That does make the 11 role a bit more balanced.

Eeeeh. Kinda. The following is perhaps an unnecessary and lengthy comparison to other games. Spoilering it out to not derail the post game discussion.



TLDR: Systematic problems require systematic solutions. Sometimes, players don't do what you expect.

Now, that said, this was a new mechanic and sometimes new mechanics have unexpected consequences or just don't get explored fully by the players (the auctions in TMNT's No Man's Land comes to mind). The Upsidedown mechanic was neat and very thematic. I'm a huge fan of mods trying new things and being thematic instead of just painting the same game with Stranger Things colors.

I think the lack of vote counts made the USD feel more like silencing. If I could have communicated in the smallest of ways, I would have had much more fun. The whole USD+mafia vote+no vote count mechanic was presumably intended to keep the USD from giving the mafia an easy majority while also not confirming townies and I think it succeeded in that. It just further isolated the stuck townies from the townies on the other side of the wire.

I liked the serial killer win condition. It's really hard to win as the serial killer so they generally need a boost. It also allowed the demogorgon to take center stage, which was thematic.

I really liked the "write x roles and randomize y of them into the game" mechanic. Name claims being immediate get out of lynch free cards or playing "lynch anyone who isn't a main character" is something I can do without. The mafia got to claim arguably the central hero of the show while the town got stuck with minor characters, which was awesome.

Not sure what I think about the item mechanics. We've seen similar things in No Man's Land and Betrayal at House on the Hill and item mechanics still feel wonky. I think players have a tendency to use the best power at their disposal so if you have a townie reverse tracker/silencer, they're basically a townie reverse tracker. Re:Ignatz all game. In hindsight, I should have grabbed an item night 1, anticipating getting thrown in the USD. Maybe this just needs the players to get used to it.

I continue to like the "highest vote total gets lynched" mechanic. It encourages participation. Timestamps as tie breakers is fine imo.

Investigations were cool but I think the town overvalued them. They tied into the theme and the randomized role mechanics well. Wouldn't necessarily want this mechanic in every game but it worked here.

I liked this a lot, too, and would like to play in more games with it.

I didn't really get how it plays out, which is one reason I didn't read D1's actions as meaningful. I reflexively ignored votes that didn't lead to lynch.

Wooo! Nice win, X-Men.... I mean town :D

That last day phase was a roller coaster, haha, glad I made it to the end. Overall I found it to be a really fun game, with enough new elements to make it fresh and mysterious. Thought the theme worked really well, and the implication of the USD and the items seemed to work well (it's hard for me to form an opinion on the USD as I luckily didn't have to go there... and also the items since I couldn't use them).

Really liked the investigator role, that's a really interesting power and hope to see it come up again.

Thanks for running this, gfish, it was a really fun game!

The theory was that the demogorgon was required and probably the doc, too, meaning we could ignore Rokk as long as the demogorgon was the main threat.

That's exactly how the game had been set up.

I agree this is what made it feel like a silencing. If you tallied votes at the end of the day, not only would we see who voted for whom, adding legitimacy to the whole thing. But we would also have a way to know if the USD guys for some reason distrusted a particular person. And I don't think it would be OP cause the town couldn't really discuss the ramifications of the USD votes till the next day.

I loved the game, but it would have worked better with 6-8 more people. The game could be longer, and the three primary abnormalities (the USD, the items, and more masoning) could be better implemented.

Spoilers for the show inside, but...

...I've never even watched the show, but this was funny as hell.

I guess having spent most of the game in the USD my only comment is I wish someone had looked into the USD. It was slightly frustrating but not nearly as much as being truly silenced. I was silenced multiple days in a row in one game and I haven't played in that person's games since. Limits have been put in place in most games now but it seriously pissed me off. The USD was nothing like that but would have been more engaging if at least one person had checked and related or made some decisions based on it.

Otherwise pretty good game. Thanks gfish. Really liked the vote mechanic.

And yeah kj, good move on your part. I don't know what it was exactly but you pinged me big time from the get-go.

I'm glad you feel that way. My major motivation for powers is to remove unfun mechanics, and promote interaction and participation.

Maybe there could have been some sort of raffle mechanic where a certain item was awarded to a random player during the day? Just spitballing here.