This directed mainly at classic/FP.

After playing EM for quite some time now, I felt inspired to post this thread, which discusses a highly misunderstood maneuver that is often seen as game throwing to the untrained eye. This is my attempt to train you, and feel free to add your views and opinions at the bottom. Claiming cop as blue d1. GT? Hypo? First off, most people I play with, both newer and more experienced, don't seem to realize exactly what hypo is. Hypo is when everyone claims a role (in this game mode cop) with a made up report. If done correctly, the real cop has a chance to out a potentially vital report before he dies. Some of the benefits of everyone hypo d1:

• Cop gets real report out. This can be important if he is killed n2, and adds a confirmed clear.

  • If pr is un cc'd, and cop's report wasn't on pr, then you have 2 un cc'd, and better odds than if you didn't hypo.
  • If cop's report was on maf, then you can lynch maf and you have better odds than if you didn't hypo.
  • If cop's report was on pr, then it's the same as if you didn't hypo, aka no downside to not hypo.
  • If for some reason cop doesn't die n2, then congratulations! You have accomplished the goal of a hypo, to have cop live to d2 with 2 reports. An impressive feat, considering you as town did that without any special powers!

• Mafia could possibly slip up.

  • Later in the game, what they want to say may not be the direction that their hypo was in, which could prevent them from claiming cop.
  • Because the mafia can't communicate that day, they may do something silly like bus partner. People just don't know how to react.
  • If one or both maf don't participate in the hypo, it can be seen as scummy, especially if someone educated on hypos (like you!) alerts that hypo's can only help town.
  • Great confusion for maf. Most of the time it is hard to distinguish the reports as real or fake, unless one of the villy claims someone other than you or your maf partner to be maf. More on that explained below.

• Works in almost all scenarios of Fancy Pants.

  • If doc: Works as normal.
  • If orc: If orc dies n1, then play game regularly. Hypo not needed, but can still be good on case by case basis. Otherwise, it works as normal.
  • If gs: No need for hypo. Play as normal.
  • If bomb: Bomb has a chance to confuse enemies. If bomb guilties a maf with his report, then theres a scenario for bomb kill. Bomb can also choose to act normal with an inno report if you think that will lead to a greater chance of you being killed.

Of course, an in-depth guide that didn't include some possible weaknesses wouldn't be worth it's salt (BB reference anyone?!?). Listed below are some extremely minor cons.

• People don't always do it. People don't understand it's benefits and we can prevent that by spreading this information to the masses.
• Maf can technically gain information if the hypo isn't done properly. Eg: Blue guilities another blue, so maf knows that person isn't cop. More explained below.

Wow Kellyn, that's really convincing evidence for hypo's! But what should I do for the hypo? Well, I'll tell you readers! It's really simple.

Cop should out real report (duh). As blue/pr, its usually safe to just say someone else is inno. The dust will be cleared the next day, so we want to try and prevent easy clues for the mafia. The only way maf can gain an advantage is if you inno a maf or you guilty a blue. Either of those can prove that you are not the real cop, but the odds of inno'ing a maf (2/5) vs. guilitying an inno (3/5) show that it is safer to say inno. If you are bomb, you can go with a guilty vote to try and increase odds of town winning. As maf, there isn't really much you can do other than to go with it and identify fake reports to try and increase odds. In most scenarios, the odds of villy winning won't increase that much.

If you are more Logos or math-driven like me, you can click the link below to take you to a plethora of calculations from every scenario possible, proving that hypo's are worth the trouble. If my math is wrong, tell me and I'll fix it.

http://pastebin.com/Fn3ieWmq

I get the numbers to be around 6.9% more games won with hypo, on average, not including reads/scumhunts

For some reason, some people think that claiming cop as part of a hypo is considered gt, especially if you are the only one doing it because other people in the game don't know about it. I personally think this is because they are not knowledgeable in this subject, and they automatically assume it's GT, just because they don't understand it. Sort of like how newer players don't understand the concept of bussing right off the bat, so they think their maf partner has gone nuts! I added a poll to gather your opinions about this, and to also bait you into reading this thread ;) I would love to hear your opinions on this matter.

In conclusion, hypo's are seriously misunderstood creatures, but can be used effectively by town.