The case for having less players in a mafia game?

[charlesx]

Hey all, this is not a rant or anything, but I have noticed something and was wondering if anyone else has had the same idea. I am currently running my second mafia game, having spent quite some time on creating interesting roles with some degree of complexity. Both times, I have had about 30 people sign up. Of these, most of them actually play the game and participate in the discussion. However, a small percent never post on the thread, and sometimes don't even send in PM's in order to use their powers.

While I completely understand that it's easy to over commit yourself, I wonder whether it's so easy to sign up for 7-9 mafia games that people fall into the trap of too many sign-ups. Thus, they are not able to fully participate in the game and sometimes have roles/characters who could have a major impact - yet go unused.

So is the answer to have a lesser number of roles in the game? The rationale there is that no matter how many games there are out there, if you can participate in fewer, perhaps you concentrate more on the ones that you actually are in.

Anyhow, this is meant to stimulate conversation on the topic. I appreciate everyone who has signed up for my mafia games, and certainly don't want to necessarily discourage anyone. I am only trying to come up with a solution of getting around the issue of getting players more involved in the game. It's such a shame that sometimes there are roles which are so cool, that a mod spent time refining for maximum enjoyment, and then they just sit all game long.

Thanks for posting to this thread. All viewpoints are welcome.

[Magnito]

I plan on running a smaller game in the future. However, it will not be my next game (which has 40 players :o)
But your right on a lot of points. Bigger games often do lead to unused roles as people forget about playing.

[tidge]

Waiting for games to open can be annoying, but I'm not sure what the answer is. One thing that doesn't really help in the small theme games (from a 'play' POV) is that often the write-ups/theme give better clues than the players can get from being a cop/tracker, etc.

For example, if I am a jailkeeper, and the writeup for the night shows I "jailkept a serial killer", I basically also got some information for "free"...even if there may have been misdirection involved.

In such a case, I think it actually IMPROVES gameplay by not having so much extra information cluttering.

[michiganj24]

Well I participate in every game no matter what but I see two things taht can lead to low participation
One is inactive or passive roles. PGO, Bombs and even Mafia Dons often have nothing to do other than just sit there and role claim and unless Rokk gets it they dont bother to participate. That is why i tried to give them some extra power for them to feel they are doing something.
The second is their are certain players who just dont particapate much. Really by making it smaller it does not necessarily mean you will have more particpation as without certain people to drive a game it seems to have the same so if the Rokk's, Melkhor's, Kit's and MSU's arent in . 22

[Uknown352]

For some reason I always thought there was this secret organization of Mafia Mods who kept track of all the inactive players and black listed them.

[TMNT99]

I only sign up for a couple at a time, and keep it to comic based themed mafias (and disney)

[Truffle Shuffle]

I try to only sign up for games where I am familiar with the theme. I don't think it would be as much fun if you don't know the theme and therefore, would be less likely to participate. I think it is a shame that people sign up and then don't participate. What's the point? And you only succeed in making the mod feel annoyed and frustrated; and potentially hampering the game depending on what the role is. Which in turn frustrates a lot of the other players.

[Iron Ham]

For some reason I always thought there was this secret organization of Mafia Mods who kept track of all the inactive players and black listed them. I know I have my own blacklist... It's in my realms journal.

[Uknown352]

I'm surprised I avoided being blacklisted after how many times I forgot to pm you with tuttle.

[Iron Ham]

I'm surprised I avoided being blacklisted after how many times I forgot to pm you with tuttle. IIRC, you missed like, 2-3 nights.

It takes 4 to be put on warning, and an entire game to be blacklisted.

edit: but if you insist... :p

[Magnito]

I know I have my own blacklist... It's in my realms journal.
Yeah, I have one too.

[Uknown352]

I wasn't sure how much I missed. I just remembered all of a sudden I was in the game and was like oh ####. I really need to start writing down what games I'm in.

[Uknown352]

Yeah, I have one too.

But yours isn't in your Journal meaning I can't read it for entertainment purposes:noid: :grin: .

[Magnito]

I wasn't sure how much I missed. I just remembered all of a sudden I was in the game and was like oh ####. I really need to start writing down what games I'm in.
I have a word document. It lists every game I've been in, their outcomes and all games I'm currently in.

[Uknown352]

That's a good idea I should write that down too :p.

[Jackofhearts2005]

Hey all, this is not a rant or anything, but I have noticed something and was wondering if anyone else has had the same idea. I am currently running my second mafia game, having spent quite some time on creating interesting roles with some degree of complexity. Both times, I have had about 30 people sign up. Of these, most of them actually play the game and participate in the discussion. However, a small percent never post on the thread, and sometimes don't even send in PM's in order to use their powers.

While I completely understand that it's easy to over commit yourself, I wonder whether it's so easy to sign up for 7-9 mafia games that people fall into the trap of too many sign-ups. Thus, they are not able to fully participate in the game and sometimes have roles/characters who could have a major impact - yet go unused.

So is the answer to have a lesser number of roles in the game? The rationale there is that no matter how many games there are out there, if you can participate in fewer, perhaps you concentrate more on the ones that you actually are in.

Anyhow, this is meant to stimulate conversation on the topic. I appreciate everyone who has signed up for my mafia games, and certainly don't want to necessarily discourage anyone. I am only trying to come up with a solution of getting around the issue of getting players more involved in the game. It's such a shame that sometimes there are roles which are so cool, that a mod spent time refining for maximum enjoyment, and then they just sit all game long.

Thanks for posting to this thread. All viewpoints are welcome.
An interesting theory. I know I try to participate in every game thread, but I have noticed that I tend to give my full attention to the games that I really like my character/the story (except for Elsewords/Whatif. I loved that game but I'm not going to pretend I didn't miss a lot of info) and don't post nearly as heavily in the other threads.

Really, if Peers' original mafia played now, I wouldn't be nearly as active in it as I was at the time due to me being in several games.

At the same time, it would never make me not post at all or forget to send in my pms. Those things might happen because of a busy schedule, but certainly not other mafia games.

As for the size of games, I'm going to try to run one 30+ person game and then one 20- game afterwards and so on, if for no other reason than to give players a change of pace.

[charlesx]

Thanks everyone for your input. I think that I am going to give a try to having a shorter roster. I understand that there are many, many factors which can affect how much players get involved in the game. Having passive/boring roles certainly is one of them. In the end, I believe that a mod has the most fun when the players are having fun, so I continue to look for ways to fine tune my games - so that it won't become the same old, same old. Again, your input is very interesting.

(And on the subject of black lists - while I am not an advocate of excluding anyone from a game, if one person is ruining the fun for the group then I completely agree that it's not a good thing to have them on board. Same thing with players who get themselves banned from HCR so often that they can leave you with an unfilled role in the middle of a game... which stinks for everyone involved as well.)

[CarlosMucha]

it may be because of the Holidays. if not some of my theroies are:

some players don't post a lot. Some players are waranty that they will post if the story and his characters are interesting.

I try to made games were EVERY character is interesintg. it's not easy but we can try.

The write ups are important. it must give info but it must give more questions than answers. in that way people will more interesting in answer the unknow things in the game, people will have different theories and posts will come and go.

some players don't post a lot. it help if you "choose" your players trying to invite (PM) the players that you know are regular posters in games (for my games I invite to the players that for me are a "Must" in any succesuful Mafia Game.

Also how you say Charles. Is important don't be in soo many games in the same time. if you are in a lot of games you just post in a few. but there is not a lot of things that mods can do about it.

I really think that less players will mean less posts. For me the key is not the quantity of players. it's more important the quality of the players and for quality I mean players who participe in the game a lot.

People who join to the games should considere that the Mods do a LOT of work for each game puting his best in each great game and if they sign the Mod and the players deserce a nice participation.

Personally I'm very happy with ALL the people who have played in my games!