Jack-of-all-trades

Jack-of-all-trades Alias: JOAT Alignment: any Role type: not defined Choice: Night Status: Regular Normal

The Jack-of-all-trades, commonly abbreviated JOAT, is a role with several one-shot night abilities - typically abilities centered around investigating, protecting and killing. The Jack-of-all-trades may use whichever ability they want on a specific Night, but can use each one only once. This role has been seen as both Town and Mafia.

The "standard" JOAT is considered to be a one-shot Cop, one-shot Doctor, one-shot Vig, and one-shot Roleblocker. However, this exact model is uncommon in practice.

The Werewolf-flavored equivalent to JOAT is Witch. The Grand Vizier is similar except its abilities are not one-shot.

Normal version

This role is allowed in Regular Normal games.

As long as all of its one-shot component abilities are Normal, Jack of All Trades is considered Normal on mafiascum.net.

A Jack-of-all-trades has multiple 1-shot roles. For example, a Jack of All Trades (Cop, Doctor) has a 1-shot Cop ability and a 1-shot Doctor ability. This is equivalent to a hybrid role consisting of 1-shot roles, however a Jack-of-all-trades is considered to be a distinct role. Notably, Jack-of-all-trades is allowed in Regular Normal games while hybrid roles aren't.

Jack-of-all-trades is a modular role. A Jack-of-all-trades is considered to have its constituent roles as base roles, so a role like Backup and Finder can interact with a Jack-of-all-trades. A Jack-of-all-trades' constituent roles can seen by roles that would care about the role's power (such as a Gunsmith, Detective, or Psychologist).

A Jack of All Trades must have at least two abilities.

A JOAT should flip with all their abilities shown.

Variations

"Jack-of-all-trades" is a catch-all term for any role that has multiple one-shot abilities, so the variations are as extensive as a given moderator's imagination. In Normal games, JOATs may have any combination of whitelisted abilities.

The Jack-of-all-trades shares many similarities with an Inventor.

Use & Balance

A Jack-of-all-trades is somewhat useful in setups because it produces less swing than other power roles, because each of its powers is one-shot, which puts a definite limit as to the number of investigations, protections, etc, that the Jack-of-all-trades will be able to perform. However, it also concentrates the effects of many power roles into the hands of one player, who may die early or be ineffective with power roles in general, so it balances out. Its variety is rather appealing in setups, though.

The power of a JOAT is a function of how strong its individual abilities are.

When playing as a JOAT, you need to take two things into account. One is that some roles are more powerful at different points in the game, e.g. a Tracker or Jailkeeper shot does more late, whereas a Neighborizer shot will have more impact if used early. There are some more subtle ways in which a role's power can vary during the game, too (Doctor is most useful on nights when there's an obvious nightkill, for example). As such, it's worth considering sequencing your roles so that they can all be used at the optimal time. However, you also need to take into account the chance that you die before using all the shots; roles like the Cop are powerful enough that most JOATs will use a Cop shot on Night 1 in order to minimize the chance that it's wasted.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Jack-of-all-trades" describes its effect on roles as follows:

• On each targeted action that forms the role: Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, (edit)

• On each nontargeted action that forms the role: Once in the game at night, (edit)

Example

Welcome to game! You are a Town Jack-of-all-trades Cop Doctor Activated Bulletproof.

You have the following active abilities, but may use only one per Night:

• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn whether that player wins with Town. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.)
• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be protected from one kill that night.
• Once in the game at night, you may choose to gain the following ability for that night: "You are protected from kills that target you."

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.