Elcenia Mafia Post Mortem

[Shoal]

no, town power roles would still be able to investigate and stuff. they'd have to blend in with the wild accusations though. or try to.

[Lambda]

It seems like the obvious thing would be to start with a lynchless day, so people can talk and kills can be based on something. I'm not sure if that's the same as Shoal's suggestion.

[Shoal]

that might work too. or the first day could be extra long so we have enough time to get to know each other

edit: lynchless benefits scum because it gives them an extra night kill. but if the first day lasted a week instead then by then the lynch could be based on something even without a nightkill to go on.

[DanielH]

I’ve been thinking that really, No Lynch and Lynch are the two options on day 1. In the first game, I brought up the RNG because the people who wanted Lynch had to coordinate if they had any chance of winning. If No Lynch had to get a majority instead of just a plurality, there would be no incentive to go for public RNG. It still isn’t fun getting killed Day 1, and No Lynch might still win, but there would be no reason for people who want Lynch to win to go the extra-unfun route of RNG-based coordination.

I plan to make a general strategy thread tonight if nobody beats me to it. In there I will make a post on commitments (pre- and otherwise), since multiple people seem to not get the point of them. In the meantime, I precommit, under the condition that Day 1 voting goes by the same general rules and mechanics as before, to vote No Lynch on Day 1 unless I have a good reason to think that a specific person is more dangerous to my win condition than usual and I can explain this reasoning to somebody else, whether or not they agree. I will default to explaining this to a non-player in private, but may elect to explain it in public or a private communication channel instead depending on the specifics of the evidence and my win condition..

Incidentally, this is a perfect example of when precommitments can be useful. My future self will obviously be town because all players are town on Day 1, and will therefore want somebody lynched. If I honor precommitments though, then I am binding my future self because they disagree with me about what the good outcomes are. I care far more about people having fun, and getting lynched on Day 1 is not fun; my future self may care about something stupid like Town winning, but if he wants to be known as trustworthy he can’t lynch on Day 1 anyway.

[Shoal]

But why are you precommitting to follow a suboptimal strategy?

edit: I meant to say this too: when I was objecting to precommitments in the game, that wasn't just because i was scum, it was because I sincerely believed (and continue to believe) that it is playing against your win condition if you are town.

[DanielH]

Because it’s an optimal strategy for me. I want people to have fun. It is fun if people don’t get lynched day 1. My Townself might disagree, but will still follow the commitment.

It also helps if I’m certain types of scum: it means I get to vote No Lynch without it being a scumtell. Since I don’t know if I’m Town or not next game, there isn’t a reasonable sense it which it really is a suboptimal strategy.

[Lambda]

Isn't this sort of between-games precommitment basically declaring extra game rules that the mods are then forced to design around?

[Alicorn]

Incidentally, I'm curious how many people want to play another game and when they'd like to do it. (I've been thinking people need a breather, I know there's been some burnout and also there's now the Arkham game sucking up attention.) We have most of a Short Stories spread of characters figured out in general, but if there would be like eight people playing if I started it next week, I'd sooner wait.

[pistachi0n]

I will be up for a new game whether you start it tomorrow or next year.

[Shoal]

what if someone precommits to say "I promise that I am town" on day 1 if they are town? And then we just lynch them if they won't say it? would that be fun? no.

preview-edit: I am up for another game whenever it starts. I don't understand Arkham at all -- I can't even understand what's happening in the thread reading it much less playing, so I'm glad people are having fun there but it's not for me.