Soul Shatter (Pseudo-mafia game)

Howdy all, thought I'd pitch an idea I've had rumbling around for a bit. Ever since the capo days of old I've been wondering on an idea for a "not-mafia" type of game in a similar kind of mold, but with my own twists.

So, here's the basic rundown, lemme know if you think it looks interesting or terrible, fun or lame, or if you've got brainstorm ideas you wanna pitch.

So, first off, the game would still functionally have a day/night system, but the purpose of the day phase would be a bit different. The idea is, there is now "town vs mafia". Instead, at the start of the game, the players would be split into three or four large groups, I'll call them cliques for now. The idea of a clique is to be sort of a more flexible mafia-type group. At night, cliques would band together to either attack other cliques or attempt to defend each other. During the day, the lynch would not so much be a method of finding scum or anything like that, but instead, bargaining over who to hand over to be killed with certainty.

The power of a clique is dependent, ultimately, on those who comprise it. They're intended to be fluid, once in a clique, you only need to stay in it for two full phases(my current idea, might consider some other, different arbitrary idea, but the point is to discourage flipping to different cliques every single phase, while still not being stuck with people you don't want to be with/want to backstab and destroy) before bailing, unless of course, everyone else in the clique dies before that time, in which case you'd be solo until joining a new one. Each player in the game would start exactly the same, with the same power, which is ranked by a single stat, to keep things simple. If you want to increase your power, you'll need blood on your hands- causing death will increase your power ranking by one point for each death. If a group participates in a kill, each person would gain one power for the kill- it's not spread out. Additionally, ordering a kill at night won't be the only way to accrue this power, at least at this stage of planning. If a protection is sufficiently potent compared to an attack, the defenders will kill the attacker, garnering power for themselves. I'm also *considering* awarding a point for participating in a successful lynch, but that's one I'm not as set on.

The structure for a night encounter atm is pretty simple. If an attack is ordered by a person or group, their collective power rating is measured against the collective power rating of the person being attacked, plus any protection.

The ultimate goal(that is, win condition) is actually something I'm not precisely decided on. At the *moment*, I am leaning towards a last-man standing idea, but I'm also considering a possible win-con of a small-ish clique together, or by someone accruing an exact, obscene amount of power ranking.

Last thing I'll mention is that the reason the current working title is "Soul Shatter". One of the basic ideas behind the game is that as you accrue power and stain your hands with more and more blood.... certain unfortunate things might start to happen. I won't say exactly what, as a) I'm still considering some different ideas, and b) it's a surprise anyways. But there's a certain idea of "power corrupts, absolute power etc etc" to the game. The idea is to create a... conflict, I guess I'll say. You'll need power to survive, as every point of power helps you fend of attackers and can be used to destroy threats to yourself. But too much power, and people might start to be scared of you, or put you under the bus for lynch.

Thoughts? Ideas? Interest? Game won't be up for for a bit, but I thought I'd toss some of the basic idea out to see how people were feeling.

tl;dr but sure I would play

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Originally Posted by Zack

tl;dr but sure I would play

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Hmm....

Start with group, maybe change groups, maybe end up solo, lynch people you want dead, kill people to get stronger, maybe bad things happen when you get stronger.

Or just suck it up and read the post. :whip:

I read the first few paragraphs. I will read more fully if/when game comes to fruition.

Sounds interesting. I'd certainly be interested.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zack

I read the first few paragraphs. I will read more fully if/when game comes to fruition.

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But the point of this is that this is a proposals thread and he needs feedback.

seems very interesting to me.

I would rather not change anything from what is disclosured, maybe (and only maybe) only the fact, that everybody starts out identical. Maybe it would be more interesting, if people were "specialized" from the start. Lets say, 3-4 types of characters. One could be, for example, "bodyguard": add 0,5 point to your power when you protect someone

of course, much depends on th exact nature of surprises