Scummies Nominations Thread 2020

[the worst]

Updated to this post.

Just so everyone is ~aware~ we only have a single nomination in the entire scum awards category. DC is a body-of-work, so totally understand that these will likely come in later. But if you've seen a scumteam that's really made a game memorable for you, please nom them!

Excluding Body of Work awards, the following categories still have no nominations:

- Master Strategist
- Don Corleone
- Rube Goldberg
- Mad Scientist

[davesaz]

Spoiler: totally not an attempt to self nom

-cough- jigsaw -nod- -wink-

[Isis]

Rube Goldberg
October 1st, 2020	Isis	Hectic	Silent Star 2: Menagerie	This was a very balanced closed setup with naturally good pacing. An initial post-restricted phase created a special low information stage for players to discuss as the game moved to an post unrestricted state. The game used nonrandom alignment generation, which served as a good design to make the post-restricted phase of the game seem less blind, as players had something to initially think about. It had unexpected next phases/steps a la gameshow mafia, making the game exciting, even though none of the steps rendered play in the previous phase bad or anything like that. Well crafted and seems like it's in the center of what this category is about.

[the worst]

Isis sure is great.

[PookyTheMagicalBear]

Rube Goldberg
October 7th, 2020	Pooky	Hectic	Silent Star 2: Menagarie	The setup design was elegant and beautiful in so many ways I can't even begin to list them. This game was an amazing experience that was something like a nonstop rollercoaster ride - the twists and turns were balanced, unpredictable, exhilarating and incredibly fun. My only regret is that I can't forget about this game and play this setup again without the knowledge of what would happen next. What an adventure!

Paperback Writer
November 12, 2020	Pooky	Isis	Undertale C Open - Chara's Folly	The quality of the writing in this game is on another level. I have never spent time re-reading mod flavor text before but it's so well written and beautiful that it created an emotional response for me that had me coming back time and time again. Truly a work of art - Thank you for taking the time and effort to craft something deeply beautiful and sharing it with the rest of us - I will never forget this game.

[Iconeum]

Kodak Moment
23/10/2020	Iconeum	Alonzo/Bob3141	Mini Normal 2169: random facts	Imagine a game where town power faked a guilty that flipped green. Imagine that same game having multiple town fake claiming vanilla town. Imagine that game having a Novice 3-shot vig who, with it's first 2 shots, successfully killed 2 town power roles. Scum were guaranteed to win. 5p LyLo incoming, 2 scum still alive, their deepwolf performs the final act in what was a great fake claim (follower) and comes out with a fake guilty on Alonzo. Alonzo, who previously claimed VT (but who already got shot by the scumteam on Night 2 and survived), remains silent. Players do what they are supposed to do and race to put votes on Alonzo. Scum!Datisi hammers and somehow manages not to gloat too much in twilight. The mod comes online. The thread gets locked. Suspense running through the scumteam where the champagne glasses were already on the table. They open the spoiler containing Alonzo's flip and read: 'Town Bulletproof Vengefull'. Silence. Disbelief. Too many questions and thoughts to put in here. It took Alonzo about 0.006 seconds to send Bob's name in to be Venged. During Night, the vig uses it's last shot to put a bullet in the last scum's head. Never before in the History Of MafiaScum has a scumteam been this close to winning, only to see it slip away in a most dramatic fashion. Town victory.

[Iconeum]

added bob to the nominees

[SirCakez]

Paperback Writer
May 19, 2020	davesaz	SirCakez	Jigsaw's Revenge	All the creepy dialogue and imagery of the Saw movies, complete with diabolical traps and gruesome outcomes, right here wrapped up as a game of Mafia. I loved it all from the first glimpse of a role pm right to the very end.

Paperback Writer
May 19, 2020	Jingle	SirCakez	Jigsaw's Revenge	I don't like the Saw franchise. With that said, dave is absolutely right. This game fully encapsulated the spirit of Saw. You can see how much effort went into the design of each individual trap (all 21 of which referenced the movies), the neighborhoods being flavor accurate, the scumteam having both flavor accurate neighborhood membership AND town fakeclaims with neighbor accurate flavor, a sense of urgency that the pace of the game set that was in keeping with the horror theme, and even a role that got to write additional flavor that made sense in the world of the game. Say what you will about the rest of the game, but the flavor was 100% on point and crazy detailed.

Paperback Writer
May 19, 2020	davesaz	SirCakez	Jigsaw's Revenge	All the creepy dialogue and imagery of the Saw movies, complete with diabolical traps and gruesome outcomes, right here wrapped up as a game of Mafia. I loved it all from the first glimpse of a role pm right to the very end.

Seconded (is this the correct way to vote for an already nominated setup/flavour?)

Paperback Writer
May 19, 2020	davesaz	SirCakez	Jigsaw's Revenge	All the creepy dialogue and imagery of the Saw movies, complete with diabolical traps and gruesome outcomes, right here wrapped up as a game of Mafia. I loved it all from the first glimpse of a role pm right to the very end.

Seconded (is this the correct way to vote for an already nominated setup/flavour?)

We don't necessarily track this type. It's fine for commentary.

Yeah, nth's don't really matter unless you do another write up. TBF, that's mostly because the judges have to read all of the nominated games to weigh in on a category and shouldn't just be judging based on who nommed.

I'm sure Cakez appreciates the sentiment though!

OMG I didn't see these until today! Thanks guys! I busted my ass on that game, I'm really glad you liked it!

[D3f3nd3r]

Post of the Year
11/03/2020	D3f3nd3r	xRECKONERx	This post	On July 1, Reck was on a work call of some sort, where he discovered the mascot for the Count On Me NC tourism campaign: Sunny. Once he introduced Sunny to us, we laughed, we memed, we cried (probably), we made him into three emojis on the MS Discord, there was an avatar trend, there was a Mafia game, and so on. At the start of that Mafia game, some players were confused as to what Sunny was since he mainly came up on the Speakeasy, so Reck (a player in that game) wrote this history, letting everyone know that "sunny is everything".

[Aristophanes]

I'm doing this at PotY but it could easily be a Kodak as well.

Post of the Year
Mon Sep 14, 2020	Aristophanes	xReckonerx	Mini Theme 2165: MafiaSunny	This post is a beautiful work of art! Not only does it give an awesome backstory for Sunny, one which many people did not know but were curious about, it does so in a way which encapsulates the audience. The memes, the writing, the sheer greatness of this post and the reverence to Sunny are fantastic and hilarious. It is both informative and peak meme. It is amazing! All Hail Sunny!

[Aristophanes]

Wait GDI You beat me to it!?!?

Grrrrr

[MURDERCAT]

White Knight
11/5/20	MURDERCAT	TheGoldenParadox	Bad Idea Mafia III: Still Bad, Less Broken	This game had a unique setup. There was no voting mechanic. Instead of 12 vanilla townies like you might have in a more traditional setup, we had 12 dayvigs. If you are worried about balance, don't be, as scum was a team of 4 with 3 goons and 1 godfather, who also had the ability to shoot during the day (and night). The most critical responsibility for town was placed on the 2 cops who needed to try to find scum despite days lasting a couple of pages at most. Unfortunately, in a huge blow to town, one of the cops was inactive and failed to submit a target on N2. By page 9, 5 townies were dead and all 4 scum were still alive. To even have a chance at a win, town needed a miracle. This miracle came in the form of TheGoldenParadox, who replaced in during N3. In the morning, the other cop was dead. The game was in TheGoldenParadox's hands. It took them only 7 posts to call out the entire 4 person scum team. Scum, panicking, then shot TGP 2 posts later. Sadly, town didn't have a happy ending worthy of TGP's performance, but I'm not sure what more you could hope to get out a replacement slot.

[SirCakez]

Mad Scientist
11/11/2020	SirCakez	lilith2013	Mini Theme 2164: Betrayal Mafia	Lilith did an amazing job turning the board game Betrayal at House on the Hill into a Mafia game. The stats and dice-rolling elements were brought in perfectly, as was the exploration of the House and its many items and rooms. Everything was deeply flavored and she even came up with a Haunt specific to this run of the game that can be changed out in future iterations. The basic mafia night of (cop check, doctor protect, mafia kill) was completely turned on its head and mutated into a game of Betrayal WITHIN a game of Mafia.

This could also go in Rube Goldberg and Paperback Writer

[Jingle]

Disagree on Rube Goldberg, but I’ll probably write up a paperback nom tonight.

[Bell]

Master Strategist
September 15th, 2020	Bell	Zmuffinman	Illicit Substances Mafia post 7576	Felt this would be a good prompt for others to go forward on throwing their own noms into the category. This game involved unfamiliar roles such as alien(called an isolator in this game), white mage and 1-shot lightning rod. In Illicit Substances, Zmuffinman correctly identified and derailed scum from soft countering a white mage claim through his knowledge of the set up. He followed up with a plan that isolated the last scum whilst requiring only one correct town read to work. Overall good analysis of mechanics allowed him to ask the right questions and posit the right answers

First time nomming for a scummy if there's a mistake, lmk.

[Alisae]

reminder mostly to me or if anyone who wants to take the mantle that ame, hectic, norwee, kanna, and maybe noraa deserve write ups for rising star.
There might be 1 or 2 individuals I might be forgetting but this is just what comes to mind atm

[Alisae]

Hectic actually got a nom but its been a couple months so maybe more could be added to it.

[Ircher]

The Modfather
November 21, 2020	Ircher	Hectic	Hectic is a very capable mod who has modded several games this year. Multiple of his games have received nominations for other mdoeration-related awards. While I have not personally gotten to play a Hectic game, from the games I have looked at, Hectic has done an outstanding job. Furthermore, Hectic shows excellence not only in the running of setups, but also in the design of them. Overall, Hectic shows talent in all aspects of modding a game, from the design to the flavor to the smooth operation of such games. Death Curse Silent Star 2: Menagerie Comet I: Kill Switch Silent Star 1: Lunacy

[PookyTheMagicalBear]

Kodak Moment
11/22/2020	PookyTheMagicalBear	Noraa	Death Curse	Three hours before a deadline that would spell certain doom, Bell continued to yammer on and on about how scummy Noraa was. Noraa also unfortunately had a chemistry class that she had not really prepared for at all. Knowing she would need time to turn the game around, Noraa asked Hectic for a deadline extension - no dice.. She knew she had to do something drastic, so she took out a gun and shot Bell in the face... One of the single most hilarious and brazen plays ever made in a game of mafia - Noraa is truly a legend.

[Menalque]

Paragon
26/11/2020	Menalque	skitter30	I shouldn't really need to say anything to support this nomination, but I will: skitter is well known to be one of the strongest scumplayers on site, but it's also common knowledge that she's got an impressively nuanced and powerful towngame. I've seen it suggested elsewhere, and I would agree, that she's probably the most complete player on site. That is to say, regardless of which alignment she rolls in a game, her team's chances of winning go up significantly. She should also be commended for the fact that she's fantastically non-toxic. Too often, town players believe that the way forward is to shout over others in order get the flip they want, or slip into rudeness/belittling of other players in heated conflicts. It is to skitter's credit not only as a player, but as a person, that I don't believe I've ever seen her do this in a game. Instead, she works to foment consensus and critically challenging player's scumreads on her, pointing out their illogical reasons for voting her and engaging with them actively to try and bring them round and to refocus the game on scum. This dedication to non-toxicity is commendable, especially as there have been games where her refusal to take away agency from the town as a whole by strong-arming things has led to a townloss as she had a correct read and the others were wrong. I don't think this detracts from the fact that she should be the paragon for this year -- the site has enough people who strong arm games. We should celebrate the excellence of someone who wins without needing to. I would now like to present some games that I believe support this nomination: (1) JK9++ -- skitter was one of the players most directly responsible for the town win this game. Relatively early into D1 she caught scum!S_S and applied pressure to him consistently throughout D1. When the game moved into D2, she kept up her scumread on S_S, and made the bold decision to claim her role (vig) to clarify the gamestate which was being tripped up by the assumption that PB was the NK and the implications of that. She was then willing to listen to Blake and work with her to move onto scum!lilith and then she was killed on N2 -- but not before shooting scum!firebringer. The town then misguillotined a couple of times and inter fought before successfully guillotining S_S in mylo for the win; the player we'd have eliminated D1 if we'd listened to skitter a little more closely. (2) Micro 960: A Year of Miccro's II -- ah, the memories. This was basically a very hard game where scum ultimately won. I include it because skitter was the only one correctly scumreading the worst on D1 and pushing him. This was a game that got /really/ toxic and skitter was one of the people trying to calm it down and keep it on track, successfully identifying me and DkKoba as TvT. Town lost this mostly because of a really badly executed claim from a town player, a fantastic scum fakeclaim from ducky, and some... I'm going to go with the word 'distasteful' AtE from the other scumplayer involved. The game was almost a perfect storm of things going badly for town, but if there was a player who was close to dragging them out of the hole, it was skitt, even if she didn't quite manage it. Even in the final day, she was calling out that things were wrong/off, but sadly they were just a bit too fucked even for her to perceive the precise way things were wrong. (3) Mini Theme 2164: Betrayal Mafia I -- I didn't play in this, so I'm not as familiar with it as the first two. However, I read a bit. Skitter played as part of a hydra, but was outed by the time she was getting eliminated. What I do know is that as she died with two of the scumteam on her wagon, both of whom she correctly identified as scum and called out for town to focus on once she was revealed. They back-to-back guillotined those two scumbags the following two days, and the game ultimately ended in a town stomp. It's also worth noting that due to the push on her being scum-led, there were a lot of very dumb votes on her hydra. She kept her head, did her best to engage, and pointed town in the right direction even after they misguillotined her in what was definitely a frustrating way. (4) Silent Star 1: Lunacy -- this was a funky hectic setup where town started off thinking they were scum, only to figure out on D2 that in fact the town flavoured faction were the scum and that all the scum flavoured players were town. Anyway, after that small detail had been worked out, and skitter stopped playing as if she were scum (where she was also coincidentally pushing real scum for looking scummy on D1) she then successively pushed/led on (1) Nahdia!scum (2) Chara!scum and (3) okay, then she got a little unsure, partly due to scum being able to manipulate the flavour and make it look like there was another scum faction -- but even here, she kept dunn!scum in her PoE, and despite getting NK'd N4, she correctly had the final scum nailed down to being in midwaybear or dunn, with town successfully wrapping things up on D6. There are probably other games I'm missing here due to not being aware of them, but I think this body of work is easily enough to demonstrate why skitter is not only a candidate for paragon but is the candidate for 2020.

[PookyTheMagicalBear]

2nd on the skitter nom. she is amazing.

[Alisae]

skitter goated

[skitter30]

<3

[Gloria Cleary]

The Modfather
November 21, 2020	Ircher	Hectic	Hectic is a very capable mod who has modded several games this year. Multiple of his games have received nominations for other mdoeration-related awards. While I have not personally gotten to play a Hectic game, from the games I have looked at, Hectic has done an outstanding job. Furthermore, Hectic shows excellence not only in the running of setups, but also in the design of them. Overall, Hectic shows talent in all aspects of modding a game, from the design to the flavor to the smooth operation of such games. Death Curse Silent Star 2: Menagerie Comet I: Kill Switch Silent Star 1: Lunacy

Nth

[Gloria Cleary]

Kodak Moment
11/22/2020	PookyTheMagicalBear	Noraa	Death Curse	Three hours before a deadline that would spell certain doom, Bell continued to yammer on and on about how scummy Noraa was. Noraa also unfortunately had a chemistry class that she had not really prepared for at all. Knowing she would need time to turn the game around, Noraa asked Hectic for a deadline extension - no dice.. She knew she had to do something drastic, so she took out a gun and shot Bell in the face... One of the single most hilarious and brazen plays ever made in a game of mafia - Noraa is truly a legend.

Nth