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Village Idiot

Each night, choose a player: you learn their alignment. [+0 to +2 Village Idiots. 1 of the extras is drunk]

Roses are blue, and violets are red, Please reverse what I just said.

Storyteller cues

First nightIf there are multiple Village Idiots, mark one as DRUNK. ◦ Wake the Village Idiots one at a time to choose a player. Give a thumb signal.

Other nightsWake the Village Idiots one at a time to choose a player. Give a thumb signal.

Jinxes

Boffin

If there is a spare token, the Boffin can give the Demon the Village Idiot ability.

Pit-Hag

If there is a spare token, the Pit-Hag can create an extra Village Idiot. If so, the drunk Village Idiot might change.

How to run it (Storyteller)

Each night, the sober Village Idiots receive true alignment results; the drunk Village Idiot receives a result you choose — it need not reflect the target's actual alignment. Before the game begins, randomly determine which extra Village Idiot (if any exist beyond the original) is drunk, and keep track privately; that drunk status can shift if a Pit-Hag creates a new Village Idiot mid-game, so reassess which is drunk whenever the count changes. Watch for the drunk Village Idiot outing confident but wrong reads — this is a powerful evil tool, so be ready for it to expose itself through contradiction. Never confirm or deny which Village Idiot is drunk; let the players work it out.

How to play

  • Coordinate early with other Village Idiots: compare your night-one reads immediately, because any disagreement between two VI results means one of you is the drunk — that information is itself town-solving gold.
  • Prioritize checking players that other information roles have already pinged, so your reads either corroborate or contradict existing claims and generate double the deductive value.
  • Hold back specific reads until you have multiple nights of data on the same player — a repeated evil result across several nights is far harder for the drunk VI to accidentally replicate, giving it real credibility.
  • If you suspect you are the drunk VI, announce that suspicion openly rather than quietly discarding your reads; town needs to know your information may be poisoned, and an evil player claiming to be drunk VI almost never does this.
  • The single most common mistake: treating your reads as certainties and pushing hard nominations on day one — a single VI read is only meaningful in the context of what the other Village Idiots saw, so never town-execute on solo VI evidence.

How to bluff as the Village Idiot

  • Claim Village Idiot only if you know how many VIs are in the game; bluffing VI in a game with no extras immediately creates a contradiction the Storyteller will expose through the real VI's denial.
  • Give one real evil player a 'good' read early to protect them, and give a townsfolk a 'suspicious' read to create a distrust wedge — this mimics what the drunk VI does naturally and makes your fake reads look like legitimate drunk drift.
  • If a real VI contradicts your read, immediately lean into being the drunk one: claim you suspected as much, act relieved rather than defensive, and use it to cast doubt on the real VI's reads rather than your own.
  • Avoid checking the same player repeatedly across nights if you are evil — a real VI with consistent reads looks reliable, but as a bluffer you risk painting yourself into a corner when your fake information gets fact-checked.
  • The tell that exposes a fake VI: always giving reads that perfectly align with evil's agenda without any apparent conflict or uncertainty — real drunk VIs produce chaotic contradictions, so occasionally 'doubt' one of your own reads to stay credible.

Key interactions

Village Idiot (extra copies)

Having multiple Village Idiots in play means town can triangulate which one is drunk by comparing nightly results — disagreements are not noise but signal. Evil should try to get VIs checking different players to delay that cross-reference as long as possible.

Pit-Hag

If a Pit-Hag creates a new Village Idiot during the game, the Storyteller must re-evaluate which VI is drunk, potentially shifting the drunk status to a different player mid-game. Any VI who had credible reads before the Pit-Hag fires could suddenly become the drunk one, invalidating their prior information retroactively.

Recluse

The Storyteller may show the Village Idiot an evil result when checking the Recluse, meaning a confident evil read on a Recluse is not proof of anything. Town should treat an evil result on a player claiming Recluse with extra caution rather than immediately executing.

Poisoner

A poisoned Village Idiot receives a result the Storyteller chooses, functionally identical to being the drunk VI — if you are poisoned and do not know it, your reads are worthless and could actively misdirect town. If your reads sharply contradict other VIs and you are not the designated drunk, Poisoner interference is a live hypothesis.