The Veteran - Get off my lawn!!

I've gotten lucky and been a Veteran quite a lot lately. I do enjoy this role, so it's about time I give you my take on the paranoid war hero. Here's the Veteran.

The role is quite simple: You get three alerts. And every night you use one, you kill any-, and everyone who visits you.

My first and most important piece of advice for all Veterans out there is this: Leave your name in your Death Note. There is no reason not to do this, as the evil roles will already know who you are by the time you've killed one of them and the townies might lynch you if they dont know it's you. So always leave your own name in your Death Note.

My Veteran's Death Note always looks like this:

Saturn the Veteran commands thee to get off his lawn!!

- sincerely, Saturn the Vet

Sometimes I add "I told you so" to it, because I give people a fair warning most, if not all of the time. Why? Because it's just more bluffs and mind games to screw over the enemies' heads... And that is EXACTLY what you want to be doing as the Vet!

Like most of my favourite roles, as the Vet, you want to try and understand the mentality of th people you're playing with. Play with traps, both figuratively and very literally too, to lure the evildoers into their deaths.

Obviously I should point out the obvious fact of obviousness first... obviously: Your alerts are best kept till late-game. 

That being said, who likes dying in the first night? I sure dont. So what I do on the first day is try to speak first. Even if you just say hello. Because for whatever reason they might have, most evil roles aim for the talky people first. Sure you could argue that it's in their best interest if the town is silent and passive, but I prefer calling it a dick move. 

Something else you could do, that I prefer doing that just saying hello, is saying something along the lines of: "Pro Tipp guys, dont visit me tonight."

In my experience, saying that on the first day got me at least one kill in almost every game as a Vet. Admitted, i did kill half the town and not a single evil role in one particular round, but in my defence, i warned them. And the rest of the town knew I was Vet afterwards because of my Death Note.

You could also use that opening line if you're not a Vet, because many people might be intimidated by a possible Veteran-bluff.

Anyhow, if you managed to kill someone, then people will know you're a Townie. So they should trust you. You might want to remind the town not to visit you ever... Because some people need reminding...

Also, if someone whispers to you saying that he's the Doctor and he wants to "heal you to save your alerts", just be slightly weary. What he says might be perfectly true, but he also may be an evil role trying to keep you from going on alert. Dont trust anyone as a Veteran, unless they reliably prove their own innocence first.

In any case, if you've proven that you're the Vet with your Death Note, then there is no reason to use your alerts in the next few nights. People will know that you're a risk not worth taking. Keep two remaining alerts for later. Occasionally give the evil roles a bluff to think about if you feel like it. 

Know that most Vets use all their alerts in the first four nights. Players know this. So if you played by my strategy so far, it should be day four and you should still have two alerts left. Brilliant. Now's the time to lure your attackers in. 

You could just lay low and hope people are thinking you're trying to not draw attention to yourself. They'll think you're being quiet because you're all out of alerts. You could also straight out be super obvious and pray that they think you're bluffing.

And if it's really late into the game. For example if it's just you and an evil role left. I suggest being super honest with him. Say that you still have alerts left and you dont mind stretching the game out for a draw. Honesty is always the best kind of deception. Just take my great Amnesiac-Jester game from a little while ago. That was hilarious. 

Different round. Assume you havent proven that you're the Vet yet. Nobody knows what role you have. You should pretend to be an investigative role. But the good kind of investigator "who'd rather double check". People will take that bait and attack you before you reveal your information. You might cause some collateral damage by killing some townies too, but if you get the evildoers, that'll be worth it.

One last thing, if you have proven that you're the Vet with your Death Note, you have made yourself a reliable townie. You have influence over the town and you have all the right to use it! Remind people to not randomly vote someone to death. Tell the jailor who to execute if you know who's evil or neutral. Do what you can to support the townies.

There you go. In short: Put your name into your Death Note and bluff your way to victory. I hope you dont mind the pile of dead bodies on your lawn..

How to play Town of Salem in real life

So for those of you who dont know, Town of Salem is not entirely made up by blankmediagames. Before it became the online hit that it is today, it was a real game for medium-sized groups like school classes. It has many different names and there are quite a few different versions. I will now go ahead and tell you about the version I know and how that is played:

The name of the game that I was first introduced to is "Werewolves". I only ever played it in real life that one time with my class at school. I remember really getting into it and enjoying it, although a fair number of the people were a little too shy to really participate.

Thats the main problem that the game in real life has. The obstacle being people's own shyness. Obviously the online version with its "anonymity" solved that rather perfectly. It's also a rather big problem if people dont know the game already. It can be quite a feat to have to learn all the roles and their abilities at once without the handy-dandy on-screen guide to help you out.

Lets get into the game irl itself. Obviously, the more people you have playing, the more roles you can throw in, so I'll go through them in order of importance. First of all though, you should prepare some playing cards, or create some for all the roles.something that can be flipped over to hide the role but still layn out in front in a circle.

The Game Master: Mostly the teacher, or whoever offers themselves to do it. Or if you have some kind of ellaborate system of alarm clocks to time things, you could use that too. Either way, the Game Master does not actually play the game, but instead manages it. Their duty is to announce the different segways of the game. "It is night time, everybody has their eyes closed. Now the Werewolves open their eyes. Without any noise, point together at the person you're going to kill tonight". After that the Game Master removes that target's card from the circle and moves on with the monologue.

The Werewolves: Depending on how many people you have in your group, you decid how many werewolves you want in the round. In my case there were around 18 people. Three of which were Werewolves. Their only role is to decide silently at night who they want to kill. Obviously during the day they do their best to either lay low, or deceive the town people.

The innocent Townies: Not everybody gets an actual role. Most of the people playing are simply townspeople. They can only pray that they arent killed at night and try to work out who is evil at day time. Much like in the online version, they can decide per majority vote if they want to kill someone during the day. Obviously a rule can be enforced saying that they have to kill someone during the day, but only if you have loads of people playing.

The Detective: This is where the cards come into play. Like said, everybody gets assigned a random role at the very beginning. The Detective gets a little time every night to anonymously look at one person's card to see their role. The Game Master can either show him very silently which card he wants to see, or if the Game Master i somewhat organised, he can show the Detective the role from a list, just so long as nobody figures out who is checking what.

The "Little Girl": This role is a tricky one. Because it carries a lot of responsibility. The little girl is allowed to open her eyes, or peek through her hands to see what is happening at night. Obviously she knows from the start who is evil and who the Detective is. But just outright saying so will spoil the fun for everybody. I remember having this role and its dilemma myself when I played it, and I chose not to spoil anything until i was accused myself, in which case I only accused the person accusing me. It should be said here, that when the townies have killed a person during the day, or after the Werewolves kill someone at night, everybody sees what role the victim had.

The Lovers: These two people have the same role. It really isnt a good one. This role should only be included is there is a real load of people playing. 15 or more I'd say. Anyways, two people are assigned as "Lovers" When one of them dies, the other dies too. It's a way of giving the evil roles a somewhat realistic chance to win.

And that's all the roles. Remember that depending on how many players you have, you can choose to assign as many roles as you want. You can have more than one detective too if you want.

Now let me just give you an example of a full day in form of the Game Master's Monologue:

First everybody sits in a circle and gets a role card. take a look at it, then lay it out in front of you, upside-down, so nobody sees what role you have. Optionally you can write the above roles on a blackboard or give everybody a sheet of paper with the rules to help learn them.

1. It is Midnight. Everybody close your eyes. The (first) Detective opens his eyes and shows me, whose card he wants to inspect.

-> shows card.

2. The (first) Detective closes his eyes again.

3. The Werewolves open their eyes. Show me together without making any noise, who your victim shall be"

-> flips victim's card over

4. Now it's day time. Everybody opens their eyes and wakes up. it seems that Thomas died last night and his role was Townie. You have a little time to discuss.

5. The sun is going down. Now you must decide if you want to kill someone, and if so, who?

-> Takes vote for the Killing and in case of majority, flips over the victim's card and announces the role.

 6. Night has fallen, Everybody goes to sleep and closes their eyes.

Have fun deceiving and murdering your friends!

Know your options; Keep your cover

This post will not be about just one role, but more about the aspect of having a good excuse to get yourself out of accusations, if you are any of the evil roles. Keeping in mind that every game will be different and how you get out of accusations and lynches is entirely your own choice, here are the roles I claim and the actions I take to defend myself:

Blackmailer: The Blackmailer can claim to be a Spy when he is accused. He will fail to pass the whisper test, unless his mafia pals are quick to fake one for you. Another way to prove spy is to say who was not visited by mafia yet, if the game is in the late stages. Of course the people you mention are entirely up to you. And of course, since you know who the mafia visits every night because you're one of them, you can also claim to be a Lookout.

Consigliere: As the Consigliere, you only have the option to claim Investigator. If anyone tells you to reveal your role, try saying that you'd rather not (yet). That might sway their judgement towards you being Investigator. But since you know people's roles too, you can say who you "investigated". Just remember what roles show as which possible others to real investigators too! If you just list the real roles, then you've messed up.

Consort: The Consort is the evil Escort. As such he can obviously claim Escort. You can roleblock someone to prove it too. And if you want to try to be really convincing: "Look, you know that I'm escort or consort.. If I block you, that proves nothing, just believe me."

Disguiser: If you havent yet disguised yourself, this guy will show up as Disguiser or Jester. You could claim to be a Jester, of course not just like that, you'd have to act like it too, or you could just say that you were transported and that they'd have to double check for your real role. Just hope the others realise this means they have to kill the accusator.

Framer: You have no backup role to claim. You are either framer or framed. Most people will immediately accuse you of being framer. Just be sure to throw out that you must've been framed. Ask them to double check and have a lookout watch you, while again having your mafia clean up. Of course you can still claim Spy or Lookout, like all the other mafia roles, because if you pay attention, you know who the other mafia visited every night...

Godfather: The good old leader among men. While most of the time its the accusation that gets you killed, keep in mind that it's also the first line in the arsenal of Executioners and Jesters to get their target, or someone random, lynched. Use this to your advantage. Do not claim to be the Mayor. Instead say that you are neither Mayor, nor Godfather and that your accusator is instead trying to get you killed. Again, claim to be Lookout or Spy, or that you were transported and that they ought to double-check.

Janitor: As the Janitor, keep an eye on the people leaving while you're scrubbing the toilets. Because the only role you can claim, other than the ones all the other mafia can, is Medium. And if you wanna pretend to be a medium, you should know who left the game and who is still in dead chat. Just make sure the genuine Medium doesnt thwart your plans.

Mafioso: The Mafioso owns guns. You can claim to be a Veteran or a Vigilante. I'd strongly recommend Vigilante, because Veterans are unique and there can only ever be one per round. Of course when accused, you could offer to shoot your accusator during the night to prove it, but I doubt they'd accept that kind offer... Again, the Mafioso, and all the Mafia can claim to be Lookout, Spy, or that they were transported. 

Arsonist: To the Investigators, you show up as a gas-enthusiast. So you're either a Transporter or an Arsonist to them. If you like the Transporter as well as me, claim to be a Transporter. If you get asked why nobody has been transported yet, say that you didnt want to ruin the Investigator's and Sheriff's checks. Say that Transporter is best used late-game. Pay attention to the people who died to. If someone left the game and was attacked in the same night, point out that you switched yourself with that person. Nobody would attack someone who left out of their own free will... People who quit before their death was announced in the day also show up as suicide and attacked. Finally a good use for them damn quitters...

Executioner: Most of the time the Executioner doesnt get outright accused. Since he shows up as either Sheriff, Retributionist or Executioner. As such he isnt an immediate danger. But if you do, just claim Sheriff and that random people showed up as Not Suspicious. Who in their right mind would then go "No, I'm suspicious, he's lying!"...

Jester: The Jester doesnt need to talk his way out. He needs to talk his way IN to getting lynched..

Serial Killer: You can claim to be a doctor too. But since people often dont want to take the risk and lynch doctors anyways, I'd suggest you claim to have been transported. People will double check and sometimes the mafia will target the accusator for you, since he's a threat to them too. Or if you're feeling ballsy, you can kill your accusator yourself. Just be ready to talk your way out of that one...

Witch: People genuinely dont trust Survivors, which is the only role you can claim. So instead say that you were transported. Point out that your accusator may well be the Executioner. But of course you can try the Survivor story too...

Werewolf: As if the Survivor hadnt gotten enough distrust as it is. Now he's either a Werewolf, a Witch or a Survivor. So in the eyes of the Townies, nothing of value will be lost anyways... Dont claim to be a Survivor. Hope that a Sheriff double checks you in a normal, non-full moon, night to say you're not suspicious and leaves it at that. If someone just asks you for your role, just say you're the one among the three that isnt evil and that people wouldnt trust your revealed your either way.

In General: Any role that needs to can claim to have been transported. People mostly accept that and double check. Otherwise, all roles can also point out that the accusator is an Executioner trying to kill you. Remember that the Executioner's target is always a Townie, so that pointer may just prove your own "innocence". 

As for the Mafia, since they have their overpowered little night chat, they all know who was visited by them, so they can all claim to be Lookouts or Spies. The Mafia is overpowered that way...

Funniest Amnesiac game to date! XD

So I just went through a hilarious round of the game. And before I give you the massive chatlog image that I snipped and glued together in photoshop, let me give you a brief rundown on what happened in the round.

1. Day Two, the Mayor (ign Sheriff) decides to reveal himself

-> one player (Imp) comments that this was a stupid move

2. Mayor gets offended and starts an RDM lynch on Imp.

3. Imp turns out to be a Jester and wins

4. Night Two, I take the opportunity to remember the Jester role. 

5. Day Two, I comment on how yesterday's lynch was too silly and random and that this time they ought to lynch someone with a little more solid evidence.

6. What do you know, the Mayor gets offended again, gets me lynched and I get my win as AmneJester

7. Massive rofls

Here's the Chatlog. Like said, I mashed it together from four screenshots. I also took the liberty to highlight my own chat to make it easier to find for you guys. That game was hilarious...

My ign was Meat Dragon

The Blackmailer, pure evil...

Personally I hate this role the most, but only when I'm targetted by him. He is ridiculously strong when used right and yet is often forgotten or not even considered. Here's some tips and tricks for, as well as against, the Blackmailer.

This role has the unique ability to silence anyone he visits at night for the entire following day. No role is immune to him (Veterans on alert will kill the Blackmailer but still be silenced). 

The only thing blackmailed people can say is "I am blackmailed." And they can only do so when they are on trial. That is in most cases way too late... So I'll start by giving some Blackmailer-Counter strategies.

If you're in a game where there are Blackmailers, you may want to tell people during voting to vote for you and cancel to prove they are blackmailed. Encourage this to make sure the mafia doesnt have their way! People who stick up for others are often rewarded with trust.

In my most recent game, I was part of the mafia, and our Blackmailer was acting way too obvious. He silenced someone in the first night and then proceeded to interrogate him during the day. Asking him for his role and commenting that he wasnt replying. He then voted for the target and all the other mafias did too, except for me. 

Long story short, it wasnt enough to lynch him. The target turned out to be an Investigator and he wrote the names of the mafia who voted for him in his will when the Serial Killer got him the next round. The other mafias were vigilanteed, jailored and lynched and I was left alone to clean up their mess. (If you care about what happened after: I managed to get to the last round by doing nothing, luring everyone into the thought that the mafia was all dead, then the jailor made me help lynch the Serial Killer... and then I too got jailored. I got way further than I should have either way...)

Back to the Blackmailer. You should obviously look out for people accusing others of being silent. If such a thing happens and then a sudden mass of votes flush in, you're most likely looking at an obvious mafia strike, or at very gullible town members...

Keep an eye on the chat. Remember who the talkative ones are. If one of them is suddenly accused of being quiet, then stand up for him!

If you yourself are the Blackmailer, then that strategy is obviously the way to go, yes. But dont rush it! Visit your target at least twice before accusing them of being too quiet. But dont actually vote for them yourself. I wouldnt recommend that. Because when it turns out that the target is innocent, you'll be the first to blame. 

When your repeated target hasnt even randomly voted for anyone, you should yourself point out he may be blackmailed and hope that the others doubt it. You, the Blackmailer, should pretend to be standing up against Blackmailers. It's the ultimate plot twist that nobody expects!

Should you get accused at some point, the only role you can claim for yourself is Spy. Since you're part of the mafia anyways, it should be no problem to list all the people who were/werent visited by mafia. Just pray that nobody tries a whisper-test. In fact, hope that your fellow mafiosi do one to help you out! That's brilliant!

He's probably my favourite and least favourite evil role at the same time! So simple at first and yet so evil...

The Jailor and his very slippery soap

This guy is a mix of the Escort, the Vigilante and a Consigliere. He's usually the nicest person in the game and he normally doesnt talk much during the day. He's also one of the highest priority targets for all evil roles. Here's my take on the Jailor.

As the Jailor you have the ability to take someone into prison every night. To do so you must use your ability button (the one that looks like a Sun up next to your Will) at day time. Always remember to do that as soon as someone is suspicious because it is very easy to forget!

When you have someone in jail, you two can talk. Your prisoner will not know who you are. And if you choose to do that, you have the ability to execute your target too. 

Some things to remember:

- You cannot execute in the first night.

- If you execute an innocent, you loose all your remaining executions.

- You only have three executions.

- You can be blocked from executing your target by roleblockers.

- There is only one Jailor per game.

- If you jail a Serial Killer and dont execute him, he will kill you.

- Your prisoner is safe from harm but is also roleblocked.

Onto the playstyle. Since you cannot execute anyone in the first night, it's entirely up to you if you want to jail anyone. The only advantage is that you'd get a start on people's possible roles and may be able to make an ally. The disadvantages are that you might roleblock an investigative role. You might get killed by the Serial Killer. People may not even talk to you because you cant kill them on the first night anyways. Choose yourself if you want to jail someone in the first night.

Make sure you leave everything you know in your will. If you happen to get an investigator in there then make sure to add his info to yours too! 

You should also consider using a password, or if you want to prepare for people stealing it, use several passwords. One per night. The password is for you to say when you're getting lynched, so your prisoners can vouch for your innocence. Obviously if you only use one password, one of your evil prisoners might use that to save themselves, so you might want to point out that you had one password per night.

In any case, once it's daytime again, you will want to watch your former prisoners closely. If they claim a different role than they did in jail, jail them again and execute. 

Also if nobody died, then also get the same prisoner again. And if nobody dies in two consecutive nights where you had the same prisoner, it's more or less safe to execute him.

If there are jesters or executioners proven in the town, then dont hesitate to execute them too. They arent innocent so they wont remove your remaining executions. They might also get in the way of votings later in the game.

Remember that there is always that chance you'll imprison the Serial Killer. Keep your will updated so if you do die, the other townies will know who your last prisoner was.

A good way to put pressure on your prisoner is to hit the execute button right off the bat. They will see that you're about to kill them and panic. You can always stop the execution by hitting the button again. But doing this will definitely filter out some inexperienced evil roles.

If you do die to the Serial Killer you imprisoned, the game will tell you that it was your prisoner. There wil be a message saying "You were killed by the Serial Killer you jailed." If that message doesnt show up and you were still killed by the Serial Killer, then your prisoner wasnt it! Be sure to tell the medium at night!

If someone is proven innocent by others or by people's wills, then it may be a good idea to jail them. Doing so will protect them. You can also feel free to tell them who you are, so they can vouch for you. 

Dont feel bad if someone talks trash to you when you decide to execute them. Your executions are up to you and usually they should be for pretty solid evidence. If your prisoner still turns out to be innocent, it's entirely their fault for either lying or misleading people, or the evil roles liek the Framer were exceptionally cunning. If you're a good Jailor doing his job the way he's supposed to, a dead innocent town member should never be your own fault!

The Jester; Why even..?

The Jester is such a tricky role (pun intended). And everybody seems to have their own strategy, but before I go into ones I would recommend, I'm going to start by mentioning the two idiotic playstyles that arent even worth calling "a strategy".

The Spammer: Self-explanatory. These Jesters seem to think that if they spam the chat with irrelevant nonsense, they'll get lynched. Newsflash: They dont. Rarely it just gets you muted, but because most players dont know about the /mute command, in most of the cases being a spammer just gets you killed at night.

The waste of life: These jesters are surprisingly common. For no reason or justification they simply annoy and insult everyone, interruptng people and spamming rude obnoxious junk in the chat. This guy also believes that his behaviour will get him lynched. Again, it doesnt. The highlight of one match was such a jester being killed by a Vigilante, the Mafia and the Serial Killer at the same time. I emplore everyone in a round with such a waste of life to report them, and if they are a killing role, to gang up and murder him at night. Thank you.

If you cant wait till night time, the mute command is /mute name

For example: /mute jesterguy

Now onto the more social and recommendable strategies. Remember, your target is to get lynched. If you die at night, then you loose. And when you do manage to get lynched you win the round regardless of which other faction prevails in the end. You also have the one-time ability to kill one of your guilty-voters the night after you've been hung.

The problem is that asking nicely wont get you lynched. Teaming with a side in the end isnt going to get you lynched either because neither side wants to waste their time with lynching you and nobody wants to risk dying after you've had your way.

The most reliable way to get lynched for me is to not want it. When people start voting for you then keep arguing with points why you're not guilty. That there's no proof. Refuse to give out your role. That normally does the trick once the votes start rolling.

You should at all costs avoid making yourself a high-priority night time target. Dont claim to be an investigative role directly, but pretend to be one by accusing someone who is hopefully innocent. Doing so will make the mafia realise that you're not a threat to them. it should hopefully keep you alive. If you get jailed, claim to be a Lookout, Sheriff or Investigator. Or if you're feeling confident, you can be honest and say you'll help take down the mafia if you're lynched. That worked for me once...

Anyways, my usual tactic is to accuse someone innocent, and then get lynched after said person dies. People usually go for the person that accused someone innocent after an unsuccessful lynch.

You could also try the classic whisper-fail. Fail at whispering to someone on purpose so everybody sees it. Dont make it super obvious. Say something like "I was roleblocked" or "Were you roleblocked?" when nobody died to mafia. Obviously aim the whisper at someone who hasnt yet been confirmed as innocent., or it will backfire.

Once you do get lynched, it's entirely up to you who you want to kill. If someone helped me get lynched, I never go for that person. Usually I aim for someone who was rude to me with their silly "10/10 defence" comments or for someone in hopes to end the game quickly. But remember, if the game ends in a draw, you will loose even if you got lynched! So if you have a chance to prevent a tie by killing the other neutral role who isnt helping with either side's votes, then I'd go for that.

"Playing the Jester card" is also a worthy attempt to not get lynched. if you're a mafia member or even a townie you could try to look like a jester to get yourself out of a noose. In most cases that wont work tho.

So there you have it. If you cant get help from either side then just start accusing the wrong people and see where that gets you. Remember that you're neutral, so you dont have to listen to anybody. Happy Hanging!