Secret Santa Game Thread

[the worst]

WMU is excellent, and terrifies me greatly.

[osieorb18]

Congrats scumteam, that was an obliteration.

Also well done bessie, boom, and WMU for figuring out the team at various points of the game. As I said last game, bessie really ought to start being considered an S-teir player. This is the 3 or 4th game in a row where she had 1-2 scum pinned Day 1.

I have to say it's also kind of frustrating that WMU's insights are often ignored. I imagine it's because of the language barrier, but man I found the endgame reminiscent of last game where her reasoning was flawless and ignored.

WMU is amazing, but beyond the language barrier, she is very analytical, and often doesn't get there early. I also know something about what she's looking for from me (though this game might have hurt that impression, lol, now we can both be paranoid of each other). Knowing that she was unlikely to get me until endgame meant that I could comfortably pocket her for a while and maintain enough paranoia for a vote on her to be credible.

[osieorb18]

Btw, @TSS this isn't a criticism but just info for next time. I don't think anyone has explained to you "standard endgame strategy" but it's very important to discuss a lot before voting at xyLo. You want to be 100% solid on who you think is town and who you think is scum and all your townies agree to vote together.

I was kinda banking on controlling Sniper's vote in the likely case that WMU didn't and starting the day by making clear to be careful only fed into that plan.

Also scum purposely muddled the mass claim, but ideally everyone decides an order. Then everyone clearly explains every detail of their role and actions taken. Then people can see where the inconstancies are.

I maintain that mass claim isn't very useful in this sort of setup; the roles are such a crapshoot, especially with the range of players that we had here.

[osieorb18]

Oh and if I can do a 95000-character quote wall as scum, I wonder what I can get myself to do as town.

[The Snide Sniper]

Btw, @TSS this isn't a criticism but just info for next time. I don't think anyone has explained to you "standard endgame strategy" but it's very important to discuss a lot before voting at xyLo. You want to be 100% solid on who you think is town and who you think is scum and all your townies agree to vote together.

I was kinda banking on controlling Sniper's vote in the likely case that WMU didn't and starting the day by making clear to be careful only fed into that plan.

Yeah, you did well to take advantage of my newbieness lol

[osieorb18]

Btw, @TSS this isn't a criticism but just info for next time. I don't think anyone has explained to you "standard endgame strategy" but it's very important to discuss a lot before voting at xyLo. You want to be 100% solid on who you think is town and who you think is scum and all your townies agree to vote together.

I was kinda banking on controlling Sniper's vote in the likely case that WMU didn't and starting the day by making clear to be careful only fed into that plan.

Yeah, you did well to take advantage of my newbieness lol

As soon as you locked me as town, I was pretty sure we had it in the bag but was being extra cautious.

[osieorb18]

Heury's role (given by ???) -

Vision of a Christmas Never: - Night Action - You target a player and learn all sorts of useful info about what they might have done this Night phase. But not about what they actually did. You learn three pieces of information: Their Role Name, Who they Targeted, and Who targeted them, like a rolecop, watcher and tracker all at once! However, exactly one of those three pieces of information will be incorrect.

[xX_WakeMeUp1337_Xx]

Osie well played you convinced me in day 1 the worst needs time and that was my fault.
He was pure scum and I let myself fooled

I knew Bessie can't be scum and I was paranoid of Madge. That was another mistake i made

I came to the truth and i am sure a player who knows me would understand me.
My language barrier didn't help me like it never helps, also doesn't help the fact I am too honest, because I should claim cop with red on one of you because I was 100% sure.

Time to learn to FPS, fear me my friend, now I know your tricks

[osieorb18]

Boomfrog's role (given by ???) -

Bestest Boy, and can watch one person or once per game watch everyone but get mixed up results and essentially lose my nightly watching

[osieorb18]

Osie well played you convinced me in day 1 the worst needs time and that was my fault.
He was pure scum and I let myself fooled

I came to the truth and i am sure a player who knows me would understand me.

If we weren't both scum, yeah...

My language barrier didn't help me like it never helps, also doesn't help the fact I am too honest, because I should claim cop with red on one of you because I was 100% sure.

I'd love to see you gambit like that. You were so pure town this game.

Time to learn to FPS, fear me my friend, now I know your tricks

You know some of them.

[xX_WakeMeUp1337_Xx]

I would add i understood the role i received is made by you and I don't know how come the townie voting me didn't get such a simple thing because you almost said it.

Your initial plan was to ML him and it was so transparent.

[xX_WakeMeUp1337_Xx]

You know some of them.

I know now more than enough

[osieorb18]

I would add i understood the role i received is made by you and I don't know how come the townie voting me didn't get such a simple thing because you almost said it.

Your initial plan was to ML him and it was so transparent.

Oh yeah, that was a bit of a misstep tbh; I needed to go for one of you or Madge, but I wasn't sure how pocketed you were at that point so I tested the waters.

I was trying to be careful to not cross the line on the hinting; reminds me of the no-claim rules of AB, ffs.

[The Snide Sniper]

I should claim cop with red on one of you because I was 100% sure.

Honestly, that probably wouldn't have worked in the end. Osie would have flipped catgirl, I (and maybe the rest of the town) would know you couldn't possibly have gotten that result, and I would think you were scum bussing your teammate to look better the following day.

[osieorb18]

You know some of them.

I know now more than enough

My scumgame plan is pretty simple but not that easy to distinguish. Essentially a rule to follow may just be that I shouldn't be alive in XyLO as either alignment.

I specifically take inspiration for scumgames from:



- Cantrip's statement is pretty much the core of the game for me. Solving as town, bussing, powerwolfing, or solving as mafia, it's the same thing. I'm solving the same puzzle and I don't have the solution. I have no wolf partners, just people to keep happy and keep active so they can do the same thing that I'm doing.

Power Wolfing by Thingyman

- Reading this, especially my screenshot from earlier, helped a lot.

Fonti's (and a few other players) level of thread control and calm regardless of alignment.

- I don't realistically manage the calm most of the time, but the thread control can sometimes work out.

And then last but not least, my own setup experience because role knowledge and setup analysis are super helpful both for fake claiming and for solving.

[osieorb18]

I should claim cop with red on one of you because I was 100% sure.

Honestly, that probably wouldn't have worked in the end. Osie would have flipped catgirl, I (and maybe the rest of the town) would know you couldn't possibly have gotten that result, and I would think you were scum bussing your teammate to look better the following day.

Yeah, and if worst got red checked, I would still be positioned well whether I had to push WMU for it or bus the worst into the ground.

[the worst]

Osie well played you convinced me in day 1 the worst needs time and that was my fault.
He was pure scum and I let myself fooled

I knew Bessie can't be scum and I was paranoid of Madge. That was another mistake i made

I came to the truth and i am sure a player who knows me would understand me.
My language barrier didn't help me like it never helps, also doesn't help the fact I am too honest, because I should claim cop with red on one of you because I was 100% sure.

Time to learn to FPS, fear me my friend, now I know your tricks

That would have been brutal - now I'm even more scared of you.

[osieorb18]

moody's role (given by madge) -

Christmas Cherry

Power: "with a cherry on top" is a popular turn of phrase that implies a cherry is something that is quite good at enticing people to do their best, and as a result, you are very good at motivating, so you are a motivator (https://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?title=Motivator). However, because you're literally a cherry, the target of the motivated bonus action will 'have a cherry on top' of them the next day.

[boomfrog]

I submitted the "Ghost of Christmas Never" role. I'm sure wam or seven will post all the roles in full eventually.

[boomfrog]

Oh and if I can do a 95000-character quote wall as scum, I wonder what I can get myself to do as town.

That was the second scummiest post you made all game. It was such a waste of time it made me seriously consider agreeing with Bessie. Alas, I was blinded by my need to sooth conflict.

[heuristically_alone]

Gg. That was an interesting game. Town felt like a step behind the entire time.

[osieorb18]

I submitted the "Ghost of Christmas Never" role. I'm sure wam or seven will post all the roles in full eventually.

Fun little puzzle in the meantime.

Bessie <- ??? (WMU?) | JoAT | ???
Boomfrog <- ??? (Bessie?) | Watcher | Bestest Boy
Heury <- Boomfrog | RC+Watcher+Tracker (But one is wrong) | Ghost of a Christmas Never
Madge <- Worst | Visitor | ???
Moody <- Madge | Motivator | Christmas Cherry
Osie <- Sniper | Ninja Godfather Self-Watcher | Catgirl
Sniper <- Heury | Absorber | ???
WMU <- Osie | Dreaming Inventor | Santa
Worst <- ??? (Moody?) | JoAT | Police Mixtape

Oh and if I can do a 95000-character quote wall as scum, I wonder what I can get myself to do as town.

That was the second scummiest post you made all game. It was such a waste of time it made me seriously consider agreeing with Bessie. Alas, I was blinded by my need to sooth conflict.

Lol. It was cathartic, albeit just reminding me of how frustrating Bessie's posts were regardless of alignment. (It would have been funnier if Bessie had responded to it, though.)

I legit probably would have made it as either alignment, though.

[osieorb18]

Confirmed.

@Moody - Your readlist confused me. Despite that, I think you had a startlingly solid grasp of the game from early on. We were lucky that we were able to drop you quickly. I look forward to seeing you around!

Confirm.

@Bessie - Hi bessie. Most of what happened this game between us was legitimate playstyle clash. I don't know that I would have handled this very differently at town outside of potentially being more likely to have just replaced out at some point when I wasn't enjoying things. It is what it is. As I mentioned in the spoilers, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about the metaphors. Absolutely not meant personally at all. Your reads were on point at times even if the reasoning and presentation didn't get there. And I can always use more dog pics. Gotta get you in a game with slothful one of these days. I look forward to seeing you around!

Confirmed.

@Sniper - If people hadn't told me, I probably wouldn't have realized you were a newish player for a while, possibly into somewhere in late Day 2. I was rather paranoid of you towards the start. I think once you get your feet under you, you have a lot of potential to be a really solid player. It's all about building a process. I loved some of the "Why not?" moments from you. I look forward to seeing you around!

Confirm

@WakeMeUp - Okay, maybe I sometimes oversell how scary you are but it's still mostly true. You continue to make every game I see you in better with your presence. I like how you handled the language barrier here with the "explain it like I'm 5" comments. Good catch on Day 3. Lots of love as always. Maybe next scum game we can finally roll scum together.

Confirm

@Madge - I'm still wondering what the heck your +/=/- lists were coming from. And that "Vote Bessie, I think she's town" post. I was very happy that you also followed up on Boom's EoD post. And I think I was correct on the overall personality read. I look forward to seeing you around!

Woo! Game on!

@Boomfrog - FWIW on the meta front, my Day 1 and early Day 2 were relatively NAI for me. I really liked how you tried to maintain the town team spirit this game. You played very well. I look forward to seeing you around!

I will tell my role to anyone.

@Heury - The worst called out your Day 1 in chat, and there was the "slip", but I actually think once you got going you were quite townie in your solving. I don't know that I would have responded even if I had caught the breadcrumb. It was fun playing with you! I look forward to seeing you around!

Confirm.

@the worst - Best mason buddy ever. And I totally want to go out together for sushi at some point (just maybe not with mango on it). I think you sell yourself short in terms of your strength. You and I both have managed to mostly avoid the big leagues, but you're still a very solid player in so many different ways. All I really have is being loud and designing/hosting a lot. (I sort-of kid.) Lots of love as always from your reflection on the other side of the world!

the game

quick

@Wam, @Seven - Thanks so much for hosting. Regardless of how my design was interpreted, the game was a lot of fun! I love this style of game and was beyond happy to see someone else hosting it. I think I've only really gotten to play Designer / Secret Santa once in the past; I've always been hosting. It was a good pairing with time zones as well. I look forward to seeing both of you around!

%%%

One (or MAYBE two) more games as a player and then probably another hiatus/retirement from playing, however temporary.

[the worst]

Is it opposite day???
Just kidding - thanks osie <3
v keen for sushi adventures when we're on the same continent sometime.

[madge]

when McGowanstan eventually joins the rest of the world*, come visit and i'll show you some good sushi

*and I say that as a McGowan stan