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Fortune Teller

Each night, choose 2 players: you learn if either is a Demon. There is a good player that registers as a Demon to you.

I sense great evil in your soul! But... that could just be your perfume. I am allergic to Elderberry.

Storyteller cues

First nightThe Fortune Teller chooses 2 players. Nod if either is the Demon (or the RED HERRING).

Other nightsThe Fortune Teller chooses 2 players. Nod if either is the Demon (or the RED HERRING).

How to run it (Storyteller)

On setup, secretly assign the Red Herring token to a good player who is not the Demon; this player will always return YES when paired with any other player in a Fortune Teller query. Each night, the Fortune Teller points to two players and you say YES if either is the Demon or the Red Herring, NO otherwise. The nastiest edge case: if the Red Herring player becomes evil or would otherwise need to be moved, immediately reassign the token to a new good player before any information is given — the Spy registering as a Demon mid-game is the most likely trigger for this, and the token cannot land on the Spy. Watch for the Fortune Teller cornering the Red Herring through process of elimination and treating that confirm as a true Demon find.

How to play

  • Binary isolation first: pair the Demon candidate with a known-safe player each night rather than two unknowns — a YES implicates one of two, a NO clears both and shrinks the suspect pool efficiently.
  • Track your Red Herring early: if you get a YES on a pair that includes a player town strongly trusts (e.g., confirmed Washerwoman source, Soldier who survived a kill), that player is likely your Red Herring, not the Demon — use this to recalibrate rather than chase.
  • Share your raw YES/NO results publicly but frame them as suspect pairs, not accusations — this lets cross-referencing Investigators and Empaths validate your data without tipping the Demon to which pair triggered the hit.
  • Hold back your Red Herring suspicion until late game: revealing who you think is the Red Herring too early tells the Demon exactly who is safe to kill and who to frame.
  • Most common mistake: treating the first YES as confirmation of a Demon. Every YES could be the Red Herring — you need multiple overlapping pings or process of elimination to distinguish a true Demon hit from a Red Herring response.

How to bluff as the Fortune Teller

  • Claim early and volunteer a YES result on a pair that includes a genuinely suspicious player — this looks like useful information and gives town a believable lead to chase while protecting your actual Demon.
  • Manufacture a believable Red Herring: claim you have a consistent YES on a pair containing one trusted good player, and roleplay the confusion of 'who is my red herring?' — this mimics authentic Fortune Teller behavior and is hard to disprove.
  • Avoid claiming a YES on a pair that includes your Demon — if they are later executed and confirmed evil, your claimed hit looks real but also marks you as the Fortune Teller who was right, increasing your credibility risk and scrutiny.
  • The tell that exposes a fake: real Fortune Tellers accumulate a chain of YES/NO data that narrows the Demon over time; a bluffing evil player often gives isolated results without a coherent narrowing strategy, or avoids pairing their Demon even when it would be tactically obvious to do so.

Key interactions

Red Herring

Every good player secretly assigned as the Red Herring produces a YES result identical to a real Demon hit, making the Fortune Teller's job fundamentally about distinguishing this false positive from a true find. The Fortune Teller must use overlapping queries and community trust assessments to isolate which YES is the decoy.

Recluse

The Recluse can register as a Demon, so a YES result on a pair containing the Recluse may be a misregistration rather than the Red Herring or true Demon — this adds a third possible explanation for any YES, which the Fortune Teller should flag to town rather than silently assume.

Spy

The Spy can register as a Demon to the Fortune Teller, but doing so forces the Red Herring token off any evil player immediately, making this a mechanically awkward and storyteller-discouraged interaction — if you receive a YES on a pair containing a known or suspected Spy, treat it as unreliable rather than definitive.

Poisoner

A poisoned Fortune Teller receives a result that may be fabricated by the Storyteller, meaning a YES or NO on any given night could be meaningless — if your results suddenly shift or contradict prior clean data, poisoning is a likely explanation and you should communicate the inconsistency to town.