Whew, lots of activity while I was asleep! Let's see what we've got here.
Well, DaBigCheez has homed in on the lurkiest lurker.
It'd be rather hypocritical of me to vote James for being a lurker, then not vote Anchorman for the same degree of lurking as I voted James for, now wouldn't it?
And, to clarify: My earlier "vote" for Anchorman was indeed a vote, and NOT a F
oS, just to clear up any doubt on that point.
Reporter speculation time!
Mavketl wrote:I agree that one of the two journalists is most likely scum, but we shouldn't assume that when we are analyzing the reports/articles after they get published.
I'd agree that we shouldn't take it as an axiom that on
e will be trustworthy and o
ne will be scum lies, but I wouldn't trust anything I read in the paper without independent verification for a second. We can compare it later, once we've got more info, to see if th
ere's any r
eal information in it - until we have some reason to believe it, I'd say treat it as amusing flavor text. (I'd have a hard time imagining both Journalists to be scum, but as mentioned, they might not have reliable information sources even if they are town.)
BigNose's idea of a journalist and cop working in tandem is interesting (kind of like my Investigative Reporter/Writer musings from earlier), but I don't believe th
ere would be a role which is absolutely useless without another specific role still alive, as the "cop who doesn't know results of own investigation" and "reporter who does" pair would be (the reporter can still bluff without the cop, but the cop effectively loses his po
wer if the reporter is killed, since th
ere's no way to get the info to anyone). Sure, it's a bit of a meta-argument, but that'd be an unsatisfying enough mechanic that I don't think it's likely the case. I think a cop knowing his own results and those results *also* being funneled to a reporter is more likely, if the
re is some sort of cop-reporter synergy.
My main worry is that the reporters will have some information source beyond the
ir own suspicions, but that this will be compromised (i.e. scum-controlled or at least scum-affected). If o
ne is scum and on
e is to
wn, I find it more likely that they'd be able to run contrary opinion pieces with only th
eir own opinions. Both as to
wn with only their own opinions would just spew wine everywhere; this is a possible scenario, sure, my gut feeling is just that it's less likely to have been used as a mechanic, due to po
wer balance/fun reasons. Wooo meta!
I've been considering the idea of o
ne town and o
ne scum being *both* fed the results of a cop investigation, but that seems too easy to have both the town reporter and the cop shout down the scum reporter and get it figured out from the beginning (though a scum could always counterclaim cop, but it would still force a showdown pretty early). Having th
ree people know the results of the investigation sounds bad for gameplay.
My leading theories (based entirely on rampant speculation) are thus:
1) O
ne scum reporter, on
e t
own reporter. No information sources beyond own suspicions.
2) On
e scum reporter, o
ne t
own reporter. T
own reporter is also a cop, scum reporter is fed the results of town reporter's investigation. To
wn reporter may be an unreliable cop.
3) Tw
o to
wn reporters. To
wn reporters have information sources less powerful than cop, independent of o
ne another. O
ne or both of these information sources is being fed to them by scum.
If th
ere is a "separate cop, results fed to both journalists" mechanic in play, and we wind up with t
wo cop/reporter pairs counterclaiming to directly contradict each other, process of elimination shouldn't take very long.
Being new to any form of M
afia with roles beyond cop/doctor, I hadn't heard of Watchers before. My understanding is that the standard Watcher sees all activity going on during the night (at least in the sense of which players are performing actions on which other players, not necessarily what those actions are] - is that correct? If so, tw
o t
own Watchers would seem kind of redundant, except to give different flavor and/or backup in case of scum kill. I'd be more inclined to believe that if both reporters are to
wn, on
e is a Watcher and o
ne has some form of investigative po
wer; or, both are Watchers, but with a o
ne-scum/o
ne-t
own split to sow confusion. (If a Watcher can just watch what on
e player does per night, then both reporters as tow
n Watchers is a distinct possibility.)
And, as noted by Mav, it's kind of a meta-argument that the journalists have any extra info at all, based on the fact it would feel like an unsatisfying role otherwise rather than by the actual text of what cjdrum said; so, I'm leaning towards journalists having extra info (~75%) but it's definitely not certain. (All him mentioning it really did was inform us "This game contains two journalists", and I'm attempting to extrapolate what those journalists might do from that rather than by his specific wording. The fact that he felt it "im
portant enough" to include is basically irrelevant, it's just that we now know they exist; I used the "imp
ortant enough" bit in some of my thinking since I can't excise it entirely, but I'm trying not to rely on it.)
