That's true, but a carefully chosen RVS question can also provide information that could be applicable later. For example, if a player was asked an RVS question about how he felt about townies lying and he responded that it was never a good idea, then it would be suspicious if this player acted counter to his own advice during one of the later days.
I questioned you because I thought the question that you asked was kind of suspicious, since it provides insight into how a player might use a power role, which is information that could benefit the cult leader and help him narrow down which players actually have one.
I think the best RVS questions are questions that can yield answers containing information that may be useful later in addition to a potential slip-up now. For example, your question to hector13 about lynching active/inactive players did yield some useful information. He said that he won't lynch players based on post count, so if for some reason he tries to do exactly that on one of the later ingame days, we could call him out on it. I also expect that scum answers would be more..."adaptable", so that they can weasel themselves out of a tough spot later without blatantly contradicting earlier statements and actions.
Having said this, it is kind of tough to come up with good RVS questions. I'm certainly no master at it.
Very nice. Until now, it hadn't even occurred to me that RVS questions could be more than just good conversation starters.
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How would a more experienced player get more use out of one ability while you'd get more use out of the other? What do you define as experience?
The easier question here is "what do you define as experience", so I'll start with that.
Experience, in non-numerical terms, is the ability to not be nooby. "We should lynch him because I think he is scum." Nooby. Like so. (by the way, that's paraphrased from the first mafia game I played on these forums.)
But once you get past a certain point, noobyness is no longer a problem, and what experience really gets to means... thinking further ahead, thinking of better gambits, using your role more effectively...
If you define experience in a sport or a game of any sort, I'd say that the most common definition of experience would be "Someone with more experience does better at the game than someone with less."
Now, for the second question, "how would a more experienced player get more use out of one ability while you'd get more use out of the other", which as I stated above, is the harder question.
It just seems like truth to me, like "the sky is blue", or "the cosine of 60 degrees is 1/2".
Okay. See, like I said earlier, hitting the cult leader with a 1-shot kill is a matter of luck and analysis. And someone with more experience is likely better at analysis than someone with less.
I'd have less chance of using the 1-shot kill to its best effect, so I'd prefer to have something which can be used repeatedly.
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Do you think that RVS questions asked by the cult leader would be any different than RVS questions asked by normal townies? Do you think the CL's questions would have an ulterior motive or primarily just be asked for the purpose of blending in?
If the cult leader was significantly experienced, then they would most likely be very similar or the same, on average, to an RVS question asked by a normal townie, barring slip ups. If less experienced, then there would most likely be differences.
Considering that role fishing would be of most benefit to the cult leader, and that's rather likely to be picked up on... for a scum role of any sort, their ulterior(gosh, that's a word you don't see every day) motive is going to be rather different than a townie when asking RVS questions, if they have one. If they have even a game of mafia experience, the blending in will be most likely.
Of course, with enough experience and skill, a cult leader could potentially ask RVS questions that look like town questions but can actually benefit him.
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FallacyOfUrist: It would all depend on the player's previous actions. And why would he send me that message out of all other possible recipients?
Gragh, there's a reason we use quote tags to provide context. Thankfully, I remember which question I sent to you. And you have to figure out the reason he sent you the message yourself.
Or not.
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I am paranoid about being lynched day one, as I consider it a lottery. As in, you lose most of the time.
If it's a lottery, it's a biased one- and it's possible to bias it enough... if the mafia(or cult leader) is obvious enough, you should try to bash the lynch into them as much as possible. See Urist McCoder in my first beginner's mafia.
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Those without activity: please hurry up and post.
Everybody else:
Megggas: I decided to start playing mafia because it might be fun and enlightening. Why did you? Why are you trying to put attention onto me?
SaberTooth: the implication being that you don't want attention on yourself. Why not, brah?
I'd like to pull this to everybody's mind. For obvious reasons.
SaberToothTiger? A nice response to this would be nice. Pressure vote on.
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Wow. I never imagined I'd be able to make such gigantic posts when I started playing Mafia...