Randoms

> *"Okay listen, this guy claimed Goof so he's mafia, it's just a really easy claim."*
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## Example

### **Background**

First coming into fruition on July 23rd, 2021, randomized roles, specifically 🔵 (Random Villager), 🔵 (Random PR), 🔵 (Random Cop), 🔵 (Random Protector), 🔴 (Random Meeting Mafia), 🔴 (Random Nonmeeting Mafia), and 🟣 (Random Third Party), were exclusively used together in a popular form of setup known as "Randoms". To this date, random roles spark plenty of controversy between more casual players, people who like the chaotic factor of randomized roles, and people who typically play fixed setups that lean more towards scumhunting. Despite it being extremely easy to create a Randoms setup, they are not considered as relatively balanced setups, but nevertheless they can be hosted for some chaotic fun. The given setup is an example of a Randoms setup - it should give you some idea of what Randoms setups are typically run, but it is not entirely representative of them all.

### **Typical Play**

While Randoms setups will almost always play differently with every game (which is much of the appeal), there are some strategies that can allow players to scumhunt to an extent. While usually frowned upon by players who frequent Randoms setups, a strategy one could try is to gauge a mass RR on the first day to force mafia into claiming. While the claimspace is theoretically infinite, several self-confirming power roles exist, and others that can't self-confirm are just difficult to claim from the start as they sometimes require info on the roles or actions of specific townies. Some roles that are easy for mafia to claim include Goof, Shogun, Tapioca, Delinquent, Agent, Tourist, Bomb, Speaker, Candle, Nervous Sleeper, Oracle, Loser (given there isn't another), Templar (same logic), Revenant, Runner, and Vash. Mafia must beware however that in the case of a massclaim, the most "useless" claims will typically be voted out first, as they are easier to claim. More advanced fakeclaims can avoid this scenario, but these are usually tied to specific roles (e.g. claiming Fruit Vendor as Counterfeiter), require extra info (e.g. claiming Soloman as Spy), or require some coordination to an extent (e.g. claiming Fortune Teller that gave to another mafia member). Having town roles that learn some/all of the roles at the start of the game can hurt this strategy by a mile, as most of them can pressure claims that they claim not to have on their role list. Thus, there's no true strategy for Randoms setups due to their nature.

### **Pros of Randoms**

* **Randoms are unpredictable.** Every game is different; possibilities range from having a President who the mafia doesn't know exists to an alarming amount of conversion roles like Mason, Corruptor, and Yakuza. This is the main appeal of Randoms, and the supposed lack of Villagers (in most variations) improving the setup is a mindset that falls under this idea. While some dislike how Randoms are extremely swingy because of this, others enjoy it for exactly the same reason. It's ultimately up to someone at an individual level to like Randoms for their unpredictability, but generally it's a positive because of their replayability (for the most part).
* **Randoms are extremely easy to expand and modify.** There's no definitive way to perfectly balance a Randoms setup, nor will most Randoms setups ever achieve a similar amount of balance to fixed setups, so they're quick to add to without being too concerned about balance. There are several possibilities, since setup building isn't as restrictive as most fixed setups. Just ensure that the fixed roles are perfectly reasonable and don't detract from gameplay/centralize gameplay around themselves.
* **Randoms can educate people about uncommon roles/interactions.** The swing factor involved with Randoms may actually have a niche advantage; teaching newer players about roles or interactions that fixed setups will mostly stay away from. While it's relatively easy to grasp the idea of a role from the Roles list, it can be hard to see how they play out on paper. Unfortunately, most fixed setups will stray away from these kinds of roles, as they are swingy/overcentralizing to the point where achieving balance with them is extremely difficult/impossible.

### **Cons of Randoms**

* **Randoms are uncompetitive.** Whether one thinks Randoms is fun or not is subjective, but nearly everyone will agree that Randoms are uncompetitive setups. They're inconsistent from game to game, and as stated above, there's no optimal strategy. People usually relegate Randoms as "sandbox" games, and while that's not an entirely bad thing, it definitely means it's not meant to be a scumhunting-centric game like Mafia is meant to be. Scumhunting definitely isn't off the table in Randoms, but because gameplay is usually dictated by what roles are present in the setup attempts to do so may be affected. You'll find that most other cons of Randoms setups fall under/are a result of them being uncompetitive; people may find them unfun or swingy, they may think that Randoms have low retention and replayability, or they may hate that it's just not traditional Mafia. It's undeniable that these problems branch into or stem out of the fact that these kinds of setups are uncompetitive, and this may cause people to stray away from Randoms as a whole because they don't promote scumhunting or improvement.