Predators and Prey

Revision as of 21:43, 30 March 2013

Predators and Prey (or P&P) is a group game played on Vulpine Hollow, based off of the popular game called "Mafia. In this game, two factions, predators and prey, each attempt to devour the other faction. The faction left standing at the end wins.

Basic Rules

Each player in a Predators and Prey game either play the role of a hungry predator or an innocent (and generally delicious) prey. Predators have the knowledge of who other predators are; prey do not know who is predator and who is prey. A Game Moderator (GM) oversees the game and provides setting, assigns roles, and makes announcements.

P&P is generally played in two phases:

• During the Day Phase, players may freely chat with each other in public. Each player can cast their vote to 'lynch', or devour, another player. If one player gets a majority vote among all currently surviving players, the player is 'lynched' and removed from the game, generally by being devoured by the last person to cast a vote against them. During this phase, preys should attempt to determine who the predators are, and vote to lynch them. Predators should try to pretend that they are one of the preys, and generally try to misdirect the preys into lynching one of their own members. The Day Phase is typically between 10-20 minutes.

• During the Night Phase, all public talk ceases and there is silence in the room. During this phase, predators may confer freely among private messages; at this time, they may choose a prey that they wish to "Nightkill", or secretly devour at night. After they have chosen, they will inform the GM of their choice and, once the GM confirms it, one of the predators will privately devour the chosen prey. Once the night phase ends, the GM will announce who was devoured during the night and a new day phase will begin. Play continues until all predators have been lynched or all prey have been lynched/nightkilled. The Night Phase is typically 10 minutes long.

• There are often 'sub-phases' added onto the Day and Night phase. In the most typical current configuration, there is an additional 'Reaction Phase' added onto the Day Phase that is between 3-5 minutes long, after someone has been lynched, to give time for reactions and interactions. During this time, Predators may begin privately collaborating, and deciding who they will nightkill. The Reaction sub-phase only begins after the GM calls for Reactions, prior to this, private predator inter-discussion is still forbidden during the Day.

Roles

Certain players (either predators or preys) may be secretly assigned a special role before the game begins by the GM. These roles grant the player special abilities which may assist their faction. Some of the most popular roles are explained below. Please note that this list is NOT comprehensive by any means, it is merely a guideline of some of the most commonly-used roles for beginners. Other roles can and will be used or introduced into P&P games with no prior warning to the players.

Standard Roles

Standard roles are just that - Standard. A 'Prey' role is, again, not an assigned role - if you are not told you are a predator, and are not given any other special role, you are assumed to be a Vanilla Prey. A 'Pred' role is assigned by the GM, sometimes with special roles on top of it, at the start of the game. The number of Preds in the game will differ depending on the number of players, but will not be announced before the game.

Prey:

• A Prey is a standard prey player without any special abilities.
• During Day phases, a vanilla prey can talk freely and cast a vote on who they wish to lynch.
• During Night phases, prey are not allowed to speak.
• At no time is a vanilla prey allowed to privately collaborate with any other player.

Predator:

• A Predator is a standard predator player.
• During Day phases, predators can talk freely and cast a vote on who they wish to lynch. However, they cannot privately collaborate during the day, except during a Reaction sub-phase.
• During Night phases, all predators can talk freely with each other in private messages and can collaboratively decide to Nightkill any prey player. Once they make a decision, they inform the GM of the target and who will be devouring them - once the GM confirms their decision, the chosen predator privately devours the chosen target.

Special Roles

Special roles are also just that - special and distinguished in some way. If you are not assigned one of these roles, you do not have it - although you may, for purposes of strategy, deflecting blame, or confusing prey (if you are a predator) or drawing attention from preds (if you are prey) claim any of them at any time. Whether or not it is wise to do so is left to your discretion. The presence or absence of these roles in any game is not announced by the GM in advance.

Investigator:

• An Investigator (or Cop) is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, Investigators can perform an investigation on a chosen player privately by informing the GM that they wish to do so, via PM. The GM will then reveal to the Investigator if the chosen player is a predator or a prey.
  • Detective (or Backup Cop) is a prey aligned role; if the Investigator is eaten, the Detective becomes active with the Investigator's abilities. Until this happens, they are considered a vanilla Prey and will read as such if investigated.

Private Eye

• A Private Eye (or Role Cop) can be a prey-aligned role. Private Eyes can investigate other players like the normal Investigator, but instead of learning which team they belong to, they instead learn the person's Role (e.g. 'Investigator', 'Bodyguard', 'Ninja', etc). They do NOT learn if the chosen player is pred or prey. In the case of a role that has different names depending on whether a Pred or Prey holds it (for instance, Spy vs. Private Eye) the vanilla version of their Role (Private Eye or Role Cop) will be returned.
  • Gumshoe (or Backup Role Cop) is a prey-aligned role; if the Private Eye is eaten, the Gumshoe becomes active with the Private Eye's abilities. Until this happens, they are considered a vanilla Prey and will read as such if investigated.
  • Spy is a pred-aligned variant of the Private Eye. It functions otherwise the same, save for the fact that in a single night, a Spy can both perform the factional nightkill on one player (with the collaboration of any other active preds) and choose to investigate an entirely different player.

Guardian:

• A Guardian (or Doctor) is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Guardian can choose to protect a chosen player privately by informing the GM that they wish to do so, via PM. If the chosen player is the target of a nightkill, the protection from the Guardian will prevent them from being devoured. The Guardian, unlike the Bodyguard, does not die from successfully protecting another player.
• Guardians cannot protect themselves.
  • Savior (or Backup Doctor) is a prey-aligned role: if the Guardian is eaten, the Savior becomes active with the Guardian's abilities. Until this happens, they are considered a vanilla Prey and will read as such if investigated.

Bodyguard:

• A Bodyguard is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Bodyguard can choose to protect a chosen player privately by informing the GM that they wish to do so, via PM. If the chosen player is the target of a nightkill, the bodyguard will be devoured instead.
• Bodyguards (obviously) cannot protect themselves.

Vigilante:

• A Vigilante is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Vigilante can choose to assassinate a chosen player privately by informing the GM that they wish to do so, via PM. Once the GM confirms the assassination's success, the vigilante can devour said chosen player privately. The GM will announce the chosen player's alignment at the beginning of the Day phase.
• Vigilantes are regularly given only a limited number of uses for their nightkill, as opposed to Predators, who may use it every single night.

Ranger:

• A Ranger (or Tracker) is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Tracker can choose to follow a chosen player privately by informing the GM they wish to do so. The Tracker will then be able to see if the chosen player visits any other player's room during the night; they will NOT see what action is performed by that player.
  • Scout is a pred-aligned variant of the Ranger. It functions otherwise the same, save for the fact that in a single night, a Scout can both perform the factional nightkill on one player (with the collaboration of any other active preds) and choose to track an entirely different player.

Watcher:

• A Watcher is a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Watcher can choose to watch a chosen player privately by informing the GM they wish to do so. The Watcher will then be able to see if the chosen player is visited by any other player during the night; they will NOT see what action is performed by that player.

Commuter:

• A Commuter is usually a prey-aligned player.
• During Night phases, a Commuter can choose to 'commute' away for that Night phase. When a commuted player is away, they cannot be targeted by any actions during the night, including nightkills. They also cannot use any other night skills.
• Commuters commute first, meaning any role meant to stop a player from performing their night action will fail.
• Commuters generally have a limited number of times they can commute.

Roleblocker:

• A Roleblocker can be either prey or predator-aligned.
• During Night phases, a Roleblocker can choose to block a chosen player privately by informing the GM they wish to do so. A roleblocked target cannot use any of their special abilities during the Night phase (Nightkills, investigations, protections, etc).

Captor:

• A Captor can be either prey or predator-aligned.
• During Night phases, a Captor can choose to jail a chosen player privately by informing the GM they wish to do so. A jailed target cannot use any of their special abilities during the Night phase (Nightkills, investigations, protections, etc). A jailed character also cannot be targeted by any night actions at all.

Vengeful:

• A Vengeful character is usually a prey-aligned player, but may also be a predator-aligned on uncommon occasions.
• If a Vengeful character is lynched at any time, they may choose to devour any player they wish before they are devoured themselves.

Ninja:

• A Ninja character is usually a predator-aligned player, but may also be a prey-aligned on uncommon occasions. It will always be paired with a secondary role if it is a prey-aligned role. There are two variants.
• The standard variant is Tracker-proof, but not Watcher-proof. If a Tracker targets a Ninja during the night, the Tracker will not see that the Ninja has targeted anyone for any actions whatsoever. If a Watcher targets the Ninja's target, however, they will still see that the Ninja targeted them.
  • Shinobi is the more powerful variant, and is Watcher-and-Tracker-proof. Watchers and Trackers cannot see any actions that a Shinobi performs during the Night phase.
• Please note that a Watcher who watches a Shinobi WILL see any actions performed against the Shinobi, but will not see any actions the Shinobi performs on any other watched targets.
• Shinobi (and sometimes Ninja) are often given only a limited number of uses of their special ability to hide from detection. If the Shinobi does not specify to the GM that they are making use of their class ability, it is presumed that they are performing an action normally (without hiding from detection.)

Arch-Pred:

• An Arch-Pred (or Godfather) is a predator-aligned player.
• If an Investigator attempts to investigate an Arch-Pred, their investigation will come up false and identify the Arch-Pred as a prey, instead.
• The only way to conclusively identify an Arch-Pred with special abilities is to Watch or Track them, and so games that include an Arch-Pred will almost always include at least one Watcher or Tracker, if not both, or backups for one or the other. Arch-Pred is considered a common role - that means that it will not be announced by the GM that there is an Arch-Pred in the game.

Strongjaw:

• A Strongjaw (or Strongarm) is a predator-aligned player. It is very rarely given to Vigilantes or Serial Killers, as well.
• If a Strongjaw performs the nightkill for the predators, and informs the GM that they wish to use their Strongjaw power, the nightkill will go through regardless of anything that would normally prevent them from doing so, i.e. a Guardian's protection or a Captor's jailing.
• The only role which can circumvent being targeted when Strongjaw is invoked is the Commuter, commuting away.
• The Strongjaw role is generally limited to how many times it may be used in a game.

Serial Devourer:

• The Serial Devourer is a special alignment - they are neither pred nor prey, but are allied only to themselves.
• The Serial Devourer can perform a nightkill just like the mafia.
• The Serial Devourer wins when they and only one other person remains. It does not matter if the person remaining is predator or prey; if it is a predator, the Serial Devourer wins, not the predator.
• The Serial Devourer often has only a limited number of uses of their special nightkill, however; if all predators are removed from the game, the Devourer's nightkill becomes infinite-use until they win or are lynched.

Announced Roles

Announced Roles are roles whose presence the GM will announce before the game begins - you will not know who possesses the role, but you will be aware that it is in the game. This is generally restricted to roles whose presence can have such an unbalancing effect if players are not aware they should be watching for them, as to tip the balance of the game one way or another, or roles whose victory conditions seriously impact the prospects of either side. If you don't hear it announced that one of these roles is active in the game, it won't be, barring special circumstances the GM will also announce beforehand (Role Madness, Bastard GM, etc.)

Glutton:

• The Glutton (or Miller) is a special alignment - they are prey, but when Investigated by a Cop-type role, they read as being Pred instead. They have no other special abilities - and still win when they prey do, if they last that long.
• The Glutton is sometimes picked by the GM, and not told to the person possessing it. This means you may be aware that a Glutton is active in the game, but unaware if you, yourself, are one or not. This is to add insecurity so that even in a game with a Glutton, a Pred cannot just instantly dispel evidence against them by claiming they are one.
• The GM will usually say whether or not the Glutton will know who they are. However, the Glutton can - even when known to themselves - claim to be one at any time, just like any other player and role.

Traitor:

• The Traitor is a special alignment with several variants - they are pred-aligned, but when Investigated by a Cop-type role, they read as being Prey instead. They generally are informed who the Preds are, but may not participate in the factional Nightkill. This also means that they may not communicate with any other Preds during Reaction or Night phases. They win when the Preds win.
• The Traitor is generally known to the Predators, and is immune to the Predator's factional nightkill (even if they wanted to use it on them, for some reason.) Other times, the Traitor may be unknown to the Predators, but if picked with the factional nightkill, is 'drawn back into the fold' - and becomes a full-fledged Predator instead of a Traitor.
• There are other variants of the Traitor that may make an appearance - the GM will generally specify the finicky parts of the role when it is announced it will be involved.