I like that room idea, but making it a little more simple would be a better idea. Maybe the group pot is applied to a random set of rooms that players choose to go to each round? Not having to travel from room to room by rolling would simplify things nicely, but adding a bit of choice prevents a player from dying by complete chance.
Also, there should probably be a few rule changes if the game reaches 1v1, because at that point the active players know full well who the killer is.
I like that, there needs be something for when it’s that 1v1, either a chase out the mansion, for freedom or a way to kill time by having the choice of maybe 3 rooms?
You deal in one of 3 areas, you pick the area to play. But each area could either have consequences (lose health) or reward (time advance)
But i dunno how the 1 v 1 rules should work as well as if it should be a group pot (everybody deals one, everybody picks up one to play) or each room (if you play in “attic” you can only play another card in attic.
To help single out people.
Or you can have it be like a “group pot” but each card being placed (hidden) is in one of up to 8 rooms (1 per player to place, but they play as people)
To help with 1v1, you could have the dead detectives have things they can do, such as that their reveal their final breath contained a clue, or something they had said previously offhand is a major clue as to how to survive, aka
"gasp that swords… hilt… blarg"
or
"My, that statue doesn’t quite look right, eh?"
If a player “dies”, they must discard everything in their hand, including their identity card (just your detective card)
The remaining part of their game is suggestion. They keep playing in terms of talking to players about which place seems the most “safe” and who they suspect it might be.
The deck needs a variety
Time Advancement ("bathroom break - 5 minutes)
Health Damage (accidently caught fire by a candlestick - lose 10 health)
Nothing (pet a cat)
Do you think there needs to be health increase or insta-death?
What about cards to give clues?
Or possibly the way a “murder” happens is if two people are in a single room, the killer has access to murder cards, but the detective can draw their one and only accuse card to negate a players card.
Player 1 and Player 2 give each other a card. (Any of them)
Player 1 suspects player 2 is the killer and uses the accusition card.
Both cards are discarded, unknown if they are good or bad.
P2 is now a suspect. If P1 lives at the end and correctly accused P2, P1 wins. (But it might make them a big target)
If P1 lives but it wasn’t P2, but a P3. If P3 wasn’t accused, they win. They got away.
If the killer dies, (but still unknown until the end) everybody who is able to survive the death traps and each other wins… unless they got an accusition in before the death.
If P1 and P2 accuse P3 and he kills off P1 who accused P3 first. If P2 survives til the end. They technically win. As they lived.
TL;DR Find the killer before it’s too late!
KILLER’S CONDITIONS:
Go Undetected and Live Until Time Expires
DETECTIVES CONDITIONS
Accuse the Killer First and Live to Tell About it
Here is a mini-update, to what was created so far on Tabletop Sim.
I made a fast-and-easy game board, each color is gonna be a room or location of a mansion, but for the time being, it’s gonna be these colors, feel free to join in with art and ideas for the 8 rooms.
Each of these 8 rooms will already have 1 card placed in, placed by a killer, they get to put one card on each room (essentially getting an advantage each time) - so when the killer is in the same room as a player, they get to know 2 out of 3 cards to play.
Every player will however get 3-5 cards at the start of the game, to build time, to sabotage others (health?) and to get and others if it’s your suggestion.
Every player (even the killer) gets an ACCUSATION card and a health meter
The card is the secret to winning the game, as whoever was the first to correctly identify the killer AND live to tell about it wins the game. It also is used to negate a card during a “session” out of fear of death.
If you are the second to accuse, you are next in line. If the “First Accuser” dies, you could be the one to win the game… and yes you could “sabotage” that player into making them die so you can get ahead in the game… but would you want to do that?
I just wrote a quick deck of 8 cards (One “Killer” and Seven “Detectives”) with the goals in mind. this is the secret identities for the entirety of the game.
What is "A Session"
In a turn, one player is in “control” and takes themselves and a player of their choice into a room of their choice.
There is already one card in the room, placed there by the killer. Each player must then put face-down another card into the room.
This makes the room have three cards.
The challenging player then picks any of the three cards, the one they drew, the one their opponent drew, or the one left there by the killer.
The card is then revealed, and the results are given (health loss, time grow, end of turn, or something else?)
The second player, the one forced into the room, must then pick of the two remaining cards, leaving one card left in the room.
Once both players have drawn their card, the one “in control” is rotated to the next player.
If during a session, a player is scared, or is certain they have found the killer, they can play their one and only “accusation” card. The player in the room with them will be the one “Accused” and will be given that player’s card.
The player then picks of the cards, which one to remove from the game - it will be removed, but nothing will happen, they could have eliminated something to bump the time half an hour, or something that could have sent to an early grave.
(Revealing it to the table is entirely up to them, but it IS discarded)
I also found out that each card is 700 x 1000
So here is a template (it’s plain and black) so feel free to use this template to draw your rooms, and come up with ideas for cards.
WE HAVE A VIDEO OF THE PROCESS:
AND HERE IS A PLACE TO DOWNLOAD IT AND PLAY IT (SO FAR):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=864982639
I created a quick deck that could be broken and quick simple rules
If Killer - Go Undetected and make em waste their “A Card”
If Detective - Use the “A Card” on the Killer at the Right Time
If Killer Dies without anybody using the “A Card”, the identities are switched with someone else being the new murderer (I mean they DID die)
During 1 v 1, It will be left with a Killer and a Detective.
Killer needs to either kill the last detective and WIN, or waste the clock because they blew their accusation.
Detective needs to either kill the last killer and WIN (as a murderer) or waste the clock because they made the right decision.
If both live when time runs out, Killer gets away if he didn’t get accused.
I guess if the killer dies, then whoever was in the room with them when they die becomes the new killer. I mean it would be a surprise to the new killer, but it’s gotta be somebody.
Also, these are super WIP because I’ve got a train to catch in half an hour, but one idea led to the other and I wanted to throw them out there.
I’m gonna need to figure out that newfangled Tabletop Simulator later. It looks like it can do some pretty neat things, especially the blindfold stuff.
That’s some good ideas for cards. I think the deck might be a little too much lenient on health and not so much other ideas - should there be other ideas? (Flipping cards?)
Should each player get a “character” that’s an archtype of detective? Spy, Undercover Cop, CSI Detective, Robot, etc.
As for the “death of a killer” being the killer - it will defeat the purpose of finding the killer - everybody would know.
Unless in the event of a “death” you want the player to surrender their identity card to the player and keep it hidden (so they have two detective cards or one detective and one killer card) to keep the game going.
I like either idea so far!
I figured the killer’s identity wouldn’t be revealed until the end, even if they died. But giving the other player your own card would add a nice element of suspicion to them. That way you’re not sure if the person who received the new card is the new killer, or if they just have another detective card.
As for other cards types, there should definitely be ones that heal a player. Flipping cards would be good, as well as just general card switching, (like exchanging cards between rooms, letting a player switch a card in the room with one in their hand.) Also maybe one that protects from instant death traps, if those are still going to be a thing, (either it nullifies them, or it gives them a lesser damage value.
That’s why the game comes down to playing that Accusation card at the right time.
If the player dies without being accused, the person in-room has two cards, that’s double the odds of them being the killer at the end of the game.
However, if the player dies while being accused, this could be the end of the game, somebody either killed the killer (giving the first player who accused them the win) or they killed a fellow detective (which gives whoever used their accusation card, their card back with the remaining players)
This way, in the event of a 1 v 1 duel, there isn’t a wasted Accusation card, so it will be a who can kill who first contest OR a contest to see if the detective can kill the killer or kill the timer first.
So because I was stuck inside all day, I decided to change up the graphics of the board itself
We have the eight rooms now, thanks to just googling photos and using color shifting.
I made a better Accusation Card for each player (It’s colorized based on seat at the table)
And I included the back side to say the word “Dead” in the event a player is dead and therefore can not make any accusations or ways to move the clock forward.
Things Left to Do
* Design Better Detective/Killer Cards
UPDATE:
I just decided because it was a nice rainy day, to implement some graphics for the cards, I didn’t put any “story text” as to why you lose 5 health or gain 20 minutes yet, because it’s still a work in progress, but right now I am making screen grabs for the Steam page.
Here are some of the graphics of the cards themselves now
I decided the fewer words on the “Killer”/“Detective” Card, the Better, it’s easier if you just give symbols to explain who is what, if the rules already tell you “Hey Survive The House and Don’t Get Caught”
Second Chance has been renamed “Second Accusation” (Which was my original idea for the card, there is only one of them in the entire deck, but if you have this card, you get two chances to accuse players, doubling your chance of winning)
Nothing is just symbolized with the no sign, just to give something that seems more fun. I like the idea of cards that do neither harm no good in this chaotic game, because a killer can easily pick these cards to throw off any suspicion.
You Are Dead is giving off more of a Survival Horror vibe, and it tries to blend with the new logo.
I like it a bit better, but that’s because i actually put a bit of effort (20 minutes vs 2)
There are no stories behind the advance cards or lose health cards, but essentially blood drops (ink drops turned red) are losing health, and clock pictures represent advancing of time, the “Narrow Escape” is something @Fefnir suggested to getting away with booby traps, essentially this is your last ditch efforts near the end of the game, If you had 20 health points left, and you drew a card that made you lose 20 health, you can play the card to defend yourself. This also helps with the previous “You Are Dead” cards.
And finally some health pick-ups,
You can have your health reset back to 100, you can gain points here and there or you can do the “Slight of Hand” which is also a suggestion by Fefnir in which you pick up the last card in the room, and replace it with another card in your hand of three.
EDIT: Just Did a Sample Game (Unrecorded) and here are some highlights:
The Killer Won The Game because he was grabbing the lose health cards and so nobody was suspecting the person near-death would die.
Somebody else placed the “You Are Dead” card in the game, and sabotaged a friend who picked it up, who was accused by a rival player - when revealed as a detective, there were groans and reactions. She had the full health, as was suspected because of the reverse – still having their health in full.
I was stuck with all bad cards, and when the player swapped cards with me (i took the one in the room) they died, nobody accused so i had two cards (both detectives), got quickly accused because the chances are higher with me as the killer, but the person who made the accusation also sabotaged the entire table by throwing out the “advance 60 seconds” card. (When you accuse somebody, you throw away the card you picked – for good or bad)
I did not play my accusation, thinking I still had a few hours left, as luck would have it being at 1:05 am (with the 4am deadline), 45 minutes showed up, then an an hour five… and my turn was next, but the clock ran out before I could play my accusation card. 
The game seems a bit balanced because 2 players died from running out of HP, 1 died from the YAD card, and the killer was able to go under the radar and win the game. There was roughly 160 cards left in the deck when the game ended.
I think there is some major strategy here, I was suprised nobody was “ganging up” on a player, by having it be their turn and picking the same player over and over in each room. Someone got called three times in a row, but only two of the times drew positive outcomes. I tried to bluff them into picking my card though (It was a lose 10 health) but they didn’t want anything to do with me.
It was a real close game, and it seemed like there was some uphill battles going on. I will play test this again this week. And maybe we can get a meet-up going.
TTS is currently 10 dollarydoos over at humble
UPDATE VIDEO NUMBER TWO:
Looking at the graphics, and the flipped over “Dead” cards to indicate when your game is over. Also introducing the “Health” and “Lifelines” in the game.
We are now in the final stage of our build
PlayTesting the game is the important, so we know it’s not favoring one player over another, While testing it, the Killer did win two times with the detectives winning zero, but it’s not that difficult to figure out good strategy as a detective, because this is one part Mafia and Warewolf, and another part some of the other ideas in this thread so far (having a plan of attack, but screwing over others as well)
Detectives can sabotage other Detectives
Killers can just push the clock to zero and go undetected the fast way
Everybody will have a plan of attack of trying to figure out who is who, and when the clock is ticking down, figure out what’s more important – wasting time or finding the identity of the killer?
If you are interested in playtesting with me and others, please check out the Tabletop Simulator game thread or send me a PM.
I am making the executive decision to pass on adding text to the Health/Time, as funny as it could be, the game goes a bit faster if you just know “I lost health”/"Add x Minutes to the clock.
So if you have any problems with this game, let me know. I am gonna see if we can’t get one final “record” where we get some people together to play this monstrosity that YOU are responsible for
But this is NOT gonna be the only game created, we will be making another game next month.
We will try and get something going BEFORE March 1st, and come up with ideas (and bring back popular ideas from the past) for our March/April game.
But I won’t continue with the next game, until we have a majority of people being satisfied.
0 voters
Considering we have reached 100% Satisfaction
the only rule change I made after the fact is you CAN’T refill your 3 card hand until it’s your turn again. This will eliminate ganging up on a player, but also might encourage people being picked multiple times to throw away cards (or play multiple cards) per session.
Today is my birthday, so I might be away for most of the day, but Thanks for giving this a go, and I appreciate all the support you’ve given. We will do another game this month, that should be fun.
No need for one-sentence descriptions this time around.
EDIT:
Any suggestions are welcome, if we don’t get anything, I will either do one more as a personal project, and then conclude this series.
Chrononauts. One of the players can be a sapient cockroach that has to cause World War 3.
This is really funny, so it’s like cootie, but with armeggeddon?
What’s “Cootie”?
Cootie is a game where you have to construct a bug, it’s a board game meant for pre-schoolers
Also we got ourselves an UPDATE on Death Til Dawn!
The Tabletop Simulator Team has decided to make it this week’s FEATURED GAME!
This means that everybody who downloads Tabletop Simulator, will see advertising to download this in Steam Workshop, so I just want to once again thank everybody here at LP Zone for their efforts and suggestions for this great game.
Yeah I know it’s mid-march, but we will do more games real soon.
Maybe a game with Video Game Trivia or Regular Trivia? A Guessing Game? What do you think?
Ah dang, LP Zone’s already has 100% success in "good game making."
So I don’t know much about trivia games outside of the Trivial Pursuit sort of style, but a game using video game trivia would probably work out pretty well on this forum, considering its subject matter. That being said, it would be pretty interesting to see what other categories people would come up with, so I’d vouch for either of those first two.
Yeah, if we make a trivia game, one of the categories should be Video Games, so either A: we have a trivial pursuit style where we have Video Games, Sports, Geography, etc, or B: It’s subdivided into various genres, i.e. Action, Sports, Edutainments, etc.
What kind of categories do you want? Do you want the categories to be specific games or something like ARCADE/NES/SNES/360 or something interesting like a game where you gotta get something from different decades or put games in different times or based on metacritic score?
Or something silly like a game based on 1990s Game Journalist Magazines?
We could mash together the trivia and guessing game ideas. I’m thinking maybe have a sort of betting system where players start with a base amount of points and they can bet on which answer is correct. Betting more yields more points, betting less is the safe choice, etc. If we went with that we’d probably have to use more obscure trivia questions to amp up the uncertainty and make bigger bets carry more weight.
If we’re focusing on video game trivia specifically, I think it makes more sense to draw from a variety of games from different genre. That way if one of the players happens to be really into one genre they don’t steamroll the entire game.
We could also divide the trivia into categories around different aspects of games, e.g. mechanics, music, who worked on this game, stories from the game’s development, etc.
