Board Thread:Funsies and Randomies/@comment-35356104-20191022061201

Combining element of handicapped role, election role and post-mortem role, Jester fall under category of “special role”, has the objective of convincing the town to kill them, or is required to vote in favour of all proposed lynching, and punish the voters (Wikipedia). It is also known as the combination of two social roles, village idiot (person known for ignorance, stupidity and mentally disabled) and village genius (anti-intellectualism). Players take inspiration from these roles and apply in the context of Town of Salem, specifically, speaking gibberish, but often doesn’t end well in Trial.

Frequent Visitor of Trial System

Jester players were caught in a lot of rule-violating scandal, including harassment, hate speech, and spamming, even veteran players didn’t make an exception. It happened because some players didn’t realize that the part of Jester “being annoying” becomes a commonplace obsolete strategy, where it apparently exposed the player being Jester, and tend to be ignored. Believing that there’s no turning back when things became obvious, most of the doers carried on by increasing the intensity of disturbance to an extent where the player must be eliminated to be able to carry out a proper discussion. People were often unamused of such action, and often call for a mass report. The outcome in-game was somewhat desirable, either death by Jailor or gallows, but for aftermath, the suspension was something people argued about. Many bans of Jester spamming were appealed with reason stating that it was a part of strategy. A user boldly stated that such action shouldn’t be named a “strategy” when it doesn’t integrate a slightest effort to rationalize. There’s no definite answer whether the appealing works, but the definite says that, the spamming tactics for Jester isn’t advisable, effectively speaking, for game health, and for players’ well-being.

Strategies

Although the archetypal route loses its functionality, there’re still a lot of viable strategies to be tested. Jester’s playstyle is very flexible, from aggressive to low-lying. Jester is loosely demanded as it is a lone ranger with only few circumstances for partnership. Jester doesn’t possess any ability when it is alive, in a similar vein to Executioner, its performance solely relies on speech power which varies from player to player in term of ability to encode the message to earn distrust. Distrust is a mental state of belief, abstract and immeasurable, either cumulatively or spontaneous, unlike purpose of the other roles whose goal are relatively routine, progressive and measurable, for example: Sheriff has a list of the innocent and the guilty, Jailor has an interrogation record, Spy keep tracks of who was visited by scum, etc. They have concrete evidence to prove how much had been done and how much left to go, while Jester’s game is a mind game which is far more complex, everchanging to even guess. This explains the reason why strategies for Jester is limitless and inconsistent, because Jester is in its own pace, styled and personalized speech which is the only core ability, and different mentality to deal with.

Generally, there are two types of Jester strategies, one being the initiator, while another being the respondent. The prior refers to tactics which require Jester’s initiative for the like “fail whisper”, while the latter suggests catching the ball in Jester’s favour like unanswered to question of own role. Jester has the fanciest playstyle, as there’re thousand ways not to act like a Town but be mindful of differentiating Jester who doesn’t try to act like Town, and Jester who purposely fails to act like Town. Strategies of Jester are dependent on people reaction towards your action. How would people react relates their experience, sensibility, emotion, and value, where one couldn’t account. Jester shouldn’t stick to one and only plan but reflect well on the circumstances.

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=84391&p=2765026

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=101172&p=3210525

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=457976710

https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-best-Jester-strategies-in-Town-of-Salem

http://townofsalemelements.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-jester-why-even.html

Not Really a Neutral Evil?

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=103640&p=3290964

Argument 1: It is counted as NE since it gets more votes from Town actually and there is a higher chance that they will haunt a Townie

Argument 2: Killing 1 member of town is not near enough to support the evil factions when taking that NE slot, but let's not even look at power, and let's look solely at the balance of the role. More specifically, look at the goal. Does the goal strike you as part of a group or as a lone member? If it wants to be NE, it needs to have a win condition like the Witch, where it contributes to the evils like a united faction. However, the Jester is out for himself. He wants to be lynched by any means necessary, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that is the very definition of Neutral Benign.

Argument 3: I think Jester must go in Neutral Chaos, by my previous reasoning. I stated that Pirate belongs in NC because it's "the Neutral benign that kills". You're arguing that Jester is a Neutral Benign... and that would fit, except: Jester kills. I don't think any role with a killing ability can fit in Neutral Benign.

For obvious reason, Jester doesn’t belong to Neutral Evil which is designated to aid evil, as it has very fair and even potential to harm roles of every faction, making it inclines to no side, a perfect neutral stance. Flake suggested removal of Jester in Ranked, reasoning that, “''it revolves around being a Kingmaker when it lives to the end, and it is very hard to rework it in order to satisfy the win condition a Neutral Evil role should have, to live to see the Town lose, similarly to the Witch and Stalker. The Jester functions better as a Neutral Benign since it does not explicitly benefit one of the main factions (Town or Mafia) more than the other''.” For Argument 1, lynched Jester doesn’t always get more “guilty” votes from Town. In Jailor META, everyone except Jailor ought to vote guilty on possible Jest, that makes ratio of 8:5, while there’s must be 1 or 2 Town(s) being eliminated on N1, even lynching that happens on D2, the ratio comes relatively close. There is also situation where Jester is lynched when evil has the majority. The chance stated in Argument 1 is conditional and subjected to changes. The rest was mentioned in Argument 2, despite the haunt is on Town, its power is perceived to be too minor to be effective.

Whether it sits better in Neutral Chaos or Neutral Benign, it is subjective to conclude, as it is only the matter of belief and opinion within the grey zone. It is mostly fine outside of the context of competitive play.

Who needs a friend?

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=102553&p=3258032

August 2019, a thread entitled “Should NE come out and side with town” emerged. OP was told that they have more of a chance of winning if they come out and side with the town, since it’s an extra vote. Though it is an uncommon trend lately, it owns certain degree of rationality. 2 other users responded that it could be win-win situation, but only in a dire situation where Town is in desperate of losing majority. Early reveal may not be the best option as there’re variables affecting the later game where Jester need no helpful to achieve the goal, or Town couldn’t give Jester a win, while Town may go back on one’s word, having no obligation to do so. It is said to be “gamble”. Striking a deal with Mafia/Coven is similar, but it is reported to have end undesirably.

A user stated that these are the examples of “why roles like jester should attempt to achieve their win in a more conventional and less diplomatic way.” Many users come to disagreement upon the deal as, “''A Jester is supposed to come up with some clever way of getting town to lynch them, not sit back as a neutral and hope for a pity lynch at the end. I don't agree with giving Jesters pity lynches, and I never will because that's not how the role is meant to be played. They do need to earn the lynch by tricking others into killing them. Giving them a pity lynch is just encouraging a lazy play style'',” said by a forum user. Users are against the said business relationship for common reason saying that NE are not tool for barter, they have their own objective to follow; Town & Mafia earn their win by effort, so do NE. None shall risk throwing away their win to give NE a free win, as some would call that “game throwing” as it violates factional goal.

Playing as a Jester, one should be responsible for their own strategy used. Either it breaks rule, or the plan simply fails, nobody shall be blamed as the decision for the strategy isn’t decided by anyone besides the player. One should know better of the risk taken for their action. If one is under the mentality of “didn’t see this coming,” then one should be responsible for not evaluating their action thoroughly. To give win or otherwise, remain virtue of the others. “Town of Salem is a browser-based game that challenges players on their ability to convincingly lie as well as detect when other players are lying,” written on the main page of Town of Salem Wiki. One should prepare to lie and face deception with the sense that there’s no true allegiance across faction with different goal, as well as the so-call “not giving jester win” betrayal. If one somewhat expects people to spare a Jester win after being “fooled” once, then one is suggested to reflect on their action again.

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=103257&p=3277656

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102052&p=3236605

Love-Hate Relationship

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=473&p=1892

According to a “Most & Least Favourite” survey conducted in 2014, Jester was one of the most mentioned roles. It was said to be loved and hated at both extremities. Many who claimed to hate Jester justify that they simply not good at it, furthermore, “it is hard to get people to believe that you are the mafia. If I try to hard it becomes obvious, so most of the time I end up dying at night.” Some said that it is useless at night.

A user shared an experience: “I hate playing jester... I just cannot get people to kill me via lynching, I mean I got people to believe I was Investigator when I randomly accused people who were intact mafia... I won the game for the town but lost since I never got lynched.”

Meanwhile, a user summed up on why Jester fails often, stating that: “people are a) too stupid to realize you've been lying and changing your story, or b) too smart and realize you're a jester without you doing much.”

On the flip side, there are players who love Jester’s flexible and hilarious playstyle. Honourable mention, PyromonkeyGG, a game developer, claimed to love to Jester too. Users find its goal unique where everyone wants to survive while Jester asks for death. Some says that the sense of power of Unstoppable haunt is satisfying, some says that it is enjoyably free from pressure when Jester is not afraid of gallows.

Once in a Blue Moon

https://tos-experiences.tumblr.com/post/162232814368/so-jester-win-pretty-rare-im-griffin-mcelroy-i

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=101421&p=3216709

A marionette springing out from a box is not a sight we got to see every day, but it happens from time to time. ScarfVendetta, a forum user, detailed the scenario:

''Solo Jester wins, although still uncommon, aren't super rare from my experience. All that really needs to happen is for a Jester to survive until the final 3 players, and then with the old "Vote me for Jester roulette or I vote you" tactic, they'll usually get hanged. I mean, if it's 1 Mafia/NK vs 1 townie, the killer will usually still go for the townie (unless they can't due to non-moon etc). This will often result in either the Jester purposely killing the killer to see the rarer Jester win-screen, or them letting it random, giving a 50/50 chance of the Jester win-screen.''

''It's uncommon, but the Jester's mechanics make it far easier for the necessary wipe out to take place. Therefore, you almost never see solo Executioner or solo Witch screens: the circumstances needed to set up the wipe out are far more specific than the requirements the Jester needs.''

Far from being a Neutral Evil

https://www.reddit.com/r/TownofSalemgame/comments/88gkyu/im_pretty_sure_the_jester_buff_failed/

Jester received a win-rate boost by enabling it to haunt abstainers, however, it derailed further from being a legit Neutral Evil. The META is no longer about “one or two to guilty a potential Jester while other abstain,” but it changes to “everyone votes guilty on the suspected Jester except Jailor and Mayor.” Whoever beside confirmed Town who voted Innocent is automatically a scum. Those who claimed Jester and volunteered to kill Mafia is lynched. In another words, Jester wins better than Mafia these days, because they are now a tool to deal with Mafia.

Jailing Jester

https://www.blankmediagames.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=102870&p=3265541

A user shared an experience arguing whether Jailor should jail and execute possible Jester or Executioner. OP did not agree with the act of killing Jester believing it would be more useful to town by finding out roles than wasting time dealing with role that poses no harm if left ignored, but Town disagreed. Although the result proves everyone wrong, that there was no Jester or Executioner, OP raises a question: “Should I execute someone because he/she seemed to be an obvious Exe/Jester at the time?”

Users’ response share similarity where jailing and executing obvious NE on purpose is not recommended, especially when a greater threat exists. “On purpose” means if somebody exposed to be NE during day phrase and jail that individual to execute, whereas Jailor came across a NE by jailing a random, executing is not a bad choice. When there’s no lead early game, it is wise to execute the known NE, as NE would potentially cause disruption in discussion and attract unnecessary attention, while preserving town majority and provides certainty for safer lynches later in the game. User also added that, “if town are barely holding their majority over evils, it may be smarter to scum-read and execute a bigger threat.” Another user also spoke of the possibility where Mafia or NK take NE’s disguise despite of its rarity. Commonsensically, evil roles would not attempt to put up an act of NE to avoid unneeded suspicion, mostly this is done in hope that Town would have ignored NE. It is said that; however, Werewolf is a common imposter of Executioner. If there’s Werewolf kill, the Executioner may not be Executioner. This may imply that executing NE is needed when the bigger threat is not known or still clueless about.

P.S: This is random sooo.. I think it belongs here :P 