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[doll]

This thread is just so that I have a spot to continuously edit the open part of the setup (everything other than a particular game's role list and flavor text) and to concentrate feedback in one place.

Please tell me if anything is even slightly ambiguous or lacking in required detail.

Broken Hearts
a game of love
(not mafia)

Core Mechanics

Spoiler: Winning & Game Over (click to show/hide)

In your role PM, you will have a section labeled 'Wincon:'. If at the end of the game, the conditions matched in your wincon are met, you win.
This is the objective of the game.

The game does not end based on a preset play condition.
Instead, the game ends a group of players comprising a majority of voting ability and every killing role or other role capable of taking independent action against that voting majority PM's the moderator within a single Day or a single Night, requesting that the game end.
When this happens, the game ends instantly at the time of the last PM, preserving the game state as it was at that moment. Wincons are calculated from the game state at that point.

Spoiler: Day & Night (click to show/hide)

The game has a Day/Night cycle, and begins on either a Day or a Night.
Players cannot post in the thread during the Night.
During the Night, every player with a (Night) power which is not (Auto) will have the opportunity to PM their use of that ability to the moderator. Failure to do so will be treated as a lack of use of the ability.
Days last 72 hours, and can be Extended 24 hours by the request of 35% or more of players able to post.
Days will also end when a voting majority of players elect to End the Day.
Nights will last 24 hours.
Every player who started and remained the Day Outside will die at the beginning of Night unless otherwise noted.
Deaths are not announced as soon as they occur, but rather at the beginning of the next day where the roleflip will also be posted.

Spoiler: Communication, Targeting, Exile & Voting (click to show/hide)

Players can freely PM each other during the day or at night.
Players can freely create and use quicktopics. Players cannot create or post in quicktopics while unable to PM.
All communication between players outside of the thread must be made available to the moderator at the time of the communication. You are encouraged but not required to use quicktopics where you expect to frequently communicate with another player.

Night powers and other abilities target rooms, not players.
The effect of the power will resolve either in relation to the owner of that room, or to all players in that room during the Night.
Players may exempt any number of players from their Night powers in the action PM, preventing those players form being affected by the Night power.
Players are exempted from their own their own powers unless they request otherwise in the action PM.
A player using a Night power on a room will be in that room during the night. A player not using a Night power will be in their own room during the Night.
A player may use any number of Night powers at a time, but all powers must target the same room.
Outside is a special room which cannot be visited unless otherwise noted.
All players who are Outside will be treated as visiting Outside every night, and cannot target other rooms (but can use their Night powers on Outside).
Every player in a room will be notified of every other player in the room and what they were doing there.

Players may visit rooms if they do not have a night power if the owner of the room has PM'd the moderator during the night to allow (visiting player) to visit (room owner)'s room, and the visiting player has PM'd the moderator that they wish to visit (room owner)'s room. These PM's should be sent to only the moderator. Unlike other Night actions, this can be performed by players who are currently Outside. Those players will no longer be Outside after the night, but may still be Exiled. These Stowaway players will default to being in the room of the player who Smuggled them in when not visiting another room during the Night. During the night, a player who is on that Night attempting to Smuggle in another player will be Outside, and cannot perform other Night actions.

During the Day, players can vote to Exile or Pardon a player.
As soon a player is Exiled, they, and any players currently in their room, will immediately be moved Outside.
Players who are Exiled cannot post or vote.
As soon as a player is Pardoned, they may post and vote again, at which time they will come in from Outside. If the player does not post in the thread before the end of the Day, they will remain Outside.

Best practice for communicating with the moderator (e.g. for votes) is to use the same colors as used to describe actions in the OP in 14pt or larger text. If you are unsure the moderator will see a message (say, because it is in a quicktopic), you should also PM the moderator at the time of the message. You may not fabricate, imitate, or leave deliberately ambiguous moderator-directed information you post in any format, though you are entirely unrestricted in your use of font color and size.

Spoiler: LOVE (click to show/hide)

You may Confess your LOVE for (another player) at any time, in any format the other player is able to view.
If two players have Confessed their LOVE for one another, they are now Lovers.
A player may also REJECT the confession of (a confessing player).
You cannot confess your love to another player unless all other players you have confessed your love to have died or REJECTED your confession.

At the end of the game, all players will marry their Lover if they have one and both players are alive.

Spoiler: Possible Roles & Wincons (click to show/hide)

How it works:
Each player will have a role and zero or more role modifiers. Each player will have at least one wincon from the list, plus any from role modifiers. Having multiple wincons may or may not require the player to meet any given combination of the wincons to win.


Roles:

Girl:
No actions

Psychopath:
Murder (Night): Each night, you may attempt to murder another player, killing anyone in their room

Heartbreaker:
Heartbreaker (Auto): You may REJECT another player's confession even after you are in a relationship with them. Players who are not loyal will end the relationship. You may confess your love to players and accept confessions while in a relationship; this will have the same effect as REJECTING the confession of your existing lovers.


Role Modifiers:

Necrophile:
Necrophilia (Auto): You will still count as marrying a lover if they are dead and you are otherwise eligible to marry them (you are alive and either do not have a new lover or are a heartbreaker).
One or more players you marry must be dead for you to win.

Loyal:
Devoted (Auto): You win only if your lover wins. If you are dead, you count as married to whoever was your lover for the purpose of your Wincons. You cannot leave your lover for any reason.

Jealous:
Suspicion (Night, Auto): The first night you have a new lover, you will visit their room and learn their role, unless that player is loyal, in which case you will learn their role as soon as Night begins. Any player who rejects your confession of love must be dead for you to win the game.

Amorous:
Amore (Night, Auto): Each night while you have a lover, you will visit their room. Any action either of you would take is redirected to that room.

Nosy:
Nosy (Night): Target's a player's room. Learn the full role of the owner of the targeted room.


Survivalist:
Survivalist (Auto): You do not die from being Outside.
Aid (Night): Each Night while you are Outside, you may target another player and prevent them from dying from being Outside for a day.

Antagonistic:
Bully (Night): You may bully a player each night, causing them to spend the next Day and Night Outside. Bullied players cannot send PMs. Bullied players can still be voted. Because a bullied player cannot send PMs, they will not be able to be smuggled in if exiled during the day.

Loner:
Loner (Auto): You cannot send PMs, including to confess or accept love or being smuggled inside.
You win if you are unmarried at the end of the game.

Popular:
Popular (Auto):You cannot be voted. You are revealed as being popular at the beginning of the game. Your vote counts for double (including for ending Days and Pardoning players).


Wincons:

Role:
You win if you marry a player with a specific role or role modifer to win.

Player:
You win if you parry a specific player.

Marriage:
You win if you marry any player.

Harem:
You win if you marry a certain number of players.

Death:
You win if you die.

Survive:
You win if you are alive at the end of the game.

Hate:
You win if certain players lose.

Spite:
You win if certain players are dead.

[fillipk]

You might have an issue with the day only ends when people vote for it to end system, I tried running a hammer only game and it ended due to lack of participation.

Set-up definitely looks interesting though, especially the pming to end the game part.  Everything looks clear, except you didn't put why people would die from being outside given that the survivalist role exists.

[doll]

You might have an issue with the day only ends when people vote for it to end system, I tried running a hammer only game and it ended due to lack of participation.

I'll just need to wait until I can expect reliable participation, and force-replace inactive players aggressively.
Also: there is no town. Players are not trying to hunt scum. Players will not be hunting properly until they have some mechanical information to work on. Mechanical information is learned at night.

Everything looks clear, except you didn't put why people would die from being outside given that the survivalist role exists.

Every player who started and remained the Day Outside will die at the beginning of Night unless otherwise noted.

[TheBiggerFish]

Hi.
In.

[webadict]

You might have an issue with the day only ends when people vote for it to end system, I tried running a hammer only game and it ended due to lack of participation.

I'll just need to wait until I can expect reliable participation, and force-replace inactive players aggressively.
Also: there is no town. Players are not trying to hunt scum. Players will not be hunting properly until they have some mechanical information to work on. Mechanical information is learned at night.

[/quote]
This seems a fatal flaw in the game. If you do this, participation will likely get really stagnant.

[doll]

I suppose you're right about making players need to manually extend the days (or having fixed length days).
I was originally going with that anyway, but it seems odd to have it default to doing something which should happen as soon as the voting majority are no longer interested in the day.

The main reason for the unending days was the expectation that there would be daytime sequences where players won't act until they hear the response to their confessions (if there is one).  I suppose that's covered by manual extensions anyway.

Re: hunting: the usual goal of the game is to hunt for a partner, rather than for generically or specifically hostile players (though those may and in most setups will exist).

[Solifuge]

Hey! Saw this in the Setup thread. Wanted to say that this looks like a pretty nifty, artsy bastard / deconstruction-of-sorts of Mafia. Mechanics are set up to create a good framework for emergent storytelling, which is one of my favorite parts of the genre. I love the theming too; it ought to pair well with mechanics based around trust and uncertainty, forgivable lynching, the risk brought by protecting, investigating, or otherwise getting close to someone unknown (room-based collateral damage, identification, etc), and the rampant promotion of collusion and conspiracy in general. That's a good recipe, right there!

Spoiler: A couple wordy questions: (click to show/hide)

With the Endgame triggers, are you saying the game needs a majority to PM the moderator to end the game AND all Antagonists/Killing Roles have to be among that majority, or what? If so, is the intention to effectively give the informed minority/antagonists Veto powers over ending the game unless in a position to win (IE, players must elect to end the game, but baddies can still stealth their way to victory, or disrupt a happy ending until they're dealt with?) Or is there an angle I'm missing?

Are there separate votes to both Exile and Pardon a player every day, or is it a binary dealio? I like the idea of a forgivable pseudo-lynch, especially given that being outside too long can be a death sentence (or can be used to bait someone into smuggling someone back in and revealing their allegiances). Speaking of, the ability to invite people back in leaves some really cool space for rescue or betrayal between players, but it seems like another Veto of sorts; individuals can basically override Exiling, which makes the Pardon Vote kinda slow-acting and weak by comparison. Unless you were saying that an Exile that's invited into a room as a Stowaway is still technically Exiled, and thus can't take part in the Day Phase, but would be outed as being a likely stowaway when they don't die from exposure Outside? (IE, am I missing the obvious, here? Writing that out, I think I'm missing the obvious.)

Query; why is Girl the "No Action" one? Murder, philandering, and necrophilia know no age or gender, yo! Also, though I really like that gender is otherwise a non-thing here, genders and optional orientations could create slightly restrictive wincons for certain players (depending on player count), could provide players with a cover-ups/excuses to not hook up, could encourage investigation of potential lovers (unless perhaps gender was revealed by sharing a room), and could tragically drive would-be-allies apart. Also also, why is there no role that can confess and maintain multiple relationships simultaneously? I'd have expected that of the Heartbreaker, but it seems taking a new Lover gives their existing one the boot? Amicable Polygamy is totally a thing, and could warrant having another role; it dovetails with the Harem wincon and enriches or complicates a few others, and not having the ability to reject confessions after the fact would make it mechanically distinct from the Heartbreaker too. Unless, of course, having multiple simultaneous Lovers could break something? (P.S. Not a sentence I expected to write in earnest today!)

That all said, whenever you get around to running this, are you considering letting people Spoiler-Spectate? I'm not certain I should/could play (not sure I can be of use, or provide a proper challenge in Mafia), but I'd love to see it in action!

[doll]

Spoiler: A couple wordy questions: (click to show/hide)

With the Endgame triggers, are you saying the game needs a majority to PM the moderator to end the game AND all Antagonists/Killing Roles have to be among that majority, or what? If so, is the intention to effectively give the informed minority/antagonists Veto powers over ending the game unless in a position to win (IE, players must elect to end the game, but baddies can still stealth their way to victory, or disrupt a happy ending until they're dealt with?) Or is there an angle I'm missing?

The latter, though they aren't really 'scum' as such.
If a majority of players are ever going to change their minds about what's going on in the game, (e.g. are all in winning pairings and know it), which is a realistic proposition, the only player who can change the result of the game from that point is a Psychopath (or anyone else who can break the voting lock).
For this reason, the Psychopath has veto power over the game end, since until they are dead the other players can't actually stall forever.

Are their separate votes to both Exile and Pardon a player every day, or is it a binary dealio? I like the idea of a forgivable pseudo-lynch, especially given that being outside too long can be a death sentence (or can be used to bait someone into smuggling someone back in and revealing their allegiances). Speaking of, the ability to invite people back in leaves some really cool space for rescue or betrayal between players, but it seems like another Veto of sorts; individuals can basically override Exiling, which makes the Pardon Vote kinda slow-acting and weak by comparison. Unless you were saying that an Exile that's invited into a room as a Stowaway is still technically Exiled, and thus can't take part in the Day Phase, but would be outed as being a likely stowaway when they don't die from exposure Outside? (IE, am I missing the obvious, here? Writing that out, I think I'm missing the obvious.)

Exile and Pardon are unlimited and unrelated to the progression of the day; you can exile and pardon any number of players each day.
Stowaway's are still exiled. The stowaway won't flip, and players who are/visit outside will know that they aren't there (and see the rescue attempt during the night, actually).

Query; why is Girl the "No Action" one? Murder, philandering, and necrophilia know no age or gender, yo! Also, though I really like that gender is otherwise a non-thing here, genders and optional orientations could create slightly restrictive wincons for certain players (depending on player count), could provide players with a cover-ups/excuses to not hook up, could encourage investigation of potential lovers (unless perhaps gender was revealed by sharing a room), and could tragically drive would-be-allies apart. Also also, why is there no role that can confess and maintain multiple relationships simultaneously? I'd have expected that of the Heartbreaker, but it seems taking a new Lover gives their existing one the boot? Amicable Polygamy is totally a thing, and could warrent having another role; it dovetails with the Harem wincon and enriches or complicates a few others, and not having the ability to reject confessions after the fact would make it mechanically distinct from the Heartbreaker too. Unless, of course, having multiple simultaneous Lovers could break something? (P.S. Not a sentence I expected to write in earnest today!)

It's fundamentally genderless, just with all girls so it's just like my chinese cartoons because that's the fluff I'll be using for at least the first two games, if/when I run them, and that's unlikely to change in later games. The actual reason the role is named 'Girl' is just because 'Townie', 'Villager', and 'Innocent' were all inappropriate and I needed a noun.
Restricting wincons along non-mechanical lines (i.e. based on traits which only serve to restrict wincons) increases the reliance on investigative abilities even further, so I'm not likely to include the concept yet.
Any role which can maintain multiple relationships without spoiling the marriage can easily confirm itself and then snap up every compatible player. In particular, the threat of this creating a voting majority and the inherent public primacy of one player that it creates means that I am unlikely to use such a mechanic.
Harem currently can only be won by Heartbreaker's using loyal characters, or Heartbreaker Necrophile's who go through the rather difficult process of confess-kill cycles.

That all said, whenever you get around to running this, are you considering letting people Spoiler-Spectate? I'm not certain I should/could play (not sure I can be of use, or provide a proper challenge in Mafia), but I'd love to see it in action!

This is very much a game where you should be playing to your wincon and your wincon alone, so it's not too terrible (for everyone else) to have inexperienced and/or rusty players.
That said, I will be having spoilspecs if I don't think there will be a problem getting enough replacements.

[Solifuge]

At first glance, I read that one comment to say "...as with all girls, they are genderless <insert Otaku Convention here>". It came across as a nugget of human wisdom, rather than a misunderstanding of the subject/basic grammar. I liked it, but whoops nevertheless!

Anyway doodabuddy, thanks for laying out the clarification, pointing out them logic holes, etc. If you're personally okay with it- and no else one protests outright- I'll definitely consider playing when/if you get around to running it, rust be damned. And I hope you do run it; it sounds quite fun!

That said, good luck with your prep, and the rest of your biz.

[Tiruin]

PTWing this thread for its beauty of construction and mechanics. :3 Love seeing things like these in play
(Oh goodness if someone is running this Broken hearts theme, I'm SO IN no matter how bad my workload will be)

[doll]

BH1 is in the queue, between BYOR 0/Supernatural 9 and Sprng [Of] Hate/Wiretap Mafia.
BH1 will be a 9 player game.

[mastahcheese]

This sound incredibly amusing.

Waiting for this to turn into a Yandere simulation.