StarCraft II Mafia Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Introduction[]

The following is a non-exhaustive list of terms and abbreviations that you may encounter while playing Forum Mafia. Please note that because this Terminology page covers Forum Mafia, it focuses on those terms which are more likely to be seen in Forum Mafia (as opposed to SC2Mafia) and discusses terms mostly from a Forum Mafia perspective, which is a little more detailed and advanced on the whole, compared with SC2Mafia.

To the extent you are looking for more general information about Mafia terms or terms that are used in SC2Mafia, please visit the regular Terminology page.

Lastly, please feel free to list in the comments any additional terms that you would like defined or terms that you would like clarified further.

A[]

  • Anonymous Account – Refers to an account established by a game host and assigned to a player solely for the purpose of playing in the host's Forum Mafia game. Hosts have the option of requiring Anonymous Accounts for their Forum Mafia game or allowing players to use their normal SC2Mafia.com forum accounts instead.
    • Anonymous Accounts typically begin with S-FM, M-FM, or FM, whichever corresponds to the type of Forum Mafia game you are playing. Typically S-FMs do not use anonymous accounts, and both M-FMs and FMs use anonymous accounts, but there have been exceptions to this general rule.
    • The main advantage to Anonymous Accounts is that it forces players to read each other without knowing each other's identities, which reduces (but does not eliminate altogether) the possibility of player meta being used or for players to target each other. It also allows for more role play to be put added to games (for example, a game oriented around Game of Thrones would have Game of Thrones themed anonymous account names).
    • The main disadvantage to Anonymous Accounts is that players typically have far less accountability to post and be active if other players do not know who they are. I.e. lurkers are typically called out and shamed in non-anonymous S-FM games, but it is far harder to do that when you do not know who the player behind the account is.
  • ATE – Acronym for Appeal to Emotion. This is typically used to undermine a player's argument by suggesting that it is not logically based but instead designed to get reader(s) to agree with the player for emotion-based reasons.
    • For example, Player 1 encouraging everyone to lynch Player 2 because Player 2 has played like crap, doesn't deserve the win, and his type of play shouldn't be encouraged would be an ATE / Appeal to Emotion designed to convince players to vote for Player 2 because of their anger at his playstyle versus anything about his alignment.
    • This term is almost always used in a pejorative way given ATE is typically not beneficial to the Town and can be used manipulatively to secure mislynches.
  • AMA – Acronym for Ask Me Anything and is taken from Reddit. Refers to when a player is openly asking others to ask him any questions that they have. This is often seen as a bit open-ended and perhaps passive -- i.e. the player in question is asking others to prompt him as opposed to moving the game forward on his own with his thoughts.

B[]

  • Buddy(ing) – Refers to an accusation that two players are closely coordinating with each other (including, but not limited to coordinating their votes) for a nefarious reason that is not beneficial to the Town -- the most common implication being that the two players are members of the Mafia and are implementing a plan that they discussed in Mafia night chat. They could also be Neutral Evils / Neutral Killing roles who have discovered each other's identities and who share a win condition of the Town losing the game.
    • Because Town members do not know each other's identities at the beginning of the game, there is some risk in over-coordinating actions among scum members. For example, if a player randomly votes another without any compelling evidence, and another two players suddenly vote for the accused as well, this could be a potential indication that all three are Mafia members and they are attempting to force a mislynch.
    • Accusations of buddying also arise when a player seems repeatedly votes along with another player without expressing any opinion of his own or any doubt about the first player's accusations. Essentially, this is to say that sheeping another player blindly can lead to accusations of both sheeping and buddying.
  • Breadcrumb(ing) – A breadcrumb refers to a (usually, Town-aligned) player's subtle reference to his role, night action, or night feedback. Breadcrumbing refers to a player leaving breadcrumbs (as described above).
    • The purpose of breadcrumbing is to allow a player to leave clues without overtly revealing his role or results, which might result in him becoming the target of the Mafia or Neutral Killer.
    • In addition, a record of having left breadcrumbs can help a player establish his credibility later in the game if he needs to make a role claim or make an allegation against another player.
  • Bussed / Bussing – Refers to either:
    1. Having been targeted at night by a Bus Driver, which will have moved your location that night -- typically used in the context of reporting that information to the Town; or
    2. A strategy whereby one member of a scum team (Mafia, Triad, or Cult) accuses or votes up another member of his team, not in an serious attempt to get that player lynched, but in order to deceive the Town into believing you are not aligned with that player (even though you actually are). This can be helpful if either of you are lynched or killed at night because then the Town will remember / you can point to the fact that you were previously suspicious of that player.

C[]

  • CC – Acronym for counter-claiming. Refers to a person claiming a role, then another person claiming that they are that role and not the first person. (If it is known there is only 1 type of that role in the game.)
  • CFD – Acronym for Chinese Fire Drill, which is a somewhat politically incorrect term that rarely used in our meta. Refers to when players suddenly change their votes from one likely lynch candidate to another toward the end of a game day. The term is usually used pejoratively as a warning against such practice as this practice anecdotally speaking rarely results in scum being lynched.
    • On the one hand, the end of the day is usually a good opportunity for action because many / most of the players in a game tend to be online and participation (given the need to decide on a lynch).
    • However, it is typically not advantageous to the Town for a lynch to be decided at the very last second without sufficient back and forth discussion (or hearing from the accused player). This is the reason the term CFD is a pejorative one -- since the unpredictability of a last minute lynch is often not successful for the Town, especially as the Mafia is informed and may use their group voting power to push a lynch against a Town player.
  • Chainsaw (Defense) – Refers to a player (X) defending another player (Y) by attacking the player or players (Z) who had been accusing X. Chainsawing is typically used pejoratively to describe questionable play and often considered to be a potential scum tell, especially to the extent that the chainsawing player had not previous suspected the accusers of being scum and the chainsawing player seems more intent on defending the accused player than than on actually scumhunting.
    • Specifically, it is somewhat odd to see a player overzealously defend another player by attempting to discredit that player's accuser, rather than focusing on the truth of whether the accusations are in fact correct. The Town's job is to identify and lynch the scum and outside of Masons or custom setups, Town ordinarily do not know who other members of the Town are (unlike scum). Therefore, becoming overly critical of someone merely because they are accusing another player might suggest that you have a relationship / inside information about the accused player (i.e. in the worst case, that the two of you are groupscum together).
    • Chainsawing may be unilteral (X defends Y by attacking Y's accuser Z) or mutual (X defends Y by attacking Y's accuser Z AND Y defends X by attacking X's accuser A). Mutual chainsawing is especially questionable as Town players should not strongly buddy up with others unless they have absolutely or near-absolute confirmation that each other are in fact Town aligned.
    • You should also consider the role of personal (i.e. real life) biases in terms of chainsawing. I.e. if players are friends, family members, or partners outside of the game, they may be more likely to defend each other out of some sense of real-life obligation or loyalty. Obviously, this is not a wise tactic for a Town player given anyone could be scum and it is not helpful for yourself or for the Town to have a blind spot for another player merely because you know them more closely.
  • Check – Refers to the act of investigating another player at night in order to determine that player's alignment.
    • To the same end, a Red Check refers to checking someone and receiving feedback that the person is a member of the Mafia and a Green Check is refers to checking someone and receiving feedback that the person is a member of the Town. The colors typically correspond to the color coding used by the host in his setup (where Red is typically Mafia and Green is typicaly Town).
  • Cit – A shortened version of Citizen.
  • Claim – Also referred to as Role-Claim, claiming is the act of publicly claiming to be a certain role, whether true or not. As a noun, refers to a player's particular Role-Claim.
  • Clear(ed) – Refers to when a player appears to have their allegiance with the Town guaranteed. Most commonly by having lead a lynch on the Mafia, been checked by the Sheriff or Investigator, or by being a confirmed Town role.
  • COM – A player's real identity (i.e. screen name or Battle.net name) as opposed to their in-game name. Most relevant when someone has a particular playstyle and you are trying to identify them based on that.
    • Some games use anonymous accounts in which case players will receive an Anonymous Account to post on, as opposed to using their normal account on SC2Mafia.
  • COM Claiming – Refers to a player claiming his real identity in a game with Anonymous Accounts. Some hosts prohibit COM claiming in games with Anonymous Accounts so you should carefully review the rules of the game you are playing before doing so.
  • COM Hunting – Refers to a player attempting to figure out the real identity of another player in a game with Anonymous Accounts. Some hosts prohibit COM hunting in games with Anonymous Accounts so you should carefully review the rules of the game you are playing before doing so.

D[]

  • D[X] – Refers to Day with the proceeding number indicating which Day. For example, D1 would mean Day 1, D2 would mean Dayt 2, etc.
  • Daykill – Refers to a host-designed role's ability to kill another play during the day. Usually, this ability would be activated by sending a private message to the game's host, who would then post an update indicating that the role's target had been killed. This ability is often found on Town roles -- for example, a modified Vigilante, but can also appear on scum roles as well.
  • Doc – A shortened version of Doctor. A player being healed by a Doctor is often referred to being doced.

E[]

  • Exec – A shortened version of Executioner.
  • [[::Category:Neutral Evil|Evil Roles]] – Refers to any role that is evil by definition. Evil roles are Neutral roles that wish to see one or all factions die.

F[]

  • Failor – Refers to a Jailor that has executed a town role. Without any information from the Jailor, it appears that the Jailor made a foolish mistake. This term is infrequently used in Forum Mafia given the prevalence of lynches which greatly reduces the chances that a Jailor will have the opportunity to jail anyone, much less execute them.
  • Feedback / Night Feedback – Refers to any information that you receive either based on your night action (for example, investigating another player) or based on something that happened to you at night (for example, being roleblocked or bus driven).
  • Flip – Refers to when a player's role is revealed by the game host after that player has been lynched or night killed. The term's origin is from the Mafia in-person party game where people received their roles on cards and cards would be flipped over to reveal roles. Notably, there are a number of roles in Forum Mafia which may prevent a player's role from being flipped (such as a Janitor) or which may falsify how a player's role flip looks (such as a Tailor or Actress). In addition, while most setups reveal players' roles upon lynching or death at night, not all do so, which can add to a game's challenge.
  • Forum Mafia (FM) Liaison – Refers to the SC2Mafia Staff Member who is in charge of reviewing / approval hosts submitted S-FM setups, organizing the queue of which S-FM games are allowed to run and when, maintaining the S-FM Ladder, and reviewing disciplinary issues that may arise during S-FM games (including, but not limited to creating an incident reports and imposing punishment). The current FM Liaison is Orpz.
  • FoS / FOS – Stands for the Finger of Suspicion, which is a reference or suggestion that someone may be scum without actually voting on them, perhaps in order to see everyone's reaction.
    • This can be an important strategy element in terms of reaction testing because members of the Mafia / Triad are likely to defend each other in chat. Also, to the extent that another Town member has cleared the target of the FoS, that can be helpful information for the Town as well.
  • FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) – Refers to a player who uses overly elaborate strategies or arguments to play toward his win condition, when a far simpler approach could have sufficed and which would have usually been far less risky. This term is derogatory in nature and is typically used to criticize players who overcomplicate the game or use excessively unconventional or novel strategies in the place of more conventional ones that are more likely to be received positively by their allies / faction.
  • Framed – Refers to a player that has been investigated and found to be Mafia due to having been targeted by a Framer.

G[]

  • Gambit – Refers to a risky maneuver by a player such as a potentially false role claim or unsubstantiated allegation against another player that might turn the tide of the game if successful.
    • Gambits are controversial because of their high-risk, high-reward nature. A well-executed gambit could turn the tide for the Town and result in an unlikely victory even when Town is not doing well. However, a failed gambit might doom the Town to a loss even when they might have otherwise had a chance.
    • In terms of meta, certain players are more well known for executing gambits than others (see, Fancy Play Syndrome). Generally speaking, gambits are somewhat discouraged unless executed by a very skilled player and / or the Town is in a desperate situation where it needs a major break or set of circumstances to go right to win the game.
  • Game Cards – Refers to the posts that the host makes to start the game, each day, each night, and the end the game. These posts are one of the primary responsibilities of a host given the information they provided to the players. At minimum, they should indicate the Day / Night number, whether any players were killed / lynched, and if applicable, revealing the roles of the killed player(s).
    • Hosts vary in the complexity and detail that they add to their game cards, with some also providing the player names (with crossed out names for dead players), role list (with crossed out names for eliminated roles), and flavor text which may or may not correspond to the game theme for the host's setup (if applicable).
    • Hosts are encouraged to put effort into their Game Cards . Good game cards can add a lot of valuable / immersive flavor to a Forum Mafia game, where bad game cards (with hosting errors, misspelled words, or limited content) can leave players with a poor impression of a host's effort / ability leading a game.
  • GF – An acronym for Godfather.
  • Groupscum – Refers to the Mafia faction of players in a particular game, who typically have more than one member (usually two or three in most S-FMs). This term is in contrast to the Neutral Killing role in some S-FMs, who does not have any factional allies and is usually on his own.
  • Guilty – Can refer to voting to have someone die in a trial or refer to proclaiming a player to be scum.

H[]

  • Hammer (Vote) – Refers to the final vote required to lynch a player -- in most setups, this means the majority vote on the player being lynched.
    • There are some custom Forum Mafia roles which specifically impact the voter who hammered a certain player, such as Ghost.
    • Please note that some games do not have a hammer vote concept and the day will continue on despite a majority of votes being on one player.
    • The Town should be careful not to rush a hammer because in most games, its success will be driven by the quality of daytime discussion. Accordingly, rushing a hammer deprives the Town of the opportunity for further discussion even if its lynch target is correct.
  • Hard Claim(ing) – Refers to a player directly claiming that he is a specific role. Hard Claims are in direct contrast to Soft Claims, which are more subtle and leave the player room for ambiguity.
  • Hidden Setup – Refers to a variant of Forum Mafia games where the host does not disclose the game setup, potential roles, or in some cases, even the rules to the participating players, all of which would typically be disclosed. Recently, Hidden Setup games have become more popular on SC2Mafia.com.
    • Alternative names for recent Hidden Setup games have been "Mystery Box" or "Grab Bag".
  • Host – The player who has designed the Forum Mafia game setup and who administers the game by setting up all night chats, processing all night actions, putting together day / night event cards, etc. In Forum Mafia, hosts ordinary do NOT participate in their own games.
  • Host Question – Refers to a player asking the host a clarifying question about his setup in the game thread. On SC2Mafia.com, Host Questions are customarily asked in light green so that the host can easily identify them when skimming the game thread. The host typically answers Host Questions in the game thread directly.
    • Typically, it is seen as a pro-Town move to ask the host questions about the setup that may make things easier for the Town, or at the very least, indicate that a particular player has put thought in the setup.
    • However, some players may attempt to ask the host questions in order to suggest that they are a particular role, or otherwise, to attempt to confirm themselves using the host. Accordingly, good hosts will stick to answering the questions asked (and all the questions asked) in order to avoid confirming / denying any such suggestions. Players have often viewed superfluous / odd Host Questions as scum slips as well.
  • Hydra – Refers to a special type of account which is expressly set up for the purpose of allowing two or more different people to play / post as the same player in a Forum Mafia game. Many SC2Mafia.com Forum Mafia games do not allow for Hydra accounts to participate in games, but player interest and demand has resulted in more games where hydras have been allowed in recent times.
    • Typically, games allowing hydras usually restrict them to two or three players per hydra. Also, some games only allow for "training hydras", which consist of at least one lesser experienced player in order to facilitate better balance among the different players.
    • Forum Mafia staff alternatively use the term "archon" to describe hydras in order to pay homage to SC2Mafia.com's connection with Starcraft. However, this term has not achieved much popularity with the player base and has been more of a source of confusion given the prevalence of the term "hydra" among other Mafia communities as well.

I[]

  • IIoA – An abbreviation standing for Information Instead of Analysis, this refers to a player's tendency to speculate more about the way in which the host has configured the game setup (to the extent it is not hidden) as opposed to providing reads of other players / pushing other players for their thoughts / reads.
    • Some players view IIoA as a potential indication that a player is scum, because such players may be more risk averse in letting on too much of their reads / sharing too much information that might later need to be contradicted in the event they are pressured.
    • In contrast, other players find it helpful to discuss how to approach a host's game setup, especially to the extent that the game setup is particularly novel, unique, or complicated.
  • Inactive / Inactivity – Refers to a player who has not met the host's minimum requirements for game activity and therefore, is subject to replacement or being modkilled (less desirable). Each host has the ability to set activity requirements as he sees fit, so you should carefully review the game rules to determine what requirements exist, if any. A common requirement is a certain number of posts per day and / or being forced to submit a night action (even if that night action is that you are choosing to take no action).
  • Inno(cent) – Can refer to voting to spare a players life in a trial or proclaiming a player to be Town or Benign.
  • Invest – A shortened version for Investigator or a shortened version of the investigate, which refers to the night action of Investigators. Also refers to Town Investigative roles in certain cases.
  • ISO – Refers to (an) isolation, which is where a player gives a read on another player by reading / reviewing just player's posts in isolation (i.e. without reading other players' posts). This is often a very good strategy to use when putting together a read on another player because it allows you to evaluate the quality of their posts and determine whether they collectively suggest whether a player is more likely to be Town-aligned or scum-aligned.

J[]

  • Jest – A shortened version of Jester.

K[]

  • Killing Roles – Killing roles are all the roles that have an ability to kill other players at night. each 'faction' have their own killing roles that are listed in the 'Killing' category of the random system. [[::Category:Town Killing|Town Killing]], [[::Category: Mafia Killing|Mafia Killing]], and [[::Category:Neutral Killing|Neutral Killing]],
  • KPN – An acronym for Kills per Night, which is an assessment of how many kills per night are likely given the presence / absence of Mafia / Triad and a Neutral Killing role. Most commonly used as a reason to keep other neutral killers alive because they keep the town deaths high per night.

L[]

  • Last Will / LW – An optional, but typically allowed ability of players to leave a message to be displayed when they die. It is highly recommended that Town-aligned players create and maintain a Last Will so that their night feedbacks and leads are not lost to the Town if they are either lynched accidentally or killed at night by scum.
    • Please note that some Forum Mafia games prohibit the use of Last Wills so you should carefully check the rules of your current game before assuming that Last Wills are allowed. When in doubt, consult your host.
  • Lawless – Refers to a type of Forum Mafia setup where there either is not a Town whatsoever (instead, dueling scum factions) or there is a Town full of offensive TPRs (Vigilantes, Veterans, Bodyguards, etc.) against a number of scum factions. Lawless games are typically not driven by investigatory leads as much as night killing and potentially, alliances between different factions.
  • L-[X] – Refers to the number of additional votes required to lynch a player -- for example, L-1 means that one more vote is required, L-2 means that two more votes are required, etc.
  • Lurking – Lurking refers to not participating much or at all during the daytime discussion part of the game. A Lurker is a player who is exhibiting this behavior. Typically, this term is used in a pejorative sense since Mafia is a game driven by discussion and non-contributing players are seen as not helping the Town's cause as a whole.
    • This can be a sign that a player is scum and trying to avoid revealing any information that may implicate himself or that a player is an important Town role and trying to avoid drawing the attention of the Mafia / Triad. Alternatively, the player could be continuously being targeted by a Blackmailer or Silencer, but usually such a player will spam vote to indicate that he is unable to speak.
  • LVP – Refers to Least Valuable Player, which is not an actual award given out at the end of most Forum Mafia games, but more a pejorative term used to describe poor play (e.g. that was an LVP play) or the player who performed the least capably in a game (e.g. #8 was the clear LVP of that game).
    • In the interest of encouraging better play and not putting other players down, it is usually better to avoid discussion about who performed the worst and instead, focus upon what players could have done better in a game. To this end, excessive negativity to the point of personal attacks against other player can result in warnings and infractions from FM Staff.
  • Lynch All Liars – Refers to a philosophy used in games that people who lie to the Town about their roles, night information, or anything else should be lynched by the Town ("lynch the liar") based on their dishonesty suggesting that they could be scum.
    • Proponents of this theory believe that Town members should always (or almost always) be truthful because misleading the Town is harmful and can result in confusion to the Town's investigation / thought process.
    • Those against this theory see the value in Town members sometimes executing gambits or reaction tests that could involving temporarily lying.
    • Generally speaking, however, most players agree that Town members should not lie unless there is a really good reason for doing so and that lying is usually a decent indication that someone might be scum (unless there is a really good reason or a player often executes gambits).
  • Lynch or Lose / LYLO – Usually refers to the situation where the player count is one more Town than Mafia. If the Town waits one more day to lynch, the Mafia will kill and thereby take majority vote after. The only winning move for the Town is to lynch randomly if there is no information, and hope that they catch a Mafia player.

M[]

  • M-FM – Refers to a Mini Forum Mafia game,
  • Meta / Site Meta – Refers to the particular way in which players collectively approach Forum Mafia games on a given Mafia site, in this case SC2Mafia.com, with respect to a particular issue.
    • For example, the SC2Mafia.com Site Meta with respect to Policy Lynches is not particularly well evolved and players are generally hesitant to Policy Lynch lurkers / non-participators even if it would be beneficial.
  • Mislynch (ML) – Refers to the Town accidentally lynching a Town-aligned player as opposed to scum. This is the worst outcome for the Town during a particular day because of the lost opportunity to lynch scum and the loss of a Town member. Forum Mafia setups typically allow the Town some margin of error in terms of the number of mislynches that they can make before losing the majority vote and therefore the game.
  • Mislynch and Lose / MYLO - Usually refers to the situation where a mislynch by the Town would give the Mafia the opportunity to gain a tie or the majority of the vote. Therefore, the Town must be extremely careful not to avoid mislynching and may consider not lynching if it is not certain of who the Mafia is.
  • Modkill / Host Kill – Refers to the drastic action of a host having to kill a player in his game usually due to a violation of game rules (for example, OGC or cheating) or inactivity and not being able to find a replacement. Also, with respect to the S-FM Ladder, being modkilled results in a loss of points.
  • MVP – Refers to Most Valuable Player, an award given to the player with the best overall play, as voted on by everyone who participated in the game as well as the game host.
    • Formerly, the MVP for an S-FM was worth S-FM Ladder points, but due to the politicization of MVP voting, the award was changed to be strictly ceremonial in nature.
    • Being voted the MVP of an FM game entitles its recepient to a special name color (cyan) and badge on the forum and is considered a very high honor.

N[]

  • N[X] – Refers to Night with the proceeding number indicating which Night. For example, N1 would mean Night 1, N2 would mean Night 2, etc.
  • NAI – An acronym for Non-Alignment Indicative. Refers to a player's actions not being suggestive of whether he is Town-aligned or scum-aligned. The term is typically used by other players when reading a player's conduct in terms of deciding whether he is more likely to be scum or not. The idea behind is NAI is that some players adopt similar playstyles regardless of their alignment and it may not be helpful to assume merely because a player lurks, for example, that player is automatically scum.
  • Nightless – Refers to a subset Forum Mafia games which take place entirely in the form of daytime discussion -- i.e. there is no nighttime part of the game / night actions. A large consequence of this is that there are not any nighttime kills and all player deaths occur via lynching. Because of the lack of nights, these games often involve far more discussion and reading players as opposed to relying on night feedback in order to generate leads.
  • No Action – Refers to a player making the decision not to take any action during a given night. Depending on the rules of each Forum Mafia game, players may be required to inform the host that they are not taking any action or the host may deem them to be "inactive" and may opt to replace them.
  • No Lynch / Skip – Refers to the Town deciding not to lynch anyone during a particular day or alternatively, not being able to muster the necessarily votes in order to do so. Players may vote to "skip" the day in lieu of a lynch, which will result in an immediate no lynch, as opposed to needing to wait until the end of the day.
    • On SC2Mafia.com, no lynches are generally considered disadvantageous to the Town (absent specific circumstances) because they allow the scum the opportunity to kill one or more Town members at night. In addition, no lynching deprives the Town of the opportunity to get any information from a lynch, whether or not the target is a member of the Mafia or not.
    • That having been said, it makes sense to pick a logical target to lynch, since mislynching a Town player could deprive the Town of an important TPR and will reduce the Town's numbers either way.
  • Noob / Newb – Universal to gaming, this refers to a player who is new to Mafia / the Mafia community.
  • Null Read – Refers to a player that cannot effectively be read by the others in the game usually because that player has yet to have participated enough in the game, and therefore, there simply aren't enough posts by that player (from either a quality or quantity) perspective to be analyzed.
    • Often times, Null Reads are the result of a particular player adopting a strategy of lurking or deliberate inactivity -- i.e. an overt choice not to participate actively in the game. Some players have suggested that these types of players should be Policy Lynched because they could easily be hiding scum and at the very least, aren't helping the Town even if they are Town.
    • In contrast, it might be advantageous for certain roles to remain off everyone's radar (e.g. a Doctor) so some may not be as hostile toward players with a Null Read, especially early on in a game.

O[]

  • OGC – An abbreviation standing for Out of Game Communication, refers to players discussing an ongoing Forum Mafia game outside of the game thread or authorized night chat rooms. OGC is a game rules violation for every Forum Mafia game, given the unfair advantage that it would provide to the players in question. Violators of the prohibition of OGC are subject to punishment including being prohibited from signing up for future Forum Mafia games.
  • OMGUS – An abbreviation standing for Oh My God You Suck, refers to voting for a player or accusing a player of being scum because that player just voted for you or accused you of being scum (as opposed to having a particular developed reason for your vote or accusation).
    • OMGUS is considered a negative accusation against another player for their retaliatory vote / accusation because it suggests that such player's motives are not well-thought out or based on a well-thought out read designed to help the Town.
    • Instead, an OMGUS accusation or vote may be based on self-preservation or an attempt to derail a lynch train against oneself by offering up another target.
    • In order to avoid accusations of OMGUS, it is helpful not to accuse players who are accusing you immediately, or at the very least, have reads / evidence / thoughts ready on why such a player is suspicious / should be voted up, other than the fact that the player voted for you.

P[]

  • PoE or POE – Acronym for Process of Elimination. Refers to reaching conclusions in a game about which players must be Town or scum based on eliminating certain possibilities as being impossible given the information that is already known. For example, if a game has 3 TPRs and 3 Citizens for the Town, if 2 TPRs already died, then there can be at most one TPR left. If 2 remaining players are claiming TPR, one of them must be lying and is likely Mafia.
  • Policy Lynch – Refers to a proposal to lynch a player not based on a belief that said player is necessarily scum, but because that player's game conduct is not beneficial to the Town in a material way and therefore, he will become an increasingly large liability to the Town if left alive in the game.
    • Policy lynching is a controversial and hotly debated topic in Mafia. Proponents would suggest that it is necessary in order to remove non-contributing or disruptive players from a game before they can further inhibit the Town's efforts to identify and lynch all the scum in a game. This is especially the case if the Town does not have another suitable lynch target during the day in question and would otherwise no-lynch. The suggestion is that if a player is not being helpful, his presence in the game will be even more problematic if the Town margin slims and his vote is required at an important juncture in the game.
    • In contrast, critics would point out that it is never a good idea to lynch a player that you believe is Town because that will reduce the Town's odds of winning the game simply in terms of statistics -- i.e. the Town's margin of error is reduced. Also, many players choose to troll at the beginning of the game, but will may more serious as the game progresses. Also, there is always the risk that the player being policy lynched is in fact a Jester looking for an easy win. Because the Jester will cause one guilty voter to commit suicide, it is generally not wise to lynch anyone that you believe may be a Jester.
  • Pre-Flip Association – Refers to the belief or argument that two players (X and Y) are groupscum (i.e. Mafia) together because X seems to be associating with Y and Y is otherwise suspicious / scummy seeming. Many players are vocally against pre-flip associations because of the tenuous logic involved and risk of being led down the wrong path by them, which can lead to bad results for the Town.
    • Specifically, X is being scumread for Y's behavior rather than X's own behavior, and X's apparent association with Y -- which are two assumptions being made instead of one. This increases the chances of the pre-flip association being wrong, which can lead to problems (see below).
    • In addition, pre-flip associations often lead to erroneous assumptions based upon the initial player's flip, especially if the two players are not in fact groupscum together. For example, assume X is Town and Y is Mafia. If the Town lynches X first (and X flips Town), then people who have invested in the pre-flip association will be less likely to assume Y is Mafia (which is wrong). Alternatively, if the Town lynches Y first (and Y flips Mafia), then people who have invested in the pre-flip association will be more likely to assume X is Mafia (which is also wrong).
  • Pressure (Voting) / Pressuring – As a noun, refers to the act of voting up a player / encouraging others to do the same, not necessarily for the purpose of lynching that player, but to force the player to divulge any information he may have, to see how that player responses to being voted up, and to see whether any other players defend the target of the pressure. As a verb, refers to a player taking this action against another.
    • Pressuring can be a very valuable strategy because members of the Mafia / Triad are likely to defend one another when votes begin to accumulate on them. Therefore, if a player is pressured and is immediately defended by 1-2 others, this may be a good indication, without further information, that the players may be part of the same faction, and could easily be the Mafia / Triad. In contrast, the defenders could be protecting against a random lynch of a Town member, so further context / questioning will be needed to make a determination on this issue.
    • Pressuring should be contrasted with random lynching because the objective of pressuring is not to randomly lynch a player without information, but to gain information from the player in determining whether he is likely to be scum or not. A target of pressuring is likely to conflate the two in order to try to get the pressure vote off of him.
  • Pro-Town – Refers to actions that are beneficial to the Town's efforts to identify and lynch or otherwise eliminate the scum (Mafia / Neutral Killing / Neutral Evil) roles in the game.
    • Players differ in their assessments of what exactly constitutes Pro-Town actions, but broadly speaking, players who are actively participating in chat, providing their reads, making logical comments about the setup / other players, and who are generally being thoughtful are considered Pro-Town.
    • In contrast, lurkers, trolling posts, posts that do not add much / any value to the discussion, random accusations, illogical posts, and spontaneous (rather than consistent) posting are typically considered Anti-Town behavior.

R[]

  • Random Lynch – Refers to lynching players without any form of proof. Random lynching is often looked down upon outside of certain extenuating circumstances (such as the Town being a MYLO situation).
    • Players often regard advocates of random lynching, especially at the beginning of a game as scummish.
    • That having been said, one should not confusing random lynching with pressuring, which can be useful in terms of getting information about how a player reacts to votes being placed on him, which other players defend him, etc.
  • RB – An acronym for Role-Block, a night action performed by Consorts, Escorts, and Jailors that prevents another player from using their night actions. Likewise, RBed refers to being roleblocked.
  • Reaction Test(ing) – Refers to the strategy of making an accusation against a player less because they are necessarily genuine, but more in order to assess how that player reacts to being accused. Can also refer to questioning a player aggressively in order to see their reactions to certain types of questions -- for example, if a player is adamant about not lynching another player and does not have a good reason, it might be an indication the two are Mafia together.
    • Reaction Testing can be a very powerful strategy as players who receive a scum role will have to make up a cover story / Town-aligned role to claim. Therefore, reaction testing can help uncover holes in a player's claims, as the player may back himself into a situation where there is no way his claim can be accurate.
  • Read – Refers to a player's opinion of another player's behavior or alignment based either on intuition (usually less helpful) or the other player's posts / in-game behavior (usually more helpful).
    • The word read can be combined with any alignment (e.g. a Town Read, a Scum Read, a Neutral Read, a Null Read) to indicate which alignment you believe a particular player is in the game.
  • Read Wall – Refers to a player posting his opinion of every other living player in the game, usually in the form of a list from most likely Town to mostly likely scum. Many players will color the names of each player, ranging from red (most likely scummy), yellow (neutral / uncertain), green (most likely Town-oriented), or white (a null read). In addition, the most effective Read Walls will contain explanatory notes for each player explaining why that player is likely scum or likely Town.
  • Replacement – Refers to a player who joins a Forum Mafia game as a substitute for / replacing an existing player in the game who can no longer participate (voluntary replacement) or whom is being forced out by the host due to inactivity (involuntary replacement).
    • With respect to the S-FM Ladder, being replaced out of a game results in a loss of points. Replacing into a game entitles the replacement player to receive points as if he had started the game normally.
    • Typically, Replacements are those players who did not make it into the game the first time around and signed up to be on the game's Reserve List, or who may not have had enough time to participate and signed up for the Reserve List voluntarily.
    • The host will usually announce replacements at the beginning of a Day or a Night as part of their Game Card post.
    • Because Replacements have not necessarily been following the game closely, it is usually good etiquette to allow them to read through the game and catch up on its posts before immediately pressuring them.
  • Reserve (List) – Refers to a list of additional player signups for a game maintained by a host in case the game's original players no longer have time to play or are forcefully removed for inactivity.
  • Role Fishing – Refers to players who attempt to get others to reveal usually subtle information about their role. This is often seem as scummy because it can be used by the Mafia / Triad to coordinate their night targets. For example, if they are aware that a certain player was healed at night, and role fish out that Player 7 visited the healed player, they can probably conclude that Player 7 is the Doctor and worth targeting the next night.
    • Role Fishing typically has a pejorative context since it is not beneficial for the Town to have their roles revealed to the Town, since the Mafia can in turn more easily coordinate their night actions around that information. For example, if a Town player attempts to figure out who the Doctor in a game is during the day, then the Mafia can night kill that person.
  • Role Card – Refers to the private message that you receive from the game host which lists your role and its abilities. This term has an origin of when one's Mafia role would be given to him on a card (either a real life index card or a virtual card in the SC2Mafia game). Some game hosts prohibit quoting your role card in open chat so you should be sure to read the game rules before doing so.
  • (Role) Flip – Refers to the moment when a night killed or lynched player's role is revealed by the host in the host's day / night update post. Players also use the shorter term "flip" to describe the same thing. This term has an origin of when one's Mafia role would be given to him on a card (either a real life index card or a virtual card in the SC2Mafia game).
  • RQS – Refers to the Random Questioning Stage of the game, which is an alternative to RVS (see below). Instead of players randomly voting another, they will ask / answer a list of questions, which are often general and focused on players' preferences as to roles and general thoughts about how to approach the game. In terms of our site meta, RQS is much more uncommon to see versus RVS.
  • RVS – Refers to the Random Voting Stage of the game, which is a period before the Town has many leads where players may be jokingly voting each other or voting each other in order to test each other's reactions to having been voted. Players' voting patterns can often be very informative of their alignment or at least help to determine potential associations between players.

S[]

  • Scum – Refers to any role that is opposed to the Town winning the game, mostly notably any Mafia / Triad or Neutral Evil role. The Town's objective is usually to eliminate all of the scum in a game via lynch or night kill.
  • Scum Hunting – Refers to the act of reviewing players' past posts in order to identify which player(s) are most likely be scum by factors such as their lack of contributions to day chat, making of false accusations, suspicious patterns in their voting, or which players they have believed / not believed. The opposite of Scum Hunting is Town Hunting.
  • Scum Slip – Refers to an accidental disclosure by a player which is an indication that player is a member of the Mafia / Triad or Neutral Killing / Neutral Evil role.
    • There is often a great deal of discretion as to what constitutes a legitimate scum slip and what is simply another player making an educated guess that another player is scum -- i.e. the term Scum Slip is often tossed around liberally as a means of accusing another player of being scum, regardless of whether something is in fact an objective scum slip.
    • Therefore, as always, you are encouraged to use your best judgment in evaluating the player making the argument that another has made a scum slip.
    • Lastly, Jesters may intentionally make "scum slips" in an effort to get themselves lynched -- i.e. what might appear to be poor play on their part could simply be in an effort to encourage you to vote for them.
  • S-FM – Refers to a Simple Forum Mafia game, which consist of 3-13 players.
  • S-FM Ladder – Refers to a ranked point system maintained by the FM Liaison, which rewards players points primarily for winning S-FM games, receiving the MVP for an S-FM game, and hosting S-FM games.
  • Sheep(ing) – As a noun, refers to a player who blindly or regularly votes along with another without much hesitation or thought given to his vote. As a verb, refers to the act of blindly or regularly voting along with another player without much hesitation or thought given to one's vote.
    • This is often an accusation made against players who appear to be voting without much thought. It can be used both in the Town context to prevent ganging up on a Town player by the scum roles or in a scum context to prevent the Town from ganging up on a Mafia / Triad player.
    • It may also be an indication that the two players (the initial voter and the sheep) are aligned because the second player is always voting with the first. Given you should always have a healthy bit of skepticism as a member of the Town, most players regard sheeping as either being lazy (less eager to justify one's vote) or scummish (perhaps an indicator that you are eager to push forward a mislynch and may be scum).
    • To the extent that the second player (the Sheep) has a good reason to be voting with the first player (for example, the first player is a confirmed member of the Town or has previously led the lynching of Mafia / Triad members, then the accusation of sheeping is far less effective / relevant.
  • Shitpost(ing)/(er) – Refers to posts made in a Forum Mafia game which are not helpful to the Town, but which are being made either as a joke / to troll or perhaps to sidetrack / distract the Town from making progress during the day. The Site Meta on shitposting is a bit mixed with some more serious players regarding it as anti-Town and potentially scummish behavior, while other more relaxed players find value in it in terms of having fun.
  • Sign(ing) – Refers to a player posting in a Forum Mafia's signup thread with an indication that he wishes to sign up for the game. Many players sign with either "/sign" or "/in", but other more creative variants are used. Players also tend to use "/unsign" if they need rescind their previous sign up for a game.
  • SK – An acronym for Serial Killer.
  • Soft Claim(ing) – Refers to a player indirectly claiming a role by making subtle or veiled references as opposed to starting overtly that they are the role in question. Often, TPRs will soft claim in order to leave clues to other players that they are valuable to the Town, but without being so obvious as to attract the attention of the Mafia or Neutral Killer. A Soft Claim is in direct contrast to a Hard Claim (overtly claiming a role).
  • Surv – A shortened version of Survivor.
  • Switched – Also referred to as Bussed or Driven, refers to when a player has been switched by a Bus Driver.

T[]

  • Target – Refers to the player that another player has used his night action on. For example, if Sheriff checked Player #2 on Night 1, the Investigator could post in his Last Will: Targets: n1-2.
  • TMI – An acronym for "Too Much Information", which is typically used to describe someone's posts pejoratively and imply that they may be Mafia based on saying something that they might not otherwise be able to know as Town -- for example, something related to the Mafia's specific roles or night actions.
    • Specifically, TMI refers to the fact that in a normal Forum Mafia game, the Mafia is "informed" -- i.e. they know who the other Mafia members are and therefore, who the non-Mafia members are (either Town or if present in the game, possible Neutrals). In contrast, the Town members are "uniformed" and do not ordinarily have information about the alignments of other players.
    • Therefore, the Mafia should be careful not to make statements that depend upon information that the Town does not have, and the Town should call out such statements as possible indications of scum players. Of course, Town players can speculate as to possible actions in the game so TMI might actually just be Town speculation and not an indication someone is scum.
  • "Too Scummy To Be Scum" – Refers to a common argument used to defend players with the logic being that the player in question is playing so poorly or acting so scummy, that it is actually less likely he is in fact Mafia or a Neutral Evil role (i.e. scum). This is because of the belief that no scum player would play as poorly / scummy as the accused player is with the knowledge that he is scum.
    • On the one hand, this argument is a fair one because scum players will often lay lower or try to avoid controversy -- therefore, someone playing extremely poorly or scummy might be attempting to execute a Town-sided gambit or simply be poor at the game instead of being scum.
    • On the other hand, often times players find it more difficult to play scum roles since they are having to act knowing information that the other players do not and conceal their role; therefore, poor or scummy play may be indicative of a player's guilty mind and actually might be worth pursuing.
  • Town Hunting – Refers to the act of reviewing players' past posts in order to identify which player(s) are most likely be Town by factors such as their useful contributions to day chat, logical / explainable patterns in their voting, or which players they have believed / not believed. The opposite of Town Hunting is Scum Hunting.
  • Town Leader – Refers to a player who has either decided, been asked, or otherwise assumed the role of leading the Town. Typically, Town Leaders exhibit many Pro-Town characteristics such as providing well-thought out reads, asking valuable questions of other players, and helping to lead the voting on other players.
  • TPR – Refers to a Town Power Role, which means any Town role that has a night ability -- i.e. a non-Citizen in most contexts.
    • Most Forum Mafia game setups contain far less TPRs than would be found in SC2Mafia. Accordingly, TPRs are crucially important in Forum Mafia and the Town should be as careful as possible in protecting them / not mislynching them.
  • Trolling – Refers to a player being a jerk in a Forum Mafia game for the purpose of being a jerk, as opposed to playing to that player's win condition. Typically, the intent of trolling is to entertain oneself or others by making provocative statements, trying to upset other players, or taking off-topic actions in a game that do not have to do with the game (for example, spamming images, video clips, etc.).
    • Typically, trolling has a pejorative connotation since it distracts the Town from its goal of identifying and lynch the Mafia. I.e. players trolling can sidetrack the Town and fill the game thread so that players have a harder time focusing on scumhunting. However, some players naturally tend to troll more than others so the act of trolling is not typically alignment indicative.
    • In terms of site meta, there tends to be a bit more trolling to begin games (i.e. during the first part of Day 1) since players do not yet have reads on each other. In this limited instance, there tends to be a bit more tolerance toward trolling than during other times in the game. Players often troll a little more when a conclusion is inevitable or there is a pause in the action -- i.e. players have decided on the lynch for the day and it is merely a matter of waiting for other players to vote.
  • TvT –Refers to a situation where two players thought to be members of the Town are arguing with each other, and is often used by a third player to describe that opinion. Essentially, if a player says that X and Y is a TvT situation, the suggestion is that both are likely Town and therefore, neither is a good lynch candidate. This is contrasted with TvW, which refers to an argument between a likely Town member and a likely scum member (werewolf).
  • TvW / TvS – Acronym for Town versus Werewolf (or Town versus Scum). Refers to a situation where two players are arguing, where one is thought to be a Town member and the other is thought to be scum (usually groupscum). This can be contrasted from TvT which is a Town versus Town argument.

V[]

  • Vanilla (Game / Setup) – Refers to a game setup which is very basic or traditional in nature. Often times, these types of setups only have Citizens, regular Mafia (Mafiosos), and perhaps a single Sheriff or Doctor. These types of setups may also disallow Last Wills. Because of the lack of TPRs, Vanilla Setups are often very driven by daytime discussion as opposed to night actions.
  • Vanilla (Townie) – Refers to a Citizen or whatever name the host has given for Citizens in his setup.
  • VCA – Refers to Vote Count Analysis, which is an analysis of how players have voted for purposes of determining which players are more likely to be Town and which are more likely to be scum.
    • VCA is very important in Forum Mafia because often times, the Mafia members may attempt to start or jump on trains where Town members are being voted up. Therefore, it is crucial Town strategy after a flip (especially a Town flip) to examine which players voted for a specific player and their motivations for doing so.
    • VCA is often conducted by cutting and pasting the list of votes for a specific day (or during a specific time) and providing analysis including which players have a lot of votes on them, which players have not been voted at all, which players seem to refuse to vote each other / who seem keen on voting for each other, and beyond that, analyzing whether players expressed any reasoning for voting each other, who started trains / jumped on them later, etc.
  • Vet A shortened version of Veteran.
  • Vig(i) – A shortened version of Vigilante.

W[]

  • WIFOM – Stands for Wine in Front of Me, this is a term taken from the Princess Bride movie, and refers to logically deducing what a player is likely to do or not do based on what you know / don't know about him so far in the game. This is often used to predict the actions of the Mafia or TPRs.
    • A basic example would be as follows: A player reveals himself to be the Mayor, but the day passes without a successful lynch and now it is night again. Both the Town and the Mafia will be using WIFOM to determine how they should coordinate their night actions. Obviously, the Mafia wants to get rid of the confirmed Mayor given how powerful that role is, but depending on the number of Town left, the Mayor could be guarded by a Bodyguard or bussed by a Bus Driver. Depending on what other roles have been revealed and how many other players are left, the Mafia might choose NOT to attack the Mayor for WIFOM reasons, predicting that a Bodyguard will guard him.
    • In contrast, the Town's Bodyguard (if one exists) is running the same analysis through his head, but from the perspective of the Town. He knows that the Mafia wants to kill the Mayor, but he also knows that the Mafia does not want to run into him at night because that would result in a member of the Mafia dying instead of the Mayor. Therefore, he is using WIFOM to predict what the Mafia will do and try to make the right countermove -- i.e. guarding the target that the Mafia is most likely to visit, whether the Mayor or another member of the Town.
  • Witched – Refers to when a player has been manipulated by a Witch.

V[]

  • Vote / Lynch Train – Refers to the concept of when a person votes another person without evidence and everyone else piles on to nominate the player to be trialed or lynched. This can be very common in public Mafia games, especially when players are eager for the game to move along.
  • VT – Acronym for Vanilla Townie. Refers to the Citizen (or equivalent) role in a Forum Mafia game, which is the Town-aligned does not have a unique name. This is in contrast to a NT or Named Townie, which is a Town role with a unique name.
Advertisement