I used to call myself "a longtime player and a relative newbie all at once," but I think at some point I lost the right to call myself a newbie. What I would say is that I'm an eternal student of the game rather than claiming to be any kind of master.
I consider myself a better scum player than a town player, and my W:L record bears this out. I am getting better at town play, though. The ironic thing is that as I improve at forming correct reads -- not just convincing reads that I can sell to the town, but ones that actually end up resulting in a red flip -- I'm getting worse at looking town or at convincing anyone. I suppose this is what happens when I focus less on "try to be convincing" and more on "try to be correct," but my current area for improvement is how to push a case when I actually believe in it. Pushing a case when I don't really believe in it is a lot easier, for some reason.
My played games
| 2017
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro Open
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BTD6_maker
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Endgamed
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Werewolf Win
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I misread boring as town from the very beginning. I got a bit paranoid by the end and actually thought lizardqueen was looking townier than she had, but decided to go with my original instinct. Sigh.
- Lessons:*** Clarity is not alignment-indicative. A few big tells are worth more than a whole ISO of "looking bad." When your gut talks, figure out what it's saying.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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BTD6_maker
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Town
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1-Shot Elder
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Day 3
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Shot Night 5
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Mafia/Werewolf Draw
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| My reads were actually better than average, but I was never confident enough to push them hard, particularly when they went against town consensus. Being able to claim near the endgame should have been enough to give the town a path to victory, but somehow we decided to no-lynch in hopes of the scum killing one another. Instead they killed off the town for the draw.
Lessons: Be wary of any strategy more complicated than "find the scum, lynch the scum." If you don't like the way things are going, speak up.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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ThinkBig
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Mafia
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Goon
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Started
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Lynched Day 1
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Mafia Win
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| I still don't understand how I ended up as scumread as I did, and I'll have to review the game to figure it out, but clearly I was bad enough that my team double-bused me in a setup specifically designed to punish busing. I did almost wriggle out of the lynch, but to my surprise Hiraki had a change of heart at deadline. At least I didn't do anything to give up my teammates.
Lessons: Relying on the reads of others can be dangerous. The game isn't over until it's called.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Mini Normal
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ThinkBig
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Town
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1-Shot Cop
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Day 4
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Lynched Day 4
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Town Win
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| Everyone had decided to lynch my slot before I replaced in, and flat-out told me nothing I could say or do would change their minds. Oh well, I pretty much knew this was the deal when I accepted the slot.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro Open
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Toto
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Lynched Day 1
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Town Win
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| I sort of lurked my way through the start of the day, only to come in and declare Lil Uzi Vert town when he was on the point of being lynched. "Derailing the wagon" was suspicious for some reason and it was basically impossible to argue I was innocent from that point. I take some consolation in having had my vote on scum from my first post to the moment I was lynched, even if being right didn't save me.
Lessons: Town need town cred too, so they can push against popular opinion without getting lynched.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro Theme
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Nexus
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Endgamed
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Mafia Win
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| A 2:7 mountainous game where everyone was restricted to a finite and decreasing number of posts per day, while Mafia had unlimited daytalk. Aside from the general scumsidedness, the game slowed down to a standstill as people hoarded their posts. Aside from that, my reads were completely wrong in every respect, and it seems everyone else's were too. Socrates played quite well as scum, despite not really needing to.
Lessons: Never clear someone on tone. In retrospect the clues were there, and had I actually taken the time to look at Socrates critically I might have picked them up.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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ThinkBig
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Mafia
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Goon
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Started
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Survived
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Mafia Win
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| Our roleblocker was lynched day 1, making for an uphill battle, but a series of good nightkills (we shot a power role literally every night, starting with the cop) made up for it. Near the end I was worried about davesaz, who we knew was a serial killer although town didn't. I strongly suspected that he was bulletproof and we would be forced into an unwinnable endgame. I went a bit crazy during the last two nights, analyzing all the possible dilemma scenarios in excruciating detail, only to have him go and die the first time we shot him.
Lessons: Don't try to "reaction test" town as scum; it's a good way to get yourself put under heavy scrutiny for no benefit. In variable-opens, the advantage to scum of knowing just a little bit more about the setup can be incredibly powerful.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Large Normal
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Fro99er
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Lynched Day 3
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Mafia Win
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| Worst town game ever; I deserved the lynch. In my defense, I was away for the first few IRL days and by the time I got back the game was 70 pages or so and I never did quite catch up. I will say podoboq white-knighted me pretty effectively.
Lessons: If you're going to miss the first few days of a Large, just replace out.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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davesaz
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Mafia
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Goon
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Night 1
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Survived
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Mafia Win
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| Probably my best scum game to date. I replaced into a slot that was probably due to be lynched the next day, turned it into the most townread slot in the game, and cashed in that town cred to push three consecutive mislynches, including one on a highly active and pro-town player who would probably have been unlynchable otherwise.
Lessons: Town cred is a convertible resource. If you accumulate enough you can spend it on all sorts of things.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Mini Theme
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vonflare
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Town
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Mason
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Day 4
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Killed Night 4
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Werewolf and Jester Win
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| Replaced into a self-described bastard game and immediately regretted it. Not much else to say about this one.
Lessons: Don't replace into dumpster fires.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro
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ChaosOmega
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Town
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Townie
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Day 2
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Survived
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Town Win
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| Replaced the lurkiest of all lurkers under some minor suspicion, to find that PsychoticDave had already provably fakeclaimed and somehow Human Sequencer was the only one who cared. Once we lynched him, the Mafia was all but forced by the setup to stop shooting in order to have any hope of winning. TTTT made a strong effort but I don't think anything could have saved him, given that the two chosen townies were also the two most obvtown players in the game.
Lessons: Town blocs win games. Trust Occam's razor.
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| 2016
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Mini Theme
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Aeronaut
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Town
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Stephen King (Cop)
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Day 1
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Killed Night 2
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Town Win
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| The Mafia was completely destroyed; three lynched in three days. Sickofit11138 the SK survived a bit longer, being lynched D5 for the win. I outed myself D1 in response to a fakeclaim (by a townie, go figure), but managed to survive a night and come out with a guilty on Pine.
The game used a new mechanic in which the dead thread controlled one vote between them. As such, when I was killed N2 with another guilty, on Sick, that vote ended up locked there for the rest of the game. This probably didn't have much effect on the outcome, all told.
Lessons: There's always someone.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Newbie
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Creature
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Day 2
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Shot Night 4
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Mafia Win
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| Replaced into a slot at L-1, but this was mostly for inactivity. Successfully pushed a lynch on one goon, then used a truly beautiful statistical analysis of his posts to convince myself and everyone else that Lil Uzi Vert was his partner. Too bad I was completely wrong. Lesson learned: test new techniques before employing them in an ongoing game.
Lessons: You can't discover a new tell just by thinking, you have to test it.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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Creature
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Mafia
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Goon
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Started
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Mauled Night 1
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Werewolf Win
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| First run of a new multiball setup based on Matrix6; I felt it was balanced enough in the end, though obviously it will take more runs to decide. The town never lynched a single werewolf or mafioso, but might well have won anyway if Dunnstral had followed his instinct to shoot Zachstralkita at the right time.
Lessons: Early NK makes it hard to say; I'll get back to this.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro
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Firebringer
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Shot Night 2
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Mafia Win
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| This setup encourages townhunting over scumhunting, but despite that most of us (myself included) correctly identified the scum on Day 1, as well as finding a winning strategy. At the very end, however, paranoia got the best of lane0168 and he mislynched. It happens to us all sometimes.
Lessons: I actually have good reads when I'm not trying to play town leader. There's no such thing as a won game.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro
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shaddowez
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Survived
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Town Win
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| I correctly identified A Simple Plan as scum from the start of the game, but it took a failed fakeclaim at mylo to get the town to go along with me. This was convenient, as I probably would have been a viable mislynch if I couldn't point to my consistent pushes on ASP as counterevidence.
Lessons: If someone seems super scummy, they're probably scum. Saying "there's no resistance to this wagon" is one way to resist a wagon.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Micro
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SnarkySnowman
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Town
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2-Shot Commuter
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Started
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Survived
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Town Win
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| We lynched the first wolf by pure luck on d1, in a manner that all but confirmed me as town and made it very easy to PoE the remaining scum.
Lessons: Townhunting is as good as scumhunting, and easier to learn.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Newbie
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SirCakez
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Town
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Jailkeeper
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Started
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Survived
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Town Win
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| I pushed two mislynches and hard-defended scum, even inadvertently helping him to fakeclaim, which made me the obvious suspect after he effectively outed himself at the end of D2. I was saved by the setup and by the lack of a counterclaim when I revealed. Aquanim was town MVP, replacing in late, making himself obvtown, and correctly arguing for my innocence and BrainpanSonata's guilt; but ultimately this was a lucky win.
Lessons: Failure to out PRs can be deadly for scum. So can late-game replacements.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Open
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Not_Mafia
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Mafia
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Goon
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Started
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Shot Night 2
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Mafia Win
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| I was townread by most of the town, but not by a plain farmer, who turned out to be the vigilante. Ironically, we blocked Farmer from shooting the doctor on N1, giving him a second chance, which he used to shoot me. Then the next day he caught our roleblocker Bins in a lie and all but proved she was scum. Zachstralkita didn't want to hear it, though, and pushed a mislynch at mylo on a player who should have been confirmed town by my interactions with him.
Lessons: As scum, assume you will eventually be lynched and make sure your flip won't implicate your buddies. Don't get fancy when fakeclaiming.
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| 2015
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Blitz
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fferyllt
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Town
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Mason
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Started
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Shot Night 1
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Werewolf Win
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| I was V/LA for much of the first day and the entire first night, so I really didn't get to do much other than say "Hi, fellow mason" and then die. My one major scumread of Day 1 turned out to be town, so.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Blitz
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Rob13
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Town
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Cop
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Started
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Shot Night 3
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Town Win
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| First in the draft order, hell yeah!
With the exception of a few standout players, most of the town did pretty poorly. This seemed like a likely scum win from very early on. But Pisskop, via his awful reads and lazy attitude, managed to fly under the radar until 5p lylo, at which point he suddenly smartened up dramatically and not only correctly identified the remaining scum but correctly identified one as vengeful, allowing town to lynch in the correct order and win. I'm still not sure whether his earlier play was an act or not.
I managed to crumb my clears well enough, but they were pretty obvtown by the time I died anyway. I was aided in surviving as long as I did by Hinduragi, who knew my role due to the setup and fake-slipped to draw the kill.
Lessons: Blitz games take exactly as much discipline as full-length games to play well.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Newbie
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Firebringer
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Town
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Vanilla Townie
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Started
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Survived
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Town Win
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| Town lynched scum D1, no thanks to me. After both PRs softclaimed on D2 without anyone counterclaiming, the game was pretty much an auto-win for town, though Almost50 managed to be hard-townread by nearly everyone in the game for a long time and probably would have won if not for having had such bad luck early on.
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| Type
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Moderator
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Faction
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Role
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Entry
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Fate
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Outcome
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| Newbie
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Zaicon
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Mafia
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Roleblocker
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Started
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Survived
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Mafia Win
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| Rolled a scum PR for my first game ever on MS. While I played well, I think we owe most of our success to the town cop, who deliberately acted sketchy on D1, quickhammered town, then claimed at the very start of D2, which claim was widely greeted with skepticism. My partner zeevo's counterclaim sealed Blackstar's mislynch, put the game on rails straight up to 3-player lylo, and made it easy for me to blend in with no real decisions to be made except whom to shoot. I do give myself style points for endgaming the IC.
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My modded games
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| Type
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Players
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Game ended on
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Winner(s)
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| Mini Theme
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13
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Day 3
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Mafia
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| Players had a finite number of posts available per day. I think this more or less worked as intended, and I don't believe it significantly hindered the town (the game went to final 3, and Vedith won by legitimately out-towning the town rather than by taking advantage of the mechanic somehow). I'm not sure if anyone would want to play it again though -- if nothing else, all-vanilla games are usually not that popular.
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| Type
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Players
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Game ended on
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Winner(s)
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| Micro
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9
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Day 3
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Mafia
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| Yet another Mafia curb stomp, this time thanks to town quickhammering town on early day 1 leading to a policy lynch on day 2, followed by another townie claiming a role that was literally impossible in a normal game. The game ran less than a week.
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| Type
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Players
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Game ended on
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Winner(s)
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| Micro
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9
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Day 3
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Mafia
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| This was a slaughter. Day 1 ended on the first page when ThinkBig realized he had no reason not to quickhammer as scum in this setup, leaving the town with absolutely nothing to go on the next day. No one so much as voted for scum the entire game.
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| Type
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Players
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Game ended on
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Winner(s)
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| Micro
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9
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Day 2
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Town
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| Town lynched the scum PR day 1 and then the jailkeeper successfully jailed the remaining goon overnight. Kind of a disappointing outcome after a full week spent tweaking the balance with the NRG.
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| Type
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Players
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Game ended on
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Winner(s)
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| Open
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13
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Day 5
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Town
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| The Mafia had a rough start, with one of them being lynched Day 1 and confirmed town popping up at a dangerous rate, but culted managed to carry through to 3-player lylo and very nearly won the game.
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