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MiniDeathStar
Hi! I'm Summer, also known as MiniDeathStar, Mini or MDS. I've been on MafiaScum since late September 2016 and I used to play forum mafia in 2009-2011 on a site that's no longer active.
I prefer small games with less than 14 players. I love using colours and typography in my posts and I tend to ridiculously overthink everything.
I'll be updating this page in the near future when my games finish. Feel free to check up on it!
Personal scumhunting kit
Signs that someone is scum
Trying to discredit obvtown people for bad reasons (+1)
This one is pretty obvious; the mafia can only win by keeping the suspect pool as large as possible and steer town away from themselves and their partners. They really hate townies who're never getting lynched, and they will do their best to get rid of them, even during the day.
Be careful when applying this tell too sparingly, especially at LYLO. Running out of mislynches creates a feeling of nervousness and panic in townies, and someone who's appeared dangerous to scum but somehow is still breathing can become a giant paranoia magnet. Of course the scum can also rely on that.
Some scum players are also exceptionally good and can look very convincingly town. This tell only applies when it's accompanied by bad reasoning.
Too many (or too few) null and scum reads (+0.5)
The mafia have vested interest in spreading paranoia and suspicion, but most of the time they also know all the innocents and thus are more certain in their reads (and can spot towntells that others can't).
Being "jokingly" scummy, self-admitting they are scummy, claiming scum (+0.5)
For some reason this is seen as "too risky" for scum to do and earns them town credit. Now it's become popular enough that it's mostly attempted by scum.
In addition, some believe they can escape scrutiny for being scummy, as long as they acknowledge it beforehand and play it off as a joke. Do not fall for this. Anti-town is anti-town, regardless of context.
The "lol" defence (+1)
Claiming that whatever elaborate or spot-on case you made on them was hilarious. This may sound more like garden variety scumminess, but it's a fairly strong tell and should warrant a vote every time.
Lots of fence-sitting (+0.5)
It's a fine line between the uncertainty that comes with a player's personality (hi!) or the nature of uninformed majority, and scum keeping their options open. The mafia in particular tend to wobble around town reads, small wagons, or from one wagon to another. The latter could be a sign of a partner shifting pressure away from their colleague.
Unusual activity patterns (+1.5)
In particular, when the majority of a player's posts appear shortly after an accusation is made against them, when a large chuck of their ISO is spent engaging accusers or defending themselves, or when they suddenly materialise from lurkspace and join a FoS/wagon. In the latter case, drop whatever you're doing and powerlynch the scumbag.
Buttering up (+0.5)
When the scum are obviously agreeing and trying to appease a town leader, and avoid stepping on their toes at all costs. Villagers, even town leaders, like being townread and are more reluctant to express hostility to someone who appears to be their friend.
This is different from mindless sheeping, which could also be a sign of a lazy/intimidated townie who's hiding behind the smart people.
Accusations that amount to nothing (+0.5), particularly later in the game (+1), *particularly* focused exclusively on a recent post (+1.5)
This is a combination of trying to appear helpful and attempting to cause a mislynch, but not having enough evidence. Scum would latch onto something superficially scummy or some bad phrasing, and try to make a mountain out of a molehill. It's usually super transparent, too.
"Look at me, I'm so town!" (+1)
The so-called LAMIST tell. Newbscum usually are very concerned with 'looking good' to avoid falling under suspicion, but don't know how to fake-scumhunt. Instead, they will do things like pushing the lurkers to contribute, trying to "resuscitate" them by voting them, asking for reads on themselves, talking a lot about the game itself (this is called IIoA), claiming they are doing anything in their power to get information.
"A question a day keeps the tracker away" (+0.5)
Asking a lot of questions without addressing the answers or giving updated reads. This is a way to appear helpful without actually generating content yourself, while keeping others distracted by making them answer your questions.
Completed games
Town games
Open 656 - Tit for Tat - Vanilla Townie (killed on night 1) - town win
Open 657 - JK9++ - Town Tracker (killed on night 3) - in progress
Newbie 1754 - Town Tracker (survived) - town win
Scum games
Micro 663: Equilibrium - Mafia Goon (replaced on day 1) - town win (technically this shouldn't count because I quit, but I'm leaving it as a placeholder for now)
BB code templates
Newbie Game
| Description | All-in-one Template | Post Templates | Thread Updates | Role PMs |
This is a template I designed to use in Newbie Games. It's completely open source and free to use and modify, and I'd actually be flattered if you decide to use it in your game.
The default colours are shades of steel blue. I've used typography that resembles pin up posters and typewriting to give it that Mafia-esque 20th century retro feel. All roles are colour-coded and the template includes navigation tables, vote logs, personalised role PMs and room for flavour texts.
For additional ease of navigation, I've designed the first post to display the most up-to-date official vote count.
The theme looks nice on all board styles, but for best experience I recommend mafBlack (the depressing shade of mafSilver and its flat texts and poor contrast kind of ruin the immersion).