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Devil's Advocate

Each night, choose a living player (different to last night): if executed tomorrow, they don't die.

My client, should the objection be overruled, pleads innocent by virtue of the prosecution's non-observance of statute 27.B - incorrect or misleading conjugation of a verb. The fact that nine of the jury died last night is simply prima facie, which is, as Wills vs Thule set precedent for, further reason to acquit.

Storyteller cues

First nightThe Devil's Advocate chooses a living player. ◦

Other nightsThe Devil's Advocate chooses a living player. ◦

How to run it (Storyteller)

Each night, wake the Devil's Advocate and have them point to a living player different from the one they chose the previous night. If that player is executed the following day, do not kill them — announce that they survived execution. Watch carefully that the Devil's Advocate never repeats the same target on consecutive nights; if they attempt to, wake them again and indicate they must choose differently. The nastiest edge case is when the protected player is also the Slayer-shot or otherwise killed by a non-execution means on the same day — execution protection only applies to the execution kill, so any other simultaneous or separate death trigger still resolves normally.

How to play

  • Prioritize protecting the Demon on nights when you believe the town has good reads and an execution is likely — a failed execution is devastatingly demoralizing for good and burns a day of their progress.
  • Protect a different evil minion or a known-evil-to-you player on nights when you are unsure of the Demon's danger level, cycling the protection to keep the restriction manageable while giving you flexibility.
  • Claim a role that has a passive or night-time ability with no strong verification mechanism — Soldier, Farmer, or a Traveller slot if available — to avoid being tested or drawing execution pressure toward yourself.
  • Coordinate with the Demon to signal which nights they are most at risk; a simple pre-game agreement (e.g., Demon always claims a seat near the center) can let you aim protection without overt communication during the game.
  • The most common mistake is always protecting the Demon, making the pattern predictable — deliberately protect a good player occasionally so that when town investigates a failed execution, they cannot cleanly deduce evil alignment from survivorship alone.
  • Remember the alternating restriction is a hard constraint, not a soft one — plan two nights ahead so you are never forced into protecting someone unhelpful simply because you have no other option.

How to fight the Devil's Advocate

  • A player surviving execution is the clearest in-game signal that a Devil's Advocate is in play — treat every execution survival as near-certain evidence of this minion and adjust your threat model accordingly.
  • Execute a strong evil suspect two days in a row if possible; the Devil's Advocate cannot protect the same player on consecutive nights, so a repeated execution target will die on the second attempt regardless of protection.
  • Spread execution pressure across multiple suspects rather than hammering one player repeatedly — this forces the Devil's Advocate to either waste protection on low-value targets or fail to cover the Demon.
  • If a good player survives execution, do not assume they are evil; the Devil's Advocate may be protecting innocents deliberately to obscure the pattern and waste town votes — re-evaluate based on other information before abandoning that player as a lead.
  • Prioritize finding and executing the Devil's Advocate themselves — once they are dead, every subsequent execution that lands on the Demon is lethal, and the mechanical advantage evil has built evaporates entirely.

Key interactions

Poisoner

If the Devil's Advocate is poisoned on the night they make their choice, the chosen player gains no protection and will die normally if executed the following day. Good teams running a Poisoner should try to target the Devil's Advocate on high-stakes execution days to ensure the protection does not fire.

Slayer

The Slayer's ability kills via a separate game mechanic, not execution, so Devil's Advocate protection does not prevent a Slayer shot from killing the protected player. This gives good a meaningful way to eliminate a protected Demon or minion even on a day when execution would be neutralized.