Welcome and orientation for Capo IV

[johnhughthom]

What do you think the best way for a newbie with no previous mafia experience behind them to get involved? Capo 2 was my first game and I was a basic townie, with no allies and nobody to trust I quickly became overwhelmed. Then Sasaki Kojiro picked up on my one post and I got the first train outta Fatlington.

[Askthepizzaguy]

What do you think the best way for a newbie with no previous mafia experience behind them to get involved? Capo 2 was my first game and I was a basic townie, with no allies and nobody to trust I quickly became overwhelmed. Then Sasaki Kojiro picked up on my one post and I got the first train outta Fatlington.

I like this question because it is going to be one of the main questions on the mind of a new player.

Let me address the "overwhelmed" aspect in the abstract, because it's very likely going to be a problem.

This response is too long to go into the FAQ, because it's more a philosophical question, not an easy answer.



1) The thread is going to be filled up fast with lots and lots and lots of votes, comments, side commentary, quarrels, and discussions overlapping each other. It will be nearly impossible to make any sense of, and it will be difficult to read just due to the sheer volume of it. Folks have had problems in smaller games with talkative players, now there will be over 100 voices potentially shouting at one another. As for myself, I will quiet my own noisemaker for the first several rounds just to not add to the problem, unless I have a vote to place with reasons attached, or I have something important to announce like detective results. However, for a new player, this noise is going to make them not even want to read it, and therefore, not to play.

My advice: Don't worry about reading it all. It's 99% noise, garbage, and stuff that won't make sense until later on in the game, and no one is going to want to re-read it. My advice to all is to shush with the spam, noise, and posting more than 10 times in a given day, really, unless you're talking about something with some real meat to it. Everyone has opinions, yours or mine isn't that special on day one. We don't need to have 1000 posts of nothing really being said. And for newbies; you don't really have to read it, just skim along until you find something you actually find suspicious and vote for it. Also, look for vote tallies to assist you in your decision if you want your vote to cause a death.





2) Night actions: Nobody knows exactly what to do right away, you're not alone.

• You have friends from other forums? Try hooking up with them as just a starting point, so you have something to do. Not all of them will be particularly interested in working with you though for any number of reasons.

• People you could contact for possible night actions: Try talking to someone who has posted a vote during the day phase. That person is playing and reading, and therefore, should at least get your message.

• Send out several messages, even to random people. No one is going to bite you. Someone should respond.

• You could try contacting a bunch of new players (check the post count under their name) and form a newbie squad. At least you'll all be in the same boat! Help each other figure out the game. Decide to vig or protect someone at random.... just doing something, assuming it appears in the night writeups, helps establish an alibi for where you were at night. Doing this improves your chances of avoiding a lynch.

• You could contact someone like me, who is used to interacting with bunches of people and is willing to offer ideas on how to organize or even give you names of folks who are looking for others to contact. Fair warning: You can't necessarily trust me, and I don't really want to repeat what I did in Capo 3 and be the central point of the pro-town effort. That gets lame on repeat viewings. Contact me as a last resort. Others can also volunteer to be contacted if you're not sure what to do.

3) Take a chance

Sure, you don't know who to trust. But 4 out of 5 players out there are going to be townie. Take a chance, reach out and work with someone. Don't necessarily trust them, but doing something is better than being paralyzed by inactivity.

If you fail in your initial attempts to find someone to work with, contact someone who is looking for volunteers. They can direct your efforts and get you involved in the group. If no one else volunteers to organize things, I'll do it as a last resort. So there will always be someone available to assist you in finding people to work with, unless I'm dead.





4) If all else fails, you can always rely on yourself.

You do realize of course that you don't necessarily need people to work with. You could pull a Twilightblade, who refused to work with anyone all game in Capo III, and attacked people every night, in ineffective fashion. Ineffective if the goal was to kill someone, but rather effective at causing hilarity to ensue. He actually managed to stay alive for a long time, risking his life every night. Nobody ever lynched him because he was effectively providing himself an alibi, and the mafia didn't bother killing him because he wasn't really trying to vote for them.

So, you could play risk-taking apathetic neutral, and live for a long time. Be sure to give Seamus some ideas on how your ill-fated attacks will be carried out. If you want to attack people with banana creme pies or nunchaku made out of rubber chickens tied together, have at it. Seriously, have fun with this, or else why are you playing?

Twilightblade forever, baby.





5) Don't say stuff that could be incriminating

Not sure you have anything intelligent to say? Okay, just vote and say "I don't really have a case, but I'd like to vote anyway" or just vote, and we'll infer the rest. If you are like me and like to talk, people are going to pick on what you say, and declare that it is scummy. Happens all the time. Don't want to cause trouble for yourself? You could do the time honored thing of keeping your head down and your mouth shushed. I can't, because I'm Askthepizzaguy and I'm physically incapable of being quiet, but it really does work. It's stupid how well this works, but it does. Shame I can't do that.

[johnhughthom]

Why is this in the GAH, wouldn't it be more visible in the Gameroom proper?

[Askthepizzaguy]

Why is this in the GAH, wouldn't it be more visible in the Gameroom proper?

Seamus already has a link to this one in the OP of the signup thread.

This is not a game nor is it an official component of the game, so I felt having it clutter up the gameroom itself wasn't right.

If people really want it in the gameroom I don't have objections, but I didn't see the need to put it there.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The most important thing is to bluff like mad and pretend that you are part of an important group of people with inside information, and then refuse to divulge the details because of "information security". Always refer to yourself in the third person plural, and if you see a bandwagon growing add your vote with a comment implying that those who are "in the know" are all voting for this person.

[johnhughthom]

Oh sorry, didn't spot the link in the op. I was just wondering why there hadn't been any other questions so far. I guess most of the new sign ups are experienced mafia players, just not at the org. But then, can you truly call yourself an experienced mafia player if you haven't played at the home of the world's finest exponents of the art?

[TheLastDays]

Also, all newcomers should know that it is considered good manners to vote JHT on Day 1 :D

I volunteer to be talked to privately as well. And you can always trust me

[B-Wing]

Very good response to JHT's question. Taking chances and networking with other players on Day 1 seems like an essential thing for the town to do, if they're going to stand a chance with all the mafia factions, serial killers, and vigilante activities going on. I think this point should be emphasized at every opportunity.