PDA

View Full Version : The Investigator - To reveal or not to reveal?



Facade
May 15th, 2011, 03:03 PM
I recently got involved in a somewhat heated and lengthy debate regarding the investigator. Starcraft 2 chat is not conducive to this kind of debate, so I figured I'd bring it here.

The argument: Is it in the town's interest for the investigator to reveal himself early. We will define early to be the first 1 or two days.

Pros:
-Allows the Doctors and Bus Drivers to effectively cover the investigator.
-Stops random deaths at night

Cons:
-Opens you up to Counter-Claims
-Makes you a target

So now lets get into a little more detail

Pro 1) Allows the doctor to heal you effectively
No good mafia will actually attack you once you announce yourself, because they know that the doctor will be covering you. However, this can be spun as an upside to the mafia. Because the doctor will be covering you, the mafia can be sure he isn't covering other people. This will mean that more town's people have a higher percentage chance of dying. The overall effect of the investigator is then mitigated, because there are fewer people to form a pro-town voting block. This isn't a gaurantee by any means, because the investigator could get lucky and find the mafia then win. It is a risk worth mentioning though. This is by far the strongest supporting point for an early reveal. Even worse, the mafia could just kill everyone you announce as exonerated the next day, essentially wasting your ability.

Pro 2) Mitigates Random Deaths at Night
Last wills solve this back. If you have everything you have found up to that point in your will, there is no downside to your random dying that wouldn't have happened if you had revealed yourself. You need to live to the next day to both update your will and/or to publicly reveal what you found, so either way the same amount of information comes to the town.

Also, I feel like the odds of being killed at night are less then the odds of the con arguments listed bellow. This holds true until the late game, at which point no matter what point of view you have you should probably reveal yourself to help the town.

Also, dying on the first night before the first day is not important because neither side of this debate can change how that effects the town. It's just bad luck, oh well.

The con side - in my opinion the safest way to play an investigative role is to hold back from speaking up, collect information, always keep your will updated, then when the ration of who you can trust to who you can't is right (or if the town is about to lynch the doctor or some such idiocy) speak up. You're objective is to create a voting block large enough to stop random lynches and focus down the evil characters.

Con 1) Opens you up to counter claims
If this is considered standard, it would be extremely powerful for the mafia to have one of their members claim to be an investigator. If the town is stupid (which is entirely possible) the real investigator could be lynched. At worst the fake invest throws out incorrect info to confuse the town.

The effect of the framer:
Games with a framer in them make this 10x worse. Normally you could just have another investigator/sherrif investigate one of them. You can't be sure if you can trust this second investigator, and this can either win or lose the game for the town. If there is a framer though, he can frame the real investigator thus causing problems. Also, framers give plausible deniability to the fake investigator.

The effect of the godfather:
If the gf is the one who claims to be the investigator, he will look innocent to the Sherrif. This obviously is very bad for the town, especially when compounded with the framer's problem.

The effect of the Janitor:
The Janitor complicates things. First, it means even if someone dies at night you can't be sure if they were actually the investigator, or if the mafia is just messing with you even more. A clever mafia would 'clean up' their own 'investigator' to make the other guy look guilty.

The effect of the Jester:
Is the fake investigator the Jester? He might be. If he can convince the town he is then he just messed with your lynchings for a few days and is now guaranteed not to be lynched. Combine this with the gf problem, and you now have an 'invincable' mafia member.

Con 2) Makes you a target
The two sided coin -
a) Double hits - they will overpower the Doctor alone, and kill your investigator. The SK and the mafia and if there is an arsonist him too will all be after you. Maybe even a rogue vig who is confused by the mafia's counterclaim. Worth the risk? I guess it depends on the set up and the skill of the players.
b) Overlapping coverage - if there is more than one Doctor (maybe even a bus driver or two) they will ALL be covering you, because they can't communicate (well at least they shouldn't because then they'll just get killed). This overlap means that rather than two or three protected members, you now just have one. This wastes a lot of the towns potential.

The problem of stolen doctors -
If there is a counter-claim, a doctor might protect the fake investigator. This could save him from a smart vig shot, and at the very least stop the doc from saving a townie.

Random Town-
This actually favors an early reveal. It makes counter claims less powerful. However, the power to give contradicting information, and split up doctor's is still there, so it doesn't help that much.

Conclusion: Obviously the setup and player skill will dictate the final course of action, but I feel like waiting is a safer bet.

Opinions?

Supersun
May 15th, 2011, 04:26 PM
It's bad imo. If the investigator claims then the sheriff happens to find somebody he pretty much has to -last will it and stay quiet unless you have multiple doctors and even then it can be hard to actually coordinate those doctors onto different people without hinting to the mafia who the doctors are.

Clawtrocity
May 15th, 2011, 06:08 PM
Add getting role blocked to the con list.

Nick
May 16th, 2011, 12:06 AM
I feel that revealing yourself after getting sufficient evidence is the best choice. Keep your weak findings as last will. And never reveal the doc!

Be prepared to ask doctor to protect you once say thing like:
1) What is your role
2) You have knives, SK/doc
3) You have guns, Vig/Mafia
4) Not suspicious
5) Making strong claims

As mafia/SK/witch/jester, I will kill/block/frame/lynch anyone who show the slightest hint of being Investigator.

Zippy
May 16th, 2011, 09:13 AM
As investigator, I don't reveal myself until I have information that is important to making a lynch. I keep last will up to date so all the "clean" people I've found can team up. Last will info is even more valuable than info when alive, because when you die, your role is confirmed (absent a janitor).

icarus
May 20th, 2011, 01:51 PM
Interesting analysis :-)