Love Letter Mafia

[Mr Popo]

So, the thing is, you can bus all you like, but with no handmaiden / baner / doctor roles that can target you, all your town credits actually go toward killing you.

Because when you are never murdered at night by the mafia and are alive in final 3, you are a wolf.

That's why I bus as a wolf, but never on day one, and not twice on day 2 and day 3, and then try to survive to endgame.

However, AV found Xi, so I may have had no choice if I were a wolf. Sometimes you gotta do the suboptimal plays.

But at the same time, if I were someone who is a strong suspect right now, bussing Xi doesn't change the game state at all.

And if I were already strongly town read, bussing Xi doesn't do anything except ensure I die in final 3 for never being murdered off.

So, that's why even though the game is like a game of battleship and you can position your ships any way you like and all of it can technically win, piling all your ships in the same corner of the board is one of the worst ways to position your boats.

So, if you see the same player "bussing" all their wolf partners early game, just remind people that if there is no doctor and no mechanically always town roles alive near endgame, it's just wolfy for them to still be alive.

And if that player is just really really a boss at being a villager, then maybe the wolves do the WIFOM thing and try to keep them alive for that kind of bait, but if they do, then the boss villager knows that's happening and can sniff out who is most likely to be that gamble-y and suicidal.

And then the boss villager kills the last wolf, the end.

This game, AvatarVecna is the bossest of villagers, and I am merely the cup bearer to the God of Death.

That's okay, Mr Popo was assistant to the guardian of Earth, Kami, before Kami died.

So Popo is used to being the assistant townie to the greatest townie. It is a role that Popo can play very well indeed.

Should Popo die tonight, I want to remind people that AV is the hardest of the cold read lock clears, and you never tinfoil that they are priest because they stole mah powerz.

Don't.

You have my permission to look at them again if you miss until final 3 and they're alive, and that's it. Otherwise, they get ate by a wolf tonight or soon, so leave em alone and let em own wolfy souls and devour them to sustain the dark energy that powers their existence.

See the mafia be out here poisoning and murdering and stuff, thinking they all big and bad, but we have a lich-god draining the world of all its living energy, with a terrifying evil sadistic genie sidekick, and that's who the good guys are.

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I'm pretty sure wolves can kill as well as their own actions. From the OP "each night the mafia can discuss who to kill, as well as their individual actions" (paraphrased) which implies that.

Also in the Priest's role description one of the example feedbacks is "your target targeted X, Y and Z" which I was confused by until I realised that would occur if the target was a Baron who also performed the kill.

Good, I am actually relieved it isn't that simple.

Spoiler

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Mechanics are already too much of the game's content (for me) but hey, this is the setup and this is the stuff you folks enjoy.

I can dig it. It's not my favorite, but it can certainly be fun. I am having loads of fun here.

I hope BatCat is somehow town and there's more puzzle left to solve.

Or, the wolves had 4 and there's more more puzzle left to solve.

Puzzles are fun.

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So, yeah, that probably won't work.

Well, that removes most of the utility from my idea, however, if you use your power in a manner that should be non-threatening to our solve, it at least proves you didn't use your power in a way that helps the wolf team prevent town from doing the things they want to do.

Don't target AV or myself with the power, hit a suspect, now, actually. Maybe not a consensus one.

Avoid roles that have been claimed that have actual value, like AV's power.

It's just that AV's power is useful and they are the best cold reader here, so the mafia are gonna kill there because it kills two threats in one person.

My power already done got stoled, so they can certainly kill me for finding Emmy but then you wouldn't have an opportunity to win more Popo funbucks, and I rather think the challenge for the wolves should be to try to win my funbucks despite currently having a deficit.

That's a neat way to approach the game going forward.

Those chats aren't useful in the direct sense, but they are useful in the "I confirm these players can see I did this for them" way. Which means you aren't using a different role that same night in a pro mafia way.

If its neutral, its not specifically wolfy, and thats good for town regardless of alignment of the person being asked to do the neutral but confirmable action.

It binds the hands of the scum team because now their best plan is simply murdering rather than something more convoluted and tricksy.

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And I was right, guessing that the setup had a wolf who began as a handmaiden was correct.

Town does not need two of those, and wolf team having one is essential to their ability to win, so they have a role that town is afraid of hitting.

Ah, but you see, when there's already a dead one, I just assume the other is mafia.

Because I design games too.

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Can confirm, I was guarded. Turned into a guard.
That may also explain why Libro could be targeted night 1, I was a handmaid. Sorry for not saying earlier, the part where the swap acts as a roleblock is one I only just read.

With an already dead handmaiden, most everything else in Xi's iso was less relevant unless it was very very clearing for her as town.

Princess role is worth like half an incorrect arrest, maybe a full one, denied to the wolves. But maybe they can get a counterwagon on a townie, too. Still, it is an unpleasant event.

Countess is worth about exactly as much, so that's essentially a masonry that is disconnected and all they have to do is hard claim and they find each other.

The handmaidens are literally overkill, particularly if there are 2.

1 is too many. Setup doesnt need a doctor with those roles.

However, 2, means that wolves can honestly claim and be confirmed to be a role town is a-scared to lose.

But like, I don't care what your role claim is.

In setups where 2 people claim roleblocker, one of them is almost always scum, and in setups where 1 person claims roleblocker, it is scum more often than it is town.

Roleblockers in general are wolfy, but I have seen some examples of them being beastly for town in the past couple years, so I have come around on their utility being potentially positive.

I've been seeing them as very negative for town for a long time. It's a step up from being a Miller.

However, if they survive to near endgame and are town, they can become immensely powerful and pro town.

Handmaiden in this setup acts like a jailkeeper or something like that. Which interferes with the priests, for example, and other town roles. So it is often negative utility unless you stopped the wolf night kill.

Making it block actions against that target makes it slightly less useful for town, but yeah, still overpowered.

Giving the setup 2 and giving one to scum makes a ton of sense. Especially since it can act as a roleblock for actions hitting that target, such as investigatory powers.

Okay! Two wolves down, and one of them even has unpairings analysis we can do! Nice result.

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“I drowned my best friend when I was eleven,” I told them.


Two posts.
But yeah, the quality of the posts and the information on them has not persuaded me to switch votes even though the reason has changed.

See, this is just quality content.

I have never seen a wolf do stuff like that first line before. That was a genuine treat.

10/10 wolfing, heck, the role that was designed to be your cover was the thing that actually doomed you the most from my point of view. That's not even your fault!