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[Hapah]

I also advise that you never panic, ever. If you feel like panicking, do something besides mafia for a while until you don't feel like panicking. Then do it a little longer because you're probably overestimating your ability to remain unpanicked. Staying cool and collected is one of the most valuable assets a member of the scum team can have.

Quoting this for truth. Nothing makes people sit up and pay attention like posting 6 times in 15 minutes when called on a minor slip.

[Captain Ford]

What Toaster said is golden. Especially when you're new, it's best to not worry about anything but behaving as town as possible.

You will find it a little difficult to press cases against people when you know for a fact that you're wrong. Do it anyway.

Do go ahead and be a little more reserved. Take a few less risks. Risks are for townies hoping to expose scum with a slip. Don't be passive. Attack people. Don't be an outlier. Ideally, you should get to day 2 or 3 without ending up in the spotlight.

Don't spend too much time in scumchat. People will notice if they're only hearing half of the conversation.

Best advice I can add to Toasters is this: Before you post anything, read it over looking for things that a Townie might use to pressure you with and try to edit them out. In fact, I do this as town, too.

Try to be the first to point something out. No one can accuse you of bandwagoning if you're first.

Always back up your suspicions with good reasoning. Call out problems in other people's reasoning, even if you don't vote them for it. (You're helping them refine their case)

It may sound like bad advice, but try to be non-offensive. You're much more likely to get attention if you piss someone off.

And of course: Find your own style. No two people here play the same way, and you won't either. Decide what kind of player you want to be and you're much more likely to achieve it.

(Ninjaed by Meph, Jim and Hapah)

[Nerjin]

And of course: Find your own style. No two people here play the same way, and you won't either. Decide what kind of player you want to be and you're much more likely to achieve it.

(Ninjaed by Meph, Jim and Hapah)

I'm offended by this. I play exactly the same as other players and you all know it.

[Vector]

And, even if they can't smell your fear, they'll pretend they can in order to get you to give up.

Ideally, you should get to day 2 or 3 without ending up in the spotlight.

It may sound like bad advice, but try to be non-offensive. You're much more likely to get attention if you piss someone off.

And of course: Find your own style. No two people here play the same way, and you won't either. Decide what kind of player you want to be and you're much more likely to achieve it.

Haha.  True to your last point, I disagree with both of your prior ones.  For me, my game is built around LYLO, so getting grilled good and early to make LYLO easier is a key part of my strategy :3

[Captain Ford]

Agreed, in principle. But I'm giving advice to a (presumably) new player about playing scum. I'm expecting that like most new players, the more attention you get, the more scummy you look, and the more likely you are to get lynched.

Especially in BMs, people tend to get lynched based on attention received and not on actual scumtells.

[Captain Ford]

Also, you may need to work on the "getting to LYLO" part.

[Vector]

Also, you may need to work on the "getting to LYLO" part.

Buddy, I've been winning at scum since you were a gleam in a mafia don's eye.  Check Rysith's Semi-Bastard Mod, for example.

[Griffionday]

I guess I should say that I'm familiar enough with the concept of misdirection to have assumed that a reasonable strategy to avoid detection is to play pure town during the day.  And as a new player I won't know how scummy I look when focused on 'till I've actually played right?  However there is a case which your advice doesn't cover that I'm interested in: If the town has been honestly alerted to my presence how do I avoid dragging down team members?  Obviously remaining calm, not panicking, answering accusations as carefully as possible, etc. but things if not avoided will cast your team into the spotlight, allowing for an easier town lynch the next day?  (I'm trying to get all my questions out of the way, because I would think asking "How does I play scum" as a new player would be something of a tell... Besides it's interesting and should give me advice for hunting scum as well.)

If playing scum (or town really) is it a good idea to construct a (private) analysis of your posts and see if you can convince yourself that you are scum?  Or should I just do what most of the players in the current BM seem to be doing and only analyze points that are brought to my attention?  The latter has the advantage of not producing any doubt in you mind as to how scummy you look, but the former seems like it would provide more control.

I refuse to comment on NQT's playing in an active game that I'm not in, as that seems against the spirit of things.  I doubt I would attempt that style of hunting though.

Quick question: is the Mafia chat only active during the night?

[Captain Ford]

Not that I don't believe you, but there's a crowd of newer people here who are quite likely to use inspects on you, since you have a reputation as a strong player, are largely unreadable to them, and have a playstyle that's intentionally slightly scummy. (What I'm saying is, Hapah's choice to investigate you wasn't random)

I defer to your experience, of course. But in this case I think I've got a point.

[Hapah]

Quick question: is the Mafia chat only active during the night?

Nope, all the time, in a typical setup.

[Mephansteras]

I guess I should say that I'm familiar enough with the concept of misdirection to have assumed that a reasonable strategy to avoid detection is to play pure town during the day.  And as a new player I won't know how scummy I look when focused on 'till I've actually played right?

True, to an extent. However, you should get into the habit of looking at your posts from an outside point of view as early as possible. After all, if you as a new player can spot a problem in your post everyone else will surly spot it!

However there is a case which your advice doesn't cover that I'm interested in: If the town has been honestly alerted to my presence how do I avoid dragging down team members?

Trickier, and in general at that point there isn't much you can do other than continue to play town as much as possible. If you've played townie well, then there shouldn't be any links to your team members. I've also seen scum deliberately tie themselves to townies earlier on in the game in order to add some misdirection if and when they get lynched. That's a more advanced tactic, but worth keeping in mind.

Just remember that, once you flip scum, everyone is going to go back and reread all of your interactions looking for clues. So you want to leave as few clues as possible throughout the entire game. Toaster's advice to always play as town during the day is the best way to do that.

If playing scum (or town really) is it a good idea to construct a (private) analysis of your posts and see if you can convince yourself that you are scum?  Or should I just do what most of the players in the current BM seem to be doing and only analyze points that are brought to my attention?  The latter has the advantage of not producing any doubt in you mind as to how scummy you look, but the former seems like it would provide more control.

I always suggest analyzing your own posts privately to see if you've left any clues. Just because town hasn't noticed any yet doesn't mean they aren't there and won't come back to haunt you or your team later. Especially if you've, say, been inspected by a cop who is then simply trying to form an argument against you without outing themselves. If you leave clues, they'll find them and dredge them up (since they know you're scum and are looking for ways to convince everyone to lynch you). If there are no good clues, they either risk failing to lynch you or are forced to reveal themselves and open themselves up as a target for your allies.

Quick question: is the Mafia chat only active during the night?

Depends on the mod, but in general it is always active and you'll see the scum actively talking throughout the day and discussing plans and whatnot.

As mentioned earlier, be careful not to spend to[ much time talking in there instead of the actual thread. There is always the risk of you bringing up something with a scumbuddy that was never said in the main thread. Still, it's a powerful tool and one of the main advantages that scum has over town.

[Captain Ford]

I don't have much to add to what Meph said, other than make heavy use of the preview button. Think consciously about how people will react to what you're going to say and have a justification prepared ahead of time.

The part about NQT is not at all unique to his current game. But you're right and I'll redact that part.

Most of all, don't get discouraged. Mistakes are common in this game, but you need to be able to learn from them and keep going.

[Griffionday]

Quick question: is the Mafia chat only active during the night?

Nope, all the time, in a typical setup.

In other words scum have absolutely no reason to ask fellow scum "What do you think you're doing" in the main thread, unless that would help their image as a townie?

So how successful can pulling ruses like picking town members to be unwitting scum buddies with be in case the town decides to lynch you?  Actually in general: how good/bad an idea is it to fake tell if you are panicking and "know you're going to be caught" (this has the added advantage of forcing one to not play reactivly, allowing them to escape easier); because it seems like if done right you could set up several townies for lynch by proxy.

EDIT 1: Above partially answered.   Do you have examples of where that was successfully pulled off?

(Yes, the WIFOM is deliberate at this point)

EDIT 2: That is what WIFOM means right? In this case people will know I'm interested in trying this strategy so they'll be less suspicious of whom I buddy with, but since they know I know that...

[Mephansteras]

Can't think of any examples off the top of my head. Run waaaaay too many games to keep them straight at this point.

However, like I said, that's a more advanced strategy. Obviously buddying up to someone is often seen as a scum tell, so any false clues you leave have to be done subtly enough that people catch them after you're lynched but not beforehand.

Mostly, I'd say try to avoid gambits until you're more experienced. Play as town during the day, listen to more experienced scum, and do your best. Ideally, scum will win by looking so town that only actual townies will be lynched while offing the more town-looking people in the night so that everyone left alive looks more like scum than the scum. Gambits and tricks are, for the most part, best done when things are going poorly anyway.

A calm, well-reasoned argument that gets a townie lynched is the best trick scum can pull, since it both gets rid of a townie and keeps you looking town at the same time.

Hmm. Thinking of that...whenever possible, have a good solid reason for every vote you cast. That reason can be RVS (which is just to get people talking), pressure, or lynch. The worst thing you can do as scum is throw a vote on someone simply because you want them lynched, or as part of a bandwagon. That's behavior that town can look back on and lynch you for. New scum also often panic and crack when attacked about a vote. Remember that Town is trying to lynch scum. Scum don't care who they lynch, and if you're careless that fact will show up.

Some of my best scum moments back when I still played where ones where I led a successful attack on a townie because they did scummy things and got everyone else to jump on that bandwagon. Then the bandwagoners looked bad, not me. I could back up every single vote with a good, solid, scum-hunting reason. Don't be afraid to drop a pressure vote on someone who answers well, and if you're going for a lynch vote make it for something that's go weight.

[Vector]

Not that I don't believe you, but there's a crowd of newer people here who are quite likely to use inspects on you, since you have a reputation as a strong player, are largely unreadable to them, and have a playstyle that's intentionally slightly scummy. (What I'm saying is, Hapah's choice to investigate you wasn't random)

I defer to your experience, of course. But in this case I think I've got a point.

You may indeed have a point.  See, I've never had this problem while playing with the old guard--almost never lynched, almost never NK'd, almost never inspected.  I do need to adapt to the fact that I actually have a reputation now among younger players, and I thank you for pointing it out.

What happened in Totem had literally never happened to me before, so I figured it was a fluke instead of thinking about it this way.

So how successful can pulling ruses like picking town members to be unwitting scum buddies with be in case the town decides to lynch you?  Actually in general: how good/bad an idea is it to fake tell if you are panicking and "know you're going to be caught" (this has the added advantage of forcing one to not play reactivly, allowing them to escape easier); because it seems like if done right you could set up several townies for lynch by proxy.

Well, I managed to get Tiruin killed off in the recent Totem Mafia game.  But in general, it depends on who you are and which sort of reputation you have.  You could pull off that sort of thing far, far easier than I could, for example, because folks tend to assume that I'm using multiple layers of deception (even when I'm using exactly zero >_>).

You should look at Beginner's Mafia IV.  I think that gives a pretty good example of what you're discussing.