[MaM] Vote Counting, OPs, and Deadlines, Oh My!

[Micc]

1. I do my vote counts by hand: quote previous count, delete quote tags, and update number. Use another tab to skim the game looking for votes. Update the new vote count post for each vote. Rearrange rows so that largest wagons are on top. Check activity overview to see if prods are due, add to post and send out as necessary.

This process takes me maybe a minute per page on average. Learning to spell players’ names is the biggest hurdle.

2. Post 0 = Game title, playerlist, alive & dead (in spoilers). Post 1 = rules. Post 2 = setup info.

3. 10 for first day, 7 subsequent and 2 for night is my preference for mini or micro sized games. Longer is good to do for larger until game gets under 13 players. I also like to use 72/24 hours for blitz.

And now my burning question…

How does anyone who uses this rule plan on enforcing it?

Claiming scum by yourself is fine. Claiming scum with others is not, regardless of the truth of this claim.

[Micc]

Wrt Micc’s question, it probably depends the impact of the scum claim. I have actually seen an instance where the “claiming scum with others” rule was broken and it wasn’t pretty

Do you mind sharing this example?

I think the rule is bad and shouldn't be used because it doesn't serve a purpose and enforcing it almost always does more damage than just leaving the game state how it is.

[Micc]

Day 2 of this game, the Angel warriors hydra tried to claim scum with me and it was very uncomfortable because I basically couldn't push her without probably obvscumming myself, but trying to defend her would probably kill the momentum on her which I wasn't entirely wont to do. So I basically had to do nothing until their behavior earned them the elimination.

This looks to be an instance of town player claiming to be group scum with you while you happened to be scum. I get that's an awkward position for you to be in, but from a game moderator's perspective not having a rule against claiming groupscum was effective. The game continued naturally and all conclusions drawn from the claim were a direct result of actions made by players. That's what a game moderator should strive for.

On the other hand, a rule against claiming groupscum forces a certain amount of game mod influence onto the game. Every decision the game mod makes about when and how to enforce the rule is made with knowledge of and potentially impacted by the players' alignment. The players know this, and they are left to draw conclusions from it. Game mods need to be very careful about when to bring this influence into the game game in order to solve a bigger problem. I don't see whatever problem this rule is intended to solve as being bigger than moderator influence.


Sorry if this comes off as ranting at anyone in particular. I just think a lot of moderators copy the rule into their ruleset without putting enough thought into its purpose and how they intend to be impartial in its enforcement. Leads to things like the truly awful modkill I made in one of my first games. I feel pretty similarly about rules like "don't play against your win condition" or "prod dodging requires meaningful content". Game mods are not improving the game state by making public judgement calls about these petty things at the risk of giving away information.

[Micc]

Game mods are not improving the game state by making public judgement calls about these petty things at the risk of giving away information.

also wanted to say that toxicity and players being mean to each other are not petty things. In the past, I've errored on the side of not stepping in when I should in order to not influence the game state and I often regret it.