On Appearing Town

Part of Mastin Academy.

Original Lecture: On appearing town

The best way to appear to be town is to not try and appear to be town.

Similar to my lecture on townblocs, this is because the more forced you make it, the less successful it'll be. Be natural. Be yourself. (Well, the better elements of yourself, anyway.) Focus on scumhunting. When talking to others (and you should be talking to others!), make sure you're not defending yourself, but rather, working with them. You might say if they think you're scum, they're wrong. You might clarify something they didn't get.

But at all costs avoid actual full-on defense of yourself. It's almost never a good idea. Instead, be on the offensive. Find scum to eliminate them. Or find town to work with them. When talking with others, your focus is on that goal. Now, you shouldn't ignore suspicion on you altogether--instead, redirect it, e.g.: "alright, I get it, you think I'm scum. But if I wasn't, who is? Talk to me, here".

If you look unconcerned about how you're perceived, you'll be townread more frequently. If you defend yourself, you will be scumread more frequently. So just don't. Instead of doing things with the intention of looking town, do things which show you are town. Simply put: don't try to be town. Just actually BE town. Let things flow naturally. And if you focus on the objectives a town player has in mind (finding/eliminating scum), you'll be perceived as town.

Of course, that works for town players, but scum need modifications. It's largely the same! Scum need not focus on defense. Survivalism not only makes them look worse, but also sabotages their team's chances if it devolves into bussing. Mafia aren't serial killers; they win as a team. So keeping that in mind, the objective as scum isn't to eliminate scum; it's to get town dead as fast as possible so you endgame them at the earliest opportunity. (The more days town has to figure things out, the more likely it is they will.)

Thus, as scum, your posts will be similar, not identical, to yours as town. You're still being yourself, but not entirely naturally: your perspective is biased because you know more. (For instance, your scumbuddies will look scummier to you as scum than they ever would to you as town.) Keep it as close to natural as is beneficial while still furthering this pro-scum wincon.

You know which reads are right or wrong, but you can still focus on scumhunting like town, simply adjusted to forward your agenda. Talk to others just as much (if not moreso) when scum, and work "with" them the same amount. The main difference is simply a subtle effort (AND I DO MEAN SUBTLE!) to sabotage correct scumreads and encourage wrong ones. Minuscule misdirections will press your advantage, while allowing you to still appear as if you are attempting to find scum.

This is the fundamental basics for establishing your play which all other aspects draw from. There's more to it, which I'd need an advanced class (i.e., a specific wiki article) to cover those in more detail, but this should be plenty to give you a head-start. One final tip before wrapping this up, though:

Regardless of your alignment, you're not trying to sway people to your side. You're not trying to give them the solution. Instead, you're trying to make them think what you do (or rather as scum what you want them to think), and/or have thoughts which synchronize with your stances. It's a subtle difference, but basically...instead of trying to force agreement from them, you're aiming to make them think they found the solution themselves, even though it was something you either implanted in their minds by guiding their train of thought (scum) or had them find a solution you want to compare to your own (town).

I realize this is a difficult concept to grasp, but it's what separates the good from the great. Great town players can bring out the potential in another player. Great scum players can make another player their pawn. Both by running the same process, with just a slight modification in ending technique. It's definitely something you'll need to practice, and practice a lot.

Further Reading

I don't have a definitive article on this. (Yet.) The closest I have is recognizing reads and my argument on charisma.

I'd also recommend skimming Albert B. Rampage's Alignment Discovery, which talks about the differences between town and scum objectives.

Good luck!