WotDA - The Totem of Insanity, a lesson in design
10 years ago
Sometimes, dreams can hold legitimately good ideas. Take his one as an example. Within the dream, there were tons of bad Werewolf roles, such as one that wins if there's more people alive in the North/South/East/West of the village than the other side. Or the role that for some reason only stole the role of a very specific other role. But one benefit of dreaming is that you can think of things in ways you normally wouldn't.
The latter of those two seemed to spark something during the dream. My problem solving side kicked in and for some reason it suggested the Shaman becoming the Crazed Shaman. That actually sounded a little cool, so how would it happen? The source of his insanity in the flavor of the art is from his totems. And if you're having a random way for him to become the Crazed Shaman, then it's obviously going to come from the totems. So we add an 8th totem, the Totem of Insanity. But what does it do? What happens when the Crazed Shaman gets it?
The first one to solve is what happens if the Crazed Shaman gets it. It wouldn't be right to dig it out of the stack of totems when also using the Crazed Shaman. So it has to do something for the Crazed Shaman as well. Sticking to the flavor of insanity, the Crazed Shaman would be even crazier when he draws the Totem of Insanity a second time. So how can he act with insanity when he's already doling out totems with complete disregard for the consequences? Well, what if he is forced to give one totem to himself regardless of what the other two are? Totem of Death, Totem of Confusion, Totem of Insanity? Tough! You still gotta give one to yourself. You are so crazy that you don't even care! Yup, that works for me. ~INSANITY~
Moving on, what about the totem itself? Does it do anything? My first thought was that it doesn't ~have~ to do anything to the person who gets it. That wouldn't be all that bad. But that seems like weak design. Surely I can come up with something for the Totem of Insanity to actually do to the person who gets it, right? So if someone is insane in a village where there are Werewolves going around killing other people, like visibly damn insane, the village would be much more willing to get rid of them. So what can we do vote-wise that we haven't already done? We have things to affect personal voting going outbound, but what if something affected the voting pattern against you directly? And how many times have people tried to vote on themselves when ~trying~ to act insane? Well here's your chance. Lets make the Totem of Insanity cause you to need one less vote in order to successfully lynch you. :)
So that pretty much covers all of the bases except subtleties and timing. As a note, I wouldn't recommend running this variation all of the time, as it does moderately change how the two roles play. One, it gives the Shaman a new way to lose, since the Crazed Shaman can't win. Two, it takes away a ~bit~ of the Crazed Shaman's power and fun.
Totem of Insanity (Black)
If the Shaman draws the Totem of Insanity, he will transform into a copy of the Crazed Shaman (even if there's already a Crazed Shaman) at the start of the next Night Phase. (This gives him a chance to still win on the Villager team.)
If the Crazed Shaman draws the Totem of Insanity, he will be required to give out at least one totem, and be required to select himself as one of the targets for totems that night. (He can choose to only give out one, but that target must be himself.)
If you have the Totem of Insanity in front of you, votes to lynch you require one less vote in order to be successful.
The latter of those two seemed to spark something during the dream. My problem solving side kicked in and for some reason it suggested the Shaman becoming the Crazed Shaman. That actually sounded a little cool, so how would it happen? The source of his insanity in the flavor of the art is from his totems. And if you're having a random way for him to become the Crazed Shaman, then it's obviously going to come from the totems. So we add an 8th totem, the Totem of Insanity. But what does it do? What happens when the Crazed Shaman gets it?
The first one to solve is what happens if the Crazed Shaman gets it. It wouldn't be right to dig it out of the stack of totems when also using the Crazed Shaman. So it has to do something for the Crazed Shaman as well. Sticking to the flavor of insanity, the Crazed Shaman would be even crazier when he draws the Totem of Insanity a second time. So how can he act with insanity when he's already doling out totems with complete disregard for the consequences? Well, what if he is forced to give one totem to himself regardless of what the other two are? Totem of Death, Totem of Confusion, Totem of Insanity? Tough! You still gotta give one to yourself. You are so crazy that you don't even care! Yup, that works for me. ~INSANITY~
Moving on, what about the totem itself? Does it do anything? My first thought was that it doesn't ~have~ to do anything to the person who gets it. That wouldn't be all that bad. But that seems like weak design. Surely I can come up with something for the Totem of Insanity to actually do to the person who gets it, right? So if someone is insane in a village where there are Werewolves going around killing other people, like visibly damn insane, the village would be much more willing to get rid of them. So what can we do vote-wise that we haven't already done? We have things to affect personal voting going outbound, but what if something affected the voting pattern against you directly? And how many times have people tried to vote on themselves when ~trying~ to act insane? Well here's your chance. Lets make the Totem of Insanity cause you to need one less vote in order to successfully lynch you. :)
So that pretty much covers all of the bases except subtleties and timing. As a note, I wouldn't recommend running this variation all of the time, as it does moderately change how the two roles play. One, it gives the Shaman a new way to lose, since the Crazed Shaman can't win. Two, it takes away a ~bit~ of the Crazed Shaman's power and fun.
Totem of Insanity (Black)
If the Shaman draws the Totem of Insanity, he will transform into a copy of the Crazed Shaman (even if there's already a Crazed Shaman) at the start of the next Night Phase. (This gives him a chance to still win on the Villager team.)
If the Crazed Shaman draws the Totem of Insanity, he will be required to give out at least one totem, and be required to select himself as one of the targets for totems that night. (He can choose to only give out one, but that target must be himself.)
If you have the Totem of Insanity in front of you, votes to lynch you require one less vote in order to be successful.
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K Fox