Mastin's Tips To Scum

History

Original Publication: July 16, 2013 by Mastin2

Original Thread.

Introduction

I've doubled my scum wins in 2013, so I figured that I should compile a list of some things that I find help me win.

Read my argument about charisma.

All of it. Learning how to present yourself favorably is a critical skill as scum. You need to be likable, and that guide was written to help you achieve it.

Don't play as if you were town; play similarly to town.

This one will take a bit of explaining, since one of the tips universally given across the site IS "play as if you were town", but in my experience, that wording is slightly inaccurate, as it has an inherent flaw:

You aren't town. :P No matter how much you may think you're playing identically to your town self, you are the informed minority; by definition, this will change your perspective on everything. It's one reason why bussing is so prominent in game. "Geez, my scumbuddies suck, I should bus them." But the reason they look as bad as they do is because you have a bias in already knowing they're scum.

It's a futile effort, and counter-productive to your scum wincon. If you're playing as if you're town, you're not playing for the long-game. You're playing as if you were a survivor, not as if you were scum. Instead, I advocate for playing similarly to your town self. It's a subtle, but vital, difference.

In this version, you're furthering your scum agenda at all times, but it ties into presentation; you're presenting yourself as if you're not. Your physical actions may be scum-motivated, but the words and tone behind them will ideally appear to be town. And when a person says "play as if you were town", this is what they should really mean by that statement. It's not so much that you're playing as if you're town, as it is you're playing to make sure the town THINKS you're playing as town.

Post with a purpose.

Have a goal in mind when you post. Don't post for the sake of posting. Even if your goal is simple (such as, "spam the game so much that town has trouble keeping up", although I personally detest that tactic), you should at least have one when posting. Far too often, players make a post without thinking about it, and the result gets them in trouble. This is a better way of saying "strategic posting"/"strategic lurking", because it's the same concept: posting when you need to post, rather than posting when you feel like posting.

Addendum

This is something you should be doing as town as well (it will make you a stronger town player), but it has more value to your scum game. I actually recommend doing it as town just as much as scum. Just because you gain more when doing it as scum doesn't mean you should avoid it as town. You want to post with a purpose, make every word count, and have it further your agenda.

Don't get over-concerned about power roles.

Obviously, this differs between closed games and open and semi-open games, but in general, my most successful scum kills are kills that I made by killing who I wanted to kill, not who I thought was a PR, and also not who I thought wouldn't be protected by a PR. I killed them because I wanted to kill them, and they ended up greatly servicing my faction.

Work as a team.

You have scumbuddies; use them, don't abuse them. It's very rare for you to be able to pull out a solo scum win. It's much, MUCH easier to win when you have scumbuddies there by your side. So don't discard them recklessly; you're meant to have them.

Keep a calm, cool head.

Oh, you can display emotions, and you can use emphasis. But don't abuse it, and don't let your emotions control your actions. The site meta is gradually shifting away from tolerating these tactics, and their effectiveness has diminished. You need to maintain control of yourself, so that you can better manipulate the town.

Addendum

The basic idea is to control and harvest your emotions, not let your actions be dictated by your emotions. You're not a robot, so you're going to have emotions. It's a matter of keeping them in check and using them to your advantage. Turn emotions into a weapon. (Heck, a large part of good scum play can be manipulating town players into HAVING certain emotions, which give you an edge in the game.) Which emotion is best suited to serve you varies from game to game, but one large example would be apathy; it KILLS towns, so instilling it (especially in otherwise-charismatic players) is a great way to tip the scales in your favor. Basically, you want to use your emotions, not be abused by them. Pure AtE is becoming far less effective under the current site meta, so don't rely on it.

Disrupt the town synchronization.

Just as you need to work as a team with your scumbuddies, you also need to make sure the town's ability to work as a team is disrupted. To win requires them to mislynch each other, after all, and that means they have to be at each others' throats. Ideally, you want to be seen as the voice of reason trying to unify the town, while having your actions actually serve to divide them further.

Conclusion

You'll note that quite a few of these tips are redundant, and for good reason; many of them build off of one another and transition to the other. If you're too lazy to read the above, I can boil it down to these key points:

-Present yourself favorably and become someone that people like.

-Use this position to further your scum wincon, while making it look like you're furthering the town wincon.

-Don't panic; keep things under your control.

-Know the situation, and make the most of it.