[VoraciousReader]

I wanted to add a bit more, and didn't get a chance last night. Eff real life.

JaredL: He is too modest to say so, but the conception of the Cyradis role to force a balanced endgame was his. The true credit for the big innovation of this game and the most interesting dynamic was pure JaredL. I am just smart enough to attach myself to the coattails of genius.

That said, I will graciously accept any and all of the compliments. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Balance: I do agree that this setup was Dark-Friendly. At least part of that was semi-intentional, because there was Cyradis to balance the scales, and she had more counterweighting ability for a game when Dark was ahead than Light. Of course, we didn't foresee durron getting the role of Sadi and promptly owning two evils right out of the gate. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

That said, I don't think the setup was QUITE as pro-dark as it looked on the surface. We scattered a great deal of information among various village roles: the Liselle/Silk masonry, the Poledra knowledge of the power roles, the additional chances for Liselle to peek, the Belgarath one-time peek and a one-time emergency angel (which I don't think patton has gotten enough credit for...buying spook that extra peek was clutch, I thought.) Plus, if the village ever needed it, there sat the EXTREMELY well-informed neutral team which had both the power to communicate privately with power characters (Cyradis/Belgarion and Toth/Durnik), and had an invincible member that, in a pinch, could role-claim and give the village the correct lynch. Keep in mind, Belgarion has the power of clemency. An emergency message from Cyradis could spare a key village role. I think part of the appearance of imbalance is that the village jumped so far ahead, that the neutrals became essentially another wing of the dark team.

On the other hand, Silk nearly being lynched Day 1 (and Dark failing to kill him) turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to Light. Otherwise, there's a good chance the Liselle/Silk masonry never forms at all. So, yes, there definitely was bias in favor of Dark.

Re: Mengha. He is pretty powerful. That said, there were a LOT of village power characters. Also, we took away one of the key uses of a Dark Day kill...the ability to take out the seer. There is also of course, the fact that Mengha risks his own death every time he uses his power: 1/4 regularly, and 1/2 if he unknowingly targets the seer. I was quite frankly surprised Mengha came into play so early. I had envisioned him as more of an endgame strategy for Dark. That said, I like the idea of escalating his risk, perhaps not overall, but certainly for multiple uses in the same day. Keep in mind, we also gave Light an "almost no down-side" kill in the form of Zith the snake, who would not take out village power characters.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that there was practically no wolf-chat in this game, because of time-zone and other issues among the Dark. So that was another hill that Dark had to climb. Human sacrifices notwithstanding, the goddess Rand() makes Torak look like a patsy. I did get to spy on neutral chat a few times, and it was fascinating. When I grow up I'd like to be xorbie. (Although many many people played really well this game.)

[shameless plug]We will probably try to run Malloreon/Belgariad 2 in December. Likely changes include alternate win conditions for Zakath and a village corruptible for Cyradis, some depowering of Mengha and Sadi, and perhaps a few bumps in Light power, but with a bit less masonry knowledge.[/shameless plug]

Mostly I'm just really glad you guys liked it. There are definitely some things Jared and I want to tweak, and some things I wish we had done differently this time, but overall, the only thing as fun as designing this game is watching people enjoy it, so thanks to all of you for playing.