Instigator

instigator_1024x1024“Instigator, wake up. You may give any player the Mark of the Traitor.”

From ONUV, on Team Village

Being on Team Village, the Instigator normally has a pretty clear cut optimal strategy. The Instigator usually wants to give another player the Mark of the Traitor (which is an optional action) and then announce quite early who they gave the Mark of the Traitor to, and hope that player is a Vampire.

If she gave it to a player on Team Village the recipient is now working against the Instigator’s interest so the Instigator announcing what they did should undermine the traitor’s credibility.

If she gave it to a Vampire, then the Vampire will usually announce that they received the Mark of the Traitor anyway and out the other vampires. There is usually no point for the Instigator to lie about who they gave the Mark of the Traitor to, since everyone looks at their marks and knows if they received it or not. Any possible mark switching during the night phase, such as by the Gremlin or Pickpocket, will usually become known during the discussion before voting.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

12 thoughts on “Instigator”

  1. What would happen if a there were at least 2 vampires and one of them had the mark of the traitor. And then the vampire with the mark of the traitor dies. Will the other vampires lose, and will the Villagers win?

    I guess what i’m askong is: if a vampire has the mark of the traitor, does he basically become a villager?

    1. In the scenario you describe both Vampires would lose.

      Receiving the Mark of the Traitor does not cause you to ‘switch teams’ per se. If you receive the Mark of the Traitor, everyone else’s win condition is unaffected. But your own win condition then requires someone on your own team to die. It is similar to simply changing teams in most cases, but is probably more confusing to think of it as a team change mechanism than to think of it as a change in win condition for just that player because, apart from the fact it doesn’t affect anyone else’s win condition, there are some edge cases where it simply has no effect. For example, receiving the Mark of the Traitor has no effect when:
      – you are the only person on your team
      – you are the Apprentice Tanner
      – you are the Apprentice Assassin

      The Mark having no effect in these edge cases wouldn’t be consistent with a simple ‘team change’ effect.

    2. No, he’s a biological vampire but his condition changes and becomes similar, but not identical, to the villager team. However, because he’s a vampire, if the village decides to kill him, they still win.

      Moreover, if it’s an epic game and the villagers decide to kill a Werewolf and an Alien, the traitor vampire still loses because he did not manage to get his vampire buddy killed.

      1. Nvm when actually in play it says any player. So techincally yes I suppose they could.

        Side Note: They really should stop having contradictions in the app between when the role is being described and when the role is in play in a game.

  2. I don’t think so because if she did so, she would then be on the Vampire team. Since she is a villager, she wouldn’t really want to put the mark on herself and rather someone else.

    1. If there is only ONE vampire, the vampire would LOSE since Mark of the Traitor doesn’t affect a role that doesn’t have any other team members. The village would win for killing a vampire.

      If there were MORE than one vampire, the said vampire would STILL LOSE because they didn’t get ANOTHER team member to die. The Traitor Mark only affects a role’s win condition, not the role itself.

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