Newbie 727: Game Over, Town Wins!

[Thok]

Current Status: Day 4
Your town of 9 was living peacefully, at least until the mafia arrived. Lynch them before they shoot you at night.

Alive (3)

broncofaninmd
Spinach
popsofctown (replaces Ropis)

Dead (6)

ameyarahane,

vanilla Townie

lynched day 1.
Sotty7 (IC),

vanilla Townie

killed night 1.
Burb,

vanilla Townie

lynched day 2.
yawetag (replaces LACivilian),

vanilla Townie

, killed night 2.
Debonair Danny DiPietro (replaces BlitzBall),

mafia roleblocker

, lynched day 3.
hasdgfas (IC),

vanilla townie

, killed night 3.

[Thok]

Rules: Influenced and possibly even adjusted from people like MeMe, Dragon Phoenix, and SaveTheDragons.

[1] Each day you may try to lynch somebody. A lynch requires a total number of votes that is strictly more than half the people alive. A normal lynch is unrevocable. If necessary, I will install a deadline. At the deadline, the number of votes to lynch will be decreased by 1. If there is a tie at the deadline, nobody will be lynched.

[2] Please bold your votes and unvotes as in

vote: Thok

. I would appreciate it if you include the name of any person you unvote, but I do not require it. I would prefer that you unvote before voting, but I do not require it.

[3] No talking to other people outside the thread during the day. You may only talk to other people outside the thread at night if it is part of your role.

[4] Do not edit your posts. Do not use code=black tags or size=normal tags.

Do not hack into mafiascum's php code in order to install invistext or spoiler tags;

moreover if somebody does so, do not use invistext or spoiler tags.

[5] Do not quote PM's from the mod. Do not fakequote PM's from the mod. You are allowed to paraphrase or fake a paraphrase of a mod PM. You are allowed to quote or paraphrase anything I say in the thread.

[6] Once you are dead, you are dead. You may post a simple "Bah!" post, but no game related content. Something like "It's obvious who should be lynched" or "You got me, but for the wrong reasons" is game related content, even if you don't include people's names.

[7] Try to be relatively civil to each other. I know you're trying to kill each other, but that's no reason to insult somebody's mother.

[8] I am the mod, but I do occasionally make mistakes. (Shock! Dismay!) If you think I have made a mistake, please send me a PM.

[9] I will try to put up a vote count each page or so. If you feel that I have gone too long without putting up a vote count, please either ask for a votecount in thread or PM me to let me know.

[10] Please let your fellow players and your mod know if you are going to be unable to post for a period of more than 48 hours.

[11] I reserve the right to do an activity check if I feel the game is moving too slowly. In addition, if you feel a person has gone too long without posting (say 3-5 days) please either PM me with a request for prods, or make a statement in thread of the form

Please Prod LurkerMclurk

. If a person goes three days without responding to a prod, I will replace them.

[12] I reserve the right to place a deadline if I feel the game is moving too slowly. I reserve the right to remove a deadline if activity picks up.

[13] I reserve the right to mod decisions about issues not covered by the previous rules at my discretion. I don't plan on using this power unless something strange happens.

This game is an open set up F11 game. We have a 1 in 4 chance of using any of the following set ups.

a. 1 Mafia Goon, 1 Mafia Roleblocker, 1 Cop, 1 Doctor, and 5 vanilla townies
b. 1 Mafia Goon, 1 Mafia Roleblocker, and 7 vanilla townies
c. 2 Mafia Goons, 1 Cop, and 6 vanilla townies
d. 2 Mafia Goons, 1 Doctor, and 6 vanilla townies

All roles and the set up will be selected by random.org. For example, do not assume that the scum group contains 1 IC and 1 newbie.

Here are role PM's.

Mafia:

You are a

Mafia Roleblocker

, along with your partner _________ (who is simply a Goon). Your goal is to eliminate the pro-town players so that only your side remains; you win if this happens. During the Day, try to blend in with the rest of the players, and get someone lynched. You win when all pro-town players are dead, or nothing can prevent this.

You may talk with your partner at Night, and send me a choice via PM of who you would like to kill/roleblock (your team can do both as long as the mafia Roleblocker is alive.)

Note: You may talk with your partner privately during confirmations to plan strategy, but no night actions will take place until Night One.

Please confirm in the thread.

You are a

Mafia Goon

, along with your partner _________ (who is a pro-Mafia Roleblocker) (who is a pro-Mafia goon) Your goal is to eliminate the pro-town players so that only your side remains; you win if this happens. During the Day, try to blend in with the rest of the players, and get someone lynched. You win when all pro-town players are dead, or nothing can prevent this.

You may talk with your partner at Night, and send me a choice via PM of who you would like to kill (if your partner also lives, they can send in a separate choice to roleblock someone).

Note: You may talk with your partner privately during confirmations to plan strategy, but no night actions will take place until Night One.

Please confirm in the thread.

Doctor:

You are the

Doctor

, and you can protect people from harm. Each Night, you may send me a choice via PM of who to protect; if they come under attack by the Mafia, they will live. You win if the scum are eliminated, so choose wisely at Night, and try to lynch correctly during the Day.

Note: Doctors are 100% effective in Newbie Games (the person you protect will never die on the night they are protected, unless you are roleblocked). You may not protect yourself.

Please confirm in the thread.

Cop:

You are the

Cop

, and you can tell good from bad. Each Night, you may send a player's name to me; I will let you know if your investigation shows that they are Mafia or Town. You win if the scum are eliminated, so choose wisely at Night, and lynch well during the Day.

Note: Cops always get a correct result in Newbie Games (no sanity issues), unless you are roleblocked. You cannot investigate yourself.

Please confirm in the thread.

Townies:

You are a

Townie

, and you've got no special powers at Night. No investigations, no protection, no gun to shoot people. Your only powers are the ability to post, vote, and think. You win if the scum are eliminated, so try to lynch correctly during the Day.

Please confirm in the thread.

[Thok]

All roles have been sent out. The game will start up once everybody confirms. This process may take the entire weekend, and there's a small chance that I may need to find a replacement.

[Sotty7]

/confirm

[BlitzBall]

/confirm

[Ropis]

/confirm

[ameyarahane]

/confirm

[broncofaninmd]

/confirm

[hasdgfas]

I'd like to announce that:
A) I didn't get a thread location for this game so I had way more difficulty finding it than I should have

B) /moofirm

[Spinach]

/Confirm.

[LACivilian]

/confirm

[Thok]

Everybody but burb has confirmed. I'll give him until noon on Monday, then get a replacement. The game will start once that's taken care of.

[Burb]

/confirm

(apologize for holding everyone up, school is busy for me atm)

[Thok]

OK, everybody's confirmed. It is now day 1. With 9 alive, it's 5 to lynch. Start arguing and voting.

[BlitzBall]

VOTE: Spinach

This is a town of proud carnivores. You sir, don't belong here!

Also, to help start discussion, I've created a few questions that both newbies and ICs can answer. I feel that it could help start discussion, and create some background information that can be used later on. Should anybody else have questions for the other players, they can add them to this list, or just outright ask them to the rest of us.

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

I'll answer these questions myself first.

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

Yes, I've played RL mafia a couple times, and played a couple sites that closed down a couple years ago, so I'm probably a little rusty. But I do have experience.

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

My favorite role is most likely Vanilla townie, simply because it requires a great deal more effort than PR or scum, and often times you have to put more effort into scumhunting.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

I believe that I do.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

Newbie townies, I've seen this here and on other sites, often times think that they don't have anything to contribute, so they lurk. This can cause other players to be suspicious of them, because they believe that the player is intentionally not contributing. This also means that they have a great deal getting their opinion heard, and don't scumhunt half as effectively, IMO.

[Sotty7]

Vote: LACivilian

Why not?

Interesting list of questions, a good way to start some discussion I think.

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

Been a member off an on here for a few years. Just recently back here again after another site I go to started mafia games. After playing them I got the bug back. Never played in real life.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

I would say so. There is always new things to learn of course, I would never claim that I am an expert, but I have a healthy understanding.

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

This is hard, mainly because I think it really depends on the players I play with rather than the role I have that determines my enjoyment level. If I had to pick though I would probably say Serial killer. The whole me against the world feeling is always fun.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

Lurking is a good one. I would say tunnel vision is also pretty bad. The idea that a lot of new people have that because a player votes them or finds them suspicious that they

must

be scum. For a first time player being the center of attention can be overwhelming and can often lead to the old survival instinct kicking in which can make them look worse regardless of alignment.

[hasdgfas]

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

I played in real life when I was younger, and then I found this site randomly one day and loved it, been here over a year at this point.

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

I'm a big fan of jailkeeper, actually. Takes more skill to use it, and it's not like because there weren't any deaths, you immediately know the alignment of your target. It's a very useful role, and lots of fun.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

These are two completely different questions, and I'm going to answer them one at a time.
understand:
I feel I understand the basics, yes, but there are always new things to learn, so I never fully understand it.

comfortable with:
No, not really. I'm never truly comfortable in a game of mafia. If you are, something bad is happening. You should always be on your toes, looking for some sort of slip-up.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

There are three that I'd like to mention right now (although I'm sure more will come as the game goes along).
1) Newbies assume that the ICs are right about everything and listen to them no matter what. This is a bad idea. The ICs are playing too, and will lie.
However, if we're discussing game theory, what good decisions are, that sort of thing, we won't be lying about that.
I'm not going to say anything like "You should vote for yourself all the time", because that's terrible gameplay. We won't tell you everything about how to play, but we will give you some general advice if you need it.
Does that make sense? If not, ask for clarification about what doesn't.

2) Newbies often decide that they want to just wait for information from power roles. This is bad, because sometimes there aren't any, not to mention that scum can lie about being a power role. Good scumhunting is better than power roles. Power roles help, but scumhunting is the basis for mafia.

3) Newbies think we should not lynch day 1 because we're more likely to hit town. While that is true,

ANY

lynch gives us information, such as who was on the wagon, etc., that we can use later in the game to try to find scum. If we don't lynch, we lose that information, and the scum get a free kill of a townie.
Then we're just back to the same position of no information day 2, but with one less person. You should almost always lynch. There are a few exceptions, yes, but those are rare. Lynches are the best weapon the town has for catching mafia, we need to use them.

I will also

vote: BlitzBall

(this is not a random or arbitrary vote).

BlitzBall, I have a question for you. What do you think is the point of random voting?

[Ropis]

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

I have completed one game here on MS and have another in progress, but I've played quite a bit on some other sites. Most on a Werewolf site where every day was deadlined (one game day lasted 24 real hours) so the biggest challenge comming here was (is) getting used to the slower pace.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

What hasdgfas said. (But if you're asking whether I understand the

rules

then yes, I believe I do.)

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

Vigilante. I've never played with "Day-Vigs" as they're called here (it sounds cool) but I like the role. I can't help but be nervous when I send in a target, but it sure is satisfying if they flip scum.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

Analysis Paralysis. If they don't feel confident acting (or even speculating) with incomplete information it can lead to a lack of participation, which leads to lack of information gain, which is bad for the town. If you're confused about something, say you're confused about it and ask somebody to explain. Offer your interpretation of the game or other players actions even if (

especially

if) you're not at all confident in your calls. Engage the game.



Good to see you again Broncofan! It's not easy to admit it when we're 2-14, but I'm a Chiefs fan, so I'll:

Vote: Broncofaninmd

[Ropis]

(this is not a random or arbitrary vote)

A non-random vote in the 3rd game post? Please feel free to wait until after Blitz has responded, but if you've picked something up already I'm certainly interested in hearing it.

[Burb]

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

Very limited online mafia experience, but have played quite a lot in RL. However, though our games were somewhat serious, the limitations and mindset of RL games means I don't have as much experience with the more exotic roles I've browsed through here on mafiascum. Looking forward to it, however.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

I'm comfortable with game mechanics/theory, certainly. Gameplay might differ a little, because as you're probably already aware, what it takes to lie successfully in RL differs from that in online, and thus what it takes to detect lies as well. I'll just see how things go.

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

Any special role makes me feel special, obviously. I think cop might be the top though, as it takes the most skill in pulling off correctly. At least half of playing it right is making good use of your information, not just making good guesses.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

A problem with townies is often apathy, I've found. They don't have a power role so they resign themselves to another randomish death. Obviously this will have less impact on an online game, since hopefully no one here was roped into playing by their peers. However, regardless of role, enthusiastic players will always be better ones. I think that this is also related to other problems listed by others ahead of me; they're unwilling to analyze or too dependent on the pro-townie power roles to do anything themselves.

Introduction aside, hasdgfas why do you vote for blitzy? Looking at his post, the only thing i can conclude is that he is the only person not to admit his vote is random - however, I had thought it was obviously implied he was merely attempting to be humorous. Do you have some pre-game knowledge of blitzy that we're unaware of?

Let me make a pre-emptive defense: no, I am not a mafia protecting my matey. However, votes based on poor rationale may lead to frustration and loss of respect on both sides, which makes the cooperation so necessary in the future that much harder. Of course a random vote will be needed, but first I'd like to hear both sides concerning your non random vote.

[Spinach]

- Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life?

Can vaguely remember playing it a few times in real life. I've only played 2 games on here, and I didn't get past Day 1 on either of them.

- Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia?

No. I wouldn't say I'm completely lost, but I'm just getting the hang of it.

- Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not?

No. I've never completed a full game, so I really have no clue.

- What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing?

I have no clue. <_<

[broncofaninmd]

Well hello Ropis. Im glad you waited to vote for me. Chiefs huh, well I wouldn't go around admitting that. lol j/k not that the Broncos are any better.

Vote Burb

I dont like that school excuse, it makes me feel eerie

[broncofaninmd]

Have you had any previous Mafia experience? If so, was it here or on another site? In real life? yes, one game

Overall, do you believe that you are comfortable with, and understand the game of Mafia? no, still learning


Do you have a favorite role? If so, what is it? If not, why not
No, havent played long enough to expierence them

What, in your opinion, is a particularly egregious mistake that townies often make when they start playing. not sure

[Burb]

Why would I try to force the game to start later, if I were mafia? It makes no sense for me to invent a reason that merely delays the start. If, perhaps, I were delaying the voting process and lurking under the pretense of "busy with schoolwork, soz soz" etc, then that would make sense. At least in that scenario, a possible advantage for me would be to gain information while giving nothing away. However, like I said already, delaying the /confirm process offers no conceivable advantage no matter what my role.

OMGUS

vote bronco

Sorry bronco, but your faulty rationale makes you suspicious. Should you be trying to random vote, then be honest about it: LAL, after all. ATM it seems that you're looking for a reason, any at all, to accuse someone. A townie would've tried to think this through before randomly accuse someone... which you haven't.

[Spinach]

VOTE: Spinach

This is a town of proud carnivores. You sir, don't belong here!

Honestly I think it's repulsive also. Just like the sound of it. :P <_<