Lesson 2: Basics to Scum Play
Don't claim neutral. Boom, end of lesson, we can all go home.
What is scum? Scum is any non-town role. What's that? You think Survivor isn't scum? Here, lets take a look at the role card for a second. Does it say "you are town" anywhere on it? No? You're scum. As said, scum is any non-town role, and despite converging victory conditions. The bottom line is, no matter what you are, you
can win with a town loss and are therefore a threat to the town. This guide will be geared more towards the roles that cannot win with town or have victory conditions which contradict Town's.
On a more serious note, when playing scum attempt to play in a similar manner to how you play town. This means being active, making reads, and attempting to push a town agenda. The difference here is that underneath your town facade, attempt to undermine the Town's own plans. Here is what your agenda as Scum may look like:
- Firstly, limit the amount of information Town has access to.
- Secondly, attempt to eliminate members of Town to bring their numbers towards the number of current scum are in the game.
- Third, After advancing your second objective, being eliminating Scum who's goals contraindicate with your own.
- Fourth, buddy with other scum who's goals run parallel with yours.
Do not forget that the are above are your primary objectives. Do not lose sight of these objectives. If you do not do the above, you will lose because that is your win condition. Now that you know what you are supposed to do, bellow is what you should not do.
- Do not reveal as Neutral early game. It confirms you as scum and makes you an easy lynch. There are some strategies which involve revealing as neutral and they can work, however if you are reading this guide, you likely do not know when or how to use them. Do not reveal as neutral.
- Do not reveal other scum as scum when you are on the chopping block. Your goal is for the Town to lose. If you're a Serial Killer and you're going to die, why would you reveal a Godfather? You are both fighting the same enemy.
- Do not reveal yourself as scum when pressured by the town. The only time your guilt should be 100% determined is when you flip.
- Be active. You need to look pro-town to not be lynched, so make reads and post them as you would normally, however do not use them to further the Town's objectives.
If you are playing as Mafia or Neutral Evil roles which have allies, make sure to use your allies. By coordinating with them, you are increasing your odds of winning dramatically. Actively look for your allies if you do not know who they are, however do this in a way which will not give yourself away. By knowing each other, you and your scum buddies can becoming an anti-town voting bloc and do some serious damage to the town during the day phase.
Another very important point thing to remember is to push for a mislynch. Here's an older quote which outlines one general approach to pushing for a mislynch:
TheCow on Mislynching wrote:What you need to do is cherrypick, though. I read in an article saying something along the lines of "you're scummier as town than you think you are, and you're townier as scum. When you are scum and you analyse your own posts it looks scummier than you think you look."
If you take this theory and apply it to another player it should work in reverse, I think. It is easier to cherrypick a players post to make them look scummy as scum than it is to make a case against scum as town.
Something to remember while doing this, however, is the fact that cherrypicking looks extremely scummy if it is pointed out by a member of the town. You need to ISO the player you want lynched, and look for the scummy bits, however do not use too small of a sample while looking for your good bits, as that makes it easier for a counter-case against you. There are a lot of ways to make a player look scummy and to push for a mislynch, and that will be a Lesson all to itself in the future. The golden rule I have found, however, is this: put yourself in that player's shoes and pretend that you are the scum your you want to frame them as and think of WHY that role would act the way they are.
Do you have any questions? Comments? Disagree with any of the points I made? Send me a PM and I'll get back to you!