Vanilla Cop

Vanilla Cop Alias: none Alignment: Mafia Town Role type: Investigative Choice: Night

A Vanilla Cop is a lower-powered version of a Role Cop, as an investigative role that sees role information but not alignment information. The drawback is that the exact role is not specified – only whether or not a power role exists at all.

Normal version

A Vanilla Cop's night action investigates players to see whether or not they are a vanilla of their faction. Vanilla Townies and Mafia Goons will return a "vanilla" result, as will Serial Killers who have no special abilities beyond their kill (i.e. no investigation immunity, bulletproofing, etc.). Any other player will return a "not vanilla" result.

As usual for investigative roles, there are three possible results: "vanilla", "not vanilla", and no result (which should be clearly distinct from a "not vanilla" result). The last of these occurs if the Vanilla Cop's action fails, e.g. due to being roleblocked or trying to scan an Ascetic player.

Variations

In Theme games which have factions beyond the standard factions, the moderator will need to determine what a vanilla of those factions is. (For example, it would be reasonable for Cultist to be considered vanilla if it has no extra power roles, but Cult Recruiter to be considered a power role.)

The name "Vanilla Cop" formerly sometimes referred to a role that searched for Vanilla Townies specifically. This variant has since been spun off into a role of its own, Neapolitan (and is normal under the "Neapolitan" name, but not normal as "Vanilla Cop").

The Simple and Complex modifiers are similar to Vanilla Cop, in that they depend on whether the target of an action is a vanilla of their target; however, their results translate into success/failure of an action rather than investigative results. (As such, Simple Checker and Complex Checker are very similar to a Vanilla Cop, but give less reliable results.)

The original appearance of Vanilla Cop was in the setup information of /in-Vitational Game 4 (although it did not appear in that game, with a Goon Cop being selected instead). This version of the role scanned for roles with "Vanilla" in their name, and is somewhat different from the modern version.

Use & Balance

Although a little less powerful than a Role Cop, a Vanilla Cop can be useful for both town and scum; they can help town players catch out a lie or help mafia narrow down the pool of town power roles.

If placing a Vanilla Cop and Role Cop into the same setup, moderators should take into account the fact that scum often fakeclaim a Vanilla Cop as a Neapolitan, as it's considered a more townish role. This interactiom can have unexpected balance impacts (in addition to the combination of two very similar roles being hard to believe), so the combination is best avoided if you want the setup's balance to be easy to predict.

Play Advice

As town, the primary use for your role will probably be to identify scum who have claimed a power role as a Goon, or VT as a scum power role (both of these are fairly common fakeclaims from scum). Note that in either case, an "expected" result is unlikely to confirm anything, as scum can fakeclaim VT as a Goon, or a power role as a different power role, and your role can't detect that. Because scum often claim an alignment-flipped version of their actual role, you may want to preferentially check claims of roles that are unlikely to be given to scum (e.g. a claimed Cop is a good target, as it's unlikely to be a Mafia Cop claiming their actual role – this increases the chance that a fakeclaim is coming from a Goon, and reduces the chance that a fakeclaim is coming from a Mafia power role).

As scum, it often makes sense to nightkill power roles and attempt to get vanilla townies voted out, rather than the other way round (a town power role can often save themselves by claiming). Vanilla Cop information can thus be helpful when working out which players make most sense to push.

Note that a Normal Vanilla Cop is considerably weaker than a Neapolitan in town hands, but the roles are more or less equivalent for scum. As such, a Vanilla Cop claim is often seen as mildly scummy (just like a Roleblocker claim is), despite the fact that the role works for both factions; this means that if you want to claim your actual role, it may make sense to claim it as Neapolitan instead.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Vanilla Cop" describes the action as follows:

• As a targeted action: you will learn whether or not that player is a vanilla of their faction. (A Vanilla Townie, Goon, or Serial Killer with no abilities beyond a kill is a vanilla of their faction.) (edit)

Example (simplest form)

Welcome to game! You are a Mafia Vanilla Cop.

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, you will learn whether or not that player is a vanilla of their faction. (A Vanilla Townie, Goon, or Serial Killer with no abilities beyond a kill is a vanilla of their faction.)

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 (with modifiers)

Welcome to game! You are a Mafia 1-shot Loud Vanilla Cop.

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.
• Once in the game at Night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn whether or not that player is a vanilla of their faction. (A Vanilla Townie, Goon, or Serial Killer with no abilities beyond a kill is a vanilla of their faction.) Your target will learn that you targeted them (but not what action you targeted them with).

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.