New Role: Psychic (Updated)

[Dimwit]

Role name: Psychic (eh on the name)

Description: The Psychic is

Alignment: Cult

Abilities:
a) The Psychic can choose to speak with a dead individual over the course of one night (1, 2 or 3) times.
b) Sharing the same usage limit, the Psychic can swap the minds of two individuals (1, 2 or 3) times. The swapped individuals will perform the actions chosen be each, exactly how they would be. (i.e. John is a Mafioso and Bob is a Vigilante, John decides to kill Joe and bob decides to kill John. What a detective/lookout/town would see is Bob kill Joe and John kill himself)

Win Condition: Survive to the end of the game (Same conditions as survivor, but has an active role)

Host Options:
1) Set Ability Usage Times
. Can use ability 1 Time
. Can use ability 2 Times
. Can use ability 3 Times
2) Target knows he is Mindswitched (toggle off/on)

Pros:
1) Gives the host the option to specifically choose this role, but still give it the element of randomness that players tend to prefer. (still true, after changes)

2) It also taps into the grave yard, which is usually a source of information anyways when someone lags, so you turn the intermittent, strategic "exploit" into an ability.

3) Creates some AWESOME confusion with the mind swap

Cons:
1) Player can decide to not help any particular side and still win.

2) Taps into the unintended resource that is the GraveYard

Overall effect on the metagame if implemented: The Graveyard, even though it is not intended so, is a source of information most often when someone lags out. However, it is often times used strategically to seed misinformation or call out remaining baddies that the dead townies have figured out.

The issue with this is that it ONLY occurs when someone lags out. So not only is it a chance based strategic resource (and I know Dark wants to shy away from /rolls) you are turning the Graveyard into something that Blizzards mechanics have already forced, albeit intermittently. This way, it is an intended source when available, a strategic source and allows the dead a potential reason to stick around (points aren't a huge motivator; a clever one, though).

Additional comments: I think the idea of giving the players the choice of Good, Bad or Neutral adds depth and dimension.

Below, it is suggested that the Psychic is too similar to the Witch with the Mindswitch ability. I disagree with this. The only true similarity between the Psychic and Witch is that they influence the actions taken by an individual. Pointing this out is no different than pointing out that the Veteran and Vigilante both kill people. It is the way they reach their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses to differing roles that makes them different, as well as useful.

The only adversary to the Lookout and Detective is the Veteran and Bus Driver, both town roles. The Witch only influences whom his target uses his ability on. It still gives good intel to all investigative roles. It can sometimes amount to a death or give the witch information about others, but it really has little use for the latter.

The Psychic is the Yin to the Lookout/Detective's Yang. If a Psychic swaps a Doctor and Mafioso, and the Detective is watching the Doctor, he'll likely get the Doc lynched the next day and himself the next. Similarly, a Framer hits up a Doc and instead lands himself on a Veteran, potentially saving the Doc for the remainder of the game, under suspicion of being a Vet by the Mob.

So even if the talking to the dead thing needs to be scrapped, the Psychics other ability is quite useful, adds some diversity as well as adversity, and while it may appear to mimic another role, it is in fact quite unique.

[BorkBot]

I think it's been said several times that communication with the dead is a no-go. And the evil path seems rather much like a witch.

[Dimwit]

I disagree very much so that it is too much like the Witch. The witch controls who an individual is targeting which really only causes confusion for the target. The psychic makes two targets perform the actions of each other giving out all sorts of bad intel for town and any detectives or lookouts. Those are two very different impacts on the game.

And the idea of talking to the dead may be considered a no go but like I states, when someone lags out it gets used so its already in. Im just suggesting it actually be made a part of the game instead of being a per chance thing that requires someone to lag. Im hoping Dark will hear my argument.

The lag exploit isn't game breaking but it is in fact an unpoliced exploit. This role curbs that a bit.

[Pansy]

How about make it a Cult role, and allow it to communicate with 1 dead member 1, 2, or 3 times.

[Fulla]

I really dislike the options. That seems unique to the Amnesiac being able to pick sides and think it should stay that way. So evil Mafia Witch or good Town Witch variant IMO.

Overall thou I think he's a bit complicated, if you made it more straight forward and streamlined it would be better.

[Dimwit]

Im on my phone at work so any edits to my main post will come from my pc when I get home late tonight.

I really appreciate the constructive feedback. I understand your point in regards to complexity. I will take some from all the suggestions above with:

She will be a Cult alignment.
Death speak ability is just to choose with whom they would like to speak with on a single night. Limited to 3 uses. Open channel of communication is for one night only but not confined to alignment.
I continue to stand by the mindswap ability. Still sharing a usage count with the dead speak ability.

Win conditions changed to surviving to the end of the game.

This still gives the player a flexible choice for applicable alignment while simplifying the mechanics significantly.

[Dimwit]

Post updated to reflect new changes. I also added a more detailed argument for the roles implementation.

I appreciate ALL constructive feedback.