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Spirit of Ivory

There can't be more than 1 extra evil player.

The Wasteland calls. Bones rise to flesh, then fall to dust. The great spirit grows. The great spirit watches. The great spirit guides. The human listens, or the human is no more.

How to run it (Storyteller)

Add the Spirit of Ivory to any script where the evil team could, through character abilities, exceed their normal player count — most commonly scripts with the Legion, Mezepheles, or other evil-generating mechanics. Place it in the bag at setup and announce it publicly; it requires no night actions and no tracking beyond enforcing the one-extra-evil cap. It is a passive balancing tool, not a puzzle, so communicate its presence clearly so both teams can play around it accurately.

Playing with the Spirit of Ivory — as good

  • Know that the evil team cannot expand beyond one player over the base evil count, so if a mechanic would normally flood the game with evil players, that flood is capped — use this to bound your suspicion space.
  • When a character like Mezepheles is on the script, the Spirit of Ivory tells you there can be at most one converted player total, so if you suspect one person has already turned evil, trust that no further conversions have occurred.
  • Use the hard cap as a deduction anchor: if the Storyteller confirms Spirit of Ivory is in play and you can identify the baseline evil count, you can rule out scenarios that require two or more extra evil players.
  • Don't let the Spirit of Ivory breed complacency — one extra evil player is still a real threat, and the cap doesn't reduce the base evil count.

Playing with the Spirit of Ivory — as evil

  • If your win condition depends on expanding the evil team (e.g., Mezepheles converting good players), you are strictly limited to one such conversion — prioritize converting the highest-value good player rather than spreading attempts.
  • Because good players know the cap, any player you successfully convert must play cleanly enough not to trigger suspicion that a second conversion has occurred, or good players will correctly conclude that the one conversion slot is already used.
  • On scripts with evil-generating roles, the Spirit of Ivory makes your numbers predictable to good players, so lean harder on bluffing and misdirection to compensate for the loss of numerical surprise.
  • If you are a converted or added evil player, be aware that good players are actively counting and will deduce extra evil players more readily than in a standard game — play your role conservatively.

Key interactions

Mezepheles

Mezepheles can normally convert multiple good players across the game, but Spirit of Ivory hard-caps that at one successful conversion. The evil team must pick their moment carefully, and good players who know one conversion may already have happened can stop treating additional suspicious behaviour as evidence of a second turn.

Legion

Legion replaces most of the good players with evil Legions, potentially creating a large extra-evil count; Spirit of Ivory caps this overflow at one, which can fundamentally alter whether Legion is viable on the same script. The Storyteller should consider whether these two mechanics are compatible before combining them.