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[Brf]

I have relabeled this thread so we can use it as a permanent discussion on derivatives and new concepts for the TWG game, along with being a general purpose discussion on the rules and roles. [Edit: Joe]

Brf's original post is as follows:



This is an incomplete list of roles for The Werewolf Game.

All roles are optional, except for Wolf, and generic Villager (a player with no special role). The Gamemaster is given free-rein to use which roles as he sees fit in his game.

This thread is being left open for suggestions for other roles.

The Wolves know each other. Therefore, anyone who is not a member of their group, is a villager of some sort.

Wolves with Conversion are able to convert any non-Wolf villager into Wolf. That converted player becomes a Wolf for all intents and purposes. A game should never have more than a small number of conversions... never more than one per night, and typically no more than one per two Wolves.

The Masons are a small group of villagers who know and trust each other. The are the core group of "good guys". A Mason cannot be Converted.

The Seer can "look" at one player per night, to determine what their role is.

The Vigilante can lynch another player -- once per game -- of his own volition, without having to consult with any other player.

The Lovers are two players who are linked. When one dies, the other also dies. If The Lovers are intentionally chosen as one wolf and one villager, that villager cannot be Converted.

The Guardian can protect another player overnight from being killed by the wolves.

The Undertaker can identfy the race of one dead player per day in those games where dead players are not identified.[/b]

[Darkness]

The Hunter - can take someone to his grave by shooting someone when he dies at daytime

The Witch - can bring any dead person back to life at any given moment (but only once) in the game (GM can choose whether or not this 'gift' stays in tact upon conversion, can be very powerful!)

The Witness - can witness one nightly killing in the game, will see a wolf, but will also be seen by that wolf


uhm.. etc ? :)

[Magwai]

yeah, etc :P

[Muji]

Hehehe, great, the Hunter and the Witch are new to me... nice to see new ideas...

If anybody else has some, just post 'em, you never know when someone might use 'em inna game. :P

We also have...

The Undertaker - Once a night, can choose a dead player to determine their race and role (somewhat of a reverse seer)

[Brf]

Muji wrote: We also have...

The Undertaker - Once a night, can choose a dead player to determine their race and role (somewhat of a reverse seer)

I have The Undertaker up there in the first post....

That is one of the cool things about this game. The GM can make up roles as he needs them for his scenerio.... We just have to make sure the role is useful and not too powerful.

[Muji]

Erm... ~shifty eyes~

I'm not blind... I swear! ~coughs~

Hehe, sorry Brf, missed that one. ;)

...

But yeah, that's one of the great things. :)

The key is balance (which is not always easy to achieve), but it's fun to try different things out sometimes.

Beyond the basics, TWG is a very adaptable and versatile game... GMs are free to tweak and adjust the rules however they see fit, as long as they inform their players beforehand.

That's part of the reason why I chose to run a "classic" game as our first one here, to get everyone used to the basics.

[Elvengirl]

hmm.. i ran one game earlier with hunter, tho a bit different than what darky described, in my scenario hunter could hunt every night for wolves, and if choose to kill a human nothing happens, but he the player he choosed is wolf, he will be able to kill him, but then the other wolves get to know the identity of hunter, since they kill together.

[JuntaJoe]

So it was a calculate risk on the hunter's part.

But I could see a nearly unstoppable combo if the guardian figured out who the hunter was and protected him every night. If the wolves couldn't figure out who the guardian was then the wolves would be toast pretty quick.

I can now see the comments by Muji about balance. Normally the wolves have most of the advantages except sheer numbers of humans. Adding something minor could balance the scales, but too much and the few numbers of wolves would be facing a hunter, seer, guardian, and lynching every day.

It seems it is better to have a lot of weaker roles for humans and be liberal about dispensing them. That adds flavor and balance, but making a human powerful would tip the scales.

[Muji]

(this long post can be ignored by people that don't intend to ever GM. Not that they're not allowed to read it, but if they're lazy, they don't have to, since what I talk about is GMing-related stuff. :P)

That's why the rules being able to be changed by the GM is not only fun, but actually required in some cases...

There are no hard and fast rules, most of it comes with experience. But even experienced GMs can make mistakes, and I've seen new GMs do a great job.

In the end, it's about tweaking the details.

For example, choosing between the seer seeing only race, or seeing race and role. That makes a -huge- difference. The choice between the two can depend on how many wolves there are, if the wolves have conversion, how many special human roles there are, what special human roles there are, etc.

I ran a game with an alien theme once, and instead of 1 group of aliens (wolves), there were two.

By having two factions, that made a big difference from the get go: Usually, wolves know who all the humans are by default (since they know the other wolves), but in this case, they didn't even know that, since who they thought was human could've been an alien from the second faction!

I had made a few new roles for that game, like the Alien Hunter and the Conspiracy Theorist.

Quote: Alien Hunter

Has a 25% chance of surviving the first alien attack against him.

The Alien Hunter has a cumulative 10% chance to find an alien every night. This is an automatic power. If an alien is found, -which- Alien is determined randomly.

If he finds an alien, he can attempt to kill that alien the next night. This assassination attempt has a 25% chance of success. If it fails, the target alien sees the Alien Hunter and knows him for what he is.

Conspiracy Theorist

Immune to conversion.

Twice during the game, can see both race & role of another player.

Once during the game, can force another player to change their vote to something else of their choosing (affected player is informed that their vote was changed and to what, but not by whom).

Not all roles are proper for every game. For example, the Conspiracy Theorist's power to see race and role isn't as important if the seer can see race and role as well. What I had done that game is have the seer see race only (which was fine, since the aliens couldn't pretend to be the seer, since they -didn't- know everybody's race), which game the CT a limited, but useful power in seeing role.

Another example is the Undertaker... it becomes far less useful as a role if race is revealed on lynchings. In the rare cases where race and roles are revealed, the Undertaker becomes all but useless...

With the wolves, if a GM wants to give them powers but doesn't want to go as far as conversion, other powers can be made (for example, we had a Gluttonous Wolf once, who—once in the game—could eat an extra person, therefore killing two targets in one night instead of one).

...

I'm rambling now, but, yeh... just giving you all some ideas...

My point was to illustrate how the balance can be maintained (or easily disrupted) by tweaking the variable affecting both the wolves and humans.

[Anonymous]

add more roles before the game gets boring :cry:

[JuntaJoe]

That's what future games are for.

It's plain vanilla this time for all the newbies.

Plain vanilla should also go fast due to lack of confusion.

With 20 to 25 players the game should only take a week and a half.


So anyone tempted for a complicated game could begin planning the theme and roles right now. Just start you a new thread if you think you want to run one and start typing your plan.

[Muji]

Well said Joe... :D

[Darkness]

Muji wrote:

(for example, we had a Gluttonous Wolf once, who—once in the game—could eat an extra person, therefore killing two targets in one night instead of one).

...



*grins*
I remember a 'Wolfpackleader' in TH, lol.. a wolf with 1. Power of Conversion, 2. Vigilante Power at night (like your gluttonous wolf) and 3. Seering Powers every other night.


I think we did away with that one foregood after the first time we used it :P

[Muji]

Yeh, I remember that...

It's a perfectly reasonable role... as long as the "humans" the wolves are fighting are Superman n' Batman. ;)

Whereas, for players, the name of the game is "paranoia, deceit and mystery", for the GM, the name of the game is "balance".

[ExarKun]

Well for the wolf with conversion became our wolf pack leader, and wolf pack leader could be a very viable role if he is the only wolf who can convert and there other roles are evened out, more or less a game where there is more than 15 people.

[ExarKun]

Also we had one other charecter, sort of a witness

Town Drunk: Basicly the town drunk every night gets a very vauge very obscure night on the town, the stuff he gets from his escapade could have hints to wolves or other people's special roles...but the nights are so vauge he can never be 100% sure.

[Muji]

I've used that one, and played with variants of it...

Thing with town drunk, though, is that in the end, the role really serves nothing more than to amuse the GM, since it's such a random role.

[Darkness]

I'd think it only leads to more confusion :)

[Muji]

That's why it amuses the GM. :D

[Darkness]

i just said that to confirm what you said :P