Alright. I think that it's safe to say that the food vendors are all vanilla townies, and are all cleared at this point. Since I also consider myself cleared (for obvious reasons), that leaves 2 scum out of three people. Let's analyze the two that have claimed:
1. Empking: Claimed reporter. Says that he is doing a fluff piece on the Carnival, which just came into town. There are many problems with just that part of the claim, as wikipedia tells me, because Karnival in the Rhineland began (specifically in Cologne and Duesseldorf) to be a
local
festival in 1823, 6 years before the Carnival we are supposed to be taking part in, so not only would the reporter (assuming the concept of a reporter was around in the early 1800s) would not be interested in something 6 years old that was merely a local festival. He may have been interested in the fighting that was breaking out, but that was not what Empking claimed. Also, the idea of "coming into town" cannot be true either, as in the early years of the Carnival, it was not a travelling show, but rather a community festival to precede Lent.
And then onto the role he actually claimed. Thus far, all of the roles revealed have been at least semi-standard (VT, doublevoter, vig, tracker, sibling), but Emp claimed a role that I, for one, have never heard of, and sounds waaay too similar to ortolan's role to be true. Plus, the methodology of the role doesn't work either. You claim to be a reporter, but you are going to people's houses in the middle of the night to see if they are home? How does that have anything to do with the way a reporter funtions logically?
Looking at everything involved in Empking's claim, and even ignoring the slip up, it is very obvious that his claim is faked.
2. WLC: Claimed one shot vig. Oddly enough, this is the exact fakeclaim used by Mokina, one of my scumbuddies, in Facedown and Thirsty, so I'm wary right off the bat because of that. Also, the historical implausibility I already mentioned before, and while it
could
serve to counteract the Jester role, it is highly unlikely that something like that would happen.
Now let's get into balance issues. I'll start by saying that I like one shot vigs in Minis. They are great balancers for the town to have in a 12 person game, because otherwise, barring some other killing role or a kill prevention of some sort (be it No Lynch, doc protect, roleblock, etc), the town will be left in an unfavorable lylo position (assuming they don't win before lylo) of either 5-3, 4-2, or 3-1, which provokes a No Lynch, thereby sacrificing the most pro-town player right before it matters the most. The one shot vig counteracts this by giving the town a single kill, that, even if it doesn't hit scum, makes the lylo situation more numerically favorable to the town. This game counteracts this problem in a different way however. By lowering the player count by one, the need for a one shot vig is completely eliminated, as now, unless it hits scum with its single shot, it damages the town severely in a two-fold manner; both by removing an available mislynch before lylo, and by putting the town into that exact unfavorable lylo situation that the role is put in to avoid. Therefore, balance issues imply strongly that if there was a vig (which there shouldn't be in the first place), that it would be of the regular variety.
Given all of that, I am reluctant to believe your claim WLC. However, I do not want you to attempt to prove it, as, if Empking is not scum, and you do not hit scum with your shot (assuming you are telling the truth), then we autolose instead of going into lylo. For all intents and purposes, your role should be treated as a vanilla townie if you are town.
Because, no matter how you dress it up, that's what the world is. A community of idiots doing a series of things until the world explodes and we all die.
