I’ve been this sort of role, twice.
The first time I just refused to use it. As far as I can remember I died irrespective of the actions of the killing roles. I didn’t like that at all.
The second time I selected a player to “take the hit” for in the event that they were targeted. I liked the flavour of that much better; I could try and pick out a key townie to save for a night.
Another cool character I have seen used before:
The ghost who after they are killed, can post anything they want, but only at night.
Another variation are players who day kill or alter day play with code words. Such as a suicide bomber who can kill one player durring the day but kills himself in the process. Or a freeze player who makes one persons day votes cease to count by writing a secret code phrase known only to himself and the games GM.
Then there are roles like mafia wife, who is a townie who knows the identity of one mafia but dies if that mafia member is killed. The mafia member knows who the wife is as well and dies if the wife is killed. Other variations on suicide pact characters can be cool as well.
Thanks for that. I knew it wasn’t as bad an idea as everyone seemed to think it was.
Ahh, I see. The mafia, then, would assume that the Informant is in their councils, would be voting with them on night kills (though the GM might not let the informant’s vote actually count, if this could be done without giving him/her away,) except that the Informant doesn’t actually know who any of them are. Makes some sense given the name, but your exposure scheme definitely would work in that case.
Maybe a better name would be the spy or eavesdropper. (The role idea was mentioned early on as Uhura in a star trek themed variant, IIRC - either on this discussion thread or the other. The communications expert who can tap into the secret Klingon transmitter system.) The scum would know that there’s a possibility of someone seeing what they say on the secret forum, but don’t get a chance to interact with them directly - though they’ll all be on the lookout for someone dropping breadcrumbs during the day that match up a little too closely with their conversations. 
I think the spy informant (a.k.a. “Uhura”) could work fine as follows: Has read-only access to the mafia boards, which can even include actual handles. BUT if the mafia kills the informant, the informant LOSES and cannot share in a town win. So the informant can’t just role-claim and post a list of Mafia. Nor can he hope to breadcrumb everything so the town can win easily after he dies and is confirmed.
(Well, I suppose he could and just accept that he doesn’t get an official win, but feels better that town wins. Maybe that could be avoided if he isn’t confirmed as an Informant publicly upon death. Or perhaps only the Mob gets the confirmation, but he shows up as vanilla town to the town. (or maybe even shows up as Mafia upon lynching or town night-kill, but town upon mafia kill))
Alternatively, you could allow the informant write access to the boards as well, and have the rest of the mob “know” he’s in the mob until he’s killed and confirmed. I think that would work with this added win-condition caveat, provided of course that the Mafia is allowed to vote to kill their own. You might want to bump the number of Mafia by one or two to offset the possibility of accidental Mob-on-Mob kills while trying to find the informant. Then you’ve got a cute little sub-game going on within the Mob itself.
Yeah, I was thinking about this possibility, too. The catch is that on the first night, the Doctor can afford to take the chance and protect him, and his perfect information would quickly prove itself enough that the doctor wouldn’t be taking a chance any more. And with that perfect information, the Town would have essentially no need for any further discussion besides the votes, so there’d be no tell whatsoever who the Doctor is. The only way the Informant would lose is if the Mafia lucks out and kills the doctor before they’re all dead, and the Town can’t lose at all.
However, I think it’d be also reasonable, given the role, to say that a Doctor’s protects won’t work on an Informant. The Mafia has easier access to him, and could, say, slip him a very subtle poison that can’t be treated. This would mean that the Informant could never role-claim at all. He’d have all the information in the game, but he’d have to use it extremely subtly, to keep from being a target. I think, though, that this might just have the result of making the role completely frustrating, and no fun at all. Probably better to just stick with the eavesdropper mechanic.
brewha’s going to hit the roof when he gets here and finds out that the investigation of Lakai came back with a power role…
I am going to miss having brewha in the game. I like his manic half insane posts.
ah yes, the Doctor does put a hitch in that.
Agreed, I’d go a step further and say that if the Mafia votes to kill the informant, nothing can stop it. (Doctor, GA, Watchman, Miller, etc…)
Agreed. That was exactly the fun of it, in my mind at least.
NAF, clarification: I thought the Beat Cop, if he blew his 50% chance of a right answer, got a random answer out of all the possible roles in the game - not just the wrong roles. Or were you tossing a crumb into the game thread and saying that as it turned out, every time the BC got a failure he got a wrong role (but could possibly have got a right one)?
And on another topic, a role I’m developing for the pirate game seems to be partly what you might call a Witness: Like a Seer, the Witness watches one person at night; but all the info they get back is whether or not the watchee killed anyone. (This would be dull by itself, but the role I’m working on is only part Witness - it does other stuff too.)
The as it turned out side. It was looking like it was about to get ugly with Brewha and the game didn’t need any more uglyness.
Can anyone explain why the town vehemently agreed that they all had to vote together, and then when they decided on a target, they decided that everybody voting together was a bad thing?
Oh, and brewha, when you read this, if it makes you feel any better, I’m on my way out to the bar right now.
I was thinking of a couple of roles that might spice up a plot today, but I’m afraid they’d add too much complication.
The Slut and The Jealous S.O.
The Slut is scum, but every night s/he randomly selects (via the GM) a member of the remaining town population for “intimate relations”. The town is never aware of this liason, even the object of The Slut’s transient affections. If s/he happens to get jiggy with a power role who can see into a player’s soul, s/he is seen as town. Love is blind, afterall. Why not random lust? The Slut is only able to potentially pull the wool over the eyes of the town player s/he has carnal knowlege of that night, and only for the duration of that night.
Meanwhile, The Slut has a Jealous S.O., who is town, but s/he is so blinded by righteous though misplaced rage that s/he is compelled to kill someone every night (similar to the Vigilante), no exceptions.
Worth exploring further, or should I scrap them?
So the Slut’s power is to pick one person every night, and if that person happens to be investigating the Slut, the Slut comes up town? Sort of a very limited role-blocker. It sounds amusing if nothing else. And presumably the Jealous S.O.'s mission of murder ends if the Slut dies.
I’m confused. The slut doesn’t get to choose who she sleeps with, and the chosen townie doesn’t know she did it. The only good thing about her is that she MIGHT show as town when investigated. If she ever slips up and lets on that she’s a slut then she gets offed. She doesn’t do anything for her team and in fact, because she comes with the baggage of the Jealous S. O., she might be a liability in the game. The Jealous S. O. seems indistinguishable(game mechanics wise) from a Vigilante or Serial Killer.
There is a pair of roles known as the Siblings which have a variant called “Lovers”. They don’t seem very well fleshed out there, maybe you could try at improving them?
Enjoy,
Steven
Incoming! opens beer for brewha
Hi Everybody! (this one works better if you knew my IRL is actually Nick)
Hey thanks for the beer!
437 posts?!? Man, I just left one monster thread for another.
Serious question until I get back. Does anyone else think that Queuing is mafia? Is he just acting like a prick as a defense or is he really a prick?
Cause if he’s mafia, he’s got the pull to keep Lakai’s neck out of the noose tomorrow. Is Lakai mafia? Am I the only one that’s convinced?
Well, he was prickish to me as well, but that neither confirms nor denies that he’s Mafia. I personally would not bet the change in my pocket against his being Godfather - he’s been acting like a really tall poppy for Days now and the scum have done nothing to him. But possibly the scum have figured they have bigger fish to fry.
Whoo-hoo. Right down to the wire, to the very last inch. What a crowdpleaser.
Alright, I’ve decided that I don’t want to relive this whole epic just yet. But on a skim
What do you mean Lakai didn’t get a vanilla townie role from the cop? That would have been very useful info. He’s gotta be scum! Right? Arghh! I say!
I never got the impression that he got a power role read. I’m not even gonna try and figure out that hint.