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A thought
The way I have always selected roles for GTW or TGW or other such games of the same vein is to randomly order the players, and then iterate through, choosing their roles in this way:
Innocent Innocent Werewolf/Terrorist Innocent Special Innocent Werewolf/Terrorist
The first special will be the IA/Seer, the second the guardian angel/SDI, the third the vigilante/whatever the GTW equivalent is. In my experience this gives a fair distribution of innocent/evil/specials.
How have other hosts conducted their decision making?
Mine was half deterministic and half random. For instance, in game 17, I knew that one of the bad guys would be Eugene Chin because I planned it as such. However, Buffalo the Kid and GutlessWonder's appointments were random.
That said, if I know that one player has been annoyed at another lately, I'll be sure to make the annoyer an IA and the annoyed one a terrorist. Then sit back and watch. >)
This topic seems like a sinister attempt to determine the roles of the players in the current game. I suspect prophile! Uh, I mean cough never mind.
Some games I take the order in which people signed up and apply a nice pattern to give out roles, but order the names alphabetically so nobody notices. Some games I choose very specifically who I want in what role. I'm also often accommodating for special requests. If somebody really wants to be a certain role, I don't mind letting them have a shot at it. After all, it's my job to make sure everybody has fun.
With that in mind, when I do hand-pick special roles, it's usually because I think it will maximize the enjoyment of all. Only the most crafty and devious of bad guys, the most skilled intelligence agents, etc. I try to make the game as challenging as possible for both sides. Other times I try to force players into taking a different role than they're used to. Maybe somebody that usually is very active and takes a lot of risks I'll try to give them a role where they will want to minimize their risk and lay low. Maybe somebody that's relatively new to the game looks like they're ready for a more interesting position. Maybe I notice that somebody hasn't had a special role for several games. Stuff like that. It often boils down to gut feelings as I attempt to set up an interesting game that will make people want to sign up in droves the next time I host. At 17 players, almost 18 if BTK had contacted me three hours earlier, I'm fairly confident that my methods have been overall better than most.
Obviously I won't be revealing how I selected the roles this game, I might have used any method. I will say that a fair portion of it was random though, and since some of the roles in the game are entirely new, it's pointless to speculate on how I might have selected things. It's also been scientifically proven that the average ASW forum-goer doesn't think the same as me, so just don't bother trying to get inside my head.
I usually randomly pick, though on occasion I'll choose certain people for certain reasons.
I've never hosted a game here, though I would like to at some point, but other times on other forums or in person, I've handpicked always. I sometimes try to make the two evil players an odd pair, like people who don't talk with each other much, or don't have similar personalities.
@mrxak, on Jan 30 2008, 11:20 AM, said in GTW Role Selection and discussion topic:
At 17 players, almost 18 if BTK had contacted me three hours earlier, I'm fairly confident that my methods have been overall better than most.
Not that you don't do a quite good job hosting, for which I am appreciative, but one of the reasons I was more eager to sign up for this round than I might have been was because you are hosting, and therefor I didn't have to play against you. I can never get away from being extremely suspicious of your posting habits, and always want to kill you when you're actually in the game.
Sadly, as a player I think I've peaked. There was my flawless game as an intelligence agent getting the two terrorists voted off in the first two rounds, and the game playing the bad guys where I killed everybody, including my cohort. I've also found it much easier with my usual schedule to be the host than keep checking the topic throughout the day as a player. So generally I prefer to host rather than play at this point. But you're right, I do tend to make a lot of people suspicious of me, my record as the bad guy is nearly perfect, I think, and as an innocent I'm usually willing to sacrifice many of my fellow innocents to keep myself alive and gather more information ;).
I would like to try my hand at hosting in round 19. Don't worry, I won't make overpowered roles if I am allowed to host. If darth_ vader wishes to host round 19, I'll host round 20 then.
I don't see a problem with it. Knowing who's hosting in advance takes care of some issues.
Also, we might as well use this topic to sort out any GTW-related issues that aren't in-game, thus hopefully getting rid of the off-topic posts there.
@manta, on Jan 30 2008, 11:45 PM, said in GTW Role Selection and discussion topic:
I wasn't sure about hosting, so I'll cede round 19 for now. I would like to host the 20th anniversary round though.
The 21st game is really the 20th anniversary.
Aw...I wanted to host the next one. Well since apparently we're calling them out put me down for the next free slot then?
This post has been edited by Rickton : 01 February 2008 - 12:47 PM
If Manta is doing 19, you can do 20, Rickton, and I'll take 21 since I want the 20th anniversary game.
If no one wants to throw rotten fruit at me, I'll take Game 22. I promise it won't be like Game 17.
Maybe you'd better wait again. 17-22 isn't a huge jump. Especially after the fiasco 17 turned out to be.
Okay... Game 23 then? That's at least two months in the future-- enough time for anyone to see the error of their ways.
Or to get lots of practice at dodging rotten fruit.
@soitbegins, on Feb 1 2008, 10:01 PM, said in GTW Role Selection and discussion topic:
- enough time for anyone to see the error of their ways.
You should have done that half a round ago already.
I did, but it seems that some of you aren't convinced of that yet.
Some people still haven't forgiven nfreader. Do you really think they'll forget about your game before they forget his?