The Art of Game Creation

[Swimmingly]

I think Aluminum Gnat could be a good false positive role, however.

Like the above in every aspect but the part where it's good for reflecting on your past.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Swimmingly

[Herowannabe]

A Leecher (Chromium Misting) could be cool. Each day/night pick one player, That player loses his power until the next cycle (however, they are told that you are the one that leeched their power).

[Dalinar]

I wish Bendalloy or something was in this...xD

 

I wonder how that would work.

 

A coinshot attacks! You speed up time and dodge...

 

Or, what if a Slider misting could save themselves and someone else each turn? I don't know, but if they could do that, they'd be pretty much invincible...

Huh.

[Herowannabe]

In our current game Meta has been allowing people to request more time in a day. Perhaps a Slider could choose to slow down time around them (and thus, the group) and extend the day by X hours, and a Pulser could choose to speed up time around them (and the group) and shorten the day by X hours.

[Awesomeness Summoned]

Doh! I was just typing this out Hero:

 

Well, right now we have it setup where anybody can request an extension of the day. What if only a bendalloy user was allowed to extend the day?

 

Cadmium users in turn could shorten the day. That could be a little overpowered though but would make things interesting. If a few people vote early for someone, the Cadmium user shortens the day, and the vote ends before people expected making those few votes the only ones.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Awesomeness Summoned

[Herowannabe]

                             

 

To make it a little more balanced/interesting, you could limit the slider/pulser to Y number of hours per game. IE: A pulser might have 20 hours worth of Cadmium total. She could use all of that up in one day, shortening it by 20 hours, but then she would be all out and couldn't use her power any more for the rest of the game.

 

EDIT: Actually, that gives me an idea for another possible role: Metallurgist. The Metallurgist can pick one person each night and refresh their metal supply (ie: restoring more hours of time-bubbling to a Pulser or a Slider, restoring another life to a Thug, etc). We would want to tweak the other powers to have a limited number of uses as well.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Herowannabe

[Gamma Fiend]

Hmm. Well I remember in the one game Meta linked us to (The Hitchhiker's Guide crazy game), they had a currency system in place. Where doing X action during the day or something gave you so much, if I remember.
 

WHat if in the next game we have the same thing, but Mistings need to BUY their metals to restock? Everyone starts with, let's say, 3 days worth of metals or something.

Would defintely add an interesting dynamic, I think. You could know if somebody's a Misting, but you won't know if they can use their power or not.

Edit: or, if we end up doing Roshar style elimination, could use Gems instead. and then we'd have to wait for them to recharge during "Highstorms".

Edited February 20, 2014 by Gamma Fiend

[18th Shard]

I had bendalloy as if killed during the night or day, you survive until the next write-up

 

Cadmium can completely skip a day or a night every 2 cycles. If killed during this time, nothing happens. but you can't vote.

[Metacognition]

I like both takes on Bendalloy and Cadmium. 18th's Bendalloy could still be useful, especially if you get to see who your attacker was. You're a dead man walking, but you survive long enough to point the finger at your killer.

 

Hero and Wes's idea would also work, though if it were me, I'd just make it a specific time, like 4 hours forward or backward and I probably wouldn't continue doing requests for extensions on time if they were available. It could be a pain though, as that would consistently change when the write up would need to be done. 

 

Of course, I haven't put them through the ringer yet to see how they'd play with everything else. Would it be too powerful if Zinc and Bendalloy were used together often, as per Hero/Wes's version? If you used Bendalloy like 18th's, would that be too many Seeking roles if you also still had a general Seeker in the group?

 

We've got some great starts here, but I want to warn any GM from just pulling them directly from here. You'll probably want to consider how it would play in your game or else they make become to overpowered!

[18th Shard]

But I want an overpowered role that can be assigned to me!

[PorridgeBrick]

Nicrosil: Changes the target's action into its Uber equivalent (so Thugs would have two extra lives as opposed to 1, Coinshots/Lurchers have double strength, Seekers can pierce Copperclouds, Smokers and their targets register as normal villagers, Tineyes listen in to the PMs, a Rioter's changed votes would count as two votes, and a Soother would soothe an additional target who voted for the same person as their original target).

Edited February 21, 2014 by PorridgeBrick

[Grayv]

Electrum - like a lurches but only for yourself

Atium - only usable by mistborn. If you are on the killers side, cancels out a lurchers or oracles ability (if the target is an oracle who was also lurched he/she will still survive) if you are on the survivors side, not only will he survive, but will get a pm on who it was. It should be very rare to get this metal and there should be a really good chance of never getting it during a game.

Malatium can be like a seeker, but instead of telling you if they are spiked, villager, misting, or mistborn, it tells you what they did the cycle before.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Grayv

[A Joe in the Bush]

MistBorn: The Final Empire

 

Skaa Rebels have Infiltrated a Group of Obligators and are attempting to Destroy the Group, The Lord Ruler has given you One INQUISITOR to Help you put down the Rogue Skaa

 

Basically it's Reverse, the Obligators are the Majority, while the 5 or so Skaa thieves are attempting to Destroy them From Within!

Edited February 25, 2014 by The Only Joe

[Aspren]

Stormlight Elimination

 

I've got some ideas for how a Stormlight Elimination game might work. Instead of roles, you get items, and a few abilities (curses and boons). So far it's substantially lacking on the day-time aspect (vote affecting items/abilities), any ideas on how I can improve that?

 

Items:

 

Half-shard shield: prevents the target from dying if they sustain a single attack.

Shardblade: kill one person per night.

Soulcaster: retaliate against any who attack who attack your target or save your target from an attack (can't do both at the same time).

Alerter: alerted to with what item/ability your target was targeted with (but not as to who targeted your target), and to who your target targeted with their own item/ability (but not as to what that item/ability is). (e.g. if you target person A with this item you'll find out that person B also targeted person A, and that person A used their item/ability)

Spanreed: allows you to post anonymous messages through the GM's write-ups at the end of every cycle. 

Emotion bracelet: alerted to all malevolent and benevolent acts (malevolent: attacks, benevolent: saves) but not as to who was targeted (e.g. person A used this item/ability, person B used this item/ability)

Painrail: Delay your, or your target's, death after being attacked, by a single day/night. 

 

 

* By target, I mean either you or the person you chose to target. That is to say that you may target yourself.

**I only chose to list items that could possibly be concealed, as it really wouldn't make sense for no-one to know that the guy walking around with the nice armour on, is in fact wearing sharplate. 

 

Nightwatcher's curses and boons: 

 

 - You may at any time kill two people of your choosing (even during the day) but as a result you will also die. Note: this will probably be the only ability that allows a kill during the day, simply because there's no point in concealing your action. It goes without saying that you can only use this once (there are no items that can prevent your death). 

 

 - You have two votes (one secret and one public) but you may not vote for those whose username starts or ends with a specific letter (letter is specified at the beginning of the game). 

 

 - You can steal someone else's item/ability, but lose any item/ability that you already have. The player who you stole from will know that you did so.

 

 - You get either the first, second or third person to die's item/ability. (depending on whether there are other players with this B&C) 

 

 - When you die you may give any item you have to another person, as long as you have refrained from using your item for two cycles.

 

 - You have two items in your possession, and can use them simultaneously, but you have a  20% chance of dying each cycle.

 

- You are able to vote against two different people (not two votes against one person), but you always receive an extra vote against yourself if you have two or more votes against you.

 

- You may cast your vote as far as two cycles in advance, you may not alter this vote on the day, but you may alter it anytime before that. If you die then any votes you've cast in advance will still remain in effect. 

 

- You may divert votes away from one person onto another person and yourself. If you divert say six votes away from person A then both you and person B, your target, receives 3 votes. If person A has 7 votes then you receive 3 and person B receives 4.

 

- You may divert all votes away from a single person onto yourself, if the number of votes you receive is less than 3 or an even number, then you survive, if it's 3 or more and odd then you get lynched. (Note: it's probably not a good idea to have both this and the previous B&C in the same game). I don't think anyone would really want this B&C.

 

I've got a few more ideas of Curse and Boons that I don't want to reveal yet, because knowing what they do just spoils it. If you're going to start a Stormlight Elimination game with Boons and Curses then just PM me, and I'll give the rest of them to you.

 

 

Last Words/Death Cries/Death Rattles

 

Every single player is allowed, when they die, to say a single line. It's up to the GM to decide what they may or may not say with their last words. The last words are posted within the write-up (will probably have to be posted in the cycle after a person's death, though). Preferably these should be, to an extent, cryptic.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Aspren

[PorridgeBrick]

@The Painrials and Death Cries

A good way to justify these narratively is to have a 'mortal wound' mechanic. Basically, all deaths do not happen instantly: the attacked or lynched spend time to sicken and die. While this happens, the victim still counts as a player, but he/she cannot post or use any of his actions. Their only action is to write their Death Cry. This way, the painrial does not actually delay their death any, since it really shouldn't by much. Rather, it allows them to bear the pain and continue to act and post like a normal player while they die.

As the wounded are still players, they can also be targeted. This allows the Mafia to effectively completely silence their victims despite the Death Cries, since the sudden death allows them no time for last words. However, this requires targeting the same person twice, forcing the Mafia to weigh their decisions.

Edited February 27, 2014 by PorridgeBrick

[Aspren]

That's quite a good idea. The death cries don't need that as an explanation though. The death cries are effectively the last words a person says, in the throes of death, on Roshar. I'm not too sure what I'm supposed to call them. Death rattles/death delirium/cryptic death cries?

Preferably they should be slightly cryptic. Though it's up to the game master to decide how cryptic.

 

With the Painrail I want it to be that the person can still post, up until they final death, though your idea does allow for a way for the "mafia" to combat that.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Aspren

[Swimmingly]

Perimortem vocalisations!!!!

Yes.

Yeeeeesss.

[PorridgeBrick]

That's quite a good idea. The death cries don't need that as an explanation though. The death cries are effectively the last words a person says, in the throes of death, on Roshar. I'm not too sure what I'm supposed to call them. Death rattles/death delirium/cryptic death cries?

Preferably they should be slightly cryptic. Though it's up to the game master to decide how cryptic.

 

With the Painrail I want it to be that the person can still post, up until they final death, though your idea does allow for a way for the "mafia" to combat that.

The only reason Death Rattles need a justification is because they'd have to be first posted a half cycle after their actual death in order for them to have time to write them. While it would still work, it would be much stranger narratively to only get their last words a day after it happens.

Definitely the Perimortem Vocalisations () should be cryptic, if only for the sake of enjoying the game.

That was actually what I meant when I was talking about the Painrials. They're basically functioning exactly as if no death had happened in terms of gameplay, able to post and use their powers, except they're dying in the story and any attacks they receive will kill them instantly with no chance to speak.

[Swimmingly]

You could have an entire game based around fabrial tech, where there's a Thief who can steal a single fabrial power per night. He can then use each fabrial only once, and has to chose each night between using a fabrial or stealing a new one.

Mesh that with powers that can't be stolen and a faction trying to kill off everybody, and you've got a game where the Thief wins if he gains all the fabrial powers, and everybody wins if all the evil faction are eliminated.

[Aspren]

The only reason Death Rattles need a justification is because they'd have to be first posted a half cycle after their actual death in order for them to have time to write them. While it would still work, it would be much stranger narratively to only get their last words a day after it happens.

Definitely the Perimortem Vocalisations ( ) should be cryptic, if only for the sake of enjoying the game.

That was actually what I meant when I was talking about the Painrials. They're basically functioning exactly as if no death had happened in terms of gameplay, able to post and use their powers, except they're dying in the story and any attacks they receive will kill them instantly with no chance to speak.

 

Good point. Maybe it could be that the GM writes it for them, though that would defeat the purpose. So your idea is probably best. After all, It does allow for quite an interesting gameplay mechanic.

 

I just want to clarify that the painrail only allows a person to survive for one more day (or one more night, if someone attacks them during the day) not one more cycle. The only way to prevent that is, as you've said, to target them twice the first time. When a person does survive an attack using a painrail, then there isn't any way to kill them before they can do anything, and even if you could, there wouldn't be any point to attacking them again anyway, as they're going to die the day or night after they were attacked anyway.

[Aspren]

You could have an entire game based around fabrial tech, where there's a Thief who can steal a single fabrial power per night. He can then use each fabrial only once, and has to chose each night between using a fabrial or stealing a new one.

Mesh that with powers that can't be stolen and a faction trying to kill off everybody, and you've got a game where the Thief wins if he gains all the fabrial powers, and everybody wins if all the evil faction are eliminated.

 

What would the thief do with the discarded items though?

 

For a scenario I have the idea that there are several Ghostbloods that have infiltrated the group and their objective is to obtain the Soulcaster and Shardblade. 

[Swimmingly]

What would the thief do with the discarded items though?

For a scenario I have the idea that there are several Ghostbloods that have infiltrated the group and their objective is to obtain the Soulcaster and Shardblade.

He can use them once then they disappear.

[PorridgeBrick]

Good point. Maybe it could be that the GM writes it for them, though that would defeat the purpose. So your idea is probably best. After all, It does allow for quite an interesting gameplay mechanic.

 

I just want to clarify that the painrail only allows a person to survive for one more day (or one more night, if someone attacks them during the day) not one more cycle. The only way to prevent that is, as you've said, to target them twice the first time. When a person does survive an attack using a painrail, then there isn't any way to kill them before they can do anything, and even if you could, there wouldn't be any point to attacking them again anyway, as they're going to die the day or night after they were attacked anyway.

I was actually thinking that if you somehow attacked them during the day/lynched them for some odd reason right after they were attacked in the night, then they'd not be able to have a death cry, since the Death Cry would come at the end of the day and the attack would happen during it. Either way would be good though.

More roles that go well with this setup from earlier in the thread are the Artifabrian, who can create one-use fabrials for others to use but not himself, and the Shard(plate)bearer, who can challenge another player to a duel. The duels could either be just a day kill, or maybe a voting "duel" where only the duelers can be voted for. Due to exhaustion, this ability could only be used every 2-3 cycles.

[Aspren]

More roles that go well with this setup from earlier in the thread are the Artifabrian, who can create one-use fabrials for others to use but not himself, and the Shard(plate)bearer, who can challenge another player to a duel. The duels could either be just a day kill, or maybe a voting "duel" where only the duelers can be voted for. Due to exhaustion, this ability could only be used every 2-3 cycles.

 

Yes, though we should have it that shardplate-bearers and artifabrians are in a different version of Stormlight Elimination. Neither of those two roles would work too well in this version. Hopefully, once Words of Radiance is out, there will be more roles that we can use in a uh, role-centric Stormlight Elimination?

[Herowannabe]

I've only thought about a Stormlight game a little bit, but here is the one game mechanic that occurred to me:

 

Dueling:

Aside from the daytime lynchings, anytime somebody targets another player for death it does not result in an automatic kill. Instead, it is determined by a dice roll made by the GM. Each player (or most players?) has a weapon, and armor, though they vary from player to player. Weapons add a certain amount to the dice roll (ie: a knife might add +1 to the dice roll, but a shardblade might add +5), and armor absorbs a certain amount of "damage" before a player dies (ie: a bridgeman's vest might absorb 1 point of damage, but shardplate might absorb 5). If any damage is not absorbed by the armor then the losing player is killed.

 

When a player targets another for death in the night, they fight, and the winner of the duel deals damage to the loser. The contest is determined by the GM rolling 1 dice for each player, and the outcome is revealed during the morning's writeup. Player's names are not revealed in the writeup unless they die, but the GM will send a PM to each contestant telling them who their opponent was.

 

For example, Szeth Sonsonvallano targets King Gavilar to duel. Both are wielding shardblades, and Gavilar is wearing shardplate. Szeth doesn't have armor, but chooses to use his Surgebinding power, which doubles the result of his dice roll.

 

GM Stormfather rolls 1 dice for each of them.

Gavilar rolls a 3, +5 for his shardblade = 8

Szeth rolls a 5, x2 for his Surgebinding, +5 for his shardblade = 15

Szeth beats Gavilar by 7. Gavilar's shardplate absorbs 5 damage, but 2 damage points get past the armor and Gavilar is killed.

GM Stormfather writes up the result of their duel and posts it in the prologue of the Way of Kings.

 

----

That's as much as I've planned out. Obviously a lot more work would need to be done in order to flesh out the game as a whole, including which groups are trying to kill who and etc.

 

A mechanic like this should be possible to work into another game setting, such as Aspren's.