This topic is aimed at finding a solution for problems in Forum Mafia games. If that fails, you can also share your opinions and tell what you think about specific Mafia games.
1. Mass RoleclaimsIn Mafia, you hardly know who you can trust, and as a town member, you barely know anything in the beginning. The split second someone becomes a confirmed town member, he/she's the only guide of the civvies, therefore he/she'll become the leader of the pack (even if for a short time). Then it's only a matter of time to hear the usual "Do what I say or you'll look like scum." cliché, where the confirmed civvy wants others to follow their plans, shortly leading to a mass roleclaim if secondary roles (doctor, cop, warden, etc.) are attached to primary roles (mafia, civilian). But will that really make you look scum if you don't follow the orders? Against mass roleclaims, I think the best solution is to create a bunch of roles, but
don't determine which will be mafia roles and which won't be - or even if you do, don't tell it in the rules. This way people won't know who mafia are, even if they know the roles of all people.
It's one important thing to
always give Mafia places to hide in the event of a roleclaim! A typical hiding place in attached-mafia-role games is claiming vanilla townie - if there are any in the game.
The least effective hiding place can be having
multi-duplicate roles: 3 or more people with the same role, 1 of them being mafia. But if you go with multi-duplicate hiding places, you shouldn't go with 1-1 civy-mafia distribution. Once a mafioso role is narrowed down to 2 people, it's easy to figure out who's who - unless the mafioso has very good role-play skills and the civvy is making a lot of mistakes.
2. Leadership ProblemsAs I asked in Mass Roleclaims, will that really make you look scum if you don't follow the orders of the confirmed civvy? The game is less fun when people want you to follow orders. One charm of games is the freedom of doing whatever you want, but if people don't let you do what you want, and furthermore want you to follow orders that you originally didn't want to do, then this charm is lost. This is more complex than the others. Confirmed townies are part of the game, but probably
we should discourage them to confirm themselves publicly. There are probably a few ways to do this, for example stating in the rule that taking leadership of the town will result in mod intervention, or giving mafia an extra kill for every confirmed townie (this can be done in various, balanced ways).
The easiest way to solve this would to
just take a grip on ourselves, and don't give orders to anyone.
3. RoleswapsIn the beginning of the game, every town member's in panic. They don't know anything, they are alone, excited and want information fast. This leads to taking the game out of the thread's boundaries to the chat, in an attempt to find allies or just figure out more information about the other players. The problem with this, that off-screen discussions, decisions and strategies leave out the other town members from even more information, and they'll feel left out of the game, making them also follow the roleswaps, starting a devilish circle. One example was in iancudorinmarian's mafia game, where iNuzzle stated that he was disappointed that the game was mostly advancing in PMs and in chat, and not in the thread. The problem is that we can't entirely ban off-screen discussions, because the whole point of the mafia faction is that they can communicate and share information with each other. Because of this, I'll only focus on civilian roleswaps.
One way to do this is to discourage townies from giving out their roles. This can be done by
giving mafia extra kills if they can identify the roles of the townies - in a balanced fashion, of course. We don't want to make the mafia overpowered either.
Another option is to
dissolve the townies' panic a bit by making ALL roles powerful by themselves. If your role is powerful enough, you don't need others to rely on, and if the organizer doesn't make you wait too much for the Day Phase, you should feel satisfied and not want to take risks.
4. Loophole AbusesThere are always 10+ roles in the game, so it's easy to miss an unexpected combo, as seen in iancudorinmarian's last mafia (Minor Vampire abuse). Abusing this loophole ruins the game. It's easy.
The organizer should always write in the rules: "I reserve the right to change the rules mid-game to avoid loopholes and maintain the fun of the event." This way, the organizer says that he won't change the rules mid-game just for fun, but only in the case of something game-breaking happening.
5. Stereotypical BehaviourIf you keep playing with the same people over and over, it's only a matter of time that you'll notice typical patterns in their behaviour. This way the once die-hard town protector is obviously mafia if he suddenly stops coming up with plans and the usually calm and careless player will also be suspicious if he's suddenly cursing the Sun for being accused as mafia. This is something that the organizers can't solve. It is the responsibility of the players to think about future games when they are doing their actions. However, in the excitement of a game, it's easy to lose the grip on ourselves. There's only one thing i can suggest to all players:
Before every new mafia game, say publicly that now you'll change your usual behaviour and try a totally different strategy, regardless of which faction you'll end up in. It is important to say this before you get your primary role, because this way you'll be more credible and can't come off as a mafioso defending himself.
6. Length of WaitingThose periods where you can do nothing, but you're very curious what will happen... I know you hate them. Long nights, where you already sent in your move in the first 5 minutes, but you still need to wait 2 days. Or even if you wait it out, the evil organizer is not putting the next phase up yet! Organizers usually give ~48 hours worth of time for people to make their moves during the night phase, just to ensure that all people around the world will have time. However, every active mafia player signs in every 12 hours. So waiting 2 days is just overkill.
The idea is to set the countdowns to 12...24 hours. And probably the most frustrating is when an organizer can't be punctual on putting the next phase up. For all organizers, this is IMPORTANT:
Always set your countdowns so you'll be 95% sure to be free and able to be online when it reaches 0. It's really not that hard; if you know that you won't be able to come online for 3 days, then tell it to the players and set the countdown accordingly.
7. EthicsIt cannot be correctly described what counts as cheating and what is unethical in mafia games. Let's face it, mafia is a game where you are forced to lie in the face of other people. It's also a place where you KILL people, regardless of your faction (even if on just paper). But this is also a game, and some kind of behaviour can really ruin it. First of all, NEVER ask anyone to promise something, or to give their words! First time I did this, I was not aware how unethical it is. Now I know that it is almost blackmailing. If anyone does that, don't say anything to that person, but intsantly report him to the organizer and the moderator.
At times, you may find yourself cornered. You may know that you are doomed, no matter what you do. In these situations, please
refrain from giving up your allies. Instead, put the thread on 'Ignore' and never look back. You'll be modkilled soon anyway. If you give up your allies, be them town of mafia members, you will ruin the 'chance for fun' for them, even if they are in the same crap position that you are in.
It's also a question of ethics if you should confess after being caught to be mafia or keep defending. In qwerter's mafia, me and Root did the exact opposites after we were caught. He was heavily defending (mistake of stereotypical behaviour, as mentioned earlier) while I confessed instead. However, I did not do it to throw the game - it was a strategy to win instead. Back on topic, in the case you feel like admitting you're a mafioso, I think now that the best solution is to
confess your crimes, but repetitively state that You're Not Mafia! This way you'll claim that you're not mafia, while saying that "Yes, I nightkilled that person and I communicate in a pad with 3 other people. But I'm not a mafia." Just like Supa Hot Fire.
8. RulesThis is only an extra point that I wanted to discuss. Always make sure that the general rules don't conflict with your special rules AND your own moral compass. For example I never liked the rule that says people can only send in their night actions during the night they want to do it. The event would go much more smoother, if i could send in my actions for the future, allowing me to stay away from the computer for a longer time without worrying. It would be also smooth if one would be able to send in his future day-votes.
That's all for now. All I said are just my opinions and how I think about mafia games. I'm interested in other people's opinions not only about these topics, but also about my opinions.
