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Mafia Encyclopedia Maftannica

amazonevan19

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Tina said:
Someone really needs to write a dictionary on the terminology and abbreviations you guys use.

I gotchu fam :cool:

Welcome to the (semi-official) TBT Encyclopedia Maftannica! Here I take user-submitted definitions of commonly used abbreviations, acronyms, and terms used on a frequent basis in mafia games on this forum. PM me or post any definitions you wish to add and I'll consider putting them up if I feel they will be of use to the broader community! (This is intended to be a serious project, so no troll definitions or inside jokes and the such permitted)

Should someone ask "what does this mean?" Feel free to direct them to this resource.

A
AtE - abbreviation for "appeal to emotion." A tactic employed by a player to communicate their thoughts in an emotional way, usually to an extreme.



B
Blue/blue role: a town-aligned power role. See "power role."

Buddying: when a player seems to be trying to get in another player's good graces through agreement with their ideas or voting alongside them. Often used as an accusation of being mafia/seen as a mafia tactic to make themselves look good.

Bulletproof: A blue town role that has a vest. The vest allows the player to survive one shot.

Bus driver: a (almost always) town role that can switch two players each night. Any action done on a switched player will affect the other player targeted by the bus driver. For example, suppose a Bus Driver switches John and Jack. That same night, a roleblocker tries to block John and a Mafia Goon tries to kill Jack. In the end, Jack will be roleblocked and John will be killed.

Bussing: 1. (Primary usage) when a member of the mafia team decides to throw one of their teammates under the bus, either by posting that they suspect said teammate or voting to lynch said teammate. This tactic is usually done so the mafia member ends up looking more pro-town once the teammate dies and turns out to be mafia. 2. (secondary usage) When a bus driver role switches the actions of two people. See "bus driver."



C
CFD: short for "Chinese fire drill." When a group of voters at the end of a day phase suddenly switch votes to someone who was previously not in contention to be lynched. Also known as a "blitz vote."

Cop - a pro-town role, wherein the cop private messages the host a person they wish to investigate (usually at night), and after the phase is over, the host sends back a report on the target's alignment and/or powers. Comes in several variants. See role cop, vanilla cop, crazy cop.

Claim - the act of publicly stating a player's role in the thread.

Coasting - when a player posts very little substantive content or no content at all and is just "skating" through a given phase under the radar. If you're accused of coasting, try posting more substantive content and be more active if you can!

Crazy Cop - a pro-town role, wherein the crazy cop private messages the host a person they wish to investigate (usually at night), and after the phase is over, the host sends back a report on the target's alignment. The investigate, however, will come back to the crazy cop as the opposite of what it really is. So if Kim the crazy cop investigates Tom, and Tom is town, Kim will get back a guilty reading.



D
Detective - see cop.

Distancing - when a player, either covertly or overtly, seeks to disassociate themselves from another player seen as being potential mafia or hostile to town. Often used as an accusation of being mafia/seen as a mafia tactic to make themselves look good.

Doctor - a town-aligned role who can protect one person from being killed at night. Sometimes (but not always) allowed to protect themselves, and usually not permitted to protect the same target two nights in a row.

Dolby's Wager - a term coined in xCleb's Generic Mafia game. amazonevan19, a townie, was accused of being scum by Chele, the mafia, and Dolby, the dormant serial killer. Dolby had been claiming survivor the whole game and proposed that through voting, the scum could be determined by who voted to majority lynch. After Evan initially agreed, he expressed doubts about the plan, and nobody voted to maj, so the scum wasn't found out until much later.



E
EBWOP - abbreviation for "edit by way of post." Since TBT mafia rules disallow editing a post for any reason, edits must be made by making an additional post. Since the software merges posts automatically, this isn't a big deal and is expected and encouraged. See ninja.

EoD - abbreviation for "end of day." The last couple hours of a day phase, frequently accompanied by hectic posting and vote switching.

EoN - abbreviation for "end of night." The last couple hours of a night phase, usually when people post lists or their suspicions before they potentially get killed.



F
Flavor name - refers to the name of a character based on the game's theme. For example, if the game is Sherlock Holmes themed, and you are Sherlock Holmes the cop, your flavor name is Sherlock Holmes and your role name is cop.

Flavor text - the "decoration" or theme that goes on a role or game in Mafia. Sometimes it is as simple as giving each role a character name that makes them seem to come from the city where the game is set; other times it can involve using modified role names from a particular source, such as a movie or book. Sometimes the flavor is important to the game, or your role; sometimes it isn't. Game hosts usually indicate whether or not it is.

Fearkilling: the act of killing another player solely because you fear them. The fear can be for any number of reasons and done by any alignment, but it's usually due to the player's skill level and usually thought of as being done by mafia. Example: Hm, I think mafia fearkilled Susan on night 1 because she's really good at the game.

FoS. Abbreviation for "finger of suspicion." Usually used to denote actions someone thinks is scummy and bring them to attention in the thread, e.g. "FoS on Bob because he led the lynch on Sally."See sus/suss.

FMPOV - Abbreviation for "from my point of view."



G
Gamethrow - playing against your own win condition. This is forbidden in the rules and may result in you getting banned. This does not include voting for the wrong person, as that's a central element of mafia gameplay. Instead, gamethrowing refers to things like a mafia member outing all of their team members, or a townie claiming to be a mafia. Generally think of gamethrowing as doing something really stupid that irreversibly harms your own side.

Godfather - 1.) a member of a prestigious group of mafia players on TBT that are widely regarded for their skill at the game. 2.) A mafia role that comes up as innocent on investigation reports. Since both definitions are widely used on this site, sentence context can help you determine which one is being used.

Goon - a mafia role that has no special powers aside from the shared mafia kill power.



H



I
ISO - short for "isolation." Taking a lot of a certain player's posts and analyzing them in a big post of your own. Often used as a scumhunting technique. Example: Sally: "I need to ISO Bob." Sally then goes and isolates Bob's relevant posts that she wants to analyze.



J
Jester: A third party role that must meet their win condition by getting lynched during the day. Also sometimes referred to as "fool."

JOAT: abbreviation for Jack of all Trades, sometimes stylized JoaT. The JOAT is a role with several one-shot night abilities - typically abilities centered around investigating, protecting and killing. The JOAT may use whichever ability they want on a specific Night, but can use each one only once. Almost always a town role here on TBT but it could be a mafia aligned role as well.[/spoiler]



K
KP - abbreviation for "kill power." How many kills the mafia collectively has. In most TBT games,
kill power is determined by the formula x/2, with x = the remaining mafia members. When there's an odd number left, KP is rounded up.



L
LYLO - abbreviation for "lynch or lose." A situation in the game where town must lynch or else they will lose after mafia kills off another player during the night. Obviously, if town does not lynch a mafia at this juncture, they lose. See "MYLO."

Lynch - the act of the game's players voting off one of the players during the day vote.

Lyncher - a third party role whose goal in the game is to get a specific person lynched. In most games, if the Lyncher succeeds in fulfilling their win condition, they will leave the game and in the end be pronounced a joint winner with whichever faction wins the main game.



M
Mafia - one of the major factions. Evil and opposed to the town. Always in the minority but know who each other are and win when they equal town's numbers. Commonly referred to as "scum."

Majority lynch - when 50% plus one of the player base votes to lynch a player. Depending on the specific rules of a particular game, the day vote could immediately end upon majority lynch being reached.

Meta - usually refers to the typical posting style of a player. So if one says Bob is reflecting his scum meta, that means the way he’s acting or posting is similar to prior games where Bob was scum. An argument that “relies on meta” is one that relies on interpreting a player’s posts in light of their prior games.

Mindmeld: When two players post almost identical ideas or exhibit similar thought processes, often in a short window of time. Often used as a way to confirm who's likely to be town - if someone's thinking like you, they may be more likely to be on the same team as you because they have the same goals in mind.

Modkill - short for "moderator kill." The act of a game host killing off a player for inactivity, rule violations, and/or violations of TBT code.

MYLO - short for "mislynch and lose." A game state where the Town will lose if it mislynches during the present Day phase. This is different from LYLO in that LYLO requires the Town to lynch correctly, whereas in MYLO the Town is still afforded the opportunity to No Lynch without losing the game (though this generally makes the next Day LYLO).



N
Ninja: The act of a player interrupting another player's post merge with a post of their own.
In broader internet usage, can also refer to people posting very similar thoughts at exactly or nearly the same time.

NK - abbreviation for "night kill." A nighttime power which lets the player kill another player. Can be a town, mafia, or third party power.

NL - abbreviation for "no lynch." When the players decide to not lynch anybody. Usually done when no viable candidates arise, or if the risk of killing a power role is great. Generally discouraged by TBT mafia players in most situations, however.



O
Obs - short for "observers." People who are not playing in the game but have requested access to a chat room to discuss the game. Also used frequently to denote "observer's chat," the aforementioned place the game host sets up for observers to share their thoughts about the game. Dead players can usually request to join the obs chat as well.

OMGUS - stands for "Oh my God, you suck." Refers to a player suspecting an opponent solely due to that opposing player suspecting or voting for them.

OP - acronym that can mean one of two things, based on context: "original post/poster" or "overpowered." Original post refers to the first post of a game thread, and usually details the rules.
Overpowered is just as it sounds ;)



P
Paranoid gun owner: A power role who indiscriminately kills anyone who visits them during the night. Is almost always town aligned.

Pocketing - refers to someone attempting to gain the confidence of another player to hide their true alignment. Usually used to refer to a mafia buttering up or agreeing with a town player so the town player will townread them.

PM - private message. A message sent only to one person on TBT, not in the game thread. Distinctions are made between "pm" games and "non pm" games. See rolePM.

Power role - a role which has a special power aside from "your voice and your vote." Can be town,
mafia, or third party.



Q
Quicktopic - a website game hosts use so the mafia can talk among themselves outside of the game thread. This is done in no-PM games as no one is allowed to private message each other, but the mafia have to have a way to coordinate actions outside of thread, so Quicktopic is a way for the host to monitor conversation and answer any questions the mafia may have.



R
Reaction test - when a player posts something to see how another player will react. Is often comprised of an inflammatory or false statement so the other player will "fly their true colors." Sometimes abbreviated "rxn."

Read: the act of attempting to deduce the alignment of a player due to their posts in the game thread and/or their actions in the game. See "reads list."

Reads list: a list that a player posts, detailing their thoughts on who they think are town and mafia.

Role Cop: an investigative role that receives only the role name of its target. There is no indication of the target's alignment; if a Mafia Goon is investigated, they return "Vanilla", although a Godfather will return "Godfather." Important: Can be either town or mafia aligned.

RolePM - short for "role private message." The PM the game host sends to each player at the start of the game detailing their role, alignment, and powers (if any).

Rose the Roleblocker - 1. reference to the "Miraculous Ladybug Cultists" mafia game. User Toadsworthy was a town-sided roleblocker and user Tae was the detective. Tae inspected someone else but believed he had chosen Toadsworthy and got a result of "cult." Tae proceeded to say that Toadsworthy was cult when he was not, and Toadsworthy proceeded to lose his mind. There was a lynch on someone on the basis of "insane cop," lots of sarcastic poems, plenty of salt, and ultimately ending up in Toadsworthy leading a lynch on himself. When all was said and done, Tae was culted the night after revealing that Toadsworthy was "cult," and so went along with the whole charade until Toadsworthy's lynch on Day 3. 2. When someone uses so much Appeal to Emotion (AtE) that you believe them to actually be town despite all odds

RQS: short for "random question stage." A way to begin a game of mafia by posting a list of questions that everyone can elect to answer or not. Kind of an icebreaker that can include stuff irrelevant to the game, but it's mostly used to generate discussion on what people think about the game.

RVS: short for "random voting stage." As opposed to RQS, which seeks to generate discussion through answering questions, RVS seeks to generate discussion by placing votes to eliminate a player with little reasoning given. This may seem like a bad strategy but often by doing this, it reveals what players think and who may be teamed with who. Contrary to what the name implies, RVS isn't just picking a name out of a hat to vote, but has some goal in mind.



S
Scum - see "mafia."

SK - abbreviation for "serial killer." A third party role whose goal is to kill a set number of people to win the game. May be tasked with killing a specific person(s) or role(s) in lieu of, or in combination with, the number requirement. Can win the game alongside a faction or alone.

Strongarm - a mafia-aligned role which has an unblockable night kill. This means that if the doctor protects Bob, and the mafia uses their strongarm kill on Bob, Bob will die because the strongarm breaks through the doctor's protect.

Softing - when someone posts something that implies they are a certain role, without explicitly stating they are that role. Often done in hopes of a friendly alignment "picking up" on the clue.

Sus/suss - short for "suspect." The act of a player examining another player and explaining why that person could possibly be mafia.



T
Third party - a faction not aligned with either town or mafia, usually with its own special set of win conditions. It is up to the host whether or not to make their win conditions exclusive to town and mafia's (ie third party wins, everyone else loses) or concurrent (third party AND town/mafia can win together).

TI - town investigators. An umbrella term that could refer to any number of pro-town cop/detective roles. See "cop."

Town - a faction whose goal in the game is to eliminate all mafia/scum players. Do not know who each other are at the start and are in the majority.

TP - see "third party."

Tunneling - when someone focuses almost exclusively or exclusively on one other player, usually by suspecting the other player and then continually pressuring the suspect.



U
Unjester - a third party role that meets their win condition by being killed at night. This is the opposite of a jester that must be lynched during the day to meet their win condition.



V
Vanilla Townie - a town-aligned role with no additional powers. Their only way to influence the game is with their voice and their vote. Abbreviated "VT" or referred to as "vanilla" in most threads.

Veteran - A power (blue) role that has one extra night life. Should they be hit by any hostile roles during the night, they are usually notified that they were attacked and get to live instead of die like a normal non-veteran player would. (See: Bulletproof)

Vigilante - a role with a one-time kill power. Usually a one time night kill and usually a town-aligned role, but in very rare instances a maf vigilante is possible.

Vig shot - short for "vigilante shot." Used to refer to either the kill power a vigilante has or the person that a vigilante is rumored to have killed. See vigilante.

VT - an acronym which can refer to two different types of players: vanilla townies or veterans. Be sure to clarify with someone what they mean if you are confused, or try to deduce based on the sentence context. See vanilla townie, veteran.



W
WIFOM - stands for "Wine In Front Of Me." Refers to a reverse psychology tactic wherein someone who doesn't want to be lynched will say they are fine with their lynch. Can also be used to refer to any tactic that seeks to determine the true intent of a player based on their choices, with full knowledge that their behavior would be subject to scrutiny.

Wincon - short for "win condition." What requirement needs to be fulfilled for a faction or person to win the game. Included in the rolepms.



X
X-Shot - a role modification which limits the number of times a power can be used. X is often swapped out with the number of times the ability can be used. For example, a one-shot vigilante will only be able to kill once.



Y



Z
 
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You have a lot of free time.

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Thank you so much, hahahahaha! :D
 
You have a lot of free time.

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Thank you so much, hahahahaha! :D

more like "bored with school and work and frustrated with a lack of resource on TBT terms, so I decided to fire this up"

my pleasure!
 
Thought of those two acronyms as I drove, seeing them mentioned here must be a sign ;)
 
Probably should add EBWOP (Edit By Way Of Post), LyLo (Lynch or Lose), NL (No Lynch), NK (Night Kill), VT (Vanilla Townie), and SK (Serial Killer). Other than that, thanks for devoting your time to make this helpful encyclopedia, good job.
 
VT is either Van Townie or Veteran :<
 
This is good work! and sure to be helpful for future players!
 
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Thank you for your feedback and suggested terms! Is this correct for the entry on KP?

"KP - abbreviation for "kill power." How many kills the mafia collectively has. In most TBT games,
kill power is determined by the formula x/2, with x = the remaining mafia members. When there's an odd number left, KP is rounded up."

My memory may be a bit fuzzy on the formula but I think that's what it's supposed to be. lmk
 
Thank you for your feedback and suggested terms! Is this correct for the entry on KP?

"KP - abbreviation for "kill power." How many kills the mafia collectively has. In most TBT games,
kill power is determined by the formula x/2, with x = the remaining mafia members. When there's an odd number left, KP is rounded up."

My memory may be a bit fuzzy on the formula but I think that's what it's supposed to be. lmk

Sounds fine.


Other suggestions:

Difference between bus driver and bussing a teammate.

Cult

OOTC (Out of Thread Communication)

Red/blue/green/yellow

Flip

Clarification of the term "One Shot" (cough cough dylan who thought one shot means vig :rolleyes: )

WoTC (Wisdom of The Crowds)

My notes on your already defined terms

Scum - see "mafia."

I sometimes use scum to reference (hostile) third party, it doesn't always only mean mafia. Usually it's a catchall term for me.
 
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some more suggestions

dumbtell (this isn't used much but ye)

mylo

pocketing

tunneling
 
i always look up PoE bc i'm dumb so that might be a suggestion

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and that ocazm razor thing, i still don't know what that means lol
 
i always look up PoE bc i'm dumb so that might be a suggestion

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and that ocazm razor thing, i still don't know what that means lol

Occam's razor means that among multiple competing theories, you should select the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

Let's say you're about to be the deciding vote between two people. Person A has been somewhat scummy throughout the game. They've been dodging questions, and haven't exactly been helpful. Person B has been helpful but you feel like they're scum. You can see how they could be scum, but it requires you to assume a variety of things, none of which you have any way of being able to prove.

Occam's Razor states that you should vote Person A. You ignore the assumptions and go with what the plain evidence you have shows.

Make sure to put "hammer" in H.
 
Occam's razor means that among multiple competing theories, you should select the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

Let's say you're about to be the deciding vote between two people. Person A has been somewhat scummy throughout the game. They've been dodging questions, and haven't exactly been helpful. Person B has been helpful but you feel like they're scum. You can see how they could be scum, but it requires you to assume a variety of things, none of which you have any way of being able to prove.

Occam's Razor states that you should vote Person A. You ignore the assumptions and go with what the plain evidence you have shows.

Make sure to put "hammer" in H.

ohhhhh thanks oath that makes a lot of sense now haha (oh and evan now u don't even have to write a description for it hehe)
 
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