Courtier

Identity: Courtier
Alignment: Good
Category: Townsfolk
Ability: Once per game, at night, choose a character: they are drunk for 3 nights & 3 days.

Explanation: Once per game, during the night, you choose a character (not a player!) to be drunk for three nights and three days (visit the Plague Doctor for more information about being drunk). You do not learn if you successfully got a player drunk or not.

Tips for playing as the Courtier: You can only use your ability once in the entire game, so time it well! The later you make your choice, the more information you will have about the game’s state and what characters are in play and causing mayhem. On the other hand, the evil team will be keen to target you as soon as they possibly can, so using your ability early can ensure you get it off and learn something before you die. It’s up to you to judge the landscape of your particular game and make your choice!

One of the strongest uses of your ability is to target the Demon – if you can block the Demon by getting them drunk, then the good team will have three nights of reprieve and the evil team will be at a severe disadvantage. The biggest tell for which demon is in play is the number of deaths each night – spot a pattern there, and you can pick out a deadly Shabaloth or cunning Po before they unleash their devastating attacks.

Another powerful strategy you have available to you is to get Minions drunk. A drunk Assasin or Godfather won’t be able to unleash unexpected deaths on the town, though getting the timing right can be very tricky – only aim for these if you’re really sure it’s going to help the good team out. A drunk Devil’s Advocate or Mastermind is a little more insidious, since the evil team often rely on their abilities to save them in a pinch, and the drunkenness will not be obvious right away. An evil team who thinks they have a Mastermind in their back pocket may be okay with letting their Demon die, when in fact they’re about to lose the game!

Tips for bluffing as the Courtier: The easiest way to bluff as the Courtier is to claim to have used your Courtier ability on a Demon or Minion, and then have that have no obvious effect. For example, claim that you used your ability on the Pukka, but since a kill still happened of a night time, you must have guessed the wrong Demon. “Getting it wrong” this way is quite common for a Courtier, so doesn’t look majorly suspicious, as long as the group is confused about which evil characters are in the game.

Or, pretend to take a crucial character’s ability out of the game, and therefore out of the good team’s consideration. If you are the Mastermind, you can claim to be the Courtier that has selected the Mastermind, which means that they will be taken completely by surprise when you snatch victory the day after executing the Demon. If you are the Pukka, you can claim to be the Courtier that has made the Pukka drunk, which, when deaths continue of a night time, will convince the group that a different Demon is in-play, and they will completely ignore the possibility of the Pukka’s poisoning.