Help making a competitive "The Thing" type game

its 2am just went through a terrifying monster thread and it reinvigorated my want to play a "The Thing" based game.

there might already be one out there, but i just got a semblance of an idea for something. heres what i got so far.

The players will each command a person or a team. they will be put into a station of some kind (this can take place in space, underwater, antarctica, mojave desert research station) thats isolated from the outside and no communication.

one player will be selected at random to receive a "The Thing" card, the rest might receive "Head Scientist" or "Engineer".

Maybe you take 5 cards per player, shuffle them and dish them out.

I'm brainstorming as i write this so it might not make complete sense.

the objective of the humans is to eliminate "The Thing", prevent the station from blowing itself up, and prevent it from leaving.

each turn will consist of the players writing down their action and handing it to the GM (this keeps the identity of the thing player a secret)

But thats all i got so far? who wants to join in

Just thought this could work for werewolves/vampires too?

self bump

I love the thing and I love "who is the monster" style games, but you'd have to be pretty original to have it not end up like one of the ones that is already released.

I think keeping the game length on the short side, having a well defined goal that people will want to cooperate towards somewhat, but introducing secondary hidden goals for each player so there's always uncertainty, is the best path.

yea i think keeping it to less than a half hour keeps the action high and keeps it from dragging along.

what are some of these other ones? maybe i could use them to help.

The cards should be separate from jobs. They should simply say "The Thing" or "Not The Thing". Otherwise, you'd get either one person not claiming a job and the Thing being revealed or two people claiming engineer and the Thing being revealed.

Maybe an alternative goal to simply eliminating the Thing can be
>escape the station without the Thing
If they do manage to cobble together an escape plan (getting the helicopter/spacecraft working, getting rescue, destroying the station and simply leaving), then have it so the players all reveal their cards to see if the Thing was with them or not, determining win or loss.
Perhaps even a couple of player, who are absolutely sure they aren't the Thing, escape together, leaving everyone else behind.

If you had enough players to work with this could be the backbone of an interesting system.

If you're trying to work together, but had the ability to pass people items face down, you could have a Thing player pass them a Thing card to gank them.

So you'd want to make players trade cards, but also keep them wary of trusting people offering.

GOALS :

- All players have to escape the station within [number of players] turns. If they don't, they'll all freeze to death.

- The human players have to not let the monster players escape with them. If a monster player is among them when they escape, the world is doomed.

- A monster player has to consume on human player every two turns or its true form is revealed until he can consume a human player.

SETTING :

The game is played on a board.
There are the main room and different other rooms.
Each room has a purpose for making the escape plan or/and to make the blood test

TURNS :

Each turn is divided in phases.

FIRST PHASE : discussion

The players discuss their strategy for the turn.
They each have to choose :
- a room they'll go to
- an action they'll perform

SECOND PHASE : action

Each player give the GM a note, on which he writes his actions.
These don't have to be the same as the ones they said they choose during the first phase.

Each player goes to the room he wrote.
Each player is automatically aware of who is in the same room as them but they don't know who is in the other rooms.

(cont)

THIRD PHASE : debriefing

As each player went to a room and tried to perform the actions he had planned, they all go back to the main room.

Here, they each say if they have completed their part or not.
They don't have to tell the true, though.
It's also there that players can vote to KILL one other player, though they don't have to.

ACTIONS :

Actions are of 3 types :

- do something for the escape plan

There are [number of players] things to be done to complete the escape plan.
Each thing must be done in a specific room.

- do something to make a blood test

There are [number of players] items that must be collected to complete the blood test.
Each item is in a specific room.

- crafting weapons

It takes 2 actions to create a single weapon. A player with a weapon is considered "equipped".

(cont)

Like it so far
>Each player is automatically aware of who is in the same room as them but they don't know who is in the other rooms.
How would this be accomplished feasibly. Preferably something other than constant note cards back and forth.

(cont)

In addition to these, the monster player get another actions :

- consuming a human

A human can be consumed if he is in the same room as the monster and there isn't at least two equipped humans in that room (including the victim).

If there are two equipped humans, they can fight off the monster so he won't risk it UNLESS HE HASN'T CONSUME A HUMAN IN THE LAST TWO TURNS in which case, his instinct takes over and he reveals himself.

If there's only one equipped human, the monster cannot be fought off and a human dies. If there are more than one human, the others retreat to the main room and tell the others.
Of course, it's then their word against the one of the monster player.

(cont)

I like it.

need a system that incentivizes taking risks and/or dis-incentivizes moving as a zerg.

Well, that's a potential hickup.
I was thinking cards back and forth...

(cont)

TRICKS AND TACTICS :

The monster must see the escape plan completed before the "time" limit.
He cannot do it alone so he cannot just murder everyone immediately.
He has to use the humans to help him while at the same time getting his instincts on check by eating some humans.

If there are 4 players, that means a 4 turns game. This means :

The monster has to eat at least one human if he wants to keep his identity secret.
Not very impressive but that still left only 3 players (including the monster), which is the minimum to vote to kill someone (2 vs 1).
If the wrong player is then voted to be killed, it will leave only the monster and the last human.
Said human cannot fight off the monster on his own so he is fucked...

He can either :
A) assume the monster has been killed and finish the escape plan (he'll loose then, either because he'll be eaten or because the monster will escape)
B) decide escaping is not worth the risk. He doesn't contribute to the escape plan and hope the monster can't finish it in time.

(cont)

(cont)

The humans have it hard because they have to make an escape plan AND to find the monster WHILE keeping at least two of them alive AND preferably equipped so they aren't eaten during mission.

They can choose to work on a blood test first, which will reveal the monster's identity... but since there are as many actions needed to make the blood test as there are players, this means :

A) the monster can sabotage the whole thing by NOT doing his part while saying he did.

B) eat a few of the players early to slow down the work on a blood test, forcing the human to switch to escape plan because of the time factor.

C) target specifically the humans that are supposed to be working on the blood test while letting the others complete the escape plan

I'm worried that one person being equipped not being enough might make the monster a little bit OP. But it might depend on number of people playing.

There's a Battlestar Galactica game where someone may be a disguised Cylon, steal inspiration from that?

(cont)

As additionnal players are added, the whole thing becomes more complex.
Now, players have more time to find the monster but the escape plan also takes more time to set.

They can however :
- put 4 of them to work on weapons on turn 1 and get 2 weapons
- put 2 of them to work on weapons on turn 2 and get another 1 weapons
- give 1 weapon to a player tasked with the blood test
- give 2 weapons to 2 other players
- make sure these 3 players lways move together to create the blood test
- have everyone else work on the escape plan in a timely manner so it will be ready but only one turn after the blood test is.

This is not really doable if this is a 4 players game because :

- the game is 4 turns long
- there are only time for 16 actions
- 6 are already wasted on the weapons
- 2 players will waste 8 actions escorting the 3rd room by room for the blood test
- there are only 2 actions left... and the escape plan need at least 4.

Yeah, you are right...but that way, the chances of victory are VERY slim, for both the humans AND the monster.
Game Over for all is much more likely than defeat of a single camp.

I feel like this game is an amazing concept but practically impossible to do on a board or tabletop since the second The Thing does anything everyone will instantly know who and where it is.

It'd instantly remove all suspense and just make it a kill team game.

(cont)

The trick is... you better hope you gave those weapons to the right people.
Because if the monster has the weapon... he just made you waste 2 actions, can NOT go with the 3-men team and kill another player.

Which brings the additionnal monster action :

Impersonate victim.
The Monster can take the appearance of his victims as a free action.

But that might make him too OP

>Players say they'll do something
>Players write what they'll really do on a paper to the DM
>DM write back what happens for each players
>Players tell the other players a story, which may or may not be true.

>The Thing and another player are in the kitchen
>Thing Player attacks and assuming he can't just instantly kill a player misses
>WOAH THIS GUY IS THE THING HE ATTACKED ME IN THE KITCHEN
>Everyone instantly knows who isn't the thing, and now can beeline it to the kitchen
>Monster hunter simulator starts unless the thing has a pool or people to turn into, but also doesn't matter because everyone else will know who isn't the thing

Unless it's like Werewolf where rounds are instant, killers can't miss unless under specific circumstances, and there is no game board in play it won't work. Even then it only works in Werewolf/Mafia because there is more than one so you can't instantly determine who is lying or not.

So I guess it might work if each player had multiple characters, and there were more than one creature in play, which might be cool because they could kill their own characters to throw people off, but I dont think it will work on a game board.

More like :
>The Thing and another player are in the kitchen
>the other player read on his card from the GM : "you are dead"

He doesn't need to know who more since :
A) Knowing more could make him say too much
B) He is dead and isn't supposed to talk anyway

Alternatively :
The monster player stops playing and the murdered player start playing the monster IMPERSONATING HIS CHARACTER.
Nobody know where the first monster player's character is. Everyone assume he has been killed by the Thing... but nobody knows WHO the Thing is !!


Another, more tricky, scenario :
>A, B and C are in the kitchen
>A get the paper that says : "you are dead"
>B get the paper that says : "you are with A and C in the kitchen. You killed A but C got away"
>C get the paper that says : "you are with A and B in the kitchen. B killed A but you got away"

Now, of course, C screams that B is the Thing.
But B is also saying that C is the Thing.
The rest of the players vote to kill ONE of them, with probably the option to kill the next one next turn.

But next turn, the Thing kills another player... and impersonate him.
In fact, the player's victim starts playing the Thing impersonating his character while the player of the initial monster stop playing, from his own choice. He still get to win if the monster escapes, though.
This makes the hunt nearly impossible without the blood test... but making the test is tricky.

im liking this

In a 1v1 scenario you wouldn't need one player to stop playing. They would just both end up being the thing.