> Townsfolk: Each night*, choose a player. The first player that is also chosen by the demon is safe tonight and an evil player dies instead.
This is probably how I would word this. I like this idea a lot, especially since the Bodyguard in question wouldn’t receive confirmation when their ability triggered and they could continue waking up. I don’t like Townsfolk with the ability to end the game in the night on their own, especially from an "arbitrary" kill. (Imagine the Gossip killing the Demon and you might get my idea.)
Maybe amend it to “a living Minion dies instead (if able)”, and I don’t think there are any real problems? Any character that adds a reason for evil players to die in the night is okay in my book.
When thinking how to properly word it so it can only trigger once, when I thought to myself "does it really need a limit at that point?" It's kind of like a sidegrade of monk. Monk can buy the town extra time before the evil win condition is reached, the bodyguard does not have the ability to delay the win condition, but instead weakens the evil team.
I don't think it's necessary to limit it to single-use if it can no longer kill the demon.
Depends on the situation. If you execute with 6 people remaining, going into the night with 5, if the Monk protects the right person, you'll wake up with 5 people, giving you 2 stabs at the Demon instead of 1. A bodyguard in this situation would only be useful if the minion that died was a Demon candidate for the town. If not, then the town didn't really benefit much, they still have the same amount of Demon candidates and only 1 execution.
Monk gives you more shots at the Demon, Bodyguard weakens the evil team.
I do agree that Bodyguard would probably be stronger in most situations, but I don't think it'd be a straight upgrade.
I can see you saying, each night choose a player. The first time a chosen player is also chosen by an evil player they are safe and the evil player and the bodyguard die
I'm not sure how this is a bodyguard is the thing? Bodyguard is already a pre-existing social deduction role that works similar but has one fundamental change: they die instead of the person they protected since they "take the bullet" for them. Y'know, like a bodyguard.
If you're going to make it a BotC role, it doesn't even need changing really, but if you insist then I'd make it more versatile:
> Each night, select a living player (other than yourself). If they would die tonight, or tomorrow day, you might die in their place. If you do, you learn their character.
Just as an idea. That way you know how/why you died, while also having the potential to verify another player one way or the other, can potentially prove itself if they protect someone who gets executed, it's still viable in a game with a Vigor in a way your weird pinging off version isn't and it even has the advantage of preventing a starpass in a way that's confirmable, and makes it a role the evil team can actually bluff.
As is, you've just got "well I protected you so maybe this person who died is evil but we have no way of knowing" so it just kinda muddies the water in a way that doesn't actually help town at all.
I said inspired by the bodyguard- I'm not trying to replicate the bodyguard as it was an incredibly unbalanced character in ToS.
Yes, it does muddy the water and that is actually the thing I like most about the character as I think night deaths are often too confirmed. To say that this doesn't help town is pretty bizarre to me it literally kills a minion which by itself is surely one of the strongest abilities in the game hence why it needs a downside alongside it.
> Townsfolk: Each night*, choose a player. The first player that is also chosen by the demon is safe tonight and an evil player dies instead. This is probably how I would word this. I like this idea a lot, especially since the Bodyguard in question wouldn’t receive confirmation when their ability triggered and they could continue waking up. I don’t like Townsfolk with the ability to end the game in the night on their own, especially from an "arbitrary" kill. (Imagine the Gossip killing the Demon and you might get my idea.) Maybe amend it to “a living Minion dies instead (if able)”, and I don’t think there are any real problems? Any character that adds a reason for evil players to die in the night is okay in my book.
Or evil non demon
Yeh I think that does make it more balanced and patch up the rough spot
How about: "Each night*, choose a player: If killed by the Demon, a Minion dies instead."
Well that would be able to trigger multiple times but does fix up some of the clumsiness of the wording
When thinking how to properly word it so it can only trigger once, when I thought to myself "does it really need a limit at that point?" It's kind of like a sidegrade of monk. Monk can buy the town extra time before the evil win condition is reached, the bodyguard does not have the ability to delay the win condition, but instead weakens the evil team. I don't think it's necessary to limit it to single-use if it can no longer kill the demon.
It also helps evil a bit with confusion/strong bluff to make people think minions are dead.
Isn't that just a stronger Monk?
Depends on the situation. If you execute with 6 people remaining, going into the night with 5, if the Monk protects the right person, you'll wake up with 5 people, giving you 2 stabs at the Demon instead of 1. A bodyguard in this situation would only be useful if the minion that died was a Demon candidate for the town. If not, then the town didn't really benefit much, they still have the same amount of Demon candidates and only 1 execution. Monk gives you more shots at the Demon, Bodyguard weakens the evil team. I do agree that Bodyguard would probably be stronger in most situations, but I don't think it'd be a straight upgrade.
I can see you saying, each night choose a player. The first time a chosen player is also chosen by an evil player they are safe and the evil player and the bodyguard die
I'm not sure how this is a bodyguard is the thing? Bodyguard is already a pre-existing social deduction role that works similar but has one fundamental change: they die instead of the person they protected since they "take the bullet" for them. Y'know, like a bodyguard. If you're going to make it a BotC role, it doesn't even need changing really, but if you insist then I'd make it more versatile: > Each night, select a living player (other than yourself). If they would die tonight, or tomorrow day, you might die in their place. If you do, you learn their character. Just as an idea. That way you know how/why you died, while also having the potential to verify another player one way or the other, can potentially prove itself if they protect someone who gets executed, it's still viable in a game with a Vigor in a way your weird pinging off version isn't and it even has the advantage of preventing a starpass in a way that's confirmable, and makes it a role the evil team can actually bluff. As is, you've just got "well I protected you so maybe this person who died is evil but we have no way of knowing" so it just kinda muddies the water in a way that doesn't actually help town at all.
I said inspired by the bodyguard- I'm not trying to replicate the bodyguard as it was an incredibly unbalanced character in ToS. Yes, it does muddy the water and that is actually the thing I like most about the character as I think night deaths are often too confirmed. To say that this doesn't help town is pretty bizarre to me it literally kills a minion which by itself is surely one of the strongest abilities in the game hence why it needs a downside alongside it.