Change Log And Version History said:
Version 1.0: April 2012
Version 1.5: November 2012
Version 2.0: March 2013
Current Version: 2.0
What's new in version 2.0?
- Gambits section removed and integrated into Role Advice areas
- New sections on Normal Roles and Basic Game mechanics
- New Scum Tells
- Removal of Dead Scum Tells
- More Seer Strategies
- Better Formatting
- New Preface and Disclaimer sections
Preface
First of all, by definition, a published guide becomes useless. Once a metagame is sufficiently developed, players will "evolve" past any published metrics. As such, this guide is intended not as a way to stay ahead of the curve, but merely to define it.
That said, this guide has been re-worked from the initial version to fix some flaws and inconsistencies. As such, this guide is a total rewrite, but one that draws heavily from the first edition. Sections have been added, removed, or modified to address errors, and to provide a better flow of information and logic.
Quoting this guide verbatim, while not against any specific rule, is generally a bad idea. This guide is intended to be a jumping in point for analysis, an entire scum wagon case does not this guide make.
This guide is current as of 5/4/2013; and is primarily intended for use on sixprizes.com and pokegym.net; although other sites are welcome to host it provided they notify me via email at
[email protected]
Section I: Basics of Forum Werewolf
Forum werewolf, sometimes going by forum mafia, is a text only social game intended for play between players on a message board system. Players interact and play the game only through this topic's posts, as well as the website's private message function (or equivalent system, sometimes hosted offsite) to control secret information.
I here define forum werewolf as a game that has no less than 9 unique players, but smaller games (as small as three players) are known to exist off the two core Pokemon metagames. There is officially no limit to the player size in a game, but due to various reasons, the ideal range in player count goes between 15 to 25 players.
Before a game starts, signups are accepted on the thread. It is expected that when you sign up to play, you will see the game through to your own removal from the game at minimum.
Each game of werewolf has one or more moderators, members of the forum that do not play but instead serve to narrate the game, develop the exact setup, and handle interactions with the night game state.
Each game has two phases that cycle: Day and Night. A game starts with the day cycle, which is usually much longer than the night cycle. During the day, all players in the game may post freely. By the end of the day, they must select one player to "lynch" thereby removing them from the game, and revealing their role card.
A role card is defined as a message from the game's moderator that contains your player's name, your win condition, a list of what you may do at night, and any other relevant information to the game's setup. Role cards are private, and quoting role cards verbatim is highly punishable, usually with direct removal from the game.
Once the day's deadline has expired, or a lynch has been reached, the game enters night. During night, the thread is closed to player posting, and all players that have a role card that allows them to perform an action submit their choice(s) to the game's moderator. At the end of night, any players removed from the game are revealed, and the next day starts.
Common Terminology
There are many terms, acronyms, and "slangs" within werewolf. Here is a list of some of the most common ones:
MyLo: Mis-Lynch and Lose
In MyLo, the town must not lynch a town aligned player, or they will lose. However, in MyLo, voting "No Lynch" does not immediately end in a wolf win. Contrary to what you might think, in MyLo, usually No Lynch is the right choice, as it improves the odds of hitting a wolf the next day, when the town will be in LyLo.
LyLo: Lynch or Lose
Similar to MyLo, the town must not lynch a town-aligned player, or they will lose. However, in LyLo, a failure to lynch will also give the wolf team a win. Therefore, think of LyLo as "We must lynch a wolf or we lose."
Scum (Scummy, etc)
Scum is just another slang term for a person you believe who is werewolf-aligned, or aligned to any faction that is not town-aligned.
Priest/Doc/Doctor
The Priest (aka the Doctor) is a role that is town-aligned and can protect one player from being killed each night. The person playing this role usually tries to keep other people from finding out. If you draw Doctor as your role, whatever you do, don't let anyone else know unless it is the last thing you can do before you die.
NK: Night Kill(ed)
The night is the shorter phase of a werewolf game, and players can die during it. Usually, there are three sources of kills during the night. The Wolf Team, The Vigilante, and, if the game features one, the Serial Killer.
Seer/Cop/Rolecop
This is a usually town-aligned role that gets information about other players during the night. Like the Doctor, it usually wants to keep its head down. There are two common variants. One gets to see the alignment of their chosen target. The other gets to see the Role Ability (Or sometimes the entire Role Card) of their chosen target. Wolf-aligned Rolecops do exist, but it is near impossible that you'll see a wolf Seer.
VI: Village Idiot
The Village Idiot is a player who is acting in a way that is distracting to the task at hand. In the Pokegym and Six Prizes communities, Village Idiots are a popular choice for the day one lynch. You do NOT want to be one of these. Use logic, avoid emotion.
ISO: Isolation
To ISO a person is to go back and re-read the game with only that person's posts shown. ISO is a powerful tool for confirming your suspicions on a player. Of note, there is no such thing as ISO-ing an update or any other thing like that. ISO is reserved for players doing so to other players. This is a powerful tool in your scum-hunting arsenal, and even if you have not done it before, it is recommended you learn how.
AFAIK: As Far As I Know
As the name says, this means you are stating something to be as much as you know. For example, "AFIAK, King Piplup isn't scum, but I can go back and check if anyone is worried"
FoS: Finger Of Suspicion
Think of this as a way to vote for somebody without actually voting for them. To give somebody the finger of suspicion means you think they are playing like scum, but not enough to be worthy of your vote. Of note, sometimes players will vote for one player and FoS another, and feel both are worthy of votes.
L-1; L-2; L-#
This means a person is # votes away from being lynched by a majority vote. If a player is at L-1, they can self-hammer, so usually people are left at L-2 or L-3 by the town.
Hammer (vote)
The hammer voter is the person who casts the last vote. A hammer vote ends the day instantly, although some mods may vary this rule. As a rule of thumb, if someone states they are hammering, avoid posting until the Mod ends the day or posts a vote count leaving the player alive.
Mod(s): Moderator
These are the people running the game and serving as the narrator(s). They may pause the game, give out mod kills, post vote counts, and anything else defined in the rules. Their say is final.
Modkill
If a moderator deems a player to be playing in a way that violates a rule, they may hand out a modkill. The mod has the choice of when the modkill comes down, but either way, once killed, the player is removed form the game as if they had been killed by any other method.
AtE: Appeal to Emotions
This is a common last resort by players about to be lynched. They'll try to pray on your emotions of worry that you're making the wrong choice. Usually employed by wolves. "You guys will regret doing this" is the classic example. If you're a town player, this is not advised. Instead post all your reads and as much information as you can to help the town.
QFT: Quoted For Truth
If you see a player quote another player's post and just type "QFT" that means the player is agreeing with everything within the quote, and believes it to be true.
RVS: Random Voting Stage
Seen more often on 6P than Pokegym, but has been used in both places. In the early stages of day one, random votes are thrown about. This is used to note how people react to these votes. Usually ends about 100 posts into the game day. This has caught scum several times on 6P. Scum will be eager to jump on a random vote and try to turn it into something more substantial.
V/LA: Vacation or Limited Access
Please post that you are going V/LA in the thread if at any time you'll be away from the internet (Or the game specifically) for more than a day. Werewolf is a very active game, and going away for a few days can mean you miss major events. Your fellow players will appreciate it, and the mods will know not to modkill you for inactivity.
OMGUS: Oh My Goodness You Suck
OMGUS is a very bad thing to do. Basically, OMGUS is where you vote for a player specifically because they voted for you, or you have a personal vendetta against them. 99 times out of 100, using OMGUS logic weakness your case. It's not worth it. If you feel like you are doing something in retaliation, you're probably using OMGUS.
VT: Vanilla Townie
This is the most common role in the game. A Vanilla Townie has nothing in their role card to use at night, and so is a team payer during the day.
Vig: Vigilante
This is a town-aligned role that is able to kill at night. A Vig needs to be careful in choosing targets, as killing more townies can end the game early. A properly played Vig can win games for the town. Of note, most Vigs may choose to note use their role on a given night, a valid choice if the player has no reads on scum.
WIFOM: Wine In Front Of Me
Named for the famous scene from The Princess Bride, this is one of the most mis-understood terms out there. Basically, this boils down to any situation where a perosn acted knowing their actions would be analyzed. Here's a common scenario:
Cabd is a wolf. King Piplup spends most of the day telling everyone Cabd is likely a Wolf. The doctor is already dead. Should Cabd kill King Piplup at night? If he does, then everyone will think King Piplup was right. But wait, what if Cabd is innocent but the wolves saw that and wanted to frame Cabd? But wait, what if Cabd knew we'd think of the mafia doing that and so did it anyways?
The logic goes in circles from there, so the correct answer is that we have no way to determine which is true, so the situation alone is not enough to draw any valid conclusions.
IMO: In My Opinion
Simple, the player is stating that they feel this is only what they feel is right, and they are not claiming it is 100% truthful, just their opinion.
Hydra
This is a player that is actually being played by two or more real life people. Hydras are usually used to teach the weak one(s) of the group in a more active fashion to use advanced techniques.
Common Roles
Each of these roles is explicitly defined as "normal" meaning that they can reasonably be expected to show up in a game. Not all of these will be in every game, but it is best you familiarize yourself with each of them.
Vanilla Town
A Vanilla Town player, also known as VT, has no night role and wins when all anti-town players are dead.
Seer (AKA Cop)
A Seer is a player that may ask the alignment of any given living player, and be given a truthful result by the moderator once a game night. The seer is town aligned, and wins when all anti-town players are dead.
Neighbor (Neighborizer)
Neighbors are two players that do not have any information as to the win condition of their partner, but may talk through a private messaging system outside of the game thread. A neighborizer is simply a player who gets to pick their partner instead of being given one. Neighbors can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Mason
A mason is an upgraded neighbor. Masons are two or more players that may talk freely at any time, and also both know that their partner has their same town-aligned win condition.
Priest (AKA Doctor)
A Priest is a player that may ask the moderator to protect a living player from being killed during that night, one target per night. The doctor is town aligned, and wins when all anti-town players are dead. Wolf-aligned doctors have been known to exist, but are not defined here as normal.
Role Blocker
A Role Blocker is a player that may ask the moderator to prevent one player a night from being able to use any night roles. Role Blockers can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Hider
A hider is a player that may attempt to "hide behind" a chosen player each night. If that player is a town-aligned player, the hider is affected by roles that target his "shield" and any role targeting the hider himself will fail. If the hider chose to hide behind a wolf, the hider dies overnight. The hider is town aligned, and wins when all anti-town players are dead.
Miller
A miller is a player that while aligned with the town, will show up as a wolf when viewed by the seer. The miller is town aligned, and wins when all anti-town players are dead.
Double Voter
A double voter may cast a second vote. In some cases, this vote is simply attached to his or her first vote. In other cases, the second vote may be controlled independently. Double Voters can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Voteless
A voteless player does not have the ability to cast a vote. Sometimes this is done by ignoring all attempts to vote, in other cases, it is explicitly forbidden for the player to make a vote post. Voteless players can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Speech Impedimented Vanilla
A Speech Imped player is one who has some way of speaking or restriction on the way posts are done. This is to weaken that player, and sometimes is done to overlap with other roles. This is most commonly seen in flavor games. These players can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Jack of all Trades (JOAT)
A Jack of all Trades player is one that has several one-time-use versions of other powerful night roles. These players are usually town aligned, but can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Bulletproof
A Bulletproof player will survive the first kill attempt made upon them during the night phase. This does not protect against being lynched, however. This role is commonly town aligned, but can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Vigilante
A vigilante player may kill at night. These players serve as the "town's nightkill" and are town aligned. They win when all anti-town players have been eliminated.
Jailkeeper
A jailkeeper is a role that is both a priest and a role blocker in one. Their night target is protected for that night from kill attempts, but their target is unable to use any night roles as well. They win when all anti-town players have been eliminated.
Role Cop
A role cop is a role that may give the moderator the name of a living player, and get back via private message some part (or sometimes even all) of that player's role card. This role can have any win condition present in the game, usually either when all anti-town factions have been eliminated (town) or when the wolves outnumber the town or nothing can prevent such from happening (wolf)
Serial Killer
The serial killer is a vigalante that has his own win condition. They kill at night in a similar fashion. Some games may have a delayed start to the activation of the role's ability to kill. These players show as Independent when viewed by a seer. They win when they are the last player remaining, or nothing can prevent them from becoming such.
Survivor
A survivor is a vanilla player that may win with any faction, so long as they survive to the end of the game. These players show as Independent when viewed by a seer. In the event of a wolf win, these players may still win so long as they are alive, the wolves do not kill them in the endgame process.
Vanilla Wolf
A vanilla wolf is a player that makes up the informed minority. Their job is to hide during the day from those who would try and out them. They are given a means of secret communication with their partners, and know the names of each of the said partners. Of note, many of the other roles listed above can be in the possession of a wolf as well. Wolves win when their team outnumbers or matches the amount of remaining non wolf players, or nothing can stop the above from happening.
Wolf Strongman
A wolf strongman has an ability, usually only usable once, that allows his kill to hit even if a doctor protects his target. They are given a means of secret communication with their partners, and know the names of each of the said partners. Wolves win when their team outnumbers or matches the amount of remaining non wolf players, or nothing can stop the above from happening.
Wolf Godfather
A godfather wolf will show up as aligned with the town if hit by an investigative role such as the seer. It is the polar opposite of the miller. They are given a means of secret communication with their partners, and know the names of each of the said partners. Wolves win when their team outnumbers or matches the amount of remaining non wolf players, or nothing can stop the above from happening.
Alpha Wolf
The Alpha wolf is the designated leader of the wolves. He or she is responsible for the final decision on who to target with the wolf night kill. In most cases, they are told to pick the line of succession from the rest of their team in the event of their death. They are given a means of secret communication with their partners, and know the names of each of the said partners. Wolves win when their team outnumbers or matches the amount of remaining non wolf players, or nothing can stop the above from happening.
Section II: A Basic Alignment Play Guide
In all cases, it is the intent of this guide to only gently shape the play styles of new players. If your own personal play style deviates from these guidelines, that's not a bad thing. Each players gets in a certain "groove" and a special set of skills over time. These instructions are merely the baselines. Sometimes flaunting them entirely is effective, other times not.
Common Scum Tells
A scum-tell is any action, that when observed, points towards a player possibly being aligned with a non-town team, usually the wolf team. Usually, it's a slip up of some sort where a town aligned player would not have made such a statement or action. There are several common ones, but not everyone seems to know these, so please feel free to use this as a starting point. Remember, both alignments of players should avoid making these mistakes, but mafia has a harder time avoiding these. Numbers and percentages have been removed from this version of the guide, as the situational variables make up more of the calculation than numbers printed in a guide. It is intended in all cases that these tells be used to develop one's reads; and not for them to be used as the entirety of a case for lynching somebody.
Gloating About Night Results
"Man, I can't believe the doctor just got killed" is a good example. This tell is when a player, in one of the first posts from them for that game day, mentions the results of the night's update in a negative light. Think of it as a mafia player gloating over how well they did while trying to appear townie. Actual townies don't need to talk about the update much, as dead players are dead, and talking about the fact that they died is not helping find scum. Please note that talking about what that dead player was thinking in prior days is NOT a part of this tell. If this happens on subsequent days, the tell gets stronger. If the player is telling the doctor "good job" and the doctor is unknown, there is an equal possibility that said player IS the doctor.
Justifying the Night
This is when players seem to try to figure out the logic of the scum team's prior nightly actions. More times than not, the player trying to explain these actions is scum himself. This stems from a psychological need to justify one's own actions to others. I personally find this to be a lot stronger than merely gloating over night results, but your mileage may vary. This is seen in posts along the lines of "well they really wanted to hit the doctor so they're hitting people who were silent yesterday" near the start of a day phase.
Focus on the Indies
"Guys, what about the indie players, we should focus on them" is a classical example. With the one exception of serial killer, the town should mostly (It is acceptable to lynch an indie player if town has no other leads near deadline, or as LYLO approaches) ignore Indie players until the mafia has been dealt with. A player constantly trying to draw focus to indie-hunting is likely scum trying to distract power scum hunters. Of note, in a game with two or more scum factions, this also applies to anyone trying to direct the hunt towards only one of these two groups specifically. This tell is of medium strength, but only when it is a pattern of multiple instances. A simple one-of post may also be seen by noob town.
Plurality
"We think XYZ is scum because of ABC reasons" Note the use of the word "we". A town player is alone. If you use somebody using the word "we" or "us" chances are you've found scum. Please note that this read is null if the player claims mason/neighbor under duress. Still, keep it in mind. Especially if the town already had a pair of masons/neighbors claimed or dead. This read is also null if the player is a Hydra.
Town Separation
If a player often says "The town" and does not include themselves, you've peered into the mind of a likely scum or indie player. Sometimes town players do this on accident or as an attempt to show the town that they are not clearing themselves until the majority agrees they are cleared. Of note, look for a mental separation of the two groups. If a player says "the town" and includes themselves, this read is not applied. This tell is fairly weak, and only becomes a big issue if it is paired with other tells.
Conviction
If a player says that somebody is a townie without using "if" or acting like there's any chance a player is not, and that player has not been cleared by a known seer, the person leaving these words out is likely mafia. This read is low priority but rises in severity quickly if it becomes a pattern. As a rule, town players are not sure of anyone else's alignment, whereas mafia players know who the town is. Of note, an inexperienced seer can also make this error in the early game.
Sableye (SF) Tell
My name for the very "Overeager" tendency of newer wolves to hop onto a townie's wagon as the 3rd or 4th vote on day one. This tell is weak, but can serve as a good place to start looking near the second half of day one, once RVS is entirely over.
All Aboard the Short Bus
Pay attention to day one and day two. Mid-level scum will often vote each other for a short period of time (And high level scum may park their vote the entire day) in case they later need to claim that they are not linked since they voted for the known mafia at a later point in time. This tell is even stronger when they go around voting known mafia and FOS-ing townies. This is one of those tells where you have to go back and look at day one at a later point in time, this tell means nothing DURING the first day.
Random votes out of RVS
If RVS stage has already finished, OR RVS was never used, and you have a vote come out of nowhere, you've likely got scum testing the water. This is a weak tell, use it in conjunction with other tells.
Fear of Leaving RVS
If RVS is done, and a player tries to get back into that phase, they're likely scum. This is a pretty darn big tell. Town players want to make the most of the day to find scum. Scum wants to have pointless votes and banter as long as possible.
Vote-Parking
On day one, a player will sometimes place a vote and then not budge from it for any reason. This player is more likely scum than not. Please note that after day one, this can ALSO be a seer sticking to a lynch target he got as guilty night one. Town aligned players are usually more flexible in their voting. Please note that this is best applied when the town has clearly settled on a much better target.
Wrong Voice
A town-aligned player is most likely to post whatever is on their mind. A scum-aligned player, especially in a game with day chat, is more likely to run the larger post by fellow wolf-mates, who may add their own pieces. If you see a larger post by a player, and within that post are multiple tenses of speaking, or different styles of writing, you've likely found scum. I find this tell to be very strong, for what it's worth. Town players don't usually make revisions to a post and also change speaking style. If it doesn't read and flow naturally, something is probably wrong. Note: If the player is a newer player and claims day mason under duress, this tell is possibly null. If the player is newer and does not claim mason, they're likely a newer wolf being force-fed decent posts.
Altered Quoting
If a player is dead and another player is quoting them without linking to the post itself, check for yourself. Sometimes scum will subtly alter the quoted material to swing the case. This is especially important if they use the QUOTE tag but not the QUOTE=LINK HERE tag. ALWAYS double-check.
"Where's the setup, doc?"
If a player is trying to fish for information about the amount of power roles in the game, or the game setup, they're likely wolves. Anyone fishing for the priest specifically is pretty much confirmed scum. Players searching for the seer might be doctor, but are likely scum.
Information Junkie
This tell is applied when a player focuses entirely on information without focusing upon analysis. For example, somebody fixated over which Pokémon are appearing in an update without focusing upon scum hunting. Usually known as "Information Instead of Analysis"
Playing as a Town Aligned Role
There are two common factions in a classic game of Werewolf. The Town, an uniformed majority, and the Wolves, an informed minority. Both have varying advantages and disadvantages. This post will primarily cover playing as a Vanilla Townie. Power roles usually play a bit differently at night. However, during the day, it's best for a power role to act like they are vanilla townie, to avoid wolf detection. So, you're a Vanilla Townie. You know nothing about any other player in the game with you. But you're going to do your absolute best to win for your town. As you should. Here's some hard rules to set for yourself:
Don't Lie
Seriously. You lie, you die. Unless you're very experienced and know exactly what you're doing, a gambit is just a good way to get yourself killed. And since you're a townie, guess what? You just hurt your own win condition.
Don't Give Up
You're about to be lynched, in fact, you're at L-1. Tired of everything, you just self-hammer. Congrats, you just once again hurt your own Win Condition. Remember, the worst thing the town can do is kill a confirmed townie. To yourself, you are a confirmed townie. Giving up, accepting your lynch, and self-hammering is a bad idea
. Even if you're going down, put as much information out there as possible. Until you're dead, it is your job, your duty, to help fulfill your win condition as much as possible.
Be Active
The worst thing you can do as a town aligned player is lurk. Not only are you providing the wolf team a good smokescreen to hide behind, you're also essentially offering yourself up to the wolves as an easy lynch.
Don't Blindly Wagon
The newer town player often sees a large vote wagon forming and jumps on in an attempt to help the town, and be participating. Instead, you've likely just muddled the water, and you might be being led around by the nose by a wolf. Use your head. If a vote wagon seems to you to be the second or third best choice? You should be voicing your best choice to the town, and proving reason. The wolves love town players who mindlessly follow wagons.
Do Your Homework
By reading this thread, you're already on the right track. A good player knows the common rules, tells, gambits, and other such things. If you were going to move to a random town out of nowhere, would you do research first? You bet you would. So do your homework. Chances are at least some of the players in the game you're in now have played before. Go back and take a glance at their play in prior games. What kind of role did they have, and how did they play it? Can you draw any parallels to their play this game?
Keep Notes
A common mistake is to have a great thought or insight, hold off posting it, and forget all about it by the time the next day rolls around. Thankfully, we have our good friend notepad.exe (Or google docs, or Microsoft Word, or whatever you prefer) If you think something is note-worthy, jot it down. Then, when the time comes later, you can refer back to your own notes.
Try
Even if you're brand new to the game, make an attempt to scumhunt. Even if you're not quite doing it perfectly, the experience you're getting is invaluable. Once you've done it long enough, your inner gut will start to be able to give you tells as well. Never just sit there and hope the town power roles can slug it out with the wolf power roles. That's a good way to lose the game.
Keep Your Cool
As a wolf, I also go to emotionally upset town players. When you're not calm, you're much easier to fool, mislead, and guide. The best thing you can do is keep a level head, no matter how much pressure you're under. If anything, by keeping your calm, you've giving a big "Take That" to the wolves that want you upset.
Be Wary of Confirmation Bias
If you really want to think somebody is scum, and then ISO their posts, you'll likely only see what you want to see. Remember to take a step back from your own personal opinions and analyze only the facts of the matter.
Scumtells are not Everything
"But Cabd," you might say, "YOU wrote those scumtells. Now you're saying they're not useful?" No. I'm saying that by publishing those tells, the wolves know them too, and will be actively trying to avoid making them. Tells are a good start, but the legwork still falls up to you as a player to confirm or reject your findings. If something feels not quite right to you, it probably isn't.
Your Gut is your BFF
Seriously. Trust your instincts. Our bodies are actually really good at detecting when things don't entirely add up, even if it's only your subconscious that has figured it out. If something seems wrong to you, don't ignore it, investigate it. Don't lynch on your gut alone, but use it to guide your efforts to look for other tells.
Admit when you're wrong
This is a pitfall many players make. Sometimes you drive really hard for the lynch of a player you just KNOW is going to flip wolf. While you start to have second thoughts when they role reveal and post their reads and last thoughts. You get them lynched, and they flip town. Uh-oh. Remember, if you start to have doubts about something, speak up. Know when to admit that your case has logical flaws when they're pointed out to you. Stubbornness does not win games.
Playing as a Wolf Aligned Role
Woohoo, you drew a wolf card. You are now a part of the informed minority. It's your job to be as deceptive as possible, and win the game by turning the town players against each other. This guide will cover both day and night play as a wolf. This guide assumes you are vanilla wolf, but most other wolf roles play identically to vanilla anyways.
Know What NOT to do
Go read the list of scum tells in part two. Make sure not to make any of those mistakes. Players will be looking for them, and making lots of them is the easiest way to get yourself killed.
Know How to Act
Go read part five. All of those things townies are going to be doing? You should be doing them too. Being an active scum hunter, even if your results are wrong, is seen as pro-town. You know your results are wrong, but the town does not. Sell them.
Sound Confident
Town players rarely double guess themselves. Wolves on the other hand are so worried about how something may be perceived that it's a possible tell. Sound absolutely confident in your own actions. Back yourself up. Wolves make excuses. Townies don't, they have no reason to justify their actions, as they're motivated by their win condition. Do I need to remind you which group you want to appear as?
Don't Engage the Seer
Do you have a read as to who the seer is? Awesome. Do NOT tell anyone else about it outside of the wolf chat area. Because even if you're wrong, the REAL seer just put you on his list of possible seer targets for the night.
You Have two Threads
Don't neglect the wolf quicktopic/conversation area. Remember, if you don't use your status as an INFORMED minority, then you're just a minority. If you have ideas, bounce them off of your team. Remember that if one of you wins, all of you win. They are your allies.
Follow the Leader
You likely have a designated leader. Most of the time, this is the alpha wolf, but in some cases it may just be an experienced vanilla wolf. In any case, your leader likely has a plan. There are several common strategies for a wolf team to use, but going of the path can get you killed.
Like a Boy Scout
Have a fake role claim written well in advance, before the game starts. If you're called to claim, you'll want to make it appear natural. You're more likely to screw up your claim if you write it while under pressure. As role cards flip, go back and edit your role card to bring them more into the style of the dead town cards. You want it to be believable.
Go Big or Go Home
If you think you're in trouble, Gambit. Gambit hard. Use your pre-prepared fake claim if you must, but there is one thing you should not do. Don't use WIFOM. Many players will say "I think A and B are wolves" right before they die, where one is town, the other is wolf. In either case, all you've done is give your partner more heat, and earned them a possible spot on the seer's list for the night.
Done Screwed Up Day One?
If you've done something stupid day one and you're about to be lynched, claim a Power Role. Seer or Doctor works best. One of three things will happen. One, the town will back away, wary of lynching a power role. Two, the REAL Doctor or Seer will claim and you'll have to slug it out with them. Three, they will lynch you anyways. In 2/3rds of the above scenarios, you've done your team a favor. Even if you die, if the actual power role had to claim, you've given your team a free juicy target to night kill. If your team has a strongman, it is best to claim seer, as the doctor will protect the real seer, and you can safely strongman him to death. If your team does not, you might be better off claiming doctor, giving your team a kill that is pretty much unblockable. (Unless there are two doctors or your killer is role blocked.)
Go to the Theater
This is where each wolf has a certain character that they play. For example, see the play of pokegym member Jpulice during Gym game XVII-C. In every case, he was the guy who asked people for their reads. It allowed him to appear very pro-town and fly under the radar for most of the game, and by the time anyone suspected him, it was too late.
See no Wolf, Hear no Wolf
This is where an alpha instructs the wolf team individually. They are not always given a full list of their team-mates, and are encouraged to play alone. This allows a wolf that goes down to leave little to no hints as to who his team-mates are. However, this also means you might accidentally get one of your team-mates killed. Still, the maneuver can win games by leaving no trail in the early game.
Playing the Middle
In this strategy, the wolf team forms into two smaller teams. Each half works together on separate wagons. Through this method, the wolf team can often split the town between two town wagons. This ploy was utilized by the wolf team in WWXVII-A (anon werewolf on pokegym)
Best Friends Forever
In this strategy, the wolves each find a town-aligned player they mostly agree with, and lightly buddy-buddy them. This allows the scum team an easy town lynch if one of their allies goes down. This also makes it hard to link wolves together.
Playing as an Independent Alignment
Indies can win with either team, or alone, depending upon their specific role(s). In any case, your play is different than either of the main factions above.
Town by Day, Wolf by Night
During the day, you should try to scum hunt, but not overly aggressively. At night, you want the wolves to not find you much of a threat. Walk the middle line between useless and perfect townie. You want to play both sides against each other, so if you have a kill, aim to kill town so long as they're still far from LYLO.
Don't be Picky
You don't care which side wins, so long as you win with them. If you make it to LYLO, go ahead and hammer whoever is within range. It won't matter who else wins anyways. Look out for yourself. Don't pick a faction early game and then ignore any potential ways to win with the "enemy" They're all your enemies.
Section III: Power Role Specific Advice
The advice found here applies only to these roles. These are not the only way to play these roles, and the advice here is merely a suggestion. You may find better or worse ways to play the role, but do what works best for you.
Playing as the Town's Seer (Or Town's Rolecop, Or Town's Hider)
Congrats. You drew the Seer card. You're a very important town player this game. In fact, your actions alone can make or break this game. But how should you go about playing it? This section will act as a basic guide. This isn't the only way to play Seer, but it's a good starting point. Note that in the past, most Seers have tried active lurking. This is a known tell now, and so the metagame has evolved past it.
Do Everything on the Townie List
Remember, you want everyone to think you are vanilla townie. Act like one. Day one, you essentially are a VT.
Don't Bread Crumb
Now, some players may disagree with me here, but I feel that the seer should NOT breadcrumb his role. He can crumb his results in the most vague way possible if he wishes, but crumbing the role itself is a good way to get picked off by an observant wolf night one.
When to Reveal
A seer's ideal condition to reveal, in my opinion, is when they has three valid reads in a large game, or two in a small game. (Small/Big being defined as the changeover point of 12 players) This means that he has three results on players that are still alive. Remember that confirming a town player is often times just as good as confirming a wolf, especially when the game gets closer to LyLo.
They Want to Follow Me?
Follow the Cop is suicide for you. If somebody proposed it, don't take the bait. Wolves almost certainly possess a RoleBlocker or Strongman. (Sometimes large games have both, be super careful) By claiming early with no results, you're signing yourself up to get killed or made useless. It's not worth it. Follow the Cop is only a valid scenario if the town lynches the Wolf Blocker/Strongman day one.
How Do I Pick a Target?
This is once again something that lots of people disagree upon. My general rule of thumb, however, is to pick a player I have a null read on. If A player feels town or scum to me, then all I am doing is confirming my idea. However, getting a read on somebody I can't get my finger on helps me complete more of the game setup puzzle. Often times, it's scum that is in the middle area anyways. An alternative method involves trying to find and clear as many town players as possible. A third variant involves picking only the most scummy players and going for as many confirmed wolves as possible.
A note for Trackers
A tracker is merely a weaker seer that only gets to see if a player preformed a night action. In many cases, if you track somebody and see them hit the player that dies overnight, you can be pretty sure (but not positive) that they're scum.
Seer's Tracker Gambit
A fun little play is to claim you're a tracker that saw your scum read interact with the dead player from the prior night. Once they start to fake a claim to explain why they interacted with that player, thank them for making your case airtight and reveal your seer status and the rest of your reads. This works the best when there's only one or two scum players remaining.
Playing as the Town's Priest (Or Jailkeeper)
Congrats. You drew the Doctor or Jail Keeper card. You're a very important town player this game. In fact, your actions alone can make or break this game. But how should you go about playing it? This section will act as a basic guide. This isn't the only way to play Doctor, but it's a good starting point.
Don't Bread Crumb
Unlike seer, there's no disagreement here. The doctor should NEVER crumb his or her role. It's useless.
Your Goal
Your goal is to find the seer without being obvious about it. Once you've found him, your protection can screw up a lot of wolfs. If you're a role blocker, try to avoid any power role reads unless they're in immediate danger, as you will render their role useless that night.
Choosing Targets
While you'd like to know who the seer is, often times you won't and you'll need to choose a target. There are many ways to do this, but the most classic and recommended is to make a short list of 5 or so players you feel are most likely town, and then roll a dice or some other randomization method. That way, even if the wolves were able to get into your head, they'd have no way to know who exactly you'd protect in advance. Keep everyone guessing.
When to Reveal
Ideally, Doctor never reveals. Day one, if a fake doctor reveals, it's most certainly bait. Don't fall for it. In some cases, you'll want to reveal in LyLo. Most commonly, if a Mafia claims doctor, you know you've found scum and can come forward.
Confirmed Townies and You
Sometimes, the Seer will go down and leave a list of confirmed townies. The wolves will not like to leave these players around for the endgame, so it is best to prioritize them. However, blindly protecting them leaves other good players unprotected. For that reason, my solution is to still randomize, but put the confirmed townies on the list twice. That way you're more LIKELY to protect them, but it's not certain.
It Worked! Now What?
If you are able to block the night kill, you now have a mostly confirmed townie in your eyes. Passively avoid going after that person, but don't be too obvious about it or the wolves will pick up on it. Also, remember that it is possible the kill was blocked for other reasons. Don't jump to any conclusions. Either way, you're most likely safe protecting another person the next night, but to be truly random, leave the person you just protected on the shortlist once.
Late Game/Endgame for Jail Keepers
When there is one scum player remaining, your ability to Jail serves as a seer role, essentially. If you target somebody and there is no kill overnight, you should look very hard at that player, they very well might be the last scum player instead of an innocent that got your protection.
Playing as Town's Vigilante
You, fine player, have drawn quite the role card. You're the town's Vigilante. This means that you are the wild card that can make or break the game. Your choices at night can single-handedly win or lose the game for the town. So think carefully.
Sometimes, the Only Winning Move...
Is not to play. Unless your role card tells you that you MUST pick a target every night, it is better to not make a night kill if you have no scum reads. The last thing you want to do is go killing a string of town-aligned players, giving the wolves their win twice as fast.
The Voices are Telling you to Hide Your Guns
Sometimes, during the day, a player will suggest that the Vig target a specific player. It's best to ignore any requests from other players unless their alignment has been confirmed, and even then, it's not assured to be correct. Similarly, NEVER confirm or deny that there is a Vigilante in the game, unless it means your survival. The wolves want you dead, but more importantly, they want to know if there is a Vig or not. That way they can make plans, ploys to mislead said Vig into shooting townspeople, etc.
Stick to Your Guns
If you mess up and hit a townie, don't take that to mean you should never use your role again. Everyone makes mistakes. Don't be over-eager in using your role, but at the same time, don't be afraid of using it. If you have a solid read, you probably should go for it. You never know. If the game is nearing LyLo, your odds are pretty darn good anyways, so if you have a solid read and more than 40% of the remaining players are scum, shoot away.
Playing as Town's Role Blocker
Congrats. You've drawn the Role Blocker role. Your actions at night get to steer the course of other power roles quite interestingly. You have the power to deny any given player the use of his or her role. It's a power that should not be taken likely nor under-estimated.
Holster your Weapon There, Tex
The first few days, if you have no read on scum, it is absolutely best to NOT use your role. The worst thing for the town would be getting no result from the seer, and or the doctor's protection not even working. Guess what your role has a chance of doing if you randomly target somebody? Let's say there's 20 players, 3 other town roles, and a wolf killer. You have a 1/19 chance of blocking the kill if you randomly target, but you have a 3/19 chance of causing harm to the town. See the issue?
Get Used to Reading
You should ISO your planned target before submitting your role. Check specifically for role breadcrumbs. You don't want to be hitting your own doctor or seer with a role block, now do you?
With Great Power...
Comes the responsibility to use it as the wolves take an upper hand. Remember that if the town is approaching LyLo, and the Seer or Doc is dead, your role is probably the closest thing the town has to a seer-like role. Let's say 8 townies are dead, leaving it at 5 wolf and 7 town remaining going into the night. Here, instead of a 1/19 chance of stopping the kill, you have a 1/11 chance, and if you stop the kill, you've just gained a for sure scum lynch. If the wolves have one player left and the doc is dead, you essentially are a seer. Any kill means the player blocked isn't the remaining wolf, and a lack of night kill means you've got your wolf.
Hide Thyself, Mortal
If it's night one or two, and you used your role, don't reveal even if the kill is stopped. You have no idea who the doctor protected, and if the town has any bulletproof players. For all you know, there's a bulletproof serial killer that took the hit. Remember, unless you can be 100% certain that your action and not the doctor's stopped the kill, revealing is a free power role for the wolves.
