I think it's very unlikely. It makes more sense to recruit on N1 given the number of strong townies in play (Dr. Riddler, Overswarm, Goomba, me/Ronike, Praxis, Soviet Coffee... it goes on and on). As I said scum stands to swing things in their favor a fair bit by ejecting two threats from the game on N1, one via kill and one via recruiting (which in turn turns a powerful townie back against their brethren!) Why not recruit?
Furthermore, it wouldn't only be bad scum play in THIS game, but I think it'd be bad scum play in general. Recruiting on N1 reduces the amount of backtracking or inconsistency that could be exposed, because no good players have 100% hard and fast reads on the game's cast on N1. As such reads and decisionmaking can change with minimal contradictory behavior to be highlighted. Recruiting on N2 onwards, on the other hand, could really change the ball game.
Lastly, the thing about Nix is dumb... because a oneshot kill makes him cease to be a town threat. The game would be over, now, because he'd basically be a survivor with a vig kill. 3 scum + recruit + indy is more likely but it's still less than optimal game balance in my opinion, especially if the indy has a kill. And like I said Nix ceases to be a threat in that scenario because he's used his kill.
To answer your question about recruiters, well, masons generally recruit at Night. Then they can talk with their mason brethren whenever they want after that point, if it goes through. Mentos seems to be using Epicmafia style Masons, as the Masoner would die if hitting scum -- however, it's noteworthy that in EM, a Mason targeting scum would result in the death of all masons. That probably wouldn't be good balance, but bears mention, and does reduce the "double cop" impact having a Masonry causes.
It's silly to wonder whether Gheb as a Mason could be recruited by mafia and maintain the masonry. I say this because, in the worst case scenario, Jungle could somehow recruit him on N2 before dying, but that would have him being recruited into both groups at the exact same time. And I still think it'd be ******* modding to let Jungle recruit someone the night I killed him, that punishes me and the town even though I made the best possible decision as a vigilante.
Also, one thing that bears mention is that Mentos said knowing the flavor = knowing the role. I did mention that Sovereign gradually wore down the free will of those he Indoctrinates. One bad guy in the game, Saren, starts out as a somewhat independent entity and ends up literally just a zombie vessel for Sovereign to control. It's a possibility that the Indoctrinator, having a different role name than Recruiter (and the only role as such that we know of), has slightly different mechanics. For example, Gheb is Indoctrinated on N1, but remains a townie on D2, then maybe becomes properly scum on D3. Then OS dies N3. It's an interesting possibility.
Or, perhaps I can meta Mentos a little bit. I mentioned that he was a Mason Leader in Spidey Mafia, and that masons would retain individual powers and abilities -- and how he lamented that he never got to put together a town A-Team, as he mismasoned on N1. However, he also knew that there was one mafia role in the game that could be masoned, but would retain his scum status.
Mentos thought that was a cool mechanic, and if I can think of any role that would fit, as such, it'd be a mafiat recruited from the town side. Remember the crumb I brought up where OS said that a bad guy wouldn't be much of a bad guy if he couldn't pretend to be your friend? Perhaps his role PM left him some reason to doubt his recruitings. He also says in that quote on D3 that he's currently okay with handholding Gheb, and that he'd follow him "until he does something dumb".
But there's also the lack of OS being tracked. Duncan isn't a ninja, or a samurai, or a spy, or an assassin. He's a warrior. There's no reason for the character to be untrackable, and frankly having one of the few scenarios where a tracking would be particularly useful simply not work for no reason at all is ******* modding as far as I'm concerned. Soviet tracked him the night Gheb claims to have been recruited, and got a No Visit. We can't just sweep this under the carpet.
There are too many loopholes in Gheb's claims to handwave. I felt fairly certain that Soviet was town, but that he needed to die to clear up the WIFOM and inconsistency. I felt it was fairly likely that he'd be a viable lynch toDay and that preempting this would not only close off and grant direction to a major lead, but have us also end up in the same approximate situation we would be on D6 with me still alive. And I felt positive that an endgame without me in it and with Gheb as scum, if that were the solution, would be a definite town loss.
So I shot Soviet Coffee, and he flipped JoaT, and he had no reason whatsoever to lie, and so we have a cavernous hole in what seemed like a solid clearing on first blush. This cavernous hole then lends to other bothersome things, like Mad Scummy's unwillingness to engage Goomba late D1 and the fact that Goomba was one of the biggest scum threats when D1 closed its doors.
Furthermore, it wouldn't only be bad scum play in THIS game, but I think it'd be bad scum play in general. Recruiting on N1 reduces the amount of backtracking or inconsistency that could be exposed, because no good players have 100% hard and fast reads on the game's cast on N1. As such reads and decisionmaking can change with minimal contradictory behavior to be highlighted. Recruiting on N2 onwards, on the other hand, could really change the ball game.
Lastly, the thing about Nix is dumb... because a oneshot kill makes him cease to be a town threat. The game would be over, now, because he'd basically be a survivor with a vig kill. 3 scum + recruit + indy is more likely but it's still less than optimal game balance in my opinion, especially if the indy has a kill. And like I said Nix ceases to be a threat in that scenario because he's used his kill.
To answer your question about recruiters, well, masons generally recruit at Night. Then they can talk with their mason brethren whenever they want after that point, if it goes through. Mentos seems to be using Epicmafia style Masons, as the Masoner would die if hitting scum -- however, it's noteworthy that in EM, a Mason targeting scum would result in the death of all masons. That probably wouldn't be good balance, but bears mention, and does reduce the "double cop" impact having a Masonry causes.
It's silly to wonder whether Gheb as a Mason could be recruited by mafia and maintain the masonry. I say this because, in the worst case scenario, Jungle could somehow recruit him on N2 before dying, but that would have him being recruited into both groups at the exact same time. And I still think it'd be ******* modding to let Jungle recruit someone the night I killed him, that punishes me and the town even though I made the best possible decision as a vigilante.
Also, one thing that bears mention is that Mentos said knowing the flavor = knowing the role. I did mention that Sovereign gradually wore down the free will of those he Indoctrinates. One bad guy in the game, Saren, starts out as a somewhat independent entity and ends up literally just a zombie vessel for Sovereign to control. It's a possibility that the Indoctrinator, having a different role name than Recruiter (and the only role as such that we know of), has slightly different mechanics. For example, Gheb is Indoctrinated on N1, but remains a townie on D2, then maybe becomes properly scum on D3. Then OS dies N3. It's an interesting possibility.
Or, perhaps I can meta Mentos a little bit. I mentioned that he was a Mason Leader in Spidey Mafia, and that masons would retain individual powers and abilities -- and how he lamented that he never got to put together a town A-Team, as he mismasoned on N1. However, he also knew that there was one mafia role in the game that could be masoned, but would retain his scum status.
Mentos thought that was a cool mechanic, and if I can think of any role that would fit, as such, it'd be a mafiat recruited from the town side. Remember the crumb I brought up where OS said that a bad guy wouldn't be much of a bad guy if he couldn't pretend to be your friend? Perhaps his role PM left him some reason to doubt his recruitings. He also says in that quote on D3 that he's currently okay with handholding Gheb, and that he'd follow him "until he does something dumb".
But there's also the lack of OS being tracked. Duncan isn't a ninja, or a samurai, or a spy, or an assassin. He's a warrior. There's no reason for the character to be untrackable, and frankly having one of the few scenarios where a tracking would be particularly useful simply not work for no reason at all is ******* modding as far as I'm concerned. Soviet tracked him the night Gheb claims to have been recruited, and got a No Visit. We can't just sweep this under the carpet.
There are too many loopholes in Gheb's claims to handwave. I felt fairly certain that Soviet was town, but that he needed to die to clear up the WIFOM and inconsistency. I felt it was fairly likely that he'd be a viable lynch toDay and that preempting this would not only close off and grant direction to a major lead, but have us also end up in the same approximate situation we would be on D6 with me still alive. And I felt positive that an endgame without me in it and with Gheb as scum, if that were the solution, would be a definite town loss.
So I shot Soviet Coffee, and he flipped JoaT, and he had no reason whatsoever to lie, and so we have a cavernous hole in what seemed like a solid clearing on first blush. This cavernous hole then lends to other bothersome things, like Mad Scummy's unwillingness to engage Goomba late D1 and the fact that Goomba was one of the biggest scum threats when D1 closed its doors.
