The main issue for me right now, is is Storyteller a Townsperson or a Werewolf.
Nanook, in [post=9886557]post 1049[/post], presents a reasonably good summary of the question. Let us for now neglect the hypothesis that Storyteller is Dracula.
If Storyteller is a Townsman then he is the Constable. We only have to look back at M1 (links available on request) to see what happens when a townsman makes a false claim of a Town-aligned power role for an example of why not.
The counterclaim might not (indeed should not) come immediately, but sooner or later it will come. When that happens, Townsmen will be confused, and debate, and the confusion will give the Wolves a chance to establish an unassailable position.
Storyteller-the-Constable is giving us true reads – ie he is reporting what he has been told. This does not mean his reports are inerrant; one of his two “Townsperson” reports could in fact be the Alpha Wolf. How can we test his claim? We match the reports against revelation of the true role on death.
Now, it’s not a good idea to lynch a reported Townsperson – unless you are a wolf. That would encourage a Wolf to make a false claim and ID a townsman as what they are, then expect us to do their killing for them. Besides, if we refuse to kill reported Townspeople, that forces the Wolves to go after them, wasting their kills. The wolves can either kill the Constable-cleared Townsmen, thus providing corroboration of his investigations, or kill an unknown, thus reducing the pool of players in which they can hide.
When Storyteller the Constable finds a real genuine Werewolf, all bets are off. It is a gain to the Town to lynch them, especially if the gamestate is close to Lynch or Lose. It provides some corroboration of Storyteller’s claim. There’s only one thing that makes me hesitate to place my own vote now. I’ll discuss that a bit later in this post. For now, suffice it to say that I plan to vote for Shadowfacts later. But I want to discuss another issue first.
Now, let us discuss the possibility that Storyteller may be a Werewolf.
Usually, Werewolves trying to false-claim the Constable risk discovery by making slight errors in their reporting as well as by the real Constable counterclaiming. That is, the Wereconstable may report that so-and-sow is a Townsperson, then when the “cleared” player is slain it is discovered that they have a power role. In this game, that danger is completely absent, if there is a Scout. The Scout can tell his pack who he is going to sniff at, then use a simple code to alert their packmates to the result that same Day. Consequently Storyteller the Wereconstable could benefit from the Scout’s investigation when reporting his find, even if the Scout finds out only after Dawn.
Storyteller-the-Wereconstable could even bethe Scout.
Now, a Wereconstable would expect his reports (so long as they remain unchallenged) to be treated as a real Constable’s. If he falsely reports a Townsperson return on a Werewolf then we’re not going to lynch those people until given a reason to. That reason might come from (say) a false Werewolf report. Now, if we lynch a subject reported to be a Werewolf and find they are a Townsperson, the immediate reaction would be to lynch the lying investigator the next Day. Thus, if the game continued, the Wolves would have engineered a 1-for-1 trade (in the short term). This is worthwhile only if that sacrifice pushes the Wolves to the edge of victory, if not over it. I submit that, for Storyteller to be giving a false report about Shadowfacts, the Wolves must believe it to be endgame. Either they win by the lynch of Shadowfacts (immediately or with the Nightkill), or they have a solid plan to steer the Town to mislynches after Storyteller is lynched the following Day.
Thus my hesitation over joining the Shadowfacts bandwagon right now is that nagging doubt “Is Storyteller’s report a way to bus the Townspeople into the abyss.”
To get a handle on that, I want to count the numbers, which I will do this evening. (I have some football to watch. The type of football that uses a spherical ball and moves it around by kicking it instead of picking it up and carrying it.)
Back later with more waffle.
