Sketchwick's Gambit

The defensive tactic of claiming a role which investigates as guilty to respond to a guilty investigation without attacking the investigator.

When To Use

When the player is mafia, and has been caught by an investigative role.

Examples

• Upon a Cop investigation, claim Miller.
• Upon a Track to or a Watch on someone who died at night, claim any role that could have visited that target.
• Upon a Gunsmith investigation, claim Cop, Vigilante, Vengeful, etc..
• Upon a Neapolitan investigation, claim any Power Role.
• Upon a Follower investigation, claim Vigilante.
• Upon someone claiming "No Result", claim Commuter.

Risk

Although there are occasionally pro-town roles that do appear guilty to investigations (such as millers), the person in question usually gets eliminated eventually.

Furthermore, this tactic is highly vulnerable to Kokusho's Gambit, in which the investigative role fakeclaims a different investigative to bait the use of this tactic.

Alternatives

The main alternative to this gambit is to claim a role that would produce an incompatible result with the claimed investigation (e.g. claiming Vanilla Townie when a Cop finds you guilty). This is effectively a counterclaim of the investigative role; if they looked scummier than you, you may be able to get them eliminated before you inevitably end up getting eliminated the next Day. If done well, this can deprive the town of two Days' worth of useful discussion (as any discussion that does happen will likely be centred around you).

Another variation is to claim that a third role interfered (or at least mention the possibility); for example, suggesting the possibility of a Framer, or that the role that investigated you is an Insane Cop. This tends to work only in Role Madness games and is not very reliable. It might be worth attempting as a last resort if the investigator is proved 100% trustworthy, though (e.g. because the player who investigated you has since died and flipped Town). It's also a fairly reasonable defence to a Motion Detector guilty (because framer-type roles are rare, but roles that set off a motion detector are very common).

History

This was originally named Chainsaw Defense, after PolarBoy claiming Landscaper on Day 1 of Beach Resort Mafia; the first line of his claim post was "I guess you found my chainsaw."

This could also be called the "Cochran Defense", as Sketchwick used it in Improbable Role Mafia when he claimed Johnny Cochran, a lawyer who is innocent, but appears guilty (a Miller). In that game, he was actually "mafia lawyer".