Town of Salem divides role into 4 main factions: Town, Mafia, Neutral, and Coven.
Note that while most roles have an "avatar" that represents them (used for them in official art, advertisements, and so on), which are covered in the tropes below, in-game players select their avatars before they know their roles (since roles are secret); this means that in practice, for instance, your Doctor can look like a Werewolf rather than being Dressed to Heal. Their associated avatars still reflect their "canonical" appearance and are used for tropes below.
Town
The 'good' faction, with the goal of surviving until the end of the game, which means lynching the other factions. The Townies are made up of: Bodyguard, Crusader, Doctor, Escort, Investigator, Jailor, Lookout, Mayor, Medium, Psychic, Retributionist, Sheriff, Spy, Tracker, Transporter, Trapper, Vampire Hunter, Veteran, and Vigilante.
- The Fettered: Their killing roles have stipulations preventing them from just going on a killing spree. Bodyguards can only kill if they go to the same house as a killing role, Crusaders are very likely to kill their own allies if they don't play their cards right, Jailors will no longer be able to kill if they kill a townie or three evils, Veterans follow the same issue as Crusaders but on a much worse scale and Vigilantes will kill themselves if they off a townie by mistake. Vampire Hunters are the only aversion, as they can kill Vampires without any restriction.
- Good Is Dumb: Because Town starts with the least information and is by far the most susceptible to idiocy, this trope will be sworn up and down. Stupid town or some other variation of it are classic final words for an innocent being lynched.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Often a member of the town will have to sacrifice themselves to bring in a win. The Bodyguard role specializes in this, the entire point of the role being to die in defense of a fellow town member, killing an enemy in the process. Other townies may also do this by declaring their role, giving vital information to the town, even knowing that they are likely to die that night as a result. An important part of playing Town is realizing that dead town members still win if town wins, and knowing when to sacrifice yourself.
- The Mole: Town Traitor has a random Townie working with the Mafia; they can't be told apart from regular Town roles by investigative roles, but the traitor does know who's in the Mafia and can speak to them at night, on top of retaining their role's regular abilities note . The Town therefore needs to wipe out the regular Mafia, then find the traitor within three days before they automatically win.
- Police Are Useless: Downplayed and Averted. The Sheriff and the Investigator can both see the roles of the townspeople, but they can be sidetracked by the Framer from the Mafia's side or Blackmailed to be unable to speak. The Jailor is considered one of the more powerful roles in the game for his ability to hold away any person he likes. This can be used to prevent them from being killed or from using abilities, and can just execute the prisoner if he wants (but if he kills a fellow Townie, he loses his execute ability).
- Physical, Mystical, Technological: They're Technological, with most of their power coming from their ability to figure out who their enemies are and then execute them.
- Properly Paranoid: Every Townie (well, except the Good Is Dumb ones). There are hidden killers about, and a target on your back… The one who takes this to the extreme is the Veteran, who can go on watch at night. Anyone who visits him, friend or foe, will be shot dead on the spot.
Town Investigative
Roles that can find information about other players. Usually have some drawback, such as the Investigator not being completely sure of his result, or the Sheriff being unable to spot some killing roles.
In Town Of Salem 2, the Investigator's investigation works by determining whether their target (literally) has blood on their hands, detecting if a player targeted and killed someone during the night. However, the Investigator needs to keep in mind roles like executing Jailors or Vigilantes before throwing accusations. Alternatively, he can Percept a player's house to see if they were visited by any Evil roles that night.
- Achilles' Heel: The Investigator's kill detection relies on the killer directly targeting their victim during the night. This means Counter Attacking roles (Werewolves who stay home), roles that "trap" a house (Jinxes), roles that make someone else do the dirty work (Necromancers and Shrouds), or roles that attack during the day (Conjurers) won't have any blood to find.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: He's shown with one in his avatar as part of his Sherlock Homage.
- Foil: Becomes one to the Sheriff in Town of Salem 2. The Investigator can easily find murderous roles, but this leaves him blind to characters like the Enchanter or Jester. The Sheriff's specialty is detecting enemies of the town that don't rely on direct attacks, but the Coven member with the Necronomicon (who will be the one targeting town members) and neutral killing roles are seen as not suspicious.
- Great Detective: His basic archetype.
- Sherlock Homage: His art has him with a Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe and Sherlock's distinctive deerstalker hat.
- Sherlock Scan: He can narrow someone's role down to three to five possibilities based on the smallest shred of evidence, such as being covered in blood.
- Nosy Neighbor: The Lookout's basic character archetype.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Sheriff can unerringly identify the allegiances of any Mafia member except the Godfather, spots Serial Killers without confusing them with Doctors, recognize a Werewolf on Full Moon nights, and can find Coven members as easily as Mafia members.
- Foil: Becomes one to the Investigator in Town of Salem 2. The Investigator can easily find murderous roles, but this leaves him blind to characters like the Enchanter or Jester. The Sheriff's specialty is detecting enemies of the town that don't rely on killing, but the Coven member with the Necronomicon (who will be the one killing town members) and neutral killing roles are seen as not suspicious.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Sheriff is unable to identify Arsonists, Witches, Vampires, Godfathers, or Coven members with the Necronomicon, and can only identify Werewolves half the time. This tends to lead to them being a lot less useful than Investigators.
In Town of Salem 2, their ability to detect who the Coven visit was removed, but their bug is now much more powerful, being able to detect everything that happens to their target, see any status effects applied to them (such as being Hexed or Doused), and is completely unable to be tricked by any method.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: His official avatar sports one of these, plus a fedora and Sinister Shades.
- Nerf: He used to be able to listen to whispers and Mafia chat at night. However, this got removed in a patch.
- Sinister Shades: His official avatar has these as part of his conspicuous spy getup.
Coven Exclusive
- Balance Buff: In Town Of Salem 2, they gain the ability to visit a player each night, guaranteeing they will appear in that night's vision and greatly narrowing down possibilities by visiting a confirmed good/evil player on the appropriate night.
- Detect Evil: Downplayed:
- On odd nights, at least one of three players will be evil — but they don't know who is the evil one.
- Inverted and downplayed on even nights. At least one of the two players will be good, but they don't know if one of them is evil.
- Psychic Powers: It's right in the name.
- Seers: As mentioned above, they have a vision of 2-3 players every night.
- Stalker without a Crush: They track someone to see who they visit.
Introduced in the sequel
- No-Sell: There is no way to manipulate the Coroner's detection results. If they have a Coven Leader in their Autopsy results and they visit the Coven Leader, they will learn about it.
Town Killing
Town members with the capability to kill at night.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Vampire Hunter can kill Vampires and only Vampires. They are virtually useless against other evil roles unless they slay all the Vampires, and even then they're only useful once.
- Expy: The Vampire Hunter skin is called Van Helsing.
- Friendly Enemy: Not totally, but the Vampire Hunter is one role the Mafia will not want to kill, as they can kill a big threat to the Mafia in vampires. Some Vampire Hunters will actually reveal themselves to the town, in the hope that the Mafia will leave them alone.
- Vampire Hunter: Is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, as if he or a vampire visits the other, the vampire dies regardless.
- Wooden Stake: Their weapons (at least until all the Vampires are dead and they pick up a gun). A cross-shaped stake is featured in their avatar, and they use it to kill vampires in their kill messages.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: The Veteran deals a Powerful Attack, piercing through Basic Defense.
- Counter-Attack: When he goes on alert, he kills anyone who attacks him (as well as anyone else unfortunate enough to visit him).
- Mugging the Monster: It's not uncommon for the Mafia to try to kill a townsperson, only to find themselves on the wrong end of an Alert Veteran.
- One-Man Army: The Veteran is the only Town role who can kill multiple players in one night, as a Veteran on alert will kill all visitors (barring the Nigh-Invulnerable Pestilence).
- Self-Offense: Unfortunately, even townies aren't safe from visiting him while he's on alert.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Veteran is a classic example of one. If he goes on alert and anyone visits him, Basic Defense be damned, they'll be dead.
- Taking You with Me: A Werewolf who attacks an alerting Veteran will still kill him, but the Veteran will take them down in the process.
- Cowboy Cop: According to his lore, the Vigilante is an ex-captain of Salem's militia, dismissed from the force for his rashness and excessively violent approach.
- Driven to Suicide: If he shoots a town member, he commits suicide as a result of the guilt. Averted if he is the traitor in the Town Traitor game mode, as a traitor Vigilante can kill town members without negative consequences. Also Averted in Town Of Salem 2, as they will be killed by the Hangman for "disgracing the town" instead.
- Katanas Are Just Better: His avatar has one.
- Vigilante Man: The Vigilante role, obviously. He's sided with the Townies and can target one player each night and kill them, hoping that he's hit Mafia. Of course, there's no guarantee that he won't shoot a villager. If he does, he commits suicide out of guilt, leaving you with two less Townies.
- Why Won't They Die: The name of an achievement, which you get by using all your shots against roles that are Night Immune.
Introduced in the sequel
- Counter-Attack: The Trickster's speciality, baiting a killing role into attacking them before striking back.
- Taking You with Me: Similar to the Bodyguard, although while the Bodyguard needs to be targeting a player that gets attacked, the Trickster needs to target a role capable of attacking.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Armed with a trusty six-shooter.
Town Protective
Town members whose job it is to save the others from death.
- Anachronism Stew: Most of the characters are drawn wearing roughly appropriate clothing for the late-seventeenth century setting of the Salem witch trials; while there are a few oddities, the Bodyguard is by far the most noticeable, wearing a bulletproof SWAT team vest and a radio earpiece.
- Bulletproof Vest: They can wear one for a single night instead of guarding someone, giving them basic defense. Ironically, they can't wear it while guarding someone.
- Counter-Attack: If he's protecting somebody who gets attacked, he will die, but not before killing his killer.
- No-Sell: If he's attacked when using his Bulletproof Vest, he will not be harmed… unless it's via getting burned by the Arsonist, mauled by the Werewolf, cursed by the Hex Master's Hex, poisoned by the Poisoner, or getting killed by Pestilence.
- Taking the Bullet: Specializes in this; if he's protecting someone, they will not be harmed by any attacks against them... because the Bodyguard will die instead.
- Taking You with Me: The Bodyguard can choose to protect someone at night and take the attacker down with him, at the cost of his life.
- Dressed to Heal: His image, as you might expect. Scrubs, scalpel, everything.
- The Medic: The Doctor can heal one other person every night, and can heal himself once.
- Mistaken for Murderer: If an Investigator checks the Doctor, they will find that they are either a Doctor, a Serial Killer, or a Disguiser because they are covered in blood. Combine that with a passable way to fake Basic Defense, and you have a recipe for paranoia.
- No Self-Buffs: Averted, he can heal himself on a night that may be attacked on, preventing him from getting killed by most. However, It Only Works Once.
- No-Sell: If he's attacked on the night he heals himself, he will not be harmed… unless it's via getting attacked by the Werewolf, Pestilence, Arsonist, etc..
- Obvious Rule Patch: Neither the Doctor nor Cleric can protect a revealed Mayor; otherwise, the Mayor would simply reveal on the first day and be invincible until the hidden healer is dead.
- Self-Surgery: He can cover himself once per game, rather than covering someone else; no matter how many times he would be killed that night, he'll heal himself from all of them.
- Shoot the Medic First: All non-Town killing roles are going to be gunning for him, as he can render their efforts completely useless if allowed to live.
Coven Exclusive
- Anachronism Stew: His avatar is a crusader from the Crusades, which took place from 1095 to 1291. The Salem witch trials, the setting of this game, started in February 1692 and ended in May 1693.
- Composite Character: His role and character combine elements of the Veteran, Ambusher, and Bodyguard, being a ex-soldier who protects a person (Bodyguard) and delivers a Powerful attack to a random target trying to visit them at night (Veteran's attack power with Ambusher's random targeting). His backstory explicitly compares him to the Bodyguard, and implies the first Crusader was a Bodyguard who came to take a more aggressive approach.
- Guardian Entity: His role is to protect a person every night.
- Knight Templar: He will kill anyone who visits the person he's protecting, including other townies. Bonus points for being a literal Knight Templar.
- Magic Knight: He's said to be able to perform miracles, so it's implied that he grants powerful defense to one person with his magic, and then attacks one of his target's visitors.
- Samus Is a Girl: Zig-Zagged. While the Crusader avatar was intended to identify as a male, his initial avatar is referred to as a she and uses female voice lines. This was, however, rectified in a later patch.
- Shout-Out: A Crusader attacking five people in a single match nets an achievement titled "Just a Flesh Wound".
- Trap Master: It's right in his name. Traps take one day to build. He can dismantle them by selecting himself at night. He may only have one trap out at a time.
Town Support
Other town members who can't kill, protect, or investigate, but bring their own unique strengths to the table.
- Destructive Romance: A Toxic Relationship completely destroys the Admirer's will to love, rendering them unable to speak for a day and making it impossible to love or care for anyone else.
- The Power of Love: The Admirer is capable of granting protection equivalent to magical barriers and divine protection through the sheer devotion they have for their partner.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Usually, this is averted, as the Escort's roleblock is quite useful for the town, but it's invoked if she tries to distract the Serial Killer of the Werewolf on a full moon night, which will result in her death.
- Distracted by My Own Sexy: If messed with by the Transporter or Witch/Coven Leader, the Escort can roleblock herself. Having this happen nets the "I Look Good" achievement.
- Distracted by the Sexy: This is what the Escort does. Your role is described as "a beautiful woman skilled in distraction."
- Expy: Her avatar resembles Jessica Rabbit.
- Femme Fatale: Naturally. Her Lady in Red avatar makes this even more clear.
- Heroic Seductress: A woman who's on the side of the Town whose main weapon is seduction.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Considering she's a townie trying to prevent murders by distracting the killers, she falls under this.
- Lady in Red: Her avatar is depicted as wearing a red dress and her job is to temporarily distract the killers by seducing them.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Roleblocking won't work on an Escort.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality: The Escort is always represented as a woman, but she can distract anybody regardless of gender. The only exceptions are those immune to role blocking.
- Crystal Ball: Her character icon is one of these.
- Dead Person Conversation: After they die, they can contact one town member for a single night and pass information from the dead onto them.
- I See Dead People: The Medium's job is to do this. They can communicate with the dead every night, and relay information back to the town from beyond the grave. They can also invoke this on one person if they die, letting the selected person see them talking to give information to write in a Will or say during the day.
- Memetic Loser: The Medium is notorious for always being killed on the first night before it's possible for their role to provide any value. This isn't statistically true, but it's memorable enough when it happens to stick in the mind.
- Animate Dead: The Retributionist's post-patch power is a benevolent version of this — while they can't restore a person to proper life, they can resurrect a Townie for a single night and use their ability to aid the town.
- Back from the Dead: Their original power let them resurrect a deceased town player. After patch 3.2.4, this was changed to more of an Animate Dead power.
- Evil Counterpart: Inverted Trope; the Necromancer is explicitly identified as an evil counterpart to them. The Retributionist is capable of bringing a single person Back from the Dead, while the Necromancer is stuck with an Animate Dead spell that only allows her to make temporary ghouls under her control. However, a patch has changed the Retributionist's ability to be the same as the Necromancer due to being overpowered.
- Moveset Clone: Following the 3.2.4 patch, their ability is exactly the same as the Necromancer's, though limited to Townies only instead of corpses in general.
- Attack Reflector: If they can identify the Mafia and predict who their targets are, the Transporter's ability allows them to do this, reflecting the attacks of the Mafia back at their members.
- Difficult, but Awesome: A smart, well-played Transporter can win games all on their own, sometimes from positions where the Town is far behind. A poorly-played one can single-handedly cost the town the game by confusing Town Investigatives, making Vigilantes shoot town members or themselves, and so on.
- Teleport Spam: The Transporter can do this, being able to swap two people during the night, even himself. Doing so switches all targets aimed at the two, so if one is about to be stabbed by a Serial Killer, the other person is instead. This is also the only way to avoid getting haunted by a dead Jester.
Introduced in the sequel
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Amnesiacs can become a role from a person that has died. They are harmless at the start of the game because they can't do anything yet.
- Ditto Fighter: He can take on the role of a random town member.
- Identity Amnesia: The Amnesiac's most basic theme. Their role is to remember who they were and become a new role.
Twice per game, they can choose during the day to Entertain the town, starting a party the following night. During the party, the Town can communicate with each other as if it were still daytime. Evil factions are forced to attend the party, preventing them from communicating privately.
Town Power (Introduced in the sequel)
Roles that can dramatically swing the game in the town's favor; generally the most powerful roles the town has.- Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: With the threat of executing their convict on the spot, the Jailor is the only role that can effectively interrogate someone.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If he jails a Serial Killer but doesn't execute them, the Serial Killer will murder them instead. If he jails a Werewolf on a Full Moon night and doesn't execute them, the results ain't pretty either. Jailing Pestilence results in the Jailor's death regardless of execution (which won't work) or not.
- The Jailer: Although only temporarily, his target is put in a cell, allowing the Jailor to talk with them and execute, if necessary. In specific circumstances, this can be directly invoked — in a situation when he needs to stop an evil killing role while Investigators and Sheriffs are searching for other enemies.
- Master of All: The Jailor can mimic the abilities of a Doctor, Vigilante, Escort, and a Town Investigative. There's a reason why it's considered the most powerful role in the game, and included in almost every role-list and custom setup.
- Nerf: Although still powerful, 2 took several steps to reduce the dominance of the Jailor, and particularly the meta of the Jailor claiming day 1:
- The Jailor is no longer guaranteed to show up every game; other Town Power roles like the Mayor, Monarch, or Prosecutor might show up instead.
- The Jailor was changed to no longer be able to jail the same target twice in a row (a change which was made to all of the roleblock capable roles).
- Their execution was changed to be a Powerful Attack instead of an Unstoppable one (though this is only relevant for allowing a Lover to save their fellow Lover from an execution).
- If the Jailor executes a town member, they will lose not only all of their remaining executions, but the ability to jail entirely, effectively rendering them powerless.
- The strategy of claiming Jailor day 1 was indirectly nerfed by the introduction of the Ritualist and Doomsayer roles; if the Jailor claims immediately, they could immediately be killed by a Ritualist, massively hurting the town, or make a Doomsayer's job much easier.
- No Saving Throw: If he executes somebody, they're dead; not even Basic Defense, Bulletproof Vests, or healing can save them. The only way they can be saved is if an Escort, Consort, or Witch prevents the Jailor from killing them in the first place. Or unless the target is Pestilence, in which case it gets no-sold and Pestilence kills him.
- No-Sell: Being jailed by him (and not executed) is one of the ways to become nearly completely immune to attack, though an Arsonist's ignite, a Hex Master's hex, an attack by a full-powered Juggernaut, a Jester's haunt, or Pestilence could still kill you.
- Purposely Overpowered:
- The Escort roleblocks at night, but the Jailor roleblocks better because it ignores roleblock immunity. The Vigilante can directly attack other players, but the Jailor directly attacks other players better because they don't die from guilt if they execute a member of the town, can execute roles that the Vigilante is unable to take down, and cannot be controlled by a Witch into killing a member of the town as easily (as the Witch can force a Vigilante to attack anyone, but can only force the Jailor to execute their jailed target, and only if they actually know who the jailed target is or guess correctly). Doctors are incapable of healing revealed Mayors, but the Jailor can jail the revealed Mayor and protect them that way as many times as it wants, especially if there's no Witch. The game is specifically designed around the Jailor being overpowered, and it's obvious due to it being the only fixed town role in the ranked role list.
- This is more downplayed in 2 as the Jailor is no longer guaranteed to show up on the role list, and other Town Power roles were added to rival the Jailor's power level, but as a Town Power role, it's still designed to be able to help the town more than the other roles.
- Vigilante Man: One of the only two Town roles (Three counting Vampire Hunter) that can kill a target of their choice. Jailor has the added benefit of Roleblocking his target (stopping said person from doing a night action), protecting them from other attacks, and being able to anonymously talk with the convict. Although this can lead to I Didn't Mean to Kill Him moments, when a Witch finds out that you have a high value target in your cell and makes you execute them.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Revealing as the Mayor. Your role is confirmed to the Town and you get two extra votes… but every evil role will be going for you, and since you can no longer be healed by a doctor after revealing, it's all too easy to get killed the next night.
- Big Good: The Mayor often serves this role for the Town due to his ability to reveal and take command at any time; his investigative results make him the explicit counterpart of the Godfather, the Big Bad of the Mafia.
- Briefcase Full of Money: He's carrying one of these in his official avatar, suggesting that he's perhaps a bit on the corrupt side.
- High-Class Glass: He's wearing one of these in his official avatar, emphasizing his high status. He even has the top hat to go with it.
- Magikarp Power: The Mayor really comes into his own in the late game, where his three votes can be a deciding factor in any lynching.
- Necessary Drawback: Once he reveals, he may no longer be healed by a Doctor, nor be able to whisper or receive whispers from other players (though he can be protected by a Bodyguard; the one-time-only restriction prevents it from being gamebreaking), as if he could be healed, it would basically remove the drawback of being a high-priority target for evil roles.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: The Mayor skin(s) have him dressed as one.
- Ultimate Authority Mayor: The Mayor is hidden just like the rest of the Townies. But when he does come out of hiding, he's given more authority than most, counting as three votes for both lynching and for verdicts. Unfortunately, the evildoers also know exactly who you are, and you cannot be saved by the Doctor.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Not themselves, but the Monarch can easily grant this status (along with the extra votes) to evil roles if they aren't careful.
Mafia
The main villain faction, with the goal of killing everyone who's not them. The Mafia is made up of: Ambusher, Blackmailer, Consigliere, Consort, Disguiser, Forger, Framer, Godfather, Hypnotist, Janitor, and Mafioso.- The Mafia: Town of Salem is based on this commonly known trope — the Godfather rules the Mafia with an iron fist, and the whole Family is supposed to aid each other.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With the Coven in the Coven DLC. They have to kill each other in order to win. Likewise with the Serial Killer, Arsonist, and other Neutral roles that oppose them.
- Hidden Evil: All of them start the game as this, with the mafia secretly killing a town member every night.
- Physical, Mystical, Technological: They're the Physical, always having straightforward killing power.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They're completely absent in Town Of Salem 2. The red color is now taken by the Neutral faction "The Horsemen Of Apocalypse".
- Out of Focus: Which is a bit odd considering the game was first inspired by Mafia. After the Coven appeared in the Coven DLC, a more thematically fitting opponent to the town for the setting, the Mafia started to lose their grip as the main antagonists, to the point that they're entirely missing in the sequel.
Mafia Deception
Mafia members whose job it is to obfuscate investigative results and protect the Mafia from discovery. If there are no Mafia Killing roles left, one will be promoted to Mafioso.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Disguiser role used to function like this; if the person they select to swap with dies, they swap with them, taking on their name, avatar, and their role.
- Gender Bender: With the old Disguiser role, if a player with a male avatar disguised as one with a female avatar (or vice versa).
- Weaksauce Weakness: With the old Disguiser role, last wills. Unfortunately, disguising as someone didn't prevent their will from being displayed… and almost everyone writes their name in their will. Since the Town tends to notice when a will pops up for someone who is still alive, Disguisers who didn't have Forgers or Janitors to cover for them would almost invariably be lynched as soon as they tried to disguise as anyone.
- Amoral Attorney: According to her backstory, she's a lawyer who outright forges documents.
- Forging the Will: Can rewrite last wills. This can mislead the town, especially with the help of a Consigliere.
- Punny Name: Her avatar is called "Ms. Direction", appropriate for a role based around mis-direction by forging Last Wills and altering roles.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Before they were buffed, Framers would only be effective if they visited the same person as the Sheriff or Investigator, as their frame up would only affect them on that night. Now, it's permanent until they are investigated.
- Balance Buff: Originally, Framers only made their target appear suspicious on that night. 3.3.0 made their frame last until a Townie investigates them.
- Frameup: Makes innocents appear to be members of the Mafia to Investigators and Sheriffs.
- Cleanup Crew: The Janitor can clean up the body of the Mafia's kill, meaning the town won't know what role they were or what was written in their Last Will.
- Evil Counterpart: To Mediums and Retributionists, as all three roles involve finding out information from the dead. Invest's will see all three roles together, which is why Janitors will often pretend to be Mediums or Retributionists. The Medium is also the only role who is able to counter the Janitor's ability by finding out the cleaned information from the dead.
- Lost Will and Testament: If the Janitor from the Mafia reaches someone who is killed by them, he will wipe out the target's Last Will and role.
- Punny Name: The skin representing him is named "Yuan Itor." As in "Jan Itor."
- Ascended Extra: Prior to the 3.3.0 patch, the Hypnotist was restricted to an alternate game mode in the Coven expansion. As of 3.3.0, they can now be played in the base game.
- Bald of Evil: His avatar hasn't a single hair on his head and is working with the Mafia to kill people.
- Deadly Doctor: His avatar invokes this image through wearing a doctor's coat and carrying a large syringe.
- Fake Memories: Hypnotized players will receive false feedback, such as a message saying that you were attacked but healed, or that you were role-blocked.
- Spotting the Thread: There's an odd error with the Hypnotist's poison message that can easily out them; for actual Poisoners, the message notes that you will die unless you are healed the following night, but the Hypnotist's fake message doesn't have this footnote, outing their presence.
- Took a Level in Badass: Like the other Mafia roles, he can become a Mafioso if there are no kill-capable roles left in the group.
Mafia Killing
The main antagonists of the game. These roles can kill at night, and wish to remove all obstacles to Mafia supremacy from the town.
- Big Bad: This is the Godfather's role in the game. He is the leader of The Mafia.
- The Don: As long as he has a Mafioso under him, the Godfather does personally not kill other townspeople, instead ordering the Mafioso to do it in his place. Like the Serial Killer, he can't die at night. However, he will take matters into his own hands if he has no one to kill for him…
- The Dreaded: In-game, he is on par with the Serial Killer (immune to Basic Attacks and able to kill someone each night) with the added benefit of having trusted allies.
- Expy: His avatar resembles Don Vito Corleone.
- Right-Hand Cat: The update that introduced his avatar also introduced a small white pet cat; the advertisements of the two of them deliberately evoked this trope.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Godfather is the only member of the Mafia who can't be detected by the Sheriff, since he has a cover as an upstanding businessman.
A hitman for organized crime, trying to work his way to the top. If there's a Godfather, the Mafioso is the one who kills for him; if not, or if the Godfather is distracted or jailed, the Mafioso decides who to kill on his own. If the Godfather is killed while the Mafioso is still alive, then they'll become the new Godfather.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Much like the Spy, his avatar wears one. The Mafioso wears a brown one, though.
- The Dragon: The Mafioso, when there's both a Mafioso and a Godfather. The Consigliere can also fill the role of The Lancer to the Godfather, since their role gives them the most information about who to target for murder, framing, distraction, and blackmail.
- Dragon Ascendant: If the Mafia has a Godfather and the Godfather dies, he will automatically become the new Godfather.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Vigilante, being the Mafia member who guns people down as opposed to the Townie who does so. Aside from the Vigilante's three bullets limitation, their abilities are pretty much identical.
- Professional Killer: His job is to kill people at the Godfather's direction (or his own, if the Godfather is not available).
- Scary Black Man: His in-game avatar is dark-skinned, and he is one of the most feared and sought-after evil roles for any faction.
- Ascended Extra: Like the Hypnotist, the Ambusher was restricted to an alternate Coven expansion game mode, but was brought into the base game in 3.3.0.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Trapper; with both roles requiring lying in wait for visitors who will be killed.
- Fatal Flaw: If multiple players visit his target, the surviving player(s) will learn his name and tell the town about it.
- Stealth Expert: He ambushes one player who visits his target. Subverted if more than one person visits, as every other visitor will know his name and identity.
Mafia Support
Mafia members whose job it is to aid their teammates by discovering information and shutting down opposition.
- Blackmail: His role is to use information to prevent townies from talking during the day.
- Evil Counterpart: Was originally one to the Spy, as both were able to hear townie whispers. However, Spy got nerfed and only Blackmailers retained this ability. However, they still show up together in an Investigator's findings.
- The Consigliere: Due to his special ability allowing for more knowledge about citizens than anyone else in the game, this is often his role in the Mafia of Salem; good Mafiosos and Godfathers listen when their Consigliere gives them advice.
- Detective Mole: The Consigliere has the ability to see other people's exact roles, unlike the Sheriff or Investigator, and can claim to be a Sheriff or Investigator to keep Townies away from his Mafia friends.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Investigator. His backstory even states that he's an Investigator gone bad, and they share Investigative results and have similar abilities; for this reason, Consiglieres will often pose as Investigators.
- Oh, Crap!: The achievement for finding a Veteran (meaning there's a good chance that they're on alert and you just got yourself killed) is called "Uh Oh".
- Sherlock Scan: Even more than the Investigator. He can flawlessly determine someone's role in a single night. (Unless they've been doused or hexed.)
- The Smart Guy: Naturally is this to the Mafia due to being an investigator.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Invoked if she roleblocks a Serial Killer or a Werewolf on a full moon night, which will cause the killer to kill her; this makes Escorts and Consorts the people most likely to be killed by the Serial Killer or the Werewolf. Assuming she kept a decent will, though, this will often result in them getting lynched. One of her achievements, "Dangerous Profession", is earned when she roleblocks the Serial Killer and gets herself killed.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Escort; they have similar concepts, identical abilities, and share an Investigation result, meaning that Consorts will often pose as Escorts.
- Femme Fatale: Even moreso than the Escort, since she's basically an evil version of that role; she uses her womanly wiles to seduce and distract members of the Town.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality: Like the Escort, she'll have fun with anybody regardless of gender and is working with a group out to destroy everybody else.
Neutrals
A variety of individuals with their own goals not associated with the Town, Mafia, or Coven. The Neutrals are made up of: Amnesiac, Arsonist, Executioner, Guardian Angel, Jester, Juggernaut, Pestilence, Pirate, Plaguebearer, Serial Killer, Survivor, Werewolf, and Witch.Neutral Benign
Neutral roles who do not have to harm others, but have no allegiance to the town and as such serve as wild cards.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Amnesiacs can become a role from a person that has died. They are harmless at the start of the game because they can't do anything yet.
- Criminal Amnesiac: The Amnesiac can choose to do this, if he remembers he was a Serial Killer, Arsonist, or Mafia and wreaks havoc.
- Ditto Fighter: He can take on the role of any person that was killed.
- Identity Amnesia: The Amnesiac's most basic theme. Their role is to remember who they were and become a new role.
- Neutral No Longer: Once they remember a role. Though they can still remember they are another neutral role, such as Survivor, or, in rare cases, another Amnesiac (which gets you the "I am who I am" achievement).
- No Points for Neutrality: A example without a Karma Meter. Should the Amnesiac survive till the end of the game without remembering a role, they will lose. Originally, they were able to win if they weren't killed until the end, like a Survivor without vests, but this was removed in a patch, as this wasn't the point of the Amnesiac.
- Bulletproof Vest: He can wear one up to four times per game, blocking any attacks that night (aside from Powerful and Unstoppable Attacks).
- Evil Counterpart: Or more accurately a Neutral Counterpart to the Bodyguard, as both have bulletproof vests to protect themselves from Basic attacks. His backstory actually involves being a Bodyguard who abandoned his duties and only became concerned with surviving.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Some survivors will play it this way, siding with whoever is likeliest to win at the current moment. This is still risky, as other players might get sick of not being able to trust the Survivor.
- Kick the Dog: Survivors are subject to this twofold; many evil roles claim to be a Survivor, putting the role under scrutiny, while actual Survivors are not obligated to help the town and may even side with an evil party if it means they survive. Thus, many Survivors are lynched on a whim to keep evils from an extra potential vote.
- Neutrality Backlash: Since Survivors cannot be relied for votes nor investigations and since Survivors' win condition can be achieved with whatever faction that stand still, they're not precisely trusted. Even if you never vote guilty, Survivors can easily become a wasted vote for any faction, so that's also why Survivors often need to claim a townie role instead just so they wouldn't get killed at first chance.
- No-Sell: If he's attacked when using his Bulletproof Vest, he will not be harmed… unless it's via getting burned by the Arsonist, mauled by the werewolf, a dead Jester's haunting, being attacked by the Pestilence or a Juggernaut, or a Hex Master's hex.
- Properly Paranoid: His description and victory icon all play up his paranoia; given the state of the town, you can hardly blame him.
- Sole Survivor: The Survivor is, well, the sole survivor of a previous town.
- Wild Card: The Survivor wins with anyone (even Pestilence, of all roles) so long as they're alive at the end of the game. As a result, they have no loyalty to anyone, and while they're mostly harmless, they can vote on lynchings and sway the balance of power in the town as a result. Claiming to be a Survivor is also a common cover for evil roles, so Survivor claims are often lynched or murdered very early on to avert this.
Coven Exclusive
- Angel Unaware: She's an angel who's disguised as a townie.
- Archangel Uriel: Her avatar skin is referred to as Uriel by the game.
- Arch-Enemy: Implied to be this to Beelzebub, since his death animation has her defeating him in an epic Fight Scene.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When she "dies", she returns to Heaven.
- Fallen Angel: She will become a Survivor with no vests when her target dies.
- Good Counterpart: To the Executioner. While the Executioner tries to lynch their target at all costs, the Guardian Angel tries to save theirs at all costs.
- Guardian Angel: Just in case the name didn't give it away, this is their whole shtick — they have a charge, and need to ensure they survive at all costs.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She can win even if she's dead so long as her charge survives, and she can still use her powers on them even in death; therefore, it's not impossible for a Guardian Angel to sacrifice themself to draw attention away from their target.
- Knight Templar: Her target can be evil, but she must keep them alive, no matter what. They can even win with Pestilence and the Juggernaut, so long as her target is alive.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Her target can range from a townie to a member of the Mafia or Coven to a Neutral Killing. All that matters is that her charge survives to the end of the game.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: If both her and her target die, then she'll lose the game.
Neutral Chaos
- Classical Movie Vampire: His avatar, complete with the Ominous Opera Cape and High Collar of Doom.
- Daywalking Vampire: Vampires are, much like other town inhabitants, immune to sunlight.
- Demoted to Extra: In Town Of Salem 2, they now have their own game mode and can't appear anywhere else.
- Expy: The Vampire has two skins: Dracula and Nosferatu.
- Fur Against Fang: Vampires must beat Werewolves in order to win.
- The Virus: A Vampire bite converts people into other Vampires. Mafia and Coven, roles with Basic Defense, Neutral Evil roles, and Neutral Chaos and Guardian Angel roles can't be converted.
- With Us or Against Us: Vampires must either convert all Towns and Neutrals to their faction, or lynch/kill anyone who can't be converted or refuses to cooperate.
Coven Exclusive
- Achilles' Heel: Pestilence is vulnerable to being lynched, despite his immunity to all other forms of damage. This also makes him very vulnerable to good will-keeping, as someone noting they're visiting his house then dying will instantly draw suspicion.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Becoming Pestilence is AWESOME… but since they can only be killed by lynching, it starts a Pestilence hunt that will probably get you killed. Even worse, Pestilence's presence is announced loud and clear as soon as the whole town is infected, meaning you'll have to act quickly before they can catch you.
- The Necromancer can resurrect Pestilence as a zombie and send them towards an opponent, all but ensuring their death. This will kill the Necromancer.
- An Amnesiac remembering that they were Pestilence, for the exact same reason as the Plaguebearer becoming Pestilence. Namely, even assuming they haven't been outed as an Amnesiac beforehand, their presence is immediately announced to the town in the morning, leaving them wide open for lynching.
- Demonic Possession: Implied to be how the Plaguebearer turns into Pestilence, since his appearance doesn't change at all.
- Humanoid Abomination: Whatever he looks like, he's definitely not human. He skirts the line between humanoid and Animalistic Abomination due to being a Bird Person.
- The Juggernaut: He has Powerful attack and Invincible defense. He kills anyone who visits him or his target. The only way to kill him is by lynching. Hell, if the Juggernaut and Pestilence fight each other, the Juggernaut DIES.
- Lack of Empathy: Normally, losing your Lover causes you to die of a "broken heart." Not Pestilence."You care not for a lover, for a horseman feels no love, no pain, no happiness."
- Mugging the Monster: Anybody who he visits or who visits him dies. That includes all the other Evil roles. If the Jailor jails him, he No Sells any execution and kills the Jailor regardless of execution or not.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Pestilence cannot be killed by anything that isn't lynching, period. The Arsonist's fire? The Jailor's execution? The Jester's Haunting? He No Sells all of them. He's also immune to Roleblocking or controlling.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Pestilence wants everyone dead. He can only win the game with the Survivor, the Pirate, or (theoretically) another Pestilence, a distinction shared only with the Ax-Crazy Juggernaut.
- One-Winged Angel: Pestilence is the transformed form of the Plaguebearer.
- Story-Breaker Power: By far the most powerful role in the game, topping even the Juggernaut. Nothing can kill him aside from lynching, and he can kill multiple targets at once. While it is a difficult task to achieve Pestilence, the rewards for this are certainly worthwhile.
- Took a Level in Badass: Before becoming the Nigh-Invulnerable Pestilence, he used to be a Plaguebearer with no attack, no defence, and no abilities other than spreading the disease.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Should Pestilence be attacked by a fully powered-up Juggernaut, a message to this effect occurs, with Pestilence being the Immovable Object and the Juggernaut being the Unstoppable Force. Pestilence wins out in the end. There's even an achievement for bearing witness to this event.An unstoppable force meets an invincible object. The ground beneath your feet shudders!
- Was Once a Man: He used to be the Plaguebearer, and then he transformed into a Horseman of the Apocalypse.
- Above Good and Evil: The Pirate is one of the few roles that doesn't take sides. They indiscriminately plunder and kill Town, Mafia, or Neutral Evils, but they can also win with anyone. It's not uncommon for them to pick a side once they've collected their booty, or even before then.
- Dressed to Plunder: His avatar resembles a stereotypical pirate, right down to the skull-and-crossbones hat and the hook-hand.
- Luck-Based Mission: Plundering is completely luck-based. Only one of the Pirate's attacks can successfully beat the defender's choice of defense, leaving them with only a 33% chance of successfully plundering. Not to mention, the Pirate has no defense at all and may die at any time to an attack. Good luck trying to get the achievements, by the way. One of them is that you have to lose ten duels in a single game.
- Pirate Booty: His goal is to successfully plunder the belongings of at least two players.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: How the plundering system works. The attacking player can attack with a Scimitar, a Rapier, or a Pistol. The defending player can Sidestep, wear a Chainmail, or Backpedal:
- Scimitar beats Sidestep (wide cleave hits dodging foe), but loses to Chainmail (blocks it) and Backpedal (out of range).
- Rapier beats Chainmail (pierces it), but loses to Sidestep (dodges it) and Backpedal (out of range).
- Pistol beats Backpedal (ranged attack beats moving backwards), but loses to Chainmail (blocks it) and Sidestep (dodges it).
- Talk Like a Pirate: His system messages are written like this. For instance:Avast! Yer scimitar's slash be stopped by chainmail. Ye lost th' duel! (Scimitar vs Chainmail)
- Wild Card: Like the Survivor, they can win with anyone. Unlike the Survivor, they need to kill at least two people first.
An acolyte of Pestilence who spreads disease among the Town. He can infect one person each night. Any infected players will spread the disease by visiting other players or being visited. Once all players have been infected, the Plaguebearer evolves into the near-invincible Pestilence. Added in the Coven DLC.
- Bird People: Appears to be an anthropomorphic bird. At first.
- Discard and Draw: In terms of weaknesses. He only has basic defense early game and no killing power. Once he becomes Pestilence and gains absolute invincibility to anything but hanging, this is announced to the entire town, leading them on a witch hunt to lynch them quickly.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Doctor, infecting people rather than healing them. His backstory actually describes him as a doctor who went rogue.
- Magikarp Power: The Plaguebearer starts out with no attack, no defence, and no abilities other than spreading the disease (which does nothing in itself.) However, if he manages to infect the whole town, he becomes Nigh-Invulnerable and nearly-unstoppable Pestilence.
- Plague Doctor: His icon appears to be one. However, he does the exact opposite by spreading the plague.
- Plague Master: The Plaguebearer's whole shtick is this - they created a refined version of The Plague and are bentt on spreading it to everyone in town.
- One-Winged Angel: Transforms into Pestilence once everyone in the Town gets infected.
- Took a Level in Badass: His only ability is to spread disease by visiting others, and has no attack or defence at all. Once everybody is infected, however, he becomes the Nigh-Invulnerable and nearly-unstoppable Pestilence.
- The Virus: Anybody who he visits becomes infected, and anyone who visits an infected person will become infected too.
Neutral Evil
Neutral roles that do not directly work with the Mafia, but still cause trouble for the town.
An obsessed lyncher who will stop at nothing to execute his target, who is always a townie. His goal is to manipulate the town to get his target lynched. Should his target be killed at night before they can be lynched, he will turn into a Jester. In Town of Salem 2, they become able to choose their target, and can choose a new target if the original dies without being hung. If their target is found guilty, the Executioner can immediately Torment a town member who abstained or voted Guilty, dealing an Unstoppable Attack to them. Afterwards, they will leave the town victorious.
- Miscarriage of Justice: This is the Executioner's goal in a nutshell. His target, who he wishes to get executed (dying of other causes won't work, it has to be through the justice system) is never evil, even by accident, but that's not stopping him. Can be Averted in Town of Salem 2, as now anyone can be an Executioner target.
- Playing the Victim Card: The evil players can accuse Townies who found out they're evil of being an Executioner.
- Revenge: This is the main goal of the Executioner's life — getting revenge on his target.
- Tainted Veins: Has orange veins along his arms and under his chin.
- Villainous BSoD: If his target is killed at night, he turns into a Jester.
- Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Again, he becomes a Death Seeking Jester if his target is killed at night.
- Wild Card: The Executioner doesn't really care who wins between town, mafia, and neutral so long as their specific target is voted out. They don't even care if they die after that vote is won because they already got their win. Thus, an Executioner might build up trust by going after the mafia, but the mafia also might knowingly go along with their lies to secure an ally. And after that win, the Executioner is dead weight who only contributes by voting, but that vote can easily swing which side wins the larger game.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Possible, if very rare. The Executioner wants their target to be lynched, but they don't have to actually be involved in said lynching. If the target is unlucky enough to get framed by someone else or draw suspicion on his own, they might get lynched despite the Executioner not doing anything.
- This has a higher chance of happening in the sequel (though the odds of this succeeding are still low). Since Executioners now choose their targets, it is completely possible for their target to be actually evil (or even a Jester).
- Accomplice by Inaction: The Jester used to be only able to kill those who voted Guilty, but a rework enabled them to cause an abstainer in the vote against them to die of guilt as well.
- Death Seeker: Zig-Zagged. His goal is specifically to get himself executed. No other method of dying will do — it has to be lynching.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: The Jester needs to act suspicious enough so that he is lynched, but not so suspicious that he's read as a Jester, in which case he'll simply be ignored or a Jailor or Vigilante will kill him at night, denying him of victory.
- Driven to Suicide: He inflicts this on one townie who didn't vouch his innocence, making them kill themself out of guilt.
- Happy Harlequin Hat: His official art shows him like this, and it's also featured in his victory icon (which only appears if nobody else manages a win).
- No Saving Throw: Whoever gets haunted by the Jester will commit suicide, even if they have a Bulletproof Vest, are healed, have Basic Defense, or are jailed by the Jailor that night. Not even a Transporter can alter the target of Jester guilt. The only being that won't commit suicide at all is Pestilence, courtesy of his Nigh-Invulnerable defence and complete Lack of Empathy.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The Jester's goal is to be hanged by the rest of the town. This is one of many tactics people use.
- Taking You with Me: When the Jester is lynched, he chooses someone to feel guilty about killing them and commit suicide the following night. This doesn't work on people who voted innocent, but it does work on abstainers.
- Violation of Common Sense: Where everybody else tries their best to avoid getting lynched, the Jester's modus operandi is to try to act so suspicious that it happens to him.
- Wild Card: Since a Jester's only goal is to get lynched, they tend to do and claim things that are drastically out of line with other people's goals and can swing games in unexpected directions. And after they're killed, their decision of who to haunt can be extremely unpredictable, since they don't have any loyalty to any of the game's factions.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: She sports green skin, in contrast to the more realistic skin tones of the other roles.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Investigator, much like the Consigliere, as witches can find out exact roles of a player.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The Witch can win with anyone except the Town.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Particularly in Mafia VS Neutrals games, where the Witch only has to make it until the end to win.
- Hot Witch: Her avatar in the witch's cauldron daily reward is quite attractive, displaying cleavage.
- Powers via Possession: The Witch class can do this if she possesses someone with a night ability, using it for herself.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Can invoke this by targeting a Mafioso, Vigilante, or doused Arsonist against themselves.
- Put on a Bus: Absent from games in the Coven expansion, with the Coven Leader inheriting her Powers via Possession.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: In her avatar; the pointed witch hat is also her in-game icon.
- Sinister Schnoz: She's evil, and sports a Pinocchio-like pointed nose to emphasise this.
- Witch Classic: Her avatar, right down to the Robe and Wizard Hat.
Introduced in the sequel
- Instant-Win Condition: The moment the Doomsayer successfully Dooms their targets, they leave the town in victory. They also immediately gain Invincible Defense, preventing anyone from interfering with their exit.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Once the Doomsayer Dooms their targets, they leave town since they've already won.
- Unblockable Attack: A Doomsayer correctly guessing 3 players' roles deals them an unstoppable attack, which will kill anyone that doesn't have an Invincible level defense.
Neutral Killing
Independent criminals who want to kill everyone, including the Mafia.
- Ax-Crazy: His goal is to "live to see everyone burn."
- The Dreaded: It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that an Arsonist is one of (if not the) top priority targets for both the town and other evil roles, since he's hostile to them both and can kill several people at once with no chance of survival when he ignites them.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: This can happen if there's more than one Arsonist — one douses the other, and then the doused Arsonist lights up. Since this targets everyone doused by the Arsonist role(s), the result is the doused Arsonist burning himself up. Averted if a Witch attempts to control the Arsonist to douse himself, since targeting himself only causes him to ignite his doused targets.
- Kill It with Fire: The Arsonist's whole shtick. Once a night, he can douse anyone he wants with gas and chooses when to light them up. The scary part? No Basic Defense or healing or bulletproof vest will protect you.
- No Saving Throw: Getting torched by him cannot be prevented by the Doctor's healing, a Bulletproof Vest, or any form of Defense. The only way to survive is to be Pestilence or protected by a Guardian Angel.
- One-Hit Polykill: His ignition instantly kills anyone who happens to be doused, ignoring any Defense or protective abilities (bar the above two). Amusingly, the Arsonist himself is not exempt from this.
- Pyromaniac: He loves to watch people burn, and is out to burn the town (complete with citizens) to cinders to satisfy this desire.
- Ax-Crazy: Described in-game as "A psychotic criminal who wants everyone to die."
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His Lore presents him as a Nice Guy towards the others in the day. At night, however…
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The only roles he can't kill are the ones with Basic Defense like he does, but he can be killed by an Arsonist's ignite, Veteran if he visits while on alert, a Werewolf on a full moon night, or a Jailor's execution.
- Expy: The Serial Killer skin is called Dexter.
- Lost Will and Testament: If they choose not to use their "Cautious" ability, anyone they kill have their Last Will torn up and bloodied, rendering it unintelligible.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A Serial Killer will appear in the same investigation results as the Doctor, but this is subverted as their only similarity is their tendency to work with bloodstained sharp objects.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: An Escort or Consort trying to roleblock him will just get herself stabbed. Even if he chooses not to kill them, he'll ignore them.
- Obvious Rule Patch: He doesn't just have roleblock immunity, he kills Escorts and Consorts if they visit him. This used to work against him, though, thanks to last wills, as many players write who they visit before the night's over. Thus, an Escort killed by a Serial Killer would pin their last visit as the most suspicious target. Now, the Serial Killer has the ability to go Cautious and not kill roleblockers, and if he doesn't go Cautious, he splatters the last will with blood and makes it unreadable, making the Escort's visiting history unreadable and requiring a Tracker or Lookout to figure out where the Escort went.
- Psycho Knife Nut: His weapon is a bloodstained knife, which he uses to stab and kill people with.
- Serial Killer: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. His goal is to kill someone every single night.
- Slasher Smile: His character skin has him wear a crazed grin at almost all times. He's also an utterly unhinged serial murderer with a penchant for extreme violence.
In Town Of Salem 2, the Werewolf gains a new "Track Scent" ability it can use at night while in human form (in other words, when it's not a Full Moon). On these nights, it can choose a target to memorize the scent of. After obtaining a scent, the Werewolf will track that player for the rest of the game, learning who they visit each night.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Neither Bulletproof Vests nor Basic Defense can protect against him if he goes on a rampage.
- Fur Against Fang: Vampires are on the hit-list for Werewolves.
- Mugging the Monster: Anyone who attempts to kill a Werewolf staying home at night during a full moon will be killed instead. However, if a Werewolf who stays home is visited by a bodyguard, they kill each other.
- Mutual Kill: If a Werewolf visits a Veteran on alert during a full moon, they will kill each other.
- One-Man Army: Werewolves have the ability to kill all visitors of a target they pick.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: On every full moon night, the Werewolf gains the power to visit someone and kill them. Incidentally, he also gains the counter-kill ability to kill whoever visits him on the night of a full moon if he stays home.
- One-Hit Polykill: Werewolves are among one of the most dangerous and feared roles in the game due to their ability to kill all visitors of a target they pick. This is a common tactic by Werewolves to attack a revealed townie (especially the Jailor) who asks for protection, which will kill all Town Protects, Lookouts, and sometimes Spies who were on them.
Coven Exclusive
- Awesome, but Impractical: He becomes more powerful with every kill. Unfortunately, he is extremely hard to win with since he has only Basic defence, inconsistent attack power, and the only way to boost his power involves giving his presence away to the town.
- Ax-Crazy: He's a brute whose goal is to kill everyone who would oppose him.
- Character Level: He gains a new ability whenever he kills someone.
- After killing one player, he'll be able to attack every night.
- After killing two players, he'll rampage * when he attacks.
- After killing three players, he'll ignore effects that would protect a player.
- Bald of Evil: If his icon is true, he is bald. He is also an Ax-Crazy brute killing anything in his way.
- The Juggernaut: It's in the name. Once he starts killing enough, he becomes nearly unstoppable when on the offensive - only Pestilence can survive a fully-powered Juggernaut. Lynching, Powerful attacks, and Pestilence himself can stop him, though.
- Lunacy: Before killing anyone, the Juggernaut can only attack on Full Moon nights.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: He gains power as he kills enemies, as detailed under the Character Levels entry.
- Secret Character: Appears as "???" on the Role wheel and is referred as a "secret role" in the website. This role also has a decreased chance of being rolled.
- Took a Level in Badass: The role's gimmick is to gain new abilities after each successful kill.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Should a fully levelled-up Juggernaut and Pestilence attack each other, the entire town will receive this message, as well as an achievement for having witnessed it happening. Thanks to game mechanics, Pestilence wins. Explanation
- Unstoppable Rage: When the Vigilante points a gun at him in his backstory, the Juggernaut immediately flies into one of these and butchers the Godfather and the Vigilante alike.
Introduced in the sequel
Neutral Apocalypse (Town Of Salem 2)
The acolytes of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Neutral roles that only win with themselves. Weak at the start of the game, but can transform into destructive forces that can tear through the rest of the town with ease if not stopped early.- Balance Buff: Yes, Pestilence of all roles actually got buffed. Now it has up to three allies in a game and doesn't even need to directly visit players to kill them (though it does kill faster when it shows up in person).
- Death by Irony: If there are only two other players alive and the Baker hasn't transformed into Famine, they themselves will die of starvation, the method of killing they would have used as a Horseman.
- Gradual Grinder: Once the Baker becomes Famine, it will slowly kill the players who got bread (the players without bread die immediately unless Famine is hanged on the day it transforms). Even when Famine directly visits players, it only accelerates their death instead of causing death immediately.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Berserker works pretty much identically to the Juggernaut from the first game.
- Instant-Win Condition: Once they collect six souls, they transform into Death. If they aren't lynched by the day's end, everyone dies.
Coven
The Coven is a group of witches that seeks the town's destruction. This faction was added in the Coven DLCnote and expanded to become the main enemy faction in Town of Salem 2.- Amazon Brigade: Every Coven member is female and they all have killing power at one point or another.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With The Mafia. They have to kill each other in order to win. Likewise with other Neutral roles that oppose them, such as the Vampires.
- Black Magician Girl: They're all female magic users who use their powers offensively.
- Physical, Mystical, Technological: They're the Mystical, using magic to kill their enemies.
- Salem Is Witch Country: While there can be more than one witch before the DLC, the game was mostly focused on The Mafia and other criminals like serial killers. After the Coven DLC, witches have become more diverse and prominent. As such, the game leans more towards this trope once the Coven is present.
- Took a Level in Badass: This happens to one of them once she gets the Necronomicon. It enhances their natural abilities and grants them Detection Immunity, making them much more dangerous and difficult for the town to root out.
Coven Deception
Members of the coven who seek to mislead the town, redirecting their attention to the wrong targets.
With the Necronomicon, her target is dealt a basic attack when their dreams are invaded.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Her MO, her victims are forced to act irrationally while under her influence.
- No Ontological Inertia: If she dies, insane Townies are returned to normal.
With the Necronomicon, she deals a basic attack when enchanting her target.
- Composite Character: Acts as the Coven's version of the Mafia's Framer and Forger.
If she has the Necronomicon, she can instead attack an enemy of the Coven each night.
In Town of Salem 2, she instead visits a single target each night. If their target dies, they become stoned, hiding their role and last will from the Town. However, she can no longer kill directly without the Necronomicon, which upgrades her visit to a basic attack.
- Composite Character: Her stoning mechanic is essentially the Janitor's cleaning mechanic but in a different name, and she plays very similarly to the Veteran before getting the Necronomicon.
- Evil Counterpart: Both Medusa and the Veteran can stay home three nights and kill the exact same roles. Veteran can survive basic attacks and can't be role blocked, while Medusa makes victims' roles impossible to identify and gains the option to go out with the Necronomicon. Her lore claims her to be a former Vet.
- Lost Will and Testament: Similar to the Janitor, any of her victims will have their last will and role hidden from the town.
- Rule of Three: She can only Stone Gaze thrice in a game.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In Town of Salem 2, she becomes a more dangerous version of the Janitor.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, the Necronomicon allows her to visit players and turn them to stone, as opposed to waiting at her home for them to come to her.
Coven Killing
Members of the Coven proficient in killing without the need of the Necronomicon.
When she has the Necronomicon, she becomes capable of performing a basic attack each night.
- Evil Counterpart: Acts as one to the Deputy as a daytime killing role.
- Meteor-Summoning Attack: This is the role's entire shtick.
With the Necronomicon, her target will also be attacked.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Essentially the Coven's version of the Mafia's Ambusher.
With the Necronomicon, she can forgo the blood ritual to perform a basic attack each night.
Coven Power
The leaders of the coven, capable of powerful offensive and manipulative abilities.
A voodoo master who can control the actions of others, she gets to control someone each night and learn their role. Replaced the Witch in the Coven DLC.
In Town Of Salem 2, she instead acts as the coven's front line, and always starts with the Necronomicon. By default she has a Basic Attack and no Defense, but she can choose to increase either attribute by one stage, granting her either a Powerful Attack (and roleblock immunity) or Basic Defense.
- Big Bad: She's the leader of the Coven, and she shares this role with the Godfather.
- Decomposite Character: Both the Witch and Coven Leader are present in Town of Salem 2.
- Life Drain: With the Necronomicon, she drains the life force of the person she controls (AKA dealing a basic attack to them).
- Moveset Clone: Due to replacing the Witch in Coven, she shares the same power with her.
- Powers via Possession: She can do this if she possesses someone with a night ability, using it for herself.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Can invoke this by targeting a Mafioso, Vigilante, or doused Arsonist against themselves.
- Replacement Goldfish: To the Witch, which is unavailable in the Coven expansion.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In Town of Salem 2, the Coven Leader acts as the coven version of the Godfather/Mafioso. She always gets the Necronomicon first, and her ability is a straightforward immunity against attacks or a more powerful attack.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, her controlled target is dealt a basic attack and she will gain basic defense at night when she wields the Necronomicon.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Unleashing the Unstoppable Hex as Hex Master. Every non-Coven needs to be hexed, and the Hex Master can only hex one person a night. It's likely the hexed targets or the Hex Master themselves will be killed before that.
- Frameup: In Town of Salem 1, Hexed players will show up under the Hex Master's investigative results, and sheriffs will find hexed players to be members of the Coven. Unlike the Framer, this lasts throughout the game. This aspect of her was removed in Town of Salem 2, with the ability given to the Enchanter.
- One-Hit Kill: Her Unstoppable Hex is an instant kill against anything shy of Pestilence.
- Took a Level in Badass: With the Necronomicon, she will gain astral attacks, which means she no longer directly visits her target, avoiding Bodyguards, Lookouts, Werewolves, and Veterans on alert. She also gains basic attacks, which means your target at night will be killed. Players who were hexed when she doesn't possess the Necronomicon yet are still hexed, so they will all be dealt an Unstoppable attack if they remain alive together with the Coven members only.
- Total Party Kill: If all non-Coven players are hexed and the Hex Master is still alive, all hexed players will be dealt an Unstoppable Hex at night, instantly killing all but Pestilence (who can then be lynched).
With the Necronomicon, she deals a basic attack to the person she controls.
The Bus Came Back: Returns after her absence in the Coven DLC.
Coven Utility
Members of the coven who can support their allies.
- Animate Dead: As described above, she can create zombies from dead players who use their abilities on your second target. Each zombie can be used once before it rots.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: She can reanimate Pestilence if he is lynched after transforming, but be warned that this WILL kill you as well! Only use this as a last resort if you believe it will potentially push the game in the Coven's favor.
- Evil Counterpart: Is this to the Retributionist, able to repeatedly resurrect fragile soulless ghouls instead of a single person body and soul. The game outright calls her a failed one.
- No-Sell: When wielding the Necronomicon, a Trickster's attempt to Draw Aggro will merely result in the Trickster dying to her ghoul as the Necromancer performs her originally intended action.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: The Necromancer may resurrect one dead townie as a zombie to go out and kill a specified target once per night. The zombie perishes thereafter and no townie can be resurrected twice. These limitations do not exist in the ghoul, a creature the Necromancer can summon if they are the keeper of the Necronomicon. No corpse is needed and although only one ghoul can be summoned per night, a zombie and ghoul can be send out at the same time. Ghouls are astral visitors and therefore cannot be seen by Trackers, Lookouts, or Trappers. If they encounter a defense, they destroy or kill it, but in turn are destroyed themself.
- Took a Level in Badass: With the Necronomicon, she can summon a ghoul to perform a Basic attack against your target by selecting yourself.
In Town of Salem 2, she instead shares a beverage with her target, rendering them too drunk to act that night. Her poison instead becomes a one-use tactic used alongside her role block, but otherwise acts the same as in the first game. When equipped with the Necronomicon, her role block also deals a basic attack to her target, allowing her to attack roles such as self-protecting Clerics or alerting Veterans without fail.
- Animal Motifs: Frogs, due to the way her body is positioned and that she has a pet frog named Spikey she expels poisons from.
- After-Action Healing Drama: Poison must be removed by healing immediately after being poisoned, since poisons take one day to take effect.
- Evil Counterpart: The Coven's main roleblocker to oppose the Town's Tavern Keeper in Town of Salem 2.
- Fatal Flaw: Without the Necronomicon, her poisons can be healed by a Doctor or cured by a Guardian Angel. If the Poisoner has the Necronomicon, the only way you will survive is if your Guardian Angel cures you or you have defense.
- Poison Is Evil: A poison expert who wants to kill everyone who would oppose the Coven.
- Poisonous Person: She specialises in poisoning other people, dealing a basic attack to them after one day passes.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Becomes one to the Consort in Town of Salem 2, replacing them as the Evil Counterpart of the Escort/Tavern Keeper.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, her poison cannot be cleansed while she wields the Necronomicon. Therefore, poisoned players are already dead.
In Town Of Salem 2, her potions no longer have a cooldown, but she can only use the attack potion when she has the Necronomicon.
- Alchemy Is Magic: As described above, she's an alchemist who brews potions and give them to players.
- Animal Motifs: Moths. Aside from her actually transforming into one when she moves to and from her house, her outfit evokes the appearance of a moth: the feathers in her hat resemble a moth's feathery antennae, the goggles resemble a moth's reflective eyes, and her dark cloak resembles a moth's wings.
- Evil Counterpart: Can be considered one to the Doctor, as she is able to heal other players as she pleases.
- The Fair Folk: Has the appearance of a fairy, but is an evil witch aligned with the Coven.
- The Red Mage: With her potions, she can heal people and discover their roles.
- Rule of Three: In the first game, each potion has a three day cooldown. Unless she has the Necronomicon.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, holding the Necronomicon means her potions no longer have a cooldown.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Her avatar has white hair, and she is a member of the Coven.
With the Necronomicon, her voodoo is a basic attack in addition to a silence.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Acts as the Coven's version of the Blackmailer.
With the Necronomicon, it will deal a basic attack to its tracked prey.
- Composite Character: The Coven's answer to the Lookout (sees who visits its target), the Tracker (sees who its target visits), and the Blackmailer/original Spy (can read other player's whispers).
- Super-Senses: Has the highest information gathering potential out of any role thanks to its wide combination of abilities.
NPCs
Character either featured in the tie-in stories or available as skins but don't have a released role.- An Arm and a Leg: As Wartorn Santa, he lost an arm which he replaced with a sharp candy cane.
- Arch-Enemy: To the Witches, who he despises for the Trauma Conga Line they put him through.
- Badass Santa: Became one as Wartorn Santa. He's noticeably much more muscular than his regular build, and it's heavily implied that he's gone through at least a few battles.
- Trauma Conga Line: Thanks to the Witches, he was forced to watch as his elves and reindeer were all zombified, then had to cut off his own arm to save himself from frostbite after they caused an avalanche to crush him. Having been driven out of his own home, he then had to return and put down his zombified elves and reindeer, on top of losing Robot Santa to a falling sleigh only moments after freeing him from the Witches magic. Santa's had it rough.
- Took a Level in Badass: As Wartorn Santa, he's become all buff and muscled; he also lost an arm which he replaced with a sharp candy cane.
- Arch-Enemy: To Uriel, who was summoned to beat him and can be seen fighting and killing him in his Death Animation.
- Big Red Devil: As literal as the trope can get, given he's Beelzebub.
- Flaming Sword: Wields one of these.
- Evil Counterpart: To Uriel, being the devil to her angel.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Has a pair of demonic wings he can use to fly.
- Horned Humanoid: Sports devil horns.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Wears black armor with red flesh underneath.