Informed

Informed Alias: none Alignment: Town Mafia Role type: Investigative Choice: none

An Informed player is a player who is given additional information about the setup at the start of the game (in the Role PM), most commonly the identity of another townie or the existence of a particular power role.

Normal version

This role gives the player information about the setup (pregame, or with timing determined by a role modifier), and is considered Normal on mafiascum.net provided the information given is objective and accurate. The information can be any information about the setup, but should be non-random with regards to what player-slot is being referred to. For example, if someone is to be told that a player is town, it should be noted in the setup specification that the player they are told is town is a randomly chosen vanilla townie, or a specific power role, and not just a randomly chosen town player.

Informed roles should flip with only their role name, and not any private information; an Informed role is effectively an investigative role whose investigation happens passively and automatically, with the actual information being the "investigation result". An Informed Townie should therefore flip simply as "Informed Townie" (with a redacted role PM, if role PMs are included in flips). Similarly, a Rolecop would only see "Informed", and would not get to see the information itself.

Variations

Best Friends are a pair of players who are informed that each other are Town. (Giving them communication as well, in the style of Neighbours, makes them Masons.)

The Mafia have no need to be informed of players' alignments, but can often benefit from being informed of specific power roles that exist in the game (most commonly to prevent them accidentally doing something that would be good play in most setups, but would expose them as scum in this particular setup). In this case, the information is typically given as a factional ability (as giving it to a single player would be functionally equivalent).

A Savior is similar in effect to an Informed player, as both try to prevent the elimination of a specific player (the Savior because they'll lose, the Informed player because they know it will be a mislim).

A Friendly Neighbour effectively causes other players to become Informed.

Some bastard games have been known to give information that looks useful but is actually entirely useless (e.g. via giving a method of recognising a role that isn't actually in the game). This can be considered effectively equivalent to a False role. Even when the information is useful, information in bastard games tends to be considerably more off-the-wall than merely giving the identity of a townie.

Use & Balance

A townie who is Informed of another townie's alignment is normally slightly stronger than an Innocent Child, for much the same reason a Friendly Neighbour is; the player who's known to be town is effectively immune to elimination (even if the rest of the town believed the information target were scum, the Informed Townie's reaction would likely be "don't eliminate them, eliminate me instead"!). It's typically weaker than a One-Shot Cop, due to not being able to choose the target (although it gets the information a day earlier). It's also considerably less swingy than the One-Shot Cop would be, because there's only one possibility for the information given (the identity of a townie) rather than three (the identity of a townie, the identity of scum, or no information because the target died overnight or the role was interfered with).

Play Advice

As Town, claim your information if it looks like you might die, or if it will save another townie from the elimination (you don't want to clam it early because that'll help aim the Mafia aim their nightkill). You may also want to breadcrumb it, just in case you die before you can tell anyone what it is.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Informed" describes the passive ability as follows:

• As an unmodified passive ability: You know additional information about the setup: information. (edit)

• As a passive ability with a modifier: You will be given the nth additional information about the setup OR additional information about the setup on day n. (edit)

Example (unmodified)

Welcome to game! You are an Informed Townie.

You know additional information about the setup: information.

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.

Example (modified)

Welcome to game! You are a Night 2 Informed Townie.

You will be given additional information about the setup during Night 2.

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.