Hi all,
I'm currently working on a social deduction game with a few of my friends.
It is set in the old west, where all the characters are staying in a saloon when a prestigious rail baron is murdered in the establishment. No one has left the premises so the murderer and his accomplices must still be inside. If you support the Sheriff, will you be able to figure out who the culprit was and eliminate them? Or will the Murderer and his accomplices eliminate the Sheriff before word gets out, and you get uncovered.
Each player has a special ability that lets their side (good or evil) edge closer to victory. Each side has 1 main person and a sidekick: Good: Sheriff, Gunslinger, and Evil: Murderer, Knifist. Each side also has supporting roles who will help their team.
Each player gets one role card. No players know who else is on their team before the game starts.
There are two portions to each round. A day, and a night. At night all players close their eyes, and the Murderer eliminates one other player, and once per game, the knifist may eliminate a player. During the day, the Sheriff may publicly fire any number of his 2 shots and they will eliminate the chosen players. Only after the Sheriff has been eliminated can the Gunslinger publicly fire his one shot during the day. Other roles function during both phases.
Roles:
Good:
Sheriff: Two shots for the whole game. During the day publicly fire up two shots, target players are eliminated.
Gunslinger: Once the Sheriff is eliminated you get one shot to publicly shoot during the day. Target player is eliminated
Host: Once per game, during the day look at another player's identity card
Deputy: Once per game, during the day, you may guess the who the Knifist is. If you are correct, they are eliminated. If you are wrong, you are eliminated.
Bodyguard: Once per game, during the day, you may choose 2 players. They can't be killed for the rest of the day, and the next night.
Evil:
Murderer: Once per night, you tap a player's hands. Target player is eliminated.
Knifist: Once per game, in the night, you may double tap a player. Target player is eliminated.
Hostess: Once per game, during the day look at another player's identity card
Minister: Once per game, during the day, you may take all still living players cards, except your own, and redeal them.
Jailer: Once per game, during the day, you may pick a player. That player can't talk, use their ability, or be killed for the rest of the day, and the next night.
You can also play with innocents if you wish.
Comments
hi. firstly let me say i
hi.
firstly let me say i haven't played mafia or werewolf, and generally dont play social deduction so i might have this completely wrong. but...
doesn't using your power reveal who you are? i dont suppose it matters if everyone knows who the good guys are so they can use their powers.
again i might be wrong as i really dont play these games but surely it would work like...
beginning of day phase 1. every good player uses their ability because they can.
end of day phase 1: anyone who didnt use a power is probably a bad guy. end of game.
You are correct...
You are correct... but as it is social deduction, you are trying to figure out who the other team is before eliminating them. Everyone could play all at once but that wouldn't be very strategic, and as you said, the game would be over.
I don't believe that would be a problem, but I'll have to look out for that in the future.
Thanks wob
I'm not sure I really see the
I'm not sure I really see the how this would work. I've played a lot of werewolf in many different forms with alternate rules and all that. I've designed complex power sets for werewolf teams as well (for plot-based games).
Have you tried playing this?
Most of the roles do stuff during the day. So they automatically reveal themselves when they do the stuff. So those people are proving their roles. The ability to prove a role is a big problem for a social deduction game.
And it generally sounds like a ton of people die very quickly, and I'm hardly even clear on the win conditions. How does the murderer win? The sheriff is public immediately upon firing his gun, so that seems like a pretty easy win condition (and it's not the win condition, since the gunslinger comes in after that)
I'm also not sure how flexible it is for different numbers of players, which is one of Werewolf's big strengths.
Anyway, with all due respect it sounds like some standard werewolf roles put together with rules that make them broken.
Fex_H wrote:Everyone could
I don't believe that would be a problem, but I'll have to look out for that in the future.
Thanks wob
If I'm the sheriff, why wouldn't I want all the villagers to use their powers instantly, proving who they are, and then I shoot the other people? If there's something that ends the game, that's a problem, not something you should hope doesn't happen. As a player, I WANT the game to be over (with my team winning)
It doesn't happen in Werewolf because nobody can prove their role. Even Seer can be faked with effort and some luck.
Edit: Oh, and the role that redeals everything is seriously broken, and everyone will hate it.
Hmm... I think this game EXISTS already
At my local Game MEETUP, they play a similar game with the Sheriff, the Deputy, the Outlaws and the Renegade. It's very similar but in that game nothing is "BROKEN". I believe the game is called BANG!
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/121255/sheriff-and-outlaws-dead-deputyi...
Check it out. You may LIKE playing that game. And just as a footnote, I believe they usually (Meetup Group) play BANG! at the beginning of the evening... The First Game they play with I believe are 6 players or something like that...
Thank you all
Thank you all for your feedback,
I know it sounds improbable, but we have tried it and it works. I did a bad job explaining it, sorry ;). The game starts with the night portion, so the first day starts with someone already eliminated. Also the game lasts at most 5 minutes.
About all the people acting in the day so the Sheriff can figure out who the bad guys are, a bunch of bad guys also act in the day, so if they were playing smart, they wouldn't reveal themselves by using their power.
You can bluff about your role, but you can't use a role unless it is your own.
And yes the redeal role is broken. It was mostly in there as a role just for fun and messing with the other players.
The win conditions are:
For the bad guys-When the Sheriff and the Gunslinger are eliminated
For the good guys-When the Murderer and the Knifist are eliminated
If it is a draw, and neither team can complete their win goal whichever team still has the most living players wins
I can't really believe it
I can't really believe it works, though I suppose I can believe it takes five minutes.
For example of what doesn't work:
How could the Deputy ever guess who it is? There's no way to deduce anything of the sort.
One player is eliminated before the game even starts? Fun for them!
If neither team can complete their win goal, then.. what, that means everyone's fired all their bullets? Is there just one night and one day? Because One Night Ultimate Werewolf already does that.
If not, how does a day end?