Town role families
Town Investigative creates results and visit evidence; Town Protective prevents kills; Town Support changes communication, control or resources; Town Killing provides limited removal. The important strategic point is not the label itself but what kind of feedback the role should be able to produce.
Mafia role families
Mafia Killing maintains the night kill, Mafia Support disrupts Town actions, and Mafia Deception attacks information quality through framing, cleaning or forged records. Because Mafia shares teammates, public claims should be tested for coordinated incentives as well as individual mechanics.
Neutral roles are not one team
Neutral Benign, Neutral Evil, Neutral Killing and Neutral Chaos can have completely different objectives. A Survivor wants to live; Executioner wants a target eliminated; Arsonist wants a burn setup. “Neutral” describes independence, not a shared win condition.
The selected list matters more than the global catalog
Town of Salem contains many roles, but a match uses a chosen subset. Claims should be evaluated against the roles and flexible slots in that lobby. A role existing in the game does not mean it can appear in the current setup.
Use the list to support, not replace, evidence
Role-list analysis can show that two claims cannot coexist, but it cannot tell you which claimant is lying without additional evidence. Pair the list with chronology, visits, results and graveyard flips.
Reference vs live analysis
The global role list tells you Doctor and Bodyguard are both Town Protective. The live role list tells you how many Town Protective slots can actually exist this match. The first is taxonomy; the second is claim-space strategy. Keep those two jobs separate.
Common mistakes
- Assuming every catalog role is possible in the current lobby.
- Treating all Neutral roles as allies.
- Using role class as proof of alignment without a claim.
- Confusing this reference list with live role-list slot counting.
Role families in the original game
| Family | Roles |
|---|---|
| Town Investigative | Investigator, Lookout, Sheriff, Spy, Psychic, Tracker |
| Town Protective | Bodyguard, Doctor, Crusader, Trapper |
| Town Support | Tavern Keeper, Mayor, Medium, Retributionist, Transporter |
| Town Killing | Jailor, Vampire Hunter, Veteran, Vigilante |
| Mafia Killing | Godfather, Mafioso, Ambusher |
| Mafia Deception | Disguiser, Forger, Framer, Janitor, Hypnotist |
| Mafia Support | Blackmailer, Consigliere, Bootlegger |
| Neutral Benign | Amnesiac, Survivor, Guardian Angel |
| Neutral Evil | Executioner, Jester, Witch |
| Neutral Killing | Arsonist, Serial Killer, Werewolf, Juggernaut |
| Neutral Chaos | Vampire, Pirate, Plaguebearer, Pestilence |
| Coven | Coven Leader, Potion Master, Hex Master, Necromancer, Poisoner, Medusa |
Pestilence is the transformed Plaguebearer state. This reference shows it separately for recognition; it is not an additional starting role-list slot. Not every role can appear in every mode.
Complete Town of Salem role list
The original game and Coven expansion contain 49 named roles. Pestilence is listed separately below because Plaguebearer transforms into it during a match. This global catalog does not mean every role is legal in every lobby.
Town roles
| Role | Alignment | Main function |
|---|---|---|
| Bodyguard | Town Protective | Guard a player and punish an attacker who chooses that target. |
| Doctor | Town Protective | Heal a player and prevent a lethal attack when your read is correct. |
| Tavern Keeper | Town Support | Roleblock a player to stop an action or create a testable contradiction. |
| Investigator | Town Investigative | Receive role-group clues and use them to narrow claim space. |
| Jailor | Town Killing | Detain a player for private questioning and execute when evidence is strong. |
| Lookout | Town Investigative | Watch a target at night and map who visited them. |
| Mayor | Town Support | Reveal for major voting power and turn a close day into Town control. |
| Medium | Town Support | Recover information from the dead that the living can no longer access. |
| Retributionist | Town Support | Reuse the abilities of dead Town roles to extend the information economy. |
| Sheriff | Town Investigative | Check a player for suspicious activity and publish results in context. |
| Spy | Town Investigative | Track faction visits and bug targets to create interaction evidence. |
| Transporter | Town Support | Swap two targets and reshape how night actions resolve. |
| Vampire Hunter | Town Killing | Hunt Vampires, listen to their night chat and change jobs when the last Vampire dies. |
| Veteran | Town Killing | Go on alert to punish visitors while avoiding friendly casualties. |
| Vigilante | Town Killing | Use limited shots to remove evil roles once the evidence is strong enough. |
| Crusader | Town Protective | Protect a player with Powerful defense while risking an attack on another visitor. |
| Tracker | Town Investigative | Follow one player and learn where that player went during the night. |
| Trapper | Town Protective | Build a trap, place it on a player and use its protection and visitor information. |
| Psychic | Town Investigative | Use alternating evil and good visions to narrow groups of possible alignments. |
Mafia roles
| Role | Alignment | Main function |
|---|---|---|
| Blackmailer | Mafia Support | Silence a target and distort the information available to Town. |
| Consigliere | Mafia Support | Learn roles for the Mafia and turn private knowledge into better kills and claims. |
| Bootlegger | Mafia Support | Roleblock a target and disrupt Town night actions. |
| Disguiser | Mafia Deception | Alter investigative appearances and the identity shown for a Mafia member’s visit. |
| Forger | Mafia Deception | Alter post-death information to poison Town deductions. |
| Framer | Mafia Deception | Create misleading investigative information around a chosen player. |
| Godfather | Mafia Killing | Lead the Mafia kill plan while presenting a safer public profile. |
| Janitor | Mafia Deception | Hide information from deaths so Mafia claims have more room to breathe. |
| Mafioso | Mafia Killing | Carry out Mafia kills and preserve the faction’s killing tempo. |
| Hypnotist | Mafia Deception | Send false night feedback that can make a player misread what happened. |
| Ambusher | Mafia Killing | Wait at a target’s house and attack one visitor, at the risk of being identified. |
Neutral roles
| Role | Alignment | Main function |
|---|---|---|
| Amnesiac | Neutral Benign | Remember a role from the graveyard and inherit its path to victory. |
| Arsonist | Neutral Killing | Douse players over time and ignite when the board is ready to collapse. |
| Executioner | Neutral Evil | Manipulate the vote so your assigned target is eliminated by Town. |
| Guardian Angel | Neutral Benign | Keep an assigned target alive, with two protections that can also be used after death. |
| Jester | Neutral Evil | Get yourself eliminated by Town without making the plan too obvious. |
| Juggernaut | Neutral Killing | Grow stronger through kills, gaining more frequent attacks and later combat upgrades. |
| Pirate | Neutral Chaos | Challenge players in duels and pursue an independent win condition. |
| Plaguebearer | Neutral Chaos | Spread infection while staying alive long enough to transform. |
| Serial Killer | Neutral Killing | Kill independently while avoiding both Town and Mafia control. |
| Survivor | Neutral Benign | Stay alive through the end of the match while managing claim pressure. |
| Vampire | Neutral Chaos | Convert players and build a hidden faction over multiple nights. |
| Werewolf | Neutral Killing | Use powerful moon-cycle attacks while surviving public suspicion. |
| Witch | Neutral Evil | Control another player at night and redirect their action. |
| Pestilence | Neutral Chaos | Transform from Plaguebearer once every other living player is infected. |
Coven roles
| Role | Alignment | Main function |
|---|---|---|
| Coven Leader | Coven Evil | Control another player’s action and learn their role; the book adds direct killing power. |
| Potion Master | Coven Evil | Choose between healing, revealing a role and attacking; manage each potion’s cooldown. |
| Hex Master | Coven Evil | Spread hexes and threaten the surviving opposition with a faction-wide finish. |
| Necromancer | Coven Evil | Use eligible corpses as night abilities and build a plan around the graveyard. |
| Poisoner | Coven Evil | Apply delayed poison and track whether treatment is still possible. |
| Medusa | Coven Evil | Stone visitors with limited gazes and hide information from their deaths. |
