Watcher

Watcher
Alignment
Village
Night Visiting Role
No
Abilities
Votes one person to watch every night. Will know who visited that person that night.

Abilities

• Watches one person every night, and sees who visits them. In general, the Watcher will see any night visiting roles although there are a few exceptions (see below).
• The Watcher is able to see one participant of each meeting who voted to visit his target.
  • Meetings with multiple people (such as mafia, Cult and Mason meetings): The first person to vote will appear on the watcher's report.
  • Meetings with only one participant (such as Hooker, Janitor, Cop): The participant will always be caught by the watcher.
• Therefore, it is possible that two mafia will appear on a single watcher report:
  • Example 1: Mafia decide to kill and disguise Player X. A different mafia member, not the Disguiser votes first. The Watcher watches Player X and will see the Disguiser (special ability visit) in addition to the mafia member who voted first.
  • Example 2: Mafia decide to kill and jan Player X. The Janitor votes first in the mafia meeting and uses his special ability on Player X. The Watcher watches Player X and will ONLY see the Janitor visiting.
• Therefore, as mafia it is very important to make sure you protect yourselves by having the player using his special ability vote first.
• The order of multiple players appearing on Watcher reports are determined by voting order. The player who voted first will appear first, etc.
  • Example: The Cop votes to investigate Player A quickly. The mafia take longer to vote Player A. The Watcher will catch both the cop and one mafia member (see above), but the cop will appear first on the watcher report because he voted first.
• The Watcher can self watch and see who visits him at night.
  • While this does take away any chance of the watcher catching the mafia visit their kill target (since the watcher, if targeted, would die with his report), this tactic is used in many setups with multiple PRs. If a high profiled watcher thinks he will be visited by multiple PRs, self watching can confirm and clear roles, thus catching mafia in counterclaims instead of visiting the kill.
• The Watcher does not visit the player he watches, meaning:
  • The Tracker will not be able to track,
  • The Watcher will be able to watch the Granny and survive
  • The Hooker, Driver and Drunk will not affect the Watcher
  • The Watcher can watch the Interceptor's target and survive
  • The Watcher can watch the Witch's target without resulting in the target's death.

Unusual Game Mechanics

These are some noteworthy interactions with the Watcher and various other roles that may not be expected. Besides for the roles mentioned in this list, the watcher works as expected and will catch any night visiting role. No unusual reports (such as self visits, for example) other than the following have been found.

• Jailer: The watcher will catch the jailer visiting his target. In addition, the Watcher will catch anyone who attempted to visit the jailed player. For example, if the mafia tries to kill Player X and Player X is jailed, the Watcher will see both the jailer and mafia visit Player X.
• Survivor: The watcher will catch the survivor hiding behind a player even if the survivor did not hide successfully. In addition, even if the survivor hid successfully, the watcher will still catch anyone who visits him. For example, if the mafia tries to kill the survivor but the survivor successfully hides behind a non-visiting role, the watcher will see the mafia in his report (no kill would occur).
• Disguiser: When watching a disguised mafia visit your target, the watcher will see the original Disguiser on the report. For instance, if Player A, the Disguiser, disguised as Player X and then kills the watcher target, the watcher report will catch Player A visiting his target. Therefore, the watcher will not know who is currently guised but will know who the Disguiser was.
• Hooker/Drunk: When watching the target of a hooked role, there will be an unusual glitch with the watcher's report. For example, if the Cop votes to investigate Player A and the Hooker hooks the cop, the watcher report will be: "You watched PlayerA throughout the night. has visited PlayerA." However, any other visits to Player A will be caught by the watcher ("You watched PlayerA throughout the night. , PlayerB has visited PlayerA.")
• Mason: If a mismason occurs and the Watcher chooses to watch the Mason, he will see the targeted mafia visit. For example, if the Mason chooses to mason Player A, the mafia, the Watcher will see Player A visit the Mason in addition to any other normal visits.
• A watcher will not catch a mafia member voting for someone other than the kill target. For example, if two mafia members vote to kill Player X and the third member votes Player Y, the watcher will not see the third member visit Player Y. The same holds true for other group meetings such as Mason and Cult meetings. (The Tracker, however, will see the third mafia member visit Player Y but does not see the third mason or cult member visiting Player Y.)
• Dreamer: The watcher's visit will not prevent the Dreamer from getting a report.

System Messages

In night meetings, the Watcher votes.

In night meetings, if there are more than 1 Watcher, they share a meeting.

If a watcher chooses to watch player1 at night, a report will be shown to him on the next day

You watched (player1) throughout the night. (player2), (player3) has visited (player1).

or

You watched (player1) throughout the night. No one has visited (player1).

Strategies and Tactics

Playing As Watcher

• You can sometimes clear players from seeing who visited them:
  • If mafia roles that cannot visit fellow mafia members are caught visiting your target (such as the Hooker or Stalker), he is cleared.
  • However, both the Lawyer and Interceptor can visit both mafia and town sided players, so be wary of clearing people based on your report!
• On night 1, in setups with a lot of power roles, it may be a good idea to watch yourself so you know who might be a power role. However, usually this is not the case as this means you are unlikely to catch a mafia and live to tell about it.
• During the night, the Watcher plays similar to the Doctor and Bodyguard. Watch power roles, especially investigative roles. If you have no power role claims, watch those who have been cleared. If no one has been cleared, watch the village's most helpful players.
• During the day, the Watcher plays a little bit like a Cop/Tracker, and a little bit like a Doctor/Bodyguard. If there are no cops or trackers, and you have doctor or bodyguard protection, you should claim. If there are cops or trackers, you shouldn't claim and be careful about claiming in the same way a doctor or bodyguard would.
• There are many situations where you can use WIFOM to try and catch the mafia. If you think the Mafia is certain that you will watch a cleared player (such as a cop) and therefore won't kill him, you may decide to watch someone else instead and hope he is killed, so you catch some mafia! Be careful though, this can backfire if the Mafia does indeed try and kill the cleared player and you aren't protecting him!
• In situations with only a watcher and another protective role (such as bodyguard or doctor) alive, it is a good idea for you to watch the other protective role and have him protect you to ensure you both survive the night.

Playing Against the Watcher

• Mafia
  • If a special power is being used on the dead, make sure the player using the special ability votes FIRST in the mafia meeting. This way, the watcher will not be able to catch multiple mafia members. All mafia members can vote for the kill (be wary of trackers, if they are around you should have unnecessary votes be on no-one), since only the player who votes first will be caught.
  • If the Disguiser has already disguised, he should vote first in the mafia meeting. If the watcher was on the kill target, he will only know who the original Disguiser was and not who is currently disguised, giving you the opportunity to kill people worry-free! Make sure you can pass the ensuing guise tests though!
• Cult
  • As long as there are more than two cultists, never let the cult leader vote first. Let a minion vote first so he will be caught by the watcher and sacrificed.

Basic Watcher Mechanics and Tips by Tonkster

• Just because you watch someone and no one visits, it does not mean they are clear. All this means is that no one visited that person the night you watched them.
• If you see more than two people visiting the person you watched, BE VERY CAREFUL, You could have more than one power role, you could have the Stalker, you could have the Hooker. Make sure the report you out does not out the power-roles.
• If you watch someone who the Tracker claims to have tracked and there is a tracker CC, you can clear the real tracker because it proves you saw them visit who they say they did.
• Watchers show as a no visit on tracker reports.
• If you watch someone and you see a dead person visiting, the guiser is in play. Find them and KILL KILL KILL!

History

• When created, the Watcher's system message lacked a period, or full-stop, at the end. Especially in setups with a Janitor, the community was careful to notice whether or not a claimed Watcher would post a report without a period.
• Originally, the watcher was seen visiting his target. This was changed with the creation of EpicMafia v2.0.

Bugs

Discuss Watcher bugs

• Watcher is seen visiting someone if tracked.
• It was d1 and I tried sharing my report to others and my report came out like this. You watched (player name) throughout the night. has visited (player name) (Unverified)

• I can verify that above report, things it's because the visitor was drunked.
• It is, that bug is really old: http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/2899/imageehn.jpg