Guidance for New Players

This post primarily deals with basic advice and tactics for those new to the game because it is often very hard, from a practical standpoint, for a new player to ask questions of other players without giving away information best kept secret. Telling everyone you are the cop on the first day of the game is a really bad idea, for instance, and a new player might accidentally reveal that or something similar in an attempt to get advice on what to do.

First and foremost, this is a game that typically forces players to lie and manipulate, the rules used to include a warning that tempers can sometimes get raised, but in practice it has rarely if ever happened. The players typically follow a ‘Lynch Liars” philosophy though, so while no rule restricts Townies from lying, it is usually discouraged for newer players who are unlikely to have a good idea what sort of lie will be acceptable to the other players and in what circumstances.

When you first enter the game, you will likely not want to reveal your role, even if that role has no powers, a role called ‘Vanilla Townie’. Doing so could easily get you lynched even if you are a vanilla, as it is often seen as an attempt to minimize your chances of being targeted for a Night Kill, thus increasing the odds the bad guys will get a strong town role with their night kill.

Day vs day – Since the usual game has Day and Night phases that last multiple real life days, it can occasionally be confusing which someone is referring to, context usually makes it clear, and you should be mindful of that when reading and posting.

Voting is the biggest aspect of the game, and new players shouldn’t hesitate to vote for someone if they think they are guilty but aren’t sure. This is a game of mob rule not a jury room, even the most skilled players tend to lynch more innocent players than guilty. On the same hand, you are usually expected to justify your decision to vote with a brief or lengthy explanation and not doing so will often attract suspicion, often even if the player who you voted for is revealed to be a bad guy. Lynching an innocent townie looks far worse, but it is not uncommon for scummers to vote for one of their own to avoid suspicion, this is called ‘bussing’, shorthand for throwing an ally under the bus. Jumping on the wagon generally refers to people who vote for someone who has a few votes on them without much apparent reason and this has generally tended to draw suspicion on those who do it. Not voting for anyone is also generally not a great idea, but on the whole players who explain, justify and debate their votes or non-votes tend to be regarded with less suspicion. They are also considered Pro-Town, and are less likely to be lynched overall.

Pro-Town vs. Anti-Town – On the surface this would seem an obvious distinction, Pro-Town is a Townie and anti-town is a scummer, but this is not how the terms are used. Actions that are seen as generally beneficial to the town, overall, are Pro-Town, action which aren’t are Anti-Town. It is considered to the town’s benefit to ask a lot of questions, to debate votes, to accuse people – assuming there is some cause to do so – and to respond to questions asked in a timely manner. Not posting a lot, lying, obfuscating, roleclaiming without cause, voting without cause or explanation, or generally being uninvolved are considered Anti-Town. Even letting yourself be lynched or drawing suspicion when you are innocent is anti-town since a dead townie does not help the town. They are often done by townies, and many scummers act in a very pro-town fashion to avoid suspicion. A player accused of being anti-town, as opposed to being scummy, might easily end up getting lynched if there are no decent candidates who seem scummy as an anti-town player is seen as less valuable than a pro-town player. So on the whole, since most lynching – particularly early in the game – involves minimal evidence the best idea is to avoid appearing anti-town or anti-game, which is often similar. A good player, town or scum, is supposed to try to win by active play, deduction, and particularly in the case of the scum, outright treachery. While new players generally enjoy a certain amount of unofficial protection during the early part of their first game, it is a good idea to avoid trying to lay any particularly complex traps that might tend to make you look suspicious until they catch a culprit. From a practical standpoint even very sophisticated traps tend to fail and many of the players have a dozen or more games spread out of 2 or 3 years to serve as practice for avoiding traps and often are very good at maneuvering to stick the person who laid the trap into its jaws instead.

Lastly, depending on the game it is not uncommon for the first day to drag on a bit, taking on the flavor of a staring match, this can be a bit boring and give the wrong impression to a new player about how games generally proceed but it does occur with a fair amount of regularity. If this happens it’s best to just bare with it and keep posting. However, players occasionally find that the game isn’t too their liking, should this be the case with yourself, or should you find you simply can’t spend the time on the game, a resignation, either on the board or to the moderator, is expected, no one will object or try to talk you out of it, but it lets the Mod and players know that you are leaving, and gives the Mod more opportunity to replace you. Should you simply be busy, which everyone is at some point, you are strongly encouraged to post a message with “RBIRL” in the title. RBIRL – Real Busy in Real Life – is our In-House term for this. Err on the side of caution and courtesy, there is no rule or expectation that if you say you will be gone for three days you can’t post until that time has passed.

You can also read some additional information from A Beginner's Guide to Being Awesome At Mafia at the mafiascum wiki.

So that’s the basics in terms of what you need to know, beyond the rules you’ve already seen, Good Luck and Welcome to RAFO Mafia!