Endgame

In Mafia games, this usually refers to the last one or two days, or whenever the Pro-Town players realize that the game's result could hang on the next lynch. When a Day is Lynch-Or-Lose, it's almost certainly the endgame, but it might start before that (especially in games with lots of night kills).

Endgame strategies involve looking back at earlier posts of the remaining players given the context of all the information that has been determined since then to try to figure out who among the greatly reduced suspect list is Scum, or trying to prevent the Town from accomplishing that goal effectively.

Sometimes the Game Moderator will state explicitly that the game is about to be finished; sometimes they will leave it up in the air until the game is actually finished (or a foregone conclusion, such as 2 Mafia and 2 Townies in a Newbie Game).