Little black book of mafa tactics & plays

[DPR]

 

The way I see it, the greater number of  skilled players we have in the games, the better the games are. And the more we share creative ideas, the more we inspire new ones.

 

So when Luthine suggested a discussion over tactics, I knew that it had to have it's own thread. So jump in, especially the most devious players, and help to make the games even more maddening!

 

Now, in the Civil War Mafia we discussed one of the most famous DM plays, the "Kivam Gambit". It was not used in this game, but the mere mention of it causes speculation, confusion, and some amount of tension.

 

The Kivam Gambit - This is when two members of the mafia team stage a fight to appear as if they were on opposite teams. One is set up for the lynch, revealed to be mafia, and the other appears as an innocent. Named after the hall-of-fame trickster himself, Kivam.

 

As mentioned, even if this tactic is not being played, just mentioning it as a possibility can have a powerful effect on it's own. An innocent might mention it to bring iy up as a possibility. A mafia might toss it out there to cause confusion and lead the group away from something that is really happening. When the mafia uses it to this effect, it falls into a catagory that I think of it as a a Red Herring play, Of course, there a multiple ways of employing this.

 

Fake Claim or False Reveal - When a player claims a role that is not actually theirs. usually a mafia tactic, but not exclusively, it is a risky play that can pay off handsomnly or get you lynched in short order. There are several players who are famous for this play and each has a unique take on it.

 

And that's just to get the ball rolling -

 

So list your favorites, or share ideas that you have for new plays. It also helps if you can mention the game where they were used and provide a link if possible.

[Alys Kinch]

My least favorite is the one Wes has dubbed Big Game Hunting. I'll grant that it's useful to eliminate the right type of players who will call you on your b.s., but it also takes out the fun of duping those same type of players. And what fun is it to not have the best and brightest to dupe? You don't get to exercise your skills to their fullest extend, and you also lose out on some of the content by end game.

[DPR]

 

The risk in this technique is that you waste some of your best players on suspicion that thye are mafia. In most games, you usually have at least one experienced mafia and it helps to have as many experienced innocents as possible to help figure out what the mafia are doing.

 

That, and as we have just seen, giving any one player or team too much imortance is just not necessary.

 

I'm with Alys in that I prefer the best players to be on the board. Well, right up until it's time to take them out. If you can without them doing it to you first. ;D

[Alys Kinch]

LOL, I see your point, but I think Barm's and my game proves that you can have some of the biggest game all on one team and still lose mightily. (yes, i thought it was more fun to experiment with the ace team that random.org gave than to alter it.)

[DPR]

 

I totally agree - look at the factors that played into it:

 

Anyone can have a sudden LOA -

You can have an assasin with amazing instincts - or he might have wasted the finder on night 2 - if not for the healer with amazing instincts - predict that ;p

Anyone at any time can "slip" in a post -

 

There are so many random factors that play into each game that it is impossible to ever predict what will happen. That's the best part!

[Vemynal]

A good night 1 tactic for the mafia is to kill a player who didn't vote and rarely posted day 1

 

this gives the innocent team a whole lot less to go on information wise

[Guest Far Dareis Mai]

As a mafia player my favorite tactic is to take out the quiet ones, and let the more vocal ones shoot themselves in the foot. I'm a huge fan of leading the less experienced ones into doing all the voting, allowing the mafia team to spread their votes out, so we are less identifiable. Bandwagoning is a mafia's friend.

 

As an innocent, I love casing players to see how they defend themselves. It seems like nothing irks a person more than a huge wall of quotes they made, with wry commentary from the caser. ;)

 

 

[DPR]

 

I agree with Far on the last bit - and If I 'm just probing, I think of it as needling someone to irritate them and get them talking. If I suspect them, they get the full on strafe of accusations. then you wait to see how much they dance. heh

 

 

[DPR]

 

And a couple o' more:

 

embedding: Anytime you place information in a post that you wish to refer to later. This can be beneficail to an innocent player as well as mafia, depending on what the application is.

 

And, what I think of as the "frenemy play": Two players are in dust-up or a skirmish. usually because one had accused the other of being mafia. But, as in the Civil War game, the tables can be turned on the accusor and the fight continue on with no predictable outcome. In this case, it is often wise for a mafia or an innocent to de-fuse the argument. This can be done by suddenly un-voting, or "discovering" a reason why you no longer believe a person to be mafia, or are trying to frame them aas such.

 

I have also noticed that it is sometimes helpful to intentionally get into a fight early in the game, then turn your enemy into your friend (for now) and get the attention on someone else. Then you are off of the hot seat foe a while, and you can plan your next attack.

 

[the dude]

I generally avoid the quotes in most cases.  That's not a tactical decision, but I'm generally too lazy to case people or look for quotes unless I'm really in a bad way.

 

Needling someone into making rash statements and flare-ups is a favorite of mine, though.  The thing is that just through statistical anomaly, I'm much, much more often an innocent than a mafia, so I have a lot more experience on that side of things.  When I've got a mafia (or someone I think is a mafia) in my sights, I generally give them as hard a time as I can until they start making mistakes.  The more you make them talk, the more chances they have to make mistakes.  

 

That backfires on me sometimes (case in point...), since I can make mistakes posting a lot too, but it's given good results a lot of the time.  

 

Smarminess is a mafia player's best friend.  :P

[Alys Kinch]

i like to chalk up good points and point out holes and for the most part, this, along with metagaming, helps me to figure out where i think someone is aligned... unless your name is thorum. *nods*

 

this is part of why i hate players who don't post. they give nothing for the innocent team to work with and odds are that any given player will be innocent more often than evil.

 

my favorite kill tactic is to take out someone who gives absolutely no information that i can see. i like to create chaos. i don't just take out low-layers or helpfuls. i want the most distance between my team and our target. that said, never shoot yourself in the foot by taking out a victim that you can get lynched. keep the possible mafia pool as large as possible.

[DPR]

Which brings up a couple of really good points - follow the links:

 

Metagaming:  http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Metagaming

 

Wifom: http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=WIFOM

 

Mafia play in general: Mafia originated as a card game. When it went online, it became known as mafiascum, hence the common ref to "scum": http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[Daetirion]

Best tactic i've found for the complicated games? Keep a notepad or Word file with notes in it, preferably with either links or names of replies. Makes rereads slightly easier a lot of the time. As it happens, the one game i didnt do this for was Civil war and hence the issues within...

 

Vemy, oh wonderfully inspiring mentor that he is, has installed in me a healthy disregard of the inactive. As Alys mentions they offer little to the Innocents, and as a Mafia, effectively a kill free of repercussions. Having said that, i do enjoy keeping an eye on Big Game out there. I have my own ideas on effectiveness of certain players and as such will pay a lot of attention to certain people for good or ill.

 

As Mafia you want to be making sure you don't NK those you can get lynched. Therefore a tactic im *attempting* as an Innocent role is to walk the fine line between not being suspicious enough to lynch, but being suspicious enough to avoid being NK'd. It has a variable success rate at the moment. If your not careful you end up having to reveal and screwing up your chances....

 

Oh and Mafiascum is your friend ^_^

[DPR]

 

Speaking of people who hang out and do not post much, enter the Lurker: http://mafiascum.net/wiki/index.php?title=Lurking

[Alys Kinch]

i always try to play the same mafia or innocent, so i tend to die all the time... *shrugs* consistency can be your friend at times. this is why i got loki lynched after i died and was coronered evil in wes' game (forgot the name). I was right and everyone could see that.

[Thorum]

i like to chalk up good points and point out holes and for the most part, this, along with metagaming, helps me to figure out where i think someone is aligned... unless your name is thorum. *nods*

 

It's not hard: when I make a post, I forget I'm mafia/finder/whatever. The civil war game was the first one I got killed early on, so it ain't such a bad tactic I think. And no, I do NOT want that streak to end.

 

As to what I do: I go through all pages looking for all post of 2 or 3 persons, and look for inconsistencies. And I just post the result. Unexplained inconsistencies often point out mafia, certainly if the reply of the accused is not either in their next post, or evasive. Usually I cannot convince the rest, but I'm more often than not proved right in the end.

And no, I'm not gonna say what I change when I'm a mafia.

[Alys Kinch]

Bump for tactics.

[LedZepMan]

i have to agree with what the dude said. the wall of texts and quotes is generally annoying, and i am too lazy to go back and forth.

 

I find that the simplest way to avoid suspicion is to keep it short and simple. Its worked pretty well for me.

 

But when you do find something, I find it best to go after it with everything you got, and just try and overwhelm the opposition. I found this works pretty well for me.

[Guest dragonsworn1991]

Flooding/draughting - These are strategies that of either flooding a game with spam to make people skim over the game or have them skip some posts, that may be incriminating to yourself or a teammate. The other is killing off active players and trying to stagnate the game.

 

I love to fake claim and I have done so when both townie and scum aligned. M last fake claims have pretty much either won the game for my team or helped drastically.

[LilyElizabeth]

I have FAR more experience as scum than town. I try to make my posts mostly truth, especially about how I feel about something. If a player makes me nervous, they make me nervous, never mind why. The sincerity comes through in the post. If I compliment you while I'm stabbing you in the back, I mean every word. Promise.  ;D If 90% of a post is verifiable truth, people will swallow the other 10% without even noticing it.  ;) That tactic is lethal and extremely effective.

 

Notes, notes, notes. Every game has a word doc. Every lie gets noted - word for word. Hard to trip me up when I'm looking at what I've already said. I c&p a lot of posts - write them on the word doc and have them ready for when the questions come. Sometimes they are wasted time and never get used. I just recently had this huge post about why I cuddled up to Wes in a game, citing his huge ego (love you, Wes! :-*) and that by being on his side, I might have been able to make him a more cooperative cop, instead of the rogue that he was. Of course we all know he's too smart to fall for that, but it was a handy, believable excuse. I never had to use it, but I still laugh when I think of it. The point is, it was ready if I needed it.

 

I'm trying very hard to learn to play the same regardless of alignment. It was pointed out to me that I only case people when I'm scum, so now I try to do it every game. Tedious but necessary. I've been told I get emo as town if you poke at me. Guess what I'm learning to do as scum?  ;D Actually, I'm trying to not go emo at all, but until I get over that... You get the point. I want to be consistent.

 

I'm sure I have tons of other things to add, but that's enough for now.

 

[Aust]

I'm so glad this thread exists!!!

 

Although I'm not in any position to give out game-play strategy tips, I can give a word or two to other beginners about how to present your ideas. As others have mentioned, no one likes a wall of text (unless you're making one on purpose!!). If you want people to actually read your ideas, it's best to post them in a digestible, easy to understand format. It also helps if you proofread your post - typos, poor grammar and such can subtly diminish your credibility as perceived by others. Only the most avid players will read your dissertation on why someone is scum, and then it is usually so they can blow you to smithereens with all the holes they found in your logic!! Many others will just skim.

 

Separate the points you really want to make so people actually read them.

 

 

 

[Guest dragonsworn1991]

Wonder who told you all of those things. *Whistles*

[lolguy26]

~bump~

 

I think this needs some updates

 

(its quite useful)

[LilyElizabeth]

Thanks for bumping this, Chuckles. It was a good read. 

[lolguy26]

so any tips you wanna add to the list?