Yeah, had already been planning on getting rid of extensions. I'll have to ponder how to buff the town, but that shouldn't be hard. A few of the roles are a bit weak right now.
As I am want to do, I will type my opinion that no one asked for.
More role variety [Scum-favored]
This would probably help scum over town but I'm suggesting it for multiple reasons, but the obvious one is that stack-powering can lead to unfun games with confirmed players that stymie investigation and play. A lot of the Paranormal games with multiple of the same role have suffered for it, for one reason or another. Adding more roles for the Town (and Doppelgangers) would be better for the metagame, in my opinion.
Redirector type role (Codename: Mindbender)
[PSYCHIC] Redirects a player's non-psychic action(s) toward another player. This would be known by the player that this is happening.
Suggested Weight: 4+
Reasoning: Redirections are powerful for scum, but even more powerful for town that are in the know. Often times, this is a way to play around powerful abilities, but comes with the obvious drawback of also being a powerful ability.
Thief type role (Codename: Burglar)
Breaks into people's homes at night. Sees whether they are at home or not.
Alternative: Steals Tech? Disables Tech?
Suggested Weight: 1-2 (Alternative: 2-4)
Reasoning: Seeing whether people are home or not would let you find people that are either psychic or didn't action. This role didn't feel powerful, but I felt like there could be a lot of additions to it, so I added some alternatives. Right now, Tech is hard to play around (Which is fair, since it's an alien mechanic that a few non-Alien players have access to.) Giving them a reason to not stockpile their tech for optimal usage could be beneficial. Honestly, my least favorite mechanic is Body Double on a Doppelganger, since it acts as a game stall in many cases, so giving that some counterplay would be beneficial to the metagame.
Coward type role (Codename: Unwelcome Guest)
Stays in other people's houses at night. Unable to be targeted normally by non-psychic actions. Is targeted by anyone that targets their target.
Suggested Weight: 1-2
Reasoning: A hide ability isn't super useful all the time, but this seems like a way to potentially make an unkillable Townie, if played right. In fact, I feel like it might even give scum a reason to potentially kill their own teammates, if played in the worst possible manner.
Long distance information retrieval/confirmation (Codename: Mind Reader)
[PSYCHIC] Gains any information that their target gained.
Suggested Weight: 3
Reasoning: This role can be a bit more powerful than a standard detective in some situations (Since, it can confirm investigative roles), but it also can see a few things that the other investigation roles can't, like receiving additional information from other roles, e.g. information from an Observant Guard, or even Mind Readers reading Mind Readers. It also has the drawbacks of potentially getting nothing, for roles that simply don't receive information. Also, two Mind Readers reading each other should get a feedback loop and explode.
Bring back the Ghosts! (but not that one) (Codename: Spiritualist)
[PSYCHIC] Uses the abilities of dead players. Perhaps with limits?
Suggested Weight: 3
Reasoning: There's not enough ghosts used in a Paranormal game. Where's the ghost aliens? The ghost doppelgangers? We don't really have a Jack of all Trades type character yet, and this could be a way to add one. I'm not sure if there has to be any type of limiter on this, like using it once. That seems too mean.
More attribute variety [Town-favored]
This would make roles feel different without the need to worry about power-duping. If there were attributes that modified how the role PLAYED in addition to how you interact with actions, this could feel better for the player, and would be a better way to manage some of the roles that seem a bit too powerful or weak.
Unique twist on some roles (Codename: Weak-Willed)
Caveat: Applied to a Psychic Role.
Performs their actions physically instead of psychically.
Suggested Weight: (-1)-1?
Reasoning: It seems like a fun twist on a Psychic role. It has a few upsides, like being able to be target a Mind Shield with a normally Psychic ability, and a few downsides like being able to be targeted by some roles. Also, it'd be funny for a Weak-Willed Psychic Warden to show up to people's houses and knock them unconscious instead.
Unique twist on the other roles (Codename: Ghostly)
Caveat: Applied to a non-Psychic Role.
Performs their actions psychically instead of physically.
Suggest Weight: 0-2
Reasoning: Psychic roles get a lot of safety involved with them. I also think that a Paranoid War Veteran can be a bit of a hard-time to deal with for people, so some workarounds might be nice. Also, thinking of a Ghostly Vigilante shooting people with Ghost bullets is cool and awesome.
Allow modular power levels to some roles (Codename: Benefactor)
Starts with a Tech of one level higher OR a small Tech if starting with no Tech.
Suggested Weight: 1-2
Reasoning: It's an easy way to make a role feel better without a lot of tuning. This can be applied to third party roles, scientists, or just random roles.
Standard Masonry (Codename: Old Friends)
Caveat: Applied to Town only. Town-friendly Third Party is also acceptable.
Starts the game knowing the alignment of another player.
Suggested Weight: 2-4 (Higher with less players)
Reasoning: Masons allow for more Town-centric scum play that gives a feeling of inclusion. Not only that, but I feel this could also create a one-way communication method with Mediums.
A way for players to have more than one role (Codename: Split Personality)
Starts the game as two roles, and picks one to start the game with. At the beginning of each Day, they change to their other role.
Suggested Weight: Based on roles, but fairly low.
Reasoning: Um... I don't know. I just thought it'd be fun for someone to have access to more than one ability, but I think sometimes giving them more actions ISN'T the solution. This also gives a way to balance a strong role (Vigilante) by giving it a limiter (Townie).
A way to target more players (Codename: No Time To Take Notes)
Caveat: Applied to Investigation roles.
You can target an additional player each Night. You don't remember which person was which.
Suggested Weight: 1-2
Reasoning: Giving players the choice of making a decision to gain something at the cost of something else is always more fun. It's the thinking that goes into the choice that matters.
Giving powers to other players (Codename: Spiritual Successor)
[PSYCHIC?] When you die, you can give a player a choice between taking your role or keeping their own.
Suggested Weight: 1 (Stronger roles would weigh higher)
Reasoning: No one likes extra lives, but people DO like choices and they ALSO like gaining powers. Also, we don't use enough ghosts and spirits, so this one is meant to be a bit more helpful.
Convert some Doppelganger roles into Attributes [Scum-favored]
Some of the Doppelganger only roles are a bit... lacking. This isn't always bad, as some roles are balanced around that. But, there could be something to be said about an Advanced Doppelganger that was also a Detective. Since the Advanced Doppelganger loses her abilities on use, she would have a choice: Advanced Kill, or Inspect? A Tough Agent Doppelganger would have an alibi, and could try to throw off things from his trail. Honestly, it'd just make it easier to add in more roles to a game, if you wanted more roles.
Make more (or combine existing) Variants [Neutral-favored]
Honestly, there's a lot of unexplored territory with roles. There exists ONE role that manipulates votes. There is ONE role that can investigate roles. There is ONE role that can investigate race. But, there's a lot of roles that have Tech, for instance, so the Mad Scientist role isn't pigeonholed. They have room for fakeclaiming and gambiting. Heck, even Bodyguards have sweet variants. The reason I suggest this is that I honestly have a problem with the Detective being
too powerful for scum and town. It's actually so powerful that it turns into one of the scums best tools for breaking the game. There's no real way to hide from it as Town. It's also hard to hide from it as scum.
What if an Enchanter had a choice: Give yourself an Extra Vote, or give another player of your choice and extra vote. What about an Enchanter that can make someone's vote count negative? Enchanters could be far more fleshed out than just a standard doublevoter. Enchanters are already so super strong for scum, that they basically make auto-confirmed Town, but you could balance these effects. Taking away a vote now makes it usable for a scum player (Assuming that it's targeted at Night.) Giving another player a vote makes it slightly less powerful for Town, so it's not exactly auto-confirming anymore.
Merge Agent and a Detective as variants of the same role, instead of two different roles. This makes it harder to confirm people with a Detective role (They would receive the super-role instead.) This tends to be one of the biggest issues with the Detective, in the hands of either team. Agents, themselves, can only tell if someone shows up as Human, Dopp, or Alien, so they tend to have a swingy sense of balance, but there's a lot of ways to work around and even counter Agents, so they're also pretty tame at the same time. You could even add in Telepath into this, and name the role Paranormal Inspector, as they'd simply have different ways of inspecting.
This also makes me feel like a Psychic Warden is actually really a variant of a larger class of Psychic-based badasses. Like, a Warden is just a Psychic that can lock people down. Stealing from my previous roles, a Mindbender would be a Psychic that confuses people and makes them focus on the wrong people. An Amnesiac might be a Psychic that causes their target to perform their action but get no information, or maybe they make them perform an entirely different action. The list is pretty open.
This also means you could combine things like a War Vet, Vigilante, and maybe even some of the Doppelganger roles into one super role.
Remove the Body Double stopping Lynches [Town-favored]
Personally, I hate it. If the Town is lynching a Townie, then it wasted not just one lynch on a Townie, but likely TWO lynches. If the Town is lynching a Doppelganger, then it takes twice as long. It's a stalling mechanic, and extends games out unnecessarily. The only exception might be an Alien, and outting them as an Alien seems mean. There should be an alternative way to avoid a lynch as an Alien.
That's all I've got for now, but I can always add more.
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Topic: Banter Thread (Read 365075 times)