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Detective

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Detective
Alias: none
Alignment:
Role type:
  • Investigative
Choice:
  • Night
Status: Regular Normal
Not to be confused with Detective (Online Werewolf)

A Detective is an investigative role that determines whether a player has killed another player, either on the night it is used or on a previous night.

The differences from Gunsmith and Rolecop, which are somewhat related roles, are mostly in connection with how it interacts with groupscum; a member of a scumgroup may have the ability to kill, but prefer to allow one of their allies to kill instead. The role is also rather related to the Follower, who can also detect a kill, but only on the night that the Follower is following; a Detective can see kills on previous nights too, but cannot see actions other than kills.

The opposite of this role, detecting players who have unused kills, is a Psychologist.

The standard version of a Detective can only see kills intentionally performed using active abilities: the factional kill, a Vigilante shot, or the like.

Normal version

This role is allowed in Regular Normal games.

The Detective is a valid Normal Town role to be used in Normal Games.

In a Normal Game, a Detective may choose to investigate each night. Only three results can be obtained from this investigation: Negative, Positive, or No Result. This investigation resolves after any killing abilities in the Night phase.

A negative result is returned from players that have never attempted to kill another player (including players who cannot kill, and players who can kill but chose not to).

A positive result is returned from players that have actively killed another player, or attempted to kill another player but failed. This would include a Vigilante or a mafia member, but would not include players who could cause a player to die indirectly as a result of their action, such as a Babysitter or a Weak role.

As usual, No Result is returned if the Detective's own action was blocked, e.g. by a Roleblocker or by their target being Ascetic.

Variations

The Detective role could plausibly be expanded to also detect players who had performed kills unintentionally (e.g. via triggering a Weak modifier), but this would be somewhat bastard. The Paranoid Gun Owner falls into a grey area; they do not have an active role, thus would not trigger the standard version of the Detective, but as killing is the role's purpose it would not be unreasonable for a nonstandard Detective to get a positive if the Paranoid Gun Owner had killed someone.

Use & Balance

A Detective is an investigative role that gets more powerful the fewer scum that remain; it thus has similar balance properties to a Tracker, being about as strong if the same player performs that Mafia's kill every night, but stronger if the Mafia spread out their kills among different users. As such, care should be taken when using the Detective alongside other roles with similar balance properties (Tracker, Jailkeeper, Roleblocker); this can cause too much positive feedback in a setup.

Play Advice

In general, you won't go wrong playing Detective identically to Tracker; both roles are looking to investigate the player most likely to be performing the Mafia's factional kill. One difference is that in larger games, especially with multiple kills involved, you may have more trouble than a Tracker would in determining what the reason for the kill was (as you don't know who the target is); it may be a good idea, upon receiving a positive result, to ask your target to fullclaim before explaining the nature of your evidence.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Detective" describes the action as follows:

  • As a targeted action: you will learn whether or not that player has attempted to use an active killing ability on another player this game. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.) (edit)

Example (simplest form)

Welcome to game! You are a Town Detective.

You have the following active ability:

  • Each Night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn whether or not that player has attempted to use an active killing ability on another player this game. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.)

You win if all threats to the town are eliminated and at least one town-aligned player is alive.

Confirm by replying to this PM with a summary of your role.

Example (with modifiers)

Welcome to game! You are a Town 1-shot Loud Detective.

You have the following active ability:

  • Once in the game at Night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn whether or not that player has attempted to use an active killing ability on another player this game. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.) Your target will learn that you targeted them (but not what action you targeted them with).

You win if all threats to the town are eliminated and at least one town-aligned player is alive.

Confirm by replying to this PM with a summary of your role.