Jim: Always a pleasure! You know, I think I find your style of play the most entertaining to watch, glad to see you in this game. So, not much info given about each of the roles... How do you feel about that?
I have never played this game type before, as such I'm not exactly sure how everything works, and I'm totally in the dark about what scum we are facing. I don't know about you, but this worries me. Jim answeres honestly even when he is scum, from what I have seen, so asking him if this is something to be worried about was a safe way to get some hints on how to handle this, and boy did I get a useful reply!
The limited town role information isn't as much of an obstacle as it would have been if this were the first Supernatural Mafia, because there are previous games to look at and the town roles, as far as I know, haven't changed between them.
The problem is that the scum roles are still mostly unknown. So far there's been two rounds of Verevolves (1 and RP) and they act like a pretty standard scum team, with special verevolf roles to help them. There's been a Cult (2), and I don't quite remember how dangerous they were. And then there's been one round of Vampires (3), and they were viciously dangerous because they were a cult (in functionality, not name), and also because I was the Vampire Lord and converted Toaster who was a SK on Night 1.
What the makeup of the scumteam is drastically affects how dangerous they are, and unfortunately, there's no way for us to know how dangerous it is until Night 1, when we find out what the flavor of the kill is. This still doesn't tell us how many scum there are, and there's always the possibility of dangerous third parties.
Doing an excellent job of scumhunting is generally the best course of action, and especially so in this game.
To me, at least, this was a wealth of useful tips. I dare say this question was very well justified.
See I don't see how you getting a 'wealth of useful tips' as an opening question, a good question. You aren't pressuring him at all, just asking how to play this type of game. It doesn't tell you anything about him, or any hint as to his alignment. Heck it doesn't even tell you how to expect him to act, just that the little known about the roles can be overcome by reading previous games.
Vector: Good morning! I don't think I have ever asked you, do you enjoy playing as scum, or town more? Do you like to hunt or be hunted?
Vectors play tends to change depending on her mood. I wanted to know a little more about the relation there. Knowing how she feels playing as town and scum is handy .
Exactly her play style changes depending on her mood you already know that, so a question like this just tells you how she would react as she is feeling at the moment she answers the question. How she feels to me seems that it wouldn't have much help to you, unless you also know her well enough to tell how she reacts when she is feeling that way. After she told you what she prefers (which according to her is equally over time) you didn't follow up, push it, give a secondary question, nothing! Frankly a BAD question is one that you can't ask a second question about the answer, coupled with the fact that what she gave you was entirely situational while keeping you from knowing the situation since you didn't ask particulars, it was crap. It told you nothing useful and even when you could get something useful by pushing it you decided to completely ignore it. Instead you rolled on to Joshua, looks to me like you were swinging for an easy lynch.
Dariush: And here we are again. Did you learn anything from roguelike 2?
Just wondering if he was going to try to learn from past mistakes. Turns out the answer was no. Sort of disappointing, but it means we can expect the same level of useless town for games to come.
Fine, I suppose you can use this to call him on some things since it means he will act the same way as previous games. Not a bad question, mostly cause you got a rather suspicious answer.
CrownOfFire: Hello! Hmm, have I seen you play before? Are you a good player or a new one?
We both know a new player plays differently from an old one. Knowing what one he I am dealing with helps, as you no doubt know by now. Just because you made the mistake of attacking a newbie for newbie tells dosn't mean we all want to.
Rather snarky response boy-o. I don't see how you knowing he is rather new could be classified as a good opening question, it doesn't pressure, attack or anything. It's just making talk for the sake of talk.
Pandar: Panda? Pandar? Do you prefer with or without the r? Well, either way, who makes for a better lynch, somebody who seems a little scummy but there is nobody more clearly scum, or the guy that has been lurking all day?
Well firstly now I know what he likes to be called, but that wasn't the important part. I wanted to know a little about he's priorties when it came to lynches. How is that not useful?
It's useful if you are scum, so you know how to act to not draw his attention. Don't see how it would be useful to a town player.
jakeread1: First game... Well ok! How do you best plan to learn?
This was just a soft question to pull him into the game. Just as Josh said, when nobody is asking you questions you feel a little like an outsider, so I thought this would make for a nice welcome.
Fine nice decent active-lurking question. Very sweet and kind and completely pointless other then making him feel welcome by you.
All I see in this is just a causal question to get someone possibly talking a bit, not to much unlike your own. What makes this such a crap question when yours are so good?
What would we ever expect from this sort of question beyond 'I don't have a scum buddy because I am not scum'? Well I don't know, so I asked him what he expected to get. Turns out he didn't know either, he was just trying to be Webba. I said I thought it was crap, and asked him to explain why it wasn't, rather than asserting that it was crap.
Fine enough, though a random question like that could still encore a small slip, potentially from a scum partner who jumps in and goes what the fuck is this shit.
Interesting what he says about your opening questions here.
Is it? Tell me why? What did he say about my opening questions and why is it interesting Kilakan?
And then goes on to say that your questions are fine. Now in between these he does say that he was using it to judge your defensiveness, but frankly it didn't hit you as odd that he would go back and complement you after saying that your questions were buddying. It's also odd that when you ask if he meant the statements were buddying he says yes but you don't bother saying anything about that.
Oh, do you mean him saying my opening questions were buddying is interesting to you? Maybe you should read the thread.
Max:
Max: Why do you open RVS with buddying questions?
Wait, were the questions buddying, or the statements that went before them? I mean I come here to have fun, so I would rather be nice and sociable to the others playing, even if I am willing to hang their scummy ass, so the opening statements were friendly because I like a friendly game full of backstabbing.
Although if your sure it is the questions your talking about, I don't see it, could you clarify?
Yes, I meant the statements. Since you've done it as town, I see it as a null tell. Mostly I was looking for defensiveness. I'd say you're lightly defensive- enough to note, but not enough to hang.
You see Kilakan, he didn't think my opening questions were buddying at all. There was no contradiction, but you would know that if you were paying attention.
Ha, so you think that just because he said oh wait no the statements, when you asked him if he meant the statements wasn't just him trying to say what he thought you would accept? It's a contradiction because he changes what he said, he started saying 'questions and then changed to oh no not the questions, I meant the statement.' He flip-flops on what he means. Maybe you should pay a little more attention and stop just thinking what you want to think.
Kilakan:
Also fyi I can't respond to Max's replies at the moment, I'm at work. I'll be home in 8 hours or so.
I'll be interested in seeing that... especially since we're past 8 hours.
I said I get home in 8 hours, didn't mean I was gonna post the second I walk in the door after a 12 hours day.
Before that he was already getting a bit touchy about the subject of questions, but has yet to actually say that 'he' thinks they are good.
Why is this relevant?
It's a transition, from trying to be cool, to becoming incredibly solid and defensive on the subject of his questions.
Before that he is saying that he always gets told his questions are useless and shrugs it off.
Okay. What do you think about it?
I think that at that point he was attempting to maintain his composure on a touchy subject, and arguing that point would make him lose that composure so he let it slide.
MaxWhite-Tell us what merits you think there are in each particular question that make them 'good'.
This is, for the most part, directly derived from Leafsnail's argument. Noted.
What makes Leafsnail's point voteworthy for you? Mind providing some reasons of your own as to why the questions are bad?
See I don't really think they are overly bad or really good. In my opinion they are middle road, and I wanted to hear from Max what he wanted from each question. Judging by the fact that he only pursued the crownofFire line of questions tells me that he didn't expect all that much from them. At least he didn't plan on having second questions to each of them. So since he didn't put enough thought into the questions to actually be able to push more then one of them, I'd say the questions were not all that good and mainly to make it look like he was very active right at the start.
Max: Why do you open RVS with buddying questions?
Wait, were the questions buddying, or the statements that went before them? I mean I come here to have fun, so I would rather be nice and sociable to the others playing, even if I am willing to hang their scummy ass, so the opening statements were friendly because I like a friendly game full of backstabbing.
Although if your sure it is the questions your talking about, I don't see it, could you clarify?
Interesting what he says about your opening questions here.
Max: Your questions were fine this time IMO. I think your style puts people off (this is a game of suspicion, lying, and distrust, not hugs and friendship) and draws attention.
Well that is a breakthrough! I don’t see why I can’t be all hugs and smiles and still suspect people. But still, now that we have a second opinion.
And then goes on to say that your questions are fine. Now in between these he does say that he was using it to judge your defensiveness, but frankly it didn't hit you as odd that he would go back and complement you after saying that your questions were buddying. It's also odd that when you ask if he meant the statements were buddying he says yes but you don't bother saying anything about that.
This is pretty incoherent. Could you clean it up for me a tad?
Basically I was saying that toaster changes what he said to match what he though Max would like to hear. Though he still says that Max is buddying but when Max hears that it wasn't his questions that were the problem, he just ignores the buddying part.
Ok so I think that is everything. And I gotta go to bed, I fucking hate long shift days.