The Mad King
A werewolf-style game for about 13 players.
There are two teams: the Kingdom and the Rebellion. The old King has passed away, and his heir is a dick. Therefore, he must be overthrown.
However, he has infiltrated the rebellion with a group of loyalist spies, or something. Also his wife is dressed up in disguises.
Objectives:
The Kingdom wins if the Mad King is alive, and the number of players loyal to the Kingdom is equal to or greater than the number of those loyal to the Rebellion.
The Rebellion wins when the Mad King is killed.
There are a few possible third-party roles with their own objectives as well.
Kingdom Roles:
The Mad King - His identity is public from the start of the game. He is immune to all night actions. He may not be lynched until the Guardians are killed. He may post whatever he likes, boasting and ranting and taunting the Rebellion. He is, of course, included in the Kingdom’s private conversations and decisions. The Mad King does not vote, and therefore does not count toward the Kingdom’s victory condition.
Guardians (2) - These men are responsible for keeping the Mad King safe. If they are killed, the Mad King becomes vulnerable to lynching. (The Mad King can never be targetted by night actions, even if the Guardians are dead.)
The Mad Queen - If the Mad King is lynched, and the Mad Queen is alive, she automatically sacrifices her life to allow the Mad King to survive for another day.
Mercenary - A player with no special powers who is loyal to the Kingdom. (This role is unlikely to be included in a 13-player game; if the game gets larger than that, Mercenaries can be added to increase the Kingdom’s starting numbers.)
Kingdom Night Actions:
The Kingdom may perform a few different actions at night. He may murder, arrest, or torture someone, and he may execute or release prisoners in his dungeon.
The Kingdom must choose one of the following actions each night:
Murder - The Mad King orders his assassins to slaughter a player in the street. Using this ability on a Commoner causes a severe penalty.
Arrest - The Mad King’s soldiers capture a player and throw him into the dungeon. (The Kingdom may arrest players whose allegiance is to the Kingdom.)
Torture - The royal sadist gets to work on a prisoner in the dungeon, revealing that player’s role to the Kingdom. (This is a purposely high-cost seer action. This way it is possible to gain information by default, but finding another solution would be preferable.)
The Kingdom may perform any of these actions freely during the night:
Execute - The Mad King may kill any number of his imprisoned players during the night. These players may not have been arrested on the same night as their execution; they must have spent at least one day in the dungeon.
Release - The Mad King may release any number of imprisoned players during the night. Those players will be included in the day phase. (There usually isn’t a good reason to do this, but the option is included.)
The Dungeon:
While in the dungeon, players may still post and PM freely. However, they may not vote or use any abilities/night actions.
There is a 25% chance, each night, that a player in the dungeon will automatically escape on his own. If that player was to be executed, he will survive instead.
A player in the dungeon may choose to pledge his allegiance to the Mad King. This is done secretly, by PMing the GM and the Mad King. A player who does this will be automatically released that night, and his victory condition is permanently switched to align with that of the Kingdom (under most conditions; see below for notes on third-party roles).
Clarification: A player who is arrested must always spend at least one day phase in the dungeon. Even if he wants to declare allegiance to the Mad King, he must sit in the dungeon for one day, and he will be released and switch allegiances the following night.
Rebellion Roles:
Scout - The Scout is a seer-type. Each night, he may choose a player, and discover that player’s role and allegiance.
Knight - An honorable gentleman who served the previous King. His hatred for the Mad King is boundless. He can not switch allegiances, and will always remain loyal to the rebellion. If anyone attempts to kill or arrest the Knight, he is protected, but only once per game.
Assassin - A vigilante-type with high night priority. Each night, he may choose a player, as well as a stance.
Aggressive: The assassin will attempt to kill the player, no matter what. He runs no risk of losing his ability.
Cautious: The assassin will check on the player’s allegiance. If the target’s allegiance differs from the assassin’s, the assassin will attempt to kill the player. If the target and the assassin are on the same side, however, the target will survive, and the assassin loses his night ability.
(The Cautious stance is good for alleviating the potential risk of a maneuver, especially toward the end of the game.)
Priest - The Church is very influential, and the Mad King’s soldiers dare not interfere with the will of God. The Priest may choose a player. That player may not be killed or arrested that night. The Priest may not choose a player in the dungeon. He may protect himself, but if someone attempts to arrest or kill him while he's doing so, he loses his ability after that night.
Thief - A sneaky gentleman who despises the Mad King’s stance on crime; there’s entirely too much of it and the city is flooded with wannabes. Each night, the Thief may attempt to free a player (including himself) from the dungeon. He has a 75% chance of success. (Note: The Thief will not be notified whether the target escaped due to his action or due to pledging allegiance to the Mad King.)
Leader - The leader of the rebellion begins the game normally, but may choose to reveal his identity during the daytime. When he does this, he chooses another player; that player’s role is also publicly revealed immediately. (The leader may switch allegiances normally if arrested.)
Commoner - The commoner is a normal citizen, without explicit ties to the rebellion. If the Mad King chooses to murder (not execute) a commoner, the public backlash is tremendous, and the Kingdom loses the ability to murder or execute people for one night.
Third-Party Roles:
Two or three of these third-party roles will be included in the game. It is unknown which of these roles will be selected; it will be random.
Scoundrel - This seer-type trades information for his life, looking out only for himself. The Scoundrel may choose a player each night, and he learns that player’s role and allegiance. The Scoundrel wins if he survives until the game ends.
Turncoat - This vagabond is not to be trusted. He begins the game with a random allegiance, and may choose to change it each night, as many times per game as he wishes. However, he may not change his allegiance on consecutive nights. (If arrested, he may pledge his allegiance to the Mad King normally, but he may switch it back to the Rebellion on the next possible night.) The Turncoat appears to be a Rebellion-aligned Commoner to most seer actions; only the Scoundrel can see him for what he really is.
Vengeful Warrior - This soldier believes his family was killed by another player (chosen randomly). He doesn’t care about the ongoing war; he only wants revenge. The Vengeful Warrior wins if he is alive when his target is killed. (After this happens, the Vengeful Warrior aligns himself with whichever side was responsible for his target’s death. Therefore, it is possible for the Vengeful Warrior to win twice.)
Blood Magus - This sorceror wishes to rule the Kingdom himself; however, the spell he must cast is rather complex, and involves risking his own life. During the night, he may predict that he is going to die during the following day or night. He must also guess whether he will die by lynch or by night action. If his prediction comes true, he wins, the Mad King dies immediately, and the Blood Magus becomes the new Mad King. If his prediction is false and he is not killed, he is weakened, and he may not make a new prediction for one night. If his prediction is false and he is killed... well, he dies.
After the Blood Magus’s prediction comes true, the game proceeds, and his secondary win condition is tied to that of the Kingdom from that point forward.
A Note on Allegiance and Win Conditions for Third-Party Roles:
The Scoundrel, Vengeful Warrior, and Blood Magus do not have an allegiance to begin the game. If they are arrested, they may pledge allegiance to the Mad King like everybody else; however, this does not change their win conditions. From that point forward, the player will count toward the Kingdom’s win condition as an “allied player” but will not necessarily win if the Kingdom wins.
If the Vengeful Warrior’s target is still alive, and the Vengeful Warrior pledges allegiance to the Mad King, his win condition remains the same until the target is killed, at which point his secondary win condition will change to reflect his new allegiance.
The Blood Magus win condition is to correctly predict his own demise, whether he has sworn allegiance to the Mad King or not. If he succeeds, then his win condition immediately aligns with that of the Kingdom.
The Scoundrel’s win condition never changes; he must survive until the game ends.
There are no third-party win conditions which cause the game to end; the game continues until the Mad King is killed or the Kingdom players and those who count as Kingdom-aligned outnumber the other players in the game.
Night Priority:
Night actions take place in the following order:
Protections -> Assassin’s Kill -> Kingdom’s Action -> Seer Actions
All protections occur in secret, including the Knight’s automatic self-save. Nobody will be notified as to why a kill or arrest failed (although, presently, only the Knight can resist arrest).
Furthermore, the party responsible for a killing is not revealed; assassin kills and kingdom murders are reported the same way (unless the Kingdom is responsible for killing a Commoner). Arrests and executions, however, are publicly revealed.
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Topic: The Mad King (Interest Thread) (Read 2216 times)