Ninja

Not to be confused with getting ninja'ed.

Ninja Alias: none Alignment: Mafia Serial Killer Town Role type: Deceptive Choice: none

A Ninja is a player who can perform actions that cannot be seen by a Tracker, Watcher, or similar role; it has the same relationship to action investigations that Godfather does to faction investigations.

Normal version

Ninja actions cannot be seen performing actions by action-investigative roles (e.g. Tracker, Watcher, Voyeur, Follower, and Motion Detector); all these roles return results as though the Ninja action had not occurred at all. Roles that do not investigate actions, such as Roleblocker, can interact with Ninja actions as normal.

"Ninja" itself is interpreted as a modifier that applies to a specific action (or, in the case of roles like Jack-of-all-trades, to all actions included within a single multi-part role), making it into a Ninja action; in the absence of further clarification, it applies to a player's factional kill.

Variations

The Ninja modifier is most commonly used to protect the Mafia's (or a Serial Killer's) nightkill from being tracked, but does function to protect other roles from observation as well; the modifier could even be useful for a Cop or similar role to prevent the Mafia discovering that they were investigated, but is generally only seen in the hands of anti-town players, for whom it is a lot more powerful.

Use & Balance

There will almost never be any ill effects to sending a Ninja to perform the Mafia's kill, so as long as the Ninja is alive, Trackers and Watchers will simply never see the Mafia kill. This tremendously decreases the effectiveness of both roles, as they can no longer directly catch scum.

The existence of a Ninja generally implies the existence of a Tracker or Watcher. Arguably, in the current meta the existence of a Watcher implies the existence of a Ninja.

Play Advice

If you are on a groupscum team, you should be performing every factional action that the modifier applies to, unless you fear being roleblocked. In other cases, the main influence that the Ninja modifier should have on your play is that you don't need to play around investigations.

As Town, it may be worth claiming earlier than normal in a massclaim; the main reason not to claim the modifier is that it implies that you have a power role, making you an obvious kill target, but you probably want to admit to it before a player who failed to track you spreads doubt that you have an active action at all.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Ninja" describes the modifier as follows:

• As a modifier on a single ability: This action is not visible to Tracker-like and Watcher-like roles. (edit)

• As a modifier that affects all abilities: Your actions are not visible to Tracker-like and Watcher-like roles. (edit)

Example (modifying a single ability)

Welcome to game! You are a Mafia Ninja Jailkeeper.

Your team-mates are names. You may talk to them here during night phases and confirmations only.

You have the following active abilities, but may use only one per Night:

• Each Night, if no other member of your faction is performing this action, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will die.
• Each Night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be protected from kills that night, but all their actions will be blocked that night. This action is not visible to Tracker-like and Watcher-like roles.

You win if at least one mafia member is alive and all other players are dead (or if nothing can prevent the same).

Confirm by replying to this PM with a summary of your role.

Example (affecting all abilities)

Welcome to game! You are a Mafia Ninja Jack of All Trades Tracker Doctor.

Your team-mates are names. You may talk to them here during night phases and confirmations only. Your actions are not visible to Tracker-like and Watcher-like roles.

You have the following active abilities, but may use only one per Night:

• Each Night, if no other member of your faction is performing this action, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will die.
• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn who that player targeted that night. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.)
• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be protected from one kill that night.

You win if at least one mafia member is alive and all other players are dead (or if nothing can prevent the same).

Confirm by replying to this PM with a summary of your role.