Surviving the Mole (New idea, not a sign up)

[dethwing]

In my endless quest to perfect the Mole, I came up with a new idea last night. Here's the general idea.

The game would probably start with 10 people (But that's not fixed), one selected to be the mole. Every round there would be a game/puzzle in which the group would compete to earn points. This time, the points mean something. I had two ideas about this. In either choice, if the mole is eliminated, one random person is selected from the remaining players to be the new mole. (A La DRC)

1st idea
Each round is isolated in itself. Depending on how well the players do, a certain result happens. If they get a very high ammount, the mole is considered a failure, and is eliminated immeaditly.
If they do well, but not the best, a vote is called. (Probably secret, mafia style might work too though) and one person is eliminated. Hopefully the mole.
Because if they do poorly, a vote is not called, instead the mole eliminates a player.


2nd idea
Rounds are connected. A running total of points is kept, and if the point value reaches a certain point, the mole is eliminated, and the counter is reset. After each game the mole eliminates a player.


In either case, the game continues untill there is only 2 people left. I'm not sure what I would do at this point. Anyone have any ideas? Comments? Suggestions?

------------------
To a computer scientist, there are only three numbers: 0, 1, and I don't care.

To a mathematician, reality is a special case.

[This message has been edited by dethwing (edited 06-02-2003 01:27 PM).]

[dethwing]

Exemptions would probably be worked into it as well.

[Qball]

When two people are left, the others who were voted off have to vote who they think is the mole. If they spot the mole, the mole loses.

[dethwing]

that would work if the mole had existed for a wihle, but what if the last 2 had just been slecteted. and one had just beceom the mole

[mathgrant]

dethwing, not everyone here knows what Dirty Rotten Cheater is.

(For the record, it was an ephemeron of a game show where contestants gave answers to survey questions for cash, but one was secretly being fed answers.)

[Edited to change "short-lived show" to the cooler sounding "ephemeron".]

[This message has been edited by mathgrant (edited 06-02-2003 09:33 PM).]

[Polotet]

Possible Problem: In either case, wouldn't the best choice for the mole be to sabatoge the game as much as possible, even if he exposes himself in doing so?

[dethwing]

then he gets voted out at the first chance...

[Trojan Horse]

Dirty Rotten Cheater provided a financial incentive for players to actually try to vote out the cheater: if they voted out an honest player, everyone would lose half their money. Without that rule, the game could have degenerated into Weakest Link, with no one caring if the cheater was voted out or not.

I think there should be some similar incentive to try to vote out the mole. Here's the first idea that came to mind:

If an honest player is voted out, those that voted for the victim don't get to vote in the next round.

Or, if that's too severe a penalty...

Those that DIDN'T vote for the victim get TWO votes in the next round.

Other kinds of incentives are possible... any ideas?

[dethwing]

I believe the insentive is to become the Mole. The mole can avoid the vote altogether if he's good enough and is the only one safe. I'll think about those ideas though.

[dethwing]

I had a thought when I was mowing. If it's down to 3, and the players eliminate the mole, the remaining players share a victory. If they don't, then the last player and the mole face off in the way you described.

[dethwing]

Another idea, perhaps as an incentive, offer players who voted for the mole on the time he is executed, are awarded a prize. An exemption perhaps.

[dave10000]

I always thought the following should be incorporated into the TV version -- otherwise the mole does not have any *real* incentive to sabotage anything:

(1) Mole *gains* every point (dollar, whatever) that was available to the team but that the team did not manage to get (whether because of sabotage or otherwise).

(2) Mole *loses* a meaningful number of points for every person correctly identifying him/her as the mole, enough so that if the mole is pretty obvious, his/her net score will be zero or negative even if he sabotages everything completely.

Thus, the mole has real choices to make -- "I can screw up one point without drawing suspicion, so I can safely put one point in my pocket. But maybe I can screw up three points without drawing suspicion, or only drawing suspicion from one person, which would be worth it. But if I screw up -- and thus gain -- five points, everyone will know I'm the mole, so I'll lose 10 points and the net result will be negative. And maybe I'll even *help* in round 1, so no one will think it's me who is sabotaging rounds 2-10 because they'll remember me being so helpful."

I haven't really been following the game in this forum. Could something like this be implicated?

[dethwing]

In my examples, the incentive for the mole is that if the players do well enough, the mole is kicked out.