Lynching

The gallows at day.

The gallows at night.

Executioner's icon, shown as lynching

The statue seen when someone is being lynched

Guilty button highlighted

Innocent button highlighted

Lynching is an action that can be performed by anyone during the voting phase of the game. It involves a player being voted onto the gallows and then being voted as to whether they are or . Lynching is a crucial element towards the end of the game, especially if any Town Killing roles are dead.

The process of Lynching

1. Voting: Every living player can openly vote for one other living player. Votes may be retracted or changed freely. A revealed Mayor' vote is worth three votes. If a player receives enough votes (more than half of the Town), they are put on trial. Otherwise, the Day phase ends.
2. Defense: The player being accused is given a brief section of time where they can testify their innocence. If the player is blackmailed, anything they write will appear as, "I am blackmailed." to other players. The remaining players may not talk, only whisper.
3. Judgement: The remaining players are allowed to secretly vote on whether they think the player being hanged is guilty or not. All players may talk; the accused can keep on defending themselves (if not blackmailed), and the remaining players can attempt to convince the others. At the end, all votes and the names of the voters are revealed. If the accused player is found to be innocent, they will simply walk off the gallows, but if they are found to be guilty, they will prepare to be lynched (as per their Death Animation).
4. Last Words: The accused is given a few more seconds to express any last words before being lynched. Other players may not talk during this time, only whisper. Afterwards the game goes through the usual process of revealing said person's Last Will and role.
5. In most cases, the day ends automatically. If the verdict was innocent, the day will not end. The voting phase will continue with the time remaining from before.

Things for Townies to consider before and during Lynching

Lynching can be a great decision or a disastrous one for any faction. Any player needs to give careful thought about who to lynch based on the evidence available.

• Asking for attributes/abilities is considered metagaming. Although it's not wrong to metagame, it's highly frowned upon by the community. Players may also copy and paste said attributes/abilities from the Wikia or other sources. Thus, there's not much use to ask for said attributes/abilities.
• Is there substantial evidence against the accused player? If so, what is the evidence and how valid is it? If the evidence is good and the players giving evidence are trusted, go for the lynch. If the accuser claims to be a Sheriff, Investigator, etc. and are accused on Day 2, chances are they are an Executioner.
• Has the player who is being accused trying to cause trouble, or trying to accuse others based on little evidence? If so, be careful as this might be a Jester or Executioner, though, said player is possibly a member of the Mafia, Serial Killer, Arsonist, etc.
• Is the player presenting poor evidence in order to declare innocence? Then they are either a bad player in general, a Jester who is purposely trying to increase suspicion against themselves, or a member of the Mafia or Serial Killer who is trying in vain to defend themselves.
• Do they seem to give up or don't care if they die? They may be a Jester as they are simply biding time until they get lynched, or an evil player pretending to be a Jester.
• How many members of the Mafia are left? If there are still at least three members of the Mafia alive, be careful as they could be pulling the strings of voting and deciding on the target being guilty or innocent.
• How fast are people voting? Typically, if a decent number of people vote immediately, they voted guilty. If this is happening often where 3 people consistently vote people up without substantial evidence, they may be cheaters or members of the Mafia. This can be a way to decide if you should abandon a fellow member of the Mafia or try to get him off the hook.

These are some of the questions that you may have to consider when someone is being voted to be lynched. Always be critical at the start of the game in your assessment, as chances are a lynch in the first or second round won't include a lot of evidence. Sometimes, unconsidered voting turns into random lynching and players can be killed in the first or second trials. If you are very unsure about the decision to hang them, then abstain (don't vote) or just click innocent. Assessing who needs lynching and who doesn't is a hard thing to do, and you may get it wrong sometimes but knowing who to lynch is a skill that needs to be developed over time.

Not getting lynched

Getting yourself out of the gallows is easier said than done, and requires a good deal of deception or intuition.

• Use evidence: Whether you are a Townie or member of the Mafia, evidence for and against you is a key part in deciding your innocence. If you are a Townie and there is evidence to suggest you are innocent, you need to bring it up before or during the process. If you are a member of the Mafia, Serial Killer or Executioner, you either need to falsify your evidence or suggest that there isn't much evidence. Essentially, seem logical about your reasons and people may listen to it, though some won't care and will call you guilty anyway.
• Pretend to be another role: This is a valid technique for not getting lynched, although take care to note which roles are left and which aren't. If you are able to hint that you are a Jester in some way, players may then try to vote for your innocence as the Jester can kill a guilty voter the night after they were lynched (However, the current trend is that players will instead abstain, so keep this in mind). If you are able to use a role that hasn't died yet, or pretend that your role is a Town Killing or Random Town role, then you may very well get away with it. If you are playing an All Any game, then you should be able to get away with it.
• Claiming to be a Jester usually only works if you have acted like a Jester before. If you suddenly go from serious to Jester-like, the Town will likely not believe you and hang you. Even if you are playing a fake Jester game smoothly, faking to be a Jester is such a common claim that you may get lynched no matter what.
• Sometimes you may be randomly lynched, meaning you were put on trial for no reason, and usually starts out with one person voting against you, then the rest of the votes following. This happens to everyone at one point or another, and should not be taken seriously. When you are randomly lynched, it is very difficult to get yourself off the hook. Tell them the first voter is an Executioner and start to say your role, and you may be able to escape the random lynch.

Sometimes, it's not always a good idea to get out of lynching, namely with Jester, although sometimes this applies to members of the Mafia. A wave of suspicion can come over the other Townies if someone votes innocent for someone despite them being a Mafia, as usually these people are seen as other members of the Mafia for trying to get their buddy off the hook. If you are a member of the Mafia and it looks like a fellow member of the Mafia is going to be hanged, vote for them as well and move the suspicion away from you; it's a valid technique and said member of the Mafia will still win if you go on to win the game for them. If you hang a fellow member of the Mafia and they call you out, report them and try to convince the Town that you are actually a Townie and that they are trying to frame you.

Neutrals, Mafia, and Lynching

Lynching is an essential part of the main two Neutral roles, Jester and Executioner roles, and towards the end of the game it can be an important part of how the members of the Mafia win. A Jester's entire existence revolves around trying to get lynched, and it is an achievement for any Jester to get themselves lynched, as it involves a great deal of deception. Similarly, the Executioner has to try and get their target (which is always a Townie or Townie converted to become a Vampire, but never the Jailor or Mayor) lynched, sometimes on very little evidence, which can be tricky. Here are some points for the Neutral and Mafia roles to consider when using lynching:

• If you are a Jester, feel free to play along with any lynching you want, it may end up putting suspicion on you, but don't make yourself too obvious in terms of accusation or in how you try to control any Town arguments, as you may be classed out as a Jester or Executioner. Another strategy is to try to look like a bad Executioner, get yourself lynched by yelling out your target. This can also help the Mafia, Serial Killer and even the Arsonist as the Town will think the accused person is a Townie.

• If you are an Executioner, also feel free to play along with lynching, but if there is suspicion against your target then press on it, but never accuse your target too early on. Unless, you want to be accused of being an Executioner from an early point in the game.

• If you are any Neutral role and your target or aim is not seeming likely for you to achieve, then play till the end of the game, and if you want you could try picking a side and trying to get it to win. Sometimes Neutral roles are hard to pull off but you can at least survive until the end.

• If you are part of the Mafia, going along with early lynching or accusations might get suspicion put on you later on, keep back on lynching unless the whole Town is doing it. As said earlier, lynching your comrades after they are accused might get you out of suspicion in a tight spot.

• After a certain point in the game, depending on how many members of the Mafia are left, the Mafia can start to "out-vote" people in the voting phase. Calmly lynching people at day while killing them off at night in the late phase of the game can lead to a steady and easy victory.