My main aims were balance and longevity. With only 9 people, I wanted to spread out the roles instead of the majority having plain vanilla roles. To do this, some had to be minor roles that should give less accurate scans. I think every 1-2 people would extend the game by a day. So every person really counts
So, I chose Slapsticks as the Thing because I don't think I've seen him arguing the other side. I wasn't sure but he confirmed it after he was killed as the Thing. I think in other games there were at least 2 werewolves at the start so there's no lucky lynch the first time as that ends the game. Making the first person he attacks turn into an alien creature seems a novel way to achieve the same thing but it also unintendedly let the Thing choose a player as his ally. Still, as Barek was the UFO Religionist, he would have been Slapsticks' ally anyway, he only gained the ability to hunt. Still, it's a loss of one count towards parity.
I made one of the commandos a UFO Religionist to have conflict between the commandos. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have let Indirik know he was a Susceptible. That was probably where the confusion came from. Trying to be good when you know you can be bad
I should only let them know when they are attacked and infected.
For my ease and to standardize things, I had scans in the day, and lynching, protections, and attacks in the night events in that order. On DAY 1, Indirik gets scanned by 3 people! - he must be popular
and Slapsticks (un)luckily gets scanned by Zakilevo. It could potentially be game over for the Thing but Hematologist was Zakilevo's minor role so his analysis was not as clear as if Hematologist was his major role. Still, he seemed convinced so I probably need to find something more obscure next time
Then on NIGHT 1, the commandos wanted to protect Slapsticks who was the Thing. I try to do everything logically and RP so everything must make sense and if the commandos were following the Thing around to protect him then how was the Thing going to kill anything without being seen? He had to lose them. So the RPs usually followed player actions. There is a possibility of the Thing not being able to kill anyone if he was 'protected' by the commandos and might be something to explore in future games.
So, Slapsticks infects and converts Barek but I purposely did not PM both of them together as I wanted to see if there was trust between them. Apparently not as despite the RP saying "Barek (jerm) has been infected and is now an Alien Creature" but sent individually to them, as Slapsticks still asked me if Barek was successfully converted and neither of ever PMed me together
(on the other hand Barek PMed both me and Indirik together so I replied to both of them together; the commandos were attached from the start as stated in the game rules so I PMed them together)
The Thing: Will work to kill or infect a single human once per night to reach parity...
I missed out the word 'together' as in 'work together' meaning there had to be only one target from the alien creatures although the 'single human once per night' probably conveys that. For future games, I should make it clearer but logically if both alien creatures chose differing targets, then no attacks should take place although there was a possibility on NIGHT 4 of one alien creature being lynched and leaving the other Thing free to carry out two attacks even if it was different from the lynched Thing's choice.
On DAY 2 Velax sends me an RP interviewing Slapsticks which I thought was a bold and creative move to tell someone your role and was the kind of move I was hoping to see in Werewolf V
The 'scans' were thus far indirect by default. Still, I wondered if Slapsticks should have the opportunity to decline the interview which could raise Velax' suspicions but as it seemed Slapsticks was going to die I decided to put it all in the RP. Velax scans (interviews) Slapsticks who tries to attack Velax (during the interview) but was lynched instead. So, the lynch still came before the attack as the attack was not completed. For
future games I should state that for 'scans' that are direct, the person being scanned would know about it and so must be PMed to both the GM and the person being scanned. The RP and analysis will depend on the method of the scan and will take into account the PMed respond of the person being scanned. If there is no reply before the deadline then by default, the scan should not succeed.
DAY 3 - my big surprise
The game was not over but I wanted it to look like it was over - hence the party balloons. I had to let Slapsticks and Barek in on it in case they inadvertently let out who the remaining Thing was then it really would be game over. I'm happy to say we had 2 sharp townies who weren't fooled and sent me scans - just in case. Fortunately, they missed Barek's hastily deleted post that could have given the game away
Also, while scans were for the DAY event, Lefanis sent me special instructions to cure Indirik AFTER he was attacked so it was reflected in the RP.
So, I've learnt a lot of things from Werewolf V. It was hectic initially as I had to triple check who I was PMing to and their scans and analysis. One wrong mistake and it could be all over
I definitely look forward to my next hosting and see if what I've learnt can be made better.
