My endless streak, split between my login and unlogged-in cookies is now 100 villages in a row, so I am now comfortable having even more opinions.
More Bugs Observed
Oracle mode bug. The flip-order tracker should not reset after executing a character.
Text off screen.
Pooka Frequency Check? I like Pooka in my endless games, but I seem to get the true fluffiest evil 50% more than Baa. Goat guy seems under-represented.
Playstyles
All minion games. I don’t mind the demons, but it would be nice to regularly have all-minion games in hard mode to mix it up a little. The minions have a greater range of disguise and slightly more chaotic abilities on average so they are quite challenging.
Wording Fixes
Small fix to Medium. The medium should say “#3 is actually a doppelganger” instead of “#3 is a real doppelganger” to match the better phrasing of the drunk.
Evil Hover text. The Evil hover text has a few grammatical oddities. Maybe change it to “Character alignment. Eliminate all Evils to save the village. Evils Lie and Disguise, unless specific rules say otherwise.”
(Current text is “Character Alignment. Eliminate them. Most often Lie and Disguise. Eliminate all Evil to save the village.”) IMO, the plural noun “Evils” as a shorthand for “evil characters” is trivial to understand, used consistently in other parts of Demon Bluff, and fits the gamelike context.
Alchemist Activation. Alchemist’s card should mention that his ability triggers at the start of a match when he is still facedown after evils and outcasts have acted because he is a violation of the typical rule that most abilities trigger on flip.
Chancellor and Puppet. It would be helpful to note somewhere that Outcast and Evil numbers in the upper right Villager/Outcast/Minion/Demon tracker don’t reflect the totals in game because of these characters’ abilities.
Minor plurals. It’s the littlest of nitpicks, but 1 minion and 0 demons in the upper left tracker would be correct.
Outcast-related deck bloat
Hard games generally have one too many possible outcasts in the play deck. This makes Baa completely meaningless as a demon.
For instance, a 6 Villager, 1 Outcast, 2 Minions, 1 Demon game with Chancellor, Minion, and Pooka has 15 cards in the play deck (9 villagers (6 real + 3 potential disguises), 4 outcasts, 3 evils) for 10 cards on the field. The play deck should only have 3 outcasts to account for the one chancellor will add, and a possible outcast disguise.
In a 9 card game with Witch and Pooka and 2 outcasts, 4 outcasts show up in the play deck. In this type of game, I would expect play decks that alternately have 2 or 3 outcasts, varying the uncertainty.
Fixing the outcast deck bloat would make hard games marginally easier on average because of uncertainty reduction, but it benefits players who like more logical approaches as opposed to stab-and-find-outers (like me!). You could have a mix of both, too.
Baker. The baker is a benefit & drawback flawed character like an outcast, but they can’t be listed as one because their ability wouldn’t work. That said, internally, I really think the baker should be treated as an outcast for frequency purposes. Remove one outcast from the game if a baker is going to show up.
Even more characters that could be in the game
Gardener
(Villager, Good) (↶) Pick 1 character: Learn how many evils were still facedown after the selected card was first flipped over. [NO NIGHT REFRESH! BUT MAYBE NOCTURNAL REFRESH.] Hint: Oracle Mode numbers cards by the order they were originally flipped in.
Lazybones
(Outcast, Good) Disguises as a Villager or Outcast with an (↶) activating ability. Trying to use their ability reveals Lazybones’ true identity.
(↶) Select two/three cards from the pop-up deck of eligible roles. Lazybones randomly disguises as one of those characters and can use their ability. Hint: Truthful villagers always see Lazybones as Lazybones and an Outcast.
[The ability is Lazybones running off to the neighboring village to borrow someone else to do their job! And the eligible roles might be the villagers in the current deck, or cards that are less powerful. Lazybones keeps the yellow outcast card border when it borrows a new role as a reminder of what they are.]
[A card to throw off careful player calculus, but give them an opportunity to try to pick a custom villager in recompense.]
Nocturnal
(Outcast, Good†) Game Start: I disguise as a Good Villager currently in play. I am initially Good and Truthful.
If a Good character is Executed, I turn into a Lying Evil Demon that must be Executed! (Note: Evils who slay Goods do not turn Nocturnal.)
Hint: When Nocturnal turns Evil, cards with abilities that refresh during a Night Cycle instantly renew. Previous statements and actions Nocturnal made while Good are still seen as truths, but any new ones after a turn will be Lies.
“A sinister and restless bloodline, reawakened by innocent blood spilt.”
[A card to share the game with a drunk or doppelganger, best friend of the Chancellor. Might also need the ability to reactivate any one living card’s power if there are not enough night refresh roles on the board. I think disguising as a card not in play like a usual demon is a bit too tricky when there is corruption everywhere.]
Ghul
(??? Evil) If there are no dead characters, lose 1 health on every other card flip, starting with Flip 1. (e.g. 1,3,5,7,9)
[Not sure if this would be better or worse in play than the other one health lost per flip baddie with reduced penalty I suggested below. The goal is to encourage strategic flipping and early risk-taking. Should not show up with Lilis or any other health subtractors. (Although I think of Lilis as a slightly stronger Witch, like Pooka is a stronger Poisoner, and doesn’t need extra bleed damage because losing a good villager selectively is its own penalty.)]