Should Honest Men, reveal their roles to Jailor?

[ZZorange]

Something I've always gotten a lot of flak for has been the classic "Why don't you give role to Jailor?"

This is something that pre established mafia theory says one should do so why not?

Well to explain that we have to dive into how pure Honesty plays into this interaction.

If one is to be an Honest Man one doesn't have to always give the truth, but MUST never say something one knows to be false, IE tell a lie. Example claiming someone is an arsonist and that you visited them last night when you didn't. Claiming to be a role that you are not etc...

Now this poses a problem when being jailed because obviously if you are to remain Honest, giving your role all the time would not be beneficial to you.

For instance if you were a mafia or neutral role, giving your role in jail, obviously lets the Jailor know he's free to execute, which means giving role is basically borderline gamethrowing in these circumstances.

So what about "Just don't give role when you're evil" but this runs into the same problem where if the only time you don't give a role is when you're evil, you might as well have been claiming evil anyway.

Now if you're an Honest Man, you likely prefer town roles so you don't run into this problem, so logically you would think it makes sense to just claim roles all the time, and this would be the correct move, if Jailor was the only role that could kidnap people.

Unfortunately as well all know Interrogators exist complicating the situation.

If you prefer town and always give your role, Interros will consistently know they're making a good choice to execute you, so giving role all the time is bad then? Yes.

As a player who is often town, it becomes less likely for regular jailors who play mafia often to jail you as they expect you to be town. It also becomes more likely for interrogators to jail you as they believe you to be town, which is why it is best for the Honest Man to stay consistent , and not give a role in jail.

When doesn't know who is jailing them, assuming Interrogator is always beneficial as not giving information to the interrogator doesn't let them know if they've made the right choice, and potentially wastes an interro execute on a shitty role like a spy. Additionally some extremely cautious Interros, will not waste an execute on no role claimers potentially believing them to be fellow scum.

Of course there's always the chance a Jailor does jail you, and of course not giving a role is a death sentence right? Yes it is, but it's necessary operating risk. If you're a player who is often town, slowly regular Jailors overtime will understand that jailing you is essentially going to the slots and hoping they get lucky. After you proceed to roll town 9 times out of 10. This doesn't mean that you won't get jailed by failors, if you play mafia enough you'll eventually piss someone off who will spite jail you, but if you get spite jailed giving a role isn't going to save you. People who spite jail will care more about just getting to kill you, than they do about winning the game. Afterall if you've previously jailed a player and they were town 18 times out of 20, the only reason you would keep jailing them is if you disliked them or enjoyed executing town as a Jailor.

The final thing to note is that as an Honest Man it's important to be consistent. The only way regular players will learn about the new reality they find themselves in is consistent play, if you give a role only sometimes they won't be able to build a pattern from your behavior and will continue to jail you at a normal rate. You have to drill into them that if they choose to jail you, they are given a 1 in 10 chance of actually killing an evil and the only way to do that is by being consistent, and never claiming.

Now of course if you're a regular player of Mafia who is able to lie, this thread does not apply to you. As you can claim town as evil.

I only made it to explain why Honest Players can't operate under the same rules after months of "Why you never give role in Jail!1!31!!!!"

Shoutout to my spite jailors @invictus @Clue @Altech @Akaskr and others!