Leaving what, again, was merely meant as a piece of information I thought was important to have out there, let's get back to sharing information about evil roles. I do think this is a good idea. Sure, the scum can lie about the evil roles they submitted, but that doesn't mean we can't get something useful out of the larger group who will have no incentive to lie.
And, frankly, I don't see nearly as great an incentive for scum to lie about the evil role they created as about the good role or their own role. Since the evil roles are at odds with one another (some of them are likely grouped, but still) even the scum have an incentive to try to identify and eliminate other scum. A lie only aids the scum to the extent that they are teamed with the role they created or they make up a role that might appear superficially similar to their own role (one that kills with the same weapon, for example). The former isn't going to be true of all the scum and the latter runs the risk of pointing suspicion in their direction later in the game.
As for my suspicions, based just on the responses to my not-even-a-suggestion of mass role-claim, I'm going to have to
vote: NanookTheWolf
. I disagree with both the suggestion that a mass role-claim would create a quick game and that it would make the game no fun, but I can at least accept that as something someone else might be concerned about. I, myself, find first days to be horrendously unfun, as it's rare that there's ever a good reason to lynch anybody, because everyone's afraid of geing targeted early on and not getting to play to the fun part of the game, so no one shares any information.
I think Norinel's points about not knowing what the dead submitted and that scum can lie aren't as serious as he thinks and that the claim could be structured to help address that problem, but they are true. Also, the concern about changing alignments is valid, despite the fact that any scum who claimed their own role as a townie are going to be relying on the goodwill and trust of the rest of us to get through the day. So, while I disagree with Norinel on the strength of his concerns, I will grant that they are nonetheless concerns.
But most of what NanookTheWolf says is just silly, especially...
NanookTheWolf wrote:I'm not saying that I am totally a mass role claim, but I think that it would be of better use later in the game,
...which is exactly what I was trying to point out as untrue in my last post. The only thing I was trying to say on this topic, in fact, before the response raised my hackles. Today, if someone claims a role and no one backs them up by saying that they made up that role, that makes them suspicious (not conclusively so, just as being backed up by someone isn't conclusive verification). Later in the game, this inconclusiveness will only get worse, because more people are dead and can't verify legitimate claims, so the fact that no one backs up a claim is less likely to indicate guilt.
It takes a village to raise a lynch mob.
