← All characters

Sentinel

There might be 1 extra or 1 fewer Outsider in play.

Name, please. Papers, please. Weapons, please.

How to run it (Storyteller)

Add the Sentinel to the Grimoire before setup whenever you want Outsider count to be an unreliable signal — either to protect an Outsider-heavy script from trivial Outsider-counting deductions, or to give evil room to bluff Outsiders without those bluffs being immediately falsifiable. Decide at setup whether to use 0, the normal count, or the normal count ±1 Outsiders; you are not required to change the count, but the mere presence of the Sentinel means the good team can never be certain you did. Announce the Sentinel to all players at the start of the game, as with all Fabled.

Playing with the Sentinel — as good

  • Treat the Outsider count as genuinely uncertain by ±1 in either direction — do not hard-anchor your world-count logic to the number of claimed Outsiders you can see.
  • If you are an Outsider, your claim is slightly less verifiable than normal, so lean on corroborating information from other players rather than counting on 'the math works out' to validate you.
  • When building world models, enumerate three Outsider-count scenarios (one fewer, normal, one more) rather than committing to one; only collapse to a single scenario when other information forces it.
  • Do not use 'the Outsider count is off' as a primary reason to accuse someone of lying — it is expected to be off in this game.

Playing with the Sentinel — as evil

  • The Sentinel is your permission slip to bluff as an Outsider even when the visible Outsider count already appears full — good players cannot rule your bluff out purely on numbers.
  • If you are the Demon, consider coaching your Minions to claim Outsiders rather than Townsfolk; the Sentinel's uncertainty makes those claims harder to disprove by counting.
  • Do not over-rely on the Sentinel: experienced good players will track all claimed characters and still spot contradictions in storytelling or behavior, so a weak Outsider bluff will still be exposed.
  • If good players try to pin down whether the Storyteller used the +1 or -1 option, stay quiet — any information you provide about the true Outsider count narrows their uncertainty and hurts you.

Key interactions

Godfather

The Godfather's setup effect also modifies the Outsider count, stacking with the Sentinel's potential modification and making the final Outsider count even harder to pin down. Good players should be especially reluctant to draw firm conclusions from Outsider counts on scripts that include both.

Barón

The Barón adds Outsiders during setup, and combined with the Sentinel's ±1 variance, the total Outsider count can swing across a wide range, making it nearly impossible to use headcount logic. Evil should exploit this by encouraging multiple Outsider bluffs; good should abandon count-based deduction entirely.

Drunk

If the Drunk is in play, one Townsfolk believes they are something else — but the Sentinel means the visible character roster cannot cleanly confirm or deny the Drunk's presence through Outsider arithmetic. Good teams should not try to prove or disprove a Drunk claim using counts alone.