Tracker

Tracker Alias: Wolfstalker Alignment: Town Role type: Investigative Choice: Night

Tracker Aliases: Scout Wolfstalker Alignment: Mafia Role type: Investigative Choice: Night

A Tracker is an investigative role that can target a player at Night and learn who, if anybody, that player targeted the same night (but not the action the player performed).

Normal version

Each Night, a Tracker can choose a player to track. At the end of the Night, they will learn who (if anyone) that player targeted. Actions performed by a Ninja do not show up on a Tracker report. Actions that did not occur because their user was roleblocked are considered to not have happened for tracking purposes, and do not show up on a Tracker report either; however, actions were blocked because their target was immune to actions (e.g. because the target was rolestopped or Ascetic) can be seen on a Tracker report.

If a Tracker's action itself fails, it does not produce any results; the Tracker will get a "no result" PM. If the action succeeds, this produces a result that is clearly distinguishable from a "no result" PM (even if no actions were observed by the successful track); for example, a Tracker who is roleblocked might get a PM "Your action failed, and you did not receive a result", whereas a Tracker who tracks a Vanilla Townie might get a result of "Target did not target anybody last night".

Variations

It has been known (but abNormal) for moderators to produce an ambiguous result that blends together "went nowhere" and "visited nobody", along the lines of "You didn't see anything last Night". This tends to be reserved for role madness games, in order to avoid giving too much information away.

There are variations of a Tracker that interact with factional kills differently. A Personal Tracker cannot see them at all. In multiball setups, sometimes a Tracker will not be able to observe certain factions; in this case, the name "Tracker" is used for a role that can see actions by the Town and Mafia, but not by the Werewolves, with a Wolfstalker being able to see actions by the Town and Werewolves, but the Mafia kills. This is notably used in Two-fold C9.

Most other simple variants on a Tracker are considered separate roles, with separate names:

• A Follower learns what action a player performed, but not who that player targeted.
• A Watcher learns who targeted a player, but not what actions were performed on them.
• A Voyeur learns what actions were performed on a player, but not who targeted them.
• A Motion Detector learns if any actions were performed by or on a player, but not what they were, or who else was involved.

Use & Balance

A Tracker starts out as a weaker investigative role than a Cop. Whereas a Cop can usually tell whether or not someone is a member of the Mafia, the Tracker's main power is in catching the player who performs the factional kill.

This opens up two possibilities for error:

• They may investigate a member of the Mafia, but on a Night that another Mafia member performs the kill
• They they investigate another Power Role who coincidentally also visited the player who died that Night

These possibilities tend to diminish in importance as the game goes on, though; as the Mafia's numbers dwindle, they have fewer opportunities for flying under the radar for making the kill. When there is only one Mafioso left, a Tracker is basically as good as a Cop for confirming players; track someone nowhere (or to someone other than the kill), and you know they didn't kill that night (so if anyone died, your target must have been Town). This behaviour of the Tracker role thus inherently suffers from some amount of positive feedback, potentially making the balance of a game too dependent on whether the town found scum early; it also means that Trackers tend to be stronger in smaller setups than in larger setups.

Trackers do have some uses beyond trying to catch the nightkill, a factor increases their power a little; they can learn whether someone is a Power Role by whether or not they visit someone, and can occasionally use their reports to circumstantially clear someone (if they tracked Player X and found they visited Player Y, if Player X later flips as a Mafia Roleblocker, it is a good bet that Player Y is not a member of the Mafia).

Play Advice

If you track someone and find that they visit, you know they are a Power Role of some sort. Try to figure out based on who they visited if they are a protective role, an investigative role, or an anti-Town role.

If you track someone to a player who died that same Night, try to get a claim out of your target before revealing that you are a Tracker.

In games that have sparse power roles, some players believe that getting a negative result ("saw nothing") on someone makes them more likely to be Town, as you know the scum performed a Night-kill and thus the pool of players who you would have gotten No Result on is slanted toward Town. This becomes much more useful when there's only one Mafia member left; unless the Mafia choose not to kill (which is usually obvious), a player who didn't act must belong to a different faction.

Sample Role PMs

The standardized Role PM for "Tracker" describes the action as follows:

• As a targeted action: you will learn who that player targeted that night. (You will get "no result" if this action is blocked.) (edit)

Example (simplest form)

Welcome to game! You are a Town Tracker.

You have the following active ability:

• Each 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.)

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 (with modifiers)

Welcome to game! You are a Town 1-shot Loud Tracker.

You have the following active ability:

• 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.) Your target will learn that you targeted them (but not what action you targeted them with).

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.