whiteflame

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/5/2026 at 4:03 PM (post #85)

Interesting, so plurality voting is present as well. That's somewhat helpful, but doesn't change the fact we still need to consolidate (if both scum players are active enough to vote, then that at least three town players have to vote correctly to secure a successful elimination).

My thoughts haven't changed much since #79 and #81, so I'll start here:

VTL: awesome5000

That's where I'll go as well if we don't hear from him before a certain point. I'm giving Awesome a little longer, probably another hour and change, but that's all I can afford him at this point.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/5/2026 at 1:49 PM (post #81)

Whiteflame/Thoth

Whiteflame/Awesome5000

Whiteflame/Mag1cman

Whiteflame/Casey

Thoth/Awesome5000

Thoth/Mag1cman

Thoth/Casey

Awesome5000/Mag1cman

Awesome5000/Casey

Mag1cman/Casey

Crossing off Thoth/Mag1cman more confidently now. While the initial suspicion in #65 could be distancing, #68 feels like it would be unnecessarily piling on to a partner.

I'm actually slightly hesitant on voting Thoth before Awesome5000 because if my unpairings are correct, Thoth can only be paired with Awesome5000, in which case we'd lose nothing by voting Awesome5000 first anyway.

My weakest Thoth unpairing is probably the one with Casey, which is solely based on #44 (seems like a rather pointed callout). With that in mind, I'd like to hear more thoughts from Casey when they get back.

whiteflame, Mag1cman: since you two are leaning Thoth, can I get your thoughts on the above? I do want to form consensus at some point, since we only have 5 hours left and a no-elimination would be pretty disastrous.

I understand the eliminations for the most part, though I agree the unpairing between Thoth and Casey is pretty weak. That's part of the reason I view a vote on either one as pretty viable, just a matter of how many plausible pairings we're reducing down to (either 2 for Thoth or 3 for Awesome).

Given that a no elimination isn't possible (see above), the disaster here would be in being so scattershot in our votes that wagon analysis becomes incredibly difficult next DP. My preference currently is to lynch Awesome, since his absence is actively hurting any kind of analysis we could possibly get from him and he's trending more scummy to me. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt in case he showed up, but with about 2.5 hours left, I wouldn't rely on his return. Thoth returning isn't terribly likely either - he tends to post on the late side, but for some reason just didn't yesterday - but at least we have some responsive posts from him, even if they all come from roughly the same time.

Originally Posted by Mag1cman on 8/5/2026 at 9:20 AM (post #61)

Originally Posted by whiteflame on 8/3/2026 at 11:07 PM (post #10)

Honestly, forgot this was happening today and didn't get a ping, glad I suddenly remembered before I called it a night.

Small but interesting group in this one. Odd way to balance the game regardless of that first lynch. If scum get lynched first, we skip the NP, so... scum lose out on an NK? I don't get that, seems to just dig their hole deeper since there are no other night actions. The other caveat makes a little more sense at least, otherwise the game could just end NP1 with scum reaching parity on their first NK.

I don’t care for this post. People tend to complain about things that are obstacles to them, and scum is easily more likely to complain about setup choices that are difficult for them to deal with.

I'd say this is NAI for me, but that's because I'll always mention oddities in the setup regardless of my alignment. I prefer a game that's balanced and this was something that wasn't announced before the DP was posted. I'd have a lot more to say in the scum chat about it than I did here, but I'll admit, I'm likely to complain publicly even then.

Originally Posted by Mag1cman on 8/5/2026 at 9:36 AM (post #63)

In the event of a quickhammer, I've got some thoughts on how I would direct my focus. Revealing that thought process would give scum more insight than I'd prefer to provide at this juncture.

First town points of the game of Whiteflame here

for Whiteflame*

Another instance where I'd call this NAI, but I think I get why you're townreading it.

Casey_Risk - Not a whole lot to read into so far. Casey's been focused on my response to awesome's vote, which I'll admit likely comes off a bit odd considering I didn't realize it was an RVS for a bit. Mentioning that Thoth was slow to contribute to the thread after his initial post is fair enough, though I can't say I'm sussing the delayed contribution. I like the engagement so far, but I can't say I can read a lot into a few responses in a short period of time, so I'm waiting to see more interaction from them.

I have a theory that Casey is nicer to others when scum that I’m thinking about but I don’t really have time to check it. Thoughts?

I'd have to revisit more previous games to get a sense of that, though it is a trend I'd noted. There's more of a tendency to be non-confrontational early from what I can recall.

Mag1cman - One post saying that he wouldn't be available for a while and, so far, nothing additional. Basically inactive, nothing to read into.

Hi.

Hello! Good to have you posting, always nice to bounce off of you in these games.

awesome5000 - I've already given my basic thoughts on awesome, though I'll summarize. The random test vote, which I am realizing was almost certainly just RVS (really did think it was just testing the voting system, that's just me being dumb) doesn't say much by itself, nor does the follow-up. I still think it's a little defensive to just blurt out a reason for the vote unprompted, rather than a reason for keeping it up or some insight into what he's learned from the RVS, but there's just not a lot to read into with these posts so far and if there is a plan of action here, it's not popping out to me.

I have a couple ideas but I want to see his responses.

More activity would definitely be helpful. He is now the least active player in this game, and while that's not unusual for awesome based on previous games, it's really going to affect a game with only 6 people.

Gun pressed to your head: Who do you lynch and why?

Torn between Thoth and awesome, but if I had to pick... probably Thoth. The posting so far largely feels performative, and while awesome has not been all that active, I can at least see something of a strategy there. My opinion may change if he doesn't post before the end of the DP.

As for reads, I don't have a lot to mention, but I'll give what I can.

Thoth - Starting with the "why did no one ping me?" post leaves me a little mixed. It's likely scum got pinged about the game starting, but no one else did. Just seems a little weird to call it out when all of us can see it. Aside from that, he's mainly just been frustrated that he has to evaluate other players behaviorally, which I somewhat get, but we all signed up for this game knowing that the setups would demand more on that front. I don't really get why he'd complain about it. I get that this DP is filler, but I don't like how much of his posting is just being frustrated, and yes I say that as someone who complained about the setup from the start, so I recognize it's a little hypocritical. Mainly wondering if some of this has been more performative.

Hyper - Just a lot of really good game analysis and incisive thoughts about behavior so far. I appreciate how Hyper is digging into our behaviors, and while I've seen players use this kind of thing to control the direction of the DP, there's also a lot of questions about how we perceive certain choices and a genuine effort to understand player behaviors as we've experienced them before. The attempt to figure out plausible pairings also comes off as a good way to look at how we're all bouncing off of each other. Can't see eliminating them this DP.

Casey_Risk - Not a whole lot to read into so far. Casey's been focused on my response to awesome's vote, which I'll admit likely comes off a bit odd considering I didn't realize it was an RVS for a bit. Mentioning that Thoth was slow to contribute to the thread after his initial post is fair enough, though I can't say I'm sussing the delayed contribution. I like the engagement so far, but I can't say I can read a lot into a few responses in a short period of time, so I'm waiting to see more interaction from them.

Mag1cman - One post saying that he wouldn't be available for a while and, so far, nothing additional. Basically inactive, nothing to read into.

awesome5000 - I've already given my basic thoughts on awesome, though I'll summarize. The random test vote, which I am realizing was almost certainly just RVS (really did think it was just testing the voting system, that's just me being dumb) doesn't say much by itself, nor does the follow-up. I still think it's a little defensive to just blurt out a reason for the vote unprompted, rather than a reason for keeping it up or some insight into what he's learned from the RVS, but there's just not a lot to read into with these posts so far and if there is a plan of action here, it's not popping out to me.

Similar to Hyper, while I'm not fond of just defaulting to our inactive player, Mag1c would be my first choice at this point. I'm debating between Thoth and awesome past that point, want to see more from both before I try to pick between them.

My impression is that the act of not unvoting in his justification post implies that it's no longer a test vote anymore. Granted, that's not particularly helpful in the absence of further reasoning, but I'm not sure if I'd characterize the post as defensive; in fact, it seems rather unbothered in the sense he doesn't care to elaborate.

That's pretty much his default, by which I mean choosing not to elaborate on his decisions. I can't say whether he's more likely to do so as scum, but I'm guessing he wouldn't deviate that much from his usual behavior.

Looking at it a bit more closely, I'm not sure if awesome5000's post is so much a justification as simply explaining his choice (maybe it's a cultural thing, but I've often seen RVS votes be based on random stuff like usernames, so this doesn't strike me as any more unusual than that). Regardless, do you think that it's more likely for #32 to come from a scum mindset than a town one?

Honestly, it's pretty null to me. It's the kind of response that could swing both ways. I view it as a little defensive since no one asked for his justification, but if he was concerned about how it would be perceived, he likely would have just removed the vote and laughed it off, either that or find a reason to sus me from my responses. Absent both of those or even a small move in either direction, it just comes off as pretty uninformative. I understand how you'd see that as townie, though.

Nice, Casey can now be tagged!

Alright, worked this out with Savant, this should go through.

@Casey_Risk

Hmmm… it didn’t let me tag you, I keep getting an error message when I try.

A correct lynch on D1 is always bad for scum, but I don't think it would generally be the end of the world in this setup unless they just play really stupidly, considering that everyone is a vanilla

I agree, though my point was that this seemed to be kicking them when they’re already down. I understand why it makes sense for this game, but it seemed odd to me.

This response to an RVS feels strange to me

My assumption, maybe incorrectly, was that this was testing the means of posting a vote rather than a reaction test. If it’s the latter, then I was mistaken.

How so? It's basically just RVS. Being a random throwaway is the point

He doesn’t usually make a point of pushing RVS votes from what I’ve seen, but I did mention later that he said it wasn’t a random choice. If the idea is that any reason suffices, then sure, I guess choosing me because I’m a global moderator is as good a reason as any. Feels unnecessary for a random choice to be justified at all when I hadn’t poster yet, but whatever.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/4/2026 at 11:48 AM (post #35)

Originally Posted by whiteflame on 8/4/2026 at 6:26 AM (post #30)

So the most recent one I can bring up is the Solo Leveling game, in which he was town. He has generally made a habit of providing at least a little reasoning in previous games for his votes, like in the 1990s-2000s Nostalgia game, but Awesome also just hasn't been in a lot of games, and I don't believe he's ever been scum. I just don't have a good frame of reference for his scum play. Posting a test vote does little to inform if he's off his usual playstyle, especially since the voting system for mafia has changed in his absence and he's kicking the tires a bit.

Good to know, thanks. What do you think of #32?

Brief opportunity to post.

I think it’s a tad defensive. No one called awesome out on it being a random choice, we said it was odd that he left it up despite just being a test. He returns and isn’t responsive to that, just saying why he chose me. Choosing the global moderator just because is odd, but not particularly sus. It’s more odd that he feels the need to justify it at all. If it’s a test vote, why does your target matter?

I'll join.

Originally Posted by Thoth on 8/4/2026 at 4:54 AM (post #24)

I feel a deep, instinctive, visceral revulsion towards games that are not full of power roles, but it's probably for the best that I play some because I think reading behavior is both the most important aspect of Mafia and the one I am worst at.

This setup still seems to me like the winner is determined purely by RNG, but I suppose that intricate game design is none too important for a test of the host dashboard.

Yeah, you're not alone in this. Behavioral reads are going to be wonky at best this early and are likely going to stay that way throughout, but it's a good opportunity to try and assess small differences in behavior to the best of our ability. It's never been my forte, either. I've stopped relying too much on theme knowledge, but usually I can make some headway with claims, and that won't be possible this game.

Originally Posted by Thoth on 8/4/2026 at 5:04 AM (post #28)

Someone needs to explain to me how and why this setup behooves any strategy other than rolling the dice and praying to RNGesus.

Basically, it all rides on the off chance that people will behave/react differently if we get them talking enough as scum, which may not be easy regardless for players who are relatively absent. It doesn't help that we have so little leeway that just pushing inactive players is a gigantic risk.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/4/2026 at 12:37 AM (post #22)

Maybe so, though I think placing scum at a 1-4 deficit seems a little much. I get that 1-3 is MYLO, but since a mislynch effectively places us at automatic LYLO, that just seems to make things a lot harder for scum than I'd think is reasonable.

It effectively gives town an extra miselimination to work with, which is nice (since in most games town only gets a fixed number of miseliminations). If it wasn't for that, then scum would pretty much always bus on Day 1 to reach the same final-three situation with a better position.

Fair point. It does at least change the dynamics of the game. I don't want to harp on this too much because it's a game mechanic that is in place regardless of how we think it balances. Still, I appreciate the insight.

In the event of a quickhammer, I've got some thoughts on how I would direct my focus. Revealing that thought process would give scum more insight than I'd prefer to provide at this juncture.

That's a fair explanation.

I'll come back to this next DP, assuming I'm still alive to talk about it.

Mostly has to do with my admittedly limited experience with awesome in previous games. Not terribly unusual for him to vanish at weird points for long stretches of time, particularly after casting a vote. This one just seems particularly throw-away.

What was his alignment in those games?

So the most recent one I can bring up is the Solo Leveling game, in which he was town. He has generally made a habit of providing at least a little reasoning in previous games for his votes, like in the 1990s-2000s Nostalgia game, but Awesome also just hasn't been in a lot of games, and I don't believe he's ever been scum. I just don't have a good frame of reference for his scum play. Posting a test vote does little to inform if he's off his usual playstyle, especially since the voting system for mafia has changed in his absence and he's kicking the tires a bit.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/3/2026 at 11:33 PM (post #16)

Originally Posted by whiteflame on 8/3/2026 at 8:07 PM (post #10)

Honestly, forgot this was happening today and didn't get a ping, glad I suddenly remembered before I called it a night.

Small but interesting group in this one. Odd way to balance the game regardless of that first lynch. If scum get lynched first, we skip the NP, so... scum lose out on an NK? I don't get that, seems to just dig their hole deeper since there are no other night actions. The other caveat makes a little more sense at least, otherwise the game could just end NP1 with scum reaching parity on their first NK.

Since a scum player is dying either way during the first day-night cycle (whether by elimination or friendly fire), scum are more incentivized to bus than normal. Losing the nightkill is presumably a way to balance that out.

Maybe so, though I think placing scum at a 1-4 deficit seems a little much. I get that 1-3 is MYLO, but since a mislynch effectively places us at automatic LYLO, that just seems to make things a lot harder for scum than I'd think is reasonable.

I hope so as well, thanks. I'm curious, is there any reason to hold your thoughts about the first point? Since quickhammering is a strategy that only scum can do (and thus, town should be prepared for), then it doesn't seem like there'd be much harm in discussing mechanics in that regard.

In the event of a quickhammer, I've got some thoughts on how I would direct my focus. Revealing that thought process would give scum more insight than I'd prefer to provide at this juncture.

I'm somewhat inclined to just take #13 and #14 as towny at face value; the transition from a direct question to Awesome5000, to an "agree-to-disagree" type post to me, is indicative of already having some level of internalized reads. There is the alternative explanation that Awesome5000/whiteflame are soft distancing as S/S, but that feels less likely off whiteflame's lack of attempt to push me on my townread on the former.

Mostly has to do with my admittedly limited experience with awesome in previous games. Not terribly unusual for him to vanish at weird points for long stretches of time, particularly after casting a vote. This one just seems particularly throw-away.

Alright, now I'm really going to bed.

Alright, I will try to be active tomorrow, just be aware I'll be traveling for a good portion of the day so my activity may be intermittent.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/3/2026 at 8:51 PM (post #8)

I have a slight townlean on awesome5000; the introduction and vote aren't particularly alignment indicative by themselves, but keeping their vote on whiteflame afterwards reads like they lack scummy self-awareness. I'd expect a scum player to quickly unvote after making a vote they specifically call a "test".

Can't say I read much into awesome's test vote, personally, though I can see where you're drawing that conclusion from.

Originally Posted by awesome5000 on 8/3/2026 at 7:31 PM (post #4)

VTL: whiteflame

Test

So what value is there in doing this and then leaving the vote up? I get that it doesn't put me all that close to a lynch, but if your goal was to test the system, you got your answer.

Originally Posted by Thoth on 8/3/2026 at 10:03 PM (post #9)

Why did no one ping me?

No one pinged any of us, and I just got here.

Originally Posted by Hyper on 8/3/2026 at 8:44 PM (post #7)

Nice to meet you all. This is my first game in a few years, but I'm decently experienced. A few things to note about the setup:

Scum are heavily incentivized to quickhammer, since they can kill the scum player that made the hammer as well as the town player that wasn't voting for the elimination. As such, be cautious of putting someone at E - 1.

Assuming no bussing, every town player needs to agree on a scum suspect to secure an successful elimination.

Town's greatest problem during Day 1 is probably the time limit. Keeping #2 in mind, even a single town player hesitating for too long can be enough to sink an otherwise successful elimination. While activity is always important, the town-scum ratios here make it especially crucial.

Great to have you along for the ride this game, Hyper! Hope you'll join us for more in the future.

I agree on all these points. There is likely to be a good deal of disagreement on appropriate targets this game, which is going to make agreeing on an elimination target difficult, but I do think there's more value in that than not. I've got thoughts on the first of these that I'll keep to myself, but I do agree the incentive is there.

Honestly, forgot this was happening today and didn't get a ping, glad I suddenly remembered before I called it a night.

Small but interesting group in this one. Odd way to balance the game regardless of that first lynch. If scum get lynched first, we skip the NP, so... scum lose out on an NK? I don't get that, seems to just dig their hole deeper since there are no other night actions. The other caveat makes a little more sense at least, otherwise the game could just end NP1 with scum reaching parity on their first NK.

Yeah, we talked a lot about who to use the Doc on that first NP. Considering we had two players who had outed themselves as investigative, we figured one of them was almost certain to be the target of the NK, didn't expect scum would shoot in the dark. Even if we had functioned based entirely on that concern, I would've encouraged Supa to protect himself, so it wouldn't have mattered.

In any case, great job pulling this out at the end. Agreed, Banana in particular was solid in that last DP.

Originally Posted by Banana on 7/30/2026 at 11:21 PM (post #240)

Originally Posted by whiteflame on 7/30/2026 at 9:08 PM (post #239)

GG guys. Weird having to sit so much of this game out, but well done Banana and Thoth coming in clutch.

gg unlucky with the lover death :/

Came out of nowhere, didn’t think either of us were likely targets.

GG guys. Weird having to sit so much of this game out, but well done Banana and Thoth coming in clutch.

I’ll join.

Originally Posted by ILikePie5 on 7/21/2026 at 10:13 AM (post #327)

Is time up?

Should have about 45 minutes left.

Originally Posted by Kohai on 7/21/2026 at 10:07 AM (post #322)

Originally Posted by whiteflame on 7/21/2026 at 10:05 AM (post #319)

Originally Posted by Kohai on 7/21/2026 at 9:54 AM (post #315)

I’m literally just VT. Feel free to off me. I’m done with this site.

Dude, seriously, why are you being so defeatist and why are you still withholding information? Character? Justification? Why were you so adamant that you wouldn't claim until L-2? I get that you're at work, but this is absurd.

Because no one ever listens to me

I get that, between this game and Luna's, you've had to deal with getting sussed in DP1 and potentially being lynched over it, but the defeatist attitude has to stop. I'm sitting here actively asking for information. If I just wanted you dead, all I'd have to do is wait, but here I am engaging with you anyway. I'm reading your posts and responding to you. I was your most vocal defender in Luna's game before you were lynched. At least give me a chance.

Blake Livelt is my character. Jjstifixatiok b list actor

So Blake Lively then? Seems like Candace has weighed in a lot on the legal battle between Lively and Justin Baldoni. I don't get why she'd be VT based solely on her being a "b list actor."

Originally Posted by Kohai on 7/21/2026 at 9:54 AM (post #315)

I’m literally just VT. Feel free to off me. I’m done with this site.

Dude, seriously, why are you being so defeatist and why are you still withholding information? Character? Justification? Why were you so adamant that you wouldn't claim until L-2? I get that you're at work, but this is absurd.

Hell, a set of reads would at least be something, it would matter more than just a rushed out statement that you think one of the two of us is scum and would give us some insight into your thinking.

Originally Posted by Kohai on 7/21/2026 at 9:18 AM (post #305)

GTMH 1 scum min between Mikal / Whiteflame

Man, I am actively trying to find reasons not to lynch you and this doesn't help. If you want to sus Mikal and me, fine, but attention's on you right now. Are you seriously not going to say anything in your own defense or at least give a character claim?

Originally Posted by Kohai on 7/21/2026 at 9:10 AM (post #302)

I’m not claiming. Feel free to ML me for the final time. I am so done with mafia. Bye

So when you said we'd have to get you to L-2 to get a claim out of you, that was then and this is now. Got it.

Give us something, man. We've got less than 2 hours and you're throwing.