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Big Wig

Each nominee chooses a player: until voting, only they may speak & they are mad the nominee is good or they might die.

Vanity asks ‘Is it popular?’ Cowardice asks ‘Is it safe?’ Conscience asks ‘Is it right?’ Who among us will ask: ‘Is it true?’

How to run it (Storyteller)

Add Big Wig to games where you want to create high-stakes, high-drama nomination phases that force the town to hand microphone control to a single player who is then pressured to advocate for the nominee. Run it cleanly by immediately announcing when Big Wig fires — identify the nominee, wait for the nominee to point to a chosen speaker, then silence everyone else until voting closes. The death threat for failing to be mad (publicly defending the nominee as good) gives you a lever to punish soft or evasive chosen speakers, so use it consistently to reward bold defenders and punish fence-sitters.

Playing with the Big Wig — as good

  • If you are nominated and must choose a speaker, pick your most trusted and rhetorically capable teammate — someone who can genuinely argue your innocence without wasting the speaking slot on uncertainty.
  • As the chosen speaker, commit fully to defending the nominee as good; hedging or qualifying your defense risks the death penalty and wastes the ability's protection window entirely.
  • Use the enforced silence of others to notice who is visibly frustrated by losing their voice — an evil player desperate to talk their team out of a dangerous vote will telegraph their alignment.
  • Track across the game which players get chosen repeatedly as speakers; a pattern of nominees trusting the same person is strong social evidence about who has established credibility.
  • When you are the chosen speaker, pack your statement with as much information as possible — this is a rare moment where only you can speak, so use it to surface reads, present evidence, and ask the group to vote a specific way before voting opens.

Playing with the Big Wig — as evil

  • If an evil player is nominated, choose a speaker who is either evil themselves or a confirmed good player you can afford to pressure into making a bad argument — never choose someone who will use the speaking slot to hammer your team.
  • As an evil chosen speaker, you can technically be mad the nominee is good even if you know they are evil, so lean into the role and use the platform to redirect suspicion onto good players while appearing to defend your teammate.
  • Anticipate which nominations are likely coming and position your evil players to look like trusted, articulate allies beforehand so nominees choose them naturally as speakers.
  • If a good player is nominated and chooses a speaker, use the silence phase strategically — the moment voting opens and speech resumes, flood the conversation to dilute the chosen speaker's argument before votes are locked in.
  • Be wary of nominating townsfolk you do not want drawing attention; every nomination activates Big Wig and hands that townsfolk a chance to put a reliable advocate in the spotlight.

Key interactions

Poisoner

If the Big Wig is poisoned, the ability may fail to fire correctly — the chosen speaker restriction and the madness requirement both become unreliable. Good players should track whether Big Wig's ability is visibly suppressed on key nominations as evidence of an active Poisoner.