Tips on being good mod?

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Post Post #50 (ISO) » Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:43 pm

Post by Titus »

1. Make a theme you care about
2. Don't make the setup breakable by massclaim or flavor
3. Be timely with moderating duties
4. Answer all questions as fairly as possible.

Bonus
5. Write good flavor
Show
The scum had the misfortune of Titus being absurdly accurate on day one.Really quite impressed by that.~Drixx

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Post Post #51 (ISO) » Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:48 pm

Post by mastin2 »

In post 33, vonflare wrote:I do a list containing all players, and then a separate list of dead players. It works.
Yeah, do this. Don't combine them. That just looks ugly.

And as SXTLHGaiden said, it can be helpful to have in the OP (or directly below the OP) a link to day/nightstarts, so that a player can quickly jump to D1/D2/D3/etc. (Isoing the mod is extra work, and can be a bother if you're logged in, and there's content new that you don't want to read yet, because then isoing the mod will mark ALL that content as read.)

Also courteous is to send out daystart PMs to all players to let them know the day has begun. (I also argue in favor of sending a PM to every player who can take a night action for similar reasoning, but that might just be me.)
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Post Post #52 (ISO) » Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:23 pm

Post by Not_Mafia »

Find a mod's OP that you like and steal it
Also, what is NM doing? Worst play I’ve ever seen.
I can't remember the last N_M post that wasn't bland, unimaginative and lame. Some shitposters are at least somewhat funny. You are the epitomy of the type of poster that nobody would miss if you were to suddenly disappear. You never add anything of value.
I'm guessing you haven't read the game and probably never will? Why even sign up to play?
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Post Post #53 (ISO) » Thu Aug 13, 2015 5:37 am

Post by FakeGod »

Send e-checks to the right people at the right times and proceed to win the scummy for being the best mod.
My favorite site mod is Zor Tester.
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Post Post #54 (ISO) » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:27 am

Post by Ether »

Mastin wrote:Also courteous is to send out daystart PMs to all players to let them know the day has begun. (I also argue in favor of sending a PM to every player who can take a night action for similar reasoning, but that might just be me.)
To be honest I find this a little annoying. I'll notice on my own, and if I'm online in the first place then I'll probably do it about five minutes after you'd have sent the PM. Don't worry, you can trust me.

(Generally I do send out PMs to anyone who still hasn't posted 24 hours after the day opened, but that doesn't tend to be a lot of people.)
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Post Post #55 (ISO) » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:42 am

Post by mastin2 »

In post 54, Ether wrote:
Mastin wrote:Also courteous is to send out daystart PMs to all players to let them know the day has begun. (I also argue in favor of sending a PM to every player who can take a night action for similar reasoning, but that might just be me.)
To be honest I find this a little annoying. I'll notice on my own, and if I'm online in the first place then I'll probably do it about five minutes after you'd have sent the PM. Don't worry, you can trust me.
(Generally I do send out PMs to anyone who still hasn't posted 24 hours after the day opened, but that doesn't tend to be a lot of people.)
YMMV I guess.
I
tend to notice when a game's changed phases because I typically only hang around in one subforum these days (Large Theme) meaning I'll be there, but there are plenty of people who legitimately don't realize--especially for the D1 beginning. You'd not believe the number of times players post, "sorry, didn't realize this had started". Every game where daystart PMs weren't sent, I see at least one slot if not multiple that will show this.

That being said
, sending a daystart PM is the last thing I do. I give the flip and unlock the thread, send results to roles, update the OP and whatnot first (note that these things aren't necessarily in order), and then only after all of that, I'll send out the daystart PM--and by that time, some players have usually posted. I exclude the ones who have posted already. (Because, duh, they posted; they already know.)
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Post Post #56 (ISO) » Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:17 am

Post by Ankamius »

This is the only thing mods do that really annoys me:

Keep an updated list of whoever replaced out and who replaced them in the opening post. I've played in games where I wanted to look at early game stuff from before I replaced in and lost motivation when I had no easy way to tell who replaced who. It drives me insane.
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Post Post #57 (ISO) » Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:16 am

Post by Faraday »

prod promtly and post vcs fairly frequently. not doing these simple things on time probably means you don't have time/inclination to mod.
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Post Post #58 (ISO) » Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:41 am

Post by Vampirate »

It boils down to genuinely caring about your game and taking the necessary steps to make the players enjoy the game as much as possible.
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Post Post #59 (ISO) » Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:20 pm

Post by kyndy101 »

Thank you everyone! I will tip my fedora while singing an edited version of the first Pokemon theme
I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To make good themes is my real test
To mod them is my cause

I will travel across mafiascum
Searching far and wide
Each queue to understand
The power that I'll have

[Chorus]
Mafia! Players and me
I know it's my destiny,
Mafia! Oh you're my best game
In a world I will mod in!
Mafia! a theme so true
Our good tips will pull us through,

You teach me and I'll teach you,
Modding Mafia!!! gotta mod em' all

[Chorus]

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Post Post #60 (ISO) » Sun Aug 16, 2015 4:25 pm

Post by Psyche »

In post 52, Not_Mafia wrote:Find a mod's OP that you like and steal it
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Post Post #61 (ISO) » Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:48 am

Post by kuribo »

In post 41, Fro99er wrote:I think I'm going to enjoy modding more than playing



I know I sure do


Screw playing, that shit is so 2007 and plus I can only scream so much


As a mod I can write flavor where I hold the players hostage in the basement of a strip club and then get nominated for an award for writing it
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Post Post #62 (ISO) » Wed Aug 19, 2015 1:48 pm

Post by vonflare »

In post 60, Psyche wrote:
In post 52, Not_Mafia wrote:Find a mod's OP that you like and steal it
THIS POST IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
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Post Post #63 (ISO) » Wed Aug 19, 2015 4:27 pm

Post by Equinox »

Always, always,
always
get a backup moderator, and keep your backup moderator updated on all game notes, action submissions, and action resolutions every phase. Your backup should already be qualified to run a game in the queue in which you're running your game.

Always get at least two competent reviewers before you run a game.

In the Normal queue, you're offered a balance review. Take it. In the Micro and Theme queues, you aren't required to get your game reviewed. Do it anyway. If the thought "I don't need/want a review" ever crosses your mind, you definitely need that damned review. Only run the version of your setup that everyone has approved.

If you choose to use someone's rule set, PM them and ask them for permission. It's the polite thing to do, and you'll also hear from them if there's an improved version that would serve you better.

This is important: You can always approach a list moderator for help. We'd rather receive questions about trivial things than see someone mess up a game and get sanctioned for it.
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Post Post #64 (ISO) » Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:50 am

Post by Untrod Tripod »

I always keep a spreadsheet of all of the night/day actions along with players and role distributions

makes it super easy to keep track of everything, and it makes it trivially easy for a backup mod to step in
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Post Post #65 (ISO) » Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:55 am

Post by Kagami »

In post 64, Untrod Tripod wrote:I always keep a spreadsheet of all of the night/day actions along with players and role distributions

makes it super easy to keep track of everything, and it makes it trivially easy for a backup mod to step in


Mod PTs!

Can also double as spoilers for the dead, since you can just keep the mod thread locked.
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Post Post #66 (ISO) » Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:36 pm

Post by Varsoon »

Now, there's some really great advice in here, especially from folks like Equinox, Borkjerkin, Untrod, etc.

But those guys are all old spice and thick glasses, they ain't with the times. Lemme tell you how to really mod a game, bruh:
-Come up with a setup but don't put much work into it. Who cares if it doesn't run properly, has bad interactions, or people can massclaim to win? Those aren't failures, they're
features
.
-Mod on your own damn time--get back to PMs about roles and things whenever, whatever.
-If a player has an issue, just modkill and report for ban whoever's wrong. You're the mod, dawg. It's your house.
-Don't worry about reading your game. Some nerd will PM you when a flip is necessary, so just wait for that to happen. Your players
got
this.
-If you wanna be cool, update your first post a few times, but you can give up on that jazz when the game is solved/over. No one cares, mayne, why should you?
-Make a secret alt to be your backup mod. You gotta use Google Incognito or somethin', cus otherwise they'll figure out your backup mod keeps logging in from your own IP, but you can say, like, it's your little brother. Oh, that reminds me--
-Lying is awesome. Lie to your players, lie to the listmods, just lie for fun. The game of mafia is predicated on lying. Get good at it.
-When someone inevitably calls you out for being a crummy mod, give them a hard time, like it's their fault the game wasn't enjoyable. It probably was, too. Never admit fault.
-Mods = Gods. Be Old Testament with it. If someone thinks you're draconic about rules, remind them that you enforce Wot1, and that 'one' is always the yourself.
-If you need to replace a slot, just phone it in and the slot doesn't fill, just shut down the game. Honestly, it's more work than it's worth.

There's probably a few other pointers I'm forgetting, but follows these golden rules and you'll be topping the charts in no time.
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Post Post #67 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:56 am

Post by kuribo »

You left out "Resolve Night Actions any way you damn well please"
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Post Post #68 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:15 am

Post by Plotinus »

Give the good roles to your friends, and vanilla townies to the people you don’t know that well. The mod did that when I was scum in an offsite game and it made PR hunting really easy.
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Post Post #69 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:20 am

Post by quadz08 »

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

never do that noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Post Post #70 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:24 am

Post by Plotinus »

I was using sarcasam. it was great for the scumteam, though! the town found it really demoralising.
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Post Post #71 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:26 am

Post by notscience »

Well, yeah.

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Post Post #72 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:29 am

Post by Plotinus »

there were 6 of us but we were told that one of us could win with the town, so it was a game within a game, having to hunt the townie inside the scum team. but no way would the mod have made her friend a mafia goon and there were only two mafia goons and then she reacted weird to being wagonned, being neither willing to doubtcast any townies nor allowed to just name the whole scum team so we knew who she was on day 1 and she had to leave the game because it was kinda broken. and then we nightkilled all the PRs.
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Post Post #73 (ISO) » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:31 am

Post by Varsoon »

Haha, yeah, I figured I'd go ahead and highlight some things you should probably
avoid
.
You're right, though, non-advertised non-randomized roles and night actions not following a clear-cut system (like NAR) is bogus.
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