Tarhalindur Standard Tells

Tarhalindur has found a few scumtells that he has found fairly useful, and he brings them up frequently. He also tends to create names for these tells, so that he may refer to them by name rather than having to explain them in every game. For general reference, here are the Tarhalindur Standard Tells:

Information Instead of Analysis (IIoA)

The general form of this tell is "players who speculate about the setup more than they ask for other players' reasoning and/or accuse other players of being scum are probably group scum".

This tell is strongest in games with a single scum faction.

Note: Some players are known for set-up speculation. This is more of a null-tell during Day 1 with those players. (See Vi, Kinetic)

Selective Scumhunting

The general form of this tell is "players who focus on a specific scum faction or factions in a game with multiple known scum factions are likely to be scum themselves".

This tell can be tricky to apply, since the case for a player being scum in a multiple-faction game may hinge around said player's connections to known scum from a specific faction. This tell applies under two circumstances: 1) a player builds a case that is predicated around a player being part of a less-significant scum faction (especially a case built around a specific player being SK and not Mafia), or 2) a player all-but-ignores a specific scum faction or factions when scumhunting. Case 1) is a weak tell, Case 2) is fairly strong.

Chainsaw Defense

The general form of this tell is "a player who defends another player by attacking the other player's attacker is very probably scum".

The key to identifying this tell is intent - it is possible to confuse Chainsaw Defense with a player who simply finds the attacker scummy and has no intent of defense. In general, you can be reasonably sure that this tell is involved if a) the player supposedly using Chainsaw Defense has not previously been especially critical of the player he is now attacking, and b) the player supposedly using Chainsaw Defense seems to find the player he is supposedly defending at least reasonably pro-town.

The extreme form of this tell is Mutual Chainsaw Defense, where two players defend each other by attacking each others' attackers. This is a major scumtell, and Tarhalindur would be willing to eliminate/vig both players with only this tell as justification.

The Chainsaw Defense is named after the mental image of a player ripping apart another player with a chainsaw for daring to attack his ally. It should not be confused with the Cochrane Defense, which can also be referred to as the Chainsaw Defense (the Wiki refers to the Cochrane Defense this way), which is a gambit made by players investigated as scum. The Chainsaw Defense can also be referred to as the Bodyguard Defense in order to prevent confusion.

UPDATE: After further analysis, Tarhalindur has determined that the Chainsaw Defense is only trustworthy once the player defended has been revealed to be group scum (once the player defended is proved to be Mafia, any player that used Chainsaw Defense on the dead scum should be scrutinized). Otherwise, it is a null tell. Mutual Chainsaw Defense may, however, still be an outright scumtell; more research is required here.

Stallin' Defense

The general form of the Stallin' Defense is "a player who attempts to stall a major wagon or an elimination, especially by calling for additional discussion, and especially on a wagon that led or will clearly lead to an elimination, is very probably scum".

EDIT: Further investigation has indicated to Tarhalindur that this is a null tell and should not be trusted.

The "Well, That Sucks" Tell

The general form of this tell is "a player who comments on the outcome of a night when that outcome was detrimental to one or more factions is very probably scum".

This tell usually appears when a no-kill night occurs (or a low-kill night in a game with many killing roles) or when one or more major power roles is NK'ed.