Motive indicators

[MeMe]

I think it's the responsibility of the players to do their best to win and sometimes the best tool at hand is role information. The whole job of the mafia is to blend in and try to look townish...so when you can trip them up with role PM lingo, refusing to use that seems a bit choosing a butter knife to do the job of a screwdriver...not to use all the information at hand is just inefficient, in my opinion. Of course, I'm all for the mod screwing with the players through the PMs and mixing things up so that this becomes an impossible tactic...

And "don't quote the mod" means not to put the mod PM in a quote box -- it doesn't mean not to tell everyone what the mod said to you or the gist thereof. The whole point of mafia is to find out what roles the mod gave to whom. If you can trip someone up with this information, cool.

[MeMe]

To me, what this comes down to, is game mechanics -- not game play. A good mod should realize that how his PMs are worded can be a factor in the game.

Sending out roles with identical wording makes for a potential mason group -- it could be a deliberate mechanic employed by the mod. On the other hand, mixing things up to prevent this or to confuse is also a valid game set up. In the end, I think that the mod has to look at the way he's written his roles and determine if the wording can potentially unbalance the game. The players should

always

use the information at hand to win the game -- but realize that role wording cannot always be counted upon (just like receiving an "innocent" result doesn't always mean "innocent").

[MeMe]

Outguessing the mod (no matter how painful/irritating for the mod -- and I speak from experience) is part of the game, though.

[MeMe]

That's an interesting idea, Fishbulb -- wonder how it will play out!

But I really don't like this whole discussion of what is/isn't proper play. The beauty of the mafia game is that everyone has a

different

style. For example, I personally don't go into ratios & odds as mith does. But would I say it goes against the spirit of the game just because I don't like it? No -- because it doesn't go against the spirit of

mith's

game play. If everyone followed strict guidelines about what can/cannot/should/should not be discussed, the game would lose much of its individuality and fun.

I think it's perfectly fine for mods to set up rules specific for a particular game -- but to declare "and this is the way that every game should be played/set-up to be truly good/efficient/what-have-you" is just ridiculous.

[MeMe]

gotcha