The Circus Maximus rules currently include the rules from Minor Character Mafia, as an example for other hosts to use. However, it's been outdated for a while. A standard set of rules needs to be made, possibly including some new rules, or leaving out some rules that are in almost every game. So, starting with the current standard ruleset...
1. Whilst you are alive you can talk to anyone about the game. Once you are dead you cannot talk to anyone about the game, unless you are mafia and on the same team, in which case you may talk with members of your team only, and only for strategy purposes. Knowledge acquired after death cannot be transferred from a dead player to a living player.
2. Every user has a role PM. Role PMs may not be shown to other users on Night 0, but starting from Day 1 onwards they may be freely distributed. Screenshotting of all forms is banned. If anyone finds a person encouraging others to take screenshots or taking screenshots and showing other people, please be sure to report it.
3. You can paste things told to you by the host. You may fake logs. Do not take pasting of a host conversation as definite proof, these can be faked. If you want to fake a log, feel free to PM one of the hosts for assistance. Impersonation of a host or another user however, is banned at all points. Please do not attempt to impersonate in any way.
4. Each day will have a deadline of 48 hours. You may vote to lynch users during the day by posting "lynch USER" in bold, or "No lynch" if you don't want to lynch anyone (lynch votes will not count if they're not in the correct format!), and if you change your vote, you MUST edit the bolded text out of the old post if you post with a new vote. Once there is a majority as determined by the host, there will be a grace period of 3 hours, and if the majority is still in place after said grace period, the day will end. Please don't ask about when a majority is reached - once it's time for the day to end, it'll end (provided a host is there to update). The game will start on Night 0, but deaths can happen on Night 0 just like any other night.
4.5. If there's a tie, both users with the highest amount of votes will be lynched, but no lynch will take place the next day.
5. Each night will have a deadline of 48 hours. This gives you 48 hours to send your night action. Please state what you are doing in the PM title, it makes it MUCH easier to handle. Remember that PMs are to be sent to Fishin AND Serenity.
5.5. If you're not going to do anything at night, send a PM titled "Night X - idling". This makes keeping track of things easier and informs me that you're still playing the game.
6. Priorities have been decided beforehand and will not be revealed.
7. This game features items. Items can be used at the same time as regular night actions, unless stated otherwise. You can give an item away during either the day or night, by sending a pm to Fishin and Serenity stating "Night/Day X - Give ITEM to USER." You cannot use an item during the same night you give it away, however you can use an unrelated ability whilst giving away an item. Giving away an item has the lowest priority, and if you are killed/lynched the same night/day you attempt to give away an item, it won't be moved.
8. There is no "Scavenger" ability, and information about items (neither those initially held nor those held upon death) will not be revealed upon a user's death. Stealing abilities are allowed to target a dead user - this is the only way to recover items from a corpse.
9. "Minor Character" can mean any character that isn't really a main character. Someone like Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter, for example, would qualify. Characters may come from anything - TV shows, movies, anime, books, video games, real life, websites, etc.
10. Only sign up if you know you're going to be at least fairly active. If I notice that you seem to be idle, I reserve the right to have you forcefully subbed out if necessary. I'll most likely nudge first, though.
11. Be careful who you trust. I'm not going to give a real reason as to why, but everyone would do well to be more cautious than normal.
What changes do you think should be made? Some of my thoughts...
Any other ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Discuss!
1. Whilst you are alive you can talk to anyone about the game. Once you are dead you cannot talk to anyone about the game, unless you are mafia and on the same team, in which case you may talk with members of your team only, and only for strategy purposes. Knowledge acquired after death cannot be transferred from a dead player to a living player.
2. Every user has a role PM. Role PMs may not be shown to other users on Night 0, but starting from Day 1 onwards they may be freely distributed. Screenshotting of all forms is banned. If anyone finds a person encouraging others to take screenshots or taking screenshots and showing other people, please be sure to report it.
3. You can paste things told to you by the host. You may fake logs. Do not take pasting of a host conversation as definite proof, these can be faked. If you want to fake a log, feel free to PM one of the hosts for assistance. Impersonation of a host or another user however, is banned at all points. Please do not attempt to impersonate in any way.
4. Each day will have a deadline of 48 hours. You may vote to lynch users during the day by posting "lynch USER" in bold, or "No lynch" if you don't want to lynch anyone (lynch votes will not count if they're not in the correct format!), and if you change your vote, you MUST edit the bolded text out of the old post if you post with a new vote. Once there is a majority as determined by the host, there will be a grace period of 3 hours, and if the majority is still in place after said grace period, the day will end. Please don't ask about when a majority is reached - once it's time for the day to end, it'll end (provided a host is there to update). The game will start on Night 0, but deaths can happen on Night 0 just like any other night.
4.5. If there's a tie, both users with the highest amount of votes will be lynched, but no lynch will take place the next day.
5. Each night will have a deadline of 48 hours. This gives you 48 hours to send your night action. Please state what you are doing in the PM title, it makes it MUCH easier to handle. Remember that PMs are to be sent to Fishin AND Serenity.
5.5. If you're not going to do anything at night, send a PM titled "Night X - idling". This makes keeping track of things easier and informs me that you're still playing the game.
6. Priorities have been decided beforehand and will not be revealed.
7. This game features items. Items can be used at the same time as regular night actions, unless stated otherwise. You can give an item away during either the day or night, by sending a pm to Fishin and Serenity stating "Night/Day X - Give ITEM to USER." You cannot use an item during the same night you give it away, however you can use an unrelated ability whilst giving away an item. Giving away an item has the lowest priority, and if you are killed/lynched the same night/day you attempt to give away an item, it won't be moved.
8. There is no "Scavenger" ability, and information about items (neither those initially held nor those held upon death) will not be revealed upon a user's death. Stealing abilities are allowed to target a dead user - this is the only way to recover items from a corpse.
9. "Minor Character" can mean any character that isn't really a main character. Someone like Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter, for example, would qualify. Characters may come from anything - TV shows, movies, anime, books, video games, real life, websites, etc.
10. Only sign up if you know you're going to be at least fairly active. If I notice that you seem to be idle, I reserve the right to have you forcefully subbed out if necessary. I'll most likely nudge first, though.
11. Be careful who you trust. I'm not going to give a real reason as to why, but everyone would do well to be more cautious than normal.
What changes do you think should be made? Some of my thoughts...
- Rule 9 should be removed. The theme of a game nowadays is either open, or the theme is very obvious (Metroid Prime Mafia, Fallout 3 Mafia, etc.)
- The grace period is kinda short. If majority is reached in a few hours, then someone who's offline for 10 hours could be lynched without a chance to defend himself. Maybe have the grace period change depending on the time of day left, possibly 1/4 of the day left? This way, the grace period is short when everyone's been debating it for a while, but long when someone hasn't had much of a chance to respond.
- Rule 4 also says there are kills on Night 0, which almost no Mafia game does anymore.
- What should happen in case of a tie? No lynch? Both lynched? Both lynched, but no lynch the next day?
- Rules 4 and 4.5 should be combined IMO, since they're so closely related, and 4.5 is so short. Same with 5 and 5.5
- Rule 11 is usually replaced in games with something like "Do not assume anything is too unusual to be true".
- Should IRC be required, or simply encouraged? Either way, it should be mentioned in the rules.
- Many games demand that the host be given access to all spreadsheets and IRC channels. Should that be added to the rules, and does the host need to see everything? If so, why?
- Some Mafia games say that the host will proofread fake claims. Should this be done in Standard games? What about Beginner games? And should a simple Spelling and Grammar check be done, or should the hosts also check for formatting errors?
- It should be mentioned that if the role PM and rules conflict, the role PM is correct.
- Why is deadtalking usually the first rule? No one starts off dead!
- Should the presence, or lack of, Moles, Millers, Revivers, Deadtalkers, and other rule-breaking roles be mentioned in the rules?
Any other ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Discuss!