Hmm, I agree that it’s probably going to depend on the situation. I guess more weight would be lent to someone that claimed to have a power role, as they would be risking a mob kill, does that seem right? But I would be skeptical of someone that just claimed “vanilla”, seems an easy out.
My thoughts - the ‘closed’ setup shouldn’t change a lot about role claims, except for any “nonstandard” or unexpected roles.
It is critically important that people get their votes in early. The last thing that we need to do is have last minute role-claims because people will yank their votes reflexively, and we’ll end up with an undiscussed last minute lynch. We don’t want people to role claim at the drop of a hat, so we want them to have a chance to wait it out. If everyone waits to see which way the wind is blowing, we’ll have a mess on our hands in the last few hours of the day. Vote early - you can always unvote. Besides, having the voting record being more extensive is pro-town.
Well, I still haven’t found anything I find scummy, so I guess I’m gonna give this random vote plan a try.
vote Menocchio
I’d really like to see some identifiably scummy behavior come up, and random votes seem to be stirring up a good bit of discussion at least.
You give me waaay too much credit. And at the same time not enough credit for having a penis 
To be honest, I’ve tried to come up with a workable day 1 strategy, and have always been unsuccessful. Barring anything dramatic happening, I won’t be voting for a new player (defined by me as a player I don’t recognize), because going out day 1 sucks. I can handle it now, but it shouldn’t happen to a new player on day 1. So, that leaves:
Blaster Master
Shadowfacts
Menocchio
fluiddruid
MadTheSwine
MadTheSwine hasn’t done anything crazy, which makes me suspicious. Shadowfacts voted for me, so the best I’ve got at this point (always subject to change) is vote: Shadowfacts
It’s purely OMGUS at this point. I’ll certainly re-vote (votes are cheap) upon further evidence. And the newbs are certainly at risk if I see something I don’t like
I disagree with this. The more experience I’ve had, the more I realize that newb mistakes are generally forgiven (that night 0 post from a new player in YSI notwithstanding… that was too much to overlook, altho she turned out to be town).
I think newbie “mistakes” are more likely to be jumped on by new players. See zuma in M2
Actually, thinking about this some more, koldenar, if this is your fourth game (I apologize for considering you a newbie), you should know by now that pouncing on newb mistakes is not something experienced players, scum or no, do.
unvote: Shadowfacts
vote: koldenar
I’ll have to re-read to see if you were trying to set someone up. Probably not, but this pinged me, as much as a day 1 ping is worth.
koldanar, obviously I’ve voted for you for your claiming that experienced scum would jump on newbs for newb mistakes, which in my experience I’ve not seen too much of. Can you point me to which game this was? At least describe it and who challenged you on your lurking?
1 - bufftabby (WF Tomba)
1 - Ice Cream Man (MadTheSwine)
1 - WF Tomba (Ice Cream Man)
1 - Koldanar (zuma)
1 - Queen of Town (Sitnam)
2 - MadTheSwine (Nanook of the North Shore, peekercpa)
1 - Nanook of the North Shore (ShadowFacts)
2 - Menocchio (fluiddruid, bufftabby)
1 - Sitnam (Blaster Master)
3 - fluiddruid (Queen of Town, Menocchio, Mind Wanderer)
Wow. at least just about everyone has voted. Which makes this game a lot more inteliigent than most recent ones
Heh. I support early and often voting. All these games that go down to last-minute voting are ridiculous. Best to get a vote in early.
Sure thing…Diomedes on day one in Ancient China calls me out for basically sitting back, making comments on the game but not on players, and all around being quiet. Hell he even PM’ed me later and took credit for the bandwagon Newb mistake there was trying to lay low, and not at least call anyone out, make comments on players, etc.
Hell what about NAF jumping on CapnPitt in the Recruitment game? Then quite a few followed, some of whom have been playing far longer than I. Although, of course, after the fact NAF was town (and Townies do exhibit some large paranoia) but I have been the victim of scum in this way past already.
peeker, you’ve been out the gate with a fairly large number of smallish posts. Aggressive from the start hasn’t given me a good feel, especially with you jumping around on voting targets. As day one generally never has much to go on, I have to move on what seems scummy to me.
vote peekercpa.
It’s certainly possible I’m misreading your aggression as misplaced zeal, and mistakes are likely on this first day.
How exciting. My first vote in my first game.
And it is just the zeal factor as you note.
So who doesn’t have votes against them? It seems to be a pretty even spread.
Updating Sach’s list with Koldanar’s vote for me 
I make it, Blaster Master, zuma, pedescribe, MindWanderer and ShadowFacts.
good enough for me.
unvote:koldanar
vote: mennochio
random mostly. You’re a non-newb
ack i edited my post to fix color tags. Is that allowed? i’ll never edit again.
I got my first vote, I’m not longer a Mafia virgin. I feel so proud. For the record, I probably won’t be around much on the weekends, since I use that time to do various things with my wife. During the week should be much better though.
First things first, I see no reason to leave this now that we have some decent discussion going on.
Unvote MadtheSwine
Now that that’s out of the way, on to new business. My thoughts so far to follow.
peekercpa really seems to be all over the place with suspicions doesn’t he? I was pretty close to switching my vote to him this morning as I rode in on the train, but sitting here now I’m having second thoughts. It seems scummy to me, but I’m trying to keep in mind what I’ve seen story and sach say before, to think about motivations not just actions. I can see the motivations for his actions going either way, either overzealous townie or hyper scum trying to sow confusion. For now I’ll hold off on placing my vote, but he’s currently number 1 on my list.
Queen of Town has pinged me a little. She just seems very hesitant with her comments. I’m trying to decide if this is simply a new townie being worried about making enemies or a scum move to not draw attention. Right now I’m leaning town, but it’s a close thing.
You know a game is moving fast when you get a bunch of new posts in the time it takes you to preview and check coding.
I forgot to include this before. Regarding role claims, with a closed set up and the knowledge this is a back to basics game, we’re just going to have to evaluate them on an individual basis. Normally they can be more or less accepted at face value barring a counterclaim, but that obviously does not work in a set up where we don’t know if the role even exists. From a metagamey standpoint, I think we can disbelieve any more outlandish role games, since I don’t believe that sach is the bastard mod type from posts I’ve read from him in previous side threads.