Nictis
Best Sidekick
- Location
- Ninja Dave's Cookies
- Pronouns
- Any
Truth is an illusion.
But yeah, people don't need to know all the little details if those details seem to contradict you or could frame you as scum. I learned that when I revealed that I was a Miller early on and got accused of being scum for it.
That is not to say that you should lie, especially about mechanics. Lying is something that both Town and Scum do, but if you lie about mechanics you can be called out on it later. Oshha's lie about being cultable was a good one, it couldn't be contradicted and could potentially bait out a Cult action, but would have been better off with the truth originally since there was a Watcher known as well. QT's lie (Misdirection, actually. No direct lie but they definitely gave the idea that Dovah had to be Vanilla) about Dovah not taking an action was a bad one because it could be called out mechanically by Dovah's reveal. They could have just as easily said that they didn't see anything worth reporting to achieve the same goal.
For both of them however, correcting the lie seemed more like "fixing" it to suit new interests, which pulled unfriendly attention onto them. Do not lie about mechanics except to trick the Scum. Lying about results is almost universally bad, deciding not to mention results that would hurt Town is okay.
As for activity, my personal way of doing things is to take anything that makes me suspicous and reframe it so that the meaning is the same but the language is different and simpler. (Preview Edit: I meant stuff that made me feel suspicious, but it's good advice both ways. Simple language and reshuffling things can help get your point across to anyone who might miss it) Sharing this shows that you are paying attention and making note of things, important for scumhunting and appearing to be scumhunting is half the battle in appearing to be Town, regardless of alignment.
I personally have an issue where I come across as mocking while I do it, and most of the time it's because I am but sometimes it's accidental.
There are three things to look at when it comes to claims. Actions, balance, and fluff, in that order. Always remember that Mafia is a social game, no claim is foolproof (Unless if the GM verifies it) so look at what they do and how it fits in with what was known at the time (I cannot stress this enough, if someone is justifying their actions with info they only got after the fact, their actions weren't justified or were Scum actions. You're already doing this @1KBestK, but I'm writing more of a general guide right now for... Some reason) then look at the balance, see how roles would fit in with what is known. This usually has less info but when you see an issue that Scum can't work past then you have usually found a lie. Finally there's Fluff, fluff is the least important part for judging a claim, it's not uncommon for GMs to give out scummy fluff to Town roles, like the Vampire Town Mayor we had once, and it's not unusual for a pattern noticed to be a fluke or a deviance to be unintentional or a seperate reference. If someone outright claims some fluff that you know is wrong or that matches the Scum perfectly it's still worth calling out, but is still less important than the other two.
More activity related stuff to look Town... Get other people active. A silent game benefits scum, and is boring besides. It's actually NAI (Not Alignment Indicative) to me personally, but it looks good if you are trying to get other people to post, ask for thoughts on things, swing your vote around like a spotlight, activity is good for games and people talking is more data.
Don't defend people. This one is actually really important, Town doesn't care about specific players and seeing who is pushing to lynch who for why is important in determining Scum. That's not to say don't interfere, but if it's not an extremely important situation like MyLo or LyLo then defending someone else just looks like you have an attachment. You can still push against the wagons, say a certain wagon seems fairly pointless, pressure one of the people joining it, but getting in the way of the interrogation by answering for the person being lynched always looks suspicious.
There's a certain narrative in people's minds, a particularly dumb one in my opinion but still one to keep in mind, someone who is innocent doesn't need to defend themselves. Mafia players are pretty good about not letting that narrative interfere, but finding someone more suspicious is almost always going to trump defending yourself. Unless if you are certain that the person driving the lynch is Town then attack the points against you rather than just explaining.
Annnd my mind is blanking. So... Here's a thing on looking Town and scumhunting I guess?
