Loyal

Loyal Alias: none Alignment: Town Mafia Role type: Investigative Negative Utility Choice: none

A Loyal action cannot succeed on players of a different alignment.

Normal version

Loyal is an acceptable modifier under Normal guidelines on mafiascum.net, when used on an active role belonging to a player of any Town or Mafia/Werewolf alignment. It causes the role to behave as though it were roleblocked unless the target has the same alignment as the user.

Variations

The opposite modifier is Disloyal.

Use & Balance

There are two main influences a Loyal role can have a setup.

One is to avoid combinations of actions that the moderator feels would be overpowered, underpowered, or excessively swingy. If a member of the Mafia has a Loyal role, then they will know who they can and can't use it on (thus making the ability entirely Negative Utility in this case); the original example was a Mafia Loyal Jailkeeper, intended to help the team out slightly by allowing them to save other Mafia members from the nightkill of rival factions, at the cost of losing their night actions for the night. Without the Loyal modifier, that role would be considerably more powerful, effectively giving the Mafia a Roleblocker. This kind of "toning down" of actions can happen in the Town too; a Town Loyal Tracker (using the abNormal variant that cannot distinguish a blocked action from a no-kill) will be unable to catch a player performing the kill, thus removing the highest-variance outcome, and thus making the role considerably less swingy (in addition to making it considerably less powerful, as the removed outcome is very good for town).

Alternatively, there are cases in which a role can be made more powerful via the addition of this modifier; a Loyal Doctor is better in town's hands than a regular Doctor, and potentially gamebreaking if a Vigilante is available to shoot at the loyal Doctor's targets. In general, if you have a Loyal role as town, consider whether it's possible to gain investigative-style information from the fact that the role fails on anti-Town players.

Play Advice

As Mafia, Loyal won't influence your behaviour much other than restricting your choice of targets; there's very little reason to target a partner unless you suspect a Tracker will investigate you.

As Town, try to arrange things so that you can gain information when your action fails. For example, as a Loyal Fruit Vendor, you will be able to draw conclusions if nobody claims to have received fruit (even with prompting, which would ideally come from another player).

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Loyal" describes the modifier as follows:

• As a modifier on a single ability: This action will be blocked if used on a player who does not belong to your faction. (edit)

• As a modifier that affects all abilities: Your night actions will be blocked if used on players who do not belong to your faction. (edit)

Example (modifying a single ability)

Welcome to game! You are a Town Loyal Jailkeeper.

You have the following active ability:

• Each Night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be protected from kills that night, but all their actions will be blocked that night. This action will be blocked if used on a player who does not belong to your faction.

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 (affecting all abilities)

Welcome to game! You are a Town Loyal Jack of All Trades Tracker Doctor.

Your night actions will be blocked if used on players who do not belong to your faction.

You have the following active abilities, but may use only one per Night:

• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, you will learn who that player targeted that night. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.)
• Once in the game at night, you may target a player. Assuming no interference with your action, that player will be protected from one kill that night.

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.