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Plague Doctor

When you die, the Storyteller gains a Minion ability.

Pleauze shtay shtill. Thinks nid tiime for hillink. Myrhh-myrhh.

Storyteller cues

Other nightsIf the Plague Doctor died, the Storyteller gained a Minion ability. If you haven’t done this yet, do so now. ◦

Jinxes

Baron

If the Storyteller would gain the Baron ability, up to two players become Outsiders.

Boomdandy

If the Storyteller would gain the Boomdandy ability, a player becomes the Boomdandy.

Evil Twin

If the Storyteller would gain the Evil Twin ability, a player becomes the Evil Twin.

Fearmonger

If the Storyteller would gain the Fearmonger ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.

Goblin

If the Storyteller would gain the Goblin ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.

Marionette

If the Storyteller would gain the Marionette ability, one of the Demon's good neighbors becomes the Marionette.

Scarlet Woman

If the Storyteller would gain the Scarlet Woman ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.

Spy

If the Storyteller would gain the Spy ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.

Wraith

If the Storyteller would gain the Wraith ability, a Minion gains it, and learns this.

How to run it (Storyteller)

When the Plague Doctor dies (by execution or night kill), immediately and privately select which Minion ability the Storyteller gains, then determine how that ability resolves per the documented interactions — some abilities transfer to an existing Minion rather than staying with the Storyteller, and a few reshape the game's character composition entirely. The nastiest edge case is the Marionette interaction: if you select Marionette, one of the Demon's good neighbors is retroactively converted into the Marionette mid-game, which means you must immediately inform that player privately and adjust their experience going forward. Watch for games where the Plague Doctor's death timing is pivotal — an early execution hands you a powerful ability when it can shape the whole game, while a late death may render the gained ability nearly irrelevant.

How to play

  • Staying alive is your primary goal: your death is a concrete power boost for evil, so push back hard against execution attempts and give the town strong reasons to protect you.
  • Transparency timing: reveal early if you need the town's protection, but consider holding your identity briefly if you can identify who might be the Demon — dying while the Demon is alive is strictly worse than dying after the Demon is gone.
  • Use your death as leverage in endgame negotiations: if the town is debating between you and a likely Minion, point out that executing you gifts evil a free Minion ability, which shifts the calculus in close votes.
  • Single most common mistake: treating yourself as a low-value Outsider and volunteering to die to 'test' something — you are never a free sacrifice; every death has a mechanical cost to the town.
  • If you survive to late game and the Demon is identified, your death becomes less costly since fewer Minion abilities matter when the game is nearly over — factor this into execution decisions when you're in the running.

How to bluff as the Plague Doctor

  • Plague Doctor is a strong defensive bluff: claiming it makes you look like a liability to execute, which buys time for the Demon and Minions to operate safely while the town hesitates to pull the trigger.
  • Lean into the deterrent: verbally remind the group that executing you activates the ability, then let town paranoia about which Minion ability might trigger do the work for you without you having to specify — vagueness here is an asset.
  • If pressed on which ability the Storyteller would gain, deflect by saying you don't know — the real Plague Doctor has no information about that outcome, so admitting ignorance is mechanically authentic and hard to challenge.
  • The main tell that exposes a fake: a bluffing evil player has no incentive to die, so if you are too eager to deflect execution onto others or never offer yourself under any circumstances, experienced players will notice the inconsistency with a genuinely survival-motivated Plague Doctor.

Key interactions

Marionette

If the Storyteller selects the Marionette ability upon your death, one of the Demon's good neighbors is converted into a Marionette mid-game, effectively giving evil a confused good-role agent — this is among the most disruptive outcomes and should factor into how aggressively you fight to survive.

Baron

If the Storyteller takes the Baron ability, up to two additional Outsiders enter play, which can dilute town composition and sow confusion about the Outsider count — worth flagging to the group if you die and the Outsider numbers start looking wrong.

Spy

When the Storyteller would take Spy, instead a Minion gains that ability and learns it, meaning an existing Minion suddenly has access to the Grimoire — a mid-game information windfall for evil that can unravel careful deduction by good players.

Scarlet Woman

A Minion gaining the Scarlet Woman ability mid-game means evil now has redundant Demon protection that wasn't present at setup, which can invalidate good's strategy if they were banking on a single Demon kill ending the game.

Fearmonger

A Minion gaining Fearmonger after your death adds a nightly nomination-block threat to evil's toolkit at a point when town is trying to coordinate executions — the timing makes this particularly punishing in endgame.