blah blah my take on shit blah obligatory XDDD

[Killthestory]

My take on shit regarding mafia basically.

Play whatever works best for you. A playstyle should be a direct imitation of you in real life. Why should you have to all super tense and serious and shit and just pretend to be what you aren't? If your friends know you, they will have the easiest time townreading you. There's also the fact that there's nothing hindering you in playing to the best of your ability because you simply are just playing. There's no strategies on "should I bus?" "Should I defend?" Whatever you'd normally do, just do it and you'll be completely good my guys. Maybe you'll get lynched the first couple of games for being unnatural with how you play, but with time people will come to be able to easily see which alignment, you are, or so they think. It works in two different ways. If you're always playing a direct imitation of your self, no strategies or anything involved, then how the fuck is someone supposed to be able to read you? How can they read you if you're simply always acting the same, and the tone behind your posts is generally the same. The only way they can read you is based on correlations, but even then you can generally say you were just targeting who you scumread or you defended them because you thought they were town. There's absolutely no downplay to just playing by yourself in regards to playstyles. Trying to imitate someone's playstyle is just silly in general because your acting someone you're not. You're not typically extremely aggressive or pushy, so why act like that? It just hinders you.

Anyway, there's two categories of playstyles that all mafia players should fall under. "but wait kill didnt you just say that we should play how we typically act" yes, but there should be some limitations my dear lad. Tight Aggressive and Loose Aggressive. Notice there's no passive, or the infamous lurker. Let me explain why. Imagine you're in a quite literal mob who wants to linch some bitch my man. The aggressive players are the ones calling for their heads, demanding they be put on a pike or some shit like that. Now, imagine the one guy, standing off to the corner proclaiming, "uh... can w-w-we please lynch kill-desu, nya~." That is a passive player. A passive player does not push their agenda or give any definitive opinions on anything. They are quite literally the doormat in the game, able to be walked over quite easily. You are basically a deterrent to whatever alignment because you're quite literally not doing anything, even if you post a lot. However, I'm willing to say that I have seen few passive players who have behaved like this that have played very well due to being able to coincide it with their personality. It's far and few between tho. If you think it would really imitate you as a person, then go for it. Then, you have the lurker style. Lurker is not a playstyle, but I'll humor you anyway. Lurkers basically aren't playing the game. The game mafia can be played in real life, and typically there's no prods and shit because it's real life motherfucking shit my man. So if you have a guy whos not saying shit irl, you're either gonna get annoyed and stop playing, or you're gonna lynch the bastard. This is typically the lurker "playstyle" over the forums, too. Lurker is really not even a playstyle, more activity, but like I said, I'd humor you dudes out there anyway.

Anyway, let me, before I get ahead of myself, explain the significance of Tight Aggressive and Loose Aggressive. Loose Aggressive players are players that are basically going balls to the walls in their scumreading tactics. If you're not complying, you're the enemy. They push their town agenda heavily and attack whoever they scumread fiercely. For example. "B-B-Baka, let's lynch this player!" "MOTHERFUCKER THATS SCUMMY AS FUCK IM ABOUT TO LYNCH YO ASS MY MAN." "Wait, no s-s-senpai, I'm sorry, please forgive me." "OH NOW YOURE BUDDYING UP TO MY ASS YOU LITTLE BITCH ASS PANSY, THAT DESERVES THE FUCKING VOTE MY DEAREST LAD. /vote this dude who cant play fo shit my man." That is Loose Aggressive in a nutshell.

Tight Aggressive is a whole different ballgame. They're the players who are coldly calculated and show little to no emotion, but they scumhunt hard, too, they just don't push their agenda so hard, and they're typically better at seeing someone else's perspective. They plan out what they want to do, or maybe they just try to be versatile, and they ask questions and pick apart their opponents defenses or posts systematically. For example, "B-B-Baka, let's lynch this player!" "Lad, didn't you actually just want to lynch the other player. Wouldn't you consider that vastly opportunistic yourself considering the fact that that man just accused this player of being scum, of which you quickly jumped on. And if I pulled your ISO from Day 2, you jumped from 5 different wagons to finally hammer yesterday's lynch target which flipped VT." "Well, uh...... I'm town?!" "That's what they all say, lad /vote player who dont know how to play for shit."

Maybe you fit in the middle, that's completely fine. As long as you can identify yourself as one or the other, you're good my man. Anyway, I mentioned subcategories too that fall under this shit, like maybe you townhunt, or maybe you gambit a lot, or you could regularly scumhunt, idk. Here's my take on that. If you tools available to you that you could easily use to find scum, why not use it? Whatever you have at your disposal, make good use of it. There's never a reason to not use a tool that could potentially help you, it's like saying, "No, Mr. Baggins, I will not take this armor because even if I get attacked by some ogre dude, I have all these experienced adventurers who can save my ass." Spoilers for y'all, that fucking armor saved Frodo's life. The gist is to use whatever tools you have available to you.

Also, I'd like to note that there are all these fancy abbreviations and strategies, but they really mean nothing overall. Just play how you feel my man. Although I will say that if you're an advanced player, you can go against meta like completely buddying up to your mafia members because going against meta is actually extremely strong, as one player showed me. The dude nearly one a game in a forum as an NK that was ridiculously bad. It was pretty impressive, actually, and it was all because he didn't play like how scum should play, he went against meta and played how he felt like.

Scumreads my lads. One of the biggest concepts of mafia there is lads. In relation to above, if you know someone and they're typically a loose aggressive person, but you see them going all tight aggressive on yo ass, call them out for it. I don't give a shit about some of you who say meta is useless. Meta is a tool that can be manipulated like the rest of the tools at your disposal. If you typically think someone does not act this way, and they're purposely not trying to do this, you've found scum. If the tone of their posts doesn't seem like it is in town's interest or it's not related to anything they've ever said, you've probably found scum. Correlations are worthy to note, and they can possibly take down the entire mafia if you're good, but you have to know how to read them. Quite frankly, I'm not that good to know how to read a specific thing a player has done, so I won't say anything on the matter, but meh. Figure it out.

Also, I've noticed it's a thing to say, "that wagon formed too quickly," or something along those lines. If you feel someone's scum, doesn't matter what factors effect it, it should solely rely on the player unless you've got damning evidence otherwise. Sure, it's cool to keep an open perspective to gamestate, but it shouldn't affect your reads drastically. It'll make you doubt yourself, and your reads. It fucks you up, basically.

To end it off, I want to say that you should always keep an open perspective, as stated above. Try to imagine yourself in another person's shows and think, "Is this coming from a townie mindset or a scum mindset." If you can do this in any scenario, you are quite literally a god my friend.

Anyway, feel free to post your opinions. I'm not saying this to like force you guys to conform to my ways of playing, but in small bursts some other guys have told me this shit and it really did improve my play, like, a lot. If you disagree, that's fine and dandy, but try not to force others to believe your line of thinking over someone elses.

Credits to my bois Godln, Exacerbated, and Deleter. You guys won't know their asses, but they're amazing players nonetheless.

[Firebringer]

Great post 10/10

[Killthestory]

thanks lad

[Firebringer]

I find it interesting you find aggressive the only real style? Can't be soft?

[Killthestory]

I find it interesting you find aggressive the only real style? Can't be soft?

That's tight aggressive. The cold calculated player who still manages to push his agenda through more precise and softer posts.

[Ircher]

How bout my playstyle?

Tight Aggressive or Passive?

Meh, I think this would deserve a 6/10 though it prob. be worth putting on the wiki.

[Killthestory]

How bout my playstyle?

Tight Aggressive or Passive?

Meh, I think this would deserve a 6/10 though it prob. be worth putting on the wiki.

personally dont know you, might be worth asking a friend if you really wanted to know.

[callforjudgement]

I can be aggressive when I have a reason to.

I feel, however, that (as town) you shouldn't push someone hard unless you're sure they're actually scum (or for reactions, if you have a safe way to back out, which you often don't). So I'll often stay relatively passive throughout the start of the game, trying to push people into revealing more about their alignments by asking questions and demanding that they place votes. However, I try to stay honest about what my reads are and how strong they are; this makes it more likely to lynch scum in two different ways (more likely it's scum that I'm pushing, less likely I get mislynched). My playstyle as scum is, of course, trying to look like I'm doing the things I'd do as town.

Would you consider this, as a whole, to be aggressive play? It seems quite passive to me, but there's a reason behind it all. (And if you're aggressive without a good reason to be, this will typically cause me to scumread you.)

[Killthestory]

I can be aggressive when I have a reason to.

I feel, however, that (as town) you shouldn't push someone hard unless you're sure they're actually scum (or for reactions, if you have a safe way to back out, which you often don't). So I'll often stay relatively passive throughout the start of the game, trying to push people into revealing more about their alignments by asking questions and demanding that they place votes. However, I try to stay honest about what my reads are and how strong they are; this makes it more likely to lynch scum in two different ways (more likely it's scum that I'm pushing, less likely I get mislynched). My playstyle as scum is, of course, trying to look like I'm doing the things I'd do as town.

Would you consider this, as a whole, to be aggressive play? It seems quite passive to me, but there's a reason behind it all. (And if you're aggressive without a good reason to be, this will typically cause me to scumread you.)

People push hard to get reactions or just for pressure in general. They push someone to either solidify a scumread or to see if they're scumreads off. If they feel someone's truly scum, that's when they push. Hard.

Anyway, yes, I'd consider this aggressive. Tight Aggressive. I think you misinterpret my meaning of aggressive, however. Aggressive is pushing your agenda either softly or just cold and calculated. This is why aggressive is the only good playstyle. (Exceptions may be made) You're directly pushing your agenda and scumhunting by asking questions and making definitive reads that could possibly help town. If you're saying what you think at least half of the time, you're an aggressive player.

[Davsto]

Aggressive is pushing your agenda either softly or just cold and calculated.

I'd describe this as an "active" playstyle rather than aggressive.

Aggressive is more of that angry deathtunnelling for reactions, shouting a lot, etc. Active is taking an actual part in the game. Sure, all aggressive players are active, but I think you can be an active player without being described as aggressive.

[Killthestory]

Aggressive is pushing your agenda either softly or just cold and calculated.

I'd describe this as an "active" playstyle rather than aggressive.

Aggressive is more of that angry deathtunnelling for reactions, shouting a lot, etc. Active is taking an actual part in the game. Sure, all aggressive players are active, but I think you can be an active player without being described as aggressive.

You miss what I mean about aggressive. What I mean is that you're pushing your onions or agenda any way you can. Don't focus solely on the definition of what you know of, as that only fits loose aggressive. If there was a better word, I'd use it, but aggressive is the best way to describe constantly pushing your agenda.

[kuribo]

I agree that the best play style is an extension of your personality.

My style is pretty much all of the stuff I keep bottled up and then ramped up by 1000.

[Killthestory]

I agree that the best play style is an extension of your personality.

My style is pretty much all of the stuff I keep bottled up and then ramped up by 1000.

lol same

[kuribo]

There are different play styles within the aggressive subset though:

Town leader
Rage against the machine
The tunnel-digger
Etc

[Killthestory]

There are different play styles within the aggressive subset though:

Town leader
Rage against the machine
The tunnel-digger
Etc

idrc too much because i dont try to define playstyles

[Dwlee99]

As scum I interact w/ people and play how I normally do and get lynched page 7 :3

[Dwlee99]

Someone should hammer Dwlee.

this

Claim?

Intent first. >:3

I'm a DV, intent to hammer.

Seriously though, please git gud.

VOTE: Dwlee

Woah.

7 pages.

Funny if Dwlee is scum. Not so funny if he is town.

You called for a hammer!

Vote Count #1.6

Dwlee99 (7): TheCow, Madonna, Alchemist21, BlueBloodedToffee, Chumba, Zulfy, Albert B. Rampage

(LYNCH)

Nosferatu (1): Performer
TheCow (1): UpTooLate
Heat (1): Dwlee99
UpTooLate (1): Nosferatu

Not voting (2): Boonskiies, Heat

With 13 alive it takes 7 to lynch.

Dwlee99 has been lynched. He was a

Mafia Goon

.

-cries-

[Killthestory]

If normal you gets mislynched as town, then you shouldn't be surprised.

I also forgot to mention that mafia is based off how well you can socialize. Some people will never be good at mafia because of this. This means that if you try to the best of your ability and can't really do much regardless, you should look for a different hobby unless you're enjoying yourself even if you aren't the best at the game.

[Plotinus]

if you use mafia to practice getting better at socialisation, it results in a happier game state, even if you're a real life hermit who is not particularly good at socialising.

[Dwlee99]

I think mafia has improved my social skills, since I started playing I have actually made a lot of new friends in real life lol

[Plotinus]

That's cool. I think it's improved mine, too. Still a hermit, though.

I guess one social skill that's important to work on in mafia (and in the real world, too) is figuring out how you're coming across: when you write a post, you know what's going on in your head and why you're saying stuff but other people only see what you have written on the page. Also, figuring out what other people expect of you in different situations is a good life skill. Some mafia games are more serious and if you're goofing off, you'll clash with what people are expecting. Other mafia games are more goofy and if you come off super serious then people will start voting you for "trying too hard". It's important to consider your audience. I haven't read the game, but I know for example that BBT doesn't like fluff posting, so he's likely to vote people early on who aren't getting serious yet.

Figure out who the heavy hitters in the town are (in that case: BBT, ABR, maybe Alchemist too) and try to match their expectations (without buddying them though). A heavy hitter can singlehandedly lynch you even if it's takes 7 to lynch, and similarly, a heavy hitter can singlehandedly derail your wagon and turn the focus elsewhere; hopefully onto someone who isn't your buddy.

I noticed that in your pregame chat you didn't spend any time discussing who the threats in the town were and how to pacify them. Instead, you focused on trying to play to your town meta, without realising that nobody is as familiar with your town meta as you are, and people who are unfamiliar with it may find it scummy anyway. If someone /does/ notice that you're being more serious than normal (which probably would've helped in this game), you just say you're working on improving, or that you find that the more games you play the earlier things start pinging you, whatever. But they probably won't notice.

[Dwlee99]

Yea abr scares me :3

[Randomnamechange]

ABR has been lynched in every single game I've played with him. Just saying.

[Cerberus v666]

if you use mafia to practice getting better at socialisation, it results in a happier game state, even if you're a real life hermit who is not particularly good at socialising.

YES! 100% this. I'm a social butterflyish person. I mean, I like people, and people like me, and I talk a lot and stuff, but even as someone who started OUT extroverted, mafia is very very helpful in training yourself to mesh with a larger variety of people in a number of different situations.

Yea abr scares me :3

Just call him on his crap and move on.

[Killthestory]

Good shit.