OK, been putting this off long enough. Most of my comments on the game are very general, but I will concentrate each comment to bullet points so you can jump to something without reading a previous bullet. So, without further adieu...
---------------------------
--After the stress of running essentially an RPG in WW VII, I wanted a game that took Werewolf away from complex, awkward roles and focused more on a solid game that relied on the town's deductive capabilities than over-powered swingy roles. Thus was the original concept for the 10th anniversary of Werewolf on the Gym. I also wanted to the make the game special and to do that, along with making the players think more about what was going on. I decided to jump away from any Pokemon, videogame or TCG, references whatsoever to make this happen. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the change of pace!
--To go along with the stripped-down feel of this game, I used a lot more vanilla (no ability) Townsfolk since that would leave less regular roles and allow the Wolves to hide behind the honest "I'm just a Townsperson" debate. In all, there were 7 vanilla townies in this game (3 each of Consorts and Techs along with Ubaldo Piangi who had no innate ability).
--I was not shocked to see the Wolves pull ahead early in this game. The way I designed this game was to give the Wolves a LOT of early info and the Town had to work together very cohesively to root Wolves out. Sadly, that didn't happen so much. There just wasn't enough conversation amongst the Townsfolk and those who were talking fell right into the Wolves' trap of banter, counter-banter, choose an easy townie target, and never turn on a Wolf. If I'm gonna be TOTALLY honest, I think the Wolves played a more solid game than the Town, even though the Town pulled it out in the end.
--I'm surprised there was little talk about roles and what roles would be in play. I dropped enough hints about who was being played but left the element of mystery in by doing multiple duplicate roles in the guise of Opera House Tech and Parisian Consorts. I knew this would make it more difficult to decide on specific roles assigned to specific characters, but the lack of ANY discussion on it continued to lend itself to the Wolves. As for the whole Independent thing on the front page: Van Helsing was an Indie who had a Vig ability until Dracula was killed, but I didn't like the idea of a Vig in this game until very late.
--Since this game was the first "non-Pokemon" WW game on the 'Gym, I needed some other way to make roles used viable. hence, the videos that were discovered by the warrior of the 300 and eventually the ShatterSphere wielders. Each of these videos revealed specific roles. They are as follows: (Clear hints are "*"; research needed hints are in "#")
*Masquerade/Starter Video:#
*Christine/Raoul
*The Phantom
*Voguer
*Ubaldo Piangi (though briefly)
*Opera House Tech(s)
*Parisian Consort(s)
#Hint at Warrior of the 200: Girard Butler, actor who played the Phantom, was also the lead in 300.
# hint at Priest, part of costuming in scene and Parisian aristocracy.
*Video from Night 1/Van Helsing Ballroom scene set to Masquerade(now in Terms of Use violation):#
*Van Helsing
*Count Dracula
*Werewolf Constructs and Packmaster
*Friar Carl
*Priest#
*Video for Night 4/Point of No Return:
*Christine
*Raoul
*Phantom
*Madame Giry
*Ubaldo Piangi
#Warrior of the 300 again for the above listed reasons
**This scene also would have triggered a mid-game event if the Phantom were still alive. he would join the alliance with Christine and protect her from any attacks or abilities that day and night.
*Video for Night 5/Phantom of the 300:
*Warrior of the 300
**This event also unleashes the Warrior of the 300s Vig ability that was seen as a one-off kill when acquired by another player. If the Warrior had stayed alive and held onto the S.Sphere, he would get a kill each night to protect his now-revealed identity.
*Video for Night 8/Why So Silent:#
*Phantom
*Christine
*Voguer
#Dracula: This was the biggest stretch of my hints. The actor of the Phantom in the clip, Hugh Panaro, is a well known Broadway lead who actually developed and played Lestat in the Broadway music Lestat (with music by Elton John). When I started writing the script for this game, Lestat had yet to open and had a lot of buzz around it. By the time this game went live, Lestat was a long dead show and considered a HUGE flop (think the original American production of Chess here, people). This one needed a lot fo research but it came so late it didn't matter. And sometimes you gotta really dig for these clues.
The only role without a hint: Imakuni?. Seriously, he's been in all my games; you should expect him by now.
--There was also little to no discussion about the videos I posted and, considering how latent with information they were, this was very disappointing. I honestly think this was the biggest contribution to the Town struggling so much beyond not trying to talk things out in general.
--I was also shocked not to see the Wolves talk about the clips in topic since it would prompt the other players to talk about their roles as well and help the Wolves make good targets anyway.
--I was sad to see the wolves take out vets so early and to the see the vets not pull one of my moves and call for protection from the Priest/Protector/whoever. I usually run 2 but, sadly, the Wolves got the Priest waaaay too early for this to be viable. Sad town is sad...
(((On a side note, the whole vets getting killed early thing will NOT be a problem in WW XIII as far as I can foresee it.)))
--I actually DID lobby with the Wolves to take out less-experienced players but did leave the final choice up to them. So Town, I tried to help ya out as much as I could but it came down to human free will.
--Kudos to homeofmew for sticking up to the Wolves for as long as you did. It's just sad that they didn't catch on to your logic and that it got shot down from low-lying wolves. Although that was pretty much the town's biggest logic win IMO (its the one that sticks out the most to me).
--Further kudos to Absoltrainer for going out in a blaze of glory (its honestly the only acceptable way for a Wolf to go out IMO).
--The items were part of the experiment along with another with two other roles and I think they merit discussion. I think the ShatterSphere worked well since it slowly revealed the plot and all teh characters. It also was connected to other events and provided the randomness a Forum WW game needs. The only two unchecked rooms in the game's end: the previously mentioned lever room (with the 7 Deadly Sins in statues surrounding it hinting at a religious based role, the Priest) and an empty room (yes, there were empty rooms to provide confusion.
--The Pyrite SpellBomb didn't work as it should have. The ideal situation is to have it go off early to mid game to make things a bit more spicy. no one expects a one-time use pseudo vig ability. Since the Bomb comes from Van Helsing and is/was seen at the end of the clip, you know exactly how it works: Light destroys any necro-beings or necro-constructs (Vampires and Werewolves in this instance). However, letting it hang on until late-game really destroyed a lot of the work and fun of the game. Next time I use an ability like this, I'll only keep the weapon usable until a certain game day (it was even stated by DFB that he was waiting to use the SpellBomb the night he died which shows you that this game could have been VERY different).
--There was a big Bad Guys as Good Guys theme going in this topic. The only real Bad Guys were the Wolves. But a few less-than-stellar people were also here as Townsfolk. Dracula as a Masonic-maker was just too good of a flavor to pass up and, if he had targeted the right people, should have swung the game easily to the Town's favor early on. Also, the Phantom is often viewed as misunderstood but rarely as a full-on good guy (even though his methods of saving/helping people was a bit...unorthodox. And the Warrior of the 300 revealing game secrets was well used to.
--New Roles: I try and spice things up each time by tweaking classic roles on making new ones. In this game there was a twist and a set of new roles. The first was Dracula and Priest. The Priest is usually the person who protects everyone from the Wolves but, in this game, he felt he needed to protect people more from Dracula. And, while Dracula is often seen as a bad guy, he had a very good reason for the Town to win this game, hence aligning a bad guy with the good guy side. I also loved his ability to make an alliance of town members to gang up on the Wolves silently. While this didn't go off as well as I'd hoped this game, I'm definitely considering it for another future game. The other twisty role was the Lovers not dying when another died. Their disconnect would only happen when the Point of No Return video was posted and the Phantom was still alive (neither happened).
--Another slightly tweaked role was the Voguer's role. Ideally, this person doesn't get targeted early on and they show up and are surprised. But preventing night death and putting a high avoidability on other roles was a bad choice from my end. It made the game unwinable by the Wolves and that is just too swingy of a game for me. I did design this game to be more in the Town's favor as they have yet to win a real game (I don't count WW I), but I wasn't expecting this style of win from lots of late extra free kills.
--Overall, I think we can all agree the game was VERY close and, at the end, it could have gone to either side. next time, I'll make sure my game avoids kingmaker roles like the Voguer while still employing it's abilities albeit in a weaker form. I'll also make sure I balance the Wolves out a bit more as this time they were a little more powerful than my last few games. Great work from both sides and I hope to see everyone in WW XI!
-------------------------------------
Speaking of WW XI, I'm still waiting to hear from one more person before I post my decision. Stay tuned until the topic is closed!
Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:
QUICK UPDATE: If you have any questions for me concerning this game or WW XIII, I'm more than happy to answer any questions. feel free to spot them and I'll post back an answer as soon as I can. Thanks!
~Cardz.
