Modbot-Supported Setups & Game Formats
This thread contains an overview of the popular Modbot-supported mafia setups that have previously been run on Mafia Universe as well as descriptions of the various game formats that you may find here.
Contents:
1) Game formats
2) Modbot-supported setups
Last edited by Thingyman; March 31st, 2017 at 08:01 PM.
Game formats
This is a list of various mafia game formats that differ from the standard one. These formats don't specify which roles are included, but rather they pertain to how the game runs or how the game is broadly designed.
In an Anonymous Game all players are given a new anonymous account to post on. This feature is supported by the Modbot, allowing the Game Host to simply enter which names they'd like for the anonymous accounts to have. Upon initiating the game, each player will be automatically contacted by the Mafia Host account with an account name and a password.
The purpose behind these games is to eliminate the element of meta, i.e. knowledge about each other's "tells" (the belief that specific players have alignment indicative behavioral patterns etc.). It allows the players to play freely without having to worry about living up to other players' pre-conceived expectations. As such, it is usually frowned upon and disallowed for the players to either reveal their own true identity or openly discuss/refer to other players' identities.
In a Bastard Game players are often subjected to high variance, chaos, moderator deception and/or unbalanced setups. The term "bastard" is most often used in a derogatory fashion. If a game is openly marketed as a bastard setup, you should only sign up for it if you think the mayhem might be fun and are willing to accept that you can/should trust nothing told to you by the Game Host.
Examples of bastard roles include Death Millers (same as a regular Miller, except the player is revealed as Mafia-aligned upon death) or False roles where a player is misled about their true role. These are viewed as bastard because they involve the moderator lying to the players.
An example of a bastard mechanic would be Cult conversions (the Cult is a third-party team that recruits players into itself), which is viewed as potentially violating the spirit of the game, since players change alignment and are forced to play for a new team. Additionally, it creates a nearly impossible situation for the town to solve, especially if the presence of a Cult is unknown to the players.
Some also consider the Jester role to be bastard due to its nature of being potentially very disruptive to games and often having an unforseen negative impact on the game. In other words, some people believe that it is against the spirit of the game for the town to be punished for lynching a player acting "scummy", given that that is what they are taught and motivated to do in regular games of mafia.
In a Bring Your Own Role (BYOR) Game players submit a character name and/or a role to the Game Host pre-game. After having received all players' submissions, the Game Host then tries to make a balanced setup, inspired by the ideas that they have received.
For example, if it's a character-only BYOR, someone might submit that they want to be Batman. The Game Host might then reply back and tell that person that they are Batman, a Town Vigilante. In special cases where players may even submit a preferred role, the Game Host will usually take these role ideas into account, but ultimately it is up to their discretion whether they want to completely rework or replace the role with something else in order to make it fit with what else is in the game.
As for the alignment of the submitted characters/roles, the Game Host will usually randomize this in accordance with standard town/mafia ratios. This means even if someone submitted a character that is known to be aligned with forces of good, this has no impact on whether the player will end up being town or mafia.
In a Hydra Game players are paired up to share one role slot. I.e. a 13-man hydra game would feature 26 players paired up, meaning that each pair shares one of the 13 roles in the game. When a hydra is lynched or killed, both players are thus eliminated from the game.
Usually, the hydra pair must post on one shared account, a hydra account. They are both allowed to be logged on and post in the game thread whenever, even at the same time. It's also common for a hydra pair to be allowed to discuss the game with each other outside of the game thread (the host usually provides them with a private thread).
In a Mentor Game the participants are usually inexperienced players that have played only a few or no mafia games at all. These players are assigned a mentor that will often follow the game thread and offer advice from the sidelines via private communication channels.
Usually the rule is that the mentor shouldn't be playing the game for the mentee. They should merely answer mechanical and strategical questions as well as provide various clarifications where needed. Unless allowed by the Game Host, the mentor should, for example, not be giving specific reads on posts or advise the mentee on who to lynch/kill.
Sometimes these mentor games are hybrid mentor/hydra games where the experienced player is paired up with the newbie on a shared hydra account and thus also allowed to post.
In a Mish-Mash Game the roleset is closed and nowadays the game typically has a single well-known theme used for flavor, such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. However, as the name suggests, these games were originally a mish-mash of many different themes all mixed together, meaning that a game could feature characters from many different universes.
Mish-Mashes usually have daily events, which are various mini-games in which players can compete in order to win game-related prizes and boosts. Mish-Mash games furthermore tend to feature In-Thread Attack windows, i.e. periods in which the players are allowed to shoot at each other during Day Phases. These In-Thread Attack windows commonly last 30 minutes, occur twice per day phase, and each player's shot usually has a 15% chance of hitting the other player.
Besides this, these games often feature completely original roles and/or mechanics that have never been seen before, using the source material (theme) as creative inspiration. Examples of previously used themes with special mechanics include "Choose Your Own Adventure" where the players could vote on which direction to take the "story" (game) or "Saw" where the players not only had to play mafia, but also had to escape their own death traps.
While not technically a defining feature of a Mish-Mash game, they do tend to feature very large player lists, often between 40-100 players. Small Mish-Mashes are sometimes referred to as Mini-Mashes.
In a Multiball Game there are more than just the two regular factions of Town and Mafia. For example, there might be a Town faction and then 3 different Mafia factions (these will often have different faction names such as Mafia, Werewolves and Vampires). Note that the term Multiball isn't used for regular games only featuring independents such as Serial Killers besides the Town and Mafia factions.
The different mafia factions in a Multiball are all intended to be equal in strength, though they do not necessarily have the exact same roles or even the same number of faction members.
Due to the nature of Multiball games, they can sometimes end in draws or result in Kingmaker scenarios where a player who is incapable of winning can still influence which other faction wins.
In a Nightless Game there are no Night Phases, i.e. no nightkills. Instead, the game simply continues from one Day Phase to the next. Since these games take away the mafia team's ability to kill townies, they are usually compensated in some way, either via larger numbers or abilities to be used during day (such as day kills).
In an Outside Communication (OC) Game the players are allowed to not only post in the game thread, but may also communicate with each other outside of the game thread. Usually there are no restrictions to this communication, though some Game Hosts may prefer that it only occurs in specific channels and/or that the Game Host can monitor all these communications.
These games are notoriously difficult to balance, given that outside communication allows for plays not possible in regular games, such as information power roles privately sharing their findings with those that they have investigated and/or other clear players in the game, creating a network of confirmed/confirmable players that the mafia will have a difficult time infiltrating, unless certain mechanics and roles exist to counteract this.
In a Post Restricted (PoR) Game the Game Host has set a maximum posting restriction. I.e. if the maximum posting restriction is 50 posts, this means that no one in the game is allowed to make more than 50 posts per game day.
This maximum posting restriction is often enforced via a setting in the Modbot, which makes it impossible for players to keep posting after they've hit the maximum.
However, sometimes the Game Host may have a rule that the posting restriction is lifted 1 hour before End of Day (EOD), in which case the restriction is usually enforced manually in combination with a rule that for each illegal post that a player makes, one vote is manually added to their tally. I.e. say that the maximum is 20 posts and a player has 22 posts with 1 hour before End of Day, then they will have 2 votes added to their final vote tally.
Last edited by Thingyman; February 22nd, 2017 at 03:52 AM.
Modbot-supported setups
All setups here feature only roles supported by the Modbot.
Pre-Built Setups
All of the pre-built setups can be created with four different phase length settings:
- Turbo: 18 minute days, 6 minute nights, appropriate for very quick turbo games
- Fast: 12 hour days, 12 hour nights
- Medium: 36 hour days, 12 hour nights
- Slow: 72 hour days, 24 hour nights
Cop 9'er has been the most common turbo game setup. It provides a good mix between power role strategy and skill, and is quick to pick up and play. It has been brought up recently, however, that this setup may be town-sided if the cop has a night 0 peek and unlimited inspections.
This game features:
1x Town Alignment Cop
6x Vanilla Town
2x Mafia Goon
It is possible to choose whether the cop gets a random night 0 (pre-game) peek. If they do, it is usually set to be on a random town player.
Cop 13'er was used for Season 2 of the Mafia Championship. It's a simple setup where the result depends mostly on player skill. Early in the history of Mafia Universe, this was the only pre-built setup for long games, so many of these "vanilla" games were run.
This game features:
1x Town Alignment Cop
9x Vanilla Town
3x Mafia Goon
It is possible to choose whether the cop gets a random night 0 (pre-game) peek. If they do, it is usually set to be on a random town player.
The Vigilante 10'er setup has grown popular as a different kind of small game to run as a turbo setup. The vigilante can help the town more quickly and efficiently eliminate its mafia candidates, and acts like a second lynch largely free of scum control.
This game features:
1x Town Vigilante
7x Vanilla Town
2x Mafia Goon
Mountainous refers to a range of setups of different sizes which feature no power roles (PRs) for either team. Town is compensated for this in sheer numbers: in this setup, there are at least four town players for every one mafia player. The game strips down mafia to its basics of finding the mafia by posting and argumentation.
Mountainous 11'er features:
9x Vanilla Town
2x Mafia Goon
Mountainous 13'er features:
11x Vanilla Town
2x Mafia Goon
Mountainous 15'er features:
12x Vanilla Town
3x Mafia Goon
Matrix6 is a 9-player semi-open setup designed by Cogito Ergo Sum of MafiaScum, where this is used as their newbie setup. No one is able to know which setup the game has from the beginning, which can make producing lies and fake claims interesting.
Setting up a Matrix6 game involves randomly selecting a row or column from the following table:
A B C 1 Town Jailkeeper Vanilla Townie Mafia Goon 2 Mafia Roleblocker Town Alignment Cop Town Doctor 3 1-Shot Bulletproof Townie Mafia Goon Town Tracker
The choice of row or column determines which power roles are in the game. 5 Vanilla Townies and 1 Mafia Goon are then added to complete a 7-town, 2-mafia setup. Modbot contains presets for all six of these setups, as well as an option to choose one at random.
Notice that several of the setups resemble others here, e.g. column B means the setup is a cop 9'er without a night 0 peek.
D6 is a 13-player semi-open setup designed by Visorslash. It is a 13-player Semi-Open Variable setup designed to offer a more balanced experience compared to C9++.
Town Power Roles:
To determine the town power roles, roll a die six times and mark down the numbers. Each roll corresponds to a grouping below.
1-3: Investigative
4-5: Protective
6: Killing
Mark down the number of each grouping and add the corresponding roles from the table below.
Investigative 1 Innocent Child 2 Voyeur 3 Motion Detector 4 Role Cop 5 Tracker 6 Parity Cop
Protective 1 Bodyguard 2 Doctor 3 Roleblocker 4 Jailkeeper 5 Jailkeeper + Bodyguard 6 Roleblocker + Doctor
Killing 1 1-Shot Vigilante 2 2-Shot Vigilante 3 Vigilante 4 Vigilante 5 Vigilante + 1-Shot Vigilante 6 Vigilante + 2-Shot Vigilante
Add as many Vanilla Town roles as necessary to bring the total number of Town roles to 10.
Mafia Power Roles:
Count the number of town power roles from above, then take that number minus one. Roll a die that many times and mark down the numbers. Add the corresponding roles from the table below.
Mafia Roles 1 Mafia Roleblocker 2 Mafia Roleblocker 3 Mafia Jailkeeper 4 Mafia Role Cop 5 Mafia Tracker 6 Mafia Watcher
Add as many Mafia Goon roles as necessary to bring the total number of Mafia roles to 3.
Modbot will do this at random for you.
Custom Setups
Hosts can construct these setups by selecting "Custom Setup" in Modbot. They usually require some randomization work outside of what Modbot is equipped to handle.
This also isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, just a highlighting of some more commonly played and supported setups here.
Matrix12 is a 17-player semi-open setup which was created specifically for use in Season 3 of the Mafia Championship. It is based on Matrix6, but scaled to larger game sizes with a wide variety of potential power roles. It is also a semi-open setup.
To set up a Matrix12 game, randomly select a row or column from the following table:
A B C D E F 1 Town Jailkeeper Vanilla Townie Mafia Role Cop Vanilla Townie 1-Shot Mafia Strongman Town Odd Night Cop 2 Mafia Roleblocker Town Alignment Cop Town Doctor Mafia Ninja Vanilla Townie Vanilla Townie 3 1-Shot Bulletproof Townie 1-Shot Mafia Strongman Town Tracker Town Masons (2) Vanilla Townie 1-Shot Mafia Strongman 4 1-Shot Mafia Strongman 1-Shot Mafia Bulletproof Town Vigilante Town Bodyguard 2-Shot Town Jailkeeper Vanilla Townie 5 Vanilla Townie Vanilla Townie Mafia Jailkeeper 1-Shot Mafia Strongman Town Alignment Cop w/ n0 town check Town Jailkeeper 6 Town Vigilante Town Innocent Child Vanilla Townie Town Tracker 2-Shot Mafia Roleblocker Mafia Watcher
The choice of row or column determines which power roles are in the game. Add 9 Vanilla Townies and 2 Mafia Goons to complete the setup, which you can then build in Modbot.
For example, if column E was chosen, the setup contains the following roles:
- 1 Town Alignment Cop with a night 0 town check
- 1 2-Shot Town Jailkeeper
- 11 Vanilla Townies
- 1 1-Shot Mafia Strongman
- 1 2-Shot Mafia Roleblocker
- 2 Mafia Goons
General notes:
- The mafia's factional kill must be assigned to a single member of their team each night. This means that the kill can be blocked by a Town Jailkeeper or tracked by a Town Tracker. In Modbot, you should set the field "Assign factional kills" to Yes.
- Some of the roles in the matrix (Mafia Ninja and 1-Shot Mafia Bulletproof) indeed only have value for either the row or the column setup in which they are used, and not the other. This is not a mistake--it is done on purpose to only boost the mafia side in one of the two setups.
Notable restrictions/clarifications:
- The Mafia Ninja may not perform the factional kill on consecutive nights.
- The Town Cop gets an automated check on Night 0, i.e. when the game begins he will already know the alignment of one town player (this player can be a power role or a Vanilla Townie, the Cop will not know). The reason that the Town Cop can't potentially check a mafia-aligned player on Night 0 is to prevent an unfortunate situation of a representative being outed as mafia before they've had a chance to showcase their skills.
C9++ is a semi-open setup for 13 players, originally designed by Fiasco of MafiaScum. The idea behind a C9++ setup is that for every power role the town rolls, anti-town forces also grow stronger.
To set up a C9++ game, randomly choose 7 numbers between 1 and 100. Each number corresponds to a letter, which signifies the type of power role rolled:
Number Letter 1-50 T (Townie) 51-65 C (Cop) 66-75 D (Doctor) 76-85 V (Vigilante) 86-95 M (Mason) 96-100 B (Blocker)
Then based on the letters you have, consult the following list to add roles to the game (where not specified, they are town roles):
Cop Roles
C = 1-Shot Cop
CC = Cop
CCC = Cop, 1-Shot Cop
CCCC = 2 Cops
CCCCC = 2 Cops, 1-Shot Cop
CCCCCC = 3 Cops
Doctor Roles
D = Doctor
DD = Doctor, 1-Shot Doctor
DDD = 2 Doctors
DDDD = 2 Doctors, 1-Shot Doctor
DDDDD = 3 Doctors
Vigilante Roles
V = 1-Shot Vigilante
VV = Vigilante
VVV = Vigilante, 1-Shot Vigilante
VVVV = 2 Vigilantes
VVVVV = 2 Vigilantes, 1-Shot Vigilante
Mason Roles
M = Innocent Child
MM = 2 Masons
MMM = 2 Masons, Innocent Child
MMMM = 3 Masons
MMMMM = 2 Masons, 2 Masons (i.e. two separate pairings)
Blocker Roles
B = Roleblocker
BB = Roleblocker, 1-Shot Roleblocker
BBB = 2 Roleblockers
BBBB = 2 Roleblockers, 1-Shot Roleblocker
Scum Roles
TTTTTTT = Mafia Goon, Mafia Godfather; Serial Killer + 1 Bulletproof Vest*
TTTTTT = Mafia Goon, Mafia Godfather
TTTTT = Mafia Goon, Mafia Godfather; Serial Killer + 1 Bulletproof Vest
TTTT = 2 Mafia Goons, Mafia Roleblocker
TTT = 2 Mafia Goons, Mafia Roleblocker; Serial Killer + 1 Bulletproof Vest
TT = Mafia Goon, Mafia Roleblocker, Mafia Godfather
T = Mafia Goon, Mafia Roleblocker, Mafia Godfather; Serial Killer + 1 Bulletproof Vest
0 Ts = Mafia Goon, Mafia Roleblocker, Mafia Godfather
*The original setup allows the serial killer to choose either investigation immunity or a bulletproof vest, but this is not possible with the current software - you can't edit a role's modifiers after the game has been randed. Typical precedent has dictated giving the vest by default.
Then, add Vanilla Townies until you have 13 roles.
For example, I rolled the following numbers using random.org: 91, 32, 92, 81, 87, 83, 93. Converting them to letters gives me MMMMVVT. This means my setup will have the following power roles:
- 3 Town Masons in a group together
- Town Vigilante
- Mafia Goon
- Mafia Roleblocker
- Mafia Godfather
- Serial Killer + 1 Bulletproof Vest
That's 8 roles, so adding 5 Vanilla Townies completes the setup.
This setup, designed by Cogito Ergo Sum of MafiaScum, is similar to Mountainous in that there are no power roles for either team. However, the mafia cannot kill on nights 1 and 2. When setting this game up, change the "Mafia Factional Kill" setting to one of the options which disables it for nights 1 and 2.
This game features:
9x Vanilla Town
2x Mafia Goon
Last edited by roro__b; August 26th, 2020 at 11:42 AM.
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