Even/Odd Night

Even Night Alias: none Alignment: Town Mafia Role type: not defined Choice: Night

Odd Night Alias: none Alignment: Town Mafia Role type: not defined Choice: Night

Even/Odd Night is a role modifier that enables a power role to act on either Odd Nights or Even Nights only. Typically this modifier is attached to roles as a method of weakening them, reducing the amount of times in a game they can use an action.

Normal version

When applied to an active role, the Even Night modifier allows it to be used on only even-numbered Night phases (Night 2, Night 4, etc.); the Odd Night modifier allows it to be used on only odd-numbered Night phase (Night 1, Night 3, etc.).

When applied to a passive role, the Even Night modifier causes that role to apply only during even-numbered Night phases, and the Odd Night modifier causes that role to apply only during odd-numbered Night phases. For example, actions aimed at an Odd Night Ascetic would fail on Night 1, but not on Night 2.

Variations

Even Night and Odd Night are special cases of the Night Specific modifier.

Non-Consecutive Night is similar, but allows the player to choose whether to act on even Nights or odd Nights (or even a mixture, if they wait two Night phases in between).

Roles that are commonly modified as Even or Odd Night include Vigilante and Cop, and Watcher is rarely used without a modifier like these to tone down its power; but these modifiers have been seen on almost every common role (Jailkeeper, Tracker, Doctor, etc.).

Use & Balance

Although an Even/Odd Night role might at first seem half as powerful as the full equivalent, this is normally not the case in practice. Depending on the size of the game, some nights are often more important than others, e.g. it's more useful to have a Cop investigation result on the night before ELo rather than the night after; additionally, a common risk with power roles is dying before they get an opportunity to use their abilities, and this is somewhat more likely to happen with an Even Night role than with an Odd Night role. As such, especially in smaller games, choosing a role as Even Night or as Odd Night can be a good way to fine-tune the balance of a setup.

Some moderators like to use Even Night and Odd Night roles in pairs as a method of reducing swing (because a power role dying can cause a lot of swing, and splitting the ability across multiple players reduces that), but it's sufficiently common to see the modifier on its own that players should not assume that the other modifier also exists. Note that (at least for Town) a split pair like this is more powerful than the role would be on its own, because it gives more scope for players' claims to be confirmed via their actions, and because Mafia may successfully identify a power role (using, e.g., a Tracker) but then attempt to roleblock them uselessly on a night where they couldn't act anyway.

When multiple scumteams exist in a setup that's too large to have multiple kills, it's very common for one scumteam to have an Even Night kill and the other to have an Odd Night kill. This is also typically the case in a setup where a single scumteam is split into multiple separate "mini-teams" that win together but can't communicate with each other.

Play Advice

There aren't many special considerations for how you use an intermittently usable action like this. However, it's worth thinking about how you're going to claim it; generally speaking, except during a massclaim, it's in your interest for the opposing faction to be unaware of how often you can or can't use your ability. You will, however, need to judge whether players will believe you if you claim "I'm a Cop… actually, I'm only an Odd Night Cop". Often they will, but it's something that needs to be taken into account (you may have to be vague about your schedule in the initial claim, i.e. "I investigated player last Night" rather than "I am a Cop").

Even Night and Odd Night are often useful modifiers to place on a fakeclaim when you are Mafia-aligned; you then only have half as many non-existent actions to try to explain away, and the fake role is likely to have less impact on the setup and thus be harder to disprove by setup speculation.

Sample Role PMs

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

• As a modifier on an active ability: On each even-numbered Night, (edit)

• As a modifier on a passive ability: P2 during even-numbered Nights (edit)

Example (modifying an active ability)

Welcome to game! You are a Town Even Night Jailkeeper.

You have the following active ability:

• On each even-numbered 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.

You win if all threats to the town are eliminated and at least one town-aligned player is alive.

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

Example (modifying a passive ability)

Welcome to game! You are an Even Night Bulletproof Townie.

You are protected from kills that target you during even-numbered Nights.

You have no active abilities.

You win if all threats to the town are eliminated and at least one town-aligned player is alive.

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