War Games: Game Idea

[mjdgoldeneye]

I had an idea for a game that's sort of similar to mafia, but not quite the same. The game is called "War Games".

The set up for the game would be 3 teams:

Red
Green
Blue

Each team would have 3 squads:

Alpha
Bravo
Delta

Aside from these groups, there would also be a Rogue squad.

All together, games would have to be played with player groups in multiples of 10. (3 Teams x 3 Squads + 1 Rogue Member = Groups of 10.)

The goal for each of the colored teams would be to A) Eliminate the Rogue Squad and B) Have more members than the other squads. Once every Rogue Squad member was eliminated, the game would end. (The Rogue Squad would win if they last until no team has more members than they do.)

Therefore, each team's motivation in the game could swing wildly. If in the lead, a team would want to get rid of the rogue squad before they lost the lead. If losing, a team would want to bring down the number of members in the winning team and protect the remaining rogue squad members.

The game would have 24 hour phases. Unlike mafia, there would be no day or night, only a single repeating action phase.

Each squad would know the other members of their squad and be able to communicate with them, but they would not know any of the other players (not even the other members of their team).

Each action phase, players would be able to perform various actions by PMing the mod. They would be:

Call in Airstrike - Call in to have bombers bomb the position of another player, eliminating them from the game.

Hide in Bunker - A player hides in a bunker, protecting themselves from dying for the phase.

Perform Recon - A player may scout for information on another player, finding out their squad and team.

Call in Medevac - Call in medical evacuation for another player, protecting them from dying for the phase.

The catch would be that a team would only be able to perform 2 actions per phase, they may only perform each action once per phase, and they may not perform the same action on 2 consecutive phases. So, for example, a team may have a player hide in a bunker and call in an airstrike during one phase, but then they would only be able to call in medevac and perform recon on the next phase.

The Rogue Squad would be exempt from these rules (for the most part). They would be able to use as many abilities as they had players and would be able to perform the same actions on consecutive phases. However, they would not be able to perform the same action twice in the same phase (or, when they got down to one player, use the bunker in consecutive phases).

The thread would be available for making deals, strategizing, being deceitful, and pleading for one's life.

Astil started sign-ups for his game, so I'm not sure I'll want to try this out just yet, but would anyone be interested in trying when the time comes? It would probably need play testing to work out any kinks. More layers of crazy can be added if the basic idea of the game works. But, first, people have to actually show interest. :D (Questions, concerns, or suggestions are welcome and possibly necessary.)

[BHK1978]

This sounds like an interesting concept, I would be willing to take part in a guinea pig game just to test the game out.

[mjdgoldeneye]

This sounds like an interesting concept, I would be willing to take part in a guinea pig game just to test the game out.

We'll need at least 10 people, preferably 20. At this rate, it might be hard, but hopefully people join in because I think it'd be fun.

[Derek B]

We'll need at least 10 people, preferably 20. At this rate, it might be hard, but hopefully people join in because I think it'd be fun.

I'm always in for concept stuff, strange variants of things are always fun and I like wrapping my head around new ideas. It's why I'm the ultimate Cake or Death champion too... cos I'm awesome. :)

[Destiny]

I enjoyed Cake or Death, and whilst this seems a little more complex, I'd like to play this as well.

[moon_lit_tears]

I enjoyed Cake or Death, and whilst this seems a little more complex, I'd like to play this as well.

I'm down too. Yeah
CAKE!!!

[MichiganHero]

Count me in. I'm always up for new things.

[TheKenwyne]

Reminds me of all those hex-based strategy games with card figures, God I'm such a nerd.

Insies

[mjdgoldeneye]

Well, that's 6. :p

Later on, when there isn't 40 games running/having sign-ups, I'll post a sign-up/game thread (we probably could just have one thread for both). I'm pretty sure we can get at least 10 people.

[praguepride]

I think that wouldn't work out as well as you'd like. I think you need a faction of neutral people to help tip the balance. Otherwise what would most likely happen, I think is two colors elect to gang up on a third, bomb them out and then one color backstabs the other and wins.

Also, I think you should have some neutral civilian faction. As is, if a rogue agent is pointed out, they have no claim. They claim "Red" all someone has to do is say "what squad" and they're screwed.


I think it would be an interesting game to play, but not as a typical mafia game (which you've already kind of pointed out).


To make it more like mafia I think you'd need to have 1/2 the players be "civilians" to allow people the ability to fake claim etc.


Another idea would be to have each squad have a designated person per power.

For example, each squad would have:
1) Killer/Bomber
2) Protector
3) Scout/Investigator


When one of their squad dies, another member can elect to drop their power to use the power of the deceased.

So this way you couldn't neutralize a squad by offing their hitman right off the bat because maybe the scout drops his power to kill, or the protector drops his ability to pick up the kill.


edit: Or maybe each person has 2 abilities but can only use one. When one dies, his abilities are split up among the surviving members, so you'd have:

1) Killer/Hider
2) Protector/Investigator
3) Tracker/Watcher

(or something like that, maybe every squad is composed of different combinations). The killer/hider dies so the Protector/Investigator becomes Protector/Investigator/Killer while the Tracker/Watcher becomes Tracker/Watcher/Hider.

As they can only use one ability a phase, this does impair their squad effectiveness (2 actions instead of three) but you can't get lucky and cripple a squad by taking out a key member.


If anything, this would be an improvement in the existing system as right now, each squad is just as effective with 3 members as 1, (other then the obvious manpower loss) but maybe this would be an effective way to slow the game down when the numbers get low. When one person has to choose between 6 actions at night, it becomes very nerve wracking and exciting to try and figure out if you're making the right decision.

Also, would be cool if dead players could still communicate with their live team mates (i.e they're "command" on the comms) so if a squad gets decimated early, players can still participate. When a squad dies though, they are all out of the game.

[Paws7297]

You can count me in. But, I'll learn more by doing. It's gonna take me a bit to get the attention span to read the first post.

[mjdgoldeneye]

I think that wouldn't work out as well as you'd like. I think you need a faction of neutral people to help tip the balance. Otherwise what would most likely happen, I think is two colors elect to gang up on a third, bomb them out and then one color backstabs the other and wins.

I have to stop you hear because it seems like you missed a big part of the set-up.

There IS a neutral group. The Rogue Squad.

Also, the teams don't win by eliminating each other. They win by eliminating the Rogues.

Go give it a re-read. :p

[mjdgoldeneye]

To make it more like mafia I think you'd need to have 1/2 the players be "civilians" to allow people the ability to fake claim etc.

The goal is to make it DISTINCT from mafia. Fake claiming would be practically impossible and that's sort of the point.

[praguepride]

I read and know, hence why i said to make it.more mafia like blah blah blah.

What about the role split idea? Your idea doesnt have an "actor" so watcher/tracker roles would be pointless.

Then again, would be fun without having those mafia roles in a game.

Perhaps Rogue squad should get weird chaos abilities, like redirectors instead of an investigation, nexus or something to prevent the game from becoming a number cruncher.

[mjdgoldeneye]

Well, your changes require the additional changes to make them work. Essentially, if you progressed that way, when you got to the most effective set-up, you'd have mafia. :p

The strategy and intent in this game is different. This game is about tactics, not guessing, deception, and obfuscation like mafia. It's about making better decisions than the other teams, not making decisions and then trying to figure out what happened... :p

However, to introduce another layer to the game and promote clever thinking, here's 2 more abilities:

Perform Recon - A player may find out what action another player performs (but not the target, if relevant). The other "Perform Recon" abovr would be re-flavored as "Collect Intel", but the name doesn't really matter in the gameplay.

Send Message - A player may send a message to another player by mod proxy (meaning the recipient can't confirm the source). The message would have a character limit so it'd be like old-school war telegrams/telegraphs and to prevent verbose discussions. Players who receive messages can specifically respond to the message as an action on a future night.

The game would sort of be a sandbox. The fun would be in using the provided tools to win in creative ways. Mafia can really only go so many ways because roles are traditionally static.

Here's some examples from the top of my head:

1. A player can send a seemingly diplomatic message to another player in the hopes that they respond on their next turn. Why? Because they can't hide in the bunker or do other useful things while responding. If a team suspects the message is a trap, they can always protect the message sender, but that takes up all the squad's resources.

(It might actually be better to get rid of the # of actions per phase restriction, meaning every member of the team can perform an action, if there are any available, but keep the other rules. That way, the number of actions each night can fluctuate. Hell, you can make it so any team can perform the same action on consecutive nights too. Balls-to-the-wall killing every night? Focusing on intel early and then killing precisely later? Teams would have to decide.)

2. A team can focus on just randomly distributing false information to confuse the other teams. They can randomly pick another player they know isn't on their team and send messages to other teams telling them they're that player and that they're on a team and squad that they're not. This would take resources, but it would totally shut down other teams from communicating because it'd jam the truth. To get the truth out, teams would have to plant signals in messages and include them in posts, which is risky. Hell, squads can make entire codes so they could post coded messages for their teammates in the thread at will.

3. A team might find a rogue player early on and send a message to another team telling them who the rogue is so they'll be inclined to spend the resources on killing them, freeing up space for the finder to kill the members of the team they sent the message to! :p (They can even protect the rogue if they're not quite in the lead yet too.)

You see, some of this stuff is stuff I wanted you guys to figure out on your own as part of the fun, but there are some ideas.

Odds are, if you're worried that one strategy is obviously superior, other people have a different idea.

[Wrestling Century]

I would like to take part in a game. That sounds like fun.

[Destiny]

It does sound like a lot of fun, and hopefully one of these games can be run soon.

[praguepride]

I'd play.

[Jaded]

I'd give it a go. :)

[mjdgoldeneye]

I'll post a thread for a game of this after Dr. Horrible ends, perhaps a bit later.

[praguepride]

fyi, I think Rev or ier is looking at gettin short game sign upz soon

[mjdgoldeneye]

I was thinking about running a trial of this with 10 people now that nothing is happening. Should I? Should I not?

[Imarevenant]

I was thinking about running a trial of this with 10 people now that nothing is happening. Should I? Should I not?

There will be a sign up posted within the week.

So with that and the time it would take for sign ups to get filled you'd have some time I think. Not sure how long you think this game would last though, but thought I'd give you a bit more info on the matter.

[mjdgoldeneye]

There will be a sign up posted within the week.

So with that and the time it would take for sign ups to get filled you'd have some time I think. Not sure how long you think this game would last though, but thought I'd give you a bit more info on the matter.

It should be quick. I don't anticipate this sort of thing relying on nearly as much conversation as mafia.

[Destiny]

Well, I'd certainly be up for it. I hate these little periods when there isn't a game running.