Yo. I'm yabbaguy, the IC. With some help from kyle and Adrien, I'm sure, I'm here to teach you the game. I'm also here to win the game. Following is a list of points that I find most pertinent to a first game.
Read it and get the gist of these points, please. You could save a Townie's life (i.e. your life).
1- If you're vanilla, don't claim that fact. Perhaps it's believable, but the really disastrous consequences behind it is that the Mafia (who know you're Town) now have one less possible Town target who could be one of the powerroles (ie: Cop or Doctor), and that therefore gives them an advantage. The last thing we want is giving scum unnecessary clues. Necessary only comes when powerclaiming is the only way out of your lynch or we agree that partially or fully massclaiming is optimal.
2- No Lynch is a statistically bad idea right now, as agreed by many on this forum. The mistake made by quite a few newbies I've seen is that they fall into the thought of "so often a townie is lynched on D1- we'd better get some concrete information before we make a choice on who to lynch".
Recalling that a lynch is the ONLY way to actually kill the Mafia in this game, No Lynching actually loses us a mislynch. If we try every time, at least it takes 3 screw-ups before the Mafia win. However, if we No Lynch at this moment, the game could end in as few as 2 mislynches. Weakening the town's only weapon is RIDICULOUSLY bad. Now of course, No Lynch doesn't always do dastardly things, so later on, we may put serious consideration towards it. For now though, most would contest it's a bad idea.
3- Take stances, be honest, and be opinionated! The ultimate objective here is to see how people take stances and how they behave when certain situations arise (a claim, a massive wagon forming, whatever). Transparency is an incredible pro-town thing, and the more transparent you show yourself to be, the easier it will be to read you. Vanillas, you've got absolutely nothing to hide, so there's no excuse for lurking and being introverted about your opinions. Some members decide to take that approach, but it complicates the game that much further, and I believe it to be unnecessary.
In other words, don't be the one who just says "I don't know what to do, I'm not good at this game. What if I lynch scum?" and just sits in a corner feeling sorry for himself. That is ridiculously non-transparent. Also don't sit on the fence and say "erm, arm, hmm, he could be Mafia, but I'm not sure". Fencesitting is more a Mafioso's operating procedure. And even they should cut back on that.
4- Play to your win condition. Remember, you win EVEN IF YOU DIE. That therefore means you need to be consistently trying to get your antagonists eliminated. Scum outing scumbuddies can and has force-abandonned a game and probably will get you permabanned from the site. As Town, you're trying to vote for Mafia. Selfvoting and giving up is... well... anti-town, because you know for fact that the lynch is going to be on someone who's pro-town. That's not gonna win you the game.
5- Learn your arguing fallacies and avoid them as much as possible. Some common ones include:
WIFOM- a path of circular logic or one where reverse psychology can confound analysis of a statement.
Example: "Oh that guy got shot, and he was accusing X, so X is probably scum!"
"Nah, that's what the Mafia want you to think. It's clearly not him."
"But maybe the Mafia knew you were going to say that. It still could be."
...and this dialogue could theoretically carry on for decades. Avoid.
Appeal to Emotion (AtE)- For example, guilt-tripping players like "You'll be sorry to see me flip town when you get me lynched!" This usually implies a lack of inner resources to actually give an intelligent response as to why they shouldn't be lynched. Avoid.
I'd also like to point out that trying to argue while emotionally stressed, upset, or even ridiculously excited is sub-optimal. Clear, level-headed thoughts are ultimately what win out, especially since we play 3-week deadlines 'round these parts, so we all have time to think about it. Even if you are lynched, your statements don't die with you; we can always view them later. Keep your cool as much as possible.
6- Remember, we have THREE full weeks! If you're emigrating from another Mafia forum, that's going to be a shock to the system, but we like that as it gives us plenty of time to digest what everyone's saying, intelligently come up with who should be the lynch, and still resume with our normal lives. That said, rushing the Day and being eager to lynch someone within a couple of pages is not a good idea. I'm not going to state a precise minimum of how much time we should use as it really does vary depending on how active we are, but make sure that you have a good sense of most/all the players in the game before you make up your mind that it's time to lynch or even put them at L-1 (that is, 1 vote away from lynching, L-2 is 2 away, etc.)
7- Take all advice and player-provided information with a grain of salt. While having informants like me is great remember that we may be scum- or perhaps just plain wrong. Ultimately, you have to think for yourself, and while scum won't (and would be stupid to) lie all the time, you have to be consciously thinking as much as you can about why your 8 possible adversaries are saying the things they are. Perhaps it's a misconception, a mistake, or flat-out misdirection. And that's what you ultimately have to deduce for yourself.
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I could wish you good luck, but it's not the most important thing. Keep your eyes peeled for the liars, that's how we'll win, Town. Scum, I won't even suggest how you to play the game, that's for you two to decide. You know you need to appear like a scumhunter, not act informed, and not be the lynch, but beyond that, there's a multitude of ways you could approach this between the two of you.
It's game time. As much as I'd like to say we're all in this together, well, that would be a lie.
~yabbaguy