Town Strategy Guide

[Kurasawa]

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

Imagine the following game: every townie stays silent during the day. No one ever speaks. Not the sheriff, not the investigator, not a mafia member pretending to be a citizen. Who will win? The mafia of course.

Now imagine this game: on the first day, every townie states his role and what action he performed on whom. The same for the next day, the same for the next. While mafia might very well lie, with so much information, their deceptions will very quickly be discovered. Who will win? The town of course.

For most standard variants, town is the hardest and most active of the three teams to play. If town is silent, they lose. If town lacks information, they lose. If town is deceived, they lose. If town does nothing, they lose.

Overall strategy

Except for variants including lots of neutral killers or vigilantes, the town's only chance of achieving victory is through the lynch. Lynches require intelligence and, above all, information. In The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Sherlock Holmes said, "Data data data! I can't make bricks without clay." The data in Mafia comes in many objective forms: the graveyard, innocent/guilty voting records, the speed with which lynches are carried out, etc.

Unfortunately, this hard data only goes so far. Much of the time you must rely on subjective, hard-to-interpret data: PMs, last wills, sheriffs/investigator claims, other false/true claims and accusations, the things people say and the way they say them. As a townie, you should be aware of the following DOs and DONTs:

DON'T be silent. Silent people are not to be trusted. Towns thrive on information and discussion - if a person is silent it's often because he's afraid of being caught in a lie.
DON'T make claims without information or extensive reasoning. If someone claims to be sheriff, but you're a doctor who nevertheless has a gut instinct he/she is lying, DO NOT claim, "He's mafia!" If that sheriff turns out to be real, you just completely discredited yourself and probably earned a lynch.
If you do get lynched and you're an innocent, DON'T troll or be antagonistic in your defense. "Random lynches" are often attempts to force information from players - most good townies will vote you innocent if you're civil.
DO state your role in your lynch defense. In most townies minds, failure to state your role and provide supporting information as to what you've done with that role is an automatic guilty sentence.
DO be aware of the roles in play and how those roles actually work. If a sheriff claims that a person "works with knives" then that person is lying (investigators discover that information). Understand that an invest's "owns many guns" could be either vigilante or mafioso. Understand that if a GF has night immunity and, as a vigi you shoot him, it'll declare his immunity, which means you have, in fact, discovered the GF. Etc, etc.


Now, to go on to specific roles and how to play them...

[Kurasawa]

Sheriff

A lot of players, even veterans, woefully undervalue a Sheriff. The Sheriff is not just a collector and purveyor of information. The Sheriff needs to be the leader of the town - if the Sheriff can nab an early mafia detect and thus earn the trust of the town, the town will often win that game.

As a leader and an object of authority, you need to be intelligent and civil in your communications. You can't just say, "lol dudz is mafia, letzzz lynchezzzz that negro!! lynch lynch lynch lololo!" Go for something more like, "I am sheriff. X is mafia. He might be the target of framer but the statistical likelihood of that is low. Lynch/kill me if I'm wrong. Doctors protect me if I'm right."

Sheriffs make the juiciest, best targets for mafia and SKs, but on the flip side, should always be healed by a doctor. Thus, if a doctor is still in play, a Sheriff should always reveal himself as early as possible. Even if just to share that someone is NOT suspicious.

"What?! That's suicide!" It isn't. On top of revealing himself, the Sheriff should also always add this statement: "Doctors protect me!" A good doctor, even if he's not quite convinced, will target the Sheriff over just randomly selecting someone else. More importantly, however, that statement alone, even if no confirmed doctors still live, will often discourage SKs or mafia from targeting the sheriff. Most won't want to risk having their kill blocked.

(as a small side-note, very few mafia are capable of pretending to be sheriff. It's one of the hardest roles to bluff.)

There are, of course, a couple instances where a sheriff should not reveal himself:

If no doctors live and your information is anything less than a SK, Arson, or Mafia confirm.
If your not suspicious/innocent information is only for a dead person, as this will often actually make you more suspicious (even though, logically speaking, it doesn't - most mafia won't make so obviously suspicious a claim nor so pointlessly volunteer a false role! But never count on other people being smart.)
If you are (most likely) the only sheriff and you know they have a consort and your only information is not suspicious. It's not worth revealing yourself so that you can be roleblocked (to infinity and beyond!)


So much for how to conduct yourself as sheriff, now here's how to select targets as a sheriff:

If needed, clarify doctor/SK for an invest's "someone who works with knives"
If needed, clarify mafioso/vigi for an invest's "owns many weapons"
Check silent players! As mentioned in above overall guide, silent players are suspicious!
Check suspicious players! People who vote strangely, make strange claims, etc.
DO NOT check players who initiate and are gung-ho about an innocent lynch. Sure, you might confirm their innocence, but guess what? No one is going to listen to you and your role as a trusted sheriff will be compromised. For what? A stupid destructive townie? Unless you've checked everyone else, this is often a wasted investigate.


As a last order of business... use your last will to provide ALL information that you have discovered (unless that person is dead and their role is known).

[Kurasawa]

Investigator

While Sheriff is the town's most powerful role, Investigator comes in a close second. Unlike a sheriff though, they are not meant to be leaders and should, in fact, be very careful with their data. Unless "exact role" is checked, an investigator can cause as many innocent deaths as he can guilty ones:

-"owns many weapons" can be either vigi or mafioso
-"uses sharp knives" can be either doctor or SK
-"quality time with people" can be either consort or escort
-"your target snoops for information" can be either another investi or a consig

Not only can reveal of info result in death by overzealous townies, this information is also useful for serial killers and the mafia. If there's one doctor and one SK and you reveal the doctor, the SK might cut them down in the night!

As such, investigator needs to store up info in his last will and only reveal when it's a guaranteed kill or as a matter of some dispute:

"Your target owns a lot of gasoline" is ALWAYS arson.
"Your target is a mystic" is ALWAYS witch.
"Good at forgery" is ALWAYS framer.
Situations where you are certain, e.g.: if you KNOW there's only one escort and only one consort and the escort dies, then you know that "quality time" player is the consort.
Situations where you can call out someone's bluff, e.g. if someone says, "I'm citizen!" but then you know he "snoops around for information", then bam you've got a consig


The investigator is best at end game, as the graveyard fills up and role information is revealed. Thus late game "role calls" can be very powerful if an investigator has established himself as trustworthy. In addition, an investigator's last will is probably the most important of all townies. Here you should store up your information on all living people. Even though said information can be useful for the bad guys, the situation is thus:
Either it's early in the game and you don't have much info in which case, little harm will be done.
OR
It's later in the game and the time for silence has already passed. Townies need that info to know who to trust and to uncover deception.

By that same token, if you're playing a variant w/o last wills or against a janitor, you don't have a choice but to speak up and reveal your information the day you get it. As with sheriff, when you reveal said information, make sure to state: "Docs protect me!" Even if no docs exist or the existing docs choose not to protect you, that statement alone can serve as a talisman.

Above all, remember this: investigators are worthless if killed early! Your job is stay alive long enough to provide information for a decisive kill.

[Kurasawa]

Escort

Escort is a potentially powerful role, which isn't nearly as hard to play as investi, sheriff, or vigilante. Your goal is really simple: find a killer and roleblock them. Let's say you know there's an SK and mafia killer in action, meaning there really should be 2 kills/round. If you roleblock someone and only one death occurs, then there's a decent chance you've managed to put one of the killers on lockdown (though there's a chance SK tried to kill an invul gf or doctor saved someone or X other random thing). Roleblock the same person again. If it happens two nights in a row, inform the town. Congrats, you have the role Escort mastered!

Let me end with a quick list of Escort tips:

Almost never roleblock someone claiming to be sheriff/investi unless it's quite obvious that they aren't and you have no other targets. SKs usually claim doctor, mafioso claim vigi, and gf is usually silent. You're going to end up either roleblocking the real deal or a minor target.
Roleblock randomly if you have to (esp. on first night). Statistically speaking, you'll usually end up causing positive disruption. Consider the following (fairly standard) setup: sheriff, investi, vigi, doctor, 2-3 random townies, 1-2 mafia killer + non mafia role, 3 neutrals incl. some killers. If you disrupt sheriff, investi, escort, or vigi, you've caused relatively little damage. Most likely, their random investi/roleblock/pot-shot wasn't going to hit anyway. If you disrupt, citizen, mason, spy, you've literally caused no damage. If, on the other hand, you roleblock a killer, you've gained an enormous advantage!
Don't roleblock the same person twice if it didn't result in a reduction of deaths. You're probably not accomplishing anything.
If mafia has a janitor and you roleblock someone and there are no ?? deaths, immediately inform town. You can't risk putting it into your last will.


Vigilante

Vigilante is the easiest town role to screw up. In the hands of a trigger-happy novice, it usually results in a loss for the town. In the hands of a veteran, it often results in a victory.

As a vigilante, it's your job to cast the minority vote. WITH A BULLET! You have to pay really close attention to what's going on, so I'm going to split my tips into two-sections: how to avoid being a terrible vigi and how to be a great one. First, how to avoid being a terrible vigi:


Never shoot someone on the first night, unless there's 2 townies and 14 SKs.
Listen. Never shoot someone on a "gut instinct." You need to have solid proof that someone is guilty or a liar before shooting them. A single innocent vote on a single mafia trial does NOT constitute proof. Not to mention if your team has already managed to kill one mafia, you really don't need to be cappin' random people.
A skilled vigi needs no more than one shot. Either you pop a mafia and lynches do the rest or you don't. You're not effin superman and the game you get two legitimate kills is very rare.


Did you make the connection? The best vigi has patience. Here's how to further improve your vigi skills:

Kill jesters or people pretending to be a jester. No smart/worthwhile townie is going to behave like that so either a tricksy mafia or a jester. Jesters sow misinformation and chaos and are actually really good kills for vigis.
Vigis are best when there's a lot of chaos and wild voting and a lone sheriff/investi's mafia/witch/arson/SK call goes ignored. The earlier on this claim is made, the better! Because most mafia aren't willing to start bluffing a role that early in the game. If it's later on, you're going to have be a lot more careful with what you do.
Vigis are also useful when TWO pieces of info come out simultaneously. e.g. investi says person A is Arson while sheriff says person B is mafia. You kill the one that isn't lynched.
There are instances where you have no choice but to take a random shot. Example: there are 2 mafia left (w/ killing power) and 3 townies. If you do not take a shot here, then the next day, it'll be 2 to 2 and town loses. Generally speaking, if you're in a situation where bad guys is equal to good guys, you are statistically more likely to make a good shot. I.e. 4 townies + 3 mafia + 1 serial killer. Since you know who you are, you have a 4/7th chance of hitting a bad guy. Ideally, you should also have enough information to clear at least one of the townies. Which then gives you a 4/6ths, or 67% chance, to hit someone. If I can match or top a 2/3rds chance, I'll generally take the shot.

[Kurasawa]

[reserve]

[Kurasawa]

[reserve]

[Clawtrocity]

These are mostly fine, as long as you replace all the investi's and vigi's with Investigator's and Vigilante's.

The Wikipedia should at least try to look as professional as possible. I think that's what Rev was trying to get at in his announcement.

[McJesus]

No offense but this really doesn't look professional at all and some of the information is downright wrong. It is a good effort and looks kind of professional but is way too bias to pass a real wiki smell test. You don't want to be posting do and don'ts as this is bias and is a mindset that doesn't actually win. It is like going from being a noob to being slightly less of a noob. The way you want to write it is to show the tactical advantages and disadvantages of each situation and let them form their own tragedy because really if you want to win at mafia you need to be good at reading the situation and decision making regardless of your playstyle. Do's and Don'ts are a language trap that prevents players from learning how to win. This is because it is the Mafia's job to be irrational and screw the rules while looking natural and you have to take account this. The entire game is balanced around the mafias ability to lie and a basic do and don't list completely overlooks that. Also it overlooks the reality that when you get put on trial it is a popularity contest and the results can be completely different depending on the people you are playing with.
Examples:
DON'T be silent. Silent people are not to be trusted. Towns thrive on information and discussion - if a person is silent it's often because he's afraid of being caught in a lie.
-This isn't true and completely neglects some playstyles. The key thing here is that YOU THINK silent people are not to be trusted so a good mafia will use this to mess with you. Being less chatty is a strategy and while it CAN be seen as untrustworthy it can also work if you speak up when it matters. The advantages of being less talkative is that it gives you the ability to think about things and analyze them and you can make it work.
DON'T make claims without information or extensive reasoning. If someone claims to be sheriff, but you're a doctor who nevertheless has a gut instinct he/she is lying, DO NOT claim, "He's mafia!" If that sheriff turns out to be real, you just completely discredited yourself and probably earned a lynch.
-I agree with this point completely but it is phrased wrong. Simplifying it into just DON'T makes you fall into a trap of oversimplifying.
If you do get lynched and you're an innocent, DON'T troll or be antagonistic in your defense. "Random lynches" are often attempts to force information from players - most good townies will vote you innocent if you're civil.
-Again it is a good point but phrased completely wrong and oversimplifying. It assumes townies are all good and doesn't take into account the mafia metagame. Regardless of if you are mafia or town the best way to avoid a lynch is to have a good defence. You have X seconds to make this defence. If you say nothing people will most likely think you are mafia but if you say something than people will have to make a judgment call on if they should believe you or not.
DO state your role in your lynch defense. In most townies minds, failure to state your role and provide supporting information as to what you've done with that role is an automatic guilty sentence.
-Noob. Telling people to state their role regardless of the situation is a really bad idea. There are advantages and disadvantages to stating your role. If you state your role early you must know the risks associated with that.
tl;dr: This is way too bias and doesn't take into account the point of mafia which is mind games.

[Doc]

^ I couldn't say it any better. Although this strategy is good as a basis, a decent godfather can use it to trick the hell out of everyone if he's undetectable at night