True. The only downside I see to a mix of newbs and vets is that the vets would probably have a pretty decent chance of stomping all over the newbies. But a careful mix between both sides could help.

But Robb has the right idea, throw out a new thread recruiting towards an explicitly newbie audience for a future round. I know I almost didn't ask to join Game 10 cause it seemed imposing, but I'm quite pleased I did.

Another thought is to flip it. Recruit for a big newbie plus some vets game using fairly conventional rules, but then have a few smaller more oddball twisty games on the side with differing format. Doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.

If there are enough newbies, a 100% newbie (apart from the mod) game seems like a good idea. It worked with #1 after all.

I already did something like that before.

Mafia game for new players.

Maybe I did it wrong but it wasn't too successful.
It worked? :-)

Game #1 definitely worked! Pretty much all of the core players of our tiny mafia community played in that game!

I didn't....

You could post restrict vets, there's roles like lovers, masons, give the mafia day talk so a vet can help newer players...

It wasnt you, Problem was with game 7 was is the town didnt have any infomative roles, We had a JK and that was it...

He died we didnt know what he did and it was a game of point the finger...

think 7 players would work with say

2 mafia Cop,RB
5 town (1 cop) (1 tracker) (1 doc) 2 Vanilla

On the site where I used to play, there was a constant running newbie queue, separate from the main games. As soon as 12 people had signed up, a newbie game would start. That worked very well.

The main problem with pure newbie games on this site is that I don't think we have the raw numbers of new players coming in. We seem to be sitting pretty stable on 1-2 new players per game.

That said, we could always try to set up a newbie game, just to see what happens.

Also, sub-12 player games are boring.

Yeah, bu the game itself wasn't shining example of mafia. :-) It gathered most players than other game, though, but it'c becasue it was first. Everyone interested joined and there is not such wide player base to gain 12 new players each game.

@Zchinque; Maybe it's boring for you but you can't say it's boring overall and you can't create bigger game when you don't have enough people so it's bit pointless to argue how large newbie game should be.

I decided to do little new players overview. ;-)

In Game 1 there were 12 new players. 5 players still play and are among most active players here (eyeball, Robbeasy, Vitek, nmillar, Damantion). 2 players played in following games but stopped since then (GoJays, Nazarush). 1 replacement with short appearance had also short episode in another game (Gamerager). 3 players never played another game, although 1 of them modded one (Tyler, Dominic, Damuna).

In Game 2 there were 9 new players. 3 of them still continue to play (bazilišek, pazzer, Zchinque). 3 of them continued to play but ceased since then (jesskitten, Typhoon, enterprise). 3 of them never played in another game (Azarr, Ubivis, AI1).

Game 3 featured only 3 new players. 1 of them is still (hopefully) active (Orryyrro). 1 of them played in another games but stopped since then (GhostQlyph). 1 of them never appeared in another game (Rooshandark).

Game 4 brought 7 new players. 4 of them are active memebers of our community (ViolatorX, Red_Baron, Rodzaju, TwilightBard). For the other 2 it was first and last game (elbaz, Popinjay). 1 player appeared in another game but is not active anymore (andyuk).

In Game 5 there were 3 new players. 0 of them is active anymore. 2 of them played in another game but are not active anymore (QuadrAlien, Taleroth). 1 new player never appeared in another game (fexen).

Game 6 offered only 2 new players. 1 of them didn't even post in that game (CowboyBebop). 1 player appeared in another game but became GOG minion since then (Thiev).

Game 7 featured 4 new players. 1 of them remained active in mafia community (JoeSapphire). 1 of them appeared in another game but not in next ones (xyem). 2 of them had to replace out of this game and nver played again (Silverfire, ovoon).

Game 8 offered 3 new players. 2 of them are still active (NotFrenchYet, muttly). 1 of them is yet to appear in another game (littlerabbit).

Game 9 had 4 new players at the start. 2 of them repalced out of game (Grynn, cruward_darkeyes). 2 of them already appeared in next game (itai.sharim, jefequeso).

Game 10 started with 3 new players. All of them are yet to appear in another game as they had no apportunity to do it (crazybear, Stuart, PenutBrittle).


In summary, apart games 1, 2 and 4, there never were more than 4 new players in a game.

Dude, I tend to write posts over a day sometimes, it doesn't matter :P It's all about having fun.

The opening line is literally "Welcome to mafia recruitment", so it is indeed very fitting.

No need to be all serious, Vitek. There's nothing inherently wrong with sub-12 games, and obviously we need to measure supply based on demand.

I was serious because I tried to explain it to you. You said the same when I was setting up the 9-players game but it was pointless both times as there just wasn't enough players to make it bigger.
No hard feeelings, though, I still think you are town. ;-)

I think a newbie queue might be a good idea, since it's my experience (and a few other posts I've read) that newbies coming into a game with more experienced folks who are not afraid to really apply pressure on people and with loads of old rivalries (cough, nmillar vs Rodzaju/Robbeasy!) , it's pretty intimidating at first until you learn to give as good as you get..!

A newbie pool might be a good way of attracting those people who have always wanted to give it a go, but have felt kind of intimidated before now... It'd also make a safe space where you won't be jumped on for asking otherwise obvious questions all the time (assuming there are a couple of 2+ game people in the pool).