alignment game

This game setup is based on each player not being aware of their own alignment.

Night Phase:
Every player is required to send in a NK target every night, where no kill is not a valid target.

If the player's alignment is mafia, their NK target will be counted as a vote towards deciding the NK, and the person with the majority of votes on them will be killed. In the case of a tie, no one will die.
One player (or two/more if a lot of players), decided by rng every night, will actually protect the player that they send in as the NK target instead. They will not be told that they were the doctor that night.

Additionally, every player may attempt to contact another player every night. (May change to every other night, or allow this for only a number of rnged players every night - but if rnged, they will be told when they are able to do that.) If they and the person they attempted to contact are both mafia, they will be revealed to each other and will continue to operate as standard mafia (may talk to each other via pms and plan nk etc., however they still need to each send in nk targets).

Day Phase:
Standard day phase with players voting in thread. No vote /no lynch is accepted. In the case of a tie, the lynch will be left to rng between the two tied players.

Other:
You are allowed to publicly claim who your NK target last night was.
Players are also allowed to plan their NK targets in-thread if they so desire, but are naturally under no obligation to actually follow-up with their previously claimed target.
Outside of the mechanism, all players are vanilla /have no abilities.

Notes:
I haven't decided on the ratio for this. Thinking standard 1:3 might be okay, but not sure.
I'll probably dress this up in some sort of a theme if there's actually interest to play this, but for now I'm posting just the raw base.

Alternative:
A heavier version, where players have abilities, but they don't know what they are. The players send in their ability targets, and try to figure out what they are through rollover /potential feedback results etc. Some abilities would have specific target requirements, and would fail if not met (e.g. self-targeting abilities). There would probably be a bus driver as well. Idk yet about passives, cause that's a bit evil. Potentially more wacky roles.
It sounds chaotic, so idk if it'd actually work - and in either case, I'd rather run the barebones version first.

Comments /critique would be appreciated!

This sounds like a lot of fun! I would recommend what I'm doing with PM Maf in that you run a vanilla minigame as a test of the core mechanics then run a game with roles as a main game! It's been very informative for me c:

Hmmm.

At a glance, the first version is interesting. You'd need to weigh targets a lot differently than usual in terms of NK, I think. My first concern would be: Is there any real contest between town and mafia? Each player does not know their alignment so no one has hidden motives. I suppose later in the game you might have 1-2 people confident/cleared as town, and 1-2 confident they're mafia?

Re-reading, the addition of attempted contacts between players seems to alleviate some concerns I would have. Mafia can find each other, and town have a way of checking to see if they're mafia, or, possibly, if other players could be mafia. Hm...

As far as the alternative goes, I had a similar idea I discussed with Kiyoko at one point. She brought up a good point, then, which we discussed a bit, but the one problem I would have with random/unknown role actions is that there are so many and you have no way of knowing what you might do in advance, which might be frustrating. I think Kiyoko's words at the time were, "It may be fun for the host, but you also have to ask if it would be fun for the players." Twitch Plays Mafia worked because each player knew they could only perform one of three actions on any night, even if they didn't know if their chosen action would go through.

That said, I do love the idea of piecing together a puzzle and figuring out what you are based on other clues and evidence, which is why I've also thought of something similar to your alternative version. If you pull it off, I'd definitely play it and love it.

My initial concern is that if there is no kill on a tie, isn't there a high chance of everyone in the mafia voting for someone different, and no one getting lynched?

In terms of strategy, here is the first thing that comes to my mind.

Divide into four teams of three. Everyone in one team votes for the same person (who is on their team).

Each set of outcomes from the nk is nearly unique.

3/1/0/0 = 1 person in the group of three mafia who is mafia dies, and that person is mafia.
2/1/1/0 = 1 person in the group of two mafia dies, unless third person in that group has protect.
2/2/0/0 = No one dies.
1/1/1/1 = No one dies.

If someone dies, then lynch the rest of the people in the group with them.
If no one dies, change the group combinations and try again.

If anyone votes differently than they are supposed to, that would show up in the vote tallies. This will fall apart if the mafia make contact with each other and start planning to cross vote, so the vote tallies look the same while skewing the results. But it would work for at least the first nk before people have a chance to talk.

@ninfia:
your running PM maf as a test run vanilla minigame is actually what gave me the idea to do this with vanilla setup, and only if it works out and I can balance roles somehow to go for the full version (because it does sound very chaotic). :D

@luxaria:
initially, there's no hidden intentions, no - that's why scumreading at the start is impossible. the beginning of the game relies heavily on "but what if I am maf", and then later on players can be confirmed either town or maf -
maf through the night talk mechanism, which establishes a standard maf team;
town through either a) protection, if it goes through (though low chances of actually 100% confirmation), or
through the night talk mechanism, upon a player they previously attempted to contact flipping maf.

good point about the alternative /heavy version; the whole chaos when trying to figure out BUT WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO might be more frustrating than fun, so it really depends on a) whether the basic setup works well, and b) whether I can balance the roles so that it's challenging, but not too discouraging.
I will definitely need to give the roles a lot of thought, and consider how much I can make publicly known and how much is closed. (and will possibly need a balancer tbh.)

@ducky-chan:
the no kill on a tie with NK is I something I thought would be interesting to mess with strategies a little, and also a way to make it a bit more likely to everyone get to play at least through two phases tbh.
true, with a 1:3 ratio and 12 players, the chance of a tie on N0 is fairly high.
but there are also players who are considered more of a "threat" than others, and the nagging thought of "but what if I'm mafia" c:
additionally, maf will very likely find each other through the night talk mechanism (which allows them to ensure their NK doesn't tie) faster than town should be able to confirm their alignment. (in theory.)

I also forgot to add that the NK would also fail if the target with the most votes from mafia was mafia themselves, but in rollover it would show the same as if the NK votes were a tie (and wouldn't reveal the target's identity). If the NK failed due to protection, it would show the original target, however.

your strategy wouldn't work because the NK target votes don't show up as a tally. they're pm'ed to the host like standard NK, and never show up in the thread in any way, except when the person dies - but it wouldn't be announced neither who nor how many voted for them.
I guess I should add that to the original post, sorry that it wasn't clear.

thank you guys for the comments and interest btw ; w;

also, some balancing notes.

mafia pros:
+ can determine own alignment/find each other and ensure the NK doesn't tie
+ immune to NK and not revealed when NK is attempted on them
+ because not even maf know they are maf, scumreading is much harder esp. at start

town pros:
+ no NK on tie (high chances of no NK on N0)
+ rng'ed doctor every night phase (but not informed that they are doctor)
+ can determine own town alignment after someone they failed to contact flips maf

some rebalancing options:

in favour of maf:
+ in the case of maf being targeted for NK, inform them that an attempt was made on them but failed (effectively informing them that they are mafia).
+ change the no-kill on tie to rng'ed between votes

in favour of town:
+ inform doctor that they are the doctor that phase
+ reduce the frequency of night talk mechanism (questionable how beneficial that would be to town, because it can clear one's alignment for them if they had previously attempted to contact someone who then died and flipped maf.)