Philosopher
Once per game, at night, choose a good character: gain that ability. If this character is in play, they are drunk.
If anything is real, beer is real. Drink, for tomorrow we may die.
Storyteller cues
First nightThe Philosopher might choose a character. If necessary, swap their character token. ◦
Other nightsThe Philosopher might choose a character. If necessary, swap their character token. ◦
Jinxes
If the Philosopher gains the Bounty Hunter ability, a Townsfolk might turn evil.
How to run it (Storyteller)
How to play
- Choose your ability on night one if possible: the entire power of this role is that one pick, and delaying gains you almost nothing while leaving you vanilla in the meantime.
- Target an ability that is either missing from the script or one you know is already in play as a spare — picking Empath, Investigator, or another information role you know isn't seated gives you clean information without drunkening anyone.
- If you pick an ability that mirrors a real player's role, you create a useful double-signal for town — two sources of the same information type cross-referencing each other — but be ready for that player to immediately claim drunkeness to the group, which outs both of you.
- Hardest decision: whether to tell town you've used your ability and what you chose. Revealing early gives town more information but hands evil a roadmap for who to kill to remove that ability. Consider waiting until you have one confirmed result before going public.
- Most common mistake: picking a powerful role that is definitely in play (like a known Slayer or confirmed Empath) without realizing you are permanently drunkening your teammate and neutering their ability for the rest of the game.
How to bluff as the Philosopher
- Claim you haven't used your ability yet early game — this is believable and buys time while you gather information on which role is safest to fake-claim later.
- Fake-claim picking an information role like Empath or Librarian and invent plausible-sounding results: say you got '1 evil neighbor' or 'a Recluse is in play,' which are hard to immediately disprove and add noise to town's deduction.
- Coordinate with your evil team: have a partner claim to be the real version of the character you claim to have chosen, so they can 'confirm' they are drunk — this makes your bluff appear mechanically consistent and casts doubt on any real townsfolk.
- The tell that exposes a fake Philosopher: a real player claims the same underlying role you said you chose but insists they are not drunk and have been getting clean results. If you cannot explain why they appear unaffected, your bluff collapses, so pick roles with no obvious in-play counterpart.
Key interactions
If the Philosopher selects Bounty Hunter's ability, the Storyteller may secretly flip a Townsfolk to evil, expanding the evil team without anyone knowing why. Town should treat any mid-game Philosopher-Bounty Hunter claim as a serious threat to team composition and investigate unusual Townsfolk behavior.
A Bone-Collected Philosopher gets a second ability pick, potentially changing which in-play character is drunk. This means the Philosopher's value does not end at death, and evil should consider whether killing the Bone Collector is more urgent than killing the Philosopher.
If the Philosopher picks Klutz, the ability functions even after the Philosopher dies, meaning a late-game death could force the Philosopher to immediately publicly nominate or lose — plan for this trigger before dying.
Philosopher choosing Sage retains Sage's demon-detection-on-death ability after the Philosopher dies, giving town a powerful information burst from an otherwise non-Sage execution or kill.
A Poisoned Philosopher who tries to activate their once-per-game pick will waste it — the ability fires but grants nothing, and that use is gone permanently. Identifying and protecting the Philosopher from the Poisoner before night one is town's priority.