Infiltration is a game similar to TWG in design - basically, there are a small number of enemies who are indistinguishable from allies at first, and it is your job to weed them out however you can by trying to separate truth from lie.
The game originated in my mind out of two things: 1) I realized that a large part of TWG was trading information with one another, and 2) I knew that I couldn't do another MGS-based TWG using the same set of rules - Campbell wouldn't be stupid enough to let his men do the "vote, get killed" system again after it nearly obliterated his entire squad, even though he believes his mission was a success.
So here are the shell rules for the game. It will be based in the Metal Gear universe, however, any general science fiction/cyberpunk story can be built around it. It requires a good storyteller.
Infiltration has two teams: Greens and Reds. During the game "FOXHOUND" will be used to refer to the Green team, and "Patriots" to refer to the red team. However, I want this set of rules to be of general use, and the terms "human" and "werewolf" don't really apply here. I derived the names, of course, from the TWG colors typically associated with wolves and humans on FFR. I believe Tasselfoot is to be credited with this, as I believe he is the first person to ever use the term "blues" to refer to people with special roles.
The game takes place in a 64 room facility. It has 8 floors (A through H) and 8 rooms on each floor (1 through 8). Each room has a certain feature or function to it; no room is simply "empty." By using the features of each room, players can gather information, kill people remotely, inhibit the progress of others, or simply spy on their fellow players. Careful memory of what is contained where is the only way to solve the puzzle.
The game is not won for the Greens by simply eliminating all the Reds - the game is won by fulfilling certain requirements by entering rooms. The game is not won until these conditions are met; all the Reds can be dead and the game won't be over, or the game can be won with Reds remaining alive. Even if all the Reds are dead, the game can still end in a draw if the Greens are foolish enough to believe that there are still more Reds remaining, and kill each other until they no longer have enough people to complete the task.
Each floor of the facility has an enemy guard on it. These are NPCs (non-player characters) that impede the players (on both sides) in various ways. They are discussed in detail later.
The only way for the Reds to win is to kill enough Greens so that it is impossible for them to accomplish their final task. The nature of this task may vary from game to game. Obviously, this must be done as discreetly and cunningly as possible to avoid raising suspicion. The Reds do not get "free kills" during prescribed periods of time as in TWG; they must work to dispatch the people they choose.
It would be best to describe how the game is played by illustrating a typical turn sequence. Boldfaced phases are phases in which the players have any influence about what happens.
1) Movement Phase
2) Guard Movement Phase
3) Alert Phase
4) Decision Phase
5) Resolution Phase
----------------------------
1) MOVEMENT PHASE
----------------------------
It is important to remember that, unlike TWG, every player moves about the facility independently, doing as they please. If efforts are to be coordinated, they must be coordinated by the players, not the story.
Every player is considered to be inside a "room" at all times. Rooms are denoted by their floor letter and room number: e.g. "A-4", "D-2", "G-8", "F-5", etc.
At the beginning of the Movement phase, the Reds are informed what rooms are occupied, and by how many people. They are not informed which player is occupying which room, however, they will be able to know which rooms have players in them.
However, these locations will quickly change, as during the Movement phase all players (both Reds and Greens) choose which rooms they wish to enter. At the end of the Movement phase they travel to these new rooms.
Movement is completely unrestricted - a player can move to any room they want to. They can even opt to stay in the one they're currently in (at their own risk, of course.)
The Reds do not learn the players' new locations until the start of the next Movement phase.
Free discussion in the thread is allowed during the Movement phase. Players can publicly declare where they intend to go, or remain close-lipped about it, or lie about their intentions. Of course, players are forced to consider the consequences of each of these actions. Regardless of what they tell anyone else, every player must privately inform the Host of their actual intended destination.
----------------------------
2) GUARD MOVEMENT PHASE
----------------------------
Each guard moves in accordance with the following guidelines:
1.) Guards always remain on the floor they originally started the game on. (There's 1 guard per floor.)
2.) Guards never remain in the same room - the guard will always move.
3.) If the guard is given alternate orders by a Commander's Terminal, neither of the above rules have to apply. (See Commander's Terminal for more information.)
TIMING NOTE: Guards are considered to have left their original rooms before players arrive at their destinations. Meaning that guards and players "cross paths" in the hallways, though it is impossible for them to detect players in this way.
----------------------------
3) ALERT PHASE
----------------------------
This is a simple phase to simply determine if the game should go into Alert Mode. The game goes into Alert Mode if any of the following conditions are satisfied:
1) A guard and a player wind up in the same room together. (Doesn't matter if the player is Red or Green, as the guards are too dumb to tell the difference. They haven't been told by their superiors that some of the infiltrators are on their side.)
2) 2 guards wind up in the same room together. (As this can only happen if the guards have been given phony orders, it raises suspicion.)
3) A guard winds up in a room with the corpse of another guard.
If the game goes into Alert Phase, players have severely limited actions during the Decision Phase.
----------------------------
4) DECISION PHASE
----------------------------
Here all players arrive in their destination rooms. They are privately notified of:
-what's in the room
-who else is in the room besides them
-if anything is special about the room
The vast majority of rooms have "terminals", special computers which can be used for various purposes. More than 1 of each terminal exists (besides the Commander's Terminal, of which there is only one.) Players can choose to use the terminal however they please, or not use it at all.
The player privately informs the host of his decision of what to do regarding the terminal.
If the room has something other than a terminal in it, the player is privately informed of what his options are.
The different types of terminals are as follows:
Seer terminal. Enter a name, and it tells you if the target is Red or Green. This is the alliance machine.
Psychic terminal. Tells you how many Reds are left.
Locator terminal. Pick a player. Tells you where that player is.
History terminal. Pick a room. Tells you who's been in that room, and when.
Map data terminal. Pick 5 rooms. Tells you what's inside those rooms.
Superlocator terminal. Tells you where everyone is.
Anonymous messaging terminal. Allows you to send a message anonymously to everyone. What they do with it is their choice.
Gas terminal. Pick a room. Gas floods that room, and whoever's there dies.
Guard terminal. Tells you where all enemy guards will go on their next move.
Validity check terminal. Give the terminal a statement. The terminal will tell you if it's true or false. Cannot be used as a seer terminal. Cannot be used to check someone's character class, either.
Commander's terminal. Give new destinations for each enemy guard. They will appear there next turn. There is only one of these terminals, because otherwise the game would have to have a way of dealing with conflicting orders (a problem which I think circumvents the terminal's usefulness.)
Electronic lock terminal. Pick a room. That room becomes electronically locked and no one can move there next turn. If a person is already in that room, they can't get out. The lock is disabled at the beginning of the next movement phase.
Switch terminal. Pick a room. If there's a terminal in that room, it now becomes the switch terminal and the current room becomes the targeted room's terminal.
When I was originally posting the first concept for this game, I wrote "This seems complicated for a forum game, but I want to create an environment where the two teams can try to outwit each other as best they can. I want to create a sort of "playground" where the two teams, being smart enough and using the full resources of the information at their disposal as best they can, can utterly outwit each other." I still hold by this.
----------------------------
In addition, this is where the "lynching" takes place. Players can vote for these different options:
-Vote to lynch a player.
-Vote for "no lynch." If "no lynch" wins the vote, the players choose not to lynch anyone.
-Vote "there are no Reds left". This vote will only pass if every player in the game votes for it, and if it passes, the game ends immediately. This is a special case. If it passes and there are no Reds left, the Greens automatically win. If it passes and there is even one Red left, the Reds win the game. If this gets the majority of votes, but not 100% of the votes, it is treated as a "no lynch".
Like TWG, all votes must be made public. There is no instalynch - lynch only happens at the end of the day. There are Phantom Votes, though I expect the highest involvement in this game from everyone.
----------------------------
Finally, this is also where players can kill each other. They can only do this if they're in the same room as each other. This is complicated, but this is the way players can be "vigilantes" and kill each other without the consent of the group. This is also the only way for Reds to kill without the group's consent.
Each player decides if they want to attempt to kill any of the other players in the room with them. The actual killing is dealt with in the Resolution phase, but I'll discuss how combat works here.
Every player decides which players they want to attempt to kill. Each character class has a "priority" set on it.
5) Nanites (if a player is scheduled to be lynched, they die before any combat takes place)
4) Renegades
3) Warriors
2) Sneakers, Hackers, Guards
1) Engineers
Starting with 5 and working down, each character kills every person in the room they declared they wanted to kill. This means that Renegades automatically get all their kills first. After the Renegade's targets have all been killed, any surviving Warriors get their kills, then Sneakers and Hackers, then Guards, then Engineers.
If multiple players with the same Priority try to kill each other, no one is killed as long as they both target each other for killing. Meaning if A and B both want to kill each other and they have the same Priority, neither dies.
If a player has 2 people trying to kill him, and neither are trying to kill the other, the targeted player dies, even if he attempts to kill both of the other players.
Examples:
A kills C
B kills C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: C dies
A kills B, C
B kills C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: B, C die
A kills B, C
B kills A, C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: No one dies
A kills B
B kills C
C kills A
--------------
Result: Everyone dies
A kills B, C
B kills C
C kills B
--------------
Result: C and B die
It gets confusing, I know, but pretty much this is all about intent. The Greens trust that their own men aren't going to kill them, so they aren't on their guard for an attack unless they suspect to be attacked themselves. Yes, the only way to defend yourself from killing is to attempt to kill the person you think will kill you. But you better have a good reason for thinking this. Sometimes talking it out might be a smarter thing to do than violence.
Guards will automatically attempt to kill every non-guard in the room. This means you can kill guards by ganging up on them. (and it is always to your advantage to attempt to kill all guards.)
So, as a refresher, in the Decision phase, you:
-pick what to do with the terminal
-pick who to lynch
-choose who to kill
----------------------------
5) RESOLUTION PHASE
----------------------------
In this phase, the following things happen, in order:
1) The lynch takes effect, and the lynch victim dies (if there was one.)
2) Players in rooms kill each other (if they choose to do so).
3) Players use their terminals (this does not happen if the game was set into Alert Mode during the Alert Phase.)
4) Players die as a result of gas (if their room was gassed by a gas terminal.)
5) Players get the information from their terminals.
----------------------------
END OF TURN/REPEAT
----------------------------
Red team privileges:
In addition to getting the knowledge at the beginning of the Movement Phase as to which rooms are occupied, Reds also gain the special abilities to Hack or Destroy terminals. They do this instead of using the terminal (they can't both use it and hack/destroy it.)
Destroying a terminal means it cannot be used by anyone.
Hacking a terminal. A hacked terminal will always display incorrect information to the user, and is indistinguishable from a normal terminal.
Character classes:
At the beginning of the game every Green must choose a class, which cannot be changed for the entire game.
Here are the available classes:
WARRIOR: Gets a higher combat priority than the other classes, making his kills more effective than others. All Reds are this class by default.
HACKER: Hackers can detect terminals that have been hacked, and restore them so that they provide factual information again. They cannot repair destroyed terminals.
SNEAKER: Sneakers are completely invisible to guards. They cannot be killed by guards, they cannot trigger Alert Mode even if they're in the same place as guards, guards will not attempt to kill them, and they can still use terminals, even in Alert Mode.
RENEGADE (cannot be selected, this is an NPC class): Counts as a Sneaker with a higher priority than a Warrior.
ENGINEER (cannot be selected, this is an NPC class): Can repair destroyed terminals, and also counts as a hacker.
How the Greens win:
The greens must destroy Metal Gear GHOST. Here is how they do that:
1) Find the Weapons Lab. Any player who enters it will be able to retreive a Stinger missile launcher from it (there's an infinite supply.)
2) Find the General's room, which has the code to open a mechanical lock. This code, being a piece of information, can be traded to someone else (or even lied about.) Whoever knows the code can get in.
3) Find the room to Metal Gear GHOST. This door will be double-locked. The code opens the first lock. The second lock is electromagnetic.
4) Two players must enter 2 rooms where Power Generators are. AT THE SAME TIME (meaning while the players are there), 2 other players with Stingers must enter GHOST's room, unlock the outside door if it hasn't been unlocked already, and pass through the electromagnetic door (disabled by the power generators.) This means it takes 4 to win the game.
=================================================
=================================================
=================================================
Well, that's the game. Questions? Shoot. Last minute suggestions? I'm listening.
The game originated in my mind out of two things: 1) I realized that a large part of TWG was trading information with one another, and 2) I knew that I couldn't do another MGS-based TWG using the same set of rules - Campbell wouldn't be stupid enough to let his men do the "vote, get killed" system again after it nearly obliterated his entire squad, even though he believes his mission was a success.
So here are the shell rules for the game. It will be based in the Metal Gear universe, however, any general science fiction/cyberpunk story can be built around it. It requires a good storyteller.
Infiltration has two teams: Greens and Reds. During the game "FOXHOUND" will be used to refer to the Green team, and "Patriots" to refer to the red team. However, I want this set of rules to be of general use, and the terms "human" and "werewolf" don't really apply here. I derived the names, of course, from the TWG colors typically associated with wolves and humans on FFR. I believe Tasselfoot is to be credited with this, as I believe he is the first person to ever use the term "blues" to refer to people with special roles.
The game takes place in a 64 room facility. It has 8 floors (A through H) and 8 rooms on each floor (1 through 8). Each room has a certain feature or function to it; no room is simply "empty." By using the features of each room, players can gather information, kill people remotely, inhibit the progress of others, or simply spy on their fellow players. Careful memory of what is contained where is the only way to solve the puzzle.
The game is not won for the Greens by simply eliminating all the Reds - the game is won by fulfilling certain requirements by entering rooms. The game is not won until these conditions are met; all the Reds can be dead and the game won't be over, or the game can be won with Reds remaining alive. Even if all the Reds are dead, the game can still end in a draw if the Greens are foolish enough to believe that there are still more Reds remaining, and kill each other until they no longer have enough people to complete the task.
Each floor of the facility has an enemy guard on it. These are NPCs (non-player characters) that impede the players (on both sides) in various ways. They are discussed in detail later.
The only way for the Reds to win is to kill enough Greens so that it is impossible for them to accomplish their final task. The nature of this task may vary from game to game. Obviously, this must be done as discreetly and cunningly as possible to avoid raising suspicion. The Reds do not get "free kills" during prescribed periods of time as in TWG; they must work to dispatch the people they choose.
It would be best to describe how the game is played by illustrating a typical turn sequence. Boldfaced phases are phases in which the players have any influence about what happens.
1) Movement Phase
2) Guard Movement Phase
3) Alert Phase
4) Decision Phase
5) Resolution Phase
----------------------------
1) MOVEMENT PHASE
----------------------------
It is important to remember that, unlike TWG, every player moves about the facility independently, doing as they please. If efforts are to be coordinated, they must be coordinated by the players, not the story.
Every player is considered to be inside a "room" at all times. Rooms are denoted by their floor letter and room number: e.g. "A-4", "D-2", "G-8", "F-5", etc.
At the beginning of the Movement phase, the Reds are informed what rooms are occupied, and by how many people. They are not informed which player is occupying which room, however, they will be able to know which rooms have players in them.
However, these locations will quickly change, as during the Movement phase all players (both Reds and Greens) choose which rooms they wish to enter. At the end of the Movement phase they travel to these new rooms.
Movement is completely unrestricted - a player can move to any room they want to. They can even opt to stay in the one they're currently in (at their own risk, of course.)
The Reds do not learn the players' new locations until the start of the next Movement phase.
Free discussion in the thread is allowed during the Movement phase. Players can publicly declare where they intend to go, or remain close-lipped about it, or lie about their intentions. Of course, players are forced to consider the consequences of each of these actions. Regardless of what they tell anyone else, every player must privately inform the Host of their actual intended destination.
----------------------------
2) GUARD MOVEMENT PHASE
----------------------------
Each guard moves in accordance with the following guidelines:
1.) Guards always remain on the floor they originally started the game on. (There's 1 guard per floor.)
2.) Guards never remain in the same room - the guard will always move.
3.) If the guard is given alternate orders by a Commander's Terminal, neither of the above rules have to apply. (See Commander's Terminal for more information.)
TIMING NOTE: Guards are considered to have left their original rooms before players arrive at their destinations. Meaning that guards and players "cross paths" in the hallways, though it is impossible for them to detect players in this way.
----------------------------
3) ALERT PHASE
----------------------------
This is a simple phase to simply determine if the game should go into Alert Mode. The game goes into Alert Mode if any of the following conditions are satisfied:
1) A guard and a player wind up in the same room together. (Doesn't matter if the player is Red or Green, as the guards are too dumb to tell the difference. They haven't been told by their superiors that some of the infiltrators are on their side.)
2) 2 guards wind up in the same room together. (As this can only happen if the guards have been given phony orders, it raises suspicion.)
3) A guard winds up in a room with the corpse of another guard.
If the game goes into Alert Phase, players have severely limited actions during the Decision Phase.
----------------------------
4) DECISION PHASE
----------------------------
Here all players arrive in their destination rooms. They are privately notified of:
-what's in the room
-who else is in the room besides them
-if anything is special about the room
The vast majority of rooms have "terminals", special computers which can be used for various purposes. More than 1 of each terminal exists (besides the Commander's Terminal, of which there is only one.) Players can choose to use the terminal however they please, or not use it at all.
The player privately informs the host of his decision of what to do regarding the terminal.
If the room has something other than a terminal in it, the player is privately informed of what his options are.
The different types of terminals are as follows:
Seer terminal. Enter a name, and it tells you if the target is Red or Green. This is the alliance machine.
Psychic terminal. Tells you how many Reds are left.
Locator terminal. Pick a player. Tells you where that player is.
History terminal. Pick a room. Tells you who's been in that room, and when.
Map data terminal. Pick 5 rooms. Tells you what's inside those rooms.
Superlocator terminal. Tells you where everyone is.
Anonymous messaging terminal. Allows you to send a message anonymously to everyone. What they do with it is their choice.
Gas terminal. Pick a room. Gas floods that room, and whoever's there dies.
Guard terminal. Tells you where all enemy guards will go on their next move.
Validity check terminal. Give the terminal a statement. The terminal will tell you if it's true or false. Cannot be used as a seer terminal. Cannot be used to check someone's character class, either.
Commander's terminal. Give new destinations for each enemy guard. They will appear there next turn. There is only one of these terminals, because otherwise the game would have to have a way of dealing with conflicting orders (a problem which I think circumvents the terminal's usefulness.)
Electronic lock terminal. Pick a room. That room becomes electronically locked and no one can move there next turn. If a person is already in that room, they can't get out. The lock is disabled at the beginning of the next movement phase.
Switch terminal. Pick a room. If there's a terminal in that room, it now becomes the switch terminal and the current room becomes the targeted room's terminal.
When I was originally posting the first concept for this game, I wrote "This seems complicated for a forum game, but I want to create an environment where the two teams can try to outwit each other as best they can. I want to create a sort of "playground" where the two teams, being smart enough and using the full resources of the information at their disposal as best they can, can utterly outwit each other." I still hold by this.
----------------------------
In addition, this is where the "lynching" takes place. Players can vote for these different options:
-Vote to lynch a player.
-Vote for "no lynch." If "no lynch" wins the vote, the players choose not to lynch anyone.
-Vote "there are no Reds left". This vote will only pass if every player in the game votes for it, and if it passes, the game ends immediately. This is a special case. If it passes and there are no Reds left, the Greens automatically win. If it passes and there is even one Red left, the Reds win the game. If this gets the majority of votes, but not 100% of the votes, it is treated as a "no lynch".
Like TWG, all votes must be made public. There is no instalynch - lynch only happens at the end of the day. There are Phantom Votes, though I expect the highest involvement in this game from everyone.
----------------------------
Finally, this is also where players can kill each other. They can only do this if they're in the same room as each other. This is complicated, but this is the way players can be "vigilantes" and kill each other without the consent of the group. This is also the only way for Reds to kill without the group's consent.
Each player decides if they want to attempt to kill any of the other players in the room with them. The actual killing is dealt with in the Resolution phase, but I'll discuss how combat works here.
Every player decides which players they want to attempt to kill. Each character class has a "priority" set on it.
5) Nanites (if a player is scheduled to be lynched, they die before any combat takes place)
4) Renegades
3) Warriors
2) Sneakers, Hackers, Guards
1) Engineers
Starting with 5 and working down, each character kills every person in the room they declared they wanted to kill. This means that Renegades automatically get all their kills first. After the Renegade's targets have all been killed, any surviving Warriors get their kills, then Sneakers and Hackers, then Guards, then Engineers.
If multiple players with the same Priority try to kill each other, no one is killed as long as they both target each other for killing. Meaning if A and B both want to kill each other and they have the same Priority, neither dies.
If a player has 2 people trying to kill him, and neither are trying to kill the other, the targeted player dies, even if he attempts to kill both of the other players.
Examples:
A kills C
B kills C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: C dies
A kills B, C
B kills C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: B, C die
A kills B, C
B kills A, C
C kills A, B
--------------
Result: No one dies
A kills B
B kills C
C kills A
--------------
Result: Everyone dies
A kills B, C
B kills C
C kills B
--------------
Result: C and B die
It gets confusing, I know, but pretty much this is all about intent. The Greens trust that their own men aren't going to kill them, so they aren't on their guard for an attack unless they suspect to be attacked themselves. Yes, the only way to defend yourself from killing is to attempt to kill the person you think will kill you. But you better have a good reason for thinking this. Sometimes talking it out might be a smarter thing to do than violence.
Guards will automatically attempt to kill every non-guard in the room. This means you can kill guards by ganging up on them. (and it is always to your advantage to attempt to kill all guards.)
So, as a refresher, in the Decision phase, you:
-pick what to do with the terminal
-pick who to lynch
-choose who to kill
----------------------------
5) RESOLUTION PHASE
----------------------------
In this phase, the following things happen, in order:
1) The lynch takes effect, and the lynch victim dies (if there was one.)
2) Players in rooms kill each other (if they choose to do so).
3) Players use their terminals (this does not happen if the game was set into Alert Mode during the Alert Phase.)
4) Players die as a result of gas (if their room was gassed by a gas terminal.)
5) Players get the information from their terminals.
----------------------------
END OF TURN/REPEAT
----------------------------
Red team privileges:
In addition to getting the knowledge at the beginning of the Movement Phase as to which rooms are occupied, Reds also gain the special abilities to Hack or Destroy terminals. They do this instead of using the terminal (they can't both use it and hack/destroy it.)
Destroying a terminal means it cannot be used by anyone.
Hacking a terminal. A hacked terminal will always display incorrect information to the user, and is indistinguishable from a normal terminal.
Character classes:
At the beginning of the game every Green must choose a class, which cannot be changed for the entire game.
Here are the available classes:
WARRIOR: Gets a higher combat priority than the other classes, making his kills more effective than others. All Reds are this class by default.
HACKER: Hackers can detect terminals that have been hacked, and restore them so that they provide factual information again. They cannot repair destroyed terminals.
SNEAKER: Sneakers are completely invisible to guards. They cannot be killed by guards, they cannot trigger Alert Mode even if they're in the same place as guards, guards will not attempt to kill them, and they can still use terminals, even in Alert Mode.
RENEGADE (cannot be selected, this is an NPC class): Counts as a Sneaker with a higher priority than a Warrior.
ENGINEER (cannot be selected, this is an NPC class): Can repair destroyed terminals, and also counts as a hacker.
How the Greens win:
The greens must destroy Metal Gear GHOST. Here is how they do that:
1) Find the Weapons Lab. Any player who enters it will be able to retreive a Stinger missile launcher from it (there's an infinite supply.)
2) Find the General's room, which has the code to open a mechanical lock. This code, being a piece of information, can be traded to someone else (or even lied about.) Whoever knows the code can get in.
3) Find the room to Metal Gear GHOST. This door will be double-locked. The code opens the first lock. The second lock is electromagnetic.
4) Two players must enter 2 rooms where Power Generators are. AT THE SAME TIME (meaning while the players are there), 2 other players with Stingers must enter GHOST's room, unlock the outside door if it hasn't been unlocked already, and pass through the electromagnetic door (disabled by the power generators.) This means it takes 4 to win the game.
=================================================
=================================================
=================================================
Well, that's the game. Questions? Shoot. Last minute suggestions? I'm listening.
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