Independents

Originally published Sep 15, 2018

I’m pretty much out of things to talk about for WM blogs already.

Misc fun fact: the first role names I came up with for the game document were Ragni Soldier, King of Ragni, Royal Guard, Detlas Weaponsmith, Detlas Armorsmith, and Assassin.

Today I felt like talking about the wild-card roles in Wynn Mafia: the Independents. Known as Yahya, Sayleros, The Assistant, the Dungeon Keeper, and the Banker, the main purpose of these roles was to add spice to the game. I’m inclined to say that I could have done a much better job with them, but I’m saying that about everything I did anyway, so the point is moot.

I first decided to include independent roles on December 13, 2016 (about a month after the game was conceived), though at that point the only role name I had written down at all was Ragni Soldier, a town role. The next day, Detlas Banker, Sayleros, and The Assistant were added.

“The banker works with whomever ensures the greatest profit. The banker gains double the emeralds from any source, and can give 3 emeralds to a selected player every phase. The banker’s goal is to make as much money as possible, and survive until the end.”

“Having lost his family in the recent past, Sayleros is quite depressed. At this rate, his main goal is to get his life back in order. When checked, he always returns as an innocent.”

“The rather frightening assistant seeks to find potion ingredients for his sinister concoctions. Every phase, he can use a healing potion on a selected player, healing for ten health.”

Back in the day, the roles were actually pretty simple. I’m not sure if that was my original intention or if I had plans to expand them as I did.

Yahya was first introduced on the 16th:

The Mushroom Man himself. Yahya is unable to take more than ten damage in one phase. He can conjure one mushroom each phase, which can be given to a selected player. It is impossible to perform a check on Yahya, and it will instead deflect onto a random player. In order to win, Yahya must die after he has distributed at least six mushrooms, and when there are no other players nearby - he has secrets he doesn’t want revealed.

I changed Yahya’s goal a little because there’s not actually a way to tell who else is at your location.

The last Independent, the Dungeon Keeper, I added on the 18th. Looking back on it, I’m surprised that all the Independent roles came into existence in less than a week. What I had written down for that role:

The silent player in the forgotten corner of Detlas. The dungeon keeper is unable to be lynched if the vote is a non-tied majority. The dungeon keeper can also give one player a dungeon key every two phases. That player will automatically be transported to the dungeon. In the dungeon, a player must solve simple puzzles, get past skeletons, and ultimately reach the exit - in one day. If the player cannot reach the exit in time, or is killed by enemies, they die. The Dungeon Keeper must kill 3-5 (depending on game size) players via the dungeon to win.

After a while, I realized that what I had conceptualized for the Dungeon Keeper was pretty unrealistic for what I was willing to do, so I reworked it later, though I still feel the final role was a bit weak for its 5-kill requirement and general serial killer role.

That’s it for now. As said at the start, I’ve run out of topics shockingly fast (at least, “full” topics like this one), so it’s hard to say if I’ll update here again.