Basic Theory Post
Premise
The premise of the game is simple. At it's core, there is a town, and usually there has been a killing during the night, which riles the town up and they start discussing, questioning, and even lynching to actually get some progress going in
finding the criminals who did the killing. If there isn't a pre-game kill which would have riled them, then pretend there was, or just assume there is Mafia (Bad guys) in the town that we are looking for as Town (The Good guys).
Game wise, everyone will get their role sent to them privately, and is usually randomized, so everyone has an opportunity to randomly aqcuire a role they may like, or may not.
The good guys (Town) won't know who the other Towns-Men are, because they only know their own alignment. The bad guys know who the other bad guys are (if there are more than one) because that way they can work together to discuss plans/strategies to hide from the town and destroy them.
Now then. The Town usually wake up, and discuss/vote/lynch during the day. Discussion involves who people find suspicious, and questioning those they find suspicious, and even voting their suspicions. Games start during the day, usually in normal setups. So expect to start during day. Then, after a lynch is set, night falls, and the Townies go to sleep, while Power Roles and The Mafia will be out at night. The Mafia stay up at night to kill the Townsmen, one by one. (One per night) Power roles stay up to find information about the whole town in general, depending on what they can do. Power roles in my opinion, should not lie just because they are a power role. Here is an example of how lying can go wrong:
Mafia Newbie 10:
#635
#638
#639
You shouldn't really read any further unless you want to confuse yourself. I'll give a summary. Basically, Vanderzant was town. I was the mafia. Third post shows Acrostic's reasoning for believing why Vanderzant may have been scum, yet, this lie cost Town the game. Why? Because Glyph came in, and put the final vote on Vanderzant giving scum the game. So please, don't lie as town. Even as a power role.
LYNCHING
First, let's count how much people there are. There are 9 people, which means the majority is half that number plus 1. So 9 alive, 5 to lynch. What "5 to lynch" means, is 5 individual votes on one person, to lynch. The sole purpose for Townies to be awake, is to find The Mafia (The bad guys), via lynching. That's the power of the Townies, while the power of The Mafia is killing one person per night. This is why, voting is important. Usually, you should use your votes on the people you believe are suspicious, and along with the reason you believe so. This way, other townies can be able to see your point of view with why you believe that person to be The Mafia, and may also vote along with you. Keep in mind that The Mafia may also vote along with you to have the sense of belonging to the town as well. This may be confusing, just remember that The Mafia's sole purpose is to survive, even with one sole member, so voting their own Mafia Member would benefit them in the long run if it would give them Town Credit.
Yadda yadda yadda, and blam. Somehow, you have 3 votes on scummymctowndude. The pressure is on him, and now he is working his butt off to defend himself. It is in town's best benefit to hear him out, because you may have thought his mindset was a Mafia Mindset, yet may have been a Town Mindset in which was thought in a different angle. Town should be able to explain their mindset's easily, since Town usually don't lie. They should always have reasons for why they do things. If they don't, (and are Town), then they should try better next time.
Now, someone else votes along (with reason) and puts 4/5 votes on that person. He is most likely getting lynched. He just got put at L-1, which means "1 vote to lynch". Just think of it as "Lynch -1" when Lynch = 5, and it's at 4. Uh oh. It's time to claim.
CLAIM and HAMMERS
What should one do at L-1? Claim. Should people hammer after someone claims? NO! You read the claim and think before doing so, same as you look both ways before crossing the street. You take the claim with caution. Claim your role, and flavor.
Townmcscumdude:
I'm Willy Wonka, Town Inventer.
Situation: Townies think, and might let him live since he can be useful. Mafia might kill him at night, so would be ok to let him be and get another chance to lynch someone else.
Townmcscumdude:
I'm **** Dastardly, Vanilla Townie.
Situation: It's A-Ok to go ahead with lynching him because he isn't a power role, may be lying about his role (since Vanilla Townie is easy to claim as Mafia) and Mafia now won't have a reason to guess at his role nor kill him. The 5th vote would be the HAMMER.
Hammering means that when you hammer (the final vote), you finalize the lynch, and it freezes up. This means there is NO going back on the lynch, it's done. This is why when you vote, you better be voting as if you are holding a trigger to that person's head, and are ready to shoot the gun. That's how serious you should be in voting, during the middle of the first day, and the end of it.
COUNTER CLAIMING
Townmcscumdude:
I'm Alladin, Town Cop.
Situation: Ok, now this guy claims a role which should be confirmed town. What should town do? They wait for anyone else to Counter Claim this person, or have everyone say "Not Cop" to confirm that this person is a Legit Cop. Why should one wait for a Counter Claim? This person may be mafia trying to lure the Power Role out. And guess what? If this person is Mafia, and you are the Town Cop (or whatever role that person is claiming to be), that person is lying and YOU SHOULD COME OUT to grant him death. No hiding to get more confirmations of reads. Example of a person hiding as cop:
Bad Idea Mafia 4:
#1643
This is just the end game, yelling at the person who didn't counter claim scum. It was a scum win because of this. So remember, if someone claims YOUR ROLE, you come out. An eye for an eye. 1 for 1. 1 for 1's don't work in LoL, but here they do. Why? I'll talk about that in the next section.
ADVANTAGES OF TOWN AND MAFIA
Generally, The Town have the advantage in numbers, yet they don't know who the other town are. The advantage of the Mafia, is information. They are usually low in number in comparison to the Town, yet they know who the other Mafia are, so they can usually wiggle around the town. Example?
Think of Fire Emblem (Role Playing Strategy Game), and how Greil had him, Shinon, and Gatrie roam about in a three-man team, because they know smaller numbers = more room to run/manuever/take out men quickly. Shinon and Gatrie were pretty damn good at what they did, and Greil was a ****ing monster. This helped the rest of the Mercaniries take off some heat while in pursuit, because the greil pack would devastate the enemies while being in the shadows. This is sort of how the advantage for Mafia works, except their The Bad guys, and their enemies are The Town.
For town, it's easy to see. Since we don't know who other towns are, we'll have to lynch people without really knowing their alignment. We may be confident, yet we won't know until the mod posts the flip. This is why for town, it's good to have numbers, because we may have been very wrong, and for us to find mafia we may need extra chances, especially since we have low information at first. Eventually as the numbers get closer together, the town will be gaining more information and should be able to find The Mafia if they try hard enough, and are right enough.
So, why are 1 for 1's good? Because let's say with 9 people... a person claims your role? A 1 for 1 is very good because you only gave up 1 Town, to find 1 Mafia. (Instead of lynching alot of town before finding mafia). Bam, if you come out, this becomes 7 people with 1 mafia in it. (If there were only two, which usually it is). This keeps the Town up in numbers, while nerfing the Mafia to less numbers without the Mafia messing about in the town before it happened. Sure, you are town cop that wants to confirm more reads. You don't need to, you just essentially, got a guilty on scum when this happens. When you get a guilty, you SHOULD COME OUT THAT DAY AND WITH TIME to discuss. Just trust me bro, it's better that way.
TL;DR
I think I covered everything that you should know for now. Remind me (or my bro, Soup) to cover end-game (not post-game) and Lylo/Mylo sometime during the day. Don't ask me if you haven't even read this post lolz. READ IT MOFO.
Things to remember:
- This whole post covers what should happen during 1 Game Phase/Day. So this should happen every Game Phase/Day, until the very last Game Phase/Day. The Last Day is called Lylo, or rather, Lynch or Lose.
- Don't lie as Town Vanilla or Town Power Role.
- Come out as a Town Power Role when you have information to give to the town which can give them a certain chance of finding Mafia, or when someone claims your role. If you haven't gotten a guilty yet, just keep investigating, and come out on Day 3, it's the optimal move for cop. (Come out with two innocents, and yourself, equal's 3 confirmed town)
- Don't claim a power role as Vanilla Town, you will get lynched. Just accept your fate.
- Town have the advantage of numbers, Mafia have the advantage of information/intel.
- The only chance Town has to get rid of Mafia, is through lynching.
- Voting is important, treat it as a trigger of a gun. Should come along with reasons.
- It should take a certain amount of votes to lynch; check the vote count/first game post to see how much it takes. In this game, it says "9 alive, 5 to lynch". Always check this number at the start of the day.
- Claim at L-1, or "Lynch minus 1 (vote)". If power role, unvote, think, and decide the person's fate. Usually might live. If Vanilla Town role, usually go ahead and lynch.
- The hammer (Final vote) freezes the lynch, which makes it finalized, meaning you can't go back from lynching. They are dead for good. This is why people must be careful when someone is at L-1. Good practice is unvoting if the wagon was going too fast, or if the person claimed a confirmed Power Role, or questionable Power Role.
- Have fun, and try to learn via experience. Also follow my and Soup's example.
P.S. Soup~ If I forgot something, please cover it. Thanks ~
Your bro - Ran
