RI Beginners Guide Update

[b]Role Ideas (RI)[/b] can be a difficult place to get the hang of. If you are new to Role Ideas, then you've come to the right place. Here you will find all you need to know in order to get started on the Role Ideas forums.

[b][size=200]1. Proposing a Role Idea[/size][/b]

Proposing a Role Idea is a very simple thing to do, but it is important to do it correctly so that others reading it will understand exactly what the role is. The RI staff have created a template that is considered to be the best format for your Role Idea. While this template isn't necessary, we strongly advise you use it for all of your Role Ideas as it is very effective at conveying roles.

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=130]Template:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

[quote][b]Role Name

Role Alignment

Abilities

Attributes

Goal

Win Conditions[/b][/quote]
[b][u]For the title of your thread, we recommend that you use this format as it is very organized:[/u][/b]

Role Name (Role Alignment)

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=130]Color Codes:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

While not necessary, it is advised you use color to indicate [color=#00BF00]Town[/color], [color=#FF0000]Mafia[/color], [color=#BFBFBF]Neutral[/color], and information associated with the aforementioned alignments. Just makes things pretty, and if you can’t tell, we like pretty.

#FF0000/"Red” = [color=#FF0000]Mafia[/color]
#00BF00/“Green” = [color=#00BF00]Town[/color]
#BFBFBF/“Grey” = [color=#BFBFBF]Neutral[/color]
#0080FF = [color=#0080FF]Sub Alignment[/color] (i.e. [color=#0080FF]Investigative[/color], [color=#0080FF]Support[/color], [color=#0080FF]Deception[/color] etc)

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=130]Here is an example of what a role idea might look like using the formatting above:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

[spoiler][b]Role Name[/b]
[color=#00BF00]Vigilante[/color]

[b]Role Alignment[/b]
[color=#00BF00]Town[/color] ([color=#0080FF]Killing[/color])

[b]Abilities[/b]
 - Shoot a player at night, dealing a basic attack to them.

[b]Attributes[/b]
 - You have 3 bullets.
 - You may not shoot night 1.

[b]Goal[/b]
Lynch all criminals and evildoers.

[b]Win Conditions[/b]
You must kill the [color=#FF0000]Mafia[/color]
You must kill [color=#0000FF]Serial Killers[/color]
You must kill [color=#FF8000]Arsonists[/color]
You must kill [color=#804000]Werewolves[/color]
You must kill [color=#8000FF]Witches[/color]
You win with the [color=#00BF40]Town[/color]
You win with [color=#FFFF00]Survivors[/color]
You may spare anyone else.[/spoiler][b][size=200]2. Making Good Role Ideas[/size][/b]

Making good Role Ideas is hard to do. If you take a look around Role Ideas, you will see a lot of diversity in how people perceive different roles. However, the [url=http://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=64703]Testing Grounds[/url] community (TG), which is a community driven to balance Town of Salem and create new balanced roles, has created a guideline on what not to do when trying to create new Role Ideas. If your role does not fall under any of these categories, then it is far more likely to be a balanced Role Idea.

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=130]Concepts Not To Make:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

[b]Role Dependency/Hard Counters[/b] - Roles that depend on or exist to counter or copy abilities from roles being generated in the game
[b]Independent Mafia Killing[/b] - Roles that increase the Mafia’s killing ability by duplication or independent killing
[b]Conversion Role[/b] - Roles that can change the win condition of another role
[b]Overly Complex Role[/b] - Roles that are hard to implement, understand and operate
[b]RNG Role[/b] - Roles that have abilities based on random number generation
[b]Negative Utility[/b] - Roles that negatively impact their own alignment
[b]Self-Confirming Town[/b] - Roles that can easily confirm themselves
[b]Night Immune Town[/b] - Town roles that have permanent night immunity
[b]Limited Neutral Killing[/b] - Neutral Killing roles that have limitations to how and who they can kill
[b]Chaos Role[/b] - Any role that is built to bring chaos to the game
[b]Non-Evil Neutral Evil[/b] - Any Neutral Evil that can win with Town
[b]Omniscient Town Killing[/b] - Any Town Killing that has no charge limit to its abilities
[b]Easily Confirmable Roles[/b] - Any role that can be easily confirmed
[b]Vote/Chat Blocker[/b] - Any role that can block others from voting or chat
[b]New Alignment[/b] - Any alignment made solely for one role

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=130]Roles Not To Make:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

[b]Firefighter[/b] - A role built to put out the douses of the Arsonist
[b]Copycat[/b] - Any role that uses other role's night abilities
[b]Postmortem Lookout[/b] - Any role that can see who visited a dead player
[b]Survivor Rehash[/b] - Any Neutral Benign role whose only goal is to survive to the end of the game
[b]Buddy[/b] - Any role that requires another specific person to survive to win
[b]Role Swapper[/b] - Any role that swaps/changes others' roles
[b]Visitor[/b] - Any role that has a win condition involving visiting other players
[b]Silver Bullet[/b] - A role that can shoot an evil without finding the evil
[b]Old Spy[/b] - Any role that can read the mafia chat
[b]Necromancer[/b] - An evil Retributionist that can revive a dead teammate[/quote]

[b][size=200]3. Joke Role Ideas are not allowed[/size][/b]

Posting threads for the purpose of things such as memes or jokes breaks our rules regarding spam, and posting content that has little quality is also considered spam. Posting just one joke thread in this board will get you an Official Board Warning. This includes copying and pasting roles from [url=http://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13629#p333309]Forum Mafia[/url] (FM).

[b][size=200]4. Responding to Role Ideas[/size][/b]

Everybody who creates a Role Idea in the Role Ideas forum is looking for feedback on their role. Giving feedback is a great way to get involved in the community, since it can help you to share and better your knowledge of balance, and allows you to explore and convey your creativeness... but how exactly do you give feedback effectively? We've already covered the Role Idea Guidelines (see step #2), but we haven't covered the attitude and content that should be present in your responses.

[b][u][color=#BF0000][size=150]Here are the rules which we expect you to follow when giving feedback:[/size][/color][/u][/b]

- You should strive to make your content constructive and informative, giving reasoning for your feedback, whether it is positive and/or negative.

- Posts containing solely negative comments attacking the idea with a lack reasoning and/or constructive ideas, or conversely only positive comments with a lack of reasoning and/or constructive ideas, will be considered spam.

- Please make sure that all of your posts stay on topic; posts deviating from discussion regarding the Role Idea will be considered spam.

- Heated arguments are not permitted; please remain civil and treat others as you would want to be treated.

- Failure to comply to any of the above rules will result in a warning or other action at the discretion of the RI Moderators.

[b][size=200]5. Role Idea Contests[/size][/b]

On occasion, Role Ideas Contests are held. These contests are games where players will argue and debate about each others Role Ideas, where a winner is chosen among those who either have the best role or the best ability to debate. Each host will have their own take on how to properly play one of these games, but they usually have this sort of setup. To join one of these contests, you will find the proper instructions at the beginning of the thread, where the host will go into more detail.

To host one of these games, you must privately message all of the [url=http://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=80369]RI Moderators[/url] with your game instructions. It is important that your post summarizes how to play your game as well as give all of the rules to your game. You also need to properly set up a system to make sure that players know who they are arguing against and what they are arguing about. The most important thing to do as a host of a contest is to stay active.