Also, I got the idea from mafiascum...not gonna take credit for something that isn't my idea... from the dude who gave me the idea -
"The jester role is almost universally reviled on this site, and mods who use them are usually accused of bastarding. While I understand the reasons behind this attitude, I think there is an enormous potential for interesting game dynamics that has not been fully explored. This is because players with jester roles have the unique objective of trying to appear like mafia, meaning there is a whole dimension of play that could arise revolving around "jester-tells", as opposed to "scum-tells".
I think the biggest reason that jesters have been mostly disliked so far on this site is the manner in which they have been implemented. As a role, jesters appear infrequently and typically only one at a time, meaning that no advanced strategies of play have emerged to deal with them. Players who have been assigned to play as jesters have typically used very primitive attention getting tactics (such as claiming scum or committing deliberately obvious scumtells), which, for the most part, have accomplished little more than significantly deteriorating the quality of play in those games where jesters were used. It is my belief that with more regular usage of jesters, and a more intelligent implementation of the jester role, they could provide some interesting and enjoyable dimensions to a game.
In this setup, I have two non-town teams: the scum-team, and the jester team. Yes, friends, the jester team. This means they can talk to each other at night in a quick-topic. In addition, they are NK immune, and they all have role-blocking abilities at night which can target both town and mafia. They win when they are all lynched.
What are the implications of this setup? Well, there are many interesting strategical possibilities for each of the factions involved. For example, if a player were to act aggressively scummy in this game, how should the town react? In one case, they might be a jester, meaning the town does not want to lynch them. However, they could also be a scum player trying to act like a jester, precisely to avoid a lynch. It could even be a town PR, who, by imitating a jester, hopes to dissuade scum from targeting them with their NK.
In the end, it'd all be wifom, and gameplay would boil down to the same basic elements that exist in all normal mafia games today; just with a new dimension added. Players would look for things in other player's posts that betray a mindset of wanting to be lynched in the same way that they already would for a mindset of wanting to mislynch. In addition to a too scummy to be scum principle, you might have a not scummy enough to be jester one. There's no fundamental difference between a jester trying to look scummy and a scum trying to look townish; it's just a different dimension to the gameplay that has already long existed on this site.
Since jesters cannot be NKd, and can only win by being lynched, it is naturally in their interest to have as many days as possible. Therefore, their goal is to keep either of the other two factions from getting the upperhand against each other for as long as they can. This is why I have given the jesters roleblocking abilities: it is their one tool they can use to try and increase the number of days in the game, thereby increasing their chances at getting lynched. When the town seems to be winning, they can roleblock the vig, cop, and doctor to even things out. When the town is confused and the mafia seems to be steadily picking them off, they can roleblock the scum and stall for time. In the midst of all of this, the jesters are trying to get themselves lynched by the town without being so obvious that they look like jesters. This is important: in an open setup where there is a known jester contingent, the jesters have to learn to play as subtly and manipulatively as any scum does if they want to succeed in their goal of actually getting lynched. I think this has the potential to be a very interesting game dynamic.
There are a lot of other interesting things that could happen in this setup, and if it was used more than once, I expect some very subtle and clever strategies might emerge. For now, I'm going to leave it out in the open and see what you guys think.
If you dislike this setup, please make sure to specify whether you disagree with the concept in its entirety, or just think my current setup is flawed.
Thanks, and I can't wait to hear some opinions. If people like it, I'll try to do one like this as a theme game. "Evil Clown Mafia", perhaps."
