Mafiascum.net

1. WaltertheDunce10
   (replaces opcleaver01)
   
   
2. Pearofclubs
   
3. SJReaver
   
4. Ydrasse
   
5. Nash
   (replaces mujie)
   
   
6. midwaybear
   (replaces Apto 3rd)
   
   
7. clidd (SE)
   
8. Dunnstral (SE)
   (replaces Menalque, beeboy)
   
   
9. GuiltyLion (SE)

• This is a semi-open setup (see next post for details).
  
• Day 1 lasts up to
  240 hours (10 days)
  ; subsequent days last up to
  168 hours (7 days)
  .
  
• Nights last
  48 hours (2 days)
  , but can end early if all living players want that.
  
• You must post at least once per
  36 hours
  to avoid being prodded and eventually replaced.
  
• Standard majority-only elimination mechanics.
  
• Mafia have daytalk.

• Don't use
  orange
  , it's my color.
  
• Play to win.
  
• Don't discuss the game outside of the game until it's over.
  
• Don't flame. Don't harass. Don't use insults that target minority, disadvantaged, or legally protected classes.
  
• Keep interpersonal disputes out of the game thread.
  
• Don't quote or misquote private communications from the moderator.
  
• Don't use encryption, tiny/hidden/unreadable text, or anything that could be easily confused for such.
  
• Replace-out requests should be made via PM and not posted in-thread.
  
• All replacement requests (even if posted in-thread) will be taken as serious, irrevocable, and immediate. Once you request replacement you are no longer a player and may not post.
  
• Don't game the rules, pretend to break the rules, or intentionally test the limits. All pretended violations will be dealt with identically to actual violations.
  
• Don't break the rules of any other ongoing game in this thread.
  
• Don't argue moderator actions in the game thread. If you want to dispute a ruling, do so via PM.

• Day 1 begins with a deadline of
  240 hours
  (10 days); subsequent days begin with a deadline of
  168 hours
  (7 days).
  
• Days will end when one of the following events occurs:
  • The deadline is reached.
    
  • An elimination (or no-elimination) is achieved.
    
  • A town-aligned player is modkilled.
• Votes should be made via the vote tag: “[vote]<playername>[/vote]” or “[v]<playername>[/v]”. Full player names or initial segments thereof are preferred.
  
• When more than half of living players are voting for the same player, that player will be eliminated and the day will end. Votes are irrevocable once a majority is achieved.
  
• You may vote not to eliminate anyone by voting for “No elimination”. When half or more of living players do so, the day will end without an elimination.
  
• If the day reaches deadline without a majority, there will be no elimination.
  
• I will interpret malformed votes according to my own discretion. In general, if it looks like a vote, I will probably count it as a vote. I reserve the right to edit malformed votes for easier counting.
  
• When a majority vote has been achieved but not yet recognized by the moderator, the game is in
  twilight
  . Players, including the eliminated player, may continue to post during this period.
  
• Under certain circumstances I may elect to extend the deadline. I will announce this in thread if it occurs.

• Nights will last
  48 hours
  , or until all living players give me their approval to end the night early.
  
• During the night, you should be unable to post in the public game thread. If for some reason you are able, doing so is still against the rules.
  
• Mafia night abilities should be submitted in the Mafia's private thread. Factional kills must specify which mafioso carries out the kill.
  
• Town night abilities should be submitted via PM.
  
• Use of active night abilities is optional unless otherwise specified in the role PM; if no action is submitted, no action will occur.

• Players who do not confirm within
  48 hours
  of receiving their role PM will be replaced.
  
• Players who do not post for
  36 hours
  in a single game-day will incur a prod.
  
• Players who do not post for
  24 hours
  following a prod will be replaced.
  
• Players who incur three prods will be replaced.
  
• At my discretion, excessive “prod-dodging” may result in a mod warning and subsequently in disregard of future dodges.
  
• If for any reason you are temporarily unable to meet these requirements, you may declare V/LA status
  in thread
  and be excused. V/LA declarations must include a definite end date.
  
• Notwithstanding V/LA status, any player who does not post at all for
  5 days
  of consecutive day time will be replaced.
  
• These are minimal requirements, not recommendations; please keep the game active.

This game uses the NewD3 setup, designed by RadiantCowbells.

Each Newbie Game will be given a setup that incorporates one mafia role from the top of a column, and then two town roles from a row below the selected mafia role.
The remaining six roles will be filled in by and appropriately, to create a and setup.

All Newbie games use the Natural Action Resolution system for determining Night action effects. action takes precedence over a action should that apply.

Mafia are able to communicate in their Private Topic at all times.

-> Forum Rules and Guidelines
-> The Glossary
-> Commonly Used Abbreviations
-> The Newbie Guide
-> Articles on How to Play Well (be sure to check the dates these were written/updated, as good advice changes over time)






Besides the activity requirements listed in the moderator's original post, it's just necessary for a fun and healthy game that everyone . If you post very rarely, or only post a little bit at a time, you may get scumread for lurking. Even if you are not scumread for it, what's the fun in playing a game where multiple people are hardly participating?



Meta is the description of how people on Mafiascum like to play mafia. Things can be different on other online mafia sites, or if you play IRL, so it's good to know what's expected of you on this site. These aren't "rules", per se, but if you don't follow these guidelines it is likely things will go poorly for you on MS. Some examples are...


Games on MafiaScum almost always begin with what we call the Random Voting Stage (RVS). At this point in the game, we are in a low information game state (except the mafia, which know everyone’s alignment). As a way to provoke reaction, start a discussion, and try to determine alignment, people will usually vote for non-serious reasons. As the discussion progresses, we will eventually get the game moving and progress out of RVS.


E-x is a way to convey how far away a player is away from elimination. For example, you should always announce that you are putting someone at E-1 (1 vote away from an elimination) so that someone doesn’t come along and accidentally vote for that player's elimination. This also prevents Mafia-aligned players from coming along and placing the final vote to eliminate (“hammer”) and claiming ignorance about doing so. You may also see E-2 and E-3 (2 votes away from elimination and 3 votes away from elimination, respectively).

Before you hammer a player, state your intent to hammer (usually done in bold) and ask the player to claim their role. This is done to prevent power roles from being eliminated, and can sometimes get Mafia-aligned players to be caught (via counter claiming). It's best to then allow other players to react and discuss the claim before hammering.



It is almost always best to not claim your role unless you are at E-1 and have been asked to claim as part of an “intent to hammer.” This is because, as a town power role (“PR”), if you out prematurely, you are likely to be night-killed (“NK’d”). As a Vanilla Townie (“VT”), claiming early helps the mafia team narrow down the setup and possible PR candidates. An exception to this would be if a mafia player claimed your role, claiming early to counter the false claim (“CC”) would out the mafia player, and would be a benefit to the town.

While it may help you avoid getting eliminated, you might cause a real PR to out themselves by counterclaiming - then the mafia will know who the PR is, and you will probably get eliminated for lying to town. Feel free to fake a claim as scum, though, if you think it would help.


ELo is the shortened representation of “Eliminate or Lose.” ELo in the Newbie Queue is when there are 3 remaining players, 2 of which are town and 1 is mafia; or when there are 5 remaining players, 3 of which are town and 2 are mafia. It is important in these situations that the town aligned players do not carelessly vote like is done during RVS or early days, as the mafia player(s) can organize and instantly provide the necessary votes to eliminate (“quickhammer”) and win the game.


As town, it can be hard to figure things out, and stressful when people think you're scum. Just share your thoughts on who you think is scum as they come to you, and don't be afraid to change your mind. As scum, it can be hard to lie convincingly, and stressful when people think you're scum. Don't let that scare you! Try to think of what you would post if you were town, and don't be afraid to "change your mind".

This is a game.

Looking forward to a fun game with everyone!

VOTE: SJReaver

I’ve never known any town but Newbieville. It’s where I was born—I spent my summers catfishing at the lake, got my first job working the counter at the Creamy Freeze, and two years ago, I was lucky enough to marry the girl I’ve loved since middle school.

I’m just a Vanilla Townie.

I’m not important or powerful like some of you, but I love this town just as much as you! And lately, this have been happening that bother me. More people from out-of-town have showed up and the streets aren’t as safe as they used to be. Crime, even murder!, in Newbieville.

It’s enough to make a Townie lose his mind.

Well, I’ve had enough. It’s time that we take back what’s ours! It’s time for all good Townies to take a stand. We’ve got to find these criminals and punish them, for our town, for ourselves, and for the ones we love.

DIE MAFIA SCUM!

Oh, I forgot my gif!

It's nice to meet you, GuiltyLion.

This is my first game. Do you have any tips for me?

What do you think is the best way to tell if someone is scum or not?

VOTE: SJReaver

I can offer my assistance too, let's have a conversation.

In post 10, SJReaver wrote:It's nice to meet you, GuiltyLion.

This is my first game. Do you have any tips for me?

What do you think is the best way to tell if someone is scum or not?

So, I don't say this to criticize but just as a point of feedback, first tip is you don't want to claim your role like that, even if you are a Vanilla. Mafia need to get rid of the power roles as fast as possible, so usually they will decide to kill people who they think may be a power role. Claiming vanilla narrows the pool for them.

As for scumhunting, that's a massive topic, but personally my general first pointers would be the following:

- keep in mind that most players are town, and most posts in the game are coming from town. A lot of things players will think are scum-indicative are really just noise. Improving in mafia is a constant process of refining your focus on posts that are actually indicative vs focusing on posts which aren't meaningful. A good rule of thumb is that if you can think of a reason town would post something, and think of a reason mafia would post something, and they feel fairly equally likely, then it's probably not alignment-indicative.

- as a result, the best scum tells in my experience are when you find posts or thought processes that are . These posts are rare and mafia spend the entire game trying to hide/avoid posting them, so you don't find them often, but that's the gold standard.

- similarly, you find reliable town tells when you find posts/things that are .

- stay open to revisiting or re-examining your reads. It's good to take stances and play with conviction in your beliefs (because if you appear wishy-washy or tentative, people will scumread you), but it's important to not let yourself get too caught up in tunnelvision and keep checking yourself on your assumptions. It's totally okay/normal to change your mind - just make sure to communicate when/why you're doing so

In post 7, SJReaver wrote:I spent my summers catfishing at the lake

Huh. I've always found catfishes spend more time online than in lakes. But whatever floats your boat.

In post 12, GuiltyLion wrote:So, I don't say this to criticize but just as a point of feedback, first tip is you don't want to claim your role like that, even if you are a Vanilla. Mafia need to get rid of the power roles as fast as possible, so usually they will decide to kill people who they think may be a power role. Claiming vanilla narrows the pool for them.

SJReaver could always be a power role pretending to be a vanilla townie. I gotcha back SJReaver.

In post 9, GuiltyLion wrote:VOTE: Pearofcubs

Are you just voting for everyone who hasn't replied yet in the hopes that they end up replying? I don't have any scumreads yet cause it's mostly been tips so far, but clidd, I am curious as to why you voted for SJReaver?

Oh, I don't really have any tips, I normally played on epicmafia, and in that you're kind of waiting for people to die to figure out roles. And then you go back and look for contradictions or, for example, if someone posted at the start of the day, it might indicate they're a power role cause a night only ends when they make an action. But that's with fast-paced mafia. But it will probably be easier when more people are dead I imagine.

Man, I was going to jokingly play my character as a conscientious objector, but for lynching, but apparently my character's now an insane sociopath who wants people to die so he can beat the Mafia. OK, yeah, this is gonna be a fun role to play.

In post 13, mujie wrote: Are you just voting for everyone who hasn't replied yet in the hopes that they end up replying? I don't have any scumreads yet cause it's mostly been tips so far, but clidd, I am curious as to why you voted for SJReaver?

I am thoughtful about him, nothing serious yet.

I suppose you were away from the forum for a long time, Mujie, although you were still active on the theme through other platforms.

What is your impression of the claim on post 7 ? Is it something you imagine a beginner scum would do ?

In post 11, clidd wrote:VOTE: SJReaver

I can offer my assistance too, let's have a conversation.

Neat. You seem to be good with math. I was reading through a thread about lynching groups and you came up with what seemed like the most mathematically optimal play. Do you find weighing out the odds like that lead to good play?

Do you tend to follow a set of internal guidelines or standards, or do you lean more towards instincts and feelings?

I tend to be feeling-oriented and have trouble unraveling things rationally. I worry that limits my usefulness to the town.

Sorry for being late, I've been doing work related slideshow "training" for my new job and it's taking way longer than I thought. GLHF everyone!

SJreaver, are you new too? That claim was a little weird.

In post 13, mujie wrote:

In post 9, GuiltyLion wrote:VOTE: Pearofcubs

Are you just voting for everyone who hasn't replied yet in the hopes that they end up replying?

Maybe? As I understand it, borderline random votes are pretty normal early on.

@Pearofclubs

You're not late at all. We just started. Nice to meet you.

Yes, Town of Salem was on sale on Steam. I picked it up on the 4th and I found I loved it! Spent the entire day playing. Then I started trying to figure out what all the acronyms meant and came upon the mafiascum wiki. Joined the forums about 2 days ago. Reading through the threads, this form of Mafia seemed far more thougtful.

Some of these people are amazing. It's like magic to me.

In post 16, clidd wrote:I suppose you were away from the forum for a long time, Mujie, although you were still active on the theme through other platforms.

What is your impression of the claim on post 7 ? Is it something you imagine a beginner scum would do ?

I say I’ve been on epic mafia, I haven’t been active on that in years, but I used to be really active on it. But I normally play on classic, so you’re basically assumed to be vanilla unless proven otherwise. I’ve never really seen someone claim to be townie until the later days, where townies end up being the hammer.

I can see a newbie town claiming to be vanilla so that they don’t get suspected, but I think a newbie mafia would be way too nervous to claim it like that. Especially so early on.

That said, 10 minutes for a pretty detailed post. I’d assume that meant he was planning his post before the day 1 PM and after the role PM. A newbie mafia might want to plan out his first post in a lot of detail to make sure he can’t get caught, while a newbie townie I’d imagine wouldn’t need to do so.

Also, from a meta standpoint, it’s SJ’s first game, so if another scum read comes up I’d rather lynch them than lynch the brand new player on the first day.

Thinking about it that way, it’s definitely a possibility that SJ is maf, but I’m not yet ready to vote for him

In post 17, SJReaver wrote:

In post 11, clidd wrote:VOTE: SJReaver

I can offer my assistance too, let's have a conversation.

Neat. You seem to be good with math. I was reading through a thread about lynching groups and you came up with what seemed like the most mathematically optimal play. Do you find weighing out the odds like that lead to good play?

Do you tend to follow a set of internal guidelines or standards, or do you lean more towards instincts and feelings?

I tend to be feeling-oriented and have trouble unraveling things rationally. I worry that limits my usefulness to the town.

I am a fan of numbers, but they have a very circumstantial applicability and are not useful in isolation. In the balance of probabilities, an intermediary is necessary for the execution to be faithful to success, as in theory. But this is really not a subject that will make me read your slot better.

I have my own game methods, which vary according to the playerlist. There are patterns that each player has in a certain alignment that I rescue through meta analysis (past matches), while individuals with little or no history are assessed through instinct, so by definition, my learning is contextual, given the hybrid playstyle.

In my experience, emotional traits can be emulated more easily than rational traits, considering that creating a logical context takes more cognitive work than simulating episodes of strong emotion through typing. Now, in the sense of intuition, there is always suggestive evidence that we unconsciously detect that leads to inferences such as ''I feel that this person is scum, but I can't explain why''. My feeling about your claim, for example, is that you could have been guided to act in that specific way, in the scenario where you are scum, which is in conflict with another impression that says you are not a newbie and you already owned/has a forum account (which implies that you are a secret alt).



Changing the subject, I have a few questions:

1- What is your experience with the "mafia" theme ?
2- You know the basic terms ''town'', ''townie'', ''scum'', but apparently you were unaware that an early claim would help the mafia. Can I assume this was accidental ?
3- Regardless of the scenario of you being a beginner or not, what is your opinion about the fact that the way people react to your claim could indicate potential PRs (power roles) for the mafia ? or is it not suggestive enough in your vision ?

@SJreaver Nice to meet you too!

I've read a few games- both here and on Bay12- and been over the wiki, but this is my first actual game.
And yeah, some of the players here are very clever.
Figure the only way to get there is practice, so

In post 20, mujie wrote:

In post 16, clidd wrote:I suppose you were away from the forum for a long time, Mujie, although you were still active on the theme through other platforms.

What is your impression of the claim on post 7 ? Is it something you imagine a beginner scum would do ?

I say I’ve been on epic mafia, I haven’t been active on that in years, but I used to be really active on it. But I normally play on classic, so you’re basically assumed to be vanilla unless proven otherwise. I’ve never really seen someone claim to be townie until the later days, where townies end up being the hammer.

I can see a newbie town claiming to be vanilla so that they don’t get suspected, but I think a newbie mafia would be way too nervous to claim it like that. Especially so early on.

That said, 10 minutes for a pretty detailed post. I’d assume that meant he was planning his post before the day 1 PM and after the role PM. A newbie mafia might want to plan out his first post in a lot of detail to make sure he can’t get caught, while a newbie townie I’d imagine wouldn’t need to do so.

Also, from a meta standpoint, it’s SJ’s first game, so if another scum read comes up I’d rather lynch them than lynch the brand new player on the first day.

Thinking about it that way, it’s definitely a possibility that SJ is maf, but I’m not yet ready to vote for him

I had an expressive passage through that site, but the pace of the game is very fast and requires a wit that is not for me.

I agree that newbie scum would not have a strong psychological to execute a fake-claim in the first game, but assuming that this newbie was an experienced player posing as a novice, he could act maliciously without being noticed due to the beginner ''veil'' that we would assign to him. PR (power role) players tend to manifest some signs when they observe a claim, which can be interpreted by the mafia, resulting in an NK (nightkill) for that reason.

Evidently, this is a debatable hypothesis.

In post 18, Pearofclubs wrote:Sorry for being late, I've been doing work related slideshow "training" for my new job and it's taking way longer than I thought. GLHF everyone!

SJreaver, are you new too? That claim was a little weird.

In post 13, mujie wrote:

In post 9, GuiltyLion wrote:VOTE: Pearofcubs

Are you just voting for everyone who hasn't replied yet in the hopes that they end up replying?

Maybe? As I understand it, borderline random votes are pretty normal early on.

What's weird about the claim to you ?