Didn’t you get the memo? I am the secret role: the Boss of Discussion. Obey me or else. 
Yeah, you two can go on talking about whatever you feel like. All I can do is vote for you.
The point of random voting isn’t to discuss the votee, but to generate discussion. Any discussion. The fact that you keep harping on my vote proves it was successful. 
Votes are cheap to give and take. It’s the analysis of votes that’s valuable.
No hard feelings.
But I won’t trust you until you’re dead 
.
–FCOD
Personally, I don’t think a lighthearted or “fluffy” post is that much a waste. When people are making that type of post they are much more likely to let things slip than they are if they feel they have to watch each word they type.
And as far as discussing “assignments” for the Oracle and the Apprentice, in addition to possibly giving information to the enemy, it makes you (general you, not any one poster in particular) look very bossy. It is as much a “waste” as a lighthearted post, if not more so. If at some point during the game you feel a certain player should be investigated you can suggest it, and the Oracle or Apprentice can take or leave the suggestion as they see fit. But going on for endless posts deciding what they should do is not doing anyone any good.
Well, I have one idea that would be a bitch to implement.
Instead of traditional day time voting, we two seperate votes to end slightly before the end of day. The first determines who to dunk and is basically a proxy for the real vote (i.e. all voting accountability lies in this vote). Simultaneously, we hold a second proxy vote to determine who does the dunking. At the end of the day only the dunker casts a real vote, and the dunkee gets dunked with only the dunker at risk of being Avatar killed.
Messy eh?
I don’t really think we CAN deal with recruitment by the Prophet. The only fortunate thing about the prophet is that conversion can fail if it hits any of several power roles. Beyond that, we just need to be vigilant about midgame shifts to scummy behavior–after all the discussion earlier, I’m not going to be surprised whatsoever if they play for a conversion earlier rather than later since my not-re-reading brain tells me the consensus was that conversion should happen later.
The Avatar? Honestly, that almost has to be filed under shit happens. I just hope when we get him, we get a large number of scum who’re jumping on to hide their scumminess and he kills one of them instead.
It seems to me that the scum have two power roles that are harder than average to strategize around, but they also don’t have any who can hide (which is somewhat unusual). Given the estimates of 5-7 scum, 5-7 nonbelievers, and the rest town (this makes sense to me), that means scum have 2 Power /3-5 normal, NBs have 2P/3-5N, and town has around 7-10 power roles (assuming between 2 and 5 monks), that means Town ranges from the extremes of 7P/13N and 10P/6N. Given this, I find it distressingly likely the secret role is a non-believer or, Nairu forbid, a cultist–even the most positive estimates of town power-to-normal ratio is only at best roughly equivalent with the other two factions, and the worst estimates mean the town is not only shorthanded but power-role-heavy already. (best and worst, here, refer to "number of townspeople at game start, higher being better.)
I don’t know if we can necessarily do anything about it right now but be not surprised when something bad happens.
And, as I noted, was in fact done by a first-time player, just not the one Pleonast thought.
As storyteller pointed out to me in #381, I’d like to see votes based on estimates of who’s scum, not on pure randomness; my problem is learning how to read posts to get a useful estimate. All I’ve got so far are other people’s opinions. Consequentially, I suspect everybody. (But on the first Day, that’s a good thing. Is it?)
Added on preview, to weigh in with my thoughts on the concept of the Oracle and Apprentice (not strategies for them in particular): It seems to me that it is in the Town’s interest for the Apprentice to draw the Oracle’s attention for an early investigation, to improve their accuracy. And it is in the Mafia’s interest for the Apprentice to draw the Oracle’s attention, thereby giving them an important target. Rock, meet Hard Place.
I’m sorry my ideas and discussions are annoying everyone else. I’m learning quite a bit from them so at least they are doing me some good.
That is true, which I why I am “harping” on it. Well ok, the real reason is because I have no idea what else to talk about. I think my position of math being close to useless in this game is well known. As well I am completely onboard with the idea that power roles should decide what to do when they choose to. As well in no way should we try to guide the oracle/apprentice, IMO, as that could lead to a quick death of the oracle, much like what happened to CaerieD in M2. That must be avoided at all costs.
Further, the “bossy” idea. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Pleonast, Storyteller, and myself (all who have suggested the Oracle/apprentice discussion be dropped) have clearly not been listened to. Which is the people who are having the discussion’s prerogative. I don’t see those posts as a waste, but I don’t see any post as a waste. Feel free to discuss whatever you want. Personally I would like to see every power role discussed if any are going to be.
On preview: sachertorte, that idea is so very confusing and, IMO, a complete waste of time. To much in the way of logistics behind it. I like that you are giving out ideas however.
I thought the normal scum ID as Nonbeliever and the Prophet IDs as Believer, neither one IDing as Cultist. Did I copy the wrong reference chart?
Ok, Scuba Ben and USC Diver, you guys have to change your name or something. Or not quote posts directed at the other person. After reading what Scuba Ben wrote (quoting what I directed at USCDiver) I thought I made the same mistake that Pleonast made. Damn you wet people! 
What shall I do, go jump in a lake?
Just FYI for the group:
A huge project was just dumped in my lap at work. The plus side is that with my job even huge projects won’t last more than a day or two. The downside is, my participation is going to be dropped very low for the rest of today, and probably most of tomorrow.
I will be able to read along (I think) and maybe put in a post or two, but nothing lengthy.
Fortunatly there are 27 or so other players who can fill my void (Hal and CJ not being around either.)
So long as you don’t dive into it…
There’s that “everyone” word again. I do not think that word means what you think it means…
If I were truly twisted, I’d suggest a sub-game. Contextual movie quotes in periwinkle. Winner has the most quotes at the end of the game, and gets to take the squid (and aquarium) home for a week.
No, I misread. Stupid Prophet.
I’m honestly of the opinion that it’s in the town’s best interest to treat “non-believer” as “scum” unless proven otherwise. Dang, that REALLY confuses the issue with detecting the convert now that I think about it.
I think we’re in for a bumpy ride.
I don’t see that as a good idea.
If we hit the Avatar, chances are (or at least were in past games) that at least one Cultist will be voting with the Town to hide their trail. If we choose a dunker, we minimize the possibility of hitting two Cultists at the same time.
Can someone please explain how talking about the Oracle gets the Oracle killed? I just don’t see it. I see many people hold this belief, but I don’t know why. All I see are statements that equate Oracle discussion with a dead Oracle without explaining the mechanics of such a conclusion. Would discussing how discussing the Oracle kills the Oracle somehow kill the Oracle too? What the hell am I missing? The only discussion that came close was storyteller’s mentioning of directing Vig kills in M2. But that’s different than setting up subsets to investigate, espeically subsets that scum don’t know who is allocated to whom. There is no definitive information being disseminated. Or is the consensus that these are really the same thing and I’m just insane? I really want to understand.
Again: not so. Though the Non-Believers can win by themselves, they count against the Cultist’s win condition. If we start treating them as “equal time foes”, we’ll be:
The Psychopath is a separate issue, of course. But (s)he doesn’t come into play until (s)he is targeted. Until then not even him/her knows (s)he’s the Psychopath.
The problem is one of “tunnel vision”. Usually during talks like this the person who has the role gets involved, some way or another (especially if there are newbies around).
Cultists, if they are smart, will start narrowing down a pool of names who could hold the Power Role being discussed (Oracle for purposes of this discussion). Hence, in most games it’s assumed that the less the power roles are discussed, the better. And as a corollary, (s)he who starts the discussion is seen as scummy.
This is a bad idea, for the reasons DiggitCamara stated. The Avatar could actually help us out if we’re lucky.
HOLD THE PHONE! I DID NOT REALIZE THIS!! Am I the only one that missed that part of the rules?
IMO this is a bad idea. Killing Non-Believers is only a teeny bit better than killing Believers. Let’s not forget that for the Cultists to win, their numbers must be more than Believers + Non-Believers.
–FCOD