I often play the party game Mafia when I am with a large group of people. Recently, I was introduced to the game Killer (Wink Murder). I really like this game; however, it lacks some of the decision making and player interaction/evaluation found in Mafia. Yet, Killer can be played very quickly, and Mafia tends to go on for a long time. Both of the games have their pros and cons. Because of this, I am thinking of mixing some of the elements together to make (what I believe would be) a superior game. However, I am not sure how I can combine the rules together.
You can click on the links below if you are unfamiliar with one of the games.
So what am I trying to do? I am primarily wanting to keep many of the rules of Killer, and keep the game fast and intense. However, I am wanting Killer to feel more like Mafia where players have different roles and there is more player interaction.
I like the roles from Mafia (Doctor, Sheriff, etc.). Killer doesn't have any real roles (besides Killer and non-killer), and I would like to add some. The issue I am having is that I would like to add a doctor like role. For example, a doctor could heal a "killed" player. However, this would present a problem, because a killed player knows who killed them according to Killer rules. If a dead player is brought back to life and makes an accusation, it is much more likely for the killer to be eliminated. I am not sure how to prevent this from happening. I have toyed with the idea that information is communicated by passing cards back and forth. However, I am not sure if this will solve anything. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Those are some good ideas. My initial idea was to distribute some cards to each player. The cards would determine the role (e.g. Ace = Killer, King = Detective, etc.). Players would also get a number of cards that allow them to perform actions by passing them to another player. For example, passing a club to another player could wound the player, passing a diamond could heal the player, and passing a spade could be a request for information (hearts would be health). The problem I ran into was that players could easily deduce who hurt another player so I decided that a player could choose to postpone an attack. A postponed attack would occur later after the player receives a card from another player. For example, the killer could make it where the attack happens two turns later. However, this system doesn't fix the problem where the player knows who hurt him (I don't want instantaneous death, I like health).
I think your suggestions will help me get around some of my difficulties.