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A Normal Human Guide to Normal Human Affairs

Page history last edited by Kaivêran 5 years, 1 month ago

Normal. Vanilla. Green. Plain. Role Abilities List Empty.

 

For most TWG players on LLF, these the last things they want to see in their Role PMs, and generally acts as a cue for them to put in a bare minimum of effort in the game. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Wolf win rate at LLF tends to be particularly high, and a hunger for more involved gameplay has arisen. Occasionally, a greater baseline density of power roles or silly things like Mega Wolves are put into games to “nerf” the Wolves, but given my experience with TWG and similar games, I remain convinced this is an issue that can only be solved from within; by changing the attitudes of the playerbase. Let’s start with the most fundamental question players ask themselves:

 

Why should I bother playing if I’m a Normal Human/Vanilla Townie/Not-Power-Role?

 

The answer is simple. Most game setups, in terms of power alone, initially favor the Wolves. This is extremely obvious in things like Manhunt games, where there are no power roles at all and the lone Wolf will just cruise to victory if the Humans don’t do a thing. Even with more complicated setups (more than one wolf team, Seers, Guards, Vigilantes), blowing the game off and relying solely on the Good Guys With Power Roles to defeat the Bad Guys With Power Roles turns the game into nothing more than a game of chance, a roll of the dice. If the Seer nabs enough Wolves before getting disemboweled – hurray! If not – alas!

 

Games that run like this are not fun for anyone involved, and having no powers doesn’t mean you have to resort to passively watching the Red Ants and Blue Ants duke it out. If we continue to have crappy games because of apathetic players, players will be disillusioned with TWG cause of the crappy games, and it will just go on in a vicious cycle.

 

This guide is an attempt to break that cycle; to state, in no uncertain terms, what playing a normal human is all about.

 

But Kai-Senpai, Don’t I Need To Catch Wolves?

 

Not necessarily. In fact, this mentality might be a prime contributor to the apathy and discontent with the role that most players experience.

 

We kinda have this lofty ideal of a “good” townie, who manages to pierce through the Wolves’ lies with lances of pure logic, draw all the right connections, and ultimately stand triumphant as the lupine menaces receive their just desserts at the gallows. However, those who live up to this ideal are extremely rare, if not non-existent.

 

Let’s not kid ourselves; no one can be spot-on with all their reads, least of all if they are completely deprived of information, which is the normal condition of a vanilla Human. Everything you know, you know from other people’s posts. Those people might be lying, wrong, or even right for the wrong reasons, and there is no sure method to distinguish between these cases.

 

Rather than put such immense pressure on players to perform at a level they do not have the tools to do, in this article I am laying out a method that I think is simple, and can help any player seeing nothing but green in their Role PM to increase their team’s chances of winning...without having to nail even one Wolf.

 

There are three main principles:

 

1. Use Your Brain.

 

While the good ol’ Vote is your material weapon in the game, your mind is your immaterial weapon, and certainly the most potent. Use it.

 

Way too many times have I seen posts that go something like this:

 

I’m just a boring old Human. This game has a ton of posts, I can’t keep up. This guy doesn’t seem to be posting that much, he must be up to something.

 

Someone who turns out to be Seer, but who was a little less eloquent than the Frequent Posters.


 

 

Sure, it’s probably the easiest way to play. It’s also practically being a waste of a player slot.

 

I love Humans like that when I’m a Wolf. I can throw together whatever flimsy argument I can come up with, wrap it nicely with measured activity and demagoguery, and voila! Innocent lynches and/or exposed power roles ripe for the killing.

 

These tactics will not work if the Human players are invested in the game, take their time to read through the arguments in the thread, discuss in the chat, and – most importantly – think for themselves. Don’t rely on other people’s summaries or opinions to do your playing for you. Read. Think. Vote.

 

Even if you feel like someone else stated things better or you can’t really take a position on something, it can’t hurt to say so. Making your thought process transparent can enable other Humans to fill in where you can’t.

 

 

2. Stay Out of the Way.

 

Basically, don’t do anything that impedes or doesn’t further the wolf-hunting process. Sometimes it’s not clear whether what you want to do will be helpful or not in the end, so here I will just go into some boilerplate ways people tend to muddy up the works.

 

Don’t try to force yourself into a dominant role within the game, and don’t see mountains where there are molehills. Some players act as though they have to be a big player every game, regardless if they actually know what they’re doing.

 

Don't fall victim to confirmation bias. Some players get stuck on one person or one possibility and letting belief substitute itself for evidence, only picking out things that fit their pet theory – usually to the chagrin of most other players.

 

Such behavior, far from being helpful, is most likely to confuse the other players. Depending on how they take it, it could make them follow you in vain...or they could waste a lynch on you. Moreover, it may also lead to Seers wasting investigations on you, Guardians wasting protections on you, etc.

 

Of course, I’m not saying you shouldn’t try and deduce who the wolves are; I’m saying that unless you really have something to contribute in that respect, keeping quiet isn’t a bad idea at all. SOME people are bound to have a clue, and allowing those who have useful contributions to come forth unimpeded is always helpful. Plus, the less people are barking at each other or posting irrelevant drivel, the more clearly the situation can be analyzed.

 

This ties back into Principle 1. You need to think things through before posting, and definitely before voting; while this might seem obvious, it’s amazing how people sometimes completely disregard this.

 

 

3. Embrace Your Expendability.

 

While you have an inherent disadvantage in information being Human, your team has a huge advantage in numbers. Combine that with your lack of important powers that would hurt the town if they were suddenly taken away by a nightkill, and you will clearly see the logic in this third principle.

 

In short, never be afraid to sacrifice yourself, especially if it’s for a good cause. If you somehow, during the game, get the possibility to reveal a lie, don’t hesitate to do it, even though it would mean your probable demise soon. Making a 1-for-1 trade with the Wolves is almost always a good deal. If you’re feeling devious, you could even try to run a gambit in order to draw the Wolves’ kill away from the Blues. You could aggressively badger a Wolf read during the Day, make a break with your usual townie play to attract their attention, subtly hint (or “softclaim”) that you have a powerful role, or even outright state it.  Be careful while doing this though, as some of these things can look suspicious, and you don’t want to stretch the town’s credulity too far. Outright fakeclaims are especially risky, as you risk getting counterclaimed by an actual power role, defeating the entire purpose of your gambit (and possibly getting you lynched.) If there's a trustworthy Alliance to run a planned gambit by, please do so.

 

This principle has to be kept within reason; after all, if too many Humans die, Wolves win! We’re all taught that if we are getting mislynched, we should fight it tooth and nail to the last vote, and in fact this usually is the best way to do things. However, be sure to keep an eye out for exceptions.

 

For example, let’s say you're in some stage of a game where the town has worked out an optimal strategy. They've processed some role claims and power role results, and by chance you end up in a pool of players that there are definitely Wolves in. While it may be debatable that your presence in the game is more useful than your role, if they can surely get some dead wolves out of the deal, it’s probably better to just dump your reads and eat the incoming mislynch or vigi kill with dignity, rather than try to derail the other Humans’ efforts just to survive. See Principle 2 again – don’t obstruct anything that will bring your team closer to victory.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Most of the time, players on LLF seem to find being a plain old Human with no powers caging and limiting. Hopefully this guide demonstrates that it can actually be liberating, and how it’s one of the most flexible roles in TWG, precisely because it has nothing secret to worry about, unlike Blues and Wolves.

 

It all boils down to this; since you are by definition powerless, you also have nothing to lose, and can attempt stratagems that wouldn’t even be worth considering, had you the fear of getting lynched or killed with a power role if they failed. Go forth, be active, and have no fear. Fun is much better! And I think that’s what we’ll be having much more of if more people take this advice to heart when playing this most overlooked of roles.

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