Template:Story Mayor
Mechanics
- The Mayor is a unique role, meaning there can never be more than one Mayor in a match.
Example picture of someone revealing as Mayor. Notice the text color is different than any other types of chat.
- Click on the sun icon during the Day Phase to reveal yourself as the Mayor to all players.
- Once revealed, your vote will count for three. These three votes refer to both the Voting and the Judgement phases.
- You cannot be healed by a Doctor once you reveal yourself, making a Poisoner a dangerous threat. Bodyguards, Lookouts, Transporters, Crusaders, Trappers, Guardian Angels, and the Jailor can still protect you, however.
- You cannot whisper to other players or be whispered to once you reveal yourself. If you attempt to whisper to a revealed mayor, you will receive a message saying "You can not whisper to a revealed mayor!"
- Neither you nor the Jailor can be an Executioner's target.
- You are the only role who can win in a 1 versus 1 against Pestilence, due to you having your vote count as three and, therefore, being able to lynch him.
Strategy
Deciding to Reveal
- Some players discourage revealing Day 1, since it makes you an immediate target. However, while it has disadvantages, it also has several advantages:
- It allows the Jailor to jail you on the first night and identify themselves to you so you can work together while protecting you and possibly baiting the Mafia into wasting their kill.
- It lets any Sheriffs, Investigators, and Vampire Hunters know not to waste time on you, narrowing down their search and increasing the chance that they will find evils. The night a Sheriff wastes investigating you because you failed to reveal may be the difference between victory and defeat.
- It gives Bodyguards, Transporters, and Lookouts a guaranteed Town member to protect early in the game, and can bait the Mafia into getting caught by them. Since the Mayor attracts a lot of visits, it also helps the Lookout identify and verify later Bodyguard claims, or prove themselves to a Jailor who jailed you.
- It allows the Town to immediately discount later Bodyguard claims if you get killed or bitten, since a real Bodyguard would have prevented it from happening.
- While it makes you a target, remember that you were a target to begin with because the evils already know everyone but themselves is an enemy. Letting other Town members know you're on their side (even when they're making decisions early on in the game) will usually gain you more than what you would lose, since you become a confirmed Townie and can use it to your advantage.
- Remember that all else aside, if you die without revealing, your role was wasted. Dying without revealing is the worst possible outcome. Even if the impact isn't obvious to you, every night you're revealed for is another night where Town Investigatives and Town Protectives get to make slightly more informed decisions. It also allows them to not waste a night investigating you or protecting the wrong person.
- You instantly narrow down possible suspects, giving you easier and viable targets to lynch, especially in games with large amounts of evil roles, like the Mafia and Neutral Killings if there are multiple of them. This is also crucial late game as you have great influence and allow the Town to be more confident in their decisions.
- One factor you should consider when deciding whether to reveal is how many Town there are and whether the evils are one or many factions. In modes like Ranked, where there are few factions and many Town, it makes sense to reveal early or even D1. In a mode like Coven All Any, you might benefit from laying low in hopes that the evils will target each other.
- On the other hand, smart evils in those modes are often more concerned about rival killers than they are about a Mayor, and may ignore you to focus on finding and killing an enemy faction.
- In the Coven expansion, Crusaders are another thing to consider; if you reveal D1 and all the Town's Town Protectives pile onto you, there's a high risk of a Crusader killing another Town member.
- Still, it is discouraged among many players.
- You should always reveal when a Town Investigative calls you out or there is suspicion circling you.
- Scenario: If an Investigator calls you out, thinking you are a Consigliere, you can always avoid being hanged by revealing, but if there's no Bodyguard or Jailor, you'll probably be killed the next night. This can be a nightmare if you're not ready for revealing or you will be dead tomorrow, but always reveal. If you don't reveal yourself you may be killed by a Jailor who assumes you're a Consigliere.
- If the role list contains some Town Protective roles, you could consider revealing on Day 2 or Day 3. This way, you either bait killing roles into attacking you, wasting their kill for that night, or you scare them off because there is a high chance that you are protected by a Bodyguard. After that, you can effectively lead the Town until you are eventually taken out. Don't forget to include a "lynch list" with your suspects in your Last Will to help the Town, even after your death.
- Consider a Day 1 Reveal. The Jailor does not yet possess their execution power yet, and the Werewolf will not be active. This guarantees your survival until Day 2, as the Jailor saves you from all danger. Be sure to ask the Jailor his identity, as since you are revealed, he will not lie (unless he's game-throwing - in that case, report said person). Also, seeing that you are jailed Night 1 will spook many evil roles into not attacking you until all Town Protective roles and the Jailor are dead.
- On the first night after your reveal, if you don't think there is a Jailor around and you survive the night, say something around the lines of "Thanks Jailor for protecting me." The killing roles won't attack you as often since they don't want to attack you while you are immune and waste a potential kill.
- When you reveal at about Day 4 or 5, someone usually has to be lynched in order for the Town to win (unless it's a Mafia majority). When you reveal, there are usually fewer than 10 players left alive, so do a large amount of deduction. It's much easier to do when there are fewer players giving roles to you. This allows you to cross out possible roles from the players already dead in the graveyard.
- If you are one of the last Town roles left (preferably with a Town Protective) and they need 3 votes in order to vote someone up, then reveal and lynch your suspect. Then ask the Bodyguard (if there is one) to protect you (or Jailor to jail you) and slowly eliminate the remaining baddies.
- Being able to lynch a person single-handedly in the game makes it especially important to keep track of the clues, because your game is practically over if you're lynching the wrong person. This can make it worthwhile to copy-and-paste Last Wills to the chat so that they can be read completely later on.
- Accusing a known Neutral Benign role and voting innocent can be helpful later in the game. The Mafia tends to vote guilty because they think the Town will also vote guilty because they are not Town. However, this strategy may not work if the Neutral Benign is a claimed Survivor, as the Mafia often protect Survivors to gain more votes later in the game.
- If you reveal especially early in the game, do not be swayed by a bandwagon, as you might be helping an Executioner win the game or either end up lynching the wrong person instead.
- It may be tempting to try and play a "stealth Mayor", revealing unexpectedly to swing the game at the last minute when all seems lost. While these are dramatic and memorable moments, it's generally a poor strategy to aim for that deliberately unless you have no other option:
- You are very likely to get attacked and killed before the endgame, since Town Protectives will see no reason to focus on you if you haven't given a role yet.
- Until you reveal, you provide no real benefit to the Town. This means that by waiting for a big dramatic reveal, you're costing the Town a slot that could have been filled with a more productive role - with a high risk that you'll die before the end and get no payoff.
- Games often don't end with a one-vs-one standoff where a stealthy Mayor can make a difference. If your stalling and indecision about revealing leads to a situation with two or more Mafia or Coven against you, or a three-way split with more than one evil, you're only going to be able to lynch one of them and will then lose the game.
- Essentially, if possible, you're better off using your clout to push the Town forward and your ability to reveal to remove yourself from the list of suspects so the Town can win while it still has the advantage, rather than deliberately trying to reach a situation where the Town is almost defeated just so you can dramatically save the day.
- If you must go for clutch ending, though (for instance, because there simply aren't enough Town left), you have a number of options. These should only be done when you have no other option - they are not good strategies for general usage (you do not reveal as Mayor in these cases).
- Claiming Survivor or Executioner (or pretending to be a Jester) can convince evils to target other people (hopefully each other.) This shouldn't be done if there's a Vigilante present. While you can reveal if someone calls you out, you can't reveal if a Vigilante shoots you, and they will end up killing themselves out of guilt, potentially giving the Mafia an edge by quickly eliminating two powerful Town roles. You can always whisper to the Vigilante your actual role, as to ensure this won't happen.
- Claiming Medium might also be helpful if you're planning on a stealth reveal and get asked for a role. Medium is generally considered a weak role by the Mafia and Neutral Killing, so you're more likely to be left alone, but it's also a Town role, giving Vigilantes a reason not to shoot you. It also has the additional advantage of being the same alignment as your real role, so you're more credible and less likely to get counterclaimed.
- In order to pull off a clutch victory, you need to avoid a situation where you get killed immediately after revealing and lynching. If you can break a three-way split between a Werewolf and another evil when the next night is not a full moon night, for instance, the werewolf won't be able to attack and you can lynch them the next day.
- If you have a Bodyguard, Escort, Transporter, or Crusader, they can often buy you the time you need to lynch other roles. Whisper them early on if you know their identity, then reveal to avoid drawing attention to them. However, be wary of Blackmailers.
- Claiming Survivor or Executioner (or pretending to be a Jester) can convince evils to target other people (hopefully each other.) This shouldn't be done if there's a Vigilante present. While you can reveal if someone calls you out, you can't reveal if a Vigilante shoots you, and they will end up killing themselves out of guilt, potentially giving the Mafia an edge by quickly eliminating two powerful Town roles. You can always whisper to the Vigilante your actual role, as to ensure this won't happen.
Voting for roles
- While voting for roles is a viable strategy even without a Mayor, the Mayor's power makes it easier and more reliable. To do it, the Mayor reveals early on and votes up players who have not yet claimed a role, focussing on people who seem suspicious; he then votes innocent on anyone who makes a remotely credible role claim. This forces evil roles to make claims that can potentially be falsified.
- Additionally, this produces voting records that can potentially reveal what sides people are on; many Mafia members have been caught due to a reluctance to vote up fellow Mafia. Conversely, if someone helps you vote up a Mafia member, they are less likely to be Mafia themselves.
- One risk is that you may force valuable Town roles to reveal; this has to be weighed against the value of the information you gain.
- Realize that revealing (especially in a group) is safer than it may seem. Evils are often reluctant to immediately exploit the knowledge they gain from this, since Town Protective roles can protect important role claims such as Jailor.
- Additionally, this information is revealed to other Town, not just to the Mafia; that allows Town Protectives, Town Investigatives, and Town Killing roles to make more informed decisions - Town Investigatives and, if necessary, Town Killing roles can focus on people with weak claims, while Town Protectives can focus on ones with strong or valuable ones. This often benefits the Town by far more than they lose in revealing their roles to the Mafia.
- Finally, if you are reluctant to reveal your role, remember, as always, that the Mafia already knows you are not Mafia; as a general rule, revealing more information benefits the Town (who needs information to lynch and win) than it benefits the Mafia (who wins by default if they just kill a non-Mafia every night, without needing any information at all to do it). Hiding from the Mafia is not a viable long-term strategy.
- Another serious risk is that a Jester can benefit from this by refusing to claim to get themselves lynched; for this reason, a common tactic is to order Vigilante claims to shoot likely Jesters instead, proving them while eliminating an evil role.
- You can only vote up three people a day. While it's rare for the Town to need this many, this does prevent you from prolonging the day indefinitely and getting claims from absolutely everyone. For this reason, it's also a good idea to encourage people to reveal before they're voted up.
- If you plan on pursuing this strategy, it may be a good idea to reveal Day 1 and ask the Jailor to jail you so they can identify themselves; this avoids the risk of demanding that the most valuable Town role claim publicly.
- Realize that voting for roles is a controversial strategy; some people may object or refuse to cooperate purely because of this. That said, the people who protest most loudly about it being "random" should be seen as suspicious - most evils prefer a passive Town to one that hunts for them aggressively.
Keeping Yourself Alive
- Asking for protection from a Bodyguard or Jailor after being revealed can keep you from being attacked, even if you are actually vulnerable. Also if in jail, be sure to get the identity of the Jailor so you can get to work with them and know one person's role for certain.
- If you are jailed, always try to make a good plan with the Jailor. A Mayor and a Jailor are very strong together and will bring chaos upon the evil roles.
- Be wary of the Werewolf since when you reveal, since a Bodyguard, Transporter, Lookout and/or the Jailor will try to look after you. You are an easy target for the Werewolf, due to their ability to kill everyone who visits you. You shouldn't have to worry about the Werewolf if there's a Bodyguard. It's recommended to reveal when you are confident that there is no Werewolf or when the Werewolf is dead.
- Late in the game, if you are an un-revealed Mayor and the only other roles left are multiple conflicting evils (Mafia vs Neutral Evils), a possible claim is Witch, if the remaining players don't communicate. This allows you to wait for the other players to kill each other off so you can reveal and end the game with an instant lynch. The advantage of the Witch claim over the Survivor claim is that you won't be attacked in order to check for Night Immunity, which sometimes happens to check Survivor claims. The disadvantage is that the other players could communicate with each other to disprove your Witch claim, as no one has been controlled. If, however, there actually is a Witch, this disadvantage could be negated.
- If you don't plan to reveal early on, claim Survivor (if the role list allows you to do so). If the killing roles think you are a Survivor, they won't attack you, ensuring you night survival. This might be useful to get near the end of the game where you can reveal and lynch players alone, thanks to your voting power.
- Careful with this strategy, as a Jailor may execute you because they execute Survivors, since it's a role usually claimed by many evil roles such as a Serial Killer or Werewolf, or if the Jailor thinks Survivors are more likely to help the Mafia win. Also, watch out for a Vigilante, they tend to shoot Survivor claims for the same reason.
- This can also backfire with trying to keep killing roles away from you, as they might test your "Night Immunity", or the Mafia could get a Consigliere to investigate you just in case.
- A revealed Mayor has an extremely hard time hiding the fact that they were bitten by a Vampire:
- You will only have one vote, instead of three. For this reason, if you get bitten, you should avoid voting as much as possible.
- You will be able to send and receive whispers, which allows anyone to discover that you are a Vampire at any time simply by trying to send you one.
- These facts can be used to your advantage if the only enemy facing the Town is Vampires; you can reveal, then immediately remind the Town of the ways to detect if you've been bitten. This will discourage Vampires from wasting one of their limited bites on you while allowing you to use your three votes to aggressively demand roles and force people to give information confirming that they haven't been bitten.
- If there is a Mafioso or Godfather left in the round with an Arsonist or Werewolf after a full moon night, lynch the member of the Mafia. Lynching the Mafia prevents you from being killed and having the Arsonist or Werewolf win the game over the Mafia via stalemate. If you luckily haven't been doused, lynch the Arsonist to prevent an ignition, and lynch the Werewolf to prevent you from getting mauled, allowing you to gain a solo Town win.
Trivia
- Mayor is one of four roles that have a day ability, the others being the Jailor, Pirate, and the Medium when dead.
- Prior to Version 3.2.4 (when the Retributionist was able to permanently revive dead town members), if you were killed before revealing as Mayor and then resurrected by a Retributionist you would have had 3 votes as if you had revealed. However, this would not count as revealing thus allowing you to easily obtain the Incognito achievement without hindering the town. (See Achievements)
