Hi, long-ish post here so I'll start with the summary.
I read through Richard's, Bruce's and Mary Rose's posts, and I'll look through Tom's later for good measure. My conclusions so far:
Richard: some suspicious stuff in his posts, some possible links with Tom, not really much to connect him to Bruce or Mary Rose
Bruce: a few suspicious things in his posts too, no clear links with Tom, not much to connect him to Richard or Mary Rose
Mary Rose: not much if any suspicious stuff in her posts, no clear links to Tom, Richard or Bruce
Thoughts on Tom's post's to follow later as I've run out of time here... at the moment I'm leaning Richard, with Richard-Bruce ahead of Richard-Mary Rose as a scum pairing.
Thoughts on Richard's posts:
- Post 7: votes Tina for blocking him
The way he came straight out with this tingles my spidey-sense a bit. Considering he didn't know for sure it was Tina (could have been me), and also if he'd waited before revealing he was roleblocked, it would have kept everyone else honest (they'd be worried about him countering them if they lied about their night action and he'd tracked them). So why this post so soon? One possibility is it's over-eagerness, but here's another theory that seems plausible to me: scum may have had a pre-arranged plan for how they were going to play day 1, but Tina blocking Richard made her such an easy lynch target that he figured it was important to let his buddies know: "Hey, change of plan, let's get Tina lynched."
- post 9: questions Bruce's assumption that John used his power
Null tell
- post 11 (56): reacts to Tina's counter-attack
I pointed out in (57) that a couple of his arguments in this post are dubious. The way he's stretching here in his attack on Tina is a touch scummy, I think. Like he sees her just as a lynch target and is more concerned with persuading others to lynch her than actually determining if she's scum or not.
- post 12: reason for targeting Bruce
I think I drank too much that night Razz and targeted Bruce (I somehow thought he was a vig?)
This doesn't make sense - no need to track a vig, really... Now, I happen to think tracking Bruce was a very good move given he's a weak doc - if Bruce was dead, Bruce's target could be scum assuming Bruce wasn't the night kill. But I am wary of the fact Richard isn't sure why he tracked Bruce. Is it that he's scum, and followed a scumbuddy's plan without thinking too hard about justifying his night choice?
- post 14 (76): paranoia
In response to Misty's "Something's up with the tracker and watcher I think"
Oh, I see...
You think that me and him are scum and had planned this in advance do you?
That seems way out of the blue. Misty never said anything of that sort, just nodded towards out the (apparent) contradiction between the tracker and watcher result claims. Could have been that one was scum, or the other, no reason why it had to be both of them working together. Now if Richard knew he and Tom were both scum, that would provide a bit of explanation for this paranoid leap.
25 - Doesn't vote for Tom straight up:
I'm going to hold off votes of course till all of the claims come in, but there's no way in my mind that you're not scum right now.
At first I thought this was a bit of a contradiction with how he voted Tina straight off day1. But I guess day1 we had 5 v 3 v 1, whereas day2 we were in lylo. So his caution here is fair enough.
27 - comment to Tom:
(Note to Tom scum: Why did you so obviously reveal yourself? and even better, why didn't you kill me?)
This reads a little bit like: "Come on, put up more of a fight so people believe we are on opposite sides!" I can see a scum Richard deciding it's better to draw attention to Tom's lacklustre defense himself than someone else do so later.
And the "Why didn't you kill me?" is an entirely pointless question to ask, so asking it just makes it look like Richard wants to seem confused.
Thoughts on Bruce's posts:
- post 3 (translation of post 1): commenting on results of night kills
If this was a bit more "oh noez, that night sucked, woe is us" I'd find it scummy, as it is it is a bit more matter-of-fact about it, I think, just a "okay, so this is how it is" kinda post. Null tell
- post 5: answers Richard's question
Nothing suspicious about their interaction that I can see, just noting the fact that they did interact.
- post 6: reason for protecting me
He gave a reason for choosing to protect me. Null tell in itself but a contrast with Richard
- post 8: choosing who to protect
Im reading through to see who is the most cleared as town so I dont pick the wrong person to protect.
Struck me as weird at the time, because I was assuming he was thinking from a preservation point of view - i.e. protecting me again would mean he wouldn't die. Thinking about it from a "if I protect someone else I can clear another player" viewpoint though, this makes sense now.
- post 8: against no-lynch
Doesn't give any reason, just agrees that no-lynch is bad. I think it was at least worth considering given the dire straits a mislynch could have placed us in. Seems to me that scum would be happy to jump onto the 'no to no-lynch' side without any other comment like this, given Tina was in the firing line. This isn't a strong point though, just a gut feeling really that Bruce seems to want the town to like him and is happy to go with whatever others think best.
- post 14: reason for protecting John
I figured it was a safe bet, and he or I would have been likely targets for night kills.
The second half of that sentence I agree with - John was a likely target. Not sure why he was a 'safe bet' for Bruce to protect though - he wasn't clearly town. Safe bet for scum to protect though...
Also important to note that Bruce posted his target ahead of Richard naming Bruce's target. This stuffed up our chances of testing Richard's night action.
To me this suggests either Richard and Bruce aren't working together, or Bruce got confused about their plan somewhere along the line. (It's unlikely it was deliberate, I don't see what scum would gain from it.)
- post 17: 'still alive'
This could explain how I am still alive after protecting John.
? John was proven town as soon as day 2 dawned and he didn't use his double vote to vote the scum team to an easy win. This quote smacks a little of scum automatically trying to cast suspicion as widely as possible.
Thoughts on Mary Rose's posts:
- post 1: no-targeted
Slight pro-town points, since a random vig (or 50% chance of one) on night 0 was unlikely to help us
- posts 2-4: questioning me re. my post
I actually like this, re-reading, Mary Rose seems genuine with her questions here. And she actually read and listend to my explanation. I like how she considered all the possibilities (at the end of post 4).
- post 5: against making a plan for the night
I can see where she's coming from - the element of surprise can be a handy weapon - but there's no harm in at least discussing a plan. If even the best plan we can think of is flawed, we don't need to actually go with it.
- post 8: discussing the plan
Makes good points here, noting she has 50% chance of not killing me if I don't block her, and hoping to look for better options for the Bruce-Richard pairing.
- post 12: discussing the next plan
In an ideal world we could figure out a way to have me and/or Charles possibly stopping scum, even though our usual dyad is nice... I will think about this.
She didn't follow this up, but that may just have been because Tom self-hammered before she could do so.