Captain

Captain Alias: Overseer Alignment: any Role type: Manipulative Communicative Linked Choice: Day

A Captain is a role who can choose what other roles in the game will do during the night, but those roles have an option to 'obey or disobey' his orders. If they obey, they will go through with the action. If they disobey, the action will not happen. The Captain is informed of what roles he has command of in his Role PM. At least 1, usually no more than 3. He only knows what the roles are, not who the roles are. Simplified, the Captain does not get results, he simply tells them what to do through the mod and those roles are faced with a YES or NO question pertaining to whether they agree with what he wants. The action typically takes place during the day as to not load down the night with awkward phasing.

• If the Captain's target does not obey or disobey, a coin is flipped as to whether he will obey or disobey.
• If the Captain does not action or does not choose to action (send in orders for a role) that role can action normally on their own.
• In some variants, the Captain is informed when one of his target's disobeys his orders.

Example Usage

Say Ronald is a Mafia Captain. He has control over 2 Power Roles. Cop and Doctor. Who the players are behind those roles or what their alignments are not confirmed to him. During the day he PMs the mod with ORDERS COP TO TARGET SALLY and NO ACTION FOR DOCTOR. Instead of actioning normally the following night, the cop would be PM'd by the mod saying a captain has ordered him to target Sally. He would have the option of agreeing to them or not. The doctor would not receive orders and would be able to target whoever he liked normally.

Use and Power

While not as directly strong as a Bus Driver or a Redirector, the Captain plays to other strengths. If town, the ability to know who your PRs are is vital. Keeping an eye out for potential claims and protecting them during the day is a perk of the role. Also, it should go without saying that the strength of the Captain is directly proportional to the skill of the player, like a Neighborizer for instance. Being able to override a lower-skilled player's target with a superior choice of your own can go a long way to showing your towniness. Selecting proper targets that lead to real results (getting scum eliminated) also goes a long way. One should also be aware that your PR might also disagree with your action resulting in a no action so the Town Captain should be mindful of any outrageous requests and probably abstain from them.

However as scum, you might want to make outrageous requests, like ordering the Vigilante to kill the claimed Cop. You might just get away with it. However this can always backfire, resulting in players mistrusting you. And of course the option is always there to play the "good captain" and submit good actions to your PRs, gaining their trust. This is of course up to the player.

The power of the Captain role depends on the setup. With less roles, it is likely to be more powerful - with more roles, less powerful. Also it depends on mod implementation. If a mod gives the Captain power over only one role, his power is reduced. However if he has power over 3 roles, his power is quite strong. Also, because the Captain can have reign over roles of either alignment, the mod should always be careful about what exactly the Captain has power over as to not come close to breaking the setup with early claims.

History

A variant of the role was first used in Chain of Command 9p Mafia[1]