Mathematician
Each night, you learn how many players’ abilities worked abnormally (since dawn) due to another character's ability.
Any consistent formal system x, within which a certain amount of elementary arithmetic can be carried out is incomplete; that is, there are statements of the language of x which can neither be proved nor disproved in x. Ergo, you are drunk.
Storyteller cues
First nightGive a finger signal.
Other nightsGive a finger signal.
Jinxes
The Chambermaid can detect if the Mathematician will wake tonight.
The Mathematician might learn if the Drunk's ability yielded false info or failed to work properly.
The Mathematician might learn if the Lunatic attacks a different player than the real Demon attacked.
The Mathematician might learn if the Marionette's ability yielded false info or failed to work properly.
How to run it (Storyteller)
How to play
- Baseline calibration: on night one you get 0 if nothing unusual happened — any non-zero number immediately tells you something mechanical is in play, so use it to narrow down which roles are actually in the game.
- Cross-reference with claims: once players start sharing abilities (Monk, Mayor, Soldier, etc.), map each claimed ability against your number; if a Monk claims to have protected someone and your count didn't move, either the Monk is lying or the Demon never targeted that player.
- The Lunatic tell: if your number jumps on a night where the Demon supposedly attacked but nothing obvious explains it, suspect a Lunatic in play — the Lunatic attacking a different target than the real Demon inflates your count.
- Share your count publicly but hold your deductions privately at first — giving evil the raw number is low-risk since it's an integer, but announcing 'my number means the Monk saved someone last night' tips off the Demon about who is protected.
- Most common mistake: treating a zero as proof that no protective or disruptive roles exist — if the Drunk or Marionette is in play but happened to give info that matched what a sober player would get, they may not register; zero means nothing went wrong, not that nothing unusual is in the game.
How to bluff as the Mathematician
- Claim small, believable numbers: saying '1' or '2' most nights is credible since most games have at least one ability interaction; claiming 0 every night makes you look useless and claiming 5 raises immediate suspicion.
- Manufacture a Monk narrative: if a fellow evil player is bluffing Monk, coordinate so your fake count ticks up on nights they claim to protect someone — this corroborates both bluffs simultaneously.
- Use your bluff to misdirect: claim a non-zero count on a night when nothing actually happened to imply there is a Lunatic or Drunk in play, sowing doubt about good players' information and making the town second-guess reliable sources.
- The tell that exposes you: a real Mathematician's count should align precisely with confirmed ability interactions — if town pieces together that the Monk saved nobody yet you reported a count increase, your bluff collapses, so avoid overclaiming on nights with tight information control.
- If pressed for specifics, stay vague: say 'I know something worked abnormally but I can't tell what' since the real ability gives only a number, not identity — claiming you know which role caused the count rise would instantly out you as a fake.
Key interactions
When the Monk successfully protects someone from the Demon, the Mathematician's count increases by 1 — this is one of the cleanest confirmation tools in the game. If a Monk claim and a Mathematician count increase align on the same night, that corroborates both players significantly.
If the Demon targets the Mayor and the attack deflects onto another player (or fails), the Mathematician registers this as an abnormal ability interaction. A Mayor who survives a night the Demon attacked can be confirmed by a Mathematician count increase, making the pair extremely powerful for town.
If the Lunatic attacks a different player than the real Demon, the Mathematician may see a count increase that can't be explained by other known interactions, flagging that a Lunatic is likely in play. This is one of the few ways town can detect a Lunatic without a direct claim.
A Drunk receiving false information or having their ability fail counts toward the Mathematician's number — but only if the malfunction actually occurred, so a Drunk who happened to get accidentally accurate info may not register. Use persistent non-zero counts on quiet nights to help locate the Drunk among information roles.
Like the Drunk, a Marionette whose ability yielded false info or misfired registers in the count, giving the Mathematician indirect evidence that a Marionette is in play. Because the Marionette doesn't know they are evil, a count discrepancy can help identify them even if they are sincerely claiming good.