Your Scumhunting Blindspots

[Mina]

What kinds of scum are you the worst at catching? People can share their general scumhunting weaknesses if they want, but I'm talking more about specific behaviours and styles of scum play (not so much individual players) that fool you.

(I'm putting mine in a separate post so I don't distract from the OP. Some people might be paranoid that omigod, now scum can USE THESE AGAINST YOU!11!!, but 1) the only consequence is some extra challenge, because it's a game with no stakes whatsoever, 2) you're less likely to be manipulated by weaknesses you're aware of, and 3) I'm probably not playing Mafia until 2018.)

[chamber]

I'm the worst at catching people that I think of as being irrational already. It's hard for me to differentiate the irrational because scum from the irrational because they just are.

[Mina]

Mine tend to swing back and forth depending on what's most recently fooled me. I've also outgrown some throughout the years (e.g., smart player = town). But my worst Mafia kryptonite:

The "emotional" player:

"Oh, shit. My suspect just posted the word 'fucking' five times, and also mentions not being able to sleep because he's never been mislynched before. I'd better unvote!" I'm a huge believer in getting strong reads from the emotions people express in threads. But sometimes I've treated ANY marker of affect, no matter how phony or perfunctory, as a towntell. Multiple players have figured this out about me and tried to exploit it. I try to compensate for this by remembering that scum can feel anger or be good actors.

The jerkass:

"You wouldn't be this verbally abusive if you were scum. Why would you consciously hurt someone when you're not too angry to restrain yourself? That's

mean

." This is a subset of the emotional player, and feels the shittiest of all to lose to.

The person playing to what I've decided their town meta is:

"In this one game, chessmamma7 was town and made a lot of jokes. In this game, he's also making a lot of jokes, so he's probably town here. What, I should do more research? Here's a scum game...eh, he replaced in after RVS, but I skimmed the first five posts of his ISO and didn't see any jokes." I'm often influenced by meta, forgetting that people can evolve as players and also vary their playstyles depending on their mood rather than alignment. Judging from the times players like Tammy and Empire who play up how awful they are as scum go on to steamroll everyone, I have a lot of company here. But sometimes, I take this to an extreme, and assume that chessmamma7 is town because he's acting like chessmamma7 rather than someone who's stolen chessmamma7's account. I'm more prone to this bias if chessmamma7 has been town in the previous games we've played together and come under suspicion for doing typical chessmamma7 stuff. (I've also tortured too many poor souls with the reverse of this--"You're not being Town Fill-in-the-Blank!"--but that's for another thread.)

The warm and fuzzy bunny:

I'm having trouble putting this one into words, but I'm thinking the Pandora hydra in

A Dance with Dragons

and Malakittens in

Wicked

. It's not that they did stuff impossible to fake, but they just sounded well-intentioned and naive and cuddly, and so I didn't pay serious attention to them because "gut town vibes." There were points in those games where I found their stances a bit convenient or lazy or inconsistent, but I didn't really follow up on them. ("Her heart is in the right place! Better grill more abrasive players yet again about the meaning of 'opportunistic' in Post 753 instead!) Somewhat falling into this category, I also tend to be more forgiving than I should be of wishy-washiness/softness because I'm indecisive.

[Mina]

And then there's...

The person who's putting a whole lot of effort into the game, so I'd feel just awful lynching them.

The really strong player who we'd screw ourselves over by mislynching.

The really weak player who I'm sure isn't smart enough to manipulate me.

The player who claimed an awesome power role that I'm afraid to lynch.

The player who claimed VT prematurely, because wouldn't scum be worried about self-preservation?

The person who's done nothing since Day One, but totally looked town then!

The person who did nothing on Day One, but sounds kind of town now.

The player everyone in the game thinks is town, which makes me doubt myself.

The player everyone in the game thinks is scum, which makes me reluctant to jump on the wagon because I'm a contrary hipster.

Anyone who's scum.

I hate Mafia.

[Thestatusquo]

Mine is the "Scum who is too obvious to actually be scum." I second guess every single aspect of voting this kind of person.

I also second chambers: Players who are generally irrational anyway. Like, most of my reads come from ascribing motivations to your posts. Why would a town player make this post? Why would a scum player? Etc. If I can't do that because a player is just posting almost literally at random, I can't read that player. If there are too many players like this in a game I'll replace out. I can't hack it in that type of game.

[reinoe]

A person who threatens to quit but doesn't follow through. Scumread every time.

Also posting in other areas but not the current game. I've never seen scum do it but it looks so awful.

Also the kinda lurky player who rarely posts but makes interesting points when the do post.

[Thestatusquo]

Also posting in other areas but not the current game. I've never seen scum do it but it looks so awful.

This is the number one reason I played exclusively on alts for a long time. My site activity outside of game is not game relevant at all, but that doesn't stop people from THINKING its game relevant. And I was tired of talking about it.

[Faraday]

I tend to give people I see as much weaker players townreads too easily, I think.

[Faraday]

Also Mina I don't think I've ever seen scum express emotion, are you sure that's not a good reason to town read ppl??

[Katsuki]

I'm the worst at catching people that I think of as being irrational already. It's hard for me to differentiate the irrational because scum from the irrational because they just are.

This, though town playing like how csum would deserve to be lynched anyways so its not a huge loss.

I hate very logical and well-spoken players who are very good at debating and breaking down every little thing you say because I dislike giant back-and-forth walls. Plus they're good at covering themselves up in the eyes of other players.

[ChannelDelibird]

Self-pitying scum.

[Vi]

Scum who are playing more pro-Town games than the actual Town.

[Oversoul]

Scum who town read me.

[Psyche]

lurkers
all the damned lurkers

[pieguyn]

mine is when the entire scumteam hard busses each other for absolutely no reason

every single time that happens, it always fucks up all my reads really really bad. I'm incapable of comprehending why scum would bus each other unless there was a reason to, and I'm naturally biased to think people who scum defend, or who defend scum, have a greater chance of being scum with them.

like, I know it's supposed to be misleading when they do that, but I feel like it's even worse with me in particular

[davesaz]

My tough one is scum leading town. The guy who is driving conversations, actually making (bogus) cases. Even worse, when they scum read me and the points are the slightest bit plausible (though obv false).

[Tammy]

If someone makes me laugh, I read them as town. I think I've only technically helped to hand scum a win simply because scum had me laughing so hard throughout the game once (I also decided that his seriously bogus case against me was well intentioned and genuine, which I blame on how much he made me laugh). I do give early town reads to people who make me laugh. It's a town tell! It's a weakness, I know it's a weakness though.

If I'm in the middle of an argument and being attacked for

any

really silly reasons, I tend to look favorably upon those who take my side. I then get paranoid of them depending on how it happens, but yeah.

The jerkass gets me too though. When someone is scum reading someone whose response is "Your terrible at this" I tend to think that person is town because why would you say that? But then if they turn up scum, the next time I see them do it I tend to start scum reading them.

[SleepyKrew]

People that fakeclaim Cop.

[Thestatusquo]

mine is when the entire scumteam hard busses each other for absolutely no reason

every single time that happens, it always fucks up all my reads really really bad. I'm incapable of comprehending why scum would bus each other unless there was a reason to, and I'm naturally biased to think people who scum defend, or who defend scum, have a greater chance of being scum with them.

like, I know it's supposed to be misleading when they do that, but I feel like it's even worse with me in particular

Maybe you should look deeper than connection tells?

[xRECKONERx]

Mine is the scum that calls me town and defends me from the onslaught. I always have trouble.

[beastcharizard]

I have to agree with others. Calling me town is the fastest way to getting a town read from me. I know people know this as I have said it a lot and I am now at the point where if anyone I have played with a couple times calls me town I get paranoid.

People who troll. I have the hardest time reading these people because trolls are trolls regardless of alignment. Trolling is normally a town tell for me though because "why would scum put themselves out there like that."

People who use my meta. I know meta is bad but boy does it make me feel good that you took the time to analyze me. I have this ego problem and if someone strokes my ego I town read them. I like seeing my name in posts and all that jazz.

So really anything to make me happy makes me town read someone.

[N]

anime avatars

[tn5421]

owo

You talkin smack?

[Psyche]

it's not even october n how daree you

[Cheery Dog]

Myself.