For me, the issue is that everyone who wants to GM has some new weird setup idea they want to try. Those are fun sometimes, but we really need more normal games.

posting this for discussion:

1. The signup list shall be copy/pasted at the end of every game.
2. Signups can go on ad infinitum, but each name can only appear once on the list.
3. In the interest of being fair to play preferences, every fourth game (at least) shall be more low key/vanilla/normal, beginning with m21.
4. Everyone may vote for EOG awards for the following categories: MVP, MVTown, MVScum, best/most improved newbie, worst lurker.

Point three is a little restrictive.

I'm hungry
hungry for this money

Eh. I feel that too many "innovative" games in a row is kind of bad on balance, so I like point 3. Point 4 doesn't really matter.

M20

M80

M170

The fellowship of brainbomb
the two solos
and Return of the Wifom

I don't think one in four is far enough. That still leaves potential for the vast majority of the games to be masturbatory wjessop-style wastes of our time. I think a decent compromise is more like 50/50.

Really the GM should state what type of game it will be in signups. That should be the big rule.

No. Thats really the fun of it. The mystery; the suspense. If you get too hungry you get burntout.
This game...

oh this crazy game

So how did everyone feel about those uh neighbors

ND, that would be nice as well, but it still doesn't correct the issue. It's been a while since we've had a game that wasn't mostly dictated by setup. I get that some of you prefer the crazy games, and you're welcome to your opinion, but some of us just want to play mafia, and that opinion feels kind of neglected right now because everyone who's signing up to GM is doing so because they want to try something new and weird.

How about we just get a slew of GMs who commit to hosting classic mafia games (don't call them "basic"; they're arguably more challenging if you ask me)? There are people that for whatever reason want to go crazy, so just know that when they're GMing, it's probably gonna be somewhat crazy.

I like the idea of a role list being produced during the sign up phase. There's no reason that that should be an issue.

Yeah, I guess point 4 doesn't matter.

See, I don't really mind all the crazy role madness stuff, but I respect that some want the challenge of the simple setups (which are, arguably, more difficult for everyone involved). Since I can't think of a way to "enforce" any ratio of simple/crazy games, I think bo_sox basically has the right idea: let's get a bunch of those who want to GM simple games.

Role lists produced during the signup phase is great. Or at least the ratio of PR:vanilla roles.


That said, I'll play whichever.

Perhaps we should also decide on a gap between each game. say 2 weeks, and if the next GM on list wants longer they need to get agreement from players or get bumped down the list.

I disagree. There is major holidays, webdip events, and its unfair to the people who come here to play diplomacy to have to see mafia burying everything else relentlessly.

If there is going to be drama I'd give up M24 to ghug and just fall into being a Co-GM for people, esp since there seems to be a push for vanilla games and as someone can attest to, mine was going to have quite a few non vanilla features.

Demon, the idea is that while it's cool for GMs to have their own ideas, using a game that we wait a month for and then play intensely for two weeks as an experiment is pretty annoying, particularly when it ends up imbalanced. There are tons of mafia setups known to be fairly balanced and some of them have room for creativity but a generic, classic game is nice to have every so often.

@brainbomb, I'm sure when holidays dictate that players will be happy to extend the two week gap. Your point about upsetting webdip players doesn't hold water, they can mute us. i haven't seen people complain since Jamie became a player.

Yes bo, I see the point but how will you ever test a proposed setup then?

I'm not saying that it can never happen, but it would be better to test them on Discord or some other platform before bringing them here if you don't know that they're balanced.

Meme had had an idea (that I was kind of hoping he'd post here) wherein experimental setups could happen every other game and there'd be a separate, stricter waiting list for them wherein people who haven't GMed a crazy setup before get first preference. That way everyone who wants to try something still can, but the players still get a good amount of balanced games.

I used "wherein" twice in one post. Someone kill me.

fug it. Ghug take 24, all yours.

Not even, ghug. You used it twice in one sentence.