TWG and jTWG Guide and Reference

[pntballa18]

what the hell

when did this get here

[rzr]

Of course I plan on finishing it, it´s just that if your thesis is not complete by the time I´m ready to post it, it won´t get in until I have time to edit it. As of now, I have not added a section for it, however, if it is prepared I will add a sub section on the Introduction.

[dooey100]

A comparison with Mafia

Mafia is a party game, and is the predecessor to what we know as The Werewolf Game. The two games are quite similar in rules, but very different in strategy.

Like TWG, Mafia has a host who (sometimes) makes up a story, determines roles, and advances the game. Roles are usually chosen with a deck of cards, with black cards being wolves, and red cards being humans. Face cards indicate special roles like the seer or guard. (Obviously the deck would be premade to have the right number of cards for the roles you have)

Without the possibility of private messages, a number of things must be done differently by the host. During the night, everyone closes their eyes, and the host asks people to "wake up" by opening their eyes and complete their actions. It should also be noted that the host must ask all the roles to wake up even if they are dead, the remaining players must not know if the blues are alive or not.

- The mafia (wolves) open their eyes and point to the player they want to wolf.
- The bodyguard (guard) opens their eyes and points to the player they want to guard
- The detective (seer) opens their eyes and points to the player they want to seer. The host then nods their head if the person points at a Mafia, and shakes their head if the person points at a human
-The psychic opens their eyes and the host holds up a number of fingers equal to the number of wolves

The lack of private messages also changes things for the players, both mafia and human. In terms of strategeys, the mafia must choose their kill without discussion, and the guard cannot reveal themselves to the seer without revealing themselves to everyone else too. Not being able to discuss suspicions with a single other player makes it harder for the humans as well.

There are also some other side effects of having the game played in real life:
-There is never any problem with inactivity
-poker faces are much more important and difficult to pull off in real life
-because of the difficulty of organizing 16+ people to play, most games have between 8 and 12 players.

[rzr]

*applause* I love it! I never knew that's what Mafia was like, if we're all at a convention we so have to play it! And yeah, thank you, it will be quoted and it's very appreciated. Again, very good job, I like it a lot.

[rzr]

Alright, I completely redid the Guide. I gave it a better, more colorful text formatting for easier navigation, as well as some more features. I spaced things out more to see better, and made links iin the table of contents to an individual thread for each part. So, clicking the desired section of the TOC will bring you directly to it, instead of finding it. I fixed the code errors, too.

Things to expect:

* Mafia comparison addition
* A staistics and history thread
* Vocabulary links in the glossary (clicking wolf would bring you to a thread specifying the word wolf)
* Members list

[Vendetta21]

so i think the best way to learn werewolf (also known as mafia) is to read or think about strategy, and then to make applications of strategy one game at a time. each game you review what you did well, what you did poorly, and reflect on how you might improve.


I have found the mafiascum wiki the better among start places for a beginner.


http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?...esome_At_Mafia

i think this guide gets you thinking on the right track for a beginner. it's large, it has a lot to say, but i think if you read it with intent you will improve your game and your mindset by 20-30%.


http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?...e_Moving_Day_1

this is a good guide on how to get started in the early game

http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?..._Vote_Analysis

and this is a good guide on how to handle the late game. i think the biggest improvement to human game is working on vote analysis. this is a pretty straightforward guide on how to start with vote analysis, be warned you need paper and pencil and/or spreadsheets and you need to give a shit.

that's all. i think those three pretty much cover getting any player on either FFR or FFYa up to the top-tiers of our internal skill levels. but if you find yourself wanting of more, dive into the theory forum over at mafiascum to have the rabbit hole go deeper than you ever wanted it to

[FictionJunction]

for whatever it's worth, I don't do spreadsheets and generally dislike people who do because it doesn't really cover anything you can intuit from posts and justifications. The article on voting analysis, though, is good, but it's just a basic blueprint. It helps quite a lot but you really have to assess the goals and mindset of the red team and somehow incorporate that into your developing understanding of the players you're playing against, be that their real personalities or the characters they are performing, if you reaaaally want to improve your game.

For instance, the article says that wolves would rarely vote to kill one another. I've killed my own reds before. I've also knowingly killed blues as a green. God be with us all. Why would I do that? Sometimes the reason is for fun, sometimes it is because it is necessary to get a piece of information, sometimes I create my own little subplots in an attempt to make the game all about me. Neither of these explain if I'm red, blue or green.

What you want to look at are justifications. Interrogate players who do weird things as much as those who lead you. Most games are lost because players haven't dug deep enough or are simply digging in the wrong place.

[Vendetta21]

fiction is right to point out the fluidity of this game. it is part of the draw. people can turn being inactive, attending a tough class in college, or simply being bored into a justification for their actions.

what makes TWG a game that keeps players playing is this level of fluidity and dynamism. you must always be willing to sacrifice whatever your preconceived notions were before the game and enlist a degree of ridiculous paranoia into the actions of others to play well consistently. no guide can get you past advanced beginner, but the fact of the matter is you must learn from something, and the basic tools of the trade are the best place to start.

this is a game masters students at ivy league universities study, and for good reason.

[igotrhythm]

good lord. I found my one jTWG game (15), and between classes and being a wolf, I just self-destructed. I have no recollection of anything that happened during that game, but Vash did a huge amount of legwork to cover my ass and get the win for the wolves.

Do not play this game if you struggle with any sort of anxiety. Since paranoia is encouraged, this will make it very difficult to perform even seemingly basic reads.