Looking back at the game after I had some time to mentally digest, I think it was a good thing that town got to know that food is ECO. That made clear that either sweet or bozo were lying so we had a clear 50/50 that couldn't be dodged.
HOWEVER, town rushing into a hammer of food, especially since he said that he had work and was asking for a bit more time (for his thoughts and for his excel list) was not so good. Sure, it kept the game quicker, but I have to say that if people are that easily to mentally check out of a game and don't have a reset (like brain did with him ignoring the mech and mechtalk and trying to get behind the game by what people said, which was brilliant, I want to add) or powering through some stuff, then honestly, I find that lacking.
I mean, if people want to have quicker games, we could do that too. Like 1 hour phases, where we all find a day when we can play and fully focus on the game, that way we can't have any real indepth analyse of mech heavy settings and can even run full item madness and mass claim isn't a full autowin for town. (It might be a bit difficult to find the right timeframe and have the game end in time, but after organizing that, it should work pretty well.)
Also, there is another option to not have a game being broken by massclaim: don't tell anyone which roles are in the game. That way it can be role balanced, there IS information for town to deduct after persons flip, AND mafia is safe from that practice. The council can check it before, if it is balanced in regards of the power roles and what mafia can do, but that way, everyone can enjoy being a PR and if there is a massclaim, mafia can just easily make up roles (or being provided by the GM of a role description that isn't already used) and pick up the PR's they want to see gone from the game. So that way, a mass claim is actually full pro mafia.
Another thing I wanted to add, though more for me and my reads, is that I shouldn't town people too much or too easily. I think I'm doing a decent job at giving people that I think are mafia enough benefit of the doubt that I accept their input and am open to change my mind if there is a major thing that challenges my perspective, but I do have big problems when I see someone as town and to then doubt my read and trying to analyse if they couldn't be mafia. For example my read on Jamie, it heavily influenced my interpretation on the list, where I put him as middle manager (because I thought food was mafia and Jamie town). I might've not done that if I only thought food was mafia and was unsure about Jamie. So that is something I should challenge more often in the future, do my townreads actually have a basis or am I just easily putting out that stamp.
Anyway, well played everyone, thanks for the game, and congrats on bozo for solid townplay for suggesting the massclaim. And I hope to see frog again, it was fun playing with your power wolfing
. Our other new players D&W and babyspice too of course, though I hope to see then more involvement of you two in future games