Hello everyone!

Since this is my first post (and since, if there is a "new members introduction"-subforum, I have failed to find it), I wanted to try to come out swinging with a new idea, which hopefully is as good as it sounds in my head .

I would appreciate any comment, whether positive or negative. Please do correct me if I am wrong somewhere in your opinion.

Anyway, I am sure you are aware of the following problem: Certain settings tip the balance too strongly in either direction. If it is off, the role might be incredibly weak, if it is on it is almost unbelievably strong.

Witch - When the "Target knows they have been manipulated" setting is on, the Witch can at best hope to cause some confusion and buy the Mafia a little bit of time. Usually, it will end with the Mafia killing her by accident. (At least, this is what I have experienced most times when there was a witch who couldn't keep her existence a secret.)
If, on the other hand, the option is turned off, the Witch will, with a few intelligent blows, wreak total havoc on the town. And since nobody can determine her role (unless the investigator determines the exact role), nobody will be able to say with any good degree of certainty if there even is a witch at all. Some consider this a bit overpowered, given how strong the witch then becomes.

Arsonist - Here, the same problem applies: If the "Target knows they have been doused" option is activated, then the Arsonist is very managable. Usually, after the first night, someone will immediately cry that they have been doused, and the town will be vigorously hunting for the arsonist, since he is potentially more dangerous than the mafia. The mafia, likewise will try to hunt for him, for fear that he might burn all of them in one stroke.
Again, if the option is deactivated however, the Arsonist becomes very strong. If the game settings "hide" that there is one, (say by including random killing roles), few players ever read the game settings, and thus, nobody is even aware that there is one! I once had a game where I was arsonist. I was put to trial once, and claimed bus driver. The investigator confirmed that I had gas, and since no arsonist was mentioned in the game settings, the people took me for real. The sheriff had already been killed by the mafia (as he so often is on the first night), and thus, I was able to freely douse everyone.
In the end, the town killed the GF, and in one night I burned 4 people to death, earning me the victory outright, with half a dozen players flaming and fuming in the chat afterwards.


I could go on here, since I am sure there are other possibilities than Arsonist and Witch, but I think I have made my point. To circumvent this, I would humbly suggest a new system:

The options are no longer "Target knows they have been doused", or "Target knows they have been controlled", but rather: "Target knows they have been doused/controlled in xx% of the cases".

The idea behind this would be that in some cases, the arsonist/witch sometimes messes up the dousing / controlling, leading to a person becoming aware of it. This in turn is dependent on a probability. A system like this should be fairly easy to implement at this stage, and would allow many options for the host to modify. i.e.: "Target knows they have been doused:" 20%/50%/80%/100%, or something along those lines.
This, in my opinion, would lead to a more balanced setup, where the arsonist MAY be detected, but might also (if luck is on his side), get away with dousing almost everybody without anyone noticing.

Let me know what you think on this.

Cheers!