Red Role Fatigue

[Somnus]

Thought it might be fun to hear some stories of people who rolled mafia way too many times in a short period of time. I've wanted to do this for a while. Part of it was because of my own experiences on the site, but part of it was that there were a few players I've seen over the past couple months in other games who made it clear that they were pretty worn out from playing as mafia so frequently. I'll start:

I've never been town. I signed up on here a couple days into the New Year, have played 3 games, and received a red role PM in all 3. Yes, I'm that rare unicorn. Going into my first game, I was the person who wanted to get a boring Vanilla Townie role PM...and I did! But the game was quickly rerolled and I went from a VT to a Mafia Roleblocker with zero experience at the game of mafia. Just as the extra gut-punch, my partner was also playing in his first game and decided less than a week in that the game of mafia sucks pretty hard and quit. After the game played out the way it did, I was incredibly grateful for the rerolled red PM.

After taking about 3 weeks off, I signed up again, excited to presumably get a chance to play as town now. Nope. Mafia rolecop. A month later, gave it another go. Nope. Mafia goon. Completed the Newbie Queue Mafia Hat-Trick (TM): Roleblocker, Rolecop, Goon.

Ironically, I really like playing as mafia, and in my humble opinion, I've done pretty well overall. But here I am, nearly 5 months since I signed up, and I've never been town. Check my wiki for context, if interested.

I might write an article about this topic somewhere down the line. Does time away from the game cure the stresses of playing as mafia all the time? Are there other ways? Do you actually enjoy playing as mafia? I do, but it seems like most people on the site don't really enjoy getting a red role. Admittedly though, it's been exhausting playing as nothing but mafia.

[mastina]

So my meta is fairly cyclical:
A bunch of towngames->I get scum once->the one scumgame goes incredibly well because it's a breath of fresh air and people haven't been recently exposed to scumastina->I suddenly get 2-4 scumgames effectively in a row->I suffer scum burnout->scumgames go poorly->I get a bunch of towngames (repeat)

Hoo boy do I get burned out.

[Irrelephant11]

What an intro to the site! I don’t think I’ve had this experience, but I do enjoy playing mafia more than most. It’s a lot more work than rolling green, though (usually, anyway), so I have been frustrated in the past, signing up for 2+ games at once and forgetting that one or more could roll red and make ALL my games that much harder

[Somnus]

So my meta is fairly cyclical:
A bunch of towngames->I get scum once->the one scumgame goes incredibly well because it's a breath of fresh air and people haven't been recently exposed to scumastina->I suddenly get 2-4 scumgames effectively in a row->I suffer scum burnout->scumgames go poorly->I get a bunch of towngames (repeat)



Hoo boy do I get burned out.

This makes sense. It's funny that town burnout isn't a thing.

What an intro to the site! I don’t think I’ve had this experience, but I do enjoy playing mafia more than most. It’s a lot more work than rolling green, though (usually, anyway),

so I have been frustrated in the past, signing up for 2+ games at once and forgetting that one or more could roll red and make ALL my games that much harder

The bolded was always my concern, and so I've always chosen to play 1 game at a time. Playing two games at once as town doesn't look like it would be problematic. However, playing two games and having one (or especially both!) with a red role? Ouch.

[Something_Smart]

I've gotten this. The biggest issue for me is that I forget what my towngame looks like My scumgame is super hit-or-miss though, so generally there's at least one game in the group that goes well, which is nice.

[Somnus]

I've gotten this. The biggest issue for me is that I forget what my towngame looks like My scumgame is super hit-or-miss though, so generally there's at least one game in the group that goes well, which is nice.

[GoldfishFromTheMoon]

signing up for 2+ games at once and forgetting that one or more could roll red and make ALL my games that much harder

Newbie 2094 just ended so I can say that this Just happened to me. I decided to try playing two games at once, and then rolled scum in both. I ended up having to replace out of one of them because real life happened and I only had time to be in one game as town but I was juggling two as mafia and getting prodded and loosing. Hence I've decided that from now on I'll only ever play one game at a time.

[Gamma Emerald]

I feel like the worst of it happened during late 2020, not only was I scum a lot, I lost A LOT. I chalk it up to having lost track of my scum mindset that actually worked well for me for a long time. I only had 1 scum win in that timeframe and it wasn't exactly the most easy one, I was forced to play my way up from the bottom because of a lame hydra partner

[Nancy Drew 39]

I’m probably one of the lucky ones. I probably had between 25-30 games where I had only rolled town but I can relate. Playing scum takes a lot more out of you emotionally than town, so I find it difficult to play too many scumgames back to back. However, possibly the absolute worst experience for me is to actually replace into a condemned scum slot. Because if it’s a condemned town slot, I can usually turn it around but if your predecessor was scummy af, you’re pretty much just waiting to die to be put out of your misery. The vast majority of bad scum experiences have either been due to that. having a ridiculously townsided setup or uncooperative teammates who won’t help strategize with you.

I think you need to have experience playing both to be good at either alignment. Playing scum helps you as town to catch the baddies and you learn the most consistent mistakes most scumteams make: leaving a super obvious trail of associatives once they flip. So I can understand where the OP is coming from. Being newbie scum is probably the hardest, although when I first started playing mafia, I thought you had to play like Survivor which is probably the exact opposite thing you should ever do as either alignment.

[Somnus]

I’m probably one of the lucky ones. I probably had between 25-30 games where I had only rolled town but I can relate. Playing scum takes a lot more out of you emotionally than town, so I find it difficult to play too many scumgames back to back. However, possibly the absolute worst experience for me is to actually replace into a condemned scum slot. Because if it’s a condemned town slot, I can usually turn it around but if your predecessor was scummy af, you’re pretty much just waiting to die to be put out of your misery. The vast majority of bad scum experiences have either been due to that. having a ridiculously townsided setup or uncooperative teammates who won’t help strategize with you.

I think you need to have experience playing both to be good at either alignment. Playing scum helps you as town to catch the baddies and you learn the most consistent mistakes most scumteams make: leaving a super obvious trail of associatives once they flip. So I can understand where the OP is coming from. Being newbie scum is probably the hardest, although when I first started playing mafia, I thought you had to play like Survivor which is probably the exact opposite thing you should ever do as either alignment.

Update: I recently town'ed finally.

I don't think I'm going 25-30 games in a row as town, but I'd probably settle for 3 at this point. Can confirm: town is easier and less stressful than mafia. Winning as mafia feels more rewarding though.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Sure because you have a lot more control as mafia, hence the stress. I have found that the most stressful role is actually town stump. That was way more stressful than playing scum