Watcher

Watcher Aliases: Night Watchman Lookout Alignment: any Role type: Investigative Choice: Night

The Watcher is an informative role that can target a player at Night and learn who, if anybody, targeted that player the same Night (but not what actions were performed on that player).

Watchers have been seen as each alignment.

This version of Watcher, and only this version of Watcher, is considered Normal on mafiascum.net.

Variations

Some moderators will tell Watchers whose targets were not visited by anyone "No Result", which is indistinguishable from the result they would have gotten if the Watcher were Roleblocked.

The Watcher has very few variants; however, there are many related Roles:

• The Tracker learns who a player targeted, but not what action that player performed.
• The Follower learns what action a player performed, but not who that player targeted.
• The Watcher learns who targeted a player, but not what actions were performed on them.
• The Voyeur learns what actions were performed on a player, but not who targeted them.
• The Motion Detector learns if any actions were performed by or on a player, but not what they were, or who else was involved.

Previously, the Watcher meant someone who could tell if someone performed an action at Night; this role is now referred to as Reporter and is actually a variant of Tracker/Follower. There is discussion about this here.

Normal Guidelines

A Watcher that learns who a player was targeted by during the night is considered Normal on mafiascum.net. If a Watcher is somehow blocked from their action (by Roleblocker, Jailkeeper, Rolestopper, Ascetic, or Commuter), they should receive a "No Result" pm, rather than a "did not see anything" pm. A Watcher would not see a Ninja committing a kill, however, and would receive a "did not see anything" pm in that case.

Use and Balance

Because it is easier to choose who is likely to be targeted by scum at Night than it is to determine who performs the scum kill, Watcher is considerably more powerful than Tracker. In addition, because having the name of a scum to eliminate is better than having someone confirmed Town due to being targeted by the Mafia kill, Watcher is more powerful than Doctor. Last, because the meta is such that Cops and Trackers are more anticipated power roles than Watchers, Watcher has been considered more "cheap" than both of them. As a result, Watcher is a particularly strong power role with negative connotations associated with it.

Aside from pointing out who targeted dead players, Watchers are also functional for identifying who targeted players with other types of abilities. For instance, if the Watcher's target claims to have been Roleblocked the next Day, then the Watcher can expect the Roleblocker to be listed in their report.

Mafia Watchers have been known to exist and have much less stigma attached to them. They can be used to find protective roles (by targeting likely Doctor targets), or to give foreknowledge of possible investigations (by watching a Mafia partner). In a setup with multiple killers, a Mafia Watcher may be able to identify opposing killers. They are fairly solid power roles in scum hands.

Play Advice

Much of the same advice for Doctors applies to Watchers; try to target the person who is likely to be killed. However, Watchers can benefit from also targeting someone and seeing who visits them. Like a Tracker's reports, a Watcher's reports can become more valuable after their is more information about what roles the people named in the report are.