I didn’t see a thread yet, so I figured I start one since we’re at the beginning of Day 1.
ALL ACTIVE PLAYERS STAY OUT!!!
This thread is for unspoiled spectators and potential subs. If you know any non-public knowledge, please do NOT post it in this thread.
I assume fluiddruid will either have a full-knowledge thread here or off-board somewhere so ask her for that information if you want to know.
Proceed!
Recruitment… shudder.
I hate recruitment… I’m not sure how I’d react to suddenly be forced to change sides.
I’d probably react by not giving a shit about the game anymore. I didn’t sign up for this game because I HATE RECRUITMENT. I could deal with being recruited on day one, but after that, myeh… I’d lose interest. There are those who will disagree with my sentiment, I’m sure
Ditto zuma.
When I found out in Pleonast’s game that there was secret recruitment, I wasn’t a happy camper.
At least in this game the recruitment is upfront so everyone signing up knows what they are getting into.
Also, the anti-recruitment mechanisms might prove interesting.
But for gameplay, having your win condition change mid-game is less than ideal.
I’m not a huge fan of recruitment, either, but I don’t feel strongly about it, as long as it is only a single recruitment. This game is going to be a MESS, though. Should be fun to watch! 
Um, if I recall correctly, in Mafia: Sekham zuma v2 was quite adamant about his Cult role.
This seems like a pretty complicated game to me…I was kind of looking forward to Hal Briston’s game for newbies, but it seems to at least have been postponed. Ah well. I’m content to be a spectator.
So, I can see how it would be annoying to have your win condition change mid game after you’ve decided you strategy and all of that. Is that the only reason you all seem to hate recruitment so much? What am I missing?
mouse,
I agree. This game will be quite complex. I don’t know how the new players will react to all the details. We shall see.
As for recruitment, the anti-recruitment stance tends to follow the logic that people play games to win and that good play should lead to wins and bad play leads to losses. So a theoretical Townie who plays really well and catches scum after scum; but then gets recruited and is handed a loss due to his own GOOD play is kind of sucky.
Conversely, A Townie who plays poorly and consistently lynches scum might get recruited and end up winning largely due to his own POOR play.
It’s that weird inversion that many people object to.
I think there is also the minor detail of one of the ways one finds scum is by reading a particular poster’s posts in excruiating detail. Well, if someone gets recruited midgame, rereading Day 1 and 2 and 3 won’t tell you anything about them after they get recruited.
(And if someone has an investigative role, it is nice to believe that the harmless vanilla townie one investigated Day 1 is still a nice harmless, vanilla townie on Day 10, so that one can concentrate on all those other potential scum).
But what do I know? I thought this game sounded intriguing, when I first realized that it was one Mafia member trying to recruit the whole town. As long as I didn’t start out as the Mafia person.
And then I saw the list of special roles and decided it was way too complicated for my blood.
For some players this actually makes finding scum easier, because their tone and possibly even their stances may change mid-game after a recruitment. This is infinitely better than trying to compare a player’s play-style from one game to the next.
That’s my hope. I think it will be difficult for a lot of people to switch gears, and to have the ability to, essentially, impersonate yourself!
The special roles do make the game more complicated, but I wanted to give Town a lot of ammo to use against the Mafia. After all, recruitment is very potent, so it should have some risks and drawbacks compared to an out-and-out night kill.
In previous games I’ve wondered if it would be okay to just let the town start even if everyone hadn’t confirmed yet. What would be the downside?
I certainly don’t blame you for creating a bunch of special roles–I’m sure that people will find them fun to play. And the odds are excellent that the game would have filled up anyway in the space between me seeing that a game was soon to be starting, and me actually deciding to commit. It’s just, I saw the new game, I thought the idea of having group of townies and one mafia player wandering around was neat–and then I saw the baffling array of special roles.
But it will be interesting to see how it all plays out, especially if the most virulently anti-recruitment players all sit this game out–and several new players test the waters.
I concur. How terrifying would it be to on your first game potentially assigned the role of Godfather. Yikes. Kind of like being lost and alone in the wilderness.
Nah, that’s easy. You just recruit the most experienced player the first Night (and hope they aren’t protected or un-recruitable).
Normally I can’t fathom Pleonast’s logic. But in this case I agree with him. There is no benefit to Town lynching today. On the off chance that Town lynches the singleton scum, the game is over with little fanfare and simply restarts. What’s the point?
Since Day One with a lynch will simply repeat itself until Town lynches Town, the best move is to no lynch and move onto Night. With more pro-town powerroles than there are scum, there are more pro-town night actions than scum actions. Night is a good thing.
One could argue that discussion Today is good for the Town, but I think the advantages of a no-lynch far outweigh any possible slips by scum. There’s only one anyway!
I think the town should still spend a considerable amount of the first Day at least having some discussion about no-lynch. At the very least, it lets the new players get their feet wet and find their voice. Of course, with all the damn power roles there will be plenty to talk about. Maybe they should divide the player list in half for each investigator 
.
That’s an awesome idea!
trying to get this whole quote thing down, so apologies on the front end.
Metagaming a wee bit - Wouldn’t that put the grey beards at risk for increased suspicion?
They are either scum to begin with or a newb recruited them to get some help.