By writing this out I will inevitably figure out how to play FM :^)
Now in Geyde’s FM tutorial, we can get onto fun stuff
At the beginning of the game, you are PM’d a rolecard. First off, check the wincon. This will evaluate how you are going to be playing this game. Typically it will either involve defeating either the informed minority or the uninformed majority.
If you rolled town, then you know you are town. Your voice is important to get your thoughts out.
If you rolled scum, then you know everyone’s alignment in most game types. You also know who your teammates are, which is important. You need to make sure to work with them to overpower the town.
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As town you have many tools at your disposal in order to find scum by reading their intentions and motivations behind their posts.
Scum have an agenda they need to push in order to win, and they know what everyone is.
Town are trying to find the other town and find the scum. Being natural is how they roll.
Scum want to stop the town from finding the other town and want to prevent town from finding the scum. Scum additionally want to look town (or have their partners look town), so they may vote eachother to keep up being natural and/or throw eachother under the bus.
If someone is natural in their posting, and you can agree with their thought process and progression, you probably found a villager.
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As a side note as scum always be posting as much if not more so than your town self. You’re wanting to make sure you get townread while subtly manipulating town into destroying each other.
It’s okay if you mess up as scum. You have buddies to help, and win or lose it’s just more fun to play. 
UTR (Under the Radar a lack of posting) imho is only viable if all the chefs in the kitchen are town and ripping themselves apart and 100% have ignored prior statements.
We can apply these ideas by looking into some common tells and articles from people who are waaaay better than me at mafia.
https://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?title=Category:Common_Tells
https://www.mafiauniverse.com/forums/threads/11752-11-Effective-Wolf-Hunting-(by-Klopp)
By looking at this guide you shouldn’t expect to be a god instantly out of the gate. The most important thing in mafia is acting with intentionality.
Practice and experimentation are extremely important. You shouldn’t sit idly by and let the TLs play the game for you even if you think that you aren’t as good at reading.
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You may know what they are at surface level, but what’s the connotation of those wincons?
Final secret tip:
Reaction testing should only be used against players that don’t know it exists
It’s funny as shit when it works but don’t use it unless it will work
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Anyway, I can’t keep talking about this: 1% battery. No charger. SOS. Send help!
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If anyone would like I could go over some practical examples of reading.
Some of the best places to start off on in my mind when reading scum are:
Magnus from 2d3 II
Insanity from Dustpan Deception
Geyde from Adiart Lovers
They get sequentially harder in difficulty, but using the principles we established earlier it shouldn’t be all that hard.
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In my book, meta reads don’t help players get better.
You should try to avoid using them excessively, and try to read players using other reasoning as a basis.
Meta makes a good pair of glasses to look at someone from, but they shouldn’t make your read.
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