Rules1. Play to win, even if the method I assigned you sounds somewhat unconventional at first. Whoever reaches his/her goal first, wins.
Sounds reasonable.2. My aim is to keep the assigned roles a mystery for as long as possible. Don't openly mention your role, although the consequences might come to the fore in one's role-playing. These hints should prove enough. Roles are assigned at random.
You'll need to have a definite set of rules to prevent role revealing if that's what you've decided to do - either ban it outright (and clarify what counts as role-revealing), or add incentives not to do it (I like to use a "role-kill" mechanic, which is described http://z6.invisionfree.com/Dead_Lounge/index.php?showtopic=60 Just go with whatever you're comfortable with.3. Play fair and keep up the fun for everyone. I can think of an endless array of hilarious ways in which I can god kill cheaters, although harm's been done already.
Yep.4. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all communication is kept within the threads, so no sneaky personal messaging off the board.
Yep.5. For the hypothetical instance there seems to be a balance issue (or just to keep the game fresh), I reserve the right to change rules or roles.
Good idea, and something many hosts neglect to do, but don't abuse it (altering rules should be an absolute last resort, as it can really irritate players and create arguments) - it should be avoided if realistically possible. Also, try to give players some form of advance notice.6. Days last approximately 48 hrs. After about 24 hrs I'll post a statement nights falls. This means the visible debating and sleuthing comes to an end, although it's only now a lot of the roles truly come into play and have their effects. Usually this involves PMing me [the host].
This sounds like a really bad idea to me. The sleuthing and player interaction really makes up the majority of the game's appeal, and having approximately 50% of the game not involving that is something which I suspect would lead to players getting bored and low activity in the game. Is there any particular reason why players can't send these PMs to you during the 22 hours of the main game? (This assumes two hours devoted to writeups, you may need less or more). 7. I expect every character to contribute at least once every two game days (96 hrs). Anyone failing to make a contribution every 72 hrs (since the last 24 hrs are night time) gets god killed. Anyone being inactive/lurking for three days in total suffers the same fate.
Good call.8. Every day the surviving group may want to vote for someone to be executed. At least half the number of all survivors must have voted. An absolute majority of votes is needed to execute.
Unless stated otherwise trying to eliminate the opposing force (classically known as mafiosi or werewolves, for ease indicated as OpFor) is the main objective, while the OpFor may nominate someone to be lynched every night. However, expect some strange things to happen every now and then. Sometimes people will be converted to the other side rather then killed or due to various reasons a killing may fail. The end of the game is reached when an OpFor group outnumbers the innocents.
Again, sounds good. I don't exactly have a good track record with ending rules, you may want others' feedback on this.9. There is a pattern to follow when posting. All "out of character" communication (including votes for execution, questions to the host about evidence and such) should look like this [bolded and in red]:
OOC: (question/remark/vote) (Removed red so it wouldn't be confused with my edits
)If it's a major remark I'll prefer you to direct it to me in a PM. In the case of votes it's keep easier to keep count this way.
Everything your character says must be typed as usual. Just put the name of your character on top of your contribution, bolded and underlined as in:
(character)(role-playing and debating)
However don't overdo the role-playing and make sure your contributions are mostly useful to the investigations (although it may be stated otherwise to each individual).
Any non-verbal actions your character performs (like sitting down, standing up, walking back and forth, face palming...) must be put in italics as in:
(action)Let's agree the host's colour will be
green.
All sounds good, although I know some players like to vote/question without going OOC (this is a very tiny issue).10. Don't edit your posts (unless it's a silly typo or something similar). If you change your mind or want to revise your reflections in a previous post, just make a new post.
Good idea, not something I've seen for a while. If you want to enforce this, you could have players add at the bottom of the post exactly what they have corrected if they need to edit the post.11. Evidence may or may not be clearly directed toward the OpFor. You can be set on a wrong trail on purpose. When answering your questions, sometimes it's more important to note what I don't say rather than what I put in my reply. If I don't reply to a question, it might indicate you're on to something and answering would give too much away.
A word of caution - red herrings can really make the game difficult for the innocents, so be careful with them. I tend to find that the innocents are perfectly capability of generating mountains of false leads and red herrings without any intentional input on my behalf.12. Don't ever quote evidence you got from a PM. Unless you'd foster the ambition to be instantly god killed. Just don't.
I assume said evidence can also not be paraphrased?13. A very important part of signing up is sending in a character profile to me. You'll get to see the other ones' profiles during the game. It should contain this info and look like this:
Name: full name, nickname optional
Age: (preferably between 16-70)
Gender: (M/F)
Nationality: (because of the setting, I encourage you to consider choosing a European nationality, although not obliged)
Build: (slim, muscular, athletic, big-boned... Certain flaws or effects of previous illnesses or other afflictions?)
Height: (if you're used to the imperial system, please include the metric equivalent)
Appearance: (clothes, hair, beard, tattoos, piercings...)
Possessions: (3-5 items that would make sense in a critical situation, modern technology allowed as long as it isn't a 100" plasma screen or so)
Occupation: (work/studies/other daily tasks)
Personality: (preferably 3-5 positive and as many negative traits)
Beliefs: (is your character a religious person? How does he/she look at the world [morality, economy, politics...] life, him-/herself?)
Hobbies: (what does your character like to do next to his/her daily obligations and duties? Does he have any special abilities?)
Life goal: (where does your character want to be within the next years?)
History: (the life of your character before he/she ended up in this horrible situation)
Remember your character profile may be used against you as evidence. Therefore it's important you provide the required quantity of traits, possessions and so forth. For example, if you're already a suspect and the group decides to use a few fibres of wool as evidence while your only typifying possession is a wool yarn that keeps popping up, it's a certain way to get massacred.
Please don't create bad-walking grannies, otherwise they'll only prove a source of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygy7UDADXDg throughout the story. Characters are supposed to have a minimum of physical ability.
I think the character profile's a little long and imposing if you want to attract players, and some of the categories won't be very helpful in laying evidence. Personally I'd cut nationality and life goal for sure, and consider combining some of the body-shape type questions into one category. Otherwise good, I especially like the concise descriptions.
14. All further information not shared above will be provided in unique PMs at the beginning of the game.
Personally I'd like players to know roles and special rules (even if only vaguely) before the game so that we can give feedback, but if your game depends on roles being mysterious then I guess that's not on the cards. 