Detective
One question a night, and a lie waiting in the answers.
- Side
- Town — wins when every mafioso is gone.
- Appears at
- From six players upward.
- At night
- Investigates one player and is told, privately, whether they are mafia or town.
- During the day
- He holds the only hard information in the game, and the moment he uses it he identifies himself to the people who most want him dead.
The thing people get wrong
The Godfather comes back as town. Every game, without exception. A Detective who does not account for this will eventually clear the most dangerous player at the table and stake his credibility on it.
What a result is actually worth
The reading is alignment only — mafia or town — never the specific role. A "mafia" result is close to conclusive and worth acting on immediately. A "town" result is much weaker than it looks, because it is also what the Godfather returns. Clearing someone on one investigation is how towns lose.
Why he arrives at six players
At five the only mafioso is the Godfather, who is immune, so investigation cannot return anything useful. From six there is a plain Mafia in the game — someone the Detective can actually catch — and he joins the distribution.
Where it turns up
Games with this role: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 players. See the exact composition at each size in setups by player count, or read the full rules.