Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-32329805-20180425221742

Far too often, when i log onto a Custom, and even Coven Custom games, i see a slew of BAD role lists. This is a problem. It ruins the fun, and usually causes an overwhelming town victory ez pz. So, for your sakes, i've decided to create a guide for Role Lists.

TYPE 1 - CLASSICAL

TOWN

Part 1a - Town

What you need to do to start off is to create a Town. Usually have a Jailor on top, maybe a Mayor if your feeling risky. Now, usually people make an immediate mistake. They add a bunch of EXACT Town roles, sometimes excluding the Jailor! This is bad because it makes claims void. You can at any time be instantly counterclaimed if your evil, and there's nothing you can do about it. What you need to do is start inserting Town Investigatives and such.

Part 1b - Town

First, decide on the number of townies. This number should usually be 7-9. It allows the town enough members to actually win whilst also allowing a fair amount of Evildoers. This is another commonly broken mistake. They usually flood the role list with townies. This gives the already Overpowered town a chance to be nearly unstoppable. Ok, enough on that, now the TIs.

Part 1c - Town

So, where do you start with the randoms? Usually, for the eye's sake, you should have the list go in THIS order (TI, TP, TK, TS, RT). TPs, TKs, and TSs should each have 1 member. TIs should have 1-2 members, and RTs should have 2-3 (1 in rare cases).

Part 1d - Town

However, there may be cases in which you would wish to Break this formula. Risk-takers may wish to replace the Jailor with Mayor, and sometimes you may wish to replace a Town slot with a Vampire Hunter if there are 2 or more Vampires.

MAFIA/COVEN

Part 2a - Mafia/Coven

So you've created the Mafia. Goodie for you. Now, what do you do next? This is another mistake people get. They add the Neutrals first. Now, this would be Fine, except for the fact that its horrendous to the eye (my eye). This forces players to NOT look at the list, which can cause a big confusion.

Part 2b - Mafia/Coven

So, what do you add? You should have 3-4 Mafia or Coven. It depends how much space you want left for the Neutrals. People don't get this mistake very often, as they usually go for 4. The BIG issue comes in what Mafia members they do a.

Part 2c - Mafia/Coven

What players do is that they may add a Godfather (Which WILL get lynched by any possible Escort), and some mix of random & not mafia (Often including a Blackmailer. I dunno, people seem to really like it). Now this isn't necissarily WRONG, but you can do it Better. Usually the first 2 roles you have is a Godfather & Mafioso (Coven Leader & Medusa for Coven mode). Now, you will add 1-2 Random Mafia/Coven.

Part 2d - Mafia/Coven

With the Coven, there is very little you can do to stray from the formula. You may replace 1 Random Coven with a Coven Member of your choice, but that's it.

With the Mafia however, there are certain cases in which you may wish to do other stuff.

if you wish to narrow down the mafia, you may make use of the Mafia Support & Mafia Deception slots. You may also replace a Random Mafia with a Mafia Member of your choice (Usually Consigliere, Framer, or Janitor).

NEUTRALS

Part 3a - Neutrals

Now that you have the Mafia done, last you have is the neutrals. This will be long because the amount of Town & Mafia you did will effect the amount of Neutrals slots you have left, meaning i have to do WAY more.

Part 3b - Neutrals

So you've decided to go full on Ranked Practice. 9 Town, 4 Mafia. Well, now you have 2 slots left for Neutrals. What will you do? People often make mistakes by filling it with some Exact Neutral roles. Again, this isn't the worst idea, but it confirms evils, which can lead to some issues. With this you will almost always wish to do Neutral Killing & Neutral Evil. If it's a Town vs. Mafia vs. Vampires game, you may wish to replace the Neutral Killing slot with a Vampire (This is because the NE adds a slight chaos to lynching, allowing the town to not be unnaposed, whilst also taking away an extra opportunity to KILL the vampire). This means you probably DONT want a Vampire Hunter though, as this is a pretty bad start.

Part 3c - Neutrals

So you've decided to lay off a bit. You now have 3 Neutrals instead of 2. Now, what do you do?

At this point you may replace 1 Slot with an Exact Neutral. Usually, though, you will want to make the Neutrals board completely random (Unless you really want a Plaguebearer in game, I don't blame you). So, you may wish to make use of Random Neutrals now. This will allow you any Neutral role in the game. This gets a bit messy though, i don't have any EXACT Reccomendations. Just add a Random Neutral, a Neutral Killing, and 1 thing of anything in your heart that NEUTRAL that isn't what was below, and you should be good (Also you may wish to use that for a Werewolf, as it's unique, denying the chance of 2 SKs or Arsonists).

Part 3d (Pun intended?) - Neutrals

With this setup you will have a maximum of 5 Neutrals. This will cover numbers 4-5. In this case, a good strategy to set-up on is a NK, NE, RN, and an ANY. It is acceptable at this point to add an ANY slot. For this, you will want a NK & an ANY or exact Neutral slot. The rest is up to your dreams.

So, that is how you create a good, reasonable Town Of Salem role list! 