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my thoughts
things went pretty well balance wise
a big ending on 6 seems pretty reasonable
alchmeist seems like it can be really strong if you use it right
joho definitely made a lot of value out of a few points with it
the death of aedan made a big difference as it shattered the nascent JL
if he had lived one more day I think a big JL would have formed very early and won the game
I think I've come to hate cursed
it always just kinda feels bad luck based and overly swingy
if avernite had just died instead of being turned things would have been very different
things went pretty well balance wise
a big ending on 6 seems pretty reasonable
alchmeist seems like it can be really strong if you use it right
joho definitely made a lot of value out of a few points with it
the death of aedan made a big difference as it shattered the nascent JL
if he had lived one more day I think a big JL would have formed very early and won the game
I think I've come to hate cursed
it always just kinda feels bad luck based and overly swingy
if avernite had just died instead of being turned things would have been very different
Cursed is very luck based. It's also necessary though as otherwise you're gonna have iron clad JLs with no paranoia.
Hax was a mere villager, though I don't remember the exact traits (had to left the pack conversation due to limitations in the number of people in it)
@Hax or @Sleepyhead will know, @Panzer Commader too
@Hax or @Sleepyhead will know, @Panzer Commader too
Sure!
So the thing is, the setup kinda started with a huge mistake... I had sort of forgotten completely about zombies and just created a setup for a 24 player game.
I wanted a single large pack, Brovahkiin wanted 2 medium packs, so we rolled off and he won and so two packs it was gonna be! This meant 33% baddies, in this case exactly 8 out of 24 so 2 packs of 4 with no unattached as the obvious choice (I don't like unattached baddies that much anyway, they make analysis less useful and they're generally very annoying to play).
From looking up past games I decided to go with 1.7:1 goodie:baddie total pick points. For the baddies I gave each pack 23 total points though I spread them out a bit differently:
Pack A/Servants of Chaos:
-10 Pick Points: BiPolarBear
Went with alderman robber werewolf
-6 Pick Points: the_hdk
Werewolf SA Zombie Hunter
(and it is at this point that I realized that I probably really should have included zombies)
-4 Pick Points: Cymsdale
Went with GM's choice. I'm not 100% sure anymore but I think this was Brovah's choice as he ended up beating me in the dice roll again.
Werewolf conman psychic
-3 Pick Points: Alxeu
Spiritually attuned plotter cultist
Pack B/Anti-Psykers:
-8 Pick Points: Yvanoff
Innkeeper Psychic Werewolf
-8 Pick Points: Sleepyhead
Warg alchemist cultist
-4 Pick Points: Yakman
Restless werewolf
-3 Pick Points: Arkasas
Went with Lady Luck
So we had a pack with 10,6,4,3 and a pack with 8,8,4,3. I briefly pondered whether this was exactly balanced. In general, concentrating the pickpoints is more powerful than spreading them out, because for example 8 pick-point choices are usually much more powerful than 2 4-pick point traits. But as the pickpoints table for baddies ends at 8, giving someone 10 does not actually give them any more options than giving them 8, so I decided it would be fine. Overall I felt like the packs made pretty good picks, both had at least 2 wolves and some powers to mess with the villagers.
As for the villagers we had:
Important goodies:
11: Aedan -> Seer
10: Audren -> van Helsing
9: Wagonlitz -> Priest
8: Dutchguy -> Plotter Hunter
Overall very responsible picks I think! I intended for the village to have at least one protector but I can see how van Helsing can be more appealing than Guardian Angel. Perhaps that should be cheaper? Of course, we ended up having the 8 pick points goodie and the 11 pick points goodie cancelling out, but that's why no balancing plan ever survives first contact with the players.
Semi-Important goodies:
7: Jeray -> Padre. Padre is weird to me, on paper it sounds really powerful but I don't think I've ever seen it actually do anything in any game and this wasn't different. Points to Jeray for trying, though
6: Capibara -> Witness SA Zombie Hunter. Died too soon, I really wanted to see Witness in action, it is so rarely used and we even had the stronger version
6: Alynkio -> Infiltrator. Another really interesting trait to me that died too early to do much
6: Euro -> Didn't pick anything, got GM's choice of Cloak + Damsel. Didn't set a standing order to use the cloak if lynched
Would have been fun5: Johho -> Alchemist zombie hunter. And this ZH pick is what reminded me that we should probably have zombies.
As for Alchemist? I absolutely loved it. You can clear exactly one person, which encourages discussion with that person but doesn't create a too-strong JL. There was always so much thought put into how to use it compared to how scanners usually scan. No doubt a big part of that is Johho being a good player but I do think it's a more thinking role than traditional scanner. I'll definitely be using this in future games.
Other goodies:
4: Eternaly_Lost -> SSA Plotter. Also, cursed
3: Emperor Ike -> Alderman conman
3: Hax -> Alderman plotter
Loved the juxtaposition here, with both 3 pp goodies choosing to give themselves more voting power, though in slightly different ways
2: Avernite -> Chose Lady Luck
2: Chefjones -> Spiritually Attuned. Also, blessed
2: DNFC -> Oracle! Which I thought was really cool, as I've never seen it in a game before. Didn't do much here as it was just used to verify audren's claim which was later confirmed by Alynkio's death anyway, but the potential is there
0: Claude LC: Chose Lady Luck
0: Beartjah: Also chose Lady Luck
So when I noticed that we should probably add the zombies (especially as people were picking zombie Hunter), I decided that adding 2 goodie zombies and 1 baddie zombie would be pretty good as it maintains the ratio of goodies to baddies and doesn't disrupt pack structure. Brovah suggested we should make the zombies lore-appropriate and I thought that was a cool idea, so Promos the Ultramarine got Alderman and Ahriman the Thousand Son got SSA. Dante the blood angel got angelic powers but DNFC was obviously allowed to override that when she took over and she did.
So, now onto Lady Luck. The glaring thing here was the complete lack on any scanning powers on any villagers as no one picked any X-ly scan. To rectify that, decided to give Beartjah the 0 Pick Points Sorc. Powers (also, sorc powers usually make you more suspicious, so that was supposed to sort of counter-balance giving a 0 pp person a scan). Avernite got clairvoyant as it's all scans bundled together and I wanted to give the village that.
I did feel, however, that this messed with balance a lot in favor of the goodies as it was 7 whole extra points. Yet I couldn't make Arkasas too powerful to compensate because no one from the other pack picked LL and that would have left them at a disadvantage. So I gave Arkasas Assassin which is most frequently used by baddies to shoot JL spokespeople or similar so it would hopefully be equally helpful to both packs.
As for the hidden traits, I think that usually you should have a few more cursed than blessed but in a game of this size I didn't want too many of either. So I went with just 2 cursed, 1 blessed, 1 apprentice. I don't remember exactly how they were distributed before LL but I know that Avernite got his cursed off Beartjah when LL switched them.
Glad to hear it, will let my friend that came up with the idea of alchemist know you liked it. I liked it for just those reasons and working with DNFC was really nice too (I think this was the first time we ended up on the same team).
It has been used in the past. I e.g. have succeeded with it several times before.
It's all down to luck, or more often, being in a JL. It's no different form how GA and Doc rarely actually block anything too. It is useful, though, and the mere existence of it can be enough to make the wolves change hunt.
Really depends. Think I usually have around equal amounts of them.
I usually have a few more cursed than blessed. But it's all down to game balance, e.g. if you have two GAs but no blessed or a few baddie Assassins and fewer cursed etc.
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Personally I found van Helsing to be much more valuable than GA, but I've played a disproportionate amount of VHs before so maybe I was just more comfortable in that role.
ADVENTURE IN ALBUQUERQUE!
You are citizens of the great American city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the 2000's. Methamphetamine abuse is devastating your community. Can you band together, with the aid of the local branch of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, to tame this menace and bring those who profit from the pains of others to justice? Or will the drug-dealers, cartels, meth-cooks and crooked lawyers continue to operate with impunity?
You are citizens of the great American city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the 2000's. Methamphetamine abuse is devastating your community. Can you band together, with the aid of the local branch of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, to tame this menace and bring those who profit from the pains of others to justice? Or will the drug-dealers, cartels, meth-cooks and crooked lawyers continue to operate with impunity?