Lynch v. No Lynch in MYLO

[crypto]

I feel like this has been discussed at length but nothing cropped up on the search.

Reasons to no-lynch:

• Improved odds of lynching scum in LYLO
• Occurrence of another night kill for the town to analyze
• Night actions of investigative or otherwise useful pro-town power roles

Reasons to lynch:

• More townies for scum to sway in order to lynch town or avoid getting lynched
• Probable death of the most obvious* townie the next night
• Determination (via lynch) by the town of the next death
• Denial of determination (via night kill) by scum of the next death

* Confirmed townies are disregarded as they're obviously cause for a lynch, unless protection is guaranteed.

Yeah, I'm aware that it's all highly conditional—whether or not there are power roles, whether or not power role claims are confirmed, whether or not the most obvious townie is actually obvious or not, etc.

wat2do

[hitogoroshi]

Depends how obv the most obvtownie is, as well as how active in-thread the obvtownie is.

no obvtownies - no lynch
obvtownie who is super lurking - no lynch
helpful obvtownie - lynch now

[SpyreX]

Pretty much that.

Or, like I run it through in my head:

If the gamestate tomorrow is going to be exactly the same as today (because its obvious who is going to die for whatever reason) then do it.

[Vi]

Or, like I run it through in my head:

If the gamestate tomorrow is going to be exactly the same as today (because its obvious who is going to die for whatever reason) then do it.

This.

[The Fonz]

Always lynch. Scum are under no obligation to kill, and will do so if they believe it helps them. So basically, by nolynching, you're saying to the scum 'Hey, if you think you can improve your chances by killing, we'll let you, otherwise we'll return to the status quo.'

About the only time it would be worth NL is if you've got a really scummy claimed cop.

[Cogito Ergo Sum]

Not really, The Fonz. Although under no obligation to no kill, they pretty much always do so anyway, so that argument is moot. And if they fail to kill, you can no-lynch till they do - scum is generally ahead in a MyLo situation and won't want a tie. In addition, the scum choosing not to kill can also be informative.

[Battousai]

Assuming 3v1 mylo: Isn't harder for 3 town to come to a consensus than it is for 2 town to come to a consensus? Even if you have an obv town or a confirmed town, they still have to agree with the other two town on who to lynch or they will lose.

[The Fonz]

Not really, The Fonz. Although under no obligation to no kill, they pretty much always do so anyway, so that argument is moot.

It's happened to me twice that I can think of, and on both occasions we strongly considered no-kill, but decided to shoot because it was of considerable value to our scumgroup. I believe this is usually the case- scum won't kill someone they're expecting to be easy to lynch the following day. Also you're handing scum another opportunity to WIFOM you.

[Yosarian2]

Pretty much that.

Or, like I run it through in my head:

If the gamestate tomorrow is going to be exactly the same as today (because its obvious who is going to die for whatever reason) then do it.

It's worth mentioning that you have to be careful with that. One newbie game I was in, I was pushing for a no-lynch, but everyone else wanted to lynch, because they were all sure that the doctor was going to be killed that night anyway. Turns out, he was actually the scum.

Always lynch. Scum are under no obligation to kill, and will do so if they believe it helps them. So basically, by nolynching, you're saying to the scum 'Hey, if you think you can improve your chances by killing, we'll let you, otherwise we'll return to the status quo.'

Eh. If the scum think they're more likely to win then lose (which they should be, with 1 scum in a 3 player endgame the odds are greatly in your favor unless you're already the main suspect), then they're unlikely to settle for a happily-ever-after draw. Given that, and given that the town can probably force them to either kill or just accept a draw with repeated no-lynches, and the scum generally is forced to make the first move and kill.
The scum could wait a night or two if they really wanted to, but drawing out the game is unlikely to help the scum, so faced with that situation, most scum just kill right away.

[Zachrulez]

I look at MYLO as a game of brinkmanship if you're in a situation where the scum want to try to force the town to lynch without killing.

If you demonstrate an absolute unwillingness to lynch, are the scum really going to be content with a draw?

I'd stake on no.

[Lateralus22]

Do not no lynch before mylo, it is a great way for scum to stall the game.

[Faraday]

I dislike no lynching, in most cases at MYLO, barring there's some specific pr's where it might be better to NL.

[Seacore]

If it's one of those games where there's no obvtown, I'd push for a no lynch and demand players not discuss their scum/town reads prior to a decision on no lynch being reached.
Yes, it's not perfect, because there's usually enough info for the scum to pick the towniest to kill, but I've been in some games in which the town collectively had no clue.

[Battousai]

I look at MYLO as a game of brinkmanship if you're in a situation where the scum want to try to force the town to lynch without killing.

If you demonstrate an absolute unwillingness to lynch, are the scum really going to be content with a draw?

I'd stake on no.

Not really... I was hoping for a draw as scum in fast food mafia. But the town decided on lynching (it was 4 v 1, but there was a suspected poison).

[Gammagooey]

In 4 player MYLO and no weird mechanics I'd rather no lynch, when I'm playing as scum I feel like most of my hard work is already done by the time I get there so I'm pretty unwilling to draw at that point. (zach and yos already said the gist of this)

In 6/8 player MYLO I think it's actually generally better to lynch just based on it taking only one town screwup to end the game in scum's favor, and if the majority of the town are gunning for a scum I think they would be more likely to bus instead of trying to convince two townies to side with them and risk it backfiring.

[Mr. Flay]

If you've got a 4-player MYLO and a confirmed townie, it's not a good idea to No Lynch. Otherwise, yeah, it usually is, because the odds are slightly better for town (and anybody opposing gets bonus scrutiny).

[Crazy]

If there are no confirmed townies, I'd No Lynch and hope the scum decides to kill somebody. Even if someone is like 90% obv-town, I'd much rather have the scum kill them rather than keep them alive.