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Fool

The 1st time you die, you don't.

...and the King said 'What?! I've never even owned a pair of rubber pantaloons, let alone a custard cannon!' Ho-ho! Jolly day!

How to run it (Storyteller)

Track whether the Fool has used their death-prevention — mark it clearly once triggered so you never accidentally apply it twice. The nastiest edge case is Al-Hadikhia: if the Fool is one of three chosen players and would normally die because all three chose to live, the Fool's first-death prevention activates, so the Fool survives and the other two die instead. Watch for Assassin targeting the Fool — this bypasses the ability entirely and the Fool dies immediately, even on their first death.

How to play

  • Spend your extra life aggressively: volunteer for risky gambits like being nominated early or stepping into execution when town needs to test a claim, since you will survive the first time.
  • Timing your reveal: staying quiet about being the Fool until after you've visibly survived an execution or death is often stronger than claiming early — it generates maximum trust and information for the town.
  • Do not waste your protection on a day you expect to lose the vote anyway; your extra life only triggers on an actual death, so a failed nomination simply costs you nothing.
  • Once you've used your ability and survived once, treat yourself as a normal townsfolk with no safety net — recalibrate your risk tolerance immediately and avoid unnecessary exposure.
  • The single most common mistake is claiming Fool too early in the game, which can cause evil players to engineer situations where the Assassin is used on you specifically to bypass your ability and remove you for real.

How to bluff as the Fool

  • Claim Fool only if you are confident the real Fool is dead or not in the game — a live Fool will immediately hard-counter your claim and one of you will be disbelieved.
  • To sell the bluff, 'survive' a moment of danger credibly: if you are executed and the Storyteller keeps you alive for another reason, immediately claim Fool as the explanation.
  • Use the bluff as a late-game shield: claim Fool after you have already survived one suspicious moment, suggesting your one-time protection is now spent and you are no longer a target worth killing.
  • The tell that exposes you: a genuine Fool has no night information and never woke, so if you accidentally claim any night information or inconsistency, town will suspect your Fool claim is cover for an evil role with actual night activity.
  • Avoid the bluff on small player counts where the Storyteller can confirm role counts — if Fool is known to not be in the script or is already publicly confirmed dead, the claim collapses instantly.

Key interactions

Assassin

The Assassin's ability is one of the very few ways to kill the Fool outright on their first death, completely bypassing the protection. If you are the Fool, be aware that a known Fool claim can bait an evil team into spending their Assassin shot specifically on you, so weigh whether early public claiming is worth that risk.

Lycanthrope

If the Lycanthrope targets the Fool for the first time, the Fool's ability activates and they survive, and crucially the Demon is still permitted to kill that night — town gets no protection from the Lycanthrope's kill-cancellation effect in this scenario.

Al-Hadikhia

When the Fool is among Al-Hadikhia's three chosen players and the configuration would normally kill them, the Fool's death-prevention fires and the Fool lives while the other two die — this can completely distort the expected outcome of that ability and is worth flagging to the Storyteller if you believe it's in play.

Poisoner

If the Fool is poisoned at the moment their first death would occur, their ability may malfunction and fail to save them — the Storyteller can rule the protection does not trigger, making the Fool permanently mortal for the rest of the game.