... i tried kicking back it didn't help i've been drafting this post the whole phase ;(
dragons probably has to die for this game to be at rest and hey, he could be scum. he is not going for a passive win, i think if he's scum he hoped that his 1v1 with HEM would last longer. i think i need more insight from him he just feels checked out.
bob just feels like a puppy i feel weird about having a default null read there. every time i read emperor's iso i like it, every time i'm outside of emperor's iso i can't remember a damn thing he said. for bob's part, he's just been there. like he's doing vca and mechanical solving and making noises which i'd townread if we weren't just at the end of the game. he is trying, but he's also just kind of passive.
i've been townreading gera really hard bc he broke character to case furtive and the more i reflect on that the more i wonder if i just kind of like, want gera to be town because it makes solving easier. this is kind of all i've got.
ckd i'm settling on as town. i've reevaluated this read so many times because i'm very innately paranoid of scum theatre. i just don't think this is it. in the most fundamental way, i just don't think flipped scum have cared about ckd. on d1 he was an easy votepark, and someone they didn't really like, bother having opinions about. following his catchup it's kinda just felt like they've stayed out of his way. greeting + furtive's handling of ckd d1 doesn't feel like they're interacting with their third scum. if ckd is carrying the team exclusively through theatre at two scumbuddies who are just deadass ignoring him then i just don't think i'm going to solve this accurately. i'm sort of settling on this read.
i'm kind of settling on
{ckd}
{bob (up), gera (down)}
{dragons}
and dragons is just kinda floating to the bottom because i feel nothingish about his slot
i haven't really been sure how to evaluate the bob/gera duo. i townread gera, hate meta and need to get out of this groove, so i've been reading old gera games to try and get a sense of his scum meta. he considers himself very easy to read.
looked at
mini normal 2257 (january 2022, scum power role) - this was the baseline i used for his scumgame and i think it's a good illustration of his meta, like, i hope
mini normal 2267 (march 2022, town cop) - i found this one really illustrative
mini normal 2272 (may 2022, novice detective) - fine
mini normal 2273 (june 2022, scum roleblocker) - interesting interactions with scumbuddy elsa, otherwise a bit middling
large normal 240 (july 2022, scum power role) - this is his most meta-deviant scumgame i read
mini normal 2285 (november 2022, vanilla townie) -
ctrl+f3 "pooky" and "skitter" (both scum) in gera's iso for an idea of the furthest pole of his towngame. he was eliminated on d1 so i don't think his d1 hatred counts for much.
mini normal 2288 (january 2023, town power role) - most meta-deviant towngame
mini normal 2294 (march 2023, scum power role) - fine
mini normal 2300 (april 2023, vanilla townie) - also found this really illustrative
mini normal 2302 (may 2023, town friendly neighbour)
town!gera is sassy and like, discontented, but also conversational and honestly surprisingly interesting, in a vacuum. he feels like some grizzled retired marine stereotype. he doesn't enjoy d1 and doesn't feel the need to play the way people want him to. but he *is* engaged. i stole a a quote of his about his towngame below which i found salient. his d1 reads actually tend to be somewhat better than random, and he tends to get into fights with scum quite often. he is usually very stubborn about his reads. it's not unheard of for him to compromise, but generally when he does, he does so asking that he later gets his way.
In post 1135, geraintm wrote:
why is it weird? i do try and contribute snark Day 1, and i had time this morning to read and reply to a few bits.
he has reads that are interesting. he prefers mechanical play, but he's observably not above "we should flip this person for x reason" reads; he is not above considering other players' motivations. the opposite there - as town he has a strong tendency to do early vca (often d2) and evaluate people's motivations behind d1 votes. his reads tend to be better than random (especially scumreads), even on d1. town!gera has a tendency to snark and sass players for doing things which he disagrees with or doesn't understand - even though honestly, most of the time those things are just like, epically normal things people do in forum mafia games. he also doesn't really push people for these things. he's glacial with his votes.
he's able to be resigned when he's pushed incorrectly, but he's also very capable of introspection and engagement. i loved this bit from mini normal 2267 when he got some shade d2 (he was a town cop, sorry this was from march 2022 he doesn't play a like TONNE of games): "I have no idea what people expect from me. I said I'll be better day 2, and I tried." like, his towngame absolutely involves a level of trying. it's easy to look at gerain's game and be like "ah, a man who gives no fucks". but every time i read a game knowing he's town, i find it hard to believe in practice that he doesn't care. either he's putting in a little bit of effort and has deceptively strong intuition, or he's lowkey reading the game quite closely & thinking about it quite a bit. there is an observable astuteness.
scum!gera feels kind of directionless? like he's imitating his towngame and kinda looking for things to do. he'll sometimes clap back at things he finds weird & idiosyncratic, but he's much more likely to align himself to mechanical play. he complains about day one being boring ad nauseam. like, it's his entire basis for conversation. i haven't really found examples of him impactfully starting anything d1 he kind of just laments. he does not get into fights with scum - he takes a long time to acknowledge his scumbuddies. he doesn't seem above bussing, but he seems to strongly prefer distancing. he is quick to suss his scumbuddies, but very hesitant to vote them. if he does bus, he tends to case them, wait, drop a vote, without engaging (vs. town!gera who has a high tendency to articulate his scumreads and pick fights with them).
his reads as scum have a very different basis. he seems to veer back into that snark area, he is looking for reasons to clap back at players, but the way he follows through is different - he's much quicker to vote players for things he perceives as naughty. he's also much more liable to clamp down on things which look bad, rather than things which i actually really think gera's unique mind thinks are bad. he seems to have a hard time replicating his vca style. he can do vca (obviously) and find reasons to look at things, but he can't make himself look like he's looking for actual motivations behind votes. he is quick to abandon reads; he is able to pick up old reads later, but he can't emulate his stubbornness. there is a lack of those nuanced "we should do x because it'll be interesting to see y" reads.
when pressed, scum!gera seems to have a higher tendency to default to a generic "I'm limbait" situation. my favourite reaction from scum!him was being tripped up by a town fakeclaim gambit in mini normal 2257 (again, from jan 2022, i'm sorry, he doesn't play that much): "You come out with you have a guilty on someone, and I believe you (because I always believe claims - go and check my past games if you don't accept that) and now people are scum reading me because I followed you?" -- there isn't introspection here. it's a manipulative tendency to find objective reasons to poke holes in his pusher's reasoning, rather than explain why from his POV the reasoning is wrong.
scum!gera is a lot closer to our man who gives no fucks basically.
he does have a tendency to joke about being scum as scum (which i recognised from this game tbh). also his self-meta seems to be either very very accessible or absolutely confounding, seemingly without a pattern. :p
i'll go over his iso & relationships with flipped scum and see if this like, helps. honestly having written it out i don't actually like gera all that much anymore. i am going to drive 11th hour mislims on every town player i promise.
