Model games for newbs to read?

[Zindaras]

Eh, I'm not sure we should limit it to Normal games. Just reasonably simple setups should do.

Some of my personal favourites:

Mini 485: Formula One: While there's somewhat mehish play from the town, I think this is a good readable game for people interested in seeing scum win.

Newbie 321: I really can't get enough of plugging this game, but I think it still had a lot. Good townies, good scum.

Newbie 414: While it had some pretty bad activity issues, this game stands out in my memory as a game with a lot of good arguments.

Board Games Mafia: Again, activity issues, but this game had some pretty nice scumhunting.

Mafia 60: Face to Face: Solid play from most people in the game.

Most of these games are probably better in my memory than they were in reality. Kingmaker II (and maybe I as well?), Lights Out 2 and the first two Smalltowns (normal and Scrubs) also strike me as worth reading, but they had very differring setups. Two Smalltowns mainly because I liked a few of the setup-based plays in them. LO2 and KM II had good play, but difficult setup.

[Zindaras]

I disagree with all the criteria except the last one.

On the 1, I don't see how number of replacements being low makes the game better as a learning experience. To the contrary, I think that will hinder learning. Very rare is a game without many a replacement, and reading replacements and comparing them to their replacees is all part of the suite of skills a noob should want to build.

On the two, I think that first, what is or is not "standard" is going to be very difficult to define. Is fritzler standard? How about BJ, or IS? I think when you start trying to exclude which play styles you are willing to "showcase" you are going to inherently exclude some which can be very beneficial. Second, I think that censoring what gambits and play they're exposed to is bad because it limits the experience they're going to gain from reading those games. You need to see ABR claim cop with a guilty when he's vanilla townie and get both him and the real cop lynched for it to know that it's probably a bad play to do that. Limiting the newbies vision to just positive games does not let them grow, it just tells them to fit into a mold.

^^
Win.

MS isn't Normals. We should try to keep the games reasonably basic, but why keep it to Normals? Newbies, Minis, Opens, even Large Themes have enough to offer as well. You're going to meet the Fritzes of this world when you play Mafia here, so why shield them from the experience?