Disguiser
| Disguiser |
|---|
|
| Alignment |
| Mafia |
| Night Visiting Role |
| Yes |
| Abilities |
|
If the disguiser target dies (usually killed by mafia), the disguiser's name will be changed to the dead person's name and the disguiser will appear dead with the dead person's role. When power roles investigate someone who is guised, the original guiser's name will appear (i.e. if Player A disguises as Player B, a power role will see Player A's name in his report.)
A successful disguise can cause a lot of confusion to the Village. Usually, the player who disguised as another one would try to act and talk like the player whose identity was taken. However, towns can use metagaming and other techniques to catch a disguiser. Some experienced players on Epicmafia can pull off extremely difficult disguises (disguising as some famous figures).
Disguiser CAN disguise during the same night that a janitor cleans up a killed townie. This was changed, presumably with EM 2.0.
Abilities
A Disguiser, besides being able to converse and kill like a Mafia, has the additional ability of choosing a person outside of the Mafia to disguise as. If this person dies in the night, then the Disguiser steals his identity. Suppose the Disguiser is called "Mr. Disguise" and he disguises as "Ms. Disguised" with a certain role "Superman", the following system message is shown to all players:
Mr. Disguise, the Superman, has died a bloody death.
In addition, "Mr. Disguise" is sent to the graveyard as if he had the role "Superman", and Ms. Disguised is kept alive, although it is apparent that Ms. Disguised has already died and Mr. Disguiser is typing as Ms. Disguised.
The following system message is shown to the disguiser:
You are now disguised as Ms. Disguised!
The following system message is shown to the player whose identity is taken:
Mr. Disguiser has stolen your identity!
The Disguiser gains no additional abilities after disguising, and still appears as the disguiser to himself. For all game play purposes, Superman has died.
Disguisers can use their power multiple times.
Strategies and Tactics
Playing as Disguiser
- When deciding to disguise, avoid hitting confirmed power roles.
- Pay close attention to the way your target talks prior to disguising, it helps to know a little about them beforehand. Revisiting old discussion from previous days (refer to the Newbie Guide for how to do this) may help you get "into character".
- Unless your target is very quiet, it's best to maintain a certain degree of discussion in order to keep up appearances. Eight out of ten people aren't very perceptive when it comes to noticing someone has been disguised. Most users rely on metagaming to find a Disguiser.
- In general, the more high-profile a person, the more difficult it is to disguise as them.
- Disguisers are particularly effective in setups without Trackers. In such setups, the Disguiser can fake a cop/watcher report d1, lynch an innocent, and disguise that night.
- If you look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, people will call you a duck.
- In a game with wills, do not disguise, it is nearly impossible to pull it off when the victim can put their name and will in their role..
The Disguiser's role is a double-edged one. The Disguiser should refrain from disguising as a confirmed innocent power role; if this happens, it will appear as if the Disguiser has died with that power role, and the players will immediately catch on to the fact that the player is disguised. That said, if one plays for wins, it might still be a good idea not to disguise at all, as the disguised are often found by questioning players with details only they would know (such as what role they were last game). This form of questioning falls under the broader strategy known as metagaming.
The Disguiser benefits from disguising as a newcomer, as no one is familiar with them and cannot therefore "quiz" the Disguiser, while the newcomer is not expected to play competently and the Disguiser can easily do certain things that would normally clear newcomers. Those include emotionally and blatantly refusing to hammer oneself and feigning ignorance of the roles in order to claim one by describing the avatar. Otherwise, the Disguiser should only disguise as one with which they are very familiar.
One strategy that can be used in games with a Tracker or Watcher is to have the Disguiser vote to "no kill" in the Mafia night meeting, and to visit people (other than the soon-to-be-killed) with the Disguiser power. This will make the Disguiser appear to be a power role.
In a setup with multiple sources of intel and a confirmed day 1 guilty, the disguiser might claim (innocent x) as mafia by their intelligence right before hammering. If they're able to kill and guise as that intelligence source, their report will be seen as genuine and will result in that person's lynch.
Some might argue that the Disguiser is completely useless since people who are aware of a Disguiser often ask Metagaming questions to root them out at Lylo. However, being able to answer those questions is part of the job, so one should often keep another window open in order to check past games (this has been proven to be immensely efficient). A Disguiser is useful when people know that you must be the Mafia, but when they realized you disguised, they have no idea who you disguised as.
- If you have a guiser in the game, and the bg claims to have saved the person that died, then chances are that that person was the disguiser who has guised out. (Same works with doc saving)
Disguising on Night 1
Most players see little use in disguising on the first night of play. Those that argue this tend to see the power as something to fall back on when they are suspected rather than a preemptive power.
The Disguiser's power can just as easily be used offensively though. If you find yourself frequently checked by investigative roles, such as a Cop, then it is often times in your benefit to use your power to get out of that possible situation. Another benefit to disguising early would be if you were to disguise as someone who is checked by a Cop, you would show up as innocent on their report. This is because the Cop's investigation takes place before the actual disguise does. This only works when the two actions occur on the same night as you will still be seen as guilty if investigated again (barring the intervention of a Lawyer).
Guise Testing
Guise testing is basically asking players questions to make sure they really are themselves and not guised. Just because someone isn't guised doesn't make them clear -- they can still be non-guiser scum -- but it's a start. Some common guise test techniques include:
- Previous games with that person (many smart guise testers will ask about previous games that never existed; the Disguiser will assume that the game existed and likely try to fabricate details.)
- What their avatar/username represents
- Details from that person's profile (caution: smart Disguisers usually pull up a tab with the profile)
- Personal details if people know each other outside the game
Bugs
|
- If a player is guised and janned, and the guiser is lynched, the jan effect ends and the role is revealed
- Disguiser guised as a villager, then went AFK, when he was being kicklynched the original disguiser went vegetable in the graveyard, and game stalled. http://www.epicmafia.com/game/612633
- Disguiser tried to kill and guise as bomb, ending up with bomb and own death. Bomb was revealed but didnt go to the graveyard. Source: http://www.epicmafia.com/game/615418
- If the disguiser is last maf alive, and is guised out already, and they suicide the game will lock up causing for another player forcing to suicide: And if it's ranked they will have to force over a heart. [ http://www.epicmafia.com/game/684718 ]
- If a player gets guised, leaves the table, and enters another table while the original game is still being played, then you will sometimes see them appear typing when they aren't (due to the disguiser still using their identity).
- After guised, if given gun and shot someone with the gun, the name revealed would be your real name not the guised name
- If Vigilante shoots who the disguiser is disguising as, the disguiser dies. http://www.epicmafia.com/game/31187
- Loving someone who then gets killed by a disguiser, and the disguiser disguises as them causes a strange glitch where the person in question stays in the Village, but is not part of village meeting, and both the disguiser, and the original person both have the same name in the graveyard in spectator chat. http://www.epicmafia.com/game/1283079
- If you have red and black disguisers and one guises as the other while he also guises it will 'cause the other to be caught in limbo. http://www.epicmafia.com/game/1415852?password=d4184e58114800a3c64cd913071b99b36a3d69d5
- Dual guiser who kill each other will occasionally appear alive even after being killed, but can't chat.
- In some cases, seems to be with the MM, after disguising, the disguiser loses the ability to talk (text bar disappears) during night meetings.
