Role: Mimic

[Luna]

Role name: Mimic (or Ventriloquist perhaps?)

Description: A disgruntled show performer takes matters into his own hands.

Alignment: Mafia/Neutral (feedback appreciated)

Abilities:
- Has the ability to control another persons speech during the day, including during the last defence.
- The Mimic will learn the role and alignment of their target.
- The Victim will learn the identity of the Mimic the following day, if they're still alive.

Win Condition:
- All town dead (if Mafia)
- Survive until the end (if neutral)

Host Options:
1) Limit usage of the ability to 1/2/3 uses - Default: 1
2) Target can speak during last defence - Default: No
3) Target will learn Mimic's identity next day - Default: Yes

Pros:
(If Mafia) The ability to sow confusion among the townsfolk, coupled with the opportunity to get a townie lynched or learn the identity of a player.
(If Neutral) A role that can help out townies by potentially identifying mafia/evil neutral roles, or help the Mimic survive until the end by trying to remove suspicion from himself or diverting it to someone else at a critical juncture.

Cons:
(If Mafia) If you can't get your target killed, you'll be discovered.
(If Neutral) Even if you no longer present a threat to the mafia, or are rooting for the town, if you are discovered you're still fair game.

Overall effect on the metagame if implemented:
Potentially odd behaviour will be looked from a new angle. Inconsistency in role (i.e. someone who you're sure if a sheriff implying he is a doctor) doesn't mean automatic suspicion. Interesting synergy with Jesters; if you make your target appear to be a jester they might not be lynched, but may be killed that night.

Additional comments:
Trying to keep in mind the 'How to suggest new roles' topic, there's some potential problems with this role. It could almost be said that it just combines the blackmailer role with the jester role. I was toying with the win conditions for neutral, but struggled to distinguish it from the executioner. It has the ability to become overpowered; you discover the identity of your victim, after all, and control all their speech including last defence. The way I see it, if it's limited to 1 use then it's not too imbalanced as you wouldn't be able to mow through everyone getting them lynched (and it balances out the whole risk vs. reward concept: you'll want to save your ability until you understand the personalities and roles in your current game).

Not only am I trying to highlight some fundamental differences that mean it's not a pure jester/blackmailer/executioner hybrid, at the same time I also don't think it's a clone of the 'Ghost' role currently in the suggestion list (plus no coming back from the dead).

Originally I considered this as a pure neutral role, but I couldn't think of a decent win condition other than kill your selected player (executioner anyone?). The way it stands, I think there's room for it to be neutral if it ties with the town - the way I see it, the townsfolk could use some way to fight the mafia. It's hard though; if it was neutral then would the mafia/townspeople bother gunning for the Mimic if he'd already used his one ability?

As Mafia, the Mimic works quite well. You already know the identities of your other mafia buddies. It could give the mafia a huge advantage; on the other hand, you'd have to play your cards well to actually get someone lynched, so your cover could easily be blown the next day which would be disastrous. One problem; if your target doesn't get lynched, there'd have to be a way to stop the mafia just killing them that night, maybe target gets invulnerability at night or something? Also, I'm worried that this conflicts with the Blackmailer role still... I mean, BM gets unlimited uses and I think is a lot of fun, but still similar concept.

P.S. Question is, would you be able to talk from both characters or just the player you are mimicking? From a technical standpoint, maybe you can achieve this via typing -mimic before text to come out of your victim's mouth and normal text comes out of yours. If you could chat from both that could be OP, or a lot of fun. If you couldn't though I think it would still work; the spotlight would probably be on your target anyway, or you could even do a whole 'Hey, (yourself), you blackmailed?'.

[J0hnnyB0y]

So it's basically a consig controlling the persons speech?

[Luna]

Well a super, one-shot consig (you see the person's exact role).

Wish I hadn't written this post at 3am.

[Prodiigy]

Seems fairly bad, best allignment would be mafia.. not really useful.
and no a consig learns it.. doesnt potentially get them lynched

Example:
Consig: ZOMG That guy is mafia (really sherrif)
Sherrif: (Proves himself)
Consig: *Gets Lynched*

GF: Guys Im sherrif (insert name) is mafia
Mimic Target: No I am (Survivor, Jester whatever)
Investigator: LOL NO, Guys vote him
Mimic Target: *Gets Lynched*
*Next day GF gets lynched for false accusation, mimic undiscovered, mafia loss.*

Thats the only situation this can be good
so its still bad so no implementation please

[Luna]

Yeah I think I focused on the whole 'get to talk through someone else for a day', which I would still love to be able to do, but some pretty flawed ideas.

Though I still like this idea of being uncovered if you're not successful, which can even lead to some fun meta-game where someone can claim that they were targeted by a Mimic unsuccessfully and accuse someone else of being mafia.

Mind you, seriously what kind of GF would straight away attack a Mimic target pretending that they're a sheriff? I'm pretty certain I could get townies suspicious of me w/o the assistance of other mafia anyway. I think some of my ideas are flawed but not quite in the ways you're thinking. It *would* be useful; early in the game you can get someone killed as a jester at night, or get someone lynched. Even if you don't get the target killed you learn their exact role and share it with your team. If you're successful in getting someone killed, townies that accused the target are under suspicion. You can save your power for a critical point in the late-game, taking over the speech of someone you're sure is a trusted sheriff or investigator, not only pointing the finger at someone else (and using their reputation to get a suspicious townie/neutral lynched) but also silencing them for a day, allowing mafia to act for a little while longer unchecked so they can get a majority vote.

So, yeah, the more I think about it the more I think it's not a totally bad concept.

[Imperfect]

I could see it working for mafia. I think the person shouldn't receive the persons role and the victim never learns the identity of the mimic, (or at least make it 2 or 3 days). Just because Prodigy doesn't know how to get a person lynched through mimic doesn't mean other people can't. I think this role could be very powerful when used correctly. I think in fact it would be OP if they learnt the persons role.

[Luna]

Yeah, I suppose simplifying it a bit like that will help, I suppose I wanted to to distance it from a blackmailer.

I put in the role-learning ability because I thought it would be neat for the mimic; if they learn that their target is a Bus Driver, for instance, they can subtly play up the 'maybe i'm an arsonist' role, but it's not necessary I admit.

[SnipingHobo]

I dont think the Mimic should learn the role of his victim.

[Portaloo]

I dont think the Mimic should learn the role of his victim.

i double that. also i think that the mimic should get unlimited number of uses, no host option, just on by default because what i really think that keeps this role from being OP is how you cannot defend yourself; you can make your victim talk ALL DAY but you CANNOT TALK ALL DAY, which means if someone calls you out, you are still using your victim and therefore cannot defend yourself at all which can backfire so badly at you, so you would want to regulate which days you want to talk and which days you want to make someone claim they are sheriff, then accuse someone. doc should be able to fend off this so you cant just take over sheriff whenever you wish. what really makes this game what it is is how you communicate and if you tamper with that, it can make the game very interesting.

also, your vote should become their vote so they cant spam vote to let everyone know that they arent really them. this means that your victim loses their vote cuz your voting for them ^_^ this is a very nuetral role that should have same winning condition as survivor.

[PercMastaFTW]

I'm sorry, but I dont like this idea. And one use? Hell, with the disguiser, you get an auto kill... and if you get a trusted towns member, you get a sure kill, + being not suspicious at all for days.

This would be a waste of a role, and just too similar...