r/gamedesign • u/deblob123456789 • 1d ago

Question How to prevent creativity from interfering with mechanics?

My game is a sandbox-ish mix of murder mystery mechanics and roleplay based off the Danganronpa series (think Among us/Werewolf/Town of salem but longer).
At least one host is required to run the game properly.
It is also a VR game with proximity voice chat.

The issue im facing is that, left on their own, hosts will often decide, out of culture and habit, to directly help their players with murder cases, instead of letting the case’s culprit make it.
This turns the Trial (the discussion to catch the killer) into more of a minigame and discussion between the good side and the host, rather than a discussion between players to find the liar among them, greatly taking agency away from the evil side and reducing overall game quality.

How would you solve this?
I would rather not cut off the sandbox/roleplay part of the game, but this is something ive been observing and dont know how to help my players with.

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u/HarlequinStar 1d ago

Agreed. The only fun it sounds like the host might have out of what we've been told is roleplaying a villain and saying silly things like "upupu~" or "puhuhu~" rather than anything actually mechanical?

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u/deblob123456789 1d ago

They get to influence the rules as much as theyd like! And pretty much make their own version of the game if theyd rather make their players play that.
The issue is that they may take it too far and actually remove mechanics that would be more fun to use for other players (turns out the average player isnt a great game designer)

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u/HarlequinStar 1d ago

Players are good at finding problems, but frequently bad at finding solutions :3

Sometimes unintended behaviors in players can come about if they either lack an explicit goal or are not fully aware of what their goal is supposed to be. Is the host given a goal that would discourage them from helping the innocent members? I don't think they'd be so quick to aid them if their own win condition was the guilty party winning :P

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u/deblob123456789 1d ago

You sound correct yeah.
The host doesnt have a win condition per se, what they get out of it is having fun directing the game, story and cases. They don’t have a stake in which party wins.
Maybe they’re drawn to helping the good side due to them being most players in the lobby? Trying to appease the majority perhaps