Townie false role-claiming

[mathcam]

Ditto MGM's last paragraph. Even if you believe in the policy "Lynch all liars", that doesn't necessarily imply "Never never never lie if you're pro-town." It just means that you should only lie if you think there's a tangible gain to doing so, and that the gain outweighs the negative of being caught lying (and subsequently lynched).

Another complicating factor is that even if you're pro-town, your goals as an individual may not coincide with the goals of the town, so the two following questions:

Is it ever to the town's advantage for a townie to claim to have a power/role that he doesn't?

Is it ever to a townie's advantage to claim to have a power/role that he doesn't?

have very different answers. Really, I think the second is a more poignant question...players should make their decisions based on

their

goals, not those of the town.

Cam

[mathcam]

*shrug* easy to make up scenarios though. But it's so rarely in the towns favor to lie that I say- Lynch all liars.
-JEEP

But I think that even if you take this stance, that doesn't necessarily imply that you shouldn't lie as town. Again, I think the distinction between the two stances is the difference between the two questions "Is it good for the town if a townie lies about his role?" and "Is it good for the townie if he/she lies about his role?" Your argument, and the generic "lynch all liars" stance, gives at least one viewpoint toward answering the first question.

As I mentioned above, however, I think the second question is more to the point, since it addresses what a player

should

do in a given situation (which is to play according to his/her own best interests), and gives a different answer. For example, it may be advantageous for a townie to lie to make himself more appealing to be recuited by a cult, say in a game where it looks likely that said cult will win. This is obviously an instance where the townie's best interests and the town's best interests do not coincide.

Cam