Also I actually hated my role, being masoned with a non-confirmed town is pain in the arse, and don't even get me started on post restrictions.. I HATE those things
Be glad Zen didn't use his ability more often then. :B
Balance thoughts:
I started with the indies.
Shadow is a straight-forward killer, but he can choose not to kill. He's also one-time bulletproof. This gives him a claim as a vigilante that can't be "disproven" except with Sabin's investigation, and Gau's investigations deliberately bring attention to him. Add in that Kappa's information mark Shadow as "not mafia" which implies indie, and you've got a killer with a perfect safe claim with pre-packaged reasonable doubts.
As such, the only way for Shadow to win is to avoid being under town's radar and playing their game. Are-Sigh did a good job with this, but didn't finish off Vanderzant. If Vand hadn't killed Are-Sigh, Are-Sigh would have won in end-game due to his one-shot bulletproof.
Shadow being an obvious killer and having shurikens at his victims puts him in a predicament. From day ONE he has to plan his kills, because otherwise he has to explain why he killed someone early game when he claims. On the plus side, he can say "i'll kill this guy' and it is mod confirmed. Win/lose for Shadow.
Kefka is an amazingly chaotic role, and is meant to be the most challenging in the game to play. Kefka CAN win, but he can't play a straight up game. He has to use deceit and take some risks. His ability "Goner" is a shakeup that prevents Kefka from ever being "trapped". He can dismantle any Day phase plan with that ability, and his slave crown can make town planning very difficult.
His "illusion" ability was meant to reward players with a good sense of what is giong on and to punish a town that publicly plans. The amount of WTF that would appear if it was mod confirmed that MKirby was killed and then MKirby wasn't would be enough to make town go unstable.
His "Light of Judgement" ability makes him one of the best scum hunters in the game while his slave crown makes him one of the most anti-town. Whichever way Kefka chooses to play (pro town or pro scum) makes one ability stronger or weaker for him.
Town-
Town was created under the philosophy of "too much information is bad information". It's proven to be the case twice now.
Mog and Umaro are meant to draw attention to themselves right away; they are both anti-town roles. Mog's vote blocking CAN be used well, but it is a public-use ability and as such is pretty much a giant spotlight. Scum wants to kill him before late, Town fears him. To top it all off, Mog is forced to get MOD votes by missing his Kupo!'s (everyone will miss one or two), which makes him a lynch even if considered town later.
Umaro is a giant distractor. In addition, he's likely to vote for Kefka, who can slave crown him and plague him with MOD votes with a catch 22: He has to change his vote, but can't vote for the same person twice in a row, but has to vote for the same person. MOD vote if he posts, pretty much.
Locke and Celes are another pair. Locke is a masoned Doctor, always strong, but has voting restrictions. He has to protect Celes, making Celes' play a potential detriment to Locke.
Celes however, is an uber role: mass roleblocker. It doesn't stop Night Kills, but it prevents anything else! This, at its core, is an anti-town move... but late game is invaluable, or would be if Celes survives that long.
Sabin is one of the most useful roles and for some reason survived until end game BOTH times this game has been played. His one-shot investigation ends any indie thoughts, and his selective masonry can either be awesome (getting a cop, for instance) or horrible (getting scum). Sabin has the ability to scan then mason, or mason then scan, over the course of two days if he wants a "for sure" thing.
Cyan is another tricky role. You kill him, he kills you. This is the anti-double voter ability. Any surprise hammers on Cyan results in them dying. Unfortunately, Cyan can't have killed an innocent the day before for his abilities to work.
Cyan's roleblocking ability is also particularly useful in a game full of abilities.
Setzer is by far my favorite Town role. His gambling ability is one I've thought of basing entire games around. There's just dozens of outcomes that can come about from it.
Gau, the town cop, can't discover indies and can't vote if he's using his ability. THAT is the anti-cop. The cop can't vote and can't find indies.
Kappa is another anti-town townie. While his information is invaluable, all of it can be summed up as "things scum would know" except for Cyan's bomb-esque ability. Add in that he's a Miller, and you've got another distractor.
Siegfried is an addition to this game. While Scum won the last game (via a doublevoter blitz, like this one), most people said "town was stacked". I knew this was only the case in hindsight, as proven by this game, and wanted to make town a bit stronger. Keeping with the theme, Siegfried would be discovered as an independent if scanned... a 1/15 chance. The real danger is him CLAIMING that, a bit of mod trickery on my part. :B
The tracking ability is a godsend to town though. It's one of the few legitimate, complete bits of information town can get.
Relm is one of the more powerful roles in teh game, but is blissfully unaware of what she's doing the entire time. If she targets Shadow, Shadow targets himself with his killing ability. If she targets Locke, the doctor, the doctor protects himself AND whoever he chose to protect. If she targets Edgar, edgar gets the same posting restriction he thought up. Relm jsut has to figure that out during the day if her ability succeeds, allowing whoever is in the Relm slot to piece things together.
MAFIA
The only mafia role that I started with when I made this game was Edgar.
Edgar's debilitator ability is meant to mess with town. He can make people say "lol" to make town think that player is kefka, he can make people say "Kupo!" to think Mog is a cultist (i had considered that as a reality early in the game's design), he can make peopel say ridiculous things that are more likely ti give them mod votes.... but Edgar has no safe claim ability. He can think of his own (the one I thought of was to give someone a posting restriction and determine their alignment, which has flaws), but ultimately he's dead in the water come mass claim + scrutiny.
Terra's double voter ability is incredibly strong in LYLO, but insanely weak any other time. This whole lylo situation could easily have been solved to be against Vanderzant by simply saying "Vand, use your ability" on the Day before, since he can't use it twice in a row. Lots of issues with this, so you have to keep it secret (hard in this game) or town has to totally trust you / screw up. Again, having no reliable way to hide this ability weakens mafia, especially given the large amount of players in the game.
Strago is the glue that makes Mafia strong. I thoguht mafia was totally dead when Strago died D1. Strago's ability to absorb other's abilities means that mafia can throw out two post restrictions per Night after the first Night. That gets insane. In addition to this, he's masoned with Relm and can control her ability; he can have Relm give the ability to him and get a posting restriction, and then use sketch (kills shadow) and give out posting restrictions every Night. That's just from what he's given control over in the start. Getting Mog's voteblocker ability, Kefka's Slave Crown, Doc protection... Strago makes mafia strong. Strago beind Hated is tough for him, but his masonry with Relm causing EVERY masonry to be in question on his flip is pretty good too. Even in death, Strago is pretty baller.
How town managed to let Vanderzant live, I don't know. How town didn't scan Are-Sigh when they had the opportunity, I don't know.
But GJ to scum. Comments on players later.