Is there any particular reason almost everyone abides by this format? It works the same almost every time. The mafia's have to hit the village almost every night until all sides are relatively even to stand a chance, and because of this the village rarely gets to dominate unless they get extremely lucky, or their roles are boosted significantly. This is best seen in big games, where the mafia/wolf have no reason to not collaborate kills at all thanks to the anonymous system.
Future game hosts, please start being inventive in your formats. Look at MGS mafia, with its 5 factions, 4 neutrals and win conditions involving other sides losing. Look at Double Alias Mafia, with only one mafia side.
With only one mafia, you (almost) eliminate the following elements from your game:
- accidental crossfire (barring wolf)
- kingmaker positions (barring wolf)
- mafioso selling out the other mafioso
- the necessity for kill collaborations
There's some positives to having 2 mafias, such as the way they interact psychologically. If someone accuses someone else, and gets him lynched, and he's evil, you can be quite sure that he's not mafia in an 1-mafia game. But in a 2-mafia game, it could be a guy from the other mafia.
But that really isn't a great pay-off for all the disadvantages.
So please, start being more inventive in your game formats. Simply adding more mafia groups isn't the solution, by the way. This only increases the disadvantages. Unless you do what MGS did.
Future game hosts, please start being inventive in your formats. Look at MGS mafia, with its 5 factions, 4 neutrals and win conditions involving other sides losing. Look at Double Alias Mafia, with only one mafia side.
With only one mafia, you (almost) eliminate the following elements from your game:
- accidental crossfire (barring wolf)
- kingmaker positions (barring wolf)
- mafioso selling out the other mafioso
- the necessity for kill collaborations
There's some positives to having 2 mafias, such as the way they interact psychologically. If someone accuses someone else, and gets him lynched, and he's evil, you can be quite sure that he's not mafia in an 1-mafia game. But in a 2-mafia game, it could be a guy from the other mafia.
But that really isn't a great pay-off for all the disadvantages.
So please, start being more inventive in your game formats. Simply adding more mafia groups isn't the solution, by the way. This only increases the disadvantages. Unless you do what MGS did.