Мафия 32. Asylum

Well, I'll share my opinion. It's unlikely to interest anyone, especially considering that I didn't play, but I followed the game. I won't question Slonysh's professionalism in creating another interesting setting, especially since I know how sensitive she is and how she reacts to criticism, taking any hint of disapproval too personally. However, all experience is valuable, and I think this game will remain on ХВ as an example of what pitfalls to avoid if you want to be a gamemaster, but lack the experience of having run half a dozen games. A colorful newspaper with many vibrant pictures, an interesting story about love, an innovative and engaging method of recording, which builds anticipation for the game even before the first night begins, encrypted role names – all of this is valuable, but unfortunately, it can't save the game if it isn't well-developed to an acceptable level. For example, the role designations. The creator of a new, original setting can pour their soul into their ideas, but it's not them who will be playing, but a simple ХВ player. It's difficult for a player to keep track of all the possible roles, especially when they can't even name them. There are, of course, "guard" or "surgeon," but that's not enough for a comfortable game. There is also an obvious excess in the number and variety of roles. Not only does each role have two statuses, but for some, the description of the roles doesn't even fit on half the screen, including a huge amount of variability related to those same double statuses. In my humble opinion, there should be less randomness; otherwise, the game becomes empty. We can all remember the spy mafia of "Old Hostor," played during the New Year, which was fun, new, and not stressful, but which hardly claimed to be introducing a new game mode, as it was too chaotic. Testing the setting before the game. Naturally, presenting an untested, raw setting with some new ideas for a game is somewhat ill-considered, so it's worth testing it as much as possible. Our team had three testers, and, as the game showed, that turned out to be insufficient, or not enough time was spent (which is natural, since everyone has studies, work, or leisure time with real-life friends), which led to its being underdeveloped and the rules being changed mid-game. The latter fact is especially sad, as we had already encountered something similar in one of the mafias, and no one liked it. The dynamism of the game. The dynamism in the recently played game clearly suffered. The mafia must kill, not sit around and perform acrobatic maneuvers with checks, translations, thefts, and so on; otherwise, we get what we have: three and a half people killed, and that's the work of the maniac, and in the first night, no one touched anyone at all. There's also a separate discussion about the maniac: why does he have the ability to kill with a small bonus if he can patrol or hide? It doesn't make sense; the maniac just sits in the game and does nothing if he wants to win; he doesn't go to anyone, and no one goes to him. Should the maniac be executed? But that's also unnecessary; he doesn't interfere with the votes, and he wins either with the mafia or with the town. Also, the ambiguity of the victory conditions belongs here, which led to a long, absurd clown show. One friend wants to win with another friend who shouldn't lose, regardless of the fact that they are in different groups, and he speaks for the entire faction. With the same success, all the townspeople could simply write a power of attorney in which they transfer the authority to vote and use roles to one person-representative, who has already planned everything in advance, and let him win the game for himself. However, these are more personal and game-related moments, and I was only listing the shortcomings of the mechanics. However, I was amused when the kind mafiosi "confirmed their honest word" by killing the peaceful Reven. Well, there's nothing to be ashamed of; even good players could have made a mistake in their place. And finally, I can't help but mention conflicting situations like granting immunity "as a favor." Of course, it doesn't make a big difference, especially since the mafia in this game could have sat around until the second coming without revealing themselves, but overall, it already steered the game in a negative direction and gave some players an unfair advantage over others for no reason. And in the end, it all turned into an emotional violation of the rules by a player from the faction of evil doctors, for which he was also given a penalty, given the fact that his faction was already in a losing position due to the lack of "friends" in it. And I almost forgot – the "recruiting mafia." As we all felt from the experience of previous games, a recruiting mafia is not needed in the game. It's wrong, and it's not necessary. From the point of view of a player who won with a recruiting maniac in one of the games, I consider recruitment to be an imbalanced game mechanic. Recruitment should either have limitations and belong to the second maniac, or it should be extremely selective, like the recruitment of vampires in the Arandor mafia, where vampires could catch and recruit a boy and no one else. Otherwise, it's unplayable. Well, okay, in general, the game went as it went, leaving a new scar on the digital entity of ХВ. I doubt that many people got a lot of enjoyment from it. For me, the only mystery remains why this setting was brought to ХВ in the first place, shouting "I claimed it," when you can easily play it at home with three people, with tea, cheap cigarettes smoked without taking a drag, and pastries, interspersed with watching a pompous anime; whether with alliances and backstabbing, or with trade and market relations.