Introducing Heretic, a new social game for FC events!

[MomomeMeji]

Howdy, Eorzeans!

I’m Momome Meji from the server Goblin, and I’m here to introduce a brand new social game that I designed with the help of others in my FC Facepalm! It’s called Heretic, with a ruleset derived from games like Werewolf, Mafia, and Town of Salem, but with a special Hydaelynian twist that puts you in the shoes of the cold, paranoid, and zealous people of Ishgard during the Dragonsong War.

In Heretic, players assume the roles of members of the Ishgardian public attempting to rout out heretics committing nightly murders and cast them into the Witchdrop. There is a secret, however – two or more members of this Ishgardian public are heretics, attempting a coup on Ishgard!

Can the people of Ishgard discern the identities of these heretics and cast them into Witchdrop before they assassinate all of the empowered citizenry? Or will the heretics successfully foment discord before Halone’s very eyes and seize control of the Holy See?

[MomomeMeji]

I’ve played this game several times with my FC, first as the moderator during a trial run during one of our many FC parties and as a player (allowing someone else to take the reins as moderator) during pre-scheduled events. I’m happy to say that I feel it’s ready for prime-time, thanks to some polish and editing from my FC mates! It can be played entirely in text chat, but use of a voice chat service such as Discord greatly enhances the experience. This is a great way to bond with your FC mates.

Expect each game to run twenty minutes to an hour, depending on how many players you run it with (a minimum of seven and a suggested maximum of twenty-four).


Click here for the rules!
That's a PDF with the rules write-up that I compiled with some help editing from a few FC mates.

[MomomeMeji]

Although these rules seem incredibly comprehensive, the game is much simpler than it appears at first blush. It’s very likely you’ve played one of the many games of its style in the past, and Heretic does not differ hugely from Town of Salem except in the flavor text and the role names.
(To quickly summarize for those who know Town of Salem: Ishgardian = Townie, Heretic = Mafioso, Paladin = Bodyguard, Astrologian = Investigator, Red Mage = Retributionist + Vigilante, Dark Knight = Jester.)


I also used several macros while moderating the game, which I’ve posted up here at this Pastebin link.

These macros include a quick rundown on the rules and several mouseover macros for distributing roles to players. You are, of course, free to alter any of the flavor text to your whims, and macros are by no means necessary for running Heretic.

[MomomeMeji]

Finally, when I was organizing the game I designed an Excel spreadsheet within which I could enter the players’ names. You can use it in Google Docs, but I recommend downloading them and running them directly in Excel so that you can use the Shuffle macro to randomize the player names.

• Here’s a basic spreadsheet.
• And here’s one with both of the advanced roles.

If you played this game and enjoyed it, please feel free to share and remix it! I had a blast making it and running it with my FC.
Have fun, and let me know if you played it or have any questions or suggestions!

[RolandEarthmight]

actually the game Heretic exists IRL in the netherlands under the name Weerwolven van Wakkerdam, but premise so far is nearly identical.
its not badmouth it tho, i love me some WvW and its a ton of fun to come up with gigantic consiperacy theories as for why X is the heretic or why Y is killed

[Mofafafa]

Assuming there is a 24 players are playing, there will have more than 2 or 3 *mafia* Heretics in the game.

How are they going to communicate during the night* ?

Like if its 2 person can /tell to each other, what about 3 mafia?

[MomomeMeji]

Assuming there is a 24 players are playing, there will have more than 2 or 3 *mafia* Heretics in the game.

How are they going to communicate during the night* ?

Like if its 2 person can /tell to each other, what about 3 mafia?

Oh, great question! In my experience what would usually happen is that one player would serve as a conduit for the other two and convey the suggestion of the other heretic to the third heretic and vice-versa. In my last game, the heretics formed a small private Discord channel for discussion.

It has been a bit of a stumbling block to establish a consistent way for the heretics to actually converse with one another, but I've yet to see any serious problems yet - players will sort of work it out between themselves.