Live Action Mafia

Make a kill on any day that you can. Even if you think there's a ~50% chance you'll get caught for it, it's valuable for Team Evil to have you making kills. Self-preservation is not as important as you think because you'd have to keep yourself alive for several more days (on expectation) anyway in order to make another kill. Make kills as often as you can.


Who to kill? You want to get rid of investigators, so if you suspect someone is an investigator (because they were proxying to you, say) kill them. Even if you just kill a proxy of an investigator, that will force the investigator to find a new proxy, who may be a serial killer who can kill that investigator. You also want to get rid of players who are talking a lot and making good points; anyone who seems like they're being really helpful to town, or who is generally well-trusted by town, is a good person to get rid of.


What about disarms? Well, if someone tries to kill you, say "Disarm." This means you'll live, they'll lose their kill for the day, and both of you will be absolutely sure that each other are serial killers. If someone tries to kill you quietly and there are other players nearby-ish, make sure you disarm really quietly too, so that you don't out both of you.


How to make a good kill?

- Read intros to figure out where your target will be. If you're killing in a class, also make sure that no *other* players will in that class, who might see you.

- Don't do it where any other players are around. If you're seen, you're screwed. Even if you're caught and don't care if other people see you making a kill, remember that your target may be a serial killer who'd disarm you, and you definitely don't want other people to see that. If you *do* get seen making a kill by player X, immediately run and post on forums "X is mafia and just killed <target>!" because they'll be doing the same to you and at least this way you can force town to spend some investigations figuring out who did it.

- Ask NPs for help. Anyone who has played Mafia before, but isn't currently playing, will understand that the game is more fun if serial killers are able to make good kills. (This means that anyone in the house, with the possible exception of PC'16 members who haven't played before, will be happy to give you advice, let you in side doors, scout for you, or lie on your behalf. You could even ask them to let you practice making kills on them.) If an NP who hasn't played before sees you make a kill, take a second to explain to them that you'd appreciate if they didn't say who did it.

- Make kills that anyone could have made. For example, many people will have horrible alibis for a kill made at squares ("uh, I was somewhere in the room when the death happened") but most people will have solid alibis for a kill made during lunch time ("I was eating in W20 with 7 other players, so none of us did it"). Look at people's schedules in advance to figure this out. Note that it's fine if your alibi is horrible too; there are an expected n/9 investigations on any given day, which means if you're not one of the first ~2 people investigated you'll be okay.

- Position yourself such that the person won't have a chance to notice you before you kill them. Ksedlar is well known for texting your name to everyone right before you kill her. Sammyluo is well known for running away or shouting your name when he sees you. You can avoid this by lurking just past a door, wearing a disguise (check the ET basement for costumes), or killing someone who you run into by chance before they've had any time to react.


What if I'm also an investigator? First and most obviously, if you investigate someone guilty for making a kill, you know they must be a serial killer. Don't report the positive investigation to town. Contact the serial killer and tell them you investigated them positive and offer to help them in any way they need. (Note: if someone contacts you saying this, don't necessarily trust them, because a townie can *also* contact a serial killer saying they have a positive investigation on them and want to team up. So this is a one-way trust.) In general, you don't want to report useful information to town, so either keep your investigations to yourself, or report investigations that you didn't actually make (i.e. if you investigate X not-guilty, report that Y is not-guilty because this might be false and thus unhelpful to town, whereas X-not-guilty is definitely true and thus helpful to town). You can also make up investigations like this if you're not actually an investigator. That said, be careful because if someone else ever checks whether Y did it and finds that they did, you're going to be under fire for having made a false investigation. If you think you're going to be caught like this, consider killing your proxy so that they can't say who gave them the false investigation.


What if I've found other serial killers? Coordinate!

- When you make a kill, make sure they have a good alibi, because there aren't many investigations and thus people will probably get lynched if they have enough bad alibis.

- Consider claiming to have investigated them negative for kills they made, so they don't get caught. (Warning: if you do this too much, and you later get caught as a serial killer, town might specifically re-investigate all the investigations you claimed to have made and find the other serial killer like this.) Similarly, consider claiming to have been together, thus giving them an alibi.

- If they need a person dead but can't make a kill that day, maybe you can make that kill for them, or vice versa. If you absolutely trust the other person, share information with them about who you think is a serial killer and/or investigator.

- Try not to be coordinating with them too obviously. If you constantly disappear to talk to each other, and you give each other alibis frequently, and you advocate not to lynch each other, people will notice the association and lynch you both. Plus if one of you is caught, people will consider the former alibis/investigations as less than nothing.

- If you get caught and are about to be lynched, put out a call on Town Square for other serial killers to contact you. Give them kill targets to kill to prove themselves (these should be RNGed independently at random, including your SK buddy(ies), so town can't get any info from this) and tell your SK buddy(ies) which people claim SK and what targets you gave them. Then, if these targets die soon, you know which person (or people, if multiple people got RNGed the same target) are likely SKs.


How do I act innocent?

- Think of yourself as innocent. Tell yourself in front of the mirror that you're innocent and scared and don't know who's making these kills and are afraid you're going to die next. Imagine who you would suspect if you were innocent, and talk about this with other players.

- In general, talk to other players a lot, because they tend to trust people more who they talk to more. (This is somewhat justified, because Team Evil usually has less free time to spend talking to townies, since they're busy making kills and plotting with each other.)

- When you're alone with another player, make sure you paranoia text about this to other players.

- Vote to lynch along with the town consensus.

- If you're claiming investigator, try not to let anyone else know this, because you should be scared that you'll get killed for being a useful role.

- Don't lie about things unless you absolutely have to, because webs of lies are confusing and fall apart easily.

- If you think that another serial killer is definitely either caught or about to be caught, lead the lynch mob on them and get as much credit as you can for having "caught" them.

- When kills happen, seem surprised and sad that the person died, and don't post your alibi earlier than you normally would have noticed the death posting.

- You're innocent and don't want to be lynched, but you're not much afraid of being lynched, because there are plenty of townies. Only bad guys are afraid of being lynched.