Don't edit your posts once the Day starts!
Some General Info:
[collapse=Acronyms] AFAIK: As Far As I Know
AtE: Appeal to Emotion
Coasting: The act of a player cruising through the game without providing much content, intentionally or unintentionally.
EBWOP: Edit By Way Of Post. Because actual editing of posts in mafia games is forbidden, the only way to "edit" a post which contains an error is to make another post containing the correction.
IC: Inexperience Challenged.
ISO: To read in Isolation.
IGMEOY: I've Got My Eye On You.
FoS: Finger of Suspicion. Used to indicate that you find someone suspicious but are not going to vote them, for whatever reason (often because you are voting for someone even more suspicious). Cf. HOS, the somewhat more dramatic Hand of Suspicion (very rare).
L-1: Lynch minus one, The second-to-last vote before a lynch is obtained.
L-#: Lynch - number, The number indicates how many votes a player needs to be lynched. Eg, in a 9 player game, a player with 3 votes on him is at L-2 (5-3).
Lurking: Purposefully viewing the thread without posting to observe the game without chiming it. Tactic often used by scum.
LYLO: Lynch-Or-Lose = A stage in the game where the town must lynch scum or they will lose the game
MYLO: Mislynch and Lose = A stage in the game where the town can no-lynch safely. However, should they mislynch instead, it is likely one of the town will die the next night, resulting in a scum victory.
NK: Night Kill.
OMGUS: Oh My God! You Suck!. Usually used in the context of an 'OMGUS vote' - i.e. a vote for someone purely on the basis that they are voting for you.
OP: Original Post
PM: Private Message.
PoE: Process of Elimination.
PR: Power Role.
QFT: Quoted for truth. Said after a quotation to express agreement/approval.
Quicktopic: The medium through which mafia buddies (scumbuddies) or masons can talk.
RVS: Random Voting Stage. Most Mafia games start with a phase wherein people vote for silly reasons, until someone slips up or makes a legitimate accusation.
Scum: Refers to
any anti-town faction. In this game will be used to refer to the mafia.
SE: Semi-experienced
SK: Serial Killer (won't be seeing any of them this game but still)
V/LA: Vacation/Limited Access thread, where players should post if they won't be checking MafiaScum.net for more than a few days.
VT: Vanilla Townie.
WIFOM: Wine in Front of Me.
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[collapse=Mafia Factions and Power Roles]Town: You should know what that is if its in your role PM
(and if you don't you're going down).
Mafia: the main anti-town faction in this game and it consists of X amount of players who know eachother's alignment (that being mafia) and may communicate with each other anytime outside of thread. They usually win when their numbers have numerical parity or majority over non-mafia factions.
Indies: players who are neither aligned with town or mafia and usually have the wincon (win condition) of being the last one standing. Because of this, indies are usually tough to win with and are usually given substantial PR (power role) buffs. They may also have a different type of wincon that involves them lynching a specific target or even hammering (casting the final lynch vote) themselves. The latter two are much less common and almost certainly won't be in the setup.
Cults: though generally discouraged from use, are masonesque factions that recruit a player into their ranks each Night. In some variations, when the cult leader dies, so does the entire cult. In others, the leader dying makes it unable for the cult to continue recruiting and the remaining survivor must fight to be the last ones standing.
Here is a mass index for many of the power roles that could be in use throughout your mafia career.
http://www.mafiascum.net/wiki/index....Category:Roles
The only factions that will be in this setup are mafia and town while the only power roles will be the ones in the OP (original post).[/collapse]
[collapse=General Advice](Note: using "@Player:" Is a good way to direct questions and make it clear who you are talking to)
Mafia is a game of subtleties and motives. No one is going to tell you they are mafia. However, people will choose certain actions and say certain things because they are town or because they are scum (note: the terms 'scum' and 'mafia' are generally interchangeable for all purposes in this game). It is town's job to find these motives and scum's job to appear to have the motivation of a townie.
Fundamentally, good scum play is inseparable from good town play. Think about this and what it means for your faction.
However, simple games reinforce the fundamentals that make mafia such a fun game, making for some of the best clashes of wits; there are few unknowns other than a players alignment. No where for town or scum to hide. A true test of mafia skill.
Mafia games usually begin with the RVS (random vote stage) where players vote other players with the purpose of building discussion, from which we can begin to scum hunt (the process of finding mafia). During RVS, it is standard practice to also ask "random" questions which serve the same purpose as votes: to generate meaningful discussion.
The name RVS is actually lie, because people do not do things randomly (by the definition of the word). They will almost always have a reason for what they do (even if it's as simple as 'I felt like it'). A more apt name would be the 'Joke Vote Stage.' But if you want to be technical, the JVS could be considered a substage of RVS.
tl;dr: RVS is a loosely defined term for the beginning of a mafia game, where there is no real or productive discussion related to scum hunting.
But remember, it's important sometimes to take things said in RVS with a grain of salt. The key to a successful start is player involvement.
Town's job during RVS is to promote discussion, in an attempt to:
1. learn other players alignments, and
2. demonstrate that they are both town and useful to town's cause.
There is no correct way to play as scum, and thus Mafia's job (especially) during RVS is to
1. appear to be town and
2. (more generally) manipulate lynches so that mafia win.
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1.) If you are a power-role, ie you are the Cop, the Doctor or similar, it is very important you keep your powers hidden, Do not out yourself unless you are one vote away from being lynched (this is known as L-1) and there are other players asking you to claim. The only other scenario to out yourself is if you are the Cop and have a guilty result on a player.
2.) Do not put the final vote on someone (known as the hammer, or hammering someone) unless they have roleclaimed, or you are confident they won't be able to post before the deadline hits. Even then remember that hammering ends the day so if there is discussion to be had, hold off from hammering
3.) Don't lie! townies lying can cause major problems so if you are town, don't lie.
4.) Don't vote for yourself, whatever your faction is, you gain nothing from it. This can sometimes be an advanced move for a scum faction but I don't think that will be utilized here.
5.) If you find yourself lost in the game, try asking questions that will give interesting information. Asking questions is good so long as you think you can gain useful information from it.
6.) In this game everyone will have a character, keep this information secret as sometimes revealing your character can lead to mafia figuring out your role.
7.) Try not to get too emotionally attached to the game, if someone accuses you of lying, don't take it to heart, just try to respond rationally[/collapse]
[collapse=Some Confusing Terms Explained]WIFOM:
http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=12466366&postcount=234
OMGUS: Voting a player purely on the conjecture that they voted you first while adding no additional reasoning. Frequent move in RVS but usually thought of as scummy when used beyond that.
Chainsaw (defense): Defending another player by attacking their attacker. This is thought of to be a scumtell between players because scum will not usually overtly defend their buddies in thread but they may covertly defend them, as in the example above.
Bus/Bussing: The act of a scum member voting another member of their scumteam to appear pro-town (and not connected with their scum mate) when that first member flips (when the mod announces the player's alignment).[/collapse]Also feel free to ask me a mechanics question at any time at the game and I will give you an unbiased answer, regardless of what I think of your alignment. The entire point of this game is to get you interested in mafia in the first place!
Sorry if you hate reading walls but if you read the above you should come into the game on your feet without much stall. There will inevitably be question but I hope the transition is smooth.
And most importantly, have fun!