The Importance of Voting - A Brief Guide

#1

“B-but I voted to execute that assassin!” the Mastermind cries as his head is severed from his wretched, cold body.

It’s a common fate for plenty of Masterminds and Cult Leaders to simply forget there is more to voting than the decision of the accused’s fate. The act of throwing an accusation is itself a vote and something BD and evils should pay more attention to.

Scenario:

Day 4
An unproven sheriff finds an unseen. He is accused by several players but it takes a further twenty seconds to reach the required number before the unseen member is put on trial. The unseen member produces a convincing set of logs but is ultimately executed with the unproven Sheriff insisting on his results: 6 votes to execute, 4 pardons, the rest abstentions.

Night 4
The Mastermind converts the Sheriff. There are no other investigatives left alive after this conversion.

Day 5
The Mastermind gets accused and executed. The reason? Failure to accuse the Unseen member despite voting to execute him.

How can this end differently?

The Mastermind can fade among the results and not be a huge glaring anomaly in the voting record with three simple approaches to the scenario.

  1. To add his vote to the accusation early to solidify a Blue Dragon voting attitude to attentive players.
  2. To abstain (as many others did) because it was a tough call to make, and therefore an abstention is not suspicious.
  3. To pardon citing that the logs seemed legitimate, which several Blue Dragons did. (This is ultimately a riskier option but viable as it can result in the unseen being pardoned and the truth being delayed).

Lesson to be learnt

An Unseen’s attempt to make themselves look like a Blue Dragon (voting execute on people accused to be unseen despite not accusing them in the first place because they know they are unseen) can often be their undoing. As a meta of certain behavior develops it can become glaringly obvious based on one’s behavior in game if they are evil, neutral or BD. It also becomes less likely (as players improve) that it’s just a BD player who isn’t voting properly or not paying attention.

‘Go big or go home’ applies here. If you want to blend in as a certain kind of player you must vote and behave like them. Plain logs are not enough and will be easily spotted by attentive players.

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#2

I agree with the purpose of this thread to say that accusations are just as important to pay attention to as the votes themselves. An important point to add though is that there for many roles it is impossible to ALSO pay attention to this. The time and mental capacity constraints are simply too high. A prince/psychic has to talk at day and night for instance. An observer has a hard log to upkeep and his decisions at night have a lot of strategic depth. My point is that the benefits of this strategy should not be overstated and it should not be a high priority for evil to adapt to this. This kinda strategy is, to me, only viable for roles like sheriff or noble that have a simple decision at night and can maintain easy logs. A point that I find for example way more important is knowing when to declare majority and get neutrals on your side.

Another point is that sometimes the court can actually not gather enough votes to vote up your fellow scum. For instance in a split accusations scenario where 2 people are getting accusations, so it is important to remember that the actual effect of your accusation matters a lot too, alongside the consequences for your BD reputation.

#3

Sometimes accusing your assassin at this sort of midgame stage is optimal as Mastermind as you can simply convert someone else the night after; the reduced player count means you are getting to BD minority a day faster. My guide applies more to early game where MM’s are often reluctant to let go of their unseen.

Doing this late game is not optimal obviously, since you pretty much have majority and it’s pointless to needlessly risk that.

#4

My guide is for MM:

If Convert N1:

On day 3, claim sheriff and accuse your assassin with their permission

They die, you can convert, third Unseen can kill, and you now seem like a solid BD

If first convert is on N2 to N3, simply wait two days after and then accuse and kill

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