I spent nearly every week at the Altar of Echo asking for a sign. After a year of such requests and still with no answer, I too had lost faith. Lost and dejected, assuming that no answer was an answer in and of itself, I let my offering slide out of my hand onto the littered floor of broken ideas. Months went by and I started to forget. The offering slowly covered by the dust of Critical Failures, faded away.
Then a voice in the phalla wilderness spoke of it again. Restored in my mind but with a memory of the silence of the Gods, I tried to brush the idea aside. But it was to no avail. What of other Gods?, I thought to myself. I had only supplicated to one before for fear of angering two. Surely the Gods spoke. I.must have been a joke to them. Talking to a second would most likely result in smiting. Anger would be better than silence was my resolve. And so I trekked unto the Mount of Tube.
My plea was weak and without faith as I was ready to return to my previous state of hopelessness. It was easier to not hope and surely this one wouldn't answer either. Maybe I would even be released from this world through smiting...
Echo, please be replying to this
My heart raced. Was it to be? No, surely this was just a cruel joke and they were laughing at my hope in nothing. Then, from the long lost Altar, a voice echoed
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
I just reread the OP.
Wow is that a confusing mess. I'm gonna clean it up later. The idea will be the same. People can either:
1) Request information about Phalla stuff (which will create an appropriate section for it)
2) Contribute to the knowledgebase by posting and assigning it to a section.
The main OP will be a listing of links to the requests and knowledgebase posts.
One thing that I actually had to work out for myself was how to balance for time, since a phalla can be well balanced but move so slowly that it's rude to people waiting to host.
Would you be interested, Obi, if I wrote up a bit on that?
Now, I've heard more computer savvy people say that they just use Monte Carlo simulations for their phallas. And, hey, if that's your thing, this is probably going to be a bit below you, so feel free to skip to another post. What I'm suggesting here is a really quick and dirty way of making sure that there are enough kills flying around to make the game move at a decent clip, baring extraordinarily lucky shots.
My method is based on the idea that all kills are not created equal.
Village kills (including the vote) can hit anyone.
Mafia kills can hit anyone, but the Mafia. They're not going to shoot themselves, after all. This counts for masoned factions as well.
The Serial Killer will never hit himself.
(Yes, yes, I see you waving your hand in the back. Busdrivers exist and can really warp those assumptions. But, like I said, this is just a quick and dirty way to figure out if the game is going to take two weeks or something crazy.)
So, for example, we're going to take a simple phalla.
Twenty people playing.
Four mafia (standard 20%) with one kill between them.
One village vig
One serial killer.
Which leaves 15 vanilagers.
Now, if you just divide the number of kills (four) by the number of people playing, you can see that it's pretty unlikely for this to last more that five nights. Someone may get offed early on, but you can assume that it's going to be done by night 7 at the latest. That's a reasonable length.
But, let's the method I talked about earlier.
N/A Village Mafia SK
Day 1 15 4 1
Day 2 11.7730263158 3.35 0.7973684211
Day 3 8.5789883401 2.6626569747 0.5943888248
Day 4 5.4310008439 1.9224739486 0.3908592571
Day 5 2.3570008055 1.0957722182 0.1862952028
Day 6 -0.5477766115 0.0626981118 -0.0212393546
This is a quick Excel spreadsheet I whipped up. Each cell is the amount of people left in that group at the start of that day.
The formulas for each column are:
Next Day Village = Village - (Village * Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * Mafia Kills/(Village+SK)) - (Village * SK kills/(Village+Mafia))
Next Day Mafia = Mafia- (Mafia* Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * SK kills/(Village+Mafia))
Next Day SK = SK - (Mafia * Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * Mafia Kills/(Village+SK))
If the groups all end up close to zero somewhere between Days 5 to 8, you know you've got a decent baseline for your game. One thing to keep in mind is that this only takes into account kills. If everyone else in the game is a seer, the mafia's just straight hosed, no matter the kill balance.
Now, the big reason I find this superior to just dividing people by number of kills is that it helps insure balance between groups. If the previous mafia had three kills and the village only had one, it would become pretty clear that something's out of whack.
BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
edited July 2014
After some use of the forum search function, which is not super bad, I managed to pull this from the depths of history with some changes.
THE THREE LAWS OF PHALLA (FOR VILLAGERS)
0. A villager must not, through action or inaction, cause harm to phalla.
Phalla is a game where information is everything. Players, even the mafia, are expected to make decisions based on incomplete information. For the game to work, players must be capable of successfully deducing unknowns with the incomplete information provided using rational analysis. Lying to other players is acceptable because lies can be uncovered through other information. Actions that are not acceptable included anonymous communication or posing as another player, a player not playing to their win condition, and players screenshotting role PM’s or otherwise providing proof of information that should not be confirmed outside of game mechanics. Taking these actions disrupt the fundamental tenets of phalla.
1. A villager must not, through inaction, fail in locating mafia through thread analysis and discussion, allowing the village to come to harm.
A villager will fail to find mafia. That is part of the game. A villager becomes worthless when they decide to not play the game or, in other words, do not attempt to use the provided incomplete information to draw conclusions. A player does not need to publicly provide information i.e. softnetworking, but a villager must actively attempt to find mafia. It should be noted, however, that private information dies with the holder and the net result is as if the information was never obtained at all.
2. A villager must act to protect village specials and a confirmed network.
Villagers are expendable. Being publicly useful as a villager means the mafia must decide whether you are a special or not. A kill used on a villager is a kill not used on a special. The strength of the specials/network is not any powers, but the concentration of information. Protecting the network protects the information.
3. A villager must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Villagers are expendable, but they are not mafia. Villagers under threat of death are expected to act in a manner that may lead to a new, mafia, target. This can be done by use vote records to show the player is not mafia or by using information to implicate another player as mafia.
BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
There should be a "phalla history" section so all the old-timer in-jokes can be explained without me needing to pull out ancient posts about people claiming to be Bluestreak.
There should be a "phalla history" section so all the old-timer in-jokes can be explained without me needing to pull out ancient posts about people claiming to be Bluestreak.
There was a wikidump. But I think that died to
RE: determining the number of days. Always try to work out the best/worst case scenarios. Odds are the players will to! While it's likely that it'll fall somewhere in the middle, you may want to reconsider some of your designs if it ends up that the game can end day 3, or (for a mini) take a week if everyone hits the wrong people
2. A villager must act to protect village specials and a confirmed network.
3. A villager must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Realistically, 3 can usurp 2 if the villager believes they are in a stronger position than the network.
It's just unlikely to happen, what with the lack of communication in Phalla compared to in-the-same-room Mafia preventing soft-networks from outgrowing the sureties of specials.
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
OP is updated to be more clear.
#1 - Please give me feedback on how to improve it, if you see a way to make it better. This is going to be something created by us, for us. More heads are better than one.
#2 - I need someone who is good with design to create a University Banner for the OP. Banners/Graphics for each of the Libraries and Schools would be welcome as well.
I will write up a section on etiquette this evening. That's a topic that will need a lot of input from different sources, and I am by no means an expert at it, but it will be good to have a start.
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited July 2014
@capfalcon I added your contribution to the Kill Balancing book found in the Library of Design and Mechanics. @baidol I added your contribution to the Village Studies major found in the School of Phalla Theory and Philosophy.
Since you contributed before I had a solid form, I created the name of the book/major myself. Please look over their locations and descriptions and tell me if you want anything added/changed.
2. A villager must act to protect village specials and a confirmed network.
3. A villager must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Realistically, 3 can usurp 2 if the villager believes they are in a stronger position than the network.
It's just unlikely to happen, what with the lack of communication in Phalla compared to in-the-same-room Mafia preventing soft-networks from outgrowing the sureties of specials.
I can't really think of a situation where a vanillager would be in a better situation outside of the network than in it. Especially to the detriment of specials
0
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FaranguI am a beardy manWith a beardy planRegistered Userregular
I play rarely these days, but used to play a lot many years ago. I've noticed that a typical time frame of a game tended to be around 5 days for a mini and maybe 10 days for a main, mostly to keep the games from dragging on too long, keeping folks interested and not making the next person wait a long period of time before they can run their game (which might not be an issue currently).
I think the more common habit was for a game to run longer, rather than shorter. Losing a vigilante or serial killer (SK) early is a good cause for that. If you run a standard mafia game with 20 people, using 4 mafia (20% rule) that has a vote kill and vigilante with no guardian, you see 3 kills a night. The game could end in 2 days (vote/vigilante hit mafia both nights) or 9 days if the vigilante dies on the first night and the game ends with only 1 mafia member left alive. (3 kills night 1, 2 kills each night after for a player total per day of (20/17/15/13/11/9/7/5/3/1).
--If your goal was to make this, a 5-7 day game as a mini for example, consider reducing the chances the game can go 9 days by ensuring there are enough kills to move the game along.
Assumptions:
- No guardian or no blocked kills
- No overlapping kills
- No inactivity causing kill actions to be unused
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Let's say the vigilante lives the entire game. That means 3 kills a day, so you'd have (20/17/14/11/8/5/2), which means your game runs 6 days max, which is in your time frame. If the vigilante dies earlier, you run the risk of having a 7-9 day game.
2) Let's say the vigilante dies on day 3, you'd have a chance for an 8 day game with the player counts being (20/17/14/11/9/7/5/3/1).
3) Assuming the vigilante dies day 1 player counts would be (20/17/15/13/11/9/7/5/3/1), you would still have a 9 day game.
Idea:
Consider adding in a one-time kill for a random villager upon the death of the vigilante, or create a new villager vigilante by having them pick up the weapon of the fallen or however it works out thematically. In scenario 2 above, adding a single use kill item to a villager, would bring that game to a maximum of 7 days (20/17/14/11/8/6/4/2).
--Now, if you plan to have a guardian, or you think the chances of an overlap kill could happen and you want to plan for it, you might consider that each can occur once in the game.
Assumptions:
- Guardian blocks 1 kill during the game
- Kills overlap once per game (when applicable)
- Inactivity causes a kill to go unused once per game (assuming vigilante)
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Assuming the vigilante lives the entire game and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/11/8/5/2), you would have a 7 day game.
2) Assuming the vigilante dies on day 3 and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/12/10/8/6/4/2), you would have a 9 day game.
3) Assuming the vigilante dies day 1 and you have a blocked kill during the game, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/12/10/8/6/4/2), you would have a 9 day game. It could be even longer if you had another lost kill from somewhere!
Ideas:
1) Same as above, replace the vigilante or add a one time kill action to a villager.
2) Make the vigilante kills unblockable.
3) Make the vigilante provide 2 names to kill each night in order, that they avoid shooting a guarded individual by targeting the second name, only if the first is guarded. This is a pretty powerful variant for a very generic game, but an idea.
4) Alternatively to idea 3, create a kill order and have the mafia also add a third target to help prevent overlapping kills. Let the vigilante attack first, then the mafia can attack second, and hit their third target if the vigilante hit one of the first two.
--If you wanted to add the SK role to the game, you might not need to balance the kills to ensure the game ends in your time frame! You've added a kill (or two if that's your goal) to the game as long as the SK lives, which would make even the game with 3 lost kills due to guarded, overlapping or unused kills be.
Assumptions:
- There is a SK and they have 1 kill.
- There is a guardian who blocks a kill in the game
- Kills overlap once per game (when applicable)
- Inactivity causes a kill to go unused once per game (assuming SK or Vigilante)
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Assuming the vigilante and SK both live until the end of the game and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/17/14/11/7/3/?), you would have a 6 day game.
2) Assuming the vigilante and SK both die on day 3 and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/17/14/11/9/7/5/3/1), you would have an 8 day game.
3) Assuming the vigilante and SK both die day 1 and you have a blocked kill during the game, player counts would be (20/17/15/13/11/9/5/3/1), you would have an 8 day game. It could be even longer if you had another lost kill from somewhere!
Ideas:
1) Adding a replacement kill for the vigilante in any scenario, could reduce the maximum game time to 7 days.
2) Having the SK, Mafia or Vigilante or all submit multiple targets in the event of guarded (for the vigilante) or overlapping kills as mentioned above.
3) Create a kill order similar to the idea above to help prevent overlapping kills.
I know it's a simple thing, but not everyone wants to be a part of a 9 day mini that was meant to last 5-7!
+4
Options
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
edited July 2014
@Ardor I added your contribution to the Game Duration major found in the School of Design and Mechanics Engineering.
Since you contributed without an official form, I created the name of the major and class myself. Please look over the location and description and tell me if you want anything added/changed.
ObiFettUse the ForceAs You WishRegistered Userregular
Type(s) of Information Needed (Choose one or more): Historical Suggested Title of the Book/Major (will be used if an original request): Inside Jokes Restrospective Description of the Information Requested:
There should be a "phalla history" section so all the old-timer in-jokes can be explained without me needing to pull out ancient posts about people claiming to be Bluestreak.
So I think this is how I would classify my content, but feel free to adjust, Obi. Also, I hope the format is correct?
What are you contributing to? (choose one): Phalla Theory and Philosophy
Title of Book/Major to which you are contributing: Mafia Studies
Suggested Title of your Chapter/Class: A Beginner's Tutorial on being EVIL
Content:
You've played Phalla dozens of times, you know the drill. Find mafia, kill mafia, don't die, network with other players, protect the specials... You've got this. But this time, something's different. This time, when you open your role PM, you see...
You are... the mafia!
Panic time!?
No need to panic! Read on, and you'll soon be the best mafia ever. Or at least not hopeless.
First, there's one Golden Rule: you have to act normal. You play a certain way. Everyone does. Your personality, posting style and frequency, people remember these. And even if they didn't, the Internet does, so you're basically screwed anyways if you were hoping for that miracle. When mafia, you have to act the same you do as when you're village.
That's important. Send yourself another PM that says you're village if you have to. Forget that you're mafia, forget who your teammates are whenever you are in the thread. That can sometimes be a bit weird. You'll think, "I'm mafia, I need to make sure to stay unsuspicious and under-the-radar." NO, that's a trap! By trying extra hard to be "not suspicious," you're going to basically be holding up a sign saying "hey, I'm not a vanillager!"
For example (not entirely real, but close enough to get the idea), I often say that I'm mafia. Let's say one game I suddenly start acting reserved and defensive whenever someone accuses me. That's suspicious!
Or if you normally make 2-3 posts a day, then one game you're making dozens. Suspicious!
Or PMs when you normally don't send any.
It can get complicated! @TheRoadVirus, for example, will act like an entity of chaos. He shines in roleplaying to a really heavy degree. It's really hard to know what to expect from him when the past three games he's been, say: a statue, a cartoon character, and a pirate (the statue was the best, for the record). He's predictable in being kind of weird. So when he's not, and acting like a normal person who really "wants to help the village" or such, it's suspicious!
That's the main thing. You have to act the same as a mafia as you would as a villager. It's your shield, it's what keeps the votes and vigs away from you. No other mafia play is as important as that, because there will always be attrition of the village. You win by default if you survive!
What else, then? You've got kills, where should those go?
Well, you should also keep an eye out for anyone else acting different. See, there are two types of players who want to "blend in." The mafia, which you know, and village specials. And besides survival, your biggest goal is to kill the village specials
So if you see someone else making the same mistakes you've just learned not to make about acting normally (the Golden Rule), it may be time to send a special mafia present their way.
(That means to kill them. "Mafia present," it's a bomb or something. ....it's funny.)
Make sure to remember what information is public knowledge. If your mafia group has a secret name that the village doesn't know, not only should you, of course, not mention it (Golden Rule!), but you should keep an eye out for anyone else who seems like they may know it. Village specials may have extra information in their role PM that they could let slip.
But there's one last effective way to find specials. See, the thing is, village specials feel special. Sounds silly, but it's true. They've got this cool role, and they want fun things to happen with it! And one of the best way to have fun with a role is to talk about it, brag about it, brainstorm about your options, etc. If you send a village special a PM (not already knowing that they are a special, of course) and start chatting with them about the game**, there's a good chance they're just going to tell you that they are special. Now, you do have to be a little careful not always to kill them immediately, since it could be a trap, but there's no rule that says you can't manipulate them or kill them eventually. And even if it's a trap, sometimes a 1-for-1 trade for a special is worth it.
**This is pursuant to the Golden Rule, if you normally don't soft-network (send PMs to people chatting about the game), doing so only when you are mafia is generally a bad idea.
If the specials are playing well, though, and you don't have any hints, there's one tried and true method for an easy mafia victory: kill the talkative players.
"A quiet village is a dead village." There's a reason people say that. Cow the village into submission and silence, then the game is yours.
But what about the vote?
That's an important question! Vote records are the most traditional thing that villagers look at to find mafia. The effectiveness of that is not always... substantial... but that's only because the mafia are almost always aware and careful. How to be careful? Well, the most important thing is to follow the Golden Rule. Vote how you would as a villager. Don't be afraid to vote for your mafia teammates, but don't do it excessively either. When making your vote, forget who the mafia are and make it only based on what you've said and would think publicly.
With the vote, though, sometimes it can be advantageous to play a little more riskily. See, everyone is going to vote every day. That means there's a lot of data, almost all of it is noise, so you can often get some advantages without it ever being obvious. Early votes have a greater chance of starting a bandwagon than later votes. The 3rd-4th votes on a player are the most important to really turning it into a bandwagon, however those are also the most dangerous since it's known to be the case.
One of the best things you can do as the mafia, though, is to make it so that two villagers are really close to being in a tie for first. Don't try to make them tie. That's hilariously obvious as an evil play, and if it's worthwhile to do so you'll know it is, because that means you should win that night basically. However, what you can and should try to do is to make it close.
The village will freak out and do their best to not make it close to a tie (which they mostly should do). But it also plays into your hands, since when that first player dies a villager, guess where they look? The second! Or maybe jumping all the way to the people who put that first player ahead. Or switched off the second.
That entire area is a danger zone, so if you can arrange for it to exist while you (and your mafia teammates) are outside of the danger zone, you're in a happy, happy place. The village sometimes wastes days on a single close vote where everyone involved is innocent. But again, that's a bad thing if you were directly involved near the end of the event. You have to plan ahead, be subtle, be safe.
That's it, for now. Those are the three most important things for a mafia member to do: act normally (for you), find and kill the most valuable targets (usually specials or talkative players), and avoid/manipulate the vote.
Eh, while special hunting is well and good, I personally think that if you don't have a clear target, IMO as a mafia you're far more threatened by a coordinated, well reasoned vanillager, than a special who can't find their own arse. Suffer not the spreadsheeter, the softnetworker, and the person who can sort of reason stuff together.
Eh, while special hunting is well and good, I personally think that if you don't have a clear target, IMO as a mafia you're far more threatened by a coordinated, well reasoned vanillager, than a special who can't find their own arse. Suffer not the spreadsheeter, the softnetworker, and the person who can sort of reason stuff together.
That's true. I was trying to focus on just a few elements/goals, and killing specials seemed like a more important basic goal. I also tried to also capture some of what you suggested by saying to kill talkativeness
For the rest, you'll have to wait for the Advanced class :P
Posts
(long live the phalla)
Wow
Either way, I remember being excited for this, so I'm glad it finally got approval! Now I'll have to re-read the OP again :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Any suggestions to make the format/organization better are welcome.
give me full access, so i can add nonsensical graphics and charts to everything
They said we were mad to try.
But we spit in their faces and soldiered on.
And now we have been lead to the glorious promised land.
Switch Friend Code: SW-1406-1275-7906
bullshit
I spent nearly every week at the Altar of Echo asking for a sign. After a year of such requests and still with no answer, I too had lost faith. Lost and dejected, assuming that no answer was an answer in and of itself, I let my offering slide out of my hand onto the littered floor of broken ideas. Months went by and I started to forget. The offering slowly covered by the dust of Critical Failures, faded away.
Then a voice in the phalla wilderness spoke of it again. Restored in my mind but with a memory of the silence of the Gods, I tried to brush the idea aside. But it was to no avail. What of other Gods?, I thought to myself. I had only supplicated to one before for fear of angering two. Surely the Gods spoke. I.must have been a joke to them. Talking to a second would most likely result in smiting. Anger would be better than silence was my resolve. And so I trekked unto the Mount of Tube.
My plea was weak and without faith as I was ready to return to my previous state of hopelessness. It was easier to not hope and surely this one wouldn't answer either. Maybe I would even be released from this world through smiting...
Echo, please be replying to this
My heart raced. Was it to be? No, surely this was just a cruel joke and they were laughing at my hope in nothing. Then, from the long lost Altar, a voice echoed
Go ahead and use the thread you made
Wow is that a confusing mess. I'm gonna clean it up later. The idea will be the same. People can either:
1) Request information about Phalla stuff (which will create an appropriate section for it)
2) Contribute to the knowledgebase by posting and assigning it to a section.
The main OP will be a listing of links to the requests and knowledgebase posts.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
Would you be interested, Obi, if I wrote up a bit on that?
Twitch Stream
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Designing for Time Limits
Now, I've heard more computer savvy people say that they just use Monte Carlo simulations for their phallas. And, hey, if that's your thing, this is probably going to be a bit below you, so feel free to skip to another post. What I'm suggesting here is a really quick and dirty way of making sure that there are enough kills flying around to make the game move at a decent clip, baring extraordinarily lucky shots.
My method is based on the idea that all kills are not created equal.
Village kills (including the vote) can hit anyone.
Mafia kills can hit anyone, but the Mafia. They're not going to shoot themselves, after all. This counts for masoned factions as well.
The Serial Killer will never hit himself.
(Yes, yes, I see you waving your hand in the back. Busdrivers exist and can really warp those assumptions. But, like I said, this is just a quick and dirty way to figure out if the game is going to take two weeks or something crazy.)
So, for example, we're going to take a simple phalla.
Twenty people playing.
Four mafia (standard 20%) with one kill between them.
One village vig
One serial killer.
Which leaves 15 vanilagers.
Now, if you just divide the number of kills (four) by the number of people playing, you can see that it's pretty unlikely for this to last more that five nights. Someone may get offed early on, but you can assume that it's going to be done by night 7 at the latest. That's a reasonable length.
But, let's the method I talked about earlier.
This is a quick Excel spreadsheet I whipped up. Each cell is the amount of people left in that group at the start of that day.
The formulas for each column are:
Next Day Village = Village - (Village * Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * Mafia Kills/(Village+SK)) - (Village * SK kills/(Village+Mafia))
Next Day Mafia = Mafia- (Mafia* Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * SK kills/(Village+Mafia))
Next Day SK = SK - (Mafia * Village kills/(Village+Mafia+SK)) - (Village * Mafia Kills/(Village+SK))
If the groups all end up close to zero somewhere between Days 5 to 8, you know you've got a decent baseline for your game. One thing to keep in mind is that this only takes into account kills. If everyone else in the game is a seer, the mafia's just straight hosed, no matter the kill balance.
Now, the big reason I find this superior to just dividing people by number of kills is that it helps insure balance between groups. If the previous mafia had three kills and the village only had one, it would become pretty clear that something's out of whack.
Twitch Stream
THE THREE LAWS OF PHALLA (FOR VILLAGERS)
0. A villager must not, through action or inaction, cause harm to phalla.
Phalla is a game where information is everything. Players, even the mafia, are expected to make decisions based on incomplete information. For the game to work, players must be capable of successfully deducing unknowns with the incomplete information provided using rational analysis. Lying to other players is acceptable because lies can be uncovered through other information. Actions that are not acceptable included anonymous communication or posing as another player, a player not playing to their win condition, and players screenshotting role PM’s or otherwise providing proof of information that should not be confirmed outside of game mechanics. Taking these actions disrupt the fundamental tenets of phalla.
1. A villager must not, through inaction, fail in locating mafia through thread analysis and discussion, allowing the village to come to harm.
A villager will fail to find mafia. That is part of the game. A villager becomes worthless when they decide to not play the game or, in other words, do not attempt to use the provided incomplete information to draw conclusions. A player does not need to publicly provide information i.e. softnetworking, but a villager must actively attempt to find mafia. It should be noted, however, that private information dies with the holder and the net result is as if the information was never obtained at all.
2. A villager must act to protect village specials and a confirmed network.
Villagers are expendable. Being publicly useful as a villager means the mafia must decide whether you are a special or not. A kill used on a villager is a kill not used on a special. The strength of the specials/network is not any powers, but the concentration of information. Protecting the network protects the information.
3. A villager must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Villagers are expendable, but they are not mafia. Villagers under threat of death are expected to act in a manner that may lead to a new, mafia, target. This can be done by use vote records to show the player is not mafia or by using information to implicate another player as mafia.
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I'm sure I'll find the time eventually to contribute some things.
There was a wikidump. But I think that died to
RE: determining the number of days. Always try to work out the best/worst case scenarios. Odds are the players will to! While it's likely that it'll fall somewhere in the middle, you may want to reconsider some of your designs if it ends up that the game can end day 3, or (for a mini) take a week if everyone hits the wrong people
http://orokos.com/wikidump/#189
Realistically, 3 can usurp 2 if the villager believes they are in a stronger position than the network.
It's just unlikely to happen, what with the lack of communication in Phalla compared to in-the-same-room Mafia preventing soft-networks from outgrowing the sureties of specials.
#1 - Please give me feedback on how to improve it, if you see a way to make it better. This is going to be something created by us, for us. More heads are better than one.
#2 - I need someone who is good with design to create a University Banner for the OP. Banners/Graphics for each of the Libraries and Schools would be welcome as well.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
@baidol I added your contribution to the Village Studies major found in the School of Phalla Theory and Philosophy.
Since you contributed before I had a solid form, I created the name of the book/major myself. Please look over their locations and descriptions and tell me if you want anything added/changed.
Thank you for helping build Phalla University!
@Infidel this is amazing, I'm gonna try to work on getting as much of this into this thread as possible.
If anyone wants to help me by translating some of it into forum posts and formatting for easier reading/referencing that would be a huge help as well.
I can't really think of a situation where a vanillager would be in a better situation outside of the network than in it. Especially to the detriment of specials
Tip #1: Don't do what I do.
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Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Determining the maximum length of a game.
I play rarely these days, but used to play a lot many years ago. I've noticed that a typical time frame of a game tended to be around 5 days for a mini and maybe 10 days for a main, mostly to keep the games from dragging on too long, keeping folks interested and not making the next person wait a long period of time before they can run their game (which might not be an issue currently).
I think the more common habit was for a game to run longer, rather than shorter. Losing a vigilante or serial killer (SK) early is a good cause for that. If you run a standard mafia game with 20 people, using 4 mafia (20% rule) that has a vote kill and vigilante with no guardian, you see 3 kills a night. The game could end in 2 days (vote/vigilante hit mafia both nights) or 9 days if the vigilante dies on the first night and the game ends with only 1 mafia member left alive. (3 kills night 1, 2 kills each night after for a player total per day of (20/17/15/13/11/9/7/5/3/1).
--If your goal was to make this, a 5-7 day game as a mini for example, consider reducing the chances the game can go 9 days by ensuring there are enough kills to move the game along.
Assumptions:
- No overlapping kills
- No inactivity causing kill actions to be unused
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Let's say the vigilante lives the entire game. That means 3 kills a day, so you'd have (20/17/14/11/8/5/2), which means your game runs 6 days max, which is in your time frame. If the vigilante dies earlier, you run the risk of having a 7-9 day game.
2) Let's say the vigilante dies on day 3, you'd have a chance for an 8 day game with the player counts being (20/17/14/11/9/7/5/3/1).
3) Assuming the vigilante dies day 1 player counts would be (20/17/15/13/11/9/7/5/3/1), you would still have a 9 day game.
Idea:
--Now, if you plan to have a guardian, or you think the chances of an overlap kill could happen and you want to plan for it, you might consider that each can occur once in the game.
Assumptions:
- Kills overlap once per game (when applicable)
- Inactivity causes a kill to go unused once per game (assuming vigilante)
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Assuming the vigilante lives the entire game and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/11/8/5/2), you would have a 7 day game.
2) Assuming the vigilante dies on day 3 and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/12/10/8/6/4/2), you would have a 9 day game.
3) Assuming the vigilante dies day 1 and you have a blocked kill during the game, player counts would be (20/18/16/14/12/10/8/6/4/2), you would have a 9 day game. It could be even longer if you had another lost kill from somewhere!
Ideas:
2) Make the vigilante kills unblockable.
3) Make the vigilante provide 2 names to kill each night in order, that they avoid shooting a guarded individual by targeting the second name, only if the first is guarded. This is a pretty powerful variant for a very generic game, but an idea.
4) Alternatively to idea 3, create a kill order and have the mafia also add a third target to help prevent overlapping kills. Let the vigilante attack first, then the mafia can attack second, and hit their third target if the vigilante hit one of the first two.
--If you wanted to add the SK role to the game, you might not need to balance the kills to ensure the game ends in your time frame! You've added a kill (or two if that's your goal) to the game as long as the SK lives, which would make even the game with 3 lost kills due to guarded, overlapping or unused kills be.
Assumptions:
- There is a guardian who blocks a kill in the game
- Kills overlap once per game (when applicable)
- Inactivity causes a kill to go unused once per game (assuming SK or Vigilante)
- Vigilante dying means no replacement kill action
1) Assuming the vigilante and SK both live until the end of the game and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/17/14/11/7/3/?), you would have a 6 day game.
2) Assuming the vigilante and SK both die on day 3 and on days 1-3 you have a blocked kill, overlapping kill or unused kill, player counts would be (20/17/14/11/9/7/5/3/1), you would have an 8 day game.
3) Assuming the vigilante and SK both die day 1 and you have a blocked kill during the game, player counts would be (20/17/15/13/11/9/5/3/1), you would have an 8 day game. It could be even longer if you had another lost kill from somewhere!
Ideas:
2) Having the SK, Mafia or Vigilante or all submit multiple targets in the event of guarded (for the vigilante) or overlapping kills as mentioned above.
3) Create a kill order similar to the idea above to help prevent overlapping kills.
I know it's a simple thing, but not everyone wants to be a part of a 9 day mini that was meant to last 5-7!
Since you contributed without an official form, I created the name of the major and class myself. Please look over the location and description and tell me if you want anything added/changed.
Thank you for helping build Phalla University!
Suggested Title of the Book/Major (will be used if an original request): Inside Jokes Restrospective
Description of the Information Requested:
I think it's pretty much the only thing I can offer as math and such has never been my strong suit.
What are you contributing to? (choose one): Phalla Theory and Philosophy
Title of Book/Major to which you are contributing: Mafia Studies
Suggested Title of your Chapter/Class: A Beginner's Tutorial on being EVIL
Content:
Panic time!?
No need to panic! Read on, and you'll soon be the best mafia ever. Or at least not hopeless.
First, there's one Golden Rule: you have to act normal. You play a certain way. Everyone does. Your personality, posting style and frequency, people remember these. And even if they didn't, the Internet does, so you're basically screwed anyways if you were hoping for that miracle. When mafia, you have to act the same you do as when you're village.
That's important. Send yourself another PM that says you're village if you have to. Forget that you're mafia, forget who your teammates are whenever you are in the thread. That can sometimes be a bit weird. You'll think, "I'm mafia, I need to make sure to stay unsuspicious and under-the-radar." NO, that's a trap! By trying extra hard to be "not suspicious," you're going to basically be holding up a sign saying "hey, I'm not a vanillager!"
For example (not entirely real, but close enough to get the idea), I often say that I'm mafia. Let's say one game I suddenly start acting reserved and defensive whenever someone accuses me. That's suspicious!
Or if you normally make 2-3 posts a day, then one game you're making dozens. Suspicious!
Or PMs when you normally don't send any.
It can get complicated! @TheRoadVirus, for example, will act like an entity of chaos. He shines in roleplaying to a really heavy degree. It's really hard to know what to expect from him when the past three games he's been, say: a statue, a cartoon character, and a pirate (the statue was the best, for the record). He's predictable in being kind of weird. So when he's not, and acting like a normal person who really "wants to help the village" or such, it's suspicious!
That's the main thing. You have to act the same as a mafia as you would as a villager. It's your shield, it's what keeps the votes and vigs away from you. No other mafia play is as important as that, because there will always be attrition of the village. You win by default if you survive!
What else, then? You've got kills, where should those go?
Well, you should also keep an eye out for anyone else acting different. See, there are two types of players who want to "blend in." The mafia, which you know, and village specials. And besides survival, your biggest goal is to kill the village specials
So if you see someone else making the same mistakes you've just learned not to make about acting normally (the Golden Rule), it may be time to send a special mafia present their way.
(That means to kill them. "Mafia present," it's a bomb or something. ....it's funny.)
Make sure to remember what information is public knowledge. If your mafia group has a secret name that the village doesn't know, not only should you, of course, not mention it (Golden Rule!), but you should keep an eye out for anyone else who seems like they may know it. Village specials may have extra information in their role PM that they could let slip.
But there's one last effective way to find specials. See, the thing is, village specials feel special. Sounds silly, but it's true. They've got this cool role, and they want fun things to happen with it! And one of the best way to have fun with a role is to talk about it, brag about it, brainstorm about your options, etc. If you send a village special a PM (not already knowing that they are a special, of course) and start chatting with them about the game**, there's a good chance they're just going to tell you that they are special. Now, you do have to be a little careful not always to kill them immediately, since it could be a trap, but there's no rule that says you can't manipulate them or kill them eventually. And even if it's a trap, sometimes a 1-for-1 trade for a special is worth it.
**This is pursuant to the Golden Rule, if you normally don't soft-network (send PMs to people chatting about the game), doing so only when you are mafia is generally a bad idea.
If the specials are playing well, though, and you don't have any hints, there's one tried and true method for an easy mafia victory: kill the talkative players.
"A quiet village is a dead village." There's a reason people say that. Cow the village into submission and silence, then the game is yours.
But what about the vote?
That's an important question! Vote records are the most traditional thing that villagers look at to find mafia. The effectiveness of that is not always... substantial... but that's only because the mafia are almost always aware and careful. How to be careful? Well, the most important thing is to follow the Golden Rule. Vote how you would as a villager. Don't be afraid to vote for your mafia teammates, but don't do it excessively either. When making your vote, forget who the mafia are and make it only based on what you've said and would think publicly.
With the vote, though, sometimes it can be advantageous to play a little more riskily. See, everyone is going to vote every day. That means there's a lot of data, almost all of it is noise, so you can often get some advantages without it ever being obvious. Early votes have a greater chance of starting a bandwagon than later votes. The 3rd-4th votes on a player are the most important to really turning it into a bandwagon, however those are also the most dangerous since it's known to be the case.
One of the best things you can do as the mafia, though, is to make it so that two villagers are really close to being in a tie for first. Don't try to make them tie. That's hilariously obvious as an evil play, and if it's worthwhile to do so you'll know it is, because that means you should win that night basically. However, what you can and should try to do is to make it close.
The village will freak out and do their best to not make it close to a tie (which they mostly should do). But it also plays into your hands, since when that first player dies a villager, guess where they look? The second! Or maybe jumping all the way to the people who put that first player ahead. Or switched off the second.
That entire area is a danger zone, so if you can arrange for it to exist while you (and your mafia teammates) are outside of the danger zone, you're in a happy, happy place. The village sometimes wastes days on a single close vote where everyone involved is innocent. But again, that's a bad thing if you were directly involved near the end of the event. You have to plan ahead, be subtle, be safe.
That's it, for now. Those are the three most important things for a mafia member to do: act normally (for you), find and kill the most valuable targets (usually specials or talkative players), and avoid/manipulate the vote.
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Thank you for helping build Phalla University!
Reading the OP? Who are you and what have you done with Kime?
EDIT: Oh, and uh, nice post on being EVIL. I guess you're probably still Kime.
But I've got my eye on you.
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That's true. I was trying to focus on just a few elements/goals, and killing specials seemed like a more important basic goal. I also tried to also capture some of what you suggested by saying to kill talkativeness
For the rest, you'll have to wait for the Advanced class :P
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