To start the game Ratchet engages in conversation with both Slendy and Banker.
His first reads post consists of this:
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So far, I have banks at lean town. He's prompting discussion, questioning people and being proactive in the game. I consider all that to be town play, so it's a good start from him.*
SmartBomb is a slight lean scum. As I've alluded to, I didn't like his first post but he has been more on-point afterwards I believe.*
Slendy is right on null. It's going to take me a while to get a read on him for me, because while I don't outright agree with what he has said at times, it's still a positive contribution. Early pressure was good as well.*
fonti has been mostly on point as well, although I'd like to know his argument for townreading bomb, and more specifically, road.
Would he connect a town tag to a scumbuddy so early in Banker? I lean no. I also found his follow up to fonti interesting in that he wants to know about bomb, which makes 'sense' since he is a read, but he also brings up road out of seemingly nowhere in his posts. He didn't feel strongly enough about road to include in a read, but wants that information more than his scum read. That's curious. Of note, that is the first mention of road he had the entire game.
A shame Slendy is already obvious town to me, the early game interaction between him and Ratchet make it all the more apparent.
His first interaction with road:
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Mathematically doesn't come into it. Even if you found that Mafia will more often claim to be Mafia than Town would claim to be Mafia, that doesn't have anything to do with the maths behind the odds of Town claiming Town over Mafia claiming Town.
He responds to road, but not in any real meaningful way. He discusses mafia theory in a very neutral way. Again, this is a person he expressed interest in someone else's town read but... I don't see any real follow up to that pursuit.
He calls Riki “needlessly pedantic” about SmartBomb's post saying he is happy he rolled town.
Further reply to Riki:
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I don't like this post. It's quite reaching to go back to the bio, which gives a general statement on playstyle regardless of alignment, in order to push a point through. It's quite overzealous as well, and I was agreeing with you largely on this particular argument up to here (yes, I am only this far up but I figured I'd respond along the way rather than potentially ignore a big chunk of the day phase).
He got... very verbose with Riki here. He poked Riki quite hard here. I am going to note this as 'interesting' and see how their relationship develops as time goes on. I wouldn't think this is how someone talks to their buddy at first blush, but it isn't a major leaning.
Quote to Dorian:
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That doesn't make a great deal of sense to me. If he votes for you, tells you that you have done /something/ suspicious, but wont tell you what, I don't think it is going to prevent you from looking at your play and changing it up a bit to see what it is that was bothering him. What you said you'd typically do makes far more sense, so I'm not buying into the claim that it was to see if you will keep doing it. If it was, it should have been better executed.
Here he tells Dorian that he makes more sense than Slendy and props him up a bit. Does a scum member buddy up to a fellow scum this early? I lean no.
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I don't know what you were hoping to learn from the bios. Seeing as we all sent them before the roles were sent out (I assume), there isn't anything worthy in them to help discern alignment. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you are getting at here by "being different", but it seems pretty pointless to me.
Reponse to now confirmed town Doc, chiding him for how he plays.
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I can't tell whether you are actually being serious or whether you're looking to get some form of read on him through this, because it seems pretty arbitrary to me to give reads for that kind of play.
Chiding me for my snap town read of Cue, I just felt like including this for comparison sake because I think this makes me look good <_<.
Tells me I am making a fallacy, talks to cue, and talks to font as well.
First post about Bhuber is to mention his love of taylor swift and that a “wolf avy unsettles me.” What I find interesting about this is... Ratchet has been very mechanical in nature talking with a lot of players. Very on point. Very cold and logical. First thing with bhuber though he discusses being 'unsettled', an emotional state of being compared to the distance he has shown everyone else. I don't know what that means in a vacuum, but I am noting it.
By the way if you can Iso Ratchet and still think I am scum I'd be amazed. I am just reading our interaction and I know I am biased but good grief our early interaction is painfully obvious to me. I have a leg up I know but still!
He asks Banker to share reasoning about his v/w list. Just noting for no real reason here.
Votes confirmed town Doc. Doesn't tell us much now I suppose, but in my mind's eye I am now realizing that Ratchet has a nasty habit of voting and suspecting town in MSU/me/Doc/Smartbomb over the two days. I'll see who else he found suspicious day one and see if this adds up further.
Riki and Doc get into a discussion centered squarely around other players, which I found interesting. They discuss Doc over several quote blocks and have a spirited discussion about mafia strategy and theory.
Ratchet then takes the time to dismember Banker's colored list one by one. What I found interesting is the tenor he puts with each name. Note I am just summing up his feelings to get to the juicy bit:
He agrees that I am town
He disagrees that riki is town
He disagrees entirely that Cue is town
He disagrees that Bhuber is town on reasoning
He scoffs at his reasoning on Fonti
He agrees that MSU is is scummy
Now the thing to note is he literally says agree/disagree every time I said he agreed or disagrees. He said the word. The only time he doesn't so far is for Fonti, and that's because the reasoning is and I quote:
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I'm not sure how you can be more hesitant on a read based on actual play in the game compared to a read based on a largely baseless assumption and a read based on a joke, if your reasoning is to be taken literally.*
That's not what we're here for.
Banker said this about road:
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I put*road*on the scum list because I liked cue's point on him. I also had noticed he was ready to buddy with me at a point I felt he probably hadn't progressed to yet. I was most hesitant about this scum read than any of my other reads.
Ratchet responds with:
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Fair point, I guess, not much to say on this one. I find it to be reasonably argued, at least.*
Not agree, not disagree, but 'it can be reasonably argued.' A 'fair point.' Keep in mind this is the person that early on he wanted another player to explain more about but now he's... lukewarm. He gives no stance. In fact this language comes off as awfully distancing in my eye.
I am not reading scum buddy interaction when Ratchet and Riki talk.
419 especially seems pretty contested. Ratchet and Riki, at this stage, are really parrying each other based on reads. I don't find this typical of scum buddies. Not wholly convincing or anything, but something to note I feel.
Another response to Banker:
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Does it affect my read on you? No, because it's clearly more about playstyle in your case, seeing as you provided examples of where you did it as town before. I don't agree though, and I am interested in your reasoning behind why things like jokes are alignment-indicative to you, but I still believe that you're town (about as strongly as I can Day 1).
I would be quite surprised if Banker and Ratchet are aligned just based on how they talk with one another. The way he talks TO Banker when expressing his town read to me is telling. I don't think an intelligent scum player makes a scum buddy his # 1 town player, stays with it, and discussed it with him like this. This read is helped, of course, by the fact I have felt good about Banker independent of this.
Oh, this is an interesting post:
622
SmartBomb starts to think road might be scum and here Ratchet is giving another non-discussion point on road. In fact he completely ignores road really and just purely discusses SmartBomb and how is being vague and he thinks he has scum vibes from it. I am starting to see a pattern between Ratchet and Road develop in how much distance Ratchet is putting between the two of them compared to how he discusses other players.
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And I think this is scummy as well. "Why me?" - why not should be the question. Has he got any reason not to pressure you?
About MSU. I am quoting this because he literally asked why me end of day one and I busted him for it and I should have kept busting him for it and I am facedesking right now.
Here's another reads post from glorious confirmed scum Ratchet:
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Achromatic - Lean Town (Weak) - I liked his responses to me earlier, and I find his posts are mostly on-point. It's weak because a) - He's clearly a great player, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to convey this as scum, and b) - because I'm only willing to take logic and agreeable points so far in this game.*
bhuber2010 - Null - I haven't seen enough of him to get any sort of solid read on him. From the few posts he did have, I was getting town vibes from them, but it's just not enough.*
cue5c - Lean Scum - I'm just not seeing where he looks like town, to me. I can see why he will be doing what he is doing, as I mentioned earlier, but his tone is coming across as scummy, to me, and I'm not agreeing with the logic that he's too bold to be scum. I also think he's reaching very far out on his point against me, so it's possible I'm a little biased here.*
DocEspana - Lean Scum - Only for a seemingly smaller reason than others, but I really don't like his reason with pulling up the bios. It's very weak to me, and looks more like trying to justify doing so rather than doing so to meet and ends.
dorian78 - Lean Town - Simply because I find myself agreeing with him a lot, as evidenced by the fact I do not have many, if any, replies to him.*
fontisian - Lean Town - As above, I think I'm somehow mixing these two up as well.*
MSU - Lean Scum - My strongest scum read at the moment. I've provided the reasons, but his reads are really weak and vague, which in my experience equals scum reads, and his reaction to pressure was quite poor in my opinion.
RatchetOPB - Town - Obvious Town Ratchet is obvious.*
Riki - Lean Town - I like his questioning, and his arguments make sense even if I don't agree with them. I especially like his reads list, as it genuinely looks like effort has been put into them.*
road - Null - I like most of his posts, but I'm getting vibes that tell me I shouldn't be. Really weak read here I know, but I can't read road right now, hoping that changes later on as there has been plenty of content from him (similar to his sentiments for me actually).*
Slendy - Null - I haven't seen much of him lately, but I've given my thoughts on his beginning. It does look a bit weak looking back, although I think it is noteworthy that he was inconsistent with his logic initially.*
SmartBomb - Lean Town - I've completely changed my mind on SmartBomb. I thought his start was quite scummy largely, but since then I like his posts and his reasoning. Also, he's going to keep me company for a bit.*
TehBankertin - Lean Town, strongest town read. I understand that scum can be very active and it works as a smokescreen, but I can't really hold a possibility that can apply to anyone active against him fairly. I like his questioning, his confidence and his reads, even if we align up rather poorly.
Let's first break down the list of people I think are good to go/know are town:
Me – town
Cue – scum
Slendy – Null
MSU – scum
font – town
Doc – scum
Smartbomb: town
The rest:
Riki: town
Banker: town
road – null
dorian – town
bhuber – null
Ratchet has a nasty habit of going after town players, I think. All three of his early scum reads are confirmed town. What I find interesting though, and this is meta I used to amazing success in Game 2 as MSU can testify on my behalf, is scum can't help putting at least one of their buddies as null. They just can't help themselves. Scum don't want to town lean both of their buddies because it could come back on them. It's just a thing scum...have a very hard habit of breaking.
So let's look at the three null blurbs of Bhuber and road
Slendy, whom I like for town, is about a lack of seeing him lately for the most part. I think that's a fair reasoning for feeling null about something.
Bhuber he says is inconclusive based on number of posts. A pattern with Slendy. He thinks he has been town, but not enough. This sounds genuine to me actually. I wouldn't look at this again.
Now we get to road and... notice something weird? He likes road's contents, but there's just something off he claims. What I find interesting about this is how... different it is from Bhuber and Slendy. Theirs' is about a lack of content mostly, whereas road Ratchet really wants us to feel his conflict here. He gives himself an opening to go either way on road at any point and moves on. I find this to be very damning for road, personally. This, in hindsight, doesn't appear to be a natural read at all and seems incredibly forced into the realm of null. As if he realized he had a buddy in town and didn't want two of them there.
So let's look at the three town reads from the list of people in my suspect pool:
Banker, his strongest read for awhile now. He lists two things he really likes, even if they disagree. I can smell the buddying of town from here, in my humble opinion.
Riki – His arguments make sense, even if I don't agree with them. That's a pattern with Banker and Riki, liking despite disagreement. It is a common thread!
Dorian – Simply because they agree. Wait, that's different. Two of the town reads in dispute are town despite their disagreement, but with Dorian it is simply a matter of them agreeing. He has apparently been able to see past simple agreement when it comes to the others to find their true, bursting town nature but Dorian this doesn't apply. He also uses qualifying language in 'simply' as if he could, at any moment, discard this read if it suited him.
What's INTERESTING about this, is his point about me. I know it's just above but I'll quote it. He qualified his town read on me with “I am only willing to take … agreeable points so far in this game.”
Dorian and I are held to different standards. Why is that?
Based on that and how he interacted with others, to this point (and I am stopping for now so MSU has a chance to read over this portion and give me some feedback) I think road looks very bad by how Ratchet treated him, with Dorian a distant second. I think Banker looks a lot better and Riki looks somewhat better based off of these interactions. Bhuber hasn't really made any movement.
