Town of Salem is a cool game. I just
wanted to get it out of the way right now. It's free in browser, give
it a shot, you'll have a good time. If you're at all interested in
what I'm talking about here, I'm sure you'll have a good time.
But it's also really interesting to
look at what makes this seemingly simple game tick, and how something
as simple as being immune to death at night adds layers upon layers of
complexity. If you've ever played mafia, ToS is basically like that,
but a bit more complex, taking advantage of it being digital, and
having more roles.
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Now, being night immune is a trait
shared by several roles in the game, such as the serial killer and
the godfather. If you haven't played or if your memory is fuzzy, it
means you can't be killed at night through conventional means. That
means no mafia killing you, no serial killer, and no vigilante. Let's
take a closer look at what this means for the game as a whole:
It increases the value of certain
roles
There are specific roles that can kill
through night immunity. The Jailor, Veteran, Werewolf, and Arsonist
all have the ability to ignore this attribute and just kill anyone
they want at night. Obviously that's a powerful tool for whatever
role has it, but it's not without downsides. The jailor is obscenely
powerful, but to compensate they're always in the game and are the
number one target for pretty much every killing role. The veteran
can't actively kill, and can only react to other night immune roles
coming to visit them. And of course the arsonist and werewolf are
alone, and can't risk being found out or killed or else they lose.
When you give a role such a powerful
tool, you're forced to give them downsides, and in doing so each role
is just really interesting. You need to play more carefully as a
jailor. It's common to try to bait people to visit you as veteran.
This mechanic changes every role it applies to, and it makes the game
much more interesting as a result.
It's a key strength AND weakness
Night immunity just sounds like a
straight strength, no? It certainly is a necessary one for many of
the independent roles. The neutral killing roles, for one, are a
target of literally every other player in the game, and your "team"
is made up of only yourself in this case. It'd be far too easy for
you to automatically lose by a random killing if you didn't have
night immunity in this case. The town can rely on their numbers, the
mafia can afford a loss, vampires can make more of themselves, and so
on. Every role has some sort of failsafe, and in the case of these
solo roles their failsafe is just flat out being unable to be
normally killed.
However, this isn't just a flat buff in
these evil roles. Again, it makes the game more interesting, because
the party that tried to attack you will know you're night immune. And
that's pretty much always a bad thing. If you're neutral killing,
mafia and town both want your blood and will out you the next day or
in a death note. If you're the godfather, everyone but mafia wants
you gone. In these cases, it means you've been put at a disadvantage
but still have several options to get out of this mess, rather than
just an instant failsafe.
And it's not as simple as "lynch
the immune" for the town roles, either. The survivor and
bodyguard both have the ability to assume temporary night immunity, so
they can't just go about lynching everyone like this.
This is really, really good multiplayer
design. I often see a lot of games stumble in providing interesting
options on all sides. Take a sniper rifle in any FPS. Typically your
options boil down to "get out of sight or die" and the
sniper's options are "keep at range or die". It's just not
as interesting when each weapon or mechanic gives a very binary
state: play this way or fail. Town of Salem keeps it open, even when
something bad or good happens to you. Getting found out as night
immune isn't an immediate failure, and finding a night immune isn't
an instant success. As a result of this it's also not a straight,
boring buff to a class to help it work. It's a dynamic mechanic that
helps them do their jobs.
It also works as
an unknown
Night immunity is always going to be
present in a typical game of ranked. The godfather and a neutral
killing role will always be in there, so the killing roles will
always have this mechanic to work with. That uncertainty means that
night immunity is something every role will want to know about for
different reasons.
The mafia will usually want to know
who's immune so as to not waste nights to kill, and seeing as they're
the only factions guaranteed to have someone able to confirm of
someone is immune, it's often in their best interests to reveal who's
immune through indirect means. It's a question of risk vs reward,
typically. Is it in the mafia's best interest to leave roles that can
usually kill them alive to see if they'll get the town first. That
question doesn't have a clear answer and must be answered per game,
and that's great.
On the other hand, every role with
permanent night immunity is an enemy of the town, and a massive red
flag that this is likely a bad person. It becomes a goal of
leveraging every piece of info you get and then putting it into
action, as town usually takes control of the lynchings. If it's not
coming from the mouth of an investigative role or vigilante, however,
it's typically suspect. This turns the simple act of trying to find
the evils into a mad scramble to see who can be trusted and what info
is good and it's just great.
The point I'm getting at here is that
Town of Salem weaves this one gameplay mechanic through the entire
game very well. So many multiplayer games keep mechanics isolated and
single use. You can only use the grappling hook for mobility. This
shotgun only has one use: close range combat. The mechanic of night
immunity is not a one and done mechanic only applying to certain
scenarios. It's used across the entire game and has repercussions far
more than it appears at first. Not every game needs to do something
like this, but it's certainly a valuable tool to keep in mind.