Guide to Mechanical Play in Closed Games

## Introduction

This guide will introduce the fundamental aspects of mechsolving and mechanical play in closed games (hidden-setup). When I say “Mechanical Play”, I don’t exactly mean nightplay, or power role actions. Mechanical play in closed setups mainly revolves around how to sort players better using the claims they make, setup speculation, and fakeclaiming (mainly applies to scum). In this guide, I will cover what I think is optimal mechanical play for both alignments, town and mafia.

A small caveat first; Mafia is a social deduction game, and relying on mechanics alone will not win you the game, as social interactions are the main way to solve/make reads. However, knowledge of optimal mechanical play will greatly augment social aspects and also allows you to deal with different mechanical situations in-game.

NOTE: These tips do NOT apply to role madness setups (aka there are little/no Vanilla roles)

## Town Mechanical Play

### Massclaiming (Mass RR)

Massclaiming (or mass role reveal) occurs in Cylo (condemn or you lose) or a day before Cylo, and it basically means everyone role revealing in a short period of time, to reveal the whole setup. If it’s likely that conflicting roles/counterclaims will happen during massclaim, the approach is to claim a day before cylo, since that allows a day to resolve claims and discourages scum counterclaims. Otherwise, massclaim should happen in cylo to allow more valuable nightkill info near the endgame. It’s usually better to encourage scummier players to claim first, to limit the options mafia have. For example, if mafia are allowed to claim at the end of massclaim, they have the knowledge of the whole setup and can tailor their claim to look townier. Massclaiming (usually) should **NOT be done early** for several reasons. Firstly, it reveals all town power roles, teaching the mafia where to kill. If there is a doctor in the setup and massclaim is done D1, you can wave goodbye to your doctor on night 2. It also teaches scum what to expect, as they now have a much clearer idea of the threat they face with the whole setup revealed from their point of view. Finally, Mafia can make optimal use of their PRs post-massclaim since they know who needs to be blocked and tracked.

### Setup Speculation

Setup Speculation refers to the analysis of which roles are in the setup and which roles are not. This is done after player(s) claim, often an important PR such as Cop, Doctor, Tracker etc. Setup spec is also done post-massclaim typically, as everyone’s claims are made apparent. First things first; these rules won’t be not universal as every Host has their own **Meta and HostWIFOM**. In simpler words, each host has a different sense of balance and some like to include more unusual combinations of roles, thus changing base levels of setup spec. However, the tips below will apply to non-role madness and reasonable setups, especially those that follow The Firefly7 Roleset.

One good rule of thumb is that most setups, there are usually **no more PRs than Mafia**. When there is an absurdly high amount of PRs (such as 5 claimed PRs in a 3 Mafia:8 Town setup), it’s often good to consider whether one or more of these PRs are not real. This of course depends on the power of the PRs - 2 negative utility PRs such as Tourist or Delinquent with 2 mid-level PRs such as Nurse, Vanilla Cop or Agoraphobe and a strong investigative (Cop or equivalent) might make sense. Another general rule is that on average, the setup can provide as many “clears” (mechanically confirmed townies, such as un-counterclaimable roles like Vigilante, or Cop blues) as Mafia.

Setup spec also revolves around how the roles **fit together,** or thinking about the setup from the point of view of the host. For example, a pairing of Cop and Delinquent makes sense since Delinquent acts as a false guilty for Cop, providing synergy between the two roles. However, if a Bulletproof, Medic, and Agoraphobe claim, this would provide a lot of protective power for the setup, which is very unreasonable unless scum have more than one Strongman, and we get into powercreep territory with that. Some examples of roles that have synergy are Lazy Tracker and Tourist (Tourist compulsive visit shows as a false “visited result”), and most investigatives/Medic (Allows invests to live longer, and medic has someone of value to protect from kills). You might also want to consider if conflicting roles (such as a setup having BOTH Tracker and Polygraph - strong investigatives) can really co-exist in the setup, since most hosts tend to not place conflicting roles together.

As a concluding remark, it’s important to not get lost in endless setup spec (despite this article teaching you to do it). Setup spec simply augments social interactions and scumhunting. Given the freedom of claims in closed setups, you should analyse claims from a mechanical perspective and a social interactions perspective, and this is exactly why Closed is a great setting.

### The Dilemma: Should townies fakeclaim?

NOTE: This section consists of my subjective opinions on fakeclaiming.

We’re onto the age-old debate of town fakeclaiming. A well-executed fakeclaim from a townie can throw mafia off, and certain scenarios like a coordinated roleswap can benefit from fakeclaiming. However, townies generally want to simplify (thus the word mech**solving**), and fakeclaiming can muddy the waters and overcomplicate the situation. The mentality of claiming PR = defense is wrong; defending yourself can be done using good dayplay, and claiming PR isn’t a way to change that. A fakeclaim from town can also terribly backfire. If you accidentally claim a conflicting role with another town PR, this might cause chaincondemns on yourself and then the PR, allowing scum to sweep the game.

## Scum Mechanical Play

### Fakeclaiming

First and foremost, scum shouldn’t play for the highlight reels. They shouldn’t fakeclaim for the sake of it. Sometimes fakeclaims draw you more attention than give you town credibility, especially near endgame, where staying under the radar is often ideal. However, what fakeclaims can do include disrupting town mechsolving by creating confusion, allowing yourself to be seen as more townie because of your claim fitting in with others, and even set up a miscondemn on a real PR, all which don’t happen in Open Games.

Similar to the Setup Spec section above, you should look at town’s claimed roles and see what feasibly works. Strong investigative just claimed? Might want to rr as Nurse, as Nurse serves a dual purpose of protecting and roleblocking (so the strong invest doesn’t get out of hand). Delinquent claim? You’d consider a Cop or Polygraph claim depending on the strength of the other PRs, as Delinquent is a fake guilty for both invests. Alternatively, you can claim a role that doesn’t have many interactions with other town roles such as Agora/Bulletproof. Bulletproof claim also serves a rather ideal method for explaining why you’ve been alive for so long. It’s generally a mediocre idea to claim a confirmable role such as Crier/FV/Sergeant, as you don’t have the means to confirm yourself and will get voted anyways.

One thing to remember is that you are the informed minority. The knowledge of your roles gives some idea about the threats you’re facing, as mafia roles often exist as counters to town roles. For example, a Hooker serves the purpose of gating strong PRs, and usually combats strong investigatives. A Grandpa or Jekyll implies town killing power, as Grandpa is basically a mafia bulletproof and jekyll a mafia doctor. Ninja usually implies a Tracker or Lazy Tracker, basically being the GF for these roles. With the knowledge of the general strength and type of town roles existing in the setup, you’ll be set up better for a well-made fakeclaim. The scum power roles that you hold can also assist you in fakeclaiming, with a classic example being Scout fakeclaiming Tracker. With knowledge of who someone visited last night, catching a fakeclaiming Scout is considerably harder as they can report accurate information.

Another scenario in which you will need to fakeclaim (or risk pushing against the real investigative) is when guiltied/soft-guiltied. For example, if you are shown as visiting the nightkill to Tracker, you will need to claim a visiting PR that visited the nightkill. Another scenario is a Vanilla Cop “Not Vanilla” check, which essentially stops you from claiming a VT. Other than Cop guilties (options are claiming Delinquent/Patsy/frame, which is generally seen as pretty scummy), there are a few inventive ways to talk yourself out of most guilties. For Poly, you can go with a miller-like or a role similar to Soloman; Tracker can be fakeclaimed out of with Tourist or any visiting non-protective PR.

As a general rule of thumb, fakeclaiming in closed setups is more with the aim of disrupting town mechsolving or gaining towncred; while fakeclaiming in opens are more about drawing out the real PR. It’s not ideal to claim too early as you might accidentally counterclaim/have a conflicting claim with a town PR.