@HereThereEverywhere
A Neutral Benign role is a role that can win with potentially anyone. The Guardian Angel, however, cannot win unless its target lives. I know that it's Benign to
some extent since their target doesn't always have to win (their target could be an Executioner that never lynches their target but lives, for example), but for the most part, if the Guardian Angel's faction doesn't win, they won't, either.
@Belshy
RNG
Once again, the ToS community has been divided by one thing; we don't all have the same enemy. I thought I'd already made it clear, but I suppose I should clarify that my one and only enemy in Town of Salem is
chaos. By Chaos, I do not
just mean Neutral Chaos (though that is pretty chaotic as well), but rather any feature in the game that cannot be controlled.
When you're designing a video game, it's important to never add any features that you cannot control,
especially in a game that needs to be carefully balanced, like ToS. This is the reason that the community as a whole dislikes RNG, and pardon my word choice, but everyone that understands RNG and doesn't hate its nature is an absolute dunce.
For example, look at the Pirate. What is the Pirate's KP? You could say it's 1/3, but it really isn't. On average, the Pirate kills 1 player every 3 nights, but unless you've never played a Coven gamemode before, you'll know that it isn't like that. Although it is unlikely, it is very much possible that a Pirate could kill a player every single night as if it were a Neutral Killing. Likewise, it is also very much possible that the Pirate could do absolutely nothing for the whole game (other than RBing, though that doesn't contribute to its goal) despite trying its best to win. So, what would you do in this case? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Pirate is unbalanced, but neither a buff nor a nerf would work in this situation, as there's no clear 'KP' for the Pirate.
And no, you couldn't say the same about the Werewolf. There's no clear 'KP' for the Werewolf either, but it's clear that the Werewolf kills once every other night, and it
will kill unless there's any factors to stop the WW, such as Protectors, Transporters, strong immunity, etc, but these events are not random. As for the rampaging attacks, it's still not random. Yes, I understand that there's no way of knowing how many kills it will get, but the Werewolf can use its knowledge to attack people who it knows are likely to be visited.
Also, one of your main arguments against me is
incorrect. No, the entirety of Town of Salem is not based on luck. For once, I
do actually see where you're coming from, but you're still wrong. Yes, I get that roles like Sheriff and Doctor and Mafioso and Lookout and pretty much all roles in the game have to make a lot of guesses, but guessing and luck are not the same thing.
Guesses are based on
evidence while luck is, well, just luck. There are two types of choices in ToS, one of which you seem to confuse with luck. Here they are:
Concrete Choice: a choice that is made because of a piece of evidence that the user believes to be true. Examples:
* A Sheriff claims that someone is a member of the Mafia, and the Town decides to lynch them.
* A Jailor jails someone whose role claim is impossible in the Role List, and the Jailor decides to execute them.
* A Doctor heals someone who they know is a Townie.
Inference: a choice is based on something that could be true, but it isn't proven to be true, though it may have evidence hinting that it could be true.
Examples:
* The Town decides to vote up someone who has been silent. There's no proof they are evil, but it would make sense for an evil to be quiet.
* Scumreading; it makes sense to get suspicious of someone who doesn't vote up the evils, though there is no evidence.
* A Sheriff claims that someone is a member of the Mafia, but Town ignores them because they are probably an Executioner
The fact that evidence can be incorporated into these actions to decide which possibility is more likely makes the entirety of Town of Salem
not RNG. And last time I checked, the human brain does not have a random number generator; even choices that seem like pure luck are made by the player's subconscious using evidence the player cannot see, though this evidence is very much real.
The Pirate's choices, on the other hand, are purely luck, since there is no evidence even
hinting at what the other player will choose. The player
does do a bit of thinking, such as, "I'm going to pick Rapier since I've seen a lot of people use Chainmail," but are players
really more likely to use Chainmail than other defense options? Maybe, but there's no way of knowing which choice is used the most.
As for the Executioner, I do agree with you on this one, to some extent, at least; the role of the Executioner's target affects the Executioner's potency; A Medium could easily be lynched while an Investigator is nearly impossible to lynch. However, as much as I dislike this semi-RNG, the Executioner, unlike the Guardian Angel, is a necessary evil for Ranked game modes. In ToS in its current state, if someone says something among the lines of "I'm Sheriff and _____ is a member of the Mafia," what's the first thing that people think of? Exe. Without the Executioner, what are the odds of claims like these being false? Why
shouldn't you believe the claim? And if they're wrong, then the person making the claim must be a scum, so the Jailor can take care of them afterwards.
Responsibility
All of the Town of Salem roles have responsibilities that they should follow in order to be effective, the main one being to try one's best to win. Responsibilities for a Doctor, for example, would range from simple things such as "vote with the Town to try and lynch the evils" to "heal people who you know are likely Townies." Responsibilities are what restrict killing roles from killing whoever they want. For example, a Jailor or Vigi won't kill unless they're almost certain that their target is evil.
The Townies aren't the only ones who have such responsibilities, however. In fact, I'd say the evils have
more responsibilities. For example, if you're a Mafia member, who you kill is important, and killing certain players may lead to unfavorable outcomes. For example, you want to kill important Townies, but you want to leave claimspace for yourself, so killing someone of your false claim's alignment may lead to you being lynched later in the game.
This is where the Pirate comes in. The Pirate has absolutely no responsibilities. It can kill whoever it wants, and it doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter to the Pirate if he kills Townies or Covens or Mafia or whatever, or if he gets lynched or killed. Once the Pirate secures its two kills, it becomes an unfair kingmaker free to do whatever it wishes to. It only has
one responsibility, and it isn't even permanent, unless the RNG wants it to be...
Conclusion
In conclusion, chaos is bad, no matter what form or shape it takes. This is the same reason that I dislike roles like the Vampire; it's a terrible role that should never have been added in the first place. At least Vampires have more responsibilities...
As for the Executioner issues, I do know that it can become a kingmaker, which leads to chaos. I do agree that the Executioner needs some sort of fix, but it's not fair to compare the Exe with the GA.
And that concludes the post! So, Mrs. Pirate-lover, are you saying that you
support chaos?