Roleblocker

Roleblocker Aliases: Dancer Prostitute Alignment: any Role type: Manipulative Choice: Night

A Roleblocker chooses one player per Night to block from performing his or her night action. The target's night action will not be performed -- that is, the Roleblocker blocks the target's role from working.

Typically, the Roleblocker only stops things the target tries to actively perform, such as Cop investigations and Doctor protection. Passive abilities, such as a Bulletproof player's kill immunity or a Mason's ability to privately talk, are not affected. More simply - if the player has to submit an action to the moderator, a Roleblocker can block it.

Players are not told that they are blocked unless it cannot be helped. For instance, a Cop who is blocked by a Roleblocker has to be told something for their investigation result. Normally the Cop is given a message like "No Result". (It is terrible form to simply not give the Cop any result at all and assume that the Cop understands that they were blocked - the Cop may instead question if the moderator forgot about their investigation.)

There is no consensus as to whether one-shot roles are used up when they are targeted by a Roleblocker while performing their action.

Roleblockers have been known to be of either alignment, though Roleblocker is probably the most common Mafia power role. Another name for Roleblocker is "Prostitute" (or anything similar to that).

Multiple and Mutual Roleblocks

There is no consensus as to what happens when multiple Roleblockers exist and target each other (or with similar roles such as Jailkeeper). The prevailing opinion is that Roleblocks are resolved in such a way that conflicts are minimized. The other opinion is that all Roleblocks are simultaneous; thus everyone targeted by a Roleblocker is Roleblocked.

Here are a few examples to illustrate what the differences are, and thus why the moderator must choose well in advance how these kinds of actions would be resolved if multiple Roleblockers are in the game.

• Suppose Roleblocker A blocks Roleblocker B, who blocks Roleblocker C, who blocks Roleblocker D, who blocks Doctor E. If Roleblocks are resolved in such a way that conflicts are minimized, A blocks B, preventing B from blocking C, thus C blocks D, preventing D from blocking the Doctor - in short, the Doctor's protection would have an effect. If all Roleblocks are simultaneous, the only player who is NOT technically Roleblocked is A; the Doctor would be blocked.

• Suppose a Town Roleblocker and a Mafia Roleblocker target each other at Night. Who is Roleblocked?
  • Suppose that the Mafia Roleblocker in this example is also performing the Mafia kill. Does the kill succeed?
  • Suppose that a Tracker investigates the Town Roleblocker in this example. What result does the Tracker get?

Most moderators opt for arbitrary tie-breakers in ambiguous situations like these.

Variations

A Mafia Roleblocker may or may not be allowed to perform the mafia kill the same Night they are also performing a roleblock. (This applies to other Mafia roles as well.) The decision of whether to allow the last Mafioso to kill and use their role at the same time is usually based on what would make the game better-balanced. In Newbie games, the Mafia Roleblocker is allowed to perform both only if they are the last member of their team left.

Some moderators actually do allow Roleblockers to block passive abilities. However, this is usually only seen in role madness games.

Use and Power

Since the Roleblocker can exist as both a town and an anti-town role, its exact use depends on the alignment. In either case, the function of the Roleblocker is to stop suspected threats from performing Night actions.

Town: Generally, Roleblockers are intended to try to stop the Night-kill, or stop scum power roles in situations where they are known. In practice, Roleblockers are more likely to stop Town power roles from working early on, but as the game goes on Roleblockers become much more powerful. In particular, when there is one Mafioso left Roleblockers can be used to confirm players - if the Mafia's kill goes through, whoever was blocked that Night isn't the last Mafioso. Inversely, if a Roleblocker blocks someone and the Mafia's kill disappears, there is a decent chance that the Roleblocker blocked the scum who was performing the kill (though this is not necessarily the case, given that other power roles may have had a hand in it).

Antitown: Antitown Roleblockers are helpful for neutralizing town power roles, even if there is a Doctor or other protective role that keeps the power role from being killed. This is very helpful in preventing Follow the Cop scenarios. A Mafia Roleblocker does not suffer the risk of blocking someone on their side, like a Town Roleblocker does; the only power roles they need to watch out for are the Tracker and the Watcher.

In summary, on the Town side Roleblockers are almost liabilities early on but become much stronger if they survive to lategame, so they have net positive value for Town. Mafia Roleblockers are fairly safe ways to reduce swing and grant the Mafia some measure of protection from the Town's power roles, so they are reasonably powerful for their team.