Board Thread:Debate of The Week/@comment-28112409-20171002223259/@comment-31680260-20171004010156

DesertStorm11 wrote: The Coven have six roles. The Mafia have eleven. Nearly double the amount of Coven. Quality over quantity.

The Mafia have a much higher variety, thus allowing for much greater mystery. All non-Mafia Killing roles are non-unique, allowing there to be even MORE possibilities for the Random Mafia roles. And more possibility for a team of Framers.

With Coven, every role is unique. You have very low variety, meaning some players can often guess by mid-game what every Coven role is, and prepare accordingly. (I'll assume you're basing this off of the fact that Mafia have more roles, which I suppose is a fair point... but if there's a Blackmailer? Pretty obvious. If a confirmed Sheriff is repeatedly roleblocked? Obvious Consort.)

In Ranked, for example, you have a definite Godfather and Mafioso. However; there are seven (due to this not being the Coven expansion) other roles that can be divided into the extra two Random Mafia slots. This allows for an absolutely massive difference in possibilities. In the average game, players don't know what Mafia roles those are until mid- or sometimes even late-game.

With the Coven in Coven Ranked, you have your definite Coven Leader and Medusa. There are only four other possible choices. Your argument of "every Coven role can kill" doesn't help here, as your roles can be revealed very, very early. (Actually, it does help. More kills leads to less townies, which means that the Town has less resources to find and lynch the Coven. And each kill brings them closer to majority, at which point identity doesn't matter.)  By night three, you could have every Coven role revealed, and even one of them lynched by then. (Same could be said for Mafia. It depends on the lineup of Mafia/Coven, and the general intelligence of the Town. While it might be easier to out the Coven, you've still got to figure out who's whom. I explained some of this above.) Knowledge of your roles is your absolute worst enemy among others, and you can't do much about it. The Town knows what to look out for, and you can't just claim anything and get away with it. (Potion Master would like to disagree.) By the time you say anything, you're as good as dead. (Same with all the Mafiosos claiming Vigilante, the GF's claiming BG, the Consorts claiming Escort, the BM'ers claiming Spy... the list goes on.)