The Syndicate

Sloonei wrote: ↑Tue Nov 01, 2022 6:16 pm Volume II of my G-man Study (see Volume I here):

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:14 pm

Variations on a Read List, Part 1
by G-Man

When I left off, I was trying to form a towncore. What I was left with sucks, even for a starter kit:

Towncore:

-bea
-thellama73

That's it, and it is so not adequate enough for this stage of the game. I like the looseness of Llama's play. He gets a little more serious when it matters, but he never gets too srsbsnss to the point that it feels forced. Bea's return to the game had a very good look to it. She spent a day with a posting quirk but her return shows that she didn't just use that as an excuse to take a day off. She showed that she was paying attention. I would expect a baddie at her prior level of activity to use that quirk to coast and just come back apologetic about checking out for too long.

I'd like to take this time to add to the conversation that my initial hunch on Bea's posting quirk had something to do with one of the Socky awards. The Socky has a few awards at their disposal, but we don't know what they do. My guess is that this role is like a Jack of All Trades and has a quiver of 1-shot power uses. The likeliest match would be Best Gambit. We won't know for sure until endgame though. It certainly could be the Vomp role, but I guess LoRab's death means we won't be getting anything more than E out of those tildes.



Civ-Leans:

-Eloh
-Golden
-Scotty
-Sloonei

I still feel like the suspicion of Eloh was overblown on D1. There was some speculation later about a townslip but I have to read back more for that. The other three all sound so darn supatown but I have to confess that I can't keep them straight in my head when reading the thread. ISO's will help. I don't know if it's a processing issue on my brain's part, but all their super-sleuthing voices run together in my head. It is frustrating and I don't know how to break myself of it. It happens in just about every game that I play- voices just merge in my head and I struggle to distinguish them as individuals. ISO'ing these folks is no picnic either, as they have posted an outsized share of the game thread. I still maintain that there's bound to be a baddie among the most talkative players. There almost always is. Otherwise the talkative players would eventually harmonize and the poe becomes simpler. Maybe there's more to distinguish them since this morning.

G-man kicks this post off by naming a towncore of llama and bea. He had been vocal about his "town read" on llama for a while. He had expressed no such read on Bea until this moment, Given that Bea looks not great elsewhere in G-man's post, I am inclined to read this as a bit of opportunism: Mafia G-Man sees that Mafia Bea is receiving town reads from others and hops on board with that. He gets a pass from needing to produce independent thoughts on her and she can continue to skate by. This theory may seem like a stretch, so I can simplify it: It looks weird for G-man to declare Bea as one of only two members of his "towncore" after previously expressing no clear read on her one way or another.

He also lists Eloh, Golden, Scotty, and myself as "civ-leans". This is interesting because he has elsewhere expressed general suspicion of the most vocal players in the game, a group which specifically contains each of Golden, Scotty, and myself, along with DharmaHelper, now SVS. I am inclined to read this in favor of both Scotty and Golden. G-man genuinely seems to be treating the three of us as a unit here. I believe him when he says he is having trouble distinguishing between our voices. If he had a teammate in that trio, he would probably be having less trouble separating them.
The town lean on Eloh is consistent with things he had said earlier in the game, but underwhelming and could potentially be a bad look for her.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:42 pm

Variations on a Read List, Part 1
by G-Man

Inconclusive (But Not Necessarily in a Bad Way):
-DharmaHelper
-DrWilgy
-Quin

DH is a stone's throw away from the trio I just talked about. I always auto-sussed him due to his tone and a string of evil victories in the past, but that makes him mis-chop bait and I try to temper that. I'd like to ISO him first of all the big talkers. I was more comfortable voting for LoRab (sorry again for tying that vote up) because DH had his head in the game and at that point it would have been worse to lose DH as a civ player trying to break the game than to lose LoRab who hadn't contributed much by that point. DH can be a force and I want to see if I can determine if he is a force for good or evil.

Wilgy's lick thing was amusing and he continues to come across as harmless. His ISO will be helpful in showing me if he has contributed to game-solving at all today. That's going to become more important. Day 3 will start with us at 10 vs 4 since the 3P is dead. There's a little margin for error on D3, but we need folks to step it up or else the tension will mount and we run the risk of desperation mistakes on a D4 that's 8 vs 4.

Quin's voice is out there, but it's gotten lost for me in the sea of DH-Golden-Scotty-Sloonei content. I don't love that. I know Quin is capable of a slick baddie game, but I also don't remember feeling too cautious about him early on. I need to ISO him early as well. He's another one who can step things up when the game requires it, and the game is going to require it here soon.



Inconclusive (But Not Necessarily in a Good Way):
-Kate
-Michelle
-sig

Unlike Bea, Kate came back after a posting restriction and wasn't able to get her head in the game in a good way. I understand it's been forever since she's played and that can be a tough adjustment. Attitudes and personalities can make it even harder. But I didn't see much initially that suggested she was following the game with the intent of jumping right back into the fray. Granted, she seems to have been targeted by the baddie team with the OT Green posting, so maybe I shouldn't be as concerned with her. I hear the WIFOM argument of the baddies OT'ing a teammate, but on Night 1? It feels like a stretch to me.

Michelle's got content, but I still feel so blank to it. It's not meaty or fluffy. It just evaporates in my mind. Has she posted anything to chew on since this morning?

Sig is kind of the same way for me. There's content, but I remember none of it (except the in-joke stuff about him always getting chopped to early). I don't like forgetting about people by the end of D2.


Still a Null Read (And That Needs To Change)
-DFaraday
-VivAxe

Note- this category is not the bad list. It's just null, existing outside of reads and vibes.

DF hasn't posted much at all. As with LoRab, I'm not in good standing to bash low-posters, but it's troublesome for me. I can't get a read on you if you don't post. I think we have better points of discussion that are active right now, but I hate that lingering concern about a low-participation player becoming an easy target if we screw up D3 and get desperate.

VivAxe is still tricky for me. I tend to just shrug Axe off on D1's, so his departure leaves me with a day of nothingness on that slot. Vivax replaced in, but Vivax is new to me, so that compounds the nullness of it all. An ISO of D2 content should help move VivAxe into another category.

This is companion post to the above. DH, Quin, and Wilgy are all "inconclusive but not in a bad way." If I can take some liberties, I'll call these "light town reads" for G-man. I continue to feel like G-man's justification for voting LoRab over DH (reiterated in this post) is perhaps the wonkiest thing in the entire game. The DH write-up reads more like a string of excuses for his placement there, rather than a read.
He essentially has nothing to say about Wilgy other than that he intends to read him. I think Wilgy looks very good elsewhere in relation to G-man, and this post does nothing to move that.
G-man seems to have a more negative take on Quin than the other two in this category which is... odd. These are supposed to be favorable reads, but I don't get the impression that G-man is actually giving a favorable analysis of Quin here. It's not overtly bad, but it feels out of place.

Kate, Michelle, and Sig are the next grouping. I'll categorize these as null-to-light-mafia reads. I got a bit of a chuckle reading his take on Kate in hindsight. G-man reminds himself that she was targeted by OT Green. I think the fact that G-man is trying to maintain a negative read on her while bringing up his own curse reflects well on Kate. If they are partners, he is burying her twice for no good reason.
He says absolutely nothing about Michelle or Sig. Cool cool cool.
Ditto for DF and Vivax. G-man laments that the former had not posted enough, and that the latter is new to him. I could go either way on that. Meh. Moving on.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:43 pm

Sloonei wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:20 pm @G-Man DFaraday had the same posting curse as bea yesterday, if that changes your theory at all.

Valuable information there. I didn't catch that. Lemme go check. It's not like his ISO will take long.

G-man was more cognizant of the curse on Bea than on DF. This reflects poorly on Bea and well on DF.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:58 pm

Scotty wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:52 pm

Quin wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:48 pm

Scotty wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:47 pm I can see a Wilgy/GMan pairing

How?

Reading as I see it.
“Wilgy's lick thing was amusing and he continues to come across as harmless. His ISO will be helpful in showing me if he has contributed to game-solving at all today. That's going to become more important. Day 3 will start with us at 10 vs 4 since the 3P is dead. There's a little margin for error on D3, but we need folks to step it up or else the tension will mount and we run the risk of desperation mistakes on a D4 that's 8 vs 4.”

This read is wedged in his ‘inconclusive but not in a bad way’ . The second half of this explanation has nothing to do with Wilgy. The first half says nothing except he needs to look further at the ISO and Wilgy comes off as harmless.

Coming off as harmless is a red flag

Scotty wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:53 pm Ugh, I can say the same thing about his read of Michelle and sig. GMan’s recent posts need some scrutiny and I’m not sure I’m going to get the chance

Vague they are, I know. I am still reading through the content from the afternoon. I'll get my head in the game. Thank God it's the weekend.

Scotty's call-out is too specific to be directed at a partner. G-man's response is too accommodating to be directed at a partner.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:30 am

Scotty wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 4:59 pm Like…if you were to take the energy you’re putting into this guffawing and defensive hullabaloo you’re dishing out and put it into reading the game at large, I think we’d all be more productive

Verisimilitude is not the same as truth, but this post, after all the lengthy D2 chatter, puts Scotty over the edge for me and I have moved him into my towncore tier. The structure of this post strikes me as a legit civvie mindset from a place of pure focus. Looking back through at Scotty, his tone (for the most part) seems to be non-emotional without being emotionless. That's the lynchpin for my brain. There's logic with the desire to avoid getting sucked into the emotional side of the game. It's there, almost all the time. In this post alone, he's focused on one thing- moving the game forward. Is it a dig at DH, yes. But it's not an invitation to mud wrestle. It's a logical slap and request to rise above. If there is a baddie in the big talkers, I rule out Scotty. Golden and DH both got caught up in the emotional side of the game. That's not a putdown or a judgement on either of them. Emotion happens. And emotions are harder to cut through and interpret.

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 5:55 pm ISO of purely N1/D2 posts:

G-Man:

Spoiler: show

Says the Vivax lynch "simplifies" the game "for us". The rest is fairly fluffy/OT.

Overall Read - Not bothered to fuck with a guy who has IRL stuff he's doing, but also, miffed that he's not addressed my ISO from D1 so he's still suspicious to me.

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 6:28 pm I suppose its not NOT insignificant that G-Man's most recent post continues to ignore the points against him but I guess thats cool.

In fast-moving games (most games, really) I tend to just keep pressing forward. This amplifies when I have to catch up. Your thoughts weren't worth my time the minute they were posted. Sure, on Day 1, we have to do something to try and make some luck and find a foothold or two. You posted thoughts, not a case. I can't punch holes in thoughts, but what you wrote was indicative of the need to hire a copy editor because it was a disastrous misreading of my posts. But you're not inside my head, are you? You misinterpreted some of what I wrote. It happens. Just because I don't stop and respond to your one thoughts post or all the mopey posts bemoaning the fact that I brushed you off doesn't mean a thing. I'm trying to move forward and get my nostrils above water in this game, so when you build a case, please @ me and I'll address it. Until then,

Spoiler: show

Your D2 content was as awkward to read at times as it is to listen to my sister yell at her children all the time because she has a short fuse. I like you better when you're posting snarky, confident TWD memes. Where did they go? Please chill out a little and bring them back. No mafia game is worth getting bent out of shape over. This goes for Golden as well. Learn to walk away, do some deep breathing, and reflect on what you wrote before you hit 'Submit.'

More townie points for Scotty.

G-man's response to DH is interesting. I can sense a real effort to de-escalate from G-man here, which would suggest that DH's frustration with him is being perceived as genuine. That would reflect well on DH/SVS, since G-man would have no reason to assume that his own teammate is mad at him for "misreading" him. Slightly good look for DH/SVS, but not good enough to completely undo some of the previous negative points. It is possible this is just an effective bit of play acting from G-man.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 1:17 am

Quin wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 7:38 pm I don't have enough time to dig through Day 2 ISO's, so these are at-a-glance notes on the poll:

- Kate's DH vote is an OMGUS. Night 2 posts scream 'not teammates'.
- DH's DH vote is DH. DH. DH. DH's DH DH. Potential NP candidate with a flair for the dramatic.

- Sloonei's LoRab vote justified with it "making more sense", immediately after Wilgy switches to me. What made more sense?
- G-Man's LoRab vote gave the Moderator power over the lynch before Wilgy's switcheroo. Can't read alignment off this, but pretty awful reasoning.

- llama votes Quin and is the anti-Sloonei. Sloonei says I'm good regardless of what llama says. llama says I'm bad regardless of what Sloonei says. Definitely not temmies, unless the point is to keep me in the forefront as a failsafe if a different teammate gets too much heat.
- Wilgy votes Quin because ???. He also discourages ties. But Wilgy loves ties, it is know-en. Licks.

- sig didn't vote. His last post says "we should be looking out for those who don't vote as the NP target". Potential NP target.

Outcomes of this are that either sig or DH was the NP target, Wilgy looks worse, G-Man has earned greater attention from me, there is Kate/DH and llama/Sloonei spaghetti to be untangled, but up to 2 mafia in that lot.

Valid observation in pink. I'd also say off the way D2 went down that I have a hard time seeing DH and Golden being w/w. That stuff got too deep and awkward to be contrived.

Does Mafia G-man respond to a minor point from Mafia Quin simply to express agreement? Maybe. But it's a very subtle interaction between teammates if so. I tend to believe that posts like this are more likely to come from a mafioso reacting to a town player. That is just a hunch though, and I have no data to back it up. I'll call it the slightest of good looks for Quin.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:43 am Virtue seems to have been absent for me last night.

@DharmaHelper my post at you sounded witty and snarky in my head at 12:30 a.m., but my brain woke me up over it twice last night. Now it reads more like a nasty asshole wrote it. That is not what I aspire to be. I apologize.

The salient point is that I brush past individual observations like yours most of the time and only slow down when it seems like misinterpretations and mischaracterizations are catching on as either a spreading theory or groupthink. You had a lot of points about me that were wrong but it would have been too much time and effort to slow down and refute that many points. Too much micro-focus on stuff like that is also something baddies fall into. I have the luxury of not needing to worry about little details that much because I am a civvie.

Sorry if my post pushed you further to or further over the edge.

G-man goes a step farther and apologizes to DH in case he has caused any offense. That is a good look for DH/SVS. See above if you care enough to be reading this right now.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:32 pm Vigorous day of ISO'ing ahead for me (but I have some work to do as well). I'm starting with the ISO's that are less extensive. Before I get to the first few, I'll be referencing this image for vote analysis, even though there isn't a whole lot to work with yet because of the D1 switch.

Spoiler: show

I'm working from the assumption that the baddies have not NK'd one of their own. Points have been made to rationalize the mafia's kill choices as safe plays. It also makes no sense from a baddie's perspective to diminish your ratio and extend the game so early on.

D1's switch got rid of the 3P, but it also robs us of taking a results-oriented look at the day. Everyone who received votes on D1 is still alive.

Random facts that I saw but don't mean anything yet: 1) three of the four D1 Sloonei voters are all now dead; 2) Quin & Sloonei are the only people whose votes match each other for both days.

I also made an old-school role poe chart, but I don't know if I should share it or if it will be too useful for the baddies as well.

Now then, on to some ISO's. I'm trying to formulate a town core without leaving too many people in the sus pile. Assuming 4 baddies in the game and 14 players left, my goal is to have a poe of no greater than six just because we don't have enough margin for error to consider too wide a poe pool.


BEA:
Overall, her ISO looks pretty good. A little lean on game-relevant content but she was easing back into things. Her worst post looks to be the one where she expressed dismay about not wanting to vote for any of the trains involved in a three-way tie at the time with what she thought was only 30 minutes to go, but her very next post may well be a townslip in which she realizes (via someone's response) that there was another 24 hours left on the poll. Could it be manufactured? Sure. But I don't know that baddies either 1) forget the poll deadline, or 2) try to fake that sort of slip. She spends D2 with letter weirdness but she jumped back into the game strong, showing that she didn't use the phase as a coasting opportunity. Good look there. The only curious thing that stands out to me otherwise is her habit of declaring the OG folks as being 'on point' for their years-ago meta. She used that phrase a few times when evaluating.

Votes: Missed D1, VivAxe D2 (@bea Why VivAxe again? Was it more Viv or more Axe? I don't see your vote declared in your ISO.)



DF:
Posts a promise-to-catch-up post at the end of N0, misses all of D1, has a right (imo) read on Eloh. Also cursed with switched vowels D2. Another promise post, and then a post in which he says that LoRab's tone reminds him of her past baddie tone and he votes for her. That's it. Four posts. @DFaraday Now that you are not cursed, can you point to a few of LoRab's posts that led you to the wrong conclusion about her tone meta? DF is about as inconclusive as it gets. With no real room for null reads at this point, I have to put him in my poe. It's not because I find him suspicious, but because I have no reason to townclear him based on his content thus far.

Votes: Missed D1, LoRab D2


DrWilgy:
He miss N0, which is neither here nor there. The lick thing was cute, but also ISO'ing reveals that it was inconsistent. His first few licks are for people he voted for. Then the licks seem to switch to take on a positive (?) connotation. @DrWilgy Can you please pause the goofiness to explain the licking thing? He makes a comment about Michelle being bad for not having solved things yet; I take this to be a joke. Otherwise it's a conspicuous break in his shtick. There's a lot of explaining what people tasted like when he licked them. I don't know what to make of his comments on how Eloh and Viv tasted. That was his D1. Nothing useful. D2 he seems to latch onto sig but then backtracks. Late in the day D2 he admits to having no conclusions on the game yet. He later seems to enjoy the tension and chaos of eod, but then wasn't keen on letting the moderator break the tie. If this were D2, I'd give Wilgy a null read, but this is D3 and the whimsical nature of his game so far hasn't been very productive. All those licks and he hasn't gotten to the center of a single player's Tootsie Pop yet to form a read? It's enough to leave me unable to townclear him.

Votes: Golden D1, Quin D2


Elohcin:
I still think the D1 sus of her was overblown at best and disingenuous at worst. I hope to source the origin of her train through these ISO's. She was sus of Vivax 1.0 and Sloonei. She continued to be sus of Sloonei D2, and there is the supposed townslip. Despite Sloonei sus, she turns her attention and vote to LoRab for her unhelpfulness and tone. Now she is OT Green for the day. @Elohcin What is the state of your Sloonei suspicion? I still feel good about her. Maybe her vote for LoRab could be read as advantageous, but I haven't seen the 'agreeable tell' like I think I remember.

Votes: Sloonei D1, LoRab D2



Kate:
She spends D1 sus on Scotty. This looks wrongheaded to me now, so I am curious if her read on him changed. @Kate What's your current opinion on Scotty? I feel ashamed to say that I don't remember Kate's playstyle at all. Perhaps it's just been that long. The level of sass took me by surprise, but we were a sassy bunch back in those days. She was OT Green for D2, but she got a few non-OT posts off at the start of the day. This makes me ponder if Kate had an OG townslip here. I understand the tinfoil theory about baddies OT'ing their own to buy them space, but it doesn't seem like Kate was suddenly in danger of falling onto the radar in a bad way. Also, if a baddie is OT'd, I don't think that they make the mistake of rattling off a few non-OT posts like that. The rest of D2 was lost to OT Green. N2 she comes in hot and mixes it up with a few people, DH the most. Overall, there seems to be a fair amount of culture clash and adjustment for Kate. Not surprising for a deep OG player. I can see the difficulty with how different the game is now being a talking point that a baddie could exploit, but her frustration seems genuine and I still doubt that a baddie goofs up on the OT bit at the start of the day. Not a lock, but that possible townslip is more than enough for me to keep her out of the poe.

Votes: Scotty D1, DH D2

Look at all this content. That's my favorite thing. I'll respond to each of G-man's reads individually.

Bea - G-man attempts to frame Bea's forgetfulness of the deadline time earlier in the game as a townslip. Nothing in my experience suggests that mistakes about deadline times are more (or less) likely to come from town players. Anyone can make a mistake like that. Bea has still not looked town once in G-man's posts.

DF - I get the impression that G-man is trying to leave DF open as an available vote option if needed. I don't get the sense that he is either trying to protect a low-activity partner, or drive a bus over him. DF's contributions have been the lightest of any player in this game. G-man was looking at him like my dog used to look at us at the dinner table.

DrWilgy - G-man continues to express uncertainty about DrWilgy's entire presence in this game, and then leaves him as a not-town read. I think this is a good look for Wilgy. G-man is looking for good mischop candidates, and he evidently feels he has found one in Wilgy. It's probably enough for me to townclear him.

Elohcin - G-man's "read" on Eloh is more like a book report. He just kinda lists things that have happened around her in the game and then drops a vague "I still feel good about her" at the end. This could be one teammate defending another, but I'm not sure it feels that way. Eloh is in no particular danger at this stage of the game, and G-man is already on the record as town reading her. If they are teammates, he can probably come up with something more detailed than what he produces here. Instead this feels like a mafia member attempting to appear like he's trying to develop a town read on a town player.

Kate - I actually think G-man raises a legitimate, valid point about Kate "townslipping" by not noticing that she was cursed at the start of Day 2. We also know now that G-man had plenty of reason to be extra sensitive to that particular curse. I don't think Kate and G-man are teammates.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:35 pm Vamoosing for a bit to get some work done (because, like it or not, playing mafia doesn't pay the bills). Here's where my ISO's stand so far:

Towncore:
-Bea
-Eloh
-G-Man
-Kate

POE:
-DF
-DrWilgy


More to come tonight.

I remain inclined to read both members of his POE as town.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 12:14 am Various read on the other manageable ISO's:


Michelle:
Other than a handful of posts where she posts a stance on a few players with no supporting information, Michelle collects in-the-moment vote counts. I like vote analysis, but I'm not sure I've ever gone so far as to seek out that level of detail. This leaves her D1 as a mixed bag at best. She checks out for D2, which is suboptimal. It doesn't look like she's even shown up for D3 yet. Michelle is more like Mehchelle. There was RL travel, I get that, but she didn't leave much to chew on overall. Not worthy of a town read.

Votes: Eloh D1, Missed D2



NAA/Vivax 2.0:
NAA is a bit cryptic, holds his cards close to the vest, and is punchy-awkward. He stirs the pot and then claims rolefishing. I've grown used to just looking past NAA on D1's that I feel nothing from his ISO. Vivax 2.0, however, is a different story. While I am still trying to get a feel for this ne-to-me player, they're chugging along at their own pace and producing content. Their reads differ quite a bit from mine in places, but it's okay to live outside of an echo chamber in this game. Let's see where this one goes.

Votes: Eloh D1, Quin D2



Quin:
Yikes. His D1 saw him sussing Eloh and Scotty, who are both outside of my poe by a sizeable margin. After circling back to Eloh & Scotty a few times he zags and votes DH. Then there's a lot of posting without much flavor to it, but it's at least stirred some conversation. I'm leery that Quin is more than capable of keeping this kind of dancing around the radar as a baddie. His posts go in and out of focus almost as they need to. I'd say it's not strong enough to evade the poe yet.

Votes: Eloh D1, LoRab D2



Sig:
Sig's ISO feels a lot like Quin's ISO, except that I liked it more. Most of it feels authentic, though his voting record sucks and I agree that it's not comforting to see him appear willing to coast today due to his posting affliction. It's soft, but I'll nudge him up out of the poe.

Votes: sig D1, Missed D2


Running on fumes now, so let me get to the big talkers quick.

Michelle - G-man's read of Michelle is not unfair, and I have trouble reading too much into it either way. He does not grant her a town read, but I don't think he would be that generous with all his teammates. This tells me very little about the relationship between G-man and Michelle, which is a shame because there have been very few mentions of her in here. Maybe that is significant.

NAA/Vivax2.0 - I am sensing very little effort from G-man to produce a read on this slot. Sure, Vivax is new to him. But it's not like Vivax hasn't been vocal in this game. I feel like G-man should be able to say more about Vivax after looking at his ISO here. I find this especially compelling when G-man is at a stage where he should, theoretically, be looking for "suspects" that he can push. That he is not touching the newcomer with somewhat idiosyncratic views is not a great look.

Quin - G-man finally seems to arrive at a decidedly negative view of Quin. Hooray. While my kneejerk reaction is to call this a good look for Quin, I want to walk that back a bit. Both of these players are in a position here where some distancing would be a good idea if they're partners. They've both been in the vicinity of the chopping block at some point in the game. The writing would be on the wall that one of them is likely to die soon. It would not look great if that happened and they were seen sticking up for each other.

Sig - G-man literally says the following: "Sig's ISO feels a lot like Quin's ISO, except that I liked it more." What? Bah. I feel like one of these two is mafia. This is goofy.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 12:28 am Vocal players are vocal. Here's my two cents:

-Scotty should be in everyone's towncore. His logic and non-emotional approach is what is needed to win the game. Fight me.

-DH's emotions got the better of him and I just don't see that coming from a baddie DH who wasn't cornered yet. S~V~S (*waves*) made a good point about how DH would use the baddie chat to vent. If you have a chat, that's where one vents to keep you from going all Johnny Fairplay with the AtE. I read DH as town and S~V~S gets a heaping portion of benefit of the doubt as a result. I haven't seen anything tricksy from her yet, and I've witnessed her tricksy firsthand before.

-I said a while back that there's got to be a baddie among the big talkers or else this game would harmonize. That leaves Sloonei and Golden. Since my efforts are already eliciting snickers and eyerolls, I suspect my name is the only real option on the chopping block today. That's fine. Take that and learn from it, but be sure to Thunderdome Sloonei and Golden at some point soon, because one of them has to be bad or this game is whack. Golden got a little emotional right back at DH Night 2, and Sloonei is the inverse- that sort of emotionless Spock thing.

All four of these folks are game-solving (which is what I was going for when I said supatown- don't get hung up on semantics), but there's gotta be a baddie in there. Weeding out Scotty and DH/S~V~S, and that pushes both Sloonei and Golden into the poe for Thunderdome.


Not the POE (because Towncore is apparently too strong a term for casual use):
-Bea
-DH/S~V~S
-Eloh
-Kate
-Scotty
-Sig
-VivAxe


POE:
-DF
-DrWilgy
-Golden the Coward
-Michelle
-Quin
-Sloonei


All names are in alphabetical order. I can parse through my notes in the morning to try to rank them in a more concrete fashion. Right now I need sleep (and a new dehumidifier).

This is where I got the sense that G-man wanted to drive a wedge between the most vocal players by insisting that one of us is bad. He specifically names myself and Golden here. I do not believe Golden is mafia. I believe this was nonsense from G-man.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 12:17 pm Village reads of mine are the only folks with votes. What’s a guy to do?


[VOTE: Quin] aubergine

Votes for Quin. I do not view this in Quin's favor. G-man has a choice between distancing and self-preservation here. His effort level suggests distancing. But I am not certain of that.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 5:28 pm

Scotty wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 1:39 pm

S~V~S wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 1:09 pm I think the baddies were sitting back, figuring they could spend two days taking out DH and then maybe even Kate when DH flipped civ.

So there’s a little scrambling going on here.

We really need to lynch a baddie today. There are 3, maybe 4, people I won’t vote for, and I would rather not vote for the insanified.

But although I still feel GMan is not his civ self, I could move.

I think at this point, no mercy should be given to someone with the simple letter switching insanity. It’s common knowledge since Day 2 when bea and DF got it.
Michelle and sig should get no passes today because of their affliction

Visceral instinct told me not to vote Michelle even though I find her a little more suspicious than Quin because it would be viewed as poor form to start a chop train on a player with a posting restriction. It's a pretty old-school mindset, but I get where you're coming from. She failed to vote, so it's her own fault for the posting restriction. Definitely be wary of anyone else 'accidentally' missing the vote from here on out. Show no mercy!

Golden wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 2:28 pm

G-Man wrote: ↑Sun Oct 30, 2022 3:35 pm Vamoosing for a bit to get some work done (because, like it or not, playing mafia doesn't pay the bills). Here's where my ISO's stand so far:

Towncore:
-Bea
-Eloh
-G-Man
-Kate

POE:
-DF
-DrWilgy


More to come tonight.

It always gives me the heebie-jeebies when someone puts themself in their own town core.

It's a bit of old-school whimsy, you ninny. Trying to keep it as light as I can when I'm on the hot seat, you know? Besides, did anyone get weird about it when Llama did it?

G-man justified voting for Quin over Michelle by citing her posting curse. Note that no one asked him. But I do not object to that at face value. I am not sure what it says about either of their alignments. It suggests, at the very least, that G-man is conscious of the optics of his vote.

Spoiler: show

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:09 pm Voting for Sloonei in this situation feels superfluous, so I don't think I will change my vote.

If I'm right about one of Golden the Coward or Sloonei being a big-talking baddie, then the risk of mischopping a town Slooeni today in a choice between me and him is that D4 will just be another round of "G-Man is obvs bad" and productive conversation will die. You'll mischop me and wind up in a D5 mylo. I'd rather be the mischop today and keep productive conversation alive than being the mischop de jure tomorrow that pushes us into mylo.

This is another wacky mental gymnastics post. It tells me that G-man had either surrendered, or was going for the WIFOM approach to try to stay alive. "If he was mafia, he'd be fighting harder", etc. I don't think he had totally surrendered, but he was definitely conscious of how his posts would look post-flip.

----------------------------------

And that brings us to the end of G-man's ISO.

Here is a rainbow list of everyone based purely on G-man's interactions with them in his posts:

DrWilgy
Golden
Scotty
Kate
DFaraday
Elohcin
DH/SVS
Sig
Michelle
Quin
NAA/Vivax
Bea

Tiers are loosely ordered based on however I felt like arranging them in the moment. Feel free to ask me about specifics if you don't feel like reading this whole monstrosity.