People play games to have fun. A concept that has caused me more headaches than any other while building my own games. The immediate issue is that “Fun” is an entirely subjective measurement. Some people will never have more fun than when solving a crossword puzzle, while others go cross eyed just looking at that giant, blank grid. Taunting them with its withheld answers and clever (or “clever”) wordplay. Even worse, if you’re like me you have been both of those people at different times, sometimes for the same puzzle. Trying to make everybody on Earth always have the most “Fun” playing your game is a path to true madness that I do not wish on you dear reader. That is not to say that some games aren’t substantially more fun mechanically than others. I’ll be using the genre of hidden role games to explore this idea. Hidden role games are based on social deduction and deception, where the “Evil” player or players must accomplish some nefarious task, while not being uncovered by the “Good...