Fun read, thanks for sharing!

And for the Steve Irwin thing, I used to love watching the Crocodile Hunter. So think of his inclusion as a homage.

Hm, this was flawless victory for town with no townie mislynched, right?

That's awesome even though the first scum lynch was basically lucky hit but more so that it was big game.

I followed it more closely only during D2 when obvscum Krypsyn got lynched and stopped following entirely since then but it seems you did good darn job, town.

Yeah, pretty much a flawless victory considering trent flipped neutral. I had hoped at least there would be one townie mislynch but it was not to be...

And for the record...just to add to the wackiness, while cut short, I envision Night 3 going as follows...
Dedoporno vig shots Adaliabooks
Adaliabooks steals Jack of All Trades and vig shots McHack
BlueMooner kills HijacK
and
Bluemooner dies of exhaustion (lack of posting)

A four kill night!

Lol

Except, if I hadn't tried to break the game we probably would have restricted dedo (assuming he had a vig shot) and killed... HSL probably, as being the most likely to push for my lynch the next day.
And I probably would have stolen dedo's role the next night (assuming I was still alive) and then double killed the self help gurus.
And it wouldn't have done any good as we would still have lost.

Why ruin it? 4 kill night!

So, game’s over. I’d like to make two posts, and hopefully it will be OK. The first is just to hand out a few awards. Later, I’ll post some musings about my plan, how it unfolded, and what happened.

In honor of the start of hockey season, I’m handing out stick taps this time. Not everyone gets one this time, though, because that would probably stretch credibility just a little too far. There are quite a few, however, so in no particular order:

-agent: I’ve pumped his tires repeatedly in the observer thread, but couldn’t do it in-game in order to not blow our cover. My plan would have failed without someone catching my pass, and not only did he catch it, but the real key here is that he did it in such a way that perfectly kept our cover. Post #50 sewed it up for me that I was on the right track, and without him, I probably would have lost my nerve and the whole thing would have fallen apart. Without agent, this game goes very differently. Stick tap for you.

-HijacK: Let it never be said I won’t acknowledge when someone else gets something right that nobody else agrees with. HijacK was the only guy who gave BlueMooner no slack as a newbie and called him correctly for scumminess, and got flack for it. Stick tap for you. A little more next time, though, eh?

-BlueMooner: Speaking of which, BM had just a fantastic game as a first-time Scum. I had no idea whatsoever. I bought what he was selling hook, line, and sinker. Had he kept playing, he could have carried the game for quite some time, I think. I really enjoyed when he participated and wish he would have stayed, so stick tap for you… but of course, in general principle, one needs to honor one’s commitments, and simply disappearing isn’t cool. I’ve been fired before – more than once – for bullshit reasons so can completely empathize. Just wish he would have tried to exit gracefully rather than just… disappear.

-mchack: Another great game from a first-time player. A few “newbie” mistakes, but nothing too severe, and a great learning experience. I would say he was 100% successful in jumping into the game, and really really hope he sticks around. Those 6:15 AM posts, lol. A great addition to the tribe. Stick tap for you.

-HSL: Town’s MVP, I think. HSL just played out of his mind – engaging, sharp, insightful, funny… My MVP award isn’t just about figuring out Scum, it’s about driving the game and making it fun to play. HSL did both. “Reluctant voter” no more! Great great game, very funny, and so glad he was in for this one. Stick tap for you.

-JMich: Generally woeful participation for the second game in a row, but I have to publicly acknowledge the excellent vote switch to trent on Day 3. Great call, and not one I would have made. You were right and I was wrong on this one! Stick tap for you.

Solid contributions from adalia (I swear I will get you back for stuffing me in a dryer!), Krypsyn, dedo, Lift, and cristi. (BTW, cristi should be officially scored as a “no decision” instead of a loss, because the plug was pulled on the game before she had a chance to resolve her win condition one way or the other. Not fair to her.) trent did the best he could with a completely crap role, lol. I doubt very much I would have done any better.

Wish we had seen more from Sage, flub, and CSPVG, because they are all capable of excellent play, and we just didn’t get to see it this time. “RL” strikes again.

Thanks also to RWarehall for the over-complicated, convoluted, hot mess of a setup! (That’s a joke. Do not be offended.) Interesting twists and turns, and I wish the game had a chance to play out more naturally. Sorry we blew up the secret in the first five minutes! I think the flavor was great and the game had enough divergent pathways possible that it could be played all over again and have totally different results. I don’t have any complaints on the balance (although Scum might disagree!)

Stick tap too for the homies in the dead thread. You make dying fun!

Emphasis added.
I think this would have helped. It really sucks when your role is the only one not 'from the book' so to speak and it makes it very difficult to blend in. The Self Help Guru's made sense, the Restrictor made sense (though town completely failed to buy it's existence, that was your fault yogs ;)) but if I had made any attempt to claim my role I would have gone the same way as trent (as I'm sure would Hyper if he had tried to claim town pickpocket, particularly with a name like that...) as no one else had a frame of reference that allowed such outlandish roles.
In fact, if CSPVG hadn't been lynched and flipped day 1 I think trent would have gone down much quicker as his flip did lend trent a little credibility...

But I do like the set up, I think the idea of actually spelling it out from the start might make more sense from a balance point of view though. I think half the problem with the set ups we have here is that it's always a mystery, which often over complicates things.
With this game the info was basically all there if we'd interpreted it right, so instead of leaving it up to people to guess correctly it should just be spelled out. Of course, that might have led to an actual mass claim day 1, but who knows...

We won? That was a quick one! Yay for town! :-)

On the contrary, if the setup were clear to everyone the danger of mass claim would be more apparent. It played out for town this time, but could have easily gone horribly wrong.

Think about it this way - you killed agent N1 largely because you thought he was the guru. If you'd been right, you kill hijack d2, and at most you have 2 active town power roles to clean up.

In a full claim scenario it's actually even better for scum, since you steal JOAT, and kill both Hijack/mchack N1 and town is pretty much SOL.

And likewise, you can make claims to blend pretty easy. If anything, it's too easy a scum win.

I dunno. If everyone knew the roles, a Day 1 mass claim should obviously be a TERRIBLE idea. Impersonator steals the infinite Vig, and there are now 2 NK's to deal with (massively unbalancing). If Impersonator grabs the JOAT instead (or Vig is 1-shot instead of infinite), then after the double Guru death N1, none of the roles are actually useful. Town is all restricted (except 1), so the Role Cop, Restrictor, and remaining JOAT abilities are useless to scum, and Strongman is unnecessary. I suppose there is some "Guess who got unrestricted", and possible cross claims in relation to that (though scum should not claim to have been unrestricted unless they actually were).

The two neutrals aren't likely to claim, scum will be false claiming (or also refusing to claim), the infinite vig and maybe JOAT won't claim. If all roles are known in advance, then mass claim Day 1 may be virtually impossible.

Plus, I could only steal what people claim, so if the vig claimed their restricted role that would be what I would steal, and I would need to hope the Guru would unrestrict me...

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting all the roles should be revealed. Just the nature of the game (restricted roles etc.)

I think I'm actually going to skip the post on my plan - probably nobody really cares at this point, and it's not like I had any great secrets to reveal anyway.

Time to take a rest and get ready for whatever the next one may bring!