Vigilante

Vigilante Alias: Vig Alignment: Pro-town Role type: Killing Choice: Night Day

The vigilante is a killer on the town side. Depending on the variation, they may be able to kill every night, or be limited to a certain number of times during the game. Sometimes, instead of killing during the night, the vigilante will be able to kill during the Day, thus becoming a Daytime Vigilante. Typically Vigilante killing methods do not vary significantly from Mafia ones.

It is often argued that a vigilante should kill night 0 and every night after. This topic is most supported by Pie is good and PokerFace. Pie is good argues that vigilantes should kill night 0 because statistically it should be to the town's advantage to introduce a random kill that cannot hit the vigilante himself. PokerFace agrees with this philosophy however does not like the idea of depriving good players of games they could have enjoyed. He has a set criteria for determining the night 0 kill. He'll only kill players with a history of purposely playing anti-town or a history of almost banable offenses on night 0. And if no said player exists, PF will hold his fire.

Pronunciation Controversy

Note: There has been some discussion as to the proper pronunciation of "Vig".

• http://www.mafiascum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8769
  
• http://www.mafiascum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9584
  
• http://www.mafiascum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1301514#1301514

Variations

• Day Vigilante (aka Dayvig): The Day Vigilante kills during the Day, instead of at Night. In some setups, this is done by posting in the thread (such as Daykill: Bob), in other setups, this is done by privately PMing the moderator. This is even more helpful to towns than a normal vigilante, as the information from that death can then be used in determining who to lynch.

Setup Design

The vigilante is a very swingy role; on the one hand, a vigilante who only shoots town hastens the defeat of their own team; on the other hand, a vigilante who shoots scum can win the game on their own even if the rest of the town plays horridly (see 1115 Ozy and Millie Mafia, where the town mislynched every Day but won because of the vigilante). The strength of this role is tied much closer to the skill of the player than in other roles such as Cop or Doctor.

Within a setup, a vigilante puts more deaths under town control. Consider a setup of 10 Vanilla Townies versus 2 Mafia Goons. The town controls 50% of the deaths -- 1 lynch for every mafia kill. However, if you throw in a vigilante, the town now controls 66% of the deaths -- 1 lynch and 1 vigilante kill for every mafia kill.

Note that vigilantes allow the town to rid themselves of burdensome players (such as lurkers) without using the lynch on them. Furthermore, because the vigilante power is "confirmable", a vigilante can often claim if they are in danger of being lynched, shooting as the town dictates. It is rare, if not downright suicidal, for a vigilante to be counterclaimed by the mafia.

Vigilantes are most often limited by making them X-Shot, or by limiting their shots to only on even Nights or odd Nights.

Kill Flavor: When designing a setup, it should be determined whether the vigilante will have a distinct kill flavor or not. Having a distinct kill flavor is more helpful to the town, as it can help confirm the vigilante as town-sided if the same kill flavor is used to kill antitown players. If the vigilante's kill flavor is not distinguishable from others, it creates more uncertainty as to which faction was responsible for which kill.