I have been itching to post this for a while...

[Zindaras]

Cults always have a fighting chance, whether they're a surprise or not.

The reason why I personally dislike Cults is because they're purely anti-town. A Mafia can ignore a Cult, as long as they have the numbers advantage over the Cult. In the meanwhile, town can't believe Cop claims, Doc claims, Mason claims, pretty much anything, as they can all be cultivated.

Cults need to be balanced out. Now, onto the actual point.

It's the guy's own decision. While I personally disagree with it (and would indeed be unhappy if he ever claimed Cult), it's his to make.

[Zindaras]

>snip<

Yeah, that's pretty much it, I just worded it worse (and didn't post everything. I do that a lot). Where I usually play, Cults were really popular for a while. They become boring and lame quickly. They don't really add anything to the game. Attempting to catch Cult leads to a lot of frustration. Cults need variation to be interesting. There are many anti-Mafia roles, but very few anti-Cult roles. Alarmists (Cult bodyguards), Cult Cops, uncultables, roles like that should become more common in games with Cults.

Trying to catch Cult is comparable to trying to catch scum in Mountainous.

No, it's clearly unethical. You can't rat out your partners; it ruins the game.

It may be unethical, but there's no rule against it, so he is allowed to do it.

[Zindaras]

That's not necessarily true. Many cults can only recruit Vanilla Townies: LoudmouthLee's College Mafia, Courk's Two-Headed Mafia... and I believe Alexander's Literary Mafia and Cadmium's Bible-Verse Mafia had similar, if not identical, recruiting restrictions.

But those are Cults from specific games. As Town, you can never know if any specific Cult will be able to recruit those roles.

[Zindaras]

PJ, what I don't get is why you're so anti-Cult. I mean, not liking them, sure, but you take it really really far.

[Zindaras]

Yes, but as town, you can't necessarily believe a Cop claim or a Doc claim anyway, can you? Mafia Cops exist. So do Mafia Doctors. So do mafia versions of most other basic power roles.

Yes, I know. However, the paranoia rises a

lot

when the town knows/thinks there's a Cult.

Take, for example, a hypothetical game. Some dude claims unlynchable. Now, there will always be a certain amount of paranoia regarding him (one-shot Mafia unkillables and stuff like that). But if you think there may be a Jester in the game, suddenly, there is even more paranoia.

[Zindaras]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

[Zindaras]

EBWOP: Wooooo, I get to stab jelly!

*stabs*

Teehee, there's all kinds of red stuff dripping out of him.

*stabs again*

Edit: By the way, I really like Cults that have one of their members die if they recruit scum.

[Zindaras]

*sad*

I was totally planning to recruit you if I ever got the opportunity.

[Zindaras]

Trying to catch Cult is comparable to trying to catch scum in Mountainous.

ALERT! ALERT!

Hmm? What's wrong with that?

You can't use claims to "clear" people of being Cult, so you're forced to rely purely on behaviour.

Easily remedied. Last time I had a cult in one of my games, only vanilla townies could be recruited.

As I said to Glork, the problem with this is that the

town does not know that

. The town doesn't know what the Cult can or cannot recruit. Only if

every

cult in

every

game can only recruit vanillas or millers or whatever, can the town use that to clear people from being Cult.

[Zindaras]

This thread went wrong the moment someone actually raised PJ's name (even if everyone already knew it was PJ). That made it way too personal.

I stand by my opinion. I don't believe it's actually unethical if he announced it beforehand. I don't believe this thread should be made when he never did it.

I also stand by my opinion that I would totally cultivate PJ whenever I got the chance.

[Zindaras]

Also, if I remember correctly, the following actually happened in a game here:

X: Lynch Y and I'll cult you next night and we'll win together!
Z: Kay, Vote: Y

If you think this is unethical, I believe that is unethical as well.

[Zindaras]

But I don't think anyone ever got that angry about that particular game.

[Zindaras]

MPFG II.

Thread's archived, which rather sucks, but you can still read it.

Small Town Mafia.

Never influenced the game that much, as it didn't assure alignment either.

That's what I can dredge up from memory, there's bound to be more.

[Zindaras]

I've usually seen Mafia fake-claim Cult to make it the other way around, Yossy. Primate did it in Mini 374 and PJ in Two-Headed 2.

[Zindaras]

It was a funny claim. It made me giggle. But he really shouldn't have claimed Cult, to be honest. I don't think it was the right decision.