Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 2 – Evaluating the Strength of Evidence By Azrael
So, you’ve got a case on a player you think is scum. But how can you tell if you’ve got a rock-solid case, or a crumbling foundation?
There’s a good deal of misinformation floating around about the relative strength of scum tells. It’s certainly not a cut-and-dried field. However, there are a number of tells that seem to have proved their worth over the years, just as there’s a body of tells that have proven shaky at best, and baseless at worst.
For my own purposes, I use four classifications of scum tells to help me evaluate their strength. Universal tells, logic tells, possible tells, and emotional or attitude tells.
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Universal tells are the traditional slip-ups that have been identified over years of playing and study. They are activities where the most common explanation of the tell is that the player is scum, and there is a reliable, proven correlation between the behavior and mafia players. A short list of some of the more common examples could include:
-Malicious OMGUS attacks in response to pressure.
-Overaggression in voting patterns.
-Atypical patterns of participation, such as posting only enough to avoid scrutiny, or avoiding certain critical discussions within the town and commenting only on tangential issues.
-Waffling and taking both sides of an issue.
-Lying.
-Poor, unpersuasive, or faked vote rationales.
-Unusual timing of a claim, or role information.
Oftentimes, these tells can be difficult to spot if you’re not paying close attention to a player’s exact wording.
For example, consider this post, ripped from Chapter One:
I didn't like your vote because I felt it was too early and was disrupting speculation on the actual game mechanics, which is something I want to know. You do seem town to me though.
The last sentence of the post is a clear example of scum-like waffling, taking both sides of an issue. But does that mean that anyone who waffles or examines an issue from two different sides has committed a scum tell? Absolutely not. So how do we tell the difference?
I would suggest that we ought to expand on the causal analysis techniques described in chapter one. What is the cause of this player’s waffling? Is it because it’s a really tough call and the evidence is conflicting? Or is it because the player is mafia, and can’t decide what a townie would actually think? If we can guess the true cause, we can guess the alignment.
With most of the universal tells, it’s easy to see how a scum mindset can be the cause of these behaviors. For example, scum players often fake their vote rationales because they’re inventing them on the spot rather than arriving at them through careful consideration. Through paying close attention to their wording, you should be able to gain a better idea whether players are manufacturing a flimsy justification, or stating what they truly believe.
But be careful. Just because a player commits an action that is considered a universal tell, don’t assume that the scum rationale is the cause. Consider also the possible pro-town causes of the player’s actions. Oftentimes, the pro-town rationales for committing a universal tell can be equally strong or more strong than the scum rationales. In those situations, the behavior you’re looking at should not be counted against them.
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Logic tells are errors of argumentation, such as evasion, misrepresentation, OMGUS, and ad hominem. While equally well known to most players as the universal tells, many of us fail to distinguish between the two. Most often, we make the mistake of equating logic tells with universal tells. Sadly, this is not the case, and this failure to acknowledge the differences between the two has led to countless mislynches over the years.
The reason this occurs is that logic tells are frequently caused not by alignment, but by idiosyncrasies of the player. For instance, ManbearPig in one of the examples from Chapter one refused to respond to further attacks after answering them several times, what many players would call a clear-cut evasion tell. But the reason behind the “tell” was that he felt that he had replied to them sufficiently and at length already. While a scum might feel similarly, the existence of a very reasonable townie rationale weakens the argument that his refusual to respond indicated a scum alignment.
It is critically important that townies recognize that the negative effect of an activity, such as ad hom or misrepresentation, is not the best indicator of whether it is a genuine scum tell. The best indicator of whether a tell is genuine is if there is not a more reasonable and more likely townie explanation for the action. For instance, MBP was an inexperienced player, and he was signaling frustration with the debate throughout his posts. Many players ignored these subtle signs and instead assumed that the reason for his evasion was that he was attempting to hide from exposure. However, there was no concrete reason to believe that he was trying to hide as opposed to simply being inexperienced and frustrated. The context of the activity actually supported the townie rationale most strongly.
Part of the problem with logic tells is their tendency to provoke emotions. When tensions are running high, it becomes easier to begin to see your opponent as an enemy. This, unfortunately, often leads townies to take shortcuts in their arguments. Then, one side may begin to suspect that their opponent isn’t arguing in good faith (and perhaps they are not), at which point they begin to assume that the logic tells are evidence of their opponent’s guilt.
While ad hominem, evasion, and straw-manning are frustrating to encounter, they usually have little or nothing to do with player’s alignment. They can sometimes be indicative of a scum mentality, because there is a weak correlation between sloppy play and scum alignment. But more often than not you will find the weaker, less seasoned members of the town committing these types of activities regardless of their alignment. When these types of tells occur, it is critically important to read between the lines dispassionately. Is the misrepresentation intentional? Is the evasion a function of time, or frustration, or stubbornness, or is it out of fear? Is the ad hom a calculated device, or just pure emotion?
Logic tells should be used to support cases only in rare and exceptional circumstances. They will mislead you more often than they will help you.
=================================== The next category, possible tells, differs in one significant way from universal tells. Similarly to logic tells, they rely on assumptions. If such and such is the case, then that player may be committing some universal tell, such as defending a scum buddy for poor reasons. There is an additional logical step involved in believing that it is a true scum tell: we must believe in condition X, in order to think that Y is a scum tell. These assumptions more often than not prove to be false rather than true.
For instance, in the game with Pale Mage, a number of players involved with his lynch pointed to the difference between one of his short, acerbic replies and a longer, more nuanced explanation he offered later, as a sign of his being coached by his fellow mafia players. IF their assumption that he was coached was true, then it would be a scum tell. But if their assumption was false, or ungrounded, then it would be not be a tell at all. Once again, it is absolutely critical that the basis for the assumption is carefully examined. The change in his posting style could easily have come from any other number of variables, and in time that proved to be the case. But because they made that paranoid assumption, something that should never have been considered a scum tell to begin with was used to create a senseless mislynch.
As a general rule, conspiracy theories and complicated alleged gambits rarely turn out to be true. In most cases, what the activity seems to be on its face is exactly what it is in truth. Paranoia is one of the gravest and most common dangers to the town keeping its judgment objective and insightful. Instead, players should concentrate on what is most likely to be true, and not on far-fetched worst case scenarios.
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Emotional, Mindset, or Attitude Tells
Unlike the other tells, mindset tells aren’t based on a player’s conduct, but on the more intangible behavioral traits lying behind their posts. Despite being more subjective, they can often be quite useful in determining their alignment, because players tend to exercise less control over them. Just as certain universal tells are usually caused by a scum mindset, the emotions and attitudes players show during the game can be very useful clues to their alignment.A typical townie mindset could be described as inquisitive, pro-active, confident and decisive, self-righteous under pressure, and unafraid. Some of the more typical scum fallacies are self-consciousness, contemptuous dismissal of others’ arguments, posting just enough to avoid notice, deceit, manipulation, being prone to faulty logic, showing more concern over plans and irrelevant debates than with finding scum, a tendency to use uncertain language in connection with lynch targets so as not be proved wrong later, a tendency to attack weaker or more inexperienced players, and being nervous or overbold in presenting their role-claim.
Just as with universal tells, however, it is important to consider the context that an emotion or attitude is in. Take Manbearpig’s refusal to continue an argument, for example. While refusing to continue an argument is an extremely anti-town attitude, he had a fairly decent explanation for it. To sum up, mindset tells and universal tells are the type of evidence you most often want to ground your cases on. They still need to be evaluated to make sure that they’re legitimate given the context, but if you can fit those facts and subtle clues into a clear and reasonable picture of what was going on in your suspect’s mind as scum, and show that the townie picture makes no sense, then you have the hallmarks of a very promising case.
Conclusion
1. Universal tells can be strong evidence of guilt. However, it is vitally important to examine the context to see if a reasonable, pro-town rationale exists.
2. Logic tells and possible tells are unreliable and should be used only with extreme caution.
3. Analyzing a player’s emotions and attitude for scum or town patterns can be a good indicator of their alignment.
Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 1 – Causal Analysis By Azrael
Quote from Nai »
This is mafia. The entire point of the game is semantics.
How do we get better at playing mafia? At the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: honing our behavioral edge. Role analysis and design speculation only get us so far, especially when the moderator designs his game well. Of course, behavioral analysis can be very difficult. Not only do you have to directly compete against another human being who is trying very hard not be discovered, but we also have to be able sift through the false leads created by our own teammates. We have to be able to distinguish between good evidence, and red herrings.
The Scum Tell Method: Actus Reus
But there is a common tendency among players not to approach the problem this way. Most players track of a list of behaviors that people generally say are mafia tells. Evasion, appeals to emotion, defending scum, snacking on babies, and so on. Most players refer to these activities as scum tells. The more scum tells a person has, the higher they are on your scum scale, and the higher the chance that they’re scum. If a player has a higher level of scum tells than you would expect them to have as a townie, they’re put on the short list for your vote. If they max out their scale high enough, the town eliminates them.
In criminal law terminology, they concentrate on the "actus reus". The actions of their fellow players, and whether those actions help or hurt the town, and whether those actions look like one of the traditional mafia tells. The mens rea element (mental state) is deemphasized.
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the scum tell method. It does a fair job of catching inexperienced players who haven’t learned that they need to avoid traditional scum tells at all costs, and can sometimes nab experienced players who slip up and commit one in a moment of weakness. It’s also a good introductory method for newer players, because it teaches beginners to what to look for, and it is very, very simple. You read through the thread, identify behaviors that might be scummy, and cast your vote accordingly. 1,2, 3.
But as times goes on, the weaknesses of this approach have become obvious. For one, may of the activities that were labelled as tells early in the game’s history may not actually be tells at all, or at minimum may be not be anywhere near as strong as we used to believe. Two, this approach is extremely predictable. It gives scum a clear and simple instruction manual of what behaviors to avoid if they don’t want to be lynched. It allows them to hide a guilty mind behind innocent-seeming actions.
But the greatest downside to the scum tell method is that if you choose not to evaluate whether your evidence is reliable, if often won't be. Town players can easily max out a scum scale with activities that have completely innocent and reasonable townie explanations. When that happens, innocent townies become collateral damage, and the scum reap the benefits of pointless and preventable mistakes.
Causation Analysis
The scum tell scale method may be a good technique for beginners, but other methods of analyzing behavior exist. As players become more experienced, they often begin to realize that the game of mafia is more complex than crime and punishment. There is a component of empathy.
Huh? Empathy? What do you mean by that? Are we supposed to feel sorry for the scum?
What I mean by empathy is that we have to be able to step inside the heads of our fellow players. What a player does in public is only one half of the picture. The other half, the more revealing half, is their motive for doing it. We want to figure out the cause of their actions, and their emotions.
But how do we figure that out? None of us are telepathic.
Fortunately, we don’t need to literally step inside anyone’s brain to figure out what they’re thinking. We have their words. Whenever a player writes a post, we can sift through their words and find the unspoken ideas and attitudes that lie behind them. Scum players are increasingly adept at knowing what actions they need to mimic to avoid being caught. But few or none are well-practiced at disguising their thoughts as well as their actions. Here, they’re at their most vulnerable.
In the U.S. criminal system, the courts require not only proof of the actus reus, the criminal act, but also require evidence that the act was taken with the requisite mens rea, a guilty mind. That inquiry is even more useful for mafia, since the town is interested in "bad" actions only when they indicate a guilty mind.
The Anatomy of a Post
1. The effect of the post (likely to help the town, or to hurt it).
2. The motivation for the statement (scum, or townie, true or deceptive, public knowledge or private insight?).
3. The player’s emotions/mood (For example, annoyance at being thrust into the spotlight, or confident that they’re right?).
The effect of a post is the type of analysis that you’ll usually find actus reus analysts concentrating on. If a post is designed to lead to a “bad effect”, it is labelled as a tell. While there is some value to that assumption, you should not conclude that because a post has a bad effect, it must be a scum tell. Likewise, a pro-town post may not be a town tell.
Why not? Motivation. Is there a good reason why a townie would say that Mary is scum? How strong is that reason? Does Johnny Scumsucker's wording sound like his massive PBPAs are more focused on impressing the town, than on serious analysis? We want to ask whether the motivation (if any is provided) reads like a lie. If it is unconvincing, feigned, or dishonest, you have good evidence of scum. If it's plausible, genuine, and natural, you are probably dealing with a townie.
Lastly, it’s important to consider the player’s emotions or mood. If they’re under attack, how are they dealing with it? With righteous anger, or are they nervous, or bitter? Townies and scum players react to pressure in very different ways, and with experience it becomes possible to identify some of the trends. We’ll have more on that in Chapter Two.
Real Life Application
Now let’s view some actual posts from mafia games. Some will be posts that were used to build a case that a person was town, and others were used to identify a player as scum. See if you can use the same information to figure out their true alignment. The right answer, and the reasoning used to arrive at it, is spoilered. Read carefully.
Quote from V »
I really don't see how all of those are scum tells. Ypu say I have two townie posts out of thirty. Looking through your PBPA, I see a good deal more from my point of view. The basis of you and Raf's attack against me is the fact that I missed CP's mistake the first time through. Does this really matter? When I was rereading, after asked to, I spotted it. Mainly because, I was actually looking for a mistake. The first time I saw it, it seemed to me like simply him making a guess about what could happen. When people started to refer to the slip, I could not remember what it was (because at that time I hadn't seen it) and so did not comment on it. I don't really see any strong points in your argument that I haven't already answered, other that the one addressed above.
Quote from suspect »
I really don't see how all of those are scum tells. Ypu say I have two townie posts out of thirty. Looking through your PBPA, I see a good deal more from my point of view.
The last sentence of this quote is excellent evidence of a genuine disagreement. The player was confident that the analysis against him was slanted, and seemed to have a number of posts in mind where he knew that he was thinking from a pro-town mindset.
Quote from suspect »
The basis of you and Raf's attack against me is the fact that I missed CP's mistake the first time through. Does this really matter? When I was rereading, after asked to, I spotted it. Mainly because, I was actually looking for a mistake. The first time I saw it, it seemed to me like simply him making a guess about what could happen. When people started to refer to the slip, I could not remember what it was (because at that time I hadn't seen it) and so did not comment on it.
.Note the player’s emotions here. Despite being on the inexperienced side, he’s not nervous. His explanation is calm and assured. He denies that the alleged tell is really a tell, explains step by step his actual thought process at the time (he didn’t read the ‘slip’ as a slip, but as a guess), essentially pointing out that there is not a strong reason to believe that not knowing what the “slip” was somehow a tell showing scum-like laziness.
Quote from suspect »
I don't really see any strong points in your argument that I haven't already answered, other that the one addressed above.
Quote from Analysis »
Again, it's a true statement, and it's precisely what I would expect him to say as a townie. He's not skittish in the slightest, he's fully confident that his position is right, and he thinks your case is weak without resorting to calling it garbage.
This poster, Manbearpig, is town.
Quote from W »
@iLord: So do you think it's possible that if, for example, red flag was captured, that blue mafia AND blue town could win together?
Quote from W »
I didn't like your vote because I felt it was too early and was disrupting speculation on the actual game mechanics, which is something I want to know. You do seem town to me though.
Quote from W »
This bandwagon so far consists of "Meh I'm going with Azrael" CP, "Zomg better target than me" MBP, and "Of Course We Win" Azrael, and nothing of worth has been presented against me at all.
Quote from W »
At the beginning I felt that our win con was indeed ambiguous. When CP said "What if there were no scum?" (paraphrasing) I interpreted it as saying that the possibility was for opposing teams to be 'scum' to each other, which seemed plausible to me, especially as we don't know what the flags are. And I also wanted to listen to more speculation and discussion on it. I did, however, feel that the fact that CP specifically said that there were no scum was a bad communicative stumble, as our town win condition of course does specifically mention scum.
Quote from Analysis of first post »
Floating the idea of the town and the mafia cooperating in order to win. Without any worries or qualifications. Unusual suggestion for a townie.
Quote from Analysis of second post »
The problem with this post isn't that you have an inkling that he's townie, it's that you choose this moment to SAY so. This would be a moment where most people would be having doubts. This would be a moment where most townies would be cautious.
But you take the time to tack that comment on the end. Why? To defuse potential conflict. You don't want a fight.
Quote from Analysis of third post »
Going negative to discount the attack against him, signaling disdain, contempt.
Quote from Analysis of fourth post »
Our town win condition. Of course! Specifically.
The poster, JodoYodo, is scum.
Quote from X »
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
What was I gonna do there, Yoss? Leave a cliffhanger and come back Day Two hoping I hadn't been lynched?
Quote from Analyis »
Good sense of indignation, pointing out the error of reasoning without stooping to going negative. That's the prototypical townie response to mistaken pressure.
The poster, Pale Mage, is town.
Quote from Y »
I really don't like this comment. You're obviously familiar with mafia - at the very least you've done a fair bit of reading, and you usually make sense. So when you play the noob card to try and excuse something, it trips an alarm. I guess this is an example of how learning about something is not the same as doing it - now I just need to figure out what exactly you just tipped us off to.
Quote from Y »
A lot of what I tagged on read-through as wanting to comment on was re: Pale Mage, so I'm just going to consolidate that into this post. I unvoted PM because I thought his claim provided a convincing enough reason to not kill him immediately. As I said at the time, I wanted there to be additional pressure on the Anons to log in. So, I went to my backup scum.
On thinking about this more overnight, though, I came up with a couple problems with this. The big one is that, if Pale Mage is really scum, I don't want him to have the chance to do a second daykill - one during twilight and then a second tomorrow. That would be an insanely large cocking, and more than overwhelms any advantage we might get from keeping him around. With the added scummy behaviour that he was engaging in earlier, I'm going to go back to a DIAF: Pale Mage. Tomorrow is soon enough to deal with muse.
Quote from Analyis of first post »
Scum rhetoric of "tripping alarms", playing the "newb card", the type of language they often use to push home a lynch on a vulnerable-seeming player. And the final sentence: he's not thinking through his analysis the way he would in MoC, he's not probing and asking questions, he's going to "figure out" what his gut is tipping him off to. He's going to invent a rationale, figure out the reasons for his suspicions after the fact.
Quote from Analyis of second post »
Exhibit A: if Pale Mage is "really scum". Why is that word "really" there? You've been fairly confident on him, you culminate this post in a vote that pushes him close to lynch. Why the hesitancy, the skepticism signaled by the word "really"?
Average townie is going to bypass that and say "if Pale is scum", no frills. No "really", no skepticism, involved. A scum, however, knows that Pale is truly townie, or at least not fellow mafia. And people don't like being made to look stupid. To avoid looking stupid, you're going to throw in a "really" there as mafia, to qualify that statement.
And then there's the analysis of the sentence itself, which is complete crap. If Pale is scum, he gets to kill townies twice, once today, and once tomorrow.
You weren't thinking that through in a townie mindset when you wrote that. First off, you'd be weighing the chances of Pale even surviving today at all, if you were as suspicious of him as you've been signaling while building up to your vote (which took a good long time to arrive). And if he did survive today as scum, why would you as a townie suspect that he was going to waste that grace period by blasting some anonymous townie into oblivion and revealing himself to the thread? And if he did, that'd still be a two for one trade for the town, an easy scum in the bag for us.
That would be an "insanely large cocking": you're making sure the town recognizes the danger of the completely ludicrous hypothetical scenario you just proposed, trying to get us to buy into that theory and punch home the lynch out of paranoia.
And, it "outweighs the possible advantages of keeping him around". ********. If he's town, a mislynch is the last thing we want. We don't play this by analyzing his worth as a role, we play this game by analyzing the likelihood that he's scum, something that you completely avoid assessing in this post despite the fact that it culminates in a vote! (Again, probably not wanting to look like an idiot tomorrow) Completely backwards thought process here.
And then you throw in that point about Muse. Muse? Seriously? I'm going to take it at face value that you didn't know she was about to die, but Muse was one of the sillier targets you could have chosen. Why try to preview a lynch on Muse going into tomorrow? She's not been tremendously bad this game, but she IS always a vulnerable target.
Scum have a tendency to try to set out agendas in advance for the town, plans that will tend to avoid hitting themselves and their buddies. This smells of that.
You are so totally scum this game.
The player, Robroy, is scum.
Quote from Z »
So now, when you lynch me and I come up town, you can make yourself look better by refering back to this argument on how your actions don't make any sense as scum. Not bad. A little too WIFOM for my taste, but a good effort.
Yeah, about that, I'm pretty sure I was suspicious of you first. I FOSed you for your odd handling of the ande case, and then you counterattacked me and in a fairly suspicious way. So, yes, your second suspicious attack has made me even more suspicious of you.
So, you're saying that I was trying to get people to perceive me as town... by doing something that is unthinkable as town? That doesn't make any sense. Now, if only we had an explanation that made sense... I know! How about the truth? -I tend to ask people questions when I see unusual activity; Net's random assignment of townie points looked odd, therefore, I questioned him on it (my main thoughts being that he might be scum and I had said something in that post which helped him).
-BTW, I'm done defending this case.
Quote from Analysis »
The emotion, the frustration and self-righteousness, is genuine.
There is no scum motivator for the self-righteousness.
He's not doing the town any favors by his hostility and refusal to reply further, but I think the motivations for those are simply a gut-reaction to being attacked.
The player, TheFooFish, is town.
Quote from Final example »
YuanTi is more puzzling. There was the suggestion of waiting a day to lynch Annorax, which would have given the town a greater chance to mislynch. There was also his attempt to clear LG, early on. Definitely not as suspicious as either AoK or Kraj, but if we go through both those players without finding scum it's probably him rather than Nai or Lotus.
Quote from Nai »
Read this through for a moment, especially that last sentence. "But if we go through both those players without finding scum it's probably him rather than Nai or Lotus." I'm going to break down this sentence to make sure everyone gets the gravity of this.
"But if we go through both those players" This doesn't imply anything. It outright says that it is Azrael's opinion that we should lynch either Kraj or AoK, then, failing that, lynch the other one. He's already stated, in this phrase, that he intends to take one of them out, then the other. Town should never make a plan like this. Reactions to various things, new developments, and all the rest change opinions. No one would do this unless they had information no one else has. Speaking of that, I'll be talking of said information later on in this post.
"without finding scum" Another great phrase. This is another one of those lovely statements that someone can make to sound town. Notice, this statement also includes night actions (like night kills and cops) without completely saying it. He also doesn't say 'without killing scum' or 'without lynching scum'. Those would imply that the lynches of AoK or Kraj would show they're scum upon their deaths. But 'without finding scum' implies that we could reveal scum anywhere, Kraj and AoK are just the stepping stones to pulling that off.
"it's probably him" Almost done, folks, but this is a doozie. Let's look at the game right now. Kraj, AoK, Lotus, YuanTi, Azrael, me (Nai). Count em up. 6 people alive right now. One is scum (since 3 starting scum is broken in this game). That's a 5:1 ratio, as I said earlier this game day. Now, after two days and nights, past killing Kraj and AoK, 4 people will have died. That is, unless the doc, if we have one, gets lucky. That ends us with a 1:1 ratio. For those that don't remember Mafia rules, a 1:1 ratio means town loses. This is something I don't believe Azrael would miss. It's an innocent little statement unless you recall the numbers. More than that, though, Azrael ignores YuanTi in his sentence. He names the rest of us, but YuanTi isn't included. I wonder why.
"rather than Nai or Lotus." Now, this is where things are really interesting. The 'rather' in this sentence implies that Lotus and I are actually valid options at this point, even if it wasn't game over at this point anyways. If he left off the part about us, there would have been a little more innocence here. This isn't the case. We're options at this point, even though he calls at least me townie right now.
The player, Azrael, is scum.
In each of the above games, all three of the innocent townies were forced to claim under the scum tell method, despite the causation evidence in their favor. One was also mislynched.
As for the scum, all of the mafia players had previously been flying beneath the radar, undetected by the scum tell method. After being exposed by causal analysis, each was lynched, except for one lucky player who escaped only because the town doubted the strength of its causation analysis and instead relied on claim analysis.
The hard lesson of these experiences is that causal analysis can catch critical details that often slip through the cracks under the scum tell method. Because it refuses to oversimplify the challenges of pegging alignment, causal analysis gives town players a higher degree of accuracy, and having just a few players who apply it can spell the difference between a losing and a winning town.
Summary
1. The best way to tell scum from town is to step inside their mindset. 2. Mafia posts have three areas that are useful to analzye. Effect, motivation, and emotion. 3. While effect can be important, motivation and emotion are the most revealing. 4. When analyzing motivation, consider the competing strengths of the town and mafia explanations for their posting, and whether the player’s defense is artificial and feigned, or seems genuine. 5. When analyzing emotion, consider whether the emotions and attitudes you see are more likely to arise from a scum or a townie mindset. 6. Your overall goal is to figure out the true causes lying behind a player’s words and actions. If you can figure out the cause, you can figure out their alignment.
The Pinocchio Problem: When Should a Townie Lie?
By Azrael
Once upon a time, the world of mafia believed implicitly in a golden rule: lynch all liars (LAL). But as time rolled on, rogue analysts and daredevils demonstrated decisively that LAL should not be considered an immutable law. Deceit and cunning are not only the province of the mafia, but sometimes of the town.
But with the knowledge that exceptions to LAL exist, came a troubling question: when should townies lie? And when shouldn’t they?
Examples of townie lies sending the town’s plans awry are increasingly common, and all too often have ended in cataclysmic failure. There have been fake daykills that risked forcing players into claiming unilaterally, false mason claims that cost the town the game, players who false-claimed immunity to NKs only to be vigged, townies who false-claimed investigations in order to get someone lynched, and townies who tweaked their role claims in order to make them more convincing, only to be caught out in the end and lynched for their deceit.
By contrast, the category of townie lies that have ended in success is more difficult to recall, and seldom have as high a payoff.
Gambits that elicit reactions from other players have been one of the most effective variety…so long as they are contrived carefully enough that you won’t end up being speared at the point of a lynch (see World Dom 2). More often than not, that is precisely what will happen when the town discovers a lie or gambit, and that is precisely as it should be, in general. As a result, it is absolutely necessary that townies consider the consequences of their lie: if it could lead to a player being false-cleared or mislynched it is probably a much better idea to keep things simple and honest.
The best and safest rule is that a townie should only lie or gambit when there is absolutely nothing to be lost by doing so.
When might that be the case?
Such cases will be rare and far between: and typically they will involve lies or gambit from players who can prove their town alignment, and thereby guarantee that they won’t be lynched. In most cases, a successful townie lie isn’t a bald-faced lie, but simply a gambit that relies on some degree of deceit, on not everything being as simple as it seems. Sometimes, an analyst might feign an activity that will lead players to attack them on a poor, faulty basis. If they have a method of proving that the attacks were baseless, or of proving their alignment definitively, there is a good chance that the town will acquire some useful information.
For instance, in Cartoon Mafia, a mini-game by Aurorasparrow, Cropcircles faked a daykill directed at me; a risky gambit that could easily have backfired. Unbeknownst to him, I was in fact a real townie daykiller, and he had put me in the dilemma of whether I should in fact fire my own retaliatory daykill back at him before being daykilled. At the time, I was unsure of whether Cropcircles’ kill was legitimate, but he was also one of the town’s prime suspects. I was torn: to kill, or not to kill?
Instead, I opted to feign a daykill of my own at Cropcircles in retaliation. The gambit had several advantages. It did not misrepresent my actual abilities, it could provoke additional reactions, and it had the chance of exposing whether Cropcircles’ kill was real or not before the mod arrived. If I was dead because of Cropcircles’ ability, the gambit would do no harm and the town would learn that I was the town’s true daykiller, not Cropcircles, and lynch him. Or, if it exposed his gambit, the town would gain information on one of its prime suspects and on other players through their reactions. The risk in that case was minimal, but it offered a chance of nabbing scum.
Another example of a pro-town gambit with minimal risk, a fictional situation rather than an anecdote from an actual game, involves a cop-cleared night communicator role who has the ability to allow two other players (not including himself) to talk during the night for the remainder of the game. In this scenario, the town’s cop has come out and confirmed the alignment of the night communicator, a vanilla townie, and the mafia RBer, who is due to be lynched at the end of the day. But the town’s doctor is dead, and the cop is unlikely to see the light of day again.
With just one or two more successful investigations, the town might be able to clear some of its prime suspects and steal a win from the jaws of defeat. But the cop is very likely to die before she can share any more results.
The night communicator is unclaimed. He decides that his best move will be to target the cop and the vanilla townie the following night, and allow the vanilla townie to learn the cop’s investigation results before the cop is killed.
But in addition to that move, the communicator has another option. He can false-claim the ability to “counteract” the impending kill on the cop in the coming night. Because he is cop-cleared, this gambit is very unlikely to result in his lynch. It is also a wonderful half-truth, because by giving the cop’s night result to the vanilla townie, he has “counteracted” the power of the kill to prevent the investigation from going through. If he makes this statement convincingly, he may succeed in attracting the mafia’s fire the following night, giving the cop the opportunity to share two more investigation results with the vanilla townie before dying. At worst, the mafia disbelieve him and fire at the cop anyways. At best, the town gets an extra investigation.
Most of the time, opportunities like those above will be rare, the exceptions to the rule, and require creativity and careful thought to fine-tune. In the vast majority of cases, townies should never lie, and use gambits only sparingly. LAL is not an immutable law, but it is a very useful tool, and it is undermined when players attempt to abuse the new-found leniency in its application.
At the end of the day, townies ought to be able to trust their fellow townies. Whenever you come up with a gambit, always make sure that whatever course you are contemplating does not risk destroying that trust, or turning it against the town. When in doubt, play it safe. Discretion is often the better part of valor, and boys with long noses are very prone to find their necks within the noose.
Meta-Meta
By Xyre I know what you're inevitably thinking... what's an admittedly bad player of the game doing discussing the game? That's a damn good question.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not good at mafia, and my record speaks for itself. However, I do have a few thoughts about the theory of the game as a whole that I feel could be useful for consideration. Specifically, about the philosophy of metagaming in mafia.
For reference: the way I see it, there are two major ways of playing the game - playing off players, and playing off the setup. The former is the tried-and-true method of gameplay - analyzing tells, making judgments, predicting players' moves and reading them. This is, of course, harder than the latter, which is playing off the setup, which effectively treats the players as merely a means to determine who claims first. Now, of course, there are those of you in the audience - yes, I see you, you may put your hands down - who will argue plainly, "well, isn't that the nature of mafia? Like some brilliant, complex, dynamic puzzle?"
Yes and no. I will admit, first, that every game of mafia ever (with the exception of vanilla games, but then again, they're the exception to everything) has boiled down to a claim comparison. This varies, of course: see the mass claims on Day 1, against the games where the claims only come out when the town is desperate. Which brings us to a tangent: how good is metagaming the setup, from a strategic perspective? To be perfectly honest, I don't know, and the statistics of such an issue are probably impossible to conceive of or measure, if by nature only. This article is not about that, although such a thought will inexorably draw us to the main topic, which is how the mod fights back. But I'm losing track. Hang on.
Okay. So, every game ever has turned to claims; that's clear. And yes, claims serve as wonderful weapons against the mafia, and yes, that dynamic makes the game unique in its complexity. These I will agree with.
But there is one casualty of such a perspective (and here is where I draw the loop I opened above back closed). The game of mafia, by its very nature, is a competition between an informed and empowered minority and a blind, weak (individually) majority. The way the mafia wins is by lying and scheming and playing through the town. The way the town wins is by preventing such. This is obvious.
But what metagaming does is it draws a third party into the game (besides SKs, whom I've avoided because they're too complex and chaotic in themselves for consideration in this wonderfully simplistic model I'm utilizing here) - the mod.
To reference, I draw your attention to Matrix Mafia. Matrix was a perfect game for analyzing how this dynamic works. It was complex, puzzling, aggravating, both in its successes and failures. After that game, Grakthis (may he rest in 'Tings) made a comment that is particularly important in this kind of discussion. He said: "The mod should NEVER delight in the outcome of a game. If he does, it means he had an active interest in it, which means he messed up." And I commented on this by saying that "Moderators are like artists. They delight most when their art turns out as a masterpiece. While a mod shouldn't favor one side over the other, I think it's perfectly normal if a mod delights in how everything turned out. See: the stealth player at the end of Sin City. Things came together so well in that game, there was no reason why Azrael shouldn't have been pleased."
Well, I'm here to redress that statement a bit.
Over time, as games have become increasingly complicated, more rules have been bent, more people have been left angry, and so on as is the nature of this game, players have found themselves resorting more and more to mod-metagaming. Matrix, again, is a perfect example, with several lynches on players who didn't know what was going on, like Hvirfilvindr, HAWKEYE7, and myself. And while some of this did fall on analysis of tells (the blatant ones, at least), more often than not, the town made its judgments based purely on a simple question, which defines the entirety of the setup-metagaming issue:
"What are the odds this role exists?" No matter how much this question is used in all games to some degree.
You see what the problem is? As soon as the players decide to play the game by analyzing roles, rather than players, the game becomes less about town vs. scum and more about town vs. scum vs. mod. You see?
And here's where I cast out another loop to fill out when I get to the second part of this. As players' involvement in the game increases, their desire for the "next big thing" increases. I know this phenomenon; I have played this game into a third year now, and I watch games as much for the intrigue as to see what the setup is. The problem, of course, is that mods are now trapped. To keep players interested, the mod is forced to up the ante; but by doing so, the mod is investing more in the setup. It's less a "doc-cop-vig" kind of thing; the mod is now an active participant. He has to build his setup to combat metagaming. This is his active interest. So when Grak says "mods should never be active participants", it's less about creativity here: it's more about survival, as it were.
So what ought to be done about this (here's the connection)? Well, to be frank, I am unsure. Regrettably, it's something akin to a vicious circle. Players want complicated setups; mods have to work harder to prevent the game from falling apart; players find themselves in a deeper hole and start digging more, thus requiring more from the mods, and so onward. Coming from a mod's perspective, I would say that pushing the bar is natural. Blood Moon Mafia, for example, was a blatant example of me trying to one-up both myself and the specialties before me (meaning Sin City). Regrettably, this is a systemic flaw. At the same time, based on the difficulty of true analysis, as seen through increasing reliance on the same dozen-or-so players to help the town along, there's no sign of players stopping with metagaming.
Here's my solution. As a sidenote... I do not believe for a moment that this will end metagaming. Indeed, a slight amount of metagaming is important. This is intended to try to address the vicious circle I addressed above.
1) Players - stop blaming mods for "bad/complicated games". Yes, this is hard. Yes, I'm guilty of this as well. But the problem is that this perpetuates both the over-innovation of mods and the subsequent need to move toward playing off the setup that is the bane of the game.
2) Mods - stop throwing blunt objects into your games to combat metagaming (like multiples of power roles). If anything can be learned from games that have done this, like The Greenwood Affair, it's that this doesn't work and only makes the problem worse. If anything, mods ought to just not assume the players are going to turn on their radar for those kinds of things, but then the game would suffer from an inability for scum to false-claim their way back in.
3) Mods - cut back on investigative roles. Most mods have wizened up to this, but a glut of information, combined with a mass-claim, is going to turn players off to analysis. I'm not so presumptuous as to say we ought to eliminate straight cops altogether, but the thought has crossed my mind, and it would help rectify some of the problems oversaturation of information causes.
4) Players - stop lurking, you lazy bastards. I know you're busy and whatnot, but that's no excuse for signing up for multiple games and playing in none of them to a sufficient degree. Hell, on 'Tings, they play one game at a time and the players (for the most part) play the game religiously. I believe that player inattention probably causes its fair share of metagaming, as players who can't be bothered to play the game sufficiently probably also can't be bothered to create PBPAs. But I do recognize that this is both a broader concern than the others and one that may be difficult to solve.
In conclusion, I appreciate your time, and expect to see you signing up for The Fiasco Corporation, coming soon. /plug
Balancing a Mafia Setup Ripped from a thread by Puzzle
I'm probably not the best guy around to do this but I trust the good ones will come and complete / correct / amend this list.
Having been recently contacted for a setup review, I realized that we need a thread like this one, to help everyone design fun and balanced setups. The purpose is not to say "such role is fun" or what, it's to help everyone make sure their setup will be have the best chances to be enjoyed by the players.
So, to begin somewhere, here are a couple of "rules" for a good design :
1. You are making a setup for your players to have fun, not for you to. The lesser your presence is felt, the best the game will be for the players.
2. Mafia should represent 25% to 33% of the total number of players, changers included, depending on their abilities / advantages.
3. Always make sure that a mass-claim doesn't break the game. Whenever a setup involves a restricted number of possible claims, give safe ones to the scums or make the mafia not evident by their names. 3 bis. Winning via comparing mod PMs should also not be possible. Banning mod PM quoting is the general way to do it, but if you allow it, you should vary the writing style and wordings of the win conditions.
4. In the same vein, never make any more than 10% to 20% very confirmable townies (from the setup, masonry or cop/doc role). The mafia should have a chance to generate mislynches. 4 bis. Not every role has to have an ability. It may be slightly less interesting for a player if they are basic town, or arent mafia with some extra one use whatever, but a game stocked with 100% power roles is both a pain to mod and to balance.
5. Sleepers / switchers and all kinds of changers are very unbalancing factors that tend to shorten games, by accelerating situations either way. Use them with extreme caution, if ever. On the opposite, Neutrals are generally stabilizing factors. Always wonder whether irregular roles will encourage the game to last (fun) or shorten it (a bit frustrating or dispappointing).
Avoid creating super-powerful roles. This prevents huge tilts should that role be randomly killed or be a lurker.
6. Neutral roles (including SK) should be rather on the powerful side than the weak one, given that scums will try to kill them at night and everybody will go for them during the day.
7. Avoid giving any certainty in any form to the players. Certainty is antithetic with fun in Mafia.
8. Do not pre-plan what a player should claim or how he should play given his role for him. It's more fun if roles are created to interact with each other, rather than being completely independent but don't forget that you have knowledge of the whole setup while the players don't. A way to play may be obvious to you but it isn't or at least shouldn't be for the players. They will also often take a path you missed, according to Murphy's Law. In short, let doors open for different ways to play to your players.
Play out some "worst-case scenarios" for the town and mafia beforehand to make sure the game doesnt degenerate really quickly but keep in mind they'll find scenarii you didn't plan.
9. Try to minimise randomness in the game, since Mafia is chaotic enough as it is. It's quite depressing when the result of a game hinges on a single coin flip (eg. 50% to avoid death, 25% to kill another player etc.) rather than the players' skill.
10. Avoid synchro-lynches : they make games shorter and breakable through confirmed townies or mafiosi voting last.
11. When designing a game, be aware of how you want to start it. Day starts tend to be slow (no info), and will generally lead to random bandwagons, but supposedly (?) are better for the town than night starts. Night starts generate early action, but you may get the random death of a power role or a random early scum investigation. From a player perspective, it also sucks to join a game and die before it really starts. No-kill Night starts are a compromise between the two.
If you have 12 players or less, consider the implications of mislynches and night kills : the town should always be authorized at the very least 1 mislynch without having to vig to win.
12. Players appreciate flavor and good descriptions. They also appreciate PM feedback for night actions. (I guess this isn't so much about good design than it is about being a good host.). *Note : this does not apply for French mods who stink at writing scenes*
For anyone who has ever attempted to design a Mafia game, one of the most important questions, perhaps the single most important question, that they must ask themselves is this: Is this set-up balanced?
"Balanced" in this context meaning simply, “is this a set-up where both sides have a reasonable chance of winning?” Which is not the same thing as an “equal” chance. Given the host of intangibles present in any Mafia game, creating a set-up in which both sides might be said to have perfectly equal chances of winning is an impossibility. Ideally, one should simply try to create a set-up in which the chances for either side are close enough so that no one will look back at the end and have the extremely frustrating feeling that they never truly had a chance to begin with.
What follows are some of my ideas concerning balance in Mafia games, including the system that I currently use to evaluate games that I review. These are ideas that I developed over a long period of time, based on games played, read, and designed, but which I had never put down into numbers.
In particular, my goal was to see whether or not a “point” based system – one in which all the roles of the game are given a numerical value – could be made to work.*
Obviously no point based system is going to be perfect, but it seemed like a good place to start, and after using this system for more than a year-and-a-half and applying it to many, many different types of Mafia set-ups, I have developed great faith in it.
Vanilla Mafia = 4.5 (I have tried this several different ways. Valuing a mafia at 5 seems too high, but valuing one at 4 seems slightly low. I therefore, brilliantly, put it right in the middle. How scientific of me)
Where did I get these numbers from? I started by plugging them into some very basic Mafia set-ups (using 25% Mafia as baseline):
12 players: 9 town, 3 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
In this set-up, the town has 9 points (nine vanilla townies worth 1 point each.) The mafia has 13.5 points (three mafia worth 4.5 each.) Because the mafia “score” is higher, the mafia should win a majority of the games using this set-up if it's correct, and I do believe it is correct. To “balance,” change 2 of the basic townies to a Cop and Doc. Now the points are: Town 14, Mafia 13.5, which is at least close to being even.
The margin of error I decided on is +/- 1 mafia member (or 4.5 points). In other words, if the points add up so that the two sides are within 4.5 of each other, it shouldn’t play as too unbalanced. The vanilla set-up above is actually within this margin of error, and I believe you could play the vanilla set-up and no one would jump up and down at the end about how unfair it was. Similarly, adding a Vigilante role to the town in addition to the Cop and Doc. doesn’t unbalance the game, it just shifts the odds around a little.
The point isn’t to be exact, but to get things in the ballpark.
20 players: 15 town, 5 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
Here the town has 15 points, while the mafia has 22.5. Again, if you played this exact set-up, I believe the mafia would win a significant majority of the time. If we add a Cop and a Doc. role then the town has 20 points to the mafia’s 22.5. This is much closer, though I think such a set-up still favors the mafia a bit. So again, it seems right.
It is my belief that, for a 20 player game with no abilities (i.e. Mountainous Mafia), the closest balance you can achieve is to have 16 town players (16 points) and 4 mafia players (18 points).
24 players: 18 town, 6 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
Here the town has 18 points, while the mafia has 27. This would appear to swing very strongly in favor of the mafia, and, again, I believe that actual games played would bear out that assumption. You can cut an entire mafia here (I think 5 mafia is probably correct in a 24 player game). At a minimum, you could add a Cop and a Doc., making the town score 23 and Mafia score 27. This is still favoring mafia, which I think is true, but it is definitely closer. Again, whether one agrees on the exact number values doesn’t matter.
The Serial Killer
A Serial Killer (SK) in the mix throws the numbers off. A SK will typically give an edge to the mafia simply by virtue of the fact that he will usually be hitting a townie at least 2/3 more often. How much of an edge the presence of a SK gives is an open question (possibly deserving of it’s own article), but my working premise is that a SK should be valued as an extra mafia - using my numbers = 4.5 points. These would be points added to the total mafia score for purposes of determining game balance.
*Note: I make no effort to balance the SK role itself. His chances of winning are never good, and it would be a great mistake, in my opinion, for a game moderator to try and design a game where the serial killer’s chances were equal to the town and mafia’s.
Returning to a typical 20 player set-up, with a SK in the mix there are two primary ways to distribute the roles. One could have 15 town, 4 mafia, and 1 SK, or 14 town, 5 mafia and 1 SK.
In the former scenario, before counting the SK, the town has 15 points, and the mafia has 18. In the second scenario, the town has 14 points and the mafia score is 22.5.
Counting the SK as an “extra” mafia, then in Scenario #1, the mafia score would go up to 22.5. In the second scenario, the mafia score would go all the way up to 27.
So to “balance” these scenarios for the town, they need more. A Cop/Doc/Vig. gives the town in the first scenario 22 points vs. the mafia 22.5. That’s close. In scenario #2, the Cop/Doc/Vig. gives the town 21 points to the mafia’s 27. This is still not “balanced.” Here you would want to give even more power to the town (or simply cut a mafia and go with scenario #1).
All this is with a completely vanilla mafia. If you want to give the mafia any abilities, which most moderators do, then that would increase the value of the mafia roles (over and above the 4.5 they are worth to begin with).
Rough estimates on other Role values:
Back-Up Cop/Doc: 2.5/2
Watcher: 2
Tracker: 2
1-Shot Vigilante: 2
Masons (with confirmation that co-masons are town):
-2 man group: 2 points each, total 4.
-3 man group: 2.5 points each, total 7.5
-4 man group: 3 points each, total 12
(this assumes a large 20+ person game. A Mason group in a mini-game is even more powerful because they make up a larger percentage of the total town. I don't think confirmed Masons should ever represent more than .20% of the total town bodies.)
In addition, it is possible to have roles with negative values which take points away from their respective sides (or are simply worth less than 1). For example, I typically value a “Miller” role on the side of the town as .5 points. He still has some value to the town – he can vote, and provide analysis - but his drawback makes him worth less than even a vanilla townie.
A role that the mafia does not have to eliminate to win (such as a Survivor role) would be zero points, generally speaking.
There are other considerations as well, such as Day Start vs. Night vs. Kill vs. No-kill 1st Night. These I have not examined quite as closely, but I have a few additional premises:
-A day start generally favors the town = +1 to total town score
-Cop Head Start (Night start with use of all abilities but no kills allowed = +2 to town (and this could potentially be even more if the town had multiple investigate roles or more useful actions to take during the night.)
The number and variety of roles that creative moderators can design are literally limitless, but what I have found is that the foregoing system provides a very solid foundation for balancing all type of mafia games, and that it is not difficult to estimate a value for a new role simply by comparing it to the values of roles already known.
I hope this system is of some use to new (and even experienced) mafia moderators. It is still very much a work in progress, and I welcome any comments or feedback players may have.
*I do not claim any of these ideas as blindingly original thoughts. You can find some very similar suggestions in several Discussion Threads in the forums at Mafiascum, and I am indebted to several individuals over there for inspiring me to try and create a more comprehensive system. The ultimate methodology described herein, however, is almost entirely my own.
__________________
Understanding how you can control pacing in a game is extremely important to unlocking the best methods of provoking useful reactions from players.
I define pace as how many different reactions there are on a given topic of conversation. For example, if a certain player is questioned for voting no lynch in a game, the number of different responses from players determines the pace of the game. In a well-paced game, by definition the responses are more diverse and thereby provoke more discussion. The more helpful the discussion is, the more players will seek to contribute, and the more posts you will have in a thread.
A brisk pace is necessary for the enjoyment and the success of any town in any game. Analyzing whether a player is lagging behind the pace allows you to see who is lurking and who is not: if someone is not responding to discussion, he perhaps does not want his thoughts to be seen. Pace keeps players interested; I would much rather read something that generates excitement and responses than boring, passive posting. Pacing allows the game to remain intense and full of twists and turns.
AA and PA
Specific posts have two kinds of pace: Active Affecting posts (AA), and Passive Affecting posts (PA).
If there is a response or reaction caused by a post, the post is actively affecting the game. A question is the simplest way of actively affecting the game: you are providing the opportunity for a player to answer the question, thereby adding another response or reaction. Provoking interesting discussion is another way of actively affecting the game.
If there are no reactions or responses generating by a post, it is passively affecting the game.
Making a Post Actively Affect the Game
Questioning players is the best way to ensure a post will be actively affecting the game. Whereas with any other AA post you are fishing for responses, a question must be replied to, or there are huge consequences for the scum.
Always try to condense posting material if possible. Anyone can be verbose, but taking out unnecessary parts or simplifying your language will make your post much more readable. And of course, the more people who read your posts, the more replies to it there will be.
Another general way of increasing the pace of your posts will generally be to present your posting in a new and original way. This does not necessarily entail a massive playstyle change, but making sure that players will want to reply to your posts is a good skill to have.
As another option for playing Mafia, you can visit the MTGS #mafia channel. There, you can play live games with other players, modded either in person or via a Mafia bot.
To join us, connect to IRC through your own client (such as mIRC, Trillian, or Chatzilla) or through the MTGS Java applet tab (labeled 'Chat') at the top of the page. Once you've connected to irc.globalgamerscenter.net, join the #mafia channel (using the command /join #mafia), and you're ready to go!
MafiaBOT Progress
The MafiaBOT is an automated IRC script for running a Mafia game. It handles signups, role assignments, votes, lynches, role abilities, and ending the game. The most recent version of the bot is hosted by Xyl.
As of the latest update, the following features are available:
Vanilla Townie: normal player without any special abilities, aside from the ability to vote. Every single basic (and most nonbasics) will have a least a few of these roles.
Town Doctor: a protective role that may be used once a night to protect someone from a killing action, such as a nightkill or vig' shot. In most variations, the doctor cannot protect himself (with very rare exceptions).
Town Cop: an investigative role that may be used once at night to determine if a player is mafia or town. Considered the strongest investigative role by most users. (occasionally unreliable, see Variation--Questionable Cops)
Town Vigilante: often referred to as a vig, the vigilante is a killing role that may be used at night to kill any target player. In basics, sometimes the Vigilante is given a limit of 1-2 shots, meaning they can only use the ability a limited number of times. Full vigs do not have a shot limit.
Town Tracker: an investigative role that can target a player at night and will be told by the mod that player targeted anyone else, but not know what they did. (Because the tracker has to specifically target the player doing something, this is considered one of the weaker investigative roles.)
Town Watcher: an investigative role that targets a player at night. The watcher will then be told by the mod if anyone else targets the player the watcher chooses, although will be unaware of what actions are attempted on the target. (The watcher is a good role for catching a scum on an obvious nightkill target.)
Town Roleblocker: This is a town disabler role. The target of this role will be unable to use any of their abilities the night targeted. In most cases, this will also stop the mafia night kill. A town role blocker is uncommon, but not heard of, as the role blocker in a game in typically a scum role blocker. (This is considered a weaker role, due to having the tracker weakness of having to target the correct player, as well as the ability to backfire by disabling another town player.)
Bulletproof Townie: This is a town passive role. This townie cannot be killed by abilities, although can still be lynched normally. (This is considered powerful, as without claiming, this role can usually soak up at least 1 mafia nightkill. In basics, this will usually take the place of a protective role.)
Town Jailer: a combination of disabler and protective. The target of the jailer will be protected (see Doc), but cannot use abilities either (see Roleblocker). Jailers can never target themselves as this creates a paradox. (Typically protects the doctor in a basic.)
[Town] Mason(s): a group of players with a separate chat that they can communicate with each other. The largest advantage of the masons are that they can confirm themselves as town, and coordinate behind the scenes. [This assumes "confirmed masons." In some variations in larger games, three (or more?) masons may have a scum mason in the group with the remaining players being uninformed of this fact; known as "unconfirmed masons."]
Town Hider: a protective role. At night, this player may hide themselves behind another player, and will only be killed if the player they are hiding behinds dies. Some variations will kill the hider if they hide behind a non-town player, while others have restrictions (e.g. you can only hide every other day).
Town Back-up Role: a role that activates on the death of another power role and takes their place. Until the original power dies, a back up is vanilla for all intents and purposes. Upon the death of the character, the back-up "activates" and is told by the mod what they are. Common back-ups include a cop (deputy), doctor (nurse), or vigilante (side kick?).
Town Jack of All Trades: a role with usually have 2-3 different examples of common abilities (such as doctor, cop, or vig), but will only have a shot or two of each. (How to make the most of those abilities is the key to using this role.)
Town Role Cop: an investigative role similar to the typical "alignment cop," the role cop will receive from the mod the ability(ies) of whoever is targeted at night, but not the alignment. (While useful for gathering information and clearing claims, this is weaker/less reliable than an actual cop.)
Variation--Day Abilities (Cop/vig)
Although rare, day cops or vigs are the same as their standard counterparts, but their abilities can be used during the day. In this situation, typically the choice to cop or vig will be announced publicly in bold, with some sort of mod confirmation.
MAFIA ROLES:
Mafia Goon: the equivalent of a Vanilla Townie, a Goon has no special powers other than the vote, the mafia night chat, and the fact that he knows who his teammates are.
Mafia Roleblocker: this is a disable ability that prevents the target from using their night action. Typically, you will receive flavor text from the moderator, even if you did not attempt an action or don’t have an ability, although it will not be confirmed you’re were roleblocked. (By far, the most common type of scum PR in a basic.)
Mafia Rolecop: similar to the town rolecop, this is a scum power used to help determine town roles. At night, that player is targeted and their role (in any) is revealed. This can help determine who to use the mafia’s night kill on.
Mafia Tracker: a weaker version of the rolecop, the scum tracker works as a town tracker does with the same purpose as the Scum Role Cop: To find town power roles.
Mafia Tough Guy: the mafia’s version of the vig. This role is considered powerful, because unlike a town vig, the scum tough guy knows who NOT to shoot.
Mafia Godfather: this is considered one of the stronger mafia roles. The Godfather’s most relevant power is that he/she will return a non-guilty verdict from a cop investigation. In some versions, the Godfather is also immune to night kill shots, and can also make the final decisions for the scum nightkill.
NEUTRAL ROLES:
Survivor: a role where the players goal is simply to survive to the end game. They don't care if Mafia or Town get lynched, just as long as they don't. They can either play as town and take the chance of getting nightkilled, or play scummy and take the chance of getting lynched.
Serial Killer: Independent player who has a nightkill ability and a goal to kill everyone else in the game. This player wins if they are the last player standing.
Some of these entries are internet or site specific acronyms, and not specific to the game. New people still sometimes need them explained. If you find this to be too much "dumbing down" feel free to say so, but also accept that this whole glossary may simply not be meant for you. Thanks!
Basic game: a game of the simplest level of design. Players should expect traditional mafia roles with very little embellishment. [Basic games are an excellent place to work on mastering behavioral analysis techniques. While new players are always welcome to join other game types, basic games provide a simple, uncomplicated introduction to the fundamentals of the Mafia game.]
Bastard Game: A setup in which the moderator inflicts confusing, difficult, suspicious-seeming, or misleading roles and mechanics on the players. Generally disapproved of, in favor of games that put a greater emphasis on analyzing behavior than role analysis.
Bastard Mod: A moderator who designs bastard games.
“barn” (/barn): to agree with it without contributing independent thought; short for barnacle, it is meant to be a metaphor for riding along with someone else’s opinion.
Burnout: a player ability that, when used, removes all other abilities the player has for the rest of the game.
Bus: an action word (often “bussing”) used to describe when a mafia member actively votes or participates in the lynching of one of their teammates in order to gain credibility in the eyes of the town. Sometimes even leads to full lynches of mafia by other mafia in order to win the overall game.
CC: Counter-Claim (See below)
Claim: giving out the information in your role PM in a post during a game. (This must be paraphrased and retyped because copying and pasting, or “quoting”, is against the spirit of uncertainty in the game.) This is called a claim because it cannot be called a certainty until the player is dead (or the game is over in some extreme cases) Types include:
False Claim: a claim where a player lies about his PM information because to tell the truth would cause some sort of game disadvantage. Mafia must typically false claim to keep from getting lynched, but sometimes Town false claim, too. This is generally to keep from exposing power roles.
Full Claim: the type of claim usually required when you are within a few votes of being lynched. Includes all pertinent information from your role PM.
Mass Claim: everyone playing gives their role PM in the game thread to put all the information out there and make it potentially harder for scum to hide.
Soft Claim: a claim where someone has given partial information as to their role PM, such as name, gender, etc.
Confirmed: a word used to describe a player that has been proven or verified as a town member.
Counter-Claim: an action taken by a player who sees part of their own unique claim used as another player’s defense. Usually used to catch scum in lies. (As in many cases in this game, sometimes the reverse is true as well where a scum false counter-claims when a town player is forced to claim. See False Claim above.)
Crypto-Claim: Crypto-Claims/Acronym Claim - Crypto-claiming is a method of forcing players to put their role claims on record publicly in encrypted form, without revealing their content until a later time. The most common method of crypto-claiming is the acronym claim, in which players encrypt a message describing their role by posting the first letter of every word in the message, together with the number of words and the number of characters in the message. Later, the town can require each player to reveal the encoded message, and verify that the word and character limits match. Generally a banned game maneuver. Attributed to Azrael. Example: TYVM. 4 words, 16 letters. Decoded: Thank you very much.
Day (as opposed to day): game phase where players post in the thread, attempt to make cases, and vote for lynches. When lower-case, indicates “in real life” time.
Deadline: a set time where the remaining players must reach a consensus vote as to who will be lynched or the Mod will be forced to move the game into the next (usually Night) Phase.
Distancing: a scum tactic where two scum argue or post against each other, either by fighting over a third party or about their own loyalties. This makes it harder to tell who the scum are if one player of the pair is lynched. Sometimes results in a Bus (See Above).
EBWODP: Edit By Way Of Double Post. Since editing posts is illegal in this game and sometimes corrections need to be made, by starting a second post with this acronym you may fix errors that make the content of the original post confusing.
EWP: Edit While Previewing(?). Before posting and when previewing a post about to be sent, this is an edit that occurs because someone else has posted since the player performing the edit started their composition.
False Claim: see Claim.
Fearmongering: a baseless argument where a player declares simply that something bad will happen if they are lynched.
Fishing: mafia technique of using statements to elicit information from someone(s) in the game that they would normally keep to themselves. Typically used to determine town power roles.
Flavor: the fictional design elements added to a game of Mafia that give it style and uniqueness. Frequently loosely based off of popular cultural fictional properties, this gives the players something to discuss and characters to portray i.e. roles.
Flavor Gaming: attempting to use the implementation of flavor in the game as a means to deduce facts about the game and thereby change the game state.
[This strategy falls under heavy criticism as it is unreliable since there is no way to know if the Moderator or Setup Creator threw twists into the game that are counter-intuitive to the original flavor (e.g. in a game with historical figures, Benedict Arnold could just as easily be a Neutral character as a Mafia character; in a ret-con of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, perhaps Shredder and Krang are fighting against each other and the turtles are mind controlled on one side of the game creating all sorts of counter intuitive alliances. See Basic #37: Super Sentai Mafia Force, Go! for a perfect example of this.)]
Flip: when a player dies in the game, a short term to indicate the result that is revealed, i.e. to “When you flip scum…” or, “When I flip town…”.
Flooding: also known as post-flooding, can infrequently be a scum play but is more frequently an overly enthusiastic new player’s misunderstanding of how to maintain a healthy game where everyone can keep up, even if they don’t follow the game every day. Akin to spam in any forum thread on the internet.
FoS: Finger of Suspicion. Weaker than a vote, stronger than simply speaking about concerns that a player’s posts have created, FoS is meant as an attention grabber for the town to notice and also an in-game attack on the player indicated. (Also sometimes HoS, Hand of Suspicion and PoS, Pinkie of Suspicion. These last two are degrees of emphasis for FoS that have been used in Mafia elsewhere.)
FTQ or Fast-Track-Queue game: a process where a game is selected by an experienced commitee of players to skip the usual wait time for start-up. Games vary in their complexity.
Gambit: an active line of play, frequently involving deception, where a player takes a specific series of actions to illicit change in the game to benefit their team. Examples include a false counter claim, bussing, false claiming an investigative role and a known result, Daykill attempts to illicit responses, etc.
Gimmick: An account where an experienced player may disguise who they are to play the game without months or years of previous experience in the thread for others to read up on. Etiquette dictates that the other player in a game with a Gimmick trust the Moderators of not only the game but also the sub-forum that a Gimmick is a player participating within the rules, and that efforts to determine their identity are against the spirit of the game no matter how frustrating this is to the non-gimmick player.
Goon: a basic mafia role without any special powers in the game. This character is more expendable to the mafia than a power role.
Hammer: to cast the last vote that lynches a player. (Has a sort of “Hot Potato” feel to it, meaning the last player to vote on a lynch is left with the hammer the next day, meaning they will be usually the first suspect. Frequently seen as a scum tell when actually is a null tell. The motivation behind the last vote must be determined to be certain if the hammering player is town or not.)
Hydra: a form of gimmick account where two or more players are playing as one. This is sometimes used as a method of mentoring, other times it actually is a game element, and occasional other times it can be used by a pair of experienced players as a shared account to help free them from meta expectations.
IGMEOY: I’ve Got My Eye On You. Another weaker variation of FoS generally regarded as more warning than accusation.
IIRC: If I Recall Correctly.
IMO: In My Opinion. Also IMHO, with H standing for Honest/Humble.
“in” (/in): used in sign up threads to indicate interest in joining the game
ITT: In This Thread, also sometimes I Think That...
Kingmaker: rarely used variant game structure where instead of a majority vote leading to a lynch, during Night one player is made "king" and holds the power of the Day's lynch decision.
L-1: Lynch minus one, meaning one vote away from a the number of votes required to lynch a player. Any other L-# you see indicates (the number required to lynch) - (the number voting lynch on the higest voted player now) = #
LAL: Lynch All Liars. A philosophical viewpoint that basically states, “If you lie, we will lynch you,” based on the idea that town players shouldn’t lie.
Lurking: the practice of posting at a minimum so as to contribute sparingly and thereby raise little confirmable suspicion. Sometimes a tactic used to execute scum strategies and get to more powerful night actions, but then again sometimes used by town power roles to avoid mislynches. ("Lurking in plain sight" would be posting nothing that changes the game state, while appearing to keep a reasonable post count.)
(My)LyLo: (Mis)Lynch or Lose. Late game state where town players must come together and vote correctly or they will be at even numbers with the scum and thereby lose the game. "Mislynch or lose" is a variant where the town can safely no-lynch, but can't mislynch or they will lose.
Lynch: the point in a game when the votes on a single player equal a majority of the players left alive and that player is killed. Types include:
Safe Lynch: A safe lynch is a term coined for lynching either a claimed nuetral role, or a claimed town who has added none or negatively effected the town through WIFOM, distraction, ect. It is called a safe lynch because a lynch on this person will not harm the town, regardless of alignment.
Policy Lynch: Like a safe lynch, a policy lynch does not typically care if the target is scum or not, but to lynch a distraction, or a player who commits a pretty clear cut scum tell. The most common example of policy lynch is the Lynch all Liars clause. However, typically distraction players may also be considered for a policy lynch, however, not everyone agrees policy lynches are best for a game.
Mass Claim: see Claim.
Mentor: an experienced player that offers some of their time to help a new player by being a “behind the scenes” source to answer questions about the game. Questions can range from vocabulary, to previous examples of when game results occurred, to general strategy advice. Mentors are advised to not give play-by-play instructions or make decisions for the new player, but to tell them (usually between phases) what they have done right and wrong already. Suggestions of what to do next are not allowed, and specific examples about other players in the game at hand are not allowed. (Communications with a Mentor are usually handled in a QT monitored by the Mod.)
Meta: short for metagaming, and used to describe understanding a player’s behavior based on the readable pattern of actions a player uses when they are either town or scum based on the observations of other players. Through research of previous games, can frequently be used on experienced players as a map to their intentions in a current game. (Also can mean having an understanding of the player in question from outside the game, and thereby gaining insight into their playstyle.)
Mini game: a game with 12 or less players that varies in complexity, but usually more complicated than a Basic.
Mislynch: a lynch where the dead player is revealed to be town aligned.
Mod: short for Moderator. The forum member that runs the game and regulates actions taken by the players for fairness with impartiality.
Modkill: a punishment handed out when a player breaks certain hard-and-fast rules in the game, such as quoting role PM material word-for-word or discussing an ongoing game outside of the game itself. Also sometimes a consequence of inactivity.
Neutral: a role or roles that are in the game that are neither town aligned nor mafia aligned. They have an independent agenda and win condition. (Not found in Basic games.)
Night (as opposed to night): phase of the game where players do not post in the main game thread and any actions/powers are relayed to the mod to set up the next day. (Picture this as the stereotypical murder-mystery movie scene where the lights go out, someone screams, and the lights come back on to reveal someone dead in the middle of the room.) When lower-case, indicates “in real life” time.
Nightkill: the mafia’s action, taken during the night phase of the game, of sending the Mod a name of a town player they wish to be dead. Usually sent by one mafia player to the mod, indicating they will be the actually “nightkiller” or assassin. This term is usually meant to define one specific, mafia-sponsored and controlled kill that happens during the night phase, i.e. “the nightkill” as opposed to other deaths that occur during night such as a “vig-shot” (See Vig) or SK kill (See SK).
Normal game: a game expected to have a higher complexity than a Basic, but a lower complexity than a Specialty. Usually contains a high player count as well.
No Lynch: a voting choice outside of the normal decision to name a player for lynching. If majority agrees to the No Lynch option, the game will proceed to the next phase (Night) without a player dying by lynch.
OOC: Out Of Character, meant to delineate a player-to-player statement or detail relayed in-game but not pertaining to the game at hand. Sometimes IC, or In Character, is used to return to the action of the game. Also sometimes /aside is used, or a spoiler, etc. [Etiquette dictates these statements (and all other statements about real life) are to be taken at face value and are not to be questioned in terms of game tells. Etiquette also dictates these be kept to a minimum and all players be truthful when using them.]
Outed: describes a power role or other in-game advantage that was secret information and has been revealed in the game posts, i.e. "I outted myself as the Cop because..."
PBPA: Post By Post Analysis. This occurs when Player 1 quotes or links to all relevant previous substantive posts made by Player 2, and then breaks down why Player 2 is scum according to Player 1’s concerns and observations.
PCQ or Player’s-Choice-Queue game: similar to the FTQ in that it skips the usual wait time for hosting, this is a community based process that results in a game setup being chosen by popular vote.
Phase: indicates a portion of the game such as Day or Night, or Twilight.
PoE: Process of Elimination.
Policy Lynch: see Lynch.
Post Restriction: additional requirement sent in a PM where a players posts must conform to some preset quirk, such as only posting at some preset frequency, misspelling words, making flavor references, speaking as their character, rhyming, or not posting at all.
Power Role: any role in the game that has some sort of ability to affect the game beyond casting a vote (e.g. Doctor, Cop, Godfather, Vigilante, etc.). See the Roles section for more information and examples.
Prod: a PM sent to an inactive player in an attempt to see if they are interested in continuing to play in the game, and to tell them that they are lagging behind.
QT: QuickTopic, indicating a thread on an independent site for the side communications of a game. Everything from scum night chat, to player diaries, to spectator content and mentor threads are handles in the form of a QT.
RVS: Random Vote Section. The very beginning of the game where people make votes and jokes to start discussion since they have nothing much else to go on. In games with experienced players this sometimes simply doesn’t happen. When it ends is arbitrary.
“Replace” (/replace): Used in sign-up threads to indicate an interest in taking over the role of a player that either drops out of the game deliberately or abandons the game for reasons unknown.
Reviewer: an experienced Mafia player whose job it is to read through other people’s setups and make sure they are balanced before play proceeds.
Role: a player’s character and win conditions in the game, supplied by the Moderator before the game begins. Examples include:
Bob (Vanilla Town), You win when all mafia are dead.
Darth Vader, Sith Lord (Mafia Roleblocker), With the power of the Force (strengthened by the Dark Side) at your command, you wield the ability to once per night disable the actions of any player in the game. You win when the forces of the Empire are equal in number to the forces of the Rebellion, as they will be powerless against you and they might of the Death Star you command. [with Emperor Palpatine (Mafia Godfather) in the same game, of course :D]
Safe Lynch: see Lynch.
Scum: Mafia and other non-town. Basically any player that doesn’t have town interests at heart. Neutrals with independent win conditions such as Serial Killers and Cultist are also scum.
Scum Slip: something said by a player that indicates they are scum by giving away conclusive information. Can be anything from a wording in a post that changes, to a behavioral tell, to a bald-faced lie.
Scummy: having or pertaining to scum, not to be confused with “annoying” or “spammy.”
Setup: the individual game written out as a whole, including Role PM’s and any extra structure. This is submitted to a Reviewer who then checks the game for balance to make it as equally winnable for both teams as possible aka balanced. The Setup Creator is the author of the game and usually the Moderator of the game as well.
Shadow: A system where an experienced player enters a game and has a less experienced player follow along. This is similar to the Mentor system, except instead of the less experienced player being the one in the game, they will be "Shadow"ing the more experienced player and asking them questions about their play and other such things.
Sheeping: voting the same way as another player without contributing an argument to back up your choice. Sometimes a scum tell, sometimes a lazy town tell usually depending on whose vote is being sheeped.
SK: Serial Killer, a Neutral Role. See Role Section for more information.
Soft Claim: see Claim.
Specialty game: the most complex games run on the site, these games are usually designed to push the boundries of what the game is experimentaly. Innovation and and experience are required for a player to run one of these games, and experience is suggested before joining one as well.
“spectate” (/spectate): Used in sign-up threads to indicate an interest in being allowed to read the thread while being supplied all the setup information, similar to “playing along at home” in TV game shows that list the answer on the screen for you, or poker on TV.
Traditional: a game with simpler and expected game mechanics within its named structure, i.e. Normal, Basic, etc. The opposite would be a game with unusual mechanics, such as Burnout or Kingmaker.
Tunneling: hunting only one player as scum while paying no attention to any other player’s mafia behaviors in the thread. Usually caused by being so sure that another player is scum that you (mis)interpret every post they make as scummy, only seeing scum motivations (search the 'net for confirmation bias).
tl;dr: Too Long; Didn’t Read. Used to indicate a post or several posts in an argument were not worth the time to attempt to understand based on some reason, usually a lack of real life time, or something else more pressing on the mind of the player in-game.
Twilight: the phase of the game between when a player has reached the number of votes to indicate they are lynched and when the Moderator posts the scene that takes the game into the night phase.
Vanilla: A basic town role without any special powers in the game. Never to be confused with weakness, powerlessness in Mafia gives a player the opportunity to play with less risk to the town if they are lynched. Also vanilla votes are frequently necessary to lynch mafia.
V/LA: Vacation/Limited Access, used when post frequency will become erratic because of plans outside the game.
Vig: short for Vigilante. A town role with a killing power. See the Roles section for more information.
Wagon: short for bandwagon, is used to indicate the list of votes that accumulate after a player’s name as they are voted closer and closer to a lynch.
WIFOM: “Wine In Front Of Me” from the famous scene in the film The Princess Bride. Used to indicate circular logic applied to an “either/or” statement where no actual concrete conclusion may be reached because both possibilities are equally valid if different motivations and/or facts are taken into account or presumed to be true.
Win-mongering: a term meant to describe when a player states that if another player is lynched, the town wins the game. (Coined by smoke_Killah in Basic #39)
For those unfamiliar with the game of Mafia (known to some as "Werewolf"), here's a brief description:
Mafia is a game with two basic teams: the "town" and the "mafia." The town is always the larger of the two groups (typically 2.5-3 times the size of the mafia), but they suffer from a lack of information. In general, no member of the town knows any of his teammates, and is therefore put into a position where s/he cannot trust anyone. Each townie is inherently dangerous, because they have a vote, which they can cast at any other player. If a majority of players vote for a single player at any time, that player is lynched. S/he is then "dead" and can no longer participate in the game.
The mafia members, on the other hand, do know the identities of each other member, which gives them enormous potential power. They will never be put into a position where they must risk losing a team member unknowingly. In addition, they have the ability to Nightkill a player.
The game is divided into Days and Nights. Days are the times when conversations in the thread take place. Any player may generally post any opinions, ideas, or lies they feel like posting, as long as they are within the guidelines set forth by the mod. This may include accusations, arguments, defenses, speculation, and most importantly, votes. Once a player is lynched by a majority, the Day - which may take weeks to conclude – ends. The game enters a period of Night, during which the mafia may converse via PM, and the mod will manage any abilities, such as Nightkills. The mafia’s conversations will eventually end with a decision as to who to Nightkill; the final choice is sent to the mod. That player is then "dead" and may no longer participate.
Any number of other abilities may also be used, though these are specific to each game. One of the more common roles with abilities include Cops, which can investigate a player each night by sending that name to the mod. The mod will then respond to that player with a result of Innocent or Guilty – an indicator of whether or not a player is a member of the mafia. Another common role is the Doctor, who can send in the name of a player at night with the hope of defending them. If that player would have been killed that night, the Doctor's ability prevents the kill.
Many Mafia games have themes that make them very interesting to play in. Game mods often go to great length to make games saturated with flavor, which often bleeds into game mechanics. Thus, every game is different, and some of them are very complex. Strategies and counter-strategies have been developed for hundreds of situations, and yet, the thrill of uncertainty that made the original game so exciting to play is still present. Go sign up for a game, and see what the craze is all about!
For more information on how to play, see the MafiaScum wiki. A flash tutorial has also been made by one of the MafiaScum users.
Around 2-4 games of various types are run concurrently in the Mafia subforum. Whenever one game finishes, a new one of the same type will be posting signups within a few days, so check back often if you're waiting to get into a game. If you want to sign up for a new game, just wait until new signups are posted, then post there.
I want to play a game of Mafia! How do I sign up?
Our friendly neighborhood Mafia Secretary Bur would be happy to answer any questions you have and point you in the right direction, and will be in touch with you shortly.
You can sign up directly for a game, if signups are open. Just pop in to the most recent signups thread (if there is one running) and type "/in".
Signups in the Mafia subforum are always open (if everything is running smoothly). There are currently four types of games: Micro games, Mini games, Normal games and Specialty games. Specialty games can be more complicated, so if you're just starting out, you may not want to try them unless you're feeling spunky.
The Mafia Subforum
This forum is for playing and discussing the game of Mafia. All of the MTGS Forum Rules apply here, though keep in mind the following notes:
In Mafia games, a short post that looks like spam may not necessarily be spam, depending on the relevancy to the game. Still, true spam will be infracted, and borderline spam may be warned.
Even though Mafia involves attacking other players, flaming is still not allowed. Please refrain from personal insults, especially personal insults coupled with profanity. Attacking another user's play (e.g. "That was an incredibly stupid vote") is acceptable.
Due to the nature of Mafia, double-posting is allowed *if* the second post contains actual content. Examples of double posts that are not discouraged include spam and correcting a minor typo that does not affect the essential meaning of your post. Posting more than 3 times consecutively as a player in a game may result in Moderator action; please be sensible and try to ensure that your posts, if spanning across multiple consecutive posts, do contain substantial content, short of correcting typos.
Mod text (bold + red) is permitted in the Mafia subforum only, for in-game purposes such as scum lists. Do not use bold red in your signature or any other areas of the site.
I'm new to the game. What should I do?
There is no single correct way to play Mafia. All players have their own styles, and Mafia is a matter of being able to read through those styles. There are some conventional wisdoms, however, which you may find useful for starting out. See MafiaScum's guide on "How to be a Good Townie".
Also, make sure to pay attention to all rules for the game you are in.
This thread is used for signing up to host games. Unless you have already run a few games on the site, you should post your playing/hosting experience before signing up.
This thread is also used for post-game replacement reports and recommendations for the probation list. After your game is complete, please provide a list of all players who needed to be replaced, and any extenuating circumstances you are aware of which contributed to their replacement. If you believe that a player could have additional activity problems in the future, please notify us so that future hosts can take that information into account.
Authorized Setup Reviewers:
All hosts, regardless of experience, must have their setups reviewed by another player before running. Please contact a reviewer from the appropriate list below.
Reviewers:
For Mini's, Normals, and Basics, contact the following players (With their stipulations beside it):
AsianInvasion, Axelrod, Creampuffeater (Basic/Open setup's Only), Cyan (PM/Contact First Please.), Dagger, DYH, Ecophagy, Ged, Kraj, Pale Mage (Basic Games Only), Xyre, ZeDorkSlipeur, Emo_Pinata, pinkys_brain (Basics), pinkfloyd (Minis or Basics), ganderin_dan (Minis or Basics), Zionite, Arcadic, MandersHex (Basic Games Only), Niv, Wuffles_II, or Iso.
FTQ/PCQ/Specialties:
For FTQ, PCQ, and specialty games, contact one of the following players:
Azrael, Axelrod, Cyan, DYH, Ged, Kraj, Zionite, Niv, Wuffles_II, RobRoy, or Xyre, or any person who has previously designed and moderated a PCQ or FTQ game. The names of players who have run these games can be found in the game archive section, below.
Hosting Limit - A player may not sign up for more than one normal, mini, or specialty game at a time. Players may sign up to host one additional FTQ or one additional newb/basic basic game.
Before signing up to host, you should complete playing in at least two games on site, with another in progress or finished.
It is the responsibility of all prospective hosts to monitor their place on the lists. Hosts should be prepared to host at any time when their name is in the top three of a list. Please have your setups completed and reviewed (if not on their way to review) when you sign up to host a game. A PM will be sent out to everyone in the top 5/10 when a game is completed. If your game setup is not completed at this time, you will be pushed back 2 slots. When it is a host’s turn to make their game, they will be PMed. If they are not ready, or have a conflict, they may ask to be pushed back 2-4 slots. If they completely fail to respond to their game prompt, they will be removed from the Hosting List. If a player wishes to be re-added to the queue, they may request such, and they will be added back at the end of the hosting list. If a player does not have their setup ready the second time they are asked but have responded, they will be removed from the list.
Hosting Lists: Players listed in red on the lists are currently inactive and may be skipped.
Players listed in bold have confirmed they will be ready when their turn comes up.
Normal games are intended to be setups with a moderate degree of complication. While they may be more complicated than the traditional roles found in newbie or basic games, hosts should use their best judgment before adding offbeat or unexpected role mechanics commonly found in specialty games.
The following may never be used in a Normal game without permission from a council member.
1. A player on the replace list with a role.
2. A player not listed in the game that has an effect on the game.
3. A role with no feasible win condition. (A neutral that cannot win with town or mafia, and has no kills, for example.)
4. A role that may VOTE after death. Please confirm any post-death abilities with a reviewer even if they are not vote-related.
5. The mod having a role.
These are generally metagame roles, which have been restricted due to unplayability, infeasibility, or the fact that the average Normal game should not require its players to expect such twists that they might from a Specialty game.
ced395 (Aardman)
Toastboy
The Cold Monarch (Historical Figures)
ganderin_dan (The Boondocks)
Void (WWE)
DRey
Wrath_of_DoG
Jobie
Zionite
Dork Knight
Wessel
DYH (Amistarian III)
Specialty games are designed to give hosts a free hand to create new and innovative game mechanics.
To sign up to Host a Specialty game, you must: 1. Have a game setup finished or near finished.
2. Submit the setup to a reviewer for review/balancing.
3. Have participated in three complete games on MTGSalvation.
Infinis
Iso (The Legend of Lucian)
GigaRage
Emo_Pinata
Tanarin (Tan's Chaos Favorites)
Tanarin, & ganderin_dan (Blind Hydra)
Dragonheart91
Seppel
RobRoy
Dagger
Mini game queue is for setups with 12 or fewer players. Any level of complexity or simplicity is acceptable.
TheIceMan
AsianInvasion
kill-joy
Wheat_Grinder (Steins;Gate)
Xyre
ImTehFairy
KoolKoal (Brilliant Minds Mafia)
Megiddo
MirrorEntity (Mental Mafia)
Basic games are the simplest level of design. Players should expect traditional mafia roles with very little embellishment. Basic games are an excellent place to work on mastering behavioral analysis techniques. While new players are always welcome to join other game types, basic games provide a simple, uncomplicated introduction to the fundamentals of the game.
Iso (GIANT ROBOT BATTLE ROYALE)
ganderin_dan
Tanarin (M:tG Salvation)
Arnnaria (Disney Villains)
Seppel
pinkfloyd
Wheat_Grinder (Fooly Cooly)
fluffyn00b (Neil Gaiman's "Sandman")
EtR (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Wessel
AsianInvasion
Tom
The Fast-Track Queue exists to encourage flavorful, well-crafted, and uniquely enjoyable mafia designs. Instead of a normal signup process, games reach the FTQ by being nominated by the host, submitted to an authorized reviewer, and compete against other current nominations for the next FTQ slot. One of the primary advantages of the FTQ process is that there is no waiting time in order to host; as soon as the previous FTQ game ends, the next FTQ setup can post signups.
To nominate a setup to the fast-track queue, you should first private message the MafiaScribe gimmick account. Ideally, nominations should be submitted while the current fast-track game is still running, but late nominations are also welcome. In your private message you should include the name of the setup and the name of an authorized reviewer who has agreed to read the setup.
After each fast-track game ends, a committee of authorized reviewers will meet and select the next game on the queue from the current list of nominations.
For a list of authorized reviewers, refer to the top of this post.
Similar to the Fast Track Queue, a Player's Choice games will bypass the normal queue process and run immediately after they have been selected, in order to encourage the design of new, high-quality submissions. Also like the FTQ, they will require an authorized reviewer to have looked over the setup. Ordinarily, the next Player's Choice game will be selected after the completion of the previous game. However, it is possible that the council may choose to launch additional PCQ games in response to heightened demand periods.
The key difference between the PCQ and the FTQ? Community involvement. As the name would imply, it will be the commmunity's vote that determines which will be the next game to be selected for the PCQ. Also, you can submit a game to the PCQ that has already been nominated to the FTQ.
So, what do you need to do to get on the PCQ?
1. Complete your setup in advance. Make sure it's a good one.
2. Contact an authorized reviewer to work with you on your setup. (We are also looking to increase our numbers of additional authorized reviewers at this time. Please let us know if you're interested in being considered.)
3. You and/or your authorized reviewer nominate your setup by posting a pitch for the setup once the PCQ thread opens, describing relevant features of the design, perhaps providing a flavor sample, explaining why players should be interested in voting for it, as well as any areas for concern, such as balance.
How will the voting process be handled?
Since this is a bit of a grand experiment, the voting for the first PCQ will not have a pre-set time limit. We will accept nominations and votes until stated otherwise, announce a cutoff date when activity begins to slow, and then announce a final deadline for votes. The setup with the most votes by the deadline will win. In the event of a tie at deadline, the first setup to receive an additional vote will win.
Players may change which setup they are voting for at any time, though it may be more convenient for counting purposes if you reserve your bolded votes until near the conclusion of the final voting period. But by all means, feel free to comment on the setups in the meantime.
Currently, PCQ submissions are being taken by the Mafia League Judges to run in the League. If you're interested, please contact Arnnaria, our current Mafia League Bookkeeper. For questions on how voting will be handled while the League is in charge of the PCQ, please see past examples.
-Game Limit-
Players may participate in only three games at any given time. An exception to this rule can be made by moderators in need of a replacement for a game, if no other replacement can be found.
-Suicide-
If you no longer wish to participate in a game for any reason, contact the moderator. Do NOT attempt to force the moderator to modkill you.
-Current Game Discussion-
A player in an ongoing game may not discuss that game with any other player in that game, or in public forums. Also, it is a good idea to ask permission before discussing the game with anyone outside the game, because they can no longer replace into the game once any meaningful discussion takes place.
-Cryptoclaims-
Unless explicitly authorized by the game moderator in their opening rules section, cryptoclaims are forbidden.
-Out-of-game Promises-
Players may not use out-of-game promises (example: I swear on my grandmother's life, I bet you my entire collection of magic cards, etc.) in an effort to influence other players.
-Multiple Players On One Account
"Hydra" accounts - multiple people playing and posting as one player with shared access to the "gimmick" account, are not allowed unless they have prior approval from the specific game Moderator. Please do not do this on your own.
-Traitor/Alignment Switching Roles
Game moderators are strongly encouraged to be extraordinarily careful if they seek to include a traitor role in their designs. These roles are notorious for causing games to implode, for creating fairness concerns, and for the challenge they pose to the town's behavioral analysis. (See Discussion in Council Thread, Post 3351, onwards.)
Blacklist
A player who has been blacklisted may no longer play in any mafia games. The blacklist is reserved for players who seriously compromise the health of games. Blacklisted players can appeal to the mafia council if they wish to have their name removed from the list.
Players listed below may be denied entry at the discretion of moderators, due to a history of chronic lurking, replacing, or some other activity detrimental to the game.
Players and hosts may recommend players to be added to the probation list by PMing the council once the game is concluded (Azrael, AsianInvasion, Ecophagy, atlseal), and by posting a recommendation in the hosting thread.
A host may recommend the removal of a player from this list if they participated well in said host’s game, and players have the right to petition the council for removal from the probation list.
Annorax - Self-nominated for mod WTFery
Artifice 101 - Unsportsmanlike conduct & role PM quoting
Bolly - Self-nominated for personal reasons
Dakkon33327
GiftsTrix - Chronic replacement
Gigas1- Chronic Replacement
Heartwork - Chronic Replacement
Jedcaj
Menma
Natirasha
Pod - Chronic replacement
Silent Prophet - Chronic replacement
Swinkee - Nominated for Disappearing out of Doomsday Mafia, as per the game rules.
Zchinque - Self nominated, chronic replacement
By Azrael
So, you’ve got a case on a player you think is scum. But how can you tell if you’ve got a rock-solid case, or a crumbling foundation?
There’s a good deal of misinformation floating around about the relative strength of scum tells. It’s certainly not a cut-and-dried field. However, there are a number of tells that seem to have proved their worth over the years, just as there’s a body of tells that have proven shaky at best, and baseless at worst.
For my own purposes, I use four classifications of scum tells to help me evaluate their strength. Universal tells, logic tells, possible tells, and emotional or attitude tells.
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Universal tells are the traditional slip-ups that have been identified over years of playing and study. They are activities where the most common explanation of the tell is that the player is scum, and there is a reliable, proven correlation between the behavior and mafia players. A short list of some of the more common examples could include:
-Malicious OMGUS attacks in response to pressure.
-Overaggression in voting patterns.
-Atypical patterns of participation, such as posting only enough to avoid scrutiny, or avoiding certain critical discussions within the town and commenting only on tangential issues.
-Waffling and taking both sides of an issue.
-Lying.
-Poor, unpersuasive, or faked vote rationales.
-Unusual timing of a claim, or role information.
Oftentimes, these tells can be difficult to spot if you’re not paying close attention to a player’s exact wording.
For example, consider this post, ripped from Chapter One:
The last sentence of the post is a clear example of scum-like waffling, taking both sides of an issue. But does that mean that anyone who waffles or examines an issue from two different sides has committed a scum tell? Absolutely not. So how do we tell the difference?
I would suggest that we ought to expand on the causal analysis techniques described in chapter one. What is the cause of this player’s waffling? Is it because it’s a really tough call and the evidence is conflicting? Or is it because the player is mafia, and can’t decide what a townie would actually think? If we can guess the true cause, we can guess the alignment.
With most of the universal tells, it’s easy to see how a scum mindset can be the cause of these behaviors. For example, scum players often fake their vote rationales because they’re inventing them on the spot rather than arriving at them through careful consideration. Through paying close attention to their wording, you should be able to gain a better idea whether players are manufacturing a flimsy justification, or stating what they truly believe.
But be careful. Just because a player commits an action that is considered a universal tell, don’t assume that the scum rationale is the cause. Consider also the possible pro-town causes of the player’s actions. Oftentimes, the pro-town rationales for committing a universal tell can be equally strong or more strong than the scum rationales. In those situations, the behavior you’re looking at should not be counted against them.
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Logic tells are errors of argumentation, such as evasion, misrepresentation, OMGUS, and ad hominem. While equally well known to most players as the universal tells, many of us fail to distinguish between the two. Most often, we make the mistake of equating logic tells with universal tells. Sadly, this is not the case, and this failure to acknowledge the differences between the two has led to countless mislynches over the years.
The reason this occurs is that logic tells are frequently caused not by alignment, but by idiosyncrasies of the player. For instance, ManbearPig in one of the examples from Chapter one refused to respond to further attacks after answering them several times, what many players would call a clear-cut evasion tell. But the reason behind the “tell” was that he felt that he had replied to them sufficiently and at length already. While a scum might feel similarly, the existence of a very reasonable townie rationale weakens the argument that his refusual to respond indicated a scum alignment.
It is critically important that townies recognize that the negative effect of an activity, such as ad hom or misrepresentation, is not the best indicator of whether it is a genuine scum tell. The best indicator of whether a tell is genuine is if there is not a more reasonable and more likely townie explanation for the action. For instance, MBP was an inexperienced player, and he was signaling frustration with the debate throughout his posts. Many players ignored these subtle signs and instead assumed that the reason for his evasion was that he was attempting to hide from exposure. However, there was no concrete reason to believe that he was trying to hide as opposed to simply being inexperienced and frustrated. The context of the activity actually supported the townie rationale most strongly.
Part of the problem with logic tells is their tendency to provoke emotions. When tensions are running high, it becomes easier to begin to see your opponent as an enemy. This, unfortunately, often leads townies to take shortcuts in their arguments. Then, one side may begin to suspect that their opponent isn’t arguing in good faith (and perhaps they are not), at which point they begin to assume that the logic tells are evidence of their opponent’s guilt.
While ad hominem, evasion, and straw-manning are frustrating to encounter, they usually have little or nothing to do with player’s alignment. They can sometimes be indicative of a scum mentality, because there is a weak correlation between sloppy play and scum alignment. But more often than not you will find the weaker, less seasoned members of the town committing these types of activities regardless of their alignment. When these types of tells occur, it is critically important to read between the lines dispassionately. Is the misrepresentation intentional? Is the evasion a function of time, or frustration, or stubbornness, or is it out of fear? Is the ad hom a calculated device, or just pure emotion?
Logic tells should be used to support cases only in rare and exceptional circumstances. They will mislead you more often than they will help you.
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The next category, possible tells, differs in one significant way from universal tells. Similarly to logic tells, they rely on assumptions. If such and such is the case, then that player may be committing some universal tell, such as defending a scum buddy for poor reasons. There is an additional logical step involved in believing that it is a true scum tell: we must believe in condition X, in order to think that Y is a scum tell. These assumptions more often than not prove to be false rather than true.
For instance, in the game with Pale Mage, a number of players involved with his lynch pointed to the difference between one of his short, acerbic replies and a longer, more nuanced explanation he offered later, as a sign of his being coached by his fellow mafia players. IF their assumption that he was coached was true, then it would be a scum tell. But if their assumption was false, or ungrounded, then it would be not be a tell at all. Once again, it is absolutely critical that the basis for the assumption is carefully examined. The change in his posting style could easily have come from any other number of variables, and in time that proved to be the case. But because they made that paranoid assumption, something that should never have been considered a scum tell to begin with was used to create a senseless mislynch.
As a general rule, conspiracy theories and complicated alleged gambits rarely turn out to be true. In most cases, what the activity seems to be on its face is exactly what it is in truth. Paranoia is one of the gravest and most common dangers to the town keeping its judgment objective and insightful. Instead, players should concentrate on what is most likely to be true, and not on far-fetched worst case scenarios.
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Emotional, Mindset, or Attitude Tells
Unlike the other tells, mindset tells aren’t based on a player’s conduct, but on the more intangible behavioral traits lying behind their posts. Despite being more subjective, they can often be quite useful in determining their alignment, because players tend to exercise less control over them. Just as certain universal tells are usually caused by a scum mindset, the emotions and attitudes players show during the game can be very useful clues to their alignment. A typical townie mindset could be described as inquisitive, pro-active, confident and decisive, self-righteous under pressure, and unafraid. Some of the more typical scum fallacies are self-consciousness, contemptuous dismissal of others’ arguments, posting just enough to avoid notice, deceit, manipulation, being prone to faulty logic, showing more concern over plans and irrelevant debates than with finding scum, a tendency to use uncertain language in connection with lynch targets so as not be proved wrong later, a tendency to attack weaker or more inexperienced players, and being nervous or overbold in presenting their role-claim.
Just as with universal tells, however, it is important to consider the context that an emotion or attitude is in. Take Manbearpig’s refusal to continue an argument, for example. While refusing to continue an argument is an extremely anti-town attitude, he had a fairly decent explanation for it. To sum up, mindset tells and universal tells are the type of evidence you most often want to ground your cases on. They still need to be evaluated to make sure that they’re legitimate given the context, but if you can fit those facts and subtle clues into a clear and reasonable picture of what was going on in your suspect’s mind as scum, and show that the townie picture makes no sense, then you have the hallmarks of a very promising case.
Conclusion
1. Universal tells can be strong evidence of guilt. However, it is vitally important to examine the context to see if a reasonable, pro-town rationale exists.
2. Logic tells and possible tells are unreliable and should be used only with extreme caution.
3. Analyzing a player’s emotions and attitude for scum or town patterns can be a good indicator of their alignment.
By Azrael
How do we get better at playing mafia? At the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: honing our behavioral edge. Role analysis and design speculation only get us so far, especially when the moderator designs his game well. Of course, behavioral analysis can be very difficult. Not only do you have to directly compete against another human being who is trying very hard not be discovered, but we also have to be able sift through the false leads created by our own teammates. We have to be able to distinguish between good evidence, and red herrings.
The Scum Tell Method: Actus Reus
But there is a common tendency among players not to approach the problem this way. Most players track of a list of behaviors that people generally say are mafia tells. Evasion, appeals to emotion, defending scum, snacking on babies, and so on. Most players refer to these activities as scum tells. The more scum tells a person has, the higher they are on your scum scale, and the higher the chance that they’re scum. If a player has a higher level of scum tells than you would expect them to have as a townie, they’re put on the short list for your vote. If they max out their scale high enough, the town eliminates them.
In criminal law terminology, they concentrate on the "actus reus". The actions of their fellow players, and whether those actions help or hurt the town, and whether those actions look like one of the traditional mafia tells. The mens rea element (mental state) is deemphasized.
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the scum tell method. It does a fair job of catching inexperienced players who haven’t learned that they need to avoid traditional scum tells at all costs, and can sometimes nab experienced players who slip up and commit one in a moment of weakness. It’s also a good introductory method for newer players, because it teaches beginners to what to look for, and it is very, very simple. You read through the thread, identify behaviors that might be scummy, and cast your vote accordingly. 1,2, 3.
But as times goes on, the weaknesses of this approach have become obvious. For one, may of the activities that were labelled as tells early in the game’s history may not actually be tells at all, or at minimum may be not be anywhere near as strong as we used to believe. Two, this approach is extremely predictable. It gives scum a clear and simple instruction manual of what behaviors to avoid if they don’t want to be lynched. It allows them to hide a guilty mind behind innocent-seeming actions.
But the greatest downside to the scum tell method is that if you choose not to evaluate whether your evidence is reliable, if often won't be. Town players can easily max out a scum scale with activities that have completely innocent and reasonable townie explanations. When that happens, innocent townies become collateral damage, and the scum reap the benefits of pointless and preventable mistakes.
Causation Analysis
The scum tell scale method may be a good technique for beginners, but other methods of analyzing behavior exist. As players become more experienced, they often begin to realize that the game of mafia is more complex than crime and punishment. There is a component of empathy.
Huh? Empathy? What do you mean by that? Are we supposed to feel sorry for the scum?
What I mean by empathy is that we have to be able to step inside the heads of our fellow players. What a player does in public is only one half of the picture. The other half, the more revealing half, is their motive for doing it. We want to figure out the cause of their actions, and their emotions.
But how do we figure that out? None of us are telepathic.
Fortunately, we don’t need to literally step inside anyone’s brain to figure out what they’re thinking. We have their words. Whenever a player writes a post, we can sift through their words and find the unspoken ideas and attitudes that lie behind them. Scum players are increasingly adept at knowing what actions they need to mimic to avoid being caught. But few or none are well-practiced at disguising their thoughts as well as their actions. Here, they’re at their most vulnerable.
In the U.S. criminal system, the courts require not only proof of the actus reus, the criminal act, but also require evidence that the act was taken with the requisite mens rea, a guilty mind. That inquiry is even more useful for mafia, since the town is interested in "bad" actions only when they indicate a guilty mind.
The Anatomy of a Post
1. The effect of the post (likely to help the town, or to hurt it).
2. The motivation for the statement (scum, or townie, true or deceptive, public knowledge or private insight?).
3. The player’s emotions/mood (For example, annoyance at being thrust into the spotlight, or confident that they’re right?).
The effect of a post is the type of analysis that you’ll usually find actus reus analysts concentrating on. If a post is designed to lead to a “bad effect”, it is labelled as a tell. While there is some value to that assumption, you should not conclude that because a post has a bad effect, it must be a scum tell. Likewise, a pro-town post may not be a town tell.
Why not? Motivation. Is there a good reason why a townie would say that Mary is scum? How strong is that reason? Does Johnny Scumsucker's wording sound like his massive PBPAs are more focused on impressing the town, than on serious analysis? We want to ask whether the motivation (if any is provided) reads like a lie. If it is unconvincing, feigned, or dishonest, you have good evidence of scum. If it's plausible, genuine, and natural, you are probably dealing with a townie.
Lastly, it’s important to consider the player’s emotions or mood. If they’re under attack, how are they dealing with it? With righteous anger, or are they nervous, or bitter? Townies and scum players react to pressure in very different ways, and with experience it becomes possible to identify some of the trends. We’ll have more on that in Chapter Two.
Real Life Application
Now let’s view some actual posts from mafia games. Some will be posts that were used to build a case that a person was town, and others were used to identify a player as scum. See if you can use the same information to figure out their true alignment. The right answer, and the reasoning used to arrive at it, is spoilered. Read carefully.
This poster, Manbearpig, is town.
The poster, JodoYodo, is scum.
The poster, Pale Mage, is town.
The player, Robroy, is scum.
The player, TheFooFish, is town.
The player, Azrael, is scum.
In each of the above games, all three of the innocent townies were forced to claim under the scum tell method, despite the causation evidence in their favor. One was also mislynched.
As for the scum, all of the mafia players had previously been flying beneath the radar, undetected by the scum tell method. After being exposed by causal analysis, each was lynched, except for one lucky player who escaped only because the town doubted the strength of its causation analysis and instead relied on claim analysis.
The hard lesson of these experiences is that causal analysis can catch critical details that often slip through the cracks under the scum tell method. Because it refuses to oversimplify the challenges of pegging alignment, causal analysis gives town players a higher degree of accuracy, and having just a few players who apply it can spell the difference between a losing and a winning town.
Summary
1. The best way to tell scum from town is to step inside their mindset.
2. Mafia posts have three areas that are useful to analzye. Effect, motivation, and emotion.
3. While effect can be important, motivation and emotion are the most revealing.
4. When analyzing motivation, consider the competing strengths of the town and mafia explanations for their posting, and whether the player’s defense is artificial and feigned, or seems genuine.
5. When analyzing emotion, consider whether the emotions and attitudes you see are more likely to arise from a scum or a townie mindset.
6. Your overall goal is to figure out the true causes lying behind a player’s words and actions. If you can figure out the cause, you can figure out their alignment.
By Azrael
Once upon a time, the world of mafia believed implicitly in a golden rule: lynch all liars (LAL). But as time rolled on, rogue analysts and daredevils demonstrated decisively that LAL should not be considered an immutable law. Deceit and cunning are not only the province of the mafia, but sometimes of the town.
But with the knowledge that exceptions to LAL exist, came a troubling question: when should townies lie? And when shouldn’t they?
Examples of townie lies sending the town’s plans awry are increasingly common, and all too often have ended in cataclysmic failure. There have been fake daykills that risked forcing players into claiming unilaterally, false mason claims that cost the town the game, players who false-claimed immunity to NKs only to be vigged, townies who false-claimed investigations in order to get someone lynched, and townies who tweaked their role claims in order to make them more convincing, only to be caught out in the end and lynched for their deceit.
By contrast, the category of townie lies that have ended in success is more difficult to recall, and seldom have as high a payoff.
Gambits that elicit reactions from other players have been one of the most effective variety…so long as they are contrived carefully enough that you won’t end up being speared at the point of a lynch (see World Dom 2). More often than not, that is precisely what will happen when the town discovers a lie or gambit, and that is precisely as it should be, in general. As a result, it is absolutely necessary that townies consider the consequences of their lie: if it could lead to a player being false-cleared or mislynched it is probably a much better idea to keep things simple and honest.
The best and safest rule is that a townie should only lie or gambit when there is absolutely nothing to be lost by doing so.
When might that be the case?
Such cases will be rare and far between: and typically they will involve lies or gambit from players who can prove their town alignment, and thereby guarantee that they won’t be lynched. In most cases, a successful townie lie isn’t a bald-faced lie, but simply a gambit that relies on some degree of deceit, on not everything being as simple as it seems. Sometimes, an analyst might feign an activity that will lead players to attack them on a poor, faulty basis. If they have a method of proving that the attacks were baseless, or of proving their alignment definitively, there is a good chance that the town will acquire some useful information.
For instance, in Cartoon Mafia, a mini-game by Aurorasparrow, Cropcircles faked a daykill directed at me; a risky gambit that could easily have backfired. Unbeknownst to him, I was in fact a real townie daykiller, and he had put me in the dilemma of whether I should in fact fire my own retaliatory daykill back at him before being daykilled. At the time, I was unsure of whether Cropcircles’ kill was legitimate, but he was also one of the town’s prime suspects. I was torn: to kill, or not to kill?
Instead, I opted to feign a daykill of my own at Cropcircles in retaliation. The gambit had several advantages. It did not misrepresent my actual abilities, it could provoke additional reactions, and it had the chance of exposing whether Cropcircles’ kill was real or not before the mod arrived. If I was dead because of Cropcircles’ ability, the gambit would do no harm and the town would learn that I was the town’s true daykiller, not Cropcircles, and lynch him. Or, if it exposed his gambit, the town would gain information on one of its prime suspects and on other players through their reactions. The risk in that case was minimal, but it offered a chance of nabbing scum.
Another example of a pro-town gambit with minimal risk, a fictional situation rather than an anecdote from an actual game, involves a cop-cleared night communicator role who has the ability to allow two other players (not including himself) to talk during the night for the remainder of the game. In this scenario, the town’s cop has come out and confirmed the alignment of the night communicator, a vanilla townie, and the mafia RBer, who is due to be lynched at the end of the day. But the town’s doctor is dead, and the cop is unlikely to see the light of day again.
With just one or two more successful investigations, the town might be able to clear some of its prime suspects and steal a win from the jaws of defeat. But the cop is very likely to die before she can share any more results.
The night communicator is unclaimed. He decides that his best move will be to target the cop and the vanilla townie the following night, and allow the vanilla townie to learn the cop’s investigation results before the cop is killed.
But in addition to that move, the communicator has another option. He can false-claim the ability to “counteract” the impending kill on the cop in the coming night. Because he is cop-cleared, this gambit is very unlikely to result in his lynch. It is also a wonderful half-truth, because by giving the cop’s night result to the vanilla townie, he has “counteracted” the power of the kill to prevent the investigation from going through. If he makes this statement convincingly, he may succeed in attracting the mafia’s fire the following night, giving the cop the opportunity to share two more investigation results with the vanilla townie before dying. At worst, the mafia disbelieve him and fire at the cop anyways. At best, the town gets an extra investigation.
Most of the time, opportunities like those above will be rare, the exceptions to the rule, and require creativity and careful thought to fine-tune. In the vast majority of cases, townies should never lie, and use gambits only sparingly. LAL is not an immutable law, but it is a very useful tool, and it is undermined when players attempt to abuse the new-found leniency in its application.
At the end of the day, townies ought to be able to trust their fellow townies. Whenever you come up with a gambit, always make sure that whatever course you are contemplating does not risk destroying that trust, or turning it against the town. When in doubt, play it safe. Discretion is often the better part of valor, and boys with long noses are very prone to find their necks within the noose.
Good luck and happy hunting,
-Azrael
By Xyre
I know what you're inevitably thinking... what's an admittedly bad player of the game doing discussing the game? That's a damn good question.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not good at mafia, and my record speaks for itself. However, I do have a few thoughts about the theory of the game as a whole that I feel could be useful for consideration. Specifically, about the philosophy of metagaming in mafia.
For reference: the way I see it, there are two major ways of playing the game - playing off players, and playing off the setup. The former is the tried-and-true method of gameplay - analyzing tells, making judgments, predicting players' moves and reading them. This is, of course, harder than the latter, which is playing off the setup, which effectively treats the players as merely a means to determine who claims first. Now, of course, there are those of you in the audience - yes, I see you, you may put your hands down - who will argue plainly, "well, isn't that the nature of mafia? Like some brilliant, complex, dynamic puzzle?"
Yes and no. I will admit, first, that every game of mafia ever (with the exception of vanilla games, but then again, they're the exception to everything) has boiled down to a claim comparison. This varies, of course: see the mass claims on Day 1, against the games where the claims only come out when the town is desperate. Which brings us to a tangent: how good is metagaming the setup, from a strategic perspective? To be perfectly honest, I don't know, and the statistics of such an issue are probably impossible to conceive of or measure, if by nature only. This article is not about that, although such a thought will inexorably draw us to the main topic, which is how the mod fights back. But I'm losing track. Hang on.
Okay. So, every game ever has turned to claims; that's clear. And yes, claims serve as wonderful weapons against the mafia, and yes, that dynamic makes the game unique in its complexity. These I will agree with.
But there is one casualty of such a perspective (and here is where I draw the loop I opened above back closed). The game of mafia, by its very nature, is a competition between an informed and empowered minority and a blind, weak (individually) majority. The way the mafia wins is by lying and scheming and playing through the town. The way the town wins is by preventing such. This is obvious.
But what metagaming does is it draws a third party into the game (besides SKs, whom I've avoided because they're too complex and chaotic in themselves for consideration in this wonderfully simplistic model I'm utilizing here) - the mod.
To reference, I draw your attention to Matrix Mafia. Matrix was a perfect game for analyzing how this dynamic works. It was complex, puzzling, aggravating, both in its successes and failures. After that game, Grakthis (may he rest in 'Tings) made a comment that is particularly important in this kind of discussion. He said: "The mod should NEVER delight in the outcome of a game. If he does, it means he had an active interest in it, which means he messed up." And I commented on this by saying that "Moderators are like artists. They delight most when their art turns out as a masterpiece. While a mod shouldn't favor one side over the other, I think it's perfectly normal if a mod delights in how everything turned out. See: the stealth player at the end of Sin City. Things came together so well in that game, there was no reason why Azrael shouldn't have been pleased."
Well, I'm here to redress that statement a bit.
Over time, as games have become increasingly complicated, more rules have been bent, more people have been left angry, and so on as is the nature of this game, players have found themselves resorting more and more to mod-metagaming. Matrix, again, is a perfect example, with several lynches on players who didn't know what was going on, like Hvirfilvindr, HAWKEYE7, and myself. And while some of this did fall on analysis of tells (the blatant ones, at least), more often than not, the town made its judgments based purely on a simple question, which defines the entirety of the setup-metagaming issue:
"What are the odds this role exists?" No matter how much this question is used in all games to some degree.
You see what the problem is? As soon as the players decide to play the game by analyzing roles, rather than players, the game becomes less about town vs. scum and more about town vs. scum vs. mod. You see?
And here's where I cast out another loop to fill out when I get to the second part of this. As players' involvement in the game increases, their desire for the "next big thing" increases. I know this phenomenon; I have played this game into a third year now, and I watch games as much for the intrigue as to see what the setup is. The problem, of course, is that mods are now trapped. To keep players interested, the mod is forced to up the ante; but by doing so, the mod is investing more in the setup. It's less a "doc-cop-vig" kind of thing; the mod is now an active participant. He has to build his setup to combat metagaming. This is his active interest. So when Grak says "mods should never be active participants", it's less about creativity here: it's more about survival, as it were.
So what ought to be done about this (here's the connection)? Well, to be frank, I am unsure. Regrettably, it's something akin to a vicious circle. Players want complicated setups; mods have to work harder to prevent the game from falling apart; players find themselves in a deeper hole and start digging more, thus requiring more from the mods, and so onward. Coming from a mod's perspective, I would say that pushing the bar is natural. Blood Moon Mafia, for example, was a blatant example of me trying to one-up both myself and the specialties before me (meaning Sin City). Regrettably, this is a systemic flaw. At the same time, based on the difficulty of true analysis, as seen through increasing reliance on the same dozen-or-so players to help the town along, there's no sign of players stopping with metagaming.
Here's my solution. As a sidenote... I do not believe for a moment that this will end metagaming. Indeed, a slight amount of metagaming is important. This is intended to try to address the vicious circle I addressed above.
1) Players - stop blaming mods for "bad/complicated games". Yes, this is hard. Yes, I'm guilty of this as well. But the problem is that this perpetuates both the over-innovation of mods and the subsequent need to move toward playing off the setup that is the bane of the game.
2) Mods - stop throwing blunt objects into your games to combat metagaming (like multiples of power roles). If anything can be learned from games that have done this, like The Greenwood Affair, it's that this doesn't work and only makes the problem worse. If anything, mods ought to just not assume the players are going to turn on their radar for those kinds of things, but then the game would suffer from an inability for scum to false-claim their way back in.
3) Mods - cut back on investigative roles. Most mods have wizened up to this, but a glut of information, combined with a mass-claim, is going to turn players off to analysis. I'm not so presumptuous as to say we ought to eliminate straight cops altogether, but the thought has crossed my mind, and it would help rectify some of the problems oversaturation of information causes.
4) Players - stop lurking, you lazy bastards. I know you're busy and whatnot, but that's no excuse for signing up for multiple games and playing in none of them to a sufficient degree. Hell, on 'Tings, they play one game at a time and the players (for the most part) play the game religiously. I believe that player inattention probably causes its fair share of metagaming, as players who can't be bothered to play the game sufficiently probably also can't be bothered to create PBPAs. But I do recognize that this is both a broader concern than the others and one that may be difficult to solve.
In conclusion, I appreciate your time, and expect to see you signing up for The Fiasco Corporation, coming soon. /plug
Xyre
Ripped from a thread by Puzzle
I'm probably not the best guy around to do this but I trust the good ones will come and complete / correct / amend this list.
Having been recently contacted for a setup review, I realized that we need a thread like this one, to help everyone design fun and balanced setups. The purpose is not to say "such role is fun" or what, it's to help everyone make sure their setup will be have the best chances to be enjoyed by the players.
So, to begin somewhere, here are a couple of "rules" for a good design :
1. You are making a setup for your players to have fun, not for you to. The lesser your presence is felt, the best the game will be for the players.
2. Mafia should represent 25% to 33% of the total number of players, changers included, depending on their abilities / advantages.
3. Always make sure that a mass-claim doesn't break the game. Whenever a setup involves a restricted number of possible claims, give safe ones to the scums or make the mafia not evident by their names.
3 bis. Winning via comparing mod PMs should also not be possible. Banning mod PM quoting is the general way to do it, but if you allow it, you should vary the writing style and wordings of the win conditions.
4. In the same vein, never make any more than 10% to 20% very confirmable townies (from the setup, masonry or cop/doc role). The mafia should have a chance to generate mislynches.
4 bis. Not every role has to have an ability. It may be slightly less interesting for a player if they are basic town, or arent mafia with some extra one use whatever, but a game stocked with 100% power roles is both a pain to mod and to balance.
5. Sleepers / switchers and all kinds of changers are very unbalancing factors that tend to shorten games, by accelerating situations either way. Use them with extreme caution, if ever. On the opposite, Neutrals are generally stabilizing factors. Always wonder whether irregular roles will encourage the game to last (fun) or shorten it (a bit frustrating or dispappointing).
Avoid creating super-powerful roles. This prevents huge tilts should that role be randomly killed or be a lurker.
6. Neutral roles (including SK) should be rather on the powerful side than the weak one, given that scums will try to kill them at night and everybody will go for them during the day.
7. Avoid giving any certainty in any form to the players. Certainty is antithetic with fun in Mafia.
8. Do not pre-plan what a player should claim or how he should play given his role for him. It's more fun if roles are created to interact with each other, rather than being completely independent but don't forget that you have knowledge of the whole setup while the players don't. A way to play may be obvious to you but it isn't or at least shouldn't be for the players. They will also often take a path you missed, according to Murphy's Law. In short, let doors open for different ways to play to your players.
Play out some "worst-case scenarios" for the town and mafia beforehand to make sure the game doesnt degenerate really quickly but keep in mind they'll find scenarii you didn't plan.
9. Try to minimise randomness in the game, since Mafia is chaotic enough as it is. It's quite depressing when the result of a game hinges on a single coin flip (eg. 50% to avoid death, 25% to kill another player etc.) rather than the players' skill.
10. Avoid synchro-lynches : they make games shorter and breakable through confirmed townies or mafiosi voting last.
11. When designing a game, be aware of how you want to start it. Day starts tend to be slow (no info), and will generally lead to random bandwagons, but supposedly (?) are better for the town than night starts. Night starts generate early action, but you may get the random death of a power role or a random early scum investigation. From a player perspective, it also sucks to join a game and die before it really starts. No-kill Night starts are a compromise between the two.
If you have 12 players or less, consider the implications of mislynches and night kills : the town should always be authorized at the very least 1 mislynch without having to vig to win.
12. Players appreciate flavor and good descriptions. They also appreciate PM feedback for night actions. (I guess this isn't so much about good design than it is about being a good host.). *Note : this does not apply for French mods who stink at writing scenes*
By Axelrod
For anyone who has ever attempted to design a Mafia game, one of the most important questions, perhaps the single most important question, that they must ask themselves is this: Is this set-up balanced?
"Balanced" in this context meaning simply, “is this a set-up where both sides have a reasonable chance of winning?” Which is not the same thing as an “equal” chance. Given the host of intangibles present in any Mafia game, creating a set-up in which both sides might be said to have perfectly equal chances of winning is an impossibility. Ideally, one should simply try to create a set-up in which the chances for either side are close enough so that no one will look back at the end and have the extremely frustrating feeling that they never truly had a chance to begin with.
What follows are some of my ideas concerning balance in Mafia games, including the system that I currently use to evaluate games that I review. These are ideas that I developed over a long period of time, based on games played, read, and designed, but which I had never put down into numbers.
In particular, my goal was to see whether or not a “point” based system – one in which all the roles of the game are given a numerical value – could be made to work.*
Obviously no point based system is going to be perfect, but it seemed like a good place to start, and after using this system for more than a year-and-a-half and applying it to many, many different types of Mafia set-ups, I have developed great faith in it.
The Basic Role Values:
Vanilla Townie = 1
Cop = 4
Doc = 3
Vigilante = 3
Role-blocker = 2
Vanilla Mafia = 4.5 (I have tried this several different ways. Valuing a mafia at 5 seems too high, but valuing one at 4 seems slightly low. I therefore, brilliantly, put it right in the middle. How scientific of me)
Where did I get these numbers from? I started by plugging them into some very basic Mafia set-ups (using 25% Mafia as baseline):
12 players: 9 town, 3 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
In this set-up, the town has 9 points (nine vanilla townies worth 1 point each.) The mafia has 13.5 points (three mafia worth 4.5 each.) Because the mafia “score” is higher, the mafia should win a majority of the games using this set-up if it's correct, and I do believe it is correct. To “balance,” change 2 of the basic townies to a Cop and Doc. Now the points are: Town 14, Mafia 13.5, which is at least close to being even.
The margin of error I decided on is +/- 1 mafia member (or 4.5 points). In other words, if the points add up so that the two sides are within 4.5 of each other, it shouldn’t play as too unbalanced. The vanilla set-up above is actually within this margin of error, and I believe you could play the vanilla set-up and no one would jump up and down at the end about how unfair it was. Similarly, adding a Vigilante role to the town in addition to the Cop and Doc. doesn’t unbalance the game, it just shifts the odds around a little.
The point isn’t to be exact, but to get things in the ballpark.
20 players: 15 town, 5 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
Here the town has 15 points, while the mafia has 22.5. Again, if you played this exact set-up, I believe the mafia would win a significant majority of the time. If we add a Cop and a Doc. role then the town has 20 points to the mafia’s 22.5. This is much closer, though I think such a set-up still favors the mafia a bit. So again, it seems right.
It is my belief that, for a 20 player game with no abilities (i.e. Mountainous Mafia), the closest balance you can achieve is to have 16 town players (16 points) and 4 mafia players (18 points).
24 players: 18 town, 6 mafia
Town = 1
Mafia = 4.5
Here the town has 18 points, while the mafia has 27. This would appear to swing very strongly in favor of the mafia, and, again, I believe that actual games played would bear out that assumption. You can cut an entire mafia here (I think 5 mafia is probably correct in a 24 player game). At a minimum, you could add a Cop and a Doc., making the town score 23 and Mafia score 27. This is still favoring mafia, which I think is true, but it is definitely closer. Again, whether one agrees on the exact number values doesn’t matter.
The Serial Killer
A Serial Killer (SK) in the mix throws the numbers off. A SK will typically give an edge to the mafia simply by virtue of the fact that he will usually be hitting a townie at least 2/3 more often. How much of an edge the presence of a SK gives is an open question (possibly deserving of it’s own article), but my working premise is that a SK should be valued as an extra mafia - using my numbers = 4.5 points. These would be points added to the total mafia score for purposes of determining game balance.
*Note: I make no effort to balance the SK role itself. His chances of winning are never good, and it would be a great mistake, in my opinion, for a game moderator to try and design a game where the serial killer’s chances were equal to the town and mafia’s.
Returning to a typical 20 player set-up, with a SK in the mix there are two primary ways to distribute the roles. One could have 15 town, 4 mafia, and 1 SK, or 14 town, 5 mafia and 1 SK.
In the former scenario, before counting the SK, the town has 15 points, and the mafia has 18. In the second scenario, the town has 14 points and the mafia score is 22.5.
Counting the SK as an “extra” mafia, then in Scenario #1, the mafia score would go up to 22.5. In the second scenario, the mafia score would go all the way up to 27.
So to “balance” these scenarios for the town, they need more. A Cop/Doc/Vig. gives the town in the first scenario 22 points vs. the mafia 22.5. That’s close. In scenario #2, the Cop/Doc/Vig. gives the town 21 points to the mafia’s 27. This is still not “balanced.” Here you would want to give even more power to the town (or simply cut a mafia and go with scenario #1).
All this is with a completely vanilla mafia. If you want to give the mafia any abilities, which most moderators do, then that would increase the value of the mafia roles (over and above the 4.5 they are worth to begin with).
Rough estimates on other Role values:
Back-Up Cop/Doc: 2.5/2
Watcher: 2
Tracker: 2
1-Shot Vigilante: 2
Masons (with confirmation that co-masons are town):
-2 man group: 2 points each, total 4.
-3 man group: 2.5 points each, total 7.5
-4 man group: 3 points each, total 12
(this assumes a large 20+ person game. A Mason group in a mini-game is even more powerful because they make up a larger percentage of the total town. I don't think confirmed Masons should ever represent more than .20% of the total town bodies.)
In addition, it is possible to have roles with negative values which take points away from their respective sides (or are simply worth less than 1). For example, I typically value a “Miller” role on the side of the town as .5 points. He still has some value to the town – he can vote, and provide analysis - but his drawback makes him worth less than even a vanilla townie.
A role that the mafia does not have to eliminate to win (such as a Survivor role) would be zero points, generally speaking.
There are other considerations as well, such as Day Start vs. Night vs. Kill vs. No-kill 1st Night. These I have not examined quite as closely, but I have a few additional premises:
-A day start generally favors the town = +1 to total town score
-Cop Head Start (Night start with use of all abilities but no kills allowed = +2 to town (and this could potentially be even more if the town had multiple investigate roles or more useful actions to take during the night.)
The number and variety of roles that creative moderators can design are literally limitless, but what I have found is that the foregoing system provides a very solid foundation for balancing all type of mafia games, and that it is not difficult to estimate a value for a new role simply by comparing it to the values of roles already known.
I hope this system is of some use to new (and even experienced) mafia moderators. It is still very much a work in progress, and I welcome any comments or feedback players may have.
*I do not claim any of these ideas as blindingly original thoughts. You can find some very similar suggestions in several Discussion Threads in the forums at Mafiascum, and I am indebted to several individuals over there for inspiring me to try and create a more comprehensive system. The ultimate methodology described herein, however, is almost entirely my own.
__________________
By LookingforReality
Understanding how you can control pacing in a game is extremely important to unlocking the best methods of provoking useful reactions from players.
I define pace as how many different reactions there are on a given topic of conversation. For example, if a certain player is questioned for voting no lynch in a game, the number of different responses from players determines the pace of the game. In a well-paced game, by definition the responses are more diverse and thereby provoke more discussion. The more helpful the discussion is, the more players will seek to contribute, and the more posts you will have in a thread.
A brisk pace is necessary for the enjoyment and the success of any town in any game. Analyzing whether a player is lagging behind the pace allows you to see who is lurking and who is not: if someone is not responding to discussion, he perhaps does not want his thoughts to be seen. Pace keeps players interested; I would much rather read something that generates excitement and responses than boring, passive posting. Pacing allows the game to remain intense and full of twists and turns.
AA and PA
Specific posts have two kinds of pace: Active Affecting posts (AA), and Passive Affecting posts (PA).
If there is a response or reaction caused by a post, the post is actively affecting the game. A question is the simplest way of actively affecting the game: you are providing the opportunity for a player to answer the question, thereby adding another response or reaction. Provoking interesting discussion is another way of actively affecting the game.
If there are no reactions or responses generating by a post, it is passively affecting the game.
Making a Post Actively Affect the Game
Questioning players is the best way to ensure a post will be actively affecting the game. Whereas with any other AA post you are fishing for responses, a question must be replied to, or there are huge consequences for the scum.
Always try to condense posting material if possible. Anyone can be verbose, but taking out unnecessary parts or simplifying your language will make your post much more readable. And of course, the more people who read your posts, the more replies to it there will be.
Another general way of increasing the pace of your posts will generally be to present your posting in a new and original way. This does not necessarily entail a massive playstyle change, but making sure that players will want to reply to your posts is a good skill to have.
1. In Defense of Pace, by LookingforReality
2. Mafia Pointing Theory, by Axelrod
2.5. Balancing a Mafia Setup, compiled from a thread by Puzzle
3. Notes from a Newb: My Favorite Flavor is Vanilla, by BigTime
4. Meta-Meta, by Xyre
5. The Pinocchio Problem: When Should a Townie Lie?, by Azrael
6. Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 1 - Causal Analysis, by Azrael
7. Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 2 - Evaluating the Strength of Evidence, by Azrael
8. MTGS (Specialty) Game Design, by Azrael
9. Three Games Within the Game, by Sir Mu
10. Advanced Setup Design, By Kraj - (Highly recommended reading.)
As another option for playing Mafia, you can visit the MTGS #mafia channel. There, you can play live games with other players, modded either in person or via a Mafia bot.
To join us, connect to IRC through your own client (such as mIRC, Trillian, or Chatzilla) or through the MTGS Java applet tab (labeled 'Chat') at the top of the page. Once you've connected to irc.globalgamerscenter.net, join the #mafia channel (using the command /join #mafia), and you're ready to go!
MafiaBOT Progress
The MafiaBOT is an automated IRC script for running a Mafia game. It handles signups, role assignments, votes, lynches, role abilities, and ending the game. The most recent version of the bot is hosted by Xyl.
As of the latest update, the following features are available:
- Basic roles: vanilla townies, vanilla mafia, cops (all sanities), docs, roleblockers, vigilantes, Godfather, SK, masons
- Other roles: cult leader, miller, watcher, tracker, survivor, siblings
- Support for roles with multiple votes or zero votes
- The ability to create "backup" roles (e.g. Nurse, Retired Cop)
- Support for daytime abilities
- Effects that trigger upon a player's death or lynch
- Variants: Eyewitness, Dethwing Classic, Lyncher, Momir
- Ability to easily create custom setups to be loaded into MafiaBOT
Bot creator/developer: XylVanilla Townie: normal player without any special abilities, aside from the ability to vote. Every single basic (and most nonbasics) will have a least a few of these roles.
Town Doctor: a protective role that may be used once a night to protect someone from a killing action, such as a nightkill or vig' shot. In most variations, the doctor cannot protect himself (with very rare exceptions).
Town Cop: an investigative role that may be used once at night to determine if a player is mafia or town. Considered the strongest investigative role by most users. (occasionally unreliable, see Variation--Questionable Cops)
Town Vigilante: often referred to as a vig, the vigilante is a killing role that may be used at night to kill any target player. In basics, sometimes the Vigilante is given a limit of 1-2 shots, meaning they can only use the ability a limited number of times. Full vigs do not have a shot limit.
Town Tracker: an investigative role that can target a player at night and will be told by the mod that player targeted anyone else, but not know what they did. (Because the tracker has to specifically target the player doing something, this is considered one of the weaker investigative roles.)
Town Watcher: an investigative role that targets a player at night. The watcher will then be told by the mod if anyone else targets the player the watcher chooses, although will be unaware of what actions are attempted on the target. (The watcher is a good role for catching a scum on an obvious nightkill target.)
Town Roleblocker: This is a town disabler role. The target of this role will be unable to use any of their abilities the night targeted. In most cases, this will also stop the mafia night kill. A town role blocker is uncommon, but not heard of, as the role blocker in a game in typically a scum role blocker. (This is considered a weaker role, due to having the tracker weakness of having to target the correct player, as well as the ability to backfire by disabling another town player.)
Bulletproof Townie: This is a town passive role. This townie cannot be killed by abilities, although can still be lynched normally. (This is considered powerful, as without claiming, this role can usually soak up at least 1 mafia nightkill. In basics, this will usually take the place of a protective role.)
Town Jailer: a combination of disabler and protective. The target of the jailer will be protected (see Doc), but cannot use abilities either (see Roleblocker). Jailers can never target themselves as this creates a paradox. (Typically protects the doctor in a basic.)
[Town] Mason(s): a group of players with a separate chat that they can communicate with each other. The largest advantage of the masons are that they can confirm themselves as town, and coordinate behind the scenes. [This assumes "confirmed masons." In some variations in larger games, three (or more?) masons may have a scum mason in the group with the remaining players being uninformed of this fact; known as "unconfirmed masons."]
Town Hider: a protective role. At night, this player may hide themselves behind another player, and will only be killed if the player they are hiding behinds dies. Some variations will kill the hider if they hide behind a non-town player, while others have restrictions (e.g. you can only hide every other day).
Town Back-up Role: a role that activates on the death of another power role and takes their place. Until the original power dies, a back up is vanilla for all intents and purposes. Upon the death of the character, the back-up "activates" and is told by the mod what they are. Common back-ups include a cop (deputy), doctor (nurse), or vigilante (side kick?).
Town Jack of All Trades: a role with usually have 2-3 different examples of common abilities (such as doctor, cop, or vig), but will only have a shot or two of each. (How to make the most of those abilities is the key to using this role.)
Town Role Cop: an investigative role similar to the typical "alignment cop," the role cop will receive from the mod the ability(ies) of whoever is targeted at night, but not the alignment. (While useful for gathering information and clearing claims, this is weaker/less reliable than an actual cop.)
Variation--Day Abilities (Cop/vig)
Although rare, day cops or vigs are the same as their standard counterparts, but their abilities can be used during the day. In this situation, typically the choice to cop or vig will be announced publicly in bold, with some sort of mod confirmation.
MAFIA ROLES:
Mafia Goon: the equivalent of a Vanilla Townie, a Goon has no special powers other than the vote, the mafia night chat, and the fact that he knows who his teammates are.
Mafia Roleblocker: this is a disable ability that prevents the target from using their night action. Typically, you will receive flavor text from the moderator, even if you did not attempt an action or don’t have an ability, although it will not be confirmed you’re were roleblocked. (By far, the most common type of scum PR in a basic.)
Mafia Rolecop: similar to the town rolecop, this is a scum power used to help determine town roles. At night, that player is targeted and their role (in any) is revealed. This can help determine who to use the mafia’s night kill on.
Mafia Tracker: a weaker version of the rolecop, the scum tracker works as a town tracker does with the same purpose as the Scum Role Cop: To find town power roles.
Mafia Tough Guy: the mafia’s version of the vig. This role is considered powerful, because unlike a town vig, the scum tough guy knows who NOT to shoot.
Mafia Godfather: this is considered one of the stronger mafia roles. The Godfather’s most relevant power is that he/she will return a non-guilty verdict from a cop investigation. In some versions, the Godfather is also immune to night kill shots, and can also make the final decisions for the scum nightkill.
NEUTRAL ROLES:
Survivor: a role where the players goal is simply to survive to the end game. They don't care if Mafia or Town get lynched, just as long as they don't. They can either play as town and take the chance of getting nightkilled, or play scummy and take the chance of getting lynched.
Serial Killer: Independent player who has a nightkill ability and a goal to kill everyone else in the game. This player wins if they are the last player standing.
Basic game: a game of the simplest level of design. Players should expect traditional mafia roles with very little embellishment. [Basic games are an excellent place to work on mastering behavioral analysis techniques. While new players are always welcome to join other game types, basic games provide a simple, uncomplicated introduction to the fundamentals of the Mafia game.]
Bastard Game: A setup in which the moderator inflicts confusing, difficult, suspicious-seeming, or misleading roles and mechanics on the players. Generally disapproved of, in favor of games that put a greater emphasis on analyzing behavior than role analysis.
Bastard Mod: A moderator who designs bastard games.
“barn” (/barn): to agree with it without contributing independent thought; short for barnacle, it is meant to be a metaphor for riding along with someone else’s opinion.
Burnout: a player ability that, when used, removes all other abilities the player has for the rest of the game.
Bus: an action word (often “bussing”) used to describe when a mafia member actively votes or participates in the lynching of one of their teammates in order to gain credibility in the eyes of the town. Sometimes even leads to full lynches of mafia by other mafia in order to win the overall game.
CC: Counter-Claim (See below)
Claim: giving out the information in your role PM in a post during a game. (This must be paraphrased and retyped because copying and pasting, or “quoting”, is against the spirit of uncertainty in the game.) This is called a claim because it cannot be called a certainty until the player is dead (or the game is over in some extreme cases) Types include:
False Claim: a claim where a player lies about his PM information because to tell the truth would cause some sort of game disadvantage. Mafia must typically false claim to keep from getting lynched, but sometimes Town false claim, too. This is generally to keep from exposing power roles.
Confirmed: a word used to describe a player that has been proven or verified as a town member.Full Claim: the type of claim usually required when you are within a few votes of being lynched. Includes all pertinent information from your role PM.
Mass Claim: everyone playing gives their role PM in the game thread to put all the information out there and make it potentially harder for scum to hide.
Soft Claim: a claim where someone has given partial information as to their role PM, such as name, gender, etc.
Counter-Claim: an action taken by a player who sees part of their own unique claim used as another player’s defense. Usually used to catch scum in lies. (As in many cases in this game, sometimes the reverse is true as well where a scum false counter-claims when a town player is forced to claim. See False Claim above.)
Crypto-Claim: Crypto-Claims/Acronym Claim - Crypto-claiming is a method of forcing players to put their role claims on record publicly in encrypted form, without revealing their content until a later time. The most common method of crypto-claiming is the acronym claim, in which players encrypt a message describing their role by posting the first letter of every word in the message, together with the number of words and the number of characters in the message. Later, the town can require each player to reveal the encoded message, and verify that the word and character limits match. Generally a banned game maneuver. Attributed to Azrael. Example: TYVM. 4 words, 16 letters. Decoded: Thank you very much.
Day (as opposed to day): game phase where players post in the thread, attempt to make cases, and vote for lynches. When lower-case, indicates “in real life” time.
Deadline: a set time where the remaining players must reach a consensus vote as to who will be lynched or the Mod will be forced to move the game into the next (usually Night) Phase.
Distancing: a scum tactic where two scum argue or post against each other, either by fighting over a third party or about their own loyalties. This makes it harder to tell who the scum are if one player of the pair is lynched. Sometimes results in a Bus (See Above).
EBWODP: Edit By Way Of Double Post. Since editing posts is illegal in this game and sometimes corrections need to be made, by starting a second post with this acronym you may fix errors that make the content of the original post confusing.
EWP: Edit While Previewing(?). Before posting and when previewing a post about to be sent, this is an edit that occurs because someone else has posted since the player performing the edit started their composition.
False Claim: see Claim.
Fearmongering: a baseless argument where a player declares simply that something bad will happen if they are lynched.
Fishing: mafia technique of using statements to elicit information from someone(s) in the game that they would normally keep to themselves. Typically used to determine town power roles.
Flavor: the fictional design elements added to a game of Mafia that give it style and uniqueness. Frequently loosely based off of popular cultural fictional properties, this gives the players something to discuss and characters to portray i.e. roles.
Flavor Gaming: attempting to use the implementation of flavor in the game as a means to deduce facts about the game and thereby change the game state.
Flooding: also known as post-flooding, can infrequently be a scum play but is more frequently an overly enthusiastic new player’s misunderstanding of how to maintain a healthy game where everyone can keep up, even if they don’t follow the game every day. Akin to spam in any forum thread on the internet.
FoS: Finger of Suspicion. Weaker than a vote, stronger than simply speaking about concerns that a player’s posts have created, FoS is meant as an attention grabber for the town to notice and also an in-game attack on the player indicated. (Also sometimes HoS, Hand of Suspicion and PoS, Pinkie of Suspicion. These last two are degrees of emphasis for FoS that have been used in Mafia elsewhere.)
FTQ or Fast-Track-Queue game: a process where a game is selected by an experienced commitee of players to skip the usual wait time for start-up. Games vary in their complexity.
Gambit: an active line of play, frequently involving deception, where a player takes a specific series of actions to illicit change in the game to benefit their team. Examples include a false counter claim, bussing, false claiming an investigative role and a known result, Daykill attempts to illicit responses, etc.
Gimmick: An account where an experienced player may disguise who they are to play the game without months or years of previous experience in the thread for others to read up on. Etiquette dictates that the other player in a game with a Gimmick trust the Moderators of not only the game but also the sub-forum that a Gimmick is a player participating within the rules, and that efforts to determine their identity are against the spirit of the game no matter how frustrating this is to the non-gimmick player.
Goon: a basic mafia role without any special powers in the game. This character is more expendable to the mafia than a power role.
Hammer: to cast the last vote that lynches a player. (Has a sort of “Hot Potato” feel to it, meaning the last player to vote on a lynch is left with the hammer the next day, meaning they will be usually the first suspect. Frequently seen as a scum tell when actually is a null tell. The motivation behind the last vote must be determined to be certain if the hammering player is town or not.)
Hydra: a form of gimmick account where two or more players are playing as one. This is sometimes used as a method of mentoring, other times it actually is a game element, and occasional other times it can be used by a pair of experienced players as a shared account to help free them from meta expectations.
IGMEOY: I’ve Got My Eye On You. Another weaker variation of FoS generally regarded as more warning than accusation.
IIRC: If I Recall Correctly.
IMO: In My Opinion. Also IMHO, with H standing for Honest/Humble.
“in” (/in): used in sign up threads to indicate interest in joining the game
ITT: In This Thread, also sometimes I Think That...
Kingmaker: rarely used variant game structure where instead of a majority vote leading to a lynch, during Night one player is made "king" and holds the power of the Day's lynch decision.
L-1: Lynch minus one, meaning one vote away from a the number of votes required to lynch a player. Any other L-# you see indicates (the number required to lynch) - (the number voting lynch on the higest voted player now) = #
LAL: Lynch All Liars. A philosophical viewpoint that basically states, “If you lie, we will lynch you,” based on the idea that town players shouldn’t lie.
Lurking: the practice of posting at a minimum so as to contribute sparingly and thereby raise little confirmable suspicion. Sometimes a tactic used to execute scum strategies and get to more powerful night actions, but then again sometimes used by town power roles to avoid mislynches. ("Lurking in plain sight" would be posting nothing that changes the game state, while appearing to keep a reasonable post count.)
(My)LyLo: (Mis)Lynch or Lose. Late game state where town players must come together and vote correctly or they will be at even numbers with the scum and thereby lose the game. "Mislynch or lose" is a variant where the town can safely no-lynch, but can't mislynch or they will lose.
Lynch: the point in a game when the votes on a single player equal a majority of the players left alive and that player is killed. Types include:
Safe Lynch: A safe lynch is a term coined for lynching either a claimed nuetral role, or a claimed town who has added none or negatively effected the town through WIFOM, distraction, ect. It is called a safe lynch because a lynch on this person will not harm the town, regardless of alignment.
Mass Claim: see Claim.Policy Lynch: Like a safe lynch, a policy lynch does not typically care if the target is scum or not, but to lynch a distraction, or a player who commits a pretty clear cut scum tell. The most common example of policy lynch is the Lynch all Liars clause. However, typically distraction players may also be considered for a policy lynch, however, not everyone agrees policy lynches are best for a game.
Mentor: an experienced player that offers some of their time to help a new player by being a “behind the scenes” source to answer questions about the game. Questions can range from vocabulary, to previous examples of when game results occurred, to general strategy advice. Mentors are advised to not give play-by-play instructions or make decisions for the new player, but to tell them (usually between phases) what they have done right and wrong already. Suggestions of what to do next are not allowed, and specific examples about other players in the game at hand are not allowed. (Communications with a Mentor are usually handled in a QT monitored by the Mod.)
Meta: short for metagaming, and used to describe understanding a player’s behavior based on the readable pattern of actions a player uses when they are either town or scum based on the observations of other players. Through research of previous games, can frequently be used on experienced players as a map to their intentions in a current game. (Also can mean having an understanding of the player in question from outside the game, and thereby gaining insight into their playstyle.)
Mini game: a game with 12 or less players that varies in complexity, but usually more complicated than a Basic.
Mislynch: a lynch where the dead player is revealed to be town aligned.
Mod: short for Moderator. The forum member that runs the game and regulates actions taken by the players for fairness with impartiality.
Modkill: a punishment handed out when a player breaks certain hard-and-fast rules in the game, such as quoting role PM material word-for-word or discussing an ongoing game outside of the game itself. Also sometimes a consequence of inactivity.
Neutral: a role or roles that are in the game that are neither town aligned nor mafia aligned. They have an independent agenda and win condition. (Not found in Basic games.)
Night (as opposed to night): phase of the game where players do not post in the main game thread and any actions/powers are relayed to the mod to set up the next day. (Picture this as the stereotypical murder-mystery movie scene where the lights go out, someone screams, and the lights come back on to reveal someone dead in the middle of the room.) When lower-case, indicates “in real life” time.
Nightkill: the mafia’s action, taken during the night phase of the game, of sending the Mod a name of a town player they wish to be dead. Usually sent by one mafia player to the mod, indicating they will be the actually “nightkiller” or assassin. This term is usually meant to define one specific, mafia-sponsored and controlled kill that happens during the night phase, i.e. “the nightkill” as opposed to other deaths that occur during night such as a “vig-shot” (See Vig) or SK kill (See SK).
Normal game: a game expected to have a higher complexity than a Basic, but a lower complexity than a Specialty. Usually contains a high player count as well.
No Lynch: a voting choice outside of the normal decision to name a player for lynching. If majority agrees to the No Lynch option, the game will proceed to the next phase (Night) without a player dying by lynch.
OOC: Out Of Character, meant to delineate a player-to-player statement or detail relayed in-game but not pertaining to the game at hand. Sometimes IC, or In Character, is used to return to the action of the game. Also sometimes /aside is used, or a spoiler, etc. [Etiquette dictates these statements (and all other statements about real life) are to be taken at face value and are not to be questioned in terms of game tells. Etiquette also dictates these be kept to a minimum and all players be truthful when using them.]
Outed: describes a power role or other in-game advantage that was secret information and has been revealed in the game posts, i.e. "I outted myself as the Cop because..."
PBPA: Post By Post Analysis. This occurs when Player 1 quotes or links to all relevant previous substantive posts made by Player 2, and then breaks down why Player 2 is scum according to Player 1’s concerns and observations.
PCQ or Player’s-Choice-Queue game: similar to the FTQ in that it skips the usual wait time for hosting, this is a community based process that results in a game setup being chosen by popular vote.
Phase: indicates a portion of the game such as Day or Night, or Twilight.
PoE: Process of Elimination.
Policy Lynch: see Lynch.
Post Restriction: additional requirement sent in a PM where a players posts must conform to some preset quirk, such as only posting at some preset frequency, misspelling words, making flavor references, speaking as their character, rhyming, or not posting at all.
Power Role: any role in the game that has some sort of ability to affect the game beyond casting a vote (e.g. Doctor, Cop, Godfather, Vigilante, etc.). See the Roles section for more information and examples.
Prod: a PM sent to an inactive player in an attempt to see if they are interested in continuing to play in the game, and to tell them that they are lagging behind.
QT: QuickTopic, indicating a thread on an independent site for the side communications of a game. Everything from scum night chat, to player diaries, to spectator content and mentor threads are handles in the form of a QT.
RVS: Random Vote Section. The very beginning of the game where people make votes and jokes to start discussion since they have nothing much else to go on. In games with experienced players this sometimes simply doesn’t happen. When it ends is arbitrary.
“Replace” (/replace): Used in sign-up threads to indicate an interest in taking over the role of a player that either drops out of the game deliberately or abandons the game for reasons unknown.
Reviewer: an experienced Mafia player whose job it is to read through other people’s setups and make sure they are balanced before play proceeds.
Role: a player’s character and win conditions in the game, supplied by the Moderator before the game begins. Examples include:
Bob (Vanilla Town), You win when all mafia are dead.
Safe Lynch: see Lynch.Darth Vader, Sith Lord (Mafia Roleblocker), With the power of the Force (strengthened by the Dark Side) at your command, you wield the ability to once per night disable the actions of any player in the game. You win when the forces of the Empire are equal in number to the forces of the Rebellion, as they will be powerless against you and they might of the Death Star you command. [with Emperor Palpatine (Mafia Godfather) in the same game, of course :D]
Scum: Mafia and other non-town. Basically any player that doesn’t have town interests at heart. Neutrals with independent win conditions such as Serial Killers and Cultist are also scum.
Scum Slip: something said by a player that indicates they are scum by giving away conclusive information. Can be anything from a wording in a post that changes, to a behavioral tell, to a bald-faced lie.
Scummy: having or pertaining to scum, not to be confused with “annoying” or “spammy.”
Setup: the individual game written out as a whole, including Role PM’s and any extra structure. This is submitted to a Reviewer who then checks the game for balance to make it as equally winnable for both teams as possible aka balanced. The Setup Creator is the author of the game and usually the Moderator of the game as well.
Shadow: A system where an experienced player enters a game and has a less experienced player follow along. This is similar to the Mentor system, except instead of the less experienced player being the one in the game, they will be "Shadow"ing the more experienced player and asking them questions about their play and other such things.
Sheeping: voting the same way as another player without contributing an argument to back up your choice. Sometimes a scum tell, sometimes a lazy town tell usually depending on whose vote is being sheeped.
SK: Serial Killer, a Neutral Role. See Role Section for more information.
Soft Claim: see Claim.
Specialty game: the most complex games run on the site, these games are usually designed to push the boundries of what the game is experimentaly. Innovation and and experience are required for a player to run one of these games, and experience is suggested before joining one as well.
“spectate” (/spectate): Used in sign-up threads to indicate an interest in being allowed to read the thread while being supplied all the setup information, similar to “playing along at home” in TV game shows that list the answer on the screen for you, or poker on TV.
Traditional: a game with simpler and expected game mechanics within its named structure, i.e. Normal, Basic, etc. The opposite would be a game with unusual mechanics, such as Burnout or Kingmaker.
Tunneling: hunting only one player as scum while paying no attention to any other player’s mafia behaviors in the thread. Usually caused by being so sure that another player is scum that you (mis)interpret every post they make as scummy, only seeing scum motivations (search the 'net for confirmation bias).
tl;dr: Too Long; Didn’t Read. Used to indicate a post or several posts in an argument were not worth the time to attempt to understand based on some reason, usually a lack of real life time, or something else more pressing on the mind of the player in-game.
Twilight: the phase of the game between when a player has reached the number of votes to indicate they are lynched and when the Moderator posts the scene that takes the game into the night phase.
Vanilla: A basic town role without any special powers in the game. Never to be confused with weakness, powerlessness in Mafia gives a player the opportunity to play with less risk to the town if they are lynched. Also vanilla votes are frequently necessary to lynch mafia.
V/LA: Vacation/Limited Access, used when post frequency will become erratic because of plans outside the game.
Vig: short for Vigilante. A town role with a killing power. See the Roles section for more information.
Wagon: short for bandwagon, is used to indicate the list of votes that accumulate after a player’s name as they are voted closer and closer to a lynch.
WIFOM: “Wine In Front Of Me” from the famous scene in the film The Princess Bride. Used to indicate circular logic applied to an “either/or” statement where no actual concrete conclusion may be reached because both possibilities are equally valid if different motivations and/or facts are taken into account or presumed to be true.
Win-mongering: a term meant to describe when a player states that if another player is lynched, the town wins the game. (Coined by smoke_Killah in Basic #39)
For those unfamiliar with the game of Mafia (known to some as "Werewolf"), here's a brief description:
For more information on how to play, see the MafiaScum wiki. A flash tutorial has also been made by one of the MafiaScum users.
Around 2-4 games of various types are run concurrently in the Mafia subforum. Whenever one game finishes, a new one of the same type will be posting signups within a few days, so check back often if you're waiting to get into a game. If you want to sign up for a new game, just wait until new signups are posted, then post there.
I want to play a game of Mafia! How do I sign up?
Our friendly neighborhood Mafia Secretary Bur would be happy to answer any questions you have and point you in the right direction, and will be in touch with you shortly.
You can sign up directly for a game, if signups are open. Just pop in to the most recent signups thread (if there is one running) and type "/in".
Signups in the Mafia subforum are always open (if everything is running smoothly). There are currently four types of games: Micro games, Mini games, Normal games and Specialty games. Specialty games can be more complicated, so if you're just starting out, you may not want to try them unless you're feeling spunky.
The Mafia Subforum
This forum is for playing and discussing the game of Mafia. All of the MTGS Forum Rules apply here, though keep in mind the following notes:
I'm new to the game. What should I do?
There is no single correct way to play Mafia. All players have their own styles, and Mafia is a matter of being able to read through those styles. There are some conventional wisdoms, however, which you may find useful for starting out. See MafiaScum's guide on "How to be a Good Townie".
Also, make sure to pay attention to all rules for the game you are in.
Article Index:
Strategy:
Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 1 – Causal Analysis
Behavioral Analysis, Chapter 2 – Evaluating the Strength of Evidence
In Defense of Pace
The Pinocchio Problem: When Should a Townie Lie?
Three Games Within the Game
Setup design:
Mafia Pointing Theory
Balancing a Mafia Setup
Meta-Meta
Devilry on Stage: MTGS (Specialty) Game Design
Advanced Setup Design
Reviewing Mafia Games
We run 1 Normal, 3 Basics, 3 Minis, 1 Specialty, 1 Fast-Track, and when demand dictates, 1 Player's Choice game at any given time.
Normals – The Cold Monarch
Minis - creampuffeater, Prophylaxis
Specialty – Ecophagy & Toastboy
Fast-track - zindabad
Player's Choice/League -
Basic - Void (#69), DRey (#70), Raging Levine (#71)
This thread is used for signing up to host games. Unless you have already run a few games on the site, you should post your playing/hosting experience before signing up.
This thread is also used for post-game replacement reports and recommendations for the probation list. After your game is complete, please provide a list of all players who needed to be replaced, and any extenuating circumstances you are aware of which contributed to their replacement. If you believe that a player could have additional activity problems in the future, please notify us so that future hosts can take that information into account.
All hosts, regardless of experience, must have their setups reviewed by another player before running. Please contact a reviewer from the appropriate list below.
Reviewers:
For Mini's, Normals, and Basics, contact the following players (With their stipulations beside it):
AsianInvasion, Axelrod, Creampuffeater (Basic/Open setup's Only), Cyan (PM/Contact First Please.), Dagger, DYH, Ecophagy, Ged, Kraj, Pale Mage (Basic Games Only), Xyre, ZeDorkSlipeur, Emo_Pinata, pinkys_brain (Basics), pinkfloyd (Minis or Basics), ganderin_dan (Minis or Basics), Zionite, Arcadic, MandersHex (Basic Games Only), Niv, Wuffles_II, or Iso.
FTQ/PCQ/Specialties:
For FTQ, PCQ, and specialty games, contact one of the following players:
Azrael, Axelrod, Cyan, DYH, Ged, Kraj, Zionite, Niv, Wuffles_II, RobRoy, or Xyre, or any person who has previously designed and moderated a PCQ or FTQ game. The names of players who have run these games can be found in the game archive section, below.
Hosting Limit - A player may not sign up for more than one normal, mini, or specialty game at a time. Players may sign up to host one additional FTQ or one additional newb/basic basic game.
Before signing up to host, you should complete playing in at least two games on site, with another in progress or finished.
It is the responsibility of all prospective hosts to monitor their place on the lists. Hosts should be prepared to host at any time when their name is in the top three of a list. Please have your setups completed and reviewed (if not on their way to review) when you sign up to host a game. A PM will be sent out to everyone in the top 5/10 when a game is completed. If your game setup is not completed at this time, you will be pushed back 2 slots. When it is a host’s turn to make their game, they will be PMed. If they are not ready, or have a conflict, they may ask to be pushed back 2-4 slots. If they completely fail to respond to their game prompt, they will be removed from the Hosting List. If a player wishes to be re-added to the queue, they may request such, and they will be added back at the end of the hosting list. If a player does not have their setup ready the second time they are asked but have responded, they will be removed from the list.
Hosting Lists: Players listed in red on the lists are currently inactive and may be skipped.
Players listed in bold have confirmed they will be ready when their turn comes up.
Normal games are intended to be setups with a moderate degree of complication. While they may be more complicated than the traditional roles found in newbie or basic games, hosts should use their best judgment before adding offbeat or unexpected role mechanics commonly found in specialty games.
The following may never be used in a Normal game without permission from a council member.
1. A player on the replace list with a role.
2. A player not listed in the game that has an effect on the game.
3. A role with no feasible win condition. (A neutral that cannot win with town or mafia, and has no kills, for example.)
4. A role that may VOTE after death. Please confirm any post-death abilities with a reviewer even if they are not vote-related.
5. The mod having a role.
These are generally metagame roles, which have been restricted due to unplayability, infeasibility, or the fact that the average Normal game should not require its players to expect such twists that they might from a Specialty game.
Specialty games are designed to give hosts a free hand to create new and innovative game mechanics.
To sign up to Host a Specialty game, you must:
1. Have a game setup finished or near finished.
2. Submit the setup to a reviewer for review/balancing.
3. Have participated in three complete games on MTGSalvation.
The Fast-Track Queue exists to encourage flavorful, well-crafted, and uniquely enjoyable mafia designs. Instead of a normal signup process, games reach the FTQ by being nominated by the host, submitted to an authorized reviewer, and compete against other current nominations for the next FTQ slot. One of the primary advantages of the FTQ process is that there is no waiting time in order to host; as soon as the previous FTQ game ends, the next FTQ setup can post signups.
To nominate a setup to the fast-track queue, you should first private message the MafiaScribe gimmick account. Ideally, nominations should be submitted while the current fast-track game is still running, but late nominations are also welcome. In your private message you should include the name of the setup and the name of an authorized reviewer who has agreed to read the setup.
After each fast-track game ends, a committee of authorized reviewers will meet and select the next game on the queue from the current list of nominations.
For a list of authorized reviewers, refer to the top of this post.
Similar to the Fast Track Queue, a Player's Choice games will bypass the normal queue process and run immediately after they have been selected, in order to encourage the design of new, high-quality submissions. Also like the FTQ, they will require an authorized reviewer to have looked over the setup. Ordinarily, the next Player's Choice game will be selected after the completion of the previous game. However, it is possible that the council may choose to launch additional PCQ games in response to heightened demand periods.
The key difference between the PCQ and the FTQ? Community involvement. As the name would imply, it will be the commmunity's vote that determines which will be the next game to be selected for the PCQ. Also, you can submit a game to the PCQ that has already been nominated to the FTQ.
So, what do you need to do to get on the PCQ?
1. Complete your setup in advance. Make sure it's a good one.
2. Contact an authorized reviewer to work with you on your setup. (We are also looking to increase our numbers of additional authorized reviewers at this time. Please let us know if you're interested in being considered.)
3. You and/or your authorized reviewer nominate your setup by posting a pitch for the setup once the PCQ thread opens, describing relevant features of the design, perhaps providing a flavor sample, explaining why players should be interested in voting for it, as well as any areas for concern, such as balance.
How will the voting process be handled?
Since this is a bit of a grand experiment, the voting for the first PCQ will not have a pre-set time limit. We will accept nominations and votes until stated otherwise, announce a cutoff date when activity begins to slow, and then announce a final deadline for votes. The setup with the most votes by the deadline will win. In the event of a tie at deadline, the first setup to receive an additional vote will win.
Players may change which setup they are voting for at any time, though it may be more convenient for counting purposes if you reserve your bolded votes until near the conclusion of the final voting period. But by all means, feel free to comment on the setups in the meantime.
Currently, PCQ submissions are being taken by the Mafia League Judges to run in the League. If you're interested, please contact Arnnaria, our current Mafia League Bookkeeper. For questions on how voting will be handled while the League is in charge of the PCQ, please see past examples.
-Game Limit-
Players may participate in only three games at any given time. An exception to this rule can be made by moderators in need of a replacement for a game, if no other replacement can be found.
-Suicide-
If you no longer wish to participate in a game for any reason, contact the moderator. Do NOT attempt to force the moderator to modkill you.
-Current Game Discussion-
A player in an ongoing game may not discuss that game with any other player in that game, or in public forums. Also, it is a good idea to ask permission before discussing the game with anyone outside the game, because they can no longer replace into the game once any meaningful discussion takes place.
-Cryptoclaims-
Unless explicitly authorized by the game moderator in their opening rules section, cryptoclaims are forbidden.
-Out-of-game Promises-
Players may not use out-of-game promises (example: I swear on my grandmother's life, I bet you my entire collection of magic cards, etc.) in an effort to influence other players.
-Multiple Players On One Account
"Hydra" accounts - multiple people playing and posting as one player with shared access to the "gimmick" account, are not allowed unless they have prior approval from the specific game Moderator. Please do not do this on your own.
-Traitor/Alignment Switching Roles
Game moderators are strongly encouraged to be extraordinarily careful if they seek to include a traitor role in their designs. These roles are notorious for causing games to implode, for creating fairness concerns, and for the challenge they pose to the town's behavioral analysis. (See Discussion in Council Thread, Post 3351, onwards.)
Blacklist
A player who has been blacklisted may no longer play in any mafia games. The blacklist is reserved for players who seriously compromise the health of games. Blacklisted players can appeal to the mafia council if they wish to have their name removed from the list.
Edghyatt
Foilphob
Nakamura
Pawn
Russianhacka
Weaver
Probation list
Players listed below may be denied entry at the discretion of moderators, due to a history of chronic lurking, replacing, or some other activity detrimental to the game.
Players and hosts may recommend players to be added to the probation list by PMing the council once the game is concluded (Azrael, AsianInvasion, Ecophagy, atlseal), and by posting a recommendation in the hosting thread.
A host may recommend the removal of a player from this list if they participated well in said host’s game, and players have the right to petition the council for removal from the probation list.
Annorax - Self-nominated for mod WTFery
Artifice 101 - Unsportsmanlike conduct & role PM quoting
Bolly - Self-nominated for personal reasons
Dakkon33327
GiftsTrix - Chronic replacement
Gigas1- Chronic Replacement
Heartwork - Chronic Replacement
Jedcaj
Menma
Natirasha
Pod - Chronic replacement
Silent Prophet - Chronic replacement
Swinkee - Nominated for Disappearing out of Doomsday Mafia, as per the game rules.
Zchinque - Self nominated, chronic replacement
Replacement & Modkill History:
Requested Replacements:
abbeygargoyle - Inheritance
Ace - Duel Monsters
Albus - Basic #67
Alpha Werewolf - WoW: Grim Batol
Anaklusmos - The Family Returns
Annorax - Basic #65
Arnnaria - Mean Girls, Star Trek Voyager, Intrigue, Gotham Underground
ArsenalFan - Basic #24
Artifice 101 - Intrigue
atlseal - Hetalia, Kitteh Trek, The Family Returns
Battlemaster - Basic #60
beast89 - Basic #54
bert - Neon Genesis Evangelion
bilbroxain - Duel Monsters
Bman65 - Canada
Bolly - Symbiote, Basic #23, Basic #61, Basic #65, Gotham Underground
carso87 - Basic #24
ced395 - Flame Warriors
CenturySC - Basic #57
Chickenfish - Mean Girls
Clem_da_Squiggoth - Chess (Newbie #29)
Clock King - Basic #42, WoW: Grim Batol
Cropcircles - Inheritance
Dancing Mad - Seasons
Darkness Falls - Basic #42
Deathjoey - Checks & Balances
Deaths_Vampire - Star Trek Myriad Universes II, Flame Warriors
DigicoolDad - Basic #55, Basic #58
DJ Catchem - Basic #57
Dork Knight - Gotham Underground
DoubleX - Flame Warriors
DragonDart - Inheritance
Dragoon26 - Billy Goat
Drifting Skies - CCMVI
dropkickdude - Seasons
DYH - Ged's Normal Mafia
Emo_Pinata - Return to Amistaria, Hecatea
Emocakes - Basic #65
Energetic Penguin - Neon Genesis Evangelion
etherealscorpions - Basic #40, WoW
Exchangebang - #51
ExLight - CCMV
Exsam - Basic #24
Foxlet - Checks & Balances
Freddeh - Basic #64
Gamerz - Basic #24
ganderin_dan - Seasons
Gigas1 - Basic #10, Symbiote, Basic #22, Return to Amistaria
HKKID - Inheritance
ImTehFairy - Basic #64
indomitablebug - Basic #42, CCMV, Flame Warriors
infectiousbaloth - Deitriptychos
jdisawesomesauce - WoW: Grim Batol
Jobie - Checks & Balances
Jodo yodo - Persona
jomafor - Basic #53
jscolton - Hecatea
jwn - Basic #22
Kahedron - Basic #53
keifru - Hecatea
Kennethwong - Basic #21
Knifehand1371 - OFWGKTA
kpaca - Return to Amistaria
Kraj - WoW: Grim Batol
LenKenneth - Basic #62, Basic #63
leonardooo - Basic #40, Basic #42
Liquidity Crisis - Kitteh Trek
Loran16 - Oregon Trail, Inheritance, South Park
LuckNorris - Basic #42, Basic #54
MandersHex - Basic #21, Kaizers, Basic #26, Amnesia, Clue, Peso del Grande, Basic #63, The Family Returns
Miracule - Mean Girls
MirrorEntity - Intrigue
mysterymeatofdoom - Return to Amistaria, Hecatea
MzztrTetris - Basic #58, Basic #64
Newt Gingrich - Basic #61
pdr_br - Basic #64
pinkfloyd - Seasons, Deitriptychos
pinkys_brain - Kitteh Trek, Ozone Underground, Intrigue
poggydude - Ged's Normal, Intrigue
Prime Intellect - Gotham Underground
ProphetKing - Boardgame, Basic #64
Prophylaxis - Boardgame
Prplcheez - Basic #42
Raging Levine - Boardgame
red_0mega - Basic #12, Superhero, Lord of the Rings II
Rubin8or - Basic #26, Basic #24
Seppel - Basic #58
shadowfuryix - Return to Amistaria
Shinen - Final Fantasy Mafia, Basic #57, Seasons
Silent Prophet - Basic #22
Sir Mu - Basic #58
Skander - Basic #3 (Ice Cream Parlor), Tales of the Fantastic, Return to Amistaria
solorpg - Persona
Syrenz - Heroes, Return to Amistaria
Talore - Basic #21
TeknoLink - Duel Monsters
theatog - Basic #64
TheFooFish - Tales of the Fantastic
The Derpsmith - Flame Warriors
TMCT - Basic #67
tordeck - Basic #50
vampyr - Tales of the Fantastic
Weaver - Neon Genesis Evangelion
WingDamage9001 - Neon Genesis Evangelion
Wrath_of_DoG - Star Trek: Myriad Universes II, Intrigue
Xyre - Basic #65
Yanni - Basic #63
YodaVader - Canada
YossarianLives - Inheritance
yurikojasmine - Basic #62
Zebi - Basic #42
Zelderex - OFWGKTA
Forced Replacements for Inactivity/Failure to Respond to Prods/Other:
_航_ (Wataru) - Basic #26
Ace - Led Zepplin
Andelijah - Led Zepplin
AsianInvasion - Basic #13 (forum suspension)
Atogaholic - Gotham Underground
Audinho - Deitriptychos
Brofaus - Basic #61
Bulbasaur - Basic #61
buranri - Basic #24
carrion pigeons - Order of the Stick
Charmander - Basic #63
ChrisXIV - Led Zepplin, Symbiote
CropCircles - Basic #26
Dagger - Amnesia
DameTrollet - Basic #24
Dark Shadow - Gotham Underground
Deathjoey - CCMV
Deaths_Vampire - Return to Amistaria
DoubleX - Basic #59
Emo_Pinata - Checks & Balances
Flabort - Basic #65
Gamerz - Basic #64
Gamora - Basic #60
Gigas1 - WoW Mafia, Basic #60, Seasons
iPot - Basic #21
Jerubaal - Canada
joboman - Symbiote, Kaizers
johnthemaster - Neon Genesis Evangelion
Kahedron - Kitteh Trek
kpaca - OFWGKTA (Replaced due to ban)
Lady Shaiann - Basic #61
Laset - Gotham Underground
ljossberir - Basic #61
Lost_Profit - Ged's Normal
Minineko - Crackhouse
Mtg_Junkie - Romeo & Juliet (forum suspension)
mysterymeatofdoom - Hecatea
Niv - Oregon Trail, Symbiote, Ozone Underground, Gotham Underground
Paellin - Basic #23, Basic #24
pikajens - Basic #40
pinkfloyd - Basic #65
poggydude - Social Engineering (forum suspension)
Prophylaxis - Basic #64
quietfish - Hecatea, Basic #62, Star Trek Voyager
Reya Cookiebringer - Amnesia
RisingPhoenix - Ged's Normal
Roja - CCMV
Sci Solaris - Gotham Underground
Shalako - CCMVI
Shinen - Basic #67
Silent prophet/sXe - Basic #7, Highlander, Basic #36, Basic #40, Amnesia, Basic #55
Small Child - Basic #65
sonicpunk - Basic #23, Basic #24
Squeege - Basic #59
sXe - CCMVI
Tanarin - Amnesia
The hair guy - Basic #59
TheIceMan - Checks & Balances
Tordeck - CCMVI
TrainGoCartWatermill! - Basic #61
Vibebox - Hecatea
Unkyunk - Basic #22
Wolf With a Bass - Basic #63
Wrath_of_DoG - Return to Amistaria
ZasZ234 - Clue, Seasons
Modkilled:
Ambassador Laquatus/Clock King - Basic #32 (PM Quoting)
Asian Invasion - Oregon Trail (editing a post)
DRey - Kitteh Trek (Role PM quoting)
Flew - Anita Blake (Editing a post)
fluffyn00b - Basic #51 (Violating integral mafia rules)
Heartwork - Flame Warriors (failure to respond to prod)
Iso - Kitteh Trek (Paraphrasing role PM too closely)
jdisawesomesauce - Neon Genesis Evangelion (unable to locate replacement)
Jedcaj - Oregon Trail (Role PM quoting)
Kahedron - Basic #65 (Inactivity)
Kraj - WoW: Grim Batol (Unsportsmanlike Replacement)
Nakamura - Ogre (Breaking mod rule re: Contracts)
poggydude - Neon Genesis Evangelion (PM quoting), Star Trek Voyager (PM quoting), Gotham Underground (Inactivity)
Reya Cookiebringer - Neon Genesis Evangelion (unable to locate replacement)
Sepiriel - Star Trek: Myriad Universes II (failure to respond to prod)
Shadow Knight - Crackhouse (Role PM quoting)
Silent Prophet - Hecatea (failure to respond to prod)
sXe - Gotham Underground (Inactivity)
Weaver/pWnCakes - Basic #32 (PM Quoting), Basic #40 (Violating integral mafia rules), Star Trek: Myriad Universes II (PM Quoting)
Yanni - WoW: Grim Batol (quoting role PM)
Xalnop - Basic #44 (PM Quoting)