut

Here was my Testament, which never got used but I felt really good about the info-density of it (especially after reading the other testaments).

**##testament Sorry for lurking D1, had some work nonsense. In case my flip is jani'd, I was Enid, TOWN-aligned Disciple (vanilla). I had no alt wincon. I had a Knock affinity which has a purple key symbol (and why I wanted to explore because purple). I could contribute 5 points. I willed Keats. If alive, they might or might not have gotten notification of this. My study got me a 1-shot seer, I picked Keats. Keats is NOT SCUM. I died due to a garrote. I did not contribute to the N1 ritual. Go town, avenge me (please)! No other reads.**

I like both Wills and Testaments as mechs in general but felt like they were underutilized overall.

However! Keats trying to coerce items using Wills as leverage was one of my favorite parts of the game.

# ? Jun 22, 2023 21:53

Johnny Keats: Jan 24, 2023

Frustrating that I got killed after catching Sandwolf dead-to-rights and trolled AN hard enough in masonry that I concluded she must be scum the day I died too. Hmph

# ? Jun 22, 2023 22:26

Johnny Keats: Jan 24, 2023

You all should read my masonry with AN, with the knowledge that I thought they were probably scum the whole time I was begging for their item. It's very funny

# ? Jun 22, 2023 22:29

AnonymousNarcotics: Aug 6, 2012; we will go far into the sea
you will take me
onto your back
never look back
never look back

Also you were right about "I have no heart" being a secret scum claim

# ? Jun 23, 2023 03:42

Jezza of OZPOS: Mar 21, 2018; GET LOSE❌🗺️, YOUS CAN'T COMPARE😤 WITH ME 💪POWERS🇦🇺

shoutout to everyone that didnt believe tm had a post restriction lmao

# ? Jun 23, 2023 08:24

Johnny Keats: Jan 24, 2023

AnonymousNarcotics posted:

Also you were right about "I have no heart" being a secret scum claim

I know I was, you monster

# ? Jun 23, 2023 11:34

Rhymes With Clue: Nov 18, 2010

I thought TM made up the post restriction, yeah.

You guys are a lot of fun to play with. Thanks!

# ? Jun 23, 2023 21:14

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 03:15

AnonymousNarcotics: Aug 6, 2012; we will go far into the sea
you will take me
onto your back
never look back
never look back

My scum tell is when people don't think I'm super scummy and vote me out right away

# ? Jun 23, 2023 22:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Game Room > Summon Alien Gods - a Cultist Simulator [Mafia]

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