Be Excellent To Each Other

Right people.

I posted this in the mafiascum forum, but lets give it a bit of a wider audience.

Mafia is a great game, but I think we need to try something different to add a bit of spice in our collective bedroom. With that in mind, i'm proposing to run a game of The Resistance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistance_(game)

I've never played it before, so it will be a learning experience for all of us And i'm proposing a basic game first, rather than one with any plots in.

There are 4 sections to the game, detailed below, but the main idea is as follows.

There are up to 4 spies in the group.
A leader tells the group who he wants to send on a mission.
The groups votes as to whether they want that mission to go ahead.
The people sent on the mission can choose to sabotage it if they are a spy.
The group finds out what happened on the mission.
The next person in the player list becomes the leader and chooses who he wants sent on the next mission.
The winners are the group who win 3 rounds first. i.e. three successful missions or three sabotaged missions.

We need between 5 and 10 players. If you opt to play, you will be in the whole game and will be expected to participate throughout. All discussion phases will last for at least 24 hours.



Rules

Game and Phase Rules

Players are either Resistance Operatives, unaware of each other’s alliances, or Imperial Spies, the informed minority. Each team’s goal is to destroy the other side’s bases before their own are eliminated. The game is played in phases in which players assign plans, vote on the allocation, and the entrusted few support either the Resistance or the Empire. Once all the bases of either group are destroyed, the other team has won.

Assign: Each day, the current leader (the choice is random on the first day and then passes to the next player on the list each subsequent day) has to assign plans.

The leader will make a proposal in thread. You may select yourself to receive a set of plans. Once a proposal is made, it cannot be retracted. The Leader has up to 24 hours to propose an assignment. After assignment is made, Vote phase begins, If no assignment is made in 24 hours, the Leader Card passes to next player and phase will re-begin (. Please format proposals in bold, as follows:

Proposal: John, Tim, and Sarah receive plans.

Vote: although players are free to announce their vote or intended vote publicly, each player sends me their vote within 24 hours.

If a majority of players accept the proposal, it is accepted and plans are distributed. If a proposal is declined, the day will continue and leadership will pass to the next player. I’ll announce the results, how each player voted, whether we repeat the phase or go to the next, and who the new leader is. Voting is required.

Decide: the players entrusted with plans will pm me their decision, to play a Resistance or Empire Plan card. Deciders have 24 hours to decide.

If the plans are sent to a rebel, they must choose to support the Resistance. If sent to a spy, the spy has the option to support or sabotage the Resistance. If there are zero acts of sabotage, then an Imperial base will be destroyed. If there is at least one act of sabotage, then a Rebel base will be destroyed.

Reveal: having received all decisions, I'll post the results. Players will not know who performed the sabotage, but will know how many acts of sabotage occurred. Once three bases on a single side are destroyed, the game ends and the side with at least one base still intact is declared the winner. I'll indicate which team lost a base, if the game has ended, and who is the leader as we enter the next phase, one explosion closer to the end.

Conversation. All conversation has to happen in the game thread. You cannot talk to anyone outside of the thread about the game.

I am game...

yes, please.

Question!

Is there a minimum amount of people needed for a mission?

If not, why ever send more than one?

There is, the minimum number is different depending on how many players, and how many missions have been turned down in the past.
The table is on the wiki link, but for 10 players there are never less than 3 people sent out.

Fewer.

I'm making one exception to the rule set, the players can choose one person at the start of the game they would like to kill...

Question: Can the spies chat to each other without the rebels knowing, or are they independent operatives?

Good question, i'm proposing no for the first game, but willing to be convinced otherwise.

I think not, as tehn at least people make their own decisions to sabotage or not to sabotage. Mind you, the town get two bites at the cherry, as teh spies won't really want a mission to go ahead with no spies in..

The narrative above hints in places that they are (calling them well informed), and in places that they are not (saying that they might do more than one sabotage).

From that I gather that they know who each other are, but can't communicate.

This is the rule as it should be.

Otherwise you'd never end up with two sabotages on a single go, or indeed none because the spies thought another might.

That makes sense, no communication outside the thread for sure then.

At the same time, if you're playing in a room, you can communicate, of sorts, but it may be misinterpreted. It is perhaps a nuance of the game that won't easily translate to the Forum, if the game is positive, we may need some rule hacks to improve it for non-live play.

I'm in. I haven't read the rules yet but I promise I will at some point.

Vive!

yeah, they know who they are but can't communicate. Watch that video lave linked to in the boargame thread it exaplins the rules really well.

Aye. Although it also makes me concur with Mr Pie that without body language and non verbal communication it may not really so well work as is.

I think they are up to game 50+ on the board game geek forums, so it can't be too bad I'm imagining the same sort of difference between real life and forum mafia games.

I've ordered the board game to get the plot card details, i'll work on getting this up and running soon.

Current player list if i've read every "in" properly

KovacsC
Malia
sdg
Mr Russell
Saturnalian
Curiosity
Slightly Green
Cras
Bobbyaro
Grim...

10 people would be ideal though, but it will need involvement every day (apart from weekends as always)

Is that "at least" 10 or is the player list capped at a maximum of 10? Either way I didn't realise that this was the "in"-thread so, hang on...

Why cannot we write our own missions? I wish to assemble a team to break into Kissyfur's house and unpair all of his socks, then mismatch them all.

The ResINstance.

In the meat version, having people explain how the mission failed/succeeded would be part of the fun.
I used to love making up 'last defences' when playing mafia.

Capped at 10

Resistance?

I'm Obi-IN-Kenobi!

Be warned, I really don't have a clue what i'm doing (no difference there then) so i'm expecting this first game to be a learning game for all of us and to be a bit of a train wreck.

If the plot cards look simple enough, i'll throw those in too, because why the fuck not

Happy to play, nothing on the horizon so don't think I will have any probs participating each day. However if more than 10 people are up for it I am also more than happy to sit on the sideline and point and laugh at everyone as the game goes horribly wrong

I am in, my good man.

Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once, "in".

One more player and that's our lot!

Potentially in

I'll be in.

Oooh, I think a definite outranks a potential, Sorry nickachu!

That's ok. I can watch on and see for next time if it is any good.

Should pick up the game from the post office this evening, i'll have a read at the weekend and aim to start it on Monday.

*drums fingers*

I've got a fair number of meetings this afternoon, i'll read the rulebook on the train and aim to kick it off tonight.

Go go go! Check the mafiascum forum people, I didn't go with the plot cards first time round