Harry Potter Mafia

The Game Room
101

I understand the spirit of what you are saying with all of this (The entire post) I would even wager that you are referring to a few things I have done in other games.

However, I am not 100% convinced that town can have the advantage when they overestimate how quiet to be.

Isn’t it always, by definition that Scum know each other, and have protected communication with each other? [[That is, town doesn’t have access to the scum board. Scum can be open and free on their board.]]

From this, we find the benefit in having town post information in the open.

It would seem that the only REAL progress town can make in any game, comes when a town player posts, reveals, or claims non-public information.

Role claims seem to be common first or second day topics. I have heard about quite a few games that are won based on early claims. I have played in games where well timed claims, after the first or second day, helps town. I have not played in enough games to confirm this, but I would guess that a majority of games need a role claim to even set up a possible win for town.

What then can be said for the additional, non-public town held info, if the ““regular”” info so often causes town to win? Isn’t there always the “equation” offered that if a Cop has >= 3 confirmations, that the cop should claim and reveal at that point?

Again, I understand what you are saying, but It gives me pause that you would say this. That you would say this so soon gives me an additional pause. The question of motivation comes up. I question the motivation here.

At the same time, there is no vote here.

At the same time, I am not arguing for a role claim or anything similar. Just posting my observation on your observations, extremely early in the game.

102

Good post, Rysto. I think we should def take that to heart.

I remember in the scum pond game getting a little flack for not having claimed, though, at the same time. It’s always very confusing–should you share? Should you not? Tough decisions.

103

I agree as well that it’s a good idea to think about the ramifications of posting information. Especially if it’s not info garnered through your role. But I would say, don’t sit on info just because you don’t want to get yelled at by other players.

Chip, my experience with Day 1 is that we get a bitchton of posts from people talking about how they hate Day 1 and that’s all they say, a banal discussion about the merits of role and name claiming along with strategy on lurker lynching that evolves into a heated argument to be followed by a slow growth of votes on a player who claims a town role at the Day end and everyone rushes to vote someone else. I exaggerate but that’s about it.

104

Well, you didn’t bold that, but I am a kind and good-hearted mod, so I will. :slight_smile:

**1. Freudian Slit
2. ShadowFacts
3. OneandOnly Wanders
4. Snickers REPLACED BY Little Plastic Ninja
5. tiltawhirl
6. Drain Bead
7. Jimmy Chitwood
8. Chipacabra
9. MentalGuy REPLACED BY Omi no Kami
10. Rysto
11. Pedescribe
12. Inner Stickler
13. Zeriel
14. Meeko
15. amrussell REPLACED BY Red Skeezix
16. Guiri
17. Storyteller
18. Coldphoenix **
Please be aware, if anyone doesn’t bold and blue/red your votes/unvotees, though, I will not count them.

105

I agree with the spirit of what Rysto has to say, but I think following any strategy to a fault can be dangerous. Regarding the disclosure of information, I’ve always personally felt that information about your role, or gleaned from your special abilities (e.g. a real mason hearing a false mason’s claim) should be kept close to the chest until 1) You’re in immediate danger of being lynched, 2) you think you’ve gleaned all you can about Scum with your info.

I know that #2 is where I get frustrated- real masons can watch fake masons to see if anyone is defending them or backing their claim up with unusual fervor, fake doctors and cops will sometimes have another Scum buddy come to their aid, or protect scum from the temporary trust they can earn until they’ve been debunked… that sort of thing.

I just get frustrated when a townsperson makes a great information coups/deductive leap and posts it immediately, without trying to milk the knowledge for all he can learn about the scum.

106

I’m not sure where you’ve seen this, but IME once a scum player has been forced to false claim, it’s usually the other scum who are scrutinizing the hardest, in order to earn the most possible credit for “outing” the impostor, and earning the bus credit the fastest.

RE: Rysto’s comments. They’re good laced with some real bad.

The good: Think about the implications of what you wish to discuss before you discuss it.

The bad: Don’t point out things that are based on public information. This is horrible advice. As town, we should assume that our adversaries are playing at the top of their game and not hope that they are missing things out. The possibility of error does exist and we should not discount it in our efforts to determine what is going on, but it should NOT be a guiding principle, or weigh heavily into determining whether or not something which can be distilled from public knowledge should be revealed.

107

What I said is, don’t point out things based on public information if it won’t help town to know those things.

108

Does that really happen? I would think that the hard-line people on both sides would be in some trouble: I’ve only played 2-3 games of mafia, but I would’ve guessed that the least suspicious people would be middle-of-the-road players: if you’re too vocal scum can always find something in your posts that looks suspicious, and if you lurk you’ll probably be called out for it, especially as the game goes on and the other players start realizing that they know nothing about you.

Given that, wouldn’t it make the most sense for the players who discuss things avidly but tend to be hesitant to put themselves out on a limb to convince everyone else of their opinion to be the likeliest to be Town? It seems like giving your opinion and then letting the group make up their own minds is the best approach.

109

Yes, but how are you able to ascertain that it won’t help town? More eyes on a problem can produce more answers and more discussion which leads to catching more scum.

To use your example from Cecil Pond, the player who pointed out the error, drew attention to that error. Another player who hadn’t noticed that error was able to reverse the problem to generate some good leads, albeit on accident since scum wasn’t moving in that direction. It is hard to know what will or won’t be useful, so there isn’t much use not discussing things which can be distilled from the discussion, especially given the possibility that scum may have already distilled them, and are discussing them.

110

The problem is that once you start discussing what makes someone likely to be town or scum, you’re giving the scum a nice, handy dandy blueprint for avoiding scumtells and giving off townie vibes. The secret to divining a player’s true alignment is in reading their posts and assessing their motivation for posting. Are they answering questions and trying to clear up misunderstandings? Are they talking in circles and clouding up the issues? Granted, you’re rarely going to see a post that is clearly nothing but circumspection, but try to look beneath the surface of the post to find the reason it was said. This is why I hate lurking and as the game continues, I wil advocate for the lynching of people who only post 3-4 game related posts a Day. Talking is good. The more talking we have, the more scum slips up and we can catch them.

111

This is all pretty interesting, at least from the perspective of a rank Mafia noob. Talking is bad! No, not talking is bad! The more you talk, the more you might give away! Then again, you could have made a perfectly safe comment and we could be hanging you for it!

So in other words, very much like a witch hunt. :slight_smile:

112

Welcome to Mafia. :wink:

As one of the Masons involved in the previously-mentioned debacle, I agree that Town should always consider who would benefit most from the information if it’s out there. I don’t know how often scenarios like the ones mentioned will actually come up, but it’s something to think about if you’re a new player.

Another thing to know as a newbie is that in general, this group of players tends to lynch the loud. It may be best to ease your way in because of that, especially if you drew a power role of some sort. The fact that a loud player usually dies Day One is one of the more annoying tendencies of the games here. Just remember that quality =/= quantity. It may be best to have 4 or 5 quality posts a day instead of 10-15 poorly-thought-out four-liners.

113

There’s a reason they call it “werewolf”! :wink:

114

Well, seeing as there’s nothing better to go on just yet, let’s aim the finger of suspicion where it may and see what shakes out.

Vote Shadowfacts

Just because we haven’t heard from you yet.

I think I get what Rysto is saying. If you’ve got something to reveal, be certain why you’re revealing it. Don’t need to paranoid and supersecretive, just double check the value of what you’re sharing.

115

Eh, Days are always slow over the weekend. I think a lot of players play during their work hours or on their lunchbreaks. I won’t be concerned about the lack of posting until Monday this time. If we’re not going gangbusters by then, I’ll be very surprised.

116

Why is this in MPSIMS?

117

Oh, I’m not actually concerned. It’s a weak vote if that wasn’t obvious. I just want SOMETHING out there to get things going as much as possible.

118

Huh?

119

Not sure about this. From my point of view (as a very bad Mafia player…), I think we should point out and analyse information already out in public. Some of us, like me, don’t notice these things.

My reasoning is that town players are much more likely to have missed the info as each of them would then have to individually notice it themselves. If it’s info that is useful to scum you can bet your bottom dollar that one of them will have spotted it and informed their colleagues via the scum board.

So not discussing this public information means that scum is generally better informed than town.

If info is already out then it should be talked about and analysed transparently. Secrecy only helps scum.

Whether or not a player should release information is a different matter entirely. They should think long and hard to make sure that it helps town more than scum before going public. Because once it’s public that’s it, there’s no taking it back.

120

This I also agree with. I’ve been criticised in the past for my lack of posting due to only posting game related posts (often one long post after coming back to reading everything) and not filling the night with fluff.

I’ve no problem with people writing fluff and joking around :), just so long as participation (and lynching of lurkers!! :eek:) isn’t measured purely on number of posts! :wink: