A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

If you have a game you want to play on the forum, you can do so here.
Forum rules
This is an area for forum games. Please note that to support mafia games players cannot edit their own posts in this forum. Off Topic threads will be relocated or deleted. Issues taking place in forum games should be dealt with by respective game GMs and escalated to the moderators only if absolutely necessary.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#1 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:11 am

Greetings
You probably have heard of me as brainbomb. I am one of webdiplomacy's 2nd generation players. My forum mafia experience began on webdiplomacy in 2015 over Thanksgiving. I was Vanilla Town in Mafia 15 and eventually was mislynched for my crazy and spammy style of play.

Most forum mafia players dislike being scum. According to surveys on several major sites, as many as 84% of all players hate rolling Scum. Here is an advanced guide to detail a number of successful strategies ive observed and used.
7

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#2 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:17 am

1. Meta, Known, Unknown

what people know about you is your weakness. meta can be a tremendous asset if you have a history of playing mafia consistently. One thing that trips up perpetual town players is that lone wolf rng where theyre just out of their comfort zone, and the posts trigger multiple players right away.

one meta read recognition by a hungry village player can devastate you.

the best strategy to use as scum is to be town. vote as many peopke as you do as scum, because people can look you up and find out anyway. always use meta to your advantage so it is never a notch against you.

if you tend to post very little, dont feel like you must change just because youre scum. if you tend to get suspicious of big vocal players, dont change. find reasons to have the reads you have and stay true to thyself.

if youre meta is to joke around, dont become overly serious, just have fun. if youre normally very detailed, find ways to stay overly detailed and match your normal identity pound for pound.
1

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#3 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:22 am

2. Going the distance

Wolves and Scum get too confident if they lynch a Town day one. lynching town day one is pretty normal. dont celebrate and get lazy. participate at night and often.

you cant always go the distance as scum but always be looking for a team member who can. you only need 1 to win. even the best games on webdiplomacy dont always end well for town. superior scum play is always mindful of pathways to victory that dont target town which have roles they can claim to avoid pressure.

setting up a teammate to go deep can involve strategic bussing, having diversified post totals as a team, and having a mafia who can step in as the leader in late game. powerful scum can dictate the endgame by asserting presence at times town is lazy or confused.
1

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#4 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:25 am

3. Dont abuse TMI

You know what everyone is. you know what wagons are wrong. you know what town has good reads. you know what town are making fools of themself. resist the urge to play God because it makes others suspicious.

Push players who seem collectively obvious to some as town. there is no risk in doing brave pushes if it falls in line with your style. dont fear a widely townread player, knock them down and convince yourself they can be lynched.

anyone can be lynched.
2

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#5 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:32 am

4. PR identification
PR identifying is a lost art. every scumteam needs a ranger who finds the PR. you should give 1 person the reigns to kill PR in scumchat. dont turn kill duties into a group excercise. just get a guy who is confident in PR reads.

use your kills to always kill outed PR and only PR. once all PR are dead you have significantly improved odds to win.

Identifying a PR can depend on a number of key factors.
■Look for middling town who are cautious or angry at being voted
■Look for players not crumbing who are under pressure

often times Town PR play with a superior level of knowledge of the setup, and they exude a greater level of responsibility. PR tend to see themself as martyrs and victims of pressure. Vanilla Town are generally not as likely to care about being voted.

PR lurk at times but its not a great idea to start shooting lurkers hoping to hit PR. look for players who seem different than usual meta. look for players with a higher level of quality in their posts, not necessarily amount of posts, but a bolder more striking level of inquiry.
1

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#6 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:34 am

5. Wild Card
Be wild and energetic. the best scum players make their death as destructive as their life. Upon death people will look at you for who youve spewed as town. if youre doing it right, no one will look good. and your scum team will be stashed deep as everyone is scratching their heads.

Be lively, talk alot, change reads a lot. vote a lot of people. you may not survive, but if you make yourself unreadable and complicated, your death is already a mitigated factor.
2

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#7 Post by brainbomb » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:43 am

I play mafia regularly on multiple forums. I have represented Webdiplomacy in World Championships 2017 and 2018. Currently I am being nominated for the best scum player of 2018 on Mafia Universe.

https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/th ... ost2793383

Victories in 4 consecutive scum games this last 2 months.

bringing 2018 to basically be the year of the brainbomb, started the year with a nomination for best mafia team.

4 flawless games in 2018 where no scum died at all, and 2 final 3 lylo games where I won as scum.

this is not to brag, but rather is to show you that im in some sort of golden age if skill at being a bad guy. and id love to share bits of that wisdom.

I won earlier this year on webdiplomacy in arguably my worst performance ever. thanks to allies ezio, xorx and rivera who carried us, my death was not harmful to my team. thanks boys.

4

Squigs44
Developer
Developer
Posts: 4003
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:50 pm
Location: OKC
Karma: 2010
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#8 Post by Squigs44 » Tue Nov 27, 2018 11:22 am

All hail the great brainbomb.
Unfortunately, brainbombs play style is so unique, sometimes it's hard to learn from him by watching, so this post is actually really helpful in seeing things that brainbomb uses that I can apply to my play.
2

damo666
Posts: 16597
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:04 am
Location: London
Karma: 5524
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#9 Post by damo666 » Tue Nov 27, 2018 12:09 pm

##vote brain
3

TrPrado
Site Moderator
Site Moderator
Posts: 1904
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:22 pm
Location: OOOOOOKLAHOMA WHERE THE WIND COMES SWEEPING DOWN THE PLAIN
Karma: 527
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#10 Post by TrPrado » Wed Nov 28, 2018 3:25 am

brainbomb wrote:
Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:11 am
Greetings
You probably have heard of me as brainbomb. I am one of webdiplomacy's 2nd generation players. My forum mafia experience began on webdiplomacy in 2015 over Thanksgiving. I was Vanilla Town in Mafia 15 and eventually was mislynched for my crazy and spammy style of play.
Damn, has it really been that long?
1

User avatar
Fluminator
Posts: 4808
Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:50 pm
Karma: 3305
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#11 Post by Fluminator » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:49 pm

Nice job!
Cool

User avatar
Fluminator
Posts: 4808
Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:50 pm
Karma: 3305
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#12 Post by Fluminator » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:52 pm

Oops, touch screen was wonky and submitted that before I finished.
Cool to see you're still at it, and doing well at the game.
1

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#13 Post by brainbomb » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:55 pm

thanks Fluminator. I dont think I ever played at this skill level on mu.

so perhaps

6. Diversify where you play and dont become trapped in one environment. learn to play with new players and to rely on raw skills

User avatar
brainbomb
Posts: 21950
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:20 pm
Karma: 9988
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#14 Post by brainbomb » Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:55 pm

brainbomb wrote:
Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:55 pm
thanks Fluminator. I dont think I ever played at this skill level on mu.

so perhaps

6. Diversify where you play and dont become trapped in one environment. learn to play with new players and to rely on raw skills
on webdip*

ND
Posts: 3090
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:49 pm
Location: America
Karma: 1000
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#15 Post by ND » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:18 am

Brainbomb offers some good advice on the subject. Bravo.

Wusti
Posts: 399
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:12 pm
Karma: 232
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#16 Post by Wusti » Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:56 am

I've seen all the Mafia threads going back to 2015 and never played. Is there a rulebook or guide somewhere so I can see if its of interest?

Squigs44
Developer
Developer
Posts: 4003
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:50 pm
Location: OKC
Karma: 2010
Contact:

Re: A scum players diary (The Art of playing scum well)

#17 Post by Squigs44 » Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:34 am

Wusti wrote:
Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:56 am
I've seen all the Mafia threads going back to 2015 and never played. Is there a rulebook or guide somewhere so I can see if its of interest?
The master mafia thread here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=272

The first post in that thread has a lot of information, including rules but mostly strategy. Also, the first post of any of the actual games is a list of all of the rules for that game. Usually the general site rules are posted first, followed by the specific game setup and rules.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: cdngooner, DrFidelis, JustAGuyNamedWill, Wattsthematter and 208 guests