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Trolls (rice, drxav, Vainglory), princesses (joeb, oy, jontimeard), werewolves (AOK, Jacob).
You get half of IKEA and a volvo if you marry me.
 
Personally I'd hate mandatory RP traits. I think them enough when they're optional, which is to say that whereas I'd probably ignore them unless I got one that wasn't a chore, some people seem to enjoy them. If they're optional then anyone who doesn't like them can just ignore them, and allow those who do like them to have their fun. If you made them mandatory you'd need a penalty, otherwise they're not really very mandatory, albeit I'm sure many would comply even without an explicit penalty if you said they were mandatory. And I wonder how Ironhead 5 and White Daimon worked it when it was mandatory, since if someone was, say, deliberately hamming it up, or totally misunderstood the intention, what are you going to do, tell them off?

I'd say the main concern with RP traits is to design them such that they don't affect player behavior. I aimed to make all of mine entirely innocuous, so that all they did was affect how people talked, not their actions. One affected how they spoke about their actions, which made one of the recipients of the trait unhappy (not unreasonably - I shared his concerns to some extent but included the trait anyway), so I gave him a new one. An RP trait that, say, requires you not to explain your votes, is asking for trouble. It would affect gameplay, which isn't inherently bad, but if you're aiming for them to be innocuous then it is a problem.

That's my $0.02
 
Should we have them at all?

Sometimes.

If we keep them, should they be optional to use (like in the last couple of games) or mandatory (like in some old I5/WD games)?

Optional.

If we make them mandatory, should there be a penalty if you fail to follow the rules for the RPing trait?

If we make them optional, should there be a penalty if you fail to follow the rules for the RPing trait? or maybe even a bonus if you follow them?

No penalties. Perhaps a minor carrot of some sort.

If we keep them, should we give them to everyone or just to a few players?

A healthy number, but not everyone.

If we keep them should the GM in the rules a) state exactly what they imply b) only their name c) only that there are RPing traits d) nothing.

b.
 
What do you guys think about the RPing traits?

Should we have them at all?

If we keep them, should they be optional to use (like in the last couple of games) or mandatory (like in some old I5/WD games)?

If we make them mandatory, should there be a penalty if you fail to follow the rules for the RPing trait?

If we make them optional, should there be a penalty if you fail to follow the rules for the RPing trait? or maybe even a bonus if you follow them?

If we keep them, should we give them to everyone or just to a few players?

If we keep them should the GM in the rules a) state exactly what they imply b) only their name c) only that there are RPing traits d) nothing.


Yes, yes, no, little tiny ones, few, b.
 
And I wonder how Ironhead 5 and White Daimon worked it when it was mandatory, since if someone was, say, deliberately hamming it up, or totally misunderstood the intention, what are you going to do, tell them off?
IIRC one of them invented the "foreigner" that had to run the post through some automatic translation. One guy refused (or forgot) and he was then told to only post votes and no text. He then outsmarted(?) the GM by posting pictures to explain what he thought about other people's posts.
 
IIRC one of them invented the "foreigner" that had to run the post through some automatic translation. One guy refused (or forgot) and he was then told to only post votes and no text. He then outsmarted(?) the GM by posting pictures to explain what he thought about other people's posts.

hmm.
There also was the game where Euro got a trait or role called "the puppetmaster" where he could ask the GM to say almost anything to anyone playing the game, and where people not adhering to their RP trait would get hit by .. what was it again? Cosmic punishment or some such. An effect that didn't actually *do* anything, except making people squirm.
Yeah, that game wasn't really very well balanced :p
 
hmm.
There also was the game where Euro got a trait or role called "the puppetmaster" where he could ask the GM to say almost anything to anyone playing the game, and where people not adhering to their RP trait would get hit by .. what was it again? Cosmic punishment or some such. An effect that didn't actually *do* anything, except making people squirm.
Yeah, that game wasn't really very well balanced :p
No, but it was memorable. :)

In my opinion it only failed because of the GM changed the rules in mid game and also rearranged the packs in midgame. I had rather he had let it run its course even though the way EURO handled the puppetmaster role made the game unbalanced. A less innovative player than EURO would not have made as much impact on the game with the same role.
 
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About the thief trait and how it can be limited (from discussions in the current big game) how about one of these sets of rules:

swapper (trait): Can during the night steal all traits (including hidden traits like cursed, blessed and apprentice) from any other player but leaves behind all his current traits (except the swapper trait). If the swapper ends up without any trait he can swap no more. The swapper always starts with at least one additional trait (maybe something mostly useless like plotter or 10th in command).

thief (trait): Can during the night steal all the traits (including hidden traits like cursed, blessed and apprentice) from any other player but leaves behind all his current traits including the thief trait.

I think the thief version could make for some hillarious stuff but there is a larger risk with this completely messing up a balanced setup after many nights of stealing.

The swapper verision has a built in risk for usage so once the swapper finds something useful he would probably stop rather than risk losing everything.

Both of these versons I think would work best in games with a fair number of traited players.
 
I like these ideas. Both of them.
 
IIRC one of them invented the "foreigner" that had to run the post through some automatic translation. One guy refused (or forgot) and he was then told to only post votes and no text. He then outsmarted(?) the GM by posting pictures to explain what he thought about other people's posts.

I'm not sure whether that game was the one I remember posting the bandwagon pic and ROT 13.
 
This is what I am at for an items game atm, a little feedback would be nice. :cool:


US Revolutionary war theme on a ship on a return trip to the US on a warship loaded with misc supplies and gold.

Baddies are Brits and angry Hessians, the Hessians want revenge for lost brothers because of the Brits and simply to hijack the gold and warship they are on. Brits want the same for different reasons.

Seer/Priest/GA would be powers not items.

Cultist role eliminated BUT baddies can only hunt if they have a knife, knives limited. Baddies with no knife are similar to cultists and to cover for lack of cursed there will be item looting possible, thus useless baddies become useful!

Whenever someone is hunted by baddies, their items are looted. Whenever someone is hanged their items are lost.

Rum (fits the theme so hey why not) is a role blocker again.
Small pistol is a brutal power. (a player could in theory get multiple such items but can only use one, others lost)
Knives function as hunter for non-baddies and making an unarmed baddie (cultist) into an armed one (wolf) (a player could in theory get multiple such items but no benefits to be had)
Shiv allows someone to stab someone during the day but non-fatal and instead exposes whatever items that player had. Whoever is top leader at the time gets the items. (a player could in theory get multiple such items)
Bomb is a double brutal power. (a player could in theory get multiple such items but can only use one, others are lost)
Smoke bomb is a one time blessed power. (a player could in theory get multiple such items)
Poison is a one time use item that not only guarantees the victim dies but is used during the day and thus is similar to brutal but is untraceable and functions similar to hunter power if used as such. (a player could in theory get multiple such items but can only use one per day)
Leeches are a weak doctor power. (a player could in theory get multiple such items)


Opinions, also for a cursed of some sort? Maybe greedy/pirate is cursed type?? :confused:


edit: Almost forgot, items can be transferred to anyone and transfers are last event to take place at night. IE early morning is the transfer for thematic purposes.

edit2: Also forgot, I am thinking atm the priest maybe checks for cursed? I might just drop the priest and put in some other role.
 
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If an itemed person is hunted, are the items they lost to the baddies revealed in the update?
 
If an itemed person is hunted, are the items they lost to the baddies revealed in the update?
Nope. So it CAN benefit people to tell those they trust if they have an item but it can backfire horribly as well, also adding in the fun of lying that they have an item. Anyone hanged though will have items revealed that they had.
 
Vote Jacob