Cop

Cop Aliases: Seer Angel Alignment: Pro-town Role type: Informative Choice: Night Day

The Cop is a role that has the ability to investigate other players.

The most typical use of this role involves the role PMing the moderator the investigation target during the Night Phase and receiving a result of either "innocent" or "guilty" (or "Pro-Town" and "Anti-Town") at the start of the next Day Phase. This role is almost always Pro-Town since the mafia traditionally already know who is guilty and innocent, making a Mafia Cop redundant.

In games with werewolves, a cop who can only detect werewolves is commonly called a Seer.

Sanities

Since the ability to uncover guilt or innocence regardless of analysis of play is a very powerful ability, some moderators dampen the cop's ability through the use of sanities - alterations to the accuracy of the investigation results. Cop is the only investigative role where it is established that results may not be accurate, and if a Cop is not told that it is Sane it is assumed that any of these sanities may apply. Note, however, that non-Sane Cops are not common in smaller games as there is relatively little time for the Cop to deduce its sanity. Sanity may or may not be revealed upon death, according to the mod's discretion.

• Sane Cop: Always gets correct results (i.e. "guilty" for anti-Town roles and "innocent" for pro-Town roles)
• Insane Cop: Always gets reversed results (i.e. "guilty" for pro-Town roles and "innocent" for anti-Town roles)

Once the player realizes they are insane, they can generally produce effective results by reporting the opposite of what they discover.

• Paranoid Cop: Always gets "guilty" results

Once the Cop discovers their sanity, they may stop investigating, as all results are equally useless.

• Naive Cop: Always gets "innocent" results

This may be the most common variant sanity used, as it masks Scum even if the Cop dies early.

• Random Cop: Gets a randomized result without regard to who is investigated

This is a bastard role and almost never used.

Moderators' judgment varies as to whether roles that falsify investigative results (Godfather, Framer, Miller, et al.) affect non-Sane Cops.

Variations

• Day Cop:

Investigates one player each day instead of each night

• Role Cop:

Investigates, but receives information about ability instead of alignment.

• Macho Cop:

Can't be protected by protective roles.

• Flavor Cop:

An investigation will reveal a piece of flavor from target's role. (also see Thief)

• Amnesiac Cop:

Can investigate, however the results are sent to a third party.

Moderator Notes

The cop is a powerful role, but it becomes much more powerful when a Sane Cop is paired with a Pro-Town Doctor. When both these roles are know to be present, the cop can safely claim and reveal his investigations. This is commonly known as the Follow the Cop problem.

Cult Members generally should return a result of Anti-Town. A Serial Killer should as well, except if there is an FBI Agent or Psychiatrist.