whoa that was a pretty extreme necropost
the reason i made that guide was mainly because i had free time, and the nuances of mafia intrigued me in the same way many games do (i love watching games, but i don't usually enjoy playing them anywhere near as much). don't have that free time anymore so it's kind of slipped off the side. if anyone wants to pick it up and continue, be my guest. new roles are always being created, so there's no shortage of stuff to add, i'm sure. it's been 3 months since i last kept up with mafia so my pile of postgames and roles is way out of date.
i don't think it's really possible to write a guide on mafia strategy, or even any one aspect thereof. there are styles to play mafia, and particularly in long-running communities like this one, there's a culture that develops, and the most prolific players develop reputations on how they play and so on, such as that lynch spiffy thing that was going around for a little while. when you walk into conversations like that where everyone's lynching spiffy n0, there's really no way to tell you that this is part of the way it's played, that yes we know we can't lynch at night. these are things you have to pick up by being part of the player base. the only reason i even know of them is because i've watched for so long.
the only way to learn how to play is by direct experience. every game develops differently, there are a bazillion possible roles (my document attests to that) and every single one of them changes the dynamic of the game dramatically (i am reminded of the game that vonfiedler hosted that introduced the freezer role, and some kind of controversy around it that now slips my memory.) it's good to be familiar with the most common roles and concepts but that's not really going to show you how to play the game. that's just memory. it's like memorizing all the tactical arrangements from historic battles. good to know if you're planning a battle, but not really going to get you any closer to having a plan. that only comes from playing it
the reason i made that guide was mainly because i had free time, and the nuances of mafia intrigued me in the same way many games do (i love watching games, but i don't usually enjoy playing them anywhere near as much). don't have that free time anymore so it's kind of slipped off the side. if anyone wants to pick it up and continue, be my guest. new roles are always being created, so there's no shortage of stuff to add, i'm sure. it's been 3 months since i last kept up with mafia so my pile of postgames and roles is way out of date.
i don't think it's really possible to write a guide on mafia strategy, or even any one aspect thereof. there are styles to play mafia, and particularly in long-running communities like this one, there's a culture that develops, and the most prolific players develop reputations on how they play and so on, such as that lynch spiffy thing that was going around for a little while. when you walk into conversations like that where everyone's lynching spiffy n0, there's really no way to tell you that this is part of the way it's played, that yes we know we can't lynch at night. these are things you have to pick up by being part of the player base. the only reason i even know of them is because i've watched for so long.
the only way to learn how to play is by direct experience. every game develops differently, there are a bazillion possible roles (my document attests to that) and every single one of them changes the dynamic of the game dramatically (i am reminded of the game that vonfiedler hosted that introduced the freezer role, and some kind of controversy around it that now slips my memory.) it's good to be familiar with the most common roles and concepts but that's not really going to show you how to play the game. that's just memory. it's like memorizing all the tactical arrangements from historic battles. good to know if you're planning a battle, but not really going to get you any closer to having a plan. that only comes from playing it