Setup Requirements (Outdated)

Simple-FM (S-FM) refers to the smaller games of 13 or less, and is different to M-FM.

S-FM:

Anyone with prior experience playing a game may apply to host a S-FM. S-FM games are comprised of 13 players or less, have a 48 hour maximum day limit (though 24 hours is strongly preferred in most setups), and resemble a 'Normal' game of Mafia as much as possible. Anonymous accounts are generally not allowed.

For a definition of normal, see https://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Normal_Game

S-FM games should pay particular attention to this definition. Roles that affect the core mechanics of lynching, roles that require anonymous accounts (disguiser and ventriloquist), daytime events other than regular lynches, or any random effects are not considered to be 'normal'.

S-FM games may only have up to 30 possible roles.

In addition, games with 10 players or less generally should not make use of roles like Mayors and Cultists because they can upset the balance very easily.

This does not mean a custom role or mechanic is COMPLETELY forbidden in S-FM, but try not to experiment with especially funky mechanics that could lead to confusion for newcomers. Everything should make sense and seem familiar to someone who has only played SC2 mafia before.

For a perfect example of what might be allowed in a S-FM, see Rocshi's TF2 setup:
https://www.sc2mafia.com/forum/showth...M-FM-TF2-Style
or Zack's Torment setup:
https://www.sc2mafia.com/forum/showth...p/4222-Torment

Note that these setups were NOT designed to conform to the definition of 'normal', and setups like these will not be easily approved. Keep it modest if you wish to host a S-FM, if you really want to include a custom role then make sure it is fairly simple and fits into the current game mechanics fairly easily. It's usually a good idea to pick one from the role suggestions compendium, because chances are that some FM players are already familiar with it and can explain newcomers that aren't.

The host may include any flavour of RP he or she wishes, but players should be allowed to skip all RP and not be penalised for it if they so desire. It is solely for flavour.

M-FM:

Anyone that has hosted a game of S-FM successfully may apply to host a M-FM. If you have not hosted an S-FM game before, you may still co-host a game with someone who has. The M-FM is the game as we have known it for a while. A maximum of 20 players, though small games of less than 13 players may be defined as a M-FM if there are exotic custom roles and mechanics. Days may last up to 72 hours, though once again it is preferred if they are less, and a setup will not be approved unless you can justify this much longer day.

M-FM games may only have up to 40 possible roles

These games can be more experimental, but must still be thought through and approved. Anonymous accounts may be used if it's beneficial to your setup. If not, avoid using them because it makes setting up your game quite a bit harder, as it will require the cooperation of a super moderator.

With the higher number of games now available to players, there will be regular threads on the Setup Approval boards where hosts can submit a game to take part in an upcoming poll. The most popular setup will get to be hosted after the poll concludes.

Only one M-FM will be running at any one time, and they are usually on hold when a large FM is taking place on the site. If you'd like to host or finish an ongoing game during a large FM, please contact the host of that game to ensure you're not stepping on anyone's toes by doing so. It's your responsibility to ensure that no conflicts exist about players participating in multiple games.

Once the previous M-FM ends, you really should be ready to begin the next one fairly immediately, and if you know your game is drawing to a close please PM the next host to say that they should begin preparing. This is just a general tip though.

What needs to be in a setup thread?

There are a few basic building blocks that should make up your setup threads. In almost all cases, all of these components are required for us to be able to judge your setup.

Role list
A role list gives a rough overview of the composition of your setup. How many players will fit in, what factions exist (town, mafia, neutrals) and which roles are (or might be!) in the game.

When creating your role list, keep in mind the maximum possible roles you can use in your game. That is 25 for S-FM and 40 for M-FM. If you have too many initially, try to cut roles that add little to game and roles that you're not using which players can easily eliminate from the list if associated feedback is missing for 1 or 2 nights. If your setup only has room for 1 or 2 neutrals, 10 different possibilities is probably a bit excessive.

If you use hidden roles, make sure to list which roles might be in each hidden slot. Colours can be used to easily distinguish the different factions.

Generally, a role list will look something like this:

Quote:

Roles List

Mafioso
Hidden Mafia
Hidden Mafia
Serial Killer
Hidden Neutral
Sheriff
Doctor
Hidden Town
Hidden Town
Hidden Town
Citizen
Citizen

Hidden Mafia: Consigliere, Consort, Framer
Hidden Neutral: Executioner, Jester
Hidden Town: Investigator, Detective, Doctor, Bodyguard, Citizen

Rolecards
You should list rolecards for all the possible roles in your game. This way the judges and players who are interested in your game can study the roles and how they might influence each other and the game in general. It also helps to have these prepared for when you send out rolecards to your players at the start of the game. In most cases, you will only have to copy and paste instead of writing it all from the ground up.

Role options are also very important. It is best to assume a default for role options does not exist and most (if not all) of the required information to see how a role works is listed inside the rolecards so it's easy to find. Examples of role options: mafioso is required to kill, serial killer kills roleblockers, veteran has 3 alerts, jester can choose suicide victim when he gets lynched, what sort of information a framer can specify for his frames, if an arsonist visits himself when incinerating, etc.

If you do not make a specific section about feedback messages (see bottom of this post), you should mention the existence of feedback in your role options as well. Does successful healing give feedback? Does witch manipulation give feedback? What about arsonist dousing or cult conversion? Roleblocks? Kill immunity? Etc.

If you use custom roles, be VERY specific about what their abilities can do. It helps you make sure you're not overlooking (un)intended impacts on your game and helps others understand your intentions. Nobody likes to find out something worked different from the way they thought it would in the middle of a game. And some players might even call foul.

Winning Conditions
These may sometimes be listed inside rolecards, especially for benign neutrals like the jester or executioner or special conditions like a citizen winning ties against mafia. But it's often handy to list these separately.

An example of winning conditions:

Quote:

Winning Conditions
Town: Must eliminate Mafia, Cult and Evil Neutrals
Mafia: Must eliminate Town, Cult and Neutral Killers
Cult: Must eliminate Town and Mafia
Neutral Killers: Must eliminate Town and Mafia

Witch: Must eliminate Town, can win with Mafia or Evil Neutrals
Jester: Get lynched
Executioner: Lynch your target and survive until the end

Order of Operations
An OoO (order of operations) will show, as the name indicates, the order in which night actions will take place. This gives an idea about the way in which night actions can influence each other. For ease of use, numbers are often used before events/actions. This is especially handy when referring to exceptions in the OoO (more on that later).

Here are a few general rules you should use/take into account when writing an OoO:
- any action that is performed after kills will not take place if the player performing it is killed (especially important for doctors/bodyguards)
- if different killers are listed on different lines, the top one takes precedence and can stop the next killer by beating him to it
- if a coroner checks his target after night kills, he can visit a living player and get his results in case they die that same night.
- roleblocks, witch manipulation and bus drives affect all actions that happen afterwards
- veteran alerts kill every visitor that comes after they go on alert. Veterans who are permanently on alert and listed before jailing will kill the jailor.
- detective and lookout only see actions that happen after they move into place to track their target
- framing affects investigations that happen afterwards
- if mason recruits happen after cult recruits, the player will be converted by the cult and the masons will immediately purge him
- if mason recruits happen before cult recruits, if the target was a citizen they will be recruited and the new mason will learn the cultist's identity
- if cultist converts lose their powers, actions performed after the conversion will not take place

There may sometimes be exceptions to the listed order under certain conditions. You can list these exceptions after the event using brackets, or you can add an additional line especially for the exception in question. The effects of kills (-) and protections (+) are often listed in brackets as well.

Here's an example of an Order of Operations:

Quote:

Order of Operations
0.1 Jailing
0.2 Night chats open
1. Survivor uses vest (+1)
2. Veteran Alert (-1)
3. Bus drives
4. Witch manipulation (can manipulate 2 and 3)
5. Roleblocks (can block 3 and 4)
6. Detective/Lookout (can see all movements from 2 and onwards)
7. Framer
8. Investigations
9. Bodyguard protects (+1)
10. Kills (-1)
11. Heals (+1)
12. Janitor
13. Cult conversion
14. Mason recruits / purging (-1)
15. Coroner
16. Jailor executes

Mechanics
List all of your games' mechanics. Day/Night length, how votes are done, and any night chats are a few things to include in your Mechanics section.

Rules of Conduct
Make sure to list all the rules you expect your players to abide by. You can't assume common sense here. If a rule is not listed in your setup or as a general forum rule (rules against personal harrassment, advertisement or posting of nudity), the players can't be held accountable for it. You have to cover all your bases to avoid players exploiting in your game.

Some common rules are:
- Don't edit your posts
- Don't use outside communication that wasn't provided by the host (generally only post on this forum's day chats and off-site forum night chats, but not on messengers, skype, private messages or reputation messages)
- Don't reveal roleplaying character names (some hosts assign these for flavour)
- Don't reveal user accounts / CoM names (if anonymous accounts are used in an M-FM)
- Submit night actions in a Private Message to the host
- Use the vote tag system OR Use oldschool bold and red text for lynch votes

Special Mechanics
If your game uses any special mechanics that don't fit into the building blocks described above, give an elaborate explanation of them.

This includes what information is revealed upon player deaths if it's not everything (no role, no cause of death) and whether or not last wills and death notes are allowed to be used. And in case of death notes, by which roles.

If lynches in your game will happen against whoever has the most votes at the end of the day even if no majority (51%+) was attained or if a lynch can be aborted by unvoting after a majority was attained, you should also list that as a special mechanic. Note: aborting lynches does not work if the vote tag system is used.

Any other special mechanics should probably not be used in an S-FM, because they tend to be experimental.

(Optional) Feedback Messages
Some hosts choose to list all possible feedback messages in their setup thread. This is not a requirement per say, but it can be very handy. As with the rolecards, all you'll have to do is copy the right messages from your setup thread each night. You won't have to think about your exact wording anymore.

With the exact formatting of feedback messages visible to all, players can make false claims using those messages and players can't abuse quoting feedback PM's from the host to make an indisputable roleclaim.

Some example feedback messages:

Quote:

Attacked/Healed:

Quote:

You were attacked and healed.

Doctor heal successful:

Quote:

Your target was attacked/healed.

Doused:

Quote:

You were doused.

Sheriff suspicious:

Quote:

Your target is suspicious.

Lookout activity:

Quote:

[name] visited your target.

Detective movement:

Quote:

Your target visited [name].

Detective no movement:

Quote:

Your target visited no-one.

If you decide not to do this, be clear about what events give feedback inside your rolecards.

For more hosting tips and tricks, read this thread and this thread.

One final reminder; keep checking back on the current availability and approval of games over in the sign-ups forum in the sticky. That thread will be constantly updated.