Listen up.
Town’s win rate is down in the dumpster and it seems nigh impossible to get it out of there… But let’s make a concerted effort to do this together.
This is part 1 of my guide on how to play video mafia. Including basic rules for beginner town play.
Don’t be a meme
It’s OK to meme for a short time at the start of the game. Don’t be a meme and don’t delve down any pointless rabbit holes. The meme is the death of town, the reason for this is simple… You’re giving mafia an avenue to settle into the game. The very first words that come out of a mafia player’s mouth and the very first actions a mafia player takes will likely dictate the game. If the mafia player has a smooth transition into the conversation and gains control over the game (even via memeing), it’s going to be very hard for town to win. Don’t be a joke, don’t build on other people’s jokes… Besides, it’s better if you can be funny in your own right.
Rely on your team
Now, this is not a win in all cases, but… For the sake of part 1, I’m going to say ALWAYS RELY ON YOUR TEAM. Too many games, I see people completely ignore what is going on in the rest of the game simply to say “here are my scum reads, lets lynch here”. News flash, your reads are probably not that good… And by not that good, I mean even the best players are only slightly above random… So, in most situations, you should be consulting the collective of reads and trying to decipher “who has the best read on StarV” and “How does that affect their alignment”… If you can’t get anything from that, by god… You should probably RNG.
There are situations where you’re going to be left alone and you’re going to be forced into a decision… My advice is to rely on your team to outplay the mafia, don’t rely on your gut read, it’s probably wrong. There’s nothing wrong with being outplayed and losing… Asking for your team to play well and then voting incorrectly is disheartening.
Don’t be confident
Video mafia generally has two types of players. Those who are hesitant, and those who are stupid. You can refuse to believe that a world exists, but that doesn’t have any bearing on the possibility of that world existing. Once again, this is a team game and you really need to evaluate who is actively trying to solve the game and working with them. Evaluating worlds & re-evaluating worlds is a key skill… Burying your head in the sand is not.
Raise your hand
Listen, if you’re town and you don’t throw down that vote… Town gets lynched. Mafia aren’t going to just kill themselves off for you. Self-voting is not allowed, so they could not do this even if they wanted to. Now, this as with everything does not apply to all situations… Now, I understand the appeal to not voting, and on the surface, town no voting actually decreases the odds of town getting lynched at a higher rate than it does for mafia getting lynched (Elli, please check my math)… So why is it bad? END OF DAY… Someone must die and with 1 town no voter, you’re likely to end up with a player getting killed at end of day just because everyone else has immunity. Vote early and often!
Gambits are stupid
Gambits are fun… They are not good, if you’re tired of losing, it’s probably time to put the gambits away and just focus on playing an overall solid game.
But StarV, you didn’t give any tips on improving reads…
I’m going to conclude with this, there are several reasons why I chose not to go in this direction, mainly I don’t think this has any bearing on why town is getting constantly decimated. The other reasons being… It’s difficult, I don’t think I’m particularly good at it and everything is situational… Which is a mess to explain in the 20 minutes I’ve been writing this post.
So, I hope this helps, and I hope this inspires town to win some games tonight.