Tips and Tricks for New and Returning Players

[Randyxpxp]

I figure since the Unity update is on track to be a travesty and overall debacle, I’ll write a decent general ToS guide for new and returning players who have taken an interest in this ridiculous game for some strange reason. I will likely play ToS less after Unity, and I’ve already played very little in the past month, my last game being two weeks ago now. Though the game’s been out for a few years, there are still many new players, and not all of the common mistakes observed in live play can be attributed to long-term players who simply don’t care to take the time to learn the game and actually try. This thread is tailored primarily for players who are new or who haven’t played the game in a long time, and who could perhaps use a refresher as to some of the general rules of thumb it’s best to follow. Some of these guidelines are very basic, but even long-term players frequently ignore them, a phenomenon due in part, I think, to people occasionally being distracted by their phones or other tabs, etc. So first and foremost, if you’re going to play this game, then, out of respect for other players and also your own viability, don’t be distracted. When I play, I tend to only have ToS open in my browser, and I tend to play without music as well. If you get too distracted and take the game too casually, you’re liable to have a bad time and basically waste your time as a result. If you pay attention and allow yourself to be immersed in each game, this game can be quite enjoyable, especially if you enjoy certain roles in certain towns like I do. I’m certainly not perfect, and my experience in some modes is not as extensive as that of others, but on their own merits, these tips and tricks can definitely serve to smooth out your gameplay and establish a solid methodology to follow. From there, it’s mainly about how well you maintain your composure and don’t crack under the pressure or act too quickly or too openly, although as there are several other live actors in every town, there is only so much you can control, making this game a mix of skill and chance.

Tips:

• Pay attention to who speaks Day 1. You don’t need to note every single D1 talker in your will, but it’s worthwhile to at least observe which players speak. Also observe what players say, whether they make any provocative or controversial statements, and so on. Veterans will often speak D1 in order to bait evils into coming to visit, and, surprisingly, many evils actually fall for many obvious vet baits. Naturally, players can also fake vet bait in order to deter visitors, but statistically, you’re safer from a veteran if you don’t visit a D1 talker, especially a D1 talker that says something baitish, e.g., “Vig here” or something that tempts evils to kill, investigate, or control them. There are some instances in which it is worth it to visit a certain D1 talker, such as when multiple people call for TP/LO and you think you can kill an important town member as evil. As town protective or lookout, you’ll also want to visit someone who asks for TP/LO, as this is now the meta and tends to be tactical, but unless a D1 talker explicitly calls for TP/LO, I would suggest no TP or LO visit that person N1, as the person could be a veteran, and if they aren’t a veteran but they want TP/LO on them, then they should ask for TP/LO. Ultimately, many thousands of evils and town members alike have died because they chose to visit a D1 talker N1 when they could have just as easily visited someone else, and they died precisely because the veteran spoke D1 to bait evils into visiting them. Veteran baits are very simple to avoid if you simply read the D1 chat and select your target carefully.
• Take the time to study every role. This is very valuable and a mistake not to do.
• Read every dead player’s will. Wills can contain valuable information, especially wills from any investigative roles. Even if you miss a last will because your own will covered it while the dead were being read off, it’s worth it to view the will to see if it contains any information you can use. There may even be small but valuable pieces of information the will contains that, if overlooked, can prove disastrous to town members or evils alike.
• Pay attention to whispers. Note who whispers to whom, and whether the recipient whispers back. Do the whisperers say anything publicly, or only privately speak? Witches often whisper to evils and vice versa. Witches also sometimes wait until later in the day to whisper an evil, such as during the voting phase. They do this to obscure the whisper and bring less attention to themselves. Paying attention to whispers can benefit both town members and evils. If you’re evil and you see someone wait until later in the day to whisper someone, and the person whispers back, this could be a witch who found an evil, and so perhaps you’d make a mental note of this to avoid messing with the possible witch and even possibly get them to side with you later. If you completely fail to pay attention whatsoever to whispers, you can miss some very important associations between players.
• Keep a last will. Include your results for every night in your will if you’re a town member. Even if you’re a mayor or retributionist, a will can be used to note claims and suspicions and piece the puzzle of the town together. If you’re evil, your will can be used to maintain a fake cover, and also to out other evils or even frame people. For example, if you’re a mafia member and you want to frame a random non-mafia as an arsonist, you can leave a note in your will that this person is an arsonist, and this can lead to them being lynched instead of one of your mafia members if you die. If you keep no will at all, you lose out on an array of possible benefits a last will can bring you and your allies. For some roles, it’s so important to keep a last will that if you don’t note your nightly actions in your will, this can easily result in a loss for your faction because you kept it in the dark.
• If you’re jailed, give your claim and will immediately. Do not wait to be asked by the jailor for a claim or will. Some jailors, myself included, will sometimes say nothing and merely observe to see how you react to being jailed. If you claim nothing, you’re liable to be executed and you have no one to blame but yourself.
• If you want to out an immune target’s defense without doing so publicly, you can note the target’s defense in a death note. I see so many killers who find immune targets but don’t out them in their death notes even when it is in their interest to do so. However, try not to combine a death note accusation with a public accusation, as this can connect you to your death note and bring suspicion to yourself, e.g. your death note says X is immune and you make a fake claim that day that casts suspicion on the person. Observant players can put two and two together and realize you’re the one who wrote the death note.
• Vampires are generally less dangerous to town members than mafia and NK. Play enough All Any and you will understand why this is the case. If town gets too distracted by vampires, this tends to only benefit mafia and NK and result in a town loss.
• It is very important in some instances not to lynch a neutral killer over a mafia member. In many towns, a neutral killer is the only person that prevents a mafia win. Neutral killers can kill and lynch mafia members, and as a result, mafia members will very frequently try to get neutral killers lynched or executed so mafia can gain the advantage and smoothly eliminate the rest of the town without problem. This holds especially true when there are still 3-4 mafia members alive and lynching an NK today will most likely give mafia the win. Town needs both mafia and NK dead, not just NK. Even though NK has defense and higher kill power, mafia have numbers and other capabilities that often make them an even more dangerous threat to town than NK, especially a lone NK like a serial killer or werewolf. Even if town identifies a neutral killer, if it looks like mafia are trying to get rid of the NK so mafia can gain the advantage, you don’t want to play into the mafia’s hands and get rid of their enemy for them. Town, mafia, and neutral killers are all mutual enemies of each other, and they can all use each other to their advantage. Mafia can even use neutral killers to kill town, like town can use neutral killers to kill mafia, but in mid to late game especially, lynching an NK over a mafia member is liable to seal town’s fate and make it impossible for town to overcome the mafia. (For example, four town members alive against three mafia members and a neutral killer. If you hang the NK, mafia can kill a town member tonight and make it 3v3, making it extremely difficult if not impossible for town to win. If you hang a mafia member instead or at least don’t hang the NK, the NK can kill mafia for you and you can hang the NK later.) It’s all situational and depends on a number of factors, including whether there is a jailor, mayor, town protective, vigilante, or vampires to kill mafia members.
• Don’t get too distracted by survivor claims or attack D1 survivor claims N1. Survivor claims are very often real survivors, and real survivors can win with any faction. Survivor claims can also be NK, jesters, amnesiacs, veterans, or technically any other role, but in my experience they’re likely to be survivors, especially if they ask to be investigated. If you let yourself become too consumed in someone’s survivor claim, you can easily overlook more important and dangerous presences such as mafia members and NK.
• It tends to be better to lynch more dangerous enemies over neutral evils. Witch is the most dangerous neutral evil, and even evils want to lynch a witch sometimes, but overall, if the choice is between a witch, executioner, or jester or a mafia member/neutral killer/other enemy, it tends to be better to lynch the other evil over the NE. All factions win with executioners and jesters, that is, they don’t need exes/jests dead to win. Factions almost never need a witch dead to win either, although a dead witch can be useful. A live witch can also be very useful even to town members, who can use the witch to learn the roles of more deadly evils. If a witch has the threat of being lynched over its head, it’s more likely to divulge the roles of other evils in order to keep the noose at bay. Using a witch in this fashion is especially viable in towns where there are vampires who can convert town members, who can then win with the witch they’ve used to lynch mafia/NK. I consider this kind of strategy a high-level play and it remains infrequent but I still note it here.
• As witch, try to find evils to work with, but don’t make your associations too obvious. You win with all evils, so don’t randomly out evils to make yourself look like town. Getting evils lynched is a great way to get yourself targeted by evils and killed. Also be sure to prevent a retributionist from reviving if you think it’s worth the risk, and use vigilantes to kill other town members, being cautious not to visit a veteran of course. (Another high-level witch play is to get a jailor to jail a revealed mayor and then force the jailor to execute the mayor. You’d be surprised how easily you can do this under the right conditions.) One of the worst mistakes a witch can make is to silently control a killer repeatedly without revealing yourself to evils or learning the roles of others. This is a great way to get killed by another evil who didn’t know you were a witch, an evil you could have controlled had you simply told the first evil you found you’re a witch so they don’t visit you.
• As vampire, don’t use the names of other vampires at night, unless you’re trying to make it seem like you’re talking about someone who isn’t a vampire who actually is. Vampire hunters can read vampire chat and will use it to find vampires. There are ways to communicate without using any names including targets, and in fact you don’t need to speak at night at all.
• As survivor and amnesiac, it is generally in your interest to be genuinely neutral, and not push others aggressively for roles or information. I’ve seen many survivors and amnesiacs who decided to get involved in affairs they didn’t need to get involved in and they got killed as a result. So watch out for that shit.
• Overall, be attentive, determine roles, and focus on the most dangerous threats to your objective, whatever that might be. Don’t let yourself get lost in the flow of claims. Using your last will to note claims is a useful way to keep track of what’s going on in the town.

Tricks:

• As mafia, discuss your claims the first night. You may "confirm" each other in various ways.
• If you hit an immune target at night as godfather/mafioso or serial killer, but you suspect the target is an ally or otherwise useful, consider framing a different target as immune in your death note the next night. Often, this will throw town off, and deflect suspicion from yourself or the actual immune target. As SK, you may even fake frame someone as immune in your death note even if you don't hit an immune target, which in most cases in All Any is logically possible since there can be multiple serial killers, and one of the serial killers may have hit an immune.
• Be prepared to defend allies from suspicion. However, if you do so, you may become suspicious yourself, especially if the ally dies and their role is revealed. If you defend an ally from suspicion, try to avoid merely saying their accuser is exe. This can work, but if your ally is lynched, smart towns will remember your exe accusation and turn on you next. Deflecting suspicion onto someone else is probably a better strategy.
• As evil, merely accusing your accuser of being an executioner is not a very effective strategy. It can bide you some time, but you are better off making a solid defense.
• Sometimes as evil, especially in late game situations, you may need to sacrifice a neutral evil ally such as a witch or executioner to save yourself.
• If you are jailed Night 1 or Night 2 as evil and the jailor has not revealed, you may learn their identity by faking TP and asking who they are. However, some jailors will be suspicious of this and may execute you for asking for their name.
• If you find yourself in a kingmake situation, try to either friendly up to the kingmaker or even deceive them. Sometimes, kingmakers will announce they will side with a certain role, such as a werewolf. If a kingmaker does this, claim werewolf immediately, and make your case credible. You may even offer to draw a game if the kingmaker lynches the other person. This may convince some players to side with you. Conversely, your best shot may be to get the kingmaker itself lynched, and make yourself appear to be the kingmaker even though you are in fact one of the non-neutral factions in dispute.
• In my experience, when a mafia has 1-3 players to start, this seems to increase the chance of vampires and NK in the town. Be prepared to push enemies aggressively, as you have fewer members than usual to work with. Conversely, it may be better to keep a low profile, since you likely have more enemies to rid of.
• If you are jailed Night 1 as serial killer, your best bet may be to claim retributionist. If you are in the dead jailor's will the next day, you will probably want to immediately claim retributionist and say you will revive the jailor. Otherwise, most other claims should get you lynched. In some games, even buying yourself a single day can be enough to get you a win, especially in double or triple SK games.
• If you are evil (non-jester) and you sense you will be lynched the next day, prepare a way to deflect suspicion onto someone else at the start of the day, especially via a fake will. If you say nothing or present a weak case, you'll probably be lynched.
• As evil, saying that town members are "confirmed" can make you trustworthy in the eyes of town, even if the confirmed town is an obvious veteran confirmed in someone's will. It makes you look like you are interested in confirming town from non-town, even though you're interested in killing town.
• "X, role?" or “X role” is a short, powerful way to cast suspicion onto someone. Even though you’re only asking for someone’s role, this creates momentum to lynch them.
• Calling for TP/LO as evil can be an effective method to distract town from more important targets, and make yourself look like town. This can also make you a target of evils.
• Be careful as to whom you whisper or reply to in whisper. Players may lie about the contents of your whispers to them.
• If you are found guilty as mafia, you can cast suspicion onto a non-mafia by whispering that person before you die, or saying something to them publicly. You may also "out" fake mafia members in your will.
• Be especially suspicious of any survivor claims who did not claim Day 1. These are often NK.
• When someone is accused of being mafia and people begin to vote them, mafia will often vote against someone else to create chaos. This is called splitting and can reveal mafia.
• Medium is a common fake claim in All Any. Be especially suspicious of medium claims who don't quote the dead specifically.
• Hail the Dark Lord.
• Sometimes, it is better not to kill anyone at night as mafia. Doing so may leave you with insufficient votes to lynch an enemy. (For example, one town member, two mafia members, and a serial killer alive – if the mafia kills the last town member and the serial killer kills a mafia member, it’s game over. If you leave the last town member alive, you can use them to lynch the serial killer.)
• When a death note outs someone as immune and someone else asks for this person's role or otherwise pushes them, the accuser is commonly the one who wrote the death note or one of their mafia associates. Along this vein, when the person they accuse is likely or possibly a werewolf who's just mauled or an arsonist who's just ignited, it's commonly better for town to divert its attention to the mafia accuser rather than the NK who's just killed and must wait to kill again. Pay close attention to death notes and who references death notes, as this can give someone's identity away.
• If you intentionally or unintentionally lynch a jester, consider whispering the player during their last words to tell them whom you'd like them to haunt. A dangerous foe being haunted by a jester can mean the difference between a win and a loss for you. You may also whisper them before or during their trial. Conversely, I’ve found saying nothing can make it less likely for a jester to target you.
• If you have important information you'd like to share during the day whether publicly or privately, particularly information such as whom the jailor is, but you fear you may be jailed and unable to act on or further communicate this information at night, you may take the very last moment before nightfall to speak or whisper your information, in case you are jailed or in case of other contingencies. For example, if you're mafia and you've identified the jailor, but you don't want to reveal this information publicly or you don't want to whisper during the middle of the day and be found suspicious, you may whisper the information to an associate at the very last second, which both allows them to receive the information and prevents the jailor from having ample time to jail you for suspicious whispering. This strategy can also work in towns in which you are, say, a serial killer, and know another serial killer's identity, to whom you wish to transmit such important information.
• As evil, or even as town, try to befriend survivors early on or in late game. Tell them you side with them, and ask them to vote certain targets. This will often get them to at least not vote against you, if not get them to vote with you. Be careful telling them your role, however, as some survivors may not side with you if you reveal your exact role or alignment.
• Be aware that some town will act like or appear to be evil, but are in fact town. Mayors may do this, for instance, to bait evils into giving themselves away before the mayor reveals.

As an addendum, here are a few observations related to mafia I’d like to note. I’ve played many hundreds of mafia games now and, while I don’t tend to play mafia anymore, I have first-hand experience in using the skills and people at my disposal to ensure my mafia succeeds. Mafia can and will try to deceive and manipulate people, and if you don’t pay close attention, you’re liable to fall into one of their traps.

Ways in which mafia can sheep town:

1. Mafia can sheep town by tricking town into focusing on vampires rather than mafia. This is almost always harmful to town, except when vampires have a full clan (i.e. four members), in which case the vampires themselves become like the mafia. Generally, however, vampires only have 1-3 members, whereas mafia probably have at least 3-4 members, and even with only 1-2 members, mafia always kill town whereas vampires can both convert town and kill mafia, as well as identify immunes and vote with town.
2. Mafia can sheep town by tricking them into focusing on NK rather than mafia. This is especially harmful to town when there is only indication of a single NK, such as a lone SK, and when there are no mafia dead yet and also no indications of a jailor, vigilante, or vampires to kill mafia at night. While NK is an enemy of town as stated earlier, mafia is also an enemy of town, and town needs both of them dead to win, not just NK. Oftentimes, lynching an NK rather than a mafia will seal town’s fate, and make it virtually impossible for town to overcome mafia.
3. Mafia can sheep town by claiming TI and tricking town into focusing on town/non-mafia rather than mafia. In All Any, public claims are less prevalent, and mafia can lead the town if one or two of their members claim TI and no one else in the town claims TI. Town will often follow the fake TI’s leads, which more often than not end up getting town/non-mafia lynched. The fake TI may also call for TP/LO and sheep TP/LO into being on them rather than on town. I’ve seen this many times now. This is one of the more difficult deceptions to discern, as actual TIs may also investigate non-mafia and may also call for TP/LO.
4. Mafia can sheep town by tricking town into focusing on NE and NB rather than mafia. This is especially prevalent in the case of jesters, executioners, and survivors, as opposed to witches, although mafia may even push to lynch witches knowingly or unknowingly.
5. Mafia can use a janitor’s knowledge of cleaned roles to fake those roles, even unique roles such as jailor, retributionist, or veteran, or TS roles such as escort or transporter.
6. Mafia can sheep town by more subtle methods such as talking rather staying silent, asking for leads, actively voting, and confirming or supporting town to make themselves appear to be town.

Ways in which mafia can be scum read:

1. Is the player desperately trying to lynch a vampire? This is more often than not an indication of either a mafia member or a town member who doesn’t understand the utility of vampires.
2. Has the player expressed any hostility against or concern over vampires? “Do we have a VH?” “Vamp game…” This is, again, more often than not an indication of either a mafia member or a sheep townie. Mafia is more dangerous than vampires generally.
3. Is the player desperately trying to lynch an NK? Are there any dead mafia yet? If the NK is lynched today, will this likely give mafia majority tomorrow? Has the player said anything else all game, claimed anything, or given any useful information up to this point? Did they not begin to talk actively and vote until an NK was outed? This is more often than not an indication of either a mafia member or a townie getting sheeped by mafia. Lynching NK is sometimes in town’s interest, but in AA in particular, especially in situations in which no mafia are dead, multiple town are dead, and there are no indications of a jailor, vigilante, or vampires to kill mafia, town needs an NK alive to kill/lynch mafia, or else risk certain doom at the hands of the mafia. You benefit mafia by lynching NK and vampires rather than mafia.
4. Has the TI claim investigated anyone that turned out to be mafia? If the only people they’ve investigated all turn out to be town or non-mafia, this makes it more likely the TI claim is mafia. Has the TI claim been attacked by mafia yet? In AA, if a TI claim hasn’t been attacked by mafia within 2-3 nights, I would suggest this is suspicious.
5. Is the player trying to get an NE or NB lynched, especially when a mafia suspect has been accused or outed? If someone is trying to lynch an apparent jester or an executioner who’s already won or a survivor claim who claimed D1, this could be an indication of someone who’s trying to deflect attention from mafia, again especially in situations in which town is trying to lynch mafia instead of the NE or NB.
6. Has the player asked for leads and/or roles and not been targeted by mafia yet? This itself is suspicious, and could indicate that this person is itself mafia, as mafia are more likely to target players actively asking for leads, voting, and pushing for lynches.
7. Has someone whispered to someone else, and been replied to in whisper? This could be a witch whispering to mafia or a mafia whispering to a witch. Have either of these players said anything publicly or given any useful information, asked for leads, pushed for roles? Did one of them die and turn out to be a witch or mafia?
8. Does the player’s will look detailed and sensible? Does it look hastily made and half-hearted? Does the player even have a will? These are information that can be used to discern mafia suspects.
9. Are the players voting in conjunction with each other? Do they vote the same targets at the same time? Do they vote someone else when someone is accused of being mafia? All of these are possible signs of mafia.
10. Did the player refuse to vote up a confirmed mafia? Did the player abstain or vote innocent on a confirmed mafia? Did the player push for the confirmed mafia to be voted innocent? More often than not, these are indications of being mafia.