Breadcrumb

A Breadcrumb is a veiled reference to your own role, actions, or results. It's a form of steganography that allows you to reveal sensitive information without making it evident to everyone that you're doing so. Another advantage to breadcrumbing is that it provides credence to any claim you make - if you claim to be a particular role and show a breadcrumb from very early in the game that reinforces your claim, it directly implies that you have been preparing to make this claim from the beginning of the game.

Breadcrumbing has its problems, though. Many times, they cannot be reliably read unless the crumbing player points them out, and if there are no breadcrumbs at all players may waste their time trying to find them. In addition, scum have been known to breadcrumb roles as well; if the role they breadcrumbed became inconvenient to claim, they simply do not point them out later. Last, an obvious breadcrumb will draw the scum's attention and place that player at the top of the list of players they have an interest in killing overNight.

The term refers to the story of Hansel and Gretel who intentionally dropped a trail of breadcrumbs to lead the way home in a manner that would be undetected by their evil stepmother.

Note that some mods' rulesets disallow breadcrumbing in the same way they disallow invisible or encrypted text. Players may be encouraged to contact the mod before they employ a breadcrumb to make sure it's safe.

Example

I haven't played with anyone here before, should be fun.

Anyone here a total newb? Myself and the other guy are experienced, let me know if you have any questions.

Conversation hasn't really started yet, so it's random vote time. Obviously, the guy above me can't be scum, his avatar is too cute. Perhaps it's a ploy, though...

The message is "I AM COP".