S-FM America 2020 (15P)

[Stealthbomber16]

The S stands for Shitpost

AMERICA 2020
This setup is heavily experimental. Please make sure you read all of the special mechanics.

Republican Party
President Donald Trump
Random Republican
Random Republican

Democrat Party
Joe Biden
Random Democrat
Random Democrat

American Populace
Random PR
Random PR
Random PR
Undecided Voter
Undecided Voter
Undecided Voter
Undecided Voter
Undecided Voter

Third Party
Random 3p

Rules
All standard S-FM Rules apply
Pictures are allowed within reasonable size. Hopefully I don't need to specify what "reasonable size" is.
Videos are allowed as long as autoplay is off.

Mechanics
48 hour days.
24 hour nights or early ending nights at host discretion.
The Republican and Democrat alignments share a night chat and know each others roles/identities.

Special Mechanics
One of the political parties will be deemed "corrupt" at random. There is no host meta here, this will be decided by a coin flip. The corrupt party will know they are corrupt, and vice versa.
Each day, players vote on a player to convict rather than eliminate. Convicted players will still have access to their night abilities, but will lose their ability to vote on day 4. If a presidential candidate is convicted, the game ends and the convicted party loses. If the convicted party was not the corrupt one, town loses as well. This voting is majority only.
On day 4 the presidential election begins. Instead of the typical voting process, players may vote anonymously for either President Donald Trump or for Joe Biden. The game will always conclude after day 4. If the corrupt politician is elected, the town loses.

Wincons
Republican Party: Elect Donald Trump as the President of the United States
Democrat Party: Elect Joe Biden as the President of the United States
American Populace: Elect the candidate that is not corrupt as the President of the United States

Spoiler : Rolecards :

It's important to note these rolecards are all meant to be farcical/satirical and do not represent any specific views on any of the real life counterparts.

Spoiler : Republican Party :

President Donald Trump
Each night you may publish a tweet with whatever message you wish.
The tweet will be published under the name @realDonaldTrump.

If you are Corrupt, you gain an extra vote on day 4. In addition, you gain another vote per day that a player was not convicted.

EX: "@realDonaldTrump tweeted this:"

Fox News Reporter
Each day you may send another player an article for them to fill out.
They may fill out the article that night. Whatever they choose to write will be published at the start of the following day.

If you are Corrupt, one time you may choose to give yourself an article.

EX: "The following interview was on the front page of the news:"

Mike Pence
At night you may investigate a player, learning their alignment. (Rep/Dem/Undecided/3p)

If you are Corrupt, one time you may audit a player in addition to investigating them, removing their abilities.

EX: "Your target is a(n) X"
EX: "You were audited! You have lost your abilities."

Mitch McConnell
At night you may filibuster a player, roleblocking them.

If you are Corrupt, one time you can remove your target's vote at night in addition to roleblocking them. You cannot do this on day 4.

EX: "Your night action was filibustered."
EX: "Your vote for the day has been removed! You cannot vote today."

Rudy Giuliani
At night you may track a player, learning who they visit and who visited them,

If you are Corrupt, you also learn who they voted for the previous day.

EX: "Your target visited X and was visited by Y, Z."
EX: "Your target voted for X."

Spoiler : Democrat Party :

Joe Biden
Each night you may publish a tweet with whatever message you wish.
The tweet will be published under the name @JoeBiden.

If you are Corrupt, you gain an extra vote on day 4. In addition, you gain another vote per day that a player was not convicted.

EX: "@JoeBiden tweeted this:"

MSNBC Reporter
Each day you may send another player an article for them to fill out.
They may fill out the article that night. Whatever they choose to write will be published at the start of the following day.

If you are Corrupt, one time you may choose to give yourself an article.

EX: "The following interview was on the front page of the news:"

Barack Obama
At night you may investigate a player, learning their alignment. (Rep/Dem/Undecided/3p)

If you are Corrupt, one time you may audit a player in addition to investigating them, removing their abilities.

EX: "Your target is a(n) X"
EX: "You were audited! You have lost your abilities."

Nancy Pelosi
At night you may filibuster a player, roleblocking them.

If you are Corrupt, one time you can remove your target's vote at night in addition to roleblocking them. You cannot do this on day 4.

EX: "Your night action was filibustered."
EX: "Your vote for the day has been removed! You cannot vote today."

Kamala Harris
At night you may track a player, learning who they visit and who visited them,

If you are Corrupt, you also learn who they voted for the previous day.

EX: "Your target visited X and was visited by Y, Z."
EX: "Your target voted for X."

Spoiler : American Populace :

Undecided Voter
You have no night ability.

Independent Reporter
Each day you may send another player an article for them to fill out.
They may fill out the article that night. Whatever they choose to write will be published at the start of the following day.

EX: "The following interview was on the front page of the news:"

Political Investigator
At night you may investigate a player, learning their political alignment.

EX: "Your target is a registered democrat/republican/third party voter / Your target is not a registered party voter."

Paparazzi
At night you may follow a player, learning who they visit and who visited them.

EX: "Your target visited X and was visited by Y, Z."

Ballot Counter
One time at night you may run a player's ballot, learning what they voted for the previous day.

EX: "Your target voted for X."

Auditor
One time at night you may audit a player, stripping them of all night actions.
This fails if you target Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

EX: "You successfully audited your target."
EX: "Your audit failed."

Debate Moderator
During the night you may choose to reveal yourself as the debate moderator at the beginning of the following day. When you reveal you must pick two players to share a private day chat which you may read but NOT post in. The day chat is valid only for that single day.

EX: "X has revealed himself as the Debate Moderator!"
EX: "The Debate Moderator has invited you to a debate hall."

Spoiler : Third Party :

Maniac
If you are convicted of a felony, you exit the game with a victory.
If you are unable to be convicted by day four, you must convict the corrupt party to win.

State Prosecutor
You have a target: X.
If you convict your target of a felony, you exit the game with a victory.
If you are unable to convict your target by day four, you must convict the corrupt party to win.

Spoiler : Order of Operations :

Day End
A. Interview requests are sent out

Night Start

Night End
1. Roleblocks
2. Articles published + Tweets published
3. All investigative roles
4. Auditing
5. Debate Moderator reveals
Day Start

[Stealthbomber16]

This is gonna be my changelog now

Spoiler : November 3 (Day 1 of the election) :

Started the setup

Spoiler : November 4 (Day 2 of the election) :

I need a name for the republican agent role
Each faction has 4 pr roles right now. Gonna probably come up with one more.
Added green journalist. Need more town prs. 7 sounds like a good number. Will add a cop and an agent, but I need some more ideas.

Spoiler : December 8 (Pretty far after the election) :

Added a bunch of PRs. Ready for review.

Spoiler : september 2023 :

Reworked voting. Now players vote to convict any player on days 1-3. Convicted players lose their vote.
Reworked 3ps
Reworded Debate Moderator

[Marshmallow Marshall]

APPROVED

Spoiler : . :

(just kidding)

[Oberon]

Add neo nazis, commies, the whole she bang

Also Trump should have a special ability that deals with neo nazis somehow whilst Joe can just hide in his bunker

[Voss]

/presign

[Frinckles]

/presign

[Oberon]

/presign

[FrostByte]

This seems like it could be fun and hilarious. I'll read through it and see if I can help with suggestions when I'm sober lol

[FrostByte]

@Stealthbomber16 are there any mechanical differences between the corrupt party and the uncorrupt party?

[FrostByte]

Do the republican and democrat party members know their party is corrupt?

[Stealthbomber16]

@Stealthbomber16 are there any mechanical differences between the corrupt party and the uncorrupt party?

Corrupt party gets access to the corrupt part of their rolecard.

Do the republican and democrat party members know their party is corrupt?

Yes

[Stealthbomber16]

Ready for review

[deathworlds]

Can the presidential candidates be audited?
Is an audit permanent?
Does the game start d1 or n1?
If a corrupt president is charged with guilty, do they lose both votes or just one?
The setup requires an Order of Operations.
Does roleblock stop journalist articles from being published?

[Stealthbomber16]

Can the presidential candidates be audited?

No. Audits will fail if they target a presidential candidate.

Is an audit permanent?

Yes.

Does the game start d1 or n1?

No action night 0 to let the presidential teams talk -> day 1. I will clarify this.

If a corrupt president is charged with guilty, do they lose both votes or just one?

I'll get back to you on this one but as of right now I'm thinking only the one from a design standpoint, but it may be a balance issue.

The setup requires an Order of Operations.

Will do.

Does roleblock stop journalist articles from being published?

I'll get back to you on this one once I do the OoO but I think yes right now.

[Stealthbomber16]

thanks for the quote break button @aamirus

[Marshmallow Marshall]

@Stealthbomber16 , since deathworlds has retired, do you want me to take over the reviewing process, or to mark this as Abandoned?

[Stealthbomber16]

I’ll get around to this at some point, it’s just so far from the top of my priority list that it’s on, like, the fourth or fifth page.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

I’ll get around to this at some point, it’s just so far from the top of my priority list that it’s on, like, the fourth or fifth page.

I can mark it as Abandoned for now, and you are always free to revive it when you're ready.

[Stealthbomber16]

@Marshmallow Marshall

Setup ready for re-review.

Notable changes include the removal of the cult faction and the addition of an order of operations.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

Can the Debate Moderator only reveal once (and thus only make one chat)? It would be good to specify in the rolecard.

I assume "what one voted for" means "innocent or guilty" for the purpose of investigative roles?

My eternal question for setups of that kind: what incentive do scum have to act scummy? Especially considering how both the corrupt and non-corrupt parties should absolutely want to get their respective candidate elected in the exact same fashion (non-corrupts knowing for sure that the other party is corrupt and having to get their own party elected). So, to sum it up, how this is a game of Mafia and not something that belongs in the Other Games section (and for which I would definetly sign for because ITS SO COOL)?

[Stealthbomber16]

Can the Debate Moderator only reveal once (and thus only make one chat)? It would be good to specify in the rolecard.

I assume "what one voted for" means "innocent or guilty" for the purpose of investigative roles?

My eternal question for setups of that kind: what incentive do scum have to act scummy? Especially considering how both the corrupt and non-corrupt parties should absolutely want to get their respective candidate elected in the exact same fashion (non-corrupts knowing for sure that the other party is corrupt and having to get their own party elected). So, to sum it up, how this is a game of Mafia and not something that belongs in the Other Games section (and for which I would definetly sign for because ITS SO COOL)?

The thought is that since the corrupt (scum) faction has additional scum abilities, they would be using those abilities to try and gain an advantage. In theory this game is a 3v3+8+1, but town doesn't know which 3 is the scum.

I can see a world where those corrupt abilities are currently very weak though, and I'm open to buffing them to incentivize scumplay.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

The thought is that since the corrupt (scum) faction has additional scum abilities, they would be using those abilities to try and gain an advantage. In theory this game is a 3v3+8+1, but town doesn't know which 3 is the scum.

I can see a world where those corrupt abilities are currently very weak though, and I'm open to buffing them to incentivize scumplay.

I can't think of an ability that incentivizes scumplay during the day, which is the main point (if corrupts only rely on their special night actions and otherwise just play like non-corrupts, this still isn't Mafia). If you have ideas, though, it would be good to see them.

[theoneceko]

does this setup have night-kills

[Stealthbomber16]

does this setup have night-kills

No

[Marshmallow Marshall]

does this setup have night-kills

It's America, not North Korea :P

[Stealthbomber16]

I can't think of an ability that incentivizes scumplay during the day, which is the main point (if corrupts only rely on their special night actions and otherwise just play like non-corrupts, this still isn't Mafia). If you have ideas, though, it would be good to see them.

What would you think about giving the scum faction a target that only they know, and if they successfully get their target convicted they gain an extra 2 votes for their candidate?

Edit: the problem then becomes what is the incentive for town to vote?

[Marshmallow Marshall]

What would you think about giving the scum faction a target that only they know, and if they successfully get their target convicted they gain an extra 2 votes for their candidate?

Edit: the problem then becomes what is the incentive for town to vote?

Well, you brought up the issue yourself xD. A relatively easy fix for this would be to have scum need to innocent someone or to convict someone, and noone but them knows which one they need to do. That way, town has no incentive to abstain.

Would that be enough to make scum play scum, though?

[Stealthbomber16]

Well, you brought up the issue yourself xD. A relatively easy fix for this would be to have scum need to innocent someone or to convict someone, and noone but them knows which one they need to do. That way, town has no incentive to abstain.

Would that be enough to make scum play scum, though?

Yeah that’s a good fix then the challenge for town becomes how do you know what the scum are trying to do?

In a normal game town has to stop town from being lynched and lynch scum instead. Simple. In this game, town has to deduce whether or not the person on trial is scum, determine whether or not scum wants them to have their vote removed or not, and then determine whether or not to remove their vote.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

Yeah that’s a good fix then the challenge for town becomes how do you know what the scum are trying to do?

In a normal game town has to stop town from being lynched and lynch scum instead. Simple. In this game, town has to deduce whether or not the person on trial is scum, determine whether or not scum wants them to have their vote removed or not, and then determine whether or not to remove their vote.

The first thing that comes to mind is "that's hard". We can see how it goes, though - at least the incentive is there. Does that sound good?

[Stealthbomber16]

The first thing that comes to mind is "that's hard". We can see how it goes, though - at least the incentive is there. Does that sound good?

I feel like that just gets gamed by the town universally just agreeing "yeah, lets just let all these people keep their votes" and then anyone who tries to suggest otherwise is labeled as scum. That shuts down counterplay.

[Lumi]

How is town supposed to determine which of the parties is corrupt?

All of the corrupt powers are just optional buffs on top of their existing roles, meaning the corrupt party could choose to just not use any of their powers and therefore be effectively indistinguishable from the non-corrupt party.

I am of the mindset that (barring rare edge cases such as analysis paralysis) giving roles/factions more options is a strict buff. And therefore when the corrupt are already able to be effectively indistinguishable from the non-corrupt but they also have buffed abilities on top of that, it just means that town has no way to actually scumhunt.

[Stealthbomber16]

How is town supposed to determine which of the parties is corrupt?

All of the corrupt powers are just optional buffs on top of their existing roles, meaning the corrupt party could choose to just not use any of their powers and therefore be effectively indistinguishable from the non-corrupt party.

I am of the mindset that (barring rare edge cases such as analysis paralysis) giving roles/factions more options is a strict buff. And therefore when the corrupt are already able to be effectively indistinguishable from the non-corrupt but they also have buffed abilities on top of that, it just means that town has no way to actually scumhunt.

I agree with this. So how do I fix these issues?

[Marshmallow Marshall]

I agree with this. So how do I fix these issues?

Force scum to guilty/innocent people in order to win, not just in order to get bonuses.

[Lumi]

Force scum to guilty/innocent people in order to win, not just in order to get bonuses.

I don't think that solves the problem since town still has no way to actually gain information on what scum's mission is

[Lumi]

I agree with this. So how do I fix these issues?

That is not an easy thing to solve.

One preliminary idea is to change the core gameplay from town trying to figure out which party is corrupt to making it so one party is corrupt and is trying to hunt the non-corrupt party.

Give the corrupt party a night-kill (can theme it as like, a "hit piece" or something) that removes a player.
Corrupt party wins by either getting their candidate elected or eliminating the opposing party.
Town's job then goes from trying to find which party is corrupt to trying to help the non-corrupt party blend in.

This idea is very half baked but there might be something there. Basically taking the aspect of faking as a PR to take the fall for the real PRs and blowing that up into making that the core mechanic of the setup.

[Stealthbomber16]

I don't want the game to have a nightkill. That's one thing I'm certain would not fit the theme I'm going for.

I'm going to take this back to the workshop and reimagine it.

[Marshmallow Marshall]

I don't think that solves the problem since town still has no way to actually gain information on what scum's mission is

I am trying to avoid turning the setup into a regular one (to respect its spirit), so while it may not look like the optimal solution, I can't think of one that doesn't involve adding kills into the game.

As for information for town, it does give some: scum will HAVE to try to dishonestly push or whiteknight people, which town can see and analyze. Perhaps it is not enough, perhaps it is not so fun either, but at least it is somewhat functional. Now uh, since we want setups to be fun, it might still not be optimal lol.

[Stealthbomber16]

This setup is now ready for re-re-review.

[MartinGG99]

This setup is now ready for re-re-review.

Acknowledging

[Marshmallow Marshall]

Fix the State Prosecutor rolecard's quote tags

What happens if the State Prosecutor gets his target convicted? Does he ascend to Heaven and leave the game? Or is he a kingmaker? (I advise against the latter)


Did you have any ideas to fix the issues brought up during the last review while respecting your setup's spirit (see posts above)? Right now, scum do not have any incentive to act scummy.
New idea that has not been brought up yet: What if the corrupt party needed to get more votes than the other one in order to win? It would make scum idleness suboptimal.

[Stealthbomber16]

Fix the State Prosecutor rolecard's quote tags

What happens if the State Prosecutor gets his target convicted? Does he ascend to Heaven and leave the game? Or is he a kingmaker? (I advise against the latter)


Did you have any ideas to fix the issues brought up during the last review while respecting your setup's spirit (see posts above)? Right now, scum do not have any incentive to act scummy.
New idea that has not been brought up yet: What if the corrupt party needed to get more votes than the other one in order to win? It would make scum idleness suboptimal.

Voting system has been reworked. There is now a traditional "lynch" that removes a player's ability to vote instead of outright killing them. If a presidential candidate is convicted, the game ends and that party loses. Scum now has to protect their president from the conviction, the other party has to protect their president from the conviction.

I have (as of this post) made an adjustment to the setup to give the scum president one extra election vote per day that the town did not convict. This will force the town to find the scum and will force the scum to have to interact with the trains during the day. Because the vote is majority only, players will have to come to a consensus or risk scum getting too many extra votes.