Masks

Masks are roles that function similarly to antagonists in a traditional SS14 experience. Their actual design is most similar to the roles in hidden-role games like Town of Salem, Mafia, or Werewolf.

Every mask really only has a few core components: a name, a few objectives, and a genre. Masks are additionally able to have abilities, equipment, or other features associated with them, but this is not strictly necessary.

Purpose

Masks exist for a very simple reason: to prompt conflict in the game. Beyond an individual player's desires and the overarching station goal, masks introduce incentives that cause conflict and disrupt what would otherwise be largely peaceful cooperation.

As such, the objectives for a particular mask must accomplish the following goals:

• Meaningfully encourage interaction with other players.
  • An objective that can be accomplished through complete inaction, alone, or through abstaining from gameplay is unsuitable for a mask.
• Involve some level of conflict
  • Objectives should not be beneficial for everyone involved. Some people can benefit from them, but there should always be at least one person who wants to prevent the objective from being completed.
• Allow for dynamic methods of completion
  • The solution should never be single-faceted or completely static. While the end result of an objective may be fixed (killing a certain target), the player should always have multiple options for approaching and completing it.

Grouping

Masks are organized into two levels: genres and troupes.

Genres

A genre is a high-level category used for influencing which masks are given to players. Every round, a random genre is selected, which weights certain masks higher than others, making them more likely to appear together.

Masks within a genre do not necessarily need to directly involve each other, but rather are just suited to creating interesting interactions when both are present.

For example, an assassin's mask would likely be in the same genre as a bodyguard mask. The two are not strictly reliant on each other (a bodyguard can function without an assassin, and vice versa), but the presence of both simultaneously creates an interesting situation.

Troupes

Troupes are the micro-level organization of masks. Not every mask must belong to a troupe, but it is an additional level that can be used to group masks together.

Masks that are part of a troupe are always assigned at the same time. The purpose of this is to create roles that directly respond to each other. Note that while this is can be used for combative roles, it can also include multiple roles that work together with each other in a positive way.

For example, a mafia troupe may include both mafia member masks and a godfather mask. This lets the roles be designed directly around the relationships between each other rather than simply being an occasional emergent relationship.

Assignment

Masks are always given out randomly when a player joins into a round and arrives at the station. All players receive some mask: not just a small subsection.

The mask that you receive is fully random, dependent only on the genres which have been selected at the start of the round.

Mask Tokens

When you successfully complete your mask's objectives, you receive a mask token that's associated with your account. Between rounds, the a few round's worth of tokens can be redeemed to pre-select your mask before the round begins.

This provides an incentive for completing mask objectives (to earn tokens) as well as way to occasionally mitigate randomness.