Live Action Mafia

I have advice to give to new players. Some of you probably also have advice to give. Let's post our advice.

People with items
If you have a medkit, a microphone, or a receiver, give it to someone else! If the mafia think you have a medkit or a mic they'll use Kaboom, so those items are most useful when the mafia have no clue who has them. If you have a mic or the medkit, give it to someone who lives with a lot of other players, is very experienced, or for some other reason is likely to be a target. If you have a receiver, give it to someone who is not a likely target. Microphone/receiver pairs only work when the person with the receiver outlives the person with the microphone.

Elected officials
The elected positions are way more useful to townies than to mafia, so we should make sure to have a mayor and a police officer all the time. Ksedlar and I are both running for mayor; vote for both of us in case one of us gets killed. I don't know who's running for police officer, but you should vote for them too, or possibly run yourself.

Telling people your role
It's usually good to tell one or two players your role, so that town will know who they've lost if you die. It's also good to tell one or two players who knew your role, so that town will know whodunnit if you die by Set a Trap. But don't tell everyone your role, or you'll die by Set a Trap. Relatedly, investigators should find someone they trust to proxy their results. Don't tell more than maybe one other person besides your proxy: if the mafia find out you're an investigator, they will kill you, and town needs you alive.

I'll use this post to give (slightly) more comprehensive basic strategy advice. You can also look at similar posts from previous games; most of them will still be applicable now:

1. Read the rules!!! Changes have been made from the last game. No matter how well you think you know them, read them one more time to refresh yourself.

2. Everybody is an important power role. Make good use of yours.

3. Apathy is the town's biggest enemy. The mafia will really be into this game. You need to be involved in the game, to follow what's going on, and to contribute, or we WILL lose.

4. Start talking about lynch decisions at 5 p.m. or 8 p.m., NOT 10:30 p.m.

5. Investigators need to use their power every day. All town roles are strong, but investigators are the strongest of all, and it is critical that they make investigations every day. They should use proxies to announce their results.

6. Don't tell more than a couple people your role unless you have good reason to do so.

7. Keep a mayor and police officer elected at all times. Especially at the beginning of the game, it's much more important that we have these roles elected than that we avoid electing mafia.

8. Don't be too paranoid about a player possibly having been conscripted.

9. Don't troll. Play to win (and have fun.)

Something I forgot from earlier: Post Alibis. Everyone should post an alibi for every kill, and we should check at least some of them for every kill. If lots of townies don't post alibis, mafia can get away with not having them and that makes kills and getting away with kills easier.

This is not theoretical. This has happened in the past. A lot.