Witch Hunt
Host: Cobalt
Size: 17 players OR 21 players
Start Date: May 1, 2023
Phase Lengths: 48/24
SoD/EoD: 10pm EST
Night Chat/Out of Thread Communication: see setup below
Post Minimum: 10 per day
Post Cap: 200 per day, lifted 2 hours before EoD.
Flips: NO FLIPS, **dead players still participate in the game** (see setup)
Accounts: Anonymous accounts will be provided for each player through Modbot in a theme of Greek Mythology (not gods).
Preface: Witch Hunt does not accommodate bastard modding. No false or misleading information should ever presented in-game to players, nor should any details about the rules or mechanics be withheld.
Player Assignments: Each player is given two assignments: a unique role, and a non-unique type.
Roles provide every player with a special, unique ability of some sort. These abilities may be offensive or defensive, mechanical or informational. Powers granted by your role only apply while you are alive.
Player type is separate from role, and determines what team the player is on.
For a 17 player game, there will be 13 Villagers, and 4 Witches.
For a 21 player game, there will be 16 Villagers, and 5 Witches.
At the start of pregame the Witches get an additional, unassigned role and a single Witch may trade their own role with that of the extra role, allowing the Witches a limited amount of optimization of their role assignments.
Only the Witches know which role was given to them as an extra, so they can use that knowledge later in the game to their advantage in playing around town strategies. Also note that since the extra role is not assigned to a player, any ability that it may have is not usable during the game.
Village Player Types:
Villager - This is the most common player type. Villagers are simply trying to hunt down the Witches and use their role to help the Village do so.
Holy Villager - The most powerful roles are considered “holy”. These roles are reserved for the Holy Villagers, and cannot be any other player type.
(Holy Villagers have no other unique function besides getting a reserved role that is always Village aligned.)
Witch Player Types:
Witch - Witches start in the Coven. They know each other from the start of the game, and vote as a group in the Witch Coven each night to kill a target. They may also communicate with each other at all times.
Remember: Holy roles aside, any roles can be any player type - Villager or Witch!
Roles:
Holy
Priest - Each night, you may check if a target is in the Witch Coven.
Acolyte - At the start of the game, you learn who has the Priest role.
Information
Gravedigger - At the start of each Night, you learn the role and alignment of anyone who died that Day phase.
Apprentice - At the start of the game, you may select Judge or Gravedigger. You will learn who has that role, and take over their duties if they die.
Watchman - At the end of the first night, you learn the identity of a random non-holy Villager that is not an Information role.
Inquisitor - Each night, you may check if a target is holy or not.
Peeping Tom - Once per game, you may observe the private actions and results of any non-holy role. If that role is dead, you may make decisions and receive information in their place.
Spiritualist - Once per game during any day (before time is up), you may choose to publicly reveal this role and privately name any dead player. You will privately learn that player's role and alignment.
Defense
Survivalist - You start the game with an extra life.
Gambler - At the start of the game, pick even or odd. On those Nights (but not Days), you are protected from one kill.
Fanatic - When the Priest checks you, you are secretly notified and gain an extra life.
Benevolent Old Dame - Once per game when your death is announced, you may give a target other than yourself an extra life.
Nurse - Once per game during any day, you may reveal this card and name any non-holy role. If that role is still alive, they gain an extra life.
Offense
Judge - At the end of any day the players fail to select a target to eliminate, you may privately decide yourself. This ignores extra lives.
Hunter - The first time a player survives being killed, you may kill a target other than yourself the following night.
Dirty Old Bastard - Once per game when your death is announced, you may kill a target.
Loose Cannon - During any day (before time is up), you may reveal this card. Sacrifice yourself to end the day and personally decide who to eliminate.
Assassin - Once per game during any day (before time is up), you may reveal this card and guess the role of a target other than yourself. If correct, the target is killed.
The Witches
In addition to their roles, Witches have a few extra tricks that they can use during the game.
The last living member of the Witch team may kill up to two different targets each night.
Once per game, Witches may make an Illusion Kill instead of or in addition to their usual kill(s). The target of an Illusion Kill always survives, so use this later in the game to confuse the town!
Undertaker - At the start of each Even numbered Night, you learn the role and alignment of anyone who died that Day phase.
(This modifies the Gravedigger role to be Odd numbered nights, and the Apprentice role to choose between Gravedigger, Undertaker, and Judge.)
Red Musketeer - Appears as Musketeer. You learn the identities of the other Musketeers at the start of the game. If you are the last Musketeer alive, you may Reveal your role and kill a player other than yourself.
Blue Musketeer - Appears as Musketeer. You learn the identities of the other Musketeers at the start of the game. If you are the last Musketeer alive, you may Reveal your role and kill a player other than yourself.
Green Musketeer - Appears as Musketeer. You learn the identities of the other Musketeers at the start of the game. If you are the last Musketeer alive, you may Reveal your role and kill a player other than yourself.
Dead players may no longer communicate or vote with living players. They also may no longer utilize their role abilities. Dead players may communicate with each other freely, and watch the game unfold.
However, dead players are NOT eliminated from the game! Instead they continue to serve their side as an Angel or Demon.
Please note that while dead, players observe all actions made, or information gained by all players. For example, at the end of a typical night, dead players might learn
1. The players in the coven & their kill target. (eg: The Witch Coven of Amy, Bob and Cindy voted to kill Dave)
2. The priest and his check target. (eg: Errol the Priest checked Fred, who is not in the Coven)
3. That the fanatic was checked and now has an extra life. (eg: Fred the Fanatic was checked by the Priest & gained an extra life)
If there are only dead players from a single group (Angels or Demons), then only that group will learn the info for that phase.
Angels and Demons
All dead Villagers are Angels and all dead Witches are Demons.
Angels may vote as a group to protect any player from the Coven that night. The chosen player will be protected against the Coven kill, but not any other kill sources (such as the Hunter).
Each night, the Demons may pick two targets to Haunt. This effects both the Priest and the Angels - if the Priest checks either Haunted player that night, he will receive the result for the other instead! Secondly, if the Angels protect either of the two Haunted players, they may never protect that target again.
Additionally, Angels may only protect a Haunted player if there are more Angels than Demons.
In other words, the Angels can stand in the Witches' way, but the Demons can stand in the Angels' way; all in layers of dares and bluffs!
Note that in order for this to flow smoothly, Demons must choose who they wish to Haunt by the halfway point each night, so that Angels may react accordingly.
Finally, once per game, the Angels may protect two targets.
- How does protection work exactly?
Protection blocks a single kill that occurs at night. Further, Protection stacks, so if you have two sources of protection (say you are the Gambler and Angels target you), it would take three kills in one night to kill you.
Also note that all kill attempts are made public, so if someone were to survive one kill, but die to a second that would be revealed upon day start. Similarly if someone is killed twice in the same night, that would be shown at the start of day.
- When does the DOB / BOD go off?
All deaths are announced during DAY, so the DOB / BOD kill or +life always occur during day.
- How are night actions resolved?
First, Demons choose their Haunt targets, then all non kill actions are resolved, then all kills are resolved. This means that nothing is interrupted or otherwise impeded by the target or recipient of an action being killed in the night.
- How does the Peeping Tom work exactly?
The Peeping Tom may observe any completely private interaction made with the moderator, whether it be passive or active. This includes Gravedigger, Watchman, Inquisitor, Judge & Hunter. If the observed role is not alive, the Peeping Tom may make a decision in their place (where applicable), additionally, the player being targeted by the PT is informed & may queue their actions accordingly. It is acceptable for roles to conditionally target 'The Peeping Tom' if they are observed by the PT.
If the PT targets Gravedigger or Judge, the Angels are told in the End of Day information dump, when targeting any other role, the angels are told in the End of Night information dump.
Additionally, if the PT targets the extra, unused Witch Role, that role will be considered dead and the PT may make decisions or gather information in their place. At the end of the day or night that this occurs, the Witches will be told that the PT observed their spare role was dead.
- What happens if the Gravedigger or Judge is the unassigned role and the Apprentice picks them?
The Apprentice will be told that nobody has that role and they will immediately gain the powers of the Gravedigger or Judge.
Roles that reveal their card for an effect during the day (such as Nurse or Assassin) may extend the day by 24 hours, at the host's discretion. This is to stop degenerate strategies such as 'use your power immediately before day end to prevent a reaction'. To "reveal", you must privately message the host with your intention, and the host will make the reveal for you.
At the end of the day's deadline, if a player has a majority of votes, that player is eliminated. If no player has a majority, or a majority of players vote to sleep, the decision defers to the Judge. The Judge's identity remains private, and the result is announced. If the Judge is dead or declines Judgment, no one is eliminated.
The number of votes that constitute a majority will be clearly posted at the start of each day.
Ending the day early requires an unanimous-minus-one vote count.
Queued Actions:
Roles that make immediate game decision at the start or end of a phase (such as Judge, DOB, BOD) need to have their desired action queued with the moderator - this is to allow the game to run smoothly, as (for example) needing to wait for the Judge to check-in and decide who to eliminate after a No-Elimination day could take many hours.
Additionally, players may have to be away from a computer when they would desire to make critical game decisions. Players can work with the moderator in advance to easily address these circumstances.
If you are AFK and want to queue an action related to your role, post it in your private channel in the Discord server that will be assigned pre-game. (In bold). You cannot queue votes.
There will be three Discord servers created to serve this game. The first will contain 17 individual private chats for each player to communicate with the moderator, to queue actions, learn information, etc. The second will be the witches' private chat. The third will be for dead players, with separate channels for general dead chat, angels, and demons. Observers will also exist in the dead chat server and will be able to view all channels.
