Premise
The premise of the game is simple. At it's core, there is a town, and usually there has been a killing during the night, which riles the town up and they start discussing, questioning, and even lynching to actually get some progress going in
finding the criminals who did the killing. If there isn't a pre-game kill which would have riled them, then pretend there was, or just assume there is Mafia (Bad guys) in the town that we are looking for as Town (The Good guys).
Game wise, everyone will get their role sent to them privately, and is usually randomized, so everyone has an opportunity to randomly aqcuire a role they may like, or may not.
The good guys (Town) won't know who the other Towns-Men are, because they only know their own alignment. The bad guys know who the other bad guys are (if there are more than one) because that way they can work together to discuss plans/strategies to hide from the town and destroy them.
Now then. The Town usually wake up, and discuss/vote/lynch during the day. Discussion involves who people find suspicious, and questioning those they find suspicious, and even voting their suspicions. Games start during the day, usually in normal setups. So expect to start during day. Then, after a lynch is set, night falls, and the Townies go to sleep, while Power Roles and The Mafia will be out at night. The Mafia stay up at night to kill the Townsmen, one by one. (One per night) Power roles stay up to find information about the whole town in general, depending on what they can do. Power roles in my opinion, should not lie just because they are a power role. Here is an example of how lying can go wrong:
Mafia Newbie 10:
#635
#638
#639
You shouldn't really read any further unless you want to confuse yourself. I'll give a summary. Basically, Vanderzant was town. I was the mafia. Third post shows Acrostic's reasoning for believing why Vanderzant may have been scum, yet, this lie cost Town the game. Why? Because Glyph came in, and put the final vote on Vanderzant giving scum the game. So please, don't lie as town. Even as a power role.
RVS
We have started what is known as the RVS (random voting stage). We are in a low information period because scum already know who they are, and even have a rough idea of what power roles may or may not be in the game. It is now town's job to root them out. Because the start of the game leaves us with no information to start with generally the way to start is to begin voting and questioning other people to see if you can catch them doing something scummy (scummy actions being acts that a scum player is more likely to do then a town player).
STANDARDS
I have standards, but I won't tell you them. You know what Town (The good guys) has to do, and what Mafia (The bad guys) want to do. You act accordingly to the role you were given, and I'll judge if your play is satisfactory. Noobytownscumguy: "But wait, ... I don't know. ; _ ;" That's fine, just check the rest of this post!
LYNCHING
First, let's count how much people there are. There are 9 people, which means the majority is half that number plus 1. So 9 alive, 5 to lynch. What "5 to lynch" means, is 5 individual votes on one person, to lynch. The sole purpose for Townies to be awake, is to find The Mafia (The bad guys), via lynching. That's the power of the Townies, while the power of The Mafia is killing one person per night. This is why, voting is important. Usually, you should use your votes on the people you believe are suspicious, and along with the reason you believe so. This way, other townies can be able to see your point of view with why you believe that person to be The Mafia, and may also vote along with you. Keep in mind that The Mafia may also vote along with you to have the sense of belonging to the town as well. This may be confusing, just remember that The Mafia's sole purpose is to survive, even with one sole member, so voting their own Mafia Member would benefit them in the long run if it would give them Town Credit.
Yadda yadda yadda, and blam. Somehow, you have 3 votes on scummymctowndude. The pressure is on him, and now he is working his butt off to defend himself. It is in town's best benefit to hear him out, because you may have thought his mindset was a Mafia Mindset, yet may have been a Town Mindset in which was thought in a different angle. Town should be able to explain their mindset's easily, since Town usually don't lie. They should always have reasons for why they do things. If they don't, (and are Town), then they should try better next time.
Now, someone else votes along (with reason) and puts 4/5 votes on that person. He is most likely getting lynched. He just got put at L-1, which means "1 vote to lynch". Just think of it as "Lynch -1" when Lynch = 5, and it's at 4. Uh oh. It's time to claim.
CLAIM and HAMMERS
What should one do at L-1? Claim.
Should people hammer after someone claims? NO! You read the claim and think before doing so, same as you look both ways before crossing the street. You take the claim with caution. Claim your role, and flavor.
Townmcscumdude: I'm
Willy Wonka,
Town Inventer.
Situation: Townies think, and might let him live since he can be useful. Mafia might kill him at night, so would be ok to let him be and get another chance to lynch someone else.
Townmcscumdude: I'm ****
Dastardly,
Vanilla Townie.
Situation: It's A-Ok to go ahead with lynching him because he isn't a power role, may be lying about his role (since Vanilla Townie is easy to claim as Mafia) and Mafia now won't have a reason to guess at his role nor kill him. The 5th vote would be the HAMMER.
THE HAMMER
Hammering means that when you hammer (the final vote), you finalize the lynch, and it freezes up. This means there is NO going back on the lynch, it's done. This is why when you vote, you better be voting as if you are holding a trigger to that person's head, and are ready to shoot the gun. That's how serious you should be in voting, during the middle of the first day, and the end of it.
COUNTER CLAIMING
Townmcscumdude: I'm
Alladin,
Town Cop.
Situation: Ok, now this guy claims a role which should be confirmed town. What should town do? They wait for anyone else to Counter Claim this person, or have everyone say "Not Cop" to confirm that this person is a Legit Cop. Why should one wait for a Counter Claim? This person may be mafia trying to lure the Power Role out. And guess what? If this person is Mafia, and you are the Town Cop (or whatever role that person is claiming to be), that person is lying and YOU SHOULD COME OUT to grant him death. No hiding to get more confirmations of reads. Example of a person hiding as cop:
Bad Idea Mafia 4:
#1643
This is just the end game, yelling at the person who didn't counter claim scum. It was a scum win because of this. So remember, if someone claims YOUR ROLE, you come out. An eye for an eye. 1 for 1. 1 for 1's don't work in LoL, but here they do. Why? I'll talk about that in the next section.
ADVANTAGES OF TOWN AND MAFIA
Generally, The Town have the advantage in numbers, yet they don't know who the other town are. The advantage of the Mafia, is information. They are usually low in number in comparison to the Town, yet they know who the other Mafia are, so they can usually wiggle around the town. Example?
Think of Fire Emblem (Role Playing Strategy Game), and how Greil had him, Shinon, and Gatrie roam about in a three-man team, because they know smaller numbers = more room to run/manuever/take out men quickly. Shinon and Gatrie were pretty damn good at what they did, and Greil was a ****ing monster. This helped the rest of the Mercaniries take off some heat while in pursuit, because the greil pack would devastate the enemies while being in the shadows. This is sort of how the advantage for Mafia works, except their The Bad guys, and their enemies are The Town.
For town, it's easy to see. Since we don't know who other towns are, we'll have to lynch people without really knowing their alignment. We may be confident, yet we won't know until the mod posts the flip. This is why for town, it's good to have numbers, because we may have been very wrong, and for us to find mafia we may need extra chances, especially since we have low information at first. Eventually as the numbers get closer together, the town will be gaining more information and should be able to find The Mafia if they try hard enough, and are right enough.
1 v 1:
So, why are 1 for 1's good? Because let's say with 9 people... a person claims your role? A 1 for 1 is very good because you only gave up 1 Town, to find 1 Mafia. (Instead of lynching alot of town before finding mafia). Bam, if you come out, this becomes 7 people with 1 mafia in it. (If there were only two, which usually it is). This keeps the Town up in numbers, while nerfing the Mafia to less numbers without the Mafia messing about in the town before it happened. Sure, you are town cop that wants to confirm more reads. You don't need to, you just essentially, got a guilty on scum when this happens. When you get a guilty, you SHOULD COME OUT THAT DAY AND WITH TIME to discuss. Just trust me bro, it's better that way.
Problems towns face:
Townies have no information. Remember this. So, townies don't truly know someone is scum until they get the
mod flip. This means that townies can be convinced out of their own scumread if enough time passes between their proclamation to lynch their scum read and the
mod flip. (There is also the butterflies, which means you can't wait until that person is lynched and super hopefully flips scum so you can crack your beers or whatever you celebrate with and cheer!
) If they are doubtful of their read, this may also be easier for them to be convinced. Newb townies might not get with the program at first, since being mafia may be more fun for them. Usually, a newbie who is really into their role may be mafia. Yet this is not always the case. Townies may just really like being the good guy, and may be accused of being enthusiastic scum. It happens. Anyways, townies may not always be right. Townies even may be doubtful of their own reads.
Mafia may face the problem of being guilty of their own role. This may then turn into dis-interest of the game, and you should be able to tell this. If they post less, or don't have a strong passion as usual, this may be concerning. When it comes to newbies, they may be dis-interested in their town role. Don't entirely rely on this, as mafia may be the same way as well. You can't really tell until you really know the person and their ins and outs.
What you should do
Townies should try to push on any lead they have, even if they are doubtful. Townies need confidence, and a deep understanding of what mafia want to do to be able to find them in the first place. When the townie is really confident and lynches wrong, he must see the error of his ways, and re-evaluate his reads (and bite on his own pride if he always thinks he is right), to then find the mafia. He should look at the wagon, to see who else joined and why. Try to pick out the scum off of the wagon. Remember, scum want to lynch all those who are not themselves, so you might find one with you. Yet, don't expect all scum to be on the wagon. Expect some not even to be voting. If you see one not voting as often, that may be something to be concerned about. It's a cycle.
Like so:
Now, there might be some reasons for you having weak leads. One reason may be that some of the scum are lurking, and at least one may be just really townie to you. It happens. Another reason may be that the scum are entirely lurking, and aren't even trying. This is the point to start looking at lurkers and lynching them. You may find super scummy reasons to lynch someone when you are town, yet find out that most of the scum were just the lurker options you never tried due to, prioritizing scummy people over lurkers.
Discussion:
Now, if discussion is low and there is low activity, it is your job as a townie to get more discussion in the thread. If you see someone lurking by, poke at them (but not too many times, as we all do have lives) within reason. For example, if a person has viewed multiple times during the day, it's fine to call them out. If they posted else where and not here and viewed, and left, poke them. If they are just now viewing, wait until they either post, or leave to see if you need to poke them. Of course, if they post, there is no need to try and call them out. If more than 2 or 3 people are lurking, then it's possible more people then there are scum (if the number of scum is 2 or 3) are lurking, meaning it may also have some town there. Then this is now an overall lurking problem, and you have to poke them as well to get in the thread! In the case of town lurking, they are either un-interested, or lazy. (Or busy, who knows). Try to get them involved! Now, it may be easy to do this, so remember to be contributing yourself instead of always calling out people. People do accuse those who do this as activity police, but don't let that stop you! If there is no discussion in the town, then there are no chances for mafia to slip up with what they are saying. Get people to discuss, and ask questions, and make conclusions.
Yet, the most important thing for you to do is to use the tools available to you as whatever role you are. You must use it wisely. Now, for power roles, they have more tools to use at night, so they should act carefully during the day to not be picked as suspicious, and use their role wisely at night to find mafia. Now, your next question may be: What is the tools available to Vanilla Townies? I will answer that in the next section!
Tools of a Vanilla Townie
The Vanilla Townie only has his voice and his vote. This means, that you have to use your ONLY tool, your vote, to your advantage. Yet, you don't have to act carefully as PR's do! You can act more aggressively and be careless as a Vanilla townie. You have nothing to hide, and nothing to keep safe (a power), so you have nothing to lose! Do everything possible you can think of, to find Mafia! The town is essentially your play-ground. So, you use your vote however you think will get you mafia. You can hop from person to person voting to gain reactions, or you can reserve your vote and give more assessments then pressure. Or, you can do both. Sometimes, others will do the pressure voting before you, and you might see something suspicious without having to do all the work before hand, and just instantly have a 'reserved' vote and case, instead of jumping around yourself. Sometimes people won't be doing that, and you'll have to do that before you can find the scum.
The Voice part comes with voicing your opinions. Don't dilly dally on this. Don't focus entirely on the pressuring and questioning. You need to contribute with some conclusions afterwards, don't expect others to do that for you. Then, with opinions, comes your thoughts on who to lynch, and who to keep (your town reads). You don't HAVE to release your town reads, but you can release those who you want to protect/buddy. There may be someone you strongly and passionately feel that is town, and you want to yell to the GODS AND THE HEAVENS THAT EVERYONE IN THE TOWN IS STUPID FOR trying to lynch them. Go ahead if that is how you feel. Try not to get too emotional though, but feel free to bring in the passion.
CONCLUSION
I think I covered everything that you should know for now. Remind me to cover end-game (not post-game) and Lylo/Mylo sometime during the day. Don't ask me if you haven't even read this post lolz. READ IT MOFO.
