Academy of Elemental Magic [Concluded]

[Jarema]

Some comments on the game (will write more here later):

1. Game was balanced around idea of fight between colleges. Without it, it was too hard for scum. At least, harder than I intended it to be. So, if someone says something like 'my college lost the game, but in fact I won because I was townie and we catched all the scum', I disagree. That person 'won' easier game that this one was supposed to be. All abilities of college members were strong, and balanced (in my mind at least) by the fact, that they HAD TO fight with each other

2. I feel a little bit sorry for the mafia. I think they made strategically bad decision about not joining colleges. For me, it was obvious that they should do it. But I have known whole setting; probably it was not so obvious from they point of view. Anyway, after not joining the colleges they were easy targets (and compare it with Chaotix)

3. I had to make few decisions during the game. The first ones, made on day one, might have the largest impact on the game. First, I agree for swapping roles between Montmorency and Ironside. I had to follow it by givving all college heads information, that their starting wielder is guaranteed innocent at the game start. Second, I agreed for creation of 'lower tie' qt's for each college. In order to balance this pro-town advantage, I decided that all items (with exception of Shield of True Purity and Jade Katana) will have some hidden effects, detrimental to the town-aligned user; I also added such effect to the college artifacts.

4. I totaly forgot about one of mafia abilities: Victim of mafia attack is diseased if his/her corruption level is lower than mafia one – suffers damage equal to half of mafia's player CL next night. I realised it after few days, and decided to not use it at all. I want to thank Montmorency, with whom I discussed it a little, and other players who were ready to help me with that case if they should.

5. I do not use infallable scanners in my games (well, with one exception: if there are lot of scanners, some of them may be infallable, like one of every four). I always use millers, framers, godfathers or something like that (or something different). In this game, I had a lot of scanners: mafia scanner, four college heads (new college heads also get this ability), and scanning item. On the other side: moderately (or more) corrupted college heads will get false results, Lenses were not working well, SK could use aura to conceal his corruption, townies might become more corrupted than mafia.... Also, some townies started game as corrupted as mafia seer.
Well, it does not work as intended. Mafia was wiped easily with (a little lucky) use of scans.

6. I believe that the best course of action for mafia would be to sit quiet, infiltrate colleges, and do not kill anyone... at least for some time. That way, they would be less corrupted than townies. But, well, mafia players diod not knew whole setting.