What's good everybody?
We're now 5 seasons into NSMBX Mafia at the time of this post which is really great for the server! That being said I'm aware there are a handful of players in the server that are new to the game, some that may get confused midgame with what to do, or perhaps find themselves struggling with specific roles or factions they may roll into. With that I figured now would be a good time for us to have a tips and tricks section to help those players.
Considering there's a good amount of you that have plenty of experienced (heck there are a few brave souls that have participated in almost every game in the server), I'd love for this to be a thread for all of you to share your some of your strategies and insight going into each game.
I will also preface too that not every strategy listed is going to be 100% effective. There are so many different factors and elements to each game where even the most perfect execution of a strategy may not lead to your victory. These help serve as ideas for how you may play and do better for yourself.
Definitely adding more over time, but figured I'd format this better:
Townie
General
A lot of players, especially newer or less experienced players, take the townie role for granted as it typically has no special ability. The truth is it's by far the most flexible role in the game for you to try out different strategies with the least amount of consequence since you're apart of the biggest faction. If you find yourself in this role definitely don't sit back as an inactive player as this ultimately hurts the town's chances in winning. Here are a few ideas for base strategies.
If you roll into a townie, a simple yet effective strategy is to be proactive in town chats and taking in the game with information that can help your fellow townsfolk. Doing this without being too hyperbolic or aggressive can work both as a way to share insightful knowledge to the right people, and it will have the mafia or third party look at you as a potential kill target during the night, keeping attention away from town specials.
This is a significantly riskier strategy as you're putting part of the town's fate in your hands by being more proactive. I've seen this done to great success and unfortunate failure as a big part of this strategy comes with your own intuition on whether someone is truly trustworthy or not. The biggest thing here is to NEVER share too much information unless there is 100% confirmation the people you communicate with are trustworthy. Otherwise you risk a mafia/TP infiltration or your instant death.
So typically wait for the first cycle (Night 1 and Day 1) to pass, but pay close attention to what people say to get a soft idea of who may potentially be good or suspicious. During the second cycle pick a player you think you'll have decent discussion with. When dming keep your role to yourself and simply ask for their opinions on some sort of subject without being too forceful or shady (Typically casual conversation is best). Discussion could be the actions of another player, any opinions on who they might think is suspicious, etc, basically talk about the game to see if you and the other person are around the same page.
If you are bold and the game is active you can create multiple dms with separate players to gain further intel for yourself, then once you gain enough information you make the big decision of who can and can't be trusted and form alliances based on this. If you reach a special they'll likely want you around as their voice to strengthen the alliance, but if it's a mafia or TP they may try to take advantage of you or kill you. Luck is a definite factor with this strategy, but how much luck is involved is up to how carefully you tread around the people you talk with. Should things work out NEVER get overconfident as things could always turn around to bite you in the butt.
Similar to the classic townie, but your goal is simply to have mafia and TP eyes set on you. You pick a role in the game to claim and announce it publicly. Definitely not recommended for the very start of the game, but sometimes a game may start with town specials dropping like flies. This could potentially backfire if you're counterclaimed as you potentially get yourself lynched alongside getting a town special killed the following night, but it could also strengthen an alliance by getting other specials to claim to them privately.
This one is more out of your control, but still handy. During a game you may get reached out to by a town special such as the sheriff or a doctor as they may have targeted you. With this you two have your own alliance and can start forming plans together. More or less with this your ultimate goal is to be the meat shield for your partner/alliance. This typically means being the voice for the alliance in town hub to try to help the town figure out who to potentially lynch or who to watch out. This may ne short lived though as any scum might instantly target you the following night, but at that point you help the town vocally and protect your town special teammates by taking a bullet for them.
As a final note though definitely be cautious of who reaches out to you. Never blindly trust others no matter what as many veteran and new players alike suffer from this.
So far in the server this has only been witnessed in M20, so credit goes to Kurble for this one. All games in the server are taken into consideration to be balanced in the most fair and effective way possible, but sometimes the game balancers may miss a couple things here and there. Essentially with this strategy you study the rolelist as much as possible and think of the best winning strategy for the town as possible. Once you figure it out you announce it publicly in the chat for everyone to read. This will likely get you targeted instantly by any scum, but you ultimately get the town players thinking of all sorts of ways to implement your winning strategy or even refine it.
Doing something like this is extremely risky should you miss a loop hole or a critical detail that thwarts your plan, but even then you likely prevent a potential kill on a town special and then town itself will likely try thinking of ways to get the ball rolling sooner. If a game is air tight definitely do not attempt, but if you're looking to get better as a player overall this could be motivation and more reasoning to further study the role list for each game you participate in.
The lone wolf of a game, usually with the goal to be the last man standing. Your goal is almost always independent, and you can only win by yourself unlike an STP. While there are a handful of general strategies with a TP, a lot of roles in this category are unique with their own separate abilities or even win conditions to steal the win from everyone else. There are a couple pointers to be mentioned though (At a later time).
By far the most difficult to give a general strategy for as each secondary third party role has their own separate motivations and goals in order to win the game. A vast majority of the time these types of roles can win alongside another winning faction whether it be Town, Mafia, or the ever difficult Primary Third Party Victory. The biggest thing with every STP is to stay under the radar when the game starts; take time to understand your goal to formulate the best strategy and keep attention away from yourself so you don't potentially become an early kill.
Jester
General
One of the more common STP's with the simple goal of getting lynched. Usually you can also take someone who voted for you down with you. With it being one of the more common roles in games with a fairly straight forward goal, there's a decent amount of strategy you can implement with this one.
The most common yet potentially effective strategy. Sometimes by Day 2 there are next to no leads for the town on who to lynch, so their optimal solution is to just get rid of a player that's not contributing anything at all. So with that in mind you basically say next to nothing and eventually you get lynched and win. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to say one or two things that may rub players the wrong way. The biggest issue with this strategy though is a vigilante, mafia, or TP may simply kill you for the heck of it the longer you stick around a game.
Another common strategy for this role. This one comes with the intent of joining a faction essentially as their honorary team member. You more or less reach out to people privately and share that you are the jester and that you will help their faction win. Typically this works best in a town alliance for their sheer numbers, but it has worked with jesters aligning with the mafia too and could maybe even work in a TP alliance too. Whichever faction you "align with" you have them set you up as a lynch target in an attempt to get members of the other faction to vote for you as well, you die, and you kill off one of the opposing faction's players. You can create chaos and kill one of your supposed teammates, but that may lead to trust issues if you get this role again in a future game.
The biggest thing here is don't blindly make alliances and deals left and right. Like with your average townie, it's best to read the room a bit and study behaviors in order to get the best results. Otherwise you may find yourself aligning with both and one member of either faction would just rather have you be night killed rather than lynched.
This is a bit of a proactive strategy where you're just trying to get out as soon as possible. You could say weird things in chat, be loud and obnoxious, snipe vote, or maybe come up with strategies that maker little sense. Either way you're bringing attention to yourself by yourself. While this may lead to players thinking you're a mafia member or the TP, it could also lead you to being a night kill instead. Definitely use with caution depending on the role list.
I might add a couple more tidbits to this at a later time, but otherwise I leave the floor open to the rest of you to add onto this. I hope to see good insight from you all, and I hope everyone takes it easy!