Mafia Philosophy

[TFSpock]

I only make alliances when I'm cop or indep. And even then, I don't always do that. I usually just mind my own business and lynch of my own accord.

 

[Iteru]

Gonna throw a question out there:

What's more important overall: the cop or the doctor?

 

[HumanDawn]

Gonna throw a question out there:

What's more important overall: the cop or the doctor?

In my opinion, from the viewpoint of somebody in the Town faction, the cop role is more important because, not only can it save somebody's ass from being voted out, it can also find out who's the enemy. The doctor can save those in the Mafia too, endangering the Town in the process.

 

[KidBeano]

Gonna throw a question out there:

What's more important overall: the cop or the doctor?

It depends on the context, imo. If the cop is known, then the doctor is the more important role, because any good doctor will be saving the cop continuously, and so we want to keep the Doctor alive because the cop is staying alive anyway. However, if either both are known or both aren't known, then the cop is more important, because as Human said, the Doctor doesn't know the alignment of the person they're saving, and has very little chance of saving the right person.

 

[Zenax]

A while ago we played mafia on Skype with a small group of people and I was the doctor. On the first night I protected someone correctly, so there was no kill. In that way doctor can be more powerful than cop, since the person I saved was both confirmed innocent in my eyes and also didn't die, but it's highly circumstantial. Most of the time the cop will be more important.

 

[Bandit Keith]

Personal Philosophies:
As Town:keep Cop and Doctor alive, find a trustworthy ally, FUS RO DAH!(Be talkative but uninformative)

As Mafia:Be a Team Player, Use abilities to the limit, FUS RO DAH!

As Host:Keep things as unpredictable as possible, in order to keep everybody on their guard from all sides.

To answer the above question:
Cop, because the doctor can either protect the mafia, or protect themselves forever(The latter annoys me to no end when it is revealed post-game). Two major and painfully often manifested flaws with that position.

The cop can't save the wrong person, and only exists for pro-town, charitable reasons.

 

[Mintaka]

I've been mostly quiet in games, until I feel confident that I can take action. I play for whatever party I belong to, unless I'm an independent.

Speaking of independent, there's an interesting topic I wanted to bring up. This is something I learned from Phoenicks over a discussion about hosting mafia games, and he brought up that there exists a term 'Neutral' that is different from 'Independent'.

The term 'independent' covers for the roles that do not belong to mafia or town, and does NOT share victory with them.
'Neutral' is the party that is not aligned with town or mafia, but shares victory with them. So the usual third party masons or those roles that need to survive till the end of the game will fall under 'Neutral' rather than 'Independent'.

It'll be helpful that we can distinguish these roles, especially that we've been seeing both kinds of roles in games.

What else would be truly 'independent'? So far, I've seen serial killers, these would be truly 'independent'.

 

[Pariah]

I think serial killers are the only independents as well, I don't know where or when we mixed them up but it would be nice if we created that distinction between them. but if we had to bring another example...would a cult leader could fall into that category<(independent)? y/n?

 

[Zenax]

Some third factions would fall under independent, too. An example that comes to mind is the Greed faction from the FMA:B Mafia. If they're third factions like those in the Falconwing series, though, then they would fall under neutral.

 

[Kaustic]

Fools and Bombs are frequently Independent in the games I've seen around here (their win conditions being to get lynched and to kill off someone else, respectively). Survivor roles are often Independent as well (Yay, I've been one twice on here).

 

[Catspring]

If I'm an Independent that needs to survive to win, I try to let the mafia know so that they don't waste a kill on me. For example, in Skyward Sword Mafia, Neonsands was a confirmed mafioso and I casually mentioned to him I was Independent.

 

[Falconwing]

Hardly guaranteed to work. If you're surviving to win you would need to choose a side to work with to avoid being killed off. Mafiosos are not exactly famous for letting independents win and keeping them alive if they don't need to. Personally, if there's an independent who I believe can be an asset, I try and use them. If not, they're not worth having that rogue vote.

 

[Feenie]

As an independent, I work with either side that contacts me first and I try to work from there. I'll try to make myself not seem like a threat if a mafioso contacts me, so they don't end up wasting a nightkill if they feel I might become trouble later. Incidentally, working with the mafia in The Kirby Mafia ended up helping me win.

 

[Zenax]

Hardly guaranteed to work. If you're surviving to win you would need to choose a side to work with to avoid being killed off. Mafiosos are not exactly famous for letting independents win and keeping them alive if they don't need to. Personally, if there's an independent who I believe can be an asset, I try and use them. If not, they're not worth having that rogue vote.

Killing a confirmed survivor who is willing to work with you would be a dumb move as mafia since your win condition is to outnumber the town, not the independents. Getting an additional vote in exchange for not killing them off can be very useful near the end of the game.

 

[Falconwing]

That's not what I was saying. If they are willing to work with you that's one thing. That's why I said that if they're willing to work with you and be an asset that you should use them. But if you have, say, a rogue vigilante or something they can be incredibly destructive towards a mafia. And when it comes down to the voting, where are those independents going to vote? Will they vote with the mafia? Or against them? There is no middle ground. And that's why I say a rogue indep is worth a kill if they are deemed a threat. It'll safe a headache when you get to endgame.

 

[KidBeano]

This might just be me, but when I say 'outnumber the town' in a mafia's win condition, I actually mean outnumber the non-mafia side. Most role PMs I've seen here say something along the lines of "create conditions wherein you cannot lose", which implies keeping independents alive keeps the count against you.

In Havendale 2, my condition was to kill everyone. I managed to survive right until the end by claiming Survivor-with-a-kill-ability to the town (but then they lynched me ;_. The thing I like about Survivor roles is that it encourages a lot more prediction and logic - you have to try and guess which side would be the best to side with.

 

[Falconwing]

I almost always use survival roles. I've yet to see a game where the indeps sided with the mafia.

And yeah, I've always counted indeps into the mafia win condition. Because if the indep sides with the town, the mafia can still lose.

 

[Akuraito]

Kirby Mafia. Two of them sided with us.

Hetalia Mafia. What helped the mafia get the win quicker.

Some others, I'm sure, but those are two I know right off the top of my head.

I've never counted independents in a win condition since, well... if they're a survivor, it really shouldn't matter, should it? They'll win if they vote with the mafia, so why wouldn't they? :/ Eh. Probably being stupid.

 

[Phoenicks]

Players should always vote. Even if the vote is following a bandwagon, on a target no one else is on, or a joke vote, your vote matters. YOUR VOTE MATTERS. Public discussion is the greatest threat town have -- and the easiest way to have a fun, engaging game. You should post reactions to something that jumps out at you, even if you might be wrong. You should post reactions even if nothing jumps out at you. YOU SHOULD POST.

Every single one of you can change a game if you play with meaning. It doesn't take much -- one well-worded case, one vote in the right place -- to change the game. Things are more fun for everyone when everyone participates to some extent. You'll have fun if you make a commitment to post at least once every voting phase.

If you can't make that commitment, that's okay. It's okay to substitute out of a game. Nobody likes trying to play with you and finding you to be too busy. Sometimes it's even unfair to people who want to be in the game but can't because of you occupying the slot. I personally respect someone more for recognizing their limits than for trying to play when they can't. If you can't play for a while, that's okay. You don't need to feel as though you owe it to us to play every game. Joining games you can't play in is actually more harmful.

My mafia philosophy: Activity is fun.

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

In a couple of recent games there has been debate about the correlation between inactivity and one's alignment and about what we should base our suspicions on. I will share a couple of my thoughts on the issue.

I do agree that signing up and doing nothing (that is not even using the ability or contacting players privately) is disrespectful towards the host and your co-players. However, being silent in the game thread is not the ultimate scumtell, nor does being the most active player in the thread equal with being a townie. I prefer the quality of the posts over the quantity of them. In fact I consider a player whose posts consist merely of "No, not the cop", "why doesn't anybody do anything", "Let's see... well I got nothing" to be more suspicious than a player that is a little quieter. The feeling I get is that the said player is just trying to create an illusion of participating in the thread.

Is there reasons for a townie to be a little inactive in the thread. Yes, there is. For example I prefer lurking when I am the cop and try to find a plyer who I can trust and possibly use as my mouthpiece. Yes, I know that this way I might be making another player a likely target for a night kill but I think I might be helping the town more when I am alive than when I'm dead. Another case is masons. Third case is that you might legitimately out of ideas who to suspect. Posting comments like "Guys, I am confused" will not help the game further anymore than not posting that comment.

I have noticed that "lynch all the inactives" has became a policy especially when the cop is dead. Once the cop is dead town still has several alternatives. It can take the easy way out and start to lynch an inactive player after another. Sometimes it provides the hoped result, but more often than not it will lead to a mislynch. Another way is actually read the posts, look at the content and analyze the style, make conclusions based on that. Is there a posts that rubs in the wrong way? Is there sudden changes in the ways someone is acting? A player that seems to be posting for just postings sake? These can be even better signs of being a mafia than just inactivity.