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So You Want To Be A Villager; A guide by SnowRemnant
Topic Started: Jan 11 2014, 04:32 PM (919 Views)
Nix Machina
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Dreams of machine-men and trees and rivers...
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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! I'm SnowRemnant, your host for this evening.

I'm one of the more experienced mafia players on this forum. I was an admin here for about a year (late November 2011 through early December 2012), and won Best Village Player 2012, Best Mafia Win 2012, and tied for Best Overall Player 2013. I'm starting this series of guides to help explain the standard roles in a mafia game and some of the better ways to play them to help increase the overall level of play on the forum.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a god of mafia, despite what some may claim. The strategies I lay out will not always work. This is all based on my style of play, and for maximum efficiency, the best idea would be to take what works for you and discard what doesn't.

All right. Lights dim. Spotlight on. Welcome to....

So You Want To Be A Villager

We're going to go over a variety of topics today:


  • What is a villager?
  • What role does a villager play?
  • How does a villager interact with the other primary village roles?
  • How does a villager interact with the rest of the village?
  • What situations should a villager look out for?


What is a villager?
"I am Legion, for we are many."

A villager is the rank and file of the village. They have no powers, special abilities, or properties to distinguish them from the rest of the village. They're also the most important role in the game.

"But wait!" I hear you cry. "What about the cop? What about the doctor? They define the course of a game!"

While this is true, everything in the game is pointless without villagers to back you up. The cop is not infallible, and the doctor can't lead. When the cop doesn't have a guilty, we resort to more imprecise methods, such as scumhunting. That's where you come in.

What role does a villager play?
"This quiet offends Slaanesh. Things will get loud now."

As a villager, you are technically held to no responsibilities. You aren't the one who's supposed to lead the village, after all, and it's not like you have night actions. The problem becomes that everyone, with their lack of responsibilities, sits back and lets the cop do their thing while just bandwagoning on whatever lynch comes up. They get quiet.

This is a poor course of action. The better course of action is, of course, to get loud.

And I'm not talking about inside voices. I'm talking about outside voices. I'm talking about projecting your voice across the room. I'm talking about piercing the heavens with the drill that is you screaming. Villagers, you need to speak up.

That said, don't just say random nonsense. Do your best to scumhunt. Cop says "Hey, I got a guilty on this guy, go lynch him?" Say "That sounds great! Also, this guy over here did this thing, which seems pretty scummy to me. Take a look at him." Cop says "No guilty, so doing an RL?" Say "Hold up a moment, why not lynch this guy over here for reasons x, y, and z?" You literally have no excuse to sit back and be quiet when you can be contributing to everything going on in the thread.

"But wait!" I hear you cry. "If I get loud, won't I get killed?"

YES! Oh, GOD yes. As soon as you die, everything you said becomes validated by your role. Every suspicion you laid, every hypothetical you threw out, becomes something that was said by a confirmed villager. Your words hold that much more weight, and the village would be dumb to ignore that.

How does a villager interact with the other primary village roles?
"I will not fail you, blood of my blood."

Claim to the cop, follow their lead, and give advice when possible. Other than that, not too much. In setups with a bulletproof or other ideal lead, you'll end up claiming to them instead. In the event that the cop investigates you, you might be added to the inner circle of PRs and clears, in which case it'll be easier for you to help give advice to the cop and other PRs.

If you have a suspicion that you don't want the mafia to know, send it to the cop/other clear directly. Being loud is good, but being subtle is also important.

How does a villager interact with the rest of the village?
"Constant vigilance."

No one is above scrutiny. Suspect everyone and anyone - unless they've already been proven clear. An unCC'd cop is probably not going to be maf (unless there's a silencer or a ventriloquist). Other than that, throw around ideas like it's confetti.

What situations should a villager look out for?
"This city's been dead for years now, so death is not something that scares me."

There are two big situations to look out for as a villager.

The first one is a cop CC. At this point, it becomes entirely a matter of scumhunting, and that's where you come in. If one of the cops got a guilty and it wasn't on the other, it's usually best to lynch the guilty and test that claim that way. More often, though, you've got someone CCing in a situation where one of the guilties is the other cop, or there are no guilties at all. In this case, you need to look at both of the cops and find out which one has the most scummy behavior and which one has the best defense.

The second is when there are no PRs left. In a situation with only villagers, you have to be able to stand up and talk. No bandwagoning. Every vote has to have your full confidence behind it, and you have to know not to blindly listen to whatever anyone else has to say. Some of the best players are capable of turning a village without even being proven clear, and if they happen to be sided with the mafia, it could end badly for everyone involved if you blindly follow their lead.

A more minor thing to keep in mind is, if you want to help the cop safely claim, you can claim first, and then back down when the cop CCs you. At that point, you have a cop clearly set up for claims without as much worry about CCs, since mafia typically won't CC once you've backed down. If another CC comes up, see the first scenario, but the first CC is a bit more suspect.

Conclusion

Get big, get loud, speak up. Villagers have this habit of retreating back into their corner and not doing a whole lot, which ends badly for everyone involved. I didn't get to where I was today by bandwagoning all the time. If you want to get to "power player" status, you need to be comfortable talking and contributing to the thread.

If you have any questions, post them in the thread. The more I can clarify for everyone, the better. Additionally, like I said, this is a series - if you have any requests for my next guide, let me know and I'll go with the one that gets the most requests. This can be anything from a guide on playing a PR to a concept in mafia - whatever you need help with the most. I'm here to serve.

Until then, good luck and happy scumhunting.
Edited by Nix Machina, Jan 11 2014, 04:45 PM.
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Aviana
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SnowRemnant
Jan 11 2014, 04:32 PM
If you have any questions, post them in the thread. The more I can clarify for everyone, the better. Additionally, like I said, this is a series - if you have any requests for my next guide, let me know and I'll go with the one that gets the most requests. This can be anything from a guide on playing a PR to a concept in mafia - whatever you need help with the most. I'm here to serve.
Not quite done reading through yet, but I'm just going to chip in at this part real quick. Any questions about how to play as mafia will ultimately be addressed by me. Feel free to ask those just as much as you would ask for any other play style as well, I was just throwing the heads up in here.
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LetterSequence
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She wants the D
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how do i not be shit at being mafia
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Aviana
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All right, read it all. Completely solid and addresses a lot of issues with current villager plays, so I'm really happy about this. Going to put it in the banner.
LetterSequence
Jan 11 2014, 04:39 PM
how do i not be shit at being mafia
I'll write a guide for basic mafia things at a later time. It'd be helpful if I could get more specific questions than this, though.
Edited by Aviana, Jan 11 2014, 04:42 PM.
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LetterSequence
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She wants the D
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how do i not get lynched day 1 whenever i'm mafia
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DannyTurtle
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The Worst with Babies

Stop getting lynched day 1.
NEXT.
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Shadow31
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Resident source of chaos
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You click your heels together three times and do a tapdance on your first target's intestines.
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PSN Strykr
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memes
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Okay, this is real good. The situations section is really useful, and I expect that things would be added to it as they were suggested?

Also, as a notice, I'll probably start work on a Fool guide just because I personally think I know how to play that role real well. If anyone would like to add suggestions whilst I work on it, feel free to shoot me a message here or on Skype and I'll include it in the guide, or we can work on the guide together if you think you know a lot about the role as well.

And, finally, may I request a separate guide on 'Leading the Village'? Since this is a thing that can be done by many different roles, it wouldn't really make sense to just lump it in with Cop or Vig, so it should probably go in it's own guide?
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Nix Machina
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Dreams of machine-men and trees and rivers...
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Yeah. Any time someone asks a question about a specific situation as villager, I'll add it to the OP in addition to making a post about it down here.
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Whitey
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^He's talking about you
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With discussion workshop coming up, this is definitely going to get some attention. Glad you made this.
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LetterSequence
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She wants the D
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Aviana
Jan 11 2014, 04:42 PM
All right, read it all. Completely solid and addresses a lot of issues with current villager plays, so I'm really happy about this. Going to put it in the banner.
LetterSequence
Jan 11 2014, 04:39 PM
how do i not be shit at being mafia
I'll write a guide for basic mafia things at a later time. It'd be helpful if I could get more specific questions than this, though.
Actual question: how do you defend yourself without CC'ing a role?
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bloodrayne03
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Accounted for.
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I could field this question while we wait for Snow's response. Basically, you need to start being useful and have another viable lynch target ready. If you're not adding anything to the table, village isn't going to care too much if you die, even if you're a villager. By adding to discussion and having good reasons as to why someone else would be a better target than you, you are showing the village that there are people that are being less helpful than you are. However, even if you're being helpful, you still need to come up with someone to lynch that's not you, because at the end of the day, village wants to get a lynch done. And if all else fails and you still end up getting lynched, now village has an idea on where to look for tomorrow's lynch.
Edited by bloodrayne03, Jan 14 2014, 12:52 AM.
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Aviana
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Oh, I thought that was a mafia question and I was going to address it later. I suppose it applies for both sides, though.
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Nix Machina
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Dreams of machine-men and trees and rivers...
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Oh. Yeah, I interpreted that as a mafia question, since a villager wouldn't have CCing on the table.

But yeah. Show that you're useful to the village, and point out someone who isn't as useful or is making a lot of scumtells. That's really the most you can do. Worst comes to worst, you get lynched and you're cleared by your death, and your points are made valid through that. Best case scenario, you're not lynched and a mafia is, and you're given credibility through that. I'll let Aviana handle the mafia equivalent of this scenario when she makes her guide.
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Aviana
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Aviana
Jan 11 2014, 04:42 PM
I'll write a guide for basic mafia things at a later time.
By the way "at a later time" was "when I'm not currently playing as mafia in Real Justice". The signs were there.

Anyway I should be writing a basic mafia guide soonish.
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Nobody
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Are we ever going to have guides for playing specific village roles? Because I've noticed some roles are particularly tricky, and totally different from playing as a villager.
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Zaazaa0
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heck
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If someone wants to write a guide, they can.
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Aviana
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Which roles specifically did you have in mind?
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Zaazaa0
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heck
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I'll request one: The vig. Generally what I do when I'm vig is "Don't kill anyone because they might not be mafia" and at that point I'm basically a villager.
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Nix Machina
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Dreams of machine-men and trees and rivers...
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Here's the current order of guides I'm planing on doing:

How to Discuss
How to Cop
How to Vig
How to Lead

So yeah, I'm planning on doing specific roles in addition to concepts. I just need to find time to sit down and work on it.
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