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Gossip

Each day, you may make a public statement. Tonight, if it was true, a player dies.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah.

Storyteller cues

Other nightsIf the Gossip is due to kill a player, they die. ◦

How to run it (Storyteller)

Each day, note the Gossip's public statement and evaluate whether it was factually true at the moment it was made — not at nightfall. If it was true and the Gossip is sober and healthy tonight, kill a player of your choice (ideally someone whose death is useful to good, to reward the mechanic). The nastiest edge case: a statement that was true when made but is no longer true at night (e.g., 'there are three evil players alive' and one was executed today) still triggers the kill, because truth is assessed at statement time. Watch for evil teams trying to feed the Gossip false information to waste the ability, and watch for Gossip players accidentally making statements so vague they are unfalsifiable rather than verifiable.

How to play

  • Craft statements that you can verify yourself: reference your own character type, seat position parity, or information you received directly — anything you know to be true without relying on others, so you aren't dependent on the town feeding you accurate intel.
  • Target the statement at a specific, falsifiable fact rather than a vague opinion — 'The Demon is sitting in an even-numbered seat' is checkable; 'I think the Demon is evil' is not and will never trigger the kill.
  • Timing the statement as a real accusation: if you genuinely believe a specific player is the Demon, name them publicly — if you're right, you kill tonight AND advance town's information simultaneously, making the statement do double work.
  • Don't burn your statement early in the day fishing for a kill; wait until town discussion surfaces enough information that you can construct a statement with genuine confidence, maximizing the chance it's true.
  • The single most common mistake is making a statement about the game state that depends on other players telling you the truth — if an evil player fed you false info and you echo it as fact, your ability is wasted and you look unreliable.
  • Being open about your role is usually correct: town benefits from knowing a true statement will cause a death tonight, which can pressure evil players into contradicting themselves to prevent your statement from being accurate.

How to bluff as the Gossip

  • Claim your statement 'didn't fire' each night to explain why no extra death occurred — attribute it to being drunk or poisoned, which is a plausible and uncheckable excuse that buys you indefinite cover.
  • Make your fake statements plausibly true but safely vague enough that the Storyteller cannot reward good with a kill — or, if you're confident the statement is false, make it boldly specific so it appears you're genuinely risking your ability.
  • Target a confirmed townsfolk with your fake 'true' statement accusations to sow distrust among good players — even if the kill never fires, the public accusation creates friction and misdirection.
  • The tell that exposes a fake Gossip is never getting a kill across multiple nights despite making seemingly confident statements; deflect this by claiming you're being poisoned or that your statements narrowly missed being true, and pivot to accusing a Poisoner.

Key interactions

Poisoner

If the Gossip is poisoned on the night after making a true statement, the kill does not happen — the Poisoner can surgically neutralize the ability by poisoning after the statement is locked in. As Gossip, consider that a night with no kill may mean you were poisoned rather than that your statement was false, so don't immediately abandon a line of reasoning just because the kill failed.

Drunk

A Gossip who is the Drunk never gets a kill regardless of how true their statements appear to be, and they have no way to know this — if you're consistently making confident, specific statements with no kills firing, the Drunk is a real possibility to investigate.