Cookie Thread Act 1: A Cookie in Time

General
#8906

there are two stages to setup review. which one you consider more important is up to you.

  1. Balance Considerations
  2. Idea Optimization

Balance is variable
You’re going to hate it
It sucks

Whether you can realistically make a ‘balanced’ game is entirely down to what type of game it is
Highpower rolemadness? Not a chance
Vanilla open with a couple power roles? Absolutely

For the first, all you can really do is properly weight down power outliers and keep a level head regarding the kp differential. Peeks are also very tangible. We can use EV calcs…but who cares you’re just going to guess anyway

For the second,

this covers most of your needs

math solves balance for simple setups

1 Like
#8907

So true

#8908

how do you feel about crystallography
aka crystal math

1 Like
#8909

I’m wanted in 14 countries

3 Likes
#8910

Idea optimization is what sets good reviewers apart from the passable ones. A lot of ideas suck. Let’s be real. So how do we make sure that we aren’t just rejecting any game with any sliver of out there design?

Below advice is for the most broken setups imaginable. You’ll likely follow the advice, but do less cutting and more smoothing

What we do is we ask the following question:

What is the most valuable thing to you? What do you want to evoke with this game? What, if it was removed, would make you not want to run the setup?

From there, we change, errata, remove, and smooth until we can say with confidence that the thing that the other person went for works in a way that is fun and relatively balanced (if we care about balance)
We try not to murder other people’s babies

2 Likes
#8911

There’s no catch-all for idea optimization
It’s broad and you’ll find that it applies to literally every pursuit
So experience + creativity will help you get there

1 Like
#8912

The place where most reviewers fail miserably is in attempting to ride the line between having too much of a spine versus not enough of a spine

2 Likes
#8913

Thought this was a critical component of the reviewing process

5 Likes
#8914

baby murdering is deeply entertaining but we don’t make it standard

8 Likes
#8915

hypothetically, if you were to put the average seth setup in front of me
I would take great enjoyment in murdering it

4 Likes
#8916

tl;dr

don’t reject lying darkness, just make the anticlaim ability a night action usable alongside its other abilities

1 Like
#8917

shadow corruption was conceptually cool

2 Likes
#8918

The only setup I’ve seen outright rejected is among us FM and that one Seth game

#8919

Akodo is watching your every step, from all clans alike

#8920

oh yeah
additional useful advice:

don’t be afraid to take risks
every other host thought D&Dcord was a terrible idea
I did as well

I went Fuck It We Ball and boom it went perfectly
rip all the people who had pet roles my pet role randed to one of three people which would make it perfect alongside the entire d&dcord being ecstatic for the game

2 Likes
#8921

ok but imagine playing a mafia game and seeing that knowing TLD happened

1 Like
#8922

mf is the most powerful boogeyman in history

1 Like
#8923

@katze ruby role fam2

1 Like
#8924

True

1 Like
#8925

You too can have a cool green name!!!

Apply to be a reviewer today by DMing prophylaxis or arete_ on Discord!!!

2 Likes