I'd like to play one of those u-pick games.
How would the "Ability Draft" mafia work? Open setup?
Define "open setup"?
If you mean, would everyone know the full setup going in... the answer is no. I hate open setups. Closed setups are my jam.
As for how it would work:
Everyone would be given 7 randomly selected alignment agnostic abilities (most would be one-shot abilities, but some aren't). You would pick one, and pass the remaining pack of 6 to the player below you on the player list whilst taking the pack of 6 from the player above you on the player list. Pick again, pass again, and repeat until you have 7 abilities. Then I will give out a new set of 7 randomly selected alignment agnostic abilities, and the process would repeat except this time you are passing up and receiving from below. When the entire process is finished, each player will have drafted 14 abilities. From this set of 14, you will pick 8, and those will be your abilities. You would know what "team" you are on before you pick your 8.
For example, you might get a stack that looks like this:
1 shot cop
1 shot doc
1 shot vig
1 shot jailor
1 shot roleblock
1 shot voteblock
bulletproof (passive)
Let's say you pick the 1 shot cop, passing the other 6 to the next player on the list (let's say its Freddeh). Not only do you have the cop power, but you denied Freddeh the cop power (unless there was one in his initial pack). Now you have a set that looks like this:
1 shot vig
1 shot tracker
1 shot bulletproof
1 shot cop
1 shot charismatic
Neighbor (passive)
Lookit that, a second cop choice! Do you double up on cop (netting you two-shots of that ability, and also again denying Freddeh)? Or do you diversify your portfolio and pick something else? You also can tell that the player above you (let's say Aaarrrgh) passed up on all of these abilities, which means whatever Aaarrrgh took must be better than these, at least to Aaarrrgh.
It's important to note that the mafia team won't have a mafia team kill action in this setup. If they want night kill actions, they'll have to draft them from the pool like anybody else. They will, however, have the benefit of being able to strategize with each other AFTER the draft but BEFORE they pick their 8 abilities.