It's pretty nifty forum game.
Here are the rules:
http://forums.utopiatemple.com/showthread.php?t=72871Basically, we randomly divide all participants into 2 groups: the Town, and the Mafia. We also have the "moderator", who referees the game.
The goal of the game is to survive or to have your group survive.
Townies form the majority of the players (75%). Townies do not know each other and may only communicate through the game thread.
Mafia (25% of the number of players) know each other. They can communicate through PM about who they want to eliminate. They also communicate in the game thread (probably hiding their identity and trying to act innocent).
The game is divided into 2 phases: night and day.
During night, mafia discuss secretely who they want to eliminate. They message the moderator about their choice.
After night, comes day. During day, the moderator announces who got eliminated by the mafia. Then, all participants (town and mafia alike) may vote for lynching. If a particular player receives more than 51% of the votes at any time during the day, s/he is eliminated from the game and his/her role is revealed (whether it was a townie or a mafia).
And after comes another night, where the mafia may eliminate another townie etc...
Dead / Eliminated people cannot post in the game thread anymore nor can they communicate with anybody still playing.
In addition to these, we have special roles: the doctor and the cop. These two roles belong to the Town faction.
During night, the doctor message the moderator with a choice of protection. The protected person cannot be killed by the mafia for that night.
The cop may investigate a player each night by messaging the moderator. The moderator will then tell that cop whether the selected player is a townie or a mafia.
The cop may then choose to communicate that information publicly. Of course people may not believe that his information is correct (or that he's the cop). Plus, if s/he publicly reveal that s/he's a cop, the mafia will come after him/her.
The game relies on deception and sharp wits. It's a sort of detective and team work game.
To make the game more fun, we can even have a theme and assign each person a role from a well-known fantasy world. If pressured to reveal their role, mafia will obviously hide their true identity and make a fake one. However, if that role is not well known or has already been used, they may face suspicion and lynching.
What do you think? I need at least 12 players otherwise it's not worth it.