The point of an age claim, which by the way certainly doesn't have anything to do with role playing (mafia is
not a role playing game), is not to find out that someone is an adult, and then claim that makes them mafia, or anything like that. Heck, the point isn't for it to find mafia at all - at this point.
The point is to use it for future reference. It helps lock mafia into their claims, while (probably) not giving away any useful knowledge from the townies.
Without knowing the setup, it is impossible to tell if a soft claim of this sort will give any valuable results down the line, but it is very unlikely to in any way harm the town.
It's a low-risk play with possible rewards down the line.
Anyway, seeing as Rob's post seems to be all the rage these days. Unlike the rest, seemingly, I am not all that impressed with it. It's a good effort, and I commend him for putting his theories forwards - more should do the same - but there are, as I see it, some critical flaws in it.
By the way, Rob is town.
Robbeasy: Zchinque had 5 votes at the time - only needed 2 more for the Lynch. There are (I believe, don;'t know for sure but there was last game so going to assume the same) at least 3 Mafia?
I would be very surprised if the setup doesn't have exactly 3 mafia.
If there are, it would have been easy for them to push that lynch through, if they weren't involved in it in the first place.
Actually, it wouldn't necessarily be that easy. It would require a good deal of coordination.
Let's say in this hypothetical situation that there are exactly two mafia who are not voting for me. Let's also, for the sake of argument, assume that I am town, and therefore that the mafia would want to see me hang.
Even though, at the moment, I would be lynched if they both vote for me, they would need to set it up. They should preferably vote within a rather short time frame, otherwise it is possible that someone else will unvote, and one of the mafia may have jeopardized their position.
Now, as you know, we have players from all over the Western world, with varying time zones to follow, and even players from the same or similar time zones might have wildly different times when they are usually online. This level of coordination is hard to pull off when they can't communicate outside this thread (I'm assuming the mafia don't have daytalk here).
And even if they could coordinate it, would it be a good idea?
Let's say the two mafia pile on their votes, and I am lynched. Once I turn up town (arguably even if I turn up scum) they are in Hell and hot water, and they have if not outed themselves, then at least put two of their own under [i]very heavy[/ii] scrutiny - for what? - the life of a single, random townie. That is not a good trade for the scum.
Remember, it was very early in the day, Day 1 no less, and I was (and still am) unclaimed. That means I could be just a vanilla townie, but I could also be a cop, a doc, or some other power role. Townies have [i]absolutely no reason to rush through a lynch under those circumstances - townies don't lynch unclaimed players (in general). The mafia want to appear as townie as possible, while furthering their goals. Lynching unclaimed players early in day 1 is, by that token, counterproductive to their long term goals, even if it would technically benefit them in the short term.
Zchinque isnt Mafia - which means (I think - my poor brain hurts a little) that AT LEAST two Mafia had already voted for him! (assuming three Mafia members).
I disagree, for the above stated reasons.
Now, it is entirely possible that two mafia were voting for me. I'm fairly confident that it's either one or two. The mafia want to push town wagons, so they can't really afford to not have any on it, but at the same time, they don't want to act too much in unison, so at least one is likely to stay off.